Things You'll Need:
- Age-appropriate learning laptops
- willingness to involve yourself in your children's education
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Step 1
Start kids out on an age-appropriate learning laptop. VTech makes a learning laptop for babies as young as six months old. Both VTech and Oregon Scientific make educational laptops for toddlers and preschoolers. These manufacturers also make laptops suitable for grade school use. The laptops start by being laptop-shaped toys and graduate to being almost-real computers that teach kids learning subjects as well as about computers themselves.
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Step 2
Play with the child on a toddler's learning laptop. Launch games for her and play music. Teach her to use the mouse. Some preschoolers laptops have a detachable mouse (such as the VTech Tote n Go.)
Be patient. Don't stress it if the preschooler doesn't "get" everything you're teaching her. Right now, the laptop is still just a toy, and not yet a tool. That's fine. Let her play with it, open it and close it, watch the pretty lights, listen to the music, and let it teach her vocabulary and math. -
Step 3
Watch for signs that the child is getting bored. This may mean he's just bored for now, and he'll return to the preschooler's laptop again in a few weeks. Or, he's learned everything he can from the features he's familiar with, but in a few months, he'll be ready for the next level of activities.
Play with him when he's using the toy computer often, so you can gauge the point at which he's truly exhausted its activities and is now ready for the next level of children's educational computer. -
Step 4
Now get a learning laptop appropriate for grade-school age kids for the child to practice on. These are less like a preschooler's toy laptop and more like computers, though they won't be able to connect to the Internet (except for some models, which can connect through a cable linking them to a PC). Their screens will be small and not of the quality most parents are used to. (Though kids don't seem to mind as much as their parents do.)
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Step 5
Continue to use it with her to start her in activities. Teach her to type "properly" on the laptop only if she's able and ready. Some learning laptops come with QWERTY keyboards (the familiar adult keyboard layout); others have keyboards in alpha-numerical order. Show her how to use the mouse or touchpad, depending on what it comes with. (See Resources for an article detailing specs on many different learning laptops models.) Demonstrate how the mouse or cursor pad controls the cursor--an important mental leap in learning about computers.
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Step 6
Let the child have fun at this stage. Avoid the temptation to push kids at their computers. The wonders of the machines will engage them naturally. The kid isn't concerned with "learning how to use computers." He's concerned with having fun--it's still a toy and only gradually becomes a tool.
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Step 7
Watch for signs the child is ready to move on to a real laptop for kids. It won't depend as much on age as it does on the child and the circumstances. Some signs include his being willing to lend his play computer to younger siblings or being bored with the learning laptop.
When deciding if a real computer is right for your kid at her age, make sure he knows the difference between a tool and a toy (it could get expensive if he doesn't). And make sure you're ready to draw parameters for its use, since children's laptop computers can be just as addicting as TV and video games. -
Step 8
Graduate the child to a real computer. ASUS makes the Disney Netpal, the only real computer for kids that this author knows of. There are safety and security features built in. But don't let your kid just run with it. Teach her how to type properly on the keyboard, or have her take a class. Teach her about the basics of a desktop, basic commands, and about the wonders of the Internet--and of course, Internet safety.
Comments
moneyteacher said
on 11/7/2009 great article. my 3 year old is always trying to play with my laptop already. thanks for sharing this info with everyone. 5* & rec.