(If this has been covered, apologies. I searched IMHO on ‘preschool computer’ and preschool video game’, no matches).
I need good recommendations for computer software for an almost-3 year old. Also any observations on special mice and keyboards would be invaluable.
My son, SqueegeeJr is not quite 3 (birthday in Feb), and Mrs Squeegee has just started trying out preschool computer activities on him. He seems to really like it, and, with patient parent guidance, can click the mouse on things and do simple interactions.
What we’ve tried so far:
The NickJr web site, which is excellent. SqueegeeJr can do Dora the Explorer games endlessly, does a little victory dance when he gets Dora to her goal. Big win. Downside: it’s in a web browser, there’s unsafe things he can click on. And it ties up a phone line being online. (and there’s not a Dora game for sale on CD??? I couldn’t believe it.)
A game that Mrs Squeegee picked up in the bargain bin (sorry, the CD is in the kid’s room, I’ll repost the title later if someone is interested). The theme is basic exploration, it starts in a kids room, you click on items and they all do something cute. There are also little games you can play like feeding different things to a puppy. A little squirrel pops up and explains what you’re supposed to do. Ups: full-screen, no dangerous stuff to be clicked on. In quite a few places you don’t need to click the mouse for something to happen. Downs: few, but I can see SqJr getting bored of this soon.
Random observations:
It would be really great to find 2 or 3 titles that are somewhere between the Dora stuff and the ‘basic activities’ stuff.
The ‘123’ and ‘abc’ stuff seems to bore SqJr, he already knows this stuff. He does seem to like problem-solving quite a lot.
I know there are many Blue’s Clues games available, I hear they’re quite good. But SqJr doesn’t really seem to ‘get’ the idea of looking for clues or solving a mystery as a cool thing yet. Dora seems more his speed right now, just overcoming goals to get somewhere.
Age-appropriate recommendations, anyone?
Lastly: We have a spare computer, underpowered but adequate for now. If SqJr seems to be getting into this, we’re prepared to set up something for him in a supervisable location. Any tips on special mice, keyboards, etc? Computers also have all kinds of interesting cables that could be protected, are there special cases available? I’ve poked around online, and haven’t found much, mostly stuff like this, and it’s hard to tell what will be useful. Any recommendations?
(And, for anyone overconcerned: No, we’re not trying to push computing at the little guy. If he gets into it and we think he’s getting something worthwhile out of a computer, we’ll continue on this path and see where it goes. If not, not. The strategy is still evolving at this point, we don’t feel any urgency to make this happen.)
My little guy turns 4 in Feb., so he’s about 1 year older than yours. Here’s my experience:
He loves those “Humongous” games generally. If you don’t know what they are, they have a logo with an “H” on them and word “Humongous” there too. Stuff like “Putt Putt Saves the Zoo.”
Also, “arcade games” are fun for him. Look for “junior arcade” or just the age range (like ages 2-5, e.g.). It’s stuff like using the mouse to “catch” eggs that drop from hens’ nests.
My older daughter has a Barbie computer game that my 3 year old likes to play (sssshhh, don’t tell dad), but I’ve noticed that in particular he likes the coloring part of that game. It’s where you click on a color, then use the mouse as a paintbrush on the screen to “paint” anything you want. I don’t know if there’s a game that does this thing specifically (seems like there should be), but that’s another possibility to consider.
I know what you mean about the “learning” computer games. My 3 year old is not interested in learning numbers/letters using the computer medium.
IMHO you’re not pushing him at all in trying to get him interested and/or more adept at using the computer. I don’t know if you have older kids, but, believe me, computers are part of the curriculum at a very early age nowadays.
As far as the special mice/keyboards, well my knee-jerk reaction to this idea is to pass on it. I feel like even tho they have little hands, ultimately they’ll need to use the full size hardware anyway. Reminds me of teaching a 3 year old to play piano on a piano with smaller keys first, with the idea of introducing him to the full size piano later - I don’t think it’s a good idea.
Lastly, I can understand your concern about child-safety with computer cables, etc. I’ll be anxiously awaiting others’ replies to that particular issue 'cause I’m looking for the answer to that one myself.
We also have an extra (crappy) computer that we set up for Cranky Jr. We don’t care if he’s rought with it, and we don’t have to give up our computers (a huge issue for me sine I’m trying to complete my research) for him to play. We put it away in the summer, when he’s outside all the time anyway, and haul it out for those long dark winter evenings. I’ve never worried about safety–he seems to understand that if you mess with the plugs, you’ll “break” it. No special keyboard or mouse either.
Cranky Jr loves “Dr. Seuss’s ABC” It’s just like the book, but the computer reads it to you (highlighting the words as they are spoken). You can either let it read straight through, or you can let it go into a mode where when you click on things in the picture, they do little extras. My son knows the ABCs too, but he seems to like this a lot.
I think I have something like 5 kids software titles, but my son was too little for most of them when we bought them, so they’re all packed away until we get his computer out again this winter. Most of them have a number of activities and are pretty complex (Dr Suess pales by comparison, but then it’s Dr Seuss and there’s something about it that just enraptures kids).
I’ve got two little ones, ages 4 and 2. My son (the 2-year-old) isn’t fooling with the computer yet, but my daughter is. She’s got a Blue’s Clues CD, two Pooh CD’s, and an Elmo CD.
The interesting thing about some of the kids’ CD’s is that they have demos on them, for other games & stuff like that. My daughter is particularly fond of the Madeline demo on her Blue’s Clues CD.
Neither is my daughter. The fact that it helps her practice what she already knows is a nice bonus, though. My daughter’s preschool teacher told me once that alot of the kids they have in their classes, while they still have some difficulty writing their own names, can actually type them.
Well, I wasn’t thinking of ‘kid-sized’ things. More that I want to find an indestructable mouse and/or keyboard. Kids are rough on the breakables.
OTOH, I can see having a kid-mouse. The ‘regular’ mouse we use has 2 buttons and a wheel. Getting this down to one great big can’t-miss button might help quite a bit.
Thanks for the software recommendations. Much appreciated.
Huh! Wouldn’t have thought of that, but it makes sense. SqueegeeJr barely recognizes his written name at this point, but I could certainly see typing being easier than writing. Fine control of a pencil seems especially challenging at his age, at least from what I’ve seen so far watching him and other ~3 year-olds.
Not just that it’s easier, it’s that more and more people have computers in their homes now, and there’s so much fun stuff for kids to do. They’re just learning to type before they learn to write, instead of the other way around.
Here we go: the CD we have (that I described in the OP) is “Jumpstart: Toddlers (Knowledge Adventure)”. I just found out that Mrs. Squeegee had also picked up “Dr. Suess, ABCs”. Again, I don’t how ‘abc’ drills will go over, we’ll see.
We’ve pried the Windows key off our keyboard for our kids - it gets them fustrated.
My daughter (2) like the Mickey Mouse toddler stuff. Son (3) would just rather watch us “kill bad guys” on Diablo 2. Neither has mastered mouse and keyboard yet, so its lapware, for the most part.
JumpStart (by Knowledge Adventure) has a range of stuff. If “Toddler” is too boring, try “Preschool I”, which is slightly more adavanced, and introduces more sophisticated concepts. That’s followed by “JumpStart Preshool II”, which is fairly advanced. There’s a huge line of JumpStart prgrams, including “Artist”, “Languages” (a very basic primer into a number of cultures), “Spanish” (self-explanitory), and so-on.
Living Books has a whole range of stores, most of which have two modes: ‘Read to me’, and ‘Play around at random’. Fun stuff!
My 3 yo liked Paint and we’ve got a couple of paint programs for kids he loves.
The Living Books series is great for teaching mouse skills.
Dorling Kindersley does some wonderful CDs. Primafloret the Younger very much likes My First Amazing Dictionary. PB Bear is another favourite.
Another two which he adores (and I know the box says 9 and up ) are Magical Journey of the Zoombinis and the Dr Brain series. His other favourite one ATM is a ghastly Furby game.
He’s just figured out how to change the wallpaper and is spending a lot of time with that. This is possibly less than desirable ;).
We’ve never bothered with special mouses or keyboards. Never had a problem with damage or breakage either.
On the web P the Y likes the Teletubby site on bbc.com. It’s got a lot of interactive colouring sites plus printables. I will say that in 5 years of young kids on the computer, I’ve never had a problem with them getting places I don’t want them to go. OTOH there’s nothing in my history file which is going to be a problem either.
I think that they have changed “Preschool I” and “Preschool II” to “Preschool” and “Pre-K” now. These games last an extremely long time. My daughter has just turned 5, and she still plays the Toddlers game every once in a while. She didn’t really catch on to how to use the mouse until we got Preschool, though, since then she was forced to use it. She quickly became an expert.
To keep our daughter from poking around the cables, I put a big sheet of cardboard between them and the back of the desk. Out of sight, out of mind. That was when she was a baby, though. We moved when she was 1.5, and we didn’t even bother to put the cardboard back up when we unpacked because she didn’t mess with them anymore. YMMV, of course. We also have rules about how to treat the computer. If she’s mashing the keys or swinging the mouse around, she doesn’t play. She learned rather quickly, IIRC.
I think that the most important thing for computing with a kid is an adjustable chair. Phone books don’t quite cut it.
If your kid is interested in dinosaurs, I recommend Knowledge Adventure’s “Dinosaur Adventure 3-D”. This is a great game. It says that it’s for ages 4-8, but my daughter was able to handle it at 3.5 pretty easily. She has learned a lot about dinos from this game. At the time, we were looking for a game that wasn’t so “ABC-123” oriented. The games seem to get much more varied as kids get older.
Yeah the Dino Adventure is great. The other CDs which my kid loves are the Sim City, Ant, Earth etc series. He gets a real buzz out of trashing cities and placing pipes and stuff all over the place.
I don’t go by ages on the box. They mightn’t do what the game says they should but if they are having fun, then what’s the problem? I’ve quietly removed CDs which have produced more frustration than fun but generally P the Y has a fabulous time in his own special way.
I’d second the living books and jump start programs, our preschoolers love them (as well as the muppets preschool series.) What I really wanted to say, though, is a regular mouse should be fine. Even our young 3’s are ok with using them, and they’re pretty sturdy as they are. If your son does have a problem with them, though, crayola makes a track ball one for kids, too.
One other thing, Squeege, if I were you, I’d expose him to his name in print on a regular basis. Since I work in a special ed preschool we have some kids with serious delays, but they all (but one) easily recongize their names- from being asked to tell us when they see it on their cards and journal folders- we ask them the letters too, giving them lots of help. It’s something they pick up very quickly, so it won’t be too hard work for you or him. None of the kids in the three-young four class can write their names yet, but it’s nice that they recongize them.
My stepson turned four on the weekend, and he’s been playing with my Desktop Toys for six months or so.
For those not familiar, Desktop Toys is a fun little program (possibly designed for adults) which enables you to attack whatever is on your screen with machine guns, super heroes, space ships, and a few other weird things. It’s noisy, which he likes. He calls it “Boom Boom”. At first, I’d set it up for him, and he’d just click the mouse to fire while I helped him navigate. But now, he can move the mouse about by himself, he differentiates the two mouse buttons and their functions in the game, the escape key, and he is getting the hang of selecting icons on his own.
Hmmm, I never really felt it was that a high priority. He does know his first, middle & last names (and our real last name is not EZ to pronouce, he does pretty good), his street address & town, and we’re working on the phone number. Verbally, of course. I figured recognizing his name-shape would come over the next few weeks or so, and he does see it quite a lot on his paper ‘art’ projects. As I’d said, he’s bored with the ABC-123 stuff, and I’d rather offer directions he likes for now, and name-shapes are basically more ABC drills. He is only 33 months old, not quite 3yo, after all.
My son is 6 and has been using the computer all his life. He started out with the programs that just show colored shapes on the screen when he banged on the keys and now he’s up to full-on web browsing and using AIM! Here are some of my recommendations:
I second the Humongous thing. Dominic really liked “Putt putt goes to the moon”
The Freddy Fish games are fun if you sit with him, as they may be a little advanced in parts (like you can stumble into some game areas that have math or whatever…)
Reader Rabbit is good, and they have a preschool game, I think.
Here is my son’s browser start page, which you may want to check out: http://www.dominicgalen.com/startpage.html (any other parents, feel free to bookmark it for your kids)
Try going somewhere like download.com and doing a search for children’s games. Download a bunch of them, test them out. You’ll discard 9/10 of them but now and then you’ll find something that grabs the grub’s attention.
Some things to avoid:
Shrek storybook (it’s just a freakin WEB SITE on a CD!!)
Animaniacs game (poorly written)
Just about anything generic… really the quality shows and the generic stuff doesn’t hold a kid’s attention.
We have a whole shelf of stuff from The Learning Company, and I’d like to toss in another vote for the JumpStart software. Generally excellent stuff across the board.
My daughter went through the Reader Rabbit program, then we bought her Reader Rabbit 2. She said once she finished it, she hoped they’d write a Reader Rabbit 3, but I pointed out that we sorta expected her to just start, you know, reading books after a certain point…
