Despite the hype about living in the digital age and how kids need to learn to use computers from a young age and programme software by the time they hit puberty, I've never really been all that keen on the kids spending a lot of time behind the screen. They both get computer time at school, so at four years old even Carl knows the basics. However both of our boys have the energy of tree squirrels on speed and need plenty of outdoor exercise, so the idea of them blobbing out behind the computer and storing up that energy until some innocent passerby like, say...their MOTHER has to try get them to sleep at night doesn't appeal. For the same reason they don't own Gameboys or Playstations. Yet.
However, the great thing about computers is of course the internet. If they get birthday money from Nana, they browse the websites of the big toy chains to see what they want to buy before we head into town. Feel like a movie? The kids check out the trailers on line first and if we decide to go, we buy the tickets on line too. Looking for cool pictures to colour in? Try the Starwars or Lego sites for instantly printable pages, and while you're at it check out the great kids games there. Niels loves You Tube for it's collection of home-made Starwars movies made with the Lego figures and clips of planes. Even Carl has his favourite site, the BBC's CBeebies site which has a huge collection of games based on their pre-school programmes. You can even choose to play games that only use the mouse, an easier option for littlies. He sits there, flicking through the game menus using the mouse with two hands, switching between full screen and regular view, closing the pages he doesn't want and hunting down his favourite characters. It really is learning by osmosis as often I'll be sitting there with him and think "I didn't know he could do that". So although their computer access is limited to about an hour or less every third or fourth day, clearly it's enough.
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