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Computer For a Child?
jameswing writes "I am thinking of buying a UMPC, such as an Eee PC or a Wind for my son, and wanted to get input from Slashdot. He is almost 2 and really curious about our computers, and anything electronic. I want to foster this in him, without having him on my desktop or laptop. I also don't really like the idea of getting one of those cheap 'Learning Laptops' that have a tiny screen and are really limited.
Does anybody have one that they use with their children? How sturdy is it? Will it stand up to a 2-year-old? If not, what are good alternatives?
What are your thoughts? Suggestions?"
My daughter who is almost 3 has been really interested in electronics as well. I picked up an old used laptop (I think it's a Pentium III 800 or something) that someone was giving away. I loaded it up with Debian and installed GCompris. She absolutely loves it - and GCompris is great. Problem is (like most kids her age) she picks it up to move it and drops it, tries to forcefully "integrate" her other toys with it, occasionally spills something on the keyboard... you know - normal 2 year old stuff.
Unless you've got the cash to not care about your kid wrecking and mucking the thing up in 6 months of use - I say load linux on an old used beater. The kid doesn't know the difference.
Just disrupt the deflector shield with a tachyon burst.
he says he's going to 'check his email' and sits down at the computer. i dont know where he got that from. not me, cause i never say something like 'ima check my email'
then he proceeds to remove keys from the keyboard. he's gotten quite good at this, even employing other objects as a lever to pop the keys off. i then find them scattered about the house, in his mouth, outside, in the toilet, in the refrigerator...
if you have a child of this age, the only computers that are going to stand up to them are made by fisher price etc.
i don't think it would be worth it until about 5 at the earliest
Before kids can read, any "conventional" gui (I don't care if it is KDE/Gnome/Windows/Mac) is both going to train the kids to ignore dialog boxes and/or drive parents to distraction with questions. That's why (in part) OLPC do the Sugar user interface: our target is kids who are in the process of learning to read.
It's also why the OLPC XO-1 is much, much more rugged than conventional laptops.
IBM Model M keyboard
Let him try and break it. I bet you could even vomit into those repeatedly without them needing much more than a wash to fix.
My son took over my old eMac before turning age two. He is now 2.5 yrs old, he has basic command of the full UI. (Tiger 10.4.11)
he "cut his teeth" on several baby banger programs. He now uses over a dozen children's software apps, including the MacKiev suite (green eggs and ham, cat in the hat, etc), and LOVES tux paint, and his most recent acquisition is "Ollo at the Sunny Valley Fair.
He has a good understanding of the DVD interface, and explores all the games, extras, and other features of the DVD's. (He loves to turn on the closed captions while watching movies on the computer).
He knows how to shut it down, put it to sleep, turn the volume up and down, and subtract icons from the dock (he loves the little POOF they make as they disappear.)
We got him an old blue MacAlly keyboard (out of storage from work), it is virtually indestructible! He pounds on it, drops it, it has NEVER quit working, no keys have come off, works GREAT. Also gave him an old one button Apple mouse. He is too young for "right-click" and the one button mouse solves a lot of frustration.
He prefers the computer to the TV, hands down, every time. The computer is interactive, the TV is passive. He wants his "p'cuter"
Don't sell your children short, they tend to rise to whatever level we set for them.
(AND, his taking over my eMac gave us the excuse to get a new MacBook Pro, thanks son!)