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What To Load On a 4-Year-Old's Netbook?

Posted by samzenpus on from the besides-plants-vs.-zombies dept.

nostrodecus writes "I have a nephew who is very young, but who has the techie gene — he found the Gruffalo on YouTube before anyone knew he could spell. Now he's almost 4, and I was thinking of giving him my netbook (Acer running XP), which I hardly use any more. So, of course, I will be deleting all the porn, but what should I load up on it? Are there tools/apps that I can load up on it to protect it and him from things he shouldn't see until college? Also, what apps or games could I load on it that a 4-year-old will get some use out of?"

21 of 742 comments (clear)

  1. Regardless by Dyinobal · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Regardless of what you install there's no guaranteed way to stop your kid from stumbling upon boobs on the internet. Plus who's to say it's something to worry about at all. They certainly didn't traumatize me.

    1. Re:Regardless by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Regardless of what you install there's no guaranteed way to stop your kid from stumbling upon boobs on the internet.

      Yes, boobs in both senses of the word. And most likely he will stumble on to the idiot-inane-nincompoop sense first. Then the other.

      --
      sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
    2. Re:Regardless by skyride · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Blender? for a 4 year old? are you actually serious?

      The thread below this pretty much sums up my feelings here.

  2. Huh? by Brett+Buck · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why in God's name would you give a computer to a 4-year-old? Give him a damn baseball or something, the last thing he needs in his formative years is to vegetate in front of a screen.

            Brett

    1. Re:Huh? by Nikker · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If anything give him a screw driver and let him take it apart tell him what all the parts do and possibly even get it back together.

      --
      A loop, by its nature, continues. If that didn't make sense, start reading this sentence again.
    2. Re:Huh? by Picardo85 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I agree with Brett ... young kids should run around hurting themselves so that they learn not to do certain things later in life when they don't heal as easily. Climbing trees, biking, playing soccer, building stuff with hammer and nail ... in general stuff where you can hurt yourself or even better ... encourage him somehow to just use his imagination ... Personally i would give a 4-year-old DUPLO - the young kids version of LEGO

    3. Re:Huh? by aliquis · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yeah, striking things with a bat or running around after balls seem so much better.

    4. Re:Huh? by eleuthero · · Score: 3, Insightful

      development of fine motor skills comes later--four years olds are still working on gross motor skills (large movements with even the fingers). This alone is reason to encourage continued outdoor activity as without it, there might never be appropriate development for the kid and it could affect a variety of areas in his life.

    5. Re:Huh? by farnsworth · · Score: 3, Insightful

      development of fine motor skills comes later--four years olds are still working on gross motor skills (large movements with even the fingers). This alone is reason to encourage continued outdoor activity as without it, there might never be appropriate development for the kid and it could affect a variety of areas in his life.

      A computer does not prevent or conflict with outdoor activity unless it is used inappropriately. In late November in the US the sun sets at around 5:00pm, but no four year old is ready for bed at that time. Sure, there are books and movies and craft projects and family time, but these are not always available/desirable/possible. A four year old can handle PBS Kids just fine, and there are times when it is the best choice.

      --

      There aint no pancake so thin it doesn't have two sides.

  3. Re:Mac OSX by Haedrian · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You could just as easily load up Linux instead for a copy costing $0.

    If your kid is visiting websites which could give him viruses, then you really need to keep an eye on him.

  4. Hmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'm going to agree.

    ...

    It keeps him occupied for hours at a stretch. It really frees me up to go shopping and other things that would have been tough with him along.

    I sincerely hope you're fucking joking.

    1. Re:Hmm by BadAnalogyGuy · · Score: 3, Insightful

      if you can't handle raising children who listen to you, maybe you shouldn't have had them in the first place.

      Well, it's a little too late for that, don't you think?

    2. Re:Hmm by BadAnalogyGuy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That's insane. What police state do you live in?

    3. Re:Hmm by Belial6 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Your right. It isn't child abuse for them to be outside by themselves, so everyone should remember that if they want to make a quick run down to the corner store, they should lock the kid outside. It will keep the parent out of trouble.

      Seriously, just a generation ago, it was simply no big deal for a 5 year old to spend a short amount of time alone. By 10 or 11, they could spend the night alone, and by 12 or 13, they were babysitting other kids for the weekend. I don't know what kind of mass genetic disease has spread through the populations, but for those kids whose genetic code is still in tact, leaving a 5 year old at home is NOT child abuse. No matter what most state agencies say.

    4. Re:Hmm by obarthelemy · · Score: 3, Insightful

      yes there is. your post is the same assholery than people arguing that *they* can drive drunk because they know their limits so well, and handle alcohol so well. they don't, you don't, your kids are not exceptional, and your parenting skills are subpar if you think different.

      little kids cannot be counted upon to be reliable safe alone for any period of time.add to that the possibility of an exogenous emergency or upset...

      --
      The Cloud - because you don't care if your apps and data are up in the air.
  5. how about a fishing pole by Dolphinzilla · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Get your 4 year old outside and away from computers for at least a little while longer, my kids cannot even contemplate getting on a bicycle and riding all over town like we did as kids, most of the time on a beautiful day in Florida they are inside surfing the web, playing computer games or texting on their cell phones. Just saying...

    1. Re:how about a fishing pole by JohnFluxx · · Score: 3, Insightful

      How about *you* get on a bicycle and cycle around in your spare time.

      Oh, because it's not that much fun to do it all the time? Double standards?

    2. Re:how about a fishing pole by Alarindris · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It's more fun when you are a kid. Just like playing house or cowboys and indians. I can't believe I'm explaining this.

  6. Re:LOLWHAT?!?! You posted your add. and #?!? by BadAnalogyGuy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    People here are all talk. Keyboard warriors.

    In real life, they are pussies and won't do a goddamned thing about it.

  7. A notebook for a 4 year old? by suprcvic · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Give him some toys and send him outside where he belongs! Kids these days have no imagination because they have technology shoved in their face from the time they can grab it.

  8. This is what I have loaded on my daughter's laptop by Slackenerny · · Score: 3, Insightful

    My daughter is four and a half and I have an old work laptop built up for her. She's got some good mousing skills and scored an OCD ranking in one World of Goo level while I was doing the washing up.

    Anyway....I've scoured around trying to find good content and have a good list. Steer clear of all the Disney and other commerical stuff, that stuff will rot their brains. It's also badly coded and mainly a vehicle to advertise to the kids.

    This is what I have installed on her laptop. They are all links to flash sites as almost all good kids stuff is on-line now. Anything that you have to install probably lists Windows ME as the system requirement on the box:

    1) Poisson Rouge (http://www.poissonrouge.com/) - This is a French/English flash site with has no instructions and just encourages the child to explore the pages and work out what to do. It's probably the best site on-line for the 3-5 age group.

    2) Boowah & Kwala (http://boowakwala.uptoten.com/) - This is another French/English site originally made by a husband and wife for their daughter and has grown from there. It's more instructional in its activities, but has an enormous amount of content delivered in a great way. The two main characters (see the names) are voiced by the parents and are very funny.

    3) Sesame Street (http://www.sesamestreet.org/) - This one is a no-brainer...they have a great variety of games for different ages.

    4) StarFall (http://www.starfall.com/) – A reading site that runs from letter recognition all the way to full reading. It’s got some very fun stuff in it.

    5) WordWorld (http://pbskids.org/wordworld/index_flash.html) – A very rich and interactive reading site with lots of fun characters made out of letters.

    Enjoy!