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

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?"

Comments

Re:Hmm

[ds_online]

Yes I take my 5 year old and my 3 year old shopping weekly, there is no screaming, there is no disciplinary action. if you can't handle raising children who listen to you, maybe you shouldn't have had them in the first place. Leaving a 5 year old at home is child abuse. and most state agencys would agree.

Re:Huh?

[jhigh]

I agree with this. Giving a four year old a laptop is dumb if you plan on using it as a babysitter. However, let the kid play games on age-appropriate sites and this would be a great replacement for television time.

In response to the OP, and at the risk of starting a flame war, the first thing that I would do is wipe the thing and put some flavor of Linux on it. Expose them at a very young age to the fact that there is more to the world of technology than Microsoft and Apple. My kids are 8 and 10 and share a laptop with Kubuntu on it, and they love it. I like showing them all of the stuff that they can do it on and the fact that I can load it with software that does everything that they want to do without having to pay for any of it or violate (admittedly dumb) copyright laws.

Re:Regardless

[hairyfeet]

I may be the token Windows guy around here but as to what apps? I'd just load Edubuntu and call it a day. I believe in the right tool for the job and Edubuntu not only has plenty of learning apps for ALL ages, it also has built in "net nanny" style filtering he can turn on if he is worried about teh titties. Although frankly it is a waste of time, as we old guys didn't have the Internet and still found teh titties just fine, thank you VERY much.

I never understood the "fear of teh boobies" we seem to have in this country. It reminds me of that old saying Joe Bob Briggs had "You can't show a titty unless it has a knife in it. This is America dammit!"