Friday, February 18, 2005

On the Joys a computer saavy toddler

My daughter is very good with the computer. I guess it comes from having two parents with computer science degrees. She even has her "own" computer, an old clunker that is a little slower than my husband or I would like. She uses it to play Dora the Explorer at nickjr.com, KidPix, a key banger my husband wrote, and Early Learning Fun (a program my husband played when he was young). She's learned to play all these games by a combination of trial and error and asking mom and dad for help. She prefers Mom and Dad's computer, but we usually don't let her use it.
She can turn on "her" computer, launch firefox, and find the Dora game she wants to play. Now we have an interesting problem. My husband likes to be on the computer when he is home from work, I like to be on the computer during the day to check my mail, etc. When we're on the computer, my daughter wants to be too. The American College of Pediatrics says that kids shouldn't have more than an hour or two of TV and computer combined. So how to keep my daughter off the computer? Maybe I should get one of those programs that kicks kids off the computer after a certain amount of time. I guess I should view this as a chance to review my own computer habits.

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