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In praise of computers for kids
DD9 received an Ruby Red Acer Netbook for her birthday (her grandparents generously pitched in and helped us get it for her). And today, she researched on the internet coyotes and roadrunners for animal reports (we are finishing up our Mexico geography/social studies unit). I enjoyed hearing "Did you know that road runners eat rattlesnakes?" and, "Did you know that coyotes run with their tails pointing straight down?" "Coyotes pups don't leave the den until three months old." Reasons 1, 2, and 3 why I love that DD has her own computer now.
DD9 of course, prefers to use the netbook to play online at LPS, Webkinz, PBS Kids, Barbie.com, and so on. But she enjoys researching and finding things out on it, too.
We got it mainly for homeschooling, but also so she and I weren't competing for time on my laptop.
DS6 said, plaintively, when DD9 opened up her present last month, "do I get a computer on my birthday, too?" My reply, "Will you be turning nine?" It will be the nine-year-old present in our house, which I think appropriate.
Comments
Lucky girl!
What a wonderful idea, and glad she is enjoying it. I really think that the internet and technology in general make home education so much more accessible these days.
Completely agree, what a lovely present for a 9 year old, think we might think about this for when our lot hit double figures - have two 7 year olds at the moment - so a little time to save up!!
Do you have wireless internet at home? If so can you both connect at the same time? (sorry I'm a bit of a techno-dunce
!)
Happy surfing!
Nelly x
I'm techno-impaired, too!
DH is a computer programmer so he sets everything up! We have a wireless internet set up, and we can have all five computers in the house online at the same time, though there's never more than three on at any given time.
My mother has requested that we set up DD's computer with Skype so that she can make (free) video calls to the grandkids. I love it.
Skype-tastic!
My aunt has just got skype for her new grandaughter who lives away and now my mother (who is at the other end of the country to us) is very keen to become a techno-granny. We had a play recently and can definitely see the appeal, although it will mean keeping the bits visible on camera clean and tidy...
What parental controls do you have installed?
Our daughter didn't get a computer of her own until she was 13. We are having issues with parental control, though (using Vista and Norton Online Family). DD14 uses the computer for school and parental control often blocks her searches. She wants me to disable all parental controls, something that I am not comfortable with. I have blocked myspace, facebook, and chat rooms, along with setting time limits (I love that about Vista
).
our parental controls are parents
But then, we're in the unusual position of working at home. When my kids use their laptops, they're usually in the same room with me.
I also feel that it helps to start them earlier rather than younger. My kids know what's safe, what's not safe, and when to check with me. I don't think they've ever "accidentally" run into porn (I rarely believe the "it was an accident" line about porn). It has to do with communication with your children more than artificial parental controls--*you* are the best parental control available.
I gave up a big part of that type of parental control
We used to have just one "family computer," and it was in the kitchen. That's when the "parents as parental control" worked. When DD14 got her own desktop computer, we put it in her room (away from contant walk-through traffic). Even before she got her own computer, it became very obvious that we needed to install parental controls on the computer as a back-up. While DD14 doesn't look up porn or other objectionable content, she is jaw-dropping naive. A year or so ago, she casually mentioned that a friend of hers had a "boy-friend" that she had met online. My alarm bells went off. I asked her "How does she know it's a 13-year-old boy and not a 40-year-old man?" Reply: "Duh, mama, he emailed her a picture!" We talked about online safety again, but I am still in shock that my smart daughter would be so gullible! After she got her own computer, I exchanged a few instant messages with her friends, just to show her that even if people are in her contact list, she will never know who she is really talking to. Her friends certainly didn't realize that they were "talking" to me. Maybe it will eventually sink in...
Lynn, I have talked to my children about online safety over and over again, yet my daughter never questioned if her friend's "online boy-friend" was really who he said he was, simply because her friend believed his story. What kind of reference is that?! After talking to her again, she is more cautious (at least, I hope).
To be honest: I really didn't want my daughter to have a computer with Internet in her room. She goes to a public school, though, where homework assignments and grades are posted online only. Worse yet, the kids often don't get to take their books home but are referred to the online version of the books. That's where we started having trouble, because the central location of our family computer was too noisy.
we started young and are very blunt
We have been pretty honest with both girls about things like 40-year-old guys posing as 14-year-old boys, or 40-year-old women for that matter, if you remember the story of the woman who drove a girl to suicide. Conversations like that have been part of our daily lives for a long time, it hasn't been a separate talk. We've raised our girls to be skeptical about pretty much everything, so if someone tells them something online, they're more inclined to say, "really? seriously?" than, say, "golly, that's your picture?"
As I said it's easier for us because we homeschool. We're with them all the time. They overhear their father and me talking about news stories about these issues; they've heard us joking about how a third of the women in Second Life are actually men. In fact, when I brought it up to Jo not long ago, she was all "duh, mama, like I'd trust some guy online I don't know."
We monitor their twitter accounts; I help Jo police her website. Ultimately, we can only do so much. They might trust someone in real life they shouldn't trust, after all. But by making them aware of these situations, leading by example, and showing them practical ways to behave works better for us than artificial controls.
If you're really concerned, you can block social media websites and services at your router: Facebook, Twitter, various instant message servers. But it's hard to keep up with, especially if your child is determined to use them. In my experience, efforts to limit access almost always end up firming the kid's resolve to see whatever it is you don't want them to see.
Thank you!
Thank you, Lynn. I had no idea that you can stop websites at the router! I looked at the settings of my router and saw where it also had parental controls.
DD14 knows why I block certain websites. She always has the option to discuss why a website should not be blocked. If she really wants to go to a blocked website, she can look at it with me present. Initially, when she looked up things for school projects, I was by her side to teach her to "consider the source." Now, she knows the difference between .org, .gov, and .edu compared to .net and .com.
The Internet is not only a great source of information but it has also eased the heartbreak when her best friend moved away. The kids video-conference, phone, and play online games that they used to play together IRL.
awesome!
I'm glad it helped!
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