Learning Software for Toddlers? 25
dunkan asks: "I know there are a lot of different software packages out there available for children. But I have an 19 month old boy who loves to move the mouse, and press buttons. While he can randomly start winamp and skip through the playlist, he doesn't know what he is doing.
Does anyone have software suggestions for children in this age group? I would think it would be a simple as moving the mouse, or pressing a key, or whatever, gives a response that teaches them what the effect of their actions are. I have looked, but haven't found anything useful yet."
19 months seems pretty young... (Score:2, Interesting)
Time-telling, or basic english word skills software recommendations would be great. Bonus if it's free software, as always. :-)
Why "too young"? (Score:2)
I'm reminded of a radio show I heard on the benefits of reading to children. One woman called in and claimed that kids are never too young to be read to. As proof, she cited her two daughters, both read to from birth. Both grew up to be librarians! But I suspect their career choices have less to do with any cognitive benefits of being read to than with the emotional bonds books helped create for them.
Re:Why "too young"? (Score:1)
Careful with the guilt! (Score:2)
It all comes down to Play. It's the most important thing kids can do for themselves, but hey, they're born knowing how to do it. The best we can do for them is offer them tools to make the most out of their play. And not get miffed when they turn up their noses at the tools we offer, or at our opinions on how to use them. Remember, they're the experts!
sigh...I wish I had better news for you (Score:3, Informative)
you can try doing a search on "lapware", (so named because the kids sits in your lap). I have many of the titles that will come up on that, and I am sorry to report that you will probably not be impressed.
All one would need would be, for example, some of the screen savers that come up on gnome by default (Xscreensaver? I don't know), but with the mouse changing a parameter, and maybe the keyboard switching to another screen saver.
Reader Rabbit's Toddler is not too bad (unfortunately our cd had been kidified, so my 22-month-old comes in regularly, tugging on my finger to get tech support when it tried to read a scrated area of the disk and crashes).
These programs frustrate me immensely in their closed-sourceness, howeer, because there are tiny little improvements (like being able to click to skip the introductory yakking) that would be easy to make and would make a huge difference for impatient toddlers.
Another thing you might try is subscribing to home-ed (I think home-ed-request@world.std.com) and posting your question there. That should net you a list of many titles and strong opinions in many directions.
good luck. also, feel free to email me if you have any more questions on this.
mike
Re:sigh...I wish I had better news for you (Score:1)
I've been getting a gazillion letters from a company I bought some "free" software from,
for more free software, which winds up being a few
bucks for shipping/handling of some crappy stuff on a cd that he never looks at twice. I seem to have mentally blocked it - maybe Ohio Distinctive? Several have dual english/spanish modes, to learn the other one, but he just doesn't seem interested (although he does in meatspace). Kid's now 5.5, and loves the Reader Rabbit, Richard Scary, Miss Spider, Sesame Street, Broderbrund stuff. He now knows Mac stuff from kindergarten, too. The stuff is helping teach him to read, so I can teach him unix.
All in all, the lapware is definitely worth it. It is another mode of entertainment to give mommy a break, and show gamma how to use a computer. Yes, you have to watch out for computer addiction, set time limits. He hardly remembers we have a Playstation 2 (so far...).
Now I just have to figure out how to get mommy excited about the computer, so I don't have to do the installs and reboots (stupid MS crappy OS!)...
A lot of the kids web sites are starting to have games too, but many are flash based (urrrpp). Nick has some neat stuff, ties in with Blues Clues and stuff.
jg
--
Re:sigh...I wish I had better news for you (Score:2)
I'll second the vote for Reader Rabbit's Toddler. My kid loved it when he was that age. Also the Disney Interactive Storybooks (especially the Pooh titles) are enjoyable. Beware the newer ones, though, which are based on Shockwave rather than Quicktime. You cannot abort the long explanatory animations in the Shockwave titles. You can in the older Quicktime titles (like "Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree.")
Stay as far away as you can from Teletubbies! I have nothing against the show, really, but the game stinks to high heaven. It too suffers from frequent, long, uninterruptable animation sequences. It uses a clickless (point-and-hover) interface, but provides only a very subtle cue when you've hovered long enough to activate something. And, of course, the activation starts a long non-interactive sequence... Oh, and to exit the game you let the mouse hover in one of the screen corners. The game then exits without confirmation (through a 2-minute long non-interruptable credit sequence!). Now, where do you think a toddler's uncoordinated mouse twitches end up most of the time? You guessed it! The game is just plain frustrating to kids and parents alike.
BTW, I found a solution for the "kidified" CD syndrome. I no longer let my kids have the actual CD media. Instead, I've installed Daemon Tools [daemon-tools.com] virtual CD drive software. Before I install a game on the kids' machine I snag an image [blindwrite.com] of it and mount that in the virtual drive. Once the game's installed I replace the desktop icon with a batch file that automagically mounts the appropriate CD image and starts the game. No more scratched CDs! You'll need a large hard drive, but even a 20G drive holds a fair number of games.
This technique works great for my grown-up games, too. Snag the image and forget fumbling for CDs. Daemon Tools emulates common copy-protection schemes, and I have yet to find a game (kiddie or grown-up) that can't be played with the image instead of the CD itself.
My 2-year-old plays Quake 2 and Tomb Raider.... (Score:1)
Then there's Tomb Raider. 3 and Chronicles are her favorites. She usually before her bedtime. In fact, she'll get extremely fussy if she doesn't have her bottle of milk and the Playstation fired up before she nods off for the evening. She knows how to make Lara draw her guns and shoot at dogs and rats, climb ladders, blocks, etc. She isn't sophisticated enough to figure out some of the puzzles, though.
I'd avoid a lot of those software titles aimed at toddlers. Most of it seems like dumbed down, noisy eye candy. Sara tends to tire of that stuff pretty quickly and goes right for the games that my wife and I play. She was also hooked on Snood for a little while, but I don't think it was as interactive for her tastes.
-- anthony
Try Reader Rabbit (Score:1)
She has learned to move the mouse on things and click, put the CD in the drive and press start by herself.
Learning software? (Score:1, Insightful)
JumpStart Toddler and the like.. (Score:2, Informative)
A couple of years ago, when I was working in the software department at Fry's Electronics in Silicon Valley, the most popular children's software was the JumpStart series from Knowledge Adventure [knowledgeadventure.com].
I received praise after praise from customers, who came back time and again to purchase more of their products as they released new ones. Knowledge Adventure has since expanded their product line considerably, breaking their software down into a few different categories, depending on the type of learning you're interested in.
From the sounds of it, you're looking for something along the lines of "JumpStart Baby" or "JumpStart Toddler", both a part of the "Full Grades" category. Other titles from this category include "JumpStart Preschool", "JumpStart Kindergarten", and a product each for 1st through 6th grades.
These titles come highly recommended from parents across the country (I know, I've spoken with them face-to-face!), although I've never looked at them myself (excuses: don't have kids yet, don't really have the money to buy software I won't use, I run mostly Linux).
The best thing is that nearly, if not, all of their products run on both Windows and Macintosh computers (hybrid CD-ROM), meaning almost everyone out there can take advantage of them. Unfortunately, they do not have a Linux version, and I am unsure as to whether or not they run under Wine, VMWare, or the like. If they do, I'd be interested to hear about it, as I'm sure many Linux-running parents and educators may want to hear as well.
On a side note, I'm sure all those parents out there that have been using the JumpStart series for a few years wouldn't mind donating the products that their children have outgrown to a school. Don't forget, just because your local school may have computers in the classroom now, that doesn't mean they have a huge amount of software, or the budget to purchase stuff for the kids to use. Don't throw out your old software, and don't even sell it in a garage sale. Donate it to your local school!
Re:JumpStart Toddler and the like.. (Score:1)
The words "job" and "productive" can not be used in the same sentence anymore. All those jobs disappeared 20 years ago. I like to think that in the 2 years I've been with the same company, I've accomplished something. I guess the finished products that line my computer desk at home don't count.
Oh, and the certification tests? Part of the job. Talk to them if you think them spending money on me is a waste of my money. I personally don't see the connection between my cash and my job paying for certification tests (and paying me to take them).
Two programs (Score:3, Informative)
The program is for Windows and costs nothing. It also makes it difficult for a child to exit the program, even disabling CTRL-ALT-DEL.
This might be too advanced for a 19-month-old. But it should be fine for a 24- to 30-month-old. If the child can click-and-drag, they will like the "chalkboard".
You might also try Crash, Bang, Wallop [kidsdomain.com]. I found the program to be a little annoying (too noisy!), but it is simple and very young kids will like it. It is also a free windows program.
Debian Jr. (Score:2, Interesting)
games (Score:1)
The best games are still for Windows/Mac -- haven't tried many of them on Wine. Current favorites for my 3 year old are Reader Rabbit and Lionel Trains. He played Jumpstart for a little while but got sick of it fast (good thing too, it was NAUSEATING).
Too young! (Score:1, Interesting)
For now, get away from the computer and try something stimulating and problem-solving oriented that's more appropriate, like Duplos or coloring books or paint-by-number.
Re:Too young! (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
kidsfreeware.com (Score:2)
-Adam
No-CD for Reader Rabbit Toddler (& Preschool) (Score:1)
(You need to uncheck the read-only flag first)