Do you know any good websites for little children?
I found this one the other day that my 2 year old likes very much. It has alot of fun interactive reading activities.
http://www.starfall.com/
I don’t mean to sound snobbish, but that seems far inferior to real books, flashcards and other activities, in my opinion. Yes, I did check it out. I looked at the boring A,B,C phonics lesson, the Zac the Rat “book” and another one. It’s slower, the art and story lines are far less rich and interesting than a decent book, you have to do it sitting at the computer unlike books that can be read anywhere, it’s harder on the eyes and it will help get your kids hooked on TV.
Why would one prefer that to a book? I’ve noticed that lots of kids lack the patience for books, but I attribute that mostly to their parents not sitting down in a peaceful setting and reading with them, so they never learned the habit. On the other hand, if one reads regularly with them they’re likely to love books and learn language quickly, naturally and enjoyably (our girl is crazy about books and sat happily reading books the other day as her older cousin who was visiting and who lacks patience for books bounced around her playing with all her toys).
Seriously, why would one seek to teach language to a child on a computer? :s
[quote=“Mother Theresa”]
Why would one prefer that to a book? I’ve noticed that lots of kids lack the patience for books, but I attribute that mostly to their parents not sitting down in a peaceful setting and reading with them, so they never learned the habit. On the other hand, if one reads regularly with them they’re likely to love books and learn language quickly, naturally and enjoyably (our girl is crazy about books and sat happily reading books the other day as her older cousin who was visiting and who lacks patience for books bounced around her playing with all her toys).
Seriously, why would one seek to teach language to a child on a computer? :s[/quote]
Why would one want to engage in internet discussions rather than in real live person?
I have read to my son every night from day one and as often during the day as he wishes or I can get him to-- a couple hours per day at least with me and more with his mother, and he loves books. Unfortunately he’s at a stage where I can’t always get him to focus long enough on a book–maybe that’s because he’s a boy… or maybe not every child is the same as your daughter with books (Your first and only child I assume?)
In any case, the computer is just another way of teaching children. If they like it and it works; why not add it to the curriculum? Eventually they will be learning it in school later anyway and probably using it to discuss matters with strangers like on this forum.
Oops, sorry Hongda. I didn’t mean any offense to you. As I said, our girl is crazy about books. Maybe it’s partly because she’s a girl, maybe it’s partly luck, I don’t know. But I do know it’s at least partly because our house is crammed full of intelligent, colorful, playful, fun books of all kinds and we’ve read with her regularly since she was born, in bed, in her play area, on road trips, etc. If your kids are surrounded by books, too, great. :bravo: But I’ve met friends of my wife who never sit quietly and read with their kids (actually, I doubt those parents read on their own either) and the kids seem totally uninterested/incapable of sitting and reading a book.
I admit, I’ve sat at the computer when my girl came up and asked to climb on my lap and look at the screen, so I use google image or google video and type in key words such as dog, cat, monkey, baby, to entertain her. She really likes that. But we’ve only done that a few times – not as a regular thing.
But I still feel the books at that site you linked are pretty crappy: crude, simple, boring plots and images. I still don’t see any reason to read them instead of nice, real books. The esthetics of books, flashcards, etc., seem far superior (healthier) than an electronic device such as a computer, and I want to encourage her as little as possible to sit in front of an LCD display with flickering images. True, it’ll eventually be good for our kids to become comfortable and skillful with a computer, but in my opinion that can wait.
My niece loves uptoten.com
They have interactive games and songs for preschoolers. It’s not the Sesame Street (sesameworkshop.com which also has an interactive website for kids) as far as being created for being extremely educational, but it’s appealing and fun.
She doesn’t get read to at home as far as I know. The books I bought for her when she was 22 months old - I packed a 24-in suitcase full of books and simple toys just for her - were probably the first ones she’s ever had. So this helps her get the skills she needs for school.
Hongda,
My son is also two, I read to him for at least an hour a day, and he reads to himself for almost as long, but he still likes to sit at the computer sometimes, too. I guess it is such a part of our daily lives, the whole family uses it, he likes to be part of it, too. What I like about the computer as opposed to say DVD is most of the stuff online needs adult help to use, which increases the interaction, whereas with DVDs it so easy to leave the kids to watch alone.
I recently found a lot of Sesame Street classic clips:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=2_sgeDSURho&mode=related&search=
We watch these clips from the Montery Aquarium:
http://www.mbayaq.org/efc/video_library/video_library.aspx
And there are stories like this:
http://www.abc.net.au/children/play/stories/
Or this:
Thanks for the links ImaniOU and asiababy!
I have only recently started using the computer with my son. I first did it to get him out of the kitchen while his mom was cooking. He wouldn’t sit down to read and I didn’t want to turn on the t.v. so I gave the computer a try and it worked well.
I liked the interaction also,…it’s something different than a book gives because the visual is changeable.
We tried the Gingerbread man on the link I first put up. We both had to interact in order to choose different eyes, mouths, noses, colors etc… and it helped reenforce words he learned from books but seldom has a chance to use; like…square, rectangle and other shapes.
I wish we could get him to sit an hour and do anything on his own!
About 6 months ago he would sit for long periods of time going through his books but now suddenly he’s interested in other things and we hve to bring books to him rather then the other way around.
Hongda,
I am really lucky with my son, I know, I am about to have a second child and am a little nervous, what if she isn’t so easily entertained?
Don’t know if you are looking for this kind of info, but there is a really good book called “The toddler’s busy book” by Trish Kuffner, it has “365 creative games and activities to keep your 1 1/2 to 3 year old busy”. I’ve seen it at page 1 before, not sure if they still have it. Most of the activities are easy to prepare, and can give you precious moments where your child is absorbed in an activity.
Thought I might as well mention that there are a fair number of specialists out there who urge extreme caution when it comes to young children and computers. Perhaps most notably, in Failure to Connect: How Computers Affect Our Children’s Minds – And What We Can Do About It (1999), educational psychologist Jane M. Healy is deadset against allowing children under 7 computer access. She argues, among other things, that despite the perpetual rush to embrace technology, computers detract from peer play and encourage passive consumption of images rather than development of children’s own image-making and critical thinking abilities. If you’re interested, you can read an excerpt here and her interview with Technos here. From Publisher’s Weekly:
Sounds like she is talking more about just letting them spend loads of time at the computer like sitting in front of the t.v. Too much of either is of course no good but I’m sure a little supervised time isn’t going to hurt at all and I’m willing to bet there are benefits to it also.
To say NO computer use before the age of 7 is best, is like saying kids shouldn’t learn how to use any tools before the age of 7. Or maybe even similar to some “educators” believing that English shouldn’t be taught before junior high school or else it will interfere in the learning of the mother tongue.
I guess as a musician I could argue that too much passive listening of music isn’t good and kids should get mainly hands on interaction with music. This probably has some truth to it actually, but who has alot of time to put into music practice these days when we need to get “educated” for a job? Music would be more or less a luxury for alot of students but then on the other hand in most countries a great emphasis is put on developing competition sports rather than things like art and music. Kids in most countries are skilled in manipulating balls of different sorts but few are skilled in manipulating implements other than a pen and eating utensils. What’s the reasoning for that I wonder?
I think the root of the “education problem” is parents are so busy trying to make ends meet they have little energy after work to teach their kids anything—even if they themselves have any skills other than what they use at work.
The blame keeps getting piled on the schools and everyone continues running around in circles trying to figure out what the problem is when actually it’s just the change of the social structure which in turn is forcing education to become nothing more than a route into the workforce army. When the next generation comes along, the problem is of course even worse.
One fault I realize in the way I teach my son now is that he doesn't really respond well to me preparing something like paints or clay to play with and he's also gradually losing interest in prepared reading sessions accept at bedtime.
What he does respond to with extreme interest is getting involved in something I'm already doing myself weather it's preparing food in the kitchen, fixing something in the house, cleaning,reading the paper, playing guitar, or working at the computer.
I now spend more and more time involving him in such things together with me.
The other day we took an old hard-drive apart just for fun and he was totally into that. Now he'll sit on the floor with his play tools and pretend to be fixing it.