Computers for children

From: Uncle Roger <sinasohn_at_ricochet.net>
Date: Wed Jan 13 14:12:45 1999

At 06:15 PM 1/12/99 -0500, you wrote:
>> This'll probably offend many.
>paintbrush programs for four years before graduating to doom.

Ooh, like doom is so great for kids! 8^)

Actually, if you wait until a kid is 8 or so before introducing them to
computers, you've wasted a lot of their time. 18 months is the recommended
earliest a kid should start with a computer, but if you want to sit them on
your lap while you work before that, I think it's okay.

At 18months, windows versus mac doesn't really matter much; it's the
application software that's important. If you can get Reader
Rabbit/Playroom/Jumpstart for Unix (or CP/M or PDP-8) then go for it.

But to say that a kid should not be introduced to computers until they can
read enough to use unix or can handle a soldering iron is to do a major
disservice to the kid.

For an 8 year old (the original question) who has probably already learned
to read/write/type, and understands running a program, and has used other
computers, a C-64 is a fine machine to muck around with, spill soda on,
play with BASIC on. (Though I'd vote for Atari myself. 8^)


--------------------------------------------------------------------- O-

Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad
roger_at_sinasohn.com that none but madmen know."
Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates
San Francisco, California http://www.sinasohn.com/
Received on Wed Jan 13 1999 - 14:12:45 GMT

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.0 : Fri Oct 10 2014 - 23:32:06 BST