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Ready, Set, Click!
Learning Computers the Preschool Way By Sharon Waldrop
Today's preschoolers like to jump rope, play hide-and-seek and mold clay into colorful, imaginable figures, as we did decades ago. However, in some ways, today's little people are experiencing a different life than we did when we were 3 feet tall. They know that homemade bread can be made with just a tad more effort than pressing a button. Phone calls can be received in the car or at the mall. Favorite movies can be watched at any time and on any day. Mail arrives in the mailbox and online. And, many are computer literate by the time they start kindergarten.
"My daughter has watched me start up the computer so many times she can now sit down and navigate through about four screens to get onto the Internet," says Mullins. "Soon I think she will probably have her own e-mail address."
"I set up an e-mail address for my 4-year-old son last year," says Bill Walters, of California. "We sit down and check his email together. I keep a list of familiar email addresses by the computer. When we open his mailbox, he points out the familiar names before we open the emails." Walters taught his son not to open e-mail from senders not on their list.
Smith's daughter is becoming familiar with the mouse. "She moves it all over the place, but she hasn't made the connection between mouse movement and the computer screen," Smith says. This young computer operator has an interest in using the computer without her mother's help. "Occasionally, she will sneak into my office and I'll find that I no longer have any sound," Smith says.
