Although I blog and my wife works as a professional photographer (thus making both of us stick our noses to the screen quite a lot in our children’s eyes), the kids are still thankfully not computer obsessed. Unless you count making stupid faces on photobooth or using the warp tool in photoshop to distort their faces into demented shapes until they collapse in laughter.

I do think that computers will become increasingly unavoidable for them as they advance in school. But hopefully they will not lose their interest in going out to play ball, go fishing, or digging for worms!

Shane Groah
dad to two crazy manimals

We gave him one of our old computers when he was 3 and at that age he could type, cut, paste, change font size and color, type in web addresses, draw things in Photoshop and AutoCAD and the list goes on. It’s amazing what he can do. I think he knows more about the computer than his grandparents do.

Still, I think there is no replacement for direct human interaction and play in a child’s life. But if monitored appropriately, the computer can also be a great learning tool.

I am right there with you on preferring kids to play with things that aren’t electronic! I especially hate toys that play themselves… the kid pushes a button and just watches it do something. what a waste!

I do remember a time before my kids were born where I watched a friend’s three year old navigate through one of the preschool websites like he was born using a computer mouse.

Knowing how integral computers are going to be, (and how much they are already), I do think it’s important to teach kids how to use them, and how to use them safely and property.

Also, I want to foster a love of computers and the amazing potential they have so that she will continue to grow up to be a curious researcher… not only in books, as she is now, but also through the online world.

I spend most of my day working at a PC. They will likely have a life that revolves around a PC. We integrate it. Music comes from it, answers come from it, oodles of insect pictures (sigh), science experiments.

It’s a tool. It’s up to us to wield it correctly.

We have used YouTube to find videos of things that our son thinks are cool but we just don’t have a lot near us like trains or digger trucks. He has watched dance, music and instructional snippets of how to play the piano.

He types on the keyboard some and we also type and ask him to identify letters and numbers.

We also use our laptop to talk to my husband’s mother every week. Since she lives in Jamaica and does not travel often our son has only met her 3 times in person. He does recognize her over the webcam now and she has been able to watch him grow week by week. It also helps our phone bill a lot!

I think part of the reason we have softer stance on computers then we do on TV is that both DH and I are computer professionals. It is part of our lives and naturally it will be part of our son’s life.

Video games are also a big part of my life since that is what I do for a living. Personally I really can’t wait until my son is old enough and has enough coordination that I can introduce him to the Wii. A big part of the reason I took the educational and career path I did was because of the games I played and the exposure to computers I had as a child.

I also think that unlike watching TV using a computer or playing video games can be a highly interactive and social activity. It is not the same or a substitute for face to face social interaction but it is also becoming a larger and larger part of how our society and the world communicate I think some early exposure that is well guided is beneficial for learning how to use computers in the future.