I’m so glad we found the game called Slither.io, a browser-based game that has helped our three year old start to figure out how to control a computer. I wasn’t trying to find a way to ‘teach her computers’ yet; that’s just what happened. She saw her brother doing it…and well…that’s all she needed.
A week ago it took her a minute to finally get the cursor onto to the start button. Attempt after attempt. A little above it, a little below. A little above it, a little below. A little above it, a little below. Click! Yesterday she typed ‘mom’ into the name input after selecting all the colours she wanted her slither to have.
Currently, she’ll spend a few minutes designing her guy and naming it…and then not really control it at all until she dies. (10-20 seconds?)
The five year old is learning his own new things and is happy to coach his little sister when it’s her turn. She’s also happy to have someone else control her ‘swidda’ after she designs it – both kids are happy about that.
Screen time. And teaching teachers.
He goes from gentle encouragement to repeating his instructions more excitedly if she doesn’t respond. I let him know if she’s not doing something he says it’s not because she didn’t hear him. It’s either her younger brain and hands aren’t as developed as his, or if it’s his two more years of computer experience…or it could even be her just wanting to do her own thing even if it’s different than the ‘right way’ he is trying to demonstrate.
She’s three. She’s not printing letters yet, but she’s typing words
Well, maybe ‘word’. I asked her if she wanted to see how to spell dad. She quickly said ‘No fanks’.
We just installed Roblox on the computer which is a neat collection of ‘similarly playable games’ that allow the kids to have the same kind of moves and characters between hundreds of different games (I have no idea how many games there are, but lots)
He is great with sharing, but screen time goes fast
He is happy to take turns with his sister and help her all he can…but with the introduction of the Roblox game, he’s pretty shocked when we ‘already’ let him know it’s time to not play anymore!
