Cami has learned how to use the computer. When I say “use” the computer I mean so in a productive way. She has, for quite some time, been capable of walking over to the keyboard and randomly pressing various keystrokes which inevitably puts in motion the certain destruction of any saved data we view as precious. Because of her uncanny ability to create computer chaos I have been hesitant in letting her use the computer but I decided to give it a whirl since she is so fascinated with it.
We started with Starfall which is a free site that is geared towards the alphabet, pre-reading and reading. Teaching Cami to use the mouse was a little difficult. She wanted to right click on everything but the most difficult part was getting her to look at the monitor and not her hand to direct the mouse. I would tell her where to move the mouse to and she would look at the mouse while she moved it around – not real productive in gauging distance on the monitor.
I finally came up with the idea to change the mouse icon to something of interest to her. So, I changed our mouse icon to a walking cat. She loves it. Now I can tell her to walk her kitty to point “x” and she finally would watch the mouse icon and not the actual mouse in her hand. She now goes to starfall nearly every day.
We are hoping to find a very used computer for her soon. Something that operates but is from another millenium. In other words, something free. All though I want her to be able to use the computer I’d rather not have any more mysterious emails sent out without my consent and I’d prefer to keep all of our family photo’s intact. Wish us luck. Here is a little video of her using the computer. Sorry if it is boring. :)
VIDEO
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