Little Miss Techie

It was bound to happen sooner or later…Our 4 year old daughter is about to get her own computer. Since Daddy’s world revolves around technology and Mommy has a background in classroom technology integration, I guess it isn’t surprising that our offspring is quite technology savvy.

No, we didn’t go out and by her something brand spankin’ new from the Apple Store that she’s been ogling for months. She’s inheriting grandma’s old computer. The thought of our daughter having her own computer has made two technically inclined parents think about the difference between technology for adults and children as well as whether computers are for education or entertainment.

We have been thinking about designating a computer in our home for our daughter for at least a year. What makes her ready now versus when she was younger? Well, I’ve watched Little Miss Techie and her ability to navigate my desktop is frightening! She knows the different program icons that enable her to bring up various programs which could provide endless entertainment if it weren’t for potty breaks.

What does a 4 year old do on the computer? She exercises her creative genius with her favorite paint program (Clicker Paint), types documents in a word processor using every available font color, listens to some of her favorite music (Pete Seeger and Fergalicious, go figure?), and views family pictures stored on the computer. She has no knowledge of the wealth of content on the internet but that’s a discussion for another day.

Little Miss Techie is much more proficient at using the computer than she was a year ago. She’s at an age where her hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills allow her to use the mouse without frustration. For those unfamiliar with this situation, I’ll diagram the 4 phases to learning to use a mouse for the newborn-to-toddler years:

Phase 1– Pick it up and stare directly into the red LED. This is a great phase.
Phase 2– Whack the mouse to wake up the computer.
Phase 3-Move the mouse around until it runs out of cord. If the cord won’t reach to the corner, then the corner is completely unavailable.
Phase 4-The ability to delete your most important documents and/or rearranging the toolbars on your favorite programs.

This is the new generation. Watch out world!