28th
Raising Digital Kids
We’ve had a lot of fun with the kids (now 7, 9, and 9 – yes, twins!) helping them learn the computer space. A number of folks have asked me what they’d recommend for computer programs/tools to give their kids exposure to the digital world.
Here’s what we’ve done that’s been helpful for us:
-Scratch: this is a program that the MIT media lab created that lets kids program very simply by attaching building blocks that direct particular actions. Scratch is a great program that’s really easy for the kids (My 7 year old, Peter, even managed it when he was 6).
-Tumblr: each of our kids keeps a tumblog on Tumblr that’s basically a scrapbook of images, videos, websites they like, comments and sophisticated critiques like “ahhhh, isn’t this bunny cute?” Every day they add just a little bit to it. And the great thing is that we can “follow” them on our own blogs.
-My 9 year old (Michael) worked with my husband to create his own website by using TextEdit. They then used heyzap (which is a widget) to import 1500 games onto his website (boy was he psyched!). Now, he uses Tumblr to critique the heyzap games on his website.
-My 9 year old daughter (Katie) loves to use KeyNote for a scrapbook (it’s a more kid-friendly version of Powerpoint.) We downloaded KeyNote for her (it costs a bit of money), but she’s thrilled with it. She used it in school and loves that images she imports can do cool things like fade in and out while emitting sparkles.
-My 7 year old son, Peter, loves the Flipcam we just got. He can manage it himself, take videos, and I believe even uploads the video himself onto the computer. Michael and Katie are planning to make a movie this summer using the Flipcam (Michael wants to direct, Katie wants to be the leading lady!)
-Michael has also started to learn HTML, a little at a time, using the tools on w3schools. In fact, I’m going to start teaching myself HTML from the w3schools tutorial as well.
Oh, and just for the record, we all gather together every night for reading time (with physical books).
