Mouse tip for kids

About a month ago a very nice door-to-door saleswoman came to my house to sell me kid’s books. It wasn’t a hard sell and she did a good job so I bought some stuff. One of the things I bought was a collection of educational software products. The software products have really been very good but my four year old has been having problems with the mouse.

One problem is that he’s four, so I know he’ll get past that. Another is that his hand is too small for the mouse, another problem that time will solve. And yet another problem is that the mouse has two buttons. Mal suggested that we put a sticker on the mouse button where he needs to push it to control the game. Today we tried it out and his frustration level was significantly reduced. In other words, he was able to use the mouse successfully and had a much more positive learning experience.

When I’m home and its computer time I make the time to work with kids. To share the experience with them. I’ve been extremely surprised at how much my five year old has learned. Right now he’s really into the science games (Thinking Science by Edmark) and today he totally shocked me with his understanding of animal tracks and basic Newtonian physics (pendulums and ballistics). I also find myself very impressed with how the games manage to hit on his developmental level.