School Zone Alphabet Express Preschool

 

School Zone Alphabet Express Preschool provides your preschooler with 26 different games and activities to help her learn her alphabet.  Kids can also paint different alphabet-emphasizing pictures, play a sounding-out/letter-matching game, and look at instructions on how to write each letter. A separate section of activities includes find-the-hidden-letter games, dot-to-dots that teach alphabetizing, and mazes that must be conquered by matching objects to their beginning letter. Finally, and most delightfully, there's a movie theater where kids can watch a couple of priceless animated shorts: one is a James Brown-esque ditty belted out by a chicken, listing the (alphabetized) items that make Hearty Chicken Alphabet Soup so special. Anchors, basketballs, and carburetors are a few of the secret ingredients.

A great way to introduce your child to the computer and to help reinforce what he learns in preschool.

Review of Disney Learning: Preschool

About.com: Family computing has a review of the Disney Learning Preschool.  My kids love all the Disney learning software, especially the Winnie the Pooh titles. 

Disney Learning Preschool comes with 3 CDs of activities. Each CD focuses on a different set of Disney characters including Winnie-the-Pooh, Mickey Mouse and Stanley from “Stanley: Wild for Sharks!”

Check it out here:  Review of Disney Learning: Preschool

Internet Access for Children

Now that you have a computer for your child or you are allowing him/her to use yours, the question comes up, "Should we allow him/her to access the Internet?" There are tons of great educational and fun resources for kids on the Internet, but as we all know from the daily news, there is a lot of danger out there, so let's discuss some of our options.

Not allowing access at all
If you have enough software to keep your little brainiac interested, you may want to choose to not let them access the Internet at all. This is, of course, the safest method of keeping predators away from your little angel, but will limit their access to some really cool stuff. If your child has his/her own computer, simply deactivate their wireless connection or do not plug the PC into the Internet.

If, however you share your computer with your child, you may want to set up separate profiles to limit Internet access to only your account. You can do this in Windows by selecting Control Panel, Users. Select add user and enter your child's name as the user name. You may also want to set them up as a limited access user account so they cannot install programs or change settings without your knowing. While you're here, add a password to your own account if you haven't already. My son was smart enough to change users on my wife's un-password protected computer and was able to wreak havoc on her laptop.

For an easy way to limit access to the Internet, open Control Panel and select Internet Options while signed in on your child's account, Find the connections tab and click the LAN Settings button. Check the box next to where it says "Use a proxy server for your LAN" and type anything in the address box (something like "No Internet for You" will do.) This will prevent access to the Internet while anyone is signed on to your child's account.



Allowing access to only specific sites
Internet Explorer has a little known feature that will allow you to restrict access to only certain sites. Back in the Internet options screen, you can set Internet Explorer to only grant access to trusted specific sites or sites with ratings determined by an outside party.

To enable this feature, open Internet Options in Control Panel or in Internet Explorer (Tools, Internet Options.) Select the Content tab. Under Content Advisor, Select Enable. At this point, you can determine what can and cannot be seen in Internet Explorer.


The first tab is the ratings tab. The default is to disallow all sites no matter what their rating. Select each category of sites that you want to allow. Categories include alcohol, gambling, language, nudity, etc. Adjust the slider to modify the settings for each category from None to Limited to Some to Unrestricted. If you want to allow access only to specific sites, leave all these categories as none.

The second tab is "Approved Sites." Enter each site that is allowed and press the "Always" button to add it to the list of approved sites. If you want to specifically restrict a site, enter it here and click "Never."
Select the General and Advanced tabs to set passwords to override the security controls or to make changes to the default ratings system you want to use.

If you are using a Windows Vista-based computer, Microsoft added a new Parental Controls feature for you. It can also be found in the "Content" tab in Internet Options. There are a multitude of new features and I may write a full article just on those features soon.

Using a Parental Control Filter
There are two types of parental control filters: hardware based and software based. With a software based method, you will have to install the parental control software on each PC that you want to monitor and restrict access. You will also want to periodically check each computer to make sure that updates are being installed and the settings are still properly in place. There are several software based programs available including Sentry Remote - Parental Control Software, CA PC Protection Bundle 2007 and Net Nanny 5.5 Web Filtering Parental Control Software. If you only want to monitor one PC, the software solution may be the best for you.

The hardware based parental control takes a little more knowledge of home networking, but once up and running, it is easier to maintain and harder for your little devil to circumvent. This method is what large corporations use to restrict access to unsavory sites by their employees. It is a device that sits between your modem and your PC or your wired or wireless router. The device I use is the D-Link SecureSpot Internet Security Adapter. Once the device is in place, you can connect to it through a web based interface to set rules and options.

What I like about the SecureSpot is that i can set specific rules for individual users. I set user-names on all shared PCs in the house for each member of my family. That means that if my son signs in with his user-name on my computer, the Internet access restrictions follow him wherever he goes. I can also view logs of his browsing history and see what is being blocked. There is also an option that shuts off Internet access at certain times. For instance, if my son's bed time is eight thirty on weekdays and nine thirty on weekends, i can shut off Internet access at eight o'clock and nine o'clock respectively. That also prevents him from getting up in the middle of the night to surf the Internet while the rest of us are sleeping.

I hope this was helpful. Let me know in the comments if you have had any luck with any of these methods. Next post I will talk about some useful online sites that are safe for your child.

Links to Product in this Post

Dr. Seuss Preschool Software

How can you possible go wrong with Dr. Seuss? Many of the beloved favorites of my childhood are now available as software for preschoolers and young students.

My son and daughter's all-time favorite and most used piece of software was Dr. Seuss's ABC's. If you remember the book, it goes through every letter of the book and has cute, repetetive phrases and rhymes to go with each character (Aunt Annies' Alligator, A, A, A.) The repetition and picture associations really help with learning their ABC's.

The program has two modes, story time or interactive. The story mode will simply read the book to your child with some animation as the story goes along. The interactive mode, however is where all the fun is. Seemingly everywhere your child clicks on the screen, somethign interesting and funny happens. You will definitely hear giggles coming from your computer desk as your child learns his/her alphabet.

This is one of the best examples of early preschool software around. Amazon has it for $9.99 here: Dr. Seuss ABC

Buying Your Child's First PC

I am the computer geek in my extended family, so I always get consulted when someone is looking to buy a new computer for themselves. A question I am getting more frequently is what to look for in a pc (I only deal in pcs, sorry mac users) for children. Each one of my children has a pc of their own simply because I don't want them breaking anything on my main computer that I use for work. Mainly, I am worried about them spilling juice or milk on my keyboard!

What I tell everyone who is looking for a pc for their child is that it doesn't have to be a power-house by any means. Most preschool and children's software has been around for a while and was built for Windows 98 and XP systems. If you are going for a new system, go ahead and find a good deal on a cheap Dell or HP system. Take out all the unnecessary extras and get a basic system. Dell's outlet site at http://outlet.dell.com is a great site for kid's computers too. These are mostly customer returns or refurbishes and will usually be a few releases back in technology. That is fine for this type of PC since you really don't need the latest technology for the 3-10 year old set.

If you are uncomfortable ordering a system online, you may want to check with your local computer store for a basic system. They will usually have a few older systems sitting around or can build you one with some lower-end parts. In this particular case, cheaper doesn't necessarily mean low quality. Try to get brand name components that are 6 months to a year behind the latest technology. With component prices dropping every time new technology comes out every couple of months, you can get a very reliable system for a reasonable price from a reputable computer shop.

The third method of getting a pc is asking the geek in your family just like my family does. I have plenty of spare parts lying around and I am always the first one to grab an obsolete pc from work when we are disposing of them. Geeks are a great resource and can usually be relied on to free up some room in their computer area.

No matter how you get your computer, you want to make sure you have the original Windows operating system disks. I say Windows, because most preschool and early learning software is built for Windows. If you are using a brand of Linux or Mac, your probably don't need to be reading this anyway. The original system disks are critical because even though your little darling may become a computer wiz, most likely, they will at some point have a thousand icons, several broken links to various places and have so much software installed that their computer will be slowed to a crawl. In this case, starting over is almost always the best bet. Copy anything that you may want to keep to a thumb drive, insert the original system disks and start from scratch. You can then reinstall only the software that your child likes and regularly plays with.

Amount of Words Spoken Directly to Babies and Toddlers Increase their Vocabulary

A University of Kansas study found that the amount of words spoken directly to babies and toddlers increased their vocabulary in later years.

Extra talk - that goes beyond such "business talk" as "stop that," "come here," "put that down" or "hold still" - usually is richer. When parents used chit-chat, gossip or running commentary, their vocabulary was greater and their ideas more complex, and they gave more encouragement.

How does this apply to preschool software? I found that the better programs talk to the child while they are playing and that they encourage feedback. Programs that only play music and have playful beeps and whistles are not good quality educational tools.

Also, spending time playing with your child on the computer encourages talking and interaction as you point out shapes, animals and colors.

Software for preschoolers can never take the place of quality time with your children. It only facilitates it.

Frontline Phonics

Found a site called Frontline Phonics. There are a lot of resources here including an assessment test to determine you child's reading level. It might be worth looking into.

Preschool Software - Scientific Evidence Backs Up What we Found

I found an interesting article today from Australia. Apparently, researchers found that teaching preschoolers how to use and become comfortable with a computer better prepares them for school and learning in general.

[Computers] play an integral and growing role in education, work and communications, and the sooner a child becomes comfortable with this technology, the better.

I agree wholeheartedly. My son is only in first grade, but he was required to take reading, math and language assessment tests last year and in the current year using a computer. He was one of only a few students that did not require any instruction on how to use a mouse and keyboard. His comfort level with this important tool had a lot to do with him scoring well on his assessments.

Imagine how the other kids must have felt? Not only were they being asked to take a test on how much they knew and learned, they were asked to use a tool that they were unfamiliar and most likely uncomfortable with! That would be like asking someone to drive a car who had never seen one before!

Another good quote from the article:

We don't question whether to give a young child access to paper and crayons. We make them available at the earliest age that a toddler can hold a crayon and make a mark on the paper, a valuable lesson in cause and effect.

Of course! Why should a computer be any different?

Here is a link to the full article: Preschoolers need computer access

Learning to Read with Preschool Software

I have a 6 year old boy and a 2 year old girl. My son used the computer extensively during his preschool years and we are now seeing the benefits. His first mid-term progress report in first grade just came back and he scored a 98.6% in reading! We are so proud!

We attribute much of his success to his being interested in computers at an early age. We introduced him to some early reading software at about two years he took to it immediately. He learned his alphabet much earlier than any of his peers and was reading and recognizing shapes and colors well before his age would indicate.

Now that I have a two year old daughter, my wife and I will be improving on the techqniques we used with our son. She has already taken to the computer and our son has taken it on himself to show her how to use the mouse and keyboard!

We have heard several parents claim that they will not let their kids use a computer because they think it is bad for them and they don't want them to turn into mindless drones in front of the computer. Hogwash! If a parent makes good decisions on what their child has access to and spends time with him/her on the PC, the child is better for it. (By the way, one of the parents who was completely against having her son use the computer just received a 72% on her son's progress report!)

What really amazes me is that some parents will not allow their children to play on a computer, but will let them sit in front of the Disney Channel and Cartoon Network all afternoon long! At least with the computer, there is interactivity and learning involved.

I would love to hear of any of your success stories or tips and tricks to help children learn with preschool software.