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.