Teaching Young Children To Use The Mouse

I do not know about anyone else, but my kids like to do everything I do, including using the computer on their own! I used to work for a company where I taught computer classes for children as young as 3. Since I did a post a couple of weeks ago on some fun computer programs, I thought I would add a few quick tips that I learned to help teach a child to use the mouse a little easier.

The first and easiest tip I can give is to find a small sticker and put it on the mouse for the main mouse button (usually the far left). I use a happy face sticker. Something easy so when my son is using the mouse he knows that his "clicker finger" goes on the happy face and when he is trying to select something on the screen all I have to say is, "push the happy face." It's a simple tip, but it seems to make using the computer less stressful.

The only other problem I have now is that my 2 year old daughter sees her brother using the computer and she wants to do it, too. Her problem was that she had a general idea that her finger (or more like fingers in her case) needed to be on the happy face, but her other fingers kept pushing the right button causing other screens to pop up. The solution? I put a sticker on the other key to help her know that her middle finger needs to go on the right mouse button. That did not help her as much as I hoped until I put a sticker on the side of the mouse where her thumb is supposed to go. That was the key! She now knows where her thumb and first 2 fingers go and it makes things a lot easier for her. Also another bonus is my son likes it, too. I'll see him match up his fingers before he uses the mouse.

As much as I do not like to encourage computer use in children so young, I can not avoid it and there are a lot of educational programs out that he can explorer when I need him to be occupied for a few minutes here and there.

Additional Tips: If you are going to use more than one sticker and try to make each one different. I use a spiral sticker, happy face sticker and a heart sticker.

What's On Your Computer?

I have been a clomplete slacker this past week! I have been all wrapped up in trying to make my summer plans (and to be honest, a bit too antzy to sit at the computer with our weather highs and lows) that I lost track of my 2 posts a week goal. I have been collecting stuff to post, so I will have to catch up!

Today I thought I would share a few programs/sites that we have been enjoying lately.

The First is Tux Paint  and it is FREE! If your child knows how to use a mouse then they will love this! It is great for any age that likes to doodle. My son will stay busy on it for at least 10 minutes and if I'm lucky 20. It has lots of tools that your child can use to create anything they would like.  Most of the time my sons pictures are a bunch of scribbles, but right now he discovered the Rubber Stamp Tool and is having a blast with all of its shapes.

They can also create fun like this

Or even this...probably for the more advanced hands!

The Best Part about this is that your child can't click out of it by hitting the wrong key on the key board. You have to go to the "Quit" button on the right side of the Tool Bar. No more worrying about whether they are changing your desktop while you are trying to get dinner ready!

Second, is Preschool Pioneer.  You probably already know about this site, but just in case I will mention it. We just discovered this within the last week and my son, since he has learned how to master the mouse, loves to click around and explore all the sites. What this site does is link up all the other educational sites by categories (letters, numbers, me, watch, me, etc), as well as it gives parents resources, like activity calendars (I'm going to have to check that out!). It links to PBS and other sites. It saves me the time of having to go through all the sites and figuring out which games/activities will work for my kids. My daughter is still learning to navigate the mouse, but still has fun helping her brother. Check it out and let me know what you think!

Last, is SharpKeys. One of the most frustrating things for me is when my kids start hitting the keyboard and start opening screens and programs that I have never seen. Sometimes they even turn the computer off when I am in the middle of typing something. Ugh! My brother-in-law uploaded this program to my computer and I love it! It even helps for those times when the kids are playing a computer game and they keep missing the keyboard and hitting the windows key and stopping their game.

What Sharpkeys does is that it allows you change the reaction a certain key has or even turn the key off, so it has no response. My kids always hit the Windows key to the left of the space bar so, I turned that key's response off. Problem solved!

Once you download the software and open it. All you will do is click on the "ADD" button on the bottom. Another box will open. Choose the key you want to change from the left column and choose the response you want it to have on the right side. Then click okay. (hmm...this is starting to sound like it would be a pretty good joke to pull on someone!)

I know there are other programs out there that have been recommended, but since I have not seen a recommendation from someone I know or a site that I am comfortable with, I will not try those other ones.

Warning: I recommend the program, but not his blog...it uses foul language and such, so don't waste your time!