Learning websites / software ?

[shawthorne44]

My daughter loves her "ABC on the computer" time. I was ambivalent about her having computer time at her young age, so I put her in my lap when she asked for it. My thought was I'd still be interacting with her, so it wouldn't be mindless.

 

We've used Starfall and ABCMouse. She is starting to get a bored with both. I'm not sure whether to let her be bored and therefore drift away it. Or, look around for something she would enjoy more.

 

What have you guys used and what did you think of it?

 

For example, I think Starfall does a great job teaching the letters, but then it makes a leap and seems to skip the next step.

 

I like ABCMouse, but it does seem to have lots of the same thing over and over. Plus, the stories read by that woman in a childish falsetto is seriously annoying. They should have just gotten a 7-year old to read those stories. It also annoys my daughter that to follow the learning path she sometimes has to repeat something you did earlier. Like one weekend she was sick, but she still wanted her ABC time. So, we cuddled while doing songs and books on ABCMouse. Then when we went back to the learning path, she was annoyed that they wanted her to do them again, and went off the learning path. Which meant that some of the stuff was over her head.

[Walking-Iris]

Some kids just don't respond to computer time. My oldest loved to learn to read with Starfall, my 5 year old can't stand it. He actually doesn't like to sit at the computer for long. Computer based instruction time is just not something that will work with him. My dd (soon to be 3) likes starfall, and she loves http://www.poissonrouge.com/enfants.php but I let her drift away when she wants, OR I ask them to be done within a reasonable time frame.

 

My advice is to not try to keep a child on the computer if they don't want to be there, even if you're there with them. Better to do "ABC time" with moveable alphabet type materials, games, story books etc. Non-computer type stuff. Little kids want (need) to move and her wanting to leave the computer is maybe her way of saying that's not right for her at that moment.

[MomatHWTK]

BBC has a lot of good stuff as does PBSKids. Do you have the full version of Starfall or just the free materials? Learning.com offers some interesting classes. My little likes the songs by Waterford Elements and some of the Aha! Math items. Jumpstart is for a little older kids but if you play along it should be fun. StudyDog is fun for reading but also for a little older child. My 3 y.o. does like it but still needs help for all but the first lesson or two.

 

If you visit a site like BigFish Games and look at their Family Games section, there are some Dora and other games that are kid friendly and usually have some learning component.

[shawthorne44]

I will check out the websites mentioned. Thanks.

 

I do not remotely push computer time. I never mention it, and I frequently say No. We do have AAR-Pre and she likes to do it, but I have to suggest that as an activity for us to do. I mentioned the lap aspect, because it might make the computer time more attractive, which wasn't my attention. We started out on the free Starfall, then ABC Mouse, then I got the full Starfall.

 

I mention her "drifting off" because I wonder if she gets bored with it completely she might stop ever asking for computer time. That might be a good thing, or not, still undecided. I can see some advantages to the computer, though. By not allowing her to do wrong things, it is gentle guidance without upsetting corrections. For example, the matching game only allows two cards to be up. When we play a matching game she will sometimes get focused on looking for a particular card that she'll hold onto one and then flip the others over one at a time. Then Mommy interrupting ruins the fun. The library has laminated learning games, DD wasn't getting the patterning idea, so I avoided those. But, a couple of the pattern mazes in Starfall, and she got it.

[Tanikit]

You can try www.readingbear.org for Starfall's missing step. I would however agree that getting down on the floor with your child and using something like bottle top letters and just reading books and looking at pictures is a better way to go with a small child.

 

You can also look for all sorts of preschool activities that can be printed which would also give your child more hands on time. As for the memory games - while playing on the computer is good (there are many apps you can use for this), there are other skills taught when using the actual thing - and yes it can be frusrating to watch a child play "wrong", but it doesn't mean they aren't learning - relax the rules sometimes. Puzzles should be done with real pieces first as this has to do with fine motor control and also manipulation that you do not get on the computer - my DD(2) does them on both and definitely learns far less doing them on computer, but succeeds with both methods.

 

There are many apps that preschoolers can use successfully and that they enjoy or is it only things on a PC you are looking for?

[ElizabethB]

Read, write, type is good. My daughter could use it on her own at age 4 after a bit of coaching.

 

You can try out the demo as a test, then if you like it the online subscription or CD are both reasonable for what you get.

 

http://www.talkingfingers.com/

 

[MissKNG]

My girls liked JumpStart CDROM. The only "issue" is if you want to go beyond Unit 3, you need to buy a membership.

[shawthorne44]

Thank you, I will look into these.