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Thursday, February 25, 2010

tech kids

This morning Daniel asked if he could play educational games on the Internet. He does this for a few minutes each day when I take my shower. I'm always surprised about how well he navigates on the Internet and uses a track-ball mouse. Today he said, "Mom, take me to PBSkids dot com!" It was strange to hear a three year-old requesting a website.

Matthew also knows how to use Google, and the spell checking feature will often help him out when he can't spell his topic correctly. There is a small problem though, Matthew spells according to his own pronunciation, and he has a speech impediment. The results that I find in our search boxes are cute. Instead of 'Feed Freddy', he spells 'Feed Fwedy'. Instead of 'Tooth Fairy' it's 'Toof Fawee'. 'Playground' is 'Plae gwownd'. There's only so much Google can do to correct spelling, some of Matt's attempts confuse their system sometimes.

Sarah is very adept at using Google's search engine, so she'll think up a topic she wants to learn about and then she'll Google it and read lots of websites about that topic. She loves learning about animals (their habitats, life cycles, diet, behaviors, etc) in particular.  She'll ask me, with almost tangible excitement in her voice, "Can I please Google? PLEASE?" I'm thinking it's time for us to invest in a family internet filter so she doesn't pull up trashy sites accidentally.

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