A good balance?
 

Just a question really, after seeing another post in another thread..

What are people opinions on the amount of time young children (up to 11 years, say) spend in front of a computer? Do you encourage it? Do you also encourage outside activities?

Re: A good balance?
 

LemonyBrainAid (Daniel) is 12 and IMO spends toooooo much time in front of the PC. However, he is trying to learn a few things and is not just playing inane games all the time. He does have some outside interests, and is restricted in the time that he has during school terms.

It's hard these days to encourage outside activities, both from the parents point of view and that of the child.

Re: A good balance?
 

Robert (no CF nickname as yet :D ) gets about 10 minutes on the cbeebies website, usually before bed, and occasionally another few minutes during the day. He is two next week and we're quite proud of the fact that he already understands the concept of hitting the space bar or clicking the mouse to make something happen on the screen, which is relatively abstract compared with most of the toys designed for his age group.

We have no intention of allowing him to while away his life in front of a monitor as he gets older, so I'm very glad that our new house will force us to keep the computer in the lounge, where we can see it, and is in the countryside, where hopefully there will be an endless supply of safe, exciting, outdoor things to do.

Re: A good balance?
 

Here's a suggestion:

Hook up a timer to an exercise bike. For every minute they spend riding on the bike they can have one minute on the PC ;)

EDIT: Or, even better, connect it to a dynamo and have the bike power the PC so if they stop pedalling it switches off :D

Re: A good balance?
 

<Coughs> Erm...my two daughters (12 and 9) have unlimited access to their own intenet connected PCs in their own rooms 24/7 !! :erm:

The eldest spends hours chatting to friends worldwide (esp USA) and research for homework (true).

The youngest goes for car racing games but soon gets fed up. Her reading and spelling have been transformed though. :)

Both regularly listen to online music stations (esp Capital Disney) whilst playing or reading.

I trust them both and rarely find virii or trojans etc. from 'odd' sites. ;) Unfortunately where we live they don't have any friends locally.

Re: A good balance?
 

I think its good to get children into IT as long as they dont make the computer their only objective in life.
When I have a family and have children I will let my children use the family PC for homework and also games and stuff, but I do think you have to limit the use for young children.
When they are older, then they can go where they want on it, but when you are young, I think there is definately a lot of stuff that needs a careful watch on, especially no the net.

Plus I think I'd want to encourage my children to do sports and other activities like music that get them out the house than sitting at a PC all day.

Re: A good balance?
 

Alexander (2 in October) is sometimes allowed to play on the Sesame St site. If the laptop is accidentally left in the TV room he will sometimes spot it an stand pointing at it saying "elmo, elmo". Bless.
There are some very good games on that site, like the peekaboo one he loves.

Re: A good balance?
 

Our two (Alex 4.5 yo & Sam 3.5 you) can quite happily spend a couple of hours on the Jay Jay/Cbeebies/ Kwaala & Boowaa/ NickJnr sites. Alex can turn on the laptop and navigate to the sites himself :disturbd:
We feel it's better than telly (but sometimes only just) they balance the tv/pc time with lots of outdoors play, colouring, learning to read etc.....but we do feel that they are looking at screens a bit too much.

Re: A good balance?
 

Heh. Too much time on the pc? Never! I spend my time on the computer mostly learning, About different things (mostly to do with the internet/computers), as nemmy says, I dont spend all my time on games. I enjoy my time on the computer, thats why i'm on it so much. I mostly browse forums, create images or speak to my friends on msn when I'm on the computer. I think the computer is more productive than school, nearly! I mean, you learn as much a day on a computer as you do at school. Apart from that, where are you going to use algebra if you want to become a music teacher? Anyway, thats my two cents.

Re: A good balance?
 

I feel I'm going to learn more life skills by listening and watching forums like this than at school.

Re: A good balance?
 

Now now LBA, maybe you should pay attention at school more :jk: All these sites that you're looking at are warping your mind - we use pence here, not cents ;)

Re: A good balance?
 

Hehehe. >_< Okay, My 2 pence :)

Re: A good balance?
 

What about life skills you can aquire by switching your pc off, and getting out and about?

Re: A good balance?
 

Getting out and about? Doing what? Going around town with my mates? Playing football? Playing other games? What life skills will that teach me? :confused:

Re: A good balance?
 

LBA has a point here.......we spend more time trying to think of what my two can do than actually doing it !! :(

Anyone any suggestions for cheap entertainment for a 12 and 9 year old girls ? :confused:

Bit late now as school re-start is imminent :rolleyes: