Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Toddler Research Online

Guest post written by Jamie Winston

My son was first introduced to the internet when he was just two years old. I work from home, so the computer is a large part of our lives. I know that there were things he would enjoy online as well, so we started out in a search for those.

We started with flickr and YouTube, mostly. If he had a question about an animal we read about in a book, I would do a search on flickr for a few appropriate pictures to show him. If he was still interested, I would try to find some YouTube clips of the animals in the wild. He found that he could have access to instant information through our hughesnet deals.

The key to me was keeping it connected to what we were doing in real life. Connecting it to books, for instance, grounded our online activities in the real world. Although he wasn't old enough to type in a search for himself, I was weary of the danger of being sucked into the world of endless information and entertainment.

Now that he is four, he plays games occasionally online, but always with a set time limit. We still spend most of the time online looking up things he is interested in. Doing it together makes it fun for both of us. I love how much he can learn so quickly.

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