to think that preschoolers shouldn't be using the internet?

[oodlesofdoodles]

My DS's pre-school want to get online so that they can, for example, watch films of exploding volcanoes on youtube instead of looking at pictures in a book.

As I understand it preschoolers are learning motor, language and social skills from real life activity and interaction. They don't learn that from watching films/playing computer games.

The other parents at preschool seem to be fine about the children spending (supervised) time on the internet. I feel time on the computer detracts from time baking or crafting or singing or running around etc.

What do others think?

I think it's bloody lazy, I sent mine to pre school to wear them out and to do things I don't like doing at home, painting, baking charging around like a loon etc

Isn't it early years foundation studies (or something?)

no, eyfs= early years foundation stage

x-post

YANBU means you are not being unreasonable.

Actually I was vaguely irritated that children were using the computer at my ds's nursery. I didn't send him to nursery to put him in front of a screen.

YAB totally U.

ICT is part of EYFS.

My DDs nursery had some great drawing and art software packages aimed at pre-schoolers. There is some really good stuff out there - try looking at the games on the CBeebies website if you are interested.

TBH, I don't think a pre-schooler will be able to distinguish the precise technical differences between material that is accessed via broadcast TV; via videos & DVDs; via software packages and via the internet. To exclude the internet from that list seems rather pointless and narrow-minded to me.

When the Icelandic volcano erupted, we showed DS who was 4 YouTube videos

I do not see a problem with a nursery doing the same, on a limited basis

Mamatomany sums it up. You don't want them doing the easy stuff at preschool leaving the messy, heavy input stuff for you to do. Why don't you do the baking and craft you're so afraid they'll miss out on. And preschoolers are highly unlikely to google for porn sites so not many security issues there really. I would be more than happy for dd to use computers there.

yy Early Years Foundation Stage, all early years settings follow the framework

here's a bit about IT in the early years

My dd's love youtube (when i let them use it).

The computer gets used a lot in our house (by all of us), dd1 is adicted to club pnguin and moshi monsters so i have to try and limit the time she spends on the pc. Dd2 is going through a stage of printing things to colour. They don't watch tv very often but they both spend time doing other things (playing with toys and playing outside) so i don't see any harm in them using the pc.

thanks for spelling out the acronyms

The dc's nursery shows them news related snippets on you tube during carpet time. They watched films of volcanos and made their own models when that one exploded in Iceland last year.

I show the dc's animals / dance / songs on you tube. They've seen a bit of google earth too.

Never any unsupervised computer time though, I won't even let them push the buttons.

My preschool DS loves watching youtube videos and looking things up on the internet. Sadly I don't know the answer to all his questions so google and wikipedia are very helpful to me. We do also look things up at the library but the internet is more immediate.

As long as the access is well supervised and directed and as just one of many activities they do then it's absolutely fine by me.

Madam - they are learning about ICT (technology as a tool), not how to programme.

I'm not keen for him to be watching dvds or tv at nursery either.

I think it is very useful for pre-schoolers to have exposure to computing, a wide range though and not just passive consumption of what is fed to them. Wisely used by a pre-school it is excellent way to find niche stuff and exactly the teaching materials you want, very cheaply.

I don't think anyone is going to be showing pre-schoolers how to distill alcohol, porn or even Andy Gray. I think it is safe in terms of content and neurological development. I haven't looked at this since my then 3 year old began using the web and am too full of cold to go pull sources again on the physical side of it. He never got more than 30 minutes at a go, and only 2-3 times a week at home. I get bored otherwise. At the moment he's not that into computer use, it's all Lego right now.

So we look stuff up when I can't answer questions. DS1 learnt his mouse skills and had endless fun and learnt more about persistence from www.poissonrouge.com than any other type of learning experience I can recall, his motivation is so high for it. He is already beginning to understand the elements of programming computers to do stuff with http://scratch.mit.edu/

He emails DH on his weekly trips abroad. He already uses a managed learning environment in year 1 at school.

DS2, nearly 3, is beginning to ask for his turn on the computer, and is really getting into poisson rouge and shape names at the moment.

By the way, when my DD was at nursery the children were all given the chance to take photos with a digital camera - that was part of ICT too. Does anyone have a problem with that?

Would you not want him to watch any Tv or DVDs at nursery? I certainly wouldn't want children at that age sitting for a long time but a short (10 minute?) clip of a volcano, or some wild animals, or something followed by related activities sounds good to me.

That way they can learn about things that can't easily be taken into the nursery.

sorry that scratch link above is wrong

scratch.mit.edu/

off to bed for me.

Why don't you do the baking and craft you're so afraid they'll miss out on.

Well because i'm paying somebody else to do it
I am allowed to be lazy because no buggers paying me.

I think it's good for them, actually. DD is four. She plays some educational games on the PC at her preschool (outstanding rated, btw, so the inspectors don't think it's bad). She also plays games on my iPhone and uses the CBeebies website a lot at home, eg while I am cooking.

I don't disagree that there should be plenty of running about, baking, dressing up and singing etc in their home and school lives. But I think those that say that the PC/internet cannot be a social activity are wrong. I have watched children at my daughter's preschool playing together on the PC and I think it's teaching them excellent social skills, actually:

They have to share and take turns. Only one person can operate the mouse at a time. I have seen them negotiating turns and it's lovely, and quite impressive (I never get that level of cooperation at home!)

They offer helpful (slightly bossy but hey, they are 3 and 4) comments to the person who is operating the mouse - 'no, that's the biggest' or 'push the green button' etc.

They are really sweet at applauding each other and offering praise when someone completes a task successfully.

They look on it as a shared activity, not an opportunity to do something alone, from what I've seen, and I like it. Computers and the internet are something that every child needs to be really confident with these days. I don't think you can start too early.

As for the internet, I think very few preschool children would find it easy or even possible to access something truly unsuitable. With different users on a PC, it is pretty easy to set it up so there is very little chance of this. DD has her own profile. She knows how to get onto it. It opens on the CBeebies website and she has bookmarks for Poisson Rouge and Boobah Zone. All pretty harmless. And actually, it is helping her reading/spelling skills a treat. She can recognise the button that says PLAY easily now and type in her own name when prompted. She can even type in Mary Poppins on YouTube and bring up a song or two while she sings along.

Basically, YABU. Used sensibly, the internet is a fantastic thing for preschoolers.

DS is allowed to watch TV sometimes and we do watch the odd silly clip on youtube, but I'd much rather he was doing active stuff.
He takes pictures with the digital camera, but that's an activity rather than being a passive observer.

I can see that the internet is a great source of information for older children, but surely little ones are still getting to grips with hand/eye co-ordination, language and social skills?