3 year old and computer use...

[Picante]

DS will be 4 in April. He has become obsessed with playing games on the laptop. They are all 'safe' games e.g. Cbeebies, Sesame St, and Nick Junior. In my mind they are educational - his hand/eye co-ordination is to my mind pretty amazing, and it's helping him learn letters and numbers.

He's probably on about 2 hours a day. Written down that looks too much. I was wondering what others do? I think it's 'better' for him than TV, but obviously it's still a screen.

I can just see him becoming a geek...!

Thanks spinspin.

Anyone else?

DS1 who is 4.5 spends around an hour a day at the weekend on the computer - mainly on Cbeebies or YouTube watching clips of Ben10 and car racing crashes! Obviously with YouTube one of us has to sit with him to make sure he's clicking on appropriate material.

I too think it's better than watching TV as at least it's a bit interactive ... and anything for a quiet life.

Dd1 has been going on the PC since the age of 2.5, she was reading by 3 years old and typing, she seemed to get a lot out of using it so i never stopped her. She's now 6 and still goes on the pc for around 1 hour a day (not as much as before). She has now discovered the Wii.

I only allow 1 hour a day, about 3 times a week (Wii)
Mine are 6 and 9

I would think 30 mins a day was about right for a 3 year old

I do an hour's "screen time" max for my 3 year old. Nursery said she is behind her peers in ICT - embarrassing since I am on here so much!

My dd will be 4 in Septamber and spends about 1 hour a day (some days more) playing on cbeebies or these godawful japanese hairdresser/ nail salon games on agame.com

She loves doing it and she is asking what words mean and starting to understand things(unless its the bloody japanese ones). I prefer her doing that than watching tv although she does that too.