computer for a nearly six years old?

[shebbo]

hi everyone,
I have a dd who is going to be 6 soon.
I am thinking of getting a computer for her but I have some hesitations about it:

• is it early for her to have computer? do yr similar age dc have computer at home?
• I know they use computer at school so maybe not early and i know they play some games on it, and so if i get one for her what software we must have in it thinking she would be able to use it at least during primary school period?
• can we use it for education purposes too?
• do your dc use them appropriately so it doesnt get broken often?
• and finally which make and software and where to get it from do you suggest?

Advices will be really, really appreciated, thank you very much.

Hi shebbo, dd (5) hasn't got her own pc yet, but she uses ours to play games on nickjr. We also got her some educational games at PC world in prep for Year 1 and she gets on with them ok. She's known how to use a mouse properly for years

We will be moving soon and then she'll get her own pc - that's part of the bargain to make the move away from her little friends sweeter

Advice for that is ... keep it basic, only give her a user account so she can't install or uninstall things, if you hook it up to the internet set parental controls. We'll limit her to access only a few sites like nickjr, cbeebies and the like. Also get one of the smaller mice depending how large your dd's hands are, makes handling the mouse easier.

DD is already using a pc at school. She's in reception. And she also did in nursery. Only for basic matching games and colouring but it's a start

HTH

thank you very much MrsBigD for yr advices.
-do you have any idea how much can it cost roughly to get one? I want to make a market research but I am not thinking of contacting pcworld etc (maybe I am wrong) because I think we will need to make a network connection with mine and we will need somebody to do it. I dont think pc world will do this for us (maybe I am wrong), so I will look around smaller shops I guess, what do you think?

as for cost I'd have to check with dh he's the computer expert

Wouldn't buy from PC world either. Just get a basic model from dell. As for networking it with your existing one that's pretty easy, all you need is a hub or switch and Cat5 cables, give the pc's ip addresses in the same network as your router, enable network sharing on the main workstation depending on the OS you have and off you go .

Where are you roughly based? I'm sure if you post on mn with a cry for help there's bound to be a tech somewhere not too far away

Hi My kids have had a computer for a year or so (now age 5 and 4). They have educational stuff (reader rabbit etc) and use a paint program, plus word and Cbeebies website.

It is our old computer - an HP - (upgraded last week )so about 3 yrs old now and is networked to ours through a wireless router

Both love using it and are learning mouse control etc They are very careful with it an know how to switch it on, load CD's etc and how to look after it and the flat screen monitor they have.

could she not just use your computer at home?

could she not just use your computer at home?

MrsBigD,
We live around North London.
the thing with net working is I dont want to share my hard disk with her's, because she can mess it up.
we will connect from the same physical plug, but i dont know how will the double route connection will be done.
and also we can share the printer, but nothing else i think.
a friend of mine offered it for around 400 (software, hardware, connections, maintenance everything included- and i bought mine from him, too).
i dont know if its high, but i havent bought any other games, gameboy, nintendo such stuff, so instead of them i am thinking of inventing for a computer for her.
do you think i am right?

MrsBigD,
We live around North London.
the thing with net working is I dont want to share my hard disk with her's, because she can mess it up.
we will connect from the same physical plug, but i dont know how will the double route connection will be done.
and also we can share the printer, but nothing else i think.
a friend of mine offered it for around 400 (software, hardware, connections, maintenance everything included- and i bought mine from him, too).
i dont know if its high, but i havent bought any other games, gameboy, nintendo such stuff, so instead of them i am thinking of inventing for a computer for her.
do you think i am right?

shebbo your friend sounds quite reasonable If your dd has her own pc even when networked there is no reason why she should be sharing your harddrive unless you share a drive she won't have access/be able to browse to it

hi mysonsmummy,
i dont think I can share the computer with her, she can mess up the hard drive, she can do anything to it, and when i need it urgent I wont be able to use it.
she doesnt have other such games, etc so I am thinking of getting her computer instead of them, then we will be able to download games, or she can play online games maybe i dont know and we can use it for education purposes too.

I share my computer with my 4 DC's and they are fine with it (we do have another one but its slower!) The only person who ever does anything like delete files, installs virus's etc is my DH!

I have always told my kids if it requires a button to click check with mummy first and they are excellent they all know about web safety etc.

my 6 yo loves it.

My Brother is my "expert" and he agrees with the op about going direct to Dell. Tell them what you want it for & see what they can some up with.

the cbeebies website is really good and has games that are good for 6 year olds, the jackanory junior section seems good. My daughter uses my PC and has never damaged the hard drive in any way.

I don't personally think a 5/6 yr old needs their own computer.

My 2 oldest DC use mine with supervision. They know to check with me befoe opening anything etc.

There shouldn't be any problem over children messing up a computer. The best thing is to supervise computer access anyway, I would never let a young child have internet access unsupervised which you seem to be suggesting.

If you really don't want to supervise all the time, it is really easy to set up a computer with different profiles so a user only has access to certain things so can't trash any important stuff.

ds 5 uses mine lots to play games etc. we've never had a problem but i have taught him to wait for it to catch up and not to keep clicking. our is a new DELL computer. i took out extra 3 years complete cover as i knew ds would be using it - its never even frooze when hes been on it. saying that i only use the computer for personal reasons if it was needed for other stuff then not sure id be too happy him messing about on it.

I think 6 is to young to have a computer of their own. Is she able to use youe home one?
We have 2 computers in our house one is mainly for my husband for his work and the other one is a family one. My eldest is 19 and she had her own laptop( we actually got it free through my DH's work) when she started 6th form to help with her A level work and dd2 17 now has her own laptop to help with her college work. They were both fine with the family onr before that age.

DS at 5 gets controlled computer access, including not being allowed too much time on it. He's now an informal classroom assistant in the ICT class

At 5/6 a good educational tool is instant messaging, like google talk.
DC gets to compose messages which you can respond to. If one parent is at work them mailing back and forth messages can be quite fun.
I've also developed a game we call "Spy", where DS takes on missions to take pictures of stuff and mail it to me.
Easy to do with mail, he gets clues of the form
find something that is made of wood and begins with "c".

we bought a macmini for our 2 boys - less vulnerable to attack.

It has 3 profiles on it - dh's which has control of everything
mine - not sure what I can do - why buy a dog and bark yourself?

and the boys - their access is restricted and they can't get to any of the operating systems etc

and it's in my kitchen so I can a) see what they are doing and b) use it to mumsnet whilst cooking

Our children use our pc at home. Including our 3yo who happily plays on nickjr amongst other things. We don't have any problems with the younger children accessing things as they know to ask before they press if something unfamiliar comes up. It's the teenagers who think they know everything that we have had an occasional problem with.