Kids and Computers at Home
March 1993
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I've been a mother for 19 years and a computer owner for half of that time. I have 4 teenagers, an eight year old and a two year old. We got our first computer in 1983 so two of our kids are younger than our first computer. We still have it. It lives under the table on which our new computer sits.
The computer was a 32K, tape based Tandy Color Computer, later to be referred to as CoCo. I had seen one running a word processor at the TAFE. We had no use for a word processor at the time so bought Maths Bingo as our first program. It was great. For a while. We typed in the programs in the manual and had a lot of fun. For a while.
I pretended to disapprove. I was secretly pleased because he was learning how the program worked. I thought that if I told him how I really felt, he might not want to do it. There would be more fun in doing it if Mum disapproved! There were some games which made the players think. These would not be beneficial to my kids if they didn't play them. The trick was not to let on that I thought they should have a go, I should be playing one of these games when they came home from school. Kids being who they are, usually want to have a go at whatever they see someone else playing. This still works, to some extent, on my eight year old, but not on the teenagers. We don't key in programs any more but I recently caught a glimpse of 'what used to be' when I watched my sister-in-law key her first program into her pocket computer. There can be a lot of satisfaction in getting something to work, and even more in changing it do something a little different. She thought that was the best part too - printing something like "so long, loser!" on the screen at the end of the horse race program. Now that we have an IBM compatible with VGA, we are not satisfied with little BASIC programs. There is so much more available. I have bought quite a few books during the last 19 years. It is usually the story book which gets read and the book with the facts which will be neglected.
Like choosing books and clothes, choosing software is not easy. A trial run might help, but will probably be misleading. The kids might think they want it, and they might think they will use it, until you get it home. Just as they grow out of their clothes and books, they grow out of programs, or simply grow tired of them - sometimes within hours! I bought LOGO for my kids and thought I had a winner when they played with it nearly all weekend for two weekends. They haven't touched it since. That was 1986.
For the home, shareware might be the answer. You can get shareware programs for around $5 per disk and try before you pay more to register. School Mom is a shareware program with a range of activities. I thought MIss Eight would be interested in the programs in the music area. Instead she looked around and started playing a multiple choice quiz on the capitals of the States of America. She was determined to keep going until her score was 100%. She memorised the answers. She knew none of the names of the capitals or the states, but knew which answer to pick for each question. She didn't learn any facts, but it may have been of some use as a memory builder.
Miss Eight wanted to get a high score and she did it. When she was Miss Six or Seven, she wanted to get a high score in another game. It was just a simple on screen maze. She spent quite some time just moving around the maze without actually getting out - just to see the 'score' (number of moves) build up. I have often read that the nasty noises in some programs can damage a child's self esteem. I usually have a quiet little giggle. The nasty noises can actually be fun to kids. Back in 1983 when we played Maths Bingo my kids discovered that it was fun to select wrong answers repeatedly - and drive Mum crazy with the noise!
Kids can be unpredictable. The clothes they simply 'had to have' last month or last year, are probably lying in some dark corner of their rooms while the plainest T-shirt has become a favourite. The book you thought they wanted or needed is probably hidden under those discarded clothes. The computer games which you thought would appeal to them might not be the ones they play. The flavour of the month could be a really impressive game with VGA graphics and beaut sound effects. Next month it might be something which only uses CGA graphics and no sound. When it comes to educational software, remember the theory of relativity: E=mc2 - What a mother considers educational, her children consider square.
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My first experience with computers was during the early seventies. My
brother had a job as a programmer and he brought home some 'work' to
show us. Were these program listings? Fred Flinstone and Bugs Bunny?!
Did that influence my decision in 1983?
In 1983 we heard that the kids of the future would need computers at
home. Computers were virtually an unknown quantity to us, but we decided
that our kids should have one - not to play games, but to learn. We were
not going to play lots of games. Famous last words.
There's a song that goes, "Is that all there is?" That is how we felt
after a few months. We put some life back into our computing by buying
Mega-bug - a pacman type game! It even had speech - when a bug caught
you, you heard "We gotcha!"
Then we found the pot of gold known as Rainbow magazine - full of facts
and BASIC program listings to key in. One of my boys (then aged eight)
loved to fiddle with the programs - he'd try to find things to change so
that he could get more lives and/or a higher score.
I have also bought lots of clothes for my six kids. Occasionally I was
convinced to buy something like an ALF sloppy joe or Bugs Bunny T-shirt.
These do not retain their appeal indefinitely.
If a program is called educational, my kids will generally 'run a mile'.
This wouldn't be so bad if they literally ran a mile - they could do
with the exercise, and I would have more of a chance to use the
computer! Commercial software is too expensive to sit around gathering
dust. At school, the same programs could probably be used and enjoyed as
they don't compete with games. Also, the same age group will be there
again the next year.
