Comments on: What are good Mac software packages for two year-old?

Question: What are good Mac software packages for two year-old?

daver — Sat, 18 Sep 2004 16:10:38 -0800

AskMacFilter: Ok, so now I've got a viable Imac and a 2.63 year old. What sites/software are going to suit her?

She's seen me use a computer a bit, but hasn't got the hang of keyboarding or mousing yet. Something fun, engaging, entertaining and mouse-training seems like a good first step. We've already plunged into the interactive portion of They Might Be Giant's "No". Good thing I like the cd...

By: majick

majick — Sat, 18 Sep 2004 16:39:40 -0800

BBC Preschool might be a fair place to start. And a couple of the pbskids games are engaging.

By: amberglow

amberglow — Sat, 18 Sep 2004 17:57:29 -0800

there are some good ones here.

(and you can always get a simple freeware drawing program, and sit him/her on your lap and let em play.)

By: joaquim

joaquim — Sat, 18 Sep 2004 18:25:40 -0800

As amberglow suggested, a drawing program is good. You should have Appleworks on the iMac -- it includes a paint program.

By: nathan_teske

nathan_teske — Sat, 18 Sep 2004 18:56:25 -0800

Panic's Desktastic is good for little ones. Let's you draw / scribble / whatever right on your desktop.

By: louigi

louigi — Sat, 18 Sep 2004 19:44:56 -0800

devil's advocate: do you really want to get your child hooked on computers before the age of 3? why drawing programs? why not paper and crayons?

feel free to ignore my comment if it's too snarky...

By: Scoo

Scoo — Sat, 18 Sep 2004 21:22:47 -0800

Try AlphaBaby. My boy didn't really "get" mousing until age 3 or so. He's now 4+ and is really getting good at it. YMMV. When your little bundle of joy is a bit older, Orisinal will delight you both.

I'm inclined to agree with louigi, up to a point; The Crayola OS user experience is vastly superior to both Mac OS X and Windows for drawing/scribbling/mark making. I think "hooked" may be too strong a word for introducing the little ones to computing though. Why not do both?