Software for two year olds

March 23, 2005 5:37 AM

Is there some software I can let my 22 month old daughter use and so not screw up my computer?

My 22 month old daughter loves all things computational - at least she comes by it honestly. While nothing is as good as renaming all the desktop icons "Sat9043vnayd", I wondred if there was some sort of software that would makes noises and shapes or colors in response to keypresses. Ideally, it would have child proof locks, ie if I start the program, it wont exit until i do something which a 22 month old would be unlikely to figure out.

Of course, open source preferred and both Mac and PC options would be nice.

posted by shothotbot to computers & internet (13 comments total)

I'm not sure Baby Safe is still fun for a 22-month old, but you can try the free demo.
posted by planetkyoto at 5:56 AM on March 23, 2005

On the Mac your complete solution is AlphaBaby.
posted by nicwolff at 6:02 AM on March 23, 2005

Oh, I didn't realize Baby Safe was for Mac - it looks quite nice as well. But AlphaBaby's free!
posted by nicwolff at 6:04 AM on March 23, 2005

I'd go with "cruft". As in "any leftover computer she can screw up without affecting my own system".

That might be good. An older Mac (OS 9 or under) would be ideal, because short of a hammer there's not much she could do to hurt it permanently.

If that isn't an option (IE, no way to hide your own computer from her little hands) that Baby Safe sounds like exactly what you're looking for, for $20.
posted by caution live frogs at 6:10 AM on March 23, 2005

On a mac, "lock" every folder, just in case she gets to the desktop. Also on a mac create a "user" for her that is very limited...should keep the rest of the computer safe... options for these depend on the os you're using.

Check out Broderbund's children's software (like "Just Grandma and Me")...there are a number of other book related titles as well.. She's at just the right age to start enjoying those...

or, just give her a jar of peanut butter and a bottle of maple syrup, she'll have a ball! :)
posted by HuronBob at 6:20 AM on March 23, 2005

My son liked some of the very simplest games on NickJr's website....he couldn't screw anything greatly up in IE running in kiosk mode...he's 5 now and surfs some websites (BBC kids, Nick Jr) quite comfortably.
posted by mattr at 6:20 AM on March 23, 2005

How about a copy of Knoppix? Boot up the machine in this Linux distribution with the hard drive mounted as read-only (hell, don't even bother mounting it), and your daughter can rename icons to her heart's delight.
posted by bachelor#3 at 6:24 AM on March 23, 2005

OS 10 has fairly strong user support, so as long as you create a limited account for your kid (i.e. one where she's not allowed to change any settings) she should be able to play to her heart's content. That's of course assuming you have a Mac :-) The Mac will also give you the option of limiting the activity in her account to a list of specific applications that are displayed as tiles when she logs in.

WinXP also has a "restricted user" mode, but I haven't tried it out.
posted by clevershark at 6:50 AM on March 23, 2005

And when she's a wee bit older, I very much recommend the online games at uptoten.com. Very interactive, updated often with lots of new games, and ... free.
posted by whatisish at 7:01 AM on March 23, 2005

The games at orisinal are great... bookmark them for later.
posted by odinsdream at 7:10 AM on March 23, 2005

I second bachelor#3 with knoppix. all knoppix distro's run off RAM only so theres no chance of a screwup.

theres a bunch of knoppix base4d distros for all different purposes, including gaming and education. check out this list of linux live cds.
posted by 31d1 at 7:51 AM on March 23, 2005

When my son (who enters high school in the fall) was little, we had "Mickey's ABC's" and "Mickey's 123's". These were simple DOS-based (i.e., pre Windows) PC programs. I don't know if there is something similar out there, but they were pretty good little programs that helped my son learn his numbers and letters. In that age group, you don't what a lot of sophisticated graphics; the simpler the better.
posted by Doohickie at 8:58 AM on March 23, 2005

Protecting the OS and files is not too hard, but a 22 month old can find a lot of ways to screw with the hardware. Eek. Are you sure you want to let her loose with your own system?

Suggestion: go down to your local thrift store and pick her up her own ancient computer for $20 or so, and install whatever kiddie-friendly software it's willing to run (I've found old versions of many a great program at library "book" sales, of all places. People donate that stuff because it's not even worth the eBay fees. The library sells it for a buck. Cool!) Once everything's installed, stash a disk image in a child-safe place. Then introduce her to her very own computer, wheeee! If she accidentally deletes the wrong thing, you've got the disk image for doing a restore. And if she accidentally pours apple juice over the keyboard or breaks pins off a serial port, your productivity is unaffected. :-)
posted by nakedcodemonkey at 3:51 PM on March 23, 2005