Re: [TCLUG:5090] Linux and Kids

[Brady Hegberg <bradyh@bitstream.net>]

My 18 month old daughter loves a Windows game called "Jumpstart 
Toddler".  Essentially it lets you do everything by hitting any key.  She 
hasn't quite figured out the mouse yet but she can sure hit keys.  The game 
does relatively sophisticated animations and music when keys are hit.  I 
wish there was such a thing for Linux but I guess at this point that's 
asking alot.  Maybe once Macromedia gets on the ball...

The thing I find amazing is that she's able to run the game on her own, she 
opens and closes the CD drawer and autoplay takes over from there.  She has 
to hit enter to get by the splash screen and sometimes that takes her 
awhile.  The hardest part for her is climbing up on the chair so she can 
reach the keyboard.

I wonder if it's a good thing or a bad thing that Linux isn't as usable as 
Windows to < 2 yr-olds?  On the other hand she crashes Windows 98 alot, 
apparently by hitting strange combinations of keyboard characters.  So far 
she's never managed to crash the Linux machine.  (Even when it's logged in 
as root.  Yeah I know letting a toddler fool around as root is pretty 
crazy...but hey...)


>The birth annoucement on the list got me thinking about my kids and their
>relationship with Linux.  Anyone wanna share any others?
>
>When Ted (my oldest son) was about 3, he was nutz for Batman.  I had a
>WYSE 185 dumb terminal setup in my living room.  In my last and adventure
>in ASCII art, I made him a bat and put it into that terminal's /etc/issue.
>He was old enough to know how to turn the terminal on and check out the
>cool bat.  He loved it.
>
>Now Ted likes playing the KDE version of asteroids as well as the GNOME
>diamonds game (forgot the name).
>
>Can't wait until the kids are old enough to show me their latest creations
>from the GIMP... :)
>
>--
>Tom Cross                     Voice: 320-253-1020    FAX: 320-253-6956
>System Administrator                          E-mail: tomc@kendeco.com
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