The Right Time

Sep, 2006

I read a BBC article about what's the best age to introduce your kids to computers and one interested party (spokesman from a kids computer academy) said 18 months because "using the mouse teaches motor skills". Whatever happened to playing with blocks? I'm pretty sure that teaches motor skills. I like Abia and Gigi to read books, ride their bikes and play with people, argue with each other, catch tadpoles, scrape their knees and come home dirty, and exhausted.

I give them no more than an hour a day at the computer. In spite of having several spare computers around, I didn't let them use computers at home till about a year ago.

I remember when Abia was about two, Wa spent hours teaching her to count to ten. In three languages. Meanwhile Abia was so short she was falling off the sofa every time she tried to get down. If she bumped her head, all that counting wasn't gonna do her any good. So I thought her how to get off the sofa safely.

With Gigi, we waited till she was four to teach her to count. It took just a few minutes instead of hours. Because she was four and not two. At four, she also had more use for such a skill than a two year old would. Why waste hours when you can wait two years and do it in minutes?