Children on Computers

I am curious as to how teachers and parents feel about preschool children using computers in school. In my classroom we did not use a computer for a long time. The main reason was that we did not have a computer just for the children. One day I thought that I would try letting some of my older children try playing some games online on the teacher computer. I personally feel like introducing computers for short amounts of time is a good thing. Children are going to be using computers and technology throughout there academic life. The children loved computer time. We would allow them a 15 minute session of a developmentally appropriate game. We eventually made a chart for the children so the would know who had already had a turn for the week and who was next. It all turned out to be a good experience in patience and sharing for the children. They each get 15 minutes a turn once or twice a week.

Some of the sites we use in our classroom are Nick Jr. and PBS .

There are other online games out there but these are two that we trust to be developmentally appropriate and educational.

It is my opinion that computer games are OK appropriate as long as they are not used as a babysitter and are monitored with time limits.