Toddler-proofing Pcs

A little googling found Toddler Keys 0.97. It's free and you can find it at this web site:

http://www.download.com/Toddler-Keys/3000-2132_4-10305344...

I have not personally used it but it looks a lot like the mac program you were talking about. I do believe I'm going to go download it because my 14 month old has always insisted on hitting the keys. She has used more random short-cuts then I never knew exisited.

Good luck!

*update*

I downloaded the program and my little one loves it! You get to pick your own sounds and pictures so I picked a whole bunch of pictures of her. When she hits the keys, turns the mouse wheel, or clicks the mouse a picture pops up of her. When she moves the mouse around it draws with a little mulitcolored line. She thinks it is just so great! She also can't turn the computer off or open the driver doors with this program. I'd recommend it!

its perfectly normal for kids to do that. they are just exploring things.I have a 2 and 1/2 year old who always messes around with the key board. One idea is to keep the computer room locked. If that is not possible, I had seen a computer game with a key board for the kids and that key board can go right on our key board. Check out the toys r us please.
T.

When I'm away from my computer, I lock it (Windows key, L). Then I have to enter my login password to get it to come back up. (I have Windows XP, but the other Windows versions should do it, too.) That keeps my little ones from messing anything up. You can also set your screensaver to automatically lock the computer after a certain amount of time, in case you forget to do it yourself. You can also create additional logins on the computer so your toddler can have his own login. Then he won't have access to your files at all. My children have all been quite good at the computer by age 2 or 3. They even learn to navigate to their favorite sites on the Internet (from the Favorites list) and play independently even before they can read. It's called environmental reading and is a good developmental step towards actual reading. There are some great websites you can subscribe to if you don't want to buy software. www.noggin.com and www.preschooltime.com are really good and track your child's progress and tailor the programs to them as they go. There are also free sites that are great. www.nickjr.com, www.pbs.org, www.noggin.com, www.playhousedisney.com, etc. As long as he's not on the computer so much that it is causing eye strain or attention deficit issues or keeping him from doing normal toddler things, I think it is fine.

hi,
a little off the main question , but i have a suggestion for you. i bought my daughter the leap frog click start first computer...it is an actual keyboard, that you hook up to a tv...so i hooked it up to a small portable tv that we used to use for videos in the car, and made a little desk area for her so that she has her "own computer"...it has great games, a real working mouse, and actually teaches them how to use it and the keyboard...it definitely buys me time to get on my computer without her trying to touch everything. try it out...

I cannot be of help as to a certain program to lock down the computer but my son is curious too especially when he sees us using the computer. As the others were saying, I give him some time on it. He absolutely loves fisher-price.com. There is a tab for online games and it has an infant & toddler section but my son loves the infant abc game because you can push any button and it goes through the alphabet. He plays it like 3-4 times in a row and he does end up pushing the alt button which makes the file button highlight. He has never done any damagae but sometimes it just closes the browser or just makes a menu come up over his game in which he freaks out. Please let me know if you find out about any software. Hope that helps.

I have been a teacher of many ages and run a daycare center and we have children use computers at all ages. Leapfrog has computer starting at 1 year. My neighbors have twins and bought both of them battery computers this Christmas and they are practically indestructible. Try that route and he might leave yours alone he can carry these around. Try Sunshine publishes, I believe, or search Amazon for any young software. The large pictures are great fun.
C. mother of 4 and they all used computers

I wouldn't bother with the special keyboard or even special software. So many of those Leapfrog (and similar) games and toys and very close-ended and do nothing to foster imaginative play. "Press the Square! No, try again. No, try again. Good job!" Assuming you're going to be sitting with him anyway, (and you'll probably need to to keep him from hitting the power switch), you can do far more interesting things with no extra software.

It's far better (and far cheaper) to pull up a simple paint or drawing program and let him help with the mouse. And if you want to do shapes, you can make shapes easily enough, or lines, brush strokes, colors, etc. Or go to google and hit the "images" button and search for pictures of baby animals. That was big in our family. "What does a baby possum look like?" "Well, let's go find out."

When he's a little older, you can use an editor to type in individual letters, make them bigger or smaller, change the colors and the font slightly, so he'll see that they sometimes look a little different.

When he's old enough to make up little stories (maybe about imaginary friends), you can type what he dictates to you, and then read it back to him. That really amazed my boy when he was about 2. He could write his own stories!

Now at 4, he can log on to the computer, click on a number of icons on the desktop so the browser will come up to the website for Caillou, Noggin, Starfall, PBSkids, etc. now he can amuse himself long enough for me to get the baby asleep.

(BTW, some of these ideas I got from books like "Baby Minds" and "What's Going on in There?" about how babies and young children learn.)

Hi,

Both of my kids loved the computer at that age. It helped when I set aside sometime to work with them on the computer. Reader rabit and play time for baby. These were great! There is also a toddler key board that keeps them from actually hitting the wrong keys. If you don't want to go that route you can invest in a toddler computer or unplug your keyboard after each use.

I don't know about software, but we use www.kneebouncers.com for our 2 year old every now and then. She liked it when she was younger too. :-)

I don't know anything about proofing the PC's. But I just don't worry about it that much because I can fix any problems.

Also, we do allow our toddler on the PC. I have several toddler software programs. She loves it. She gets her time on it as well. Of course it's not that much, but she does get her time on that (it reacts to almost any key pressed on the keyboard) and on fisherprice.com.

Hi A.!

My 2 year old also had to have his hands on our computers. So, I bought him the Leap Frog Clickstart Keyboard. It's a wireless keyboard that interacts with a modem hooked to your tv. Entry level games teach them letters, numbers, how to use a mouse, etc. It even sets up an "email" account so that parents can send them messages. He LOVES it. It's "Will's 'puter." Now, he leaves our other ones alone because he has his own! It costs around $50 and worth every penny. You can get it at Walmart, Target, or Toys-R-Us.

Wow! I am having the same problem only my daughter is over two now. I am looking forward to reading responses but I just have to say that when our old keyboard and mouse broke almost at the same time we gave them to our dd and she loves them. I think it helps curb some of that curiosity that she feels when she can't touch the real not broken keyboard

There is a computer software game (though the name escapes me) I think it is BAby giggles or something I got this from Target. This you can set as a screen saver and it is a game that pops up. It locks out everything else until you find the quit button which is hard for toddlers to find.

This worked for my son and still does.