Re: [Slightly OT] Philosophy (was Re: Replacement for Abiword: LyX? Openoffice?)

On Tue, 2003-10-21 at 18:13, Ron Johnson wrote:
> Why expose children to computers at such a young age?  Shouldn't
> they be running and jumping, playing with toys, coloring, cutting,
> riding bike/scooter, etc, instead?

Do you own a television?  That is even more of a passive activity than
computers. :-)

Our children do all of the above, but they developed an interest in
computers, *in addition* to all of that.  I find a lot of intellectual
growth and development takes place when they are able to google a few
key words related to what they are interested in.  Our 5 year old
learned all her letters a couple of years ago as well as much of their
phonetic sounds by constantly playing with L-Letters.  Computers, if
used properly and with proper guidance by parents and caregivers, can be
a fascinating tool that can help children learn more.

We did not "push" it on any of them.  Like Ben said, we'd have had to
keep them in a bubble to avoid exposure to computers.

My 2c
Ariannah
(back to lurking) *squeak*