I promised my kid they’d get a laptop when they learn to read well enough.
This turned out to be a good motivator and they can now read full books.
The kid likes competitions and challenges. I would like to come up with tasks they can learn to do with the laptop.
The reason I want my children to have access to a computer specifically, is that while TVs and phones are used to consume, computers are used to create.
I will be installing some Linux flavor on this machine, as it is a bit dated.
I was thinking about things like:
- Write a short story
- Install a graphics editing program
- Draw a picture of a cat
To get them started.
Probably I need some easier ones first.
Scratch (programming suite) or ScratchJR to start
Tobbie2 robot (STEM focus, build the robot and then program the BBC micro:bit board inside)
GCompris - educational games
Anki - flashcard based learning, of many downloadable topics(whatever their interests are)
Ktuberling - Mr Potatohead, scene creator
Powdertoy - Falling sand sandbox physics program. Can be fun(TNT) or serious, plenty of downloadable creations like: nuclear reactor, steam turbine, car(ICE) etc