Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Laptop for Kids

Product: Laptop for Kids
Age: 4 and above (might be interesting for smaller ones also, but full potential can be realised by this age group)
Features: Informative and educational, similarity to its original counterpart

The more the options in the toy, the more it will be put to use by the kid. The exploring nature of kids is well utilized by some toys by way of creating lot of options worth exploration for a kid. This laptop is one such toy which has a good educational value. This laptop is very much similar to its real counterpart.

It contains a main unit and a mouse
The opening action is quite similar to any other laptops. The press switch is very simple to operate. Once opened also you will see quite a resemeblance to the other laptops
Now have a close up view of the display.Only the centre portion of the display is the area where display is updated. It is a black and white display only. The other portions contains stickers which contians the option numbers to be typed for getting to that screen. From the screen you can see that there are 36 different options grouped under four major titles viz Vocabulary/Grammar, Mathematics, Music/Drawing and Games.
Selection of these options by the usage of the keyboard.
From the picture we can see that it is a "QWERTY" keyboard. So once kids are used to this they get quite familiar with the normal computer keyboards.

The vocabulary/grammar and Mathematics section contains questions related to basic English vocabulary/grammar and fundamental maths only. To make the question and answering interesting, images are shown and if the answers are right there is a good audible word of encouragement followed by a round of applause which the kids will appreciate. Also while doing this the keyboard familiarity automatically increases. We can see what is covered in each of these topics in the close up view of the display above.
The music/drawing and games section also contians some interesting things which are of interest to the kids.
Once the kid understands the basic operations leave the kid alone with the laptop. Never try to teach him how to play/use, after selecting each of the options. Let him explore and find out how to play. If he cannot play or use any of the screen let it be like that, coz if you are not helping, then you can see that he will try to learn it as he grows up a little bit more bigger. That means the interest can be sustained a little bit longer.
No guidance means, the explorative nature of kid is not hampered with. Otherwise after selecting each option they will come to the parents and ask them how to play. In this case the kid will soon lose interest in this.
See this laptop in action.

Pros
  • A whole range of options
  • QWERTY key board
  • Educational value
  • Proximity to its original counterpartBattery life

Cons

  • Not so rugged
  • Display is not colorful
The wide range of options in this educational toy is sure to sustain its interest for a prolonged period provided parental intervention and support is minimal.

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