more on preschoolers

[Kathryn Boyle <boyle@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi

I really like what Chuck Friesen wrote in the forum about preschoolers. 
 It is often good to keep you goals clear.  At this level you are not 
trying to create programmers, but thinkers.  You are giving lots of 
experiences that the children will build on later.

As to keyboarding skills, it does take patience on the part of the 
teacher, but I've found that children love to type and they really like 
to type numbers.  I do 2 things to help here.  I usually point out the 
row that a letter is in, so that the search for a letter is more 
limited.  I also often use it as a way of using left and right:  "It's 
in this row, way on the left." and I point to the row.  I often use one 
hand to point to the row and another to point to where I have written 
the letter, so they can remember what the letter looks like that they 
are searching for.  This is also practice in skills they will need 
later in reading, writing and copying down.  I have found that often 
young children will hold down a key for long enough to get the keyboard 
to repeat and type more than one of the letter -  sometimes a whole row 
of that letter.  They are particularly likely to do this, at first, if 
they are typing more than one letter.  They hold down the first letter 
while they are searching for the next.  This is easily solved by going 
into the controls panels for your computer and turning off the repeat 
function of your keyboard.  I introduce the delete key early.  It is 
the key that tells the cursor it can "eat" the letter.  The cursor 
loves to eat letters, much the way Cookie Monster on Sesame St loves 
cookies, but it is very polite.  It only eats what and when you tell it 
to.  So if you push the "gobble" (delete) key, it will happily eat the 
letter you don't want.  "yum, thank you".

Mouse skills are often harder than you might think and there is a wide 
variety among small children.  I can always spot the children who do a 
lot of computer work at home.   They are really smooth with the mouse 
and with clicking.  It is often hard for a children to point accurately 
and it seems to be very hard for some children to find just the right 
way to click.  They often hold down the button just a little too long.  
I will talk about doing a short "tap".  If you need to double click, I 
find that young children often move the mouse between clicks and then 
the computer does not interpret it as a double click.   I often talk 
about it as knocking on something and I'll tap out the rhythm on the 
table.  All of these are skills a child needs.  To avoid doing it 
because it is hard, is to cheat them of the practice they need to 
develop.  This requires time and patience, but that's the territory 
when dealing with children.  You need lots of both.

Single key stoke versions of Logo are fine, but I wouldn't take away 
numbers from children.  This is a wonderful place to explore numbers.  
Children love to fill the screen with lots of colorful lines.  Yes, we 
get a little bored with them choosing 9999, but they do it for a 
reason.  They are satisfying that need to explore large numbers.  They 
can't hold 9999 buttons or beans. They can't ask us to give them 9999 
cookies.  But they can get the turtle to take 9999 steps.  How powerful 
that makes them feel.  They love to see the turtle take just one step, 
also.  "Wow, I can hardly see it!"  After they have learned to create 
some shape, they love to see big and little versions of it.  Again, 
keep your goals clear.  We are allowing children to explore math.  
Don't forget that Papert's goal was to give children tools to think 
with.  He wasn't really trying to create a generation of programmers.  
He was creating thinkers and problem solvers.   These early 
explorations give students the framework to think about and solve the 
bigger problems they will encounter later.

I build a picture dictionary, as I teach new words to children.  So, 
for example, when I introduce fd and bk, I draw a picture of a turtle 
with legs and feet, wearing a cap and carrying a walking stick (which 
draws, of course).  On either side of him I write FD_# and BK_# and I 
also draw a turtle made out of a small half circle for the head and a 
larger one for the body, with an arrow either going fd or bk.  I wish I 
could draw it for you.  But, what I really wanted to point out is my 
use of the "_" for  a space.  When I first start to learn programming, 
I would get very frustrated at trying to figure out if where I should 
put spaces -  and in a compiled language the frustration is doubled.  
So, I always draw a line to represent a space.  I also introduce the # 
symbol.

I have to get back to the real world.

Happy exploring!  Kathy, Londonderry Private School, Harrisburg, PA