Message-ID: <530@aluxe.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 21-Nov-84 07:53:52 EST
Article-I.D.: aluxe.530
Posted: Wed Nov 21 07:53:52 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 22-Nov-84 05:43:22 EST
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Allentown, PA
Lines: 48

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You buy alot of software to do things for  your kids on the Atari.
However, you might consider going to the library and getting copies
of Compute or some other magazine that supports Atari.  These 
magazines have alot of low level programs for education.  The fun
thing is to work on the program yourself and have the kid there to
work with you some.  I found that I and my kids have had some good
times doing this.
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I know you didn't ask for advice, but ...

Wait for your son's bar mitzvah to give him computer stuff; let him enjoy
his childhood.
Get him a boxful of puzzles (the old-fashioned wooden kind) better.  He can 
share them with his friends and learn some social skills;  that will serve
him better than the little he'd learn from any 'educational' program.

[Computer literacy is a great big crock, anyway.  By the time your son grows

up enough to really need a computer, it won't look like a computer - if it does
it won't do anything useful.].

I may have flamed a little here, but I am serious in the gist of it.

Thank you for listening.

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My son is 3 like yours (born in 8/81).  He knows the letters
and numbers (from Sesame Street no doubt).

I have Kindercomp and Facemaker from Spinnaker and My
Letters, Words and Numbers from Stone.  Kindercomp is OK,
none of the games are outstanding, but there are 6 of them,
so it's an overall good value.  Facemaker I think is a
little too rigid, but an older child might enjoy the
guessing game part (it's like the game Simon of years gone
by).  MLWN is basically introduction to the keyboard with a
cute animated graphic (one for each letter of the alphabet).
I enjoyed it, but it grew stale fairly quickly, though it
did teach my son the keyboard.

I'd be interested in other replies you get.

Dave Kallman
AT&T Technologies
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