When to start??

When to start??
(January 2010)

So Paul and I have found ourselves with a little bit of a dilemma. My house is a haven for anything technology. I myself was a computer/networking and web design teacher for almost 10 years. My husband works in the technology industry as well. Some people will even call me a "gadget queen" so it isn't a surprise that Jacob has started to notice all of the technology in our home and wants to use it.

TV is a big part of my life, I am sorry to say that I love to watch TV. But other than a few months after Andrew was born, I try very hard to stick to a schedule with Jacob so that his TV watching is limited. So I am not really worried about TV. What I am worried about is computer games. I obviously blog and have email that I like to check, I also like to keep up to speed with things going on in the world. Recently Jacob has been interested in my laptop so I have tried to find a few "toddler friendly" websites out there to help him with his ABC's and 123's as well as colors and shapes. There is a website called "Zoodles" that is great. It goes out and searches the internet for you and finds games based on your childs age and compiles them in an easy to use and AD FREE environment. Jacob loves to play along with me and is doing great with the matching and colors/shape games.

My dilemma is that now that is ALL he wants to do. I know that this will be a phase, like most things with him. He tends to play the heck out of things for awhile and them will drop them like yesterdays news the next. So I am not really worried about this being a long term problem, I just worry that I shouldn't have introduced it so soon. When should you start learning games online?? Since he is only sitting behind a computer screen for educational purposes maybe 30-45 minutes a day is that OK?? I guess each parent will probably answer this differently...I am sure I could have some parents that are hardcore NO tv or computer , and some that are like me and think "everything in moderation"......

But like most parents of first borns you have trial and error, if it turns out that this was a HORRIBLE mistake, the spring is just around the corner and Jacob will be outside 80% of his day so I will slowly die off like everything else he obsesses over!