Ben gets it!

I remember the day when my daughter *clicked* with the computer. The day that she began to see the computer. The day that not realizing what she was doing, her hand-eye coordination with the screen and mouse opened a new world. Her frustration with my teaching stopped. She began to interact with the computer and she began to experiment with GUI objects on our old Mac LCIII running OS7. She fell into a groove. It was the day that my frustration ended and the guidance began. She was home sick that day. She was 3-years-old. Today, I had the same experience with my son, Ben.

Ben is 6-years-old. Before today he was a frustrated, keyboard pounding kid who did not *click* with the whole computer thing. He had the same frustration that some have with learning a new skill. His came today. He was given an older PC that is on its third hand-me-down. From me to Elizabeth and now to Ben. The computer is dreadfully obsolete. A 1.3Ghz P4 with 378MB of RAM and a 15″ CRT monitor. It has a fresh XP3 update and a connection to the home network. I bought him a new $10 keyboard and mouse. Today was the day. It was of all things, a Disney web service named Club Penguin, that did it.

This is Ben playing the ‘DJ’ to earn tokens that will later allow him to upgrade the igloo that his penguin and puffle live. I had to snap a b/w of him grooving the music. He gets it. He got it. Good!