Learning About Computers

I'm always busy trying to come up with fun unit studies for the kids.  Recently I had an epiphany - why not ask them what they want to learn about?  At the top of E's list was "How does a computer work?", so we decided to find out...



Fortunately, my husband and I are both in the computer industry so it was not hard to find an old computer lying around the house for us to take apart.  I went over the names of the different components and their functions.  Even 3.5 year old H was able to describe in his own words what each part is responsible for.

Later when the kids watched "The Magic School Bus Gets Programmed", they were very excited to be able to recognize the parts of a computer in their show.

We also discussed how computer programs worked and played a game where I was a computer (or robot) and the children had to give me instructions to perform a simple task (like pouring a glass of milk).  They learned quickly that their instructions have to be very specific because computers only do what you tell them.

I gave the twins (age 5.5) a lesson on writing HTML which they loved.  They did all the typing as we made a simple web page with their names on it and then changed the fonts.  We added an image, as well as a button that shows a message (javascript alert) when you click on it.  They caught on easily and it was a great lesson in typing and spelling as well.  The girls were very excited that they had made their own website.  I'll have to come up with some ideas to make this part of our weekly routine.  Maybe I have some future bloggers here!

After lunch when my husband's meeting schedule had slowed down, I took the kids downstairs to the office to learn about the scanner and printer.  I let them put paper in the printer, remove and insert the ink cartridges and use the scanner to make their own matching game.

Apparently learning about computers had a big influence on the kids.  L made her own laptop, and E made her own "working" printer..

We'll definitely be doing more little unit studies based on the children's interests every week.