Tuesday, October 25, 2005
A Child's View
Nicholas has recently discovered our [crappy] digital camera. He asked me to show him how to take a picture, so I did. And oh boy, was that the start of a new obsession for him! He loves loves LOVES to take pictures now. Of EVERYTHING. But even more fun than taking the pictures? Downloading the pictures on the computer. It's sheer heaven for him. If I've not mentioned it before, the computer is Nicholas's special skill. He's freaky-good at it. Since the age of 2 he's been able to operate the mouse with one hand, pointing and clicking like a seasoned pro. A few months ago he mastered the ctrl-alt-del 3-key combo, without our showing him, so he could log onto the computer by himself (it was our fail-safe so he couldn't get on the computer without us knowing about it. Not anymore!). And now he's figured out how to add websites to his "favorites" on his own, too. He's even started asking me to write down the words of things that might have a website with games on them so he can type them into the computer and surf their site (example: RedRobin.com - that was the most recent one) He's taken books or movies he likes and typed in their names (The Incredibles, Shark Tale, Bambi, etc). He launches browsers, carefully types in the words, and sees what comes up. If there are games on the site he knows how to right-click and add it to his folder within the favorites list. Everyday he asks to play on the computer and he could easily spend a couple of hours on it if I let him. His newest trick is figuring out how to download free trials of games (nickjr.com has these). Yeah, he does that without us. So it only took me one time of hooking up the cable to the camera and downloading the pictures to the computer for him to try to do it himself. And he did pretty good! He got the cable hooked up, got the pictures to show in thumbnail, but got frustrated trying to actually save each picture on the desktop. He got one, but then got stuck. Not bad, huh? Yeah, he's good. He takes the pictures just to see them on the beloved computer. And he MUST look at every picture (on the camera) immediately after taking it. For a few days I've let him take as many pictures as he wants (despite the fact that our old-ass camera only holds about 25 hi-res pictures. I already mentioned it was crappy, right?). I think he's taken over 75 photos of the most random shit ever before I called "uncle! Enough!". But a few of them are interesting. I've enjoyed seeing his world through his eyes and his perspective. I've made a couple of collages of the better pictures - I hope you can see them well enough.
This is how my 4 year old son sees his world:
L-R: coffee pot, electronic game (carefully placed for this picture), his closet with all his games out of his reach, our cuddle chair, me crocheting, his recipe for "sport candy" (aka chopped apples, nuts and cinnamon), stereo, calendar on fridge, dining room, magnetic alphabet, TV, vacuum.
More of Nick's pics (L-R): printer (which he longs to use), my shoes & fuzzy green slippers, the slide in his room, LeapPad game, kid portraits that hang in our hallway, yarn, our family portrait from a year ago, Abby our dog, MagnaDoodle, my crochet up close, me - again in the same chair in my pj's, Mr. Chick's Business Weeks
For those of you with preschoolers, give them a camera and see what they see. It may surprise you!
This is how my 4 year old son sees his world:
L-R: coffee pot, electronic game (carefully placed for this picture), his closet with all his games out of his reach, our cuddle chair, me crocheting, his recipe for "sport candy" (aka chopped apples, nuts and cinnamon), stereo, calendar on fridge, dining room, magnetic alphabet, TV, vacuum.
More of Nick's pics (L-R): printer (which he longs to use), my shoes & fuzzy green slippers, the slide in his room, LeapPad game, kid portraits that hang in our hallway, yarn, our family portrait from a year ago, Abby our dog, MagnaDoodle, my crochet up close, me - again in the same chair in my pj's, Mr. Chick's Business Weeks
For those of you with preschoolers, give them a camera and see what they see. It may surprise you!
// posted by MP @ 8:43 AM 
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