But the main thing my daughter likes to do (On my Commodore 64) is
type. Yep. This sounds strange. She is 3 years and 3 months.. So
barely over 3 years. She has been learning her ABC's at daycare. I've
been working with her for 4 months trying to help her write letters
with a dry-erase pen in this special learning book where they can trace
the letters. She still can't do it. She doesn't have the fine motor
skills in her hands and fingers yet. But she can tell me what letters
are by looking at flash-cards. One day she asked to type on my
Commodore 64. So, I let her. She learned how to use the arrow keys
(unlike an Apple II, where in BASIC you can't easily cursor around the
screen) and the backspace key. She did this for a few days in a row.
Then she said "I'm going to type my name." I said, "okay, type your
name." And she did it! Well, almost. So I started helping her with
this and making daily typing sessions with her. In the last week she
has learned to type her name perfectly, on her own, and type Cookie and
Cat, and a few others. It occurred to me that typing is actully easier
for a toddler to learn than writing. It requires less motor skills and
only requires that they recognize the letter, they don't have to be
able to form it from memory.