| Toys
Become Computers, But Giving Continues |
| My, how toys have changes since I was a boy. |
| The Observer last week officially launched its 2007 toy
drive to benefit LINK, and already the donations have started
to come in. On Wednesday, a reader stopped by with his donation
of a "Nitro Notebook," a laptop computer designed specifically
for children as young as five. |
| I remember using my first computer when I was 15 years old
back in the dark ages when floppy disks were large, and they
actually flopped when you waved them around. It took so many
keyboard strokes to accomplish anything that playing games
was probably more work than it was worth. |
| Now come computers for children only five years old, and
from the looks of it, this one's almost as impressive as a
fully-capable laptop. It's got a regular-looking laptop keyboard,
speakers, a mouse and a lift-open screen. |
| This thing teachers Spanish, math, social studies, language
skills, reading and art and music, according to the box. "Chart
your A+ potential with the Progress Report" is written on
the box. |
| The screen is a simple, gray-and-green LCD screen that looks
a bit left-over in the new age of high-definition TV and glossy,
bright, full-color computer screens, but it does the trick
to present the simple games that supposedly teach children
the skills listed on the box. |
| I don't know how much this particular computer will help
students, but I find it interesting that these are the skills
we are interested in teaching our children at a very early
age. |
| My daughter received a "Webkin" toy for her birthday. It's
a little toy puppy dog that comes with its own online universe.
Children go online to build a cozy room, with furniture, food
and entertainment, for their virtual pet. They can hook up
with their friends and play in a Web-based world, all beginning
at five years old. |
| I don't really have any expectations that my daughter will
be surfing the Internet at this age, but when we visited relatives
for Thanksgiving we found that Audrey's cousin already has
her own computer, and she knows how to access her favorite
Web sites without help from her parents. |
| Her father is a software engineer, so it makes sense that
if anyone can teach a five-year-old to use a computer it would
be him, but I still think it's amazing that my daughter's
generation will be raised with a more intimate relationship
to computers and technology than any other generation. |
| These kids are already going to grow up in a world in which
everybody has always had a phone in their pocket, and phones
were never connected by wires. They will be raised in a world
in which nobody ever had to walk across the room to change
the TV station, and in which printing a photograph you just
took with your camera on a printer in your own home has always
been the norm. |
| Even so, it's good to know children can get as much enjoyment
out of a non-battery-powered toy as I used to when I was a
kid. Give them a ball, a doll, a board game, some dress-up
clothes, a few blocks. My daughter is growing a little older,
but my son is still young enough to get as much enjoyment
out of the packaging materials as the gift itself. |
| This year, please join The Observer in collecting toys for
the benefit of those families who are less fortunate this
holiday season. We only have two weeks until the toys are
distributed for the holiday, so please make your purchases
and drop them off at our offices as soon as you can. |
| It's easy to pick up a toy or two for donation to charity
while out shopping, and even if you are not able to purchase
a toy for donation, we will gladly accept cash donations for
LINK as well. Last year, we combined collected cash donations
with some of our own and purchased more than $700 worth of
toys for the program. Details about this year's toy drive
are on Page 6. |
| Thank you for your support. |
