Dear Harish,
Welcome! Thanks for your kind words, compliments and interest.
As a preface, I'd like to say, I trust you have installed the "Squeakland" version of Squeak found from the www.squeakland.org website (as opposed to the download found at "Squeak.org") as most "etoy documentation" as been written with this version as its premise.
Then, I refer you to the "Kids Play" section of the squeakland.org website and the tutorials that can be found in that section. There are many examples in the "Etoys" section that should give you ideas about possibilities. Also be sure to look at the "links" in the communities section to see what others have done.
I am curious to know what book you found at your local library...??? The "Powerful Ideas in the Classroom" book was written with younger children in mind. The book is available from the Squeakland website as well as amazon.com.
Your 5 year old will likely require a bit more help from you -- using Squeak as "lapware" with you will probably be most worthwhile. You might find some of the buttons, menus, etc. a bit small for a younger child's hands and coordination, as the "Etoy interface" was designed with a bit older child in mind.
We look forward to your continued participation on the Squeakland mailing list and your sharing your activities and creations with us.
have fun!
regards, Kim
At 12:31 AM +0800 10/31/05, Harish Pillay wrote:
Hi. I am taking the forthcoming school holidays here in Singapore to get my two sons (Ajay 7 and Amrish 5) to get to use Squeak. They have it installed in two machines - one Red Hat Desktop 4 and the other Fedora Core 3.
All is well and I have just gotten the Squeak book from the local library.
I am sure this has been asked before (I have not searched the archives of this list), but what would be a good set of 2 or 3 things that I can get them to do? There is a tutorial about the car and have explored most of what looks obvious to me. My sons have also explored quite a but of squeak (they like the piano keyboard and blob objects).
Appreciate any pointers.
Thanks.
Harish PS: My sincere thanks to all those who have helped create Squeak. I would like to contribute and am hoping to get this work with my sons as a time to gather materials and suggestions so that I can do a writeup.
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