Bittersweet News from School by Josh

Doug — Thu, 27 Oct 2005 13:41:01 -0500

My wife and I have been back and forth for years about Microsoft. I made her use Linux as her desktop for several years before we Switched. Even now she wants a copy of MS Office. I keep telling her NeoOffice/J is good enough. Plus, I’ve given enough money to BillG over the years. I’m done with that.

So here’s what she tells me via IM last night:

7:21:30 PM lathigirl: oh I am soooooo laughing
7:22:10 PM lathigirl: Joshua just asked me “at school we have a program called Microsoft Word, can we get that program do we have it?”

Ouch! My own son stabbing me in the back without even thinking about it! Obviously it’s time for me to call home.

One thing I’ve always encouraged in him is imagination. He loves to draw and make “books”. Basically, his books are what’s called “Graphic Novels” today but are probably better known as “Comic Books”. He draws a little and writes a little on every page. I’ve got a nice collection of his books that show his progress. He’s just a couple weeks shy of eight now. I guess he’s been doing this for at least three years.

So he’s pretty excited about MS Word. It lets him write and it “prints like a real book” (his words). He was also excited about clicking on a button to get these pictures he could put in his book. It took him just a little while to remember that it’s called clip art. I admit I was a little surprised when he used that phrase. This is another thing Carla’s pestered me about for years. In her opinion (that of a former elementary school teacher), you can never have enough clip art. So now Josh wants clip art to paste into his books he writes in MS Word.

Of course, clip art looks nice. It’s clean and easily recognizable for what it is. It’s easy to use. On the other hand, I really, really hope he doesn’t give up on drawing just because his pictures don’t look as good as clip art. This may be my excuse to get him a tablet.

I’ve been lax. I haven’t spent much time getting a computer that’s setup for him to use. I have a couple old CRT iMacs that run OS 9. I haven’t made sure they’re in running condition when the kids trash the config. I haven’t been working with Josh to teach him about computers. I’ve been content to just buy them kids games and let them play. Now that he’s wanting to do his book projects on a computer I need to be more involved.

One thing I had been attempting was to teach him to type. He’s been interested in computers for a long time. I figured he was getting old enough to write email or IM or something. I bought him Spongebob Square Pants Typing. He’s played it a little, but didn’t really understand the value of what he was trying to learn. Maybe now it will make more sense to him.

"Bittersweet News from School by Josh" by Phil

Thu, 27 Oct 2005 18:04:27 -0500

I use the excuse “I don’t know how to keep Windows installations secure”, but that only works in a PC household.

That’s kind of scary—I have to hope my son never gets excited about Word. Hopefully it will be extinct by then.

If your family is frustrated with NeoOffice’s speed, you could look into AbiWord—it’s much faster. I don’t know how polished the Mac version is, but the GNOME version is sweet.

@Lathi.net: Bittersweet News from School by Josh

Bittersweet News from School by Josh

"Bittersweet News from School by Josh" by Phil