Home » Education & Career » Teaching Computer Skills » Start With The Very Basics....

Start With The Very Basics....

© Cheryl Lewis

When you decide that it is time to start teaching your child how to use the computer you wonder where to start. I remember quaking in my house shoes when my kids started begging me to use the computer. I told them to give me a day or two to think about it and figure out how to go about this. I decided that the first thing I needed to start with was the proper way to turn the computer on and off. I know this sounds like it is to basic but you must remember that at one time you didn't know how to use your computer either. If you can't properly boot up the computer you can't use it at all. Start with the computer turned off. Make sure that both you and your child are seated at the computer and you have time to spend with them. Show them where to turn the computer and the monitor on. If you turn your printer off you should show them how to turn this on too. Show them the mouse. Let them pick it up and look underneath so they know what is moving the icon around. Tell them which button they will need to use in order to click on the icons. At this point I would just tell them not to click on the other button on the mouse. Tell them if they do that it is ok it won't hurt the computer but that they should not use any of these items on the pop-up menu.

Now that they are familiar with the different buttons and tools let them turn the computer on and see what happens. With the Windows 95/98 program you will get a little box that asks for a password. Have them use the mouse to move on to the box that says cancel and click it. When it is finished booting up move on to the Start menu. Have them click on this and show them the different programs available for them to use. I recommend you start with the Word program so that they can use the keyboard and get a feel for the different buttons on the keyboard and what they do. Keep in mind that these things are not just common sense to them so you will need to talk a little about the different alphabet keys, Caps Lock, Shift, Delete, Space bar, Enter, and the arrow keys. Keep it simple for now. Once you are into Word let them do some basic typing in order to use the keys you just talked about. At this point I would not get into any of the extras that the Word program offers. To much information at one time may cause overload and cause them to forget what you have just shown them. Show them how to close out the Word program properly.

The copyright of the article Start With The Very Basics.... in Teaching Computer Skills is owned by . Permission to republish Start With The Very Basics.... in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.