Ask Linsey: Beth in Chicago

Q: I love all the websites suggested to my family in the Glubble library collections, but some aren’t age-appropriate for my youngest children? How can I be sure that they aren’t accessing websites intended for the older siblings? (Beth in Chicago)

Great news! Glubble now allows parents to customize the collection of websites for each user! That means that your children can have a completely different set of websites available to each of them, based on their age and computer-literacy level.

A good way to determine if a website is going to help or hinder your child’s computer experience is to let them try it. Take some time at the beginning of your Glubble set up to browse each website alone. Remove any sites that you are certain wouldn’t be a good fit for that child.

Later, when you child is available, sit down together and try a few games and activities at each site. Ask questions of your child to see what their experience is:
• Are the games too difficult?
• Are the navigational links easy to find and click?
• Do they enjoy the activities at each particular site?
• What features do they enjoy the most? The least?
Use your child’s feedback to determine if each site is worthy of being included in that child’s personalized collection.

It may take some time to initially develop a collection of sites geared toward your child’s unique preferences and abilities. Once you have a basic library of sites approved, however, you can relax in knowing that each site will provide an encouraging and rewarding experience for your child.

As your child grows, you can edit or add to the collection, as you wish. Remember to keep talking, and feel free to use this time as a communication tool for future discussions with your children on everything from computers to the real world.

Have a question for Linsey? Ask away! Just submit your question to “Ask Linsey” and it might be featured in an upcoming installment.