Hi I am setting up a computer [mac mini G4] for my nephews. What programs & games would be good on a 10.3 system. Any tips? Ages are 4 & 6. The system will be offline.

Lucas,

What ideas do you have with regard to software, ie: educational etc.

Eureka Software(an Australian company) do quite a lot of educational stuff aimed at various age groups, and it works on Macs.

they have stuff for reading, math, basic computer skills etc.

I can pass on some of the names of this software if you wish.

Regards

Mark

there was a thread on this not long ago.. natakim recommended Reader Rabbit, which i have just bought for my kids.

We have a G3 imac running some lite games like daisymaths 4, pallette, professor code, racing maths, etc.

Look on macupdate.com for some freebies!

A warning on Reader Rabbit - don't buy it if you have an intel mac - runs like a dog with many, many audio and video glitches on a mbp c2d, as it is not universal. Certainly runs smoothly on an older imac g4 800 though.

Would be interested to know what you think of reader rabbit GreenBanana - mine tend to find it a bit repetitive and get a bit frustrated and bored with it? Is it just them or do others find the same?

My six year old girl finds RR a bit like this too g5agogo and has moved on. It is OK for them to start on though. It gets them interested and skilled at finding their way around on screen and using a mouse.
We have an old IBM program ( OS9 only ) called Crayola Paint which she loves as she does lots of drawing and painting anyway.
You may have to revise about the kids having internet access though.

My daughter has started doing Mathletics as part of her homework about a month ago - Year one - but you need to be able to get online to do it. I think all primary schools use it now. Another site she loves is ABC Kids. Lots of games and word puzzles as well as flash movies etc. We have spent some good times doing some of their puzzles .
Stewie

I'm 13 and I can remember playing Reader Rabbit when I was young and found it repetetive.
http://www.knowledgeadventure.com/jumpstart/ was good for me.
Zoombinis, Math Munchers and Carmen Sandiego were also good.
I loved The logical journey of the zoombinis. Math munchers doesn't seem to be available anymore and carmen sandiego may be a bit too old for your kids (the one i have buried in my cd cupboard says 8 -12). Some non-educational games that I used to (and still do) love are:Lemmings, Glider PRO, Bugdom, Nanosaur and Otto matic. We used to have Glider pro and lemmings on the performas at school.
Who knows where to get a working version of lemmings , there is an OS X version of glider pro (as well as the classic one with the level editor), bugdom and nanosaur are both classic but otto matic is os x.

Glad it's not just my 5 yo Stewie! I can second http://www.abc.net.au/abckids/ and associated external links, if you do go on-line. My pre-schooler really enjoys it, and it has some pretty good educational value too (in my uninformed opinion). We also find google earth and google maps fun, especially in association with books where she reads about different places and the events that happened there, and wikipedia can be fun too. We always do our on-line activities together.

We downloaded some American software from http://www.littlefingers.com/

It runs on flash and you can download trials that are active for 10 goes (or something like that) - our 5 year old loves it. I'm sure some enterprising people are able to keep the trials going indefinitely - they seem pretty expensive to purchase.

Toy Story presents some games suitable for now as well as software they can grow into such as a game of Othello/Reversi.

Big Bang Chess is great. At the easiest difficulty level they should be able to pick up the rules in no time and actually tie a game. If you give them a hand in the end game they will win.

For the younger one try the Lego games.

With OS9 try Reader Rabbitt but as per above best avoided.

If the older one likes a challenge then get hold of Mine Sweeper.

Throw in some brain fodder shoot 'em ups too.

Carmen Sandiago mention above - yes, get it.

Allow a bit of internet too, under System Preferences control - Lego is safe. Ranbow Magic home page safe.

Interesting thread. Great ideas.

I'm in a similar situation. My kids use the same account as the grown-ups (so that we can use Safari and Mail, primarily).

The problem is that my kids have been dragging the dock icons off the dock, and 'poof', they disappear.

Is there any way of preventing this?? Any check box I can tick somewhere?

There *is* a way to lock the dock - thru terminal i think. Do a google.. I'll get my SO to post how he did it here later.

To stop "things" from happening you must setup at least one non-admin account.

Some owners log in as admin always. Others setup an admin account but day to day use a sepearate account. Either way, you'd normally have to type in an admin account / password to do a system update, for example.

Further, for other family members non-admin accounts are setup.

A hassle? Not for me it isn't except for doing backups - I need everyone else to cooperate in order to do manual backups (pre Leopard ).

Now, for the really young I cripple their account. Go to accounts in Sys Prefs and you'll see what I mean. It is a MAJOR hassle with Safari though as you have to manually enter each allowed website into the Bookmarks Bar.

But I also ensure that most important Sys Prefs are disabled (OSX will do the selecting for you so no worries there) and so on.

Now, have a hot spot for YOUR account and auto locking when inactive for a while so that when you leave the terminal another person is forced to log in as theirself.

Takes a little while to get going but once done you'll never turn back!

Here's a tip: You can allocate a picture to appear against each person's name on the login menu. You can even, as a very mild "hack", make this picture an iSight / PhotoBooth photo rather than the suplied clipart.

Tip#2: Have one or two special accounts with a shared password for family activities such as networked gaming!

Tip#3: Setup "Switching" via accounts. That way you can stay logged in and doing your boring BT download of massive gigabytes while someone else is actively playing a game.

All Kids love Nanosaur and Bugdom

Definately Kid Pix and maybe the Talking Moose

If you are planning to use OS 9 at all, avoid having grouch in the trash at all costs.

I second Nanosaur and Bugdom - each has two versions - all good.

Nanosaur has a great kiddie mode which makes it possible to complete the game (would I admit to that...) and I think Bugdom might have one too.

My kids loved Granny's and Bears as well as reader rabbit the best. Nanosaur will be too hard.