rodrigovalin/choqueleto

Some ideas on what my kid's computer should have

Choqueleto

Choqueleto is a new GNU/Linux distribution, based on Xubuntu, aimed at curious kids of all ages. I've been revieweing distributions for kids and none of them seem to take into account the curiosity of kids, which is, from my perspective, one of the main characteristics to exploit and advocate from kids and toddlers.

I'm also a programmer who would like my sons and daughters to learn how to program, to understand computers and their architecture, from an early age. As Isaac Asimov said, programmers are an important part of future society. This future society he was referring to is THIS society, the one we (and they) belong to.

Purpose

This is not a general purpose Linux distribution, this is something that will be installed in a computer meant for kids. It will be the kid's computer, he will be able to use it all the time he wants, he will be able to play with it all the time he wants, and will be learning from it, every second he spends in front of the computer screen.

How to achieve this? First, the computer should not drag him into watching videos in Youtube and make him a unresponsive kid pressing next at the end of each video, he needs to be constantly working and learning with him. The computer will request the kid to go and do a task so he can continue his investigation, so he will have to interact with the world, brothers and sisters, friends and cousins, parents, gran parents. This is meant to be a learning machine that will make the kid interact with his surroundings.

Choqueleto will ask the kid to go out and investigate, find a leaf on the garden, take a picture of it, register it and register the time of the year, and to write or record what color is it, what smell does to leaf have, how is the day outside: is it cold or warm? Did mommy or daddy asked him to put his coat before going out? This will be a complete and long process of study and investigation, and the curiosity of the child will be always the priority.

Choqueleto will know about current events, events that are important for kids to understand, it will follow the launch of the James Webb Telescope into space and will show the kid pictures of its launch and how things are going up there, Choqueleto will make the child participate in this event, and will also allow him to communicate with other kids and share his pictures with them, with new friends, far away from home, from other cultures. The kid will receive the first pictures of James Webb Telescope and these pictures will have explanations about the galaxy, and the planets, and the cosmos. Different kids with different ages will have different explanations about what's going on.

Choqueleto will teach music to the kids, a big collection of classic will be playable from the computer: classic music and music from the world will be included and the kid will be able to select his favorite music from the collection, he will learn the types of music, the story of a particular song or composition, the instruments performed, how a professional player performs that particular instrument. He will also be able to find places he can visit to know more about this music. We will contact musicians from all parts of the world to allow us to put complete pieces of music for kids, but not simplified versions of their songs, but complete pieces, and we will not be afraid of treating the kids as smart as we are in terms of music, because no matter how young he or she are, they will be able to appreciate the music as any adult, even more.

Choqueleto will present a consistent interface through its applications, there will be no more apps with different styles or that looked patched or inserted in with no consistency with other apps, Choqueleto will look as a real product aimed at intelligent and curious kids. Choqueleto will not be a bunch of educational software bundled into an operating system, it will make sense from login screen, to application selection, to application interoperation, to sharing, friends, and of course, recreational parts.

Recreation

Choqueleto will not be always a learning machine, it will allow the kid to distract himself, she will be able to watch a video or call grandma if he wants (need to look into a usable video function that works on iOS and Android), but those activities will be regulated by mom and dad. He will be able to set goals for a day or week and then access the recreational parts of Choqueleto like watching a Youtube video (using our own controlled client) or draw freely using the drawing app. The kid will have to earn his recreational time.

Arts & Science

One of the main goals of Choqueleto is to make kids love arts, science and knowledge, by pushing his creativity and curiosity by teaching them about greatest works of art and science. Kids will learn about painting and music, which is easy for kids to understand and appreciate, from any classic painting you can ask the kid to draw something but not using the screen, kids should not draw using a mouse, he will use pen and paper and he will record these pieces of art and store them in folders, that he will make with his own hands (and with the help of mom, dad, granny, older brothers or friends). There will be no painting or crafting software in Choqueleto. Kids will not learn how to draw or will not appreciate beauty of drawing if they use a computer (this applies to toddlers, for teenagers there will be digital art packages).

Science will be presented by facts, aimed at different ages, for toddlers we will teach why lava goes out from volcanos, what are the dinosours, why and how birds float on air and why and how fish float on the ocean, why the bear sleeps for many months a year, and how a Python can digest an elephant for many weeks.

For kids from 6-9 kids, science will be presented as a process, not only a collection of interesting facts, they will be thought how to do science, how you do science, what is science, how is that we came from interpreting star positions to have a clear understanding of the cosmos. More important questions will arise when we are there. For now I'm concentrating on a toddlers computer.