Warning: Do Not Download

My three year old son has been able to operate all of the functions on my husband's Ipod Touch since before he could walk, however, the mouse for our laptop, netbook and computer all confuse him. Thanks to touch screen technology it was very intuitive for him since the objects on the screen reacted when he came into contact with them. I can only guess that, to him, a mouse seems like a poor middleman.

With that in mind, I try to work with him frequently to learn to operate the mouse. We may be headed down the path of everything being touch screen in the future, but we aren't there yet. Teaching him how to interact with the computer via the mouse has proven challenging since his first reaction is to reach out and touch the stuff on the screen. Even the keyboard is more fascinating to him than the mouse. He gets particularly frustrated with desktop icons since they do nothing when they are moved around on the screen. I can't help but understand his feelings since in his logical world things directly in front of you should move around when you prod them.

I may have stumbled on an solution for him for this issue – Soup Toys! This is a simple, and free, program that allows you to drag 'toys' onto your desktop, and they react and interact just like their real life counterparts. This concept is far more agreeable for my toddler than other preschool programs that ask he click on certain hotspots when prompted. Instead of clicking the location of the bridge that Dora and Boots need to cross, he wants to build that bridge, or walk Boots across the bridge. Point and click doesn't make him feel like he's doing anything.

Soup Toys lets him go beyond the point and click boredom by making the objects 'real'. Sure he has to click the basketball, but he also has to learn to hold that click to move it around the screen. Not to mention gain the hand-eye coordination needed to maneuver it into the hoop. Granted, we've discovered that it's a tad more entertaining to toss the ball around the screen as hard as you can to see it bounce around like mad. The key is that he is using the mouse with enthusiasm now because the tasks he's given react in a normal way. Blocks stack, balls bounce, wheels spin, etc.

At the moment his favorite 'toys' to play with are the pirate cannons, which, when shot at the pirate ship, make the pirates say, “Arrrr!” What is not to like about that?! My personal favorite has to be the basketball and hoop because I can mindlessly shoot baskets while I listen to people drone along on the phone.

The simple fact that my son hasn't tried to throw the mouse across the room in the last 20 minutes makes this program a success in my mind for our little mouse issue. The joy of having cannons to fire when I need to vent isn't a bad thing, as well. Either way, you can be sure to waste plenty of your time on this program if you're at all susceptible to games or fun, or both.