"B is for Baby" Smash!

I like to blog about things that may be helpful to others - and this program will definitely be that for anyone with kids age 4 and under. Baby Smash! was written by a friend of a friend of ours, and is a program that basically lets your kids go crazy on your computer without breaking anything. Below from the creator's website (:link)

"About BabySmash!

As babies smash on the keyboard, colored shapes, letters and numbers appear on the screen. Baby Smash will lock out the Windows Key, as well as Ctrl-Esc and Alt-Tab so your baby can't get out of the application. Pressing ALT-F4 will exit the application and Shift-Ctrl-Alt-O brings up the options dialog.

I wrote BabySmash! for my 2 year old and 5 month old so they could bang on the keyboards of my Windows machines without hurting anything. It's a copy/homage of the very fine and free AlphaBaby for the Macintosh. BabySmash is free also and I'll release the source code on my blog soon. Enjoy :)"

Here is what Lucia and Dada were doing before Alex downloaded Baby Smash! - Alex was writing letters and words that Lucia dictated to him:

From 11 November 2009

Lucia has been doing this for a few months now, starting last July when she learned how to spell her name. She knows a word for nearly every letter in the alphabet, and will actually get them for you from her alphabet mat (we had HFBLAMKD on the coffee table today, should have taken a picture before I put them away!). She also asks you to write these letters and often the whole word they stand for.
A is for Apa and Ama
B is for Baby
C is for Cat
D is for Dada (and Dog and Duck)
E is for Elephant
F is for Family (and Friend and Fox)
G is for Grandma and Grandpa
H is for House
I ... not good on this one yet (igloo?)
J is for Jude and Jacoby and Jones
K is for Kyle and Kiss
L is for Lucia
M is for Mama and Magdalena
N is for Nicole
O is for Oregon
P is for Potty and Pee-Pee and Poo-Poo
Q is for ... (quail? quiet? queen?)
R is for (Godfather) Ryan
S is for Sister
T is for Teacher Joan
U is for (umbrella?)
V is for (valentine?)
W is for Walrus
X and Y...?
Z is for Zebra

So Alex wrote out Teacher Joan, Jude, Ama, Apa, Baby, Dada, Mama, Lucia (three times) Kyle, Ryan, and Jacoby on the paper when Lucia would give him a pen and ask him to do so. Very sweet.