Managing the PC Desktop with Young Children

Young children often do not have the small motor control necessary to open programs by using the Start button and the Programs menu. As a result, they may accidentally open things that you might not want them to open. Placing shortcuts on the desktop is one way to avoid this problem. But again there are items on the Desktop that you might want to stop children from opening. One way to do this is to use a stop-go-caution pattern for the Desktop wallpaper. (See the illustration below.) Even very young children know that red means "stop" and green means "go".

Place the icons for MY COMPUTER, NETWORK NEIGHBORHOOD, the RECYCLE BIN, and anything else you wish the students to not open into the red STOP area. Place shortcuts to software programs you want the children to ask your permission to use or with which they may need the help of an adult into the yellow CAUTION area. For example, I placed the icon for Internet Explorer here because my students had to ask permission to use the Internet. Place shortcuts to programs which they can use without help in the green GO area.

You may want to subdivide the green area. In my case, I used three shades of green. In one area labeled "On the Network", I placed shortcuts to programs on the school's network. If I told the children the network was down, they knew those shortcuts would not work. Another green-shaded area, labeled "Needs the CD", held the shortcuts for programs that had to have the CD in the drive. The third area held all other programs that they could use on their own.

Usually my students had a definite assignment to complete during their computer time, but on the days when they had free choice at the computer, this stop-go desktop made their choices easier.

How to Create Your Wallpaper (or Use Mine)

I used MS Paint to create the wallpaper, but you could use any art program that can create bitmaps. I drew three rectangles and filled them with the appropriate colors. If you wish to use several shades of green, just draw more rectangles. Paint allows you to add text to your picture. Then you need to save the picture as a bitmap in the WINDOWS folder on your C:\ drive.

If you wish to use the one I created to illustrate this article:

Place the cursor over the illustration above and right-click.
Choose "Save picture as".
Save the picture as a bitmap in the WINDOWS folder.

Applying Your New Wallpaper to the Desktop

Right-click on an empty space on the desktop and choose "Properties". The "Background" tab should be on top. If it is not, click on it. When you saved your bitmap in the WINDOWS folder, it automatically appeared in the list of wallpaper choices. Scroll down until you find the bitmap you created. Depending on the resolution at which you have your screen set, you may have to stretch the display rather than center it. Stretching may slightly distort any text you added to your bitmap. Then click "Apply" to have the new wallpaper appear on your Desktop. Move your icons into the correct color zone.