I get what you're saying and that's initially why I asked about a time limit. I have kind of mixed feeling about computer usage and also what to present to DD. I DON'T want to push her in any way whatsoever. She's only 1 and I feel she has a lot of childhood left before her. So I try and follow her lead but she's been asking about letters for awhile now and I'm beginning to think she wants to know more than what I'm doing? It's hard to know what she's thinking but I figure if she enjoys the computer and we just do it occasionally (we don't even do it everyday) it can't hurt her too much. I do plan on learning some of the songs from there because she's really taken a shine to them.
I think I have a lot of unschooling/Montessori leanings but even with that there's always the question of what you're going to expose your kid to and how much. For instance, we're a bilingual family and DD gets a lot of exposure to a 3rd language on top of that. She never had the option not to learn DH's language (and she's not going to have that option
) so I guess in that sense I'm picking stuff for her. But how she learns that language and to what extent is something that can be more up to her.
It's an interesting subject and something I can never quite make up my mind about. When it comes to letters and reading, specifically... I guess, by the mere fact that I've been reading to her since she was born that means she's more likely to read early. However, Western society places a very high value on being literate (as do I since I'm a huge bookworm) so it's a choice I make as a parent. That being said, I don't feel it necessary to push her into early reading. But if she insists on asking about letters, words, etc. I also don't see a reason to deny her that. Sorry if this is a bit jumbled. I'm working this out in my own head too.
