A useful appliance that I have started using recentlyis a kind of software that focuses on educationalgames. We use it at home a lot to keep our childbusy and to make her learn things in a fun & interesting way. You'd be surprised to know howmany interesting kinds of software there are for littlekids. Almost any Disney character has its own brandand a programme from 2 or 3 years old for the nextfew years to learn vocabulary, simple maths andfacts about the world. The one that I like most is 'Jump start'. It's actually a programme from avery young age, about 1 year old, up to High school and it covers the whole school curriculum, so when you go in and buy one disc then you get a programme for a year and every skill iscovered in very funny games. So the children learn to read, to add things to calculate simplecalculations, they learn to search and sort and categorise things and match or find what isdifferent. I find it very useful because I don't have to worry about what my child is doing, thatshe is bored.