Phil started using ABCmouse.com this week, which he was super excited about. They advertise on all the kids tv channels, so we’ve been hearing about how he needs to use ABCmouse.com to learn about reading for months.

I’m not kidding.

Months.

So when we got our account set up, I saw they had an Android app. Perfect, I thought – he can use our Google Nexus tablet. Not quite, it turns out. There’s something about the Android app that isn’t compatible with our tablet. So I had to teach Phil some rudimentary laptop skills.

The little boy is using my laptop.

And the little boy… is a little boy. With sticky little boy hands.

Today the laptop touchpad started jumping around, prompting me to google how to fix it. I found this article on eHow that gives detailed instructions on how to troubleshoot a jumping laptop touchpad. Luckily, we only needed to do step 1.

Turn the laptop off completely, and get some cotton balls and rubbing alcohol. Get a cotton ball a little damp, not too wet, and clean up the touchpad (and surrounding buttons). Then, use a dry paper towel to dry completely.

Turn the computer back on, and you might be good to go. That solved the issue for us. If you’re still having problems, visit that eHow article and get instructions on how to further troubleshoot the problem.

And good luck!