Are laptops appropriate teaching tools for three-year old children? At least one operator of for-profit preschools thinks so. The company is adding laptop computers and wireless internet access to the education curriculum taught at its 120 locations beginning this year.

After hearing success stories about the use of laptop computers in grade school, the Primrose School Franchising Co., which operates preschools in several states throughout the South and Southwest, decided to try laptops for preschoolers as well.

Since last January, the Primrose School at Bentwater in Atlanta has been piloting the use of laptops with students three years of age and older. Because of the program's success, Primrose plans to expand the use of laptops to the rest of its locations.

The result is that children of Primrose clients will have access to more sophisticated technology than the majority of students in grade school or high school.

"Young children are fascinated by computers," said Lee Scott, vice president of marketing at Primrose School Franchising Co. "We're trying to bring it home to students that the computer [provides access to] important information, just as the storybook does."

Primrose already provided its preschools with a few desktop computers in each classroom, but found laptops are easier to integrate into the company's proprietary curriculum, called Balanced Learning.

"The kids would spend a few minutes a day on the computer. It wasn't really integrated in a meaningful way," Scott said. Now, children won't have to leave what they are doing and head to the computer area. The internet also makes a larger library of classroom resources more readily accessible.

"It's really hard to find age-appropriate material for three-, four-, and five-year-olds. The internet actually provides us with better resources," Scott said. "There's such a wealth of fabulous web sites for kids out there."

Laptops also proved to be more affordable, because an entire preschool could easily share a cart with eight laptops.

"We found it more cost-effective," Scott said. No longer will the company have to install and maintain a few desktop computers in each preschool classroom.

The children use the laptops about three times a week for 20 minutes at a time.

In small groups, each child sits with his or her own laptop and a child-sized mouse from Kidzmouse to explore pre-selected, kid-friendly web sites that relate to the current lesson, such as autumn leaves or farm animals.

"The children would focus on a web site for about 20 minutes. They are mesmerized, and then they are done," Scott said.

The laptops are in constant use because they serve 80 to 100 students at each Primrose school, Scott said. Teachers also use them to make lesson plans, pre-select web sites, and send eMail to parents.

At first, officials were worried about how easily laptops might get damaged by preschoolers, but they haven't had any problems so far. "We haven't had one with milk spilled on it or go flying off the table. The children have been fine with [them]," Scott said.