It's worth checking your home insurance first though, ours covers accidental damage for items like ipads/iphones and other similar value items.
Battery wise, I've used mine to watch several hours of video on a flight from the UK to the US with battery to spare. You may find it drains quicker if he's using games on it though, but for most app usage you'll likely end up just needing to charge it overnight and take the odd opportunity to top it up during dinner time for example
