What are your thoughts on young children playing on iPads/other electronic tablets

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by LiquidGear

i see... hmmm... the most expensive game that i have is the TDKR for $6.99... I think, i'll just get him a Nexus 7 on his 3rd bday.. i guess that's the cheapest branded tablet...

If you can, wait until the next wave of introductions from Amazon and B&N.
As the banana-lover above pointed out, there are cheaper options out there (the Nook Color *new* runs $149) and the Nexus is merely the *first* of the 2012 models.
Better deals are coming.

[LiquidGear]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

If you can, wait until the next wave of introductions from Amazon and B&N.
As the banana-lover above pointed out, there are cheaper options out there (the Nook Color *new* runs $149) and the Nexus is merely the *first* of the 2012 models.
Better deals are coming.

yep.. or maybe i'll just let him have my ipad and get a new one... been reading posts and comments about the Note 10.1....
anyways, I still have 5 more months to decide... he's just too excited to have his own..

[StoryEnthusiast]

I think like many things in life it depends on how you use it.

[=X=]

Considering the whole middle school district, in my neck of the woods, is now using iPads for school work I think it is more harm NOT to let children play with iPads/tablets. It seems the world is finally moving away from paper/pen.

[sakura-panda]

Originally Posted by LiquidGear

I will just buy my 2-year old kid play vtech electronic learning toys rather than the real iPad.... look at this one:



cool, right?

I was at Target and there was a whole aisle in the toy section of adapters and accessories for kids to play with iphones and ipads. Fisher Price has an app that goes with their adapter, but I couldn't find the new iPhone design when I googled, just the original one:



They have a less-babyish design, in colors for boys and girls, but I couldn't find it. (Maybe it's not FP but I thought it was.) I like the new design (that I couldn't google) because an 8 GB iPod Touch is about $200 and it will take them longer to outgrow it than they would a dedicated and more limited "kids tablet".

There is also an iPad version:



I think it's nice that you can use a device you already have and that they even have their own apps to go with it. My kids are too old for it now, but I might have considered it when they were younger.

As far as whether I'd let my kids play, here are my youngest two back when they were four and two years old, awake from their naps and waiting for dad and big brother to return from the hotel pool:



They are playing either JumpStart PreSchool or Preschool 15-in-1 Kids Pack, purchased especially for this trip, knowing there would be downtime when they would need something to do and not wanting to haul around an extra suitcase full of toys and books. It is very rare that I allow them to play with my iPad and usually only under circumstances like this where having them bring their own amusement is impractical.

Since then, the Leapfrog LeapPad has come out and we got one for both of these kids (freeing up the iPad for the 8 year old ) and I am mostly happy with the app and video selection.



While cartridges are about $20-$25, some of their books, games and videos can be purchased for $7-$10 and can be synched with up to *2* devices. I don't buy cartridges anymore and watch for sales on thier app store gift cards to buy downloadable apps and videos -- I haven't bought any since their Christmas GCs ran out.

I bought AC adaptors for both since they use AA batteries that run out seemingly immediately -- I don't replace the batteries unless we are going somewhere that plugging them in is impractical. This seems to be a common theme for all kid electronic devices -- to use cheap AA batteries that burn out quickly rather than expensive proprietary rechargable ones that last longer. I have tried recharageable AA batteries and my overall experience has been that if an electronic screened kid's toy that uses them, you'd better have AC and/or vehicle power adapters to go with it.

[Chi Cygni]

Today we downloaded "Where's my water" oh my, what a funny game and my little one had to be almost chirurgically separated from it. But we really had good fun