6 year olds and iPads...

MissAnjy

I'd say....get the child a leap pad. It's more educational.

crazyellybean

I would go the cheaper route and get an Android tablet if I wanted to make such a purchase.

My Mom just went out and bought my niece and nephew (ages 6 & &) Android tablets ($60.00), they use them all the time and they let their other brothers use them as well (ages 4 and 4)... I agree there are MANY useful apps on there for children.

However, getting a child any toy, or other noted item that cost an excessive amount of money is a bit ridiculous if you asked me. They are bound to leave it lay out where it should not be, or toss it down, or drop it and break the screen. A big waste of money and I learned this the hard way when I let my niece play with my Ipod and she accidently dropped it and broke the screen ($100 to fix it).

Ofcourse, it is their money, and their child... so who are we to say what they should or should not spend their hard earn money on?

BamsieEkhaya

I honestly don't believe kids that age need such expensive "toys" .... my son is 9 and asked for an Ipad....the response was absolutely not. I like the spoiled comment.

I would also like to thank the parents that get their kids these things because that makes my son think that he should have one too and then I get the awesome chance to be that bad mom that won't get the cool stuff for their kid.

Haha, sorry if my kids having access to an iPad makes you look bad.

I feel just awful...

Agreed. Wait till my kid turns 16 and I buy him a car. You are really going to look like crap then.

LOL

I love that, maybe this would be the ideal time to teach your child the value of money and appreciating what you do have and they can't have everything they want....bammm lesson learnt all from a 6 year old with an Ipad :bigsmile: everyone can learn something from it...amazing tool

Alex_is_Hawks

actually I do agree with this....you can get a case for it that makes it virtually indestrucible....

i know a 6 year old severely autistic girl that has one...and it's imploded her vocabulary and her relationary skills by 200%....all because it's a great mechanism for keeping her engaged when people can't....it's also a reward system....you want it, you have to go to the washroom/wash your hands/have a bath/ etc...

My daughter is ten and getting an ipad this christmas....and I totally would have bought it for her at age 6 if it had been an option.

AlsDonkBoxSquat

I personally don't see a problem with it, as long as the parent knows how to monitor activity on it, and that just like anything else time is limited. When we're out to dinner we always take toys and playdough for him to play with, but I sometimes I'll let my 3yo son play age appropriate games on my iphone while we're waiting on the bill (generally about 5 or 10 minutes), and we have the kindle app on hub's ipad and will use it for story time because pokey little puppy isn't as interesting in the black and white of my kindle. We have shelves of books, but we do a lot of traveling and it's nice to know we don't have to lug a library around with us when we go. If someone was buying one for my kid I wouldn't be against it, I'd just make sure that I agreed with how it was being used.

trophywife24

No, not for our kid.

Our six year old does play games on PBS kids on the desktop and we do use some software for our school work since we homeschool. But an iPad? Honey just got a vtech mobi for his birthay, that's about as advanced as it gets here.

AlsDonkBoxSquat

I honestly don't believe kids that age need such expensive "toys" .... my son is 9 and asked for an Ipad....the response was absolutely not. I like the spoiled comment.

I would also like to thank the parents that get their kids these things because that makes my son think that he should have one too and then I get the awesome chance to be that bad mom that won't get the cool stuff for their kid.

Haha, sorry if my kids having access to an iPad makes you look bad.

I feel just awful...

Agreed. Wait till my kid turns 16 and I buy him a car. You are really going to look like crap then.

LOL

I love that, maybe this would be the ideal time to teach your child the value of money and appreciating what you do have and they can't have everything they want....bammm lesson learnt all from a 6 year old with an Ipad :bigsmile: everyone can learn something from it...amazing tool

There are plenty of learning tools in a life time. Who's to say that the child holding the Ipad is automatically a spoiled child who receives everything they want? Sometimes you get the things you want, sometimes you don't, sometimes you need to be patient. Also, just because a child receives a gift like this doesn't mean that they have unlimited access to it? There are lots of ways to teach a lesson.

_kannnd

I'd say....get the child a leap pad. It's more educational.

Maybe in some cases, but not for my child. She was never into anything that was too childlike. We bought her several leap pad systems, but they just weren't enough for her. She got bored quickly with them, and they were just too childish for her. But every child is different.

trhjrh06

While I would never BUY a child an ipad mostly because I can't afford one. But I was fortunate enough for my parents to let me use one of the companies ipad's...basically given to me. And my 4yr old loves it. She is on it more than me. I am with her when she is on it and see what she is doing. She learns a lot of things and has fun with it too.

lacismomma

Let's say, hypothetically of course, someone wants to get a SIX year old an iPad. "It's a great learning tool," is the argument of said person.

How would you respond??

Completely hypothetically... of course.

A couple of years ago, my husband got me a first generation iPad for Mother's Day. At the time, my daughter was 4. I downloaded some free preschool/kindergarten learning apps for my iPad to work on with her. She caught on SOOOOO quickly, and has learned SOOOOO much from these apps! She is now 6, and doing more advanced math, reading, spelling, etc on the iPad---she calls it HER iPad---and she probably does use it more than I do. While I didn't buy it specifically for her, and wouldn't have bought it specifically for her, she does get more use out of it and it really has been beneficial for her. Leapsters that I paid $80 for early on lasted less than a year with minimal use, and the cartridges were an additional $40 or around there for each one. It wouldn't take many replacement Leapsters or additional cartridges to equal the $500 I paid for mine, that she gets an invaluable amount of benefit from. I agree with another poster who said a child can grow with an iPad, versus growing out of the other consoles/learning tools discussed. To each their own. Who are we to judge if this parent wants to spend the money to purchase it for their child? If they can work with them and teach them how to use it, be responsible, etc.---that's great! My daughter uses my iPad at home, and computers at school and her after school program, so I am very pleased that she has a diverse knowledge of technology. I wish we had this kind of exposure to technology when I was younger!

bluefox9er

Let's say, hypothetically of course, someone wants to get a SIX year old an iPad. "It's a great learning tool," is the argument of said person.

How would you respond??

Completely hypothetically... of course.

I got one for my niece on her 7th bday..she has used one since she was 5

ahviendha

I wish kids wouldn't be hooked up to the internet so soon!

Let them play in mud for pete's sake! (it's certainly frowned upon when you get older...)

magj0y

I had a black and white gameboy when I was... wait, no, I was older than 6.

We owned the very 1st hand held interchangeable video game. I was in 3rd grade and it was sooo awesome.
We played that thing to death! Unfortunately it wasn't a huge success due to the cost, so most people haven't even heard of it.
The game boy wasn't the 1st. It had baseball, blockbuster and a pinball game. Super fun!

My Kids played in the mud, jumped in rfaked leaves and played outside til the street lights came on up into middle school. Parents need to be responsible with their kid's usage and monitor what they do. It's a shame how many kids have tv/dvd/computers up in their rooms! That's like holding your kid's door open to predators! Too many parents are clueless.

healthyversionofme

"What? No. Get him a book and an etchasketch."

^^Wins

Plus, I'm not a fan of kids having nicer toys than ME

LOL this too =p

I disagree. First and foremost, depends on your finances. I am assuming you can afford this. What some adults fail to realize is that technology is taking over the world. Its hard to grasp for some, but kids are hip to it. I dont have an ipad, but i have i phones and my kids work them better than i do. My parents have ipads and they love them! If i could afford to buy them one, I would. Why hold them back. They also love to color, write, draw, play outside...i dont stop them from those things so why limit them from technology. I cant afford it, but if one can..why not? Also, there is a whole kid world out there to support kids and ipads/ipods...check it out....there are two competing brands: Apptvity and Itech. They have kid friendly cases to prevent breakage from drops and water as well, as supporting learning tools.

sapphireswi

Makes me think about the time when i was 6 . .

I would take a stick to the park and draw stuff on the mud
Spend the whole evening looking for round pebbles
Take off my slippers, jump into puddles and splash it all over
Play make believe games (House, Doctor, School, FairyTales :laugh: )

I guess it's nice that the Ipad can help the kids with their studies and development.
I think they would find it just as fun to play about the olden way.:flowerforyou:

jcstanton

Um, my brother and sis in law bought my 11 year old niece an iPod Touch (cheaper than the iPad) for her birthday, and it didn't last two weeks before she had dropped it and completely shattered the screen. I can't imagine that ANY six year old would be more responsible with an iPad. Edit to add: I suppose if it was something they used with supervision, maybe that wouldn't be so bad. However, I wouldn't let them roam freely with it. Too much chance of it getting damaged.

healthyversionofme

Honestly, I get the mentality behind it...but an iPad? No.

Maybe the LeapFrog learning tablet. It's designed to stand up to kids, and a 6 year old isn't going to accidentally see porn on it

porn is not usually accidently found...but you can put parental supervision on the internet.

healthyversionofme

Excellent...

How about the "We live in the sh*ttiest town in America and a 6 year old with an iPad is a perfect target for crime."

How about, "You can't afford to pay the child's school tuition but want to buy him an iPad?"

How about, "Do YOU want an iPad and are trying to find an excuse to get me to pay for half of it?"


Wait... I may have digressed a bit here...

well with all of this....NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! I assumed we were speaking of someone with the appropriate finances.

_kannnd

Makes me think about the time when i was 6 . .

I would take a stick to the park and draw stuff on the mud
Spend the whole evening looking for round pebbles
Take off my slippers, jump into puddles and splash it all over
Play make believe games (House, Doctor, School, FairyTales :laugh: )

I guess it's nice that the Ipad can help the kids with their studies and development.
I think they would find it just as fun to play about the olden way.:flowerforyou:

You make it sound like kids do nothing but play on these things. My kid has an iPhone. At my last job, I had an iPad that she played with. Yeah, she played on it.

But...

She still has gymnastics 2-3x a week.
She plays outside.
She jumps in puddles.
She plays at the park.
She rides her bike.
She helps walk the dog.
She plays dress up and dolls with her friends.
She watches tv.

Guess what, kids can still do a lot of the things that 'we' used to do at the same age. Get over it, times are different now than when we were that age. I'm sure if you were a kid now, you'd want it too...

healthyversionofme

Alright, what apps would you all suggest for the 6 year old?

omg you would be surprised...there is a kid world out there in ipad land...remember...apple is genius!