iPod or iPad for a 10 year old???

[Garga]

Dh loves technology. LOVES it. And he wants to share that love with our kids.

 

My son just turned 10 a few days ago and got a boatload of birthday money. DH has convinced DS10 that DS10 should get an iPod, or wait to save up Christmas money and get an iPad2.

 

I'm thinking: Huh??? He's TEN. He's still a little kid. He's not particularly mature or immature. Just a regular 10 year old kid.

 

I think that ipods and ipads are teenager stuff. Our 13 year old nephew recently got an ipod and that's appropriate. But a barely 10 year old? Isn't he kind of young for that?

 

I asked my son what he thought he'd do with either of those and all he can say is, "Play games like angry birds." "Anything else?" "Umm...I guess just play games."

 

DH is sure that DS10 will do more than that with an ipod or ipad, but I seriously doubt it. And don't judge DH. I understand how he feels. I'm the one who reads books to the boys that are above their heads because I cannot wait to share my favorite books with them. For DH, it's technology. He just can't wait to share it with them.

 

I think DH should hold off and encourage DS10 to spend his money on lego sets and DS games, as appropriate for a young kid. But am I just being a wet blanket? Is there something for 10 year olds to do on ipods and ipads that'll make him spending all his birthday and christmas money worth it, other than "play games"?

 

(ETA: I believe an ipod touch would be roughly $200--which DS has, and a refurbished ipad2 would be a bit over $400.)

Edited September 17, 2012 by Garga_

[Jann in TX]

One of the main reasons for our purchase was so that I could have my Ipad back!

 

DD loves her Kindle Fire-- but she prefers the larger size (and some apps) on the Ipad.... she has her eyes on the new Kindle Fire (large size)-- but that is NOT in her near future!

 

There are a LOT of things your son could do on a tablet (over just an Ipod or other music player). My dd uses her Kindle to read books, do her math fact practice, play games, watch videos (we do not have cable or satellite TV so she streams Netflix or Amazon Prime), listens to music...

 

My dd still has time to play outside too!

[Hockey Mom]

I bought my boys an MP3 player. I wanted iPods for them, but I was in a time crunch (lack of planning on my part) and couldn't find two of them that I liked.

 

Anyway, we use the MP3 players for audio books and "their" music. I don't let them keep them though. They have to 'check it out' from our audio library.

 

So that's one way he could use it.

[Farrar]

I share mine iPad with the kids, but there's a LOT more on there in terms of games than Angry Birds. There's just for fun stuff, but it's a decent gaming platform.

 

Plus, there are SO many math apps it's mind boggling. And there's more all the time. Things like DragonBox, which teach algebra. And things for math facts that are way beyond old style Math Blasters.

 

And there are things like Notability that let you write on pdf curricula.

 

And there's some amazing creative apps like Brushes for art or some great photo apps. Or things like Pages - I used Pages on my iPad to make our co-op yearbook and my 7 yos use it to make visual reports - they can use it more easily on the iPad than the computer.

 

Plus lots of apps that let you tap into videos and stuff for other topics - there's a growing number for science especially.

 

Obviously, it's not a necessity for any kid, but I can see why a 10 yo with some cash to spend might want one and why you as a parent might find it nice to have a kid who has one, actually.

[Crimson Wife]

My almost-10 y.o. is the only one in the family with an iPad, but that's only because she earned it herself as prize in a spelling bee. Otherwise she would've had to wait until she was older.

 

DH has a tendency to appropriate DD's iPad when he's home from work and he's hinted that he might get one for me and him to share this Christmas.

[jennynd]

Ds8 has a iPad inherited from his dad when hubby upgraded to the new iPad. He play games, watch Aops vedios, watch brainpop. Science assignment ( mr Q) and read books. Dd4 also uses my iPad. She play most education games. I thought 10 yo can make a good use of it

[somo_chickenlady]

My parents got my 13 year old an iPad for Christmas last year, and honestly...all he uses it for is games.

[NittanyJen]

My kids are constantly stealing my iPad.

 

Dragon box, Shakespeare in Bits, Hands on Equations, Google, geography Bee by National Geographic, Ticket to Ride, reading their PDF textbooks...

 

I cannot wait for the iPad mini to arrive, if it ever does.

[Carrie12345]

My toddler steals our iPad and pulls up his favorite apps. :001_huh:

 

BUT, if the 10yo isn't even all that excited about the possibilities, I can't imagine encouraging him to blow money on something other people think he should have.

[Garga]

My toddler steals our iPad and pulls up his favorite apps. :001_huh:

 

BUT, if the 10yo isn't even all that excited about the possibilities, I can't imagine encouraging him to blow money on something other people think he should have.

 

Oh, he is excited by it, but he's excited about the games and that's it. And $400 seems like a crazy amount of money for DS10 to spend on something he don't even know what he'll do with.

 

Thank you for everyone who replied. It sounds like there might be educational/fun possibilities beyond games. This could be a good thing, if my DH and I get a solid plan in place on when DS would have screen time to use all the features.

[Plateau Mama]

My kids are 4, 10, 12. The big kids have had ipod touches for years. They were probably 6 & 8 maybe. They got new ones this past Christmas and my 4 yo got one his 10 yo brother handed down to him.

 

I have an ipad and my 4 yo loves it.

 

Both devices have tons of educational games. My kids love playing the games and don't even think of it as learning. Yes they use it to play game games but they also read, do math facts practice, geography, learned/practiced music scales etc. If he is a big reader I'd do the ipad. The ipod is too small to really read on. Best part IMO is the games are only $1-2 dollars vs the $$ for DS games. Even if they buy it and hate it no love lost. Also, you don't have to keep track of all those stupid cartridges.

 

The big question is, how responsible is he with his stuff? If not so much, then I wouldn't do it. They are more fragile than, say, a Nintendo DS. But none of my kids have ever damaged any of their devices.

[Melinda TX]

I think we may be the odd family out, but we don't see the benefit of having the expensive electronic devices when kids are young. My 16yodd purchased her Ipod eight months ago, with her money. Although she is responsible with it, it is still a temptation just to "stay on it " all the time.

 

So even though it may not be "bad", would there be better things to fill his time? Like you said, Legos? Keva Planks? etc?

 

To us, it is a slippery slope introducing I-anything too early for our family.

 

Just food for thought.

[SunnyDays]

Several of my son's friends have ipod touches. I've held off for a while, but he's begging for one for Christmas. He's interested in a lot of apps, he can use it as a mini-Kindle on the go (not that I'd want him to read often on that size device, but once in a while is fine), etc. I was dubious for a while as well, but I don't really mind at this point.

[jelbe5]

It depends on the child. We purchased refurbished iPod Touches a couple of years ago for our daughters before we took a loooong car ride. They each had their own music, games and audiobooks on the devices. It made the car ride so much better. My youngest was 9 or 10. She is still using that same device today.

[melmichigan]

An iPod touch, maybe. An iPad, no. I think it's personal opinion more than anything, maybe that and the fact that my iPad has 64GB so I didn't pay $400. ;) If my DC want games we have game systems and DS's. They have kindles and ipod shuffles. They can borrow my iPad for school things but there is no need for each to have there own. As is I have to watch that they are doing something educational, but open Internet access anytime they want, no way.

[Catwoman]

I don't understand the idea that kids should be a certain age before we buy them the cool electronics. I can absolutely understand that it would be stupid to buy them for a child who is careless, destructive, prone to losing things, or who shows a tendency toward getting addicted to the stuff, but I don't see why it would be a problem for a responsible child to have these things.

 

In our case, my dh and I have so much of the stuff in the house, that it would seem odd if ds12 didn't have quite a bit of it, too. (He has had an iPad for quite some time, and he gets a lot of use out of it. He uses it more often than his Kindle Fire, but not as often as his regular computers. He rarely uses his iPod Touch.)

[CyndiLJ]

So I have to chime in on this thread, because we are in the midst of having every single one of us have an ipad, thanks to a generous group who knew we would use them for homeschooling.

 

We find them INVALUABLE...and no, not necessary but truly an amazing tool. Our needs are a little different but here is how we are using them:

 

Spec ed learner: Speech apps we use every single day to work on sounds. He also has pretty serious memory issues so we use it for Chore Pad which helps him remember things he truly can't remember...things like showering, brushing teeth, etc. He is NOT a child who is non-compliant, just can't remember every step of his morning routine and this helps a lot. We use it for additional phonics work, for cognitive games, and for auditory processing work.

 

Our two English Language Learners: We use it for instant Dictionary.com and Thesaurus.com all.the.time. Want your kid to actually look up words they don't know or find synonyms when writing? Then have an iPad ready right next to them and see how often they do it. It is so different because it is instant, not like having to stop and flip through a paper dictionary. They don't do any of their literature work without their iPad open. Also, we load books on it and they can read, stop and touch any word they don't know, and instantly a dictionary definition pops up on screen. This has been a HUGE assistant for vocabulary development.

 

All our kids: There are awesome, awesome grammar apps. We use it to read USA Today most days and then we use the National Geographic Atlas app to locate where events happen. There is a remarkable timeline app which we just found but haven't used yet, but I am sure we will. Math apps were mentioned (Wishing Teaching Textbooks would create iPad versions!), and spelling apps, and an app for Westward Expansion, and Stack the States or Stack the Countries (My 9 year old just spent an hour playing it yesterday and is addicted, saying he WILL learn them all AND their flags!). There are dissection apps, graphic organizers, there are teacher created (really good) apps for reading response, SAT study tools like crazy, outliners, historical maps apps, physics games and apps, periodic table apps, art apps which would be incredible for our art study eventually...and so much more.

 

I had a difficult time accepting the offer, initially, because I don't want to become "that" kind of family. I was concerned about our kids being on the younger end of the spectrum for what I would have considered a good age for introducing so much electronics into their world. I don't want them "Plugged in and tuned out." Then,I stopped to really think about it and realized that WE were in control of that happening, and we created solid rules around their use just like the TV. We do NOT allow free access, they MUST be used in our sight, our kids do NOT and WILL NOT have Facebook accounts or email accounts,and it is to be considered a School Tool or an In the Car for Long Drives entertainment device only. When we got them and within 2 days our 9 year old non-techie had already created film notes and a report with embedded graphics, I saw that the darned thing was so easy to use it would be silly not to view it differently!

 

Now I see the incredible value of them, and I can't imagine teaching without them. Of course we have Angry Birds on them, but there are just so many super low cost or totally free apps that it is hard not to see the benefits. Almost all of our 100+ apps are free with a few around $2...and once you buy them you can use the same account for ALL the iPads and pay only one time for any app! Same thing for kids books...buy it once and share it across all devices. For a larger family such as ours, this can add up to considerable cost savings over the years for written texts or software for word processing ($10 across all devices), photo editing, and other such things. Another benefit, which we are working on setting up, is that if you use Apple's TV device, you can mirror on a display TV what you are showing on your own app, making it a perfect teacher's tool as well. The app store also screens out all porn or other sorts of apps, so you can allow your kids to search freely themselves without fear, if you are so inclined.

 

I think that iPads for education are the wave of the future, it will personalize curriculum and make using the internet for the younger set much easier without having to type in lengthy web addresses. Just touch and go, and it works. Sometimes I think we tend to push aside progress in favor of the "old way" because of the way SOME people use technology. Well, if we remain in control as their parents, as we should, then we can realize huge benefits from such items. After all, there was a time when the internet itself was seen by many homeschoolers as The Great Evil because it takes us away from books. Well, grab an iPad and you have millions of books at you fingertips, with the beloved classics absolutely free and totally portable...all of them if you want!!

 

Cindy - Who has suddenly become one of those weird Apple Fan Girls :tongue_smilie:

[happypamama]

I'm kind of interested in an iPad for myself and have been doing some research on them, so I wanted to point out that the Square Trade warranty on refurbished iPads is pretty expensive. IIRC, with a few extra accessories (stylus and case) and the super-duper warranty (at my house that means the extra protection for drops and spills), it was more like $500 for the iPad.

 

They do look handy for a lot of things, though, not just games. I want one mainly to be a backup secondary computer that I can tote around (since I only have a desktop) and something to be an electronic notepad. Fewer pieces of paper/notebooks to misplace -- yes, please! I hear you can use them for schoolwork to eliminate the piles of paper -- I could see that working well for kids too. But yeah, it's a lot of money if it only gets used for games.

[nd293]

Dd11 uses her iPod all the time - she reads on it sometimes, listens to music, emails and listens to lots of audio books. She also watches TV and plays games on it, but those are only allowed on the weekend. We also have educational apps. I think a personal iPad for a child is overkill, mainly because I think it's too much for a child to be responsible for something of that value.

[Kathryn]

When I got a new iPhone, we gave my old one to DS6 to use as an iPod touch. When DH upgrades, he'll give his to the 3yo. They both do a lot on them and on the iPad, and all of it is educational (well, besides the 3yo's obsession with watching videos of people's Disney Cars collections on YouTube).

[Durriyyah]

There are a lot of things kids can do with an iPad. I probably would't go with the iPod since the options are much more limited, but like PPs said, you can put audio books on there and I'm not sure how the iPod handles apps at this point.

[melmichigan]

I cannot wait for the iPad mini to arrive, if it ever does.

 

I will be very curios to see how they are going to price these.

[Arcadia]

My boys have an iPad2 and the new iPad since they were 6. They use them for school work, afterschooling and ebooks. They get a certain amount of iPad play time every day.

 

I have an iPod touch and my boys have to squint to read an ebook on there so hubby got them the iPad2 to share and the new iPad the next year.

 

We downloaded the CK-12 books, national treasures workbooks, primary language lessons and other books for them to read and do using adobe reader on the ipad.

 

Its much easier to read on the ipad than on the computer as my boys could enlarge the font size easily. Also we have free wifi at McDonalds, Starbucks, Barnes & Nobles and the libraries..