Help! Ipad or???

Daughter's 4th bday is coming up. She's out-growing her little leap pad thing. She really likes the "drawing" function and I want to get her something bigger/better. Also, the educational games on the leap pad kinda suck. Once you play them once, it's kind of the same thing over and over. Seems like apps would be easier/cheaper/better

If I do go ipad, I'm clueless as to which one to get. Also looking for other options.

Thanks!!!

An iPad for a 4 year old! Are you kidding me? Tell her to go outside, make friends, play, ride a bike (er, tricycle?),build a fort, put her dolls in it and play house. An iPad...

Whiteboard? Great for drawing. Not great for apps. Very affordable.

An iPad for a 4 year old? I'm with bravenrace.

Get yourself an iPad and control her time and content on it. It helped occupy our youngun's in church.

I just found out last night that my 6th grader needs a tablet for school. So she will get an iPad Mini 2 just for school. Mom and Dad have iPad's so at least we will have the same issues and I don't need to learn about another system.

Apple iPad's are not the panacea of tablets.

bravenrace wrote: An iPad for a 4 year old! Are you kidding me? Tell her to go outside, make friends, play, ride a bike (er, tricycle?),build a fort, put her dolls in it and play house. An iPad...

Plus eleventy billion

Absolutely get her an iPad (or whatever tablet). The sooner kids are exposed to technology, the better off they'll be in the long run. Even in today's age, I interview people who barely know how to use a computer or are so unfamiliar with it, they're scared of one. How much you let her use it is up to you, but sounds like she's gotten good value out of a LeapPad, so a tablet is the next logical step.

If you're an Apple house (you have an iPad/iPhone), an iPad would be the easiest choice. There are LOTS of tablets on the market running different operating systems and many of them are under $100. However, app choices and ease of use aren't usually as simple as Apple products are. (Cue the Apple haters on the board).

If she's hard on her LeapPad, I'd look into one of the cheaper options in case she DOES break it, cover it in peanut butter, drop it in the potty, etc. If she's been good with her LeapPad, then an iPad should be fine.

Which one depends on how much you want to spend. For a kid, an iPad mini is probably easier for her to handle than a full size. But, they are a little more expensive.

I would NOT buy a new one and buy a refurbed one from the Apple store.

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/specialdeals/ipad

-Rob

In reply to rob_lewis:

I don't agree. I see all too often that kids know how to do all these useless things on technology but can't even function in the real world. What kids need to learn are all the things they aren't learning while they have their heads stuck in the screen of an electronic device, like communicating in a social or professional environment, talking on the phone, learning about nature, learning real skills, etc.. Learning electronic stuff isn't hard.

It is a brave new world out there. Our oldest lead a 'self directed' student teacher conference laid out on Power Point as a kindergartner. Standard curriculum. Now as a 1st grader, they have there own laptops for school and they have to share a tablet with another student.

For fun, her and her friends research what they like (rain forest, ocean, cats, ect) and will put together power points for themselves with outlines, graphics, ect. These are 7 year olds. We are fortunate enough that the neighborhood is great for kids with lots of parks and great neighbors. They can get out and ride bikes, knock on other kids doors and still have some semblance of a 50-80's style youth.

That being said, all of the kids have a tablet, laptop and about half have a hand me down phone for games and text app to talk to friends. It is the new norm.

Ive never used an ipad but a Kindle does plenty enough to keep kids entertained at a fraction of the cost. My kids have one, it gets a lot of miles in the cold months, and it gets put away when the weather is nice.

It is 2015. I know 17 out of 25 kids in my son's k5 class has their OWN iPad. My son is not one of them. He gets to "borrow" it from me. I prefer he plays outside.

I just want to pile on and say you're a sh!tty parent

Get the iPad Mini, refurb'ed and a strong case. There are many good cases on Amazon.

Maybe instead of an iPad get the Nintendo 2DS for her? It's designed for kids so it's more durable and there are tons of drawing games as well as other things. The 2DS also connects to internet and to other kids' Nintendo DS's. That way she can play with friends. They also still make interesting educational games for the DS, and this will play any cheap pre-owned DS game (the preowned games play just the same as brand new ones). An iPad would be a good step in middle school, when she'll need to take notes on it in class. You don't want it to get broken before then, and it's really easy for kids to accidentally buy things on apple products.

Technology can wait. I didn't have a computer or ipad as a kid because they didn't exist, but I've figured out how to use them. Maybe by the standards of people on here I'm a bit of a luddite, but compared to 95% of the people I meet daily I a freekin IT and technology genius.

We sent out our kids to a Waldorf (Rudolf Steiner) school which doesn't push technology and urges the parents not to introduce kids to technology too early. I bet the Silicon valley CEO's hate that concept...Or do they...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-nelson/too-much-technology-is-bad-for-the-brain_b_5448015.html

http://breakingmuscle.com/family-kids/wired-kids-how-screen-time-affects-childrens-brains

“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.” ― Albert Einstein

We got our eldest a cell phone when she was 14, we got the youngest a tablet when she was 12 and a computer at 14. I now regret getting the tablet so early. I wished I'd waited until 14 for both. She will get a cell phone when she starts high school in the fall.

What about a leappad3? Moderately tough, age suitable, cheap(ish) and she's already used to the basic setup.

http://www.leapfrog.com/en-us/store/p/leappad3/_/A-prod31500

My kids have kindle fire 7's. Got them on sale for $79/each on black friday. The freetime feature is awesome. I can limit their usage by day and by time.

My daughter is 6 and going to a pre-engineering camp this summer and her friend is doing coding camps. Seattle grows them techies up young and fast.

Technology is here to stay. My oldest son (now 6) could operate Netflix on the computer at 2 years old. He knows his way around a tablet, Playstation 3, and Wii pretty well. Just because a kid has a tablet doesn't mean they're glued to it all day. It's not the end times just because 5 year olds can use electronics most adults can hardly operate. Times change.

Kindles are crazy cheap but the Amazon store is missing a lot of big apps. I've seen new 7" Galaxy Tab 4's getting down to the $100 mark new. Toys R Us seems to have a lot of tablets on clearance right now as well, which includes the "kids" versions of some popular tablets.

Thanks for the CONSTRUCTIVE responses!

ipad mini in transit! Thanks for the suggestions!

I'll be sure to post pix of my big, fat, dumb, lazy kid using it, so you guys can school me on the evils of electronic devices...from your electronic devices...during working hours...while you're obviously all hiking/biking/swimming/learning with your kids and/or not making money.

You made a good choice, but get a tough case for it. I reccomend the iGuy from Speck.
My son is 3.5, and he is a pro with the iPad, and yes, he has his own. We limit the time he is on it, just like we limit his intake of candy or staying up past his bedtime or anything else a responsible parent does. YouTube has an App for kids that I would install. There are a lot of "sponsored content" videos, but a lot of other stuff too. They love it and there is no chance of getting to the bad videos.

I also recommend games like PlayKids. You can set time limits and other restrictions, I can actually control the App from my Apple Watch and shut it down remotely if need be. Lot's of good games allow parental controls. When a game hit's the time limit, he just puts it down and walks away. Much easier than having to tell him to stop and taking it away from him, and they learn time management.

Keep in mind that the iPad is great in the car for games and videos, but include things like the Auto Bingo App. This gets them active and looking around and challenges them. I would be cautious around MineCraft because 1) kids can get sucked in for hours of mindless construction and 2) you can run into other people and the restrictions are bad. (from my limited understanding).

I still contend that you are a sh!tty parent.
Now excuse me, I must get back to hand tilling the fields where I grow the organic grain for my range free chickens.

I am conflicted.

From one sh!tty parent to another.

I'm posting from my daughters iPad.

I've given my kids hand-me-down android "phones" sans service. Great for long car rides, bad weather, etc. But, I also fall in the parenting style of "If it's nice outside, so are your butts"