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The iPad and parents

MikeTemple

MikeTemple

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 4, 2010
74
0
In the cloud
Since having a kid (actually, I shouldn't take the credit, it was my wife who did the hard work) my time at home is pretty fragmented. The iPad means I can browse the web and answer emails while my lad is having a snack or a nap, without having to go into the office and wait for my iMac to start up.

I find being able to put some kid's videos on it useful when we are going on a flight.

I've found some great software from Duck Duck Moose - sing along animated nursery rhymes. Luckily my son's young enough to not notice I can't hold a tune!

Magic Piano is a big hit with him. He loves making sounds and seems to be trying to work out the relationship between what he does on the screen and the different tones. Isn't it amazing watching someone learn how things work?

How are other parents finding the iPad? Any tips or great apps for kids? My lad is 2, so it's fascinating to think what a different world he is growing up in - I remember when I saw my first Apple II!
 
Just installed Duck Duck Moose - Fish School, Magic Piano.


Thanks Mike I may never see my iPad again :)

Oh and my son loves Traffic Rush, although teaching him to speed up to get through the traffic lights may not be the most responsible parenting...

(Oh yeah they do have a braking ability but where is the fun in that.)
 
I have a three year old who adores my ipad as much as I do. Traffic Rush, Elmo's MonsterMaker and the NeuKidsDraw are my kid's favorites along with a couple Sesame Street episodes I have loaded.

I have a couple rules with mine, though, so my investment stays in good shape.

1. She always plays with it on the carpeted floor in the den (thus, gravity is out of the picture) away from toys (though her stuffed Ernie doll is ok :) )
2. Clean fingers.
3. No food.

They seem pretty self explanatory but these are kids.

I remember my first computer toy- speak and spell- and man, what a different world indeed.
 
My 5 year old makes me play Plants vs. Zombies regularly. He gets mad if I don't lose. :D Will check out the other programs listed in earlier posts. :)
 
My wife and 4-year old daughter are in Japan at the moment, and have been since I got my iPad a couple of weeks ago.

I can't wait for them to get home next week so I can share the fun with my daughter. I've already downloaded some books for us to read (Alice in Wonderland and Wizard of Oz) and a nice app that has tic-tac-toe, checkers, and some other games.

I'll have to check out Traffic Rush and some of the others mentioned. Keep the recommendations coming.
 
As a work at home mom, I find the iPad has enhanced my life and even my productivity a lot. My son is 11, so he's older, but there are many times when he needs or wants me close by (for homework, music practice, working on a project etc) and I can get some email/work/surfing done while I'm with him instead of sneaking away to the iMac in my office.

I also find the iPad very useful now that he's at an age where he has various camps/after school activities and I have a lot more "sit around waiting" time. I don't have a smartphone, so my 3G iPad allows me to stay in touch, kill time, and even be a little productive. Comes in handy for killing time at the doctor's office, too.

My son likes to play games on it, mostly, but he's been pretty respectful of it being my gadget. He is constantly asking me for sports score updates, and the iPad makes that easy. He is fascinated by the GPS features and Google Earth--he's a map/geography loving kid.

I agree that it's very smart to establish rules for kid use up front, whether its a nice soft place to play w/ it, no food, wash hands first, one kid at a time, time limits, etc. Since I work at home, I also have certain hours of the day when it's reserved for me alone.
 
Thanks for those recommendations - we'll check them out.

@rick We have wooden floors downstairs, and my lad is 2, so he usually uses it while sat with me, and I hold it. It's a bit less robust than his other favourite toy, a die- cast Lightning McQueen model. I hope some Cars apps come out soon- he loves that film.

@miamijim I can't recommend those Duck Duck Moose apps enough. They are the sort of thing that we can do together, and have a real charm about them. Bear in mind that my lad is just 2- I'm not sure if older kids would like them as much. One of the nice things about their apps is that you can disable the setting menu so it doesn't get hit by mistake, and the animations just require tapping to interact with.

Keep those suggestions coming guys!
 
anemone said:
As a work at home mom, I find the iPad has enhanced my life and even my productivity a lot.
Click to expand...

I run my own business part-time, as well as a full time 'safe' job. I'm currently taking two weeks holiday while our child minder has her's, but I still need to keep up to date with emails for my own business. The iPad let's me grab 10 minutes here and there, between visits to the park and playing with paints, that I wouldn't manage otherwise. As you say, it's great because I can do this in the living room while making sure he isn't trying to climb the highest piece of furniture. :)
 
ive installed quite a few apps for the kid on my ipad. warning: the kid wont let me use the ipad, everytime he sees it -- he jumps on my lamp and insists we launch his games!
 
Rick in NC said:
I have a three year old who adores my ipad as much as I do. Traffic Rush, Elmo's MonsterMaker and the NeuKidsDraw are my kid's favorites along with a couple Sesame Street episodes I have loaded.

I have a couple rules with mine, though, so my investment stays in good shape.

1. She always plays with it on the carpeted floor in the den (thus, gravity is out of the picture) away from toys (though her stuffed Ernie doll is ok :) )
2. Clean fingers.
3. No food.

They seem pretty self explanatory but these are kids.

I remember my first computer toy- speak and spell- and man, what a different world indeed.
Click to expand...

I had a speak and spell too! That thing was awesome!:D
 
My 2 oldest kids (5 & 7 years old) have been using an iOS device since the first iPhone and iPod Touch. My wife and I allowed them to play games on our iPhones and later got them iPod Touches. The iPad was an easy transition in my house and the child books are definitely very popular. Whether they have the app read to them or they read it themselves, they are very entertaining for the kids. We have a few educational apps that synced over from the Touches so they get a little of everything. They enjoy the games too.

I find the time more split though. They have their time on it and so do I. I recently got the Uno game in the hope that we can play together but just haven't done it yet.

I'm more productive not tethered to a desk or having a bulky and or hot laptop on my lap but I don't know that it's much else.
 
I have a 2 y/o boy and a 4 y/o girl, and both can't get enough of reading on the iPad. I don't know what the deal is, put a normal kids chapter book in front of them and it's a struggle to hold their attention. Give them an iPad with a kids chapter book and they are glued to it. Good thing there are plenty of kids ebooks on the iPad. I've found that the guys over at Brighter Minds Apps (http://www.brightermindsapps.com/) have a bunch of quality ebooks for kids. I know they have the first book in their Extreme Monsters series on the App store for free.
 
Help! I need Parents of early readers

I am going to launch my new ipad/iphone/ipod touch educational app "Family&MeReader" at the end of August. It is an app that parents/grandparents and children do together to learn sight words and sentences and share stories about their respective childhoods. My website is going up next week to get ready for the launch. Although the app is not out yet, I need some parents/grandparents to review the concept and some preliminary pages and provide a testimonial. I promise you a free wall paper when this all comes to fruition. Please contact me at cohencomm1@earthlink.netif you are interested. Thanks! :D
 
sharonlcohen said:
I am going to launch my new ipad/iphone/ipod touch educational app "Family&MeReader" at the end of August. It is an app that parents/grandparents and children do together to learn sight words and sentences and share stories about their respective childhoods. My website is going up next week to get ready for the launch. Although the app is not out yet, I need some parents/grandparents to review the concept and some preliminary pages and provide a testimonial. I promise you a free wall paper when this all comes to fruition. Please contact me at cohencomm1@earthlink.netif you are interested. Thanks! :D
Click to expand...

BS. You expect me to pay for the app to try it out so I can get a free wallpaper? You should rather give out promo codes for the apps so they can be tried by users instead of wallpapers. (Obviously from your post it seems the app will be paid because if it weren't you wouldn't need people to try it out first).
 
saberahul said:
BS. You expect me to pay for the app to try it out so I can get a free wallpaper? You should rather give out promo codes for the apps so they can be tried by users instead of wallpapers. (Obviously from your post it seems the app will be paid because if it weren't you wouldn't need people to try it out first).
Click to expand...

BS?? What the heck is wrong with you. She said/did nothing that deserved being jumped all over about. Extend her the benefit of the doubt thats she's merely looking for input/criticism/suggestions.
 
My little 1 year old nephew loves the Talking Tom Cat app. He loves hearing the cat say what he says. He laughs like crazy at it. And now recently he's found you can stroke the cat and even hit it. He went crazy on the punching the cat though, got a bit carried away by it all.
 
My 12 year old boy uses it at times, only at home. I have a hard time getting it back. My 4 year old girls, they point to what they want to see and I do it for them. They're quite a few years away for me to hand it over.
 
MikeTemple said:
Since having a kid (actually, I shouldn't take the credit, it was my wife who did the hard work) my time at home is pretty fragmented. The iPad means I can browse the web and answer emails while my lad is having a snack or a nap, without having to go into the office and wait for my iMac to start up.

I find being able to put some kid's videos on it useful when we are going on a flight.

I've found some great software from Duck Duck Moose - sing along animated nursery rhymes. Luckily my son's young enough to not notice I can't hold a tune!

Magic Piano is a big hit with him. He loves making sounds and seems to be trying to work out the relationship between what he does on the screen and the different tones. Isn't it amazing watching someone learn how things work?

How are other parents finding the iPad? Any tips or great apps for kids? My lad is 2, so it's fascinating to think what a different world he is growing up in - I remember when I saw my first Apple II!
Click to expand...

My nephew is 4 in November. The only phones he has even known are iPhones and I can definitely see how different their world is now, even compared to my 10 year old cousin!

When he first saw it, he asked to play with my 'big iPhone'. He's called it that ever since, but he sees it as a good thing, if I say 'no Harry, but you can play with my iPhone', he'll tell me that he wants to play the piano, colour in Woody and Buzz or play Tiger Woods. He doesn't care so much that it's been 2x zoomed because it's easier for him to do the swing control on the iPad. He did say it looks very blurry though!

He really like Color Splash and looking through my photos of the family he's met in person and of my fiancée's nieces and nephews who he's met over Skype because they're from New York.

All in all, whilst I wouldn't leave the iPad with him unsupervised (at 4 years old, if I'm looking after him, he isn't unsupervised), I think letting him play with it and enjoy using it is a really good thing. He knows the pinch gestures for zooming on photos really naturally and I think it's testament to the work Apple has done with their human interface design.
 
Puppet Pals is great fun, and the initial download is free.

Toy Story and Alice In Wonderland are good.

Uzu for nice swirly patterns.

Doodle Buddy is the best free sketch pad I've seen for kids. Lots of templates like hangman, maze etc and a bunch of stickers with sound effects.
 
I would highly recommend Magic Piano (Smule). Great way to introduce children to the joy of music creation.

Btw is there any way to password protect specific apps?
 
Clix Pix said:
Maybe I am just fussy but I would never allow a small child to play with my iPhone or iPad. Ever.........
Click to expand...

My son has been playing with my wife's and my iPhones since he was 2. It's the perfect "first computer" for any child, IMHO, because of the touch interface.
 
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