Help - Mums & Dads Opinions Needed

[Excel Expert]

There is a big difference between limiting a childs access to an iPad to stop them playing games all day to stopping them accessing reading materials on iPad. I totally agree with monitoring and limiting access to games - if a child spends all day playing games on an a tablet then there is a parenting failure not a tablet failure.

By using a tablet as a reading medium has several advantages. Firstly there are interactive books where the books will ask the child to find things in the illustration and interact with the story in ways a printed book cant. Secondly the cost of the books is far, far cheaper. Picking up 4 or 5 e-books or interactive books for the price of 1 printed books is just about the norm - this means a child reading on a tablet has a far wider selection of books to read. Thirdly when a new book is needed there is no shopping trip needed, it is literally a click or two away.

So the advantages of a tablet are greater interactivity, more books and easy access to new books.

The only disadvantage seems to be that parents dont seem to be able to separate gaming and reading when they think of tablets.

Tablets and e-readers are not going away, things are going more and more in that direction and the children of today will be living their lives through these and similar devices. That is not going to change unless we get computers to communicate directly with our brains. So why not educate them in responsible use from day one?

By limiting their access to these devices will make them seem more and more like a treat. The more they seem like a treat the more they will crave them and be addicted to them. Which in turn sets up problems for the future

 

[monthlylocal]

Agree with everything you say there Carl. My little one has limited access to our devices and enjoys reading on them.

 

[WHARTY]

Tablets aren't going away but for children learning to read or write it's done with books, pens and paper. My daughter is 5 and brings books home every night if needed and enjoys the trip out to the library if she wants something different. Yes, when the kids get older they may choose a tablet over a book, but lots of children will not have access to tablets to do their reading homework and schools cant provide tablets for every child.

If the schools provide a tablet for every child and a free subscription service for e-books to help them learn then the idea may not have as many legs, but until then I think the younger kids aged 4-8 would certainly like it.

Kids still write to Father Christmas and still get excited about the reply coming in the post.

I think the idea is good and my daughter would like it. I think the cost is going to be the issue though. I wouldn't pay more than £3-£4 per month for the service and would expect a story each week or at least every fortnight.

 

[Excel Expert]

What worked best for us (and this wont work with every child) is that we dont limit any of them to how much time they have on the tablet, for example we wont say you can have an hour then you need to do something else.

Instead, if we think they have been on there playing games for too long we will instigate something else for them to do (set up their painting, get their Lego out etc). If they are reading on there we leave them to it.

 

[Excel Expert]

@WHARTY - I think tablets are getting to the point where cost will not be a huge issue. There is already a range of tablets between £50 and £100. You would only have to opt for about 20 ebooks over paper books for it to pay for its self. The prices of tablets will continue to drop for sometime to come yet. My five year olds class has 1 iPad for every two children because it is cheaper than buying books over and over again.

Where we are in Wales, we have just seen over 50% of our libraries close. As adults use them less and less, and as budgets get tighter and tighter, public libraries will become extinct. A library is currently not an option for us or half of Wales.

Digital rights is an interesting area. Amazon is experimenting with the lending of digital books and I have no doubt that an educational license will develop which will allow schools to download books on to tablets.

 

[Ideaswise]

Done the survey. Nice idea if done well, and my daughters when young would have loved it. As someone says, a letter is a rare and exciting thing for a young child, and rarer still nowadays. I actually think the tangible, keepable and stick-in-an-album factor of real letters is a plus for a young child.

 

[Anazoth]

Excellent idea, used to love getting letters from santa and rudolf as a child

Are you planning on using actual characters (disney, pixar etc) or creating your own? This could cause problems as i know disney take pride in punishing people for copyright.

 

[BlotMedia]

Done, good luck in your venture!