Tablet for kids

My sons 4th birthday is coming up soon, and we are looking at getting him a tablet.

He's a bright kid and when he is interested in something he is a super quick learner, however if he isn't interested it's a nightmare to try and get him engaged.

Typical boy I suppose really, I know I'm the same.

Anyway, I want the tablet to be a fun learning device only, if he is going to use it I want it to engage him to learn, mostly his writing, he's pretty good at recognising letters and numbers.

I was looking at the leapfrog epic academy one where virtually all apps are learning games, but they seem impossible to find, and I'm guessing have been discontinued.

As an alternative I was looking at Amazon kids, but I fear there is to much freedom for him to get distracted in non learning things.

Both offer similar amounts of locking and age appropriate only apps.

Has anyone got experience of the Amazon kids tablet? Am I being over cautious?

My brother got his daughter one and she is glued to it, but they haven't set timers or age settings and they use it as a tool to distract her so they don't have to, so I can't really take their experience of it.

Personally we never bothered with the leapfrog type of tablets, if you can call them that, always seemed terribly primitive and overpriced, pretty sure you have to pay for any extra games/apps but might be wrong there.

You can't really go wrong with an Amazon kids tablet though I don't think they're all that reliable/robust. Needs a bit of setting up but you can control which apps, time limits and settings they have access to. Personally I've always found the Kindle setting up/interface a bit pants, there's also less choice of apps available compared with Android tablets.

Alternatively I've also let my kids loose on Huawei mediapad tablets which are cheap and cheerful Android tablets and they can also be ruthlessly controlled with the Google Family App which also gives complete control. It takes a bit of setting up in the first place but once set up they're really easy to police and you get a notification of everything they download, search history, weekly report etc.

I went the Huawei mediapad tablet route because I
found that there's a glut of them available on Facebook marketplace for about £50 as they're often a freebie with phone deals. Or they're £120 new or something. You can get chunky rubber covers for them too.

It's also worth noting that as your kid grows you'll give them more control so a Kindle will likely become obsolete anyway for reasons already mentioned and as you eventually give your child access to other devices as they get older, ie other tablets, phones, laptops etc, you can still link all of those to the Family Link App really easily.

All assuming you go the Android route of course, as opposed to Apple.

Seems a smart answer to me. Those leapfrog things soon lose their appeal. The kids want to use something that looks like what their parents use a rubberised case is a must

One observation though, don't those Huawei mediapads only use Android 8, which is next to go end of life. Android 11 was out last autumn.

chalkywhite said:

One observation though, don't those Huawei mediapads only use Android 8, which is next to go end of life. Android 11 was out last autumn.

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Could well be, best to do your research, I guess we have had a few mediapads in the family for a couple of years now and now my kids have moved on to better tablets/laptops anyway though I still use one.

The Matepad runs Android 10 so should be better supported in the long term, however is more expensive, so it's a balance between a cheaper option that might get smashed anyway, or something that will be supported for a good few years

Yes I think I've bought 2 additional replacement ones after breakages etc over the years but at £50 a pop its not so annoying. Depends on your kids too probably,mine are literally like chimps.

freddiemercurystwin said:

Yes I think I've bought 2 additional replacement ones after breakages etc over the years but at £50 a pop its not so annoying. Depends on your kids too probably,mine are literally like chimps.

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One of mine is and she's as old as 7 now

Cheers guys,

I expect whatever I get him to last only a couple of years. Biggest thing for me is I don't want him to get distracted from what we want him to do with it, I want it t as a learning tool only really so he isn't glued to it like I see a lot of other kids.

I'll have a look further into the ability of locking Android down, I know it can be done, but doesn't seem intuitive like the Amazon kids edition fire

I would say that you should not be perturbed by the Family Link App and the ability to lock an android device down, its a pretty easy/extensive app to navigate and you can do it all from your phone instantly with alerts as to what they've just downloaded and the ability to instantly block it, you can track it's location and get it to play a sound when they lose it behind the bookcase, time limits, set age restrictions etc etc. Besides, if you go down the android route eventually you'll have to embrace it then anyway.

Thanks, I already have Android everything else.

Today he has had my phone while I work, he's been a little sausage today, constantly Moaning it wants a different gaming having only just downloaded and playing it for less than 5 minutes... Then temper tantrums etc. And then adverts pop up so more temper tantrums.

I'm now thinking of not bothering,

He been really good with my phone beforehand.

Will check out the family app and have a play before I purchase anything and make a decision.

Leapfrog now do a subscription app that includes a lot of games. On Apple, Android and Amazon.

Tablet for a 4 year old... REALLY??!?!

Nozzle

Durin' the war .....

It's all about the addiction. Apps designed to keep the kids going back for more. Speaking (writing) as asomeone who struggles to walk away from the computer to get on with things, and father to a boy whos just turned 5, I'm very cynical about the introduction of tablets for solo play.

Grandad don't enter in to it!

Nozzle

Nozzle said:

It's all about the addiction. Apps designed to keep the kids going back for more. Speaking (writing) as asomeone who struggles to walk away from the computer to get on with things, and father to a boy whos just turned 5, I'm very cynical about the introduction of tablets for solo play.

Grandad don't enter in to it!

Nozzle

Click to expand...

Yeah why not.

Unfortunately he is an only child and I work from home 1 day per week.

As much as he loves to play with his toys he doesn't like to play on his own. Unfortunately I cannot spend the entire day playing with him, or doing arts and crafts learning etc.

So plan is to time limit the use of the tablet with learning tools only.

When we are out of lockdown it will also be used for long car journeys.

It won't be used at any other time really, weekends we always spend one day doing something as a family, bike riding or something, and the other day around the house where he usually helps me do DIY, gardening, helps my wife do baking, cook dinner etc.

Though I'm not entirely sure why I'm justifying myself on a forum.

Anyway, I've had a look around and Google do a new service called kid space, looks pretty similar to the Amazon version but with the added flexibility of Google play.

It's only available on select Lenovo tablets at the minute which is fine their pretty good, so will be ordering one shortly.