what age is appropriate for an ipod or similar?

[lnitti]

I am thinking about buying my 6 year old an ipod but wonder if she is really too young.  What is a good age for one?

[Drummer's Wife]

I think 6 is a great age for an ipod.  My 5 yo has one and does great with it (as do my older children). 

[~Amy~]

My 2.5 yo can navigate mine extremely well.  He plays games on it sometimes & watches some kid's video podcasts.  It's great for situations when we need to wait (doctor's office, waiting for food in a restaurant, etc).  I plan to get him his own in a couple years.  

[lnitti]

she navigates my android phone with no problems, so i think she should be ok for navigation.  I have an ipod nano.  The ipod shuffle looks to be the cheapest, but I don't think it would play videos.  I am not sure if the nano plays video, but if it does, the screen is pretty small.

which ipod do you recommend for her?  I also have a 3 year old that I am sure would figure it out eventually too.

[LuckyMommaToo]

I would definitely go for a Touch if you can afford it. Then you can also download apps, which are free/cheap and plentiful. We love ours!

[ellairiesmom]

nak

apple freq. has refurbished.  we keep contemplating a refurbished 8 g touch one for our 3 yo who has mastered my iphone.  i saw one a few weeks ago for $129 & it came w/ a 1 yr protection plan (all apple refurb come with that)

when i add up the cost of other systems, games, carrying cases vs used ipod touch, good case, free apps, apps i already have & more $1.99 apps down the road, it just makes sense.  plus she won't outgrow it.

my mom got her the fisher price ixl for her bday & she loves it but it was $65, the games are $25 each & it isn't as robust of course.  and she still wants my phone when we are waiting in line, at a restaurant, on the plane, at the drs etc.

[ellairiesmom]

forgot to add...got some great free apps off this list of top free kids ones

http://artoftheiphone.com/2010/08/23/the-50-best-free-iphone-apps-for-kids/

the matching zoo & letter tracing were both so great we ended up buying the full apps.

we esp love this one

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/little-bellas-i-close-my-eyes/id307214153?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4

[AkRotts]

My 3 yo and 4yo were given our old iPhones to use as an iTouch after we upgraded.  They navigate it really well and have been for some time.  We take them when we go to dr appointments, out to dinner, long car rides, ect.   They also have some great educational apps that have helped my kids with their letters, numbers ect.  

[nextcommercial]

LOL.. I had a two and a half yr old daycare girl come in with an Itouch, and she was working it like she was born with it.  I was amazed and a little jealous.

[TiredX2]

offtopic

Originally Posted by AkRotts 

My 3 yo and 4yo were given our old iPhones to use as an iTouch after we upgraded.  They navigate it really well and have been for some time.  We take them when we go to dr appointments, out to dinner, long car rides, ect.   They also have some great educational apps that have helped my kids with their letters, numbers ect.  

Excuse my ignorance, but... how does this work?  Does the phone just keep working after it is no longer a phone?  How do you update it/add aps/etc... while it's not a phone.

Originally Posted by nextcommercial 

LOL.. I had a two and a half yr old daycare girl come in with an Itouch, and she was working it like she was born with it.  I was amazed and a little jealous.

[4Marmalade]

My ds1 just got an iPod shuffle for his 8th birthday.  We were looking at the Touch but decided to go with the cheaper shuffle as we were really only looking for stories and music and we wanted to make sure it was something he would take care of properly and actually have an interest in.  Everything changes so fast that I'm sure we can update him to a newer device in a couple of years that has more applications.

[ellairiesmom]

Originally Posted by TiredX2 

offtopic

Originally Posted by AkRotts 

My 3 yo and 4yo were given our old iPhones to use as an iTouch after we upgraded.  They navigate it really well and have been for some time.  We take them when we go to dr appointments, out to dinner, long car rides, ect.   They also have some great educational apps that have helped my kids with their letters, numbers ect.  

Excuse my ignorance, but... how does this work?  Does the phone just keep working after it is no longer a phone?  How do you update it/add aps/etc... while it's not a phone.

My basic understanding of it (dh knows much more about this stuff) is that the iphone is really just an upgraded ipod touch with phone service.  they both do all the same things & have all the same extras EXCEPT the iphone is a phone too if you pay for the phone service/activation etc.  and an ipod touch can actually be used for email service if you pay for the data plan monthly or it can be everything else except email if you don't want to pay for a data plan.  without a data plan you can still do all apps etc but you would do it while hooked up to your computer, not wirelessly.  and it sounds like the ipod touch can also be used for phone/texting to anyone who has another itouch or iphone when a data plan is paid for.  

and in the pp case, they decided to upgrade to a newer version of the iphone.  so they turn off the phone/data service on their old one & it basically becomes a nice ipod touch with the potential for phone service down the road if they ever want to activate it & add another line for the family.  

another interesting aspect...if your young child took care of an ipod touch & it lasted many years...and the parents are both iphone users, that ipod touch could be activated later on to become a cell phone/texting device that they can only use with their parents or other iphone/itouch users.  kind of interesting for when you want them to have an emergency device but they aren't old enough for a regular cell phone.

sorry if that is confusing-lol.  i stink at explaining technology!  

[LynnS6]

I'm going to be a voice of dissent here. While she could navigate an iPod, what use would she have for it? When would she use it? Why would a 6 year old need one? Does she really listen to that much music? Does she show any interest in yours?

My real major concern would be the earbuds, however. It could be that she really would use it. But, can the iPod be set so that she can't set the volume too loud? Hearing loss due to volume too high on earbuds is a major issue for the under 40 crowd these days. I wouldn't want my kids to damage their hearing.

[mamazee]

My 8-year-old has had one since 6, the nano, and she loves it for listening to music and for listening to story podcasts.  There was a way to make it so it could only play to a certain volume but I did it 2 years ago so I dont' remember how.  It was when I set it up on itunes.

[ellairiesmom]

itouch & iphones play the music/sounds outloud.  you don't need earphones.  

and you can lock volume controls.

if you did want earphones for some reason, you would want to pick up kid safe ones like califones

[MJB]

My son got an iPod shuffle at 4 (I got it refurbished for $29). It broke after about a year and a half (through no fault of his). I got him an iPod nano for his 7th bday. He and his little brother both use it all the time. They rarely use headphones, mostly they use it in their room with iPod speakers. They just use it for listening to music and stories, although there are some games on it, I told them not to play them. My little guy (5 in December) asked for one but we are going to wait another year or so. They really don't each need one.

[kittie313]

We got our oldest an mp3 player for her 7th birthday.  She's a major Hannah Montana freak, and I am not the biggest fan of her music.  We bought it after I caught her one day with my iPod Shuffle (the old style, we've had it about 4 years now) listening to my Lady Gaga and other such music that I enjoy that is completely inappropriate for children their ages (that music, we purchase on iTunes only on my laptop and upload directly to our iPods, the kids don't touch my laptop unsupervised because I use it for college and am anally overprotective).  We decided that each of our girls will get one for their 7th birthday, getting it for our oldest has made her a lot easier to keep occupied during car trips, waiting for doctor appointments, and such.  Unfortunately, we do have issues like a pp mentioned about her turning the volume up too loud with her earbuds, so we are going to be purchasing her some of thoes kid-safe ones.  I don't actually have an iPod for her, the one she got is a SanDisk one I think.  It was the same price as the shuffle with twice the storage space and more features than the shuffle does (at least, its more than my shuffle, I don't know anything about the newer ones).

[rhiandmoi]

Originally Posted by LynnS6 

I'm going to be a voice of dissent here. While she could navigate an iPod, what use would she have for it? When would she use it? Why would a 6 year old need one? Does she really listen to that much music? Does she show any interest in yours?

My real major concern would be the earbuds, however. It could be that she really would use it. But, can the iPod be set so that she can't set the volume too loud? Hearing loss due to volume too high on earbuds is a major issue for the under 40 crowd these days. I wouldn't want my kids to damage their hearing.

You can use over ear head phones instead of in-ear buds, which should reduce the risk. And you can also set the maximum volume of playback through i-Tunes which you will need to transfer the music to the iPod. You can also use speakers with the ipod instead of headphones of anykind which is good for listening to books on tape at naptime (for kids and adults ) I think that using it with speakers at home and over ear headphones in the car is ok, but I would recommend against letting a 6yo walk around with the headphones on. It can create a danger of getting separated from their adults.

[meemee]

Originally Posted by LynnS6 

I'm going to be a voice of dissent here. While she could navigate an iPod, what use would she have for it? When would she use it? Why would a 6 year old need one? Does she really listen to that much music? Does she show any interest in yours?

My real major concern would be the earbuds, however. It could be that she really would use it. But, can the iPod be set so that she can't set the volume too loud? Hearing loss due to volume too high on earbuds is a major issue for the under 40 crowd these days. I wouldn't want my kids to damage their hearing.

lynn i am with you. dd got hers when she was 5. however she just didnt get an mp3 but she got the sound system too. to me it was a worthy expense. we chose mp3 and ipod because of huge memory. so no ear buds or head phones in our house. 

[Ruthie's momma]

Originally Posted by LynnS6 

I'm going to be a voice of dissent here. While she could navigate an iPod, what use would she have for it? When would she use it? Why would a 6 year old need one? Does she really listen to that much music? Does she show any interest in yours?

My real major concern would be the earbuds, however. It could be that she really would use it. But, can the iPod be set so that she can't set the volume too loud? Hearing loss due to volume too high on earbuds is a major issue for the under 40 crowd these days. I wouldn't want my kids to damage their hearing.

I completely agree.  Additionally, an iPod seems like an extravagant gift for such a young child.  My DD has been able to operate/play with DH's iPhone since she was literally a babe.  But, it wouldn't even cross my mind to provide her a similar piece of gadgetry for at least several years!