Tech and Kindergarteners

Okay so it has been an absolutely embarrassingly long time since I have wrote on this blog.  What can I say we are busy people over here.  The summer was a blur with Keegan in soccer, swimming, and karate.  The fall not much better with hiking trips, karate, Keegan starting school, and me and Lyle working a lot.

Keegan is loving school.  He is really getting into reading and loves learning his letters.  Even more though he loves math problems.  When we got his first report card it said he was doing satisfactory in all but a few areas.  In math he was absolutely exceptional and has his teacher very impressed. Now in paying attention and following rules...well I guess he needs to work on that a bit.  I am not surprised Kee is a very spirited kid, who has a very "strong sense of self" as his daycare teachers used to say.  He is not a bad kid, he just has a very strong idea of what he thinks is right and what he thinks is stupid...he is learning though.

Keegan has also been doing hockey (which has been crazy) and karate this winter.  He's finally tested up to the Advanced Little Dragons level and is only three belts away from moving up to the adult class.  He picks this stuff up so fast it's amazing.  He has improved a ton as a skater as well and is really learning some strategy in hockey.

Okay enough for the update.  I am here to write about something else that happened today that was a bit...well... of an eye opener.

Keegan is a pretty down to earth kid.  We do a lot of sports and camping and cycling, so he doesn't get much screen time.  He gets up and watches an hour or so of cartoons on the weekends.  Occasionally we have a movie night and watch a movie as a family.  In the winter the screen time is a bit heavier and he plays Skylanders on the PS3 for an hour here and there.

But...he loves playing games on my cell phone when we are out.  When we are driving somewhere, waiting to eat in a restaurant or waiting at the dentist's he loves games!  I see no problem with that, he learns from them and doesn't have to sit through the mind numbing boredom of just...well staring out the window on a three hour car ride.

This year he got a VINCI Tablet only because I was offered one through the Amazon Vine program to review.  He was soooo excited.  It was his own thing to have his games on and his own thing to read his books on and do his math on.  It was his...and it was a piece of utter crap.  Games froze constantly, the thing crashed multiple times a day, the battery wouldn't charge, and it was frustrating for all of us.  The thing just totally sucked...you can read my review of it here...  This thing was so bad that Amazon doesn't even sell it any more.

So when I got my new  Galaxy Note II cell phone, we cleared out my Nexus S and loaded some games onto it and gave it to my son.  He likes it okay, he plays games on it.  But let's be honest I got rid of it for a reason...the battery is shot and the OS needs a reinstall because it runs very slowly...

Today we were walking through Best Buy wondering what to buy with our christmas gift certificates when Keegan stops and looks at me and says "Mom, I really really want a tablet for my birthday."  His birthday happens to be in a month.

A week ago he really really wanted the Lego Mine Set.  A tablet or the Lego Mine set are about the same price...expensive.  So I asked him which he wanted more.  He said..."Definitely the tablet.  I can read books on there, do math on there, watch movies on there, and play Angry Birds."

My 5...soon to be 6 year old son...desires a tablet of his own.  Does he know how to run one...hell yeah he does.   Did he make a well thought argument for wanting one?  Well yeah he did.  Can we afford to get one?  Sure we can, we'd be spending money on a birthday present anyway.  But should we get one?  Should our 6 year old son have a tablet to call his own?

I am big fan of tech.  I love my Kindle (of course I love my paper books too) and would never give it up.  Want to see me in an absolute fit?  Take away my phone.  If my phone fails my life fails...I don't know where I need to be, how to get there, or how to contact anyone without it.

Keegan is fascinated by our phones.  When he wants to know something he can ask the phone.  He just hits the microphone button on his dad's phone and says "How did the Badlands form?" like he did last week.  That phone has told him if coconuts are fruits or nuts (kind of both) and how far it is to the moon.  He is in awe of the phone's knowledge base.  When I couldn't answer the question from him of "whether or not our whole solar system including the sun when combined would be as big as a black hole"...he said "well, mom ask your phone."

But do I get this little kid a high tech device?  I am leaning towards yes.  Just for the reasons he gave me.  We go on trips a lot.  We struggle with the stupid portable DVD player and the darn DVDs that fall everywhere, skip, and get scratched on road trips.  Wouldn't it be awesome if he could watch movies on his tablet instead?  Wouldn't it be cool if we could "pack" along a ton of picture books that he could read in full color instead of making him pick 4 (that constantly get wet during camping trips)?  Wouldn't it be awesome for him to be able to take his own pictures and play games on his own device instead of always stealing mine?

Some of it depends on where you are financially too.  If he destroys this device it's on him.  He's not getting a new one.  But we also aren't in a spot right now where it would wreck us if he did destroy it.

We looked at a variety of options.  Kid based (like the VINCI Tablet or the NABI2 and std tablets (like the Kindle Fire HD or Nexus 7.  All are around $200.  The problem with kid-based ones is the specialized OS that doesn't get regular updates and can have stability problems.  Right now I am leaning towards the Kindle Fire HD because I am so tied to Amazon (by participating in the Vine program, ABNA, Prime, etc).

Is it okay for our kids to be so hooked on these devices?  Right now I think it is a good thing.  He is learning a lot and getting info he wants from our phones.  I get sick of him stealing my phone all the time to do things on it so maybe it's time for him to have a tablet of his own.  I think as long as this tech is balanced with other things in life like sports, play time, and outdoors activities it's a good thing.

We use Google Sky Map to identify stars while we are camping.  We use Geobeagle to hunt down GeoCaches in state parks.  So maybe we can blend this tech with natural life and have some really interesting and good things happen for our son.

As of right now I would love to grant Kee's wish of getting a tablet for his birthday...of course who knows if he will still want this next week.  By next week he may want a pony....which is sooo not happening...