Apple Watch or new Pinwheel Watch

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In school year 25/26, watches will not be allowed in dcps accross all grades. I understand that you want to get one, and i don't conceptually object to getting a 10yo a watch, but they would have to turn off their watch and put it in their backpack. It gets worse in middle school, when any watches would have to be put in a pouch and then put in a bin corresponding to your kid's last period teacher to get it back at the end of the day.
So, the watch would be fine for in transit times, but if you wanted to use it to tell your kid that some activity had been canceled or to ask them if theyremembered their lunchbox, etc, you would be outof luck.
fwiw, none of this matters if your son goes to private.

I have no issues with them having to put it away. The point of it is to track the kid when they aren’t in school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just get the Apple Watch. It’s amazing how much has changed in a few years. I have a high schooler and it seems they weren’t as popular when she was in 4th/5th, but I also have a 5th grader and everyone got Apple Watches in 4th and now ending 5th the majority now have iPhones.

The watch made it very easy to push the iPhone to a later age. We got DS a watch in 5th and just got iPhone in 8th. The Phone did not go to school bc he has a watch to reach us if needed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In school year 25/26, watches will not be allowed in dcps accross all grades. I understand that you want to get one, and i don't conceptually object to getting a 10yo a watch, but they would have to turn off their watch and put it in their backpack. It gets worse in middle school, when any watches would have to be put in a pouch and then put in a bin corresponding to your kid's last period teacher to get it back at the end of the day.
So, the watch would be fine for in transit times, but if you wanted to use it to tell your kid that some activity had been canceled or to ask them if theyremembered their lunchbox, etc, you would be outof luck.
fwiw, none of this matters if your son goes to private.

Link? I can't find anything that says all watches are banned. That seems ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

I hate the watches. Kids who have them are constantly interrupted and it’s much harder as an adult to police (notice who has one on) until they are already texting.

I much prefer kids having a phone that they have to put in a bag during activities. It’s less distracting, and isn’t a constant temptation. I also know I’m apparently the odd one out on this opinion. But we’ve had no issue with giving my oldest a phone, and are able to limit her to only messaging, calling and google maps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In school year 25/26, watches will not be allowed in dcps accross all grades. I understand that you want to get one, and i don't conceptually object to getting a 10yo a watch, but they would have to turn off their watch and put it in their backpack. It gets worse in middle school, when any watches would have to be put in a pouch and then put in a bin corresponding to your kid's last period teacher to get it back at the end of the day.
So, the watch would be fine for in transit times, but if you wanted to use it to tell your kid that some activity had been canceled or to ask them if theyremembered their lunchbox, etc, you would be outof luck.
fwiw, none of this matters if your son goes to private.

Link? I can't find anything that says all watches are banned. That seems ridiculous.

The DCPS policy is here: https://dcps.dc.gov/cellphones

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In school year 25/26, watches will not be allowed in dcps accross all grades. I understand that you want to get one, and i don't conceptually object to getting a 10yo a watch, but they would have to turn off their watch and put it in their backpack. It gets worse in middle school, when any watches would have to be put in a pouch and then put in a bin corresponding to your kid's last period teacher to get it back at the end of the day.
So, the watch would be fine for in transit times, but if you wanted to use it to tell your kid that some activity had been canceled or to ask them if theyremembered their lunchbox, etc, you would be outof luck.
fwiw, none of this matters if your son goes to private.

Link? I can't find anything that says all watches are banned. That seems ridiculous.

The DCPS policy is here: https://dcps.dc.gov/cellphones

They’re welcome to talk to the hand.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kind of hard to say because it's new. We opted for the Apple Watch. Gizmo is another option but it's got bad reviews. Apple Watch also comes in multiple colors, which is extremely important for a 10 year old! It costs us $20 a month and was $300 for the SE.

Gizmos are horribly glitchy, designed for 6 year olds, and their seemingly fancy charging system does not work consistantly. They have a literal APP preinstalled that makes fart noises amon other sounds. Also, there is a horrible approval process to add peoples numbers, and you cannot text anyone unless they install the gizmohub app, otherwise you are restricted to a calling system that rarely goes through. The bad reviews are justified. It is a gimmicky watch with a terrible clunky design and useless camera.

Weird my kid has had the same gizmo watch for 3 years and it has been great.