Reply to Phones In Grade Four? What?!

Forum Index » Elementary School-Aged Kids

Reply to "Phones In Grade Four? What?!"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]For fourth we plan to do a watch with texting capabilities, but easy to lock down so we can limit to only us and MAYBE one or two friends if we know the parents and we know it will be monitored on all sides.

4th/5th is when my kid can start walking to and from school on her own, and also when a lot of kids in our neighborhood start getting a bit more freedom (like walking to a friends how on their own, playing at the playground down the block without an adult) so it makes sense to have some kind of communication device at that age. We recently started leaving our kid home alone for very short periods of time (like 15 minutes) while we run errands, and we taught her how to call us using her dad's iPad in case of emergency. So the watch would be the next step from that.

I would also like to wait until 8th grade for an actual phone and that's our plan, but I don't think you just deny all personal tech and then give them an iPhone on the first day of 8th grade. We have to teach these kids how to use this technology. Yes phones have huge downsides, I don't want my kid addicted to her phone or getting into mental health issues on social media. But she needs to know how to text, how to look up directions, how to navigate the internet, and yes, how to use social media responsibly. That starts with some supervised use of personal tech devices when they are ready, and I think a 4th grader is ready for a watch and some texting privileges.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics