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.

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.

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.

My kid and her friends have the gizmo. I don’t want random people to be able to call or text her so prefer the gizmo controls over Apple Watch.

Apple Watch with cellular. We had the gizmo before that. We like the watch bc she can text or call us in emergencies.

There are at least 2 kinds of Apple watch for any model that Apple sells. Both have GPS and Bluetooth. The difference is one kind has cellular (paid subscription needed) and the other does not have cellular.

Apple Watch SE gps + cellular . The cellular part is important

I’m also looking to buy a smartwatch / maybe an Apple Watch for our riding 5th grader. Which model do most people chose for kids? Is there one that is basic or entry level?

+following

Ask around to see what your kids’ friends have/are getting. At my kids’ Capitol Hill school, pretty much everyone had a Gizmo and we loved its lack of functionality, so we went with that. But I might have caved to an Apple Watch if that’s what everyone else had, because Gizmo can only chat with phones with a downloaded app/other Gizmos.

Just got the apple watch for my kid. All his friends have the watch so it’s easy except 1 friend and his watch you have to download some app, etc.. Big pain and I don’t think my son is going to do it,

You can control everything in the watch from your phone. I’m only 5 days in but it’s been easy and great. DS can’t download any apps without my permission. Downtime you can control or shut down what you want. Screentime can control content, etc…

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.

We also chose an Apple Watch. Like PO says, there isn’t much one can do on an Apple Watch so there aren’t so many controls needed.

We did Apple Watch bc it’s compatible w all of our devices, friends iPads, and I don’t really need to secure much bc it’s a watch. She’s texting and calling and I can put it on school mode.

This is not a debate on "if" we are getting our 10 year old a watch, its a question of which. If you are going to come in and tell me how horrible a mother I am to get my kid a device, save it for another thread.

I got an alert that the pinwheel watch is now available (https://www.pinwheel.com/kids-smartwatch?srsltid=AfmBOop_WR8PDVnsBM764ytseRw6dllVu4V_5juTpCXLnCFIA-XzFiVj). I was planning on getting my rising 4th grader a watch as she will be traveling by bus to school starting next year and I want to give her a bit more freedom to walk to friends' houses in the neighborhood and walk to the bus stop. I was going to do the Apple Watch SE and I'm still leaning there but I like the increased controls on the Pinwheel. Then again, if everyone else has Apple and imessage I don't want her to miss out there...

What are others doing?