Anonymous wrote:we bought a kindle fire on prime day for like 40$. it's not user friendly as others have said but we don't have to stress about a child breaking it the way we would with an ipad mini, because it's plastic and relatively cheap.

I like the kindle fire. It was $35 on Black Friday last year, and my son hasn't had any problems with it being user friendly. I do use free time mode, but only with my content - we don't pay for free time unlimited or whatever.

Anonymous wrote:We have a Kindle Fire and I despise the thing. NOT user friendly at all, especially in FreeTime mode. Mine also tends to pick and choose when certain apps work. If you have the funds, go for the iPad mini. Seriously.

Totally agree, hate my kindle fire, I wish I could trade it in for another android tab, like my gtab, to give to my kids for their use. I am planning on buying another android tab for the kids and maybe giving my fire to my parents....I HATE the fire's interface, and you can't change it without rooting it.

If you have a young toddler, an android tab running lollipop is great because you can "pin" an app to the screen - meaning it stays there and your toddler can't end up on a different screen by hitting buttons. MY 24 month old plays puzzle and learning games sometimes but if I didn't have the pin screen option, he would constantly be hitting buttons taking him out of the game and into different things.

We got our kids $80 Radio Shack brand Android tablets from WalMart. They use the Google store for their apps and they are incredibly easy to set up.

Anonymous wrote:I'm very confused about why you'd want to get something like this for her. It sounds like you know it could already be an addiction. Why fuel it? There are so many wonderful tactile learning games that won't set you up for screen time agreements. She'll quite possibly have most of her school and working life to share at screens. Don't distract her further from outdoor play or real life.

Because parents are lazy

NOT a fan of electronics for elementary-schoolers. They have a lifetime to enjoy electronics, why not stick to books and the great outdoors for now?

Skip it. Every kid now is begging for devices. Don't give in. They'll be just as addicted (or more) than we all are to our devices. Why start them on this so young?

Leap frog is a huge waste of money. Kindle or get yourself
a new iPad and give the child your old one

I think the pp who claimed to buy a 2 year old(!?) an iPad must be trolling for a reaction.

Anonymous wrote:We got our daughter an ipad when she was 2. (Neither dh or I have one, never really wanted one.)

Besides being fun for her, it's also been a lifesaver for travel. We don't let her use it at restaurants or anyplace out like that, but for flights it's like having a theater, bookshelf, and toy box all in one little device.

There's never been a problem limiting "screen time" - we tell her to put it away when it's time to and she does.

This is hilarious.

We just got out 7 year old a chrome book. It works better with school apps like dreambox and lexia. He is learning to type and is learning scratch programming. Overall he sees as it as something to do schoolwork on not as something to play games on. It was half the price of an iPad.

OP, read CNET buyer's guide on tablets and Common Sense Media reviews for apps.

The kindle fire was a waste of money. When DS got to the point where he actually had computer homework it wouldn't work for anything. I am not a fan of screen time for kids but if you need it and can afford it, we have a laptop for homework and an iPad only used for movies on long road trips. The kids are learning to type and the real keyboard in the laptop has been helpful over the iPad.

I would kind of lean towards an ipad.

I like Android tablets too.

But with the ipad you can often find good quality free apps for kids.

I haven't found the equivalent in Google Play. For the kids, the main purpose of an Android tablet would be to stream or watch local videos because you can expand the memory cheaply by adding a SD card to most of the tablets. And most of the games I find on there for cheap are geared towards older kids and people.

I consider the Fire from time to time. Didn't like it at first because thought it was kind of too proprietary. But know other people who seem to be happy with it for their kids. Plus they offer a lot of free apps on it on Amazon Underground or something.

The ipad minis go on sale for about $180 to $220 from time to time and is probably the highest price point that I'd consider for a tablet for kids.

Anonymous wrote:We got our daughter an ipad when she was 2. (Neither dh or I have one, never really wanted one.)

Besides being fun for her, it's also been a lifesaver for travel. We don't let her use it at restaurants or anyplace out like that, but for flights it's like having a theater, bookshelf, and toy box all in one little device.

There's never been a problem limiting "screen time" - we tell her to put it away when it's time to and she does.

What?!

We got our daughter an ipad when she was 2. (Neither dh or I have one, never really wanted one.)

Besides being fun for her, it's also been a lifesaver for travel. We don't let her use it at restaurants or anyplace out like that, but for flights it's like having a theater, bookshelf, and toy box all in one little device.

There's never been a problem limiting "screen time" - we tell her to put it away when it's time to and she does.