To wish I'd never bought my children Ipads?

Agreed, you can create a google family link where you oversee and permission everything, as well as setting screen time limits there, so it automatically shuts off.
It is the same with mobile phones, you can completely lock them down with very basic functionality, and linked to you/old phone etc. They can call a parent walking home from secondary school, school lock them up through the day.

It’s not educational though is it. It’s just educating your kids to be passive consumers of screens. Take the iPads away today and raise children who learn how to amuse themselves with toys, paper and crayons, books, dolls, dress-up, crafting … just be a proper parent, you know, the kind of decent parent that there were loads of BEFORE screens.

You could also consider that you are doing your children a favour by not introducing them to the frustration of always wanting more screen time.

Awful. Learning is so much stronger when done by hand.

Leappads are very expensive for what they are. And the software is a complete rip off.

I can totally see why they are no longer a thing. For the same price you can buy a proper tablet, use parental controls and access millions of apps and games for a fraction of the price.

In fact I think some leapfrog apps made it to the Google Play store.

Ideally, just take them away.

Easier - turn the internet off and shrug your shoulders and say they must be broken, pretend to send them off to be fixed, after a couple of weeks just say that it's looking like they can't be fixed. Oh well never mind, who wants to play pirates?

I went to university 2003, and even then, all assignments were typed from the very beginning. They now use computers in secondary school, so not as long as you may think. They also have IT in primary. I'm surprised your dc doesn't have that now?

Take them off them. Sell them.

I learned typing in Uni but I expect that by then it will be redundant as it will be all voice controlled..... tech moves so fast there us literally no point teaching an 8 year old any of it!

My youngest will be 11 in summer, no Ipad. Our Kumon tutor is trying to convince me to buy one for educational benefits, but I am not giving in for as long as I can. Because I have lots of experience with my older boys. Bought him a smart phone in September, and in October took it back. It was a huge mistake. I was thought a mean mum for a month or two, but I can cope.
You are in the driving seat. You understand the situation better than your children.

What is the problem? I remove devices from my dc (20 y.o) and my husband when necessary.

Rhiannon93 · Today 10:53

When I was a kid I didn’t have an iPad but I had an educational tablet that was loaded with educational games and interactive books

A Leap-pad? Think they’re still available.

I’m not surprised by this

Of course ‘the judgement is out in force’ OP. What the hell were you thinking? Six?! Why you’d encourage this is absolutely beyond me when all the evidence points to how damaging this is. Grow up and parent properly ffs.

Does he do any typing? They have IT at school, so it is important they have this skill. You can get educational A.I apps where the child types in questions, and it answers; it's a sort of fact finding mission eg, Egyptians. The school have just given this, my child is the same age. Imo you're leaving him behind tech wise. The world is computer orientated eg, high school/university/offices etc. When will he start to learn typing?

I have an 8 year old and no ipads allowed at all. Just TV. I have no idea if other kids have them or not as I don't care. He isn't getting one because I see no benefit. The school set stuff on apps but I have told them we won't be doing any homework set on any apps so if they have homework to set it needs to be on pen and paper. I've taught him all he needs to know via flashcards and old fashioned methods like workbooks. He is exceeding expectations in all areas. Screens make kids lazy in my opinion.

It's very, very, very simple.

Take the ipads away, for good.

You are their parent and they deserve for you to look after their mental well-being, as well as their physical. Admit to yourself the ipads don't contribute anything to their lives, and reverse the mistake

I agree, it isn't an either/or situation. There is a balance. They can still do a range of activities.

And this sort of tech-use also causes ADHD-like symptoms which are “acquired” rather than hard-wired in the brain.

https://neurolaunch.com/vast-adhd/

Get your kids off those iPads.

It wouldn't be MN without judgement, and exaggeration! No tech until 15 of course! 😂

I would just remove them.

we need to normalise saying to our children ‘I made a mistake and it’s nothing you have done wrong, this is my mistake as a parent.’ And removing the device. It’s one sentence and if you deliver it correctly it brooks no argument.

www.commonsensemedia.org/articles/parents-ultimate-guide-to-youtube-kids

Even Kids YouTube has porn and horror stuff on it. What the fuck were you thinking?

When I was a kid I didn’t have an iPad but I had an educational tablet that was loaded with educational games and interactive books. I still remember the Lion King book where you could press the letters and it’d read it for you or you could press leaves/characters and it’d tell you fun facts. I loved it and spent a lot of time playing the games and I achieved very highly at school.

You need to seriously modify the iPads, there’s no reason they should be on YouTube at that age and you’ve no idea what they’re watching.

there are lots of monitoring apps that you can use. Download lots and lots of educational apps and delete everything else. Lock the App Store so they can’t download anything. The iPad is for educational fun, not mindless watching.

Six year olds with their own iPads blows my mind.

What are you thinking of, allowing access to YouTube?

Remove the iPads and give them back, supervised, when they need them for school work.