ipod/mp3 for 5 yr old

[frazzled74]

dd 5, wants mp3 player to be like ds15, wasnt going to get her one but have found out that you can download stories on to them so may be useful for journeys and maybe bedtime.have £40 to spend on her from my dad, any suggestions for good, easy to use ipod/mp3?

We're getting DS2 (4yrs) and MP3 for Christmas. DS1 had one and we have downloaded Horrid Henry stories on it but DS2 wants his own. The one we got DS1 was about £17 from Amazon. It wasn't a known brand but it was quite robust. It's like a large memory stick and you just plug it into the USB port to download.

My main criteria for DS2's will be that it is sturdy and not one of those nice slim ones that look like mobile phones which will probaly last about 10mins. As it is primarily for stories sound quality isn't crucial. Also the cheaper ones tend to be easier to use as there are less 'twiddly' bits.

You won't get an ipod for £40. Not a new one anyway.

You could probably get an mp3 from argos or wherever. I personally would not get one for a four year old though, as the volume settings etc would be in their hands, and listening to headphones too loud can do a lot of damage to your hearing.

You can play them through speakers. Take away the earphones if you are worried (that is what I will probably do).

Bought dd1 (5.5) a barbie mp3 for Xmas for £10 from Toys R Us. They have others from 10-20 I think.

I'd spend the rest on speakers so she can use them to listen to stories in her bedroom.

(You can get an ipod shuffle for about £30-40)

DS1 (aged 5) wants one too.

They are selling them cheap in Aldi next week.

I don't think children this age should use earphones for all sorts of reasons, so why not get her a nice cd player and some story cds to play on it?

I'd agree about the earphones. Just don't give them with the player.

Make sure you get speakers so that they can be used without earphones

I got a metallic pink ipod from e-bay for £19.95 last week on a buy it now thing! Couldn't believe it! And it arrived a few days later, and it's real!! It's for dd for Xmas and she's 9, from MIL. We're getting her a DS. We wouldn't let her have things like this when she was younger; I'm sure we had reasons but I can't remember them now!

Be careful about earphones/headphones though. You can get ones specially for kids which limit the volume or something so their hearing isn't devastated by the time they're 20.

Here is the site for kids' earphones.

My ipod has a thing where you can lock the maximum volume on it. If you got an ipod, I guess you could lock it at a lower rate for children.

It's not just the volume - I have a "thing" about little children plugged into earphones and cut off from the world - it's bad enough when teenagers do it, but teenagers are supposed to be trying to cut themselves off from the world. 5 year olds are supposed to be embracing the worlds with every fibre of their being!

yes thinking about it ,might hold off, its bad enough being ignored by ds15