MP3 Player for 5yo

[womblingfree]

Forgive me if this sounds like a bonkers/indulgent idea - I've never used one before, hence the question.

DD is 5.3, and loves her music and story CD's. The CD player she had for her 3rd birthday is on its way out and I'm wondering about replacing it with an MP3 Player & speakers for Christmas.

She is very computer literate for her age and it would have the advantage that I could load her music onto it and not have loads of CD's lying around to get lost/scratched.

She could also take it on car journeys and when we go camping (am thinking of something reasonable but not too posh!)

Would I be able to rip story CD's onto the PC then transfer them on as well though?

Any opinions would be much appreciated as really haven't got a clue about them, but does seem like quite a good idea on some levels?

womblingfree....i can't give you any advice whatsoever on this as i too haven't got a clue.I do,however,have a dd who is so into her music aswell and have been thinking of doing exactly the same thread as this!!!
(Is an Ipod the same as an mp3 player?)

Ipod is the Apple branded MP3 Player. She won't be getting one of those as they're too bloody expensive, but anything that reduces the amount of CD's strewn all over her bedroom has to be a good thing IMHO!

Might just have a look at a few on line. If I come up with anything good will post a link here for you.

DD (7) just got an MP3 player for her birthday and loves it - so far it's mainly full of High School Musical and Hannah Montana, but when I get time I'm thinking of putting some story CDs on there too. I can't see any reason why you couldn't do that - I've put story CDs on my iPod.

My only issue with the MP3 player for her is that because it is only a fairly basic one, there is no digital display to tell you what is playing or select songs, so you just have to keep on clicking forward to the next track. This could get rather tedious if you had a lot of stuff on there. But it would be quite easy just to put a limited selection of music/books on for a journey.

Oh, and for some reason this gadget aimed at kids (it's a Disney one) has adult-sized earphones - they have the little rubber bits you actually push into your ears, but they are much too big for her and won't stay in. I have had to dig out some other headphones that hook over her ears.

Thanks for that ex. If I do go for it I'm going to try and find a reasonably priced one with the display (largely cos I may have to 'borrow' it from time to time and not having one will annoy me!!!)

Do you reckon a tecchie minded 5 YO would manage it then?

Well, I presume you'd do the actual loading music on to the computer and syncing it, at least the first few times? But after that actually operating the gadget should be v easy for your DD. Mine was using my ipod (if I let her...) on car journeys when she was four or five. Her brother sometimes had to help if I was driving and she couldn't find the track she wanted.

I would load the stuff on for her, but she knows her way round the PC, laptop, remote controls and any mobile phone she can get her hands on so I think she'll manage!!!

I got DD an MP3 from ebay for her 5th birthday. It is a replica Ipod Shuffle. She loves it, it looks EXACTLY like a shuffle...my sister has one and can't tell the difference.

It cost me £8!!!

plus it is incredibly simple to use.

Ds had one for his 7th birthday too! He had a cd player when he was a baby and always listens to music or a story when he's going off to sleep and was quite young when he learned how to work the cd/tape. He's had no problems with working the ipod or the speakers and I load the music for him. When I figure out why itunes won't let me put the audio books on and rectify I'll start putting them on too!

Ds has an ipod nano and the speakers were from Tesco. My family and I clubbed together otherwise it'd have been too much for me on my own.

I also bought a travel speaker that's built into its own bag (big enough to store ipod and headphones) that is powered by the ipod which is fab if we're away. He's taken it every time we've been away since his birthday.

I think I might get one of these and see how it goes:

www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/3876406/Trail/searchtext%3EMP3+PLAYER.htm

Wasn't planning to go the gimmicky route and will look on ebay as well first but seems ok and DD is barbie mad. Have also found matching speakers for it on amazon!

www.amazon.co.uk/LEXIBOOK-HPB100-Barbie-Speakers/dp/B002ACP2P4/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&s=toys&qid=1258501 849&sr=8-8

I would go for something with a built in battery or something that can be charged up on the speakers. My first mp3 player cost about £20 and had to charged via my usb on the pc - it was rubbish. If it hadn't been charged each day I could guarantee it'd be flat when I wanted to use.

Have done some more research and found this which looks like a much better option...

www.toysrus.co.uk/Toys-R-Us/Sound-and-Vision/MP3-Players/-4GB-18-Media-Player-Pink(0071537)