Have any of your 6 yr olds got their own laptop?

[LucyJones]

Or is it me who thinks it's completely unnecessary

and where do we stand on 6 yr olds and ds lites?

Am that any 6 YO has their own DS or laptop. My DD (aged 6)uses ours but I would never let her have her own (at least until secondary school) because I think a couple of hours a week is enough for a primary school aged child and would be unnecessary to give her one for such a limited amount of use.

No laptop and no DS/games here, my DSs are 5 and nearly 3.
I hate computer games and dont think that small kids need their own laptops.

DS is 7 and shares a laptop with his sister, who is 14. It is in the dining room and is used for homework (DD) and playing games (DS). We got it for them because we didn't want DD to have a laptop in her bedroom, but felt she needed a lot more internet access for homework now that she is in year 9. DS uses it for lots of interesting games and also for blogging on his school blog. Up until we got it, they both wanted to use our laptops (DP and I have one each for our business) which was beginning to get really inconvenient. I don't think it matters if they have their own, but wouldn't want them using it out of sight anywhere. DS also has a DSi, which is incredibly useful for long car journeys.

One laptop in this household and it is for family use. At ages 6 and 4, both children are quite confident and know their way around one, without much help.

They will get their own when they start secondary school. But that's a while yet, technology will have advanced by then.

Pardon me... I'm showing my age here. But how do they need more internet access for homework? Aren't books enough?

Yes DS1 and DS2 each had DS Lites and desktop PC at age 6. They need PC to do homework and DS Lites to save my sanity on long journeys.

They do homeworks on PC at 6? What kind of homeworks have they got? Here in Italy they write a lot.

They do projects, research, computer generated maths problems.

Ah, I see. Here we only have teachers generated problems. Or traditional means of doing projects

My son ( 5 1/2) got a DS for 5th birthday - very old model and very cheap off ebay!!! He doesn't even notice and plays with it bout 1 hr a week. I have a laptop as at open uni and he has 'homework' from school on education city whch is an internet accessed prog. He is allowed to use laptop for short periods to play cbeebies etc.

He is banned this week for bad behaviour tho as I do see it as a luxury and a treat!!!

Franca no they do not need them for homework

and YES books are enough

not that you'd believe it reading threads like this!

six??????????? i am in serious debate with myself as to whether my 13 year old needs his own.

OMG! 'Why oh why' do people have to judge? IMO ICT is very relevant and a normal part of life so why keep kids away from it. I don't understand the fear?? We have to move with the times. At my daughters school she is always talking about the interactive white board and what she does in ICT. She can also read, write and articulate very well. It is not ICT or the real world we can have both.

Mine gets to share either the old pc or the old laptop, depending on what's actually running at the time. He does have his own DS, which he got for his birthday, but it's actually DH's old one with dodgy hinges and everything. He plays with it about once every 3 weeks, on average!

I have no problem with the DC using the computer or learning about ICT (as one of my posts shows).

I wonder what child needs a laptop to do homework at 6 tho.

My 6yo's homework consists of spellings and sometimes a bit of research - which I help him with on the PC. I really don't see the need for his own computer (which betadad said his DC did before anyone jumps down my throat).

I would never allow a 6yo access to the internet without me right by him anyway, so he may as well do it on the home PC.

mumNWlondon that any 6yo has a DS tho - please!

Just to add, my 6 year old taught himself to read using starfall.com when he was 4 and now spends most of his computer time typing, making scratch move or playing puzzle or maths games. He has exclusive use of a loaned laptop at school, since he has special needs and, even though he can write quite well when his brain is allowing him to, he is far more inclined to tap out some fantastic work with a keyboard than he is to wrestle with a pencil and produce something actually recognisable as a result of his exertion.

who has 'fear' JJ?

I agree with you on that point, clary. While DS1 is highly computer literate and does make extensive use of one at school (as well as the older machines at home, since this house is pretty much a computer retirement home!!!), none of his homework needs a computer. My niece (9) is of course insisting she needs one (but not insisting she needs to use large amounts of birthday and Christmas money to pay for it) even though there is already a computer in the house. Basically, all her friends already have a laptop, so she says.

I'd like to get my 5 year old a laptop.
We share a laptop as our household computer, and it's a really nice one. DD gets a lot out of playing on it sometimes, and I'd like to get her a cheapo, maybe 2nd hand one of her own, that doesn't matter so much. To store her photos, email nana and grandad, play games, go on websites, use the art programs, watch DVDs etc.
We don't have any other sort of games consoles around, and she enjoys the outdoors too much for me to see it becoming any sort of problem.

Sorry McBitchy maybe I should have said inverted snobbery rather than fear as your tone does smack of that.

really? not intended

McB. Glad to hear that you don't live up to your name!! ICT can be good if used sensibly I understand your concerns if it is not monitored or if it is used as a babysitter. For my daughter it works and she loves books so the computer does not take over.

I agree JJ and did not mean to sound mean - I have my view but by no means think it's the right one - it just works for us!

I don't think the issue is kids having the tech - but how blase some parents are about installing appropriate safety filters on the laptop or netbook they give to their child.

There's are many fab things online for children - but there's also a tsunami of grim stuff a mere accidental click away.

It's easy to set up a sign in, access to specific sites only and timed maximum period of usage- but anecdotal evidence suggests too few parents do this.

When my kids were at bricks+mortar school here (US), a lot of homework was project oriented for my 8 and 6 year olds.

Re: 'What's wrong with books'
Nothing is wrong with books, but personally, I don't have access to current information about science and geography in books. I have plenty of books but I don't have immediate access to info on all the religions, cultures and so on that we might want to know about. Being able to look at news articles that are relevant to our work is great. Or the weather... or where we are, earthquake activity!

Using Google Maps is invaluable for teaching geography. What can take forever to explain using globes and printed maps suddenly becomes much clearer when you can zoom right in on countries, landmarks and so on.

Also, my kids have been learning about programming with SmallBasic which is a great introduction to geometry, algebra and logic.

Of course there's no 'need' for a 6 year old to have a laptop or even to have computer access. But I don't understand all the smuggery about only giving one hour a week or no computers until 13. I agree that it sounds more like fear.

Computers are great. No-one's advocating spending 8 hours a day playing Call of Duty, but they give you access to so many tools and complement 'traditional' methods of learning perfectly.