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?

Well yes, computers are a great tool, but does a young child really need their own? It seems to me that the reason given for own laptops, DSs, TVs in room is the same - for the parent's sake rather than the child's.

I'm rather old fashioned in thinking that kid's don't need their own laptops until they are in their last years of senior school and definitely in Uni. DSs are completely unnecessary in young children, and I'd rather put up with boredom and have them rely on other tools (imagination, games). Internet games are not necessary to the well being and intellectual development of my child and don't even get me started on Facebook accounts for the under-teens! Makes life a bit more painful for me to share my laptop and try and entertain kids on long journeys, but hey, "this too will pass" and they will learn good coping mechanisms for boredom.

My kids are familiar with the computer and the older one is quite adept with it - that doesn't mean I'm going to rush out and buy him one.

Very interesting threads. My son 5. I'm interested in people saying they don't need them for homeowrk as many schools use study wiz and my son sch uses education city. It has helped him immensly as he is struggling with writing yet by playing games where he has to spell words his confidence has grown and he is bridging the gap betweeen him and his peers.

I may be eligable for free laptop for him when he's 7 and will apply if I am but you have to use sense and limit what they can access.

I DO NOT allow him to have it alone in his room where I can't monitor what he is looking at.

I beleive there is a gap in the owrld for technology as a tool but not as the be all and end all.

Having read all the threads I still don't understand, or have not read any argument that explains why a 5 or 6 year old needs their OWN computer. My 5 and 3 yo share ours and they get plenty of opportunities to do bits. They also get plenty of access at school. Their teachers (nursery and reception) have both commented on how computer literate they both are - so really I have never felt the need for them to have their own. Like they don't have their own tv in their bedrooms (but that could be another thread altogether lol) I think it's actually good for them to learn to share resources anyway. Maybe I am old fashioned this way!?

Well, DS doesn't have a laptop because it's a "necessity", but because it's the sort of laptop you'd otherwise find on Freegle.

Actually, never mind the laptops (and iPods and iTouchs commonly owned by primary school age children...) According to DS he is the only one in his class (30 children, age 8-10yo) who doesn't have his own mobile phone.

Mind, I'd say around here it's the norm to start letting them go to/from places on their own at age 8-9yo. The one time I tried to let DS take my phone with him somewhere he managed to lock it and couldn't even answer my calls, anyway (sigh).

At our school, kids have access to a site called Studywiz and homework is sometimes set on it, so she does have free access to the laptop. She's 9. She is more sensible than me, so I don't see it as an issue. She also reads and writes well, so this isn't a replacement for that.

I used the laptop with her from a very young age and feel that the educational programmes on line helped her with her early reading and language skills. I loved CeeBeebies site and we often read through stories on there together and played games together.

DD also has a ds and has had it for over a year. She loves it and so do I! I play on mine way more than she does on hers though. In fact this morning my eyes got so sore playing JewelQuest I had to put an eye pack on

We have a Laptop each in our house

I have DS's 5 & 9 - but my 5 y/o has the oldest one which has been passed down the chain, so it's quite old. DS1 bought his own out of birthday money when he was 9.

My kids love them, they do loads on them and me and DH run our own business's so we don't want the kids on ours! Works for us

My dc share my laptop, but I get first dabs on it! Dd1 (9) is saving up for a laptop, but she will be about 30 before she gets one because she keeps "needing" to buy Dr Who cards and other unrelated tat .

Dd2 is 6 and it has never come up that she should want her own laptop.

They do both have DS lites. Not sure if this is a good thing, but we do restrict time on them.

Each to their own! We have a desktop and a laptop at home - DD1 (6y) has her own profile on these (with strict security settings) so she and DD2 (4y) can go on Education City and other sites they like. No Wii or DS - neither have been requested yet.

DD1 has hinted about a laptop for her next birthday - she won't be getting one.

DD1 is 11, she has her own mini laptop that she saved every penny for. She does all her school projects on it and is wise enough to take good care of it.

Ds3 is 6 I would not dream of letting him have his own, he would not be able to take care of it properly for one thing and for the use he makes of it, sharing the family PC is good enough.

I wouldn't buy one specifically for a 6 year old, but I do think it is useful to allow access on your own. It helps develop a confidence with computer use, just general stuff like dragging and dropping or understanding how to search for things.
I agree there is a benefit to having a separate PC, perhaps an old one where they can muck up the settings without killing your computer, do see the logic there.
My DS did do someting weird to my mouse once.
I don't think I would buy a DS right now, but can imagine they are useful for travelling. Would probably buy an old gameboy off Ebay for this age, due to dropping down the loo type incidents.
My little boy (5)loves playing things like cbeebies games or lego and is better than me on some of them.
He has a fetish-like interest in searching for lego on Ebay, so have to watch out for 'buy it now' items.

My niece got a DS Lite for Christmas when she was 3. It wasn't even her main present. I was

DD just turned 4 in January and had asked for a computer for xmas as she loved playing games on cbeebies wesite. We didn't buy her one and on xmas day she was devastated that Santa had brought her loads of things she didn't ask for, but not the one thing she did, but a couple of days later when we visited DHs brother he gave her an old one he had lying around which she was thrilled to bits with. DH set it up so the only things she can do on it right now are Paint and cBeebies website. She's only allowed to use it at weekends, and often just goes onto the ceebies site to print out pictures to colour in.

My 3 year old has his own laptop for going on cbeebies website mostly and his films are on there. He has his own so that our more expensive one doesn't get broken and he has damaged his own one a bit (nothing serious) but we think its worth it so that he learns to use IT early on.

Am thinking of getting a laptop for my 9yo but only because he is disabled; otherwise, it could wait until secondary school.

If my dh had been restricted to one hour of computing a day instead of spending all his spare time on computers, figuring them out and teaching himself how to programme them, he wouldn't be able to support his family of (soon to be) five, doing a job he loves, aged 30 as he does today.

my dd1 is 13 and she is pleading me but my dd2 is 6 and she doesn´t need laptop realy children who have their own laptop can get learning problems it was proven that children who play computer games all the time can´t work concentrated so: NEVER LET A SIX YEAR OLD HAVE THEIR OWN LAPTOP

my 7yo dd has a pc in her bedroom, it was handed down from BIL, its not connected to the internet and she only goes on paint or does some typing she got a DS when she was nearly 6.

NKffffffffee0f8010X114082... has a definite point. Same with my brother, lucrative business before he had even left school, still going strong 20 years later.

Laptops don't have to be used for mindlessly playing the same games over and over. Dd has one because she wants to be a writer. And for school projects. My brother had one for programming. I, of course, use mine for Mumsnetting. Now which one of us should have had that computer removed at an early stage?

I really can't imagine getting DCs their own computer.

We have a wii though, most games are only for DH and me (and DSCs when they visit) - but DD, 2y9m, is great at yoga on wii fit plus! And yesterday she was copying DH on just dance, it was so so cute.

DH won a DS lite before the DCs were born, we've mostly stopped playing it as DD is a bit rough. When she's older I'll get her some games for it but she can share, as she will share the laptop. She has a toy laptop (little spelling games, numbers etc) which is fantastic, she'll often tap away on that doing her 'homework'!

Financially we're not in the position to consider having more than one anyway, and I just don't like the way all this tech takes over everything. ICT isn't a big part of our lives - we didn't even have the internet for 2 years, only got it last month for the food shopping! (no car)

FWIW we're not scared of ICT - it has its uses. I'm perfectly competent and will make sure the DCs are, but it's a very low priority in our family life.

I'm sure it would look pretty poncey if you came round to ours to see 4yo DS on his own Macbook - however it's an old one of mine that went wrong and DP fixed it up so that it is just for fun/learning games, no internet, no shoot-em-ups etc. It's great for DS as he is learning to use a mouse (good for his coordination and a skill he'll need) and the games teach letters, number, hand-eye coordination etc. Also it stops him hankering to clamber on us and have a go on our laptops every time we use them.

It's not necessary though and I wouldn't buy a small child their own new laptop, it's just happened here because we are a nerdy household where an old disused laptop is the kind of thing that's lying around. And I don't think it's damaging unless it was being used non-stop to the detriment of other things - we regulate how much time DS spends on it.

The reason dd1 doesn't have one when she is so desperate for one is not because I am scared of technology. She can have unlimited, supervised use of the family pc. She is not required to only ue it for educational purposes she is allowed to play game on a site called gamesforgirls.com and she knows how to access my facebook to play petworld, fishworld etc.

She can probably use a pc better than DH can.

The reason she cannot have one is a) there is absolutely no need, she can use the family one and b) they are so expensive I want dd1 to understand the proper value of things.