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?

I have a laptop, wii and DS as I love computer games, have been playing them since Atari days. My 5y ds1 old seems to be following in the same footsteps. I accept it as inevitable but am trying to introduce it all slowly as they seem to start so young these days.

He started using the laptop for an hour or so at the kitchen table about 1y or so ago, mainly to play on Poisson Rouge, Thomas website (pairs etc). We got a wii about 6m ago, just as he was turning 5. And I recently let him start using my DS occasionally - so far he only wants to play one game, Ben 10. Mainly on long journesy so far. It is kept in my bag and he doesn't have free access.

Our current level of compromise is that he can play the wii only at weekends so will do an hour or so before tea on Fridays and probably an hour each on Sat and Sun. He would play on it all day every day of course, if left to his own devices. He mainly plays Lego Star Wars at the moment which I have to say he has got impressively good at. I have noticed a big improvement in hos hand-ey coordination, general coordination, colouring, writing etc - but then this may have happenned already with everything the are doing at school.

I accept it as inevitable and also make my living from Computers so I am just trying to let it develop naturally and not take over too much at this stage when they don't have the maturity to know when to stop.

At this stage though I would not buy any equipment specifically for them (tho the wii was a family xmas present from in-laws) and not for a good while yet I don't think. I am sure I will officially pass the DS over to him at some point. I don't see the need for his own laptop for a good while yet tho - we have 3 in the house._

My nearly 8 year old and 3 year old use my or dh's laptop if they need it. There is no way that I will buy either of them one for themselves in the foreseeable future. There is no need for any child to have one, just access to one.

No DS either. Again, I have one which they can use if they want but they rarely use it, sometimes it doesn't get touched for months.

Not all the children who spend lots of time on their pc grow up to become like NKffff's husband or Cory's brother or indeed my brother.

Ds is 7.5 and absolutely doesn't need a pc for his homeworks or to learn more than he could from books, Atlas, dictionaries and the multitude of exercises, projects, math problems etc he gets from school.

So, for now he can use the family laptop, preferebly as little as possible, also because what really interests him is to watch football on youtube

Absolutely agree with NK. I started teaching myself to program at 8 and was subsequently offered a good job as a developer when I left school. My dh also is an IT professional and similarly had the opportunity to develop his skills throughout childhood and adolescence.

If your children are interested in computers, why not let them learn more about them, learn how to build websites, write apps, etc. etc. It's creative, improves maths, logic, design and writing skills, it fosters attention to detail, problem solving and following a project through as well as being a highly valuable and marketable real life skill.

Instead there's all this snobbery about "Well in my day, we played with dolls and read books and hit each other with sticks all day. It was good enough for me!"

But a 6y doesn't need a computer. Just like they don't need toys, books, a trampoline, etc. But soemtimes they moght like one and use them sensibly and responsibly, and technology doesn't mean they stop doing other stuff.

I find the whole attitude on MN sometimes very bizarre over this, as if one thing means the exclusion of others.

As I said, my DD does have a laptop of her own and she has internet access too, and I don't always hover over her when she is online either. I am teaching her sensible use of computers and the internet, and teach her about keep safe online. 6 and 7 is not too young to learn this and hopefully she will grow up with this ingrained into her. I also have security settings and can monitor her computer and internet use remotely anyway.

What does she use it for?

Education City, Mathletics, typing up stories on word, making slideshows of photos, Club Penguin, she uses google images to import pictures into word or powerpoint, etc.

We have never had to restrict use. She does 15 minutes of mathletics a day, and then maybe half an hour more of something. Sometimes a but more, and then will go days doing nothing. If she is told she can't go on it, she doesn't, no issue. If she is told to turn it off she does, again with no fuss.

Yes she could use my laptop. But I would rather she didn't for various reasons.

It doesn't have any negative effect on her development or behaviour either.

It's not inverted snobbery. The sad reality is that a good number of kids don't learn how to build a website or programming when they are at the pc.
Otherwise we'd have a huge population of computer geniouses.

But why does it matter?

Not all children who have a trampoline in the gardne become olympic gymnasts.

Not all children who have shelves of books become fantastic book worms.

Not all children whpo have loads of lego become builders or surveyors.

What is wrong with a child just having something just because they and their parents have decided they can have one?

My 8yo has her own laptop. Its my old, slow one which isn't worth selling and is as slow as anything.

She uses it for Moshi Monsters, Facebook games, Education City, some French education website and one or 2 other selected sites. She can only access allowed sites.

Actually, I find that the attitue on MN is quite the opposite Hula.
Or maybe MN parents only breed children who do highly constructive things with their technology.
That's fab. In RL, the majority wants to play fifa 2010.

Nothing wrong. We've been asked if it's ok for a child to own a laptop at 6, we've answered.
I don't think it's ok for my child to own a laptop or a nintendo ds.

I prefer to spend our money in other activities.

You see I fnd threads like this are normally anti technology on the whole. I wonder sometimes if it is just in our own minds. We know how we feel, so maybe we subconciously only really pick up on the threads that go against that.

I don't know many children with laptops TBH, but I knpw what DD uses hers for (as described). She doesn't have access to games as such as she has grown out of the old games we used to have on a family PC (now gone) and we haven't replaced them as she prefers to use Office or internet based sites like Mathletics or Club Penguin.

I know a few children with a DS and/or Wii. Most use them on and off, like DD. A couple, and I have to say that these are boys (we know mainly girls and very very few boys), can get obsessed wth theirs - but in both cases the parents allow it.

DD is 6 and doesn't have her own lappy. She has access to our desktop, but the lappy is out of bounds because it's our business one and we don't want her messing with it.

She uses the desktop to play cbeebies games and do the Education City homework that the school has set. She doesn't need her own one!

My friend's 8 year old has her own laptop which she got for christmas at a cost of £300! She's always on Facebook hassling people and I think it's a bit wrong TBH.

My 18yr old doesn't even have a laptop

I don't think I would buy a 6yr old a laptop.

But my 7yr old had a DS Lite for Christmas (after much nagging), and having seen that it hasn't actually taken over his life (as I feared it might) we have bough one for DS2's 6th birthday.

I let ds1 (6 1/2) have my old one when he was about 4. It wasn't internet connected and just ran some pre-school games. He got bored with those fairly quickly though.

He's been playing Nick Jr games on our desktop since he was 5ish. I don't see any problem with letting him spend some time on it as long as it's not extreme. He's even built a website with one of those build-your-own programs.

We don't have a ds and I am not planning on getting him one anytime soon. I don't really care to see children sitting around oblivious to their surroundings absorbed in a ds iykwim. I want the dcs to interact more.

DD has her own laptop and she is 3.8. She has only just got it, as it was our old one. She is not able to access the internet on it, however she has her own user profile on our PC, which has cbeebies as a desktop, and a couple of other young child games for her to click on. This is better as she can only access those games and not our last webpages.

She has some non internet games on her laptop though.

I'm not at all anti technology.
Ds can use the family pc (actually we have a Mac ), but he seems to prefer to play football in the hallway. And no, I don't think he'll become a professional footballer!

Also, qwhen mine were as little as 3 they never showed any kind of curiosity towards the computer. Perhaps they are not very ssmart

I've been having this conversation with my DP - I now know of 3 7 or 8yr olds who were given their own laptop which I think is totally ridiculous. I think having access to a computer/laptop is absolutly fine and DD loves playing on there, writing stories etc but to think that she has unlimited access to a laptop at this age I think is a huge extravagance and risky

musical DD has her own laptop but it is completely restricted. She has to ask to use it, and we can and do say no much of the time. We are, and always will be in control of how much usage she has (until her teens I expect, then it will be harder to do).

i think you're missing a pertinent point in that, when we were younger, it was just the really interested "nerds" (like myself) that learnt to build websites, program etc. We were left to our own devices in our bedrooms. But now, every classroom has computers in it, every school has a website, and anyone self-employed [retty much needs a website. They need to be a lot more computer savvy now - like it or not that is just the way life is, so I think a gentle ramping up of using computers from a young age has to be a good thing - they will need to do everything on computers - course work, uni applications, job applications, email, internet shopping, networking (social and professional) - i think it is a diservice to stop them having access at all, if aynyone has chosen this.

I do think they are too young to do it sensibly though so possibly adult supervision and time limiting are the key at this age (primary) - not always easy as I know when you're busy.

Since my last post ds1 and I played 3 levels of Lego StarWars on the wii together and then he and the younger one watched a Thomas Movie. Kind of says it all for 5y olds - they want to try all the grown up stuff but they are still young enough to enjoy Thomas! (mine anyway). Now we are going out for a bike ride. I am pretty happy with that balance for a Sunday afternoon (today, at least!)

My DD has a laptop as at they need one to access to mathletics, spellodrome and fronter the school MLE. We did try her using a shared laptop (with me) but it didn't work as it meant I had to wait until after she had gone to bed to do anything.

The school give them their fronter passwords from reception so I am planning on getting another one for my younger DD once she starts reception.

Errr, laptop completely unnecessary!
DS Lite - I'm probably in the minority but they are banned in this household (we don't have Wii either).

I agree with the laptop being unecessary but a Ds isn't too bad as long as the child is only on for limited times. This goes for the Wii too.

Luke is very active, playing football, going on his bike and plays out alot so I don't begrudge him using my DSi.

My eldest is 19 and has his laptop for university but we have a home desktop computer in the lounge which he uses now and again.

I don't agree with televisions with dvds or with set top boxes in children under 11's rooms though.

Like lots of other things, depends on the child and on the family.

I had a dinghy when I was 10- now I wouldn't regard that as essential for every child, nor did I show any early promise of outstanding sailing ability; it just so happened that I was born into a boating family. In another kind of family I would probably have had a pony instead.

My brother otoh did get his computer (at a time when home computers were rare) because he did show exceptional promise.

DD got a DS at 2 and her own laptop (proper one not a child's one) at 3.5

at Fanjolina - that must be a wind-up!