Don't give tablets to your kids. Give them a good PC. On a desk. With keyboard and mouse.
I sounds barbaric but it works.
Discussion
About this, you owe me a phone...
I've destroyed my phone battery with your crazy app ๐๐คฃ๐คฉ
Read with them. There's nothing more pleasant than reading with kids. It helps you appreciate your own voice too.
Have you ever owned a 12 year old at video games? I'm positive destroying your own 12 year old is better than "once upon a time"
Mine are 16 and 14
Which means they are far too old and cool to be seen dead with me.
๐๐๐๐ FWIW, you can do both. I read to the kids (including the 13 and 12 yos) at various points each day as a part of homeschooling. And my husband destroys the teen in COD every night. If the 13 yo learns to shoot straight, though, my hubby will have some competition pretty soon.
reading this to my daughter right now, been amazing
Too late. Screwed up already. But luckily they asking for PC.
bring back the home computer!! it should also be in a main family room, not their bedroom, keep screens out of there.
and honestly, do kids really need the internet? back in my day we had purble place, pinball, and mine sweeper.
Mine Sweeper is one of the best games ever. I got pretty skilled at it too. Microsoft is not all bad. Certainly not back in the win 3.11 days.
Why, besides your own nostalgia?
Kids have to learn to work to get what they need, all the things that they want from an ipad they can have on a computer, and they can learn a whole lot while getting it to work as well.
100%. Some of my favorite memories were using the family computer in the den. My favorite game was SpongeBob Typing ๐. That was the highest leverage thing I did as a kid.
They will come back either as a gamer, a coder, or a black market entrepreneur. Or all 3...
Chromebase (Android for desktops) is ++good for this because you can restrict apps and websites through Google family. You can hate on Google, but they have the best 'free' tools available for this.
Absolutely, I also think that.
I gifted old but perfectly usable PCs to some friends' kids, and installed Simplex (my plan is Nostr, let's see how the groups stuff will go on) to have a secure way to explore communication with family and close friends.
I also gave them some lessons to learn the general basics, and they were enthusiast about this new toy/tool.
And parents was also impressed by the positive reaction and the abilities of their children.
No need for a smartphone.
My 6-year-old daughter sent her first email, typing it with a keyboard and mouse on a Lenovo tablet...
Tablets are just oversized phones.
I totally get where you're coming from! There's something about using a proper setup that really helps kids focus and develop good habits early on. Did you find any specific games or programs that worked well for your kids on the PC?
The important part is not about the which programs but being an active user instead of passive.
Tables and phones want you as passive as possible, like a TV. On a computer, being passive is too boring. Especially when they cannot easily move the PC around.
Absolutely! One would think that Gen Z (or even younger) should be gurus on PC stuff but it is the opposite, smartphone and tablets degenerated them to a point where they need simple-UI apps for everything.
Can we compromise with a 2-in-1 laptop with a mouse and active pen, that we make them buy with their own money?