Need some tech help

So my son (9) has decided that he desperately NEEDS and Ipod touch, Ipad, kindle fire, or something. He has currently saved all of his bday and xmas money, but he still doesn't have enough for even a refurbished Ipod touch. The main priority is something that will play the game Minecraft. Honestly, I think what has happened is that this is the first year that tech stuff has been/encouraged at school. For the first time, Timothy is seeing what all of his friends really have. They have "Fun Friday Tech Days" where the teachers allow the kids to sit and play electronics for the last hour of the day. And for some reason, they've started allowing the kids to bring electronics to lunch and play them at lunch.

Timothy currently has a basic Nintendo DS. We were mean parents and made him buy his own. We did help him shop and helped him buy a used one on Ebay for $35. He really does like it and still plays it a lot. I honestly think it's seeing what everyone else really has that's driving his nuts. Even Sarah just bought a DS off of ebay. She is interested in them but I think the constant seeing them at school has made her want one. She had nothing to bring to tech day.

Anyway, so what platforms can you play Minecraft on? How much memory do you really need? And what are the good products? Honestly, we're just not that into tech around here. The only thing we have with a touch screen is a gps and dh and I still use pay per minute cell phones. So, this is very uncharted territory for us.

Marissa

 

I would buy an ipad mini simply because its just a bit more than a touch. We have a variety of games on it and the girls share it well. It can also be used to go online and do homework.

 

https://minecraft.net/

You can do it on PC/Mac or on apple products/android products. According to amazon, it is also available for kindle.

My DS loves his kindle but he has a separate ipod for music. I would honestly let him decide what to buy, you can compare all of the devices and ask him how he plans on using it and then make that decision. Also, for DS, a 16gb device was more than enough for his games/books. Try to get him to narrow it down so you can focus his money goal. Good luck!

 

No advice, but shocked the school is encouraging more screen time! :faint:

 

If you don't want to go the Apple - IPad route, you can buy an Android device - such as a Kindle fire or a 7" Nexus - Nexus is an Android based tablet sold by Google - and they are about $200. You can make an Amazon account and you can log in from the tablet and you can download TONS of free games including some Minecraft games. You can also log in from a Google account and the Google store has similar free games like the Amazon store. You can also install Kindle on it and he can also use it to read - I think a tablet will be more useful in the long run. You can get a 10" Acer Iconia for about $300 and for that one you can add a micro SD card - this way you can upgrade the storage space for movies, pictures, movies, music, books, games.

 

Yeah, I was shocked to read that also...

 

I work there (off in one of the resource rooms) and I'm shocked at the amount of screen time at school. The kids are in 3rd grade and they've probably only had about 4 Fun Fridays with tech. Some have been spent making crafts. But next year in 4th grade the teachers do Fun Friday every single week. If the weather is warm enough, they do an extra recess. If not, it's movies or tech/game time. The day before xmas break, the 4th grade orders pizza, plays video games all day and wears pjs. Often on Fridays, the school puts on movies in the cafeteria during lunch time. I just know next year they'll get even more screen time in school.

This school has some of the highest test scores in the state, so their education isn't suffering. I just don't like this whole tech thing that's creeping in. Last year I volunteered in the lunchroom quite a bit and never saw kids with games.

If all the devices do Minecraft, I think his goal is whatever he can enough money for first. He doesn't really like to read on the kindle (I have a basic black and white e-reader Kindle that my parents gave me). So I don't think that being able to read on it is a priority. He tends to like the smaller size of the Ipod touch.

I'll also look at the pc version.

Marissa

 

My girls have certain days that their school lets them bring in electronics, but I refuse to let my girls bring in anything.

With that said, I would figure out what device works best for what he wants. I know from having a kindle fire, an itouch, an ipad as well as we had an android tablet ( i think it was a vizio) that we bought at costco and returned before the 90 day return policy was up. I would go with an apple device. The controls of it are so much better than the kindle fire and the android tablet.

 

And on the bringing it too school. H E L L NO. I didn't pay that much for an ipad for all the grubby kids to be all over it and possibly break it. Enough stuff gets messed up at school as it is with out adding expensive electronics to it. Molly(the ipad) goes every where with us. They named her and are very good at taking care if her. I even make sure she's put up when the cousins are here because the don't have anything nice and don't know how to teach things right. Something is always getting broke when they are here.

 

That's part of why we make them buy the stuff. I've noticed that the kids are much more careful with stuff when they have to plunk down their money. The first couple of times, Timothy chose not to take his DS to school. He's only taken the DS to school twice. I think it's just getting harder for him. When I walked into the lunchroom on Thursday, Timothy was sitting by his best friend who was sitting there with an Ipad and both boys were nose-down in Minecraft.

Dh and I talked last night. We're just going to be mean and say "no" to Timothy buying anything right now. While we understand that it's hard to see other kids have so much stuff at school, Timothy has literally not been content with anything for several months. He was totally obsessed with what he was going to get for xmas. Then after he saw what he got there, he started obsessing over his bday. Now that that's come and gone he's obsessing over Ipods, Ipads and everything. Timothy is never content. He's chasing the next thrill. So, we're putting the brakes on him. He's not happy with me because I just told him, but we're really tired of the whiny, ungratefulness that seems to be his new attitude.

This is giving Timothy time to earn more money. It's also giving me and dh time to think. We are considering buying a Kindle Fire in a couple of months. We're doing some serious travel this summer which involves alot of car time and then another trip which is going to be the first time the kids fly. It would be a shared family tablet that I think we would all enjoy as a travel toy.

Marissa

 

The only electronic that my boys are allowed to bring to school is their NOOK. They have the Simple Touch, and all it does is have books, so they bring it for their daily reading. They did get a Nexus 7 tablet for Christmas. They share it--it does NOT go to school! They do play dragonvale and many other games on it--all free. The 16 GB version is $200, so much better than an ipad. Actually, I am bringing it with me to a Christian school where I work to show the principal. He is considering getting them for the school, since he can buy 3 for the price of one iPad, and he doesn't like that Apple doesn't allow him to use the Google programs like Google Sky, which he uses when teaching technology.

 

Wow that's shocking to me but I wonder if since they give them the screen time that they pay more attention in class and do homework at home because they aren't in *need* of getting everything done so they can play video games mode?!

I think your doing the right thing. My kids are younger but I got in a habit of spoiling them and while its still hard for me I say no, they seem to be more grateful when we go places and do things

 

This is my two exactly!! They play with the two kids next door and their father bought them each Kindle's for Christmas. I have heard nothing but "THEY have Kindle's and WE DON'T!! It's not fair!" So they go outside to play and all four of them huddle in a little circle over the two Kindle's. It's so aggravating. Mine have DS's (which I bought used and gave them for their birthday a couple years ago) and the each have refurbished laptops which I limit their time on. They do also play games on my phone and my Kindle occasionally but it's never enough. The main reason I limit their computer time is because they throw massive hissy fits when I tell them time's up, turn it off. I hate to be like "when I was your age...." but I have definitely said it to them! UGH.

 

On of my boys LOVES mine craft! They each have an iTouch that the got for Christmas a while back. That being said they just got their older brother's used xbox to play mine craft on and it is a lot better. He really was asking for a laptop (wasn't going to happen) but my older son and nephew (both 16) said that the Xbox version was better for his age (7).

As a side note I had no idea what mine craft was but it is actually really cool! I have heard it called the new Legos. Apparently Legos has become an adult toy in the way that it is sold as sets with themes and you build them and put them on a shelf as opposed to in the past when it was more like free play and see what you can build. With mine craft you free create. The other nice thing over here was that since the little guy found it first he has lured his 16 year old brother and cousin into playing with him and he is now the expert. He thinks that's pretty cool and so do they

 

Nintendo DS is a real treasure. I have bought it a year ago for my twin boys (one for each). The “Nintendo 3DS” is still very much worth it in 2021. It has plenty of backward compatible and exclusive games only found on that system. It's also much more affordable to jump in this late in the game with second-hand sellers dropping the prices even more. But mine is from aliexpress. Don't know how I found them, but they're cool. If you would like to order from aliexpress use Alitools extension.