Elementary Schoolers and texting/messaging?

[Turn the Page]

Buy why do you even need the email step if you have a smartphone?

Because the friend who email does not have a smart phone so they had to resort to the archaic process of emailing.

 

[Turn the Page]

I"d like to add there is a level of drama and aggravation that can come with the texting. I'll just say that kids can be vicious and drop others from their group text on a whim, then go and talk about them in another group text, etc. Just be prepared for this when you go down this road.

It's like Mean Girls only in electronic form.

 

[pocomom]

My 5th grader has had an IPod and phone for several years now. She is not on it constantly but the phone has come in handy on more than one occassion when practice got out early, etc. Texting is the primary way she communicates with friends. ( same with my older dd)
I would start out with a hand me down device until you see how responsible the child is with it.

 

[LisaR]

My oldest had a phone at a pretty young age because there simply wasn't a pay phone to use when practice let out (and the times always varied). My younger one has never been interested in social media or texting. He was much older because the need simply wasn't there. At 18, he still barely uses it.

I'm so glad my kids are older though. It was hard enough navigating kids in the technology age when they were young, but it seems just crazy now. I was watching a show a few months back that showed a calculator app that hides a whole other world behind it. Parents see what looks like a normal calculator and it functions just like one, but once the kid puts in their password, it opens all their hidden stuff. With the simple push of one button, it takes them back to the calculator. I guess the giveaway would be if your math hating kid was always using the calculator! I'm sure there are plenty of other apps that do the same thing, though.

 

[kirstenb1]

All the kids in our elementary school receive an Ipad in the 3rd grade, that they use through 5th. I think now they give them out in middle school too.

 

[havaneselover]

We held off until dd turned 12 (beginning of 7th grade). I thought 6th grade made sense for social reasons but her dad insisted she be 12. She had an iPod touch she could text on though. Honestly I don't get why elementary school kids need phones except for special circumstances (divorced parents, for example).

 

[cmarsh31]

DS is in 5th grade. He has a Galaxy Tablet. No i-anything in our house. He does use Google Hangouts occasionally to talk to one friend but the rest they just call on the phone or ring the doorbell - no texting at all. Not really sure if this is because he's a boy or just how things are here... his friends aren't doing it yet. He'll get a cellphone next year - 6th grade & the transition to middle school seems to be the way it goes.

 

[mjkacmom]

We held off until dd turned 12 (beginning of 7th grade). I thought 6th grade made sense for social reasons but her dad insisted she be 12. She had an iPod touch she could text on though. Honestly I don't get why elementary school kids need phones except for special circumstances (divorced parents, for example).

My kids used them a lot in elementary. Starting around 10 or so, they would walk or bike all over town. It was easy to keep in contact. Ds13 had so many sports practices with vague ending times, so he could let me know when they were over.

 

[tvguy]

While we still have a landline, most around here do not.

.

Lord, I know that. As I posted in the Late for Work thread, it is a huge problem when people don't have a landline and their cell phone has a dead battery or other issue.

 

[aprilgail]

My daughter has one friend she has sort of lost touch with because that girl hasn't had a smart phone. It's unfortunate, but most of the discussions go on in group chats, and it's so easy for those without phones to be left out, especially once they reach high school and can go entire days without running into each other. Her parents don't even have a land line, so she couldn't call her if she wanted to.

I was definitely not sold on all this communication by device. With my daughter at 15 now, I'm still not sold on it. But the genie is definitely out of the bottle. And unfortunately the ones without some sort of device definitely do get left behind.

exactly!

How do kids whose parents can't afford devices deal with that?

Well that is an issue because sometimes in class the teacher will tell the kids to use their phones to look something up and the kids without then have to grub off a kid that has one so they can look something up. They don't have tablets or computers in every room so the phoneless kids are at a disadvantage especially if they can't find a kid willing to let them borrow their phone! Of course the teacher will say "if you don't have a phone pair up with someone that does" but that doesn't always work- when we had limited data I would tell my daughter not to let anyone use her phone because it would cost me money but now they have wifi everyplace in school so its no big deal how long they are looking things up.

 

[Hrhpd]

How do kids whose parents can't afford devices deal with that?

In our high school (public,) it is mandatory to have a macbook or a laptop with certain specifications. Our son's macbook was about $1,200.

If you are on free or reduced lunch and can prove economic hardship, you can borrow one from the school.

In lower grades, devices are highly encouraged but not mandatory. The schools have tech carts that the children can check out an ipad or a laptop for a few hours.

 

[Hrhpd]

While we still have a landline, most around here do not.

There reaches a point where critical mass is reached or you have to get on board or sit on the sidelines. You can control what you allow your own kids to do. But you can't control how everyone around them is communicating.

Do these kids you know have their own computers to check email with? If they're checking on the phone, they might as well text, snapchat, etc.

Most parents around here find it a lot cheaper to get phones for their kids instead of laptops or desktop computers (depending on what cell carrier they have).

We are one of the few dinosaur families that still has a landline. It is a VOIP line, but still a central number in the house. I don't know a single other family that still has a family phone. Everybody has their own cell phones or some type of technology.

We bought phones for our kids long ago because it was the cheapest way to go. It was only $10 a phone per month for unlimited data, texting and calling on our family plan.

 

[Hrhpd]

None of my kids have cell phones or ipads yet, and my oldest is 14! My 14 year old communicates with his friends though via his xbox headset. He has no trouble socializing and making plans to get together outside of school. Believe it or not several of his friends don't own cell phones either, including his best friend. My 11 and 8 year old girls each have a Kindle Fire, and like you said OP, we haven't really found something for them to text on. My 8 year old's plans all go through the parents, none of her friends that I know of have cell phones yet, some I'm sure have ipads and ipods, but she doesn't say that her friends are really texting each other yet (that's what I'm wondering for those of you who say their young kids make all the plans through their phones, they can't drive yet, at what point or through what method are the plans relayed to the parent who drives them to their get togethers? I'm imagining my 8 year old telling me about all sorts of texted plans that aren't OK'ed by the parents, because she already tends to do this with verbal communication until I contact the parent myself and find out that there was no such arrangement lol. ). I would like to at least get an ipod for my 11 year old, because she and my 8 year old started a new school this year, and while my 8 year old's social life has taken off, my 11 year old doesn't have one at all, so I want to do whatever I can there to help her be included. My husband and I are paying $150 a month though for our own two cell phones plus $100 for a landline, and we JUST got our first decent smartphones this year, I can't really see where we are going to stretch our budget to add more cell plans...if we get one for our 11 year old we'd certainly have to do so for our 14 year old too. Wondering how so many people can afford cell plans starting in first grade...

Our plan allowed us to add extra lines to it for only $10 a month per phone, so really a drop in a bucket to let the kids have phones.

 

[Hrhpd]

I agree. It's definitely the sort of thing where the phrase "your mileage may vary" applies based on where you live and what school or district your kid(s) are in. My ODD is in 4th grade. Her school does not issue laptops to the students regardless of grade level and they don't use tablets either. The school has 1 classroom set of computers that a teacher has to check out for a specific block of time for that day. Phones, tablets, computers brought from home are prohibited. In some of the later grades, they require a graphing calculator, but they do not let you use your smart phone as your graphing calculator.

Now that is expensive. I would have been ticked if I had to buy a $100 calculator when I could buy the TI phone app for $5.00. That is just one more device to carry around and track.

 

[mjkacmom]

Now that is expensive. I would have been ticked if I had to buy a $100 calculator when I could buy the TI phone app for $5.00. That is just one more device to carry around and track.

Dd19, ds17, and dd14 had to buy them. Dd19 is a business major, and still uses hers. I think they use them on the SAT's.

 

[mom2rtk]

Dd19, ds17, and dd14 had to buy them. Dd19 is a business major, and still uses hers. I think they use them on the SAT's.

My understanding is that cell phones must be left behind for standardized tests. So you would need the graphing calculator for those. I'm sort of surprised the graphing calculator we bought our college graduate in middle school is still adequate for our daughter just entering high school.

 

[Hrhpd]

Dd19, ds17, and dd14 had to buy them. Dd19 is a business major, and still uses hers. I think they use them on the SAT's.

Oh we did eventually buy them since DS needed the programming capabilities. But I was able to delay it for a few years with the phone app before I had to cave and buy them. And then had to borrow one as the programmable one couldn't be used for SATs.

 

[mom2rtk]

I"d like to add there is a level of drama and aggravation that can come with the texting. I'll just say that kids can be vicious and drop others from their group text on a whim, then go and talk about them in another group text, etc. Just be prepared for this when you go down this road.

No doubt, the electronic devices ramps this all up. But kids were vicious before smart phones and ipods.

 

[shoney]

My kids (now both in HS) got phones in middle school...partly because I didn't want them borrowing mine when they went out and partly for their friends. It seemed most kids had them by then. Now at 14 and 16 (boys) they text all day long! They do use them at school for certain things.
The school issues graphing calc's so we didn't have to buy them.
A friend of mine has a 6 yo girl and she is always texting her friends on her ipad. I think it is just the way kids communicate and it isn't going away.

 

[mom2rtk]

Because the friend who email does not have a smart phone so they had to resort to the archaic process of emailing.

But the kid without the smart phone won't get an alert saying their friend with the smart phone replied. They won't know they have a new email until they log back onto the computer. So the communication stream falls apart. Additionally, they are still left out of the group chats. It's just not as efficient.