IPods For Kids?

[AngelBabyJana]

My oldest daughter 16 & I both have the classic IPod. It seems like everywhere we go lately, we are always letting my younger daughter 10 & my son 5 borrow our IPods. It is just so handy to keep them loaded with entertainment for the little ones, a lot more convenient than bringing along portable DVD players with all their DVD's.

So my question is ..... would any of you recommend the IPod Nano for younger children (10 & 5)? They come in really cool colors, which would be nice to tell theirs apart from each other. I would want the ones with more memory, so it would be $200 each. You can buy the IPod classic for $250. Do you think the Nano would hold up just as well? They both have FP3 players, but rarely use them (they mainly like watching movies on our IPod, but they are starting to get into music more now that they are older).

I'm really considering getting them the IPod Nanos as a surprise right before our trip to Disney (both of my young ones are scared to fly - DS has never flown, DD was 3 when she last flew). Just wanted some opinions on what IPod works best for young kids. They haven't asked for these or even let on like they wanted one, it is just something that I thought that they might use a lot, especially for travel. They all three have Nintendo DS's, and use them all the time.

Also hubby has his eye on the IPod touch - it has less memory than the classic but costs more? Any thoughts? Is it worth the extra money? His birthday is in June, so this would be a great idea for him.

 

[Disnewbie76]

My 10 year old has the ipod nano and its great. We even bought her itunes gift cards at christmas time so she could load it with music, movies and disney channel shows. Also, now a days when you buy a blue-ray movie, especially those made by disney, a lot of them come with the blue-ray version, a DVD version, and in this case most importantly, a digital version. You then take the digital version of the movie and can put it on the ipod. Perfect for long trips or flights! I ended up getting all my girls a video mp3 player of some sort so that I could load them with the disney movies and music....keeps them nice and entertained in the car or plane.

 

[naomi78155]

Dh got me an iPod touch for my bday and I love it. Ds 4 loves it and he can figure it out very well. It is an awesome gadget. We have a few movies and lots of songs/games on it. We took it with us on our last trip to Disney and it was a lifesaver when our flight got delayed.

 

[baz212]

DS5 has my old nano(no video). I gave it to him when I upgraded to an iPhone. Maybe upgrade the ipods for you and your older daughter and hand down your old ones. Then if the the kids do trash them, you don't feel so bad. DS does pretty well, but it sometimes gets left on the floor or he drops it.

 

[BeccaBellePA]

My dniece 11 got her iPod Nano for Christmas and loves it. I say, as long as your kids are responsible with it and it makes entertainment life easier for the fam, go for it!

 

[luvmk1971]

Thanks to Santa both my girls (6 & 3) have nanos. They both love them. I love that I can upload Disney Channel shows on them to keep them busy. So much easier to bring on the plane than a DVD player.

 

[tjmw2727]

My kids got Nano's a couple years ago for Christmas at 9 and 11 mostly because they had long bus rides and could listen to music and read. They didn't have video capability at that time. I found them on the apple website refurbished at a great discount, they were good as new!

Since then my youngest (now 12) saved her own $ and bought herself a touch and she LOVES it. So I would say yes if you think they can be responsible for them and they are great for travel.

I haven't looked at the refurbished section but it may be worth a check to see if they have what you need at a discount

TJ

 

[stacy2197]

Just got a refurb 8gb Ipod nano for $99. I love it.

 

[Tinka_Belle]

DH and I both have the iPod Touch and DD7 wanted one. She was always borrowing mine. Well I wasn't going to pay that much for something that she might end up losing or breaking, so DH had one that a friend had given to him. It was the iPod Nano 1st Gen. My DD loves it. She is always dancing around the house or bopping around in the car. It is the first thing that she has actually kept up with. I have loaded pics on it for her too. Currently she has over 200 songs. When she gets older I will definitely consider buying her a more up to date one, but for now it is perfect for her.

 

[aestapa]

check out www.ifrogz.com. They make awesome rubber covers for iPods for toddlers. We take them to Disney and our boys (5 & 3) love them! They are designed for little hands.

 

[wdwmom0f3]

We bought my 8 year old a Nano for his birthday and then my other two girls wanted the iTouch for Christmas. Well, from that day on my son hates his Nano and wants the touch. I can't say that I blame him because you can do so much more on the iTouch. There are lots of free apps at itunes for the iTouch that you can't get for the Nano. If I could go back in time, I would have bought three itouch instead of two. My sister did the exact same thing with her 10 year old, now she wants an itouch too after playing with her brothers. It's well worth the extra 50.00 or so.

 

[billwendy]

I would say look into the Itouch if you can - my neices and nephew are able to navigate mine much more easily than their older siblings Nano's. Also the screen keeps their attention more because it is larger. There are kiddie apps in the itunes store, and many of them have a "light" version that is free! Some of them are really cute!! My 2 year old neice loves the one that is a farm with an animal hiding inside - you tap the door and they open up to show you the animal!! My 6 yo niece loves to watch movies on it. It really helps to pass time!!

 

[Jana49]

My grandkids love to use my nano, and started at age 4. They picked up on the technology of it right away. Kids today are sharp!

 

[Tinka_Belle]

check out www.ifrogz.com. They make awesome rubber covers for iPods for toddlers. We take them to Disney and our boys (5 & 3) love them! They are designed for little hands.

Thanks for the site. I saw on there that DD's iPod is a 3rd Gen not 1st Gen. I think that I am going to get her one of those covers, just to be on the safe side.

 

[Manda]

We got my son a Nano when he was four. It replaced all the portable DVDs and stuff we had to carry around on long car trips and plane rides, etc. It's a life saver! So, so, so much better than the portable DVD players. If you can swing it though, I'd suggest an iPod Touch (you can get them refurbed from Apple's site for a little cheaper, too). We had the first generation iPhones and then upgraded to iPhone 3Gs, so I gave my old iPhone to my son to use (w/o phone service activated - so it's basically an iPod Touch). It's got a bigger screen, and it's got all his movies and music on it - plus we've downloaded a bunch of games to it and he keeps himself entertained with those as well.

 

[Sgt Mickey]

I have the classic I bought my kids the shuffle. BUT I would love to buy my kids the classic just so they can watch movies in the car or on a borin appointment.

 

[WLfamily]

Both of my kids got the new Nano's 4th gen for Christmas. My son is 13 and my daughter is 10, she figured hers out with no problem. I got these wonderful clear, hard, snap-on cases from apple.com that protect the screen and the iPod and let the color show through. I then got soft cases to drop the whole iPod into for double protection. I think they are great for kids!!

 

[budbeerlady]

With DD she got the IPOD Shuffle when she was 5. I bought it refurbished from Apple before our trip so she had her own music for the plane and I could sleep in peace. She kept wanting to "share" mine. Might be a "Safer" choice for the 5yr old.

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/specialdeals/ipod?mco=MTE3Njc
Looks like they have them for $39.

 

[kimnvbva]

My son got a nano for Christmas. He is 6. He uses it all the time. I just downloaded all of the Classic Disney music for him to listen to so he will be ready for our trip! My 3 year old DD wants one now. I was kind of nervous about it at first, but he takes really good care of it. He even listens to podcasts! Who knew?


Kim

 

[jasmine27]

I'm 14 and have the newest version of the nano in orange. I love it! It is the lower memory one, which is 8 gigs. I believe it holds 2,000 songs, which i think is quite enough! I have 300 some songs, extra games, and close to 200 pictures and it's only about one fourth full. I don't have any movies on it yet, but am planning on getting some before our Disney trip in 22 days!!!! SO EXCITED!!!