Lil' Techies

Our kids won’t be getting a Nintendo DS until they are at least pre-teens, nor will they have a TV in their room. But as lovers of technology, I do believe there are a few tech gifts that could have positive impacts on our kids, rather than turning them into tv-heads.

Tech gifts (under $35) that won’t turn your (under 8) kids into TV-Heads:

• Try refurbishing an old laptop that has the bare basics on it–word processing, image editing, calculator, etc. They will surprisingly find great uses for it. We gave our kids our old PC laptops and they love typing and looking around.
• An MP3 player will let your kids store family photos, videos and favorite songs. I have found that my kids don’t abuse the MP3 player but really enjoy it on car trips or in doctor’s offices. We look at pictures, they listen to their favorite songs (often sharing the earbuds) and can pick up radio stations. We have a Sansa Fuze which we got for about $30.
• A bike computer (otherwise known as a speedometer or odometer) is great fun for the school-age kid. We ride our bikes almost everyday to school–the bike computer lets them learn about speed and distance.
• There are a lot of kids digital cameras on the market, but we have found purchasing a used one from eBay to be just as fun. Kids have a great time photographing their life and these pictures will give you fodder when doing digital imaging projects with them!
• We spend at least a half hour reading to our kids everyday, but sometimes they like to spend alone time reading too. Since our kids are not of reading age yet, the VTech Reading Pen has been hours of fun for them. It lets explore the VTech books and have multi-sensory experience with the stories. Since the pen only works with the Vtech books, I don’t see the reading pen as a threat to their own interest in reading, just another way to explore books.