drbindy wrote:
you have to use moderation on the technology, no doubt. Also be creative and find ways to use it as a tool for your own teaching of the child. No app (but also no toy/show/program/or hell, even school or teacher) should be left to do that for you, I agree 100%
When my son was 3-4 I used the draw program on my ipad like a chalk board and every night at bath time I would write funny stories on it, which he had to read aloud to continue to the next page of the story. It was more engaging than just reading a book because I was literally making it up on the spot, and he could steer where the story went. Also, because they were usually funny, he really wanted to get to the next page and see what I would do (sound effects provided by me). At 4, he was reading 4th grade materials. Just a thought. I'm not saying he couldn't have done that without it, but I know it helped.
He also plays strategy games that most kids his age weren't playing. Ticket-to-ride (think Risk, but with trains) is a game he could beat the computer at (via ipad app) 2 years ago. Because of the app, we actually went old school and bought the board game. There are things in there that can trigger development if you're involved with it.
And as for imagination, see the rest of my list. Though he loves the computer type stuff, I feel like my kid plays more toy-based activities than most. His imagination might be even bigger than mine was.
There are WAY too many learning apps out there not to take full advantage of them. Any tool that makes learning fun and easy for them, you need to take advantage of. But there is also a lot of free crap out there where level one of that fashion dress up app is free but all of the accessories have to be purchased with real money. Or even apps that make you run out of ammo or stamina making you contemplate purchasing more battle coins to keep playing.
What were we talking about? Oh yeah. Here's a true story from last weekend. My uncle (72) was trying to show use a bow thruster he installed on his sail boat so he could parallel park it into his slip at the boat yard. He'd hit a locations button on his phone and couldn't figure out how to get back to the pictures. I gave him crap about how he could install a bow thruster but not work his phone. Later my daughter (3) came over and wanted to show my aunt pictures from my phone, unlocked the phone, turned up the volume, scrolled to the pictures, and played some of the videos for her.