Meep?

I looked into a Meep! recently. I was not impressed and there seems to be a lot of complaints about it. I am also looking into the Leappad2. You can download apps for it so it is not as limited as the Leapster. I think the apps cost about $5. I don't think you can go online but I could be wrong.

another vote for No Meep.

i looked into it too, it seemed a great gadget for the price. until i read a lot of cruddy reviews - and that the battery life is only about 2 hours, and they don't make a car charger for it. oh and the cord that goes into the computer is only like 8 inches long or something...and then i stopped reading....

Hi,

I hadn't heard of the Meep, but checked it out on their site. They recommend it for kids 6 and up.

If it were me, I'd actually choose a device without internet access (because I'm super old-school, just fessin' up right now-- I don't think kids need independent access to the internet at this age) or let your son continue to use your devices when it's convenient for you and when you can be close. I don't think I would want my five year old son being able to have screen time alone at this age; (he's welcome to use Starfall on my laptop, but he's not interested, so we tend to use it for research/finding reference pictures for his drawing.) Giving a child their own device also has to come with rules and responsibility, including giving up the the device to the parent when it's not an appropriate time to use it. I just got off the phone with my sister and we were discussing this; she has three boys who are older and her 11 year old has to "check out" his DSI from her when he wants it, otherwise it becomes too much of a distraction. I try to learn from her experiences, since her boys are older than mine.

Good luck, whatever you choose.

We decided to get our kids kindle fire HDs this year, they seemed to be the closest to the ipad without the price tag

Check out the Nabi 2 if you're looking for a tablet with parental controls. With younger kids, I think blocking access to stuff is a must, so I was attracted to the Nabi 2. Plus it comes pre-loaded with a ton of kid friendly apps.

Get the Kindle Fire or an iPod touch.

Another vote for a 'real' tablet.

Not sure about kindle, but apple products have PHENOM parental controls.

Not just "no" xyz... But if yes? Then at what level.

Ex)

Streaming movies. Allowed.
- At what level? G /Pg/pg13/ R/ E/ T / M?
- For how long? 30 /60 / 90 min etc.
- Between what hours? Between 6am-730am & 230pm-415pm.
- On what days?

So the custom look can be G/E movies on M-Fr between 8am & 3pm for 30 minutes.

And any time you want to bypass the set rule, you type in your password and allow 1.5 hours of a PG movie.

Every single feature is like that.

______

To save $... A refurb previous gen is typically 1/2 the price.
Or ask around for handmedowns,
Check @ pawnshops
Craigslist & eBay (all 3 of these, people sell their older models to buy newer ones)