Primary school teachers: best tablet/device for kids to learn on?

gaiscioch · 22-12-2022 11:24am #1

My kids are under 10 and I want to get them away from YouTube and various shows where they speak American to me; my 5-year-old just walked past me and quipped 'Yo, bro!' and wandered merrily on his way.

In terms of tablets, is there any which would nudge kids more towards educational things to help them improve basic things like reading, drawing/painting and maths? One of them told me about interesting things his teacher put on the 'clár bán idirghníomhach' so perhaps other teachers might have suggestions.

They're attending gaelscoil so resources/apps/stories in Irish for whatever I buy would be greatly appreciated, too.

Treppen · 22-12-2022 12:13pm

Really a hard one to call as they're all essentially the same . I've come to the conclusion that it's about how much work and management and encouragement you are willing to put in. I.e. parental controls, locking features, monitoring usage, rewards, incentives.

Cheap Chromebook but with very limited storage for apps so it'd mostly be browser based.

iPad , seems to be more manageable in terms of education apps, but that's expensive.

Laptop to get them typing as opposed to swiping. Maybe an online easy coding course.

But I agree, YouTube is a time sink if they're left to browse.

For some reason kids love Duolingo .

RealJohn · 27-12-2022 8:36pm

Whatever did we do before we had iPads?

NIMAN · 27-12-2022 8:43pm

If you think they will stop watching YT just because you get them away from the TV, think again.

gaiscioch · 30-12-2022 11:14am

They played marbles on the street, hop, skip and jump, and had great playground rhymes. They were glory days, John, glory days where there was a stay-at-home parent to look after them entirely. Try and get a mortgage in Dublin on a single income in these glory days of talk about children's rights. They don't trump the right of both parents to work outside the home, but shhh. So, out with industrial schools for children and in with the childcare industry. Scandals to be revealed in 50 years time!

Meanwhile, a device to up the educational level of kids who are in homes where both parents are holding down fulltime jobs would always be welcome.

Random sample · 30-12-2022 12:54pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120046083#Comment_120046083

Are you implying that a device could replace childcare?

it doesn’t sound like you have much experience of crèches/childcare in this country. They very much promote active fun and simple games in my experience. A stay at home parent doesn’t guarantee that.

In relation to the original post, if you want to keep kids away from YouTube, a tablet is probably not the way go to.

byhookorbycrook · 06-01-2023 9:06pm

Cód na Gaeilge is a nice little app that might be useful?

gaiscioch · 08-01-2023 10:18am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120076192#Comment_120076192

Thanks! Was just coming back to ask again about stuff in Irish. That looks excellent: https://ccea.org.uk/learning-resources/cod-na-gaeilge

I came across a few and I'll just have to see if they can be brought on to the Amazon Fire 10 HD I bought. This website in particular has links to an enormous number of educational games and quizzes in Irish: https://padlet.com/maire8

I also used my ParcelMotel address in the North, and my Revolut card registered there, to access Amazon Kids (which you cannot do with an address in Ireland, oddly enough) so I'll see if that can help in any way. The Amazon Fire also came with a 3-month free subscription to Kindle Books and I've linked the settings so they can only access the kids movies for a limited period of time and only after they've read, drawn and done other educational things beforehand. So, we'll see how it goes with this reward loop.

byhookorbycrook · 13-01-2023 8:43pm

Máire ( on the padlet) Nic an Rí works with COGG and has supplied great resources

Primary school teachers: best tablet/device for kids to learn on?

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