How the iPod Touch Saved My Sanity!
June 23, 2009 |
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By Laura Hudson
I recently had to take my two and a half year-old to the doctor because she was sick. Since I did not have an appointment, I had to take her during the sick hours. I knew we were in for a wait but I had no idea it would be almost three hours.
After reading Katie a couple of books and trying to explain to her for the hundredth time it was not her turn yet, I had completely gone through anything in my purse that might interest her when I saw my iPod Touch. I pulled it out and thought I might show her a couple of the apps that I have on there. She instantly saw that the background picture was a photo of her and got all excited. So I spent the next hour in the doctor’s office going through picture after picture that I have saved of her and her brother. She would provide commentary on each photo and got to the point where she was scrolling from picture to picture herself.
I was amazed that something I really thought of as a toy for me was something that was so entertaining to her.
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June 30th, 2009 at 7:26 am
Great article Ms. Hudson. It’s amazing what will entertain little ones. Your article also shows another facet of the many things possible with an itouch/iphone!
June 30th, 2009 at 7:31 am
I really like this topic Laura. Apple might want to know that their products can be used as entertainment for kids! There are several apps you can get for your itouch to entertain little ones (if you don’t mind them getting their little grubby hands on your electronics)!
June 30th, 2009 at 9:25 am
Great post! The user interface for the iPod Touch / iPhone is a stroke of genius and the true extent of what can be accomplished with mobile computing is only now being realized. If your two year old is comfortable using these devices now, just imagine what it’ll be like in the next few years?
June 30th, 2009 at 10:00 am
Ha! I have experienced similar relief from the IPOD. Although it did cause a battle between my 2 and 4 year old one day while I was being interviewed by an FBI agent. The little one beat up the 4 year old while I pretended that I was paying very close attention to the interview. I don’t remember who won the IPOD out of that, but my 4 year old has a permanant 6-inch scar on her chest from my 2-year old’s claws. I think I need to cut her nails.
July 1st, 2009 at 9:51 am
The days of jingling keys and going through mommy’s wallet for entertainment are over! Great article.
July 20th, 2009 at 6:19 pm
FYI – it works beautifully to keep a 13 year old entertained, too. I think that any electronic device could work in this situation. Sorry you had to do the whole work-in thing!
August 11th, 2009 at 9:17 am
I’m a proud owner of the original iPhone 2g and love it more and more each day. I didn’t buy it the second, minute, hour, day, week or even month it came out, but I’ve own it for a while. Anywho, our sweetheart is 3.5 years old (today). Since I’m a gadget fanatic she’s grown up with them starting with one of my old black & white BlackBerries, then to one of my old Palm Treo’s, then taking away my iPhone and she now has her own iPOD Touch. Being a parent of a young one, we get invited to quite a few kid parties. Well after talking to various parents a couple of years ago I discovered that the iPhone wasn’t just for adults. There are tons and tons of applications, audio books and entertainment for the young ones out there in the Apple iTunes Store as well. And to my amazement most of them are less then $5 each with the majority being $.99 or free! Plus some of the free ones are just as beautiful as the more expensive one. Stefani got the hang of it almost immediately first learning how to control photo’s even using the multi-touch to enlarge photos, swiping to go the previous or the next photo. Now she’s at the point that she can tap the screen fast-forward a movie or lower the volume if I ask her to. I bought her an iPOD Touch a few months after getting my iPhone because she was constantly asking for my iPhone and I wouldn’t be able to use it myself. : ] She has everything from alphabet flash cards with animal sounds to accelorameter games like Scoops (a must have and one of my favorites) to her favorite Dora & Diego episodes. We have the original iPOD Touch with no speakers @ first I thought that a bad thing, but actually it’s better because we can monitor how loud she listens to movies and doesn’t break her little ear drums from playing the volume too loud with headphones. It’s bad enough that she get those ouchy ear infections. So I guess it was a blessing in disguise.
I agree with John St. Clair, we’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg in technology.