Ask HN: Setting up a tablet for a baby/kids?

1 points by velcro 3 years ago | 1 comment

Lockdowns, working at home and not enough new quality Netflix content all let to me trying out this fatherhood thing everyone is raving about :) with a beautiful 1-year old boy yay!

We’re just about to take him on his first big adventure and travel for a few months – and wanted to take an old iPad Mini and set it up for him to bring along. He’s still very young so currently this is mostly a preemptive measure to combat occasional tantrums/boredom in the car (just to have Youtube or a few of his favorite videos with us) but as he gets older I’m sure there are plenty of interesting apps that help with cognitive development (even if they’re just interactive stories that we can work through together) – but I’m not an expert in this (yet) so I’d be thankful for any recommendations!

* any special setup you’d recommend for young kids/babies like this? like an OS version/mod? (using an iPad Mini so a bit more difficult)

* what apps/games/stories would you recommend? very open to different categories of usefulness here – educational/cognitive games, interactive stories, better video players, general interesting stuff (ideally mostly things that are offline first)

I realize screens and babies are sometimes a sensitive topic for some – and of course this will be enjoyed in small doses (we’re going on a multi-month vacation to spend time as a family after all) – but I’m also very open towards technology as I believe most people on HN are. I grew up with C62/Atari and all that stuff and I turned out (mostly) ok :) My son is still tiny but it’s amazing to watch him make connections between remotes and TV channels, using Alexa to control things or keyboards to make stuff happen on screens or smartphones. So I want to see how far these aha-moments will take him.

scorpioxy 3 years ago |

I am still working on figuring all this stuff out but I can share a few points from my experience using an Android tablet in the hopes it would help.

- That tablet is going to be dropped. A LOT. So invest in a good rugged cover. Something not too thick though as they won't be able to hold it.

- At that age they love applications with flashing lights and sounds but try to review the apps/games thoroughly to make sure they don't overstimulate the child.

- The GCompris suite of educational apps is excellent. They're all meant to show something different(color matching, counting, letters...) and there's a difficulty filter for various age groups. I believe it's available for iOS.

- Racing games with upbeat music and sound FX seems to be popular but only if you play with them. A game called Pixel Wheels is pretty good.

- The UI and touch interface is challenging for a young child to manipulate and requires a more delicate control of their hands and fingers. They'll pick it up quickly but the bigger the buttons, the less frustrating they will find it. Hardware buttons don't have this as a problem because of the feedback your brain gets when you use it.

- VLC has the ability to lock the screen when watching a video. Otherwise they'll accidentally do a swipe gesture and close or stop the video. Very useful.

I should add that this is only what I found on fdroid on Android. Be careful and review the permissions and policies of any application you get as a lot of them want to capture and sell your data and target you with ads. That's why I went with an fdroid-only setup(which limits my options) and I'll donate for the applications I find useful.

Happy to share more specifics in private if you'd like to reach out. edit: formatting