I know I am not alone in saying that my kids love technology, gadgets and games. They love to swipe, upload, download, share, connect, edit photos and be entertained by a screen. With three primary school age children and two toddlers, it seems however that the age when they first switch on and swipe is getting younger and younger. Even the 1 year old is beginning to look over the shoulders of the older boys and their gadgets to press buttons and swipe screens.
But certainly I have written and spoken many times about the dangers of the online world and the need for parental involvement, guidance and support when it comes to all things cyber. We know that our kids are super smart when it comes to participating in this new world. They can do lots of ‘stuff’’ and are adept at making things happen, connecting, downloading, searching and sharing. As the age gets younger however, we are also finding that our kids do not have the years of life experience or maturity to deal with the enormity of the online world and the myriad of pitfalls to which they are left exposed.
When I was asked to speak at a launch of the InnoTab2 by Vtech I was more than happy to discuss some of these pitfalls of the online world as well as look at a product that offered an alternative for kids, particularly those at the younger end of the age (and maturity) spectrum.
The InnoTab2 offers an ipad looking device that gives the kids the feeling that they are still on a device but without the dangers of cyberbullying, downloading or being exposed to inappropriate content or the potential harm to their digital reputation. On the Innotab2 they can still play games, take and edit photos, make movies, download apps and listen to ebooks, but they can do all these things without the fear of online dangers.
For our family, we found that the Innotab2:
- is a lot sturdier than other devices with grips and protective edges preventing damage by dropping. (its been an expensive week in our household for technology and gadgets…..kids, juice and apple products dont mix …just as a side tip!)
- has plenty of inexpensive apps available (under $5) that you can download from the secure Vtech site, but also the availability of licensed games like Cars, Nemo, Dora, Disney Princess, Toy Story etc and these are a bit more pricey from $20 – 35. You also get 2 of the cheaper apps for free and it already comes loaded with an art workshop which my son loves. (our clean alternative to the paints!)
- Unfortunately, it takes 4 x AA batteries which is its only downfall. In a household needing lots of batteries however, I only buy rechargeable ones now, so it hasn’t been too much of an issue, and I believe you can buy a charger pack.
- it comes with 2GB of inbuilt memory with the ability to add up to 32 GB with an SD card.
- With the additional memory you do have the option of downloading movies and watching them on the screen but this wasn’t something we have done yet
- My boys love taking photos and playing around with all the edits, and they are also able to make their own movies, so it is also a great way for them to get creative.
- It worked very well on a recent plane trip, allowing the 3 year old to put on some head phones and listen to some ebooks. “Jack and the Beanstalk” was his favourite. The books can also be more interactive if they want to start clicking on items and see the written word repeated.
The InnoTab2 is both educational, creative and most importantly for little people, entertaining. And they feel a little grown up too!
The InnoTab2 is aimed at kids 3-9 but my 3 year old pretty much claimed it as his own.He loves having a gadget that I am not ripping off him, interrupting his game so I can answer MY phone! I know, how selfish of me!
This would certainly be a fabulous christmas present for any child, and whilst they retail for $179, I am thrilled to offer one lucky reader the chance to win an Innotab2 to help put a big dent into the Christmas shopping list!
To enter the giveaway, simply go and join my Facebook page here and tell me in the comments section below what is one of the best christmas presents you remember getting as a child?
Competition is only open to Australian residents and closes 5pm aest, Monday 12th November.
In writing this post I was given product to both review and giveaway and I was also employed by the company to speak at the launch of the product. All opinions however are my own and are an honest account of my experience with the product.
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This Post Has 38 Comments
I remember getting a doll from my Aunt in America. It was not any ordinary doll though. It was a baby boy doll! None of my friends ever had or saw a boy doll . I was chuffed. I called him John and dressed him up in my baby brothers clothes.
My favourite present ever was a Cabbage Patch Kid, she had blonde hair and blue eyes and her name was Gillian Gorndell, weird what you remember hey? I renamed her Sarah Lee and didnt realise for ages that I liked that name because it was a brand of desserts!!!
Have liked you on facebook
The BEST Christmas present I remember getting was my Teddy Ruxpin. I loved that precious bear for YEARS. I loved that his mouth moved while reading the stories and laying in bed listening to his stories. I wish I knew what happened to him, I’d love to show my daughter.
For my tenth birthday mum and dad gave me a big box of Lego. I loved it. Nearly forty years later I still have it.
A Barbie doll!!
The best present I ever got for christmas was a red Repco cruiser bike – I remember spending many hours riding around, exploring my neighbourhood on that baby.
My first tape recorder! I also got some new tapes to play. My favourite being ’81 over the top’ loved rocking along to Devo, Kim Wilde, icehouse and Pat Benatar. (Showing my age now) it really was the best present. My mum worked really hard to get us just one really great gift. One she knew we would just love!
You’re probably going to laugh, but my best present was a pack of Mickey & Minnie Mouse undies I got from my parents when I was about 6! I loved those undies so much and was so upset when I slipped over in the river at my Aunty’s farm and got a pair covered in mud. They were ruined forever, it still makes me feel a little sad thinking about it! haha
Cabbage Patch kid twins it was the best present I got and you know I still have them:)
My daughter is not quite one (three weeks to go! eek!) and she already loves to grab my ipad and swipe the icons back and forth across the screen and gets very cross with me when I try to take it off her!
I think the best Christmas present I ever got was my first camera when I was 10, a cute little 35mm that I absolutely adored. I had always been asking to take pictures with Mum’s camera so she decided it was time to have my own and so began my life-long love affair with cameras and taking pictures. I was so excited to get the first roll of film back from the developers and thought it was kind of hilarious that I had cut the head off every single person I had photographed! My Dad gave me a few tips on holding the camera steady after that!
My best Christmas present was a doll that came in a pouch that you could attach to pretend you were pregnant. And you didn’t know if you were going to get a girl, boy or twins. It was so much fun!
I’ve been looking at these for Miss Ava. I think she would really get a lot out of it, and I could get my iPad back!
my best present I remember, was walking out to the lounge room on christmas morning and finding a HUGE dollhouse as big as me! I remember distinctly gasping and running to tell mum and dad what santa had brought me!
My best Christmas present was a Barbie gym/aerobics playset. I remember that I had asked for it from Santa on my Christmas Wishlist. My brother had recently passed away (he was only aged 12), so I thought that year that I wouldn’t get a gift. I was SO thrilled on Christmas morning to see a gift under the tree for me, and even more thrilled when I ripped off the wrapping and realised it was what I’d wanted!
Looking back now,as a mother myself, I realise just how special that gift was; my parents would’ve bought it for me whilst still grieving their only son. Back then of course, I just thought Santa hadn’t forgotten me, but now it’s true significance of getting what I wanted means so much more…
My first ever Cabbage Patch Kid. Her name was Olga Katherine and I nagged my parents for 2 years until they finally gave in!! I took that doll with me everywhere….and I still have her here in the house packed away somewhere.
Nick has one of our old iPhone 3’s that has his games and TV shows on it for him to watch. It’s always on airplane mode so he can’t go online and download things. But it’s scary how old he was when he first learned to swipe!! This product looks like an awesome compromise! I think a lot of it for kids is just wanting to be like mum and dad. I always tell hubby, we are addicted to our phones, how can we expect him not to be?
As for Christmas presents, I remember one year I asked for either a new tennis racquet, or a framed picture of John Farnham (I KNOW!). I snuck into my parents closet and found a big, thin, rectangular shaped box, and thought “Yes! It’s the John Farnham poster!” Opened it Christmas morning and in the box was a new tennis racquet. I don’t know if that was the best present I ever got – I do still love tennis to this day – but it was certainly the most cleverly-given!
This look fantastic for children. My favourite gift was a swing set and an umbrella. I was 4 and it was the best Christmas ever. Rachel x
This looks like a great produce – nice and bounce-able! Kids’ games are SO frustrating 😉 I’ve found a fairly good way of keeping my iPad ‘safe’ from inadvertent internet viewing by my 5 and 3 year-olds is to pop them on to Airplane mode in the Settings before handing them over. That way they have access to all the apps and can play to their heart’s content, but can’t get to anything dodgy on YouTube or similar sites.
My favourite childhood Christmas present was a trampoline. The good-old, head stuck between the springs kind. I think it was mum’s favourite too – she didn’t see us for the rest of summer except when she had to hand over an icy-pole for a split lip! Kim x
The best present I ever got as a child was having my Grandparents visit after not seeing them for several years.
Have liked your facebook page, thanks for the chance 🙂
This looks like the perfect educational toy for my soon to be twins! Off to enter the giveaway now! 🙂
Doh! Hit the reply button too soon!
My family don’t really celebrate Christmas but they did take me over back to Indonesia one Christmas when I was 13. We spent almost 2 whole months there and I loved soaking in the every day life and hanging out with my cousins. Good times. It was such a bummer to come back and start high school 🙂
What an awesome giveaway!!! One of the best presents was getting roller blades!
My favorite Christmas present would have been a Teddy bear I’ve since passed onto my eldest daughter. It’s guarded against many monsters under the bed, kept many secrets and mopped up tears of childhood heartbreak with his fur and kept me company as I read late into the night. He was the perfect bedtime companion for my girlhood.
I was so excited to unwrap a Barbie Townhouse, multi- level and complete with a plastic lift to go from floor to floor! My sister and I had so much fun playing with it 🙂
My favourite Christmas gift was an old fashioned doll house that was huge. I loved it so much.
The best present I remember receiving as a child was a whole heap of Matchbox Cars to add to my collection. For a girly girl into makeup, unicorns and all things pretty, I was a real tomboy as a kid!
Definately my walkman. I thought I looked sooooo cool bopping away to Guns “n” Roses
When I was a child, I received a gold chain with a pearl droplet. It was the first “adult” jewelry I ever had and was very special.
Oh gosh, when I received my cabbage patch dolls my little life was complete! Erica Marigold and Martin Barry (where on earth did they get these name combos?) are my first babies and still cherished. My 17 month old son currently drags Martin Barry around the house as his ‘baby’ but with a little less respect and adoration as I would like it! Haha!
Thanks for bringing this item to attention Martine, I didn’t even know they existed and intrigued to learn more. My iphone/ipad are just a little too fascinating to Mr Toddler!
I remember getting a my child doll this is a fav memory now as a parent.
This is because Santa forgot to deliver it. Lucky my mum new he hid it in the cubbord so I could play a game with Santa to find it.
I should definitely try this with my kids. However, we should not allow them to indulge so much in pure tech gadgets for children have to play outside. Run, get dirty, and be merry just like the old ways.
-Brian McDougall
I loved getting my hypercolour t shirt went from purple to pink with heat…..so cool!!
Okay everyone says that most sisters get the same present every year but different colour or style I was a victim of this but one year things changed I got a BMX Bicycle and I loved that bike so much for the simply fact my sister didnt get one like me or a bike she got something else so I think that made me love my bike more 😀
My uber-cool aunt in the USA sent me lots of fabulous Cabbage Patch Kids clothes and accessories that no one else at school had.
My best Christmas pressie may not seem much to some – but to me, it meant the world.
You see, my dad was a Dr at a Psychiatric Hospital, and every year, he was always missing from home because he had to work. I understood that his job was important, and that others needed him – but as a child, so did I.
Xmas morning, I woke up really excited, yet sad at the same time knowing that it would be another day without my dad. Running to the family room, I stopped dead in my tracks when I heard my dad chatting to mum. He was HOME, I got my Xmas wish. His presence on that day meant more to me than any gifts I received that day
My best present was receiving my first puppy, a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel we named Elton John for Christmas, 1980, when I was 9. I still remember looking out our back door to see my school teacher(a colleague of my teacher Dad)arrive with this gorgeous blenheim and white pup in her arms, a silver tinsel collar around his neck. I couldn’t believe that he was mine… I had wanted a puppy FOREVER. One of the best things about this memory is that Elton was a gift from my Dad, who passed away many years ago now…
I got an empty bowl from my parents when I was 10. I had no idea what it was suppose to be used for. They looked at me and said.. Isn’t that a wonderful present. I didn’t know what to say (and burst into tears). Until they brought out the fish that was to be put into it!
I was lucky enough to get a Baby Talk for christmas one year… I was so happy, she talked, drank a bottle and was awesome… the only problem was my mother who kept stealing her and not let me play with her because she wanted too.
Ooo.. So hard to choose, would it be the doll who crawled by herself, the roller skating doll or my own roller skates? No, I think my cabbage patches, Gloria and Bridget, have to win. They went everywhere with me- to Brownie pack holiday(in uniform!), to the zoo (in their baby carrier) and to bed (in their own sleeping bag)!
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