Can anyone recommend a kids laptop for a 3.5 year old, preferable bilingual (English German or English Arabic or English only).

Kids learning laptop where they teach numbers, colours etc.

Thank you

I find books are quite good.

Or an iPad?

(slaps wrist and disappears)

Try looking @ the stuff leapfrog sell... something like clickstart looks to be the sort of thing your looking for no?

http://shop.leapfrog.com/leapfrog/

I looked at some of the kids-type laptop toys, they seem like a good idea but pretty limited, with tiny black and white LCD screens (maybe there are fancier ones?).

I have an old laptop at home, one that Little Mud has jumped on and knocked off the coffee table since she was old enough to jump and knock, and it was still ticking, so I put Tux Paint on it, which is a drawing program for kids. This was right around 4 years old. She loves it! Prior to that we would play some of the games on the Fisher Price site together, which she loved as well. She still asks to do the ABCs for infants sometimes. Ah, computer memories .

(Now the Nintendo DS that the Mrs. gave me has been loaded with a jigsaw puzzle game- that's Little Mud's now too )

There's a few really cool things coming out right now -
Leapfrog LeapPad looks like a very sturdy version of an iPad
VTech is also hot on this trail with something called the InnoTab

Otherwise, there's great software on laptops, so maybe you could just hand over an old laptop or desktop

Pencils, paints and paper are the recommended medium for learning about numbers and colours - and of course a bit of time from the parents.

You are right but I'm not a native English speaking person and therefore I'd like her to listen just 30 minutes a day proper English.

I'm in the same situation, and I use DVD with my sons. And he likes playing on the iPad: it's very easy to use, and can be very didactic.

My son also loves his Winnie the Pooh computer, where he can do a lot of exercises (counting, numbers, spelling, etc.)

Just drop the darlings off at the Apple Store in the morning and pick them up at 8pm; free computer training and babysitting rolled into one.

I can appreciate that but one of those toy laptops with a synthesized voice won't really do it.

Our eldest was held riveted by David Attenborough wildlife DVDs - he speaks clear and concise English.

There's no need to be so sarcastic. Whether we want it or not, our kids are born in a world where computers are omnipresent. It thus makes sense to introduce them gradually and progressively to the technology that will surround them later on.

I don't think that a few didactic or simply entertaining apps carefully chosen and used under parental supervision can be dangerous, no? More than that, using an iPad or a mouse enhances fine motor skills.

My son spends a lot of time running outside and playing at the playground. But it's also good for him to learn to concentrate on a more 'intellectua' task such as practicing spelling on his toy computer!

My daughter is 5.5 years old and she uses macbook pro with Disney site to learn more stuff and study with some interactive game....i don't think the tools is the most important, it's the contents of what kids are learning that matters....just my thoughts

I agree. But the OP was asking for a kids laptop and then stated subsequently, that she wanted to use it to teach her child English.

There are much better tools to do that.

My 4 year old son is currently using a Sinclair ZX Spectrum and using it to play "Horace and the Spiders" in between writing machine code programs that send blobs around the screen.

Cheers,
Nick

Not exactly a computer, but the LeapFrog series of electronic gismo's seemed to do the trick with my niece and nephew a few years ago. I've not seen them here though....
http://shop.leapfrog.com/leapfrog/

Computer interfaces are now so intuitive that most children can understand them in a few minutes so there's probably no need to introduce them at such an early age in case you are worried that they will miss out.

But toy computers really are a rip off. Get them a second-hand laptop if you want them to learn about using computers.

It's a bit like those Baby Einstein CDs and books that everyone raved about. There's no evidence that they make any difference to a child's development and the publishers are now giving people their money back.

However, reading to your child everyday makes a massive difference (it's a bit more work for the parents though...)

Yes, I absolutely agree that reading daily to one' s child is essential. However, the op's problem with her not being a native speaker is not solved by reading out loud, as she's not providing the 'right accent' (as far as it can exist), and this is where DVD can be useful.

In my post, I mostly wanted to react to Assassin's view that Apps were only for lazy parents. I think they can be fun and didactic, in appropriate quantity!

It didn't do Stephen Hawking any harm - he went on to become a world renowned physicist.

So what she needs is a DVD player and not one of those toy computers with a synthesized voice.

People (not you!) bang on about how computer games teach children skill. IMO, for most computer games that are supposed to need skill, that's rubbish. The same scenario gets played over and over again and the player practices the same move over and over again which has precisely what use in the real world?

Fun yes but not much else.

There are exceptions of course such as chess, flight simulators and perhaps driving games but you're not going to get any better at playing football kicking a ball around a virtual field.

Hi,

Joking apart, I have a couple of letter recognition games I wrote in Java which my 4 year old plays on our iMac under supervision and he happily fires up the browser and finds his favourite stuff on Youtube.

For the reading side, we started with "I am Not Going to Read or Write Anything Today" and later we got a book / DVD from the BBC (Fun with Phonics or so) which introduces letter sounds and words. You watch a chapter of the DVD then sit together and go through the corresponding chapter in the book which has reading and writing exercises.

Sure your kid can learn skills at the computer but the most valuable thing is adult attention and time. With my 4 y.o. it's playing with lego, train sets, Meccano, drawing and painting, telling stories etc. Is there a native speaker you know who could read to your child perhaps?

Cheers,
Nick

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