Best toy laptop
We are looking for a laptop type toy for our 10.5 month old. She sees us using them all the time and wants to do what we are doing. We went to Toys R Us and were really unhappy with the options. They are all TOO computerie and at the same time not laptop looking enough. We are looking for low functionality, good visual fidelity. Anyone know of such a thing?
Thanks!
2 Answers
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What do you think of this Baby First Laptop?
It looks pretty nice to me - plush, colorful & not plastic.
Although, I may warn you that a placebo like this may not placate your daughter. It might be more that she wants to see what you're playing with. It's about attention (what are looking at? What is that thing?) and not so much about the laptop itself.
We had a fair bit of issues with our son in the 12mo-18mo range and our cell phones. He would cry inconsolably if we were talking on a phone and he wasn't holding it. The only thing that really helped was giving him a real used cellphone of his own.
And, at 30mos, we still have issues with him and digital cameras...
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I find that in many cases, the want-to-be-like-mommy-or-daddy urge cannot be satisfied by simply sending them off with a reasonable facsimile of the desired object. They need convincing that their play object can be used in the same way as daddy's "play" object. This may involve pretending to do your activities with the toy, or instructing your child on how it works.
At 11 months, safety concerns will prevent you from giving the child an old unused laptop, unless everything has been carefully glued down and reinforced (still not advisable for most parents). It's probably more important that the toy's appearance satisfies the child, rather than having sophisticated operation. Though you should pay attention to what interests your child most -- the keys? the screen? the disc drive? -- and make sure that the toy has a good one too.
I'm a big fan of second hand toy shopping, because kids grow so quickly and lose interest in toys they had when younger. They are often so cheap that you can "try" toys without regret, and help the environment too. I suggest going shopping with your child, since they know what they like, and modern toy packaging often allows some limited interaction.
Good luck with your little technophile!
Baby First Laptop is very cute!
As far as digital cameras, we just ordered the VTech Kidizoom Pro (Kidizoom Plus is also good) for our 4 year old after looking at other serious possibilities from Fisher Price, Crayola, Lego, Disney Digital Blue, Little Tykes, Memorex/Diego, Vivitar, Bean, other Kidizoom models, etc. It's pricey for a toy, but we hope it will survive through three children as a hand-me-down. I'll report back after we try it out.
- Hotdog, Aug 25, 2010