iPad for a 5yr old?

Talk with a teacher or learning specialist.

There is no doubt there are many iPad learning apps. The issue I think you are asking is whether or not this type of learning is beneficial for a 5 year old.

I sold my original iPad to an 8 month old friend (I'm also friends with his parents). He is now 1 year old and knows his way around the iPad. They monitor his usage (at first he did not like it taken away from him) and put appropriate items on it for him. They are thinking of acquiring an iPad 2 so they can use the new feature where you can lock the ipad to one app (he is quite adept with swiping between screens and the home button).

My daughter was 5 years old when the first iPad came out, I now have a iPad 2, she has used them both, I limit the time she has on it, its also locked down and i steer her towards apps that are creative but she still likes to traditional activities, what's amazed me is how easy kids work out how to do things , there happy to poke around until some thing happens unlike my mother and other elderly relatives who at first are scared to poke about.

As for getting one for a 5 year old I think it's a bit young, I still have to remind my daughter to be careful with it, there's a lot of glass on these devices and they don't have a real concept of the value of it.

My daughter uses Windows at school , Macs and tablets at home and has no problem jumping between them so I think this will help her when she enters the work place in the future, what ever that might be ?.

The place i live all kids in School get an iPad it works fine

Apart from all the broken screens

My sister motivates my niece to do chores, etc, by 'earning iPad time'

There are a lot of learning apps out there that can be quite good.

One thing you may want to consider is looking into the restrictions, etc. Because since the iPad is meant for adults, there's not much groundwork for filtering the internet, etc. But there is parental control browsers out there when, used with the restrictions to lock out certain apps, etc, can make the device relatively 'stand alone' and safer for kids.

By the sounds other niello gene, she seems perfectly capable of managing and looking after one. Hope this helps. Adam

My 4 year old grandson loves the iPad.

Be sure to get a rugged case for the iPad, since kids are more prone to drop it. Also put on a screen protector. You never know what a kid may put on the screen.

 Cheers, Tom 😉