N8x0 and Parenting - How have you used the IT with babies/kids?
 

I've noticed that a couple of ITT posters are expecting children soon (myself, Brontide, TabulaRasa), or are already parents.

These are some of the ways I've read about or thought of using the IT for:
-Flashcam: for webcam to family, or as a baby monitor
-Skype: to talk to family (I really wish that the video part of Skype worked)
-TuxPaint: drawing activity for the kids
-WordPy: for blogging and posting images

So, what else are you using it for?

(And finally, how can you convince your partners that the IT is actually useful, and not just a toy? :p )

Re: N8x0 and Parenting - How have you used the IT with babies/kids?
 

That was the easy part. I sent one to my mother, so that she can start video talks with her grandchildren. ;)

Re: N8x0 and Parenting - How have you used the IT with babies/kids?
 

Show everybody the photos and videos of your child :-)
Have some nice lullabies in as mp3 :-))
Let your child chew and salivate it until your IT bricks :-)))

Re: N8x0 and Parenting - How have you used the IT with babies/kids?
 

I can play with my son with one hand and check my email with the other. ;)

Tim

Re: N8x0 and Parenting - How have you used the IT with babies/kids?
 

My daughter loves youtube "Simons Cat". She's just started talking and she mastered watching youtube videos months ago. She will reach into my breast pocket and pull the n810 out and starts "asking" for her vids.

Re: N8x0 and Parenting - How have you used the IT with babies/kids?
 

My children enjoy watching episodes of The Wubbcast while waiting the doctor's office, the pizza place, etc. The Wubbcast plays fairly well in the standard media player, and I keep a selection of episodes on the SD cards in my N800.

EDIT: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sjgadsb...7601780004446/

Beyond that, first child is old enough to be minimally trusted handling the tablet, so he gets to draw pictures in Sketch. Also, all three children enjoy seeing quick photos and video clips of themselves taken on the spot. Megapixels don't seem to matter to the pre-school set, just so long as they're the stars on screen.

Heh. My wife considers anything computer-related "for my job" and encourages me to purchase whatever I feel I need. Luckily, I'm, err, thrifty.

Re: N8x0 and Parenting - How have you used the IT with babies/kids?
 

http://flickr.com/photos/quimgil/1467535683/

http://flickr.com/photos/quimgil/set...7600300890313/

Re: N8x0 and Parenting - How have you used the IT with babies/kids?
 

Aim: convince spouse N800 is useful

Step 1) In restaurant, start "Numpty physics" & give it to restless child...

Step 2) At function where children present & spouse is trying to talk to other parents while kids climb up and down on top of her, start Mplayer (note mplayer doesn't do things when screen touched == advantage over otherwise excellent Canol2) select tablet-encode ed "My neighbour Totoro" and place where it can be seen by 1/2doz or more kids...

Step 3) In car, or in tent on rainy camping trip, start Mplayer select episode of Yo Gabba Gabba...

Result: Spouse says "Hey, you know, you should get another one of those so both kids can have one"... YMMV.

FWIW: My experience is that pictures of kids & videos taken with N800 are not good enough to show to grandparents.

Re: N8x0 and Parenting - How have you used the IT with babies/kids?
 

(For a 5 and a 2 year old)

Mplayer/Canola + SDcard:
- 36 episodes of Fireman Sam
- Some episodes of Bob the Builder
- About a dozen MP3 with "Kasperle-theatre" stories

MyPaint/Tuxpaint

The game "Car parking"

Re: N8x0 and Parenting - How have you used the IT with babies/kids?
 

my 3.5 year old enjoys tux paint and watching episodes of Shaun the Sheep on it

Re: N8x0 and Parenting - How have you used the IT with babies/kids?
 

My 2.5 year old uses "Mummy [and] Alex's Nokia" for:

1. TuxPaint
2. Opening the bookmarks menu, navigating to the "Alex" section and opening the CBeebies website or Thomas and Friends and playing the Flash games.
3. Watching videos of Thomas, Underground Ernie or Tikkabilla.

Re: N8x0 and Parenting - How have you used the IT with babies/kids?
 

yeah my toddler loves the videos...heck ive got 20-or so sesame streets on there....old ones sat that...my wife likes the ability to just let her watch what she wants...usually sitting in her highchair the older kids both have palms with there movies that they want to watch on there...and some games...everyone fights to play numpty physics and draw using tuxpaint

Re: N8x0 and Parenting - How have you used the IT with babies/kids?
 

Thanks for all the posts! Lots of great ideas in here, some of which should go in the marketing material for Nokia! :)

It will be a while til my yet-to-be-born daughter is old enough to do a lot of these things, but I will surely be using it to show off photos.

Thanks

Re: N8x0 and Parenting - How have you used the IT with babies/kids?
 

I agree with Tim, I can check email, and other basic connectivity functions while playing with my two kids - it's a real life saver as a parent. And since they are quickly pocketable, you can hide them from their view if things ever get out of hand.


In terms of convincing your partner that a NIT is a good idea ... check out my thread on how my wife stole my tablet... just lend it to them, and you will find yourself buying another one soon.

Re: N8x0 and Parenting - How have you used the IT with babies/kids?
 

In-line with Quim:

http://flickr.com/photos/timsamoff/2382649589/

(On a plane from Missouri to California.)

Tim

Re: N8x0 and Parenting - How have you used the IT with babies/kids?
 

recently I put on headrest in one of my cars. It is way better than my installed dvd player in another car because it has tons of videos so I can change at my kids whim

Re: N8x0 and Parenting - How have you used the IT with babies/kids?
 

Where do you find tuxpaint?

Re: N8x0 and Parenting - How have you used the IT with babies/kids?
 

Found tux paint and my 3 yr old loves it

Re: N8x0 and Parenting - How have you used the IT with babies/kids?
 

I would let my kids play with my N800 but I can't do without it that long! I use it more than my watch. I guess I'll have to get another one ;)

Let's see, I need one to control the entertainment system, one for each kid (3), one for my wife... Nokia, you'd better lower the price!

Here is now to NOT impress your wife: my 4-yr old saw me playing Quake once and now its "Daddy can we play the monster game?" Which his mother wouldn't approve of.

Re: N8x0 and Parenting - How have you used the IT with babies/kids?
 

Any other games or programs they are using for their Kids? This is a great thread to keep going.

Re: N8x0 and Parenting - How have you used the IT with babies/kids?
 

well i find having any gadget...be it a palm or the tablet heightens the desire for the kids to want to play with them...my 8 yr old keeps stealing my test units....which is ok...he lokes to doodle on the notepad(palm)

Re: N8x0 and Parenting - How have you used the IT with babies/kids?
 

on a long road trip I'd ripped a few DVDs to SD card, and it made my son very happy to have something to do... he'd never worn headphones before so that was tricky for a few minutes. being able to trust a high quality in-car nokia charger to not blow up my tablet was nice, so battery life wasn't a problem.
my son also enjoys the paint programs too.
he also makes use of the many games my wife and I have on our Palm pilots, so when the palm emulator gets better that would open the tablet up to many excellent games!

Re: N8x0 and Parenting - How have you used the IT with babies/kids?
 

I used my n800 with mplayer to play videos for our 3 yrd old when at restaurants or on the road (also pucca and some other series). Installed G-compris and used if for a while, but some of the games run slow (don't know on diablo though). Tux paint was a good tool for him... Also, had 2 batteries... Taking ou the tablet with a little kid hoping for a movie or a game , only to discover that the battery is empty leads to an upset little boy !

Re: N8x0 and Parenting - How have you used the IT with babies/kids?
 

My daughter was born last week. I used my n810 tethered to a Verizon Centro via bluetooth to post pictures and updates from the hospital. It was a great tool to have and fit in my pocket (of course) compared to the full laptop.

Things I used the combo for:

Twitter updates from the n810
Work(ugh) exchange emails since the baby came early from web mail on n810
Pictures posting from the Centro to Flickr
Pictures posting from the Centro to Facebook
Car share rental to bring the baby home from the hospital n810
Mapping to find the car (n810)
Phone number lookup from pdf address listing (n810)
Flickr browsing to read comments n810
I also brought the n810 in case I needed to look up in on any medical questions, thankfully it wasn't needed, but it was nice to know it was available.
SSH access to my personal email n810
General web surfing as needed

Things I wish I was able to do but didn't get a chance
Real digital camera uploads from SD card (didn't have a card of right size to share)
Video conference from the hospital

Re: N8x0 and Parenting - How have you used the IT with babies/kids?
 

I'm rocking my 5month old right now while surfing and listening to a podcast on my n800!

Re: N8x0 and Parenting - How have you used the IT with babies/kids?
 

I showed my son episodes of "Yo Gabba Gabba" on the tablet to distract him during his first real haircut.

Re: N8x0 and Parenting - How have you used the IT with babies/kids?
 

I was stuck in 3 hrs of traffic this weekend heading to Hamptons and my 2 year sat patiently watching little einsteins, max and ruby and gabba gabba. Much better than jut one DVD

Re: N8x0 and Parenting - How have you used the IT with babies/kids?
 

xGalaga - I downloaded that game over the weekend and my 4 yr old loves it. While it is a crappy "clone" (I use that term loosely and only use it because that is what the xgalaga site use) of Galaga, it is good for the kids.

Re: N8x0 and Parenting - How have you used the IT with babies/kids?
 

2 kids : 1.5 and 3 years old

they play with sketch (watch them so they dont scratch the screen)

media player for Dora -Diego - Thomas the train and BOB the builder episodes I recorded from TreehouseChannel.

By the way, Mediaconverter will handle the .ts files made by your TV/sat pci card .

the n800 is a life saver when they are sick and we have to go to the medical center or Hospital. And bonus for us, there's a lot of open wifi around the hospital so just sitting close to the windows and you can browse the web for free.