A Grand Dad, His Grand-Kids and His iPad

I was blessed enough in the sixth decade of my life to have been able to purchase an iPad 2 when they first came out. I can honestly say that it has been an enjoyable journey that continues to this day. The learning curve wasn't so bad since I owned an iPhone about three or four years prior.

Granted the iPad can't do all the things I was doing on my desktop and laptop (I was a PC guy), but that wasn't a big problem. And my iPad just lets me be mobile in ways I couldn't with a laptop. Try telling your 2 year old grand kids to wait while your laptop turns-on or shuts-down, when they're ready to go.

Speaking of the grand kids, my 2 year old grand daughter has become quite a navigator on grandpa's iPad. It's great to see her little fingers sliding around the screen, she knows how to get to her games and childrens movies I loaded on it. But the really cool part is when she gets stuck on something, then looks at me and speaks in tot-oneese "papa hep". That's when my whole world stops for a moment. We can sit there side by side and look at the screen together and find a way to solve or learn or just have a good time scrolling the screen looking for something else to do.

Sure we play in the back yard with the cats and dog. Or I turn on the bubble machine and let them run through the bubbles. We have a rabbit we let out in the back yard and play hide and seek with. But when grand dad needs a break, the iPad comes out and most times it's all good.

Finding games/apps that will keep the kids content is not a problem. If you look hard and long in the App Store you will find appropriate entertainment for the kids in all of us. And boy are there a lot of apps that can be found in the AppStore. Lots of free apps teasers, these are the ones that are free to try, then to get to higher more difficult levels there's a small fee. It's not a bad thing since it gives you a chance to see if the kids or you like the free app before you spend money on it. There are iPad learning apps for children and learning game apps for all ages. My other grand daughter had trouble with the letters 'b' and 'd'. A couple sessions using an alphabet app and she got it down, the interactive, fun and easy way.

I just have to say it's been an awesome time playing with the iPad and the grand-kids. I know it's a great tool, but it's also a grand kid magnet, and that's a pretty good thing!