My daughter is 26 months old and once-twice a week she has to spend about 4 hours in the car (with a couple of 5-10 minutes breaks when she can get out and move a little bit). I’m looking for something to occupy her during those 4 hours. We tried reading books, but after going through 10-15 of them, she gives them up. I can’t be next to her all the time so she needs something she can play by herself. I came up with an idea about a laptop, but don’t know which one to get. She knows her ABCs, she is reading pretty well, knows basic shapes, colors, counts till 20. We had a baby laptop from Vtech she was playing with it from 3 months old till now 
I’m looking at this one http://www.squidoo.com/vtech-toddler-learning-laptop but didn’t check it out at a store yet. May be somebody here already got a laptop for a child and can give me an advice. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I am also looking for good laptop for toddler…My nephew always play on my laptop and it looks great, for me that is a start of good curiosity towards learning…I will check on amazon and ebay for items…
I really want to get DD an IPad soon. My plan is to velcro it to the floor so it has no where to fall lol (industrial grade velcro is CRAZY strong). oh yeah, and buy any protective cases I can for it and insure the heck out of it!
I second TeachingmyToddlers. IPad is a better investment as long as you find a way to keep it protected from damages, and getting insurance on it might also be good. The ipad can not only be used for your child, but yourself as well.
There are TONS of applications that the children loving playing that is either free, or VERY cheap compared to other “kids” gadgets where you need to buy cartridges etc. You will be amazed how fast your baby can pick up and have fun using an iphone or ipad. PLUS, I use keynote for words or story presentation for my son, you can buy keynote for ipad and do the same, so you can alternate your own home made slides with some of the educational and fun applications which can keep ur toddler busy. OH and let’s not forget that you can also play some of the learning DVD’s by downloading them from itunes, so they can even watch that =)
Can you share the free applications you use?
I checked out the lab top you want to get your child and I think it’s fantastic! I don’t see that you can loose much by trying it out and if it works, well than in my mind, it’s priceless! I can’t wait to use it on my daughter!! LOL, she’s only 5 months old, but never too early to start planning.
Good Luck!
We have this one http://vtech-toys.org/vtech-toys/v-tech-toy-story-3-buzz-spaceship-laptop/ for my one year old. At his age it’s just a decoy to keep him from trying to take mine.
I think your daughter might actually get some use out of it. The thirty activities are:
Laser phonics, Spanish Buzz, Capital and small, Letter blocks, Letter doors, Letter code, Typing and dancing, Laser numbers, Spanish numbers, Piggy bank, More or Less, Number doors, Largest number, Smallest number, Number code, Add the blocks, Hide and Seek, Spot the difference, Big and small, Bonnie’s backpack, Where is Woody’s hat, Shape puzzle, Grab the shape, Matching Shadows, Rock-Paper-Scissors, Fruit find, Speed matching, Toy attack, Left/Right, and Music fun.
It covers letters and their sounds, numbers to 10 in English and Spanish, some self explanatory ones, and some that I’ve never tried.
Ann, there are many, you can do a search for toddler games, toddler education, preschool games/ education. I’ll list some that I see on my iphone. My son has figured out how to delete applications and tends to do it just for fun =)
Anwyay, here they are:
Smart Baby - My First Flashcards
Shapes lite ( son loves this)
Flashfree
Sight words
Puzzles Free
Baby Cards Lite
Baby Flash Cards
Flashcards
Matching Zoo
ABC Phonics
Glow Coloring
DoddleBuddy (drawing)
Tozzle Lite
abc lite
Baby Classical Lite
Baby Piano Lite (son loves this one as well)
Thats all I see on my phone right now, I’m sure there were more, but like I said he has figured out how to delete, am guessing they got deleted. NOT all of them are educational, some are games just for fun. =)
Hope this helps!