[August 29, 2011] OPINION: Publisher's Notebook: iPad makes a great babysitter Tweet Aug 25, 2011 (The Sentinel Echo - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- LAUREL COUNTY, Ky. -- The iPad, made by Apple, is a perfect device. It's smaller than a laptop, which makes it easier to surf the web, check email or prepare files for work. It's no wonder iPad sales are soaring while sales of personal computers have hit the skids. The iPad also is great for reading newspapers, books and magazines. It sits comfortably in your lap. The screen is big, making type easy to read. A powerful processor makes flipping through pages and loading full-color images and movies a breeze. I love to sit on my deck on cool weekend mornings and catch up on all the news through the USA Today app or CNN. It only takes one finger to navigate through all the news sections. My wife likes the fact that I can download the latest issue of Better Homes and Gardens magazine and put all the gardening and home decorating tips right in her lap. Yes, the iPad is an amazing device. But people like us have found other, perhaps unintended, uses for a computer that is operated by touchscreen. It's a great babysitter. I first began occupying my grandchildren's time by watching YouTube videos with them in front of a desktop computer. We'd sit there for hours watching The Wiggles, Barney, Elmo and a half-dozen different versions of Old MacDonald Had A Farm. They'd point at the screen to tell me which ones to play. But with my iPad, they no longer had to point. All they had to do was touch the screen and the videos popped up for them. It didn't take long for my two- and three-year-old grandchildren to learn how to turn on the iPad, launch the YouTube app and play their favorite videos all on their own. The iPad can mesmerize fussy children and keep them occupied for long stretches at a time. Parents and grandparents across the country are taking advantage of the iPad's babysitting abilities. It may be the answer to keeping kids quiet through dinner. Blogger Erica Reitman told the New York Post, "I've been out to dinner several times recently where I noticed parents at nearby tables who had kids with iPads. Those little suckers didn't make a peep all night. As far as I'm concerned, I'd like to ensure every child with the borders of Park Slope gets their own iPad, pronto!" The little coloring sheet and crayons typically given to children to occupy them at restaurants are now obsolete. The iPad also opens up a whole new world of games and apps made just for children. They range from simple ABC games, to Angry Birds to apps like Puppet Pals that let children create their own animated cartoons. Most of the games and apps are free, or cost just a few dollars. Downloading them from Apple's App Store is simple, so don't let your children know your password. The iPad, with its touchscreen capabilities, is a lot more than just a mindless video game. So don't worry about the kids spending too much time with it because it may be used as a teaching tool in schools very soon. Besides, if youngsters weren't playing on the iPad, what else would they be doing? Fighting amongst themselves, climbing on the furniture or trying to flush the cat down the toilet? At my house, we no longer worry about the grandkids watching adult-oriented programming on the television. So, for instance, on Sunday nights when the adults like to watch True Blood on HBO, we can give the grandkids the iPad and they can watch videos more suitable to their tastes. The adults get to watch Sookie Stackhouse teasing the vampires and taming the witches while the children listen to Barney sing about love and happiness. They don't make a peep the whole hour. Ain't technology great? [email protected] ___ (c)2011 The Sentinel Echo (London, Ky.) Visit The Sentinel Echo (London, Ky.) at www.sentinel-echo.com Distributed by MCT Information Services [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]