To my children, mommy always has a “little computer” with her. That’s because I’ve always carried a PDA with me. These days, the PDA has been replaced with a smart phone but to them it’s still a “tiny computer”. They are very fascinated with it, always begging me to let them play games on it or do other things. It is getting harder and harder to say no as they grow older and I don’t want to discourage them from experimenting with technology either. Yet… these gadgets are expensive and they need to know they aren’t like the fake phone toys that they can just leave around on the floor, an accident waiting to happen. So how do you strike the balance between encouraging and still keeping your sanity?

Purchase Used Models

This will probably not work for teens but can satisfy those who are in the 6-10 age ranges. My husband found a couple of older model Palms complete with camera attachments and chargers for less than $5 in a thrift store. They love it!

Explore Open Source Software

Open source is great! Not only are most of them free, they can also be good software. If your child is artistically inclined, they can try their hand using software like Gimp for older kids and Tux Paint for younger children. My little ones often have hours and hours of fun with Tux Paint and it’s amazing to see what they create.

Inexpensive Video Cameras

Flips are super simple to use and many moms love it – so do kids. If your budget can accommodate the lower end Flips, they start at around $75 – $80. Personally, I still find that costs too much because kids are rough on their things – at least mine are. Instead, opt for no-name or bargain brands. These can often have more memory too. I’ve seen some being sold at Drug stores during sale (don’t buy when not on sale), for as low as $25 and upgradeable to 2GB with a card. Sure, you can’t expect Flip quality videos for something like that but the young ones aren’t always concerned about that. For my children, the only thing they are interested in is the fact that they can express themselves creatively or allow them to feel like iCarly.

Hand Me Downs

Between my husband and I, we have used quite a few computers and retired them. These are now revived/reworked for the kids to use and call their own entirely. Once again, our kids are still young though they do complain about speed when they are allowed to use mine and then go back to theirs. Just make sure you take precautions like not having it in their rooms, setting up rules and access limits to keep them safe if you allow the computer to connect to the Internet. When the kids were younger these computers were not Internet accessible but they were all loaded up with fun, age appropriate software.

Learn To Program – Yes They Can!

As a geeky mom, this is one of my ‘dreams’. To encourage the little ones to take up some programming. Scratch is one platform for younger kids while teens can try their hand using Alice. You’re not talking about getting to build the next operating system there but these can certainly help plant the seed or cultivate interest for something bigger/deeper in the future. Kids learn really, really fast. Something that can take me days to build or wrap my head around, they can often pick up in a few hours.

Kid’s Podcasts

Children love having their very own MP3 players. You can fill them with music, lullabies, or, podcasts. Storynory is a great place to get downloadable children’s stories in audio format. There are lots of other kids podcasts – if you have iTunes, just search for kids programming under podcasts .

Lynette Chandler is a product of the 80′s analog to digital transitional era and loves gadgets and anything techie. She provides Internet Technology help to other small businesses and in her spare time blogs at MomsGadgets . Lynette is also a mom of three beautiful girls and married to a proud veteran of the USMC.