We all did makeshift arrangements when online school began in April and it continued till summer holidays thinking it's okay, we don't need to make an investment just yet but I must say I procrastinated on this decision as much as you did.
The last few months I have been on the scout for a device that reduces their screen time by actually adding to productivity. If you know me you also would know how much I love saving time. Time is the only finite currency. I also realised my kids are different from me. They do a lot more than I did when I was their age so giving them second fiddles or makeshift arrangements are not my desired solution.
I Was Waiting For The Ipad Air With The Magic Keyboard To Launch And Here Are My Reasons:
1. The amazing built-in trackpad that makes working on the new iOs more efficient.
2. The pencil makes it so easy to take notes, almost makes me feel that they are writing again. And also that it's attached magnetically so no more 'I can't find the pencil!' Apple Pencil supports handwritten notes and sketching in Notes and Mail, and with Markup, you can annotate photos, PDFs, and screenshots. iPadOS 14 takes pencil integration further—with handwriting as powerful as typed text and Scribble,8 you can now handwrite into any text field.
3. The floating design allows you to attach the iPad Air magnetically so that you can angle it to your more comfortable viewing angle. I cannot even emphasize how important this is.
4. Boast a battery life that will last a whole school day on a single charge, thanks to USB C charging. Goodbye extension boards and fights of why couldn't you make sure your device is charged in the night?
5. This full-sized keyboard features individual hard keycaps which is beneficial for kids – it gives them the use of a keyboard along with the advantage of being able to carry it around.
6. The kids have to do their research and present everything online now. The Word, Excel, and PowerPoint apps are now receiving updates to take full advantage of trackpad support in iPadOS so those using the new Magic Keyboard can easily highlight a passage of text in Word, select a range of cells in Excel, and move and resize graphics in PowerPoint, etc. This is in addition to Microsoft adding the ability to open multiple documents in Word and PowerPoint on iPad. Microsoft says they’ll be bringing more updates to their iPad apps in the coming months.
7. Most important Privacy – Safety of their pictures, gallery because with iOS 14 it can limit apps to use photos from specific folders only.
Why iPad And Not A Computer?
1. Now that is a really valid argument simply because it gives you the portability of the phone with features of a computer.
2. Also you can do everything with touch and that experience is what we are getting very used to.
3. It has all the apps that your computer has, + millions of others made for iPad.
4. The most important one, when this is over my kids will continue to use this and if you have a middle schooler like me then this becomes their lifeline to projects, research, creation whether the projects are on forms of media where they use GarageBand for audio or iMovie for their video edits.
So if you have been procrastinating or putting that decision on the back burner I really hope this post helps you make more informed choices, which is always been my endeavour at Kidsstoppress. I do believe that as parents we always want to provide the best to our kids within our means and learning should never be compromised.
If you are looking at a new device for your kids, consider the iPad and my recommendation would be with the Magic Keyboard.
KSP Team
Rushita Sheth
