Ds doesn't like his tablet

A question about : Ds doesn't like his tablet

For Xmas we took ages to decide what to get my 3 year old boy and 5 year old girl.
We decided to get them a cheap android tablet each, which we have downloaded with free apps. We decided on this as they both love messing with my iPhone. However, they are both unimpressed by the tablets. They are quite slow to respond, and the games seem boring with lots of ads on.
My daughter received a ds game for Xmas which has got her interested in her previously untouched ds, but my 3 year old has nothing really so I'm undecided what to do. We bought the tablets to entertain them on our upcoming holiday, we thought it would distract them from the long travelling time.
I am considering selling my little boys tablet and getting him something else but I don't know whether to get him a ds (second hand but think he may be a bit young), an innotab or a leappad. Does anyone have any recommendations?
Thanks in advance.

Best answers:

• Some lego?
• My 3 year old can be entertained with my iphone for about 5-10 minutes in a restaurant waiting for meals to come, but mainly I suspect because it is a bit of a novelty and he doesnt get to play with it often. I would suspect that if he had one of his own, he would be bored with it in seconds and never look at it again. My 13 year old has a DS which is often lying around and the 3 year old has no interest in it really.
  I think your 3 year old is probably too young to be entertained by anything in this ilk for quite some time to come.
  For a really long car journey for kids this age, I personally would buy a portable dvd player that plugs into the cigarette point and take a selection of their favourite films with you. You could intersprese this with some old favourite car games - I spy, Pub Cricket or on motorways spotting caravans or green cars or whatever. I can't imagine that any form of computer interactive entertainment is really going to be feasible at that age for either of them
• Drawing/colouring/sticker books.
• I'm sure there will be an age appropriate film or cartoons for a couple of hours, time taken by having something to eat, some time colouring/drawing, a play on his sister's DS when she has a break from it, read a book with him, talk to him? Maybe a nap, depending on the time of day?
  But if all that wont fill the time, DS, seeing as he likes his sister's.
• Is it an android tablet?
  Maybe we could give you some ideas for some apps/games that you can download?
  There are dot to dot, colouring etc, which would probably serve them well do you think?
• Android and "free" usualy means adverts plastered over the apps!!
  If you pay for the app, it usualy means the ad's are removed.
  I am not sure which device you have bought, however there are a lot of units on the market which dont have the processing power to be able to cope with the demands of some of the apps available. However I understand the problem with giving a 3 and 5 year old a device that cost's a small fortune!
  Tip, you dont have to pay twice, just use the same Google play account on both tablets/android based phones and the app will become available on all devices device but for 1x purchase!
• It is an android one yes. I've downloaded some things like that, but the better games seem to be the ones which you pay for, and I am reluctant to put my card details in incase thwy purchase add-ins. I can't find anywhere about controlling purchases.
• It's an all winner a13.
• With Google play, I am sure you can restrict purchases though a pin or password. I think you only get the option once you enter the details into Google Play.
• I've already set them up as seperate accounts. Could I change them to the same one now? Thanks for your advice, it's very helpful.
• You should be able to change the account. You *may* have to reset the device and go through the tablet setup from scratch. Its been a while since I have toyed around with Android though!
  The device is are low powered device, not the multi core monstors (which also come with a monstor price tag!) that the higher end models have. However the slowness might be because you have a large number of apps open in the background. You can get apps like Task Killer that will allow you to close "closed" apps. When you "close" an app, they actualy continue to run but in a low powered state in the background. But with the single cored device this can make a big difference.
• That's great thank you, I'll have a look at it tonight and see if I can get to grips with it.
• My daughter was given a DS for her 6th birthday, and the arguments between the kids were so bad over it that my son was given one for his 3rd birthday. He loved it, but only for short periods at a time.
  He's now on his 2nd DS, as his first one died from over use, and would play 24 hours a day if I let him!