My kids play with my iPad all the time. They listen to the music, play the games and love love love it. So much so that my mother (who would have never dreamed of it for us) got them their own iPad.
Good points; there’s a great program for arabic writing you could buy for the iPad. unfortunately it doesn’t say the names of the letters but I sit there with J when she is using it and tell her what each letter is. The books you can download are also beautifully animated and some of them are narrated as well.
But who are we kidding, they play stuff like Plants VS Zombies and Angry Birds more than they use it for reading or writing Arabic.
When they got it I set it up for them and downloaded my music onto it and made sure not to have anything with the “explicit” sign beside it and gave them a quick pat and said “enjoy!”.
A week later, I had J sitting beside me singing the Katy Perry song ‘California Girls’. I had bought it as part of a compilation album and didn’t think much about it when I added the album to the kids iPad. But when my J started singing the lyrics I was speechless. My 4-year-old was sitting there colouring, singing “Sex on the beach, we get sand in our stilletoes” Of course coming from her it sounded like “Sac on the beach, we get sac in a silero” but either way, I remembered what the lyrics really were!
I then took the iPad to “update it” and deleted all the songs except for the Michael Jackson, Jackson five and some album called 101 children’s party songs. The next day, I had two very upset children wanting to hear the good songs.
EVERYTHING IS RUDE! you don’t notice how rude till you have kids! I mean OMG! My children love Jay Sean’s song ‘Do you remember’ that include the lyrics “Girl take a sip of the champagne take a lil trip down my lane my girl” and Travie Mccoy’s song ‘Billionaire’ and Pinks song ‘So What”. Just put on MTV and pretend you are like 5 and listen!
I couldn’t put the songs back on their iPads. So I went on itunes to try to find something they can listen to that won’t make me freak out and that is not so lame that they will come to me with “how come (insert name here) can listen to what he wants”.
Then I found Kidz Bop on itunes. I LOVE THESE PEOPLE! they have apparently been around for a million years (9 actually). They have 19 albums out so far of children doing covers of the latest songs in the charts and making the lyrics age appropriate! Check out the 18th album track list.
I know most of these thing, if not all, go over their heads. I mean I didn’t realize that Rizzo thought she was pregnant in Grease till I was much older. Actually, when I watch many of the movies we used to see when we were younger there is so much that I just didn’t get. But for my peace of mind, and so that my kids can stay kids for as long as is possible without it being weird, I will monitor all they watch and listen to.
So for anyone out there who has a little diva like my little J who is too high and mighty to listen to the Hokey Pokey or Little Peter Rabbit go to itunes and download all the kidz bop albums.
yamaamaa.com 
Kidz Bop is awesome – especially when your 4-year old wants Lady GaGa!
which music awards show was it where Lady Gaga started gushing blood during her performance? I wanted to watch that with my kids!
You have just described my daughter. lol.. After she would not leave my husbands iPad alone, he went out and bought her one. And the Kids Bop is great, I downloaded all of them a while back, and must say I had the same OMG moment when my daughter was singing the SAME song.. lol.. Allah yster!
Being an avid music listener since i was 12,ive always ended up hearing most of whats played in the radio,even if i dont have intentions on doing so,my ears pay good attention to whats playing.
however,i always was conscious about what kinda music plays when someone is around me,especially with me listening to explicit music most of the time when i am by my self,it made me pay attention to what to play when i am with company.
so after becoming a parent,i realized how massive this whole thing is when it comes to your kids,my wifes cousin lives not so far (220 Miles) from where we live and we see each other every month or so, their kids are 9 and 10..and i always notice what they watch on TV and what they listen to,and end up being terrified thinking what will i do when my kids will be of this age.
Hanna Montana, and all the other shows that shows on the (kids) channels make my skin crawl in creepiness, if u watch these shows with an eye of an observer, u will find that the show is literally an adult plotted show carried by little ones, it talks mostly about relationships, kissing, and first kisses, lies, deception, gossip and back biting, all in a bubbly cheerful kinda plot. horrific!
one of the shows we were watching, two girls, 11-12 were shooting a video,and they were asked to choose the models they will shoot the videos with..and there was 8 adult men wearing nothing but tiny speedos and have oil spreaded all over their Model/Masculine figures. and they show how the girls, looking at those men with admiration and hinting (innocent) comments about how (cute) the men look like.
when it comes to music,thats a whole different issue, i remember back when the spice girls were the stars i read an article, i was 18 maybe? the article was in an english newspaper and it discussed how parents were concerned about the lyrics those girls were singing, i remember very well how a mother said ” i am not sure what to feel when my little daughter sings (If you wanna be my lover, you have got to give,
Taking is too easy, but that’s the way it is)..and looking at it now,i cant help not to laugh when i compare that song to what lady gaga now sings about taking our clothes under Christmas trees and katy perry singing about sun kissed skins will melt your popsicle, Oh oh oh ohhhhhhh! and what makes me more shocked is how appealing they make the videos for those songs that kids FREEZE infront of the screen when it plays.
u know whats the best part about all this? the fact that it will only get worse, i suggest that you google Willow Smith’s (i whip my hair back and forth) video who is believed to be the next lady gaga, not to mention she is the daughter of will smith,who till i saw her i thought is one of the most moderate and conservative stars in holywood.
*sorry about the long post*
Dentographer, I watched the shows. They are so ridiculous! Exactly what you said, first dates first kisses mean girls, micro mini skirts. I bought my kids all the old shows and movies I used to watch when I was younger (younger Dentographer, not young as I am still young).
Here is my plan:
No satellite TV in their playroom. Only DVD’s. If they want to watch satellite TV they can do it in the family living room with us. At least we can moderate what they watch and be able to discuss what they see on TV.
Also, No internet connection from anywhere but the family room. Cause internet is a WHOLE other subject matter.
But yes, all the shows suck. I have a theory that there will be a sudden change and people will become more conservative suddenly because I can’t see things getting worse than they are now.
youtube is full of the old cartoons like 7ikayat 3alamiyya and labeeba..
though i also heard they are sold somewhere in jeddah,i wanna get them inshallah soon.
here are a couple of sites I found ages ago that sold old cartoons like Captain Majed and Zaina ou Na7oul. I need to find those again!
Glad you found something suitable. I actually threw one of my son’s CDs in the garbage once–it was so awful. I believe it’s important what we listen to. I noticed when learning another language, the songs are remembered the easiest. If society is in such a state today, letting all sorts of things seem normal certainly contributes to it.
That is the problem djd, they get used to many things that I would rather they don’t get used to. So keeping an eye on what they are watching or hearing is important. At least till they are old enough.
We had to cut out electronics all together for our children about four years ago. ( Long story) But whenever I look at tv, dvds, etc or listen to music on the radio – I’m really pleased that we did – they are set at a level so much higher in sophistication than what I would want for our children.
Good on you for finding music you were comfortable with! It’s a difficult battle keeping children in their childhood these days.
I’m interested in hearing about why you cut them out completely!
I’m pleased you’re interested! I’ll post a whole blog on the ‘why’…we’re now reintroducing electronics for our Hare who has just turned nine – so intend to track his progress.