[hnthrowaway0328]

As a father of a 4 year old boy, I plan to remove smart phones and pads from my son for as long as possible. He can watch TV or play console/PC games but absolutely no mobile games for as long as I can. He will get a dumbphone maybe with a snake game when he grows up a bit.

In the mean time, I'll try to bring him to hiking, camping and other outdoor activities. If he is very into electronics then I'll introduce gaming and programming.

I'm also considering a no smartphone policy for myself. I cannot persuade my wife who is deep into scrolling hell already, sadly.

[thomasahle]

> I plan to remove smart phones and pads from my son for as long as possible.

It seems that once you send the kids to school, you no longer have full control over these things.

The friction is too big if you're the only parent with this policy. That's why "multiple schools join up" is a good thing.

[doublerabbit]

Educational dos games. You can't beat them.

Where they're at an age before knowing FPS, MMOs they will have tons of fun jumping up and collecting words.

Word Rescue, Maths Rescue the Fun School series all hold weight to name a few.

Just because the old don't have hyper-ai-raytracing graphics doesn't mean they're not playable for the younger generations.

[lawn]

I've started introducing retro handhelds that can emulate most older console games to my kids.

They really like games like Tetris, Pokemon and Zelda.

It's fantastic.

[hnthrowaway0328]

That's something I have in mind. Is 6 years old a good age? My father exposed me to games like Alley cat and Bigtop when I was 6/7. He gave me 30 mins every weekend day. I might do the same to my son when he reaches 6.