[Swift]

Originally Posted by Sliver

Bit OT, but texting is an awesome, practical way to get your kids interested in reading and writing. My kids, five and seven, have phones (hooked up to our wifi, the phones aren't allowed out of the house, and they're not on any carriers). They're Android phones, so they can use Hangouts (you could do it with iPhones and use iMessage, too) to text over wifi. When my daughter gets home from school she is supposed to text me how her day was, and I text her back how mine is going.

We tried everything to get her interested in reading and writing and nothing was working particularly well for the longest time. Texting completely changed that for her and us. Now she enjoys reading, reads books, etc. and it's been really neat watching her abilities improve over the months we've been texting by looking through our history. I turned off predictive text and make sure to always write to her in complete sentences (versus abbreviated 'text speak').

Anyway, back to the thread, but just wanted to point out cell phones are a great tool for kids when used properly.

You do realize none of that involves writing?