I got this for my 4 year old son. http://www.nabitablet.com/ He likes it a lot. It will surf the web pretty good also.

My wife and I just upgraded our phones to the Galaxy S4 and handed down out HTC evos to the kids to use over wifi

Just bought this for my daughter's birthday:

The content control on the Apple products is very nice.  Android lacks them (although 4.3 is supposed to be better and allow for profiles).

That's a great deal.  I have one of the same model, and use it with the headphones with a mic and Skype to use it like a phone.  If the kids have free wi-fi at school, you can probably get away with that instead of a phone and save a lot of money.

I'd buy one iPod and a used iPad.  They'll probably fight over them some, but I think it's better than having three of the same thing.z

I've had good luck buying last-gen refurb ipods and ipads Apple sells.  Add Otterbox defender cases to the list for the ipod touches.  So far no casualties on any of 6-8 refurbs we've purchased over the years.

Only casualty of all the Apple devices was my wife's (new) iphone4s... Busted back-glass on day-2 as the Otterbox was still in the brown truck...

I've tried other craptastic media players and they were craptastic.  

Small tablets an option?  Nexus 7", Small Kindle Fire?  Not something you drop in a pocket though.

Sero Pro from Walmart for $150 + $15 extended warranty isn't a bad deal either, I love mine.

Kharn

Get them the new nexus 7.

Just get a $150 tablet.

The Hisense Sero 7 Pro is $150 at walmart, can use a 64gb flash card, has hdmi, wifi, and more!

We got our daughter a refurbished Ipod touch through the Apple store. I can't recall how much we paid, but it was probably excessive.

She just turned 2 - I'm sure some folks heads are exploding after reading that. We were intending to get her one of the kid oriented tablets since she loves to play with our Iphones, but after talking with one of our even nerdier friends who is very into mobile devices we decided one the Ipod for a few reasons. The UI is dead simple (even before our daughter was 2 she pretty much had it mastered), there are tons of learning apps available (our daughter has lots of flash card and puzzle apps - not all free but many are), it can share chargers with our Iphones, and it's damn near indestructible inside an Otterbox case.

That said, I have a earlier model Google Nexus 7 (I understand they have recently released a new one?) and it's been awesome so far and I believe they can be purchased for around $100.00 a piece. It has a much bigger screen, but it is still portable. This is probably what I would steer towards.  It's certainly more capable than an Ipod touch. I can't speak to the texting capability of any of them, other than I believe the Google voice app will permit texting over wifi and should be available for either device.

There are other choices at that price point.  But get them a touch if that's what they want.   The refurbs look like a great deal IMO.

I'd say get them iTouch refurbs direct from Apple.



If they want iTouches then anything else will be... else.
Though the number of times I've heard "I wanted this iPhone so bad... I hate it!" is getting rather amusing.

I think the iTouch is a good device, but it's still tied to fucking iTunes.

So when iTunes won't sync or see the device, etc etc, is where the well deserved hate comes into play.





 

Can you obtain replacement glass for iOS devices?

One positive thing about Android... I broke my digitizer screen, and replaced it for $15 on ebay.

It was slightly difficult to replace, but a youtube instructional video was the key, for sure.



 

You can find some nice 7" tablets in that price range but they're not iPod Touches.
I know be grateful for whatever you get but if my kid ask me for something and I can swing it I'd get what they ask for instead of something similar.

Also if you buy a refurb, you may want to make sure it's a Gen 5. From what I heard Gen4 iPods won't be getting iOS7 this fall.

I have an iPad, a Kindle Fire, numerous computers, and am also an IT guy.  I much prefer the iPad, and iPod is basically the same.

I also have granddaughters.

Get the kids iPod touchs, new or those refurbed ones.  They aren't going to be happy, otherwise.

And, a 7 inch screen isn't going to be portable enough for them.

I've never needed to do so, but I'm pretty sure the iPod touch screens can be replaced.  A quick web search reveals kits available for purchase.  The first hit was a kit for a 4g iPod touch for $19.  Same is true of the iPhone.  I took my wife's to the Apple store by the office to get it fixed up PDQ though.  I believe the back glass was around $25-$30 and swapped while I waited.  My wife was most happy...

We have two 3rd gen iPod Touches,  two 4th gen iPod Touches and two first gen iPads.  None have broken, they're all all over two years old and still in almost daily use.   The older iPods aren't used much, but still work.  I have an old Nano in my truck for tunes.  Charging cables have taken the biggest toll... I've had to replace 2 or 3 of those.

They work and the wife and kids have been happy.  I've been happy with the old iPad other than the more frequent browser crashes (Safari and Chrome) of late.  I've been hearing of the same increase in crashing from work folks with Android devices.  All of our apps are purchased once and shared (all on the same iTunes account).  Don't know if you can do that with Android apps, but will be finding out shortly.  One complication of doing this is sharing of iTune store credits/cards but it hasn't really been an issue.  I don't keep a credit card on file to avoid in-app purchases...  Another benefit is that I don't have to take care of any of them as one of the teen boys does that for me.  

I've got an iPod touch sitting in a drawer with a cracked screen, and my daughter's iPod Touch is going to be obsolete in about a week and a half when we up her to an iPhone. Point being, there are a lot of unused ones out there.

Score some used ones, and toss in $50 iTunes cards, and still be money ahead.

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I have a Gen 4 32 gig iPod touch i bought on sale on amazon a few years back.  I did not take it out of the box until the Otterbox cover was sitting next to it and I was ready to put it on.  get the covers !