How long can a 5-year-old pop virtual packing bubbles on an iPod Touch?

Who knows? After about five minutes, I asked my daughter to at least stop doing it while leaning it on my shoulder and she kept at it for a quite a while after moving about six inches away.

She stopped only because she accidentally hit a button that revealed other applications and happily spent a good half-hour dressing a chicken in different outfits.

In taking a Touch for a test drive, I figured I'd see if it really could be used as an educational tool, since there are endless applications that could help improve both my kids' reading and math skills. But I was deluding myself into thinking that a phonics game would be more fun than swirling water around, or that math drills would be fun at all. They'd both rather try to balance a virtual egg than take advantage of foreign language lessons.

Since I loaded it with kid-friendly applications, I shouldn't have been surprised the kids would assume it was their friend, not mine. I was also deluding myself by thinking anything educational could be as fun as making obnoxious sound effects or playing games. Will it be useful to have in my purse for moments when I need to distract one kid or another for a few minutes? Of course. I just don't think it will ever be anything more than that.

For years, I've held on to the belief that if I provided educational games, my kids would play. I think I'm ready to give up on that dream because although I keep reading that computer programs and hand-held applications can be effective learning tools, my experience has been that a pencil and paper, along with computer programs that offer nothing but templates for writing, creating presentations and making spreadsheets, are the best way to inspire creativity and offer a no nonsense approach to learning.

As for the iPod Touch, it looks like mommy has a new toy.