ABQmom, thanks for mentioning the names of the math apps - we have a dd who struggles understanding math concepts, and visualization really helps her so any kind of app we can find to help out with math is so appreciated!
Re the Macbook Air - not only are they very expensive, they seem to me to be a higher risk for breaking. Our family is hard on our computer products (not on purpose! We just have a lot of kids and I'm a klutz lol!). I keep my iPad in a padded protector that it can stay in while we all use it, and even though it's been dropped accidentally several times with and without the protective cover (including a spectacular drop by *me* down our stairs... ugh...)... it still works a-ok. I've also dropped a laptop and, um, had to replace the monitor. Actually I've done that twice. Note - I'm not recommending dropping computers helter skelter, just realistically, it can happen.
I also use the Dragon app on my iPhone and it works well for simple things. My ds with dysgraphia has used it now and then too, as well as MacSpeech Dictate and Dragon for the Mac. I'm very interested in seeing how Dragon works on the iPad - the app on the iPhone is simple, doesn't translate everything perfectly, but works well enough and easy enough for my ds to be able to dictate and then edit relatively easily as long as he's not dictating while we're driving in the car with his sisters singing at the top of their lungs (background noise, also just plain annoying!). My opinion is that Dragon for the Mac is nowhere nearly as annoying as some of the reviews you'll find, but it's also somewhat cumbersome for new users and kids, and Dragon on the PC can be also.
Word prediction on the iPad - drives me nuts, and I've turned it off - but that's the word prediction that comes with the iPad. Our ds uses Co:Writer word prediction on the laptop and it's really an amazing tool for people with dysgraphia - and I'd say it's even *helped* my ds learn how to spell. I haven't seen what's available on the iPad yet, but hopefully we will be able to find something equivalent. If not, I anticipate my ds will still be using his Mac for the majority of his written work.
FWIW our school uses Keynote and Pages for classwork (Mac products similar to MSWord and PowerPoint)... I haven't used them yet so I'm not familiar with their spell-check etc.
polarbear
