I Pod/ MP3 Player Help

L., My own personal opinion is that 6 and 8 is too young for this kind of thing. Kids don't need to have headphones stuck on their heads at that age. Get them a cd player that they can listen to cd's on. or better yet a book to read. they grow up so fast and shut you out that starting them that early is just a really bad idea. I am all for kids having access to music but the whole premis of an ipod / mp3 is for kids to have their "own" music. which means it gets put in their ears and your shut out. I just have a problem with kids having that kind of thing that early. just my opinion

I pod is a brand of MP3 just as ZUNE and sony makes one too. How old is your daughter? My daughters both have the Barbie girl MPS players. They look like barbie and you can change the face, hair and outfits but they hold music. You can take all her favorite CDs rip them to your computer using Windows media player or similar and then download them one. The instructions are simple to read and use. The girls just pull the hoodphone cords out to shut it off so battery doesn't die and you charge them on your computer. One thing I know with this one and some others they need to charge for many hours before you can use them the first time... so you may want to open it charge it up and put music on it before giving it to your daughter for her b-day.
My son has a coby mp3 that we got from toys r us (I think) it is pretty simple too. Works the same way to get music on and charges by the computer also. Zune is also great my husband and I both have zunes. These you can not move music already on your computer in Windows media though- they have to be ripped directly into Zune or get songs from the zune marketplace online. They have a 14 day trial and the songs are not too terrible expensive to buy either. (if you use the free trial make sure all the music is put on the zune because after your trial is over you can not listen to them on the computer anymore or move them over... learned that the hard way)
Hope this helps;)

L.,

I would highly recommend the ipod. It's just something that's a little bit more current, and a little bit better quality. Don't let people convince you that you need something crazy expensive. If she's young and was only JUST using a cd player, I would recommend using an ipod shuffle. They're about 59 dollars, and tiny little things. You must download i-tunes from apple.com website to import songs from her cds onto your ipod. From itunes you can also download songs. For christmas, perhaps it would be a good idea to get her a itunes gift card so she can purchase the songs she likes. Truthfully, it's easy and I think there are several how-to videos on the apple website to learn how to use it.

Oh, and I almost forgot. Best Buy has an AMAZING insurance policy on ipods. If your ipod breaks... (my brother washed his ipod (he fibbed on why it wasn't working) and he was able to get the newest version) and (you can also trade in your broken ipod for cash on a new ipod). I can't tell you how many times this insurance policy has come in handy! I would HIGHLY recommend it to anyone. It's reasonably priced and well worth it.

Good luck! :)

The real question is: is your daughter a Mac user or a PC user? If she's a Mac user, then don't even consider buying anything but an ipod. You import all of your CDs into your computer and use itunes to organize what you want to put onto the ipod. They also work as external harddrives, you can tune them into your car stereo or home stereo with a little adapter... they are awesome. Ipods also work with PCs, but I've heard that it's a bit more cumbersome to import music and use itunes on PC than it is on a Mac. Hope this helps : )
Oh, I do agree that an ipod or fancy mp3 player is more for a pre-teen than for a young girl. How old is your daughter? I'd say that around age 11 seems more appropriate for this kind of thing. I know that around that age I was really getting into music... They cost a lot of money and can break easily. I'd probably go for a cheapo young-kid version like that Barbie one mentioned in another post, or else find someone with an old ipod that they don't use anymore...