What flashlight for 4 year olds?

[Cuso]

OK what is this and where do i get one??

 

[RobertM]

How about something like the Princeton Tec Blast? Not too bright to blind his friends, completely water proof (100 meters), runs on AAA, comes in a variety of colors, and is cheap.

Or maybe a Fenix E01 for most of same reasons listed above for the Blast (minus the dive rating :laughing?

-Robert

 

[jslappa]

Shining a light in the eyes of a child is a serious problem! No matter what you say to a kid below the age of 10, he/she WILL look at the bulb or LED. They just will. The Playschool light shown by PetaBread is perfect. Less than 1 lumen, multiple colored lenses, and can take plenty of trips down stairs.

Even those little photon's we get free from Lighthound are too bright for kids. My daughter is 2 1/2 and she loves daddy's lights! BUT, she knows she can't touch them because they are TOO HOT! I have a $10 LED Lenser with almost dead batteries that she can play with when she is in my bed watching TV before bedtime. We play a game where I use my D10 on the lowest setting and she uses the LED Lenser and we chase each other's "hot spot" around the room. She loves it, and so do I.

 

[greenLED]

All those kid-specific lights are great and all... but probably for non-flashaholic families. My son (5) will complain his "kid light" is not bright enough. For him brighter=cooler.

 

[sjalbrec]

Dont get nothing too bight might shine it in his or friends eyes.

too funny but so true! it never occurred to me to shine a torch into my own eyes, i always just naturally shine them on something (like the wall).

the first thing both my five and nine year-old boys did with my new NDI was shine it right into their own faces! don't get me wrong, they are great kids and very responsible. however, they will also leave flashlights on (short attention spans!) and try to shine them into other people's eyes (usually each others).

the real problem with introducing them to a higher end, programmable, light is that they are completely fascinated by strobe functions! this ruins them for a cheap light with a simple UI.

the cool factor is important too. a small tactical torch is really impressive when brandished by a lego bionicle - the playskool just won't cut it.

...it makes no difference,
night or day,
the shadows never go away...

 

[choaticwhisper]

My little 4yo girl plays with all my light, She rather shine them at someone else instead of her self.

A few weeks ago, My brother inlaw's friend gave her a 9led light, she was going to her room with it, she turned around and told me it didnt work. It worked fine for was it was. I knew what she meant, So I give her the D10, it lit up the hallway, She said "Ok, This one works."

4yrs old already spoiled on flashlights. Now shes playing with the DX 5Mode Rebel 100.

 

[Wits' End]

My children turn up their noses at anything non-LED
It really depends on the child.
Some of my children like a light like the fisher-price barnyard series. with an LED retrofit
Others want a light like Daddy and older siblings that will hang from a break-away neck lanyard. You know your child and I assume with your own knowledge and the suggestions here you should come up with the best light. Once you start them, you do realize that will be doubled


Not to be totally self-serving, SafeLights are a good option. Glow/find-me mode. Close to indestructible (keep in mind Pelican's warranty). Even lanyardable. Blinking mode, for a more sophisticated feel

 

[Phaserburn]

My 4 yr old daughter loves lights. She has a couple of different 2AA plastic/rubber lights w/ Dorcy leds in them. Extreme runtime, bright enough for play, not enough to damage eyes.

I thought it good to avoid aluminum lights at this age. She could handle them fine, but you never know when a toy is going to go flying by accident during play when running, etc. This is why no child toy for this age is metal, I'm sure.

My son, who is older, has a Garrity 2D with Dorcy led. He uses it alot.

Some of the PT lights, while simple and great, can be tough to turn the bezel because of a very aggressive O-ring (for waterproofness).

Both my kids have Energizer led headlamps and love them; the model with 2 white and 2 red leds. These are cheap and terrific for indoor and outdoor adventure play. Even Dora and Diego have headlamps these days...

 

[GrnXnham]

With a 4 year old, you'll go through 10 sets of batteries in the 1st week.

How about one of those crank lights?

 

[Yoda4561]

If you had given me a crank light when I was 4 years old, the 2nd thing I'd do after turning it on a few times is take it apart and not be able to put it back together. 2AA or 2C sized, plastic body, 10-30 lumens (like a single lux3 type). Size will keep it from being misplaced and batteries are easy to get. Kids love throwers, more wow/lightsaber factor. Edit: Oh, and explain in simple words the difference between "water proof" and "dive rated", and where exactly his new flashlight falls, otherwise it'll be in the bathtub, in the pool, in the sink, all sorts of places where good flashlights really shouldn't be

 

[Wyeast]

At that age (at least with our kids) small was less about choking, and more about constantly LOSING the lights.

For ours, my favorite light was the Energizer Weather Ready 4AA - (the squat red one, shaped like the old Turtlelites). Ours were (1) 5mm, the newer ones I think are (2) 5mm's. The only downsides were:

1) Battery holder - thankfully runtime is long enough that it wasn't often we were switching batteries, but it's still something that could be lost.

2) Black rubber sleeves are removeable - kept getting chewed on by the neighbor's 2yr old younger brother.

Between the chunky shape and the red color, it was pretty tough to lose (compared to other lights) :candle:

 

[carbine15]

4-year-old flashlight musts:
​

1. Must be difficult to disassemble and lose parts.

2. Must not be easily used as a weapon (small + heavy + lanyard = nun chucks).

3. Must have auto shut off or timer to save batteries.

4. Must use common cells.

5. Must be easy to find (hard to lose) large and colorful.

6. Must have good throw for more fun (smooth reflector)

7. Not too bright to damage eyes. (less than 100 lumens)

8. Waterproof is nice.

9. LED for longer runtimes and cool factor.

10. colored lenses for added fun.


The Playskool light +dorcy drop in has 9 out of 10 of these.

 

[Sean]

I got my kids a shake light and a crank light. That way I don't have to keep putting batteries in them and they have to work for the light.

 

[MWClint]

OK what is this and where do i get one??

awesome.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0009XBYOE/?tag=cpf0b6-20

 

[DHart]

I picked a Romisen RC-H3 single AA from DX for my grandson who has played with and loves all of my other Romisens 123's. The DX version of the H3 doesn't have a huge output (no where near my N3 Q5 or C3 Q5), especially with an alkaline AA, but has the clicky which he loves and I can feed him NiMH's for eternity. The price was around $13 or so. I think it's a great choice for a kid who is responsible!

 

[BigBluefish]

I gave my 4 year-old my Romisen RC-G2 non-q5. He likes to play with all my lights, but that one seemed big enough not to swallow, small enough not to clobber someone with - can you imagine a preschooler with a 3 C Mag in his hand???? - cheap enough not to worry if it disappeard, and silly me, I thought it wasn't bright enough to really do any harm, if left on, or if he accidently shone it in someone's eyes.

Well, after having him accidently shine it in my eyes a few times, I reconsidered. I had warned him not to shine it in his eyes, and though I never saw him do it, you just know kids at one point or another will take a light and stare into the emitter and go "cooooooool...." you know you did this with your old 2 D incans, then Maglites, 30 years or more ago, heck some of you have done it with your LED's (but I'll bet, only once.) If they try that with a bright LED today, they'll be saying "ouch!" and their ophthalmologist will be saying "retina damage."

Now I've got the RC-G2 back and he's got an E01 and some fauxtons, both white and red. He's well past he stage of putting things in his mouth, so i'm not concerned about the size, and I think it would be much harder for him to actually harm his or someone else's eyes with these lights than with the much brighter, and more focused beem of he RC-G2. Though I suspect even these could do some damage if you stared right into the emitter for an extended period of time.

Maybe the old incan Mini-Mag is the way to go. And you can get a color the kids like.