the things we do for our kids...

My three year old has long since figured out all about LED tints. It's been more than a year that when asking for a flashlight she's called my neutral white eiger "the green one", and my cool white MJP Extreme III "the blue one."

Recently, she's taken a fancy to my new high CRI E2e, which lives in my nightstand for reading, and wants it to play with as she falls asleep. It's a three mode, and I don't much care for the idea of her accidentally blasting herself in the face on high, or letting it run down with either primaries or ICR (mainly for safety reasons).

I feel bad not letting her play with my toy, and especially don't want to discourage her budding flashaholism and tint-snobbery...so a few days ago I got the bright idea to configure one of my lights as something she can use and abuse without fear (mine). After a little brainstorming and a good deal of trial 'n error, I've come up with a solution. I ordered some NiCd AA's and a charger (OK, so all the LED Mag's are getting NiCd too now). Loaded an M61HCRI in an MD-3. And applied several layers (three) of electrical tape to the business end of a hi/lo switch ring (with cutouts for the switch plunger and "eyes"). Oh, and ordered a delrin 18mm to 14mm sleeve for the light. Now she has a low-only MD-3/M61HCRI, which is very low indeed on a pair of NiCd AA's. The hotspot is just the right output for what I like to read with, and not too painful if you happen to look into the business end. She can leave it on all night, not keep herself up with a too-bright light, and run it down to nil with no fear of damaging anything.

Now to stash it in my nightstand and use it frequently until her interest is piqued by daddy's new toy and she decides she just has to have it :devil:

I would like to come up with a little bit of padding/wrap so it's a little less startling if she knocks it off her bed into the hardwood floor in the middle of the night, though....

I went the other route. I got my daughters (3 & 4) cheap 2D flashlights with NiteIze LED emitters. They are big enough to be hard to misplace and cheap enough to not sweat it if they get lost.

I have two kids, and I wanted to make them lights that were safe and fun to use. My eldest daughter (now 5) has a disney princess energizer light with a MagLED 4D dropin. This is the first LED version Maglite had for there C and D sized lights. It probably puts out a little over 100 lumens. The reason I chose this though was because on 2 AA cells, it puts out maybe 15 lumens and literally runs for days. Of course, she doesn't really use it that much

I found that my youngest (10 months) really likes metal lights. Probably due to teething etc, but I also didn't want her hurting herself. I am still attempting to find a solution that I would be happy with, but at the moment, I have a HDS High CRI EDC with all four levels programmed low, running a primary. Wash the threads in soap, and they become sticky again. THis means she can't get it open. I will eventually get my light back when she likes princesses or something, but for the moment, I have to do with other lights.

I got this cheap 2C incan for my little son. Being incan, he can not hurt his eyes with it and being made for kids, the rubberrized body won't hurt when dropped on ones foot. Unfortunately the momentary only front switch and the forward clicky on the rear are pretty stiff.

Cheers
Thorsten

kelmo said:

I went the other route. I got my daughters (3 & 4) cheap 2D flashlights with NiteIze LED emitters. They are big enough to be hard to misplace and cheap enough to not sweat it if they get lost.

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something similar worked for mine from about 18mos (rayovac 2D led)...and she'll still pick it up once in a while, but she really doesn't like the blue/purple tint :shrug:
She does still like to play with the 2D MagLED's that are around the house, but mostly because they are bright, and it's not really appropriate for bedtime

I was helping a friend re-wire his boat trailer and had my Xeno E03 out and in use. I set it aside to fish a wire through a riser and his 2.5 y/o son grabbed the light. Kids are info sponges and it took him all of .00001 seconds to turn that little reactor on (had a 14500 Li-ion in it). I snatched it before he looked into the business end, and of course the wailing began. I felt like a heel for making the kid cry, but also knew I could not give him a torch capable of ~500 lumens AND one that stresses a Li-ion cell on high. I ended up cinching down all the straps on an ancient incan Petzl and giving him a "light-hat", which he runs and grabs when I come over.

My son is still to young to really understand lights (but loves it when I make his ball light up). However, my friend's son is a little over 2, and has figured out that my keychain light is his favorite thing about me. Whenever I come to visit, I have to fork over my blue Arc AAA immediately. I've trained him not to shine it in his face, but even when he does on accident, it's dim enough that it's not too big a deal.