Daddy Clay: Santa brought my second grade daughter an iPod. You may wonder why the jolly elf is enabling even greater media exposure for small kids, but with the right parental management, this little gizmo can be a great ally for dad.

Welcome back to Quality Time. We’re brought to you as always by Baby Bjorn. I’m kind of digging the little pink potty. I’ve got a pink thing going on. It works for me.

Anyway, back to the iPod. First thing you want to do is limit and lock the volume on your child’s iPod. In-ear headphones are potentially hazards over the long haul. Kids tend not to notice as carefully as they should how loud things are. Limiting the volume is easy.

So from the root menu go to Settings – Playback – Volume Limit. Then it gives you the option to lock it. Enter the numbers then the volume is limited. Then, what goes on the iPod?

For music, I suggest a mix of premium grade kids stuff from groups like Trout Fishing in America, Joe McDermott, and Sara Hickman. I also like the soundtrack from Cars. Soundtracks from favorite movies are always a good way to go. Than spend some time sitting down with the kid picking through your collection of CDs.

I prefer to set up my computer with separate profiles for the kids. They get their own iTunes application synched only with their iPod but linked to my account. The digital rights management or DRM makes the transfer of song from my iTunes to theirs difficult, but now at least it’s possible. You may have to synch the iPod a time or two initially, but pretty soon the music collection is pumped.

Add a simple game like Ms. PacMan, and maybe an episode or two of classic Warner Brothers cartoons collection like Bugs Bunny, and this guy is set for car trips and waiting rooms and other fidgety times.

Like all the media troughs in your house, use of the iPod has to be observed and limited. If it seems like they’re getting too much screen time, work out a checkout procedure.
But for the younger kids, this isn’t a problem.

If you have ideas about how to manage kids and iPods, please join the conversation at DadLabs.com. That’s all for Quality Time. Thanks to our sponsors Baby Bjorn, you think and iPod has cool engineering, you should see a Baby Bjorn Travel crib fold up. See you next week on quality time.