My son is starting middle school in the fall, and although I've always been opposed to kids having cell phones, I'm wondering if giving him one only for us to text each other might be a good idea.
We live in a walking community, but he's kind of a flake (doesn't always look when he crosses the street, forgets things, etc.) and I have to pick his little brother up from the elementary school about four blocks from the middle school. My son is not yet comfortable just going home on his own, but he wants to try to walk to meet us.
However, I'm not sure how I would let him know if plans change & I need to drive (i.e., I don't feel well enough to walk, his little brother came home sick, it starts raining hard, etc.). And on his side, if he wants to stay because of some club he wants to check out, he'd need to let me know that, too.
We have a few old iPhone 4s laying around (when we switched to Ting they were not compatible) that can be used as iPods. This got me thinking -- if he takes one of those, and uses the school wifi, is there a way for us to message each other? Maybe some kind of app we could use?