If you have a tween or teen, I'm sure discussions about a cell phone have come up at your house.

The kajeet phone is a great option. It is a pay-as-you-go cell phone. That means no contracts, no activation or cancellation fees. Tweens want regular feature-rich cell phones that do not look like toys. kajeet uses phones that are already on the market, and wireless network services are provided on the Nationwide Sprint PCS Network.

When you log into kajeet online, you can access the kajeet Configurator. Each phone comes with virtual wallets - one for parents and one for kids. Families can decide together who pays for what. It's also a way to make sure calls to and from parents can always get through, even when kids have used up their "wallets". The TimeManager allows kids and their parents to set up times when the phone can be used and when it can't. This means the phone will ring only when it's supposed to, not during school for example.

With ContactManager, you can set up who can or can't call or text the phone. You can set it up to always allow calls or texts, only allow during certain times, or block numbers completely. kajeet automatically blocks all calls to 1-900 and 1-976 numbers so you don't have to worry about your child making inappropriate calls. FeatureManager allows you to turn on and off extra features for the phone: picture messaging, web browsing, downloads, and IM. Again, you can access this online.

Kids can customize their phone to their own style with ringtones, wallpapers, applications and games. Google Maps is preloaded on the phone, as well as some free ringtones and wallpapers. Others are available to download for a fee. My 12 year old and 9 year old both tried this. My 12 year old had no problem navigating the menus. My 9 year old needed a little help at first, but managed to find a ringtone she liked and downloaded it without help.

Besides the daily access fee of 35¢, like other pay-as-you-go cell phone plans, you pay by the minute with the kajeet phone. It is 10¢ a minute to talk, 5¢ per text message (in and out), 25¢ for picture messaging (sent and received). Unlimited Mobile AIM is also available for $6.99 a month.

I think this is a great way to teach kids how to save and spend money. For my kids, I would make sure the parent wallet always had money in it, so we could always call each other. I would also start with a certain amount in the kid's wallet each month, and it would be up to them how to spend it, whether that be calls or texts to friends, downloading ringtones, wallpapers, games, or other applications. When the money is gone, they either need to wait until next month or use their own money. I think that it would be a great way to teach them the value of money. If you want "this", then you can't have as much of "that". They could learn to make good decisions, all while still having a cool cell phone

Unfortunately we are locked into a 2 year contract that was just started this summer, so we can't really switch our 12-year-old, but when that contract is up we plan to switch her to a kajeet phone, which will cost less than having an extra phone on our family plan and also won't use up our minutes.