Acer Aspire One 10.1in Netbook D250 Diamond Black with Windows XP Home?

Yup, it sounds like a great choice. You might want to spring for the extended warranty though. Kids aren't always kind to electronics, and unlike their picky teenage counterparts, you won't have to worry about "upgrading" to a new laptop every few months. Try to get a warranty that covers accidents (in case it's dropped, stepped on, or if juice manages to spill onto the keyboard).

It is OK for a starter computer/Net Book, would recommend ordering the system recovery for it as new computer/lap top/net book users can crash the operating system until they learn the proper way to turn on, turn off, log on, log off and use the operating system.

I would recommend a Toshiba, Dell or HP over a Acer.

http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2c/laptops.to?fam...

For an 8yr old, that computer should do fine.

for an 8 yr old it would be . but be sure to put parental controls on it if you let them go online!