If I were a parent, I would say no to consoles in the house, but get my kid a really nice PC. PC Gaming is much more likely to lead to modding which will in turn lead to creativity, and that may be in the form of programming.

Hey - I am an n900 owner, and I can confirm that heavy use will give about a day's usage. If you're just using it as a text and phone device though, and aren't connected to an internet connection, you can definitely get two days easy out of it. Hope that helps!

The n900 is a beautiful thing - given what you've written, I totally recommend you get one at any cost.