you just need to not get involved they will figure it out eventually. I am not sure at which point my son started to use the home button properly but it definitely happened without our intervention in the last 6 months or so (he also started playing around with it at 2). I am worried that the ipad is bad for things like learning delayed gratification and attention span, as when he is watching dora he will let it finish but otherwise the smallest frustration leads to hitting home and starting over.

Maybe I'm overestimating the learning capacity of two-year-olds, but isn't that something you'd learn after a few times?

Oh, but buttons are fun. Especially ones that you push and things happen. The home screen is fun. The search screen is fun.

(and the big grey button on the ups in daddy's office is fun too. makes beeping noises.)

There should be a way to enable kid mode, and use the switch to disable the home button for a while. At least till he figured that out.

sounds like someone needs to make an app for kids that just lets them hit buttons

No, actually. Here's my son's (17 months) usage pattern:

1: Open app. 2: Watch app for 3 seconds. 3: Close app. 4: Goto 1