Yeshurun: I would NOT RECOMMEND you to attempt to root the device yourself. It can permanently damage the tablet. Best thing to do is to find someone who knows computers and mobile devices and ask them to do it for you.
crazybrit: It’s not so simple to flash a recovery. It seems that the computer is closely guarded, so downloading a recovery image and transferring it to the tablet would be difficult. Doing it without the parents noticing is impossible. Besides, diddling with the hardware would probably lead to some really bad results, considering how closely connected all the different components are in a standard tablet.