Thanks for the correction. This explains my B+ average in English literature and composition in college and my majoring in math.
Better than I ever did!
Also, I agree with you.
Save the money (two weeks of college!), child needs to socialize or read books. Real books, not audio versions, either.
There are a few really strong internet filters out there. They’re usually either overly strong or overly weak, but for a younger kid that only wants a few sites, a strong filter that uses a whitelist might work. Of course, the good ones are a bit pricy, could be $140 a year.
If you only want a few sites, you can whitelist them right on the machine. There’ll be a file somewhere you can enter them into, with a few technical tweaks.
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I was going to suggest the Ideapad, the consumer version of one of those soulless corporate laptop models that get pumped out to employees by the the thousand.
Cheap, perfectly functional for a child, hard to break.
I’ll be honest, I don’t entirely understand what a Chromebook is, never have needed to know. Like a barebones OS that’s mostly for internet and basic functionality? But it appears there are Ideapad Chromebooks.
Agree with others that addons for time used and content are a good idea. Maybe just whitelist the sites they like and you’re okay with. They can use the school website, email, Neopets (or whatever kids do these days). I don’t know what pre-social media kids do, but if the schoolkids have a Discord server or something (I don’t put it past them), allow that, perhaps monitored occasionally for bullying, etc.
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I got one of the kids a Chromebook. I hate it. Maybe I just set it up wrong, but I hate the way it’s tied into a Google account. Made everything much more complicated. I should have just gotten a cheap Windows laptop.
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One major disadvantage of a Chromebook is that they have fewer games, but on the other hand they have fewer games so that’s good.
Our kids liked their chromebooks until they outgrew them. What I liked best about them was that they were forced to learn how to type well enough.
They have a gaming laptop now. They’re only allowed using it for certain games, and we keep it up otherwise (partially because it was costly, and partially because we have less ability+desire to monitor on that device versus their others).
I am weary of buying my child more shit.
Screens are thankfully that gift that keeps on giving.
My wife bought our kid a Chromebook when we were homeschooling. We used it mostly for Khan Academy, which I recommend for simple high-quality video lessons and problem sets.
Nowadays, she can use it for homework-- typing, scratch, “ixl”, though mostly her teachers do not assign computer stuff. She also wants me to buy her a Prodigy Math subscription, and I’ve sort of complained because it feels gross, but it’s probably better than her constant hours of bland Switch games.
That said we don’t really need an extra laptop. We have old ones sitting around. And new ones that are rarely used. She uses my wife’s laptop for the occasional Steam game. I’m a fan of her learning how to use a mouse and keyboard. Even if all she types for now is wasdwasdwasdwasd.
Nah, they’re just smallish. Like 100gb.
Remember when this was massive? Pepperidge Farm remembers.
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I remember in middle school working on a term paper and people had floppy disks to save their work on. But I was fancy, my dad gave me this extra large floppy disk to use that was equivalent to like 5 floppy disks or something, I think it could save like 5 MB.
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Hmm do you mind describing further? Is it markedly different from a cheap Windows laptop?
I remember when games used to come on like 10 floppy disks (5.25")
This was back in the 90s.
You got to a point in the game and you then had to “insert disc 2/3/4” to continue playing.
Its crazy how much storage technology has advanced in 30 years. A 100mgb HD was massive back then. We got our first computer for school from future shop (dont know if it still exists) in Ottawa. My brother and I spent weeks playing games after we got it.
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Yes! I had Math Blaster floppy discs. I was only allowed to play educational games, so I spent a fair bit of time at a friend’s house.
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It is a little different. You need a google account when you set it up. Then pretty much everything is done through the Chrome browser. It’s been a few years, but my memory is that it didn’t really have any applications outside of Chrome. So it’s basically a big internet browser. Maybe there were a few applications on there that I’m not remembering though.
I think I had to make a google account for my kid, set up a “family” in my google account, and add the kid to that. Also, and this is the part I may be doing wrong, google wanted a strong password for her account, which makes sense, but that’s also the password she has to use on the laptop. So she needs help entering and remembering a complicated password with uppers, lowers, symbols, etc. Should have just gotten an ipad.
Hmmm now I’m thinking I should just get a cheap Windows laptop. While I imagine most of what she’d do would be with a browser I wonder if she wouldn’t get the full PC experience.
I think?? Chromebooks are capable of doing anything an android phone can do (besides call). Which means tons of apps and games and tv and other garbage.
It is similar to a cheap ipad or a kindle fire or a cheap windows laptop. They are all essentially the same hardware, its just a matter of which megacorporation you get your os from.