Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion The laptop/tablet decision for DD10

I know plenty of folks here have given their children their own computers early on, but we're more screen-cautious here. However, DD10 has gotten really into writing recently, and this summer, she wants to write a book. She's been working on our clunky old desktop (ETA: this is the "kid computer"--we also have a laptop but that's mine and in pretty constant use), but it's a drag for all involved. Yesterday DH turned to me after she left the room and said, "She really needs her own little laptop." I had to concede that he was totally right. She likes privacy to write in, and I totally understand this. It would be better if she could go in her own room and write. And I know she could write longhand, but she is transitioning to wanting to compose on the keyboard and I don't want to discourage that.

However, I am very wary about giving her this kind of access. Also, we had sort of agreed that our next tech purchase would be a family tablet (we do not own one) since there really are so many cool educational apps now. We do have smartphones, but have no plans to get the kids phones any time soon and ours are Androids--we notice there are still a lot of apps (especially music/animation, both of which really interest DD) which are iPad only.

So...two questions, I guess:

1) For those who have computers for their children, how do you manage the addictive aspect? I was considering a daily change of wireless password, for one--so she would only have access when I gave it to her. But the possibility of private use of the Internet is concerning.

2) Jeez, tablet or laptop/notebook PC? Tablet with keyboard? What's the status of that situation these days? I'm not very techie so I don't know how that's all shaking out--can you actually write in Word or a Word-facismile on an iPad now?

Tablets and laptops aren't necessarily addictive - its the games and apps and social media and email/chat etc that kids can get wrapped up in. We manage that with limits - the electronics are used for academic purposes, and sometimes for fun - but with time limits - and those limits depend on each individual child - we have one child who is known to try to sneak extra time and play games when she doesn't have permission, so she has a stricter set of tech rules than our other children.

Our kids are only allowed to use their electronics in the living/dining rooms in our house -they have to be working where I can see them and where I can easily see their screens. We also have a "look up!" philosophy - I watch and make sure they are looking up and interacting with the rest of us and not just zoning into their electronics. If they've been working on them a long time I make them get up and do something different.

Re working in a common area and not taking electronics to private areas like bedrooms - this is recommended in every Internet safety talk I've attended.

Re iPads - our ds uses an iPad exclusively for school and it works fine for word processing - the word processing software is called Pages and is relatively inexpensive compared to purchasing word processing software for a laptop. It's not as sophisticated as MS Office, but it's got all the utility that a student needs for word processing. You can also easily import Word docs and export to word and PDF formats.

polarbear

You could get an inexpensive laptop and not enable internet on it, then use a USB drive for her to save/transfer documents to a main computer for printing. Or turn off/remove wifi from a laptop and require a wired connection to the network (so that it is used in a central location if needed.)

Likely thriftier with a bit more work is get her a RaspberryPi ( http://www.raspberrypi.org/ ) with a used monitor, mouse, and keyboard. She could even have the task of figuring it all out. A network adaptor costs more.

You can do fairly standard word processing on a tablet, but an external keyboard makes things much easier.

DS will get caught up on things and want to play a game or read a topic intently until he is ready to move on. But we are screen saturated, and that's the closest we've seen to addictive behavior. If you keep the door open on games, beware of games billed as "free to play" that are supported by ongoing purchases or ones requiring a subscription, both business models are supported by games intentionally designed to be addictive.

1) I may be reading this wrong, but it seems to me you're actually talking about two concerns here: overuse, and inappropriate use (last sentence).

We don't worry about either one currently, because our DD9 is compliant and self-regulating in both spheres. For example, with inappropriate use, I was down the hall in another room when I overheard a conversation she had with her friends recently when they were surfing Youtube, and came across a suggested video with an inappropriate word in the title. The tone of the discussion was clearly, "OMG, that's inappropriate, we shouldn't click."

As for overuse, we just notice what she's doing via normal parenting, and if she's been spending all day on the machine, we tell her to put it away and go do something else. Mostly, as I said, she self-regulates, and puts it away after an hour or so of use. She does have her own userid that lacks admin privileges, and parental controls are enabled on her userid that shut her down between 10:00pm and 8:00am.

2) As always, the choice of technology comes down to one question: How do you intend to use it?

Our household is a mix of technologies because we have a mix of usages and preferences. DW and DD both like the portability of their laptops, but they occasionally bemoan a laptop's shortcomings, and settle down to use my tricked-out desktop at times, just as I occasionally reach out to grab one of their handy laptops to do something quick, rather than trudge to the computer room and use my machine.

We also have i-devices (phones for the parents, pod for the kiddo) that maximize portability and give us access to the kinds of apps being designed for those. Since the tablet PC exists somewhere between these two spaces and does neither job as well (full function of laptop/desktop versus portability of an iPod/iPhone), we don't have one, and would consider it redundant.

There is an app called Pages, originally developed for the Mac, that works well on iPad, if that's the tablet you're considering. Personally, when I'm working on a document, I strongly prefer having a large monitor and not having the keyboard take up nearly half my viewable space.

We thought we were going to go the iPad route (we are a big Mac family and already have 1 iPad in the house), but we ended up deciding on a Chromebook. The price point is fantastic, plus DD's school uses Chromebooks. There are also some great educational apps available (DD loves exploring museums and historic sites via the Google Cultural Institute.

Re working in a common area and not taking electronics to private areas like bedrooms - this is recommended in every Internet safety talk I've attended.

QFT.


DD is terrible at self-regulating her TIME on this kind of device, and rebels continously at our attempts to do so, quite frankly. You know your child best, but my strong recommendation is to get her a set of earbuds and tell her that this is her "privacy" for writing, and then create a family AUP and have everyone SIGN IT.


DD14 does NOT use a laptop in her bedroom, and if she is trying to use one where we are NOT... (that is, if she moves to her laptop in the loft if I'm downstairs... and moves to the downstairs desktop if I'm up here on my laptop) then I know that she's probably doing things that she shouldn't. Not usually that she's doing inappropriate things-- just-- that she wants to use the technology to do things that aren't authorized at the time.

Our general rules are:

a) we hold ALL passwords. Period. If she has an account somewhere-- we know the url and the password. Period. Any violation is an immediate loss of privileges, regardless of the consequences to her or to us.

b) we spot check her computer and her activities online. This is a shared parental responsibility. DH is the FB guy, and I'm the Tumblr, DA, message board, and school one.

c) NO private use of web-enabled devices for internet activities. For anyone. As adults, we bend this rule enough to check out/purchase books with our Nooks or phones, but the rules are different for kids.



I second the recommendation of a Chromebook, or maybe another netbook. It's keyboard-ey enough for serious writing, but will run a lot of the fun apps and is more portable than a laptop.

Yeah, I know...but she really likes to be able to close a door and have quiet when writing. I so get this. I mean, her little brother is loud, and...six. So, it's difficult. I think it might be better to have something that's not net-enabled, or only sometimes/somehow. I don't like the idea of something she can take into her room and go online with at will--not as MUCH now (she's still pretty naive and not terribly screen-oriented--not a gamer) but later.

I know Kindles these days come with some kind of parental timer thing. Does that exist as an app? Can you install some kind of an app that would allow Internet for X amount of time per day (but not AT X times only--I know youc an do that, like Dude does).

Then there's the whole NetNanny type of issue. I don't think DD is interested in this type of stuff yet--she'd be more likely to break time limits. But I could totally see her accidentally wandering where she shouldn't. She's also a young 10 in a lot of ways, so there are conversations we need to have about privacy, etc. She hasn't had much free-range Internet time--mianly preapproved sites.

Our story is like Dudes. My ds 11 uses google docs on all the platforms and in school work. We have a mac for family use and work for the parents. I bought my ds a desktop PC at Christmas time. It is set up for gaming and multi media. We also have an Samsung Android tablet that is a educational version that comes with a car charger and a keyboard. The Tablet is pretty slick and does well with google docs. Our only printer is on the mac so you can bring up google docs there or use a flash drive to get it there. My ds always has his flash drive on him. So does everyone else for that matter. We are a family of tech geeks for a couple decades. So it goes without question our ds will be also.

There are a lot of laptops at very good prices. We will end up with a new on before the start of school next year I am sure.


So I guess I would suggest a laptop.

I don't see earbuds working. It's a sib issue. If DS6 is out of the house, sure. Common room works peachy. But if he's at home--he gets in her face. They are at a point in their relationship where she needs to individuate from him and develop her own, older-kid interests more, but he's making it hard. She would like to work on creative interests and focus without him throwing Legos at her and singing fractured Frozen lyrics at the top of his lungs all the time.

I just learned about a great software called Freedom that will lock down your computer so you can't do anything other than write. It's designed for authors who get distracted by the internets and can't finish their books. Here is a link to a review at download.cnet.com:
http://download.cnet.com/Freedom/3000-2648_4-10912674.html

DS8 asked for a laptop for his birthday this year so we picked up an inexpensive Toshiba laptop from the refurbished shelves at BestBuy. I added a one-year warranty, figuring that was enough time to see how well he would physically handle it; he's pretty hard on stuff still. His laptop has a touch screen which is AMAZING on a laptop; it makes it much nicer to use and is a nice segue from his Nabi tablet (kids' tablet). We love it and like Dude's family, everyone shares computers.

He self-regulates inappropriate sites; we talk about the need to be careful with spelling (whitehouse.com vs .gov, for example) and to google it first. We're pretty open with information here and he is free to ask questions about anything, and get an honest answer.

All computers in our house are in the living room so everything is "monitored" by everyone. We keep an eye on his computer use but he's mostly using it with one of us anyway (video games) OR he is running a play-by-play. Sometimes both...simultaneously...GAH! We have "quiet time" also, where we will curl up together and read.