poppy Posted April 2, 2016 Share Posted April 2, 2016 8 years old, first time homeschooling. She loves my ipad mini but tends to get sucked into watching videos (and has a hard time transitioning away). She always wants to use my desktop. I want something inexpensive she can use for school that I can put ONLY kid-friendly browsers onto. She will be using pencil and paper most of the time. So mostly will be using for online or streaming videos. We have Netflix and Amazon Prime videos. I'd like to have her learn to type. Is a $160 Chromebook a better choice than a tablet for young students? Is the Kindle Fire a smart choice due to book selection?Do the excellent array of apps make an ipad a no-brainer? Torn and need help, please vote! Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-rap Posted April 2, 2016 Share Posted April 2, 2016 My daughter is older (college) and has an iPad mini and a Chromebook. She uses them for very different things. She couldn't make it through school without the Chromebook. It has the keyboard, the word processing program, and of course access to checking email, doing online research, etc. It does rely mostly on the internet for its programs. That is, it does not store the majority of its user programs on the device; it accesses them online. So, you really do need to be in a wifi area to both use most of its programs and even to access projects you are working on (which are stored in the cloud). It works fine for a college campus, but I'm wondering if it would make sense for your daughter. She uses her iPad mini for fun apps, games, Skyping, taking pictures, Kindle (there's a Kindle app you can get for the iPad), and more. Actually, the only thing I'm not sure of is which one she watches movies on. Maybe both? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted April 2, 2016 Share Posted April 2, 2016 My kids have kindle fires and iPads and use them in the car at times. They don't like the keyboard and the need wifi part of Chromebook. Kindle has parental controls, ipad doesn't. My kids have laptops so typing is done there. Programming is also easier on a laptop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
u2006kids Posted April 2, 2016 Share Posted April 2, 2016 kindle paper while for reading chrome book for math online etc... we use it for most online work at home. but some times i feel i need a windows 10 laptop.. ipad for dream box ixl etc when on road also some ibooks from MCT also i have a cheap desktop to play MUS and Teaching textbooks each of them when used carefully lasts abut 4-5 years My desktop from 2006 kindle and ipad 2 plus chrome book is a refub one about 3 years i think Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momto4inSoCal Posted April 2, 2016 Share Posted April 2, 2016 (edited) Before my twins broke it, we used our chromebook all the time for school. In fact I am replacing it in sept. My girls both have the kindle fire and they like it to play games, watch netflix, read books but for school I prefer the chromebook. They did veritas press online on it, typing club, xtra math. They also used google docs to type up papers that I assigned them to write. I like that they can put it on their desk and watch something without having to hold it and the screen, while not super big, is big enough to watch documentaries. It does need wifi to be used but since we used ours for school purposes it stayed on the house where we have wifi. So my vote would be chromebook. Edited April 3, 2016 by Momto4inSoCal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeaConquest Posted April 2, 2016 Share Posted April 2, 2016 We have an iPad and an inexpensive Asus laptop for my son (7) -- both devices with insurance that covers every possible mishap. He uses them both, but really loves his laptop. He programs, takes classes online, and watches videos with it. I am not sure about the limitations of what a Chromebook can do, which would be my concern. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
................... Posted April 3, 2016 Share Posted April 3, 2016 8 years old, first time homeschooling. She loves my ipad mini but tends to get sucked into watching videos (and has a hard time transitioning away). She always wants to use my desktop. I want something inexpensive she can use for school that I can put ONLY kid-friendly browsers onto. She will be using pencil and paper most of the time. So mostly will be using for online or streaming videos. We have Netflix and Amazon Prime videos. I'd like to have her learn to type. Is a $160 Chromebook a better choice than a tablet for young students? Is the Kindle Fire a smart choice due to book selection? Do the excellent array of apps make an ipad a no-brainer? Torn and need help, please vote! Thanks! We have two Chromebooks....and several ipads. IMO the Chromebook is indispensable for learning to type, using Google Docs, making spreadsheets and typing anything, and internet browsing for Netflix and Amazon Prime is fine on it too. The screen resolution is way better for videos on the ipad, of course. For what you need it for, the Chromebook will be perfect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted April 3, 2016 Share Posted April 3, 2016 (edited) Is a chromebook keyboard smaller than a standard keyboard? Is that why you're saying it's better for learning to type? And does anybody know (just piggybacking here), can a chromebook do dictation (speech to text) without being connected to the internet? Edited April 3, 2016 by OhElizabeth Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happypamama Posted April 3, 2016 Share Posted April 3, 2016 I don't know much about Chromebooks, but we like tablets for the following: videos, games, minor web surfing, texting, Kindle app, checking OneNote music. We have a small android tablet (Galaxy Tab 3, which is a good little tablet; kids can use it, but it's not a child tablet) and a regular size iPad (which is mine; the kids only use it occasionally). I would not buy a Kindle Fire, personally, because the Galaxy has more apps for a similar price. Not sure about the KF, but the Galaxy has an SD slot for expanded storage. But for typing, and for serious web usage and word processing, I'd opt for a laptop of some sort. For that price range, you can get a gently used Dell Latitude 6400 series with 250GB hard drive, and that should work very well for your child. I LOVE mine. For schoolwork, the Dell is more useful than the tablets. For what it's worth, my kids do not have access to YouTube and Google on the Galaxy because I couldn't set the restricted settings so they couldn't be changed. They can use the Dell, where I have parental controls set to keep it clean. So far, no trouble! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momto4inSoCal Posted April 3, 2016 Share Posted April 3, 2016 Wanted to add. What we did for security was set it up in our router. Anyone in our house that has access to our router gets restricted internet. No websites on porn, drugs or drinking can get through. I love it because before an innocent search on google could bring up some bad websites. Dh said it doesn't work on apps though. Also the chromebook doesn't have issues with viruses. Dh is a computer guy so he has enough protection on our computers that we've never had issues but I know a lot of other people have issues with viruses on pcs. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happypamama Posted April 3, 2016 Share Posted April 3, 2016 Wanted to add. What we did for security was set it up in our router. Anyone in our house that has access to our router gets restricted internet. No websites on porn, drugs or drinking can get through. I love it because before an innocent search on google could bring up some bad websites. Dh said it doesn't work on apps though. Also the chromebook doesn't have issues with viruses. Dh is a computer guy so he has enough protection on our computers that we've never had issues but I know a lot of other people have issues with viruses on pcs. We have OpenDNS Family for that, and it does work very well. Between that and Qustodio, it's very hard for anyone in my house to stumble upon anything accidentally (and they'd have to work hard to find anything intentionally). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted April 3, 2016 Share Posted April 3, 2016 The kindle is especially nice for the parental controls. They're very nuanced, so you can turn on/off features, lock them down with password using the parental controls, etc. Not saying the kindle is what you need, just that it has very good parental controls. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted April 4, 2016 Share Posted April 4, 2016 The only bad thing I have to say about Chromebooks is that they sometimes lock down on public wifi spots that have clickable webpage sign-ins instead of passwords. The lock downs even locked me out of things I could access offline. Chromebooks work better for typing than a Bluetooth keyboard used with an Android tablet. I've had good luck with iPads and keyboards designed for iPads. I couldn't afford to stay with Apple though with the changes and challenges of my life this past year. I traded in what I had and went all Android. And then I got myself in a bit of debt charging a Windows laptop, because I don't have home wifi and the Chromebook kept turning into a brick at the public wifi spots. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
debi21 Posted April 4, 2016 Share Posted April 4, 2016 We have a desktop PC, a chromebook, 2 ipads, 1 android tablet, and a Kindle fire (with the exception of the android, they are basically exclusively for the kids). The chromebook and the fire are the newest and so I'm just beginning to explore what to do with those. Right now, fire is only for reading books, either in Kindle format or taken out from the online library. Initial reaction is that it is pretty underpowered. Not sure of the capabilities of the chromebook yet, it is next to the PC so both kids can be on a computer simultaneously. But what I actually wanted to contribute was that I intentionally keep video-playing apps (Netflix, YouTube) off the ipads. The rare times we've let them watch a video (like while travelling) we give them our Android. I want them to view the ipads as more "active" electronic devices - we have educational apps on them and then some light, fun, exploratory preschool types ones (mainly Dr. Panda, TocaBoca, Mini Sago). In addition, this is because iPads are much less supervised than usage of the PC - they will take them to the bedroom and play while snuggled up, for example. We watch some YouTube on our TV, and sometimes on my PC (rather than theirs), very occasionally on the kids PC. I still try to monitor and control how much video they watch, I guess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kuovonne Posted April 4, 2016 Share Posted April 4, 2016 My kids have iPads, so I can only comment about that. My kids have iPads with bluetooth keyboards. I would not rule out an iPad due to lack of built in keyboard. iPads have parental controls. The parental controls are different from those on other tablets / computers, but they exist. Research the types of parental controls and see if they cover what you want. iPads are great for watching videos. Whether your kid sees a device as primarly for entertainment or primarily as a tool depends on how you set it up, more than the device itself. My kids see their iPads as mostly tools because I don't allow any games. You say you have an iPad. That means you are already familiar with iOS. How do you feel about learning another OS? I like having all of my family with the same OS. If something messes up on the kids' ipads, I know how to fix it. Also, if you buy an app for your iPad, you can share it with other iPads, without having to rebuy the app. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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