Does rising freshman need a laptop for school?

[Anonymous]

http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/what-laptop-should-i-buy-the-best-laptops-for-every-need/

[Anonymous]

I would call the school and ask since various schools have various policies. The usage of your home laptop will probably rise now that she's in High School. Kids research so much online and write many papers. We did get my high school daughter a mac to use since she had an essay heavy workload. I would suggest to use good internet safety software. I've been a bit shocked at what has popped up when I've done research. Enjoy this new journey as a High School mom!

[Anonymous]

Our school district is providing chrome books for HS this year, so check and see what they want you to have. DS did not take anything to HS and he graduated last year.

[Anonymous]

I'm glad that our private school requires laptops starting in 6th grade, which we pay for (or FA pays for) and each kid gets the same one. The school has a tech department that maintains the laptops and loads them all with the right software.

The laptop is a great learning tool, as is Schoology (which is the program the school uses for managing assignments, etc).

I wish all schools could have this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm glad that our private school requires laptops starting in 6th grade, which we pay for (or FA pays for) and each kid gets the same one. The school has a tech department that maintains the laptops and loads them all with the right software.

The laptop is a great learning tool, as is Schoology (which is the program the school uses for managing assignments, etc).

I wish all schools could have this.

I wouldn't agree to buying a computer for the school to load their own software and monitor/control. That is our job as parents.

OP, I would get a basic few hundred dollar laptop to write papers/research on at that age.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Rising lol

The term will never not make me LOL.

[Anonymous]

No required laptop for my rising 10th grader.

Studies show that hand written note taking is retained better and longer than typed notes. I like that there is no requirement for that reason.

There are computers in the library to use when they need them and he has a computer at home to write papers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm glad that our private school requires laptops starting in 6th grade, which we pay for (or FA pays for) and each kid gets the same one. The school has a tech department that maintains the laptops and loads them all with the right software.

The laptop is a great learning tool, as is Schoology (which is the program the school uses for managing assignments, etc).

I wish all schools could have this.

I wouldn't agree to buying a computer for the school to load their own software and monitor/control. That is our job as parents.

OP, I would get a basic few hundred dollar laptop to write papers/research on at that age.

I'm entirely happy to let the school do just that. They can get bulk deals on both web-nanny software and educational software - I'll let them deal with tech support. At the end of 4 years, either I'll wipe the laptop or buy a new one (after 4 years, anything other than an apple, and even many of those, are obsolete).

To OP, I'm assuming a laptop is neither required by the school nor specifically supported through any kind of centralized system. In my view a HSer in this day and age should have their own computer that they have access to full time, not just sharing a family computer. Buy what you can afford, even if it's just a chromebook. If your child wants to produce movies and needs the latest, that's a different conversation.