should I buy my kid a Chromebook? Which one?

[Anonymous]

My kid is starting K. I suppose we could take a chromebook from school. Should we do this? Or should we go ahead and buy one for him? If so, which one?

[Anonymous]

K is too small for a chromebook.
Get your child a tablet and a kid-proof case for it.

You can get your child a chromebook when they enter 2nd grade.

[Anonymous]

No, just get one from school. The school one will do everything he needs for school.

[Anonymous]

I would get one from the school. It will be setup to use the tools you need. We bought one for my son in the spring but he is in 5th grade and we knew he will need it in the years to come. If I were in your shoes, I would just use the school laptops.

[Anonymous]

We have found that something with a touch screen (in our case, an IPad), worked best for our rising first grader last spring and during the summer boost. They have to be able to easily mute and unmute, and a touch screen is quick and easy. For our fourth grader, we put video on an iPad, and then he does work during class on the school issued chromebook.

[Anonymous]

Definitely something with touchscreen. But our ipad last spring didn't work with their system and we had to use the chromebook. It could have been us. Maybe others can say if ipad worked

But my rising k uses ipad very well but not laptop. I would get a touchscreen chromebook , tablet or iPad. It won't go to waste because DL will be apart if their learning for many years.

[Anonymous]

not til 3rd grade op you're ok for a while

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Definitely something with touchscreen. But our ipad last spring didn't work with their system and we had to use the chromebook. It could have been us. Maybe others can say if ipad worked

But my rising k uses ipad very well but not laptop. I would get a touchscreen chromebook , tablet or iPad. It won't go to waste because DL will be apart if their learning for many years.

We had issues with the iPad with pulling up certain documents, but it hasn’t been an issue this summer with the booster classes. It wouldn’t hurt to pick up an MCPS chromebook...it is super quick and easy.

[Anonymous]

Pick up a free one from the school.

[Anonymous]

I would get a touchscreen chrome book- they really are perfect for your needs.

The school chromebooks are okay but if you have the means, the touchscreen will make your life so much better.

[Anonymous]

I got my middle schooler a Chromebook touchscreen made by HP. Love it!

[Anonymous]

Zoom works much better on the standalone app than in a web browser. I'd go with an inexpensive laptop over a Chromebook, if you can afford to buy something.

There are touchscreen PCs out there, if you want to take the advice of the other PPs. Some even flip around to convert to a tablet as well. If your kid is used to using an iPad or other tablet, it does make sense. It wasn't until my upper-elementary kid had her own Chromebook for a year or two that she stopped looking over my shoulder and poking my computer screen, forgetting it didn't work like an iPad.

[Anonymous]

We are in HCPSS and have rising 3rd grade twins. I have a Win10 laptop and we started our kids on that. But we got one Chromebook from the school district so that the kids didn't have to share.

The Chromebook works so much better for them. The touchscreen made things much easier for them. And the system is much easier to use since it is essentially designed with just the tools that the kids need an no others. It was configured to specifically use the apps that they needed and it was easier for them to find the apps they needed instead of having to hunt through my apps and start menu and desktop for what they needed. It was so much better that we ended up getting a second one from the school district so that both kids had the same platform.

Both kids like using the Chromebooks so much more than the laptop that they actually enjoy schoolwork more. Before they were really resistant to doing schoolwork as it was harder for them. The chromebook makes it easier and they don't complain about the schoolwork and Google Meet meetings (HCPSS uses that instead of Zoom) than they did before. I definitely recommend getting a Chromebook.

They are on right now doing some PBSkids games, but I'll check the model later when they are off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are in HCPSS and have rising 3rd grade twins. I have a Win10 laptop and we started our kids on that. But we got one Chromebook from the school district so that the kids didn't have to share.

The Chromebook works so much better for them. The touchscreen made things much easier for them. And the system is much easier to use since it is essentially designed with just the tools that the kids need an no others. It was configured to specifically use the apps that they needed and it was easier for them to find the apps they needed instead of having to hunt through my apps and start menu and desktop for what they needed. It was so much better that we ended up getting a second one from the school district so that both kids had the same platform.

Both kids like using the Chromebooks so much more than the laptop that they actually enjoy schoolwork more. Before they were really resistant to doing schoolwork as it was harder for them. The chromebook makes it easier and they don't complain about the schoolwork and Google Meet meetings (HCPSS uses that instead of Zoom) than they did before. I definitely recommend getting a Chromebook.

They are on right now doing some PBSkids games, but I'll check the model later when they are off.

OK. Checked the ones that HCPSS sent us. We have this one: Acer R752, and it works great for the kids.

https://www.amazon.com/Acer-Chromebook-R752T-C1MT-Intelceleronn4000-Ntupgradeable/dp/B07SX8RKV4

[Anonymous]

I got my 1st grader a chromebook from Samsung. They have military, student and government discounts. I suggest getting something with a mouse because, I learned from Kindergarten that the kids need to know how to use a mouse as they take assessments on the cpu. It was a big learning curve for most students who are used to touchscreen and lefties.