[The Franchise]

Originally Posted by Mile High Mania

So, here's the deal ... my laptop is my work laptop and I'm not interested in the kids getting on there and potentially deleting something by accident.

We have 3 kids... all in elementary school and we have a home computer that the 3 of them have access to for games, etc.

My son is in 4th grade and they use computers in school. I want to make sure that my kids are competitive when it comes to technology and their ability to do work, research for homework projects, reports, etc.

Sure, he'll play games and things like that, but we'll monitor it.

My son loves to write and create things at school using powerpoint, etc. He has an email address (that we monitor) to send notes to grandparents, cousins, etc.

So, as we have seen him become more involved at school in various projects (currently doing a History Fair project on Bunker Hill), we've realized that having access to his own computer isn't really a bad thing. An iPad really isn't ideal for some of the things he wants and needs to do. I have one and if he wants to play Fruit Ninja or Angry Birds... he can do that.

We're encouraging him to do more because he appears to have the nerdy desire to do more things at school - like the history fair thing, it was not mandatory, but he thought it would be fun to do.

Our thought is that we're taking the opportunity to fuel the desire to learn and push him in these areas at school, because... who knows when or if that will change.

And, regarding the notion that he might just break it... this is a kid that has had the same 2 pairs of glasses for 3 years and has never lost or broken them. He's a good kid and I think he's earned the right to have something like this and we'll monitor usage to make sure nothing crazy is going on.

Honestly....I would look into a netbook then. It should be powerful enough to do what he needs to do, small enough that he can carry it around with ease and cheap enough to not kill your pocketbook.