Homeschooling Online: Laptop Adventure

For the third time in 11 months, I’m looking for a new laptop.

The boys got a laptop for school in December 2014. Both are taking online classes, so a laptop made sense. One could work on the home PC while the other worked on the laptop, and I still had my trusty HP Envy to work alongside them.

They use the computer for the majority of their schoolwork.

We picked up a cheap Toshiba laptop and away we went. We upgraded it to Windows 10 and it worked perfectly. That is, until the Tea Incident.

Tea and electronics aren’t good friends, as D2 discovered when he introduced his mug to his online math course, the effect was instant. The laptop shut off.

“Mom, something’s wrong with the computer,”

“Did the battery die?”

“It’s plugged in. I don’t know what’s wrong. It just shut off and won’t turn back on.”

A quick look was all that it took. “Is that water on the keyboard?”

“No, it’s tea. I splashed a little. On accident!” It was more than a little splash.

Fried computer #1. April 2015.

D2 and two buddies decided they wanted to earn summer camp money.

They began hitting up neighbors for yard work. D2 managed to save up enough by June to replace the laptop AND go to summer camp! We bought a pretty nice Dell laptop that already had Windows 10 installed.

All good things must end, however, and the little Dell did just that after having the cord tripped over one too many times while it was plugged in.

D2 took the initiative to call the computer repair people and arranged to bring it in. I figured it would need to have the plug jack re-attached to the motherboard. It did, but it also needed a new motherboard. They’d managed to rip the whole thing out.

Cost to repair: $450. $150 more than he paid for the laptop.

Victim #2 died in March 2016.

For the past several weeks the boys have been using my laptop for their schoolwork and I’ve been…sitting on… a massive project involving a total content audit here. Slowly my site is becoming streamlined for you!

We finally figured out that ALEKS Math and Time4Learning will both work on the iPad (hooray!) but this is a temporary measure. We are dependent on Google Drive for all of their assignments that require writing, and the iPad doesn’t make that easy.

Enter my dilemma: Purchase another laptop, or a Chromebook?

Pros of a laptop: Large hard drive for storage of documents, photos and music, ability to download programs, and access online gaming. Ability to use any browser and add almost unlimited functions to it.

Pros of a Chromebook: No storage for distractions like photos, music, downloading of anything, or online gaming. 😀 Built-in Google Drive and total browser functionality for online classes. Fast startup and instant saving of work.

Which do you prefer? I’m really leaning toward buying a Chromebook this time around!