Does your teenager own a personal laptop?

[flametree]

Hi parents,


My eldest boy age 16 has been eagerly anticipating his personal laptop when he enters JC or Poly next yr.

May I know do you set any basic rules regarding your child’s laptop?
Eg, cannot use laptop in their room, if child not using laptop, another family member can borrow it or is it consider his personal things? Are there any other laptop rules that you have so as to make life easier for everyone?

That brings me to another question is laptop an essential item in JC or Poly?

Thanks in advance!

Flametree

[peterch]

flametree:

May I know do you set any basic rules regarding your child's laptop?
Eg, cannot use laptop in their room, if child not using laptop, another family member can borrow it or is it consider his personal things? Are there any other laptop rules that you have so as to make life easier for everyone?

In my opinion, it's not the laptop that you should anticipated. BUT how he will make use of the laptop.

If you prohibit him of using it in his room means that you are afraid he will open 'unwanted' website. BUT could you monitor him when he is not by your side? He could easily use the free wifi service which is available throughout the island

For me, my laptop is kind of personal thing as I keep everything in it. But since I didn't keep anything that is 'shameful' or inappropriate, I could let anyone in the family borrow it.

My DS is 11 and he got his own laptop for about a year. So far he uses it for doing his online assessments or browsing. So far I had no problem of borrowing the laptop occasionally (just too kiasu, to make sure he did nothing wrong with that laptop)

The most important, we teach our child and monitor them from time to time. But please, make them as if they are our best friends so they would share everything about them (school, friends, etc) and would ask us anything that they didn't know (yet). It's better for us to teach them than they got it from 'outside'. Kids nowadays get matured earlier than our times

Just share my experience...

[mummyjoyce]

My DD has a netbook & an ITouch after her PSLE as a gift from grandparents. She hardly use the PC or netbook at home accept for online homework, and research. I need to force her to login to Facebook to wish her friends’ birthdays.

I am glad she is not addicted to go online all the time chatting with her friends but I do encourage her to go online to check out the latest events and research.

[vicki]

flametree:

Hi parents,


My eldest boy age 16 has been eagerly anticipating his personal laptop when he enters JC or Poly next yr.

May I know do you set any basic rules regarding your child's laptop?
Eg, cannot use laptop in their room, if child not using laptop, another family member can borrow it or is it consider his personal things? Are there any other laptop rules that you have so as to make life easier for everyone?

That brings me to another question is laptop an essential item in JC or Poly?

Thanks in advance!

Flametree

Errr...

My boy is 6 and i was thinking of buying a laptop/ netbook for him!

[spikey]

my kids are 4 and 5 and they share a Ipad and a iphone…before the ipad, we used the iphone for educational games. Now we are waiting for the book software to mature on ipad - we want to e-educate them now to give them a headstart.


DD can now type or sms me (helps in spelling). It helps to occupy them when we are busy.

[Fairy]

mummyjoyce:

My DD has a netbook & an ITouch after her PSLE as a gift from grandparents. She hardly use the PC or netbook at home accept for online homework, and research. I need to force her to login to Facebook to wish her friends' birthdays.

I am glad she is not addicted to go online all the time chatting with her friends but I do encourage her to go online to check out the latest events and research.

Both my kids, sec1 &2 have their own laptops. My son, does almost all his homework, assignments and reading online, including sending, receiving emails and online discussions with his team mates for projects since sec1. My daughter is logged on as long as she's at home, except when she's sleeping. She will be on facebook, msn, her school's intranet and listening to music via her laptop concurrently. She claimed to need to stay online for school work as well as discussion. She also need to co-ordinate stuff for her cca via email. I am not very happy with their over-reliance on the net. But it has been a battle trying to convince them that it doesnt seem normal. They claimed that everyone at school does that as their curriculum is not textbook based and they need to communicate, share and discuss schoolwork with their peers.

mummyjoyce, I'm surprise your daughter seldom use the PC as she's in the same school as mine.

Do I regret getting them the laptop? No. Because Iike them, I feel having access to the net is a basic neccessity. But addiction is bad. I will continue to monitor their online activities.

[flametree]

[quote]My daughter is logged on as long as she's at home, except when she's sleeping. She will be on facebook, msn, her school's intranet and listening to music via her laptop concurrently. She claimed to need to stay online for school work as well as discussion. She also need to co-ordinate stuff for her cca via email.[/quote]
This sounds exactly like my 14 yr old daughter.
[quote]They claimed that everyone at school does that as their curriculum is not textbook based and they need to communicate, share and discuss schoolwork with their peers. [/quote] And this is her reply too. My DD is in a IP school too.

May i know do you set rules like no laptop in their bedroom, or do you set time limit etc?? Coz currently we only have one desktop and that's to be shared among the kids. So they got no choice but to take turns and in a way forced to \"breakaway\" from the computer. But time has come that we def need to get another desktop/laptop as eldest is JC and 3rd kid is sec1 next yr. Thanks for sharing.

[ycpang]

My DS got his laptop this year. He is in sec 1. He uses the laptop for project works, research, homework and etc. He brings his laptop to school occasionally when it is required. I also bought special software whenever he needed them to do his works. I believe in 工欲善其事，必先利其器. You need the right tool to do a good job. I can’t imagine how could he cope with his school works without a laptop.

[phankao]

flametree:

[quote]
[quote]They claimed that everyone at school does that as their curriculum is not textbook based and they need to communicate, share and discuss schoolwork with their peers.

And this is her reply too. My DD is in a IP school too.

May i know do you set rules like no laptop in their bedroom, or do you set time limit etc?? Coz currently we only have one desktop and that's to be shared among the kids. So they got no choice but to take turns and in a way forced to \"breakaway\" from the computer. But time has come that we def need to get another desktop/laptop as eldest is JC and 3rd kid is sec1 next yr. Thanks for sharing.[/quote][/quote]My 3 older kids share 2 laptops (1 is a spare - actually my laptop). They do not own a personal laptop, altho' they are dreaming of one. I should ask them to earn their own, huh?

My eldest who is in sec 4 doing o-levels doesn't do that much assignments online. My sec 1 who's in an IP shcool does ALOT of assignments and discussions online though. Teachers communicate via emails and SMS too, so in a way, it's quite necessary.

[hermes173]

My dd is 11 and she has had a netbook since she was in P4.


If she could, she would be on it the whole day too - watching Youtube, downloading music, playing games and logging onto Facebook.

I restrict the amount of time she could spend on the computer; to the extent of locking it up when I go out.

I feel that the situation is not ideal. I would like her to have the self-discipline and initiative to organise her time better. I’m using the caveman method because I’m at my wit’s end.

Any suggestion, parents?