Two months ago, the idea of homeschooling probably hadn’t occurred to most people. But in the new reality that we find ourselves in, with schools shut and children learning from home, we’ve all become home educators, whether we want to be or not.
It’s not a situation we were prepared for.
While we may like to avoid screens and over-using technology day to day, the current situation means we are relying on technology to some degree to keep our children up to date with classes.
So what should you be looking for?
Tablet or laptop?
If your child is doing any kind of online classes, a screen will be essential. But should you go for a tablet or a full laptop instead?
Depending on what your child is doing from home, a tablet may suffice. There are plenty of options out there, from a more pocket-friendly under €100 tablet to the all singing, all dancing, costs-as-much-as-a-good-laptop versions that bust the budget.
For homeschooling, if your children need access to a screen, the first thing that will dictate your options is what software they will need to use on it.
You don’t need it for anything majorly power hungry, but the ones to avoid are the tablets that have poor screens or so little RAM that they are too slow to use. That will cause frustration for your child, and by extension, you. Plus if the tablet causes frustration, then it won’t be used at all, making it a waste of money for you and putting you back to square one.
The best way to test these things out is to get hands on with the devices. That is easier said than done at the moment though. Under normal circumstances you can go to a shop to do your research, but with all non-essential stores closed at the moment, that is out.
So what are your options?
Around the €100 mark, there are a few Android tablets that could work for homeschooling. Huawei’s MediaPad T3 is a good option. Although a little hard to come by at a good price these days, Littlewoods currently have it in stock for €115. The tablet comes with 16GB of storage, which is on the lower side of things, but that can be expanded with a memory card. It has 2GB of RAM, and a 9.6-inch screen, which should be sufficient for most educational purposes.
