Life was a lot simpler, and cheaper, when my parents prepared me to go back to school. My mother would drag me down to the high street and buy £5-a-pair black trousers anda starch-collared shirt, leaving my neck with what resembled a nappy-rash, for about the same price.
The shop assistant gave away a Swiss Army Knife with a built in torch with the purchase. My guess is that not many shops these days offer knives as back-to-school freebie gifts.
Instead, there are a bewildering number of items touted in advertisements aimed at the back-to-school crowd. If you believed all of them, you would need to sell your house and car to buy “essentials” such as an iPod, digital camera and GPS locator (to keep track on your kids).
To make life easier for your pockets and stress levels, here is some sensible advice when it comes to technology for your back-to-school kids.
We’ll start with something I wouldn’t buy, at least as an item to take to school: a laptop computer. The life span of a laptop doesn’t warrant the expensive costs of portable computers. If it doesn’t get stolen, it’ll get broken.
That said we still need to talk about computers. If you don’t have a separate computer for your children, it’s time to think about making that purchase. It can be a stay-at-home laptop or a desktop. There is a good argument, since it isn’t going to be carried to school, for a desktop computer. You will get more for your money that way.
When homework needs to be done, your child won’t be pushing you off your own computer. I browsed through some of the computers from Dell and Gateway, and even the least-expensive computers would do a fine job as a student computer. Just make sure that you get at least 512 megabytes of RAM, even on a bottom-of-the-line machine.
If you don’t have an internet connection, you will need to start shopping for one. Much of what your future Einstein will be doing will involve research on the web as well as sending e-mails about the new girl with blonde hair. Even if you have a nice inkjet printer at home, you can save some serious money by considering adding a black-and-white laser printer. You will spend £200 or so but the cost of each page printed will be just a fraction of what it costs with an inkjet printer.
I would add a flash-drive memory card to the back-to-school list, too. For £20 you can get one that plugs into the USB port of your computer and serves as a portable storage device – like a hard disk to go.
Now let’s move to a few areas where you need to do research, as well as some critical thinking about your children. Take mobile phones, for instance; they can be a lifeline in a time of emergency as well as a distraction. Check your school’s policy on mobile phones. Often they can be carried but not used during school hours.
I would suggest buying the very cheapest calculator as a starter. Some maths and science classes, even at the middle-school level, will require or suggest a more expensive scientific calculator. Wait until you know the specific requirement before spending a lot.
Finally, if you have any change left over, why not treat your child to one of those iPods. Apart from being a music player, it can be used as a portable storage device. If you’re pretty tech savvy yourself, why not fill your child’s iPod with educational mp3s such as audio books or language learning compilations. Not only will your kid look cool, you hopefully won’t be hearing “je ne sais croix” from them.
