Educational laptop for kids 2024: the best option for every age

Finding the perfect laptop for kids in 2024 can be quite challenging, seeing that the market is flooded with a ton of options. It’s no longer a question of, “Do kids actually need laptops?” It’s more of, “How do I find the right one?”

This guide will help you find the best laptop that’s suitable for the learning needs of kids of every age.

What age should a kid get a laptop?

According to Haugland (1992), research has shown that 3-and-4-year-old children who use computers with supporting activities that reinforce the major objectives of educational programs have significantly greater developmental gains when compared to children without computer experience.

Additionally, computer use enhances children’s self-concept and they demonstrate increasing levels of spoken communication and cooperation.

Safe Search Kids outlines that introducing a kid to learning laptops in kindergarten enhances creativity and innovation, helps develop social skills, collaboration,and is great for personal development and future career prospects.

Learning laptop for 4-7 years old kids

LeapFrog My Own Leaptop

The LeapFrog My Own Leaptop is an excellent introductory laptop for young children. It plays sixteen different songs, features 26 fun animal animations and has four learning modes; music, games, ABC, messages. Pressing a letter on the keyboard displays an animation of an animal that begins with that letter. Thus, offering engaging games and activities that promote letter recognition, phonics, and basic computer skills. This learning laptop also encourages strategic thinking and problem solving among 4-7 years old using its games and pretend activities.

Interestingly, parents and guardians can connect to the online LeapFrog Learning Path for customized learning ideas for their kids.

Specifications:

VTech Tote and Go Laptop

It provides over 15 different activities that teach spellings, shapes, animals, logic, and alphabets. Additionally, the VTech Tote and Go Laptop plays 30 popular songs for your kids listening pleasure, including rock, country and jazz. This learning laptop can be customized with the kid’s name, age, or whatever else they deem fit. It’s sold with 3 AA batteries for demo use, but it’s advisable to use new batteries for regular use. It’s also designed to withstand rough handling by young children. The LD screen displays fun animations.

There’s also a detachable mouse with mouse pad for introducing your 4-7 year old to basic mouse skills.

Specifications:

Tech Kidz My Exploration Toy Laptop Educational Learning Computer

This portable and durable learning laptop is equipped with 80 educational learning games and activities. It’s designed to teach kids spelling, test their memory and problem solving skills. It can be used at home, in the car, on the plane or anywhere your kid finds convenient, as it is easy to transport. It also has a standard keyboard that introduces your kids to button placement and typing, early on. Also, the dual button mouse teaches your kids how to use a mouse, and also improves hand-eye coordination. This learning laptop has 20 challenging math learning activities, such as addition, subtraction, division, etc.

This laptop has a screen large enough for two or three kids to view at the same time.

Specifications:

Educational laptop for 8-12 years old kids

Chromebook

Chromebooks are budget-friendly, secure, and lightweight laptops designed to meet your pre-teens learning needs. They offer access to a wide range of educational apps and tools that spark creativity in young minds. Chromebooks have an in-built antivirus that is always up to date. So, these young kids have no reason to worry about potentially malicious files getting into their computers.

They offer completely free cloud-based apps, with long lasting battery life makes it reliable and one of the best laptops for your kids to use on the go. It doesn’t matter if they’re on a school trip, on the plane, or in class, this laptop makes sure their learning experience is not interrupted by anything.

Specifications:

Lenovo IdeaPad 1

This lightweight laptop is perfect for younger kids and pre-teens, as it’s easy to carry around and built to withstand the rigors of daily use. It is equipped with an AMD A6-9220e processor and AMD Radeon R4 graphics, providing sufficient power for everyday tasks such as web browsing, gaming, data storage and communication. Its storage capacity ensures smooth performance for basic multitasking.

Getting this affordable laptop for your kid means they get access to pre-installed Microsoft Suite such as excel, word and powerpoint.

The Lenovo ideaPad 1 gives kids access to a ton of educational contents, resources and apps. There’s also activities and games for recreational purposes.

Specifications:

ASUS VivoBook L203MA

The ASUS VivoBook L203MA is portable, budget-friendly, and user-friendly. It is compatible with a wide range of educational software and tools, making it an excellent choice for children between the ages of 8 and 12. It comes pre-installed with Microsoft Office apps like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, which are needed for school projects and homework. The ASUS VivoBook L203MA also comes in handy for children’s entertainment, games, and other day-to-day activities, as it has an extended battery life. The operating system includes a built-in parental control feature that lets parents monitor their kids’ activities and manage screen time.

Specifications

Set up parental controls on kids’ laptops

It has been established that kids need laptops, not just for recreational activities, but also for educational purposes. We believe it’s also necessary to put measures in place to ensure that your kids are not exposed to all the harms and dangers lurking around on the internet. And for that reason we recommend setting up or installing parental controls on these learning laptops.

It’s necessary for ensuring their safety online. With parental control, parents can monitor their kid’s laptop usage, limit screen time, and block inappropriate contents.

Below are a few parental control that can be used on your kids’ laptop.

Chrome OS parental control

With this, you choose what apps your kid can use on their Chromebook, block their access to certain websites, and access their browsing history.

To do this;

1. Open the Family Link app
2. Select your child
3. Tap controls
4. Select content restrictions, and choose whether to block their access to some websites, manage their browsing, etc.

If you’re looking for added benefits, it’s recommended that you use the FlashGet Kids parental control software.

With FlashGet Kids on Chrome OS laptops, your mind is at ease, as this software is designed to ensure your kids use their laptops safely. Also, with its comprehensive features, you can monitor all of your child’s laptop activities, putting your mind at ease.

Some of the key features of FlashGet Kids

Remote camera
The feature allows parents to activate the child’s device camera remotely and observe their surroundings, without alerting anyone. If there’s any risk of potential harm or the child is already in danger, the parent can act accordingly.

One-way audio
Using the One-way Audio feature, parents can listen to the sounds around their child’s device, and also record it if the need arises.

Snapshot
To view your kid’s screen activity in real-time, screen mirroring is an important feature. It allows you to monitor all the contents your kid is accessing on their learning laptops.

Notifications
Parents receive Notifications on their devices about activities on their kid’s device, such as attempts to access blocked apps or restricted websites.

Screen time
With screen time, a parent can make sure there’s a balance between their kid’s laptop activities and their other daily life events. This feature lets you set daily limit on how much time your kid can spend on their learning laptop.

App blocker
App Blocker enables parents to restrict access to specific apps on the learning laptops that are either distracting or are completely inappropriate.

Daily usage
Daily Usage provides parents a detailed report on how much time their kid spends on different apps and activities on their learning laptops.

Keyword detection
This feature monitors the child’s learning laptops for specific keywords related to inappropriate content, and alerts parents if these keywords are detected in conversations or search engines.

How to use FlashGet Kids on Chrome OS laptops

1. Download and install FlashGet Kids on parent’s and kid’s devices.
2. Get a FlashGet account on the parent’s phone.
3. Bind Kid’s device to parent’s device, and follow the instructions on the screen to set up FlashGet Kids for your child.

Windows 10 parental controls

Windows 10 offers built-in parental control features that allow parents to monitor their children’s activities and ensure their online safety.

To set up a child account on Windows 10:

1. Go to Settings > Accounts > Family & other users.
2. Click on “Add a family member” and select “Add a child.”
3. Follow the prompts to create a Microsoft account for your child. If the child already has a Microsoft account, enter the associated email address.

Screen time limits

• Visit account.microsoft.com/family and sign in.
• Select your child’s account and set appropriate screen time limits for each day of the week.

Filtering content

• On the same website, use the “Content restrictions” tab to block inappropriate websites, filter contents and restrict apps.

Monitoring activity

• Review your child’s online activity reports on the family safety website to understand their digital activities better.

MacOS parental controls

MacOS provides parental control features that allow parents to manage and monitor their children’s activities on Apple devices.

To set up a managed account on MacOS:

1. Go to System Preferences.
2. Select the accounts or Users & Groups icon to open the account preference settings.
3. Click the lock icon and enter your admin password.
4. Click the “+” button to create a new account and select “Managed with Parental Controls.”
5. Follow the prompts to create an account.

Once the account is created, select it from the user list and click enable parental controls.

App restrictions

• In the Parental Controls settings, go to the “Apps” tab and restrict access to the specific applications you’d not like your child to access.

Web filters

• In the “Web” tab, enable web filtering to block inappropriate contents and only allow access to the websites that are safe, secure and healthy for your kids.

Time limits

• Set a daily limit using the “Time” tab. This lets you pick the hours and maximum usage time per day.

Conclusive notes

When picking out laptops for kids, it’s important to put their learning needs into consideration. This article has listed a few laptops that are appropriate for kids ages 4-7 and 8-12.

After getting one of those laptops or any other appropriate one for your kid, ensuring their online safety becomes a priority. And you can do this by using built-in parental control features on ChromeOS and MacOS.

Also, we highly recommend FlashGet Kids, a parental control software that puts in the front seat of your child’s digital activities. With FlashGet Kids, you can mirror your child’s screen, set screen limit, track location and block harmful websites and applications.

Frequently asked questions