The amount of technology that kids use now at school is considerable. If you have more than one child managing technology can become messy and difficult. But there are some simple accessories you can use to make your life easier with school kids. Here are five tech tools that have made our life easier.
Some schools may provide USBs, but even if they do, extra USBs are invaluable for storing kids homework projects and assignments. With smaller sized ones like we have, we tie a cord onto it, which makes it much less likely to get lost. Naming them if you have more than one of the same type is also highly recommended to prevent siblings squabbling over who the USB belongs to.
2. USB hub
So many things now require a USB connection into the computer, to ensure easy access for all, a USB hub makes so much sense. Our hub has four ports which are often all in use.
3. AC adaptor
Being able to charge more than one device from an adaptor, makes it so much easier to keep all the necessary devices fully charged and ready to go. We have a rule in our house that when devices are being charged, they must be charged in the main rooms of the house. This is so I can keep an eye on them and make sure there is no sneaking on technology when they are not supposed to be on it.
4. External hard drive
We have seen a number of broken hard drives in our house and have learnt the hard way that it is critical to have an external hard drive to back up files from your computer. For the kids’ computer we have a much smaller external hard drive (500GB). My computer on the other hand has a 2TB portable external hard drive! One USB port is always taken up by the external hard drive and it is important to teach the kids, that it is one cord which is not to be removed to plug in something else – hence the handiness of the USB hub. They don’t even have to go to the back of the computer where the hard drive is plugged in.
5. Wireless printer
A wireless printer is a fantastic investment. We have a very basic one, but it makes life significantly easier. Our printer is located in my home office upstairs, while the kids’ computer and other devices which are used to print from are downstairs. I love that we do not have to have any cords attached to the printer to make it work and everyone can use it from the device they are working from.