Although summer is still upon us, my family and I are gearing up for back to school. My youngest Chicklet starts a new school year in just two weeks, so we are in preparation mode so she can begin the year with an awesome start. As a fourth grader, she will be writing more reports this year and doing more homework and projects that require a computer. After much thought and consideration, I decided to purchase her first new laptop. She’s been using my old Sony Vaio and although it’s only three years old, I felt she needed her own new one that we could customize for her and her needs. We did a lot of research and found that Best Buy had a fabulous HP Pavilion Laptop Essentials Bundle for only $299.00.
The Best Buy HP Pavilion Laptop Essentials Bundle comes with the following:
- 15.6 inch HP Pavilion laptop with Windows 8
- Logitech M185 Wireless Mouse
- Targus 15.6″ Laptop Sleeve
- Trend Micro Antivirus Software
- PNY 8 GB Attache 3 USB Flash Drive
The HP Pavilion is a pretty neat laptop and has 4 GB DDR3 Memory and a 500 GB Hard Drive. It also has a 30 day free trial of Microsoft Office 2010. I think it’s a great starting laptop for kids, and my daughter loves it. And because it has Windows 8, there are plenty of parental controls that we can set so that we ensure her safety while online.
We have laid down ground rules for her computer usage. She has to earn computer time, and cannot spend more than a total of 1 hour daily during the school week, and 2 hours on Friday through Sunday on the computer. She also can only go on approved websites. We take her safety very seriously, and she knows that. Just because she has a laptop doesn’t mean she has full reign—we have set limitations, which is understands and is grateful for (we hope).
And because she will also need to print papers, I purchased a wireless HP printer separately. It was also on sale for $69.00, regularly priced for $99.00. So we received savings on that as well.
I am very grateful to Best Buy and HP for such an affordable laptop bundle. We are now ready for Back to School!
She’s set for back to school!
That’s a great deal. I’m still debating about buying the 3 year old a Kindle or a laptop.
There are a lot of online learning sites he’d enjoy and with a mouse, he’d probably be able to navigate them a little better.
Joyce, I think the Kindle Fire or Kindle Fire HD would be great for your 3 year old. You can even opt for a netbook that is a little smaller, but still would allow him to go to pre-approved websites. I think he would love it! Thanks for commenting.