Hi all, It's been awhile since I've been on. Oldest daughter graduated, younger one went to public charter school and middle son is still homeschooling. Due to circumstances, I had to take a job. I work 4 days a week, 28 hours. The problem is my 16 yr old son is having a lot of trouble staying on task. He plays his guitar, watches tutorials about guitars, talks to other homeschooled friends out of state, and does a little school work. I come home most days to find that although he has worked on some things, nothing is truly completed nor is it quality work. He is responsible enough to log into his remote classes, which he takes 1 a day, 4 days a week. So although this is good, the quality of his work is lacking. I know he can do better. I want to shut off the internet but he needs it for 1 1/2 hrs a day. Question: Is there a way to put the internet on a timer to shut off after his classes each day? Is there a way to shut it off remotely? Any ideas? I do call him at noon and check on him. He does not seem depressed just distracted by internet, friends and his guitar. I would prefer not to threaten and ground him, but rather help him to make better choices with his time. I mean, you have to learn to be responsible with out people watching you every second.
How about getting him a job during the day, and having him do his school when you're home in the evenings? Could that work?
Yes, there's a way to do that. No, I don't know how. My husband set up my kids' computer so that it requires an administrator to login after 9 p.m. and before 6 a.m. (Not that my kids are old enough to care... I think it was just dh messing around with settings to see what he could do.) The point is, yes, it's possible. We also have tracking on their computer so we can see exactly what they're doing and how long they spend on a particular site. If necessary, we can block a site we don't want them to access.
Yes, under administrative tools you can do this. You will need one admin account and a user at a lower level. I.am on my way out now, but will try to pop in later with more help. I used to have blocks of time with and without access.
Great! As for a job, eh, may be a little too young for that. Will revisit that suggestion in a couple of months! But, yeah, good idea to have him do majority of work when I get home. I might be able to tweek that a little and come up with something that he can do while I am at work. Vantage: Would love some help with setting up blocks of time with no access. That would be great! Thanks everyone... Tina
If he is just getting sucked into the computer, I recommend a time tracker. I have Rescue Time installed. I'm not doing much with it right now, but when my niece lived here, I used the report from it to show her exactly how much time she was wasting. You can block websites and set alerts when a certain amount of time has been spent on a particular distraction. So, if your goal is to help him make better decisions, this a tool that can help if he is wanting to make those better decisions. A schedule also helps; if he plans out his tasks and breaks the night before, he will feel a bit of urgency when he gets behind on his plan. Without a plan, it's easy to get distracted, waste time and think that you'll get it done later.
16 year old is not too young for a job - a full time job, yes, but a part time one? No. And, I hope you find tools that make it work. I know it must be hard to work all day, and come home to work all night! Keep up the good work, Mama.
In windows 7: Go to start Select control panel Go to User Accounts Look at the accounts available. Most computers ship with a single admin account and perhaps a quest account setup. You will need to be logged in with the admin account. Or the default account that has admin privs. When you get to user accounts you will see a rectangle that indicates your account and states the priv level to the right. You can click on "manage another account to see the other accounts. When you look at this you want the quest account to be off. If no other accounts exist, create a new one for you student. This will leave you with admin, guest in off mode and student accounts. If other accouts exist, change them to standard user or password protect them. This is important because any account with admin privs can change any other account. As admin, manage other accounts and select your new student account and turn on parental controls. You will then see other options concerning time etc that can be set. If your student needs the computer for school work but not the internet, another option might be to adjust when the wifi box broadcasts, this would shut off access by smart phones etc. If you suspect porn usage or other problems or if you student is clever enough to work around basic parental controls I can give you other advise. Be advised that there are DVD's and CD-Roms that have bootable self contained Linux installs that can be booted from the DVD drive and completely bypass the windows operating sytem and therefore all controls included in it. For this you would need protect by password protecting the computers cmos chip show he cannot change the boot drive order and have it not include and devices other than the hard disk drive. If he is good enough to get around the above I have other advice but it is outside the scope of this post. I used to take care of access issues for small businesses for a living. There are a great deal of frustrated "former" employees that hate me. The porn users were the worst, they had the nerve to call my home and give convoluted excuses as to why they needed a password to get past. Sick puppies. It is amazing how quickly a basement dwelling man-child can come up with enough money to buy a used computer, or talk his granny out of hers. If you get a lot of anger after setting up the controls consider potential problems behind it.
Thanks for the thought on the porn issue. My oldest daughter is home daily with him, doing her own distance learning program and the computers are out in the main area of the home. I don't think he's doing that, but why not block them anyway? They serve no good use. My daughter tells me B stops doing his work and visits with friends who also homeschool out of state. With the time difference, they take their lunch or are finished while he is still working. The Steam pops up with them calling him and he takes a "break for a minute" and before you know it, they're playing a "quick" game or visiting. Then he picks up his guitar, eats, bathroom breaks. Man! It's quicker if you just do the work and get it over with! Thank you, Vantage. I will try that tomorrow night when I get home from work. I'm excited to see if it helps him.
