Homeschool Review: Lanschool Software

This week's review for the TOS Homeschool Crew is for Lanschool classroom management software.  When I first looked at the software after I heard I'd be reviewing it, I wasn't sure how we'd use it. The big girls each have their own netbook but we don't really use them for school per se. When they use them, I'm in the room with them, and even if I can't see the screen I can hear what they're on. . . so I wasn't sure how it was going to be helpful to us.

And to a large extent, I was right . . . for us right now, it wouldn't be worth buying. BUT . . . that doesn't mean it's not a great program!!!

In a nutshell, Lanschool is a way for a teacher/parent to:

• see what their student(s)/child(ren) are doing on the computer from the teacher/parent's computer
• show students what's on the parent/teacher computer
• blank out the student(s)'s screen to get their attention
• remotely take over the student(s)' computer to fix a problem

(you can read about all the features here)

So far I've used it to peak at what the girls are doing online. I also love the blank screen feature. And the girls think it's fun too, when I "surprise" them with a blank screen (you can write messages on it too, they love getting little notes from Mommy that way!).  And when we all need to see the same thing on the computer, instead of them having to cluster around my little computer screen, I can just share my screen with them and we can all see the same thing.

I definitely see it's usefulness increasing as the girls' reading and writing improves so they are more likely to "surf" the internet a little bit. Where I see it being extremely useful is if a family was doing a significant piece of their curriculum (or all of it) on the computer, allowing the mom to make sure children were doing their school work and not doing other things online. 

A one house license is $99.

Disclaimer: I received a one house license (for up to 3 computers) for Lanschool in exchange for writing this review. No other compensation was received and all opinions are my own.