Set a schedule · part of Parentech
From four to six, only these sites. Then the rest comes back.
Homework hour needs the maths site and Google Docs and nothing else. Free time can have Roblox and YouTube and nothing else. Saying so every afternoon is a job. Nobody wants that job.
Free on one computer · $4.99 a month or $39.99 a year for the house and your phone
What happens instead
Give a program a schedule: the days, a start, an end, and the only sites that open. At the start it begins on its own. Everything outside the list closes until the end, when it all comes back on its own. Your kid gets a one-minute warning on whatever page is open, and a block page that says what is on and until when. You get a report.
Exactly what it does
- Starts and ends on the clock, on the days you pick, with no one at the computer to start it.
- Closes every site not on the program's list. The never-open list stays shut throughout.
- Puts a small notice on the page a minute before it starts, so the change is not a surprise.
- Shows a block page that names the program and the end time, and lists the sites that do open.
- Lets a parent end it early for the day with the PIN, on the computer or from the phone.
- Writes a report for each window: minutes on the listed sites, minutes away, what was tried.
Setting it up
Three steps.
1
Open Class sessions in Parentech, or on parentech.app from your phone, and make a program: a name and the sites it allows.
2
Turn on the days it should run and set the start and end times. Save.
3
That is all. It runs from then on. Edit it or switch it off any time.
What it will not do
Said plainly.
- It follows the computer's clock. If the clock is wrong, so is the window.
- A window is same-day only. For one that crosses midnight, make two.
- It runs on Chrome on that computer. A phone, a tablet or another browser is outside its reach.
Questions parents ask
Before you install.
- What happens to a page that is already open when it starts?
- It reloads into the block page unless the site is on the list. That is what the one-minute notice is for: save what you are doing.
- Can two schedules overlap?
- The one already running keeps going until its end, then the next starts if its window is still open. Avoid overlaps if you can; it is simpler for everyone.
- Can my child end it?
- No. Ending early takes the parent PIN, on the computer or from your phone. It ends on its own at the time you set.
- Is this the same as a class session?
- Yes, with a clock. A class session is started by hand and runs for a length. A schedule is the same program starting itself at a time on the days you choose.