Six Questions to Ask About Any App a Family Mentions

Parents will mention apps. Most are fine, some are not, and you need a fast way to tell the difference without becoming the school's technology department.

The six questions

1. What is the cost model? One purchase, subscription, or free with purchases inside. If the answer is "free," ask what pays for it. The answer is usually the child's attention.
2. Are there ads? Not "limited ads." Ads or no ads.
3. What is collected? An account for a four-year-old is a warning sign. Profiles that stay on the device are not.
4. Does it work offline? A school network will fail at the worst moment, and an app that stops at the door is a lesson that fails with it.
5. What work does it mirror? If nobody can name the material it corresponds to, it is entertainment with an education sticker.
6. Can it be switched off? No streaks and no daily reward that turns stopping into a fight.

How to use the list

Do not hand it to parents as a form. Keep it for yourself, so that when a family asks, you have a two-minute answer instead of an opinion. A director who can explain a refusal is trusted with a recommendation.

Where YHO lands

Five of the six are easy: one-time $4.99, no ads, no child accounts, offline, and a named material behind every activity. The sixth is the one worth saying out loud. There is nothing to switch off, because nothing is pulling the child back.