Homeschooling with Technology

This summer, Homeschooling with Technology is launching a fun nine-week Summer Tech Challenge designed to help homeschool families explore technology together. Each Wednesday in June and July, you’ll receive a short challenge focused on building practical tech skills through hands-on activities.

The first challenge explores AI-powered trip planning. Families will use multiple AI tools to create and compare travel itineraries while developing research, critical thinking, evaluation, geography, and digital literacy skills.

Select a travel theme that interests your family, such as:

Possible tools include:

Create a detailed prompt that includes:

Example:

“Plan a three-day Tennessee history-themed family trip for a family of four with two teens and a budget under $600 starting in Nashville.”

Check:

Also conduct your own Google search to see whether you can discover attractions or ideas the AI tools missed.

Discuss:

Share something you learned from the challenge, such as:

Submit entries by:

Weekly Prize

Grand Prize

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The post Summer Tech Challenge #1: AI Trip Planning appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

In this episode, Meryl interviews sixth-grader Penny Laine Buschle about her experience using Boddle Learning, a free game-based learning platform for students in Kindergarten through sixth grade.

Rather than reviewing the platform only from an adult perspective, Meryl invited Penny Laine to spend time actually playing and learning inside Boddle so listeners could hear directly from a student using it.

Topics covered in this episode include:

Topics Penny Lane explored included:

Meryl also shares details about:

If you use any of these ideas, come join the conversation in the Homeschooling with Technology Community on Facebook and let us know which ones your family enjoyed most!

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Before summer break begins, take time to organize the digital side of your homeschool life. In this episode, Meryl shares four important homeschool digital organization tasks that can save time, reduce stress, and help you keep better records for high school, college applications, and family memories. Learn how to track activities and volunteer hours, organize student work, digitize physical projects, and create shared summer calendars that keep the whole family coordinated.

Keep track of:

Use tools like:

Ideas include:

Use a shared digital calendar to coordinate:

Shared calendars can help reduce confusion and make summer logistics much easier for the whole family.

This summer, the podcast will feature short weekly tech challenges designed for homeschool families. Each challenge will:

Listeners can share completed projects on Facebook or Instagram for a chance to win:

If you use any of these ideas, come join the conversation in the Homeschooling with Technology Community on Facebook and let us know which ones your family enjoyed most!

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In this episode, Meryl shares how educational summer walks can become meaningful learning experiences for homeschoolers using simple apps and technology tools.

Meryl discusses using Merlin Bird ID from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology to identify birds while walking. The app can identify birds both by appearance and by sound.

Topics discussed:

Stellarium Mobile is a tool for identifying objects in the night sky during evening walks.

Features include:

Collect observations, photos, and notes from walks into a digital journal or family project.

Tools mentioned:

Ideas for journals:

Add a layer of fun by turning walks into Scavenger Hunts.  ShowsponsorFundaFunda Academy offers a free printable nature scavenger hunt bingo activity for younger children.

AllTrails helps families:

If you use any of these ideas, come join the conversation in the Homeschooling with Technology Community on Facebook and let us know which ones your family enjoyed most!

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The post Turning Summer Walks Into Learning Experiences appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

Have you ever thought about turning family travel into a tech skills classroom? In this episode, Meryl shares practical ways to assign your teens real planning tasks before and during a trip — tasks that build digital literacy alongside life skills.

Ideas covered in this episode:

1. Pitch the Vacation Have each child research a destination and pitch it to the family using a slideshow (Canva, Google Slides). Slides should be visual, not text-heavy — they present, not read.

2. Research Activities with AI Have kids search with Google first, then repeat with ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini and compare results. Discuss why results differ, how to check accuracy, and how specific prompts (age range, cost, location) narrow results better than a keyword search.

3. Plan with Real Booking Sites Walk them through Google Flights vs. Kayak vs. airline sites. Teach them to look for hidden costs — baggage fees, seat selection, taxes. For hotels, have them consider breakfast, transit access, and proximity to your main activities. Discuss when a hotel makes more sense than Airbnb/Vrbo.

4. Budget Tracking with a Spreadsheet Set the budget yourself, then hand the tracking to them. Each day they log food, activities, souvenirs. Teach SUM and basic formulas. They’ll figure out fast what going over budget means for tomorrow.

5. Mapping and Route Planning Use Google Maps, Waze, or Apple Maps to plan daily driving distances and stops in advance. In the car, let them find gas stations, bathrooms, and lunch spots in real time. Give them the responsibility — and trust their answer.

6. Documenting the Trip Options range from simple (phone photos, daily journal) to polished (Canva scrapbook, Google Slides photo diary, Padlet board for sharing with family). For a longer trip outside summer, consider having them travel blog using Google Sites or Strikingly — combines writing, photography, and digital publishing into a credit-worthy project.

Links and resources mentioned:

If you use any of these ideas, come join the conversation in the Homeschooling with Technology Community on Facebook and let us know which ones your family enjoyed most!

Subscribe to the podcast so you don’t miss any episodes!

The post Teaching Tech Skills Through Family Travel appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

This is a rerun of episode 277 – you can find the original show notes here.

The post Replay: Finding and Using Online Classes for Homeschooling Effectively appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

Staying connected across the miles doesn’t have to mean just phone calls. In this episode, Meryl shares five practical ways grandchildren and grandparents can build real relationships digitally — with the bonus that several of these also sneak in genuine learning.

If you use any of these ideas, come join the conversation in the Homeschooling with Technology Community on Facebook and let us know which ones your family enjoyed most!

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The post Ways Grandparents and Kids Can Connect Online appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

In this episode, Meryl shares a practical mix of AI tips you can implement right away.

What’s covered:

1. Ask Maps (Google Maps) Google Maps has a new AI feature called Ask Maps, currently rolling out. Instead of browsing categories, you can ask specific questions — gluten-free fast food nearby, a park within five minutes of a highway exit, a restaurant halfway between you and a friend. It understands your direction of travel and filters results accordingly.

2. Prompting — Where to Start If you’re new to AI tools and don’t know where to begin, start with purpose-built tools like Brisk (Chrome extension) or Magic School AI rather than jumping straight into ChatGPT or Claude. Both are designed for teachers but useful for homeschoolers, and they’ll give you a feel for what’s possible. Once you’re comfortable, you’ll likely want to move to the LLMs directly for more precise control.

3. Prompting — Leveling Up Be specific: give the AI a role, describe your outcome, set constraints (time, materials, age range, format). Then try this: tell it everything you can think of, and ask it what additional questions it needs answered. Letting the AI interview you often produces far better results than any prompt you’d write alone.

→ Grab the free list of 20 homeschool-specific prompts

4. Use One LLM to Prompt Another Before going into Gamma, Canva’s AI tools, NotebookLM, or any other AI-powered tool, go into ChatGPT or Claude first and ask it to write you the ideal prompt. Give it context, let it ask follow-up questions, then drop the finished prompt into your target tool. This works for custom Gems, vibe coding, slides — almost anything.

5. Connect Your LLM to Other Apps Both Claude and ChatGPT let you connect third-party tools like Canva and Gamma. Look for Connectors in Claude’s settings or the equivalent in ChatGPT.

6. Customize Your LLM’s Tone and Behavior Stop letting your AI flatter you. In ChatGPT, go to Settings → Personalization to adjust tone (Meryl chose “efficient,” turned down warmth and enthusiasm) and add custom instructions. In Claude, go to Settings → General and add your preferences.

Resources mentioned:

If you use any of these resources, come join the conversation in the Homeschooling with Technology Community on Facebook and let us know which ones your family enjoyed most!

Subscribe to the podcast so you don’t miss any episodes!

The post AI Tips You Can Use This Week appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

The Artemis 2 mission has four astronauts circling the moon right now, and it’s a perfect time to bring space exploration into your homeschool. In this episode, learn about free (and nearly free) tools organized into four categories: learn and explore, games and interactives, simulations, and citizen science.

Track the Artemis Mission (timely links)

Learn & Explore

Games & Interactives

Simulations

Citizen Science

Sponsor: FundaFunda Academy Astronomy Bundle

If you use any of these resources, come join the conversation in the Homeschooling with Technology Community on Facebook and let us know which ones your family enjoyed most!

Subscribe to the podcast so you don’t miss any episodes!

The post Exploring Space: Interactive Tools for Your Homeschool appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

Teaching teens about geopolitics and world affairs can feel intimidating—but it doesn’t have to be. In this episode of Homeschooling with Technology, Meryl van der Merwe shares practical tools and creative ideas for helping homeschool students understand current events, global conflict, geography, and media literacy in ways that feel engaging and age-appropriate. If you’ve ever wondered how to teach world affairs in your homeschool high school, this episode is a great place to start.

Understanding what’s happening in the world is a life skill — it shapes how your teens will vote, travel, and navigate adult conversations. And for college-bound students, being able to speak to current events in scholarship and admissions interviews is a real advantage. In this episode, I share several tech tools for making world affairs come alive in your homeschool, using the Iran conflict as a timely example.

Homeschooling with Technology is part of the Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network, where homeschool families find practical help, encouragement, and trusted resources for every stage of learning. From homeschool high school and parenting to technology, current events, and future-ready skills, UHPN brings together podcasts designed to support families in real life.

Ground News — (also available as an app and on Instagram) A solid starting point for current events. Free at the basic level. Headlines are summarized and labeled by political lean (left, center, right), making it a natural fit for media literacy alongside geopolitics.

Google Earth —  Better than Google Maps for geopolitics because it shows geographic features — mountains, waterways, terrain — that explain why certain locations matter strategically.

VesselFinder — Track real-time ship movement around the world. Right now you can watch the dramatic drop in traffic through the Strait of Hormuz (from over 100 ships per day to around five or six). Give each student a different ship to track and check back at mealtimes.

FlightRadar24 — flightradar24.com Watch how airlines are rerouting around Iranian airspace in real time. A great visual for understanding how conflict ripples into everyday life — and a reminder of how a volcanic eruption in Iceland once grounded flights across Europe.

AI (ChatGPT, Claude, etc.) Instead of a broad internet search, have your teens prompt an AI with targeted questions — Iran’s economy, its allies, its neighbors, why oil prices in the US are affected by events in the Middle East. The real advantage: follow-up questions stay in the same conversation, so learning goes deeper without starting over.

Nation States — nationstates.net A free browser-based simulation where students build and run their own country. No email required. Daily events force real governing decisions — and there’s an alliance system that mirrors actual geopolitical dynamics. Forums are present, so preview for your family first.

Politics and War — politicsandwar.com A more in-depth nation-building simulation. Similar concept, more complexity. Also free, also has community forums — same caution applies.

FundaFunda Academy Fantasy Geography Contest Think fantasy sports drafting — but with countries. Runs April 1–30. Students draft a team of countries and track how world events affect their scores. Prizes: $10, $25, and $50 Amazon gift cards. Entry is $10 (covers the Fanschool platform). Includes a free South America unit study (adaptable for older students). Find the link at fundafundaacademy.com under Contests.

Understanding world affairs helps teens build more than just knowledge. It helps them develop:

For homeschool high school students, current events can become a meaningful part of:

If you use any of these resources, come join the conversation in the Homeschooling with Technology Community on Facebook and let us know which ones your family enjoyed most!

Subscribe to the podcast so you don’t miss any episodes!

A great way to teach geopolitics to teens is through current events, maps, simulations, and visual tools that help students understand how geography, politics, economics, and global conflict connect.

Studying world affairs helps homeschool students build critical thinking, media literacy, and a better understanding of the world they’re growing up in.

Yes — geopolitics can be a valuable part of homeschool high school, especially in social studies, government, geography, writing, and current events discussions.

The post Teaching Geopolitics and World Affairs to Teens appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.