Homeschooling with Technology

Lisa Nehring from True North Homeschool Academy and the Soft Skills 101 podcast is the guest on today’s show. She shares with us some of the soft skills for digital communication we need to teach our children.

Learn more about the importance of soft skills in this article by Lisa Nehring.

Some of the topics covered in this episode that you should be talking to your children about are:

1) checking and responding to emails/messages in a reasonable time frame

Don’t assume your children understand these things. I encourage you to listen to the full episode to hear all the wisdom Lisa shares with us as we discuss this important topic.

For more on this topic, read Lisa’s blog post on teaching effective online communication.

In this episode we highlight show sponsor, FundaFunda Academy’s, Art of Argument online class for teens. In this class they will learn about logical fallacies and pratice writing argumentative essays.

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And be sure to join our Facebook group where we can talk about this together.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the show and give a rating and maybe even a review!

Contact Meryl via email on [email protected] or connect with her on Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook

The post Teaching kids soft skills for digital communication appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

Online personal finance games and interactive activities give teens the opportunity to practice their financial literacy skills. Here are the websites mentioned in this episode:

Playinsure.com offers 2 games – one for home insurance and one for auto insurance. For both, you play for 30 virtual days and different events happen each day. Your decisions at the start of the game are important – try to make it through a month and have money in the bank at the end.

How the Market Works is a free game you play as an individual. The Stock Market Game is played as a team against other schools in your area. It has a small fee associated with it. Both utilize the real prices on the stock market and students get a good idea of what it is like to put savings into stocks.

The Payback game challenges players to attend university an not get into too much debt – or fail their exams. You learn that it isn’t easy to pay for college!. The game seems simple, but it isn’t easy to win.

The Budget Challenge costs $25 and students play over a number of weeks. Students compete against other students all over the US and have to manage a budget and pay bills on time during the period. At the start, they have to choose the type of bank account etc they want and these choices impact the rest of the game. It’s a good way to let teens understand what “adulting” is like. Parents will have to sign up as the teacher and that gives them access to teaching resources. Students take quizzes throughout the game which earns them points and checks that they understand the concepts.

These online games and simulations are used in sponsor FundaFunda Academy’s Personal Finance class so if you don’t want to go to the hassle of creating your own curriculum or adding these ideas into a curriculum you purchase, then check out their online class!

Subscribe to the podcast so you don’t miss future episodes.

And be sure to join our Facebook group where we can talk about this together.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the show and give a rating and maybe even a review!

Contact Meryl via email on [email protected] or connect with her on Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook

The post Online Personal Finance games and interactive activities appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

To start, it would be useful to listen to this Planet Money episode, Finding the Fake News King, in which they trace a piece of fake news back to the person who created it.

The ideas below are all taught in our sponsor, FundaFunda Academy’s Computer Applications class which covers digital literacy as well as computer skills.

These two articles are both good to read:

Quick Ways to Spot Fake News

The main points in the articles above are:

1. Look for unusual URLs

2. Does it sound too good to be true?

3. Go to the source of questionable articles and see what else they are publishing. Look at their About Me page

4. Do a reverse image search for images used in the article to see their origin

5. Do they cite sources?

6. Grammar and spelling issues

7. How does it make you feel? If you are feeling extreme emotions, good chance it is fake news

2. See if the website is on this list of fake news sites

Subscribe to the podcast so you don’t miss future episodes.

And be sure to join our Facebook group where we can talk about this together.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the show and give a rating and maybe even a review!

Contact Meryl via email on [email protected] or connect with her on Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook

The post How to teach your kids to identify fake news appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

Are you teaching your kids about copyright and plagiarism? Too many students in my online classes are routinely plagiarising and breaking copyright. I don’t think many realize that what they are doing is wrong.

Be sure to explain to your children that unless the project they are doing falls into the “fair use” category, they should never assume they can use any photographs, clipart, music etc they find online.

To find material that they can legally use, the easiest thing is to do a Creative Commons Search and specify how they will use the resource.

Make sure your children understand that at university there will be automatic plagiarism checkers that will assess their assignments. But even without that, it is very easy for someone grading to notice that the language isn’t what a school student would typically use. And a quick “cut and paste” can confirm it.

Teach your children how to take notes from a source. They need to learn to read a passage and then close the book or move to a new tab on their computer. They should be able to think about what they have read, explain it aloud, and then put down the main idea in writing. Jennifer Gonzalez from Cult of Pedagogy has an excellent podcast episode / blog post that includes a lesson plan to help you teach this.

Be sure to teach your children how to cite their sources. Easybib is a good tool for that. If they use Google Docs they can do the citations right in their document with the built-in tool for that.

Our sponsor, FundaFunda Academy‘s has an online Computer Applications class for 7th – 12th graders. The class teaches about copyright, plagiarism, how to do citations, how to use many digital tools and much more. Take it in 7th or 8th grade to prepare for high school or as an elective credit in high school.

Be sure to join our Facebook group where we carry on the discussion about Homeschooling with Technology.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the show and give a rating and maybe even a review!

Contact Meryl via email on [email protected] or connect with her on Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook

The post Teaching kids about copyright and plagiarism appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

Charlene Hess of Hess Un-Academy joins me in this episode as we talk about learning history through video games. Be sure to visit her Facebook page.

When my children were young we all enjoyed playing Orgeon Trail together. Oregon Trail is seen as the first educational computer game to gain widespread appeal because it was also fun. As they got older the played other video games based in history like Knights and Merchants, Caesar 3, Rome: Total War and Battlefield 1942.

One of the games they played a lot was Civilization. It is a strategy game where you play as different civilizations and try to conquer the world. Be sure to listen to the episode to hear the story of what my one son learned when he played as the Egyptian civilization.

Another game my boys played – and Charlene’s whole family plays, is Age of Empires. Charlene explains how they play it and what benefits they get from playing. You can buy the game on the Steam website.

Charlene has created worksheets that you can use with your children to research each civilization before they play as that civilization.

Show sponsor FundaFunda Academy has a full year Honors US History online class that uses games where appropriate, as well as 2 World War 2 web-based unit studies that incorporate games and fun interactive websites to enhance learning – World War 2 Year by Year and Who’s Who in World War 2.

Be sure to join our Facebook group where we carry on the discussion about Homeschooling with Technology.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the show and give a rating and maybe even a review!

Contact Meryl via email on [email protected] or connect with her on Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook

The post Learning History through Video Games appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

My previous episode on Homeschooling Digital Natives gives context to this episode so if you haven’t listened to it yet, you might it helpful as you consider the question, “How much screentime for your children?”

I suggest you look for balance and to help you, here are some things I think you should consider:

1. Too much time on computer screens isn’t good for any of us. This is particularly true at night as it affects sleep. See this article by Beth Napoli aka Techie Homeschool Mom.

2. Too much time spent sitting and doing things online means children aren’t spending that time being active.

3. Tech addiction is a real problem for some children

4. The current generation is the most anxious generation that we know about. This is not only due to tech use, but social media, in particular, can have negative effects on mental health.

5. On the flip side, online gaming can be social time if friends and family are playing together.

6. Children need to learn tech skills to operate in the world.

7. Technology is how your teens will connect with their peers and make plans to do things offline. It is always a way to connect with family members who don’t live in the same area.

8. Technology opens up a huge world for your children. It helps them understand others better as they can learn about people all over the world. They can also find resources to teach them anything they want to learn.

Here are some ideas:

Whatever you decide to do, talk to your kids about it and explain your reasoning.

I would also suggest you make sure your children are involved in enough activities like 4-H, scouts, sports and community service that they don’t have too much time to be in front of a screen.

Listen to the whole episode as I further develop the ideas I mention above.

Subscribe to the podcast as we will be covering more topics like this in the near future. And be sure to join our Facebook group where we can talk about this together.

Visit our sponsor FundaFunda Academy and take a look at their web-based unit studies.

Contact Meryl via email on [email protected] or connect with her on Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook

The post How much screentime for your children? appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

Most of you are digital immigrants homeschooling digital natives.

In 2001 Mark Prensky coined the terms “digital natives” and “digital immigrants”. ‘Digital Native’ is used to describe someone born in the digital era. ‘Digital Immigrant’ is used to describe someone born before the digital era.

This comic created by Adam Ellis shows how digital immigrants can have a skewed view of digital natives.

As digital immigrants, we tend to divide our activities between “online” and “offline” whereas for digital natives the online world is just part of their reality – not something separate.

You need to cover topics like fake news, digital communication skills, digital footprints, online research, copyright, and plagiarism with your children.

It’s not enough that your children know how to use a knife, a pair of scissors, the vacuum cleaner, and the microwave. Now they need to know how to create digital graphics, share a document with others, produce videos and make websites.

Listening to this podcast (check out past episodes too) will help you learn how to teach your children many of these skills. In addition, take a look at our sponsor, FundaFunda Academy‘s Computer Applications class which teaches 7th – 12th graders both digital literacy and how to use many digital tools.

You need to add coding as a basic literacy skill as it will be necessary to understand it, if not use it, in most jobs in the future. Some of our previous episodes cover this topic:

We all know we need to teach our children how to be safe as they move about our physical neighborhoods. But we must also make sure to address online “stranger danger”, how to create strong passwords, and how to identify phishing scams.

This means teaching your children not to be a cyberbully and how to deal with cyberbullies. It also means teaching our children not just about alcohol and drug addiction but also about tech addiction. And it means you and your spouse need to think through how much screentime your children should be allowed.

Subscribe to the podcast as we will be covering most of these topics in future episodes.

And be sure to join our Facebook group where we can talk about this together.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the show and give a rating and maybe even a review!

Contact Meryl via email on [email protected] or connect with her on Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook

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It’s our one year birthday!! Before we talk about “Why Homeschool Moms Need to be Tech-Savvy” let’s talk about birthday gifts!

If you find this podcast useful, the best gift you can give us is a rating and review on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. OR you can share about the podcast on your Facebook page, a Facebook group you are in or an online forum.

If you do any of these things, email me a screenshot of the review ([email protected]) and tell me which of FundaFunda Academy‘s web-based unit studies you would like free! Our gift to you!

Felice Gerwitz and her husband Jeff have raised and homeschooled five kids. She is a self-taught techie.

1. Homeschool journey began in 1986 and ended in 2018 and as you can imagine technology has

1. Stay one step ahead of your kids – there are many tutorials on YouTube – there is no reason

1. Do it in the minutes you have now – don’t put things off.

1. LastPass.com – we keep all of our online passwords protected.

Be sure to join our Facebook group where we carry on the discussion about Homeschooling with Technology.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the show and give a rating and maybe even a review!

Contact Meryl via email on [email protected] or connect with her on Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook

The post Why Homeschool Moms Need to be Tech-Savvy appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

In this episode, Debbie Hanyon from Homeschooling Dietitian Mom, joins us to share how she uses technology to eat healthy. Debbie is a homeschool mom and she has a number of resources on her website other homeschool moms will find helpful. Take a special look at her Meal Planning for Kids Curriculum.

Debbie’s favorite apps and websites for healthy eating are:

Listen to the episode to hear the specific aspects of each of these apps and websites that Debbie likes so you can determine which ones will help your family eat more healthy.

Show sponsor FundaFunda Academy has an online health class that includes a number of modules on healthy eating and uses at least one of these resources Debbie recommends..

Be sure to join our Facebook group where we carry on the discussion about Homeschooling with Technology.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the show and give a rating and maybe even a review!

Contact Meryl via email on [email protected] or connect with her on Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook

The post Using Technology to Eat Healthy appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

Here are 5 free website creation tools I have used:

Weebly has unlimited bandwidth even on the free plan, you can add a PayPal button and it is easy to use. The free version does, however, only allow a limited number of pages, and as with most of these free tools, has ads on the page.

I love Strikingly because it is really fast to create a website using it and the websites are very modern looking.

Google sites is completely free and has no ads. It has very limited style options and you can’t sell anything on your website. It does integrate completely with all Google drive apps.

Wix has the most limited bandwidth of the free sites. Personally, I don’t like using it, but many do so I wanted to include it here.

WordPress.com is easy to use but ads will show in random places. You also can’t have any affiliate links on it. It is nice to use for a blog.

Show sponsor FundaFunda Academy teaches website creation using some of these tools in their Computer Applications class but using the help on each website or looking for Youtube tutorials is another way to get started.

Be sure to join our Facebook group where we carry on the discussion about Homeschooling with Technology.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the show and give a rating and maybe even a review!

Contact Meryl via email on [email protected] or connect with her on Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook

The post Free Website Creation Tools appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.