Author Archive

Another Homeschool SuperHero, Gena Suarez, is going to be talking Thursday about how she’s hardly the perfect homeschooling mom.

You see, we all thought she was. She and her husband founded and run the terrific Old Schoolhouse Magazine, which is doing very well, thank you. They have a number of children they are homeschooling, ranging from babies to college age.

Gena wrote a terrific email to many of us today laying bare her challenges as a homeschooling mom.

You’ll want to read it. She’s inspired me today. How about you?

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Gena-Gets-Real.html?soid=1101381905269&aid=8taZ3cfOB2o

In case you didn’t see my last post, I wanted to contact you again before a FREE homeschool event takes place this week. It’s complimentary for you! And don’t miss the daily giveaways! Learn from the Homeschool Super Heroes!

My friend Kerry Beck is organizing this week’s Homeschool Super Heroes. Each day she will be offering interviews of real-life, experienced homeschoolers. In each interview, you’ll discover practical tips & tricks you can use THIS school year. I will be speaking on general homeschooling tips and computer tips on TUESDAY AFTERNOON.

You can listen to 10 veteran homeschool parents that will encourage you as you begin this new school year. Including me!

Check it out!
>> https://familyebiz.infusionsoft.com/go/hsh2011/phylliswn/e2

Warmly,

Phyllis Wheeler

Take advantage of this GREAT wisdom & advice!

P.S. – If you know other homeschool parents who would like to listen to these interviews, please email them, post it on your blog or share Homeschool Super Heroes Week on facebook & twitter.

Check it out now!
https://familyebiz.infusionsoft.com/go/hsh2011/phylliswn/e2

I just got a private invitation to some fantastic homeschool interviews…that are free for you to listen. This is the perfect way to start the school year!

Let me tell you about it…

Kerry Beck is offering 2 weeks of homeschool interviews – to get your homeschool year off to the right start! She has interviews about homeschooling teens, homeschooling boys, teaching art, teaching history, relaxing as a mom, teaching writing, getting ready for college, what to do with preschoolers, teaching literature, balancing home, homeschooling & hubby. And homeschooling and computers, featuring yours truly!

You name it, there is an interview for you.

>> https://familyebiz.infusionsoft.com/go/hsh2011/phyllisw/e1

Why is she doing this?

Kerry knows what it is like to be in the trenches as a homeschool mom. Sometimes you need a little encouragement or a few fun tricks from experienced homeschoolers. Real homeschool parents who have real experience balancing school, family, cooking, cleaning, chauffeuring.

So, Kerry is hosting interviews of 15 experienced homeschoolers that have practical advice for you to get started on the right foot this year.

==============================================
It’s called Homeschool Super Heroes Week!

Actually, it’s the next 2 weeks of August and you can listen to the interviews each day for Free.

All you have to do is register for Homeschool Super Heroes Week and you will have access each day to practical tips & tricks for you to start your year right.

No traveling to your state convention. No hotel expenses. No registration fees.

Here’s where you can register:

https://familyebiz.infusionsoft.com/go/hsh2011/phyllisw/e1

You can see a complete listing of all our Homeschool Super Heroes, including me, and the topics we will cover here:

https://familyebiz.infusionsoft.com/go/hsh2011/phyllisw/e1

Talk soon during Homeschool Super Hero Week!

Warmly,

Phyllis Wheeler
The Computer Lady
MotherboardBooks.com

I’ve been wanting to offer a product that shows newbies how to make a blog website. Here’s why: regular blog entries bring your website to the attention of the search engines. That’s a very good thing. The higher your Google ranking, the more readers you’ll have, because your site will be easier to find. I’ve converted nearly all my websites to blogs!

I have struggled to write something like this myself, but the topic has been too huge for me. So I’ve kept my eye out for products offered by others who have more experience than I do in this.  I thought I found one two years ago, and asked the author for some modifications, but they never happened. She was too busy.

Finally the perfect thing crossed my inbox this week. It’s a set of videos from Steve Beck, homeschooling dad of three grown children. Steve is a businessman who went to seminary before turning to Internet marketing to support his family and his ministry. I have known Steve and Kerry Beck for six years now, during which they’ve succeeded at teaching Internet marketing to many people, and have managed a tidy income for themselves too.

These videos of his have an amazingly low price at the moment. I bought them and watched them. They are detailed and make good sense out of a complex topic.  He’s got a free intro video for you to watch, and you can get pointers just from that alone.

https://familyebiz.infusionsoft.com/go/mmfb/phyllisw/e1

If you’ve ever struggled to get something going online, this video may be your answer.

I hope this information is a blessing to you.

Phyllis Wheeler
Computer Lady from MotherboardBooks.com

https://familyebiz.infusionsoft.com/go/mmfb/phyllisw/e1

Computer Science Pure and Simple is designed to provide stimulation for both sides of your brain, right (creative) and left (analytical). So is Logo Adventures, my book teaching computer programming to grade-school kids.

Do you wonder where you fall in the right-brain, left-brain spectrum?  Someone sent me a link to a quick test. Try it!

http://www.wherecreativitygoestoschool.com/vancouver/left_right/rb_test.htm

The Computer Lady from MotherboardBooks.com (that’s me) dispensed wisdom this month to the many thousand subscribers of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine’s online newsletter, Teacher’s Toolbox.

It’s a newsletter available only to subscribers of the magazine, so I can’t share the whole newsletter with you. But I CAN share my article. Here it is.

FIVE WAYS TO IMPLEMENT COMPUTERS IN YOUR HOMESCHOOL

Coursework: There are plenty of computer-based curriculums and online courses that may provide just the education your child needs in a particular subject. You can experiment to find out whether a particular child takes to it or not.

Research safety: The Internet is a marvelous tool, supplying answers to all kinds of questions. But how do you protect your children? I recommend:

• Put the computer in the same room where you are.
• Use a login password that only the adults know.
• Let younger kids use your email account.
• Use a good filter. Which one? My family is happy with Covenant Eyes, but there are plenty of others.

Fun collaboration: A little-known fact about the Internet is that students can use it to work together on projects, and they like doing this. Public schools have found that when kids collaborate in researching and writing a common online document, kids get interested in learning.

For instance, your kids could write a report about current events or snails or whatever and create an illustrated report with friends who live somewhere else. I’ve written an ebook about this, How Flat Is Your Homeschool World? It will tell you what the tools are. Best thing: the tools are free.

Learn by doing: Computers can help you address another lesser-known need in your homeschool. I’m sure you know that young children love to learn by doing. Kids love to act and explore, not just memorize. This is the teaching of educator Charlotte Mason, and many homeschooling families have picked up on it.

But can kids explore on the computer in a way that sharpens their minds? Yes! Through Logo, a computer language created just for kids as young as 8 at MIT.

Seymour Papert, Logo’s creator, said it’s one thing for a child to play a computer game. But “it’s another thing altogether for a child to build his or her own game. In building his own game, the child hypothesizes, explores, experiments, evaluates, and draws conclusions. In short, he learns.”

And for older kids: Reasoning challenges in programming can sharpen the brain for middle and high schoolers. And if there are creative elements, computer training becomes part of a great education for any student, not just the technically inclined. And my curriculums from MotherboardBooks.com have plenty of exercises to get creative juices flowing!

Phyllis Wheeler of MotherboardBooks.com wrote the award-winning computer enrichment curriculum, Computer Science Pure and Simple, beloved by thousands of homeschoolers. A writer and an engineer, she believes in creative exercises alongside logic challenges, exercising both halves of our brains.

Thriving in the 21st Century: Preparing our Children for the New Economic Reality, by Barbara Frank
Published 2011 by Cardamom Publishers, 393 pages

Rating: ***** 5 stars

This book arrived at a very opportune moment for us. The day it came in the mail, I was trying to figure out how to advise our triplet boys who are graduating from high school in a few weeks. We’re down to the wire in making college decisions. Where to go? What to study? Wait a year? and so on.

This book provides plenty of good info for those in that boat, and for those anticipating it as well. Barbara Frank is a veteran homeschool mom and publisher who has gathered plenty of statistics and gone over them with a clear, inquiring mind.

The question: how do we prepare our kids for an economy of the present and future that’s nothing like the one in place just five years ago? How do we even guess what the trends are?

Turns out the Bureau of Labor Statistics has spent plenty of time making some guesses and generating numbers based on those guesses. Are they good guesses? Mrs. Frank thinks so in some cases and not in others. For example, the BLS thinks there will be a need for more college professors in the future. But that’s based on a continuation of current trends where more and more kids have sought four-year degrees. Can that continue in a world where few of those degrees lead to a job? asks Mrs. Frank.

If you wonder what your kids ought to be studying, take a look at this book. It will give you some great ideas for guiding them, and for preparing them while still at home.

Among other things, she suggests that your kids be prepared to become entrepreneurs, because at some point in their lives, they may find themselves in business for themselves, like it or not.

So what are the probable growth areas in jobs in the U.S. in the coming years? Health care, elder care, computers, and more.

How can you prepare your children for these careers? Homeschoolers have plenty of options, which Mrs. Frank discusses in detail. (One of them involves using Motherboard Books’ Pure and Simple curriculum for computer literacy.)

Is college the best option? What’s the return on investment for a college education in various fields?

Read to find out! I’m so glad it arrived the day it did. In short, I think this book is something all parents need to read.

Practical Homeschooling Magazine has announced the winners of its 2011 Reader Awards, and Computer Science Pure and Simple once again took first place!

Pure and Simple, Motherboard Books’ popular computer science curriculum, has been taking first place in this reader’s choice award in the computer science category since the category was created in 2010.

The curriculum teaches an array of computer skills, including programming and creating websites, along with using spreadsheets. It taps into the creative side of the student, making a fun experience.

An academic study published by the American Education Research Association found a significant improvement in creativity in students learning the Logo computer language.

The study, authored by Douglas H. Clements, tested 73 eight-year-olds before and after “treatment.” The treatment consisted of 25 weeks of 1. Logo computer programming; 2. non-Logo creativity lessons; and 3. no similar lessons, a control.

The results: “After 25 weeks of treatment, the Logo programming group had significantly higher scores than either of the other groups on the total assessment of figural creativity, and both the Logo and comparison group had significantly higher scores than the control group on verbal creativity.”

The Logo computer language was developed at MIT to teach reasoning to kids. It does a great job! Teachers know what a marvelous teaching tool Logo is. And now homeschoolers have the opportunity to use this for their kids! Logo Adventures, a MotherboardBooks.com curriculum, specifically sparks creativity and reasoning in kids aged 8 to 12.

ref: Am Educ Res J March 20, 1991 vol. 28 no. 1 173-187

Mel over at MamaBuzz, a review site, just evaluated a copy of Logo Adventures. She loved it!

“As a homeschooling mom, I search for programs and curriculum that are going to help my child down the road, and this is one program that deals with so many different aspects of education. From geometry to math to logic and reasoning skills, to computer science, this is something that has definitely given Jacob a thirst for more. He’s anxious to do more lessons and learn how to navigate his way around a computer. I also appreciate how the program has given him a chance to be creative.”

Take a look:  http://www.mamabzz.com/2010/07/motherboard-books-logo-adventures-ex.html

Jen, also affiliated with MamaBuzz, found it to be great too:

“My boys loved any excuse to “play” on the computer and they learned plenty.  What I appreciated the most was the way the program challenged them to develop their reasoning skills.”

http://whitetrashmama.blogspot.com/2010/06/geek-heaven.html