Dr. Marie-Claire Moreau

Educator, Coach, Life Strategist

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Apr 10 2012

Would virtual schooling work for your student?

Homeschool students who enjoy using computers often enjoy taking classes online, too. Even kids who aren’t really comfortable with computers may enjoy virtual schooling once they get the hang of it.

But virtual school isn’t for every kid. I say this with confidence, because I have experienced it with my own students and heard it time and time again from hundreds of parents, too. The truth is, some kids love sitting at a machine, and others just, well…don’t. Some students enjoy reading online material, exploring hyperlinks to find answers, listening and speaking to pre-recorded instruction or live teachers, and all that goes along with schooling online. But other students simply do not thrive in this way, finding it stressful, tedious, boring, or just not at all the way they like to learn.

When considering virtual instruction, accepting student differences is the key. Too often, I speak to parents who tell me their kids loved homeschooling until they started full-time virtual school. Or virtual algebra. Or virtual foreign language. Whatever it was — the pace, the pressure, or merely the act of working at a computer instead of with books, mom, or sitting on the couch — just didn’t cut it for their kids. Sadly, some of the parents didn’t understand the problem, either.

For kids who like virtual schooling, I always say — GO FOR IT!  It’s a fabulous idea, and options today are endless. There are many high-quality, affordable schooling programs online that homeschoolers may utilize (while still remaining homeschoolers). Some options are free or inexpensive, too, making virtual school available to most everybody in some shape or form.

Consider whether or not your student might work well using virtual instruction. Some kids perform well exclusively online, and they like it too. Others, like mine, prefer only 1 or 2 virtual courses at a time, in combination with other schooling methods.  Allow children to be your guide and experiment with different courses and schedules until you determine whether virtual schooling may work in your homeschool.  And if you haven’t a clue what kind of student you have, why not order a quick Learning Success Profile to find out? (Receive a discount using this affiliate link.)

Once you’re ready to give it a try, check out just a few of the many computer/virtual options available online. Start with these, then search for others on your own.

And don’t forget to post those that have worked well for you, too — my readers always enjoy hearing from you, too!

Global Village School

Academic Earth

Time 4 Learning (Affiliate Link)

MIT Open Courseware

Open Yale Courses

Robinson Curriculum (on CD)

Lesson Pathways

Khan Academy

Free-Ed Net (directory of hundreds of free online courses)

 

 [Photo: Flickr]

Written by Marie-Claire · Categorized: Homeschool · Tagged: computer, elementary, high school, middle school

Mar 02 2011

Learn math with Nintendo DS

“Junior, it’s time to go play Nintendo.”

“Aw, mom, do I really have to?  You just made me play yesterday…”

“Yes, honey, trust me, it’s good for you.  If you don’t play Nintendo while you’re young, you’ll never get into college once you graduate from high school.  And if you don’t go to college, you’ll have to work in a fast food restaurant and live here with me and daddy until you’re 35.  Now, run along and play…”

Much has been written about video games for learning.   Since kids like playing them, with proper monitoring and supervision, parents and educators seem to agree that the benefits outweigh the harms.  (I have written about this topic before – read THIS ARTICLE for some of the pros and cons.)

Although I was kidding about the earlier dialogue, just imagine incorporating video games into your daily schooling routine.  For math, for instance, there are several Nintendo DS games that can really help to reinforce math facts, if played on a semi-regular basis.

For instance, this one, which is all about math:

Personal Trainer Math

These, which are all about brain training but contain a good amount of math facts review, plus other training drills that help with math anyway:


Brain Age

And this one, which may appeal more to younger learners:

Math Play

Parents who worry about allowing electronic devices and games into their homes can be reassured that other families do it, too.  Children really can learn while having fun.  Plus, as long as you don’t go overboard with the amount of time they spend hunched over staring at the screen, it can be a nice break from the other materials used in your home education program.

Use the comment area to share how you use electronic or computer games in your homeschool…do you? 

Written by Marie-Claire · Categorized: Homeschool · Tagged: computer, computers, math, virtual, virtual schooling

Feb 05 2011

Safe computing for HS kids

According to the US Census Bureau, more than 68% of Americans had computers with Internet access somewhere in their homes during the year 2009.  In 60-70% of these homes, there were children aged 3-17 residing.  With new homeschooling research putting the number of homeschoolers at 2.04 million [or more] in the United States, it is safe to assume that many of the homes with computers are homes in which children are being homeschooled, too.

How can homeschooling parents protect their children from the dangers of computing and, more specifically, of having Internet access?

Two kinds of dangers lurk in the computer rooms of today. The first involves the physical stresses placed on the body and the kinds of behaviors that may result from overuse.  The second is more about the privacy and safety of children who use shared web sites and social networking tools.

As for the first type of danger, there are many precautions that parents can take to prevent harm from overuse of computers.  These are well-documented, and include many of the same the kinds of prevention measures that parents might take when allowing children to watch TV, such as providing comfortable seating, limiting the amount of time spent there, making time for plenty of outside activity and exercise, and requiring that children take frequent breaks when working for long periods of time.  Noting changes in behavior with extended computer use and making appropriate corrections along the way is generally all it takes to combat these kinds of problems.

Harms involving Internet use, on the other hand, are harder to predict, and even harder to control.  With the advent of online discussion groups, interactive computer games, and the vast array of networking tools now available to young people, there are many more opportunities for kids to inadvertently run into problems than ever before.  

To avoid potential problems with Internet use, I suggest that parents train early and intervene often.

What does this mean?

For starters, as with anything else, proper training that starts early and is constantly reinforced, produces the best results. With computers, this means teaching children to ask permission before signing up for web site accounts or shopping online, not disclosing personal information when using a computer, and telling parents if they ever see anything inappropriate as they work.  Modeling good behavior when using computers themselves, parents can also point out the things that they do so that children will pick up on good computer habits as well.

Older children should be taught to recognize inappropriate content in emails or on social networking sites, including photos, and should be aware that their parents may join their blogs and networking sites, check their computer use and view what they post online.  If the option exists, parents may also create their own user accounts which are linked to their child’s account, to oversee activity and monitor use.

When selecting account names and passwords, children should be taught to encrypt information or use random letters and numbers that have no significance whatsoever.  Too often, children use first names, last names or combinations of names and birth dates as usernames, revealing their identities without meaning to do so.  Helping your child select an appropriate username and making sure that passwords are secure and changed frequently, will reinforce these ideas as the child grows.  (For very young children, parents should create accounts themselves, and allow children to use them, once the parent has already signed in.) And, kids should be taught never to share their passwords with friends, either.

Using web sites that are family-friendly and have been pre-screened for student use is another excellent idea.  Parents can either screen web sites themselves before turning them over to children, or may use any one of dozens of portals designed to deliver only quality web sites that are safe for kids (KidsKonnect, KidZui, KidGrid, KidSites, or AllSafeSites, for example).  There are even services that deliver one safe web site to families every day (ClickSchooling  or Freebie of the Day, for instance) that are worth considering.

Joining social networking sites specifically designed for homeschooled kids is another idea.  Apart from groups formed on services like Facebook and Yahoo, subscription-only sites exist solely for homeschooled kids to communicate with one another.  These include FuseFly (hs-ers of all ages), HomeschoolsLikeUs (hs-ers 18 and up), Hschooler ($5/year, Christian only), among others.

For parents who prefer to let their kids surf on their own, but still have the ability to track what the children have done, Internet “nanny” programs may be useful.  These programs monitor computer use and provide a history of which web sites have been viewed, for how long, and other detailed information about what has taken place on the machine. A quick Internet search for nanny netware will produce a list of available titles.

In addition to all of these measures, it is incumbent upon parents to keep computers properly maintained, which includes having up-to-date anti-virus and anti-spam software installed plus all appropriate privacy and security controls activated (including parental controls and passwords if they desire).   Making sure that email settings are in place also goes a long way to filter out most spam and phishing type emails, even if they aren’t always perfect.

But perhaps the most important safety measure of all is one that most homeschooling families have no difficulty with – ongoing support and supervision.  Even very mature or trustworthy children need supervision and guidance while using computers, and homeschooling moms and dads are usually only too happy to provide this for their kids.  Staying in touch with children as they use computers is the best way for parents to show they care about what their children are doing as well as reinforce standards of what they deem appropriate and which boundaries should never be crossed. 

There is no way to guarantee computer and online safety and these are merely ideas that can help.  As always, parents should do what they feel is best in every given situation, no matter what advice they receive from others.

[Photo: Free digital]

Written by Marie-Claire · Categorized: Homeschool · Tagged: computer, high school, household, middle school, social

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