Homeschooling with Technology

A Production of the Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

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Homeschooling with TechnologyWhether you love technology or are “tech-challenged” – the Homeschooling with Technology podcast is for you!  Technology can help you run your homeschool more efficiently, make lessons more engaging and keep you connected to what is happening all over the world.

When your children graduate from your homeschool, they will be launched into an every-changing techie world. You need to make sure they are ready for that.

And this podcast will help you navigate it all so that you can be confident “Homeschooling with Technology”.

Your podcast host, Meryl van der Merwe, loved using technology while she homeschooled her own children. Now she uses it in the online classes and web-based unit studies she teaches at FundaFunda Academy.com.

Meryl loves trying to keep up-to-date with new technology that will benefit homeschoolers and she wants to share all the best resources she finds with you.

In this podcast, you will

    • learn about resources for specific subjects
    • get tips on how to use tech to improve your productivity
    • find out what techie skills your children should have
        and so much more!

Join Meryl each Wednesday for a 15-minute podcast. Listen on Stitcher, iTunes, or right here (just scroll down). And be sure to subscribe so that you won’t miss a single episode!

Contact Meryl via email on meryl@mediaangels.com or connect with her on Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook.

Homeschooling with Technology
Homeschooling with Technology
Meryl van der Merwe

The Homeschooling with Technology Podcast is a weekly show, hosted by Meryl van der Merwe, where she shares ideas on how to use technology to be more productive as a homeschool parent and on how to use technology to make lessons more engaging. In addition, she covers techie skills your children need to learn and how to easily incorporate them into your homeschooling. Meryl homeschooled her 4 children after working as a computer programmer for many years. She uses technology whenever she can when teaching both live co-op classes and online classes for homeschoolers. In this podcast, she shares all the best tech resources she finds with you.

Homeschooling with Technology Episodes

Robotics competitions

231: Robotics competitions with Dawn and Nate Garrett Guests Dawn Garrett and her son Nate join us to talk about Robotics Competitions. You can learn about Nate’s team here and see their 2023 competition robot If you missed episode 225 on An Introduction to Robotics – start by listening to that. You can find general […]

How to Set Students up for Success in High School Science Classes

230: How to set students up for success in high school science classes with Dr. Kristin Moon Dr. Kristin Moon from Kristin Moon Science explains how to set students up for success in high school science classes. Dr. Moon teaches Chemistry for show sponsor FundaFunda Academy and a number of science classes at True North […]

Everfi Free Online Courses

229: Everfi Free Online Courses In this episode, I explain how homeschoolers can use Everfi’s free online courses. There are courses for all ages and they cover finance, career exploration, health, entrepreneurship, and more. There are interactive online modules you assign to your children and also lesson plans that you can use to assign offline […]

Math is a good tool for learning to think critically

228: Math is a good tool for learning to think critically Today’s guest is Elizabeth Weaver and she loves math and is enthusiastic about its ability to aid us to think critically! Elizabeth lectures at Roane State Community College, a homeschool co-op, and also teaches the Agebra 2 class at show sponsor FundaFunda Academy. In […]

Why all teens should learn Canva

227: Why all teens should learn Canva Becky Brinkman from Rose and Bird explains why all teens should learn Canva. Becky was the guest on episode 210 – Taking Holiday Photos with Storytelling in Mind Becky answers the following questions: 1. Why do students need to build confidence in creating graphics – especially if they […]

Exploring AI with Your Homeschooled Teen

226:Exploring AI with Your Homeschooled Teen In this episode, you will learn why exploring AI with your teen is something you should be doing. If you know very little about AI, a good place to start would be our previous episodes on ChatGPT 3 previous episodes on ChatGPT Episode 215- What is ChatGPT? Episode 216- […]

An Introduction to Robotics

225:An Introduction to Robotics with Vinod Agrawal Vinod Agrawal from Robotics Workshops for Kids is our guest and he talks about how to provide your children with an introduction to robotics Vinod covers these topics in this episode: 1. How he became interested in robotics 2. Why he decided to teach robotics to students 3. […]

Integrating technology in literature studies

224: Integrating Technology in Literature Studies This episode discusses integrating technology in literature studies to help provide students with a richer experience as they read novels. The websites and ideas mentioned are: Book Adventure: book quizzes, reading logs, graphic organizers etc Vocabulary.com: vocabulary lists for specific books. Crashcourse Literature Virtual museum tours Google Streetview Apps […]

Online Classes and Neurodiversity: Building Independence and Social Skills at Home

223: Online Classes and Neurodiversity: Building Independence and Social Skills at Home Guest Lindsay Leiviska talks to us about Online Classes and Neurodiversity. You can find Lindsay online at A Heart For All Students. Her podcast is also called “A Heart for All Students”. Lindsay’s tips will be helpful to those homeschooling a child with […]

More Online Geography Games

222: More Online Geography Games In this episode I share more online geography games – find the first episode on this topic here (episode 16). Also be sure to listen to episode 129 where I talk about a variety of digital resources for learning geography – I include some games that I don’t mention in […]

Virtual Music Lessons

221: Virtual Music Lessons with Sean-David McGoran Sean-David McGoran from The Tuned In Academy is the guest on today’s episode and we discuss virtual music lessons. These are the questions he answers: What are some key reasons children should learn music? What if my child doesn’t want to play an instrument, should they still learn […]

How to Use the Internet to Find the Right Curriculum for Your Child

220: How to Use the Internet to Find the Right Curriculum for Your Child Whether you are new to homeschooling or need to change things up, you can use the internet to find the right curriculum for your child. Here’s what is covered in this episode: 1. Don’t start to look for curriculum until you […]

Organizing Digital Homeschool Resources

219: Organizing Digital Homeschool Resources with Brooke Poston Our guest in this episode is Brooke Poston from Homeschool Resource Co who has some great tips to share on organizing digital homeschool resources. Brooke explains what she means by digital resources and supplemental content and where one can find this content. She then details how to […]

TV Shows that spark a love for science and technology

218: TV Shows that Spark a Love for Science and Technology In this episode, I share some favorite TV shows that spark a love for science and technology – while they entertain. These are not shows that explain scientific concepts. Listen to the episode as I describe each of them. The shows I mention are: […]

10 ways to use ChatGPT in your homeschool

217: 10 ways to use ChatGPT in your homeschool Randi Smith from Peanut Butter Fish Lessons is my guest again and together we came up with 10 ways to use ChatGPT in your homeschool. This is the third episode in our series about ChatGPT. You can listen to the first one on “What is chatGPT? […]

ChatGPT and the future of education

216: ChatGPT and the future of education In this episode, we discuss ChatGPT and what the evolution of AI technology means for the future of education. My guest is Randi Smith from Peanut Butter Fish Lessons who was also the guest on the episode Exploring Media Bias. This is the second episode in a 3-part […]

What is ChatGPT?

215: What is ChatGPT? What is CHatGPT? ChatGPT is a type of Artificial Intelligence (AI) that uses deep learning techniques to generate human-like text. It is trained on a massive dataset of text from the internet, allowing it to understand and respond to a wide range of natural language inputs. Log in at https://chat.openai.com/ It […]

9 Techie Jobs Teens can do to Start a Business

214: 9 techie jobs teens can do to start a business (or for small businesses) with Katie Hornor Katie Hornor, entrepreneur and business coach, is our guest in this episode and she shares 9 techie jobs teens can do to start a business – or they can do these tasks for small businesses. These are […]

Daily Online Puzzle Games

213: Daily Online Puzzle Games Daily online puzzle games can be a fun way for families to learn new facts together. The ones mentioned in this episode are Wordle – listen to episode 201 on how to create your own Wordle-type games. Tridle Artle – guess the artist Artle UK version – guess the work […]

Teaching children to be kind online

212: Teaching children to be kind online Vicki Tillman is a veteran homeschool mom and a trained counselor and in this episode she shares ideas on teaching children to be kind online. Topics covered include: 1) Why should we intentionally teach young people to be kind online? 2) When should we teach them to be […]

Online learning for homeschool moms

211: Online learning for homeschool moms In this episode, I talk about why online learning for homeschool moms is important – and I suggest various free resources that make learning easy to do. The resources I mention are listed below. Listen to the episode to learn more about each one. Youtube – including FundaFunda’s Youtube […]

Replay: Non-tech skills students learn from coding

This is a replay of episode 144. You can find the show notes here. https://media.blubrry.com/uhsrnetwork/media.blubrry.com/homeschoolingtech/media.blubrry.com/uhsrnetwork/ins.blubrry.com/uhsrnetwork/hWt_144_NonTechSkillsStudentsLearnfromCoding.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Google Podcasts | Spotify | Android | Stitcher | TuneIn | RSS | More

Replay: Fitness apps and websites for your homeschool

This is a replay of episode 120. You can find the show notes here https://media.blubrry.com/uhsrnetwork/media.blubrry.com/homeschoolingtech/media.blubrry.com/uhsrnetwork/ins.blubrry.com/uhsrnetwork/HWT_120_FitnessAppsandWebsites.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Google Podcasts | Spotify | Android | Stitcher | TuneIn | RSS | More

Taking Holiday Photos with Storytelling in Mind

210: Taking Holiday Photos with Storytelling in Mind In today’s episode, Becky Brinkman from Rose and Bird shares ideas on taking holiday photos with storytelling in mind Listen to the episode for all her very useful tips. The resource page with videos and articles that go into more detail on some aspects can be found […]

Techie Gifts for Your Children

209: Techie Gifts for Your Children Here is a list of techie gifts for your children you can use as inspiration this Christmas. 3d pen – Listen to a previous episode (199) on 3D printing and visit the 3D printing tab here headphones Kindle / tablet / Gabb watch (listen to our recent episode), drawing […]

Challenge your kids to code

208: Challenge your kids to code There is no better time to challenge your kids to code! Computer Science Education week is December 5 – 11, 2022 but the free resources I talk about in this episode are available year-round Mentioned in this episode: Hour of Code – in the episode, I explain how to […]

Replay: Planning the Holidays with Tech

This is a replay of episode 63. You can find the show notes here http://media.blubrry.com/uhsrnetwork/media.blubrry.com/homeschoolingtech/media.blubrry.com/uhsrnetwork/ins.blubrry.com/uhsrnetwork/HWT_63_HolidayPlanningwithTech.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Google Podcasts | Spotify | Android | Stitcher | TuneIn | RSS | More

Safe phones kids can wear

207: Safe Phones Kids Can Wear You probably don’t want your elementary-age child to have a phone – but there are times you wish you could contact them – and that is where safe phones that kids can wear ie watches are such a good option. My sister, Lynne Robinson, bought one for her daughter […]

Using tech to encourage thankfulness in your homeschool

206: Using tech to encourage thankfulness in your homeschool Here are some ideas on using tech to encourage thankfulness in your homeschool. Listen to thee episode which goes into more detail: Email teachers and coaches Write Reviews – books, podcasts, classes etc. Create Digital cards or use a tool like Canva to make ones to […]

How to Select Tech Tools for your Homeschool

205: How to Select Tech Tools for your Homeschool It is overwhelming when looking at all thee options to figure out how to select tech tools that will be useful and not distracting in your homeschool. Tech tools should do one of these things 1. Solve a problem 2. Prepare your kids for college and […]

AI resources for your homeschool

204: AI resources for your homeschool In this episode, we look at some free AI resources you can use for your homeschool. The AI tools mentioned are: Google AI experiments and in particular Quick Draw and AI Duet Autodraw Instapainting Craiyon Dream by Wombo Verse by Verse Quillbot Wordtune Speechify Love the podcast? Write a […]

Carschooling with Technology

203: Carschooling with technology Homeschool moms can find themselves carschooling on occasion, regularly, or on vacation – here are some ideas on carschooling with technology. Here are some websites and apps mentioned in this episode – listen to the full episode for all the ideas. Vocabulary.com Stack the States app CDC Solve the Outbreak app […]

Digital Milestones for Kids

202: Digital Milestones for Kids Lisa Honold, our guest, suggests some guidelines for digital milestones for kids in this episode. Lisa is a national speaker on protecting kids online and helping them develop a healthy relationship with technology over time. Find her at the Center for Online Safety. Don’t miss her podcast, Unplug and Plug […]

How to Create your own Wordle-type games

201: How to Create your own Wordle-type games You can use Wordle-type games for reviewing vocabulary in your homeschool and in this episode I share how to create your own Wordle-type games with free tools These are the websites I mention: mywordle.strivemath.com Flippity Scratch —————————————————————————————————————- Take a look at show sponsor, FundaFunda Academy to see […]

My Favorite Tech Tools for Homeschooling

200: My Favorite Tech Tools for Homeschooling In this 200th episode, I share my favorite tech tools for homeschooling. But first I highlight some past episodes from the previous years: Episode 22- Techie Alternatives to Written Reports – Episode 54 – Homeschooling Digital Natives Episode 77 – Virtual Labs Episode 97 – Profile of a […]

Using 3D printing in your homeschool

199: Using 3D printing in your homeschool with Katie Matteson Katie Matteson shares how she is using 3-D printing in her homeschool. These show notes are just the bare bones from the episode – listen to the full episode for all the info and tips First printer/pen? We started with the 3D pens. They have […]

Where to get ebooks for your homeschool

198: Where to get ebooks for your homeschool In the last episode, we discussed why homeschoolers should use ebooks. In this episode, I give you ideas on where to get ebooks for your homeschool. 1. The library 2. Amazon Prime, – Gatsby, red badge, midsummer nights dream 3. Epic 4. Project Gutenberg 5. Standard EBooks […]

Using e-books for homeschooling

197:Using e-books for homeschooling Sabrina Justison from 7 Sisters Homeschool explains the benefits of using e-books for homeschooling in this episode. 1. Using ebooks for some or all of homeschooling makes sense for students – digital natives – take-it-with-you convenience – adaptable (font size, text-to-speech) – often includes more illustrations for visual learners 2. Using […]

Fanschool: a platform for student blogging

196: Fanschool: a platform for student blogging with Eric Nelson I last spoke to Eric Nelson about Fanschool back in episode 47 about their games where students get to draft a ‘team’ and track how well they do which is based on how often they are mentioned in the media. show sponsor, FundaFunda Academy, uses […]

How to practice Spanish listening comprehension

195: How to practice Spanish listening comprehension with Suzette Laporte-Ayo In episode 193, Suzette, the Spanish teacher at show sponsor FundaFunda Academy shared apps and websites for learning Spanish. In this episode, she expands on the last website she mentioned in that episode and explains how one could use it to practice Spanish listening comprehension. […]

The role of parents in online classes

194: The role of parents in online classes If you have a child in online classes, you have probably wondered what the role of parents in online classes is. As a teacher of online classes at FundaFunda Academy, here are suggestions we as teachers there, have for you as parents. 1. Don’t forget you are […]

Apps and websites for learning Spanish

193: Apps and websites for learning Spanish with Suzette Laporte-Ayo Suzette shares apps and websites for learning Spanish that she incorporates into the online classes she teaches at FundaFunda Academy. Listen to the episode to hear her explain how she uses each one. Quizlet (website and app for K and up). Listen to episode 25 […]

Using Audiobooks in your Homeschool

Tauna Meyer from Proverbial Homemaker shares why she loves using audiobooks in her homeschool as well as her favorite places to find them. You can find more info on this post she wrote These are the resources Tauna mentions in this episode: Library (Libby, overdrive, Hoopla, CDs) Used/New CDs on Amazon, eBay, or other booksellers […]

Online Physics Games and Simulations

191: Online Games and Simulations to teach Physics with Bex Buzzie Our guest Bex Buzzie is a physics teacher and she shares her favorite online physics games and simulations. Bex hosts The Homeschool Advantage podcast where she interviews curriculum providers about what makes their products unique. Her interview with me about show sponsor FundaFunda Academy […]

Tech skills I’m glad I learned: Reflections of a high school graduate

190: Tech skills I’m glad I learned: Reflections of a high school graduate – Interview with Natalie Vaughn Guest Natalie Vaughn has just graduated from high school and she shares the tech skills she is glad she learned and how they helped her. Be sure to listen to my interview with Natalie last week when […]

Apps for high school students

189: Apps for High School Students Natalie Vaughn, who is newly graduated, shares with us the apps for high school students, she found the most useful. Listen to the interview I did with her last summer as part of the Techie Teen series where she talked about her job as a virtual assistant. Natalie helped […]

Tech for Road Trips

188: Tech for Road Trips Need some ideas on how to use tech for road trips in a productive way with your children? 1. For Entertainment audiobooks podcasts – listen to our previous episode on Podcasts for kids of all ages movies, TV shows video games and apps. The ones I mentioned: Human Resource Machine […]

How to use movies in your homeschool

187: How to use Movies in your Homeschool In this episode, guest Rachel van der Merwe, discusses how to use movies in your homeschool. Rachel is Assistant professor of media studies at the University of Groningen and FundaFunda’s teacher of the “I Spy: A Course in Visual Literacy” online class. Rachel starts off talking about […]

Get Ahead of the Class app

186: Get Ahead of the Class app Denise Thomas from Get Ahead of the Class has created an app with the same name to help parents and teens navigate the college application process. The app is free and available on iPhone and Android. You can start using it from middle school up. It will help […]

Online Choose your Own Adventure Games

185: Online Choose Your Own Adventure Games This episode explores the benefits of using Online Choose Your Own Adventure Games as part of your homeschool and gives some specific examples of some you can use. In a previous podcast episode I shared ways your children can create their own Choose Your Own Adventure game To […]

Using Tech for Summer Learning

184: Using Tech for Summer Learning While you might be wishing your children stayed off teach this vacation, let me share some ideas for using tech for summer learning that might change your mind. Using tech on vacation / staycation 1. Clio – shows historical sites near your locations 2. Geocaching – listen to episode […]

Homeschool Tech Hacks

183: Homeschool Tech Hacks with Linsey Knerl Linsey Knerl, author of Homeschool Hacks: How to Give Your Kid a Great Education without Losing Your Job (or Your Mind.) shares her top Homeschool Tech Hacks with us in this episode. Linsey starts by answering the following questions: Do we really need technology? How does technology for […]

Tech Knowledge Teens Need to Run a Business

182: Tech knowledge teens need to run a business with Adeola Ariyo Guest Adeola Ariyo from Next Genpreneur shares tech knowledge teens need to run a business. What tech should teens know how to use to run a business? Canva for graphics Excel or Google Sheets for Record keeping Coding Listen to the episode to […]

How Writing on the Computer Helps Kids become Better Writers

181: How Writing on the Computer Helps Kids become Better Writers Veldorah Rice from Write From the Heart is our guest in this episode and explains how writing on the computer can help kids write better. Be sure to also listen to her episodes on best practices for internet research. This is the outline of […]

Representation in Kid Tech

180: Representation in Kid Tech Guest Amber O’Neal Johnston discusses some of the ideas about representation in kid tech that she covers in one chapter of her new book – A Place to Belong. the book releases on May 17th. You can pre-order it here. Amber was the guest in Episode 157 – Technology and […]

Free Tools for Researching Colleges and Universities

179: Free Tools for Researching Colleges and Universities with Holly Ramsey Holly Ramsey from Thoughtful Homeschooling shares a number of free tools for researching colleges and universities in this episode. All the tools she suggests during the interview are listed below, but you can request her full free guide here. Know Yourself: Tools to explore […]

Tech Electives for High School

178: Tech Electives for High School As we live in a techy world, tech electives are not only fun for most high schoolers, but also necessary. These electives can cover a wide range of interests and abilities. Computer Applications/Digital Literacy – this elective will make sure students are ready for all the tech they will […]

More Online Poetry Resources

177: More Online Poetry Resources This episode offers more suggestions for online poetry resources – last April for National Poetry Month I recorded an episode with other resources. So be sure to check out episode 127 if you haven’t listened to that one already as I have not repeated any of those resources this year. […]

Gamification in your Homeschool

176: Gamification in your Homeschool There are many benefits to using gamification in your homeschool. Listen to this episode to learn: 1. What gamification is (hint: it isn’t adding games to your homeschool) 2. How to gamify your homeschool. Websites mentioned here are: Duolingo Prodigy Math Vocabulary.com Khan Academy 3. How to track points and […]

12 Ways to use Canva in your Homeschool

175: 12 Ways to use Canva in your Homeschool Canva is a very versatile graphics creation tool and in this episode, we explore 12 ways to use Canva in your homeschool. To learn more about how Canva was started you can listen to Guy Raz’s podcast episode on How I built this. 1. Digital poster […]

Best Practices for Internet Research

174: Best practices for Internet Research Veldorah Rice from Write From the Heart is our guest in this episode and she shares some best practices for internet research. This is the outline of the episode – be sure to listen to hear these points explained. 1. Benefits of Internet Research a. Convenience b. Amount of […]

Social Media Templates for Fun Assignments

173: Social Media Templates for Fun Assignments This episode delves into using social media templates for fun assignments for your children. Listen in for ideas on how to use fake social media templates in your homeschool. Here are the different places to find the templates mentioned in this episode: Classtools has a Fakebook template and […]

Social Media and Homeschooling

172: Social Media and Homeschooling How social media can help you in your homeschooling Here are the ideas mentioned: 1. Modeling social media use for your children 2. Choose your channel(s) – you don’t need to be everywhere 3. Choose social media accounts and types that have a positive effect on your life 4. Connect […]

Compassion in an interconnected world

171: Compassion in an Interconnected World This episode covers ways to help people around the globe in times of disaster. The websites mentioned are: Charity Navigator – which provides a rating system for charities Airbnb – search by the area where you want to support people Etsy – Search for digital downloads and use the […]

Online Resources about Ukraine and Russia

170: Online Resources about Ukraine and Russia In this episode, you will find online resources about Ukraine and Russia you can use in your homeschool. There are resources that relate to the current conflict but also resources to learn about the history, geography, and culture of the two countries involved. Instagram accounts mentioned in this […]

PDF tips and tricks

169: PDF tips and tricks Learn about a number of free tools that allow you to manipulate PDFs in this episode on PDF tips and tricks. The tools mentioned in this episode are: Scannable – app that scans documents and saves to PDF. Sejda to fill out and sign PDFs Mac PDF Preview – select […]

Online Black History Resources

168: Online Black History Resources As February is Black History Month, here are some online Black History resources to add to your homeschool. If you haven’t already listened to last year’s episode on the topic, you can find it here. None of the resources I mentioned in this episode are repeated from last year. Here […]

Free Online Word Games and Apps

167: Free Online Word Games and Apps The free online word games and apps mentioned in this episode are: Wordle Klura and Wordus are phone apps similar to Wordle Words with Friends – similar to Scrabble Typeshift – move the columns of letters to create words, new one each day 7 Little Words – find […]

Replay: How to Create Online Choose Your Own Adventure Games

This is a rerun of episode 50 which references 3 resources to create Choose Your Own Adventure Games online You can find the show notes on the original episode here. ————————————————————————————————– Take a look at show sponsor, FundaFunda Academy to see what they offer for online classes and web-based unit studies. Join our Facebook Group […]

Organizing your Homeschool with Tech in 2022

166: Organizing your homeschool with tech in 2022 In this episode, we look at various tech tools you can use for organizing your homeschool. Here are the resources mentioned: * Planning – Google sheets, Evernote * Record keeping – grades, all high school things (hs challenge) * Calendar – Google calendar * Assigning tasks – […]

Improving tech skills in your homeschool in 2022

165: Improving tech skills in your homeschool in 2022 We discussed why it is important to keep improving tech skills for both you and your children – listen to the episode for that info. Websites mentioned in this episode: Pixlr – photo editing Strava – fitness monitoring app Lynda – lots of classes, often free […]

Email Strategy in your Homeschool for 2022

164: Email strategy in your homeschool for 2022 This episode discusses email strategy in your homeschool – we talk about how it relates to both your children and yo, the parent. 1. Your kids and email When to get it How to use it: Episode 60 – Teaching Kids Soft Skills for Digital Communication 2. […]

Technology Reset in Your Homeschool for 2022

163: Technology Reset in Your Homeschool for 2022 In this episode, you will get suggestions on how to do a technology reset in your homeschool in 2022. We touch on 3 areas: 1. Devices 2. Technology Usage. The two challenges I suggest you do with your children are Bored and Brilliant Infomagical The FundaFunda class […]

Replay: Ways Teens Can Make Money Online

This is a rerun of episode 39 which offers a number of different ideas on how teens can make money online. You can find the show notes on the original episode here. ————————————————————————————————– Take a look at show sponsor, FundaFunda Academy to see what they offer for online classes and web-based unit studies. Join our […]

Replay: Digital Breakouts

This is a rerun of episode 14 which explains what Digital Breakouts are and where to find them. You can find the show notes on the original episode here. ————————————————————————————————– Take a look at show sponsor, FundaFunda Academy to see what they offer for online classes and web-based unit studies. Join our Facebook Group especially […]

Digital Christmas Cards

162: Digital Christmas Cards Listen to the episode to hear why I think you should encourage your children to create Digital Christmas Cards. Here are the tools I suggest they use. All have free plans and all allow you to upload your own photographs: Smilebox Canva Adobe Spark Google Slides Scratch FundaFunda’s unit studies that […]

STEM Christmas Gifts

161: STEM Christmas Gifts STEM Christmas gifts have the advantage of being both educational and fun. Your children are likely to get more use out of them than many other toys. Natalie Vaughn joins me on this episode as we share some of our favorite STEM toys. You can find links to many of the […]

An Easy Way to Get Your Children Coding

160: An easy way to get your children coding Do you need an easy way to get your children coding? Do you know they need to learn and have no idea where to start? Well, this episode is for you. In it, I share about the Hour of Code and how it can get children […]

10 Websites You Will Be Thankful I Told You About

159:10 websites you will be thankful I told you about The 10 useful websites for homeschooling that I talk about in this episode are: Canva Flippity Vocabulary.com iCivics PHET Grammarly Slidesmania – find their tips and tricks page here The Kids Should See This BookBub Standard eBooks ————————————————————————————————– Take a look at show sponsor, FundaFunda […]

Online Primary History Sources

158: Online Primary History Sources In this episode, you can learn why you would want to use online primary history sources as well as where you can find them. One use would be if your child is competing in National History Day which I talk about in episode 5. The 4 sources I mention are: […]

Technology and Handicrafts: An unlikely pair

157: Technology and Handicrafts: An unlikely pair with Amber O’Neal Johnston Amber O’Neal Johnston from HeritageMom shares how technology and handicrafts go hand-in-hand in their homeschool. If you think your family is more about crafts and prefer not to spend time using technology, then this episode is for you! Follow her on Instagram at @heritagemomblog! […]

eBook Creators to use in your Homeschool

In this episode, you will learn about various free eBook creation websites and how you can incorporate using them into your homeschool. This month is NaNaWriMo and if your children participate in that they can use one of these ideas to create an eBook that is easy to share with others. The 5 eBook creators […]

Screens and Guilt

155: Screens and Guilt with Julie Bogart Julie Bogart from Bravewriter talks to us in this episode about a subject many parents struggle with: Screens and Guilt. Follow Julie on Instagram at JulieBraveWriter! That’s where I saw her talking about this issue. Julie answers the following questions in this episode: What makes video gaming controversial? […]

Online Resources for Brain Teasers

154: Online Resources for Brain Teasers with Christy Rickman Guest Christy Rickman shares with us her favorite online resources for brain teasers. Christy first explains why it is beneficial for your children to be doing brainteasers. These are the resources Christy mentions in the episode 1. A website with lots of brain teasers – Puzzlebaron […]

How tech skills helped one homeschooler pay for college

153: How tech skills helped one homeschooler pay for college with Samantha Shank Samantha Shank from Learn in Color is our guest and explains how tech skills helped her pay for college. Listen to the episode as she tells her story of how she started out as a 14-year-old – who didn’t have techie parents […]

How To Add Tech To Any Curriculum

152: How to add tech to any curriculum In this episode, I discuss how to add tech to any curriculum – whether it is heavily dependent on books, completely online, or somewhere in between. 1. Review games/quizzes 2. Further exploration – webcams, virtual tours, youtube 3. Simulations – Phet, videos of experiments 4. Readalouds – […]

Meterhero: A practical STEM project

151: Meterhero: A practical STEM project In this episode, Nate Conroy explains how he came up with the idea for Meterhero and your children can get involved. Meterhero gets students to monitor their own home’s gas, water, and electricity usage and then use the data to see trends, figure out ways to save money and […]

Creating Online Review Games For Your Children

150: Creating online review games for your children The free resources to create online review games for your children that are mentioned in this episode are Flippity – Matching game, Hangman (Snowman) Classtools – lots of different arcade games to choose from Quizlet -Match up, Gravity All these resources have digital flashcards you can create […]

Using Trello to organize your curriculum

149: Using Trello to organize your curriculum with Richie Soares In this episode, Richie Soares from Homeschool and Humor shares tips on using Trello to organize your curriculum. Richie explains what Trello is and how to set it up in various different ways to easily keep track of all the curriculum you are using – […]

Google’s Free Applied Digital Skills Lessons

148: Google’s Free Applied Digital Skills Lessons I first learned about Google’s Free Applied Digital Skills lessons from Coach Victor Hicks in an interview he did on the 10 Minute Teacher podcast. Listen to it to hear he how has used these lessons with students. You can find all the lessons here (currently 160 of […]

Using Technology to Foster Curiosity

147: Using technology to foster curiosity In this episode, the discussion revolves around using technology to foster curiosity. Children are naturally curious and tech makes it easy to help our children explore topics of interest. Here are 7 specific ideas: 1. Use Google Lens to identify plants and other things. 2. Explore.org and other live […]

4 Ways Challenging Yourself as a Homeschooling Mom Leads to Leveling Up Your Homeschooling Life

146: 4 Ways Challenging Yourself as a Homeschooling Mom Leads to Leveling Up Your Homeschooling Life In this episode, guest Sarah Miller-Snyder shares 4 ways challenging yourself as a homeschool mom leads to leveling up your homeschool. Sarah has been a guest on the podcast twice before. She has shared about Podcasts for hhomeschool families […]

Technology and the Middle School Years

145: Technology and the Middle School Years In this episode we look at technology and the middle school years from two different perspectives: 1. How much technology is too much? The first topic I discuss is video gaming. The article I reference is here. The Instagram account to look at is @juliebravewriter. Click on “Video […]

Non-tech skills students learn from coding

144: Non-tech skills students learn from coding There are many non-tech skills students learn from coding. This means learning to program is useful even when students don’t decide to pursue a degree where programming is core to it. These are the skills i talk about in this episode: Critical Thinking Logic Problem Solving Project Planning […]

Asynchronous vs Synchronous online classes

143: Asynchronous vs Synchronous Online Classes In this episode, we take a look at asynchronous vs synchronous online classes and consider which might be a better fit for your family. Synchronous Classes * Live class – Zoom / Google Meet * Interaction? Passive? Discussion? * Homework outside of class? * Specific day/time * If you […]

Techie Teen Jayda Coding and Digital Art

142: Techie Teen Jayda: Coding and Digital Art Techie teen Jayda Murray is the guest and talks to us about her interest in digital art and coding. Jayda’s sister was a guest on this series talking about app creation and her mom, Ayanna was a guest on the podcast in episode 105 and shared Online […]

Techie Teen Brandon: Drone videography

141: Techie Teen Brandon: Drone Videography In this episode, Brandon Duty explains how he got into drone videography, and what he hopes to do with this skill. These are the questions Brandon answers – listen to the episode to hear his full response, but the links and specific tools he mentions are included below. 1. […]

Techie Teen Anaya: App Creator

140: Techie Teen Anaya: App Creation Techie Teen Anaya Murray talks to us about being an app creator in this episode. Anaya’s mom was a guest on the podcast in episode 105 and shared Online Resources for Creative Writing. Anaya answers the following questions 1. What are your interests outside of tech? Music – Stax […]

Techie Teen Callie: Digital Photography

139: Techie Teen Callie: Digital Photography Our guest is techie teen Callie Fulghum who talks to us about her hobby doing digital photography. During the episode, Callie responds to these questions. Be sure to listen to the episode to hear her answers. 1. What are your interests outside of tech? 2. When did you start […]

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