I was looking forward to this BlogHer 09 session all weekend. It was moderated by Dana Loesch, with Jennifer James and Shannon Entin sitting on the panel. I have followed Dana on Twitter for a while and was excited to hear what she had to say about social media and homeschooling.
The discussion moved quickly and covered topics such as using the internet to educate or supplement your child’s education, using blogging as a curriculum tool, reading other homeschooling blogs for curriculum ideas, and the impact social media has had on homeschooling.
The impact of social media on homeschooling has been amazing. The internet, and more recently sites like Twitter and Facebook are excellent tools for getting information to large numbers of homeschoolers quickly. Recently social media was used to spread the word about a bill that would have been devastating to homeschoolers in a certain state (sorry can’t remember which state). Within hours over 3000 homeschoolers united to defeat the bill. This was made possible through the use of twitter, email, and other social media sites.
Social media also has a downside for homeschoolers. Buy using the internet to help others homeschool, you expose yourself to those who might not agree with homeschooling or be critical of your decisions. Publishing start and ending times for school, field trips before they happen, and other detailed information is not a good idea. Many of the homeschoolers agreed it is better to talk about times, locations and events after the fact to protect your family from internet trolls.
All in all, everyone agreed that the internet is a great tool for homeschoolers. Personally, I rely heavily on the internet in our homeschool. We watch videos on youtube, research online, and use websites to supplement our paper books. I also use the internet to connect with other homeschoolers. Twitter has a homeschool chat once a month which is a great way to discuss hot topics or learn more about homeschooling in general.
How about you? Does the internet play a large role in your homeschool? Do you participate in any homeschool forums? What are your favorite online homeschool resources?
Homeschooling is extremely important to our family. I am thankful to the many families who came before us and homeschooled before there was internet, support groups, or even homeschooling curriculum! While I grumble at times about the homeschooling laws in our state, I realize that many who homeschooled 25 years ago faced losing their kids and going to jail for educating their children at home. Their sacrifices paved the way for the homeschooling freedom I have today.
As we begin our tenth year of homeschooling, I have decided to create a separate homeschooling site. It is still in development, but it should launch in early August. It will chronicle our homeschool year, as well as be a place of encouragement for those who are on this homeschooling journey. I realize that homeschoolers come in all flavors, but I truly believe we can all learn from each other and be a source of support for one another.
It was in MO that HS’ers rallied, and it was amazing (I have friends who attended).
I think just having the internet is huge in and of itself. Twitter and FB are cool so as to network more readily, and get even greater ideas.
And, as far as trolls go, I think no matter what, if you HS, you are putting yourself out there to be criticized. Doesn’t matter how much detail you give, if they want to snark, they will snark.
Kudo’s on the new venture! Can’t wait to see what’s coming!
I’m SO blessed to have found your blog! What an awesome resource! I was homeschooled from Pre-k to 12th grade. Loved every minute of it! I had no idea that there was another Happy Housewife blog/site when I named my blog back in March. I hope you’re not offended at me.
I hope to learn A LOT from your blog. Thanks for so much inspiration!
I don’t homeschool, heck, I don’t even have kids! But I wanted to suggest using Skype to conduct a “group” homeschool class between more than one family. It seems like it would be kinda fun for the kids.
Looking forward to reading your homeschool site! I don’t homeschool right now but am considering it. So any extra info I can get is great!
God bless,
Amanda
Oh my gosh! I’m SO excited that you are creating a homeschool blog! THANK YOU for sharing your experiences with us – I truly appreciate it. You really made my week by announcing you are doing a homeschool blog! We are getting ready to start our second year of homeschooling and I need all the encouragement I can get!
Angela
I love to use the internet and blogs as a resource for planning, however we have decided to completly take the computer out of our children’s education this year. After reading The Well Trained Mind, we felt like we would be cheating our children out of the most valuable years of learning and growing if we let them use the computer as a “learning” tool. FYI, my children are 7,5, & 2 and I have seen that even with TV it does not allow them to use their imaginations or really thing something through or about it as its all there in front of their eyes and not much mental muscle goes into having to think up something on their own. This may change once they are a big older but for now, the computer is out and its old fashion books and child’s play that will be their “learning” tools for their up coming school year.
The internet introduced the whole homeschooling concept to us, gave us the information and legalities of it and then the ability to put it all into practise. Without the internet we wouldn’t have gone ahead with doing it.
Looking forward to the new site!
I’ll be very interested to read your homeschool site. Kindergarten starts in five weeks for Big Brother and I am so apprehensive about it. Hubby swears school is the best thing for him but I am not so sure. We have settled on sending him but I am more heavily researching homeschool so I can be armed when (if) a change is necessary.
Until about a year ago I had not even heard of blogs, facebook and twitter. Apparently, all I have done in the past few years is have babies, LOL!
Homeschooling is NOT popular in my neck of the woods so social media has done a LOT to boost my spirits and make me feel less alone about homeschooling.
My oldest child is eight and we have not used much on the internet with our homeschool. He does love your blog though since I made him the Star Wars cake for his birthday
Can’t wait for the homeschool sight!!!
I love your blog and look forward to the new homeschooling site.
I am still researching and grabbing bits and bobs of homeschool information to help with my son’s education. He is technically in Pre-K at home this year. And I rely heavily on the internet for help because I just don’t see buying a full curriculum right now.
The internet has also helped me realize how important it is for me to connect with IRL homeschool families in my area. It has really helped get me excited.
I went to a homeschool fair last weekend and the only sessions I wanted to go to were lead by a woman I already read online!
We don’t use the internet for our homeschool. Until we moved out to our current location 2 months ago we would allow the oldest to play games online, but no we have dial up again as it’s the only thing available to us here so no playing online for him. We have a site for our homeschool, but I don’t update it. I thought I would but like blogging I just can’t bring myself to take the time to do it. I’d rather read to the boys or read for myself.
We use the Net in our homeschooling mainly because its already integrated into our everyday lives. We’ve always embraced it to the fullest, with boundaries for our kids of course. I’m just now launching a homeschool site here in Tennessee, at http://www.HomeschoolNashville.com . We ought to start linking up these homeschool sites/blogs. Keep up the good work.
I loved the homeschooling session, well until my baby started crying. LOL I would be lost without the internet, I get almost all of my resources and ideas from other homeschoolers online.
What a great topic! I, for one, have a hard time imagining life as a homeschooler without the internet. I have learned SOOOO much from other homeschoolers and resources online throughout this journey. I’m not a huge Facebook or Twitter user, but I’ve been blogging for five years and love reading the blogs of other homeschoolers.
If I had to give up the Internet, I suppose we would actually unwrap the set of encyclopedias we bought five years ago, and spend a lot more time on the phone with the kids yelling in the background…
We use the internet a lot for school. In fact, my oldest daughter has taken an online English class for 3 years now. She’s made friends with kids from all around the world. She has even been able to travel to get together with a group of the kids and meet in person. We’ve also hosted other friends that she’d made online at our house. It’s always been a very positive experience. (and for those wondering, she does have friends in real life too.)
I’m looking forward to your homeschool blog. This will be our 13th year. I have found it a little challenging to give the same excited energy to my younger kids as I did my older ones when they were young. That’s something I’ve been working on this summer while planning.
I use whatever I can find. I am so excited that you are going to have a site on homeschooling. I can’t wait to learn more!
Well I do not homeschool…any one else out there? but we do use internet for alot of things for projects etc….but at the same time i think it is important for kids to know how to look up info in books like dictionaries,encylopedias and other reference books. thought it was sad when my neice at 13 did not know how to use a dictionary when they started living with us…now they do…another problem we run into with my older daughter is some of the honors classes she take you have to do homeowrk online….what if we did not have computer or had to go back to dial up….what happend to good old homework? does anyone else have this problem?
Paula-
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I have lots of readers who do not homeschool. I agree it is important that people know how to use a variety of sources when researching information. There will always be a need to know alphabetical order,
Toni
cant live with out my computer but i still love doing this the old fashioned way….i guess that is why my kids think i am weird…
I am interested in learning how our homeschool group could use social media as a tool for communication and to list events, dates, etc., as well as a resource for info and links for our type of schooling. I don’t know which would be better for this, a blog or a Facebook page. Do any other homeschool groups use these?