Computers have become a staple in today's world, so much so that most of our children do not remember what life was like before these information boxes came into our lives. A computer and printer are two items I believe should be considered a necessity in every homeschool family. High speed internet access and multiple computers wirelessly connected are icing on the cake.

You don't have to have seven computers, a network and high speed internet, however, to benefit from using a computer in your homeschooling. A computer is an extremely useful tool for all homeschooling parents.

Have you ever wondered how you can make the best use of your computer?

You can use your computer to plan and schedule your curriculum and assignments. Everything you need to homeschool is online, including lesson planners and entire curriculums. Using an internet search engine such as Google.com or Ask.com will provide you with all of the free and low cost lesson plans you would ever need.

You will find my my Homeschooling For Free section at http://www.bellaonline.com/subjects/7713.asp. Here you will find tons of free resources for all ages.

I also maintain a page of Educational Links list at http://www.backflip.com/members/badhomeschoolmom, there are hundreds of additional resources cited here.

Keeping track of your daily activities is a cinch, and easy to share with other family members when you use an online calendar service such as the Google Calendar at http://calendar.google.com.

Let your computer keep your records. You will still have to input the information but for those of us with filing issues it's a lot harder to lose a computer. You can download Homeschool Tracker Basic, a free recording-keeping program at http://www.tghomesoft.com, and other programs are available for purchase.

If you want something simpler you can make a spreadsheet to keep track of days, hours and subjects of study. You can download free office suite software, including a spreadsheet maker, at http://www.openoffice.org. Open Office is fully compatible with Miscrosoft Office Suite, making it very versatile. Google also offers free spreadsheet software at http://www.writely.com.

If you aren't comfortable using spreadsheets or record-keeping software you can keep track of your child's studies in a word processing program, such as Microsoft Word and Corel's Word Perfect. A program I recommend is Writely, a free yet powerful word processing program that is used online only. With Writely there is no software to download and all of your documents are automatically backed-up online. http://www.writely.com

If you prefer paper you can find many free record-keeping pages online. The pages I use can be downloaded and printed for free at http://www.MegGrooms.com.

Use your computer to back-up your records and lessons. As I mentioned earlier Writely will auto back-up any files you create with it. You can use online file storage services as well. For as little as $12 a year Online File Folder (http://www.onlinefilefolder.com) will save anything you upload to it, which also gives you the flexibility to access your files on multiple computers easily. For those of us who experience frequent computer meltdowns, using a service like Online File Folder assures that your documents won't be lost forever.

Do you use photos to augment your portfolio? You can use services such as Flickr (http://www.flickr.com) and Photobucket (http://www.photobucket.com) to store photographs and digital videos. Both Flickr & Photobook allow you to set security measures on your photos and you don't have to worry about losing paper photos!

Find and save online worksheets and print them on demand! A search engine can help you find the worksheets you need. Using a PDF converter program such as PDF 995 (http://www.pdf995.com) allows users to save webpages on their computer as PDF files. You can then print those files when needed and back them up online or on disk if you want.

Your computer can prepare your portfolio for you! Print out your records, attendance reports and photos, worksheets, organize by date and put them in a folder and viola, instant portfolio. Programs such as Homeschool Tracker automatically create important records such as grades and attendance and format them for easy printing.

Meet homeschooling friends locally and around the world with your computer. Join email loops at http://groups.yahoo.com and http://groups.msn.com. You can join focused groups, virtual student exchange groups, general chat groups, groups just for moms of homeschooled boys, you get the idea.

The uses of a computer in your homeschool are endless and while they may take some effort to learn, the programs and websites I've listed will make your homeschooling life a lot simpler in the long run!



New to Homeschooling?
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Homeschooling With Confidence: A Plain English Guide to Homeschooling in the United States