My husband has worked for a major software company for twenty years, and I design and teach online technical writing, so computers are a major part of our life.  My husband and I consider computing to be an important part of our children’s education.  As we began homeschooling our two youngest, we realized that there aren’t a lot of really good computing curriculums out there.  There are some that are interesting, but, overall, they focus mostly on programming or web design and not just computing fundamentals.  Having taught homeschoolers at a local co-op for the last three years, there is definitely a deficiency in homeschoolers’ vs. public school students’ ability to work with technology.  Don’t get me wrong – this isn’t across the board.  However, in the public schools, they have options for computing courses and some (like our local middle schools) are checking out laptops to all students starting in sixth grade.

Once students get to college or even enter the workforce, they will have to work with technology.  Almost all colleges and universities use email and online classrooms for both in-seat and (obviously) online courses.  Most employers expect employees to have some basic understanding of computers, and almost all office work expects knowledge of word processing and spreadsheets at the very least.  Even working in fast food, automated touch screens are utilized.

So, short of writing our own courses, what can we do?  First, I feel we have a responsibility as homeschooling parents to give our students the opportunity to work with technology.  No, not all of us can afford the “latest and greatest”, especially since technology changes so fast.  The libraries are a great source for computers.  They typically have fairly current systems, programs that can be used in the library, computers for working on, and some even offer classes for free or low cost.

What else can we do?

As my husband and I search for strong exposure, we have begun to assemble a list of links to free resources that are helping our boys become proficient computer users.  Here are a few:

http://csunplugged.org/ – “CS Unplugged is a collection of free learning activities that teach Computer Science through engaging games and puzzles that use cards, string, crayons and lots of running around.”

http://scratch.mit.edu/ – “Scratch is a programming language from MIT that makes it easy to create your own interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art — and share your creations on the web.”

http://www.alice.org/ – “Alice is a teaching tool for introductory computing. It uses 3D graphics and a drag-and-drop interface to facilitate a more engaging, less frustrating first programming experience.”  There are a LOT of resources out there for Alice – if you decide to try this, comment and I’ll send you more.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/training/beginner-s-training-for-office-2007-HA010270562.aspx?CTT=5&origin=HA010229580 – Microsoft’s beginner’s training for Office 2007 (they also have it for 2010).

http://sofia.fhda.edu/gallery/html/ -“ A beginning hands-on introduction to using Hypertext Mark-Up Language (HTML) to create web pages which can be uploaded and displayed on the World Wide Web.”

Computing can be intimidating if you aren’t computer savvy yourself.  In fact, many times, it feels like our kids are already leaps and bounds ahead of us given their propensity for social networking.  However, it is important they get beyond Facebook and understand what using a computer is really all about.

Other options include some of the computing curricula available along with co-ops that have computing or even classes your kids can take.  There are usually great summer camps out there for computing as well.

Take my advice – don’t leave this out of your students’ homeschool experience – they will need it for college and the work force.

April Bradley is the mother of four beautiful children ranging in age from 20 to 11.  Her blog, Heartfelt Homeschooling (http://bzoohomeschool.blogspot.com/ ), covers all things homeschool: reviews, teens, books, curriculum, and homeschool life in general.