Saturday, April 4, 2009

Hello and Welcome

My name is Kathryn and I am a homeschooling Mum of two gorgeous boys. They are 15 and 11 and are a constant source of amazement and happiness to me! We have been home educating for over 5 years and follow a natural learning style. I have started this blog as a way for home educating families to find out about the amazing amount of computer based resources there are out there.
My children use the computer and internet for a great deal of their study. I am also enrolled in a Post Graduate Certificate of Education with the University of Southern Queensland. My first unit of study is Computer Based Resources in Education. For this I am to set up a blog. I already have my old chatty blog and was just going to use that... but now I have decided to give this a whirl and see how it goes.
How it goes will be up to you out there in blogdom?
If you have questions about computers and how they work - don't ask me!! If I turn it on and it works, life is good. If not then I yell for Stephen my computer fix it man.
If you ask me about computer software for educational purposes I hope am able to help. If you want to know about good websites then I will try to find them for you.
My aim is to post a couple of times a week with information and/or websites I think are worthwhile to the homeschooling family.
Righto... off to find out some info on some for you.

Kathryn

16 comments:

  1. Hi Kathryn, you should know better than to email me with news of your new blog and it's purpose... I'm bound to try and rope you into something! Such as... I could do with a columnist on the new Home Education Association bi-monthly magazine on the subject of computer software for educational purposes. If these is a way we can tie any journalistic endeavours you might complete for the magazine with your uni studies, all the better! To make it easy, perhaps we could publish the contents of one of your blogs each issue, together with a link to the blog? What do you think?

    And, by the way, good luck with your studies!

    all the best
    Beverley
    Webmistress: http://homeschoolaustralia.com
    Editor: http://hea.asn.au

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  2. Hi Kathryn (great name ;) btw)
    Looking forward to following your blog - sure my 10yo, 7yo and I will pick up some great puter resources.
    Kathi

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  3. What a great idea Kathryn!I will definitely keep coming back to your blog

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  4. Hi Kathryn,
    That IS a great name - and spelt correctly too!(just like mine...)
    And double-snap -- I too have just started a postgraduate degree: IT in education & training - it's a master of Arts which is the same as the Master of Education only I don't have a teaching degree (IT background.)

    Kathi, I also have a 10yo and 7yo - this is getting wierd...

    Kathy

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  5. Hi Kathryn,
    thankyou for the invitation. You're amazing. I am not a huge computer user, but am finding now kids are getting older & better at it than I; a need is arising!! I will certainly follow with interest and admiration, hoping to learn a few points along the way.....All the best and thanks again.
    kind regards,
    Jen Kayal

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  6. Hi Kathryn,
    I have added myself as a follower and will now be able to access your blog a click way from my blog.. Since you are talking about computer resources in education I will pass on my favourite web-sites as I find them (don't know them in my head and i am not at work at the moment). One that is not interactive, but a good maths algebra resource is "Purplemath" - just google this.
    Cheers
    Joan
    PS. I liked your other blog. I'm not sure that a wiki wouldn't be a better option for resources for home-schooling. I have started a wiki - very unexciting, but i was just experimenting - but if you want to see the idea, have a look at ntabenende.wetpaint.com

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  7. Hi Kathryn,
    It's about time someone set up a site like this to help me out....LOL.. I will be driving your boys mad for info. Will they also give a little help in online gaming when I get stuck?

    First question....Why, when my router and very fast broadband are set up for 4 computers online at a time, we can often only get 2 computers, or even worse, 1 computer online. It's driving the kids and me nuts.. Occasionally all 4 computers can be online at once.

    Looking forward to reading about the educational resources you post.

    I'm sure this is one blog that will keep you very, very busy.

    I like Beverley's idea of writing a column....Just the thing that is needed in the mag.

    Cheers,
    Gerardine

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  8. Hi Kathryn

    Looking forward to following your post, home schooling may be an option if we decide to travel again. I have my blog on Interactive Video Conferencing(IVC) in schools - I just do not think that Australia is doing this well yet.
    Feel free to post to my blog if you come across anything of IVC on your resource travels.

    http://khm-interactivevideoconferencing.blogspot.com

    :) Kylie

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  9. Hi Kathryn

    I thought i would follow your blog as i need to understand how the whole blogging system works for the course and following as many blogs as you can is a good way to learn. You ae able to see other peoples ideas and how they use their blogs.

    I think i am finally starting to realise the attraction behind it for people. It can be very expressive and informative.

    I look forward to any information that you have on home schooling.

    Cheers

    Al

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  10. LOL! Hey Kathryn, you sound a bit like me! Congratulations on getting away from the chatty blog to do this (I have been saying it for years and still did not get there! Glad to see someone finally did.) The internet certainly is a great wealth of information for homeschoolers. Good luck with the site, Im sure you will have lots of appreciative followers.

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  11. Hi Kathryn,
    Great idea... look forward to what you dig up.

    Gerardine ... I have the same problem and boy is it frustrating. We have discovered that when our portble phone is being used the computers running through the router wirelessly drop out. Our ISP told us it was because they are on the same ... something length.
    Also, it helps if the router is turned off overnight. We have a USB 'dongle'which we can plug directly into the computer (always get internet coverage) or, we plug it into the router (sometimes have problems). If we unplug the router and re-plug it in it seems to clear things and then it usually works again. I hope this makes sense to you and is of some help.

    Dora

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  12. Hi Kathryn,
    Gee, you are popular!!!
    I just wanted to mention Click Schooling - not sure if you are a member of this list, but I think it is a great resource for homeschoolers.
    Good luck with it,
    Sharee

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  13. Hi Kathryn,
    I will look forward to what you have to say on this blog, too. My son is really interested in anything computer, too!

    We have been homeschooling for nearly seven years, and our children are 15 and 12.

    By the way, I would like to wish you the very best of luck with your studies.

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  14. Hi Kathryn,

    I seem to never have the time to look for all the info I know the internet can provide and am looking forward checking out your links/sites. What a great idea! Already I know 3 other people who have posted messages here - what is it they say "geat minds think alike"? Homeschooling 3 young boys, I am always trying to find the answer to something!

    Anna

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  15. Hi Kathryn,
    looking forward to seeing what you can find out there in cyberworld. Thanks for setting this up.I have two very visual/spatial learners (9 yrs & 12yrs) and the computer is the best learning tool for them!
    Marg

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  16. I am based in China and many of the resources we use are located on the web due to of course language restrictions in China. It is so helpful and I find myself doing quite a lot of searches for online activities, lesson plans, etc. My daughter is only 4 though so we are not quite at the stage you are.

    Good luck with it.

    Michelle

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