Welcome to episode 1 of the Homeschooling with Technology podcast.

My name is Meryl van der Merwe and I am a South African. My father bought us a personal computer when I was a teen and I both gamed on it and learned to program. I went to college to get a B.A.  but during the vacations, I earned money running programming camps for children.

After graduation, I got a job with Shell SA programming in their payroll department. I got married and around the time our first child was born, we started our own computer company and created a Fixed Asset Register software package which I programmed.

Our family kept growing and my children and I would game together. We would play Kings Quest, Carmen Sandiego, Oregon Trail. You can still find some of these old games here:

My children started helping me in the children's clothing factory outlet I was running at this time by creating flyers and advertisements for the business and helping operate the computer in the store.

Then we moved to America and I started homeschooling. Obviously, I began homeschooling with technology!

I taught our children to program when they were in elementary school and some of their assignments were done online. But they didn't just use technology to do their schoolwork, they also made money with tech. One started creating websites as a business when he was 10 years old. One did all the layout and typed up recipes for someone who was publishing a recipe book and one did computer repairs.

And of course, they gamed. In fact, I often assigned them games like Civilization for "homework".

Now that my children have left home I still use technology for homeschooling other peoples' children - both in my co-op classes and in my online classes. At co-op we play games like Kahoot and I use QR codes and anything else that will engage the students in their learning.

If you are worried that technology is beyond you, don't be. Vicki Davis, an educator and podcaster says: "Innovate like a turtle". What she is saying is, just do a little bit of something that is new at a time. Just take one idea from each show and try to implement it.

Alice Keeler, another educator has this great quote: "The only difference between "I'm techie" and "I'm not techie" is the willingness to click on stuff and see what happens." So go ahead, click around on websites and new software. You aren't likely to break anything (just stay away from spammy looking links!)
What can you expect to learn about in this podcast?



* Tools to help you organize your life in general and especially your homeschool. Many of these are tools you can also teach your children to use
* Sites that will enhance your lessons - games, interactive websites, simulations etc. In fact, here is one you might want to try. I mentioned earlier we loved planning The Oregon Trail together. Well, you can play that original version online now at archive.org
* Techie skills your children need before they leave for college, and how to easily incorporate them into your homeschool

If you find any great techie resources you think I may not know about, please share them in the comments. And if there are any topics you would like me to cover, let me know that too!

Be sure to subscribe to the Homeschooling with Technology show wherever you listen to your podcasts!

Special Thanks to our Network Sponsor, Kiwi Crate!