Name: Great Homeschool Conventions (Columbus)
Start: 2025-04-24T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-04-26T23:59:59-05:00
Location: Columbus, OH

Tagged: kids using computer

This topic has 10 replies, 8 voices, and was last updated 11 years, 8 months ago by junkybird.

Viewing 11 posts - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)

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June 25, 2013 at 8:28 pm
junkybird
Participant
Not a failure, but I can’t think of the right word 🙂
My DS9 (a very newly turned 9 on 6/11) is attending two awesome camps at a local science center this week. The morning one is called Create and Animate. It is about making stop motion movies. He loves that kind of thing. The other is a Lego Machine camp, which he also loves.
Today when I picked him up he expressed embarrassment over the fact that he was the only one who needed help in using the computer today in one of the camps.
I felt this would come, but didn’t know when it would happen.
We don’t use many electronics at our house. At all. I have a laptop and an iPad. My husband has another kind of tablet, but DS doesn’t use them very much. Mostly just to play educational games and those are touch screen. I have never really let him use the computer. I just could never think of a reason, or time, for him to get on it. He is also left-handed, and I have a right handed ergonomic mouse 🙂 That has a lot to do with it too!
I’m not sure EXACTLY why he needed help, but I do know that he needed help with spelling the title to his movie. He said he named it “What’s Up With The Ducks?”
He didn’t know how to spell those simple words. He has no confidence with spelling. I was planning on holding off until next year to start spelling because of . . . well I just thought he wasn’t ready. I am planning on starting him with typing this year. This is supposed to be his “fourth” grade year, but he is barely 9. Using the SCM materials has always been kind of hard for me, especially this year because I never know when to use the age versus the grade recommendations on things, ex. book of centuries, 1-3 books or 4-6 books, when to start Spelling Wisdom, etc. Sorry, I’m rambling off on another topic altogether now!
So, advice here. Is there some sort of computer game/program that he could go through to learn how to use a computer more? Do most public schooled children use a computer daily? What types of things are they learning?
I told him that we were going to do typing this year (I go year round starting in July) and that I would look into something to help him learn how to use a computer more. I also mentioned starting spelling of a sorts. He told me that sounded good. He didn’t want to be embarrassed anymore about any of those things.
Is this resounding with anybody? Tips? I just feel like I have “dropped the ball” a little. I know that none of this is detrimental and it can all be fixed. I, like most moms, just don’t like seeing my little guy embarrassed!
TIA,
Jenn
June 25, 2013 at 8:39 pm
suzukimom
Participant
We have had similar experiences. It is important to let the kids know that schools teach subjects in a different order than we are at home – so sometimes things are going to come up where it looks like they don’t know something the others do – but that there are other subjects that they probably know a lot more than the other kids do.

June 25, 2013 at 9:47 pm
Kristen
Participant
Check the website easy Peasy – all in one home school (sorry I can’t post the link on my phone). They have in the column on the right, computer lessons that start with basic stuff like turning it on and off and moving on from there. I thought it was a good place to start with my kids. Mine use the computer a lot (more than I wish) as my DH is a computer junkie.
June 25, 2013 at 10:17 pm
my3boys
Participant
I believe there was a recent discussion on the forum about this very topic. The child was at a camp/nature center or something like that and didn’t know how to use a computer either. I think the child was 11, but I could be wrong. Maybe there is something hou could take from that discussion to help or reassure you.
HTH
June 25, 2013 at 10:25 pm
JennyMN
Participant
Honestly, I don’t think you’ve dropped the ball. The computer can be a tool but for younger kids it it usually more entertainment (there are probably some exceptions).
However, if you want to teach him some computer literacy here are a few things that we have done:
- Set up with an email account (which you monitor, because of safety and email etiquette does need to be taught). For gmail you have to be 13 years but your internet provider may allow you to set up more than one email address. We set the address up in Microsoft Outlook so they are not on a webpage with ads. Restrict who he emails – maybe just you and your husband and grandparents. This actually helped my struggling speller spelling also because of spell check. Or if you don’t want him to have his own email he could use your email address to email grandparents.
- If you use Microsoft programs (Word, Excel) there is a free program you can download to learn it.
- A typing program will teach him how to navigate on a computer.
With the spelling…agh!….that’s hard. I’ve been there. It is hard to see your child embarrassed. Maybe you can share with him something that you’ve struggled with.
June 25, 2013 at 11:23 pm
suzukimom
Participant
Just wanted to say that I created Gmail accounts for my kids – with my name – so they are my accounts that my kids use. I also immediately set them all up to forward all messages to my main account. I have really only used them as logins for a few things, and so far none of them have gotten any mail…. but that is what I did.
June 25, 2013 at 11:42 pm
eawerner
Participant
Nope. Not a failure. Ps teaches things at different times than many hs families do. The nice thing is that now your ds has a reason of his own to apply himself dilligently to these new subjects. 🙂
June 26, 2013 at 3:51 am
suzisue
Participant
Keep in mind that the camps he was attending are more likely to be attended by kids who enjoy technology. You don’t have to compare at all, but if you do keep in mind you are comparing your son to kids who may be more familiar with computers than the average PS child.
Also, his spelling may have seemed even poorer because he was also doing it by typing which is likely also unfamiliar to him.
I am an engineer and before children I made my living writing software. At the age of nine I probably had never even used a computer! So there is no rush, but don’t be afraid to allow him to use the computer as a tool, even if you are not interested in him using it for entertainment. Typing a letter to send by snail mail, writing an email, or just typing a good copy of a written narration are great places to start.
June 26, 2013 at 4:06 am
blue j
Participant
This is my 2 cents and stems from the CMI conference conversations I either listened in on or took part in. There was a seminar/ breakout session specifically on the topic of electronics and the gist of it is that if you teach a child all his computer “stuff” in grade school, by the time he gets to high school age it will have changed signifcantly. By college, he may be learning new stuff that replaces the old, all because computers and the like become obsolete at a head-spinningly fast speed. Some items are obsolete by the time they come to market which is CRAZY. All this to say that you are NOT dropping the ball or hindering him for life. Nor will he need therapy for years because of this incident.
Pax,
~jacqleene
June 26, 2013 at 4:20 am
suzukimom
Participant
I would have to say that is true.
I was an unusual child for my age – in that I was exposed to computers before microcomputers existed! (Now you can guess my age… lol.)
My dad was teaching a programming course – on mainframes – And I would go and play the text games that were there. I was 5. I remember playing a game on one of the teletype terminals (It printed everything you typed, and that the computer would normally display) and taking it to show-and-tell. I also provided used punch cards to the school for crafts.
Later, my dad had the first micro-computer store in the city where we lived…. The first one I was shown had switches on it and a button, and you would flip the switches to a particular state, and push the button – change the switches, push the button for a long time until you had taught it to use the keyboard, then carefully type in the instructions for it to use the monitor. I only saw that one – never used it. But the store was selling ones a bit more sophisticated – but not much. This was just before the Apple II and Vic-20 and Commodore 64 time…. I experienced the Commodore Pet, the Exidy Sorcerer, and various other computers you’ve never heard of. I also learned to program in Basic when I was 9. (Not well, but a few simple text-based games…
Anyway – just to say – I’m sure the computers our kids will be using as adults will be as different as the ones are today, as the ones are today to the ones I used when I was a kid. Although I’m glad for the exposure I had (and I did become a software developer too….) well, I’m not sure it gave me much advantage. And the languages I wrote in 12 years ago are so obsolete now, I’d have to relearn everything to get a job now too….
June 26, 2013 at 11:31 am
junkybird
Participant
Thanks ladies! Coming on here this morning and getting some suggestions and encouragement is nice 🙂 I will check out the Easy Peasy suggestion and think (for a long time) about the email.
Thanks,
Jenn