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Greetings!

Deborah Wuehler and family

Technology is very popular in homeschooling now. You can do so much learning online with rapidly changing and improving technology--from iPads to iPods to smartphone apps of all kinds. From preschool learning games to online college classes, technology is the wave of the future in education. If you are capable of doing so, jump aboard when and where you can, but make sure you are still closely monitoring everything.

Because of technology, I get to speak to you from my home on May 22 at our Schoolhouse Expo (www.schoolhouseexpo.com ) at 2:30 PDT or 5:30 EDT, on the topic of Homeschooling & Marriage. Sign up now to attend! It's totally fun and free and you can listen from home while in your comfy clothes and even with kids playing around your feet or while you are cooking or cleaning or even homeschooling! Just turn those speakers up and be strengthened in your marriage and family. (I'd love to chat with you in the chat box, too!) We will also be blessed to hear from Todd & Debbie Wilson and Jay and Heidi St. John on the same topic of homeschooling, family, and marriage---it's sure to be practical, helpful, and encouraging. Would you mind signing up soon? We'd like to get a good head count.

Here's some more TOS technology for you: Every week, I will highlight current helpful articles from the magazine. This week, I want to share the columns related to technology in the homeschool which goes through several articles from pages 94-117, beginning with online art and ending with History and Geography apps: http://www.thehomeschoolmagazine-digital.com/thehomeschoolmagazine/201205/#pg97 If you have time, drop me a line and tell me what you think about these or other articles in this issue.

~Deborah

P.S. I am also speaking in person May 24-26 at the Great Homeschool Convention in Long Beach, CA, on Homeschooling the Rebel, and Before You Say, "I Quit!" If you are coming to the convention, please stop by our booth and meet several of the Suarez and Wuehler family members. We'd love to meet you!

While we are down there, we will also be looking around the L.A. area to see where our oldest two boys will be living in the fall. They will be transferring after this summer from our local junior college to California State University, Northridge. If you know of any housing opportunities for them in the area, please drop me a note! And we would so appreciate your prayers for this transition. God is faithful and will complete what He has started in our children's lives, from birth to college graduation and beyond.

~~~

Diana Waring

I remember the day I told my mom I was going to homeschool her grandchildren. Now, to set this up properly, let me tell you that I was an only child so these were her only grandchildren--and it was 1986, long before homeschooling was an accepted form of education. To say she went ballistic would be an understatement--and that is her recollection. And one of her main objections, beyond the obvious question of socialization, was, "How will they ever learn computers?!"

This was long before "cloud" and "text" indicated hip new techno applications, back when public schools had Macintosh computers and businesses had IBMs. Books were printed on paper, libraries were the best place to find information, and Encyclopedia Britannica was where you looked things up. It was not uncommon for music to be played on records, though, I have to admit cassette tapes had taken the market by storm.

Can you imagine?  For us, embracing "new technology" meant buying a computer with a word processor; buying a car with a tape player; and, if we really wanted to go high-tech, studying geography with Geo-Safari.

But here's the deal. Homeschool kids take to technology like ducks to water. They learn this stuff so fast it makes our heads spin . . . It provides one of those precious opportunities for the shoe to find the other foot, as we become the student and they become the teacher!

You know, looking back, I realize that the only real difficulty we ever had with technology was in deciding how to set appropriate time limits (we ended up allowing one hour per day in front of a screen, whether computer or television). It still is obvious that kids need lots of time for imaginative play by themselves and with others, outdoor adventures like climbing trees and planting gardens, reading great books alone and aloud, and laughing hysterically at each other's jokes--lots more time than most kids in our culture get today.

So, dear friends, I encourage you to follow this recipe for enjoying technology in your home: take the best of the past and the best of the present, add a lot of parental love, flavored with prayers for wisdom and discernment . . . and set your timer!

Stay relational!

Diana

P.S. We are excited to announce that we will be moving to Anderson, Indiana, at the end of June!  One of the delightful benefits of this move is that it puts us much closer to most of you. If your homeschool group, church group, or women's group would enjoy having an encouraging, transparent, and hilarious speaker, I would love to come!  We are available beginning this August. For more info, click here.