It’s August and that means it’s once again time for the Thirty Day Challenge.

This program is completely free of charge and they teach anyone who takes the class a lot about browsers, setting them up, internet tools to help you do research quickly, how to set up your first blog, and finally, how to make your first $1 online. It’s a month-long basic business course that is free and would be worth paying for, but they never charge for it.

To me, making the dollar is not as important as learning the process to make that dollar. The tools taught are free and extremely useful for anything you want to do online. From research, RSS aggregation and writing to marketing, using social media the right way, and audio and video podcasting, TDC is the place to be in August every year.

The challenge began today. Sign up if you haven’t got an account, then start doing the lessons. If you have taken the challenge before, use the same account. It’s still active. It’s worth perusing each year after you take it the first time because they update the tools and techniques that make things faster, easier and better.

It’s a fabulous homeschool project about business and the internet. I recommend it for kids 10 and over. It does take some time committment each day (about an hour or two).

I took it the first time in 2007 and took it again in 2008, and now my sites are making at least $100 a month. Sometimes more, but almost always at least $100. And I owe it mostly to TDC!

Technorati Tags: business education, homeschool project, internet business training, projects, Thirty Day Challenge

Where did the internet come from? Here is an 8 min., concise video of the origins of the internet we use today. It all began in 1957, 52 years ago.

I remember the days of card readers (man, were those boxes of cards heavy to carry around) and mainframe computers, and learning languages like FORTRAN and COBOL. Now we use HTML, PHP and CSS.

Actually, we don’t have to use programming languages. Developers use them to create applications with graphical user interfaces and intuitive logic so we the users can pull up a “write” window on a WordPress blog and start typing. When we’re done, we press “publish” and we have a new blog post with pictures, sound, and video if we choose, and everything is managed for us.

We don’t have to understand the programming language to operate a simple blog. Most of us learn enough about them to add extra functionality to our blogs, but it isn’t required. As time has gone on, the need to know how to edit the programming templates is less frequent as developers write WordPress plugins instead of making us cut and paste code.

What are your thoughts on the origins of the internet? Where do you think it will be in the next 50 years? As dependent on the internet as I am today, I can only imagine it getting smarter and more integrated into our daily lives. Perhaps one day it will be a part of our physical bodies.

Technorati Tags: internet in the future, internet origin

What educational TV channels would a teen possibly like from which they might learn something? I have a list that my son watches and discusses. I also list some other channels we don’t normally watch but that your teen may like.

If you don’t have cable or satellite TV, it’s time to get it because all the Discovery Network of channels are on cable or satellite. History and its network of channels are also only on cable or satellite.

Science Channel

• Sci Q Sundays – with Dr. Michio Kaku
• Brink
• Ecopolis
• How It’s Made
• How Do They Do It?
• Survivorman
• Colossal Construction
• Deconstructed
• Weird Connections
• Beyond Tomorrow

History Channel

There are several channels associated with The History Channel: A&E, Military History, History Education, History International, and Biography

• Modern Marvels – show on engineering and technology of the past and present
• Cities of the Underworld
• Armageddon Week
• Seven Deadly Sins
• The Universe
• Extreme Trains
• UFO Hunters
• Ancient Discoveries
• Shows about particular periods in the past
• Shows about the wars of the world from ancient times to Iraq and Afghanistan
• Shows about history of the Bible and other religions

Discovery Channel

• MythBusters
• How Stuff Works
• Survivorman (if you don’t get The Science Channel)
• Dirty Jobs
• How It’s Made (if you don’t get The Science Channel)
• Man Vs. Wild
• Destroyed in Seconds

Military Channel

• Future Weapons
• Weaponology
• Puzzles

Other Discovery Network Channels

• Turbo
• TLC
• ID: Investigation Discovery
• Discovery Health
• Animal Planet
• Planet Green
• HD Theater

MSNBC

• The Rachel Maddow Show

Rachel speaks our teens’ language and delivers the news with dry wit and lots of humor while making wicked smart arguments and observations, and asking the deeper questions about the world and current events with a decidedly liberal tilt, but no spin.

Rachel isn’t a typical newscaster or anchor. She’s young, only 35, and has a Ph.D. in political science from Oxford University in England. She was a Rhodes Scholar and received the John Gardener Fellowship upon receiving her undergraduate degree in public policy from Stanford University.

She has impeccable integrity and always corrects any mistakes she makes, no matter how minor, apologizes when she is wrong, and makes sure there is complete and total disclosure about any conflicts of interest involving a guest on the show, and of her own. She occasionally talks about Clear Channel radio, and makes sure to disclose that her show on Air America Radio is broadcast on some Clear Channel stations before she gives any opinions about Clear Channel, for example.

She insists upon civil debate and does not tolerate argument melt-downs, impolite behavior or name calling of any kind. She’s an excellent role model on how to have a heated, yet very civil debate or discussion.

My son started watching this show on his own. I watch and one day he started getting off the computer and watching this show for an hour.

Your teen may prefer other networks, other shows, and other anchors. But have them find something that they don’t like to miss so they learn to keep up with current events and can discuss and debate issues effectively and civilly. No Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity or Bill O’Reilly as role models. They don’t debate anything. They preach their opinions and there is no room for discussion or disagreement with them. They are also extremely rude to their guests and audience participants. To make a more civil and just world, we need to learn to debate without rudeness and disdain for our opponents. The debate needs to be heated, but the people themselves need to get along and stick to the subject without personal attacks or condescension.

Don’t forget to check your local library for DVDs of shows on specific topics to check out and watch. Also, many news shows are available via podcast free of charge through the show’s website or on iTunes.

Technorati Tags: Educational TV, Educational TV Channel Suggestions, News show suggestions, Show list

I haven’t seen this movie yet, but I plan to get a copy of it and watch it. This is a demonstration of why I homeschool my son and allow him to determine how he learns and what he learns most of the time. This is how school is, and it is tearing our kids apart:

This is how school should be:

It’s okay to learn by playing when we’re little, but not when we get older? Bull-pucky! One-third of our teens drop out of high school today. The kids aren’t broken, the schools are. If we plan to fix education in this country, we’ve got to do some radical rethinking of what schools should be, make changes and implement those changes.

One change that would make the biggest difference in kids lives right now is to split academics from vocational/technical interests starting in 9th grade. Kids know enough about reading, writing and math to stop studying it in school if their interests are aligned with a vocational or technical career that they would learn by being an apprentice. In other words, learning by doing.

Leave the academic high school stuff to the those who want be immersed in academic life. There should be multiple ladders of academics as well: one for math and science types, another for business, another for social and political sciences and the like, and another for liberal arts.

Stop forcing kids to learn physics when they want to teach kindergarten! Allow non-science kids to take science appreciation for what they need to know to get along in the modern world and leave it at that. Don’t make them learn how to work free body diagram kinematics problems or balance chemical equations! They need to know those subjects exist and are useful, but they shouldn’t have to become proficient in them.

I would prefer they were proficient at reading, comprehending and keeping up with their personal finances and staying out of debt. Advanced math does not teach anyone how to balance a checkbook, a far more useful skill than matrices and synthetic division. Unless you need advanced math skills for your career, you shouldn’t have to take advanced math.

Everyone should have to take a life skills class (or classes) where they learn how to manage a household, live within their means, understand credit and know who to ask for help when considering borrowing money, and how to manage intimate relationships (especially listening skills and that movies are the exact opposite of real life; love and peaceful co-existence require compassion, communication, compromise and hard work to maintain). Cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping, laundry, and lawn care would also be good lessons.

What would you suggest to improve our schools? What do you think is wrong with them? Please leave your thoughts and ideas in the comments.

Technorati Tags: homeschool your teenager, schooled the movie, what's wrong with schools today

Many of us struggle to get our teens to write more, or in my case, to write period. They need writing practice, especially if they plan to go to college or have an online business. Some teens love writing and some loathe it. Others are ambivalent about it because they haven’t done much of it.

Blogging

How can you get your teenager to write? Have them start a blog. Blogging is a great way to practice writing. Having to post an article of 400 or more words 2-3 times a week will make your teen a much better writer. What most kids of all ages lack is the practice of putting words on paper and presenting clear ideas.

There are a couple of very easy ways to get started for free. I recommend Blogger.com or Typepad.com. Should your teen’s blog turn out to be something he or she is really proud of and wants to publish onto the blogosphere, these two platforms are easily portable to a WordPress blog (WordPress.org software, it’s free, too).

You’ll Eventually Want WordPress Software

WordPress is the standard software used by most serious bloggers. It’s easy to install and use, and it is extremely powerful because you can add plugins for functionality, edit the theme files, or design your own themes using PHP and CSS with a little HTML thrown in. They can check out books from the library to learn these programming languages on their own. These languages also count as computer science credits when you’re putting together a high school transcript for college.

Blogger, Typepad and WordPress allow your teen to keep her or his blog private, or let only those you allow to see it. I recommend private or limited access until your teen is 18 or older. There are too many predators on the internet to chance one of them befriending your son or daughter through his or her blog. Those of us who blog publicly know that anyone can make up a persona online for any purpose. You very likely don’t want your teen interacting with people you don’t know in real life.

Here are some recommendations:

• Have them pick a topic, even if it’s going to be a personal diary
• Discuss the topic before signing up for an online account
• You, the parent, should sign up for the account
• Consider making your teen his or her own category on your blog if you don’t want them to have their own blog
• Have your teen guest author posts on your blog
• Encourage creativity with the use of multimedia, such as background themes, photos and videos along with written text
• Discuss the content of the posts, especially as they relate to a specific topic if one was chosen
• Subscribe to your teen’s blog and read the posts if the blog is not private (if it is private, just make sure it stays that way)

If the blog is not so personal as to be private and is shared with a limited list of visitors, be sure to add relatives and family friends to the allowed visitors list so they can see what’s going on in their loved one’s life. The whole family may end up in the stories, pictures and videos, so watch out when they have a camera aimed in your direction.

A Scrapbook Blog

A blog can be a great place to start an online scrapbook. Since teens spend a lot of time online, scrapbooking online can be an excellent way to get them doing something creative with some of that computer time and share it with family and friends. They can write, add photos, design themes and add videos in their posts. These skills are directly portable to the presentation skills they will need later in life. Here is a link to a friend of mine, Karen, who blogs specifically about scrapbooking: Scraps of Mind.

Some other ideas to get your teen writing regularly are:

• the old, handwritten journal; It has a big advantage that if a really good hiding place can be found, it can’t be hacked
• an offline digital journal in a word processor; the file can be password protected for privacy, as long as your teen doesn’t have a sibling computer-savvy enough to break into protected files
• consider file encryption if your teen wants real electronic privacy, but that can be a bit expensive

Whatever method you choose, I hope it will get your teenager writing on a regular basis!

Technorati Tags: blogging, get teens to write, homeschool your teenager, online scrapbooking, Writing