05/12 Many homeschoolers have in their homes an educational tool that may be under-utilized -- their Internet-connected computer. Besides well-known uses such as e-mail, news, and entertainment, the Internet is also a growing virtual encyclopedia, just a keystroke away. Many homeschooling related organizations and providers of educational products and services have websites where information may be found and which provide a means of contacting that organization or company. An incredible wealth of educational information and materials can also be found on the Internet: science information and demonstrations (want to dissect a frog online?); historic documents and sites about historic events; literature e-texts; unit studies; free language, music, and art lessons; worksheets. There are also websites for homeschoolers that feature articles, curriculum reviews, and discussion forums. While the discussion forums aren’t quite a support group (arranging and commuting to field trips and park days would be a problem), you can ask questions, discuss ideas, and share experiences with other homeschoolers. Three such sites are given below. Used skillfully, you can find almost any educational information you need on the Internet. And, kept in balance, it can be a very useful, very helpful resource for homeschoolers. Homeschool Discussion Boards HomeschoolChristian Main Homeschool Message Board http://www.homeschoolchristian.com/cgi-bin/config.cgi Kaleidoscapes Refugees Homeschooling Forum http://www.network54.com/Forum/180575 teachingmom.com http://www.teachingmom.com/boards/ Scope and Sequence Links Typical Course of Study: Preschool-Grade Level 12 http://www.worldbook.com/wc/browse?id=pa/tcs Homeschooling Scope & Sequence http://eclectichomeschool.org/department/resource.asp?resourceid=18&deptid=23 What Should My Child Know http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/4082/should.html Homeschooling Forms Online Highland Heritage Forms http://highland.hitcho.com.au/Forms.htm Homeschool Forms, Schedules & Aids http://members.aol.com/usteach/forms.html Donna Young’s Homeschool Printables & Resources http://www.donnayoung.org/index.htm Household Notebook Forms Library http://organizedhome.com/printable.html Website Design Basic Website Design Tips The purpose of any website offering a product or service - support groups and ISPs are services - is to communicate information to potential users. It must be useful, usable and readable. What follows are some very basic tips that should be followed by any website designer. If these seem excessively basic, keep in mind that there are many sites on the Web, including some homeschoolers' sites, that fail to follow these tips. Organize your site so it presents all the needed information and it is easy to find that information on your site. If your site has multiple pages, divide the information logically and provide some kind of navigation menu on every page to enable users to find the information they need quickly and easily. Give the navigation "buttons" names that tell the user what will be found there. If you want users to contact you, make that contact information - phone number, e-mail address, or street address - easy to find. The best ways are to include a "Contact Us" option on the navigation menu or to include that information at the bottom of each page. As you can see, we did both. Make each page easy for the user to read. Use large, plain fonts for text information; reserve decorative fonts for logos and page/section titles. Fancy looks nice, used judiciously, but can be really hard to read. Choose the background color and text color so the text is easy to read. For example, black text on a dark red background looks visually impressive, until you try to read it. Do not fill the page with text, graphics, banners and pictures. This is visually intimidating to the reader. An obvious exception would be an essay or article, which is, by definition, a large block of text.