Project time {Making an App}

Knowing how much E14 likes to fiddle with programming and try out some things and knowing that he now has his own Samsung Galaxy Player (an Android version of the iPod Touch for all you iThings folks), I suggested he try his hand at making an app.

I also hinted that a certain Homeschool Blogger might enjoy having an app for her blog...

After looking around at many different app makers, he found apps bar which is pretty much the only site he found that didn't charge to submit the app. He had made the app on two other sites which claimed to be free, but when he clicked submit, it revealed the membership fee requirement. Of course, the paid sites are much better because they allow you to make more things (like games) and put more into your app, but it comes with a cost.

The results are pretty cool! He actually ended up making one for Blog, She Wrote and Miss Bliss- they were given to us as Christmas presents. If you load the app on your device, it will give you some options for navigating the blog. For example, you can go to the blog or you can check new content only. There's even a button that will take you to my social media sites.

With apps bar you build the app and submit it. Then they check it through and make sure it all works. They approve it and send you the link where you download the app on to your device. The downside is the menu of choices for what you can put in the app is rather limited, but they are adding more.

If you want the app available in the Google Play store, you pay a one time fee of $25 and you can make your app available for the masses. Otherwise, you can send the link to those you know who want the app.

So, you know...if you want a Blog, She Wrote (or the Miss Bliss) app just let me know!

What do We Do with our School Computers?

A question about what older kids do on your computer was posted at the Five in a Row Forums the other day and well I thought I'd share with my readers how we use the school computers at our house. We have an older computer that runs the older games, but it doesn't run some of the even older games I desperately want to run! Dan says he might be able to work that out, but no success yet. We have some fun DK geography games that we can't play yet.

Games:

• Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?
• Oregon Trail
• Liberty Kids
• Arthur (K and 2nd grade)
  
• LEGO Fever
• Adventure Africa
• Jumpstart Toddler
• Reader Rabbit Toddler- both of these toddler games are great at teaching mouse skills. All of our kids learned on these.
• 
  

My kids also do programming using the drag and drop method using: (the last two are upgrades we have not tried yet, but E10 will be moving up to Alice this summer)

• Scratch- free and a great tool to teach programming skills. My kids have made games. See a screen shot of one of E10's games here.
• Alice- teaches programming
• Phrogram- this one is downloadable for a fee

We also use God's World News and other news outlets and sites for kids. My husband and I read the Washington Post and CNN each morning and we will forward things we want the kids to read to our school computer email. the kids have their own email that we don't give out but they use on occasion.

Here are a few:

• Daily critical thinking puzzles
• US Mint website
• Time for Kids
• LEGO
• Hokie Sports
• ESPN
• wiki and google are popular research tools and our filter works like a charm. I am in the room or nearby when I send them to look something up

We have them type in their stories and use Open Office for graphing and other school work as well. Here's an example from a popcorn experiment. Here's another from an experiment the kids made up one today.

I also just started the touch typing program from the BBC called Dance Mat Typing. There is a great debate at our house over the value of learning touch typing. Since I'm in the daily teacher's seat, the kids will learn proper technique. Dan never learned it and I admit that he is fast, but I think the kids will have an easier time learning the keyboard if they just start with home keys. We'll see how it goes. Dan predicts E10 will not learn it. I contend it is one of the best things my mom insisted on when I was young. I hope to get them ample time on this program this summer.

We also use the computer for teleconferencing with their grandparents. My oldest plays chess with his grandfather while "seeing" him at the same time.

I think that's about it. Oh and as for computer time...they have computer days on M, Tu, Th. The other days are playstation days. However, they can choose to do computer instead of playstation on a PS2 day. That is generally free time only. What I assign them doesn't count toward their free screen time.

How do you use your computer in your homeschool?