It’s been a fun year so far turning our vision of encouraging homeschoolers into the reality of a company.  Homeskoolie has been so well received at the conferences that we’ve attended and as we’ve worked to ramp up our on-line presence.  The support of you, the homeschool community, has been so rewarding for us and has been the fuel that has continued to move us forward.  Thank you so much!

As we’ve mentioned in our various postings and info pages on-line, our company is driven by the desire and passion to support and encourage the homeschool community through building identity, creating community, raising awareness and changing culture.  As those of you who have been following us this year know, we’re building our brand through our t-shirt designs and Homeskoolie stickers, but we’ve got lots of plans that we hope to make a reality as growth, resources and time allow.

A couple months ago, we started floating an idea to our followers (locally, on Facebook and on Twitter) about interest in developing a technology curriculum teaching homeschoolers how to create websites.  The initial feedback that we received was really positive and it seems that there’s both the desire to learn and the need for trusted resources for homeschoolers who are technologically inclined.

This is a natural fit since Jeff and I have been building websites and database applications for a number of years and have learned a lot about what to do and what not to do!  Since the internet and websites are not only a thing of interest for technologically minded children but also the way of the future in terms of business, media and social interaction, we believe that educating homeschool students to harness the power of technology will help them develop a valuable skill set that can help them in many ways throughout their future.

But we also feel that when it comes to all things technology, that teaching technical skills should be coupled with teaching prudence and purpose.  The internet is an amazing thing but can also be dangerous and as homeschool dads ourselves, we’re keenly aware of the importance of balancing technology skills with discernment.  Just letting our children wander the web looking for resources to learn how to do things is an invitation for all sorts of problems.

So as we work to complete our first official Homeskoolie Tech course to be available in e-book form early 2012, we are emphasizing practical website building skills that make use of the latest tools available.  However, what makes this a little different is that we’re not just teaching how to create a website, but we’re diving deep into the why and how of creating websites.  We’re using the same tools that we use and showing where to get them and specifically how to use them (we don’t want our children wandering the internet to find a text editor or FTP client and ending up somewhere they shouldn’t be!).

We’re also discussing form and design as well as how websites are used for e-commerce.  Maybe you’re not interested in websites for business and just want to learn how to build a family blog.  That’s fine, of course, but the basic skills that you will learn in this course will enable you to create not only websites to, say, showcase your photography hobby or talk about caring for horses but that can ultimately be turned into family businesses.  Whether you have a budding entrepreneur in the family or simply want a safe alternative to teaching tech skills for the future, we believe that you will find this course to be just right.

We’re putting the final touches on our course and would love your thoughts and feedback as we get ready for our product launch.  Keep tabs on our progress here on our blog, sign up for our newsletter, or like us on Facebook.  And feel free to post a comment or question here!