Computer science course(s)

[warp10]

I'm looking for some good online sources to use for teaching our kids (dd-11, ds-14, ds-15). Usually my wife posts on here, but I'm the geek who loves computers and what a fantastic learning tool they are. Of course, I could quite happily get lost in a rabbit-warren of related subjects, and will obviously dig deeper at High school level. (Maybe some of my objectives below need to be moved to high-school level?) I would love any inputs of what other homeschooling parents have found works for them and their growing kids. Here's some things I'd be looking for in a middle-school computers course:

• Project based where there are outcomes that assess how well child has learned that week's lessons, but lets the child's creative juices flow
• There are lots of coding resources out there - I think Scratch has some good resources in this regard, especially given my intent to focus on creativity.
• Really need to develop other ways we use the computer as a tool including:
  • Parts of a computer system (Storage, memory, processor, peripherals)
  • Operating System, File Management
  • Internet, staying safe online
  • Multimedia editing - what creative doesn't want to get lost editing photos, video and audio?
  • MS Word or similar - I use these for reports and user manuals, but would appreciate some ideas for creative projects that leverage Word processing skills
  • MS Excel or similar
    • for organizing data (Yes, I know it's not a database!)
    • "cheating" at math homework with those fantastic formulas!
    • Using charts to convey numerical relationships, trends
  • (I think database-y things like Access is best held off for a later level)
  • Crafty stuff - either with help of a printer or services like Shutterfly
• Real-life application exercises and example, even they are somewhat simplified

 

There are a lot of resources, but I'm hoping to stitch stuff together into a relatively cohesive course and get the kids excited about what they can do. I'd appreciate whatever you can offer, free or otherwise.

-- dh to Paradox5

[Miss Tick]

We have done a few of these things in an ad hoc fashion over the years. 

All papers are written in Word. 

I would think Excel could be incorporated into the appropriate math lessons. Also demonstrate asking Google "how do I..." questions. Fire a while I had everyone track their personal expenditures. I never did anything with it (sigh) but I had envisioned plotting it and potentially changing allowance structure based on that. This was a low-maintenance, long-term project for sure.

My dd has been using Gimp to edit photos and decide if she needs Photoshop. So far it has been enough.

NetSmartz org put together the Cyber safety program that BSA uses. It looks like anyone can use the tools.

Some of the other things have been learned organically, " mom, why can't I download this game?" and "why is this so slow!" 😀

If you want more electronics work I recommend the projects from EEME(dot)co (not coM) my 9yo did many of those without my input (stop helping, mom.)

Good luck! Sounds fun! It would be cool if you came back at some point and reviewed what you end up using.

[daijobu]

We stopped using Microsoft products, and switched to Google's cloud services for spreadsheets, documents, and slides.  

For spreadsheets, we used data that was readily available and somewhat interesting.  For example, when they returned home after trick or treating, I had them enter the numbers of each type of candy and taught them how to create a chart.  Once you teach them how to calculate the sum of something (=sum(a1:a20) ), then point out the other myriad formulas and how you can see what the arguments are and in what order.   After that, my lesson was, if you don't know how to do something, google it.  Or use their internal help option to figure out how to use their formulas.  

They used google docs for writing their papers, stories, and other fun stuff.  Google Slides came up when they needed to prepare a presentation for Technovation.  

In short, we mostly unschooled the basic software applications, introducing them as they were needed.   

[Momto6inIN]

Scratch and Code Monster are fun sites for coding and creativity! We also have them create their own websites and learn some html,  mostly just by googling and playing around with it. Starting in 6th grade (after keyboardong/typing skills are in place) all history and composition assignments are in Word. Science projects' data analysis are done in Excel. They do a couple power points per year in middle school. Mostly they just figure it all out by playing around with it ... they get more out of it faster and more intuitively than if I tried to be formal about teaching it, I think.

[Lisa in the UP of MI]

Not a curriculum, but my kids have learned a lot of programming by using project books.  We own a few coding books and borrow others from the library.  Our 9yo is very interested in Raspberry Pi and Arduino.  We bought a few kits from Amazon with lots of parts for him to use.  Sometimes he completes projects exactly as the books say and other times he changes things to do something else that he is interested in.  DH is a software engineer, so he can answer whatever questions they have.