“Here's a fun exploration for kids 8-12 years old: making a Web page.
In this e-book, Computer Lady Phyllis Wheeler takes your child by the hand and shows him how!
And you can do it too!”
Trying out this product was a lot of fun. Tink and I actually created a web page about horses using a free trial of Coffe Cup HTML Editor software.
When I originally received the email that I’d been selected for this review, I was very hesitant. In fact, I put off this review as long as possible and was even going to hand it off to my teen to let her handle it on her own, until I realized she was a bit too old for the prescribed age range. Tink fit smack dab in the middle of it at 10. Not that Ninja wouldn’t have enjoyed it, if she’d gotten down to it and tried it instead of calling her friends, I’m sure she would’ve made a fantastic website, in fact I think I may offer her another chance to do one since we still have some time left with our free software. I’m sure I know what it’ll be about: Skillet. Her latest obsession. I do have to say in her defense that there was some pretty serious stuff going on with her youth group at the time, so if you think about it, pray for her (and the rest of her youth group) okay?
Anyway, I thought this e-book was going to be difficult to try out. I had never been a big fan of e-books to begin with before joining The Crew. I was sure making a web page was going to prove to be a royal pain and very confusing but the e-book explained every step thoroughly and clearly. Even my sweet right-brained Tink understood it all. I think she even explained a thing or two to me.
The e-book takes you step-by-step and teaches you exactly what to do using images of every button and menu you have to click on... ahem, I hope I’m using the right terms. I realize I’m getting older but I feel so computer illiterate for my age.lol. I’m not that great at this, so I’d better let Phyllis, the owner of Motherboard Books, explain this bit:
“Here's what's in Let's Make a Web Page:
Table of Contents
Introduction for Parents ..............................................4
Lesson 1: An Interview................................................ 5
Lesson 2: Download and Set Up the Program ............6
Lesson 3: Add Text ...................................................17
Lesson 4: Make a Table ...........................................22
Lesson 5: Add Photo ................................................27
Lesson 6: From the Internet, Add Animations ...........32
Lesson 7: Browser Check, Backgrounds, Photos .....38
Lesson 8: Sound ......................................................46
Lesson 9: Links ........................................................50
Lesson 10: Post Your Work ......................................54
Appendix: How to Upload to the Internet ...................59
You will download a free trial version of CoffeeCup HTML Editor, a user-friendly piece of software for making Web pages, compatible with Windows Vista. Your child will write an interview and make a Web page for it, including a photo and animations collected from the Internet. He will add a sound and some links. Finally, he will make his creation the "home page" for the browser on your family computer. There are also instructions for the parent on Internet safety and on how to upload to the Internet.”
It couldn’t have been more simple. I’ll have to re-read the section on how to upload Tink’s page to the internet since we had a lot going on and lots of interruptions when we were finishing it up, but Tink is so proud of her little horse page. She called in her big sister and her daddy to show them what she’d done. She even hugged me and thanked me for letting her make the page.
The cost for the e-book is normally $29.99 but right now it’s at an introductory price of $19.99. Motherboard Books also offers other computer science curriculum at their site.
This is not something that is too difficult as Tink and I found out for ourselves. In fact it was quite a lot of fun.
This is my family's journey through homeschooling, using My Father's World curriculum. We've done some reviewing curriculum for TOS Homeschool Crew so there are several product reviews. We're now back on track and diving into MFW once again.
My children are
Ninja- 16: teenage black belt extrordinaire. She's using MFW's Ancient History and LIterature;
Tink- 11: sweet girl schooling with ADHD symptoms and dysgraphia (?). She's just started Sonlight Core 3+4
The Dude-5: handsome little man with language delays/probably on the autism spectrum. He's no longer in preschool for speech therapy and special ed. Now using MFW K; and
Baby Princess- 2: beautiful busy baby girl. Tagging along with The Dude and whatever else I think might interest her.
