Sophia sews, crochets, and writes novels.
Jonathan and Sophia working on vocabulary.
David creates clever comics and games.
Jonathan’s maze artwork masterpieces.
These steps will help you build a
good plan with your family:
1. Have your children create a list of dreams
and passions
•
What am I passionate about?
• What makes me happy?
•
What are unique skills and talents I have that
I love to do?
2. Dig deep and discuss each passion
• Why is this passion worth pursuing?
• How can I develop this passion?
• What do I need to learn to see this
passion grow?
3. Support transformational learning
• Discover mentors who stretch your children
• Use resources that spark “AHA” moments
• Provide plenty of time for skill building and
exploration of new skills
4. Encourage an entrepreneurial spirit
• Consider how your talents, your passions
can be shared with others and positively
transform others
• Develop a plan to implement entrepreneurship
5. Review and reflect on transformational
learning with these questions
• What happened? (concepts, activities)
• What did you learn? (the”AHA” moment)
• How did you feel about what you learned?
• What are your next steps?
Helpful resources:
• The Clifton Strengths Assessment —helped us
gain a better understanding of each child.
• Homeschooling Through High School seminar
• Google Scholar, for research on various topics
• The Planner Pad —undated spiral-bound
organizers are great for project management.
• Mentorships with teachers who have expertise
in a particular field of study.
• David recommends Do Ink Animation (favorite
animation app) and iFontMaker (favorite font
creating app.)
• Sophia recommends the books Stitch by Stitch
and Made by Me by Jane Bull, and Super Easy
Amigurumi by Mitsuki Hoshi.
COMBATING COVID-19 Homeschooling
Pappas family
48 make.co
I chose to officially start my homeschooling
career in 10th grade. My parents have been an
amazing support, and I am grateful every day that
they blessed me with this opportunity. Looking
back at these last three years, it has been the
best decision we have ever made.
Thanks to our mentor Mrs. E, doctorate in
education, I’ve gathered the following helpful
notes for other students trying to get started with
homeschooling and moving into adulthood:
ENCOURAGEMENT FOR BEGINNERS
What are you interested in? What are you good at?
What do you love to do? What do people recognize
you for? You may think that since you are young,
you are less important. This is furthest from
the truth. Now is your time to shine and make a
difference: Not after college or retirement. This
is your most active time in your life. You have the
most drive to do things from ages 16–24.
VISION CASTING
Where do you want to be in 5 years? 10 years?
20 years? 70 years? What do you want to be
known for? When you are old, and think about
what you did in your life, what will you be proud
of? Plan a vision for your life, be organized and
well thought out.
POSTLECTURE COMMENTARIES
Sometimes, you might be in a lecture
environment. How do I make it stick and not lose
it? Take notes in class, and afterwards (within 24
hours) write a commentary. Take no more than 5
minutes to answer these questions:
• What happened?
• What did I learn?
• How do I think/feel about it?
• What of it? (Why was it useful?)
• Commentaries turn lectures into experiential
learning.
A fewadditional personal insights:
Getting stuff done
Let’s say you have something you need to get
done that isn’t particularly interesting to you.
Homework, an essay, a house chore, anything.
Want to know a secret method to be your most
efficient? Try the Pomodoro method (“tomato” in
Italian). Set a random timer for yourself between
16–20 minutes (the time must be random). Then,
work as hard as you can until the timer goes off.
Breath: 5 beats in, 6 beats hold, 7 beats out. Take
a break for five minutes. Go outside. Relax. Start
again, if you like. That’s it! Do as many as you
want in a day.
Get enough sleep
Your mind needs sleep. Sleeping heals your body.
Sleeping before midnight also turns short term
memory into long term memory. If you don’t
get 8–10 hours of sleep, the things you learned
yesterday may be forgotten.
300 good decisions
Your earliest hours in the day are most efficient
for your brain. As soon as you wake up, your brain
has about 300 quality decisions before you are
maxed out and put into autopilot (~noon)
Your early hours are for learning tough things.
This is the best time of day to grasp difficult
concepts. Your afternoon hours are for making.
This is when your creative brain gets going.
Don’t make tough decisions at night. Tough
decision + over-tired = sleep on it.
Relax
Make a day for yourself where you aren’t working
or doing school. Relax, enjoy life, go outside,
exercise, play a game, read a good book. Taking
a break is a good thing and will make you even
more efficient.
Some personal favorites:
• Programming teacher: Bob the Developer
bobthedeveloper.io
• Math teacher: funmathclub.com
• History, Literature, and Rhetoric teacher:
balm.pathwright.com
Recommended books to kickstart
your homeschooling adventure:
• The Romance of Education by Robert Welch
• How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler
• The Great Books, compiled by Mortimer Adler
• Word Clues: The Vocabulary Builder by
Amsel Greene
• Oxford English Dictionary
Jonathan Pappas, high school senior:
49
makeprojects.com
COMBATING COVID-19 Webcasting Tools
Community
Broadcast Services
MIKE SENESE is the
executive editor of Make:.
He’s hosted TV series on
Discovery and Science Channel.
50 make.co
Watch and create your own virtual classes
and webinars with these tech tools
Written and photographed by Mike Senese
W
e’re all homeschooling now, but that
doesn’t mean we’re stuck to a one-room
prairie schoolhouse —we’ve got powerful
technology tools at our disposal that let us
partake in everything from live-streamed local
classes to global webinars. These even make
it easy to set up our own broadcasts so we can
teach others, or just host a virtual show-and-tell
or happy hour with friends and family. And we
can even pull in multiple cameras using our
existing smartphones.
We’ve used a number of these apps at Make:.
Here are our notes on what to check out.
Video Conferencing / Webinars
GOOGLE HANGOUTS (hangouts.google.com)
Launched in 2013; became a common tool for
group video conferencing over the next few years.
Still very frequently used, but appears to be
dipping in popularity.
• Features: You probably have a Google account
already, so likely don’t have to sign up for it.
• Hangups: Works best for smaller groups. No
webinar option or call recording options. No
“see everyone” gridded view.
ZOOM (zoom.us) —Because of Covid-19, large
numbers of schools have moved their classes
to this platform, pushing it to become the 6th
most popular site in the U.S. It’s a pretty easy
system for doing video conference calls, and paid
versions allow for 100–10,000 attendee webinars.
Despite its popularity (or perhaps because of it),
many people regularly point out ongoing security
and privacy issues.
• Features: Video recording capability makes
it easy to share conversations after they’ve
concluded. Offers gridded “gallery” view. Decent
host moderation tools. The virtual backgrounds
are silly fun, but can be used effectively.
• Hangups: Requires sign-in. Free accounts
capped at 40-minute meet time, with a 100
user limit (1,000 for business accounts).
Webinar accounts require a separate monthly
subscription (costing $40–$6,490/month,
Adove Stock - Boyko.Pictures
Make: edit team in our weekly Google Hangout.
Zoom virtual backgrounds can be entertaining.
CodeJoy uses Zoom to set up their
Maker Camp e-learning broadcasts.
51
makeprojects.com
depending on how many attendees you’ll allow).
Ongoing struggles with privacy concerns and
violations. Also, be careful of unwanted guests
“Zoom bombing” you.
• Tips: When in a conference or class, set yourself
to mute, then hold down the spacebar whenever
you want to speak. If you have a second camera,
you can quickly switch between them with a
keyboard shortcut.
JITSI MEET (jitsi.org) — An open-source Zoom
alternative that’s quickly growing in popularity.
We’ve had some success with it but have also
found periodic failures, with guests unable to
sign in. Still, a good one to play with. Check their
github for even more options: github.com/jitsi
• Features: No registration needed; guests
can simply join the meeting with a link. No
time limit on calls. Open aspect means you
could theoretically configure this for your
specific needs.
COMBATING COVID-19 Webcasting Tools
EpocCam lets you use a smartphone as a second webcam.
YouTube Live is an easy platform for webinar broadcasts.
Jitsi on the monitor and EpocCam’d phone on
selfie-stick overhead boom.
52 make.co
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