Homeschooling with Technology

394: Six Fun YouTube Shows for Homeschool Geography

Bring geography into your homeschool with six free YouTube shows that make learning about the world entertaining. Meryl  shares favorites she watches, including several she uses in her high school World Geography class.

Shows mentioned

393: Canva Learn Grid: A New Free Resource for Homeschooling

Looking for free, ready-to-use educational resources for your homeschool? Canva Learn Grid offers worksheets, presentations, infographics, and interactive activities that can save you time and make learning more engaging.

What You’ll Learn

How to access Canva Learn Grid and search for ready-to-use educational resources.

How to filter resources by subject, grade level, and location, including US state standards and other countries.

Worksheets and digital activities that students can complete as part of their lessons.

Presentations an...

392: Tips for Completing the FAFSA: What Parents Need to Know

Completing the FAFSA can feel intimidating, but the process has become much simpler than it used to be. In this episode, Meryl talks with Robert Farrington, founder of The College Investor, about what families need to know when completing the FAFSA.

Robert explains why almost every college-bound student should complete the FAFSA—even families who assume they won’t qualify for federal aid. The FAFSA can also be required for state aid, college scholarships, and other financial aid opportunities.

Robert also shar...

Meryl has been tracking what technology does to a homeschool since before most of us were paying attention. That is why she gets this question.

For the network’s thirteenth birthday, every host answers one real question from a homeschool parent. Here is hers.

Her question: “Your teenager is using AI to do their schoolwork, and you have no idea whether to ban it or teach it.”

Her answer is the analogy that makes it click: adults use AI like an intern — a junior one, whose work you check. Teens do...

391: Cool History Games

Meryl shares a free website that makes practicing history quick and fun: Cool History Games.

The site includes several daily history games that work well as a short family activity, a homeschool warm-up, or a transition between subjects. Everything can be played directly in the browser, with no login required.

Meryl highlights five daily games:

390: How Homeschool Families Can Use Airtable

Have you heard of Airtable but aren’t quite sure what it is—or why a homeschool family might want to use it?

In this episode, Gina Steffy from the Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network explains how Airtable can help homeschool families organize information, keep records, and create searchable collections of resources.

Gina explains that Airtable is essentially a database with a user-friendly interface. Unlike a traditional spreadsheet, it allows you to organize the same information in different ways, attach files and images, create forms, filter reco...

389: Best College Application Resources for Homeschoolers

College applications can feel overwhelming, especially once senior year arrives. In this episode, I share several useful websites that can help homeschool families choose colleges, understand the application process, work through essays and recommendations, and make sense of what happens after applications are submitted.

These resources are useful for seniors, but many are worth exploring much earlier. Starting in middle or early high school gives students more time to think about what they want in a college and helps reduce stress later.

Resources mentioned in...

388: Alternatives to Google search with Jo Ebisujima

Google Search has changed significantly with the addition of AI-generated summaries at the top of search results. For students especially, this can make it tempting to accept an AI-generated answer without ever visiting the original source or checking whether the information is accurate.

In this episode, I talk with veteran homeschooler and educator, Jo Ebisujima, about alternatives to Google Search and why homeschoolers should teach their children to think more carefully about how they search for information online.

Jo shares a variety of search...

386: How to prepare teens for their first social media accounts

Giving a teen their first social media account can feel a little like handing them the keys to a car. We wouldn’t expect a brand-new driver to figure everything out without preparation, and social media deserves the same kind of intentional teaching.

In this episode, I’m joined by Stephanie Simoes of Critikid for a conversation about what teens need to understand before they start using social media.

We discuss six important areas parents should consider:

385:  Is AI Helping Your Teen Learn—or Doing the Learning for Them?

AI can be an incredibly useful learning tool for teens—but only when they use it in ways that support their own thinking and skill development.

In this episode, I share a framework parents can use to help teens decide when AI is appropriate for schoolwork. The key question teens need to ask is: Will using AI help me learn something, or will it help me avoid learning it?

We look at situations where teens should not use AI...

384: A Student’s Perspective on Essential Tech Skills for High School

In this episode, Meryl talks with high school senior Ada Anderson about the technology skills she has found most useful throughout her high school years.Ada shares the tools she uses regularly for school, scholarships, personal projects, and staying organized. She also talks about some of the tech skills students are often expected to know even though no one has actually taught them how to use them well.

In this episode, we discuss:

383: AI Through a Teen’s Eyes with Sofia Alvarez de la Hoz

In this episode, Meryl talks with Sophia Alvarez de la Hoz, a former student in Meryl’s AI for Teens class. Sophia shares what she knew about AI before taking the course, what surprised her, and how her understanding changed as she learned about topics such as large language models, AI ethics, red teaming, and responsible use.

Sophia also explains how she currently uses AI tools for schoolwork and personal projects. She discusses using NotebookLM to study and an AI i...

382: Summer Tech Challenge 9 – Build a Website

Creating a website may sound intimidating, but today’s free tools make it surprisingly simple. This challenge gives you and your children a low-pressure opportunity to experiment with website design and discover how useful this skill can be.

Why should teens learn to build websites?

A simple website can be useful for:

381: Summer Tech Challenge 8: Create a Video Recommendation

Video creation is becoming an essential skill for today’s students. In this episode, homeschool families are challenged to create a short recommendation video using Canva. Whether you’ve never edited a video before or you’re ready to build your skills, this challenge provides a simple way to get started while creating something useful to share with others.

Students / parents can recommend anything they enjoyed this summer—from books and games to museums, podcasts, travel destinations, or homeschool resources.

In this episode

380: Summer Tech Challenge 7: Create a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Story

In this week’s Summer Tech Challenge, learn how to turn Google Slides into an interactive choose-your-own-adventure story. This activity combines creativity, planning, writing, and technology while giving students a fun way to present what they’ve learned.

In this episode

379: Summer Tech Challenge 6: Create a Custom Map

Did you know you can create your own interactive Google map?

In this episode, you will learn about Google My Maps, a free Google tool that allows you to create personalized maps with locations, notes, photos, videos, colors, layers, and routes. Whether you’re planning a family vacation, documenting your travels, or creating a homeschool project, custom maps are a fun and practical way to organize information visually.

As part of the Summer Tech Challenge series, this week’s challenge is to create a Goog...

378: Summer Tech Challenge #5 – Design Your Summer with Padlet

Summer is the perfect time to experiment with new technology without the pressure of a full school schedule. In this fifth installment of the Summer Tech Challenge, Meryl introduces one of her favorite educational tools: Padlet.

Whether you want to plan summer adventures, organize projects, create a travel journal, or build a digital portfolio, Padlet offers an easy and flexible way to collect ideas, photos, videos, documents, and more in one place.

This week’s challenge is simple: create a Padlet and discover how...

377:  Summer Tech Challenge 4: Create a Summer Tracker with Google Sheets

In the fourth installment of the Summer Tech Challenge, Meryl encourages homeschool parents and teens to explore one of the most useful productivity tools available: Google Sheets.

Many students today have limited experience with spreadsheets, yet they are an invaluable tool for organizing information, tracking data, budgeting, planning projects, and creating charts. In this episode, Meryl challenges listeners to learn the basics of Google Sheets and then use it to track something meaningful during the summer.

Whether you’re completely new to...

376: Summer Tech Challenge 3: Explore Google Arts and Culture

This week’s challenge is simple: explore Google Arts & Culture and discover something new.

Whether you enjoy art, history, geography, museums, or interactive games, Google Arts & Culture offers countless opportunities for learning and exploration. From virtual museum tours to historical exhibits, famous artworks, cultural landmarks, and educational games, there is something for every age and interest.

In This Episode

375: Summer Tech Challenge  #2 – Create a Trivia Game

This week’s summer challenge is to create a trivia game. Students can choose any topic, educational or just for fun, and create a quiz with 10–20 questions. The quiz should use multiple choice, matching, or another format where players select answers on-screen. Episode 83 covers some tools not mentioned in this episode.

Creating quizzes helps students review material in an active way while also building tech skills. Students can make quizzes for friends, siblings, or family members, or families can create one together.

Suggested Tools

374: Summer Tech Challenge #1: AI Trip Planning

This summer, Homeschooling with Technology is launching a fun nine-week Summer Tech Challenge designed to help homeschool families explore technology together. Each Wednesday in June and July, you’ll receive a short challenge focused on building practical tech skills through hands-on activities.

The first challenge explores AI-powered trip planning. Families will use multiple AI tools to create and compare travel itineraries while developing research, critical thinking, evaluation, geography, and digital literacy skills.

The Challenge

Step 1: Choose a Trip Theme

Se...

373: Game-based Learning with Boddle

In this episode, Meryl interviews sixth-grader Penny Laine Buschle about her experience using Boddle Learning, a free game-based learning platform for students in Kindergarten through sixth grade.

Rather than reviewing the platform only from an adult perspective, Meryl invited Penny Laine to spend time actually playing and learning inside Boddle so listeners could hear directly from a student using it.

Topics covered in this episode include:

372: 4 Digital Tasks Before Summer Break: Homeschool Digital Organization Tips

Before summer break begins, take time to organize the digital side of your homeschool life. In this episode, Meryl shares four important homeschool digital organization tasks that can save time, reduce stress, and help you keep better records for high school, college applications, and family memories. Learn how to track activities and volunteer hours, organize student work, digitize physical projects, and create shared summer calendars that keep the whole family coordinated.

Topics Covered

1. Create a Master Activities Spreadsheet

Keep track...

371: Turning Summer Walks Into Learning Experiences

In this episode, Meryl shares how educational summer walks can become meaningful learning experiences for homeschoolers using simple apps and technology tools.

1. Identify Birds with Merlin Bird ID

Meryl discusses using Merlin Bird ID from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology to identify birds while walking. The app can identify birds both by appearance and by sound.

Topics discussed:

370: Teaching Tech Skills Through Family Travel

Have you ever thought about turning family travel into a tech skills classroom? In this episode, Meryl shares practical ways to assign your teens real planning tasks before and during a trip — tasks that build digital literacy alongside life skills.

Ideas covered in this episode:

1. Pitch the Vacation Have each child research a destination and pitch it to the family using a slideshow (Canva, Google Slides). Slides should be visual, not text-heavy — they present, not read.

2. Research Activities with AI Have kids search with...

This is a rerun of episode 277 – you can find the original show notes here.

The post Replay: Finding and Using Online Classes for Homeschooling Effectively appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

369: Ways Grandparents and Kids Can Connect Online

Staying connected across the miles doesn’t have to mean just phone calls. In this episode, Meryl shares five practical ways grandchildren and grandparents can build real relationships digitally — with the bonus that several of these also sneak in genuine learning.

1. Reading together over video

2. Shared digital board

368: AI Tips You Can Use This Week

In this episode, Meryl shares a practical mix of AI tips you can implement right away.

What’s covered:

1. Ask Maps (Google Maps) Google Maps has a new AI feature called Ask Maps, currently rolling out. Instead of browsing categories, you can ask specific questions — gluten-free fast food nearby, a park within five minutes of a highway exit, a restaurant halfway between you and a friend. It understands your direction of travel and filters results accordingly.

2. Prompting — Where to Start If you’re new t...

367: Exploring Space: Interactive Tools for Your Homeschool

The Artemis 2 mission has four astronauts circling the moon right now, and it’s a perfect time to bring space exploration into your homeschool. In this episode, learn about free (and nearly free) tools organized into four categories: learn and explore, games and interactives, simulations, and citizen science.

Track the Artemis Mission (timely links)

Learn & Explore

366:  Teaching Geopolitics and World Affairs to Teens

Teaching teens about geopolitics and world affairs can feel intimidating—but it doesn’t have to be. In this episode of Homeschooling with Technology, Meryl van der Merwe shares practical tools and creative ideas for helping homeschool students understand current events, global conflict, geography, and media literacy in ways that feel engaging and age-appropriate. If you’ve ever wondered how to teach world affairs in your homeschool high school, this episode is a great place to start.

Understanding what’s happening in the world is a life skil...

365: Padlet Arcade for Learning Fun

New Here?

If you love practical homeschool tech ideas, start here:

In this episode, Meryl explores Padlet Arcade — a game-based learning branch of the popular Padlet platform. She walks through the types of games available, how to find existing games by subject and grade level, and how to quickly create your own AI-generated review games using a topic, a webpage link, a YouTube video, or your own...

364: What’s New in NotebookLM

NotebookLM has graduated from Google Labs beta into a fully featured, standalone tool — and it has grown dramatically. In this episode, Meryl walks through all nine features currently available in the Studio panel, explaining how homeschool parents can use them to save time and how students can use them to study more effectively.

What Is NotebookLM?

NotebookLM is a free AI tool from Google that works differently from chatbots like ChatGPT or Claude:

363: Gems – Your Custom Homeschool Co-Teacher

Google’s Gemini platform now includes a powerful feature called Gems. In this episode, we explore how Gems allow you to create customized AI assistants that can help with homeschooling tasks again and again without rewriting prompts each time.

Meryl explains what Gems are, how they compare to custom GPTs in ChatGPT, and how homeschool parents can use them to create interactive lessons, quizzes, games, and study guides.

She also shares an example she created — an interactive Oregon Trail adventure built using primary...

362: Avoiding tech burnout  with Melissa Muir

In this episode, Meryl is joined by Melissa Muir from Think Curio to discuss an important topic for homeschool families: avoiding tech burnout.

While both Meryl and Melissa love educational technology and use it extensively in their teaching, they recognize the need for balance. With recent studies showing that adults, teens, and even younger children are spending significant hours each day on screens, it is crucial to be intentional about how technology fits into homeschool life.

In This Episode We Discuss:

1. M...

361: Homeschooling with Gemini

In this episode, we look at how homeschoolers can use Gemini and why it’s worth adding to your tech toolkit — even if you already use ChatGPT.

Organization & Workflow

“My Stuff” dashboard to quickly access everything you’ve created

Model options (Fast, Thinking, Pro) depending on the depth of response you need

Export directly to Google Docs, Sheets, or Gmail to save time and avoid formatting issues

Accuracy & Accessibility

Double-check response tool to verify factual information

Listen fea...

360: Free Tech Tools Through Your Library

In this episode of Homeschooling with Technology, Meryl interviews Melissa Brander from Pocket Homeschool about the many free technology resources available through your local library.

Most homeschool families think of the library as a place for books. But today’s libraries offer far more — including digital tools, streaming platforms, language programs, research databases, maker spaces, and even technology devices you can borrow.

Melissa shares practical ideas and specific tools to help homeschool families take full advantage of what libraries are already offering — often completely free.

359:  How to Make Beautiful Presentations

Presentations are a skill students will use again and again—in middle school, high school, college, and eventually the workplace. In this episode, learn about tech tools that can help homeschoolers (and parents!) create attractive, effective presentations without needing advanced design skills.

Tools Covered in This Episode

1. Google Slides
A familiar starting point for many students. Google Slides now offers much stronger templates than it did in the past. And  SlidesAI is an add-on that uses AI to speed up the process of slide creation.

358: 5 Free Homeschool Resources That Still Hold Up in 2026 with Melissa Muir

Melissa is a longtime homeschool mom of four, a licensed teacher, and the founder of Curio. She shares five free homeschool resources her family still uses regularly today—resources that have stood the test of time and continue to work well for real homeschool families.

These aren’t just quick links. Melissa explains how her family actually uses each tool, from self-paced science lessons to gap-filling math, audiobooks for reluctant readers, gamified learning for younger kids, and leveled current events for middle and...

357: Winter Olympics Resources for Your Homeschool

The Winter Olympics are almost here, and if your family will be watching, why not turn that excitement into meaningful learning? In this episode, I share a collection of fun, engaging, and mostly free Winter Olympics resources you can use with elementary through high school students—before and during the Games.

These resources cover history, geography, science, music, critical thinking, and more, with very little prep required.

Resources Mentioned

Official Olympics Website – Milano Cortina 2026
Explore schedules, events, host locations, and track the Olym...