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Essential Computer Skills, a home school curriculum
An Educational Resource for Home Schools

Life today requires basic computer skills.

In 2001 about 40% of ALL workers used word processing, email, the Internet, or desktop publishing on the job. Over 35% used spreadsheets or databases. That number has most certainly gone up by now, with industries as diverse as fast food and state wildlife departments making extensive use of computers. Today more than 1 in 3 consumers shops and reads news online. The use of computers is not going away anytime soon.


Do your children have these skills?

When it comes to learning computer skills, how does the homeschooling parent (or child) choose where to begin? In the sea of computer-related subjects, which ones should a child learn? What computer knowledge is in some way essential for our children to possess? This curriculum has been created with these questions in mind.

My career has been in the Information Technology area, both in the business world and in the scientific arena. I have a good idea of the essential computer skills that children need to learn. My goal is to provide a series of workbooks which will cover these essentials for the homeschool family.


Planned Books in the Essential Computer Skills Curriculum
Book Title/Subject Estimated Availability
Essential Office Applications (2 books) NOW! (View sample lessons below!)
Essential PC Knowledge 2010
Essential Web Site Development 2010


Essential Office Applications

These 2 workbooks present enough work for a semester of High School - 18 lessons over 18 weeks. The material provides a solid foundation in the skills of word processing, spreadsheets, and presentation software. Creating these types of documents is one of the most basic uses of computers today, and I am amazed at how many people don't understand most of what these applications can do. These books will arm your child with more knowledge than many employees have!


What our customers are saying!

"This curriculum was a perfect fit for our high school computer class... it increased their efficiency and confidence in the use of word processors, spreadsheets, and creating presentations. We plan to use it for years to come." (Homeschool Co-Op Director)

"This curriculum has helpful information in easily understood step-by-step instructions. I really enjoyed this class. It's so much fun to do things in Microsoft now that I know how." (14 Year Old Student)

"This is exactly what I have been searching for. Thanks for an excellent product and I look forward to the next one." (Homeschool Mom)

"Very informative helpful information. I like how you showed the person how to do it for their computer program. The class really helps if you need to find your way around a computer." (10 Year Old Student)


Book1: Ages 10+. 130 pages, 10 lessons, student exercises, quizzes, and final exam.
Book2: Ages 13+. 158 pages, 8 lessons, student exercises, quizzes, and final exam.

These lessons are based on the FREE OpenOffice.org application, which is very similar to Microsoft Office. If you use Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) the features taught will be available there as well, and the curriculum points out any differences in the Microsoft Office applications. (Also includes notes to support MS Office 2007 users.)

Read more about OpenOffice.org and other cool programs that are FREE.


Download sample lessons here!!!

Book 1: Introduction, Table of Contents, Lesson 1: Document Basics EOA1_L1.pdf (353KB)
Book 1: part of Lesson 6: Spreadsheet Basics EOA1_L6.pdf (251KB)
Book 2: Table of Contents EOA2_TOC.pdf (55KB).

Ordering Information
Click here to order!



Essential PC Knowledge

This book will introduce the student to the following skills:
This curriculum is planned to cover both Windows XP and Windows Vista.

Ordering Information
Available in 2010.



Essential Web Site Development

This book will introduce the student to the following skills:
(Kompozer is a FREE Web Authoring Tool, which allows you to create Web pages in much the same way as you would use a word processor to create a document.  It makes things easier than trying to program directly in HTML.  Learning to use a tool like this will teach the basic concepts of Web Site design.)

Ordering Information
Available in 2010.