An Interest in Pinterest

As a little girl, I always wanted to know more.  My questions were constant and profuse. I lived in a small town far from our library and my single-parent mom did not have the time to take me there. Neither did she have the money to buy me books to peruse at my pleasure.  My questions went unanswered.

In highschool, I scorned the seemingly ridiculous and useless computer classes.  When I graduated from college, my only immediate job offer was for a  computer wordprocessor.  I tried and failed to squirm out of a computer job!  Within the same year, I was engaged to a man with an extreme interest in computers.  So step by step, I was drawn into the world of computers and the internet.

It was an epiphany for me when I began to realize the amount of knowledge at my fingertips through the use of the internet.  I finally was able to instantly satiate my curiosity!  I also discovered the downfalls to the internet.  Addictions, false information, a proliferation of conflict and the wasting of years of time in useless pursuits.

As a homeschooling mom, I must learn to balance the weapon of the internet for myself and my family.  It is good, and it is bad.  I am still struggling with that.  There are three areas that are most important to me in reigning in the internet beast.  Time limitations, avoiding idle pursuits and addictions, and filtering out the sites that can do real harm, i.e. pornography, etc.  Social sites such as Facebook are a fact of life.  But I can choose how I use it.

So what does this all have to do with Pinterest, and why is this topic even in a homeschool blog?  Because Pinterest has proven to be a great site for me to find useful information!  I can use my boards on Pinterest to easily and quickly find  and organize sites that I want to return to for information or to share with others.  It has proven to be, for me, the quintessential bookmarking site.  I don't use it as a "picture board."  I use it as a place to organize visual bookmarks so I can use all the vast information on the internet for my benefit.  Pinterest has been a great benefit for my homeschool!

Tonight I was scanning my Pinterest and a friend had pinned a site where I can print all kinds of papers that are useful for my homeschool.   This website offers 830 paper templates for download. It has anything from regular lined paper to Yahtzee score sheet to music paper.  http://www.printablepaper.net/   It is doubtful that I would have ever found this site without Pinterest.

Pinterest, like almost everything else on the internet, can prove to be a weapon for the good or the bad.  If used wisely, it can be a huge benefit to any homeschooler.  It can also be a huge time waster.  I encourage you to give it a try, and to use it to aid  you in your homeschooling.  Feel free to look me up and follow my Homeschooling Board.  Just search for "Laurel Hartshorn" and click on "Follow" by my homeschooling board.  I hope that what I have collected so far can be a help for as many homeschoolers as possible out there, and that Pinterest will improve your homeschooling experience.

www.pinterest.com