Google docs, have you tried them?

Lately, when I need a spreadsheet, I don't bother firing up Excel-- it takes FOREVER to load on my computer, and I don't need a powerful spreadsheet program at home. Instead, I use google's spreadsheet program. It's not fancy, but it is free, and it does everything I need (though I wish it graphed-- I don't need to graph, but I LIKE to graph, I'm a geek). As an added perk, anything I put in a google spreadsheet is available on any computer with access to the web, and can easily be shared with others.

There are some privacy concerns-- since any data in a google document is stored on someone else's computer, and passed over the internet, I won't be making a spreadsheet of social security numbers or bank accounts. But it's fine for most of the reasons I make spreadsheets.

Google also offers a word processing program--- it would be ideal for collaborative writing, and it could easily put together a presentable resume or term paper. It has fewer options for making a more creative document, but, realistically, how many of us need to do that? I am writing this post using it, but getting the "publish" option work correctly was tricky-- I have two blogger blogs, and until I got the title exactly right (including matching the case of the letters) it insisted on posting it to my personal blog (the one I set up first). All in all, it does seem to be a better editor than blogger's default editor.

Given that Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 is selling for $129 on Amazon, a free alternative is very attractive, especially for those of us who don't need all the bells and whistles.

"Finance lessons for Home Schoolers" or maybe not...

Our new Kiplinger's magazine surprised me by having an article geared toward homeschooling families. The title is "Finance lessons for Home Schoolers". It starts well:

Quote:

Once considered a fringe group, parents who home-school their children aren't such rarities anymore. Families looking for an alternative to schools with too few challenges or too many distractions, or for a way to tailor the curriculum to a child's needs, have swelled the ranks of home-schooled kids.

Its a decent article in some ways-- it explains many of the practicalities of home schooling, and never questions the decision to homeschool, or compares it to public school. Unfortunately there are some errors that surprise me in such a reputable magazine. They say that:

Quote:

In Virginia, for example, most home schoolers must get state approval of curricula for core subjects, such as math.

WRONG!
And, they recommend:

Quote:

Consider tapping your Coverdell education savings account to pay for supplies and othe expenses.

I'm not a tax accountant (or attorney? who would you ask about this?), but as far as I can tell with the help of Google, home schooling expenses aren't eligible expenses for Coverdell ESAs. I think you could use one to pay for a distance learning program, but I wouldn't try to use it to buy a microscope. Actually, I wouldn't do anything with a Coverdell education savings account before I talked to some kind of expert. Apparently someone at Kiplinger's agrees with me-- this recommendation is not in their online version of the article.

Since the 2 things I checked were wrong, I wouldn't take any advice from the article without looking a bit further into it.

I think their cost estimates might be a bit high, but my oldest is 6, so what do I know? All things considered, exactly how much you spend to homeschool your kids seems to have as much to do with the crowd you run with as anything else. What constitutes a "reasonable" charge varies a lot from one family to the next. I tend to think that people who expected to send to their kids to private school will find a way to spend a lot on their kids' education.

I'm happy to see a mainstream magazine writing positive articles FOR homeschoolers instead of just ABOUT homeschoolers, but better error checking doesn't seem like too much to ask.