Find Home School Info on the Web You Never Even Knew To Look For- Use StumbleUpon!

I have been a Google fan for many years and have used their search engine almost exclusively. Then one day I stumbled upon, well StumbleUpon.  It is pretty popular but in case you have missed it, it is a browser plugin that allows you to quite literally stumble around the internet based on a subject or subjects that you choose.  The sites that are offered up in each category have been included in the Stumbled Database because someone like you or me was looking for a particular item and after having found it, decided to share it by submitting it to the folks at StumbleUpon so they could add it to their database and serve up the site to the rest of us.

This is hot stuff! Pass it on!

So, is Stumbling around on the internet better than searching explicitly?  Probably not but I have found more home schooling information via StumbleUpon that I decided was worthy of bookmarking for later use that I have found by searching in Google.  The difference here is that you will use Google to find things that you need right away but if you spend a few minutes each day Stumbling around the internet under the home schooling category, you will soon have a treasure trove of material bookmarked that you will draw on for many years to come and the real fun part is that you will find things that you never thought to look for and the use of which will make your job easier and help your kids enjoy home schooling that much more.  The secret to all of this lies in the fact that much good information is there in the Google search but it is often buried down 10, 15, 20 pages or more.  If someone else has already uncovered the resource and marked it for the StumbleUpon Database, you are much more likely to find it by Stumbling on it than by digging umpteen pages deep into a Google search.

A few months ago I was using Google to search for math worksheets and I found a bewildering number of options.   It only took a few minutes to find what I needed and I was happy.  A few months later I was Stumbling the home school category and found the mother of all math worksheet websites. Dad’s Worksheets (3405 worksheets and counting) This website did not even show up on the first 5 or 6 pages of the Google search but it could very well be the ultimate in a math worksheets resource.

If you use Stumble to find home schooling material, please PLEASE be sure to set up plenty of well thought out folders under your bookmarks or favorites tab.  I didn’t and now I have 100’s of sites bookmarked that I will need to sort through and place into the appropriate folder so that I can find the information when I need it.   I set up my folders after I was well into my Stumbling habit so it isn’t all bad but I wish someone had warned me at the beginning. It would have saved me a lot of time!

I must end this with a warning that perhaps should have been the title to the post instead.   WARNING!! Use at your own risk!    Highly Addictive!   Do not be surprised if you are jolted out of a Stumbling stupor only to hear one of your kids shouting from an adjacent room, “Mom, it’s almost supper time, when are you going to get out of your robe?  You’ve been at the computer all day!”

Seriously, in well disciplined hands, StumbleUpon is an excellent tool for mining home schooling resources on the internet.

Go forth and Stumble!

Larry

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