Edutainment

First and foremost, GrowYourKnow is intended to be a hub for educational games and interactive learning. Targeted at K-through-12 students in public schools, private schools, and homeschools, GrowYourKnow was created to improve the quality and selection of edutainment applications.

Very little progress has been made towards this goal, but it remains high on my wishlist. As time allows, I plan to use this site to showcase works-in-progress and proofs-of-concept. But, my ultimate goal is to have high-quality, packaged software with features such as:

  • Interactive and engaging content, targeting a variety of age groups, in a variety of subject areas.
  • Built-in analytics to track the progress of students.
  • Customizable reports for parents to track activity and progress.
  • State-specific forms and reports for homeschool families.

My desire was sparked when I visited a few homeschool conventions with my wife. I was generally underwhelmed by the offerings, finding the ocasional jewel amongst the debris. I felt like I had the professional and expert contacts in education circles, the technical know-how, and the design experience to do better.

Unfortunately, arrogance alone isn’t much of a motivator. So this project has taken a back seat to shinier objects.

Information

My wife, Tina, and I made the decision to homeschool before we even had kids. Tina is a certified secondary Mathematics teacher, and I’m a jack of all trades. The public schools in our town aren’t the best, and the private schools would bankrupt us if we sent all three kids through the system at the same time. Unlike arrogance, necessity is quite the motivator.

Tina has taken on the lion’s share of the work in educating our kids – where “lion’s share” roughly translates to “all”. If I can convince her to come out of her shell, I think she would make an excellent resource for other parents looking at, or in the throes of, homeschooling their kids.

Scope of Effort

While inspired by homeschooling, GrowYourKnow would not limit itself to that audience. I believe there’s a niche for creative tutoring software in all areas of education.

I don’t know when I’ll make my way back to this project, but it’s certainly an area that sparks my interest.