Christian Social Network to Benefit Midwest Homeschoolers
After realizing the need for an easier, more convenient way for homeschooling families to connect with one another, the largest homeschooling support organization in Kansas City, Mo., is saying that the solution to many of their communication problems may be a Christian social networking site, Hschooler.net.
Hschooler.net announced its role in helping Midwest Parent Educators, a homeschooling group that consists of about 1,200 member families, at a Home School Legal Defense Association Leadership Conference in September. MPE hopes to officially launch its new website and the use of the social network by the end of October.
"Homeschooling families need to connect with other homeschooling families," said Todd Kangas, president of MPE, in an interview with The Christian Post Thursday.
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MPE is an organization that provides a number of support services – including support groups, a library, conferences, curriculum fairs and graduation ceremonies for students – to homeschooling families.
After taking a survey of the group's members, MPE's leaders found that they needed a better way to keep them in touch, especially considering that many of today's young parents grew up in an era in which instant messaging, texting and other forms of digital communication are the norm.
To fix their problem, they turned to Hschooler.net, a social networking site with a Christian twist that was able to provide MPE with a communication forum for the group's members.
Unlike some social networking sites, the homeschool site doesn't place any age restrictions on members, so even young children can interact with friends. Facebook, in contrast, does have age restrictions in place, and only allows those who are 13 years old and older to become site members.
Hschooler.net also has parental controls, including a feature that allows parents to receive a copy of whatever messages their children send or receive. Kangas said that he doesn't have to worry about his children seeing inappropriate messages or advertisements either, which may sometimes appear on other social networking sites.
There is also a faith element to the site. Users on Hschooler.net can share prayer requests or their favorite Bible passages with one another.
"The social network helps ... the relationship building that naturally happens in a physical building," said Kangas.
The site will offer educational advantages to MPE as well, including the opportunity for parents to organize events and discuss homeschooling-related problems simply by logging on their computers.
Kangas and his wife have eight children, four boys and four girls, and have been homeschooling for more than 26 years. In the past, he said, other parents would talk with his wife for hours seeking solutions to their problems. With the use of this social network, however, an entire community of homeschooling families is only a few keystrokes away.
"There are so many different curricula out there, and people ... have different experiences with it, so this gives people a chance to ask for help and get response from people they may know,” Kangas said.
"Our developers have focused on making it easy for organizations to effectively and efficiently create their own private social network by building upon our feature-rich infrastructure," Hschooler.net adviser Dan Jacobson said in a release. "And partnering with organizations like MPE fits perfectly with our mission."
In 2010 there were an estimated 2.04 million homeschooled students in the United States, according to Brian Ray of the National Home Education Research Institute.
MPE and Hschooler.net hope to see just a fraction of those students connect with one another to the benefit of their social, academic and spiritual lives.
