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Web Presence for African-American Homeschoolers

© Jennifer James

Creating a web presence of African-American home school support groups will do much to organize and network families across the country and internationally. What word of mouth did five years ago today the Internet can do in five minutes and that is precisely why websites and online groups are so vital to the cohesiveness of the African-American home schooling community. Home school websites provide a quick and easy way to share information with scores of families who are interested in your organization or personal home school webpage. The following are the basics for creating a personal home schooling website or site for a home school support group or organization. In all cases, you can create a free website or take advantage of select features such as ad removal or extra bandwidth for a nominal cost.

With an idea in mind for a website, the first step is to find a web host that provides free web hosting. There are several quality companies that provide website hosting for free. These companies also provide the option of paid membership ranging in price from about $4.95 per month upwards to about $24.95 per month for ad free service or domain name registration with POP e-mail accounts. Here is an excellent site that has categorized and rated the top 100 web hosts. http://100best-free-web-space.com/index.... We recommend Tripod, Angelfire, Homestead, Anglecities, and Geocities.

After choosing a web host, you may either use the templates that they provide to create a website or you may create a site using other software such as Microsoft Publisher or Microsoft Frontpage. Microsoft Publisher and Frontpage provide the flexibility and creative outlet for those who want a webpage beyond what a template can provide. For those who know HTML, web hosts also provide blank web pages where you may write your own HTML code for your site. Visit your host's Frequently Asked Questions section for additional information on how to upload or FTP Microsoft Publisher and Frontpage files to web hosts and for information on creating HTML sites.

When creating a website thoroughness is key. No one wants to see trite or boring pages with information that they can find elsewhere. Websites are easy to create and to maintain, but as is the case with all things, demand careful consideration and constant attention. To better serve the African-American home schooling community, one may find African-American specific sites with home school curricula, resources and general information to add to a budding webpage. Scour the Internet for unique home school ideas to share with fellow homeschoolers. It may also be helpful to homeschoolers in your state to include information relevant to your state's home school community. In sum, create websites that are interesting, fun and represent who you are and your ideals about home schooling, whether it is a personal page or a site for a support group or home school organization.