Here is a short list of some interesting things to do this summer that you can have ready in times of child boredom, and as a possible activity that you would like your kids to do this summer. They are also handy ideas if one or both of the parents just need to get kids out of their hair for a little while.

1. Take your child to a bookstore, let them pick out a book that isn’t too expensive and buy it for them.

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Make sure that it isn’t just pictures and that there is enough good quality reading material that seems focused on one of your child’s interests. It should be a book that they will enjoy reading, and it should be something that you feel is worthwhile as well. Hopefully they will have an enjoyable activity to keep them entertained and relaxed during some of the quieter moments around the house or on family trips.

2.  Get a membership to a swimming pool or sport center that offers facilities that your kids will enjoy, as well as a price that you can afford.

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You don’t necessarily need to purchase a family summer pass if it is too expensive. Sometimes, a pool or gym that lets you purchase a card for a number of visits at a reduced price is good. That way, you aren’t paying for something that your kids don’t use, and they can occasionally take their friends or other family members on your treat. It is a cheap price for 3 hours of peace and quiet on a summer day…

3.  Get your kids an educational computer program or website subscription that will offer them productive activities to spend time with on their laptop or computer.

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If your children spend their time learning and studying during the summer, they will get a good learning boost that should also benefit them in the upcoming school year. Here are two fun courses for kids that offer a free first course demo to get you started. Take a look at them with or without your kids and see how your child’s computer time can be both educational and enjoyable.

This is a Young Learners class for Pre-schoolers called Winnie’s World. It offers topics like numbers, colors, the classroom, family, feelings, and more and has a really enjoyable interactive interface made just for kids.

Click here for the Winnie’s World free trial lesson

The other Young Learners class is called Freddy’s Islands and is for school age kids up until about the fifth grade. It features original games, songs, and stories, and has a large lexicon and a fun to use record and playback feature.

Click here for the Freddy’s Islands free trial lesson

4. Give your child the gift of musical lessons for their summer vacation.

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You don’t have to spend hundreds or thousand of dollars on a new instrument.  Maybe it is an instrument that you already have around the house like a piano, organ, or guitar - or maybe it is something that you could find used at a decent price. Not all kids will grow up to be professional musicians, but the sheer enjoyment involved in playing music, as well as the thought and coordination that learning music involves, are important ingredients for helping your child find and develop a true hobby.

5. Make sure your child’s bike, skateboard, scooter, or roller blades are all in working order.

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Check to see that your kids have the required safety accessories including helmets, knee and elbow pads - and double check with them that they use them. Kids usually protest about anything that they HAVE to do, but try to be straight with them and explain that a helmet or knee pad can be the difference between a small bump and a trip to  the emergency room. Give them a hand to make sure that the equipment is in working order and add a little oil or air in the tires if necessary. Your kids are going fulling throttle on wheels, so make sure they won’t take a spill from technical malfunction. Don’t be lazy moms and dads, give them a hand with their tune-ups occasionally!

6. Get your kids started in learning a second language.

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One way to spend some fun and productive time during the summer months is to learn a second language. There are lots of great language courses available online or on CD courses, and helping your children pick one that is enjoyable for them is a good way to get them started. Besides being educational entertainment, and it can also give your child a direction and a boost in studying a second language in school.

Here is a pleasant Spanish course that gives you get a free course demonstration that you can take a look at. SpanishUno is a comprehensive software for learning Spanish and is considered one of the most advanced of its kind.

Try to remember that it isn’t easy being a kid, and invest some time in helping your children find some enjoyable things to do this summer. Get them into something that they will think is different and COOL, while you know that they are getting the most out of their summer vacation.

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I hope these ideas help you out on your way to having a good summer. Enjoy your vacation.

Hear is a little clip of Homer Simpson singing “A Little Spanish Flea” to get you into the festive summer holiday mood.

If you want to get started with a good Spanish course, Spanish Uno offers a free download and some free Spanish lessons to get you started. It seems like a great way to spend some time doing something a little different this summer.

English Word: hello (hi)

Spanish Word: hola! saludo
The Spanish Word for hello

(hi)
Now you know how to say hello (hi) in Spanish.

“An average day for me goes something like this:

1. Roll out of bed, shower, then rush to work like a bat out of hell.
2. Get to work and start my computer, then open up Excel and work on a spreadsheet.
3. Head out for lunch around Noon.
4. Get back to the office, then open up Excel and work on a spreadsheet.
5. Head home and turn on the computer, then open up Excel and work on a spreadsheet.
6. Eat dinner, then open up Excel and work on a spreadsheet.
7. And finally, go to sleep and start the cycle all over again.”

Anyway, my Excel work is thankfully much more basic! Here are the tips, I hope that they will help you organize yourself on the Microsoft Excel a little.

Good luck.

10 Excel Tips To Make Your Life Easier (Part 1)

10 Excel Tips To Make Your Life Easier (Part 2)

I hope that those offered some assistance. I may post some more videos later on as well.

The Test

But then - as soon as you take your first step, and is if by magic, all of those nagging feelings and insecurities let go in one big swoosh, and you realize.

Yes, you are ready, and it feels so much better now that the journey has actually started. Eric Clapton once said that he got extremely nervous before concerts, but once he hits that first chord, all of his nervousness flew out the window. I’m not a guitar hero, but I know the feeling.

Flying!

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Yes it is good to get the blog finally underway, and it feels great to be here. After thinking so much about what I want to say, and about how I would like to say it, it feels fantastic to finally sit down at the keyboard and write:

“Welcome to the first posts of the blog - pull up a chair, and get yourselves comfortable!”

I think that to break the ice and get things rolling, I would like to share some really enjoyable sites that I have seen being passed around lately. These are some links that you definitely don’t want to miss, so if haven’t yet seen them yet - be sure to check them out. Back after the jump!

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Tag Galaxy is a literally a breathtaking application that uses Papervision3D to search through Flickr photos via animated virtual planetary systems.

You simply enter a tag to begin with, and its related “galaxy” appears before you on the screen. Each “planet” contains the Flickr pictures of a certain tag, and each time you click on them, the images are placed on a 3D rotating globe. Most search engines would not give you much enjoyment if they didn’t offer you what you wanted. The Tag Galaxy created by Steven Wood is certainly one of a kind, and it will provide you with amazing visual displays, even before you ever click on a photo. Enjoy it, but don’t waste the whole day there, you still have some great links ahead of you!

The Internet is filling up with more and more exciting and colorful icons that are designed to brighten up your personal environment in the World Wide Web. One great source for new and creative icons has got to be the deviantART galleries, but this new post in particular called 40+ Extremely Beautiful icon sets Hand-picked from devianART is simply fantastic. You can upload any of these 40 incredible icon sets for your web designs or desktop. Use them, enjoy them, and let them help to brighten up YOUR Internet world.

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One of the really enjoyable Internet memes of late has to be this series of bloggers , who all drew themselves as they looked when they were teenagers. All of the geeky nerd stuff comes out of the closet, and we get to see back in time to what our favorite bloggers or users looked like when they were a little less cool, and a lot more naïve. If you want, you can join in on the fun! ( challenge: draw yourself as a teen )

But either way, don’t forget to click on some of the other pictures that are posted on the link list. Some of them are really funny and are an enjoyable way to look back at ourselves and laugh!

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As people begin to work more from their homes and have begun moving their working offices INTO their homes as well, they’ve realized the important need to create a working space for themselves “in what was often an already crowded house”. This movement has begun to shape into some pretty unconventional workspaces, but some pretty awesome ones as well. This next post is all about that new trend, and we get to see what some people did to make space for their offices at home. You want to know what they built? A shed.

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But not just ANY shed… These folks built some of the most fantastic sheds that I have seen in my life. How about a nice old metal clad rooftop shed turned into an unbelievably chic penthouse “shed” on a penthouse in the midst of Manhattan?

They aren’t all this hi-tech, so go check out more of these for some great ideas for your home office at 20 Creatively Hacked Urban Garden Shed Offices.  I personally liked the log cabin office best…

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We will be blogging at you a few times every week and will try to bring you some of the best stuff on the web, as well as a few surprises along the way. Don’t forget to grab a subscription to the rss feed on your way out and feel free to leave any questions or comments that you think are relevant. Great to have you in the house, hope to see you all again soon.

Can you hear me Bart?

Dr. Douglas C. Engelbart, an American inventor whose team developed hypertext and networked computers, is best known for inventing the computer mouse in a joint effort with Bill English.

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In 1967, Dr. Engelbart applied for a patent for a wooden shell with two metal wheels, describing it in the patent application as an “X-Y position indicator for a display system” . In 1970, he received a patent for the computer mouse (U.S. Patent 3,541,541), later revealing that it was given the adept nickname the “mouse” because of the long tail that came out the end. Click on the link above to see the image of the original computer mouse design.

Talk about humble beginnings!

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It just looks so chic and stylish - well not REALLY, but it looks like it would feel quite comfortable resting in the palm of your hand.

A glimpse of things to come…

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The Ball Mouse

Bill English, one of the builders of Engelbart’s original mouse, invented the “ball mouse” in 1972 which replaced the external wheels with a single ball that could then rotate in any direction. This mouse originally came out with the Xerox Alto computer.

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The Smaky Mouse

Another mouse from the past came from the Swiss company Smaky, a line of mostly 8-bit personal computers that was developed by Professor Jean-Daniel Nicoud and others at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland beginning in 1974.

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Apple Macintosh Plus Mouse

In 1986,  Apple debuted the Apple Desktop Bus which allowed the daisy-chaining together of up to 16 computers, and included this simplistic little plastic box mouse design. Here are some of those mimalistic Apple Macintosh Plus mice, circa 1986.

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Anyway, as we have mentioned before, technological applications usually go through a period of development before they finally turn into to the tool that we can’t do without. As much as we may look back at these early prototypes and chuckle, we look at the newest versions and tell ourselves that we HAVE to get one of those….

Logitech Mouse

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A Computer Mouse with Plenty of Bling Effect

And no matter what you design, someone is going to come along and say to themselves ” Those are nice, but if we covered them with diamonds, they would be awesome. I guess at some level, it’s all just a matter of taste.

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We at SoftwareLearn would like to say hi and welcome you to our our first blog post. We hope to fulfill our mission: to bring technology to you, and will do our best to bring you useful and interesting articles as well.

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It turns out that you can’t always judge a mouse by its old fashioned box design!

I DO love that natural wood look though…

More with the saga of the computer mouse soon…