I'm not knocking that necessarily. I never had to homeschool more than one kid at a time, which must present tremendous challenges. And, having a husband who has to have state-of-the-art everything, I can understand some of her frustration with the gizmos. I had to battle to ensure that the TV was not usually turned on until schoolwork was finished.
But I have also found that technology offers extremely helpful tools that not only teach my son, but spur his enthusiasm to learn. In fact, part of the reason he began reading at age 3 was because he wanted to learn how to play video games, like his older brothers, and needed to learn to read instruction manuals to do so. I began teaching him by using a Leap Frog "Leap Top" computer toy. And, with regard to the video games that a lot of folks love to bash, he's learned quite a bit about history, science, and technology as a result of time spent playing.
Sometimes we don't stick to the teacher's manual. My husband, who has a Zoology degree, does the math and science with our son. He only assigns enough math problems to ensure that he understands the concept and can perform the task. Part of our reason for homeschooling was to ditch the busy work, so there'd be more time for learning other things.
I often alter the assigned composition themes to subjects he can write about with ease and clarity. And I let him work on the computer, but without spelling and grammar check tools.
Being able to stick to a particular schedule is a good skill; but I think being flexible is more valuable in many ways.
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