Lesson 1 - Your New Email Address
Congratulations! You're now 13 years old. That means you are old enough to have an email address. Old enough to legally represent your own interests in the form of a contract. ...It also means private companies can track the data created when you use their websites. Everything has its upsides and downsides. It's a good time to remember that everything you put on the internet can be dug up later by someone - even if you delete it.
Today you're going to create your email address. You will need to have several options in case your first choice is already taken. You will also need a password. This should be a password that you don't use for a bunch of games and such. Ask your mom about options for remembering your passwords. If gmail.com still doesn't require a cell phone number in order to sign up, you can get an email account there. If they have started requiring a cell phone number then try mail.com instead. You will need to have a parent sit with you while you sign up because if they don't make you put in a phone number then you will have to put in someone else's email address to help you get back in if you ever somehow get locked out of your account. That's where the parent with you comes in handy. :) Once your email address has been created, you should send your first email to your parent as a practice run. Before you do anything else, wait until tomorrow's lesson on how to avoid getting a computer virus or having your email address hacked!
Lesson 2 - How to Beat the Baddies!
Today is about how to beat the internet bad guys that try to harm you using your email account! If you know these bad-guy tricks, you can outsmart them!
You already know there are evil people in the world. I'm going to tell you about spam for starters. Spam is junk email that is trying to get you to click on something in it to go buy things. It's unsolicited advertisements in your inbox. Clicking them might take you to a legitimate eStore... or it might take you to a link that will lock your computer up or give bad people access to your computer or email address and all the information in it. Sometimes bad people make fake online stores that look just like the real one but when you click on it or give them your information, they steal your money! Sometimes bad people pretend to be kids online so they can find out the names, ages, pictures, and locations of real kids. They befriend kids who think that it's a real kid they're talking to and so it must be safe to talk to them. These bad guys usually belong to human trafficking rings - if you don't know what that is, ask your parents. Don't ever respond to an email from someone you don't personally know! If someone pretending to be a kid your age gets your email address they will be very nice and friendly in emails for a while but eventually they will send you inappropriate things or the whole time they are collecting little clues to find where your house is. They might not even want YOU, maybe they want your baby sibling you talked about online once instead. Another problem is called Phishing. That's when you get emails that tempt you to click something but when you click it, they know the email account is active and then they send you millions of scams to your email every day. Or worse, they hack your computer because you clicking the link in their email gave them access. Or that's when you get emails that tell you that you've won something, or that a distant relative has died and left you money. But in order to claim your winnings or inheritance, you have to give them your bank account information, or send them some money for something. For example they might say that you were found to be the only living relative of a Nigerian prince who has left you his entire fortune... Oh but in order to get the fortune released to you there is this tiny little $500 inheritance fee. But don't worry, after you pay the fee to have the Nigerian prince's billions sent to you, you'll never have to worry about money ever again! Except that in real life they will take your money and never send you anything, and they are usually working via phone and email from other countries so it's almost impossible to find them or have them arrested. Another version of phishing is when some bad people make fake email accounts that say they are from real websites that you might have an account for so they can steal your money. They really like making email addresses that say they are from PayPal or popular shopping sites like Amazon and then they send you emails saying that your account has been hacked or you were charged a lot of money for something and to "click here" and give them all your personal info so they can fix it. Except that you weren't charged and your account wasn't hacked... yet. Once you give them the info they say they need to fix the problem, they now have your account and can spend all your money! Even if all you have in your Amazon account is gift card money from your last Birthday, I'm sure you wouldn't want some bad guy stealing it! These tricky people will even hack into one person's email and use it to phish that person's friends, and then hack those friends' emails and use them to get to THEIR friends and so on. They will say things like, "Hey I saw this picture/video of you on the internet!" and a link that when you click it, they will be able to get your information or it will take you to a dangerous website. They might say things like, "Is this really you?" or "Remember this?" Something short that they think a person might say to their friend when sending them a link. So even if it's coming from a real friend who you really know, be very cautious about any links!
Bottom line; don't open anything from any company or stranger if you weren't expecting it, and don't give out your email address or sign up for anything without serious consideration for the dangers (and asking your parents)! And absolutely never ever ever click on a link in an email if you feel like the sender is acting off or talking strangely, if they hardly post an explanation why they are sending the link, or if you haven't heard from them in a long time and then out of the blue they send you a link. It's best not to ever click a link in an email if you haven't checked with the person who sent it (in some other way such as phone or text!) and asked them if they really did send a link!
Lesson 3 - Reply
Reminder: Never share your email password with anyone except your parents. Not even your best friend!
Your missions for today:
- Inbox. Your Inbox is the part of your email account where new messages go! Check your email inbox and see if your parent replied to your email!
- Reply. When you click on an email and read it, you should also find a button that allows you to type a reply. Not "reply all" - just the one that only says "reply." (We will talk about why later.) Try it! Click "Send" when you are done typing your reply.
Lesson 4 - Spam Folder
Your missions for today:
- Find Spam Folder. One of the folders your email account comes with is called the Spam filter. Check it out! Just don't click on anything in them. Anything that has the typical features of spam will be automatically sent to that folder. Often, spam automatically deletes after a few weeks or a month. You should check your spam folder if you were expecting an email and it doesn't seem to have arrived! You can select a message in the spam folder and tell your email that it's not really spam. Be certain though! Check your spam folder once in a while to make sure nothing is in there that shouldn't be. On the flip side, it doesn't catch everything so sometimes you will have some spam in your inbox! You can select the spam messages in your inbox and tell the program that it's spam. It will remember where the message came from and send future messages from the same address to the spam folder.
- Empty Spam Folder. Now that all your not-spam is taken out of your spam folder and all the actual-spam that sneaked into your inbox is marked and put INTO your spam folder, figure out how to empty (delete the contents of) your spam folder. Sure it will automatically delete after a while, but if you just made sure there wasn't anything important in there, it's best to delete the spam so it's emptier and less cluttered if you have to go looking in there for a missing message in a few days!
- Has anyone emailed you yet? Probably just the email provider and Mom so far, right? Practice "forwarding" by opening an email from the email provider (they usually send a few telling you how to use your new email account or some ads for other things they are affiliated with) and finding the "forward" button, then putting Mom's email address in the To box. This will send her a copy of the email. It doesn't matter if it's just a junk mail; it's just practicing how to forward an email. You can also always do this if any of your contacts ever send you something inappropriate or something that upsets you or makes you uncomfortable, so Mom can read it and you can discuss it together and figure out how to handle it. Sometimes you might want to forward something to your friends so they can see it too, but always be careful about not violating other people's privacy by sending their personal stories/photos to others behind their back, or gossiping, or backtalking or bad-mouthing people. When in doubt, ask first.
Lesson 5 - Address Book, Duplicate Emails
Today's mission is to figure out how your email Address Book works. Your email provider may call it a "Contacts List" instead of an address book. Collect the email addresses of your parents and (with permission for each one!) any friends and siblings and cousins you know who have an email address and tell them they will receive an email from you today. Figure out how to add them all to your email Address Book.
Click "Compose" a new message. Write one that could be to anyone, young or old, boy or girl, and say something simple like that this is to let them know your new email address so they can save it. [You don't have to type out your whole actual email address (you can if you want to) because it will be attached to the email you send like a return address is attached to an envelope you snail-mail.] Say something like:
Hi,
This is me, ___(your
name)__, and I'm just sending you a quick message so you have my new email
address and can save it.
Have a great day!
-___(your name)___
Now in the box that says To at the top, you can start typing the first person's name or email address. The rest of it should pop up for you to select. Is there an option for CC or BCC? CC stands for Carbon Copy. You can put the rest of your contacts' email addresses in the CC box and it will send them all copies of the same email too, BUT all of them will be able to see that you sent the same message to all the others. If you want them to not know you're sending the exact same message to everyone, put the other email addresses into the BCC box instead. BCC means Blind Carbon Copy - they will all get a copy but none of them will be able to see that you sent it to other people too.
Don't forget to put a subject in the subject line. Just saying "Hi" or "Hello" is a good way to get your email captured by their spam filter! Good thing they know it's coming so they can look for it if that happens. Better yet, make your subject something uncommon so it doesn't seem spammy. It could be something silly like "___(your name)'s___ Gone Digital!" or just something simple like "13 and Got Email"
Did you get everyone in the To/CC/BCC boxes? Did you type an email that could be for anyone? Did you think of a subject? If you're all set, go ahead and SEND it!
Lesson 6 - "Reply" vs. "Reply All"
If someone ever sends you a message that they sent to a bunch of other people at the same time, make sure that you click "reply" to write back to only the sender and don't accidentally click "reply all." "Reply all" will send the reply email to ALL the same people to whom the original message was sent! It's great for group conversations, but sometimes people accidentally click "reply all" instead of just "reply." If you receive a group message, remember that if you want all the recipients to see your answer click "reply all" but if you only want the sender to see it, just click "reply."
You could practice sending group messages by sending an email to both your Mom and Dad at the same time today, and asking them to "reply all" when they write back. Remember if you use BCC instead of CC they won't be able to "reply all."
Lesson 7 - Sent
Pick one person from your parent-approved Address Book to send a personal email to today. Not a group message this time, just something nice for one person, like a penpal letter but I guess this would be an e-pal letter. :) If someone replied to your Lesson 5 email with a nice letter, that would be a good person to pick.
After you send it, try to find your "sent" mail folder. It should have copies of every email you've ever written. If you ever forget what you said to someone, or forgot if you've already written to them, you can check your Sent folder.
While you're at it, you may also have a Drafts folder where half-written but never sent emails go. See if you can find it!
Reminder: Tell your parents right away if anyone ever sends you something that makes you feel threatened, uncomfortable, or upset.
Lesson 8 - Trash
Have you checked your Spam folder lately? Make sure there's nothing in there that shouldn't be, or vice versa, and empty it. While you're at it, another folder you should empty sometimes is your Trash. That's where emails go when you delete them from your inbox and other folders. If you accidentally deleted something, you can go in your Trash and get it back out! But after you empty your trash it's gone for good - unless you're secretly a super-hacker who wants to spend a lot of time getting those lost data bits back. But you're not, at least not yet, so once you empty your trash, don't expect to see it again. Ever.
Pick one person from your parent-approved Address Book to send a personal email to today. Someone you haven't emailed yet. (That generic first email you sent to everyone doesn't count.)
Lesson 9 - Folders
Today, I want you to explore and see if you can figure out how to make new folders. I have a folder for my spouse, a folder for each of my friends, a folder for Amazon stuff, a folder for important info I don't want to lose. I sort the emails I receive into these folders. (Actually, I have set it up to automatically do that for me! Let's try that next time.) For today, make a folder for each person who has sent you at least one email, and put all the emails you've received from them into that folder.
Pick one person from your parent-approved Address Book to send a personal email to today.
Lesson 10 - Filters
Okay, so today, you should try to set up a "filter!" That's what it's called when you set your email account to automatically sort your new emails into the folder for that person. It's probably in "settings" and then "filters" but you might have to look a little harder to fid it. Set up a filter for the person who has emailed you the most times so far. Next time you check your email, maybe they will have emailed you again and you can see if the filter worked!
Pick one person from your parent-approved Address Book to send a personal email to today. If there's someone you haven't sent a real email to yet (the "this is my new email address" generic group email does not count!) you should send one to them today. It doesn't have to be complicated or long. Maybe something like: "I was just thinking of you, so I said a prayer for you! I thought I'd drop you a line to ask how you doing lately?" ("Drop a line" is a colloquialism for sending a note.)
Lesson 11 - Font
Pick one person from your parent-approved Address Book to send a personal email to today. Experiment with the font. How many fonts do you have to choose from? Can you change the color and size?
Lesson 12 - Photos
Pick one person from your parent-approved Address Book to send a personal email to today. Can you attach a photo this time? You may have to wait for it to upload if your internet connection is slow. Make sure it's a safe photo to a safe person. Don't send one of someone in an embarrassing state and that includes the background of the photo, not just the person themselves. Ask Mom for guidance if you don't know what's appropriate. Also don't send a personal photo to someone you don't know well: as a general rule, don't send pictures of faces to people who have never met those faces unless you have permission from your parents and from the person whose face you're showing.
Lesson 13 - Attachments
Send an email to Mom today but first, create a document file and save it to your computer, then attach that document to your email to Mom! You could write a short story or just a 1-sentence note on the document. The point is only to practice sending an attachment that is a document instead of a photo.
Sometimes online, people shorten the word "picture" to "pic."
Lesson 14 - Hotlink
Think of one of your favorite websites and then think of one
person from your parent-approved Address Book who would enjoy that link too.
Today you are going to see if you can learn to "hotlink" a word or phrase in an
email.
Write the email, mentioning the site but without typing
out the .com part. For example;
"Dear Cousin,
Today I was
looking at all the neat free books on Project Gutenberg and was wondering if
you've ever explored that site? Some of the books aren't good of course, because
it's not a Christian site, but there are still some really neat books on there,
such as The Hound of the Baskervilles! Do you like Sherlock Holmes?
Love,
Your Cousin"
Next, decide what you're going to hotlink. In my example, I could
hotlink the words Project Gutenberg to the website's main page so my cousin
could go browse the vast selection of books. I could hotlink the book title to
the book's webpage on Project Gutenberg so my cousin could go straight there and
start reading immediately. I could hotlink Sherlock Holmes to the author page on
Project Gutenberg so my cousin could see all the available Sherlock Holmes
books. Or I could hotlink all three so my cousin has a choice! The important
part is that the link is relevant to the word it's attached to.
Let's say I choose to just hotlink the website to the words Project
Gutenberg. I would first highlight "Project Gutenberg" and then I would look
around for something that looks like just chain links, or like a globe with a
chain link. Click that and it will bring up a little pop up that has the
highlighted words in one box and another box which is for the web address. You
can go to the website/page you want and copy the address right out of the
address bar, then paste it into that box. There should be a button to Link or
Save it. Now your words, in my case "Project Gutenberg" should be blue and
underlined. This indicates they are clickable and will go to a website. Now when
you send your email, your cousin (or whomever is your recipient) will be able to
click right on those words and the website will open right up for them.
Now if you're worried your link won't work, you can send a test email to yourself first. Did you know you could do that? You could send a test email to Mom too... I don't mind being your guinea pig. :)
A link is a web address. To "hotlink" something means to turn a word or phrase into a button basically, so that when you click it, it takes you somewhere.
Lesson 15 - Gifs & Stationery
Pick one person from your parent-approved Address Book to send a personal email to today. This time, look around and see if your email comes with free Stationery, Gifs, or Emojis to use. It's probably near where you change the font options. Look carefully because sometime there will be a few free and the rest it will want you to pay for. Just stick with free ones! :) Have fun, but remember to consider what the recipient will like more than what you like!
This is the end of your eMail crash-course.
Remember: If you ever get an email that seems strange at all, even if it's from one of your address book contacts, it could be spam or phishing. Hackers hack email addresses and then send phishing emails to everyone in that person's address book, so it looks like it came from your friend. NEVER click a link in an email unless you're certain who it came from. An email that comes from someone you know but says nothing but "Hey, saw this video of you..." and a link; that's a classic phishing scam. If you click, they hack your computer/email next and send the same one to YOUR friends. If your friend says to you in person, "I'll email you the link!" and then within a few days you get an email that says, "Here's the link to that ___ we were talking about!" and a link that seems reasonable, it's very likely to be legitimate and is probably safe. However if you get a link out of the blue with a cryptic message or something generic or even no message at all, never click it until you call or talk to the sender in person and get verbal confirmation from them that they did indeed send you a link and an explanation of what it is for.
You can ALWAYS come to a parent for advice if you find yourself in a difficult situation of any sort, even on the internet.
16 NEXT 501:
Your next course is going to be Easy Peasy Computer Level 5. READ the following and remember it to prepare yourself for this course.
This time I (Mom) didn't check every lesson so I could say "don't do this part" about things. I'm just putting the links exactly to the lessons just as they are because my carpal tunnel is bothering me badly. So if anything ever looks fishy or not right or you think you might not be allowed, ASK FIRST.
The reason we are NOT scheduling this class through your Easy Peasy Assignments is because I can't change which day or how many days you have this class and what they have it set for won't suit our needs this year. So, for the time being, I'm scheduling it through your usual lesson scheduler so that I can change how often you do this class.
Remember, if it says to do a drill or game for typing, you don't do it (because you do Mavis Beacon instead). Skip all typing lessons on EasyPeasy and continue to do Mavis Beacon every day.
Also remember that if you need help with something, it's best to ask. Don't be prideful - pride goeth before a fall. That means if you let your pride rule you then something bad will happen. Like if you're too prideful to ask for help lifting something heavy, you could injure your back and never be able to lift things again. On the computer and internet, being prideful could result in an accident that deletes something important, destroys the computer with a virus, or lets a hacker gets into your (or your family's) personal information. So be wise, not prideful! It's also good to remember that if you put it on the internet, it's FOREVER. There are programs that can get things you posted back after they were deleted - and if YOU can (and often even if you can't), so can a hacker.
Try not to take a long time on your lessons. I know they are fun sometimes, but if you have other school to do, make sure it's done first before spending extra time on this one.
You might sometimes be asked to help your younger siblings with their computer lessons now that you've already done the lower levels! Remember to lead and guide them wisely and not teach them to do dishonest things. You love them and want to help them and keep them safe, so I know you don't want to teach them bad things that could get them hurt or in trouble. Be understanding and patient with them.
