Sometimes the skills learnt through studying a subject are just as important as the subject matter. The subject is like a vehicle. Take, for example, the geography study the boys are doing. I do think it is important to have a general knowledge of geography, to understand where countries are in relation to each other, their climates and so on, but this is not the only reason to do this topic. It is also a good opportunity for the boys to develop research skills and the ability to use the internet to gather information. They also need to learn to skim and scan text, to pick out relevant information, to recognise reliable and unreliable sources, to answer questions accurately etc.
The Trail Guide to World Geography study guide we are following this year has a list of drill questions at the front of very week's section. (We are absolutely not following the shedule in terms of numbers of weeks, just doing it in the prescribed sequence). Rather than doing a few questions per day I tend to pick out about 10 questions for them to do in one session. Most of the questions they will not know the answer to, and they have to look up the answers in the atlas or online. Sometimes even the online maps are more suitable than the printed atlas. It depends what you are looking for. This is helping them to learn about using search terms, what to put in the box to help get the answer fastest.
Oftentimes they'll get directed to sites which are not written specifically for kids, and the whole text will be too difficult for them to understand, but they are learning to find their way to the answer they need, because the questions themselves do not require tricky answers, so the answer is usually plainly sitting there if you can cut through the technical details.
So I'm not really concerned about whether or not they remember the elevation of Mt McKinley, but think that it is important that they know how to find this out.
Of course, they do a lot of finding out about their own interests in this way too, but doing this also through a subject means that they experience a wider variety of sources, rather than just game review sites and sports journalism!
2 comments:
I agree! I would venture to say that it's mostly about the skills. I've found that many times I have used a particular subject (along with its facts) as a framework to illustrate how to pragmatically deal with situations that they are likely to encounter in their lives.
Facts are important, but so is teaching them how to function in life in the most excellent way. Being able to teach them these "life skills" concurrently with the three R's is one of the great benefits of homeschooling! :)
Yes, you are right it is mostly about the skills. I actually wrote that at first, but edited it when I considered that in some subjects the facts are very important too, and I didn't want to be misunderstood, subhanAllah. Thanks for your comment.
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