HomeSchoolBuzz had a link to an article about homeschoolers who had aGeography Fair to expose children to different cultures around the world.
Earlier this year we had a somewhat similar experience. I've been able to work out a deal with my manager. About once every year or two I'll take some stuff from work; my family and I will hit the road. While we are gone I'll work about twenty hours a week.
This year we left during the middle of April and flew to the East coast. We spent a couple days in Kentucky and then Virginia with family. We spent a week in Southern New Jersey, a week in Boston, and then another week in back in Virginia, this time in Williamsburg. We saw many historical sites in Boston and Williamsburg. A funny event occurred a couple months later.
We use the CAT/5 test to see how our daughters are doing. During the American history portion of the test our third grade daughter started giggling. Our daughter said “The questions are so silly.” We had visited every place mentioned on the test. She ended up scoring at 12+ grade for social studies, she didn’t miss a single question. In comparison she scored at the 1st grade level on spelling, an area we know she struggles with.
3 comments:
I whole-heartedly agree with this. We find this same occurance in our family. History and geography, as well as the arts, are hugely lacking in standard school curriculum. My kids have such a broader world-view because of all our educational field trips.
In comparison to spending a month traveling from city to city, we've also just stayed in one city for a month. Staying in one city was much less stressful. There was no urgency to try and see all the sights in the next six days. In the future, when possible, we'll try to stay in one city for a long period of time.
There's one thing I love about public and private schools. It makes our educational field trips nicer. We go when every one else is stuck in school.
Post a Comment