Apr 05 2009
From Crisis to Social Studies in the Home School
I like to have channels such as Fox News on the television for a large part of the day. The reason being that my children really will pay attention to it if it is on. They might not sit, gripped to the news like many grown ups, but they do get a lot out of what they do watch and hear.
In addition to the news programming, we have a map of the world taped to the living room wall. I don’t make very many references to the map or to the news. The map is there, the news is there, and I often find my children making comments on what appears on the news. They check the map often to find out where the events are happening.
This is yet another example of why home schooling works, and why we don’t have to wonder if we, the parents, are good enough or smart enough to home school. I am not personally a great history or geography teacher, but I know how to find out what I want to know, and that is precisely what my children are learning. If they want to know where North Korea is after hearing or reading about the missile launch, they do not have to raise their hands and ask if the may have permission to go to the map. They own their map, are free to study their map, and even have labelled a few areas that seemed important to them for one reason or another. If they want to know more about what is going on with the missile launch, then there are three tv’s and a computer in the house that will tell them what they want to know.
We don’t need textbooks, classrooms, or “no child left behind”. The knowledge is free for the taking, and our job as home schooling parents is to keep encouraging them to read it, listen to it, watch it, write it, draw it, love it.
Have a Great Day!
Laurel Santiago
One year when I was teaching first grade, I was blessed to have a good amount of wall space. I put up two huge laminated maps - one of the United States and one of the World. Every day during calendar time I would ask kids to go and find a certain state or a country. Since I’ve lived in 9 different states, they soon knew how to locate those quite easily.
It was interesting to me to see how often they would go to the maps on their own during free time. I think if we teach kids young how to love and use maps, they will perhaps have a much broader perspective on geography than those who do not have the same opportunity.
What you are doing is what any good parent does, regardless if they are home-schooling or not. It is our responsibility, not just teachers, to help educate our children and expand their horizons. I know most teachers encourage their students to look past the city limits and see the “BIG” picture. And, most teachers are excited when students have something “news” worthy to share.
I have an undergraduate and post-graduate degree, but that doesn’t mean I can teach my children Calculus or Physics. Can you?