| Dear Christine In September, 2001 a local homeschooling expert graciously made herself available to address the questions of Oregon homeschoolers via e-mail. Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Orsig Home |
| Dear Christine, With my son starting his middle school years, I'm eager to hear what you think matters most when it comes to providing a solid science foundation. To date, he's very well-read on the environment, took a course in microbiology, darts about on the web when he's curious about phenomena, and we've fiddled with some experiments. l can't help but wonder how you approached this with your children. Pam Pam and all, Science has been one of the most integrated topics our family has dealt with. We have taken a two-pronged approach to it: what we�re all interested in and what colleges would be looking for when admissions time rolls around. Like your son, our kids have read extensively in their areas of interest: flight, environment, forensic science, geology, archeology, geography, etc.. I believe following their interests is the best way to help them develop that really curious nature about how everything works and how our world fits together. One thing I know, from my education studies, is that the type of science instruction kids receive in school is, for the most part, ineffective and boring. There is actually some research (please just don�t ask me from where <g) that supports that contention. We travel quite a bit and try to avail ourselves of local museums. Here in the west we�re lucky to have some terrific museums for those interested in ancient history. For instance, we just returned from a road trip to South Dakota where we went to several museums that traced the ancient history of the western area, including information on the great floods, animal and plant life, dinosaurs and much more. Fascinating stuff. The kids have taken Saturday Academy classes, watched TV programs on the Learning, Discovery and History channels and on PBS. We also own a series of educational CD�s from Zane Company that cover science topics like genetics, biology, microbiology, etc.. and other computer software of a more general type. We aren�t big experiment people, although Alaina (15) utilizes the microscope a bit as she looks for �evidence� for her current passion, which is Forensics Science. Destination Imagination has been a great inspirer for both girls to learn more about physics. As far as the �college-bound� stuff is concerned, we only have one child who has actually been to college, but his sisters plan to follow his path. He learned all about everything he was interested as he grew up, then took Chemistry and Physics classes at the community college his last year before going to college. When we created his transcript we chunked together all the �stuff� he�d learned and gave him credit for those �classes.� Thanks for asking! Christine Dear Christine, Do you have any tips on helping perfectionists become comfortable with trying new things and learning through trial and error? Amy Amy and all, I don�t have one of these kids at my house but have worked with them in several situations. Perfectionists need to deal with risk in very small bits. I�m not sure trial and error will ever be their preferred method of learning. Some people are just not big risk-takers. Perhaps some very controlled experiments where a failure isn�t going to be the end of the world, or where the activity itself is so fun that the outcome isn�t very important, would be good places to start. Formalizing the process may help. Keeping a notebook or audio tape with notes about the process may be helpful�what is happening, what is expected, the outcome, surmises about why it did or didn�t happen as planned. Even very formal science experiments, utilizing the scientific method, may set the stage for the notion that this is an ok way to work and that by analyzing the results we can figure out how to make whatever it is better next time. Perhaps finding somebody who works in a venue where this is the case, who can talk about how they work, and why, would help. You might want to look into learning some creative problem solving techniques so their is a formal process where failure is never an issue�just sifting through a bunch of ideas and trying them out. The it�s a matter of what works better rather than �did it work?� This is a tough one but I believe a slow, gentle, inquiring approach may help. Good luck! Christine Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Orsig Home |