Homeschool World Forum

[ChristineHHZ]

I'd like to suggest a new idea for older students who may not be inclined to the "textbook" method. I'm 17 and homeschooled myself. For the majority of my high school years, most of what I've learned has been from reading the news; something I did not notice until last year, which was my junior year of high school. I never even thought of news as an education source, But, alas, I had to figure out some way to organize my transcript with references other than textbooks; except for math, I have trouble getting the motivation to actually finish them.
And so I started thinking about everything I know about history, science, social studies, etc,. Where did it come from? News! Who knew? Something I did for fun on Saturday nights really paid off!
So what I'd like to suggest to parents of homeschoolers out there: don't over structure. Let them find what works. I learn basically everything about social studies and science in particular from news, but with math I do much better with a textbook than any computer program. Everyone learns differently.

Thanks!

Christine
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Homeschool Hangout Zone - "Education Based on Current Events and News"

[itsrks]

Thank you ChristineHHZ for reminding us that one size doesn't fit all. My husband is always listening to the news and he said too, that news is his education. He does a lot of critical analysis with it.

I'd like to suggest a resource to you. The World and I online magazine. It's fairly cheap especially if you get it through the Homeschool Buyer's Co-op. Anyway, every week they send you a compilation of the lastest international news. If you haven't heard of it, I think it would be a good resource for you even in college and beyond.
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[Theodore]

News is an excellent way to learn some things, such as economics and politics, but it's not going to replace textbooks for most core subject matter, such as writing, history, science, etc. News doesn't tell you what happened last year or decade or century.
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[nia1965]

I am witnessing the same thing with my teenaged boys. They are naturally drawn to reading the newspaper and reading "stuff" on the internet about various topics and current events. We have spontaneously engaged in conversation with lots of critical thinking and analysis. The conversations are stimulating if I must say so myself. It makes me feel good as a parent because I know that the real contribution to a society is from critical thinking and analysis of anything. In addition, they also enjoy reading about history.