Lets face it, hands-on interactive education is not always easy. But there are several fantastic products out there that do a good job of lightening the load. The Time Travelers series on CD by Amy Pak is one of them.
This is the curriculum I have dreamed of creating. It has all the elements I would include, plus a heavy dose of Amy Pak's amazing artistic ability. Each of these studies is made up of 25 lessons of American history which include lapbooking, notebooking, file folder games, projects, food, mapping, penmanship practice, timelines, and a party to top it all off. All the printables are included and they are high quality. Teachers keys are given for all the maps and instructions are complete (down to the type of paper to print on) and easy to follow. The CD is organized according to lesson, which is great if you print as you go. This was the one thing I found slightly annoying since I would prefer to print everything at once, from a single file. But it is a minor inconvenience.
Lessons are short, but informational. However, I did find the pace with all the activities a little hard to keep up. In the future I plan to use these as a supplement to our regular histories which would add more meat to the lessons and spread the activities out more. There are seven titles in the series, and I personally own four of them.
The eleven volume Uncle Eric series provides a great, in-depth introduction to economic, history, and government as you've never seen them taught before. They are fascinating. I found them hard to put down!
These books are written by Richard Maybury aka "Uncle Eric" as a series of letters to his nephew Chris and deal with the topics of economics and government. But there is so much more you can learn from them. For instance, in the first volume Mr. Maybury also touches on educational theory, ethics, and history. Volume 2, Whatever Happened To Penny Candy, contains almost everything I learned in two college level economics classes plus a few things I didn't, explained in a simple and interesting way that even a younger child could understand.
In his first book, Personal, Career, and Financial Security, Mr. Maybury introduces the concept of models as "the way we think and understand the world." I really enjoyed what he said in chapter five about how to learn or teach models. I think it sums up pretty well the way I prefer to teach my children and why it works so well.
"Experience creates models automatically . . .This is why classroom instruction via lecture is the least effective way to teach and hands-on learning by doing is the most effective. We are made in such a way that we build models automatically by doing. Typically, classroom instruction is like teaching someone to play Monopoly just by making him memorize the rules and then giving him a test on those rules. . . Unfortunately, some models are impossible to learn using hands-on process, so one method humans use to substitute for real world experience is telling stories. Stories are used to demonstrate and illustrate ideas."
There is much more wisdom packed between the pages of these books, but I will leave that for you to discover. I can't quote the whole thing here.
There were a couple of things I disagreed with, but I see them as opportunities for additional discussion. For instance, at one point, Mr. Maybury states, "Beware of certainty. Certainty stops inquiry. " In another place he warns to always be open minded because we are humans who make mistakes and we can never be 100% certain of anything. While I understand what he is saying and agree UP TO A POINT, as a Christian I do believe that some things ARE 100% certain. I will be sure to point this out to the children.
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