Understanding the World is aimed at the facts and information you need to act upon the world, or what our friend Beth calls “schema”. The topics for this year are religion, science, geography. Religion is a bit unconventional as we are secular, but so much of the world’s great culture comes from religion that we feel the kids need to have this foundation. The text we have is aimed at middle schoolers and covers Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hindu, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Daoism. We are starting with Islam to support the Turkey visit. For science, Natick covers physical science in Grade 7 so we are going to do some introductory reading and home-based experiments in this area during the four months we are in Paris. Geography is a cinch on this trip… we simply added a workbook where we can cover one map per week in detail and make sure each child learns the key skills for reading and using maps.
How to Be Math Ninja was created as an enrichment math course because both kids already have an introduction to the subjects that usually are taught in 4th and 7th grade. We hesitated to push them ahead by starting the 5th and 8th grade course and leave them off cycle when they get back. Moreover, thinking of the best math problem-solvers that we know, these people can think laterally because they keep a wide range of methods at their fingertips at all times. So we went more horizontal than vertical. The goal of the course became simply to expose the kids to lots and lots of problems of many types and help them build a versatile foundation. Carter has problem sets in Number Theory, Arithmetic, Algebra and Geometry. Katherine meanwhile is slated to learn decimals and fractions in Grade 4, and she does need to practice this, so we will be doing lots until it becomes automatic. Both kids will also work through superb textbooks by Ed Zaccaro about creative problem-solving methods. Lastly, we had a great suggestion to look for math in the world around us, from proportions hidden in paintings, to architecture, to statistical comparisons of countries. We will work this in as the opportunity presents.
Tell Your Story is where we focus on language skills and communication. The main emphasis is writing because the kids already read plenty and writing is so hard to teach. This will mostly be a matter of keeping a journal and writing daily, then polishing up ideas for the blog site. We have a good workbook on keeping a writer’s journal and various essays that will help. The goals for reading are to expand the range of what they read and to explore stories about peers their age so that we can talk about people and relationships. We have about 50 books in a traveling library (mostly eBook with a few paperbacks where the titles are not with yet available) based on booklists and librarian recommendations. Gina will be running a bookclub format so the kids can articulate their reactions and hear different points of view. They are assigned one “school” book every two weeks and these are a mix of historical fiction, realtistic fiction, and non-fiction. To the extent possible, these titles are matched up with the itinerary to add depth, motivation and interest.
