Our entire school system is based on the notion of passive students that must be "taught" if they are to learn. . . . Our country spends tens of billions of dollars each year not just giving students a second-rate education, but at the same time actively preventing them from getting an education on their own. And I'm angry at how school produces submissive students with battered egos. Most students have no idea of the true joys of learning, and of how much they can actually achieve on their own.
~Adam Robinson, co-founder of The Princeton Review
~Adam Robinson, co-founder of The Princeton Review
There is nothing like educating your own child. It is an amazing experience with all the highs and lows. Once in awhile a person asks if I am concern that my daughter's education with have "gaps." Here's the thing: who decides what are the gaps? I was educated in public schools and I feel there are gaps in my education and it probably was done on purpose because there is only so much a child can be taught in a few hours a day. In fact, I have never yet met anyone who knows everything, which means everyone has gaps in their education, right? It is not like the person cannot learn later on as needed...as I am doing right now myself.
I decided that the Princess and I would begin to work through the states, one by one, in the order of their statehood. I do not have a timeline as to when we will finish this project, we are just taking it one state at a time. I am using Study Starters, but that was just for an outline for our journal. We did Delaware first. It located on a peninsula called Delmarva, which is portmanteau (blend of words) formed by the names of the three states on it: Delaware, Maryland, and Virgina. The name Delaware came from Thomas West, Lord De La Warr, the second governor of Virginia, so there were no tribes that called themselves the Delaware actually. The Lenape, which means the people, originally lived along what was later named the Delaware River. They spoke a form of the Algonquian language and were called the "Grandfathers" by the other Algonquian tribes because of their belief that the Lenape were among the oldest groups in the Algonquian nation.
Did I learn this in school? No. I learned to memorize the state capital Dover and maybe the largest city Wilmington, and be able to find Delaware on a map in fourth or fifth grade. That was about it.
This is just one of the many reasons I truly enjoy homeschooling. I learn many things I did not learn before so my education is improved also.
~ My Lord, thank you for homeschooling and please continue to bless homeschooling all over the world. ~
