Geography help...please.
Posted by: dhaley <dhaley@...>
children have always been homeschooled and we've used mostly the unit study
approach utilizing alot of the classics and lots of reading.
Last year both hubby and I both felt God was leading us to change our
homeschooing due to the changing needs of our children. I still try to
incorporate a unit study type of approach toward the texts we are using and
so far I've found Covenant to be great in that area. The college my son
wants to attend has very specific requirements for entrance and those
requirements became even more stringent this fall due to a high student
enrollment. One of those requirements is Geography during the high school
course of study. I thought no problem, we'll just use the BJU text that
Covenant uses (I didn't buy Covenant's whole package for 9th grade...just
bought their English and filled in the rest with items I was already using).
I quickly obtained a TE and SE of BJU's Geography like what is used with
Covenant. This meets the requirement, my kids think it's so easy they
actually groan when we bring the books out. There is a part of me that
groans too...on just this subject. We've only made it a little way into the
text since we switched mid-year last year to Covenant.
I'm not having Covenant keep track of my son's grades so I'm not bound to
their stuff but for the first time in my homeschooling experience hubby is
being a bit hard nosed about me not doing alot of my "own thing". He says
it's for my own good. He feels that I need something more structured to
reduce my stress. I know he's right and so things have been going along
o.k....except for the Geography. If he does get offered the Project
Managers job in Israel, he will take it. It will also mean that I will most
likely have to be enrolled in something that will oversee my children's
education even though we are homeschooling. I've had a very difficult time
finding out just what is expected in Israel and about the only thing I've
been told is that I would be under the juridiction of the Embassy and not
subject to the Israeli compulsary ed laws because I would be a US citizen.
(Pat if you know something different please email me.) This is another
reason hubby wants to have us on a track that can be easily switched over to
a monitored homeschooling situation. Covenant won't care what I use for
Geography since I'll have to provide my own transcripts until I enroll with
them. If we do go to Israel it won't be until next Fall, so I have this
year to do what I want...well...sort of. Covenant is a classical ed
approach, allows you to use Jacob's Math products and Apologia Science,
things I wanted to use anyway so it seemed like a fit.
Everytime I take that BJU Geography book out, the kids give me "the look",
but are respectful. They read their pages, answer the questions, slam the
book closed and are done. Kind of the feeling you get when you shut the lid
on toilet once you've cleaned it.
I have a friend that has used Mapping the World by Heart. I say "used"
loosely, because they only did it for about 2 months. She said they hated
it. Another friend that usually ends up doing the same thing I've done said
that she's been on several homeschool lists that have given the program
mixed reviews. Alot of people find out they don't like it....yet I see it
as a best seller. Maybe I'm just having a hard time letting go of unit
studies but I feel drawn to the stuff that I read about this program. David
is studying World History this year, a text I'm fine with. It just seems to
make sense to me that we combine his Geography study with his World History
study. We could just locate that place he's studying in World History and
then on Mapping the World by heart. We'd knock out World History and
Geography at the same time. Seems like alot more fun to me. I'm shy
because of all the negative comments about it though.
I need that stupid credit to go on his transcript and right now something
that has assigned credit to it just seems the way hubby wants to go. I'm
sure he'd let me switch to the Mapping the World...but ugh...I just don't
know. Am I making this too hard? Does anyone know of any other Geography
programs that have a measured credit that would meet my needs? Thanks for
listening...Deanna