heartofdakota.com

OK...I have been skipping the research in Preparing...or rather gathering the info from the net for them.

I just don't know about turning my 9 and 10 year olds loose on Wickipedia.

Additionally, I have think they would find the verbage used there hard to understand.

Ideas?

I too have had your same concerns. You may want to check your library system's website. Ours has free access to worldbook which is the online version of worldbook encyclopedia. You just have to put in your library card number etc to access it. Our library has 3 versions, kids, student, and advanced. It has been very helpful. It isn't long and drawn out like wikipedia seems to be to me. Not everything has been on there and when it is not, I search for something like "________" (fill in the blank) for kids. To me it is written in an easier format to understand. I have had to use wikipedia a few times for my kiddos.

Now I don't know if this is somehow canceling out something Carrie had planned for the kids, but it is working for our family and it's just my two cents.

When we did Preparing I struggled with some of the same things, however about that time I read something from Carrie or Julie about how the skill that is being learned is to skim through a large amount of information and learn to read the subheadings and then figure out where what you are looking for would be located. I started sitting with my ds and teaching him that skill. I didn't expect him to always be able to find it, but it was a process of teaching him how to skim through an article and pick out important or specific points. If he couldn't find it I would guide him towards the correct paragraph and show him how I knew to look there. As you go up through the guides the dc continue to learn to hone this skill in preparation for writing reports, research papers etc. Having a dd about to graduate I have come to realize that this is a skill she uses for almost every class. The other thing I think it teaches them is that the answer isn't always going to be right in front of you or be easy to find. That has been as much for me as for him because I have trouble watching him struggle to find the answer, but I have had to learn to sit back and let him work at it for awhile before I jump in to help. I realized it is more about the process than it is about the "right answer".

After reading Lynn's response, we may be missing a skill some weeks. So you may not want to consider my suggestion. Other weeks, what my children are reading just isn't one little paragraph. I actually have them read enough info so that they can answer basically all the questions even though that is not a requirement in the guide.

My issue with wikipedia is that the verbage does seem well above an eight year old's head (my dd age who is in Preparing). Does anyone have an opinion on this? Is there some kind of balance here? Not sure what to do as I am definitely for skill building, that's one of the reasons that I use HOD. Not trying to hijack your thread, mrsrandolph, but maybe it will help you too.

Edwena, my ds was 10 when he did Preparing so that does make a difference. I think using the World Book is fine. We have that access through our library also and have used it on occassion. The problem we ran into with that was that the information he was supposed to look for wasn't in the World Book article. I agree that sometimes the verbiage in Wikipedia is really tough. On those days I ended up doing more guidance.

I my son just turned 10, so our first half of preparing he was 9. I did the wikipedia WITH him. Also I used pinterest as a source for photos (like in the cave drawings). One of the best resource encyclopedia for kids in this age range are the Usborne internet linked encyclopedias . We just used the Encyclopedia of the ancient world to do our roman coins, and the Greek book as a review on the greeks. They are wonderful! and they have fabulous maps for the geography sections! truly. They are budget friendly, and very sturdy books with thick covers and pages. I'll bet you have an usborne consultant in your network somewhere

You can google and then choose from a variety of sources. For example, I typed in "illuminated manuscript (unit 24) and got an entry from the encyclopedia Britannica. I also got a J. Paul Getty Museum site and so on. As we start Preparing next week I will be teaching my son how to pick good resources as much as how to skim for information.