Trail Guide to Learning: Paths of Exploration Set - Hardcover

Debbie Strayer; Linda Fowler

9781931397612: Trail Guide to Learning: Paths of Exploration Set

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1931397619 ISBN 13: 9781931397612

Publisher: Geography Matters Inc, 2009

Paths of Exploration takes students on a journey. Follow the steps of famous explorers and pioneers across America and let geography be your guide to science, history, language skills, and the arts. This journey will teach students HOW to think by asking, answering, and investigating questions about our great country's beginning and growth. The paths of the explorers are seen through multidisciplinary eyes, but always with the same goals: to make learning enjoyable, memorable, and motivating. This full one-year course for 3rd, 4th and 5th graders (adaptable for 2nd and 6th) covers six units in two volumes.

So, pack your bags and prepare to travel across time and territory with great explorers as your guide!

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About the Author:

Debbie Strayer received her bachelor's and master's degrees in education and has many years of experience as an educator, consultant, and student evaluator. She is the former editor and co-founder of Homeschooling Today magazine, the author of Gaining Confidence to Teach, the editor of The Homeschool Answer Book by her mentor, Dr. Ruth Beechick, and co-author of Learning Language Arts Through Literature series.

Debbie feels her most important accomplishments are that she has been the wife of Greg Strayer for over 30 years, and a homeschooling parent for 16 years. She speaks and writes about homeschooling topics with humor, honesty, and encouragement.

Linda Fowler received a BA degree in Visual Communications from the University of South Florida, where she also met her husband, Colclough. She subsequently spent 17 years homeschooling their four children, from 1st through 12th grades, and developing an unshakeable appreciation for the power of encouragement. The Fowlers reside in Tampa, Florida.

Review:

Students will complete a broad range of mapping activities including spherical globe work, blank outline flat mapping, and reading of regular maps. Language arts activities cover word endings, synonyms, narration, root words, context clues, and much more. The various geography and science activities provide hands-on fun as students make salt dough maps, use timers, and perform experiments--all while connecting the information to the other subject areas seamlessly. The copywork was low stress while yielding results, and we didn't dread it as we often have in the past. Each assignment was an integral part of the overall lesson and helped with a greater understanding of the material; even my ten-year-old didn't mind doing the work. Discussions were wonderful as I saw my children truly engaged in the stories, caring about the quality of material put into their notebooks, and looking forward to upcoming reading assignments. The art activities, particularly the grid map activities, were a huge hit and helped extend my son's desire for additional art assignments. The extra resource materials, although costly, were wonderful additions to our home library and are already being used in other educational activities outside of this curriculum. --The Old Schoolhouse Magazine

What I love about Paths of Exploration:
*All of the lessons are planned out for me. I simply print out any worksheets or maps I need for the week, grab the curriculum and follow along.
*Biblical worldview.
*The curriculum covers History, Geography, Science, Grammar, Reading, Art, Nature Study, and Spelling.
*All of my children are learning the same thing for all subjects {except math}.
*The Unit Study approach ties all of the subjects together in a way that really furthers retention.
*There are extras that you can add-on for even more learning {lapbooks, Bible supplement, Middle School Supplement}.
*It is rooted in the education philosophies of Dr. Ruth Beechick.
*POE marries nicely with Charlotte Mason.
*Encourages engagement with dictation, discussion, and writing.
*The kids love it. There have been no complaints about school with Paths of Exploration. They love the readings, enjoy the maps and activities, and clamor for the Nature Study. They even enjoy the copywork and dictation! And, they finally get regular art in each week.
*The living books chosen as the base for this curriculum are wonderful. You even get to cook, using the cookbook, Eat Your Way Around the World, by Jamie Aramini.
*I finally have a guide to incorporate Nature Study into our homeschool.
*Geography Matters is a home-based company, located in Kentucky.
*The cost: I am going to break this down into two options. If you have a wonderful library, you can get away with spending only $150.00 {which is for the textbooks and CD-ROM}. You can also buy the Paths of Exploration curriculum, and all of the books you will need for the year for $375.00. That is for all subjects except Math, for an entire year. For me, I am using that with 4 children this year, which is an amazing deal in my book.
*Non-consumable! The student pages are printed from the included CD-ROM, so everything else is reusable year after year. {The price gets even better when you factor that in!} --Blogger Sam Kelley at Sam's Noggin

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