If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. |
|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
Study woes
I'm posting this for a friend. She has an 11 year old daughter in 6th
grade. Her daughter does very well in school but struggles with social studies. She has difficulty reading and memorizing facts. She says she just doesn't like social studies, but that's sort of a chicken-and-egg situation: which came first, not liking social studies or not doing well at social studies? My friend is looking for creative ways to help her daughter study in a subject she a.) doesn't particularly like and b.) doesn't have a natural "knack" for. Thanks in advance, Dawn Mom to Henry, 11 |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
Study woes
"iowacookiemom" wrote in message om... [] My friend is looking for creative ways to help her daughter study in a subject she a.) doesn't particularly like and b.) doesn't have a natural "knack" for. Social studies is mainly history and geography, isn't it? For those subjects I try to find interesting fiction that has real information as its background. For example, an 11 y.o doing US history could read the _American Girl_ series or _Little House on the Praire_ books. If she doesn't like reading, there are videos with historical and foreign settings. If you give more details about her social studies curriculum I might be able to come up with specific recommendations. Also, if you want more input, another good place for asking this question would be one of the homeschooling newsgroups. Jayne |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
Study woes
|
#4
|
|||
|
|||
Study woes
|
#5
|
|||
|
|||
Study woes
In article ,
iowacookiemom wrote: I'm posting this for a friend. She has an 11 year old daughter in 6th grade. Her daughter does very well in school but struggles with social studies. She has difficulty reading and memorizing facts. She says she just doesn't like social studies, but that's sort of a chicken-and-egg situation: which came first, not liking social studies or not doing well at social studies? My friend is looking for creative ways to help her daughter study in a subject she a.) doesn't particularly like and b.) doesn't have a natural "knack" for. I've never been a good memorizer either, and I hated social studies all through school. The books were badly written and boring, and the teachers as bad. Geography was ok, because maps are cool, but memorizing factoids about states and countries is extremely tedious. The advice other people have given about reading historical fiction and true stories that are better written than the school books will probably help the child learn something, but it probably won't help much with the memorize-and-regurgitate tests that dominate in the field. Sorry, I can't think of anything that worked for me. Oh--in high school I took the required American History in summer school, so that I could get it over with as quickly as possible and never have to suffer through it again. I realize that other people have different tastes---my younger brother loved history in school. Unfortunately, there does not seem to be a good way to transmit that love of a subject to another person (he still hates math and I still hate history). -- Kevin Karplus http://www.soe.ucsc.edu/~karplus life member (LAB, Adventure Cycling, American Youth Hostels) Effective Cycling Instructor #218-ck (lapsed) Professor of Computer Engineering, University of California, Santa Cruz Undergraduate and Graduate Director, Bioinformatics Affiliations for identification only. |
#7
|
|||
|
|||
Study woes
In article ,
Rosalie B. wrote: IMHO, this sounds like not very well taught ss as I don't think of ss as reading and memorizing facts. I would agree, but this is how I remember social studies, and later history and geography classes from my own youth as well. I hated them too, even though I'm a good memorized and usually got very good grades. So for instance, if she is studying say the Civil War (I can't remember what SS was in 6th grade), your friend could research with her what her ancestors were doing in that time period - if any of them were soldiers, or she could visit battlefields, or find out what foods were commonly eaten at that time, or what clothing children of her age would have worn or what sports they would have played. And there are - as someone suggested - books about girls who lived in various periods. These are good ideas in terms of actually *learning* about the subject, but IME it may not be helpful in doing well on the tests based on the particular version of the material doled out in class. --Robyn (who doesn't really mean to sound as cynical as this is coming off) |
#8
|
|||
|
|||
Study woes
|
#9
|
|||
|
|||
Study woes
iowacookiemom wrote:
I'm posting this for a friend. She has an 11 year old daughter in 6th grade. Her daughter does very well in school but struggles with social studies. She has difficulty reading and memorizing facts. She says she just doesn't like social studies, but that's sort of a chicken-and-egg situation: which came first, not liking social studies or not doing well at social studies? My friend is looking for creative ways to help her daughter study in a subject she a.) doesn't particularly like and b.) doesn't have a natural "knack" for. Thanks in advance, Dawn Mom to Henry, 11 I always hated social studies in school, but I loved learning about history. It took me until high school to realize that I liked learning more about the cultures and the context in which they lived as opposed to "this battle happened in this year" memorization. I agree with the previous responses in the thread by adding a little extra to what she's learning in school to help put all the "stupid" dates and events in some sort of meaningful context. There's usually a lot of PBS videos and children's history books at the library that might help (I loved watching PBS documentaries). Is there some sort of hobby the daughter enjoys? You can link that up with how people did that through time (like music through time, or sewing). As for the memorization, your friend would be doing her daughter a favor by teaching her ways to deal with memorizing information. For example, make flash cards and use them to make time lines to put things in order to see how they influenced each other. Review the flash cards or lists of information she needs to know every evening. Use mneumonic techniques (i.e. "in 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue). Unfortunately memorization is going to be part of her school life for many years, so the earlier she learns how to deal with it, the better off she'll be. Few of us have the "knack" for every subject. If she stops caring about learning early, she'll be hurting herself for the rest of her education. - Joanne |
#10
|
|||
|
|||
Study woes
In article ,
"jjmoreta" wrote: iowacookiemom wrote: I'm posting this for a friend. She has an 11 year old daughter in 6th grade. Her daughter does very well in school but struggles with social studies. She has difficulty reading and memorizing facts. She says she just doesn't like social studies, but that's sort of a chicken-and-egg situation: which came first, not liking social studies or not doing well at social studies? My friend is looking for creative ways to help her daughter study in a subject she a.) doesn't particularly like and b.) doesn't have a natural "knack" for. Thanks in advance, Dawn Mom to Henry, 11 As for the memorization, your friend would be doing her daughter a favor by teaching her ways to deal with memorizing information. For example, make flash cards and use them to make time lines to put things in order to see how they influenced each other. Review the flash cards or lists of information she needs to know every evening. Use mneumonic techniques (i.e. "in 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue). Unfortunately memorization is going to be part of her school life for many years, so the earlier she learns how to deal with it, the better off she'll be. Few of us have the "knack" for every subject. There used to be a book called (I think) "The Timetables of History" that showed when things happened in relation to each other--like when x was going on the U.S., y and z were going on in various parts of Europe and a, b and c were going on in Asia. It was fascinating to leaf through. Maybe something like that would help. Or the Times Atlas of World History, which has maps of the world during all kinds of historical periods and events. |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
The Droananator BESTS Kane Again was The Kane9 Kan't Dance continues.....WAS.... Alternate methods of discipline | Kane | General | 3 | March 6th 04 06:28 PM |
Has anyone seen my old friend Doan? | Doan | General | 1 | February 14th 04 02:15 PM |
DOAN MEETS THE DEBATING REQUIREMENTS.....WAS.... Alternate methods of discipline | Kane | General | 1 | February 10th 04 07:00 AM |
| | Kids should work... | Kane | General | 13 | December 10th 03 02:30 AM |
Kids should work. | LaVonne Carlson | General | 22 | December 7th 03 04:27 AM |