Smoky Mountain Learning Adventures

Classes, Classroom Help, Informative, Just For Fun

Published with Permission
Written by Analisa L. Smith
www.abledlearning.com
www.TOSMagazine.com

As a young child, I spent more time in the mountains when away from home than perhaps any other place. As an adult, the mountains are our home away from home. The mountains have offered us ethereal beauty and educational opportunities that abound for our homeschooling efforts. Following are some of the activities and locations that our family has enjoyed in the Smoky Mountains and used in our homeschooling adventures.

 Nature Viewing and Photo Tours

The Great Smoky Mountains is famous for its spectacular display of fall foliage, with its deep colors of yellow, orange, burnt brown, and crimson. Take in the view from October until mid November while enjoying outdoor activities such as hiking, canoeing, rafting, horseback riding, or scenic car rides. Be on the lookout for trees such as birch, maple, cherry, hobblebush, beech, and lush evergreens. These are great places to allow the children to make tree rubbings and learn to differentiate bark types.

Photo tours are often an unexplored learning aspect of the Smoky Mountains. One of the most photographed areas is the Cataloochee Valley, where wildlife roams freely. This area is home to many historic buildings, including springhouses and German barns, making it an opportune photography location. Cades Cove is the most visited area of the park and is home to a variety of beautiful wildlife to view, identify, and photograph. Children should be informed beforehand of how to observe wildlife properly so as not to interfere with the animals’ natural habitat. (more…)

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Geography: Traveling the World Through the Pages of a Book

Classes, Classroom Help, Informative

Published with Permission
Written by Rea Berg
www.reaberg.com
www.TOSMagazine.com

“The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.”—Saint Augustine

The ancient Greek, Strabo (c. 64 B.C.–24 A.D.), is credited with writing the first complete book of geography during the years that Augustus Caesar reigned as emperor of the vast Roman Empire. Because travel was difficult in the ancient world and the fact that most people, with the exception of merchants and sailors, rarely traveled far from the homes of their birth, knowledge of the world was extremely limited. However, with the reign of peace brought about under Augustus, Strabo changed all that when he traveled extensively in what was then the known world. He traveled throughout Asia Minor, into Egypt to the border of Ethiopia, into Tuscany, and to many other parts of Europe. In his Geographica, Strabo was the first to combine the knowledge of the land and topography of regions with anthropological information, which proved invaluable to all future students of history, philosophy, and science.

Strabo’s Geographica demonstrates the importance of travel in order to develop a broad and informed knowledge of the world, its peoples, customs, and beliefs. The notion that travel expands us in good ways is summed up in Mark Twain’s maxim: “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness . . . .” While this is a worthy goal and often desirable in youth, when responsibilities are few and freedom is possible, travel is an option to any and all who simply open the pages of a good book. (more…)

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Homeschooling – Missionary Style

Burn Out, Classroom Help

Published with Permission
Written by Esther Dalton
www.TOSMagazine.com

I was frustrated. The curriculum for my twelfth-grade English class required me to write an essay about C.S. Lewis, G. K. Chesterton, and T. S. Eliot, comparing how they used stories to convey apologetics—a fascinating topic. Unfortunately, my family did not own any of their writings other than the brief excerpts anthologized in my British Literature textbook and our dog-eared copies of The Chronicles of Narnia—hardly enough material for a decent essay. The books my family owned were all the resources I had. We lived in Asia, not the United States.

As a homeschooling family on the mission field, we encountered many challenges like this one: lack of materials at home, lack of resources in the community, and lack of opportunities for interaction with other students and educators. Yet, for my two siblings and me, homeschooling was the ideal mode of education, because school had to be “portable.” (more…)

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