You are engaged in one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences in education. You probably wouldn't be here if you weren't excited about the possibilities. But you may be worried about the responsibilities that go with it.
If teaching history and geography are on your horizon I have two thoughts to share:
Don't give up if you feel under qualified for the task. You will discover the joy of learning as you teach.
Don't substitute visits to historic sites and historical fiction for an organized approach to the subject. Students need to learn the cause and effect relationships in history or they miss the central purpose and value of the study.
Our Land publications are ideally suited to the needs of the homeschooling parent and student. Each issue is totally self contained, including reading, activities and student interaction in an easy to handle format. Easily understood questions and answers involve the reader in the events of the period being covered. The handout format allows us to present a great deal of information to the student without the intimidation factor of a large textbook.
Special Concerns Of Homeschoolers...
Parents choose to homeschool their children for many reasons and come from many backgrounds. Our Land programs are written with a deep respect for historical accuracy and for the student's responsibility to draw their own conclusions from their studies. It is our desire to present the facts of history without adding a "politically correct" spin to events. Here are some answers to common questions concerning our programs...
Do you teach religious principles & doctrines?
Our Land Publications do not present specific doctrinal or religious views, but do recognize our Judeo-Christian heritage and include a strong and consistent emphasis on the traditional values vital to spiritual understanding.
Are these programs revisionist?
History is history. It is the record of events past. Interpretation is subjective. Our Land Publications do not interpret history for the homeschool teacher or student(s).
What about political correctness?
Like revisionism, political correctness is inappropriate to a solid study of history. We study the past not to judge it, but to learn from it. Our Land Publications do not attempt to make history fit contemporary needs, but do provide a solid basis on which to understand the past and build a better future for our students and nation.
Primary Applications In homeschooling
As the Core Curriculum
Our Land Publications are designed to provide an organized curriculum core with which textbooks and other sources may be used as supplements. A thorough Comprehensive Teacher's Manual supports each program.
As a Textbook Supplement
Where a textbook is necessary to curriculum framework, especially a religious based text, Our Land Publications provide a highly compatible supplement!
As Activity Sheets
Each issue provides at least one activity, project, or exercise that may be used to expand the lessons or as a textbook supplement.
With One or Several Students
The periodical format of Our Land Publications is perfect for any form of independent study. Every student has his/her own set of papers handed out one at a time as they are ready for them. As a rule, they work through the lessons alone with parental/teacher supervision and oversight. When responses are required and as directed by the Teacher's Manual, answers are shared and discussed openly. The programs also work well with mixed age or grade levels. Our Land Publications provide readable, interesting and rewarding study material for higher and lower grade students working together or separately. The activities, discussion topics, and other resources may be used to expand their study interests as well.
In Clusters or Magnet Schools
In addition to the advantages above, Our Land Publications naturally lend themselves to mixed-grade classes. Even high schoolers can be merged with 4th graders without weakening the program.
Importance of the Teacher's Manual
One of the most valuable assets of Our Land Publications in homeschooling is the Comprehensive Teacher's Manual offered for each study. This manual should be used by every teacher whether in a cluster or with a solitary student. It will walk you through the study one step and lesson at a time and give you countless additional activities, study resources, questions to ask (and their answers), and provide the vital information needed to teach this subject.
Product choices
Student sets and Comprehensive Teacher's Manuals are available separately as well as in Combination Packs containing one Student and one Teachers Manual at a discounted price.
Understanding history is important! History is NOT a bag of yesterday's leftovers thrown into a basket and eaten with French Fries! It is the record of living, breathing human beings struggling through life, facing and sometimes suffering from their encounters along the road. Their victories and defeats, their joys and sorrows, are highly relevant to us today and tomorrow.
As our youth become evermore dependent on their daily fix of video games, i-pods, and junk food, we must do all we can to remind them - no, inform them - that they are not a product of their own being, but builders on a foundation of those who have gone before. The lives they make for themselves are only possible because they stand on the shoulders of those who preceded.
At Our Land Publications we strive to accomplish this by making the study of history interesting and relevant to the student. Our approach to this study can be broken down into several themes
Cause and Effect
The Chronological Chain - History is a chain reaction!
Cause and effect is demonstrated through chronological arrangement of events and their presentation. Concurrency is also explained and demonstrated in many applications. Where one event is influenced by another, students see how a chronological chain can result. They also learn to distinguish such events from those which are coincidental.
Topical Chains & Thematic Interaction
Themes of history parallel events of history
A unique advantage of the chronological (newspaper) structure is that important topics and themes are naturally introduced as they become relevant and may be studied concurrent to their influence on society. For example, civil rights elements develop naturally throughout the study in association with slavery, abolition, the Civil War, Reconstruction, segregation, desegregation, and the modern emphasis on equality of rights and opportunity.
Student, teacher, & parent friendliness
It does not have to intimidate
Student, teacher, and parent friendliness results from the unintimidating style. This is a vital element in developing student acceptance of history and interest in its study. But it also attracts better parental support and involvement because they are not intimidated either!
Grade Level vs. Learning Aptitude
Everyone should be included
Because they are studied chapter-by-chapter and page-by-page, textbooks are written to a single grade level generally representing the lowest common denominator of the intended students. By using the periodical format and differentiating lessons by student aptitude, Our Land Publications address a much wider grade range. In fact, state studies are written to an average 4th grade level but are suitable to and include 7th grade and even higher!
Testing & Assessment
We must be able to measure success
By having students immediately respond to questions incorporated in the text, teachers are able to assess comprehension by observing their responses. Then using Reaction Time (discussion topics) as multi-purposed exercises, teachers may assess comprehension in greater depth. Formal testing at mid-term and conclusion assess student knowledge of facts as well as comprehension.
Language Arts & Reading Skills
Social studies can support language arts and vice-versa
By making the study friendlier and more personal to the students, they become naturally more aware of and interested in newspapers and magazines. This is an important feature in today's entertainment driven society. Many Our Land lessons may be used as language arts activities with or without their primary social studies emphasis. Most provide opportunities for parallel reading of biographies, primary sources, references, etc.
Local, Regional, and Personal Adaptability
Social studies should be adapted to primary needs of local schools and communities
One of the biggest challenges in teaching social studies is making the subject relevant to specific events and circumstances of a state, community, or school. The newspaper format makes adaptability a far more attainable goal. Students may readily develop articles and features relating broad studies to local ones thereby expanding the lesson content. Lessons may be easily supplemented with local biographies, geography, personal accounts, etc. without losing overall continuity or falling hopelessly behind schedule.
Lesson Scheduling and Continuity
It is important to keep moving and complete the course
Another of every teacher's greatest challenges is maintaining the study calendar. Teachers simply do not finish the course in the time allotted. Very few ever teach the last chapter of their textbooks! The periodical format and lesson structure included enable teachers to select the most important topics and move on without breaking continuity. (No one ever reads ALL of a newspaper.) Breaking continuity in a textbook invariably creates confusion.
Do you teach religious principles & doctrines?
Understanding history is important! History is NOT a bag of yesterday's leftovers thrown into a basket and eaten with French Fries! It is the record of living, breathing human beings struggling through life, facing and sometimes suffering from their encounters along the road. Their victories and defeats, their joys and sorrows, are highly relevant to us today and tomorrow.
