Homeschooled driver training

[4kidsandadog]

No, I remember map reading falling under social studies/geography skills.  I like maps, too!  I love plotting driving courses.  I can study road atlases for hours, planning real or imaginary trips.  Getting ready to plot our return trip home and wishing there was a faster way that didn't take us up I-75.... that stretch between Atlanta and Orlando is horrendous!  We got stuck about an hour north of Valdosta on our way down here... 2 1/2 hours to go just a few miles; there had been some really bad accident with 3 fatalities that night.  I hear it happens a lot.

Karen

[patriciaredstone]

Add automobile purchasing and maintenance to map-reading! Most homeschooling families include the children on these practical life-skills to round out their education.

We are planning a trip to Europe in the Spring. We need to use some \"miles\" before we lose them. We are doing the Rick Stevers four-countries-in-three-weeks plan. We are traveling light with backpacks and staying in hostelries and convents. We are trying to think of ways to involve our son in the planning. Right now he is researching out things we plan to do and making presentations on them ... things like the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace -- the history and protocol -- and before we go to the Alps, we'd like to hear more about Hannibal's march. So far he's game and having a good time educating us.

[Richard]

[!--QuoteBegin--][/span][table border=\"0\" align=\"center\" width=\"95%\" cellpadding=\"3\" cellspacing=\"1\"][tr][td]Quote [/td][/tr][tr][td id=\"QUOTE\"][!--QuoteEBegin--]Add automobile purchasing and maintenance to map-reading![/quote]
Don't forget the all-important map folding!
A tidy map is a useful map.

Richard

[janine]

... and insists upon doing himself while he's driving...
... with the windows open and a gale-force breeze flapping the thing around...
... and his white, white, white wife (no matter what color she was when she got in the car) holding on for dear life as he swerves and twirls through the interstate traffic, gleefully a-foldin' of his map!

[Jeff]

I'm taking my boys camping this weekend at a great park on the South Carolina coast (Hunting Island.)  My almost 16 year old is progressing nicely in his driver's training, so I thought this trip would be a great opportunity to further his education.

I gave him a couple days \"off\" from Geometry assignments and clipped Georgia and South Carolina road maps to his weekly math assignment sheet.  His instructions are to write out a detailed, turn-by-turn set of directions (including both incremental and total mileage) from our home to the state park (no cheating with MapQuest, either!)  I asked him how the assignment was going last night and he admitted that he was struggling a bit (\"too many red and black roads.\")  I'll give him a hand tomorrow afternoon and then we'll implement the plan Friday.

I have to remind myself that I'm a map geek (I remember asking to see the map as a child on family trips and have always been rather fastidious about knowing where I'm going,) so I'll try and be patient.  But now that I think about it, I don't ever recall getting any map-reading education in Driver's Ed, did you?

[janine]

What do you call that game/training where teams are dumped they-know-not-where, given a map or a set of directions, and a compass, and they're required to use those minimal tools to get to home base?

Orienteering, maybe?

That'd be a good course for anyone to have, homeschooled or not.

[janine]

The researcher/teacher learns the most sometimes, I think.  Becoming interested in & enthusiastic enough about the topic to be able to teach it is a good education.

[charlie]

Richard,

Exactly. Nothing shortens the life of a map like improper folding. Something every man knows instinctively.