Philosophy for Children

[Faithr]

Is anyone here familiar with the Philosophy for Children series by Mathew Lipman? Angelicum Academy uses this. Here's the link: http://www.academybookstore.org/AngelicumStore/Detail.bok?no=872

 

My son is a rising 6th grader and very interested in philosophical issues.

 

Thanks!

[radiobrain]

I have not heard of that, but these are some interesting Philosophy books.

 

http://www.prufrock.com/showproducts.cfm?FullCat=107

 

I own Philosophy for Kids which I cannot WAIT to get to.

[Sunshine State Sue]

That link is not working. :confused:

 

I think we read a book called Philosophy for Children years ago and really enjoyed it, but I don't think it's the same one. I remember it talked about some of the great philosopher's ideas.

Edited August 6, 2010 by Sue in St Pete

[nmoira]

We have the first two levels (Elfie and Kio & Gus), and I'm impressed with what I've read. However, these are not courses that can -- or I think should -- be adapted for use with one or two students. The quality of the course will depend to a great degree on the facilitator, who has ideally either has some IAPC training or is experienced in facilitating student-led/directed discussions and seminars. The TM's for these courses are beyond huge, but aren't designed to be followed to the letter, though the facilitator has to familiar with the material so as to be able to help guide the discussion as necessary, jump start it if lagging, and help explore connections. Did I mention that the TM's are huge? :)

 

ETA: It's not clear to me from the link, but if this is being offered as a course, I'd go for it. :)

[Faithr]

Thanks for the info, nmoira! So it sounds more like a Socratic Discussion kind of thing, where the student is guided through topics. Hmmm. We did the Socratic Discussion group thing using Touchstones (http://www.touchstones.org) last year. Unfortunately my son was the oldest of a group of kids and the topics where just not at his level. Also some of the younger ones just didn't 'get it' and so my son got bored and distracted.

 

It sounds like Philosophy for Children is similar to Touchstones, except Touchstones sound much easier to use. The TM is slim and it takes very little prep, after one's initial read through of program's approach, to prep for a discussion session. Phil. for Children might be meatier in teaching each philosophers ideas more fully. Touchstones takes an excert from Bacon, Plato, Montaigne, etc which the students read and then the teacher is provided with a list of questions to use to stimulate discussion about the ideas presented in the excerpt.

 

I'm going to look into these other resouces mentioned by other posters.

 

Thanks everyone!

[Walking-Iris]

Bumping this older thread because I want to know if anyone uses these books and how they like them.

 

Pixie

Elfie

Kio and Gus

Harry Stottlemeier's Discovery

Lisa

Suki

Mark

 

I'm hoping someone can give me more specifics than the Amazon description. Are these set up as read aloud stories? Workbooks? Does anyone know where the TMs can be found fro cheaper than at Amazon? I was thinking about getting the Pixie and the Elfie books.

 

Exactly what do you do with them?

 

And of course the ever necessary question: how secular or not are they?

[5Wizards]

We used Nous (another book in the set) last year with 2 5th grade girls. We didn't really use the book itself (although I had it), but instead used the TM (Deciding What To Do - Instructional Manual to Accompany Nous). They loved it! I didn't feel like it was difficult to implement at all, but maybe I'm missing something. We would just focus on one section at a time, discussing their thoughts on the topics, etc... I never prepped for this - I'd just grab the TM, look over what we were discussing for the day for a few minutes, then jump right in. It was one of their favorite things to do last year. It is completely secular (although I don't think someone from a religious viewpoint would object to it?). A larger group would probably work even better, but it worked just fine with just the three of us.

 

This year we're using Philosophy for Kids, and they're enjoying it, but I feel like it's a step down from what we did last year. With my next child, I think we'll go more slowly with Nous and spread it out over 2 years as there is just so much covered.

 

I was lucky because I found a used TM for about $10 just by doing online searches. I haven't been able to find any more, but I haven't looked for awhile. Next year I will probably suck it up and buy the TM for a higher level.

 

In my TM, there are 9 Chapters, with each chapter having 7-22 "Leading Ideas." Some of the leading ideas for chapter 1 include Right, Lying, Making up stories, Having rights, Fairness, possible, growth, etc....... For each leading idea, there's a brief introduction to the topic, connecting it to the student book, and several exercises that can be completed (questions or scenarios to make everyone think about the topic). We did most of the exercises orally.

 

I hope this explanation helps a little bit. Using the TM really spurred some interesting conversations for us last year and like I said, I will be buying another level for next year even if I have to pay full price.

 

ETA: The student book is a story, so there are no exercises or anything in it.

[serendipitous journey]

Is anyone here familiar with the Philosophy for Children series by Mathew Lipman? Angelicum Academy uses this. Here's the link: http://www.academybookstore.org/AngelicumStore/Detail.bok?no=872 My son is a rising 6th grader and very interested in philosophical issues. Thanks!

We have the first two levels (Elfie and Kio & Gus), and I'm impressed with what I've read. However, these are not courses that can -- or I think should -- be adapted for use with one or two students. The quality of the course will depend to a great degree on the facilitator, who has ideally either has some IAPC training or is experienced in facilitating student-led/directed discussions and seminars. The TM's for these courses are beyond huge, but aren't designed to be followed to the letter, though the facilitator has to familiar with the material so as to be able to help guide the discussion as necessary, jump start it if lagging, and help explore connections. Did I mention that the TM's are huge? :) ETA: It's not clear to me from the link, but if this is being offered as a course, I'd go for it. :)

 

I wanted to add to this thread: I called Angelicum Academy this week RE using the Elfie books with 1 or 2 homeschooled children, and their customer support said that the guide offered by Angelicum is designed to allow a mother to easily work through the material with 1 child. But I don't have it yet, so can't say for certain.

[Barbara H]

For kids who are interested in philosophy I wanted to share one idea and that's the Philosophy Slam. Open k-12, just $2 for homeschools to participate. "The Kids Philosophy Slam is designed to make philosophy accessible and fun for kids of all ages and abilities, to promote a philosophical dialogue between kids and adults, and to promote a greater awareness of philosophy and education in everyday life. Over $3,000 in prizes are available to students & schools. Home school participation as well as international participation is encouraged." http://www.philosophyslam.org/

[kewb]

My kids Philosophy Facilitator was a student of Matt Lipman. It is a fantastic progam.

[Walking-Iris]

Thanks. The books are relatively inexpensive used on amazon. I may just look for them through the library and then just jump in a try a few.