X-Post So in your own education, do you focus on one subject

[Luanne]

at a time ... like Greece or Astronomy (maybe history and science both) and then when you feel like you've learned all you want for the time being anyway about that subject ... move onto something else. I am finding I want to learn everything at once. I have a very short attention span and was thinking maybe I would concentrate on China and Greece for History and maybe Life Science/Biology and Earth Science/Astonomy ... then I can go back and forth and hopefully won't get burnt out like I did last time I tried this. What do you think? Am I even making any sense here?

[Peela]

You mean you get time to educate yourself completely separately from your kids? :)

I just read. And I read what appeals to me at the time. At the moment, I am reading Emerson's essays and loving them. I am learning history alongside my kids and thats enough for me- I see connections everywhere and so much more is making sense. But I dont have the inclination to read about the Ancient Greeks more than what my (Logic stage) kids are learning.

I read and I read. I don't try and have a pattern or a schedule, because I usually get a feeling for what to read next, and I just read it. I can't predict now what I will want to read, or feel drawn to read, in 6 months time. I may be totally into something I can't even conceive now.

One book at a time. (Although I have plenty more than one by my bedside, my "self education" book is usually one at a time).

[Plaid Dad]

I have some long-term self-education projects (improving my Latin) and some shorter-term ones (reading about Fibonacci numbers, taking a drawing class). But if my time were very limited, I would read one book at a time before picking up another. It's too easy to get side-tracked otherwise.

[Nan in Mass]

I usually have only enough energy to learn one doing thing and one reading thing at a time. When I've learned what I want of one of them, I switch to something else. Often, I go back to an earlier thing after I've digested it for a year or two, or after I've learned something else that makes it so I can go further with it. -Nan

[GailV]

I'm trying to spend 1/2 hour per day working on Latin, and 1/2 hour per day listening to a Teaching Company lecture. I do better with a little bit every day than huge chunks every few days.

 

I'm very tempted to dive headfirst into a subject and wallow in it, but I know I'll get burned out if I do.:blink: So, it's teeny tiny little steps for me.

[KarenC]

My oldest is 11. Last year I realized how few of the classics I read during school. So now I am making my way through the books that I think I will want my girls to read. This year I have read To Kill a Mockingbird, The Giver, Watership Down, Of Mice and Men, several of James Herriot's books, and now I am reading Grapes of Wrath. In the near future I am probably going to need to reveiw algebra. I am just trying to keep ahead of them.

 

I could really use a few more hours in the day.

 

Karen

[Michelle in MO]

at a time. When I was in college, it was the Holocaust and the German resistance. Afterwards, it was WWII in general; then Mount Everest; then Shackleton's Endurance expedition; then WWII again.

 

My latest topics of interest have been British history and Jane Austen. Who knows what will come next? :D

[dragons in the flower bed]

at a time ... like Greece or Astronomy (maybe history and science both) and then when you feel like you've learned all you want for the time being anyway about that subject ... move onto something else.

 

You lost me in your subject line. Do I focus on one subject? I don't divide my learning up into subjects. If I have a question, or a problem, I'll view that as one area of learning and focus on it until I hit a wall or resolve it.

 

Yesterday's project (which didn't get finished, due to illness) was setting up notebooking pages for my little guys on the topic of prehistory. When I was a kid, I learned "age of mammals, age of fauna . . ." which is not correct. So I had to study geological time and evolution all over again, then I had to wrestle with my word processing and graphic design programs and look up ways to do what I wanted to do. What is that subject -- science, education, or computer skills?

 

The only exceptions are Latin and math. I'm studying those just a few lessons ahead of my kiddos, and I do them each daily as discrete subjects.

[Luanne]

You mean you get time to educate yourself completely separately from your kids? :)

I just read. And I read what appeals to me at the time. At the moment, I am reading Emerson's essays and loving them. I am learning history alongside my kids and thats enough for me- I see connections everywhere and so much more is making sense. But I dont have the inclination to read about the Ancient Greeks more than what my (Logic stage) kids are learning.

I read and I read. I don't try and have a pattern or a schedule, because I usually get a feeling for what to read next, and I just read it. I can't predict now what I will want to read, or feel drawn to read, in 6 months time. I may be totally into something I can't even conceive now.

One book at a time. (Although I have plenty more than one by my bedside, my "self education" book is usually one at a time).

 

But that is only because my daughter is 19 (still trying for her high school diploma), but pretty much works on her own. My biggest competition for time is my job ... since I work full time at Wal-Mart as a cashier.

[Paisley Hedgehog]

nm