"Oh my goodness; they´re so young and already speak fluent English!" the Skåne ice cream truck sales woman burst out when we were trying to decide on what to buy from her. I had heard this joke before; my father used to say while in France on holiday "Look at these kids; so young and already fluent in French (a very difficult language at that)!" Only, I quickly realized that the Skåne ice cream truck sales woman was not making a joke - she was seriously amazed. Granted, Vollsjö is a very small village, and not exactly a tourist attraction, but it´s situated about a 40 minute-ride from Denmark, and EVERYBODY in Sweden has cable - the fact that children may speak other languages, and not all Skånska, should not appear odd. But I guess it did.
By Lovain (vacationing in Sweden)
Showing posts with label Swedish. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Swedish. Show all posts
Monday, July 23, 2007
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
deciding on an American/Swedish/European classical home schooling curriculum
In the light of our children's upcoming 3 years of home schooling, over the past few weeks, the Husband & I have been discussing elementary education.
It is quite obvious the Husband & I were schooled very differently. My education had a broader historical, geographical and linguistic approach, while his was more detailed in sciences, math and personal development. While my history and science education started with the Big Bang and moved forward in time carefully covering the ice-age, stone-age and bronze-age, the Husband's started around the civil war, and then later covered the classics without really focusing on the development in a broader sense predating the Egyptian and Greek cultures.
The emphasis in my educational background is a result of many causes, I'm sure. The regional influence is certainly obvious; around the area where I grew up in Sweden, a large amount of findings from the stone- and bronze-ages have been excavated, and the impact of the ice-age is visible in the pysical landscape all around. Because Sweden is a small country whose history and development are largely intertwined with those of the larger region, and because Swedish is a language not widely spoken, a broader geographical and linguistic education has been important. Further, the social and historical development of Europe ranging from the Vikings, the Roman Empire, the Crusaders, the Feudal society to Fascism and Socialism have contributed to a very specific history not comparable to that of eg. the people of United States.
Together the Husband & I are now trying to decide on a curriculum for our children's homeschooling, and with a compromize of American/Swedish/European schooling, it should be very interesting.
By Lovain
It is quite obvious the Husband & I were schooled very differently. My education had a broader historical, geographical and linguistic approach, while his was more detailed in sciences, math and personal development. While my history and science education started with the Big Bang and moved forward in time carefully covering the ice-age, stone-age and bronze-age, the Husband's started around the civil war, and then later covered the classics without really focusing on the development in a broader sense predating the Egyptian and Greek cultures.
The emphasis in my educational background is a result of many causes, I'm sure. The regional influence is certainly obvious; around the area where I grew up in Sweden, a large amount of findings from the stone- and bronze-ages have been excavated, and the impact of the ice-age is visible in the pysical landscape all around. Because Sweden is a small country whose history and development are largely intertwined with those of the larger region, and because Swedish is a language not widely spoken, a broader geographical and linguistic education has been important. Further, the social and historical development of Europe ranging from the Vikings, the Roman Empire, the Crusaders, the Feudal society to Fascism and Socialism have contributed to a very specific history not comparable to that of eg. the people of United States.
Together the Husband & I are now trying to decide on a curriculum for our children's homeschooling, and with a compromize of American/Swedish/European schooling, it should be very interesting.
By Lovain
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)