Home-schooling on a World Cruise

I've never believed that the only way to get an education is to sit at a desk with four walls around you. The world is our classroom and our home, a 41-foot sailing boat, takes us there. To be fair, my husband and 1 had dreamed of sailing around the world 1our daughters were even born. Their arrivals only 2_our desire to live the cruising lifestyle, a way of life that has given us the opportunity for lots of 3_family time. Interestingly, 4our two daughters while living afloat on our sailing boat has added a wonderful new dimension to our lives.

We started out years ago with a kindergarten correspondence course for our daughter Kate. It's what most cruising families use, but as Kate zoomed through the5year's course in a matter of only two months, we realized that a pre-packaged school was not what she needed. Kate's6mind needed to be challenged, excited, sent into orbit. We 7our own curriculum for the rest of the year.

Choosing courses for Kate was great fun. We looked at where we would be sailing to during the school year, or where we would be stopping to work, and all sorts of topics of interest 8 themselves. 9, while cruising down the East Coast to Florida, we chose space exploration for a unit of study. Our studies included both fictional and non-fictional reading, experiments and writing assignments. The final was watching a space shuttle10_and visiting the Kennedy Space Center museums.

We do miss out on a few things that most11children are able to take advantage of and which would perhaps make our 12life easier. Our home afloat is small. School is held on a small dining table and it's difficult to leave artwork. Perhaps the thing we miss the most when traveling can mean having no access to a library. So we hope to 13our notebook computer to one with greater capacities.

But the strengths of our floating school far outweigh any 14. Part of the reason we cruise is for the wonderful opportunities to learn about the world around us. Hands-on learning15 we get from hiking through a rain forest, visiting historic ruins or participating in local festivals are an important part of our schooling.

Many science stories you read online are pretty unreliable. Some of them are put out there just to attract your eyeballs. In order to become a wiser reader, here are some simple questions you should ask yourself.

Where is the proof?

Never accept anything just because a reporter says so. Demand proof. If the story does not quote any real scientist from real labs, junk it.

Who did it?

Any reliable science news story has to answer some basic questions. If it does not, don't believe it. At the top of the list: Who did the original research? If the work was done by scientists working fora for-profit company, be careful. It is not that industry-motivated research is worthless, but when it comes to science, you had better look for studies done by scientists at top universities or respected research groups. They are more likely to present the truths of nature.

When a researcher finds something that looks like a valuable addition to his field, he does not go to the local newspaper. Rather, he writes a research article and submits it to a scientific journal. The journal editors then review it and send it to a few other researchers in the field for critical feedback. This process is an important quality control step. Only after the paper passes this peer review can it be published.

If the news story you are reading does not mention any article published in a journal, be suspicious. Maybe the "scientist" whose work is being reported is not a scientist at all or the work is not worthwhile.

What kind of research was it?

Research can be done in many different ways. In general, laboratory experiments are more controllable than observational studies and surveys.

The next time you read about an" amazing achievement "online, be more skeptical and ask a few more questions. Once you start looking critically at a study, you are well on your way to getting a better understanding of its value.

Take It Easy to Learn Better

Spare-time learners are usually the best learners. Their rate of learning is helped, of course, by the fact that they want to learn and consequently try to learn.

Edgar Burchell, the janitor who became a leading medical scientist and teacher, is an example. At 22 he was scrubbing floors 12 hours a day at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary. But during his lunch hour he attended staff lectures, carefully pretending he was in the lecture hall for janitor work, but drinking in every word that was said. Then, from his small savings, he bought a second-hand anatomy text. Picking up his education in this way, Burchell made himself one of the world's medical authorities.

Such spare-time learning is especially efficient since there is time for it to soak in between learning periods.

When beginning something new, it also speeds up learning to have breathers. Most eager beginners push themselves too long at a time. Such crowded study or practice produces fatigue or boredom which hinders learning.

You can't gain wisdom quickly, but you can gain wisdom steadily by easy stages.

Then take a breather before doing the second hour of practice or study. You will be fresher when you start the second part. Such spaced practice or study is better for learning than continuous practice of the same total length is.

Spaced practice not only eliminates fatigue and boredom, but also some maturation of the nerve connections which have been exercised seeming to take place during the space between practice periods. Long practice periods can be safely used only after one has acquired considerable skill.

Many parents have toyed with home schooling. The idea conjures up picturesque images of bright-eyed children and earnest parents clustered at the kitchen table unravelling the mysteries of maths, science and languages free of the dogma, and structures of conventional education.

This week, parents have confronted a more chaotic reality—not home schooling in the usual sense, but enforced schooling, from home kitchen tables full with books and bowls ; frustrated parents trying to remember how to do improper fractions while taking part in distant meetings with work colleagues; fights over laptops as children insist they need to log on to online lessons—such scenes will have been repeated in households across the world.

A video that became a hit this week described the feelings of parents around the world. It showed a mother who broke after just two days of trying to make the schedules of her children as well as dozens of messages on their phones," If we don't die of the pandemic, we'll die of distance learning," she said.

Some will have taken instantly to schooling from home, pleasantly surprised at the satisfaction to be gained from teaching young minds and at their own aptitude as teachers. For others who find the whole thing an impossible task, the idea that schools may be shut for months to come is daunting.

How best to make it work? Experts say children need a clear structure. They should rise with breakfast and work according to a clear timetable in line with normal schooling, ideally studying in a place without distractions. Make the most of "live" online classes, and additional work and resources that schools are offering. Allow time for physical exercise, and family time and arguably less homework after studying finishes. Above all, parents should take a deep breath and keep calm. One lasting lesson many home workers-cum-home scholars will draw from today's crisis is this: teachers will never again have to prove that they are worth it.

朱熹曾说道："无一事而不学，无一时而不学，无一处而不学，成功之路也。"课堂之外，身边点滴，无处不可学。而很多人却以为"学习是学校之事，是课堂之事"，没有养成乐于学习，善于学习，终身学习的好习惯。以"How to become a lifelong learner"为题，写一篇文章，说明如何践行终身学习。

Reasons to Keep Learning Once You're Done With School

There have always been people who have believed that lifelong learning is a worthwhile process. For example, a recent article in The Atlantic reported that when learn new tasks, they strengthen the part of their brain used in learning the task. Even better, this process makes the neighboring areas of the brain more resilient as well.

Here are some more reasons why you should always keep learning:

●Fight Boredom. Most people feel bored when they aren't challenged and boredom is the number one cause of bad decisions. If you're constantly learning new things, you'll be less prone to .

●Keep Your Brain Healthy. A study by the University of California at Irvine revealed that learning keeps your brain  at a high level. Just like you need to exercise your body's muscles and cardiovascular system, you need to exercise your brain to keep it in tip-top shape.

●Grow Your Career. If you learn new work-related skills, you'll be more likely to get a promotion or raise. And, with the rise of online education, you can even enroll in programs__that allow you to learn and improve your career during your off-hours.

●Model Positive Behavior for Your Kids. If you expect your children to focus in school and take the time to learn their lessons, you should exhibit the same  to self-improvement in your daily life.

●Keep in Touch With The World. If you don't know the latest fashion, comedy and news trends, you'll sound . By trying new things and learning new ideas, you'll better be able to _to those around you.

●Look at the World with Fresh Eyes. Scientists believe that much of what is called is simply the ability to apply skills learned in one setting to problems in another setting. If you're always learning, this means that when you face a familiar problem, you may be able to come at it with an unconventional , based on your new knowledge.

All the Greats are Doing It. Think of anyone, in any field, who is truly brilliant at what they do. They got where they are through constant self-improvement. Truly talented people are constantly learning and new skills. It's worth joining them in this passion.

Born into a family of farmers in a small village in Italy, Riccardo Bertani left school after completing his elementary studies. Only one teacher understood his decision. Surprisingly, he has dedicated the rest of his life to translating and documenting over 100 extinct and rare languages from all over the world.

Claiming to be" allergic to math", the young Riccardo started working in the fields like most of the men in his village, but soon realized he wasn't much of a farmer, either. That was when he started focusing more on the things he was most interested in—reading and learning languages.

When Riccardo was a child, most of the books in his house were Russian classics. Even though he didn't understand the language, he was fascinated by them. He started reading Lev Tolstoy's works in ltalian, and then used a Russian grammar book to learn the original language they had been written in. For the next 18 years, Riccardo did nothing but translate whatever books he could find from Russia and Ukraine. After he dived deeper into their culture, his fascination with languages spread to extinct languages, such as Eskimo, Yakut, Prussian, and Basque.

In 70 years of study, Riccardo has filled over 1, 000 journals with translations, explanations and pronunciations of thousands of words from various languages. Experts who have examined his work consider it a way of making all these lost and unknown languages accessible to the average Italian.

Riccardo's achievements are famous in the field of linguistics. He has been invited to speak about his experience in other countries, but he has always declined. In fact, he has never set foot outside flatly because of his fear of disappointment. "I'm afraid that it would be like seeing Greece today after reading the Latin epic poem Aeneid," he says.