My kayak was turned over in the lake, and I was hanging upside down, underwater. I was practicing rolling my sea kayak at a local lake, and I’d just failed to roll the kayak back up after intentionally flipping it over. (For sea kayaking, one wears what is called a spray skirt which attaches you to the kayak at the cockpit and keeps you in the kayak unless you release it.)
No problem; I reset my paddle and position and tried again. This time I came back up and took a deep breath of success and oxygen.
I learned the many steps of the Greenland rolling style of a kayak by working with various trainers over several years. One generally starts by learning some positions on land and then starts practicing in the water with someone guiding you.
Now, I want you to imagine learning something like that from a book. Hard to imagine, isn’t it? I know someone who did, but he is an exceptional person.
Clearly, this is something best taught in person. Watching video demonstrations would make it possible as well, but perhaps not ideal. Next down the line for effectiveness would be learning the steps and positions from an animation. Then static images, and finally text-only instructions would likely be the least effective method.
This shows some of the options we have for teaching people things. We consider those and choose the ones that will be most effective for the content we are learning.
For example, learning the steps for solving a simple equation for X can effectively be explained with text-based instructions, examples, and practice opportunities. (We covered the equation example in the previous Trail Markers’ blog.)
You have the Summit Learner Destination and all of the Trail Marker destinations identified, now it’s time to make sure learners reach them. Think of it as loading up a learning backpack with everything you need to successfully get to those destinations. I call it the Backpack Checklist.
Ask yourself:
- What content and presentation type will help my learners successfully reach each Trail Marker?
- What content topics must I cover?
- What resources support the content?
You take into account your children’s learning needs when you consider the types of resources to use. Some children thrive with reading about subjects, absorbing content like a sponge, while others require discussing content to achieve comprehension. Most children learn really well from immersive experiences like participating in a Medieval Fair; however, this isn’t true of all children.
This is what makes creating your own courses and unit studies so powerful; you aren’t relegated to a one-size-fits-all approach. You get to use the resources and methods that are most effective for your child and family situation.
What resources are best for the content goals and your children’s learning needs to use for your chosen subject? Videos? Written instructions? Historical fiction? Films? Practice exercises? Science experiments? Reference books? Art projects? Museum visits? Immersive experiences like a historical village visit? The list is almost endless.
This is why starting at the summit is so critical. It is what ensures you don’t try to put everything into your course. You only put in the resources that give your learners what they need to be successful for each Trail Marker one at a time.
It’s tempting to put in extra information, especially when it’s interesting.
For example, exploring how the form and style of an Inuit skin-on-frame kayak is well suited to Greenlandic rolling is incredibly fascinating with a rich history, but knowing that information wouldn’t help me right my kayak when I was hanging upside down among the fish and flowing lake grasses.
My Summit Destination was to roll a kayak. For that goal and at that moment, I only needed information that supported how to roll a kayak included in my training.
Once you identify each Trail Marker, you break those goals down into the content needed to reach each Trail Marker.
My most important Trail Marker on the way to that Summit Destination of rolling a kayak was first and foremost learning how to exit the kayak when wearing a kayak spray skirt. If I couldn’t get out of my kayak if the roll failed, that would be disastrous. I had to learn that before working on the other steps in learning to roll a kayak.
The supporting content for reaching that Trail Marker, known as a wet exit, was:
- Being shown in person how to put on and take off the spray skirt (this could also be done by video or with diagrams)
- Practicing putting on and taking off the spray skirt above water
- Practicing being comfortable hanging out under water, under supervision
- Practicing taking the spray skirt off under water and exiting the kayak, under supervision
As you can see, including eight paragraphs on Inuit kayaking history isn’t necessary; it doesn’t support reaching the Trail Marker goal.*
Likewise, if you are hiking to a mountain summit on a day hike, you don’t need to include a tent in your backpack, but you do need a map, water, snacks, and other essentials. What you put in the pack is dependent on the destinations. If one of those Trail Marker destinations is a lake, you might pack a swim swimsuit and towel, otherwise, it would be silly to put them in your backpack.
For learning to knit a scarf, resources to support learning to cast on might be:
- Text-based instructions
- Video demonstration
- Graphics of each step
- Checklist of all the steps
Create a Backpack Checklist of everything that supports each of your Trail Marker destinations you identified in the previous step. For text-based content, list the main points that need to be communicated to the learners.
I encourage you to stop right now and create a draft of that Backpack Checklist for each of your Trail Markers you drafted previously.
*Disclaimer: You might still want to include information in your course just because it’s fun or interesting. Learning about anything new tends to have rabbit trails. Go off trail and explore when time and opportunity permit you to do so; it’s all part of the joy of learning.
The purpose of the framework isn’t to squelch exploration, it’s to provide a clear track toward the goal you have set for why you are studying a particular topic. It helps you set guidelines for what to include and exclude from lessons, keeping them manageable.
Now you are ready to create the course Trail Map which is the topic of the next blog in this series and step 4 of the 5 steps of the Summit-First Framework for Homeschooling.
Do you want a fillable worksheet and guide?
In the free Summit-First Framework for Homeschooling Course, I provide you with fillable forms as you learn to use all 5 steps. If you haven’t registered yet, you can do so by filling out the form below.
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