My favorite grade school assignments are when they have to write something and are told to use the Internet for "research." They can't scan, they can't extrapolate a main idea, they can't summarize, but they are told to use the vast world of the Internet before they put together their assignment.
I'm beginning to appreciate our little World Book and Britannica encyclopedias.
As it happens, Lynn G gave me this recommendation just a couple of days ago:
I like the Volume Library from Southwestern. It's almost better than an encyclopedia, as it is arranged by topic, not alphabetically. It is designed to give you all of the background knowledge for a k-12 curriculum in 3 volumes. The reproducible maps are almost worth the price all by themselves.
That one's going on the credit cards pronto.
We purchased the Southwestern volumes from a door to door sales lady when N was four years old. Lots of valuable info right at your fingertips, and those traceable maps have been quite handy.
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