study one new topic in depth each year

This year, I’ve done a really good job learning about peru, with a focus on its history, with a focus on the Inca. I visited the country, read several simple broad history books, learned a small amount of Spanish, learned about peru more through reading all the informative sections of my footprint peru handbook, and sections on peruvian wildlife book we bought, skimmed the CIA factbook on the country, read Hiram Bingham’s lost city of the Incas, and currently reading the book by Garcilasco. so, Finish up that book, and maybe read the wildlife book more thoroughly. and done!

as far as playing catchup for the previous 2 years, astronomy catchup went well. there are still a few things to finish reading, and the galileo dialogues are going to take a long time, but should have this otherwise cleaned up by the end of the year.

which leaves us with “learning french” from year 2 very much up in the year. Fortunately, this years vacation looks like south east asia, so french is a suitable language to work on for the next year.

For my main goal in 2010, I’m adding the hopefully not too demanding subject of bread. I’m going to learn the science and history of bread making, as well as become a practiced breadmaker myself.

I’m reading a book about the legend of el dorado and some of the ancient gold cultures of south america, several of which where in peru. It’s an interesting read. Also doing spanish lessons through audio books I can e-check out through my library, and about to start going to a class every thursday with people, so I will hopefully stay motivated to learn spanish.

Ok, year 1 I did astronomy. I did a great job learning about it, but at the end, still had some books to finish reading and etc.

Year 2 I was going to do french and finish up the astronomy books. That didn’t go so well. I’m not sure where the time went, but I do know that I din’t make much progress on either of these. So:

Year 3: it doesn’t seem right to take on anything too complicated this year, as I still need to finish up astronomy, and am hoping to learn a little spanish for this years international trip to Peru, so even studying french may get put off until next year. That does leave me a little stumped about what to study this year. But it does just occur to me that I could study the incan culture in depth this year, which might be nice for the trip, as well as trying to learn a little quecha (Sp?) in addition to the spanish. So that is what I will shoot for this year, and put off french pretty much altogether at least until after the peru trip, which is tenatively slated for late sept, early oct.

I am mostly done with astronomy, though I think it has become a new hobby of mine. I now have a telescope, and there is some reading I started that I’d like to finish there, but I definitely study it in depth last year.

This year I hope to learn french. That is, to become fluent in french. I took 2 years in high school, so I know a fair amount, and can understand it reading it… but I can’t call up the words myself, so i have a work books, I plan also to take advantage of any podcasts I can find, free books in french on Gutenburg, and french language tracks on DVDs I have. DH thinks this means next year we should go to france. we shall see about that.

I think the general topic of war will be my first topic of study. Not just WWI, WWII, Civil War, etc., but also studying the ongoing battle of ideas raging for men’s souls and their votes in the political process.

Is a subtle warfare more successful than a blatant, full-scale attack? Under what circumstances? What role does espionage play and is it more powerful than misinformation? What tactics are employed? Who are the players? What is the ultimate goal—Are sensitive issues such as the deterioration of the second amendment as simple as we are led to believe?

Conspiracy theory, I know, but…

I’m still learning, and I would like to finish reading both the audobon guide and the text book I picked up, but otherwise feel very good about learning about astronomy so far this year.

I’ve also realized that through planning my trip to Italy, and making an attempt to learn to speak the language, I have been studying Italy this year. I wouldn’t say the words “in depth” applies here, but I’ve gained a lot of knowledge about the geography, language, pre 1000 AD history, etc. And the trip itself will be a crash course in cluture.

I went to an evening lecture at the loca Uni. friday night, and after the lecture I asked a few questions, and the proffessor said I obviously new something about astronomy, was I in a class? I said no, but I am trying to learn. which he thought was very good. I’ll take it as a huge compliment because I do really feel like I’m making progress. Yay!

so we’ve taken the week and sort of made it russian themed. we rented a DVD with hours of info about the russian czars, and this sun. we celebrated easter a little early by going to the botanical gardens, and seeing the artwork currently displayed at the museum there: faberge work, including 3 eggs.

progress on this goal has been slow, but I still have this entire year to finish astronomy. I think I can do that.

My elderly aunt used to tell me stories about her uncle (my grand-uncle), who would study one subject all year, like a particular Civil War battle, or the Mormon migration, or Spanish Missions, for example. Then in the summer, he and his wife would climb in the car and go visit the battlefield, or drive the Mormon migration route, or follow the Mission trail.

I think that is an awesome way to plan a vacation…I’ll have to do some thinking about what I want to study.