Hi all; I'm looking to help out my two closest friends, and wanted to see if someone had any advice on where to start.
My two best friends are brothers; one (the younger) is incredibly sharp and intelligent, and the other while hard-working, is rather slow (and knows it and laments it; I've long suspected but never verbalized that he likely has a learning disability of some sort).
The kids grew up on the other side of town from me, with foreign parents who felt education was useless. While I went to what is widely considered the best public school in town, they went to the worst; and their parents didn't give them much help. When they got to middle school, their father decided to start his own business, pull his kids out of school and have them work; the older brother was barely literate at this point. The two have never left the state they live in; contrasted with myself who has been to a dozen other countries and spent three years living in Europe (two in the Netherlands, one in Italy).
I don't mean to say this to harp myself up, but a lot of their progress has been through me; ever the nerd, I was taking Calculus at 15 years old, started college at 16, going in to the IT field, travelling to other countries, speaking three languages, etc, and as my closest friends, things I'd learn and geekier interests would rub off. As I mentioned, the younger is extremely bright; I taught him Algebra and some basic Geometry on a slow day once. He takes in anything I teach him like a sponge.
We're all early-20's adults now; the younger is now a manager at a local fast food place, and constantly lamenting to me about how stupid the high-school kids who work for him are when he knows more math/science/geography than them and he dropped out in middle school.
The three of us are going to be roommates soon, and have both expressed interest in learning more stuff; the older especially (he walked in on me watching Al-Jazeera the other night and realized he didn't know anything about most of the locations being covered). They're going to try to get their GED as well.
I know neither of them have a strong understanding of history (both local and global), math, physics, etc., but they love it when I show them things. They want to formally start learning things, and I'm willing to give the time to play teacher; but I don't even know where to begin. I imagine that they're different aptitudes will affect how well they learn from material too.
I don't know where to start, either. Handing them a textbook will be way too dry, for example.
Anyone have any resources to recommend or avenues to start with? Or know much about GED's and what learning requirements they have?
My two best friends are brothers; one (the younger) is incredibly sharp and intelligent, and the other while hard-working, is rather slow (and knows it and laments it; I've long suspected but never verbalized that he likely has a learning disability of some sort).
The kids grew up on the other side of town from me, with foreign parents who felt education was useless. While I went to what is widely considered the best public school in town, they went to the worst; and their parents didn't give them much help. When they got to middle school, their father decided to start his own business, pull his kids out of school and have them work; the older brother was barely literate at this point. The two have never left the state they live in; contrasted with myself who has been to a dozen other countries and spent three years living in Europe (two in the Netherlands, one in Italy).
I don't mean to say this to harp myself up, but a lot of their progress has been through me; ever the nerd, I was taking Calculus at 15 years old, started college at 16, going in to the IT field, travelling to other countries, speaking three languages, etc, and as my closest friends, things I'd learn and geekier interests would rub off. As I mentioned, the younger is extremely bright; I taught him Algebra and some basic Geometry on a slow day once. He takes in anything I teach him like a sponge.
We're all early-20's adults now; the younger is now a manager at a local fast food place, and constantly lamenting to me about how stupid the high-school kids who work for him are when he knows more math/science/geography than them and he dropped out in middle school.
The three of us are going to be roommates soon, and have both expressed interest in learning more stuff; the older especially (he walked in on me watching Al-Jazeera the other night and realized he didn't know anything about most of the locations being covered). They're going to try to get their GED as well.
I know neither of them have a strong understanding of history (both local and global), math, physics, etc., but they love it when I show them things. They want to formally start learning things, and I'm willing to give the time to play teacher; but I don't even know where to begin. I imagine that they're different aptitudes will affect how well they learn from material too.
I don't know where to start, either. Handing them a textbook will be way too dry, for example.
Anyone have any resources to recommend or avenues to start with? Or know much about GED's and what learning requirements they have?