Monday, September 28, 2009

Starting the NGS Home Study Course

I received my first CD of the three part NGS Home Study Course over the weekend. The first lesson really takes things back to the very beginning covering definitions for sources, information, and evidence, a chart showing how all of those parts can lead to proof, two small self quizzes and a very good discussion of pedigree charts and family group sheets. The first assignment is to fill out one of each of those forms. There are about 6 lessons on this CD so it's going to take some time to go through it all but so far I feel like it's going to provide a solid foundation. Considering I started out in genealogy when I was about 12/13 with my mother and neither one of us had a clue about what we were doing, I felt like taking the course was necessary in order to continue to grow as a professional. Going back and re-learning the basics through this highly respected home class seemed like the best way to do so. So I may be a little more quiet lately, taking on the course on top of the NGSQ and ProGen groups, and a research trip this week, plus all of the normal home and post-move stuff is really going to keep me on my toes. Hopefully it won't effect things too much though. Thank goodness I'm a stay at home mom to a school-aged child. I can take advantage of the days a little better than if I worked outside the home. I really don't know how some of you do it all!

2 comments:

  1. I'll be interested in what you think of the course. I'm debating taking it myself.

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  2. I would definitely recommend it, Jackie. Before I caved and spent the money I was looking around and it seemed like everyone from the APG and TGF forums had taken it and highly highly recommended it. It is also one of the least expensive options for distance learning out there. I'm only on the first assignment now so unfortunately I can't give you too much detail about the course but I can say that it takes you down to the very basics, which is really great for those of us who have taught ourselves for more years than we care to remember. So so far I'm pretty happy with it. I'll post more about it as I go along.

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