I am starting this topic so that we might share resources that will aid those of us who are homeschooling our children. There are many different methods of homeschooling, and I would not presume to dictate that one and one only is the correct method to use. Charlotte Mason, Classical Christian, Robinson Self-Teaching, all have their virtues and limitations. There are others that I am not familiar with, and I hope those who are familiar with them will share resources here.
I recently discovered a website that offers An Old-Fashioned Education. They have collected free online resources, in the public domain, in many different subject areas. I looked around and found it well-organized, and I am familiar with a number of the online texts linked to. They are very good. So, enjoy! I hope there is something of use to you all there.
Note: Just because we recommend a resource doesn’t mean the producers of that resource share our philosophy. Please use your intellect and your Biblical knowledge when studying all resources.
For the Charlotte Mason educator, Ambleside Online offers “...a free curriculum designed to be as close as possible to the curriculum that Charlotte Mason used in her own PNEU schools. Our goal is to be true to Charlotte Mason’s high literary standards. Ambleside Online uses the highest quality books and costs no more than the cost of texts. The curriculum uses as many free online books as possible, and there is no cost to use this information or join the support group.”
Homeschool curriculum NOT to use or recommend: Calvert School, whose 2nd-grade history/civics course, “Explore Your World II.” completely ignores the achievements of White Conservative men, instead substituting the minor achievements of “track star Jackie Joyner-Kersey (black, woman), Sen. Daniel Inouye (Asian, Democrat, liberal), Rosa Parks (black, woman), Rep. Barbara Jordon (black, woman, Democrat, liberal), Cesar Chavez (Hispanic), Helen Keller (woman, physically handicapped), President Jimmy Carter (Democrat, liberal, mentally handicapped), President John F. Kennedy (Democrat, liberal), Gen. Colin Powell (black) and Jane Adams (woman).”
The American Colonist’s Library
A TREASURY OF PRIMARY DOCUMENTS
Primary Source Documents Pertaining to Early American History
An invaluable collection of historical works which contributed to the formation of American politics, culture, and ideals
The following is a massive collection of the literature and documents which were most relevant to the colonists’ lives in America. If it isn’t here, it probably is not available online anywhere.
We have used various components of the Classical Curriculum over the years with our children, though we are a bit eclectic with it, picking and choosing what we want to use.
I have been pleased with Romona Spalding’s The Writing Road To Reading. We also use the Robinson Curriculum in a supplementary manner.
For Southern culture and history, the references at the League of the South’s Homeschooling section are hard to beat. I recognize that not all of our readers will have a Southern focus, but this is invaluable for those of us who do.
“Welcome to the League of the South’s Homeschooling section. What follows here are our suggestions for good books on Southern history and literature, both for the region in general and by state. What we have for you now is only a beginning. We do not have lists for all states, or always for the two age groups we hope to cover (high school and middle school). Also, in the future we plan to include not just lists but curricula. This is, however, our start and we hope the information we can provide now will be of use to families wishing to give their children more than the bland and often inaccurate history outlines that are typically available. We also want children to know more of the great literature written by Southerners than is usually included in packaged course outlines. We have checked the availability of all books mentioned and where you are likely to be challenged finding the book for sale, we say so. Links have been provided (with more coming) to books and where to purchase them. Many books that may be hard to find for sale may be readily available in your library. At the end of this section, we include some suggestions for finding books through various means.”
Thanks for the heads up on the Calvert School curriculum to the posters here. They present themselves as being “classical”, but it’s classical propaganda. I recommend a “great books” program and for children to get their material as much as possible from original sources, however texts can be useful tools for summarization and contextualization of the reading. Another thing that a text-based curriculum has going for it is tests. Unless you intend to read everything your children read as they read it, or unless you have tests with answers prepared from when you did read what they are reading, there is no way to judge their real retention.
For history, the Henty historical novels are great, and they are focused on European history and achievements, not the making of mud palaces in Timbuktu as high architecture.
This group of short articles at Ambleside Online has very good instructions on how to format eBooks for printing, and a number of different opinions on whether to have the book bound or to just use a 3-ring binder.
The Education Podcast Network http://www.epnweb.org/ has podcasts available for all you iTunes users. They recommend that “teachers” (that would be you, parents) screen all material to ensure appropriateness.
In addition, I would recommend always that parents screen ALL material to be used by their students. As a Kinist, I would also appreciate any “heads ups” regarding content inconsistent with the tenets of Kinism, or disrespectful to our Lord Jesus Christ. So feel free to post your concerns about material in this thread.
Want to know what the worldview of that school might be?
There are two resources that I know of to help you with that more-difficult-than-it-seems task.
The first is Choosing the Right College 2008-9: The Whole Truth about America’s Top Schools, published by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (direct link to book is: http://www.isi.org/college_guide/, Institute’s web site is http://www.isi.org). You can download a list of the colleges they cover in this guide, and view a sample entry.
The second is No Indoctrination.org (http://www.noindoctrination.org/), a site where students and faculty can leave reviews of the bias present in particular courses at their colleges. I have seen at this site some dead-on-the-money reviews of courses I have actually had to take for my professional credential. So I know I was not the only one who felt the way I did as far as the professor’s expressed bias.
There may be other resources. If there are, please post a reply to let us know about them.
“Wikibooks is a Wikimedia community for creating a free library of educational textbooks that anyone can edit. Wikibooks began on July 10, 2003, since then Wikibooks has grown to include over 27,935 pages in a multitude of textbooks created by volunteers like you!”
Here are the general categories their site includes.
Natural Sciences Department
Biology – Engineering – Health – Mathematics – Natural Sciences – Physics
Wikibooks:Social sciences department
Social Sciences Department
Business and Economics – Education – History – Languages – Law – Social Sciences
Wikibooks:Computing department
Computing Department
Computer Science – Computer Software – Domain-specific Languages – Information Technology – Programming Languages
Wikibooks:Humanities and arts department
Humanities and Arts Department
Arts – Games and Athletics – Foreign Languages – History – Humanities – Language and Literature
Wikibooks:Special groups department
Special Groups
Cookbook – Good books – How-to Guides – Study Guides – Technology – Wikijunior – Wikistudy – Wikiprofessional – Wikilearn
Remember, a resource listed here does not necessarly carry our endorsement of its contents. Parents must use discretion and review all resources before using them with their children.
The good folks over at Majority Rights have placed online a page of Vocational Education Resources. The original documents were taxpayer-funded, so they say one can feel free about copying them to friends.
Once again, Majority Rights has placed information of interest to all of us, especially those in college, ready for college, or with college age children.
