Hugh,
Here’s a theoretical question I’d like to as SurvivalBlog readers. If you had all the money you wanted to spend on homeschool materials right now, but never had any more money to spend on it later, what would you buy for your children to ensure that they had a complete K-12 education? I am looking for a curriculum that works for almost everybody, contains almost no consumables, and doesn’t require electronics. Just dreaming here, but would like your ideas. – E.
For 1st through 8th grade I would choose the McGuffy Readers. http://www.alphaphonics.com/guffy.htm at the link you can purchase either the 1836 or 1879 versions. For 9th trough 12th I would suggest 1)Self Study on topics of interest to the child & 2)Business and Entrepreneurship by letting the child start and run a business.
Abeka.com
I, too, am interested in ideas for homeschooling curriculum. I would like to add that having a teacher with a sound academic background (notice I didn’t say “training”) who understands mastery learning and how to teach critical thinking can make even the most mediocre curriculum work well.
After many years of teaching in different geographic locations, at different levels and with all sorts of students, I have taught everything from nursery through high school and college prepratory classes. With multiple certifications and two masters degrees, I would be able to take any curriculum (or probably no curriculum up through elementary and even some high school) and teach children of all learning abilities. Give a textbook to refer to in high school and I could succeed in most areas. Of course being a conservative, God fearing patriot provides my foundation!
On a side note, we are building on some gifted family farm land and I am finding that I am not quickly being snapped up for a teaching position. Age?(afterall, wisdom doesn’t come without time – but our schools seem to prefer the young and inexperienced who think they know so much without experience) Destruction of our education system? Wanton disregard for the future of our great nation? Probably all of these and more. Keep your children out of the public school system as much as you are able. If they must attend, supplement their education at home.
My final note on this: for years I pondered what could I give to a prepping community as I aged, and always thought it would be my farming skills. Now, I have begun to see how very important it will be to have strong, well-balanced conservative teachers.
Great question!
A complete K-12 education is a government product and not my idea of an education. A good education would consist of reading from the classics, reading from the greatest scientific minds in their own words, and a solid foundation in morality and hard work. I am building my library with Scripture, The Great Books of the Western World, Biographies and memoirs of historical figures, great historical fiction from various periods in history, children’s encyclopedia, and nonfiction practical guides on construction, mechanics, chemistry and farming. Ambleside online has a quality list of books to consider, as does A Thomas Jefferson Education, and A Well Educated Mind. All three approach education in a different manner, but the commonality is to build character and work ethic early, and focus more on education in the middle years when the brain has matured enough that reading isn’t such a struggle. Then in the older years, 12+ for example, to focus more diligently on in depth scholarship and apprenticeship.
For someone on a limited budget and with access to a reliable home computer printer, the Robinson Home Schooling Curriculum is quite good. Along with his late wife, it was developed by Dr. Arthur Robinson of the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine.
See: http://www.robinsoncurriculum.com/
But regardless of the prepared curriculum you choose, you should supplement it with lots of additional reading. Your goal should be to instill a love of learning in your children. If you can do that, then your kids will become “self-starters” and voracious readers. It all takes time and commitment. But the rewards are tremendous. My eldest (who was home-shooled for 12 years) had stellar SAT scores and earned several academic scholarships. He recently graduated cum laude with a highly technical Bachelor of Science degree from a State University. That has equipped him to earn a good living and gives him the flexibility to live anywhere he chooses. – JWR
I would agree (we bought this one for our kids) but it would require electronics unless you printed it out beforehand. The Havard Classics book collection would be my non electronic preference
I agree that Robinson curriculum is very well thought out and thorough, but I would get physical copies of the books off of the reading list rather than print it all out because that is simply a lot of hassle and would not last as long.
It’s mentioned above, but I second McGuffey readers & Ambleside Online resources. We are also enjoying Life of Fred Math.
We, too, love Life of Fred. Beyond that, the McGuffey readers and lots of good books on a wide variety of topics. I bought the kids copywriter books to improve their handwriting. They have worked, nicely, and the texts the books have them copying are the Declaration and Constitution
1) Before you collect educational materials, you need to realize that the US K12 curriculum is a pile of crap — developed with little to no consideration of what benefits the students’ relative to the effort demanded. It is designed to create wage slaves for large corporations, not free, independent citizens.
2) Nothing on entrepreneurship. History and civics material that is utter claptrap. Justified by “preparing the student for college” — in which the student will waste another 4 years and $200,000 for a worthless piece of paper that leaves him unemployed, deeply in debt, deeply ignorant of major facts and doomed to 45 years of slavery trying to recoup his “investment”.
3) Which admittedly is an education of a sort — but why then is Bernie Madoff in jail?
4) How many students and parents were consulted during the preparation of Common Core? Were the alleged customers of the K12 industry ever asked what THEY wanted? What would benefit them? Why does the American education system give parents and students less say in the curriculum that the education system of the old Soviet Union? Why is it that many of our richest and most powerful elites are people who dropped out of college early?
5) Although 3 of the richest billionaires are heirs to Sam Walton — who attended the University of Missouri. So why is everyone trying to get their kids into the Ivy League instead of the University of Missouri? Harvard Business School denied admission to Warren Buffett when he was a young man — which says volumes about what HBS can teach on investments.
Although its graduates have certainly shown how to destroy the richest economy on the planet with corruption on Wall Street and in Washington.
I didn’t say k12, I said k through 12 as in kindergarten through 12 th grade.
I was homeschooled and I’ll tell you the thing most important to me for my future kids is that they love to read and read a lot. The first thing I’d buy is all the classic children’s books. This would help them see a world beyond their own and escape harsh realities. I like the classics because they’re more wholesome than today’s kid book junk. You’ll have define for yourself what’s a classic. There are many good lists online.
Beyond that, I would have some good children’s Bible with pictures. My favorite is by Janice Emmerson. I am a Christian, so teaching reliance and trust in God is a top priority.
On from reading:
Math- to keep it simple, I’d buy the entire Fred Math series if you want to go in depth. It’s very good for kids who hate math. Really, the book Becoming a Mental Math Wizard would be the most important. In a down grid situation, quickly doing simple mental math is the key. I grew up on Miquon Math (wonderful), Singapore Math (too many word problems), Jacob’s Math (great series), and a few random workbooks to prepare me for calculus and algebra.
Science: I loved J Wiley’s Exploring God’s Creation With…. series. Good solid textbooks for HS. A good science experiment book for younger kids is probably all you need. They learn best by doing.
History: that’s the toughest one for me. I grew up on Mystory of History, which I’d used again. However, history is written by whoever wins the war, so it’s hard for me to know which books are accurate and which are written to push an agenda. At least the Mystery of History promotes the Bible which I’m good with.
Map reading: Maps, Charts, and Graphs series, hands down! That was the most useful thing I learned in school! Definitely have a plan for teaching your kids this.
Other random text books I’d get to round out the kids:
Grammar the Easy Way
The Element of Style
Writing Strands series (very very well done. Teaches you to write and very applicable to life)
Vocabulary books (any)
Spelling books (any)
Survival books (any)
Whatever Happened to Penny Candy? (Great economics book for kids and shows you how messed up the world is. Ha)
Man, that was long. I hope you get something out of it!
The take away is this: I would never get a canned curriculum across all subjects. Picking and choosing books will give you the best of everything. All in one stuff will have some good and some bad every time.
Excellent advice! Thank you!
Are you talking about this series?
https://www.christianbook.com/maps-charts-graphs-the-places-around/9780813621326/pd/621321
I was homeschooled back in the day. Education is so mixed up in the minds of most people. As has been said before, the absolute most important skill you need to give your children, is the ability to reach themselves and then a love of learning. After that, provide all the resources you can. I shop thrift stores for books and occasionally order online. I have the FACE books, which include McGuffey readers, Rays arithmetic, etc. I have Winston Grammar. Some Saxon math. I have gathered up a few Abeka books here and there. I have gathered quite an assortment of books from different curriculum publishers, even some public school textbooks. It is a fallacy that learning has to happen in a certain order. This comes from my heart, and I write this with tears in my eyes. Learning is so much better when the child loves it. It teaches them to be a life long learner. Of course, every child has to learn to discipline themselves to submit to being taught. It’s called self government, and the younger it is taught, the better. I have seen many homeschool parents who are so insecure about making sure their children are given all the proper education. Have you seen what the public schools are cranking out? Relax! Most homeschooled kids are vastly superior in many ways to almost any public school kids. If you care about your child’s education, and provide the best books you can, they will do fine. Btw, I don’t have any children, but I have way more than enough books and textbooks to educate a child through high school.
What I am asking is:what are the best books to have on hand?
Accelerated Christian Educated (ACE). They are called paces; small pamphlets make up each grade.
Aren’t those only usable by only one child? What if the group has more children?
1) What would I recommend for K12? My free advice is worth what you paid for it, but by way of background I have a Masters in Computer Science and have had up to 4 SCI security clearances. When my son complained of his boring 2nd grade classes I searched around and found Stanford’s Educational Program for Gifted Youth (EPGY)– online computer instruction classes supplemented by Stanford’s graduates students in education.
2) Unlike our assembly line K12 schools, EPGY lets a student move ahead at his own pace — moving quickly if he masters the material but slowly down/repeating parts of a lesson if the frequent testing shows he is having problems.
This “computer game” keeps students interest better than classroom lectures — my son raced ahead two grade levels within just a few months. He did well on some admissions tests and was accepted at Philips Exeter Academy — one of the top prep schools in the country. Later he was one of its National Merit Scholars and is currently chasing his fortune in Silicon Valley. I credit EPGY with helping him overcome his unfortunate genetic inheritance.
3) Until AI progresses greatly, human teachers are essential in helping a student learn how to think. But thinking is of little use if you are deeply ignorant of important knowledge — so part of a students education has to be simply learning a huge mass of facts and techniques — reading, writing and math/science. And EPGY does a better job of teaching this than K12 classrooms.
This can free up teachers to be what they should be: one on one tutors to discuss the big picture. Outline of all of present
human knowledge and the utility of each field. Helping the student choose what he will study in more depth according to the student’s chosen field of work — and before that helping the student examine the pros and cons of different careers.
4) In my opinion, there are several subjects that should in a kid’s education but currently are not:
a) How to survive in any environment on Earth — the Air Force’s Regulation 64-4.
b) Self Defense: Unarmed, knife, club, pistol, rifle/shotgun incl basic paramilitary skills and tactics.
c) Major Facts: Who has the wealth , who runs the world, and how. Major military powers and how current advanced military powers work, incl ranking and fact the US Navy rules the oceans. Major economic powers, the economy structure of
each (Input/Output Matrix and industry classification codes), and the monetary/wealth/asset structure of each (GDP, debt incl major creditors, Federal Reserve’s Flow of Funds.) Major technological powers and their strengths/weaknesses. Raw
natural materials required by each major economy, their sources, annual consumption , existing reserves and what happens when
reserves are exhausted. Likely future developments in Science and Tech over the next 30 years and their impact. Population trends across the world and their impact. Trends in all of the above over the next 30 years and their impact.
Opportunity areas where young entrepreneurs could gain significant wealth.
d) Major future threats to humanity, their likelihood and how an individual /family could recognize and survive each.
e) Entrepreneurship incl the books by Harvard Business School’s Michael Porter on how businesses win in competition
(Competitive Strategy) and the books by HBS’s Clayton Christensen on how new startups destroy major existing firms and
why executives in those firms find it difficult to respond.
f) techniques for creative thinking and innovative problem solving
g) How to invest wealth. Future value of money and how mortgages work. Harry Brown’s Permanent Portfolio. How con games work.
5) K12 education tends to be 30 years out of date even on subjects it covers , has no conception of investing effort according to value received by the student (value added), and is focused on the past 3000 years whereas a young person can gain net worth only by CREATING something NEW — not mastering old material. A young person should study the past
for its lessons but should not get lost in unimportant details. Focus on WHY civilizations rose and fell — not on the petty deceits of politicans. And see how countries have always been run by the elites who own them — including the USA if you look past
the national myths re the Constitutional Convention and see what the Founding Fathers were really doing.
6) Unfortunately, the best teacher for a young person at any one time may be a retired military officer, retired businessman, retired engineer or retired politican –not a K12 teacher.
7) I partially agree with the person above who recommended the Great Books — and partially disagree. I have my own copy of
the Great Books — 59 massive volumes, leatherbound and in pristine condition, Acquired for $12.50 at a local library book sale.
Marked down from $25 on the third day of the sale after no one else purchased them.
Sigh. Fortunately, the used Brittany Spears dvds sold well.
Human knowledge is like the Great Pyramids of Egypt — created not just by individual genius but also by generation after
generation of lesser workers each adding his own brick. Read the Great Books but also read current peer-reviewed textbooks to see
the errors in the Great Books as well as the truths. For example, Mortimer Adler was right to suggest a young person
read the thinking of Galileo –but a modern textbook on the History of Science will give a broader and faster perspective on how Science advances and where/why it has declined in the past. A lesson for our current world.
8) Tacitus has a grandeur in describing the collapse of the Roman Republic (on which our was modelled) –but modern historians have
also noted where Roman Senator Tacitus palmed a few cards re the treatment of the plebes by the patricians. Another lesson for
our current world.
9) But I acknowledge that the Great Books –the voices from the past — do help one break the constant brainwashing of our news corporations and better see the underlying reality. Plato’s metaphor of the person imprisoned in a cave seeing shadows on a firelit cave wall and not realizing the shadows are made by unseen figures moving puppets behind him in front of the fire. The prisoner later escaping , coming out into the sunlit world and seeing it for the first time.
Turn off the TV. Especially MSNBC and CNN.
After TEOTWAWKI most computers won’t work.
A lifetime membership to the nearest public library and prayers that it will continue to be run and stay open. Where I live, it is run by volunteers. Anything you could possibly want to learn about is and should be available through any public library. If not, start your own local one with any and all used and no longer needed or wanted donated books. If you or a kid can read, the entire worl;d is open to them…..
After TEOTWAWKI it will be dangerous to go out , that is why I want to collect the books now.
In addition to reading and curriculum materials I want to add that it is absolutely necessary to help a child understand how to learn, how to study and ask questions which is facilitated by knowing the child’s best learning style. For example: I am not an Auditory learner, hearing a teacher give info wont help me. It took me 35 years to find a testing specialist to help me understand which ways I learn best and which ways I learn worst. I came to college late in life and wasn’t doing well despite my best efforts. After testing it was a simple matter to set myself up for success. Had a teacher been equipped with some basic skills 45 years ago my life would have been very different. One simplistic learning style test is the VARK test easily found on the internet. Many others are available included “paid” for testing professionals. I went from a solid C student to a solid A student who does not have to study in my Hard Science college program. Learning how you best learn is everything and can be done anywhere along the way.
PS. Sugar kills memory and Caffeine kills focus.
I have been homeschooled all my life,(I will be a senior in the fall) and have always used abeka. It stresses Christian living in every subjects and is very thorough in directions. The books are easy to use and reuse in case you need to share with other siblings.
Whenever this subject come up I remember an early scene in the movie “The Days of Wine and Roses.”
The male lead bumps into the female lead in an elevator.
She is carrying a big book.
Trying to hit on her, he asks “That looks heavy. What is it?”
She replies “It is book 4 of 12.”
“4 of 12 what?”
“MY encyclopedia set”
“You are reading an encyclopedia set?”
“Yes, when I graduated from high school, my Dad said he could not afford to send me to collage. But if I read these 12 books I would know more that anyone that did go to college.”
It was a “throw away” scene. But I always remembered it.
Mostly because I wasn’t able to go to college for the same reason.
You can get paper sets of encyclopedia for free on CL.
Or check your local library, they may be throwing out a set.
I have 3.
General Supply List: Elementary
Paper, pencils, crayons, glue, rulers, scissors, paint (tons of paper, including construction paper)
Let kids free form draw, create cut-outs, etc.
Globe, United States Map, World Map, State Maps
Dictionaries
Dollar Stores have wide variety of Mathematics, Puzzles, Seek-n-Find, Crosswords, Bibles, for a Dollar. Flash Cards are also good ideas for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.
Games: Scrabble (get extra tiles for longer and more challenging games), Monopoly, card decks.
Toys: Building Blocks, Lincoln logs, Lego’s
Books: Decide what you want your child to learn, and what his/her abilities & interests are.
Reading, Writing, Arithmetic.
The Book Stores (Barnes & Nobles, etc.) have sections where one can find laminated picture alphabet and other elementary skill sets.
One can peruse thrift stores and book sales for the good, old-time books that are no longer given a space in ‘modern’ libraries or schools.
Autobiographies of the greats: Clara Barton, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Florence Nightingale, etc.
General Supply list High School:
Pens, paper, pencils, erasers, rulers, notebooks (lots & lots of notebooks)
Again, condensed outlines of subject matter needed to be covered can be purchased: English, Grammar, Algebra 1&2, Trigonometry, Calculus, Creative Writing, etc.
Some older Biology and Chemistry books are easier to read and understand. By the way, Charles Darwin wrote over 26 books (and kept notebooks for each book), and publically stated he believed all mankind came from Adam and Eve before he died.
Encyclopedias: Science Encyclopedias
Dictionaries and Thesaurus’s.
Identification Books: Plants, Animals, Birds, Reptiles & Amphibians, etc.
Reading: Magazines; National Geographic, Science, Astronomy, Popular Mechanics, Popular Science, etc. If your child has an interest in vehicles – Road & Track, Car & Driver, etc.
Telescopes
Binoculars
Microscopes
Safety Glasses
Rubber safety gloves
Science Kits: Crystal growing, etc.
Chemistry Kits:
Book Shelves: for each child. This way they understand their books are theirs, and their learning is theirs: self-actualization and self-accomplishment.
Desk, Chair, Lamp: For each child. It is their study area.
Medical,Health Field, and Drug Books: Knowledge is Power. Even a general knowledge is better than nothing.
Tasks: Each young person should have daily responsibilities that contribute to family life.
This teaches self-lessness and responsibility, for one’s self, and others.
Quiet times: Each young person should have a space, and a time, for their own retreat. This incorporates reflection, and building of one’s own strength and independence.
I am 70 years old and I wish I had a set of Encyclopedia Britannica even if it were a set from the 1980s. Maybe they would not be cutting edge information but still could provide a great education to youngsters of today.
Ancient Civilizations and Romans, Reformers and Revolutionaries by Diane Waring are two great ones for history. Even though we have finished with homeschooling, I have kept them in case we need them for grandchildren, or others. The Ancient Civilizations is from creation through the birth of Christ. Romans Reformers and Revolutionaries starts there and goes to around 1800. You take the time of study, use the textbook and the Bible to study what is going on around the world. The Bible is the foundation of the studies, especially in Ancient Civilizations. Every day you read scripture for the time that you are studying. History seems to be one of the things they are trying to rewrite. This curriculum is my way of saving the truth for my future family.
Great information. We are trying to prep for homeschooling of my 2yr old. This is very, very helpful. A note to all on a budget (like most of us!), McGuffey Readers, Encyclopedias, and many older (read: better) books can be found on Gutenberg.org for free in many different formats.
They can. And I have downloaded many such. However, I have found that small kids need to hold real books in their hands. My ten year-old has reached the point where she will read dead tree or kindle books interchangeably, but really only recently, even though she’s been reading since she was three. My 6 year-old and 8 year-old still prefer “real” books
I would buy every full grade level package from Sonlight. Sonlight is a Christian history and literature-based curriculum with lots of real books and no workbooks or busy work. Because there are few consumables, it can be used by multiple children. For math, I would buy all levels of Math-U-See.
I have 4 kiddos (10,7,6,2) I always keep a stack of notebooks, crayons, colored pencils, etc. The latest teaching method I’ve employed is the “Thomas Jefferson Education” were you build a library of the classics and as you study them they are the foundation for your school.
These are some thoughts I’ve had regarding my education. Perhaps it has to do with education after homeschooling, but I think it gives some perspective of what the whole life education should look like.
Public school really does a disservice to our children because it doesn’t teach them how to teach themselves. And it tends to give them the impression that once they graduate from high school or college, they pretty much know everything. Is it good for learning to stop after 12 years? After being homeschooled, I tend to think that the learning merely started when I was done with school. After that, I began to really learn about life. I get overwhelmed when I sit and think about all the different types of jobs I’ve had, and the things I learned at those different jobs, the different people I’ve met, and the things I asked them about how different machines work or the way they do their jobs. I think of the old technology, and seek to understand how the old folks accomplished food production and total self sufficiency on very low tech. There is the modern equipment, which sometimes is very small (cell phones) and sometimes very large (dirt moving equipment or sea going vessels). Just in farming, so many areas are involved. There are so many different types of equipment in farming, different jobs, different skill sets. There are many other things outside of farming to learn about. Since I grew up surrounded by wheat fields in the middle of The Midwest, I wasn’t really exposed to water. Tonight, hubs was explaining how the Army Corp of Engineers manages the Mississippi River, how they dredge the rivers and dump the dirt on the land, and create new islands. We looked up on the map, and saw the nicely shaped islands they had created in south Louisiana. We looked at pictures of tug boats, and watched videos of tug boats pulling different barges. This isn’t very interesting to people down here in the south who see it everyday, but it is fascinating to me. When I first moved here, I had never been around timber, so when I saw the big log trucks on the road, I didn’t understand. I didn’t know what the skidder and tree cutter were when I saw them on lowboys. Haha, growing up in The plains, I was dumbfounded to drive through Missouri and see mile after mile after mile of trees. I had never seen so many trees. Because I didn’t grow up on a farm, I didn’t understand tractors and farm implements. I have learned a lot since moving here. I suppose the world still holds wonder when you love to learn. Why should you be bored with life? It is so awesome to learn new things. I grew up fairly sheltered, and so I didn’t learn about the outside world until I left home. But it is ok. It doesn’t have to happen in a certain order. Contrary to what the indoctrination /education system thinks, there is no proper order to learn this stuff in. The human mind is capable of going back in and building on whatever foundation is there, or even building a new foundation. God did an amazing job when he created the human mind. The only danger I see is when humans refuse to acknowledge God or honor Him or obey him, and instead allow an adulteration of His creation by using the mind He created to dishonor Him and try to make humans out to be like God.
Saxon Math according to my wife. A network of friends is important too. You cannot know everything.
I like the Critical Thinking Company for math and English. I like Abeka for history and safety health and manners.
When the bride and I began homeschooling (1st and 3rd through 12) we used Rod and Staff from a Mennonite publisher. However we found as the two kids got older a one size fits all program just didn’t work. Frankly that was a portion of what we were avoiding by leaving the government school system. I’d suggest a more customized approach and that means multiple sources based on your arrow’s capabilities.
Our arrows are in their 30s now so we don’t have current recommendations, sorry.
We’re currently using “My Father’s World”. Bible focused, and we like the books that they use as part of the curriculum. Multiple ages can share the geo and such. I think that history is Story of the World, available in audiobook, which is awesome for me. Math is DVDs from Math-U-See. Science is Apologia (Creation based).
I think that the yearly budget for 3 children is about $1200 or so, with re-use of material from year to year.
We routinely have 50 to 100 books checked out from the library as well. The curriculum guide has suggestions for each week and we check them out.
Portland’s Homeschool Convention is happening this coming weekend. Most big cities have them now, and good way to peruse curriculum choices and other ideas. We’re also part of a local homeschool weekly get-together, and the kids get to share in some ‘classes’ together and play and such. Usually fun topics like art and such. 🙂
I began looking for the same after reading ‘The Bennedict Option’ by Rod Dreher, in which he discusses education at length. The Classical Christian Education is his recommendation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_Christian_education
https://paideiafellowship.com/an-introduction-classical-curriculum/
“I am looking for a curriculum that works for almost everybody, contains almost no consumables, and doesn’t require electronics. Just dreaming here, but would like your ideas. – E.”
E. By limiting the idea of education to “..a curriculum that works for almost everybody,”, the framework for the student’s mind has already been compromised.
Every student has different gifts, talents, and abilities. Homeschooling is as much a journey of the parent, as it is for the student.
True creativity and intelligence comes from the freedom to learn. This learning can take place anywhere:
Outdoors- where weather can be the physical construct for supplemental book learning of types of clouds, the layers of the atmosphere, etc.
-Playing in the dirt can lead to discussion of soil composition: whether it be mostly clay, or sand; deciduous tree leaf composition (mulch),etc., and origins of mankind.
Taking a student, and handing them a one-size fits all ‘educational curriculum’, is no different than the public school system Common Core. The only difference would be the environment in which the student is placed: home versus public school building.
HomeSchooling is NOT easy, nor for the faint-hearted. One’s responsibility is to bring up their child in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. The adult’s responsibility is to seek God’s guidance for what He wants those children to learn and know, for the future ahead.
How many of Survival Blog’s readers are aware of the nations of the world are actively seeking and buying land in other countries(including the US)to grow food to feed their own people?
How many readers are aware of the water resources available, or NOT available world-wide?
Why is this important? Sending mass numbers of other nations’ populations into the US takes away resources available from her own citizens.
To turn a defenseless, dependent baby into a fully functioning, capable and independent adult is NOT a matter of ‘purchasing a one-size fits all’ curriculum.
It is a matter of the entire family learning to understand the world in which they live; the factors THAT WILL come into play in the years (decades) to come, and mastering skill sets that will enable these soon to be adults to function capably and well, in this changing world.
The curriculum choice is a starting point, not all they would ever be exposed to.
I see many good suggestions so far.
In addition, it may be useful to give your students an overview of what is being taught in the public schools. They would benefit from knowing how to take and pass public school tests with high scores. Finally, the importance of courtesy when dealing with other children whose words and ideas may reflect indoctrination. As your child grows into adulthood, he/she will encounter many people who have yet to take the red pill.
A Bible, Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary, Strong’s Concordance, then use the 4R (research, reason, relate and record ) method of teaching all subjects with the books listed. Also use books from library on the subjects. 4R method can be used for all grades. God bless you and your family.
here’s a free pdf which explains the 4R method:
http://watermark.currclick.com/pdf_previews/36510-sample.pdf
God bless to you and your family.
The Great Books and Encyclopedia Britannica. The Great Books never leave you. When I was a child it was a great joy and comfort to me that you open them, and the great minds of the Western World speak to you as an equal. When I was in college in Tennessee, there was a mountain boy, raised in extreme poverty and with no schooling, but he did know how to read and by some miracle had access to the Great Books. He read them all, his sole source of “book learning” other than the Bible, and was admitted to college on scholarship.
The Writing Road to Reading
Hard copy encyclopedias
As many nature books as you can find
Lots of discussions with them about whatever they find interesting
A handwriting program of your choice
ABeka or Saxon math – always reviewing what has already been taught
Don’t push boys too early. One of mine didn’t start “school” until almost 9 years old. We never finished the Writing Road to Reading program – he was too busy reading the encyclopedia
Lots of time outside and helping in the garden
The Writing Road to Reading (Romalda Spaulding)
Hard copy encyclopedias
As many nature books as you can find
Lots of discussions with them about whatever they find interesting
A handwriting program of your choice
ABeka or Saxon math – always reviewing what has already been taught
Don’t push boys too early. One of mine didn’t start “school” until almost 9 years old. We never finished the Writing Road to Reading program – he was too busy reading the encyclopedia because it interested him – from simple simple books to encyclopedia in a few months He was ready and interested.
Music of some kind
NO television (and given life now I would say limited electronics)
Lots of time outside and helping in the garden etc
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