Homeschoolers, is 'The Well-Trained Mind' book the best homeschool curriculum?

[mother of faith]

Thank you all for the wonderful resources that some I had forgotten. I agree with lots of comments on here. Great job everyone. I don't know if I could add any more useful info but please make sure you check with the Home School Legal Defense Association regarding your government's laws regarding homeschooling. I can tell you what we use in our homeschool outreach as far as curriculum but each state, government, country is different regarding guidelines of homeschooling. If you are looking for paper form to purchase we use ACE Ministries, for virtual schools to purchase we use www.abcmouse.com and www.time4learning.com, and completecurriculum.com, we also use more than anything are free resources. We use www.sascurriculumpathways.com, www.lessonpathways.com, www.hubbardscupboard.org, www.carlscorner.us.com, and many others. I do agree on two things about homeschooling content; 1: relegious views or secular 2:your childs needs, abilities, interests (online virtual school or paper form or f'ree form', using books to make your own curriculum) 3: your financial situation when considering which curriculum is the best, and do you have the time to prepare the content chosen, for some curriculums you have to prepare an hour or 2 ahead of time. I will say that with some of our students we have had just trial and error choosing the right curriculum that fit the child's abilities, needs, and or interests and that fit into the parent's budget, that's why we use mostly free resources due to changing curriculum after a trial run for 2 weeks with each child.
If you are looking for a curriculum all rolled into one well there are some out there but really and truly it depends upon your child and what your goals are for teaching your child, secular or faith based, and other opinions. There are curriculums out there that say they are a well rounded curriculum that has everything but to be honest there isn't for we all are individuals with all of our own ideas and teaching methods. So you may have to build your own. If you are really concerned about following a step by step premade curriculum then purchase a copy of the books or rent a copy of the books that your local school uses. Here we can purchase books at the beginning of the school year from the schools, but they are expensive here around 36-100.00 for one book. Our counties post a list of the textbooks approved to use each year on their websites.
We use textbooks as well but to be honest I am always editing stuff out or adding stuff in. However, you could try using www.wikiuniversity.com and other wiki websites that you can create your own textbook via their website in pdf or print form for FREE. I am currently doing that now for our outreach for highschoolers. They also have wikijunior and a lot of others full of resources.
I haven't checked out the book 'the well trained mind' so I can't say if i would use it or not, but I hope in the near future I will have the time to do so and get back with you regarding that book.
Thank you all for the resources.

[fma001]

DadDude, You're welcome. I highly recommend the Core Knowledge series "What Your nth Grader Needs to Know" to all homeschoolers. You can buy a lot of the books used from amazon.com. It gives me some confidence that I am covering all the basics, even though I do a lot more.

[nee1]

Dear @mother of faith and @fma001, thank you so much for your insights.

@mother of faith, I ordered the 'Well Trained Mind' yesterday. Will see how good it is when it arrives in the post. And thank you so much for your advice.

@fma001, I thought of buying the relevant Core Series - What Your Kindergartener Needs to Know. However, @DadDude said it was US-centric (I stay in the UK). Besides @DadDude mentioned that Rupp's book was rigorous (which is what I want), and that he was not very impressed with the Core Series texts he bought. Besides, I have read the amazon.com reviews that complain that the Core Series books are just too basic for homeschoolers. Hence, I decided to go for Rupp's book rather the Core Series texts.

I buy every curriculum book I need (because these books are rarely found in local libraries in the UK), hence I want to go for few best rather than lots. I've already ordered the 'Well Trained Mind' and 'Home Learning Year by Year' by Rupp.

Do you think I still need ' What Your Kindergartener Needs to Know'?

[fma001]

I like the Core books simply because they cover a lot of the basics. I do go far beyond them but sometimes they do cover things that I might otherwise miss. And I can expand on what the books teach. If you don't want to get the books, you can download the Core Knowledge curriculum for free. Between the curriculum and the books, I feel like I'm covering everything I need to at each grade. And since I can buy the books used, I don't spend too much.

[nee1]

Thank you so much for your very complete explanation. Very much appreciated. I've just downloaded the free curriculum and will get the Core book.

Thank you once again.

[waterdreamer]

Just wanted to thank fma001 for the Core Knowledge link.  I had forgotten about that!

Is there a reason why when I click into the first grade one it's all in Spanish? I'd love the English link for this book.
Thanks!

[fma001]

This is a direct link to the PDF: http://www.coreknowledge.org/mimik/mimik_uploads/documents/480/CKFSequence_Rev.pdf

[waterdreamer]

This is a direct link to the PDF: http://www.coreknowledge.org/mimik/mimik_uploads/documents/480/CKFSequence_Rev.pdf

Thank you!

[wardjacke]

I acknowledge that there is no best program - it very much relies upon both on your kid and on you. I think that publication is a bestseller to buy and study, but there are limitless other options each with their own advantages and disadvantages.

[nee1]

I acknowledge that there is no best program - it very much relies upon both on your kid and on you. I think that publication is a bestseller to buy and study, but there are limitless other options each with their own advantages and disadvantages.

Thanks wardjacke. That I have discovered: there is no best program.

In addition to the classical education model, I am currently reading the Charlotte Mason series, first the modern English paraphrases of all her 6 volumes, followed by her original writings. Both are FREE on http://www.amblesideonline.org. (Huge thanks to sonya_post for suggesting Charlotte Mason and the Ambleside website).

I have found Charlotte Mason's writings very insightful and have already applied a lot of her recommendations in teaching the child.

Any other suggestions or ideas?

[sonya_post]

nee1,

If you spend much time thinking through Classical Education, you will find that Charlotte Mason is classical. While I home schooled my oldest, now 16, using the classical model, I do truly wish we'd spent a lot less time in class. We were hung up on math and it consumed a large portion of our day and was the source of much friction - thank you Khan Academy for resolving that for us. For me, this second time around, a huge incentive for pursuing early education is so that some of the tediousness of elementary education can be gotten out of the way with very little frustration. My toddler loves to learn. We will be well past learning letters and basic arithmetic by kindergarten - it frees up so much time later on for what I believe to be the heart of a good education - the pursuit of the good, the true and beautiful.

Charlotte's focus on narration is very much in line with teaching the progymnasmata http://grammar.about.com/od/qaaboutrhetoric/f/fqprogymnasmata.htm, and the focus on imitation as the way to learning good writing. Her focus on living, real books truly frees you from being curriculum dependent - which is one of the hallmarks of classical education. There are great helps out there but they aren't necessary. We use a curriculum for math and science and the Omnibus series for Literature/History/Religion primarily as a guide. In our house, we read lots of books.

I would recommend the following to you as you make your way through the mess of modern education -

Dorothy Sayers -  The Lost Tools Of Learning  http://www.gbt.org/text/sayers.html
Norms and Nobility by David Hicks who acknowledges his debt to Charlotte Mason
Tending the Heart of Virtue - How Classic Stories Awaken a Child's Moral Imagination by Vigen Guroian - It is my firm belief that fairy tales are one of the most humanizing activities you can do for yourself and your children (translate - character development). You can listen to a lecture he gave here:  http://dl.dropbox.com/u/60668524/guroian051598.mp3
Leisure: The Basis of Culture by Josef Pieper - a great treatise on why we work/educate - it helps define the end goal
Poetic Knowledge by James Taylor
Six Great Ideas by Mortimer Adler

[luke6v38]

Hi nee1, we are also in the UK, just started thinking of homeschooling our little ones (3 and 1). We are considering Ambleside Online as our friends are recommending it. It is said to be a good Christian homeschooling curriculum and also free of charge.

[nee1]

Hi sonya_post and luke6v38,

Thank you so much for your responses. I am very grateful.

@sonya_post:
1). Based on your recommendations, I have ordered the following books: Tending the Heart of Virtue;  Leisure: the Basis of Culture; and Six Great Ideas. I will get the other 2 books soonest. (I had already read Sayers’ Lost Tools of Learning). Thank you so much for the recommendations. Any other excellent recommendations?

@luke6v38:
1)  Yes, the Ambleside curriculum is really good. But I strongly recommend you read Mason's six volumes.  You will learn a lot. Further, I have discovered that if one understands the underlying theory/principles behind a curriculum or product, one will be able to make more effective use of the curriculum or product.

2)  Mason's six volumes are FREE on the Ambleside website. If you struggle with her Victorian English,, you may start with the Modern English Paraphrase of her writings at http://amblesideonline.org/CMM/ModernEnglish.html.  From there, move on to her original writings at http://amblesideonline.org/CM/toc.html.  If you do not want read this on the computer screen, you may print them out or buy them used from Amazon, etc.

Once again, thank you so much sonya_post and luke6v38 for your responses.  I await further excellent recommendations and insights. Thank you.

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