|
The basic premise of 'unschooling' is that children have a natural desire to learn and will obtain all of the knowledge they need if you encourage and pursue knowledge at their pace.
Personally, I don't practice straight unschooling because I have seen children who are more than happy to leave gaps in their educational experience if its something they aren't interested in. And, I think they need to have those subjects, even if they wouldn't pursue them on their own. But, I've known quite a few families who have wonderful experiences with exactly that premise and without any gaps in their education. But, I do use quite a bit of allowing their delight to lead them after I cover the basics (thus the reason I use Calvert for their core materials).
Hmm, hand's on materials. Timberdoodle is a great company with some really good hands-on science resources. The Elijah Company has lots of options. You can also check Hewitt. Do be aware that Hewitt has some very grevious typos in their elementary school readers though (I recall using their 1st and 2nd grade readers as a nanny and finding some very big mistakes in them). Another option is Five in A Row, which does unit studies based on 20 books in each level. I'm considering their Before Five in a Row materials for my preschooler. I've used Rod and Staff's preschool stuff and I don't think my last child gleaned anything from them. I've heard lots of good reviews for Sonlight. But, personally have no experience (nor desire) in using them. Oh, another great one that I haven't used but have seen in action is Switched on Schoolhouse, which is solely done on the computer.
Honestly, the one curriculum I would issue a caution against is Bob Jones University. The University had a written racism policy until the last Presidentail elections and that racist attitude is in their homeschooling materials.
Another terrific resource (regardless of your religious affiliation) is to go to your local Christian Bookstore. Or, these days you can find good homeschooling sections in any large bookstore. But, I still think the resources available in Christian bookstores are still better, mostly because the modern homeschooling movement grew and flourished in the Christian communities long before it hit mainstream.
There are lots of things you can find free or cheap, especially online. Just review it yourself and make sure you think it will work well for your child. Also, there is a series of books that tell you what knowledge a child should have at the end of each grade level. You can always buy those as a guide to make sure you are covering everything if you are concerned.
|