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Home schooling the JREF way

I would add Politics to the Social Sciences list. Make it a course where the students will learn how government works, the way the systems of the US, UK and a few others are set up, and not teach who they should vote for.
 
h.g.Whiz said:
ABC's, 123's, Do Ra Me's , and Philosophies.
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^ This ^

Reading, Writing, Arithmetic and Reason.

Throw in the secular version of history, a classical musical instrument and music theory, a cooking lesson or two, and basic law (civil, contract and criminal), and home-schooling will produce more than the next generation of inbred religious fanatics.
 
MarkCorrigan said:
I would add Politics to the Social Sciences list. Make it a course where the students will learn how government works, the way the systems of the US, UK and a few others are set up, and not teach who they should vote for.
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Hmm...I'm not sure how necessary a pure Politics class is, since a lot of it would inevitably be covered by History, Sociology, Economics, and Philosophy.
 
I think a valuable methodology would be to teach kids the basic intellectual tools for doing research. Then whenever they have a question, resist the urge to just blurt out the answer. Instead, instruct them in good practices for researching the answer for themselves. Of course another component to this would be to teach them critical thinking and deductive reasoning skills, so they'll be able to verify their own answers through deduction and/or experimentation.

For example, here's one of the most memorable lessons of my own childhood: When I was about 5 or 6 years old, our family was browsing a neighborhood garage sale and I saw an optics set. I begged my parents, and they bought it for me.

Upon getting it home, I discovered an assortment of lenses, mirrors, and prisms, some hardware for mounting them, and a variety of plastic tubes. The instructions were lost however, so I had nothing to guide me except my own imagination. The first thing I built was a simple telescope using the largest convex lens in the kit. When I looked through my new telescope, I was dismayed to discover that everything appeared upside-down.

I brought it to my father and asked "Dad, why does everything look upside-down through my telescope?" My father's reply came in the form of another question: "What do you think is making everything appear upside-down?" He took the lens out of the telescope and held it up about midway between his face and mine. I looked through it and his image appeared upside-down in the glass.

I immediately answered, "Is it the lens?"

He placed the lens back into the telescope and said, "Okay, if the lens is the thing that's turning the image upside-down, then what can you do to the telescope to make the image appear right-side up?"

I considered the problem. Of course, the answer is very simple and it would have taken my dad all of 10 seconds to tell me to stick another convex lens on there. But he wanted me to think about it and arrive at the answer on my own. He knew the exercise of figuring it out would be far more valuable to my intellectual development. Even when I asked him, "Should I add another lens?" he said, "Why don't you go try it, and see if it works?"

Successfully deducing the answer and then proving it correct through experimentation gave me the confidence to work through problems, instead of looking for easy answers.
 
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MarkCorrigan said:
I would add Politics to the Social Sciences list. Make it a course where the students will learn how government works, the way the systems of the US, UK and a few others are set up, and not teach who they should vote for.
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Civics would be more like it, rather than Political Science.
 
Dumb All Over said:
1. Sensitivity Training
2. Underwater Basket Weaving
3. Bullying Etiquette
4. Political Correctness 101
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5. Interpretive Dancing
6. Fashion & Accessories
7. Decorating & Landscaping
8. Makeup, Hair & Nails
9. Fast-Food Preparation & Serving
10. Shelf-Stocking, Cash Registers & Bagging
 
1. The fine art of crafting believable excuses
2. The science of successfully diagnosing credulous marks
3. Passing the buck
4. Passing the blame
5. The finer points of talking a good game
6. How to exploit the foibles of others into profitable opportunities
7. Perfectly timing the "blow off" to maximize profits yet narrowly escape justice
8. How to creep around in the dark undetected
9. The art of forgery and information manipulation
10. How to turn States' Evidence
 
I'm astonished that no one has yet mentioned weapons, tactics, or survival training. Nor any useful arts as woodworking or metalworking.

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects." Robert Heinlein
 
French should be an elective. Replace it with Mandarin.
Add in some practical life skills like cooking, wood or metal shop.
Something on film/computers/media.
Maybe a Community Service qotient of some kind to assure that the kids are getting out and about and interacting and not sitting at home consuming volumes of books to pass the equivalency exam.


The True Scotsman said:
To start to form a curriculum, I believe it is best to start by brainstorming subject areas, so I will begin a list (feel free to add to it):

I. Natural Science
1. Geology
2. Biology
3. Astronomy
II. Social Science
1. Economics
2. History
3. Sociology
4. Psychology
III. Mathematics
1. Basic (including addition, subtraction, multiplication, logic, etc)
2. Algebra
3. Calculus
4. Trigonometry
5. Geometry
6. Statistics
IV. Humanities and Arts
1. Philosophy (including fallacies and paradoxes)
2. World Religions
3. Visual Arts
4. Music
V. Literature and Language
1. Grammar
2. Spelling
3. Literature
VI. Foreign Language
1. French
2. Spanish
3. Latin
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Foolmewunz said:
French should be an elective. Replace it with Mandarin.
Add in some practical life skills like cooking, wood or metal shop.
Something on film/computers/media.
Maybe a Community Service qotient of some kind to assure that the kids are getting out and about and interacting and not sitting at home consuming volumes of books to pass the equivalency exam.
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I'm surprised the guy living in Hong Kong suggested Mandarin instead of Cantonese. :p

But serious, Mandarin would most likely be useful, though probably more challenging to a student who is accustomed to a European language, unless the student is very young.

"Practical life skill" I'd think would be more the realm of parental duties, but that more on a general basis. It would have to depend on the subject area.

Film/computer/media I wouldn't throw all into one category. Computer knowledge is important, but film/media, I don't think is so necessary, at least not for the majority of people. Film seems like it should be an elective rather than a requirement.

I don't know about Community Service, per say, but being active would be important. I'd say have the student join community organizations like a local community sports team.
 
How to eat a healthy diet and cook a variety of foods, how to build and make repairs to a home, how to wash your own clothes and clean your house, how to set economic priorities and plan a budget. Basic stuff, but important for any human being.
 
The True Scotsman said:
I'm surprised the guy living in Hong Kong suggested Mandarin instead of Cantonese. :p

But serious, Mandarin would most likely be useful, though probably more challenging to a student who is accustomed to a European language, unless the student is very young.

"Practical life skill" I'd think would be more the realm of parental duties, but that more on a general basis. It would have to depend on the subject area.

Film/computer/media I wouldn't throw all into one category. Computer knowledge is important, but film/media, I don't think is so necessary, at least not for the majority of people. Film seems like it should be an elective rather than a requirement.

I don't know about Community Service, per say, but being active would be important. I'd say have the student join community organizations like a local community sports team.
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Cantonese is as valid in Asia as Quebecoise is in North America.
The others are thoughts of stuff I'd like to see home-schooling think of in lieu of some of the things that school-schooled kids get in their electives and play periods and such. Not all of them are of equal significance, but I think they lead to a well-rounded child/adolescent/adult. (Oh, and I lumped the media stuff together because people tend to think of The Fine Arts with upper case letters and the art forms of the last fifty years have really been electonic/communications media based.)
 
John Albert said:
1. The fine art of crafting believable excuses
2. The science of successfully diagnosing credulous marks
3. Passing the buck
4. Passing the blame
5. The finer points of talking a good game
6. How to exploit the foibles of others into profitable opportunities
7. Perfectly timing the "blow off" to maximize profits yet narrowly escape justice
8. How to creep around in the dark undetected
9. The art of forgery and information manipulation
10. How to turn States' Evidence
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Ah, the management track.

But shouldn't a realistic list include cooking and cleaning as well. Plus comprehensive sex ed.
 
While we are at it, why don't we design a nuclear reactor in a thread?

Okay, a bit too snide, but honestly, a thread to design a curriculum?

People get masters and doctorates in this field, and generally have vast practical experience before designing a whole curriculum. Sure, you can find counterexamples, but I kind of think you'll find those counterexamples consist of what the OP is complaining about.
 
The expensive option:
http://www.k12.com/what-is-k12/

The cheaper alternative:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias=stripbooks&field-keywords="Learn+at+Home"

The skeptical bonus would only really apply in later years, but would include teaching the art of how to use wikipedia (reference checking, etc) and familiarity with Google Scholar, IMO. With Google Scholar's "search by dates" function one can trace the evolution of specific scientific knowledge, reading the original full text research, how experimental designs were improved over time to hone in on specific effects (and why; the discussion section explain the weaknesses a lot of times and the "cited by" function will take you to research that corrected for those weaknesses), and things of that nature.

It would be cool if some skeptical organization would create a framework curriculum for this, and maybe break it down into various "realms" of science...something for kids/teens into psychology, some for kids into math/physics, some for kids interested in biology/medical science, etc.

Also, an education in the various cognitive biases are probably an essential part of a hyper-skeptical education. Moreso than the logical fallacies, even.
 
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The expat and home schooling

Two of my grandchildren are enrolled in e-Learning because they spend most of the year in Malaysia. When they are in town they go to the actual school so they can socialize with the other kids, go on field trips etc. Every child is required to have their own laptop computer even in pre-K. The curriculum is aligned to state and national standards, so the parents can rest assured that the student will learn all the necessary skills to advance to the next grade. Quizzes and tests are graded automatically. Real time reports are available to parents, teachers and administrators at any time. The curriculum was the foremost concern of my daughter and her husband as they wanted the kids (twin girls) to have the best home schooling available.

According to my daughter the twins are doing well and when they are in the US they love going to the actual school. They are about to go into first grade and, from what I can tell, are learning all the necessary things and a bit more.
Below is the curriculum for e-Learning. There are choices out there for parents who home school and want to avoid religion/creationism being taught.

eLearningK12's Elementary Curriculum for grades K-8 includes personalized, web-based lessons in language arts, math, science, social studies, and the arts, as well as hands-on projects and offline learning. Also included in this package is access to eLearningK12's custom courses in language arts, math, and Louisiana history. Students also have access to online typing lessons, reading comprehension lessons, and spelling lessons and games customized by their education consultant.

eLearningK12's High School Curriculum for grades 9-12 includes personalized, web-based lessons in the following areas: English 1, English 2, English 3, English 4, Pre-Algebra, Algebra 1, Algebra 2, Geometry, Physics, Pre-Calculus, Economics with Financial Math, Trigonometry, Biology, Chemistry, Earth/Space Science, Health, Integrated Physics and Chemistry, Physical Science, Civics, US Government, US History 1, US History 2, World Geography, and World History. High school level online typing lessons are also available.

Additional optional programs may be purchased including Reading Enhancement for students needing extra help or remediation in reading, foreign language courses in five languages for grades K-12, and additional high school electives.

Since my town's major industries are almost all oil field related (Yes, the oil spill is affecting us.) we have many people who spend almost all their time overseas the e-Learning schools have become an important educational resource for those who have no choice but to home school.
 
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I homeschool and I rent the text books from the school system. In my area Northern CA I do not even have to pay to rent them. If the book feels a bit bias we talk more about the subject. Like in History the point of view of the country that did not win the war. There is a big group that do Secular Homeschooling. Its just that the faith based groups are more in everyones face.
 
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