I don’t have a problem with what public schools teach, just how they teach it. But, it’s frustrating that I can find quality instruction in every subject except science.
As a secular homeschooler I had no trouble finding secular textbooks.
Amsco School Publications, they do sell directly to homeschoolers.
We used
High School
The Living Environment Biology by Rick Hallman review here
Marine Science by Thomas F. Greene review here
Pearson
Conceptual Physical Science -Hewitt
For Elementary and Junior High I used
Prentice Hall
If you do not wish to buy directly from the publisher these textbooks can also be found at The HomeSchool SuperCenter , Amazon.com and various other bookstores.
And Keith preputates the same old HSLDA lie
Most people who homeschool do it for religious reasons. And most of those people want their kids to have a Christian based curriculum.
This simply isn't TRUE! The Tapestry of Homeschool Survey Report paints a far different picture of homeschoolers.
- 90% of the respondents were married, 4% were single, a little over 3% were in domestic partnerships.
- 80% were homeschooling for non-religious reasons.
Do you have any links to sites where I might obtain good text books on American History and Social Studies?
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Marlis, Sorry I haven't responded sooner. I'll try to put a post together answering your question. I used History of a Free Nation by Glenco Someone gave me the Teachers books and all the teaching accessories so I just had to buy the student text book. I think I got it at Amazon.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.glencoe.com/sec/socialstudies/ushistory/index.html
I supplemented with some other stuff which I will put in my post. Primary source documents are great so whenever possible I tried to have the boys read something written by someone who lived in the period we were studying.
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ReplyDeleteI agree that the author of the linked post was just being lazy. It really isn't that hard to find secular/neutral science curriculum.
ReplyDeleteNow what I would really love to find is something similar to Dr. Francis Collins' Language of God but written for a middle-school aged audience. Something that specifically addresses how someone can be both a Christian and a believer in (theistic) evolution. That's what I think is missing from the homeschool market.
I had quite a few friends in college that were homeschooled, and they said one of the biggest challenges was finding good homeschooling textbooks. It was also costly. They said they saved money by reselling their homeschool books to the book buyback site www.MyBookCart.com
ReplyDeleteI have to agree that there are many secular homeschooling options. I work for a company that produces online curriculum for math, history and sciences and our courses are entirely secular.
ReplyDeletePlus, I interact with plenty of other curriculum providers who also provide secular courses. I think we'll see even more as folks disillusioned with the current education system begin homeschooling for non-religious reasons.
I'm a teacher in public education. As such, I see no problem with homeschooling. Parents frequently have as good a grasp, if not a better one, as public school teachers do regarding the education needs of their kids. For generations, that's how we did things in America, and it served us fairly well. One thing you might consider is not using textbooks at all. It requires a bit more work to research topics and gather trustworthy sources of information, but you can learn quite a bit that way, even as your kids do. For that mater, determine the necessary subject and then let your kids do the research along with you. It's an important skill for their future, it's cheaper than text books, and they might even learn something unexpected that challenges their world view. Not likely to happen using the scrubbed clean textbooks normally available.
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