RE: A better way to help children learn and grow at HOME! Nope, no curriculum involved!
Alas, I found this post about an hour after the upvote cutoff!
I was homeschooled, and due to the attention sponges my younger siblings were, my education was largely self-directed from 5th grade on. I had textbooks, we tried a satellite school one year, and we did stuff as a family all year round.
I skipped 12th grade, instead jumping straight onto the local community college, where I did well enough to make the Dean's List. I had to re-take Calc I after a D, but I still contend it was due to a poor teacher. Most of the class bailed by the withdrawal date for that semester, too, which did not happen the second time through where I got a solid B.
At any rate, the self-directed study did help with college classes, which required probably an average of two hours of independent work per credit hour of classroom time.
Haha that's okay. :)
Yes, it is interesting all the ways homeschooling can work. Ive not heard of any two families with the exact same methods, which is as it should be.
I was also homeschooled, from the 6th grade on, and my mom tried boxed curriculum at first, (blech), and ended up doing a mix of textbooks that she chose and self -led stuff. I enrolled in our local college part time when I was 16 and did fantastic there, (straight A's, yay me!), until my mom had me drop out because there was a pervy guy trying to hit on me, and rather than help me deal with it, she just removed me from the situation entirely.
I don't have any issues with structured learning per se, my issue was with people taking their little 6 year olds and forcing them to sit for hours on end doing different paperwork rather than being active and learning the way 6 year olds love to learn, by playing. I feel that is too young for this, and it surprises me that within the homeschool community, this is still done on a very regular basis. You'd think they would be more open-minded...
Oh well. I think a lot of things going on these days that are considered 'normal' are wrong...
Thanks for your comment! :D
We knew one family in MN that followed a very strict schedule that basically brought the school's rigidity into the home. Blech indeed! My books were chosen from various sources. Saxon Math, BJU English, etc.