"That sounds like what they do with 'integrated curriculum' in the public school. I thought folks home schooled to get back to the basics. If you want this new age teaching, why not just leave them in public school?"
I can't speak for anyone else, but we homeschool because we want to be involved in the education of our children. We want to be the one's with the say so when it comes to what our children learn and at what age. Education for us as a family is more that readin,ritin, and rithmatic. Children have to learn how to think too. When they are given a little ability to self-direct, they find that their thinking skills are increased. They become better problem solvers and they become more excited about learning.
Personally, just trying to shove a curriculum down a child's throat doesn't sound like a lot of fun.
We have been having much more success with letting the kids take some initiative in the learning process. For example, our son loves science. So, instead of giving him reading asignments within the text and doing the end of chapter work, my wife just lets my son loose with the textbook. He goes off and reads big chunks of the book at a time. When he's done, she makes him narrate to her everything he learned. He usually explodes into a big story about all this interesting information and facts, etc. By having to repeat all the information, it really sinks in for him. We decided to drop the standard education barriers in science for him. As a result, he has learned tons more for his age than he would have just using the 6th grade textbook.
We feed his interests and he absorbs both more of what he is studying and more information in total. The blessing of homeschooling is that we don't have to herd our children through a system built for the mediocre. By building the curriculum around the child, we produce a far more effective learning experience for our children. They learn more and retain the information better.
This is just our experience. We have by no means been the measuring stick for homeschooling. But, we have enjoyed doing it.
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