Investigate distance and correspondence curricula & online courses

Teaching our children how to learn, and encouraging them to direct themselves, is like helping a starving village grow its own crops in order to feed itself, rather than giving it an overcooked feast that soon vanishes with no more to follow. Instead of subjecting our children to a standardized curriculum, and limiting their learning to the lowest level, we can aspire to a much higher level, and give them an education that is limitless and self-sustaining.

— Laurie Block Spigel, from Education Uncensored

Distance and Correspondence Curricula

If you choose to use a distance or correspondence curriculum, research the library and the Internet and browse through What's Free or Cheap in NYC to enrich this curriculum and make it come to life. Subject-specific curricula are listed at Books and Resources by subject

Read "Judging Books by Their Covers", by noted physicist Richard P. Feynman, about the general quality of school textbooks.

Not all correspondence schools offer accredited diplomas. If this is important to you, check with each individual school to find out if they are accredited in your state.

Here is a brief list of correspondence schools with some comments. More can be found by searching on the Internet. Please email me your comments and additional suggestions for this list.

Pre-K - 12: Christopherus
Pre-K - 12: Oak Meadow
Pre-K - 12: Charlotte Mason
Pre-K - 12: The Well-Trained Mind
K - 12: Kolbe Academy
K - 12: Laurel Springs
K - 12: Clonlara School
K - 12: Texas Tech University
K - 12: Calvert School
2 - 12: University of Arizona
4 - 12: North Dakota Division of Independent Study
9 - 12: The American School
9 - 12: Keystone National High School
9 - 12: Nebraska's High School
9 - 12: North Atlantic Regional High School

Pre-K - 12: Christopherus
A Waldorf-inspired curriculum especially designed for homeschoolers. Recommended by parents who embrace Rudolph Steiner’s philosophy of child development and education, this version of Waldorf was created by homeschooling parents. You do not have to purchase an entire curriculum, and can buy just what you need for one subject if you like. They offer a range of materials and curricula for every age and level.

Pre-K - 12: Oak Meadow
Many parents have chosen Oak Meadow because it is a more creative curriculum, and craft kits are offered with lessons and teacher manuals. They also claim to accommodate a wide variety of learning styles. This curriculum is Waldorf-influenced, based on the educational philosophy of Rudolph Steiner.

Pre-K - 12: Charlotte Mason
Charlotte Mason was a British educator in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Most of the Charlotte Mason curriculum is in the public domain and FREE! Part of the unique quality of Charlotte Mason is that no textbooks are used. Instead, nonfiction “living books”, any book which is passionately written by the author, make the subjects come alive and keep students more fully engaged with the written material. Homeschoolers might follow all or part of Charlotte Mason’s philosophy.

Pre-K - 12: The Well Trained Mind
This is a popular classical education based on books by Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise. There are also discussion forums for the Well Trained Mind. Many parents use part of this curriculum as it suits them, rather than trying to do it all as suggested.

K - 12: Kolbe Academy
An orthodox Catholic classical homeschool curriculum that parents are free to adapt to their own situation.
One parent's comment: "I like this curriculum because it offers the best of both worlds: a structured program with flexibility. I can use my own books and I grade the exams. They keep records for me and offer a weekly syllabus with recommended books. Since they have a day school in Napa, California, they offer a California high school diploma."

K - 12: Laurel Springs
One parent's review: "They were ideal when we were starting out and had no idea what to do. The teachers were fabulous and available for questions outside our normal scheduled conferences, changing things as we better identified the kids' needs. After a while, we no longer needed them. The main reason we left them (aside from the fact that it was no longer a necessary expense) was their curriculum was too similar to regular school. They have choices of study methods: project-based, text-based, Internet-based, etc. They follow California state requirements, similar to NY, which ultimately boiled down to the traditional text book/classroom format. For things like science they used standard fare like Scott Foresman, which was the traditional mile wide/inch deep format my kids disliked."

K - 12: Clonlara School
Clonlara is popular among homeschoolers because it can be used as an umbrella school (incorporating your own curriculum into their goals), and will do the paperwork for you as well.

K - 12: Texas Tech University: Outreach and Extended Studies

K - 12: Calvert School
Some consider this program for K-8 more rigorous than others.

2 -12: University of Arizona: Continuing Education and Academic Outreach

4 - 12: North Dakota Division of Independent Study

9 - 12: The American School
Earn a high school diploma through distance learning. This school is reviewed by Cafi Cohen at her website: Homeschool Teens & College. Some consider American less expensive and less demanding than other programs.

9 - 12: Keystone National High School

9 - 12: Nebraska's High School
The University of Nebraska at Lincoln, for grades 9 - 12, is considered one of the best, and is popular among students living overseas since they are experienced at sending lab supplies to foreign countries.

9 - 12: NARHS (North Atlantic Regional High School), located in Maine, will allow you to enroll as late as your senior year of high school, and offers an accredited diploma. They can be used as an "umbrella" school, allowing you to fill your credits your way, with the courses you are already taking at home. They are more likely than a standard correspondence school to give you credit for the work you have already done.

Here is one parent's comment: "My boys weren't very motivated about the more academic aspects of homeschooling until we enrolled in NARHS (North Atlantic Regional High School), which got us looking more at the big picture rather than the day to day routine. They are now more focused on their own goals (music conservatory for one, marine academy for the other) and thus more willing to do what is needed to create the appropriate high school transcript. It takes some of the burden off me, too, because it's not MY fault if certain subjects are required for an accredited diploma or a particular college's admissions. It is easier now for me to position myself as the person helping them fulfill their own goals, rather than the person nagging them to do stuff they don't want to do."

Online Courses

Evaluating Online Learning: Challenges and Strategies for Success, from the U.S. Dept of Ed

Free courses are available at lots of colleges and universities, most famously at MIT, but also at Yale and UC Berkeley. Academic Earth offers free online courses from the world's top scholars.

Some 200 schools supply lectures to the OpenCourseWare Consortium.

You can browse sites that connect the colleges by subject at DegreeDirectory. LectureFox gives descriptions of the lectures and Academic Earth gives ratings of courses.

More online courses are in web resources listed by subject (see sidebar). For those who wish to create their own curriculum (which I recommend), there is a lot to choose from under each subject.

This is Step 7 of the Ten Steps to Successful Homeschooling
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