Today is Day 29 of 31 for 21.
Years ago, after hearing about a curriculum mentioned here and there, I finally checked out the Robinson curriculum myself. I was expecting to find a computerized curriculum that the kids could do independently of adults, the kind of thing that I’m not a proponent of. Imagine my surprise when I found guidelines to homeschooling that matched many of my own beliefs and an approach that appealed to me! I’m too eclectic to take on all of anyone else’s program but I integrated some aspects of their approach and have maintained it until this day.
One aspect of the approach was to do the basics very well and not get distracted by lots of side subjects. All kids have a mandatory daily reading time, and there is a list of recommended classic books that are suggested. My kids use books of my choice for their mandatory reading; they choose their own reading material for their free reading. I’ve used this list as a guideline for our kids, though I’ve also added in my own choices that are more contemporary but still good reading.
Today I found this online list of books suitable to the Robinson curriculum; I’ve loaded a number of the books in the past onto our Kindles via Project Gutenberg, which has a huge selection of free classic books available. However, this list of links is for Amazon books and so it’s much faster to load the books. Here’s the link – free classic Kindle books.
Some of these are loaded onto my Kindle to read with the younger kids or as read alouds; some are loaded for ds11 or dd13 onto their Kindles based on their individual levels. I’ve loaded a couple for myself as well!
Avivah
Avivah,
What a great list for free Kindle books. I have a NOOK and I hope they are available there as well. I have searched for specific titles but never thought of looking for a list. Thanks.
What is the difference between Robinson and other self study curriculum? On the website they have written a whole lot about children self teaching not dependant on the adult?
I don’t know about other curriculums so I can’t compare. Similar to the Robinson approach, I believe in teaching kids to be independent learners and once they have that ability, they aren’t dependent on you. That doesn’t mean that you don’t interact with them or facilitate learning- you do, of course! – but my goal is to become irrelevant as a ‘teacher’. I’ve really seen the benefits of this approach at different ages; it empowers children when they realize they can learn on their own. My caveat with this is not to make them feel the weight of having to do everything themselves; they need to feel you’re there and involved in their education even when you’re not directly doing the frontal teaching.
So how does the Robinson curriculum support that? Is it by setting things up for them, giving them materials, answering questions? or is there something built in to the curriculum that keeps the adult involved?