My educational philosophy in a word . . .
LIBRARY
In the movie Good Will Hunting, the main character, an autodidact, is talking to a Harvard student in a bar and says, “You paid $150,000 for an education that you could have gotten at the public library for $1.50 in late fees…”
Hey! That’s what I am talking about!!! I am a self-taught herbalist, nutritionist, educator and organic gardener. I’ve never been to college and don’t regret a minute not spent under someone else’s tutelage. I got all of my knowledge at the library!
When people ask me what curriculum I use for my homeschool, I hem and haw and finally admit that, well, we don’t use one. I quickly follow that odd sounding statement by explaining that we read a lot of library books. To this reply I usually get a blank look. I don’t know why. The library is Mecca.
We typically go to our local library twice a month during the school year. During the summer we go once a month. We are allowed up to fifty books per card and you’d better believe that we come home carrying the leaning tower of Pisa-oops, books. It is not at all strange for us to walk out of there with 150 or more books.
Twelve year-old Octavian hits the ancient world history section for every scrap he can find on Rome, Greece, The Celts, etc. Right now he is reading The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Whew.
Antony gets books on cassette such as Tom Sawyer, Catherine Called Birdy, A Wrinkle In Time and Rabbit Ears Radio videos like Squanto, Follow the Drinking Gourd, The White Cat (my personal all-time favorite) and Puss N Boots. He typically gravitates toward fictional storybooks and especially loves them well illustrated.
Scarlett, now reading quite well at eight, gets easy readers and animal books. She loves horse, cat, dog, lion, and other wild animal books. Some of these books she will read and either Antony or Octavian will read some to her.
While I allow the kids to pick their field of interest, there are core subjects we cover because they are not optional. Believe it or not, 
libraries have wonderful math books. These books, found in the junior section of most libraries, are written ABOUT math and may take the place of instructional math books for some children. Octavian is a visual-spatial learner and when he was six (kindergarten) we started in on the math section and read and re-read those books for four years. Through those books Octavian was exposed to algebra, geometry, binary numbers, probability, fibonacci numbers and other “higher math” concepts.
I bet a book about binary numbers sounds boring. Right? Well, you’ve got to check out Anno's Hat Tricks, by Mitsumasa Anno. Oh my gosh, that book will tickle your brain in a big way. It presents the system of binary numbers through a story about hats. Anno (our favorite children’s math author) tells a clever story that is also a puzzle and includes the answers in an explanation section at the end of the book (for math morons like me). Leave it to your gifted homeschooled six year old to make you feel stupid! Octavian understood the premise of the book and even solved the puzzle correctly! Of course, I scratch my head even now…
Other non-optional subjects that require massive amounts of library
books are music, musical composers, history, science and world cultures.
We single-handedly cleaned out the library’s dinosaur section every time we arrived during the boy’s dino phase. How many books about T-Rex can any one mother read? (Sympathy cards accepted) I guess we were on the dinosaur jag for about three years and eventually we had to move on to another branch of our local library because we had read all of the dino books at our closest one. Most of the titles at the library are written about individual dinosaurs. That means that Octavian had me read many books about each dinosaur. Just call me paleo-momma. This type of specialization culminates in moments like the one we shared at a local museum where seven year-old Octavian informed one of the curators that the dinosaur exhibit was incorrect!!! Arrgghh! (Of course he was right…)
Oh, and don’t get me started on science! I love the subject and selfishly began reading the junior science books to six year-old Octavian when he started his kindergarten year. We plowed through books about gravity, atoms, precipitation, the solar system, black holes, etc…I had no idea that it was significant that he sat still for this physical science litany. He loved it. When we weren’t reading the stuff we were talking about it (I’ve since found out that such a teaching method has a name. It is called the Socratic method. Sounds important, huh?). We cleaned out that section, too. We loved Franklyn Branley’s books the best because he presents the information in such a straightforward way. No condescension there. Just good tight science. Think your seven year-old can’t understand what air really is? Think again!
A word to the wise, heads-up when your wee one can chat amiably
about a subject that most high school seniors find tough. This could be a hint that your homeschooled little one is highly or even profoundly gifted. But, not to worry, he is in good hands. The curriculum recommended by almost all gifted-ed organizations is one of individual attention, freedom of exploration, self-motivation and unlimited acceleration. Wow! That certainly describes eclectic homeschooling!!!
In his kindergarten year Antony saw the movie Star Gate and that
catalyzed his abiding love for Egyptian history. Not only did we bring home a million pyramid books, but we also found books about hieroglyphs, Egyptian life, the Nile, crocodiles, papyrus, Egyptian mythology and even one cool video about a pyramid at Giza that was built to be in alignment with a certain star in Orion’s Belt during a specific time of year. Wow! He was so cute when he told adults about that one! Antony stayed focused on ancient Egyptian history for three years and by the end of second grade he had exhausted the easy and junior sections of the local libraries. How many books about Egypt can one mother read? Just call me paleo-Egyptian-momma (which, of course, is a misnomer since the Egyptians were Neolithic!).
What can’t a kid learn at the library?
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