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Show HN: Great Books Homeschool beta program

greatbookshomeschool.com

21–30 of 75 posts

Re: Show HN: Great Books Homeschool beta program

#21
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Mostly" is not everyone, and frankly I tend to forget the religious weirdos even exist. All the homeschooling families I knew were doing it because the local schools sucked; even those with "gifted and talented" programs couldn't keep up. If this scratches an itch for some homeschoolers, it's valid and useful. There will always be others for whom it is not interesting, but so what?

> religious weirdos I fall into that category in that I find the public education system extremely lacking in terms of (and especially) moral development. I don't appreciate the characterization of "weirdo", though you are welcome to it. Just know that the majority of the people in the space you aspire to serve are fundamental Christians of various stripes and colors and you will lose that segment of business very qu…

I didn't say anything negative at all about religious schools! Just concern about parents deciding to go it alone! Like, there is no scheduled interaction with other people!

I can already hear the indignant "none of your business". I'm just trying to help people avoid making a mistake.

Sadly there are a lot of great, social, religious schools, and many of the evangelical Christians (not as varied as you suggest, but mostly being strikingly similar*) are more likely to throw out the social component of school and homeschool them or put them in a tiny school that not only lacks the resources but also often lacks the sense of responsibility most parents have.

* FWIW they're among the most vulnerable to televangelists and megachurches

Re: Show HN: Great Books Homeschool beta program

#22

I like the idea. I'm having a bit of trouble picturing exactly what I'd be getting though – what format are the book lists presented in, and what sorts of materials do you include with them? A page with a couple sample emails that I could read without having to create an account would help me. Maybe there is one somewhere, but I couldn't find it.

That's a good idea. Maybe we can include some screenshots in the homepage or How It Works page to give visitors a better idea of what it looks like when you create an account and generate curricula.

Re: Show HN: Great Books Homeschool beta program

#23
post #18
post #7

From the overview by grade page [0] > Note that the curriculum does not introduce writing this year. [...] I find this strange. I have a lot of penmanship homework from my two years (!!) of kindergarten and first grade. It seems odd to me to not include it in kindergarten. Your reasoning seems to make sense to me, but I'd be tempted to teach in the way I was taught because it worked -- for better or worse -- for me.…

> I find this strange. I have a lot of penmanship homework from my two years (!!) of kindergarten and first grade. I'll have to see if I can find the studies, but a lot of researchers have been finding that rushing to introduce kids to things doesn't make a great impact and in fact sometimes holds them back from lifetime achievement. (This does not apply to true prodigies.) Off the top of my head, some researchers ha…

I'm wary of any educational information coming out of the USSR. Good to know, though. It makes sense that trying to force development where the child isn't ready for it will cause them to struggle.

Re: Show HN: Great Books Homeschool beta program

#24
post #3

$40/month for a list of books to check out at the library seems a bit much. Transcripts aren't difficult so what additional value do you offer for that price?

I looked for a sample unit and couldn't find one. Does indeed seem expensive, even if it's pretty good by the standards of such things.

Good to know. Right now the only way to view sample units is to create a free trial account.

Re: Show HN: Great Books Homeschool beta program

#26
post #11

Yuval Noah Harari is Great Books?

"Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" is a book without much facts or evidence. Other books by the author would likely be somewhere around. So, not a great book, but more like a story book.

Though I assume they just slapped some book covers on the website in hurry.

Re: Show HN: Great Books Homeschool beta program

#27
post #5

> It's designed especially for intellectually curious kids who love to read. What does "intellectually curious" mean here exactly? The reasons people homeschool mostly seem to be about being (over)protective, which goes against it: "Parents were asked which of the reasons they homeschooled was the most important reason. Figure 2 and table 4 show the most important reasons students were being homeschooled in 2003, as…

This feels less like an sincere question for OP than it does an uninformed attack on homeschooling in general. You start with a phrase OP used to describe their target audience, imply that there is no such homeschool family, and then tangent off into unrelated attacks that show a strong lack of nuance. Yes, there are families that homeschool for the wrong reasons. But there are plenty of others (as your own cited sta…

> uninformed attack on homeschooling in general

You can probably tell I have direct experience with it, yet you call me "uninformed". It's a pretty common tactic when defending a fringe group.

However, I brought information into it. There's no mention in your comment about the reference I provided. Gee I wonder why.

Re: Show HN: Great Books Homeschool beta program

#28
Interesting idea!

Anyone who likes the idea of a great books program should check out St. John's College in Annapolis MD and their curriculum:

Suggested book curriculum by year: https://www.sjc.edu/academic-programs/undergraduate/great-bo...

All in one PDF: https://www.sjc.edu/application/files/4115/4810/0934/St_John...

There's also the old Britannica Great books printed book set. You can just look at their book list and get them one by one when you're ready:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Books_of_the_Western_Wor...

Also, almost all of these books are old enough that their copyrights have expired so you can download them for free from the Gutenberg e-library: https://gutenberg.org/

For example, here is a free copy of Plato's Gorgias:

https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1672/pg1672-images.html

One feature I've wished for is some way to format these free books and make them more reader-friendly. That would save future readers time to do it themselves. I would pay for something like that.

Re: Show HN: Great Books Homeschool beta program

#29
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I looked for a sample unit and couldn't find one. Does indeed seem expensive, even if it's pretty good by the standards of such things.

Good to know. Right now the only way to view sample units is to create a free trial account.

Yeah, I did a lot of looking at these kinds of things during the Pandemic Year (didn't everyone?) and the single nicest thing to see, as far as evaluating them, was a kind of "here's what the material for a week in grade X looks like", or a sample unit if they're more unit-oriented. It's little enough that you're not giving away anything very useful on its own, but at least gives visitors a concrete idea of what they'd be committing to and what they'd be getting, if they pay.

Re: Show HN: Great Books Homeschool beta program

#30
post #16
post #5

> It's designed especially for intellectually curious kids who love to read. What does "intellectually curious" mean here exactly? The reasons people homeschool mostly seem to be about being (over)protective, which goes against it: "Parents were asked which of the reasons they homeschooled was the most important reason. Figure 2 and table 4 show the most important reasons students were being homeschooled in 2003, as…

> and no social connection I've seen great benefits come out of home schooling co-ops. You get the ability to have your child learn at their pace and study subjects they find interesting (to a certain extent, obviously), the added benefit of a little less labor on the part of individual parents, and a social group of kiddos that are following a similar path.

Good. I've seen parents join one so they would feel good about their choice to homeschool and quit it after a year but continue homeschooling without that extra social interaction and still feel good about it.
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