I was doing some research for an article I wrote for Teleread and came across this:
http://www.robinsoncurriculum.com/view/rc/booklevel.htm
It's a booklist for an apparently well-regarded homeschool curriculum that has an intriguing premise: it's supposed to be completely self-teaching. The program consists of following an add-on math program, writing a one-page essay every day on a topic of their choosing which the parents correct, and for the rest of it, simply reading the books on the above list, in order, until you are done. The CDs you purchase with the program contain TIFF image files of every page of every book, which you can print for your children as required so they can do the reading. All the parent has to do is spend about 15 minutes a day correcting the essay and printing off so you have reading material (the program's creator does not recommend computers until they reach high school) and that's it.
The program's founder apparently developed the program after the death of his wife, when he had to run his business and his household while homeschooling six children. He claims his children had excellent results and high scholastic achievement doing little more than read this list of books in order and write one page a day (plus the math).
Overlooking for a moment the issue of whether this is actually an effective teaching methodology, I did turn up the complete book list linked to above in a brief Google Search, and to be honest, I was underwhelmed. Most of the history comes from the fiction of Henty, Alger and pulp series from the olden days, and there is almost no poetry or drama to speak of. I liked the gimmick of the graded reading list where each book gets progressively more challenging as you move on up, but I think what you gain in that organizational structure, you lose in failing to place history in any sort of chronological or topical narrative.
I'd like to see more actual history that wasn't fiction-based, more art, drama, poetry, philosophy and so on, and some science (that doesn't kick in until high school here). And I think the list is very boy-heavy too and may not be as suitable for girls.
Most of these books are freely available on-line. If all you have to do is read them in order, I'm not sure why you need to pay this guy for his CDs. I'd love to see someone put together a graded, sequential list like this with links to Project Gutenberg. You could homeschool using only your Kindle
