Back-to-school day in Alberta, or, So you're thinking about home schooling...

Today is the first day of school for Alberta public and separate (Catholic) schools, so in honor of that fateful day, two years ago, when Laura came off the school bus -- a two-hour roundtrip, by the way -- in tears after her first day of first grade (or Grade One as it's known up here) because "they're doing baby work and you have to go tell the teacher I know it already," an incomplete and highly subjective list of links from my admittedly short trip around the homeschooling block...

Thinking

• Chris has done a masterful job summarizing John Taylor Gatto's Underground History of American Education here. If you want to read the whole thing online for yourself, go to Gatto's website, from which you can also buy an old-fashioned bound copy.

• Speaking of Gatto, here's his brief essay "Against School: How Public Education Cripples Our Kids, and Why," excerpted from Underground History and which ran in Harper's Magazine in September 2003

• Chris also has written a reassuring Note To First-Time Homeschooling Dads

• Family Matters: Why Homeschooling Makes Sense by David Guterson -- author of Snow Falling on Cedars, public school teacher, home educating father

• Lynx at One-Sixteenth has done a masterful job summarizing Albert Nock's book, The Theory of Education in the United States, based on a series of lectures he delivered at the University of Virginia in 1931, here at her blog (part I) and here (part II)

Reading

• The Complete Home Learning Sourcebook: The Essential Resource Guide for Homeschoolers, Parents, and Educators Covering Every Subject from Arithmetic to Zoology by Rebecca Rupp

• Home Learning Year by Year: How to Design a Homeschool Curriculum from Preschool through High School by Rebecca Rupp

• The Core Knowledge Series by E.D. Hirsch, Jr. (from What Your Kindergartener Needs to Know to What Your Sixth Grader Needs to Know)

• American Homeschool Association's Weblog's Blog, listing all sorts of home education blogs; useful for getting a day-in-the-life/fly-on-the-wall peek at real, live home educating families

• Homeschooling for Dummies by Jennifer Kaufeld; much better than you might think based on just the title, series, or yellow cover

Nuts and Bolts and Links

• Homeschooling 101, with all sorts of Really Useful information and links

• Kris's classical home education website, more Really Useful information and links

• Butch's Secular Homeschooling Page, with yet more Really Useful information and links

• Paula's Archives, a wealth of information and links, especially for the classical homeschooler

• Homeschool Basics Blog, with frequently asked questions and handy links

• website for The Well-Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise

• list of secular curriculum publishers

Buying

• BookCloseouts; where to buy good books, cheap. Do yourself a favor -- make a BCO wish list. Kris, above, has a BCO new arrivals Yahoo group, which announces the latest good and useful books and also offers online discount coupons

• Rainbow Resource Center, probably the largest homeschooling catalogue in the U.S. Great prices, amazing selection. The catalogue is free and approaching the size of the Manhattan phone book.

• Tree of Life Book Service, a Canadian homeschooling resource catalogue, concentrating on the classical approach

• Canadian Home Education Resources (CHER), one of the most comprehensive online and mail-order outfits in Canada