What we've been finding is that nearly all the high-rated courses are non-secular and we've decided we want to keep our kids in a secular curriculum. We've evaluated trying to edit the courses or pick-and-choose but it seems like in many of the offerings religion is so deeply-rooted in the work that it would be a very difficult undertaking.
My wife feels like the prospect of designing her own courses is very daunting and so it made me wonder if there has been any kind of effort to open source homeschool. Now more than ever it seems like a great time to have something like this available (we don't want our kids in a classroom while COVID is a concern). So far I've found mentions of open source schooling but nothing concrete or usable.
What I don't know is: what challenges might there be to creating such a thing? In Utah it seems very usable, but I'm sure each state has their own homeschooling requirements that maybe make this idea unlikely to take hold.
I think you should put aside the quest for "open source" curriculum and choose the best items you can find a la carte. The point of homeschooling for me, as a secular homeschooler, was to create a customized educational experience tailored (meaning adapted on the fly) to what each child seemed to need and what seemed to work. That meant not looking for comprehensive curricula but trying different things for different subjects. Keep working with other homeschoolers, online and off, to find materials to try. It's very difficult to predict what will work before you try it, because kids are so different. Reviews and recommendations help, but steel yourself to the hard fact that doing the best job will mean expensive trial and error.
Wildberger has elementary and grade 9 Australian math curriculum too in his channel https://m.youtube.com/user/njwildberger/playlists?view=50&so... but with some advanced math thrown in sometimes. Needs someone to teach it though, like hiring a local grad student or yourself. Foreign countries like Australia or Canada may have open curriculums for elementary http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/elementary/grade4.ht...
As far as the religious part is concerned, a significant portion of people who choose to home-educate their kids are strongly religious, and finding a community of people who are not can be quite hard (I’m atheist, so I totally understand). I know of some resources in Oregon that might help.
For curricula, it’s important to realise that home education is about creating a good learning environment at home for your child, it’s not about replicating the school environment at home. If you want a good list of milestones for various subjects, look into what other countries with good education systems have in terms of their key goals. Singapore and the U.K. have very well structured national curricula. Pick and choose what you want. I used Oak meadow as a vague guideline early on and that was alright. Just do what works. Focus on things they find interesting. Talk to your kids about their interests, about your jobs, let them play. Homeschooling is fun. As they get older, they can do courses at community college or online specialised classes. I personally was able to get into university in the U.K. by focusing on getting very good exam scores in SAT subject tests (which are pretty easy), and by following the curricula for GCSEs and A-levels, but this focus came later.
In terms of government oversight, my experience is that there is none (at least in Oregon, and from what you’re describing, also in Utah). This is a blessing and a curse. On one hand there’s nobody breathing down your neck micromanaging your curricula. On the other hand there’s no external barometer for if you’re doing okay. If you do choose to follow this path, know that it can be a lot of work for you and your wife, but it can be incredibly rewarding to see your kid learn and grow the way you do when you’re homeschooling, and if you do it right, your kid will really enjoy the experience. It’s not the right fit for all kids though, and some learners really need the structure of school. I hope you do well, and if you have any questions, ask.
Yes, many; see, e.g., https://openeducationsource.weebly.com/full-curricula.html
But you probably want both open source curriculum and open source supporting materials, which is harder to find, because while selecting high quality educational materials and assembling a curriculum is a lot of work to do without expectation for recompense, it's dwarfed by the work of actually creating the materials.
There’s some out there, of varying quality. > What I don't know is: what challenges might there be to creating such a thing?
The enemy of improving experiences, if there is one are the textbook companies committed to keeping education in the physical past to maintain their billion dollar industry at the cost of better immersive learning experiences.
Ultimately, new ways are emerging and you can be part of the improvement by creating and contributing OER.
I have a background in creating and delivering K-12, post-secondary and industry regulatory training, and would be happy to chat more offline.
Saxon Publishers use to be the gold standard for homeschool kits, but they switched up the material. You hear many complaints about it over the years since the change. I was fortunate to get a used kit for math before my daughter turned 5.
There are other sites like ixl.com that are good if you want adaptive problems on a computer. They cover the complete common core.
If I were going to put together something for home use, I would seek out the very best videos on YouTube and I would embed them in html. You can minimize the auto suggestions and other videos they try to push on you being on the main youtube site.
I don't have a good recommendation there either, but I was wondering if it is necessary to restrict yourself to "homeschooling" curriculum in particular?