[jenny_islander]

The Puritans' Home School Curriculum, by J. Parnell McCarter

http://www.puritans.net/curriculum/

Years Covered: Preschool through college prep.

Lesson Plans/Schedules Included? No. Checklists for subjects and reading selections are provided.

Distinguishing Features: Designed to present a strict Reformed viewpoint and produce children who are functionally young adults at 13.

Additional Cost: Moderate if the numerous free books (many developed for this curriculum) are read from the monitor.

Gentle? Explicitly, no. "The rod" as a whipping instrument, with the associated ritual of a loving explanation of the impending pain, is recommended in the curriculum handbook, and the booklists include such items as Wisdom and the Millers and Bob Jones University publications. If you agree with the rest of the underlying philosophy, you will have to revise the booklist extensively in order to use this curriculum in a gentle way.

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Higher Up and Further In (AKA Charlotte Mason Help), by Linda Johnson

http://www.charlottemasonhelp.com/p/...urriculum.html

Warning for people with slower older computers or connections: Each page you click in this site will open in its own tab.

Years Covered: K-11 with suggestions for preschool.

Lesson Plans/Schedules Included? Weekly schedules are provided for K-11.

Distinguishing Features: Another Charlotte Mason curriculum, with a Christian viewpoint not explicitly tied to any denomination. The developer describes her goal as a homeschooling parent like this: "To raise children who are passionately in love with God and who are able to relate the gospel of the Kingdom to the many, rather than the few."

Additional Cost: Fairly high; most of the suggested books must be purchased. (Johnson says that she started with the Ambleside Online curriculum and, among other things, replaced some older, free books with more "up to date" choices.)

Gentle? The booklists include Wisdom and the Millers and other books that matter-of-factly talk about spanking, hot saucing, etc. However, this may be explained as part of the general Charlotte Mason philosophy of presenting otherwise good books with the bad bits unfiltered. Or not. Johnson doesn't cite any current experts on any side of the discipline debate by name.