Alternative Education Masterpost
Here it is, gentlepeople: an (attempted) comprehensive guide to alternative education and some of the best resources and schools of thought, sorted by subject. Hopefully this proves helpful to someone!
Information on Alternative Education:
The Journal of Unschooling and Alternative Education
Growing Without Schooling Back Issues
Coursera Courses on Education
The Unschooler’s Starter Kit
Three Free Books on Unschooling
An Excellent FAQ (unschooling)
Charlotte Mason and Classical Education
Free Charlotte Mason Curriculum and Introduction
Legendary Learning Now (articles, news, resources)
List of Democratic Schools
List of Homeschool Laws by US State
The Well-Trained Mind (Classical Education, also the book of the same name)
The Well-Educated Mind (Classical Education for adults)
General Resources:
Four Legal Ways to Get Free Textbooks
Khan Academy (free!)
Project Gutenberg (free books!)
LibriVox (free audiobooks!)
www.learner.org
Open Culture (free!)
Penelope Trunk’s Blog (excellent edit: Ms. Trunk has published some questionable at best opinions on sexual abuse in the workplace. Still, her material on unschooling is worth looking at.)
12X12 other places to educate yourself online (free!)
Self-Made Scholar
TED Talks
The Great Courses
Study for Possible College Credit:
Open Courseware Consortium (free!)
Education Portal (free!)
Coursera (free! possible verification!)
Edx (free! possible verification and/or college credit!)
Saylor.org (free! possible college credit!)
MOOC News and Reviews (about free college courseware)
CLEP
Advanced Placement (AP tests)
DSST Tests
Questions About College:
Unschool Graduation
Should You Take the SAT?
Applying to College as a self-taught teen, part 1
Applying to College part 2
Inspiration for the Road:
What I Gained from Quitting School
12 Reasons to Homeschool
Mathematics:
Games: “Tycoon” pc games on (seriously), Sudoku, Monopoly, ABCya (littler ones), Prodigy (~1st-8th, super cool).
Teach all of arithmetic in 20 hours
Why Use Video Games for Learning Math?
Sheppard Software: Math
Great “living books” on math
List of living math books for earlier readers
List of living math books for older readers
List of math computer games
How to study math
How to Lie with Statistics by Darrell Huff
The Great Courses: Mathematics (expensive but awesome. Check the library and look for sales.)
Khan Academy: free, self-teaching videos from 3rd grade math to linear algebra and differential equations
All the Math You’ll Ever Need (book)
Open Source Textbook for College Calc I-III
MIT Open Courseware Mathematics (free, self paced college curriculum)
Coursera Math (free, taught online college courses)
Education Portal Math (free, self paced videos)
Science:
TV shows: Zaboomafu, WildKratz, Magic School Bus (also books), Bill Nye the Science Guy, Nova, Cosmos and Nature.
Joy Hakim’s History of Science books
Code.org (computer science)
scratch.mit.edu (programming)
Explorabook and Earthsearch, both by John Cassidy. Excellent, excellent books.
List of living science books by category
The New Way Things Work
Science: The Definitive Visual Guide
Good Science, Bad Science, Pseudoscience, and Just Plain Bunk: How to Tell the Difference by Peter A. Daempfle
A Short History of Nearly Everything
List of advanced living books on math and science
Teach Yourself Computer Science
Nerdy Day Trips map
Science Friday webcast
Science Fiction books are underrated as an education tool! Read Asimov, William Gibson, Neal Stephenson, H. G. Wells, and Ray Bradbury for some of the best. Refer to this list, too.
Books by Malcolm Gladwell (the softer sciences), Mary Roach (science history, a personal favorite), and the classic science writers like David Attenborough, Rachel Carson, Stephen Hawking, Rebecca Skloot, and Carl Zimmer. This is a good list to start out with, as is this.
Crash Course Channels: Chemistry, Ecology, Biology
Sci Show, The Brain Scoop, and Vsauce (excellent YouTube channels on various science topics)
Khan Academy (again, fantastic resource)
Reading, Writing, Literature:
TV shows: Reading Rainbow, Between the Lions.
Games: Boggle, Scrabble, Mad Libs (for the younger ones), Bananagrams.
Starfall–free phonics games
Phonics Pathways (for early readers, remedial readers, LD students, and ESL students. I learned to read from this.)
How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster
How to Read a Book by Adler and Doren
On Writing Well by William Zisner
NYT’s Hundred Greatest Books
Suggested Lit from k-12
Crash Course Literature
Grammar Girl Podcast
Sheppard Software: English (really great for the SAT)
MIT Open Courseware: Literature
National Novel Writing Month for adults and kids
History and Social Studies:
Watch documentaries. Ken Burns’ are spectacular. Cave of Forgotten Dreams is another favorite. Check here for some ideas, and also Netflix. Old History Channel stuff is usually pretty good.
History for the Classical Child series by Susan Wise Bauer
A Little History of the World by E. H. Gombrich
The Teaching Company: History
Whatever Happened to Penny Candy? by Richard Maybury (economics)
Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt (economics)
Foundation for Economic Education Education Modules
Historical Fiction Books like Mara, Daughter of the Nile, The Help, etc. Lots listed here. NPR also has good lists.
Historical Fiction Films like Les Miserables, the John Adams miniseries, Ben Hur, Casablanca, etc. Some good picks here.
Non-fiction books by writers like David McCullough, Jared Diamond, and Thomas Cahill. Also check here and here.
Foreign Language:
Duolingo (beginner, free, dozens of languages)
Mango (paid, but available for free with lots of US library memberships, dozens of languages)
Yabala (intermediate, paid subscription, excellent videos)
Lang8 (beginner - advanced, free, feedback from native speakers on writing)
There’s honestly so much material available that I’ll just point you at this masterpost and you can have at it.
Fine Arts:
I suggest getting a private teacher or signing up for a quality class if you’re interested in the fine arts. If that’s out of the picture, try YouTube tutorials, theory books, and lots of practice.
Private lessons locator
Find Dance Schools
List of Art Museums
Top 10 Skills You Can Learn from Art
Ambleside Education
Alternative Camps and Summer Programs:
Marlboro Pre-College Summer
Not Back To School Camp
East Tennessee Unschool Camp












