Textbook recommnedations

[BaileyB]

Hey. Future unschooling mom here. Just wondering if any of you do buy any sort of textbooks here or there if you have a company/publisher, etc. that you prefer or recommend.

TIA

[rumi]

We have gotten quite a few books from Scholastic.   They aren't textbooks but they relate to academic subjects - like the Murderous Maths series, Horrible Histories, etc.  

We get a lot of books in general though.   

[tbone_kneegrabber]

We don't really have "text" books. Although ds is 5 so I guess that *could* change. We get most of our books from thrift stores and the library. If there is a specific title we search amazon used first, sometimes eBay or half.com.

[moominmamma]

For us textbooks have been very child-specific and subject-specific. We tend not to go for general school subject overviews, mainstream approaches or mainstream levels, since by the time my kids have learned naturally and organically about a subject to the point that they're wanting more depth, they are well beyond the basic levels and have strong ideas about what they're looking for. We've liked Art of Problem Solving's math texts, Cambridge Latin, Grout and Burkholder for music history, Campbell for AP/college biology. Most of these are high school level and beyond. Prior to that level, as I say, a textbook approach was not wanted or needed. We used non-textbook books, experiences, conversation, projects, videos, podcasts, judicious amounts of workbook stuff, the internet, community mentors and such.

Miranda

[Rik-E]

We do have  afew textbooks, although they get very little use. Mainly we collect educational subject books.
EyeWitness books on specific subjects are great!  Also DK (Dorling Kindersley) reference books are a big hit.
Max Axium science books in graphic novel form too! Actually any 'school' book in graphic novel form goes over well.

[moominmamma]

Originally Posted by Rik-E 

Mainly we collect educational subject books.

Yes, we enjoyed a lot of these, and I second the ones you recommended. 

Miranda

[elizawill]

i'm not an unschooler at all, but http://www.fun-books.com/ is really great. i discovered the website through lillianj's recommendation a few years back, and she did unschool (her son is in college now) - so i thought it was worth mentioning. 

[incorrigible]

Mine really enjoyed Teaching Textbooks math series.

And http://www.amazon.com/Anatomy-Coloring-Book-Wynn-Kapit/dp/0805350861 though it's not exactly a textbook.

I don't think they really touched on anything else in any kind of formal way until this year. They both decided to enroll in a self paced correspondence high school recently and are really enjoying the program.

[moominmamma]

Originally Posted by incorrigible 

Mine really enjoyed Teaching Textbooks math series.

And mine hated it, lol!

Just goes to show you how individual choices and preferences are with curricula.

Miranda

[incorrigible]

It really does. I hadn't even thought about it, but I can understand why some would hate it. My kids have always had particularly academic interests. They take after me like that. Beast is not like us at all, and a child that shares his way of thinking would probably hate most of the things my kids love. Teaching textbooks was just another addictive puzzle game, around here. ;)

[moominmamma]

Originally Posted by incorrigible 

My kids have always had particularly academic interests. 

My kids too. Heck my 9-year-old is sitting in the living room dividing mixed fractions by mixed fractions as I type. But overall we just found Teaching Textbooks pedantic and repetitious, compared to the more conceptual approach to math they'd used previously. It was not very amenable to grazing and skimming through material: the only way to discover whether there was anything new and not completely self-evident in an exercise was to work through it step-wise.

I don't want to turn this into a Teaching Textbooks rant. I think the format is wonderful; if the content and pacing fit your child's needs I can see why it would be good approach. For my kids although the presentation was lovely it was just not the math diet they were looking for.

Miranda

[onatightrope]

Another fan of the Art of Problem Solving.  They recently began a series for elementary aged kids called "Beast Academy".  The text is a cartoon/graphic novel format and they make a point of talking about what's interesting about all of the math they introduce, and will have fun games related to the topic.  We only have the first one, but I plan to get the rest as they become available-- they would be nice to have around if you had a younger kid interested in math.

My kids have enjoyed the Story of the World too.