To achieve truly excellent education, keep it simple: Read, Write, do Projects and Discuss. The more complex our national curriculum has become, the less educated our society. And it's not just in the United States. You find it in ancient Rome, Greece, Chinese history, Japanese history, many modern nations, and elsewhere.
Jefferson didn't have access to our modern "advanced" textbooks and yearly updated curriculum modules or standardized tests. He read the classics, wrote about them, and discussed what he learned with his mentors. George Wythe structured Jefferson's curriculum around these simple items: classics, discussion, projects, writing. Nearly the whole Founding generation did the same, and the further we have moved from this simple formula, the worse our education has become.
What we need to improve education is not more curriculum, but better education, and that comes from classics and mentors. With young children you do two things: read them the classics--things at their level like Black Beauty, Charlotte's Web, the Little House on the Prairie series, fables and rhymes--then talk about it.
Simplicity, not Complexity 
