Getting Started with Homeschool: How Do I Choose the Right Curriculum?

It's a good problem to have. All the options. The last ten years have seen an explosion in curricular options for homeschooling. The homeschool conferences are like going to the cereal aisle at the grocery store: SO MANY CHOICES.

It's so tempting to think that there must be something better out there than what you currently have, that your kids are missing out on some magical experience in spelling, that *that* program would be so much easier for you to use, more colorful, more fun, more....  I want you to hear: most of the time, switching programs will not fix a problem if you haven't been consistently and diligently working the program you have.

When you're beginning to homeschool for the first time, especially if you're jumping in with multiple kids in different grades, I've got three pieces of advice to get started.

1.  Do some basic reading on the different philosophies of education.   There are four or five major prevailing theories or philosophies of education. The public school has one and homeschool curricula all have one too. If you figure out what philosophy you prefer to follow, it will really narrow down your choices and help you identify a program that will really work for you, not fight against what you really want because it's philosophically opposed to your philosophy.  I love this quiz to give you an idea of some philosophies to investigate: Eclectic Homeschool Quiz

2.  Your first year, buy boxed packages by grade level.  There are some great options out there for every philosophy. Like traditional schooling? Get A Beka or BJU.  Want to try Classical education? Memoria Press and Veritas Press has something for you.  Unschooling or unit studies more your style? Check out Timberdoodle, Sunlight, Beautiful Feet, My Father's World.

3. Focus on your big rocks.  Imagine you're filling a jar with rocks. You need to put the bigger rocks in first before filling in spaces with little pebbles that will roll in.  The big rocks are language arts and mathematics.  Do these faithfully and well. Anything you can do in addition to that is awesome! But don't let geography or art distract you from doing the primary things well.

Once you've got your feet under you, you may find you feel confident to make some choices or substitutions in your boxed program, or to scrap it all and make all your own choices.  But this is especially hard when you're just beginning to be overwhelmed with these options. How are you supposed to evaluate and narrow down phonics or math programs and make a decision about what to use in your home for your kids?

What do you do when you've got something, like phonics, narrowed down to two or three options, and you think one looks perfect for your kids, but has lots of moving parts and may be too complicated for you as the teacher? And the other looks pretty simple and easy for you to handle, but you're not sure it's enough for your kids?  

I like to break things down to categories and questions to ask. 

Curricula fall into two categories: 

1. Those that Mom can consistently and diligently implement

2. Those that Mom cannot consistently and diligently implement

Things fall into that second category for lots of reasons. Maybe it's too complicated with too many things to keep track of. Maybe it includes too many things (manipulatives, games, choices in lessons for the day) and requires Mom to make lots of decisions. Maybe she's got lots of little kids and needs her phonics lessons to be super focused and short for her oldest before all chaos breaks loose in the house. Maybe Mom has older kids and what worked for her older kids is not going to work for her youngest, because she's now teaching four grades and needs phonics to be streamlined.  Maybe Mom's got two kids close in age and wants an in-depth program because she's got the time and eager kids and wants to keep them engaged. 

When you're evaluating curriculum, the single most important thing is whether or not you as mom and teacher can diligently and faithfully work that curriculum. It can be the greatest program in the world; if you can't work it faithfully, it won't work for you. 

Only you, mama, can take stock of your home, your family, your child, your time, and evaluate what you need, what you can give and how the two needs compliment each other.  

Also please know that when you first start out homeschooling, it takes a few years to find your stride. It's totally normal and ok to try a bunch of things before landing on the right fit.  But the more research and review reading, talking to veteran moms you can do to land there quicker, more the better for you and your kids. Do your research and stick it out at least 6-8 weeks before abandoning ship. Don't be quick to be tempted by the new thing, the thing your friend suddenly is raving about that's a miracle for her kids. If what you're doing is working, don't let your imagination run wild with what if's and second guesses and doubts based on what someone else is doing. Doubts and considerations of change is only allowed based on assessing what's happening inside your four walls and in your kid's minds. 

There is one other thing to consider when looking at curriculum.  First, there are two types of subjects. Some subjects are skills-based, and others are content based.  Curricula also tends to come packaged in two different ways. Some programs are integrated and include lots of subjects, others are singular and focused on one particular subject or skill. 

I like to match things up like this: 

Skills based learning --> singularly focused programs

Content based learning --> integrated, buffet style programs

It's really common to come across homeschool packages for a grade level that includes all the standard subjects for a "2nd grade" package with plans for each day of each week of the year.  This sounds great! Everything's included and planned out!  It might be great. But, when your child just really takes off with math, finds it easy, wants a challenge, but is struggling with spelling and needs to move slowly with lots of repetition, suddenly all that nicely laid out planning becomes really complicated when you're working out of different weeks plans for different subjects and trying not to feel pressured "catch up" what's behind.  This is the point at which you could consider picking your own programs for skills based things. Or at the very least, making your own lesson plans so your child can learn at the right pace.  This is one of the draw-backs to a boxed curriculum long term. But when first getting started, especially with multiple kids and grade levels, a boxed curriculum with everything planned out is a great way for Mom to learn how to plan by following one example of planning for a year. It's worth it that first year!

It's also quite common to find full language arts programs. These are prone to the same pitfalls. If your child is progress asynchronously (not at equal paces across all skills) then these integrated skill programs become a real headache.  This is why for anything that's teaching a skill, I look for and purchase something that teaches *that skill only*.  Some examples of skills-based learning are: 

-phonics/reading

-spelling

-handwriting

-mathematics

-foreign languages

-logic

-writing

But when it comes to content-driven subjects, I think the more integration there is the better! I love buffet-style content programs. Buffets present a lot of options and you're not really supposed to "eat" all of it. On any given day, you're supposed to decide what looks the most tempting and enjoy that. Some examples of content-driven subjects are: 

-history

-geography

-literature

-science

-art

-vocabulary

-writing

Why not teach history and geography together, and read literature from the same time period, while learning about scientists and artists that lived at that time? A program that puts all that together for you is like gold! This kind of a buffet can be the icing on the cake for your homeschool. It can fill your studies with imagination and wonder, bring you into a bigger world, and make it easier for you as a mom to explore it all with your kids instead of trying to pull together lots of different programs that are disjointed to cover the same things.

So. Skills vs. content. Single focus vs. buffet. It's ok to let a box be your guide at first!