Need help buying homeschool curriculum that is right for you? If you have done any amount of research for homeschool curriculum, then you are well aware of the exorbitant amount of options out there that will suit just about any and every learning type, personality type, and special need out there. While personal recommendations are super helpful, what works for your friend or sister, may not be the right fit for you or your child. Follow these 4 simple solutions to help you find the best curriculum for YOU and not waste precious time or money.
Follow these 4 Simple Steps to help find the proverbial Cinderella curriculum that is right FIT for YOU!
1. Know your WHY
This is the single most important step, which is why it comes first. If your means don’t line up with your goal then problems are likely to ensue.
Example: Perhaps there are lots of Dr. visits in your life, or you often travel as a family. You have chosen to home educate so that you can be on the go and your school schedule is more flexible. This is going to affect what curriculum you choose. Will you need access to internet? Are the resources portable? Is it open and go or is there a lot of planning involved? Being on the road or out of the home frequently, you not have as much time to plan and internet service may be choppy. This means you can now weed out online classes, classes that involve too many resources, or that take a lot of time to plan.
Keeping your focus on the core reason you started homeschooling helps you narrow your focus to only those programs or resources that support your WHY.
Action Step
- While some may go as far as to write a whole mission statement, a simple statement is really all you need.
- Take a moment to write out at least one sentence summarizing up the Core Reason(s) YOU home educate.
- Then make two column list of characteristics that support your “why” and conflict with your “why”.
2.Know your Student
What is your student’s learning style? If you don’t know, now is the time to find out!
Visual, kinetic, auditory?
Spiral or Mastery?
Teacher directed or Self directed?
Workbooks, Narration, Notebooking?
Predictable or spontaneous?
These are important things to consider and take into account when doing your research.
Are there any obstacles such as a disability, or a learning style that requires a specific approach? Perhaps your child is gifted which comes with a whole different set of challenges (insert web link). Seems like everyday I hear of not only different struggles or challenges that people are faced with, but the many cool resources that they are sharing in how to overcome and direct their home education accordingly.
Know their interests and passions. Do they love puzzles? Numbers? Maps? Books? Dinosaurs? Animals? Drawing and creativity? Computers and gadgets?
If you don’t tap into their interests in some way, you are not going to get them “hooked” and engaged.
While you might not be able to cater to their interests for every subject, you might be surprised by just how much you do find.
Here is a more in depth post on this topic including resources.
Action Step
- Make a list of some key aspects to look for in your curriculum that will make it more customized for your child.
- What are some characteristics to avoid?
- List out any special interests that are near and dear to your child.
3. Know yourself
Are you detail oriented or big picture? Spontaneous or planned? Do you want to create and adapt or just open and go?
As the teacher/mentor, you need to take into account your own personality and strengths and weaknesses.
Focusing on your strengths will take your homeschool to the next level and reduce fatigue and likelihood of burnout. If WE are not engaged and interested in what we are doing, we are likely to throw in the towel too soon.
Are you creative? Spontaneous? Nature loving? Organized? Social? Introverted? Big Picture or love the details? Rule follower or rebel?
Know Thyself! Here is a more in dept post with resources to help you identify some personality traits and qualities that may influence what sort curriculum to be on the lookout for.
Action Step
- List strengths and interests that might influence how you teach.
- List any curriculum qualities that may not jive with your personality.
- Do any research that you think might help you identify some of the points mentioned or help you get to know yourself better.
4. Research
Our tendency sometimes is to jump into researching first, but without doing the previous three crucial steps, the job of research is much more challenging! Now that you have some ideas of how to whittle down the list, it is time to read, research, watch video reviews on which curriculum catch your eye. Highly recommend starting with Cathy Duffy Reviews first (she has a list of 100 favorites to narrow down even more quickly if needed), and then move on to personal reviews of the product to get a better idea of what they really look like up close. If appropriate, ask your child about what they think or have them look at a review with you to see if they are intrigued or unimpressed (you know your child and whether this would be a helpful step or not! I personally have one of each.) If you know a friend or relative who has used this curriculum, ask to see it in person. This can be extremely helpful!
Action Step
- Check out Cathy Duffy’s Advanced options for researching Curricula and narrow down even more quickly by looking for her “102 Top Picks” which can also be found in her book.
- After narrowing down based on the review summaries, make a list of 3-5 curricula to research further through YouTube videos, talking to friends or poll an online community, and reading blogs or articles reviews you trust. If you can, get a look at the inside to see what it looks like up close, even better!
- Review your requirements and guidelines collected from above and see which one is the best fit over all. When in doubt, go with your gut!
5. Bonus!
How much you spend can really affect how attached you may be to a certain curriculum choice. The more you spend, the more reluctant you will be to let go a curriculum that is not working. Before making a purchase, do not forget to look for used book deals. When you spend less on a curriculum, you not only recycle and keep it out of the landfill, but you also will feel a lot more at ease if it doesn’t work out the way you think. There is a lot more guilt and desire to push through with something that is not working, when a hefty investment has been made. If this does happen though, do not fret!, Try to sell for a slight discount, a small hit may be all you end up with. Or you may bless a family in need with a great deal.
The more you spend, the more reluctant you will be to let go of a curriculum that is not working.
Just be careful when shopping used, that you know what should be included so you can ask any questions ahead of time and verify that nothing is missing. Sometimes the deal is not the deal when you have to piecemeal as it could cost you more in the long run.
