Choosing homeschool curriculum is one of the most challenging tasks for a home educator, especially for someone new to homeschooling. I want to give homeschooling families sanity when it comes to choosing the right curriculum.
Listen to the podcastThe Right Homeschool Curriculum Fits Your Intentions
In How to Choose the Right Homeschool Curriculum, author Amy Michaels says that curriculum choices should help us meet our intentions for a student. If we intend for a child to learn to love reading, we will choose a different English curriculum than we would if we want a child to learn to write impeccable book reports.
Of course, before we can choose that right curriculum, we have to be clear about what our intentions are. What do you want your child to learn, experience, and feel in the study of each subject? Be clear about why you have those intentions too. If you are hoping to impress an anti-homeschooling relative with a child who is a top speller, you may be disappointed with the other effects of your choice (i.e., a child who dislikes spelling because of the emphasis put on it).
The Right Homeschool Curriculum Engages Your Child at a Higher Level
Students can be induced to regurgitate facts and perform well on tests with enough practice. But if your intention is for your child to love learning, you’ll be dissatisfied with a curriculum that merely asks for facts.
As homeschoolers, we have the opportunity to look for curriculum that provides opportunities to use facts in real-world applications. Our kids will be motivated and inspired to keep learning when they can use them in games, puzzles, and conversation. We are then asking our kids to think and not just recite.
Our students can take their learning to an even higher level with curriculum that asks them to create projects that demonstrate learning. Writing papers, creating posters or videos, and teaching others will cement the lessons they’ve learned for the long haul by demanding high-level thinking skills.
The Right Homeschool Curriculum Fits Your Unique Family
Your friends may rave about the reading-based, online, or activity-rich curriculum they’ve found, but there is no other family quite like yours. Learning style, teaching style, time available, and budget will all impact your choices.
Putting together a list of the characteristics of each curriculum choice is time consuming to say the least! That’s why I’ve created a features list of the best homeschool science, language arts, and math curriculum for you.
But even these lists won’t help you if you don’t know which of these characteristics matters most to you. My favorite part of the book How to Choose the Right Homeschool Curriculum is help in creating your unique rating form. Once created, you’ll be able to use it to evaluate the curriculum you already own as well as potential choices to determine if they are the right choice for your family.
Save 10% on the book with code SANITY
Kids can help us find the right decions too. Grab your free kids’ rating sheet for reviewing homeschool curriculum from ThriveHomeschooling.com.
Conclusion
When you know your intentions, when you look for curriculum that engages students at higher level thinking skills, and when you create your own rating rubric, the process of finding the right homeschool curriculum for your family is much, much easier!
