Curriculum

I hope you are not expecting me to tell you what curriculum to get?  I can't do that.  This post focuses on the different ways you can provide curriculum. 

First, if you decide to unschool, you won't be using curriculum.  Unschoolers use magazines, libraries, lots of reading, educational games, real life experiences.  I know unschoolers who live in a rural setting and have 5 boys. The mother's motto was, "Let them get bored and see what happens."  One summer they built a bridge over the creek; in the winter, they put together a kit car in the garage.  Again, as the parents, you provide the opportunities to learn and then let them.  These 5 young men are college graduates with distinguished careers now.  I never had the guts to unschool; it was just too different for me.  But I admired that family and if you can do it, the kids become life-long learners with great confidence.

More traditionally, there are three ways you can use curriculum to homeschool.  Many families buy a packaged curriculum that comes with all the books you need for a particular grade plus a lesson plan, grading, and record-keeping.  It's basically distance learning.  It takes the pressure off of you, it "feels" more traditional, everything is right there for you.  All of the subjects seem to work together, too.  On the flip side, the lesson plan doesn't allow for your schedule; you'll have to tweak it.  I would struggle not to feel a slave to someone else's timeline.  Also, you are responsible for getting the assignments in for grading and you have to track the hours spent in subjects and then report that for their record keeping, which always seemed like double the work to me (If I am tracking it and writing it down, why am I then sending it to them to put in a ledger? Can't I just do that?).  But if you are a stickler for being "official" this may be the route for you.  If you stick with a particular provider, they provide report cards and certificates/diplomas throughout the years.  Keep in mind, this is also probably the most expensive way to go.

Just short of that, you can buy the curriculum but develop your own lesson plan, grading, and record keeping.  Some homeschoolers purchase the textbooks, workbooks, test booklets, and teacher books from a single provider and then put together their own lesson plan to follow.  Obviously, this will give you more flexibility but you also will have to spend time developing your lesson plan.  I take a few afternoons, usually in May, and go out of the house (sit in a coffee shop or the library) with my calendar, and our textbooks, and map it all out.  It's probably a total of about 20 hours of work for 4 kids.  With just my 2 girls now, it's maybe a 4-6 hour endeavor.  Even though I'm developing my own schedule, it will still end up being tweaked throughout the year.  That's life; at least at our house.  This option is less expensive for two reasons.  One is that you are not paying for the service of planning, grading, and record keeping.  This option also allows more freedom to purchase used curriculum.  If you like the continuity of buying from one provider, but you don't want to answer to someone else, this will be a good option for you.

Finally, some people pick and pull together an ecclectic array of curriculum from different providers.  Sometimes it is hard to find a curriculum provider that you love all of their books; or that your kids love all of their books.  It's a little more work to hand pick, because there is so much to choose from and it takes time to sift through and pick things.  Sometimes, it's frustrating, because you think something looks great or your kids will love it, but it doesn't work out; back to the drawing board.  But this does allow the greatest flexibility for you and your kids.  This is the most labor intensive route, but over the years it gets easier and easier for two reasons.  First, you get to know more curriculum and second, you get to know your kids learning styles better.  So, this is the most labor instensive, but also provides the most flexibility for you and your children.

I find curriculum to be the most stressful part of homeschooling.  Surprising, right?  It takes a lot of time and expense and when I was starting out, I just had no idea where to begin.  It's frustrating to try things and several months into the school year find it's not working.  With five kids, I even find it a little stressful to store all of the curriculum I've gotten over the years.  So, this is just a little post on some starter thoughts about curriculum.  In my next post, I'll address styles of education and a little more about what to consider when choosing curriculum.  I hope some of this is helpful.  I've also tried to add more curriculum links at the bottom of my blog for you to check out.