Let me let you in on a little secret. Do you know what the PERFECT homeschool curriculum looks like? It looks exactly like what works best for your individual learner. There really is no secret.
What is perfect for me will not be perfect for you. And, chances are, it won’t be perfect straight out of the box. I can’t think of any curriculum that I use exactly how the publisher designed it. Their design was not perfect for my kids. We may use it “almost” the way it was designed, but I’ve tweaked almost every purchase I’ve made to fit our lifestyle/learning style/schedule/etc.
Don’t be a slave to your curriculum. Don’t be afraid to make your curriculum work for you. If you need to move faster or slower than the publisher’s schedule, do it. Do you only need part of the lessons? That’s fine. Do what works best for your kiddos and their learning needs. That’s the beauty of homeschooling.
We love our history curriculum, but I beef it up a bit with videos and extra reading assignments. We complete notebooking pages to record what’s being learned. We’ve added lapbooks to our science and literature studies to bring an extra hands-on element to our studies. We slowed way down with our Latin curriculum taking two weeks instead of one to complete each unit. We love finding songs to help us memorize math facts or history dates.
You do not have to do every activity, lesson, or writing assignment in your curriculum. You are not a slave to your teacher’s manual. For instance, our grammar curriculum assigns a lot of writing in each lesson. This stresses Emma out so we do most of the work orally. That makes the curriculum work for me.
Another thing we’ve learned is that what works for one kid may not work for another. There are years when one of my children used a different program than the other kids, because what worked for the others didn’t work for him.
What have you done to make your curriculum work for you?
Tara,
Couldn’t agree with you more!
When I was a new homeschooler, I used to hate when people told me they did “a little of this and a little of that”… But over almost 20 years of homeschooling, that’s just what we do!
Thanks for sharing your wisdom!
Great post! So true, every family has to find out what works for them. Each child is so different in the way they learn. I have often brought much frustration to myself and my kids when I have tried to make the curriculum we have work when it just wasn’t or determined to finish a book when we really needed to move on. So thankful God leading me every step of the way and learning from my mistakes. Linking up with you on Friday favorites:)
This is a great post! I’ve homeschooled 5 and have 1 more- who is 13. Each child learns differently and therefore different options work better. There are so many choices out there that it can make it overwhelming however. I suggest figuring out what style of learner you have, and looking for curriculum that fits that. My 13 yo is very hands on, so some things that worked for his sisters and brothers don’t work well for him. That’s ok.
I totally agree with your suggestion!
Yes! In the effort of saving money, I have tried to make my kids fit the books I had on my shelf instead of finding what works best for them. It definitely would save a lot of struggle to start with what works best for my kiddos.
I always tell people I use a little bit of a lot of stuff. 🙂
You had me at “perfect” – love how you direct us to tailor our curriculum to fit our needs. You are exactly right – we do NOT need to be a slave to our curriculum, we should be the master of our tools. Thanks for the reminder and encouragement!