When I first began homeschooling, I spent more money than I should’ve on homeschool curriculum. I fell in love with every nicely laid out textbook I saw. I was impressed with all of the wondrous possibilities. I didn’t have a sound plan for wading through all of the curriculum choices available. By Thanksgiving, I had to switch out curriculum that wasn’t working. I had curriculum that I paid full price for that did not have good resale value, so it was a loss. I am a recovering homeschool curriculum junkie.
You Don't Have To Be Like Me
The good news is that I learned from my mistakes. I acknowledged the error of my ways and I’ve since changed my curriculum junkie ways! I’ve realized that everything that’s gold doesn’t come in shrink-wrapped packaging.
Choosing the right homeschool curriculum is very important because it can seriously impact your momentum during the school year. It can be extremely frustrating to realize that the curriculum you’ve invested in is not a good fit for your children. Before you wade into researching homeschool curriculum, you should check out my previous blog post, 3 Important Questions To Ask Yourself Before Choosing Homeschool Curriculum.
Now that you’re ready to consider homeschool curriculum options I want to share a few things to consider.
1. Does the curriculum cater to your child's learning style?
Is your child an auditory learner? Kinesthetic? Visual? Choosing a curriculum that caters to your child’s learning style helps to ensure they remain engaged and retain what they learn. It also helps them to comprehend information in a manner that is natural to how they process information. For example, you wouldn’t purchase an audio-based history curriculum if your child is heavily a visual learner who learns best from reading books because chances are they won’t retain what they hear.
Having an idea of what kind of learner your child is before you purchase curriculum may save you the headache of having to switch curriculum in the middle of a school year. Not sure about how your child learns? Here is a link to an online questionnaire at Homeschool On that can help you determine what your child’s learning style is.
2. Is the curriculum teacher-led with a lot of prep work or is it student-led with little-to-no prep work?
It’s so easy to fall in love with curricula that has a lot of moving parts and heavily depends on you the parent to help facilitate lessons. You may be impressed with all the many opportunities for practice your child has with the curriculum, you may be enamored with the projects and activities included, or you may simply love all the possibilities. However, six months in, you may find that all of your plans and intentions to have evaporated once a hectic schedule or children with multiple needs sets in. To thine own self be true. When looking at curricula with a lot of bells and whistles be real with yourself as whether you can really utilize it. Otherwise, you may end up like me when I fell in love with a heavily teacher dependent curriculum with tons of prep and a bunch of moving parts. A few weeks into the homeschool year, I’d abandoned it because it proved to be too much for me to prepare, prep, and present all of the material.
Though we want our kids to be well-rounded, we only have so many hours in a typical day. We have to decide which subjects are high priories and how much time we truly have to devote to each subject. What is prioritized in time one year may not be the same subject emphasized next year.
3. Can I afford this curriculum each year?
There are some wonderfully thorough, engaging curriculum out there that I would love for my kids to use. There’s just one problem—its too pricey! When determining whether I can afford a curriculum, there are a few intermediate questions to consider.
Can I Find It Cheaper?
The more popular curriculums can often be found for resale on sites such as Amazon, Rainbowbooks, christianbook.com, The Homeschool Curriculum Marketplace on Facebook, or even local co-op curriculum sales. But there are a few curricula that are pricey and difficult to find at discounted rates. Additionally, you don’t always have to purchase the most recent edition of a curriculum. Sometimes, you can save money by purchasing an earlier edition. Don’t forget that selling old curriculum can help you pay for next year’s curriculum!
Can I Use It For Multiple Children?
This is a critical question for large families. If I am going to invest in a pricey curriculum, one huge plus for the cost is based on whether I can use the curriculum with multiple children or in the future with my younger children.
Remember...
Curriculum is just baseline. You can and should supplement with projects, notebooking/lapbooks, essays, Youtube videos, and online resources. You don’t have to stress about finding the PERFECT curriculum! Have fun, don’t stress, and HAPPY HOMESCHOOLING!
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