Imagine this scenario with me. You join a homeschool field trip group and are excited to get together with other homeschool moms. The first meet up is at a park where the kids can play while the moms hang out and get to know each other. The sun is shining. Birds are singing. The kids are playing. It is a perfect day. You are enjoying great conversation with other moms while your kids play when the inevitable homeschool mom question comes up. What curriculum are you using? You proceed to share what you think is the best homeschool curriculum and why you love it so much. Then someone bursts your bubble. They proceed to tell you that your oh-so-perfect curriculum is behind. It is not enough and you need to supplement heavily or your kids will grow up getting familiar with the question, “Would you like fries with that?” This mom feels like she can speak with authority on this matter because a homeschool mom on YouTube tried it for a couple of months and decided it was terrible. As we all know, the greatest homeschool expertise comes from YouTubers.
Later that day when you get home, you immediately start scouring the internet for opinions on your perfect homeschool curriculum. You find expert homeschoolers with one whole year of experience that confirm what the mom at the park told you. Here are the common complaints you become familiar with.
“The lesson worksheet in the math book is so short, I had to supplement with flash cards and speed drills.”
“I handed my child the book, and they couldn’t figure out how to write a paragraph from the example. I had to explain it to them and show them how to do it. This curriculum just doesn’t work.”
“I compared this book with another curriculum, and the other curriculum is more advanced. I switched my child to this curriculum because they were struggling with the rigorous pace in the other curriculum, but now they are going to be behind and it’s the curriculum’s fault.”
You become discouraged as the thought of this perfect curriculum that you and your children love, and that has made your homeschool days so smooth, starts to look like garbage. You start to feel like you made a mistake and look into your budget to figure out how to switch from this inferior curriculum.
STOP! Don’t throw out what you are using until you consider the following.
Teaching is Not Supplementing
Homeschooling is not just a matter of handing your child a book and saying “Learn!” If you expect that to work, no homeschool curriculum will be truly adequate. Sitting with your child and explaining a lesson, using manipulatives to reinforce a concept, or implementing flashcards and speed drills is not supplementing. It’s called teaching. If you are homeschooling your child, this is what you should be doing. Some programs already have this written into the lessons and some don’t. This doesn’t make a curriculum inferior or incomplete. It just gives you more room to teach and decide what is needed.
Rigorous Does Not Equal Better
There are some programs that are so rigorous it may take your second grader two hours to get through a lesson. Can they learn from that curriculum? Sure. We can all learn through pain, but it doesn’t mean it’s the best way to learn. Once frustration settles in, there isn’t a whole lot of learning that takes place. If your child learns best from the demanding rigorous programs, then use a rigorous program. If your child does better with short lessons then use the curriculum with shorter lessons. One is not better than the other.
Curriculum Is a Tool
I think all of us need to put curriculum in its proper place. It is just a tool. Curriculum is not the greatest asset to your homeschool, neither will it make or break your child’s learning. The greatest asset to your homeschool is you, a loving parent that is willing to scour the internet and do their research to make sure you are giving your children the absolute best. You are the absolute best for your childrenyou’re your homeschool. What you bring to their learning is far more superior than any curriculum. If there is an area that you struggle to teach, then find a curriculum that helps you become a better teacher. Curriculum should never be the teacher, it should always be the tool used by the teacher.
Advanced Doesn’t Really Exist
There is no behind or advanced in homeschool. I find homeschoolers are always trying to prove their worth by whether or not their kids are advanced or doing advanced curriculum. This is no way to measure your success as a homeschooler or the value of a curriculum. I fell into this trap of thinking I needed my kids to be advanced and test ahead as a way of proving homeschooling really works. Now I care if they are learning and progressing at their pace. That should be the only measure of homeschool success. Use the curriculum that makes you a better teacher and that your kids enjoy using. Don’t worry about it being advanced or behind. If one child learns long division in second grade and another learns it in fourth grade, guess what they both know in fifth grade? Long division. Eventually they all learn what they need to learn.
Be Careful Who You Listen To
I am saying this as an experienced homeschooler who happens to blog about homeschooling. Be careful who you let influence your homeschool. There is a lot of great information out there but there is also a lot of inexpert advice posing as experience. Having a great YouTube channel or a great blog doesn’t make one an expert. Expertise is gained by experience. I find the less experience someone has, the more judgey they tend to be in regards to others’ homeschool choices. Just because someone doesn’t like a certain curriculum, it doesn’t make your curriculum choice inferior.
Keep in mind, it is completely okay to switch out a resource that isn’t working for you or your kids. It’s not okay to switch out a resource that is working for you just because somebody says it is inferior. Take charge of your homeschool and press on. It will all work out!
