Putting homeschool curriculum in its place, pt. 1

If you’ve been in the homeschool world for long, you’ll probably notice a trend: there’s great concern about “not doing public school at home” and “not being a slave to your curriculum.” Every homeschool parent eventually comes face to face with how they’ll manage the vast amount of freedom that homeschooling puts into our laps. It can be overwhelming. We’re told what to avoid, but what are we to do?

Many of us start out with a big box of curriculum delivered to our doors—promising to cover everything we need if we’ll just stick to the plan. We pull out the teacher manuals and, the same as with our planners and calendars, have a sense of hope that we can get it all done if we just stay on task, or it could be that we’re met with a feeling of foreboding and dread—all these directions look rather mean and bossy, staring back at us with a raised eyebrow and judgmental sneer—just ready to watch us fail.

For better and for worse, as homeschool teachers, we have a relationship with our curriculum. It might be good, it might be bad, but it can’t be totally avoided. Even in low-regulation states, like Texas, we’re still required to have some kind of plan to cover the bases of a decent education for our children. As much as we might be tempted to, we don’t have the option of running away.

So, what do we do? Here’s some advice: you have to be smarter than the curriculum.

Take this thought, stick it in your pocket, and learn what it means, young padawan.

As you become smarter and more discerning, you won’t feel like your curriculum is the boss of you. You’ll know what to take and what to leave. Curriculum will become a launching pad for learning. You’ll have put it in it’s place.

Are you ready to start the adventure? Here’s one trick of the trade that’ll give your homeschool confidence a boost.

Watch out for overproduction

I was looking for a starter piano program for my children and consulting with my dad, a pianist. The kit included everything from beginner books to teaching CDs, flash cards, a dry erase board, two stuffed animals, a cute vinyl tote bag, and a kitchen sink—just kidding. His feedback: “it seems a little overproduced.”

All I really needed to get started was a couple of books. I already owned a dry erase board, knew how to read music myself, could make my own flash cards, and definitely didn’t need to add a Mozart Mouse and Beethoven Bear to our already too-large stuffed animal collection.

Confession: I still bought the kit.

In time, I learned to work with what I had, and I learned to recognize and watch out for overproduction in other curriculum.

From there, I got better at pushing back against buying and doing every craft activity, worksheet, or supplement that a curriculum suggested or included if it seemed over the top. And when you start to do the same, don’t feel bad about it; it just means you’re being smarter than the curriculum.

If this helps, be sure to come back next week for part two, where I’ll be sharing even more hard-won tips from what I learned homeschooling my own two kids.