Find the Best Home School Resource for Your Family

One of the first things you may wonder as you consider home schooling is what is the best home schooling resource to teach your child. Where to begin to even choose when there are so many choices out there?

I'm a home schooling mom of four myself, so I can relate to feeling overwhelmed and wondering what home schooling resource to choose. So, before you invest much money or time searching for what will work for your child, let me suggest you think through just a few fundamental issues. You can sign up for a free seven-part series of emails where I walk you through the entire process of choosing the best home school curriculum. But here I will give you a snippet to get you started. For instance…

Do you want a complete home school curriculum?

If so, there are several options. One option that is especially good for families whose children don’t enjoy traditional school or who have lost out on the love of learning, is to use Sonlight Home School Curriculum They are a complete home school curriculum with lots of great literature that kids enjoy reading. Our whole family enjoys reading and learning through their books. It is amazing how much you can learn when you are reading quality literature. You can read more on our review of Sonlight Curriculum.

Another option is a CD-ROM-based program called Switched-On-Schoolhouse CD-ROM Curriculum This is a program where the child works at his own pace off of the computer. This could very well be the best home school resource for your child if he enjoys working at his own pace on the computer. You can read more on our review of Switched-on-Schoolhouse.

There are other options of complete home school curriculums that you can read about at our complete home school curriculum options page.

How will you evaluate your child’s learning progress?

If you really want the best home schooling resource for your child, it is important to consider your answer to this question. If believe the best way to answer this is by having quizzes and tests, you’ll want to have a curriculum that progresses through a specific scope and sequence with quizzes to measure learning. is one such home school curriculum.

On the other hand, if you still like a scope and sequence but would rather use more informal ways to evaluate, such as mostly oral narrations and discussions with your child, a curriculum like Sonlight Home School Curriculum would probably fit your desires better.

If you are somewhere in the middle, where you want some worksheets or suggestions for projects to go along with the curriculum, you might consider

. Tapestry of Grace offers many hands-on projects as well as worksheets for various age levels.

Do you want a structured program, or would you rather let your child’s interest lead the way?

This is especially important to consider in choosing the best home school resource for writing. Some programs are very structured, such as The Institute for Excellence in Writing, and others are more oriented to creating a language-rich environment and creating writing as a natural process, such as Brave Writer.

For those who want a highly structured program, yet still very flexible, Tapestry of Grace may be the best home schooling resource choice. You can see a complete 3-week free sample including all their resources at Tapestry of Grace. This is a wonderful Classical homeschooling program, and our whole family has learned a lot from it. You can read more about it on our review of Tapestry of Grace.

For those who want a scope and sequence laid out for them – as well as all the work of providing discussion questions and background information – Sonlight Home School Curriculum is often an excellent choice. They have an amazing money-back guarentee, too. We have found there to be enough flexibility to make it work for us at various times.

How much do you want to be involved in your child’s learning?

Even though you will be home schooling your child, there are different levels of involvement that parents may want (or be able) to take in their child’s learning. Your answer to this question will determine to some degree what the best home school resource will be for your child at this point. Some parents enjoy learning with their child. Tapestry of Grace or Sonlight Home School Curriculum are often good choices for them.

Other parents want to have a clear scope and sequence but aren’t able to be involved in each step of the learning process with their child. A computer-based curriculum like Switched-on-Schoolhouse can often be the best home schooling resource for them. If this sounds like you, you may also want to check out various Online Home School Curriculum Options.

Still other parents would rather give their child the tools to learn, and then let them go and learn on their own. For them, the best home school resource will look quite different than for a parent who wants to and is able to read aloud to their child a lot. Robinson Curriculum is one such "self-teaching" home school curriculum.

I’d love to hear from you if you have found this information to be helpful, or if you have other comments about finding the best home school resource or curriculum. Drop me a line at our Contact Us page.

Blessings upon you and your family in your home school journey. May this information truly help you find the best home school resource for your family and enjoy home schooling.

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