Considering Changing Home School Curriculum?
Three Steps to Do Before You Change
Are you considering changing home school curriculum -- maybe again? Join the club! Anyone who has home schooled for longer than a month has probably had similar thoughts at some time.
In our home school, we have changed curriculum numerous times, and not always with lasting success. (Don't ask me how many times I've said, "Aha! Now I know I'll stick with this curriculum this time!")
But I've thought a lot about our mistakes -- specifically, why certain home school curriculum resources were ones our kids wanted to take off the shelf, and why others somehow got lost under someone's bed.
So is there a secret to knowing if you need to change curriculum or not? Well, not exactly, but there are some principles you can look at that will help you know if changing home school curriculum is what you should do.
- Think about what I call The Big Four C's of Choosing Home School Curriculum. These are:
-
Character: Is there a character issue that is showing up in other areas of your child's life that may be a problem regardless of whether you change home school curriculum?
- Calendar: Is now the season you have time to focus on this curriculum or subject? Are you too busy to use this home school curriculum well?
- Circumstances: What other events are happening in your life that you need to consider?
- Curriculum: Lastly, is there something about how this curriculum presents the subject or how you need to teach it that doesn't work for you?
You see, I think too often we jump to the conclusion that changing home school curriculum will solve our problems when there may be other causes to our difficulties. Maybe there is a character issue or a scheduling issue to consider.
- Get outside help. This could be from a reading specialist, counselor, doctor (remember many problems could be caused by physiological problems), pastor, or other educational specialist, depending on what kind of problems your child is experiencing.
We hired a reading tutor one summer to help my seven-year-old daughter with her reading. It was so helpful for me to see how to teach reading to her, and it was such a joy to see her make such great progress and begin to love reading. Changing home school curriculum would not have helped, and it might even have hidden the problems that a few hours with a specialist helped uncover.
- Evaluate what needs to change. Once you have done the above steps, if you are still consistently having problems, find out specifically what you want to change in your home school curriculum. Don't do this before you do Steps 1 and 2, though, because those steps help you get at root issues that, if unaddressed, will continue to surface as problems no matter what home school curriculum you use.
If you take some time to think through Steps 1-3, and feel you changing home school curriculum would solve the problems you are having, you can then have confidence in your decision to change. You have evaluated other possible reasons and can change your home school curriculum with purpose.
But don't buy anything else yet! No, don't just jump in and buy that home school material that has been on your wish list for awhile, or that your friend raves about. Refrain from that tempation and instead take some time to ask the some questions about the curriculum and about what you are looking for. In other words, make sure you change what really is the problem! If you'd like more detailed information on how to do this, sign up for our free eCourse
and I'll take you through the process and give you lots of practical information.
I hope this information has been helpful for you. If so, I'd love for you to contact me.
May this information help bring joy and success to you and your child in your home school journey.
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