Who Will Decide What Your Child Will Study?

Who will decide what your child will learn? As a home schooler, you may have figured you know the answer to this question already: “I will decide, of course! Isn’t that why I’m home schooling -- to have more input into my child’s education?”

Actually, however, there are more ways to answer this question than you might realize. For while you will ultimately decide, whose standards will you use to decide what your child should learn? How you answer this will significantly impact your home schooling in other ways, such as how you evaluate what your child is learning.

Thus, this question is worth considering for a few minutes. What answer do you feel most comfortable with to the following question?

Let’s look at these individually.

• The government. Your state or local government may have specific guidelines that you may need to use or want to use. Certain states or countries have different requirements that you'll want to be aware of. Check out HSLDA for more information on what you may need to consider.

• Recognized experts. Some of these are experienced home school curriculum providers such as Sonlight Home Schooling Curriculum, A Beka Home School Curriculum, or Alpha Omega Home School Curriculum. They have developed a scope and sequence that many have used before. Basing your home school curriculum in part or entirely on such experts can be an excellent choice if you want some outside direction or don’t feel confident “going it alone.” This does not mean that you might not add or change materials, but you can rest that they have put thought and effort into what you can use as your foundation.

• Your child will. When your child is interested in a subject, he often learns very easily. You may want to encourage his natural talents and interests and pursue a more “unschooling” approach.

• You will. Naturally, you'll probably look at what the experts say, and you'll listen to your child's interests, but in the end, you want to be the one to set the direction for your child's education.
• You With Guidance from God. You may be wanting to rely on God more and empirical lists and structures less. Maybe you want to be more open to how God may uniquely direct you with this child during this season of life.

Which of the above answers do you feel most drawn to? Did one seem to fit what you believe your child needs right now? Each of the possible answers to the question of who decides what my child will learn has potential benefits and drawbacks. Take a look at the following chart.

So, as you can see, the answer to who will decide what your child will study is a very individual decision that your family needs to make. I would encourage you to take some time to discuss these issues with your spouse and pray about what you need to do for your family.

If you have found the above information helpful as you consider who will decide what your child studies, and what home schooling material to use, I'd love to hear from you. Let me know by our Contact Us form.

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