2 Things Homeschool Moms Need to Know about Curriculum

Homeschool moms can spend half their life researching curriculum and still not feeling totally confident in their choices! It’s a battle because our finances might be tight, we might have multiple kids with varying learning styles, plus a dozen other reasons. Take a breath and read on to learn the only 2 things you actually need to know about curriculum.

Stressed out about choosing just the right curriculum for your homeschool? You may spend hours researching, but there are only 2 things you need to know.

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Contents hide

1 Curriculum is a tool, not a master

2 It’s okay to change your homeschool curriculum

3 Listen to the Podcast!

Curriculum is a tool, not a master

We must remember that we are not bound to a curriculum to be enslaved by it. If the curriculum you chose doesn’t work for your child, then change it up! Ditch some of the worksheets. Don’t do all the suggested activities.

Use curriculum as a tool. That means you can use parts of it, but not all of it.

That also means that you can adjust how you use it.

I’ve had to learn this lesson the hard way years ago in our elementary history studies with multiple ages. We loved using Mystery of History, but sometimes the suggested activities just required too much time and too much effort from me.

So, usually by mid-year or so, we would ditch the activities and simply use the MOH text as our spine. Listening to the story and adding to our timeline was plenty for us. We decided not to feel guilty for not doing everything. It was a tool, and we were in charge of how we used it.

But sometimes, even knowing that you’re in charge of how you use a curriculum is not enough. Sometimes it doesn’t work for you. Period. In this case, you need to know that…

It’s okay to change your homeschool curriculum

Yes! Even if you’ve spent hundreds of dollars on a curriculum, that’s not a good enough reason to keep plowing through with it.

Sell it on eBay and try to recoup your costs, but definitely try something new.

We went through so many spelling programs until we landed on All About Spelling.

I also spent good money on a physical science course for my high schoolers last year, only to open the box and realize that it would never work for my homeschoolers because it was written for a classroom. And I’m not strong in science at all! So, it took a full year, but I finally did get most of my money back on eBay by reselling it. And we landed on Apologia for our high school sciences.

You have to give yourself permission to change things up.

Because even though it worked for your oldest, it might not work for the learning style of your next child.

I’ve also had to learn this lesson with homeschooling five very unique and different kids! What works for one may need to be tossed out the window for the next.

But that’s the beauty of homeschooling, isn’t it? Giving you complete flexibility to craft a unique and customized education for each and every child in your home.