Twenty years ago their weren't that many curricula choices available for homeschoolers. Today there are thousands of companies willing to take you money. This is both a blessing and a curse.
I always encourage families to take the first few months of homeschooling to gentle their way into finding a curriculum for a smoother transition to homeschooling.
News Flash!!! Your homeschool does not need to look like a public school!!!
Be assured:
- You can use whatever materials will work best for your family.
- You can learn as a family whenever it works for your family.
- You can use borrowed books from the library, movies from Netflix or Prime, online programs, field trips, pre-packaged curricula, mentors from your community, hired teachers in a cooperative... They all work - for the right student at the right time.
Step 1: Identify your children's learning styles
For instance:
*Your hands-on daughter will learn better from one movie (or trip to a
museum or living history event) than a whole pile of books.
*Your son who loves workbooks will prefer a pencil & paper approach than an
online format that he clicks through.
Picking materials for your children's learning style means they will learn more, learn faster, and learn with joy and happiness. This will make your family life so much easier and you able to truly enjoy homeschooling.
Step 2: Identify your Educational Philosophy
Identifying what your philosophy is will help you narrow your curriculum search immeasurably.
You identify with Charlotte Mason? You will do better with materials that are designed for Charlotte Mason homeschoolers. The same thing goes for Classical, Montessori, Waldorf, and Unit Studies.
In addition to the page I have here on the topic you can try the following sites for insight:
https://homeschoolon.com/the-homeschool-style-quiz/
https://thebestschools.org/magazine/homeschool-style-right/
No matter what the results of this research is, however, I encourage you to start homeschooling with child-led unit studies for the first few months before slowly transitioning into whatever style you feel best suites you. This will allow you to learn how they learn, learn how you teach them best, learn about their weaknesses and strengths as a student, and develop mutual respect (they need to trust that you aren't going to freak out about a mistake, be sure that if they tell you something is boring or stupid that you will help them find different materials that cover the same information or even a different topic entirely, etc.)
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