One of the biggest questions I get asked ALL the time is what is the best curriculum – or even, what is the best curriculum for Christians? The problem? That truly is a loaded question. Every family is different. Every parent and every child is different. Every family is unique and has different needs.
When I first started homeschooling, I researched for hours and hours, day after day, week after week. I was determined to find the best Christian curriculum that was within our budget. I found the one I wanted, waited until tax time to buy it, waited 2 or 3 years before my children were advanced enough to use it… and then only lasted 5 weeks into the curriculum because it wasn’t a good fit for our family.
This curriculum was everything I had ever DREAMED of… in all of its theoretical glory. It just wasn’t a good fit for our family. It had all the rigor and my children were learning quite a bit… but we were homeschooling from 8am to 8pm and nothing else was getting done.
After 5 weeks, I just couldn’t do it anymore. My umph was gone. Kaput. Zip. Zilch. Nada. GONE. And so was all that money. I tried to resell it. It’s probably still up on a resale site right now, come to think of it. But it’s still sitting here 5 years later, in a box, lifeless on my shelf (they came out with a newer version, so now nobody wants to take mine off my hands…).
This experience has kept me from writing this post for a long time. And while I can’t tell you what will work best for your family, I can lead you through a process that will help you discover which options you could look into that might be a good fit for your family. That’s at least a start that can help you point your foot in the right direction.
So, without further ado, this is the fourth (and final) post of our “How to Choose the Best Christian Curriculum” Series, where I summarize and wrap up the series in a nice little bow. *Ta-da!*
Step 1: Prayer
The first step to choosing a curriculum is to invite the Holy Spirit into the process. Surrender your own ideas, your own thoughts of how it’s “supposed to look,” and ask God to intervene. Ask Him to take out every idea that’s not of Him. Ask Him to send people, places, and blog posts and place them in front of your face so that you can be introduced to the ideas HE wants to introduce you to.
Thank Him for His faithfulness in leading you to this beautiful place of starting this unique and glorious journey you get to go on with your spouse and children. Thank Him for easing your stress and helping you to find the curriculum He wants you to use quickly.
This is the first, and most important step in choosing curriculum. You may not know what your children are called to do or who they will one day be. You may not know what they need to know to accomplish the things He is calling them to do… but He does.
This is our first, and most important job as parents… to prepare our children to become the men and women God created them to be. What better way to prepare them, than to let God show us how?
Acknowledge Jesus in your homeschool journey and He will be faithful to direct your path (Proverbs 3:5-6). I quote this scripture to myself often to remind myself that I don’t have to know the answers… I just have to know the One that does.
Step 2: Understanding Your Family’s Unique Needs
Discovering Your Children’s Learning Styles
The next step to choosing a curriculum is understanding your family’s individual needs and considerations. One of the most helpful places to start is by determining your children’s learning styles.
You could have the “best” curriculum on the market with all the bells and whistles… but what good will that curriculum be to you and your family if your children don’t understand a thing about what’s going on and why?
Some parents swear by teaching according to your child’s learning style; others simply try to use a variety of learning styles or fall back on each child’s learning styles only when they are struggling with understanding a new concept.
Either way, it’s important to have a general idea of how your children learn so that you have a technique to fall back on if one of them is struggling.
I, personally, do not teach according to their learning styles, but I do take into consideration that there are some ways of learning that they both do well in when I am choosing activities and curricula.
You can learn more about this in the first post of our “How to Choose the Best Christian Curriculum” Series.
Step 3: Discover Your Own Philosophy of Education
Next, you’ll want to determine your homeschool style or philosophy. There are probably 6 MAIN homeschooling styles, and some even have sub-sections. I’m no expert, but you can read more in this second post of the series to discover a little more about each one. Before even looking into curricula options, it might be a good idea to do some research on your top homeschool styles to get a deeper understanding of how the one you will be using works.
Once you’ve discovered your personal homeschool style, and have an idea of how it works, you will have an idea of what kinds of things you need to look for in a curriculum. I use my homeschool style as my starting point when I begin to look at curricula options. As I look at different options, I ask myself whether the curriculum I’m looking at seems to fit the needs of our family (check out step 3 below) and whether it can be easily adjusted to fit the learning styles of my children (think audiobooks, hands-on activities, etc.)
Other Considerations
Now let’s think about your family’s lifestyle and preferences. A large family is going to be looking for different things in a curriculum than a family with one child.
It’s important to some families that their children do not have very much screen time. Some families are tech savvy and would prefer that their children do as much work digitally as possible in order to track and minimize paperwork clutter.
A large family may be looking to teach everyone one-room-schoolhouse style where everyone learns the same thing (same lesson for mom) but each child is learning on their own level. Curricula options like A Gentle Feast, My Father’s World, or Gather Round might be your best bet.
If you work from home, it may be necessary to utilize a curriculum that is self-led, has the child doing a lot of independent schoolwork or possibly even keeps track of their child’s work. Online schools like Monarch, BJU, or Abeka might be good solutions.
Check out post three of our “How to Choose the Best Christian Curriculum” Series to learn more about what types of things to consider, how to narrow down your curriculum options, and for a short list of curriculum options to look into according to your Homeschool Style.
Ideas of Things to Consider Based on My Personal Preferences
For me, it is very important that the curriculum I use supports a young-earth theory and presents everything from a Biblical worldview. I want the Science to be deep and the theology to be sure. I want the books to portray good character – and I don’t care if they were famous or classics or not if they don’t. I want History to be learned through reading and not textbooks.
I need a balance of self-led independent study and me teaching. If I use a curriculum that’s too hands off, my children and I all feel disconnected and overall are unhappy. If I am stuck teaching everything all the time, I get overwhelmed and feel constricted and trapped. As a family, we need balance.
I prefer to use curriculum options that require minimal planning (like literature-based studies and open-and-go curriculum choices). I am NOT the mom who makes all the pretty things and does all the pretty extras. Most weeks I don’t even go to the library – I don’t want my homeschool to be dependent on that.
I do *NOT* want my children to use online resources if it can be helped. I would much rather see what they’ve done that day with my own two eyes because I just don’t have the patience to stop what I’m doing to go log into something and see what’s going on several times every day if I don’t have to.
Another consideration? We don’t have a ton of money to sink into curriculum. It was a pretty big financial sacrifice for us in order for me to stay home from work. In fact, my husband used to stay home because I made more money. In the end, we were just miserable. So we prayed… and decided to bite the bullet, switch roles, and trust God with it all. You can read a little about that here.
All of these things are things that will fine-tune which curricula choices might be a good fit for your family. These are things to consider when you’re looking. Sometimes it takes a moment to find exactly what you’re looking for, but there are so many options now that I’m sure there’s one that will be along the lines of what you’re looking for.
Step 4: Research Curricula Options That Seem to Meet Those Needs
Once you have a pretty good idea of what you’re looking for, its time for the search to begin. As you’re researching a curriculum option, you’ll want to start by looking at that company’s website. Look for videos, peeks into the curriculum, pages that talk about their values and what they believe, and how-to’s.
After you feel like you have a pretty good idea of what the curriculum looks like and how it works, it’s time to look at reviews. The first place you’ll want to stop is Cathy Duffy Reviews. You can go to her website, or you can buy the book. Cathy Duffy’s reviews have become the golden standard for homeschoolers everywhere.
The next place to get some good reviews (and more peeks into the curriculum and how it works) is YouTube. You can usually find some reviews on a Google search, too, but they’re harder to find between all the sales ads for the curriculum you’re looking into.
Going to a bookstore that sells curriculum, or going to a Homeschool Convention (like the Teach Them Diligently convention!) is a great way to be able to not just look with your eyes, but to look with your hands, too! If you have friends that homeschool, it might be great to start asking them questions, too. You never know, one of them might have a copy you can look through!
A popular search on Pinterest that could give you some insight into different curriculum options might be to search for “Our Homeschool Picks (or Curriculum Picks) for 2022 (or whatever year)”. These types of posts are very common and you’re way more likely to find them on Pinterest than anywhere else! *Psst! Pinterest is a gold mine for finding blog posts!*
Step 5: Try & Try Again
Now that you’ve narrowed your options down to a few curricula options, I would definitely see if you can try to do a free trial on each one if it’s available. You can usually find a free trial on the curriculum’s website if you search through it. You may be able to find some curriculum to check out at the library, also.
It takes time to figure out what is going to work best for you and your family. There’s no rush, your kids are not going to miss out, and you are NOT going to mess them up. Do a trial run, see if it’s a good fit, double check with that curriculum’s Facebook group to see if there are pieces you’re missing to easily make it work for you, and if it still isn’t working, move on to the next trial run.
If something you’re trying ISN’T working for you, it does NOT mean that you are not cut out for homeschooling. It just means that the WAY you are trying to homeschool isn’t the way that’s going to work for your family.
You aren’t a failure and homeschooling isn’t too hard… you’re just still trying to find what works best for you. In fact, you should expect it to take time! You should expect it to take several trials of different ways to homeschool or different curriculum options before you find the first thing that will suit you and your family.
Even after you find something that works, you’ll most likely still tweak what and how you’re doing it all when you realize something isn’t going as smoothly as it could. There may be things you want to add, things you want to simplify, anything! We are always changing up what we are doing when something isn’t working for us. I love that we can tweak it to fit our needs at any time of year!
If you’re interested in learning how to homeschool using just a library card, you’ll find tips on how to do that in my free crash course for new homeschoolers, The Homeschool Kickoff Course. I also address how to take on the homeschooling mindset, how to find your state’s laws (and make sure you’re covered legally), and give an in-depth video tutorial teaching how to get started with Easy Peasy All-in-One Homeschool’s free online curriculum (it’s a great place to get started so you can get an idea of different ways things can be taught while homeschooling!).
The course teaches two ways to get started homeschooling today – one way uses just a library card, and the other way teaches how to get started with Easy Peasy (for those less confident individuals… like I was!).
In my free printable homeschool planner, there are lots of tips and advice, as well as worksheets to compare and contrast curriculum options, etc. Feel free to check it out! [Or, for something a little more simple, our printable two-week planner is more intuitive and even prettier (and without all the extra tips, advice, and fluff if you don’t need it!).]
Conclusion
There is no right or wrong way to homeschool because homeschooling is an extension of your individual family – and no two families are the same! There is no “best” curriculum, there is no “best” style, and there is no “best” method. The “best” curriculum is simply the curriculum that will work best for you and your family.
I hope that this guide will help you start your journey into homeschooling. If you don’t know where to start, just pick something (like Easy Peasy or homeschooling with a library card), and give it a go! Keep researching and when you find something that interests you, do a short trial run (of a free version!) to see if it’s everything your heart desires! If not, move along and just keep using EP or the library!
Most of homeschooling is trial and error. It’s a journey… not a destination. The sooner you embrace the idea of the journey… and surrender that journey to God, the sooner you’ll find that sweet spot of peace and letting all those expectations of “how it should be” melt away. Keep praying… Keep seeking… Keep trying things… Until you find that perfect fit -for you.
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