What if your curriculum does not work?
Many homeschool parents experience stress when their curriculum does not work out. In fact, all homeschool parents probably experience a “curriculum fail” at least once during their journey. The thing is, no curriculum is perfect. What works with one child might not work with another.
Consider this:
- Adapt your curriculum to meet your needs. Often, you can modify assignments, substitute other books, or skip sections altogether to make a curriculum fit better. Remember that you are in charge of your homeschool; don’t let your curriculum dictate your child’s education. You don’t have to check off all the boxes! Make your curriculum work for you.
- Change things up. Supplement with hands-on activities: cooking, historical crafts, experiments, art projects, etc. Listen to an audiobook or watch a movie. Plan a field trip to accompany a lesson. Sometimes, simply trying a different approach to the material can save a curriculum.
- Don’t be afraid to set aside your curriculum if it isn’t working. Save it for a younger child, give it away, loan it out, or sell it. Don’t sacrifice your child’s educational experience for the sake of sticking with a curriculum just because you spent money on it.
Let it go!
Remember that you are in charge of your child’s education. If your curriculum isn’t a good fit, you will only make yourself and your kids miserable if you stick with it. Set aside time to go through your instructor’s guide and cross out things, brainstorm some ideas, and figure out whether it can be modified to work for you. If not, just “let it go.”
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Mother of 3 says
May 9, 2018 at 6:28 AMYep! We have gotten rid of many curriculum materials after trying them out and realizing they aren’t right for us. Pinned.
Anne Campbell says
May 9, 2018 at 6:52 AMThank you!
Anne Campbell says
May 18, 2018 at 11:04 AMThank you for sharing!
Sheltie Times says
May 10, 2018 at 7:19 AMThat’s one of the beauty’s freedoms and purposes of homeschoooling. You get to match the curriculum to your child, you don’t need to force the child to fit into a curriculum.
When you homeschool multiple children you can choose to use different methods, curriculum, etc. to meet the needs of each child something that is just not often realistic in a traditional school setting where the pressure is to adopt and use a curriculum over a grade level so all children have a base knowledge each year.
Anne Campbell says
May 18, 2018 at 11:04 AMTruth!! Thanks so much for sharing! 🙂