5 Top Tips for Choosing Homeschool Curriculum (Without the Overwhelm!)

[Music] Hey everybody, welcome to the Wallock Way. I'm Jessica. Today's video is going to be my top five tips for choosing curriculum. You guys, it is curriculum buying season and everybody is already looking towards next year because they are done with this year, which means that curriculum halls are everywhere. And sometimes it can be kind of stressful because you're looking at all of these curriculums, all this new shiny stuff. You're feeling the pressure to purchase, but you're overwhelmed by the choices or overwhelmed by the options or feeling like, "What if I pick the wrong one?" It can just be stressful. So, I thought I would share my top five tips with you to help you this curriculum buying season. Tip number one is to start with your child. Start looking at the kid that you're actually buying the curriculum for. First of all, what style of learner are they? Are they an auditory learner, in which case maybe they need something that has a readaloud component? Are they a kinesthetic learner? Because if you're buying some sort of curriculum that doesn't have hands-on and you have a kinesthetic learner who needs hands-on, well, then that's going to help you pick your curriculum, right? So, if you have a kinesthetic learner, you need to look at like math, like Matthew C or right that has a hands-on component with it. You need something that's going to help teach that child the way that they are best taught. Another thing to consider is your child's interest. Maybe you have an animal lover. So maybe instead of botany this year, you're going to do zoologology because that's what they're interested in. And the benefit of homeschooling is that you can teach to their interests. So start with the kid that you're actually choosing the curriculum for. How do they best learn? What are things they're interested in? What is a good fit for them? Tip number two is to consider your homeschool approach. Now, there are tons of homeschool methods out there. Um, I don't like to say consider your homeschool method, although I think that's great if you know what you are. I don't like to be boxed in um to like one little thing. So, consider your homeschool approach, your family's homeschool approach, what works best for you. I mean, if you're a work from home mom who works from 8:00 to 5:00 and you know, you're looking at Charlotte Mason and you're like, "Man, I really love that." But you honestly don't have time to read from 10 books a day, that kind of curriculum is not going to work for you. Your approach might need to be something more like teaching textbooks and Dennis and EIW where it's got the video components and it kind of is teaching your kid the lesson for you because you're working from home and you don't have the time to do that. Consider your approach. For us personally, um I know that we love reading books and we love playing games. So, anything that I'm going to purchase needs to be like book and game heavy because that's our family culture. That is what works for us. That's what we enjoy as a family. That's kind of our approach to learning. So, keep that in mind. Like maybe your family loves to be in the kitchen. So, you need to look for curriculum that's going to have baking components or recipes included in it because that's your culture, right? That's your approach to learning. That's what you need to look for. Tip number three is don't panic buy. Just last week, we talked about buying curriculum when we are under duress. If you missed that video, I will link it for you right here. Um, but just trust me when I tell you that panic buys never end well. Like, never. You will never panic purchase something and it work out. like I could I could probably put money on that. I don't think it happens. If it does, it is a lucky accident coincidence and it probably will never happen again. This time of year, and I say this because I have been personally guilty of it numerous times, even after homeschooling for many, many years, you start seeing curriculum halls everywhere. Especially, let's say, for example, because I may or may not have just almost done this just a few weeks ago. Emily's going into eighth grade. I've seen some eighth grade curriculum halls, you know, new ones coming up. I watch the video and all of a sudden I'm like, "Oh, I didn't pick anything for geography. Oh, I don't have anything for history. Oh, I don't have anything for for that subject or that I didn't think to teach that or I don't have anything for that or oh, this math is is way better than my math and I should purchase this math." And next thing you know, I have five carts open. I'm panic purchasing everything and chances are it's going to come in and sit on my homeschool graveyard shelves because it probably wasn't the best fit. I probably panicked and pressed add to cart and purchased it without considering the child that I was buying it for, without considering our approach to homeschooling, and then I just panicked. It rarely rarely works out well, so just avoid it if at all possible. Tip number four is to remember that nothing is permanent. Maybe you watched this video too late and maybe you already pressed purchase and you panic bought. That's okay because nothing is permanent. Nothing is forever. Let's say you bought a curriculum. You don't have to use it. You can change it. You can edit it to work for your kid. Maybe you bought one that wasn't hands-on and you have a hands-on learner. Okay. So, let's use what you have and add some hands-on components like it's let's get the blocks out. Let's get the Legos out. Um let's get some, you know, hands-on money when we're learning about money. let's get dollars and coins and make it work for us. Nothing is permanent. Nothing is set in stone. Curriculum is not the master. You are. The curriculum is simply a tool. So remember that you can use that tool to your benefit. Um even if you didn't panic buy, maybe you're on a strict budget and you were able to get something for um a very very good price even though you knew it wasn't the best fit for your child. Or maybe you use something for kid number one and it's what you bought for kid number two and kid number two is different. You need to change things a little bit. Or maybe you realize halfway through the school year that this is not working for kid number two. It's okay. Nothing is permanent. Nothing is set in stone. You can change it. You can adapt it. Or you can totally toss it and get something new. Like it's not like marriage. You're not making a commitment forever. So just keep that in mind. Nothing is permanent. you're not making a commitment. Make the best choice you can make. Do your research. Consider the kid. Consider your homeschool approach. Don't panic by. But also remember that that's okay to change it. We all do. There has yet to be a home school year after eight years of finishing that we have ever done exactly what I planned from day one. And that everything's gone perfect and nothing's changed. So keep that in mind. And tip number five is that you don't even need a curriculum. That's right. You can totally homeschool with no curriculum. So don't feel pressured to buy one. Like I said, this time of year, it's everywhere and you're like, "Oh, I need to pick what I'm going to use for next year." If you're looking and none of the curriculum just they none of them seem like they're right for your child, none of them seem like they're right for your homeschool approach, you can totally skip it. We have used math curriculum for Emily almost every year, but that is probably it. Language arts, we've dabbled in some here and there. There have been years I've used none. There have been years I've used a couple. Um, science history, I mean, we do unit studies, but as far as like buying curriculum for every single subject, it rarely happens. If Emily was to go take a test today, like standardized whatever kind of test, I would almost bet that 75% of what she learned, 75% of what she answered correctly on a test, on any test, would not have been from a curriculum. She would have learned it from books, games, podcasts, documentaries, uh hands-on experiences, field trips, just big juicy conversations. Um because that is how she learns best. And so that's our homeschool approach. Those are the things that we use. We don't use a ton of curriculum. We use a lot of resources, but not a ton of curriculum. So you don't have to have it. Don't feel pressured into it. You can totally homeschool without it. And if you were like, hm, I like the idea of that. I think homeschooling without a curriculum would appeal to me, but I don't know where to start. I'm going to link some blog posts in the description for you. I have a blog post for every subject, how to homeschool any subject without a curriculum. It'll give you some ideas to jump off with and that way you can think about your kid, your homeschool approach without panicking, without pressure and create something that just might work for you that's not even a curriculum. Now, because it is curriculum buying season and everybody is shopping right now, I would love it if you would leave your top curriculum buying tips in the comments to help everybody else out. [Music]