Homeschooling can be a very overwhelming task to take on. Especially if you’re trying to search for the right curriculum to suit your families learning needs. There are so many different options out there, which can make finding the best one even more of a challenge. Having a customizable curriculum can benefit your homeschool greatly, let’s find out how.
The negatives of purchasing a non customizable curriculum.
Your curriculum should be your tool, not your master. Purchasing a curriculum that isn’t customizable (or doesn’t have room to move, built into it) will only cause issues for you and your child. One of the biggest mistakes I made when I first started homeschooling, was to choose a curriculum without doing any sort of research on it. Or taking the time to review samples before I spent hundreds of dollars on it. I purchased this super expensive curriculum, that wasn’t at all customizable and left no room for anything. This left my oldest, and myself, feeling overwhelmed at the end of each day. Causing our homeschool journey to start out really messy.
I felt like we had to accomplish all the things, on each page, every day. There was this huge pressure to get it all done before the end of the homeschool year, because that’s what the book said! As a result, at the end of the homeschool year we both felt completely derailed. I wish that I could go back in time and give my old self some words of advice. Some of which being: You don’t have to follow the curriculum exactly, in order for your child to succeed with their learning. And also, go purchase a customizable curriculum!
Your curriculum should be your tool, not your master.
If you feel like you are constantly dredging through your curriculum. And the assignments and activities are actually just overwhelming you and your child. That’s a pretty good indicator that your curriculum needs to be customized to fit your child’s learning needs, and your own unique teaching style. All too often people give up on homeschooling, because they think there’s something wrong with them. When it’s actually their curriculum that needs to be reevaluated. Assignments and activities aren’t there to be your boss, they’re there to help you teach your child.
You as the parent teacher, can pick and choose the assignments and activities that you know your child needs help with. If you’re finding that a certain assignment is just not working, skip it! If an assignment 3 lessons ahead seems to be a better fit for your child, then jump ahead to it. You get to decide how the curriculum is presented to your child.
Why is customizable curriculum a good thing?
Having a customizable curriculum is a great thing because it helps you let go of those unrealistic curriculum expectations. This then gives you an amazing sense of educational freedom. When your curriculum is customizable, you can choose what your child actually needs to learn. Based on where they are at. Unfortunately, the educational system is famous for pushing kids along to the next grade. Even when they know a child is lacking in certain areas. And clearly need help with aspects of their education, like reading.
When your curriculum is customizable, you can dig deeper into the areas you know your child needs help with. Without this pressure of ‘I better finish this book so they can move onto the next grade.’ Wouldn’t it be so much better for your child to actually know what they need to?
Work with your child’s strengths.
If you focus on an area of your child’s education, that you know they’re struggling with, have your child use their strengths to accomplish it. This will help to boost their confidence. If you know that your child is really good at art, then incorporate that as much as possible into your day and curriculum. Have them paint numbers, do play dough math problems, or trace letters in sand. If your child is really good at creating or building, have them build their own math problems, sentences words, and paragraphs.
Many children need a lot of movement in order for the information to stick. You could put sight words on the stairs, and have them read each word before they can go to the next step. This causes a lot of anticipation and excitement, which can help get the wiggles out. Also, be sure not to sit at the table or desk for too long. I totally get that sometimes you feel like you need to push your kids to finish a lesson. But you don’t. Take breaks, run around, go outside, put a pause on an assignment until some energy has been released.
Schoolio’s customizable curriculum fits!
The amazing Schoolio writing team came up with the phenomenal idea to create unit studies for you to choose from. Most curriculum companies only sell their curriculum by the book. Schoolio offers individual units. That means, that if you’d like to start mid year, and know that your child needs help with Grade 3 Numbers, then you can purchase the Grade 3 Numbers unit. Or if your child has been homeschooling all year but needs help with a certain aspect of Language Arts, you can pick up the unit of Language Arts that your child needs.
We also offer bundled curriculum options, which have all the core subjects, and units included. It’s important to remember that even if you purchase the bundle, you can still customize it to fit your child’s learning needs. You can choose what unit of which subject your child should work on, and when.
What if your curriculum isn’t working for you?
If you’re finding that your curriculum is causing a lot of stress for you and your child. Or it just isn’t cutting it at all. Consider making some necessary adjustments to it. This doesn’t mean that you have to completely abandon the curriculum. You could add in some units here and there to help your child. Additionally, you could skip certain lessons that aren’t relevant to your child. The point is, you know what your child needs to learn, and you have the power to adjust the curriculum.
There’s help for you.
Fortunately for you, homeschooling has become so much more mainstream in the last 5 years. And homeschool curriculum companies, like Schoolio, exist to help you. Schoolio Learning was created by a team of extremely passionate individuals. All of whom care deeply about making education simple, affordable, customizable, and enjoyable. If you’re in the process of weighing your options and figuring out what curriculum works best for you, don’t hesitate to reach out to TEAM Schoolio for guidance.
If you’re feeling stuck in your curriculum, just remember it’s not the master of your homeschool. You are.
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