Picking curriculum, books and curriculum is a big deal and for most of us it is uncharted territory. What books will you use? How will you pick those books?  And, what if you hate them once you’ve started to use them? Fortunately, there are many many choices these days and solid options with a Biblical worldview.

If you haven’t heard the term Biblical worldview, I encourage you to check-out  my post about worldview.  If you aren’t aware of the worldview of the curriculum you are using it’s probably not a Biblical one. I am convinced that equipping our children with skills to discern a Biblical worldview from other worldviews is fundamental.   If we are charged to train up our children in the Lord, but we are surrounding them with secular resources and secular worldviews (or worse, sources antithetical to scripture)  we need to be bridging the gap so that our kids can understand what scripture says and be equipped to live accordingly. Without scriptural-aligned resources to help me untangle the web of my own secular education and upbringing, I wouldn’t have been equipped myself. On the other hand, teaching my kids from a secular resource can be an excellent opportunity for us to discuss the practical applications of our faith. Without a knowledgeable parent or carefully curated resources as a guide, our we as parents can very easily get lost and lead our little heritage along with us. 

So, up front, I encourage you to 1) seek God, 2) research options, 3) have expectations 4) realize this is a journey 5) redefine (or define) success.

SEEK GOD

First, as in all things, seek God in prayer.

Seek the LORD and his strength, seek his face continually. [1Ch 16:11 KJV]

I am the vine, ye [are] the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. [Jhn 15:5 KJV]

When I am praying about homeschool curriculum it’s completely different than when I was just looking for books as a secular mom. In prayer, I’m asking God to reveal to me the learning styles and preferences of my kids and myself and for Him to lead me to the resources that will best fit. I’ve asked God to help me discern when I am choosing what’s right and to steer me away from what’s not for us. 

I remember one season in which my best homeschool friends were committed to a program that included the curriculum and a weekly gathering.  I’d been invited to attend and it looked very promising to join other Christian moms with books and curriculum already set! We could come alongside one another as sisters, encouraging one another and sharing the load. Kids from this program glowed with knowledge and appeared prepared for jobs or college, well behaved, socialized, smart – all the things I’d want for my homeschool. Why not join? 

Well I didn’t join simply because I prayed long and hard about it. In prayer, God revealed that I would have been joining because of my relationship with these friends, not because it was best for my kiddo who didn’t enjoy group settings and probably wouldn’t like the structure. The decision to abstain was VERY HARD! God had told me “no” in prayer and I needed to obey God above all.  Sadly, the group deteriorated in a short time and some of my friends experienced hurts in addition to going back to the drawing board for homeschooling.  I was even more grateful for God’s leading. His plan and my obedience protected me and, my child blossomed in the alternate choices God provided. I have also observed that this experience wasn’t wasted on my friends as their own journey is better for it (reference point 4 – this is a journey)

That is just one of many situations in homeschool for which I am certain that my quiet time in prayer rewarded me in such a way that making prayer a priority has become a lifestyle. Prayer has paid off for my homeschool and turned me into a praying mom. I pray the same will be true for your journey. Literally. Please feel free to contact me with a prayer request because I will pray specifically for your concern. 

RESEARCH

Once you’re empowered in prayer, it’s time to turn up the heat on your curriculum selection.  Research is usually the key for me. Whilst I’m continually  going to the Lord in prayer, I’m researching options: books, curriculum sets, coop groups, online courses, asking my friends, seeking out reviews, checking out used book sales, pursuing online book sellers, attending homeschool conferences. Chances are that your decisions will be different than your friends. Chances also have it that your friends who have been-there-done-that have some good ideas so don’t be shy about asking for suggestions! Also, don’t forget to read the reviews because they can be really enlightening! 

In my research, I’m always asking myself: How does this collectively lead my child to love the Lord, to know Him deeply and develop academically? Here are some other questions I use in my evaluation. 

SET YOUR EXPECTATIONS

Once you’ve done some research you should have an idea of what appeals to you. Even if you are doing this for the first time, you know your kids and you know yourself. Looking at your choices, what are your expectations for this course? Will it be an overview of a bigger subject or will this be an intensive study for exacting mastery of something? Is my expectation that my student will be reading at a second grade level by the end of the school year or that my student will master 72 phonograms this year?  Will we complete reading a textbook and the hands-on experiments or will my child also master a written test demonstrating they learned specific concepts? Will we finish the book or will we get as far as we can get by a set date?

If you are going to spend time and money in a curriculum it is fair to have expectations. It is also fair to communicate these to your child, especially as they get older. 

I also want to point out that expecting every curriculum and book choice to be a great fit is unrealistic. That would be like expecting to sample everything at the grocery store and loving it all!  While most of the foods in the grocery store are for eating, have attractive packaging, acceptable ingredients and nutritional value, not all of them will taste good to me even if my bestie things they are fabulous. For this reason, I strongly suggest that you allow for a margin of error in your plans to combat discouragement. I always plan to reevaluate in December, over holiday break. If something isn’t working, my new years resolution is genrally out with the old and in with the new (eg. new books, a replacement subject, hands-on instead of book work). This allowed everyone to have hope and know that if something was really dreadful that it would be gone in January without compelling reasons to endure. The goal is learning, plain and simple! 

DON’T FORGET THIS IS A JOURNEY

I actually really dislike when folks tell me something is a journey. It reeks of kitchy-quotes like “Love is Love” and “Live Your Truth” that often don’t hold Biblical water. Certainly we shouldn’t act unloving or live lies but I’ll leave the dissection of those for another post. When folks tell me “its a journey” I immediately brace for new-age music, half truths and potential challenges to my values because there is probably something weird about to happen. 

But in this case, I promise that picking homeschool curriculum is some other, better kind of journey. Pray, plan, research, save, select, order, schedule, do – all this is part of the journey to pouring God’s love into your kids at home. Just like giving yourself permission to stop using a plan that isn’t working out, its important to recognize that we can’t know what tomorrow brings and thus will be best served when we plan to make course adjustments.  

It was a journey to learn to parent the little ones that God entrusted me. When I didn’t get parenting right the first try, I analyzed my approach, tried something new, sought wise counsel, took a nap followed by a strong cup of coffee and said some prayers (sometimes the prayers came earlier but generally I forgot that part till I was at the end of myself). It was a journey to become a better parent. I liken homeschool choices, whether books or curriculum or planning or scheduling to this kind of journey. Not only will you grow and become better at your “job” but your kids will grow and change. Those factors don’t often change at the same pace like perfect gears in a clock but, God remains sovereign. I can say from experience that my greatest success has been when I remembered to put the prayer part on the front end of the journey. Setting your expectations accordingly, turning the selection and timing over to God is burden lightening and realistic. Some might call it “Loving Yourself” (forgive me the overused quote). 

DEFINE (OR REDEFINE SUCCESS)

Lots of wonderful people never think about it but, for me, attaining a goal is success. There can also be achievements along the way that also mean success even if the bigger goal isn’t met. What will you consider success? How will you measure it? When will you measure success? Will you have short term and long term goals? What will motivate you and is that different from what will motivate your kids? Do your kids want to measure their success? Are they old enough to evaluate alongside you?

I’ve been a career girl and business woman for longer than I’ve been a parent. Success in business is clearly defined in the bottom line, a balance sheet. It’s black and white. Running a homeschool where the profit margin isn’t realized for a generation,  isn’t measured by material wealth on the financial statements and has children as the raw material only remotely resembles running a business. Sure, our career and personal skills such as time management, self-discipline, organization, research and such are helpful. But, frankly, there are too many soft variables (children, life, family) for me to ever recommend or wish to do this without God.  And measuring success in a homeschool, particularly with regard to the curriculum and books you’ve chosen is not always easily reduced to a balance sheet.

Setting goals that are facilitated by your curriculum and book choices will help keep you from losing focus and feeling like you need to buy every great resource you find. Success of a curriculum or book choice may be measured in the test at the end, gauging the student’s mastery of the subject. However, I learned through the years that the test isn’t always a good measure of what we have learned. Sometimes we have needed short term goals to remain motivated and other times we’ve been encouraged striving for the long term goal. Short term accomplishments might include mastery (generally 80% or better correct answers) on a spelling test or completion of a presentation. Longer term goals might include completion of an Awanna level or finishing all the textbooks for 8th grade Math, Language, Science and History. If the book or curriculum doesn’t fit the goal maybe its time to remove that one from the list.

While it is important to learn basic academic skills, it is more important that we learn what God has for us than it is to complete Algebra 2 or a survey of American Literature if God’s plan isn’t for one to become a mathematician or a writer. Its very easy to attend a homeschool conference and come home with plans to raise college bound, advanced placement academic scholars and a veritable hoard of books and learning gadgets but what about their hearts? What about God’s plan for these little humans? Are we as parents defining success academically or are we choosing to define success by the certainty of their salvation? Through the years I have never regretted defining success by setting goals but I have regretted laser focus on academics and shortchanging time learning about faith, God’s word and sharing the Gospel.

If our focus is on their saving knowledge of God first and their academics second, then the expectation of the curriculum we choose shifts. The planning of our day shifts and our measure of success definitely changes. The math test at the end of a chapter is probably important but there is certainly something more important. 

My current goal is to encourage moms in homeschooling. If I can encourage you or help you along the way, please contact me. If you have found this post helpful, please share this with a friend or on social networking. Thank you and blessings along your own homeschool journey.