Staying Content With Your Homeschool Curriculum

Your school year has either ended, or it’s winding down. Or you might do school year round, but at some point you turn the page on a new curriculum. For many of us, it’s the season of conventions and used book sales, the time to look and touch, handle the curriculum with our own hands. We might even pick up some new curriculum just to look at it closer at a used book sale.

It’s a fun time of year for me. I love the planning, the dreaming, the time where everything is fresh and new. I get to see other homeschool moms interact with each other, and I always leave this season encouraged.

However – (You knew something was coming!)

I’ve found it easy to get sidetracked. Blown off the path I had decided on by something else shiny and bright. 

Oh wait! There is the Veritas Press booth. Let’s go chase it!

The Sunlight curriculum looks so appealing with all those read aloud books. My children love literature, so this must be what I need.

Abeka has been around for years, and I’m afraid I’m missing gaps in my children’s education.

Teaching Textbooks will give my children the best math education, because I can’t teach algebra. Let the computer teach it to them!

The Simply Charlotte Mason curriculum has the Charlotte Mason method all put together in the history, art, and poetry packs. This must be the answer.

Math U See teaches math in a totally different method, and I’ve heard other children love Steve Demme. I’m confident this is what we’ve been missing!

And it goes on and on and on. 

It’s so easy to get sidetracked at conventions, talking to other homeschooling moms about what works for them, and even at used book sales. You have found something that works for your family, and you planned on doing it the next year. But Mrs. Jones just told you about her shiny new curriculum that has transformed their family. And Mrs. Smith said her children’s test scores improved by switching curriculum.

Suddenly, you begin to doubt yourself. Maybe you should switch things up yourself?

I found this happen to me at the last convention we attended. It was the largest one we had been to yet (14,000 people attended it!), and almost every vendor you can think of was there. Suddenly, I was seeing all this curriculum that I had previously only seen in catalogs. My head was swimming, and I begin to question myself and my choices.

Should I switch? Tapestry of Grace has been the curriculum that has worked the best for our family, but Veritas Press has such a nice booth, and I love the literature books! (I later discovered that Tapestry of Grace uses many of the same books!).

Here are a few questions to ask yourself before you make a dramatic switch.

1. How would I rate our previous school year? Was it one of our better years, or more stressful?
2. Was it stressful because of life circumstances, or was the curriculum difficult to teach?
3. Do I have the money budgeted to make a large curriculum switch?
4. Should I switch our entire curriculum, or only switch a subject that wasn’t working well for us?
5. Have I heard good reviews about this curriculum from families my size? A smaller size family might be in love with a certain curriculum, but it could be a horrible fit for a larger size family. Make sure you are matching up family size and keeping that in mind!

I took home all the catalogs to look at, and after the post convention fever went away, I remembered all the reasons why I love Tapestry of Grace, and will continue to stick with it. I’ve hopped from curriculum to curriculum over the past few years, looking for the right thing. I can’t switch again, especially with my oldest going into 7th grade.

Please know, the curriculum I mentioned above are all excellent companies. I even use some of the material from them myself, so this is not a negative post on any of those companies. If you use Abeka, or Math U See, or Veritas Press and it works for you, then by all means…stick with it. If you are drowning in your curriculum and the whole family is unhappy, try something new! Just don’t do it on an impulse, right at the convention. 🙂

Now that I came home, I’m working on purging curriculum for the used homeschool book sale in our area, and planning our new school year. As I’m cleaning my very messy bedroom, I’ve been watching these brand new videos on The Organized Homeschool, put out by my blogging friend Kim Sorgius, who is a master at helping people create homeschool systems that actually work. She’s a single (work at home) mom who has homeschooled her 4 kids for 12+ years and she has created an amazing new course to help others tame the homeschool chaos, too.

You’ve got to see the video of her homeschool room. She’s real, practical, and super encouraging. It’s going to shock you when you see her confession and then inspire your heart when you see how easy it is to take control of your own chaos.

Click over now and see what I’m talking about!

I’m especially excited about the Portfolio Pack that is included. This is one of those items that I physically held and looked at during one of our conventions, and it was high on my wish list. So getting the digital item is great!