Homschool Curriculum - Mistakes to Avoid When Purchasing

1. In a hurry to buy curriculum - When you decide to home school you may be excited to go out and buy everything you see. The most important thing you can do to avoid this mistake is to get to know your child/children. Watch them for a while when they play and interact with others. Do they like to be alone or with others? Do they enjoy reading? Do they enjoy filling in notebooks or workbooks? Do they hate reading? These are all questions that will help you determine how your child learns best. You can also look into having them take a learning style assessment to see how they learn best. While you are observing your child, start exploring the different homeschol approaches and how they might fit in with your personality and that of your child/children.

2. Buy a curriculum because someone else likes it - Have you ever gone to a restaurant that someone else just raved about and you didn’t think it was all that special or you hated their food? Making curriculum choices are certainly more important than choosing a restaurant, but the point is that just because someone else likes a curriculum, doesn’t mean that it is right for you and your family or that you will like it. Accept the recommendation from that person and then research it fully to make sure it fits in with your personality and the learning styles of your children.

3. Buy more than you need - Realize that not every subject needs a curriculum and that you don’t have to purchase every part of a curriculum. Science and History can easily be taught from good books and life experiences. Math can be taught using workbooks, but can be enhanced with money, M&Ms and other hands on resources. If you have taken some time to write down your goals and what you think you need for each child, you can avoid buying too much and getting frustrated. Remember that less is better. You can always buy more later or add to what you have. If you have too much to work with you will get frustrated and might frustrate your children by piling on too much work and causing them to lose their desire to learn.

Everyone is going to buy at least ONE thing that they didn’t need. You can’t avoid all purchasing mistakes, but with a plan and some guidance you can purchase more of what you need and less of what you don’t need. Sit back and determine your goals for your children and what you want to accomplish taking into account their learning style, and you will avoid many mistakes when it comes to purchasing home school curriculum.