Curriculum Season

Across the country homeschool moms are sitting glass eyed in thought and ravenous anticipation of the hunt before them. When the humdrum of the day’s work is complete, they’ll retreat to a quiet corner to plan their method and means of attack.

The prey? The perfect curriculum.

Just as the hunt for the elusive big foot, Loch Ness, and carb-filled weight loss plan continues, so does the homeschool mom’s search for the bouquet of courses and material to guarantee success and possible college scholarships. Or at least curriculum with enough student-led learning to allow mom time to look at more curriculum while hiding in the teacher’s lounge, eating chocolate, and/or playing wordscapes on her phone.

“If these darn kids would finish their work, chores, activities, and eating frenzies already, I could get to the fun part of this homeschool gig!”

Yup, we plan to plan. And for curriculum junkies, it’s the most wonderful time of the year.

 

Curriculum Shopping is Contagious

It’s in the air. You may have already been infected.

Signs & Symptoms
1. Are you itching to start filling multiple online carts for comparison shopping?
2. Do you simultaneously want to call an early summer break, download printables, and browse microscopes?
3. Have you woken from a trance, confused and drooling, an hour after clicking on a history curriculum ad on social media?

If you have any of these signs you may be suffering from curriculamomotosis (ker-rik-u-la-mom-o-to-sis).

Which is my totally-made-up scientific name for a disease that you can contract the moment you choose to homeschool, with or without a mask. Symptoms worsen when sufferers are left alone at home for extended periods of time without human contact and obligations to keep them from buying Build-your-own Trojan Horse kits and inspirational posters for the dining room.

 

Curriculum Fallacies

Before you begin or go further into your curriculum hunt, allow me to shine my home microscope light upon some common curriculum fallacies. These curriculum fallacies are committed by new and seasoned homeschool moms alike each year in their quest for curriculum. I know, I’ve committed them all.

I’ll show you how to spot these curriculum fallacies, stop yourself from impulsive and misguided purchases, and how to redirect your efforts to the benefit of you and your heirs students.

 

Faulty Appeal to the People

Curriculum Fallacy: Everyone is using this “cool curriculum” because it is amazing. Aka: Jump on the bandwagon. Everyone’s doing it.

Perhaps everyone is using it because everyone is using it. Did you ever think of that? If we use a certain curriculum just because everyone else is using it, then we are going against the very basis of homeschooling and personalized education.

Maybe some moms don’t even like the “cool curriculum” or are struggling to get through it and secretly want to light it on fire! But they keep on it and don’t speak up because it would mean admitting failure and un-coolness. Maybe the whole homeschool clique thinks it’s wretched, but don’t want to be the first to say so and get kicked out of Kale club.

Is there a kale club?

Homeschooling says we rebuke the myth of the “cool kids,” and therefore, we will not be following them, their actions, their fashion, or their educational choices.   

And this applies to the homeschool crowd who sometimes loses their way and anoints a few of their own with the cool crowns. But we all know homeschooler fashion is personal and all over the place, as should be our choices of curriculum. My son bases his wardrobe off comfort and snarky t-shirts and learns quite differently than his friend who wears a kilt every Wednesday.

Practical Purchasing: Before selecting “add to cart”, ask yourself Am I eating because I’m bored Do I want this because it sounds like a good fit for my family, or is it because it has 7,000 purchases in the last 45 minutes and all the moms at the park said it’s the best?

 

Faulty Appeal to Authority

Curriculum Fallacy: “El Presidente de co-op” swears by her chosen English program so it must be the best, and so I must use it too.

Every Monday she opens assembly with prayer, one hand on the bible, the other clutching the touted teacher’s manual. Therefore, it must be the holy grail of English curriculum. Right? Any other choice is probably a form of blasphemy and you’ll be given extra fundraising duties until you’ve seen the light?

Wrong.

Whether it’s the president of co-op or the country (Lord help us) claiming to know what’s best for us all, this is a faulty appeal to authority. Just as we turn away from mass education and it’s one size fits all and bureaucrats-know-best agenda, we must turn away from the idea that people in high positions are to be followed at all without question.

No one knows your kids’ educational strengths, weaknesses, and needs better than you.

If the person pledging devotion to a homeschool curriculum has some training, experience, or special knowledge above and beyond their own use of the product, then certainly they could help inform your decision. But often these people have no special authority or knowledge on the matter. Maybe they’re getting paid to push the product ahem …bloggers like me, or they just like the power trip.

Maybe they need to go on and on about the merits of what they are using to convince others of its greatness to reinforce their own insecurities. Or maybe they couldn’t return it for a full refund, and they are sticking it out to save face. Who knows?

Practical Purchasing: The point is to be selective and discerning from who you take curriculum advice. Do their children learn like yours? Does this person have a background in the subject area? Do they like to hear themselves talk? Are they trying to sell you the curriculum they couldn’t return to the store?

Red Herring Shopping

Curriculum Fallacy: Everything that comes up in my curriculum search is fate and worthy of my attention and purchase in order to check all the boxes and keep learning fun.

“I really need to find a good middle school history program,” says the homeschool mom resolved to spend the wee hours of a Wednesday chugging coffee and browsing options.

“Oh look… Grow Your Own Venus Fly Traps!” she exclaims with delight. (Squirrel!)

“I should get this! We could totally study botany this year! I wonder if they have any other growing kits? And then we will definitely need to get these videos on weather and earth science. Cause that obviously fits into growing things.

And this rock collection, so we can learn about the minerals in the soil. And this cute little bug catching net! And ….ahhhhh! Raise butterflies!! We have to do that!”

Add to cart.

She takes side glance at clock and momentarily returns from the rabbit hole.

“Wait. What was I looking for?” she struggles to remember the person she was when she went curriculum crazy just 10 mins ago.

“Oh ya, history for middle school. Focus. Focus. Okay. These history coloring pages look fun, and this Shakespeare reenactment program will be…

“Oooo, How to Make a Mummy! And origami zoo animals! That’s Asian, which we’ll probably talk about in history at some point.”

Add to cart.

“Is it too early to start learning Mandarin? Or should we learn Spanish for foreign language instead? I should probably look at Latin primers just to start a good foundation early.

She shakes her head and grabs her cold cup of coffee. “Wait. What did I come here for?”

Add to Cart!  (Language Arts Fun for reluctant writers)

Practical Purchasing: Have a list of your specific needs for each subject and a plan to stay on track. Do you need a complete program, simple written supplements, or topic-related, hands-on projects? Don’t get distracted by clever and colorful packaging for things only tenuously related to your search. These eye-catching items can suck your budget dry without filling any of your curriculum needs.

 

Circular Reasoning

Curriculum Fallacy: It is an investment to buy this mega-sized new expensive curriculum set because secondhand stuff is junk, and besides, I’ll use it again and again on all my younger kids.

The hardcover, brand new, fully charged, super-unleaded version of a curriculum package must be the best deal. Because obviously you’ll use it with your younger kids when they’re old enough. Duh. Obviously. Right?

Nervous giggle. Um, yeah. I mean, get it girl! Who wants to use secondhand curriculum anyway? Wait. What?

But that’s exactly what it will be when the youngers get older, secondhand curriculum. Because you are already setup and dollars deep, you won’t get to need to go shopping for anything new. You already bought the heavy-duty version guaranteed to survive daily splashes of second breakfast.

Except that you lose the fun of picking out something new, it is great to reuse what we already have for 2 reasons:

• • • Saving money. $$$
    • You already know how to use it and have tweaked it to your abilities and your kid’s needs.

However…

Practical Purchasing: Are you really saving any money if you buy the hardcover version with all the extras and manipulatives and reference material? Think practically about your homeschool personality and a typical homeschool day at your house. Will you really use all the extras? Decide how many years you would need to use this curriculum to justify the original cost compared to the less souped-up version (or another less expensive, yet equally effective option). Though you may already know how to use the program, you’ve likely tweaked it for a different child. Your current student could have completely different needs and a completely different curriculum may be necessary.

 

Genetic Fallacy

Curriculum Fallacy: You didn’t like the one thing you tried from a certain publisher, so all that publisher’s products must be garbage as well.

Maybe you tried the 4^th grade grammar set from Pencil-Pushers Publishing, and it left your child in tears and their language skills regressed to grunts and primitive hieroglyphs. Yet now the same publisher’s math curriculum keeps coming up in your search. After reading the description and reviews, looking at samples and testing them out on your kid, it looks to be a perfect fit for your math genius. But you just can’t bring yourself to…

Add to cart.

Cause burn me once shame on me. But burn me twice and I’ll seriously question my homeschool ninja shopping skills.

Many homeschool publishers have their Porche products, and then their Pinto products. You could be using a publisher’s Porche product for years, decide to branch into their other subject offerings and suddenly….

“What in the %**&!)($#! … Who sold us this lemon?”

Also, curriculum that seems a worthless Pinto product to one family, not worth the graphite your kid scribbled into it and now you can’t return it, could be a must-have Porche to another homeschool family. And vice versa.

Practical Purchasing: Don’t completely write-off a publisher because the one product you tried didn’t work out. Also, don’t assume everything a publisher churns out is spectacular just because your kid thrived with the one product you tried. No company is perfect, but likely they’ve got some strong and effective publications if they keep popping up in your search. Homeschooling is all about personalizing education.

 

Other Homeschool Curriculum Fallacies to Beware:

1. Appeal to Fear: Purchasing curriculum out of fear of leaving out something important your kids might need. Fear of not being good enough without all the gadgets (and 101 other lies we tell ourselves). Or because of a warning from another homeschool know-it-all parent.
   ex. Reluctantly buying, and later loathing, a Latin curriculum because you were led to believe your kids would fail the language portion of the SAT without it. Or buying 3 combination locks because, well…(ahem)
2. Exigency: Impulsive purchasing because of a perceived lack of time and availability. A classic sales pitch.
   ex. I must hurry! Only 3 left in stock! Um…chill. They’ll get more. It’s a high-pressure tactic. See also: Free Ruler with Purchase today only! Deep breaths. You don’t need another ruler. You need to be sure you are buying what you truly need, not just so someone else doesn’t get it first.
3. Either-Or: Mistakenly narrowing yourself to two choices.
   ex. Believing you must choose between the two bestselling history programs in the search results. More likely you’ll have to draw a limit on how many products you are willing to peruse and read about after the 78^th option in a list of 324. Just because it doesn’t rank in the top 2, the curriculum that looks appealing to your needs is likely the best fit for your kids.
4. Post hoc ergo propter hoc: translation – “after this, therefore because of this.” Falsely concluding that something that happened after you started using a curriculum, was because of that curriculum. Or maybe because you didn’t use a curriculum?!
   ex. “Last year we didn’t do a formal grammar workbook and now my 7^th grader is constantly making up dumb words to complete his rhymes and wants to be a rapper. So, we’re doubling up this year!”
5. Proof by Lack of Evidence: Just because there are no reviews on a new curriculum doesn’t prove it worthless. Don’t assume anything. Maybe it’s new. You could pioneer new roads…
6. Snob Appeal: “Oh us? We only use Platinum Pupil Preparatory Products.” (Sniff and close eyes haughtily.) “It’s nothing personal, it’s just that we’re better than you. Unless of course you’d like to use it too, and then you can join our Nose-High Club.”
7. Appeal to Tradition/Hi-tech: Little House on the Prairie was a great program and many of us would love to be able to go back to simpler times, but a writing program that begins with whittling your own quill might be a bit much. Don’t be wooed into purchasing curriculum strictly for its nostalgic appeal.
   Likewise, new and hi-tech doesn’t automatically equate to improved. But it does often equate to high dollar. The cool STEM kits and virtual learning programs can add up fast with little more reward than appealing to a kid’s want for more screen time.

Practical Planning and Purchasing

Now that you’ve been warned and armed against some common homeschool curriculum fallacies, you’re ready to go forth (hopefully unfrenzied) into the abyss of homeschool shopping and planning. By this time of year, shopping for the next is certainly more fun than finishing the current one! And if it’s your first year to homeschool you’re almost ready…

Last minute Tip:

Remember whose kids you are shopping for. It’s easy to get swept up by the well-behaved brochure children snuggled with mom while learning to reduce equations by the fire and then think…”I need this. This will fix all our problems.”

Remember how your year is currently going. Make a list to stay focused.

• • What went right?
  • What tragically diverted from what you envisioned. How do your kids learn best?
  • On what do they need to focus?
  • Can they do 2 hours of college prep math a day or is that wishful dreaming?
  • Do they want to knit Celtic war vests?
  • Is the model catapult necessary or a budget buster?
  • Where did I put my coffee?
  • Do I already have something I said I would reuse with a younger kid?

Now go forth and conquer that curriculum, girl. You got this! And you don’t need everything that catches your eye.
After all, the best homeschool tools are loving parents and happy home. And plenty of coffee.