If you can’t find what you’re looking for, consider creating your own curriculum.
I looked for a long time for the golden bullet, 
the perfect curriculum, the one that would do it all. What I didn’t realize was that I was looking for someone else to do every part of homeschooling my children, rather than me taking the responsibility that was mine and running with it. I have come to create my own instead.
Creating your own curriculum takes a lot more time than perusing catalogs and ordering a box. It takes thought, research, planning, and following rabbit trails that sometimes turn out to be exactly that. Rabbit trails! An idea that runs into another and another and ends, well, nowhere. Just in time lost. Rabbit trails.
How do you go about pulling together that which you want your child to learn in a school year?
Firstly, remember that you need to find out what your state’s requirements are regarding homeschooling. One place you can do that is Home School Legal Defense Association, but each state also probably has its own education site.
Secondly, something else I have done is to find another 2 sources of suggestions for a year of study for a particular age of child. World Book is one I always use, and then I would find the Scope and Sequence of one of the myriad of boxed curricula warehouses. I printed off each (my state, World Book and a homeschool curriculum plan), stapled them, and sat down with my husband. Sometimes this conversation took place up front and we went through it together. Other times, it took place when I’d already gone through it, but usually my reading through it took place in the car when I was a passenger. I highlighted or made notes on my pages which I would run by my hubby, and then I would pull it all together into a nicely organized document, easy for me to follow, and begin moving through it.
Math was my main focus in this curriculum organization because it is a sequential subject, with parts building on top of already-laid foundations, and things need to be done in order. We moved from our house in 2015 which brought about many changes, including for the first time, the use of actual math curriculum books. This small thing rather changed my curriculum planning. It made it simpler and shorter. With math taken care of, I have now focused more on unit studies. Unit studies basically means all the subjects you usually cover individually are covered under one subject. For example, you could study bananas.
- English – grammar, spelling, vocabulary about the parts of the plan, locations it’s grown
- Geography – places in the world they are grown
- History – where they’re first found mentioned in history
- Science – study the parts of the plant, how it grows and what it needs to grow
- Art – find some artwork focusing on bananas, or draw them
With the busy life of homeschooling 4 children, music (including learning and playing a new instrument), life at the ranch, and some travel, I have found unit studies great. I am very excited about the one we’ll begin this fall, about which I will write more in a different post.
Creating your own curriculum does take a pencil and paper, and it also takes the things that actually cost – time, diligent searching, creating a plan that is doable, all for the good of your child. If you, like me, can’t find something that is satisfactory amongst the abundance of available options, try creating your own. Please, let me know which unit studies you’ve had good success in.
