Homeschoolers love curriculum. They love leafing through catalogues, talking, talking, talking about curriculum, checking out new curriculum, going to curriculum fairs. A whole publishing industry has sprung up for homeschoolers and new ones come along all the time. People even identify themselves by their curriculum. Are you a Sonlight user? A Seton homeschooler? Konos? A Beka? In Catholic circles we've got Seton, Mother of Divine Grace, Catholic Heritage Curriculum, Kolbe, Our Lady of Victory and more. These curriculum providers have it all thought out for you, so you the mom only have to plunk the kid down at the table and make them move their pencil and voila! Education!
I do think curriculum serves its purpose, but I think its purpose is pretty narrow. I think a lot of times those curriculum providers are feeding into our anxieties and the 'need' to keep up with the Joneses. We homeschoolers are always worried about whether the kids measure up to other kids. We want them to excel. We want to prove that we can do this home education thing. We are gung ho about this project of ours. We want to plan ahead. Parents with kids who are two years old will ask questions about preschool curriculum. It's like city people who have eaten factory produced food for so long, they forget that you can go and pluck an apple from a tree and eat it. Or catch a fish in a stream and fry it up over a fire. And that fresh food is probably far more nourishing than the boxed kind. And it tastes better too! But it isn't as convenient. Or real. Have you ever thought about how much trying to find the perfect curriculum is really a function of our consumerism? If we buy something, it will make us happy.
So here is my first premise, you don't really need planned curriculum to learn. People have been learning without planned curriculum for a long, long time. Lesson plans and educational activities and that kind of stuff is made up and part and parcel of the factory learning approach to education that has dominated our landscape since the advent of public schools.
Curriculum can have its place, though. But wouldn't it be better to see if you really needed it before you spend the money, instead of assuming you do? What if your child picks up reading from being read to? What if your child is one of those natural spellers? What if your child loves to write without any prompting? What if your child loves to think mathematically? Maybe, if you step back a bit and don't rush things, you'll see you don't need a pre-digested program. Or maybe you'll realize that one beautiful curriculum that everyone is enthusing about will actually turn something that is a delight into a chore. There is that danger. So maybe curriculum should only be a response to your child's passion or inquiry or desire for a skill.
I recently re-watched a Ken Robinson youtube video. I guess I had first seen it a couple or more years ago. He talks about how modern public education is based on two concepts: linearity and conformity. That is what the scope and sequence in planned curriculum are based on too. They expect children to learn in a linear fashion, which is not how 99% of learning takes place. It does not move along in assembly line fashion. It is, as he says in his talk, an organic thing. We don't need a factory, we need a farm where we plant seeds and then create an environment where the seeds can grow and flourish. We also don't want conformity. Healthy societies depend on the diversity of talents that all its members have. Not everyone should be white collar clerks. We need all types of learners and workers. The end goal of education is not college or test scores but a flourishing human being who thrives, loves and lives deeply whatever his passion or walk in life turns out to be.
Watch this video because he really says it so much better than I ever could.
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But then again, you will probably need something to help you along in particular subjects. But even here curriculum isn't the only answer. Instead of following some other person's scope and sequence, maybe you could just teach yourself how to teach reading or writing or arithmetic and then just pass that information along to your child when the time is right, like when it comes up in the real world or the child asks you about it or when it occurs to you, the mom, hey maybe it is time to learn such and such. I am thinking here of early childhood, before the high school level.
You know how to add, subtract, multiply and divide. I bet you remember basic fractions, decimals and percents. You might remember some basic geometry. Anything you don't remember you can look up! Higher math though I do think takes systematic study. I think a good textbook works really well for Algebra and up. But this doesn't mean that in pre-school you need to sit down with your child every day and 'do math' in order for the child to study Algebra when they are 14.
This is true for all the traditional skill subjects:
You know how to read. If you don't remember any of your phonics rules you can rely on something like Phonics Pathways to steer you through.
You know how to write, by which I mean form letters. You just need to read a brief handbook on how to form letters to get the pedagogy behind handwriting, then you can focus on copy work to teach penmanship (and spelling, vocabulary, literary devices, grammar and punctuation).
You know how to write, by which I mean put an idea into sentence form. So much of this sort of writing is pushed on kids too early. Better to wait until they have a little spelling and grammar via lots of reading and read alouds and actually have something they want to say, before making it a requirement to learn how to craft an essay. You don't need to learn to write paragraphs in 2nd grade so you can be an eloquent writer when you are 18. It simply isn't necessary and in fact often backfires. There has been all this emphasis on early childhood education, basically stripping children of their natural childhood, ignoring their developmental needs, their own personal trajectory and talents, and it is wrong. Don't buy into it! Both intellectually and financially!
The heart of homeschooling is not curriculum The heart of homeschooling is being in a family that encourages wonder and exploration within wholesome limits. It is participating in family life which consists of conversations, read alouds, chores, projects, arts and crafts, living one's faith in a tangible way, interacting with the community. And then you can add a little preplanned help now and again to this rich cultivated loam in the garden of your family.
Here are 12 resources that may help you in learning how to teach:
The Three R's by Ruth Beechick - Ruth Beechick is a Christian educator. I don't subscribe to her brand of Christianity but she wrote this slender, brilliant book that gives you the simple nuts and bolts needed to educate your child in the 3 R's of reading, writing and arithmetic.
Phonics Pathways - this book is good for beginning phonics up through high school spelling.
Bob books - these are great beginning phonics readers. You can just use these books to sit by your child and help them sound the letters out.
Games for Reading and any other Peggy Kaye books. She's got one on math, one on writing and more. These are resources you can just pick and choose from as you feel the call for your particular children.
Teach Me to Do It Myself or other Montessori guides for the home, like those by Elizabeth Hainstock, etc. Incorporating Montessori type activities into your home life gives a creative outlet for your parental anxiousness to get this schooling thing going! And it also gives your child the chance to learn through play in developmentally respectful ways.
Donna Young's Handwriting resources - Donna Young is a wonderful woman! She created all these resources for other homeschoolers and then made most of them free on line. God bless her!
Jim Trelease's The Read Aloud Handbook - read to your children! They will learn so much!
Honey for a Child's Heart - this was the first book about books for children that I read. There many other valuable book lists out there in internet land nowadays. So this really is just one choice of many.
Children Who Are Not Yet Peaceful - This book is written by a Montessori teacher who worked with emotionally troubled children. However, it is so much more than that! It is about respecting children, not rushing them, creating a place of safety so they can bloom and learn to manage their own emotions. For me it served as an invaluable parenting book as a parent who tries to home educate.
Project Based Homeschooling - This book shows you how to let your children explore and learn through taking their projects seriously. It hits just the right tone and is very practical.
Khan Academy - forget how to do long division? Don't remember Newton's laws? Sal Khan to the rescue! God bless him too!
Teaching the Classics - How to read and discuss literature deeply. Really helpful!
For the newbie: once you get some wisdom and experience under your belt, you'll begin to feel more comfortable in the role of teacher and mentor. It truly is just an extension of your parenthood. All parents are teachers, but homeschooling parents are teachers of more subject matter. That's the only difference. So essentially, you already know how to do this thing! You just need to build on what you already have. It is all a beautiful process. Keep joyful, keep it real, learning will happen, not in a linear way, but in an almost magical organic way that will have you looking back in amazement.
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