In this post we are going to talk, once again, about curriculum. If you didn’t catch the last post about how to pick curriculum, check that one out here.

So, once you’ve got your curriculum, what do you do with it? Let me give you some tips on how to make it work for you.

See this video on YouTube.

Think through what each lesson looks like from beginning to end.

Think through a whole typical lesson, starting with when and where you sit down to when it’s finished and you put the supplies away. Pam Barnhill calls this your Procedures List.

Most of this is already decided for you in open-and-go curriculums you get, but you still have to look them over and be familiar with what is coming for each lesson. (The Good and the Beautiful is great with this. I also find this with Right Start Math and All About Reading).

But even though they include a lot, they don’t always have everything decided for you. So, sit down and make a list with these things for each subject for each child:

• WHEN do you do this lesson?
• WHERE do you do this lesson? (Example: couch, kitchen table, desk, or outside)
• What SUPPLIES do you need?
• HOW LONG will you do the lesson? It it for a certain time, grab a timer. Is it until the lesson is finished according to the book?
• If the curriculum doesn’t tell you, What do you do first? What do you do next? What do you do last?

When you decide on these things, you’ll have a procedures list ready to go!

Prep all the physical materials

• Decide where to keep it. (A box, a drawer, a shelf, a basket, a bucket)
• Decide if you’ll do lessons from the books or take out all the pages and put them into notebooks for each week.
• Teach the kids how to get it out and put it away.

There is no right or wrong answers for these questions. They need to be tailored to you and your home and family. What someone else does may not work for you and your specific situation.

Add Yourself to the Curriculum

Did you know that you can add a little bit of YOU to what you are teaching.

• Do you like to make it fun? Add a little bit of fun to what the curriculum says.
• Do you love being outside and being active? Take your school work outside!
• Do you love math games? Throw in some math games.
• Do you love board games? Play a board game once a week.
• Do you love dress up? Make costumes and dress up with the kids as the people of history you are learning or the characters in a book you are reading.

Curriculum writers write their curriculum either for the masses or to fit THEIR family.

They don’t know what you enjoy as a home educator to your kids. Now, if it’s your first year homeschooling, you don’t have to veer too far from what the curriculum is instructing you to do, it’s okay to stay within the guidelines they have put before you, but when you start to find your groove, go for it!

Whatever it is that YOU love, add that to the curriculum. I guarantee that it will spice up your curriculum and make you and your kids more excited to hit the books.

Realize You are not a Slave to the Homeschool Curriculum

A reader of mine said this recently, and I was like, “Yes! That’s it!”

When you first start out homeschooling, it’s really easy to think you have to do every single thing the books tell you to.

I know part of this is out of fear, “Am I going to mess up my kid? Will I miss something? Will there be gaps?” (GASP!)

Think back to when you first had babies. Did anyone read “Baby Wise” or a book on developing sleep habits in babies?? I felt like I had to follow what the book said to a T in order to get the desired results. When that wasn’t working, what did I do? I freaked out!

Since one thing wasn’t working, I wanted to quit on the whole thing.

I thought I was a bad mom and these guidelines were not going to work for me!

But that’s just what they were: GUIDELINES. Say that out loud with me: GUIDELINES.

While it can be so helpful to have an open and go curriculum that tells you what to do when, even what to SAY, you can treat these more like guidelines than hard and fast rules set in stone.

Let me explain how this works:

If there is a week or a day where you “get off track,” the best thing to do would be to pick up where you left off the next time you have a lesson. Instead of trying to cram 2-3 lessons into one day. Your children will thank me later.

You can even skip a lesson, or part of the lesson, and it will be okay.

While the curriculum creators put tons of resources into one place, you don’t have to feel like you have to accomplish it all. I can almost guarantee that you won’t some days.

They often give you more than you need so you have enough options. This is why it’s important to look through the curriculum and see what is realistic for you and your kids.

But that’s not to say that I gave you permission to get lazy and just not do it! Please don’t hear me say that.

Hear me say that if you have done enough in a certain amount of time with your kids, don’t feel like you have to do MORE or finish the lesson in one time just to say you have done it.

We are not proving anything to anyone. It’s not a race. We are educating our kids.

Pay attention to your kids and adapt the pace to them as needed.

Pauses and breaks are okay. As long as you pick it back up again and keep going.

So, some of us need to hear “It’s going to be okay.” Don’t beat yourself up for not finishing a lesson.

And some of us need to be pushed a little and reminded not to quit when it gets hard. Keep going. Do the next right thing, and you will see the fruit as you keep going.

Which one are you? Do you feel like you are in a race and you want to finish the curriculum in the shortest amount of time possible? Or do you feel like you need to be encouraged to keep going even when it gets tough?

Take the Which Homeschooling Style are You Quiz to see what is your familiy’s learning style! (Be sure to scroll down in the box to see the results!)

(Don’t see it above, go here for the quiz).

And check out the FREE Weekly Planner Printable I made for you here!