Choosing a curriculum can be tough.
Over the years, I’ve learned the type of curriculum that works best for my children. (And, as you can imagine, it’s different for each child.) When I am trying to decide which curriculum to purchase, I always ask myself three questions.
1. Is this a curriculum that teaches skills, content, or both? The best curricula are usually those that do both.
Most of the time, when I pick a curriculum, I pick one that teaches skills through content. That is my objective, especially during elementary. When needed, however, I will focus on those that only teach skills.
Most of the time, when I pick a curriculum, I pick one that teaches skills through content. That is my objective, especially during elementary. When needed, however, I will focus on those that only teach skills.
During the elementary years, very rarely do my children study history or science for the sake of learning history or science. If they do, it’s because they want to learn it, not because I expect it.
I, instead, use history as a vehicle to teach writing, and science as a vehicle to learn how to scan a text for information or to develop reading skills.
As I define it, skill based curricula cover such topics as learning to write, learning to read, learning to outline, learning to scan a text for information, learning to narrate, learning to research, learning to document, …
Content based curricula teach facts and information about various topics such as history, science, Bible, literature, etc. (Personally, I list math under skills.)
According to my own goals and priorities for my children, I try to spend as much time during the early years focusing on skills. This would primarily be in the grammar stage. I realize that the grammar stage is the time that many focus on learning facts and information because it is so easy for children to do that. I, likewise, try to encourage my children to memorize, typically Scripture and poetry, but memorization isn’t my top priority.
Although memorization is easy for them, they must learn the skills which are necessary for them to learn independently. Learning how to read, learning how to write, learning how to outline, learning how to spell, learning how to summarize, learning how to take notes, learning how to research, learning how to scan an article, learning how to learn–all of these skills are necessary for children to be successful as they approach the higher grades.
2. Is this an open-ended curriculum? I define an open-ended curriculum as one that isn’t limited by the arbitrary constraints of grades.
I don’t want my children to feel as if they’re behind or ahead in any subject. I have a son that frequently asks me whether he is behind or ahead in math. He never asks me this question in other subjects because there aren’t any numbers associated with grade levels on the cover of his other books.Grade levels are arbitrary, and they give children an unrealistic idea of where they are in their education.
For instance, children don’t learn grade level material in math; they learn concepts!
They need to know addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, decimals, percents, etc…
There is simply no such thing as grade level addition.
Now I realize that for public and private schools, grade levels are important simply for organizational purposes, but for our homeschool, grade levels simply aren’t important.
And a grade level curriculum adds a dimension to the material that often serves as a barrier between my students and the material.
For example, if a math textbook were to divide addition lessons so that students learn single digit addition in grade 1, double digit addition in grade 2, 3 digit addition in grade 4, this fictitious math program would have successfully spread the mastering of multiple digit addition over 4 years rather than 1 or 2.
I pefer to choose an open-ended curriculum that will give my child the opportunity to learn as much as he can as quickly as he can.
3. Will this curriculum match my child’s preferred method of learning?
As you know, I love the Charlotte Mason method; however, I don’t always interpret it nor implement it as others do. Slow reading, for instance is great, but slow reading isn’t the same pace for every child. To say that it is best for all students to only read x number of pages per day is, in my opinion, flawed. Every child is different.
Also, while living books, as defined by Ms. Mason are awesome, not every student needs them to learn. Some engineering minded students could be harmed by this approach because it would be so incredibly, unbelievably frustrating to have to wade through all of those words to get to the facts for which they so desperately hunger.
If these questions don’t resonate with you, what standards do you follow to determine what to use with your own students?
If you don’t have any overarching criteria by which you pick a curriculum, I suggest you develop one. Develop your own standards for the material your children use. The standards should correlate with your families’ educational goals.
For instance, question number 1 above is about skills verses content. This is important to me. I have seen so many high school students ill-prepared for rigorous work. They often lack skills or discipline. And when they lack both, it’s a recipe for an educational crisis. My objective with question number 1 is to have my children working independently as soon as they are able. (It’s been different for each child.)
Question number 2 regarding open ended curricula and question number 3 regarding the student’s learning preferences correlate with my desire to help my children enjoy learning.
Sometimes when children are forced to use the wrong books, they become frustrated. Sometimes when they move too slow or too fast academically, they become frustrated.
I don’t want that. So I try to pick the right books without grades whenever possible. We may stay on the same curriculum for over a year, but it doesn’t really matter because they never notice. 🙂
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