Homeschooling Curriculum
In traditional school, districts are obligated to choose curriculum and standardize teaching methods in a way that ensures the maximum number of students perform at grade level. Since students come with a variety of talents and challenges, this doesn’t ensure that the curriculum used will be the best fit for every child. Children learn at different rates and different ways. The beauty of homeschooling or modular learning is that you can choose the ideal curriculum to suit your child’s unique learning style - and thereby optimize their learning outcomes and enjoyment learning. To succeed in life, they’ll need to have a great appetite for learning, so it behooves you to choose learning resources that help them cultivate a positive attitude towards learning in early childhood. Families can benefit from homeschooling curriculum whether they’re doing full-time homeschooling or are looking to supplement .
In this guide, we’ll describe how to choose the best homeschooling curriculum for your unique child.
Who this is for: This guide to choosing a homeschooling is designed for secular, savvy homeschoolers who want more innovation their child’s education. We call them Modular Learners: a specific set of families with the following goals :
Families who are looking for secular, not religious curriculum
Curriculum that will help their child learn most quickly and efficiently in the way that is best for them.
Families who are interested in mastery-based learning
Families looking for innovative curriculum that draws on the latest research on the science of teaching, whether or not this is the way the material is taught in traditional schools.
This guide is equally suitable for families looking for less or no screen time (nature-based/workbooks) and also for families who are interested in adopting digital tools to support their child’s learning (adaptive learning apps).
Families looking for progressive, anti-racist curriculum that includes comprehensive history and voices of women, minorities and other marginalized groups.
Families looking for education based on the latest scientific research about health, the environment and other critical topics.
Families who want to bring in more subjects not taught in school (such as tech, engineering, music, art) or not taught well in their school (like writing and math).
This guide is designed for parents to help their children develop critical thinking skills and make important choices about how to be a good citizen in a complex world, where there is more data than ever to sort through to reach sound decisions.
Who this guide is not for: People choose to homeschool for a large variety of reasons. This guide is specifically designed for modular learners and not families who are homeschooling for the following purposes.
Families who are looking for religious curriculum
Families who are looking for curriculum mostly focused on preparing children for standardized tests that imitates the standardized curriculum at school designed to make all students learn in the same way at the same time to ensure the maximum stay at grade level.
Families who want their kids to learn about creationism (as opposed to evolution), spread rumors about climate change being up for debate, or espouse prejudiced, biased beliefs that hurt minorities and other religious groups.
This guide is not designed for families who want to indoctrinate their kids with their own political beliefs, whether they be on the left or the right, but for families who want to teach kids to come to their own conclusions based on rigorous scientific research and data analysis.
Where to get information about homeschooling curriculum:
Secular homeschooling groups: We’ve found the best way to get the most accurate information about homeschooling curriculum is to look at large secular, homeschooling groups such as SEA homeschoolers. You can search for a curriculum and then view
Online reviews: Numerous teachers and learning experts have been reviewing homeschooling curriculum A few we like include Common Sense Media, Homeschool Mom, Cathy Duffy Reviews and looking at the fan page of the resource for customer reviews. We also have our own blog on Modulo that features curriculum reviews with in-depth information about each of our favorite resources! We’ve limited our reviews to programs we love and fits in or criteria for .
Contact the resource creator: If you have specific questions about the homeschooling curriculum, it never hurts to contact the resource creator directly .If their information isn’t on the
Families choosing curriculum will want to weigh the following factors:
How much time per day does it take to use the curriculum?
How much prep time is involved?
Is the curriculum truly secular? Some curriculum are not up front that they come from a religious perspective - and sneak in references to the bible when you least expect it or mention an aside like “scientists are still debating the impact of climate change.”
If you want to keep the option for your child to return to school and not feel behind, does this curriculum follow state standards or do the kids who do it generally stay at grade level or above following this curriculum.
Is the curriculum a good fit for the way your child learns?
Are they visual, kinesthetic, auditory or more hands-on?
How much does the curriculum cost? Many curriculum are free or can be bought in an inexpensive way.
Is the curriculum nature-based or screen-based?
What kind of activities does your child most enjoy? This might give a clue as to what curriculum would help them thrive. Parents are sometimes discouraged that their child plays too many video games, loves youtube videos or is obsessed with legos - or wants to spend all their time playing outside, however these can be great clues as to what curriculum them might like.
How much parental involvement is involved in instruction?
What do other parents say about the curriculum?
Is it factually accurate or have they found errors?
Do their kids enjoy it?
Is it appropriate for children with special needs (especially any special needs your child has)
Consider searching for your child’s special need and seeing what parents have to say about curriculum that is well suited for that special need.
Who developed the curriculum?
If the curriculum was developed by a teacher, that is generally a good sign.
If the curriculum was developed by a large company, look to see what rewards they’ve received if any.
Consider designing your own curriculum
Maybe you’re a teacher, but maybe you’re not and you’re afraid of the idea of designing your own curriculum.
Remember, you have a lot of knowledge that you can share with your child.
Involve them in your day-to-day activities
Encourage self-directed learning
Once your child learns to read and do basic math (and some even teach that to themselves), the world is their oyster.
Take trips to the library and let your student pick out books
Read the NYTimes together.
Let your child browse YouTube and go deep in subjects of interest. Here are our favorite educational youtube channels.
Don’t be overwhelmed: If sifting through all these curriculum options feels overwhelming to you, don’t worry. Our team of learning specialists has spent the last 3 years sifting through tens of thousands of comments from parents, reviewing curriculum, contacting curriculum providers and testing materials with our own students to select the best curriculum for any family based on their priorities and their child’s needs.
We’ve build a free curriculum planner for you: If sifting through all these comments in parent groups feels overwhelming, never fear! We’ve built a free curriculum planner based on hundreds of conversations with parents that will recommend an amazing secular curriculum for your child based on their interests, special needs, your family’s budget, screen time preferences and time per day you want to allot to the curriculum.
And if you just want to get a sense of what’s out there, take a look at…
Our top 50 resources for learning from home. These are all secular, mastery-based, highly recommended by parents, tested by kids and designed for families innovating education.
Do you have questions or tips to share on how you chose your child’s curriculum? Please share with other families in the comments below!
