How to Create a Homeschool Curriculum

Creating a curriculum for your home school can be quite a daunting task. Knowing what subjects to teach, how to teach them and what materials are best to use can be overwhelming. However with patience you will discover that there are a variety of methods to build a homeschool curriculum that will be beneficial for your child.

On facet to consider when building a curriculum is the learning level and style of your child. You will want to make sure that you obtain teaching materials that are age or skill appropriate. Children learn different subjects and grasp different objectives at varying ages and levels so it’s imperative to obtain learning materials that are reflective of a child’s cognitive ability. Likewise, in creating a curriculum you have the benefit of considering your child’s learning style. People in general learn differently. Some children are visual, some are more tactile and others have the ability to just listen and absorb information. Knowing which particular learning style is more closely related to your child’s will allow you to incorporate activities into the curriculum that will make it easier for your child to retain information. For example, if your child is visual using diagrams or drawings to relay information may be extremely helpful in their learning process.

An additional area to consider when building a home school curriculum is making sure your child learns the essentials. Although some parents view educating from home as an opportunity to provide knowledge to their child in their own specialized way it is still important that the essentials are placed in a curriculum. Depending on the age of the child the material will change but reading, writing, arithmetic and comprehension activities should be a basis of any curriculum. There are many resources that will help you create or even purchase an age or skill appropriate curriculum so your child will not lack in these basic skills.

Also, when building a curriculum you should definitely consider any alternative objectives or ideals you would like to incorporate. If you are home schooling your children because you would like to implement religion into their education you may want to purchase religious based activities that can assist with the reading and writing portions of a curriculum. Similarly, if you are looking to create a curriculum that is more eclectic and offers your children a variety of ways to learn you should research a variety of non-traditional methods of teaching such as the child-centered Montessori method that will help your child learn more effectively.

When creating a homeschool curriculum remember to make it informative, interesting and most importantly fun. And after all, that’s the key to effective education.