Choosing Curriculum

During my first few years of homeschooling, I lacked the confidence to choose the topics and curriculum to fit our lifestyle.  I wasn't exactly sure the direction I wanted to go or even which homeschooling style was a good fit for our family.  There are so many different styles of teaching and learning. From Charlotte Mason to Classical to Eclectic to Unit Studies, and everything in between there are so many styles to choose from. I began to get overwhelmed and was having trouble deciding what was best.  I think my big detriment in those very early years was information overload.  I had all of this access to so much information by people who would write "eclectic is the way to go."  And someone else who would say "classical is the best way to teach so your kids would learn."  I was so conflicted and tried so many different methods.  So I'm not going to use this blog to say that one way of homeschooling is better than another way.  I'm simply going to share what works for our family and it may or may not work for yours.

When trying to decide on curriculum for our new year, I took note of what worked really well last year and what didn't.  I thought about what my kids were enjoying and what they weren't.  At this time, I came across the book, "Educating the Wholehearted Child" by Clay Clarkson.  This has become my favorite book on homeschooling and I highly recommend it.


This book gave me "permission" to put aside all the worry of choosing the right curriculum and focusing on learning and growing along with my kids.

On the next post, I will share our curriculum choices for this upcoming year.