Choosing Teaching Materials For Your Home School!

Choosing Teaching Materials can be an overwhelming task because there are so many excellent products available and each one claims to be superior to all others.

Many veteran home schoolers suggest that you stick to a "prepackaged" traditional curriculum for the first year or so. Others encourage new home schoolers to consider correspondence schools. We do not completely agree with these recommendations, because for many it seems to perpetuate a mentality of home schooling as being "school at home" instead of an exciting lifestyle of learning.

We know that it takes some experience to determine which materials are best suited for your children's needs, but we are also convinced that the Lord can lead concerned parents to the teaching materials and methods that work best for their family. Here are some suggestions concerning choosing curricula:

Rule 1 | Invest in yourself first.
Like it or not, you are the glue that will hold this home schooling endeavor together, so you need to develop a strategy for staying sane and on top of it all (even if it means scheduling a nap every afternoon). You wouldn't dream of trying to build a housewithout a plan, the right materials, and the necessary tools.

Home schooling is like building a house: You need to determine your plan, gather your materials, and be sure you have the right tools for the job.Take some time to read, to look around, to compare. Invest in some of the "tools of the trade" like everyone's favorite books on homeschooling. Begin rearranging your house so it will accommodate study without becoming too cluttered or stressful. Think through what you will do with infants and toodlers during school times; how you will handle meals, house cleaning and laundry; and how you will deal with the other changes schooling at home brings. Don't feel guilty about spending money on yourself. After all, if you were a professional teacher, you (or your parents) would have spent tens of thousands of dollars getting you ready to stand before a classroom of children. So think in terms of what will make you more confident and able to create a learning environment for your household. What will smooth your way mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually?

Rule 2 | Consider your situation.
A farm family will have many opportunities for "hands on" learning in the areas of math, science, economics, etc. A city family has access to museums, libraries, cultural events, and more support group activities. You can make the most of the real life learning opportunities God gives you, perhaps never needing textbooks and teaching materials in certain subjects areas. We once had a missionary call us bemoaning the fact that she lived in a large foreign city and her children weren't able to do much nature study. She completely overlooked all the wonderful opportunities her children had to learn foreign languages, history and geography, and to interact with other cultures. So, look around, God may have already arranged a learning environment for you that is better than a classroom.

Rule 3 | Choose materials that compliment the learner.
Textbooks developed for classroom use tend to be "teacher directed" and chalkboard oriented, seldom taking into account children's interests or of the different ways children perceive and process information. Each student has a style in which he learns best. Different children have different learning strengths and weaknesses that the perceptive parent will take into account when choosing teaching materials. For example, visual learners may do well with workbooks, while auditory learners need songs or spoken instruction and kinesthetic learners need to manipulate objects.

Rule 4 | If you don't like the material, you will resist using it no matter how good it is.
All teching materials have a bias, not just in the subject matter, but also in the way the subject matter is presented. Every teaching parent, whether he or she recognizes it or not, has an educational philosophy, some set of values and beliefs about what and how children should be taught. Sometimes we will have an unexplained inner resistance to cetain teaching materials. It could be that this inner resistance arises from a conflict between our educational philosophy and that of the teaching material. Trust the Holy Spirit and choose form your spirit as well as from your head. No matter how much your friends rave about a particular product, don't buy it if you don't really like it yourself. A key question to ask is: "Does just looking at this curriculum make me feel tired or pressured?"

Rule 5 | Avoid programs that require a great deal of teacher preparation.
Unless you are a researcher-type or high-energy person, you will be frustrated by programs with detailed teacher's manuals to wade through, supplemental books or seminars that are necessary to fully utilize the program, or lots of activities to prepare beforehand.

Rule 6 | Expect to waste time, energy, and especially money.
You will soon discover taht often it is you, not your children, who are being educated. So loosen up and accept the fact that some of what you buy will be a total waste of time, energy, and money. This is all a part of learning what works for you and for your children. Consider it payment of your tuition in the University for Home educating Parents.

Rule 7 | Be aware that there are various schools of thought concerning the teaching of any subject.
Some examples: In math there are programs that are primarily problem solving with manipulatives and programs that are primarily solving problems on paper. In reading there are programs that focus on learning phonics before learning to read, and programs that focus on just learning to read and letting the rules come later. Each school of thought has produced excellent mathematicians, readers, and spellers, but sometimes products will be advertised as better than the rest because they follow a particluar school of thought.

Rule 8 | Realize that there is no perfect curriculum.
What works with one child won't necessarily work with another. What worked one year may not necessarily work the next. You family's needs and interests will change. Buy materials that meet present needs. Mold the curriculum to the chiild, not the child to the curriculum. Also, be aware that not all books in a series are equally as good. For exmaple the fourth grade level of a particular program may be excellent, but this does not mean the other levels are.

Rule 9 | God gave you your specific children because there is somthing in you that He wants imparted to them.
Teaching materials are only tools to help you impart yourself to (disciple) your children. You can trust the Lord to lead you to those materials that will help you best disciple each child.

Rule 10 | Remember that teaching materials are often the least important element in your home school.
Books are easy to discard if they don't work for you, but attitudes and destructive family dynamics are not. Five major reasons families fail at home education are: (1) they lack the personal conviction to persevere through the difficult times; (2) the father is not involved; (3) the children are undisciplined and resist parental instruction; (4) the parents cannot handle the added responsibilities; and (5) the family has unrealistic expectations. The best teaching materials in the world are going to take a backseat to the attitudes and family dynamics in your household.

(P.S. Rule 10: 2 | Single Parent families where the father isn't in the picture, CAN successfully homeschool our children. Our challenges are different of course, but God is our Ever-Present Help! HE is the Father in the picture... AMEN.)