How to choose the right homeschool curriculum, the right schedule, and the right way to educate your child can be utterly overwhelming!
Back in 2015, when this post originally published on the blog, I had been homeschooling for 12 years. Shortly before writing this post, a friend had confided in me that she felt she had lost herself in all the homeschooling information out there, and that because of all that information, she was feeling nearly paralyzed, unable to make even the simplest of homeschooling decisions.
It was the first time I actually heard someone put words to a phenomenon I have been seeing, and often feeling myself, among homeschool moms.
So many wonderful resources. So many seemingly “right” decisions. But “so many” had become “too many.”
In fact, one reader made the comment that all the information on the internet is mentally constipating. She was absolutely right. We are living in the information age, but we are stuffed to the brim with it, and subsequently, paralyzed by it. Just look at how many browser windows you have open right now! How did we ever survive without all of this information. *sigh*
When I started homeschooling, nearly 2 decades ago, I did not know there were tons of homeschooling resources and catalogs out there. I had latched on to one tiny catalog and ordered everything I thought I needed from that catalog. My order consisted of a McGuffey Reader, a simple math book, and the Rod & Staff ABC series (this is the only curriculum from this original purchase I still use today!).
Prior to that, I had been tearing out pages from a Curious George coloring book, writing a letter at the top of the page and having my son copy the letter and color the picture (he was 4, by the way).
I was doing my best with what I had.
But that all changed the following year. I began to research online. I got catalogs – BIG catalogs – in the mail. I went to my very first homeschool conference with another first time homeschool mom. (Talk about two deer in headlights!)
(pssst…the podcast below might be helpful if you need some help navigating homeschool conventions!)
That year, I purchased an inexpensive all-in-one curriculum and knocked myself out doing everything in the book. The next year, I bought the same curriculum, one grade up. However, part way into the year, I began to worry that my son wasn’t grasping phonics quite the way I thought he should. He was reading, but he was often skipping words that were too difficult for him or making up the endings of words because he thought he had the word figured out. I panicked and mid-year drug out my huge homeschooling catalog full of curriculum and purchased something different. My first time homeschooling mom friend apparently had the same panic moment because she and I ordered together to save on shipping.
I could go on and on with this story…even now. I enjoy research. I enjoy learning about new curricula. I like to keep things fresh in our homeschool, and I am always trying to do things better and smarter.
Most homeschool moms are just like me. But when the information we acquire from all our research, blog reading, and discussions with friends stops us dead in our tracks and keeps us from moving forward with energy, enthusiasm, and faith, we have to learn to shut it down and tame the beast.
How Homeschooling has Changed
The homeschooling movement has seen a dramatic shift from its original roots. Parents who homeschooled in the early days did so (illegally, in many cases) because they were extremely concerned with the influence and intrusion the public school was having on the family.
It was NOT an educational movement.
In fact, parents were taking whatever books they could find and using those to teach, rather than stressing over which homeschooling method was going to educate their child the best. The only methodology they had was the Bible and their firm belief that instilling their faith and values in the next generation could no longer be accomplished in the government-run schools.
As the homeschooling movement has shifted to an educational model, we have seen methods and curricula based on those methods pop up on every street corner. And the homeschool mom is suffering because of it.
I know this because I’ve met a lot of homeschooling moms and the questions they ask me often revolve around choosing the “right” curriculum. I also know this because I’ve been that homeschool mom…bombarded with information, constantly questioning herself, feeling like nothing is a good fit, and wasting time and money in a quest that seems utterly hopeless.
But, there is hope!
I have a series of posts on the reasons for and solutions to the trouble of homeschool information overload that will help you navigate your decisions with confidence!
Why Our Homeschool Curriculum Choices are Stressing Us Out
Good and Bad Reasons to Change Curriculum
How to Tame the Homeschool Information Monster
Advice from the Finish Line (guest post from a veteran homeschool mom)
Finding Our Way Back Home
I’d also encourage you to subscribe to the Raising Arrows Podcast and YouTube Channel where you will find a calm, relaxed approach to homeschooling!
This post was originally published in February 2015, and was updated in February of 2022.
Erin says
Thank you Amy. I am right in this place. I am looking forward to hearing what you have to say…feeling like I’m floundering in a sea of information, and need a rope!
Stephanie says
Yes! This! I am here! I am stuck in Analysis Paralysis right now! I’ve been debating the same curriculum choices week after week, month after month. Classical or Charlotte Mason? Tapestry of Grace or BiblioPlan? Rod & Staff, First Language Lessons? Writing & Rhetoric? Ack! Pros/Cons?! Cost?! Should I switch? Am I switching too much? Is it what I want? Or what THEY need? What’s crazy is that I’ve been encouraged to pray about it, and I have, but I think the information overload is too noisy and I still can’t hear what I’m supposed to do? Or worse yet, have I received some inspiration but have too stressed or anxious to listen and regard it? I cannot wait to see what you have to say this week! 🙂 Whatever it is, I know I need to hear it!
Bambi says
So looking forward to the upcoming posts. Really what I need right now as I am feeling like a failure already… have only been homeschooling a few years. 2 in 2nd grade, 1 in Kindergarten next year. Number 6 is on the way and I am wondering as I have to add the little ones in as the years go by, how on earth am I going to manage it all!!!
Kendra says
yay! Excited for this! I only have littles but already feel overwhelmed with where to start!!
Sha-Toina says
I will be eagerly awaiting this series. Thank you for doing it as I think we need this. blessings to you and your family.
Jen says
Definitely looking forward to this series! I’m having trouble finding a wise homeschool veteran locally who has the time (or desire) to mentor me. I’ve had to find that online. Your’s is my only homeschool focused blog left I’m subscribed to! Seems this series is coming at a good time! 🙂
Joy says
I am completely paralyzed by all the info out there.
I was doing fine with just looking up the curriculum requirements for our area and making my own stuff up or using printable worksheets…until I ordered a catalog from a supplier! I literally started to panic. There is SO much out there. I have things I plan to order, but I keep getting promotional e-mails from different curricula and I am soo overwhelmed.
First is the cost of it all, then whether it’s right for us. What if it’s not right?then I waste money!? what if what I am doing isn’t enough?
I need SOMETHING because writing out the school work for the kids week is taking much too long ad is exhausting…but what!!?
This series definitely is coming at the right time:)
Joanna says
I think we have all been there at some point in our homeschool journey. When we started homeschool 5 years ago. I thought i had to use all the same curriculum for each child. I keep us stuck in only using what i thought we were suppose to use. I thing i learned the most to no get into to this “O you should use this or that” Every parent teaches different and every child learns different. Even though we are a Christian family using christian curriculum. the first couple year i didn’t allow God to lead us in the Direction HE wanted and we suffered because of it. This year i had my church join in, in our pray to allow God to lead us in the curriculum. I was amazing at how fast God spoke then the year before. Different Direction but i feel so a peace with the direction he has for us. This is a amazing Idea and I Thank you in advance!
Chris Waughtal says
as a veteran homeschool mom of 11 years, and now adding 4 special needs kiddos to the mix, I too find that what worked for my first 3 WILL NEVER work for these 4, and I am constantly beating myself up for NOT DOING ENOUGH to help them get as far as they can—SIGH!!!
TOO much info is right, and I can’t seem to quit looking-I must be an info junkie-
looking forward to reading your series-as you have time to write it!!!
Diana says
Oh, boy! I am so excited to read this series! You are so right in what you wrote. Information overload is actually a serious problem for homeschool mamas. In fact, attending my first homeschool convention was so overwhelming that I originally decided that I would NOT be homeschooling. It was just too incredibly overwhelming. Thankfully that wasn’t a permanent decision, but I still struggle with information overload!!
Mrs L says
Thank you for taking the time to do this series Amy- I can tell from the comments you’ve already received that it will help more than just myself!!
I started out homeschooling with one simple phonics book and lined paper.
Things have gotten a little out of hand since then 🙂 I keep coming ‘back to basics’ with my homeschooling, but always panic when I look on a new website or visit a very organised homeschooling mum friend and see what SHE is using.
It can be very overwhelming.
ustin says
Thank you so much for posting this Amy. This has been me for the last few years of our homeschooling journey. I felt like I was in a pit and the Lord just threw me a rope. Can’t wait to read the series you share. God bless:)
Linda @ Apron Strings says
I have made the same obervation, Amy, that the homeschooling community focus has in general switched to the educational model. We seem to have adapted the idea that we wear a different hat for each role — the mom hat, the teacher hat, the housekeeper hat — rather than having a mindset of all my different roles as mom/wife/homeschool teacher/cook/housekeeper all weave together into one tapestry.
It’s so easy to be pulled in thinking there is some kind of magic success in using a certain curriculum or method to be assured ‘success’ Thank you for your wise words and for sharing your heart and experience with us. Looking forward to your future posts!
Amy says
Amen!
Sarah says
I am very much looking forward to your series! I pulled my children out of their Christian school this year after being nudged strongly by the Spirit. I had never looked into homeschooling before and actually didn’t even know it was an option! This year has been full of ups and downs but I would say that curriculum is at the top of the list for stressors. Time management too but that’s a different story! I am so overwhelmed by it all and often wonder if I’m teaching the “right” things. I’ve loosened up on myself lately and made faith the biggest component and whatever we get done after that is success. We do devotions,, read the Bible, and sometimes read faith books every morning. I find when I put God firs, I’m not so stressed about the other stuff. Thank you for your encouraging posts 🙂
Heather Proffitt says
I am so thankful for your sharing. I look forward to reading more. I am a new homeschooling mom. Only a month and a half in. And I am terrified. Never sure of what I’m doing. I want to make sure my son is getting what he needs but not wanting to overdo it. And hating the arguing because he doesn’t want to do it.
Ashley says
From the bottom of my overloaded heart, thank you. You don’t know how much this helped me.
Kela Nellums says
My friend, I want you to know that you’re speaking directly to me in these posts! There are some of us that “know better” but still don’t always take heed. You’ve taken my hand and guided me to a quiet corner to speak wisdom and encouragement into me like no one else has concerning home education.
To be able to meet with you (again) face to face, I’d make more of our time together!
I love you, sis!!
Amy says
Oh, wouldn’t that be wonderful! Surely, somewhere down the line we’ll be able to meet up again!
Sarah says
Hi Amy. You mentioned a phonics curriculum in your post. Was wondering if there was one that you recommended.
Thanks.
Sarah
Amy says
We use Veritas Press Phonics Museum (I have a review of it here: https://raisingarrows.net/2012/08/teaching-your-child-to-read-with-phonics-museum-a-review/ ). There are a lot of great phonics curricula out there, this just happens to be the one we’ve been using for several years now.
Anne says
My “babies” are entering the high school level next year. I too have seen the revolution of overload and discouragement among newbie’s. I know there is a general thought process out there that curriculums and the “school model” are the only way to achieve success. Before I ever had children I read books and listened to tapes from Debbie Pearl, (now at nogreaterjoy.org). She was my inspiration and gave me such confidence that I could never thank her and her husband Michael enough for helping me to be calm and confident in my choices. Truly, the thanks is to God for giving me just what needed, just when I needed it most. If I could say anything to encourage, it would be that this is not a matter to stress over or to waste huge financial resources on. I know that every personality is not as laid back as mine, and may be certain that a well-defined plan is a necessity, but please believe me when I say how easy it can be when we give up some of the preconceived notions we have about education. I might also add that until two years ago I was homeschooling as a single mom. With God, all things are possible!
Debbie Pearl helped me to understand that children are sponges who soak up everything they are exposed to. I didn’t need fancy curriculums to teach them to read, I just needed to love to read myself and expose them as often as possible. Our early years were spent reading to them and giving them picture books to look at while I read my own books. I laughed out loud and cried too while I read, and when they asked what about, I simply told them they would have to learn to read it for themselves. As they got a little older I began buying magazines that interested them- cars, trucks, and fishing for my son; horses, American Girl dolls, and puppies for my daughter. We continued to read stories aloud and then have silent reading time where I read my own book and they “read” their magazines. My well meaning family bought the children’s first “curriculum” book which was a giant book that was supposed to contain everything you needed for kindergarten. The children were overwhelmed by it, so I went to the Dollar Tree and bought the thin practice booklets. They were allowed to work as much or as little in them each day, as long as it was enjoyable to us all; but when a booklet was completed, they could do something special like go for a happy meal, or stay up late for a movie with mom, or go to the park for a picnic. There was never a struggle to get them to “do school” as it was all considered fun time with mom and working toward a goal, a reward, or to be able to do something they couldn’t do before. I never stressed over reading, but just like Debbie said, when they were ready they let me know. My son wasn’t in a hurry to read well, but because of the environment to love reading and the non pressure in our home, at age seven he went from first grade level books to fifth grade level books in three months. He loved to make people laugh and got tired of me enjoying my books so much that he had to know what they were saying. Between joke books and Hardy Boy mysteries he was hooked and progressed rapidly. By middle school, his reading comprehension was at the high school level and there was no stopping him. Of course, I might also mention that the lack of TV in our lives (we only used a VCR and Mom-approved movies for special occasions,) also added to the time and desire to read and explore new worlds, but even now I don’t have to tell my son to read. At age 13, I find him up before everyone else and reading in bed or at the kitchen table. When I give him a word of the day to look up in the Bible, he spends two hours studying scripture before I even get up, because for every verse he finds and writes in his journal he gets five minutes of computer games. He says he enjoys the quiet time by himself to read awhile and then stare out the window at the birds and think and then go back to reading. He spends two hours to get thirty minutes computer time, but you cannot imagine the explosion of maturity that has come from studying God’s Word so diligently. Not a curriculum book in sight and no stress over “doing school.”
Over the years I have just picked up workbooks at thrift stores and on clearance at the home school bookstore, so I have never had a huge cost. I probably spend more on reading books just to have a home library where they can have access at anytime to good reading material, but still I only buy on clearance or thrift store specials. If there is a sequel or special interest they have, then I put it in on the Christmas or birthday list or make it an earned reward to get a full price book. Grandparents and Aunts and Uncles love getting something “educational” that they know the child wants, so it is a win-win for all of us!
This frugal way worked all the way through the elementary grades in every subject. Beginning math was with cheerios and raisins at breakfast or dried beans during lunch. We even used sugar packets while waiting at a restaurant and made learning a way of life and not a duty to complete. Wal-Mart’s Telling-Time bingo and a cheap set of play money had them telling time and working right along beside me in the concession stand to give out correct change while still in the elementary grades. Science was exploring the outdoors and using the library to find out all about the creatures and plants we discovered; growing our own vegetables, even if it was in an old plastic kiddie pool by the back deck of a rental house; or a family pass to a science museum or zoo. The family pass was only $50 to $75 a year and allowed us to go often. Instead of trying to learn it all in a crammed day, we could go for a couple hours at a time and just concentrate on one specific area and then study about it more at home throughout the following days or weeks. Hands on is much more exciting to children and I didn’t have to buy or know how to teach it all because they did it for me at the museum. Grammar skills are taught by real conversation instead of “baby talk” and writing stories about their experiences or making up their own plays to act out with siblings. The ideas are really endless. After all you are teaching them about life and how to live it well.
If you just talk with your children about every aspect of life, explain how and why, and look up what you don’t know to answer their questions, then by default you teach them how to learn anything they will ever want to know. By the time they get to middle school they will begin to have bigger interests and be more willing to spend concentrated time on a subject. They begin to look for things to do “when they grow up” and so let them explore their options and guide them as to what they need to work on and it will not require begging, punishing, stressing, or getting lost in the overabundance of curriculum choices. The goal is not to pass a test. The goal is to be a successful adult that can do anything they set their minds to. If each year’s end of grade test (required in our state,) shows progression, then you have had a successful year for your student. It doesn’t matter what the “grade level” is, it matters that they did not stagnate but continued to learn.
When we got to middle school we let our children take a supplemental class each semester at the local home school bookstore. This allowed them to find out what a classroom setting is like, be exposed to someone else’s teaching style, and opened their eyes to the many different options in life. They have mostly taken science classes because of the load it takes off of me. I don’t have to purchase all the lab equipment nor learn how to do all the experiments myself, and they have a lot of fun doing them with the group. At this level, science is not my area of expertise or even comfort zone, so it has proven to be a win-win for us all. Having the time and freedom to teach the things I am confident in while ensuring they were getting what they needed in the area I am not, is just another way I was able to fend off the stress of curriculum options and for less than the cost of many of the curriculums out there.
As we head in to high school I am exploring some options for gaining class credits that will be acceptable for graduation requirements and college. The success we have had thus far allows me to not stress nor dig too deep into the overabundance of choices, but through prayer and patience and truly knowing my children and their needs, I feel confident that we will find the method or structure that will work best for our family. It is my hope that sharing our story will help some of you to back away from the innumerable options and take the time to enjoy getting to know your child as an individual and then learn together what works best for you both without the pressure of what anyone else is doing. If you love learning, your child will too. Make him or her, your greatest study, and they will imitate you to a T! Make it a joy to work right alongside each other and you will have peace together. May God richly bless all of your endeavors!
Erin C says
This morning my husband and I formally submitted our withdrawal letter to remove our two youngest children from public school beginning this coming fall. It was a great meeting with a principal who is fantastic. Overwhelmed would be an understatement about my feelings right now. Curriculum, co-ops, conferences…and those are just the “c’s”. While I know that God is at the forefront of our decision to lead these two out, I wish God would drop a flipping catalog of exactly the direction he wanted us to take on my doorstep! I look forward to reading your posts and probably about a million others as I seek to find Gods voice among the sea of info!
Amy says
I HIGHLY recommend the resource in this post to give you some insight and bearings: https://raisingarrows.net/2015/04/homeschooling-made-simple-a-wonderful-new-series/ You can do this, Erin! It’s going to take a ton of prayer and surrender to the Lord, but HE WILL EQUIP YOU!