With every grade, all homeschool parents seem to evaluate their current curriculum and wonder if they should change it for the next year. As a homeschool parent, you want to give your child(ren) the very best. When it comes to curriculum choices, parents may find it overwhelming because there are so many to choose from. Here are five tips to help you choose the right curriculum.

Tip #1: Write Out Your Homeschool Statement

Before your homeschool year starts, it’s important to write out a homeschool statement. Schools, private and public, write these statements out in order to give parents information about their mission, hopes and dreams, and direction they hope to go in. You may not feel like you need this for homeschool but it does give you a prospective of your mission in your homeschool and will help you choose the right curriculum because you narrow down your choices.

Sample of a Homeschool Statement:

“In our homeschool we believe that learning is a lifelong adventure. We believe in facing each day with minds open to knowledge and hearts open to love. We believe in the freedom to wonder, to ask, to explore, to imagine, to create. We believe that every one of us has special talents, and that the talents of each of us help all of us. We believe that success means doing our best, being our best, and feeling proud of our effort.”

Tip #2: Know What Subjects You Want to Offer

Write down all the subjects your state requires you to teach and write down all the subjects you want to include in your homeschool. For younger children, you may want to offer art or music class and with older children, you may want to choose a second language. Your child may have a special interest and you can customize the subjects you teach by the interest of your children.

If you are not sure what subjects to teach, you will find an excellent list that is put together for you. Click on this link to find a list of 100 subjects that you can teach your homeschooler http://www.homeschooling-ideas.com/homeschool-subjects.html.

Tip #3: Consider the Cost of Curriculum

If you decide to use books, they will cost you. Ordering books direct from the company will cost you the most but you can find used books in places like eBay.com and Amazon.com. Find out more by visiting the company’s website to research the books and see if they fit your style of teaching before you purchase them. Once your child is through the book, you can resell the book online and order the next grade level when you are ready. You can also visit book stores for used curriculum or contact a homeschool parent in your community. Most have used curriculum they would love to get rid of to clear some space on their bookshelf.

You may want to create your own curriculum or add to your current curriculum. There are online curriculum options that don’t cost you anything, for example www.starfall.com or www.letteroftheweek.com for those who have younger students.

Tip#4: Schedule Your Homeschool Carefully

Your schedule will depend on what courses you want to offer. You may want to plan your schedule to determine how much time you will have to homeschool.  You know you have to figure in the required classes. You may want to teach two or three additional classes but how are you able to place them in your schedule? If you find that there is not enough time in your day to offer additional classes that you would like to teach, consider substituting one class for additional class. For example, instead of doing handwriting Monday through Friday, do handwriting Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and put your additional class in on Tuesday and Thursday.

Tip #5: Do You Want Independent Curriculum or  Teacher Led?

Homeschool curriculum today is either independent or teacher led. The teacher led curriculum can come in a variety of intensity; you can simply assist and read along or you can actually teach the entire lesson. Consider the amount of time you will have invested in planning for the lessons. If you work, you may want to go with more independent lessons than teacher led.