Stop Looking for the Curriculum That Will Solve All Your Homeschool Problems
…because it doesn’t exist.
There is no such thing as a magical curriculum, schedule, or routine that will transform a hurting homeschool into a joyful one with the snap of your fingers (or with a click to purchase the latest and greatest curriculum trend).
I review homeschool curriculum on Youtube and I write homeschool curriculum…which is why I felt I needed to say this. Again and again, I have seen moms saying in desperation, “My kids bicker all day long, I can’t do this anymore” or “My children don’t listen to anything I say during school, I’m about to give up, help!”
More often than not, these cries of desperation are met with, “Try doing schoolwork in the afternoon!” or “Break up your teaching time by using videos, kids love videos!” or “Use this curriculum instead, it’s so much prettier!”
Prefer to watch a video?
And so moms hope from one curriculum to another, one schedule to another, hoping somehow, someway, someday to find a homeschool characterized by peace. A homeschool in which the culture is marked by peaceful, respectful communication between family members.
But we’re pointing people in the wrong direction when we tell a hurting mom who dreads homeschool that a new curriculum will solve everything, or loop scheduling will save her relationship with her children.
The reality is that when relationships are healthy, when habits of peaceful, respectful communication have been built…you can have a joyful homeschool even with the boring-est curriculum around.
I don’t have a quick, pat answer for how to fix what’s broken in your homeschool. I’m not going to tell you to slap a new curriculum (with more watercolor illustrations and hands-on activities!) on it and that’ll make everything better. Because the toughest part about homeschool is the human element. The part that’s stealing your joy is sinful habits and attitude rooted deep in the heart. Let’s put down the homeschool planner and stop paging through curriculum catalogues. Let’s consider how we can best work on the internal issues and the relational breakdowns at the heart of a hurting homeschool…rather than trying a new curriculum or a new schedule each month, in pursuit of something that always eludes us.