Why You May Need To Change Your Homeschool Curriculum (even if you love it!) • Clarissa R. West

You have found the perfect homeschool curriculum; you love teaching with it and your child enjoys working through it. You don’t want to change your homeschool curriculum, but sometimes life happens and you must switch things up to better fit your family’s lifestyle. You should NOT feel guilty about it!

Perhaps you have had a new baby, are experiencing morning sickness, have medical needs or special needs children, are facing your own health crisis, or simply need to approach your homeschool in a new way. There are many practical reasons you may need to change your homeschool curriculum.

Obviously, you shouldn’t be investing a lot of money into products you do not plan to use and you should do your diligent research before making a purchase. However, the sanity and peace in your home are more important than struggling through a program that just does not fit with your current situation just for the sake of “finishing it”!

Favorite Homeschool Resources

Teaching from Rest: A Homeschooler’s Guide to Unshakable Peace The Unhurried Homeschooler: A Simple, Mercifully Short Book on Homeschooling Habits: The Mother’s Secret to Success (Charlotte Mason Topics) (Volume 1)For the Children’s Sake: Foundations of Education for Home and School Educating the WholeHearted Child Called Home: Finding Joy in Letting God Lead Your Homeschool: Updated, Revised, and Expanded with Journal Section

You May Need To Change Your Homeschool Curriculum (and that’s okay)!

I was in a place where I was feeling quite overwhelmed with teaching my 3 school-age children on top of caring for our medically needy daughter and our developmentally delayed son (while wrangling my other two toddlers). I knew something had to change!

I love the language arts program that we have used with my oldest for the last 3 years, but it is very teacher intensive. I needed to have my oldest son (5th grade) learn to be more independent in his studies so that I could focus more on teaching the younger children the important foundational skills of reading and writing.

I wanted something that he could work through on his own and only have to come to me for explanation or help. He also enjoys working independently and takes pride in completing his lessons on his own. The curriculum I was using required complete instruction from the teacher throughout the entire lesson.

I decided to take a chance and change my oldest son’s language arts curriculum once he completed the program (it IS an excellent program!). Our old program is very rigorous and thorough, and I think it has prepared him well for the level of work he will be doing.

When it comes to language arts, my oldest mostly needs to continue his study of grammar, while reviewing the other areas of study involved with language arts. He is an avid reader, writes beautifully in cursive, and is great at spelling.

So, now we are using Easy Grammar Plus and Fix-It Grammar. These two new programs will touch on vocabulary, spelling, and copywork, too.

I like that they are open & go types of textbooks. My son has always been a textbook type of learner, so it makes sense to go this route. He likes that there will be very little handwriting and the lessons should only take about 30-minutes total to complete each day (compared to 60-minutes with his old program).

In addition to Easy Grammar Plus and Fix-It Grammar, we will be casually continuing our study of Latin through instructional DVDs like Prima Latina. I also would love to get the Visual Latin DVD set, but that will have to be put on my wishlist for now!

We will see how these changes go and when we have gotten a good idea of whether this was the right choice, I will give you an update!

What curriculum do you love but just can’t keep up with in your current season in life? Let it go or modify it to fit your needs!