Choosing the right online curriculum for homeschooling requires considering factors such as your child’s learning style, your teaching style, and your personal beliefs. Look for a curriculum with a variety of teaching resources and consider cost-effective options such as used resources from homeschooling parent groups.
If you are interested in homeschooling your child, you may have noticed that there are more online curriculum options available than ever before. Popular options for homeschooling curricula include the A Beka curriculum, the Seton homeschool, and the Calvert homeschool. Choosing a school curriculum that works well for your family requires considering many different factors. Sites that offer parent reviews of the various curriculum options can be helpful, but ultimately the decision is one you will need to make on your own.
Before you start researching all of the online curriculum options available to you, take some time to think about how you would describe your child’s learning style. Is he a visual learner who learns best by reading, an auditory learner who learns by listening, or a kinesthetic learner who prefers hands-on activities? Even if the curriculum was developed by educators with many years of experience, lessons that involve hours of reading or listening to recorded lectures will not be the best choice for a child who is clearly a kinesthetic learner.
Your teaching style and your personal beliefs about what your child should learn are also factors to consider. Are you looking for a curriculum that is secular or that makes frequent references to your family’s religious beliefs? Do you want lessons with detailed instructions or do you prefer to develop your own teaching material using a wide variety of sources? Do you need a program that can accommodate working children in multiple grades?
The best online curriculum is one that offers a wide variety of teaching resources. Printable worksheets, e-books, interactive quizzes and downloadable videos make it easy to teach children with different learning styles. Teacher manuals, parent answer keys, and suggestions for additional hands-on activities make it easy to plan supplemental lessons when you feel your child needs extra help with a topic. Technical support and the option to hold meetings to discuss your child’s progress are also useful features for an online curriculum.
Price is not necessarily an indicator of quality when it comes to choosing an online curriculum for homeschooling. There are many websites that offer curriculum lessons for several hundred dollars, but these resources are not always better than the free or low-cost options available. If you’re on a tight budget, there are also several homeschooling parent groups that offer used resumes that can be a more cost-effective option than buying a resume exclusively online.
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