Keys to Choosing High School Curriculum Part 1

When thinking about curriculum for your high school student, you want to do what works–whatever you have been doing through elementary and junior high– if it’s working, keep doing it. If the curriculum is working, keep using those curriculum choices.

At high school level, it helps to make sure you’re using a curriculum that is made for homeschoolers. If you have to teach a subject you’re not familiar with, buy a curriculum that is meant for homeschoolers.  Otherwise, most curriculum assumes that the teacher already knows the topic.  Make sure to keep forward momentum too. When you’re faced with something challenging, like Geometry or Chemistry, and you’re in a bind, that’s a good time to remind yourself what it was like when your children were learning to ride a bike and it was time to take off the training wheels.   Learning to homeschool high school is very much like letting your child learn how to ride a bike.  Keep going forward—even if it means you have to do Calculus next year.  As long as you use a homeschool curriculum, you will not fall down.

An important key to choosing curriculum is to allow your teen to have input. This becomes more important as they get older, because when kids grow up, they’re not just kids growing up; they’re starting to be adults. It’s not just about their learning style or teaching style anymore.  All of the sudden this thing called ‘personal preference’ comes into play.  Sometimes this means that a child no longer likes watching their video tutorial because they’re using a white board instead of black board. Sometimes the problem is that the person teaching on a particular video has a Southern accent, which drives them batty; or sometimes it’s the clothes or the hair. Your student may not be able to verbalize why they don’t like a particular resource; they just have personal preferences the same way adults have personal preferences.  Math is one of the biggest areas where you need to let your student have input. Almost everybody will rely on a video tutorial for math at some point and since you’re not the one who will be learning Calculus on a video tutorial, it should be your child’s choice.

Want to know more about the keys to success?  Check out my online class: Keys to Homeschool High School Success

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