Making Decisions on Curriculum

[author]  [author_info]Our guest blogger  is Jennifer Moline, now with Wycliffe. She has served as a teacher to TCKs in Russia and as an education consultant with SHARE and The Navigators.[/author_info] [/author]

Here are three quick questions you can ask yourself and encourage parents to ask themselves when making decisions about curriculum:

1. Parent: Can I put the time into it that is required? Do I like it? (I won’t teach well what I don’t like!)

2. Student: Will it meet the need of my child academically and motivationally?

3. Cost: Weigh the cost with these questions:

a.   Is it consumable? Can it be used again?

b.   Does this meet a need that is difficult to meet any other way?

Websites featuring Curriuclum Reviews

• www.homeschoolreviews.com – Reviews by the users themselves – parents!

• www.cathyduffyreviews.com – Reviews by a seasoned homeschooling mom, writer, author, curriculum constant and conference speaker.

• www.amazon.com – Reviews by users are very insightful!

General Catalogs that describe curriculum

Christian Book Distributors (CBD) www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/catalog_request

This is a catalog I always like to have with me when traveling. (It’s much smaller than Rainbow Resources, plus, it has pictures!) You can’t subscribe to their homeschooling catalogue without getting their other basic catalogues, and in the past they haven’t been very good about mailing them overseas, but whatever way you can get your hands on them, it’s worth it. Their online catalogue also features “slightly imperfect” materials at great prices!

Rainbow Resource Center: www.rainbowresource.com

This catalog is definitely worth having on your shelf for reference. If you’ve ever seen one, you know why! (It’s bigger than some phone books!) Additionally, they have 2 homeschooling consultants devoted to answering your product questions!

Challenges to choosing curriculum when living overseas

All homeschoolers face a myriad of decisions, but homeschoolers overseas have a lot on the line in their decisions. Think about it…

• They can’t first borrow it from their library to try it out.

• They can’t go to conventions and evaluate the material or talk with the publishers.

• Their pool of friends from which they can get advice from and borrow books is extremely limited.

• They likely don’t have homeschool support group to help guide them.

• They can’t return products they don’t like.

• They can’t change their mind at the last minute and go get something else at the store or from the internet.

• They may have had to order the book without ever seeing it before.

• Even though they can Skype or email their homeschooling friends in the US, it’s extremely difficult for those friends to give advice taking into account overseas issues.

• Their internet connection may be extremely slow to do any kind of effective surfing for curriculum.

 And for these reasons, you, as the education consultant are invaluable! While of course we can’t give parents the answers, we can help them through the process. And after listening carefully to them, we can narrow down for them options we believe suit their needs, contexts, and goals.

 © PACE 2009

What advice to you have regarding curriculum decisions?

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