Changing Homeschool Curriculum Mid-Year
As an eclectic homeschool mom, there’s not one particular boxed curriculum that I get especially jazzed about. There are some curriculums that I really love, and some that I feel don’t fit my kiddo once I get into the meat of the subject. So, changing homeschool curriculum mid-year is something that I’ve done a few times.
We reevaluate curriculums that aren’t as interesting, confuse my kids, or my kids begin to loathe. They get revamped for our purposes or they’re quickly replaced. Life is too short to spend arguing with children about textbooks and “doing school.” (I’m picking my battles here, folks.)
Sometimes, this means changing homeschool curriculum mid-year. It doesn’t happen often, but it does happen. It’s not the most ideal situation, but it can be done.
If I can’t salvage any aspect of the curriculum I’m using, we must change.
So, how in the world do you pick up a new curriculum in the middle of the school year?
We accomplish this a couple of different ways.
Start in the Middle
A lot of curriculums are repeating the same information. They’re just giving that information to you a little differently. You can try to find the point your kids made it to in the old curriculum, in the new curriculum.
For example, you change curriculums while your children are learning about photosynthesis. In the new curriculum, you find the lesson about photosynthesis and start there.
If you feel your kids just didn’t learn much from the old curriculum, go ahead and repeat the lessons you think could’ve been taught better.
Begin Anew
If the curriculum you’ve chosen goes in a totally different direction, you have two choices. You can start at the beginning and make this curriculum overlap two school years, or you can pick and choose what lessons you want to teach from the text.
If you start at the beginning and intend on using the curriculum for this school year and next, you may need to add some assignments or projects to go along with what the text is teaching. Or, you could just take the pace a little slower. There’s nothing wrong with slowing down. Your children may actually learn more from a more relaxed pace.
Choosing what lessons you want to teach from the text is also an option. You could start at the beginning and skip over some of the lessons. If you do this, just be sure the lessons you skip aren’t a prerequisite for the next lesson you want to teach. If they are, you’ll need to be prepared to teach enough of a mini-lesson to catch them up.
I’d love to hear ways other homeschool parents switch curriculums in the middle of the school year. If you know of another method, let us know in the comments.
If you’d like to know what curriculum my family is using this school year you can read all about it in, Our 2018-2019 Kindergarten Curriculum, Our 2018-2019 4th Grade Homeschool Curriculum, and Our 2018-2019 7th Grade Homeschool Curriculum.
