How To Make An Affordable Homeschool Curriculum

Trying to figure out what to teach your children can be hard work. If you came from a failing compulsory or public school, you don’t want to keep the same curriculum that has damaged your child. However, if you are just starting out with homeschooling, you also don’t want to choose the same compulsory materials used in public school. So, what now? In this article, we will explore how to make an affordable homeschool curriculum.

Creating A Good And Affordable Homeschool Curriculum

Creating a good and affordable homeschool curriculum can feel rewarding and gives your child a personalized education.

However, it does require some planning, research, and creativity, from you or whomever helps you plan. Listed below, are steps you can follow to design your own homeschool curriculum, including articles found on our site about curriculum. This will give you the full scope of what you need, and ideas on how to get started.

Step 1: Review Your State’s Homeschool Requirements

Different states have different laws and regulations for homeschooling, such as what subjects you need to teach, what records you need to keep, and what tests you need to take.

The best place to start is knowing what you need for your homeschool. You can also consult associations who specialize in Homeschool Legal Defense for a list of your state’s homeschooling laws and regulations. You want to make sure you comply with your state’s rules when you create your curriculum, for the best record keeping habits.

Search articles on record keeping here.

Step 2: Evaluate Yourself and Then Your Child

What is your teaching style? Decide what you are willing to do as the teacher. Do you want a more eclectic style where you are not bound to any book or resource? Or do you work from home, and will be home, while your student takes the reigns? There is also a huge mix of styles. Decide what’s right for you. Remember, help is a click away!

Talk to your child and evaluate your results. Are they struggling in any subject? One of the benefits of homeschooling is that you can tailor your curriculum to your child’s individual needs, interests, and learning styles.

Create Fun Where It Needs To Be

You can also make your curriculum more engaging, relevant, and fun. To do this, you need to communicate regularly with your students, asking for their opinions, preferences, and questions.

You also want to and may be required to monitor and assess their learning outcomes. Tests, quizzes, projects, portfolios, or other methods to measure your students achievement and growth, can be used. These also help to improve your curriculum and instruction.

You can find free testing resources on our Free Resources for Homeschool page.

Step 3: Set Goals and Objectives

Before you choose your materials and resources, you need to have a clear idea of what you want your child to learn and achieve in their current academic grade level, for each subject. You don’t need to worry about planning the next grade levels because what works now might not work later.

If you are unsure of where to start, try a unit study that covers various grade levels and subjects across the board. These are fun and can easily be changed or extended, as needed by you. You can also involve your child in this process and ask for their input and interests.

If you want your child’s education to be more faith based, plan to incorporate curriculum that focuses on learning scripture. Check out our free resource page and our curriculum and reading resources page for ideas.

Step 4: Ask For Advice And Recommendations

Ask for advice and recommendations when you need them. If you are new to homeschooling or need some guidance, you can reach out to other homeschooling parents, sites, and groups for their suggestions and experiences. A great place to start is here! We support you and your homeschool every step of the way, creating a more confident and organized homeschool parent.

Advice and recommendation from others can help you find the best curriculum, books, websites, online courses, and other resources for you and your child’s needs and goals. You can also read reviews and ratings of different homeschooling products and programs online.

Step 5: Start Small and Stay Flexible!

Remember, you don’t have to buy or create a complete curriculum for every subject and grade level at once. You can start with one or two subjects that you feel confident or comfortable with, and then add more as you go along.

Feel free to mix and match different materials and methods, such as using a purchased curriculum for math and science, and creating your own curriculum for language arts and social studies, this is where creating unit studies come in!

Remember to adjust your curriculum as you discover new resources, encounter challenges, or notice your child’s progress and feedback.

How To Make An Affordable Homeschool Curriculum Now

As a homeschooling parent and educator, your job is to know how, where to find, and to research. These articles will go through the various ways you can create unit-based curriculum and other resources. Pull out your earphones and let Microsoft Edge or any app read the articles to you! Enjoy. Contact me for any questions or comments.

Tasha Moore, PSP Coordinator, Homeschool 101 Director, and Counselor.

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