How to Research Homeschool Curriculum

Religious vs Secular

In reality, you pretty much just need to know if you want to have a religious curriculum or a secular curriculum. This will eliminate a huge chunk of available curriculum out there, and make the remaining ones a lot easier to sift through. This is a much easier choice to make than deciding what method you want to use right off the bat. 

Homeschool Method

You can figure out what kind of methodology works best for you and your family after you have gotten your feet wet. If you haven't researched all of the different homeschooling methods out there it can be really hard to know which one you will like the best. If you have to suddenly pull your child out of school, you probably don't have weeks to research exactly what you want your homeschool to look like. Also, the type of homeschooler you initially think you are will probably change over time. It definitely did for me!

Facebook

The best way I have found to research different home school curriculum and to figure out what methodology you are leaning towards is to get on Facebook and join as many different home school pages as you can find. Try to join at least one Facebook page for each homeschool method you are considering. To get an overview of the different homeschooling methods, check out this page on our website.

Once you have been accepted into the different groups, spend some time reading lots of posts in each group. Are there certain attitudes and beliefs that bother you? Or are there ones that really resonate with you? Once you find the groups that you like, you can use the search bar to find recommendations for different curricula across subjects.

Researching 

What kind of curriculum gets recommended over and over again? Do you find that some groups lean towards certain types of curriculum, while other groups don't use those ones at all? Keep a mental or physical list of the curriculum and supplementary resources that interest you, and start researching!

Amazon Research

The first thing that I do after I have my list is to head on over to Amazon.com and start searching for the different books and other resources that were recommended. Read as many of the reviews as you can. These will give you a pretty good idea of the strengths and weaknesses of the different programs, and Amazon often has a look inside option as well. Use these reviews to further narrow down your search. Are there great things about the curriculum that are mentioned over and over again? Are there some obvious problems being pointed out by more than one person?

Even though some companies won't be on Amazon, it is still a really good place to start your research. Once you find what you are looking for you can very quickly read all of the reviews. This is a lot quicker than searching through endless reviews from different websites online. And seriously, who doesn't want to save time?

If you find a resource that you like, make a wish list and put it in there. I highly recommend making multiple wish lists based on subject and grade; e.g. Second Grade Math, First Grade Music, etc. This will be much easier to sort through later on. As in years later for future children. I didn't think about doing this when I started so now I have a HUGE list with everything on it. One of these days I will get around to sorting through it, but until then it takes a while to look through. 

As soon as you add a book to the wish list, click the View Your List button. Then look at the bottom of that item and click the "Add comment, quantity, and priority". You can change the priority so you can see at a glance if it is something that you really want or just something that you might pick up if you see it at a thrift store. Then in the comment box type how much it was when you added it to your list. That way when you go to buy your books you will know if you are getting a good price off of Amazon or if you need to find another place to buy it. 

YouTube Research

If you want a more in-depth, inside look at the curriculum, then YouTube is your next stop. Search for (name of curriculum) reviews. Watch as many as you need to in order to get a good idea of what the curriculum looks like and how to use it. It is also helpful if you can find videos of kids using the actual curriculum. Sometimes there aren't any reviews for the homeschool program you are looking for, but in most cases there are.

Google Reviews

If there aren't any reviews on YouTube and you still want to see an in-depth critique, try googling (name of curriculum) reviews. You will likely see bloggers who have reviewed the curriculum you are looking for. 

The downside to using Google is that you will have to sift through a lot of reviews, many of which may not be very helpful.

One website you should definitely visit is Cathyduffyreviews.com. She has extensive, thorough reviews for most of the curriculum out there.

Curriculum Company

After you have narrowed down your search, head over to the individual company website to read about their curriculum yourself. Many companies have a try before you buy. This means that they let you download a free sample of the material so you can see if it will work for your family. This usually varies in length from 1 week to over a month's worth of lesson plans and material. 

You can of course just start at the company's website, but I like to be very thorough in the curriculum I choose for my kids. A company is only going to tell you the good things about their curriculum. They will never mention the weaknesses of their program.

Library Research

If you are more of a hold the whole thing in your hands type of person (guilty!), you can try your local library. Not every library has a selection of different curriculum to browse through, so don't be discouraged if yours doesn't. If this is the case, ask a librarian if the library participates in inter-library loans. If they do you can request a large majority of the homeschool curriculum out there so that you can have the information you need to make the right choice for your family. This can potentially save you thousands of wasted dollars.

Friend Research

Another wonderful method for finding out about different curriculums is to ask around and see if anyone you know homeschools their kids. Check your friends on Facebook, or people in your church congregation. Ask if they will let you come over to see their curriculum and talk to you about how they use it.

Curriculum Fair

To look at lots of curriculum options at once, you can go to a curriculum fair. These can be used curriculum fairs where homeschoolers sell the curriculum they are no longer using, or these can be new curriculum fairs with vendors from different companies. These kind are usually in big cities.

Co-op Show-and-Tell

If you have already joined a co-op you could see if anyone there is interested in doing a curriculum show-and-tell. This could be on a different day of the co-op, or people could take turns doing a 5-10 minute presentation on 1 or 2 pieces of curriculum each co-op day.

I hope I gave you a lot of good ideas for researching homeschooling curriculum! Of course, you definitely don't have to do all of the ideas listed here-feel free to pick and choose whatever style of research works for you!

Summary

 To recap, here is a list of each step. Don't forget you can always start by checking the curriculum writer's website, and then go through the different research steps on this list.

Remember, you can use any of these ideas in any order, and you definitely don't have to use all of them!