How to Create Your Own Curriculum!

Many homeschooling parents -- even those who start out using a pre-packaged curriculum -- decide somewhere along the way to take advantage of the freedom homeschooling allows by designing their own course of study.

If you don’t have an education degree, creating your own curriculum can sound daunting. But putting together a customized learning plan not only saves you money – it can also make your homeschooling experience much more meaningful.

Remember, unlike a classroom teacher, you won’t be teaching the same course year after year. (If you have multiple ages and adapt it for different levels, you may only have to teach it once!) So it makes sense to keep prep time on your part to a minimum. Try these tips to get going quickly and easily:

Follow your passions. Enthusiasm is contagious! Choose topics that interest your kids, and you’re already ahead. And the same goes for you: Teachers who love their topic can make anything sound fascinating!
Start small. Take it one subject, or even one topic, at a time. For example, design a unit study exploring one favorite interest – say, sharks -- from different angles (looking at its place in history, the science involved, and reading related literature, etc.).
Keep it broad. The more details you spell out, the harder it will be to cover everything. You’re also giving yourself less time to veer off when you discover some unexpected new piece of information that looks intriguing. Pick a few general areas you want to touch on, then do specific prep into the first one or two before starting to plan the rest.

Once you’ve decided what you want to cover, follow these steps to design a curriculum around it:

1. Do your research – but just enough to know what you want to learn. To create a teaching plan for a subject you're not familiar with, the first step is to get a good idea of what it's about.

My favorite way to get a quick overview of a new subject? Read a well-written book on the topic aimed at middle schoolers! Books for that age group will tell you everything you need to know to cover the topic for younger students, but still be comprehensive enough to get you started on a high school level.

Other resources you can use to introduce yourself to a topic include:

Popular nonfiction for adults or teens;
Websites designed for student review (like Khan Academy or BBC Bitesize );
Review workbooks, like Kumon, or study guides such as SparkNotes for literature;
Self-help books for adults (such as the "For Dummies" or the “Don’t Know Much” history series);
Textbooks, particularly ones recommended by other homeschoolers.

2. Identify the topics and concepts you want your children to learn. As you do your research, make notes on key concepts and topics you may want to cover. Don't feel you have to include everything -- many educators feel that digging deep into a few core topics is more useful than skimming over many areas briefly.

That said, if you come up with more topics than you can possibly cover in one year, you'll have options if one area doesn't work for your family.

3. Create a timetable. Figure out how long you would like to spend on the subject -- a year, a semester, or a few weeks. And nothing says you can't continue on with a subject for more than a year!

Next, decide how much time you want to devote to each broad area. Within that time period, list all the topics you think your family would like to learn about. But again, don't worry about individual topics until you get there. That way, if you decide to drop a topic, you'll avoid doing extra work.

For instance, if you want to devote three months to World War II, don't just divide the time up chronologically, battle by battle. When you dive in, you may decide to approach the subject a different way, such as focusing on how it affected ordinary people in different countries.

4. Select high-quality resources. One big plus of homeschooling is that it lets you use choose the very best resources available. These may be textbooks, picture books, graphic novels, movies, videos, and even toys and games, as well as online resources and apps. Fiction and narrative nonfiction (true stories about inventions and discoveries, biographies, and so on) are also useful learning tools.

5. Add in hands-on activities. You don't have to put every project together from scratch -- there are lots of well-made science kits and arts and crafts kits, as well as activity books that give you step-by-step directions. And don't forget activities like cooking, making costumes, or building models.

6. Take it outside. If getting out into the community is an option where you live, help your kids put topics into context by taking field trips to places that relate to the subject you are studying, such as historical sites, nature trails, or museums.

7. Find ways your kids can demonstrate what they learned. Written tests are just one students can show they’ve paid attention. You can also suggest they put together a written presentation with charts and maps, write a song, shoot a video, design a board game, or draw a graphic novel.

Last Tip: Don't worry about gaps.

You can’t cover everything -- but that’s not your ultimate goal. The best skill you can help your kids develop is the ability to seek out information on their own.

If your kids want to know more about a subject once you’re done, suggest ways they can continue to research it on their own. This can range from borrowing library books, to finding YouTube videos, to contacting experts on the internet. (There are a lot of college professors and graduate students on Twitter who love to share their areas of interest).

That’s how you’ll help your children begin to take responsibility for their own education – and start them on the path to become life-long learners!