RAR #198: Which Curriculum Should I Use? (and other questions with life-changing answers)

Sarah Mackenzie (00:08): You're listening to the Read-Aloud Revival podcast. I'm your host, Sarah Mackenzie, homeschooling mama of six and author of The Read-Aloud Family and Teaching from Rest. As parents, we're overwhelmed with a lot to do. It feels like every child needs something different. The good news is you are the best person to help your kids learn and grow, and home is the best place to fall in love with books. This podcast has been downloaded 7 million times in over 160 countries. So if you want to nurture warm relationships while also raising kids who love to read, you're in good company. We'll help your kids fall in love with books and we'll help you fall in love with homeschooling. Let's get started. (00:52): "I've got to tell you about this question I was just asked." Andrew Pudewa said that to me over a table laden with chicken curry in vindaloo, and then proceeded to tell me about a fascinating conversation he had at the Great Homeschool Convention. So we ended up eating art dinner and discussing, often agreeing and sometimes not, about the best answer to such a question. Andrew Pudewa and I have dinner together often after homeschool conferences. We're always eager to catch up on one another's families. His grandkids are adorable. And also on one another's work, because what they're doing at Institute for Excellence in Writing is good and important and I'm a fan. Our dinnertime discussion veers this way and that, from family to work, to the excellent conversations we've both just had with families at the convention. And I always come away glad to live in a world where Andrew Pudewa exists. (01:58): So I have a suggestion. "Let's do a session together next time," I tell him. See, Andrew has been instrumental in the formation of my own homeschool, specifically in my commitment to reading aloud. He was the one who inspired me to read aloud to my kids in copious amounts, especially after they could read for themselves. And his episode was first on this Read-Aloud Revival podcast. And he's come back since. You can hear him both in episode one and in episode 89. So I suggest we do a session together at the next Great Homeschool Convention and he responds, "Yeah, that's a good idea. We could talk about the best questions we get at these conferences." And I think it would be like inviting everyone into these dinnertime conversations I get to have with Andrew. So it's not like I'm keeping all the goodness to myself. So we are. In 2022, Andrew Pudewa and I are doing an hour long session at all five Great Homeschool Conventions. We're calling it the best questions we've been asked and you're invited. (03:03): You can find out all the information about Great Homeschool Conventions at greathomeschoolconventions.com. Andrew and I will be at all five and we can't wait to see you there. So let's think about one of those questions that we get asked a lot at conventions. "Which curriculum should I use?" Is the question I get asked most often. And I suspect there's another layer just underneath the surface of that question. A layer that sounds a bit like, "I'm tired. I'm overwhelmed. I don't want to screw this up. Can you just tell me which curriculum is best so I don't mess this really important homeschooling thing up?" Or at least that's the kind of thing that went through my mind back in my early homeschooling days when I asked that question myself. But I've been at this homeschooling gig for a while now. (03:50): Our oldest is 20. Our second is graduating this year. And while we're at the end of the homeschooling line with those two, we're still homeschooling four kids. The youngest are eight year old twins. So there are miles to go before we sleep. Something happens though with time and experience. We get a little perspective, a little clarity and realize the questions we've been asking aren't even the most important questions after all. And so when asked which curriculum should someone use, I usually say the best curriculum is the one you like using, the one that makes your job easier, lighter, more enjoyable in this season of life. Oh, that season of life thing, by the way, it matters a lot because the curriculum you like using and that you can manage to get to most days when you're in a sleep deprived state with babies and teething toddlers is a whole different curriculum probably than the one you'll like using when your kids are older and you've gotten a full night's rest. Trust me on this. (04:58): Here's the thing about homeschooling today. There is an abundance of curriculum resources at your fingertips and most of it is pretty dang good. Most of it will get the job done. If our goal is to enliven the hearts, minds and souls of our kids, and that is our goal, right? Then most any curriculum can help us do that. It turns out that the curriculum itself matters way less than we might have thought. The disposition of the teacher though, that matters a lot more. See, any history or science curriculum in the hands of a parent who's tearful, relaxed and eager to enliven the heart mind and soul of our students, it can do the trick. Homeschoolers have been graduating kids through various teaching styles, using a wide variety of curriculum for decades upon decades. Charlotte Mason, unit studies, classical, unschooling, literature based, textbook based, eclectic. There are as many styles of homeschooling as there are homeschooling families. And the good news is, they all work. (06:03): Homeschooling works. Homeschooling works because real education is about connecting, connecting with each other, connecting to ideas, connecting what we know to what we're about to find out. So the question which curriculum is best doesn't matter nearly as much as we think it does. Even so, something should probably be said about using a curriculum that's easy enough to actually do on any ordinary day. I, for example, like a curriculum that doesn't take much prep, that's pretty open and go. I've spent a lot of my homeschooling years with babies on my hip and in that season of life, open and go is a lifeline. There's also the consideration of what's enjoyable because if your curriculum is enjoyable for your kids, yeah, but I'm really thinking mostly about you here. If you enjoy your curriculum, you'll make time for it more often. It will require less oomph from you on a dark Wednesday morning in February. (07:03): If you like the books you're reading, if you enjoy the teaching and learning. So that matters too. So when I'm asked which curriculum would be best for me to use, what I really want to say is, "Yeah, that depends." A family who's homeschooling a 10 and 13 year old has a very different day to day reality than a family homeschooling five kids all 12 and under. You might have the desire to spend a lot of time outdoors or you might have access to a bunch of museums and libraries and field trip locations. Maybe you have chronic illness in your house with farm animals to tend. Maybe you're short on sleep. Maybe an elderly parent lives with you or one of your kids needs regular repeated outside therapies. Maybe you have high schoolers and preschoolers and you're trying to juggle several different grade levels at once. Maybe you have one kid, maybe you have eight. (07:54): Maybe you love reading aloud and maybe you don't. Maybe you're strong at math. Maybe you're not. You can see why this question is impossible to answer. And so I tell them the truth. "The best curriculum," I say, "is the one that you use and the one you enjoy using." But it's never a satisfying answer. Okay. So which curriculum will give my kids a great education? Most of them actually, which is good news. The odds are good that what you have on your shelf right now will do the trick. Just remember that curriculum is your tool, a resource to help you enliven the heart and mind and soul of your student. The important thing isn't the curriculum. The important thing is you. Remember, the goal is to enliven the heart, mind, and soul of your student. You can do that with almost any curriculum, as long as you remember that real education is hard to quantify. (08:52): Even if you never finish a single curriculum, you can still give your kids an amazing education. In fact, side note, most homeschoolers I know never finish their whole curriculum and certainly never finish it in a year. And that's okay. It's ideal even, because it means that we are focused on enlivening the hearts and minds and souls of our students. So what curriculum does that? God, life, books, conversations, and connections and relationships, you. Perhaps I should revise my answer. The best curriculum, the best curriculum is you showing up day in and day out eager to enliven child's heart, mind, and soul. So don't worry about which curriculum to use. Just pick one and then give your kids you. (09:51): I could tell you the names of the curriculum I've used for history or math or language arts or any subject at all. I could tell you what I used with each of my kids at different stages. When I was just homeschooling three, when I was homeschooling three and had three babies aged one and under. Yes, that happened. When I was homeschooling four and then five and six, the curriculum choices shifted over the years. I can pretty much assure you that the curriculum I've used are all names of curriculum you've heard before. You'd be familiar with all of them, whether that be the math choices or the science choices or the language arts. But the thing is that none of the specific curriculum itself made that big of a difference. I don't think it would be that helpful to be honest because you could name for me the eight most popular math curricula and I would say, "Yeah, all of those would work." (10:43): I've probably used half of them at different times, depending on what I needed. I could do the same with writing curriculum. Name several and I would say, "Yeah, I've probably used half of those and they all did the job." So what do you have on your shelf? What can your family afford right now? What do you have the time to use and the energy to use and the mental and emotional bandwidth to use? What do you like using? What makes you excited to show up each day for your kids? Use that. That will do the job. I really hope you can join Andrew Pudewa and I as we talk about questions just like this, the best questions that we've gotten about homeschooling. We'll be doing these at all five Great Homeschool Conventions in 2022. Again, you'll find all the information at greathomeschoolconventions.com. I will be uploading a recording of that session, an audio recording of that session into RAR Premium this summer. (11:39): So if you are unable to attend a Great Homeschool Convention, but you really want to hear this session with Andrew and I, make sure you're a part of RAR Premium by going to RARpremium.com and then watch for that audio download this summer. Okay. Let's hear from the kids about books that they've been loving lately. Adelaide (11:59): Hi, my name is Adelaide and I live in Appleton, Wisconsin. I'm seven years old now and my favorite book is Magic Tree House. I really like it because there's two kids' names, Jack and Annie, and they find a tree house with a lot of books in it that takes them wherever they want. And there's a lot of magic in it. Bridgette (12:36): Hi, my name's Bridgette and I'm three years old and I live in Appleton, Wisconsin. I have three sisters. One of them is Georgia and one of them is Anna. And I just love Little Bear because it's my favorite book. Clara (12:57): Hello everyone. My name's Clara and I'm six years old. I live in Michigan, Kalamazoo. And my favorite book is Green Number. I like it because it's daring and there's a lot of mysteries. Speaker 5 (13:12): How old are you? Speaker 6 (13:13): Six years old. Speaker 5 (13:15): And what is your favorite book? Speaker 6 (13:17): Little House in the Big Woods and especially Farmer Boy. Speaker 5 (13:22): And what do you like about those books? Speaker 6 (13:25): They are both written by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Owen (13:33): Hello. [inaudible 00:13:33] Owen. Speaker 5 (13:34): And how old are you, Owen? Owen (13:34): Two years old. Speaker 5 (13:39): Two years old. And where do you live? Owen (13:45): In the house. Speaker 5 (13:46): In the house. And what is your favorite book? Owen (13:52): Strega Nona. Speaker 5 (13:52): Strega Nona. Sarah Mackenzie (13:53): I love Strega Nona too. Until next time, go make meaningful and lasting connections with your kids through books. (14:08): So many of us feel overwhelmed in our homeschool. There's a lot to do and it feels like every child needs something a little different. The good news is you are the best person on the planet to help your kids learn and grow and home is the best place to fall in love with books. I'm Sarah MacKenzie. I'm a homeschooling mother of six, the author of Teaching from Rest and The Read-Aloud Family. And I'm the host here on the Read-Aloud Revival podcast. This podcast has been downloaded over 8 million times and I think it's because so many of us want the same things. We want our kids to be readers, to love reading. We want our homes to be warm and happy havens of learning and connection. We know that raising our kids is the most important work of our lives. (15:12): That's kind of overwhelming, right? You are not alone. In Read-Aloud Revival Premium, we offer family book clubs, a vibrant community and Circle with Sarah, coaching for you, the homeschooling mom so you can teach from rest, homeschool with confidence, and raise kids who love to read. Our family book clubs are a game changer for your kids' relationship with books. We provide you with a family book club guide and an opportunity for your kids to meet the author or illustrator live on screen. So all you have to do is get the book, read it with your kids and make those meaningful and lasting connections. They work for all ages, from your youngest kids to your teens. Every month our community also gathers online for a Circle with Sarah to get ideas and encouragement around creating the homeschooling life you crave. They're the most effective way I know to teach from rest and build a homeschool life you love. We want to help your kids fall in love with books and we want to help you for all in love with homeschooling. Join us today at RARpremium.com.