How to customize pre-made homeschool curriculum to make it a better fit

I’ve already written about choosing curriculum. (Did you miss it? You can read about it here.) In this post, I'm going to share some tips on how you can customize pre-made curriculum so it works better for you.

Some people feel very anxious about the idea of tweaking curriculum, no matter how small the changes may be. If you really struggle with the thought of changing any aspect of your curriculum, I hope you will feel more confident after reading today’s post. But after reading the following tips, if you still believe you would feel more comfortable following a prescribed plan, just make sure you choose your curriculum carefully and align it with your preferences as much as possible so it won't cause frustration.

With this in mind, here are my top-5 tips for customizing your curriculum:

1) Consider choosing individual pieces rather than doing an all-inclusive program. By that I mean to buy your math program, language arts program, science program, history program, etc. separately. This allows you to buy each piece from your preferred company as opposed to going with one company that gives you their version of all those subjects. Sure, there's a benefit in buying all-in-one programs, but the drawback is that you may be stuck with components that don't match well with your preferences or your child's learning styles.

Some companies collaborate with multiple curriculum providers to let you select from multiple options in each subject. This can be a nice compromise for those that want the simplicity of buying everything at once from one source but want more than once choice for each subject.

2) You don't have to finish everything in the curriculum. Read that again. One more time.

Don't believe me? Traditional schools rarely complete their textbooks during the school year, and yet you don't hear anyone complaining about it. If your child(ren) have put in a good effort consistently throughout the year, IT'S OKAY if you don't make it through the end of the book. You can always resume where you left off next year if you want to. Or you can move on. It will be fine. (If you are concerned about state requirements or standardized testing you may need to carefully monitor progress in relevant subjects.)

My eldest enjoys foreign language and has been taking Latin. We like the new program we started last year, but didn't want to spend 4-5 hours a week to keep the expected pace. So instead, we are stretching out the program so that each book will take us 1.5-2 years to complete instead of one.

3) Consider working on a subject for a set time each day, rather than working to complete the lesson. I find this to be particularly helpful for skill subjects, like math, reading, and writing.

For example, I have an idea of how long I want my kids to work on math each day. (This is less for younger children and gradually increases as they age.) I gauge how far they've gotten on the lesson (and if they've been working diligently). If it looks like they'll finish in a reasonable time, then we complete the lesson. If it looks like there will be a significant portion remaining, we break up the lesson and resume the next day.

4) Use the parts you want and disregard the rest. This works well for content subjects, like science and history. If you like a US History program but only want to cover colonial days through the Civil War, then only use those parts! A lot of folks worry that this is "wasting" money, but is it really? If it bothers you, then look for resources that only cover the content you want - just realize you might be limiting your options.

I use the Story of the World program for teaching world history. This program has 4 textbooks and 4 corresponding activity books. Each textbook-activity book combo is intended to take one year. We do 2 books a year, and skim through the US History portions, because we dedicate a different year to studying US History. We use the activity books because I like doing the maps with the kids, but we do very few of the included extra activities.

5) Go with your gut. If something seems "off" or like it isn't working well for you or your child, absolutely go with your gut and make whatever change you think is necessary.

One of our math programs indicates when they want the students to use calculators, but I allow calculators more frequently, when I think it is appropriate. We used a writing program that encouraged the student to write sentences in a passive voice, and I didn't want to promote that skill, so we skipped those sections. Our vocabulary program includes reading comprehension questions that encourage the student to give unnatural answers. We do the reading but skip the questions and opt for a "tell me about what you read" conversation instead.

I think parents get nervous about adapting curriculum because they lack the confidence to go against education "experts." You can do it. You are an intelligent adult who knows how to guide your child's education.