Home School Curriculum Reviews

Home school curriculum reviews can be a blessing and a curse. Take a minute to find out why before reading further.

I've written some...

All About Spelling

Mastering Mathematics

Times Tales (Math Supplement)

Spellquizzer

Where can you find more?

Of course catalogs are in the business of selling. The reviews they produce may not tout one program over another outright, but one program may be more prominently featured and overall, the reviews tend to be positive. Why would they have it for sale if there weren't at least one or two good qualities about it. You may find a few helpful tidbits that apply to your situation.

There are entire books devoted to home school curriculum reviews. One popular choice is 100 Top Picks For Homeschool Curriculum by Cathy Duffy. This book describes these picks in detail, but in my opinion leaves out some other very good options. Homeschool magazines also usually have a section for reviews. These tend to feature new curriculum and are often interesting to read.

There are 1000's of homeschool blogs and websties and people these days are more than willing to share their opinions on them. I have noticed that many people who share online either LOVE the program and tell you why it's the best or HATE it and can't wait to tell you why. Again, many websites and blogs are paid for their referrals to a program or to write a review, so sometimes a good review has a financial incentive behind it. (But, not always.)

Check out the curriculum company's website. Sometimes they have sample lessons. For me, these are much more helpful than a review. You can take it for a short test run, and make your decision.

Online homeschool forums tend to be a little more interactive and well rounded than websites or blogs. Lots of homeschool questions are posted and you get answers from a wide range of people in a relatively short period of time. Pros and cons are usually addressed. I rarely see forum thread that are totally positive about one curriculum. Even forums hosted by curriculum companies (Sonlight, for example) have posts from people describing what they would/have done to make the program work better for their family.

Again, even local people who give recommendations generally do so because the program has worked well (or was a bomb) for their family. However, the nice thing about local recommendations is they provide an opportunity to get even more information. When you get a recommendation from someone close to you - geographically or emotionally, like family - they are usually more than happy to discuss at length the "ins and outs" of the program and may even arrange a time when you can review it on your own for a few days or weeks while they aren't using it. If you are involved in a support group, don't be scared to ask for opinions of a curriculum you are interested in using.

Take the time to do your research. One of the advantages of homeschooling is tailoring instruction to your children. Blindly relying on the recommendation of someone else negates this advantage.

Just in case you were wondering...the ads you see on this site aren't recommendations as much as they are a way to cover costs. There are quality programs advertised here (some of which I personally use) but remember, it has to work for your family to be "great".

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