Homeschool Curriculum Not Working? What You Need to Do

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Is your homeschool curriculum not working?

Trust me, most (if not all) homeschool moms find themselves in this situation at one point or another.

You can have the most thorough and well written curriculum available and still find that it doesn’t work for your child.

This can be immensely frustrating, especially if you’ve fallen in love with a curriculum and spent time and money on it.

However, homeschooling is about doing what works for your child.

It is about providing for their learning needs so that they can grow to love learning and become life-long learners.

Forcing a curriculum that does not work causes more harm than good.

If you’ve begun your school year with high hopes only to find they’ve come crashing down and you’re frustrated with the curriculum you have, keep reading for tips on what to do.

Homeschool Curriculum Not Working? Here’s What to Do…

You should know that just because a curriculum isn’t working right now, doesn’t mean that it won’t work ever.

If you’re worried about wasting the money that you spent on curriculum, realize that you don’t necessarily have to just discard it completely.

Work through the tips below and you’ll feel so much better.

We began using a curriculum for Language Arts for my son at the beginning of the school year and one month in we stopped.

It was causing daily battles.

It was hard for me to give it up because I loved it so much, but it was 100% the correct decision for my son and I have no regrets at all for stopping when we did.

So, with that said…I’ll share the first tip.

Get Rid of Guilt

So many times what holds us back in homeschooling isn’t our children but ourselves.

We hold ourselves to standards that are too high and live in guilt for everything that we deem a failure.

If a homeschool curriculum isn’t working then it is almost certainly not your fault.

All children learn differently and while a curriculum may look good when you read about it, you can’t really know if it will be right for your child until you start using it.

If it is not working for your child, don’t feel guilty.

All that guilt does is hold you back. Drop it and do what is right for your child.

Talk to Your Child

Sometimes there can be daily battles when you’re homeschooling your child and you might assume that its because of one certain thing.

Don’t jump to conclusions, instead, talk to your child.

Make sure that they know that they’re not in trouble and that you’re not upset or mad at them.

Open communication is vital in every part of parenting and homeschooling is no exception.

By sitting down and really listening to your child you’ll find out how you can help them best.

Sometimes it isn’t the curriculum that is the issue, but the expectations that your child has of themselves.

If you have a high achiever who is being challenged and may not be reaching what he deems to be necessary, it can seem like the curriculum isn’t working.

Reaching your child’s heart is always the most important part of their education.

Knowing their thoughts and feelings helps so much in understanding how best to teach them academically.

Do Some Research

When we were having struggles with a particular curriculum I did so much research.

I watched videos and reviews from other homeschool parents sharing their same struggles and I felt so validated.

This can be especially helpful if you’re a brand new homeschool parent because the reality is that we’re often super insecure and uncertain of what we’re doing.

Realize this…you are not alone.

We all struggle and if you’re having issues with a curriculum, chances are that there’s another homeschool mom out there struggling with the same thing.

Youtube and homeschool Facebook groups (join mine here!) can be incredibly helpful for curriculum troubleshooting and advice from veteran homeschoolers.

Don’t ever feel like you have to do this on your own.

There’s an entire homeschool community out there waiting to offer help and troubleshoot right along with you.

Be Flexible

This year we began using the curriculum All About Reading.

Honestly, I loved it and my son has done really well with it…but it can be dry.

So, I researched ways to keep it fun and interactive and found so many ideas online.

Sometimes, the curriculum will give you the bones of what you need to teach your child but will require you to be flexible in the way that you use it.

You can pick and choose what you use out of it and make it work for your child.

We stopped using the Language Arts curriculum that we started at the beginning of the year and switched to another.

Now, we’re back to using the original curriculum and it is working so well for us!

Homeschooling doesn’t fit into a box.

Use the Curriculum the Way You Want to

Finally, you need to give yourself permission to use the curriculum the way you want to.

As someone who likes to follow rules and check all the boxes, this was not an easy thing for me to do at first.

However, once I realized that I could make the curriculum work for us it made a world of difference.

There is so much beauty and freedom in choosing and doing what works best for your child.

Conclusion

It can feel so disappointing when your homeschool curriculum ideals are left unmet.

You start out the year with such enthusiasm and vigor only to find yourself fighting with your child on the daily.

It isn’t fun…for anyone.

Switching curriculum or being more flexible with the one you currently have can make a world of difference to your homeschool experience.

I hope that these points have given you the freedom to choose what is right for your family and get rid of any mom guilt that you might have been holding on to.