Now that you have decided to home school your child, you face the daunting task of deciding which high school curriculum you will adopt to enhance your child’s final years of pre-college study. This is a critical task given the competitive nature of college admissions and especially scholarships and grants. And if your child is not going on to college, you need to think about adding some type of a vocational component to your curriculum.
Your decision is not an easy one. There are a variety of curriculum focuses. One website reviewed by this author listed 26! There are: Montessori, religion based, classical, unit studies, Waldorf, Sonlight, and many others. You need to consider also whether you will want secular or religious-based education for your child. Of course, this process can be short circuited by selecting a homeschooling high school which suits your needs.
Once you have worked through the above considerations, you need to decide whether you should acquire your curriculum from a school supplies store or sign up for a school and acquire your school materials from that school. If you choose the first, you will need to make all the decisions as to which textbooks you will use and then order them. If you opt for the latter, then by choosing a particular school you choose the curriculum offered by that school. However, the school will provide you with many more services and resources other than curriculum which presents significant reasons for deciding in favor of a school from which to obtain your curriculum. So how do you decide?
Choosing to follow a religion-based curriculum will narrow your choices considerably and then you need only to choose the school which reflects your religious outlook. Going secular, though, will require several additional steps. You might want to review some of the parents’ forums and read the pros and cons of some of the more popular curriculum. You might also consult with certified teachers and education officials in your area. And of course, you should surf the Internet where you can test drive many of the available curriculum.
Deciding which curriculum is best for your homeschooling high school curriculum is a critical task. This article can help ease the burden of your decision making process.
