Confessions of a Curricaholic

Posted by Marsha | 0 comments

Obsessed. Compulsive. Junkie. Curricaholic.

Those are words that described my passion for all things curriculum. Be it posters, workbooks, CDs, books, DVDs, games or puzzles– if it was “educational” then I had to have it! I mean, come on, look how packed that one measly bookcase is up there!

Believe it or not, that is actually pared down from what I used to have. You can say that I am a recovering curricaholic. As summer and the season of homeschool conventions draws near, I can’t think of a better time to share with y’all some tips on how to combat the compulsion to cache curriculum.

But first, you must realize one very important thing. There is no magic pill for smart kids! There is also no such thing as a one-size-fits-all program that is affordable, super easy and will automatically produce children that can speak three languages or solve differential equations. Trust me! The sooner you stop searching for the elusive perfect program, the saner and happier you’ll be.

Now that that’s settled, let me share with you just a few simple tips that have helped me keep the dollars in my wallet and the books from overflowing the bookcase (and closet and cabinets…).

• Make a very basic list of goals for your children. For us, it’s the basic subjects of math, history, science, handwriting and language arts. Everything else would fall under the category of gravy– nice, but not absolutely necessary. What is important to you? Are there requirements by your state that must be met?
• Take that list and elaborate on it. For example, our goal for handwriting right now is legibility and stamina. I know it sounds a little crazy, but I’m not looking for perfect letters. So long as I can read it and the letters are written in the right manner (i.e. the “o” is drawn counter-clockwise), I’m happy. This year, we will work on increasing the amount of writing we can tolerate in one sitting (one of my boys in particular balks at writing a mere sentence). Elaborating will help you narrow down and focus on exactly what you’re looking for. It will help you differentiate one product or program from another down the road.
• Make a budget. Although it’s not fun, figure out how much you want to spend. Whether a little or a lot, just allocating the dollars to go towards the basics and/or gravy listed above will allow you to shop guilt-free and really weigh the benefits of ease vs. price on all the products available out there.
• Make a list of what you already have. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve forgotten exactly what volume of Five in a Row I have or struggled with remembering whether or not it was Spelling Power or Spelling Workout that I have sitting on the shelf!

So far, you have a list of your goals, your money and your current inventory. Make sure you have this with you whether you are at a convention, a bookstore or sitting in your pj’s in front of the computer. When shopping, make sure you have your BASICS covered first! Remember the non-gravy items that are really really important? This is where you must first spend your time, energy and dollars.

Once the basics are covered, then you can start adding fun stuff to your proverbial cart. For us, the gravy is in things like root word card games, ant farms (ummm… we already have real ones in the backyard!), cookbooks for kids, origami paper and a huge canvas world map that covers one whole wall in our schoolroom (I just love that map!). All not necessary but nice. And guilt free since we had leftover dollars in the budget.

But where should you spend your money? Is there a source from where all bargains and good things flow? I will talk about this in my next post.