I generally feel pretty comfortable picking out curriculum for my children. (Here are our lists for the last two years: 2010-2011 and 2009-2010.) I pick out a pretty eclectic variety of materials, and I like that it means that I can pick what works best for us. This means that shopping for the next school year can sometimes be filled with lots of decisions, since I’m not tied to one curriculum provider or style of homeschooling.
While I enjoy all the planning and decisions, sometimes it’s just a lot of decisions. Sometimes I think that I’m making the right choice, but then I think, “Is this really worth the money? Is this going to be right for our family?”
This is when I love being able to get a second (or third) opinion about whatever I’m considering. I have often gone to homeschool conventions with my friend Amanda. What we’ve done in the past was to look around in the morning, and then only buy in the afternoon. That way, we can discuss purchases (before we make them) at lunch. If we’re really uncertain, we might even go back to the booth we’re not sure about with the other person and discuss the purchase and how it might work for our families. (That’s the nice thing about getting a second opinion from a friend who homeschools and knows your family well.)
Another great source for a second opinion can be your husband. Eric doesn’t often give opinions about materials for homeschool. However, after not being able to find a science program I wanted, I decided to get Eric’s opinion. You see, Eric has some strong feelings about science. Because of this, he was more than happy to read through information from several programs I was considering and then decide for me. (I hadn’t told him that I was leaning toward the exact one he picked.)
If you don’t have people in your offline life that are familiar with homeschooling, online friends and written online reviews are great sources for a second opinion. I like to seek out not only those that have had a positive experience with what I’m considering, but also people that have not had a positive experience. Could their experience happen to us as well?
Do you have someone in your life that you discuss curriculum decisions with? How do you pick your curriculum?
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Great post! I too will often ask my husband for his opinion on various matters regarding our homeschool day. Other blogging moms are a great resource too!
Is your husband usually pretty open to giving his opinion on that kind of stuff? Mine usually just wants to defer to me on it, so it’s sometimes hard to get him to give me his honest opinion.
I always loved homeschool conventions as a way to get other homeschoolers’ advice. Now, it’s amazing how many connections can be made online! I was lucky that my husband was always very supportive of our homeschooling, although he left the curriculum choices to me – which was fine. My kids were actually a very good source of advice about what worked or didn’t work.
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