Creating your own curriculum?

[leeannpal]

Has anyone here written your own curriculum? I've looked at some many complete curricula, and I've found parts of almost all of them that I like, but I haven't found a whole curriculum that I like. I know that I can pick and choose parts of any curriculum in an ecletic manner, but that doesn't really appeal to me either. Having a complete curriculum with daily lesson plans really appeals to me. So, I started thinking about the old adage, "If you want something done right, do it yourself." I would just love to hear from others who might have already been down this path.

[Ellie]

I never found a single publisher that I liked for everything.

 

Of course, I didn't do lesson plans for the most part, but it was no big deal, anyway, to look through this or that and figure out what I'd do next, even if I didn't write it down.

[mom2boys030507]

Has anyone here written your own curriculum? I've looked at some many complete curricula, and I've found parts of almost all of them that I like, but I haven't found a whole curriculum that I like. I know that I can pick and choose parts of any curriculum in an ecletic manner, but that doesn't really appeal to me either. Having a complete curriculum with daily lesson plans really appeals to me. So, I started thinking about the old adage, "If you want something done right, do it yourself." I would just love to hear from others who might have already been down this path.

 

 

I have found that I pick and choose what I like and then write my own lesson plans. Not completely reinventing the wheel but tweeking more then the average.

[sewpeaceful]

Okay, confessions of a homeschool mom, here we go...

 

I'm with you. I haven't found anything I like for everything (few of us do).

 

I have tried to write my own curriculum. I've written my own bible, my own science, my own history, and my own lit. Here is how it worked out:

 

I spent hours and hours planning, making charts, etc. Within a few weeks to a few months, I wasn't doing it or had changed because I had no confidence in what I had written (sad, I know). I, personally, do better purchasing a preplanned subject like Elemental Science (I adore and respect the author - we graduated from the same Alma Mater).

 

After 5 years of homeschooling, I did grab SOTW1 book, AG, and supplemental readers. I DO spend hours planning out what we will do and won't do down to the lesson number. While I haven't been overly rigid following my plan, I CAN say that we have 5 days of SOTW1 left and we have done MOST of my plan. I might have dropped 3 projects (shhh... don't tell my kids - they'd make me do them! :D). And this year went so well, we are doing the same curriculum and plan for next year - how often do we do the same brand 2 years in a row??

 

If I had tried to put together Ancient history from scratch, I would have floundered. But using SOTW text and AG as my spine, we've done great and I am super confident in what I taught and my kids learned this year.

 

In the end, I have become super eclectic - no two subjects are from the same vendor.

 

I hope this answers your question?

[8filltheheart]

I do all the time. Even at the high school level. It really isn't that difficult; just know what you want to cover, find the sources, create assignments, and schedule them appropriately. FWIW, I tyically what I design far better than anything I purchase. Typically I modify purchased curriculum so much that they rarely resemble the original product. But sometimes, the purchased curriculum includes things that I do not want to spend the time creating on my own (Duke TIPS AP American history TM is an example. I didn't use the manual at all, but I did incorporate the charts and a lot of the activities in it.)

[mom31257]

I haven't written an actual curriculum, but I have put together my own plans. This year I did a year-long study of American history with my 2nd grader. I picked a few books to use as my "spine" resources, then researched for library books, websites, etc. I shared these resource lists with several ladies here on the board through email. I still left the daily plans to them because I realized everyone wouldn't be able to get every book or do the same number of days.

 

I've also taught co-op classes (Around the World in 8 Weeks; Hands-On History: Pioneer Days; Math Games Galore) where I basically did the same thing, research, choose books, activities, put together a plan for each class, etc.

 

I am assuming that by writing a complete curriculum, you mean grammar lessons, math curricula, reading comprehension, science, social studies, critical thinking, logic, basically everything. IMHO, to undertake writing a complete curriculum would be so time consuming that I don't think it would be worth it to me. I want to have a life besides homeschooling! There are so many great things out there, and yes I do pick and choose. No one publisher has everything I want.

[Kfamily]

I have never been able to fully embrace any entire curriculum. I think this is a result of many issues, with some of them being because my goals and expected results are too specific, my girls are unique and I love to feed their interests and our style of learning and I'm very particular about learning being meaningful. So, I guess I'm just too picky!:lol:

 

Also, we love and follow the Charlotte Mason style of learning and there really is a very limited number of curricula that follow her ideas the way I like to follow them. This makes it hard to have choices.

 

If you'd like to create your own, I would first suggest you find the educational philosophy that first inspires you (because writing your own is a lot of work and that inspiration and belief in your goals will be your motivation to keep you going...:001_smile:) and next find what brings about your childrens' best response. I started our homeschool journey teaching the only way I knew how (I was a teacher before children.) and quickly realized this wasn't our best approach. I found the CM style fairly early on and I think this has been useful in that the girls grew up with this. For us, homeschooling is a way of life. It's an atmosphere that is always present. (And some days our atmosphere is better than others...:001_smile:)

[....]

I never found a single publisher that I liked for everything.

 

:iagree: One day, in the very distant future, I will put together an entire curriculum of my own. Until that day...

[leeannpal]

I have never been able to fully embrace any entire curriculum. I think this is a result of many issues, with some of them being because my goals and expected results are too specific, my girls are unique and I love to feed their interests and our style of learning and I'm very particular about learning being meaningful. So, I guess I'm just too picky!:lol:

 

Also, we love and follow the Charlotte Mason style of learning and there really is a very limited number of curricula that follow her ideas the way I like to follow them. This makes it hard to have choices.

 

If you'd like to create your own, I would first suggest you find the educational philosophy that first inspires you (because writing your own is a lot of work and that inspiration and belief in your goals will be your motivation to keep you going...:001_smile:) and next find what brings about your childrens' best response. I started our homeschool journey teaching the only way I knew how (I was a teacher before children.) and quickly realized this wasn't our best approach. I found the CM style fairly early on and I think this has been useful in that the girls grew up with this. For us, homeschooling is a way of life. It's an atmosphere that is always present. (And some days our atmosphere is better than others...:001_smile:)

 

This is where I am coming from. I have already researched educational philosophies, and I, too, really like most of the Charlotte Mason style. Like you, I am a certified teacher, currently teaching middle school. And, I agree with you, that there does not seem to be that many choices in a complete Charlotte Mason curriculum.

[2cents]

I've written a lot of my own curriculum because I never find exactly what I like. Even the pre-made curriculum I buy is tweaked and expanded. I actually enjoy making our own units and plans.:001_smile:

[elegantlion]

I do at least one subject every year. It works much better for our needs that way.

[happypamama]

I guess it depends on what you mean by curriculum. I haven't written my own history text, but I do write my own plans, using a variety of resources. This year, we based things around SOTW2 and Our Island Story, so I put together my own plans around those. It takes time, but it has been worth it to us so far.

[DragonFaerie]

I have sort of done my own curriculum for some subjects. For history this year, for example, I chose my spine (Usborne's Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of World History) and the time period we were going to cover (Ancients: Pre-history to 400 AD). Then, I chose the additional activities (maps using Knowledge Quest; website suggestions from the book; several books from the "You Wouldn't Want to Be" series; and Evan Moor's Ancient Civilizations History Pockets). Then all I had to do was schedule out how many pages of the book to do at each lesson and which supplemental activities we would do throughout the school year. I did tweak it along the way (websites didn't work, etc) but it worked out well for the most part.

 

I also did something similar for literature. For that, I just chose the books to read and determined how many pages we would need to read each day. Then, I found worksheets, activities and assignments online for each book. In fact, this has worked out so well that I'm doing the planning for science and geography next year, as well as history (Medieval) and literature. :D

[joysworld]

I do my own science and history because I'm cheap, I mean frugal:) I do a literature based curriculum. I decide what I want to study, break it into thirty six weeks, then find books that our library has that will cover the topics. After that is done, I then scour the internet to come up with project ideas. I am currently done with the first semester of science and history for the next school year.

 

Now, I don't make daily lesson plans. I create a guide to use, and then we use it as we see fit. The projects I list and the books I come up with, will not all get done nor read. It's just helps so that I'm not flying by the seat of my pants:)

[missmoe]

Yup, I do put together my own history most years. Here is a post on exactly how I do it--and what resources I used to do it this year for history.

 

http://missmoe-thesearethedaysofmylife.blogspot.com/2011/03/planning-your-own-curriculum.html

[Farrar]

I wrote ours for science this year. I just wasn't happy with anything I found and I knew that if I did it myself, I would be. Besides, there's a sense of ownership when you do it yourself. For me, I understand the material on a deeper level if I have to organize it myself and make those choices. I'm doing this for history next year as well. I wouldn't want to do it for everything (why reinvent the wheel, right?) but I like it for some things.

 

Back when I was teaching, I worked at a small middle school for a long time where we had to write our own curriculum and create our courses. I mostly taught humanities classes (language arts and social studies were integrated at that school). I wrote course curricula for ancient history, medieval history through fiction, asian history through fiction, film studies, science fiction and fantasy, science writing, archaeology, basic writing and grammar... It was always great to do this. I really enjoyed it.

[happypamama]

Yup, I do put together my own history most years. Here is a post on exactly how I do it--and what resources I used to do it this year for history.

 

http://missmoe-thesearethedaysofmylife.blogspot.com/2011/03/planning-your-own-curriculum.html

 

What a great post -- thanks for sharing it! Your process sounds very similar to my own. :)

[mama25angels]

Yup, I do put together my own history most years. Here is a post on exactly how I do it--and what resources I used to do it this year for history.

 

http://missmoe-thesearethedaysofmylife.blogspot.com/2011/03/planning-your-own-curriculum.html

 

 

 

Great post! I took notes. Thank you

[Jenny in Florida]

I do all the time. Even at the high school level. It really isn't that difficult; just know what you want to cover, find the sources, create assignments, and schedule them appropriately. FWIW, I tyically what I design far better than anything I purchase. Typically I modify purchased curriculum so much that they rarely resemble the original product. But sometimes, the purchased curriculum includes things that I do not want to spend the time creating on my own . . .

 

What she said.

 

I rarely buy "curricula," and when I do, I often don't use it as intended. My favorite thing to do is to find a spine and then keep adding to it things I think are interesting or cool. During the summer before we are due to start that subject, I sit down with all of the books and materials and map out goals for each week. I print it out, stick it in a binder, and we're ready to go for the whole year.

[sagira]

I like to plan my own stuff and I have for three years now. However, with a baby, I'm simplifying this year and have Singapore My Pals Are Here for Science. At least I hope I'm simplifying! :)

 

In the past I've made plans through the Tanglewood curriculum planner, but I pick my own spines and flesh them out. This coming year I'm planning my own American History and State Study curriculum.

 

I enjoy it, and I notice every time I think I'm shortchanging my children and go to sneak a peek at what big name curriculum providers are doing, I'm surprised to see that ds is right where he should be and that my plans are solid. He's learning right along.

Edited May 13, 2011 by sagira