Selecting the Ideal Curriculum
Speaker: Alice Reinhardt (Rhino Technology)
Resources
What are your goals?
Your goal is to teach your children.
There is a big difference between teaching your children and teaching your curriculum.
Beware of Curriculum Taking Over
Beware that the vendors' job is to sell their curriculum to you. They are convinced that their way is the best.
Most homeschoolers are SILKs - Single Income, Lots of Kids
Goal vs Tool
The most important things to teach are often the things you can't measure on a test.
- virtue
- character
- potential
Curriculum is a tool. You need to make sure it fits your goals.
Curriculum is the means, NOT the end.
What is your Philosophy?
Your philosophy is different than your why
Make sure you are not doing things for negative reasons.
Your philosophy is deeper than your why.
- how do you think about children?
- how do you think about learning?
Alice's Philosophy: Created to Learn
We NEVER stop learning
Alice is not young, but she's enrolled in a Master's of Psychology. We are designed to learn. There's no expiration date on learning.
3 year olds don't run because they're disobedient, they run because their thigh muscles are developing and they need to develop them.
- if your kids are being difficult, consider that they are created to learn
- this is why making a kid sit at a desk at 5 and putting a pencil in their hand is often not successful
EDUCATION IS THE LIGHTING OF A FIRE NOT THE FILLING OF A BUCKET
- William Butler Yeats
Love to Learn
THIS is a primary goal teaching your kids. Teach them to love to learn.
Get over yourself
This journey is about your child, not you.
Remember the curriculum is for THEM, not you.
Alice started out with a very loose, very unstructured style. But her kids needed structure. She had to switch to a more traditional teaching program with workbooks, and that worked much better for her kids. This was hard for her, but she realized she needed to get over herself and her preconceptions about the "right" way to teach.
Compassion over control
People don't change their behavior when other people yell at them, shame them, or send them away to be alone.
People change their behavior when they feel heard, understood, and loved.
Growth and change require connection and compassion.
- KATIE HURLEY, LCSW
It's easy to tell at your kids. Compassion is harder. Realize that your children may be dealing with some things. They need to feel heard. You need to listen to your kids, to know what they need.
You can struggle for weeks to teach a child to identify colors before they are ready or you can do it in a few moments when they are ready to learn
The pre-frontal cortex is not fully developed until they are 25. If you ask kids to do a lot of things, their brains cannot handle it. They do much better if you ask them to do one thing.
Children must not be taught certain concepts until they reach the appropriate cognitive development stage.
- Jean Piaget
When you encounter a moment like this with your child, you need to STOP 🛑.
📚 Book Recommendations
- The Language Wars and other Writings for Homeschoolers
- The Wheel on the School - the story of a village in Holland
- 8 great smarts - "will transform how you look at your kids"
- 103 top picks for Homeschool Curriculum
Play
Children learn best by play. Never underestimate the power of playing.
Teenagers need to play too. They probably have friends who are dealing with drugs or depression. Play is good medicine to relieve stress from this weight.
summary
FIGURE OUT YOUR PHILOSOPHY KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GOALS AND TOOLS DON'T BE AFRAID TO STOP AND PUT THE CURRICULUM AWAY
BE A FIRE STARTER NOT A BUCKET FILLER
THERE WILL BE GAPS