Why the Curriculum Isn't the Problem

EP247: In this episode, Jean explores a common frustration many homeschooling parents face: feeling like the curriculum just isn’t working. If you’ve ever wondered whether you chose the wrong program or felt tempted to start over with something new, this episode offers a different perspective. Jean explains why the real issue usually isn’t the curriculum itself, but how it’s being used. You’ll learn how to shift from following a curriculum as a script to using it as a flexible tool that supports your child’s unique learning journey.

Instead of starting over, this episode invites you to pause, reflect, and take back your leadership as a homeschooling parent. Jean shares practical questions to help you evaluate what’s actually working, what needs adjusting, and how small shifts can make a big difference. If you’re feeling stuck, behind, or unsure about your homeschool plan this spring, this episode will help you move forward with clarity and confidence.

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Find the Show Notes here  https://artofhomeschooling.com/episode247/

Transcript

Welcome And Purpose

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You're listening to the Art of Homeschooling podcast, where we help parents cultivate creativity and connection at home. I'm your host, Jean Miller, and here on this podcast, you'll find stories and inspiration to bring you the confidence you need to make homeschooling work for your family. Let's begin. Perhaps even thinking, maybe this just isn't working. Maybe we need something different. Maybe I chose the wrong curriculum. Maybe that's the problem. So before you click over to researching a new curriculum, before you add anything to your cart, I want you to just pause for 15, 20 minutes, listen to this episode first, because what I'm going to say might surprise you. The curriculum probably isn't the problem. Now, this is the time of year when the shine has worn off, right? The books are dog eared, there are half-finished lessons, you might even be feeling a little behind. Your kids are restless, you're tired. Spring is trying to arrive, but hasn't quite committed yet. And this is when homeschoolers start thinking that a new curriculum will fix everything. Often we're more excited to think about what curriculum we'll buy for next year than about finishing this year. Ask me how I know. Now, let me say this clearly: I'm not anti-curriculum. Okay, over my 25 plus years of homeschooling three kiddos, I bought curriculum and plenty of it. I loved some of it, I abandoned some of it, I highlighted some of it, I shelved some of it, I sold it at used book sales. Curriculum can be super helpful. But blaming curriculum for our homeschooling challenges, that's where things get tricky. So here's the pattern that I see over and over again. It's this curriculum switching cycle. Maybe you'll recognize it. You buy something new and you feel this sense of hope. It looks beautiful, organized, complete, thoughtful, and you think this is it. This will make things feel steady. You follow it faithfully for a little bit, maybe even just a day or two or a few weeks, and then it doesn't quite fit. Maybe it moves too fast, maybe it's too much, maybe your child resists it. Or maybe you just can't keep up with the schedule. You start falling behind, and here's the subtle shift. Instead of thinking, maybe this needs some adjusting, you think, maybe I chose the wrong curriculum. Your confidence begins to dip. You start browsing again, and the cycle repeats itself over and over again. But what if the problem isn't what you bought, what you purchased? What if the problem is thinking that you're supposed to use it exactly as it's written? I want you to hear this loud and clear. Curriculum is a tool, not a script. This might mean pulling in a related resource that you already have right when you need it, or using a different part of that curriculum that's out of order. If you notice a specific skill that your child needs more help with, maybe punctuation, handwriting, or sentence structure, it's okay to look for something small that addresses that need right now instead of waiting until next year to start over completely with a different curriculum. In fact, good homeschooling often works this way. You observe your child, you notice what they need, and you bring in a tool that helps them make progress in that specific area. One of the things that I've loved so much about the Waldorf approach is this it doesn't start with the curriculum, it starts with the child. Rudolf Steiner once said, and this is a quote: where is the book in which the teacher can read about what teaching is? The children themselves are this book lying open before us. That's right. The children themselves are the book. In other words, the child is the curriculum, their development, their readiness, their temperament, even, their interests, their season of growth. When you start there, the curriculum becomes supportive, it becomes a tool rather than dictating exactly what we should do when. Now, on the other hand, when you start with the materials with the curriculum itself, you often end up trying to make your child fit into that. And that becomes exhausting. Before you decide to abandon what you're using, I want you to ask yourself three questions. Just three. The first one is what exactly isn't working? So be specific. Is it the pace? Is it the amount of work or content? Is it the tone? Is it the is it too content heavy? Is it not hands-on enough? Sometimes we label the whole thing as not working, quote unquote, when really it's one piece that just needs a little tweaking. Sometimes what isn't working isn't the whole curriculum. It's just that your child needs support with a specific skill that the curriculum might assume they already have. For example, some Waldorf-inspired programs or curriculum rely heavily on long dictation passages. But if your child is still developing their cursive handwriting, that might feel really overwhelming to them. Other programs teach spelling patterns in a certain sequence, but your child may already understand a specific pattern. Or on the contrary, they might need more practice than the curriculum provides. Curriculum can't match your child's exact developmental needs. That's why observation matters so much. That's why we want to develop that skill of observation and why we don't want to assume that we always need to do everything that's laid out in a purchased curriculum. All right, question number two: what is working? I love this one. This question rebuilds our confidence, right? Is your child loving the stories? Are the activities engaging? Is the structure helpful? There is almost always something worth keeping. When we switch too quickly, we throw out what is working along with what isn't. All right, and question number three is what would it look like to use only, say, 60% of this resource? Not 100%, not doing it perfectly, not always in order. What if you skipped the parts that aren't working so well and replaced them with your own ideas or resources you might already have on your shelf or that you could easily get from your local public library? Sometimes that adjustment is simpler than we imagine. You don't always need an elaborate activity, a container story, or a beautiful chalkboard drawing. Sometimes you just need a pencil, a scrap piece of paper, and five focused minutes to show your child exactly what they need to understand in order to move forward. Learning doesn't only happen in the beautifully designed lessons. Sometimes it happens in those small moments of direct guidance. So what if you slowed the pace? What if you combined lessons? What if you stretched one rich activity out across over several days instead of rushing to the next section? Here is the real question, though. What if the problem isn't the curriculum? It's that you're trying to be 100% compliant. Homeschooling is not about compliance, it's about leadership. That's our role to be the leader in our homeschool. These are the kinds of questions we practice asking together inside the inspired at home community. Because once you start thinking this way, curriculum stops feeling like something you have to keep replacing. Because you recognize you don't have to follow it exactly, and you get to make certain decisions yourself. This is the shift that I think changes everything. It's really a leadership shift, right? You are not a curriculum implementer. As I said, the curriculum was never meant to be a script that you follow. You are the guide. You are the filter. You are the one who decides which lessons matter, which pages to skip, how long something lasts, when to pause, when to go deeper. Curriculum works best when it's flexible in your hands. One of my favorite examples of this kind of flexibility actually comes from my assistant, my team member Sarah, homeschooling mom of four. And when her kids needed help with writing mechanics, things like punctuation or sentence structure, she didn't go searching for a whole new curriculum. Instead, she kept reaching for a simple writer's reference guide from her freshman college writing seminar. It was short and clear, and she could pull it right off the shelf when a question came up. That meant that her kiddos were learning those skills exactly when they needed them, which made the learning much more meaningful and much more likely to stick. That's the perfect example of how curriculum works best when you can be flexible, not when you feel totally accountable to it. And I'll be honest, this is the piece I needed so badly when my kids were in elementary years. I kept thinking, okay, I've got all the materials. Now what? Why isn't this working? No one had really taught me how to use them. In fact, in graduate school, it's funny to look back now because I thought I was prepared for homeschooling. After all, I had a graduate degree, a Master of Arts in Teaching, but most teachers are schooled in how to follow the curriculum and keep children on task. No one really taught me how to use a curriculum and learn the skill of flexibility. This is one of the biggest things I help parents learn inside my programs. How to take whatever materials you're using and adapt them so that they actually work for your child or children. Because the best learning happens when we can adapt and customize and learn to trust ourselves enough to say, we're not doing that. That skill of being flexible and adaptable, that's what builds long-term confidence. And without it, you can keep buying more and more curriculum that you think will be better and still feel uncertain. March is not proof that you chose the wrong thing. Springtime arriving and you questioning what you should be doing. It doesn't mean that you chose the wrong curriculum and that you need to throw the whole thing out and start over. It's really an invitation. It's a signal to refine, to adjust, to take ownership again. Yes, spring is just a beautiful time for that. Not to reinvent everything, but to step back into a leadership role. And to say, this works, that doesn't, we're keeping this, we're dropping that. That's maturity as a homeschooler, as a homeschooling parent. Not starting over, but refining. And one more thing that matters here is your own capacity. There may be seasons when you have lots of energy to customize and create. And there may be seasons when the best thing you can do is press play on a video lesson, sit beside your child, and adjust things as you go. Both of those seasons are real homeschooling. So I have a gentle invitation for you. Helping homeschool parents build this kind of clarity and confidence is really the heart of the work I do at Art of Homeschooling. Next week, I'm sharing something that walks you step by step through how to customize what you're already using before you scrap it and start over. It's simple, it's practical, and it's designed specifically to help you gain confidence as a homeschooler. If today's episode resonated with you, stay tuned because you don't need more curriculum. You need clarity about how to use what you have. And my friend, that's a learnable skill. You can do this. If this episode gave you one helpful idea, please take 10 seconds right now to tap the five-star rating for the show in Apple Podcasts or on Spotify. That small click helps other homeschool parents discover the podcast. And if you want to leave a review, we would so appreciate that. We are back to weekly episodes here on the Art of Homeschooling podcast. Yay! So we'll see you back here next week. That's all for today, my friend. But here's what I want you to remember: rather than perfection, let's focus on connection. Thanks so much for listening, and I'll see you on the next episode of the Art of Homeschooling podcast.