When we’re talking about the curriculum based approach to home education, the first question you’ll probably ask, is: “But isn’t that exactly the same as School at Home?”
The similarities are immediately clear: There’s a lot of textbook learning and workbook exercises involved, and working with a curriculum is usually also highly structured. So, often, there’ll be a large overlap between the curriculum based approach and the School at Home Method.
Often, but not always.
The main characteristic of the curriculum based approach is of course that there’s a curriculum to follow.
The home educating parents buy a complete curriculum for all
the subjects they want to teach their children – this can be either the same curriculum for all subjects or a different one for each subject – and base the education of their children on the curriculum of their choice.
This can be done in a very schoolish way, but there’s no reason why the home educating parent should not use the chosen curriculum creatively. She can liven up the lessons by taking the children on a field trip, use hands-on activities to help them grasp concepts like e.g. time, money and measurements. That way, the chosen curriculum can become a wonderful source of inspiration to both the home educating parent and the children.
Once the family has decided on working with a complete curriculum, there are many curricula available to choose from. To name just a few: Sonlight, A Beka, Oak Meadow, Time4Learning, K12, and Ambleside Online.
Many of the currently available curricula are written from a Christian perspective or have at least a Christian flavour, which is fine when that is what you want, but it limits the choices for Secular homeschoolers and those of non Christian religions quite a bit.
Advantages of the Curriculum Based Method:
- Its highly structured approach to learning gives new and uncertain home educators a solid framework to rely on.
- The child’s progress is easily monitored.
- No nagging questions about whether or not your child is learning the right things are the right time.
- The parent doesn’t have to rely on her own preparations and resourcefulness; she can just follow the teacher’s manual.
- Ideal for families who thrive on a highly structured routine.
Disadvantages of the Curriculum Based Method:
- Its highly structured approach may not fit your family’s lifestyle or needs.
- The Curriculum Based method may be very time consuming,
and put a high strain on the home educating parent because of all the paperwork involved.
- Children may loose their natural enthusiasm for learning because the textbooks are not interesting enough and there are too many drills involved; resulting in stress for the whole family.
- Buying a complete curriculum can be quite pricey.