It seems that the easiest way to homeschool would be to purchase a box of curriculum from a company. However, there are a lot of people that do not use this type of approach to school, instead they have chosen to unschool. A lot of people may wonder how in the world someone would go from purchasing a box of curriculum to unschooling.
Some people find that curriculum can be an expensive mistake because it is sold in a one size fits all type of packaging. This simply does not always work. While it can be very economical as your school district may even give you everything that you need, but your child’s interests and capabilities may be different and thus require something different. Many of these children actually gain confidence when they begin pursuing their own interests. For instance, some of them become voracious readers. However, when their parents ask the school district to give them more work, the school districts are not willing to do so and thus the parents are off looking for real books and activities for their children to do.
This does not mean that you cannot still get the school’s text books to use. These textbooks are actually good in some regards. For instance, you can get the science book and use the experiments in it. Of course, some of these may be disappointing. This is where kitchen science can actually come to your rescue and things like filtering out the impurities in water can be exciting for your children. You can also purchase a lot of great science books at your local bookstores or museums. Much of this will give your child a hands on experience with science.
You may also be surprised by how much science and history actually get mixed up whenever you go on field trips to places like museums. With that in mind, you could go on to study the various scientific inventions that occurred throughout history, instead of emphasizing war. It is surprising how much history your child can actually learn by visiting local historical sites and museums and going to living history days. In fact, your child may even start to like reading history books that do not resemble school textbooks. Good autobiographies and books that give first hand accounts are also wonderful.
As far as math goes, most textbooks are the same. While you may choose to use these for your child, there is also a lot of math that can be learned through living. This is because math is used everywhere: in cooking, traveling, banking, paying bills and many other areas than you could imagine. If the school district that you are in is not keen about giving you math books, there are a lot that you can purchase from your local dollar store.
Through doing this your child may even teach you a thing or 2 as they teach themselves about what they are interested in. As this goes on you will find that things will get easier and easier and that you will have time to do what you want as well.
