Choosing Your Homeschool Curriculum

Choosing curriculum is the part that stops parents cold. There are thousands of options, endless reviews, and a well-meaning friend who insists her choice is the only right one. When your child has a disability, the stakes feel higher still, because a wrong guess costs money you cannot spare and time your child does not get back. This guide is built to end that paralysis. Part One walks you through the thinking. How to read your own child, how the major curriculum approaches actually differ, and what works and what to avoid for dyslexia, dyscalculia, ADHD, autism, anxiety, chronic illness and fatigue, dysgraphia, auditory processing disorder, and twice-exceptional learners. Part Two is where you write it down. Your Child's Learning Profile builds the picture: modality, attention span, environment, accommodations, triggers, and interests. The Curriculum Selection Worksheet then tests any specific program against that picture on a forty-point rating grid. Three copies are included, and you may photocopy more for use in your own family. Part Three is the catalog. Sixty-six programs across secular, Christian, and Jewish options, each with grade range, price, publisher link, and an honest note on who it actually serves. Intervention and remediation programs are kept separate from core curriculum, because a child does not do Nessy instead of language arts. Part Four is where the money lives. Cost charts by subject, budget planning by price tier, and how to spend less without settling. Written by Dr. Stacey Lynn Lederberg, who holds a Ph.D. in Psychology, an M.Ed. in Special Education, and an M.S. in Counseling, with more than twenty years working alongside children, families, and educators. There is no perfect curriculum. The best curriculum is the one that serves your child. This guide helps you find it. From ExEd Press, an imprint of ExEd Publishing. More resources for families raising exceptional learners at exedpublishing.com.