Where Can I Find Resources to Help Me Create a Curriculum for Homeschooling?

For many aspiring homeschool families, the biggest hurdle is not to set up a schedule and conduct homeschooling classes. Working out a homeschooling curriculum is the most significant deterrent in adopting this alternative learning approach for children. Many parents can assume the role of a homeschool teacher. However, they don’t have any expertise in putting together an academic syllabus for their child.

In this post, we will try to help you to identify resources for creating a homeschooling curriculum. We will also share some tips on how you need to pick material for the curriculum. It would help if you considered some internal and external factors when sourcing learning material and putting together the syllabus. The article will also discuss them.

Before You Begin: Internet Can Help and Also Get You Confused

There is no doubt that the internet has made homeschooling more accessible than yesteryears. Today, all of it is at your fingertips. You can get all sorts of help and material right on your handheld devices from your home. However, it is crucial to understand that the internet is a vast place where you can easily get lost if you are not looking in the right places.

The same is the case when you browse online to find resources for creating your homeschooling curriculum. You can find many resources, material, suggestions, etc., on the internet that can overwhelm and confuse you on creating a curriculum. Therefore, limit your internet search and avoid taking in information from every link you come across.

Attend Homeschooling Conferences and Events

As you prepare to devise your homeschooling curriculum, we suggest you attend some homeschooling conferences and seminars. These events help parents who are new to homeschooling and want to embrace this learning approach for their kids. Due to the pandemic, many of these conferences and workshops have gone online. You can now attend those events right from your home.

Attending those programs can help you identify where you need to start putting together your homeschooling curriculum.

Run a Google Search

If you haven’t been part of any homeschooling community or attended any conference/seminar and don’t have any clue about where to look for curriculum material, Google will be your friend. Type “material for homeschooling curriculum UK” hit the return key. Look at the first few non-ad links on the search page and click on them. You will find most of the material for your curriculum creation and management there.

You can also refine your search query to get more customised results. For instance, if you need to devise a syllabus for the KS3 level, search “homeschooling curriculum for KS3”, the first few organic results on the page will provide you with enough material to create a curriculum for the education level you want to homeschool your child.

In short, look at Google if you have any queries, but as mentioned earlier, don’t sift through too much information because it will only spoil you for choices and create confusion.

Our Favourite Places to Source Material for Homeschooling Curriculum

We would also like to share some of our favourite online places to source material for the homeschooling curriculum.

My Online Schooling

If we have to pick one database to source material for creating a curriculum as per the British education system, this is the one. My Online Schooling provides you with detailed and structured material for KS2 to A-Levels. The website has an easy interface that you can easily navigate through. On top of that, all the material available on My Online Schooling comes at no cost.

The Artful Parent

Many parents find the curriculum’s academic material but struggle to find suitable art activities to incorporate in it. This platform will help you pick the art activities you deem fit for your child’s age and aptitude. The platform has loads of free as well as paid material.

Khan Academy

If you have to create a curriculum for older children (secondary education), you will find this online academy very helpful. You will mainly find Khan Academy great for picking maths and science lessons. Khan Academy is also completely free to use.

BBC Bitesize

BBC Bitesize might not be the platform to pick material for your homeschooling curriculum. However, it proves to be a great helping hand in improving your syllabus with loads of relevant videos and content pieces. You can find material to reinforce your curriculums from the reception to A-levels on this free-to-use platform.

Factors to Consider While Picking the Material for the Homeschooling Curriculum

While picking material for your homeschooling curriculum, you need to consider some of these factors.

Content

Factor in the outline you need to cover and match it with the course material. In some cases, you might need to merge content from two different sources to make sure it fulfils the course outline’s learning objectives.

Nature

You also need to look at the nature of the material. By nature, we mean its form, e.g. video-based, text-based, or image-based. For instance, you will find a range of interactive academic material on the internet that will either be in video or image form. A good approach is to create a mix of interactive and traditional material because a homeschooled child should learn from videos and solve exercises in their notebooks.

Delivery

You also need to factor in how you will eventually deliver this material to your child during their homeschooling lessons. If you think that material is informational but challenging to deliver to children due to its complexity, you should not make it part of your curriculum.

Home Education Shop is another place where you can source material for the curriculum and other homeschooling activities. If you are new to homeschooling, you can subscribe to HES’s informational newsletter and get a free eBook to learn about how to start homeschooling in the UK.