During my first years as a homeschool mother, I was known as a “curriculum junkie”.  It was a joke that my friends and I all enjoyed.  I bought the “talk of the town” curriculum.  I accepted all hand-me-downs.  We enrolled the kids in both COVA and Connections (in different years).  My bookshelves overflowed.   My mind swam!  I was addicted to the chase. Or so I thought.

Turns out, I just didn’t know what homeschool philosophy I resonated with.  I had spent countless hours researching curricula. It was my first question when I met another homeschooler. “What curriculum do you use?”  It wasn’t until much later that I realized in all that research, I had never stumbled upon the various philosophies.  I had never pored over the wise words of Charlotte Mason. Or explored Ruth Beechick’s down-to-earth writings.  John Holt was a new name to me.

If you don’t have a homeschool philosophy, you are left buying whatever homeschool curricula works for other people.  Even our closest friends can be ‘other people.’  While you might have so much in common with your closest friends, your homeschool philosophy might be very different. And the curriculum that they love, might cause nothing but tears and blank stares in your home.

By researching philosophy first, you find your own path, then purchase your curricula and resources to support that path.  I, and so many new homeschoolers, went the opposite way.

Find your path first.  There will always be curricula to buy after you’ve researched your plan.