Choosing your homeschooling teaching materials can be an overwhelming decision because there are so many excellent resources and products available. In addition, it seems that each one claims to be superior to all of the others. However, if you talk to many veteran homeschooling parents, they would probably suggest that you stick to a traditional curriculum for the first year or so until you get more familiar with the whole process.

When making the decision to home school, it does take some time and experience to determine which materials are best suited to your teaching style and your children's needs. However, there are plenty of resources available that can help lead concerned parents to the appropriate teaching materials and methods that work best for their family. In this article, eight suggestions and/or rules concerning choosing the right curriculum will be presented. Use these to guide you in your homeschooling endeavor.

Rule #1: First, you need to consider your situation and budget when it comes to choosing your teaching materials. For example, a farming family in the Midwest will have many opportunities for a hands-on-approach to learning in the areas of science and economics, while a city family may have better access to museums, libraries, cultural events, and more support group activities. You can make the most of the real life learning opportunities that are available to you; perhaps even replacing textbook material in certain subject areas.

Rule #2: Choose the teaching materials that complement both you as the teacher and your child as the learner. Textbooks that are developed for traditional classrooms tend to be teacher directed and chalkboard oriented. Seldom do they take into account different teaching approaches and styles. Nor do they account for different ways that children perceive and process information.

Each student has a style in which he/she learns the best. The perceptive parent will notice this and take it into account when choosing the right teaching materials. Think of what your child is interested in and learn from that.

Rule #3: If you don't like the material that you have initially chosen, you will ultimately end up resisting using it no matter how good it may be. Unfortunately, it seems that all teaching materials have a certain bias built into them, both in the subject matter content and in the way the subject matter is presented. Every teaching parent, whether he/she recognizes it or not, has an educational philosophy of their own or some set of values and beliefs about what and how children should be taught. You should be true to those beliefs.

Rule #4: If possible, avoid programs that require a great deal of teacher preparation. Unless you are a high-energy person or really enjoy researching, you will be extremely irritated by these types of programs. They are often filled with detailed teacher's manuals that you need to wade through, supplemental books or seminars that are necessary to fully utilize the program, or lots of activities to prepare beforehand. This ultimately can slow you down and result in both a frustrated parent and child.

Rule #5: You need to be aware that there are various schools of thought when it comes to the teaching of a specific subject. For example, when teaching children to read, there are programs that focus on different learning styles. These often include programs that teach learning phonics before learning to read, programs that focus on learning the rules of grammar and punctuation while you are learning to read, and programs that focus on just learning to read and letting the rules come later. Each school of thought has produced excellent results. However, what this means is that you can teach to the style and ability that works best for you and your child.

Rule #6: You need to realize that people's needs change. What worked one year may not necessarily work the next. Your family's needs and interests will always continue to change and you need to learn to go with the flow. Buy materials that meet your present needs and mold the curriculum to the child's abilities, not the child to the curriculum.

Rule #7: Remember that you were given your children because there is something in you that God wants you to impart to them. Teaching materials are only meant to be used as tools to help you in this role. With faith and some work on your part, you can trust that you will find those materials that will be bested suited to your family. To that end, trust your instincts when it comes to homeschooling.

Rule #8: You will want to remember that teaching materials are often the least important elements of your home school situation. Books are easy to get rid of if they don't work for you, but attitudes and destructive family dynamics are not. The entire family must be committed to the success of your homeschooling endeavors. If not, the entire process including choosing the right materials will suffer.

As you can see, choosing your homeschooling learning material does require some thought and work on your part, but it doesn't have to be harder than it needs to. If you realize that your own instincts and abilities are your best assets, you will then know that you can find what will work best in your particular situation.