My Father's World to Stop Offering "Basic" Package Option

My Father's World Curriculum Company to Stop Offering "Basic" Package Option - Showing Preferentiality to Wealthier Customers?

So last night I was shocked to be made aware of this. 

I have some strong opinions, folks. Beware, strong opinions coming in! 

When I first started homeschooling my own kids, we weren't too well off, financially. It had been over a decade since I had been the homeschool student and I had to start from scratch figuring out what curriculum was available. Oh boy, was there a ton more options than when I was a kid! I didn't know how to find used curriculum or sources for price comparison shopping, I was at the mercy of whatever Google spat out for me based on whatever homeschool-y search-keywords my exhausted brain could come up with. I started down the never ending black hole of curriculum research and began sorting into 2 main lists: 
-Won't work/skeptical. 
+Might work/hopeful/appealing. 

I was flat out exhausted because I had all littles. When firstborn turned 5 was right after secondborn turned 3 and thirdborn turned 1... and I was 6 months pregnant with my fourth (dealing with some preterm labor scares) and my mom died that September, my beloved Nana had died a year before that, and for some reason all my teeth had started to become very weak and break/get cavities easily so I was in and out of the dentist's office so many times that year! I quickly figured out that because of my exhaustion and overwhelm, a "boxed" all-in-one curriculum was uncharacteristically appealing to me. I'm naturally someone who has to adjust and customize everything so this was really telling of how drained I was that I wanted something that came pre-planned. But I thought it would actually be good to start out with a boxed package and then just change what doesn't work little by little as the years go by. This was enhanced by the fact that I would find a subject I liked the looks of here and there but then some subjects I would wind up not liking anything and I would be left wondering how to fill those gaps if I did NOT go with a boxed. I mean, just fork out money for something I'm already thinking isn't going to work? That's not a thought a person on a budget wants to entertain. Did I mention we weren't living high on the horse? My husband was the only breadwinner and we had our 4th child on the way and now my boatload of dental bills and prenatal bills... We even had a neighbor who was like this underground distributor for a dumpster diving crew and she'd make sure we always had bread and bagels when the stores threw away the nearly-expireds. I would try to eat the dumpster stuff myself so I didn't have to waste the new store bought food on myself and could make sure the kids got the food less likely to make them sick. But I digress... somehow my + curriculum list wound up being dominated by boxed sets.  

From there I sorted the "+Might work" by price. There were some that, as much as I liked the look of them, were just way too expensive. My next set of lists were: 
$$ Too expensive, can't afford! 
 $  Probably could swing it if we save up and my mom did offer to help with the cost so maybe? 

I'm just going to tell you right now that if MFW didn't have a Basic package option, they would have been on a different list. Because even though my mom was offering to help this time, and Dad did make the offer again in her memory the first year after she passed, I somehow knew that it wasn't going to last. I felt guilty taking the money after growing up very poor; I felt like if they had any spare money now they deserved to use it on themselves. Then after Mom passed, anything reminding me of her just hurt for a long time. I knew that if I LIKED this company and wanted to stay with it despite my need to adjust and customize things, the Basic/Deluxe difference was likely going to be the difference between being able to stay with MFW or not. 

Not to mention I would pick up art/craft/music things for a few cents at yard sales and thrift stores and didn't need most of the Deluxe things anyway. I do hate being 'forced' to spend my husband's hard-earned money on things I already have or don't need because they are part of a package deal. 

However, since they did have the lower priced option and since I did wind up loving the curriculum, we kept with them. And now it's about 10 years after ordering that first MFW package for K for my firstborn, and I have all the packages from K to 1850TMT. I've bought some Deluxe, when the year was good and it looked like stuff we needed. I've bought Basic, when I already had the Deluxe items and when the Deluxe items weren't something I wanted and when our finances weren't up for the added expense of Deluxe. Once someone blessed us with the Adventures package second hand. Once I bought the RTR package from my sister. Other than that, we always ordered our packages directly from MFW brand new, very glad to have that Basic package option.

I'm sitting here after reading the announcement wondering how long they've been planning this. I wonder why they have come to the conclusion that a more expensive education is superior? This sounds very elitist to me. I remember perhaps 5 years ago trying to price some of the package components on other sites and coming across comments several times saying that MFW always strove to have the lowest prices and make the curriculum affordable for everyone, even down to offering no-frills Basic packages with only what they considered bare-minimum. And then this spring I was doing the same comparing and research/shopping again, when after noticing they'd added things to packages I already owned and upped prices, I thought I'd price compare and see if I could get the items that they'd added since I bought. I was thinking COVID inflation, not greed at the time. Well this time I noticed that many of the items were a few cents cheaper on Christianbook.com and most of them were about 30% cheaper on RainbowResource.com. I wondered why MFW was now charging more than competitors when I'd been led to believe one of their goals was to keep homeschooling affordable. Well here's the thing: the package discount wouldn't look so appealing if the individual items weren't so steep. That crossed out price number before the discounted price number needs to be significantly different so people feel like they are really saving money buy buying the package. The package discount is 100% absolutely the cheapest way to get every single item in it together - if you actually legitimately NEED every one of those items. But how many people actually want and need every single item in it, I wonder? The more items in the package I don't like/want/need, the less value that package has for me. 

And now they're getting rid of Basic packages because they conducted "years of research" and customer feedback leading them to the mistaken conclusion that if someone buys the Basic package over the Deluxe they will not continue homeschooling longterm or won't have MFW's idea of a good experience. On the social media post where I first heard about this, there were so many moms saying it was terrible news... obviously these moms' feedback didn't get counted. I know mine sure didn't. They never asked me. So if their entire sampling was only those who felt compelled to quit homeschooling after using the Basic package and couldn't resist laying a verbal guilt trip on MFW over it, but those of us who have been happily and silently using MFW for the past decade don't get a say, that's a faulty data sample. And after many of the long term Basic package customers contacting MFW to voice their misgivings, MFW is now reportedly replying with a CUT/PASTE message like this: We appreciate and value your feedback as a family that trusts My Father’s World. The decision to provide one curriculum package was not made hastily or without prayerful consideration of several years of customer data and feedback. Individual items will continue to be available. We are happy to help you purchase individual items at any time at 573-202-2000.

Individual items that cost up to 30% more than you can get them on Rainbow Resource. So basically, they already decided and didn't ask those who are now blindsided and upset by this, so now your voice doesn't count. Pay or don't play. The end. And the C&P thing is like salt in a wound. I can say it's obvious that IF the only way someone was able to homeschool with MFW was the discount from buying Basic vs. Deluxe, then this leaves them with the option of public school or find a more affordable homeschool curriculum that might not fit their child's needs as well. 

I'm really disappointed. 

I'm disappointed in MFW for the way they're treating their poorer customers - customers who probably feel like they are being devalued and ignored. 

I'm really REALLY disappointed in the moms who are rich enough that this doesn't affect them, or have the good health, internet service, and free time to shop around and piece it together and think that means everyone who claims they simply can't is just a whiner who sits around waiting for reasons to complain on the internet. Moms who act like MFW is a social club for those are are willing to pay in and you could be in it too if you REALLY wanted to. Moms who glibly say just pray and your curriculum will magically appear. Moms who say things like, 'oh just buy the Deluxe and then sell the things you don't need' as if everyone lives near enough a functional post office and doesn't mind dragging all the little ones out to mail this and that. Acting as if everyone ought to be totally cool with the risks of buying and selling person to person on the internet or having the market flooded with all the extra nonsense we're all now forced to buy at 30% more than RR has it for sale without the risk. Have some compassion, people! Get over yourself and realize that you aren't them and everyone has unique circumstances so yeah, for some people, this IS a deal breaker and NO they don't have to justify that to you, even if they aren't living in poverty or on their death bed or having the curriculum bought by a relative and shipped to them in a foreign country. And it doesn't mean they are faithless or not praying hard enough either so sit yourself down with your holier-than-thou routine. 

I'm disappointed that nobody seems to be able to think outside of their own circumstances and understand how this will negatively affect others. 

Another thought voiced by a concerned mom is that everyone who already has packages may be in for an unpleasant surprise too, since the TMs mention Basic and Deluxe package items and they will likely want to redo them now. I'm thinking if they're redoing it to take out all references to Basic vs. Deluxe already, they will probably want to do any other updating necessary at the same time. Which if they DO go as far as a full new edition update, devalues the resale value of our Basic-option-era Teachers' Manuals. And if they don't go that far and merely remove references to differing packages, will drive up the demand and price of used curriculum to the point where in leu of getting new materials at a discount, home educators are having to get used materials for almost the same price they'd have paid for a new Basic package before. 

Recently, in shopping for high school for my oldest, I noticed something. There are no Basic packages for high school. MFW offers one choice and that's that. Putting everything MFW deems necessary for 9th grade into the cart spat me out a subtotal of about $1,000. For one kid. For one year. Not including some required extras to be bought elsewhere such as a $40 calculator and $300 lab kit for science. Looking at the things in the package, seeing questionable items like the newer version of The Purpose Driven Life and other things that triggered a vague memory of someone warning me about them, I wondered why I'm being forced to buy these things, why they're not optional as part of a Deluxe set for only those who want them? 

And that's where I got off the MFW train, folks. (Meaning I no longer make a yearly purchase order from them nor do I consider myself a "fan" any longer.) Sure, we're in a much better place financially now, and I have all the pre-highschool packages I need so I'm only needing consumables for the younger kids, so if we used that stinking stimulus money that we were forced to receive for The Virus Which Shall Not Be Named, we could have done it just fine. But that's not the point really... the point is that people don't appreciate being forced to buy extras they don't actually want, it's completely unnecessary (and IMHO wasteful) to spend $1,000+ on curriculum for one person for one year, most average people would be barely (or not even) able to afford that and only if they have every lower grade package already so they're not buying 2 packages in one year, and the most important thing is that I don't want my money supporting misleading philosophies. On the thread of that last part, I stumbled on a copy of The Purpose Driven Life from back when it was still called The Purpose Driven Life and bought it so I could read it ahead, in preparation for the decision of whether to go with the MFW high school packages or not. And that book was a no for me. It was quite a mix of "That's great!" and "Woah, that is NOT Biblical!" I prayed about it for months with my husband and alone and eventually we decided not to use MFW for high school because they FORCE you to support that with your money when you buy the associated high school package, just like how now they are now set to FORCE all customers to buy art and craft supplies and nonessential subjects when you buy one of their lower grade packages.

Remembering what it was like to be new to being the teacher-parent in the homeschooling endeavor and sick and exhausted and mourning and overwhelmed and just wanting to find a packaged curriculum set that would get me through the year without the cost starving us to death and with all the major boxes checked, I feel an empathetic sense of dread as to what MFW's decision is going to cost their less financially-endowed customers. 

UPDATE 01/29/23: 

The latest from MFW is a push for micro-schools. See the presentations for yourself here. I have always wanted to start one myself, so I was interested in what they had to say. Unfortunately I felt like in some places some of what was said could be construed as advocating that micro-schools are better than homeschools or that God intended for children to be educated collectively rather than by their own parents all along. I felt like some scripture was misrepresented/misapplied to support this view and the main idea was that children are better off with the village raising them so we should curate a good village to raise our kids. Perhaps I misunderstood but at the time I watched it, I remember being bothered by a comment that insinuated God gave our children to everyone not just to the parents as a justification for having them in a micro-school instead of homeschooling. 

Now, I'm all for micro-schools being created and available for those who want them, especially as an option for those who want the benefits of homeschooling or private schooling but can't right now. But something about all of this just doesn't sit right with me. Now I'm looking back at how the website design for MFW had changed over the last howevermany years to appeal as much/ more to private schools than homeschools, and honestly the price hikes (meaning how much their prices have gone up compared to competitors, not how much everyone's prices have gone up since COVID) make sense in that light. People sending their kids to a private school expect to pay more. People starting a private micro-school could be willing to pay more to micro-school than to homeschool because the budget and labor would be split with others and the overall cost would be less than a traditional private school. Making the homeschooling side of it more expensive and overloaded with time-sucking extracurriculars for us plebians could push diehard MFW fans into the micro-school format. More MFW-using micro-schools would undoubtedly mean overall profit increases for the company. I see absolutely nothing to back up the absurd claim that parents who buy minimalistic (basic package) curriculum with which to homeschool are less likely to continue homeschooling long term. If that were true, my mom wouldn't have homeschooled 3 kids to graduation going the cheapest way she could every year. You either believe in the value of homeschooling or you don't. I have never seen anything to back up the claim that most parents WANT to pay more for bigger packages with more irremovable elective options that they didn't get to choose. Therefor it is logical to me to wonder if this whole thing was profit-motivated. I have nothing against making money: I am strongly opposed to both overpricing things and to manipulating people into buying things they don't want or need. 

The whole situation makes me feel rather like my trust in the company was misplaced all along. I was led to believe that they cared about helping everyone homeschool no matter how poor they are or how simple they need to make it to have it work for their family. Now I see a company which has done a 180 to support and push for micro-schools even OVER homeschooling and cater to those homeschooling parents who are more well-off financially. Feels like a bait-and-switch. 

Will I ever use the materials I bought from them again? Some of them, yes. As I think I have mentioned before in other posts, some of the package components didn't work for us and some of the books I found to be questionable in content. However many of the various components were very educational and enjoyable. Most of what MFW sells are items that are curated from various other companies. I own K, 1st, Adventures, and the whole Family Cycle already and had bought extra student sheets for many of them along the way, so I may well use these packages again at some point. I would say it's even probable that I would use something I liked and own and even have backup consumables for and had always intended on using again. It's not that I think the product has no merit, I just can't support things with my money that I feel are predatory, dishonest, ineffective, useless, wasteful, etc. and in my personal opinion some of those negative descriptions apply to some of the products they offer in packages that you can't take apart. I have begun to feel uneasy about MFW as a company in the last few years, uneasy about their current advocation of micro-schools over homeschools, uneasy about trusting them to buy their packages blind and know that I'm not going to be giving money to companies producing spiritually-questionable products. Therefore I will indeed continue to use what components I already own that I don't find morally or spiritually questionable, but will I buy from them again? Very unlikely. If I liked a component that much I would go to the company that actually produces it and buy it there. 

And on that note, I will say I have been very grateful for the wide variety of curriculum brands that MFW has exposed me to. I have been able to find many wonderful things that suit my family very well after hearing/trying the brand name through MFW. For that, I will always be grateful, and for the good memories from the years it was the perfect fit for my family. I simply no longer wish to support what I've been seeing from them in the last few years. 

Mind Your Info Sources (Bad Advice)

Since the whole COVID thing, I have seen so much sketchy advice on homeschooling being dished out and then swallowed hook, line, and sinker by hundreds of new homeschoolers! And by "sketchy" I mean people talking like they're seasoned experts but they've only been homeschooling a preschooler and a Kinder for 2 months. Or the "advice" they are giving is a trendy new buzzword they barely understand and this may or may not be a) applicable in the situation or b) something they can/do explain correctly. Or maybe they're doling out absolutes as if humanity was a batch of gingerbread men from the same cookie cutter. 

Here are a few of the most problematic types of advice I've seen in the last few months. 

1. The Blind Leading The Blind 
This is where you have a bunch of fresh new homeschoolers who decide to start a business (paid or not) or social venture based on their brand new homeschooling status. Among these you have a bunch of mommy-bloggers taking to the internet to tell others how to do it, photo and video loggers showing you their perfectly arranged elaborate and mind-numbingly colorful mini-classrooms at home, and those who start making jillions of free worksheets and printable activities that they have not even tested or tried out on one single kid yet before they put them out there to the whole wide world as a legit curriculum. Now, I don't think one needs a degree in order to teach or write curriculum, especially for Primary and Elementary grades. You might be extremely knowledgeable and have no skill for conveying that knowledge to little brains, or you might be an excellent teacher who has never attended college day in your life, and frankly teaching your own kids is totally different than teaching a group or teaching someone else's kids. BUT if you're taking advice it's wise to take it from someone who is AHEAD of you on the same path. You wouldn't hire someone to make your wedding cake who started decorating cakes for the first time 3 months ago. You wouldn't even hire someone who has only ever made flat cakes to make a tiered wedding cake, no matter how long they've been doing it. Likewise if you want GOOD solid homeschooling advice, look to homeschoolers who have homeschooled BEYOND the grade you need help with (not people who are still figuring it out at the same level you are). If you're struggling to homeschool a 5th grader with ADHD then your best advice won't come from someone who is also in their first year of homeschooling a 5th grader. Your best advice would come from someone who has homeschooled the grade you're struggling with plus at least a full year longer (depending on the circumstances, to know if the solutions they came up with worked longterm), and has experience with ADHD. And don't just grab up random printable worksheets because they're free and pretty if you don't know anyone who has used them and experienced that it didn't put their kiddo BEHIND for the following year. I don't have a problem with an average mom writing a curriculum, but I do kind of have a problem with them putting it out there for the world before testing and proofreading it. Be careful where you get your materials and where you get your advice. 

2. Deschool or Die 
"De-schooling" is a new buzzword for an old concept, but now everyone is throwing the word around without thinking through whether it actually applies to the situation and barely understanding what it even means. It's like it's become the default "Homeschooling: Step 1" so people are telling each other to do it just because. Deschooling is deprogramming. It's de-programming them from the way it's done in a mass educational institution. The de-programming might take a day, a week, or all summer. It's a time for the child to get un-used to being told every minute what to think and when to move and what to say, and to re-learn the natural childhood curiosity and ability to play and learn naturally. Time to get to go use the restroom without raising their hand and ask any question at any time. Unfortunately I've seen so many people who are saying their kids have been out of school all summer and >insert question about homeschooling< followed by dozens and dozens of replies telling them the first thing they need to do is deschool. Uh... What was all summer then? If you don't know WHAT deschooling IS and what it's FOR then stop telling others to do it. (And as an aside, what's the point of deschooling at all if you're going to make a little replica school in your house and do it just like public school? Instead, embrace that this NOT being public school gives you SO many perks and advantages!) 

3. The Unschool Cure-All 
Like "deschooling," this thing called "unschooling" has taken a monopoly on the replies to I-have-a-problem questions by new homeschoolers, and the sad thing is that many of the ones suggesting unschooling as the solution have almost no experience with it (least of all the college-end results thereof) and a vast majority of those advocating unschooling have totally different definitions for it from one another. One will say unschooling is simply lessons built on the child's interests - basically DIY-as-you-go. Another will tell you unschooling means NO textbooks at all, just manipulatives and nature! Yet another will tell you that you'll need textbooks for math at least, but you should do without them for the other subjects as much as you can. Even still someone else will chime in that it's not about whether you use curriculum or not, it's more of an environment and attitude of learning. And finally someone will tell you it's none of that, it's where your child teaches themselves based on what they want to learn and you are merely the provider of resources for your child's self-teaching.
With all this confusion and so many definitions, we can't legitimately say that "unschooling" is beneficial or even that it works, since we can't even corral it down to a method. By some of those definitions I have unschooled some of my kids at times, and by others I have never done so. I suggest people define their version of it when they suggest it, as well as stating WHY they believe it will help. If I post saying, "My kid hates science. What do I do?" and people just keep saying "unschool," then how do I know if they mean to let her just learn science from playing in the yard or to let her do what she wants and I only step in to provide materials or to find more interesting science or to just teach science without textbooks... or should I write my own curriculum from scratch based on her current interest in butterflies. Ask. Tell. Unschool is a million things to a million people and far from being a cut-and-dried method/style. It would also be really great if people suggesting unschooling would take into consideration whether the asker has to fulfill laws requiring a detailed curriculum list and lesson plan for the whole school year at the beginning of it. In cases like that, any form of unschooling could be challenging, since the one thing about unschooling that seems pretty universal is that it should be flexible and adaptable to the child at any given time - but then, in my personal opinion, ALL homeschooling methods should have at least a degree of this aspect by virtue of being homeschooling at all. 

4. My Way or the Highway 
This would be careless advice, given by those in homeschooling freedom states to those who may be from much stricter states as though the laws of stricter states don't exist. I've seen people tell others that they don't need to file a NOI when the advising party doesn't because they live in a free state but the advisee actually does and if they don't they could get CPS called on them and their kids taken away.
This would ALSO apply to the careless advice of those from stricter states telling others (who may be from very free and unregulated states) that they HAVE TO or CAN'T do this or that thing when homeschooling. We really need to keep in mind that talking to others on the internet about homeschooling is a different thing than talking to our friend or neighbor in our home state. The laws vary widely so if we don't know, we should point people to someone who can help them find out what the laws where they live are; HSLDA for example.
This could also apply to the advice of those who believe their chosen curriculum is the best one in the world for everyone. No curriculum is the absolute best. It might well be the absolute best for YOU or for those guys over there, or for this kid here, but no single curriculum is the absolute best for every human. It's impossible. Humans aren't identical to one another and they don't learn the same way or think the same way or like the same things. This kiddo with ADD might do super great with a computer based education, and his twin with ADHD might be too ramped up and distracted by any and all screens to use any for school time. So when people ask what the "best" curriculum is, that's arbitrary. One of my kids uses a science program that is supposedly one the best, top, cream of the crop homeschool science programs out there. While she does well with it, her brother didn't do well with it and retained very little. It's just not the way he learns. But since we homeschool, every one of my 6 kids can have a totally different science program that suits the way they learn best. There is no one-size-fits-all in homeschooling. Embrace the adaptability! 

5. Credentialed Know-It-All 
Kind of a catch-all of aspects of the other categories; beware the advice of people who have a compulsion to answer every question about everything homeschool related as though they are at the forefront of all knowledge and research on this topic by merit of having a blog or a teaching/development degree or a special needs child or gifted child or 40,000 followers on their YouTube channel. I do not doubt they have their areas of expertise and are very helpful therein, however just because you know a lot about something or a little about a lot of things doesn't make you a guru. You might know some great methods for teaching phonics but that doesn't mean you have a default law degree and just because you have a genius 3 year old who reads doesn't mean you have the right to act like all 3 year olds would be able to read if only they were taught your way. I'm not talking gentle suggestions and "this worked for my cousin so maybe you could look into it and see if you like it," I'm meaning those people who act like they personally know all the things all the time. Beware of advice from those who can't resist not staying in their lane. 

6. Never Enough
These are the folks who are always saying they "had to supplement" and insinuating you will too! Like oh we tried that one but we were done in an hour a day so it was obviously not good enough because it wasn't taking all day and therefore we HAD to add things to it. And they tell everyone else they see talking about that curriculum that it's not enough and that the users will soon see that they will *have to* supplement too. Let me just set the record straight here: Getting it done in a short amount of time is one of the perks of homeschooling and is not, by ANY stretch of the imagination, an indicator that it's less effective. In fact, I'm strongly of the opinion that in most cases, less is more. And what I said before about curriculum not working equally well for every human also applies. So maybe your child was bored and wanted more and so your supplementing wasn't at all wasted, but someone else's kiddo might be overwhelmed and something light and fast would be just the ticket. One size does not fit all and more is not default better. Don't be discouraged by anyone saying they "had to supplement" if the curriculum in question looks like a good fit to you. As them WHY they had to supplement - most of the time you'll get little more than "it wasn't enough for my kid" or "we were getting done too fast." At the risk of sounding like a broken record (do people even still know that idiom? I'm not even that old...), getting done quickly is a PERK of homeschooling and is by NO means an indicator that the curriculum is insufficient!! And your kid isn't their kid isn't his kid isn't her kid; they are all different and some (dare I say, in my opinion, MOST) kids actually RETAIN more from shorter lessons. 

7. Public School Clone At Home 
There are some who cling to the public school methods and preach them as if those were the measuring stick by which we are to judge our homeschools. That having a room dedicated to school is the best way. That desks are better than a table... or the floor, or the trampoline, or upside down from a tree. That P.E. is necessary (all the subjects and topics covered in public school may make it to their "must" list). That the only way to know how your child is doing in their learning is by testing them. That report cards are necessary. That whatever it is, it MUST absolutely HAS to be "accredited" or the kid is never going to get into college. That home-school must be as close as possible to an exact replica of public school because they already plan on quitting homeschool before they've even started and they don't want their child to get un-used to the public school ways. 
Let me just go back through those, starting from the last, the temporary homeschooling one. You could be giving your kid an (albeit temporary) advantage, a leg-up, a head start, a booster, by taking full advantage of the many wonderful benefits of homeschooling (which include more free time, less rigidity, more personalization, a more natural learning environment, etc.), so why would you deliberately choose to tie your own hands (and your child's) behind your back and follow the methods and protocols of a system that was designed to assembly-line educate large quantities of kids as though they aren't individuals and humans? You have a chance to give your child a BETTER education for a year or a few years, don't short yourself or your child by putting your effort toward standardizing (institutionalizing) everything. Embrace the freedom: customize, don't standardize! 
Next, the case for (against) accreditation: Did you know that most public schools are NOT accredited? Do you know what accreditation is? It's a standard by which a school (not a curriculum) can be scrutinized and determined to be above-standard in it's commitment to educating. You can't accredit a book because it has no goals and commitments. It's just a book. NO curriculum itself is accredited. It does not mean if your school is not accredited that it can't issue "credits" for graduation. That's something different. YOU as a homeschool parent, if you're independently homeschooling a high school child, are the one who issues the credits for graduation. It has nothing to do with whether your curriculum is "accredited" or not. Worried about transferring back to a private or public school? As far as grade school and middle school goes, whether you had your child in an "accredited" program or not, I've been told it's up to the school whether they want to take you at your word where your kid is at or have them take a test to see if they place into the grade you say they do. Each individual school board has to make that call. And as for high school, from what I'm hearing it seems that in the US high schools have the right to require your child go start to finish in high school with them. Meaning if you homeschool but want to put your 11th grader in public, you could get one of 3 possible answers and all of them hinge on the whim of your local school board more than this worshipped unicorn of "accreditation." The school can say "sure let's test her," OR "fine if you say she's in 11th she's in 11th," OR they can say "NO can do: she can start 9th and go all the way through or nothing!" <None of that should pass for legal advice. Contact HSLDA. This is just what I've heard from half a dozen US citizens in various states about their experiences putting their older child in public school or BACK into public school after homeschooling. Whichever the case may be, accreditation or the lack thereof shouldn't stop you from picking and enjoying an amazing homeschool curriculum.
Next, let's look at the reasoning behind the inventions of report cards and tests... These were tools designed FOR public schools to fill a need created by the way public schools work. You send your kids there, and they have 30 kids in a room, so the teacher can't sit with each one and know them super well and analyze exactly what their needs/gaps are every minute of every day. And they're not home all day so the parent doesn't know either. The best way to find out how each of them are doing academically and convey it to the parent is to test them and then send home a report card. Time passed and the diagnostic became the goal and now public schools teach kids how to pass the tests - the tests have become the ultimate determining factor of a child's value as a student and that mentality has spilled over into the homes of new homeschoolers because this is the only way they've ever seen it done. Think about it though; if you're the parent and your "class" is your own kids and you sit there seeing your kids' strengths and weaknesses all day every day of the week, then you KNOW where they're at, what they need, and tests/grades are irrelevant. If you WANT them for your own purposes for certain subjects (spelling tests for example) or NEED them to fulfill the laws in your state, so be it, but hopefully some local homeschoolers can eventually bring it to the attention of lawmakers (that these things are pointless for kids whose educator LIVES with them), and get that law amended/removed, leaving it up to homeschool-parent choice, as it should be.
P.E. is pointless in the same way. P.E. (not talking about a health class, talking about the one where we played dodge ball and relay races when what we really wanted was to be outside riding our bikes) was invented when public school got longer and longer, dishing out more homework and sucking up all our weekday playtime. (Yeah I went to public school for a hot minute, before my mom pulled me out, thank God!) Kids were tired from schooling constantly, getting up before dawn to ride the bus with those annoying bus bullies, and all we had was a recess we were too tired to use. To keep kids from getting more overweight and unhealthy than they already were, P.E. was developed to get the kids some exercise every day. P.E. was the band-aid for the lack of physical activity caused by... schools. If you're not duplicating the long hours and lack of physical play time of public schools in your home, then P.E. is redundant and pointless. Like grades and report cards, this is stunningly legally-required in some states despite it's unnecessarity.
And finally, the desks and classrooms. NO they are not in any way superior to your kid doing his math in the sand box or her spelling test while she's hanging upside down from a tree. If you want them, that's fine, you can do it however you want. Just keep in mind that if it's not working and you get better response from kiddo on skip-counting while jumping rope, it's okay to forsake the desk and run (jump) with it. Personally? I have a school room. I do. Shocking right? With desks even! My mom taught us at the table. Or on the floor. Or sitting on the edge of the bathtub with my book in my lap while she shaved her legs. Learning can happen anywhere. Don't think you NEED a school room or desks, because you don't. Don't worry about that Pinterest Homeschooler who wants to tell you your bookshelf next to the dining table is inferior to her 300 square foot classroom in her basement with educational posters and rugs all over the place. You're fine, it's not a race or a contest. This isn't an issue of Better Homes & Classrooms. The BEST homeschool rooms are the ones that are simple, easy to clean, and especially easy for the kids to focus on their lessons in: plenty of natural light, not too many colorful things all over the wall, a select few uncomplicated manipulatives. If your homeschool room looks like a daycare which the alphabet and the rainbow collectively barfed all over, don't be shocked if your kids have mega focus issues. 

8. All Home-Learning Is Homeschooling 
Some people get super offended if you say that their public k12 distance learning is not homeschooling. It is truly not. And it's not because we're snobs and we don't want to let you in the club. Far from it - homeschoolers are in general a friendly bunch who love helping newcomers get their sea-legs on the homeschooling ship. It's because the LEGAL definition of various types of home-education are different, meaning the advice that can be given in good conscience and taken with good results varies between the various headings. For example, If you buy a curriculum or rent access to an online one, the fact that you have the lease of it temporarily or OWN it permanently and YOU as the parent are the one who issues the grades and diploma and writes the transcripts means that is LEGALLY homeschooling and you will need to follow the local laws that apply to homeschooling. In my state I don't need to report anything to anyone but in some states you'll have to send in a Notice Of Intent, in others you have to have a teacher approve your curriculum choices, in some states you'll have a whole long list of hoops you must jump through as a homeschooler. However if you pay an online private school to teach your child online and THEY plan the lessons, issue the grades, write the transcripts, etc. then the laws you must follow are the laws governing attendees of Private Schools, including applicable truancy laws. And if you sign up for the free online distance learning branch of the public school, then you must follow the laws that govern Public School attendees. Broken down that means if your kiddo is doing the public distance learning and misses a Zoom class, they can legally come after you for truancy! And if your child is attending online private school classes and you don't like the grammar they're using because your kid isn't getting it and you have to re-teach it to them yourself after every single class, you can't just switch it out one day because it's not your call, it's the private school's. And if you paid for a year of an online homeschool curriculum and sent in your NOI and are lesson planning and suddenly your computer crashes, you can't demand a free computer from the government to educate your kid with. Homeschooling is defined as education controlled and facilitated by the child's guardian. If someone else is planning it, teaching it, grading it, and you don't have the option to change anything that's not working when you want or need to, then it's probably not homeschooling. If you can change curriculum, adjust assignment guidelines, and change grades any time you need to without being in legal trouble or answering to any other entity aside from your coparent, then it's probably homeschooling. 

Let me know if you can think of any other kinds of bad advice I missed which homeschoolers should watch out for! I might do a part 2 somewhere down the road. :) In the meanwhile, beware of taking (or giving) these kinds of bad advice. Have a great schoolday! You've got this! 

Why Less Is More

So you're planning your child's curriculum, and you've got all the basics: Math and Science and Grammar and Writing. You looked at what the laws require and if it's more than the above you have that all planned out too. You've got ideas for religious studies/Bible, you know you want your child to study Spelling and Handwriting, Literature is a MUST, and you want both a Health course and P.E. - they're different you know! 

You're looking into an immersive World Language program, you've joined a co-op which has the kids memorize and recite as a big part of it, and you have an extensive list of all the online and local offerings for tumbling, ballet, jazz, tap, piano, violin, art, and martial arts to choose from. You have a College Plan started and have bought access to a whole computer program just for keeping track of grades and transcripts. 

You've moved the table into the kitchen and turned the dining room into a classroom. You have 49 posters and charts on the wall (in as many different colors) teaching everything from weather (and appropriate clothing for each) to multiplication to the periodic table of elements. You have a "Family Goals Wall" and you bought desks from IKEA. Your whiteboard/blackboard is so big it would make a public school teacher green with envy. 

There's a schedule on the wall next to the clock that lists an exact time for every change, including bathroom breaks and meals, from 8am to at least 3pm. 

Maybe you even have a class pet or pet plant, a preschool table with built in crayon caddy and a colorful ABC rug, a science center with a microscope, and an educational listening center with audiobooks and classical music. 

Oh and perhaps your oldest child is 3 years old. 

...

None of those things I listed are bad things, themselves, but if you think you need all of them or even a lot of them, you need to take a step back and CALM DOWN. This is not a Pinterest Party, this isn't a contest, it's not a race. And it's most especially NOT public school. 

Trying to replicate public school at home actually negates most of the benefits of homeschooling. 

You can't force a kid to qualify for MENSA by loading them with electives, extracurriculars, and flash card drills. Maybe your child is already gifted... you're thinking that I don't know about gifted kids and that you believe they really truly need ALL this. You would be wrong on both counts. Maybe your child struggles with a learning disability or special needs and you think they need ALL this stuff to stay on track and that I don't know anything about that either. You'd be wrong again. I'm a second generation homeschool mama of 6 kids ages (almost) 4 to (almost) 14. When I was a kid I once stared at a wall for 8 hours making stories in my head and when I realized it was dark out I realized I hadn't done any school yet that day and my mom was not happy. Another time I read a 20 page chapter of a science textbook and couldn't recall one single word by the end. I couldn't spell until I was in 7th or 8th grade. When my firstborn was 13 months old she spoke in 2-word sentences, at 2 she asked me to teach her to read, and when I still hadn't by the time she was 3 she invented an entire phonetic alphabet of glyphs and wrote a story and several letters with them, then she decided she needed to teach me her alphabet so I could read the story and the letters she'd written me. One of my kids has trouble focusing to learn from anything on paper, but you place an engineering challenge in front of him and he's got it solved before he even knows how. Those are a few of many stories of atypical abilities and learning function levels displayed in myself and my children. Trust me, I hear you, I feel your stress. I still believe that in most cases, less is more. 

Have you ever tried to put balls away into a bucket or basket? And when you push "just one more" into the last crevice, all the balls just sort of POP out like popcorn and go all over the place. Then you have to start all over again from scratch. But if you fill the bucket reasonably, the balls stay in and you can even carry the bucket around without spilling them. This applies no matter how well-suited to ball-carrying that bucket is: if you over-fill it some of the balls will fall out all over the place.  

Do you remember "cramming?" Like for a test? For a while you just immerse yourself into test prep and try to temp-memorize as much as you can for that big test on Monday. You cram and cram and cram until your brain is numb, and then you take the test and then what? You forget almost all of it by the following week. How much of what you crammed do you remember today? It was too much all at once and when the pressure to cram for the NEXT test came, you purged some of it, didn't you? To make room for the next cram session. Looking back, was this the best way to truly LEARN or merely the best way to PASS the test? 

What about when your mom would tell you something interesting and low-pressure like, "Uncle Jack bought a motorcycle." Or maybe, "Tonight's carrots are from our garden from the seeds you helped me plant." You would remember those things because you wanted to tell your friend about them. What if Mom said, "After supper I need you to sweep under the table before I let you have a popsicle on the deck." You'd probably remember that too. What if Mom said, "After supper please sweep under the table, clean out your backpack, load the dishwasher, walk the dog, do your homework, and sort your dirty laundry. Don't forget you have a science project due Thursday and you should phone Grandma and wish her happy birthday before it gets too late. I'm going over to Aunt Kate's for an hour and when I get back I expect you to have it all done. If you do a good job I'll let you take a popsicle out to eat on the deck." Popsicle or no popsicle, how much more likely is it that you're going to forget a bunch of stuff on that list because there was just too much on it? If this routine continues for 3 days, how likely is it that on day 4 you remember that if you sweep under the table you can have a popsicle for dessert, vs. if you do >insert long list without forgetting anything< you can have a popsicle for dessert? When your kids ask you 20 years down the road, "Did you have to do any chores when you were my age?" which scenario is more likely to bring total recall? Or a bad memory... 

Now think about your goals for homeschooling. Do you want an atmosphere of temporary cramming or one of lifelong learning? Children were designed to learn through play. What happens if you take a creature which is literally built to learn through play, and convert all or most of their play time into hours in which they have charts and worksheets and memorization and recitation and drills drills drills? This will negatively affect focus, memory, engagement, and both mental and physical health. Is it more important that they can multiply at 5 years old or that they are healthy and happy and can observe in nature worms in mud and birds in nests and caterpillars into butterflies? 

Have you heard of being snow-blind? That's when there's bright snow on everything so your eyes can only see white and can't make out the shapes that would tell you what's under it. You can only see the brightness and it's like being blind and lost and what you are looking at is devoid of meaning. When you put 472 charts on the wall in bright primary colors, you're making your child 'snow-blind' to the charts. There are too many of them and they blur together and mean nothing. In the case of a child with attention deficit or one easily overstimulated/with sensory issues, you're literally SCRAMBLING their brains with all that wall stuff! How can they be expected to focus on their lessons with that many "look at me!" colored charts all over the place! Charts can be GREAT but try this: decide a small number of charts to have, 1-3 at a time perhaps. Start with 1 chart. Introduce it, the purpose, how it will be used. Go over it daily. A month later add another, or replace the first one. Or if your student is old enough to have a binder, either put the charts in the binder for reference after you're done having them on the wall, OR keep the charts in the binder from the beginning INSTEAD of having them on the wall, small 1-page versions, and go over them at a specific time of day so that they can be put away for the rest of the day where they're not distracting or disorienting. 

Here's my suggestion. Write down the required subjects, legally, for your locale. Then for the rest of the possibilities of classes and studies, TRY to cross off as many as possible. Don't think of it as depriving your child of tumbling: think of it as FREEing them. You're giving them more time on the trampoline. Don't think of it as depriving them of the memorization co-op, think of it as freeing them up to observe science outdoors with their own eyes. You're not depriving them of P.E., you're giving them the gift of more time for climbing trees. 

What if your kiddo is UNDER the age of compulsory attendance? (Which is around 7 in most US states- obvs. check your local laws.) Just let them play! Unless they are asking you "teach me this," just let them learn life skills alongside you and play play play. Don't start school with a little one just because you CAN, actually have a reason based on their showing of desire and readiness for it before you sit them down with a lesson in mind. Once they start formal education, they have to keep progressing every year. They can never go back to when they were little and free, when play was their whole job and their life-school. So let them have it while they are little, before it's gone! It's a gift we often overlook the preciousness of. 

Older students are less interested in climbing and running around outdoors, but you and they will know far better by then what their long-term interests are, what they might need or want to take with them into their adult lives. It's not too late to start Karate and Piano lessons at 13, or 30. Think about it: Kids who start training for a career path at 2-6 years old aren't able to wisely choose what suits them best. It's their caregiver choosing for them, it's not their choice, though they might think it is. They haven't had enough time to play and explore and live, the basis on which they can decide what they find interesting enough to pursue. So don't base your little ones' educational plans on what they might be like as a teenager. Don't plan a life on nervous what-ifs, especially not someone else's life. 

It's popular now to say we should let teens do stupid things, fail, make mistakes, engage in risky behavior, because once they're legal age they'll need to sober up and be adults. I disagree. First of all even adults fail and make mistakes. Second, they should be horsing around at age 5 and at least starting to try not to do stupid risky things anymore by age 15. Are teens behaving more and more immaturely these days because their play time is taken away earlier and earlier when they are toddlers, I wonder? I'd prefer my child act the fool at 5 than 15, if they must. And they'll be less inclined to act a fool at all if they have proper and healthy outlets for their wildness such as digging in the dirt, climbing trees, running with the dog, building a playhouse with Dad, baking cookies with Mom... 

Less is more. 

Less is more. 

Less rigidity means more flexibility. 

Less planned subjects means more time for spontaneous teaching or learning moments. 

Less charts on the wall means more focus - and more engagement with what IS important enough to be on the wall. 

The less like public school it is, the more homeschool-unique advantages there are to enjoy. 

Less seatwork means more exercise. 

Less forced memorization means more time to make memories. 

I'm not saying to avoid desks, school rooms, charts, lessons, memorization, etc.! I'm saying don't overload your kid. Less is more. Even the gifted child will get overwhelmed with a crammed schedule and their clever little brain will decide to shut down for a while and take a break from the scheduling. Just like if you click too many keys on your computer at once it will protest and freeze up. Less at a time, less pressure = better results. 

Less is more, fellow homeschool mamas. It really is. 

P.S. Check out this pinboard of what NOT to do.

Rooms that try to duplicate public school spaces at home and walls with too much color and chaos that would be great for a hype-me-up playroom but horribly distracting for a study space.