Are you ready for school? Have you filled out the Home Education Notification Form? Are you confused on what exactly is point number 6 and how is that different from point 7? After all, these are to be attachments along with the notification form and it can be confusing. This point states that you will “provide a brief outline of the intended curriculum for the current year.”

The word curriculum might have you confused since the term is interchanged with the textbooks, commercial curricula, and basic teaching materials that are listed in point 7. I Googled the word to the exact meaning and it says, “the subjects comprising a course of study in a school.” Did a lightbulb and a, “Oh! I see now!” just happen for you? 🙂

In case it is still not clear, I will continue… This does not need to be pages of everything you are intending to have your son/ daughter study this year because there are the crucial words brief outline included in the statement and that was intentional. So, let me give you an example of what that looks like. If you have a third-grade student and you plan on using Bob Jones Science as your main textbook, you can list three or four topics instead of copying the entire Table of Contents.  The topics that are studied throughout the year are animals, the solar system, skin, photosynthesis, sound, weather, rocks and minerals, motion, and food chains. Choose four from that list to use on your outline. Perhaps you are going to study clouds and weather patterns for a week, or your daughter/son is a rockhound and loves discovering fossils and reading books about them; you are going to plant a garden, and you are going to go to the planetarium and are going to watch a Brain Pop video about the solar system. Terrific!  Choose those the topics (weather, rocks and minerals, photosynthesis, solar system)  to list for your outline. The school is looking to see that you have given thought to the topics you are going to teach and are prepared.

Point number 7 requires that you submit “a list of textbooks, correspondence courses, commercial curricula or other basic teaching materials that you (the parent) intend to use for home education. ” After hours of research, talking to other homeschool families, reading reviews, and scouring the internet for what you think is the best curriculum for your student, this is the easy part! You’ve got this! You list what you are going to be using throughout the year to educate your child. If you are using My Father’s World, Teaching Textbooks, Reading Eggs, Liberty’s Kids videos, and library books, that will be great! The school is not looking at whether you are using the latest edition of a textbook. They are looking to see that you have given thought as to what you are using to teach your student.

How you decide to list points 6 and 7 is up to you. I wrote each of the subjects I was teaching and then listed the topics we were intending to study that year (point 6). On a separate piece of paper, I listed the books, videos, and a general statement of various library and internet resources since we used these resources extensively.