Manisha Snoyer's Expert Tips for Tailoring Your Child’s Education: Navigating the Curriculum Maze

Foreign. Hi everyone, I'm Manisha and this is Teach youh Kids. If you're tuning in for the first time, this is a podcast about how to customize your child's education to meet their unique needs. And I am really psyched to talk about one of my favorite topics, which is curriculum. I have spent the last three years reviewing and vetting thousands of different homeschool curricula and tools to help supplement children's education. I've talked to hundreds of families, some of you might not be aware. During the pandemic, I actually started a nonprofit called schoolclosures.org and the purpose of this organization was to support any family who was suddenly homeschooling for the first time. So it really gave me the opportunity to talk to a wide, wide variety of families and help identify what were their children's needs and what types of curricula work best for their child. So I am really happy that I get to share some of this information with you today. So the first thing that I think is really critical when you are looking at homeschooling curricula is to choose a main curricula and a math supplement. And there's a lot of really great full curriculum available. And when I say full curriculum, that means curriculum that covers all the subjects. You can kind of feel confident that your child is going to be learning what they would at school in English, language arts, history, science, you name it. So that's all of your subjects. But then math is a very tricky subject to teach. I'm sure that some of you have experienced that your child really dislikes math, or conversely, that they're very bored at math in school and they are ready for more challenging, more exciting math. And it's just different than other subjects. For example, with math, it's really important that you layer on subjects in a particular sequence so that children have the foundation, for example, of addition before they move on to multiplication, etc. Pre algebra before algebra. Not to say that there aren't really wonderful math concepts you can explore, not in that particular order. But mastery based curriculum tends to be more effective for those foundational subjects that you need in order to be able to problem solve in math. So math is very tricky to design. And just a lot of the research that I've done in homeschool curriculum has involved just reviewing thousands and thousands of comments from parents in homeschooling curriculum groups, seeing especially what teachers had to say about certain curricula, whether there were errors, whether children were learning well, et cetera. And one common Pattern I've seen from almost all homeschooling parents is that they really, really advise you choose a curriculum specifically designed for math in addition to your full curriculum. Because it's just, it's hard to design math well. And it's good if the people who are designing the math curriculum are fixated on that one area. Fixated is a strong word, but if you've met in any kind of curriculum developer or app developer, you will understand what I mean by that intense level of focus to really get it right for the children. So what are we looking for when we're looking for homeschooling curriculum? Well, first of all, I think it's really important to find curriculum that's fun. What's so exciting is that there are just so many options available now. I mean, we have great physical curriculum, but we also have all of these amazing digital learning apps that people are working on. And we have Khan Academy, kind of launched the whole idea of learning apps, but we also also have Google and YouTube and just tons of different literacy and math apps that people are building for children. So there are just so many tools that have been specifically designed to support parents teaching their children at home. And, you know, and some of them are just more fun than others. And what we know is when children are loving learning, they're just much more motivated to learn. I mean, I think that you and I are the same. I mean, if you need to learn a new skill for work like financial modeling, you would probably want to go to a teacher who's more engaging. Or perhaps you're somebody who learns best by doing apps. Maybe you'd want to find a really fun app that taught you how to build a financial model. I'm not even sure if something like that exists. And the same is true with children. So really looking for fun. And then of course, we want the curriculum to be well designed. And so especially when it comes to math and English language arts, I do really look for curriculum that's mastery based. So rather than having a ton of quizzes or tests, the curriculum is designed in such a way that children have mastered the material before they move on to the next level. A lot of the digital learning apps do that for us. They just give children more and more problems until they're ready and then they can move on to the next. But that is also built into other curricula where children can do more and more exercises at a certain level until they're ready to move on mastery based curriculum and, and some sort of scaffolding so that you're laying a foundation to move on to the next topic. So I'm looking, when I look at curriculum, I'm looking for tools that are fun to use. That's just really vital because you don't want to have a battle over learning. And then the next thing we're looking for is that it's mastery based or some subjects don't necessarily need to be as mastery based. Science or history, literature can be a little bit more exploratory, but still, I mean, if you're learning to read, you're going to want to start with somewhat easier and move on to hard. So looking at those two components, so very fun. Mastery based, some scaffolding. And then another important aspect, what I look for when I'm vetting curriculum is simply accuracy. And it's really kind of shocking. All of the curriculum I recommend I've had my students test, so spent two years in the pandemic teaching children ages Pre K through 12th grade and trying out different curricula with them, seeing if they got engaged or not. We just found tons of errors in a lot of the curriculum. That's something to keep in mind. If you have a math curriculum, you want to make sure that there aren't errors in the math problems or things aren't being taught wrong. I will say I come from a perspective of scientific understanding. I try to leave the religious teaching out of school. I think that it's important to have those scientific foundations. And then if you want to teach your child moral values or religious principles that is separate from their education. I look for materials that teach evolution, that climate change is real, that teach children how to do deduction. So that is my perspective. I mean, if you don't believe in those things, then that is your business. But I feel that science is really not taught in a great way in school and that it's a human right to understand how to problem solve, how to use scientific understanding. I don't think that evolution and climate change conflict with religious principles. I think that part of the beauty of spirituality is curiosity and discovering this incredible, wonderful, mysterious universe. However, you might believe it was created. So just to keep that in mind, I do really, when I'm looking at recommendations for curriculum, I do focus on secular groups that are looking for things that are scientific. Evolution is real, climate change is real, and they're really using evidence based materials because even beyond that, and I don't think this is a liberal or a conservative thing, but there really isn't any sort of governing body that vets these materials and that's the great thing about homeschooling is that you can be the person who vets them. But for instance, I'm really lucky. I went to a Montessori school where they taught us how to do research. And one principle of research is that when someone says a fact, you look at what was the source of the fact, what was the study, how was it conducted? What were the assumptions? Did they test all of their assumptions? Who funded that resource? Who funded that research? One of my pet peeves is that a lot of people circulate homeschool studies that were funded by the Homeschool Legal Defense association or another pro homeschooling group. I just feel like those studies are not going to give a full picture of what homeschooling is like because they have too much bias. It's great that those surveys are being done that can inform us, but I wouldn't put put a survey that was funded by a homeschool organization to prove that homeschoolers are learning better. For example, when you are looking at these materials, it can be useful to see who created them and are they based on scientific understanding? That's a lot. One of the things that I've done is I've gone to these big homeschooling groups and I've just read thousands and thousands of comments from parents. And when someone asks for a science curriculum recommendation, I look at what science teachers have to say about that curriculum. And if it is evidence based, I look if they are rooted in scientific understanding, just to move it back here. We're looking for fun materials, materials that are accurate, that are rooted in scientific understanding. The other thing that I look for is that the materials have an inclusive view of history and literature. This is not a politically correct thing, but it turns out that we live in a country where there are very diverse populations and slavery is a huge stigma on our society. It's a horrible wrong that's influenced what our society has become. And it's important for children to learn about that part of history. It's important for children to learn about black history, about Asian history, about women's history. And the reality is, is that in most schools, the history and literature curriculum is very biased towards white male history. And whatever you feel about that, I think that you can see the value in having a broader and deeper understanding of history than just showing one person's perspective. So in addition to materials that are rooted in scientific understanding, we see materials. We are looking for materials that are representative of all the cultures and the histories that are part of the United States. And if you live outside of the United States, this homeschooling community is actually in 60 countries. You'll be wanting to look at materials that reflect the diversity of your own country. What's really shocking, it's amazing what slips into these. I'll just give an example. I was looking at a very popular curriculum. I think it's called, I don't know, easy peasy homeschooling. It's maybe lightly advertised as a Christian curriculum. I'm not sure. Very popular. Just as an experiment, I did some research on homosexuality and there was a multiple choice question saying, according to this Bible passage, is homosexuality a sin? Basically, the multiple choice answers in this one question hidden away in the text was implying that homosexuality was a sin. And, you know, I believe that everybody should love who they want to love. I think that some of the homophobia we see in schools and is incredibly detrimental to our children's health leads to suicide. And I just want to warn people that this kind of stuff is hidden. Another example, you know, I'll just say the name Life of Fred is a math curriculum. Well, who would know this seemingly innocent math curriculum? I was looking at, researching it in a homeschooling group saying, oh, it's funny, I never heard of this one before. And a parent who had done the whole math curriculum pointed out that there were some very sexist questions. For example, there was a math question where I don't know the name, but, you know, Jo wanted to lose weight so she could look pretty for her husband Sam. How many pounds did she have to lose? You know, and it's just, it's, it's, it's the wild west out there when it comes to her curriculum. Because personally, I would not want my child to be getting those negative body images from their math curriculum. But how would you know in this 100 page textbook that there were these little biased questions hidden in like that? I mean, it's absurd. So one of the things I've done, looking at curriculum is just making sure that there aren't harmful biases that, that are just hidden within the curriculum. Another thing that you really need to look out for when you are evaluating curriculum is one thing that happens a lot is that they won't say evolution didn't happen or they won't say climate change isn't real. They will say that they are neutral on that topic. They neither confirm nor deny that evolution is real, Neither confirmed or deny that climate change is happening. What's harmful about this is that 99.99,999 Scientists say that climate change is real. The science of climate change is quite simp. Textbook presents it in this way of, you know, 50% say it's real, 50% say it's not. It's actually not rooted in scientific understanding. It's framing the question in a way that makes it seem like there are these two sides, when actually it's 99.99% of scientists and some other people who are still claiming that it isn't true without a lot of evidence. And so what's challenging is that because these curricula, there's all these corporate interests involved in the curriculum in school, what's happening in Florida is really crazy with the curriculum that's being allowed in schools that is not based on scientific understanding. But a lot of these homeschooling curricula have realized that a big part of their market is people who don't believe that evolution is real, who don't believe that climate change is real, who, for example, this probably will really annoy some people, but who think things like vaccines cause autism, or that there is some conspiracy around wearing masks. And so what they will do is just avoid the topic altogether. They will say we're not going to address climate change, we're not going to address evolution. We're just going to say there are two sides. And for me, that is not education. You are denying a child science when you present it as this two sided issue. And so if you're listening to teacher kids, you probably are someone who believes that evolution is real and that it's informed almost every single part of our lives, that we're evolving as a species. I mean, what is learning but evolution, but an individual evolution within your life? I mean, what is evolution? But it's the ability to heal the trauma of generations. It's the ability to be the first person in 10 generations to get an education. And how can you deny a child that reality and just say evolution might have happened, it might have not, that's not science. And then, you know, with climate change, I mean, climate change is happening. You might have noticed it's really hot outside and there's a variety of different solutions that people are working on, on ranging from we are all in a really terrible position already and so we're just going to need to learn how to live in this horrible new reality and no one's going to survive, to people who are completely confident that we're going to build technology to control our climate. So there's a range of solutions, but climate change is something that's happening. And so I know it's difficult for a child to learn hard truths like this, but that is something that's going to inform their future. Living in a world where there's climate change, it might impact what kind of careers they want to do. It might impact their desire to get involved in political activism. Really think it's critical as parents that we don't deny our children education because we think these truths are hard to swallow. That's a little bit of a tangent, but my point is if you are someone listening, you probably do think it's important to teach children about climate change and evolution. You should be aware that if a curriculum says it's neutral, science neutral, that is not going to teach your child about evolution and climate change. That is not a curriculum that is rooted in scientific understanding. It can feel that all of these things you need to vet for are a lot. However, I have great news for you, which is that I have done most of this vetting for you. As I said in the beginning, at the beginning of the pandemic, when I was starting to research different options for how to support homeschoolers, I decided to join a bunch of different primarily secular homeschooling groups. A lot of these secular homeschooling groups were formed because people were having difficulty finding secular curriculum because of the long history of Christian homeschooling. There just aren't a lot of options. And then the second reason is because people wanted to connect with each other who weren't necessarily going to a church or a mosque per se. So there are these really large groups. And I interviewed Blair Lee, who's the head of C homeschoolers on this podcast, and that group has nearly 100,000 members. Many, many, many of them are teachers. These teachers have decided to homeschool their children because they're not happy with what they're learning in school and think they could do it better themselves. There's also people in that group of PhDs in SC math and are actually world famous scientists, a lot of tech entrepreneurs. So there's just tons of people who have tried every single curricula out there themselves and gone through it with a fine tooth comb to see is it mastery based? Is it rooted in scientific understanding? Does it have good pedagogy? Does it say climate change is real? Are there any religious references whatsoever? Is it fun and engaging for my child? Literally, I've just poured through tens of thousands of these comments in C homeschoolers in other homeschooling groups, and identified which curriculum meet these criteria? Is it rooted in scientific understanding? Is it anti racist and inclusive? Is it saying that climate change is real? That evolution is real? Is it mastery based? From all of the gazillion options out there, I've narrowed it down into about 300 different curricula that meet these standards. Now what I want to do is talk you through my process. When a parent comes to me and asks for curriculum recommendations, hopefully this will give you a good starting point. But if you still have questions after listening to this podcast, definitely just email me, join the group and we can help find the right fit for your child. And if you are developing a curriculum, I'm always excited to hear about new things that are available. So in addition to these core standards that I have outlined, fun and engaging scientific understanding, mastery based, sound pedagogy, what I have tried to do is identify which curricula works best for which type of child. Through my process of talking to hundreds of parents, I've actually developed 200 different archetypes of children. And I will and I developed a curriculum planner. You can use it on our website. We'll post in the show notes. It's a free curriculum planner, will always be free. And what I do is I ask parents a series of questions. The first question I ask is how old is your child? This is an obvious question. And you know, different curricula are built for different ages. Clearly there's some variation here. Some children learn to read really early. Kids are gifted in math or maybe they take a little more time. But knowing the age is helpful. The second question I ask is does a child know how to read? And if your child doesn't know how to read and write, this is something that has to happen in order for them to explore different curricula. So this shows me that I need to help the parent find a literacy curriculum. And different literacy curriculums work better at different stages of reading. So if a child child doesn't know how to read at all, they'll get one recommendation versus if they already have a little bit of understanding, they might get another recommendation. The third thing I ask is if a child has any diagnosed learning disabilities or learning differences, however you choose to think about these, I feel like learning differences are a useful framework, but in no way do they encapsulate the entire child. So because I have worked with so many different children with different learning profiles, I've started to understand what types of curricula work better for certain children who have different strengths and challenges, which might be labeled as a learning Disability. It's not the whole story because even within the autism spectrum, there are just so many different kinds of children who are autistic. This manifests in so many different ways within the gifted spectrum. We had Megan Canella on the show and she just talked about the one thing you know about every gifted child is that they're gifted in a different way. And also, many of the times if a child has one learning disability, they might have another, such as autism and dyslexia, or they might be gifted and have sensory processing disorder. Often children will have three or four learning disabilities. If this is the case with your child, fear not. In terms of cognitive diversity, I do find that in general there are certain learning disabilities that dominate, such as dyslexia or autism. And those are the ones that I try to solve for first. I've factored this into my archetypes. The next question I ask, which is one of my favorite questions to ask, is what kind of activities does your child most enjoy? This is a really fun one. Sometimes parents say, well, it's really hard. They love doing all kinds of things. How could I possibly decide? What I like to say is, okay. When your child is fresh, you know, they're in a good mood, they're well nourished, maybe they've had a nap, they're at their prime time of day. And when I think of prime time of day, this is also generally the typical time of day. I recommend doing homeschooling with a child. We will get into it in a little bit, but generally homeschooling with especially math and English language arts or math and a full curriculum. It doesn't need to take more than two hours a day. And for a younger child, it can even take one hour a day. This one on one time is so powerful. The point of saying that is think about the time of day that you would probably be doing that homeschooling. Maybe your child is really fresh when they first get up in the morning, morning and it's 9am they finished their meal. Or maybe you have a child who loves to study at night. Who knows? Or maybe it might be more related to your schedule. Perhaps you have a full time job and you're looking to do this homeschooling time after work, whenever you feel like, is your child's prime time. I know that my prime time is kind of 8 to 11. I just love getting up and writing at that time. It feels so good. My mind is so fresh and I just try to save that time for my most important creative work. You know, so, so what? So what is your child's favorite activity? So a good way to think about this is in that prime time of day, if you said, hey, do whatever you want right now, what would your child choose? And it could be a huge range. I mean, some parents will sheepishly say, oh my gosh, if I just let them do what they want, they would just play video games all day. And then I'm super excited because I know so many curricula that are like video games. Or they might say, oh my gosh, all my child wants to do is play outside. If they have the chance, they just want to go to the park and run around. And that's such great information because maybe we'll choose a nature based curriculum or you know, maybe they're going to say, my kid just loves building. They just want to play with Legos all the time. Also great information because there's a certain type of child who is just a builder and there are really great curricula. For example, right start math, where you're using manipulatives. And that kind of child is going to absorb information so well if they're creating something with their hands, maybe your child loves drawing. Wonderful. There are some really creative artistic curriculum that we could draw upon. And so I'm looking at this favorite activity activity and combining it with what I've learned about the learning differences that your child might have expressed or not. If you don't know if your child has a learning disability, that's fine because we can get a lot of good information from this question about if they can do whatever they want, what are they most likely to choose? Then? Moving on from that question, there's some basic preferences. How do you feel about screen time? And I just say, trust your gut. My views on this very generic word screen time have changed a lot, especially when I've met Rachel Thomas and Jeremy Howard. I interviewed both of them on the show. They run the world's largest deep learning course. They've incorporated a lot of online learning with their kids. We really have found ways to make online learning active and engaged. Not all online learning is alike and some of it is very different than other online learning screen times. So I would just say if you feel afraid of screen time, maybe just look into it a little more deeply. But if you really feel that gut sense of, no, this is not right for my child, you just say, no screen time. And I just, you know, I would never push a parent to go with what conflicts with their gut. And when you're thinking about these issues, just try to ask yourself, is this a fear based decision? Am I afraid of screen time or is this something I just really feel in my tummy that this is not a good choice for my child right now? Is this an emotional response? Is this a conditioned response? Or is this my deep inner parent wisdom? And if you've been listening to this show for a while, you, you know that if there is anything that I Learned in my 20 years of teaching over 2000 children meeting their families, it's that parents really do know best. You can have confidence that you understand what your child needs and if what you think they need in that deep calm, certain part of yourself conflicts with what the specialist is saying, listen to your gut. So the other thing is money. Goodness gracious. So great news here is that there's so much free curricula available and you should not be limited in any way by your ability to pay. Now granted, if you don't have an Internet connection, if you don't have a device, that is going to limit your options for sure. And I think one of the biggest crises in education is that so many people don't have access to Internet and that so many people don't have access to devices. There are wonderful organizations like givecomputers.org that can recycle devices and give you a free device. There are a lot of places like that. We will put a link in the chat where you can find an organization like this in your community that donates free devices to to under resourced families. And if this is your situation, you will likely be able to get a device from one of these nonprofits. And if this is an issue you care about, you can look into either funding one of these organizations or just being on the lookout for people in your community who might need a device. During the pandemic, when I led schoolclosures.org, there were school districts that were short 20,000 devices. That's 20,000 children who were trying to learn at home who didn't have access to a Chromebook. Insane. This needs to be fixed. Then in terms of WI fi, again, there are organizations like Spectrum, especially during the pandemic, that were giving free WI fi. But the problem is if families live in a rural area, they might not even be able to get WI fi. You might have to actually put a whole new cable in to be able to get families access to WI fi. So there are workarounds. I mean, there's definitely places that will mail hard copies of curriculum, there's curricula that you can do offline even if you have a device. There are local libraries, but it's a big problem. So this is an issue. If you don't have access to Internet and you don't have a budget for homeschooling, I will say it is harder, but we at Teacher Kids can help. So if that is your situation and you're wondering how you're going to make the curriculum piece work, you live in a rural area, you don't have access to wi fi, you don't have a device, just contact us and we will help you. Just know that there's always, always help if you ask. So now you've decided what your budget is. So let's say you are in a position where you have a device and you still are having difficulty affording, maybe even $4 a month for a literacy app feels like a lot to you. It's really critical to know a few things. First of all, all over Facebook there are these groups that buy and sell used curriculum. So for example, if you want to get Right Start Math, it can cost up to $350 for a full set. If that is not available to you, you can look for Right Start Math used curriculum and you'll often find a parent who is willing to either sell or even give you their used curricula, which is great. So I really recommend just looking for the name of the curricula you want and seeing if there's a Facebook group. The other thing you can do is go on ebay. Ebay has lots of used homeschool curriculum and then if you want to get the curriculum for free, go to your library, ask the librarian if they will order that curriculum or contact the curriculum provider directly. A lot of these programs have a program to get their materials to under resourced families. So for example, we are going to interview Beast Academy again. They just got a huge grant to get subscriptions to Beast Academy out to any family who can afford it. Just so many of these education organizations have a commitment to equity and they believe that education is the key to equity. And if you write them a heartfelt email and say, look, my family is really struggling right now, but I want to help my child learn math or reading, is there any way you could give me a scholarship? Almost 100% of the time they will say yes. At least the people that I know and I'm going to tell you something, if you ask them that and they say no, you send me an email. Because I know a lot of the CEOs of these companies And I will write to them and I will make sure they get you what you need. Because every family should have equal access to the best quality education. I mean that. And you know the good guys, they will get you your curriculum, I promise. Truly. And that is really important to know. Because if a company really does believe in the value of education, to uplift, to enlighten, to create greater equity in society, they should be making sure that no one is deprived of their materials ever, for whatever reason. I mean, even if you want to do Khan Academy, which is free, and you don't have a device to do it on, Khan Academy should be helping you get that device, period. So then, okay, so let's go a little bit back to these learning archetypes. Almost every parent I have ever spoken to, no matter how open minded, if they hear that their friend is using a curriculum that they like, they will want to use the exact same curriculum. So what's the problem with that? The problem is that children are different. And what's lovely about being able to customize your child's education is you can find the curriculum that meets their needs. Even with 12 different children, there's not going to be one curriculum that's best for every child. And as they grow, they will grow out of curriculum. So it's, it's just, it's almost silly to start homeschooling and not choose something that's great for your child. So, so just kind of keep that in mind, you know, for example, you know, we had Near Eyal on the show and his daughter is just brilliant. Near likes to use Beast Academy. But not every child is going to do well with Beast Academy. It's a certain type of child that thrives with that curriculum. And you know, for example, even within Beast Academy, I have noticed that there are a lot of children on the spectrum who didn't like math, who really liked the online version of Beast Academy. However, there were other children in the curriculum who just really can't handle being in front of a screen like that. They get anxious, they get upset. And for them, a curriculum like wild math and wild reading, where they're out in nature, is just so healthy for them. I said before, I recommend a full curriculum and a math supplement, but another route is to do a math program and an English language arts program and then just follow your child's interests for the rest, because math and literacy are the building blocks. And children, once they have those tools of understanding math and literacy, there's a lot more that they can do. So that's Most of my recommendations on curriculum is just make sure that you find something that's rooted in scientific understanding, that is inclusive, that is evidence based, that is fun. And just play around with your child's interests, try different things out, see what works. There's really not a rush necessarily. And another thing that you can do if you want is to find a tool to assess your child's progress. I like the Map Growths test. Homeschool Boss administers it. And Mobybacks can also be a great tool. It measures your child's progress as you go. And you know, curriculum is really the funnest part of homeschooling because you go from a situation where your child isn't really having fun in school, isn't really learning, to making learning their special treat. One of the tools that I like a lot is Prodigy Game and it's an adaptive learning app. So children just start solving math problems and then they get to play these fun little battles. I've had several children of all ages who just thought they were terrible at math. And then when they started playing Prodigy and they weren't competing with other kids, just with themselves, they almost immediately started feeling like they were good at math and that math was something fun, not something that was a chore. And so really, I mean, if there's any kind of unpleasantness when it comes to learning, that is something that can be changed by choosing a different curriculum. I've written a lot more about this topic of curriculum, but I think that it's not something that should make you feel too overwhelmed. And you can always go on different Facebook groups and talk about your child, say, hey, I have a 9 year old with ADHD. He really dislikes reading. We think he might have dysgraphia, but he just is obsessed with Pokemon. He'll be really shocked. You'll see, someone else will say, oh, my child is 12 now, but when he was a 9 year old boy, he also had ADHD and dysgraphia and loved Pokemon. And we found, found this curriculum for him that was so fantastic. So that can be a really fun way to identify what tools might work for your child. And the other aspect of this is just try the curriculum planner I made. Honestly, it works so well. It's been a really helpful tool for families. Find a math curriculum, an English language arts or full curriculum. Get started with those slowly and then you can layer on and start finding other curricula that are interesting for you, for you, whether that's music or dance or any other subject that your child has shown an interest in. I definitely recommend leaving large blocks of time for self directed learning where you either take your child to the library or on a field trip or, you know, whatever their interest is or, and also expose them to new interests and they can go quite far in that approach. So scheduling is not really an issue we go into in this aspect episode. I'll just you say that most of the families I've worked with set aside an hour for math, an hour for English language arts when their child is really fresh, and then start layering in other subjects, play dates. And I mean, you'll just be astonished at how far your child can go with that one on one time. So one more thing to say as we wrap up is that I know that a lot of you, you might be afraid of teaching math because you don't think that you are good at math yourself. I have some good news for you. So first of all, the best kind of homeschooling happens when you're learning with your child as opposed to trying to teach them something. And so in some ways, not being good at math yourself is a bit of an advantage because you can struggle learn and your child can watch you struggle and learn. And that way they'll start to develop learning techniques and they'll be inspired by seeing you push through difficulty. And that's just, I mean, it's such a wonderful way to inspire a child. Second practical piece of good news is that there are so many homeschoolers now that these, these curricula are not designed for a teacher to use with a child. They're designed for a parent of any ability to use with their child. They're designed for you. So anyone, no matter what your level of math, can actually use these tools with your child. They are curriculum specifically designed for homeschooling. One last thing is that there's been a lot of research done on how people learn and, and there's zero evidence that something such as not a math person exists. If you are capable of creating a family budget, if you know how many coins to take out when you buy bread, is that a thing? I think most people swipe their credit card. If you've ever, you know, walked into the bank and gotten a loan, if you have looked at the trees and marveled at the shape of the leaves and you know, math, and we are capable of learning new skills at any age. The brain is highly plastic. So just because you didn't learn math well in school, just because your school math experience was traumatic for you, that doesn't mean you're not a math person. And the more you start deconstructing that false belief about yourself, the more likely your own child is going to start to see themselves as someone who is capable of capable at math. So that's great. And now you will learn all the math that you didn't learn in school. And your child, if you didn't learn at school, your child is probably not going to learn at school. So now is the great opportunity for you both to learn math, which is such a fun and exciting subject and so useful to us all. So I hope that this has been a useful introduction into curricula. There are so many wonderful curriculum that have been developed and I will just, I guess I will just throw out some of my favorites. But bear in mind that it's really about what is best for your unique child. So one of my favorite math programs is called Beast Academy. They have these comic books for learning math that are mastery based. They are much more focused on understanding concepts and how to problem solve as opposed to memorizing formulas. So they're just incredibly effective at teaching math. They were designed for gifted kids, but actually suit a number of different learning modalities very well. Because they are designed for gifted kids, they generally recommend start a level or 2 lower than what you might be doing in a typical, typical school if you've left a typical school environment and then find that right level of challenge. We really want to keep kids where they are feeling like they're challenged but not overwhelmed, like they can't do anything. That's the zone of proximal development. So Beast Academy has these great comic books. So if your child loves comic books, they're probably going to love Beast Academy books. And then they also have an adaptive learning app, which is so cool because the app has videos and also has problems. And if a child gets a problem wrong, they give them a new problem. So the app is actually measuring their progress as they go and making sure that they progress at the right rate. And I have seen so many children, children who are gifted, especially children who are on the spectrum, just absolutely love Beast Academy and get so, so into it. It's such a fun tool and you can engage with your child, you can't. You don't have to just put them in front of the screen and have them start learning Beast Academy. You can go along with them. So those are really great. And one thing I do want to say is that some kids love the Beast Academy books and some love the online version. And some kids love the online version and can't stand the books and totally vice versa. Great example of those different kinds of learners. Another curriculum that I love is Wild Math and Wild Learning. It's developed by a friend of mine. I actually became friends with her after discovering the curriculum. There's a data point and it's just this amazing nature based curriculum. She was a special needs teacher. Her child had dyslexia. They weren't learning reading in school. She developed these amazing tools where families can go out in nature and learn with their kids. They'll learn how to count by putting sticks in order or they will learn how to read by, you know, getting stones and making the letter A. It's, it's just so cool. And that goes all the way up to fifth grade. So if your child loves nature, they're creative, that can be a great choice. I also want to highlight Blossom and Root, another wonderful nature based curriculum that is just so wonderful for children who are artsy and love, love poetry and love playing outside. They have one of the best science programs out there that's very hands on. And it's another beautiful nature based curriculum that's very easy for any parent or really any babysitter to use with children. And they've intentionally not created a math curriculum because they know how hard math is to do. So you could do, for example, Blossom and Root and supplement that with Wild Math as your curriculum if your child loves nature. Another curriculum I love, and I have to say I recommend it to many parents, is Torchlight. Torchlight is a literature based curriculum. So your child is mostly going to be reading different books to learn all the different subjects from history and literature to science. And what's really cool is that they have an audio component so you can just put it on the car. Maybe you have to drive around a lot for your job. Maybe you're an Uber driver or you know, you're doing some kind of delivering food to people as your job. You can just put torch light on in the car, put your kid in the car and learn in the car. It's car schooling. And there are certain types of kids, not me, who just love podcasts, love listening, and are just obsessive obsessed. They are obsessed with torchlight and listening to this audio component. I love these multimodalities that Torchlight has incorporated. Then you can also have these beautifully designed curricula for certain learning needs. NESSE is designed for children with dyslexia and it's an adaptive learning app that teaches literacy. It's just such a great fit. If your child has been diagnosed with dyslexia or is having trouble reading, that's another favorite. And then on the other side, there are some kids who just love workbooks. A lot of kids think they're really boring, but some kids love them. So for example, Singapore math is a great option if your child loves workbooks. It also is really challenging. It's mastery based, it's accurate and it has manipulative. So it has that hands on component. And honestly some people find it really boring and other kids love it. So that can be a great option as well. And then of course there's options for older kids to build your libraries and other wonderful literature based curriculum. Thinkwell is awesome for math at the higher levels. They just have really compelling videos beyond this English language arts curriculum and the math curriculum you can really explore. For example, your child might just want to watch a bunch of educational YouTube videos and you can discuss them together and start to build your own curriculum. Or you might want to watch a documentary once a week as a family. So really think about that. Does my kid love videos? Do they love listening to things? Do they love playing outside? And you can bring in different activities that cater to that type of learning and remember that that learning might change. And you know, it almost seems cliche at this point, but if your child loves basketball, relate math to basketball. If they love dancing, you know, help build a budget for their new dance company. There are so many ways that you can make the learning fit their preferences. And sometimes I as a teacher, I think, my gosh, this is almost too easy. I had a child in my class who just would not under any circumstance do physical movement. I tried every day, it was an online class to do some kind of yoga and you just wouldn't do it. But I found out he loved Minecraft and so we went on Cosmic Kids Yoga and there's a Minecraft yoga video. And he did yoga just because it was related to Minecraft. I'm almost thinking, am I manipulating this child? This just seems too easy. But that worked for him. And you know, same with drawing. Some children just, you know, writing can actually be physically painful for them at an early age. They just might not have the strength or they just dislike, they have a just distaste for writing. And so same, we go to Art for Kids Hub. This guy is teaching drawing and you say, okay, pick a video. Well, I don't like to draw, but there's one about Pokemon and I really love Pokemon or Star wars so I'm going to do that one because that's a topic that interests me. And then they're so proud of themselves because they have this cool Pokemon drawing, and by just relating it to their own interests, they're able to make it fun for them. So just to wrap things up, don't let curriculum be overwhelming for you. You really just need to start with some math and English language arts, and then you can build on from there. Take advantage of the Facebook groups. Definitely use my curriculum planner. Ask any questions you might have and just try them out and see if your children think they're fun. I hope this has been useful to you. Definitely ask me any questions you might have. We will keep talking about curriculum, so if you have any curriculum that you love that you haven't heard me talk about before, please let me know so I can recommend it to parents. And if you try out some of the techniques that I suggested today and they work well for you, please let us know. It will be so great. Have a wonderful week, everybody, and I hope you learn something exciting and new.