Using the Common Core to Guide Your Homeschool Curriculum

The Common Core State Standards have gotten a bad reputation over the past few years. The implementation across the country has been a disaster at best and many homeschooling families stay as far away from the Common Core as possible.

But really, the Common Core fiasco is just one big misunderstanding. What parents are constantly complaining about and what the Common Core actually is are very different things.

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The Common Core State Standards are just that: standards. A list of what children should know at the end of each grade level. It is not an outline of how children should learn or how teachers should teach each concept. But that is where the agitation comes in.

Parents are upset about the implementation of the standards, the way they are being presented and the way their children are being taught. And this part is not a problem with the standards themselves but rather the way textbooks are written and the way each state/school district is choosing to meet those standards.

We started homeschooling after a year of kindergarten at our local public school that nearly destroyed my 5 year old and our family. But we’re not married to the idea of homeschooling forever, we are open to the idea of other educational options for our children should we decide there is a better way for our family in the future. And for that reason, I have chosen to follow the Common Core State Standards for our home education program.

But all that means is that I am ensuring my daughter will know the same things at the end of 1st grade as her peers. It doesn’t mean that we’re using the same books our school district does or that she’s learning the same way her friends in our local public schools do. It just means that she will be able to “Ask and answer questions about key details in a text” and “Understand that the two digits of a two-digit number represent amounts of tens and ones.” (via CoreStandards.org.)

Here’s how to easily use the Common Core State standards while homeschooling:

Get the standards

At the beginning of each grade level, I print out the Common Core State standards for Math and English/language arts. You can get them directly from CoreStandards.org or easily find them written out as “I can” statements on sites like TeachersPayTeachers (search for the common core standards specific to your needed grade and subject area: “3rd grade math standards” for example).

Match each benchmark of the standards with schoolwork

We don’t use a full curriculum for a number of reasons. Instead, I piece together our lessons using a combination of workbooks I get at the dollar store for basic concepts like addition and phonics with other books I order from online textbook sites such as Rainbow Resource and stuff I download from places like TeachersPayTeachers which allows me to address every standard in a way that meets my children’s individual needs and allows us to spend as much or as little time as needed to master each skill.

Track progress and standards met

As we work through the school year, I note mastery of each benchmark and match completed work with printed out copies of the Common Core State Standards. This becomes my children’s portfolio for each grade level.

Assess mastery of the standards

When I feel that my children are nearing the end of a grade level and have mastered each benchmark of the Common Core State Standards for their grade level and are getting ready to move on, I use a book such as the Spectrum Common Core Resource series (AL) which covers every standard of the Common Core to asses them for the entire grade level. I have them complete the book without help to ensure they know what I think they do (I provide unlimited assistance for their regular work and don’t usually do “tests” throughout the year) and give them review or follow-up for concepts that they struggle with.

Repeat

We then start all over again with the next grade level.

Using the Common Core State Standards for homeschooling doesn’t mean my kids are learning the same way as their public school peers are. I still get to decide how each concept is taught, whether using the “new” methods parents all over the internet complain about or using the same ways in which I learned. Or a mix. Using the Common Core State Standards for homeschooling simply means my kids are learning the same things and have the same competencies as their peers attending traditional school programs.

In addition to the Spectrum Common Core books, some of our favorite series that cover the Common Core State Standards are School Zone Basics series, Star Wars workbooks and Brain Quest (AL).

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