Why Those “Big Box” Homeschool Curriculums Miss the Mark

Jun 12

Homeschooled kids are awesome! Confident. Creative. Achievers! They get into college just like any other kid who goes to school, but without having to deal with all the hassles of a traditional education. Same-age classes, grades, boring teachers, bullies, meaningless assignments…yes, yes, yes. We homeschoolers could talk your ear off about this kind of stuff.

You get it, right? Otherwise you wouldn’t be here! You are looking for homeschool advice. And if you found our little Montessori homeschooling club first, then yay! But more likely what you did was this:

Google search: “homeschool curriculum for my ___ year old”.

Taking a stab here, but Child of the Redwoods probably didn’t appear. (Sad emoji!) What you found instead was...a big box. Of stuff. That will be mailed to you.

It promises a full homeschooling experience, shipped right to your door. Everything you need for the whole year for all core subjecs. It all looks so pretty. So easy.

Why, each day’s lesson is pre-planned for you in every subject. No thinking required at all! Follow the schedule, and come May 31st…you’re done with the homeschooling for the year.

We’ll bet you also found more than one online program that isn’t a physical box at all but a virtual one. It promises that all you need is a login and password and you don’t even have to do the teaching at all. It does it all for you!

Some families want this. If that’s you, go do you. We didn’t want either for our kids.

Good Teaching Doesn’t Come in a Happy Meal

Big box curriculums are designed to be extremely convenient, and they sure do appear to solve all the problems a parent may face. We homeschoolers are constantly told that we don’t have what it takes. That we aren’t personal experts in every subject and therefore we can’t teach them. We are, as a group, super susceptible to these marketing tactics that big box curriculums use to try to persuade us.

Just like happy meals, big boxes cannot fulfill what they promise.

They assume all kids learn the same way.
They miss sensitive periods.
They rely too much on worksheets.
They ignore developmental readiness.
They leave no room for child-led learning.
They separate out all the subjects.
They make your children too dependent on you for learning.
They leave out practical skills.
They usually aren’t “hands-on” enough.

Most egregiously, they ignore the elephant in the room: children are learning all the time, everywhere they go, and they are constantly striving to learn along with you and everyone else they spend time with.

You are the teacher, and it is a great and wonderful privilege! Don’t give it up! Happy meals are convenient, but they aren’t all that nutritious for everyday eating.

The Child of the Redwoods Curriculum is Different (On Purpose!).

We don’t ship you a big box or give you a password and call it a day.

Instead, we walk with you. Step-by-step. Lesson-by-lesson. We assume that you are homeschooling your child because you want to be their teacher! We choose to support your professional development in this highly specialized position!

Our fully scripted presentations are easy to follow but also give you flexibility. Our live coaching sessions help you learn the Montessori method so that you can become the observer and guide Montessori calls you to be for your child.

We created Child of the Redwoods because parents kept saying, “I want to do Montessori, but I don’t know where to start. I feel lost. I need help understanding how to follow my child’s interests and feel like we’re making progress.”

So we built a complete, comprehensive curriculum for ages 2–9 that honors both the method and you, the parent who’s learning too!

We give you:

A clear scope and sequence, so you’re never left wondering what comes next.
Tools to prepare the environment without needing a massive budget.
Ongoing guidance and community, so you don’t burn out alone in your overwhelm.

If you just found us, you are not too late. You are already your child’s most important teacher. It’s how you move forward from today that’s the important part.