Before You Pick a Homeschool Method, Ask This Question First
When I decided to homeschool, I did what most new homeschooling parents do — I went down a rabbit hole. Several, actually. I researched Charlotte Mason, classical, unschooling, and eclectic approaches. I watched hours of curriculum videos, joined Facebook groups, and read blog posts written by people with very strong opinions about living books and narration and minimizing textbooks. And because I have ADHD, I didn’t just preform homeschool curriculum research — I hyper-focused. Charlotte Mason might have been my entire personality for a while.
And then when we actually started homeschooling, I spent months troubleshooting, wondering why things weren’t clicking. I had done all that homeschool curriculum research, and I still felt lost. It took me a long time to realize I had been researching the wrong thing entirely. This post is what I wish someone had told me before I spent all that time — and where I think your research energy is actually better spent when you’re first starting out.
How the Rabbit Hole Homeschool Curriculum Research Started
I was at a playground with a friend when she mentioned she’d been researching something called Charlotte Mason. I’d never heard of it, but I went home and looked it up — and I was immediately in love. Charlotte Mason is still a huge part of how I homeschool, and I’ll be doing a whole video on that. But here’s what happened in those early days: I got so deep into researching the method that I lost track of the actual question I should have been asking.
I was in forums, listening to podcasts, scouring websites for the best Charlotte Mason curriculums. When I finally picked one and things didn’t go the way I’d envisioned, I kept getting the same advice from the community: just trust the process. So I trusted the process. I kept troubleshooting. And the whole time, I never stopped to ask — is this actually the best way for my kids’ brains to learn? That’s a completely different question. And for parents of neurodivergent kids, it’s the one that matters most.
Why Homeschool Methods Have Limits
Here’s something that took me a while to accept: most homeschool methods — Charlotte Mason, classical, unschooling, all of them — were developed before we had modern neuroscience. Before we understood how the brain learns to decode written language. Before we had solid research on what actually helps kids with dyslexia, ADHD, or executive function challenges.
These methods were created by people doing the best they could with what they knew at the time. Some of what they observed still holds up. Some of it doesn’t. And when you’re part of a community that’s deeply committed to a particular method, it can be really hard to hear that — especially when you’ve already invested time and money into it.
When you’re new and don’t have a baseline yet, you don’t know what normal early learning looks like or what normal difficulty feels like versus something genuinely not working. So when things are hard, it’s easy to assume it’s the curriculum, or the execution, or just an adjustment period. But sometimes the issue is that your child needs something more specific than any method alone can give them — especially when it comes to reading and math.
What to Research Instead
Before you pick a method — or even alongside whatever method you’re drawn to — spend some time researching how kids actually learn. This is where I’d focus your homeschool curriculum research energy first.
Reading and Language Arts
A lot of method-based homeschooling leans on the idea that reading develops naturally through rich exposure to literature. But the research tells a different story. The science of reading overwhelmingly supports phonics — specifically, explicit instruction in the relationship between sounds and letters — as the stronger foundation for most kids, and especially for kids with reading differences.
What to look for in a reading curriculum: phonics-based instruction, sound-to-letter mapping, word study, and a multi-sensory approach. Multi-sensory means engaging multiple learning pathways at once — writing letters, using letter tiles, Play-Doh, chalk, air writing. The brain responds well to this, and the research backs it up.
For kids without learning struggles, lessons will often move quickly. For kids with reading differences, it may take longer for things to become automatic — and that’s expected. That’s what the research tells us. Rich exposure to literature is still wonderful, and I want it surrounding my kids too. But for some kids, that approach alone can actually work against them. Knowing this, when I started homeschool curriculum research, would have saved me a significant amount of troubleshooting time.
Two programs I’ve used and recommend for homeschool LA: Rooted in Language offers excellent teacher training (not an affiliate link — I just genuinely recommend it), and Logic of English Essentials is a solid structured literacy curriculum. My son’s dyslexia tutor is also trying out a few other programs to see what he responds best to. All of these will have similar components mentioned in the Science of Reading. You can also find reading and writing tools we use on Amazon here.
Math
For math, look into research on how kids build number sense and what supports children with working memory challenges or math anxiety. The flag I look for now: does this curriculum teach why before it teaches how? Does it build conceptual understanding before procedures? For neurodivergent kids, math that’s only steps — do this, then this — tends to fall apart when memory and executive function are already under strain.
You can read more about the research behind math instruction at the Hechinger Report. Other things to look for in your homeschool curriculum research: explicit and systematic instruction, use of manipulatives to make abstract concepts concrete, and practice that’s frequent, brief, and spaced out.
Two math programs we currently use and love: Math-U-See (MUS) and Math With Confidence (MWC). Both are worth looking into depending on where your child is. My dyslexic 6th grader uses Math-U-See and my upcoming 3rd grader and kindergartener use Math With Confidence. Why two math curriculums? Simple answer is Math With Confidence was not around when me and my older son started our math journey, we used another program for a few years, but then switched to Math-U-See and it has worked well for him. My oldest plays the Math With Confidence games with his younger brother and he’s used the Math Facts that Stick series by Kate Snow (the same author of MWC) And you can browse math tools and curriculum we use on Amazon here or go to the MUS website.
Where Homeschool Methods Do Help
Once you have a research foundation, the method can actually be really useful — just maybe not in the way you’d expect. Research on ADHD and executive function tells us that shorter, varied work periods beat long blocks of time. Movement and outdoor time genuinely support regulation. Reducing the output barrier — using narration sometimes instead of always requiring writing, for example — helps kids who find writing physically or cognitively taxing.
All of these concepts show up in the Charlotte Mason method. The difference is knowing why they work, and it’s more about how you structure your day and implement curriculum vs. the curriculum itself. When you understand the research behind the structure, you can problem-solve based on evidence instead of just trying harder with the method and hoping it clicks. If you’re navigating ADHD specifically, my post on what ADHD looks like in kids goes deeper into what executive function challenges actually look like day to day.
The Method Is a Framework. The Research Is the Foundation.
Here’s what I’ve come to believe after eight years of homeschooling: even if your kids don’t have learning struggles, research-backed curriculum will still give them a great education. But for kids with learning differences, the gap matters more. Curricula designed with neurodivergent learners in mind tend to work for everyone. The reverse isn’t always true.
You can adjust your pace. You can’t always adjust your approach. The method is a framework. The research is the foundation. When those two things are working together, homeschooling goes a lot better than just hoping the method will sort itself out.
This is part of an ongoing homeschool series here on the blog and on YouTube. If you’re just getting started, why I started homeschooling is a good place to begin, and my post on Georgia homeschool legal requirements covers everything you need to know if you’re in Georgia. And if you want to see the full homeschool series on YouTube, you can find the Homeschooling Neurodivergent Kids playlist here.
Where to Start Your Homeschool Curriculum Research
If you’re ready to shift your homeschool curriculum research toward the science, here’s where I’d start. For reading, the science of reading overview linked above is a solid foundation. For math, the Hechinger Report article I linked is a good entry point. And if your child has already been identified with a learning difference, my posts on early signs of autism and ADHD in kids may help you connect the dots between what you’re seeing at home and what the research says about how those kids learn best. I will be going into more depth concerning learning differences and how I accommodate them in the future as well.
Homeschooling is one of my favorite rabbit holes. I just wish someone had pointed me toward the right one from the start.
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