Todo Lists and Gantt Charts or Why Homeschool Curriculum is Different to Made-for-School Workbooks.

Have you ever wondered what makes a homeschool-specific maths curriculum like Milestone Maths different to a made-for-school workbook that you can buy at a newsagents or office supply shop?

There are many differences even on the surface: school workbooks are generally much thinner, more colourful and sometimes apparently more random than a Milestone workbook.

But there’s a more fundamental difference that I like to explain using an analogy. When you need to do something like organise a birthday party, you will probably make up a todo list. This will be a simple list of things you need to buy and organise before the big day.

But what if you were an engineer managing a major construction project: say a major new bridge? Now, there’s not simply a list of tasks to be done and supplies to be sourced. Budgets need to be managed. Supplies need to be ordered but deliveries must be carefully managed to ensure each supply arrives just when it is needed and not months before when they will just get in the way of construction. Groups of workers need to be organised to arrive as and when their expertise is required and so on. A simple todo list will simply not be up to the job.

That’s where Gantt charts come in. A Gantt chart is a project management tool that allows the engineer to plan all aspects of a process on a timeline where overlapping tasks can be easily viewed and interdependencies carefully plotted.

Our two classes of workbook are somewhat similar. A made-for-school workbook is a bit like a todo list for the teacher. It only touches on the main points that a teacher needs to teach their class. It gives little or no indication of which topic is best taught before another, how to present a specific topic nor what the prerequisites are for a student to be able to complete a particular page of the workbook. Essentially, the made-for-school workbook is a ready-made collection of worksheets that the teacher can assign as individual classwork or homework after they have completed teaching a particular topic.

But many homeschool parents don’t have the expertise or experience of a school teacher. Not only that, but a typical homeschool is like a multi-age one-room schoolhouse. Giving the children as much autonomy over their learning as possible is indispensable in this environment.

A well-designed homeschool maths program is sensitive to these needs. Much of the teaching is embedded directly into the lesson itself and speaks directly to the student. The scope and sequence is carefully planned to allow the student to succeed by simply starting at page one and working through the program at whatever pace suits them. And, most importantly, it will be self-contained. It will not assume an outside teacher is available to “teach” each concept. In essence, the well planned and written homeschool maths program is the equivalent of an educational Gantt chart. The project is your child’s mathematical journey.

Writing a quick todo list takes a few minutes or perhaps an hour. Producing a functional Gantt chart that takes into account all aspects of a project can take weeks.

Similarly, designing a collection of worksheets that assume massive teacher input is relatively easy. Even with fancy graphic design it’s a relatively straightforward task to mass-produce such workbooks and get them to market fairly quickly.

Designing a homeschool maths curriculum that is carefully sequenced, provides all the teaching support direct in each lesson and covers the curriculum thoroughly and rigourously is no mean feat. It takes time, expertise and attention to detail.

So, the difference between a made-for-school workbook and a well designed homeschool maths curriculum is significant. One is a collection of worksheets designed to support classroom teaching. The other is a carefully planned pathway designed to guide both parent and student through the learning journey with as much clarity as possible.