Teach Us to Number Our Days: On Choosing Homeschool Curriculum

Welcome to A Mother’s Thinking Love: Living Ideas, Lovingly Shared! A new year is upon us, and that means many homeschooling mothers will be looking at new curriculums for next school year. For most of us, the problem isn’t that there are too few curriculum options. The problem is often actually quite the opposite – too many options! So, how can you choose the right curriculum for your family? Join me for: “Teach Us to Number Our Days: On Choosing Homeschool Curriculum”!

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A Pilgrim in a Strange Land

As a homeschool mom of a daughter on the cusp of the high school years, this new year feels different for me. In a way, I feel like I’ve been dropped off in a foreign land and am trying to find my way through it. It’s a little disorienting to realize we only have four years left in our homeschool. All at once, I feel as though we’ve done and learned so much together, and that we have more left to do than we could possibly accomplish in just four more years. During the quiet battle in my heart of feeling excitement and some sadness for the future, it finally sunk in. We won’t “get to” everything.

The Days are Long…

This is a fear I’ve heard from many homeschool moms over the years in slightly different ways: What if we can’t get to/do/cover everything? In the early years, it can feel like we have all the time in the world because as every new mom, or mom going through a difficult season, has been reminded: the days are long, but the years are short. Somewhere, somehow, with absolutely no notice at all, the long days abruptly become short years. You may be cooking dinner, shopping for new shoes, or doing any other number of tasks, and it dawns on you. Where has the time gone? Without warning, you’ve been promoted from the long days team to the short years team, and you’re not quite sure you’re ready to be there.

Before I continue on, I want to say that this isn’t a blog post meant to pull at your heartstrings and play on your emotions. Honestly, for years, I’ve refused to read those sneaky Facebook posts that are meant to leave you in a puddle on the floor in regards to growing children. I’m sure you know the ones I’m referencing. Children are meant to grow up. The mere fact that we have growing children in our homes is an absolute blessing. We ought that blessing cherish every day.

Teach Us to Number Our Days: On Choosing Homeschool Curriculum

In one of our Family Worship Guides for 2025, we studied Psalm 90. One verse in particular has been on my mind quite frequently since then, Psalm 90:12:

So teach us to number our days
    that we may get a heart of wisdom.

Realizing the end of our homeschooling journey is much closer than the beginning of it has caused me to look at this verse with more sobriety than ever. Logically, I’ve always known that the end would come someday. But now, I feel like I can now reach out and touch “some day”.

It has been incredibly humbling for me to realize, particularly over the last year, that we won’t get to read every Great, or even Good, book out there. We won’t get to every science topic. We won’t master every math concept. It’s not possible in a brick and mortar school setting, and it’s not possible in the homeschool. So that begs the question: how do we choose homeschool curriculum?

That We May Gain a Heart of Wisdom

“So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.”

When we honestly evaluate how much time we have with our children, it will have a great impact on every decision we make, including homeschool curriculum decisions. After all, every “yes” is a “no” to other things.

For example, Charlotte Mason cautioned against giving children books she described as “twaddle”. She advocated for giving children the best books for many good reasons, but another reason dawned on me recently: for every book we choose to read in our homeschools, we are saying “no” to others. This is true for every decision we make with our time. Time is a limited commodity. Even the richest man in the world can’t buy another second for his life.

“So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.”

Numbering our days isn’t meant to bring us dread, fear, or sadness, it’s meant to bring us wisdom. When we consider just how short our homeschooling years truly are, I think we are better able to order our homeschools well and more clearly wade through the curriculum noise. And, in doing so, bring greater joy to our days as we intentionally pursue our highest, richest, most worthwhile purposes.

Questions & Considerations

As always, I recommend both father and mother pray and plan together.

• Does this decision help us pursue the Good, True, and Beautiful?
• What are we saying “no” to in order to say “yes” to this?
• Make a list of the most important to least important goals for the: week, month, year, etc.
• Begin with the end in mind. By this I don’t merely mean the end of the school year, I mean the end of your homeschool journey.
• Create routines and rhythms that match your goals.

Closing

While we certainly don’t need to fret over each passing day, we also certainly shouldn’t let our days pass by with no thought. Like sand pouring through our fingers, if we don’t number our days, they will slip away before we know it. How are you planning for next year? Share about your plans in the comments below, and thank you for reading: “Teach Us to Number Our Days: On Choosing Homeschool Curriculum”.