FAMILIARIZE YOURSELF WITH THE SCHOOL CURRICULUM

Each curriculum has its own focus, style, and methodology, so becoming familiar with the curriculum that your child has been involved with can prove helpful in making school choices. You can often make efficient comparisons with the new school’s program knowing what reading, math, science, and social studies curricula were used. Write down the names of the books that your child used in his or her last school as a starting point.

Military spouse Patti Hunzeker shared some of her successful strategies for familiarizing herself – and her children – with the curriculum in their new schools, and their transitions overall.

“A real help each time we moved to a new state was finding out what reading was required before entering a grade. We contacted the school we were moving to and asked for the required reading lists for each grade. We worked hard to make sure each child went to school having read the required books for their grade level.” 

It was especially helpful when she found out that her daughter might be a bit behind her new classmates:

“During one move in junior high, our daughter found out that her classmates had taken world geography in seventh grade and now in eighth grade all were taking world history. In her previous school, she had already taken world history and as a result of this move she missed world geography altogether. I was able to get a copy of the geography book for her to read and use as a reference. This is another challenge of not having a common basic curriculum among the states.”