The Journal • Homeschool with Confidence
Twenty-five years of homeschool co-ops, classrooms, and kitchen tables, written down one post at a time — how to choose curriculum, how to teach a story well, and how to keep going on the hard days.
I homeschooled five children at the same time. Different ages. Different levels. Different needs. And most days school was orderly, disciplined, and genuinely fun. Here is what I actually did — including the spelling game that kept everyone engaged, the subjects we always did together, and the one thing I wish someone had told me at the beginning.
I started homeschooling at a kidney table. Today we do school on the living room couch. The work still gets done — because the early structure built something in my children that the structure itself eventually became unnecessary to maintain. Here is what I learned about finding what actually works for your family.
Every homeschool mom has imagined the perfect co-op. The reality is more complicated — and more costly — than anyone tells you going in. Here is what I learned the hard way about volunteers, shared vision, and the friendships that were never quite the same after.
It usually starts quietly. A comment at a co-op. A friend mentioning her son just finished his first chapter book. A chart that says your child should be reading independently by now — and yours isn't. And then the panic sets in. Two of my five children struggled with reading for years. Here is what I learned about staying the course, planting seeds, and trusting that the day is coming — even when you cannot see it yet.
If you have ever closed a school day feeling like a failure because you didn't finish the list, this is for you. Publishers build more content than any family is expected to complete. It is not an accident, and it is not a flaw — it is by design. Nobody tells you that when you open the box.
They will say it. Maybe they already have. And it will land hard because you love them. But children know their feelings — not their needs. Handing your child the decision about their education is handing the wheel to someone who cannot see the road. This post tells you how to hear them without surrendering to them.
Every homeschool mom has had one — the day you closed the books at ten in the morning and said, not today. That day is allowed. Grace is real. But there's something else that doesn't get said enough in homeschool spaces: be careful the bad day doesn't become a bad week.
If you've ever closed a school day feeling like a failure because you didn't finish everything — this post is for you. Here's what most curriculum companies will never tell you: you were never supposed to do it all. Completion is a metric. It is not an education.
Every child sitting at your kitchen table is wired differently. One lights up when you draw a diagram. Another needs to hear it. A third can't absorb anything until they've moved through it. My son learned to read chapter books in kindergarten — bouncing on a yoga ball. That wasn't a problem. That was the key.
Is my child ready for the next grade? Is this book too hard for her? Does he learn better by listening or by doing? Each assessment asks a handful of questions and gives you a plain answer you can act on the same afternoon — written from twenty-five years of teaching, not a personality quiz. Free, and nothing to sign up for. Six of them so far.
See All Assessments
Use it with your child. See samples of our stories, questions, and lesson pages.
