A lot of parents are sensing that the gap between school and the real world has become huge. But many are having a hard time pulling the threads together to work out why that gap feels so vast, and what the impact on their children might actually be. In this episode, I’m putting words to it.
Home education can often turn into a frustrating standoff between parent and child. In this episode, I talk through why most of the common advice on this won’t help you much, the real dynamic causing these battles, and a clear way to solve most of them for good.
Every summer, parents are told the same thing: your child will fall behind unless you keep learning. But when you trace the 'summer learning loss' panic back to its origins, the story gets way messier than we're led to believe. Let's find the research and follow the story...
Most home educating parents feel a strong pull to make sure their child is impressive. This episode gets into where that pressure is coming from, what it's doing to your child, and how to hold them to a genuinely high standard that is THEIRS.
Home education is a privilege, but not in the way most people mean it. This episode pulls the whole conversation apart - with numbers and data, with a very personal story of sacrifice, and with something a bit more uncomfortable that I think a lot of families really need to hear.
In this episode, I unpack the huge cost of raising children to be compliant, impressive, measurable and approved of, and why some of the traits that get a child sent to the principal's office may be exactly what the world is about to desperately need.
This saying is one of the most important ideas in home education. But there’s a crucial aspect to it that many of us miss. In this episode, I’ll show you where and how this idea can go wrong, and how to make sure you get it right for your child.
The education system is doubling down on measuring the things AI can now do better than any human ever will. Meanwhile the two things that actually matter - the ones that will determine whether your child thrives as an adult - are barely on its radar. This episode is about what those two things are.
If the evidence on home education has been clear for so long, why does the criticism still feel so relentless? This episode gets underneath the myths and into the real reasons home education still triggers so much suspicion, defensiveness, and resistance.
Most home educating parents assume that more time together means a better relationship with their child. This episode explores why that isn’t always true, what the research actually says, and what really makes all this closeness strengthen a family rather than strain it.
An uncomfortable number of children don't grow up to live the adult lives they really want to. This episode puts you in the shoes of a child to show why that happens, and then takes you through exactly what to do to make sure your child CAN build a life that is truly theirs.
Who actually benefits when we test and grade children? When you follow the money, the lobbying, and the research, you get to an answer that is very specific, very publicly documented, and not what most parents expect.
Early on, we wanted proof that kids raised this way could achieve what they wanted in life. We didn't find many of those stories, so we wrote our own. We'll tell you why our 18yo chose tertiary study, how he got in without ever sitting an exam, and how he's going compared to his schooled classmates.
The world our children are growing up in is actively working against some of the most important capabilities they'll ever need. This episode covers the final five - and how to build every one of them.
The world our children are walking into looks nothing like the one we grew up in. So what are the ACTUAL capabilities that will matter most when they hit adulthood?
It might sound strange, but I'm actually grateful when someone asks me about burnout in home education. Not because I enjoy hearing about their struggles, but because it means they're being honest about something we all face at times.
The deeper I go into home education, the more I find myself spending time in my own experiences and reflections. I've started recording these as mini episodes. Short, raw takes on things I think matter.
You know what question I hear all the time? 'Where can I find a good home ed community?' It's presented as this essential piece of the home education puzzle - like if you don't have a regular meetup group with other homeschooling families, you're somehow missing something vital...
You know that moment when the day starts feeling a bit...off? When the energy in your home has dropped, and you can sense things drifting? Today I want to talk about why you shouldn't be afraid to step in and steer things when that happens.
You know that feeling when you're scrolling through Instagram, seeing all these perfectly curated homeschool spaces, and suddenly you look up at your kitchen table - squeezed between breakfast dishes and laundry waiting to be folded - and think...'am I even doing this right?'.
Have you ever been asked 'what school your kids go to?' and felt that little knot in your stomach about how to answer? Today I want to talk about why I don't tell people I homeschool or unschool...and what I say instead.
