HOMESCHOOL GLUE || Real-Life Simple Systems + Rhythms for Overwhelmed Homeschool Moms

After God and her husband, Sarah says the most essential part of her homeschool is something nobody hands you with a curriculum: a community. And she built hers as a shy, introverted mom who is not great at walking up to people and saying hi. In this episode Sarah talks about why community matters for you as the mom, not just for socializing the kids, and the difference it makes on the hard days....

Most of us have things we save for the slower months: projects that are easier when the pace is lighter, prep work that makes the next school year feel manageable, or things we’ve just been putting off. In this episode Sarah shares exactly what she’s doing this summer to set up for a great fall, and the intentional way she’s fitting it all in without letting it swallow the season. From memory keep...

It’s Sarah’s birthday week and she’s celebrating with a fun one: ten things that have genuinely made her homeschool life easier. Not things that look good on a list, but things that are actually woven into their daily life and that she would genuinely miss if they were gone. From batching breakfasts on the weekends (a system she started running a home daycare) to the vintage Bluetooth speaker that...

 If you could go back to your first day of homeschooling . . . the one with the beautiful planner, the brand new curriculum, and approximately no idea what you were doing . . . what would you tell yourself?  Sarah shares the things nobody told her before she started homeschooling. Not the curriculum tips or the room setup advice, but the bigger picture things. The mindset things. The ones that, if...

It’s curriculum planning season, and if you’re deep in research, deep in comparison, and slowly losing your mind trying to figure out what to use next year, this episode is for you. Sarah shares her entire curriculum planning process: why knowing your educational philosophy is the only filter you actually need, how she plans family-style to save time, money, and sanity with multiple kids, the feas...

What systems do you actually have in place in your homeschool? Not your curriculum — the infrastructure underneath it. The things that keep the mental load manageable, that keep the week from falling apart, that keep you from rebuilding everything from scratch every Sunday night. In this episode Sarah walks through the five foundational systems she believes every overwhelmed homeschool mom needs:...

Sarah posted a chore chart to her Instagram Stories without thinking much of it — and got hundreds of DMs by the end of the day. So in this episode she’s sharing the whole system. You’ll hear the full three-tier tending system she uses with four kids ages one to eleven: Daily Duties, Family Tending Hour, and Bonus Tending tasks. Plus how the Skylight calendar and a simple rewards system keep kids...

A slow summer doesn’t happen by accident — it happens by design. And if you’ve ever finished the school year dreaming of a slower pace, only to look up in August wondering where it went, this episode is for you. Sarah shares exactly how she’s planning this summer: what she’s saying yes to (swimming lessons, VBS, and a children’s theater play — that’s it), the simple weekly rhythm she’s building ar...

When life gets really hard, the advice is almost always the same: take a break. And sometimes that’s the right call. But in two of the hardest seasons of her life — one involving a devastating family crisis and one involving a brand new baby — Sarah discovered that stopping was actually harder than continuing. And it had everything to do with the rhythms she had already built. This episode is diff...

If you spend an hour planning your homeschool every Sunday, that’s 30-36 hours a year rebuilding the same week over and over. This year Sarah spends about five minutes a week. In this episode she explains exactly how and why the Sunday rebuild keeps happening even after years of homeschooling. You’ll hear Sarah walk through her own weekly rhythm in detail, how she handles curriculum with a built-i...

Have you ever tried to fix your homeschool (new planner, new curriculum, new schedule) and wondered why nothing is actually changing? There’s a good reason for that. You might be solving the wrong problem. In this episode Sarah breaks down the three types of homeschool overwhelm — volume, decision, and emotional — and why the solution to each one looks completely different. Most moms are treating...

You are not bad at homeschooling. I know that might sound like something you’d scroll right past on Instagram — but stay with me. Because being bad at something and being overwhelmed by something are two completely different things with completely different causes and completely different solutions. And most of us have had them confused for a very long time. In this episode Sarah breaks down what...

Right now — whether you’re actively homeschooling or not — there’s a curriculum already running your homeschool. You didn’t choose it from a catalog. But your kids are being shaped by it every single day. In this first episode of the relaunched Homeschool Glue Podcast, I break down what the hidden curriculum actually is (hint: it’s the atmosphere of your home), why it matters more than any lesson...

Every once in a while it's fun to switch things up and answer some of your questions on the podcast!  Over on Instagram, I encouraged followers to submit questions, and submit they did!  In this episode I'm answering questions like, "Was homeschooling always in your plans?" and "Do you ever feel like you are not doing enough?" among many others! MENTIONED IN THIS EPIS...

Many homeschool families begin their journey because they realize, either before sending their kids to school or after their kids are in school, that they don't like certain aspects of the school system.  Everyone's journey is different, but many parents stay away from schools because there are things within the school system they do not like or want for their children.  In other words,...

If you follow lots of homeschooling accounts on social media, it's easy to feel like everyone else has it all together! However, like all social media, we usually are only seeing the "highlight reel" and not a true representation of a person's life.  I try to be very authentic and real on social media, but I also value our privacy and don't think it's good to air all...

For most people, it's the holiday season, but for us, we are in full baby mode with just a few weeks left to go before baby boy (our fourth child) is due!  With a major (beautiful, amazing) interruption smack dab in the middle of our school year, I've had to make adjustments to our plans that I made before becoming pregnant.  I'm breaking down my realistic plans for the weeks follow...

As homeschool parents, it's easy to assume we are already giving our kids tons of quality time because we spend so many more hours with them each day than we would if they went to school outside of the home.  But, how often are we spending quality one-on-one time with each of our children unrelated to school with no distractions?  Probably not as much as we think.  Is this even important?  We...

Many families like to devote a few weeks into December to following a Christmas curriculum, but alternatively, many families don't have the time, patience, money, or resources to do this.  However, there are SO many ways to bring the spirit of Christmas into your homeschool and I'm sharing 15 easy ways you can do that in today's episode! MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Advent Puzzle 25 D...

Because our homeschool is more of a lifestyle than a place our kids go to learn, and because we are with our children so much, it's so easy for negative moods, hard times, hard current events, illnesses, and so much more negatively impact our homeschool days.  As moms, we often are the ones who set the tone of our homes, and when we are unhappy or stressed out, it seeps into our homeschool da...

I recently had a spirited conversation in the comments of an Instagram reel with someone who believed that for most people, homeschooling is just impossible because both parents need to work.  I tried to explain that upwards of a third of homeschooling families are 2-parent working families to some degree, but I just couldn't open her eyes.  I decided to share ten different ways you can make...

What are the riches?  Why are they important if most educations today don't include them?  And once we deem them important, how do we fit them in on top of everything else? I'm answering all these questions in today's episode! MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Daily Riches

The new school year is just around the corner so I suppose it’s time to start thinking about what our school rhythm will be!  I always find it so interesting how other people (especially working homeschool parents) fit everything in, so I thought it would be fun to share how I’m balancing running 2 businesses and the social media for a friend’s business alongside homeschooling my 3 daughters (oh y...

I’m definitely not at the end of my homeschooling journey – with baby 4 on the way I have another 18 years to go – but I have definitely learned a thing or two (or 20) that I would want to tell myself if I was starting again.  So, if you are new to homeschooling, thinking about starting, or just feeling kind of lost, I hope this episode can give you some tips and also offer you some grace as you c...

No matter how early or late into your homeschool journey you are, how old your kids are, or how much time you spend homeschooling each day – it is never too late to start a family morning time routine in your homeschool! Our morning time is our favorite time of day in our homeschool and something we do whether we have a lot planned or barely anything planned for our homeschool. My daughters are cu...