Hello everybody! I’m Dr. Claire Honeycutt of ClarifiEd and this is Tried & True Homeschooling where we talk with real parents who have actually graduated their kids. They are filled with the most incredible wisdom.

Today I’m talking with the wonderful, incredible Camilla — an unschooling graduate, homeschool mom, former public school teacher, and one of the most thoughtful people I’ve ever talked to about education.

Camilla grew up in the 90s on a small family farm. She was raised by a deeply independent mother who influenced by the ideas of John Holt let her spend her childhood roaming outdoors and doing whatever she pleased.

But Camilla wanted more.

She taught herself to read and then did the unthinkable … she put herself in public school.

If you’ve ever wondered whether unschooling actually works — or if children need more structure — you are going to love this conversation.

Camilla shares what it was really like transitioning from unschooling into middle school, becoming the first of her siblings to attend college, finding herself a a public school teacher, and finally navigating homeschooling her own children.

But that’s just where we start.

We talk about:

• Which kinds of children naturally thrive with freedom — and which may need more support

• How unschooling affects motivation, confidence, and independence

• Why modern technology has fundamentally changed the unschooling

• How to raise teenagers who truly take ownership of their lives

🌺Thoughtful, honest, funny, and full of nuance — this one is for every parent trying to balance freedom and formation.

I want to take a quick moment to thank all my paid subscribers.

Your support means the world to me – and without which this podcast would not exist. Your help allows me to pay for equipment, editing software, and my time creating new content every week.

Subscribe now

Finally, a quick note.

Tried and True shares real parents stories without commentary or endorsement. I don’t necessarily agree with every method or approach presented in these discussions — my goal is to present real families and their experiences so you can decide what’s best for your children. For my personal advice and approach, head to ClarifiEd.life.

~Dr. Claire

Children must have books, living books. The best is not too good for them; anything less than the best is not good enough. — Charlotte Mason

Most parents think teaching reading begins with the alphabet.

It doesn’t.

Learning to read begins the first time you pull a child onto your lap, snuggle into the couch, and open your favorite book from childhood.

From this place of comfort, your child learns that books are sacred. That being read to is being loved and cared for.

We don’t start teaching children to read by teaching them the skills.

We start by helping them fall in love with stories.

There are few things I loved more than teaching my youngest to read.

It started with A says ah, B says buh and ended last fall with her reading me The Pilgrim’s Progress at 9 years old (excerpts). She no longer needs me to spot-check her reading. She reads every day, increasingly longer and more complex books. Recently Watership Down (see photo).

Of all the things I’ve done as a mother and educator, this is one I know I got right.

Sadly, I didn’t get to teach my oldest to read. School taught her to read, but they didn’t teach her to love it. That was my gift to her. Now she reads 100s of books a year. Just this week, she reread The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in 2 days simply because she loves it.

It’s cliché but true: when a child falls in love with reading, it doesn’t just change their childhood — it reshapes the entire trajectory of their life.

Because reading is never just reading. A child curled up with a book is discovering other ideas, other minds, other worlds beyond them.

What follows isn’t another “how-to”, it’s a framework that helps our children fall madly in love with reading while also equipping them to read some of the richest literature ever written.

Here, we merge joy and rigor into one.

May your home become a place where children fall in love with reading♥️

Subscribe now

✨Before Children Read, They Learn to Love Books

Start by Reading the Best Books Ever Written

The ages of 5–7 are a precious window. But one that does not last. The linguistic centers of the brain are in the final stretch of their most active period. This is the most important time to fill your children’s brains with rich, complex literature — ideally the classics.

Nourish them with The Four Stories Your Kids Need to Read Everything Else - namely Fairy Tales, Global Folktales, Shakespeare, and The Bible. Almost every book in the Western tradition is a reimagining or echo of what came before, and those origins can often be traced back to this core set of foundational stories (resources on how to introduce these gently below).

Reading your children these stories now allows them to begin drawing parallels and recognizing allusions years earlier than most children. By ages 8–10, many will naturally begin noticing connections that are often not taught until high school.

But the most important reason to read these? They intuitively teach our children what a good story sounds and feels like influencing the books our children choose and the ideas they are drawn to the rest of their lives.

You are developing the literary taste of your children. It is worth taking seriously.

Let Them Inhabit Beautiful Worlds

Beatrix Potter fills her stories not just with sophisticated vocabulary and gorgeous syntax, but with beautiful illustrations and virtues. I read her books over and over to my children, but my fondest memory was my 7 year old reading them to me. The books of her childhood that I had read to her over and over… were now hers. It felt like magic, truly.

These types of books quietly teach our children that the world, while sometimes harsh, is also beautiful. Fairy tales serve the same purpose. Characters are always saved by fairy godmothers or enchanted animals.

So take your children to the Hundred Acre Wood with Winnie-the-Pooh and wander riverbanks with Frog and Toad. Fill your home with stories that will stay with your children — and their children — for the rest of their lives.

Don’t Just Read them Fairy Tales

Fairy tales are wonderful. You really must read them (see above). But please don’t neglect living history and science books.

Read them real stories about real people who were brave, courageous, and kind.

My children were introduced to ancient pyramids, Greek ideals, Roman mastery, the rise of the Byzantine empire, Zang dynasties, and much much more. We read beautiful books about flowers, rivers, oceans, and hummingbirds and whales.

In addition to filling children with wonder about the world, these books also strengthen reading comprehension, vocabulary, and background knowledge—all of which make future reading easier (yes really - here’s the study).

A child fascinated by the world is naturally motivated to read more about it.

✨Teach Reading Without Losing the Magic

Reading is Best Learned by Actually Reading

Phonics is by far the best way to teach reading. But phonics becomes much more meaningful when children immediately use those sounds to read real books. Find early readers introduce a few sounds and then immediately place them into stories (my favorites beginner ones in the prior post).

But many parents stop phonics too early.

There may only be 26 letters, but children still need to master dozens of phonemes, spelling patterns, and decoding rules. Y - makes 4 different sounds for example.

I continued phonics instruction through third grade. But it looked a bit different. If we are still drilling letter sounds, this will get quite dull. Instead find books that integrate phonics naturally into stories (see above picture).

Finally, flip the script and let your kids read to YOU. They feel so grown up doing this, and honestly it’s one of my favorite memories with both of my children. My favorite book series (above) is a collaborative read. You both read some parts.

PS. Letter sounds should be taught holistically with writing — but more on that in Falling in Love with Writing.

Let Them Choose Books They Love

When I first got my library card, they told me I could only check out 25 books. “Twenty-five books? Who would ever check out that many?” I thought.

Well, the answer was me.

Eventually I got my children cards so we could check out more than the limit.

Go to the library’s early readers section and let your kids pick whatever floats their boat (unless it’s age or morally inappropriate). Early readers exist in almost every interest imaginable: animals, trucks, princesses, science, jokes, adventure, movies, history. Literally everything. Let your kids pick.

Our goal in these early years is to establish the habit of reading. The daily desire to pick up a book. Don’t fret the quality of the books they chose for themselves. They’ll be plenty of time to gently nudge them in the right direction. We’ll go deeper into that in Deepening a Love for Reading ages 8-10.

What matters most during these years is joy and delight.

Don’t Scoff at Below-Level Books

One of the best things young readers can do is read books below their reading level.

You read that right.

Children need large amounts of successful, enjoyable reading practice. It builds confidence, fluency, stamina, and makes books into friends.

Use the books you read together to push their skills and the quality of books they read. Let them pick their own books for pleasure.

Read Together Longer Than You Think

Both of my girls read aloud to me through fourth grade (9-10 years old).

Besides just being the highlight of my day, it allowed me to gently spot-check their reading, reinforce missed phonics patterns, and help them learn to decode unfamiliar words. Here, I chose the books so they were classics and of increasingly complex language … but I still let them chose between 2-3.

These books need to be hard enough to occasionally stumble, but not so difficult that reading becomes a chore.

Having my then 7 year old read me Because of Winne-Dixie, a book I’d never read before, remains one of the top moments of my whole life. And I don’t exaggerate.

As I write this, I see no reason why my older kids can’t help read aloud the family books we are reading together. I’m going to start that right away!

Speaking of reading books as a family.

✨Raise Children in a Culture of Reading

Homes Teach Children What Matters

Your physical home environment is teaching your children. It speaks your values — sometimes louder than you do.

If your home is filled with bookshelves and cozy reading nooks, it says to your children → we are readers. If it’s centered around the TV and iPads, it says something quite different.

If we want children to fall deeply in love with reading, books must remain one of the most enchanting things in their world.

Create spaces that beckon you to read. For more read Your Home is Already Teaching Your Children.

Make Books Part of Your Family Identity

If there is only ONE thing you do on this list, make it this.

If you read and love books and show that to your kids, they will be interested. This gets easier with younger kids because they want that special time with mom and dad reading just like their big sister/brother.

And make sure you are reading physical books.

When my kids were little, if I was reading a book on my phone — my kids were nowhere to be seen. But if I was reading a physical book, I’d have two kids sitting next to me reading their physical books.

Books became what we did and who we were.

Start a home library, even if it’s tiny. Display books prominently. Rotate them occasionally so they can be rediscovered — works for older kids too!

You might like: How to Build a Home Library

Let Them Share Stories

It’s not just important that our children can read, they must understand what they are reading. Schools measure comprehension by asking children questions.

Who did what?
What happened next?
Why did the character feel sad?

But there is a far more delightful way to ensure children are understanding and relating to what they are reading.

Narration. (Thanks Charlotte Mason)

Ask your child to run tell Dad or Grandma or their best friend what happened in the story. Invite them to draw a scene or invent a different ending.

Children love this! Narration transforms reading comprehension tests into a joyful, loving way to connect with others. It’s also been evaluated by modern scientists and shows it improves retention. Another bonus is it’s a great building block for writing, but we’ll talk more about that later.

Narration is one of the most important educational tools I know — and for most children it is utterly delightful (great for history too).

✨Final Thoughts

In these early years, children are forming a relationship with books.

The goal is not simply a child who can read, but a child who loves to.

🌺May your home be filled with beautiful books and children who cannot wait to turn the next page.

Subscribe now

Read more

Hello everybody! I’m Dr. Claire Honeycutt of ClarifiEd and this is Tried & True Homeschooling where we talk with real parents who have actually graduated their kids. They are filled with the most incredible wisdom.

Today, I’m talking with one of my favorite people – , who also writes a wonderful substack The School Founder’s Classroom. He’s a former teacher and principal turned homeschool dad and micro school advocate.

If you have a teen struggling in high school, you’re gonna want to listen to this!

Jon has five kids, all educated differently, all thriving in their own way. His oldest daughter spent years struggling in the traditional system — the homework battles, the social pressure, the slow erosion of confidence — until they finally took and chance and pulled her home to homeschool. What followed was a gradual, beautiful transition back to joyful learning and taking charge of her life.

But that’s just where we start.

Jon and I get into his homeschool philosophy — a mix of classical education and unschooling (which if you know me, I LOVE!). We also talk

• How to manage teenagers?

• How do homeschooled kids find their people?

• And if you’ve ever thought about starting a microschool or a learning co-op, Jon has some hard-won advice that I really wish I’d had before I started mine!

This one is for every parent who’s terrified to make the leap.

I want to take a quick moment to thank all my paid subscribers.

Your support means the world to me – and without which this podcast would not exist. Your help allows me to pay for equipment, editing software, and my time creating new content every week.

Subscribe now

Finally, a quick note. Tried and True shares real parents stories without commentary or endorsement. I don’t necessarily agree with every method or approach presented in these discussions—my goal is to present real families and their experiences so you can decide what’ best for your children. For my personal advice and approach, head to ClarifiEd.life.

~Dr. Claire

If you’re new, welcome! Get started here.

If you’re a regular, come on in — what a summer we have planned!

Over the next 3 months, I’ll be publishing a series on helping children fall deeply in love with reading, writing, and math without sacrificing rigor. But before we begin ages 5-7, I’m resharing the foundation — the preschool years. Long before children decode words, solve equations, or write paragraphs, they are forming something more important: a relationship with learning itself.

From here, we’ll journey through all of elementary school — becoming the teachers our children deserve.

Because these posts are so extensive, they’ll come every 2 weeks. But as mentioned last week, the podcast is coming back in full force so don’t worry, you’ll still hear from me every week!

Ready? Let’s get started!♥️

I get messages every week from parents of three- and four-year-olds who are already worried.

Should my child know letters yet?
Are we behind in math?
Do I need a curriculum—now?

Not so long ago, I felt exactly the same way. Early childhood feels high-stakes. We’re told these years matter most, but we’re rarely told how to use them wisely.

Here’s the truth I wish someone had told me sooner:

Preschool isn’t about covering content.

It’s about shaping a relationship with learning.

I’ll never forget the first time I walked into a real Montessori classroom. The room was calm—but alive. Children were deeply absorbed in their work. Serious. And yet unmistakably…. happy.

I knew instantly, this is what I wanted for my children. It also clarified something for me. We’ve been handed a false choice: either a childhood full of joy or a serious education.

But why not both?

Joy and rigor aren’t opposites. They belong together.

Long before children encounter assignments, grades, or expectations, they are already answering a much deeper question:

Is learning a place I belong?

The early years shape whether learning feels meaningful or burdensome, whether effort feels satisfying or threatening.

The best preschool education teaches children that learning as alive, serious, and joyful work.

What follows isn’t a checklist. It’s a way of living that helps children fall in love with learning itself.

May it bring joyful learning into your home.

Subscribe below for even more articles like this one

✨Language: Falling in Love with Words & Books

A baby’s first love is their mother’s voice.

From birth, infants prefer their mother’s voice—and their native language—over all others. That shouldn’t surprise us. For nine months, a single rhythm of speech was their whole world. In this way, a child’s first relationship with learning is forged through language. The preschool years should work with this instinct.

Here’s how to turn a love of language into a love of literacy.

Read Real Books from the Beginning

I read to my children before they could lift their heads. They turned board book pages before they could crawl (see video of my then 3 month old turning board book pages with Dad). Reading with you baby on your lap forges a special relationship with books. They will feel warm, special, and somehow also resemble love.

Reading to your children alone puts a child ahead—but if you want to build a deep and lasting relationship with language, read them classics.

Classics don’t talk down to children. They trust them with rich syntax and beautiful words. Children don’t have to understand everything to absorb the cadence of language.

This early exposure quietly builds the neural foundations for reading, vocabulary, and writing years down the road. It feels natural to learn this way because it’s aligned with typical brain development.

(My favorite read-aloud lists included below & yes Beatrix Potter will be on it!)

Let Them Memorize What They Love

Many children memorize favorite books. Some parents worry this isn’t really reading - and it’s not - but it’s doing something just as important.

Memorization trains attention, strengthens memory, and turns vocabulary into something active. When children repeat big, beautiful words aloud, those words become theirs (transforming passive vocabulary into active usage).

One of my favorite memories is waking up to my oldest “reading” to my youngest—reciting a beloved story from memory with total confidence and delight.

It’s these moments that life comes full circle. They love to read to their siblings because you read to them. Reading is such a gift.

Add Poetry Early

If you want to elevate reading and their future writing, bring poetry into your home.

Poetry trains the ear to the rhythm, cadence, and beauty of words. It teaches children that how something sounds matters. Years later, you’ll see this play out in their writing. They’ll know that how they say something matters.

It will also make Shakespeare feel like a familiar friend.

Think Beyond Fiction — Read the World

Preschoolers loves stories (who doesn’t?) — but they are also hungry for the world. Charlotte Mason style living books, especially in history and science, teach children that knowledge is connected and alive.

One of our favorites is Mossy, a sweeet story of a tortoise, that introduces children to the flora and fauna of the natural world, with gorgeous illustrations on every page (picture below).

Be sure to have a few of these vibrant books about your home - or go to your library and get a new set every few weeks! That was how we did it in our small home.

Let learning spill over into coloring pages, sketching, or observations of the world around them and you teach them that the everything is worth learning about.

Use Audiobooks as Apprenticeship

Car rides are not a preschooler’s best friend—but audiobooks can make them very sweet.

We listened to books constantly in the car, but not just any books. We listened to classic narrators with rich voices that modeled dramatic orations. Both of my kids picked up a wee bit of an English accent during their early years because we listened to so many great English classics.

Great orators teach children how language moves: pacing, inflection, emotion.

As an aside, audiobooks trained my children that cars and trips are places for reading. To this day, my children never go anywhere without a book—even short trips — reading becomes a natural part of your daily rhythm.

Invite Real Reading—Don’t Rush It

Every child shows interest in reading at a different moment. When that moment comes, be ready to JUMP!

Have gentle early readers that integrate phonics on hand (my favorite one pictured below & I’ll give you the resource at the end). Find some that introduce 3-4 letters at a time and then immediately put them into a story. Having a set of these around the house for that moment - and it will come - that your little says I wanna read it myself! They have to learn just 3-4 letters and boom! They are reading a REAL book!

From this early beginning, they’ll grow and blossom so fast.

Early reading should feel like an invitation — don’t be surprised when your 2-3 year old shows interest — especially if their older sibling is already reading too.

PS. Don’t forget to play the “word game”. Ask kids what word am I saying? Then say the sounds slowly for a word.. Ex: the sound for the letters “c” “a” and “t” slowly. Do NOT do this in the context of reading but as a GAME! Learning to put together phonemes into words is essential to early reading.

✨Curiosity: Protecting Wonder & Encouraging Questions

Children are born curious—and then, too often, trained out of it.

Study after study shows that children ask fewer questions as they age. Your job is to protect their curiosity and keep the flame burning bright.

Children rarely say, I’d like a science lesson now.

But they often say: Why does the moon change shape? What are clouds made of? Why do things fall down?

Questions are the curriculum! Two key ways to encourage and build a foundation of curiosity in your home are….

Wonder Out Loud Together

When your child asks a question—whether you know the answer or not—pause and wonder with them.

That’s a great question?
I don’t know—let’s find out.
Why do you think it happens?

Model the process. Let them see how knowledge is built. By doing this, you teach that questions are not interruptions; they are the beginning of every learning journey.

Teach Them Observation

Help children learn to see — really see things. Start with the sky. Then trees. Then insects. Music. Art. Texture. Color. Shape.

Ask what they notice. Give them sketchbooks. Let them trace leaves, press flowers, draw imperfect, abstract representations of what they observe.

The ability to truly see serves children for life—in science, art, and writing.

I believe so strongly in this I wrote a whole post about it The Path to Polymath: Teach Your Kids to Think Like Renaissance Geniuses.

✨Math: Making Patterns Feel Friendly

Math is often where children first learn to fear being wrong.

It doesn’t have to be.

Your goal in the early years is to help math feel useful, playful, and satisfying to explore.

Build the Brain with Hands

To the brain, math is visual (yes, you read that right). Technically, it’s visuospatial.

Children who have a strong visuospatial working memory perform better in every domain of math.

All those hours spent building, cutting and rearranging, folding paper, solving puzzles, or learning finger crafts are quietly training the brain systems math relies on later. This work matters more than we’re often led to believe—so don’t rush past it.

(You can read more deeply on this topic in Improve Your Child’s Math — Without Doing Math. I’ve included a full activity list below & in that article.)

Make Math Musical🎶

Songs teach pattern effortlessly.

I’ll never forget singing multiplication tables in the car with my girls. I was teaching my eight-year-old, but my five-year-old sang right along:

“4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24, 28, 32, 36, 40, 44, 48-leaf clovers…” I can’t even write that without singing the song in my head. Be sure to count all the things in your life along with these songs!

Sesame Street was onto something friends.

Music makes structure feel safe. Patterns feel playful. Memorization of math facts later becomes easier because the relationships are already familiar.

✨Practical Life: Real Work that Builds Confidence

Children so want to be helpful.

Nearly every veteran homeschooler I’ve interviewed on the podcast—and Maria Montessori herself—emphasized the importance of children participating in the work of a household.

Invite Them into Real Work

Children don’t want pretend chores. They want real ones.

These tasks quietly build confidence: I can bake muffins. I can sweep. I can contribute.

For a three-year-old, sweeping the floor is play. Lean into it!

And yes, it won’t actually be helpful at first - but it’s teaching them when work is real, it’s meaningful - and searching for meaningful work becomes the cadence of their future.

Protect Focused Work Time

One of the most striking features of Montessori classrooms is their alive, yet serious work periods.

I worked hard to cultivate that in my home—not perfectly, but deliberately.

Over time, it became the natural rhythm of our day. Even on vacation, I often find my children quietly doing morning “work”: reading, drawing, crafting. As I write this, it’s Saturday morning and they are listening to an audiobook while making historical paper dolls. I didn’t suggest it to them, it’s simply how they want their day to begin.

A three-year-old can tolerate a surprisingly long work block—two hours is not unreasonable when the work is varied and shared. Choose a consistent time of day (after breakfast works well). Build blocks, sing counting songs, read together. Include chores. Whatever you do, make it intentional.

Protected “work” time teaches children what it feels like to begin, sustain, and complete meaningful work.

✨Multiple Languages: Keeping Young Brains Flexible & Open

Young children hear the full range of human sound. But between roughly 18 months and 3 years of age, their perception begins to narrow — a natural part of learning one’s native language.

Exposure to multiple languages keeps the brain flexible. It makes future language learning easier—and richer.

If you have a native speaker at home, use it fully: talk, sing, read. If not, it’s never been easier to find songs, stories, and audiobooks online. Exposure alone shapes the brain.

To young children, this feels like play. And it is.

✨Unstructured Play: Where Learning Becomes Their Own

Finally, protect what cannot be scheduled.

So far, we’ve focused on building a relationship with the work of learning, but a relationship with play matters just as much.

Decades of research show that unstructured physical and imaginative play helps children regulate their bodies, emotions, and attention.

Play must not be scripted. It should belong entirely to the child.

Here, learning becomes theirs.

✨Final Thoughts

Read the real books, welcome the questions, wonder together, sing math songs, share the real work, guard the play.

Do this, and you give your child something no curriculum can buy: a heart in love with learning.

🌺And that love will carry them—steadily, delightfully—farther than you can imagine.

I want the resources!

Read more

One of my favorite ways to end the year is to show my kids what they were doing last August. They are stunned to see how much their writing has improved & how the math seems so easy.

One rarely remembers what happened a year ago-show your kids how much they've grown.

Honestly, I’d needed the reminder — and you probably do too.

So before you rush into summer, pause, and reflect on all your wins!

As I mentioned last week, I have something special planned for us this summer.

We’re going to spend the next few months exploring how to help our children fall in love with reading, writing, and math — giving our children a joyfully, rigorous education. If you missed it, you can read more details in my post Why I Refuse to Choose Between Joy and Rigor.

But I didn’t want you to hear only from me.

I want you to learn from parents who have walked different educational paths, some much further down the road than I am, and who have deeply wrestled with balancing joy and rigor in their homes.

I’ve lined up four powerful conversations with veteran homeschool parents whose stories could not be more different. Two began with highly rigorous environments. Two began with almost complete freedom. None of them ended where they started.

Some stories are full of redemption — children rediscovering themselves and coming back to life. Others include adults looking back with honesty, wishing parts of their childhood had been different.

All of them wrestle with the same deep question so many of us carry: How do we give our children both freedom and formation? Both joy and rigor?

I hope these conversations inform you, challenge you, and above all help you see education, and your own children, a little differently.

And at the end of the summer, I’ll come back and share my own reflections and what I learned from these incredible parents along the way.

Welcome to summer my friends — I’m truly grateful to share it with you♥️

Subscribe now

~Dr. Claire♥️

Wouldn’t pick up a book, cried if we asked her to write anything… don’t even get me started on math.

So much of my early research into education was about reigniting a lost love of learning. I read John Holt and Peter Gray. I listened to School Sucks (had far more episodes) and Exploring Unschooling podcasts. They all promoted different versions of child-led, freedom-based, unschooling. It was a beautiful vision — one that transformed my daughter into a lover of books, art, and architecture. I’ll always be grateful for what these minds taught me and for the reawakening of curiosity in my daughter.

But ultimately, it wasn’t enough.

You see, love of learning is just the beginning. It’s what you do next that matters.

It’s my job to leave as many doors open to my children as possible. I want to raise formidable thinkers. I want my children trained in logic, reason, and critical thinking.

There is perhaps no better discipline to train these than classical education. I devoured The Well-Trained Mind and listened to Memoria Press’ Classical Et Cetera podcast. I brought classical literature into our home. We listened to classical music, took art history courses, did deep dives into history, and they are learning to write using the progymnasmata.

Their education was more rigorous than ever.

But here too, something was missing.

The materials were often too tedious, too obtuse. Their writing was improving and they were reading harder books, but I watched that spark of delight slowly dim. I couldn’t let that happen.

So I set out to merge these two seemingly opposite disciplines to create an education that was joyfully rigorous.

An education where my children were both highly prepared (some might argue over-prepared) for their future, while also loving the process.

Let’s take a moment to define these terms, because I’ve noticed people picture them quite differently.

✨What exactly IS a rigorous education?

If you look up the definition of rigor, you will read this: strictness or severity. A harsh or trying circumstance; a hardship or difficulty.

Teachers from Oliver Twist come to mind.

But if you look up the definition of a rigorous education, you will read: an approach to teaching and learning that emphasizes high academic standards, intellectual challenge, and deep engagement with material, while providing the necessary support for students to succeed at those elevated levels.

Charlotte Mason and Maria Montessori come to mind.

Rigor to me does not mean harsh, but it does mean intense. An intensity that builds and grows with children, preparing them for the rest of their lives.

My mother once told me she thought of my education as sharpening a knife. One can’t sharpen a knife with a soft cloth; it requires something harder than steel.

A rigorous education prepares our children. It is necessary and it is right. But is it enough? I don’t think so.

If our children know reading, writing, and math but hate them, we’ve failed.

✨What exactly IS a joyful education?

You may think this term needs no explanation. But I disagree.

There are many influencers showcasing children frolicking around in nature learning joyfully — OK I’m one of them. We’ve had a LOT of these moments. We have them everyday. My children love reading, history, science. They memorize Shakespeare, are learning how to play duets on the piano, and are writing a novel with their best friend — with zero prompting from me.

But not every moment looks like this.

A joyful education does not mean that every moment is filled with joy. Sometimes the most rewarding, the most joyous work of our lives is just that… work. We must push, strive, toil even. Sometimes joy is found at the top of a mountain after the climb.

Motherhood and educating my children is the most wonderful thing I’ve ever done. Every day it brings me joy beyond measure. But it’s hardly perfect. Every day there are challenges, hard moments, tears even. Does that mean it’s not joyful work? Absolutely not.

Our children’s education will require them to do hard things. It will not always look joyful. But if we remove the challenges, we also remove our children’s opportunity to conquer.

There are few things more joyful than hard-won success.

Don’t take that from your children.

✨Our job is to find Joyful Rigor

To raise children who can think deeply, work hard, and still remain full of wonder.

This is why I refuse to choose between joy and rigor.

My children deserve both. And so do yours.

Over the years, I’ve worked to find this balance not only with my own children, but with many students beyond them.

When I worked as a university professor, I saw the same pattern repeat: bright students whose love of learning had been extinguished. I used all the modern techniques (flipped classroom, student-led, mastery-based), but I turned to the ancients for my own children (Socratic dialogues, Progymnasmata, etc.).

Memory fades, so this summer I’m going to lay out everything I’ve learned about giving children a joyfully rigorous education from preschool to the start of middle school.

We’ll start with a post you may recognize: Falling in Love with Learning: A Joyfully Rigorous Guide to the Preschool Years

We’ll build from there.

Because there’s simply too much to cover in the core subjects to fit into one guide, I’ll be separating them out. K–2 is also quite different from grades 3–5, so those will be separated as well.

These will come about every 2 weeks, and I reserve the right to add to this mix.

Here’s what you can expect over the summer:

• ✨Falling in Love with Reading: A Joyfully Rigorous Guide to Ages 5-7

• Deepening a Love for Reading: A Joyfully Rigorous Guide to Ages 8-10

• ✨Falling in Love with Math: A Joyfully Rigorous Guide to Ages 5-7

• Deepening a Love for Math : A Joyfully Rigorous Guide to Ages 8-10

• ✨Falling in Love with Writing: A Joyfully Rigorous Guide to Ages 5-7

• Deepening a Love for Writing: A Joyfully Rigorous Guide to Ages 8-10

This Falling in Love with Learning series will showcase the core of the ClarifiEd philosophy that I developed over decades. It draws on my experience as a university professor, microschool and club leader, homeschool mom, and my background in neuroscience and how the brain learns best.

It will compliment, update, and expand my You Can Homeschool course — which is already available if you’d like to get started.

I’ve been wanting to write this for a very long time.

✨This is the summer. Now is the time.

I’m so excited — and I hope this approach will transform how your children experience learning too.

I hope you’ll join me♥️

Subscribe now

Remember → Children are our most important work.

~Dr. Claire Honeycutt

Every Sunday, she disappears. Her family keeps Sabbath and takes it very seriously. They attend church, spend the day as a family. No swimming in their pool. No video games. It’s a day for God and for each other.

Two years ago, I thought, That’s a good idea. We should do something similar.

So I cleared our Sundays. No activities (except church). Just family time.

But you know what I did? Laundry. Cleaned the house. Went to the grocery store.

Needless to say, Sabbath didn’t last. It didn’t feel special. Just a whole day dedicated to errands and the ones liked least at that.

A few months ago, I decided to try again. But this time I did something different. I didn’t just clear out calendar.

I removed the work. No errands. No phones or computers.

It was … well … transformative.

Last Sunday, my children pulled out books I used to read to them as toddlers. We read them together for hours. They pointed out memories, things they used to say on each page, things that once confused them and new things they noticed. It was so special.

Later, my youngest shared something that had been weighing on her for a long time. She bared her soul in a way she hadn’t before. I finally understood why she gave up dancing — something she used to cherish. We worked through it. I understood her better, and we’ll walk a new path soon.

Would that have happened if our day had been filled with noise? No.

It was possible because we had spent the whole day together dedicated to one another. Unhurried. Undistracted. Open.

There is always more to do. Always. You must make connection sacred.

You can’t lead your children without it.

And connection doesn’t happen accidentally.

Every week should have time dedicated for the explicit purpose of being together. Even better if that time is spent contemplating the divine.

I wonder what you’ll find in the stillness.

Laughter that comes more easily.
Conversations that go deeper.
A version of your children — and yourself — you haven’t seen in too long.

It will look different for every family.

But one thing I know for sure.

The laundry can wait.
Your family shouldn’t.

Start with one Sunday.

How about this one?♥️

If this resonated with you, you might also enjoy The Hidden Curriculum of Greatness, Stop Managing Time – How to Start Living by Your Values, Tools That Build a Curious Home.

Subscribe for more posts like these every week.

Subscribe now

Remember → Children are our most important work.

~Dr. Claire

My children ask their richest questions at bedtime. The noise of the day has quieted. Thoughts they didn’t have time for suddenly appear.

Today, at 8:30pm my daughter asked, “What does courageous mean?” Why do questions like this wait until the world is still?

Children’s minds are particularly receptive to hearing you at bedtime. It’s a beautiful time for songs and stories (and I’ll share my favorites in a minute), but it can be more than that. Over the years, we’ve nourished their hearts in different ways in different seasons.

When they were toddlers, bedtime was about comfort and calm. As they’ve grown, it has become a time to build confidence through connection, affirmations, and steady reminders of who they are — and what we see in them.

You see — Sleep is not empty time.

Your brain is working on what was lived and learned that day. We wake stronger in skills we practiced the day before and clearer on problems we wrestled with. Research supports this. Children who practice the piano wake to play more quickly and accurately — true of many things.

Why not use bedtime to prime their dreams to ponder things of importance?

I’m not talking about math facts (though sleep helps them). I’m talking about deeper things: self-worth, security, courage, belonging, gratitude, the memory of being deeply loved.

I know what it feels like to be tired at the end of the day. I know the temptation to rush through bedtime just to be done.

But I want to encourage you to see those moments differently. Not as one more task to finish, but as a rare window when your child’s heart is open, and your words can mean the most.

What would you say if you knew it really mattered?

Here is what I say.

This one is pretty personal friends. I share the special songs and stories I read to my children, the affirmations I use with my middle schooler, and a few other family practices that have mattered deeply to us. It’s for my beloved supporters. Thank you for helping me support my family♥️

Subscribe now

Read more

It’s shaping their habits, their values, what they like, and how they see the world — often in ways you don’t notice.

Two years ago, I noticed something unsettling.

We rarely, if ever, had family meals together.

We homeschool. My family spends a lot of time together… but meals? For some reason, we were always eating separately, perched around the kitchen peninsula. Even when we were eating at the same time, we didn’t eat together.

I talked about it. We tried to fix it. Nothing really changed.

Then I redid our dining room.

Our original dining room had slowly been taken over as a homeschool club space. We have a small home, and the table now housed pencils, paper, erasers. It was a great space — but not for eating.

One day, I cleared it off. I put down placemats. And at the very next meal, everyone sat down together without a single word from me.

No reminders. No systems. Just a space that invited us to eat together.

That small change raised a bigger question:

✨What does our house invite?✨What does it discourage?

There are plenty of blogs that will help you choose paint colors, find your style, or declutter your space.

This isn’t about that.

This post is about something far more foundational:

Designing a home that trains your children in the values you care about—automatically, quietly, every day.

Below, I share the steps we took to intentionally align our home with the habits, ideas, and values that we espouse as a family.

May it help you live a more intentional life too.

The Art on Your Walls Is Not Neutral

Toddlers are more helpful when surrounded by images of others being helpful.

Stop. Read that again.

We are primed by what we see. The images around us shape what feels normal, expected, even possible. Our environment changes our attention, what we focus on, and ultimately our behaviors.

And yet most of us have a completely accidental collection of things on the walls of our home — things we inherited, picked up on sale, or chose because they “looked nice.”

But your walls are speaking.

They are telling your children:

• what is beautiful

• what is worth noticing

• what kind of life is being lived

When we enclosed our patio to create a homeschool room, I chose the artwork carefully.

Every piece shows a path — a journey into something unknown but beautiful. A figure moving forward. A landscape that invites exploration.

Because that’s what I want my children to feel: that they are on a journey worth taking.

In other rooms, I’ve made different choices. Spaces that invite play. Walls that display my children’s own artwork—because I want them to see that their contributions matter.

None of this is accidental.

Your environment shapes behavior. What are your walls shaping?

Spaces That Invite Connection

If you want your family to spend time together, your home has to make that easy. Our dining room change made that obvious. So we applied what we learned to other rooms.

We turned the center room of our home into a game room. It draws us in. It beckons, “Play Together.”

It silently answers the question: What do we do here?

The layout of your home is constantly answering that question for your children. What does your home invite your children to do?

A Place to Learn

Not everyone believes in a dedicated homeschool space. But children benefit from signals and clear transitions that tell their brain: now we focus. In our home, we have a simple ritual. We play classical music. We light incense. We sing. We pray. Then we sit together to learn.

It’s not elaborate. It’s not expensive. But it is consistent.

My husband has his own version before he begins work. Same principle.

Focus is something children must learn to enter and maintain.

Your environment can either fragment attention—or gently gather it. Which does your home do?

What Does Your Living Room Say?

When my children were little, we removed the TV from our living room. Not because TVs are inherently bad — but because we didn’t want it to define who we were.

A TV in your main living space answers the question: What do we do together?

For many families, the answer becomes: we watch television.

We wanted the answer to be → we read books, we play together, we learn.

The point isn’t whether you should have a TV.

The point is this: Your home is always teaching your children. What do you want it to teach yours?

A Home Built Around Reading

If you want your children to be readers, they need to be surrounded by books.

Not tucked away on a single shelf. Not reserved for school time. Visible. Accessible. Within arm’s reach. Books you read. Books they’re drawn to. Books that stretch them.

Because proximity matters.

A child is far more likely to pick up a book that is already part of the environment than one that requires effort to find or go get at the library.

When my children were younger, we used the library heavily. Now, I’m more selective. There are far too many books and too little time.

I want what surrounds them to be worthy of their attention.

What your child encounters daily becomes what they naturally reach for. Are books in your child’s reach?

Designing a Life, Not Just a Home

It’s easy to think of our homes as neutral backdrops.

They’re not.

Every object, layout, and visible choice is quietly shaping your child’s expectations of life.

• What do we do when we’re bored?

• What do we do together?

• What do we reach for?

• What do we value?

Your home is answering those questions. You don’t need a perfect house (I don’t have one!). You don’t need more space, more money, or better furniture.

But you do need to ask: What is my home training my children to become?

And then, gently, intentionally, begin to align it. Clear the dining table. Hang paintings that make you feel something. Bring books into sight.

With time, these small changes become something much bigger.

They become part of your child’s inner voice.

✨Because children don’t just live in a home. They become what that home invites them to be.

If you are looking for more on how to Stop Managing Time – How to Start Living by Your Values, How to Build a HOME Library, or Tools That Build a Curious Home, you might like these posts.

Subscribe now

Until next week, remember: Children Are Our Most Important Work.

~Dr. Claire

PS. I got the classic painting reproductions at…

icanvas LINK to the classic fine artists. There are other options out there. We liked this one. They even let you split up large canvases into smaller pieces which is a cheaper option - thus our pool table with 3 panels.

If my child knows math but hates it. Have I Failed?

You might be thinking: Why does it matter? Who cares if my kids hate one measly subject?

But if a child decides, “I’m not a math person,” they close doors they haven’t even tried to open.

I want my children to see the world as open in every direction. Not all paths will call them, but it’s my job to give them 360 degrees of possibility.

My husband is a data scientist. As a child, he would have told you he didn’t like math. If his parents said, You don’t have to learn this, the career he has come to love — that supports our family — would have been cut off from him.

So yes—it matters if kids hate math.

But sometimes this feels like an uphill battle. Math is both the easiest subject to make fun with games and the hardest to turn into something deep and rigorous without tears.

So how do we change children’s relationship with math?

We reframe it.

Math isn’t testing us. We are testing math.

I know. I know — easier said than done.

It won’t be good enough to tell kids these ideas, we must demonstrate them through story and action.

Today, let’s consider five reframes that will change how your child (and probably you, too) see math.

Your child doesn’t have to hate math.

Ready? Let’s go.

Subscribe now

✨5 Reframes to Change How Your Child Experiences Math

These aren’t quick fixes. They are gentle, repeated invitations to see math differently — through stories, play, and real-life moments.

1. You’re Entering a Different World — And It’s OK to Make Mistakes

Math exists in a perfect, precise world — and it’s totally imaginary.

Because math in the real world is anything but perfect.

Every right angle in your home is slightly off. Every tile in your bathroom, a smidge crooked. Anyone that has ever done a home remodel or DIY fix knows this.

Here’s a fun activity. Have your kids run around your house measuring the right angles of your walls. They won’t find them. Not really.

It’s almost enough to make you nervous. But you know what? The house is still standing.

Kids need to know that real world math is imperfect. Because that allows them to be imperfect too.

It takes some of the burn off mistakes — and that my friends will make all the difference.

2. Math is a Mystery — Not a Test

Some mathematicians spend their whole lives on a single problem. Many of them will leave this world having never solved it.

That puts long division in perspective — amiright?

We need to help our children see each math problem as a small mystery to be solved. Come to math with a playful spirit.

How do we accomplish this?

Games and puzzles are a fantastic bridge. My kids love the dice game PIG (instructions below). The game requires quick mental addition, subtraction, and even develops an intuitive feel for probability and risk. Bonus, I’ve never played a game without the kids laughing. Even neighbor kids love this one.

How to play PIG (ages 6+):

• Players take turns rolling a single die.

• Add up the numbers you roll on your turn. You can roll as many times as you like. BUT….

• If you roll a 1, you lose all the points from that turn and your turn ends.

• At any point, you can choose to “hold” and bank your points for the round.

• First to 50 (or 100) points wins. (You can also play the reverse for subtraction getting to zero from 100. Another version adds a second dice — the game changes suddenly as probability changes everything)

I’ll give you more games in a minute.

But don’t stop at games!

Let them follow in Euclid’s footsteps. Let them puzzle over why no matter what a triangle looks like, you cut off the angles and it makes a straight line. Why? Wonder aloud together. The joy is in the path towards discovery.

And you know what? Puzzles are rarely solved the first time. We must try, try again.

Teach children to meet the unknown with curiosity and play.

3. Math is an Art — And Repetition Makes Perfect

Monet painted the same water lilies over and over. The same bridge. The same garden. Each time seeing something new. Each time getting closer. You keep on until one day, the garden is perfect and people hundreds of years still hang it on their wall.

Math is the same.

You must revisit the same problem over and over. Whether multiplication facts, fractions, or long division, every time it gets more clear. It gets easier. Until one day, it flows without effort. And on that day, you become ready for the next puzzle.

Next time your child pushes back about practicing another math problem, show them Monet’s water lilies. Ask them which version is the best, and what would have happened if he’d stopped at one?

4. Make Messes — Be Brave, You Are the Explorer

Ancient maps marked unknown waters with the words Hic Sunt Dracones — “Here Be Dragons.”

No one ever said that exploration was safe and comfortable. It’s scary and hard. One must be courageous to tackle new worlds.

Our children need permission to take chances with problems they don’t yet know how to solve. Some problems will have neat solutions that they’ve memorized. Many will not. Let them try, tweak, and make a mess. Don’t overcorrect. If they get it wrong, help them figure out why. Don’t jump in to tell them right away.

The key message they need to hear is → There are many paths to the right answer. What matters most is the courage to begin.

Model this for your children. My oldest is already doing math I don’t remember. I work the problem myself with her. I tell her I’m not sure how to do it. I show her that I’m struggling, thinking, and figuring it out too. I also will often arrive at the answer differently than the textbook says we are supposed to. It gently shows her there is more than one way to solve a problem — and it’s OK to make a mess to get there.

5. You Don’t Start Good at Math — You Become Good at Math

Most kids think being “good at math” is something you either are or aren’t.

But no one starts out good at math.

You become good by struggling through problems, making mistakes, and trying again. By staying with something longer than is comfortable. Often what separates “math naturals” from everyone else is that they approach the work with a playful heart.

We must help our children see that struggle is a gift — and math is the type of struggle that is surmountable.

Final Note for Parents

Mind shifts take time. You won’t tell these to your child tomorrow and watch all the math drama melt away.

It’ll be more like building a new habit. Like trying to exercise or eat better. It takes time, and there will be missteps, and backward steps. But as long as we keep getting up, progress always follows.

Pick one of the reframes above, work on it through games, stories, and even just gently saying it in times of struggle (I’ve got a list of suggestions below).

Then, pick another.

It may feel slow. Real change always is. But if you pick one mindset shift a quarter (3 months) and you’ve done four in a year!

Your child is worth it.

This week’s bonus for paid supporters is humble, but it includes math puzzle books, curriculum, books about growth mindsets and making mistakes, living books about math concepts, and a free documentary on a mathematician or two. These can be combined to bring the reframes above to life. Scroll down for it.

PS. Would you be interested in a 5-Day Fall in Love with Math Camp? I’m running this camp in my house this summer. I can record a version for subscribers. It’ll include.

• At least five recorded lessons that bring each reframe to life with stories about ancient mathematicians and how they influence modern math for your kids to listen to

• Fun, low-prep activities, games, and puzzles you can do with your kids at home tied to the lesson to forge a new relationship with math

If 50 or more of you say you’re interested, I’ll put it together and make it available. It will be a paid subscriber bonus.

✨Onto this week’s bonus!

Subscribe now

Read more

How many of you have heard that question while helping your child with math homework? Most of you, I’d bet. If you’re like me, you’ve probably given some version of: “Because you have to be able to keep track of your money, invest, pay taxes.”

But is that really why kids should learn math?

Do we learn to read so we can decipher instruction manuals or furniture assembly guides? Reading is the foundation for everything good, true, and beautiful. It’s nearly impossible to succeed in the modern world without it.

But that’s not why we ask kids to read. We show them it’s because they’ll get to dive into stories about dragons, knights, far-off lands, and heroes.

That’s far more compelling.

With math, though, it’s → you need it to do taxes.

Ick. No thanks.

So why should kids bother learning math?

Because it connects them to an ancient tradition of solving some of the world’s most compelling and complicated mysteries.

Hear me out.

Every math problem your child does is the result of thousands of years of study. Yes—thousands of years.

We like to think of math as lifeless and abstract. But it’s as much a part of the great conversation as the stories we read to our children.

And I think reconnecting children to that history may be the most compelling reason to study math.

It quietly teaches that it’s okay for it to take hours—or even days—to understand math because once it took centuries.

Centuries of contemplating the universe. Of making the chaotic, ordered.

The Pirahã people of the Amazon are an anumeric (numberless) society. They have only three words to count: hói (~one), hoí (~two), and baágiso (many).

Once upon a time, we were all the Pirahã people. Numberless.

What an incredible journey we’re on.

Our children are a part of that journey—but someone needs to tell them that.

It’s easy to feel part of history when reading Little Women, Pride & Prejudice, The Prince & the Pauper, or Henry V. You connect with past humans as you become fully immersed tales decades or even centuries old.

Wrestling with long division is also part of that same grand story — it’s just much harder to see.

We need to tell our children Euclid and Pythagoras’ stories. How hard it was. Their struggles. Their triumphs. We should let children walk in their shoes, exploring the same ideas through imaginatively playing with triangles and circles.

Let our kids ponder: What would the world be like if there were no numbers?

Very different indeed.

In this way, we help children enter a new realm of humanity’s story—and show them that math is a grand adventure, not something to fear.

Next week, I’ll share simple ways to do this — including stories and activities to share with your kids.

If you resonated with this post, consider subscribing so you don’t miss it. Joining our community also gives you access to posts like Improve Your Kid’s Math Without Doing Math, Activities Most Kids Will Never Experience – But Should, and Alpha School’s Most Inspiring Ideas—And How to Bring Them Home.

Subscribe now

Remember → Children are our most important work♥️

~Dr. Claire

✨Once upon a time, studying science meant stepping outside and looking up.

But it was so much more than that.

It was about becoming a certain kind of person. One who notices what others miss.

On an ordinary night about 2,120 years ago in ancient Greece, Hipparchus stepped outside and noticed something incredible — a brand new star shining where none had been before.

This marvelous event would change not just his life, but ours thousands of years later. Hipparchus would painstakingly catalog all the visible stars in the sky (can you imagine!). He marked their brightness, their coordinates, and cross-referenced his observations with earlier records of the Greeks and Babylonians.

It was an extraordinary act of disciplined wonder.

This is what science once formed in people.

Today, I struggle to find a science curriculum I like. All fall short because…

I’m not teaching science—I’m raising disciplined thinkers who pursue knowledge and truth.

I want my children to stand in awe at the beauty of this marvelous world — and then know how to pursue deeper knowledge through careful, direct exploration of that world.

What does disciplined wonder look like in practice?

It looks like inspiring awe in geology through a rock cycle demonstration, or grasping the vastness of the universe by walking the planets scaled out with sidewalk chalk. It looks like explaining that the earth beneath our feet is actually moving, changing, and remaking itself every day through exploring plate tectonics — and then casually mentioning that the Moon is made entirely of igneous rock (the kind that on Earth usually comes from volcanoes). All things we did in our science club this year.

Then on a walk, I listen as my 9-year-old takes that spark of wonder and turns it into questions:

“If the Moon is made of igneous rocks, why is it white? Igneous rocks are usually black. Are there white igneous rocks? Oh — pumice is kind of white. What is it made of? Is pumice the closest rock we have on earth to the moon? How is it different from the black ones? Can we look at all our igneous rocks and figure it out?”

✨Inspire awe ✨Form questions ✨Pursue knowledge

Disciplined Wonder.

Today, I’ll outline the steps I’m using to teach my own children (and our science club) natural philosophy. This is the heart of how I teach science — disciplined wonder in action.

Some of these ideas may surprise you and delight you. For example, I recommend doing fewer experiments and explain why doing less will take you further.

Ready? Let’s go!

Joining our community of thousands of parents also gives you access to posts like The Four Stories Your Kids Need to Read Everything Else, Curate a Love for Classical Music in Your Children, and my You Can Homeschool course.

Subscribe now

Read more

We read classic literature, study history deeply, use the progymnasmata to teach writing, and ground it all in strong grammar and Socratic dialogue.

I’m a fan — a big fan.

But classical education, as it’s practiced today, is incomplete.

We’re missing something. Something that shaped our great thinkers just as much (if not more) than literature and historical study.

Natural Philosophy.

Natural philosophy, as understood by the ancients, was the pursuit of wisdom through encountering the natural world with curiosity, attention, and awe.

Today, we call it science.

I recently toured two classical schools (one private, one public). When pressed, they admit their science students aren’t well served. They are focused on training the mind and soul through literature discussion (again - I’m a fan!)

But literature, while incredible, does something wholly different than natural philosophy.

Literature takes you outside of yourself through story. It forms you through the exploration of others’ lives: their experiences, their struggles, their quests. It shapes virtue and character through narrative.

Natural philosophy asks something different of you.

It asks you to encounter God’s creation — the natural world around you. It asks you to sit in quiet contemplation of this impossibly complex world, to observe, to question, to seek, to think.

To Wonder.

There is a growing movement to reclaim modern education — to return to the roots of our past.

Why aren’t we reclaiming Natural Philosophy too?

Perhaps, it’s because no one knows how truly beautiful old science was.

When I was a graduate student, we read Sherrington (1857–1952), considered the father of neuroscience. What strikes you immediately is how differently he saw and related to the world.

His scientific study reads like a novel.

He wonders about something, sets out to study it, is surprised. That surprise leads to more questions, and those questions lead him deeper still. He ends not with tidy conclusions, but with reflections about how his work reshapes our understanding of the world and our place within it.

It’s beautiful.

This is how he describes the brain as it wakes.

[The sleeping brain] where hardly a light had twinkled or moved, becomes now a sparkling field of rhythmic flashing points with trains of traveling sparks hurrying hither and thither.

The brain is waking and with it the mind is returning.

It is as if the Milky Way entered upon some cosmic dance. Swiftly the head … becomes an enchanted loom where millions of flashing shuttles weave a dissolving pattern … a shifting harmony ... the body is up and rises to meet its waking day.

~Charles Sherrington in Man on his Nature

Where did this tradition go?

As a professor, I tried to cultivate something similar in my students. But modern academia wants to rush to the next class, read the newest papers, apply to another grant or scholarship.

There was little space for sitting with a question or thinking deeply about what we were actually doing.

You could see this in the student’s work.

Students would run an experiment and immediately push the results through a computer. They would come to my office and say, “I did it.” I would ask, “What did you discover?” They wouldn’t even know where to start answering.

They had completed the steps, but they hadn’t thought about what they were doing or why.

They hadn’t considered what their results meant, or how their work connected to anything beyond the task itself. Nor had they even considered how what they were doing was important or how it added to society as a whole.

You can argue that that is my job as their instructor — and you’d be right of course. But what bothered me so much is that I had to supply even the interest. So many of them weren’t there because they loved it or were seeking some universal truth. They were doing it because someone told them they’d make good money as an engineer.

How depressing.

The “science” education in my home looks very different.

It is far closer to natural philosophy than to modern science instruction.

I want them to think, to observe, to seek, to WONDER.

We don’t begin with instructions. We begin with the world. With questions. With things we notice but don’t yet understand. From there, we look for ways to observe more carefully, to test ideas, to explore what might be true. Sometimes that leads to experiments.

But the experiment is never the point, understanding the universe is.

✨We study the stars not to pass a test, but to wonder how many there are, what they are, and how far they reach into the darkness.

✨We study plate tectonics not to pass a class, but to realize the land beneath our feet is alive—slowly moving, changing, and remaking itself.

Let’s aspire to more.

If you are a classical educator — or really any kind of educator — I encourage you to reconsider how you think about teaching science. It is not the rote execution of experiments or the accumulation of facts.

It is the exploration of an intricate, ordered, and divine world beneath your feet, in the sky, and even inside your literal heart.

It is the practice of disciplined wonder. It is Natural Philosophy.

And I suspect that returning to natural philosophy is one of the clearest ways to draw our children back into reality… away from the abstractions and distractions of a screen saturated life, and into a deeper relationship with the world itself.

Let us raise our children to not merely study the universe — but fall in love with it.

If you resonate with this post, you might enjoy my other work. Joining our community also gives you access to posts like The Four Stories Your Kids Need to Read Everything Else, Curate a Love for Classical Music in Your Children, and my You Can Homeschool course.

Subscribe now

Remember → Children are our most important work.

~Dr. Claire

Tracey’s advice is practical, heart-centered, and deeply reassuring: she reminds us that it’s okay to ask for help, that relationships come before rules, and that learning should be playful and flexible, especially for kids with special needs. She emphasizes the unique roles both parents play as children grow, and the importance of downtime, family connection, and truly being present.

You’ll come away with actionable strategies, inspiration, and a sense of confidence that no matter how full your days are, you can guide your children with wisdom, patience, and love.

I’m especially excited today because I have something special for my paid subscribers, the show notes include my top takeaways from this conversation—perfect for busy parents who can’t always listen to every episode.

Subscribe now

Read more

Which is it?

Is technology improving our children’s capacity to learn or is it destroying it?

The frustrating answer is… both.

I’ll never forget how my 6 month old baby was entranced by the television. Nothing could draw her attention away — not toys, not music, and most disturbingly …. not our smiling faces.

It left my husband and I deeply uncomfortable.

The TV went off — and stayed off. To this day, we watch one family movie a week. One.

But we couldn’t live in the dark ages forever.

A textbook can show you a picture of Versailles. A virtual tour can let your kids experience the sparkle of the mirror room and frescoes on the ceiling. A math textbook moves at one, slow pace, but an adaptive program creates a curriculum uniquely suited to my child.

Screens are powerful when used correctly.

So, how do we take advantage of the opportunities technology provides, while ensuring our children don’t become slaves to TikTok?

The answer is simple to state, but difficult to live:

✨Love Life and Use Screens✨

Children must learn to love life first — then let screens enrich that life.

(The opposite → children who love screens and tolerate life spells disaster)

As parents, we must create clear, non-negotiable boundaries while the brain is developing. We also must nurture a deep, aching love of the authentic, sand between your toes, looking at the ocean, real world.

If your children are not grounded into real life, the algorithm will change how and what they think.

Today, let’s talk about raising kids who type novels, learn math with Math Academy, and use simulation software to study plate tectonics — but spend their free time riding bikes, reading books, and knitting hats (hey, that’s my kids!)

Ready? Let’s go.

Joining our community of thousands of parents also gives you access to posts like The Four Stories Your Kids Need to Read Everything Else, Curate a Love for Classical Music in Your Children, and my You Can Homeschool course.

Subscribe now

Read more

The 5 paragraph essay is treated as the pinnacle of writing instruction. But does it deserve it?

I spent more than a decade reading 20-year-olds’ writing as a university professor, and I can tell you the problem wasn’t that they couldn’t write a 5 paragraph essay. It was they couldn’t formulate their own thoughts, much less communicate them.

College students’ writing looked like strung together sentences generally about the right topic, but that never actually said anything. In retrospect, they wrote like early versions of chatGPT.

So when 10 year old my daughter started pushing back against her writing program’s 5 paragraph essays, I had to ask: Is this really the best way way to cultivate strong, confident writers?

Do I want my child to be able to write a 5 paragraph essay or do I want her to be able to write anything?

The answer is obvious, so let me be more explicit.

I want my children to be able to express themselves clearly and with conviction—to take an idea, break it down, and rebuild it in a way that is coherent and resonates with others.

This is the heart of exceptional writing. This is synthesis.

The average writer may be able to summarize a book or article, but an exceptional writer can distill its essence, identify the core ideas, and strip away the irrelevant.

Teaching my children to synthesize has transformed their writing, not because their formatting is better but because their thinking is better.

The problem? It takes years to become an exceptional synthesizer. So, the question you should be asking is…

Where do I start? What can I do TODAY to begin my child’s journey to exceptional writing?

In today’s post you will…

• Learn a Simple Strategy to Teach Synthesis: A fun activity that helps your kids distill and reconstruct complex ideas across any subject - history, science, literature.

• Sharpen Your Child’s Critical Thinking: This technique extends beyond writing. It enhances note-taking, problem-solving, and expression skills.

• Resource Recommendation: I also give you my favorite resource with a full year of activities for those who prefer a formal program.

Joining our community of thousands of parents also gives you access to posts like The Four Stories Your Kids Need to Read Everything Else, Curate a Love for Classical Music in Your Children, and my You Can Homeschool course.

Subscribe now

A simple activity to teach synthesis - in any subject👇

Read more

In some ways, you would be right.

It’s easy for me to answer their questions.

What are clouds? → water vapor condensing around dust particles. Why does the moon changes shape? → our vantage point shifts as it moves around Earth.

But answering science questions is not the same as teaching a child to think like a scientist.

That part is harder. Much harder.

The scientific method is one of humanity’s greatest inventions — and if you want your child to be a formidable thinker, they must learn it.

The process of observation, prediction, testing, and revision built the modern world — from electricity to the computer you are reading this on.

Scientific thinking will be how our children build the future.

And yet, many children are taught science like a series of multiple choice questions rather than a system of thinking.

For a long time, I struggled too.

It was easy to show my 6 year old the beauty of the ocean and the stars, but I wanted more. I wanted them to form their own ideas and test them. We did small versions, but nothing quite like what I wanted.

I finally understand why.

You can’t think deeply about what you know nothing.

If I ask my children, “Why do stars twinkle?” I get imaginative answers.

“They are blinking.”
“The wind shakes them.”
“They are dancing.”

These are beautiful ideas.

But they are not scientific reasoning.

Many assume because innovators are often young, they are novices. But that’s not true. They usually possess deep, focused knowledge of their field.

Louis Braille, who created the Braille system after losing his sight in childhood, spent years experimenting with tactile writing systems. By age fifteen, he had developed the six-dot Braille system that is still used today.

He was not a novice. Nor was he an expert in the traditional sense. He was in the intellectual middle ground where creativity thrives.

So if we want to train reasoning, critical thinking, scientists, we must train our children in areas where they know the most.

That should leave you asking…

What field do children actually know something about?

Surprisingly, the answer is geophysics.

At first glance, geophysics sounds complicated and hard — and it can be. But at its foundation it’s earth, sand, and water. Your child has been building expertise in geophysics since they were toddlers digging in your sandbox.

This year, I wanted my science club (ages 9-11) to do a REAL experiment. One that was 100% driven by them from start to finish.

We’ve of course done experiments, but usually I have to feed them the hypotheses and suggest what and how we study them.

This time, I said, “We’re going to study rivers. I’ve got a board, sand, and a hose.” They immediately had a thousand ideas from building dams, watching floods, choosing the safest place for a house, and figuring out how to protect it when the water rose.

I took their ideas and helped turn them into quantifiable hypotheses, methods they could actually test, results they observed, and their first serious lab report.

It was the first time they ran a real experiment from start to finish.

I will remember forever — and they will too.

When I say joy and rigor belong together, this is what I mean.

In the rest of this post, I’ll show you exactly how to do a proper experiment —from hypothesis to methods, results, discussion — in your backyard or local river.

But whether you start with geophysics or somewhere else, just start.

Your children are capable of so much♥️

If you also want your children to do a real science experiment, below you’ll find 7 steps I used to help my kids design and run a real scientific experiment. These steps work in any field, but examples are given for geophysics.

You’ll also see a lab report written by my 11-year-old, along with a downloadable lab report template to help you get started.

This part is for my companions who generously support my work. Thank you all♥️

Subscribe now

Read more

It calls us outside — to play, soak in the sun, smell the flowers.

But…. the school year isn’t quite over. March is that final stretch. Close enough to see the finish line, but far enough it’s just out of reach. By spring, we’ve been working — really working — for months.

It gets harder and harder to get out the paints when we could just color - amiright?

If spring is starting to feel heavy, you are not failing.

You just need to lighten the load — or spruce it up a bit.

Here are my favorite things to do to brighten our home and school life heading into spring. PS. These tips work year round if it’s not spring where you are.

Let’s start with the basics — and then we’ll get…. well…. more imaginative.

Check the Fundamentals

Sleep. Movement. Nutrition. Play.

• Sleep: Most kids need 9–11 hours. My kids are on the high end of this range. I notice BIG time when they aren’t getting enough rest. Remember kids often need more in intense seasons or growth spurts.

• Movement: My youngest breaks up school work by “doing a loop” around our neighborhood block on her scooter. Bike rides before school when they were little also worked magic for focus and attention. Kids need a lot more movement than you think.

• Nutrition: Growing, active kids need protein and carbs. A lot of both. Check in with your diet. Can you put out chopped veg and fruit for snacks? Can you add in some healthy, high protein snacks? My easy favorites are coming.

• Play: Play is children’s mental health routine. It regulates, restores, reconnects - and studies show it’s doing a lot more than this. It is not optional. Ensure your kids are getting quality, open-ended, non-structured time to just be.

Pick the weakest pillar for your family and make a small change. You’ll be surprised at how big a difference a small change will make.

Don’t forget you need these too.

Try Snacks

I can’t tell you how many hard moments I’ve cured with snacks.

Our kids are often in the thick of growth spurts. Their bodies and brains are changing in big, big ways — demanding energy.

When focus fades, reach for food. PRO TIP: Throw some protein powder into hot chocolate or peanut butter power balls.

Sometimes the simplest solution is the best one.

Add Something New & Delightful

In January, I introduced the girls to opera. They are still humming The Magic Flute. It reignited joy of learning without adding any pressure to our world.

Choose something bright:

• Classical music

• Shakespeare

• Crochet

• Origami

Spring is a beautiful time to fall back in love with learning.

For more ideas → Activities Most Kids Will Never Experience – But Should

Take School on the Road

When our home was torn apart during the remodel, everything felt chaotic. So I had the girls pack “anywhere school” bags. We went to local library with a view of the lake or to the park.

I assumed we’d stop once the house was back together. We didn’t.

Now when things felt heavy, we go. Because we’re already packed, we can decide that morning.

A change of scenery can change everything.

Reorganize a Room — Hear me out

I’m NOT asking you to clean!

I am asking you to pull out forgotten books, leave out a puzzle, set up a microscope on the table, stack origami paper and knitting thread by the couch.

“Strewing” is one of my favorite habits — quietly placing things where they could rediscover them. It still works for older kids.

Watching my children rediscover old loves is pure delight.

Field Trips: Your Secret Weapon

Yes, you know this one.

But think quirky. Off the beaten path.

We once toured a worm farm — huge hit. We’ve done illusion museums, instrument collections, farm tours, Shakespeare plays.

There’s this whole big, crazy world out there! You never know what might spark a deep interest in your children.

Did You Take a Break?

One of my favorite things about homeschooling is not following the public school calendar.

But spring break exists for a reason. Take one.

It doesn’t have to be expensive. Fill a week with hikes, library visits, documentaries, a new read-aloud, or some of that unstructured play time I mentioned above.

Let them get bored. Boredom is often the doorway to their best creativity.

Let Go of Something

As I spoke about in Stop Managing Time — How to Start Living Your Values, overwhelm is often misalignment.

Look at your calendar. Is there something that sounded right in the moment but is not longer serving your family?

Even releasing one commitment can create breathing room.

Refresh the Relationship

Last week, I spent 2 hours outside with my girls - no agenda, no devices. One crocheted while the other did origami. We talked about the books we were reading.

The best time I’ve spent all week. These moments matter just as much as math.

Connection cures most ails.

Make a Special Meal

I cook almost every meal. So, it’s a special treat when I wake them up by whispering in their ears, “Do you want to go out to breakfast?” The smiles - Oh, the smiles! If you prefer, cook a special meal at home together.

Children should feel cherished. And days go smoother when they do.

Remember Why You Chose This

It’s easy to get lost in the to-do lists and lose sight of your why.

• I chose this because I wanted a front-row seat to my children’s childhood.

• I chose this because their smiling faces mattered more than career accolades.

• I chose this because I wanted their lives filled with wonder and joy.

✨Take five minutes. Write down why you chose this.

Reconnecting with your why has a quiet way of making everything lighter.

You are doing important work!

It won’t always be easy.

But it will be worth it♥️

If you liked this, consider joining our community of thousands of parents just like. Get access to posts like The Four Stories Your Kids Need to Read Everything Else, Curate a Love for Classical Music in Your Children, and my You Can Homeschool course. Plus hundreds more articles about giving your children a joyful and rigorous education. Hope to see you soon♥️

Subscribe now

Remember, children are our most important work.

~Claire

Some have been awesome.

Others… not so much.

Here are the ones that are actually worth spending money on.

Spoiler: I will not say Scrabble. Not even once. (Even though it’s pretty awesome)

Titles are hyperlinked to games. Contains affiliate links.

PS. Games are not in age order — if you have littles don’t worry there are some for you!

Shakespeare Game (Ages 8+)

If you’ve followed me for any length of time, you know the Bard is practically a family friend around here.

We got this game over Christmas and it was an instant hit. Players collect lines from Shakespeare’s plays and then perform them to earn money (in the game). There are strategy elements — blocking, stealing, etc. — but we mostly focus on collecting and dramatically performing. My kids were already in love with Shakespeare. It’s worth introducing him before you start this game. Need help? Read: 8 Year Olds Can Learn Shakespeare.

I’d say 8+ is ideal, though younger kids can join with help.

Prime Climb (Ages 8+)

This game is brilliant on so many levels.

It’s especially powerful for 3rd–4th graders because it helps them break numbers into prime factors — foundational for fractions, long division, and deeper number sense. Kids should have basic multiplication familiarity, but beyond that it’s accessible and surprisingly fun.

If you want number fluency without worksheets, this is it.

Where To? (Ages 7+)

A geography-based game where kids travel the world collecting destinations. When they claim a space, they read about a cultural event connected to that location.

It feels a bit like Ticket to Ride — but global, and with much richer exposure to world cultures.

Geography plus cultural literacy? Yes, please.

Sight Word Bingo (Ages 4–7)

My kids love bingo in all its many forms.

This version is wonderful for emerging readers who need repetition with high-frequency words. Yes, sight words require memorization — and this makes it joyful instead of tedious.

If your kids love Bingo as much as mine, I’ll give my favorite ways to use FREE Bingo games soon.

Numbalee (Ages 4+)

This one is wildly versatile.

We’ve used it for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Put a random number in the middle, start adding (or subtracting) to it. Sometimes we play competitively; sometimes we do a collaborative free-for-all where everyone builds together.

It’s a bit like Scrabble — but with numbers. And having number tiles around opens up a thousand other math games you’ll invent on the fly.

*Numbalee appears to be on backorder right now — HERE are some wooden tiles that would work just as well.

Kanoodle (Ages 5+)

You might be surprised to see this here because it doesn’t scream “educational.”

But it trains visuospatial working memory — a critical (and often overlooked) foundation for mathematical thinking. For more read: Improve Your Kids’ Math Without Doing Math.

Logic puzzles like this quietly build serious brainpower.

PS. If you have more than one kid, think about getting the competitive version HERE. I wish I’d done that.

Mathological Liar (Grades 2-7)

This is one my kids genuinely love!

Each round presents a “whodunit” scenario. One character did the math incorrectly — and that person is the liar. You have to solve the problems to figure out who it was.

They’re grade-level specific (above link is for grade 3, but they come in many grades).

My kids prefer to play a grade level down — just like rereading easier books builds fluency. That’s completely fine! Good even. Keep that in mind when purchasing.

Shut the Box (Ages 4–8)

A classic for early math facts.

We played this constantly during the preK–2 years. Roll the dice, flip the tiles. You can extend it by working backward for subtraction or even division.

Simple. Fast. Fun way to do early math facts.

Alphabet Go Fish (Ages 4–6)

My kids loved this long after they technically “knew” their letters.

We also adapted this when we were learning sign language & played the game using hand signs. Though we’ve never used it this way, you could do the same for foreign languages that share the English alphabet.

Pro tip: For early readers, use the letter sounds rather than the letter names (buh… not “B”). It makes the game phonics-rich instead of just alphabet recognition.

Mastermind (Ages 6+)

An excellent logic game.

Highly recommend. It builds reasoning, hypothesis testing, and strategic thinking. Also resilience for your perfectionist kids (I’ve got one of those!)

For my beloved companions: I’ll give you a FREE version of this game in a minute — including how to simplify for 5 year old and make it hard enough for your teenagers!

BONUS: You Laugh You Lose (All ages)

Not educational.

Utterly delightful though.

The goal is to make other people laugh. We play “You Laugh, You Win” — if you laugh first, you get to go next. Fantastic way to lighten the mood around the house — and great or parties.

Joy should absolutely be a part of every day friends.

The right games don’t just pass the time.

They build thinking.
They normalize challenge.
They make learning delightful.

And that’s the real goal, isn’t it?

✨For My Beloved Companions

Below, I share 6, FREE math fact games I made up when my kids were little. They require things you’ve got around the house (crayons, a deck of cards) — even better your kids get to help make most of them!

Most you can alter to do any type of “fact” knowledge — spelling, history, homonyms, letter sounds — almost anything really!

Enjoy!

Become a Clarified Companion

Read more

I have many episodes recorded and ready. I’m just waiting for the space to finish them well.

Thank you for your patience♥️

To tide you over, I was honored to join the OpenEd Podcast for what ended up being the most in-depth conversation I’ve had yet about how we actually live day to day.

You can also listen on Apple Podcasts HERE.

What We Covered👇

1. Joyful and Rigorous: How to design learning that kids love—and that actually stretches them.

2. A Brain-Based Homeschool Day: How to structure learning for maximum focus, retention, and depth.

3. Your House Is Teaching Your Kids: How your home is shaping their attention, taste, and ambition.

4. Sensitive Windows Most Parents Miss: What neuroscience says about language, memorization, math facts—and when structure matters most.

5. Letting Your Kids “Date” Books: How dropping the wrong book leads to harder reading, better writing, and real intellectual ownership.

6. AI Can Teach Math. But It Can’t Replace You: How to use powerful tools without outsourcing the parent-child relationship.

7. Raise Their Taste and Their Effort Rises With It: Why opera, black-and-white films, Shakespeare, and hard books work to create intelligent, curious kids.

8. Structured Mornings, Expansive Afternoons: How to blend classical rigor with child-led exploration—without drifting into chaos.

If you liked this, you might also like my other work. Consider subscribing to join our community of nearly 6,000 parents.

Subscribe now

Remember → You are doing important work

~Claire