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Written by Kara S. Anderson.

Cait and I post sometimes over at a place called Simple Homeschool. We both love it over there – we love the community Jamie has created, and the mission behind Simple Homeschool.

Still, sometimes I make homeschooling more complicated than it needs to be. I’ll see something another homeschooling family is doing, and think we need to do that too. I will forget about our particular strengths and weaknesses, and try to do something that isn’t our thing.

Or I’ll just try to do too much. I’ll set my expectations really high, and then get frustrated when we inevitably crash and burn.

And so recently, I picked up my worn copy of Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown, and I decided to read it specifically as a homeschooling mom.

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Written by Kara S. Anderson

I’m lucky to Iive in a pretty terrible school district. Lucky, as in – people don’t really question our decision to homeschool.

“Oh,” they say nodding, “of course. The schools here …”

And sometimes, for the sake of peace and quiet, I don’t tell them that my son went to a small church preschool that was adorable, and then we tried a private Montessori-based school that was amazing, but that it was also expensive and would have changed our lives entirely if we had decided to send him there full-time.

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This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure statement for more information.

Written by Kara S. Anderson.

When I was in second grade, I was in a split classroom with third graders.

Our school did this sometimes, and I try to imagine now how the teacher handled it. But at the time, I just knew that it allowed me to make friends with the coolest girl in school. Her name was Emily, she was 9, and she had blonde, curly hair that fell in waves down her back.

And she had her ears pierced.

She would wear tiny ice cream cone earrings, or dainty hoops; tiny gold stars, or fluorescent dots, and man – did I ever want to be just like her.

I asked my parents again and again if I could pierce my ears, and they told me “not until you’re older,” and “later,” and so I waited and while I should have been memorizing multiplication tables, I instead memorized the shape of Emily’s earlobes and her collection of tiny animal and rhinestone stud earrings, and I wondered if part of the reason Emily was so cool was because her parents clearly let her do whatever she wanted.

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Written by Kara Stephenson Anderson.

More than a year ago, when Cait and I had the crazy idea to start a podcast, the first person to reach out to us was Julie Bogart from Brave Writer.

In case you ever find yourself needing to put that in terms non-homeschoolers (i.e. my husband) would understand, I would say it’s about on par with announcing that you are going to make a small, independent film, and getting an email from Julia Roberts saying, “Way to go you two – let me know how I can help.” Continue reading →

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Written by Kara S. Anderson

I recently told Cait about one of my early homeschool mom friend fails.

It was pretty much a disaster that ended in the woman yelling into my voicemail, “I don’t know what I did to offend you!!!”

It’s a little funny now, because she had continually criticized everything in my life including my dog’s manners, but the truth is, I don’t get easily offended.

Instead, I wake up one day suddenly full of pluck: “Wait a minute …” I finally say to myself. “I don’t deserve this b.s.” Continue reading →