Homeschool Mentors to Follow
There are so many great homeschool bloggers and speakers out there, but over the past decade and a half, I have found that most of the advice I have implemented comes from these trusted sources.
Susan Wise Bauer, author of The Well-Trained Mind and Rethinking School. Most of the curriculum we use for language arts and history is created by Susan Wise Bauer, a second generation homeschool mom and university professor, and I appreciate that she gives a straightforward model for classical homeschooling while being quite realistic about the challenges and emphasizing the need for personalized education for each individual kid. Rethinking School is a great read for public school parents who want to adjust their mindset about education. More recently, she has been discussing education on her podcast. Since her fairly conservative parents passed away, she has been more open about her left-leaning views, which may or may not be appealing depending on whether you want a woke take on homeschooling.
Colene Lewis and Heather Haupt at Cultivated Learning have been my role models and mentors for nearly two decades, and while we probably don’t have any curriculum overlap, they emphasize delight-filled learning and have so many creative ideas. Many homeschool speakers publish lists of books that they clearly haven't fully read, and the quality and content isn't always the best. Colene will never recommend a book she hasn't read and vetted for her own grandkids (some of whom are my kids' best friends), so the titles on her book lists are among the few that I don't have to pre-read first. Besides the Go Global geography curriculum that they've written together, Heather is also the author of Knights in Training and The Ultimate Guide to Brain Breaks, which you may hear me refer to elsewhere.
The Plumfield Moms blog has thoughtful book reviews from seasoned homeschool moms who are passionate about giving their children literature that reflects truth, beauty, and goodness. I still pre-read almost everything that my younger kids read, but Diane and Sara have sifted through so much of the worthless stuff out there so that I don’t have to!
