Hey everyone,
Most schools obsess over reading levels and math facts. But the skills that actually create confident, capable adults?
They're barely on the radar.
Think about it. We drill multiplication tables and spelling lists, but when do we teach kids how to lead? How to think critically? How to prepare for a future that doesn't fit into a neat textbook chapter?
Today we're diving into the skills that matter but schools ignore.
🛠️ 3 Tools to Try
Curiosity Chronicles
Instead of boring textbook chapters, it teaches world history through fun dialogues between two characters. It takes them from ancient to modern times, using maps, timelines, and hands-on activities so they really understand and remember what they’re learning.Art of Problem Solving
If you want your kid to actually think instead of just memorize, Art of Problem Solving is perfect. It teaches challenging math through fun problems, online classes, and a community of curious kids, helping them build real problem-solving skills beyond school.Hewitt Learning Lightning Literature
It walks your child from early elementary to high school using real books, fun discussion questions, and writing exercises instead of boring worksheets.They actually think about the stories, build grammar and writing skills, and enjoy learning instead of just ticking boxes.
📚 2 Reads Worth Your Time
What Actually Makes a Child Leader
Turns out leadership isn't something kids either have or don't have. Research shows it develops through specific skills like communication, decision making, and problem solving. These skills grow fastest through unstructured play and real responsibility, not leadership workbooks. A study from 2024 found that parental modeling was the strongest predictor of leadership development in young children.
What Is the School Wound?
Ever feel guilty when you rest? Hungry for praise but ashamed to celebrate wins. Scared to step out of the norm? That's your School Wound talking. Lucy Aitkenread explores how spending our formative years in an institution designed for workers, not individuals, leaves us carrying shame, fear of rejection, and a constant sense we're not good enough.
The hardest part? We're passing it down to our kids. A 2024 survey found 65% of 12 year olds are stressed because of school. This piece will make you rethink everything.
🧐 1 Idea Worth Considering
You Don't Need More Hours. You Need a Better Plan.
Most of us grew up thinking more school time means better learning.
But what if that belief is making homeschooling way harder than it needs to be?
Today I want to share something that completely changed how I think about our homeschool days. It comes from Sherry Hayes of Mom Delights, a seasoned homeschool mom who raised multiple children at home. She breaks down exactly how she structured her days without burning out or spending 6 hours on lessons.
Here is the wild fact she opens with.
In 1852, kids only had to be in school for 12 weeks a year. And back then, America had a literacy rate of 93 to 100%.
Today we require over 1,080 hours of classroom instruction every year. And our literacy rate has dropped to around 71%.
More time is clearly not the answer.
So what did Sherry actually do?
She split her day into two parts: formal learning and informal learning.
Formal learning was short and focused. Informal learning was everything else, and she let her kids, their environment, and their own curiosity do the teaching.
She says if you just do two things every single day, you have done a good job.
The first thing is character and values. She would start the morning with a short reading, a conversation about kindness or manners or how to treat people. She made this the very first thing because if she did not do it first, it always got pushed out by the busyness of the day.
The second thing is the basic tools of learning. Reading, writing, and simple math. That is it.
Here is how she made it work practically.
She would sit all her kids at the dining table with independent work to do.
Then she would take one child at a time to the couch, just the two of them, with a small snack.
She would spend around 15 minutes with each child working on their reading or introducing a new math concept.
Then that child would go back to the table to do some writing or practice problems while she moved to the next one.
For young children, this whole process took less than 30 minutes of her direct time.
Older kids worked independently using books like McGuffey Readers and Saxon Math. She was nearby to answer questions, but they mostly worked on their own.
By noon or 1pm at the latest, the whole day was done. Including lunch.
What about all the fun stuff like science and history?
That was the informal part, and Sherry says it was the most enjoyable part of their days.
Some days they would go on nature walks and collect specimens, then come home and draw and watercolor what they found in their nature notebooks.
Some seasons they would do a read aloud together about a period of history and then each child would notebook or write about what they heard.
Some weeks she would hand a child a science encyclopedia and simply let them explore it and record what interested them.
She did not stress about covering everything every single day.
She says she spent about 3 to 4 months a year focused on formal skills and spent the rest of the time on content and exploration.
The takeaway from Sherry's approach is simple.
Protect your two non negotiables every morning: character and basic skills.
Keep your focused teaching time short and warm.
Then step back and let learning happen naturally through the rest of the day.
You do not need 6 hours. You never did.
All tips and strategies in today's newsletter are shared from Sherry Hayes of Mom Delights. You can find her resources at momdelights.com.
Until Next Week,
Hippo
