I’ve been homeschooling since 2005, when my first child was in kindergarten. This year I have two middle-schoolers learning at home; they’re my youngest two, ages 11 and 13. Our learning style has always been relaxed and interest-led, becoming more unschoolish as the years go by. We’ve been influenced by the ideas of Charlotte Mason and the model of Leadership Education. Good literature, nature study, and real-world learning continue to be key elements of our homeschooling.
See our plans for this homeschool year.

These books have most influenced my homeschool philosophy over the years, and I highly recommend them all:
- A Charlotte Mason Companion
by Karen Andreola
- Leadership Education: The Phases of Learning
by Oliver and Rachel DeMille - Gifted: Raising Children Intentionally
by Chris Davis
The school room:
In our much smaller new home, we don’t have the space or storage as before, but it works just fine. We play outside, read on the sofa, and spread out on the dining table for written work or art time. See our simplified cottage-style homeschool room.
I love our simplified homeschool spaces but you may enjoy touring our previous open floorplan school room, smack dab in the middle of the house.
A few of my most popular homeschool posts:
- Workbox Crate: simplified homeschooling
- Socialization is a bunch of malarkey
- Cute and Cheap Art Supply Organizer
- Prayers for Parenting and Homeschool
- Our Imperfect Homeschool
See more recent homeschool-related posts.
Thanks for reading!