HOMESCHOOL GLUE || Real-Life Simple Systems + Rhythms for Overwhelmed Homeschool Moms

Being an introverted mom is hard. Being an introverted homeschool mom, where you're with your kids basically every hour of the day, can be even harder. In this episode Sarah gets honest about what that actually feels like, and shares everything she's learned since she first covered this topic a few years ago, back when she had three kids instead of four and wasn't running her business full time yet.

She breaks her tips into categories: daily rhythms and environment, systems that lighten the mental load, staying connected to her kids without losing herself, and protecting her...

What's the one system that's done the most to reduce your mental load as a mom? For Sarah, it's time blocking, and in this episode she's sharing exactly how it works.

She explains what time blocking actually is, why it cuts decision fatigue, and why it's fundamentally different from a rigid, minute-by-minute schedule. Then she walks through her own real day, from her 4am start to bedtime, showing how each block has a purpose without being locked to the clock.

She also shares a simple framework for building your own time blocks, no matter your...

What do you do when your routine falls apart, your curriculum starts to feel wrong, or you can't stop second guessing a decision you already made? In this episode Sarah is answering the questions her audience actually asked her on Instagram, no script, just real questions from real homeschool moms.

She walks through getting out the door on time, breaking bad habits, and staying consistent even when it's hard. Then she gets into homeschool specific questions: keeping the house tidy with kids underfoot, choosing curriculum, knowing when a switch is worth it, and handling a child who...

After God and her husband, Sarah says the most essential part of her homeschool is something nobody hands you with a curriculum: a community. And she built hers as a shy, introverted mom who is not great at walking up to people and saying hi.

In this episode Sarah talks about why community matters for you as the mom, not just for socializing the kids, and the difference it makes on the hard days. She shares the unlikely way her own people came together, from a program that wasn't even the right fit to the book club...

Most of us have things we save for the slower months: projects that are easier when the pace is lighter, prep work that makes the next school year feel manageable, or things we’ve just been putting off. In this episode Sarah shares exactly what she’s doing this summer to set up for a great fall, and the intentional way she’s fitting it all in without letting it swallow the season.

From memory keeping and deep cleaning the homeschool space to building her weekly rhythm and creating free read book bins for each of her girls...

It’s Sarah’s birthday week and she’s celebrating with a fun one: ten things that have genuinely made her homeschool life easier. Not things that look good on a list, but things that are actually woven into their daily life and that she would genuinely miss if they were gone.

From batching breakfasts on the weekends (a system she started running a home daycare) to the vintage Bluetooth speaker that replaced the Echo she kind of hates, to the line leader system that ended the bickering, to silent reading time that her girls call their favori...

 If you could go back to your first day of homeschooling . . . the one with the beautiful planner, the brand new curriculum, and approximately no idea what you were doing . . . what would you tell yourself? 

Sarah shares the things nobody told her before she started homeschooling. Not the curriculum tips or the room setup advice, but the bigger picture things. The mindset things. The ones that, if you get them wrong, will make everything else harder no matter how good your systems are. 

This one is for the mom who is just starting out, the mom in...

It’s curriculum planning season, and if you’re deep in research, deep in comparison, and slowly losing your mind trying to figure out what to use next year, this episode is for you.

Sarah shares her entire curriculum planning process: why knowing your educational philosophy is the only filter you actually need, how she plans family-style to save time, money, and sanity with multiple kids, the feast framework for deciding how much is too much, and the Google spreadsheet she uses to map everything out before spending a dollar. Plus the mistakes she sees most often — includ...

What systems do you actually have in place in your homeschool? Not your curriculum — the infrastructure underneath it. The things that keep the mental load manageable, that keep the week from falling apart, that keep you from rebuilding everything from scratch every Sunday night.

In this episode Sarah walks through the five foundational systems she believes every overwhelmed homeschool mom needs: the Brain Dump, the Mental File Cabinet, the Daily Download, the Monthly Prep Day, and a Weekly Rhythm. She explains exactly what each one is, why it matters, and how to start building it — including a hint...

Sarah posted a chore chart to her Instagram Stories without thinking much of it — and got hundreds of DMs by the end of the day. So in this episode she’s sharing the whole system.

You’ll hear the full three-tier tending system she uses with four kids ages one to eleven: Daily Duties, Family Tending Hour, and Bonus Tending tasks. Plus how the Skylight calendar and a simple rewards system keep kids actually motivated, the 9:30am alarm that changed her mornings, what happens when kids whine or refuse, and how she added a brand new piece to the...

A slow summer doesn’t happen by accident — it happens by design. And if you’ve ever finished the school year dreaming of a slower pace, only to look up in August wondering where it went, this episode is for you.

Sarah shares exactly how she’s planning this summer: what she’s saying yes to (swimming lessons, VBS, and a children’s theater play — that’s it), the simple weekly rhythm she’s building around Adventure Monday, Water Wednesday, Explorer Thursday, and Free Friday, and the daily anchors that make the slow parts actually happen. Plus five practical tip...

When life gets really hard, the advice is almost always the same: take a break. And sometimes that’s the right call. But in two of the hardest seasons of her life — one involving a devastating family crisis and one involving a brand new baby — Sarah discovered that stopping was actually harder than continuing. And it had everything to do with the rhythms she had already built.

This episode is different from the others. No tips, no frameworks — just two honest, personal stories about what systems actually look like when life falls apart. And why building them before t...

If you spend an hour planning your homeschool every Sunday, that’s 30-36 hours a year rebuilding the same week over and over. This year Sarah spends about five minutes a week. In this episode she explains exactly how and why the Sunday rebuild keeps happening even after years of homeschooling.

You’ll hear Sarah walk through her own weekly rhythm in detail, how she handles curriculum with a built-in five-day schedule (and compresses it to four days), and how she uses a list-based approach like Ambleside Online without having to re-plan every week. Plus a puzzle anal...

Have you ever tried to fix your homeschool (new planner, new curriculum, new schedule) and wondered why nothing is actually changing? There’s a good reason for that. You might be solving the wrong problem.

In this episode Sarah breaks down the three types of homeschool overwhelm — volume, decision, and emotional — and why the solution to each one looks completely different. Most moms are treating the wrong type, which is why the same fixes keep not working. Once you can name which one you’re actually dealing with, everything gets a lot clearer.

This episode also inc...

You are not bad at homeschooling. I know that might sound like something you’d scroll right past on Instagram — but stay with me. Because being bad at something and being overwhelmed by something are two completely different things with completely different causes and completely different solutions. And most of us have had them confused for a very long time.

In this episode Sarah breaks down what being overwhelmed by homeschooling actually looks like (hint: it has nothing to do with being lazy or not caring enough), why the label you put on it matters more than you...

Right now — whether you’re actively homeschooling or not — there’s a curriculum already running your homeschool. You didn’t choose it from a catalog. But your kids are being shaped by it every single day.

In this first episode of the relaunched Homeschool Glue Podcast, I break down what the hidden curriculum actually is (hint: it’s the atmosphere of your home), why it matters more than any lesson plan you’ll ever write, and what you can actually do to make it work for you instead of against you.

This one is for the mom who is...

Every once in a while it's fun to switch things up and answer some of your questions on the podcast!  Over on Instagram, I encouraged followers to submit questions, and submit they did!  In this episode I'm answering questions like, "Was homeschooling always in your plans?" and "Do you ever feel like you are not doing enough?" among many others!

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Many homeschool families begin their journey because they realize, either before sending their kids to school or after their kids are in school, that they don't like certain aspects of the school system.  Everyone's journey is different, but many parents stay away from schools because there are things within the school system they do not like or want for their children.  In other words, they start homeschooling by running "from" something at the schools.  There is nothing wrong with this!  However, at some point, we should stop running "from" things and starting "to" something new and better.  In this episo...

If you follow lots of homeschooling accounts on social media, it's easy to feel like everyone else has it all together! However, like all social media, we usually are only seeing the "highlight reel" and not a true representation of a person's life.  I try to be very authentic and real on social media, but I also value our privacy and don't think it's good to air all my own "dirty laundry" and details about my life and my kids' lives on social media.  However, I also don't want people to think that my homeschool days go super smoothly, I...

For most people, it's the holiday season, but for us, we are in full baby mode with just a few weeks left to go before baby boy (our fourth child) is due!  With a major (beautiful, amazing) interruption smack dab in the middle of our school year, I've had to make adjustments to our plans that I made before becoming pregnant.  I'm breaking down my realistic plans for the weeks following baby and how we are going to manage it all!

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

As homeschool parents, it's easy to assume we are already giving our kids tons of quality time because we spend so many more hours with them each day than we would if they went to school outside of the home.  But, how often are we spending quality one-on-one time with each of our children unrelated to school with no distractions?  Probably not as much as we think.  Is this even important?  Well, I'll share why I think it is!  But even further than that, I'll share some very practical (not stressful or overwhelming) ways to fit this in daily as we...

Many families like to devote a few weeks into December to following a Christmas curriculum, but alternatively, many families don't have the time, patience, money, or resources to do this.  However, there are SO many ways to bring the spirit of Christmas into your homeschool and I'm sharing 15 easy ways you can do that in today's episode!

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Because our homeschool is more of a lifestyle than a place our kids go to learn, and because we are with our children so much, it's so easy for negative moods, hard times, hard current events, illnesses, and so much more negatively impact our homeschool days.  As moms, we often are the ones who set the tone of our homes, and when we are unhappy or stressed out, it seeps into our homeschool days.  I think it's safe to say that every homeschool family aims to have a happy homeschool most of the time, but how do we set ou...

I recently had a spirited conversation in the comments of an Instagram reel with someone who believed that for most people, homeschooling is just impossible because both parents need to work.  I tried to explain that upwards of a third of homeschooling families are 2-parent working families to some degree, but I just couldn't open her eyes.  I decided to share ten different ways you can make a good income as a homeschooling parent - whether you already homeschool or are wanting to homeschool but have to make an income first before jumping in!  I hope this episode inspires and...

What are the riches?  Why are they important if most educations today don't include them?  And once we deem them important, how do we fit them in on top of everything else?

I'm answering all these questions in today's episode!

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

The new school year is just around the corner so I suppose it’s time to start thinking about what our school rhythm will be!  I always find it so interesting how other people (especially working homeschool parents) fit everything in, so I thought it would be fun to share how I’m balancing running 2 businesses and the social media for a friend’s business alongside homeschooling my 3 daughters (oh yeah, and to add to the chaos, baby 4 is due in January)!  I'm breaking down how I "do it all" (haha - I don't actually do "it all" but you know...

I’m definitely not at the end of my homeschooling journey – with baby 4 on the way I have another 18 years to go – but I have definitely learned a thing or two (or 20) that I would want to tell myself if I was starting again.  So, if you are new to homeschooling, thinking about starting, or just feeling kind of lost, I hope this episode can give you some tips and also offer you some grace as you chart new territory!

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
- Things I Did That I Recommend Other New Homeschoolers Do Reel
- H...

No matter how early or late into your homeschool journey you are, how old your kids are, or how much time you spend homeschooling each day – it is never too late to start a family morning time routine in your homeschool!

Our morning time is our favorite time of day in our homeschool and something we do whether we have a lot planned or barely anything planned for our homeschool.

My daughters are currently 9, 6, and 3, and we have a baby on the way, but I foresee us doing morning time until all my kids are gr...

We learned in late May we are expecting baby #4.  This was definitely a surprise baby as we had convinced ourselves we were happy with three kids because I get SO sick during pregnancy.  Well, God had other plans and now we are having a baby in early January!  I’m now 12 weeks when this podcast is released and despite horrible nausea and exhaustion, baby 4 is doing amazing and we are looking forward to hopefully having an easier time soon.

I had a very clear picture of what our next homeschool year would look like, but having a baby...

The reality of homeschooling for an introverted mom, or just being a mom in general, with so many needs, so many sounds, so many behaviors to help regulate, so many emotions, so much touching, and being pulled in a million directions can be EXCRUCIATINGLY HARD on the hardest days if I’m being honest.  Needing time alone to recharge as a mom, especially a homeschool mom where you are with your kids usually 24/7, can be a recipe for anxiety and depression.  However, it doesn’t have to be that way.  I’ve gone through seasons of overwhelm adapting to motherhoo...

Juggling the demands of homeschooling and homemaking (and many time working) can be a real circus act sometimes if I'm being honest!  As a former daycare provider who used to watch 10 kids (including my own) 10 hours a day, 5 days a week, I got really good at structuring our days and creating a 2 hour naptime for the kids and a quiet time for me.  We have carried this practice into our homeschool days and it has been so essential to not only our success as a homeschooling family, but it has allowed me to work so we can homeschool our ki...

Last week, I shared a recap of our homeschool choices we used this current school year and shared what we will be using for next year, but we have a solid 3 months in between the school years.  So, what are we doing this summer in our homeschool?  Listen to find out!

If you haven’t figured out a plan for next school year – why are you here listening to me?!?  Just kidding – whether you’ve figured out your plan for next year or not, I always find it fun and interesting to learn about what other families did during their homeschool year and how that affected their choices for the upcoming year.  So, today, I’m going to be recapping what we did this year, sharing my thoughts on each subject and what we used, and then sharing what we are using next year!

 MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Homeschooling can be really hard.  There, I said it.  Sure, it can be magical, it leads to some amazing moments, we get to bond with our kids, we see things we wouldn’t see if they were away from us 7 hours a day.  But, it can also be really difficult at times!  I have struggled through toddler antics interrupting our lessons, bad attitudes (the kids and my own), homeschooling through incredibly trying life circumstances, feeling like I don’t know what I’m doing, and worrying that I’m not doing enough.  However, there are many changes we can make as the t...

I’ve apparently struck a chord over on Instagram with what I guess are my controversial views on education.  I have some reels skyrocketing in views and comments that I didn’t anticipate and it has led to some – shall we say – lively discussions in the comments.  Because I can’t say everything I want to in one IG comment, I thought I would discuss 5 of the most common misconceptions that have been brought up in the comments section of my IG account recently and what my thoughts on them are.  In short, they are all WRONG and I get pretty sp...

There are SO many benefits to homeschooling year round, but for many of us homeschooling moms, we want a BREAK!  I am one of those moms, trust me!  But I also don't want my kids to experience the end of summer dread heading back into the school year (or at least not on a grand scale) and I want to keep the love of learning alive all summer!  In today's episode, I am sharing the pros of schooling year-round, a few different options for making that work, and then the option we are going with that doesn't feel like we...

If you’ve been listening for a while, I’m sure this podcast looks and sounds just a little bit different than you are used to!  That’s because I have rebranded and today I’m going to be talking all about why and what this new launch and rebranding means moving forward!  I can’t wait to share with you the story behind this change and what I’m launching to go along with it!

 Welcome to the Homeschool Glue podcast!  I’ve been Work Life Glue for soooooooo many years that it’s going to take my 30-something...

 I went to an amazing Charlotte Mason homeschool retreat recently and am on such a high from spending my day with a few of my friends in my homeschool “tribe,” surrounded by other like-minded homeschooling moms, learning about how we can be better teachers and mothers to our kids. It dawned on me how life-giving this kind of experience is and how blessed I am to have an amazing tribe of homeschool moms. I know not everyone has that, and I certainly didn’t when I started, so I wanted to share some tips for how to find your homesch...

I wish I could tell you that your role as a homeschooling mom will protect you from any major hardship, crisis, or tragedy to happen to you, but life happens whether we are homeschooling or not.  I went through an extremely traumatic year last year when my dad had a horrific accident that left him unconscious with most of his ribs broken and a terrible traumatic brain injury.  Navigating spending up to 20 hours at the hospital a week on top of working, homeschooling, and general mom tasks, was exhausting mentally and physically.  Trying to support my mom as we adv...

Homeschooling can EASILY become extremely expensive with books, curricula, materials, manipulatives, online resources, extracurriculars, co-ops, etc.  But it doesn't HAVE to be!  And guess what?  Spending more money on your child's education does not equal a better education!  So much can be learned with simple resources, lots of books (that can be checked out at the library or found online for free), and using what you have on hand!  Not including extracurriculars, we spent just under $300 to homeschool our three girls for this year.  Broken down by month, that is $25 a month!  In today's episode, I'm sharing TONS of tips fo...