What if the reason your homeschool days feel chaotic isn’t your curriculum, your kids, or you, but the belief that because you’re home, you should be able to do it all?
This week I sat down with Luke and Liss Hammond, parents of four who homeschool on a farm in rural southeast Missouri. Liss was homeschooled in the ’90s, one of eight kids, and she’ll be the first to tell you she resented her parents for it as a teenager. Then she went to college on a volleyball scholarship, earned a master’s degree, worked as an investigator with the Department of Child Safety, and quit the day she looked at her newborn son and thought, “with everything I know about children, there is no way I can do this.”
Now she runs one of the most structured homeschool days I’ve heard on this show, and she explains exactly why.
We talk about:
- Why it takes about three years to settle into homeschooling (and why switching methods every five weeks is the worst thing you can do)
- Her real block schedule: self-start block, play block for the preschooler, protected teaching time, and garden block
- Why kids actually want structure, from her years in psychology
- Saying no to co-op events during school hours, and why “every no I say is a successful yes somewhere else”
- What homeschool kids bring to college that others often don’t
- Luke’s take as a public-school kid: “I’m not anti-public school. I’m pro-intentional parents.”
- Dirt Academy Kids, their 30-lesson gardening curriculum
And if you’re the parent who knows you want to homeschool but is scared to walk away from the income, stay for the end. Liss’s answer is one I needed to hear when I left my job, too.
Check out https://www.dirtacademykids.com/ to teach your kiddos HOW to garden and grow their own food!
Ready to homeschool but wondering where to start?
📘 Grab my book, So You Want to Homeschool? Everything You Need to Know Before You Start
🎓 Need a step-by-step plan? Check out Cheryl's mini-course, How to Work and Homeschool
📚 Still wondering, "What do I actually teach?" My guide walks you through exactly what homeschool families focus on by age and subject.
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