The absolute best way to gain confidence in yourself as a homeschool educator is through experience. But that doesn’t mean you can’t go in prepared! Preparing helps you feel equipped and informed to make decisions about your kids’ education. And you can prepare yourself through your own education – sometimes this is called Mother Culture.
I love to learn. I’m always educating myself about something… business, gardening, preserving my harvest, parenting, and homeschooling, just to name a few. I love to listen to podcasts, read books, watch YouTube videos, and follow Instagram accounts that propel me forward and equip me to be a better homeschooling mom.
So I wanted to share some resources to help you feel more confident, educate yourself, and give you the tools you need to homeschool!
Courses
I have several courses in the Silo & Sage Course Vault: (VIP members get a discount on all courses):
Books
- The Four Hour School Day by Durenda Wilson — Durenda is one my virtual homeschool mentors. She is VERY encouraging, and I love how simplified her homeschooling journey has been in her years of homeschooling her eight kids.
- Simplicity Parenting by Kim John Payne — this is not a homeschool specific book, but it is my absolute FAVORITE parenting book.
- Home Learning Year by Year by Rebecca Rupp — this book gives you a
- Project-Based Homeschooling by Lori Pickert
You can find more books I recommend for moms HERE.
Podcasts
- The Durenda Wilson Podcast
- At Home With Sally
- Exploring Unschooling
- The Homeschool Sisters Podcast
- Brave Writer with Julie Bogart
- Wild + Free
- Your Morning Basket
- The Mason Jar
YouTube Channels
I don’t watch a ton of YouTube channels about homeschooling (because most of my YouTube feed is homesteading videos – ha!), but I have a few that I watch occasionally:
- Grace and Grit
- Three Rivers Homestead
- Angela Braniff (of This Gathered Nest)
- Homeschool Pop – okay, this one isn’t exactly for ME, because it’s an educational channel for kids. But it helps a lot when I need a quick resource for teaching the kids. I don’t need to know everything about everything, which definitely helps my confidence as a homeschool educator! It really helps when the kids have a question about a specific topic or I want to beef up a lesson a little bit, and I can pull up this page and find a video on the topic.
Just remember – consuming lots of information is only good if it’s propelling you forward. So watch the videos, listen to the podcasts, and read the books, but only if they are inspiring and not overwhelming or make you feel like a terrible homeschooler. If you’re inspired to try something new after reading or if it sparks a great idea for your homeschool, then it’s a great resource.
But if you feel badly about your homeschool after watching a video, just forget about that one. Everyone’s homeschool style and methods are different – someone might organize their homeschool room into a classroom style that DOES NOT work for you… even if it looks amazing. So a resource is only as good as the inspiration or practical education it gives you.