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

Episode

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  015 || The One System That Reduces My Mental Load Most 28.07.2026 36mnt

  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 framewor...
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  014 || Behind the Curtain: Your Homeschool Questions Answered 14.07.2026 56mnt

  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 u...
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  013 || Why Every Homeschool Mom Needs a Tribe (& How to Find One) 30.06.2026 28mnt

  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 rig...
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  012 || How I Prep for Fall Without Letting It Take Over My Summer 16.06.2026 42mnt

  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 b...
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  011 || 10 Things That Make Homeschooling Easier 02.06.2026 43mnt

  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 sile...
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  010 || What Nobody Tells You About Homeschooling 26.05.2026 44mnt

  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 a...
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  009 || Build Your Own Homeschool: My Entire Curriculum Planning Process 19.05.2026 47mnt

  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 everyth...
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  008 || The 5 Systems Every Overwhelmed Homeschool Mom Needs 12.05.2026 37mnt

  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 R...
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  007 || Why Your Chore Chart Isn't Working (& What to Do Instead) 05.05.2026 48mnt

  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 r...
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  006 || Stop Letting Summer Happen to You — Design It Instead 28.04.2026 38mnt

  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...
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  005 || Why I Kept Homeschooling When Life Fell Apart 21.04.2026 28mnt

  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 syst...
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  004 || Stop Rebuilding Your Homeschool Every Sunday (Do THIS Instead) 14.04.2026 40mnt

  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...
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  003 || The Real Reason Your Homeschool Still Feels Chaotic — 3 Types of Overwhelm Every Mom Should Know 07.04.2026 31mnt

  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 ...
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  002 || You are NOT Bad at Homeschooling 31.03.2026 40mnt

  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 laz...
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  001 || The Hidden Curriculum Running Your Homeschool 24.03.2026 26mnt

  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 y...
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  34 || Today I'm Answering All YOUR Questions! 23.12.2024 27mnt

  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: Winter Indoor Survival GuideQuiet Time Podcast EpisodeGames Highlight on IGAlphabet Go FishRaccoon RumpusSneaky...
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  33 || What Are You Running From in Your Homeschool? 16.12.2024 27mnt

  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...
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  32 || 5 Things I'm Struggling with in My Homeschool 09.12.2024 36mnt

  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 peop...
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  31 || Our Homeschool Plans with New Baby 02.12.2024 21mnt

  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: 2024-2025 Homeschool Curri...
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  30 || How to Fit in One-on-One Time in Your Homeschool (& Why It Matters) 25.11.2024 29mnt

  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 som...