Homeschool curriculum, personalized learning, alternative education

Many of us began homeschooling with the desire to remove our children from the drag of our outdated school system, especially when our children are struggling with diagnoses or with just fitting into this one-size-fits-all system. For some of us, we see the opportunity for our child to have more than what schools can offer them. All of us want to give our kids a better shot at the happy and successful life we dream about, and we feel alternative education, like homeschooling, is the best chance we have. And it is a step in the right direction. The problem isn’t in our intentions, it’s in our execution. 

When it comes time to actually start “doing” homeschool, it’s common to feel uncertain. There are so many methods, programs, and curricula available that it can be very overwhelming. It feels like we have to pick a label to describe what our homeschool is. Are we classical, Charlotte Mason, project-based, or maybe eclectic? Then comes the really hard part: what will we teach our children and how? If you’ve ever looked through a homeschool curriculum catalog/website or visited a social media page where people are sharing their favorite programs, you’ll know that the sheer number of options is astounding. Faced with a complicated—but critical—decision, it’s easy to default to what feels familiar. Soon we find ourselves with a pile of math books, reading lists, and history and science texts that look alarmingly like a classroom.

Suddenly… we’re just doing school at home.

What happened to that dream of something better?

It got swallowed up in decision fatigue, peer pressure, parental anxieties, and our own educational programming. It’s common at this point to experience some of the same struggles at home that your child was experiencing at school. This often contributes to feelings of burnout amongst homeschooling parents. 

So what can we do?

The CULTIVATE method is grounded in eight principles that reflect how humans naturally learn and thrive. Each letter stands for a key aspect of a personalized, empowering education.

• C – Culture of learning: Make learning a part of your family's life and rhythms.

• U – Understanding the child: Knowing your individual child is key to creating an education plan that fits their unique needs and interests.

• L – Life Skills: Learning to learn should be the focus, everything else can come with time.

• T – Trust the process: Following a different path can be scary, trust your child.

• I – Individualization: Honor each child’s jagged profile and personal pace.

• V – Values: Education is not neutral, we are teaching the next generation how to make the world a better place.

• A – Autonomy: True learning must be self-directed in order for it to be motivating and impactful.

• T – Tribe: Family and community connections are foundational to learning.

• E – Empowerment: Self-directed learning increases feelings of self-efficacy and satisfaction.

A CULTIVATE-d education sets kids up to live their best life by focusing on what we know about what makes people happy and successful in the real-world.  Our kids don’t need to know more, they need to learn to think differently. 

Ask yourself:

• What do I want my child to be able to do in 10 years?

• What qualities do I want them to carry into adulthood?

• When I worry about them “falling behind,” what am I afraid of?

• Am I building their ability to think for themselves, or just their ability to jump through someone else’s hoops?

This is not a trap—it’s a pivot point. You get to decide what success looks like. And you don’t have to play by rules that never worked for your child in the first place.

Learning is not a linear process—it loops. It spirals. It evolves. It works for a 7-year-old obsessed with insects and a 17-year-old questioning climate policy. It’s what builds a learner who can adapt, not just recall.

Instead of chasing mastery, it nurtures agency.
Instead of measuring retention, it builds resilience.
Instead of prioritizing content, it develops capacity.

🧭 You Don’t Need a Curriculum. You Need a Compass.

Modern education told us to follow "the path": check the boxes, stay the course, trust the system. But "the path" was never made for your child. It was made for the “average student” — who doesn’t exist.

What your child needs isn’t a rigid route. They need room to grow, space to think, and the support to become who they are, not who a system expected them to be.

When talking about educating children, it’s common to use the metaphor of a garden. People liken education to planting a seed. You can prepare the soil, give it the right water, light, and nutrients, but you can’t actually do the growing yourself. Growth happens from within the seed and the plant itself. 

Everyone knows that plants don't NEED a gardener at all. They grow in the wild without any help all the time. Am I saying that children will learn all on their own without any intervention? Absolutely. Am I suggesting that you should abandon your children to the wild or ignore their needs because they can fend for themselves? Absolutely NOT. While it’s true that plants grow in the wild, being tended to by humans can make them more than they ever would be if left to their own devices. Most of the fruits and vegetables we now see regularly at the grocery store were bred by humans to be the way that they are. 

A good gardener knows when to provide structure. Some plants grow well in the structure of a pot, some need support, such as tomato cages or climbing trellises, and some do just fine standing on their own. 

A good gardener knows that a little adversity is key to having healthy plants. Plants need stress from sources such as periods of lower water so they learn to dig deeper roots, or stress from wind to help them develop a stronger support system. (Scientists grew trees in Biosphere 2 where there was no wind, and when they got big enough, they simply fell over.)

A good gardener knows how to replicate the conditions of the wild when it’s beneficial. Plants in the wild do not grow in neat rows with other plants of their kind. They grow in groups (sometimes known as “guilds” or “companion planting” in the gardening world) in which the different types of plants support those growing around them by providing nutrients or keeping away pests.

A good gardener doesn’t expect more than a plant can give. Expectations are rooted in reality — not fantasy. There are no rules that a tomato plant must produce before it is ready, bear more fruit than the plant can hold up, or produce strawberries when that is clearly not its purpose.

And a good gardener knows when to provide outside help. If there hasn’t been enough rain, a gardener doesn’t let their plants wither, they bring in water to keep their garden growing. When weeds are interfering with the garden’s growth, the gardener removes them. And the gardener even supplies some pruning services when necessary and beneficial for a plant’s health.  

This kind of nurturing and supportive environment, free from pressure or excessive expectations and curated to each individual, is exactly right for plants, and it’s exactly right for children. Don’t let what you see in your neighbor’s garden, or especially in the large-scale factory farms (I.e., Schools), control how you educate your own child. They are unique, you are unique, and your family is unique.

The freedom to personalize education and life is one of the great gifts of the modern world — and one of the surest ways to help your kids (and yourself) achieve the joyful, meaningful life you dream of.