A Couple of Homeschool Stories

Today we discuss homeschooling on a couple of fronts.

First, to continue our focus on anywhere learning, Vermont’s North Branch Nature Center has designed a learning program targeted for those homeschooled young learners.

For more than a decade, this nature center has helped thousands of public school students throughout Central Vermont immerse themselves in nature by using the outdoors as an extension of their indoor classroom. Now, North Branch has started a new program, especially for homeschoolers, titled ECO (Educating Children Outdoors) Homeschool.

One day a week, the nature center’s woods and fields are the young learners’ classroom, where all five senses will be used to engage with the landscape through standards-based lessons led by talented adult learning leaders. Learning sessions consist of age-appropriate games, songs, stories, and activities that help students directly engage with the natural world and the organisms that we share the land with.

ECO Homeschool’s goal is to help children and their families develop a lasting relationship with the natural world and foster a sense of place and stewardship in their local Vermont communities. And, even though there is a wide age range of young learners participating, ECO Homeschool feels it is important that these different ages can spend time together – learning. These interactions help to develop a sense of community as well as instill leadership skills with the older learners as they recognize they serve as examples for the younger learners.

Currently ECO Homeschool offers three learning sessions, each ranging from four to six weeks in length.

But what if ECO Homeschool decided to add two additional learning leaders to their staffing model? Possibly a literacy coach and an adult learning leader focused on building smarter and stronger problem-solvers?

And what if ECO Homeschool was able to access public money so that their program would be free and accessible to all young Central Vermonters?

And finally, what if young learners were able to spend more time at the North Branch Nature Center – more than one day – so that they could work on defining, planning, executing, and evaluating their reading, writing, problem-solving, and character development skills, along with experiencing outdoor learning in a thoughtful and meaningful way?

When people ask how a transformation from traditional K-12 education to a new system of learning will take place, think about the questions posed above. Today, ECO Homeschool was the example, but there are literally thousands if not millions of examples of small out-of-school learning enterprises that could expand their influence with just a bit more support.

Last week I read with interest an article posted on The Atlantic online site titled “He Was Homeschooled for Years, and Fell So Far Behind.” (1/14/26) It tells the story of Stefan Merrill Block, the author of a new memoir sharing his memories of being homeschooled by his mother.

“In the early 1990s, when Stefan Merrill Block was in fourth grade, he began complaining to his mom about his new school, with its pointless rules and mean teachers. He, his parents, and his brother had recently moved to the Dallas suburb of Plano from Indianapolis, and Block, a perceptive and sensitive child, could tell that his mother was unhappy in their new home, too. Together, they made a ‘lovely picnic’ of their anger, as he describes it in his new memoir, Homeschooled. His mother pulled him out of the classroom and into a life of shapeless days, setting Block on a strange, yearslong journey as her only pupil, only friend, and at times, it seems, only hope.”

“Block’s memoir is timely; homeschooling has grown rapidly in recent years. Although people regarded Block as an oddity in his youth – ‘The boy should be in school!’ his visiting grandma exclaimed at one point – now more than 3 percent of school-age kids in the United States, or about 2 million children, are homeschooled.”

You can read the rest of the article on your own, but the story ends with this conclusion:

“…Despite his challenging childhood, [Block] has built an impressive life for himself. He graduated from a top-tier college and now has a family, has written several books, and co-owns a skating rink. Still, in his author’s note, Block writes that although he does not oppose homeschooling in general, he does think that ‘the lack of proper homeschooling oversight has become a crisis.’”

“In a time of school shootings, classroom bullying, culture wars over curricula, and faltering test scores, the impulse of some parents to take over their child’s education is understandable. But as Block’s story illustrates, allowing parents to isolate their kids at home with little accountability can be incredibly harmful. If homeschool parents are so certain that they are giving their kids a good education in a safe environment, they could reasonably be expected to show it.”

Isolation is a bad deal when it comes to learning. Lack of structure is also bad.

Whether it’s homeschooling, or a microschool, a learning pod, or a traditional classroom, there are certain non-negotiables when it comes to building a strong learner. Begin with identifying and hiring strong adult learning leaders. Continue by allowing those adult learning leaders to build learning plans, personalized to each of their young learners. Ensure that there is a good balance between individual work and group work throughout the learning day. Check-ins between the adult learning leader and their young learners, and those young learners’ families, are essential.

Homeschooling isn’t going to disappear from the learning landscape. It will remain a learning option for more and more families moving forward. But creating a more complete homeschooling program, including reading, writing, and problem-solving learning, will be a good step toward improved accountability (and personal learner responsibility) as out-of-school learning continues to expand.

Til tomorrow. SVB