I’m so glad you’re here! My name is Kristen Sloan, and I am a Homeschooling Coach and curriculum advisor. I work with families who are struggling to get started or are facing challenges teaching their children. I coach them with regular mentoring, goal setting, and curriculum suggestions that fit their life, so that they can provide their kids with a solid education while having a positive experience.  I have 7 children and have been a homeschooling mom for 12 years – this is truly a mission of heart for me. I want your family to grow and thrive on this adventure!

Does your expectation of what a homeschooling family looks like make you feel less able to homeschool?

Now that I told you that I have homeschooled for 12 years, do you have a vision of a woman with a perfectly organized house?  Or maybe you are imagining my obedient children that do their schoolwork without argument, while I bake fresh bread in the kitchen? Does that expectation of what a homeschooling family looks like make you feel less able to homeschool? Well, put on your yoga pants and pour yourself a glass of wine, because that is NOT how my story goes. My kids were homeschooled, went to Catholic school, went to public school, went to charter school, and came full circle back to homeschool. I hate making children’s crafts. I buy bread from the store. I am always in jeans or yoga pants because my kids are constantly wiping mystery yuckiness on me, and my wardrobe needs to be able to handle that.

I am a typically untypical homeschooler. My life is messy and magnificent. Each of us has our own story, and they are all good, even if they feel a little surreal at times. 

  I started my homeschool life way back in 2003 when I left the active-duty Army and moved with my husband to central Florida for his next Army assignment. Our oldest son was about to turn five, but did not make the cut off to start Kindergarten that year. More senior Army wives had previously shared their struggles with changing schools and frequent moves before we left for Florida, so I decided that homeschooling him was the best decision. I am glad to say we had a blast. Florida provided so many opportunities that we were able to pursue because we weren’t tied to a school. (Science class at Sea World? Yes, please!) I enjoyed those early years of homeschooling, even as we moved and gradually added more kids to the pack. When the deployments started coming fast and furious, things shifted , and the kids went to school. It was a tough adjustment (for me- the kids were fine), but we found our groove for a few years, despite the frequent military moves and new schools. 

Entering the world of Special Needs

In 2011, my second child, then in 6th grade, began having behavior problems at school. Thanks to the AMAZING people in the Army’s Exceptional Family Member Program Office, my son was evaluated within a week of asking them for help and was given a diagnosis of Asperger’s Syndrome (now part of Autism Spectrum Disorders). Total game changer. All those behaviors we had struggled with his entire life suddenly made sense. Unfortunately, a diagnosis is not a silver bullet. We struggled to build accommodations for him, but the private school he attended was not totally up for it. Within a year of his diagnosis, I was homeschooling again. It was not as bad as it sounds since many of the accommodations he needed were only relevant to the school environment (permission for cool-off periods, separate test areas, checklists, etc). He certainly had his moments at home with me, but he is incredibly intelligent and a quick study.

In 2014, we moved to our sixth state since I started our homeschool odyssey and welcomed baby #7. Five kids were in public school and the two littles were home with me. I felt so good about what I had accomplished with my second son, and everyone attending school felt like a victory. My mistake was thinking that everyone making it back and forth to school each day meant that everything was fine. Just two years later, I withdrew my 2nd daughter, then starting 3rd grade, and my 3rd son, who was going into 7th. Both had been diagnosed with learning disabilities.

It was almost counterintuitive how easy the decision to homeschool felt for me this time. The schools were NOT helping my children. I was told that my daughter “wasn’t disabled enough” to merit more than 30 minutes of pull-out reading help a week. That was unbelievable to me since her reading level was 1.3 at the end of second grade. I am not going to lie- I was worried, and it was a different worry than I had with my son with Asperger’s. My daughter could. not. read. And I had made the decision that I was going to teach her instead of the school system. Having done years of research on Asperger’s syndrome for my second son, I shifted gears and read all I could on dyslexia and dysgraphia. My daughter and I both worked hard in third grade. At the end of that year, her reading level was 3.9. On grade level. BOOM.

At home and at peace

After a year of juggling kids in charter school and homeschool, I chose to pull out everyone except my second son, who was thriving and near the top of his class in high school. They can learn things at their pace. Everyone works at the level appropriate for them. No one is behind, no one is ahead. We just keep at it. Naturally, homeschooling five kids is not all sunshine and roses. I have learned so much- and the most important stuff I learned was about me and my kids. My goal is to help your family find the curriculum, schedule, system, etc that meshes with your life. It is really SO much better than doing what you think the other homeschoolers do, or using the book the math genius you met at the park uses. 

Are ready to find your joy in homeschooling again? Want to take the leap into homeschool but don’t know where (or how!) to start? Are you struggling to teach your kids in a way that works for both of you? I am here to coach and support you! Don’t anguish over your homeschool another day. Let’s make the changes that will get you and your kids back on track so you can enjoy the freedom of the homeschool life.