Your library card might be one of the most useful tools in your homeschool and you may be using only a fraction of what it offers.

In this episode, Ashley talks about using libraries for books, audiobooks, documentaries, research, programming, homeschool meetups, study spaces, and more. She also shares why she has seven library cards and how homeschoolers can look beyond their local library for digital resources.

We talk about:

• Libby, Hoopla & Kanopy

• Audiobooks and digital collections

• Library research databases

• documentaries to ask better questions

• Library programs, study spaces & community resources

• Digital library cards beyond your local system

• Building unit studies from library resources

• Finding perspectives missing from traditional narratives

• Using public resources instead of buying everything

• Keeping homeschooling connected to the larger community

Get your library card, explore your library's digital resources, and ask your librarian:

"What does your library offer that most people don't know about?"

Then see what you find.

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Thanks for listening, sharing, and supporting independent homeschool conversations.

When educational systems fail Black children, who absorbs the cost? Ashley connects her daughter’s unmet service needs and her family’s financial and relational sacrifices to her mother-in-law’s experience desegregating San Antonio schools. This episode explores homeschooling as protection, the unequal access to educational alternatives, and why individual escape is not the same as collective liberation.

Read the New York Times Magazine article that inspired this episode: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/20/magazine/ny-public-schools-black-students-segregation.html

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Website: https://www.secularhomeschoolrevolution.com

Is starting a homeschool co-op hard? How do you attract diverse families, navigate conflict, and keep your community sustainable?

In this episode of Secular Homeschool Revolution, Ashley answers the questions you dm'd her about building a secular, diverse, and inclusive homeschool co-op. We're talking parent-led classes, leadership, nonprofit status, community responsibility, and why creating an accountable space matters more than simply calling it a safe space.

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#SecularHomeschool #HomeschoolCoop #InclusiveHomeschooling #HomeschoolCommunity #ProgressiveHomeschooling #HomeschoolPodcast

What does a secular, parent-led homeschool co-op actually look like?

In this episode, Ashley shares how For the Culture Homeschool Co-op serves about 40 families through parent-taught classes, mixed-age clubs, community traditions, and a shared commitment to inclusive education, honest history, and evidence-based science.

She also talks about FTC’s shift toward community-led leadership, her Fairness Lab, and why the homeschool community has to be something we contribute to not just consume.

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How do you know if your child is actually learning? Ashley shares how completing an online homeschool curriculum failed to reveal major writing gaps—and what she learned from it. Discover four practical questions to evaluate homeschool progress, recognize learning gaps, assess curriculum effectiveness, and decide when to adjust or seek support.

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#SecularHomeschool #HomeschoolTips #HomeschoolCurriculum #NewHomeschoolers #HomeschoolHelp #ProgressiveHomeschool

What does it actually mean to create an affirming homeschool environment?

In this episode of Secular Homeschool Revolution, I’m sharing simple, intentional ways to make your homeschool a space where your kids feel seen, supported, and involved in their own education.

We’re talking about why I put my kids’ pictures on their homeschool binders, how a feelings wheel can build emotional literacy, why affirmation menus are more useful than generic positive statements, and how a “How I Learn Best” page can help kids understand their own needs and become stronger self-advocates.

I also dig into why representation matters in homeschool curriculum and how creating a family learning agreement can help establish a homeschool culture built around curiosity, respect, mistakes, growth, and belonging.

• Creating an affirming homeschool environment

• Helping kids understand how they learn best

• Building self-advocacy and independence

• Using feelings wheels for emotional literacy

• Creating meaningful affirmation menus

• Personalizing homeschool binders

• Using mirrors and windows in your curriculum

• Creating a family learning agreement

• Supporting different learning needs without lowering expectations

• Teaching kids that struggle does not define their ability

An affirming homeschool isn't about having the perfect homeschool room. It's about creating a learning environment that tells your child:

You belong here. Your needs matter. Your identity matters. Your voice matters. And you can learn how to advocate for yourself.

Follow @secularhomeschoolrevolution on Instagram and TikTok for more secular homeschool resources, curriculum discussions, and behind-the-scenes homeschool life.

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What are we actually using for homeschool this year? In this episode of Secular Homeschool Revolution, I’m sharing the curriculum, enrichment, sports, and outside programs we chose for my 14-, 10-, and 5-year-old and, more importantly, why we chose them.

We talk about outsourcing high school classes, choosing curriculum that fits each child, letting kids try new activities, keeping kindergarten simple, and building a homeschool that includes academics, art, music, sports, community, and real-life experiences.

I’ll also be sharing my kids’ weekly schedules on Instagram so you can see how we fit everything in without doing every subject every day.

• Hearth & Story — Language Arts

• Mint & Bloom — U.S. History

• Math with Confidence

• IXL — Math practice

• Real Science Odyssey: Evolution

• Logic of English Foundations B

• Glitter Bomb Art

• Simply Piano

• Girls Inc.

• Microschool classes

• Dual-credit Speech & Sociology

• Math tutoring

• Engineering Club

• Fencing

• Horseback riding

• Softball

• Swimming

• T-ball

• Homeschool co-op + field trips

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How young is too young to talk about race? In this episode, I answer a listener’s question about talking to a five-year-old about race and share what racial literacy looks like in my own home from melanin and identity to those unexpected “ouch moments.”

We also talk about how these conversations should grow with our kids, from simple conversations about fairness and belonging in early childhood to systemic racism, history, media literacy, and critical thinking in middle and high school.

Resources mentioned:

• Because of Melanin
• Our Skin: A First Conversation About Race
• M Is for Melanin: A Celebration of the Black Child
• Stamped (For Kids)
• Learning for Justice
• Facing History & Ourselves
• Zinn Education Project
• Teaching for Black Lives
• Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
• EmbraceRace

There is no single curriculum that can teach everything our children need to understand about racism. Racial literacy is something we build over time through history, literature, representation, current events, media literacy, family conversations, and real life.

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Keep asking hard questions, keep having the conversations, and keep homeschooling unapologetically.