There are a lot of homeschool podcasts out there!

I know. You know. We all know.

So when I tell you I launched one anyway – from inside a clothes closet with a microphone and approximately zero regrets – you’re probably wondering why. Fair question!

Here’s my honest answer: because I kept looking for the podcast I wanted to listen to, and it didn’t exist. And I’m stubborn enough to just make it myself.

That’s the origin story of the Homeschool with Joy Podcast. No dramatic calling. No business pivot. Just a homeschool mom with a love of books, lots of ideas about how to make homeschooling less boring and more fun, and a serious Celestial Seasonings tea addiction deciding that the gap needed filling.

What You’re NOT Going to Find Here

Let me be direct about what this podcast isn’t, because I think that matters just as much as what it is.

It’s not a product pitch with a conversation wrapper. You know the kind – twenty minutes of “authentic sharing” that leads inevitably to a curriculum you can buy for three easy payments. That’s not what this is.

So many podcasts are just shells trying to sell you something and I’m not going to waste my time listening to – or creating! – such a podcast.

It’s not a guilt-delivery system disguised as encouragement. There’s a whole genre of homeschool content that makes you feel like you’re failing before you’ve even hit play. Hard pass.

I don’t want to hear about all the ways I should have been doing something and have been failing this whole time, just because I’m not homeschooling Your Way.

It’s not chit-chat. Nothing against chit-chat – but I respect your time too much to fill twenty minutes with the conversational equivalent of styrofoam peanuts. INTJs like myself don’t do that – or listen to that.

And, it’s definitely not a one-size-fits-all approach telling you that your homeschool needs to look like someone else’s. (More on that in a minute.)

What the Homeschool with Joy Podcast Actually Is

Every week, you’ll get practical, low-prep ideas you can actually use – the kind that don’t require a crafting budget or a Pinterest-perfect home.

You’ll find free curricula, clean movie lists, book recommendations, ideas to try on for size, and resources that don’t cost a fortune. Because homeschooling already costs enough, and the best learning often costs nothing at all.

For instance, my 700+ page literature curriculum for high school students – that has been called “phenomenal” by the one, the only Cathy Duffy – is available totally free.

You’ll get encouragement from someone who has been in the trenches. I’ve been homeschooling long enough to have made most of the mistakes already. You’re welcome to learn from them.

And you’ll get a perspective that isn’t trying to sell you a lifestyle. Your homeschool doesn’t need to look like mine. Or your co-op friend’s. Or the one with the beautiful Instagram feed and the color-coded bookshelves. (Though I won’t pretend I don’t have organized bookshelves based on my own brain’s organization – I absolutely do, it’s a whole project I did – but they aren’t color-coded!)

Why Your Homeschool Doesn’t Need to Look Like Anyone Else’s

This is the part I care about most.

One of the most corrosive things in the homeschool world is comparison. Not the friendly, oh-that’s-a-great-idea kind. The spiral kind. The kind where you spend forty-five minutes on someone’s blog feeling increasingly inadequate about your perfectly good homeschool.

Every family is different. Every kid is different. The best homeschool for your child is the one that fits your child – not the one that photographs well or wins curriculum awards or gets approving nods from the co-op moms.

You are enough. Your instincts are worth trusting. And you deserve resources that help you build your vision, not someone else’s.

And, while we don’t want to copy-cat one another’s homeschool planets, we do need community! We need inspiration! We need to get ideas! We need to know the pitfalls that others have made along the way so that we can avoid them.

That’s what this podcast is trying to be. A weekly pocket full of joy – practical, encouraging, and actually useful.

Listen Now

Episode 1 is live on Spotify and at Homeschool with Joy. It’s the one where I explain all of this in my own voice, from my closet recording studio to hopefully muffle out kid-noises in the background, with genuine enthusiasm and zero scripted cheerfulness. I try to keep every episode at 5 minutes or less.

Come listen and let me know what you think!

homeschooling

Why We Stopped Reading for Prizes (And Started Reading for Joy) + Free Tracker

June 10, 2026June 10, 2026 Jessica Lovett

She had a plan.

My daughter hadn’t even officially entered the library reading contest yet, but saw the flyers as we were pursuing books and she was already winning it in her head. She was eyeing the dinosaur excavation kit and the Mod Pizza coupons. She was mentally cataloguing every book she’d already read this summer, calculating her lead, confident in the way only a kid who reads constantly can be confident – because this contest was made for her.

Then I had to break the news.

I could see where this was going before she could. She hadn’t read the fine print yet – hadn’t realized that the prizes weren’t awarded to the kid who read the most. It was a drawing. Anyone who hit the basic reading goal was entered, and then luck took over from there.

I had to be the one to tell her. Before she sank weeks of strategic effort into a contest that wasn’t actually built the way she thought it was.

The look on her face – that split second of wait, what? – was something I will not soon forget.

The Reading Contest Betrayal (And Why It Was Actually Useful)

Here’s the thing about that moment: her reaction made complete sense. She’d expected the world to work a certain way – effort in, reward out, reader of most books wins – and it just… didn’t. That’s a genuinely surprising thing to learn, especially when you’re the kind of kid who would have won.

(I did not, for the record, find this the ideal moment to deliver a philosophical lecture. Sometimes you just let the feelings breathe for a minute.)

But once they settled, we had a really good conversation.

Because here’s what a parent may have watched happen, if they like me hadn’t caught it in time: the child would have started reading differently. Strategically. Shorter books over longer ones, faster reads over the novel he or she actually wanted to finish. When a child understands the rules of a system, and optimizes for them completely, it may have helped them have more entries to win but it just would have quietly turned reading into something it was never supposed to be.

A competition instead of world-exploring.

And that bothered me more than the drawing ever could.

What Happens When Reading Becomes Transactional

I’m not here to be the person who rails against all extrinsic motivation – that’s not realistic, and honestly, a well-placed reward has its place.

I reward myself for doing dishes or whatever to just mentally trudge through All. The. Time.

I read about that kind of cognitive highjacking of yourself in Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos. I don’t agree with everything in the book, but I do appreciate rule #2:

“[Say to yourself,] What could I do, that I would do, that would accomplish that, and what small thing would I like as a reward?” Then you do what you have decided to do, even if you do it badly. Then you give yourself that [blessed] coffee, in triumph.”

Self validation is a different animal entirely.

But here’s where it gets complicated with kids and reading specifically. Because there’s a particular thing that happens when reading becomes something kids do for something else – an outside prize, external validation, someone else’s approval.

It stops being world exploring and becomes a task.

Reading, at its best, is what Madeleine L’Engle described as a way of being less alone. It’s the thing that happens when a kid disappears into a book and resurfaces forty-five minutes later, blinking, slightly confused about what year it is. That’s not something you can manufacture with a prize wheel.

When reading is primarily a means to an end – a pizza coupon, a contest entry, a gold star on a chart – the actual experience of reading gets devalued in the process. Kids start to learn, subtly, that reading isn’t worth doing for its own sake. That it needs a reason.

And, that’s a lesson worth interrupting.

But Here’s Where Tracking Gets Interesting

Now, I know what you might be thinking. Isn’t a reading tracker just another way to make reading into a task?

Fair. It’s a reasonable concern.

Here’s the distinction I’ve landed on, after years of watching my kids read and trying to figure out what actually works: there’s a difference between tracking as measurement and tracking as celebration.

A reading log that exists so someone else can evaluate your performance? That’s measurement. It’s external. It puts reading in service of a grade or a prize or someone else’s approval.

A reading tracker that lives on your shelf, that holds the record of every story you’ve traveled through, that you can flip back through and remember – oh yes, that was the one about the dragon, that was the summer I couldn’t stop? That’s something else entirely.

That’s a record of a reading life. And that’s worth keeping.

We have loved looking back over the years and remembering what year was the one we read what book. It really helps turn the whir of time into a distinct timeline that is memorable.

How We Use Our Reading Tracker at Home

Our tracker is pretty simple. Title, author, a star rating, and a checkbox for finished. There’s a small notes section at the bottom for anything worth remembering.

We don’t use it as a school assignment. Nobody checks it. There’s no grade attached to it. It just sits in our book nook, available, and my kids fill it in when they finish something – because they like having a record.

My daughter, the one who was jarred by the library drawing, has already finished countless books – and it is only June!

With this tracker, she can rate everything with strong opinions (two stars for books that disappointed her, five stars handed out like she’s trying to make the author feel seen). She refers back to old ones. She has, entirely unprompted, started recommending books to friends based on her own ratings.

She is, in other words, reading like a person who loves reading.

And, that is probably the one major goal for my entire over-a-decade of homeschooling. The End.

Not for a prize. Not for a contest. For the same reason I drag myself to bed at midnight because I just need one more chapter – because a good story is its own reward, and some lessons are worth learning even when they arrive via a slightly heartbreaking library trip.

The Free Printable Reading Tracker

I made this tracker with exactly that philosophy in mind. It’s colorful and pretty because beautiful things invite use. It has room for twenty books, a rating system, and a little notes section at the bottom for anything you want to remember.

It’s not a homework sheet. It’s not a contest entry form.

It’s a record of adventures.

Grab it free when you subscribe to the Homeschool with Joy email list – I send one helpful, non-spammy email a week, and you can unsubscribe anytime. The tracker will be waiting in your inbox.

A Note on Reading and Worth

My daughter still thinks she would have won that contest, by the way. She’s probably right. She reads more than any kid I know, and she reads well – the kind of reading where she has opinions afterward, where she comes back with questions, where she remembers things years later.

That’s not because of a prize. It never was.

And I think that’s the thing I most want my kids to carry into adulthood – not just that reading is valuable, but that the value is in the reading itself. In the sitting still, in the following a story, in the way good books have of quietly changing how you see things without announcing that they’re doing it.

The dinosaur excavation kit would have been cool. I won’t pretend otherwise.

But it wouldn’t have been any of the books. And some things aren’t replaceable with a drawing prize.

homeschooling

Tool or Teaser?

February 25, 2026April 24, 2026 Jessica Lovett

A No-Guilt Guide to Screen Time in Your Homeschool

Someone recently asked me if I feel guilty letting my kids use a screen during school time. I had Spotify playing, a graphic I was designing open on my laptop, and a Google Meet music lesson coming up in twenty minutes. So.

I made another cup of coffee and thought: we have to talk about this.

Because here’s the truth: I pay my property taxes online. I Google Meet my kids’ music lessons and video call family I love. I have Spotify running on continuous loop because, frankly, I would be a terrible Luddite and silence is not my friend. I design graphics, use the internet to plan field trips, and I’ve spent a genuinely happy afternoon setting up protected networks for my kids. [see this post] As I’m trying this, I hear my daughter doing an algebra lesson video, coordinating with her on-paper curriculum, but the video explainer is online, nonetheless.

I check the weather to see if we’ll get drenched by unpredictable Texas rain before we even make it out of the car at our destination.

The screen is not the enemy.

And I am, as Captain Jack Sparrow would say, more of a guidelines person than a rigidly follow all the rules kinda person.

Therefore, I am the last one who should be handing you another rigid set of rules — so I won’t. What I will give you is a framework.

But I also know what it looks like when a child is being used by a screen instead of using it. You’ve seen it. The glazed-over eyes. The short fuse when you say it’s time to stop, like a puppy who doesn’t want to give you the ball to fetch again. The forty-five minutes that vanished into some autoplay abyss while the sun was outside just waiting.

So I want to offer you something today. Not a rigid screen-free manifesto. Not a guilt trip. Just a simple framework I’ve started using in our home that has completely changed the conversation.

I call it the Tool vs. Teaser Test.

What Does “Screen-Free” Actually Mean in Real Life?

Let’s clear something up right away, because the phrase “screen-free homeschooling” can send a mom into a spiral of anxiety faster than a surprise co-op cancellation via text, halfway to the building.

Digital intentionality — not digital elimination — is the real goal. In 2026, that distinction matters more than ever. The research on active versus passive screen time is pretty clear: what your child does on a screen matters far more than how long they’re on it.

A child who spends thirty minutes designing a birthday card for her grandmother on a creative platform is building artistic skills, practicing decision-making, and creating something with genuine meaning. A child who spends thirty minutes clicking a repetitive mobile game is… well. Just clicking buttons.

Same device. Completely different experience.

The goal isn’t a screen-free life. It’s a life where you are the boss of the machine — not the other way around.

This is your permission slip, friend. You are allowed to use technology. You are allowed to let your kids use technology. The question worth asking isn’t “how much?” — it’s “to what end?”

The Tool vs. Teaser Framework

I started thinking about this the day my daughter asked to use the computer. I was about to say yes automatically — and then I stopped and thought about why she wanted it. Was she going somewhere intentional, or just… drifting?

That moment gave me the framework. Every screen interaction in our home now falls into one of two categories.

🛠️ It’s a Tool if…

It has a “done” point. You get on, accomplish the task, and get off. The bill is paid. The email is sent. The design is exported. There’s a finish line.
It creates something real. Your child is making a shirt design, writing a story, composing music, or building a presentation. They are producing, not just consuming.
It solves a specific problem. You’re using a plant identification app to figure out what’s growing in the backyard. You’re doing the taxes on Turbotax (which I did yesterday, blarg). There’s a clear reason.
It builds genuine connection. A video call with a grandparent. A shared apologetics podcast listened to with a child. A collaborative project done together. The screen is a bridge to something real, not a destination.
The brain is “on.” The child is engaged, making choices, figuring something out. There’s a spark of curiosity or effort there — you can see it on their face.

🎢 It’s a Teaser if…

The scroll never ends. If there’s no natural stopping point built into the app — autoplay, infinite feed, “just one more level” — it’s designed to hold attention, not serve it.
It’s running from boredom, not toward something. “I’m bored” is a checking out of life and can be a habit! Downtime is where creativity can live! Using a screen to fill every quiet moment short-circuits that beautiful, productive discomfort where ideas happen.
The zombie stare appears. Minimal blinking. Slight mouth-breathing. High irritability when interrupted. If you recognize this, you recognize a Teaser.
The digital world is the destination. Not a tool to get somewhere — just a place to exist, passively, while real life waits outside.

“Are we using this as a tool to create something — or are we just looking for a teaser because we’re bored?”

That question has become something like a household phrase around here. It sounds simple, but it has opened up some genuinely wonderful conversations about purpose, creativity, and what we actually want to do with our time.

Subscribe and download your own Tool or Teaser checklist!

Three Tool-Based Projects to Try This Week

Because I am, above all things, a practical person who knows you need something to actually do with this framework, here are three ideas to get you started. All of them use screens. All of them are solidly in Tool territory.

1. Design Something Real

Let your child design a T-shirt, a birthday card, a poster for their bedroom door, or a logo for an imaginary business. Or make a real business happen! Free creative platforms are incredibly robust these days, and the skills involved — layout, color theory, typography, decision-making — are legitimately educational. I recommend using Canva, where you can design and print all in one program. When the design is done, print it or save it. Done point achieved.

2. The Grandparent Interview

Hand a child a device with a voice memo app and a list of five questions. Send them to call, video chat, or voice-message a grandparent, elderly neighbor, or family friend. Ask about their childhood. Their favorite memory. What the world looked like when they were young. What it was like to wait a week to know what happens next in a favorite show!

This is oral history. This is connection. This is a Tool doing exactly what it should be doing — building a bridge between generations.

3. The Backyard Field Guide

For my Texas mamas especially: take a plant or bird identification app outside. Spend twenty minutes in the backyard identifying what’s actually growing and living there. Look it up. Write it down. Sketch it if you want.

You’ve just covered nature study, research skills, and — depending on how you document it — writing. The screen was a tool. The learning happened in the sunshine.

The Tool vs. Teaser Checklist

Before the screen comes out — for you or for the kids — run through these five questions. You don’t need all five to be “yes” for something to count as a Tool. But they’ll help you feel it out.

Does it have a specific goal? “I’m going to design a shirt for my sister’s birthday” is a goal. “I’m just going to look at YouTube until dinner” is not.
Is it active or passive? Is the child making choices, creating, solving? Or leaning back while the algorithm serves up the next thing?
Is there a “done” point? When the email is sent, the bill is paid, the design is exported — the screen goes away. If there’s no natural end, that’s your signal.
What’s the brain state? Focused and curious, or glazed and irritable? You’ll know the difference the moment you look at their face.
Does it lead to real-world action? “I found a cool bird on this app — let’s go look for it in the backyard!” The digital world should be a bridge, not the destination.

If it hits 3 out of 5 on the Tool side, give yourself a permission slip. If it’s all Teaser — it might be time to close the laptop and go find some real-life pinecones.

If You Want to Go Deeper

I am, at my core, a reader. So when I started thinking seriously about this topic, I went to the books. These three have shaped my thinking more than almost anything else I’ve encountered on screens and kids — and I recommend them wholeheartedly. Not to scare you, but to equip you.

Glow Kids — Nicholas Kardaras

This one is serious and worth every page. Kardaras makes a compelling, research-backed case for why screens affect developing brains differently than we might expect. It’s not alarmist — it’s honest. And honestly, it’s what first made me start asking “tool or teaser?” in the first place.

12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You — Tony Reinke

Reinke writes from a thoughtful, faith-based perspective and asks questions I hadn’t thought to ask about my own phone habits — not just my kids’. This one is quieter and more reflective than Kardaras, and I found myself underlining almost every other page.

Reset Your Child’s Brain — Victoria L. Dunckley, MD

Dr. Dunckley is a child psychiatrist, and this book is the most practical of the three. If you’ve ever watched your child spiral after too much screen time and wondered what on earth just happened neurologically — this book will explain it clearly and give you an actual plan. Remarkable.

^{Note: These are affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. These are books I own, have actually read, and genuinely love.}

The Bottom Line

Picasso once said that art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life. I think about that a lot when I watch my kids create — with paintbrushes, with clay, with a design app, with their voices. The medium matters less than the making.

Screens are not the enemy of a joyful, creative homeschool life. Mindlessness is. Passivity is. The slow drift into consumption without intention is.

But you? You are paying attention. You asked the question. You’re thinking about this! That’s huge!

That’s already half the work.

Now go subscribe to download that free printable checklist in the Resource Library, put it on your fridge, and the next time someone asks for the tablet, you’ll have the question ready. Tool or teaser?

I think you already know the answer. ✨

Tag: homeschool resources

Why the World Needs Another Homeschool Podcast (And Why This One Is Different)