Keep Calm and Homeschool On

Keep Calm and Homeschool On is a homeschooling podcast where the practical and the devotional are never far apart. Rebecca hosts. She homeschools five children, was homeschooled herself, and describes the show as an imperfect podcast by an imperfect homeschool mom that gets a little ranty. That description holds up. In '#48 The Problem with Homeschooling' the kids can be heard running around in the background, and she tells listeners to grab a coffee and expect an interruption or two. Her point there is simple: homeschooling is not easy. She started out with a clear picture and what felt like all the answers, floundered anyway, and learned that each of her five children had to be figured out separately. There is no shortcut, she says. Faith runs under all of it. Prayer opens 'Help! I’m Failing My Kids!' and closes several other episodes, often asking that the children will carry forward what their parents are learning. '#6: To the Overwhelmed' suggests having a Bible at hand and ends its prayer by pointing to Isaiah 43. The failure conversation pairs Rebecca with Jonathan. She describes being told, often, that she was doing too much, that she should settle and be content, and that anything outside her family was a mistake. Her answer is to measure her kids' education by heart, character and relationship with the Lord rather than grades, tests or how much they have memorised. Several numbered episodes go out under the name 'Gather Round with Rebecca Spooner', and they focus on the inner life. '#6: To the Overwhelmed' describes overwhelm as the weight of many things piling up over time, and the experience of being fine until suddenly you are not. '#7: Undone' includes a small story: she gets passed from person to person and then disconnected while trying to sort out the internet, goes into a spiral, and her husband's gentleness stops it in its tracks. The lesson she takes from it is about keeping a soft heart toward children, spouses and friends. '#8: Ownership' is about words. She stops saying she has anxiety and says instead that she sometimes battles it. She also objects strongly to diagnoses spoken over children, calling them curses. '#9: Freedom' rejects the idea that evangelism is a gift only some people have, arguing that everyone is under the great commission. The same episode opens with plans for months on the road in an RV with five children, a husband and a lot of technology. The tone is warm, unguarded and blunt in places. Lines like 'not today, Satan' and 'what a ridiculous statement' sit beside long, earnest prayers. What a listener takes away is less a curriculum plan than the experience of hearing a homeschooling mother name her own failures and keep going.