Practical homeschool encouragement from a crew spanning generations
The Smiling Homeschooler Podcast offers homeschooling parents practical reassurance on everyday trouble spots: a school year running out of steam, a crowded family calendar, a preteen who has stopped caring. A crew that includes a homeschool graduate now teaching her own kids trades advice with guests like David and Shirley Quine, and faith comes up openly.
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The Smiling Homeschooler Podcast is an encouragement show for homeschooling families, and its idea of encouragement is practical. The register is relaxed and unpolished: sentences wander, asides pile up, and a joke about a lemonade cup can end up carrying the lesson. Ben Wilson often introduces the episodes and frames the conversation. The regular crew includes Katherine Petchen, called Kat, who is Todd's daughter, a wife, a homeschooling mom and a homeschool graduate. That gives the show two vantage points at once: the graduate who grew up learning at home, and the parents who remember their own children's standoffs. The worries on the table are specific. Are we doing enough? Does this even count as school? Will the kids be ready for what comes next? Those questions frame a conversation about the end of the school year, and the advice is refreshingly direct: don't let the day become a long slog, start on time, push through and be finished by 11. Sometimes, when a child digs in, the advice is simply to cut your losses. Another conversation starts from a message a homeschooling mom sent in, describing schooling her last two kids, life as a grandma and two weddings to plan. The response leans toward permission over productivity tips: not every plate stays in the air, and saying no is allowed. A grandfather on the show admits that saying no comes easier to him than to his wife, then proves it by refusing to swap a grandchild's lemonade cup. The same episode takes up a question several listeners raised: how to get a 10-, 11- or 12-year-old to actually care. The show also has its own lens for parents, four homeschool mom personalities: the driven Falcon, the researching Owl, the serene Swan and the fun, scattered Sandpiper, with a test on its website. Kat's own type is part of that discussion, alongside the question of when structured schooling should begin and how to resist pressure to start too early. Guests bring outside experience. David and Shirley Quine, homeschooling pioneers from Cornerstone Curriculum, describe raising children as a calling, citing Paul in Thessalonians and the Great Commission, in a conversation replayed from a couple of years earlier. Brandee Gillham makes the case for homeschool conventions: plan your workshops, expect to change your mind, and use the exhibit hall to open curriculum and see it before buying. The milestone episode 'Celebrating 400 Episodes of Encouraging Homeschoolers to Smile' ran with a live Facebook chat and giveaways, and the crew used it to call the archive evergreen. Sponsor reads come from Teaching Textbooks, a math curriculum the show calls a partner from nearly the first episode, and from Samaritan Ministries and Redeem HealthShare. The recurring sign-off says what the whole enterprise is for: don't forget to smile.
Made for: Suits a homeschooling parent, particularly a mom, who wants reassurance paired with practical fixes and is comfortable hearing Christian faith discussed openly.
What sets it apart: The crew spans generations, with Todd's daughter Kat, herself a homeschool graduate, now homeschooling her own children. The show also has its own four-type homeschool mom framework of Falcon, Owl, Swan and Sandpiper, with a test on its website.
This is the best podcast for homeschooling moms who need encouragement! Our goal is to help you smile more! Whether you are a new homeschooler or a veteran, we are positive you will feel encouraged!
Sibling bickering can swallow the school day; Ben Wilson knows you may think yours are the worst.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A 400-episode milestone turns into a warm, practical look back at the guests and encouragement behind The Smiling Homeschooler.
Episode 400 uses its milestone less as a victory lap than as a warm look at what has sustained The Smiling Homeschooler: encouragement, community, useful back-catalog conversations, and the guests who helped shape the show.
A grounded conversation about ending the homeschool year before fatigue turns every decision into a slog.
The Smiling Homeschooler Podcast frames the end-of-year motivation slump as a mix of familiar worries: whether enough has been covered, whether the work still counts as school, and whether children are ready for what comes next.
A grounded conversation about overloaded family life and helping 10-, 11-, and 12-year-olds care about learning.
An overwhelmed homeschooling mom anchors the conversation, with Ben Wilson treating her crowded season as a matter of limits rather than personal failure.
A grounded conversation about homeschool personality types, family experience, and the pressure to begin structured lessons too soon.
Ben Wilson brings Katherine Petchen into the podcast crew by way of her life in homeschooling: graduate, mother, wife, and now a regular voice in the conversation. She reflects on how homeschooling formed her for the better and how those lessons carry into her own family.
The Quines connect a pressured career turn with the deeper work of educating children at home.
Homeschooling comes through as a calling formed under pressure, conviction, and a family's readiness to walk through an unexpected door. David and Shirley Quine describe how David's work as science director for the fourth largest district in Texas ran into questions about…
A warm, practical case for making stories a regular family habit beyond the screen.
Ben Wilson's conversation with audiobook reader Jim Hodges centers on a simple, sturdy idea: books and audiobooks give children space to imagine characters, places, and adventures for themselves.
Parenthood and bodies, told one honest story at a time.
An interview with Suzanne Nunn about homeschooling conventions, her podcast Not By The Book, and her Musings curriculum.
This episode discusses how to teach literature in a way that brings joy rather than stress to homeschooling families.
Ben Wilson and his mother Debbie share practical tips for homeschooling moms to beat winter doldrums and finish the school year strong.
Todd Wilson encourages homeschooling parents to find reasons to smile even on tough days, sharing personal anecdotes and sponsor messages.
The Smiling Homeschooler Podcast marks episode 400 with giveaways, sponsor thanks to Teaching Textbooks and Samaritan Ministries, and a look back at eight years of homeschooling talk.
Episode 399 of The Smiling Homeschooler Podcast centers on end-of-year motivation, with Ben Wilson opening on fears like "Are we doing enough?" and "Does this even count as school?" Todd Wilson answers listener questions from Angela, Melissa, Amanda, and Sarah about curriculum burnout, loneliness, and the pressure to finish well.
A Facebook listener says she is schooling her last two students while being grandma to six grandkids and planning two weddings, and Todd Wilson answers that "parenting is a life sentence" of saying no and being "good enough" rather than perfect.
Episode 397 of The Smiling Homeschooler brings Katherine Petchen, Todd Wilson's daughter, into the regular crew for a conversation about homeschooling, family life, and her own experience as a homeschooled mom.
David Quine says Richardson Independent School District asked whether he was "a Christian," "a creationist," and whether he taught his children at home before ending his science-director work.
The Smiling Homeschooler Podcast features Ben Wilson and Todd Wilson interviewing Brandy Gillum of CHEC about the practical and community value of homeschool conventions.
Jim Hodges tells Ben Wilson and Todd Wilson how he left a 20-year Navy career in 1999 to record unabridged audiobooks.
Risa Wilson describes six months of nausea, depleted ferritin, hormone disruption, and childhood-trauma memories that made her nonfunctional for weeks.
Ben Wilson and Todd Wilson examine why homeschooling brings questions from relatives, friends, and cultural communities, including criticism of families who choose a path outside familiar school systems.
Ben Wilson and Todd Wilson of The Smiling Homeschooler Podcast address parents' fears about homeschooling high school, including chemistry, advanced math, college preparation, sports, and social opportunities.
Ben Wilson and Todd Wilson speak with Gina Suarez and Debra Wuehler of The Old Schoolhouse about homeschooling, Christian discipleship, and why they describe home as where children belong.
Ben Wilson and his father, Todd Wilson, address homeschooling parents who feel torn between finishing textbooks and making time for basketball, church events, music lessons, plays, and friendships.
Ben Wilson and Todd Wilson discuss how homeschooling families can manage school, work, church, social events, appointments, and protected family time.
Ben Wilson and Todd Wilson examine why arguing and bickering became the most repeated hardship in a Facebook question to homeschooling families.
Ben Wilson and his brother Sam Wilson discuss how homeschooling families can decide what movies and shows to allow, with a focus on the Wingfeather Saga as a recommended family option.