Topic
Texas
9 issues
Browse full archive →- Weekly DispatchAug 3, 2026
The first two weeks: what a new homeschool should actually attempt before it tries to cover anything
A family that has chosen the curriculum, built the day, learned to read progress, selected its outside resources, and worked out what to do when a child refuses now faces the part none of that prepares it for, which is starting. A family can be tempted to open on day one at the pace it intends to hold in March, and that temptation can lead to a collapse a few weeks later. The first two weeks are not for covering material. They are for installing a routine that a family can repeat on a bad morning, and the schedule that survives that test is often shorter than the one written in July. Plus the policy dispatch as North Carolina extends its ESA+ offers and the Texas funding calendar turns out to work differently for homeschoolers than for private school families.
The last five issues built a working early-grades year and then addressed what to do when it meets a child who will not participate, which completes the planning and leaves the execution untouched. This issue takes up the first two weeks of an actual homeschool year and argues that they serve a dif…
Getting Started·First Week·Homeschool Day·Routines·New Homeschoolers·Deschooling - Weekly DispatchJul 27, 2026
The day the child will not do the work: telling ordinary resistance from a signal worth acting on in a K-3 homeschool
The curriculum is chosen, the day is built, the progress is readable, and the additions around the core are settled, which is a complete early-grades year on paper and no protection at all against the morning a child refuses to open the math book. In our assessment no curriculum prevents it, and resistance is not usually a curriculum problem. This issue separates the ordinary friction that a young child can produce from the smaller set of signals that indicate something structural, gives the order in which a family should change things so it does not throw out a working program over a bad fortnight, and names the point at which the right move is an outside opinion. Plus the policy dispatch as the Texas accounts are funded on a calendar that works differently for homeschool families than for private school families.
The prior four issues built a complete early-grades year, the curriculum chosen, the day assembled around a young child's working attention, the progress read by watching the child work without a school's testing machinery, and the enrichment resources around the core chosen on whether they serve t…
Resistance·Reluctant Learner·K 3·Elementary·Homeschool Day·Learning Differences - Weekly DispatchJul 20, 2026
Beyond the curriculum: which of the library, the co-op, the outside class, and the online supplement add to a K-3 homeschool, and which only add to the schedule
The curriculum is chosen, the day is assembled, and the family can read whether it is working, which finishes the core of the early-grades year and opens the question of what to add around it. Four resources a family can add are the public library, the co-op, the outside class, and the online supplement, and each is sold as enrichment while each also carries a cost in time, money, and attention that the core program has first claim on. This issue takes the four in turn, names what each one genuinely adds to a K-3 home and what it mostly adds to the calendar, and gives the test a family can apply before saying yes: does the resource serve the curriculum and the child, or does it serve the family's worry that it is not doing enough. Plus the policy dispatch on the Texas Education Freedom Accounts and the online supplement.
The prior three issues assembled the core of the early-grades year, the curriculum chosen, the day built, and the progress read through observation rather than a school's testing machinery, and this issue turns to the resources a family adds around that core. Four of them ask for a place in the wee…
Enrichment·Library·Co Op·Extracurriculars·Online Learning·Educational Apps - Weekly DispatchJul 13, 2026
Assessment in the early grades: how to know a K-3 homeschool is working without importing the apparatus of a school
The curriculum is chosen and the day is assembled, which leaves the question that arrives once a family is actually teaching: is it working. The early grades answer that question differently than a school does, because a parent teaching one to three children sees the evidence directly and does not need the testing machinery a classroom uses to see every child at once. This issue describes what progress actually looks like in kindergarten through third grade, the light records worth keeping and the ones a state may require, and the placement and readiness checks that tell a parent whether to move a child up, hold, or adjust. Plus the policy dispatch and the first school year of the Texas accounts.
The prior issue assembled the K-3 day, and this issue takes the question that arrives once a family is teaching it, which is how to know the early grades are working. The answer begins by setting aside the instrument a school relies on. In our assessment, a classroom assesses constantly through qui…
Assessment·Record Keeping·K 3·Elementary·Placement·Reading Fluency - Weekly DispatchJul 6, 2026
The K-3 homeschool day: how little time the early grades actually take, and how to fit more than one child into a morning
The curriculum question is answered. The question that replaces it is how to put it together into a day, and, in our estimate, K-3 takes far fewer hours than newcomers fear. In our estimate, the core fits in a morning and the skill subjects fit in the margins, and a family with more than one young child does not run two schools in parallel but combines what it can and staggers what it cannot. Plus the policy dispatch: how the Texas accounts that began funding July 1 work for homeschool families, and how purchases run through the program marketplace.
The K-3 curriculum coverage, from reading through the skill subjects of issue 10, is complete, which moves the question from what to teach to how to assemble it into a day. The issue opens on our assessment that the early-grades homeschool day is short. In our assessment, a classroom spends much of…
Scheduling·Homeschool Day·Loop Scheduling·Multiple Children·Morning Time·Elementary - Curriculum ReviewJun 29, 2026
The K-3 skill subjects: handwriting, spelling, and the foreign-language timing question
The core stack is decided, and what is left is the ring of skill subjects around it. Handwriting splits between vertical and slanted letter styles. Spelling splits between the families that teach rules and the families that argue a separate spelling course is unnecessary in the early grades. Foreign language is not a program choice at all in K-3 but a timing question. Plus the Texas ESA disbursement due July 1, and which of these subjects an account will actually pay for.
Issue 09 finished the K-3 core with history and geography, which leaves the skill subjects that sit around the core: handwriting, spelling, and foreign language. These reward less deliberation than reading or math did, and the issue says so. Handwriting comes down to two decisions: which letter sty…
Curriculum Review·Handwriting·Spelling·Foreign Language·Handwriting Without Tears·All About Spelling - Curriculum ReviewJun 1, 2026
Math-U-See vs. Saxon Math K-3, and the Texas Education Freedom Accounts figures
Two homeschool math programs, graded on the same rubric. Plus the Texas Education Freedom Accounts application figures and the Florida Step Up application dates.
Issue 03 covered Singapore Math Dimensions versus RightStart Mathematics, two conceptually rigorous elementary math programs. Issue 05 covered All About Reading versus Logic of English Foundations, two scripted phonics programs. Issue 06 covers two math programs for the elementary years: Math-U-See…
Curriculum Review·Math U See·Saxon Math·Elementary Math·K 3 Math·Texas - Curriculum ReviewMay 18, 2026
Brave Writer vs. IEW, and the Texas Education Freedom Accounts timeline
Two writing programs with elementary and middle-school levels, graded against the same rubric. Plus the multi-tool AI-tutor read for homeschool families, the Florida Step Up PEP acceptance step, and the Texas Education Freedom Accounts timeline.
Issue 03 paired Singapore Math Dimensions and RightStart on the same rubric. Issue 04 does the same for two writing programs, Brave Writer and the Institute for Excellence in Writing, across grades 3 to 8. Plus: a multi-tool comparison of AI tutoring options (Khanmigo, MagicSchool, Curipod); the Fl…
Curriculum Review·Brave Writer·Iew·Writing Curriculum·Texas·ESA - ESA UpdateApr 27, 2026
The $8,474 gap Texas just wrote into law
Plus West Virginia Hope goes universal, a plan for weekly curriculum reviews, and a Charlotte Mason primer for families who have never heard the name.
Texas TEFA set its 2026-27 awards at $10,474 for private-school students and $2,000 for homeschool students. West Virginia Hope went universal. Every Homeschool plans a weekly curriculum review. A quick primer on Charlotte Mason.
ESA·Texas·TEFA·West Virginia·Hope Scholarship·Charlotte Mason