Homeschool Services

Reading & Writing

Literacy

Full detail on how I teach reading and writing is on the Literacy page. What follows is specific to homeschooling.

Text selection is a shared decision. I bring my own texts rather than working from a reading list, because analysis only works if a student encounters a range of viewpoints, including ones they disagree with and ones that are wrong. You can bring your own reading list, but I may make suggestions on where to supplement it. You can veto any particular text and I will find another that does the same work. What I cannot do is teach analysis with the analytical part removed.

Writing structure. If your student is working through a progymnasmata sequence, I can follow that structure. Those exercises supply the content so the student works only on form, which is a real strength, and I will keep the sequence intact rather than substituting a different framework.

Narration to written composition. This is the transition Charlotte Mason families most often stall on: a child who narrates fluently but freezes at the blank page. This is a solvable problem, and I teach strategies to make all stages of the writing process easier.

Grammar is your call, and I can follow your scope and sequence. Many families run a dedicated grammar program, which is something public school does not have; grammar there usually arrives scattered through writing units with no coherent progression. If you have chosen a scope and sequence, I can work through it with your student and connect it to the writing they are doing. This gives them the opportunity to apply this knowledge. If your student is not doing formal grammar and their writing does not call for it, I won't introduce it.

Proficiency at your pace

Mathematics

Full detail on the frameworks behind my math instruction is on the Mathematics page. What follows is specific to homeschooling.

Placement over grade level. Most homeschool families have switched programs at least once, which makes “what grade is she in for math” close to meaningless. I recognize what students arrive with from the programs families actually use, and where each one tends to leave things unfinished. We start exactly where your student is at right now by pinpointing what skills they already have.

Repetition is not necessarily the method. A student solving one problem several ways and comparing the approaches learns more than a student doing twenty of the same problem. That is how I build fluency, and it is why sessions sometimes look like conversation more than practice sets.

Assessment without scoring. I do assess, continuously, but most of what I learn comes from watching a student work through a problem and explain their thinking rather than from counting correct answers. What you get back is a description of what your student understands and what comes next instead of a test score.

Programs that delay written algorithms are fine. If your curriculum works concretely and holds off on standard notation, nothing about that conflicts with what I do. Mathematical proficiency develops through whatever representation a student is working in.

Practices, concepts, content

Science

Full detail on how I teach science is on the Science page. What follows is specific to homeschooling.

Sequence and pacing are yours. Chronological approaches, four-year rotations, interest-led ordering: all workable. The way I teach science (practices, crosscutting concepts, and content simultaneously) is a method, not an ordering requirement, and it does not ask your family to adopt a standard.

Topic selection. I teach current scientific consensus, and I do not remove content that a subject requires at a given grade level. Covering fewer advanced topics to accommodate pace is okay. Teaching a topic with select parts removed is not something I can do.

Labs. I do not supervise hands-on laboratory work. Your lab component comes from your curriculum, a lab kit, a co-op class, or a community college course. What I can work on is experimental design, controls and sources of error, data analysis, and lab notebook and report standards — the parts that turn completed experiments into written documentation.

AP exams. Homeschooled students can register for and take any AP exam without having taken an approved AP course. The course label on a transcript and the exam itself are two separate questions, and I am happy to explain the difference. Note that I do not provide AP test prep; just the content that maps onto it.

Electives

Music

Theory and ear training/aural skills. For students already playing an instrument whose lessons cover theory only incidentally, and for students who want the underlying structure of what they are playing. Ear training covers interval and chord recognition, sight-singing, and dictation — the part of music study that is hardest to learn alone, and the reason AP Music Theory defeats most self-studiers.

Appreciation and history. Structured listening with historical and cultural context. This maps onto composer study if you run a Charlotte Mason schedule, and onto the arts sequence in a classical rotation. Appreciation does not have to stop in the nineteenth century, either — a good deal of what students already hear in games and film connects directly backward to everything that came before it. If you would like to develop a customized scope and sequence for your student, I have plenty of ideas and would be happy to help.

Music theory and music appreciation both satisfy the fine, visual, or performing arts requirement for Washington's public universities, so this can be a substantive transcript line.

This is academic coursework in music, not private instrument instruction.

Neurodivergent Learners

A significant number of families start homeschooling because school was not working for one particular child. If that is your situation, this is the center of my practice and the biggest reason I started Foundations First.

No threshold for individualized services. If your student struggled academically but didn't qualify for individualized services in the school setting, I can help your family develop a personalized learning plan or follow your existing one. I do not need a diagnosis, an evaluation, or a documented gap of a particular size before addressing your student's needs. Plenty of students struggle in ways that never reach the bar a school uses to decide who gets help, and plenty of others are strong enough overall that nobody looked closely.

A skill that has not developed yet is not a character problem. When a student cannot start an assignment, or falls apart the moment something gets hard, or reacts to a small setback in a way that looks out of proportion, it gets read as attitude: lazy, careless, not trying, difficult. I am neurodivergent myself, and I know what that misreading feels like from the inside. Emotional regulation, task initiation, and working memory are skills that develop on their own timeline, and when they are behind, the behavior that results looks like a choice. Being treated as a character problem for years does damage of its own, on top of whatever the original difficulty was.

Modified executive function demands. Homeschooling removes a lot of what made school hard: the pace, the noise, the transitions, the expectation that everyone starts and stops at the same moment. But it also removes a lot of the scaffolds for meeting executive function demands, like bells, or daily schedules. Task initiation and time management often get harder in the setting that is otherwise much better for them, which is a common reason a family who made exactly the right decision still finds things falling apart by October. I teach and provide executive function supports so your student can continue to meet their goals. I also integrate executive function strategies directly into the student's coursework instruction, even if you do not choose to opt in to general executive function coaching.

Gifted and twice-exceptional (2E) students. A student can be years ahead in one area and stuck in another. While Washington school districts are required to provide differentiated instruction for qualifying students, these programs (often called Highly Capable) can still fail to meet gifted or 2E students' needs. Or, a student might be gifted, but not qualify based on the benchmark testing scores. I have lived experience as a 2E individual myself, and can work with your family to meet your student's goals, including the social-emotional and executive function support.

What I can and cannot tell you. I can describe what I observe, name the patterns I see, and tell you what they usually indicate. I cannot diagnose anything, and I will not pretend otherwise. If what I am seeing points toward something worth a professional evaluation, I will say so directly. Handwriting and fine motor difficulty in particular is occupational therapy work; I can address the language side of writing and support a student who is also seeing an OT, but I am not a substitute for one.

How I Work With Homeschool Families

You set the scope and sequence. I bring the materials. Send me what your student needs to cover and I will confirm I can support it. Anywhere in the K-12 range, I almost certainly can. I do not teach from a specific curriculum and I do not need you to buy anything. If you are using a program you like, I will work alongside it and make sure what I teach lines up with what your student is being asked to do.

Standards are optional here. Where a family wants alignment, I use Common Core for math and literacy and NGSS for science, either to stay on pace with grade-level benchmarks or to complement what you are already doing. If you would rather not benchmark against standards at all, that is a legitimate choice and I will not impose them. The subject pages describe the frameworks behind how I teach; none of that requires your family to adopt them.

You are the teacher, so the session summary goes to you differently. Every family gets a written summary after each session. When a student is in school, that summary goes to a parent who was not in the room. When you are the one teaching, it goes to the person delivering the rest of the instruction, and I write it accordingly: what we worked on, what I saw, and what is worth reinforcing before next time.

No threshold to meet. If a difficulty is real but would not have qualified your student for services in a school setting, it still gets worked on here. I do not need a diagnosis, an evaluation, or a documented gap of a particular size before addressing something.

New to homeschooling. If you pulled your student out recently and are still working out what you are doing, that is a normal place to start from. You do not need a curriculum picked or a plan settled before a consultation.

More than one student. Tell me about all of them at the consultation. Whether siblings work together or separately depends on ages and subjects; we can discuss this further.

Scheduling. Daytime hours are available, which most families with children in school cannot use. Sessions take place in-home, at a library, your homeschool location, or online.

Transcripts and course documentation

Washington homeschool parents build and issue their own transcripts. No district or state agency certifies them, which means the documentation behind a course is what gives it weight.

For any course I teach a student through, I can provide a written course description: what was covered, with what materials, over how many instructional hours. That is meant to sit behind your transcript as supporting evidence.

To be clear about the division: you grant the credit and issue the transcript. I supply documentation of the work we did. I am not an accrediting body and cannot certify anything.

What I Do Not Offer

Stated plainly so you do not have to ask:

• Hands-on lab supervision
• Annual assessment or standardized test administration (Washington requires a certificated educator for the written assessment option; test proctoring requirements are set by each test publisher)
• Supervision of your instruction as a certificated teacher, for the parent qualification requirement
• Social studies, history, health, occupational education, visual art
• Test-taking strategy for the SAT, ACT, or AP exams — I teach content and skills, not exam technique