90-Minute School Day

How long does it actually take a child to learn to read when they aren't learning to read at school?

Reading is one of the areas where homeschool parents can carry the most worry, especially when a child's timeline looks different from what we see in school.

Earlier this year, families inside the Day in the Life community completed a survey about their children's reading journeys. We wanted to know what happened between the earliest signs of becoming a reader and independent reading: how long it took, what support children received, how often they practiced, who led the process, and what parents noticed along the way.

In this episode of the 90-Minute School Day Podcast, DITL member Elizabeth Schroder joins us to share and discuss the results of our community survey on how children learn to read outside of school.

Elizabeth brings a particularly interesting perspective to the conversation. She has a background in elementary and early childhood education, has worked with children both individually and in classrooms, and watched her own daughter learn to read English entirely outside of school while learning Japanese literacy through traditional schooling.

Together, we unpack the survey results and talk about:

This conversation is part 2 of 4 of our Rethinking School and Learning series and connects with Heidi Steel's chapter "How Children Learn to Read in the Real World" from School Isn't for Everyone.

If your child's reading journey doesn't look like the one you expected, this conversation offers a chance to step back, look at the whole process, and consider what might actually be happening.

Learn more and find resources:

What if your child’s struggle with school isn’t a sign that you need to find a better way to make school work?

What if you leave school altogether for Neuro-Affirming Unschooling?

In this episode, I’m joined by Heidi Steel, author of School Isn’t for Everyone (And What You Can Do Instead), for a conversation about neuro-affirming home education, unschooling, school refusal, burnout, trust, reading, screens, teenagers, and learning outside of school.

Heidi was a primary school teacher before becoming an unschooling parent. She has unschooled her four children for more than a decade and brings both professional experience and lived experience of neurodivergence to this conversation.

This episode is especially relevant if your family is navigating school refusal, school anxiety, burnout, behavioral reports, a child who is struggling to attend school, or the uncertainty of wondering whether homeschooling or unschooling could be a better fit.

We talk about:

Heidi’s book was our DITL community summer book study, and this conversation grew out of nine weeks of parents reading, questioning, discussing, and applying these ideas to their own families.

Connect with Heidi Steel:

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Private coaching is currently available if you need support now.

Upcoming Episode: Inspired by Heidi’s statement, “You have learned to worry about your child’s reading because of school,” We're sharing what DITL members told us about how their children actually learned to read outside of school. You don't want to miss it!

When your child's burnout becomes your burnout, how do you care for yourself when there isn't time (or space) to "practice self-care"? When you feel trapped?

In this final episode of our three-part series on capacity, we sit down with Day in the Life member Katy Jo Murdock to explore what happens when parenting a neurodivergent child stretches your own nervous system to its limits.

Together we talk about the tiny moments that help us stay connected to ourselves when life doesn't leave much room for us. Katy Jo shares her family's journey from checklist homeschooling to trusting her child, about “microdosing” regulation in the middle of intensive caregiving, burnout recovery, unschooling, shutdowns, externalized behaviors, and long days at home.

Whether you're supporting a child through autistic burnout, school refusal, demand avoidance (PDA), anxiety, or another season of overwhelm, this conversation offers genuine encouragement and practical, tactical ways to rebuild capacity one small moment at a time.

In this episode you'll hear:

This is Part 3 of our Capacity Series:

Resources Mentioned

Connect with Katy Jo Murdock

Katy Jo's Instagram

Day in the Life Community

If this episode encouraged you, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with another parent who could use the reminder that they're not alone.

What happens when you've been needed for so long that you've lost touch with yourself?

After years of caregiving, homeschooling, co-regulation, appointments, accommodations, and carrying the invisible labor of family life, many parents find themselves running on empty.

Resentful. Exhausted. Overstimulated. Disconnected from their own needs, interests, and identity.

In this episode, unschooling mom, educator, and writer Missy Willis joins me for a conversation about mothering ourselves in the homeschooling years.

We explore why so many parents disappear inside caregiving, where the need to control often comes from, how grief shows up in home education, and what it looks like to reconnect with ourselves when we can't remember what lights us up anymore.

This is Part 2 of our 3-part series on capacity.

In this episode, we discuss:

CONNECT WITH MISSY:

CONNECT WITH KELLY:

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Learn more about Day in the Life (DITL) Community

What if the behaviors we’ve been taught to correct are actually signs of overwhelm, sensory overload, burnout, or nervous system distress?

In this episode, we’re joined by Sunita Kapahi Theiss. Sunita is a writer, low-demand coach, unschooling parent, and neurodivergent advocate. She joins us for a deeply honest conversation about what’s really happening underneath behavior in neurodivergent children and adults.

We talk about PDA, autistic burnout, executive dysfunction, nervous system safety, low-demand parenting, and the profound shift that happens when we stop asking:

This conversation is especially for parents who feel exhausted, confused, isolated, or stuck in cycles of escalation with their children. It’s also for the adults who are beginning to recognize themselves in these conversations too.

Whether you’re brand new to neurodivergent parenting or deep in the trenches of burnout and unschooling, this episode offers language, validation, and practical reframes for families whose children don’t fit traditional molds.

This is Part 1 of our Capacity Series:

What if your child's resistance to math has nothing to do with math?

In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Sarah Eason, Assistant Professor of Human Development and Family Science at Purdue University, whose research on family math engagement and math anxiety reframes everything we think we know about why kids shut down around numbers.

This episode is for the parent who dreads math time, who carries their own wounds around numbers, and whose kid has decided math is not for them. What Sarah's research reveals is both surprising and deeply relieving.

We talk about:

Sarah's closing invitation: "Let go of what you think math should look like and reclaim it for you and your family."

LINKS + RESOURCES

Sarah Eason

https://hhs.purdue.edu/directory/sarah-eason/

WORK WITH 90-MINUTE SCHOOL DAY

Training

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Day in the Life Community

https://90minuteschoolday.com/day-in-the-life/

Free Learning Translator

https://90minuteschoolday.com/am-i-doing-enough/

Day in the Life community doors are open right now.

DITL is an intentional community for parents homeschooling neurodivergent, disabled, twice-exceptional, resistant learners through natural learning and self-directed education. It's not a course, it's not curriculum... It's people doing this learning life together.

What's inside:

$35/month. Cancel anytime.

Join the Day in the Life Community →

DITL is a peer support and education community, not a substitute for mental health care. Please keep those professional relationships in place — this community works beautifully alongside them.

What if the years your child and teen spent playing, exploring, and following curiosity weren't wasted time — but exactly the preparation they needed?

Come sit down with Judy Arnall, internationally recognized child-development specialist, bestselling author of Unschooling to University, and mother of five self-directed learners. We talk about what children genuinely need to thrive, why chronic stress is shutting down learning in our kids, and how unschooling can be a legitimate, research-backed path all the way to post-secondary education.

Whether you're just starting to explore unschooling, deep in the deschooling process, or parenting a teenager who is done with traditional school ... this conversation will meet you right where you are.

If this episode resonated with you, share it with a family who needs to hear it. And if you haven't yet ... please leave a review. It helps more families find this show. 

What happens when school is not a match for a learner?

For many disabled and neurodivergent children and teens, traditional school environments create anxiety, shutdown, and loss of self-trust.

In this conversation, we sit down with Dr. Gina Riley, educational psychologist, Associate Professor of Special Education at Hunter College - School of Education (CUNY), researcher, and unschooling parent to unpack the first peer-reviewed study on unschooling students with disabilities.

We explore why families of autistic, ADHD, learning disabled, and neurodivergent children are moving away from traditional school and toward self-directed education

This episode covers:

Dr. Riley brings both academic research and lived experience as an unschooling parent to this conversation, offering insight for:

✔ Parents of disabled and neurodivergent children

Unschooling is not the absence of education.

For some learners, it may be the least restrictive and most developmentally appropriate environment available.

Resources Mentioned

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If this conversation gave you language you’ve been needing:

Research and advocacy matter.

And conversations like this move us toward educational models that respect both learning and humanity.

How many friends does your child actually need?

But what if we’ve absorbed a story that deserves to be questioned?

In this conversation, I sit down with Missy Willis of Let ‘Em Go Barefoot to unpack:

Influenced by the work of Gordon Neufeld, Gabor Maté, and Peter Gray, this is a paradigm-shifting look at friendship that challenges cultural norms around socialization.

If you’ve ever felt that quiet pressure, “Is my child social enough?” this episode will help you slow down and look again.

Connect + Resources

Missy Willis:

Peer orientation + attachment:

Mixed Age Play:

Laughter + connection blog:

Join the Day in the Life community: