What if your neurodivergent child’s path to literacy doesn’t need to look like everyone else’s?

In this episode, I sit down with Aubrey Hargis of Child of the Redwoods to explore how the Montessori method naturally supports neurodivergent learners — especially when it comes to reading, writing, and discovering a true love of learning.

Whether you’re new to Montessori or simply looking for practical ideas that meet your child where they are, you’ll find this conversation full of freedom, wisdom, and encouragement.

🎧 In this episode, we cover:

• Why a Montessori approach fits beautifully with neurodivergent brains

• How to support literacy with less pressure and more joy

• The role of audiobooks in reading development

• Tips for encouraging child-led learning that leads to real academic growth

• Why exposing young kids to many ideas helps them specialize with confidence as teens

If traditional reading timelines have made you second-guess your homeschool, join us to feel reassured and inspired!

Connect with Aubrey:

https://www.childoftheredwoods.com

[email protected]

Discover your perfect homeschooling routine:

https://www.childoftheredwoods.com/quiz

The Ultimate Guide to Teaching Your Homeschooler Critical Thinking is not available at this time.

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT:

Right now, I’m taking a step back from client work and pausing the podcast as I focus on healing from a recent lupus flare, and caring for our youngest son through his brain tumour journey.

This space and the work here mean so much to me. If something you’ve found has supported your homeschool and you feel led to give, you’re welcome to send a donation to [email protected] via ⁠PayPal⁠.

And truly—one of the greatest gifts is hearing how this has impacted your family. If something has shifted for you or your children, I would love to hear. You can email me anytime and share what’s changed. I’ll be celebrating right alongside you.

If you’re looking for support while I’m away, you can access the Teaching Inspired Content Library for a one-time fee of $67:

⁠homeschoolteachingsimplified.com/teachinginspired⁠

Connect with Natalie:

⁠[email protected]

What if your child doesn’t need to be forced to learn to read?

For this episode, I’m joined by Leah Martin, who shares:

📚 Why the Science of Reading often falls flat in homeschool homes

🧠 How to align with your child’s brain development and learning style

☕️ What it actually looks like to teach reading gently, with relationship first

And did you know? 23% of her audience said their kids taught themselves to read—with no hard-and-fast curriculum at all. 🤯

This one’s for the mom wondering:

“Are we behind?”

“Is it me?”

“Is this working?”

🎧 Tune in and discover how teaching reading can be calm, connected, and even cozy.

The Ultimate Guide to Teaching Your Homeschooler Critical Thinking is not available at this time.

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT:

Right now, I’m taking a step back from client work and pausing the podcast as I focus on healing from a recent lupus flare, and caring for our youngest son through his brain tumour journey.

This space and the work here mean so much to me. If something you’ve found has supported your homeschool and you feel led to give, you’re welcome to send a donation to [email protected] via ⁠PayPal⁠.

And truly—one of the greatest gifts is hearing how this has impacted your family. If something has shifted for you or your children, I would love to hear. You can email me anytime and share what’s changed. I’ll be celebrating right alongside you.

If you’re looking for support while I’m away, you can access the Teaching Inspired Content Library for a one-time fee of $67:

⁠homeschoolteachingsimplified.com/teachinginspired⁠

Connect with Natalie:

⁠[email protected]

You already know teaching literacy is important BUT you might be getting stuck when it comes to HOW to do that in your homeschool. 

As you follow along with this season and listen to homeschooling thought leaders share new perspectives and possibilities, you’ll start to see shifts in how your child gets on board with their reading, writing, and general expression of ideas.

You’ll see them grow in confidence and communication! 

Because you’ll be walking away with new tools to add to your homeschool teaching toolbelt so you can personalize the learning process for your family.

In this episode, we’ll unpack:

🎧 The real reason sentence diagrams aren’t clicking — and what to try instead

🎧 How to adapt to learning styles (without ditching the whole curriculum)

🎧 The 3 C’s of literacy that’ll change how you teach older children

The Ultimate Guide to Teaching Your Homeschooler Critical Thinking is not available at this time.

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT:

Right now, I’m taking a step back from client work and pausing the podcast as I focus on healing from a recent lupus flare, and caring for our youngest son through his brain tumour journey.

This space and the work here mean so much to me. If something you’ve found has supported your homeschool and you feel led to give, you’re welcome to send a donation to [email protected] via ⁠PayPal⁠.

And truly—one of the greatest gifts is hearing how this has impacted your family. If something has shifted for you or your children, I would love to hear. You can email me anytime and share what’s changed. I’ll be celebrating right alongside you.

If you’re looking for support while I’m away, you can access the Teaching Inspired Content Library for a one-time fee of $67:

⁠homeschoolteachingsimplified.com/teachinginspired⁠

Connect with Natalie:

⁠[email protected]

How can you teach in your homeschool when you're stressed out and scared?

How do you teach your children to not be afraid?

How do we hold an open hand of willingness to change for the better when change seems so scary?

Because you know as well as I do that when we are stressed, our children pick up on that.

Today on the Assured podcast, I have a bonus one-off episode for you all about how we can navigate the uncertainty that lays ahead.

The Thoughtful Thinkers 6-week critical thinking program is not available at this time.

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT:

Right now, I’m taking a step back from client work and pausing the podcast as I focus on healing from a recent lupus flare, and caring for our youngest son through his brain tumour journey.

This space and the work here mean so much to me. If something you’ve found has supported your homeschool and you feel led to give, you’re welcome to send a donation to [email protected] via ⁠PayPal⁠.

And truly—one of the greatest gifts is hearing how this has impacted your family. If something has shifted for you or your children, I would love to hear. You can email me anytime and share what’s changed. I’ll be celebrating right alongside you.

If you’re looking for support while I’m away, you can access the Teaching Inspired Content Library for a one-time fee of $67:

⁠homeschoolteachingsimplified.com/teachinginspired⁠

Connect with Natalie:

⁠[email protected]

When is it finally time to FIRE your homeschool curriculum?

Because you just spent precious time, money and energy to research and source the BEST curriculum so chances are, you’re not willing to give up on it at the first sign of resistance!

You’ve heard me talk extensively about how to adapt what you already have so that it WORKS for you...

But let’s be real, there’s a time when you need to just stop. 🚩

Today we’re talking about what that red flag is and what you should do when it comes up in your homeschool.

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT:

Right now, I’m taking a step back from client work and pausing the podcast as I focus on healing from a recent lupus flare, and caring for our youngest son through his brain tumour journey.

This space and the work here mean so much to me. If something you’ve found has supported your homeschool and you feel led to give, you’re welcome to send a donation to [email protected] via ⁠PayPal⁠.

And truly—one of the greatest gifts is hearing how this has impacted your family. If something has shifted for you or your children, I would love to hear. You can email me anytime and share what’s changed. I’ll be celebrating right alongside you.

If you’re looking for support while I’m away, you can access the Teaching Inspired Content Library for a one-time fee of $67:

⁠homeschoolteachingsimplified.com/teachinginspired⁠

Connect with Natalie:

⁠[email protected]

You have a choice – make your homeschooler do it anyway, or switch things up?

We all want to be that awesome mom who swoops in and saves their child from the dreaded math drills! 

But the problem is, most have no idea what an alternative approach even could be! 

So let me share with you my favourite 2 secret teaching hacks so you can keep the curriculum you worked so hard to research and purchase, and instead, ADAPT IT to work for the here and now. 

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT:

Right now, I’m taking a step back from client work and pausing the podcast as I focus on healing from a recent lupus flare, and caring for our youngest son through his brain tumour journey.

This space and the work here mean so much to me. If something you’ve found has supported your homeschool and you feel led to give, you’re welcome to send a donation to [email protected] via ⁠PayPal⁠.

And truly—one of the greatest gifts is hearing how this has impacted your family. If something has shifted for you or your children, I would love to hear. You can email me anytime and share what’s changed. I’ll be celebrating right alongside you.

If you’re looking for support while I’m away, you can access the Teaching Inspired Content Library for a one-time fee of $67:

⁠homeschoolteachingsimplified.com/teachinginspired⁠

Free Download:

Say This, Not That: Scripts For Tricky Homeschool Teaching Moments:

⁠homeschoolteachingsimplified.com/saythis⁠

Connect with Natalie:

⁠[email protected]

Teaching your homeschooler a second language (or a foreign language) is about communication and learning how to speak the way OTHERS understand.

On today’s episode of the Assured podcast, I will show you how to teach your homeschooler a second language, even if you’re not fluent yourself!

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT:

Right now, I’m taking a step back from client work and pausing the podcast as I focus on healing from a recent lupus flare, and caring for our youngest son through his brain tumour journey.

This space and the work here mean so much to me. If something you’ve found has supported your homeschool and you feel led to give, you’re welcome to send a donation to [email protected] via ⁠PayPal⁠.

And truly—one of the greatest gifts is hearing how this has impacted your family. If something has shifted for you or your children, I would love to hear. You can email me anytime and share what’s changed. I’ll be celebrating right alongside you.

If you’re looking for support while I’m away, you can access the Teaching Inspired Content Library for a one-time fee of $67:

⁠homeschoolteachingsimplified.com/teachinginspired⁠

Free Download:

Say This, Not That: Scripts For Tricky Homeschool Teaching Moments:

⁠homeschoolteachingsimplified.com/saythis⁠

Connect with Natalie:

⁠[email protected]

When it comes to social studies, you can drop down into a moment of time so that your child fully understands not just what happened, but WHY things happened that way.

For this episode about teaching your homeschooler social studies, we're going to get into WHY I love teaching social studies dialectically, how to teach it, what that has to do with empathy, and then we’ll unpack why this can lead to learning gaps...

YouTube Video About Learning Gaps:

I spent a year catching up in my homeschool (we made a mistake)https://youtu.be/M588g7QmND4

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT:

Right now, I’m taking a step back from client work and pausing the podcast as I focus on healing from a recent lupus flare, and caring for our youngest son through his brain tumour journey.

This space and the work here mean so much to me. If something you’ve found has supported your homeschool and you feel led to give, you’re welcome to send a donation to [email protected] via ⁠PayPal⁠.

And truly—one of the greatest gifts is hearing how this has impacted your family. If something has shifted for you or your children, I would love to hear. You can email me anytime and share what’s changed. I’ll be celebrating right alongside you.

If you’re looking for support while I’m away, you can access the Teaching Inspired Content Library for a one-time fee of $67:

⁠homeschoolteachingsimplified.com/teachinginspired⁠

Connect with Natalie:

⁠[email protected]

Leaders tend to think differently than the crowd. They’re not afraid of playing with new ideas!

As you teach the skills of leadership and responsibility to your homeschooler through career education, they WILL stand out from the crowd. 

And in terms of socialization, they may not end up thinking and doing the same as most children their age…

Quite honestly, I stopped worrying about homeschool socialization when I learned THIS about Career Education.

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT:

Right now, I’m taking a step back from client work and pausing the podcast as I focus on healing from a recent lupus flare, and caring for our youngest son through his brain tumour journey.

This space and the work here mean so much to me. If something you’ve found has supported your homeschool and you feel led to give, you’re welcome to send a donation to [email protected] via ⁠PayPal⁠.

And truly—one of the greatest gifts is hearing how this has impacted your family. If something has shifted for you or your children, I would love to hear. You can email me anytime and share what’s changed. I’ll be celebrating right alongside you.

If you’re looking for support while I’m away, you can access the Teaching Inspired Content Library for a one-time fee of $67:

⁠homeschoolteachingsimplified.com/teachinginspired⁠

Free Download:

Say This, Not That: Scripts For Tricky Homeschool Teaching Moments:

⁠homeschoolteachingsimplified.com/saythis⁠

Connect with Natalie:

⁠[email protected]

There is no one-size-fits-all way to teach math. 

As a former high school science, math, and dance teacher, now turned homeschooling mom… I’m here to encourage you that if your child isn’t connecting with math, you can get flexible and creative with your approach!

On today’s episode of the Assured Podcast, I’m going to share with you what the purpose of math is, what you want to make sure you include, and then how to troubleshoot when your homeschooler laments “I HATE math!”

There ARE some do’s and don’ts when it comes to teaching homeschool math so buckle up for my top advice to help your child LOVE learning math.

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT:

Right now, I’m taking a step back from client work and pausing the podcast as I focus on healing from a recent lupus flare, and caring for our youngest son through his brain tumour journey.

This space and the work here mean so much to me. If something you’ve found has supported your homeschool and you feel led to give, you’re welcome to send a donation to [email protected] via ⁠PayPal⁠.

And truly—one of the greatest gifts is hearing how this has impacted your family. If something has shifted for you or your children, I would love to hear. You can email me anytime and share what’s changed. I’ll be celebrating right alongside you.

If you’re looking for support while I’m away, you can access the Teaching Inspired Content Library for a one-time fee of $67:

⁠homeschoolteachingsimplified.com/teachinginspired⁠

Free Download:

Say This, Not That: Scripts For Tricky Homeschool Teaching Moments:

⁠homeschoolteachingsimplified.com/saythis⁠

Connect with Natalie:

⁠[email protected]