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🐴 Is 'Homeschooling' the wrong word (when you're only home 3 hours a day)?
Veteran homeschool mom of five reveals why "homeschooling" is actually a misnomer. PLUS: How prioritizing emotional wellbeing transformed her special needs children & the surprising truth about diplomas that employers don't tell you.
Charlie Deist
April 10, 2025
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IN THIS EDITION:
🍎 Why traditional academics take just 3 hours in this family's day
🍎 How focusing on emotional needs first led to greater academic success later
🍎 The truth about diplomas (what you really need to make it ‘official’)
🎧 THIS WEEK'S EPISODE
THE HOMESCHOOLING MISNOMER
"I think homeschooling is a misnomer for us. The amount of time that we're home is maybe three hours for the book work academics. Everything else is out, about, with friends, field trips, co-ops… fun things."
In this week's episode, veteran homeschool mom (and OpenEd support team member extraordinaire) Maecy Palkki shares how her family abandoned the "school at home" approach for something far more powerful: education as a lifestyle.
After 13 years homeschooling five children (including four adopted with special needs), Maecy discovered that traditional academics need only a fraction of the day—while the real learning happens everywhere else.
💎 GEMS
THE THREE-HOUR SCHOOL DAY
Forget the image of kids sitting at the kitchen table for 6 hours straight. For most families, homeschooling looks radically different:
"We ski several times a week with friends. They do kayaking, we go see the salmon when they spawn at our lake," says Maecy.
This lifestyle approach transforms education from isolated academics into immersive, real-world learning:
Science happens while observing salmon spawning
Physics principles come alive on ski slopes
History unfolds during travel
The family even spent six months living in a trailer and traveling across the United States—a form of "roadschooling" where geography wasn’t just studied, it was experienced.
📊 TREND
THE DIPLOMA MYTH DEBUNKED
When Maecy's oldest daughter applied to work at the Mayo Clinic, a moment of panic struck: they requested a high school diploma, but as a homeschooler, she never received an official one.
The solution was surprisingly simple:
"I printed a homeschool diploma out and I signed it and they accepted that. They don't care if it's accredited or not. They just want a paper to file in their diploma spot."
Increasingly, we’ve seen that employers are less concerned about credentials than skills and a readiness to learn new things.
(In case you’re wondering, she got the job.)
MEME OF THE DAY
💬 JOIN THE CONVERSATION
How much time does your family spend on traditional academics versus experiential learning? Have you found a balance that works for you?
That’s all for today! See you tomorrow.
– Charlie (the OpenEd newsletter guy)
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