🐴 Stop stressing. Start designing. (A mom of 7 explains)

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💡 DEEP DIVE

HOME IMPROVEMENT

In this week's Q&A episode, Coach Meg Thomas shared an analogy that sheds much-needed light on the problem of stress and burnout:

"If you've ever been to a spa... it's very calming and the lights are low, and even the color of the paint on the wall is soothing. There’s music and they usually have a diffuser or something in the air that just smells good… you just come to relax."

Then she flipped it:

"My kids love to go to an arcade, where there’s loud music, bright flashing lights, and it's high energy."

Both environments are intentionally designed. Applied to the home, one creates calm. The other creates chaos.

Which one does your home resemble during learning hours?

While we're busy searching for the perfect curriculum or the ideal schedule, Meg has been focusing on something more fundamental:

"You don't have a lot of control over things that your children do and say, but one of the things that you do have control over that makes a humongous impact is the home."

Meg is talking about invisible design choices that shape behavior without a single word being spoken. And these choices don’t have to amount to a Pinterest-perfect space.

It’s the little choices that make the biggest differences.

For example, if her kids are grumpy, she’ll put on an upbeat playlist, like a musical, and “all of a sudden the mood of the house has become fun."

No lectures about attitude or empty threats. Just Hamilton on the speakers and suddenly everyone's in a different headspace.

For focus time, she employs classical music via Spotify.

Less Stuff = More Learning.

Meg also gave attendees permission to get rid of clutter.

Claire Honeycutt shared a similar insight on her Substack this week, about the connection between too much stuff and stress. Kids experience it unconsciously as anxiety, while parents feel it as burnout. We think our kids will feel deprived without so much stuff, but in reality calm kids are focused kids. And focused kids are kids who can actually absorb what you're teaching them.

Instead of being the enforcer, Meg teaches parents to create what she calls the "Happy Habits Triangle":

1. Example - You model it first

2. Teach - Show them how (like teaching shoe-tying)

3. Praise - Look for the good and tell them

"All of a sudden they are realizing, ‘Oh, Mom's not getting mad at me,’” says Meg, “It's super simple to learn this basic skill."

What This Means for Your Weekend

Whether you homeschool or not, try to look at your home spaces more like a designer than a disciplinarian or teacher.

• What music could shift the energy without you saying a word?

• What clutter is creating visual stress for everyone?

• What systems could run themselves if you stepped back?

As Meg discovered: "When you work on changing the environment, the child's behavior naturally changes itself."

You can start this weekend (not that you needed permission). One playlist. One decluttered surface. One system that runs without you.

Watch the full Q&A →

🔨 THIS WEEK'S MOST-CLICKED TOOLS

Hoffman Academy: Free Piano Lessons - 350+ YouTube lessons created by a teacher who spent 20 years figuring out why traditional lessons fail. Start with lesson one, no experience needed.

Assignment Sheets for Independent Kids - Free printables from A Humble Place that list weekly tasks with checkboxes. Kids decide when to complete each assignment. The author reports her own children went from constant questions to managing their own schedules.

GeoGebra: Visual Math - Free tools that turn algebra into pictures and geometry into animations. Works in any browser. 100 million users worldwide.

Deliciously Weird Homeschooling - Reddit goldmine packed with wonderfully weird, hands-on projects. Cheese-making, horsemanship, dog behavior training (for when the worksheets get old).

Charlotte Mason Without Breaking the Bank - Simply Charlotte Mason shows how to give your child a rich, literature-based education with library books, smart sharing, and free online gems.

Simple Joy Art - Beautiful, free printable artwork Meg uses to create a peaceful, inspiring homeschool atmosphere. Includes bookmarks, maps, and vintage prints.

Spotify - Meg mentions how music shifts the energy in her home. She uses upbeat showtunes for moods and classical playlists for calm and focus.

Physics Lab Resources for high schoolers:

• Openstax High School Physics Lab Manual - Free PDF with labs using mostly household materials. Skip the specialized equipment labs.

• Take-Home Physics: 65 High-Impact, Low-Cost Labs - $19.95 paperback by Michael Horton with experiments using easy-to-find materials. No burning lettuce leaves with inadequate matches.

• PhET Interactive Simulations - Free virtual physics labs from the University of Colorado Boulder. Perfect when you need to demonstrate concepts without setting up equipment.

📊 THIS WEEK'S TOP TRENDS

Math Teaching Gets Flipped (KQED) - The "thinking classrooms" model has kids working in groups of three at whiteboards, with new partners every day chosen by playing cards. Sixth graders who used to watch the clock now say "that was two periods already?" The key: when kids can't predict their group or role, they stop playing passive and start actually thinking.

Montessori's Identity Crisis (EdSurge) - Once a buzzword, now a question mark. A major Montessori-inspired chain is shrinking. Is it the economy? Charter competition? Or that "Montessori" isn't trademarked, meaning quality varies wildly? The magic might be fading—or just getting diluted.

Screens Are Sabotaging More Than We Thought (KQED) - Research shows direct links between screen exposure and emotional dysregulation. As Meg Thomas points out: "It actually makes them have a shorter attention span... it can create anxiety and it lowers social skills."

AI Could Change Everything in 3 Years (AI Futures Project) - Matt Bowman told Deb Fillman on The Reason We Learn podcast: "We don't even know what AI will look like two years from now." The AI 2027 thought experiment predicts: by 2027, AI becomes better than humans at AI research itself. What does education look like when your fifth grader's "future career" might not exist by middle school?

Gen Z Chooses Sobriety - Annual alcohol spending by generation shows Gen Z spending dramatically less than any previous generation. The generation facing an uncertain future is choosing clarity over escape.

The Real Reason Families Homeschool (Vox) - It's not always about curriculum choice. For a growing number of parents, especially those with kids needing special accommodations, homeschooling is a lifeline to tailored support that traditional schools can't provide.

🔨 TOOL OF THE WEEK

HAPPY HABITS CHART: THE 2-WEEK BEHAVIOR TRANSFORMATION

Unlike traditional behavior charts that focus on rewards and punishments, Meg Thomas's Happy Habits Chart changes your family culture by getting everyone involved.

How it works: Each family member picks ONE habit to work on. Dad stops checking his phone at dinner. Mom works on not yelling. Kids tackle hitting, leaving the table, or putting clothes away.

Clear consequences, no drama. Hit your sister? She plays with your favorite toy for 10 minutes. Make your bed? Toys come out to play.

Works for ages 3+. 

Download the Happy Habits Chart →

🤔 PARTING THOUGHTS

Phil Hansen's hand tremor ended his pointillism career. Until he realized the shake wasn't his enemy—it was his signature. Sometimes our biggest limitations become our greatest strengths.

Matt Bowman told Deb Fillman on The Reason We Learn podcast: "Schooling is something that is done to you. Education is something that you pursue for a lifetime." One requires external control. The other develops from internal motivation.

That’s all for this week!

– Charlie (the OpenEd newsletter guy)

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