Is homeschooling through a hard season even possible — when illness, a move, a new baby, aging parents, or a teenager’s growing pains turn your picnic-blanket read-aloud dreams upside down? In this episode of Everyday Educator, host Delise Germond sits down with Lisa Bailey — veteran homeschool mom of two grown daughters and a pastor’s wife who began homeschooling the same season her family set out to plant a church — for an honest, hope-filled conversation about homeschooling through hard times.
Lisa shares why knowing your “why” carries you when well-meaning friends suggest you just quit and get a job, and how a simple daily rhythm — devotion, memory work, reading, then math, even when the morning starts in the afternoon — gives kids steadiness when life feels like papers flying through the air. Delise remembers being homeschooled while her mother walked through cancer treatment and why that unchanging routine became a gift. Together they unpack the freedom of “there is always a choice”: skipping the African capitals for a season of Challenge A, taking Fridays off to be with Dad, listening to heavy books on audio, discussing a book instead of writing the paper, and trading worksheets for Legos. Lisa leans on Matthew 11:28–30, Delise on Psalm 30:5 — weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. Plus, practical ways to keep the joy: the Candle of Happiness, a surprise diner-waitress lunch, a quilt-tent reading nook, and cozy-season ideas for the post-Christmas winter blues.
If you’re in a hard season right now, consider this your permission to bend so you don’t break — and a gentle reminder that seasons change and the light is coming. Pour a cup of hot chocolate, light a candle, and share this one with a mom who needs to hear it today.
This episode of Everyday Educator is sponsored by HSLDA
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