Homeschool is going wonderfully for the Napier family.
“First 9 weeks of homeschool [have] been so good for us as a family,” Erin Napier, who hosts HGTV’s HOME TOWN TAKEOVER with husband Ben, posted to Instagram. “We made some curriculum changes for efficiency and our days are moving like a well oiled machine now.”
Eldest daughter Helen, in the third grade, “is able to accurately lay out historic events in the right order without help given one random index card at a time (I couldn’t have done this in high school, but Ben is the best history teacher ever), learning how to properly write short essays, memorizing lots of poetry, finished Pippi Longstocking, Mr. Popper’s Penguins, Paul Revere’s Midnight Ride and now reading The Hundred Dresses (😭), building fires on her own, hosting a fall party for 20 of their friends, learning the 50 states and capitals, multiplication drills, and learning about mammals and the nervous system.”
Meanwhile, kindergartner Mae “is reading independently, creating a new kind of animal found in the ocean (axoturtle!!), making a pumpkin painting book report of her favorite, Make Way for Ducklings, and figuring out where in the world she is on a map.”
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“It’s been hard work and a few late nights planning this year, but it’s also the most fun I have ever had as a parent,” Erin explained. “Most of my very best friends in the world have brilliant kids who go to traditional school and they love their schools so much. It is working beautifully for them. For us, this slots in beautifully with our schedule and satisfies our need for more family time. One day they may want to go to traditional school again but until then we gonna be out here loving our ‘weirdo homeschooler’ era!”
Erin has been taking her Instagram followers along for the ride on the family’s homeschool journey.
“Some people think homeschooling is weird. I did too when I was young,” she shared in a past Instagram post. “Around the time Helen was born, we met some homeschoolers who were so remarkable, so mature, so communicative, and interested in learning, it made us realize we wanted whatever that was.”
The HGTV star has also encouraged other parents who are curious about homeschooling to try it out.
“This is what I want you parents who think you’d like to homeschool but you’re afraid you can’t: if you can find 2 hours a day and ‘open and go’ curriculums, you can do it,” she wrote in a post from May. “These girls are so happy, so good at communicating with all ages and types of people. And we feel like we soaked up every moment of growing up they did, instead of feeling shocked by it each passing week. We found the hack to slowing down childhood. It’s not for everyone, but it was medicine for our whole family this year.”
It looks like homeschooling was the right move for the Napiers.
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