By most accounts, homeschooling has jumped significantly during COVID-19. Last fall, the Census Bureau estimated 5.4 percent of children were being homeschooled—up from around 3.3 percent. But 8–10 percent of parents say they would prefer to homeschool their children, indicating there is still room to grow.
One of the biggest impediments to homeschooling is having a parent available in the home. Parents can work together in arrangements like hybrid homeschools, co‐ops, and learning pods to help in this regard. But it’s definitely a challenge.
However, other obstacles—including cost and complexity—can be overcome more easily than many parents may expect. Thanks to the internet, there is a whole world of resources available to make homeschooling more accessible.
Easy Peasy All‐in‐One‐Homeschool is one such solution. It was created by a mom, Lee Giles, who designed it for her own family. She put it online so her kids could work independently and to make it accessible for her younger children as they came along. She purposely designed it so it would be useful for other families. Giles says, “My hope is to enable families to continue homeschooling no matter their life circumstances.”
The original Easy Peasy site covers preK‑8, and a sister site, All‐in‐One‐Highschool, offers coursework for grades 9–12. The sites provide 180 days of homeschool assignments for most courses, simplifying things for parents since they don’t have to start from scratch. The lessons are designed for children to follow independently with step‐by‐step instructions for each subject and each day. Lessons include language arts, math, history/social studies/geography, science, Spanish, Bible, computer, music, art, PE/health, and logic.
It’s worth noting that the name “Easy Peasy” refers to the design of the program, not the content. This is a very rigorous curriculum.
Easy Peasy All‐in‐One‐Homeschool is a “top pick” by Cathy Duffy Reviews, a leading reviewer of homeschool materials. Amazingly, both Easy Peasy sites are offered without charge and use only free materials found on the internet. It is also a Christian‐based curriculum, which is an important factor for many parents.
By providing a complete preK‐12 curriculum with challenging content that is simple to follow, Lee Giles has addressed two of the biggest barriers to homeschooling: cost and complexity. Parents using Easy Peasy could join together to form co‐ops or pods to help with childcare and provide a social outlet for themselves and their children.
Homeschooling isn’t easy, but it is rewarding. And options like Easy Peasy make it much more accessible.
