We’re Homeschooling Our Two-Year-Old…and I’m Pretty of Psyched About it!

After months of touring every Montessori/forest/nature/goddess-aligned preschool across Colorado and L.A., my husband and I finally made a decision: we’re homeschooling our daughter… for now, at least…

We didn’t come to this lightly. There were spreadsheets, interviews, mental blocks, ohhs, ahhs, and icks… but after all that searching, the real reason recently became clear:

We can’t afford the damn tuition.

Yep. Turns out love doesn’t pay $2,000 a month for preschool.

With my husband’s work at a complete standstill, we had to make some recent big shifts. One of the hardest has been parting ways with our nanny, someone we welcomed into our home when Clover was just about to be 10 months old. To my surprise, she surpassed every expectation I had.

But… here we are.

No school. No childcare. Not a big village in sight.

So, I did what I do best: I built something.

I sat down, took a deep breath, and started sketching a curriculum that brings together everything my husband and I want to pour into Clover without pretending we’re experts, without mimicking school, and definitely without pretending it’s going to be perfect.

Why Homeschool?

My daughter is a force. She’ll be two in July, and she already talks in 4-word sentences, knows her numbers 1–10, her colors, some letters. She runs, climbs, jumps, sings, and is starting to hold her breath underwater. She’s also starting to name her feelings and other people’s. Just today, we had a mouse in the house, and after seeing it shaking, she said, “Mouse is scared. Mouse is so sad.”

Watching her observe the world and us is the most fascinating thing I’ve ever experienced. Since she was a week old, I’ve narrated every moment of our day. She’s been by my side, watching, absorbing, mirroring. She has taught me more about presence than any meditation retreat or training ever could. The “right” schools all felt like they couldn’t match what we were already building at home.

Homeschooling isn’t just about saving money or rejecting the system. It’s about knowing my daughter. And knowing myself.

I do know that she would absolutely THRIVE in a group setting. Anytime she's around other people (babies, kids, teens, adults, elders…) she is so engaged and curious about everything they are doing.

I was never a traditional learner. I myself did homeschool for 11th and 12th grade, and it was the best decision I ever made. I wish I did it earlier! I had to beg my parents for months to help get me into the program. The program almost denied me because of my grades. I was the D/F student who never fit the classroom mold. These days I would be labeled as autistic, but growing up all I was told was that I had a learning disability, but no one ever told me what it was or what I could do to learn in ways best for my brain. As I got older, I had to figure it out for myself.

I now know I have auditory processing disorder, dyslexia, ADHD, social anxiety… and probably more. But back then? I was just different and had to be in special education classes away from my friends. Instead of dwelling on it and making it a weakness, I have found ways to turn it into my strengths, and one of those is seeing the world backwards, enabling me to build systems and curriculums in ways some people may have never thought of.

And now? I get to build something for Clover that meets her brain where it’s at. Something that gives her agency, voice, and room to move at her own rhythm.

I share all this because watching my daughter, not even 2 yet, grasp the world at the speed of lightning, as if she has walked this walk many times before, is so fucking cool. So here we are, starting to homeschool this week. I wrote a 3-month summer curriculum to start with, built around the books, toys, household items, and nature that we already have right here at home. No big budgets. No fancy subscription kits. Just real life, a lot of intention, and a deep trust in this weird path we’re walking.

And yes, I’m doing this while working a part-time job, supporting three consulting clients, and running my company, Golden Hour Motherhood, trying to bring in some kind of income. All while momming. And now…homeschooling. LOL.

Do I know what I’m doing? FUCK NO.

Will we all be feral by August?
…Well, we are already a feral family, but there’s always room for more free-spirited wildness in our household!

But I’ve never been more excited.

This isn’t just about “teaching” her. This is about raising her in a way that honors who she is.

So yeah… wish us luck. We’re homeschooling now.

With love,

Dru Erin Houchen!