Approachable Montessori Homeschooling: How One Family Made the Switch Alongside Full-time Work

“I don’t understand why I can’t learn more when I want to learn more,” said Molly.

Diana, Molly’s mother, was caught off guard when her 11-year-old daughter approached her with this frustration. They had recently relocated from California to Utah. Both Diana and her husband work full-time, so they enrolled Molly in a brick-and-mortar private school. The school offered a project-based curriculum, but it quickly became clear that it wasn’t a good academic fit.

“Molly would ask if she could write a book or do a presentation, but her teachers would tell her there was no time,” Diana said. “Before we moved, Molly had been in Montessori education since she was two-and-a-half. In Montessori, the answer to wanting to learn more is always ‘yes’.”

In the fall of 2020, Molly was diagnosed with dyscalculia, a learning difference that affects the way math is processed. The diagnosis was the catalyst for Diana to find an authentic Montessori school. She wanted Molly back in an environment where individualized learning wouldn't be restricted, and where she’d be given a hands-on approach to math instead of rote memorization.

There wasn’t a brick-and-mortar Montessori school within their vicinity to switch to, so they began looking at home-based options. Molly expressed to her mom that she would prefer learning at home over a classroom if it meant she could direct her own learning. Diana had already been eyeing Guidepost Montessori’s at-home programs after hearing about them through word-of-mouth, and decided that homeschooling with Guidepost aligned with their preferences.

As a screen-conscious family, paired with Molly’s desire to have more agency, Diana pulled Molly out of private school, and within weeks, set-up their new Montessori elementary homeschool with Guidepost.

Homeschooling with Guidepost

Diana gained access to:

A Practical Homeschool for Busy Parents

When asked how she juggles homeschooling with telework, Diana challenged the notion that this program is narrowly for full-time homeschoolers.

“I can’t even call it homeschooling, if by homeschooling you’re assuming it relies on me as the teacher,” she said. “The Guidepost Album is in charge, and that’s what I love. It drives everything.”

Diana admitted that she had initial concerns about how to balance everything, but she felt comfortable taking the leap considering the level of parent support that is offered.

“It felt like a total bargain considering the training I was getting, the ongoing materials, and the fact that I have someone to hold my hand through it all."

When Molly logs on to The Album, she can choose which lessons, referred to as “cards,” she wants to work on that day. Diana can access the lessons as well and place them in the appropriate sequencing for her daughter.

On Sundays, Diana dedicates time to populating Molly's dashboard with a customized mix of lesson cards. In addition, Molly creates her own lesson cards as she comes up with her own ideas of what she wants to study. When in doubt, Diana meets with Guidepost for feedback.

This fusion of technology and mentorship re-defines what homeschooling looks like. While Diana is engaged in an active support role––and blends her workday from home alongside her daughter––she doesn’t have to deliver the lessons herself, or source and buy learning materials on her own. The program actively manages these moving pieces in partnership with educators who ensure a stream of rich content that is accessible for families to facilitate, and for children to self-discover.

“Molly’s favorite area of study right now is biology. She recently planted a bean, observed how it grew and learned how to replant––nothing compares to hands-on learning,” Diana said.

This hands-on approach is crucial to support her in math. With dyscalculia, Molly cannot just memorize a math table; she needs a concrete foundation, which is what Montessori provides with its sequence of physical math materials. In this path, Molly is able to create a memory with her hands using the materials, better allowing her to recall the concept when she needs to solve on paper.

The Longview

With a move back to California on the horizon, Diana plans to re-enroll her daughter in a Montessori brick-and-mortar classroom. Despite this, she also plans to stay enrolled in virtual programs with Guidepost, having observed how enriching it has been in supporting Molly’s interests at home.

It’s an investment that she believes holds long-term value, and one that she advocates for, despite onlookers having doubted their Montessori home as “good in theory, but too hard to implement.” She finds this to be a false narrative, perhaps perpetuated by an over-emphasis in our culture on higher education rather than early education. For her, it’s these early years that will matter most, when executive functioning skills can either be hindered or nurtured.

“By elementary, children are engaged in projects that take weeks or months to complete and often involve collaborators. They must track their own work in elementary and set goals—all critical to the development of executive functioning,” wrote Kelli Harran, Director of Elementary Program Support at Higher Ground Education. “Executive functioning skills allow people to concentrate, juggle and prioritize tasks, stay organized, regulate impulses, be flexible, plan ahead, and turn goals into achievements. There is a tremendous body of research on its importance in childhood and its link to success in adulthood. Montessori builds these skills intentionally, and the difference shows.”

It’s this long-view that motivates Diana to intentionally bridge the Montessori Method from classroom to home––something she has worked to cultivate since Molly was just six months old.

“Montessori has never been just about education. It is a complete way of life. It’s about answering to the long-view, ‘what kind of child are you trying to launch into the world’?"

Some names and identifying details have been changed to protect the privacy of individuals.