Homeschooling Day in the Life: Meg, Second Generation Homeschooling Mom to Four Girls

A homeschool day in the life looks different almost every day, right? Over on our Instagram page, we love to give you a peek into lots of homeschool days regardless of how they change day to day.

Today, we’re going to give you a peek into the homeschool day in the life of Meg, second generation homeschooling mom to four girls.

We can all learn and be inspired by one another, regardless of our homeschool approach. It’s not about looking good for social media, it’s about the connection going on inside our homeschool walls and sharing with others what works for us.

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We might all homeschool a little differently, but we can always look for ideas from each other that inspire, encourage and equip us in our own homeschool days. So each week we create blog posts for you to access later of each of those “days in the life”. We hope you keep coming back for more inspiration. Keep going, mama! These days at home are so worth it!

Meet Meg

Meg @pillarsandpress is a second-generation homeschool mom to four girls and wife to her high school sweet heart. She lives in southeastern Virginia where she grew up and enjoys taking her kids to the beach, where she spent many days of her own childhood. Meg is passionate about homeschooling and loves encouraging others on their homeschool journey, drawing inspiration from both classical education and the Charlotte Mason method. Meg loves to create her own unique homeschool resources, which she sells in her Etsy shop.

She has been homeschooling for 6 years and loves that homeschooling gives her the chance to spend so much time with her girls to build memories, personalize their education, and instill in them biblical character traits and values.

A devoted follower of Jesus, Meg enjoys singing old hymns and cherishing time with her church community. In her spare time, Meg loves to read historical fiction and hosts a book club in her neighborhood to share her love for literature. She’s also a fan of period dramas and can often be found watching The Office on repeat.

Fitness is an important part of Meg’s life, and she incorporates weightlifting and running into her routine. She’s proud to have completed three marathons, a triathlon, and an ultra marathon. Meg also enjoys watching football on the weekends with her family.

Meg’s homeschooling journey is rooted in faith, family, and a passion encouraging others to thrive in their motherhood and homeschooling adventure.

Our Homeschool Story

“How did you get in to homeschooling?” This is a question I’m asked a lot by other mamas and I love to share!

I was actually a homeschooled kid in the 90’s (and early 2000’s 🤗) when homeschooling wasn’t as normal or accepted. My siblings and I got asked frequently why we were out of school in the middle of the day. I had friends look at me weird when I said I was homeschooled. I even had coworkers at my first job tell me I was the most normal homeschooler they had ever met. (Thanks?!😅) But even though the stigma and stereotype beliefs were strong at that time, I truly LOVED my life as a homeschooled kid.

So much so, that I knew I wanted to one day stay home and homeschool my own kids. I even had conversations with my husband before we were married to make sure he’d be on the same page, because it was truly that important to me. He had a “good” experience going to public school, but he was fully on board with our kids being homeschooled. I’m grateful that we started off our family knowing we’d be keeping them home with us. Because of this, we never experienced the anxiety over sending them off to kindergarten. It was just never an option for us.

We homeschool to give our kids a solid foundation in the Word of God, incorporate a Christian world view into their studies, and instill Biblical values.

We homeschool to preserve their childhood- to let them be little and play. To protect them from having the stress of academics pile on at a young age or their minds and hearts weighed down by things children should never know or have to worry about.

And finally, we homeschool because we love the time that it gives us together as a family. Whether we’re reading, exploring outside, or just working through a lesson, we’re doing it side by side. Homeschooling lets us learn and grow together. This has been such a gift to have that kind of time with our kids. We’re making memories, having fun, and just enjoying life together in a way we wouldn’t get to otherwise!

I could probably go on and on with other reasons, but I think these are our top 3!

Reverse Planning in Homeschooling

If you’ve ever felt discouraged by incomplete to-do lists, reverse planning might be the solution you need! Maybe you’re already doing this and just didn’t know it had a name, but instead of writing out a list of things to do each day, you track what you actually accomplish!

Here’s how to get started:

• Start with an empty planner – Leave your daily planning pages blank. For homeschooling I write in the subjects that we plan to complete for the week but don’t actually write in what we’re going to do each day.
• Record as you go – After completing an activity or lesson, write it down in your planner.
• At the end of the day, reflect – Review everything you did, big or small, and see your progress.
• Adjust your goals – Over time, notice how your accomplishments align with your long-term goals and adapt where necessary.

I love reverse planning because it offers a perspective shift. Instead of focusing on what didn’t get done, I get to see the full picture of all we actually accomplished. It’s a great reminder that learning happens in ways we don’t always plan for. It helps me feel encouraged by the growth my kids and I experience together!

Curriculum Choices

We’re using The Good and The Beautiful this year for most of our curriculum! My 2nd grader and Kindergartner are using it for language and math, and my 5th grader is using it for Language arts.

We have never used TGTB before, so it is all brand new to us. I am loving it for my 5th and 2nd grader. The flow of the lessons are a little different than I’m used to, but we’re catching on and my 5th grader is doing so well with it.

If I’m being honest, I’m not loving their Kindergarten program just yet. The math has been great, but their language arts program seems really advanced! In the past I’ve used Abeka for Kindergarten and I really liked that. It started off slow and I thought it gave both my older girls a great foundation in phonics, something I’m honestly missing a little this year. I was surprised at how much my kindergartener was expected to know at the start of lesson 1. I’ve actually paused that book and started using my Abeka teacher book to supplement some lessons until I feel like my girl is ready to jump back in with TGTB.

Besides TGTB, our other core curriculum choice for the year is Apologia math for my 5th grader. We started Apologia math last year and it was a huge hit! The short lessons with hands on activities have made math way less of a struggle for my oldest.

Homeschooling in the Midst of Grief

Grief is a heavy burden, and when you’re a homeschool mom, it feels even harder.

Your kids are with you all day. You are everything to them and it is so hard to show up in every way when your heart and head are processing grief.

I recently lost my grandmother, who I was very close to. The week following her passing made me realize how heavy of a load we carry as homeschool mom.

While I was carrying the reality of loss I still knew I needed to show up for my kids’ education. It’s tough because, while I definitely could pause the kids’ schooling for a few days, I couldn’t completely check out. We took a day or two off, but normal has to continue for them, and me showing up to teach them school is part of their normal. I’ve chosen to homeschool them, and I have to show up for them.

It was a really hard part of homeschooling that I had not experienced before. As I’ve been walking through it, I’ve been learning a few things that give me peace. It’s also been an opportunity to model resilience and trust in the Lord to carry me through. If you’re in this situation too, I want you to know that you don’t have to do it all perfectly, especially while you’re processing.

Here are a few things that have been helping me:

• Embrace the basics – Focus on the core subjects, and don’t be afraid to scale back to essentials during this season. Your kids will still learn.
• Lean into flexibility – Homeschooling allows us the flexibility to adjust the pace. It’s okay to take a slower day or swap lessons for something more manageable when your energy is low.
• Prioritize connection – When the academics feel like too much, lean into relational time with your kids. Reading together, having conversations, or even doing quiet activities can create the space for healing while still fostering learning.
• Give yourself grace – Grief takes time, and it’s okay to acknowledge that you can’t do it all right now. You’re still giving your kids the most important thing—your presence and love, even in the hard moments.

Thank you so much to Meg for sharing your family’s day with us!

If you want to see more Day in the Life photos and videos, be sure to check out our Instagram profile.  There are highlights of each takeover at the top.