Greetings Eddies!

Happy early Thanksgiving! If your family is anything like mine, you’re currently navigating a high-stakes negotiation between oven space, side dishes, and relatives who have strong opinions about stuffing.

But before I log off to eat my weight in pecan pie and mashed potatoes, I wanted to say a simple "Thank you."

We recently crossed 20,000 subscribers to the OpenEd Daily. You are the builders, the experimenters, and the educational architects crazy enough to think you can do a better job than a one-size-fits-all system. (Spoiler: You're right.)

Today we’re sharing a conversation with Jean Lee – a neuroscientist and founder of the Academy of Chaos – who has an ingenious method for mapping an entire school year in one weekend while taking random snow days and regular breaks without a shred of guilt.

Let's dive in.

THOUGHT: The Deschooling Trap
TREND: Plan to Pause
TOOL: Homeschool Planet

The Deschooling Trap

When families leave the school system, the common advice is to "deschool"—take months off to reset.

Jean Lee, founder of the Academy of Chaos, says this is a trap.

"If you take too long of a break, it's a nightmare to get them back on track," she warns. "Everybody's fighting and screaming, and nobody wants to do the grammar."

Burnout doesn't come from the work; it comes from the friction of restarting.

Jean built the Academy of Chaos to help families navigate this messiness. As a neuroscientist turned homeschool mom, she champions "gentle rhythm" year-round. Even 20 minutes of math on a holiday week keeps the engine warm, preventing the painful battles of September re-entry.

Watch / Read / Listen

Plan To Pause

The primary driver of homeschool burnout is the clock. If you take a Tuesday off, you feel like you're "falling behind."

Jean’s strategy is simple but radical: Year-round pacing.

"If we do one math lesson every weekday, we finish by early April," she explains. "We don't account for all the extra days traditional classrooms take off."

This efficiency creates a massive buffer bank. When it snowed in Indiana last week, Jean checked her schedule, saw they were ahead, and said, "We're going outside."

Structure doesn't kill spontaneity. Structure buys you the freedom to be spontaneous.

Watch the clip

Homeschool Planet

Decision fatigue kills more homeschools than bad curriculum. Waking up every morning asking "What should we do today?" is exhausting.

Jean’s solution? Homeschool Planet.

She spends one single weekend mapping out every lesson for the entire year using this digital planner.

"I tried paper calendars, but there was too much erasing," she says. "Homeschool Planet allows me to lay out our lessons for the entire year in one weekend."

The killer feature: Her kids have their own logins. They can see exactly what needs to be done to finish. It shifts the parent from "Nagging Manager" to "Supportive Coach," because the software is the bad guy telling them what to do.

Check out Homeschool Planet

Attention Midwesterners

If you want to find your people, Jean organizes the Midwest Homeschool Expo (June 2026!) and runs the Midwest Education Alliance. She's the mentor we all wish we had when we first started homeschooling