Greetings Eddies!

Have you ever wondered why five-year-olds tend to draw people as circles with stick legs and houses as squares with a triangle roof?

A psychologist named Viktor Lowenfeld spent his career studying this. He called this the "schematic stage": kids draw what they know, not what they see. A house is a square with a triangle roof. A person is a head with arms and legs coming out of it (roughly). Representing these things in this way is developmentally appropriate.

Trying to teach realistic rendering to a kindergartner is like teaching calculus before multiplication. You're working against biology. More on this in our Deep Dive on homeschool art curriculum—including which programs actually work at each age, according to OpenEd's teachers and seasoned families.

Also this week: a music teacher explains why those "wasted" years of piano lessons might not be wasted at all, and a Japanese goal-setting method that created baseball's greatest player.

Now let's dive in.

DEEP DIVE: Homeschool Art Curriculum

When you're teaching art at home, you know that there's no answer key.

Math has right answers. Reading has fluency scores. Science has a method. But art? You're staring at a drawing of a horse that doesn't quite look like a horse yet and trying to figure out if that's creative expression or a cry for help.

This ambiguity can make art uniquely daunting. Push the wrong curriculum at the wrong time and you can watch creative confidence evaporate in real time. Ask any adult who decided at age 11 that they "weren't artistic"—that decision usually traces back to a specific moment when what they made didn't match what they imagined.

The transition happens somewhere in elementary school. Kids go from happily drawing stick figures to wanting their horse to actually look like a horse. When it doesn't, many quit entirely. This is the moment that makes or breaks a young artist—and it's also the moment where actual technique instruction (perspective, shading, proportion) becomes useful instead of soul-crushing.

The good news: you have more flexibility here than anywhere else. No tests. No required sequence. Just a kid, some materials, and permission to explore. Our new guide organizes curriculum recommendations by age and format—subscription boxes, video instruction, book-based programs, co-op options—tested at actual kitchen tables by OpenEd families.

Read the full guide

PODCAST HIGHLIGHT: When (Not) to Quit Music Lessons

Music teacher Deborah Pratt has watched a variation of this story unfold dozens of times:

Kid starts piano in elementary school. Practices inconsistently. Cycles through a few instruments. Parents wonder if they're wasting money on lessons. From the outside, it looks like a dead end.

Then, the patterns click. The years of exposure to rhythm and melody and muscle memory finally have somewhere to go.

In one case, a 16-year-old who had been taking lessons from her for eight years decided to buy a bass guitar.

He starts practicing for hours—not because anyone's pushing him, but because he's found his thing.

The takeaway isn't "force your kid to practice." It's closer to the opposite: if his parents had required practice to "earn" lessons, he might've quit before the breakthrough. Sometimes the click comes at 16, not 8. Don't quit during a normal lull.

Watch the full episode | See the clip on Instagram

TRENDS WE'RE FOLLOWING

Homeschooling Growth Isn't Slowing Down — 5.4% growth in 2024-2025, nearly 3x the pre-pandemic rate. Over 70% of parents now favor homeschooling. This isn't a COVID hangover. (Reason)

The Goal-Setting Method That Created Baseball's Greatest Player (And How Your Kid Can Use It) — At 18, Shohei Ohtani filled out a 64-square grid mapping exactly how he'd become the best. The Harada Method is the opposite of vision boards—systematic thinking about every factor, including the weird stuff. (Austin Scholar)

A Founder Started a Church to Run Her Microschool — Tara Famularo-Del Bianco kept hitting the same wall: "I was either being cornered into being a daycare or a private school." She said, "No- I'm neither of those." So she did what any reasonable person would do: she founded a church. The House of Natural Living gave her a religious exemption from state licensing requirements. The Magnolia Schoolhouse now serves 75 students. Kerry McDonald has the full story (Forbes).

AI Tutoring Works. But it Works Best With Humans in the Loop — Students using AI tutoring solved problems 66.2% vs 60.7% with humans alone. But AI worked best combined with human oversight—not as replacement. (The 74 Million)

72% of Teens Now Seek Emotional Support From AI — The current student-to-counselor ratio in American schools is 376:1. The recommended ratio is 250:1. Whether it's wise or not, kids are going where they can get a response. (Getting Smart)

"Parent-Curated Education" Is the New Homeschooling — Leo Linbeck III (who sounds like he should be commanding a Swedish cavalry regiment, but is actually a Houston-based engineer) offers the best analogy we've seen: raditional school = DirecTV bundle. Traditional homeschool = community theater. Today's version = Netflix + touring Broadway. Mom and Dad don't master every subject. They find the masters.  (Leo Linbeck, Substack)

So You Can Finish School in 2 Hours. Then What? — Alpha School promotes a "two-hour AI school day." The interesting question: what fills the remaining time? Huge opportunity—or huge vacuum.  (Getting Smart)

Homeschooling Success in Adulthood: The Data — 50% of peer-reviewed studies show homeschooled adults outperform institutionally schooled peers. Higher civic engagement, similar or higher college rates. No empirical evidence of negative outcomes. Zero. (NHERI)

TOOLS WE'RE BOOKMARKING

Free Complete Textbooks (K-12) — A whole library of free McGraw Hill and Collins textbook PDFs for grades 1-12 (mostly English, some math and science). Pairs well with a decent inkjet printer and the realization that you don't have to pay $200 for a curriculum spine. (Loads of Learning)

The Harada Method Template — The 64-square grid Shohei Ohtani used. The power isn't in having the perfect squares—it's in the cognitive load of generating them yourself. Forces you to think about your goal from angles you'd never consider otherwise. (Harada Method)

Hoffman Academy — Gamified, video-based piano instruction for reluctant practicers. One Reddit parent: "My daughter is doing this willingly after lots of struggles." (Reddit r/homeschool)

Practice Pie — A book that reframes practice from a chore into a "slice" of the day. Bonus strategy from the same Reddit thread: stop calling it "practice" and start calling it "piano time." Small language change, surprisingly large psychological shift. (Amazon)

iCreate Art Box — Monthly subscription that eliminates the midnight craft store runs. Everything arrives: supplies, instructions, video lessons. Designed by art educators with 16+ years of experience. OpenEd's Ashley Teerlink recommends it for the "I am not an art person" parent who still wants their kid to get real instruction. (OpenEd Staff Pick)

The Great Artist Program — Short lessons (30-45 min) combining artist biography with hands-on projects. The design assumption: you, the parent, are not an artist. Over a million students since 2003. Works for co-ops and multi-age families. OpenEd's Jen Johnson (curriculum team lead) endorses it. (OpenEd Staff Pick)

Creating a Masterpiece — The most-recommended video-based art curriculum across homeschool forums. Sharon Hofer has been teaching for three decades. Results are often "mantle-worthy"—the kind of thing you actually frame and hang, not refrigerator fodder. Works ages 5 through adult, but middle school is where it really shines. (OpenEd Staff Pick)

Chirri & Chirra Picture Books — Two girls on bicycles exploring whimsical worlds. Gorgeous watercolor illustrations by Kaya Doi. The Withy Weather newsletter calls them "the perfect blend of the fantastically impossible and the quiet everyday." Ages 1-11, especially for kids who love crafts and imaginative play. (Withy Weather)

Christmas Gift Ideas by Age — Cassie Shepherd's full breakdown of what she's actually buying her kids this year: Magic Puzzle and crochet kit for 12-year-old twins, Percy Jackson box set and architectural engineering kit for the 8-year-old, Echo Pop and Playmobil for the 6-year-old. Real family, real picks, no affiliate hype. (Home-Centered Learning)

The ChatGPT Resource Prompt — Leo Linbeck mentions that ChatGPT can generate 50 learning resources in 20 seconds. It can even customize the results. Try this prompt: "I'm looking for educational resources for my family. Location: [your city/state]. Kids' ages: [ages]. Current interests: [interests]. Please find me local co-ops, online courses, community classes, field trips, and tutors." Turn on “deep research mode in ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok, or Perplexity for best results. (OpenEd Daily)

Keeping Your Kid's English Strong While Abroad — A parent of a 5-year-old is trying to maintain English skills while homeschooling internationally. "She still hesitates when talking and sometimes mixes words from our other language." The thread has practical recommendations from families who've actually solved this problem. (Reddit r/homeschool)

ED'S STABLE: Top Searches in the OpenEd Marketplace:

1. KiwiCo — 101 searches. The subscription box that keeps showing up. Parents are hunting for hands-on STEM projects that arrive ready to go.
2. Math — 76 searches. Parents searching for everything from workbooks to games to full curricula that actually make numbers engaging.
3. Clubs — 76 searches. The quest for community and connection. From book clubs to coding clubs, families are looking for ways to learn together.
4. Minecraft — 50 searches. Because if you can't beat it, you might as well make it educational. From coding to history servers, parents are finding ways to turn screen time into learning time.

What are you searching for?

Explore the OpenEd Marketplace