Homeschool With Excellence

In this conversation, we explore what it looks like to move away from pressure and into a more grounded, relational way of homeschooling and living.This episode is a gentle invitation to slow down, trust yourself, and cultivate a home rooted not in performance—but in presence, peace, and connection.If you’ve ever felt like you’re not doing enough, or questioned whether you’re “doing it right,” this conversation offers a different way forward—one that begins from wholeness.⸻In this episode, we talk about: • Why the tone of your home matters more than the method • Moving away from pressure and into trust • Letting go of the need to “do homeschooling right” • The quiet strength of slowing down • Choosing connection over control⸻A few moments from the conversation:“Children feel who we are more than they hear what we say.”“What if you’re not behind… you’re just not meant to rush?”“You don’t have to become someone else to do this well.”“What if the most important thing in your home isn’t what you’re doing… but how it feels?”⸻Transcript (Excerpt):I think for a long time I believed that if I could just find the right way to do it… everything would fall into place. And what I’ve come to realize is that it’s actually less about doing it right, and more about being rooted in who I am while I’m doing it.That changes the whole atmosphere of a home. It changes how children experience learning, and honestly—it changes how I experience motherhood.⸻About the Podcast:Homeschool with Excellence is a space for women who desire a more grounded, connected way of learning and living at home. Through honest conversations and gentle perspective shifts, Esther invites you to move beyond pressure and into a way of life rooted in wholeness.⸻If this episode resonated with you, you can share it with a friend or leave a review—it helps this message reach more women who are ready for a different way 🤍

I’m so excited about this concept and continuing it consistently in my life. When we rest/play for 2&1/2 hours each day, our lives WILL drastically prosper. We become available to receive the divine downloads from heaven and as we act unhesitatingly and trustingly on those ideas, we make the BEST progress. In ways we couldn’t have imagined. There’s a ton of power in this concept. Be aware that in the beginning, you are going to feel resistance to it. “Is this actually doing anything for me?” “I need to get to work!” “Am I being lazy?” “This takes up all my time!” But that’s the time to hold steady! The true you knows it’s a powerful thing to do and as you continue it will get easier. Cheers to a growing you!!

Welcome! As we become more aware of what gives us energy and what drains it, we can make small tweaks over time that will drastically improve the quality of our experience with our homeschool.I hope this will help you to breathe a little more freely and find more joy each day. Know that YOUR journey has AAALLLL the elements in it to make it the best story ever.

Hello and welcome back! If you’d like a formula for saying goodbye to overwhelm/urgency/anxiety, listen in💖 It doesn’t happen overnight, but as one leans in to new mindsets and practices compassion for the part of you that can’t quite believe YET, the rewards are there all along the way. Your children won’t be able to thank you enough as adults, if you decide to do this work.

So many of us sincerely wish to be able to do more for freedom. Very often though we feel helpless and don’t know how to go about it effectively. That you are here at this point in time is not an accident; your specific heart/talent/skills are needed to bring healing and wholeness to the people around you. If you don’t do what your design is meant to accomplish, no one else will as effectively do it.We can’t do it from a place of immaturity though. We need to grow up on the inside and become mature and wise and loving. There is no way to do that without coming face to face with greatness- having a relationship with great people, great books, great art. In this episode are two examples of individuals who read deeply (with mentors who helped them read so deeply) and that gave them the backbone and wisdom and love to serve deeply and make a big impact. When we lead greatly in our own lives and families, it tends to be generational. Our children and grandchildren catch our values and our deep love for learning and contributing to the world around us and then they build even higher than we did. So cheers to our journey of read! read! read! and discuss a lot.

Welcome to Homeschool With Excellence! In this episode it’s all about attaining wholeness inside ourselves more frequently. Because when we can attain that on demand, we greatly increase our inspiration muscle as a teacher.And wherever there is an inspiring teacher teaching, great learning is happening.

PERFECT adj. 1. Brought to consummation or completeness; completed; not defective nor redundant; having all the qualities or properties requisite to its nature and kind; without flaw, fault, or blemish; without error; mature;whole; pure; sound; right; correct.Welcome to Homeschool With Excellence! When we know we CAN be perfect and how to be in that state, we can begin to build that skill, that muscle, that way of being, intentionally.We can allow the ways of being- that are not in harmony with that- to melt away. We can let go of what doesn’t serve us and reach for what will.

Here are some questions you might ask in these meetings:What are you excited about these days? 5+How are you doing playing with your siblings? 5+How are you doing in your education? 8+Is there anything that bothers you?Also I accidentally discovered a neat detail. If you have a barstool for your child to sit on while you sit on a regular chair, it elevates them a bit, and that feels really great!💖

Two homeschooling women discussing bringing love and light front and center in their homes. It was such a treat sitting with Kortni in person on her beautiful, old-fashioned, rust colored, comfy chairs with the sunshine streaming over us. The kids were all happily playing downstairs while we did our grown up thing🤩 Thank you for sharing your heart so beautifully with us, Kortni💖✨Also, I am hosting a 5 day challenge called Nourish to Power where I’ll be teaching a two step dance to this homeschool business. 1) How to live from calm and ease and confidence in one’s homeschool and 2) how to align one’s homeschool more fully with the way leaders throughout history have experienced education (which is literally what empowered them to do the great works they did- the understanding they received through their education).It’s all happening April 21-25, Monday through Friday from 2-3 pm EST. The way you can sign up is by sending me a DM on Facebook with your email address and I’ll get the details to you from there!You can find me quickly here https://facebook.com/esther.bontrager.5Or maybe that won’t be quick (if that link doesn’t take you there)😆 and you can look up Esther Bontrager and find me that way. Or leave a comment here!If you feel tugged to come, I am so delighted to have you join me for a mind shifting time✨🤩

Hi and welcome! It was fun considering some lessons that stood out for me from last year. I love getting older (I’m 37 and a half) and wiser because I get to move through life easier the wiser I get. And I’m all over that. And by the way, I gave myself full permission to not be putting episodes out regularly for a while now; I was living a rich and meaningful life and did not have it in me to also do this, so I didn’t.;) I’m getting better at listening to what feels right for me and carrying on that way.

Hello! Welcome back!Our home culture is up to us parents to build and steward and when something is not working well, it can feel like quite a load. Mostly, we are all constantly troubleshooting some area mentally, looking for solutions.This episode offers some practical ideas that have helped us in our home.All the best to you as you navigate your unique and special set of challenges in leading your family.

Hello! Welcome back! What does the Declaration of Independence have to do with homeschooling? As mothers we want to inspire our children to value and study the freedom documents in order to be equipped to stand firmly for liberty in their own unique way. And being able to stand firmly in their own unique way will demand courage and leadership, which will grow significantly as they understand the decisions and realities the Founding Fathers (and other heroes from history) faced in their time.

Welcome back! Scholar Phase is when a person studies the classics for 5-8 thousand hours-with a mentor’s help for at least part of that-and the ideal time for that season in one’s life is when one is a youth. When an individual gets a Scholar Phase, he has a great education and can build even more on it. When an individual doesn’t have a Scholar Phase, he doesn’t have a great education. One is definitely able to get a Scholar Phase later on in life and that is the call for a vast majority of us, since most of us were not successful in obtaining a true Scholar Phase at the ideal time of our lives. It is more difficult later on in life with all the other competing demands on our time, but if we do not obtain one, it is quite certain that neither will our children. Who is willing to reach for the prize? Who is willing to do the hard work to set a new culture for their children and grandchildren?

Hello! Today’s episode is all about skills #12-27 in parenting our beautiful 10-14 yo children, i.e. Keep reading aloud to them, Treat them like adults, Listen to them, Don’t get them “ahead” in life; relax… and more! Enjoy!

Welcome to Homeschool With Excellence! There’s a lot to be said for the importance of understanding when the ideal time is for certain lessons to be learned in a person’s life (aka Leadership Education The Phases of Learning). Is it ideal for a 6 yo to sit and labor over pages of math regularly? Or is it ideal for that 6 yo to be playing with magnatiles and tan grams and dice and hearing stories about the great mathematicians and seeing Mom and Dad reading and being excited about their math classic they’re reading? If you guessed the second scenario, bam! you nailed it;) Children learn differently than adults. It’s a delightful learning journey as a parent to discover how to best support them as they go through the different phases. Today we explore 5 skills we can implement in helping inspire our young up-and-comers as they transition toward Scholar Phase.

Welcome to Homeschool With Excellence! Enjoy this first set of 6 skills originally from Mel Lovine about how to parent well these young people in our homes. The link for Mentoring In The Classics that I refer to is learning.TJED.org.

Are you the parent of children these ages? Or of children who will be these ages? This season in a young person’s life determines whether they deeply learn the lessons of the conveyor belt path or the lessons of the leadership path. And… you guessed it: as parents, we are the ones who largely encourage one path or the other. There are beautiful things we can do to love our children well and empower them to continue on the leadership path. Join me in learning what transition to scholar is!

Welcome back! There’s a lot going on for our children when they are in their teen years. And there’s a lot we can do beforehand to prepare them to take advantage of those years. Those are the years that can be used to gain the knowledge and skills to then live their missions more fully and effectively as adults. We can put the odds in the favor of them being inspired to put in the work necessary to gain those by how we set up our family culture when they’re young. Cheers to you as you imagine and work towards what your ideal culture is!

Welcome to Homeschool With Excellence! Today I share a bit of my healing journey.. from growing up in a dysfunctional home to now being the mom of my own family. It’s been filled with rich experiences both sad and happy and lots of growing, and I appreciate all the beautiful souls who’ve supported me along the way. I wish you all the support you need as you navigate your own journey.

Welcome! Which curriculum best brings out the genius that is inherent in all of us? A deep question that deserves a deep answer.. Listen in to hear my thoughts on this very important topic.

Hello! Welcome to Homeschool With Excellence! Today’s conversation is around how we navigate screens in our home and what we prioritize for fun ahead of that. I’m sure there are many good ways of accomplishing this, and I hope you might find some element here that inspires you!

Hello! Welcome to Homeschool With Excellence! It is our choice as parents whether our children get schooling or an education. We build the environment. We are powerful. We set the example. Our children choose how they interact with and respond to their environment. They are powerful. When you look into your children’s eyes, what do you see? Do you see intelligence and beauty and genius? Yes!! What can we do to help them be equipped to live up to their potential? So many things, and this episode goes into one piece of it. Enjoy!

Welcome back to Homeschool With Excellence! When we reward our children with video games, we are actually elevating the video game culture. Is that really what we desire as parents? What if there’s a better way? What if we don’t have to give in to the pressure of this prevalent video game culture? We don’t! And this episode covers why and how. Find me on FB and ask for support!

Welcome back! We know our children are special. We know there’s a certain mission each one has and if they do it, it will enrich the lives of the people around them. But if they grow up being taught that their creativity gets them in trouble, that they need to wait to act until the ‘expert’ tells them what to do, or that their value depends on how other people perceive them, then we are not setting them up to live their mission. Missions are fulfilled by living in love, creativity, innovation, strength,etc. And these values are ‘caught’ early in life. We as the parents choose which values our children deeply learn. Choose well!

Welcome back to Homeschool With Excellence! Would you love to feel better every day? It is absolutely within your reach. All we need to do to begin is to enjoy the moment. To notice what your five senses are experiencing and to lean into that, to bask in it. And then repeat throughout your day. It makes new patterns in our brain when we do this intentionally every day; it opens new possibilities for us. Are you ready? Let’s go!

Welcome!! As you tune in to this episode, you will hear the antidote for the question from your child,”When will I ever use this?!” What if there was clarity in your homeschool about why it’s valuable on deep levels to study Math, English, Writing, etc. as a teen. What if you were able to introduce the stories of the heroes and heroines in these fields of study to your younger children. Would that affect their heart? Would they see the value these people brought? Would they be inspired? Would this sharing of stories set them up to study more deeply in their teens when their adult brain has come? Yes!! I believe so;) Enjoy!

What values do you have? Do you value being self-sufficient? Do you value reading the classics? Do you value learning and growing? Do you value service? It is super effective when we can course correct regularly to be more in alignment with our true values; our children will be the recipients of a higher level home culture- one where there is more harmony and meaning, great ideas are regularly discussed and inspired learning is happening. Young people are being prepared for their purpose in life.

Welcome back to Homeschool With Excellence! Today we talk about 4 more keys of great teaching. The reason these are so important is because whenever there is great teaching happening, there is also great learning happening! Enjoy;)

Welcome to Homeschool With Excellence! Where there is great teaching there is also great learning. Today’s topic is on 3 of the 7 keys of great teaching as taught by Oliver Demille in A Thomas Jefferson Education.. Enjoy!

Can you imagine a teen studying 8-10 hours a day and begging for more?! This happens. It is real. The ones who do it-LOVE it! And it’s exactly what launches them effectively into bright, purposeful adulthood.

Did you know that certain things are NOT yours to do as a parent/teacher? When we don’t understand what is ours to do and what is the child’s to do, it’s natural for us to try to do what is theirs and to become frustrated when it doesn’t work. In so doing we teach mediocre lessons rather than great ones. This episode teaches a few key things that are ours to do so that we can really deliver greatly as the parent/teacher and as we accomplish this, our children are empowered to learn greatly. The books that have helped me find so much inspiration around education are A Thomas Jefferson Education by Demille and Dumbing Us Down by Gatto; so good!! Enjoy;)

An invitation to participate in the discussion of how we can inspire our children to own their education. We can inspire them to study long, intense hours in their teen years because they understand they have a mission that helps people and they know they need to prepare for it. This process of inspiration begins when they are small. We will talk all things inspiring, understanding that excellence is the goal, not perfection. There is always room for human error. We can inspire our children to get a great education even though we make many mistakes along the way. Here we will talk about why and how and when and where!