Finding Strength and Connection Through Homeschooling | An Interview with Nicole Kardoes

Nicole Kardoes began homeschooling while her husband, Lieutenant Colonel Michael Kardoes, served in the Air Force. Frequent moves and long deployments were simply part of life, and homeschooling became a way to bring consistency to their ever- changing world. In 2022, Michael passed away from burn pit exposure. Homeschooling quickly became much more than an educational choice, it became a lifeline. Nicole and her children were given the gift of the flexibility and stability they needed to grieve, heal, and rebuild. In this episode, Nicole shares her story of love, loss, and resilience, and how the military homeschooling community and organizations like the Tunnel to Towers Foundation helped her family find hope and strength through it all. "Resiliency, being part of a community, academics—they all play a part in homeschooling. I have kids that are married with their master's degree, and they had scholarships all the way through. I have other kids that did community college. I have two that aren't sure they even want to go to college. (My 15-year-old wants to be a farrier, so she wants to go trade school.) There is room for all these things within homeschooling! Whether it's the kid who absolutely hates academics and they just want you to hurry up and count the credits and be done, [or] the kid who aspires for graduate school or maybe becoming a professor themselves someday and getting that PhD, there's room for [both]. That's the beautiful thing. We can tailor it to that while we are giving them other skills as well."—Nicole Kardoes