Hey there,

New episode of Find Your Freaks is live today — Episode 31. It picks up where my conversation with Jen MacKinnon left off, and it's the real story behind Been There, Homeschooled That, the free summit I told you about earlier this week.

If you're like Abbie, my 12-year-old, you might be asking why I'd host a summit for a market I don't directly serve. In her words: "Mom… you never talk about homeschooling online; you're gonna mess up your algo."

So be it.

I discovered Jen's community years ago, back when I was working full-time at a university and quietly wondering if homeschooling my oldest was even possible.

Jen's the founder of Practical by Default and runs the Working Homeschool Mom Club — over 30,000 members now — and she's the reason I believed I could do both. My girls eventually went back to traditional school. But this spring, I found myself homeschooling again — my youngest, heading into middle school — and I went right back to places I frequented before, and to Dachelle McVey, who I met through Jen years ago and who's now also one of my closest collaborators.

And that's when I noticed something had shifted.

A new crop of "experts" has taken over the homeschool space with promises to help you keep your house clean, your family fed, and your kids blissfully compliant. When I looked closer, most of them have kids younger than mine. They haven't lived through the hard years yet — the resistant kid, the curriculum that looks perfect on paper and falls apart in week two, the quiet panic of wondering if any of it is working.

So I built this summit around one hard rule:

Every speaker has to have actually launched their homeschooled kids into the world. No exceptions.

I'm allergic to advice from people who haven't put in the reps — in homeschooling or anywhere else.

I'm not a homeschool expert. I'm a community-building dino. That's the whole reason I'm the one facilitating this instead of teaching it — I know how to find remarkable people, vet real experience, and build a space where different perspectives can coexist without anyone pretending there's one right way to do this.

Oh, and Find Your Freaks is the presenting sponsor of Day 2 — The Human Side — so if you've been listening to the show for a while, you'll recognize exactly the kind of conversation we're bringing to that day.

If you want the details:

1. Register for free: https://dinosummits.com/homeschool. The live event is Sept. 1-3, and you don't need a homeschooler in the house to get something out of it.
2. Become a promoting partner. Sign up at https://learn.tonyakubo.com/products/affiliates to earn a straightforward 40% commission on the paid upgrade.

Give Episode 31 a listen, too — it's got a lot more of this story than I could fit here.

Talk soon,

Tonya