Former Educator Turned Homeschooling Mom Has Advice for Parents

By Lauren Rose Correa, July 10, 2025

Homeschool: Brianna Lombardo with her son

Are you trying to make important decisions about your children’s education? Perhaps you are wondering whether you want to do public school, Christian school, or even try homeschooling. What are the pros and cons? Which is the best path to take for your child? Can you possibly homeschool your children and maintain a high quality of education?

Brianna Lombardo is a former teacher who has recently made the decision to leave her job and homeschool her two children full-time. Her children have spent time both in Christian private school and homeschooling. Between this and her own educational experience, she has a lot of insight on the benefits of different types of schooling.

I hope you’ll enjoy this interview with Brianna, as we discuss her children’s educational journey, her reasons for homeschooling, and the pros and cons of Christian schooling. Hopefully it helps you as you make decisions about how to educate your kids!

Q: Tell me about your background with schooling.

I should start off by saying that I was homeschooled until I was about 15, so I have a familiarity with homeschooling. I had a really positive experience being homeschooled, but to be honest, I never thought I would find myself [doing it with my kids]. It was challenging enough trying to be a mom and teaching my kids to be physically healthy, mentally healthy, and emotionally healthy. I didn’t want to teach them how to read on top of all of that.

I’ve made like a complete 180 [to get to] where I am now. Those were my thoughts, pre-kids. Now my thought is that I want to do everything. I want to be their teacher. I like teaching them how to be physically healthy, emotionally healthy, mentally healthy, and I also want to have a lot of input on what they’re learning academically.

Q: What made you decide to pursue homeschooling for each kid?

My daughter has special needs. The traditional school setting just wasn’t working for her, and that’s kind of what is making us homeschool. But I also fell in love with the pace of homeschooling – the freedom, the flexibility, how you can individualize a curriculum for your child. They can pursue their interests, you can challenge them if they’re not being challenged, and you can meet them where they are lacking. It’s really beautiful.

Most homeschoolers that I know get done school by noon or 1pm, and then you can do whatever you want to do. You can be out in nature, you can be learning instruments, or you can be learning how to cook and just pursuing whatever interests they have.

The grind of traditional schooling just got way too exhausting. I was working too, so there came a point where I was like, “If I have to pack another lunch in the morning, I’m going to go crazy.” It’s really stressful trying to race out of the house. Sometimes you feel like you can’t meet your kids’ emotional needs when you have to be out of the house at 7am. You feel like you’re pushing off these teachable moments. With homeschooling, you can take the time to really be an involved, present, and available parent.

My daughter is nine, turning ten in a few months. She will be going into fifth grade. My son is seven. He will be going into second grade. When my daughter was preschool-aged, we joined a hybrid school. She went in-person on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and then she had at-home days. So, she was in a preschool setting for preschool. We did that until COVID. Kindergarten year was just after COVID. People were just starting to go back in person, and we decided to go back to the hybrid school. Then [starting in January of her kindergarten year], we sent her to Christian private school. We stayed at the Christian private school until she was halfway through third grade. We were forced to pull her out to homeschool because of her special needs.

When you have a kid who is neurodivergent, they have trouble emotionally regulating. [On top of that] she had some traumatic events that happened. Her best friend moved away, who was kind of an emotional anchor. Her teacher left halfway through the year for maternity leave. She really started to struggle with being in a classroom environment. Her struggles were not academic. We didn’t need any extra tutoring. She could read and write. She’s actually super gifted and has a really high IQ. It was just the social and emotional things [that she struggled with]. Once those were out of the picture, she’s completely thrived in homeschooling.

Watching my older daughter thrive with homeschooling pushed me to homeschool [both children]. My son will be doing his second-grade year through homeschooling. This year will be our first year fully homeschooling both children, and I’m actually super excited about it. Even though my son didn’t have any of the issues that my daughter did, the school day was really exhausting for him. And I honestly felt like he was missing out, because my daughter and I were off having these adventures, and he would be in school until 3pm.

Q: What are some of the pros and cons of sending your kid to Christian school?

For pros, if you’re looking for education that’s from a biblical worldview, then that’s great. [It’s great] if you’re looking for teachers that align with your values. There are lots of activities [available] that you don’t have to outsource.

One of the cons is that wherever there are people, there are problems. Is there less bullying in Christian school? Yes, but it’s still there. Another con is the schedule. The long school day is probably one of the biggest cons. Another con is sometimes not knowing what your kid is learning. Even with parent-teacher conferences and even though your kids are getting good grades, you don’t know everything that’s happening with them. Another con of Christian school is that it’s expensive.

Q: What are some of the pros and cons of homeschooling?

A pro is definitely the flexibility of the schedule and being able to meet your kids individually with what they need. There is a slower pace and more family time. For the curriculum, there’s a lot of options. I think for a lot of parents that want to homeschool, something that can be overwhelming is deciding which curriculum to use. One of the cons is that you have to outsource the extracurriculars. There’s so much available, but you just have to put in a little more planning.

A con of homeschooling is that you’re stuck with your kids all day. And that can be a pro and a con, depending on how you think about it. It’s definitely really challenging to be the sole person who is teaching your kids everything. But it can be really beautiful, and I think that’s what makes people want to homeschool.

Q: Can you tell me about the homeschooling curriculum you are planning to follow for each child?

We will be doing online school through Liberty Online Academy. We started this because we had to pull my daughter out halfway through the year, and it was the easiest transition. I really like it – I like that there’s a teacher who is grading, so I don’t have to keep track of grades. It’s accredited. You have the security of knowing that your kids are meeting the standards and learning what they should be learning at grade level. It’s also self-paced, which is really cool because we can finish early or stretch it out. Sometimes we’ll finish a whole week of language arts in one day. We can slow down when we need to. We can speed up when we need to. And that is really nice.

I’m a teacher, so I could plan a curriculum and lessons, but if I don’t have to, I’m not going to. I’m going to use that mental energy for other things. It’s funny that homeschooling has changed so much. When I was a kid, there was obviously no online school. The closest thing we had to online school was, and I’m dating myself here, but you would get videotapes in the mail. These days there are so many options out there. It’s super easy to homeschool now. There’s almost too much available!

Q: What advice would you give a parent who is making important decisions about how to educate their child?

My advice is that you don’t have to commit to anything for more than a year, or even half a year. Take it year by year. The second piece of advice I would give is to choose your challenge. Sending your kids to public school is a challenge. Sending your kids to private school is a challenge. Homeschooling your kids is a challenge. You just have to choose what your challenge is going to be. And if at the end of the night, when you’re exhausted, you can say that you’re still glad you’re doing this, then you know that you’ve made the right choice.

As an educational professional, I would say that curriculum doesn’t really matter so much in school as long as they have their confidence [and desire] to learn. Because once a child loses their [confidence] to think they can learn, that’s actually really dangerous, no matter what school you send them to. [The most important thing is that] your kid feels that they can learn and wants to learn; that’s going to serve them better in life.

Q: Is there anything you wish you would have known at the beginning of the journey?

I wish I would have had more confidence that I could homeschool. Sometimes I wonder whether if I would have homeschooled from the beginning, my daughter wouldn’t have had that traumatic experience with her teacher leaving. Would our lives be easier now? But hindsight is 20/20. We did the best that we could at the time. But I do wish I would have had more confidence in myself and that maybe we would have started homeschooling sooner. I honestly didn’t know that there was that good of an online school program. I think if I would have known that Liberty Online Academy existed, I would have probably started homeschooling around first grade.

Enjoyed This Interview?

We hope you enjoyed this interview with homeschool mom Brianna Lombardo! We regularly feature interviews with successful women from all vocations and walks of life. View the Featured Women category to read about other women!