Winter can be a hard season for homeschooling parents...

Especially if you are raising neurodivergent kids while navigating burnout, nervous system exhaustion, and the pressure to “reset.”

In this episode, we explore how watercolor can support nervous system regulation, deschooling, and gentle self-care in real life.

Meet artist and unschooling parent Cyrielle Tignard to talk about releasing perfectionism, creating with interruptions, and giving yourself permission to pause, play, and care for your own nervous system alongside your child’s.

• Watercolor as nervous system regulation and burnout recovery

• Deschooling as a practice of process, not performance

• Parenting and learning alongside neurodivergent children

• Letting go of perfection and trusting growth beneath the surface

• Why creative self-care matters in homeschooling families

• Free 3-Day Introduction to Watercolor Mini Course (Cyrielle Tignard) Learn basic techniques, color mixing, and complete a small project

• Day In The Life Community (DITL) Supportive community for homeschooling parents focused on nervous system safety and living well

• Private Coaching with Kelly Edwards Deschooling support, nervous system healing, and sustainable homeschooling (Limited availability)

If this episode met you where you are, please rate and review The 90-Minute School Day. Your reviews help other homeschooling parents find support and encouragement. Thank you!

Let's explore how boundaries and belonging work together to create safety, connection, and authenticity in our families. Especially for those of us parenting and home educating neurodivergent and PDA children who need spaciousness, autonomy, and felt-safety to thrive and learn.

Rachel Rainbolt is a therapist, unschooling mother, family guide, and founder of Sage Family. In this episode, Rachel shares grounded, practical tools for navigating real-life relationship dynamics during an emotionally complex season. With her warm, compassionate wisdom, she helps us understand boundaries not as lines drawn to control others, but as choices we make to care for ourselves while staying connected.

Together, we talk through:

• What it actually means to set boundaries—and why these are more effective, nervous-system-safe, and sustainable than requests focused on changing someone else.
• The Venn Diagram of Needs as a way to reduce conflict, increase collaboration, and honor everyone’s humanity.
• Accepting people as they are so we stop fighting reality and start navigating relationships with clarity and compassion.
• Responding to words at face value to reduce anxiety, avoid mind-reading, and create more emotional safety for children and adults alike.
• Navigating gatherings, expectations, and complicated family systems—and how to prepare yourself, your kids, and your boundaries for a season that often comes with heightened sensory, emotional, and relational demands.
• Co-regulation and hard conversations in families recovering from burnout, especially within PDA profiles where pressure, demands, and social scripts can feel overwhelming.
• Belonging as celebration—how to create a family culture where every person is welcomed as themselves, not molded into someone else’s comfort.

This is a gentle, insightful guide for moving through the next season with more clarity, compassion, and confidence.

Connect with Rachel Rainbolt

• Website: sagefamily.com
• Instagram:@rachelrainbolt

Connect with Kelly + The 90-Minute School Day

• Invite me to Day In The Life Community
• Subscribe to the 90-Minute School Day Newsletter
• Learn more about our Guide Training™ Program

Taking a Break — Recommended Episodes to Revisit

As we take a holiday break from releasing new podcast episodes, now is an ideal time to revisit or check out a few favorites that align beautifully with today’s themes of boundaries, belonging, connection, and preparing for the season ahead:

• Episode 11: “Play, Homeschool & Holiday Hooky” — A refreshing take on how to lean into play and freedom during the holidays instead of stress and obligation.
• Episode 12: “Chaos to Clarity: The Craft of Personal Retreats” — Dive into the power of stepping away, re-centering, and returning to your family and season with greater calm and intentionality.
• Episode 30: “Boundaries 101: Raising Confident Learners with Liana Francisco” — A rich discussion on boundaries in the unschooling context—what they support, how they protect, and how they set the stage for confident, self-directed learners and families.

The conclusion of the “Start Where You Are” series

Dive deep with us into the idea that conventional schools might be contributing to the very struggles many people associate with dyslexia.

This bonus episode originally aired as Episode 38, and we’re bringing it back as the perfect conclusion to our 5-part “Start Where You Are” series (Episodes 48–52). After exploring grief, the joy of slow, learning readiness, math, and writing, this conversation invites you to rethink reading and the ways schools impact children’s learning.

I’m joined by Je’anna Clements, an advocate for self-directed learning and a dyslexic learner herself, to discuss her eye-opening perspective on DYSlexia (school-created) vs. dyslexia (a neurotype).

Je’anna explains how conventional interventions often offer “helpful harm,” leading to poorer outcomes than self-directed educational approaches for dyslexic learners. She shares how shifting our perspective allows all children to thrive in ways that truly honor their unique needs. We also explore the powerful connections between felt-safety, self-determination theory, flow in learning, and consent—and how these elements are key to fostering meaningful, lifelong learning.

We dive into the idea of “inherent wisdom”—the concept that children already possess what they need to find their own learning solutions. Je’anna shares how self-directed learning, rooted in trust and understanding, helps children mature in their own ways—especially those who’ve been labeled as “dyslexic.”

This conversation challenges conventional educational norms and invites you to rethink learning, reading, and the holistic development and respect of children.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• The difference between DYSlexia (school-created) and dyslexia (a neurotype)

• Why some common reading interventions might actually be harmful

• How felt-safety, self-determination, and flow impact learning

• The role of consent in a child’s learning process

• The importance of connecting learning to a child’s innate interests and curiosity

• Why trusting your child’s natural learning process can be the key to thriving in home education

Connect with Je’Anna:

• Website and her books
• Patreon and mini-courses
• Horizontal Communication
• Rights-Centric Education
• LinkedIn

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• What if School Creates Dyslexia? By Je’anna Clements
• Free to Learn by Peter Gray
• Successful Illiterate Men study by Roger A. Clark
• The Art of Receiving and Giving: the Wheel of Consent by Betty Marin

Join the Conversation! This episode is a peek inside our Day in the Life community, where parents support one another in self-directed learning and explore homeschooling through play, flow, and nervous system safety.

🎉Doors are open now! (Thru Nov. 4th)🎉

Want to join us for support, connection, and more conversations like this? 👉 Learn more at 90minuteschoolday.com/day-in-the-life/.

Listen to the other episodes in the “Starting Where You Are” series:

• Part 1: What Grief Has to Teach Us with Emily Souder
• Part 2: Falling Behind is a Myth with Leslie Martino
• Part 3: Body Before Brain: Unlock Learning with Sarah Collins
• Part 4: What If Math Wasn’t The Problem with Sue Patterson
• Part 5: Becoming Brave Writers with Julie Bogart