Back in 1986, my mother, Dr. Cristy Uhl, wrote a book that flipped the homeschooling world on its head. Titled Teaching and Learning Made Simple, this manual didn’t just rattle the cage, it broke it wide open. And let me tell you, everything she laid out in that book is just as relevant today as it was back then, maybe more so.
Mother wasn’t a theorist. She was a doer. She held a BA, MA, and a PhD, and had run her own Supplemental School for years. I watched firsthand how she worked with little ones, some as young as three, and turned ’em into sharp, independent thinkers by the time they hit six. I’m not talking about just parroting back facts. I’m talking about kids who could read, write, question everything, and solve problems like mini-scientists.
The Golden Window
Mother discovered what she called the “golden window” that age between three and five when a child’s mind is like a sponge in a rainstorm. They want to learn. Not because someone makes them, but because deep down, nature designed ’em to catch up to the tribe, to be useful. If you can reach ’em during this window, before the system teaches ’em to sit still and shut up, you’ve got a rocket on your hands. And if you keep it simple, like Mother always said, they’ll shoot straight past the third-grade level before ever stepping foot in a first-grade classroom.
Imagine your five-year-old showing you how to subtract fractions or do short division. I saw it myself. In Mother’s school, most kids hit that mark in 13 weeks. Some did it even sooner. And the best part? No forced memorization. No soul-killing busywork. Just natural, flowing curiosity supported by the simplest tools that most everyone has already.
The Method That Works for Everyone
Her method wasn’t just for kids. I saw adults who struggled with reading and writing start reading books and writing letters in just a few months. Why? Because the way Mother taught didn’t rely on rote memorization or high-pressure drills. She made it fun, she made it real, and she made it natural. The body learns when the nerve system is open and engaged. And that’s exactly what her method does.
You want results? Here’s what second graders could do at her school: add, subtract, and multiply big numbers, divide any kind of fraction, and teach you how to do it. Third graders? They were already tackling algebra, including factoring and word problems. Not bad for a little family-style schoolhouse, huh?
The Time Myth
These days, I’m hearing from new homeschool parents all the time. One fella on X, Brett Pike (@ClassicLearner), nailed it when he said, “New homeschool parents are shocked when they discover how little time it takes to get through what public schools consider to be eight hours of work.”
He’s dead right. Bureaucracy, crowd control, and all the ideological nonsense in government-run schools drag the day out, turning learning into a crawl. Meanwhile, homeschoolers cruise through the real stuff in just a couple of hours a day, and they retain it because they dug it out themselves as part of their day’s fun.
The Results Speak for Themselves
According to the HSLDA, homeschoolers consistently score 15 to 30 percentile points higher than their public school counterparts, no matter what their parents’ income or education level is. And when it comes to SATs, ACTs, or Iowa Tests, homeschoolers keep wiping the floor. They’re out here scoring in the 77th percentile or better while public school averages hang around the 50th. And these are average homeschoolers, not the elite.
Even the Heritage Foundation laid it out: homeschoolers’ median scores hover in the 70th to 80th percentile. Black homeschoolers in particular showed massive gains over their public school peers. That tells you something big; homeschooling works across the board, no matter your background.
And I’ll tell you this much: it’s not because homeschoolers are spoon-fed answers or live in bubbles. Quite the opposite. They’re taught to think, to question, to explore. No woke distractions. No social-engineering sessions. Just learning rooted in values, logic, and good old-fashioned curiosity.
Build Brighter Futures at Home
Public education is collapsing under its own weight. But homeschooling? It’s rising. It’s faster. It’s smarter. It’s freedom.
So if you’re thinking about giving your kids the gift of real education, Mother’s book Teaching and Learning Made Simple is where to start. Whether you’re teaching toddlers, teens, or even yourself, this method cuts straight to the marrow. It teaches you how to learn. Not what to memorize.
And if you ask me, we need more of that in this world.
Hurrah for real do-it-yourself learning… It lasts.