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How to use this site without getting lost

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Updated February 19, 2026

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If you’ve landed here, you may be trying to make sense of learning as it’s unfolding in your home—through books, conversations, rabbit holes, seasonal rhythms, and the quiet noticing that doesn’t fit neatly into boxes.

This page is your orientation.

parMINDary is not a curriculum site and not a set of instructions. It is a way of seeing learning clearly, naming it honestly, and holding it with care. Everything here is organized to support that purpose.

What parMINDary Is Built For

parMINDary exists to help parents and caregivers:

  • Notice learning as it naturally happens
  • Use books and stories as starting points, not endpoints
  • Document growth without turning it into grades or pressure
  • Stay grounded in values while navigating real-world requirements

You will find reflections, examples, book-centered explorations, and tools for documentation. You will not find daily lesson plans or claims that one approach works for every family.

If you haven’t yet, it’s helpful to read the parMINDary Philosophy first. It explains the stance behind everything on this site.

The Four Pillar Pages

The site is organized around four pillars. Think of them as lenses rather than tracks. You can enter through any one of them.

1️⃣ parMINDary Philosophy

This pillar explains why this site exists and how to read it.

parMINDary Homeschool Philosophy Button

Here you’ll find:

  • The core stance: reading-led learning and child-led inquiry
  • The role of the adult as observer and documenter
  • Clear boundaries about what this site is—and is not

If something here resonates but feels hard to define, this pillar gives you the language.

2️⃣ Reading & Patterns

This pillar explores how repeated reading, noticing patterns, and revisiting ideas over time support deep learning.

Reading and Patterns Button

Posts here often focus on:

  • Pattern-seeking across stories, subjects, and seasons
  • Following a child’s recurring interests
  • Letting understanding build slowly rather than all at once

This is where you’ll see how reading becomes structure—without becoming rigid.

3️⃣ Learning Through Stories

Stories are not extras here. They are central.

Learning Through Stories Button

This pillar looks at how fiction, folklore, picture books, and narrative nonfiction open doors to:

  • Science and observation
  • History and culture
  • Ethics, empathy, and big questions

You’ll see examples of how a single story can connect to many areas of learning, depending on where curiosity leads.

4️⃣ Seasons & Culture

Learning does not happen in a vacuum.

Seasons and Culture Button

This pillar grounds learning in:

  • Seasonal rhythms
  • Cultural traditions
  • Place, time, and lived experience

Posts here often weave together books, activities, and conversations that reflect what is happening in the world right now—both locally and globally.

How Posts Are Organized

To make the site usable (and compliant with reporting requirements), posts are also organized by subject categories aligned with Washington State’s required areas of instruction.

These categories include:

A single post may live in one category while touching many subjects. Categories are organizational tools, not labels on a child’s learning.

Using Tags to Follow Interests

In addition to categories, posts are tagged by topic.

Tags reflect interests and themes such as:

  • nature
  • spring
  • mouse stories
  • space
  • patterns

Tags are the best way to follow a child’s curiosity across pillars and subjects. If your child is deep into one topic, tags let you see how that interest shows up in many forms.

If You Are Homeschooling in Washington State

This site acknowledges real-world requirements without letting them dominate learning.

The subject categories exist to help families:

  • See how learning maps onto required areas
  • Document learning clearly and honestly
  • Reduce anxiety around “coverage”

parMINDary does not replace legal guidance or required oversight. It supports thoughtful documentation and reflection.

How to Use This Site (Practically)

You might:

  • Start with a pillar that matches where your child’s interests are right now
  • Use tags to follow a theme across time
  • Read reflection posts to gain perspective rather than direction
  • Use parMINDary Tools to document your own observations

There is no correct path through this site.

One Last Note

If you find yourself thinking:

“We’re already doing something like this, but I didn’t have words for it.”

That’s the point.

parMINDary exists to help you name what you see—so you can trust it, document it, and respond thoughtfully.

When you’re ready, begin with the philosophy, or choose a pillar that feels alive right now.

Learning is already happening.
This site is here to help you notice.

Where to go next:

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