KindlED | The Prenda Podcast

We talk with Mickey Revenaugh, co-founder of Connections Academy and author of Schools Out, about why families are walking away from one-size-fits-all schooling. We dig into microschools, homeschooling, unschooling, and what a future “portfolio” of education options could mean for kids’ learning and mental health. 

• the origin story of Connections Academy and what early online learning got right and wrong 
• what “unconventional education” includes and why the label “alternative” misses the point 
• how families mix models over time rather than choosing one path for 13 years 
• why many kids learn resilience and self-direction faster in multi-age environments 
• shifting demographics in homeschooling and why old stereotypes no longer fit 
• how the pandemic and culture-war pressures accelerate demand for flexible options 
• why some districts are piloting microschools to respond to declining enrollment 
• roadschooling and worldschooling as a lifestyle built on remote work and online tools 
• unschooling basics, de-schooling, and the role of community support for parents 
• a bold prediction that unconventional education reaches close to half of kids at some point 
About our guest
Mickey Revenaugh is an education innovator, thought-leader and journalist. She is the co-founder of Connections Academy, a ground-breaking K-12 online school provider that launched in 2001 and now serves more than 110,000 virtual school students around the world as part of Pearson. Prior to her retirement at the end of 2022, Mickey’s work focused on bringing emerging education opportunities such as Harrow School Online and Pearson Online Academy to families around the globe. Previously, Mickey helped launch the E-rate to wire every American school to the Internet, covered edtech and online learning for leading education publications, and was the editorial director of professional magazines at Scholastic. Mickey currently serves as Board Chair of Brooklyn Laboratory Charter School, winner of the $10M prize for innovative school design from XQ Institute, and also chairs the non-profit boards of Yellow Arrow Publishing and the Barbara J. Dreyer Cares Foundation.
Mickey earned a dual-genre MFA from Bennington College in 2017, and her creative nonfiction and fiction work has since appeared in publications as diverse as Chautauqua, LA Review of Books, and VICE. Mickey also holds a BA from Yale University and an MBA from New York University.
Connect with Mickey
Mickey Revenaugh
School's Out: Why Families Are Choosing Unconventional Education
Connections Academy
Got a story to share or question you want us to answer? Send us a message!
About the podcast
The KindlED Podcast explores the science of nurturing children's potential and creating empowering learning environments.

Powered by Prenda Microschools, each episode offers actionable insights to help you ignite your child's love of learning. We'll dive into evidence-based tools and techniques that kindle young learners' curiosity, motivation, and well-being.
Got a burning question?
We're all ears! If you have a question or topic you'd love our hosts to tackle, please send it to podcast@prenda.com. Let's dive into the conversation together!

Important links:
• Connect with us on social
• Get our free literacy curriculum
Interested in starting a microschool?
Prenda provides all the tools and support you need to start and run an amazing microschool. Create a free Prenda World account to start designing your future microschool today. More info at ➡️ Prenda.com or if you're ready to get going ➡️ Start My Microschool

We talk with Latham Turner about leaving a high-performing career to homeschool after watching his son’s love of reading collapse into daily tears and declining test scores. We trace the messy first months, the breakthroughs that follow, and why connection and agency can raise a child’s learning ceiling far beyond what school labels predict. 

• Latham’s path from naval aviation and test pilot work to full-time homeschooling 
• The warning signs at school, including morning crying and sliding standardized scores 
• The moment teachers admit they cannot teach his child’s profile 
• The first homeschool days, fear, missteps, and repairing trust after a meltdown 
• Project-based learning through building a real airplane together 
• Switching approaches when a rigid plan backfires 
• Learning Greek for real, finding the right tutor, and reading The Odyssey in original Greek 
• Connection, attachment, and the parent’s inner work as the unlock for learning 
• Balancing direct instruction with discovery learning and student agency 
• Using expertise research to think beyond grades and tests 
• Practical guidance for parents starting out, including trusting instincts and iterating 

About our guest
Latham Turner is a homeschooling dad working to create an education that allows his kids to advance the frontier of their potential. In the past, he was a Naval Aviator, developmental test pilot, quantum computing engineer, startup operator, and entrepreneur, but he left all of them to start homeschooling his two kids. He brings a focus on expertise studies and his experience mastering the domains he has into writing about education as a human potential problem.

Connect with Latham
Substack
Roots of Progress Institute Fellowship
Got a story to share or question you want us to answer? Send us a message!
About the podcast
The KindlED Podcast explores the science of nurturing children's potential and creating empowering learning environments.

Powered by Prenda Microschools, each episode offers actionable insights to help you ignite your child's love of learning. We'll dive into evidence-based tools and techniques that kindle young learners' curiosity, motivation, and well-being.
Got a burning question?
We're all ears! If you have a question or topic you'd love our hosts to tackle, please send it to podcast@prenda.com. Let's dive into the conversation together!

Important links:
• Connect with us on social
• Get our free literacy curriculum
Interested in starting a microschool?
Prenda provides all the tools and support you need to start and run an amazing microschool. Create a free Prenda World account to start designing your future microschool today. More info at ➡️ Prenda.com or if you're ready to get going ➡️ Start My Microschool
Got a story to share or question you want us to answer? Send us a message!
About the podcast
The KindlED Podcast explores the science of nurturing children's potential and creating empowering learning environments.

Powered by Prenda Microschools, each episode offers actionable insights to help you ignite your child's love of learning. We'll dive into evidence-based tools and techniques that kindle young learners' curiosity, motivation, and well-being.
Got a burning question?
We're all ears! If you have a question or topic you'd love our hosts to tackle, please send it to podcast@prenda.com. Let's dive into the conversation together!

Important links:
• Connect with us on social
• Get our free literacy curriculum
Interested in starting a microschool?
Prenda provides all the tools and support you need to start and run an amazing microschool. Create a free Prenda World account to start designing your future microschool today. More info at ➡️ Prenda.com or if you're ready to get going ➡️ Start My Microschool

We talk with Hannah Maruyama, founder of Degree Free, about why colleges don’t own education and why the “just go to college” default is failing many young adults. We break down how to plan a career path using real-life constraints, build skills through certifications and work, and decide when a degree is truly worth it.

• Hannah’s personal break with college culture and conformity
• The “escalator” model of schooling and why it shuts down curiosity
• Separating education from career training and the cost of confusing them
• Why many job “degree requirements” function as suggestions
• How targeted certifications can unlock remote tech roles
• The shift toward downcredentialing across industries
• Why common college ROI statistics can hide debt and distort outcomes
• The Degree Free Four filter: income, schedule, location, work environment
• “Try before you buy” through real work before paying for credentials
• Where to find Hannah’s workbooks and Degree Free support

About our guest
Hannah Maruyama is the founder of Degree Free and the author of The Degree Free Way. She built her own Degree Free career in AI and machine learning, and now helps parents and young adults think clearly about education, work, and career paths, especially when the old default of "just go to college" no longer fits.

Connect with Hannah
Degree Free
Hannah’s Books
Got a story to share or question you want us to answer? Send us a message!
About the podcast
The KindlED Podcast explores the science of nurturing children's potential and creating empowering learning environments.

Powered by Prenda Microschools, each episode offers actionable insights to help you ignite your child's love of learning. We'll dive into evidence-based tools and techniques that kindle young learners' curiosity, motivation, and well-being.
Got a burning question?
We're all ears! If you have a question or topic you'd love our hosts to tackle, please send it to podcast@prenda.com. Let's dive into the conversation together!

Important links:
• Connect with us on social
• Get our free literacy curriculum
Interested in starting a microschool?
Prenda provides all the tools and support you need to start and run an amazing microschool. Create a free Prenda World account to start designing your future microschool today. More info at ➡️ Prenda.com or if you're ready to get going ➡️ Start My Microschool

We celebrate Episode 100 by digging into Kaity’s first year guiding a home microschool and what it teaches us about building belonging, agency, and high expectations. The big takeaway is that connection comes first, then kids can take on ambitious goals and grow into capable, self-governing learners.

• celebrating Episode 100 and thanking guests, listeners, and the people who kindle learning 
• Kaity’s KindlED shout-out to her mom and what lifelong learning looks like in real life 
• why Kaity chose to start a microschool despite already training guides at Prenda 
• designing the Wonder League culture so middle school feels safe and welcoming 
• using simple rituals and messages to reinforce belonging and community norms 
• guiding vs teaching and the “Mario Kart cloud guy” model for getting kids back on track 
• balancing agency with boundaries so self-directed learning stays productive 
• “start with heart” as the foundation for academics, behavior, and motivation 
• setting ambitious but doable goals and recalculating plans together as a class 
• coaching social skills, optimism, and civil debate through modeling and reflection 
• piloting Prenda high school ideas to keep learning relevant and engaging
Got a story to share or question you want us to answer? Send us a message!
About the podcast
The KindlED Podcast explores the science of nurturing children's potential and creating empowering learning environments.

Powered by Prenda Microschools, each episode offers actionable insights to help you ignite your child's love of learning. We'll dive into evidence-based tools and techniques that kindle young learners' curiosity, motivation, and well-being.
Got a burning question?
We're all ears! If you have a question or topic you'd love our hosts to tackle, please send it to podcast@prenda.com. Let's dive into the conversation together!

Important links:
• Connect with us on social
• Get our free literacy curriculum
Interested in starting a microschool?
Prenda provides all the tools and support you need to start and run an amazing microschool. Create a free Prenda World account to start designing your future microschool today. More info at ➡️ Prenda.com or if you're ready to get going ➡️ Start My Microschool

We draw a hard line between tweaking the school system and transforming it, starting with one idea: parents should hold the decision rights for their child’s education. We also test the biggest critiques of school choice against polling, program data, and real parent experiences with flexibility and accountability.
• why “reform” misses the real problem and why transformation fits the moment 
• what education freedom means in practice and how decision rights have flipped since COVID 
• why families say they want different schools rather than “better” versions of the same model 
• how microschools and homeschooling are growing and what customization makes possible 
• what parents tell pollsters they want most and the size of the flexibility gap 
• where ESAs and school choice policy are expanding across states and what demand looks like 
• how to respond to claims about bankrupting public schools, fraud, waste, and accountability 
• why switching schools can be stronger accountability than test-based systems 
About our guest
Matt Frendewey is the vice president of strategy at yes. every kid. Matt has over two decades of experience in strategic communications, which includes working as a senior advisor to the U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, and Gov. Jeb Bush at Foundation for Excellence in Education. A Michigan native, Matt spent eight years working for the Michigan Department of Attorney General, and has held various roles in both gubernatorial and presidential campaigns. Matt resides in Washington, D.C. with Jenn and their two dogs, and remains a loyal Detroit Tigers fan.
Connect with Matt
yes. every kid.
Matt’s substack
Got a story to share or question you want us to answer? Send us a message!
About the podcast
The KindlED Podcast explores the science of nurturing children's potential and creating empowering learning environments.

Powered by Prenda Microschools, each episode offers actionable insights to help you ignite your child's love of learning. We'll dive into evidence-based tools and techniques that kindle young learners' curiosity, motivation, and well-being.
Got a burning question?
We're all ears! If you have a question or topic you'd love our hosts to tackle, please send it to podcast@prenda.com. Let's dive into the conversation together!

Important links:
• Connect with us on social
• Get our free literacy curriculum
Interested in starting a microschool?
Prenda provides all the tools and support you need to start and run an amazing microschool. Create a free Prenda World account to start designing your future microschool today. More info at ➡️ Prenda.com or if you're ready to get going ➡️ Start My Microschool