Why I Ask Educators To Review My Homeschool And Classroom Resources (And Why It Matters For Your Kid)
Last Tuesday, I sat at a rickety folding table in the back of a local coffee shop, surrounded by half-empty oat milk lattes, a crumpled bag of Goldfish crackers passed between four elementary school teachers, and a stack of my newly printed 4th grade decimal practice worksheets. I’d made them after my own 4th grader came home frustrated last month, saying all his textbook problems were either mind-numbingly easy or skipped three steps he still hadn’t mastered. When I laid the stack out, a first-year teacher leaned forward and said, “Wait, you actually have other teachers test these before you sell them? I just buy whatever’s cheap on TpT and cross my fingers.”
Three years ago, I quit full-time 4th grade teaching after my oldest son was diagnosed with dyslexia. We shifted to part-time homeschool, and I quickly ran into the same problem I’d had when I was in the classroom: most resources looked great in the previews, with fancy borders and trendy graphics, but they fell apart the second you put them in front of actual kids. The phonics packs I tried were so rigidly scripted I couldn’t pause to re-explain a sound when my son had a foggy day. The math worksheets had word problems about yacht trips and country club golf that my kids had zero context for. I ended up making my own, and when other parents at our co-op started asking for copies, I decided to list them online.
I remembered all the weekends I wasted as a classroom teacher printing, laminating, and prepping resources that ended up in the trash because they didn’t work. One year I bought a $25 main idea packet where every passage was about snow skiing. Half my students lived in a district where 70% qualified for free lunch, and less than a handful had ever been skiing. They couldn’t answer the comprehension questions not because they didn’t get main idea, but because they didn’t know what a ski lift was. I didn’t want anyone else to waste that time or money, so I started sending every draft I make to current classroom teachers and homeschool co-op leaders to test and review before I publish.
My first phonics resource went to three first grade teachers in my old district. One emailed me back a week in saying the font I’d used was 12 point, and half her class had visual processing issues that made anything smaller than 14 point too blurry to read. I’d been teaching 10 years and I still missed that. I adjusted the font, added an option for even larger text for intervention groups, and that’s been one of the most common compliments I get from parents of kids with dyslexia ever since. Another reviewer, a kindergarten teacher, told me the original cut-and-paste CVC activity I made used too much paper and glue for her classroom, which only got a $100 supply budget for the whole year. I added a no-cut, laminate-and-use dry erase version that’s now the most popular download of that set.
This isn’t just my little quirk, it matters for anyone looking for resources for their kid or class. Most resource creators don’t do this. A lot of resources you find online are put together in a weekend by people who haven’t been in a classroom in a decade, or never have. They look good, but they don’t account for the small, messy, real things that make a resource work for kids: the kid who can’t process small text, the class that doesn’t share the same background knowledge as the creator, the teacher who can’t afford extra glue sticks.
If you’re a teacher or parent looking for a new resource, there are three small things you can check before you buy. First, see if the creator mentions if it was reviewed by current educators. If they don’t, that’s a red flag. Second, if there’s a free preview, print the first two pages and try them with the kid or group that struggles the most before you buy the whole thing. If the font is too small, or the wording is confusing, you’ll catch it before you waste money. Third, if you’re not sure, send the link to your kid’s current or former teacher. Most are happy to take a two-minute look and tell you if it’s going to work, because we’ve all wasted enough time on bad resources ourselves.
Last year, I had a 3rd grade teacher review my multiplication word problem set. She pointed out that almost all my problems referenced things like “your new puppy” or “your trip to the amusement park.” A third of her students live in the local homeless shelter, and most have never had a pet or gone to an amusement park. I thought I was writing relatable problems, but I was writing for the suburban kids I taught 10 years ago. I rewrote half the problems to be about counting apples at the community food bank, helping count change at the corner bodega after school, sharing snack with your friends at the shelter. It was a small change, but that set now works for way more kids than it did before, all because a practicing educator caught what I missed.
I still get a little nervous waiting for reviewer feedback, honestly. Sometimes I spend weeks putting something together, only to hear that the whole skill progression is off. But that’s exactly why I ask for the feedback. I’m not in a full-time classroom anymore, and I only have two kids of my own. I can’t possibly see every gap or problem that will come up when 20 different kids with 20 different needs use the resource.
Right now, I have a new social-emotional learning resource for K-2 sitting with five different kindergarten teachers across the country. I’m waiting for their notes, and I know at least two of them will point out something I never thought of. That’s the point—you can’t know how a resource works until you use it with real kids, every day, in all the messy chaos of a real classroom or home. I still make mistakes, and there will always be something I miss. I just want my resources to work as well for the kid who struggles with fine motor, the kid who doesn’t have the same life experiences as everyone else, and the teacher or parent who doesn’t have time to rewrite half of it before they can use it. If you’re an educator who likes testing new materials and telling creators what’s what, I always have open reviewer spots. All you get is a free copy, and all I ask is that you tell me the truth.
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