Happy Friday!

Last week, we asked OpenEd parents what you’d redo about your own education. The answers included:

(Several of you are still visibly mad about the taxes thing, and - fair.)

You can’t remake the past. But your kids’ education story is still a working draft - and notice that most of those regrets trace back to the same root: the system didn’t have the time or resources to meet you where you were.

This week’s deep dive is about 1:1 tutoring - the original meet-you-where-you-are technology. If your student ended the year behind in one particular subject, summer is the ideal window for what researchers call high-dosage tutoring: short, frequent sessions targeted to the areas needing the most help. We also review the latest AI tutoring apps to see if they live up to the hype.

Also in this issue: scenes from OpenEd in Oregon, a 250-word challenge for America’s 250th, special tools for summer learning, and the latest features from the Curricu.love app.

- Charlie (the OpenEd newsletter guy)

P.S. Applications for next Fall close July 1. OpenEd operates in 15 states (full list in the footer below) - start (or finish) yours at opened.co.

A mom in Indiana reached out to OpenEd last August. Her son had failed the state’s reading assessment three times, and she was “looking for some extra tutoring weekly or biweekly.”

We connected him with a tutor, who zeroed in on the specific skills he was missing. This spring, on his fourth try, he passed - and his mom reports he was as excited as anyone.

Education experts have known about the power of focused tutoring for decades. In 1984, researcher Benjamin Bloom found that the average one-on-one tutored student performs better than 98% of students taught in a conventional classroom. Einstein had a tutor. So did Bertrand Russell.

Everyone agrees tutoring is the closest thing education has to a silver bullet. But when one teacher is responsible for thirty kids and six subjects, where is the time for one-on-one attention?

An open education routes around the staffing problem entirely. When the schedule belongs to your family, a kid who is behind in one subject can spend a season catching up in that subject - dedicated attention, right where it’s needed.

We just gave our tutoring guide a major update: Tutoring for Homeschool: An Honest Assessment, now with a new section on when your kid needs a human, and when AI might do the trick.

The TL;DR:

What parents tell us about tutoring through OpenEd:

If you know a family whose kid is falling behind in the classroom, consider telling them about OpenEd. Next year could be the year they catch up where they need it most.

July 4, 2026 is America’s 250th birthday.

Here’s the summer assignment: have your kids write 250 words on the American ideal - what makes this country worth celebrating. You can submit their entries to this email with their essays any time before July 1! We’ll have more reminders between now and then, and we’ll feature the best ones in a special sestercentennial edition.

Kids lose about a month of academic progress over the summer, and the threshold for preventing it is lower than you’d think (Homeschool Boss).

A bucket of LEGO is a complete STEM curriculum if you hand it the right challenges - 24 ready-made ones here, written with neurodivergent kids in mind (Raising Lifelong Learners).

Months of learning in two weeks: the learning-sprint how-to lives in the free Open Education toolkit, along with the Open Education book by OpenEd founders Matt Bowman and Isaac Morehouse.

A free Montessori curriculum PDF for ages 3 to 6, from a mom 15 years into the method (The Natural Homeschool).

VIDEO: One homeschool mom’s case for a screen-free summer, made in 60 seconds (Treehouse Schoolhouse).

Our chess clubs run on ChessKid, and enrolled students get Gold accounts for the month - worth knowing if your kid is the type to study openings at the breakfast table (ChessKid).

This week we asked on Facebook: what’s your homeschool win this week? One mom: “He didn’t whine when I asked him to read aloud to me.” (Veterans know this is the real trophy.)

The rest of the thread includes a homeschool graduation, a parade float with a welded steel frame, and one mom whose entire answer was “It’s summer…” - read the full thread and add yours (Facebook).

Our first Central Oregon family event drew about 100 people to the Bend area - and went through 120 popsicles (who’s double dipping??). Lots of families met each other in person for the first time, and the ambassadors are already planning the next one.

And the verdict is in on our newsletter-name poll: a plurality of you said keep “The OpenEd Daily” even though it only sends 3x a week.

She almost quit homeschooling. Then she built a 300-student hybrid program. Wednesday’s episode with Becky Wilmoth, in three lines:

If it hits home, two companion reads: Eric Wearne’s jobs-to-be-done analysis of what families actually hire hybrid schools to do (Restarting School), and a former school principal watching his own teenager come alive after leaving high school (ClarifiEd).

A comic strip loosely inspired by this week’s Facebook poll:

Share your win, and let us know what you think of this edition.