Meet our Coaches
Michelle Phillips
Michelle is a devoted mother of six children, whose ages span from preschool to early teens. With a decade of experience as a homeschool educator, she brings a wealth of knowledge and patience to her role. Alongside her parenting journey, Michelle navigates health-related challenges with one of her children. She is also a seasoned businesswoman, co-owning a construction business with her husband.
As an eclectic home educator, Michelle is diverse in her knowledge of curriculums. She has experience with unit studies, gather round curriculum which she adores for larger families such as hers. She has used online as well as curriculum sets including texts and workbook style. Her adventurous side also drives her to piece together curriculum components. Specific curriculum she is familiar with include ACE PACE, CTC Math, Teaching Textbooks, BJU, The Good and the Beautiful, Apologia, Notgrass, My Father’s World, Handwriting Without Tears, IEW, Abeka, Horizons, Lifepac. With each new bundle of joy added to the family, Michelle used a new curriculum, giving her a wide knowledge of curriculum. Michelle also values the abundant education her children get outside the use of textbooks through field trips, music, and sports.
Michelle wears many hats, managing both the marketing and online operations for her family business. She’s the go-to person for all the behind-the-scenes details that keep the business running smoothly. Outside of that, Michelle is passionate about fitness, teaching classes at Genesis Health Clubs. She also created Teen Turf Time, a program designed to boost movement, strength, and agility—vital in today’s world of sedentary lifestyles. In addition to her business and fitness pursuits, Michelle nurtures her love for the arts by teaching music lessons and sharing her appreciation for all things beautiful.
Her spiritual life is rooted in a deep love for God, and her love for others flows naturally from her Christian faith. With this foundation, she is excited to serve fellow moms as a guide, source of inspiration, and coach.
Michelle is passionate about helping others recognize their full potential. Her drive to succeed and thrive is something she loves to inspire in those around her. While determined, she also believes in embracing fun throughout the journey. Dreaming, planning, and setting goals ignite her spirit. Michelle’s mission is to empower fellow mom educators to weave their faith into their daily lives. She joyfully shares God’s provision with others, trusting that His plan for moms and kids is the ultimate source of peace and security. With her personal experience in navigating health challenges, Michelle could be the perfect fit for Peaceful Days coaching if you’re facing similar struggles. She’s excited to be your coach and support you on your journey!
My available times are weekdays, some evenings, and some weekends if my kids aren’t playing sports or games. Zoom calls or online are my meet-up method of choice. My preferred coaching packages are Monthly, Seasonal, or Big Plan.
Michel Harrington
Michel has been homeschooling for 24 years and is the mother of four children—three boys and one girl. Her sons have successfully pursued careers in diverse fields, including data analysis and consulting, business management and human resources, graphic design, and pre-seminary studies. Michel is currently homeschooling her daughter, who is approaching the final years of high school.
Michel has faced the typical challenges of homeschooling four children, while also gaining extensive experience supporting her children through unique physical and learning difficulties. One of her children struggled with speech delays, leading to stammering and slow reading progress—but today, this child is a passionate, avid reader. Another child faced significant challenges with eye tracking issues, making reading slow and frustrating, while also dealing with auditory processing difficulties. These struggles manifested in problems following multi-step instructions, retaining details and vocabulary, and understanding technical subjects like science. Additionally, this child experienced difficulties with spelling and was prone to processing overload, which sometimes led to meltdowns or shutdowns. Michel’s perseverance and dedication helped guide this child through these challenges, fostering progress despite their “stuck” processing moments.
Gravitating towards a Charlotte Mason-inspired approach to education, Michel incorporated a wealth of living books, living book textbooks, unit studies, and interest-driven projects, along with workbooks tailored to specific needs. She frequently adapted materials by blending multiple curricula and resources to enhance the strengths of each one. Her focus on efficiency allowed her to combine core subjects—such as Bible, history, science, and geography—whenever possible. Given the significant age gap between her children, Michel often customized lessons to cater to both her oldest and youngest, ensuring that each child’s learning experience was both enriching and adaptable.
Specific curriculums Michel is familiar with include Reading Made Easy, Scaredy Cat Reading, Drawn Into the Heart of Reading, Heart of Dakota, The Good and The Beautiful, All About Spelling, Sequential Spelling, TruthQuest History, Mystery of History, Dave Raymond’s History, Compass Classroom, Math U See, Life of Fred, CTC Math, Apologia, Rainbow Science, Analytical Grammar, Writing with Sharon Watson (& Literature), IEW, One Year Adventure Novel & Cover Story), Progeny Press, Total Language Plus, Center for Lit, Visual Latin, Lively Latin, Notgrass Economics. Michel has also navigated Metro classes and Dr. Jan Bedell & Brain Sprints, and Historical Conquest. Extra curricular activities her children were involved in include Band & Orchestra, Choir & Handbells, Theater, Basketball, Flag Football, Robotics, Toastmasters, and Omaha Homeschooling Graduation Classes.
Michel holds a degree in Communication Studies from Iowa State University, and is a planner and organizer at heart. Recently, she has started rewriting and selling educational products on Teachers Pay Teachers (TPT) and Homeschool Resource Center (HRC), many of which she originally created for her own children over the years. This journey has sparked the development of new skills and introduced Michel to a variety of technologies. She particularly loves the design process, often getting happily lost in it, and despite being old-school she learning plenty of new tricks! A self-starter with a never-ending stream of project ideas, often more than she can realistically complete, Michel thrives when she can channel her creativity into everything she does, whether it’s lesson planning, problem-solving, or tackling larger projects. Guiding all Michel does, is her faith in a God who loves her and chose her to be His.
Michel often joked that after homeschooling, she could transition into a career in advertising, given all the experience she gained pitching ideas to her kids to get their buy-in by reframing daunting tasks, reducing resistance, reinterpreting situations, or even coaxing them back from the brink of despair. Not to mention the marketing strategies she developed to keep them motivated through the long winter months!
Michel knows that homeschooling is not for the faint of heart, and setbacks are an essential part of the journey to success. Understanding this is crucial to maintain your composure along the way. She can relate to the challenges homeschool moms face because she has been through them all—the paradigm shifts in how we view education, the overwhelming clutter and chaos that invade your home and threaten your sanity, the struggles of balancing multiple ages, the complete meltdown of a school day (or week… or month!), the character issues (her and her children’s) that tug at heartstrings, and the mental fatigue of worrying over how to help everyone make progress when it feels like nothing is clicking.
She has walked that rocky path, and knows that despite these challenges—maybe even because of them—homeschool families can thrive. Her goal is to be a steady, encouraging presence that helps families move from feeling overwhelmed to feeling capable, focused, and confident in their homeschooling journey. She can help them clarify their bottom line, which makes decisions about curriculum and daily planning much simpler. Together, she can work with you to build systems and processes that align with your priorities, helping you to stay organized—not for the sake of a picture-perfect schedule, but so flexibility can arise in the moments it is needed knowing that your goals won’t be derailed when they need to pivot.
As with most moms, my availability is dependent upon my kids variant needs, but I can often work out availability on week days, evenings, and weekends.
I would prefer to conduct sessions in person in the beginning, if possible, but am open to zoom/online, or personalized mix of options.
Lisa
Lisa has been homeschooling for nearly 20 years. She has two daughters who are now graduated, pursuing further education and stepping into the workforce. At home, she has an older teenager focused on Powersports and Welding at Metro, while also cherishing the time spent teaching her 10-year-old.
Lisa follows a Charlotte Mason approach to education. Her focus is using books- Living Books as well as hands-on learning, and experiences. In moments of overwhelm, she tried to rely on Charlotte Mason online free lesson plans or purchased plans, but she always found herself tweaking them and wondering why she ever bothered to follow a rigid plan in the first place. Because of her many failures in trying , her approach is now more laid-back, focused on doing the best you can. Because of this, Lisa might not be the best resource for specific curriculum recommendations. However, if you’re interested in a Living Books education, she can offer plenty of advice and insights. When her children were younger, Lisa often wondered whether this approach could really work. It was a constant source of quiet stress and pressure, with only Charlotte Mason’s words reassuring her that it would all come together—and that she wouldn’t ruin her children in the process. Every day felt like a leap of faith. Now, with the benefit of experience, and the ability to use hindsight, Lisa can confidently say that a Living Books Charlotte Mason education truly works, and it offers a beautiful, rich way to learn.
Over the years, Lisa’s homeschooling style has evolved into a more flexible, “do-the-best-you-can” approach, which makes her uniquely equipped to support moms who are feeling overwhelmed or burnt out. When she first started homeschooling, Lisa tried to stick to an ideal schedule. But as every homeschooler knows, reality soon sets in, and you either adapt or risk losing your sanity. With her experience and practical mindset, Lisa can help you focus on what truly matters for your family and create a realistic plan to achieve it. If you find yourself overwhelmed, she can help you peel away the excess to find a way of life that is manageable.
Lisa has been a dedicated leader of the local Charlotte Mason Book Study for many years, guiding in-depth explorations of each of Charlotte Mason’s six volumes. She maintains a website where these volumes are available for reading. In addition, Lisa has authored curriculum, re-written and published a revised edition of Charlotte Mason’s Elementary Geography, and created a comprehensive set of teacher resources to accompany the new edition, titled Living Geography. Lisa also has contributed her time to the Omaha Homeschool Library for over a decade and housed the Used Curriculum Shop for several years.
In addition to her extensive homeschooling experience, Lisa is nearing the completion of her degree in Business and Behavioral Science from Liberty University. Her studies have focused on counseling, trauma care, and life coaching—fields that reflect the same diverse and holistic approach she brings to her homeschooling style. While trauma studies and life coaching may seem to be at opposite ends of the spectrum, Lisa has discovered that they complement each other beautifully. For exercise, Lisa cleans homes and offices. Before her journey into homeschooling, Lisa owned a gardening landscape business, which is the inspiration behind the “gardener” in her personal email and license plate. She is currently enrolled in a local Herbal Certification Course, driven by her deep passion for plants and natural living.
On a more personal note, Lisa’s journey has not been without its hardships. Life has dealt her family some heavy blows, and this has been the driving force behind her pursuit of trauma courses—seeking answers for her own healing. She has taken a Nervous System Certification Course and Yoga Teacher Training which both helped further her healing. If you find yourself facing crisis or trauma, Lisa deeply understands and is here to offer support. She has experienced the depths of severe depression and the unbearable heartache of profound grief. Her story is still unfolding, much like the ongoing story of trauma itself—something that never fully leaves us, but can change from deep darkness to a rainbow after the storm. Lisa believes that with purpose and time, we can stop the bleeding, calm our nervous system, overcome depression, strengthen our resolve, allow our wounds to heal with their inevitable scars, restore our physical health, learn the power of forgiveness, and ultimately find renewal in the love and care of God.
My available times vary according to the week. Late afternoons/early evenings often work along with many evenings and weekends. I can do zoom or meet in person if it is north of Dodge/90th to 120th area. I am able to do monthly, seasonal, big plan, or peaceful days coaching. Blessings on your homeschool journey.
