How I Use ChatGPT in Our Homeschool (Without Letting My Child Use AI)

I use ChatGPT a lot in our homeschool. And when I say a lot, I mean it has basically become my homeschool administrative assistant.

It helps me plan our weeks. It creates my son’s daily checklists. It helps update our Daily Dashboard. It researches curriculum. It finds resources and activities. It keeps an eye out for interesting astronomy news. It helps me brainstorm when something we’re doing clearly is NOT working.

But here’s the part that may surprise you: I don’t let my son use ChatGPT at all. And I don’t plan to anytime soon.

I don’t use ChatGPT to homeschool my child. I use it to help me homeschool my child.

There’s a pretty big difference.

The Part of Homeschooling I Wasn’t Prepared For

Before we started homeschooling, I knew I was going to have to plan lessons. I don’t think I fully appreciated just how much time I could spend planning those lessons.

I would go through every curriculum and figure out our pacing. Then I needed to update my lesson planning spreadsheet. Then I needed to take that information and create a daily checklist for my son because he LOVES a checklist. And because I prefer to keep physical records rather than having everything stored on a computer, I needed all of this organized in a way I could print and keep.

It took forever.

And I should probably explain something about myself here. I am a planner. I am also an obsessive researcher by nature. I can research something for hours. Or days. Or weeks.

I will research it into the ground.

Some homeschool parents seem perfectly capable of waking up in the morning, pulling some books off the shelf and seeing where the day takes them. That is wonderful.

I am not one of those people.

I need a plan. I need a schedule. I need to know what we’re doing. Having that structure is part of what helps me stay consistent with homeschooling. Unfortunately, I can also spend so much time creating the plan that planning homeschool starts becoming a part-time job.

That’s where ChatGPT has made an enormous difference for me.

I Actually Started Using ChatGPT for School Before We Homeschooled

One of the first times I realized how useful ChatGPT could be for education was when my son was still in public school.

I would help him with math homework, and sometimes I could not explain something the way his teacher was teaching it. Hello. Millennial here. (Although I’m right on the cusp of Gen X.) Math is NOT taught the same way it was when I was in school.

I knew how to get the answer. That wasn’t necessarily the problem. The problem was explaining how to get the answer using the method he was being taught at school—and then explaining that method in a way that made sense to him.

Before ChatGPT, I would hunt around YouTube trying to find someone teaching that particular concept the way his school was teaching it. Then I figured out I could take a picture of the actual math problem and give it to ChatGPT.

I could say, essentially, “Explain this to a 9-year-old in fourth grade using the method they’re being taught in school, and explain it in a way he can understand.”

Game changer.

Instead of hunting for a video that might explain the exact thing we were stuck on, I could get help with the exact problem sitting in front of us.

That was probably my first glimpse of how I would eventually use ChatGPT in our homeschool.

Then I Realized How Much Research It Could Do for Me

When we decided to homeschool, I researched curriculum. Of course I did. Remember the obsessive researcher thing?

Except instead of me opening 27 browser tabs and spending three nights comparing programs, I started asking ChatGPT to help me research them.

And this is an important distinction: I wasn’t asking ChatGPT to choose my son’s education for me. I was asking it to do research I would otherwise have done myself.

I could give it several curricula I was considering and ask it to compare them based on the things that mattered to us. I could ask questions, have it pull information together into something much easier to digest, and ask for source links so I could go look at the information myself.

That cut down my research time considerably.

Eventually, ChatGPT Became My Homeschool Administrative Assistant

This is probably the biggest way I use it now.

Apparently, I use ChatGPT for more homeschool things than I realized until I started listing them. 😂 Reading all of this in one place probably makes it sound like I have ChatGPT open every second of our homeschool day. I don’t.

A lot of these things take me a few seconds. Some are one-time projects. Some I only use when we’re stuck on something. Some are scheduled searches that run without me doing anything at all. And some are tasks I want to make even faster. My goal with weekly planning, for example, isn’t to spend half an hour chatting back and forth with ChatGPT about what we should do next week. I want to tell it where we are, have it look at our schedule, create the plan in the format I’ve already established, add it to my lesson-planning spreadsheet, and be done.

That’s really the whole point for me. I don’t want using AI to become another job I have to manage. I want to spend less time planning, researching, formatting, copying things from one place to another, and updating spreadsheets so I can spend more time actually homeschooling my child.

During our actual school day, I’m teaching Liam. ChatGPT is mostly doing work around the edges—the things I was already doing myself, only faster.

I realized that I didn’t just need help researching. I needed to automate some of the repetitive work that was eating up so much of my time.

I established the pacing for each of my son’s subjects and created the lesson-planning format I wanted to use. Once I had those pieces in place, I gave ChatGPT that information and showed it how I wanted everything organized.

Now it can use the pacing I’ve established and my format to help create my lesson plans. From there, it can create my son’s daily checklists.

I also created a Daily Dashboard for him with his schedule and links for each day, along with some things I thought he’d enjoy, like a joke and an interesting “Wait…What?” fact. ChatGPT can help me update that for the entire week in just a few seconds.

I’ve also set up recurring searches for interesting things happening in astronomy because science is his favorite subject. Instead of me having to remember to regularly search for space news, ChatGPT can check for me. I have another recurring search for possible outings and field trips.

It can even take our calendar into consideration when I’m planning so that if we have appointments or an unusually busy day, I don’t necessarily schedule our heaviest homeschool day then.

There are still things I have to do manually, but they’re minimal. They’re doable. And that has changed homeschooling for me considerably.

Okay, But How Do You Actually Get ChatGPT to Do All of That?

This is something I didn’t really understand when I started using ChatGPT.

For the most part, I just told it what I wanted to accomplish.

I didn’t know how to set up an automated search for astronomy news. In fact, I didn’t even realize that was something ChatGPT could do until it suggested it.

So if there’s something you’re doing over and over again, ask.

You could say, “Every week, I want you to look for interesting astronomy news that might be worth sharing with my sixth grader.” Or, “Once a week, find homeschool events and possible field trips in my area.”

You don’t need to know the technical term for what you’re trying to create. Explain what you’re doing now, what’s taking too much of your time and what you wish could happen instead. If ChatGPT has a feature that can help, it can walk you through what’s available.

The same thing applies to connecting other tools.

For my lesson planning, I use Google Drive. I already had the lesson-plan template I wanted, so I didn’t ask ChatGPT to invent my system. I connected the account where I keep my homeschool files and instructed it to follow the format I had already created.

I also use Canva for my son’s Daily Dashboard. Again, I can tell ChatGPT what I’m trying to accomplish and have it help me connect to the tools it can work with.

One thing I would personally recommend: I would not connect your primary Google account.

I created a Google account specifically for homeschool. That’s where I keep the homeschool files I want ChatGPT to work with. I’m much more comfortable connecting an account devoted to homeschool than giving an AI tool access to my main Google account and all of the personal information I have stored there.

You still need to pay attention to what you’re connecting and what permissions you’re giving. But you don’t need to understand all the technology behind it before you start.

Tell ChatGPT what you want to accomplish and ask what it can do.

The Best Part Isn’t a Magic Prompt

If you’ve spent approximately five minutes on social media, you’ve probably seen posts telling you that you need THE PERFECT AI PROMPT. Better yet, someone will sell you a document full of prompts.

I don’t think that’s the secret to getting useful results from ChatGPT at all.

Sure, you can copy and paste a prompt and get an answer. But if you want an answer that is actually tailored to your homeschool, you need something much more important:

Details, details and more details.

The usefulness of ChatGPT in our homeschool has built over time. Initially, I knew some basic things about how my son learned. I knew he had ADHD. I had discovered during fifth grade that he seemed to learn much better when something was explained to him orally. I knew we needed to limit unnecessary screen time because of his myopia.

Those things mattered when I was choosing curriculum.

But as we homeschooled, I learned more. I learned what frustrated him and what kept his attention. I learned that he could tolerate some textbook reading, but long stretches of sitting and reading from a textbook were not going to keep him engaged.

I already knew he loved building things, but I started thinking more intentionally about how I could incorporate that into school. I knew he loved science, especially astronomy, so instead of just checking science off our list, I started looking for ways to expand it.

He loves reading, especially graphic novels. He’s a good writer, but he doesn’t particularly love writing. He has a short attention span, especially when he isn’t interested in a topic, so we need breaks. He also deals with anxiety and wants to do things correctly, which can contribute to frustration.

I started giving ChatGPT all of that information.

Not because AI somehow knows my child better than I do.

I know my child better than ChatGPT ever could.

That’s precisely why the information is useful.

I can tell it what I’ve observed and then ask, “Given what I know about my child, what are some ways I could approach this differently?”

That’s very different from Googling “How do I make sixth-grade history fun?”

Start With Your Why, Not Your Curriculum

If I were starting over today, I wouldn’t begin by telling ChatGPT what math curriculum we’re using. I’d start with why we’re homeschooling at all.

Why did you decide to homeschool? And what are you actually hoping to accomplish?

Yes, maybe you want your child to know all 50 states and their capitals. But I’m guessing your goals are probably deeper than that.

Do you want to cultivate a love of learning? Help your child become a critical thinker? Give them opportunities to explore things that might help them figure out what they want to do in the future? Teach life skills? Help them become more independent?

What do you hope your child takes away from their education when this is all over?

For us, one of my biggest goals is that I don’t want my son to hate school. I want him to develop a love of learning.

I also don’t want to simply recreate public school at home—which, admittedly, I’ve realized we’re sometimes doing because of some of the curriculum choices I’ve made. I’m interested in incorporating some Charlotte Mason-style ideas into our homeschool as well.

Those bigger goals matter.

Because if I put into ChatGPT, “History has become a battle. How do I make my child finish this curriculum?” that may not even be the right question.

Maybe the question is: Why are we doing it this way in the first place?

When the Curriculum Isn’t Working

We ran into this with history.

It was becoming a battle. My son wasn’t enjoying it, and it was becoming pretty clear that the way I was approaching history wasn’t working particularly well for him.

So I dumped all of that into ChatGPT.

I explained what I was seeing, what I knew about how he learns, what he enjoys and what my overall homeschool goals are. Then I asked for ideas for approaching history differently.

Could I use shorter videos? Maps? Timelines? Narration? Living books? Notebooking? Could the textbook become more of a resource instead of something that dictates the entire way I teach history?

That’s where I think AI can be incredibly useful.

It isn’t observing my son. I am.

I’m teaching. I’m watching. I’m noticing what’s working and what isn’t. Then I can take those observations, dump them into a tool that can very quickly give me ideas I may not have considered, and decide for myself which ones are worth trying.

I Use ChatGPT to Change How He Learns, Not What He’s Capable of Learning

My son struggled in public school when he was expected to learn certain things independently through computer programs. At home, I could see that sometimes all he needed was for someone to explain the exact same concept aloud.

Suddenly, he understood it.

That was one of the many reasons we chose to homeschool.

So now, if he understands something better through discussion, I can discuss it with him. If a long lesson needs to be split up, I can split it. If he can demonstrate that he understands something through narration rather than another worksheet, I can consider that. If building something will help make a science concept come alive, let’s build something.

That doesn’t mean I think everything has to be fun. He’s still going to have to learn to persevere through things that aren’t fascinating. He’s still going to have to read nonfiction. He’s still going to have to write even though writing isn’t his favorite thing.

Personalizing his education doesn’t mean removing everything he doesn’t like.

Sometimes he needs to work through something difficult. Other times, I need to recognize that the way I’m teaching it isn’t working.

There’s a difference.

I Don’t Let My Son Use ChatGPT

This is where my opinion on AI may differ from some people who use it heavily in education.

I use ChatGPT all the time.

I do not want my son using it. At all.

He’s still a child. He needs to learn how to research something himself. He needs to learn how to determine whether a source is trustworthy. He needs to learn how to write without AI fixing it. He needs to learn how to think critically. He needs to struggle with problems.

He needs to know things.

I’m 44 years old. I’ve spent decades learning how to research, write, evaluate information and think for myself. When ChatGPT gives me something that doesn’t seem right, I have enough experience to question it.

My son is still developing those skills.

I don’t want to hand him a tool capable of doing so much of that work before he’s learned how to do the work himself.

Personally, I don’t think children should be using AI until after high school. Ideally, I’d say college, although I realize that’s probably becoming increasingly unrealistic.

That’s my opinion as a parent. You may draw the line somewhere different.

But in our homeschool, ChatGPT is my tool, not his.

I Also Don’t Want My Child Thinking AI Is His Friend

There’s another reason I don’t want my son using ChatGPT that doesn’t have anything to do with academics.

ChatGPT can be extremely conversational. Sometimes a little too conversational for my taste.

I’ve actually had it tell me something I said made it “literally laugh out loud.”

No.

No, you did not.

You don’t laugh. You’re AI.

I’ve called it out for things like that because I don’t particularly like when AI presents itself in a way that makes it feel more human than it actually is.

As an adult, I understand what I’m interacting with. I don’t want my child confusing something that sounds friendly, understanding and personable with an actual human relationship.

I want him to see AI for what I see it as: a tool.

A very useful tool.

But still a tool.

And ChatGPT Gets Things Wrong

This part is really important.

ChatGPT can sound extremely confident while being wrong. I know because I’ve caught it.

I’ve had it mix up information from different curricula. I’ve had to go back to the actual curriculum and double-check things because something wasn’t right.

I’ve given it specific instructions about parts of our Daily Dashboard that weren’t supposed to change—and then it changed them anyway. Sometimes it doesn’t remember something I’ve already told it, and I have to tell it again.

That’s why I would never ask ChatGPT to design my son’s entire curriculum and then blindly teach whatever it gave me.

Absolutely not.

I use established curriculum that I trust. ChatGPT helps me implement it.

Think administrative assistant—not superintendent, curriculum publisher and teacher rolled into one.

I’m still responsible for my son’s education. That means I’m responsible for checking what I’m given.

Sometimes ChatGPT Also Needs to Know When to STOP

This is one of my more annoying discoveries.

It’s also something I’m trying to get better about in my own use of ChatGPT. Just because it can turn something into a 30-minute conversation doesn’t mean I need it to.

Weekly lesson planning is a perfect example. Once I’ve given ChatGPT our curriculum, our pacing, my lesson-plan format, and how I like our week structured, I don’t need twelve follow-up questions and three alternative plans. I need: Here’s where we are. Here’s our schedule. Plan the week. Put it in the spreadsheet. Done.

ChatGPT can drag something out forever if you let it. You ask it to help you accomplish something, and before you know it, you’re in an endless loop.

It asks another question. Then suggests another step. Then maybe you should research this first. Then perhaps you should consider that.

And sometimes I’m sitting there thinking:

CAN WE PLEASE JUST DO THE THING?

I’ve had to call ChatGPT out for this more than once.

It has gotten better about it, but sometimes I have to be very direct: We have enough information. Stop asking questions. Stop adding steps. Just do it.

The whole reason I’m using ChatGPT is to make things more efficient. If I spend more time managing ChatGPT than it would have taken me to do the thing myself, we’ve defeated the purpose.

So I correct it. I tell it when it’s making something too complicated. I tell it when I don’t like what it did. I tell it when it forgot something.

And sometimes I have to tell it: Enough. Just do it.

What ChatGPT Has Actually Given Me Back

Time.

A considerable amount of time.

I spend so much less time planning now. And oddly enough, that gives me more time to do the fun research myself when I want to.

If I want to go hunt for a really cool science activity one afternoon, I can. I’m not doing it at 11:30 at night because I still haven’t finished next week’s lesson plans.

I feel more prepared. I feel more confident that we can have a successful homeschool year that my son will actually enjoy. I don’t feel like I’m floundering.

And when I’m teaching, I can be more present because I’ve already done the planning—or, more accurately, I’ve had help doing it.

What About the People Who Don’t Want to Use AI?

I get it.

I’ve seen plenty of criticism of AI, including people who don’t want to use it because of environmental concerns. There are legitimate reasons someone may decide this isn’t a tool they want to use.

I’m not trying to convince every homeschool parent that they need ChatGPT.

For me, it’s a pretty simple trade-off. These are things I would already be doing myself—lesson plans, records, checklists, curriculum research and finding resources.

ChatGPT helps me do things I would normally do—faster.

It can pull together information in seconds that could take me hours to find and organize myself. It can automate repetitive work in seconds that might take me an hour.

And instead of spending that hour updating a spreadsheet, maybe I spend it with my family.

That’s worth something to me.

You Don’t Need a Better Prompt. You Need to Know Your Homeschool.

If you decide to try ChatGPT in your homeschool, don’t start by buying somebody’s list of 100 “perfect prompts.”

Start with your family.

Why are you homeschooling? What are your goals? Who is your child? How does your child learn? What have you noticed? What are their strengths? Where do they struggle? What do they voluntarily spend hours doing? What frustrates them? What makes them light up?

What kind of homeschool are you trying to create?

Then start using ChatGPT.

Give it the context it needs for the task. Check what it gives you. If a suggestion doesn’t fit your child, reject it. If something works, use that information the next time you ask for help.

The better the context, the more useful the output tends to be.

A parent knows their child better than anyone. AI doesn’t replace that knowledge.

The reason ChatGPT has become so useful in our homeschool is because I bring that knowledge to it.

I don’t need ChatGPT to homeschool my son. I need it to help with some of the hundred things surrounding homeschooling so that I have more time and energy to actually teach my son.

And if a tool can take something that used to take me hours and do it in seconds?

I’m going to use the tool.