FAQ
These are the questions I get asked most about neurodivergent and ADHD homeschooling. I’ve answered them as honestly as I can based on where we are right now in our journey.
Raise & Rise is my personal blog where I document our neurodivergent and ADHD homeschooling journey in real time. I’m Nicole Phommanorat. Late-diagnosed ADHD mom, homeschooling two neurospicy daughters, Sophia and Leila. We start in August 2026 and I’m documenting everything as we go. The good days, the hard ones, and the systems we’re building along the way.
The best way is to join my email list. I send real talk from inside our home. No highlight reel, no toxic positivity. You can also follow along on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube at @nicolephom.
No. In most states including Texas you don’t need any teaching credentials to homeschool your child. What you need is a willingness to learn alongside them and a system that works for your family’s lifestyle and children’s brains. I don’t have a teaching degree. I have 15 years of systems thinking and a deep understanding of how my kids learn. That’s enough to start.
It depends. On your family, the level of support you have from your school or school district, and what’s actually going to be best for your child. There isn’t one right answer. A lot of variables go into making that decision. Your kid’s needs, your capacity, your access to resources, and what your current school environment looks like.
For our situation neurodivergent / ADHD homeschooling is the best for our family.
Start with your state’s legal requirements. Every state is different. In Texas you don’t need to notify anyone, register anywhere, or follow a specific curriculum. From there figure out how your child learns best before you buy anything. Observation first, curriculum second. I’m documenting our entire planning process on the blog so you can follow along as we figure it out.
I’m still learning what works best for my kids. The most important thing I’ve learned so far is that you can’t reason with a dysregulated brain. Their body has to calm down before their brain can think rationally. Your job during a meltdown isn’t to explain, redirect, or consequence. No amount of reason, yelling, or threats will help. You need to do your best to help their nervous system recognize they are safe and help them find calm.
Some things that work for us: presence without words, deep breathing, and challenging their senses to focus on something different. What do you smell? What do you hear? What do you see that’s blue? Once they’re calm you can talk. Not before. And I always make sure they leave that conversation knowing I love them no matter what and we’ll keep trying our best.
This is something I’m actively building a system for. Most states that require documentation accept a simple log of activities, books read, and subjects covered. Photos, videos, and samples of work are also valuable. I’m building the Soleila Family Command Center specifically to solve this problem. A system that makes daily documentation easy enough to actually do at the end of a real homeschool day.
We haven’t started yet. We begin in August 2026. I’m taking a secular, interest-led approach and building our own unit studies rather than following a specific pre-made curriculum. We’ll create units around what Sophia and Leila are genuinely curious about and commit to at least one field trip a month to bring the learning to life.
My goal is to review different resources along the way and figure out what actually works for our family’s brains. As they get older we’ll likely transition into something more structured. I’ll document every decision on the blog as we make them. Including what works and what doesn’t.
We haven’t started homeschooling yet but I’m already using AI to build out what that’s going to look like. I’m using it to research topics, develop learning plans, and organize what Sophia and Leila will be exploring when we start in August 2026.
As a mom I’m also using AI to keep our daily life running. I have workflows and agents set up to organize our days, track what we need, manage follow-ups and reminders, and cut down on the busy work that eats up the time I need to actually be present with my kids.
I’m also building the Soleila Family Command Center. A documentation system that uses AI to turn simple daily captures into organized portfolio documentation and monthly recaps. The goal is to make homeschool documentation easy enough to actually do at the end of a real day.
I’ll document everything I’m building and learning on the blog as we go.
Ask me anything
Got a question about ADHD homeschooling, parenting neurospicy kids, or how we’re building this life? Ask me anything.
