homeschool curriculum and unit studies for all ages
homeschool curriculum and unit studies for all ages

About Us

Welcome to Harbor + Sprout

Here we believe that all the best days are lived outside. We think learning should be alive with curiosity and wonder and that life is meant to be overflowing with moments that cultivate connection. You can usually find us exploring nature or curled up with a book, making memories side by side with our own little adventurers. Join us as we dig our bare feet into the soil, take root, and embark together on the journey of education!

Meet the Team

Danielle

Danielle is the mother of 5 wild things and the heart of Harbor + Sprout, which is a thousand dreams, ideas, and conversations all coming to life. She has a degree in Public Health/Health Education and loves to collect knowledge as a hobby. Most of her favorite childhood memories consist of walking barefoot through creek beds in Kansas, fishing off the back of a canoe, or watching thunderstorms from the front porch, and now she loves bringing her kids in on the magic. She realized early on in motherhood that everyone was very content to be forever reading books, exploring outside, creating, and being together, and homeschooling was the clear path for a lifetime of making memories. Danielle has a deep love of learning, and in the quiet of the night when everyone is tucked in bed just a room away, you can always find her up too late reading a book. Curiosity and wonder are forever alive in her, and now she gets to share this passion with her own children and all of you through Harbor + Sprout!

Stephanie

Stephanie is a second generation homeschooler and mama of three. Growing up, she was always outside and constantly creating. Exploring her own little corner of the world from such an early age cultivated a curiosity and love of learning that she is now passionate about passing on to her kids. She is an avid artist, professional photographer, freelance graphic designer, and devoted writer. Her inspiration is the natural world around her and discovering it through the eyes of her children. She firmly believes that there is magic to be cfound everywhere, especially in the everyday, in between moments, we just have to train our eyes to see it. As Harbor + Sprout began to take form, Stephanie created the logo, perfectly capturing the heart behind what we do. She also photographs the majority of our content, is the artist behind our monthly characters, and the designer of the Explorer Toolkit. Everything she creates is interlaced with bits and pieces of herself - you can get to know her more through the Geography unit of the Harbor + Sprout curriculum and by following along with us here on Instagram!

Lauren

Lauren is the social media manager for Harbor and Sprout! Chances are if you’re chatting with us via DM or in comments, it’s her you’re talking to!

Another place you can find her is over @a.home.grown.love where she shares wellness, recipes, and all things motherhood journey related!

Lauren is mama to her six year old little boy and they live in the Austin, Texas area where they love exploring the great outdoors together, coming up with new recipes, and creating with anything they can get their hands on!

Lauren's love for homeschool started a few years ago when she found a strong desire to keep her baby home with her for all life’s lessons and learning opportunities. They've been in this together ever since and are excited for this journey through Harbor + Sprout!

Rebecca

Rebecca grew up in Sydney, Australia, and spent most of her childhood riding horses, drawing, catching tadpoles in the local creek, playing outdoors, climbing trees, roller skating, and being creative. She loves the beach and enjoys being outdoors and simply enjoying the beautiful world we live in.

Rebecca is a mumma to three gorgeous boys, who are her whole world. She loves homeschooling her two youngest boys, and being able to work from home doing what she loves: creating learning activities for kiddos!

Rebecca has worked in the childcare industry for 30 years which is where her love for creating

beautiful learning activities for children began, and where her business Whimsy Printables was born. Rebecca has just recently hung up her Educator cape to focus on homeschooling and spend more time creating learning resources. Rebecca absolutely loves contributing to Harbor & Sprout and looks forward to creating more beautiful learning resources in the future! 

You can follow her on Facebook/Insta : @whimsyprintables

https://www.whimsyprintables.com.au/

https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/WhimsyPrintablesShop

Julia

 

Julia was born and raised at the NJ shore. She met her husband, Andrew, sometime between the ages of 4 and 12, but they didn’t care much for each other until junior year of high school. They took a 4 year hiatus from one another after freshman year of college, but soon thereafter found a home together in upstate NY. Julia is now a homeschooling mom of four fabulous kiddos in every stage from elementary to high school. Since both she and Andrew love and studied music, their kids play a variety of instruments. They have also passed on a love of reading, nature, and exploration. The family loves hiking, swimming, and gardening together. They live in a small house nestled on the border of state land, and love to say their biggest room is outside.

Julia’s parents instilled in her a love of life-long learning. She continues to seek out information to satisfy her curiosity. She hopes to give her children the same drive. After many years of career hopping, Julia has happily settled down into one of her first loves - writing. She currently writes the secondary units for H+S and adores every moment of research and learning.

Jacqueline 

Jacqueline is a homeschooling mama of two spirited young girls. She lives on the shores of Georgian Bay in Ontario, Canada where they spend most of their time taking lessons on the trail or by the lake. Like many families, Jacqueline's passion for homeschool began a few years ago when the public schools shut down (her eldest was in grade 1). She and her girls instantly fell in love with this new time of learning together and the world of exciting possibilities that opened up to them.

Inspired by her readings of Charlotte Mason, you'll find them chasing their curiosities through cozy read alouds, nature adventures, and big conversations. They often use living books as their doorway to exploring literacy, science, geography, art, and more. Wherever the story leads them!

With her research degrees and teaching experience she started creating literature inspired resources and nature studies to share on Books and Willows.

Jacqueline also writes the nature section for Harbor and Sprout, full of hands-on activities and S.T.E.A.M. projects in honor of her daughters who dream of being scientists when they grow up!

Erika

 

Erika grew up in the hustle and bustle of city life in Chicago as the oldest of two girls, raised by her single mother. Never a dull moment with honking cars, trains zipping by, and pedestrians on the sidewalks walking past her window. But she always loved the days when she could escape the noise and go for a swim in Lake Michigan, play volleyball on the beach, or hike through the many forest preserves just outside the city.

On rainy days when she couldn’t get outside, her immigrant mother would tell her stories of life in Guatemala. Erika’s love of painting was fueled by the many hours she would watch her mom paint on canvas, brushing with both precision and freedom in the same stroke.

Erika worked in downtown Chicago for most of her 20s as a graphic designer for a small firm. Although Erika was passionate about graphic design, she felt called to change careers. After getting her Master’s in Education from Northwestern University, she became a Chicago public school elementary teacher for 8 years. Erika loved teaching writing to middle schoolers and digital illustration in after-school workshops.

Erika decided to leave the classroom to start her family, gravitating toward Montessori homeschooling once her eldest daughter was born in 2018. She loved the freedom & independence the philosophy fosters. As a multilingual home (her husband is Ukrainian and speaks Russian), it was important to Erika to include Spanish, Russian & English at home for their three daughters through books, songs, & play. When Erika struggled to find beautiful AND bilingual Montessori printables for her daughters, she decided to create her own.

Erika launched her Etsy shop - Montessori & Multilingual featuring handmade Montessori toys & original watercolor printables for multilingual learning. Erika aims to create works of art that are both beautiful and educational. She hopes her bilingual printables bring the joy of learning a foreign language into your home.

Follow her journey on Facebook / Instagram: @montessori.multilingual

We love to hear from you! Contact us at hello@harborandsprout.com or find us on Instagram @harborandsprout!

Amber

Amber is a homeschooling mom to two curious, nature-loving, and wild little humans, a creator of things, a hugger of trees, and a collector of books. She grew up, red-haired and freckled, in a small town on the East Coast of Canada, surrounded by orchards and tides. Her love of language and literature emerged at an early age, alongside her fascination with the natural world and all things old. Learning ancient languages, reading and writing poetry, and exploring wild spaces were among her favorite pastimes.

While in University, Amber earned degrees in archaeology and paleontology. She spent her summers in graduate school excavating fossils in Eastern Europe and her winters studying in the collections of natural history museums. The rest of her time was spent writing and teaching labs and lectures. Teaching became her passion. During this time, she also began working as an editor, which led to her pursuing a career in educational publishing.

With the birth of her littles, Amber embarked on her next series of adventures: motherhood and homeschooling. Today, Amber, her husband, and their two wildlings split their time between their place in Toronto and their home in the forest, an off-grid cottage that they are restoring as a family. In between homeschooling and renovating, Amber creates hand-painted, nature-inspired, educational printables for her Etsy shop, So Simple a Beginning (@sosimpleabeginning ), and writes the Language Arts and Science curriculum for Harbor and Sprout.

Lindie

Lindie is a mama of 2 boys and 2 cats, and they live in Ontario Canada, where there is nature and wildlife all year round. She has a Ph.D. in psychology and has spent a lot of time researching mindfulness, emotions, and leadership in organizations. An interesting fact is that her research was featured on Jeopardy as an $800 prize!

Ever since she was a little girl, she dreamed of becoming a teacher. Now she is a professor in organizational psychology and she has taught thousands of undergrad and grad students; but most importantly, she also gets to teach her boys! She firmly believes that instead of focusing heavily on teaching students what there is to know, it's important to cultivate a sense of curiosity in students so that they will be intrinsically motivated to explore the world. With that in mind, Lindie launched her passion project, Hudson Academy of Curiosity (@hudson_academy ), creating fun learning resources for young learners.

Lindie also took on the role of writing the math section for Harbor and Sprout and she is loving every moment of it! She dusted off her old GCSE and A-Level (grade school and high school curriculum in the UK) math textbooks and she is ready to take on the challenge to make math fun for everyone!

Sarah

Sarah Wise is the mother of five kids. A native of Kansas City, she is now a Texas girl raising her large crew in the suburbs of Dallas. She has a BS degree in Human Development and has spent the large majority of her adult life teaching and working with children. From teaching swimming lessons, working with her church youth group, volunteering in the community, or spending time with her own children—and inevitably a few of her kids’ friends, she is constantly surrounded by kids of all ages. Being outdoors in any form is her therapy, and nature is what brings her true joy. Traveling and exploring the world with her kids is her favorite past time. She takes her kids on annual summer road trips to explore as many states and National Parks in the U.S. as possible. When she does have to eventually come inside, she enjoys playing board games, reading (or listening) to books, doing crafts with her younger kids, cuddling up to watch movies, and of course writing for Harbor+Sprout.

Becca

Becca grew up in western Colorado and is now raising her 4 kids just outside of Chicago. When she’s not reading Goodnight Moon, kissing ouchies, or stepping over piles of laundry, you can find her creating resources to enrich her family’s homeschool days. She loves to design colorful and engaging activities that help to build an atmosphere of excitement around the learning process.

Becca started My Darling Chickadee Co in 2020 and is always devising ways to make learning more tactile, memorable, and fun.
Find her store at www.mydarlingchickadee.com.

Becca writes the Geography portion of Harbor + Sprout!

Julie

Julie is a homeschooling mother of two children and a lover of exploring creation, gardening, and America. As a homeschooler. she enjoys watching her children grow and delight in their education as they pursue their interests. Her family has recently turned their love of American history, attending living history events, and exploring America into two monthly letter subscriptions: Heritage Letter & American Heritage Adventure Letter.

Julie is the History writer for Harbor + Sprout!

Whitney

Whitney is a homeschooling mom of two living in Virginia with her boys and her husband. She has a passion for knowledge and creating printables to help guide others as they teach their children, so that they may both discover exciting new things about our world.

Whitney writes the art section of Harbor + Sprout!