91: 5 Ways to Use AI to Level Up Your Homeschooling

There’s a lot of talk about AI these days - and whether you’re a pro at it and use it daily, or you’re a complete novice and have never (knowingly) used it before -  I want to share how I have been using AI to actually make my life as a homeschool mom easier.

In case you’re a little skeptical, let me tell you: AI isn’t some far-off, futuristic thing. It’s already in our everyday lives. It’s in the engines that drive everything from Netflix’s show recommendations on your profile to your favorite GPS app rerouting you around traffic. Whether you’re aware of it or not, AI has been in the background of our lives for years, quietly doing its thing.

And now, with tools like ChatGPT and Google Gemini, we can harness the power of AI to help us do what we already do in our everyday lives…just smarter. So here are five ways I’ve used AI to level up our homeschool and simplify our family life. (Reminder: it’s not about replacing what you do. It’s about supporting it. ☺️)

1. Creating Lesson Plans in Seconds

You may already have an idea for a subject or a topic you want your kids to study…maybe it’s something you came up with on your own, or perhaps you want to dive deeper into something your kids are studying in their curriculum.

With either scenario, AI can help you create a solid lesson plan. Let me show you how… 

I wanted to do a unit study on famous Black athletes, but I didn’t have time to dig through the internet to research every notable athlete from every sport over the past 100 years. So I went to ChatGPT for help.

This is the prompt, or the question that I asked it: “Please create a 2-week unit study outline for my 10-year-old daughter about famous, history-making Black athletes from 1900 to the present.”

💡You’ll see that I’m specific in my prompt. Include what you’re studying, your child’s age or grade level, and any relevant parameters to narrow down the information (in this case, it was a timeframe). The more detail you give AI, the better the results you’ll get back.

Then, once I hit enter, ten seconds later I had a thoughtful, age-appropriate plan that included a host of athletes - some we were already familiar with, and some we’d never studied before. It was the perfect jumping-off point that I could tweak and personalize for my daughter.

2. Use AI to Find Learning Resources

Once you have your outline, you need the learning materials to support it.

I like to use Google Gemini for a task like this because it pulls in links from the internet (thanks, Google!). 

Try something like: “Using this list of famous athletes, please find books and short documentaries for each athlete that are appropriate for 3rd-5th grade students.”

💡In this prompt, I gave it the narrowed-down list of athletes we’re going to study and what specific types of learning resources I wanted for this project: books and short documentaries. Of course, you’ll input whatever types of learning resources fit your child’s preferred learning style. Also, it never hurts to continue reminding AI who this is for, to ensure the materials are age-appropriate.

Once you hit enter, Gemini will give you a curated list of titles and links to what you asked for so that you’re not digging through 40 open tabs trying to find what works. 

Keep in mind that you’ll still need to review the results to make sure they’re a good fit. But the key here is that AI is giving you a shortcut by helping you get started with a strong, targeted list.

3. Use AI to Create Quizzes, Assignments & Assessments

Now that your kids are learning the material, you’ll want to help them show what they know.

You can ask AI to generate any number of things to accomplish this…things like vocabulary lists, review/discussion questions, or writing prompts.

We recently studied Pele, the Brazilian soccer star, and we got to read several books and watch a movie about his story. It’s so interesting!

The movie talked a lot about how ginga is an important element of Brazilian soccer and Pele’s style of play, as it’s deeply intertwined with Brazil’s African roots and culture. So this is the prompt that I used (you can do this with either Google Gemini or ChatGBT):

“Please create 5 writing prompts for 3rd-5th grade elementary students that ask them to think critically about the importance of ginga in Brazilian culture and specifically Pele’s style of soccer.”

💡This prompt may sound like a high school-level writing prompt, but because I provided the age level that this is for, Gemini was able use I what I gave it to give me back 5 age-appropriate writing prompts that both of my girls could select from. This is what they selected:

My 11-year-old chose: “We learned that ginga has roots in the traditions of enslaved Africans in Brazil. Why do you think a dance-like or swaying movement could have been important to them?” 

My 8-year-old chose: “Do you think ginga is just about how someone moves their feet, or does it involve other things like rhythm, creativity, and even joy?” 

💡Another thing to note: if what you get back isn’t quite hitting the mark, you can absolutely respond to the chat bot and ask it to refine the response. In this case, I wanted to make sure the writing prompts didn’t just ask my girls to simply regurgitate information they had learned about Pele - I wanted them to think critically about the African influence in Brazilian culture, even beyond soccer. So I responded to the chat bot a couple times with more specific information until it gave me a set of writing prompts that I was happy with.

4. Use AI for Hands-On Activities & Field Trip Ideas

Here are some ways to use AI to bring your kids’ learning to life through hands-on activities and field trips! 

This is a task I’ll use Gemini for, since I’ll want AI to search the internet for links. So my field trip prompt might sound like this:

"Please find a local museum or sports hall of fame within 50 miles that features Black athletes." 

Or I might make the prompt more broad by saying: “Please help me find 5 places within 50 miles where we can experience something to support our unit study on famous Black athletes. Here is a list of the athletes we’ve studied.”

💡In the first prompt, I might be limited to very few results if there’s not a museum with that criteria or a sports hall of fame nearby. But the second prompt leaves far more room for AI to come up with something creative that I may not have even thought about on my own, like a tennis clinic for kids so that they get a good understanding of just how much skill was required for elite athletes like Arthur Ashe and Venus and Serena Williams to make history.

If you want some ideas for hands-on activities that you can do at home, you can utilize ChatGBT or Gemini with a prompt like this:

"Please give me a list of 10 fun, hands-on activities that my elementary-aged kids can do as they learn about Black sports stars. Here is a list of the athletes we’ve studied.”

💡Again, be specific with your prompt: how many ideas would you like? Who is this for? What topic are you studying (and provide specifics, like the list of athletes being studied)?

Once I hit enter, I might get back a diverse list of creative ideas, depending on who the athletes I gave the chat bot.

For example, if we’re studying Flo Jo (Florence Griffith Joyner), it might give me a suggestion to build a mini indoor obstacle course so that I can time my kids like they’re training for the Olympics.

Or if we’re studying Michael Jordan, it might give us the idea to create our own Wheaties box design or create and act out our own Nike commercial.

The ideas are often so much more creative than I might come up with on my own! But you can also use AI’s suggestions as a starting point and then put your own spin on them. The key here is that the time consuming part - the brainstorming - is done for you, thanks to AI!

5. Use AI to Simplify Mom Life

AI isn’t just good for creating lesson plans...you can also use it to simplify your everyday tasks and allow you to trim hours of time-consuming mental tasks into minutes! Here are some examples:

• Create a dinner plan using what’s already in your fridge: “Please give me 5 recipe options that use chicken breasts as the key ingredient. I need to be able to prepare each recipe in 30 minutes or less.” 
• Build a simple summer schedule around your kids’ interests: “Please help me come up with a weekly schedule for my family this summer. I don’t want us to be too busy, but I still want my kids to continue learning and of course, having fun. Some of their favorite interests are: airplanes, swimming, Legos, gymnastics, and cooking.” 
• Generate a packing list and grocery order for your family’s upcoming vacation to the beach: “My family is taking a weeklong trip to the beach. We’re staying at an AirBnB rental. Can you help me create a list of things we need to pack, as well as a grocery list that I can order for delivery ahead of our arrival?” 
• Find a new service provider - like a pediatrician, handyman, or housekeeper - in your area…and ask Gemini to create a list with links and phone numbers: “ I'm looking for a new pediatrician who’s currently taking new patients and whose office is no more than 10 miles from my house.”

By using AI to complete your (sometimes annoying, but always necessary) everyday tasks, you can get things done in a fraction of the time. Basically, it’s like having a personal assistant in your pocket!

Want a Shortcut? I Made You an AI Cheat Sheet!

If you want to test out some of the exact prompts I used, I’ve put together a simple AI Cheat Sheet with plug-and-play examples. It’ll help you get started with tools like ChatGPT and Google Gemini so you can plan lessons, find resources, and save your brainpower for the stuff that really matters.

👉🏾Grab your AI Cheat Sheet here.

 Are You Ready to Reimagine Education for Your Family?