Reagan and I at a 2026 Region 12 tournament.
Why I Made This
From My Family to Yours
Dear Fellow Parents,
I have been a homeschool mom for seventeen years, and in all that time I am not sure anything has surprised me quite the way our first season of NCFCA did. I watched my oldest grow in ways I had not expected — in confidence, in clear thinking, and in the willingness to wrestle honestly with hard ideas. By the time registration opened for the following year, I already knew I wanted two of my younger ones to be part of it as well.
But they were younger — twelve and fifteen — and when the new Lincoln-Douglas resolution was released, I realized we had a problem. It was such a strong and nuanced subject, the kind that rewards real understanding, and my twelve- and fifteen-year-old simply had no context for it. No real-world insight to stand on. And honestly? My seventeen-year-old did not have much either.
So I did what I have done for most of our homeschooling years: I went back to the one-room schoolhouse. I set out to create a unit study — something that would give all three of them a broad and grounded point of reference before they ever stood up to speak on the subject.
I had seen firsthand why this mattered. A lot of the barriers my daughter ran into when she was first getting started this past year came up when the resolution was “In the exploration and utilization of space, international cooperation should be prioritized.” Once the grammar was set — the foundational vocabulary of the subject, the words and the world behind them — it became so much easier to move on to style and substance. The foundation simply had to come first.
I also knew, going in, exactly what this study needed to be. It needed to be multi-disciplinary, drawing from more than one corner of learning rather than treating the topic as a single narrow lane. It needed to suit a range of ages and learning styles, because my own children span several of each. And it needed to be complete — something they could work through somewhat self-paced — because I am also a full-time business owner, and I could not be standing over their shoulders for every lesson. Just as much, I wanted it to serve as a conversation starter, a shared jumping-off point we could all gather around. And, if I am being honest, I wanted it to help me keep my sanity while curating the education of so many children at once.
What you are holding is the result of all of that. My hope is that it gives your students the same thing I wanted to give mine: not just talking points, but a real sense of the ground they are standing on before they begin to speak.
Equipping the next generation of thinkers,
Alysia Minor
Creator, The Justice Workbook