Homeschooling Mom Turns “The Office”'s 'That's What She Said' Gag into a Lesson Plan (Exclusive)
- - Homeschooling Mom Turns “The Office”'s 'That's What She Said' Gag into a Lesson Plan (Exclusive)
Angela AndaloroDecember 19, 2025 at 9:48 PM
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5littleacres/Instagram
Amanda's "The Office"-based curriculum (left) and a "That's What She Said" worksheet -
Amanda has nearly a decade of experience homeschooling and decided to start developing her own materials five years ago
The mom of six's love of The Office sparked an idea to explore TV and film while homeschooling kids of different ages
Amanda tells PEOPLE about developing her "TVschooling" curriculum
Watching TV can be productive!
Amanda, on Instagram @TVschooling, is a firm believer in just that, a realization that came to her while homeschooling her children. The mom of six began homeschooling in 2016, after her oldest tried kindergarten and found he was "bored."
"I had already taught him how to read while we were home all day together. I knew about halfway through kindergarten, and I talked to my husband about it. That's when we decided to homeschool, and we were all okay with that. And we've been homeschooling since."
It was four years later, as she navigated homeschooling through the pandemic, that the idea of combining her family's favorite TV shows with education first came to her.
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"The idea for TVschooling came to me in 2020. It was when we were in lockdown, and I was watching The Office again for like the millionth time. It was always on in the background, but my kids were too young to really understand it. I was thinking about how, when they're older, I'd love to watch this with them, but somehow make it educational. And that's how I got the idea."
The more she thought about it, the more Amanda saw an immense possibility in what lessons she could convey through her favorite TV shows.
"I was like, 'How can I make "That's what she said" appropriate?' And I realized I would love to make that into a women's history worksheet, where they look up a quote from a famous woman in history, and they study it... because that's literally what she said," she laughs.
"It was fun, and it made me realize, 'I want to do this for every episode,' like fire safety, sexual harassment, topics that wouldn't normally come up. It's a great way to talk about these hot topics with my kids, instead of them learning about it from friends or trying to figure it out on their own."
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Amanda also let her children's interests lead the way and figured out, "I could turn any TV show or movie educational."
"I could meet them where they are, engage in their interests in different movies and shows. Right now, my daughter is obsessed with robots, so I look for robot shows and movies. My son loves dinosaurs, and we're learning pre-history, so we watched The Flintstones and talked about how it's fun, but unrealistic. We've watched a lot of dinosaur movies that are out there and incorporate what we're seeing, because they are visual learners," she explains.
"And from there, those conversations inspired additional crafts or baking projects, or looking up words we don't understand and expanding vocabulary. It's been really great, and the heart of TVschooling is really discussion questions and conversations that we have because of it."
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Amanda was so impressed by the learning happening in her own home that she decided to share her lessons with the homeschooling community.
"Ever since I started my homeschool Instagram account in 2016, I saw that I had friends who started creating curriculum and selling them. I was always curious about that, but I was, like, 'Oh, what am I ever gonna do?' "
"But then I looked, and I didn't see anybody else creating curriculum based on TV shows or movies. I was like, 'Let me just put this out here and see if anyone is interested,' especially because there are a lot of fun curricula for older kids, like tweens and teens."
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After sharing her first post about her content, Amanda was thrilled to see "really great feedback and reviews" from others in her homeschooling community.
"It's difficult to put yourself out there and market yourself, but I have had a good response so far, and it's been fun."
"People have told me they look forward to the next one and that their kids love these lessons and that they've got to talk about things that they normally wouldn't talk about. It is easier to talk about hot topics through the lens of a fictional character rather than just waiting for that topic to come up in real life," she says.
"It's been kind of validating to see that, and it's such an honor that families would want to use something that I started at my kitchen table."
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One of the customer favorites is her season 1 Gilmore Girls companion guide, titled "Books, Banter, and Brew." It takes the fast-talking, highly referential show and asks students to dig deeper into vocabulary, pop culture, literature and more.
"I like the idea of turning pop culture into conversations that matter. That's [what] I do. Because Gilmore Girls has pop culture references that I wasn't even aware of, and I had to look up! It just dives into so much history, and you notice themes about what's popular, and it's important for people to understand the references, even when they're silly."One of the worksheets encourages students to right the wrongs of content that hasn't aged well. "They look up the actual pop culture reference and then, after that, they could replace it with something more modern to today. Some of the shows are outdated, and so I do include questions about that, because things that did slide back are totally not appropriate, and it's important to understand why and have those conversations."
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TVschooling has just begun, with Amanda working on developing lessons to go along with Stranger Things, Friends and other fan-favorite TV shows.
"I have a Facebook group, and I ask people what they like and what they're interested in. I love that there are so many different groups for homeschooling and the different types — unschooling, Waldorf, anything, there's a group for it. You can find community and ask questions, and it's really special."
Amanda continues, "People just want to do what's best for their kids. I really enjoy getting to spend all this extra time with my kids because they're only little for so long."
"I love that I can meet my kids where they are, but because I have so many, and they're all so different, it has been kind of a struggle to figure out what they need, but I'm so grateful for the opportunity that I was able to try different curricula and figure out what learning style works for each child."
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Source: “AOL Entertainment”
