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How to Start Homeschooling {Episode 80}
95 Plays4 years ago
Our regular listeners know that we're big fans of homeschooling, but we realize how daunting the idea can be for many of you. We've received countless requests for more insight in to the how and why of homeschooling and so we devoted this entire episode to getting you started!
We'll walk you through how to decide on an overarching goal for your homeschool, choosing the proper method that fits your goals and then outlining a structure that will allow for you and your family to meet those goals.
So, ditch the anxiety and join us for a fun discussion about starting to teach your little ones at home! We promise it will be worth it.
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Resources:
Homeschooling Methods
Our homeschooling podcast episodes:
35 - Homeschooling 101
65 - Homeschool Obstacles
68- Teach the kid, Not the Lesson
69- Circle/Morning Time
Homeschool Legal Defense Association
Bonnie's homeschool goals: Helping kids learn in unconventional ways, from classical literature, at their own pace and without unnecessary busywork
Audrey's homeschool motto: Learning to learn - Anything is possible once kids learn how to learn
The baby is the lesson reference
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Transcript
Introduction to Episode 80
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello, hello everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Outnumbered the Podcast. Today is episode 80 and we have talked about homeschool before in numerous podcast episodes that we will reference in this episode, but we decided today to talk specifically about starting homeschooling. Homeschooling is a hot button topic right now. So many parents are dealing with the fallout of this COVID-19 pandemic
00:00:24
Speaker
and are wondering how to give their children the best education they can in this coming year with so many restrictions on their kids' public school education.
00:00:32
Speaker
So if this is you or if this is something that has been on your mind lately, give us a list in this episode and let us know what you think. Even if you're not currently considering homeschooling, we think this is a great chance for you to just get a peek into the minds of those who are and to maybe change your perspective a little bit about what homeschooling is and how to go about doing it. So we are excited to introduce you to today's episode, how to start homeschooling.
Hosts' Background and Goals
00:01:04
Speaker
Hello and welcome to Outnumber the Podcast. I'm Bonnie. And I'm Audrey. We're experienced moms to a combined total of 18 children. Our mission is to help overwhelmed parents find peace in parenting and humor in the chaos. Come join us as we attempt uninterrupted conversation about parenting with joy and intention.
00:01:29
Speaker
Welcome back, everybody. We are thrilled to have yet another episode about
Homeschooling Landscape and Audience Interaction
00:01:33
Speaker
homeschooling. And today we're going to talk specifically about getting started homeschooling because we have been feeling lots and lots of questions in recent months as the educational landscape is a little bit rocky right now. Like some kids are going back to school as usual in a few months. Some are not at all. Some are doing distance learning. Some are just confused.
00:01:53
Speaker
So, we wanted to talk a little bit more about launching into homeschooling if that's something that you feel is right for your family right now.
00:02:02
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. We love to talk about homeschooling and we're so glad when everybody reaches out to us because then we get to talk about homeschooling more. Exactly, exactly. We're going to start as usual with a little funny mom moment. I think I've shared in previous episodes about homeschooling that are maybe intentional motherhood episode that I got a little bit of pushback from some family members when we decided to homeschool.
00:02:28
Speaker
One particular experience I remember was a family member having my two oldest boys over for like a little play date.
00:02:36
Speaker
And they were asking my kids what we were learning, right? And mind you, at the time, I think that my oldest was maybe five. So he was little, and we were probably just doing some basic kindergarten stuff. But they asked him, so you're learning at home now. I'm not going to school. So what do you do at home, right? They're kind of prodding, trying to get some information out of my kid to see if we're actually doing anything. And what does my kid say? Oh, nothing. We don't learn anything.
Perceptions and Personal Inspiration
00:03:04
Speaker
I'm like, kid, you are dead to me. Meanwhile, I'm planning all the fun things, and we're doing these manipulatives and these fun games that are supposed to be learning. No, we just play. That's all we do. I'm like, well, all right.
00:03:21
Speaker
Which isn't a bad thing for a five year old to do all day. That's pretty much exactly what a five year old should be doing. They should be learning through play. And yet at the time I was so just kind of horrified that my school room didn't look like a public school room, which we're going to talk about in a minute. And I just cared a lot about what other people thought about my performance as a homeschooling mother, which is another thing we need to talk about.
00:03:45
Speaker
I can look back at it fondly now and think that who cares? Like we were doing what we felt inspired to do and that's all that mattered. Yeah, absolutely.
Homeschooling vs. Distance Learning
00:03:55
Speaker
So we're going to start by talking about what homeschool isn't because for the past, for the last few months of the school year of the 2019, 2020 school year a lot of people were forced homeschoolers or whatever you want to call it. But that really isn't homeschooling because that is distance learning.
00:04:14
Speaker
So yes, technically distance learning is learning at home, but it's like the worst of both worlds because you have the kids home all day, but you do not have the freedom to teach you how and what you want. You have to teach what's being passed down.
00:04:31
Speaker
So that's the hugest difference. With homeschooling, you choose the curriculum, the courses, the books, the topics, the schedules, the time of day, what you do, what you don't do. And that's the hugest difference between distance learning and homeschooling is who's in control.
00:04:48
Speaker
Yes, absolutely. And when I have friends tell me that, oh, see, I knew I couldn't homeschool because this is torture. I want to just give them a big hug and say, this is not homeschooling. This is like the worst of both worlds, right? You get kids home all day and you have zero control over what you teach them. So just bear with us as we explain a little bit about how to take back some of that control if you choose to do this. So we're just bringing this up because I think for a lot of people, the idea of putting their kids
00:05:16
Speaker
back in school right now, whether it be an increased risk of getting sick or wearing masks to school or no recess or no extracurriculars, as some schools are doing, or being stuck learning on a computer all day long. If that doesn't appeal to you, then this is the episode for you. We'll give you a few concrete tips to get started at home. Yeah.
00:05:35
Speaker
And in our tips, all our tips that we go through, we are going to start with the assumption that you have looked into the legal and state guidelines for your state. Each state is different how they treat homeschooling. So we definitely recommend the website HSLDA. We'll link it in the show notes. That's the Homeschool Legal Defense Association. So definitely look
00:06:01
Speaker
check out their website. They have a great resource for helping homeschoolers on the legal ends. That's what they do. But also they have tons of resource so you can look up what are the laws, what are the guidelines for your state. So we're going to assume that you've done that. And the second caveat here is that I definitely recommend that you don't
00:06:21
Speaker
go to your public school and say, what do I need to do to be able to homeschool? Because that's not what they're designed. That's not going to be their knowledge strength. And they may have some distance learning options or online learning program. But if you're looking to truly homeschool, you want to start from outside the public school system. And you may have to notify
00:06:47
Speaker
the public school system that you're withdrawing your child if they've been in or that you're homeschooling. But that is where I would say would be the last place to start. That is a great tip. It's kind of a bit of a conflict of interest. So yeah, probably not the best place to start.
Setting and Personalizing Homeschool Objectives
00:07:05
Speaker
Right. So where do we recommend to start? A perfect place to start is with a big picture view. Decide on what your objective for homeschooling is. Why? And those concerns that Bonnie listed earlier, those are perfectly valid concerns for homeschooling. And many, many people start homeschooling as a reaction against something, like against a curriculum, against an area, against a concern, like, you know,
00:07:34
Speaker
getting your kid health, compromised health. But if you focus on what your objective for homeschooling is, that is going to change your focus from homeschooling against something to homeschooling for something. So one example might be to help your kids maintain their current knowledge, give them an out of the box learning experience, be more laid back, explore more of a classical style, classical learning style.
00:08:02
Speaker
Um, maybe you just want to try it for a year. Maybe you're going to transition to homeschooling permanently. Um, any of those are good things to homeschool for instead of if your focus is on homeschooling against something, then it's going to be a little harder to make it sustainable in the long run.
00:08:21
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. And like you mentioned, really any reason is a valid reason to homeschool your kids. Some people do it because their child was bullied. Some people do it because they felt like they didn't get to see enough of their kids. And I feel like a lot of parents are really feeling like traditional school is not the best place for their kid to be right now for a number of options.
00:08:39
Speaker
And if that's not you, that's okay too. But it's just important that we go with what our gut is telling us is right for our kids. That intentional parenting decision, right? Even if it seems overwhelming. And we're here to tell you that, sure it can be overwhelming, but so can having five kids in public school, you know? Like you have to run around everywhere and pack all the lunches. So it's just a different type of educational model.
00:09:02
Speaker
So along these lines about deciding what your overarching goal is, I really think that so many of us homeschoolers decide to homeschool without really stopping to think about this. Many of us have a reason that gets us started thinking about it, but I know for many years I didn't really think, okay, like I knew I wanted to homeschool or it felt right, but I wasn't sure what the overarching goal was. And after a lot of thought and honestly several years, mine turned out to be allowing my kids to learn in unconventional ways
00:09:32
Speaker
from classical literature at their own pace and without any unnecessary busy work. So those are like the key components to our homeschooling. Wow. Those are amazing. Say those again. Okay. How to learn in unconventional ways to learn from classical literature, learn at their own pace, and without unnecessary busy work. Bravo, bravo. I'm applauding over here. I had to write it down to really get it in fine point.
00:10:00
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, no, that's awesome. Those are great things to homeschool for.
Adapting Teaching Methods
00:10:05
Speaker
So I know I've mentioned before on the podcast in some of our past episodes, our homeschool model is learning to learn. So that is why we are homeschooling because we feel like if we teach our children how to learn, that nothing in their life is unattainable. Anything they want, they're gonna be able to attain it if they know how to learn because everything is just,
00:10:30
Speaker
Everything can be conquered by learning. There's nothing that is beyond the scope of being able to learn it. So then another part of that goes that anything they want to learn is acceptable.
00:10:43
Speaker
And we're open to helping incorporate any interest that they have into their learning. So I know I've told in a past podcast, I told the story of how one of my sons wanted to learn about how he could survive in the woods. And so we made his science that year all about the flora and fauna of our local area and what plants he could eat and what ones he better not touch and that stuff. Well, there was another time when one of our sons was interested in horses. He ate, breathed, and slept horses.
00:11:13
Speaker
And no, we don't have any horses. But he loved horses. And so we got him a curriculum that year that was the history of the horse. And so he studied horse history. He read horse literature. He studied the science of the muscles in horses. Much of what he was learning that year was all based off of he memorized horse poetry.
00:11:37
Speaker
He did horse math problems. It was just everything to do with a horse. He grew out of his horse face. He's not a cowboy now or anything, but that was his year. Just think the freedom to be able to do that for a kid is just one of the reasons we're homeschooling.
00:11:57
Speaker
Yes, I love that. And I think so many of us can look back on our childhood and identify a phase where we were really obsessed with learning about something, something specific, because kids are built to learn. That is how our brains are modeled and created, is that we catch a spark and it becomes a full-blown passion. Adults aren't like that anymore for some reason, maybe because we need to kind of specify our learning and our skill as we get older.
00:12:21
Speaker
I remember being probably 10 or 11 and being obsessed with the Egyptians. Everything I did, I mean, I made costumes at home so that I could look like an Egyptian. So I look like Pharaoh's wife and I made a model pyramid out of sugar cubes, you name it. I just love fueling that and allowing children to just run away with their passion for a while. That's fantastic.
00:12:44
Speaker
Okay, so if the first step is deciding what your objective for homeschooling is, then the second one is to decide how to get there. So what homeschool method will fit your goal best? I think that most people when they decide to homeschool just go, okay, well now we have to do school at home. Let's go find a curriculum, slap it down and start learning from it, right? But really there are almost
00:13:07
Speaker
innumerable ways to homeschool. We're talking overarching methods, not just curriculum, right? So one resource that we'll share in the show notes for this is the website homeschool.com. They have an entire page on popular homeschooling methods and there's so much information on there. You can just scan it and go, oh, that sounds interesting. No, that doesn't sound good to me. Oh, that sounds good. You know, just kind of get an idea of where you fall in the spectrum of what method will work for you and your children. Just a few examples are
00:13:36
Speaker
If you're looking for a more laid back flexible approach, you can try like an eclectic method. You can pick and choose different resources. If you're looking for like a classical education, you can try Thomas Jefferson education or Charlotte Mason. There's just so many of these different methods to fit the perfect objective that you have for your homeschooling.
00:13:56
Speaker
Yeah, and if you want to learn more about these various objectives, just start researching if you have an idea how you think your kid might learn. Okay, so first of all, go back and listen to our episode 68, Teach the Kid, Not the Lesson. Okay, so in that episode, I talked a lot about Kathy Duffy, and you can go to kathyduffy.com, and she talks about
00:14:18
Speaker
some of the main learning styles and then which curriculums and methods support that learning style. So now granted when you have as many kids as Bonnie and I do, you might be using multiple curriculums or multiple methods because one kid learns one way and one kid learns another way. And that's okay because you can do that in a homeschool situation. You can tailor each kid's lessons to that kid. And that's a really beautiful thing to be able to do.
00:14:46
Speaker
So at our house, like math-loving kids, they spend more time on math, as much time on math as they want, as long as they don't fall behind in their other subjects. So one of the funniest things, we might've mentioned this in homeschool obstacles, our episode 65 on homeschool obstacles, is one of the most embarrassing questions that people ask our kids is, so what grade are you in?
00:15:12
Speaker
Oh, because homeschool kids aren't really in any grade. They're all over the place. So I have kids who are doing college level math, but they're right on, they're on right on level on their grade level on reading. And then in science, maybe they're one, one level ahead. And they're like,
00:15:28
Speaker
They get that question and my kids it makes them look like the biggest idiots because they kind of roll their eyes over at me and they're like What grade am I in again? Mom doesn't know I'm like, um, I think it's for I kind of keep track of where my oldest should be and then I just kind of count down Yeah, I think she's fourth grade. Yep
00:15:52
Speaker
I know. I'm so bad at two. I always go back. I start pull up both pants and I start counting on my fingers. Well, let's see. If you were, let's see, you're eight years old. So that would have been, let's see, first, second, third. Oh yeah. You've been in third grade if you were. Well, unless we would have started you later, cause you had a later birthday, maybe that four, third, second. Yeah. Thanks guys.
00:16:14
Speaker
Yeah. So my point here is that school is not a balance. In homeschool, homeschool is not a balance. You do not get an hour for each subject and then move on. It's not a balance. You don't get equal time for each topic in our homeschool anyway. If you love math, sure, do math all day long as long as you don't fall behind on your reading. So it's a little different. It's a lot different than a public school where the bell rings and you go to a different class because the time is up.
00:16:43
Speaker
There are no bells, there is no time up. You can spend as much time as you want studying horses a whole year if you want.
00:16:51
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. And you know, really that mimics real life and adulthood so much more closely because if you're not a math type learner, you're probably not going to be an engineer. If you don't love biology, you're probably not going to go to med school, right? So we naturally gravitate towards the things that we're good at because we're passionate about them and we enjoy them and they're easy for us. So why restrict that? You know, a lot of people think, well, the kid has to learn to write. Well, of course he does. He has to have some rudimentary writing skills.
00:17:19
Speaker
But we don't have to punish him with hour after hour after hour of writing if his passion is really in setting the animals outside, right? So I really love that. It seems to breed a lot more contentment and happiness in their learning when they can focus on the things they love. Yeah, absolutely.
Structuring and Scheduling Homeschool Days
00:17:35
Speaker
Okay, so we have used lots of different resources around our house and we have come to realize the same as you, Audrey, that every child has such a vastly different learning style from another one.
00:17:45
Speaker
Um, and giving each child a chance to learn in their own way has been a wonderful blessing, but I'll admit also a big challenge because I learned a specific way and you know, many of us think that our way is the best way. I just, I'm just going to throw that out there. Um, and so it has been a challenge for me to realize, Oh, he is still learning when he's out playing or he's doing this or that or this or that, because it's not sitting there with a notebook and a pencil and a textbook doesn't mean it's not learning. And that's been a really big blessing to finally accept that.
00:18:16
Speaker
You know, sometimes I have even changed a curriculum because I'm tired of teaching that curriculum. And it worked fine. Like for example, teaching my kids to read, I taught my first four kids to read using this one book. And when my fifth kid came around, it would have worked fine to teach that kid how to read, but I was just over it. I was not going to use that book again to teach that kid how to read. I was just done. So it's okay to switch if you're tired of the curriculum too.
00:18:43
Speaker
Totally. Totally. That's another awesome, flexible aspect of home schooling. All right. So once you have your goals figured out and your objective laid out, your method chosen, determine what your structure will look like. So we've done a whole episode on circle time because Bonnie and I love to have a circle time in the morning.
00:19:04
Speaker
And so maybe your day, your structure looks like a circle time together and then individual learning. Or maybe you start the day with a nature walk and then read aloud time or something else. And feel free to change. Mix it up. Once you try something and it works awesome, keep it. And part of it doesn't work. We'll toss that out and try something different.
00:19:26
Speaker
It has take, I think that every year that I homeschool and I'm on year. Okay. Now I'm, now I'm sending like my kids when they're asked how many, what grade they're in. I'm probably on your 15 or 17 of homeschooling and every single year has looked different because it can, because we're learning different things. We're growing, we're changing and, and we want to.
00:19:54
Speaker
Yeah, and every child has different needs every year, really. Yeah, and some things we like and we keep doing it and some things just don't work and we're not going to go through that again. I have to say right here that if I could tell every potential homeschooler one thing or any parent who just wonders how homeschooling is possible, it would be this. Homeschool should not look like a classroom.
00:20:18
Speaker
Let me just repeat that for emphasis. Homeschool should not look like a traditional classroom. And to the extent that we try to make it and force it to look like traditional school, that's the extent to which we will probably fail. Honestly, that sounds excessive. But in my experience, the more I try to mimic that traditional public school setting,
00:20:38
Speaker
the more my kids fight back. And that's probably the first thing that friends have told me over the years and especially a lot lately is, but my kids don't listen to me. We'll need to hire a tutor. My kids don't listen to me. I'm like, but you're not the teacher. You're just the mom, right? Like if we go into it expecting to teach, you know, to stand up there and lecture like a public school teacher does and they're sitting at the desk and they have to listen and take notes.
00:21:00
Speaker
It's going to last about five seconds and then you're going to mute me on your hands. I don't know. Maybe some people's kids actually do that. Mine have never done that and probably never will. It's just not how
00:21:12
Speaker
most kids naturally learn, I don't think. It works well in traditional schools because that's how it's set up. It's set up for a classroom full of 20 to 30 kids of the same age who know the rules and who have, you know, a stranger at the front of the classroom to teach them. It just doesn't work like that in a family. So with that in mind, we have to set up our family learning environment to
00:21:34
Speaker
be in line with how a family works, right? Everybody does independent learning and then we come together for a little bit and then we go apart again, you know, and, and again, it's so, there's so much trial and error in that, but it just needs to look so much differently than a regular classroom does. Yeah. The baby is the lesson, right? Yeah, that's right. Yeah. So what, what our house looks like during learning time, um, we have schedules. We do have schedules because, um, we have to,
00:22:04
Speaker
cycle the amount of kids that we have through the computer at a certain time. So they do get a schedule that tells them what they have to complete that day or that week.
00:22:14
Speaker
and then their time that they get the computer. Now, a schedule sounds rigid, but it really does allow everyone to be relaxed because they know when their time is coming that they get the computer and they can work on something else in the other time. The other thing my kids love about a schedule is they can look at it and they can see the entire list of what they need to get done that day and they can work at it on their own pace.
00:22:39
Speaker
around the times when they don't, it's not their computer time. So yeah, it sounds rigid, but it really is a nice way to kind of set the minds at ease of everybody that because they know that they can work at their own pace. So we do have some together time. We have individual time where I work
00:22:59
Speaker
one-on-one or you know one with a baby on my lap individual time and then their self-teaching time so the older my kids get the less together an individual time they need and the more self-teaching time they have so that they are always headed toward our motto learning to learn where they are teaching themselves and and they can master anything that way so then they have the confidence that
00:23:25
Speaker
I can do anything because I taught myself biology. Mom gave me all the materials and she helped me when I needed it and needed it. And dad discussed things with me, but I taught myself biology and that's really confidence building.
00:23:37
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. And if you think about all the rest of us that went to, you know, traditional schooling, or if you did, maybe you were homeschooled, we can attest to the fact that most of us didn't learn those skills until college. I remember getting to college and I was a great student in high school, straight A's and I knew how to, or thought I knew how to study and accomplish things. And I get to college and I was like,
00:23:58
Speaker
I don't know how to learn. I do not know how to get this stuff to stay in my brain. And so I had to, you know, more trial and error only with expensive college credit that I was wasting to try to learn how to learn. And so I love that you're teaching your kids that so early on. And we all have the power to do that, right? Yeah. Yeah. What's interesting is to listen to my two kids that are in college talk about how frustrating it is to be in the classroom with kids that don't know how to learn.
00:24:26
Speaker
and look around at their classmates and just in disbelief, like, I cannot believe this kid was on their phone while the professor was giving this lecture because how do they expect to learn this material? You know, that kind of thing. Yeah. They're already so much more disciplined because they've been teaching themselves for so long.
00:24:43
Speaker
Yeah. And paying for their own education helps them pay attention. Oh, yes it does. Oh, yes it does. You don't waste a college class if you're a band board. So I like that you brought up schedules, because we've talked about this in so many episodes. If there's no structure, then everything falls apart, right? If you fail to plan, you plan to fail kind of a thing. Yeah. It doesn't mean that every half an hour has to be structured.
00:25:04
Speaker
We've talked about block schedules and numerous ways of organizing your time, but kids have to know, kids have to have structure. If they don't have structure, everything falls apart and then they're just begging for screens or whatever all day long, TV or candy or whatever your junk of choice is at your house.
Encouraging Independence and Creativity
00:25:22
Speaker
So our house looks pretty similar to Audrey's. We have our circle time in the morning. We have more small children, so we have a lot more of that read aloud, hands-on learning time together.
00:25:33
Speaker
And then we have three older children that do do a lot of independent study time as well, and one that has started taking some online classes as well.
00:25:41
Speaker
Our day looks like a lot of life skills. My kids learn to do their own laundry at eight. Most of my kids can fry an egg by the time they're five or six. Granted with supervision, nobody call the authorities on me for supervising stove usage. But they learn very early on how to make pancakes because they want to and they're right there and there's a lot of mouths to feed and so they pitch in and they help out. Lots of outdoor exploration when the weather is nice, playing with friends, developing an imagination, and lots and lots of reading alone time.
00:26:11
Speaker
If they're bored, I say go read a book. And if you don't want to read a book, go listen to a book. And if you don't want to do that, go play outside. Those are your options.
00:26:19
Speaker
Yeah. When my kids come to me and tell me they're bored, they don't do it very often because they know I'm going to say, oh, you're bored? Okay, let me get out my list. All right, let's see. The toilet hasn't been cleaned since Thursday, so somebody could do that. And they're like, oh, wait, wait, wait, my mom. I had something else I was going to do. And they go play and entertain themselves. They do not come to me. I am not their source of entertainment.
00:26:45
Speaker
I have heard of people making board lists or board charts or whatever. My kids don't use the word board very often for some reason, but instead they start whining and they say, there's nothing to do like that. So I think maybe I'll have a nothing to do list and I'll go, oh, great. Now we can start tackling these things and pull it out. I'm sure they'll disappear in no time. So you need a schedule for your own or a structure for your own sanity as well as theirs. Amen. Yeah.
00:27:12
Speaker
All right, so Bonnie and I wanted to just give a little pep talk on what this chance to homeschool could do for your kids. So we were going to end this, wrap it up by talking about our hopes for your kids. Will you allow us to do that for a second? So what, what this could do homeschooling could do for your kids is freedom. So I don't know, I don't know how to put enough emphasis on that word, but if your kids could have the freedom,
00:27:42
Speaker
It would be, it would be such an amazing thing. Like the future would be different. It could be an introduction to thinking outside the box. Thinking, coming up with, like we're just laughing about, coming up with their own things to do instead of somebody always telling them what to do.
00:27:59
Speaker
My kids do not know how to stand in a line because they've never stood in a line. They don't know what a bell means because in a school, they wouldn't know what to do because they've never heard a bell ring. But they do know how to think outside the box. They do know how to entertain themselves. They do know how to come up with their own ideas and inventions. Here's one thing that homeschool could be a chance for your kids, ability to proceed at their own pace.
00:28:25
Speaker
So I was talking about kids that are way ahead in math or, you know,
00:28:30
Speaker
Maybe they're slower in math and they need extra time to learn their multiplication tables. And just the confidence you can give them in giving them the ability to proceed at their own pace. I don't think anything can replace that because instead of feeling like, oh, I'm stupid because I'm behind everybody else, they could have confidence. It took me two years to learn my multiplication tables, but I did it. And I would love that for your kids.
00:28:57
Speaker
Home school could be the way that your kids could learn their own strengths and weaknesses. And really, this is huge in my kids being able, learning to learn, is they learn what they're good at and they learn what they're not great at. And they learn how to adapt because of that. They know themselves. They know how they learn. They know what's easy for them. They know what's hard for them. And I didn't learn that kind of stuff till I was in college.
00:29:21
Speaker
And the last thing I thought of for your kids, it could be a chance for them to do an intense deep dive into something they're really interested in. I mentioned my son, you know, loving horses and doing a deep dive on that. But what if your kid is really, has some musical talent that, you know, most schools are cutting out their arts and music programs. Well, what if your kid is the gifted kid in music?
00:29:47
Speaker
I know a lot of homeschoolers who homeschool because they're because of a child who has a special interest. And so they homeschool so that their child can do a deep dive on music or football or gymnastics or you fill in the blank. What does your kid love? What does your kid want to do an intense deep dive in? And that's what that's what my hope is for your kids. That's what homeschool could do for them.
Potential Benefits of Homeschooling
00:30:10
Speaker
It could be their chance to excel in something that they really love and they're really good at.
00:30:16
Speaker
Yeah, that's so beautiful. I loved every aspect of your hope for the future, these future kids. And I love that you mentioned that last thing about the deep dive into something they're passionate about. My oldest daughter recently decided that she wanted to go into the next level up at her dance studio.
00:30:30
Speaker
And it requires 10 hours of lessons a week, you know, including some practice at home. And I just thought, you know, if she were in school, I'd never see her. Three days a week, she'd be gone from seven o'clock in the morning to eight o'clock at night. But as it is, we still have our time in the morning. She still has plenty of time to learn and to play with her siblings, to help out around the house. And then she's gone in the afternoon and the evening pursuing something she's really passionate about and really talented at. And I'm so grateful that we still have time at home with her because that's where we're doing the rest of our education.
00:31:00
Speaker
So some of my hopes for those of you who are really considering homeschool are these. Well, first of all, I just have to say, think for a second. I know people are paranoid about not giving their kid enough education, right? But think for a second if your child, heaven forbid, became seriously ill one year, right? And had to stay out of school for a whole year. That happens, right? Or was in a car accident or something terrible happened. They couldn't go to school for a whole year.
00:31:26
Speaker
They would probably have some homework be sent home. They'd do some work here and there as they could. But they would probably have very little trouble catching up the next year. They would just, you know, maybe get a tutor on the side, work a little bit harder. And that's assuming they did almost nothing for a whole year, right? But likely they would, it'd be very unlikely for them to suffer really adverse educational effects from that year off.
00:31:47
Speaker
So really, no matter what you do or don't do, I can promise you that your kids will probably be just fine. Even if for the next year you're like, well, I don't know what we want, what we can do, but I don't want to send them to school, so we're just going to stay home and read books together. Fine. They'll be fine. Seriously. Or maybe we'll just stay home and, you know, go on nature hikes and, uh, play Legos. Great. I think they'll be fine doing that too. You know, I'm just here to say that so much of the pressures that we put on our kids educationally,
00:32:15
Speaker
are really not that big of a deal in the long term of things. Now, you don't want to never do any education because chances are good they won't be so great off. But I'm just saying that in the long term scheme of things, a semester or a year of just taking things easy and spending time together is not going to hurt them. And on the other hand, think of what they can learn at home with you, even for a short time. They can learn how to get along with siblings. Now, I'm not saying our kids don't fight when they're at home, but they have so many more hours to
00:32:45
Speaker
to learn to play together, how to use their imagination, how to become responsible for their own education, which has been the biggest gift that I've seen in my older kids, how to prepare meals, how to clean the house, how to be responsible for their own
00:33:00
Speaker
their own possessions, how to serve the community, how to rest, how to breathe, how to develop their spirituality, connect with their family and friends, focus on what's most important. I mean, seriously, we could go on forever, but those are some of my really exciting dreams for those who choose to homeschool.
00:33:18
Speaker
Yeah, those are all really, really good points too. And I think what Bonnie and I are just like holding our breath waiting to see is how many people are going to homeschool in this coming year and how beautiful it's going to be. Like, yes, there will be struggles. Yes, absolutely. Your kids will fight. You'll have days you want to just send them back to public school, whatever. But the future beyond that, I just feel like it's going to be amazing. I agree with you. I agree.
00:33:47
Speaker
All we're trying to do here with this episode and so many other homeschooling episodes is just to give you a glimpse into what's possible. Not to get to convince anyone who's determined that it's not for them, that's fine. But if you think that that might be the best possibility for your family, you can do it. We promise you can. So with that, we just want to say that we are so excited to see what happens. Feel free to email us with any questions or concerns regarding homeschooling or any potential topics for the future. We'd love to talk about it. And we're excited to see what happens.
Supporting the Podcast
00:34:18
Speaker
Thanks so much for tuning in. Did you know you can help the podcast in several ways? First up we're on Patreon and there are three different levels to support us there.
00:34:27
Speaker
Just head to patreon.com slash outnumbered. Next step, if you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a written review on iTunes. It helps other parents find the podcast and receive the help you're enjoying. And finally, you can follow us on Instagram at outnumbered the podcast. We're always having fun over there too. As usual, if you have any questions or ideas for future episodes, you can reach us at outnumbered the podcast at gmail.com. Thanks for all your support. We'll talk to you next week.