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SCAIHS Stories: Homeschooling in South Carolina
Interviews with homeschool parents and students. We'll talk about why people chose to homeschool, what the experince was like, what went well and what didn't, how it compared to public or private school, and how South Carolina Assocication of Independent Home Schools (SCAIHS) helped.
SCAIHS Stories: Homeschooling in South Carolina
Katie - Feeling Supported
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Katie, a homeschool mom of two with 1 year of experience under her belt, discusses how the Lord “moved her” to homeschool, the excitement she has in seeing the light bulb moments in her children, and the breath of fresh air she experienced from the support of her seasoned SCAIHS counselor.
Questions or remarks can be sent to schomeschooling.com or scaihs@scaihs.org.
Podcast Production: Bob Slone Audio Productions
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/bobslone
Welcome back to Sky Stories. Today we're talking with Katie.
SPEAKER_07Katie, how did you first hear about homeschooling? Oh goodness, such a funny story. Um, I always said I would never homeschool my children. I always said that was great for other people. It became kind of became like a running joke in our family. My husband wanted us to homeschool before we even had kids. So he would always tell everybody, we're gonna homeschool. And I would look over at him and say, Who? Who's homeschooling? Are you homeschooling them? I had no desire whatsoever to homeschool. Um, and then I had children, and my oldest went to a school that we loved, and he did kindergarten, he did first grade, and he thrived, and we loved it, and we were involved. And then the summer after his first grade, I realized I really miss him when he's not here. And I think that took me by surprise because kids just go to school. Right. They go to kindergarten, you don't think about like, and we love our school, it was great, and it was doing he was amazing at it. And the teachers were wonderful, and the teachers were wonderful, and he was thriving, and we knew the Lord was there, and it was an amazing Christian school, and it was just kind of when he was home over the summer, it was just this little small voice that was saying, You've waited so long for this boy. Like you've waited so long for these children, you don't want to be away from them. Yeah, you don't want to like you don't want to miss this, and I just kept putting it off. All of our friends' homeschool, it was just kind of like one of those things where I thought like I was fighting it just on principle because I said I didn't want to. Yeah, and then throughout the summer, it came to like three weeks before school started. We had uniforms or we had tuition paid, we had everything set, and I just looked at my husband and I just lost it. And I said, I can't.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I can't send him back.
SPEAKER_07I can't send him back. And my husband was like, Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on a second. What do you mean that you have fought this for so long? And I feel like I said, I feel like I'm disobeying the Lord. If I send him back, I feel like we send him back, the Lord will honor it, yeah, and he's gonna thrive and he's gonna do amazing. I said, but I do feel like if we send him back, this might be the last summer of like his innocent childhood because he had just turned seven, he still plays with army men, he's still outside being adventurous, like he's he's not growing up too fast. But I thought the Lord was saying, like, this will be the last summer of just like this young innocence boy. And I was like, oh gosh, I'm not ready for him to grow up yet. I'm not ready to miss all of these like little tiny little boys. Cause to me, seven is still such like a little, they're still so tiny, and yeah, so that's why I just looked at my husband and I was like, I don't know how, but I want to keep him home. And here we are. Here we are. Sorry, that was a long explanation, but it was just so crazy how the Lord was just like, I said the Lord would have to move me to homeschool. And he did, God did, and he did, yep, and he did. Yes, I love it. So, how many kids do you have? I have two. I have um a son, Jackson, who is seven and about to be eight, he'll tell you. Um, and a daughter, Maddox, who's four, and she'll tell you she's almost five. Of course.
SPEAKER_05So they're they're so anxious to rush it, aren't they?
SPEAKER_07Yes, and I'm over here, slow down, slow down.
SPEAKER_05I was just listening to C.S. Lewis last night, and he was talking about how play prepares kids for being an adult and how they want to pretend to be adults, and how that's preparing them. And so I I think it's it's a good tension to hold, wanting to keep them innocent, but also preparing them through appropriate play.
SPEAKER_07Exactly. And that's I think has blown me away in this past year of homeschooling. Um is just how much play that my seven-year-old gets. And he's just wild and he's free and he's dirty and he's outside all the time, and he looks like a little hot mess all the time, you know. But the amount that he's learning through just play outside, he's changed into he was already an amazing child, but I feel like I see like his innocent true spirit after this year, like you get to nurture that, yeah, and I get to be the one to see it. And it's I feel like that has I've heard about it and I've seen people post about it on social media, you know, wild and free. But I'm like, oh, there it is. Yeah, there it is, and I love it.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, oh, that's so great. So you didn't start out with skates. No, no, so how did you find out about us to begin with?
SPEAKER_07Well, honestly, so when I mean, we were literally we pulled him out of school, we withdrew the the week before school started, and it was tensions were so high in our house because I was like, I don't know what to do. I I literally have no clue because I fought the idea of homeschooling for so long that it wasn't even something that I wanted to look in or understand the options. Um thankfully I have a lot of friends who are homeschooled and have been homeschooling for a while. Yes, and so literally just called my best friend and said, What do I do? Like, where do I go? Yeah. And I honestly Googled how to homeschool in South Carolina. And then I think I Googled like cheapest homeschool association because I didn't know, I had no clue. And you had already paid tuition. I had already paid tuition. And so unfortunately, it was just one of those things where we're like, okay, we've and then I get overwhelmed with buying curriculum. And we joined a co-op that we we do classical conversations, and it is beautiful and amazing, but it's it just felt so overwhelming to say, like, okay, we're leaving this old thought process of education behind, like what we thought we were doing. Now we have to jump in. And I got very overwhelmed with like laws and legality, and am I doing this right? And what papers do I sign, and what do I have to be? And so I just signed up for the first cheapest one that I knew would quote unquote make me legal. Right, absolutely. And that works, that's what some people need. Exactly. And it was totally fine, but you get what you pay for, and I was having to do all of the research and try to understand what was actually true research and what was actually true, and how do I do this? And there's so much false information. There's so much false information, and there are so many people who believe that they're experts because they've been homeschooling for so long, but that doesn't necessarily mean that that's how I want to homeschool. Right.
SPEAKER_05They're an expert for their homeschool family, but they're not an expert for my homeschool family.
SPEAKER_07Exactly. I think that is when you have so much freedom on a topic, you're gonna get every single point.
SPEAKER_06Absolutely.
SPEAKER_07Um, and so I just realized after the shock of like, okay, we're home. I think it's taken this full school year to kind of get to the place where it's like, okay, I know what I want out of homeschooling now. And we just took this year very slow and it was very messy, and I laugh all the time about it. Um, but then I'd heard friends talk about skase. I'd have a friend who this family family loves skates, but I was like, oh, but I don't need all that. Like I don't I don't even know what I feel like that's the thing, I didn't know what I needed.
SPEAKER_05Right.
SPEAKER_07Because I was just in the the haze of first-time homeschooling. Um and then uh when I finally learned what SKES provided, I was hooked.
SPEAKER_05Nice.
SPEAKER_07It was all of the things that I was trying to become an expert on my own when there were already people who are experts in this field, and I didn't have to learn every single nitty-gritty thing. They had already figured it out. And they had helped write the laws. So why would I not want to go to the experts who had already who were literally the ones who helped create all of this? So enter SKES, praise the Lord.
SPEAKER_05Wonderful.
SPEAKER_07And so you've had a good experience, an amazing experience. Um, so we signed up, we scheduled our first meeting with Miss Beth, um, our elementary counselor, and I remember going into that Zoom call and just starting out and saying, Listen, Miss Beth, I'm gonna be one of those hot mess parents. I'm just I'm gonna put it out there. I don't know how to do X, Y, Z. I'm all of my grading is very messy. I don't even know if I'm doing it right. And she literally just laughed. And she was like, You are fine. I feel like I told her everything that I was doing wrong and everything that I like papers that I hadn't filled out, you know, I didn't know I was supposed to do this, this, this, and this. And she just, you're fine. Don't stress. Yeah, she's like, she's like, You're fine. You're kidding that's what I'm here for.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_07And I think I just took like a it was just a breath talking to her, and she was like, just tell me about your kids. Tell me about your family. Yeah, why do you want to homeschool? Like, what is your vision for your children homeschooling? And let's walk through it.
SPEAKER_05And that's a vision, that's a question you might not even have been able to have answered the very first time you sat down. No. Way back, way back. Yeah, your first year. Yes. You you have developed that vision over this year, right?
SPEAKER_07Yes, yes. What what I you know, the curriculums I thought I wanted to do, or I had an idea, or how we're gonna structure our days, like, you know, you can get so much information and so many examples, but it's what works for our lifestyle and what works for my children. And what do I want to work for my children? Yeah, and a lot of that's a little bit of trial and error. Exactly, exactly. You know, and and realizing like we're not just it does nothing is set in stone, it's not concrete because life isn't that way, right, you know, and we love to travel with my husband, so it's how do we homeschool and travel with my husband, you know, and how do I I feel like I always joke around that I took my son out of school at the easy time because he could already read and do math. I'm like, oh, so he could sit down and read and do math. But now I've got a five-year-old, almost five-year-old. I'm like, oh, I'm doing math and reading. And I could talk to Miss Beth and say, like, hey, I'm actually really intimidated by this because Jackson could already read and write, so I didn't have to do that. He had a solid foundation. I'm very intimidated about teaching my five-year-old to read and write.
SPEAKER_05And that's valid. It can feel super scary and super overwhelming. I remember being pregnant for the first time and feeling very intimidated about being a mom. Yes. It's kind of the same idea, you know? God's gonna take you and walk with you along the step and give you everything you need just day by day.
SPEAKER_07Exactly. Exactly. And that's where she was it was so comforting for her to say, like, hey, I've got kids and we've walked through this. I've been doing this for so many years. I walked through this, we can figure it out.
SPEAKER_05Absolutely, yeah.
SPEAKER_07And it was it just built a confidence in me. She's like, You already done this for a year, and I was like, Yeah, but it was so messy and so ugly. It's messy, but it she was like, But you had your son home with you. She's like, That's not messy. Yeah, and I was like, Oh, thank you, Miss Smith. You're right. Like, it's not like it wasn't messy, it was just life, and we figured it out. Absolutely. She's like, Is he thriving? Is he doing great? Yeah, do you feel like you made the right decision? And I was like, I do. And she's like, hey, the Lord's just gonna keep honoring it, and he's gonna honor it with Maddox, just like he did with Jackson. I said, Okay, okay, Miss.
SPEAKER_05Sometimes it's nice to hear that encouragement though. We can't do it alone. No, absolutely, and you already had friends who are homeschooling, so that is super, you already had that community built in for you. Yes, yeah. Oh, I'm just so excited. I'm getting chills just talking with you, Katie. Thank you so much. Oh, I love it. So I feel like we've kind of answered this a little bit, but I'm gonna ask it pointedly. How has homeschooling benefited you and your children?
SPEAKER_07I think homeschool has allowed us to create a sense in our family and build this bond in our family to where we're just together all the time. We're doing life together. Yeah, I think that's something that's beautiful. I work from home. And so it's like it's now those, like I still have like I work at home. I own a business, and so working with my children at home and teaching, it's given us just enough structure to where we get our things done. My children like structure.
SPEAKER_06Yes. Most kids do.
SPEAKER_07It's so funny. It's like they want to be wild and free, but they want to know when that structure is coming into it. Um, and so I think it's just allowed us to create a deeper bond together of all right, listen, I'm not great at math, Jackson. Mommy's not great. We're gonna figure this out together. We're gonna figure out how to multiply together.
SPEAKER_03Absolutely.
SPEAKER_07And getting to see how his brain works and getting to say, okay, we might need a little bit more help in this, and going and finding a resource that helps.
unknownRight.
SPEAKER_07Uh that you learn better doing this. So we're gonna take our time. Yeah. And I think that he had just thrived in that because instead of rushing through to to learn something just to take a test on it, um, but like we're gonna spend three days looking at this, or we're gonna spend a week working on this specific thing until you really get it. And then seeing that light bulb go off, and it's like we get to celebrate together, absolutely, you know, and seeing the pride and joy in him. And so I think it's just grown that confidence and that bonding in our family of like, oh, we did this together. Like, do you see like we're so proud of you, Betty? We can't wait to tell daddy like what you got, you know, and rejoicing together.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, yeah. Oh, that's wonderful. I want to encourage you a little bit as you and Maddox are coming along, there might be times where you have to circle back to things. So you take that week, there is no light bulb moment, it's okay. Yeah, we'll take a pause, we'll circle back when she's ready.
SPEAKER_07Exactly.
SPEAKER_05And that's one of the beautiful freedoms of homeschooling.
SPEAKER_07I love I think it's a freedom like I just didn't know because I grew up in public school. Right. And it was just you just do this, this, and this. And some things that I thought he had mastered in school because he had gotten a hundred or an A on a test and he had never been questioned about and he could do his homework. Yeah. But then when we sit down, he didn't understand, he didn't understand it. He had just memorized, and again, we loved his teachers and we loved the education that he was getting.
SPEAKER_06Absolutely.
SPEAKER_07But it's also allowed us to focus on things that he really thrives in and other things that are like, buddy, we just have to do this. And it's okay.
SPEAKER_03Yep.
SPEAKER_07And it's okay. We don't have to spend a time, a ton of time on this, we don't have to go in depth on this, but we've got to do it. And if we do this, then we get to go do this, this, and this that you really love, and let's spend a lot of time diving into that. He's like, Oh yeah, that's good.
SPEAKER_05That's a great motivation tool. Yes, you're definitely an amazing candy. Thank you. So, in your opinion, what is the biggest benefit of joining an organization like SKES? Well, not like SKAES, but what is the biggest benefit of joining SKES?
SPEAKER_07Yes, and like everybody joins SKES, seriously. I think it's just the the expertise that is there. It's kind of my husband and I always talk about it's kind of like how we how we chose like our healthcare providers. It's how we choose lifestyles, you know, in our home. We don't need to be the expert on every single thing in our lives. I think that sometimes we always try to say that we're the expert. I'm the mom, I need to be the expert.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_07I know my boundaries, yeah, I know my limitations, I know that the Lord is gonna honor whatever decisions that we make for our family. At the same time, I believe that He puts people in positions that we can get wisdom and knowledge from. And I feel like the counselors and the staff at SKE's, they've already done that. They've gone before. Um, they actually care about your family. It's not just, okay, we don't like that curriculum you're using, we're not gonna approve it. It's like, let's sit here and talk through why you like that curriculum. Right. Miss Beth was saying, What curriculum are you currently using? And I said, Okay, well, I we really liked this, and you know, he did well on this, and so I think we're gonna do this for Maddox. And she's like, Okay, good, let's talk through it.
SPEAKER_06Absolutely.
SPEAKER_07Let's work through it. And then uh, as I'm saying, like, okay, for reading, I'm gonna do this for Maddox. I think we're gonna do this. And she's like, Okay, well, I know what I've learned is that kindergartners who use this curriculum they really thrive if you add this into it. And I said, Oh, okay. So you've already walked, you've walked through this scenario so many times that you have resources to give me. Yeah, and it was, hey, Jackson's struggling with this. And she's like, Okay, after this call, she's just taking notes. I'm gonna send you one, two, all these resources. I'm gonna send you all these lists of chapter books that my boys love, that other kids have loved. I'm gonna send you this list of curriculum that kids have just done really, really well with. And so it was just this overwhelming sense of like nothing I said hadn't been heard before.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_07Anything that I was worried about hadn't been processed before. And so it was like, okay, we can we'll figure it out. Yeah. If I don't know it, I'll look it up. Like I'll figure it out. You don't have to pioneer. There are already people who have done that for you. Yes. And I think that was so just comforting to me to say, like, I don't have to be the last. Like, I get to I get the say, yes, but it doesn't all fall on my shoulders to figure out everything. Because there's no way that I can research all the information about homeschooling that is out there. Um, and so I think it's just been so nice that I can sit down and show my husband, like, hey, this is what we're doing with SKES, like this is the benefit. And he the way his brain works, he's like, Well, let me I want to look at like where they stand, what they believe in, like their track record. Yeah. And so when he looks into Skaze's track record, he's like, Oh, okay, that's impressive. When he listens to Zan talk.
SPEAKER_05Yes.
SPEAKER_07Yes. We love to listen to Zan's podcast.
SPEAKER_05She's so encouraging.
SPEAKER_07And and she's just so trustworthy in like, this is what we fought for. This is what we went through. This is how we literally walk with legislatures and create laws for homeschooling. I'm like, why would I not want to be aligned with the people who literally helped write the book on homeschooling in South Carolina?
SPEAKER_06Absolutely.
SPEAKER_07So that just gave us such a confidence, like, okay, yeah, why would we not be here?
SPEAKER_05Oh, that's so fun to hear. I'm gonna pivot just a little bit. You mentioned you work at home. Yes. How do you balance work and homeschool? That sounds like a lot.
SPEAKER_07Yes. We like I said, it is messy and we are figuring it out. Um, and it is stretching us in ways that I didn't know we needed to be stretched. That's always the truth. Um, but we just take it very slow. We have slow mornings. My children are not early risers, praise the Lord. Sounds like you're not either. No, we uh which were we're so fine. Um, but it's just been nice because the amount of work that I th I was expecting that we had to do in a day is not even anywhere close. Right. You know, it's not a it's not school at home. Yeah. And I think I had to get that out of my way because of way of thinking because our previous education was very structured, very structured, buried to the T. Um, and again, my son thrived in that.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_07And so I was nervous bringing him home, taking him away from that structure that he wouldn't thrive as well as he did in his classroom. Um, so we just figured out that morning, breakfast, we've got to get protein in our body or those brains are not gonna work. And just taking it slow and just putting the expectation I write our expectations for the day on a whiteboard and say we need to get this, this, and this done, and then you're good. And when they're after they've completed something, we just we do it at the kitchen table. We don't have a cute homeschool room. We don't have this beautiful aesthetic that you see all over social media. We're doing math at the kitchen table. We're doing it on the couch. They're laying all over the kitchen floor doing it. Um and so we've just put that time in there of saying, like, we just need to get this done, and then you can go play and I just work. I love it. And if we have to take a break, if I have to have a meeting in the morning, okay, fine. We'll just we'll work around it. Yeah. And so I think it's what I thought had to be so heavily structured in order to work from home and homeschool my children is not even close to what we do.
SPEAKER_05Well, you're not managing so many kids, you're just managing your family.
SPEAKER_07Yes, yes. And I get to create my own schedule, and so it's more disciplined for me to make sure that my schedule I'm allowing myself time to work. If that's before they wake up, if that's after they go to bed, if that is something as simple as having a like if I need to having a scheduled sitter to come in, which is not for every family, right? But for me with my line of work, if there are days where I know that I have to batch work and get it done, it is more beneficial for us to have somebody come hang out with the kids.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_07And then I get all the work done than I need to.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_07And then I can just focus on my kids.
SPEAKER_05I bet with your homeschool resources, you could find a mom's helper too.
SPEAKER_07Yes, yes. And there's and that I think that's the beauty of it, is somebody thinks like, I thought if I bring my kids home, then that meant like I'm kind of copping out if I get help.
SPEAKER_03Oh no.
SPEAKER_07And I think that for some reason was ingrained. Like that was, I don't even know where I came up with that lie, but like, if I have a sitter come, if I need my kids to do this so I can get something done. Right. And the Lord just very graciously was like, no, why would I ever do that? Like, why would I say that you have to, I'm gonna bring your children home and I'm gonna give you this gift, but you have to like suffer and do it all by yourself, kind of thing. And so that was really just sweet to be like, however, you need to do this, it doesn't have to look like anybody else who's homeschooling.
SPEAKER_05Absolutely. I love that. That is key. It does not have to look like anyone else's homeschooling, not at all.
SPEAKER_07And it's my homeschooling, a lot of m most of the people that we know who homeschool actually do like a hybrid school and that works great for them, but that just wasn't it wasn't on my heart. Um, and so everybody laughs, they're like, Oh, you went very homeschool. Like you were like doing it all, you're doing all the curriculum. And I was like, Yes, we went very extreme on this, you know. But it was like we kind of wanted to go to the bottom, like, let's just bring everything home, yeah, and then see what we need instead of joining this and joining this and doing this and doing this and implementing this. It was like, let us do the most basic and take this year and decide what works for us, and then we can add in different components, and that's where I'm so excited about SKES because now, like we talked about like have that foundation of what we want our homeschool to look like for this next year, because it you know, it can change all the time. Oh, absolutely, which is so also freeing that you're like, yeah, worst case, we'll just change it, you know. And so having SKEs come in and say, like, I'm like, Miss Beth, this is what we like to do, this is how I would like our week to look. And you know, we talked about like homeschooling year-round instead of taking off big breaks because I've learned that at this age a big break is not very good for my children, you know, and so just doing like year-round homeschooling, which I had never even like comprehended before. But if we're doing an hour to a school in the morning, right, and they're doing great and it's routine, why would we stop?
SPEAKER_03Exactly.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, so it's yeah, it's so nice to just have that support of like what do you want to do? And I'm here to support what you want to do.
SPEAKER_05Absolutely. I I love hearing that from other people. I say that all the time, but I love that other people are hearing what we're saying, that that we just want to be here to support you. Yes. So have there been any drawbacks that you or your family have experienced in this homeschool journey so far?
SPEAKER_07I'm trying to think. It's I don't think there's a drawback. I think it's just learning, um, like personally learning when to pivot, learning when to say, like, okay, this is not working. Let's try something else. Not digging my heels in and saying, like, we bought this curriculum, so we're gonna do this curriculum. Yes, you know, or we said we were gonna sit down and we were gonna do all these math facts today and da-da-da. And it's just not working. Learning to uh read my children, read myself, read the tension in the household, like you know, just what's the what's the temperature, what's the environment going on right now? Okay, let's take a break, let's take a minute. Yeah, so the the humility in learning that I don't have all the answers, I am very human. Um, everybody gets frustrated with their kids. I don't want to learn multiplication again, you know. I don't want to learn division and fractions and um just the being able to say, like, okay, let's take a breath. It's okay. Yeah, you know, I said we were gonna do this, and I even told a friend we were gonna do XYZ, and we were so excited, but we're not gonna do it because that's not working, right? So let's just breathe. Yes, and let's try again tomorrow.
SPEAKER_05Okay, nitty gritty. Yes in my family, let's just breathe was we're gonna have some read aloud stories. Oh, so mom's just gonna sit on the couch and we're just gonna read whatever book we're reading. You know, maybe it's the space trilogy. My kids are older now, you know, whatever it is. Um, what does taking a breather look like for you and your family?
SPEAKER_07For us, taking a breather means um get outside.
SPEAKER_05Yes.
SPEAKER_07We uh I'll be like, go take a breather, and Jackson will run outside and he'll do he's very into military, he loves the military. He'll tell you that he's gonna be a Navy SEAL all the time. Um and so he'll go outside and he just will run around in the backyard.
SPEAKER_05And just pretend like he's a Navy SEAL.
SPEAKER_07And yes, and he'll do jumping jacks and he'll do push-ups and he'll climb on things, and it's just he needs that rebounding of just running and being a little boy and letting his brain just release for a minute.
SPEAKER_06Absolutely.
SPEAKER_07And I mean, there are days where you know we do have to get something done. Yeah, and you you do want to teach them like, hey, we not every single time you get frustrated, do we get to stop? But it's listen, if we have this page that we have to learn and we're gonna do it together, if it takes like getting one problem done, and then you get to go run outside, or you get to go jump on your bike and ride down the street and come back. We've done that so many times this year, you know, when the weather gets nice, buddy. One problem, he'll jump on his bike, he'll ride down the street, he'll come back, he'll do one problem. But it's like watching his brain just say, Okay, I can do this because he just needs to be a little kid that day. There's no need to rush, there's no need to rush, and maybe it took longer to get done, but it got done, and we're not both crying, we're not both, you know, why are we ever homeschooling again? kind of thing. And so it's just nice to say, like, okay, go run. Yeah, take a minute. Maybe I need him to run outside and go play for a little bit so I can go sit down and take a minute. And uh, you know, centering myself and bringing myself back down and regulating my own emotions and nervous system so that way I can help regulate his. Because there's no way as a parent you can regulate your children if you're not regulated yourself. And so I'm a big hothead, my nervous system is all over the place all the time. So just learning that, like, I set the tone for him, I set the tone for her. And so if I just need to take a minute, we'll come back and do it. Everybody will be okay.
SPEAKER_06Absolutely.
SPEAKER_07Yeah. Everybody has bad days. I don't know why we expect kids to not have rough days.
SPEAKER_05I know.
SPEAKER_07Or fault them for that.
SPEAKER_05Absolutely. Sometimes our expectations for not just little ones, but for others in general can be really harsh.
SPEAKER_07Yes, yes. I'm like, they're humans too. And if it's hard for me as a grown woman with life experience in a fully formed brain to regulate myself, or just be like, there are days where I'm like, I don't know why I'm in a funk. It's just a rough day.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_07Then of course, my seven and four-year-old who don't have fully formed brains, you know, how would I expect them, you know, to express or be able to regulate themselves? And it's like, just go ride your bike, go for a run, go play outside, like go read your book. That's totally fine. And we'll come back. I love it.
SPEAKER_05So if you could give some advice to families starting the process of homeschooling, what would it be?
SPEAKER_07Oh goodness, take a breath. I think that is just now being on social media, watching so many people now it's like once you're in something, you see it all the time. Like once you buy, you know, a white car, you see white cars all the time. So now it's like I'm in homeschool, so I see it. People talking about it all the time, you're in different groups, and the level of frustration or desperation I see some from people like, oh my gosh, I want to homeschool and I don't know what to do, and I'm supposed to have curriculum picked out, and I'm supposed to be joining this co-op and I'm supposed to have this many days, field trip days, this uh like I need all the information now because I'm freaking out. And I'm like, oh, I just want to like sit down with them and say, like, oh honey, just take your breath. It's okay. It's okay because I was there, I was that person. And to just have people walk alongside me and be like, you don't have to figure any of it out. Like, you can just go into it and say, Lord, I'm trusting you, I'm gonna follow you. You're not gonna lead me astray. Like, you didn't you didn't bring me to this point to just leave me here. Right, you know, and I think that oftentimes we forget that. You say, Okay, Lord, I'm gonna follow, but you're not sending me out on my own. You know, you're not gonna just leave me to homeschool these fair old children by myself, you know. Um, and so just to say, like, you can do this. You're you're gonna be equipped to do it, you're not gonna know. I mean, I think it's great to talk to people who are about to graduate, their children from homeschooling, and they're like, Oh, I still don't know how you know, like, I'm still not sure I did this, this, and this right. But we're here and it's great, and my kids thrived, and we still wouldn't change it for the world.
SPEAKER_06Absolutely.
SPEAKER_07And you're like, oh, and just to be able to share that with people like you can change it all the time. Like, that's the freedom and the beauty of homeschooling is you get to choose and you get to change and you get to adapt and evolve.
unknownYes.
SPEAKER_07And just say, like, this is what I see in my children, this is what I want to push in my children, so we're gonna go this path. Yeah, and maybe next year we're gonna go this path, right? You know, and saying, like, there's nothing wrong in saying, like, hey, I need to change something up.
SPEAKER_05Absolutely, absolutely, yeah. Like you were saying, you make those changes in the day-to-day, you make those changes in the week the week, the month to month. Yeah, it's it comes along as it comes along. Exactly. And there's no need to know the whole story ahead of time.
SPEAKER_07Exactly. And that was so kind of Miss Beth just to say, Hey, here's my number. If you have any questions, it I was like, I feel like I'm gonna ask you so many silly questions. And she's like, This is my job. Like, it wouldn't be my job if I didn't want to answer those questions for you. And she's like, and they're not silly, how would you know the answer to that? She's like, but that's what I'm here for. And she was like, and if you email me and I don't get back, she's like, if I'm ever out of town, somebody else will answer my email for me. She's like, there will always be an answer for you. She's like, you can't do anything wrong. We've got you taken care of. She's like, it my hope is that you should just feel supported. And I don't know the answer, but there's somebody who either knows it or is gonna figure it out. And if you forget to do something, don't worry, Katie. I'll remind you that we've got to do, you know, this, this, and this.
SPEAKER_06Absolutely.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, it was it was just very comforting to like, oh, I don't have to worry about, you know, these requirements or this. Because Miss Beth, if she needs something from me, she'll get it. Yeah. So now I can just focus on, I can put the energy that I would have put into, like all the legalities, all of the staying le you know, those kind of things, record keeping, books, all that stuff. Now I can just transfer all of that energy into my family.
SPEAKER_03Yes.
SPEAKER_07And if they need me, you know, if if Miss Beth needs me, she'll you know, she'll reach out. But now I don't have to worry about all those things.
SPEAKER_05That's so refreshing to hear. It is so freeing, lifting.
SPEAKER_07It is, yes, yes, because it was all these things that were in the back of my head. Am I doing this right? And do I need to send this in? Who do I send this in to? Who do I even contact about, you know, this, this, and this? And she's like, No, I got it.
SPEAKER_06Yep.
SPEAKER_07It's like handled. And I said, But I didn't really do this well last year. I didn't do this one thing well. Do I need and she goes, it's a new year?
SPEAKER_05It's a new year.
SPEAKER_07She said, What's in the past is in the past. You're perfectly fine. We're going into a new year. She said, Fresh start, Katie. Take what you want with you from that and leave behind what you don't want to do again. And I was like, okay, fresh start, new mercies. It was great.
SPEAKER_05I love it.
SPEAKER_07Yeah.
SPEAKER_05So any final thoughts or parting bits of advice that you have for us?
SPEAKER_07I think just trust where the Lord has brought you. It's something I just have to tell myself all the time. Um, there's no finality in anything. You know, I always say, like, worst case scenario, I could send my kids back to a school that I love.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_07Like, you know, not everybody has that, you know, that background. Um, but I'm like, it's not like a a make or break who they are gonna be as a person. You know, you know, their entire future hangs in the balance of this one year of homeschooling. I'm like, it's no, no, and I think just enjoy your kids. That's something that I'm just excited about. Just I just get to enjoy my kids and not try to cram in, you know, all of our family stuff or just being around them for a few hours a day. Like I literally just get to be with them.
unknownYes.
SPEAKER_07The good, the bad, the ugly, you know, kind of thing. But it's like, oh, just like embrace that and don't get so bogged down on, you know, the social media influencer of how she homeschools her kids and the beauty and like the way that people portray. You need this, this, this, this, and this to homeschool. You don't need anything to homeschool. You just need your kids. You just need you and your kids, and you're doing it. And that's enough. Like that's the child who learns in a beautifully curated aesthetic homeschool room can learn just as much sitting on the couch with mom.
SPEAKER_06Absolutely.
SPEAKER_07You know, wherever it or in the car, wherever it needs to be. So just trusting in that, like it you don't need as much as you think you need.
SPEAKER_05Absolutely. Well, thank you so much for joining us today, Katie. It's been an absolute pleasure. And thank you for listening today. Remember to follow, like, and share skay stories, and I'll be talking with you soon.
SPEAKER_00Thank you for listening to today's episode. If you have any questions or just want to find out more about skates, you can find us online at scomeschooling.com. Or email us at S C A I H S at SCAIHS.org. This podcast was produced by Bob Sloan Audio Productions.