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The Homeschool How To
I don't claim to know anything about homeschooling, so I set out on a journey to ask the people who do! Join me as I chat with homeschoolers to discuss; "why are people homeschooling," "what are all the ways people are using to homeschool today," and ultimately, "should I homeschool my kids?"
The Homeschool How To
#95: How To Make Homeschooling Super Simple
Discover the heartfelt journey of Jenny Hedrick as she transitions from a successful career in therapy to a devoted homeschooling mom, sharing her inspiring story on our podcast. Her background working with at-risk youth further fueled her decision to homeschool, allowing us to explore her dedication to instilling core values in her children.
With Jenny, we unravel the complexities of homeschooling and learn how to make this educational path both simple and enriching. We discuss strategies to balance core subjects with engaging activities, ensuring each child's unique needs are met. Amid life’s challenges, like house moves, Jenny shares tips on fostering independent learning and nurturing a lifelong love of knowledge, all while maintaining the flexibility homeschooling offers.
Our conversation also dives into the intricate world of homeschooling curricula, addressing the challenges and joys of finding the right fit. Jenny provides insights on accommodating different learning needs, such as dyslexia, and the benefits of using tools like nature study notebooks to document and celebrate educational progress. Together, we highlight the importance of social interactions and real-world learning, promising listeners an episode filled with both practical advice and heartfelt inspiration.
Find Jenny:
Website: www.supersimplehomeschool.net
YouTube: www.youtube.com/@supersimplehomeschool
IG: www.instagram.com/mysupersimplehomeschool
True North Online Academy, offering 2nd- 12th grade live online and self paced classes as well as a cutting edge Dual Degree program, (students can earn a high school diploma and an accredited Bachelor’s Degree concurrently)! At TNOA you can find ebooks, testing, advising, workshops and more!
WriteStories by Scriptive- use code THSHT33 for 33% OFF! Encourage reluctant writers and emerging storytellers to write their own stories using illustrations from children's books.
Let's Talk, Emergencies! - Cheryl's children's book, and don't forget
The Activity Book!
The Tuttle Twins - use code Cheryl40 for 40% off ages 5-11 book series
Instagram: TheHomeschoolHowToPodcast
Facebook: The Homeschool How To Podcast
Welcome to this week's episode of the Homeschool How-To. I'm Cheryl and I invite you to join me on my quest to find out why are people homeschooling, how do you do it, how does it differ from region to region, and should I homeschool my kids? Stick with me as I interview homeschooling families across the country to unfold the answers to each of these questions week by week. Welcome, and with us today I have Jenny Hedrick, and she is from the Super Simple Homeschool Podcast. Jenny, thank you for being here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1:I remember back before, before I had a podcast, and before I was homeschooling, and I had a government job and I had three breaks a day, and I listened to so many podcasts. Now I, like I don't even have time to listen to my own, other than when I'm editing. So I'm putting your podcast on my list, though, because who doesn't want super simple homeschool?
Speaker 2:I mean, that's the idea. Why don't?
Speaker 1:you just start by telling us what even got you into homeschooling in the first place. Were you homeschooled yourself?
Speaker 2:I was not. So I grew up in and I grew up going to a private Christian school and I actually went to a private Christian university as well. So I went to private school K through college and then I went to a public university for my master's and I got a degree in social work and I worked as a therapist for 15 years and I still do now part time, but about, let's see, nine years ago, so so 2015 my oldest was three maybe, and I was in the MLM world and I'm no longer selling any products like that. But wait, what's MLM there?
Speaker 2:were a lot of multi-level marketing. Okay, so you know, like selling, I sold essential oils.
Speaker 1:Okay, all right, so kind of like the pyramid thing. You know what I'm talking about. Yes, mary Kay, that sort of stuff.
Speaker 2:Yes, all those things. So I was in that community and what I found was there were a lot of homeschool moms in that community who were, you know, working part time, trying to earn some extra income and homeschooling their kids. And that was really my first exposure to homeschooling and I really thought what a cool thing that these moms get to do to be home with their kids and spend all that time together. And I wasn't ready At the time. I had two sons that were three and two and I just wasn't ready to launch them into the world. And granted, and I just wasn't ready to launch them into the world, and granted, I still had a few years, but I couldn't even imagine letting them go out of the home so many hours of the day and the week.
Speaker 2:And so over the next couple of years, before my son started getting to school age, I really mulled around with the idea of how could we do this, because I was still working full time. I told my husband, I said I think I want to homeschool and he said, okay, I don't know how that's going to work, but you know, let's see if we can figure it out. And so the year, two years after that, I essentially retired from my job as a therapist and stayed home, and I've been homeschooling ever since, and we're in our eighth year of homeschooling now. So cool.
Speaker 1:I love that. So your main reason was kind of like, I'm just not ready to like unleash them into the world, which, yes, like if you're, if you don't question anything, then it doesn't. It's like yep, that's just what you do. You send them off on a bus. But it's so funny because the school down the road from me, their bus garage is on my road and every time I drive by there's a huge sign saying we need bus drivers. We need bus drivers, we'll pay, good, we'll train and I'm going. Well, who the heck are they going to get to drive Like? This potentially would be my kid around. You're so desperate. Who's doing it now? Are you just like finding Bob off the corner that you know has like a bicycle license to drive? Like, like. Can you imagine my six year old like getting on this bus with someone that we don't know? We don't know them, we don't trust them, and then getting them to the right place and then bringing them back Like. It's bizarre when you're when you step out, it's normal.
Speaker 1:It's like you never questioned it.
Speaker 2:But I get that Absolutely. Yeah, and it was. It was really for me. It became. It became more than that as we went through. You know, like this was back in 2017 when we started and at the time I thought, you know, I really do want to just keep my kids home so I can teach them about the Lord and about Jesus, and I wanted to really instill in them like a biblical worldview, and so that was a big motivation for me as we went on. Is then seeing everything that started happening in public schools just really, you know, was the final nail on the coffin for me. I'm like, yeah, we're staying in this in this life.
Speaker 1:When you were a therapist? Were you a therapist?
Speaker 2:in a school? So I wasn't. I actually did my master's practicum in a public high school and I hated it. I hated it. I did not ever beyond that. I never went back into the schools. But I did work with youth when I first started out and that was really really challenging because I was working with youth who were really at risk and had had really traumatic things happen to them and, you know, couldn't even function in a normal society. So they were in group homes and you know, when you see what is possible and granted, that's not the school system that necessarily did that to them but when you see what can happen to kids, when you know they experience trauma, whether it's in the home or somewhere outside of the home, you realize I want to give my kids the best chance to be successful in life and for me that was homeschool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and this is probably a good question for you because you have the therapist background. Okay, I'm in, like where I mean I grew up more in like inner city school so I saw you know some stuff. But we're in now the country and you think, oh, you know, this is these would be good kids, right. But I mean, I know people who attend the local school and I know that there are parents that have, you know, addiction problems. I know that there are parents that have affairs. I know that there are, you know, parents who are maybe selling something illegal and you know.
Speaker 1:So it's not that the kids there are like watching their siblings get shot. Like you know, my friend is a teacher down in you know the city where that's what she has to deal with. She's got kids that are actually seeing like a sibling get murdered and then they're coming to school and just like, oh OK, we're all just going to, you know, learn how to spell cat today, you know. But even in a day, today's day and age I don't know if it's worse today or not, but I know we've got the social media, we've got the video games. Today or not, but I know we've got the social media, we've got the video games. We've got parents that are overworked and not really having the time or wherewithal to know that we need to spend quality time together as a family and talk. We have foods that are just plain not good for our kids. They've got chemicals and everything else in them affecting our behaviors.
Speaker 1:And then the parents that are just kind of like, well, this one drinks too much and this one, they're just not happy in their marriage. So it's not that these kids are necessarily seeing trauma per se, but they've got all these factors. And then you throw them all into the classroom with one teacher who is probably underpaid and under-resourced, like is that a recipe for just disaster? Or or is this like no, that's just life and you kind of got to get over it.
Speaker 2:You know, that's a that's a really interesting way of putting it and I think it's it's both right. I mean, for some kids the school system is the safest place for them, and you know that I will. I will just go ahead and just be honest about that. There are families that are so dysfunctional and there's so much trauma that school is a refuge and absolutely for a blessing for those children. But then you know, when you throw all those kids together, like you said, with one teacher, and they're all have all these social needs and emotional needs, and now we're seeing such a rise in mental health, much in part to some of the things that you're talking about, and then it kind of just becomes this pool where everybody is learning how to be dysfunctional.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's like you know, I think about it and I don't want to sound privileged, God forbid but it's like, okay, well, school might be the safest place for these kids and I get that and they need to be there, but you know what? You're not going to do it in front of my kid.
Speaker 1:It sounds terrible to say, but it's like, well, my kid's not going to be the sacrificial lamb so that your kid can see what normalcy looks like. Right, yeah, absolutely, and, and for my kid, the safest place for them is at home. Yeah, and, and I, you know it is hard. Teachers are just they're like. I believe most teachers are very good and I want to be there and want to do what they do, but they are. Their hands are tied between, you know, being under-resourced and having these funding or testing requirements that are all tied to funding. It really like they took away what education was supposed to be about the kid and like placed it into, you know, the bank accounts of the administrators.
Speaker 1:So your whole basis is the super simple podcast, super simple homeschool podcast. And, and I know you have like your Instagram page and you said that you have some books, so I'll let you like get into that where you've created. But I think that most people are after they say like, oh, I couldn't afford to quit my job to stay home with the kids. The next thing is, is they're like I can't handle that. I'm not, I didn't do that well in school, you know. I know before I started homeschooling, I had this vision of like, oh my God, are we? Like, do I have to like spend every Sunday night going through that week's curriculum? And like running to the store and having to buy arts and crafts and this and that, Right, and I'm just like I that could never, be me that I just I can't.
Speaker 1:I can barely get dinner on the table. Well, tell us how we can overcome these hurdles and why that. Maybe that doesn't have to be the reality of our homeschool.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, I want to address a couple of things that you said, and the first is I could never afford to do that, and I think you know that is a real hurdle for a lot of people. People think that they are, you know, working to. You know they have two household incomes. How do you get rid of one in order to stay home? And to that I just say you know, if it's important enough, you figure it out.
Speaker 2:And you know there have been times that we have had to completely restructure our whole life to make homeschooling work, and that's the reality. But you make time and money for what is most important to you. Also, homeschooling does not have to be complicated or expensive, and that's my biggest thing with what I'm trying to do with my podcast and my website and things is help moms figure out that, hey, it can actually be simple. It's not easy. Those two words don't mean the same thing to me. It is hard, it's one of the hardest things you can do as a mom, but it doesn't have to be complicated and you don't have to spend all your free time planning out your homeschool.
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Speaker 2:There are moms who do that and do it beautifully. I am not one of those. I thought I was. When I first started and I went through so many different curriculums I was like, okay, this one doesn't provide enough guidance, okay, this one is too rigid and structured, and so then I would try a different one, and I just kept jumping around through curriculums. I spent so much money and now I really don't use curriculum at all. I have one that I that I have started using this year, because I needed a little bit more. I needed somebody to tell me just what we're doing every day, because my life is chaos right now, because we're trying to move, and but typically I ended up at a point where we don't even use curriculum, and it doesn't have to be complicated.
Speaker 2:You know, you think about how did you learn something new? How did you learn how to start a podcast? Right, like, I went to a friend who had a podcast. I went on YouTube and I read blog posts and I, like found out that you know, this mic is good and this mic is not good, and if you don't want to spend $700, then get this mic. You know, I just I went and I did my research and that's how adults learn now, right, because we have information at our fingertips. So if we can teach our kids how to do that, they can learn anything that they want to now and for the rest of their lives.
Speaker 1:You're so right, you were so right. The curriculum thing. I think that and I, you know, I have the curriculum podcast and it's really just because there are so many out there and I think you know, back in the nineties and early, two thousands, you know, you had a Becca and maybe one other one. So the people that I know who were homeschooled themselves, they're like, yeah, there really wasn't, like that's just what you did. But now there is so much out there and I've loved learning about each one. But I'll tell you and I've been, I think I've had the curriculum podcast for like a year now, where I just do 10 minute segments each week on a different curriculum. But I still don't know that I'm doing the best one for my child, that teaching him everything I want him to know in the most funnest way possible, where he's going to retain it. And you know it's like you.
Speaker 1:I think someone told me once the best curriculum you can have is just one that you'll use, and they're all good in some way, right, but like you said, I mean, if you want to learn something, you're going to learn it anyway. So and and I think we all as parents are like, well, maybe I'll send them to school until they learn how to read and then I'll bring them home. But to that it's like, well, come on, you're not going to be like 30 years old and not know how to read. If you want to read, like there are so many YouTube videos or whatever that could teach you just the basics. And I think you know, take that pressure off.
Speaker 1:That's something that never worried me at all and it's not like I'm from a background that's heavy in reading. I, you know, was never a great student. My parents never read to me, but I knew that even not having any of that, I can still read. So I didn't have any fear going into teaching my child how to read, because it's like I don't know if anybody taught me, I just know how to do it now. Probably not the best, but that's why I'm taking. You know, let's work on phonics and this and that, and there are so many different things you can use. You're so right, you don't have to have a curriculum, but it is nice when you want just guidance.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, and I think that's one of the things that people use curriculum for right is to help them know what to do and how to do it. And, you know, just have that structure and that assurance that you're doing enough or doing the right thing especially when you're a beginning homeschooler, that can really help you just feel secure and so you know. But I do think that oftentimes we get so stuck in the curriculum we forget that we're teaching the child, we're not teaching the curriculum, and we let that kind of at least I did like it would dictate. You know it's like oh, I have to get this done today or I have to finish this you know lesson or this year of this book before we can move on to something else.
Speaker 2:Or it just became this thing that sort of was so confining for me and it was like, you know, my kids are all dyslexic and it just became more than we would spend so much time doing all you know, trying to get all the things done. And then it was like we're not having any fun, we're not, we're, you know, we're struggling through our days, and are we really learning anything when we all are kind of like okay, now we got to do this next thing, you know, and so it's. It takes so much more effort for kids with dyslexia to get through the work.
Speaker 1:And then it was just not fun anymore. Would you call yourself an unschooler other than that one curriculum you're doing?
Speaker 2:No, actually.
Speaker 2:I would not call us that. So what we do is we do notebooking. I don't know if you're familiar with that and I'll just put a plug in here too. That's what I create. I create notebooks for kids to use for notebooking, and so what we'll do is we will find really cool resources and I have a structure in our day and I do initiate the learning.
Speaker 2:So I'm not a traditional unschooler, because traditional unschool says kids will figure it out on their own and they'll learn it as they go through life, which I think there's some truth in that, but I'm not comfortable with that fully.
Speaker 2:So I pick out resources based on what I know their interests are, based on what I think is important for them to be learning, and then we use those resources.
Speaker 2:We use podcasts, youtube, documentaries, we do textbooks, books from the library, all kinds of resources that I kind of curate for them, and then we do no booking as a way to apply. So it's basically like a scrapbook. So when we do something like we'll listen to our favorite podcast science podcast then they'll create a scrapbook page about what they learned and they'll be able to put in a summary, and then I can tailor that to their age and their ability level. So my daughter, who's six, she will just dictate to me a couple sentences and I'll write them in her notebook. My sons will dictate to their iPads and then we'll go in and edit for grammar and then we'll print it out and paste it in their notebook. So we do use materials and resources and I do kind of direct our homeschool day, but we have found a lot of freedom in kind of breaking free from the confines of a curriculum.
Speaker 1:So your children must be exposed to other kids their age, I'm guessing what? Yes, all right, I'll find a way to word this. There must be exposed to other kids their age, I'm guessing what? All right, I'll find a way to word this. There must be times where there is especially the six-year-old I have a six-year-old as well, and this is that age where they're learning to read or, you know, just starting to like put things together. There are going to be kids in school that are already reading. Or if you have older kids that are already multiplying, you know. And if you're not there yet, how do you, as the mom, be comfortable in the fact that you will get there and you are doing exactly what you're supposed to be doing for your child at that time? That's a hard thing. It's a hard pill to swallow.
Speaker 2:It's so, so hard. And when I first started homeschooling swallow it's so, so hard. And when I first started homeschooling, so picture this I literally my, my grandparents, my cousins, my uncle, um, and my aunt like they all are teachers. They're all teachers my, my grandparent, my grandpa, was a um Christian school administrator, so he was a principal and an administrator for a long time. And when he found out that I was going to homeschool, the first thing he said was how is she going to teach her children how to read? And that was like in my heart, right, because my aunt was a reading specialist Like it's this idea that you need some magical skill set or you have to go to college to learn how to teach kids how to read. Then, go figure, I have three kids with dyslexia, so it's even more of a challenge.
Speaker 2:And so you know, in those early years, like my grandparents would come to visit and my grandpa would start quizzing my kids or like grab a book and have them sit down and read. And you know it was just so, so hard, so, so hard. But what happened was I really had to get comfortable, right, with my, with knowing my kid, and I had to go, like I remember being at an eye exam with my son and the doctor wanted him to like read a paragraph and he could barely get through it because he just wasn't there yet because of the dyslexia. And I remember just saying you know he's dyslexic so he might not be able to read all those words, that might not have something to do with his eyesight, and just getting really comfortable with advocating for him and standing up for my kids in those moments and also recognizing what's most important to me Are they making progress. And that's where I have to like rest assured that they're going at their own pace.
Speaker 2:And thank goodness we homeschooled my husband's dyslexic and didn't even know it. He was in special education reading programs his whole life in the public school. Didn't really know why but they just kind of pushed him through, graduated him and you know he still struggles with a lot, of, a lot of things. You know being able to say, okay, you know what. He didn't get the focused attention that our kids are now getting because of their dyslexia at home and we get to see that progress and we don't have to stress if they're not at the same level as other kids their age.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that I mean that's. I can't imagine how hard that must have been with family quizzing your kids. It's like it's one to. It's like demeaning, because you're saying, like my kid's dumb because he's not answering what you're asking him, but then you're also saying I'm a bad parent because I haven't worked with him enough, or you know what? Do you assume that he's laying around all day doing nothing? That's got to be. I think one of the hardest things about homeschooling is not comparing yourself to their peers that are the same age in traditional school, because I would imagine the trajectory goes like okay, we might not be right up to quote unquote par with what they're learning in school at the very beginning, because we're spending more time on play than you know sitting down and memorizing what sounds a word makes.
Speaker 1:But as there's got to be a cusp where then they kind of skyrocket past the kids in traditional school because they get to go after their passions and learn more about, you know, learn math through you know, if they love four wheeling and mechanics like learn math through that lines versus just it's got to be done from this workbook like this. Memorize it now, you know yes exactly, and what are the ages of your kids right now? I'm sorry you may have already said it.
Speaker 2:I didn't. So my oldest is 12. And he just started the sixth grade. Technically, I mean, we are part of an enrichment program and so that's his grade level. Then my middle son is 10. And so he's in the fifth grade, and then my daughter is six and in the first grade. That's. That's my age spread and you know it's been.
Speaker 2:This has been a new challenge this year because in our enrichment program my son entered middle school and a lot more is being required of him. And it's really stretched me again, kind of like when I first started, and I felt like man, I don't know, am I good enough, am I doing enough? And now kind of going through that same process of realizing like it's okay, you know there's a lot of kids that are, you know, further than he is. But in the grand scheme of life it all kind of levels out Like we all reach adulthood right, we all can get a high school diploma right, and we then get to pursue our own passion or our own calling and it doesn't matter if we learned to read when we were six or 12. It doesn't matter if we made math all the way up through calculus or stopped after algebra. None of that matters when you hit adulthood and we're all going to get there and the learning doesn't stop at 18.
Speaker 2:And I think that was a really big mindset shift for me, because initially I was like I got to make sure they learn all these things and they know all these things by the time they finish high school. I was like why I don't remember half of the stuff I learned, probably more than half of the stuff I learned growing up and I'm relearning things now because now I'm interested, now I care right, and so you know. It's like now I'm still I'm relearning all the things that I supposedly learned back in middle school and high school, but I actually care about it, so I'm remembering it and I'm retaining it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and and just little things, like for instance this morning my son was like well I forgot how to write an F, and I said well, how to, how to write an F.
Speaker 1:If you know that we have letters somewhere in this house and you can pick out an F, go there, figure out which one it is and copy it. So it's like teaching them how to figure out how to get the answer is so much more valuable than making sure they memorize the answer. Because, like you said, like I don't remember any of this math that I learned in school, I don't remember, like I don't know if I took trigonometry. But there you go, I don't even know if I took it, probably not, but I know the words. So I I don't even know if I took it, probably not, but I know the words. So I could have. It could have been a whole year I forgot about, but it's. Can you figure out how to find the answer that you need? Well, if you're going to start a podcast, how do you figure out how to learn? You know how to do that.
Speaker 1:So you go on the YouTube. You read the books, but yeah. So then he went into the other room where we had the alphabet up on the wall and sang the alphabet till he got to F, and okay, here it is. So it's like that sort of teaching is so much more valuable. Yeah, and can you just tell me, like, what does your day look like? You mentioned an enrichment program, so if you want to kind of talk about what that is and then just tell us what your day does look like, or even you know each week, because day to day is obviously very a little bit, but what does it sort of resemble for could be their path.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we have an enrichment program, like I said. Now there are multiple kinds of enrichment programs, some through the public schools, but ours is private. So it's one day a week and the kids go and they get, you know, a certain number of subjects. And so you know ours is structured one way, but there's lots of different ways that can be. Right now, in elementary school my kids get all kind of the electives, they get art and music and they do science, experiments and things like that.
Speaker 2:And then so that's our Thursday, and then Monday through Wednesday for us we do our typical school school work and that looks like, you know, we start with some reading from the Bible, maybe a read aloud. We just kind of like get in the mode slowly after breakfast and then we do our. You know, like I said right now we are using a curriculum I'm going to talk about that on your other podcast but you know we just kind of go through that and we take a break mid morning to do some more read aloud time and have some tea, some more read aloud time and have some tea, and then we finish up our independent work. So my two boys are oldest, they're old enough to do independent work.
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Speaker 2:And so we have kind of like a couple hours at the end of the morning, like from 10 until noon, where they have a list of things that they need to accomplish for school and I'm around to kind of help with them as needed. But how we start that time is I work with my six-year-old on her reading and her math and then she's done for the day and then they come and, you know, get help with me from me as they need it. So in the morning, that first part of the morning, that's when we get like our core subjects done together. We do family style for science, for history, for geography, for all those content subjects we do all together but we usually only do one a day.
Speaker 2:We usually do one of those a day, and so we do that Monday through Wednesday. Then Thursday they go to their enrichment program and then Friday we typically do like we have our hiking group that goes two Fridays a month and we go hiking we live in Colorado so there's no shortage of beautiful hikes and then on the other Fridays we try to get together with friends or we do a field trip or something more hands-on on Fridays, but usually by that time we're kind of over book work. So yeah that's our free day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's so cool and I think that sums it up beautifully. So, like you say, you're doing history, you might just do history on Mondays, wow.
Speaker 2:Yep, yeah. So we, instead of trying to do like history, science, geography all in one day, we just loop through those. So you know we'll do. We'll start our day together and we'll do our core subject for the day and, like I said, it's different every day. But what I quickly learned early on homeschooling was that if I tried to do all the subjects in every day, we just get burned out. And part of that is because my kids, even the older ones, still need very specific reading instruction and very specific one-on-one language arts and math, and so I would just get so exhausted if I was trying to do all of that one-on-one time with them and try to do all the other subjects. So my I've learned over the years that we have to be done by lunch. We're not getting anything done after lunch. So that's how we do it. We just do one main core subject a day.
Speaker 1:Okay, but now did you say math, you'll do every day Math and reading.
Speaker 2:we do every day, okay.
Speaker 1:But it's like the content subjects.
Speaker 2:Yep, yep, okay, and so they'll do that either independently or one-on-one with me, depending on what their needs are that day. But as far as content subjects go, those subjects that don't require it, doesn't build on itself. It can be kind of isolated. It's okay if you go a week without doing history. You're not going to forget everything you've learned. But with math, and reading. You want it to be consistent.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, that makes a lot of sense. I think that also takes the pressure off of thinking of this busy, hectic, okay, well, that makes a lot of sense. I think that also takes, like, the pressure off of, you know, thinking of this busy, hectic, yeah, like. And then there's always something that we drop because it's like all right, well, we got to be to the play date by noon, or, you know, I have to do the podcast, so I have to get you to grandparents for noon, and so which one are we going to throw out the window today? All right, we won't do reading, we won't do you know, the science we won't do. So it almost just feels more calm when you're like well, we have three hours to to learn about history, we can read some books, we can watch a documentary, we can do all of that, and that's really just where your mind is focused. So, uh, I do like that. Now are they finishing up the reading and math before lunch too? So then lunchtime comes and they're free to just have fun.
Speaker 2:Typically yes, so that that is always the goal, and so I try to structure our day to that. Some days, if we start really late because kids slept in or we just got a slow morning, then I'll just say, okay, let's just do your independent work today, and the independent work for my older kids is typing. They have a video spelling program that they do and then they do like some copy work and then they do their math and reading, often with me there to help, and so some days that's all we do, and they can kind of do a lot of that on their own, and some days we're able to get in another subject. Most days we're able to get in another subject as well, and that's what we would start with and then move into the independent work after that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so it is hard though, because I mean it's you're called super simple homeschool, but then, like in New York, we have a lot of reporting requirements, school. But then, like in New York, we have a lot of reporting requirements and it doesn't necessarily say you have to spend this many hours on this subject, but it does say you have to have the equivalent of 900 hours in the year. But I'm trying to think, like when you talk about things like typing and you know there's writing and there's reading, and there's also, like I think ours is broken up to into reading, writing, spelling and English as four different subjects they want us to do, to report on, and then there's history and there's science and there's math, and then there's art and gym. I mean, that can easily be. You know music, typing, you know stuff, so it's like there seems to be endless subjects you can do. How do you make it super simple, but so that you're not jipping your child either?
Speaker 1:and you're fulfilling the requirements that your state wants.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Well, I think one thing that's important, and I don't know New York specifically, but in Colorado we do have like a list of subjects that need to be taught, but if you go in and you look at the statute, it doesn't specify that they have to be taught every day, that they have to be taught even every grade. Like you know, we have to teach civics to our kids, which I always find a little ironic because I don't think they're really teaching civics in the public school.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, here's something funny. We have patriotism that we're supposed to teach, and I'm like they aren't learning this.
Speaker 2:No, no, definitely not. So you know. So there's, there's that, but but if you look closer, they don't need to have that until the seventh grade, and so you know there are things that they specify. You know you have to have it by the time they finish high school or you have to have a little bit every year. I think you're supposed to teach flag etiquette every other year in Colorado, which I just find really weird.
Speaker 2:But we do like this flag etiquette, like how to handle the American flag, and so we, you know, have a YouTube video that we watch every other year on how to handle the American flag Like not that big of a deal Like burn it or if it's torn.
Speaker 1:you are not supposed to burn it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't even, to be honest, I don't even know. But there's like the thing about how you can't let touch the ground and how you fold it and all those things, so yeah, and how you're supposed to care for it. Yeah, so I know, ironic, right, Because you don't see public school kids walking around with that knowledge. No, but one of the things that I think is really important to remember again is that it doesn't have to be all every day, and so, like looping is, for me, is one of the ways to keep things simple is looping. So I kind of write down like what are the subjects that I can loop and what that means, just kind of like going through them, you know, like daily, like one a day, and then just kind of loop through.
Speaker 2:And the other thing you could do is you could do like we're going to take a month, like we're going to take the next two weeks to learn about the election process, right, I mean like we're in it, we're there, it's relevant, and so you know that's civics right now and you know it's going to be the just, that's going to be our focus for two weeks.
Speaker 2:You can do that same thing with history. You could say we're going to learn about the Titanic or we're going to learn about the Civil War and we're going to do that for this month and we're just going to do that, Right. I mean there's nothing that says you can't take a break from science for a month. You know, just do history for that month and then do a month of this topic in science, Like it's totally okay to. I mean, unless your state specifically says you have to do all of these subjects all of the time. You know you can still keep it simple on yourself by just focusing on one at a time, whether that's one a day or one for a month. I mean, you know.
Speaker 1:New York is one of the most strict states, and it doesn't say you have to spend, you know out of the 900 hours in the year, you have to spend 220 math or anything like that. And and yeah, I, we're doing right now a unit study, which I really like, those kind of curriculums where it's not the full year, but it's just for nature study for autumn.
Speaker 1:It incorporates the handwriting and the reading and English and spelling, I suppose, and it incorporates art and music and science and you know all this stuff and music and science, and you know all this stuff. So you're getting. You know it might take me 30 minutes to do the nature study with him. Or maybe if we add on you know the hike that with it and to you know, look for this and that you know stuff like that, but 30 minutes to an hour to do it. But he's getting multiple subjects you know that he gets credit for, for doing just that.
Speaker 2:So there's that's probably a very simple way to do it as well too. Yeah, I think that's key, right Like to figuring out okay, can I, can I overlap some things, can I do one thing that's going to meet multiple requirements, and there's so much you can do with that in school as well.
Speaker 1:Awesome, all right. So, as we round out now, can you tell us a little bit more? You said that you have written books. Do you want to tell us about them and where people can find you? Yeah, I'll link everything in the show's description as well.
Speaker 2:Of course. So I have my podcast, which is the Super Simple Homeschool Podcast, and it's on all the major platforms, and I also am on Instagram at my supersimplehomeschool. And then I have a website shocking supersimplehomeschoolnet. That's the key on that one. But on my website I also create notebooks for kids to use for notebooking, and my kids helped me design them and you can. They're actually ordered through Amazon, but the links are all on my website. They have beautiful covers and they're really fun, so check those out as well. And I do have a homeschooling course for people that are just getting started with homeschooling to help people kind of get started and to learn all the ways that I keep homeschooling super simple.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, definitely check out that Instagram page too. There's lots of great tips on there and the website. I love the idea of the notebooking. We do that with our nature study and it's not in anything fancy, so I'm sure he'd like to have something a little bit more, you know, jazzy to show off, but it's like that nice little yearbook at the end of the year too, you're like look where we started, look where we ended, look at all that we did, because the year goes by so fast, but you do forget all those little things.
Speaker 1:So it has been awesome to have that, and so that when your family comes over and quizzes your kids, what do you do all day? They don't know anything. You're like look at my notebook. Yes, we do, exactly so, jenny, thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you, thank you for tuning into this week's episode of the homeschool how to. If you've enjoyed what you heard and you'd like to contribute to the show, please consider leaving a small tip using the link in my show's description. Or, if you'd rather, please use the link in the description to share this podcast with a friend or on your favorite homeschool group Facebook page. Any effort to help us keep the podcast going is greatly appreciated. Thank you for tuning in and for your love of the next generation.