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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
#107: From School Administrator to Homeschool Mom: Why She Walked Away
Do traditional schools really provide what children need, or is homeschooling the key to nurturing a child's potential? This week, we engage with Lindsi, a former teacher and administrator who transitioned to homeschooling her own children. Her journey, from the structured halls of public and charter schools to the personalized learning environment of homeschooling, offers a fresh perspective on current educational challenges and opportunities. Alongside Lindsi's story, we examine the broader issues influencing the homeschooling trend, from school infrastructure woes to the broader implications of educational policy shifts.
Our exploration doesn't stop at the surface-level reasons for homeschooling; it delves into the transformative power of hands-on learning. Lindsi explains how she created her Learning Center, a place for children to craft dynamic educational experiences through unique classes and career exploration opportunities that inspire curiosity and creativity. Imagine a learning environment where children are not merely passive recipients of information but active participants in their own education, prepared to tackle future challenges with confidence and enthusiasm. We discuss real-world examples of how hands-on learning and parental involvement can turn the mundane into the extraordinary, shaping children ready for a wide array of future possibilities.
The episode also touches on the intricate balance between structured learning and the freedom to explore, showcasing how homeschooling fosters strong family bonds and essential life skills. From hosting entrepreneur fairs to creating micro-schools that extend the comforts of home, we highlight the myriad of ways homeschooling offers a nurturing, enriching environment. We also talk about game schooling and how integrating play into education can make learning an exciting adventure. Listen in to discover how this model of education could bring a new dimension to your family's learning journey.
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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 Lindsay. Lindsay, thank you so much for being here. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1:So I'm really excited about this episode because you are local to me, in my area. I haven't been able to take advantage of any of the amazing things that you have done with homeschooling in our community and I'm so mad at myself. But then also I'm like there's time my oldest is six Like we've got time, but you've been working wonders and I really want people to hear this episode, to hear kind of what they can do in their communities too. So, first off, thank you for what you've done and, secondly, why don't you just tell us how many kids you have and what got you into homeschooling in the first place? Oh, geez.
Speaker 2:Well, I have four kids. So my oldest is Ryan is nine, Molly is eight, Farrah is four and then Lou is one. So and I know it's a lot, but they are absolutely wonderful and obviously the reason why I do all of the things that I do in our area I am I'm in homeschooling because I spent many years in public education as a teacher and as an administrator, and every day spent there was another day. I just knew I didn't want my own children in that environment, so eventually I left that and chose to pursue this path.
Speaker 1:That gave me chills when you said that.
Speaker 1:And it's not that you're my first or even 10th teacher who left the profession to homeschool. I think that was the biggest shock to me. I was just on the Quite Frankly podcast last week and I said to his audience you know, the biggest shock to me when I started the podcast two years ago just to learn about homeschooling, the biggest shock to me has been the amount of teachers that have reached out to say can I come on and tell my story? I was a teacher and I left the profession to homeschool.
Speaker 1:Like I thought leaving my profession was a big deal because I worked in government and I was like, oh my God, I'm leaving a pension and you know my salary and all this stuff. But teachers like, especially in New York, because in New York you need a master's degree, so you're not only getting that four year degree, then you're spending the time and money to get the master's degree to teach so and then to like be in the profession and to say this isn't how I want my kids to grow up. It's huge. You guys are seeing firsthand what's in there. So if we could talk about anything that you're comfortable talking about, what did you see that? You were like, not my kids.
Speaker 2:Well, you're so right. First of all because and I also had the perfect schedule right I had every. I had all the summers off. I had every day that they would have had off of school I would have had off. So it really is crazy on paper for a teacher to leave the profession to then go teach one, two, three kids that he or she has at home. But I had to. I mean the things that I was seeing.
Speaker 2:I taught both in the public school system and then in the charter system and I mean we're talking silent lunch, you know, like whole group punishment for poor behavior, even for, you know, missed assignments, things like that. The library and the content there, just the way that teachers and authority were speaking to children, like the more that I was in it, the more that I'm sitting watching like, wait a second, I have kids now and I will admit that I was a different teacher before I had children than after, and I think that many of my friends who have taught have said that also. All of a sudden it's a wake up call. Wait, if somebody was talking to my kid like that and beginning to see that, well, they might be, because I'm sending them to strangers. I'm a stranger to these kids. I would be sending my kids to strangers for seven plus hours a day, five days a week, and it became more and more uncomfortable the longer that I was in the school system and then coming home to my children getting ready to send Ryan to kindergarten.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and even little things, like I drive by down the road for me every single day. I drive by the bus garage for our local school that my kids would be going to and it says bus drivers needed, will train, you know, competitive, pay, yada, yada. And I'm looking at that sign going, well, what are you doing now If you don't even have enough bus drivers? Like is it like that there's so many kids on the bus that or they're sitting on the bus longer now waiting to go to school because you don't have enough bus drivers? And who are you peeling up off the street with no, no experience driving a bus that you're going to get to drive my little kid around? Like no, and then.
Speaker 1:And then you get into my most recent kind of realization is that a lot of the schools today, at least in New York, have free breakfast and free lunch. And now that I'm in the homeschooling community and I'm a little bit more aware of reading labels and what are we putting into our body and what is it causing? Not only the cancers, but is it causing like a chemical overload that's going to make you act crazier than a normal six year old boy would act, and am I sending them to school with all organic foods that I'm spending a lot of money on and he's throwing that in the garbage just to eat the chemicals that they provide for free through our tax dollars all day.
Speaker 1:And it's like there's just so many reasons piled on top of each other.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, I mean you mentioned the bus drivers, but they're doing the same thing with the teachers too, right? I mean, there's such a need for teachers, so much so that some of the surrounding states around us are actually reducing the requirements for teachers. They're saying, okay, we can't get enough qualified candidates, so we're just going to ask for less, you know. And that's as a parent you're like okay, well, you know, like you mentioned, who are you picking then? Who's coming to take care of my child for longer than I have them per week? And it just the more and the longer I'm in this homeschooling world, the less I can wrap my head around doing anything different.
Speaker 1:Yes, and you're right. New Jersey just signed made it law that you no longer need to take a basic literacy test for reading, writing and math to become a teacher there. You do still have to go to college and get through all of the other stuff. But even if you're going to fight that and say like well, they still need to go to college, then why remove this literacy test? Obviously, this test was a barrier for some teachers to pass to get into the profession. So if you went to four years of school and you still can't take a basic literacy test we're requiring of the students every time we ask them to take the SATs. Why would we not require that four years later, when they want to graduate college and get a job teaching our kids? And where did all the teachers go? Because when I'm 40, you're probably close to that. So I remember when we graduated college there was a teacher overload. I remember everybody went to college for teaching back in the early 2000s and you couldn't get a teaching job.
Speaker 1:None of the teachers, like I, waited tables in college and every single other person people on the staff were either college students or ex-college students that went to school for teaching and couldn't get a job. So why? Where did they all go?
Speaker 2:Well, I think the schools look different. The early 2000 schools and the schools in 2025 look different and they're a place that nobody wants to be. Nobody wants to be treated the way that teachers are treated nowadays. Nobody wants to feel like they have to treat children the way that they have to treat them in that system. So it becomes this place that nobody wants to be. The kids certainly don't want to be there. The teachers don't want to have to deal with some of the behaviors and some of the crazy rules and regulations that they have put on them. So they're like forget this, especially for the money. They're leaving and finding other professions, or they're leaving, in my example, for no profession. I would rather not work than work where I was working. I mean, that's sad after, like you mentioned, after multiple degrees, to get there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it is sad and I don't think people understand like you're really, you're this thing that you've worked so hard for you're walking away from. Yes, it's for something much greater, but you don't see like the benefits of it, the overall benefits, because you have hard days, obviously with your kids too, and you wake up and they're fighting and you're like we have to get this done and that done and stuff Like at least with the job, you see the paycheck.
Speaker 1:So you're like okay well they just dumped some money in my bank account. So I can do this, that or the other thing where it's not as in a more, the other thing where it's not as in a more, it's not as immediate. You know, you really have to savor the moments. You can look back on your week, your month, your year and be like, wow, we did a lot this year. I love, I loved being here doing this. But but yeah, you're right, people probably are walking away or just saying like, yeah, I don't want to be part of this.
Speaker 1:I know a lot of the teachers that I've interviewed. They really talk about the funding and how, like, the testing goes to the funding and the funding to the testing and it's. It's funny because I have a friend from second grade. We really don't talk anymore. Ever since I kind of made my transition from complete liberal to then a complete conservative to now. I'm kind of like I think they're both trying to kill us. I don't know both sides, but yeah, it's sad we're not as tight anymore.
Speaker 1:But I re, she's the teacher and I remember her saying to me oh, it really stinks. I used to be able to be very creative in how I taught my students. She would teach like a women's literature class and she could pick the books that she wanted to do in the very beginning, like when we graduated college in 2006,. She could pick the books that she wanted to do and pick the projects she wanted to do with the kids. And then I remember saying over the years yeah, they're not letting me pick my books anymore, they're not letting me pick the curriculum I want to teach anymore. I have to do it in this way.
Speaker 2:Is that what you saw as well? Oh, absolutely. I spent all this time getting the degree, proving that I'm a professional, and then I've handed this robotic curriculum that is written word for word and organized like you said, exactly to the test, and I have to come be their mouthpiece and just project all of that information to a room full of students at varying levels and then make sure that they are able to regurgitate it at the end of the year onto the state assessment. It's not quality education, it's not interesting, it's not creative, it is not what I wanted to do with kids. So that was another reason why I said you know what I can do this with my own kids that's at least four that I'm putting into the world, that can be creative and can benefit from all of the work that I did put into gaining all of the knowledge that I have in teaching practices and creative lessons and having a really fun time learning concepts. And then I began thinking early on you know what I could do this a little bit beyond just my four kids.
Speaker 1:When it comes to teaching my kids, I choose the Tuttle Twins curriculum because it's not just for them. I'm learning so much right alongside them. What I love is how engaging it is for kids. They take real world concepts and weave them into stories that kids can actually understand and relate to. Whether it's US history, critical thinking or even the Tuttle Twins Guide to True Conspiracies, it's all presented in a way that sticks.
Speaker 1:I especially love learning about government, because I never learned this stuff in school how the government is supposed to work versus how it actually works and it's so cool that I get to have these conversations with my son about it and he gets it. They've got books for toddlers, a fantastic series for ages 5 through 11, and so much more. They even have a Tuttle Twins Academy. I can't wait to get started on that, because they have classes for business and entrepreneurship. You can get 40% off select items using code Cheryl40. That's C-H-E-R-Y-L-4-0. Just grab the link in the show's description and start learning together as a family. Trust me, you 'll love what you're going to learn, because they never taught this to you in school.
Speaker 2:Which is how those community ideas happened and it started to branch into more than just the kids in my home, but the kids that we wanted to surround ourselves with, their friends and their friends' friends, and it just grew from there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so why don't you talk to us a little bit about it's? It's basically a micro school, right, cause these are kind of popping up throughout the country. Um to what you know, I've kind of seen it as called like micro schools, where it's not. It's not paid for by the government. The government has no hands in it. It's literally just people that are like there's a different way we can teach kids.
Speaker 1:There's a different way your child can have a childhood like a childhood still. And it's so hard. You know, it's taken me a long. It's taken me the two years of doing the podcast to realize, cause, you know, and this is what I try to say to my son and he's only six, granted, but maybe I'm just saying it out loud for myself I have to tell him there was a time that we didn't have the internet.
Speaker 1:We could not like in my lifetime, we could not pick up a device and say these are the ingredients in my refrigerator, what can I make in the Instapot? And then it just comes out and tells me what I can make for dinner, right? Or how long does a caterpillar have to sit in a crystal list? Like there were times that you had to go to the library and look up books that did not exist. But if a kid born in today's day they don't know that that didn't exist before, right, like they don't understand there was a time without internet and it wasn't that long ago. And it's the same thing with education. We are just, we were born into this. You go from 7.30 in the morning till three in the afternoon and we know none the wiser.
Speaker 1:And I've really gotten into delving into the history of how education got this way, and there's some pretty sick roots behind it and why they wanted to do this in this sort of way and how they wanted to guide sort of the masses to be obedient workers versus creative thinkers. You know they wanted to do this in this sort of way and how they wanted to guide sort of the masses to be obedient workers versus creative thinkers.
Speaker 1:You know they wanted people smart enough to do the job, but not smart enough to question it or be competitors to their businesses, which is why the Rockefellers invested so much money. So what made you decide to start a micro school, or whatever you would like to call it?
Speaker 2:I know it is. We guess I guess we consider it this baby of a co-op and a micro school, because we are family centered to the core. That is extremely important to me. I want to be actively involved in my children's education, so there are plenty of micro schools popping up around the country and I think they are fantastic alternatives to public education. Most of them have a philosophy that is rooted in, you know, community minded, family minded purposes.
Speaker 2:Ours is a little bit different, though, because our families are present. So it is. It is not a drop off. We are also not exactly a full co-op, because we do have, you know, promises made to families. So we are essentially offering two core subjects. So currently those are math and science. So you know that if you come with us, your child will have math and science covered for them.
Speaker 2:Those are often the ones that parents shy away from a little bit with math, because maybe they don't feel so strong in that or they want to outsource something.
Speaker 2:You know math would be the first one, and then science is just more fun in a group, it's just more fun together. So those are the two that we chose, and then the other half of the day is made up of those really cool ways that co-ops and things like it bring kids experiences from professionals right, because there are, there's a room full of adults that have prior lives and prior jobs and careers and hobbies and interests that they can then come bring to the kids. So we have classes like skills and careers where we have, you know, people come in from the community in very cool and interesting jobs to say to the kids like this is what's out there, right? And instead of just reading about it in a book, look it's there. I mean, we had a mom who's a seeing eye dog trainer and she came and she brought puppies at different stages of training and one of her clients and she just walked through the process of what that looks like and you know my yes, and I was just with her earlier today.
Speaker 2:Yes, she's great. So you know, that's just one example. Yeah, we had a candle maker. Who would ever think?
Speaker 1:that that's a job you can do. You just think, oh, my kid loves dogs, maybe there'll be a vet. Oh, that's how long you have to go to school, never mind, but it's like no, there's other jobs with animals.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, and they just have that place to come together to experience all of those community people coming there to present to them. So it's just really cool.
Speaker 1:Yes, I that's. One of my biggest gripes with the public education system, or even the private education system, is that we're not preparing kids to make a living. We're pushing them for college. God forbid you don't go to college, but we're not going to tell you all the jobs that are out there. And that was one of my biggest questions when I went to school. It was like I don't know what I want my major to be. I don't know all the jobs.
Speaker 1:It's kind of like picking a husband. I'm like well, I haven't met all the men in the world I don't know. And eventually you find one and you're like well, this seems like a good fit, give it a try. But it's like you're investing a lot of money in that college degree. You should probably know a little bit about what's out there and the fact that new jobs are popping up all the time. So what kind of innovative jobs could you pick for yourself, based on your interests and what the world needs? So I love that that you're.
Speaker 1:I mean, there will always be people that are blind and need you know, a seeing eye, dog and man. Someone needs to train the dogs. That is such a cool profession that kids would not know of otherwise. So, and I was just looking at when you had sent me before this, I didn't realize that you had. I guess I knew that you had all these classes, but I'm like man, I need to get into this stuff. Ukulele, like that's something I'm not going to teach my son. I want him to know it, but I don't know how to do that. That's amazing. And piano.
Speaker 2:Ukulele is just a great example in my own house, because my children are curious, wonderful beings and they are asking a thousand questions a day, more than I care to answer some days. But they are also like passive learners, like they're asking all of the questions but they're a little bit lazy intellectually with they just want to be given the answer right. They're like I want to know this, tell me. I'm like no, go find out, Go find out. This is why we homeschool Go, go find out the information. And they're young, my kids are still young, and ukulele, my son Ryan, came, came out of that very first class, and this is something that my husband and I have many strengths.
Speaker 2:Music is not one of them. Not an ounce of our body is musically inclined to either one of us, and so being able to put our children in front of a professional, someone that loves that, at a place like our space, my son Ryan came out of his very first class asking the right questions all of a sudden, and ukulele started that for him. So now, all of a sudden, it's you know, can you pull up these, this song for me? I want to look at the chords and then he's like I don't know a G7. Well, I can figure it out. And he's pulling up these musicians playing an instrument or playing ukulele with a G7. All of a sudden, he's pausing the screen so he can see exactly where the fingers are. All of a sudden, he's actively in the process of finding out the information and instead of just asking the questions and this all of a sudden snowballs into every other. I am getting chills into every other area of learning for him, and ukulele did that.
Speaker 2:And the coolest part of this entire thing is I got to be there for that right Like time and time again. I had these small wins and these small moments with my students as a teacher and I would be so excited that we had gotten there or we, like, met this goal. I was the director of special education, so oftentimes I was always trying to meet goals right and I would be so excited to have this small win with a student and the parent wasn't there to witness it. And then becoming a parent and being able to see this and to immediately have that experience with Ryan right after that class I mean to me that's the greatest part of all of any of this is that relationship that I get to have time and time again when it weaves in and out of his learning and those like awesome moments, because I'm selfish I am, I want the money in your bank account right there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's the win, that's the the reward for the work. And you're so right, and I've seen it, my son's only six, but I mean, it doesn't matter if they're two months old, they're making a milestone and if they're in daycare you're missing it. My son was in daycare when I worked. I worked for the government and I was at a cubicle all day and he was in daycare. So I remember the daycare lady saying to me don't worry, we won't tell you when he first crawls or first walks, we'll let you tell us. And I'm like, well, I don't know if I should feel better or worse about this. Oh, all right, but again, society is like this is what you do you go to work, you send your kids to daycare. They're good.
Speaker 1:After six weeks I waited six months, but still that six months, now that I've had my daughter and been home with her the whole time, I realized how much a six month old needs her mom and how much a one year old needs her mom, and even how much a six year old needs his mom. And you're right, just being there for those little things today, you know he was. He's got a remote control car and we said to him the other day where the heck has that car been? And he's like, ah, it broke again. And cause?
Speaker 1:My husband said to him I'm done taking this thing apart and fixing it. So today he was bored, he pulled it out and he just started taking apart the pieces and he goes mom, I think it's the rear differential. So my, when my husband got home they was looking at he's like you're right, it is the rear differential. I'm like how does he even know what that is? But he spends a lot of time in the garage with my husband but it's like those moments like, oh man, you're. You might not know how to read or tie your shoe, but you know what a rear differential is and that's going to take you places in life if that's what you love doing.
Speaker 2:It is, and he had the time to figure that out right, because they don't. They're not coming home. He's not coming home exhausted after seven days of school as a six-year-old boy, and then eating dinner and then taking his bath and then doing the homework. God forbid, then, what. He doesn't have time to be pulling apart remote control cars if he's in school full-time. My husband's an attorney, but his real love is building, renovation and houses, and he's about to break ground on a house this upcoming week and my kids get to be there for that, so they get to see building a house from the ground up. I mean, how cool is that In terms of using their time? Yes, of course they're going to do math and reading with mom, but then they're going to go tile in a backsplash and put flooring down with dad. They're going to have those skills to take with them to their own homes someday and, who knows, maybe to their own renovation businesses. So being able to give them those opportunities because we have the time with them to do it.
Speaker 1:So cool. Yeah, you're so right. When my husband was off over, he took, like you know, saves up all his vacation time and takes it at the end of the year and I'm like my kids are with him in the garage while he's working on things and I'm like you know, there would have been a time where they were all at school still right now and you just got a quiet garage to yourself. It's so worth it in the end and I'm sure he enjoys having them down there, because then he does things like that and takes apart a car and he sees, you know, the rewards of the time that he spent with his kids and it really is like that's the point of life. I guess that is the point of life. I truly believe that it's actually being robbed from us on purpose, but you have to be willing to step outside and see that that, like this is purposefully being robbed from you to like, break up the family units and, in fact, at the school down the road from me I had an Instagram post about this there was a flyer. I was in there for a volleyball game and they had a flyer in the middle school that said make trans dreams a reality, and it looked like it was just a student doing graphic design work, right, and this was the poster from the art project. But then you look in the corner of it and there's a logo and it says forwardtogetherorg. So you look up forwardtogetherorg and it is a progressive um nonprofit foundation. Kamala Harris was one of the founders. I mean, I'm sure she just slapped her name on it and doesn't even know what it's for. But you go on their mission statement and it's to reimagine the family unit and um get money for reproductive services. It's like this is this is a school, why is this in our school? And reproductive services if you're re-imagining and it has like two women hugging each other on the website. So you're re-imagining the family unit, but we're paying for reproductive services because there's not the second piece of that puzzle to make a family. So now what we're paying for in vitro? We're not only paying for abortions, but we're paying for in vitro too. It's like it's really gotten crazy where the funding in our schools is going. Did you see that when you were in the schools? Oh, absolutely Thinking about homeschooling but not sure where to start.
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Speaker 2:I mean well, I mean funding, could we could have another whole hour on that, but of course I saw the family being pulled apart in the language, in the system of the day. I mean even drop off, so they have new. Even a good friend of mine called me the very first day of school with she's like is this normal? I'm like I'm the wrong one to ask for that. None of this is normal. But she called and said we're not allowed in the building, even for open house. The teachers came and met us at our cars to introduce herself to them. She said I remember going to school and showing my mom the classroom where I was going to be and walking down to the music room and really mirroring the day I was going to have so that she could see all of where I was going to be. You know, is this normal? Is this?
Speaker 2:And she had homeschooled last year. This was her first year with her child in public school. She wasn't a super fan of the idea, but it was where her family was headed this year and she called with that and I said no, no, it's not normal, but it is intentional, and that's the difference. Like it is, they're doing it on purpose and the problem becomes we now normalize it, right Now it becomes the norm. So those of us on the outside saying that this is not okay are the crazy ones. And those that are dropping their child off to a stranger that you met one time in a parking lot, who was going to be the number one influence in their lives, from 730 to three every day. I mean, to me that's, that's tragic.
Speaker 1:You're so right. And COVID did that. Covid normalized the not being personable with the teachers and stuff. And now you're right.
Speaker 1:I, my son, went to a private preschool, so he was four, attending a three, four program. And uh, now he was old enough to. If I could have had him go to the school down the road for the full day and it would have been paid for by my taxes. But he's four years old. I'm thinking that's an awful early age to just go to school with kids. You know it's a small school so they're all ages up to 12th grade. I mean, I don't think a four year old should whatever. But it's crazy that now it's not just. It was half day kindergarten up to 12th grade when I went to school, and now it's not only full day kindergarten but full day preschool and they might have some kinder care or some sort of fun little name for it, but it's preschool, that's full day is what it is, it's they're. They're robbing you another year.
Speaker 1:And anyways, that my son was at a preschool at a church for two or three days a week for a couple hours. And after COVID they normalized you drop your kid off in the parking lot and you drive off and you are not to go in. And the other kickers were that they wanted you to bring a healthy snack on your designated snack day, but they didn't want you to make anything homemade. They wanted you to get goldfish or something that had the chemicals in it from a store. Nothing homemade and juice. They said bring juice.
Speaker 1:And the really worst part about it was that they would put hand sanitizer on the kids. And I wrote a note in before he even started. I said he's not to have hand sanitizer on him. And they said well, is he allergic? It's none of your business. If he's allergic, I'm his parent. He's not allowed to have hand sanitizer. If his hands are dirty, go wash them.
Speaker 1:And he, at four years old, told me mom, they sanitize their eyes. If his hands are dirty, go wash them. And he, at four years old, told me mom, they're putting it on me anyway and that I should have like pulled him then. But I said to him you go tell them no, and he did. They said to me oh, we're so sorry, we forgot about that. But he told us he's not, is, is he allergic? Again they asked. And it's like I think that's what really was the kicker for me to start thinking about homeschooling, because it was like the masking he was and we pulled him out of daycare when they started masking kids. But you're a parent and you have no say what goes over their face or injected into their body or saturated into their skin. So if they've removed me from that, what point do I have? I'm just a shelter for them to sleep at at this point.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. They've taken control at that point, yeah.
Speaker 1:At four years old. So what does the day look like at your school? How many days a week do the kids come in? Two full days.
Speaker 2:So that's it, yep, two full days of classes, and then we have a plethora of clubs and activities that are all optional. But a typical day would be a math class, and we actually just started piloting this semester like very like intimate math groups, so only like three or four kids. That way we really can achieve the most possible because we are targeting exactly to the needs of those kids in a small group of three or four. And then a science class. We have an awesome science teacher. Right now. My oldest kids are taking the history of science, so they're blending. You know, the history of the great, you know, like, where did science even come from? Oh well, it came from the greats, and so they're reading about Galileo and Newton. And it's just, it's so cool. And it's even cooler because I don't have to teach it, and I love to teach, I absolutely love it. But having to teach everything to all of my kids is a lot. So instead they get the great benefit of learning from my good friend, sophie, who is teaching them this course, who loves this course, who has taught it before, who's an expert in it, and I get the benefit of seeing them participate in it and not having to deliver the content, so it is an absolute win-win. Then they would have lunch, where we don't even see them for lunch. They're outside, they're playing football, they're hiking through the woods in the back, they are making up a dance in the front yard all the things that they do. On lunch they come back in and they have two more classes, and that might be an art class, it might be poetry, it might be a skills and careers class, something that is a little less academic in the afternoon, a little bit more extracurricular or loose or interesting to the vast majority of kids. So they have those classes and then they come back and they do it the very next day. So we have it structured a little bit differently.
Speaker 2:Most programs that I've heard of are Mondays and Wednesdays, or their Tuesdays and Thursdays. They have that day in between. We're freedom loving homeschoolers that want to travel and we love having that five day weekend every single week. So instead they come back the very next day, on Tuesday, and they're doing something similar. They're taking four different classes and having those experiences with other kids.
Speaker 2:My kids get the benefit of having classes with different faces that are not just mom, and they're taking classes with kids maybe not exactly their age and that's okay. I love that for them. And and then we have all of the extra clubs. So even if the kids are not, even if your kids are not in our program, we want as many homeschoolers as possible to come see what we have going on and to benefit from the use of this building. So we have classes like ukulele and piano and robotics and a chess team things that bring other homeschoolers in that are maybe not up for a whole day of classes, but they want to experience those like one or two things that they can get with other peers, and so those are really cool opportunities. We have a PE class where I rent a local gym just five doors down from our building and it's an indoor baseball field, so we have a PE teacher, I think.
Speaker 1:I met him today. I didn't meet him. He was talking to Kate at Ninja Lab. Jonathan.
Speaker 2:Yes, so we have Jonathan. He is fantastic. The kids love him and they get to play all of those things that they would know, they would quote, unquote, miss if they were in school.
Speaker 1:So they're playing the tug of war Sort of like. This is what kickball is Exactly.
Speaker 2:Exactly, they're playing, you know, red Rover and kickball. And we have another PE teacher, ryan, and she has them with a giant tug of war rope in the big field outside in the warm months. So just really great experiences with other kids that are like-minded, that are family-centered, it's just, it really is fantastic.
Speaker 1:Oh, I love that. Yeah, I can't wait to find where we fit in. We're still kind of the like, wake up around nine, the kids wake up around 9.30, 10. I'm still I'm in that phase where you know how, like your first year of homeschooling, you try to replicate school and everyone's screaming at each other and you're like this is not going to work. And then now we're in the second year where we're like we're just unschooling, we just you wake up when you need to. We'll get to a book at some point today.
Speaker 2:Yes, and then so maybe next year we're gonna be like a little bit more like all right, this is life, we're gonna start to have a routine, and that's that's where I am. I'm like just one step ahead of you in that whole progression, because I I want to be able to just read books and play games. I'm a very big into game schooling, so we do a lot of our learning at home through games and activities together, and I want the time to do that. So I love the opportunity to outsource a little bit. When they do go to the space and take some of those academic classes they have a literature class and you know writing, so things like that that they can get those experiences while they're there so that when they come home we can just we can read books and play games.
Speaker 1:And I love that. I had a game schooler on the podcast last week and, yeah, this really intrigued me when I had first heard about game schooling. I'm like you got to tell me more because I didn't grow up in like a game household so I only knew about like Scrabble and Monopoly and maybe life. I don't even remember how that is played, but yeah, so people have mentioned it on the podcast so I started looking into it and bringing games out and, oh my, my son loves playing games. So it's like, yes, whether it's mancala with the little stones or skippo or what's the new one we got, um, there's one where you roll the dice and you have to like add up, so you're doing math but you're doing a strategy because you have to get down the double shutter. And then there's other ones the cooperative one, the race to the treasure I don't there. And there's so many. I'm like, oh, I didn't realize that so many games.
Speaker 2:Maybe they always existed and my family just didn't present them to me, but, um, yeah, it's a beautiful way to learn, absolutely, and it's a way for them to learn together, which I love because, again, school would take my four kids and separate them for the majority of their day, right?
Speaker 2:So even though my oldest are only 18 months apart, they'd be two years apart in school, so they would spend all day away from each other and instead they're in some of the same classes and some different at the space.
Speaker 2:And then they come home and we do get to play cool games that continue their learning, but we get to do it together. We played a game yesterday called made for trade and it's set up like colonial America and you're going through the town to the blacksmith and to the carpentry shop and all of these different spots and you're trying to collect these goods and you have shillings and you're paying your taxes and it's just. It was a great conversation piece, but it was a game, so I love that. You know we were right now in the middle of learning that time period in our history at home, so it just blends beautifully into what we're trying to accomplish on the side of, you know, learning and education, but also what we're trying to accomplish on the family side of being together and spending that time laughing and playing. So it just, it works.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that you touched on in the beginning how you were missing them. You know, if your kids were in school, you'd be missing the moments where you see, like their aha moments, their connections. But we don't talk enough about the siblings Like, yes, there are a lot of times that they're antagonizing each other and yelling at each other and screaming and fighting, but there are so many times that they're just forming these beautiful relationships that they otherwise would be. My daughter would be in daycare, my son would be in school and I would be in the cubicle and we would not be like forming these memories together, connections together, inside jokes together, games together. It's really, it's a tragedy when you think about, you know, the normal society that this is not going on and the breakdown of the family unit. I really think that that's intentional. But, yeah, it's beautiful. These kids, they're the only ones that are going to know in life what it was like to grow up in that household and they have that bond forever.
Speaker 2:They do, and we are because we're fostering it in our own home with those sibling relationships. They are then taking it outside of our house to the community and to other families.
Speaker 1:Hey everyone, this is Cheryl. I want to thank you so much for checking out the podcast. I'm going to keep this short and sweet because I know your time is valuable. I want to ask you a serious question Do your kids know what to do to actually save their life in an emergency? The most important thing we can talk to our kids about is knowing their first and last name, knowing mom and dad's first and last name, mom's phone number, dad's phone number, their address, what to do if they get lost, what to do if someone who's watching them has a heart attack, a stroke, an accident where they fall and your child needs to get help. We live in a world where there's no landline phones anymore, basically, and cell phones lock. Does your child know how to call 911 from a locked cell phone? It is absolutely possible, and my book demonstrates how to do that, whether it's an Android, whether it's an iPhone and, most importantly, it starts the conversation, because I was going through homeschooling curriculum with my kids, realizing that, gee, maybe they skim over this stuff, but they don't get into depth, so my child's not going to remember this should an accident occur, right? I asked a couple of teachers what they do in school and they said they really don't do anything either other than talk about what to do in a fire during the month of October fire prevention month. So I wrote a book because this is near and dear to my heart.
Speaker 1:I have had multiple friends that have lost kids in tragedies and I don't wanna see it happen again if it doesn't have to. We were at the fair over the summer and the first thing I said to my son when we walked through that gate was what's my first and last name? What is your first and last name? And was what's my first and last name? What is your first and last name and what is my phone number? And if you get lost, what are you going to do? You can get my book on Amazon and I will put the link in my show's description Again, it's called let's Talk Emergencies and I really hope you'll check it out because there's just no need to be scared when you can choose prepared.
Speaker 2:So my, my nine-year-old is not playing with a few of his friends and suddenly irritated or annoyed by this little one that is trying to play. And that's what happens oftentimes when we are with other friends that don't have maybe as much of a connection with the siblings, where all of a sudden the little ones are the annoyances or the pests. Little ones are the annoyances or the pests, and instead I have my nine-year-olds seeing a four or five-year-old that wants to play. That completely gets it from dealing with his sister who's trying to go ahead and bringing the child into the game or doing a quick little lesson to have them feel included. So it's those moments where I'm like, okay, this is why we do it. And, similarly, because they're in the world, because we're actually living and participating in the world on a daily basis as homeschoolers, and they are not sitting with only their exactly same age peers all day. My kids are pleasant and respectful and comfortable with people of all ages and that's really cool also, so they're not bothered by the little siblings that are around, but just as wonderful, they're also ready to have a conversation with somebody much older than them because they are, you know, living, interacting with them.
Speaker 2:We just went to a you can brew. It was an event at a local brewery where it was kind of like a karaoke night, but instead there were ukulele players that were all playing with the chords up on a big screen. And we're sitting next to Mr Roger, who was a 70-year-old ukulele player, and Ryan is chatting it up about different chords and how he's just started learning this year. I just those experiences where I don't know that he would be that comfortable if I had him the majority of his week sitting with only nine-year-olds Right, and so I just love that. I love those moments where I'm like you know, I think I think this is because of the choices we've made to homeschool and to have those experiences with people of all ages all day long.
Speaker 1:Oh, you're so right and sure, there's the occasional kid that no matter where he is all day, he's going to be a talker to people. You know there's so many, my sister's three, they're. They're so quiet and introvert and I'm sure they're not with their friends but they are with even me as their aunt, and you know, just, they're just quieter, not like striking up the conversation, like my son I'll see him strike up a conversation with many adults. It actually it takes some adults like. It takes them off guard. They're like well, oh, you got more to say, yeah, it's so true, and it's been so part of like witnessing our kids kind of go through this, these friendship experiences, experiences too, is interesting, because if they were at school all day, we wouldn't be able to see like where maybe they didn't handle a situation just right. Or and and I get it, you can't be like the helicopter parent, but you can at least go later and talk to your kid about hey, you know I really didn't like how you talked to that kid or that response wasn't right. Or you know I really didn't like how you talked to that kid or that response wasn't right, or you know you were kind of mean here or that person was mean to you. This is how you could do it differently next time. And I think you know teachers they just don't have. Even the best teacher is not going to have the time to watch every interaction and correct them. They're not. They're not the parent, they're there to teach.
Speaker 1:So that's a really beautiful part about homeschooling too, and I've kind of had this, I guess, struggle or hurdle the last year or two, because my son he does tend to be the younger one in a lot of situations with the homeschoolers that we're around, or just his personality. Maybe he's like great one-on-one with a kid, but in a group he likes to be the leader. So he'll either gravitate towards the young ones or completely leave himself out. And I don't know if it bothers him or it just bothers me, because I'm like the parent and I'm like, oh no, he's left out, oh my God, and he doesn't really care. He does, I don't know, but it's.
Speaker 1:It's been really cool to see the progression, because as you continue to hang out with you know this family or that family or this group or that group, I see that he is evolving Like I had nothing to worry about in the beginning. You know when I was feeling like he's left out, the poor kid. You know, I've seen him say like, well, this is my best friend now. And oh well, this is my best friend. He said he's I'm not his best friend, so I'm going to choose this guy.
Speaker 1:And you know, it allows us to have the conversations like hey, listen, you know your family is your best friend. You're going to have friends that are real close to you during certain seasons, like, for instance, you and Gabriel love to fish. So when it's nice out he's probably going to be one of your closest friends. But maybe in the winter time you don't see him as much because your interests are different. And you know, just kind of explaining to him that that's like how life works.
Speaker 1:And you know, as a grownup it's not like, you know, I, we have a lot of close friends and so I don't know, that's just been a really cool thing to see and and just to see them evolve from this little like oh, I need to I don't know be the one in charge to. Well, wait, maybe, maybe I could learn something from these older kids and then the older kids being like oh yeah, well, sure, colin's a little bit younger than us, but he's pretty cool. He's been hanging out for like a year or two now. Let's bring him on in. He's one of us, so it's. It's fun to be the parent and like watch that.
Speaker 2:It is and they get the benefit of also benefit, hopefully, of watching us do the same thing. Right, because we can be there to model with our own friends and with our own relationships and they get to see kind of what that looks like, you know, over time. Like, yeah, maybe I'm not super close with this person right now, but we have, we have experiences and we have a past and we can maybe, you know, hop back into it. So just being able to, in the reverse, have them watch us do that on a day-to-day basis is really cool.
Speaker 1:All right, as we round out, what is your takeaway to like any, first of all, any, person that thinks could I start like a micro school in my area. How hard is it to start that.
Speaker 2:Well, I would say well, you can do it, anybody can do it. Absolutely I'm not doing anything super crazy. Absolutely I'm not doing anything super crazy. I would say the number one thing that sets what we have apart from most of the homeschool programs that we have here in this area and also that I've just seen, you know, from friends across the country, is the building, and it doesn't seem like that should matter so much, but just my experience in like through this process so far is the building just adds so much to what we're trying to accomplish.
Speaker 2:We were involved in a number of really great, you know, co-ops and homeschool programs in the past, but they all had one thing in common and they were all in a church basement. And so what you had is you had a lot of parent teachers having to, you know, bring in bags upon bags back and forth to teach their class and take them back home, and you had some really cool art projects or crafts that the kids did that immediately went into a bag because you had to bring it home. A lot of stress and anxiety at the end of each day, cleaning and making sure everything is exactly where it was, because the space is borrowed, it's not theirs. And what we really wanted to do here, and what I would encourage, you know, any listeners who are trying to start their own thing is aim towards having your own space and have a space where the kids can put the art right on the walls, where they walk in and they throw their backpack on the hook because it feels like theirs, where they have, you know, their favorite cushion on the floor for, you know, circle music time. If they're little, you know, make it feel like it is theirs and they have that ownership of their learning environment, because it really is supposed to be an extension of your home. Right, we're still homeschooling, but we're doing it together.
Speaker 2:So, if they feel that togetherness, which really helps if you build the space around that, so I would say, just as a takeaway in any way that is trying to do this, yes, it may be a starting point to start, you know, in your garage with a couple of friends or at a local church or community center, and I think that is great to start building the community and coming up with kind of the philosophy of what you want this to be long term.
Speaker 2:But then go for your own space, give those kids a place where they can come outside of their house but come together. We have we have a mascot, so we have sweatshirts and sweatpants and t-shirts, you know, with the Jaguars on it and you know. So it feels very, very together and very the fun parts of school. We get to have hat day and we get to have field day. We get to have all of those things where the kids get to come together in their own environment and and have and have those fun times. So that would be my main encouragement would be you know, don't, don't sleep on opportunities to have your own space for a homeschool community that is huge.
Speaker 1:That, as you're saying it it does, it does make a big. I've been in the church basements and, sorry, trying to make globe ornaments and it's not working in the church basement all the time, but we're thankful to have them. Um, I love that. So I'm going to link your website just in the show's description so that people can check it out. Even if they are not local to us, they could still look at it to get ideas to maybe start something like this in their communities. And who knows, maybe you'll even write a template on how to do this and start selling. Yeah, hey, this is how I did it. You can do it too. And there you go. There's your next business endeavor. So perfect, lindsay, thank you so much for joining me today and for all of the work that you do. We didn't even touch upon your. You have a once a year entrepreneur sort of like program that you do in August, that it's always landed on the week that we're in Maine, but could you want to talk about that just briefly?
Speaker 2:Sure, we do an entrepreneurship fair for kids once a year. We're actually moving it to two times a year, this time around, yes, so you'll be able to participate, which will be really awesome. But we have all these kids who have these little business ideas and maybe they want to make candles, or maybe they love baking cookies, and we give them the opportunity to sell in a farmer's market style. We partner with the local farmer's market and use some of their space we have. You know, over the first year we did it, we had 23 kids and last year we had 129. So it has really grown incredibly. But it's so awesome, it's so great to see them work through the whole process. You know what do I need to, what materials do I need to buy. You know how much money am I making. You know what kind of product sells, because maybe what you choose to sell the first year was a little bit of a bomb. So you know, being able to adjust and rework your, your business plan, even at the age of seven or nine, is really awesome. And then it has taken.
Speaker 2:These kids have actually gone to the next step. So at the space we have a cafe for parents to be able to get work done while their kids are in classes and we have our coffee and tea bar is all. All of our teas are handmade and grown and dried from one of the students or one of the kids who did the entrepreneur fair three years ago. So I go ahead and put in my order every month and he comes and delivers our tea. So it's turned into an actual business for him and I'm just one of his customers now. So it's been so awesome to see I want his tea, so it's turned into an actual business for him and I'm just one of his customers now. So it's been so awesome to see.
Speaker 1:I want his tea. Yeah, it's so good, I don't want to get the brand from Hannaford anymore. I want, yes. Oh my God, that's amazing. I love it. You were doing amazing things. Your kids are going to do amazing things too, and your students. Thank you so much. I'm going to link everything in the show's description and I will be seeing you soon because I'm going to get there.
Speaker 2:We're going to get a routine going here, all right, thank you so much, cheryl. This was so fun.
Speaker 1:Thank you, lindsay. 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.