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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
#118: Breaking Free: A Teacher's Journey into Homeschooling
What happens when a dedicated special education teacher realizes the system she works in isn't what she wants for her own children? In this revealing conversation, Terry shares her remarkable journey from classroom teacher to homeschooling mother of four (soon to be five).
Growing up as a first-generation Mexican-American, Terry was raised believing that college education and professional success were the ultimate goals. She dutifully followed this path, becoming a special education teacher for five years in Arizona. Yet what she witnessed behind the scenes – from rigid behavioral expectations to concerning pandemic responses – gradually shifted her perspective on public education.
Making the leap to homeschooling wasn't easy. Terry and her husband took the dramatic step of relocating across the country to South Carolina, significantly downsizing their lifestyle to survive on a single income. Despite her educational background, she still battled self-doubt about teaching her own children – a sentiment many homeschooling parents will recognize.
The rewards have been profound. Her children have thrived away from the pressures of traditional schooling. Her son, once labeled a "class clown," now focuses better on academics without constant social distractions. Her daughter, who experienced testing anxiety even in kindergarten, has rediscovered the joy of learning. Perhaps most beautifully, the family has grown closer through shared daily experiences, including welcoming a new baby.
Terry doesn't shy away from discussing the practical challenges – from curriculum choices to balancing the needs of multiple children at different levels. She shares her approach to finding community through library meetups and church connections, and her thoughts on preparing for the high school years ahead.
Whether you're considering homeschooling, already on the journey, or simply curious about educational alternatives, this conversation offers valuable perspective from someone who's seen both sides of the educational divide. As Terry reflects, "You're never going to regret having that time with your children."
Ready to explore more homeschooling journeys? Subscribe to the Homeschool How To podcast and join our growing community of families discovering educational freedom.
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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 Terri from South Carolina. Hi, terri, thanks for being here. Hi, thanks for having me. So are you a homeschooling mom? Were you homeschooled yourself? Give us a little background here.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, so I grew up going to public school. We kind of were talking before we started recording. So, like I grew up, I'm a first generation Mexican, so my parents came here and they just did everything that got, you know, everything that was supposed to be done, like. So we were my, my brothers were put into school, public school, and I just, you know, they really pushed college because that's what we were supposed to do, and so I went to be a teacher. I went to college to be a special yes, a teacher. But then I got a dual major in special education. So I really had the choice between doing a general education or special education and after doing my so, just being a student teacher in both placements, special education really just like tugged at my heartstrings, I really loved it. So that's what I was doing for five years in Arizona.
Speaker 2:And after just being in public school and working as a special education teacher, I just opened my eyes to a lot of things and I realized I didn't want that for my kids. So, yeah, you know, my parents are really proud I was first generation. Like I said, they were like go to college, go to college, it's what you're supposed to do. So they were really proud that I went to college and I was a teacher. And I became a teacher, thinking it was going to be such a mom friendly job because you have the summers off and you have the weekends off and my kids could go to the school that I was working at, which three. So I had three children at this time. So when I stopped teaching, I was already had three children, but two of them were school age, the two older ones, and it just ended up backfiring because I decided no, I don't want my kids in this environment. So it was like the complete opposite.
Speaker 1:What was it that you were? What was it that you were seeing that you were like I don't really want this for my kids.
Speaker 2:Oh gosh, there was just a mixture of things, right. So I did resource rooms, so I had kids who I had, some kids that had needed like one-on-ones because they had a type of autism that was like nonverbal or down syndrome. But I also worked with a lot of kids who were, you know, just had learning disabilities and math and reading and writing. So I had all types of students with disabilities and so I got to have to work with the gen ed teachers on quite a bit. And you know, I think the gen ed teachers 99% of them really try to do the best that was, you know, for their students, for their class. But you know, I think that for my kids, especially my son he's the oldest, he's in middle school now, but, um, you know, he was a little bit of a class clown. He um liked to make people laugh and I think it was. He had to be at a. He was, you know, you're, you have to be like this and you have to be like that. And I think it was harder. He had more pressure on him because he was a teacher's kid and so that was hard for him. It was hard for me to see, and also, just again, some of the teachers. I just think that the way they every teacher is different, right. So I think that some of them, the way they ran their classrooms, it didn't help my son, you know, and gosh. And then the influences, like just other influences, of other children, my son, I feel like my kids are very easily influenced and I just felt, like you know, we would have the conversation like you need to be a leader, you need to not be a follower, and I think the prayer pressure for them and I grew up, like I said, going to public school and I knew that was a struggle I had was peer pressure. I wanted to be cool, I wanted to be light and luckily, you know, I never did anything that was going to hurt me or, you know, do anything to. I still walked like a good, like a decent path and gotten some trouble here and there. You know, I just worried about my son I really did and my daughter especially.
Speaker 2:And then COVID hit and COVID was even more eyeopening. I really I didn't think that the schools did the best for kids doing distance learning. We know that there's suicide rates went up, um, and it's just all this stuff happened and we went, we were able to go back to schools and the vaccine came out and I chose not to get vaccinated and I feel like I got black sheeped by some of the teachers and the parents and I was like what is going on? And a lot of the teachers and paraprofessionals would show their cards to each other and it was like a popularity thing and if you weren't sharing and saying, saying I got this and I got that, um, and I and I would say, like that's against him, you are peer pressured again as the adult and the teacher well, I was just so like this is something wrong with this, like this is not okay.
Speaker 2:And at that point I was kind of like more thick-skinned right, like I do not care what people think, I don't care what the admin says and the district says Parents, I was the only resource room teacher, kindergarten through fourth grade. So parents were asking the gen ed teachers because their kids had to come to my classroom. So they were like some of the parents were wondering like is Ms Clark, is she vaccinated? Because they had to be around me. So it just was very weird era in time. I'm sure we all have our crazy stories. And that's when I got to a point where I'm like I don't want to be in this environment anymore and like again, for me it was a big HIPAA, HIPAA violation, like I'm like we shouldn't be walking around telling each other our medical history. That's between us and our doctors. So anytime anybody ever came to me and asked me like Ms Clark, did you get vaccinated? It's like I don't have to tell you. It's against HIPAA, like for you to even ask me. But that was an automatic red flag to people. So yeah, I just I just ended up. My heart wasn't in it anymore. For so many, for so many of those reasons I love the special education kids.
Speaker 2:I eventually, when my kids get older, want to go work for maybe not the school system, but I know there's some nonprofits and stuff out there that are doing some awesome things. So, yeah, I just was wanting to do something different and I don't like I just think that God was working in my life and just kind of like, hey, like you know, something has to change, something has to change. And I just was like told my husband, I'm like we need to move, we need to do something different, I want to homeschool. And we moved from Arizona to South Carolina. I think that's we had kind of I had posted that on one of the posts you had posted. But yeah, we moved across the country so that we could afford for me to stay at home and him be the only provider. We really had to downsize and just make a huge sacrifice. And even then I, even then I had a lot of doubt in myself to be able to do it, even though I had gone to school to be a teacher and things like that. So I tried the school one year here in South Carolina and I was not impressed. I was like no, we're not doing it. I didn't go to school, I didn't go to work, I stayed with my youngest, who was five, so she was going to go to kinder, but not just yet. So I was like, okay, well, let me put the other, the two older ones, back in school and see how it goes. And it was the same. I mean it was you went from one side of the country to the other and similar problems and similar situation.
Speaker 2:And I think that the education system, you know there's just the days are too long for these children, they don't get enough outside time. You know there's so many influences that are just not good and there's just not enough resources for those teachers and the parents. There's just, I'm just seeing like a whole picture of the educational system and it's just not what I want my kids in. The things that they're learning. It's not just reading and writing and math anymore, it's other things. And the testing.
Speaker 2:My daughter, she was in kindergarten. She went to kindergarten twice and you know how they have to do these progress monitoring and these testing. You know, quite frequently now as a kindergartner she would be like I have to do this test. You know, mommy, I don't know on my letter, you know she just would, it would just consume her little mind. I'm like, honey, it's okay, like you're in kindergarten. And she worried me because I first saw like a lot of anxiety in her. She's a people, people pleaser, so she was like a teacher pleaser. She just wanted to make everybody happy. And that worried me as she got older and what that would turn into. So yeah, I just then I pulled them out. I finally just told myself, like you have to do it, you know, you can't cause. My youngest at the time was going to go into kinder and I was like this is it Like this? This is? I have to make this choice. Am I gonna send her to kindergarten and keep sending the other two older ones? Am I just gonna pull them all out, you know?
Speaker 2:so that's what I ended up doing what ages were you're older too when you pulled them out so my son was gonna be going into fifth grade and my daughter was gonna be going into first grade.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then my youngest were they happy about the decision to homeschool or were were they? Did they want to stay in school?
Speaker 2:I would say my, my youngest daughter didn't know any better. She's like, okay, I guess I'm just going to stay home. And my middle daughter, the one going into first grade, she she was she kind of understood, like, okay, I don't have to go to school, I don't have to wake up early, I don't have to worry about what I'm going to wear, cause like she had that kind of issue going on too, like what am I going to wear every day? She would have meltdowns. And my son, because he was more of the class clown, very social kid he did he did struggle with it. He never said you know, no, I want to go back to school. He didn't argue or anything like that. I think now, when you, if you ask him, when you, when people ask him, he says you know what, what if you went back to like public school, how would you feel? Or went back to school, he'd be like he says I'll just drive all the teachers crazy and just be a class class, cause he really went there just to socialize and just to kind of goof around and at home, because he doesn't have all that going on, he is more able to focus on his studies and the things that he needs to get done so that he can do all the other things he wants to enjoy doing.
Speaker 2:When he was at school he could just not do. Those things fall under the radar. For the most part it was just so hard, like if his teacher did tell me you know we would message on those message apps. I didn't get his math done and I said, okay, we'll send it with him, or I did, and then I tell him, you know like what? What did you not get done? Did you bring it home? Oh no, I lost it and it was just he had no accountability.
Speaker 2:It was just so hard to get him to understand. You know you need to get this stuff done. But me and his dad he sees the value of you know my parents are my authority. You know I need to listen to my parents and you know obey and do what they ask me to do, because that is my responsibility. And he reacts and he does. He does understand that so much better than like a stranger. Like to him, a teacher is a stranger and he just doesn't relate to so many people. So he understands and he does so much better just doing it because, like I asked you to. You need to do it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I never really thought about that before either. But kids kind of having this confusion over who do I answer to? Because, yeah, when you're in school I mean especially when you start middle school and you are switching classes now you have like nine different authorities to answer to, plus your parents. And if you are in like a situation where your parents are split up, now you've got the mom's household and the dad's household, and that must be very confusing to a kid, like you know, and it is funny too.
Speaker 1:You'll see the memes where parents are like you sent homework home with my kids Cause you couldn't get your job done in the eight hours that you had them. And you know, we, we, we do the homework cause we think it's teaching them responsibility and making sure that they can do the stuff. But it's like, yeah, why can they not get that stuff done in the six to eight hours that they're at school? Why take up more time out of the family time? And then it's like the sports and all that on top of it. But, yeah, how confusing is it to a kid when they're like I have so many authority figures to answer to. I feel like my whole day is just dictated by what these people want from me, and I don't even know why they want it from me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So that's really tough.
Speaker 1:So it sounds like he, it sounds like he thrived, you know. Coming home Now, how did you with having the teaching background? How did you figure out, like, what curriculum you wanted to do? Do you do a family style, cause you have multiple kids, for the certain subjects that you can Do you, do they each have their own separate thing? Do you use online stuff? How do you? What is your day to day look like? I guess?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, I feel like I struggled, actually coming from the educational backgrounds, because I felt like I needed to do it like an educator, and that overwhelms me because I was like, okay, I left. One of the reasons I'm doing this is because I don't think my kids should be sitting down. You know, doing rigorous work for eight hours, right.
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Speaker 2:So I struggled with it at first and then, plus, I had a baby, so I have a little 18 month old, right.
Speaker 2:So it's like we decided to homeschool and we were having another baby well, adding another member to our family so but that was fun for them to see. Like they were like, like, wow, like we're so happy we get to enjoy this little baby and we don't have to rush off to school and so they're actually a big part of just. It almost makes me want to cry because they just, they really just loved. That part of being at home was like we get to see our baby sister all the time. So that was a blessing too. But as far as curriculum and day to day, I'm still working around. I'm still working with it. This is my year. Next year will be in August. Technically right Will be three years. So the first year I was like okay, good in the beautiful, and it was different for all of them. Then this year it's been more. I found easy peasy so far for Clyde to be very helpful. It has the videos. He has also the worksheets that go with it so he can be a little bit more independent with that. Um, the girls.
Speaker 2:I'm going back and like trying to find some curriculum especially focusing on reading. And I think, because they're so close in age, they're only about 15 months apart technically, even though they're like two years apart and no, so, yeah, so they're only a year apart in school. So like Talia will be in second grade and no, she is in second grade and Selena's in first grade, and so as far as the curriculum, I'm like thinking like for reading, I want to do it together and so I'm looking around for something like that. I'm still doing the good and beautiful for them, but I haven't split up the curriculum, so they're still doing split curriculum. But I think for reading, I want to do something together. So I'm still doing the good and beautiful for them, but I haven't split up the curriculum, so they're still doing split curriculum. But I think for reading, I want to do something together, so I'm just still playing around with all kinds of things. Math they're also doing easy peasy for math and then language arts and history right now, or, sorry, history and science. It's family oriented with easy peasy right now. But I'm just like I said, I'm just trying to survive right now and just get them going and doing things throughout their morning like academics. But curriculum. I'm like okay, so want to look around. I've been listening to some different podcasts and stuff and getting some ideas.
Speaker 2:So it's just hard to financially, you know. I don't want to invest too much in one thing and then not work and then so that's a big thing for us because we are down, we downside so much, going from two incomes to one income. You know, budgeting is important for us to be able to, for me to stay at home with them, so that's always a hard thing too is like just investing too much money on a curriculum that's not gonna work is something I like struggle to. You know, really. So they have notebooks and I'll print things out, like if they really need to work on something like sight words.
Speaker 2:I'm just old school right now, like we're writing it. You know you're saying the letters, you're saying the word, you're writing a sentence along with that. Like we're just trying to keep it kind of traditional and just really just focused on getting academic and learning done and not overwhelming with like too much of fancy curriculum. I feel like there's so much fancy stuff out there, right. I'm like I don't want to do that right now, like I'm not when my son gets higher into middle school, like seventh, eighth grade, we'll see what it looks like. Really need to, especially high school. I'm thinking I might have to do a co-op, that's like once a day. There's a couple different options around my area. There's one in particular I'm looking at for him going to high school where it's like one subject one day and that would probably be like a math subject, just because I'm not very good at math. So it's just different things, yeah.
Speaker 1:I? I in the same way where I've kind of bounced around a little bit, not because I was, I mean, like I did the good and the beautiful for kindergarten and we did love it, but I also was like, but what if we love something else?
Speaker 2:too, you know so.
Speaker 1:I tried something different for the year and I my son likes it, but I don't know that I am as happy with it. So I don't know what I'm going to do for next year. But then now I'm like, because I switched, can I seamlessly switch back or is like they probably would have learned different things in their first grade year? And the reading part has been my gosh like such a struggle not struggle, but just slow going. I guess because we started out when he was like four or five doing like a Hagerty phonics in conjunction with the all about reading pre-reading. So I really wanted a good foundation of phonics and that the all about reading pre-reading was great. But again I wanted to know is something else better? So then we switched to like this for first grade teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons in conjunction with I think something else and that was hard.
Speaker 1:It was it was fine the first 50 lessons, but then around lesson 50, he just it was so hard for him. They have these huge paragraphs and the way they teach them to read you can't relate it to anything else that you're reading in real life or any other books, because they're changing fonts and not using uppercase and stuff like that. So we had to go all the way back and redo lessons one through again and then it was still hard for him at lesson 50. I couldn't keep going the other 50 because I was like this just, I don't want to frustrate him, I want him to enjoy reading. And one of the guests that I and we'd got out the Bob books and he was like these are stupid, these books don't make sense, this isn't a real book. He says this story wouldn't happen and so he wasn't jiving with that.
Speaker 1:And a guest of mine recently recommended reading horizons. She said it's like been around forever, like she used it in the east and there's online. It's the cheaper version. So we've been doing that and I did make him go back and do all of the kindergarten, but he went through like he's going through it so quick and he's learning so much and he enjoys it. It is online, but he really likes it and he's learning, so I'm like all right, I think this is like our fit. But that's kind of the beauty of homeschooling is we can bounce and we've done. We've taken months off and just done nature studies and taken breaks. So, yeah, I've had a lot of fun with that. At first you're kind of scared. You're like, oh my God, did I steer him down the wrong path? Are we going to be behind now? Because we're like, oh my God, did I steer him down the wrong path? Are we going to be behind now?
Speaker 2:Because we're like essentially starting over with something else.
Speaker 1:But I think it all builds and it's all like you're learning what works for them, so that going forward, you kind of know what you're looking for.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly Exactly, and that's what I definitely feel like with what you were saying about taking like breaks, and you know, just like. So we're expecting baby number five and actually next month Congratulations, thank you. And so you know that will just, you know, probably take like an earlier break. Well, you know. And so when the baby comes, I told them we'll probably start back up, you know, with school, and so it's just the flexibility of it all. You know I've really enjoyed that, for sure, with my kids and not being so, you know, of course we try to do homeschooling four days a week, which they're used to, going to school five days a week, and just some of that flexibility that we've had. You know, if I don't understand a math concept, their dad, when their dad gets home early on a Saturday morning, he'll work with some Clyde on some of those things my older one so it's just such a blessing, it's so flexible and I could never imagine having to go back to just the rigorous, you know, cycle of how public school is just laid out and I think my kids have definitely thrived and enjoy it overall and, of course, like my son once, he realized, oh, we do things with other like we don't do. We don't do a co-op right now.
Speaker 2:I did try my first year last year and it was it was fine. But even the once a week it's just like, oh, I have to get prepared for this co-op on Friday. Even now I was kind of like wait, no, I don't, I don't want that commitment. And they did ask me to teach the second semester and I did, and I was like I don't want that commitment. And they did ask me to teach the second semester and I did. And I was like okay, I don't want to do this, which I understand why. They would ask like I do have that teaching background and things like that. But I had a little baby and even though I could teach with her, it still was just not. I think that was just a little turned off from teaching five years, but I wasn't ready for that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so I did a co-op too in the same thing they wanted me to like teach gym. It gave me so much anxiety I dreaded going and I'm like, if I'm dreading it, my kid is not.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the kids must be dreading it right, yeah, and so this year we it's just been us but we do a homeschooling get together at a library that's close to our home and my kids love it. So it's other homeschooling families and we just get together on a Monday morning and the librarian is so awesome. She. She does like, she does like a little thing with them where she reads them and do an activity. She's so great about making it friendly for all the ages, because it's all ages that are there, and then I play for a while, and so those are the moms that we get together. I'm actually at a park right now with some of those moms and my kids are playing like I was like, hey, I'm gonna be doing this, and we were getting together anyways, but they were like, yeah, go go, go, go, go do the interview. That's so fun that you're doing that. And so I think my son realizing you know I'm so we're gonna get to socialize, we're gonna get to make good friends.
Speaker 2:Our church family is amazing. A lot of those families also homeschool. I've never been to a church with so many homeschooling families and I think that so many of those families just also see the value of how important it is to just homeschool and and have your kids with you, because, I mean, that's another reason why right is that? For me and my family, um, it's important to teach them like the gospel and you know, and just go through Bible studies and things like that. So that's another thing I'm looking, um, at a little bit more as far as like a Christian curriculum, but that's what I've done, the good and the beautiful, and I've done easy peasy, cause I do want us to revolve around, you know, biblical, gospel oriented curriculum.
Speaker 1:So yeah, yeah, and I just I'm working with a company right now that well, it's called Excelsior classes. It's an online supplemental program for ages fifth through 12th grade, and you know, as I'm researching it and stuff. It's all Christian based.
Speaker 1:It's people that were like teachers, that were actually like called to teach these subjects and you know, they really promote on their page like where it works, which sometimes you know people shy away from that so like, oh well, we're going to alienate ourselves, but they like are, so stand behind this and, um, I love it, I love that, you know, having that supplemental. So it's not like you have to sign up for a whole list of classes If there's like one thing that your son was interested in or daughters that you just like are like, well, I don't, I don't know anything about aviation science.
Speaker 1:So, like you could just take that class and these things. They're just popping up all over the place. So it's so cool because you know that you can put in as one of your viewer or a state that has prerequisites like that.
Speaker 1:There's a science for you, but it's not just the biology, chemistry earth science you get aviation science I mean, I still do that but, you know it's like all this stuff that isn't available to kids that are, you know, just doing the regular public school thing they just have to take. Okay, well, here are the classes that you got to take next year, what fits into your schedule, what out of the lottery? You know, you were last in line this year, so, oops, sorry, the classes that you want to take are full. Here's what you're stuck with, and it's like gosh what a way to waste your life, your child, no less.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think it's great that there, I think so many families are going that way, going through the like homeschooling. I think it's so great that so many things are coming out right now and I think that's why it's so flexible as parents, um, to try to, you know, be able to be flexible with curriculum and things, and that shows your kid flexibility right, because I mean, they're going to grow up, they're going to be in the real world. They need to learn these skills that things change. We need to be flexible, we need to be able to, you know, go with the flow. So I think it's important that we just because I'm not looking to what you just talked about, because, again, kyle's gonna get into high school and I'm like, oh, like, that's big dog, you know school stuff, so we'll see what that looks like, and it makes me nervous.
Speaker 1:I'm like, okay, yeah, I can link it in the shows. I'll link it in the show's description too, so people can check that out. But yeah, it's um. There's so many different ways to learn. We're just so used to thinking it has to be one way. Now, how hard was it for you to leave your job? I know you were kind of like all right, I'm sick of what I'm seeing in the school system. I've lost my taste for and I was the same way. I was a government worker for 16 years.
Speaker 1:I did not get the same thing that you experienced I, I, it was the same thing. Like these people were all proud to wear their masks and proud to, you know, have their vaccines, and I'm, I the a-hole at work with. Like I just printed all over my wall all these printouts of how masks are horrible for you and don't work, and all these studies, and like they just hated me. They hated me.
Speaker 1:Um and and you know, the funniest part is the like stuff, that this is the stuff people they're not. They don't think, because for years I have always like when you go to the bathroom at a public place, I've always, you know, dry my hands with the paper towel and then I take the paper towel out with me and that's how I touch the doorknob with a paper towel in my hand, so I don't have to touch it to the actual doorknob. I've just always been that way, right, and I don't consider myself a germ of phobe. But there are people, especially working in the government. Some of them are not the cleanest. They don't wash their hands when they go to the bathroom. Some of them are not the cleanest. They don't wash their hands when they go to the bathroom. They're touching the flush or they're touching everything else, and then they walk out and hold.
Speaker 1:So I was one of those people that always took the paper towel and open the doorknob with it. People made fun of me all the time, but yet during COVID they all wore masks and I wouldn't wear one. I'm like I'm not going to put God, you're going to breathe in all these germs. You don't even wash your hands and then you're all congregating over because someone brought in you know last night's leftovers or you know some sort of like leftover cookies from a party or a bake sale and oh my, it's free food. Let's all congregate over it with our nasty hands that haven't been washed.
Speaker 1:They were all okay with that, but they needed me to be vaccinated and wear a mask because I was a threat to their health. It was just like so convoluted. Yeah, it was, it was, but anyway, my original question was it was still hard for me to walk away from an income, a pension and something I went to college for to like be. How hard was that for you?
Speaker 2:It was hard, it was difficult. I think that it was one of those things that it had to be. I had to have a change of heart and it wasn't of me. It was like it was God it really was. I mean, I don't know, it wasn't of me, it was like it was God it really was. I mean, I don't know how else to explain it it was.
Speaker 2:He gave me a different affection, you know, he at the time different desire and it was something that I just I had to just walk away from, like I almost I couldn't think too much about it, I just knew that this something had to change. You know, when I, when I got my contract for that year five it was year five, so it was a pretty penny, like it wasn't a special education teacher in Arizona after it was the contract amounts, the salary amount, was that the numbers? I was like wow, like am I really going to walk away from this? And I even, like I snapped, you know I took a picture of it showed my husband, I'm like this is what I'm saying no to um, and you know he's 100 supported me and was like you know, this is what you still want to do. Let's do it. You know we're already like the house is for sale, everything is you know, everything is going according to plan. So, yeah, I turned it down and I just I almost couldn't think about it too much because I feel like I all those you know what ifs and you know, and I think that's why I came out here and I still had so much doubt about about it and I had doubt in myself, even though I was an educator just being able to it's and it's scary, it's kind of how society kind of warps mom's mind like we're not capable of of raising our own children almost right, like how are they going to listen to me? And how is this? You know they're not. You know and you know I saw how it was here and I still was like I think I think it was God just being like you know, you need to do this and I was kind of thinking, well, maybe I'll go back to work, like you know, maybe I can. Just it'd be so much money to have nice, to have the extra income. So I also had that kind of going through my head, even though I moved out to South Carolina.
Speaker 2:But then I had our fourth baby, I was in health, I was like I'm not, I'm going to have to stay at home, because in Arizona I had a family. I had my mom who was able to help me with my babies when they were little so I could do my career, and that was a huge help. But also it it just it's not the way God designed it. Like I really don't think it is, even though it was better than having them go to daycare. But, um, so I was like out here and I feel like again it was like God's intervening in my life and saying like, okay, now you have another baby, now you don't have that support. So like you have to stay home, right, because I wasn't, couldn't afford the amount. The money that you have to pay for daycare is just not worth it.
Speaker 2:So I had to stay home and I that's when I pulled them out I said, okay, like they didn't go back to school. So she was born in October. So, yeah, that August, when I was still pregnant, they didn't go back to school and it just I couldn't even it's so hard for me looking back now like why I had so much worry about it, cause it's just I would never, I could never imagine it any different. I feel like we've grown and become so much closer as a family. My house stays cleaner now because they can all chip in. Like they've learned, like this is how we clean the bathroom, this is how you put your clothes away, this is how we unload a dishwasher, and they just they're learning life skills. They're learning real skills, real things of how to take care of a home and pitch in.
Speaker 1:You guys know I am a big fan of the Tuttle Twins. I had Connor Boyack, the writer of these books, on episode 24. I reached out to his company asking to let me be an affiliate because I strongly believe in their books and their message. In the H5 through 11 book series which I read to my son all the time I mean he actually asks us to read these books with him. Book five, road to Serfdom, talks about what happens to a local town with local businesses when corporations start moving in.
Speaker 1:Book six, the Golden Rule, talks all about Ethan and Emily's experience at summer camp through a series of cheating and manipulation on certain races that they're required to complete. It talks about how the golden rule of treating others how we want to be treated ourselves is how we all should be conducting our lives. Education Vacation talks about John Taylor Gatto and the creation of the school system and what it was actually intended to do, which you get to learn about by following Ethan and Emily on a trip to Europe. And book 11, the Messed Up Market, takes you through the journey of kids trying to create small businesses as they learn all the laws and rules that government has put in place to actually make it very difficult for them. You learn all about interest savings versus borrowing, low interest rates versus high interest rates and supply and demand, and these are just some of the books in that series.
Speaker 1:Use the link in my show's description or at the homeschoolhowtocom under the listener discounts page. I also want to let you know about some other books that the Tuttle Twins have out America's History, volume 1 and 2, which teaches all about the inspiring ideas of America's founding without the bias and hidden agendas that's found in other history books for kids and most likely in the schools. There's also books on how to identify fallacies, modern day villains all stuff that we want to be talking to our kids about. Whether you homeschool or not, these books bring up important discussions that we should be having with our children. Use the link in my show's description or, like I said, at thehomeschoolhowtocom under listener discounts.
Speaker 2:I mean that's cool, right? Kids have responsibilities, they have jobs, you have paper passer, you have door holder, you have this, you have that, and so, like, here are my kids and they're doing things that are in their home and they take pride of, you know, helping out around the house, helping mom, helping dad, and it's just. It's so beautiful to see like it really is, like I love it and it. It was hard, but I'm happy. At the end of the day it was the right decision and I could never imagine going back.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was like hard pulling the plug for me as well, but I just kept telling myself on my deathbed I'm never going to say, well, I wish I spent less time with the kids.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:You're always going to wish you had more time with them when you're at the end of your life.
Speaker 1:I agree. And to wrap up, like, okay, this is not related to homeschooling at all, but when you were talking about your parents being immigrants from Mexico and I was just thinking about this post that, like my husband's aunt I think it was her that had on a couple weeks ago on Facebook and she was like oh my God, all of you people that vote and I'm just generalizing because you said that you're christian and unvaccinated, that you have more of a conservative background, but she's this aunt of his is like you must hate the immigrants in this country because you've just sent them all back with your vote. You know and I'm thinking all the immigrants I know voted for trump. So I don't know, like, what is what's she watching? So, like, do your parents? Have they expressed any sort of opinion? Are they? Do they think they're getting like deported?
Speaker 2:or something. Well, they're citizens now, right, so they became citizens. I would say have a very split family. My parents are very other conservative. They did vote Republican and this last term, and but we have so much family that doesn't see it the same way. And I think what we need to just think back to is you know every, every country has closed borders. You know it's not.
Speaker 2:And I go back and I have family who might discuss with me and argue, or you know, and I say you know the Biden administration, democrats had four years to give amnesty to illegals. It's I don't think it's that difficult. It can't be that difficult to look at an immigrant and say, okay, you know, have you been working? Have you do have any criminal background? You know, is there amnesty that we can give to you? Ronald Reagan, he was the last president that did it in the 80s, and no one's done it since. Obama didn't do it for eight years and Biden didn't. Like I said, trump didn't do it the, of course, the first four years and Biden didn't do it the last four years that he was in presidency. So there's just there's a lot of ignorance going around with that, you know. I think Trump really wants to clean up, because the problem is that not only did the Biden administration not give amnesty to immigrants who were already here, he just had open borders and people were just flooding in and that's just so unsafe.
Speaker 2:I grew up going to Mexico for many years because I still have family that live there and you know you can't go there, I couldn't go there, and just you know you can weapons, you can't take guns. They have their own laws. You know, when you're driving across the Mexican border, if you have a gun, you can be put in prison for that even a bullet, I've heard. So. Every country has laws, every country has regulations and we can't. I definitely support, you know, this party by wanting to. So many people came in. We don't know who they are. They are criminals, not just from Mexico but from other countries, and focusing on sending them back to their country, I think is something that was very important. Do I wish that maybe President Trump would do some? Some type of amnesty, of course, because I do have family who don't have their documents and I would hate for a cousin of mine who's in their 40s or 50s, who has been here since they were in their 20s, not, you know, have to be sent back.
Speaker 2:It's sad, it's a very unfortunate situation. I don't know again, like I'm not saying for my family, but like you know, some of those cases it's like did you not save the money? Like, why haven't you gone through the process? Like, what's been keeping you? Is it fear that's been keeping you from going through the process of like becoming a citizen? Because, like I said, my parents did it right, like they got their green cards, they got they became citizens right.
Speaker 2:But I don't know, everybody's situation's different and I know some people are fearful. They were fearful with the obama presidency and then, of course, with trump. Um, the first four years he, sir, or he, was our president. But that's why it makes me sad that the biden administration they did the opposite. They made the situation worse by opening up the borders and not focusing on the families that were here, that didn't get help during the obama administration or the trump administration, and they just were like, yeah, there's just that every like open borders, it's like why didn't we focus on those families, like the hardworking, immigrant families? So I think that people just are ignorant to that and they just don't think about it in that way. But you know, at the end of the day, if you're here illegally, you're here illegally, and if you have to go back but you don't have a criminal record, you know, start the process. But I know that that's. That's just a hard, a hard thing for some people to swallow, but it's the right thing to do at the end of the day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think it does. It has a lot to do with the school systems not teaching us how to properly educate ourselves how to actually read the bill. People rely on social media now for news. It's not even just CNN, which you know the in both of them tell half truths or take something, whether it's a CNN or even Fox, you know. There it's like we just take that and then they're taking.
Speaker 1:Some people are taking that and then they make their posts about it on social media and a TikTok and that's what people follow as the news and everything on there is to get attention, get attention and get the shares and the people fighting over it. That's the stuff that gets more views. So like it's turned into this whole like propaganda system where people don't even know, like how to know go research the law or research the bill or how bills even go through, like that it has to get you know a proposal in the house and the senate. And even I don't know quite, even though I've tried to research, how all of it works. We're not taught that and I think it's by design that we're not taught that from the beginning, because they'd rather have us fighting with each other.
Speaker 1:We're easily controllable when we're all fighting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's divide and conquer for sure, and I don't agree with everything that the Republican, you know the Trump administration is on board with. But again, for my family, and what I thought was the best option was the Trump administration and well, you know Republican stance. You know we see this with the boys and girls sports. You know, Like I was a big athlete growing up and I would hate for my girls to have to one day if they decide which I don't think so, we're kind of more. We do jujitsu. But even in that the world of jujitsu there's been some trans men going against women In the children division. It's different before you know, they hit puberty. But everybody knows it's common sense, when you hit puberty, a boy and a girl, it's very different and strength and ability and those things, uh. So you know I would hate for my girls if they wanted to do a jiu-jitsu competition and they had to go up against a boy who was the same weight class, the same belt.
Speaker 2:Jujitsu is a beautiful sport that it teaches, you know, the smaller, the smaller person should be able to. It's, you know, for the smaller person. That's what it was designed for, that's what the sport's designed for. But, um, you know, when you're going against a man who's gotten as much mat time as you, it could be very dangerous. Um, so we've seen it in like volleyball. There was a instance in, I think, high school in North Carolina where a girl got her, you know, spiked on. I don't mean to go off there, but I mean the fact that Trump was, you know he had put into executive order. I believe.
Speaker 2:Now, right, Men are, yeah, if you're a biological man, you will not be playing in women's sports. And I support a hundred percent and I think, at the end of the day, for, for families, you know, for people, we have to understand, like you know, we there should be understanding and not so much hate and you know what we think is best for our families. And, um, you know, I I think that's unfortunate. I just see it so much with my family. Like I said, I have very split family, coming from being first generation I have the Biden administration really tries to show itself as like the immigrant and the, you know it's just tries to disguise itself as this, this party that's for immigrants and for women, and I'm like, how are you for women If you're allowing men to play women's sports? And like that's just not for women. We see it in beauty pageants, Like how can you take that away from a woman? You know like I just don't understand. I just think it's silly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a crazy time right now, and if we can homeschool our kids to just shield them from half of this, they might have a chance, because how confusing it is to them. Yes, yeah, a thousand percent. Well, terry, thank you so much for joining me today. Is there any last words or parting words that you'd want to leave people with?
Speaker 2:I just, um, I hope everybody, you know, whoever's listening to this if they're on the fence about homeschooling, um, that they, you know, just know that at the end of the day, like you were saying to this, if they're on the fence about homeschooling, that they, you know, just know that at the end of the day, like you were saying to, like, you're never going to regret having that time with your children, I think that you know there's just, there's so much beauty in that and being able to say, like I walked away from this career and you know this, and I downsized or did whatever, because I see it so much on social media, like I couldn't, I could never do it, you know this, and I downsized or did whatever, because I see it so much on social media, like I couldn't, I could never do it, you know, and it's like you really have to sacrifice, you know, and pray about it and you know, ask the Lord to guide you in that.
Speaker 2:I know we're not all but believers and that's okay, but I mean there is a greater power and he changes hearts, he changes affection. Yeah, so I think, praying about it and talking to your family about it.
Speaker 1:Well, terry. Thank you so much again. This has been so fun. Thank you, I'd love to come on anytime, awesome, awesome. 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.