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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
#152: You Know Your Child Better Than Any School Ever Could
You know your child better than any teacher, curriculum, or system ever could — but trusting that instinct can feel scary.
In this episode of The Homeschool How To Podcast, I’m joined by Leanne, a former classroom teacher, homeschool mom of two grown kids, and Unfold History co-creator, to talk honestly about what homeschooling really looks like over the long haul.
We dive into:
- How to know when a curriculum isn’t working — and when to switch
- Why learning should be engaging, exciting, and sometimes messy
- The freedom homeschooling gives families beyond academics
- The impact of screens, dopamine, and constant stimulation on developing brains
- Why college doesn’t have to be the end goal — and what success can actually look like
- How homeschooling can strengthen family bonds well into adulthood
Leanne is also one of the creators behind Unfold History, a live-action, story-based history program for kids designed to make history meaningful, visual, and relatable. The program uses short, kid-centered videos paired with flexible curriculum to help children understand why history matters — not just memorize facts.
Whether you’re homeschooling, exploring alternative education, or simply questioning the traditional school system, this episode will remind you that there is no single “right” path — only the one that works for your family.
🎧 Listen in and be encouraged: you can do this.
Check out: www.unfoldhistory.org
Follow Unfold History on Instagram and Facebook
The documentary mentioned is actually called : The Social Dilemma (not The Social Experiment!)
📘 The Homeschool How To Complete Starter Guide
Thinking about homeschooling but don’t know where to start? Cheryl created this comprehensive guide, compiling insights from interviews with over 120 homeschooling families across the country. From navigating state laws to balancing work and home life — this eBook covers it all. Stop feeling overwhelmed and start feeling confident on your homeschooling journey.
👉 15% off Tuttle Twins books with code Cheryl15
Let's Talk, Emergencies!- Grab it on Amazon!
What is the most important thing we can teach our kids?
HOW TO HANDLE AN EMERGENCY!
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Welcome to the quick episode of the Homeschool How too. I'm Cheryl and I invite you to join me on my class 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 Leanne. Hi Leanne, how are you? Hi, I'm great. How are you? Good. Now, what state are you coming to us from?
SPEAKER_00:We are from Southern California.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. All right. So I'm in New York. So I'm like the same state on the opposite coast here. Do you find that there's a lot of homeschoolers in California?
SPEAKER_00:Yes. Homeschooling has grown t tremendously in California. I think there's been a huge insurgence of it over the last probably 15, 20 years, even.
SPEAKER_01:Wow. So even before, was that before like the vaccine laws got, you know, the religious exemption was taken away?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that definitely made a huge jump in it, but it had been growing substantially before then. I homeschooled my kids years ago. And at that time it was already starting to gain momentum. And I think that all of the things that have happened in the last six years have just accelerated the growth.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. So how old are your kids?
SPEAKER_00:I have a 27-year-old and a 24-year-old. So been been a little while since I've done that.
SPEAKER_01:And they were homeschooled and they came out okay on the other side?
SPEAKER_00:Yes, they're both very functioning adults that are holding down jobs and doing really well.
SPEAKER_01:Well, that's so good to hear. See, they're not living in a basement and wearing cat costumes. If anything, that's out of the public school side today.
SPEAKER_00:No, they're doing great.
SPEAKER_01:So, what even got you into homeschooling in the first place?
SPEAKER_00:Well, I actually have my teaching credential. I taught for a few years before I had my daughter, and it was always kind of on my radar. But my husband and I were disagreeing a little bit. He's like, I really want you to homeschool. And I was like, we'll see. It really takes a certain mix of parent and child to make that work. And I don't know if I want to do that or not. But um after I had my daughter, I quit teaching and stayed home to be mom. And by the time she got to kindergarten, I was like, no, I definitely want to try this and see how it works. So we homeschooled through a couple of different charter schools through the years, and I used different schools based on the different needs of my kids. My kids were really different learners and they needed different things. So yeah, we kind of just rolled with it and left it open-ended as to how long we were going to continue to do it. And as long as it was working, we kept doing it. And when it was time to transition, my daughter actually was homeschooled all the way until her senior in high school. And then she decided, she goes, Yeah, I kind of want that senior experience. I'm like, all right, go for it. And she's like told me that she's like, that was honestly the best way to do it. I got all the perks from homeschooling my entire life, but I then got to do all this fun senior things for senior year. It was fun.
SPEAKER_01:And all right, if you could go back a second and just explain, like, what even is going through a charter school?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so I decided to use a charter school for keeping track of the records and honestly to be able to get the resources that are available. So in California, when the kids are in a charter school, there's they were still homeschooled at home full-time, but we had an educational facilitator that we would check in with monthly, and they would be the ones that filed our paperwork for us, which it was just one less thing for me to do. Because of my background in education, I also was an educational facilitator. So I've I've experienced education from a lot of different perspectives, both as a classroom teacher, as a homeschooling parent, and as a facilitator for charter schools. So another benefit for us was that they gave us monthly stipends that we could use for enrichment activities. We used it for karate or dance or music lessons, things like that. Um, and then the curriculum, we were able to pick and choose what we used for that and the things that we liked, we got for free from them. And then things that I knew that I wanted that that the school would not cover, then we just purchased outside. So it really for me was the best of all worlds where I could still have full control of how we taught and what we did and how we did it, but I didn't have to deal with any of the back end stuff and had a lot of resources available.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, that is that is cool. I hadn't actually had anyone explain it like that before. So now when they talk about the credits that they're giving people or vouchers or school choice, they kind of all tie into what's been going on for years anyway, at least in California.
SPEAKER_00:Oh yeah, at least here. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. So let's go back to the beginning. Like how was it beginning to homeschool when there really wasn't like all the resources that there are today? I mean, now everybody on Instagram and Pinterest, you know, has a curriculum or a curriculum there, a different way to homeschool here, look at the day in the life. What was it like kind of getting into it? How did you figure out what curriculum you wanted to use with the kids or even find groups to get together with?
SPEAKER_00:So I actually used a wide variety of curriculum and different curriculum with each kid. Part of it, I think I had an advantage of having the background in education. I was aware that there is a lot out there and I wasn't afraid to ask questions. So I asked our facilitator, I said, Hey, what do you have? And what other programs do you offer? And what else can I get? And if I want this particular curriculum, will you buy it for me? So I wasn't afraid to be proactive and ask those things. A lot of it was just spending time looking up stuff and knowing my kids, knowing what types of learners they were and the types of activities that they liked to do, the types of things that helped inspire them. I'm a real hands-on person. I love to have fun with education. So a lot of our stuff was definitely project-based and getting out there and actually doing things versus sitting in front of a book.
SPEAKER_01:So was that a big change for you from coming from the classroom? Had you kind of experienced that in the classroom where you're like, ah, I could go, I could take these kids outside and teach this in such a more interesting way. And then at your homeschooled, like, oh wow, I can really put this to good use.
SPEAKER_00:For sure. It was definitely liberating to have full control. Thankfully, came from teaching kindergarten, which that was uh it's an age where there's a lot more freedom in in schools that you're allowed to be more creative. I actually I taught at a small private school, so we also had small class sizes, and it's the same thing. We we planted gardens. I drug my husband up to the mountains at two o'clock in the morning to bring back truckloads of snow so they would have a snow day because we're in Southern California. There's no snow days. So I've always kind of been a little bit different when it comes to education in general.
SPEAKER_01:That is so awesome. There is a snow day today for uh we're on like the school district's call list somehow, must be because we report to them. So 5 a.m., the school will be closed. There's like seven plus inches outside today.
SPEAKER_00:Meanwhile, it's 70 degrees and sunny here.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I mean, it's cute for like a day and a half, and then you're like, all right, is it April yet? Uh it's nice for Christmas having the snow, but yeah. So, all right, so how what was the difference you saw in homeschooling your boy versus homeschooling the girl?
SPEAKER_00:It's it's night and day. They're such different humans on every level. My daughter is really self-motivated. Learning comes very easy for her, and so she was needed a lot less guidance and a lot less structure to things. My son definitely needed more support and his learning more reinforcement. I used a wider variety of materials to try to find what stuck for him. So yeah, they were on very different paths.
SPEAKER_01:All right, so walk me through this too, because people will think, like, all right, well, she was a teacher, she knew all the different curriculums and styles of of learning. But you know, at what point when you're teaching your son say how to read? Like I have a seven-year-old and we've been working on reading for at least three years, right? And he's just now picking it up, and that's probably less to do with the curriculum and more to do with just seven-year-old boys. Things are more starting to click in their brain at that time, but then the girls might it'll be a little bit sooner. But like at what point do you say, like, this curriculum isn't working, or I've spent the money on it. We have to just keep trudging through. Maybe it'll be better after, you know, next month or the next month. And when do you just say, like, throw your hands up? All right, let's try something else. This isn't working. Where is that line?
SPEAKER_00:I really, especially when I was a facilitator working with homeschooling parents and saw a wide variety of kids and learning styles. Um, encourage the parents to really trust their instincts on things because you do know what your kids want and need better than any teacher ever could. There is nobody, no teacher in a classroom that would ever be able to have an ounce of insight into your child the way you do. So when you find that they're getting frustrated and shutting down, um, it's past time to switch at that point. It's supposed to be fun. And learning should be engaging, learning should be exciting, learning should be something that we want to do. Uh, and of course, there's always the not-so-fun stuff that you have to do just because you have to do. I mean, we have to scrub toilets. Not so fun, has to be done. Uh, but in general, we really want to see kids wanting to do that. And that's one of the biggest reasons that we started unfold history, is because of that.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, so let's get into what is unfold history? Where, where did this idea come up with and what is it?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, this is actually not my brainchild at all. This was uh a friend of mine came to me with this idea of I want to make history videos for kids. I was like, history videos, yeah. I mean, I'm I'm a recovering history hater. Okay, so yes, I'm a teacher, and yes, I did not like history. I thought it was boring and saw absolutely no point in it. Why do I want to learn about a bunch of dead guys? It doesn't mean anything to me. Uh what did catch my attention though, I was like, okay, well, there definitely is a need for that. Because when I was teaching and homeschooling and all of these throughout the year, all the ways I've been involved in education, there's a ton of really fun resources for math and for science and for reading. And I was like, oh yeah, this is great stuff. And then you get to history, and it's like, okay, let's read a book and answer some questions. Yay, that's fun. So that little part, that fun part of me that wants to be like make education enjoyable was like, okay, this is this is actually an idea. But what we need to do is we need to create a whole program for parents and for teachers that can turn history into something that isn't drudgery, but actually something that can be enjoyable and more importantly, relatable. And for them, the kids to really be able to see why. Why? Why do we need to study this? Why is this important? Why does it matter to me today? And that's something I didn't get until I was an adult before I finally got the why it was important. So we're really trying to catch kids a young age and start inspiring a love for that now. Okay, so these are videos. Yeah, so we have season one was just released this last year. We're currently in the middle of filming season two, and they're short videos that are very kid-centric. So the kids really drive the storyline in here. We have three modern-day kids that have this really eccentric history tutor that they have to go to and they don't want to go because who wants to go to history tutoring? And the history of you tutor takes them back in time to witness these little moments in time. And then a lot of the discussion in these is between the kids themselves as they're processing what they've seen and relating it to current things that they experience in their lives, um, and making it something that they can actually understand why why it matters. So the the videos are geared toward second through fifth grade, but we're finding that adults are loving it, older kids are loving it because it is relatable.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and I'm right with you. Like, history never made sense to me. I never cared. And until I actually started homeschooling, I was like, wow, this stuff is really interesting. And even just living where I live in the Northeast, so many wars about the Hudson River, the building of the Erie Canal and how that affected trade. And the I'm like, they never taught us anything like this in school. Like that it was right here, and that it was just it wasn't that long ago. I feel like in the school it seemed like, oh, this was like an ancient, you know, everything was back in the Maya's and you know, because Mayans all that, but it just seemed so out of touch. But now that I'm like, oh they built the Erie Canal. Well, that really was only like I think it was 150 years ago. And just thinking about like, well, how did they have to do it? They had to like ask people or tell people, hey, we're taking your land. You know, you have this farm here, we're taking this, and we have slaves and people from immigrants, and we're forcing them to dig this thing, dig a ditch basically, and it wasn't supposed to work. And it's super interesting. It's like, wow, they really could have like spiced that up a little bit in school, you know.
SPEAKER_00:I think what you're hitting on is a key part of what we are trying to do because I kind of had the same experience when I went to DC for the first time. I was like, oh, wait, this is a real place with real people in real time. And so that there's such power in visual representation. I think that's one of the things that's really been missing from history is that we read about it in a book and we answer questions, but being able to see things and then being able to relate them to the here and now uh and the similarities and understand the progression of how we get there and letting the kids watch the struggles. That's an important part of it too. We really have tried to look at history from different perspectives and to show them that, hey, it's complicated. There's a lot of things that were happening and a lot of different experiences for different groups of people. And what might have this been like to have been Susie versus being one of the indigenous people and like how how were their experiences different through that? So those types of things that we can visually portray for the kids, I think is one of the things that's making people really start to notice that oh, okay, this is different. This is something that can be enjoyable and fun. We've uh accompanied it with curriculum that is designed to be very user-friendly. That was one of my pet peeves as a homeschooling parent and as a teacher, was don't make me wade through a ton of stuff. Nobody has time for that. We don't have time for that. So everything that is is put together in the curriculum is really what you need and nothing else. So we don't add a lot of additional fluff. How do you get through this lesson with the minimal amount of supplies? Because I also don't have time to go out and buy a bunch of weird stuff that I need in order to make this craft or do this project. Uh, I want to be able to do it, I want to be able to move on. And that's um that's been one of the important things to me in developing the curriculum is not only does it need to be engaging, but it needs to be doable for parents and for teachers. And we want it to be able to be used in a classroom if they choose to. We want homeschool parents to use it if they choose to as well.
SPEAKER_01:Thinking about homeschooling but don't know where to start? Well, I've interviewed a few people on the topic. Actually, 120 interviews at this point with homeschooling families from across the country and the world. And what I've done is I've packed everything I've learned into an ebook called the Homeschool How to Complete Starter Guide. From navigating your state's laws to finding your homeschooling style, from working while homeschooling to supporting kids with special needs. This guide covers it all with real stories from real families who've walked this path. I've taken the best insights, the best resources, and put them all into this guide. Stop feeling overwhelmed and start feeling confident. Get your copy of the Homeschool How to complete starter guide today and discover that homeschooling isn't just about education. It's about getting what you want out of each day, not what somebody else wants out of you. You can grab the link to this ebook in the show's description or head on over to the homeschoolhow to.com.
SPEAKER_00:So we've got different types of projects. We have five different categories that are talk about it, and those types of things are how do you get the kids talking about what they saw and what did that mean to them and what did they notice and those types of things. We have investigated, and that's a lot of the STEM type activities where we bring in math and science and the technology, research, analytical thinking, those types of activities for them to engage in. Imagine it uses a lot of creative thinking and writing, perspective taking, those types of activities that are designed to get them to think about somebody else's experiences as well. Draw it, taps into our for our artists. So it can be anything from graphing to creative illustrations or comic strips, things that that might hit those types of learners. And then do it is for our tactile learners, the ones that need to actually be out there making hard tack or building models or doing things that can reach those learners in different ways. So we really want homeschool parents to have a wide variety of resources for all those different types of learners. So if you have a second grader and a fifth grader, they don't have to do the same activity. And that a lot of that comes back to my experiences with this is that my son wouldn't have wanted to do the creative writing that my daughter did, but he would have wanted to go out there and build something. So we want there to be a little bit of something for everyone.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, that's awesome. So what grades is it for? What ages?
SPEAKER_00:So it's designed with second through fifth grade in mind, but it's really adaptable. Um, we've had parents saying, Oh, I could absolutely use this with my high schooler as well. So uh a lot of the ideas that are in there are to help parents that may not have as much experience to like like now what do I do with this? Okay, we watched this 10-minute video, we also kept them short because attention span, but now what? And so this is a springboard. The materials that we give are a springboard to get um parents thinking about like what do I do with this now? How do I adapt this to my seventh grader and my seven-year-old?
SPEAKER_01:And then does it go the whole year or is it more like a short unit study?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that's a great question. Right now, we if this is just relief star first season. So the period of time that we're covering was prior to the Mayflower up into that first winter uh in in the New World. Season two is going to cover kind of that forgotten about time frame of what happened then in between that and the Revolutionary War. So we really are trying to set the stage and cover some things that are often overlooked in in history, but are really important to understanding the story of why we're here today. So this is um we have seven videos and two interviews that are a part of the curriculum. So it's definitely a supplemental curriculum at this point. Eventually we we have great dreams on expanding this, but it takes time and it takes resources. So we're working on that.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, definitely. Uh we we just went to Fort William Henry um in Lake George, which I I would not have known what what war that had anything to do with until uh bringing my children. But yeah, learning about the French and Indian War, which like you said, that forgotten time period between the Mayflower and the American Revolution. It was like the French and Indian War. I don't know, I wouldn't have been able to tell. You, what continent that was even fought on, and who fought in it? It was so interesting to learn. Like, you know, it was fought here, it was the French versus the British. They both wanted territory. The they were getting the indigenous people to fight on both sides, and what that must have felt like for the ind like you were saying for the indigenous people being like, We don't want either of you. You know, it's kind of like us and our government today, like, we don't want either of you, but like we gotta it's it's so interesting to to learn about it. And it was like from 1492 to 1776, that's a long time. That's like more than between 1776 and now. I mean, you know, it's the same like that was a lot of years that they were just sitting there not being uh an actual country. And yeah, we gotta don't conceptualize that. Right. We're we're really thinking about the day-to-day, what was going on, and okay, we're gonna need a leader, and you know how Washington was actually the one that started the French and Indian War. And it was called the Seven Years' War in the rest of the world because they were fighting elsewhere too. But yeah, super interesting, and school just made it the absolute most boring thing you could ever hear about.
SPEAKER_00:That's been one of the fun parts of the of the project is that working with the our child actors that are part of it, they've actually had a really big voice in the project, which has been really fun to give them because they have really great ideas and the things that they found interesting, like, well, if they find this interesting, other kids are gonna find this interesting. And the things that that they really related to were things that we felt were important to bring forward in the project. And so it's really been a very cool project to be a part of because of the the way it's just grown and developed, and the different ways that the kids have had a voice in the project has been really cool.
SPEAKER_01:So when you say videos, you're not just meaning like a teacher talking to a screen who they are actors.
SPEAKER_00:Live action, yeah, live action videos that are just with our three modern day kids that are taken back with their history tutor. And then we incorporate kids in the historical sequence as much as is appropriate or whatever we tend to be covering. Because again, we're really trying to help kids now understand that there were kids then and they were experiencing these events as well. So the more relatable we can make it for them, the more likely they are going to start asking questions and to be more engaged with the process.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, absolutely. So who writes the script?
SPEAKER_00:Guyler does the initial writing and then we go back and forth with it with about a million revisions. This is probably the hardest part, is that it's very difficult to research this. We use primary sources as much as possible, but unfortunately, those are often very one-sided. So a lot of its time is spent into researching things to try to portray things as historically accurate as we can based on materials that are available. And so it's definitely a creative process. We get together weekly and we hash out different ideas for things and we're scratching out and restarting, and it's a process.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that is amazing. Okay, so so getting back to you just homeschooling your children. I mean, stuff like this didn't quite exist then, did it?
SPEAKER_00:No, which it was probably the only reason that Skylar talked me into doing this project is because I was like, this is definitely not anything that I had access to. And the only ways that I could make history fun and relatable was to take my kids' places. Well, we're in Southern California, so we don't have the same access to a lot of the historical places to visit that are there on the East Coast. So a lot of it was um a lot of scrambling, looking for books, trying to find stories about historical figures, but there's just such limited resources for history that I was like, this is definitely something that is needed. And I'm like, I think we could have fun with this. And again, I love fun. So that's what I'm always looking for.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it sounds so awesome. So can people just purchase like one year curriculum at a time, that sort of thing?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so the it's the membership is a is a one year again, realizing that a lot of times you're covering different periods of history, so you can buy it for the year that you're you're using, you'll have access to all of the curriculum and then and the videos. We have two memberships, so you can buy one that's just the videos without the curriculum for people that are like, well, I'm not plan to use the curriculum at all, but for homeschoolers, you're gonna want the curriculum. That's the fun stuff. So that uh you have access to it for a year from the time that you purchase it, and then um we'll be releasing seasons, hopefully, on the annual basis from here on out.
SPEAKER_01:Awesome. All right, so I'll make sure to put the link for all of that in the show's description so people can just easily go there. But yeah, getting back to your homeschooling too, like how was that transition for your daughter going back into school? And I know you said that you were happy about it, but I mean, was there a part of you that was like, oh, I just wanted to kind of finish this out with you? I'm a little sad. What am I gonna do now?
SPEAKER_00:Yes and no. Every transition period, I think as a parent, there's that, oh my goodness, we need to go, you're doing so great. And then that little bit of, you don't need me so much anymore. Wait a minute. I've just spent my entire life devoted to raising you. Now what? But I was excited for her and because I liked seeing her push herself out of her comfort zone. And I think that that is something that homeschooling gives parents the ability to scaffold for their kids in a way that helps them to build confidence, we're able to protect them from experiences that are really common in in public school settings that allow them to grow at a developmentally appropriate rate. So I felt like she was ready. And uh she she made it even harder on herself because she actually started after the the year started. She made this decision like at the beginning of September. I want to go back to school. Part of that was because she's a dancer, so she wanted to be on the dance team. Um, and so she had connections already there, which I think definitely made it easier for her than if she'd walked into a school where she knew no one. But that little part of me that was like was definitely way overridden by like just pride in her for being willing to put herself out there and go.
SPEAKER_01:And how was she academically compared to her peers?
SPEAKER_00:She was way ahead of where her her peers were. She would have definitely ended up at the top of her her class had she been there long enough to accumulate the the way they they do it in the public school system, but that wasn't important.
SPEAKER_01:Wow. Was that you being very diligent on like we're doing this many hours a day of homeschool? You know, because now we have like the unschoolers that just kind of go with the flow, and then we have like the a Becca people that are like, we're doing this, this, this is very rigid, and then everything in between. So how how rigid were you with her curriculum?
SPEAKER_00:With it, everything in between. It was she was because of her dance, her dad she was dancing at least 20 hours a week, and then she was also doing auditions and things too. So she had a pretty intense schedule, and it was important to me that she didn't lose the opportunity to still be a kid and to to do those things. So I gave her a lot of responsibility with her schedule for it as she got older and let her choose, like, okay, this is what you need to get done. How you choose to do that is up to you. And I think that was important for her as well, because that's an adult skill that we all have to do. Like, okay, we have certain things we have to get done. How am I gonna do that? So um that really set the stage, I think, well for her with that and gave her the flexibility to if she needed had a day where she was not feeling it and she was tired, she didn't have to do as much that day, but she knew she had to get it done at some point.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, okay. So it was, I mean, I know there are some families I talk to that are like it and we do Latin and we do, you know, this and I'm like, oh my God. I it sounds important to me. And it might be one of those things like history where like once you get into it, it's probably really interesting. But just thinking about adding Latin to our schedule among you know, all things I'm like, I don't know if we're ever gonna be that those people, but that's okay, you think?
SPEAKER_00:I mean, yeah. I I really that's I think one of the best things for us about homeschooling was that I loved the freedom that it gave us to be who we were. Um, I love the fact that we could go on vacation and go exploring somewhere and take stuff with us or catch up when we got back without somebody breathing down our neck telling us, oh, you've missed X amount of school days. So ability to be a really tight-knit family and to be able to help control the flow of information that came into my kids was also really important to me. Um, and that's what homeschool schooling gave us. Um, my kids are still we're we're all really close still. I mean, they're they're 27 and 25. And I just spent a whole weekend with my daughter being her adult teammates at a dance competition. So, you know, it is where we've it really for us set the stage for a very close family bond that is irreplaceable.
SPEAKER_01:And that's a huge thing. I don't think you think about when you're thinking, oh, should I homeschool? Should I not? Are my kids gonna be weird? Are they gonna be smart enough? Am I gonna do a good enough job? Am I gonna be we don't think about the amount of hours that they are spent, not with their siblings and not with their parents. And you know, when they're young, it's one thing. But we kind of think like, oh, as they get older, they don't need that. And if anything, they might even need it more.
SPEAKER_00:More absolutely emotionally, yeah, for sure going through the teen years.
SPEAKER_01:Like, did they I know phones are yeah, your kids were of that age where phones were probably getting pretty common. How like did you have to fall into that gimmick? Yeah, the whole classroom has one, your kid is left out if you don't give them one because you didn't homeschool, so maybe you didn't have to deal with that.
SPEAKER_00:We were able to avoid, I think, a lot of the pressure that comes socially from that. I mean, you know, like I said, my daughter was a dancer, my son was involved with karate, he was involved with Boy Scouts, he was involved with different organizations as well. So it wasn't like they were not around other kids or other groups. We actually made our own little homeschooling groups when they were really little because there weren't other ones. So we got together and had craft days with where other kids would come over to our house or we would do science days and things like that.
SPEAKER_01:Do your kids know what to do in an emergency? Do they know how to call 911 from a locked cell phone? Well, if you've been listening to my podcast for any length of time, you know that I have been working for the last year on a book that talks about exactly this. I was going through homeschooling curriculum with my son and realized that although they would brush over certain things that my son would need to know in an emergency, nothing really delved into it, and definitely not on a repetitive basis. I started reaching out to teachers and asking them what schools do to prepare kids for emergencies, and other than skimming the surface, they said that they really feel that this information is the parents' responsibility to teach. But do parents know that? It's not like there's a handbook where we talk about who is responsible for what. So I set out on a journey to write a book about exactly this. And it is finally published. My illustrator, Cheryl Crowthelmell, is a retired NYPD officer. So she was the perfect fit for this book. We have hidden a 901 and a one in each illustration so that you and your kids can have fun searching for these numbers while solidifying for your kids what these numbers look like. I've put the steps for how to reach 911 on various cell phones, even if they're locked, and what that call will go like and what information they will be looking for. My book will help your child practice their first and last name, mom and dad's first and last names, their address, what to do if there is a fire. It goes over stranger danger, internet, water, and gun safety. And I have paired an activity book to go right along with it to solidify these concepts. Give yourself peace of mind and give your kids the confidence to handle the unexpected by grabbing your copy of Let's Talk Emergencies today. You can head on over to the link in my show's description or the homeschoolhoutto.com. And if you do purchase the copy, please, please, please leave me a review on Amazon. The more reviews I have, the more the algorithm will push this book out there. So I would really appreciate it. Thank you so much for listening and for all of your support of the show.
SPEAKER_00:As far as like the the phones, we didn't have to navigate that as much because it just wasn't, you don't need a phone. You know, and so for a long time they didn't have them. When my daughter was in high school, she she had one because she was gone more in places where she didn't need it, and especially when she started driving. But in at that point, then she had social media. But I think that being able to shelter them from that, especially in those early teen years, was really beneficial for both of my kids.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. And it's just younger and younger now. And the internet's gotten just so much more than it ever was, the things that you can see on there.
SPEAKER_00:Um it's changing the way they they their brains are wired too, which is really concerning. Um I won't geek out on you, um, but my PhD is in psychology with an emphasis on cognition and instruction. So I could easily geek out on you. But it does concern me what I see happening to the wiring of people's brains and not just kids, we do it to ourselves as adults as well. But the impact of that as they're growing is is profound.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, no, feel free to talk about that because you know, even just the synapses making the connections of like fast pace, fast pace, fast pace, fast pace, and the lighting on the screen and the the scrolling, even is a whole psychological like they have they're paying people millions to analyze how they can get us to keep scrolling, basically. Go ahead and talk about that.
SPEAKER_00:Well, it's for me, one of the biggest concerns is the dopamine dump that happens with social media. And the reason for that is that the more that we are exposed to that at unnaturally high levels, the less sensitive your brain becomes to that. So I do think that it's one of the reasons research is supporting us, one of the reasons that we're seeing so much higher rates of anxiety and depression in um in not just kids but adults as well. And is because we're fundamentally changing both the the chemical makeup of our brain and the actual wiring of our brain. So yeah, it's tough now for parents. I'm kind of glad my kids are older now.
SPEAKER_01:It's very tough because I even noticed with myself, and I I actually don't scroll a ton. I find that it bothers me as a content creator because the more I scroll, I'm like, oh I didn't think of that first. I didn't think of that one. Oh, I could have done that. I get more angry. So I'm like, ah, I don't, I don't even want to scroll. But you I still will to check, okay, I have to post this. And so I'm on there and I noticed that my kids were watching Zootopia today when we were eating lunch. And even at like a slow part of the movie, I found myself going onto my phone and hitting the Instagram. But and I'm like, oh geez, my brain literally, I didn't even think about it. It just was like, oh, it's the slow part. Let me find something else to do without even thinking. And that's scary. I can't go through like your adolescence and training your brain to do that then.
SPEAKER_00:Well, and that's the problem, is that you know, our brains aren't finished developing until we're 25. So that entire developmental period, if that is how we're training our brain to respond and what it needs in order to be feel normal, um, it's it's gonna be a rough road for a lot of these kids.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I mean, is it similar to like the the dopamine of like um alcohol or nicotine or drugs?
SPEAKER_00:Typically your stimulant drugs are the ones that that we see operating in a similar way to what we're seeing happen with social media. It may not be as pronounced, but it's absolutely the same concept and it's having more long-term effects than that we're just now starting to understand.
SPEAKER_01:So, what would a long-term effect be? Like I'm so anxious because I need constant screen change or movement. My brain needs to keep going, and because it's quiet, I need some sort of medication to relax.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it's hard for us to be quiet now.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And it's hard for our brains to focus. So the ability to focus on a task has diminished tremendously. And that that's hard because we have to have that. And a lot of times I think, especially as women, we tend to like, oh, I can multitask. No, you you actually can't. Our brains don't do that. We task switch, but the cost of that is we're not as effective at the task that we're on because we're switching back and forth. So this constant switching, this constant seeking of that feeling of the dopamine wrench, it's not actually even just scrolling, it's the notifications. When you see that notification, it actually gives a dopamine dump. So it's not even the act of opening your phone to look at it, it's the fact that you see that little light on your phone that says, oh, something, somebody wants to talk to somebody said something, somebody posted something, somebody wants me. It's it's tough. And it's also impacting our face-to-face interactions. We all see it. We see everyone at a dinner table on their phones. We're not learning how to interact with people face to face anymore. And that's the problem.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Um, and is the movie called The Social Experiment that really gets into the psychology of that?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Um the social, something along those lines. That, yeah, that's it's a really eye-opening documentary that explains a lot of the behind the scenes that goes into um there's a lot of time and money being spent in trying to control and manipulate our our brains. So yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I think I just pulled up, I think that's what it is, the social experiment, but that was from 2022.
SPEAKER_00:Is it yeah?
SPEAKER_01:I think that's what it is. So for people to check that out, it is it is eye-opening. It's only an hour and a half long. So definitely worth a watch and have your kids watch it. I think I saw it on Netflix and I was surprised that Netflix would have something on there trying to like tell you not to.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I think maybe I don't know. Is that what there is a movie called The Social Experiment?
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Uh but it was a very good movie. So yeah, look into that folks. Um just getting back to like the the last part of our uh interview too, uh just with you homeschooling your kids. Were the like is the goal, was the goal to go to college? I know for a lot of homeschoolers nowadays, that's really not like it's not something I think homeschoolers are pushing so much anymore. How did that work for you guys and your family, especially because that was about seven, eight, ten years ago?
SPEAKER_00:Well, it's funny because I actually teach at a college. I teach adapted kinesiology classes for adults with disabilities, but I've taught health for years. And I probably have an unpopular opinion on that, that I don't think college is necessarily a great idea. Um, and especially not at first, even. Um, my daughter just now, she's 27 and is just this fall, decided she wanted to go back and get her degree because she needs it for what she wants to do for work. College, I don't think, is the be all and all. And I think that the stress and the the pressure that we put on teenagers to figure their life out. I'm I don't haven't figured my life out. It's it's ridiculous. So I don't, I don't think that that is the end goal. It could be, it could be part of your path. It depends on what you want to do. And if you want to do it, great. And if you know if there's something else you want to do, my my son is an occupation. Educational therapy assistant that required 20 months of school. He hated school as far as like he's like, uh, I don't want to do that. So for for him, the idea of getting a master's degree to be an OT was a terrible idea. And he loves his job. But yeah, it's everybody's path is unique. And I wish we honored that more in education and didn't try to pigeonhole people into this is the way you need to go. This is the best way. There's no best.
SPEAKER_01:Did your son have any issues getting into college, being homeschooled? And how did you prepare the transcript or you know, the diploma? Was there or did the charter take care of all of that?
SPEAKER_00:The charter did that. So for um for my son, he his charter did that. And then for my daughter, she went to school for senior year. So that was part of her diploma that she got with that. But there's there's so much more flexibility with that now. And to be honest, I love junior colleges. Um those first couple years, kids should be taking a bunch of random classes and figuring out who they are and what they want to do. And so, why would I want to spend$500,$1,000 a unit to do that when I can spend$50 a unit to do that or get it paid for through a lot of the different states have programs for that now? So both of my kids use the junior college system for their early on um as a way to explore kind of what they wanted to do. Auto class, drone certifications. I mean, they did all kinds of random stuff.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and especially with the way AI and technology are just like going at rapid speed to spend$200,000,$300,000 on a degree right now is a little silly because we don't know what the world is gonna look like in four or five years from now. Um yeah, it it's an interesting time. Um and and you're on the one end of it, and I have a seven and three year old, so I'm on the completely opposite end and I do I feel confident though that like like just the school system, the more I learn about it, I'm like, oof, I have way more control within my house than I ever would without unleashing them onto the world, to the government. For sure. All right, closing out. What can you any parting words about about unfold history or like where we can find it? I like I said, I'll put everything in the show's description, but like anything we left out already?
SPEAKER_00:Um, just I would love for you guys to to take a peek at it and get us some feedback on it. We're constantly working on improving the user experience of it as well. But I just would encourage all of the homeschooling parents out there to that that you can do this, you can totally do this, and don't let the fun get sucked out of it. You should be having fun too. And there's gonna be the not fun days for sure. Enjoy this. And it is, you know, everyone always says, Oh, it's so short. It is, it is so short. And you'll get to the other side and you go, Oh, I miss those days. I miss those days of us doing random field trips and art projects together and making projects and you know cooking class and things like that. So um, you can do it. And there's there are a lot of resources now, and that's what we hope to be, is we hope to be a resource to help parents to feel like I got this.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you, Leanne. Um, it was been so fun talking to you. I love where this conversation went. Check out Unfold History in the show's description, and hopefully we will chat with you again in the future.
SPEAKER_00:Awesome. Thank you. Good luck, everyone.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you for tuning in to 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.