#165: She Left Teaching, Bought Houses Without a Bank, and Homeschools 2 Kids

Last week, we heard why teachers are leaving the system. This week, meet one who did — and what she built instead.

Jen Delle Fave spent 8 years as a public school English teacher in upstate New York before walking away to raise her kids, homeschool, and build a real estate portfolio — without ever going to a bank. Now living in Florida with her husband and two kids (11 and 13), Jen runs multiple businesses, travels constantly, and fits homeschooling right into the middle of all of it.

Cheryl and Jen get into the real stuff: the mom guilt, the chaotic seasons, the creative finance deals, and why letting your 13-year-old message sellers counts as school.

This one's for the homeschool moms who are also building something — and the ones wondering if they even can.

In this episode:

• How COVID pushed Jen from virtual school to full homeschool
• What homeschooling looks like in Florida vs. New York (spoiler: way less paperwork)
• How Jen buys real estate without bank loans — and what that actually means
• Unit studies, Teaching Textbooks, and letting learning stay fluid
• Why your kids calling restaurants and understanding credit matters more than memorizing formulas
• How to work, invest, and homeschool without burning out

"Hustle should be a season, not a lifestyle."

Find Jen: Instagram: @jenDelleFave Website: CreativeFinancePlaybook.com

🎯 Ready to learn how families are actually working + homeschooling? Cheryl has interviewed 200+ homeschool families—and put a step by step process together for how to work and homeschool (even as a single parent!) Check it out below!

👉 How to Work & Homeschool (Even as a Single Parent!)

Mini Goldendoodle puppies
Mini goldendoodle puppies for sale.

Transcript

Meeting Jen And Moving To Florida

SPEAKER_00 0:02

I didn't plan to homeschool. I started asking hard questions, realized how little control parents actually have, and made the hard decision to leave a government job to homeschool my kids. Now I interview other homeschooling parents to learn how this all works. I'm Cheryl, and this is the Homeschool How-To podcast. Let's learn this together. Welcome, and with us today I have Jen. Jen, thanks for being here. Thank you so much, Cheryl. I'm super excited.

SPEAKER_01 0:30

Where are you calling in from? I currently live in Florida. We've been here for about four years, south of Tampa, the Bradenton, Sarasota area. So the beautiful white sandy beaches. But we're I was literally there.

SPEAKER_00 0:42

I was there four weeks ago.

SPEAKER_01 0:43

Were you?

SPEAKER_00 0:44

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 0:44

My gosh, did you love it?

SPEAKER_00 0:46

Yes. We'll definitely go back next year, yes.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

Well, we came down on a fluke. Um, you know, it was 2022. Living in upstate New York, gray, cold. Like, you know, are you for real? I live in upstate New York. Oh my gosh, I'm from Rochester originally.

SPEAKER_00 0:59

That's so funny. I'm in Troy. I'm from Schenectady. That is hilarious.

SPEAKER_01 1:03

Oh, yeah. So we were like, just for a month, let's go down, get out, you know, get into the sun. And my whole family and I were like, we're homeschooling, we can work from anywhere. What are we doing? So we uh we made the move. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:13

I mean, Rochester is a little bit more rough, I think, with like the wind and the snow and all that. It's still pretty bad. I'm Rochester's about three hours west of where I am. But yeah, and it's it was so easy. Too the reason I picked Sarasoto, I had been there like 20 years ago, and I remember liking it a lot. But it's a direct flight from Albany. So it was I just tried to get the cheapest ones I found, and I was like, we're going. And it was cool because where we were at Siesta Key, like my son could fish every day in the canal, and then you just walk across the street to the beach. I was like, This is amazing. Like, what I mean, what we should be doing this three times a year if we could afford it. But my husband refuses to live anywhere hot because he works for like commercial HVAC, so he's like on roofs all the time, and he's like, I'd much rather be cold than hot because I can put on more layers.

SPEAKER_01 2:00

You know, he's got a point there because I will say it's like flip-flopped. It's July, August, September, where we're kind of like, okay, we go up back to New York because it's a little too hot down here from times, but yeah, it it's awesome. Um, you know, just having the beach and like you said, being able to fish and you're outside a little bit more than in New York. Like it snowed here yesterday.

From Classroom Teacher To Homeschool Mom

SPEAKER_00 2:20

I saw that. It's April, it was April 7th, and it snowed. Yeah, what am I doing? I so what got you into homeschooling in the first place?

SPEAKER_01 2:30

Well, the crazy thing was I was a public school English teacher. So I went to a New York State College, got my degree after four years, went to Ferdonia State, got my, you know, first job, you know, as soon as I graduated, and I loved seventh graders, and I really found a passion for that, did my master's degree, went into debt, you know, trying to do all the things, and met my husband who was you know working in a car dealership, and he was talking about buying real estate. One day we could do this full-time, and that is basically what ended up opening the door for us because I stayed home with the kiddos, and it's kind of crazy looking back. My daughter went into kindergarten, I just had this like gut feeling that it didn't feel right, but this was a while back, so it was you know, before COVID, and I'm like, I thought I didn't have a choice, and I didn't really, you know, believe that I could homeschool. I didn't there wasn't a lot of education that I was like looking at, and so I kind of was going through the motions with it, and then it was COVID, you know, like a lot of people, where we went into the virtual schooling, and my son went to kindergarten on a Zoom, like on his laptop, and he did so well. I'm so proud of him, and the teacher was so sweet, and she tried, but like after that year, I'm like, what are we doing?

SPEAKER_00 3:41

And New York was like one of the worst states during COVID too. Yeah. Where you just felt like I'm not even the parent, like I have no say in this kid's life whatsoever.

SPEAKER_01 3:51

Yeah, and it was like you send them back, but they're gonna be in masks and they can't do this and they can't do that. And we were like, you know, maybe there's a better way. So I remember taking so we actually went to Lake George for a little trip, summer of 2021, and I just went down the rabbit hole, and I'm looking on YouTube and I'm finding other mom, especially in New York, because I heard horror story, oh, New York is so hard to, you know, homeschool in. And I was like, this isn't that hard. Like this isn't as bad as like one might think. And yes, there's hoops to jump through and papers to fill out and things, especially in New York State quarterly, you have to do. But if you love your kid and you truly want what's best for them, you can make it happen, mama.

SPEAKER_00 4:27

Yeah, especially with like just Chat GPT and all this easy stuff. Like, I'll literally talk my report into Chat GPT and like telling, going through my pictures and my videos, saying all the things we did over the last three months, and then looking at my library card online and be like, these are the books we read, and just reading it into Chat GPT, and then saying this is what I have to hit for you know our state requirements. And I'm like, okay, write it up. Like, make sure I hit everything, and there you go. People hate it because they're like, oh, it's the devil. But I'm like, well, it's pretty convenient though.

Leaving Teaching And Seeing The Shift

SPEAKER_01 4:57

So, so smart. I mean, because I didn't have that back then, but I just remember finding a template and like filling in all the things like New York State had to know I did, um, which is loud because like being a public school teacher and then a homeschool, I'm like, man, they're really like trying to like, you know, really gift you as far as a homeschooler parent of like what you're doing with your kids, but it's just you know, fill in the blanks.

SPEAKER_00 5:16

Can you talk to me a little bit about your decision to leave teaching? Uh, because that's huge.

SPEAKER_01 5:22

Yeah, I was there for eight years. So I loved my school district, but where my husband and I at the time, like obviously met him. I was already probably four or five years in, and then I was it was like the last year. We'd just gotten married, and like the time apart was just killing us. Like, we hated not seeing each other, and I was about an hour away from the district, and even more so on a snowy day, right? And I just remember feeling like it was starting to shift then. This was 2011, so all of a sudden, like teachers were just like losing that respect more and more. The classrooms were getting more fill filled up. Parents were, you know, just no regard as far as like taking responsibility with their children, you know, like just because my daughter didn't do her essay, she should still be able to, you know, cheer in the football game. And just little things like that started adding up in my head. And the kicker was they wanted me to teach both seventh grade and in the high school, which granted was just a walk up into like on a ramp, right? Like the connected schools, but I would be like out of a box, and I'm like, I'm not going into my ninth year teaching to make you know, whatever I was making, to be away from my husband, and the goal was to have a baby soon anyway. And so fortunately his job paid well enough. We had a couple rentals that I was able to walk away, and then I ended up getting pregnant like later that year, but I never once have regretted miss you know, I don't miss it, I guess. I I realized that like my time there had come to a c an end, and now I get to coach other people, which sometimes I feel like adults are just children sometimes. You were just wearing in like bigger clothes, but you know, you're able to help other people in different ways. So, and then obviously homeschooling my kids has just been such a fun journey.

SPEAKER_00 6:55

Yeah, and I think I I guess I had had that realization talking to one of the teachers too that had left to homeschool, and they said like how they were told to, you know, this is what you're gonna teach this year, and like we think of it as like, oh my goodness, you want to be this teacher, and you you go to school, and especially in New York, you have to have your master's degree. So you're probably in like$200,000,$400,000 of debt, and then they're like, Oh, that's cool that you're um you know, an English teacher, but we're gonna now need you to teach like robotics or ESL or something, you know, something that's like not what you went for. So, you know, our our kids' teachers were sending them there, and that might not even be the subject or the grade. Oh, that's what I think it was. I think it the person wanted to be like a sixth grade teacher, and then they made him be an 11th grade teacher, you know, just like oh, this is what we need this year, this is what you're doing. And it that that's not so what does that look like in the classroom? How does that play out?

SPEAKER_01 7:48

Yeah, and then on top of it, you've got all the different learners in one classroom. Maybe they track, maybe they don't, but it was just like I look back and I'm like, what chaos. Truly, like our system is broken, and I don't really know what the answer is to fix it. But obviously, being an entrepreneurial family, we're kind of able to guide our education a little bit differently and teach the kids a lot of things they would never have learned in a classroom. Oh, how many kids do you have? What are their ages? Yes, I have a boy and a girl, they're two years apart, literally January 11th and 17th. So I couldn't have planned that any better. Um, boy and a girl, my daughter's 13 and my son is 11.

[Ad] Mini Goldendoodle puppies

Ditching Memorization For Real Learning

(Cont.) Leaving Teaching And Seeing The Shift

SPEAKER_00 8:22

Okay, cool. So, what have been some of the surprising things since you started homeschooling, having your teaching experience that you're like, we are getting it wrong as an education system?

SPEAKER_01 9:05

The memorization and like the fact like retelling, I feel like that was a huge aha moment. I'm like, yes, things are important to know, but some of the drills that you know, even I don't remember. And so like you kind of catch yourself like, why do I have to teach that if that's really something where you can use, you know, so many tools in today's society. I just I feel like also I would try to cram at very first. I was like trying to set up a classroom. I was trying to like kind of almost recreate school in a sense, and I was like, no, that's not what we're gonna do here either, you know. So it kind of took a little while for me to find my own groove and and realize that it's not all gonna be through a workbook or one textbook, and it's okay to like let learning like happen all of the time. And you don't have to like be like, okay, kids, we're learning now, but like you can watch it happening like 24-7.

SPEAKER_00 9:54

No, and that's so true. And that's I think everybody that homeschools first, you know, here's our school room, and here's our curriculum, and you know, I've and and we'll use a curriculum sometimes, especially if it's like a good example is like, okay, my daughter has gymnastics, so my son is gonna be sitting there for an hour. So I do give him like a curriculum to do while he's there. Like, hey, you gotta learn these rules around, you know, consonants and vowels that I'm not just gonna rifle off on the top of my head. So learn it here. But uh, you know, I it's funny, like I think I I guess I've just recently seen people on Instagram like, this is our schoolroom, and you know, we've converted our camper into the classroom, and da da da. And like you said, it's I noticed for me mostly in the car, like having these conversations, or my child will ask a question, and then we're getting further into that, or even just like, which way are we driving? Like, can you pick out if we're going northeast, south, or west? And like, how do you figure that out? And who can find, you know, a letter C and just anywhere. And you know, like you said, it's happening all the time. It does not have to be between, you know, nine and twelve. Absolutely, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:59

And so even just like getting up in the morning, I mean, ideally, some mornings where I try to get them up a little earlier, but more than anything, it's like help out around the house too, you know, get up, unload the dishwasher. Did you tidy your room, bring the laundry in? Like we're really been working on that the last probably year and a half, I would say, just because I used to have like a house helper because running multiple businesses and having the kids, it was a lot, but then I've kind of looked, I'm like, I don't want to raise kids who are now depending on someone else to just clean up everything after them. And so we had that quick shift there too, because again, they are quite old enough, you know, they can't drive themselves yet, but they are far more capable if you allow them to be. I've noticed. And you know, I definitely like to mother hen, you know. I do I just love being a mom, I love making their lunches and doing all that. But working on independence has been something really eye-opening.

SPEAKER_00 11:46

Yeah. Recently, I'm like, what like what do I really want? Like, what's my end goal? I'm like, I think I just want house cleaner, but the same thing, I'm like, my kids are they're young, so they're not gonna do it the way I want it done, but they can take a little duster, and you know, and my son can take a Swiffer wet jet, even though it's probably filled with chemicals, but it just lurk because if he does that, maybe he would be more respectful about walking through the house with mud on his boots.

Building Businesses In The Day’s Cracks

SPEAKER_01 12:12

It's true, you know, and I do, you know, we have a cleaner, but like once uh every two weeks I think she comes, but even today I'm like, buddy, like you just dropped your taco all over, you know. So like taking instead of me doing it, you know, it's those little moments that I think are gonna make a lasting impact too. And um, you know, circling back to like one of their favorite things they've discovered is Duolingo, and they love learning these different languages, which they're on these like crazy, like hundreds and hundreds of days streaks, and they tried to get me to do it, and I just I couldn't. I took French back in the day, but just to see like what they really pick up on and what they're getting into, it's been really cool. Oh, that's so fun.

SPEAKER_00 12:46

And I love that because it's like, okay, you saw that they were interested in something and they have the time to explore it. How important. All right, so I just created a course actually on how to work and homeschool. So I want you to talk to me about how you make that work. You are you have multiple businesses, right? Yeah. So take us from the start. Like you told us about how you left teaching and then you got pregnant. Where did the businesses come into play? And then how did you make motherhood and homeschooling work within that?

SPEAKER_01 13:15

Yeah, those it's really again, it's I think it's about being super conscientious of where your time is going, but then also being radically honest with what you can take on during the time. So I think we live in this awesome age where we connect with other people and Instagram and YouTube, but don't compare yourself to everybody out there because your season is entirely different. I walk away from teaching and we had a couple rentals, uh, have my kiddos, and we realized in like 2016, 2017 we want more properties. So we kind of doubled down and learned how to buy real estate without having to go to the banks, which then doubled our portfolio. So I had to learn really quickly how to like manage having kids. And at the time they were two and four. I had five properties. We actually do rent-to-own, which is kind of a cool strategy, but like I'm taking calls and now trying to learn like how to place these renters and these our homes as you know, rent-to-own buyers. And I remember being like super frazzled and frustrated, but then I'm like, you know, you just like I can do this. So I would put them in the car, put on a DVD, they'd watch a little, you know, movie on the way to the library, and then I'd sit in the parking lot for a few minutes, talk to somebody on the phone, you know, get them through the house, whatever, and then we'd go into the library. We have our, you know, little play session in the area where they could play, they pick out their books, we get in the car, we go home, get them ready for dinner or lunch, whatever it be. And then like those little cracks of your day is like how you can build your business. And I think that's like instead of scrolling, instead of reading fun fiction books for a time, you know, I wasn't on Netflix, I didn't hang out with a bunch of other people, like I just really got laser focused and like super and you know, just aware of where my time was going. Because our goal again was for my husband to be able to walk home, come home and walk away from his job to be able to be with us more. Because at the time, like there were days he'd leave and the kids would be sleeping and he'd come home and the kids would be sleeping. And like that was heartbreaking. So, as much as it was it was so great. I was home, I knew like if I were to sacrifice some of my like free time, because let's be honest, moms don't get a lot anyway. Um, you know, you just you find the little cracks of your day, I guess, is kind of like this is what we coach too. I'm like, if you want this, you can be working a full-time job, but like you've got to find these little times that maybe you'd be goofing off or having fun. And like there's plenty of times where I'm like, man, sometimes I just wish I was at the lake and having a barbecue, but here we are fixing up a house or you know, working on whatever real estate-wise, but it paid off. And so I think that that's a part that a lot of people don't see because it's happening behind the scenes.

SPEAKER_00 15:37

Yes, and not to mention that's the stuff like what you're doing right there with the real estate that is not what they teach you in school, right? Like, they don't want us to know this stuff. I don't know if how far you went down any rabbit holes, but you know, there is a reason that they want you to just teach, like, hey, teach some trigonometry because they don't want people to know, like, hey, you can actually have your own business and you don't need to be working for the man. And yeah, I mean, it's so much of your story like models like maybe you are me in a parallel universe. Because I always say to my husband, like, we we should be buying properties, and he's like, Where do you think I have the time to work on a property? And I'm like, I don't know, you just yeah, make it work. But but he is well, like he'll get up, he'll leave for work before the kids are awake. But the nice part about homeschooling is that when he gets home at 6:30, 7:30 at night, the kids are still up for two more hours at least. I mean, they go to bed with us, so it's like two or three more hours that they get to spend with him. Um and if they were getting up for school in the morning, I mean, it would we would not have that luxury. But yeah, it would or he'll go away for a week at a time, you know, where he's actually he's works in Del High at SUNY Del High a lot, which is probably cl I don't know, closer to Rochester than here. I don't know. Oniana a little bit, but um, yeah. So like he'll be there for weeks at a time and or you know, uh five days and then come home for the weekend and go back. So it's like I'm like, there's gotta be, I feel like I always say this like I feel like there are things that we just don't know about, but we could be, and not to say that you want to be like a millionaire or anything, but just like we're you're so comfortable that like it doesn't matter if you pay, you know,$200 for a house cleaner once a month.

SPEAKER_01 17:24

Yeah, and it's true. A couple rental properties can do that for you too. So it's just like that's what opened our eyes. So I guess what I I implemented what I was doing working on our business and having little kids, two and four, to fast forward now 2020, 21 is when we started the homeschooling. And I just, you know, I'm just like, there's a will, there's a way. And I knew it wasn't gonna take eight hours to homeschool my kids. But can you set them up with some independent playtime slash learning? You know, there's tons of educational videos and games and whatnot, and just letting them play when they're those ages, like five, six, seven, even even my kids now, they're 11 and 13, but they're still, you know, making the figures and they do YouTube videos and figurines, I think he calls them. They're not toys. Um, but just getting creative, play-doh, kinetic sand, and then yeah, you sit down for a couple hours and I put on my Google Calendar, just like I have a podcast, or if I'm coaching clients, or I'm with the notary like I was today buying another property, like it's on the calendar. We sit down. I love unit studies, that's like my favorite to do. So we were just doing Holocaust, uh, the upstairs room and reading um a couple of those stories and get into the history aspect. So yeah, you just kind of we're very flowy, I would say. We have routine, but not like super strict structure over here.

SPEAKER_00 18:34

Yeah, and unit studies are my thing too. We're doing a spring unit study right now, and so fun. Yeah, it's you know, learning about this week is seeds and sprouts, and so we're we didn't do a great job with the lima bean seeds because our soil wasn't good, but but we're doing sprouts too, and it you know, it's just I love learning about the it's relevant because it's springtime outside, and I think it goes into like next week is rainbows and next week is birds and all that stuff. So I do love or like you know, I uh keep saying we're gonna make a unit study on the Hudson River and the Erie Canal, just in like what sort of history um, you know, waterways are have brought to the US.

Buying Real Estate Without A Bank

SPEAKER_01 19:15

And so how many businesses do you have? Well, I I guess in a sense, we actively buy real estate, so acquiring the properties does take a little bit of time, and then we have rentals that we have the rent to own tenants in. So there's always tenants need to pay, we pay the mortgages, you know, just moving parts there. Maybe a contractor's fixing up some of the properties where there's a turnover. And so it's like the real estate side of things, there's a couple moving parts, and then our coaching business, which we have a small group coaching where we coach other people who also want to learn how to buy real estate and not have to go to the banks, and they're looking to maybe walk away from their W-2 or just add some wealth through real estate over time and um, you know, create that generational wealth for their families. But we kind of just really found a passion for that in again. It was COVID home on Instagram, on Facebook, just going live, sharing what we're doing, and people are like, Can you teach me how to do that? Just kind of like organically. And I'm like, Well, I used to be a teacher, so here we go. And it was kind of cool because my husband is like very numbers analytics, you know, very loves the financial part of it, talking to the sellers, deal making, and I more of like the marketing and the back end, kind of keep everything smooth and just be able to break it down into bite-sized pieces because again, it took me like forever to figure out I'm like, what does this even mean? Like, we're buying on terms, seller financing, like there's no bank involved. Like, what does that mean? So yeah, all I think.

SPEAKER_00 20:38

I mean, I don't know what you're able to share or not, but when you say like without going to a bank, I mean people are gonna be like, um, like it's wild, right?

SPEAKER_01 20:46

Like, I was like, when he brought this to me in 2017, 2016, I'm like, this has got to be nuts. Like, who would do this? And sure enough, so today we l I literally bought a house. Um, there's a seller here in Northport, right south of Sarasota, and he had relocated to California for a job. And so he has been gone for a couple years. He's been renting the place, and he's just like does not want to be a landlord. He's got a property manager, but it's just like the stress of a house that he's in California, it's here in Florida. And he actually saw my husband and I love posting on Facebook and you know, sharing our stories. So this seller actually reached out to my husband and was like, Hey, I see you posting. Like, would you be interested in buying my property? It's got tenants in place. I just like want to walk away. And we end up structuring the deal where we bought the property for just the closing costs, which here in Florida was just under$8,000. And then I'm gonna make that mortgage payment every month on his behalf to the bank. So it's his bank, but it's all in his name. But we buy the house, it's our property, and then the tenants will make us the payment, which will help offset that mortgage. So we're kind of the middle person there. Um, as far as that goes.

SPEAKER_00 21:47

So then once it's paid in full, does it get signed? Or are you the one on the deed now? Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 21:52

Yeah, we buy the property usually in a land trust, uh L L C. I know I'm getting a little technical, but yeah, it's uh all under our business.

SPEAKER_00 21:59

Because yeah, I was thinking, what stops if you were to stop paying, he's now in default with the bank and you own the land or the home because it's you're on the deed. So you have like contracts in place for if that were to occur.

SPEAKER_01 22:14

Oh, yeah, that's why the notary came by with like a whole stack of papers, and we the way we set it up is just like he's protected. If we stop paying, he would get his house back. But this is our business model, so there's no way we would stop paying even during COVID. If renters weren't to pay, like we're still making that mortgage payment, and so it's Definitely a unique business. You have to be a very a person with high morals and ethics, obviously. This is the seller's mortgage, it's their credit on the line. So we take it very seriously. Um, but we're helping somebody else out who I he just didn't want if he listed it, he probably would have had to pay out of pocket for realtor commissions and fees and all of that. So for him to be able to just walk away and not have to worry about anything, it was like he's hitting an easy button and we're able to really so you paid him the closing costs.

SPEAKER_00 22:59

How does he make money from like if he were to have sold the house? Or did he like owe so much on the mortgage that he really did?

SPEAKER_01 23:06

He doesn't have a lot of equity, yeah. So he would just walked away, um, being able to like not have to deal with tenants and toilets and fixing the property if it if anything happens to it. And so there was really no equity to be had. He just walks away.

SPEAKER_00 23:20

And then I would imagine there's like this level of just rich people in our country that like I don't know on a daily basis, but people that just have so much money that they're like, oh yeah, I don't need that house anymore. Let's just get rid of it.

SPEAKER_01 23:33

Well, I it depends on their situation. I don't know if he bought another house in California or if he's renting or what he's doing out there. Um but if he sold it, he wouldn't have made any money because of the market here, especially in Florida. It's shifted a bit. There's just if he had put it on the market, if it even sold, because a lot of houses are piling up down here. So if you are looking, keep your eye down here in Florida. It's definitely uh it's shifting, especially with some seller financing, which is where there is no mortgage involved. It's maybe if somebody has a house free and clear, and then you're able to work directly with the seller there. But you know, he just didn't want to have to worry about coming out of pocket. I don't know, he because uh the closing costs were both his and ours. So if he had to pay also a realtor, whatever their commission would have been, who's to say how much he would have had to write written a check for?

SPEAKER_00 24:18

Yeah. Now, is it more expensive down there because you have to have like hurricane and flood insurance?

SPEAKER_01 24:24

Definitely a different, there's a lot of different things. We've we've learned a lot about hurricane, the flood insurances, and then also um what is it? The termites are a thing down here, which New York we never worried about. But yeah, flood zones.

SPEAKER_00 24:38

Not termites.

SPEAKER_01 24:39

My husband knows all about flood zones now. We joke around about that. Um, but yeah, you it's a different market for sure. And the housing, they're just like what you can get, like, especially in Rochester. I'm not too sure about Troy, probably similar, I would think, but like a a million dollar house here isn't what you would think. It's it's probably you know a$500,000 house up north. It's crazy.

SPEAKER_00 24:59

Right, yes, because you're by the water, you're in a nice area. Yeah, I I joked when we were down there because it was like must have been spring break, and there were signs on the road, like those electronic signs, and it said spring break in session, lock your cars. I'm like, oh my god, that's so rude. No other group of people could you say, like, this group is here, lock your car.

SPEAKER_01 25:22

Oh, the snowbirds, yeah, the spring breakers, the snowbirds. The traffic is really crazy from December until about Mother's Day, and then it lets up, I would say.

College Goals And Raising Entrepreneurs

SPEAKER_00 25:32

I used to think that you couldn't work and homeschool, but after interviewing over 200 families now, if you've been a listener for that long, yes, that's actually how many it is, I realized that it's not true. People are working and homeschooling, it just looks different than we expect. I started noticing the patterns, the resources, the schedules that people were using to actually make homeschooling while working work. And I put everything that I've learned into a course called How to Work and Homeschool Even as a single parent. Yes, you heard that right. Even as a single parent. If this is something that you've been trying to figure out and would really just like it laid all out for you, check out the link in the show's description. All right, your goals for your kids. Who you and your husband are entrepreneurs. Do you have college as a goal for them? You know, what is kind of your goal by the time they're 18? And is that how you direct their education right now?

Weekly Rhythm Curriculum And Unit Studies

SPEAKER_01 26:24

That I mean, it's like a heated topic, right? I mean, my husband did not go to college, and I did. And like, no, it's like either like you are send your kids to college or don't send your kids to college. And we've had the conversations and continue to, because our kids are again like 13-11. It's like if they want to pursue a path that really needs a degree, then sure, we will support that, we will go down that path if need be. But neither child really seems to like show much towards that at the moment. Like they're both leaning more toward just kind of like, what are my other possibilities? What other things are out there? And then the cool thing about Florida is yeah, like there's no quarterly report or anything like that. It's literally I sit down with a lady on Zoom, we go through our portfolio and we just kind of chat through a few things, which is very laid back compared to New York. I didn't realize it. So, like the first year I was like rattling all this stuff off and we talked about how we own our businesses. She's like, Well, in Florida, like that all counts. You know, you can like literally write up what they're doing in your businesses and how that's like a you know, their schooling too. And I was like, What? So that was like mind-blowing to me after being down here for a full year. So now we just really like kind of watch them a little bit, see like what are they gravitating towards. So my daughter has a goal of getting a deal done so that we can go to New York. She has friends up there still, she wants to go visit again. And so she's messaging sellers, talking to them about their properties. She's bringing the deal to my husband who will then call. And she's sitting there like every step of the way. They've both been like active on Zillow, and we have um a CRM, which is just a computer program where all the sellers are and they can both go in. And my son loves to do follow-up where he's just kind of kicked back, you know, kick-starting old conversations um back up again with sellers. So he liked that. Like I said, he's really great. They both are at social media as far as um like creating shorts and edits. Like, we allow them to have a YouTube channel and that's it, like no Instagram or anything. But they are wonderful with like finding trending audios for us or you know, putting together videos, so some of that. And then we've really started taking them to masterminds. So we just went into Tampa last week and we were with some of like the heavy hitters in real estate, and they're seeing a whole bunch of active entrepreneurs, other coaches. There was a young girl up there, she was doing like private money, and just the way she held herself when she was on stage. My daughter like was like, Wow, like I really liked what she was talking about. And then another gentleman was up there talking about YouTube. So my son was, you know, really taking a lot away from that. So this has been a huge transition this year where they've always come with us, but they've kind of like checked out a little bit, you know. But now they're paying attention, and so I feel like we're just starting to get into the the meat and potatoes of like what is it they really want to start digging into?

SPEAKER_00 28:55

That is so cool. I mean, they just don't get that in school. I know that their schools offer some types of stuff like that if you take advantage of it, but I just there's there's nothing like getting in there and like really being part of something like that. Um, that would be cool to to watch. All right, so what does your kind of like your week look like? I mean, are you worried about like do you need this level of math in order to graduate homeschool? You know, are are you giving them like book reports or whatever it is that we used to do in school?

SPEAKER_01 29:29

We do a lot of I will write and we're reading a ton. Like my kids are just I don't even know what grade levels they're reading at this point. Like they really are like my daughter's devouring books like crazy, my son too. And so, like, we'll do unit studies together, like I said. So I try to like find an age gap between the two of them, but like she's they're definitely like way above reading math. They really like teaching textbooks. We've kind of played around with a couple different they kind of like that. It's nice because we're like traveling a lot, so they can just be on their phone and like do the math and kind of like work through that. But we've done some of the other programs like Math UC and stuff like that. Um, did a little bit of that timberdoodle stuff. Um trying to think what else.

SPEAKER_00 30:06

Yeah, we do math U C right now, actually.

SPEAKER_01 30:09

Yeah, they liked it, but then the the videos were a little bit like yeah, once they they got hit to a point. But I always feel like it's important for them to know enough to figure things out for sure. But like again, like the silly memorization, like if it's not something, I don't know, like they always used to say, like, you're not gonna have your calculator in your pocket, but we do, so it's like we sure do.

SPEAKER_00 30:29

And in the event of an apocalypse, like I'm not gonna need to know 12 by 12 off the top of my head, right? You know, like it's and it's a difference too, like memorization and learning just how to figure it out. Yeah, like I can get a pen and paper or a stick in the dirt and figure out what 12 times 12 is I do I do know what that is off the top of my head. But uh I know what you meant though, yeah. It's crazy. Like the things that you agree in theorem, like really never you're gonna have to memorize that stuff. It's so true. Why would you have to memorize it? Like, yes, you're gonna forget it. Even even like nine times six, I'm still always like, wait a minute. Like you just don't need to know it off the top of your head, though.

Social Life Travel And Homeschool Community

SPEAKER_01 31:11

Yeah, but are you a good person? Can you like figure out a tip at a restaurant? Uh, do you know how to like check your bank balances and like not overspend on a credit card? And do you know how to even what credit is and all those things I wish I learned in school? And like, you know, unfortunately had to wait till the real world to kind of figure that part out. So I think that part has been really, you know, crucial too, is just let letting them rise up, calling to make reservations in restaurants. Like, those are really big skills that a lot of kids don't have. And I'm not like anti-technology, and I'm not like all we do is stay on our technology, you know, my kid has a VR, but he also like loves to read books. So there's I feel like you gotta like mix it up and blend it a little bit and then just get around other people. I feel like that's like the most important all ages, like little kids, adults, everything in between.

SPEAKER_00 31:58

That's great advice. How big of a worry was the socialization thing for you?

SPEAKER_01 32:02

Well, in the beginning, definitely with COVID, I was like, I feel like so stuck in New York. That was definitely a little bit harder. And then it was so bad here. Oh my gosh. And then even down here, I'll say, like, we've like you find people, but you just don't always click. And they may it might be like a you know, you ha you hang out here or there, but like there's a lot of unschoolers down here, which is cool if that's your thing. But it like if you also run a business and you know can't go to every meetup, like that can be a problem for some people, it seems. So you just kind of pick and choose like what you can do. And we try to do Freedom Fridays um from time to time. So this Friday I blocked off our calendar. We're gonna go to the Ringling Museum, which we've never been, so that'll be really fun. There's aquariums, obviously, beach days are always a hit down here. But yeah, just we're we're traveling too. Like, we're going this Sunday to Fort Lauderdale, and we're not gonna be home until the end of April. We're gonna be in Orlando and we're gonna be staring in Air Airbnbs, working and going to meetups, and we have um different events to go to, and the kids are gonna be with us every step of the way, and they are so excited. They were like picking out the Airbnbs with us, and they're you know, just pumped to also hopefully sneak in a trip to Disney World maybe one day.

SPEAKER_00 33:09

Okay, so this is like more of a work travel thing, but they're so do you ever have like that guilt of gee, I'm taking them out of like their normal everyday, or they're just they're loving it.

SPEAKER_01 33:22

This is our normal everyday, and I think that was something it did take me a while to come to terms with because again, it's like you do see some really great creators out there, and they they seem to have the perfect homeschool setup and this is a routine, or they have the people to hang out with all the time, and those are their communities, but we just didn't fit into any of that, and I just finally kind of like came to terms with that, and I'm like, this is who we are, we're an entrepreneurial family and we travel. So, whether it's uh up the East Coast, because we did that over the summer last year to go back to Rochester and we stopped all along the way from I don't even know, Charleston. We went to Savannah, and then even just like two months, two months ago, we were in Columbia and Charlotte for real estate stuff, but we bring the kids with us and it's just kind of is their normal. And they make amazing friends who also homeschool. So there are other kids out here that do this. It's just you, you know, you find them along the way. It's it's just kind of been a fun adventure.

Working Parent Guilt And Quality Time

SPEAKER_00 34:10

Yeah, no, that's really cool. And the only reason I'm asking is because you know, there are a lot of parents, and myself included, I don't, I'm not doing the traveling, but when you're thinking like, okay, I'm spending my time on the podcast or doing the Instagram page or creating a course or writing an ebook or whatever, you know, you're like, oh, I really should be like playing dolls with my three-year-old or, you know, doing puzzles with them. And not to say that that stuff doesn't happen, although I'm not really a doll player, I don't, but I do like playing, you know, board games or puzzles with them. But like we do do that stuff. But I think when you are a working family, you have that guilt, right? That like you should be because you think like, well, if they were in school, a hundred percent of the attention from the teacher would be on them, right? No, it's not realistic that it is, but we because they're home, we feel like we owe them that. And I just, you know, talk to us about that, make help us feel better.

SPEAKER_01 35:03

Yeah, I think it's all it is all in our head, right? It's a it's a mindset, and like there are times where maybe I kind of put that pressure, and it's my husband who's always a lot better at that. He's like, take a look, he's like, I don't ever say we're doing the wrong thing. Like, look at the our children and look how awesome they are and the the people they're becoming. And you know, when we do go out, like X, Y, and Z, like all these people are saying like how well behaved they are, like they give them gifts at these meetups, because like I my child would never sit there for six hours straight. And I'm like, probably because my kids never have to sit here for six hours. So if I do ask them once in a while, you know, they are quiet. But as far as the guilt thing goes, you know, it's the quality time. And I think I think it was Shonda Rhymes, maybe, and she's like the creator of all those TV shows or whatever, scandal and all that. Yes, the like Gray's anatomy. Yeah, and I don't know if I heard her on a podcast, she was telling somebody somewhere, and she was just like, I was putting all this guilt on myself, and then I realized like it's just just say yes for like that little bit. So play with the doll like five minutes, ten minutes, and that's all your child wants is like undivided attention for a little while, and then they're off doing the next thing. So if you're constantly brushing them off and never paying any attention, well, that's a problem. But if you're like having an honest conversation or whatever grade they are, you know, age, like okay, mommy has to do this podcast right now because you know it's gonna help us do XYZ, it's gonna help us earn some money. I'm gonna connect with other people, it's gonna help build a business. The business brings in money, and money is able to let us stay home in homeschool or we travel here or there. And so those conversations have always been a part of our day-to-day. The kids know like it takes money to make things happen around here. So if you want food, then we're gonna work. You know, we are able to, you know, be flexible too. Like my husband and my daughter were playing cards in the middle of the day, and that was the open time he had on his schedule, and they were putting together some chairs um that came in for the bar stools for the counter. And that was it was just, I don't know. I just feel like somewhere along the way I stopped putting that pressure on myself. So I think part of it just comes with time and just the belief. Like if you sit back an outsider looking in, like you'll probably see like a lot more like you're doing a lot more than you even realize. But like, there's no way you can just stay home and not work. Like, we have to put food on our table, clothes on our back, and give experiences because that's what we're here to do, is you know, enjoy.

SPEAKER_00 37:14

Yeah. And I even think about it, like, okay, we could just make it work on my husband's salary, but I there's a level of, well, I enjoy this because I worked in a cubicle for the government for 16 years and it was mind-numbing. I feel like for 16 years, I just like wasted brain cells. I didn't do a creative thing. I taught Zumba outside of that, but I love Zumba. Yeah, that was fun. I you know what I did? I did yoga on the beach when I was in Sarasota, Siesta Key, um, which is still Sarasota, I believe. But um, that was cool. I was like, man, we're missing this in New York. I haven't even done that yet. Yeah, I definitely have. Oh my god, she had like 50 people there and it was donation only, but a suggested donation of$10. I'm like, this lady just made$500 and she does once a day. This is brilliant. What am I doing with my life? I should be doing that. Yeah. But yeah, but like them seeing a level of hard work from me too, you know, and yeah, it's like, okay, did I have to create a course? No, I didn't. We don't like need it. Probably took more money to create it, but it was like, can I do this? And like, how can I do this? How does it work? And how do we market and how do we put it together? And, you know, okay, how do we build the site that it's on? And it's more like a creative outlet too. And then, you know, your kids see you getting excited about things, and you want them to be like, okay, get the job that you're excited about, not the one where you sit in a cubicle and just push emails around.

SPEAKER_01 38:40

Mm-hmm. Yeah, I I think that there's something that that's really to be said about that. And I don't know where along the lines, like people think there's like a four-hour work week, or yeah, I know there's literally a book somebody wrote about it, but you know, like it takes it just takes money to live. And so as wonderful it is to stay home and homeschool, like you probably have to most people have to be bringing in money or you're gonna be sacrificing a lot someplace. So and it is if you have it in you, like obviously I feel like you love connecting and and sharing something that's you know you're so passionate about, and like, yes, of course you should monetize that. And I think the more you just get around women too that are also doing similar things to be able to just know, like, like, money is not bad. Money in the the right hands with the right people does so much good. And like, how many women are sitting there thinking, like, I can't homeschool? Like, there's no way I could, because it's a limiting belief. And so they need women like you with podcasts out there and Instagram pages that are like, oh, like this is there's a whole world out there. You just need to learn about it and have that confidence and belief that you can. And there's oh definitely a million ways to make money, especially with digital courses and all of that. It's just, you know, like you said, figuring out that's the hardest part is with you know, pushing it out there to the world.

SPEAKER_00 39:48

Marketing is a beast. Yes, for sure. Oh my goodness. But yeah, no, I love what you said. It's like there is this money in the right hands can do so much good. I mean, yes, look at how many freaking evil billionaires there are out there, probably every single one of them. But that I love that quote. I'm gonna, we're gonna use that one.

SPEAKER_01 40:07

It's true. You have to, yeah. And like I, I mean, lover or hater, she um Amanda Francis, she's got an Instagram following. She does use, you know, some curse words, but she was somebody I started following, and man, like her this mindset, money, and like she talks a lot about manifestation, but it's more just about like being empowered as a woman and like having control of your finances and whatever way like it's coming to you naturally, like run with that and like own it and and really like know that there are people out there that are just waiting for you to get loud, especially with social media. Everybody is so reachable now. The loudest person is the best marketer and they win.

SPEAKER_00 40:43

Yeah. And and I I still just going back to like what you're doing as a business, that setup is nothing they ever teach in school. And you even mentioned like interest, credit cards. They never teach about compound interest or like what the interest is gonna look like after your college loans, you know, are paid off. How much did you actually pay in interest or revolving debt versus installment loan debt and like how actually having a little bit of credit card debt is good for your credit, and you know how to optimize that. None of that stuff is that for time. They don't want us to know that. So we're homeschooling, like, we do need to take that upon ourselves too. And I'm still learning it. I mean, uh clearly, you know, like I don't know these little loopholes, and there's a ton with taxes I don't know about, but I'd love to, where I feel like I've almost learned so much just from homeschooling in the three years that I have, and I got little kids. Do you when you do the unit studies and stuff, are you actually doing it with them? Or is it more like okay, go online and do your program? Like where, or is it a little bit of both?

Advice Grace And Where To Find Jen

SPEAKER_01 41:46

For a unit studies, like we'll meet every day at like 11 o'clock and we'll work through like either reading books and kind of doing projects together that way, or with the like holidays, it was the Christmas study, um, stuff like that. But then they'll have their own online stuff that they'll do. Like, they still watch brain pop, they love learning that way. My son really is like a audio video visual visual learner, like he loves listening to things, and then my daughter, she's more like me. She likes reading and like like highlighting and taking notes, and then she kind of like really gets it. Um, and so there's a little bit of a mix there, and then history. It's funny that you mentioned like the Erie Canal and stuff. My husband, he's a history guy, like if he weren't into finances, like I think he would have been a history teacher at one point, and so he's always busting out something. So he had this whole video and it was talking about the Erie Canal and what this massive change it did for the economy up in New York and all of that. I think I watched it. Yeah, it was our conversation at dinner last night. So it's funny that you said that, but again, it's dinner, right? And my kids are on spring break right now, but like sneaking in a little history here and there and having these conversations, but they brought it up, so yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:48

I think it must be a fairly new documentary because my husband sent it to me a couple weeks ago and I made my son sit. He's only seven. I was like, You're watching this. I don't care. Oh, yeah. It's powerful. Yes, that's so cool. Um, all right, as we're running up on the hour, anything that you wanted to make sure that you touched upon or info to give parents or inspiration?

SPEAKER_01 43:12

I think like if you're somebody like thinking about it, um, you know, depending on the kids' ages, too, it's like when they're two, three, four, five, like it is just play. Play, play, play, play, play. Like have so much fun with it. Don't get so worked up about all of like the letters and the words and the reading and the numbers. Like they come, it will happen when the time is right, and you'll kind of it just organically does. And then just find your groove, give yourself some pace, you know, some time, but also like just find the the creators out there that you resonate with. And I remember finding the unit studies, finding a couple of their moms who worked and homeschooled, and just kind of like hearing their stuff stories. And I just remember hearing one of those like, I just sacrificed some things, you know. So, like my Saturday mornings, they're maybe not always like leisurely reading or catching up on the housewives of whatever, it was preparing for the next week or figuring out the curriculum and the books we're gonna read, and that's okay. And it's just you have to be okay with that too, but then also like don't burn out because I've definitely been there and done that. And I think that's it happens pretty quickly. So hustle should be a season, not a lifestyle, which if you're like me and you're kind of that overachiever, you're trying to do all of the things, like just recognize like you can't do it all. So, what can you do today and tomorrow? What season are you in? Like, if you just had a newborn, like you're not gonna be trying to run a marathon, right? Like, so kind of apply that. All aspects of your life. So if you are going through an illness or a job change or something along those lines, like give yourself grace. Um, and don't don't beat yourself up. I feel like we're so hard on ourselves and you're doing a great job. I really believe if you're if you're listening to this and you're putting the time into your kids' future, like you're doing a great job.

SPEAKER_00 44:50

Oh, I love that, Jen. Can I put links for where people can find you if they want to find out more about your consulting business in the show's description?

SPEAKER_01 44:57

Yeah, of course. Um, I love obviously connected with you on Instagram, so Jen Delafave on Instagram and then create a finance playbook.com. Um, we do free trainings and we do lots of things down here in Florida. So if anybody's in the Florida area, we'll have events and such. Um, we might be kind of coming back up to New York, like I said, this summer too. So stay in touch that way and we'll definitely see what's going on. Well, I definitely will.

SPEAKER_00 45:19

And if I have to go to Florida again, I I guess I will. Thank you so much, Jen. This has been so fun. And check out um all of Jen's links in the show's description. Thank you so much. Thank you for listening to the Homeschool How To podcast. If today's episode helped you, please be sure to follow the show and leave a review. It's the best way to support the podcast. And if you're just getting started or need a reset, head to thehomeschoolhowto.com and grab my free 30-day homeschool quick start guide. Until next time, keep learning, keep questioning, and thank you for your love of the next generation.