#70: Growing Up Homeschooled: What Morgan Does Differently with Her Kids

Ever wonder how to successfully transition from a structured career to the unpredictable world of homeschooling? Join us this week on The Homeschool How To as Morgan from Tennessee shares her inspiring journey, shedding light on Tennessee's relaxed homeschooling regulations and her choice of utilizing umbrella schools to streamline reporting. Morgan’s story is not just about logistics; it's a heartfelt reflection on her experiences growing up homeschooled and how it shaped her decision to educate her three young children at home, and what she chooses to do differently.

Balancing motherhood and homeschooling can be an emotional rollercoaster, especially when leaving behind the security of a conventional job. In this episode, Morgan opens up about the struggles of finding new purpose and identity in full-time motherhood. She offers insightful advice on creating routines and finding joy in the homeschooling journey, making it more manageable and enjoyable.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:06

Welcome to this week's episode of the Homeschool How-To. I'm Cheryl and I invite you to join me on my quest to find out why are people homeschooling, how do you do it, how does it differ from region to region, and should I homeschool my kids? Stick with me as I interview homeschooling families across the country to unfold the answers to each of these questions week by week. Welcome, and with us today I have Morgan. Morgan, thank you so much for being here, hi happy to be here.

Speaker 1: 0:39

So what state are you in? We're in Tennessee, oh, awesome, I'm a little bit jealous because I know I say that to everybody because I'm in New York, so it's like who am?

Speaker 2: 0:47

I not saying that to.

Speaker 1: 0:48

I've been to Tennessee a couple of times Nashville, obviously, I'm sure you get that all the time. How far are you from Nashville?

Speaker 2: 0:54

We're not far from Nashville. We wanted to be kind of close, but not in the city life. So we're in a town called Cooksville and I tell my husband all the time he brought me to the promised land we really do, we love it here. We've only been here for about a year but it was our goal to land in Tennessee.

Speaker 1: 1:07

So I'm very, very grateful to be here. Awesome, and where did you come from?

Speaker 2: 1:11

I grew up in Ohio. We met in Nebraska and we went down to Georgia for a while and Georgia is what broke me. I did not like it down there at all. It wasn't our climate or anything, so I was like, next place we land, I want it to be I don't know, just more our pace. We love all the hiking and the waterfalls and stuff around here and it gets warm, but not too hot, it's not too humid, so it's a happy medium for us. Okay, so how many kids do you have? We have three a six-year-old, a five-year-old and a two-year-old, a five-year-old and a two-year-old. But they're all about to have their birthdays. We have April, may and June birthday, so we're about to get back to back to back, oh nice.

Speaker 1: 1:50

So yeah, you're definitely at that cusp of homeschooling Now you really kind of have to get into it. When they're the kindergarten, first grade level, it's like you have to do stuff because you feel like you're like neglecting them if you don't, like you're a bad parent if you don't. But it's more fun stuff where now you're kind of getting into like no, we really have some stuff we have to report, so what?

Speaker 2: 2:15

are the reporting requirements in Tennessee where you are? Yeah, tennessee is actually very relaxed and that's another reason why we liked it here, like the idea of being here. There's two options you can do where you check in with your local school district and you report and keep up with all the recording that way. Or they allow you to go through an umbrella school religiously, which whatever religious umbrella you want to file under is fine, and there's a wide range of like how much they require. So if you choose an umbrella school that has more requirements, you might also get more funding to where they help you out with curriculum and stuff. Or you can go the route where there's almost zero check-in, like we choose one. That's very hands-off. We prefer to just be able to do our own thing completely, choose our own curriculum. So we go through one that basically we just have to file with them. They report to the school district for us and I think we only pay $20 a year for our family and then they just leave us alone until next year.

Speaker 1: 3:09

Oh wow, I haven't heard of it being done that way before. That's interesting Because, like in New York, from what I have understood so far, is we just report to our local school district what we intend to do for the year and then every quarter what you did for that quarter.

Speaker 2: 3:25

So so what do they make you track? I've heard that New York is one of the more stricter as far as meeting requirements Like what do they make you report or keep up with from quarter to quarter?

Speaker 1: 3:34

You know, I'm not entirely sure, because my son is kindergarten right now.

Speaker 1: 3:39

So we don't have to report anything. So I sure didn't. I was like, if I don't have to, I'm not giving them any info. So in September I will really be delving into that. But I know it's kind of this is what we intend to do and then showing this is what we have done. And from what I've heard is people submit the stuff and never hear anything back. So you just kind of have to keep records of everything you've submitted in case they come back at you one day for whatever. Yeah, so what made you even decide that you wanted to homeschool? Did you always know that you were going to be a homeschooling?

Speaker 2: 4:11

family. Yes, so that's what I was going to say. I grew up in Ohio, so homeschooling was there. I grew up taking standardized tests every single year.

Speaker 1: 4:19

So you were homeschooled.

Speaker 2: 4:20

Yes, and by the time I got to high school and everybody was doing the ACT, I was like I've been doing this since I was in third grade, like we always, we had to do CNRS tests every single year to prove that we were on track and I just thought that was the norm. But yes, I grew up homeschooled. I started out K-1-2 in public school and then started homeschooling when I was in third grade and around like fifth or sixth grade. My parents gave me the option every year of what I wanted to do and I chose to continue homeschooling until 10th grade. In our school district, homeschoolers were not allowed to play sports and I loved soccer. So after one year of being in high school and not being able to play soccer, I was like nope, it's not worth it. So I ultimately ended up going to school so that I could be participate in sports. So I ended 10th, 11th and 12th grade in public school and I genuinely enjoyed both experiences.

Speaker 2: 5:12

I really liked being in school. I liked being around people my age all the time. I had good connections with my teachers, but I've always been kind of like the tutor, the teacher type personality Like. Even when I was in school I was helping my friends with math. I ended up getting a degree in math but I was the teacher's or not the teachers, but the professor's aide in my school too, to where I was tutoring other students in math. I've always just loved teaching and in that area is like, if I love teaching other people this much, I just can't imagine how rewarding it will be to teach my own kids, other people this much. I just can't imagine how rewarding it will be to teach my own kids.

Speaker 2: 5:47

So in the beginning it wasn't really wanting to keep them out of public school as much as it was. I just wanted that experience of being there to like see the light bulb moments, see, like foster that love of learning. So, yeah, when I met my husband, we put all the cards on the table pretty much, I think. Before we even like called each other, girlfriend and boyfriend, he told me I'm either going to be an officer in the army or a preacher, and being a preacher's wife or an army's wife are very hard jobs. So just think about that before we delve in If you want to walk away. No hard feelings. I totally understand. And I was like, well, actually that works perfect for me, because I just want to be a homeschool mom. I don't care where we live, I don't care where we go, I don't care if we're rich or poor, just let me stay home with my kids, and we basically like handshook on that, and it's worked out ever since. So he's he embraced it with me.

Speaker 2: 6:35

I will say, though, when it came down to do for kindergarten or preschool and these things, I 100% chickened out because I was afraid of teaching her how to read. I was like English doesn't make sense to me. I watch other people struggle and I know that if you don't get that foundation, it makes learning very hard. Down the road I was like well, maybe if I gave her kindergarten, first grade, second grade, like I had that public school foundation, I could build off of that. And he was the one by that time. That was like no, like let's just go all in in a year of preschool, see how it goes. I have confidence in you and I'm glad he did, because we've had a great time of it.

Speaker 1: 7:14

Yeah, you're not the first person I've heard of to say that I'm just afraid to teach them reading, and that actually was one of the things I wasn't afraid about. Not that my kid can read right now, but he's only five, don't get me wrong there. Today was a hard day because it's like him just wanting to do it, and then I was just like fine, you know, like I got angry because I'm like you can do this. You're just purposely giving me a hard time because I'm your mother and never did I doubt his or my ability to like get there and I would think, be able to read better, just because I went to public school and I don't feel like my reading ability is anything great, and it never was, and it was never about the love of reading, it was just about learning how to do it and not to fall in love with it. So I actually didn't want him learning to read in school because of that.

Speaker 1: 8:05

And then I still think I'm making some of the mistakes that the public school was, or any school was, but so I'm like trying to course correct it, but it is hard when it's so ingrained. That's interesting, though, that you were like I love teaching, so I want to teach my own children, because most people you would think would say I love teaching, I'm going to become a teacher and send my kids off to school to be taught by someone else. Like that's really interesting that your mind went to I want to see this in my own kids. What do you think made? Was it because you were homeschooled that made that spark in you that like you want to see this in your own children?

Speaker 2: 8:39

I think so, um, and I was the oldest, so I helped my sisters with school too. But, yeah, I think it was instilled in me seeing that my mom was always home with us and always there for us, and even when we went to school she stayed home. There was always a big part of me. That's like my goal, my whatever, my holy grail is to be able to be a homemaker, which you would think like. I see all these women who are like I thought I wanted to be a career woman and now I realize I want to be home, despite always wanting to be home.

Speaker 2: 9:08

I was shocked by how hard the transition was for me. Like I earned my degree in math. I was this college athlete. I got a job as an auditor in a bank, loved working, loved school. I really loved the constant feedback. I liked having a boss to please. I liked having clear job description. So, despite my value being in, like I really want to be home with my family. When I came home I struggled so hard, especially in the toddler years, I was like where's my job description? Where's my constant affirmation, where's my grades? Why am I redoing the same job every single day? It was extremely difficult to make that transition.

Speaker 1: 9:46

I love that you brought that up, like you literally just gave me chills because I feel like that's like an avenue I come from.

Speaker 1: 9:53

Leaving my government job is so hard, and for not the similar reasons, because I got no affirmations from them. No, but like you do it. Like government work you don't, unless you have a good boss. But it's you don't, because everybody is there because of a civil service exam that had nothing to do with their job description. They just got a score, so therefore they were next in line and they were least of the bad options to get that job.

Speaker 1: 10:19

I've had pretty bad bosses my entire 16 year career. But just having that carrot dangled of like but you're going to get a pension, but you have health insurance, but you have a solid 3% raise every year and what they tell you is good for you, and that's just 15 years of working there ingrained in me. And then all the years of school, like what are you going to be when you graduate? What are you going to be when you graduate? And like the goal they kind of make it seem is get a job that has a steady paycheck and a pension. And so I'm like, okay, so I got it.

Speaker 1: 10:54

So it literally didn't matter. I was just sitting in a cubicle every day like wow, I could be here or not. It really wouldn't affect anyone's life too much if I'm here or not, and none of the stuff I'm doing makes sense. There's no clear job description, because it's just chaos everywhere. Like no one knows the right hand from their left hand. That's your government folks. But I still find it extremely difficult to part ways and say goodbye to the pension and goodbye to the income, even though I know like at the drop of a hat they could say the dollar has collapsed and there is no pension, or your income isn't worth anything, or knowing that the health insurance is probably what's killing me. You know, like staying out of the doctors is probably going to be better off for me in the long run. It's, it's so hard, um, so it's like the same thing that's hard for you, but like for different reasons. It's really interesting.

Speaker 2: 11:47

Yeah, it is. It's just the clarity to like for me. I've started to embrace it more. For some reason, the idea of like running my own business was more appealing to me. My husband and I are both into like, we love the idea of the entrepreneurial world and we listen to a lot of personal development. So when I started looking at it like okay, my home is my brand, like I get to reflect my personality and and I get to create structure, and I kind of went into the auditor mindset of well, I can run my home as efficiently as possible, or like, I can create my own job description, it was the unknown and almost too much freedom. And yet there's always something that needs done. I just really struggle with the lack of clarity and just a lack of specific guidelines. But we're, we're figuring it out and actually homeschooling is a lot of what helped me work through that.

Speaker 2: 12:31

Once I had like a focus, we started very early. My little girl is very she needs a lot of engagement, she loves a challenge. So we started our preschool routine when she was two. We started a pretty structured routine when she was three and by the time she was four I had a four and a three-year-old, when we did our first year of classical conversations and we were doing our classical conversations reading and math every single day, plus YouTube videos. So we kind of jumped in with two feet because my day got so much easier when I had something like that to focus on and something to give it a little bit of structure.

Speaker 2: 13:02

When, then, you want to expect, when they woke up in the morning, we had our planned out routine and it's like okay, now it doesn't just be like chaos. And they were so much happier when we started with learning time. It's like we spent two hours. I have no phone. I'm not doing chores Like they are my focus for two hours, no matter what we block out the world. We snuggle up and read together. We've always made reading this really special one-on-one time where I'll take them into my bed, we get a special blankie, I'll give them a special drink and they know that they have my undivided attention and I'm going to celebrate every little victory.

Speaker 2: 13:35

Because I was so nervous about it being a bad experience, I went overboard, making sure they felt like that was super special time, so they knew they could count on that every morning and then, after those two hours, they were content to go play. They weren't hanging on me for the first time in my motherhood. They weren't like at my feet, squealing, bickering, whacking each other. It's like they had that satiated and then they actually just would go play in the room and they're using their imagination and they're interested in their toys all of a sudden. So for me, beginning homeschooling early was a huge turning point to where things started to get a lot of fun.

Speaker 1: 14:07

That's so interesting too, because you hear a lot of people, especially in the homeschool world, say that you don't need to do anything but play, and I guess it kind of is similar, because you're making it fun, you're just doing play as a more structured way, but yeah, that you don't need to do anything structured at all until age seven or eight or nine. You know, I, I hear you, though that makes sense to me that we have a purpose to our day and you've kind of get that sense of accomplishment. So maybe your affirmations now are not like hey, morgan, great job today on that project. But like Morgan, great job today on that project. But like mommy, I'm satisfied with our together time, that now I can play on my own for a little bit, because you've met my needs as far as like seeing me and giving me attention.

Speaker 1: 14:55

That does make a lot of sense. So how do you do it with three, though? Because I know I try to read with my five year old, and the one year old is trying to rip pages out of the book or sit in between us, so I can't see the book or kick the book with her foot. I'll try to give her little things to do, but that to me is like OK, you're kind of ruining what's supposed to be relaxing and learning.

Speaker 2: 15:18

Yeah, it's kind of like every time you get your rhythm the kids grow a little bit and then you have to get a new rhythm, thankfully. So, like when we started and I had a three and a four year old, I was just focused on the four year old and the three year old. My second daughter wanted to be a part of all of it but she didn't want to be the focus, like if I would ask her questions she would get uncomfortable and shy. So she wanted to be like just listening.

Speaker 2: 15:41

And a lot of classical conversations is learning through songs and flashcards. So I'm teaching my four-year-old the songs and don't even realize my three-year-old is learning it so well that she's going to be teaching my four-year-old pretty soon. She was just picking it all up and memorizing it so well because she didn't have the pressure of me asking her questions that like when Edith would forget something, adeline would be like, oh, this is the next part and she's so excited to show that she's been paying attention this whole time. So I kind of treat my oldest two almost like twins. I wasn't planning on that, but my middle child is so eager to keep up with my oldest that I've been able to keep them in the same reading, keep them in the same math.

Speaker 1: 16:20

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Speaker 1: 17:26

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Speaker 1: 18:05

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Speaker 2: 18:41

So, like Edith learned how to read when she was four, finished up our first reading book when she was five. Adeline was right on her tails and I'm not kidding you. They asked to do school on Saturdays and Sundays. We don't take a break on the summertime. I tell them we're taking a week off for Thanksgiving. They're like, do we have to Because it's so much fun together.

Speaker 2: 19:01

Like to them, it's a game that we play every morning. Like we sit down at the table, we do our memory verse, we sing our songs together. They see me light up because I'm using curriculum that I love. I'm talking about topics that get me excited. So they just see that's like when mommy lights up and we get lots of connection time. They never want to take a day off and then when daddy gets home, they're so excited to show him what they learned and he cheers for them. So we just we created like a game atmosphere to where to them it's just the fun challenge that we get to do every day.

Speaker 2: 19:30

The Good and the Beautiful has this kindergarten book that I picked out for my now five-year-old and it was supposed to last us through the summer and she got so excited to have a new book. She sat down and read half of the book in one sitting and I was like, okay, we're done, like we can go do the next thing. She's like, can I please keep reading? Yeah, let's do the next lesson, let's do it. So it's just for them. They don't see school as a chore, they see it as an exciting like I said, an exciting game we get to play together.

Speaker 2: 19:54

So for the oldest two, they've been able to be hand in hand watching them. Like we have a game that we call snack math. Once we've done a whole math lesson, I feel like they kind of get it. I use them whiteboard, I put the problem on there and whoever gets the answer first right gets a chocolate chip. And they love snack math. So my two-year-old I'll tell him, like, go play with your tractors, or I'll put on a show for him in another room to try and entertain him while I'm dating the older two and without fail he ends up at the table with us asking for me to give him problems. So I'll write a number and I'll ask him what it is and he wants, like he wants to join in. So all that to say by, like focusing on the oldest. The others have kind of fallen in line just because of the energy we bring to it Like it's fun. So they just want to be a part of it. And my two year old now I'm teaching him how to read.

Speaker 1: 20:47

There's a program designed for two-year-olds and he wants to do it, so we're just doing it. Like he can read three letter words, oh my gosh, he could probably outread my five-year-old.

Speaker 2: 20:52

I doubt it. I hate to say that. It's just an atmosphere. I mean, if he didn't like it, I wouldn't be doing it with him. Right right right, but we get excited for it. He wants to join in. If if they truly didn't want to read until they were seven, I wouldn't stress over it, because they're going to be learning something. It's just about putting something in front of them that they can get excited about, and I get excited about reading a math.

Speaker 1: 21:12

And, and so I'm. I know myself listening, and if the listeners are listening they're probably like this just seems so unattainable. You have to think of it. If I was public schooled, I don't even know what excitement over learning is right. My teachers were just government workers and they were told what they had to teach me. They could not pick the curriculum for the most part. I mean, they may have had a little say back then, but they don't now.

Speaker 1: 21:40

So it was a very different environment where you were homeschooled. So you saw that there was a different side to learning and then you saw that there was a different side to what like teaching someone could be, because you were teaching your younger siblings, you were helping kids in your college classes, so you got that side. So you have a little bit of a different background for teaching than a lot of us homeschooling parents do. And I think this is why this podcast is so cool, because I can glean these things that you have and use them for myself, like get excited about it. And I have a curriculum series off of this podcast too, where I just talked to people about curriculum and I don't think I've talked to anyone yet about classical conversation. So maybe sometime you can come on there and like really get into what what that is. It's been brought up on here before, but my idea of what it is is like very strict, rigid stuff, but you're making it sound super fun. I think classical conversations just sounds strict.

Speaker 2: 22:40

It can be, it definitely can be. We treat it like a buffet. We use the parts that we like and now I don't attend a meeting because I just really like their timeline and their science. So we use those songs and then I do my own stuff.

Speaker 1: 22:51

For the rest, Okay, so it can be every single genre or subject if you want it to be, or you can just pick and choose some.

Speaker 2: 22:58

Yeah, if you attend a meeting they cover math, science, history, latin English, grammar. I mean they'll cover everything except for math if you attend a meeting, because they say math should be done individually on your own pace. So I liked it because it was massive exposure. Everything is taught through songs. So I taught my three and four year old more than I ever dreamed I would have more than I knew about history, because they were so excited to learn the songs. They don't know what they're saying, but they're learning it and then, as they get older, you build off of it that way?

Speaker 1: 23:26

Yes, because the song makes it click. So even as they're older, they'll be like well, wait a minute. I kind of remember just like the Columbus sailed the ocean blue in the year 1492, right, like whether that's true or not, you know, like when you were talking about your youngest. My daughter is 19 months and I just videoed her today pretty much singing the alphabet on her own, and either it's Miss Rachel on YouTube or she's been listening to me work with my son and kind of absorbing that through osmosis. So it is funny that they do pick up.

Speaker 1: 24:02

If you just concentrate on the oldest, so we'll read together at night. But maybe if I switched it to the mornings it would be better. Like that's when we'll do schoolwork and stuff is in the daytime, but then reading our books is before bed. But if I had a morning time that might be better because I don't know, it's just maybe getting the whole vibe going of like this is exciting, we're, we're doing a new way of learning, and are you reading books from the library or from your classical conversations curriculum?

Speaker 2: 24:33

First to note on the morning thing, learning what works for your kid I do think there's something huge to the time of day. And then consistency, because, like, our first focus was reading. So if nothing else got done except for a reading lesson, I still considered it a success. Like nothing else matters until you know how to read. And the other thing is we keep it short.

Speaker 2: 24:51

Like I think people hear how much we're doing and they're like picture this prison at home, basically, where I'm like just forcing my kids to learn all day. We never do school for more than two hours And's only if they ask. So we're doing like 15 to 20 minute lessons so that they don't get bored with it, like they're never losing their love of learning because we're keeping it short. I'm giving it to them in bite size. It's just enough to have a small victory and then we move on and then they have the whole rest of the day to play. They're outside, we're rollerblading, they're helping me in the kitchen, so it's like, despite covering lot of material, we've gotten this far because we're only doing bite-sized pieces and it keeps them interested and it never becomes heavy. If we were sitting down for 45 minutes even doing one thing I think they would hate it.

Speaker 2: 25:34

Like they would dread it.

Speaker 1: 25:34

I was going to say this is kind of how I ask on. The curriculum series is like can you walk me through then a day-to-day? We'll just give kind of people a little advertisement of what that looks like, like what it so, when you say two hours in bed reading, to me that sounds like a lot. But is it more bite-sized than that? Are you getting up in that two hours and switching what you're doing?

Speaker 2: 25:54

Yeah, yeah. So like when I said when we were front-loading reading that's, I think they wake up we thought their first brains use juices, like the very first fruits of their brain. You want to use those for your most important or your biggest challenge. So I would do one-on-one. It might even be before breakfast, like if they weren't super hungry or if they're not asking for it. We might just go straight to the couch, cozy up with a blinky and do 15 minutes of reading before I even make breakfast in the morning. And then we flip-flopped because I had two, so we were always doing one and then the other one.

Speaker 2: 26:24

Now, now that they've got a grasp on reading, our first fruits are going towards math. We're doing some pretty challenging math now, so we're shifting gears now to where we'll do that before reading. So, like in a two-hour window, I usually ask them to get dressed and brush their teeth before they come out, and some of these are shifts that I've made because of what I didn't like about growing up, homeschooled, like my parents. My parents laid out a lesson plan for the week and they didn't care when or how I did my schoolwork. By the end of the week, all of my assignments needed to be done and I was even in third grade. I could read a textbook, I could do my own assignments. I almost didn't need my mom. I literally did most of my schoolwork in a tree, sitting up in a tree or in my top bunk, and she would check my work at the end of the week. So I like having more structure and they seem to thrive on that too. So I'm like OK, we're going to have a start time, we're going to have a breakfast time. So we start trying to start a school day by 930 in the morning.

Speaker 2: 27:25

Now that math is our focus. We have a math video that we watch. I talk to them to make sure they understand. We do our math worksheet and even our math worksheet is building with blocks, and we have like three different places we do for. We'll do it at the couch, We'll do it at their table, we'll do it at the kitchen table or we'll do it on the front porch. So we're never sitting in one place for long.

Speaker 2: 27:39

And they also like reading in my bed a lot. That's a special thing. I'll let them come in my bed and we'll cozy in my room one-on-one, so they know like there's not going to be any interruptions. So we change atmospheres a lot so we're not just sitting in one space. We usually have like one focus for the day, like when I'm introducing a new math concept, we'll spend a little longer on math and then the other subjects should only take about 15 minutes each. We do handwriting memory should only take about 15 minutes each. We do handwriting memory verse. We talk about our Bible story regular, just reading whatever book we're reading at the time. We start with how to teach your child to read 100 easy lessons.

Speaker 1: 28:13

Yeah, we're doing that now too.

Speaker 2: 28:15

Yeah, and then pathway readers are my favorite after that like very old fashioned Amish lifestyle, it's just very wholesome. They love the characters, they love the story. They're like hearing about cows and farm life and all of that and it's what I grew up reading. So those are my favorite. And then we make suddenly good and the beautiful.

Speaker 1: 28:30

Is that like pathway readers? Is that like a book series? Or is that a curriculum?

Speaker 2: 28:35

Yes, yeah, they have kindergarten through eighth grade.

Speaker 1: 28:38

Oh, okay, so you have to purchase it, or is it something that the library might have?

Speaker 2: 28:49

Yes, I do purchase it. I think the pathway readers are from the Rod and Staff company, but I might be mixing there. We did a lot of Rod and Staff curriculum when I was growing up.

Speaker 1: 28:53

They have a really good Bible curriculum as well. Okay, I can link that in the show's description too, if people want to check that out Math that I mentioned is Matthew C.

Speaker 2: 29:00

Have you heard people talk about that one?

Speaker 1: 29:02

Yes, that's the one that I rave about? Yeah, all right. Well, maybe I'll have you come back again. And of all the curriculum that we've dabbled in, yeah, get into that one. Matthew C, I've heard good things. Yeah, I think that's why they enjoy it really. And would you rate Matthew C over the good and the beautiful now?

Speaker 2: 29:21

I haven't done much of the good and the beautiful. It's really like that curriculum is getting super popular right now but I picked from stuff that I really enjoyed as a kid. I really liked Pathway, I really loved Matthew C I will introduce Rod and Staff Bible as they get older and then the how to teach your kid to read Actually, we even had that from when I was a kid. I picked a lot of material from when I was a kid that I liked and then I've written some of my own material that really focuses on what I really want them to learn, because I don't want to be doing tons of subjects.

Speaker 1: 29:52

This week's episode brought to you by Pfizer, Just kidding, Just kidding. What I really want to ask you is have you left me a review yet? Reviews are so important because one? They let me know how you're liking the show, but also they let other people know if this show is worth listening to. I've got 58 reviews on Apple Podcasts so far, but I know there's at least 300 of you listening each week. So if you've enjoyed this episode, let me know by going into the show's description, clicking on the link and writing me a note about how you're liking the podcast. Has it helped you at all? Have you decided to homeschool because of it? Have you changed how you homeschool after listening to the show? Who has been your favorite guest? Leave me a review on Apple or Spotify and let others know if this show is worth a listen.

Speaker 2: 30:35

So I combined handwriting memory verses, hymns and poetry all into one handwriting workbook so that we knock out a lot of stuff in just like one 20-minute lesson. We're covering a lot of ground.

Speaker 1: 30:46

Okay, well, let's get into that. So you said that you started in entrepreneurship, so is that the curriculum writing like your business?

Speaker 2: 30:55

So I do have. I have the workbook available for free because I want to help anybody learn scripture that they can. And after I had one person use it and say that they were reading their Bible with their kids because of that book, I was like, okay, I have to make this free for everybody. Like that just makes my heart so happy.

Speaker 2: 31:09

But I have a course that helps people get started with homeschooling. That, step-by-step how do you build a homeschool based on your values? How do you find your teaching strong set? How do you find your child's learning strong set? And then, how do you find resources in your area, how do you cover the socialization ground? How do you organize your time and space and how do you find curriculum that meets your strengths? And I walk them through like these are your strengths. This is the path you want to look at for curriculum. This is how you look at your state. This is how you understand the HSLBA website. So, ground zero of not knowing what homeschooling is to, I mean, by the time you finish the course, I don't think you'll need to Google much Like. It covers all the bases. So I haven't started advertising a whole lot. I've just been working on building a relationship, but that's my goal is to share that course with people.

Speaker 1: 31:58

Okay, great, and can I link that in the show's description too, in case people want to check it out? Sure, awesome, we'll do that. Yeah, because that's really cool. And yeah, it's, it's overwhelming. And that's why I started the podcast, cause I'm just like I was asking all these homeschoolers like how do you do it? How do you do it? How do you do it? And everybody just had so many different ways that they were doing it. Like well, let me start a podcast and I'll ask a bunch of people and if it's helping me, then I can record it and it can help other people.

Speaker 1: 32:27

And then, as I've talked to people over the last year or over a year now, I'm like there's still a million ways to do it, like whether you start at age two, whether you start at age seven or eight, whether you make it play-based or whether you have it more structured, whether you're doing game schooling or unschooling, like there are so many ways.

Speaker 1: 32:47

Or you know, just doing these core subjects. When to add in supplements, like that's my biggest thing too, like there's so many awesome supplements out there, but where do you add them in? And I think until you're actually homeschooling, you don't realize like, well, you do have extra time, like even if you do all about reading curriculum, like that's not going to take you a whole school year to do so. There are pockets in there. Whether you break it up and add a supplement in for the month of December or you know, you just finish early and then have a couple months of of something else for you to try. There's just so much, so it feels like overwhelming. But also you could look at it and say like we're so lucky that there's so much, because when you were growing up there really probably wasn't a whole lot Right.

Speaker 2: 33:30

And there weren't a lot of people and my, like my gold star or whatever, my no, your lighthouse, that's what they say is sitting down with my husband because I get overwhelmed with the amount of possibilities and all the opportunities. So, the amount of possibilities and all the opportunities, so he and I sit down quarterly and he helps, like, bring me back to center. And instead of choosing curriculum, we always start with, okay, where's our kid at? What is the most important next thing for them to learn? Like, what do we want them to be focusing on in this next four months? And if we accomplish that goal, then in four months we say OK, now where are we going to shift our focus in the next four months?

Speaker 2: 34:04

So, like, for us, the very first thing was memory versus. Before we even introduced reading, my oldest didn't really like talking, so we started with memory versus by sign language and could not believe how quickly she learned them. Again, I do not think my kids are geniuses, it's just consistency, little bits of time. I gave her a sticker every single time she wanted to practice it. So she wanted to practice it all the time she got to put a sticker on the sticker chart. So, like, our first thing was we want to focus on Bible and once that was like easy, we didn't have to think about it every morning. It's okay. What's the next thing we're going to add? Reading so talking to him helps bring me back to center is like whatever we're introducing, we're very intentional about it. We make sure it lines with our values and that we're not just climbing mountains that don't need to be climbed.

Speaker 1: 34:45

That is great advice. So did he choose the path of pastor or army? Yeah, he's a chaplain in the army.

Speaker 2: 34:52

Oh, so both yes, but he's army reserves so we also get to just stay here in Tennessee. So he reports to Knoxville once a month and then by day he tries for FedEx, so we don't have to move around.

Speaker 1: 35:05

Oh great, that's awesome. So you were homeschooled but spent your last three years in public school. Do you see your children saying one day hey, mom, I think I want to go to school, and how will you feel if and when that time comes? I?

Speaker 2: 35:19

don't see it happening right now and thankfully we live in a place that has multiple thriving homeschool groups. So I grew up being one of the only homeschoolers in our area and whether I was on soccer or church, everybody else went to school. So even with that I still wasn't super eager to go, but it made me feel a little left out where we're at now and part of why we want to live here. We have a huge homeschool group, we have a huge church group, we have a huge youth group. So my hope is that they feel satisfied all throughout their years and from where we see public schools heading, I don't know that my husband and I would be okay with sending them at any point.

Speaker 1: 35:58

Yeah, subject to change, but not right now.

Speaker 1: 36:00

Sure, no, I agree, I agree, and someone had told me recently that there is because in New York, we can't play sports with the school either if we are not part of the school. But I did hear that Tim Tebow was like trying to get something into law, saying that schools have to allow homeschoolers to be in their sports, which I assume in New York it's because of, like, the vaccine thing. Like you to to go to school, you have to have everything on the CDC schedule, so that's why a lot of people in New York Well, I can't say that, but that was a big push in 2019, 2018, when they implement, when they took away the religious exemption that's why a lot of people moved to homeschool. So I would guess that that is why they're like we don't want you mingling with our vaccinated volleyball players. So I don't know how that law would trickle down here. I keep meaning to research that a little bit more, but, yeah, it seems so silly because most states you do have the religious exemption and homeschoolers can play sports with regular public schoolers.

Speaker 2: 37:11

Yeah, I don't know when I grew up, the vaccines were not as big of a deal. It was more of an open enrollment thing and they just it was up to the superintendent and the superintendent and all of the schools by where I lived just didn't allow it, interesting.

Speaker 1: 37:26

There's also, what I've realized, a lot of other sports like. Nowadays there's a lot of travel leagues that even the kids like that play basketball for the school, they'll also do the travel league. It's like if, if you're any kind of good, you're doing both. So I don't think the travel leagues are associated with the schools. So that's also another, a nice option.

Speaker 2: 37:51

Yeah, and I was able to do that until high school. Um, but in my area it was like once everybody got committed to their high school sports, they're practicing every single day, Um, and there wasn't room to do both and everybody was choosing to do their high school. So travel just kind of fizzled out after freshman year basically, but that's what I was able to do up until then.

Speaker 1: 38:10

And I think I wanted to ask you too so you had said that like you kind of wanted the entrepreneurial life how do you manage doing them both with having the kids? You obviously don't send them off to daycare or school or anything.

Speaker 2: 38:28

How do you manage doing both? Well, I'm just dabbling into it and, like I said, we're both very interested in very in different avenues, but that's one thing where we always come back to center with our values. It's like, okay, my biggest, my absolute biggest priority is going to be teaching my kids, spending time with them. Second priority is going to be managing the home. We do a lot of cooking from scratch, I like we're very big on nutrition in our house and fitness and nutrition and all that too. So it's like, okay, I need to make sure those are in order, and then my husband's super supportive of it, but we're always coming back to you.

Speaker 2: 38:56

Okay, but is it getting in the way of one of the first two? Cause if it is, then it's got to get bumped. So at some point I think I'll be waking up early in the mornings. I wrote my course just during nap times and early in the morning and late at night, so I got all of my material done. But as far as, like, keeping up with Instagram and all the stuff that it takes, I've just accepted it's going to be a slow building hobby more than like a priority. It's going to be something that I enjoy doing. I'll do a lot of just sharing how we homeschool on my Instagram, just trying to encourage others, and then, however long it takes to grow, I just I treat it like I would any other hobby, something that I enjoy, but it can't bump my priorities?

Speaker 1: 39:33

Yeah, I think it's. I see myself definitely going into like is this taking the place of time that I should be spending elsewhere, like doing laundry or cooking or doing the thing? Like, for me it's the podcast, for you it was writing the course. That's just like one kind of small part. You know, this recording takes an hour a week and editing it might take another two hours. But then there's the marketing of it, which, so, okay, you have a podcast when no one's going to listen unless you're on a social media account. So then you get on the social media account. Okay, well, you need followers then.

Speaker 1: 40:11

Well, then you have to post I don't know every day. I think there was like a week or two I tried to do something every day, but it's impossible. Impossible because not only do you have to think of what to post, but then you have to create it, and whether it's a reel or a story or a post or a carousel, and then you think you spend all this time putting it together and it goes nowhere, but then, like something that you didn't think anyone would even read, all these people want to share it.

Speaker 2: 40:39

And then you know, with the writing, the education too, there's the doing, and then you know, with that writing, the I was just gonna say, and then the education too. There's the doing, and then you have to learn how, like. What does it mean to market it? What does it mean to find my voice? What's my actual message? Like there's so much education that goes into before you can even produce one quality piece of content, it can be all consuming, and especially me, I am very likely to get all consumed by something.

Speaker 2: 41:01

So it been, it's been, a job of like learning how to enjoy it without it taking over. But we do like I have a strict two hour quiet time every single day. So I get to choose if I'm going to use that for chores or if I'm going to use that to take a nap or something fun like building a business. They don't wake up, they're not allowed to come out of the rooms until seven 30. They're in bed by 830 every single night and we have a two hour quiet time every single day. So it's like those are my windows, if I want to use it for something like that.

Speaker 1: 41:29

So what are they doing during quiet time? Napping.

Speaker 2: 41:31

They used to be. Now that they're five and six, I let them do tablets. We have Khan Academy kids. They do Duolingo and they do Code Land. Make them do something educational on the tablet before they play games, and then they can do whatever else they want. Or they have like makeup and dress up and all their toys in the room. They just have to stay quietly in their room. The rule is, if they need my help for it, the answer is no, until after quiet time, and even the two-year-old will do that. My two-year-old naps. He takes a two-hour nap every day, but we, when Enith turned three, we used the hatchlight system. So when it's green, she just knew she had to stay in her room and when it turned off she could come out. And she did.

Speaker 1: 42:11

Are you trying to pick a curriculum but feel a little overwhelmed at the variety of options? Me too. I mean, how do you pick a curriculum when you don't know what each one has to offer? That's been my biggest problem. Well, I am here to help. I just launched a premium content series, Psst. That means it's $3 a month, which will just help cover the cost of running the podcast.

Speaker 1: 42:31

In my curriculum series, I interview homeschooling students and parents and curriculum creators about specific curriculum each week so that you can take the guesswork out of your curriculum choices. I'll be asking questions like what does the day-to-day look like with this curriculum? What does it cover from a bird's eye view? How long does one lesson take to complete? How many lessons does the curriculum contain and what does it cost? Did you have to order the book or could you download them and print them somewhere like your library?

Speaker 1: 42:58

Does this curriculum have a lot of games, writing or crafts, and did your child enjoy this curriculum? Can you do it with more than one child at a time? And if I did this curriculum with my child, would I need to add any sort of supplements to it? These are all questions I've had while I search for the perfect curriculum to suit my son's personality and my expectations. Let's face it there is no one curriculum out there that will work best for every child and adult, so I invite you to join me in my search to find out what every curriculum has to offer, so that you can feel confident in your curriculum choices and enjoy your homeschooling journey that much more. Right where you find all of the Homeschool how To podcast episodes, you'll see my curriculum series and you can subscribe today.

Speaker 2: 43:43

From the time she was three. She stayed in her room for quiet time.

Speaker 1: 43:46

Somebody else on one of my very early on podcasts mentioned that light. Yes, and I meant I think I put it in the show's description at that time. Yeah, so it tells the child you cannot leave the room if, it's right you know, whether it's morning or a nap or something. That makes a lot of sense. I wonder if it would work here.

Speaker 2: 44:04

I don't know. I could not survive without my hatch because my daughter was waking up at 3 am thinking it was time to start the day. I was like I can't do this Like three, four, five. She's coming in our room thinking it's time to start so again. When she was three years old, we got that I'm like you cannot come out of your room until your light turns blue, and the first words I heard every morning for about two years was my light turned blue. She was ready to go.

Speaker 1: 44:27

Oh my gosh, that's so funny, and so that works for quiet time as well, that's, I think, to implement it with a five and one year old. I'm trying to think like it would probably take a good month of, like this is the new routine, guys. You know, this is what we're doing, and being strict on the nap time has to be the same every day for the younger ones. Right, like right. I kind of just like, when you fall asleep, you fall asleep, which is it's. It's not good, but we're always doing something different. So, like Monday we were at a friend's house and they were outside all day and she fell asleep maybe at three, three, three, 30 till six, 30 at night. And then the next day she fell asleep at 11 in the morning and I had to wake her up because we had to go somewhere. And today I tried to get her to sleep and she's back up and running around.

Speaker 1: 45:14

So, yeah, it's terrible parenting on my end, like I fully am aware of that. It's whatever works for you. Tomorrow we're going to the museum. So it's like, yeah, I don't even know when she'll nap, like I assume she'll just fall asleep wherever she is. But it makes it worse off in the end, when I want quiet time, well, no, you don't really get that, because to tell the five-year-old your quiet time will be when she happens to nap, that's kind of not fair to them. Like they need a little bit of a schedule too. If you're going to demand things out of them, they should. It should be reciprocated. Like well then I'm going to give you the same time every day. Is there anything else that you wanted to touch base on? I really love, like all your avenues of coming from being the homeschooler, being in kind of like the. You had this career going for you and leaving that. That really is a lot. Do you have advice?

Speaker 2: 46:01

Well, just the biggest encouragement I try to like keep telling. I have friends who are debating about homeschooling and all that too. The biggest encouragement I just always try to remind people is like these are the children God gave you. You are teaching them so much more valuable lessons than reading and writing. If you are equipped to nurture their souls. If you are equipped to nurture their souls, if you are equipped to nurture their skills and their abilities, you've already far surpassed any challenge you're going to find academically like. You are already entrusted with so much more than their academics.

Speaker 2: 46:34

So if you can do that, you can do the homeschooling easy, breezy. It's truly just an extension of parenting. And while you're building your homeschool, start, start with your values. Like let academics be second to your values and it will be way less stressful, because when you're like trying to keep up with the rat race of what should they know, they should know what you want them to know. So start there and just build from your core and let the extras be extra Like don't, don't, let that be the thing that's stressing you out.

Speaker 1: 47:04

Yeah, and I think it is so overwhelming. But once you're in it and you kind of get that first year under your belt and get a rhythm going, it really does. Just you get to a point where you're like I couldn't imagine rushing everybody out of bed in the morning to get them off to school while I rush off to work and like what kind of exposure are they getting and what are they learning? Or what are they wasting their time doing by just sitting there while someone else is being disruptive or maybe that isn't the learning style that's best for them? And how many hours of their precious little life are they wasting just to be a robot? Robot, basically. And then to get them home and you're rushing you got to find somewhere to put them for these last two hours that they're done with school and you still have to work. And then rushing to get food on the table how nutritious is that going to be? And then getting it all cleaned up so that you can get them cleaned up and then put them to bed.

Speaker 1: 48:02

You've missed the bonding time, even the times where it's frustrating and you're like why aren't you doing this reading lesson? That still makes you guys grow together, because it gives you the opportunity then to say like, hey, listen, mom overreacted, I'm sorry, I felt that you were giving me a hard time on purpose, and then they can tell you how they felt and it like you know. So, even out of those frustrating and horrible moments and the tears, something good can still come from it. But if you're apart, you don't even get the opportunity to have the frustration and the connection after.

Speaker 2: 48:37

That's a really, really good point and I will second that. I apologize to my kids multiple times a day. It is like for as fun as it is. There's lots of frustration as well. My frustration comes from most of the other stuff, like the chores and the bickering and the like. I asked you to clean this up seven times, but there's lots of those moments where it's like I lose my cool. But it's like you said, even those moments where you go back and apologize. That's a really great point. It's still true connection and then getting to see the human side of you and and share that.

Speaker 1: 49:08

Yeah, and then they know that when they're older, if they've made a mistake, they should apologize too, and it won't be like something foreign to them because they'll be like oh no, mom's done this, dad's done this. Really is you're. You're making a human, a good human being. Morgan, thank you so much for being here today. I'm sorry the connection was a little iffy, but I could see you the whole time and hear you, so you're coming through good.

Speaker 2: 49:34

It was such a joy talking to you and surely I am so grateful for your podcast. I should have opened with this in the beginning, but I looked for you when I started wanting to build content for people of how to start homeschooling. Of course they came across your podcast and I was so excited telling my husband about you and I've told my dad about you multiple times because I was like it's just so beautiful.

Speaker 2: 49:55

I grew up in this kind of bubble where it was very conservative. Lots of people who homeschool grew up homeschooled and it was like this. I don't know lots of like minded people and to see your example of like coming from one side of the story and travel by just this open, honest curiosity, by asking questions and then hearing the testimonies that you have and the conspiracies you found about the government, it's just so refreshing coming from your voice. Truly, you're one of my favorite people to listen to on all of those things because, because you're just so honest and sincere about it. So I am very grateful to you for your message and for the example you've set.

Speaker 1: 50:32

That means so much. Thank you so much. I didn't even pay her to say that. That is so nice. Yeah, coming from someone who like was, you know, really homeschooled, and I assume that people that like this was always part of their life Look at people like me like, oh my God, we're not like foreign aliens or something, it's just homeschool, but like it's cause. I can imagine we get annoying with all of our questions, but it's such a beautiful side to it and it's like.

Speaker 1: 51:04

No, they're normal people too, like they. The. The media had us all thinking you guys were sewing clothes with bonnets on and candlelight.

Speaker 2: 51:15

Yeah, when I told my husband I wanted to homeschool, he was like, uh, pretty weird, but okay. Like, if that's what you want, and now he's a he's a huge advocate. Like I think if I said I wanted to send my kids to public school, he'd be like, what's wrong with you? Absolutely not, but it's been fun seeing him make that transition as well.

Speaker 1: 51:34

My husband too, Like at first he's like, whatever do what you gotta do, and now he's like I told so-and-so about your podcast. He listens himself to it and he's like so, the person you had on last week, so it's cute. Oh, thank you so much. Your words of encouragement keep me going when I'm like, am I spending too much time doing this? You know I try to make sure that it doesn't take up time with the kids, but it definitely takes up time with the cleaning.

Speaker 1: 52:02

I let that go a little bit, but that's all right, I get it. Yeah, thank you, morgan. It was such a joy talking to you. Well, it's a huge encouragement to us.

Speaker 2: 52:07

So thank you for your message. Thank you, bye-bye.

Speaker 1: 52:14

Thank you for tuning into this week's episode of the Homeschool How-To. If you've enjoyed what you heard and you'd like to contribute to the show, please consider leaving a small tip using the link in my show's description. Or, if you'd rather, please use the link in the description to share this podcast with a friend or on your favorite homeschool group Facebook page. Any effort to help us keep the podcast going is greatly appreciated. Thank you for tuning in and for your love of the next generation.