60. Mary Wilson and Celebrate a Book

In today’s episode, we get to spend time with Mary Wilson from Raleigh, North Carolina. Mary shares her unique and inspiring journey of homeschooling her four distinctively different children, and she emphasizes tailoring education to each child's individual learning style. From the challenges of accommodating a variety of interests and academic needs to the joys of shared learning experiences, Mary opens up about the evolution of her homeschooling methods, including the pivotal role graphic novels played in engaging her children in reading and learning. She describes her creation of 'Celebrate a Book', a platform and methodology that brings books to life through themed book clubs, engaging discussions, and activities that enrich students' understanding and enjoyment of literature. Mary's insights into managing high school education, electives, and the transition to college for homeschoolers provide valuable guidance for parents navigating the homeschooling journey. Her approach to education, focused on the love of learning and flexibility to adapt teaching methods to each child's needs, offers a fresh perspective on homeschool education.

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Transcript

Mary Wilson: 0:00

You're going to continue to take him to the next level, whatever grade he is. And on the transcript, you're going to write English 1. That's it. Whatever you did, that is English 1 because you're taking it to the next level. Now in school, the poor kids who aren't ready are getting Ds on their report card, and that's not helping anyone. So just do 8th grade with him. Do 7th grade curriculum. Do whatever he needs.

Timmy Eaton: 0:25

Hi, I'm Timmy Eaton, homeschool father of six and doctor of education. We've been homeschooling for more than 15 years and have watched our children go from birth to university successfully and completely without the school system. Homeschooling has grown tremendously in recent years and tons of parents are becoming interested in trying it out. But people have questions and concerns and misconceptions and lack the confidence to get started. New and seasoned homeschoolers are looking for more knowledge and peace and assurance to continue homeschooling. The guests and discussions on this podcast will empower anyone thinking of homeschooling to bring their kids home and start homeschooling. And homeschoolers at all stages of the journey will get what they need and want from these conversations. Thank you for joining us today and enjoy this episode of this Golden Hour Podcast as you exercise, drive, clean, or just chill. You're listening to this Golden Hour podcast. In today's episode, we get to spend time with Mary Wilson from Raleigh, North Carolina. Mary shares her unique and inspiring journey of homeschooling her four distinctively different children, and she emphasizes tailoring education to each child's individual learning style. The challenges of accommodating a variety of interests and academic needs to the joys of shared learning experiences, Mary opens up about the evolution of her homeschooling methods, including the pivotal role graphic novels played in engaging her children in reading and learning. She describes her creation of Celebrate a Book, a platform and methodology that brings books to life through themed book clubs, engaging discussions and activities that enrich students understanding and enjoyment of literature. Mary's insights into managing high school education, electives, and the transition to college for homeschoolers provide valuable guidance for parents navigating the homeschooling journey. Her approach to education, focused on the love of learning and flexibility to adapt teaching methods to each child's needs, offers a fresh perspective on homeschool education. Welcome back to this golden hour podcast we have with us today, Mary Wilson from Raleigh, North Carolina. Welcome, Mary.

Mary Wilson: 2:34

Thank you. It is great to be here. Thanks for having me.

Timmy Eaton: 2:37

So grateful that you've taken time. Mary is a homeschool mother of four, a lover of book clubs and graphic novels and creator of celebrate a book. And she has quite the following on Instagram as well. I've noticed. So thank you for taking time today. Can you give us just a a brief bio of yourself and just anything you want to say about your family, where you're from, whatever.

Mary Wilson: 2:54

Okay. Sure. So I have four kids, like you mentioned, I think that have been homeschooled the whole time with the exception of seven days of public school for one of them. So we didn't get into that. Yes, I

Timmy Eaton: 3:06

wanted to ask about Patricia.

Mary Wilson: 3:08

Yes. And my kids at this time are My oldest is 21 at State University, UNCW in North Carolina. My daughter Patricia, the second one who had the public school experience is at the local community college her freshman year. And then I have two boys who are both in high school. They are junior and a freshman. We live in Raleigh, North Carolina and We moved here from Maryland, so we started homeschooling in Maryland and then moved to North Carolina, so that was interesting, too. It helped me a lot to realize homeschooling is really different in different areas, and so when you're hearing things from people online, you're like that sounds really good for you, but, not everyone can do that.

Timmy Eaton: 3:50

What's a, what's an example of that from, what did you notice about the differences in Maryland and North Carolina?

Mary Wilson: 3:56

Oh, the differences were huge. In Maryland, there was a lot more I had to meet with someone every year and show them like a portfolio of all my kids work. I had no problem with that. I do not, I have no issue with it at all. I think it's a great idea. In North Carolina, there is nothing. I don't have to meet with anyone. I don't have to report to anyone. I have to. Keep an attendance record testing at the end of the year and immunization records on file. No one's allowed to ask for them. So it was very different.

Timmy Eaton: 4:27

Wait, pause there for a second. What is an attendance record? I'm not even sure.

Mary Wilson: 4:30

You just have to check off 180 days. that you homeschooled.

Timmy Eaton: 4:34

Hey, I could do that the first day, man.

Mary Wilson: 4:37

Yeah. I was going to say some people take it very seriously. I am not one of those people, but some people take it very seriously. And then homeschooling also in, in Wake County, particularly in North Carolina, when we moved here, I don't know the percentage now, it was about 8. 7%, which is Almost three times higher than the national average for homeschoolers.

Timmy Eaton: 5:00

Yeah.

Mary Wilson: 5:01

There are, there was a big news article that there were more homeschoolers in the area than private school kids. So that changes what you have access to and what's offered in your area. So what do you make of that?

Timmy Eaton: 5:14

What's up? Like, why is it so common?

Mary Wilson: 5:16

I honestly have. No idea. I never had a kid other than the seven days in the school system here. So where I lived in Maryland, it was one of the top school systems in the county I was in. And so maybe people are just satisfied with the school. I have no idea, but it's just, and it's just this county.

Timmy Eaton: 5:36

Maybe it's like a like mindedness. It's probably, correct me if I'm wrong, but it's probably a very Christian centric area where there's like some like minded, but obviously that's not going to be everything. And it's still No,

Mary Wilson: 5:48

actually, and there's a huge secular population here, huge homeschooling. I almost wonder if it's one of those things that as it grows faster, like exponential, because more people doing it. And suddenly you're like, More people are coming in contact, they're rubbing up against it and going, wait, that sounds really great. And so more people join it, you know, it starts to snowball.

Timmy Eaton: 6:09

Yes. Yeah. Maybe, and maybe it actually gives some confidence. I know that like any phenomenon it, it's easier to do when there's more people. It's hard to do. The people, like I've had so many discussions with people that were pioneers on this podcast and I'm just, I just expressed gratitude to them because they went through so much difficulty. I mean, We all get the questions from everybody, but not like they did, man, they were just total weirdos in society and now we actually are acceptable by most people. And

Mary Wilson: 6:36

yes,

Timmy Eaton: 6:36

I

Mary Wilson: 6:36

agree a hundred percent.

Timmy Eaton: 6:38

Yeah. And you're close to, aren't you close to Vanessa, right? You guys are friends.

Mary Wilson: 6:42

Yeah. I see her every week. Our kids take a local English class together.

Timmy Eaton: 6:47

That's awesome. I had her on here once and she was excellent, man. She was she has so much energy in life. I loved it. So

Mary Wilson: 6:53

yes, she does. Absolutely.

Timmy Eaton: 6:56

Carry on with the differences. Like what else? What else did you see? Obviously the population difference. What else did you see as a difference in Maryland? There's probably a little bit more like more, I don't know if the word is freedom or just hands off government in North Carolina, but what else did you see?

Mary Wilson: 7:09

I think that just made a really big difference in what I could do and felt comfortable doing. Like I stopped having to do all the paperwork of homeschooling until the high school years. But like with the little kids, it was like, wow, I can really embrace these philosophies I've read about that felt trickier when you also had to have samples of work. Now, granted, the woman who did my reviews, she was awesome with elementary school, like just photographs. So a lot of it was in my own head, but it allowed like those chains to break from my own head when I moved down here. Yeah, a lot of it was self imposed, but it helped.

Timmy Eaton: 7:46

No, I understand that. I totally can relate to that. I know my wife would be able to relate to that. And so what difference did that make to you? The, cause like some people could hear that and be like, Oh, there's a problem with homeschooling. People don't want to track what they do. And we who have experience, we go like seriously, if you are, you can't go wrong when you're doing these fulfilling activities with your kids, reading with them constantly, outside exploring. And so it is a. A distraction to do some kind of menial task that isn't actually there's nothing like, where does it go? And so I, so what difference does that make not to have to do like just to go through the motion type activity? Until, like you said, you got to the high school years where you do want to document and get a portfolio and a transcript ready if they pursue post secondary or whatever. But anyway, what difference did that make for you?

Mary Wilson: 8:31

Yeah, I think exactly what you're saying, where in Maryland, I felt like at least a few times I'd have to, I'd be like creating worksheets just to have evidence of a worksheet and that is not the point of learning, but it felt like something I could put in the binder to show that we, and I'm not talking about math. I had plenty of worksheets for math and phonics and handwriting. Of course you have worksheets, but science and history, like with the little ones, I didn't want to turn that into a worksheet. I wanted to read great books and I wanted to go and most of our history was field trips and it just freed me up to study any topic and not feel like I had to justify it. This is what we want to study in history. And if my boys want to spend the entire year on World War I and II then we can do that. Amen. dig in. And so that's valuable. That's great learning. And I didn't have to be like, Oh no, but we have to either call this American history or world history. Like it has to fit one of these acceptable titles. I just, I got to free myself from all that and I loved it.

Timmy Eaton: 9:36

And I love that phrase of free myself. Like one thing I've been reading a lot about lately and talking about is the concept of de schooling which began with Ivan Ilitch. He wrote de schooling society in 71, but he was really political. I think, a lot of us don't get that into the whole thing, but the idea of unlearning the conventional institutional way, because even for me it I totally come from the background where I feel like I have to ask permission for everything. And it's taken so long for me. I think we've been homeschooling around the same time. We've been homeschooling for about 16 years. And

Mary Wilson: 10:05

exactly. Yeah. Same

Timmy Eaton: 10:06

with us. And And I just, my, if my wife wasn't asking the questions, I would still be like, so inside the box, but like just things like asking permission for things about my own children that's so weird, man. And like, why don't more people go actually, no, I'm not going to report to you what I do. Cause it's my kids. And I understand the rebuttals to that, that people are like there could be some abuses and you could be like unfit and all this. And I don't know, if we're going to dig up that stuff, how many problems are in the schools and everywhere else? And so anyway, I, but just the confidence and the freedom around de schooling of going, no, these are actually my kids and I'm going to make decisions and I'll let you know what I'm okay with telling you and what I'm not okay with telling you. And anyway, just taking the power back to the family a little bit. And

Mary Wilson: 10:49

so there is a balance, but I feel like yourself, like I would like the fact that I have to keep records of doctors okay, a doctor has seen my kids. They're not being abused. They're in a safe environment. You don't need to know what they study for history. There's a balance in here.

Timmy Eaton: 11:05

So why don't you, why don't you tell us a little bit about how did you what was your first exposure to homeschooling? How did you get, how did you get started? Like when did, how did you actually pull the trigger? Cause a lot of new homeschooling parents are like, when do you actually go, okay, man, I'm doing this.

Mary Wilson: 11:18

Okay. My experience, I had a friend in college and she was normal and she had been homeschooled, but only kindergarten through third grade. Her mom had this philosophy of holding on to childhood longer making sure all of her kids could read at their own pace before they were labeled, it was low. She had a kid who her brother didn't read until he was nine,

Timmy Eaton: 11:42

but

Mary Wilson: 11:42

by the time he entered school in fourth grade, he was in GT gifted reading

Timmy Eaton: 11:46

because

Mary Wilson: 11:47

He got to do it at his own pace. And I was like, huh, that's a really cool way to do it. And look, you turned out normal. So maybe if you only do it in the early years, that will work really well. So I left college with this idea in the back of my head that maybe that would be a really great way to educate our kids in the early years. And then after I had my first one, she was, about to turn five. We're talking about the kindergarten thing. Maryland went from half day kindergarten to full day that year.

Timmy Eaton: 12:16

That sealed the deal, man.

Mary Wilson: 12:17

That was it. I was actually going to send her for the half day. Cause I thought, Oh my gosh, I have these other kids at home. She would love it. It's so much fun. And as soon as it went full day, I was like, all right that just made the decision. I'll be keeping her home through third grade. I'm going to keep her home through third grade. And then you start homeschooling and you're like, Oh wow. There's right.

Timmy Eaton: 12:40

There's

Mary Wilson: 12:42

so many amazing things. A huge one for our family, huge was the freedom to vacation. To visit family to set our own schedule. So yes, I loved teaching my children all that fun we were having, but my parents lived seven minutes from us. And if grandma wanted to go to lunch, we could go to lunch. If we wanted to just toss everything and go play at the pool at grandma's house, like it just gave them this beautiful time with my parents. And we took two cross country trips as they were growing up, for two or three weeks on the road. Yeah. And we were able to do it because we're not tied to anyone else's. Now we are. Once you get kids with jobs and, college classes and dual enrollment. So through eighth grade, we loved it for a long time.

Timmy Eaton: 13:31

So your kids did dual enrollment like in person then, huh?

Mary Wilson: 13:34

Yeah. You're in the wake, you're in

Timmy Eaton: 13:36

Wake County, so you have like things all over the place. So

Mary Wilson: 13:39

yes, I do. But they did at the local community college and then you're suddenly tied To a school schedule again.

Timmy Eaton: 13:46

Yeah. Like we have, we, two of our kids right now, we've had up to four of our kids in just, they're actually in sports in the schools. And so it's so weird because it it's great, but it also ties us, here we are homeschooling and then we're somehow tied to a school schedule and a lot of ways because of that. And so we've wrestled with that and continue to wrestle with that. That wrestle is not over. And we we approach it every year. You, what you were emphasizing, if I were to like put it down into a principle is that homeschooling is a, most people look at it as like an education choice, which it totally is, but it is, I always said the idea of it's a learning and a lifestyle decision and that's exactly what you just exemplified, like to be able to take your kids and do what you do, like that is one of the beauties. And I don't, you want to go back with what you know now and do it again, because. Man, I would have been trying so hard to get an online job or something like that. If I had known what I feel now, I would go back just as the dad, because man, I would love to do more of that with our kids. And the education that you get by doing that, those two, three week trips you took what did the kids get out of that?

Mary Wilson: 14:53

Oh, absolutely. My kids. In fact, I put on one of their high school transcripts for college. I put what do I call it? U I put U. S. Travel Club, and then I put next to it 17 nati 17 national parks. Like, when did they get out of that? A lot. And, beyond education for a classroom, my daughter still loves to travel. She has goals to visit national parks. We haven't gone to it just opened the world to them in a way that sitting in a building would not have been able to do. And I know lots of families travel in their summers. Even if your kids are in school, the advantage we had was off season. cheaper rates, no crowds and all that kind of thing. So that was just, it was nice. And it was nice that my husband was able to work it out though. I'm very proud of this fact, so I'll have to share it. I drove my four kids from Raleigh to Jackson hole, Wyoming by myself. And he got to fly there

Timmy Eaton: 15:55

and rub that in every time it comes up, man, to him. How did what was he like when you guys were making the decision to homeschool? what were kind of like your reluctances and your what caused you hesitancy or your husband and what was that like?

Mary Wilson: 16:10

He was luckily pretty on board. He had known the same girl. in college. She was in our wedding. So he knew her experience also. So again, we approached it with this bite size. Okay, we can do this to third grade. So we were taking on this tiny chunk instead of like our whole life. So we got to grow into the decision. But like any new homeschooler you're worrying, am I doing enough? Am I damaging my kid? Are they going to hate me for this? You have all of that. And eventually you just adjust to those voices. I'm not going to say they ever go away, but they get a little quieter.

Timmy Eaton: 16:43

Yeah. What was it? What was your experience with that? Cause that's a, that's really helpful for people to hear just cause that is so universal. When for you did that happen? If I, yeah you say it first and then I'm just going to think through it myself. Cause like you said, it always is there, but there did come, there was a point where my wife and I were like, no, this is like awesome, man. There's no, this is great. When did that kind of happen for you and your family?

Mary Wilson: 17:05

I don't know. I guess it would say it ebbed and flow. When we moved to Raleigh we had debated putting my daughter in fifth grade when we were in Maryland. Okay, if you really want to go to school, she was my oldest. She's a huge extrovert. She's very social. The thing everyone fears when they homeschool, what to do with those kids. So we had thought, if you want a school experience, fifth grade feels like a really safe year. Why don't you go ahead and do that? But then we moved. And they do year round schooling in Raleigh, some of the schools. So the school had already started and we were like, gosh, we don't want your first experience to be joining late into the school year. So I guess you'll just stay home. And then again, we were finding our groove and we were just like, wow, Raleigh has a lot to offer. So maybe we'll just stick with this. So it just, it happened. That said, I will say the voices get really quiet when your child gets their first College of Acceptance letter, and you're like, Oh, okay, this really wasn't a problem. We're good. We're good here.

Timmy Eaton: 18:11

No, I appreciate you saying that. And maybe, and again, I'm not worried about the chronology of what we're doing right now, but talk about that a little bit. So I, when my daughter was going into her freshman year, grade nine we were starting to ask those questions. And so it was new territory. And I think it's so common that it's new territory. And I, and it's like, the materials aren't totally homeschool families of what to read and what to really look into to, to, quell those concerns. So what did you guys do? Like, how did you go about going? Okay, no, I feel comfortable with them taking the homeschool route, even without a diploma or graduation from a school or, GED, whatever. So how'd you guys do that?

Mary Wilson: 18:45

I attended a lot of groups with women ahead of me. I remember going to a transcript boot camp. And what I loved, I will say about this experience, because hopefully it will encourage people to get lots of opinions. Yeah. What I loved about this particular group and the way they did this boot camp, they bought, they brought one very type A mom

Timmy Eaton: 19:05

to speak

Mary Wilson: 19:05

and one very type B mom to speak. And they both shared alongside each other, how they did grades, and the one type a mom's talking about how she. Did tests and quizzes and she waited all the grades and she kept everything in and she didn't round up if it was an 88. 7 and she, and I'm sitting there Oh, I can do this. And then the type B mom gets up and she's here's how I did. He's Hey, you did everything I asked. Great job. B.

Timmy Eaton: 19:34

You are stinker. And

Mary Wilson: 19:37

she was like, see, you did. Okay. She was like, that's how I did grades. And I was like, Oh, I can't do this.

Timmy Eaton: 19:43

That's brilliant. Actually. I love that. Cause it does, it makes it accessible to I would even think maybe it would be cool to have a panel of just Class, like a few classic extroverts and some classic introverts. And to see, cause my wife is classic introvert and just to see the range of of personalities and how they approach different common questions and concerns and homeschooling. I love that idea. And I love that you said, get lots of opinions. Like I'm definitely going to emphasize that from this interview, cause that's great. That's a great like piece of counsel, but anyway, carry on.

Mary Wilson: 20:15

Yeah. No, I think that was one of the most important things because you find what kind of vibes with you and that woman's a, B and C method. I was like, that works for me. I am not into testing. People will ask how do you test them? I don't, I did not give my kids any history tests that are entire high school career. I did not give them any science tests. They did test in classes. They were taking outside of my home.

Timmy Eaton: 20:40

Yeah. Dual enrollment and whatever.

Mary Wilson: 20:43

Testing is a skill. You need to learn to be able to do it. You need to learn how to prepare for it, but you do not have to do it in every class to be able to learn it. I just, I loved hearing from people who could solidify that method worked and their child was fine and they were in college. And my friend who was with me, who was very type A, she was enjoying hearing that she could continue her very strict, method. And this is what it would look like.

Timmy Eaton: 21:09

Yeah.

Mary Wilson: 21:09

And that was great. We could both do it our way.

Timmy Eaton: 21:12

Yes. Thank you. I don't think we emphasize that idea of testing enough. I, that was one of the findings. I wrote my dissertation on home education and my doctorate degree. Wow. And one of my findings was that testing did not make a significant difference in secondary or in elementary school. And these are people that went to school. Different types of universities and colleges, but, a couple of them to high end colleges as far as academics and testing was not this major thing. And like when I and I'm a teacher, like I taught high school and college age kids for 20 years. And man, if there's one thing that is causing some stress and concern, and I'm not saying not to test, but the emphasis that it's given and the, and what it causes is just like not worth it. And like when you find the and I wouldn't state that what's the word unilaterally or something but but like for my own kids experience and from I'm talking to you right now. And so many people that I've talked to in homeschooling, it wasn't like you were like, okay, let's take a test on this. Some have taken that approach have been very. meticulous that way, just like the personalities you were just describing. But man, what, how revolutionary is that to go? You actually don't have to stress yourself out that much. And it works out like you said, it's a skill that you can learn. Like my kid's taking an ACT prep class right now. And he hasn't taken a ton of tests, but he just knows how to learn.

Mary Wilson: 22:27

Exactly. They figure it out. And what I love is the same way that homeschool moms, dads are all different and type A, type B. So are the college professors. So my kids are in psychology 150, I have two kids taking psychology 150 at the local college. And All the tests are open book. So like college professors are too. Acting like you have to be so rigorous and prepare them because those college professors are all going to beat them to a pulp. It's not true. They're going to get just as much of a variety in their college experience as they got with the co op classes and everything else.

Timmy Eaton: 23:02

With your oldest daughter, did you, can you describe how you guys did that? Because still like for us, cause we're, we have a daughter that's 20 and same thing. And we have taken this, I like, I personally have taken this kind of philosophy of like work from, begin with the end in mind. So it's like, what is she likely to pursue? And then that kind of dictates what. What universities, I mean, then your locale and family decision. There's so many factors that go into it, just like anyone does. But if you work from the, what I don't think people realize in general is that just ask the questions. And then in seriously, this is my council, call the program, all the university and ask them. And there's so many times where homeschoolers find out like, no, you actually don't have to do it that way. You don't have to have a high school diploma and people don't know that. And they're so surprised. And it's do your homework. And then work backwards. And then, and that'll inform even what you do as early as grade nine, grade 10, sophomore year in high school. So what would you say about that, about doing your homework and working from like, how did you guys go about that? Maybe.

Mary Wilson: 24:01

Yeah, no we did very much the same thing. I have often said to people that one of my big goals as I was looking at each individual child and kind of making that path was also not to close any doors too early. So while yes, I'm looking at my oldest, her goal was to go to college. I was convinced she was going to be a teacher just like I have been. She loved working with children. She has all the same, extroverted energy. And so we were her high school was very community focused, very volunteer focused. She worked at a camp up the street, two full days a week, starting her freshman year in high school the whole time.

Timmy Eaton: 24:41

Wow.

Mary Wilson: 24:41

So we just were gearing it to where her gifts were, where her leadership skills and what she was loving. But on the same hand, keep in mind, she wants to go to college. We need to be checking the boxes that are required to get into that university. My second daughter, the contrast is my second daughter was like, I'm never going to college. I'm never taking an SAT. I hate everything about school. This is the one that had gone to public

Timmy Eaton: 25:05

school. Was that a reaction to that experience or was that just for you?

Mary Wilson: 25:10

She has a lot of different learning difficulties. studying academic, it's just not her thing. So we approached it differently. I said to her, I'm not ready to shut that door. I don't want to just be like, okay, fine, blow everything off, drop out, let's continue on a path. And so I had her do dual enrollment her junior year, but instead of doing this college prep that my other daughter had done, she started with an art class. I said, just take an art class. You love art. Just go take art. She was like, Oh, is this the kind of stuff you could do at college? I like this. This is fun. And isn't that the school

Timmy Eaton: 25:47

that she's currently at too? Oh, cool.

Mary Wilson: 25:51

So the next semester she took a graphic design class and she was like oh yeah, maybe I'll do that college thing. She still swore off the SAT, but I was like, Hey, good news. Community college doesn't require it. So you can continue on. So she's going to get her AA and she's going And at this point, probably not transfer. She's thought about it a few times, but she wouldn't have to take the SAT. That was her number one request. I don't want an essay.

Timmy Eaton: 26:16

Yeah. I love hearing those, the differences and like what you said before about, the a mom and the B mom personality, but just cause it opens like you said, keep the doors open and parents that hear that will go, Oh, it's not like this one size fits all approach. And I love that. Tell us about what Patricia, what was her experience when she went to school? What happened with that?

Mary Wilson: 26:35

Oh, okay. So her public school. So we'll back up to all of my, actually not all of my kids, both of my girls considered high school seriously. And we allowed them to my oldest, we visited the local high school. We checked it all out. But ultimately that working two days a week at the camp of the street, she was not willing to give it up to go to high school. That influenced her. My other daughter she got into a charter school downtown that was focused on arts and theater. So it seemed like a great fit. She, it was a lottery. She was chosen. And as it got closer, she got really hesitant. She just started thinking, I don't know that I really want to do this. And I'll be honest, we made her, we were like, this has been bothering you for so long.

Timmy Eaton: 27:20

Yeah. You got to get the experience.

Mary Wilson: 27:22

You got to go do it. And it's either going to be awesome and you're gonna be so glad or you're going to hate it, but you'll never have to wonder. She went, we had told her she was going to have to go a whole semester. We were like, finish the first semester of classes and then make your decision. And within four days, she wanted to come home. She was so done. She loved the people. She loved meeting people. She hated that they, again, this was my child who has some processing things going on. I was trying to bring her testing and get help for her. They wouldn't give her help until she failed. It was a mess.

Timmy Eaton: 27:56

And

Mary Wilson: 27:56

I said to my husband, cause we were like, should we let her come home so early, so quickly and not stick it out? And I was like, I have to be honest, here's my feeling on this. I have spent years working hard to make sure this girl feels confident and smart and intelligent, despite the fact she's not In the traditional academic sense, she's hates math, not going to perform well on your tests, but she is a brilliant creative thinker and she needs to feel confident. And this school is undoing everything I did in one week. And I was like, so honestly, I say, let her come home and boom, she came home and we found her a local English class where she was challenged, had to step up to the academic plate. But in one class,

Timmy Eaton: 28:44

like

Mary Wilson: 28:45

I was doing everything else, so I do not regret making her go. She has said she's so glad she tried it because she would have always wondered.

Timmy Eaton: 28:53

And

Mary Wilson: 28:53

I do not regret because I've heard a lot of people saying like, why'd you let her quit so soon? Don't regret it at all. 100 percent right thing to do.

Timmy Eaton: 29:02

Yeah, you need, people just need the context and heaven forbid that people learn differently and have, you know what I'm saying? Like that, is one of the beauties of this option. And because to each his or her own, like people like charter schools, private schools, other, people are, and I love the idea of just different alternatives and options. And, but as for me in my house, we just love the idea of The freedom, the flexibility, the time together, there's so many things that like another school option is still another school option for us. And so we're just not into it, but again, not everybody's the same and it's not like a hierarchy. It's just a, it really is a preference. But the thing that I've been saying to people is you, I just, what I just read that Henry David Thoreau quote, where it says most men lead lives of quiet desperation. And what I think is universal is I don't think anybody should be making decisions without knowledge. What I mean is know the options and then make an educated choice. Oh no, I prefer the public system. I prefer charter school. I prefer homeschooling. But my experience is that. People don't actually know what homeschooling is about or they don't actually know the other options and so they just default and that's the life of quiet desperation, man. Like you want to, there are some things that you might love if you actually knew the other options. And so why don't you, can you tell us just describe a typical day in your home when you were in the throes of homeschool, like everybody's home. Oh, to take us from the morning to the night, just like the description of a day.

Mary Wilson: 30:28

We were usually very big on getting a lot of our schoolwork done in the morning. So we would get up, have breakfast. I was a big lover of morning time with all rushed. Yes. All my little people. And when they were all little, so when my oldest was I would say up until about seventh grade because she really started independent classes and pulling away from us very early. She is still that way and I love her for it. That's her personality. We would do science together. Always. We would do history together. I could accomplish so much in that like hour and a half, sitting together in the morning. We would watch great videos. We would like different YouTube channels that we have picked. We would do our science. We would do our history. I always had a read aloud going. You could almost stop there and have done so much. Totally. Of course, you're going out, you're going to add math. I was a math teacher. You go to add math. And that's where everyone's breaking off into their independent section and all mayhem is breaking loose because your oldest kid needs you for their pre algebra and you're trying to do like handwriting with the kindergartner. So I don't know what to say other than you just make it through the mayhem. You're this is the time I'm working with your sister. You all can go play blocks, and then you said, I would start with the oldest and work my way down. Because then once I could set them on their own. I could go down because the neediest was the youngest, but let's be honest. If I didn't get to the kindergartner, everyone was going to be fine.

Timmy Eaton: 31:58

No, I always say they're learning from the economy of the home anyway, and so it's just my, it's osmosis. And what time are you guys getting up typically? What was it like you were you rushing them to get up or did they have awesome sleeps?

Mary Wilson: 32:11

Yeah, they had awesome sleeps. I'm not a morning person. They're more of a morning people than I was. We were typically up and moving around by eight, we're up and moving, but we started school about nine. And that's been pretty consistent. That's

Timmy Eaton: 32:24

that's interesting. That time is pretty that time is pretty consistent. I find among families. That's interesting. And then what time were Yeah, go ahead. Go ahead.

Mary Wilson: 32:32

I was gonna say, I feel like we all like to be done the bulk by lunch. So there's this balance of you don't want to wake up too early, but you also don't want to start so late that after lunch, you're like, Oh, we still have so much to do.

Timmy Eaton: 32:42

And so would you describe yourself as like structured or semi structured or just very organic.

Mary Wilson: 32:49

Probably semi structured. We had, they all had little bins with their workbooks in it, so that we could, what worked out nice is the night before, I would put their bin on the table, take out what they had to do, so that as they did it, they could put it back in the bin. And I could look at the table and be like, Oh, who didn't do something like just this quick scan. Now was I relaxed sometimes where I was like, Oh, that's fine. We'll just leave it till tomorrow. Of course. That's why I say semi structured. The routine was that morning time first and then independent work. And then we usually were on the go in the afternoon or playing with friends, field trips, playgrounds. Anything we could find to do.

Timmy Eaton: 33:27

And you were always in mild weather. Man, I, that's something, that's another thing that I like. I mean, I love the seasons. I really do. Like, I mean, There's a ton of snow out my window right now and. Kids are going snowboarding tomorrow, but like it, I don't know, there's something about being able to go on walks every day. I You can go, we go on lots of winter walks, but someday you're just like, nah and, and I like the hoogie, however you say that word, like the cozy atmosphere of our stove and some tea and whatever, but can I just throw some rapid questions at you for a minute?

Mary Wilson: 33:56

Okay.

Timmy Eaton: 33:56

Okay. Let's do that. Just a few. And then I want to ask a few more and then we'll transition to celebrate a book. I want to talk about that, but just, we'll just do some rapid fire. So favorite couple of favorite books for read alouds.

Mary Wilson: 34:09

Oh, for read alouds.

Timmy Eaton: 34:10

Yeah. Yeah.

Mary Wilson: 34:11

Okay. Poppy was our, by Avi, was our number one. We have a Christmas ornament to represent that one. The Crossover by Kwame Alexander. Love that one. A Night Divided as they got a little older. And when I was reading out loud to my high schoolers, one of our favorites was The Martian.

Timmy Eaton: 34:28

Loved. Awesome. I love how quick that was. Favorite curricula that you came across.

Mary Wilson: 34:35

Oh, that's a lot harder. Gosh I've loved so many things. I loved literature based curriculum. So whether it was book shark or sunlight or beautiful feet or build your library. Anything that took us into books was what I found. I gravitated towards in the K through eight years.

Timmy Eaton: 34:57

Yeah. Anything specifically for math that you liked?

Mary Wilson: 35:00

I love Mr. D math.

Timmy Eaton: 35:02

Cool. Awesome. We

Mary Wilson: 35:04

found that he starts about pre algebra and that was perfect. It's an online math classes.

Timmy Eaton: 35:09

I like hearing this cause some of this I have not heard. And so I, I will put some of this in the show notes for people. And so I love that. What was another one I was going to ask you? Oh where you would go for like help, like motivational or like you're doing fine when you were like, where did you go personally to get like counsel and advice and mentorship?

Mary Wilson: 35:28

In the early years where I needed it a lot more joining a support group and I had several different support groups. It's along the way there. And then I had like monthly meetings where I could talk or have moms I could contact. Eventually Facebook groups became a really big thing. Yeah. So that has been a huge source of practical advice and tips in your local area.

Timmy Eaton: 35:52

Yes.

Mary Wilson: 35:52

And now that I'm on the ending. Parts, mainly just friends who are here in the same trenches with me that I contact

Timmy Eaton: 36:01

for sure. What do you do for yourself? Like to replenish yourself so that you're like, yeah, I'm excited to go back in tomorrow. Not that every day is like that, but I'm saying, what did you, how did you get time? And then also with that is what was your husband's role in that?

Mary Wilson: 36:14

Yeah. So if we go back to the early days when it's much harder to get time to One of the things we did and I love him for this one is during the throes of the hardest times for me. He took a day off work every month so that I could have a day off. It was the best thing ever done for me because I told him when he gave me a day off on Saturday, it didn't help because I lost my day to plan and grocery shop and do things. I wanted a day off of the actual schooling day where I could. And the rule was I didn't have to do anything. So if I wanted to grocery shop, I could.

Timmy Eaton: 36:53

Yeah,

Mary Wilson: 36:53

but I usually sat at Panera from breakfast, lunch and dinner and just read books, did my laptop, usually a friend would meet me and I would do it for about four or five months and then I would be like, okay, I'm feeling good now. And we would move on for a while. And then I might hit a period where I'm like, I could really use once a month again. That was probably one of the most helpful things we did when I had a house full of toddlers and elementary schoolers.

Timmy Eaton: 37:19

Yeah, I'm glad. I'm glad. And what about like on a daily basis? Did you do anything that was like, I, when I've asked this question, I've heard things like exercise or read a book or, Just close your door. And you're not allowed to come in or whatever.

Mary Wilson: 37:31

I'm an extrovert. So a lot of my recovering time was being with other people. So I was in a group I went to weekly. I've always been in some sort of book club or Bible study or something that met regularly. I also still loved to teach. So I tutored in those early years, one night a week. And that actually felt very like fulfilling for me. Okay. I liked spending time teaching algebra instead of fractions, like to little children. So that was another big one. And I did run my first 10k. When after my fourth kid was bored, so I'm guessing exercise became a big one at the moment. Yeah,

Timmy Eaton: 38:09

I'm sure it was. Yeah Couple more of these rapid fires, and then we'll do some transitioning what would you say is like that was the hardest part or the biggest challenge in homeschooling? And that could be at any time during the journey.

Mary Wilson: 38:24

Middle school specifically seventh grade. With actually, I would argue as a former seventh grade teacher, I taught fifth, seventh and sixth. I think it's the number one hardest year. And it proved true with my own children. It's just this in between year, they're done the creative play. They're not quite ready for the adult stuff. They've got all these hormones going. There's a lot of angst, depending on the personalities between mom and kid. I had the most angst with my oldest. It could be her personality. It could also be I got better at letting a lot of things go in seventh grade. Just be like, it's not worth it. We just need to make it to the other side. For me, middle school and seventh grade was probably the hardest. And they don't want to do things with you the same way anymore. That was really hard on a homeschool mom's heart. And maybe by the fourth one, I was like, yeah, I'm over it. Whatever. That first one. Oh, it's hard.

Timmy Eaton: 39:24

No, I know. I've been observing as I've talked to different people who are in a stage above where you and I are at is that. Like tons of kids are doing second generation homeschooling. So like my wife's mom, she has 18 grandchildren and they're all being homeschooled. And so that it's so fun to look forward to, whether they homeschool or not just because I always say this on these podcasts, but whether it's homeschool in the traditional sense, or if it's just. Being with your family and learning together and living together. That's that's something to really look forward to, to start reading to your grandkids and then cuddling up to you. And, that just, it just carries on. It perpetuates what about, as far as what as the greatest benefit or the thing you enjoyed most about being a homeschool mom and just a homeschool family,

Mary Wilson: 40:06

definitely all of the time with my kids. Yes, we all need breaks from it, but I would say the vacations. Hands down. I'm a get out of the house. I'm an Enneagram seven. If anyone is an Enneagram, my

Timmy Eaton: 40:19

wife's a five. We've been studying that for the last three months. She is so into that right now. And I think I'm a one. Okay.

Mary Wilson: 40:26

I am a seven.

Timmy Eaton: 40:27

What's your wings?

Mary Wilson: 40:28

And I have a very strong eight thing.

Timmy Eaton: 40:31

I have a daughter that's an

Mary Wilson: 40:32

eight.

Timmy Eaton: 40:33

What's crazy for us is my wife is a, like a classic introvert five. And then my daughter is an eight. And so that is a, that's a struggle. So

Mary Wilson: 40:44

yeah. So for me as the seven, the, you know what, two things, the vacations and trips. And then since we're going to talk about celebrate a book, and this is what made that happen. I started these really fantastic. Pat on the back. Yeah. Go in. Go in to

Timmy Eaton: 40:57

celebrate a book. Let's hear it.

Mary Wilson: 40:59

The book clubs when my oldest was in seventh grade, that really hard year to do the balance of social and learning. I started these monthly book clubs with her friends where we had themed food, sometimes costume decorations and went all in on bringing these books to life and having a Last. And that is probably one of my other favorite memories of homeschooling.

Timmy Eaton: 41:22

So is that how that was born?

Mary Wilson: 41:24

That is how I got into book clubs as a concept. After doing them for years with my own kids and organizing them, I started doing them You know, sharing ideas online back in the day, there was an app called Periscope. People were really into it. And I would get on live and show my book clubs and what was going on. And it just you take that learning and then you give back in some way. So other people can do it.

Timmy Eaton: 41:51

Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah. So tell us about we'll just transition and maybe circle back for a little bit, but tell us about graphic novels to start off describe what they are. And then like your guy's interest in them your love for them.

Mary Wilson: 42:04

This, a lot of this, I should credit my second daughter my second child and second daughter, Patricia, because she didn't love academics and reading. Yeah. And she started reading graphic novels, like crazy when we would go to the library,

Timmy Eaton: 42:16

Calvin and Hobbes type stuff.

Mary Wilson: 42:18

We had all the Calvin and Hobbes, everyone in this house love that. But here is the difference between comics and graphic novels. Yeah. So comic strips, are like short stories that were meant to be put in like the week they were like an ongoing story chopped up into little bits. If you go get a Superman comic, you could be anywhere in the Superman story where a graphic novel is the whole story. It's a novel, right? Yes. Big fan of comics in this house too. We had tons. Everyone here was a Calvin and Hobbes fan, but she really started, these are all graphic novels back here. So a full one, like a biography, and I started realizing, Oh, we can do history. We could do science. We could do biographies. We could do classic literature. I have a graphic novel for a Christmas Carol, graphic novels for I was like, Oh, so this was one of the big risks I took her eighth grade year. We decided we would spend her entire English and she would only have to read graphic novels. And yeah, and this is like that thing where you're saying every kid doesn't have to be the same. And so I decided, I said to my husband, cause you feel a little, that's that voice going, that's not right. She's got to prepare for high school. What is she going to do in college?

Timmy Eaton: 43:35

Deschooling is an ongoing thing for sure. It

Mary Wilson: 43:38

is. And I said to my husband, let's be honest. If this kid, my artist, my designer, my creative thinker, ever writes a book, it will be a graphic novel. So why shouldn't she spend a year studying the craft and the art of the graphic novel?

Timmy Eaton: 43:54

Yes.

Mary Wilson: 43:54

And we both agreed, okay, it's not high school, so we'll go for it. Yeah, there was still that voice. It was like, maybe not for high school. Though I would do it a hundred percent now, even for high school. And that's what got me into seeing just how rich that year was with her. And I was like, wow, there is a lot of power in these graphic novels for parents who are in the same situation as me with a kid who's maybe bucking every novel that you can pull this in and teach. Foreshadowing and alliteration and plot and theme and character, like all the things you want to teach, you can still do all that. And I had never found anything that was doing that.

Timmy Eaton: 44:35

Yes. Yeah. It's why people like what does Charlotte Mason call it? Oh man, I'm drawing a blank on the term, but play masterly, masterly inactivity and this idea of free play. And it's like, when you're watching kids play, contrasted with a lot of the classes I teach and the lack of engagement, the lack of curiosity not from everybody, but from a lot from, I would say from a majority, you watch kids outside in the yard playing. And you're not having to like, it's get out of their way. And it's if a kid is approaching a graphic novel or board games or insects or math or chemistry, whatever it is, and they're into it, just get out of the way. Just facilitate and keep facilitating and let me throw this in front of you now. And there's stacks of books. strategically placed in a house where they're going to bump into that. And, that's what you do. And, but it's, Hey that's skill. That's skill. These homeschool parents that are so good. I would, my wife is definitely a great example of that where it's just like facilitating these interests because it's not necessarily about the particular topic, it's about the love of learning and knowing how to learn. And being engaged, you learn so much deeper when you're into it as when you're coerced or compelled to learn something, which is common sense.

Mary Wilson: 45:48

Yeah, I think the hard thing, and it was for me, is it feels easier to do that with my son, who wants to watch Calculus videos on YouTube for fun. It feels really easy to know he's going to be okay.

Timmy Eaton: 46:01

No, that's societally acceptable, so that one you can let go.

Mary Wilson: 46:05

And the graphic novel did not feel acceptable. And. I'm so glad that I was like, I don't care what's acceptable. And I would encourage parents to see that. Cause it's exactly what you're saying. It was about loving to learn. And I will assure them all that in her first college class where she had to read a. Textbook. Now, granted, it was Adobe Photoshop, but those things are serious reading.

Timmy Eaton: 46:30

Yes.

Mary Wilson: 46:31

She did just fine.

Timmy Eaton: 46:32

Yeah. And I can, and I, Because

Mary Wilson: 46:34

she wanted

Timmy Eaton: 46:34

to. Yeah, exactly. She wanted to. And I understand there's, I, it's, and it's not always idealistic, right? It's not always one or the other so strong, and what I mean by that is, Some parents can be listening and going, yeah, but sometimes you just have to push through and do hard things and true. And sometimes you can't just, you don't just coddle. And anyway, I just leave it up to the parent to love their kid enough to know the balance there. And I'm not going to dictate that for your family or somebody else's, but I'm going to try to do the best I can with my kids and I'm not going to do it perfectly and know it is but you just do your best and try to find the balance but if the principle is if you're forcing. Who wants I don't want to be forced to do things that I'm not like that into ever. And neither does anyone. And so it's human nature. We got to find the correct balance in that. And then tell us about celebrate a book. So like you talked a little bit about the book club and stuff like that, but this is like a thriving thing that you got going.

Mary Wilson: 47:24

Yeah, it started with the book clubs I was hosting, and then I actually worked for a curriculum company called Brave Writer.

Timmy Eaton: 47:30

Oh, yes. I just had Julie Bogart on.

Mary Wilson: 47:33

Oh, did you? Yeah, just so I actually began she has book club guides in the back of her curriculum. That was me. I brought that to her and I began for two years. I wrote all the guides in the back of her curriculum and And taught her online book clubs. So I was one of the teachers.

Timmy Eaton: 47:52

And

Mary Wilson: 47:52

then how did

Timmy Eaton: 47:54

you land that? Like, how did you hook that up?

Mary Wilson: 47:56

I had always had a blog and then I was getting popular on Periscope. And I, I said to my husband, I want to work for Julie Bogart. So I am using this year to make myself known for, to catch her eye.

Timmy Eaton: 48:11

Yeah.

Mary Wilson: 48:11

I was using her curriculum. So the book clubs I was showing. related to the book titles she was releasing. And then I went to her conferences, we got to chatting and she had a open call for staff. And I went ahead and applied and shared the vision that I had with these book clubs and all of that. And it was great. It was such a fantastic job and opportunity for various reasons, the scheduling and all didn't work out anymore. So I decided to go back to like my own hours doing my own thing. And about a year later, I was like, I really miss. teaching book clubs, but I want to do it differently. So I teach on out school now because it's live, like zoom, where the book clubs for brave writer, it's a writing curriculum. So it was all about typing and interacting through typing, but now I can interact live, which was much more my jam anyway. So it was like this nice, like Path to where I have landed now.

Timmy Eaton: 49:05

And people like that live element because it's so much more engaging and it's it's the difference by, it's a difference of just going and watching a recording or something like that. And then, what we're doing right now, it's like way more engaging to have that actual interaction. That's cool. So when you were talking, it's funny that you said that because when you were talking about the book clubs and how you set that up, it made me think of in her book, the brave learner, the T what did she call them? Tea time parties or

Mary Wilson: 49:30

Oh, tea time Tuesday, the poetry tea time.

Timmy Eaton: 49:32

Yeah. Like poetry tea time. Yeah. And it just made me think of that and I was going, Oh yeah. And again what I think homeschool moms have to think, or whoever the principal homeschool parent is, typically the mom, not to feel like they have to fit what, it's something that's outside their personality, but like for, like the way that Julie described that, it's like she really went all out on that. And some might be overwhelmed with that, and that's not their, that's not their jam, but like you just have to I just be true to yourself, I think. And then your kids will, they'll pick up what you're passionate about and adjust to that as well. Yeah,

Mary Wilson: 50:05

I agree. We did poetry tea time for years, but it was very simple. It was just very simple. In fact, my kids didn't even like tea. They drank lemonade and we read some

Timmy Eaton: 50:14

poetry. We've been doing this Oh, have you ever had golden milk?

Mary Wilson: 50:19

No, but I just recently heard about this. I think on TikTok. Oh, it is

Timmy Eaton: 50:23

delicious. You should look that up. It's like turmeric based and it's like, Oh my goodness, like I, I could drink. That's like my favorite tea ish type thing, but it's delicious. But anyway, I recommend it. And then what's, what are you excited about? What's coming up with Celebrate a Book or what do you have on the horizon?

Mary Wilson: 50:38

I'm well, definitely continuing book clubs, always looking ways to improve that and I teach a monthly ones like I did with my own kids fiction. But since we were talking about graphic novels, I also teach a weekly, I have a weekly class that does a different graphic novel every week. And so I feel like, I continue to just be excited on everything I see in there, because it feels like going back to my little Patricia, and having these kids just talk about all this different depth in a graphic novel. I love sharing all of that. And this year, my goal for this year that I'm enjoying is, getting back into my YouTube channel. So wanting to make some of these ideas back, like in the days of Periscope, where I would share it in like this live long form video. Nobody does this anymore. YouTube gives me the chance to I'm going through Hey, you want to read this book? Here's some discussion points to have with your kids, real quick rundown. Go for it. Just for parents who maybe don't feel as equipped or they just want something really quick. Cause it's like a read aloud. It's not like their curriculum. They just want a few fun things to discuss. Yeah. I noticed

Timmy Eaton: 51:41

on your website, I really liked it. I, or was it on your blog somewhere where you give like pretty, pretty good comprehensive summaries of What a book is. And I like that. It was so helpful to just look at a book and go, Oh, cool. That's good. Get an idea. Yeah.

Mary Wilson: 51:54

Yeah. And I'm hoping now those YouTube videos I can put in that same post. So someone could look up the title, A Night Divided. And I have a little summary, my review, some questions you can ask your kids, the video kind of talking through some other ideas and just equip parents to feel like, Oh, I can read this. Yeah. Make it into more of a learning experience very naturally.

Timmy Eaton: 52:14

Yeah. No, I think people will definitely like that. And who, and do you do all your social media stuff? Or do you have somebody helping you do that? Patricia, maybe you're

Mary Wilson: 52:21

Right now, it's just me. Yeah. Occasionally, I rope a kid into my one daughter at college. She's always looking to earn extra money. She will do like some Facebook links for me. But my graphic designer does not like to design for me. Okay.

Timmy Eaton: 52:35

Oh man, yeah, that sounds like the cobblers, what is it like the cobblers kids or something like that?

Mary Wilson: 52:40

Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

Timmy Eaton: 52:42

I, this has been so fun. I just want to ask you a couple more questions and then if you have anything else, definitely give you the final word. But if you had a new homeschool family approach you and they're like, oh man, I'm so overwhelmed. What we know for sure is that this is especially in the United States, it is like growing like crazy. And there's so many clear reasons why that is. What would be like your simple advice to somebody who's overwhelmed, they're starting and it could be kids with, parents with elementary kids, two kids, high school kids, whatever, what counsel would you give them just in general about starting to homeschool at any stage of the journey?

Mary Wilson: 53:19

Typically, I tell people to back up and start with math, find something you like, and then do English. Find something you like. Once you have those two going, then start like poking around. If you try to set up your whole school day for your kids all at once, it is completely overwhelming.

Timmy Eaton: 53:38

Yeah.

Mary Wilson: 53:39

So start with, and maybe they don't choose math. I would suggest math and English be the first two in whatever order you want to start with. And once you get going there, you can then start exploring all the other options. That's usually my advice.

Timmy Eaton: 53:53

Awesome. Another question I ask commonly, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on this is like when, what would interest Mary Wilson in this podcast? I'm saying a podcast like this, what kind of stuff would you actually be like, no, I want to listen to that because I'm interested in those topics or what would you, what would draw you in to be like, oh man, like I love hearing those discussions when it comes to homeschooling.

Mary Wilson: 54:16

When it comes to homeschooling probably these days practical stuff for high school, like different electives people have done with their kids. Different, just even Hey, here's the class titles I put on my transcript. Because that's what I'm constantly researching is like, what are some ideas for my house? I've, I say that my kids are the four points of a square. They are as far away from each other as they can get. So I've got my, you know, kid minded, go getter. I've got my artists. I've got the one watching calculus videos and I've got the basketball player. So I, I don't get to repeat a lot. Cause I guess what I'm saying.

Timmy Eaton: 54:54

So it's

Mary Wilson: 54:54

not like now that I've gotten to my last kid, I'm just like, Oh, it's fine. I'm just doing what I did. I'm not.

Timmy Eaton: 55:00

Yeah. You're having to create every time.

Mary Wilson: 55:02

So I'm looking for ways to engage this one. So I might hear someone talk about a business math class and Oh, what was that? Where did you find that? So that's something I'm always really interested in is how people are mainly handling the electives of high school.

Timmy Eaton: 55:15

Yeah. Yeah. Good. Good. That's great. And you already into dual enrollment. And so that's great. And I we talk often in these conversations about just like how schooling the decision to school like in public or whatever is a choice to outsource. And so homeschoolers. Are really good at outsourcing. They just do it more deliberately, like it's more research typically. And it's like your daughter is going to the institution that fits what they're pursuing. And it's just people do that in general but you have that flexibility and time to really start doing that. Early in the high school years. So that's great. I've really enjoyed this. Thank you for doing this. Can I can I ask you to just give us the final word, anything you want to say either about definitely, and definitely tell us where we can find you. But give you the final word on anything you want to say, and then tell us how we can connect with Mary Wilson.

Mary Wilson: 55:57

All right. The final word I would say on those considering high school in particular.

Timmy Eaton: 56:02

Yeah.

Mary Wilson: 56:03

Is that you can do it. I think it feels very intimidating and dive in and you're going to be fine. Keep post it notes around the house with what you're doing. Hopefully you're more organized than me, but it works out even if you're just jotting things down on a post it note. But I would just, yeah, encourage people that, that, keep doing. Okay, I'm going to back up then. Go ahead. This was advice I gave someone because they were stressing out because their eighth grader was not performing at a eighth grade, what they thought as a former public school teacher level of reading and writing and very concerned. What do I do in high school then? If he's doing eighth grade work, like, how do I count it? And I was like, okay, stop a second.

Timmy Eaton: 56:44

Yeah, relax.

Mary Wilson: 56:46

You're going to continue to take him to the next level, whatever grade he is. And on the transcript, you're going to write English 1. That's it. Whatever you did, that is English 1 because you're taking it to the next level. It's now in school, the poor kids who aren't ready are getting Ds on their report card, and that's not helping anyone. So just do 8th grade with him. Do 7th grade curriculum. Do whatever he needs.

Timmy Eaton: 57:10

Yeah.

Mary Wilson: 57:10

And call, you don't have to say he's not in high school. He is, he's 14. But you just do the next step. Because when it clicks, It'll start to click and maybe that subject never will, it's like the example

Timmy Eaton: 57:22

you gave of the kid that was nine years old and hadn't read yet. But then wasn't, like just, yeah, I that I love that you said that. And I think people will really appreciate that because it disarms them a little bit and just says, it does work out. Just carry on. And if there's a learning disability, that's okay to work with that. Yeah. We're all different in that. That's that helps us all appreciate each other and learn from each other. And so it's okay. Like we don't have to fit some arbitrary. Mold that actually doesn't exist. We, we impose those things. Those are not naturally there.

Mary Wilson: 57:53

And as someone who has kids with learning differences, thankfully in society, like colleges are now great about it. They have a department you can send in testing. They automatically let all the professors know if they need extra time or a quiet space or any of that. So I've been really impressed with that too. All this fretting. I had a harder time getting my daughter's service. in those seven days of high school because they wouldn't do it up front. The college, no problem.

Timmy Eaton: 58:17

Yeah.

Mary Wilson: 58:18

So that was great news.

Timmy Eaton: 58:20

Yeah, that is great news. Where do we find you? Where's the best place to connect with you?

Mary Wilson: 58:25

Oh, it, it changes. I'm an Enneagram seven. I've never focused in one place right now. YouTube. I think the channel is celebrate a book with Mary Hannah Wilson. Most of my stuff is Backslash Mary Wilson blog or Mary Hannah Wilson. So Instagram, I think it's back, Instagram it's at Mary Wilson blog. Facebook. I think it's Mary Wilson blog. And your website

Timmy Eaton: 58:48

is Mary, Hannah, Wilson. com. Correct.

Mary Wilson: 58:51

And Hannah with no H

Timmy Eaton: 58:53

yes. Yeah. And we'll put all this in the notes. We'll put all this in the notes for people to be able to connect. So yeah.

Mary Wilson: 58:59

And tick tock. I was very active on tick tock for a while, so you never know, I might pop up in there again.

Timmy Eaton: 59:04

Yeah. Thank you again. We really appreciate having Mary Wilson with us today. Thank you for your wisdom and all that you shared with us.

Mary Wilson: 59:11

All right. Thank you. It was great to be here.

Timmy Eaton: 59:12

Have a great weekend.

Mary Wilson: 59:14

All right. You too.

Timmy Eaton: 59:17

That wraps up another edition of This Golden Hour podcast. If you haven't done so already, I would totally appreciate it if you would take a minute and give us a review in Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It helps out a lot. And if you've done that already, thank you much. Please consider sharing this show with friends and family members that you think would get something out of it. And thank you for listening and for your support. I'm your host, Tim Eaton. Until next time, remember to cherish this golden hour with your children and family.