76. Kali Mitchell and Working to Homeschool

In today’s episode, we get to spend time with Kali Mitchell from South Carolina. Kali is a full-time stylist, homeschooling mother of three, and the founder of Working to Homeschool with thousands of IG followers. She shares her journey from being a professional hairstylist to becoming a homeschooling mom and advocate. She discusses the challenges and rewards of homeschooling, balancing work and family, and how she incorporates her faith and community support into her daily life. Kali also touches on the importance of parental involvement in education, the flexibility homeschooling offers, and her thoughts on the future of homeschooling in light of current educational trends and policies. The conversation is a mix of insightful advice, personal anecdotes, and practical tips for anyone considering or currently engaged in homeschooling.

Connect with Kali
@working_to_homeschool

Resources
Babble
Duolingo

This Golden Hour
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thisgoldenhour.org

Transcript

Kali Mitchell: 0:00

You're not waiting for years for legislation so that you can change curriculums or so that you can do a certain thing as a teacher and you're not waiting for a principal to give you the okay to teach your student a certain way. You can change it at will. And that is like the most beautiful thing about homeschooling is that the second that something's not working for your individual child, you can change it.

Tim 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 Kaylee Mitchell from South Carolina. Kaylee is a full time stylist, homeschooling mother of three, and the founder of working to homeschool with thousands of Instagram followers. She shares her journey from being a professional hairstylist to becoming a homeschooling mom and advocate. She discusses the challenges and rewards of homeschooling, balancing work and family, and how she incorporates her faith and community support into her daily life. Kaylee also touches on the importance of parental involvement in education, the flexibility homeschooling offers, and her thoughts on the future of homeschooling in light of current educational trends and policies. The conversation is a mix of insightful advice, personal anecdotes, and practical tips for anyone considering or currently engaged in homeschooling. Welcome back to this golden hour podcast today. We are very excited to have with us Kaylee Mitchell. And where are you coming from? I am

Kali Mitchell: 2:13

in South Carolina.

Tim Eaton: 2:15

Kaylee is she's the founder of a few things Kaylee Mitchell Creations, which you're doing full time, right?

Kali Mitchell: 2:20

Yeah, so I actually am a full time stylist out of the home. I work in a spa. I've worked there for Eight years, but I've been doing hair for 16 years Yeah, and I have been working for myself for eight years and then I started doing Some online work so I work from home some as well.

Tim Eaton: 2:45

And plus your page, which I want you to tell us about working to homeschool and she has three kids ranging from one to 12. So you're busy. You are

Kali Mitchell: 2:53

busy,

Tim Eaton: 2:53

but you're going to, you're going to tell us how it's possible. Like you can do this.

Kali Mitchell: 2:56

Oh, yeah, no, yeah. You can make anything. You got a lot of hours during the day.

Tim Eaton: 3:00

So you take it from there. Give us a bio of yourself and about your family, whatever you want to say, and Definitely tell us how you got into kind of stumbled upon, working to homeschool.

Kali Mitchell: 3:09

Okay. I've been working for a lot of years and when we had children, I knew I really wanted to be in the career that I'm in because it's such a flexible career. The hours are very unconventional. They can be what you want. When I first had my oldest daughter, I really just worked around everyone else in my family schedule because I didn't want her to be with anyone but me or my family. And so my grandparents helped, my mom helped, my dad helped. She was always a family and I just worked around when they could keep her and I could work and that's always been our little schedule and so when she went to school it was so hard for me because I was like I am missing all of these hours of the day It was just so heartbreaking for me to know that I was missing so much And then I also felt like I wasn't able to teach her all the things that I wanted to teach her because by the time She got home. She And by the end of her first year in kindergarten, she had developed like a pretty intense anxiety. It was physical, like she would get hives all over her body. She would have these crazy meltdowns. And I told my husband, I was like, I think I'm going to homeschool her. And he was like, I don't know if you can handle that. I think that's a lot to put on yourself. And not in a, not in a negative way, but just I think that's a lot to take on. You are working full time babe you need to think about this. And so I was like, okay. So I started doing all this research. I had a couple of moms who I like to think of as like big sisters, like that were homeschoolers, and they were like really encouraging. And they're like, you can totally do this. It doesn't take as long as you think it does. Like you've got plenty of time with your really flexible schedule. Like you can totally do this. And so with their encouragement, I took the summer and I just told my husband, I was like, I just can't stand watching her suffer so much and knowing that I could do a good job, I could do a better job in my opinion than what I knew she was getting.

Tim Eaton: 5:07

Absolutely.

Kali Mitchell: 5:08

Because we had done stuff with her in preschool. She was reading, she was so smart. And so I took the summer and I was like, listen, and I almost in my mind was like, this is probably going to go terrible. So I'm not going to lose anything. I'll send her right back and we'll be done with it. But I'll be able to say okay, I tried. No, it was perfect. It was wonderful. It was. Exactly what she needed because she went from that like shell of who she was with all of this like anxiety and she really Blossomed into the kid that she used to be and I was like, okay There's no way I can send her back like I have to make this work.

Tim Eaton: 5:45

Yeah,

Kali Mitchell: 5:45

and so we homeschooled all these years until about 2020 rolled around and It was even more of a okay, this is really what you're supposed to be doing because We never missed a beat both of my girls. They never missed a beat whenever everything shut down Everybody's scrambling to figure out what to do with their kids and it would have been my middle daughter's kindergarten year And I was so thankful that she did not have to be Yeah, you were already

Tim Eaton: 6:14

rolling.

Kali Mitchell: 6:15

Yeah in zoom and i'm like I did all this research already Like we know what we're doing. Like we are good. We are golden And after that, when you said I stumbled into working to homeschool, posting online everybody in 2020 and in 2021, we're all bored. We're, not allowed to do, we had actually gotten COVID and we were quarantined to our house for two weeks as. One was. And I was like, okay, I'm gonna just get on TikTok. I'm just gonna goof around on there. What? Nobody's gonna see it. And I started poking around and I noticed that there was not a single thing. about homeschooling on there that was not like extremely negative. And I was like, yes. And it was so shocking to me. So it was like, you know what, I'm really gonna get on here and just change the narrative because I felt, like delusional enough to think that little old me could do something. And I'm like, yeah, maybe I could change somebody's mind and help somebody. And. So that's when I started that and it

Tim Eaton: 7:20

grew

Kali Mitchell: 7:20

from there

Tim Eaton: 7:20

And thousands of followers later, it's happening. That's so cool. I love that. I love that you are so proactive about, like you said, changing the narrative. And that's a, and I liked it. It's like something that just happened organically. That's great.

Kali Mitchell: 7:32

Yeah.

Tim Eaton: 7:33

Yeah.

Kali Mitchell: 7:34

I'm a big proponent of representation of something that's not represented well. And I feel like homeschooling is one of those things.

Tim Eaton: 7:42

Yes. Exactly. It's if people are going to try to convey something, at least convey it accurately and then people can decide what they want but make it accurate.

Kali Mitchell: 7:49

It's one thing for all of these people to be out there just like talking poorly about something that they don't really know about. And there's always like the character of. What a homeschooler is, and oh, they're so inter, they're so awkward. And I'm like, but I know lots of homeschoolers, and they're not like that at all.

Tim Eaton: 8:05

Yeah. And on the flip side I teach, I've taught for 20 years in the school, in the system and Right. Everyone's weird whatever. So I don't even I'm not even worried about that at all anymore.

Kali Mitchell: 8:14

I was just gonna say, I actually made this very, controversial joke about that exact topic and many people did not love it because I was like listen There are people that are going to school and shooting up the place. So I feel like there's still some weird stuff going on there. So if you really think that people are weird at home, what is that?

Tim Eaton: 8:35

I think that would be categorized as antisocial for sure. So

Kali Mitchell: 8:38

a little bit, just a little bit.

Tim Eaton: 8:41

Yeah. So no, that's a good point. And there and it is valid. You gotta make those points. So I'm grateful for you doing that actually. Yeah. So that's how you got into it then. So you didn't plan on this previous to that. You just you were just responding as a mother to your daughter. And then what did you start reading? Like, how did you get into stuff? How did you know what to look up? And like, where did you who helped you?

Kali Mitchell: 9:00

Like I said, I had these. women that I would call like my big sister homeschoolers and they were just a step ahead of me.

Tim Eaton: 9:08

They

Kali Mitchell: 9:08

weren't like these old ladies. There were just a little, maybe not even a much older than me, but they had just been doing it just a little longer than

Tim Eaton: 9:16

one stage ahead.

Kali Mitchell: 9:17

And I think that, and I encourage people whenever they ask me, Oh, what should I do? I'm like, get a mentor. Even if they're not like completely knowledgeable about every little thing, they can be like, Hey, I just read this book. I just saw this curriculum. Oh, I know about such and such homeschool association. I know about this co op. Like it's just a little bit more information to help lead you to your own journey. Because as all homeschoolers have extremely different needs. Lifestyles. Everybody has got a different way they do it. Everybody has a different priority list. And so you can't really copy paste a homeschool. You just need that lead. That research lead. As you said, we homeschool moms, we love to research. And so we just need that lead.

Tim Eaton: 10:03

And I like your terminal. We've always just said the principle of mentorship, but like you said, one step ahead, my wife says that all the time. And I would say, just add that to do that at every stage, because we have six kids and we had been homeschooling them through the younger years, we were like, this is awesome, man. We love this. But when the high school years were approaching in the next few years, we were getting a little bit like, Oh, what are we what are we going to do? And so I, that's when I talked to you about it before the interview, but that's when I decided, okay I'm going to do a doctorate degree. And I wrote my dissertation on home education. And my question was regarding that what's okay. We know this is awesome for the younger years, but what is the reality of the secondary to post secondary years? And so I would just add to the principle of one step ahead. And I would say at every stage of the journey, because it's been so helpful for us to have moms and families who are just a stage of head and be like, how did you handle The, these concerns with kids and how did you handle their like portfolio and getting that ready for universities and stuff like that. And so anyway, and I told you before, I love that post you put out about your daughter being interested. And maybe you could comment on that a little bit, her being interested in something and she's only 12, but that's exactly the time to start calling and finding out with the end in mind. So how did that come about? Like what happened there?

Kali Mitchell: 11:14

Yeah. We're obviously in the thick of it. I have a seventh grade kid, which. Doesn't feel like it's that big of a deal. But seventh grade, I have one year to prepare and to educate myself in what's required legally for me, what we need to do to get her prepped for her college years, because that is what high school is. If you're going to college, if you're a college bound, she clearly is wanting to be college bound. And she has mentioned tons of different options and every time she mentioned something, I make an effort to go on a deep dive with her because I'm like, let's talk about what your salary could be. Let's talk about what that looks like school wise. Let's talk about What that's going to look like for how much it would cost for you to go to college Let's look up at what colleges that would even be available in and it's it seems like a lot of work But it's really not that much researching you. I mean everyone has google. It's free It's very easy to just look up those things and even call and then you work backwards And now, and this is so not me, this is one of those mentor things. I had a mentor her name is Kirsten Liebel and she graduated a few kids. She's on social media. I can't remember what her handle is right now. Homeschool your way. And she would always say, To work backwards. And I was like, I love that I'm doing that. I'm going to build backwards because that is brilliant. Like I've got to do that. And so we called a couple of our local colleges here recently, and I just was so astounded to see that they actually had an entire web like page. Specifically dedicated to homeschooling

Tim Eaton: 12:53

and to

Kali Mitchell: 12:54

Hey, you're going to feel really at home here. And here's your advisor. If you're a homeschool student and we can help you get what you need to get credit wise and all of this stuff over. And, So many people don't realize how accommodating many colleges are becoming to homeschooling.

Tim Eaton: 13:11

Yes.

Kali Mitchell: 13:11

And how much more accommodating they're going to be because of the increase in growth in the last few years, I think.

Tim Eaton: 13:18

Very well said, and I found the exact same thing, and I love some of the things you said there. One is just I know it sounds like so common sense, but just call. Not just call the university, but call the program, and like you said, Yeah. I haven't heard many people talk about having a counselors dedicated specifically to homeschool students or coming from that background, but that's amazing. And I think admissions officers could like really learn from that because you're wanting to grow your programs and that's a great way to do it. You started off with a clear like purpose, like for your daughter, but how have you seen like your motivations evolve? If you, as you've homeschooled over the years now, how have you been like. I started for this reason, but man, here are a bunch more reasons. Like what comes to mind when you think of that?

Kali Mitchell: 13:58

I obviously started for her health, her mental health, for the good of her personal being. Okay. But. There are many other reasons. Very you just see that the way the culture is going right now, the way things are shifting, and especially because of my profession. I have a very interesting insight into people's personal lives. They will tell you everything. And when I tell you that I know things that it's so heartbreaking that I know that really me. Push me to continue on a regular basis. I have teachers sit in my chair and they will be telling me the most intimate details of their day. I have teachers who have told me that students have threatened their lives. I have students that tell me that they have experienced really horrifying things. I have police officers that tell me things that are going on buses. I'm getting the horror stories on a regular basis.

Tim Eaton: 14:52

Reaffirming your decision. Every conversation.

Kali Mitchell: 14:55

Yes. And not only that, obviously I don't think anybody should be homeschooling out of a fear. I don't think that fear should run the, push to go homeschooling. But there are valid reasons that are safety reasons why someone would not want their child in a public school these days. And they're, statistically, it's extremely valid. But outside of that, the education alone, the level of education that I can give my child as opposed to what the public school has to offer Is so much better and I don't mean that's toot my own horn Because everything that they're learning isn't from me necessarily i'm the facilitator i'm able to facilitate them The best option for them the best match curriculum wise the best match As far as what works best for them and what they're into so my daughter Wanted to learn french. She's learning it on her own. I'm, not even teaching her Okay, we got babble and we've had duolingo and she is just running with it her and her good friend are so So competitive, checking each other's pages and saying, you, you didn't get on today and I beat your streak. And so I love it. I love a healthy competition. I'm like, y'all go

Tim Eaton: 16:06

well. And just the idea of being self directed at age 12. And my research, I found the same thing. It really starts even maybe earlier sometimes, but by freshman year in high school, so many kids are like, so self driven that their parent. I love what you said, facilitator. And I would just add not just a facilitator, but like you, you really are as a parent, the best facilitator because you know them and who's going to, who's going to care that much. You are

Kali Mitchell: 16:30

exactly like what teacher. And now I know one of my best friends is a teacher. There are teachers out there that care deeply for children. Okay. But nobody is going to care about your child and their success. Or benefit from your child's success more than you as a parent.

Tim Eaton: 16:47

Or at least they shouldn't like, that'd be weird. I mean, and like you're saying, it's not a, it's not a dis on teachers at all because they do, they care but, in most cases we're talking about 20 to 35 students, it's not even, it's not even feasible. And so the idea that like there's awesome teachers, but they just don't have, they, they don't even have the time to do that. And but, when you have that connection, And you have this vested interest in their future. So like you, you care. And what would you say, like you, cause you mentioned it and I found the same thing I've done some reading recently about, there's like a 50 percent increase in, in homeschooling in the U S and it's the fastest growing segment of education in us. And what would you say like for you and your exposure to it all, why is that? what's happening? And you've mentioned a bunch of things already, but what are some specifics that is happening that people are like, no, man, I want to, I'm going to do this. This thing that used to sound weird to me is sounding so desirable and attractive. Why?

Kali Mitchell: 17:37

I want to say, and this is, I genuinely believe it's the representation. I think over the last few years, people have been able to see, and now this is a good and a bad thing in my opinion. There is a trend of this idealistic homeschooling, look on social media. And it's not exactly what I put up. I try to keep it as real as I can. Oh, it's awesome. I try to keep it like, I try to have some levity to it, but there is a huge crop of influencers and social media content creators that have made this beautiful picture of homeschooling. And now, not that it's not beautiful, it's not like this all the time, but they're out in gardens and they're, learning is play. And it's just this gorgeous, it's like

Tim Eaton: 18:27

euphoria. It

Kali Mitchell: 18:29

is. And if you put that picture of what education could look like next to the very, listen, the very prison like view of public school these days, everybody's on lockdown. You can't, you can't do certain things. You can't move a certain way. You can't step out of line. There's all these headlines like this is what people are viewing public school as and then you get this social media view of homeschooling and it literally looks so beautiful. Yeah, I'm like, oh my gosh, who wouldn't want to do this? Who wouldn't want to spend this time? And I do think it's also a cultural shift generationally as well because my generation millennials are so much more connected to their children, so much more connected to their children than the previous generation. I was close with my parents, but even the, generation before, like they used to have a commercial that would say, have you checked on your, your child is, like they didn't even know where their kids were.

Tim Eaton: 19:26

Yeah. Yeah. It's like those neighborhood watch. Remember those like signs that had the neighborhood watch with the dude with the black hat and

Kali Mitchell: 19:33

yes. I do think that there's a huge shift generationally where people want this closeness to family. They want to be involved in their kids lives. They had kids because they genuinely. Wanted them and they want to do their best job there, you know Becoming emotionally mature and doing all this healing work and Not wanting to pass on generational trauma and I do think that translates into Yeah, this doesn't look great and this looks like I can control a little bit more here And I can help heal these certain things through this avenue By being able to be the facilitator of their education. And I do think it makes a huge impact on the fact that people want to do it themselves. They want to educate them themselves because they want to pass on those really important values. That they don't think they're going to get in the other educational sphere.

Tim Eaton: 20:23

I love that response like because when I was writing about home education You know a ton of the research talks about ideologues and pedagogues So like they're either doing it they're choosing homeschooling for ideology or pedagogy and I think that still exists and there's remnants of that and I talk about this a lot in the episodes but what you just brought up is a whole new perspective this idea of it's almost like trendy and it's positive. It is cause it's so it's so desirable and I agree. I think it is and I know that it sometimes it idealizes things and it's obviously not like that. Any one of our homes on a given day is Oh, that's, I do not want to do that, but overall the flexibility, the freedom, the unrushed mornings, the healthy eating the time outside, all of that stuff, it's just so Is real, man. And so that's, I seriously do say that. I'm like, the question used to be, why would you homeschool? And now it really legitimately is, why would you not? Like, why would you not do this?

Kali Mitchell: 21:16

I think one of the big things that people would be like saying why would you not? And I get it all the time is we, in this economy, let's get real. Like most people need two incomes to survive.

Tim Eaton: 21:29

Yes.

Kali Mitchell: 21:29

And because Unfortunately, we weren't super well educated on financial literacy when I was a kid. We happened to be very blessed to have really healthy financial literacy. We got married when I was 20 and we were very blessed that we had really good mentors at that time, but most people my age did not. And so coming into now like the economy is terrible people are in tons of debt They cannot even fathom having a one parent home and then homeschooling Which is why I started sharing online About hey, you can have a job and homeschool when I started working in homeschooling. Okay before I started sharing on social media I was looking for someone like me I was desperate to find just a single person, a book a blog, anything that told me, yes, I do this. It's done. Here's how I do it. Whatever. Even if all of the ways that they did it wasn't the way that I was going to do it, it would have just been so comforting. And I found that there is a lady, her name is Jen McKinnon, and she runs a blog. She had the social media on, I think Instagram, and she had a Facebook. group and I found it. I was just looking for working moms at homeschool. Okay. And it's Jen McKinnon's working homeschool mom, something like that. And I got on there and there was probably about, I think 5, 000 members at that time. And that was blowing my mind. Cause it's like 5, 000, there's 5, 000 women out there like me. Are doing this, it just

Tim Eaton: 23:05

validated you.

Kali Mitchell: 23:06

It was so validating. I was like, oh my goodness. There are people out here like me. And that is when, when I started posting on, so social media, this wasn't what I like necessarily wanted to talk about was that I worked in homeschool. I just started to talk about it and people were like I have to work. And I was like I actually work and this is how I do it. And people were like. Please tell me more like I want to do that. Oh, I also do that. And then I found this wonderful community and it's been amazing because. A lot of the people that I'm mutuals with on there, I have been like genuine friends with for the three or four years that I've been on social media. And it's been such a wonderful support to know that, Hey, I'll see something they're doing. They'll see something I'm doing. Man, it just feels so good to know that someone's out there. That is doing something like I'm doing, even if it's nothing like the same,

Tim Eaton: 23:56

Yeah. And it will be different. It will be unique. There's a few things I thought of when you said that first of all, I just said to you before that the last podcast that we published, we've got a few that we still have to publish, but was with just setting a file. And the title of her business is called mama, both worlds. And it is she has tons of clients that are exactly what you're describing and she's great. She and her husband were both attorneys and now they're both taking all their knowledge and skill in that area to this business. And so they, that would be of interest. And then the cool thing about both you and just any is that you're, it's not that you just found a niche, but you found a double niche that actually niches it down even further. And I think that's why, it resonates with so many to have the amount of followers that you have and that just any, it has, I think it's because of that. And I'm sure your friend Jen McKinnon has the same thing because it's not just, Oh I appeal to homeschool moms, but homeschool moms. Yeah. Who are looking to make this work with their work life and that can be overwhelming for them. And so they, that's so cool to have people like you to mentor them. What do you, what are you finding with your page? Are you, do you have a very niched audience or is it pretty vast? No,

Kali Mitchell: 25:04

surprisingly. No, I have got, cause I'm. Obviously a Christian. If you looked at my page

Tim Eaton: 25:10

for

Kali Mitchell: 25:10

any amount of time, you'd be like, okay, this girl is clearly into Jesus. Like she loves some Jesus. But admittedly

Tim Eaton: 25:16

irreverent at times. And I'm

Kali Mitchell: 25:18

very irreverent. I'm jokey. I'm not serious because that's just not who I am. No, you got to

Tim Eaton: 25:23

be yourself, man.

Kali Mitchell: 25:25

And I do think that helps different kinds of people connect with me and resonate with me I have had mutual connections and friends that are not Christian in any way to the point of being like, pagan witches, and they like, they're like, I love that girl. That's my buddy. Which is strange to me, but I'm here for it. I, cause maybe, maybe something I say might make them think twice about Jesus and that would be wonderful. And and that's great, but I have been shocked that I have a very diverse group of Women that and a couple of men, I don't want to knock the homeschool dads out there because there are a couple of homeschool dads out there.

Tim Eaton: 26:05

But is there a concentration of working homeschool moms or is it even hard to say that because it's it's such a variety now?

Kali Mitchell: 26:11

The thing about me classifying any mom as a working mom Or not a working mom. It's hard because

Tim Eaton: 26:18

even

Kali Mitchell: 26:18

if you stay at home. That is a job. That is a big, huge job. And like the lady that you mentioned that in both worlds mindset, that's where I live because I very much have the mentality of, the home is my domain. I enjoy homemaking. I try to balance it as well as I can to be able to come home and, make dinner and, be able to, support my family and my traditional role while also being a true Proverbs 31 woman in my heart and helping to support my family in that way. So I, it's hard to classify who is a working mom because all of the moms are working, but when you say working out of the home. Some women don't work full time. Okay. There are a lot of women who just have these side gigs here and there. They're working a little bit at home. Everybody's looking for a little gig because most of us want to be able to put our family first as much as we can. But in this economy, most people need extra.

Tim Eaton: 27:18

That is so good. So good. So it may paint a picture of a typical day and I know there's no typical day when I ask that every time people are like, but Just, give us what time do you guys get up? What's the morning like? What's the afternoon like? What are the and this is obviously gonna be unique to your family. Like you said, you can't categorize families. It's too hard, but what's a day like for the the Mitchell's.

Kali Mitchell: 27:39

For us specifically. Now we are very scheduled, which in my particular case, we need to be,

Tim Eaton: 27:46

which

Kali Mitchell: 27:46

is why any kind of unschooling or Charlotte Mason went out the window for us because I was like, there's no way that I can just let you guys lock the days that clean. Find something to be interested in today because we've only got this many hours and we need to get it

Tim Eaton: 28:02

Yeah, I need to

Kali Mitchell: 28:03

make sure that things are done And we get up about 6 to 6 30 every morning We have a very leisurely breakfast and at eight o'clock sharp every single day since we have started We start school and sometimes earlier my oldest daughter. She is very type a And so she sometimes will be like, you know what? I want to be done with school early. So I'm going to go ahead and start school at seven o'clock or whatever. Whenever she's ready, she's very self motivated

Tim Eaton: 28:32

getting stuff done, man.

Kali Mitchell: 28:34

She is a checklist girly. I love it. But after we get started with school, I, she does a lot of independent work because, like I said, she's 12. And so it's very nice that I don't always have to be one on one with her. I do for some of her math right now because it's, Pre algebra. Okay, it's difficult. Yeah, sometimes she needs that help. And so I will just switch off one by one and kind of go, whoever needs my one on one attention, I'll be like, okay, you do your stuff. That's not one on one attention that I know you can handle on your own. And I'm going to work with this kid, and then we'll switch. And then, of course, there is Alde chasing my crazy, wild baby. She is running, and she is absolutely insane. He's just

Tim Eaton: 29:19

enriching the whole experience.

Kali Mitchell: 29:21

Oh, yes, and she's just what a doll. She's adorable, and she's scary.

Tim Eaton: 29:27

One thing I always say you'll hear if anyone watches or listens to my podcast, you'll hear this phrase I use, which is birth to university. You're,, you know, shepherding your children and facilitating learning and meaningful experiences. You're just living life, man. It's a lifestyle choice. And you're one year old and again, from birth to university, and to frankly, even if your kids are in school, you're still homeschooling because, and there are people that are philosophically doing it more than a lot of homeschool families. They just their circumstances don't permit that traditional homeschool way, but the way that they learn and do things. I'm with you about, it's hard to categorize. I say that

Kali Mitchell: 30:03

all the time. People will be like, my kids went to public school and they did well, and I'm like, yes, I bet they did because they had a very involved parent.

Tim Eaton: 30:11

Excellent.

Kali Mitchell: 30:11

Because that is the key in my opinion, to any successful education period. Whatever the education method is, if you have an, a parent who is involved, who cares, that's when you have a positive outcome. And the secret sauce is a parent that cares.

Tim Eaton: 30:29

So you left off at shifting depending on the day you'll go from person to person and your 12 year old is obviously very self directed, which is awesome by the way, you say that oh, it's obvious she's 12 and self directed, but a lot of people listening would be like,

Kali Mitchell: 30:41

no, it's different per kid, but she is great. She's really wonderful actually. And I'm thankful because my middle daughter is not that personality type at all She needs the constant. Okay. Now, let's get all right. Let's get back. Okay, let's go back So lots of redirection for my eight year old for sure But we are almost always done with school by 11 to 12 And I would like us to consistently be done by 11 to

Tim Eaton: 31:10

12

Kali Mitchell: 31:10

On some days I work at one and then i'll work till nine You And then the days that I don't work we'll have co op or we will have play dates or they have church or they have Whatever stuff we're into depending on the season sports ballet like what we're in a million different things and it really depends on the season right now We're definitely taking a more breather summer. We are not in anything. I actively chose to not Participate in anything outside of our weekly get together group just because they're friends and they just want to see their people. I set up 1 of these, meetup group things and so a bunch of our friends gets together every single week It's the same group of kids. It's about seven families now, and I think we have oh my gosh, maybe 35 There's a lot of kids two of the families do have over six children So I have to say that at least

Tim Eaton: 32:05

that sounds like quite a bit of social activity. So yes

Kali Mitchell: 32:08

So but I mean it's important. It's a really big Good important part of any child's life, especially in the middle grade years. For them to have that really strong peer connection because it's an important part of their development. And so it's something that I try to facilitate every single week without fail unless it's just like extenuating circumstances. But outside of that, I genuinely work as, as little as I can during their school days so that during the week that's where I'm focused. That's what I can focus on is. Them doing school and getting to their stuff and seeing their people and then I work whenever my husband, my mom, or my dad is home. And then I work pretty much a really long Saturday. And that is it. We don't, I don't work on Sundays. That's our family day. And then, yeah, so that's how we make it work.

Tim Eaton: 32:59

So with all that you're involved in, what replenishes Kaylee? Like when you need to replenish yourself, because it, that, that's hefty. And you might like that too. That, that might fuel you too, but but we say how do you fill your bucket? That's the way my wife says it. What would you say to people asking that? Like, how do you fill your bucket? So that you, so you have the motivation and energy to keep doing what you're doing and loving it.

Kali Mitchell: 33:18

I will say that I definitely am a better version of myself when I do make time to be in the word and I can absolutely tell when I have neglected it because i'm much less patient. I am not as kind It's definitely something that I constantly struggle with but I know that if I do that I will be a better version of me. I will feel better that and one nice thing about my profession is that It can feel like a break because I enjoy doing it so much. Awesome. And I also garden. I have a beautiful garden and I just I really enjoy when my husband gets home. Sometimes I'll be like, here's the baby. I'm going to go outside. I'm just going to water the garden for a little while alone.

Tim Eaton: 34:03

I

Kali Mitchell: 34:03

do that. I used to feel so I don't want to say like resentful, but I would feel sad sometimes that I didn't have something that I could really go outside of the home and do like that. I didn't have some sort of big hobby that I was doing. And then I just tried to shift my mindset that's not the season I'm in right now. And I have plenty of time for that later. So

Tim Eaton: 34:24

I've

Kali Mitchell: 34:25

tried to really find. Joy and stuff that I can do here inside of my home with my family. Because I know that this time is so short, like my husband just reminded me just the other day. He was like, you do realize that our children, they will know us more as adults and they will have children. Like we, our relationship with them will be longer as adults and it will be of children. He's in that mindset too. He's yes, there's lots of cool things that I'd like to do. He's got, he has a ton of hobbies that he doesn't get to do because we're just in the thick of parenting right now.

Tim Eaton: 34:59

We are

Kali Mitchell: 35:01

in like low key, the survival mode right now with this baby. But we do just try to find little pockets of, all right, I'm going to go do this small thing for myself. It's not a lot and it's not going to be. A 12 hour day at the golf course or whatever, but it's going to be this small thing for me. And I think it's nice that we're both very thoughtful about trying to make sure that each one of us gets it because now it's not just me. My husband does also very much support this journey. And it sounds like

Tim Eaton: 35:32

even your parents and my

Kali Mitchell: 35:34

parents are wonderful. My mom actually, before I just recently switched my schedule to take a couple hours down since I just had the baby. I'm just easing back into my regular work schedule. And so when she used to keep them all day on Monday, she would take them to the library. She would have them do different kinds of baking things and science. And she's just wonderful. But she did that kind of stuff for me when I was a kid.

Tim Eaton: 35:58

what did they think of you homeschooling your parents and your husband's parents?

Kali Mitchell: 36:02

I think initially my parents were like, what are you doing? They were, I think they were like, what are you doing? And but the more that they saw how it was going and how well they did, they were very more and

Tim Eaton: 36:16

more on board, huh?

Kali Mitchell: 36:17

Yes. My mother in law, however, my mother in law is a retired school teacher. And she is my biggest cheerleader. She is my grandbabies can speak French and my grandbabies are so smart. And my grandgirls are, they're reading way better than my kids in my class. And she's just so funny about. Just boosting me up and she's so supportive was That's so cool, man.

Tim Eaton: 36:42

I was,

Kali Mitchell: 36:42

I know. I was like you know what, listen, I've got this school teacher support. I think I'm good

Tim Eaton: 36:46

And you know what, I find that more common than the contrary. Like I find more Yeah. That like teacher parents and grandparents are actually like, no, that is the way to go. This is the way to go.

Kali Mitchell: 36:56

That's because they have a very like close look at what the public school system can be. Like I said, it is a necessary thing for society. I think it's a wonderful opportunity and resource for a lot of families because that's what it should be. It should be a resource, just like a curriculum for a homeschooler. Home public school is a resource that you use as a parent to help you educate your child.

Tim Eaton: 37:20

Excellent.

Kali Mitchell: 37:20

Because ultimately it's up to you, it is your. Your thing if they do well or not, okay so

Tim Eaton: 37:28

No, I love that. You're emphasizing that because it is and sometimes we abdicate that or think that it's you know I've heard many people call it government schools and and they're your kids and I want to read they are your kids

Kali Mitchell: 37:38

Responsibility regardless of if you homeschool or not, you're going to homeschool either way. That's what I tell people You're going to homeschool either way.

Tim Eaton: 37:45

Excellent. That's really good. So a couple more questions if we can Are you still cool? Are we good? Yeah. Good to go. What are the most important homeschool like topics and issues for you personally right now? What are the, like what do you, what are you either concerned about or what do you see as challenges or in the future? If your husband and you talk about are we going to do this through the high school years? What are the most important relevant topics in homeschooling right now? Whatever you deem is homeschooling.

Kali Mitchell: 38:11

I think that one of the most important topics that I don't see a lot of people talking about is the rise in government spending in the homeschool world. I think that there is a huge conversation that needs to happen within the homeschool community about what that could potentially do for freedom. For homeschoolers, I understand both sides of the coin on a lot of different topics, but particularly this, where, a lot of people want their freedom and I do too. I live in a state that's moderate as far as homeschool laws go. And I don't have any problem with the things that we have to do to be legal in the state of South Carolina as homeschoolers. I do think that a little bit of accountability can be really helpful because anything else, people can misuse and abuse. But people are going to abuse and misuse things regardless if they are going to do that, so that's one of those things where you're like I want to legislate morality with giving up a little bit of my freedom and I'm not for that. I have mixed feelings about it. So the more that they. Give us money back from our taxes.

Tim Eaton: 39:23

Yes.

Kali Mitchell: 39:24

You know what I mean? I'm just like, I don't know that we necessarily want to do that. I know you're like,

Tim Eaton: 39:29

keep your hands out, man. Keep your hands out. The more money they give, the more accountability they require.

Kali Mitchell: 39:34

How about you just stop taking all of my money and I'll use my money the way I see fit and then we'll do just fine. I don't want any more of my money going to the government for miscellaneous spending and then for them to regulate anymore. And that's a huge conversation. I don't hear any homeschoolers talking about this.

Tim Eaton: 39:54

Have you heard about ESAs, like education savings account?

Kali Mitchell: 39:57

I have, and that's one of the things.

Tim Eaton: 39:59

Is that in South Carolina or is that?

Kali Mitchell: 40:01

No. I

Tim Eaton: 40:02

know it's in lots of Florida and Arizona and lots of the western states to do it. I think there's 14 now. And it sounds. And

Kali Mitchell: 40:09

they get a lot of money. I think in Florida they get like.

Tim Eaton: 40:11

8, 000. I

Kali Mitchell: 40:12

want to say, yeah, 8, 000. I can't even imagine what I would do with 8, 000. Oh my gosh. Yeah.

Tim Eaton: 40:16

I know well what's cool about it is it carries over to university and so you know, for each kid

Kali Mitchell: 40:21

now that is very interesting. If you are interested in your kid going to university,

Tim Eaton: 40:26

right? Yeah

Kali Mitchell: 40:27

I mean there are lots of good Parts of the potential of having it for sure

Tim Eaton: 40:32

Yeah, I think the idea there is Up here, they would call it a school voucher system. And the idea is it's not necessarily hands on government. It's still It's just the same amount that was allotted to public school kids. It ranges from like huge numbers, like 15, 36 grand per kid. And the public system is homeschoolers. You're going these are kids of this nation's too. And we pay taxes. So anyway, I'm with you. That's a conversation that needs to be had any other. Issues come into mind as far as ones that are most relevant for your family

Kali Mitchell: 41:00

The most relevant thing that we are really focusing on right now is learning our laws and what's required Because high school is just a different beast. It is it's totally a different mindset I don't I can't even fathom how people who unschool try to homeschool and high school in the state because it's like hourly. So you have to have a certain amount of hours per credit and and you have to log all of these things to make sure In South

Tim Eaton: 41:26

Carolina?

Kali Mitchell: 41:27

Yes. And I just Who,

Tim Eaton: 41:28

and who like looks after that?

Kali Mitchell: 41:30

So everybody is tied to an association like a homeschool association. So you pay in fees and they basically are your accountability partner. You put in your grades, you put in your attendance and. Yeah, and you give them all of this information, nobody's really looking into it, so you could definitely abuse the system I, unfortunately, know situations when people have abused the system and not done the things, but told the association, we totally did that. But, if nobody is going, hey, you should probably look into that, they don't. One of those things where it's if you're going to abuse it, you're going to abuse it either way.

Tim Eaton: 42:11

And on the other hand, I agree with you, but on the other hand, it's if you're going to have these requirements in place, then actually do something about, and evaluate them. Are they necessary? We have here in Alberta, in Canada, we have you have to be it's called registered with a school authority, so some kind of school association. Right. And then they have facilitators that come out a few times a year. And they basically if you opt, you can be like a parent led homeschool family, or you can be a teacher led. And but we want, in our case, we wanted full control of curriculum and stuff like that, just because it's I don't want to be tied to just one thing in our kids. And they have such a variety of things they do that we don't want to be tied down. And That's what

Kali Mitchell: 42:53

I'm

Tim Eaton: 42:54

saying. So I agree. And there is, it's like what you're saying is totally a good point. Like it's a dance with this idea of yes, we're grateful to receive extra help financially, but if that means taking away freedoms or more accountability, sometimes we, we don't like that because it's let me, this is freedom, like more than anything. Right. Kids. So what do you see is like the future of homeschooling? Like what you're, you have a cool view because You're you're really interfacing with people all the time through your different platforms. What are you seeing happening in the future?

Kali Mitchell: 43:26

Even in my area alone, I have seen an incredible increase in micro schools and co ops and all of these different group, just hybrid blended options. People are looking at homeschooling in just a totally different mindset now they're looking at education as a whole as a totally different thing now because Most people if they were honest would say out loud that public school is clearly failing it's statistically failing it is, it's decreasing too in its

Tim Eaton: 43:58

enrollment

Kali Mitchell: 43:59

It is and in this is I believe the first time and it's you know history that's happened because this other option is It's available and it's evolving and it's able to evolve without all the bureaucracy. You're not waiting for years for legislation so that you can change curriculums or so that you can do a certain thing as a teacher and you're not waiting for a principal to give you the okay to teach your student a certain way. You can change it at will. And that is like the most beautiful thing about homeschooling is that the second that something's not working for your individual child, you can change it. And you

Tim Eaton: 44:35

should,

Kali Mitchell: 44:36

and, but people are just meeting needs. And I feel like homeschool moms are some of the most absolutely just intelligent, brilliant, creative people on the world because they are really getting in there and meeting needs in a way that. It's just wild to watch. I have watched women say, Oh, I saw that this was a need. And then they create whatever it is, the solution to that need. And then they're rocking it out as a business owner with it. There's more people

Tim Eaton: 45:03

praising it, but you would think that there would be more people praising it because you're like, Wait a minute, teachers are always concerned or schools are always concerned with the lack of involvement in parents. And here we have this segment of the population that is like so

Kali Mitchell: 45:15

involved,

Tim Eaton: 45:16

totally taking it on themselves. And yet people are criticizing it. And yeah, you got to be careful and make sure that people are doing a good job, whatever, but really that's up to the family. That's not right. And if you guys let

Kali Mitchell: 45:26

that mean, that's the thing I'm Who says what the standard is? Who says what doing a good job means? Obviously we all want our kids to be successful, but that looks different for each family and you really have to, look at what your priorities are and what your child's priorities are a long time, like long term in their life.

Tim Eaton: 45:42

Yes. Excellent. Oh, so good. So good. Okay. One last question. Then I'll give you the final word with whatever you want to say. And this has been awesome. So many good responses, Kaylee. Just let's say and I bet you, you have this happen on a regular basis. That would be my guess that you have a family or a friend of yours. It's no Kaylee, I'm thinking about homeschooling, but they got all these kinds of like worries. What do you tell new families? Usually what's your go to when people are like, I'm thinking about it, but I'm overwhelmed and I can't do it. And I wasn't a teacher and you hear all the same, stuff where people are doubting their ability. What's your counsel and advice to those women? Or

Kali Mitchell: 46:16

it's so boring, honestly. I'm just, and it's such a safety net thing. I just tell them, I'm like, listen, you can try it and maybe it doesn't work out for your family and they can go back, it's not a permanent solution if it doesn't need to be, if you guys try out homeschooling and it just isn't a fit. It's not a permanent decision. It doesn't have to be a permanent decision, but if you don't, and you felt that call on your heart, like this is something I should be doing and you don't follow through with it, you could live with the regret of what could have been, and it's I just, I encourage people. I'm like, listen, take a leap of faith. If it doesn't work out, you can always change paths. There's nothing saying that you have to do this forever.

Tim Eaton: 47:03

So that's not boring. That's so good. And in your experience, would you tell people that cause a lot of their concerns I have found are actually, I get why they have them, but they're actually, don't need to have them like they're actually could because they think they have in their mind of what it's supposed to be like, but the way that it is totally up to them. And so I think we have a similar message to people. It's try it out, but don't get overwhelmed because you got time and you can be patient with yourself.

Kali Mitchell: 47:28

Yeah, that's, I think once people get over the overwhelm of it is so much information when you first jump into this world, yeah. There's so much terminology you don't understand. There's so many curriculums. It is extremely overwhelming. And you have that whole mindset of, if you came from the public school system, what that looks like. And it's nothing like what the homeschool world looks like.

Tim Eaton: 47:50

And that's where the concept of de schooling comes in. It needs to be an ongoing effort, for sure. So I'll give you Kaylee, the final word. And thank you so much. This has been excellent. So go ahead, take the final word and then we'll wrap up. We'll say goodbye.

Kali Mitchell: 48:01

Okay. I guess I just would love to say that, to all the homeschooling parents out there to just, take it easy on yourself, have a little bit of humor in each day because it's very easily found and, just be yourself. Enjoy the journey because that's what it's about.

Tim Eaton: 48:18

Perfect. Thank you so much. You guys, this has been Kaylee Mitchell and good luck to you. I and I encourage everybody to check her out on her page and Instagram and just so many fun and humorous, but like actually deep things in there so it's not like it's all just like funniness, man. It's, there's some really cool stuff in there. Thank you very much.

Kali Mitchell: 48:37

Thank you so much. It was great to talk to you.

Tim Eaton: 48:42

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 on 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.