Talking with the Team: Behind the Scenes

EP117: Listen in for a behind-the-scenes chat with Jean and her two assistants, Sarah and Dominique. They talk all about how homeschooling variety and diversity are what make the world a beautiful place! Like a garden. The homeschooling journey is going to look different for every family and that's to be celebrated! 

Find the Show Notes Here (www.artofhomeschooling.com/episode117)

Inspired at Home Membership (www.artofhomeschooling.com/inspiredathome)

Transcript

Jean Miller, Host 0:09

You're listening to the Art of Homeschooling podcast, where we help parents cultivate creativity and connection at home. I'm your host, Jean Miller, and here on this podcast, you'll find stories and inspiration to bring you the confidence you need to make homeschooling work for your family. Let's begin. Welcome to this behind the scenes conversation here on the Art of Homeschooling podcast, talking with the team. Today I'm chatting with my two amazing assistants. Hello, Dominique and Sarah. Hi. Hello. Uh Dominique joined the Art of Homeschooling at the end of 2018. And Sarah, a little more than a year later in early 2020. And I am just so grateful to have you both on the team here. And I feel so honored that I get to, in a in my own small way, support two homeschooling families while we're all helping to support you, dear listeners. And today we're talking about the idea that homeschooling variety, diversity is really what helps one of the things that helps to make the world uh a beautiful place. Variety and diversity. Kind of like a garden. I love that image of a garden. And there's a wonderful quote that I found. Uh, well, two that I'm going to share as we go along about gardens and libraries. So uh listen up for those as we go. So

How did your homeschool journey start?

Jean Miller, Host 2:04

hello. I just want to start off by saying um it would be wonderful if we could each share a little bit about our own homeschooling journeys and where we are uh right now with that. So I'd love to hear. Either of you are welcome to go first.

SPEAKER_00 2:26

I'll share. This is Dominique talking. My children are 10 and 12, and we live in Florida, and we started homeschooling from the beginning. They went to a Waldorf preschool here in in Florida, just part-time. And when it came time for like my oldest to graduate from the preschool, he was sixth that year. It was like time to decide what were we doing. And there were there was even a local Waldorf charter school, and it's you know, and I didn't even have to do Waldorf, I didn't even know for sure, but I just knew I liked the preschool. Yeah, we just had a bunch of talks this one week, my husband and I, and we decided that homeschooling was like the most fitting for our lifestyle. And yeah, from that moment on, once we kind of got down to the the deal breaker for us was not wanting to be beholden to a school full-time. It ends up being full-time by the time you unpack and do the homework and get ready for the next day and get up and get ready. It's a it's a full-time commitment to the school. And that was like our deal breaker, and we just we've been homeschooling ever since.

Jean Miller, Host 3:31

I remember in those early years, it seemed like such, I mean, it was such a huge decision, but it was so hard to visualize like what day-to-day life would be like. And I I think that line about it being, it seemed to be the most fitting with your lifestyle. So many of us, I think, can relate to that. So thank you. And Sarah, what about you?

SPEAKER_02 3:54

I did the math the other day, and I've been homeschooling since 2005. It is a long time. I know. So my kiddos now are 24, 19, 14, and nine. And I started when that 24-year-old was in second grade and he wasn't being taught to read. And so we pulled him out. And I knew at that point that it was gonna be a lifelong decision. Like I was I knew I was burning bridges and we weren't gonna go back. So yeah, they've they've gone into high school and college, but um, they've been home with us for elementary and middle school.

Jean Miller, Host 4:41

Beautiful, yeah, and in my journey, my kids are so much older, but they're they're 33, 31, and 23, I think. And and so if anybody wants to go listen to my story, I have a whole podcast episode about it in episode one, the very first one. But it's so interesting now to be able to look back to have young adults and be able to look back on not only our decision to homeschool, but then to keep homeschooling, that lifestyle piece of it, right? And two, my oldest went to school in eighth grade, a small private school, and then to a large public high school, and the other two homeschooled all the way through high school. And I never knew that in the beginning that that's what we were going to choose to do. I just knew that a group setting was not the place for my four-year-old boy at that time, right? Way back when. And it and it just unfolded really from there.

How has your homeschool journey unfolded?

Jean Miller, Host 5:42

So can you describe each of you what your journey has looked like and up to where you are now? I'd just like to hear uh a description of your how you envision that journey, what you thought of it in the early years, and then where you are right now. Because I know these journeys are ever evolving.

SPEAKER_02 6:03

I, at the in the very beginning, I had been working with a Manazori teacher, and so I was already kind of interested in alternative education. And I think from there I realized that Waldorf was simpler to do at home. There were less pieces and parts, and we could really make it at home. And we have kept that flavor pretty much all the way through, but I have tried so many different things, and each kid has been really, really different. So we may do lesson blocks in a different way or with a different topic, but I really try to stick with those key developmental points, at least you know, with elementary years and especially with history and literature, because I think it's just so amazing how it really speaks to them where they are, the third grade, farming stories and the Norris myths and moving into the different sciences. I think it's really amazing. And I've seen it just light up all of my kids.

Jean Miller, Host 7:05

Yeah, you know, I remember one time having this image where the Waldorf part of homeschooling was like the river, right? And I was in it a lot of the times, but sometimes I would step out and try other things, or we'd have we'd go through phases when the year our youngest was born, when my daughter was born. We we didn't really do a whole lot of main lesson blocks. We were surviving and we'd read aloud and play games and other things like that. But my kids learned to make scrambled eggs, but there wasn't it, it didn't look the same that year as it did other years. And then we'd step back into the river, you know, and I think that for so many people that's true. And yet a lot of parents, when they come to me, they feel sort of nervous because they'll say, Well, I I I'm not really pure Waldorf, or I don't know what I am, right? Or I don't know even how to do it, so I don't know what to call myself. I'm like, you know what? None of that matters. We're we're all working, striving really to from moment to moment, from year to day to day, and then year to year, look at our children and into get in touch with our intuition about what we think they need. And then also, you know, identify what skills work they need at any given time. So it's really the stories that drew me to Waldorf, education, the Waldorf approach, stories and all the engaging lively arts, this idea of it being really experiential, and then also being able to individualize it in a homeschool setting as opposed to try to copy what it might look like in a classroom. How about you, Dominique?

SPEAKER_00 8:49

Yeah, for me, there was a point where I was really attracted to unschooling when my kids were younger, and I watched all these videos on YouTube because I've always been passionate about children and relationships with children. I actually was working with children for 11 years before I became a mom as a nanny and a like a home daycare provider. So it was just one of my passions. But then I kind of forgot about unschooling once it was time to homeschool, and I was like, Well, what are we gonna do? And I was like, what is Waldorf? Because I always was connected to it locally from the children that I watched all went to that local preschool. And then my kids went there and I thought it was nice. So then I looked into it finally when my kids were, you know, four and six, and I was like, Yeah, this is this is great. It's holistic. There's a spiritual acknowledgement. I like spirituality. Yeah, like I, you know, it wasn't really like passion, but it was like, I like it, you know, it's the best one for me. I'm not gonna search much further. Let me kind of base what we do around that curriculum. But then, you know, over the years, it's not like I was really doing, I was sort of unschooling, actually. Like there's large amounts of times where I resisted putting myself through all of the planning and following through. I I felt often as a homeschool parent overwhelmed. And like I should, like I had so much should energy over me, over my you know, self that I, you know, rejected that anything I should do. Like we're supposed to do this in second grade, and we're supposed to do that, like, and no one was putting that on me and anywhere near me, but it was just a way that I sort of a way that I thought about myself as a homeschool parent. So I had to work through accepting myself and getting to know myself. Like I am an artist and I like independence and be self-employed, and like all this there's freedom is a huge value of mine and yeah, having a sense of freedom. And it and it really comes from like within, it's not for me, like it's something that I can choose to be free. Like I can choose to come from a place of inspiration, I can choose to access inspiration and get reinvigorated and then do the lessons. And it turns out my kids are doing reading, writing, and math like relatively on schedule at ages 10 and 12. There's a couple of things that we could work on, but within a few months, you know, like they're fine, like at their level, it it turns out. Um, but I was worried most some of those years where I was not following through with lessons I thought I should do. So that was that's part of my journey. Yeah.

Jean Miller, Host 11:14

And I think if you homeschool for more than one year, right, or even maybe less than that, where you run up against that feeling of have I let them down and am I supposed to be doing this or that? And and so I think for me as a language arts teacher, that's what I did before even I was I was a classroom teacher before I even had kids. And I think that I was so drawn to the stories, I was willing to give those a try. And then similar to what something Sarah mentioned, is that I found I was so delighted that many of the stories that were recommended for different ages within the Waldorf curriculum really lit my kids up at that age or around there. And it I remember in those early years thinking, wow, like this really is developmentally spot on for so many children. And then I would I would hear that, you know, from other kids. And then I worked with uh I created a small co-op and the all the kids in that group would would really just get quiet and open their eyes wide and listen into the stories. And so I think that was one of my main ways in. And I too have a value of freedom. I remember I used to think I I wished there was something, such a thing as part-time school, because I didn't want my kids gone all day. But I also it felt like a huge responsibility to be the, you know, the teacher for them. Just so many thoughts like that. But the inspiration that that we have that from deep down inside, I think is so incredibly important and getting to know ourselves.

SPEAKER_00 12:56

Like you said, Dominique.

What your biggests strengths as a homeschooling parent?

SPEAKER_00 12:58

My my biggest strength as a homeschool parent is being spontaneously realizing what we all need, like because I have that background and that instinct with children. So I have a great strength for my children, which is spontaneity, playfulness, and just like magically bringing things together out of nowhere. And then when we're going around the world, we run into an image of the thing we're learning back, like it all can come together if from that place. But if it's something that I'm supposed to do, that's that's in a in some curriculum, I just start to feel bad. But if it but if I'm like informed by curriculum and it's like a magical process where like I'm living in curiosity with my children, then you know it's it flows.

Jean Miller, Host 13:43

Beautiful description. I second that.

SPEAKER_02 13:47

Sarah, do you want to add anything? Yeah, I mean, I can I relate to so much of that, and I spent a lot of years resisting curriculum too, and it was just nearly impossible for me to follow. I would be jumping around and picking and choosing from all different options. That's kind of the point when I found your work, Jean, and it, you know, really helped me to simplify. And I kind of let go of so much of the planning and would even do, you know, just journaling at the end of the day about what we had accomplished during the day. And I think my biggest strength was just using my powers of observation. Sometimes you're start you're scared just to get started. You don't even know like what to do. But if you just jump in and start working with them, either drawing or writing or reading, and you start noticing right away. And I, you know, the post-it notes I always have beside me, jotting down, you know, so I just can observe where they are and uh what they need and get ideas that of what to work on the next day just by getting started. Yes. So yeah.

Jean Miller, Host 14:58

Yeah, and I think that getting started combined with you'll find a spark along the way. It's just hard to have faith that you will, right? It will show up if you get started. And that that is a wonderful little image there. So I'd

What does your day to day homeschooling life look like?

Jean Miller, Host 15:13

love to hear of just a brief description of what your day-to-day or your week looks like right now in your homeschooling, a snapshot of what it looks like these days.

SPEAKER_00 15:22

Uh, for me, I signed my kids up to have a main lesson with a Waldorf online school, Lotus and Ivy. And it's great because there's still a lot of freedom in the schedule and it's holistic education. And then I don't have to put my mind on the lessons. I mean, I still am doing math at home, just you know, without any external support. But the kids have a classroom and they have a teacher, like someone else, to give input and to give feedback and to congratulate them. And to it's really nice that they're 10 and 12 and have an online class and the teacher. I'm loving that option actually. And it's still totally homeschooling. Uh, we do homework. So, like day to day, like they have that morning class, 9 a.m. for one hour, and then there's some to take a break, but then there's like a little homework, and then there's lunch, and then there's rest, and then maybe a little homework in the evening. So there's still a lot of freedom, and I'm helping them through all their lessons, but they have that structure provided externally that I'm paying for, and I really like it. Beautiful.

Jean Miller, Host 16:20

Yeah, that's great. And Sarah, you just have one now, right? That's amazing.

SPEAKER_02 16:27

Yeah, it's really interesting. It's the first year with just one, but he really wants my attention a lot. And I think because he's used to having big brothers and sisters around, and when it's just he and I, yeah, he wants that same amount of attention and things to do and people to talk to. So it's a pretty busy day, and you know, we break it up into chunks, but he does really well if we start with movement and poems, maybe a little bit of singing in the morning, and then we do some main lesson work at the table, and then we fit in our reading on the couch, lots of stories, and then after that, we are working on skills work, which is really big for us this year. And I'm using a curriculum to really bolster him because he had some speech and language delays when he was younger. And now that I have focused time with just him, we can really make some progress. Whereas in past years, it's been hard, especially to get through that really early stage of reading and writing.

Jean Miller, Host 17:32

And he's such a age, such a good age for that, too, right? I mean, it's like now you can give him the attention and he's ready to blossom. That's so beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 17:44

Yeah. So, and then in the afternoons and evenings, it's a lot of big kids stuff. We have driving and sports events and things like that with the older kids. Yeah.

What have been your favorite homeschooling memories or moments so far?

Jean Miller, Host 17:54

So I would love to hear if you could think of and share a favorite aspect of homeschooling or a memory or activity or something like that from your from your journey, your homeschooling journey.

SPEAKER_00 18:07

I remember watching my children when things click for my children and they have that moment of like, oh, like something, like some ability clicks with them. And they feel proud of themselves or even like jumping up and down or like excitement. Like, I feel like it's so amazing that I get to watch these moments of things like clicking for them. Like how sweet. I'm so glad I don't get I don't have to miss out on these moments of learning. I would say that's one of my chair, the one of the things that I cherish the most about homeschooling is just being there through it all.

Jean Miller, Host 18:40

Yeah. Yeah. Oh, and witnessing those sweet magic moments. Yeah. I miss it. I do. I can see little images of it in their adult lives and remember that things they say or do or watch them. It just reminds me of earlier, earlier times, and that's so much fun. How about you, Sarah?

SPEAKER_02 19:07

I really am enjoying seeing them grow and seeing how the things that we did, the experiences that we had, the stories that we read are coming out in their lives. And we just had the funniest moment at an Italian restaurant a couple months ago. We were all there, all the kids, the girlfriends, having a big family dinner, and there was all this artwork on the walls. And we're walking out and we pass a painting of it, it was the Romulus and Remus with the mother wolf.

SPEAKER_01 19:38

And so my oldest son, he's like, Oh, look, it's those guys from ancient Rome, right? Army listening. And we both look at each other and we high-five and we say, homeschooling for the win. No.

SPEAKER_02 19:55

It was just so cute, just to see like how culturally literate they are. And that I did that, you know, I helped them get to that point. It was really fun.

Jean Miller, Host 20:06

That is so much fun. And that it's in there forever, right? When they're at an Italian restaurant as in their 20s, there it is.

SPEAKER_00 20:15

It just pops out. It's so sweet. So you both have have had teens and adults, and I'm not there at all. So it's always fun to hear from you both. Like it gives me faith that it's all gonna work out in the end because I'm still like, I'm just about to have a teen, and I'm like, oh no. Did everything work out before this point? And like, where are we heading? You know, I don't know.

Jean Miller, Host 20:37

I mean, yeah, we could do a whole whole episode. I should do that at some point about teenagers, because yeah, that's that's a thing. But one of my favorite pieces from homeschooling, I was thinking about asking the two of you this, and like, okay, how would I answer this? And I it's always different, right? But right now I've been thinking about all the drama that we did, like the little plays. And even back to when before my daughter was even born, and the boys are 16 months apart. So they were, I I called them sort of they were both doing first grade work or second grade work at the same time. I would just adjust a little bit because they were actually even closer developmentally than those 16 months in those years. And so we would take stories like the animal fables or the a story that I would read aloud and make it into, and this is like the language arts teacher and me, but it wasn't teachery at all. I it would just be this fun little thing where we would turn it into a poem and then I would narrate it. They would dress up and I would narrate it and they would just act it out. And it was like the supposed thing, you know, a a seasonal little poem. One of them is the raindrops and the other one is the flower. I mean, that literally, and I'd read the poem and they would they would act it out. And then, of course, as they got older, we did puppet plays and you know, little made little theaters out of project boards and all of those kinds of things, and then and then even staged plays. So I loved being able to weave that in to our homeschooling. That was so much fun for me to bring the stories to life really. So that's really special. Really fun. Yeah. So one more

What do you wish you had known when you started homeschooling?

Jean Miller, Host 22:20

question about the homeschooling journey is I wonder what you would say to a homeschooling parent who would ask, might ask you like what do you wish you had known at the beginning of your journey when you first started or before you started homeschooling? What do you wish you had known?

SPEAKER_02 22:37

Oh that that is a hard one. I'm gonna say right now in this moment, there's a lot of new research coming out about brain science and reading. And I feel like I wish I hadn't been tuned into a little bit more of that. They just could have informed some choices I made a little differently. And it's so eye-opening and amazing. That's just that's just me though. I just love that kind of stuff. And that's where that's where I am right now in my journey looking back.

Jean Miller, Host 23:10

It's fascinating to me to to look at the Waldorf movement and see how even just the conversation around skills practice and getting more you know detailed about doing skills practice regularly and consistently after the main lesson at the end of the morning or whenever throughout the day that conversation wasn't even there when my kids started homeschooling inspired by Waldorf. It wasn't there for Waldorf teachers in classrooms either. It was really like we can teach children to learn to read by you know sharing a story and then they write a summary in the main lesson book and that's all that's needed. And there's so much more now that is understood about brain science and how children learn to read but also so much more support for teachers to weave that in ways that are helpful for to children and their journeys.

SPEAKER_02 24:04

So thanks for bringing that up yeah there's so there's so much support out there too that I would just encourage people to ask questions and talk to folks who are further along in the journey and have gone through those difficult things. Yeah you can you can really find a lot of support out there.

Jean Miller, Host 24:21

Yeah. And Dominique is there anything you that comes to mind if somebody were to ask you what do you wish you had known?

SPEAKER_00 24:28

I think it's more like reassurance and that it's okay. And I think that's what you're what you stand for Jean is just reassuring parents like homeschool parents that there is a way forward that doesn't have to look one certain way there's time like all that kind of reassurance stuff has been huge and why why I was drawn to what you offer and stayed with you as my homeschool mentor. And it just so happened I started to support part of homeschooling at the same time but I needed that reassurance that it's okay and there's time and yeah like it's not supposed to look one certain way. So mine is more like an emotional mental state as a parent. Yeah.

Jean Miller, Host 25:12

And one of the things that I often say to parents is you have plenty of time right especially when your children are are young so many parents come to me with yeah but I didn't do this and they're already this age and that age could be four sometimes it's two parents will come to me right sometimes it's eight sometimes it's 12. But really you have time and the more we can feel good about what we're doing like have some build up some confidence by taking action right by trying things and finding a little spark the more we can do that the more that sense of it's going to be okay will will emerge yeah like that feeling of coming up that that feeling came up for me just this when you told me about all the the reading that you did with the acting like I'm like I never act I never have my kids act anything out.

SPEAKER_00 26:10

Like we did puppet things in their hands like last time they were like five and seven or something and I'm like I haven't done it since then so uh oh like I should go find a poem and read it to them like it's just kind of like a there's like a paradigm in my mind that does need to need attention to be transformed to like of course like Sarah is who she is which was like really curious about like research and observation and that it's like we all have our own personalities and like Gene you came from a a literature background you know and I don't know where I came from but it's just like kind of this emotional personal growth spiritual realm like not you know not that it's not grounded but I'm all about the sense of connection in relationships. I think in like what is everybody like feeling and needing and wanting like I'm just tuned in on that like kind of emotional level and uh I don't know just we all come with like extraordinarily different personalities, strengths, weaknesses and it's all okay.

Jean Miller, Host 27:12

And such a beautiful I mean I think when we when we have that feeling of I didn't do that right when we hear something someone else does and then and then it sort of blots out what we are doing. And so I think about you and your family Dominique and and your husband is a sculptor and your children have tried sculpting already my children never did any sculpting. I mean those little things you know are what influence uh how we homeschool and the variety is the beauty.

SPEAKER_00 27:43

Well I just want to say like if I look at who my kids are like they're great. Like they're yeah I mean I think they're like the best kids you know there's nothing that's missing from them. And it it just so turns out that they're perfectly fine. But we didn't do certain things that could have been done. But like yeah anyway so when I get reconnected to who I am and then see the people in front of me and see that like I kind of like this artist like feeling kind of artsy emotional for emo, like emo, artsy family I don't know like it's okay. Like the world needs people like us, you know for sure.

Jean Miller, Host 28:17

And none of us are gonna do it all right none of us are going to do it all. And so it is some beautiful blend of who we are and getting to know ourselves on our own journey of becoming a human. And then we're that meets our children and us observing where they are that's I think where the magic happens.

SPEAKER_02 28:42

The word ordinary comes to my mind just I feel like that was kind of like this is just an everyday ordinary day and we're just doing it together every day. Yes it's beautiful that was that was always kind of in my mind like I don't want to be spectacular in any one specific realm.

Jean Miller, Host 29:05

I just want to have an ordinary normal group of kids not yeah you know maybe not normal but just you know balance balance yeah balanced or in harmony and I think that's how the connection builds is just by addressing that or or keeping that as the value right is that here we are we're showing up here we are we're gonna do this together today. So uh I have this really fun quote about what it takes right what it is we need in life and it reminded me of homeschooling it was not spoken specifically about homeschooling because it was said by Cicero many many moons ago but he said if you have a garden and a library you have everything you need and I thought it's so sweet and it reminds I have like tears in my eyes it's so sweet. Yeah and

Let's celebrate the variety in homeschooling and homeschoolers!

Jean Miller, Host 30:00

it reminds me of that variety piece there's so much variety in the garden and there's so much variety in a library and there you are right and just choose something and focus on it and it's gonna be okay I think that's so telling yeah

How did you first connect with the Art of Homeschooling?

Jean Miller, Host 30:19

okay so I want to switch gears just a little bit and talk about then how you came to find art of homeschooling and me. So so I'd love to for you to share just a little bit about that.

SPEAKER_02 30:32

I met Eugene a pretty early beginning of my journey but the one piece that really made a big difference to my homeschooling was when you published your your ebook, the homeschool simplicity book and I don't think that was the original title but that was huge for me because that came to me at a point where I was really juggling a lot and it was way too complicated. And I I just needed to simplify and focus on my kids and one day at a time. And I think I totally walked away from curriculum at that point. I used your very simple block guides and I put together my own curriculum and pulled in some tools and resources and a lot of library books. And we did that for so many years. And I'm only now able to come back to a curriculum and not be overwhelmed and to feel like I have the freedom to do this my way, but I can use this as a tool. And it's it's been really interesting.

Jean Miller, Host 31:37

I love that yeah so the very first thing I created was though it was called uh Waldorf Homeschooling simplified and I still so now it it has it we revised it right recently actually and packaged it into the Homeschool Simplicity bundle. But that original ebook is still there right like we've we've revised it and updated it and broken it out into pieces for you but we have some video trainings and the ebook and still the the block outlines that Sarah's describing are still there with favorite books for every single block in every single grade. And I have people tell me still how much that guide has meant to them when their children are older right you know I have a homeschooling mom just recently she has two daughters who are teenagers and very similarly found me when her girls I think her oldest was in kindergarten and they had decided they wanted to homeschool and were interested in Waldorf and she bought that simplified guide and and that's all she needed you know she didn't want to buy a curriculum package. And then other people come to me and they've bought three curricula right and they still aren't sure how to use it. And that guide I think really it's it's how I figured it out how I went from okay I have the curriculum on my stuff on my shelf and I still am not sure what to do. And so then I created a a way forward for myself and started sharing it. So yeah that's that's beautiful and that would have been so Sarah and I intersected because her oldest is the same age as my youngest. So we you know my my two boys were older and I had finally begun to figure it out had a third child and then Sarah and I met when her oldest and my youngest were little so sweet and and Dominique how about you?

SPEAKER_00 33:39

I think when I don't know the year but in the beginning the first couple of years of homeschooling I was just looking at all of the different Waldorf curriculum providers and people had blogs and I really liked your website. I I found your website and then I was watching YouTube videos and then I was looking at what you offered and I was like whatever she's offering like there was a Facebook group associated with one of the offers like I think it was planted out and I was like I just didn't want to get in that Facebook group because I want community you know I want to be connected to a community of people and I I liked how things felt with you. I had bought two other curriculums but I never quite used them they're really overwhelming either one didn't really resonate with me. Like I just was like this is not going to be applicable to these children to my kids and it was just both of them just had so many options and pages and it just felt so heavy and overwhelming and I liked your message of like create your own block. You can use curriculum like just taking pieces of it and like yeah and so I got into that Facebook group and never like yeah and then now that group is the inspired at home membership community and I got into that and was a paying member and then I started working for you after that. But yeah like as soon as you offered the next thing it's just like I sort of like I landed on you as my mentor like you're my favorite mentor like whenever I find like the thing that works for me like I don't want to go searching for anything or anyone comparing options like this works. I feel good.

Jean Miller, Host 35:07

Yeah and that was perfect because when I decided that I was ready to hire my first virtual assistant we'll talk about that just briefly but that is a really that's what Sarah and Dominique really are and it's a wonderful way to begin to earn money from home if you're interested in that. But when I first decided that I wanted some help for my business I put it out there in that group in the Facebook group and and Dominique was like well hey I'm I'm already a trained virtual assistant and that's how we connected so that was so so wonderful.

What inspires you about our work at the Art of Homeschooling?

Jean Miller, Host 35:46

So here here's an interesting question and I I look forward to hearing your answer about this but I would love to know what inspires you about really our work at Art of Homeschooling our mission at Art of Homeschooling and and what does it mean to you to be a part of this team that we now have this beautiful team of the three of us what does it mean to you on a personal level I am a part of supporting and cheering on homeschoolers I like I feel tears in my eyes but I've been doing this for four years with you where I'm cheering on homeschoolers letting them know it's okay and I'm basically surrounding myself with that type of messaging and I need it too I need that reassurance all along and yet I'm immersed I'm working for that mission that support that and I'm like a recipient anyway it's it's sometimes it's funny like I need this and I'm I'm because I'm working on it with you I'm receiving it.

SPEAKER_00 36:46

So it means a lot to me personally and also you know just it feels like family and home working with you too and it's just fun. Yeah it's very it's really meaningful and it's close to my heart because I've always had a passion for children and for and for parenting as well. So it's totally aligned with my personal passion. And then it has the homeschooling yeah I really I'm passionate about homeschooling too I love it as an option that's so sweet.

Jean Miller, Host 37:13

I get so much out of it too I honestly do supporting homeschooling parents it really fills my heart up and and now some of my kids friends listen to my podcast and they're they're in their early 30s and starting to have families and it's just so sweet.

SPEAKER_02 37:31

I know how about you Sarah this work just really helps me to see the worth in all that we're doing I mean and I think that's your you share that message so often that we are doing important work every day and there's so much value in that and it's just amazing to me that we get to share that message. And so many people listen and are out there in the internet world receiving that message. And I can use my creativity and my experiences and you know my curiosity and the educational research that I love doing with my background in education. Yeah it's just amazing to be able to to help you with your message.

Jean Miller, Host 38:27

Oh my gosh. And that message I think that's really so much at the core of it is to to really over and over again remind homeschooling parents that you are doing important work, right? This is really, really important work and a huge contribution to helping make the world a better place. And it's beautiful. It's so sweet and heartwarming and important and valuable and you know to be able to support that in the world means so much to me. I never imagined this is what I would be doing right after my children had graduated and grown. But here we are and what an amazing team honestly it is like we are a little family and it is so it is such an honor to work with the two of you.

SPEAKER_00 39:16

So a little behind the scenes um snapshot all of our birthdays are within I think nine days of each other so we every time it comes around to uh November late November we're just one after another celebrating birthdays together it's behind the scenes for you guys out there it's fun that is really that is just amazing and so fun.

Jean Miller, Host 39:39

It's really fun oh my gosh well

We wrap up our conversation with a beautiful quote and reflection on diversity.

Jean Miller, Host 39:42

so I want to end with a quote here and then uh I will share where you can find the show notes for this episode and we'll have links to all the things that we mentioned. And thanks so much for listening in I want to reiterate the idea in this conversation about variety and diversity and finding your own path on your homeschooling journey. That's really what it's all about and that's what will bring you the most joy and bring your children the most valuable education possible. That's where the intersection really and then where the magic happens. So this quote that I have it's from someone from the Baha'i faith and I think this is just so beautiful the garden which is pleasing to the eye and which makes the heart glad is the garden in which are growing side by side flowers of every hue form and perfume and the joyous contrast of color is what makes for charm and beauty. So the variety and the diversity is good and finding your own path is good, right? There's no one way to homeschool there's not even one way to do walruth inspired homeschooling there are a variety of ways to bring our children what they need and it's really through finding our own joy and then observing them you know observing what they need.

SPEAKER_00 41:17

I have a song maybe I'll we'll put it in the notes it's actually sung by my friend who's a homeschooler and she'll be really touched but it it's she's Baha'i and it's about the human garden. And I thought of it like it like flashed through my mind when I when I was thinking about this conversation we're gonna have about let's celebrate the the varieties and the individualities of each homeschool and each individual. It's a really sweet song when she's Baha'i and it's about the human garden. Oh my gosh I feel like I have I'm gonna share it with you and I'm I'm sure it will resonate with everyone. So I love that.

Jean Miller, Host 41:53

So we will add that's such a beautiful thing. We will add that to the show notes and you can find those show notes at artofhomeschooling.com slash episode one seventeen and thank you this episode on talking with the team and a little behind the scenes for all of you has been so much fun. So I really appreciate Dominique and Sarah I really appreciate you joining me today for this episode. Thank you both go team thank you go team that's all for today my friend but here's what I want you to remember rather than perfection let's focus on connection thanks so much for listening and I'll see you on the next episode of the Art of Homeschooling podcast