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The Homeschool How To
I don't claim to know anything about homeschooling, so I set out on a journey to ask the people who do! Join me as I chat with homeschoolers to discuss; "why are people homeschooling," "what are all the ways people are using to homeschool today," and ultimately, "should I homeschool my kids?"
The Homeschool How To
#132: Homeschooling While Working Full-Time: Insights from a Law Enforcement Mom
In this inspiring episode, join us for a candid conversation with Ambar, a California sheriff’s sergeant and homeschooling mother of four, as she shares her journey balancing a demanding law enforcement career with homeschooling her children. Discover how Ambar transformed from a full-time deputy focused on climbing the career ladder into a passionate homeschooler creating a thriving educational environment on their 2.5-acre ranch.
Ambar’s story highlights the challenges faced by working parents who want to homeschool—especially in California, where restrictive education and medical policies have pushed many families to seek alternatives to public school. Hear how Ambar and her husband use creative scheduling, prioritization, and partnership to successfully homeschool while she works three days on and three days off, focusing on core subjects and integrating hands-on learning through ranch life.
This episode tackles key homeschooling questions such as: Can working parents realistically homeschool? How do you balance career and home education? Ambar’s practical tips, honest reflections, and unique perspective will inspire working moms and dads who think homeschooling isn’t possible for their busy lives.
Beyond academics, Ambar shares her vision for raising entrepreneurial, community-connected kids who learn real-life skills and strong values through personalized education. Whether you’re a law enforcement officer, working parent, or simply curious about homeschooling alternatives, this episode offers valuable insights on making homeschooling work for your family.
Cheryl's Guide to Homeschooling: Check out The Homeschool How To Complete Starter Guide- Cheryl's eBook compiling everything she's learned from her interviews on The Homeschool How To Podcast.
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Welcome to this week's episode of the Homeschool How-To. I'm Cheryl and I invite you to join me on my quest to find out why are people homeschooling, how do you do it, how does it differ from region to region, and should I homeschool my kids? Stick with me as I interview homeschooling families across the country to unfold the answers to each of these questions week by week. Welcome, and with us today I have Amber from California. She is a sergeant with the Sheriff's Office. Amber, thank you for being here.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for having me. I am so excited to share my story with you guys. I listen to all your podcasts. I have to commute to work. Sometimes it's like two and a half hours and I'm like all right, homeschooling podcast it is. I'm gonna listen to my podcast while I'm on the road.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's so awesome. Well, thank you for being a listener. Thank you so much. How many kids do?
Speaker 2:you have. So I have a nine year old girl, I have a seven year old boy, a five year old boy and a six month old girl, and I'm not sure we're quite done yet. I know my husband still tries to throw out these little jabs about having one more, one more. Right, it's always one more, and at this point I'm like you know, I mean, life is busy with four. What's what is one more?
Speaker 1:really my husband has never said let's have one more.
Speaker 2:No, and people always look at my husband like you're joking, right, and he's like, no, I'm not joking. But we also live in a very remote area. It's between two big cities, in the mountains, and it's a very small town. But we have our own ranch. So we have two and a half acres of just amazing views and animals. We have goats, we have chickens, we have three great Pyrenees dogs that help keep our property safe, and every morning I wake up to the sound of donkeys and cows and roosters. It's just amazing, it's honestly amazing. So obviously with that kind of setup, you have to have a lot of kids because they help you on your ranch, and then you're going to get to a point where you're just too old to do it. You have your kids to help you out Love.
Speaker 1:That Did you always know that you wanted to homeschool?
Speaker 2:No, I did not. So I'll be honest and transparent. When I was 23 years old, I joined the sheriff's department and my whole life was to be a career woman. I was not thinking about being a wife. I was definitely not thinking about being a mom. All I cared about was how am I going to climb? How am I going to get to the top the fastest? I'm going to be a chief one day, and that's all my goals were. So I worked extremely hard. I worked some of the hardest areas in California to basically try to get to that position where I can get to the top Anyhow. So I didn't think about kids. That wasn't in my mindset, my thought process.
Speaker 2:And then I want to say when I met my husband this was about 13 years ago now I had about almost 10 years now with the sheriff's department that's when I started realizing like maybe I do want to be a wife, maybe I do want to be a mom, and I really started diving more into my faith and started going back to church again. I was very jaded with work and what I'd seen, what I've been through, and I knew I needed to get back to my faith. You know, I grew up Catholic. My mom, my parents were both hardcore Catholics and then I finally went back to just a Christian church, a local place that I kept driving past and, like you know what, I'm just going to drive in there and just check it out and totally got into. It Was a born again Christian. And then when I met my husband, same thing, he was a Catholic. We both went to church and then after that we were like we want to get married, we want to have kids.
Speaker 2:So I basically started having my kids and homeschooling wasn't really a thought process until about when my daughter was about a year old, I started noticing that she was having a lot of adverse reactions to vaccines and I grew up where going to the doctor was not a thing. I came from two immigrant parents who didn't have medical insurance, so going to the doctors was like, unless you're dying or something's broken, we are not going to the doctors. So I was never sick growing up. I was just never sick. I never had fevers. I was always outside, shoeless, like I just grew up, just not a worry in the world. Yet I felt like my little baby was always sick, always sick.
Speaker 2:So I went down that rabbit hole and once I went down that rabbit hole I was like never again was able to get a medical exemption for my nine-year-old from Dr Bob Sears. I don't know if you guys know him, he's so controversial. Everybody always talks about Bob Sears. Yeah, he had a podcast, right, right, right. So I started listening. Yes, somebody had shared his podcast with me and I listened to every single episode. I want to say, in like a month period and I was like, what have I done? I ordered his books, I read his books. So then I ended up meeting with him. He did issue my daughter a medical exemption and then, poof, sb 276 came in California.
Speaker 2:Now we didn't have religious exemptions. Now Newsom was taking away medical exemptions and me and a group of moms ended up going up to Sacramento, which was like a six-hour drive just to go protest. And of course they don't care, right, they already have their agenda. It's all set in stone. It ended up passing and I literally now had at the time I had like a two-year-old and basically a newborn my son and I'm like looking at my husband like what are we going to do?
Speaker 2:And so you know, that's when we started diving into. Well, I guess we're going to have to homeschool because we're not gonna be able to send our kids to public school. So that's where the idea started, like just planting a seed about homeschooling, and I had doubts, of course, like most moms. I'm like who am I to homeschool these babies? Like I didn't care about school myself. I hardly ever listened at school. I literally slept through school most of the time.
Speaker 2:High school was I better just keep a C average so I can actually play sports, because I was really into soccer and I played soccer for high school. So I was just like there's no way, how am I going to homeschool I don't even know what I learned in high school, let alone trying to teach these new babies how to pronounce stuff, syllables, all this stuff, right. But then my husband was kind of my literally my beacon of hope, because my husband was completely opposite of the spectrum. My husband was extremely smart when it came to academics. He was like AP, honors, everything. He would always excel in all his subjects, just top of his class. Anything you would tell him he could recite to you because he just remembered it so well. And so I was like, okay, well, if I don't know how to do something, I could just ask my husband. So that was really my hope was. Well, at least I have my husband who can help me, push me, help homeschool my kids. So that's basically how we started the seed of homeschooling.
Speaker 1:I love that you're like I don't think I'm smart enough to homeschool my kids. Yet you're out there on the streets every day needing to know how to keep yourself alive and how to keep others alive, which is, like really the only goal any of us need to know in life, right? Like it's so crazy that they put that mindset in us too. Of like, well, if you don't memorize these textbooks, you're not smart enough to regurgitate information from a textbook to your children. Right, but you're out there doing like the real world work, like stuff that most people, especially like computer nerds or whatever, could never do. The irony in that is interesting. So I hope you know, obviously you know now you are way over equipped to teach your own children. You've taught them so much so far, even just how to eat, how to tie their shoes, all that good stuff.
Speaker 2:No, your point is so spot on because I think you know the school system indoctrinates us to believe, unless you have a degree, a teaching degree, there's no way you could teach anybody anything, right? Even though, like you said, as moms, from when they're babies, we're teaching them basic stuff, you know. You're teaching them how to be potty trained, You're teaching them how to you know like survival stuff. Right, Don't touch that, Don't do this. This is an owie. There's just everyday learning and we're teaching our kids constantly. And who knows their kids better than us to teach them exactly how they need to be taught, versus a teacher who's never interacted with them? And there's 30 different styles of learning in one classroom and one setup. But yet we're supposed to trust that they have the best interest in your child's learning and understanding of what they're trying to teach. To me it's just, it's so mind blowing. But that's what they make us believe, right, Because they want everybody in the system. They want everybody to go to a building and be controlled and indoctrinated and taught what they want to be taught, especially in California. Obviously, California is so liberal and they're constantly trying to take away homeschooling for that reason, because so many parents are waking up and saying wait a minute, this is not what I want my child to learn at five, six, seven years old. And so they are pulling them. Like I'm part of Blue Ridge Academy. It's a charter, it's still considered public school, but it's a homeschooling program and a hearing in California and they have 7,000 registered students right now just in LA County through this one charter and we have plenty of charters out here and just as in this one charter there's 7,000 homeschooling kids and there's a waiting list right now of 76 pages of kids trying to get into this charter to be able to homeschool their kids. So people are waking up in California. They are trying to pull all their kids and truly trying to start.
Speaker 2:I believe starting with a charter is good because it kind of gives the parents an understanding on how to homeschool, what curriculums work, what don't, and you kind of have like a teacher assigned to you that helps you stay, you know, accountable and helps you understand what you're doing and how you're doing it, and they're just easy to call them and ask them like hey, I have a question about this curriculum.
Speaker 2:So it's nice. But once you get to the understanding levels of homeschooling, I feel like every parent should do the PSA, where they just completely remove their kid from the system and homeschool them without a charter, which is what I'm going to do with my daughter as soon as she's done with elementary. I'm going to do with my daughter as soon as she's done with elementary, I'm going to do a PSA and completely pull her from any charter. Because once you understand this being a homeschooling podcaster, once you start getting older, they expect more and more and more. Right, it's not like what about it being more? It could be a little bit more challenging, but it shouldn't be more. And I know once my daughter starts middle school and high school, the charters are also going to expect a lot more, and that's not what I want for my kids.
Speaker 1:So what does the charter actually look like on a day-to-day basis? I take it that they probably write your reports for you to submit to the school districts, but is your child in your home, or are they actually going to a building to learn?
Speaker 2:So my charter is at home. So I am. There is a teacher accountable for my kids and we meet with her once a month at a local library or a coffee shop and she'll just look at what we've done for the month, what the kids have been working on for the month, and she will do all the documentation for me and she submits that to the state. If I'm missing anything, she'll say okay, you know, maybe for social studies, you know, next time just add A, b and C and so they don't be like, okay, on the next time I'll meet you, I'll have that. But she submits everything to the state. I don't have to submit anything, I just, you know.
Speaker 2:Answer to her basically, and most of them are actually very understanding. They know the reasons why we're homeschooling, they understand that we have our own religious beliefs, but you can't submit anything that is religious. So if there's a curriculum like the good and the beautiful or my father's world, that a lot of people like you cannot submit any of that stuff to the charter because the charter will deny it. So it has to be other curriculums that are not religious based. Yes, yes.
Speaker 1:Wow, wow, I did not know that.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, so in California, right right. So what a lot of people do is they'll have their own curriculum, like I was doing this for a little bit the good and the beautiful. It's a beautiful curriculum, it's very colorful, it's very interactive with the kids, it's almost self taught sometimes. So, but I could never turn that in. Now I did find that the good and the beautiful really doesn't have a lot of Christian points in there for the school or the charter to deny it. So I thought, well, really, if there's not that much being taught it's not like they're talking about biblical aspects or verses or anything like that it's very little that they do put in there. So now I've, just for this new school year coming up in the fall, I'm actually going to pull away from that, that curriculum, and just stick with the basics, like a spectrum. It's a curriculum that you can buy basically at Barnes and Noble, amazon. It's like $12. And I'm just going to do like, the spelling, the phonics, the language arts, and that's what I'll turn in. That way I'm not doing two, because I was basically doing two curriculums for language arts, one that I can turn in and one that we were doing together at home because it was Christian based, so it was just a little too much, I thought, for my kids.
Speaker 2:And we read the Bible all the time to our kids. My daughter, actually my nine-year-old right now she's on this, challenging herself to. She started the Bible from start to finish. Now she's in the New Testament and she's literally reading the entire Bible by herself. Now it's a kid's version, so it's a little more understanding. But this is what my kids do. We talk about it. Where are you at in the Bible? What did you learn? And my other two boys are listening to it as well.
Speaker 1:So that's how we incorporate our religious aspects into our homeschooling day-to-day curriculums basically, do you all right, so we'll get into working and homeschooling and how you make that work. But do you find that in your line of work, like I just I'm picturing, like the streets of California and LA and like what you must see on a day-to-day basis, and then you come home and you're reading the Bible with your kids? Is it like day and night from when you're?
Speaker 2:at work to when you're at home. Absolutely, it's day and night and I'm actually really blessed that where we live we are so out of the big city. You know, when people think of California they think of Hollywood, los Angeles. I am about two hours from the big city, from, let's say, downtown LA, and you know I'm in a very remote area. So when I go home I'm just like praise God for this, this setup, this place where we live, where I can go outside and not have to worry about, you know, gunshots or drive-bys or police helicopters over our head. You don't hear that, you don't hear city noise ever where we live. And so when I go into work I'm just I'll always like text, my husband like this is awful, traffic is awful, there's always something going on. It's just so busy and the crime obviously is, you know, there's no, I'm being transparent it's probably some of the worst crimes in LA County than the entire country.
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Speaker 2:So, yeah, I have seen that. Luckily now I'm in a special assignment where I don't see too much of that anymore, so I'm more in an admin position now, but I have seen that and it does make you very jaded. And that's really what brought me back to my faith was every day, day in and day out, I was seeing some of the ugliest stuff and you just can't believe humanity can be so evil. And I just needed something outside of that and I was like, well, what else outside of my faith? I need to go to church, I need to dive back into my, you know, christian beliefs, and that's how I got into that. So when I go home I'm just so grateful for the life that I'm able to provide my kids, and people can call it, call me a helicopter parent. They could say, you know, I'm very controlling in the aspect of what my kids are exposed to, but I don't care. I don't care because I've seen what other kids can be exposed to and that's not the life that I want for my kids.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we want to preserve their childhood as long as possible and it is a hard balance because our, like our age right now right now I'm in my 40s this is the first time we've ever had to deal with kids having internet capabilities from the time they're born, so that's literally all they know. I guess maybe my sister's kids too. They're in their late teens, early 20s, so I guess they've always had internet too. But we didn't grow up that way. I mean, I knew what it was like to have to get up and turn your TV with the dial on the TV and have the rabbit ears. I don't know, you know, I, I, I knew what it was like to be like. Oh, you have the internet to the neighbor next door. I don't have that yet and like, when we did get it, it was a big deal and you know, no-transcript, I was probably 17. So it sounds crazy. But like we didn't grow up with all of this, like mass, like social media, it's really crazy.
Speaker 1:Parents have never had to deal with this, so of course mistakes were made along the way, because parents didn't know what they even needed to be on the lookout for, because it didn't exist, like when we were little. So this, this probably is one of the toughest times, maybe psychologically, to be a parent. Like knowing, okay, the kid next door has got a cell phone at age eight and they can have a you know, a TikTok account, and this one's watching YouTube. Like what am I going to allow my kid to do? Even to the psychological standpoint of like my son had a friend over and they were watching YouTube shorts on the TV and I was like I let him do a couple and then I was like, okay, guys, this is enough, put on a show now. Like I'm still letting you watch TV, but like, put on a show because your brain's getting used to hilarious moment, next video, hilarious moment, next video, hilarious moment. And that does a psychological impact to your brain to always need that next bit of stimulation.
Speaker 1:And it's funny like how many kids can't, how many adults? I would have a hard time too, sitting in just silence and like thinking where. I think back to my childhood, I'm like I'm sure there were moments I was so bored that I just sat in my room in silence because there's nothing else to do. But how do you make it work? There's so many parents that are like I can't homeschool. I work. I'm a single mom. It won't work for me, so I love to be able to answer this question from as many people as who can answer it. So how do you make it work?
Speaker 2:So I have a full-time job. I basically cannot. I don't have the option for part-time. So for my department there is no part-time. You're either full-time or you might as well retire.
Speaker 2:So we knew that, going into the homeschooling situation we were going to be in. So my husband is a wrestling coach, so he works more of an after school program and I work, you know, day shift basically. So he works PMs and so we're kind of high-fiving in that aspect. So he's with the kids in the morning and I'm with them in the afternoons. I also work a 4-10 schedule, which means I work four days out of the week, 10 hour shifts. So I'm off three days. So those three days I try to get as much done as possible. And when I say as much done as possible, I will tell you that I probably don't spend more than 45 minutes per kid on my three days that I have them. So I try to focus the most because I have a fourth grader going into fourth grade, second grade, kindergarten, and my six month old. I truly just try to focus on language arts and math the most.
Speaker 2:Science is really our property. So property as in they find a new, you know, animal that they've never seen before some type of bug. And they'll start. They'll get on the computer and they'll start looking up. You know what it is, what they eat, what they live off of, and so usually my daughter being the nine-year-old, she'll tell you know the boys. Okay, hold it, let's describe it on the search engine. And so science is really all outside for us Social studies.
Speaker 2:I really try not to dive in too much into history because, let's be honest, what kid's going to remember any of that? Who cares what presidents, what are the first 45 presidents Like? Why does that matter? So we try to just read Tidal Twins. So we do the Tidal Twins American History. I love it. I even learned stuff out of it. I'm like I didn't even know that. So we do the title twins american history. I love it. I even learned stuff out of I'm like I don't even know that. So we do the title twins.
Speaker 2:There's actually a new one called drive through history. That is so fun. It's on youtube and somebody had, uh, shared it with me and it's basically a guy who breaks down the bible and he shows. He basically goes to Israel and shows places in you know what the Bible is describing and he's like they're describing it. So we've been watching that and doing some of that. So history is really um, tuttle twins and then we'll see the drive through history stuff, and really that's Now for turning stuff in. I have like a social studies workbook that I got on Amazon for like $15. And we'll we'll like cover geographical stuff, you know, basic stuff that the kids don't know, and I'll submit that. But the stuff I focus on is really reading the Tuttle Twins and then just watching some of those videos.
Speaker 2:And, to be transparent, I actually don't let my kids watch TV. I don't let them. My kids do not own iPads. My kids will never own a phone until they move out. Tv is literally, unless you're learning something, you're not going to watch it.
Speaker 2:And if you got all the chores done, as in, you took care of the animals, you took care of the house stuff, you know, because they really they do everything. My boys empty the dishwasher, they wash dishes, they do the laundry, and we're talking about a seven and five-year-old. My daughter, nine-year-old, takes care of all the animals outside and then she'll delegate to her brothers how to do it and make sure they do it right. So she feeds the goats, she cleans all their stuff out. She collects all the eggs for the chickens, feeds them, gives them water, all that stuff. So for my kids, if they do all their chores without complaining, no arguments, no fighting then you just might get a show to watch.
Speaker 2:We have one TV in our house, one that I could see if I'm at the kitchen I can hear what they're watching and they could pick one show and that's one that they all have to agree on, and really that's it. We don't let our kids have TVs in their rooms. They don't have. We have one computer that we all use and that's how we kind of get away from what's going on with all the you know, social media and Internet world. And my kids understand that because they'll come up to me and say my friend, you know so, and so she's my age and she has a cell phone. I'm like, well, that's good for her, that's her parents' deal, not mine. Like you're not going to get a cell phone until you move out. You know, that's what I say. I'm sure it'll be sooner than that, but I just tell them that, and so they don't ask me, right, but that's how we deal with that. So four hour, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2:Four days a week, 10 hour shifts, usually when I get home, if they don't have any activities, then we'll do some reading or we'll do some of the basic handwriting books, things like that that we can talk about and go over. But I'll squeeze something in here and there during dinnertime which I always tell parents because they always ask me how do you do it? How do you do it? And I'm like you know, those two hours that you spend fighting with your kid at the dinner table because they have homework that they should have done in their eight hour day of school, those two hours could have been your homeschooling time. That could have been the hours that you homeschooled your kids, because all that homework that they brought home should have been what should have been done at school. And that's probably about all I'm doing on a week to week basis. So that's how we get it done, all I'm doing on a week to week basis. So that's how we get it done.
Speaker 2:And if let's say there's some work conflicting stuff there's, you know something where I have to be at work then my husband will do it and he'll help the kids out. Now my daughter is old enough now where she can help my five year old who's doing kindergarten stuff the handwriting, the syllables, syllables or the tracing letters and understanding letters and sounds. My daughter now does that, so she helps him and she does it as a reward. So I tell her, if you guys get it done, you basically get something from the treasure box. We have like a treasure box. We have a sticker chart that if they fill up their sticker chart she can pick like a play date or go somewhere with me or her dad and that's kind of how they have incentives for helping each other out.
Speaker 1:Oh, I love that. Okay, how do you make meals work? So if you're working a 10 hour day, what time do you go in in the morning?
Speaker 2:So it just depends. Like I said, I'm on a special team so I'm not clocking in at like five in the morning, but a lot of times once I hit the road the clock starts for me. So my day can start at about six in the morning. I'm usually home about four in the afternoon and usually my husband leaves for work when I'm getting home and so then he goes to work and he'll have the lunch done for the kids. So the kids already had their lunch and then I'll just work on the dinner.
Speaker 2:So when I get home, if they don't have any activities going on and I usually try to cram all their activities one day out of the week, maybe two, depending on what they have going on so one day out of the week which let's say it'd be a Friday they would do gymnastics, piano and swimming all three. Yes, it's a busy day, but at least I got their activities out of the way and then maybe one other day in the week they'll do wrestling, because they also go to wrestling with my husband, because my husband helps with the high school, helps with the kids, so his main job is the kids wrestling, teaching younger kids to wrestle. So my kids will go with my husband to his gym and do wrestling there, but we don't do it every day, so that's how we're able to juggle some of their activities is that we try to cram it all in one day. That way we're not going every single day. And then, when I get home, we're doing homeschooling and I'm working on dinner, basically.
Speaker 1:Now people are always worried and I kind of forget to ask this question now that I've talked to so many homeschooling families, because to me it is so arbitrary and silly to ask about the socialization. But you said that you are in a remote area. You know you have all the kids. Do you feel like your kids are well socialized? I mean, you're also out in public, so you have a different perspective than a lot of homeschooling moms who are just like I've always been a stay at home mom, I was homeschooled myself and live sort of like the sheltered life where they do know that that is better than the alternative. But you are seeing this sort of like this is the real world and what happens on the streets and choosing this as the alternative because you know this is like what you see. You don't have to guess. So I guess where was I going with this, the question being like do you feel that your kids are socialized enough? And when you actually look at what socialization means in today's standards, is it just silly?
Speaker 2:It's actually very silly because I feel like my kids have more social time than I ever had. As a kid and I was a public school kid I was dropped off at a school because it was a daycare for my parents. Let's be honest, my parents worked really really hard long days. I still have a great relationship with my parents, but my parents, no matter how sick I was if you know, I was coughing up a storm they would still drop me off at school because who's going to watch me? They had to go to work.
Speaker 1:Thinking about homeschooling but don't know where to start. Well, I've interviewed a few people on the topic Actually, 120 interviews at this point with homeschooling families from across the country and the world and what I've done is I've packed everything I've learned into an ebook called the Homeschool How-To Complete Starter Guide. From navigating your state's laws to finding your homeschooling style, from working while homeschooling to supporting kids with special needs, this guide covers it all with real stories from real families who've walked this path. I've taken the best insights, the best resources and put them all into this guide. Stop feeling overwhelmed and start feeling confident. Get your copy of the Homeschool how To Complete Starter Guide today and discover that homeschooling isn't just about education. It's about getting what you want out of each day, not what somebody else wants out of you.
Speaker 2:You can grab the link to this ebook in the show's description or head on over to thehomeschoolhowtocom. Only social time was at school, which was a couple recess that I guess we would get, and that was it. And with my kids they have all their activities that they go to. They make their all their own friends at these activities and on top of that we have a co-op group from the local city where it's about 30 minutes from my town, and then from my town I have our own homeschooling groups. So we have this co-op group that we're on like a mom group chat. There's like 14 moms, probably about 28 kids, and we always send out text messages like hey, we're going to this event, we're going to check out this science museum, and we always send out these text messages and who can go goes, who can't, they'll say we'll go next time. So it ends up always being at least 10 to 15 kids that show up. So we do that usually on every two week basis where we try to meet up with some of the homeschooling kids that are in the local area and we all have such a great relationship we just started building. It was probably like a group of five moms that turned into eight moms to 10 moms and everybody starts bringing their friend, who's their friend that has the same like-minded beliefs, and it turned into like 14 moms. And now we just all try to get together. Whether it's a park day, a pool day, concert in the park day, like there's so many things that all try to get together. Whether it's a park day, a pool day, concert in the park day, like there's so many things that we try to do together that we make it a point to make sure we try to make time for that.
Speaker 2:Now, that's a big thing. People are like well, I don't have time for all that. Yes, you do, you have time, depending on how much you're willing to sacrifice of your own personal time. I don't watch TV, I don't sit around, you know, at a med spa You're never going to see me getting, you know, my hair done every two weeks. It's just not my style.
Speaker 2:And right now my priorities are my kids and my husband and our ranch. And, like I said, I love my job, but that's just to provide for my family, because my priority is not my job. But that's just to provide for my family, because my priority is not my job, it is my family, raising my kids to be God loving kids and being kind to other kids and just being helpful. You know, in every aspect as they can in life, especially in our neighborhood, the way we're raising our kids is we want them to be ranch hands. We want them to help the elderlies that live in our area. Like, hey, we'll take care of your horses, you know, for a very low fee. And that's what you know we're going to try to implement as our kids get older, to start Excuse me, to start dropping off like business cards that they're going to make and say, hey, I'll help your horses, I'll clean up after your animals, and that's how they'll start making their own money. So that's how we're going to teach our kids.
Speaker 2:We don't talk about college. We don't talk about you need to have a career. You need to. You know, as soon as you're done with high school, what are you going to do for college? We don't even bring that up. That's not even a topic of discussion in our house. It is how are you going to be a good person and how are, as you get older, going to help our community and how are you going to earn some money by doing what you love, which is take care of the local animals, basically, and that's.
Speaker 1:You're right, that is science, but that's huge. I did not learn anything about that in school. I went to public school as well and it's crazy like moving out to the country where my husband lived. He already had a house here, luckily, because if I had any say in it, I probably would be in the city. Yeah, I hated it when I moved here, but I have grown to love it. I mean, I thank God. Every day I'm like I don't know how you knew to put me here in this like country across from a dairy farm and the backyard is a mountain. But it's like wow, this is thank you, because this is perfect. This is exactly what I needed to. You know, homeschool my kid and kind of, and I'm learning. I'm learning how to take care of chickens. I'm learning how to grow a garden. I didn't learn any of that in school.
Speaker 1:Bugs, like you said oh, what's this bug? I don't know. We all this spring was so cool because we were like let's find out about birds. And we put up some bird feeders and we got the Merlin app that listens to the birds saying and then tells you which one it is. And then we look at the bird feeder and like, oh yep, there's that bird, and pull it up on the computer and this is what it's called and this is the pictures we can like, keep track of it and like that's just, that's like real world stuff. These birds are around you all day, every day. I never knew what a single one of them was called. Around you all day, every day. I never knew what a single one of them was called, except like a cardinal, you know, because we all know that.
Speaker 1:But it's really cool, like when I think about the science that they taught me, like no, I don't remember any of that. I don't remember any of the history, like you said, until it's relevant in your life, you really have no need to know what every president was, you know and what they did. But yet, like I love with the Tuttle Twins, like you were saying, they bring up things, like they start off their history books talking about the Silk Road and even though it's American history, they're like we're telling you about the Silk Road because this is how trade happened initially, you know, in China, trading on the Silk Road, and then they bring it to this is how America became America and I'm like, wow, I never thought of it in those terms, like what a cool way to like bring that concept together and make it relevant to like. I don't know just how we live our life now and why America is different than a lot of other places. I just love your story because I love that you, just you don't have a worry like am I teaching them enough?
Speaker 1:Am I not like I? You know that you are, because you're going to teach them how to take care of animals, which, in turn, takes care of us. Because if you have to raise a cow so that you have meat, you know, or dairy, you can do that. Your kids can do that and learn how to start a business by making the business cards and marketing yourself to the people that have a need for something you can do, and that's all kids really need we don't have to worry about. Did you cover nine subjects today, 42 minutes each? And, you know, did they do their homework? It's just. It is so crazy when you think about it, but it all makes sense when you think back to how they created the education system the way it is today, so that they could make the obedient workers to have those factory workers to do the jobs that they didn't want to do.
Speaker 2:Right. It's funny because when I go to work sometimes and I explain to people that I homeschool my kids, everybody literally is like how, how do you do it? And it's one of those things where you can't really like school. It's not an outline that says here you go, this is how you do it, you. You have such a unique child and every child is so different that I couldn't tell you how to homeschool your child.
Speaker 2:Because my seven-year-old he wakes up at six, 30 in the morning and if I'm off he's like Mom, I'm ready to homeschool. So he wants to get it done first thing in the morning so he can go play the rest of the time. And then there's my nine year old daughter who's like let's, I just woke up, let me go outside with the animals, and around 10am it's when she's like okay, I'm ready to homeschool. And my five year old he's always like I'm still playing, I'll tell you when I'm ready to homeschool. He's my little, my wild child hardhead. And so I just kind of work with him and I'm like okay, if you don't hurry up and get to homeschooling, you're not going to get. You know, whatever the reward is for the day and usually it'd be like a treat, or they get to pick an ice cream later for the day. But I can't tell anybody how to homeschool their child because every child is so different. Which leads me to how does one teacher get assigned 30 kids and expect them all to learn the exact same way? My seven-year-old likes to homeschool standing up. My daughter likes to read her books, first her chapter books, and then get to writing. She loves to do her handwriting, her books first, her drawing, her journals first, and then the math and the harder subjects.
Speaker 2:But everybody, all my kids, are from the same parents, grew up kind of the same way, yet they homeschool so different. And some days my seven-year-old's like I just don't feel like doing it today, and instead of arguing with him about it and now we're bumping heads I'm like okay, we'll do it tomorrow, that's fine, we'll just do it tomorrow, because what's the point of arguing with him Now? He's not going to learn. Now, I'm frustrated, he's frustrated, we're both frustrated. So I just say forget it, we're not doing it today, then, and that doesn that. He is, you know, pushing back from doing it. For the most part he's like all right, let's get this over with, so I have more time to play, and it's just one of those things where you you only you know how your child is.
Speaker 2:And so when a lot of people I always try to plant the seed at work with a lot of moms that are deputies. They all work full time. Most of them their husbands are also a deputy, so their schedules all over over the place they, you know, they're constantly changing positions, so now they're back on graveyard shift and so it's really hard for them. But even then I still try to plant that seed and they're like you know what? I'm going to try it, I'm going to try it, we'll make it work. And now I'm having a lot of more female deputies who, same thing they started their career where I'm a career woman. This is all I want. Then they start having their babies and they're like just kidding, maybe this isn't what I want. I want to raise my babies. Well, instead of making work my priority, which is what work wants us to do, they want us to make work the priority. They make it seem like they want you to focus on your family and this and that, but that's not the case. Right now, our department is basically making some of our deputies work up to 15 additional shifts a month on top of their 40 hours a week, because we're so understaffed. So these kids are falling asleep behind the wheel. They're not even going home anymore, they're sleeping in their cars because they have to be back to work within the next six hours. You know that starts taking a toll on your family and your children and your you know your spouses and so a lot of our female deputies. As soon as they're having kids, they're actually quitting the department because they want to be stay-at-home moms.
Speaker 2:This idea, this indoctrination that they told us feminism you can do it all. You don't need a husband in your life. You can do everything without a husband. And then you have a husband and you end up having kids. You're like but I do want this. This is what I was created to do. I was created to be a wife and a mom, not a career woman.
Speaker 2:And a lot of them end up quitting and they'll call me and they'll ask me, because a lot of these were my students when I was a drill instructor for the sheriff's department. They'll call me like ma'am, I think I'm going to quit. You should. If your husband is on board and he can support the family, you 100 percent should quit, because your kids should be your number one priority. And now I have those same moms. Now they're like I'm going to homeschool and I'm so excited for them, homeschool and I'm so excited for them, and it's just I feel like maybe this was, you know, god put me in this position, in this place for a reason, so I can encourage moms to take back control of their own kids and being able to be stay-at-home moms, to be able to raise their kids right and teach them the way they want to teach their kids.
Speaker 1:I love that and I'm with you. I worked for the government for 16 years. I never, never thought I would leave. I climbed my way up too and was like, yeah, I don't even need another promotion, I'm good at this level until I retire.
Speaker 1:And yeah, it was like when they were masking because New York, where I am, was pretty much the same as where you are in California they were masking three-year-olds in daycare and I'm like, well, no, we go to a private daycare, but it doesn't matter, because they followed the state rules and they were going to mask my son, and my husband and I were like, no, he's learning speech, he's learning by looking at people and seeing how they form words and the smiles that's a lot of. They talk about social emotional learning right now. It's like who cared about social emotional learning when they were telling you to put a mask on everybody? You can't even see a smile, a frown. You know like that's important to see that.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I ended up leaving and I didn't have to quit my job. I could have definitely made working and homeschooling work, but I think I was at the point, too, where I just looked around at the people around me and I'm like I've changed so much and these people are still, I feel, like in a matrix and I've stepped out of it and I don't even feel like I can conversate with them anymore. Like I feel like I have to be somebody, fake, just to be there all day long and sit in a cubicle, where I was like I want to teach my kids, I want to be outside, I want to learn in nature. I don't want to sit in a cubicle anymore, but luckily, yeah, my husband was in a position where he could take on overtime as much as he wants. So we we do make it work.
Speaker 1:It's not like the podcast brings in any money, but it's fun, and it's fun for me to learn this stuff. But, yeah, I agree with you 100%. I fell for that. The whole like watching Sex and the City and watching Friends and like yeah, who's?
Speaker 1:the man. I just want my own money and do what I want and travel and drink. No, I think like watching the little things that my kids do is way more fulfilling in life than any happy hour or all inclusive resort could be Right and you know what it's all by design.
Speaker 2:You know all these shows growing up with, all these shows where, oh, look at all these women. You know they don't. They don't have husbands, they don't have spouses, they're all. They all work and show up late and you know they're successful. But what is success? Success should be what you create at home. That should be your success, not a job that's going to forget about you as soon as you retire.
Speaker 2:I'm sure when you left your job they weren't calling you, saying how are you doing? You know we really miss you. They replaced you before you even left your spot, you know, like you hadn't cleaned out your desk and they already had somebody filling in your spot. And that's what I try to tell a lot of people that I work with. I'm like don't let this job be your priority, because they will not care about you when you retire. I have 19 years on, as of like next week, and I'm the breadwinner, or else I wish I could quit my job. But I am the breadwinner and obviously in California you almost have to have both parents work and, in essence, to make it work right, because it's so expensive here, and so, at 25 years. I am so done. I'm retiring.
Speaker 2:My goal to supplement whatever I'm not bringing in anymore will be to start a day camp, ranch school for kids, for city kids, because a lot of city kids can't get the country. You know life and aspects of things, and I'm going to teach them how to ferment stuff, make sourdough, how to just take care of animals, how to milk the goats and how to take care of the baby animals and I'm even going to allow them to bring their own chicken that you know can start from a baby and they can raise it at our farm and they can choose to either leave it or take it home with them once the summer camp or fall camp, depending on the weather. So I'm thinking of having summer camps, fall camps, spring camps not winter because it snows in my area but have these camps for kids and hey, if the parents use that as a daycare, then sure I'll be able to raise your babies the way I would raise my own kids and it'd be fun for my kids, because now my kids have all their friends now that are coming and my point is, when I retire my daughter will be old enough to where she will run the ranch school. I'll just be kind of the behind the scenes doing the scheduling, all that other stuff. But my daughter, it will be the one to run the ranch school and I hope and pray that it blows up and she ends up making that. You know, her career and that's what she does is just teach little kids about ranch school and that's what you know she ends up staying to and focusing on. I just tell my daughter I just hope and pray that you just meet a good man and he takes care of you and he wants the same life that we have provided for you guys and they enjoy it, they love it.
Speaker 2:My kids have never said, because we did leave the big city for this town, and they've never said we miss the big city, we miss the noise, we miss being on top of each other in these cookie cutter neighborhood. No, they don't. They love the freedom. I'll be cooking and I'll look out and wonder. I haven't seen my five-year-old in like the last two hours. So I'll go outside and I'll start calling his name and he'll be in the corner somewhere making some hole because he's building something out of mud. And that's the beauty of having these kind of properties and you don't need to be a millionaire, it doesn't cost that much. You just go in the middle of nowhere, find a nice little property and you just slowly build it how you want it to be. And that's what we've done and we've loved it. And yes, I have to commute far for that. But that's the sacrifice I will do for my kids to have this kind of life.
Speaker 1:Amber. I love that. Is there anything else? I mean, that was just said so beautifully. Any other point, though that you wanted to drive home before we close up for the hour, that you really want to let parents know about Anything you thought about before coming on the podcast that you really want parents to know.
Speaker 2:Honestly, I just want people to really focus on not the excuses of why they can't, but try to focus on why they should, why they should homeschool their kids. And when people start thinking, well, I couldn't because of A, b and C, well, we can all have those excuses, but you should really start writing down what would be all the pros if I did homeschool my kids, and I honestly feel like people would have a lot more pros than they would have cons, and it would be scary for a lot of parents because now they're going to have to sit back and say, wow, maybe I do need to homeschool my kids and that's going to be a leap of faith that they'll have to wrestle with. And I know a lot of times not both spouses are on the same page, but I think if one person who wants to homeschool really starts explaining how it's going to be and the benefits that it's going to be for their children and their family, then I feel like that alone will let their spouse who's not on board start rethinking. Okay, maybe we should consider homeschooling and honestly, I just feel like there's so many resources out there now that it's almost impossible to make it hard. Everything is a homeschooling curriculum. You can Google anything. You can find it anywhere. Look, there's podcasts that can tell you how people do it, and really there is no excuse. Just take the leap of faith. Just do it and you will never regret it.
Speaker 2:Now, when I think about it, I'm like I could never. I could never go back at the idea of sending my kids to this crowded 500 kids school in elementary where my child has to wrestle for the teacher's attention because she doesn't understand something. And then the teacher is going to call me the next day and telling me my daughter's not paying attention or whatever the case may be, because she's so lost and confused. And now I'm not there to see what happened. But now I'm going to yell at my daughter for disrespecting the teacher. Right, and it's just why. Why do that to your kids? Only you should be the one to tell your kids how they're going to learn something, or be able to explain to them how to do something, not some teacher that knows nothing about your child. And that's just my thing. I just hope that this podcast helps people that are working parents.
Speaker 2:Myself, my husband, I have to drive far for work, but we make it work. We make it work because we want the best for our kids and we want to make sure that we know exactly what our kids are learning. And you can't put a price with how much time you get to spend with them. I spend so much time, even working four days a week. I spend so much time with my kids, I am with them so much and I enjoy it. I truly enjoy it. I never feel like, oh, I can't wait to go back to work so I could get away from my kids. No, I can't wait to get home so I could be with my kids. And my daughter always calls me when I'm at work. We have like a little landline at home and she'll call me and tell me well, when are you coming home? And I'm like, I know I can't wait to come home. So it's, you will never regret homeschooling your kids. That's really all I can say.
Speaker 1:Absolutely On your deathbed. You're never going to say I wish I spent less time with my kids. Exactly, Exactly. Amber, this has been such a treat to talk to you today. I love your perspective. I think this really gave parents that nudge to like OK, we could try it. What's the worst, you send them back to school. I mean, you can always do that, so it's not a forever thing. Is there any like social media handles or anything that you want people to find?
Speaker 2:you on Find me at the Promised Land Ranch on Instagram. If you look up the promised land ranch, that's my Instagram page. And if people want to send me a direct message because there are law enforcement in other states and they have questions, or there are law enforcement in California and they have questions, you could always reach out to me and I am more than willing to help you as much as I can.
Speaker 1:And I can. I can link that in the show's description too, if you'd like so. Thank you so much, amber, and good luck Thank you.
Speaker 2:Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much. Thank you for the work. Yeah, thank you for the work that you do, thank you, thank you. Thank you for tuning into this week's episode of the homeschool how to. If you've enjoyed what you heard and you'd like to contribute to the show, please consider leaving a small tip using the link in my show's description. Or, if you'd rather, please use the link in the description to share this podcast with a friend or on your favorite homeschool group Facebook page. Any effort to help us keep the podcast going is greatly appreciated. Thank you for tuning in and for your love of the next generation.