89. Lyndsey and Matt Mimnagh and Treehouse Schoolhouse

In today’s episode, we get to spend time with Lyndsey and Matt Mimnagh from North Carolina. They talk about homeschooling their four children, balancing family life, entrepreneurship, and the creation of Treehouse Schoolhouse, a homeschooling website with resources that focus on seasonal rhythms, Biblical truth, living books, and intentional family connection. Lyndsey and Matt discuss the philosophy behind their home education, the importance of creative free play, and how they integrated a cozy living space into their learning environment and the home they built. In this episode, listeners will gain insights into some of the realities and rewards of homeschooling, and they will learn how Lyndsey turned a personal homeschooling project into a thriving educational business.

Website: treehouseschoolhouse.com

Instagram: @treehouse_schoolhouse

Facebook: /treehouse.schoolhouse

YouTube: /TreehouseSchoolhouse

Pinterest: /TSMotherhoodHomeschool

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Lyndsey Mimnagh 0:00

I just feel like homeschooling gives you the gift of time. And, you could be an intentional parent, whether you homeschool or you don't homeschool, but with homeschooling, we have so much more time.

Timmy Eaton 0:12

Hi, I'm Timmy Eaton, homeschool father of six and doctor of education. We've been homeschooling for more than 15 years and have watched our children go from birth to university successfully and completely without the school system. Homeschooling has grown tremendously in recent years and tons of parents are becoming interested in trying it out. But people have questions and concerns and misconceptions and lack the confidence to get started. New and seasoned homeschoolers are looking for more knowledge and peace and assurance to continue homeschooling. The guests and discussions on this podcast will empower anyone thinking of homeschooling to bring their kids home and start homeschooling. And homeschoolers at all stages of the journey will get what they need and want from these conversations. Thank you for joining us today and enjoy this episode of this Golden Hour Podcast as you exercise, drive, clean, or just chill. You're listening to this Golden Hour Podcast. In today's episode, we get to spend time with Lindsay and Matt Mimna from North Carolina. They talk about homeschooling their four children, balancing family life, entrepreneurship, and the creation of Treehouse Schoolhouse, which is a homeschooling website with resources that focus on seasonal rhythms. Biblical truth, living books, and intentional family connection. Lindsay and Matt discussed the philosophy behind their home education, the importance of creative free play, and how they integrated a cozy living space into their learning environment and to the home they built. In this episode, listeners will gain insights into some of the realities and rewards of homeschooling, and they will learn how Lindsay turned a personal homeschooling project into a thriving educational business. Welcome back to this golden hour podcast. We are very excited to have with us today, Matt and Lindsay from North Carolina. Thanks for being with us, you guys.

Lyndsey Mimnagh 2:02

Awesome. We're so glad to be here.

Timmy Eaton 2:04

Now, I just wanted to, for our listeners, I wanted to read a biography on Lindsay and then just jump into some questions together. So Lindsay is a homeschool mom of four and the founder of Treehouse Schoolhouse. Before motherhood, Lindsay had a career in children's ministry and special needs education. Her home education centers around living books and ideas, and I'm really excited to talk about that, hands on learning, nature exploration, and biblical discipleship. She shares experiences and home education inspiration through her Instagram and blog, as well as creates curriculum and resources for families around the world. Her most popular curricula titles are An Expectant Easter, A Connected Christmas, and Treehouse Nature Study, which is timely because we're in the Christmas season. Why don't you guys just give a little bit more bio of your own family and you can just jump in how you guys want Lindsay and Matt.

Lyndsey Mimnagh 2:50

Sure. So yeah, we live in North Carolina. We have four kids ages four, six. 10 and 11. And we've been homeschooling throughout our whole journey. So when Matt and I met, I was actually working as a private homeschool teacher. And so in our dating relationship from the beginning, he and I talked about, if we have a future together and we have a family. Homeschooling is what I desire for our family. And so both of us being public school educated we're just gaining a vision for what that might look like for, doing something new that we hadn't experienced. So that's how our journey started. And we've been homeschooling ever since, and a lot of our homeschooling Really just includes a whole family life at home. So we both are entrepreneurs. So we work at home. My husband built our house. So a lot of our homeschooling is really just doing life together and exposing our children to just practical life skills as we cook and as we make a home and as we build a home and as we host people and all of those things. So that's really important to us in our home education as well.

Timmy Eaton 3:52

Excellent. So Matt, maybe how did you respond in the dating days when that was presented to you?

Matt Mimnagh 3:58

Not well but not terrible. All the homeschoolers I knew were a little weird

Timmy Eaton 4:04

and

Matt Mimnagh 4:04

I was skeptical of the quality of education that could be given at home. So it took some time for me to warm up, but ultimately it came down to, knowing you. Knowing I could trust my wife, knowing that she wasn't going to do anything foolish just because she always wanted to fulfill this dream. I didn't have any concerns that she would put her dream above the well being and education of our children. So once I saw that she was serious about it and perfectly capable and ready to do it, I just went along with it. Wow.

Timmy Eaton 4:39

And Lindsay, what was it for you? I know you'd been exposed through your work and stuff, but what was it that was just like, no, I definitely want to do this.

Lyndsey Mimnagh 4:46

I'm a creative at heart and I'm also as a kind of like the one who wants to carve her own way. And so I think that when I experienced teaching my students, so the student I had, I brought from first grade to fourth grade in my career as a homeschool teacher, I was hired as a nanny. And then the mom just said, Hey, we really want to, we would love to have him homeschooled. Do you feel like you could do that? And so I did some workshops and training and went to the conferences like new homeschool moms do. And I just started falling in love with the culture of homeschooling with, the women I was rubbing shoulders with and seeing their passion for their families. And then as I started teaching my student, I started seeing the light bulb go off. I started seeing the passion come back to his eyes and the sparkle, excitement about learning that was burnt out by going to school. And I just started imagining my life like, Oh, I could take my children on hikes and we could do lessons of nature, or we could do our homeschooling in our tree house, or we could create these historical field trips and really make learning come to life. And so I just I had a vision for that for my own family even though I hadn't experienced it firsthand until I had that student. And then on top of that, our faith is really important to us. And I just feel like homeschooling gives you the gift of time. And, you could be an intentional parent, whether you homeschool or you don't homeschool, but with homeschooling, we have so much more time. It's just do the math. You have more hours with your children. And so for me, I felt the more hours I have, the more bonding we can create, the more lasting memories, the more opportunities for discipleship and practical life skills. And so if I have the desire and if we have the financial ability, Margin in our schedule, then this is something that I. Not only do I think would be great for the kids, but also would be something that would fulfill me as a mother.

Timmy Eaton 6:35

So you talked about how you guys basically are just living your life. You don't like think of it totally purely as an education choice. It's a lifestyle choice, which I love. So how did you guys come to that? How did you know that you were going to do it that way?

Lyndsey Mimnagh 6:47

I think originally because I was public school educated in my head, homeschooling was literally taking what happens in a classroom and reproducing it at home. And if you rewind back to the beginning of my journey, I had all the educational posters and I had a really strict schedule and I thought, okay, we're basically doing kindergarten. At our kitchen table, and I just really realized so quickly that is not what homeschooling is, and part of that was from hearing from moms who had gone before me and observing other families and seeing that, it really is integrating your children into every part of your life and that they can learn so much when they're at the grocery store with you or when they're cleaning with you or when you just experience a conflict In the family and you talk that through all it's all education. It's not just math and reading And when you view it like that then as an adult you're more likely to take every opportunity to be a learning opportunity so I actually think we just stumbled into realizing that's what it is going to be that's the best way to view it Now, of course, we do have our scheduled time that we sit down and we do our quote school work But if it's interrupted by a tantrum and i'm just like push through do the math In that moment, dealing with emotional regulation is actually more of what needs to be the focus. We'll come back. We'll circle back to the math problem. But having the time and space to like, work on their behavior or work on their relational skills, their time management, all of that is just as important to me as getting through.

Timmy Eaton 8:16

And it's natural, right? It's I like it. It's like in the flow of just natural living that you handle those things and the kids are observing that. And so that is a huge part of their learning of their education.

Lyndsey Mimnagh 8:26

Yes, absolutely. And having my husband and part of that too. And it's not just my thing, it's our family. It's a partnership because there are things that the kids need to observe and learn from dad that they're not gonna gain from me. And so integrating that into our lifestyle as well, I feel has really benefited them.

Timmy Eaton 8:43

Totally. Yeah. And so Matt, what would you say, like how would you describe your role and like how you do it if you're, if other dads are listening, going, okay, I wanna glean some of the things from him.

Matt Mimnagh 8:51

I think the most important thing I do, and it sounds funny, but it's true, is I stay out of the way because. I want things the way I want things and I know a lot of guys are that way and, the my way or the highway attitude and and that doesn't work when you're not the expert in the subject. The best thing I think I do is say, hey, I trust you.

Timmy Eaton 9:16

I

Matt Mimnagh 9:16

know you've done the research. You've dug into all these curriculum. You've talked to different people. You've been in this space a lot deeper than I have. What do you need from me? You take the lead on this, and I'll support you. I'm here if you need me. And, we do divide up some of the roles. There are some parts of the school day that I take on mainly first thing in the morning. So it's not just all her doing and then bossing me around or anything like that, but, I defer to her, this is her area of expertise and I trust her to lead this and I just try not to mess it up.

Timmy Eaton 9:52

And what are some things that you would do like specifics that you would help with or like things that you enjoy doing with the kids?

Matt Mimnagh 9:57

So I do Bible every morning and I do that around breakfast. Okay. And that's, I'd say that's my main contribution other than building and fixing things for the schoolroom. Early in the morning, usually around seven o'clock, we're sitting down to breakfast me and the kids, and we go through our Bible lesson over breakfast. And that's really the only time that it's me and them digging into a subject.

Timmy Eaton 10:23

Yeah. Like a structured thing. Yeah. I see. Cause it's like Lindsay said, one of the coolest things about homeschooling is which is interesting that we even have to come to these realizations, but that learning is happening all the time. In the economy of the home and just through their observations and just basically living as a family. Now, can you just talk a little bit about first, just like creative free play and gentle learning, like what does that mean for you guys and what does that look like?

Lyndsey Mimnagh 10:46

Yeah. So one of the things that we have experienced has been really beneficial to our kids is to not, push any real formal academics until around age six. And so up until age six, the main role of the child is to play and is to learn how to function in a family. And they're they have a rhythm in their day where there's, we're reading a lot of good books. They're doing a lot of outdoor exploration, a lot of creative play. And because we have older children as well. They're observing what school is like. They're getting used to this idea of what it looks like to sit down and to have self discipline and to do these certain things, but until around age six, their main job is to just be a kid,

Timmy Eaton 11:26

just live and play. Yeah,

Lyndsey Mimnagh 11:28

absolutely. And even up into, our oldest child is in middle school. And even up until that age a lot of his day is in creative play. It's and it might look differently now that he's older and a boy, it might look like him making comic books or, making slow mo videos of his action figures doing things or, going outside and doing historical reenactment outside on the trampoline or something, but it's still this idea that so much of a child's learning happens through them playing. And. What I've observed is, we'll read these really great books, and then if you don't have them sit still all day long until the point of boredom, they actually fall in love with these living ideas and then they go and they play them

Timmy Eaton 12:10

and

Lyndsey Mimnagh 12:11

me, that is the ultimate sign of this is getting ingrained in a child's heart. When they're playing what you just learned about world war one, and then they're outside playing it. And so leaving margin in our day for that and encouraging that creative play and creativity in general is really important to us. Sometimes it's structured and an idea given to them about what we're learning. And other times it's just giving them the space in their schedule, which is a really big deal in our family just to have a lot of margin so that they can become. Who they're created to be on their own doing.

Timmy Eaton 12:44

Yes. And I, you said earlier that your kids range from four to 11. And that's just like the golden time. What about the idea that you guys talked about cozy living spaces? And I think those go hand in hand with the idea of creative free play and gentle learning. What have you done to create that space? What does that look like in your guys home?

Lyndsey Mimnagh 13:00

Yeah, this is a fun topic and Matt can definitely speak to this because we over the last five years, we bought property, we designed a home and my husband built the home. And a lot of that was many hours sitting down and thinking through, what are the things our family is called to and how can we create spaces That lend itself to that.

Timmy Eaton 13:20

The

Lyndsey Mimnagh 13:20

things that matter to us, the things that we feel like, is our purpose. And so do you want to tell them a little bit about different spaces in the house we've designed?

Matt Mimnagh 13:29

Yeah we prioritize spaces that would actually be lived in most of the time. So we made very small bedrooms because we actually spend very little time in them. We created bigger play spaces and creative spaces. Our house plans had a three car garage in it. We took one of those garage bays and converted it into a rec room where we have a rock wall and a ball pit and some gym equipment and yeah. Thanks for them to, grow in other ways. Our upstairs we call it a bonus room. Is the hangout movie room music room. We have a big comfy couch up there where they can. Hang out and goof off and play around, but it's not quite to the. The rambunctious level of the room, our living room is cozy. The house itself has a lot of square footage, but it's divided up. Into a lot of smaller spaces that. makes sense for the way we live. We did a big outdoor, wrap around porch. It's actually twice as big as our first home, just the porch, like being outside.

Lyndsey Mimnagh 14:36

And also books are a huge deal to us. So rather than having, screens in all the rooms, we don't have a television and our main living room. It needs to be more of an intentional choice. So if we're going to watch a family movie, then we all go upstairs it's less tempting to just have it on. And then we are still working on this cause we're still in construction zone, but we're going to be building out a full library at the landing of our stairs. At the top of the stairs just so the kids have books, at their fingertips and that's the first thing they see when they come out of their bedrooms is, a place to curl up and read. So for me, no matter where we've lived, though, because we've lived in 600 square feet, we've lived in rentals, we've lived all over the place. And no matter where you live, you can cultivate cozy. And you can, cultivate these spaces that have book baskets everywhere. And. Art on the wall that's inspiring and lighting candles and things that make your kids feel like they can just sigh, and take a big deep breath and feel like they're at home. When you're cuddling up by the fireplace, reading stories, it's a cozy way to live and a cozy way to learn. So no matter what your home is you can definitely cultivate that.

Timmy Eaton 15:41

All of this makes me think of the term and I never pronounce it correctly, but how do you guys say, yeah. And I've heard it said so many different ways, and I think that's something my wife has really done such a great job of. And that probably didn't come naturally to me, but she's definitely good at that. Have you ever put your stuff online so people can see like your living spaces

Lyndsey Mimnagh 16:00

yeah. A little bit here and there I've shared on social media, just as we designed the house, especially anything related to homeschooling, like we created, we have a homeschool room, so I've shared tours of our homeschool around. And just like the size

Timmy Eaton 16:13

of the bedrooms, we were talking about intentional parenting, but man, this is taking it to a different level of like totally, customizing your home to that. The smaller bedrooms. And just making sense of like where time is spent and where do you get the most value of the space?

Lyndsey Mimnagh 16:25

Yeah. Thank you. We definitely thought through it a lot and it was a hard journey, but we're seeing the fruit of it now living here and still working through some construction, but it's worth it in the end, for sure.

Timmy Eaton 16:35

And one thing I was wondering is your parents and siblings and their families, like how they responded to the lifestyle that you guys have chosen and even in the way it affected your, building your home. How have your families responded to your choices of home education?

Lyndsey Mimnagh 16:49

Like we said, we both were public school educated. My parents in particular, they watched me grow in this desire to work with children and to teach. So all of my careers. And even just jobs from the time I had a job had to do with children. I was. a babysitter, a nanny. I worked at a preschool. I've done children's ministry missions work. I worked full time in children's ministry. I went to college for Christian education. So for my parents, they were like, okay, this is everything Lindsay's called to. She's either going to work in education or then when I told them we were going to homeschool, it was like that just makes sense.

Timmy Eaton 17:25

Cool.

Lyndsey Mimnagh 17:25

And then they've watched, they've seen the intentionality that we've taken in the journey that we're doing. And so they're very supportive. Even though neither of my siblings homeschool, they both get it, they see it, they see the fruit of it. They see our kids thriving. So I've never been questioned. I'm not sure about your family, if they've had much opinion.

Matt Mimnagh 17:43

My family is mostly a live and let live kind of family. Yeah. Hey, glad it works for you. Do your thing. Happy for you. My brother and his wife, they do homeschool their kids. they do it a lot differently than we do it. So they get the homeschool thing and they're on board with homeschooling generally. But as far as our method, it's like I said, hey, glad it's working for you. You have my blessing. Good for you, kind of thing.

Timmy Eaton 18:10

When you guys were starting out and obviously you're creating curriculum now, but like where have you gone initially? Who would you say you were mentors like where did you go for information to find your own style? 'cause one thing that I've learned. Even though there are many types of homeschoolers, I find that you can't categorize, any one family to one way, but it's just, it really is just like your family's homeschool. But where did you go for ideas and mentoring and curriculum and stuff like that?

Lyndsey Mimnagh 18:34

Yeah. Honestly, when I first started out, I was most inspired by influencers. I would see inside of their home. I would see them actually videoing like a lesson or a morning time. Or like seeing their kids all around a breakfast table. I specifically remember like seeing these kids around a table, like eight of them and singing a hymn and then seeing the mom light a candle. And I'm like, Oh my gosh, I can't believe that's real.

Timmy Eaton 18:58

You're like, I want that.

Lyndsey Mimnagh 18:59

Yeah, and then, I just had babies at the time, but I just, I soaked up, like, all of these inspiring things first before I dug in deep of the practicals. Once I got inspired by seeing the creativity, seeing, kids crocheting and listening to really great literature or acting out a Shakespeare play, I'm like, this is real. After that, I was like, okay yeah, what kind of homeschool produces that? And so I feel like I worked backward, so then I started reading blogs and I started learning about who. What is the main common thread in these different homeschool families that I'm seeing that's inspiring me?

Timmy Eaton 19:33

And how did you find them? Like, how did you you'd go to one and then that would be connected to another type thing? Yeah,

Lyndsey Mimnagh 19:38

pretty much. It's like bloggers, I would, I'd read one blog and then I'd see, oh, they recommended this thing. And I just, honestly, it was the internet at first. And then I started getting into podcasts. From the people that I was reading these blogs from. And again, this is when I had babies. So this is like a few years of research. And then finally, when it started getting more serious around, like I had four and five year olds, I'm like, Oh, this is actually happening soon. I started like finding books that I started understanding. Okay. A common thread. I keep seeing the name Charlotte Mason, and that seems like that's a common philosophy that keeps popping. So then I started reading the Charlotte Mason books, And I started learning about that method and I started exploring a few other methods and then just finding curriculum that matched the philosophy that I resonated with. That's how it all started. And then I found a few different curriculum companies and I would try things and it wouldn't really fit and I'd try something else. And I think it just took a couple of years before I realized, I'm eclectic. I'm a lot Charlotte Mason, but I also have other beliefs about this and that.

Timmy Eaton 20:39

And

Lyndsey Mimnagh 20:39

like you said, everybody at the end of the day ends up with, some sort of pot. Of things that resonate with you. And so I think it's really important that we just, we go on our own journey. It's good to be inspired by others, but not to try to replicate someone else. And instead take our own family culture, what's important to us. And even what giftings we have as parents that we want to share with our kids. We're a creative family. We build, we create, we paint, we. We get in nature because those things matter to me and my husband, other people may be a more musical family or Something else and so you get the opportunity to pass down these passions to our children with what matters to you and so it was also that it's trying to coming into a place of confidence Through a few years of trying things, failing, reworking it, trying again,

Timmy Eaton 21:28

no, I feel like you described it almost exactly like a very similar journey to how my wife would describe it, especially just like, you know, Charlotte Mason is who she probably aligns with the most. But really over the years, now that we've been studying it for 20 years, but we've been doing it for 17 and yeah, just, and we have six children. And we've just seen how it works. Can I ask you guys what would you say? If somebody were to say hey What did you find to be like really challenging if you were to just be straight up with people what has been? Challenging with that decision to homeschool.

Lyndsey Mimnagh 21:57

I would say that it's the like school work balance personally Because, I'm not just a homeschool mom. I am a lot of other things. And I, that's true for every mom. I know it's you're also pregnant. You're also a friend. You're also the Sunday school teacher at the church. And, and then you're a wife and maybe you're trying to ride, run a side business. Being a toddler mom, even if you're just a homeschool mom and have a toddler right there, your plate is over full. I feel like it's this idea for me, the challenge was like, I have this beautiful idea of what our life is going to look like and what our days are. Going to be like, and then there's always interruptions in your day, but also in your entire school year. Like I've never once completed a school year and completed all the things I thought we would at the beginning of the year, when I have these idealistic ideas, field trips and our projects and the public speaking opportunities and on and on. By the end of the year, I'm like, what happened? We were derailed because I got sick. We were derailed because, this, we traveled for this reason. And part of that is the beauty of it is that you get to have life, life school all the time. So if we're traveling, we get to just do that when we want, or we we often host people in our home. And so we'll have someone come stay for a week in the school lessons, take a backseat because we're learning about being hospitable. But I think it's this constant balancing of, you have to be your own disciplinarian about your schedule, about what you're accomplishing. There's no one standing over my shoulder, making sure that we're like staying on track. It's my own self discipline to say this is what's best for the kids to continue moving forward with this, even though it's challenging or whatever. And so I would say just constantly reevaluating our schedule and figuring out how everything fits and Just getting back up when you feel like a failure, honestly.

Timmy Eaton 23:43

Yeah. It sounds like the challenge is actually the beauty of it as well. It's it's what is challenging, but that's actually where the fruits of it come and the, having total control of like your life and how it's going to happen and stuff, but it also poses challenges, Matt, what would you say? Like, If somebody asked you that what have you found challenging?

Matt Mimnagh 23:59

Truthfully, not a whole lot for me. Because my involvement in the actual school part is pretty minimal. I think, it's challenging to accept the fact that I still pay taxes for schools and don't use them. But I understand why. But truthfully not much, like I take a very supportive role. I listen a lot as Lindsay describes working through this process over the course of years and trying curriculum and trying philosophies. I'm very much involved in the listening. I'm a good sounding board. So I'm there for bouncing ideas around and troubleshooting. I wouldn't call it a challenge. I enjoy that relationship with my wife. So yeah, truthfully, not much.

Timmy Eaton 24:41

Yeah. And I think, different stages of home education present different challenges. Yeah. And so I think that's just a reality, but I agree. I think like overall, it's any challenges that arise seem to be worth it for the families that are choosing that lifestyle. So can I just transition for a few minutes? I just wanted to see like. How did tree house schoolhouse come to be? And how did that work in with a full life of home education?

Lyndsey Mimnagh 25:03

That would be the challenge. Yes,

Timmy Eaton 25:05

there it is.

Lyndsey Mimnagh 25:06

Yeah. So it was a happy accident. I was so inspired by these bloggers, like I mentioned, and these Instagram accounts that, as I started my journey with a four and five year old, I just thought it would be fun to take pictures and share. And financially. I thought, maybe if I started sharing curriculum, maybe I could get some free curriculum and that would really help us out because at the time we were one income family and, we were at a position where anything I could do a little bit here on the side would be helpful. And so that's all it was at first was a hobby. And I'm a teacher at heart. I always have been. And so I thought if I could share some encouragement for people, I'm not a seasoned homeschool mom, but I do have, ministry and education background, so I felt like a little bit ahead of people that were just getting started with homeschooling because I had already taught that student. So I started sharing inspiration and shared some pictures of curriculum. I started getting some free curriculum. And I remember just telling Matt this is so exciting. I got a free book. This is amazing. And then A couple of years into sharing and blogging, just very casually. I was inspired to write a Christmas curriculum for my kids because I looked and I couldn't find what I was looking for, and Because I had already been a curriculum developer when I worked in children's ministry. And as a homeschool teacher, it was very natural for me to create this. And my sister in law saw it. And she said, if you just let me, put a few touches here and there to make it like more user friendly and, beautiful, we could sell this as a digital product.

Timmy Eaton 26:33

And I already

Lyndsey Mimnagh 26:34

had a blog that was, it was very small, but it was growing. And at that time, Instagram was growing and I had a lot of followers there. So I just, I remember just humbly sharing it in my stories. By the way, I created this thing, who knows? And it just blew up that Christmas. And it was just so much of a blessing to our family financially, but also just to see. So many people get it in their hands. And I started seeing pictures of kids around the table, reciting the word of God and singing these Christmas carols and reading these books that I had researched and doing these projects and just hundreds of families using this, and I just got so excited and yeah, my husband and I just looked at each other and we're like, do you want to try another thing? And so then I tried an Easter product and it went just as well. And so at that point, I'm doing this at nap time. I'm doing this in the wee hours of the morning and at night. While also having babies and so we decided to try one day a week, getting some childcare in the afternoon so I can focus on my writing. And it just really grew from there. At that point it was just me and my sister in law, we ended up becoming partners in the business. And from there we've hired many moms. We have, a full time marketing director. We have a social media director. We have a blog writer. So now we have a full team of women who love God, who many of them are homeschooling moms. And and, we have a YouTube channel, which my husband, Matt, which, he films and edits for. So it's just grown over the last five years. And we just continue to fill our shop with. resources. We've hired other writers who are proficient in other subjects that aren't maybe my expertise, but we have history curriculum for Thanksgiving now. So we've just been growing over the last five years and it's just been really beautiful. As far as how I manage that with homeschooling, it's been hard, honestly, but it's been something that's been really beautiful to watch my kids be a part of it.

Timmy Eaton 28:20

Yeah, because

Lyndsey Mimnagh 28:21

they are my testers for everything. They're also the ones who, they do all the project testing. They've partnered with us in business in a way where we pay them to be a part of photo shoots or YouTube videos, and we're teaching them about, a passion that I have and a gift that I have that's able to. inspire other moms who want to get started homeschooling and give resources to people who, need something to open the Bible or to get out in nature or to read really good books. And so it's a way to also show them like, As a mom, I can fully homeschool them and be engaged with them, but I also can have passions and callings and they can see me do that. And I think that's also really good for them.

Timmy Eaton 29:01

Definitely. Oh man, there's so much there. I, and I will definitely, I will include like all of your socials in the show notes so that people can know where to go in, but I just encourage everybody listening to go to treehouse schoolhouse. com because. The resources are awesome. And I know that is sometimes one of the challenges for homeschoolers is the overwhelming amount of curriculum there is, but it's like you said, once you get comfortable with your own way of homeschooling, you have a more space to look into other things and things that kind of match your style and what you like. And but that's so cool. So you weren't like trying to create this thing with your holiday curriculum. You were just doing it for your own kids.

Lyndsey Mimnagh 29:36

That's how it started. Yeah. And then, when we decided to go ahead and stick it up there digitally, I thought, Oh, maybe I'll sell a few and get some Christmas money. And then it just blew up. And I'm like, okay, maybe this is God's way of opening a door for me to continue to write. What was funny is when Matt and I met he knew that I was passionate about teaching because I was teaching my student at the time. And he actually told me, I really believe one day you're going to publish curriculum. For like churches or schools or something.

Timmy Eaton 30:03

And

Lyndsey Mimnagh 30:03

so I just said, no, I'm not really interested. All I want to do is have babies in homeschool. I'm not really interested, somehow I've been able to do both. And it's been a hard journey to balance both, but it's been super rewarding and, a really big blessing that we've been able to figure out how to do that. Yeah. And if you do visit my shop, I just wanted to remind you. A 15 percent off code for anything that, you might see this golden hour, 15, 15 percent off anything in the shop.

Timmy Eaton 30:29

And we will definitely put that in the notes as well for all of our listeners. Thank you so much for that. Can I just give you both the last word and anything you want to say? What's the counsel that you guys give to new homeschool families that are feeling overwhelmed with all that there is out there and unsure about how this is going to work out? What would you counsel them?

Lyndsey Mimnagh 30:45

I would say that. The most qualified person to do the job is a parent that is interested in doing the job because you know, your children better than anyone else and you love your children better than anyone else. So if it's something that you're thinking about doing and you have a desire and you have a passion, even if the practicals seem like you're unsure, like which curriculum or what's the schedule or how do I socialize them and all these questions, those things will work themselves out. If you just focus on the fact that you love your children, you want what's best for them more than anyone else in the world. And so that's a good place to start. And just really starting with that relationship connection and learning your child, learning the way that they learn the best, learning what, catches their attention and makes them excited. And starting there and not feeling like you have to, you Know everything to just take the first step.

Timmy Eaton 31:35

So good. So good. Now, Matt, I don't mean to, and say whatever you want, but I did want to see if I could channel you a little bit what would you say to dads who are starting this out and maybe they're kind of like, Oh, are we sure we want to do this? What would be your counsel to do homeschool dads in particular? And then if you want to talk about families in general, go ahead.

Matt Mimnagh 31:51

Again, what, what really helped me was just recognizing in my wife that This is her passion, and this is something she's taking very seriously. I'd say on more than a couple occasions, I've learned of fathers that are very critical of their wives and their homeschooling journey and putting their wives on schedules and giving them quotas. And really. Being overbearing and making it a miserable process. If you married this woman and she's taking the lead on this, trust her and don't try to get in there and control everything. And if you can't trust her, then maybe get marriage counseling. Cause you have a bigger problem and homeschooling isn't it. But yeah, just hang in for the ride. There was a lot of figuring things out and troubleshooting along the way. And had I expected Lindsay to nail everything perfectly the first time, then I would have been very disappointed. So trusting the process, trusting my wife and just being there to support, assuming, as a dad, you're not the main educator. Usually is the case. So assuming that, the father is not the main educator, then know your role. It's supportive, it's sounding board, it's listening and troubleshooting and encouraging and trusting.

Timmy Eaton 33:14

So well said you guys, thank you so much. It's been such a good interview.

Lyndsey Mimnagh 33:17

Thank you so much for having us. This is a great conversation. It's been fun

Timmy Eaton 33:21

Yeah, thank you very much for being with us and I hope you have a wonderful day.

Lyndsey Mimnagh 33:24

All right, you too

Timmy Eaton 33:25

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