98. Susan Ison, Bethany Pinos, and Victus Study Skills System

In today’s episode, we get to spend time with Susan Ison, founder and president of Victus Study Skills System, and Bethany Pinos, an educational consultant for Victus. Our conversation focuses on the importance of study skills, organizational habits, and educational principles that serve both academic and life-long pursuits. We cover the history and development of Victus, the application of its methodologies across different age groups, and the personal experiences of both guests in the homeschooling and educational consulting spaces. Highlights include real-life examples of how Victus study skills can impact personal and professional lives, and practical advice for parents and educators on how to instill these habits in their children and students. Susan emphasized three questions that Victus asks all of its students: Where are we now? Where do we wanna be? How do we get there? Victus offers quality resources for homeschooling families who are looking to help their children improve their study, organizational, and life skills.

Connect with Susan and Bethany

https://studyskillssystem.org/

To This Golden Hour Audience: You can receive a FREE Victus Strategic Planning Booklet if you email me, Timmy Eaton, at hello@thisgoldenhour.org by July 7, 2025!

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Susan Ison 0:00

most kids are never taught how to study. They're not taught how to organize their time. They're not taught how to do what they do in a day based on what their priorities are. They're not taught that most everything we do, unless you're taught otherwise, is very reactive. And so we're trying to get them to think differently.

Timmy Eaton 0:20

Hi. I am 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. New 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 are listening to this Golden Hour podcast. In today's episode, we get to spend time with Susan Ison, founder and president of Vitus Study Skills System, and Bethany Pinos, an educational consultant for vitus. Our conversation focuses on the importance of study skills, organizational habits. And educational principles that serve both academic and lifelong pursuits. We cover the history and development of Vitus, the application of its methodologies across different age groups and the personal experiences of both guests in the homeschooling and educational consulting spaces. Highlights include real life examples of how Victus study skill can impact personal and professional lives, and practical advice for parents and educators on how to instill these habits in their children and students. Susan emphasized three questions that Victus asks all of its students where we now, where do we wanna be? How do we get there? Victus offers quality resources for homeschooling families who are looking to help their children improve their study, organizational and life skills. Welcome back to this Golden Hour podcast today. We are very excited to have with us Susan Ison and Bethany Pinos. Thanks for being with us today.

Susan Ison 2:23

We're glad to be here.

Timmy Eaton 2:25

Thank you. Thank you very much. And you guys both coming from Tennessee?

Susan Ison 2:27

I'm from Tennessee, yes. And wasn't born here, but been here most of my life.

Timmy Eaton 2:32

Yeah, I was

Bethany Pinos 2:32

born and raised in Memphis as well. I am actually currently an Ecuador. My husband is Ecuadorian, so I've had quite an unusual little history here, but living in Ecuador and love working for Victus in Memphis,

Timmy Eaton 2:47

oh, that's awesome. Very cool. So let me just do a little intro and then we'll get started. I. Bethany Pinos is an education consultant for Vitus, and she is a mother of one child and she is also a homeschool graduate and it was homeschooled your whole life, is that right?

Bethany Pinos 3:04

Yeah, my whole life. That was great. Yeah. And

Timmy Eaton 3:06

so we'll definitely ask lots of questions about that. And then Susan Isen is the founder and president and director of Victus Study Skills System and Educator for 40 plus years. And I do just wanna say right now that the Victus study skills system website is study skills system.org, and we're gonna put that in the notes and make sure that people have that as a resource and everyone's gonna want that as a resource after this interview. So I'm excited to talk about that. Susan. Also, as far as I understand, it helps with strategic planning with businesses. And she's a mother of three children with nine grandchildren. I think she says she has six children because her children are all married. So Susan, welcome.

Susan Ison 3:45

Thank you. It's good to be here.

Timmy Eaton 3:47

Now can each of you add anything that you want? We heard a little bit from Bethany, but Susan, anything you wanna add to your bio? And then Bethany, if you wanna add to your bio as well,

Susan Ison 3:55

when you've lived as long as I have, there's a lot that you could say, but I think you hit on the high points.

Timmy Eaton 4:00

Okay, awesome. And Bethany, anything else you'd like to put in?

Bethany Pinos 4:05

Yeah, I would definitely agree with that. I just have loved my work with Victus and just helping people get, going with homeschooling, using our products, schools, just anything. So I'm excited to chat more today.

Timmy Eaton 4:19

Thank you so much. Now before we jump into Victus and what it is, I was hoping that you guys would tell us how you guys connected. So how did you connect? How did that all happen?

Susan Ison 4:27

I can't tell you how many years ago it was, but both Bethany and I have been very involved in the pro-life movement, and she was the executive director of a. Small new nonprofit in Memphis. And I was on the board of that nonprofit and she and I met there and helped to develop a strategic plan for that organization and just clicked so beautifully. Definitely a gift from the Lord. And so we worked together there for many years until she left us and went to Ecuador, but I couldn't let her go. So then she got involved with Victor and it's just been, she really ought to be called director 'cause she is amazing. We're just thankful to have her.

Timmy Eaton 5:14

Aw, so basic. So you knew her in a different light and then saw her skills and wanted to work with her in this.

Susan Ison 5:19

Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah.

Timmy Eaton 5:22

And what was it like for you, Bethany, on your side of things

Bethany Pinos 5:24

yeah, it's Memphis Coalition for Life. And it's still going strong, doing great work there in Memphis. And it was just so interesting working with Susan in that capacity and working together on strategic planning and just ways we could reach out to the community there. And then now working together in a different position. It's just been such a blessing. I consider her a friend and a mentor as well in my career, so it's been really great.

Timmy Eaton 5:56

That's great. I feel like the success of anything is relationships. And to hear you guys having this type of relationship is definitely a wonderful thing. Now, Victus has been around, from what I understand, since 1977. Is that right Susan?

Susan Ison 6:09

Yeah, but it wasn't called that. In 1977 God led me to start a tutoring business. I was doing some individual tutoring and just started getting more requests than I could handle. Lord led me to start Memphis Tutorial Association in 1977. There were five tutors originally and we would tutor students in schools. Homeschooling wasn't that big of a thing then. Now tutors are really involved in the homeschooling movement, but back then it wasn't. Some, most of our students were school students. And what we found out in working with these students is that very often it wasn't the subject matter that they couldn't get it was that they didn't know how to study the subject matter. So we all agreed. All five of us agreed. And so we started looking for a study skills curriculum and couldn't find one anywhere. We ended up finding a little booklet that we used for many years in the schools, and when I think back to how it was then, it was just so crude, yeah. As far as not very advanced and all that, we had things we called day sheets that we would give out, but schools started asking us to teach our course in their schools. So we were busy all the time, teaching kids and then I just felt like God was telling me that it is time to make this available to everybody. So I thought, wow, that's great, but I don't have a clue how to do that. And my daughter was gonna go to a home, well to a convention here in Memphis. And so we went to that convention and I started thinking, wonder if we could just ever have our product available at a homeschool convention. Maybe that's the way to do this. And so September of the next year, I contacted one of the conventions who was gonna have another convention here that spring. And I said, do you think that we could, talk about our study skills there and maybe have, have people know what we do? And they said, it's great, but you have to have a product. And we went, oops, we don't have a product. So this is again, where you just know it's the Lord. 'cause he just brought together a designer, editor, all these people. And by March we had a product and wow. So that's how it all started. Have a lot of people involved in it and all of us who've been involved in it have always felt like Victor, since it does mean way of life, this is not your normal study skills program. This is helping kids understand we have three foundational cornerstones. Where are we now? Where do we wanna be? How do we get there? So those are concepts that we're trying to teach. So Victus is a way of life. And so it's for me, for sure. And I believe for Bethany too, and most all of us who are involved in it now, it's a mission to help. Kids and their parents really have processes for the different things they're trying to do. So that's a very long answer to your question.

Timmy Eaton 9:00

No, and I love that you gave that, thank you very much. The what year was that when you went to that conference and put it all together as a product.

Susan Ison 9:06

That's probably been 10 years ago, or eight years ago,

Timmy Eaton 9:09

really. So up until that point, if the beginnings were 1977, like, how did schools know about you? And like you said, you were going to schools and teaching yeah,

Susan Ison 9:18

word of mouth primarily. But we also ended up having licensees in different cities that did the same thing. But again, it was so crude. There were these little spiral bound notebooks. That's what we used. But people loved it, kids loved it, families loved it. So it was mainly word of mouth. We never did a whole lot of marketing 'cause that was never our strong suit. We were all teachers and parents and it's just been word of mouth and God blessing it.

Timmy Eaton 9:43

And then Bethany, when did you come on board?

Bethany Pinos 9:45

I came on board almost three years ago now.

Timmy Eaton 9:49

And when did the name Victus happen? Like when did it when did it start being called Victus study skill system?

Susan Ison 9:54

We had another licensee friend in Houston. And she and I were just spent all this time trying to think, this is more than study skills, so what is it? What is it? What is it? And actually, I think she had the idea of calling it Victus because it is a way of life. So that's how, and that's the Latin, means way of life. And it's stuck because I think people can really appreciate it as being more than just, how do I take notes? It's a lot more than that. One thing that you'll hear often in my interviews and anything that I am at, and I just came back from the largest I. Conference in Canada, which is called the AIA Conference, the Alberta Home Education Association. And that something that's emphasized There is this idea that homeschooling is a way of life, and that homeschooling really is a misnomer because, today it's not about home and it's not about school at all. And so it's not really like an accurate name, but this idea of it being a way of life to me, it's like families learning together and in a lot of places it's shepherding, it's discipleship, it's, however people want to term it. But homeschooling, we're just stuck with that because, that's it's just well known. But on your site, and I just see this as such an awesome resource for homeschool families, but it's a way of thinking about study a systems approach, a way of life. It focuses on improving existing study habits and learning new ones. And it outlines that it's it's focused on instruction in organization and time management, motivation in goal setting, note and test taking. And I wanna ask about that. And then reading comprehension and efficiency. Can you just tell us maybe both of you, Bethany, if you can start, maybe just say, what is Vitus? We've talked around it a little bit, but what is Vitus and then how are people using it as a resource? I.

Bethany Pinos 11:32

Yeah, absolutely. We have products for all ages, so it's really a program for anybody. We've got from ages five to college it's a full program for each age level. And you mentioned some of the things that gets into organization planning, having a vision for your life, note taking to all these different areas that are so important for, students that are in homeschooling families. You kinda ask who it's for. We also have co-ops that use our program and I know it's very popular for a group setting. It's great individually, it's great for group. We have of course schools that use our products. We also have for, middle and high school students. We even have a product that works well for them to do more student led on their own. If you have independent homeschooling students, like I know a lot are

Timmy Eaton 12:31

those

Bethany Pinos 12:32

are great, for that kind of age level. So we really have something for everybody.

Timmy Eaton 12:37

Excellent. I, one thing that we talk about a lot in the homeschool world is that if you can focus on the love of learning and how to learn, that's much more effective in, what you're learning and anything else. And this seems to be this like a line like, 'cause it's a way of life and it's a way of studying. These are principles of study, principles of education, and so I do wanna understand about the process. So take me through maybe a scenario like you have let's say I, I don't know. We can you, maybe you could use an example like somebody comes to you and says, Hey, I really want my son or daughter to improve their study skills. What's the process? They'll be taken through.

Susan Ison 13:13

So, you know, we, We do get a lot of emails and calls from people asking just what you've said. And a lot of times then what we'll do in response is say, tell us more about your situation. Because we, one of the things we teach Invictus in the where are you now phase is you have to understand the times in order to know what to do. So that's, again, one of those concepts that we're trying to teach. So we do it ourselves. So we're asking the parent, the teacher, tell me more about the student. And depending upon what they say is how we best guide them. And now because it is a program that we actually. And are able to share. We don't do a lot of the individual tutoring, so to speak like we used to do. It's more like saying, I think this would be the best avenue for you. You've got like a fifth grader and this fifth grader is a great reader. Doesn't want mom teaching him this stuff. Wants to do it on his own. Yeah. But really wants to do it. Then we'll say, sounds like the DIY is the best for you because that way a fifth grader can work through it on his own. He's got a video that kind of acts as the teacher. But we'd also recommend that you sit in there with him so that you're learning this so you can reinforce it in his other classes. So it's individualized in that sense, but most of the time it's just guiding them to the right piece of curriculum. And you said something earlier that made me think of wanting to mention the. The quote that we have on the front of our materials, which is by Dorothy Sayer, it says, for the sole true end of education is simply this. To teach men how to learn for themselves. And whatever instruction fails to do this is effort spent in vain. And I would say that's really what this is about. How can we as parents, teachers, whoever's helping this child. Help them learn how to learn for themselves. What are the things that we can do? And we take it not only into the academics, as you have pointed out, but into their lives. So it's a principle, concept driven as much as anything. But each situation is different, and we try to just respond according to what. We hear from the parent or the school or the co-op or whoever contacts us, we say, tell us more. And then once we understand what it is they need, then we can more effectively respond to that.

Timmy Eaton 15:36

That's great. One thing that I was thinking of as you said that, and I love that emphasis on, again, like learning how to learn and loving the learning process for you guys, what would be like the fruit of your labor? In other words, like what would be the evidence that somebody has gotten something out of this, these study skills where do you see this bearing fruit? Where do you see this coming out in somebody's life? Whether it be in academics or in relationships? Where does it go? Oh yeah, that's, that is the fruit of what we're trying to accomplish.

Susan Ison 16:03

I can give you two real quick examples. There's a video on our website from a student that was taught study skills, and he had just finished our class and I think he was maybe seventh grade, I can't remember for sure. But he said he had been steering all this information with his dad, and his dad said, so why don't my employees, any of them know any of this? So this kid had gotten it immediately and his dad's going, why weren't my employees taught how to set goals or how to read for information? Why weren't they taught that? So that's like a short term one, but I think the best ones for me as well.

Timmy Eaton 16:37

Before you leave that example, so what was he, what did the young man, what was he doing? What was it that made his dad say that?

Susan Ison 16:42

He was telling him what he had learned in the class? He was telling him, today we did goal setting, so we learned how to write goals and objectives and action plans. I. Yesterday we learned how to read for information and the dad's going, wait a minute. Why don't my employees know all this stuff? What we found out, and we've said this without going to it directly, is that most kids are never taught how to study. They're not taught how to organize their time. They're not taught how to do what they do in a day based on what their priorities are. They're not taught that most everything we do, unless you're taught otherwise, is very reactive. And so we're trying to get them to think differently. And I think that's what this dad was saying. Why don't my employees understand that the mission of our company is such and everything they do ought to be around that mission? And the kid already got it because he understands he's a young Christian man, his mission on life, what is it? And he's organizing his time all around that. So that, to me, as a. Older person, grandmother. When I see young people understanding you are here for a purpose. What is that purpose? And now are you gonna organize your life around that? And are you gonna have efficient processes where you have results? So that's a short term. But then this longer term one, that to me is one of my favorite things that happened with me. A guy in our Sunday school class, his son at the time, he had gone through our class, but his son at the time was 40. And he said, my son still says that the study skills that he learned from you changed his life. And you just go, okay, that's good.

Timmy Eaton 18:17

Thank you for sharing those. Those are really good illustrations. Yeah. Bethany, I wanted to ask you, and I don't know if you could speak to this Bethany grew up being homeschooled and were you homeschooled from the very beginning into the very end?

Bethany Pinos 18:27

Yeah. Yeah, the whole nine yards.

Timmy Eaton 18:30

And did you end up getting a diploma or whatever, or did you just go straight into other stuff or?

Bethany Pinos 18:35

Yeah. I, I did the traditional diploma route. My father's actually the director of Gateway Christian Schools in Memphis, Tennessee.

Timmy Eaton 18:43

Oh, cool. So I always

Bethany Pinos 18:44

joke and say, it's inevitable I had to be homeschooled. But yeah, it was a great experience for me and got my diploma and everything.

Timmy Eaton 18:53

So here's what I wanna ask, because this is something like a huge thing, and it's not like homeschool families have a corner on this, but I find because I'm an educator in a public arena, but we've homeschooled our six kids from the very beginning. Three have graduated now without a diploma and they've been into university and everything's been excellent. And if I were to point to one thing that 'cause we're talking about a way of life and study skills and I remember as a young dad, I thought you have to teach your kids how to read like really systematically. And what we learned was you just read to your kids. Honestly, and I know that sound, people are gonna listen to that and say, no, dude, you gotta do other, no. Like you just read to your kids and then they know how to read. And I'm not saying that's, there's definitely interventions on some, especially if there's disabilities. But with all that backdrop, I find that my wife reading to our kids every single day. So being read to on a daily basis from a parent who loves them has done more for their study skills and for their success academically than anything else I can find. And another thing I did a doctorate degree on education with an emphasis on homeschooling. And in my dissertation, I found that test taking had very little effect on successfully taking tests in university. Like you didn't have to have all these test taking skills once you got to university because you were so self-directed as a homeschool student, you just did well on tests. You learned that. And again, that's not everybody, but statistically it was very high. So with all that background, Bethany, I'm just wondering what would you say in your experience, what contributed. To effective studying. And you can only speak to your own experience, but what would you say contributed to that more than anything? Because for us it was like just being read to constantly by a loving mom.

Bethany Pinos 20:36

Yeah. It's interesting thinking about the different perspectives with homeschooling and different experiences. I think because it's so individualized, everybody has a different experience. I think for me I grew up with my parents doing incredibly well with instilling a love of, learning a heart to be curious to understand how things work. We'd be sitting at the dinner table and my, dad would say some word and I would say, what does that mean? He'd be like, let's go get the dictionary. Back when people used physical dictionaries, right? Yes, indeed. So we had a lot of fun. We would go to the park and take samples from the lake for biology tests and me and my friends would. Do plays with our church. We had this multi faceted education, which I love. I will say for me, I got to the point where I'm gonna be graduating high school, I need to take the SAT and it's kinda like. so what do I do about this? Yeah. How do I do that? I felt, how do I, how does one take a official standard test? So I think that for me personally, I had so many blessings with homeschooling, but then I also had the other side of, wait, how do I do this effectively? How do I or even, for me it was new information as an adult of how to read something like Susan said, for information, how to, have set plans, how to manage my time, how to prioritize things. And so it was an interesting okay, yes, there's so much emphasis on the other, but I. Going into adulthood, I think I would've benefited from a little more structure just in those kind of life skills. 'cause that's really what they are is also life skills, that I'm using now in my career as well, not just education. Yeah,

Timmy Eaton 22:43

no, that's well said. I and I, 'cause I think what you're pointing out there is that it doesn't have to be one or the other, but that a combination of instilling a love of learning. And you said just the idea of curiosity and in all that, a principle I derive from that is that your parents obviously modeled learning, which is huge for children. When they see it modeled, then they tend to follow that example. And so like that curiosity of going to the lake or looking up a word and, that's just modeling inaction. And so you combine that and then you take what. What Susan and Victus is offering, then that's a strong case for improved study, improved brain. Can I ask you both have you actually noticed a difference between going into schools and amongst homeschoolers in the way that they're learning what you're teaching as far as study skills? Do you notice a difference when you observe kids in the schools and homeschool students? Is there a difference between those two groups or is it pretty like, it's hard to discern the difference between the two? Or does one group or the other tend to catch on to the study skills that you're teaching? Like more quickly or more aptly?

Susan Ison 23:51

I would say it probably, I'm just thinking of my grandchildren because they're the ones that I would be the closest to. 'em know the most. Yes. I think it school versus homeschool would depend upon what school they were in. So we've got a great classical Christian school in Memphis that one of my grandsons went to, and. I would say he is equal to the homeschooled grandchild. But it's not a whole lot different than homeschooling in a group, that school, because it's got, it's teaching those same concepts. He's just in a building, but you compare it to another grandchild who was in a public school, they learned it and very bright kids. But if I had my preference, I'd rather see 'em in the other, so I don't know. I think it really depends upon the school. Yeah. Some schools are great at it, but I'd say this overall, regardless, our experience has been with study skills. Even the classical Christian schools, they're one of our largest markets. They don't teach it. It's not taught. They may get it by osmosis, like you're saying, and by example, but. The system that we use is not taught. So that's why I think people like it so well, and you just think about yourself. How did you learn how to study? Unless you had a study skills class, you just came up with your own method that worked for you. And I think that's true for most of us, very few people when we talk to groups, parent groups or whatever. How many of you ever took a study skills class? I bet I hadn't had 1% of people Yeah. Ever raise their hand if that many. So I just think, and I don't know for sure if I'm answering your question, but I think because it's not taught, the study skills part is not necessarily there regardless. I do wanna go back to one thing you said though about reading to encourage both of y'all because. I'm old enough to be your parent and Bethany's grandparent and y'all have all got all these kids. And that thing you said about reading is so right on All three of my kids are avid readers. All three of them are very bright. They're teaching their kids the importance of it. And don't wanna take credit for it, but that was something we did every single day, was read to the kids. That was just such an important part. And my middle son who's a PhD in researcher doing stuff, I couldn't even begin to explain to you in the world of science, but his thesis, he credited, they had to, you have to have put some sort of credit thing in there. And he said he credited his desire to do what he does because he was taught by his mom to be curious.

Timmy Eaton 26:36

I love it.

Susan Ison 26:37

So just all that's to encourage. You and your listeners and Bethany as with this new little person because. I think all of those things are so important that you're saying, and it is by your modeling the example you set. That is what your kids are gonna follow more than what you tell 'em. You know that, but I'm here to prove it. Yeah, it's really true. It's really true.

Timmy Eaton 27:00

No, I love that wisdom. And I can feel it as you speak it. So thank you very much. And I think you said it well. It's probably like you said, it depends on the school and family to family. It depends on the family. It depends on how things go. But I think it is a principle I think it's a universal principle that when kids are read to in an environment of learning, then those skills are are more likely to be catchable. But like Susan said, you do need to formalize some kind of. Like how actually cultivate the skill because it doesn't just come to you necessarily naturally. You have to be intentional. If you wanna improve your skill and study

Susan Ison 27:36

and an example we use in when we're teaching it is if you think about when you first were in the water as a little kid and trying to swim and what you did, most people did what you call dog pedaling, and you just exerting all this energy to keep your head above water. Your little hands are moving like crazy and your legs are moving like crazy and you're gasping for air and sometimes you're going under, sometimes you're coming back up and then somebody says, okay, we're gonna do something totally counterintuitive here. You are gonna lay flat in the water. You are gonna put your face in the water, your legs are gonna be straight up behind you, and then you're gonna just take your arms and you're gonna move through the water and I'm gonna show you how to breathe and everything. You exert a lot less energy. You get there a lot more effectively, we have a saying that we say all the time, that the results come from the process. And to us, that's really a large part of what we're trying to teach. What is your process? What is your process for reading? What is your process parent to teach your child how to read effectively? It's one thing for you to read to them, that's a great thing, but are you teaching them how to comprehend? Are you, what processes are they learning? So that's what Victus is largely about, is giving steps so that you no longer are dog paddling, you're actually laying flat in that water and you're getting there a lot more effectively. And each one of those things, how do you read for information? What are the steps? How do you take notes? What are the steps, the results come from that process.

Timmy Eaton 29:01

What would you guys say to the idea of you know the saying of like, when the student is ready, the teacher appears. What do you notice about parents who are eager to have their kids have this process and these principles, but that the kid's not that interested? You know what I'm saying? If a kid comes to you or an adult, whoever, and it's always interesting 'cause I have, I teach in the classroom and because kids are compelled to attend the class, you have a range of interest or a range of curiosity. And I find that the majority are there because they have to be there. Whereas you look at somebody who's for example, on a dance team or on a basketball team, the coach isn't prodding them to play. They want to play. So with that backdrop, when you have a student who is less interested, is it like anything else? Like it's just not effective unless they have a willingness to to dig in and diligently pursue the processes that you're teaching.

Susan Ison 29:55

And see, you weren't bribed to ask that question. That's just, you really hit the nail on the head about what we're all about. Okay.

Timmy Eaton 30:01

I I'm excited to hear the response 'cause I was not bribed

Susan Ison 30:03

no you weren't. So we have three steps. Where are you now? Where do you want to be? How do you get there? And it's based on a strategic planning model. So what we do and the where are we now, step back to that verse. We say, you have to understand the times in order to know what to do. So we're teaching that concept. We're teaching a concept of being honest about where you are now. And then they have a tool where the tools that they use to apply that concept is they have a learning style inventory that they go through and then they have a study habits check that's that they go through. And what's interesting is once you've given them the pep talk about, we're gonna be honest about where we are now, we don't wanna be like the challenger with the Yeah. When the guys were told that the O-ring was, blah blah, blah, blah, blah and all this stuff happened, we don't, we wanna be honest and we wanna respond and honest. So you've given them that kind of pep talk. So they're very honest about where they are now and they look at their study habits checklist and they go. Okay. No, I don't do that. I don't do that. I don't do that. So what we've done is create a level of discomfort there with that. So they don't like that. Yeah. And your next step is where do you wanna be? And this is where they write their mission. They identify their priorities, their goals. I always tell 'em, mine are faith, family, friends, and fortune. And that's what we use in the book. They can come up whatever theirs are, but we always kinda like to plant that seed.

Timmy Eaton 31:23

Yeah.

Susan Ison 31:23

So what is your vision? So if this is where I am now, if you can picture two hands, like horizontal to the floor, your hand. One hand is where I am now and about five inches above that is where do you wanna be?

Timmy Eaton 31:37

Yes. And then

Susan Ison 31:38

you've done what they actually, they came up, there's this huge study at MIT about this where they called it creative tension. So you've got this thing called creative tension, which is the same thing as cognitive dissonance. 'cause you're going, okay, if this is where I am and this is where I wanna be. I am very uncomfortable with that gap. Yeah. I don't like that gap. So I'm gonna do something to close that gap. I'm either gonna lower my vision or I'm gonna change where I am now. So because you've got that creative tension there, then we say, how do you close the gap? Here's how you do it. You do P-T-R-S-T, which is the method for reading. You do test taking. That helps you close the gap. So the motivating force, and the reason victus is called a system is because it has these components working together for an aim, for a purpose. And we honestly, this is so interesting when we do classes, which we don't do a whole lot now as much. 'cause most of the time now we're consulting with schools on how to do it. But it used to be the surveys would come back when we'd ask the students what they would change. They said, have more sessions. Wow. They liked it.

Timmy Eaton 32:48

But

Susan Ison 32:48

another thing is, and I'm sure with your background, this research has proven that when kids know that something can be applied right now in their lives, they're much more motivated to do it. So they go, wow, this affects me today.

Timmy Eaton 33:02

Excellent. What a great response. Maybe Bethany, you could take the first shot at this one and then if Susan wants to add on, what about kids that struggle with disability or neurodivergence? And then different question what about kids that go into trades and that are not really interested in a, like a reading type, writing type way of pursuing education. They wanna go into trades, hands on d Is there a place for them in these processes? So disability, neurodivergence, and then what about like trades and hands on careers or interests?

Bethany Pinos 33:32

Yeah, absolutely. I would say to the first part, our program was developed with a teacher who worked in special ed and had students that needed. Help in that area and to design it where whether you're in that group or you're not, that it would work well. And it's a great resource for, kids who struggle with A DHD or other issues. It has been designed with that in mind as well. Also, this speaks a little bit back to your other point about, maybe students that might be reluctant as well. It's a very engaging program. So for kids that maybe struggle with. Paying attention or even the content itself. We have it where there are ways to adjust it based on the student. So for, younger learners who need a little more engagement or students that maybe need that kind of to grab their attention, in some of the lessons, you draw pictures, there's a part where imagine what you would wanna be doing in five years. Draw a picture. There's lots of tips in. The guides for how to kinda adjust it and how to make it engaging. So I think that's really helpful as well when you have students that are younger or maybe struggling to focus, to engage. It's great for that and was designed that way. The second part about people who are going into trades, I did not do trade school, but I thought back to my own experience. I did not have a typical, career trajectory. I had many steps after high school but didn't do the traditional college route. And, even now. I think throughout my day when I'm working or whether I'm doing things around the house, oh, I need to prioritize my to-do list for today. Or how can I read this in a way where I can actually remember what I read? Things like that. And I think for any career, whether it be trade school, you're going into college, you're not going to college, you're going straight into the workforce, whatever it may be, this really has those foundational principles that you would need. We also have something that's great for adults, and it's a little booklet about creating and implementing a personal, strategic plan. And I've really enjoyed looking at that because, that works for anybody, whether you're, 15 or 80 you can use that for your career, for your personal life. So I think that's a really great resource too.

Timmy Eaton 36:16

Wow. Thank you very much. Yeah. Like the more I'm hearing this and thinking about it and just looked into what you guys have, what I like about it is, it's not like this is for this particular subject, but these are principles that can be applied to any aspect of not only academics, but of life. Is it fair to say that. This is well beyond study skills to organizational skills and to prioritizing, like you said, I feel like a lot of times people say they have to have balance in their life. I know what they mean by that, but my sense more and more is that we don't need balance, we need priority, and Absolutely. And because if we're balancing things, then things of higher priority are taking back seat to things that matter more. Or like it says in the Bible we strain at gnats and swallow camels and we shouldn't and we should prioritize what matters most. So go ahead and add to any of that.

Susan Ison 37:05

I'm right with you and I it, I feel this like I have to hold my tongue when people say they want work life balance and all that. And I go no. Because you've got to be, there's an order. There's

Timmy Eaton 37:15

an order to things.

Susan Ison 37:16

Yeah. There you've got to be priority driven. You've got to be mission driven or you're gonna be miserable. A long time ago I read, I listened to these tapes by this guy, Charles Hobbs called Your Time in Your Life. It was forever ago. My brother told me about 'em and I read 'em, listened to 'em, and of course nobody listens to tapes anymore, but he's probably on a podcast or YouTube. But one of the things he said, going back to a thing that Bethany mentioned about making your priority list, and we do teach this in the study skills, if you say your priorities are faith, family, friends, and fortune, then your faith and family are gonna be all a's your friends. And fortune might be all B's. And then you number those so that you go in order of what you say you know is your most important things. And what this guy, Charles Hobbs said, he said, when I'd go to bed at night, if I could lay down on my pillow and say that I got to all my As I'd had a good day.

Timmy Eaton 38:09

Oh, that's so good. And you said that name was Charles Hobbs?

Susan Ison 38:12

Yeah, Charles Hobbs. Your time, your Life. And he, I don't think he was a Christian. I don't know much about his faith, but those tapes were just, it was, he was really helpful. He talks a lot about values too, which we do get into more in the college level than we do in the other level. But again, it's all based on the strategic planning idea of you have a mission value goals. Objectives, action plans, that kind of thing. And so he gets a lot into that, identifying your values and that type of thing.

Timmy Eaton 38:41

Yeah. But I'm sure there were some principles obviously that that informed, what you do now. Absolutely. It's funny 'cause it's probably picky pants and it doesn't matter all too much. But the idea of goal setting versus priority living or, I just don't feel like I set goals anymore. I I try to prioritize. 'cause goals seem very short term, which are good. Again, I'm not like anti goal. And it's probably just semantic, but I just feel like priority is at least the English word that works for me.

Susan Ison 39:08

Your point too about that I think it is semantics because for me, a goal is a priority. So again, it's just whatever word you use for it. But I think you and I would mean the same thing. Same thing, yeah. By it. And it's, these are these big chunks, Peter Drucker called 'em. Key result areas. What are the main areas in your life in which you want to see results? And you can't have 20 of those. You can only have a few and they don't change in business. They have a 20 year life. When I do strategic planning for businesses, a goal or a KRA has a 20 year life. It's not changing. It's the objective that changes. It is the thing that's got the date and the time and what it is you want to accomplish. And they're life changers. Yeah. To be able to write down what am I here for? What are my goals? And also that helps your kids when you're helping them. And I'm speaking to your listeners as, and you just as much, I think particularly for homeschoolers. Having some of these things. 'cause you're so overwhelmed, you've got so much on your plate, you've got so much you're trying to do, you have so many interruptions. You have to have something that can make you feel like I got to all my as today so that you can put your head on the pillow and go to bed at night and rest. And I think too, for new homeschoolers, one of the things we've found in this is that, some people that have not had courses in education don't know about teaching vitus gives you real clear instructions on how to help your child learn how to read effectively, so you don't have to figure that out. So that's just another little thing to throw in While I'm thinking of it.

Timmy Eaton 40:42

Yeah, it's true. There is so much. And you've taken on the principal role of teaching and learning in your family as homeschool families. But then to use these resources to expand our reach and to be able to do more than we're able to on our own right. That's one of the biggest misconceptions. It's do you have a teaching degree? And it's just with due respect, it's just such a ridiculous question. Now it's about principles of learning and living and knowing how to leverage the resources like Victus in what we're doing. Would you guys say that this is more about like education or like organizational behavior

Susan Ison 41:09

I think it's all about processes that you need in life to have good results in your life. I don't know which category. I mean it is, organization is part of it, but it's all these processes that you need in order to be effective in your life. And that's what I think it is more than anything. Another bible verse we have in there is zeal without knowledge is not good because what we think, happens, and we've seen this, with kids particularly in study, go study harder. Go read that chapter again, then you'll get it. No, that's not how it's gonna work. 'cause that's zeal without knowledge. You have to have the knowledge of what are the steps that I need to take in order to read effectively. And kind of my goal is to get everybody to be a strategic thinker so that you're thinking about everything is around. Your thought process of why are you here? And then what are the steps that you need to take in order to take care of this task or that task or whatever. So I don't know how to answer that. Is it educational or organizational? I think it's life.

Timmy Eaton 42:14

Yeah. And I like that because that, it's not like you're working towards a test or one thing, but it's a, again, principle that's wo woven into the fabric of our daily living. And I your example there is like the example of like busy versus productive. Are you just gonna go read that chapter again? It's like busyness versus productivity and then working smarter as opposed to, I, everybody would agree with the importance of working hard, but hopefully that includes working intelligently and, with some process and intention with it,

Susan Ison 42:43

we can try.

Timmy Eaton 42:44

So let's say I'll just use like a very specific example. Let's say you have a 13-year-old boy who is more hands on enjoys being read to, but doesn't necessarily wanna read books, will listen to them and but wants to have the option in the future of pursuing a degree as rigorous as engineering, but might just do something like, start a business in plumbing.

Susan Ison 43:08

Okay. So he's 13 years old. He likes hands-on, you said, right?

Timmy Eaton 43:13

Yes.

Susan Ison 43:14

He much more like an auditory when it comes to books rather than him reading them. Yep. Is that correct? Yeah. So this is the part I wasn't sure of. He's interested in engineering, but might start, are these things he said that he's interested in or

Timmy Eaton 43:29

No, just things that we've talked about based on the observation of what he naturally gravitates to. So no, he hasn't been like, I wanna be an engineer, or I wanna do plumbing. He's just very hands-on. And he is good at this like discussion, but he doesn't necessarily want to read and write. He's a 13-year-old boy. That's probably pretty typical. But he loves projects and he loves organizing and cleaning and fixing things and when work we're working on the car. He has more intuition about it than I do for sure.

Susan Ison 43:59

It is so funny 'cause everything you're saying about him makes me think of one of my grandsons, the one that I mentioned who's graduating from Charlotte and into cars. Oh cool. Because I'm going, okay. So I'm just thinking back to when Alex was 13. That's what he was like. And now he's just gotten his degree in automotive engineering and has the most fantastic job. All of us, our heads are spinning, but it's all hands on stuff. He. Loves the hands-on stuff, and what he does is his job in that formula racing stuff, his job, at least one of his recent jobs, is to analyze why the car did a certain thing and then recreate that on one of those CAD things so that they can recreate the car to be a better car. How was he when he was the age of your son? He was very interested in baseball. That was his thing. He was not like his sister, who is student. He was not that and he really isn't. Even now, he has to get excited about what it is that he's doing. I don't think he'll ever make the president's list in college or never did. But he wasn't a bad student. It just wasn't his love. So what they did with him and then when you said the thing about the cars, that was the nail on the head. 'cause John will get under the car with Alex and John's pretty good. John's pretty good at stuff, my son. But Alex is there. No dad. No dad. No dad. But what they did, and I would encourage you with this, is what I think really works with kids, particularly when you're not real sure. They're not real sure, which is probably all of them, but following their passion and teach them at the moment, kinda like that phrase you said earlier, when the student's ready, the teacher will appear. Take those moments. So take those moments when he is like really excited and yes, you can show him a way that might even help him be better. As far as how does Victus play into that? If I were gonna recommend one of the curriculums is he self-motivated for something like a five hour program? If you said, I think this would really help you, would he be self-motivated in that or not?

Timmy Eaton 46:10

What would the program have be having him do,

Susan Ison 46:13

learn all these study skills things?

Timmy Eaton 46:15

Yeah. I if it was like, writing and reading and what do you think about this and how would you think through this? He, on his, he I think he would be better teacher directed. I know that it's either teacher directed or DIY and then it would have to be crafted in a way that like how much time a day would he be spending on it and that kind of thing. But yeah, like you said, if there was a clear end goal of this is customized to you, to magnify what is already there naturally, then I think he would understand that would be beneficial to him and then would invest a certain amount of time a day. But yeah, to sit down and do something literary or academic for that long depending on how much time it requires a day, I don't know. You could probably just adjust it, but

Susan Ison 46:57

Yeah. And you could just say, let's just spend 15 minutes a day on it and, and that it's five hours. So what are you talking about there? Not that many sessions that you have and the first lesson the first two lessons not lessons, but sections, the where am I now and where do I wanna be? They are so motivating. I've never had a kid who didn't like to do that. 'cause you want to know more about yourself. You wanna know how you learn best. And it's a great opportunity for parents to say, see Honey, I knew you were an auditory learner from the day you were born. It's a great way for you to. To encourage them to go, oh wow. And now we're gonna build on that strength. Let's talk about that. And or

Timmy Eaton 47:35

maybe you discover that you had assumptions and then this teaches you like, oh, they, they're actually less auditory than I thought that would've, what a great revelation that would be for a parent.

Susan Ison 47:45

Absolutely. And then the study habits checklist, the same way going, yeah. Yeah. Yep. I don't ever do my homework and that might not be such a good thing, yeah. But most kids it's really motivating to them. And then when they do that second part, the where do I wanna be? He may not know, but I bet having been raised by y'all and having all these other siblings, he's gotta have some sense about what he thinks he would like to be in the world. I doubt that he says, I just wanna be a bum and sit on the beach all day. Yeah. And I think that's the kind of family he's come from. And so he's got something and he just writes that down and then he starts writing down his priorities. And those two things, really, those first two steps, get the kids motivated enough to where they're ready to listen to. Okay. Now here's the best process for when you do listen. Here's some things that you can do. When you take notes, they're more ready, the soil is more fertile now for the seed to be received and grow. Yes.

Timmy Eaton 48:42

And then maybe we'll wrap up with this, but I just thought, so do you both see this as a mechanism to prepare people for, clearly not that they have to stick to it, but clearly pursuing a likely career or education path?

Susan Ison 48:57

Not necessarily in my idea. Okay. Because it's not, I'm thinking of another grandson who, he just wants to do something in the world of serving the Lord he not real confident about. He's just gotten his, he's finishing up his last year of college, has a major in business, but that's not really his

Timmy Eaton 49:21

passion.

Susan Ison 49:22

No, it's not. And yet he's a great student. Just super guy. So I don't know that it's so much about education in the traditional sense.

Timmy Eaton 49:33

Yeah.

Susan Ison 49:33

They're helpful tools to help you through school. Okay. They will help you through any educational endeavor you have. Those are tools that are definitely there. But for me, what it's more is much more than that, is more about can you be the age I am and look back on your life and go, it really doesn't matter what I made on that history test in 10th grade. What matters is what's happening with my grandchildren, my children.

Timmy Eaton 49:58

Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Bethany, any comments on that?

Bethany Pinos 50:01

Yeah, I was just thinking about how, one thing, Susan touched on this a little bit earlier, but one thing that I really love about it is how it just really prompts children, high schoolers, whatever age two, think about these things to consider their future. I remember when I was maybe, I don't know, 16 somebody asked me, Hey, so what are you gonna do with your career? What's your plan? And I was. Shocked. What? I haven't even thought about that. Yeah. Why are you asking me that? So that, I don't wanna do that. I just wanna, have fun and be a teenager.

Timmy Eaton 50:36

So I

Bethany Pinos 50:36

think that it's really wonderful in the way that it gives you those steps to take pen to paper to think about your future, whatever that may be. How amazing it would be if you said, I wanna be a missionary, I wanna move to Ghana and serve there for the rest of my life. That would be incredible. But there's certain steps you have to take to get there, and certain things you have to plan through, think through you have to have those priorities, that vision for your life. So I think it's like Susan said, it's both. You may do something, the traditional college education route, I. However you're, gonna get there. That is the part that you have to learn and you have to really be prompted to think through these things and learn these skills. They're really life skills, yeah. That, like I said earlier, I still use, I use today in my work and my home life, so I love that about it.

Susan Ison 51:41

One thing Bethany said too, that we do say, and I, she made me remember this by what she said, is trying to help kids understand that there is a connection between what they do today and ha what happens tomorrow. 'cause it's not just, you're doing this today, for today. There is something that's gonna happen in the future of about what you do today. The decisions, the actions, what you do today does affect your tomorrows. And we've had so many schools and different teachers say, gosh, if they could all just learn that one thing.

Timmy Eaton 52:12

Yes. No, that's, yeah. And that is hard, especially for a, not fully developed brain that's not, not doing that, and I just love that this, I think the point that you guys are making is that Victus equips you with those skills. And so I, anyway, I thank you so much for taking time today. This has been excellent. You guys, this has been Susan Ison and Bethany Pinos and coming from Ecuador and Tennessee, it's so cool, the good connection. I'll give you guys the last word and then we'll wrap up anything you wanna say in closing. And and again, we'll put any resources and things and websites into the show notes.

Susan Ison 52:42

I'd say, first of all, thank you so much for taking your time and going so deep with this. It's really helpful to get this message out and hopefully your listeners will if anybody needs to contact us please do that too, 'cause you, we answer our emails and, if you have questions, whatever, we'd be glad to be a support in whatever way we can be.

Timmy Eaton 53:04

Thank you. Yeah. And I can attest that they respond and respond quickly and Bethany's been excellent to work with Bethany.

Bethany Pinos 53:11

Yeah. I'm always here, if anybody has any questions, they can contact us. And I just wanna say to your listeners, keep going, keep doing what you're doing. I love being homeschooled, like I said earlier, and it's such a beautiful journey. We're here to help. Anything you need, we're always available, so just contact us and thank you Timmy, so much for having us on. It's been really great.

Timmy Eaton 53:35

Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you guys.

53:40

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 Podcast 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.