29 What Homeschooling Really Looks Like | What We Prioritize, What We’ve Learned

What does homeschooling actually look like in real life?

In this episode of Handmade Happiness, Jessica and Thomas Clark from The Lark Life share an honest, behind-the-scenes look at their homeschool rhythms, what’s working, what they’ve changed, and what matters most to them as they teach and learn alongside their kids.

This conversation goes beyond curriculum and schedules to focus on the bigger picture: raising capable kids, building life skills, and creating a home environment where learning happens naturally.

Whether you’re currently homeschooling, considering it, or simply interested in creating a more intentional learning environment at home, this episode offers encouragement, perspective, and practical insight.

Find more resources, courses, and encouragement at The Lark Life

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Until next time, may you find joy in the simple things and beauty in the work of your hands.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Handmade Happiness, a podcast about simple living, handmade skills, and building a life rooted in what matters most. We talk about everything from homesteading and cooking from scratch to quilting, gardening, and raising capable kids. This is a place to slow down, learn new skills, and be reminded that a meaningful life is often built in the small everyday moments. If you enjoy today's conversation, you can follow or subscribe to the podcast wherever you're listening. That way, new episodes will just be there when you're ready for them. Now for today's episode. Hi there and welcome to the Handmade Happiness Podcast. I'm Jessica.

SPEAKER_01 0:37

And I'm Thomas.

SPEAKER_00 0:38

And welcome in. It's been uh a crazy day, a crazy week. So today we uh had multiple rounds of hail and crazy wind and rain.

SPEAKER_01 0:49

Yeah, just like band after band of storms coming.

SPEAKER_00 0:51

Baseball size hail came through today. It was kind of crazy. Um, but thankfully everything is is good.

SPEAKER_01 0:58

Yeah, it's good. Our roof is intact, no cars with busted windshields. Although I did see photos of people in the area that have been.

SPEAKER_00 1:04

But fortunately, we we I was able to keep ours under cover here, and you didn't have too many issues while you were at work. So um, and we are gearing up, so we have started our farmers markets. Um and that is it's been busy, but it's so good to finally be like we've been talking about it and prepping for it for so long, and now it's here and it feels oh, and if you're coming to Baker Creek, yes, I'm at Baker Creek. Come out and see us today and tomorrow. So they they are doing their spring planting festival. You can come and be awesome. Some amazing flowers and vegetables, produce things that you can grow. You can get seeds, you can get tips on how to grow all the things. Uh it's a pretty cool place.

SPEAKER_01 1:53

They grow a lot of really cool stuff, stuff you've never seen before.

SPEAKER_00 1:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:56

Like I've never seen beets and radishes that big.

SPEAKER_00 2:00

Oh, yeah. Like at the last festival, they had a 10-foot-long radish.

SPEAKER_01 2:05

Yeah, I didn't know that was a thing.

SPEAKER_00 2:07

Yeah. Um, so, anyways, pretty pretty cool and exciting. And then in other news, this week I am also going to be featured as a guest on the Art of Home podcast.

SPEAKER_01 2:17

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:18

Um, so you're famous. Whatever. Um, I got to do an episode with Allison Weeks of the Art of Home podcast. She um and I had a deep dive conversation all about quilting. Uh, and so uh I would love for you to go check out that episode this week. It's the Art of Home podcast, and you can find it there.

SPEAKER_01 2:40

I haven't actually had the opportunity to listen to that yet, so I need to go. I need to go check it out and see what you had to say.

SPEAKER_00 2:45

Um I'll put a link in the in the description for you so that you can kind of check that out. But that's that's exciting too. So um, so today's topic, we are going to be talking about homeschooling, or I guess schooling in general. Um you were homeschooled.

SPEAKER_01 3:03

I was my whole life.

SPEAKER_00 3:04

I was not. I went to public school and private school. Um, so we kind of had different educational experiences.

SPEAKER_01 3:11

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 3:12

Um, I was a public school teacher for quite a while, and our kids have been in public school for charter schools, public schools, yeah. Um, and now with this move, we kind of collectively as a family made the decision to homeschool. Yeah and so I guess tonight we'll just talk through what what our goals are in educating our kids, what what it looks like now, what it looked like then, things that are working, things that we're excited about, um, and just kind of dive into that whole conversation as we so often talk about being intentional to raise capable kids that are lifelong learners. This kind of fits right into that.

SPEAKER_01 3:56

So and I think just as a pre as a caveat before we really get started, I think it's gonna be pretty obvious as we go through this that we are advocates of homeschooling. But that being said, um, as you mentioned before, you were publicly and privately schooled. I was homeschooled. I don't think either one of us had gaps in our education.

SPEAKER_00 4:16

No, right?

SPEAKER_01 4:17

In other words, I don't think that you got a subpar education because we we feel that there are advantages to homeschooling that make it a uh it makes it a great choice for most people.

SPEAKER_00 4:31

Yeah, and for for our season, for where we are in life, and for our kids and who they are as individuals and how they learn, yeah. Um it's been a good a good choice for us this year.

SPEAKER_01 4:43

And we've talked about this before that um one of ours is actually in public school right now.

SPEAKER_00 4:48

Yeah, so we have our three oldest. Our three oldest are have been homeschooled, but our youngest uh is gonna join us for just a minute if he really, really wanted to be part of the podcast this week.

SPEAKER_01 4:59

So can you tell everybody your name?

SPEAKER_00 5:01

Nicholas.

SPEAKER_01 5:02

Nicholas, that's right. How old are you?

SPEAKER_02 5:04

Six.

SPEAKER_01 5:05

What grade are you in?

SPEAKER_02 5:06

Kindergarten.

SPEAKER_01 5:07

You're in Kinder, yeah. And so Nick goes to public school, he goes to Kinder, and for this season like rides the school bus to and from school.

SPEAKER_00 5:16

Yeah, like a big you're a big boy, huh?

SPEAKER_01 5:19

What's your favorite thing about school?

SPEAKER_02 5:23

I get two recesses.

SPEAKER_01 5:24

Do you get two recesses? Of course.

SPEAKER_02 5:29

But today I guess that's cool. I didn't because there was hail and rain. Yeah, it was not a good weather day.

SPEAKER_01 5:34

The weather was pretty poopy today. Oh, you've got your own mug of tea. I just realized I had two mugs. That's that's your tea, huh?

SPEAKER_00 5:41

So that's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 5:41

You gotta have it be on podcasts.

SPEAKER_00 5:43

When we moved, we planned on homeschooling Nicholas.

SPEAKER_01 5:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:47

And the week before school started, Nicholas asked if he could go to big school. Right. Because he really wanted to go meet some friends. He's us he's our super social one, and so we signed him up and he's been doing phenomenally uh in his school, making great friends, and he is an excellent reader and is just doing fantastic. But he has decided now, he's told us that he really wants to be homeschooled next year. So we were gonna kind of ask him about that.

SPEAKER_01 6:18

Are you excited to be homeschooled?

SPEAKER_00 6:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:20

Yeah. What's what kind of things are you looking forward to at homeschool?

SPEAKER_02 6:28

To learn how to draw.

SPEAKER_01 6:30

Yeah, so doing like art projects. And I know you like to play your guitar.

SPEAKER_02 6:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:35

Right? Uh what else did we talk about that that you you really liked about homeschool, do you remember? Was there anything else specific? I think you said you you liked that you could take a long lunch break.

SPEAKER_02 6:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:51

Yeah, and mommy cooks you lunch every day. That's pretty cool, right?

SPEAKER_02 6:53

Lunch lunch breaks are like lunch breaks are like this long.

SPEAKER_01 6:59

Oh, they're like ginormous lunch breaks. Yeah, you don't get long lunch breaks at candy, huh?

SPEAKER_00 7:02

You have to be so half of the time he doesn't get to eat but a tiny little bit of his lunch. But mom lunches. Mom lunches this big, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:10

Mom lunches is way bigger, right?

SPEAKER_00 7:12

Also, Nick really likes learning new things, and he really likes making stuff. And when we're homeschooled, you're gonna get lots of time and chances to make lots of stuff, right?

SPEAKER_02 7:29

I think I I think I like to learn how to make stuff with like trash.

SPEAKER_01 7:36

Like trash, yeah, like doing trash art and stuff.

SPEAKER_00 7:38

Like to recycle it? Like what kind of things might you make?

SPEAKER_02 7:43

I think I might make like a blanket. Oh, okay. Like with like a bunch of trash. Yeah, that's pretty pretty exciting. That's ambitious. Like a bunch of soda cans and like tea cans. Oh wow. Like our Arizona cans. Oh, yeah. Or I could make stuff with like foil.

unknown 8:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:04

Yeah, because it crumples and makes good shapes, right?

SPEAKER_02 8:06

That guy made my snake.

SPEAKER_01 8:08

Yeah, you made a snake. He brought a snake home from school the other day. Uh there was a foil snake that they had made as one of their projects in their class. So that was awesome. Well, thank you for chatting with us. Are you you want to go watch a movie with Sister now?

SPEAKER_03 8:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:21

Yeah. Make sure you take your tea. We don't want to don't want to let your tea get cold. Love you, bud. Thank you. So our six-year-old everybody.

SPEAKER_00 8:33

Yeah. Um so I guess uh we had this conversation when we started to move about what we were gonna do and if the kids this was a huge move for our entire family. That's a big deal. And so we let the kids be a part of the the decision of homeschool versus going to school. We didn't just make that choice for them. But like, what were some of the things you uh you you were thinking through as we made that choice?

SPEAKER_01 9:02

I think for me, and again, a lot of this is coming from my experience in homeschool, but one of the things that I distinctly remember was just that school for us didn't look like discrete subjects being taught in s individual class segments.

SPEAKER_00 9:20

Like compartmentalized uh right, traditional school.

SPEAKER_01 9:24

When mom went to the grocery store, we went to the grocery store. But even within that, we were learning how to talk to adults, we were learning how to meal plan, meal prep, right? So you there's all these like critical thinking skills and and thinking ahead and talking with strangers and tabulating your bill and calculating food needs for based on you know what the meal plans were, or how much bread are we gonna need if we're having sandwiches four times as opposed to three, or you know, those things. And so it was very organic in school just happened because you had to have certain things that you knew how to do to live life, right?

SPEAKER_04 10:05

As an adult, right?

SPEAKER_01 10:06

And so one of the things that my my that my siblings and I learned early on is like adults adulting skills, right? Life skills, because you have to know how to negotiate, you have to know how to ask how much something costs and decide whether that's a good value or a bad value. Um, you have to know how to navigate a grocery store, right? Where would you find you know, creme fraîche, right? Where would you find baking powder? And so all of these things are things that kids in public school are not necessarily being exposed to because mom goes to the grocery store while they're at school.

SPEAKER_00 10:41

Right.

SPEAKER_01 10:41

And food magically appears in the pantry.

SPEAKER_00 10:43

And well, and all the banking, all the bill paying, all the budget stuff, all the things all the cleaning and the chores and the yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:50

And my dad would go to Home Depot, so I went to Home Depot. Yeah, not gonna lie, a lot of times it was because I knew there was a snow cone place outside at Home Depot.

SPEAKER_00 10:57

And maybe just maybe dad's.

SPEAKER_01 10:59

Maybe just maybe dad, because dad likes snow cones too, to be honest. Yeah, but I also learned about how to measure lumber and feet and how to calculate how many screws we're gonna need for a given project.

SPEAKER_00 11:09

And eight foot two by four is not actually eight foot.

SPEAKER_01 11:13

Yeah, nor is it two or four, right? And so those are things that you don't learn in a classroom environment that come in real handy in real life. And so uh, in addition to the flexibility of the curriculum where you have, you know, you can your kids can learn what they want to learn, right? You can really lean into those things that they enjoy. There's certain basic skills. People have to know how to read, how to write, and how to do math, right? Up say through algebra. But realistically, I can't think of a single instance where I've actually used calculus in real life, other than having a familiarity with concept, right? But outside of those base things, I learned most of my history from pleasure reading. Because I learned to read, I learned to enjoy reading. I read copiously as a child. As a reward, I know I'm a nerd, okay, whatever. But the the point is that there were things that weren't necessarily given to me as a specific curriculum, but I still absorbed that because I learned to love reading. And then again, all the collateral outside of that. I played football, I played baseball, I played soccer, I played basketball. We did all these things, right? We didn't miss out on any of all the excuses that people give, right? Well, what about organized sports, or what about band, or what about whatever? And I to be honest, the only thing that I actually missed was like prom. And that's not my scene anyway. Like, I don't know that I would have even gone if I had had a prom. Yeah. And you can have a prom if you're homeschooled, they do it all the time. Yeah, so I I don't feel like I missed anything. And people say, well, what about social stuff? What about other kids? There were kids in my neighborhood that I played with all the time. There were kids at my church that I played with all the time. There's plenty of opportunity for all those excuses that people give for why their kids need to be in public school. Um, there's plenty of opportunity to have all of those things in the homeschool setting, especially if you're in a state where they support homeschooling here in Missouri, very pro-homeschool. My kids can actually.

SPEAKER_00 13:14

There's a lot of homeschoolers here.

SPEAKER_01 13:16

Uh yeah, and well, and our kids are entitled to all of the benefits that come with the school district, even though they're not in a school. So my kids can play football at their zone school. My kid can go be in band at their zone school if we chose to do so. Um, so there's a lot of access and opportunities for homeschoolers.

SPEAKER_00 13:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:33

Anyway, I digress.

SPEAKER_00 13:35

Um, so for me, when we came here, um I will say, first of all, our kids have always done incredibly well in school.

SPEAKER_01 13:44

They do really well.

SPEAKER_00 13:45

Um, so there was nothing like they weren't struggling in public school. We didn't, I know a lot of parents make the decision to pull kids out because there's problems or things happening.

SPEAKER_03 13:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:55

We didn't have any problems. They were always in the top of their class, they're very bright, very successful. 63% had friends, their teachers would always come and tell us how much they loved having our kids in their class, that they were such an asset for their classroom and for the school, and like they they were doing great, they were thriving. Yeah, they were not struggling, they were not struggling, they and they were achieving and learning and doing well.

unknown 14:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:19

Um, so really when we made the move, it's like, okay, they're doing well. Should I pull them out and do the homeschool or should we leave them in? And I know for me as a teacher, one of the things that I I would hear the kids get in the car and tell us about things that happened in their day at school. And time after time it was uh the story went that you know there was this benchmark testing happening, and the whole school was on lockdown, and nobody could leave the classroom, and nobody could, and their normal learning day was interrupted because someone somewhere in the building was doing some sort of testing.

SPEAKER_01 14:59

Yeah, um so they norm.

SPEAKER_00 15:01

They yeah, they were losing a lot of instruction, and then they would come and tell me stories about like some of the instruction that they were receiving. A lot of it post-COVID got kind of relegated to computers, and they would just put on a program, uh, they would watch something, they would do this thing on an app, but the teacher wasn't actually teaching or instructing, they were just kind of going through um, they were just proctoring, they didn't go through their textbooks that they had, they were just going through this series of worksheets or modules that they had that they were using.

SPEAKER_03 15:41

Modules on the computer, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:42

And there was a again, a lot of time wasted. And I remember even when I was teaching, we we didn't have all the testing and all the computer stuff like as prevalent as our kids did. But just when you have a classroom with 30 kids in it, um, some kids work faster than others, some work slower, and you have a set amount of minutes that okay, this is math minutes, and that kid is done with their math assignment for the day. I can't move on because somebody else is still working their stuff. This other kid is literally just sitting here, and I can try to give them things, but it's really just busy work and they're yeah, they're wasting time.

SPEAKER_01 16:26

Yeah, one of the things that happens a lot of times in public school is average kids do pretty well, but kids who need additional help often can't or don't get it.

SPEAKER_04 16:39

Right.

SPEAKER_01 16:39

And kids who are overachievers are generally end up being held back.

SPEAKER_04 16:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:45

Right? Because, like you said, they finished their tests in 30 minutes and now they're literally sitting there with their head on their desk because the best thing they're allowed to do in that moment is sleep.

SPEAKER_00 16:55

Right. They're not even allowed to read books half the time.

SPEAKER_01 16:57

Right, they can't even read books, and which is absurd. And uh the other thing, one of the big problems that I had with public school was the amount of homework.

SPEAKER_04 17:08

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:09

And I think that my biggest issue was when you look at the homework they were being sent, it was either busy work, just crap to keep them entertained while mom made dinner or something, or it was work that they should have done during the school day, but they didn't because they spend most of their time managing a classroom instead of actually instructioning. Right. Instructioning that's not even right. But right, so the point is when you have 30 kids in a class and you have an hour to teach there's a lot of behavior management happening, not teaching per se. Yeah, I mean, if each kid has a question, that consumes your entire teaching hour.

SPEAKER_00 17:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:47

And it's not productive. So of course they were getting sent home with two whole chapters of whatever to do because well, we were supposed to do it in class, but so and so asked a question and the teacher went on a tangent and we didn't get to it every day.

SPEAKER_04 18:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:01

And so then my kids come home, they've been at school, cooped up all day, and now they've got two hours of homework that they now have to do and turn in. And the irony is that because you were a teacher, right, you and I know that half the time that work that they're turning in is homework, basically, if they get it turned in, it's getting them an A. Or like, or it's being graded very loosely.

SPEAKER_00 18:25

Because there's no way for the teacher to say that the student actually did that work.

SPEAKER_01 18:30

Well, and the other problem is you have 30 kids in your class that you sent home or two hours of homework home with. You think they have time to sit there and grade two pages per kid times 30 times however many rotations?

SPEAKER_00 18:42

And the research shows uh, first of all, a lot of the kids that are turning in their homework are the kids that don't necessarily need the extra practice.

SPEAKER_01 18:49

That was the kicker for me.

SPEAKER_00 18:50

The ones that need the extra practice, they're not doing homework, they're not turning it in. They don't have the support at home to make sure they're doing the homework. And then if they do happen to do the homework, the majority of the time, if they're doing it incorrectly because they didn't really grasp it, it's no one's gonna tell them. Now they're teaching their brain, they're practicing the wrong thing, and then you as the teacher, it's gonna take you that much longer to reteach and get them to forget what they did wrong and focus on, you know, learn, relearn the right way. So um, yeah, it was just a lot. So, all of that to say, uh, we decided to homeschool our kids. Again, we were gonna homeschool everybody, but Nick decided he wanted to go to public school, which I'm I was fine with, but that's worked out great. Um, the other three we've been homeschooling and it has been great. I mean, there's there's ups and downs, and there's things that we it was a big adjustment for everybody, but they're all at the ages where they can do things pretty independently. I check in with them and see, and they come to me if they have questions or they don't understand something, but a lot of their stuff is reading and comprehending and learning about you know the history and the science and you know the English, all those things, they're kind of able to do a lot of that on their own. So I'm not having to sit and give a whole lot of instruction.

SPEAKER_01 20:15

Direct instruction.

SPEAKER_00 20:15

Um they're able to knock out their schoolwork very quickly and then they have time now for other interests. Um music, musical instruments, the sewing, cooking. Um, we have time to go to the library regularly, and they have time to do things outside and um just and then our evenings are very chill because nobody's trying to do homework or assessment. Hours of homework that we're having to do, and we're not on somebody else's schedule. If somebody comes to visit us and we need to do school a little later at a different time, it's flexible and we can do that. And um, or if we want to go somewhere and travel, we can do that, and we're not worried about that's something I think we didn't touch on earlier that flexibility to say, okay, we're gonna take a week off in the middle of the school year to go on vacation, and we'll just make that up on the back end on the summer or in the spring or you know, however, um, which is a huge plus because life happens, right?

SPEAKER_01 21:17

And so yeah, having the ability to not get God, I can't tell you how many times I had to explain to a teacher or explain to a truancy or you know, whatever, like I mean not truancy, but you know, having to justify why I'm taking my kid in and out of school. It's like because I said so. Well, we need no, and at the end of the day, what it what it really boils down to is we don't get funding if, right? And it has nothing to do with them caring about your kid's education or all that stuff, it's that they don't get the money if your kid doesn't have their butt in the seat or an excuse, right? And that has always really annoyed me that I have to justify my family's life pattern. To a school district so that they can get money. Um there's gotta be a better way to do that. But anyways, that's a sidebar, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 22:08

So I guess let's jump into as we think about educating our kids, what are the priorities? What's the most important for us?

SPEAKER_01 22:20

I think one of the big things that I've seen is, and I don't know that we explicitly set out to do this, but the ability for them to lean into the things that they like.

SPEAKER_00 22:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:31

Um, and I know there are several people who are are advocates of that who will tell you, um, I think the the famous statement was if your kid hates math but he loves music, you don't hire a math tutor, you hire a piano teacher. Right? And because again, what is he gonna do in life? He's not gonna be a mathematician, right? That's for sure, right? Because he hates math. But if he loves piano, he might actually be something good about that, right? And so I think like for Ruben loving to cook and McKenzie liking to sew and those things, like let him do it. So by the time McKenzie's 18 graduated, she can be, she could literally be a seamstress. Oh, she'll have the experience, she's got hours of.

SPEAKER_00 23:17

She's been coming with me to the classes that I teach, and she sits in there alongside of those ladies, and she is out sewing them. Yeah, she is, she is doing it, and they are all so they're like, oh my goodness. She made a tote bag the other day. That's how awesome that you're doing. And and again, we've said it before, but like we're here, we've set this like this foundation, but we hope that our kids way surpass that. And watching her, like, I didn't start sewing when I was her age. If I had, can you imagine where I would be like all the things that I could do today? So she's that much ahead of me, even though it's like we would have had to buy a bigger house for your long arm machine. She's gonna be able to do all kinds of things, so yeah, it's it's really great. And we didn't necessarily do it on purpose, we were trying to help them find like we were intentional to pay attention to. Like, oh, this is something that we should lean into. Yeah. Um, but we didn't like no, we didn't like choose those things. Something that we forced to happen, it just kind of naturally happened over the course of the year.

SPEAKER_01 24:27

But the fact that it organically kind of showed itself and and what they enjoyed doing was because they were able to try things because they were here and had the time to explore that. And so that I think to me, that's one of the biggest upsides is that your kids are not getting force fed a box curriculum. And I'm not gonna go off on my high horse about how the education system is a machine to produce good laborers for factories and stuff, because I know that sounds pretty, you know, that makes me not a good capitalist, I guess. But um, but but the point is that uh our kids are being educated in an environment that lets them kind of explore what they enjoy, but at the same time, they're also getting some things like Latin and Greek roots and and the literary selections that we're making for them and things where they're getting broader education, more classical education, than they would in a public school setting, right? Which is very cut and dried.

SPEAKER_00 25:25

Well, and they have time and space to be curious and to ask questions, and then those questions then lead them to figure out how to find the answer. So just like we have always talked about we're constantly learning and growing, they are learning how to be a learner who's asking questions and doing the exploration and finding like where do I go to get this question answered? And they're figuring all those things out.

SPEAKER_01 25:54

Um and to if you've been in the public school system, it's boring.

SPEAKER_00 26:00

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:01

I mean, no, no offense, there's a lot of good teachers out there who do their best to make it interesting, and I know even our kids have talked about teachers that they like and don't like and their teaching styles and things, but at the end of the day, if you in school, broadly speaking, if your kids are supposed to learn about bugs, they open a book and they read the chapter about bugs and they look at pictures of bugs, and that's like that's how they learn it, right? But if Nick wants to know about bugs, we go find a bug. We literally go find a bug and watch it and see what it does, and it's like, okay, what is this bug? And let's look it up. How does it do? And you can incorporate technology, we're not against technology, right? No, hit that sucker on Google, AI it, and see what you know. It'll tell you what bug it is and what it does. And does it sting? Is it is it stingy, right? Yeah, and what it eats and what it's does, and and all these things. So he can get all that information dump that technology provides to you, but he's also getting to experience the bug, right? He's seeing the bug, he's letting it crawl up his hand and up his arm and seeing how it feels and seeing whether it flies or what it what color, you know, all those things that you can't get from looking at a picture of something. Um, the interaction that nature has, and and that's another real big, I think, plus. You know, again, you can read a recipe on how to make cookies all day long, but until you actually get your hands in there and get flour moving around and sugar, oh yeah, you you're never gonna see the mechanics of how it works. And um, and again, just some of the more classical things that we do, like yeah, and so and they don't like some of it, they're like, oh, there's another one.

SPEAKER_00 27:36

I mean, that's what I was gonna say. There are things that I assign them because it's good. I know it's gonna be beneficial. Yeah, they're it's gonna help them. There's certain things that I ask them to read, and I know it's not their favorite thing, but there's some valuable information in there, some things that they that they need. Yeah, the Latin roots that are gonna help them with their spelling and their vocabulary and all of the things, um, understanding what they're reading better because they understand the basis of those words and things. They don't really like it very much, but it's it's good and helpful for them. But at the same time, but at the same time, they are given opportunities to choose some of the things that they're reading, which they wouldn't be given at school at all because the teacher selects and it's like part of the curriculum. Because it's built in. And we have a curriculum that we go through. Um and really that was for the sake of it being easier for me to assign them things, right?

SPEAKER_01 28:35

To provide some underlying structure. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:37

I am very busy doing lots of things. Um and so I needed something that that I could kind of just easily assign them things to do and that they would have things to walk through. But that being said, um homeschool doesn't have to look like traditional schools.

SPEAKER_01 28:57

Classroom time. No, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 28:58

And I've I've heard from so many people that, well, I don't I'm not educated as a teacher, I don't know how to teach. And to that I say, uh, yeah, you teach your kids every day.

SPEAKER_01 29:11

Do you know things? Like can you talk about those things? Then you can't.

SPEAKER_00 29:14

Well, then and you're teaching your kids, I mean, you teach them all kinds of things about everyday life, but some for some reason we step into this academic realm.

SPEAKER_01 29:22

And I can't teach that.

SPEAKER_00 29:24

And we've been led to believe that we can't teach that, and we can. We can help guide our kids in learning a lot of those things. And so, um some people use curriculum, some people don't. They are literally just pulling from here and there and everywhere, and they're still covering all of the things that need to be covered, they're still learning all of the reading and the mathematics and the writing, and you know, they're doing all of those things. Something that we have done that the school doesn't do, um, we've had all of our kids doing cursive handwriting, which is something that when we were in school, cursive handwriting was a part of your curriculum, you did that. Well, now that everything is on the computer, they don't do handwriting at all.

SPEAKER_04 30:09

At all. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:10

Um, which doesn't sound like that big of a deal because you're like, oh, but everybody works on the computer all day long. Yeah, but when you are handed a form and you're asked to make your signature and your kid prints their initials, and you're like, wait a second, that's not a signature.

SPEAKER_03 30:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:28

Um, so we've it was important for us that they learn how to write in cursive and to be able to read. If somebody hand wrote them something in cursive, that they would be able to read that.

SPEAKER_01 30:39

That's something that somebody brought up the other day is that a lot of kids can't read a document written in cursive because they've never seen letters shake like that.

SPEAKER_04 30:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:48

And that's such a trivial thing to people of our generation, right? But that's a real problem for somebody who's late Gen Z, early Gen Alpha, and they go, What is this? Is somebody went and scribbled all over my paper, you know? And um it that's a that's a that's a real thing.

SPEAKER_00 31:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:04

So um you had you had asked about um prioritizing. I think we prioritize I think reading is a huge priority for us. Huge. Because if you can read, you can learn everything else.

SPEAKER_00 31:20

When really like we're encouraging our kids, we have the things that we're reading for school, but we're also expecting and encouraging them to choose.

SPEAKER_04 31:30

Extracurricular reading.

SPEAKER_00 31:32

Just for pleasure. Just read, find something that you want to read, whether it's a a non-fiction book that you find interesting. Nick really loves animals and insects and also he's constantly bringing these books that I don't really enjoy, but he loves them and he's retaining so much information when he reads them.

SPEAKER_01 31:50

And he learns about animals.

SPEAKER_00 31:51

Those are not things that are a part of his school, but he is enjoying them, he chooses them, he's reading them, and retaining a lot of information, learning lots of things from them.

SPEAKER_01 32:01

And so, yeah, reading is well, and you just I mean, call it being cultured, call it being well read, call it being literate, whatever, but the point is so many things in life contain literary references, especially to classic literature, and like books that just like people you should have read this book, right? And I saw a shocking statistic a while back that 80% of people, Americans, I should clarify, 80% of Americans, once they get out of college, they do not voluntarily read another book. And I think that's tragic because you're limiting your understanding of the world, you're limiting your under your horizon, your your view, your ability to see the world from someone else's viewpoint. You don't have to agree with everything you read, right? If you don't think Ayn Rand was right, okay, great, but you should read the book, right? If you don't think that you know Napoleonic era Russia is an interesting topic, well, that's great, but at least take a crack at war and peace, right? Because again, so many things in our world cross-reference with important literary works, with documents and and books and stories that are important to our culture, but also important to the cultures of the world. And if you don't have any exposure to that, you are not going to have any clue how to relate to people. And just to be honest, I mean, we talk about with our kids, readers are leaders, right? The other the other thing is true too, leaders are readers. If you want your kids to be leaders, they need to be well read and well spoken because if they haven't read those books and they don't get the jokes and they don't understand the literary references, no one's going to take them seriously in in the upper circles of the people that they're gonna run into people, and when they don't get the joke, that person's gonna go, ah, they're not really a reader. And subconsciously, I because I do it, I meet people, and we in the in the course of dialogue, I realize this person has only ever read a goosebumps novel. And I'll be honest, I judge them for that. And whether that's right or wrong, the point is they have they are limited.

SPEAKER_04 34:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:20

And we don't want our kids to be limited like that. They need to have broad horizons where literary works are concerned. And again, most of what I know I learned from reading outside of curriculum.

SPEAKER_00 34:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:32

Most of it.

SPEAKER_00 34:34

Um so let's let's move on to kind of a thing that comes up anytime the homeschool conversation comes up. This always enters the conversation. Um, socialization. But how are your kids?

SPEAKER_01 34:47

Your kids are gonna be nerds.

SPEAKER_00 34:48

How will they know how to relate to other people because they're just at home on the street?

SPEAKER_01 34:51

Have you met my siblings?

SPEAKER_00 34:53

Um They're not nerds. Let's talk, but let's talk about I'm the nerdiest one, probably. So there's again, we've gotten this idea that somehow putting my kid in a classroom with 30 other kids that are their age, that have their same kind of life experience, their same education, they're like they're all kind of you've got this monoculture in this classroom. Um, and somehow that is equated with socialization.

SPEAKER_03 35:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:32

Um, but the beautiful thing about homeschool is homeschool, the kids are with their siblings of varying ages. Yeah. Other kids of all grades and ages, not all the same, uh, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, when you go to the store, when you go out in public to all these places, they're interacting with this super broad range of people. Because the world is not all your age. They're learning how to interact with people of all different ages, of all different experiences, of all different cultures. Um and that helps them understand humans better and how to connect with humans better, how to build community better, I feel, than just being in a classroom where they're not even allowed to talk, let's be honest, um, with a bunch of kids that are just like them. Um so we have seen one of the things that I again, so McKinsey's been going to the sewing classes with me. She's the only kid there. It's all adults. Um, I have a few that are coming that are in their late 20s, early 30s. I have some coming that are my age, and I have some coming that are grandmas and great grandmas even coming to my classes. So we have like this broad age range, and we've got people who are teachers and nurses and stay-at-home moms and business owners, entrepreneurs, we've got all this wide mix of people, and she gets to sit around a table with her sewing machine and have conversation. And so with all of these people, she's learning so much about how to really that's socializing, that's socialization, and so now they all have friends, like we get to be with people our own age too, and we get to have friends from church and from other places, and when we go out various places, and they you know, Bella has people that she's meeting at work, and oh yeah, we've got people from church, and then people from some of the shops and the farmers markets and things where we're connecting with other people in our area. Um, so they're getting lots of people, but again, we're we're having this, and I think that was true of your like your siblings.

SPEAKER_01 37:49

Oh my god, yeah. I met well-adjusted people.

SPEAKER_00 37:53

So you're the oldest. So when I met you, some of your siblings were most of your siblings were still children.

SPEAKER_01 38:00

Yeah, my baby brother was full.

SPEAKER_00 38:02

Yeah, they were they were still really little. Um, so no, he was younger. He was almost like I got to kind of watch a lot of them grow up.

SPEAKER_01 38:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:12

Um they have never shied away from a person, from a conversation. They always had friends, they always could go into any any social situation, they were able to walk in and kind of read the room and assess what was going on, and then they just would go and they would start talking to people, and they would be able to, you know, and some of the most relational people that I've ever met in my life.

SPEAKER_01 38:38

Um, that's a good point. Well, and and even at a young age, because again, we were being socialized because we're all in the grocery store, and so when somebody's grandpa walks up and compliments mom about all her good-looking children that she's got, you know, we're there for that. And when the price that rang up on the register is not the price that was on the sign, they were there for that too. And so they're seeing all of this and interacting and learning when mom says, Hey, go ask that employee where the whatever is, and they're six years old. And so on the flip side of that, on the community aspect of it, um, one of the things that you don't see a lot of when you're in public school all day is just how like how your neighborhood works, how your community interacts. And I talk a lot about grocery stores, but going to the post office, paying the bills, seeing your neighbors, right? Who has neighbors anymore? People don't know their neighbors, but showing your kids what that side of life looks like, right? Just that you're gonna run into a myriad of people who live in the same world you live in and they're not NPCs in your world, right? They have their own story, and that's their lawn.

SPEAKER_04 39:50

Oh, yeah, right.

SPEAKER_01 39:51

And so learning how to treat people with respect, how to understand that just because someone is different doesn't make them wrong or bad, just because someone looks weird, right? Or that well, how come their hair looks like that? How come they have a piercing in their, you know, whatever? Learning to be adjusted to that, because as you know, in schools, behavior, appearance, all those things are more or less uh normalized, right? You're not allowed to have blue hair, you're not allowed to have a nose piercing, you're not allowed to have a jacket that looks like that, you know, and um, and so teaching your kids to appreciate and understand other people for where they're at in life, and that that's okay, right? And and just how to function it as a community, how to be kind to your neighbors and take them cookies, how to mow your neighbor's front yard, right?

SPEAKER_00 40:44

Even when they're very different from you, and yeah, you don't necessarily understand that.

SPEAKER_01 40:48

How to respect but like other people's privacy, yeah, you know, kids in school, like there's no such thing as personal space, right? Yeah, but that's a concept that has to be taught because when you get in the workforce and you think it's okay to go in everybody's locker and then you get fired, yeah, you're like, Well, I was just joking. Well, nobody cares, yeah, right? Yeah boundaries, yeah, and that's something that teachers, I guess that's really getting more into behavior, but you can teach things as a parent that a teacher will never teach your kids.

SPEAKER_00 41:16

Yeah, and not because they're not reality, not because they're not a good teacher, but just that's not that's not their job, and or it's not their place, yeah, right.

SPEAKER_01 41:24

You you don't get to tell the kid what is what is and isn't appropriate for them to do with certain areas, and so um that's all included in homeschool as well, and um it it makes it a lot easier to instill values and and principles and morals and and things like that um on an on an or in an organic manner that you're not having to teach it, you're demonstrating it.

SPEAKER_00 41:47

Right, and it's kind of closing up for me the the big thing is it's so important for you and I. We talk about it all the time, that we're raising capable, confident kids, um, and that extends beyond just the academics, but beyond the math and the reading and the writing and those things. Um it it encompasses so much more. And this year, being able to homeschool them has given us more time to really pour into some of those other areas. They're still getting the academic learning, but we're we're also having the time to really spend developing some of these other areas as well, which is like self-confidence, so really nice, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:35

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:37

Um, and again, could we attributes could we do the could we do that if they were still going to school? Well, of course, yeah. Yes, but it'd be a whole lot harder and we would have a whole lot less time to make it happen. So it's just been nice. It kind of has taken the pressure off because we're not on such a tight, hurried schedule. It's allowed us to kind of slow down and really be intentional with what we're doing with them. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:03

Um, I think just as a kind of a closing thought, uh, something we didn't mention earlier. Our oldest daughter is uh 17 and she's taking a lot of dual credit courses. Um, that's also something you can do in homeschool. She didn't lose her AP credits and all these others from high school when we moved here. Um, we just kind of seamlessly transitioned. She's taking the dual credit, she's doing a bunch of online courses and stuff. So she's still on track when she graduates high school, she's still on track to graduate with either an associate's degree or her full suite of AP credits and all that stuff. Um, so you don't lose that when you pull your kids into homeschool. They don't have to go backwards, right? They get to keep all of those credits, they keep all those things, and they can continue earning them. Um, and you'll have to demonstrate some, you know, you you'll have some testing and things to demonstrate proficiency, but um so anyway, yet another. Trade-off for homeschool is that she doesn't have to wake up at 6 45 every morning and she still gets to get her cracking. And they don't. No, and they don't.

SPEAKER_00 44:07

We have much slower mornings. Um, not Nick because we're catching the bus, but the other kids have much slower mornings now, which makes the day starts a lot better.

SPEAKER_01 44:17

Yeah, no, you're not jumping up and having to immediately perform. If you get up and you're not feeling it this morning, well, you know what? Go drink your tea and sit by the window and just yeah. Yeah, take them in. It gives them space.

SPEAKER_00 44:29

And if it's a real slow morning and they don't actually start their stuff until 10 o'clock, well, it's okay because there is that time and they're still gonna get everything accomplished that they need that they need to get accomplished.

SPEAKER_01 44:39

Oh, that's the other thing we didn't mention is our kids don't do school for eight hours a day.

SPEAKER_00 44:43

No, it doesn't take that long. No, I mean they're learning things, but it doesn't look like school.

SPEAKER_01 44:49

They're doing more content in less time. And it's significantly more content and significantly less time because they're not managing a classroom of 30 kids.

SPEAKER_00 45:00

Yeah. Yeah. True story.

SPEAKER_01 45:03

Easy. So and you don't stay up till 10 o'clock at night grading 200.

SPEAKER_00 45:07

I know, it's fabulous. It's fantastic. It is it is really good. So um that's just kind of our thoughts. That's where we are with our kids, and just wanted to share those things with you to encourage you if you've been thinking about it or or whatnot. Um something that I'm really excited about. So yeah, we um are going to be there's a homeschool conference coming up in just a couple weeks. Um in Brainson. In Branson. Yeah, it's in just a couple weeks. Um teach them diligently. It's a Christian homeschool conference that is gonna be close. Yeah, it's it's big. It's huge, actually. And so we're actually gonna get to go and be a part of that as as vendors, and I'm so excited because this is kind of the place where I'm gonna be launching um launching this homeschool um elective course that I've been working on. So now that we're home with our kids, and I as a mom, as a homeschool mom, have been looking for things to pull in to help the kids learn some different skills that are not strictly academic, that are some of these other skills. And so um, I the first class I'm putting together is a foundations and quilting class, and so that will be ready to kick off. Classes will start August 1st. So we're getting all of that launched and getting people signed up. So we're gonna start that, but I'm gonna put links in the description. So if you want to check that out, there's information on our website. I've got the whole module set up, but it's basically gonna be a 16-week, so like the full semester. So that's a full semester. So the full semester, every week, there's gonna be a new video lesson with a PDF workbook that will walk them through a different aspect of quilting. They'll be learning different skills that build on each other. Um, and whether they already kind of sew a little bit or have zero prior experience, they're gonna be able to pick up and start week one. And by the end of the semester, they'll be quilting. They will have made their first quilt from start to finish. In addition to they're gonna make like some a quilted tote bag or slippers. There, there's several projects along the way that they're gonna be making smaller projects in addition to their big quilt. Um, so I will put links in the description so that you can go find out all about how to get signed up if you're interested in that. Uh, again, this is a like a for real elective. So if you're needing credits, documentation for credits for school, this totally counts as those things. If your kids are in school, but they've been wanting to learn some of these things. This is an easy thing that can be done on your own time at your own pace. So uh, any kids, and it's gonna be designed for kids really targeting like that 10 to 18 range. Sure. Uh, will be successful and be able to kind of work through the stuff on their own.

SPEAKER_01 48:04

Kids you would probably trust with a sewing machine needle.

SPEAKER_00 48:06

Yeah. Younger kids could do it, but they're probably gonna need more assistance and guidance.

SPEAKER_01 48:10

Sure, less independent.

SPEAKER_00 48:12

Anyway, so it's gonna be awesome. Super excited to have that up and going. Um, I love teaching quilting, it's been really fun helping McKinsey as she's been learning some of the things, and so now just having the opportunity to be able to provide that for other families is gonna be really awesome.

SPEAKER_01 48:32

And it's super cost effective. You're not going to pay for classes in quilting for 16 weeks for the price of this cool.

SPEAKER_00 48:40

No, no, no. And and like the whole family, say you have four kids and they're all wanting to learn to do this together. Well, you just buy it for one course. And like the family for the family can can do the whole thing.

SPEAKER_01 48:51

So you don't need additional licenses and things like that. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 48:55

Anyways, very exciting.

SPEAKER_01 48:57

It's exciting.

SPEAKER_00 48:58

So we'll be sharing more information as that comes, but you're the first to hear about it right here on the podcast that that is coming. And so check out those links in the description below and uh share that information if you have kids, grandkids, family, you know, friends that you think might be interested. Please help me get the word out and share uh about the the course coming up for next school year.

SPEAKER_01 49:21

And there's some options with that course, right? So, like if I wanted some more personalized instruction, or if I'm having problems, there's different tiers, right?

SPEAKER_00 49:29

So basically, it starts out the base tier uh is just you get an email every week with the video and the PDF, and you can work through it on your own. Um, that next tier gets you into our um like class community where you can share feedback and ask questions back and forth, and then we'll also do uh like bi-weekly calls where we get on and you can face to face with me and with the other people in the class, uh like via Zoom to ask questions and things that maybe you need a little more guidance or help with. And then for those that are local, we'll have a third tier if they want live in-person guided instruction. We will also be doing that meeting live in person once a week. They'll still have access to all of the online part of it, they'll still get the email with the videos and the PDF and the online community and all of that stuff, but they'll get that additional information.

SPEAKER_01 50:29

And it's nice to be able to show and say, like, does this look right?

SPEAKER_00 50:32

Oh, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 50:33

That's super helpful.

SPEAKER_00 50:34

So yeah, so I'll put I'll put information for all of that, and so you can kind of check out the pricing on those things. And I will say, um, we're offering like founding introductory pricing for this this first go-around. Yeah, uh, the price will go up after that. So um, just to kind of help me get it off the ground, we're we're gonna do some some discounted introductory founders pricing.

SPEAKER_01 51:01

So and we are planning to have additional courses coming as well in the future with the.

SPEAKER_00 51:06

So, like this first one is kind of an intro. Then we're gonna do next semester, the following semester, there will be a whole nother 16 weeks that's more advanced quilting, and we're also looking at adding some cooking courses and some other things down the road. Some of the skills that that we that I know that I like to share with my own kids that I'm teaching them that I well, a lot of it is is the skills that we've talked about that are some of the reason that we homeschool, those skills that they're not going to get in public school.

SPEAKER_01 51:39

That's what we're offering. So it's good.

SPEAKER_00 51:42

Super exciting. Check it out. Everything will be in the description.

SPEAKER_01 51:45

Come see us at Baker Creek this morning.

SPEAKER_00 51:46

Yeah, come see us at Baker Creek, it'll be a fun time. You'll learn lots and get to see lots of cool stuff. So that's right.

SPEAKER_01 51:52

Buy some good food.

SPEAKER_00 51:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 51:56

Um, you got anything else?

SPEAKER_00 51:57

No, that's it. Thanks for joining us.

SPEAKER_01 51:59

We'll see you next time.

SPEAKER_00 52:00

If you're wanting to go a little deeper and actually learn some of these skills step by step, I do have courses and workshops available at thelarklife.com. They're designed to be simple, practical, and approachable, especially if you're just getting started. You can also join our email list where we share guides, printables, and updates on what we're working on here. It's a quieter space and one of our favorite ways to stay connected with you. I'll put a link to both in the show notes. Thank you for choosing to spend some of your time with us. If you've been enjoying the podcast, one of the simplest ways to support us is by telling a friend and leaving a review wherever you're listening. It helps more people find these conversations, and it truly means a lot for us to hear how our stories are impacting you. You can also go to thelarklife.com slash podcast. There you'll find an option to give a small one time or ongoing gift, and it helps support the time, tools, and energy that go into creating these episodes. Until next time,