NextGen on Elevate Springfield with Ellie Ferriell: Homeschooling Pros and Cons

Summary

In this episode, Robert and Ellie discuss their recent weekend filled with community events, including proms and dances, highlighting the importance of social interaction in homeschooling. They delve into the benefits and downsides of homeschooling, emphasizing the need for a supportive community and the flexibility that homeschooling offers. The conversation also touches on the individual experiences of homeschooling, the importance of finding a community, and how personal experiences can shape one's view of homeschooling. They conclude by discussing the unique opportunities that homeschooling provides, including the ability to plan activities and maintain a lighter school schedule during the summer.

Takeaways

• The weekend was filled with community events and dances.
• Homeschooling offers flexibility and unique learning opportunities.
• Community involvement is crucial for a positive homeschooling experience.
• Individual experiences in homeschooling can vary greatly.
• Social skills can be developed through community events.
• The benefits of homeschooling often outweigh the downsides.
• Finding a supportive community is essential for homeschoolers.
• Homeschooling allows for planning activities any day of the week.
• Starting homeschooling at a young age can ease the transition.
• Flexibility in education can lead to a more enjoyable learning experience.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Elevate Springfield, where we will dive into strategies and stories that help you rise to your full potential. Each episode, we'll talk about how you can take intentional steps to elevate your life and your business while making a meaningful impact on those around you. Along the way, we're gonna bring in the change makers from our community that are already elevating. We'll bring the actionable strategies, you bring the discipline and follow through, and together we can elevate Springfield. Alright, let's go, y'all. Time to 10X.

SPEAKER_03 0:35

Hey everyone, welcome to Next Gen on Elevate Springfield. I'm Ellie and I'm here with my dad Robert.

SPEAKER_00 0:40

Together, we're talking about what really matters to teens today. From school and skills to pressure, purpose, and possibilities. We'll share honest conversations, practical strategies teens can actually use, and a little dad-daughter debate.

SPEAKER_03 0:56

This is about listening, learning, and growing. Together, let's elevate the next generation.

SPEAKER_00 1:01

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SPEAKER_04 1:47

Hello and welcome back to another episode of NextGen on Elevate Springfield. I'm Ellie and I'm here with my dad.

SPEAKER_00 1:52

Why, hello, Ellie.

SPEAKER_04 1:54

You know, when I was doing that intro just now, I kind of felt like I was gonna mess up the words, but it's become like muscle memory at this point where it's like I didn't think I didn't think of the words I was saying, but I was saying the right words.

SPEAKER_00 2:06

Yeah. That means you've been doing it long enough. You put in the reps, and now it's muscle memory. Yeah, put in those reps.

SPEAKER_04 2:12

For real.

SPEAKER_00 2:13

Yeah, just comes out naturally now.

SPEAKER_04 2:15

Yeah, I suppose. That's good.

SPEAKER_00 2:17

So had a fun weekend this weekend.

SPEAKER_04 2:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:20

Yeah. All full of proms.

unknown 2:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:24

Proms plural.

SPEAKER_01 2:25

Mm-hmm. Right?

SPEAKER_00 2:26

That was a good time. We volunteered at one and then threw another one, but and you participated in the other one too.

SPEAKER_04 2:34

So attended.

SPEAKER_00 2:36

Attended. Yeah, you were an attendee for the one we threw for Central Illinois Home School. But yeah, we had a heck of a lot of fun. Some dancing and good times all weekend, right?

SPEAKER_04 2:47

Yeah. I was really scared because the first one that we went to was Night of Stars at Westside Christian Church. And that one I was a joybringer. So basically your job the entire night is to jump, dance, yell, scream, hype people up, you know? And like I was yelling and clapping so much and like dancing so much, like my back hurt and like my voice was gone. I was like, oh my goodness, I'm gonna have no voice and no energy for my prom tomorrow. I was fine. I actually had a lot of energy, but I was like, oh my goodness, this takes a lot more energy than I was anticipating because I was an amazing joybringer. That's why.

SPEAKER_00 3:19

Um I'm sure you did phenomenally well. But yeah, that was a lot of fun. I wasn't around you, so I didn't get to see you do the joybringer because I was a buddy going around, but it was a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_04 3:28

I got high fives, I got a hug, and then we were hyping people up while they were dancing. It was great.

SPEAKER_00 3:33

Yeah. Now, if you didn't see that, that's all over social over at West Side Christian Church. Had Night of Stars on Friday night. Just a phenomenal experience.

SPEAKER_04 3:40

I was like, I was sad because this morning it was um it was Chip, and he was like, We'll have that recap video for you next week.

SPEAKER_00 3:49

And I was like, No, I don't want to see it. They'd have it knocked out for you already.

SPEAKER_04 3:53

I wanted to see it. So now I have to wait another week.

SPEAKER_00 3:56

Yeah, well, it'll get here soon.

SPEAKER_04 3:58

Yeah, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 3:59

Yeah. They even had fireworks at the end of the night. It was pretty cool.

SPEAKER_04 4:02

Yeah, that was cool. I think they had an extra one though, because like after the fireworks were done, like ten minutes afterwards, one just like shot up randomly. We're all like we were like, oh, I must have had an extra.

SPEAKER_00 4:13

Yeah, maybe that was it. Yeah, they should have one to give a bonus firework.

unknown 4:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:17

It was fun though. Yeah, and then Saturday we had uh the prom for Central Illinois Homeschool. We do all the different dances and events for the homeschool community here in town, and really not just here in town, because people come from other towns to come to the events.

SPEAKER_04 4:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:35

But yeah, we had a really cool prom on Saturday night. Did you have fun?

SPEAKER_04 4:38

Yes, it was my favorite one so far. I think that one was like my the best one.

SPEAKER_00 4:42

I'll tell you, the the energy was there. You guys were out there dancing and keeping hyped up the entire time. You know, sometimes it dances, can you can see lows and stuff. But this one, you guys got after it for the whole night.

SPEAKER_04 4:56

Yeah, I was literally like, I don't know if he's ever gonna play a break song, but I need to get water at some point, but I can't stop dancing, and he keeps playing good songs, so help me. I can't I can't leave now.

SPEAKER_00 5:07

So And when she says he needs to play some break songs, she's referring to me because I do the I do the DJing for those events, and yeah, I kept the energy pretty high.

SPEAKER_04 5:17

I do quite a bit of the DJing as well, to be fair.

SPEAKER_00 5:19

Yes, you help a lot with the with the playlists and the songs and everything, making sure I'm up to date because and everybody else does too.

SPEAKER_04 5:26

Because I always ask around. I'm like, anybody that has song recommendations, come to me because I never want to gatekeep and be like, yeah, I'm the one making the playlist. So I'm almost like, what what do you guys want? I'll add it.

SPEAKER_00 5:37

Like And I I guess I am kind of old, so I don't know exactly all the all the newer music, but I think I keep up to date for the most part. I know a lot of the songs.

SPEAKER_04 5:46

I was getting really tired of the playlists. The last two dances, not this one, but the past two before that.

SPEAKER_01 5:51

Um Yeah, we needed a little revamp.

SPEAKER_04 5:53

Yeah, because you were playing a lot of songs that were popular, but popular in a bad way because they were so popular to the point where it was like nobody liked him anymore. Yes, because they were so overplayed, nobody liked him anymore. So we were I was like, okay, I know you're getting recommendations for these songs. Genuinely, it's like one person. It's not gonna hype anybody up, it's just gonna be like, oh, that's my song, and it's one person out of like the 130 kids there.

SPEAKER_00 6:17

Yeah, no, this one I kept the break songs and the slow songs to a minimum because most of the time, anyway, at those dances, you guys don't necessarily like the break songs and the and the slow songs, so I'll do a few of them so we have them because people want them, but I kept it to a minimum, just kept that energy high and keep people bouncing.

SPEAKER_04 6:38

And because I gave you a lot of good ones too. Because I mean the new ones.

SPEAKER_00 6:41

You gave me some new good ones I can have on my previous list.

SPEAKER_04 6:43

The new ones that I put on there, I mean, people are getting hyped to those too, and now that made me excited.

SPEAKER_00 6:47

Yeah, yeah. The new ones you put on there were crowd pleasers, so they were definitely good additions. So the new ones that you put on we'll keep and we'll continue to create that list for future dances. But the next one, I guess, will be homecoming.

SPEAKER_04 7:01

When's that?

SPEAKER_00 7:01

September big dance, yeah, probably September.

SPEAKER_04 7:03

I don't know that April, May, June, July, August, September. Dang, that's five months away.

SPEAKER_00 7:10

Typically we have those in in September, maybe October, but when is usually Sadie Hawkins' dance?

SPEAKER_04 7:16

Because for us, we do a winter ball, and that's usually in January. And we didn't even really start that. It was another lady in the homeschool community who had started it, and then she had stopped doing them. She was like, I'm not doing them anymore. And she had started the winter balls. So it has always been like a winter ball thing for our community. So then we just kind of picked it up and we were like, okay, we'll do the winter balls then. So that's kind of how it like came to be because like people ask, like, oh, what's that? It's like winter dance, I guess. I I guess I don't know what what time is usually Sadie's dances, because that's what the public schools do. They do Sadie Hawkins dance.

SPEAKER_00 7:47

You know, I really don't know because not all the public schools do Sadie Hawkins dances anymore.

SPEAKER_04 7:50

So I really think that'd be in like around February, right?

SPEAKER_00 7:53

Yeah, I think that's a winter time thing because most of the public schools have homecoming in the fall and prom in the spring. So that's that's a pretty standard thing. So if it's going to be another time, it's gonna be in the winter. So probably Yeah, that makes sense actually.

SPEAKER_04 8:07

Now I'm thinking of like the post that I've seen of girls going to Sadies and it has been around like the winter-ish.

SPEAKER_00 8:11

Yeah, that would that would make sense. We do that for the homeschool community because we want to make sure that one, you guys, you have that opportunity to go to those dances and things that you don't get to go to since you're not at a public school. But uh I'd say we put on some pretty cool events.

SPEAKER_04 8:27

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:28

I'd say they'd rival any of the any of the other dances out there, wouldn't you?

SPEAKER_04 8:33

Yeah, I d I definitely think so. But yeah, that's what we're talking about today. We're talking about homeschooling and like the benefits and maybe the downsides of homeschooling as well. I mean, I don't have many downsides, but you know, for different types of people, there can be different downsides.

SPEAKER_01 8:45

Sure.

SPEAKER_04 8:45

I know we touched on this a little bit, but if you want a whole episode on it, here it is. For me, the only thing is that if I if we didn't have any of these things, like I love homeschooling. So the only thing I feel like I'm missing out on is the dances. And as of right now, the only thing I feel like I'm missing out on is like the football games. So if we could like get together like a homeschool, like football team and have like the football nights where you get all like dressed up or whatever and have like the glow in the dark, like face paint and stuff like that, I'd love that. That's the one thing I feel like I miss out on with the high school experience is the football games. I feel like that is fun. Um, other than that, I don't really think I because I don't want to be in school for like eight hours a day. I don't want to do homework for the next three hours of my day. I have I have too many other interests to just cast those aside as well. I like doing my school work on my own. There's so many things, but I just I love homeschooling and I think big part of it is our community because we have a good homeschool community, but you also have to like look for it. I mean, I know you can be a um victim of your circumstance. Like I'm sure there's some really, really crappy homeschool communities out there where it's either like, you know, the typical homeschool kids that they're quote unquote weird or they're like five. So that sucks. Come over here, move over here, it'd be better for you, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 9:59

We do have a thriving homeschool community instead of. But yeah, it's a great question. You know, you could you could just pick one of the high schools and say you're gonna root for their football team.

SPEAKER_04 10:07

Why?

SPEAKER_00 10:08

Well, you say? Yeah. I mean, you can go to any of the games anytime you want. You don't have to be a student there to go to the game. You can go to a game. I'll take it.

SPEAKER_04 10:15

But then you're not gonna have any friends there though.

SPEAKER_00 10:16

No. But what you could do though is just get a couple of your friends, say, hey, now we're Springfield High fans. So we're gonna go to Springfield High football games and we're gonna wear the colors and do the thing. Would it be weird? Or Yes. Well, I don't I don't foresee us having a homeschool football team anytime soon.

SPEAKER_04 10:35

Well, we should.

SPEAKER_00 10:36

And I don't know how that works in terms of I have to figure out how that works, like leagues. You know, hey, who do we play? We're the homeschool team.

SPEAKER_04 10:44

The public schoolers.

SPEAKER_00 10:46

I know, but you'd have to get you'd have to get into a conference. You could figure maybe figure that out.

SPEAKER_04 10:50

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 10:51

Can you work on getting about fifty high schoolers that would be on the team?

SPEAKER_04 10:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:56

Fifty homeschool high school homeschoolers be a co-ed team? Want to play football?

SPEAKER_04 11:00

What do it be a co-ed team?

SPEAKER_00 11:02

It might have to be, because I'm not I'm not sure we'd be able to get fifty fifty dudes out there to play the game. It might have to be co-ed.

SPEAKER_04 11:09

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 11:09

Well I had I had a girl on my football team for a while in high school.

SPEAKER_04 11:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:14

I did. So it can be it can be co-ed. Yeah, I can be c it can be co-ed.

SPEAKER_04 11:19

Well, what do you think any downside of homeschooling would be?

SPEAKER_00 11:22

Well, I think you touched on one, the the sports aspect, even though you individually potentially could go play sports at a school.

SPEAKER_04 11:33

There are like I have homeschool friends at your school.

SPEAKER_00 11:34

Yeah, yeah, there are homeschool kids that play on public school teams and participate in those things, just like they participate in career in tech ed stuff and other opportunities, but you don't have maybe that camaraderie, I guess. That school spirit. Yeah. You know, I guess you don't have to be a good thing.

SPEAKER_04 11:53

Right now, so outside looking in type thing.

SPEAKER_00 11:56

So I guess that could be considered a downside of homeschooling if you if you really crave that. Yeah, I I don't know that I ever really did. Even in high school when I played football and I did all the stuff, I don't know that I was ever like a go MacArthur Generals. You know, that doesn't you know, I I don't know that I was like super school spirit guy.

SPEAKER_04 12:16

And there's also teams not equated with a specific school, correct?

SPEAKER_00 12:20

There's travel teams.

SPEAKER_04 12:21

Well, yeah, but I'm I mean, like I swear I remember my cousin going on a volleyball team and it it wasn't a school one. It was just like a volleyball team. She'd go somewhere for it.

SPEAKER_00 12:30

Oh yeah, yeah. There yeah, there's there's club teams. Yeah, like that. Yeah, if you're playing club ball, then you're not playing the schools.

SPEAKER_04 12:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:39

And there are some schools that co-opt for certain sports to where they come together so they have enough people to play.

SPEAKER_04 12:46

So yeah, that's what I'm saying. I mean, you could also go and do that too if you want that.

SPEAKER_00 12:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 12:51

And then you wouldn't feel like an outsider because you're no it's not from a specific school or something like that.

SPEAKER_00 12:57

Right.

SPEAKER_04 12:58

Um but yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:00

I guess that would be one. Maybe the only other one and I don't know that it's a real big downside, but you know, at the high school level, maybe there's a subject, say like in advanced chemistry or something like that. Most parents aren't gonna know advanced chemistry, right? Unless they do it as part of their job or something. And we you can do the online portion, but with a with an a particularly difficult class, it could be helpful to have a a teacher there with you. Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense. So that could be a downside if you're the type of student that really needs that help on those difficult difficult subjects, but if you're the type of student that can handle the online learning side of that and also doesn't really go into like the super advanced classes or or and not or be able to handle it on your own with some help from your parent, even though your parent might not know really very much about, say, advanced chemistry or calculus or something.

SPEAKER_04 14:04

Or if you're perfectly fine, like easily finding the answers online if you need help.

SPEAKER_00 14:08

Yeah, if you're if you're willing to do all that, then that's great. But that could be a downside for some students, the students that really need somebody there with them on those subjects, and then maybe their parent doesn't really have that skill set.

SPEAKER_04 14:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:22

That could that could be a downside.

SPEAKER_04 14:24

And I think the one thing that I actually just thought of this is the only other downside that I see is the stability of the community, I guess, just in terms of who's coming to the events, right? Because we'll have people, we'll have like some public schoolers and then some Decatur people, and then we're like, okay, are these same people gonna show up next time? Is it gonna be like this next time? Because who's gonna show up?

SPEAKER_00 14:49

Like, and our numbers can fluctuate, and that can be like difficult to the community can kind of change too because parents and their kids homeschool for a number of different reasons. We made a decision a long time ago that we were gonna do this and we felt it was the right thing for us. Some people make it more of a spur-the-moment decision after something happens at a school and maybe they end up going back to school. So sometimes people don't stay in homeschooling as long as we've done it, or as long as some of your friends have done it.

SPEAKER_04 15:22

And then they go and be like, Well, I didn't like it.

SPEAKER_00 15:25

Yeah, so some yeah, sometimes people they're in public school, then they try homeschool for two or three years, then they go back to public school or pop in and out. So I think that can sometimes make it so the community is a little in flux. A lot of the people that you know that you were around have done it for a long time and done it from the start. But they there's a lot of folks out there that dip in a little bit.

SPEAKER_04 15:50

So yeah, I I've never really thought of that. But yeah, definitely. I think that's because I haven't really seen it too much here. I think one thing that I've been seeing more is that we have our homeschool people that have been homeschooling for a while. This is mostly guys, and then they decide to go to public school. I can name at least four guys off the top of my head that have gone to public school within the past like few years that I've known as the homeschool guys, you know, like they've came door dances and then they just decide to switch and then they go to public school. So it's also another thing like that.

SPEAKER_00 16:19

Yeah, absolutely. But certainly, like we've talked before, the benefits of it far outweigh any downsides or negatives to it.

SPEAKER_04 16:29

Yeah, and you just gotta find your community too, because it's like you can't be sitting in your room all day not making an effort to look at events being held or anything like that, or not going to any events and then being like, homeschooling is so isolating. My social life isn't there. And I know I'm very fortunate to have a community like this, but I also think we I think we need to individualize it more when we're speaking on our personal experiences with homeschooling. Cause what I see a lot is that people are just like, well, yeah, I didn't like it. Cause it's just, it's very isolating, like this and this and this. Instead of just being like, well, for me, my community didn't have very much there, so it sucked. Like, you know, it's the words make a very big difference. Cause on one hand, homeschooling sucks in general. Everybody has no social life. They're weirdos. I was stuck in my room all day. I had nothing to do. I had no friends, versus my personal experience wasn't very good. I didn't have a good community. I didn't really feel like going to any of these events, yada, yada, yada. There's a very big difference. So I feel like we need to individualize it more in terms of our experiences with it. Cause like I completely understand that my experience is very much impacted by what I'm surrounded with and you guys planning these amazing events and all the parents that we have helping us with it that make it so great. But I think like me saying it right now, we need to individualize our experiences more. Can you guys tell that I just learned that word?

SPEAKER_00 17:52

Say it a few times.

SPEAKER_04 17:53

Yes. But just like how I'm speaking on it now, you need to just speak on your personal experiences instead of just generalizing it to everybody and to the entire thing in and of itself.

SPEAKER_00 18:05

Yeah, well, and for some, for some kids, if you're talking about you said might feel isolating, isolated, if, yeah, that is all you're doing is in your room, or maybe you don't have any siblings. Maybe you're the only one in there and you're doing your work and you're not really doing it much with your parents, you're not going to those events. I guess it could be isolating for somebody that really craves that social stuff all day. But again, that's because they haven't been connected and probably doing it in all the things that you should be doing in that community. What was your favorite song on Saturday?

SPEAKER_04 18:43

I don't I I have one. I just don't think anybody will like my answer.

SPEAKER_00 18:48

Okay. All right.

SPEAKER_04 18:49

No comment on that. Oh, what was your favorite song?

SPEAKER_00 18:52

So I guess it wasn't my favorite, personal favorite song of the night, but the one that probably surprised me the most in terms of the crowd response, because after you've DJ'd a number of times, you can you know what the response is gonna be for a for a lot of the songs. But this one, the Michael Jackson song, Wanna Be Startin' Something, everybody loved it. And then was like really got into it and started doing a circle and like this train thing.

SPEAKER_03 19:18

Yeah, yes, and a line didn't.

SPEAKER_00 19:21

Really got into it. I knew they would like it, but it surprised me how much you guys got into that particular song.

SPEAKER_04 19:26

That was really fun. I mean, with Billy Jean, like we did the train and we were in a circle, and then we were all clapping. We had like a dance circle, like a lot, and then we were all moonwalking. It was great. Like, oh my gosh. There was this one group of people because I saw them all go get a picture together. So I was like, whoa, that's like one group. So I really hope they're at their our next ones because I really saw that they were like, because there was these girls and they would start their choreo or whatever, and it was very easy to follow. So it got everybody into it. And I really hope they're there. And then there was quite a few guys there too, and they were hyped the entire time and they were dancing and they were doing the choreo and they were jumping around and everything. I really hope that group is there the next few because they really impacted the crowd. I think they didn't a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 20:06

They did, they kept that hype up, but yeah, I mean, I play a play a blend. You know, we play, we play some rock, we play some pop, we play some rap, we play some Christian, we play a little bit of of everything throughout the night, all more hyped up versions of that genre, of course. Uh but we did play three Michael Jackson songs, like you said, and all three, everybody loves them some Michael Jackson. Oh, yeah. Loved them some of the things.

SPEAKER_04 20:30

Yeah, we were all like united. I was like, guys, I'm telling you, C MJ like unites people. Like, this is amazing.

SPEAKER_00 20:37

No, it was great. It was great.

SPEAKER_04 20:38

I'd say just like if you're wanting to start homeschooling, really think about it. And another thing that helped me is that we started before I got into high school. And it's like it wasn't as drastic of a change. Or we started when I wasn't super attached to school, really. Like I was younger, so I was kind of like second grade. Yeah, I was I was younger, so I was kind of like, okay, yeah, homeschooling. Yes. Like I'm I'm gonna be at home, it's gonna be great. I feel like this is the opposite of what the public thinks, though, because they think that if you're raised on homeschooling, then it's like you start to feel isolated in your teen years because you don't know anything different, you know, or you don't know anything else. And I feel like it was the opposite for me. I feel like it helped me, not because I didn't know anything else, but because it wasn't a hard change because I was young. And it wasn't like a drastic shift or just this thing that I really had to get used to. It was just something that happened to me. That's that's it. I mean, I just yeah, we just did it. And I think that helps. I know that some people homeschool, you know, because of bad experiences at public school, which is 100% valid. That happens, but it definitely feels different because you know, it was like your freshman year or your freshman and sophomore year. And then you start homeschooling after that, and then it just feels weird because it's like, well, I was at school. Yeah, you know, I was getting severely mistreated. But now it feels weird because it's like, now I'm home and it just feels strange. It's just the change in it that's weird. So with me going into high school, homeschooled, but with also having the dances and having my group of friends and so many other groups of friends that I wasn't really involved with, but like I kind of was, it wasn't just my group of friends. There's a lot of group of friends within the community. So that really helped because I can still do the dances, I can still hang out with friends all the time. I can just get my school work done in the morning, done. I'm okay now.

SPEAKER_00 22:29

Yeah. Absolutely. One other thing about homeschooling that people might not realize is well, it is May at the end of this week, right? Which means summer is right around the corner. A lot of times with homeschoolers, don't take a full traditional summer off all the time. We'll go to a light schedule. Maybe you guys will do a little bit over the summer still, not take a complete summer off like public schools do.

SPEAKER_04 22:55

Which sounds like hell for public schoolers, but again, it's because, you know, they're spending like twelve hours a day with school stuff. And that includes the actual school por portion, sports, and homework and detention, if you get in detention, or extracurriculars, like everything.

SPEAKER_00 23:13

Well, it's the it's the flexibility piece really. Yeah. Because so during the normal school year, if you guys are coming with me to a trip or something like that, we could take a have a lighter school week because we know that we're gonna be doing some stuff during the summer too. So it's it's just much more flexible on the workload compared to a typical.

SPEAKER_04 23:34

I guess it sounds like horrible to post schoolers because that's what they're used to. They're used to school nonstop. But for us, it's like schoolwork in the morning, which obviously we still want school off. We still want days where we don't have to do any school because it's still school work, it's still a nuisance. We still don't want to do it, but it's not as bad. And it doesn't take up that much time. So doing it in the summer still kind of sucks, but it's not, it's not that bad.

SPEAKER_00 23:58

No, I don't think it's bad at all because even it's a much lighter schedule and uh gives us the flexibility throughout the regular school year, too.

SPEAKER_04 24:05

Yeah, and I just think it gives you a lot of different opportunities, a lot of different learning experiences, a lot of different social experiences. I know a homeschooler with social um skills is crazy. I know.

SPEAKER_00 24:18

Crazy to think about, right?

SPEAKER_04 24:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:20

So you're just about to finish your sophomore year. Any inkling that you would want to finish out at a public school?

SPEAKER_04 24:26

No. Especially not like finish out because then you're with a class that's been together for four years and they're just they're all chummy and they're all besties and all the drama that's happened the past four years or whatever, and you're just popping in there for senior year. Like that's so weird. Absolutely not. I would never want to do that. That feels like I'm just intruding, no way.

SPEAKER_00 24:47

Yep, that's what I figured you'd say because that's been the plan. So continue.

SPEAKER_04 24:51

I know people will ask me. Are you gonna do like high school and public school? And I'm like, no.

SPEAKER_00 24:58

Yeah, and that was a good one. I don't want to. I don't know. That was one thing we had a you know, a discussion about as we were doing it when finishing up eighth grade. It's like, well, if you do want to make a switch to public school, now would be the time if you want to do high school, but never really would never was really something we seriously considered.

SPEAKER_04 25:17

Yeah, and that is really a lot to do with like my friends in the community. I have a friend group. It's I'm not craving that social interaction that I'm missing that I'd get at public school. I'd get way worse there. I'd much rather just hang out with my friends I already have. It's also so nice because I'll be like, oh my gosh, like we can plan things any day of the week. This is great. And then when I'm talking to my friends that go to public school, I forget that they go to public school. And then I'm like, crap, when can I hang out with you?

SPEAKER_00 25:48

You can't do that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 25:49

I can't do anything. We have no days at all. Because I weekends are usually reserved for like you guys. Like Saturday's the bummy day, and then Sunday's like the non-stop church day. So it's like, I'm like, when are we gonna hang out? Like you're at school all day. What how? I don't get it.

SPEAKER_00 26:06

That's the beauty of homeschooling is the flexibility on our side. So we can do it.

SPEAKER_04 26:11

I think that's the biggest thing that's talked about is like the flexibility. It's so important. It's a big thing, but it's a very surface level thing. It is because people on the other end of it, I feel like you saying that, oh, well, it's just the flexibility of it, you know, like you can do whatever you want. Like I they already know that. That's the thing. They already know that. They don't know the extent of that until like try it and until they get comfortable in it and try it. But it just seems very surface level, easy.

SPEAKER_00 26:40

Well, your show's gonna be starting soon. I know you have a show coming up that you really want to see tonight.

SPEAKER_04 26:45

Yes, I do.

SPEAKER_00 26:46

Do you want to go check it out?

SPEAKER_04 26:47

Yeah, we we've talked about homeschooling a few times, and I've already said that just because it works for me doesn't mean it's gonna work for you. But if you live in our area, if you know us personally, then I'd say try it. If you are similar to me or similar to my friends or something, you have a similar mindset in that way. I think it could be beneficial if you get yourself out there.

SPEAKER_00 27:11

Or reach out to us if you have any questions.

SPEAKER_04 27:13

Yeah. Well, I'd say try it if you are thinking about it. But again, some people prefer public school and public school works better for them, and that's fine. That's right. I don't I'm not a public school hater. I know it works for some people, and it is some of it's really fun. It's not my thing.

SPEAKER_00 27:31

Whatever works for your family out there.

SPEAKER_04 27:33

Yeah, I do get FOMO a little bit from for some things, but that's inevitable. You're gonna get FOMO in a lot of what you do.

SPEAKER_00 27:40

It's gonna happen.

SPEAKER_04 27:41

You're gonna get FOMO regardless in a lot of different aspects of your life. So I'm not trapped. I'm fine.

SPEAKER_00 27:48

Are you ready to go watch that show?

SPEAKER_04 27:50

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 27:50

I'm not. Why? Yeah, I'm just messing with you.

SPEAKER_04 27:53

I just want to sit down and not go grab 18 different snacks throughout the entire thing. I want your butt glued to the couch.

SPEAKER_00 28:00

I don't eat snacks that late. That's too late. I might get a decaf cup of coffee.

SPEAKER_04 28:05

Yeah, exactly. Don't get up and get like cups of coffee.

SPEAKER_00 28:09

Or maybe go make a reel or something like that. But it won't be a snack.

SPEAKER_04 28:13

Well, thank you for joining us on NextGen on Elevate Springfield. We'll see you next time.

SPEAKER_00 28:17

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SPEAKER_02 29:32

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