Well This Wasn't The Plan!

6. Changing Our Curriculum + Week 3 Update!

• Carson and Teran Sands • Episode 6

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We're discovering that homeschooling our three kids is surprisingly less stressful than sending them to traditional school, even while balancing our work as full-time accountants.

• Comparing the stress of traditional back-to-school chaos with our current homeschool rhythm
• Finding time to homeschool while working full-time (4 hours of work, 7 days a week)
• Exploring co-op opportunities that offer community with minimal commitment
• Discussing our curriculum switch from Me Academy to The Good and the Beautiful
• Preferring physical workbooks over computer-based learning for younger children
• Using placement tests to find the right academic level for each child
• Considering Texas Tech's K-12 program as a potential option for older students
• Appreciating the flexibility to adapt our approach as our children grow
• Finding peace of mind knowing our children are safe with us during uncertain times


Speaker 1:

If you're considering it, I just urge you to think outside the box. Don't just think that schooling has to look like this or like this. There's a million ways this can be done and it doesn't take as long as you think. I think people are here listening because they want to do this themselves and they're trying to figure out how can I do that. We're two full-time working parents who just made a crazy decision.

Speaker 3:

After four years in public school, we're homeschooling our three kids and documenting the whole thing.

Speaker 1:

Never in a million years did I think we would be homeschool people.

Speaker 3:

Welcome to well, this wasn't the plan podcast.

Speaker 2:

I'm Slate and school's in the kitchen now. I'm Slate and school's in the kitchen now. I'm Scotty. We say start when I say so, I'm Sailor and this whole podcast was my idea.

Speaker 1:

This podcast is our real-time journey unexpectedly juggling homeschool jobs, parenting and everything in between. Follow along each week as we document how it's going and share the good, the bad and the ugly, because we know some days are going to be ugly and we're not holding back.

Speaker 3:

We're learning to expect the unexpected, so let's get into it, let's go.

Speaker 1:

I think people will dislike me for saying this, but after three weeks in I feel that homeschooling the kids is much easier than sending them to school wow, you're gonna really piss a lot of people off it's a bold statement, but I did come across this post I made last year at the beginning of school year.

Speaker 1:

That resonated with a lot of people and it was just what was going on in my mind as a working mom with kids in school the beginning of the school year and I was stressed out and I'm not as stressed this year and I'm also doing something I've never done in my entire life and have my kids with me 24-7, basically, and less stress. It's just easier because I am not stressed about what's going on with them in school and then I don't have the million group texts and parent squares and all of that. The first few weeks of school are madness, and then for us in Texas it usually runs into homecoming week, which is just sheer chaos. There's a parade and things to do and dress of days and the football game and it's just crazy. So that's where I was coming from last year.

Speaker 1:

This year seems like a breeze. Sorry if you hate me for saying that, but I am pleasantly surprised because that's not where I thought we would be right now. I thought we would be in like a stressed out version of trying to figure out what to do with homeschooling and telling ourselves that it will get better, but it's actually not. It's been great and we've yet to have an episode where we come in going oh my God, this is the worst week ever, and I think there might be some people that think you sound ridiculous for saying that homeschool is easier.

Speaker 3:

But I think there will be a lot of moms that feel seen, even if they're not moms that ever are going to consider homeschooling or just can't. But they might feel seen and heard like you know what. Thank you for saying that, because it is really hard, and here you have someone who's doing the schooling themselves and they're still like you know what. Even that's easier than what we have to do when our kids in public school, and so maybe they'll appreciate it. I hope so.

Speaker 1:

I do feel like most people are overwhelmed with it. It's not a conversation I've heard very much between moms, but Libby on Instagram she's huge If you're a mom you probably follow her but she shared that this week because her kids started back at school and she just her whole life derailed. And she doesn't. She can't keep up with it all. She feels like she's failing and it really resonated with so many people. So I know people are feeling like this and people were sharing tips on like what are some tiny things that you can do help with the chaos and the stress and the anxiety with both the parents and the kids during this time of year. So this month is hard for a lot of people.

Speaker 3:

I think the biggest thing they could do is learn to say no, but that you do feel the pressure that can you help with this? And sometimes they're asking you directly, not just a general outreach to the class, and I really didn't ever feel like I could say no.

Speaker 1:

I mean, we ended up saying no a lot once all three kids were in school because we couldn't go volunteer to help with the teachers or help on a specific day, and always felt guilty about that. But I never had enough time in the day. But I did want to be there for the things that I felt like were non-negotiable, like awards days or field days or something. So if I wanted to be there, I couldn't also like volunteer and show up on random days, which is hard.

Speaker 3:

Right, yeah, that is hard.

Speaker 1:

So week three. We're still loving it, if you can't tell. And we started the whole co-op process this week, so Carson actually went to the co-op meeting. So how was that?

Speaker 3:

I liked it. I mean, I like stuff like that. I know that I didn't really get to meet a lot of people, but I don't mind being in big groups like that. I know it's not your favorite but, yeah, it was a lot of fun. People are really cool. The lady that kind of runs it. She's been doing it for, I think, over 20 years. She really knows what she's doing and I don't know doing and I don't know. I liked a lot of the stuff she had to say. So yeah, should be fun.

Speaker 1:

Well, this is all new to us, obviously, but what I'm gathering is this is a pretty good co-op to try, because it's not a very big commitment. It's once a week, on Fridays, and even that it's only a few hours. You can be there for two hours or three hours, depending on how many classes your kids take, and they can take whatever they want. Now, it's not a drop off co-op Some places have those but it's just once a week and there's no meetings outside of that or anything. That's mandatory. So it's pretty, pretty little commitment where you can meet a lot of people doing homeschool too, if you'd like. That's pretty much why we're doing it.

Speaker 3:

And I mean we're in the golden semester. They call it because you know it's our first semester, so we don't have to teach or even assist teach any of the classes right now. Some people that terrifies them. They really don't want to do that. It sounds kind of fun to me. But starting next semester we do have to submit a class and if enough people sign up for it, then you'll be the lead teacher for it. If not, they'll assign you as a helper for one of the lead teachers in another class. What it does is it keeps the student to teacher ratio at a very good number. They try to, you know 10 to 22 kids per class tops. But if there's 22, you're going to have multiple helpers just to make sure that it doesn't start to feel like a big classroom setting. You know you're only outnumbered by kids. If people have multiple kids, which we do, it is a homeschool group, so a lot of them have, you know, yes, six, seven, some of them a dozen kids. Yeah, that's, that's a thing.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, there are those homeschooler people. What did that lady say about homeschool people to us? That we thought it was funny.

Speaker 3:

We met a lady and she told us that she was homeschooled when she was a kid. And she said we were kids that were homeschooled. There were other people that were homeschool kids and there's a big difference. So I thought that was funny.

Speaker 1:

I do think it's funny. I get the stereotype, but also there are lots of different shades of people in public school as well. Oh, for sure, for sure, we've met a lot of wonderful homeschool families, so you get some of both and in both areas, so it's definitely not any bad thing about homeschool people.

Speaker 3:

And I feel like we're allowed to joke about both a little bit because we have feet in both camps. Yeah, because you know, taryn and I are pretty crunchy Taryn, especially as far as you know organic and all this kind of stuff, and so there's that aspect, and that would be the people that are homeschoolers. And then there's the people that are just people that homeschool, and that would be a more mainstream kind of. That's the idea of the joke anyway, and I think that you know there's several things we're a lot more mainstream about. So there's a good mix For sure.

Speaker 1:

And we've done both. I think that it's easy for us to talk about this because we're not coming from one side. We've done both. We can compare the two. Obviously, these are just opinions, but we have been doing both. I do remember a time where I was frustrated with the school. We weren't talking about homeschooling yet, but I was like is it too much to ask to have a school that gets the kids outside, gives them good food and doesn't have cell phones like teaches them communication skills and doesn't go all day and all of this? And he was like, yeah, that's too much to ask unless you want to start your own school or unless you go to a different country.

Speaker 3:

I mean, because that's where? Isn't that where you first started thinking about that? You were reading about the no bad weather days schools, where the danish way is it? Was it a scandinavian country or one of them? That where it snows a lot and but? But they just they're prepared for it. Every kid has their own special little like parka, suit and snowproof clothing and they go outside every day, no matter what.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I love that because we didn't always do that when we had small kids, but we have slowly changed. That, like being outside is a very important thing and that definitely makes your kids more resilient to different types of weather, and it never fails. At the start of summer, our kids are always like oh my gosh, it's so hot and it'll be like what 80?.

Speaker 3:

Right, and you're like you're used to like 105. It's not like we're going at 3pm when it's, you know, 110 degrees.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, but if you stick through it then you know they're outside riding their bike when it's a hundred degrees and it doesn't bother them. So it's just something that I feel like has been important, even as an adult, because as a kid especially like teenage or preteen I didn't go outside a lot when it was raining or it was too hot or it's too cold.

Speaker 3:

I did as a kid. We went outside no matter what, because the goal was to be outside. I mean, we had video games and stuff. They just weren't as fun as I think they are now, I guess, or for whatever reason. But our number one goal was to be outside doing whatever sport we felt like doing at the time football, basketball in the driveway.

Speaker 1:

Yes, I was the same way, but it was like the more I got into school, less recess. We had, less time being outside, the more I stayed inside.

Speaker 3:

Oh yeah, me too. Me too as I got older, especially by the time I was driving age. I mean, I didn't really go outside at all.

Speaker 1:

I mean even as an adult. I mean I would tell you it was too cold to go outside and I just had like my temperature gauge, there was only a few degrees that it was okay to be outside, and that's nonsense. Like I don't want my kids to be like that. Like go for a walk every day, rain or shine. And we were actually doing a bunch of that in Switzerland when we were like the only people riding the coaster and the guy said there's no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothes.

Speaker 3:

That's right.

Speaker 1:

I love that he says that, because that's the country's attitude and I wish our country was more that way, which I wanted to bring up because I think it's interesting and I'm sure a lot of other people will too. I was dreaming of this like school that didn't exist and I started getting these videos on my Instagram from a new school and it's called the future of education and it's basically this woman who was hoping the same thing I was thinking would exist and she started her own school. Well, now she's ridiculously famous with it. She's talking on all kinds of talk shows and on the news and everything, and what she's done is create a school called the future of education and they only learn for two hours a day and it's basically all AI, so it helps them be at their level.

Speaker 1:

So a lot of kids might be in fourth grade for one subject and then they maybe are in ninth grade for a different subject. There is just no set limits. Like they're in school and then the rest of the time, like they're outside fishing, they change tires, they put together furniture, they start companies, real companies. Like they're outside fishing, they change tires, they put together furniture, they start companies real companies. They just play to the kids' strengths Like what do you want to do phenomenal, right. And the kids' academics are phenomenal. They're scoring so high on all those tests that you need to get into college. So it's definitely the academics. For two hours, that's enough, and they're some of the most intelligent kids I've ever heard. They have a podcast and you can hear them speak and talk about how it is to be at the school. Problem is it's like $50,000 a kid per year Definitely out of most people's price range. But I just realized that if we want something like that, we have to create it ourselves.

Speaker 3:

That's perfect, because you can look at those things and say, yeah, that's out of my price range. And then you can just give up and say, I guess I'll just stick with whatever. But you don't have to do that. You can create your own whole system based on all the good ideas you get from all these other situations, and then just put them all together and say, okay, this is what we're doing.

Speaker 1:

And that's what we've done. We didn't know that's what we would be doing, but we are. And one other thing before we go into curriculum today I got a lot of pushback this week on my Instagram about how we're able to work and what our jobs were. There's a lot of questions, so we'll answer that. But we are accountants. You can go back and listen to our episode about our schedule and we'll tell you a little bit more about that.

Speaker 1:

But we do not have to work a set number of hours in a day, so we're extremely lucky in that. But the work has to be done, so we're working four hours seven days a week. I realize that is not the number of hours in a full-time schedule. I do realize that. But there were so many people that had different types of jobs, even a nurse. There was somebody who worked in the NICU. There was all kinds of people commenting saying, hey, we made it work, we found a way, and I'm switching off with my husband. We work at it like an hour a day, so they're doing like an hour of school a day, but they're doing seven days a week and we're doing two hours, but we're only doing four days a week, If you're listening to this, but we're only doing four days a week.

Speaker 1:

If you're listening to this podcast and you're probably listening to it because you think you want to homeschool and you're just trying to figure out a way to do it there are a million ways to do this.

Speaker 1:

For us, it means that we're working seven days a week and then sometimes we do have to go back to work if the kids don't have stuff. But there are other ways that you could set it up and if you check out some of those recent posts, there's a lot of people sharing how they do it and nobody's looks the same. Some of them only do schooling on weekends. Some grandparents help out. So if you have a support system, some people are hiring like a tutor that helps them with it three days a week. There's a million things. So if you're considering it, I just urge you to think outside the box. Don't just think that schooling has to look like this or like this. There's a million ways this can be done and it doesn't take as long as you think. I think people are here listening because they want to do this themselves and they're trying to figure out how can I do that.

Speaker 3:

And you know, especially when your kids get older, the options are even greater. Like we, we will get into that more when we get to the curriculum. But we decided we don't love spending as much time on the computer right now.

Speaker 3:

We might, you know, do more of that later, but if you have a kid, that's you know, fourth grade or older, maybe even third grade, if they're reading really well and you are comfortable with doing most things on the computer, that frees you up even more, because at that point it takes so much of the burden off you and it leaves it to where I mean the computer's doing a lot of the work and everything that's. That's again. That's not what we're going for right now, but that is an option.

Speaker 1:

You absolutely could do that and it doesn't take them very long to get through it. The age of your child matters. There's absolutely no way we could have homeschooled them when they were all much younger. So the fact that we have two kids that can, now that they know the routine, they can sit down and they start working their way through their stuff. We help them here and there, but it's not a lot of hands-on. If they're in like, let's say, junior high high school, it's pretty much going to be on them to work through it and they can do it themselves.

Speaker 1:

There's so many curriculums that they are teaching your child through videos and things like that, or they actually do have a teacher and they're just like logging in. So there's a million ways it can be done. The age of your child matters a ton. I feel like somebody commented saying that we have the perfect age, and I feel like we do, because I had no business teaching them letters sounds numbers like that just because of my lack of patience. But I can pick up from the base that they already have and move forward, because they can do a lot of things themselves, and our six-year-old is really the toughest one. But give her another year or two. She's going to be so much easier.

Speaker 3:

But once they can read, then I mean that's half the battle, that you can learn anything when you can read, and then you just need a little bit of help sometimes on you know more complicated concepts. So and that brings me to another point about the routine and everything so it was really smooth this week. I mean that's one of the things we're trying to do is update everyone on how it's going. Now I do think we'll get into the curriculum and you'll see why it's probably about to get not as smooth temporarily. But they got into the routine of what we're doing and I mean now it was taking even like less time than normal. We always planned for it to be two hours and then in the first week, I think some days we were doing three because we were just trying to like get, get a hang, get the hang of everything, and then you know, the next week we were probably around two hours and then we were under two hours this week. I do think that will go back up when the new curriculum arrives.

Speaker 1:

Maybe. So I do think it was very smooth. But the first two weeks the kids were just looking at us like what do we do? Y'all are the teachers, come on and we didn't really know yet. We were just kind of trying to figure out our rhythm. We have a good rhythm now, but let's talk about it. We are switching curriculums. We thought we would, which is why we started with Me Academy, because it was low cost, low effort, like just not a huge commitment to start it. But I thought we would switch, like maybe in a couple months or mid semester, but no, we are switching now.

Speaker 3:

I could tell Taryn wasn't thrilled with it and I just felt like, okay, you know, I'm okay with it, but I think that there was probably something better. And with the amount of work that goes into each curriculum that you pick, I didn't want to get too deep into it and then have to switch, and switching at this point I mean they they have a big headstart on the kind of curriculum they're supposed to be looking at for their grade level, because we already did, you know, I don't know 20% of it, at least for for most of the stuff but, and so so we're going to be doing a little bit of review. But most homeschool people don't even start until September 1st, and so by the time the new curriculum arrives, we're going to be starting that kind of right on schedule with a big head start on most of the material.

Speaker 1:

How this all happened was that I was super unhappy with it. Carson knew I was unhappy with it and I was talking to a mom at the homeschool gymnastics and I was telling her all my issues with it and I said I want something that does this, this and this. And she said that's how the good and the beautiful is. And I'm like, ah, why didn't I look into that more? So when I got home I looked on the website and I was sold because it's exactly what I think would fit for us.

Speaker 1:

First let's just talk about Me Academy and why it didn't work for us. I'm not saying it's bad, it just it requires the kid to be on the computer. You can print out the lessons, but it's not easy because they rely heavily on videos and things to teach the kids, which is great because you're not teaching them. But if you print out the PDF then you're like, oh well, they didn't understand it because they didn't see the video. Or sometimes you would print out the PDF and it would be like look at these pictures, and then they couldn't even see the picture.

Speaker 3:

Yes, that was a big part of the problem. All of those were an issue because, for example, sometimes there was a 12 minute video on something that I literally showed the kid one time and they already knew, and now they don't want to watch a 12 minute video about something. They get it and they want to move on. So while, yes, you can print it out, it doesn't work on all the options very well.

Speaker 1:

No, it is not made for that. If that's what you're trying to do, it's the wrong program for you, not made for that. If that's what you're trying to do, it's the wrong program for you. And the reason we didn't want them to be on a computer at this age is because of the handwriting component. All three of ours still need a lot of work writing their numbers, their letters, everything.

Speaker 1:

They don't need to be on a computer and, as you can imagine, every single class in the United States right now, with kindergartners and first graders, whenever they have an iPad or their own computer which they pretty much all do now how chaotic that is. They don't know how to work them well. They don't know exactly where to click. So that was us running all over like okay, here's your lesson on this, and then setting up the next kid and then doing something else with the next kid, and then they're done with their lesson in like one minute. It feels like at least Slate was going through it so quickly. It was just too chaotic. I really much preferred sitting down with the workbook that we got, like from Amazon.

Speaker 3:

Now, that being said, with Me Academy, I did figure out some workarounds for a lot of those problems and it made it a lot better. I mean, this week was smoother, even though we are switching.

Speaker 3:

I you know I don't want to throw them under the bus completely because, for example, with Slate, I started letting him do the reading stuff on the computer because that's not writing.

Speaker 3:

There's other stuff we do that's writing. And then in the math I want him writing the numbers on, you know, with pencil and paper, but the reading it's really just multiple choice questions, it's reading passages, and he can do all that on the computer. And I figured out how to skip a lot of the instructional videos, because they're literally trying to teach him how to read in the instructional video. But he was just going straight to the test to prove he already knows how to do that, and so I was trying to get him through the second grade stuff faster so he could move into the third grade reading. I did figure that out. There was ways to let him just skip straight to all of the tests and he actually finished the whole second grade reading curriculum for me Academy and I was going to move him into third grade and I just thought, eh, why we'll just get the third grade reading curriculum for the good and the beautiful, and then we're good to go which we didn't have to.

Speaker 1:

So let's talk about the good and the beautiful. Good to go, which we didn't have to, so let's talk about the good and the beautiful. I did want to say one more thing about Me Academy. If you have older kids and they're doing a lot of this themselves, it's probably a great thing. I just don't recommend it for younger kids because of how many homeschool moms I've heard that said they wish they wouldn't have introduced like a computer program before they have their writing skills.

Speaker 3:

So that their kids can write well, I think the program's great.

Speaker 1:

I think the lessons are great, I think that the curriculum is good and there's a lot of great reviews, which is why we chose it, but I think it's not necessarily what you should use if you have younger kids, like we do. So let's talk about the good and the beautiful now and why we like it and why we're changing to that and why we think we're going to like it.

Speaker 1:

We don't have it yet, so well why we like the way that they've done it. So the first thing that I liked when I jumped on their website was that they have a placement test for reading and math. That was like our biggest issue starting out, because we have a gifted kid. We didn't know what to do with them. We don't know where to start them. We have no idea and it was really hard getting them through on me Academy trying to figure out what do we do with this kid.

Speaker 1:

Well, they have this placement test and they're like okay, it's very quick too. It was like have your child read this passage. If they know all the words and didn't miss three, move to the next level. So our second grader I gave it to him and we saw that we were able to order the fourth grade reading for him. Now then you're like oh, is he going to miss anything? And it literally says on there if they can read this, then this is where they need to be, because we're going to go over all that other stuff.

Speaker 1:

So, like more punctuation and things like that that you don't want them to miss. They're going to cover it again, so there's no reason to worry about skipping to a grade. So he's actually going to get to start on fourth grade, which is going to be really nice for him. And then there was also a math one, and I was really pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to give them these placement tests and they're free. On their website you can just see where your kids are. That was amazing to me, considering that we've spent three weeks now trying to figure out where a kid needs to be on me academy.

Speaker 3:

The way they ask you to do placement tests on me academy. I didn't love that. Do placement tests on me academy? I didn't love that either. I think we did talk about that in an earlier episode, but I mean it was, you know, basically taking the, the unit tests, for the end of each chapter and if they already know it, then you move on to the next one. And I don't know, it's just a lot of testing and kids.

Speaker 1:

The kids didn't like that yeah, but they felt like they these placement tests every day yeah, these placement tests for the good and the beautiful, they were perfect, we could see exactly where they needed to be, loved it, and they were very short. Well, the good and the beautiful has a reputation for being kind of above, like. Their expectations for, like fourth grade are higher than what it would be like in public school or something. So we were kind of surprised with the math, because it said that your fourth grader should already know the times tables like really well, all through number 12. And they didn't even really work on that much at all in third grade, so she's actually behind with that aspect of it.

Speaker 3:

It's the common core, is the reason I mean they spent hate, well, they spent in third grade. We, we, they showed us why multiplication is the way it is. You know, three dots this way. Three dots this way equals nine, or you know. Then we quickly learned to memorize the multiplication tables because you just don't have time to do the dots as soon as you get into double and triple digit multiplication. You can't do dot counting for every single multiplication when you're doing three numbers times three numbers.

Speaker 1:

So that made us aware that even though our child, who is an all-A student at school, she's actually behind. I like that. It works ahead, because I think that's going to challenge our kids more. The other big thing obviously that those two were just surprises to me, but the reason why I really wanted to do it it was because they're workbooks.

Speaker 1:

The way that they have it set out is there are there's a lesson. You can do one lesson a day. You could do two lessons a day, however you want to do it, and you go to lesson one. At the top of the thing it says this is what you're teaching today. This is what you guys need to go over. Then there is a part where your kid works through it themselves. You don't need to help them with that part.

Speaker 1:

And then at the end they take a little assessment and you look over that to see did they get everything? Is there anything that they didn't understand? And if they didn't, you go back over whatever it was that they just didn't quite grasp. And that's the lesson. They're like 15, 20 minutes and then you grab your math workbook and then you work through that. So very easy, considering what we were doing, trying to bounce around between computer and worksheet and all of this and the kids will quite easily pick up the rhythm of the day because they just do one lesson out of their workbook. Switch to the next workbook. Switch to the next workbook.

Speaker 3:

Right, and that's. It's going to be just as simple as me Academy, or way simpler in a lot of ways. So, as far as as you know, the computer seems like it's really helpful. But I mean, if you have a workbook and it's designated for this subject, then it's like okay, you're gonna do these math lessons, you're gonna do the it's very straightforward on what has to be completed every single day and our kids are picking that up like so.

Speaker 1:

They would be like, oh, I'm done with school for today, because she knew she had completed all of her tasks. This will be very easy, like they'll have their three workbooks sitting on their desk and then we'll work through them when they've, you know, made sure that they've done what they need to do. They're good, so very easy.

Speaker 3:

More importantly, the kids are, and this will carry over into the new curriculum, so it won't matter. They're realizing that it's not like school, where if they're doing something hard or just it requires maybe more brain power than they feel like using in the moment. Then I think before they felt like, okay, I could work really hard and get this done quick and then I'm just going to get more worksheets or more busy work to do, and now that's not the case. They know that. You know, as soon as they're done, then they're done for the day and they can go do whatever they feel like doing.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, they definitely have not really been giving pushback because they know what it's like to go to school and do it, so they're choosing this because they prefer it.

Speaker 3:

Right, and oh, and my main point with all that was that I think it will be even more clear because on the computer the kids weren't that great at navigating on there either, and I know, and we weren't, it's not user-friendly but whenever we're like you're going to do these two lessons and show them in the workbook, then, oh, it's so easy. They know exactly what they need to do to move on.

Speaker 1:

And the way it works is you order the subjects and they send it to you print it out. So we were printing a lot. Now we're not going to have to do that, which is really nice. Anyone could do it. If, for some reason, we needed my mom or Carson's mom to work a kid through a lesson one day, it would be so easy to do. I love that part of it. Anybody could just jump in and help you out. That probably won't happen or very much, but it is an option. It's super easy to do the way we were doing it before. It wouldn't be easy for people to flip flop or if, like Carson, wasn't there one day and I did homeschooling. He can pick back up very easily. So it's all printed.

Speaker 1:

You ordered off their website. It was a little expensive. I don't think that it was outrageous. I ordered everything that we needed and then I also ordered an additional workbook so that with a slate I think slate or sailor one of them I ordered an extra so that they could work forward and then move to the next grade I think slate. So I ordered extra and it all ended up being about $600 for the year for three kids.

Speaker 1:

So kind of expensive amount of money to spend, but not compared to other options that I've looked at.

Speaker 3:

Well, we were going to be paying. What was it? $40 a month per kid, Is that right?

Speaker 1:

Yeah With me Academy, I believe, so yeah.

Speaker 3:

And so it was going to be more. I mean, it's going to be quite a bit.

Speaker 1:

Academy does have a lifetime option and I think that was like $1,200.

Speaker 3:

It's really cheap. If you, if you start your kids when they're young and they're going to use it all the way through high school, it is incredibly inexpensive.

Speaker 1:

So it's a big upfront payment $1,200, but that's it. You don't pay a monthly thing, it's for your whole family. So I mean that's kind of what we were looking at, and then now it'll probably be about $500 to $600 every year for the, if we want the printed books.

Speaker 3:

Some of it. You know they work inside of those books. They write in them, so we will have to reorder those. But you know, for example, the math particular to second grade. It came with the book, which was 20 bucks, and it came with all of these supplies which you don't use up. They're like fake coins and clocks and stuff, cause that's part of the math curriculum and so when our younger one moves up to that grade level, well, we'll still have all that stuff. We'll only have to order her a new workbook to be able to write in and stuff which I do think that those supplemental materials are nice.

Speaker 1:

It's not a lot, it's just a small amount, but whenever they're like trying to measure something they have like a little measuring tape in there. Or when we were trying to do coins with scotty, I was trying to go find a coin of everything.

Speaker 1:

I couldn't find all the coins so so if you're opening up the math lesson and it says, oh, today we're going to do this, grab your clock or grab your coins or whatever, it's nice to have a little box of helping stuff. You don't have to buy that if you don't want, but I thought it would be super helpful. That was, you know pricing, If you're interested in pricing. The other thing that I loved about it because we had talked about this and we didn't know until I was on their website is that the core subjects are taught individually on your own grade level, but the other things, like history, are taught as a family. So we were already planning to do that.

Speaker 3:

History and science right.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, we were already planning to do that, because I think that's just so much better, like when we are talking about like geography and those types things we're just going to be teaching all of our kids. Now our kids are closer in age, but I love that. So if you order the science or history or whatever it's for everyone in your family.

Speaker 3:

I think that's really useful because there's no reason to do you know, I know they go by grade level to make sure they hit everything when you're in public school, and that's smart for them to do it that way, because they have to. But for us, I mean, there's no reason I need to be teaching Texas history to a fourth grader and US history to a fifth grader and world history to a sixth grader, or however they do it in school, because then I mean a lot of the stuff I'm having to refresh myself on before I teach them. And now there's no reason I need to teach three different histories at the same time as a teacher.

Speaker 1:

It makes it so much easier on you I mean, I remember nothing from public school history. I don't either. So I I do think it's important that we talk about it and they learn about those things. But I think our approach needs to be different and for us it's going to be doing some traveling, seeing maybe some important things in our history and things like that, and then we'll work through these workbooks together, like they probably aren't going to remember all the goofy dates and stuff.

Speaker 3:

That part's not important. The specific dates, I mean in general, you should know that in the late 1700s we got our independence and that in the mid to late 1800s, you know, abraham Lincoln ended slavery. I mean all of these things are important, but what's more important is talking about why we got our independence and why slavery was bad and what it took to make it end, and things like that. Those are the important concepts that we need to teach so that we don't repeat mistakes from history. Not that it was that it happened to be in 1865, or I don't even. I'm not a hundred percent sure, I'm pretty sure it was 1865, but but does it matter that it was 1865?

Speaker 3:

or does it matter that we learned that this was a horrible part of our past that we fixed, and it took a horrible war to make it end, but we did it? I mean, that's what's important, so that the kids understand yeah, this is a bad thing. We need to steer away from that.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely, and I love that. That's their approach, because that's what we wanted to do, and I was shocked that they are doing the same thing.

Speaker 3:

It's amazing that other people who are like-minded thought in a similar way to us.

Speaker 1:

I know it's so refreshing. So that is our curriculum change. We will keep you posted when we actually start the good and beautiful. It hasn't been delivered yet. This is just kind of our thinking. Another thing I wanted to bring up, because I've seen a lot of people concerned about this, was like long-term, like getting a degree, and all of those things are kind of state specific for Texas. We don't have a lot of things we have to do. It's very like hands-off when you're homeschooled, but we might not do the good and beautiful forever. This might just be something that we do when the kids are younger and we want them to do worksheets and stuff. We're not like married to it forever. I think it's good for the stage we're in now. Something we are considering and it is available to everyone, I believe is a Texas tech program that's called K-12. And through that they do actually get a high school diploma and then they would be accepted into Texas Tech if they wanted to go there.

Speaker 3:

It's an accredited school that they get a diploma from, they're enrolled, in other words.

Speaker 1:

They're not technically homeschooled, but they are.

Speaker 3:

But it's all done on a computer from home and it's self-paced unless you're in the. I think there are some, you know, I don't know when to call it scholarships or grants or something for people that don't have the money, and but that's not self-paced if you get that one. But if you get the one that you have to pay for. Then it is self-paced, but you're supposed to finish the curriculum by the end of the year.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you can't be behind. There's no other dates though it's not like.

Speaker 3:

this is due this day, that's due that day, it's just. All of this has to be done by the end of the school year or you can't do it anymore.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and we are very interested in that for a lot of reasons, but the fact that as they get older and they are in more difficult math or science or whatever, they would actually have a teacher through that and the teacher is teaching the subjects and it's more of a traditional class style and we wouldn't be the teachers any longer and then they just have to pace themselves. But it is all on the computer. So that would be something I would only be interested in as they got older, and I love the fact that they're getting a traditional diploma and that they can go to tech if they would like to, and there's really no barriers there because they're homeschooled.

Speaker 3:

And for most of the people that do it, when you get your diploma, you also have 60 hours of college credit automatically. That's part of your last two years of high school, or also your first two years of college, which I love.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I do too.

Speaker 3:

I've talked about before. This isn't so that they can graduate college with a bachelor's when they're 20. Because I don't know that's a good idea for anyone. You're not really ready to be an engineer when you're 20 or whatever. You know you went to college for. That's hard, but it allows you to. Okay, now let's do it for four years, but let's take half the load of classes so that we can really dig into our you know, our major studies, whatever that happens to be. Because I learned so much more when I was in those summer semesters or winter semesters where we only had one class at a time and all of my attention was on that. I learned so much more than when I had five classes at a time. So, anyway, I love that option for them if they go that route. But that's not to say that people that homeschool all the way through the end of high school, that they don't still get a diploma, get credit for having graduated high school, can still go to college. Yes To all of that. You can still do that, no matter what.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. I just think there's a lot of people looking into it now who are dead set that they want it to look a certain way. If you do this, k through 12 option is a really good option and it's for anybody. Anyone anywhere can can use it.

Speaker 3:

Um, and it is also something that we will consider as they get older and another great part about that program, or any other programs like that, is if you and your husband, or you and your wife, both have traditional jobs where you have to be there in person and you're never going to be able to homeschool, or you're there all the time person and you're never going to be able to homeschool where you're there all the time you know. Once your kids reach that age where you feel comfortable with them being home alone 13 or 14, whatever that is you could start a program like this at that point and then they could still have some of the perks of being homeschooled, if that's something that you're looking for.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely, and you could just get creative with, you know, maybe coming home for lunch or one of you gets to go in early and then the other one's there, so you know there's less time. I know a lot of people doing that, so a lot of ways to make it work. But it's a wonderful program. We know people that are in it. They absolutely love it, and I just think it's something later on down the road for us for older kids. The other thing that just came up this week and I hate to talk about it, but it's just something that it's a big issue right now is the school shooting that happened this week and it's just, I think, hard for any of us to wrap our heads around it. We've been there where we've had to send the kids to school after one of those, and I'm just so glad that we don't have to do that anymore.

Speaker 3:

It's scary. I mean, I realized these things can happen anywhere. You know it's not just happening at schools, but happens a lot at schools and that's when you feel the most helpless, because that's when you send them away and you're not with them, when they're at a young age and they're vulnerable and you're trusting, you're sending them to a safe place.

Speaker 3:

Right, and you know it happens at other places concerts and stuff like that but more and more of these places are starting to put in metal detectors and security and stuff like that. I don't know why we're not doing that at more schools. I don't know why people are able to walk into buildings with children unattended by their parents, with firearms. It seems crazy to me.

Speaker 1:

Well, that just isn't a problem. That's been something they've been dealing with. I mean, the school our kids went to didn't have metal detectors. I mean, schools just aren't set up for that. That's a lot of funding that they're gonna have to do if they do start requiring every single school to have metal detectors and stuff. So I mean, I get it it.

Speaker 3:

There's a lot needs to change like one percent of the football budget and we can apply it towards metal detectors and another one percent of it and pay for an armed security guard to be there at the door and that's the solution.

Speaker 1:

Right there, problem solved I do think that we're getting serious about some of those things that we can try to use, like our school had a police officer up there every single morning and then the private preschool we went to a parent actually paid to have a police officer there. So parents are concerned. We're trying to do what we can do and I just I hate that I I've. I saw so many posts of parents just like sick because they do want to homeschool, they don't want to have to deal with this every day and you know, you get a little comfortable and you're like okay like we live in a good world.

Speaker 1:

Like I can't just live in this like place of anxiety being a parent, like I have like bad things happen, right, and then another shooting happens and it's like, oh, what are we doing here?

Speaker 3:

I have like no control over this and it's a sick, sick feeling but it's one that at least one thing we don't have to worry about anymore I do.

Speaker 1:

that was like the first thing on my mind, because I hated sending them to school after something like that would happen, and it just, it just feels good knowing that we're never going to be in that situation again.

Speaker 3:

But it is sad for a lot of the people that don't have that choice.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. So many people's hands are tied and I just I hate that for our whole country and I hate ending this episode on a sad note, but it's just. It's something that has to be talked about and there's a lot being said about it this week and it's going to continue to come up. So let's wrap this one up. If you have any questions or anything like that, you can always reach out on my Instagram page. I'm sharing a lot of homeschool content and I would imagine that's where everyone is joining. The podcast is from the instagram, so until next time.

Speaker 2:

Thank you so much for listening to well this wasn't the plan podcast we worked really hard on this podcast. Make sure to subscribe so you don't miss a single podcast episode. Thank you, have a good day.