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Well This Wasn't The Plan!
We never expected to homeschool...but here we are! Life is funny that way, ya know?
After 4 years in public school, we've made the unexpected leap into homeschooling our 3 kids--while still working full-time! On this podcast, we're documenting the journey in real time: the good, the hard, the hilarious, and everything in between.
Whether you're a curious parent, a fellow homeschooler, or just here for the chaos, welcome!
Let's figure it out together--because sometimes the best things start with, "Well, that wasn't the plan..."
Well This Wasn't The Plan!
8. ADHD and Homeschooling: Our 10-Year-Old's Perspective
Curious what homeschooling really looks like through a child's eyes? This special episode features our 10-year-old daughter, the inspiration behind our family's decision to leave public school and embark on this unexpected homeschooling journey.
Saylor shares why she begged us to homeschool her for years before we finally took the plunge. Her perspective is uniquely valuable - after completing four years in public school plus pre-K, she understands both worlds. When asked if she'd ever go back to traditional school, her answer is immediate and emphatic: "No, not at all. 100%, definitely not."
For a child with ADHD, the freedom to move, change environments, and take breaks when needed has transformed her relationship with learning. "At homeschool, you can go on the couch and read your book, you don't have to sit at a desk," she explains, highlighting how this flexibility helps her concentrate.
The episode also addresses our curriculum transition to "The Good and the Beautiful," how we're adapting it for three different learners, and our upcoming travel plans - one of the freedoms homeschooling affords us.
Subscribe and follow our journey as we continue documenting the good, the bad, and occasionally ugly reality of balancing homeschooling with full-time careers and family life. Have you considered homeschooling? What questions would you ask a child who's experienced both educational worlds?
Would you go back though, if you were, if you could?
Speaker 2:No, not at all. 100%, definitely not.
Speaker 1:So, as much as you miss hanging out with your friends, it's not worth it to.
Speaker 2:Sit at a desk for eight hours yeah.
Speaker 3:We are two full-time working parents who just made a crazy decision.
Speaker 4:After four years in public school, we're homeschooling our three kids and documenting the whole thing.
Speaker 3:Never in a million years did we think that we would be homeschool people.
Speaker 4:Welcome. This is the well. I didn't see that coming podcast.
Speaker 2: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 4:This podcast is our real-time journey, unexpectedly juggling homeschool jobs, parenting and everything in between.
Speaker 3: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 4:We're learning to expect the unexpected, so let's get into it, let's go.
Speaker 1:Welcome back to. Well, this wasn't the planned podcast. Today's episode is really special because we're joined by our daughter, sailor, the reason we even started homeschooling and the one who came up with the idea for this podcast.
Speaker 3:So we've officially been homeschooling for one month now and we thought it'd be really fun for her to share her perspective, what she likes, what's been surprising her, what it's really like from a 10-year-old's point of view. Now, keep in mind that Sailor did go to public school for four years kindergarten through third grade and she attended a private pre-K program when she was four and five, so she has a lot of experience in a typical school setting. If you're like a new listener here, or something, she was completely used to public school. If you're like a new listener here, or something she was completely used to, public school. Today we're going to get the inside scoop from Saylor and we're also going to talk about how homeschooling helped with her ADHD being able to move and get outside more and then we're going to talk about how co-op's going.
Speaker 2:Saylor, can you tell everyone why you wanted to try homeschooling? Well, I just didn't like waking up so early and I mean I just didn't like sitting at a desk for eight hours.
Speaker 3:And you were definitely asking us to homeschool you for a while. Huh.
Speaker 2:Yes, but y'all said no every time.
Speaker 1:I remember a few times you were like even when you knew we were going to do it this year, we were still in school. You were like can we just start now?
Speaker 3:Yeah, can we homeschool now? So just pointing that out, because it wasn't a rash decision. This is something we planned for a long time and so they wanted to do for a long time before we actually went all in. But a lot of people were asking what made you want to start a podcast about homeschooling.
Speaker 2:I wanted other people to homeschool, to make friends People in my school so then I know that I can make friends. But now I already made friends, but also I just wanted to do something fun, because Mom and Dad already have a podcast, so I wanted to make one.
Speaker 1:You didn't think our accounting podcast was fun. No, oh, that's surprising.
Speaker 2:I didn't want to listen to it. You're just like this is how you start a business. Blah, blah blah.
Speaker 1:That does sound like us.
Speaker 3:If you don't know, we have an accounting podcast and we talk about business and the kids think it's very boring it ising and taxes, boring no.
Speaker 1:So has it been different or just like you imagined it would be?
Speaker 2:It's really close. But I thought that mom and dad wouldn't really teach us that much. They would give us some books, we would find out, do our own lessons, you know, and then I would help my younger siblings do it, because I know what they're working on, since I've been in their grades.
Speaker 3:You thought you would do some teaching.
Speaker 1:You thought you were going to teach yourself with books and then you were going to teach the little kids, and me and mom are just going to work and eat bonbons.
Speaker 3:Work, just work, just work, and then y'all would just school yourselves.
Speaker 2:Yes, but y'all could like, if we needed help, we would ask you oh okay, so it's not really like that but we would still do it by ourselves.
Speaker 3:Oh okay, so it's not really like that. You're not really teaching yourself.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:Well, according to some of the haters online because there was one video of you reading a book without me and mom sitting right by you for the whole time they're like looks like she's just reading books and teaching herself. Y'all aren't even really teaching her.
Speaker 3:I'm just working all day.
Speaker 1:That's what somebody accused us of.
Speaker 3:We're actually not doing that. But the other thing, people were just so mad and surprised and had so many opinions about the fact that we only teach you for two hours a day.
Speaker 2:But my good teachers thought it was a good idea.
Speaker 3:Yes, A lot of people thought that homeschooling was a good idea, but so many people said two hours wasn't enough.
Speaker 2:I think two hours is more than we learned in eight hours at school.
Speaker 3:So do you think you're learning a lot more than you learned at school? Or less A lot more and we're only doing it in two hours. Yeah, so we get a lot done in two hours. Now you learn a lot of other things during the day. Do you do other things Like? Do you read outside of that two hours?
Speaker 2:Yes, like I do, 30 minutes of reading every day, sometimes more. What's the next question?
Speaker 1:Is there anything you miss about public school?
Speaker 2:I miss that there's a thousand kids, because I kind of like that because there's so many shoes for them to play with. I don't like that. We had recess for like two minutes a day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I bet that part is hard because you miss hanging out with your friends and that's a fun part of school.
Speaker 2:Oh, and my cousins are there too, so I get to see them every day.
Speaker 1:Would you go back though, if you were, if you could?
Speaker 2:No, not at all, 100%, definitely not.
Speaker 1:So, as much as you miss hanging out with your friends, it's not worth it to.
Speaker 2:Sit at desk for eight hours.
Speaker 3:Yeah, what I was kind of wondering is that I feel like as you get older so you're in third grade but you would have been in fourth grade, I think that you stop socializing as much at school because you stop going to recess. You don't get to talk that much at lunch. It's like 20, 30 minutes.
Speaker 2:And then during the day, it's less when you have tray, because you have to wait in line 15 minutes to eat your food I don't know how y'all didn't starve to death, because at home it takes y'all like an hour and a half to eat I know, because I never finished my food at school, because and also then we take 10 minutes to clean up.
Speaker 3:So well, I know that y'all were always rushed at lunch so like, okay, if they're not getting to socialize at lunch and you're getting outside for 10-15 minutes a day.
Speaker 2:You know, the older you get, the less socialization time you get at school because you're supposed to be quiet and be working on your work, yeah, but when you're older you can drive at school, Then for lunch you can go to like a restaurant, which is way better, Well not at your school.
Speaker 1:I don't know if they're even allowed to do that anymore.
Speaker 3:No, and it's still only like 30, 45 minutes. But y'all did when y'all were at school. That was back in the day. A lot of things were different.
Speaker 1:Mom didn't. They didn't have restaurants in her tiny town.
Speaker 3:Well, I got to like the end of high school because I was out of school. I didn't have to go back until athletics. But, yes, I did get to lean and go get lunch. Lunch was still short.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 3:There wasn't a lot of socialization during classes and things like that, because it was just like, hurry do this, hurry do that, and then you're working and you can't talk to your next classmate.
Speaker 2:When we're in the classroom we're like shh, shh, shh, shh, be quiet, be quiet.
Speaker 3:Well, that's what I was wondering. I was wondering if you know you get to talk to your friends very much in class.
Speaker 2:No, Do you think homeschooling makes us closer as a family, and why or why not? Yeah, that's like an easy question. Even three-year-old can answer that. I think it is because we're sometimes it gets a little bit annoying, but we're by each other literally 24 hours a day from an, from the outside, looking in just you with your siblings.
Speaker 1:I know you also fight some, but I see y'all doing stuff together and playing games together that y'all really didn't or sometimes we would see them do this, but it would take like all the way till the end of christmas break or until halfway into summer and then right about the time we start doing all that and then y'all go back to school and then it's like and y'all are ages each other's throws all the time again. So, but it's like, and y'all are ages to each other's throats all the time again. So, but it's kind of brought it all together, kind of like COVID did, because I remember, like you and Slate, when y'all were really little y'all didn't get along until COVID happened and you didn't have anyone else to play with and then y'all became friends. So it's kind of like that. It's like we're here together and so y'all are, you know, friends. What's been the hardest part for you or something that's been frustrating?
Speaker 2:Nothing that's been frustrating Hard isn't really the word for it, but I don't but we've been doing so much chores, which I mean I guess it's a life scale, but it's way different than school. We didn't have to do anything because we were at school all day. Then we got home, go to sports, got home go, got home, go to sleep, you know so but all those chores were still getting done, so who do you think was doing them? Mom and dad were doing them but we did do like our laundry and stuff.
Speaker 3:But now we do laundry dishes counter and the only reason that you guys didn't have to do those when you went to school is because dad and I could not figure out a way to be consistent with it, because we were all over the place all the time. There was never a time to be like, okay, taylor, unload the dishwasher and it would happen. But it would happen so infrequently and you know you would always be mad Like, oh, why do I have to do it now?
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 3:This I know. No kids like chores. I don't like chores, but I don't like you don't really don't like chores. No, oh me neither that's crazy.
Speaker 1:That's because kids don't like chores as much as grown-ups I don't like them either, but it's nice for us to all chip in and it's a good lesson to learn to the people that think we're, you know, destroying their childhood if taryn and I are still doing like 80 to 90 percent of the chores that are done in this house. The kids are just chipping in a little and outside of the running their childhood thing, you know. I know somebody saw say they're cooking with you and they were like you're just teaching her how to be a good housewife, which I thought was so stupid. Because first of all, you're not a housewife, you have multiple jobs actually. But outside of that, I do a lot of the cooking and the kids cook with me all the time.
Speaker 1:I wish we would have posted that, because you know that's outside of gender typical roles or whatever normal ancient gender roles, and so you know that's teaching them that cooking is a life skill. You should be able to cook for yourself and we're teaching our son to cook too, and I'm the one that usually cooks dinner during the week. So we're not following stereotypical gender roles.
Speaker 2:I can make eggs now.
Speaker 4:Yeah she can cook eggs.
Speaker 3:You have been learning a lot of cooking. You made lemon bars the other day.
Speaker 1:And even if you're an astrophysicist, you should still know how to make yourself eggs in the morning, so that you don't have to eat donuts every day and so that you can have healthy food.
Speaker 3:Every human on this planet eats multiple times a day. If kids aren't being taught how to prepare food, that's a huge thing. It is something that will affect them their entire life.
Speaker 2:So how'd y'all learn?
Speaker 3:Trial and error after we left our parents' house.
Speaker 1:By burning a lot of things and then doing it a different way the next time, even dad, to this day, will not try to cook new food.
Speaker 3:We just had a fight about it last week. Like he doesn't, he's not comfortable cooking. Like he doesn't really like to comfortable cooking. Like he doesn't really like to bake which he did, help you with lemon bars, but like he's not very comfortable and I'll bake from a box for instructions but you're not very comfortable in the kitchen. Like you've got way better the last two or three years. A hundred percent.
Speaker 1:You will be miles ahead of your dad yeah, my repertoire went from like four things that I could make to like I don't know 15. Yeah, and you?
Speaker 3:still don't like to step outside that box. But you know the kids will just be like miles ahead of where we were when we were in college.
Speaker 2:When you're our age, you couldn't even. You couldn't even microwave a muffin.
Speaker 1:I could do that but I couldn't even microwave a muffin. I could do that, but I couldn't do much more.
Speaker 3:Okay, Taylor, do you think Dad and I are doing a good job teaching you and you can be completely honest here?
Speaker 2:You don't have to lie Sometimes, not because sometimes you don't know what we're learning. We didn't get taught that in school but a lot of times you actually did pretty good Better than our teachers sometimes.
Speaker 3:Okay, so we're only bad because some of the things we have to learn then teach you right. But as far as helping you or being patient with you or other things teachers do, are we doing a good job?
Speaker 1:Yes, I know what you mean, though I mean it never happens to me with the math. But I was grading your grammar I really thought on the grammar part I'd be good, because I hate when people have bad grammar. But I was looking and she was supposed to underline the things that were supposed to be capitalized in the paragraph that had not been capitalized. And I looked and I was like yeah, I really think that this is supposed to be capitalized.
Speaker 1:It was like the type of bear it was a spectacled bear and I was like, oh, I think that's supposed to be capitalized because like it's like a title, and then it wasn't. So I had to look it up but I got it right.
Speaker 3:So yeah, those little things you forget. Like it's not that we don't understand fourth grade level stuff, it's that, like she asked me in math, what's the factor? I don't know what the factor one is, those terms. No, I knew what it was. No, you got it right, but I was checking your work. So then I'm like factor Is that right?
Speaker 1:I remember the answer to multiplication is factor, but I did not remember what the two no, the factor is oh, it's one.
Speaker 3:What's the answer?
Speaker 1:Product, Product. Oh see, I didn't remember and I don't think I ever knew addend was a thing. I knew that the two things you add together are the sum, but I did not know that they were called addends and in subtraction they were called something and minuend. What's the first one, do you remember?
Speaker 3:That blew my mind. I was like what I've never heard this term.
Speaker 1:I don't know that we needed to know that. I don't know that she needs to know that, because we can all do addition and subtraction. But I mean, I guess there's no knowledge, it's just bad knowledge.
Speaker 3:Here we go. Good thing, we have answer keys and we're moving on.
Speaker 1:Okay, what do you want to learn or do in the next few months?
Speaker 2:I want to be able to do my hair so good, like being able to curl it and French braid and all of that. And then I also want to be able to do new recipes Like oh, what's this? Find at the store? A box of brownies. Oh, I don't know how to do this, but I'll try it. And one more thing I really want to learn how to type fast, okay, like y'all do.
Speaker 3:That's our job, but that's a wonderful skill to have and we can definitely work on that.
Speaker 2:So then I can have a pen pal.
Speaker 3:So I mentioned this a little bit before and we talked about it on some episodes. But Sailor has ADHD. She isn't on any sort of medication other than we give her focus drops to help some. And we were thinking that was probably the reason she was not liking school, because she has a lot of energy and school wasn't letting her get that energy out.
Speaker 2:Because I didn't want to act crazy in school. I guess that's just how it is with girls who have ADHD, because boys are always crazy no matter what. But I was never really crazy Like my teachers didn't know I had ADHD.
Speaker 3:Yeah, your behavior was really good and your grades were good, but, like I said before, your grades would be like A, a, a, like failing, and that's because on that paper you were tired of doing it and you didn't even complete the work Because I would forget.
Speaker 2:I would forget that there was a question on number one. Yeah, I thought it was, just I don't know.
Speaker 3:But, most importantly, you were unhappy. You were saying please, homeschool me, please, please, homeschool me please.
Speaker 2:Please, I don't want to sit on a desk for eight hours.
Speaker 3:And I'd be like, are you excited for school? And you'd be like no. And then you would get out of school and I'd be like, hey, how was school? And you'd be like same as always, not good, worst day ever. Worst day ever. So this next question is how does being able to go outside whenever you need to, and get outside a lot, help you with learning?
Speaker 2:Well, so we wake up, we eat breakfast and then we go outside for our own time. And then, when we come back in, my energy's out so that I can focus on my work we get to go outside whenever we want, except for two hours a day. We're doing school, school, so that's the only time we can't go outside.
Speaker 3:True, well, what's your favorite outside activity that we've done?
Speaker 2:Skateboards and bikes and scooters and I really like to do those things outside, like to ride around At the park. There's like a sidewalk ring around the playground. I want to learn how right now. I want to learn how to do skateboard, but I've been rollerblading.
Speaker 3:So that's your favorite right now rollerblading, yes.
Speaker 1:That was my favorite thing when I was a kid too. I just love the freedom of being able to go outside and ride my bike or my scooter or my rollerblades wherever I wanted to go.
Speaker 2:Except for when you have school.
Speaker 1:Right. These next few questions are about co-op. We recently started attending this local co-op. We've liked some things and some things we're still trying to get used to. So we're going to see how that goes. But we have some questions for Sayla to see how she felt about the co-op. So were you nervous or excited before going to the how that goes?
Speaker 2:but we have some questions for Sally to see how she felt about the co-op. So were you nervous or excited? Before going to the first co-op I didn't know what to expect, so I was nervous. But I was excited because, like, y'all kind of told me a little bit what to expect. You know, I was like I get to try something new, I get to like go, like I kind of like to go to school. So like you do something.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you get out of the house. Yeah, that's what it is. To me, it felt like we were all getting ready to go to school.
Speaker 2:Did it feel like that to you?
Speaker 3:No, because y'all didn't have to rush us really Because, yes, we didn't have to be there till 10, so that's a big difference in having to leave the house at like 7.15, 7.30. We definitely didn't have to rush as much, but it did feel like it to me.
Speaker 1:Okay, last question what's one thing you want everyone to know about homeschooling?
Speaker 2:That a lot of the things that I say that are bad about it isn't as bad as the stuff in school, like sitting at a desk for eight hours, Because at this school you can go on the couch and read your book, you don't have to sit at a desk, and if you want to do your math, you can also go. Like you can go in your room on your bed where it's peaceful and quiet, and do all of your work and stuff.
Speaker 3:So I think that's a good life lesson to learn that you just said there is that no matter what decision you make in life, nothing is perfect, so you have to take it the good and the bad right. So homeschooling has some good things that you really like and it has some things that you're like. I don't really like that. But school also has things that you really liked and some things that you didn't really like, and it has some things that you're like I don't really like that. But school also has things that you really liked and some things that you didn't really like. So you have to pick which one you can deal with, well, most, most things in school I didn't like.
Speaker 3:So most things in school you didn't like but there were some things that you did like, but we still have to make a decision and in life you learn that every decision has some good and bad. So you just have to weigh your options. What are the pros and cons of both? And here you realize that homeschool wins. Even though there are some things that maybe you miss about school or you like about school, homeschool overall works better for our family.
Speaker 1:I think it is interesting because you do have a unique perspective. A lot of people are either only ever public school or only homeschooled from a young age, or even some people pull out in kindergarten and first grade and I still don't think they have a real grasp of what it's like. I think you were there long enough to really understand what it's like to go to school, and I mean at least fourth and fifth grade would be more of the same. It does change some when you go to middle school thanks bye good thing we got all the questions out.
Speaker 3:We've lost we've lost our guest, so sailors left the podcast. Let's just recap how the week went. I know we told everybody that we would let them know how the good and the beautiful went, and also we are going to be leaving to go on a little trip, so we are skipping an episode. So you won't hear us again for two more weeks.
Speaker 1:So the week went well. We had our new curriculum. We had only used it for one day last week and that was a lot of, you know, getting used to the new program. So I like the new curriculum a lot. It is taking longer than the other curriculum did, which is fine. I mean, we probably are running a little past two hours now. So I don't know. I hate that because I feel like we're proving the haters right, but sometimes we're taking two and a half to three hours.
Speaker 1:I think that will will down some. Just for example, you know, say that for language arts we had all these geography and vocabulary cards and I had to cut them all out. Well, now they're all cut out. That was. That took up a lot of time. So a lot of this is just still happening, being new to the program and new to the materials. Once everything's set up, I think it will be faster. We'll be getting it down closer to two hours, hopefully, to maybe just two and a half. We've talked about some ways to try to speed that up. I just I don't know if there's any other ways to go faster.
Speaker 3:Well, the problem is that for the child to work through the specific curriculum it is less than two hours, but they need our help. So if you have two adults with three kids, we're trying to help Sailor with this and then Slate's just sitting here like I need help. I'm ready for my next thing. More like it's taking the process of homeschooling three kids in three different grades over two hours. It's not taking Sailor two hours to get through her material or Slade to get through his. So I don't know how you fix that, other than they get a little more comfortable working themselves through some of that which I think they'll get faster.
Speaker 1:yes, as they get used to it, because a lot of that time is spent, you know, leaning their head back to stare at the ceiling and complaining and groaning and huffing and, in general, not doing any work at all, and then very quickly doing the problem in front of them once they actually put forth any modicum of effort to do it?
Speaker 3:yes, and if you can't tell, based on christen's attitude about that, we did have some uh, I don't want to do that why this is so long this week, especially with the good and the beautiful being more difficult and the kids skipping some grades. So we did have to put into place like a behavior chart, basically, and they, they know they're earning a trip to six flags at the end of this, and so we're just having to be like every day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's just there's going to be every day it's either a checkmark or not a checkmark. And 80% of the days they have to have a checkmark for their good attitude. And I told them. I said I don't care if you fail every single subject which they're not going to. We're not really even grading it in that way, I mean. But let's just say they did, I don't care if their attitude was good for all of the days they're still going to six flags and yes, and that's just like we already knew we were going to give them something to work toward.
Speaker 3:But now, every day we are having to be like okay, remember? So? Like I got sat down with slate and he was like, oh, I'm not feeling like doing this today and I was like, hey, I'm just like if you want to go to six flags and I know you really want to then we gotta have a good attitude like let's just get through this. And he's like, okay, and he, he was fine the rest of the time.
Speaker 1:So I feel like it's just like a reminder and I was surprised because in some ways he's struggled the most. I mean scottyie's the spiciest. But his attitude surprised me the most. But I think it's because it's mostly been with his language arts. But I mean, we tested him and the program said that he needed fourth grade language arts.
Speaker 1:It said he could do fifth or sixth grade, but I still bumped it down to fourth grade Because he's a second grader so it already felt like, well, he had already done the whole program for Mia Academy, second grade. So I don't feel like we skipped second grade. We did, and we just did it in two weeks, but we got it done. We skipped third grade, but he did skip third grade and now for the first time he's being challenged and he's feeling very frustrated. He's even said I'm dumb, I'm like dude, you're not dumb, you're doing fourth grade work at seven years old. It's just for the first time you're being challenged. And when I say challenged, I mean I have to explain it to him. He doesn't just intuitively understand it when he reads it on the page.
Speaker 3:I disagree. He isn't challenged.
Speaker 1:He thinks he is.
Speaker 3:The only part that he is being frustrated with is writing it down, because I'm telling him, like all of these vocab words and like we're, we're looking at the adjectives and the nouns and all of this, he has no problem with any of this information. He remembers it in a second and he's never been taught any of this. Right, right, he gets it so fast, but then they go write two sentences and he's like, no, I can't write two sentences. So it's like his handwriting and the speed of his handwriting needs to catch up to his brain and he's having a hard time with that because he's very slow at writing and this Good and the Beautiful is a lot of handwriting which he needs.
Speaker 1:I don't know that it would be if he was doing second grade work, because I've looked at what some of that is and they're not writing very much. You know, even in the Good and the Beautiful, which they're writing way more than I think. You know me academy or public school or but yeah, I just don't think they were writing that much before.
Speaker 3:It's kind of like he skipped that time where they do start writing and their writing starts getting better. He skipped that grade. So he's into the grade that is, expecting you to be able to quickly jot down a sentence or two, and he's just not there yet. Yeah, um, his reading is so much further along than his writing so he's struggling with that, I think. So that's the problem with Slate.
Speaker 3:For Scotty, I think the Good and the Beautiful has just been perfect, like I hands down, recommend it for kind of your first grade, like it's been perfect, and a lot of people say that it's great for, like that age. I think that the frustration from some people with it is that there's a lot of fluff, which we did talk about in the last episode. But then someone also brought to my attention that sometimes it's not as good for ADHD kids because it has like, if you look at the papers, they're really pretty, they have a lot of pictures, they have a lot going on, there's like a bunch of different boxes and you know Sailor was missing some of the boxes. She's like oh, I didn't see that one. So it's a lot. So they said sometimes for ADHD there's some curriculums that are like bare bones like get in, know what we gotta know and get out, and I can see why the good and the beautiful might not be good for that, but so far it's been fine.
Speaker 3:For Sailor. She's a little frustrated it's taking longer than two hours, but I think it's the perfect amount for her. The good thing with her is that after two days of it, when we were coming back from the park, she came in here and turned on her math video herself. So I think that that's going to get quicker because she knows what she's doing. She knows what has to be done. She was like I got to do this, this, this and this and I'm done with school. So she's doing a good job trying to get get on it and get it done yeah, but she did.
Speaker 1:She does still need the oversight, not only to first check the answers.
Speaker 1:But I looked and I was like okay, you missed half of the lesson I don't mean you got it wrong, I mean you didn't do it, I mean you just and I don't mean like she did page one and not page two. She did half of page one and half of page two, I don't know what order she was going in. It was very strange to see and she came back and looked at it like she had never seen this book before in her life, like she couldn't believe that she didn't answer those questions and she knew the answers. She's like, oh yeah, I know the answers. But I was like what happened?
Speaker 3:The ADHD happened.
Speaker 3:Yeah that was funny, and I do think, though, that getting outside is so good to do first thing before they do school, but also for her, it kind of energizes her. She's pumped, she's been blading, she's been doing all this stuff and she's like ready, go. It's like OK, we have to get school done, because you also have like gymnastics today and art and all these things, so we have to do it in these two hours, and she's like oh, it's kind of like the other two are calmed down and she is jazzed.
Speaker 1:Yeah for her. I think it would be better to do one subject before we went outside and then go outside and do another subject. But that just it's not realistic with our schedule when we have three kids and everyone has to be on the same schedule.
Speaker 3:This is just like public school, except our school is the sand school and it's three kids and each of them are completely different and we have to make a schedule that fits everybody. Okay, because if we were making a schedule just for sailor who's adhd, it would look different than if we made the schedule for Scottie or Slate. So see, now we can see the holes in the school system is because they're trying to do that times hundreds of kids, right?
Speaker 1:And that's the problem. That's why we were never picking on a particular school or particular teacher. It's the way that it's set up is impossible for anyone to succeed in that environment.
Speaker 3:We're doing the best we can, two against three.
Speaker 1:And I think that's still a better ratio than what they're doing at this school. I wanted to go back to you. You said something about the extra fluff in the Good and the Beautiful which some people don't like, and I know the thing is we both grew up in church and consider myself a Christian and everything, and there's still stuff in there that I'm like, oh, I don't know. Some of it I skip over, and it's not just the, you know, some of it's good for everyone, like, oh, we should do unto others as we would have them do unto us.
Speaker 3:That's great.
Speaker 1:That's good for everybody, no matter your religion. But there was something in there that I read out loud and then I realized what I had said. And I looked there that I read out loud and then I realized, I realized what I had said and I looked at my son. I was like no, that's wrong. I was like that's not true. That's, it's actually the office. It's true, something about how you should obey, without question, almost, or something like that and I said, no, no, that's wrong.
Speaker 3:You should just like basically be a sheep and we're like so not like that it's like anti we are.
Speaker 1:That is wrong on so many levels. But yes, there's a few things like that. Yeah, we can skip over those. It's not a big deal.
Speaker 3:Well, and I think that the concept behind the good and the beautiful is wonderful. I love that. They, like Scotty's lessons, are interesting and then they want me to cut out a bunch of stuff, but she loves them, so I can't argue with that. Right, if it works. I'm just mad because I have to do extra work. But then, like Slate in his language arts, they are going to be doing art, oil painting and I know you thought that was ridiculous because it's not art, but I think for his handwriting it's going to be phenomenal. Ridiculous because it's not art, but I think for his handwriting it's going to be phenomenal. And that's not something that I would have thought of, but it's perfect to get him using his like his hand and his muscles and his dexterity, with it being fun because he's like really looking forward to the oil, pastel, whatever they are. So maybe that's not a stuff I would have taken, but it's unique and it's actually a good idea.
Speaker 1:I'm not anti-art. I don't mind them doing it. They're in an art class, though, and I was like I feel like they're going to learn more from an art class than they are from a book.
Speaker 3:You can learn math and language arts from a book, but to me it's hard to learn art from a book, I mean, but I guess he's actually into this, but this is techniques do patches and then do this and make it look different, and that's a lot of the same control that you use for handwriting.
Speaker 1:That's true. You could probably learn proper brush strokes that way. I learned how to swim from a book, so it's definitely possible.
Speaker 3:I'm just giving them credit where credit is due. It's certainly not perfect by any means, but a lot of people also hating on us because we don't have teaching degrees and I just want to point out, like that's why you use a curriculum, because we might not realize that we forgot to teach them how to tell time on a clock or things like that, but this curriculum ensures that we are teaching everything. A fourth grader needs to know everything. A third grader all you know. We're not just winging it. So there's a million curriculums out there. There's so many tools for you. If you're considering homeschooling, you don't have to feel like you'll do a bad job just because you don't have a teaching degree.
Speaker 1:Right, and it is very different because we're not. I mean they say you're your kid's teacher, but really it's. I would say it's more like you're a private tutor. We're more like tutors because it's one-on-one and to be able to teach somebody in that frame, it's just so much different. You need to know the information and you need to be relatively intelligent, and that's really all you need in order to be able to do it. But I do agree that you know being able to teach a classroom full of 25 kids is a very special skill set and yeah, I mean I would not be able to do it.
Speaker 3:No, I couldn't do it. But what I'm pointing out is that, like the good and the beautiful, when I'm doing a lesson with scotty, it's like in the blue, say this, and I'm like today we're gonna learn about coins and and like I don't even have to come up with anything, it literally tells me what to say and then it says, okay, scotty, grab your clock, tell me which way clockwise is, like things like that. So no one should be worried that they wouldn't be able to do this.
Speaker 3:It's literally set up for you so that anybody can do it. All that you need to do is stick to it. That is your job is to make sure that they do it, because so many people are pulling their kids out to homeschool them and then they don't, because they're like oh, we can homeschool whenever you know, we can do it on the weekends, or we can do it this, or oh, we don't have to today if you're not feeling like it. But we're always telling our kids the choice isn't whether or not you get educated, the choice is where you do it. So they don't have a choice. We have a set time to homeschool. I'm not saying that you have to do that, but you got to make sure it's done, and kids are kids and they will argue with you and I don't feel like doing it today, and your job mostly is just making sure that they get a good education, but you don't got to come up with all the stuff.
Speaker 1:It's done for you. It does it. Yeah, and you're right. I mean our kids have to learn and we've told them. You know we might not in our state be required to issue certain tests and stuff, but I am issuing them. It might be the Iowa one I know a lot of people like that one, but it's like a standardized test and I am going to give my kids that test and if we can't, we better at least be at or above grade level on that test, or I mean we're going back to school because that means we didn't do our job and that's not going to happen.
Speaker 3:We want to know that they are learning and moving forward. But, like, the good and the beautiful has a section and then you test your kid on it. We are going to do all of those things. We want to make sure that they know what they're doing, and it does make me feel good knowing that, going into this curriculum, they were actually behind, but they weren't at school, so we're giving them something that's more difficult, not something that is easier so that they are going to be behind public school students.
Speaker 1:Right, They'll be ahead by the time they finish this school year, for sure. No, I mean it was tough because this was one of our hardest deadlines with work, but we still got it done. It was yes, so work was crazy.
Speaker 3:We have a big deadline on September 15th. There was two days that I pretty much homeschooled the kids, 90% by myself.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 3:Which, if it wasn't like a whole new curriculum, I think it would have been no big deal, but we're still working out the kinks. I mean I did it fine. I was just like, okay, we're doing math, and then we'd have to break for lunch and I'm like, ok, we're going to start doing this. And we did it. So that just had to happen because Carson was working a lot.
Speaker 1:This was a one week thing, though. This isn't going to be like.
Speaker 3:And then on Friday which we don't normally homeschool on Friday we go to co-op. Carson went to co-op and took the kids. I did our Friday cleaning routine, and then Carson's parents actually had the kids the rest of the afternoon and we were able to get caught up. So that's really. All that we needed was that extra time on Friday to get caught up, and then the deadline's on Monday.
Speaker 1:So Right, we made it.
Speaker 3:And Carson's birthday is also on Monday. So we are going to be going out of town. We're going to do like a little glamping vacation. We're going to be doing some like hiking outdoor. We're going to have a cabin outdoor type thing. We're going to do the Alpine coaster, so we're doing that. It's in Texas, so it's kind of like a little vacation and we're not going to homeschool while we're gone. So it's just really missing two extra days. We'll make those up later on down the road, but we won't have a podcast episode next week, so we'll have two weeks to catch everybody up how the trip went and then, you know, getting back on it. But this will be our first travel that we're doing while other people are in school.
Speaker 1:First, travel that we're doing while other people are in school. If y'all miss us too terribly, let us know and we'll make sure that the next time we make an episode or something because I know some people can't go more than a week at a time without hearing our voices- yes, I'm sure we'll get so many messages on that. Can't wait.
Speaker 3:I'm excited because one of the reasons to homeschool for me was travel. It's not obviously number one, but it was on the list. So I feel like we're starting to do that. We have that trip and then in October we're going on like a big trip to Costa Rica. So I'm really looking forward to that. But on that one we're going to be taking the schoolwork with us. We're just going to take some of the worksheets with us and we're going to make sure that we do the work there.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, that's a longer trip. We can't miss that many days of school, so we'll be staying caught up over there. No big deal.
Speaker 3:Yeah, if you're a parent that is considering homeschooling. I hope that this episode was helpful and gave you a little bit of a glimpse of how it is like from the kids point of view, and not just from our point of view, because I do think a lot of people think we forced the kids to homeschool. So I just like to make sure that on our podcast, you know that this is definitely a kid driven decision, supported by lots of sacrifices made by the parents, for sure.
Speaker 3:Yes, very much but we'll keep sharing the real, the good, the ugly, all of that and the ups and downs of our journey. We'll be back in two weeks, so make sure to follow along and share this episode if you found it helpful. So until next time. Thank you so much for listening to. Well, this Wasn't the Plan. Podcast.
Speaker 2:We will do really hard on this podcast. Make sure to subscribe so you don't miss a single podcast episode. Thank you, have a good day.