Well This Wasn't The Plan!

13. Your Questions Answered!

• Carson and Teran Sands • Episode 13

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We talk through trading public school for homeschool while traveling Costa Rica, turning delays and detours into life lessons. From family pushback to new friends, movement tech to money talks, we share what’s working and what’s still hard.

• why we left public school and what changed
• travel setbacks as practice for patience and problem-solving
• the Spartan race mixups and what we learned
• ziplines, waterfalls, volcano hikes as hands-on learning
• low screen, high movement tools that actually help
• how we were raised versus how we parent now
• family reactions and finding supportive community
• practical life skills: chores, cooking, travel navigation
• early finance: budgeting, credit, taxes, saving goals
• emotional regulation, sleep, water, sunlight, and routines
• resilience, discomfort, and building confidence on the road

Check out my Life Skills series on Instagram!


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SPEAKER_01:

We're two full-time working parents who just made a crazy decision.

SPEAKER_00:

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

SPEAKER_01:

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

SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to, well, this wasn't the plan podcast. I'm slate. In school's in the kitchen now. I'm Scotty. We just start when I say so. I'm a sailor, and this whole podcast was my idea. This podcast is our real-time journey. Unexpectedly juggling homeschool, jobs, parenting, and everything in between.

SPEAKER_01:

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_00:

We're learning to expect the unexpected. So let's get into it. Let's go.

SPEAKER_01:

It's our last day in Costa Rica. We're so sad to leave. We're at the beach right now, and we're leaving in the morning. Our flight got changed, so if we're coming home a day early.

SPEAKER_00:

That was to avoid a very, very long layover.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, they switched our flight. Long story short, we had to pick, and we picked the direct flight back to Texas. But it's been a really great trip. We had a really rocky start, actually, in the beginning, but the second half of it was great, and the kids absolutely loved it.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh yeah, pretty minor compared to some things that could happen. I mean, we got delayed. It was inconvenient, but I mean, there's plenty of times that people miss their whole trip sometimes for different reasons. So we didn't have anything to do with it.

SPEAKER_01:

We got delayed, yes. But then we went for the Spartan race. The kids were so excited. Our Airbnb was booked beside where this Spartan race was supposed to be. And the night before we realized that they moved the location. So then the next morning we had to get up super early to go to the Spartan race so that we could actually drive to the new location that we were never told about. And then it sent us to the wrong address.

SPEAKER_00:

That was frustrating. I mean, I've heard of people having issues like this with Spartan or similar annoying issues. I never have. I've done a lot of races and the kids have as well. But I mean, it was pretty annoying. I went back, I scoured my emails to see if maybe they sent me an email and I just overlooked it. Maybe it's my fault. But no, they did not. I looked everywhere just to be sure, just so I could be like, okay, is it my fault or not? No, it wasn't. They did not, they didn't even notify us. Maybe, I mean, a lot of people didn't even notice because they booked later closer to the event when it was already at the right location. But when we booked it, it was at a different location because we booked it a long time ago.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, lesson learned, we will never do a Spartan race again when it was their first time, because it was the first one in Costa Rica, and we did not realize that. We just saw they were having one here, and we've been dying to take the kids to Costa Rica, and it seemed like it all fell into place.

SPEAKER_00:

But there were plenty of other issues. I mean, another one, when you're in your actual Spartan account and you click on when you're in your actual Spartan account and you click on the map, it's like find a location here. Clicked on it, and it took me to someplace way far away from where we were actually supposed to be. And that was clicking on the direct link from the Spartan website. So that was frustrating. They didn't have enough volunteers, so the line to register was just eternal. So that was a little annoying as well.

SPEAKER_01:

So lesson learned there, but the trip after that has been amazing. We went repelling down waterfalls, we went ziplining, we had an awesome hot springs at our hotel. We went hiking by a volcano. You saw waterfalls. It was just like awesome. And then we're ending it at the beach. We are gonna make it pretty short episode today because we're tired and we have a lot of things to do to get packed up and ready to go. If you hear the kids in the background or a bunch of crazy noises, it's because we're just sitting in our Airbnb. But we are gonna answer all the questions that didn't get answered last week and just do a rapid fire of all the ones that still came in. So the first one that came in was how were you both raised versus how you guys are doing things with your kids now, as far as were you public schooled, your were your parents present, and just like how personally backgrounds affect people?

SPEAKER_00:

So we weren't homeschooled.

SPEAKER_01:

No, we were both public schooled.

SPEAKER_00:

And but you know, things were a lot different back then. So as far as some of the other things that are kind of important to us, being, you know, very low on the screen time and things like that, they just weren't an issue when we were a kid. So it's really hard to answer that I don't, you know, I I don't really know how my parents would have done it at the same time, you know, if they were alive during our time and raising us. But you know, we they didn't have to force us to get off of the screens because there just wasn't that many parts of the day that had programming that children even cared about. So the you know, the very short percentage of the day that had kids' shows on, it was fine. And the rest of the time we were aching to be outside. In fact, it was the opposite. We were hiding. You know, like your mom comes out when the streetlights come on and it gets dark and she starts calling for you, you hide and you pretend like you can't hear. That's what we were doing.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I think that we just have so many new issues parenting now. I do think like one of the reasons why I wanted a husband and a father like you is because my dad wasn't around a lot. He worked a lot. And I think I had just a lot of friends that had really present fathers, and which was kind of rare at the time, you know, most men worked and women did the kids' thing, and it was less common than it is now, and I wanted that. So I like like drilled Carson before we even got married. Like, you're gonna take care of kids, right? You're gonna get up and change diapers, you're giving bottles, like you're taking them to school. We're gonna be like partners, right? It's not just gonna be on me. And you're always like, Yes, yes, I know. But another thing is my parents had their first kid in high school. So being intentional parents weren't really on their radar. But for us, I feel like we went to college, we met, we got our finances in order, we had kids, like everything was set up for us to be intentional parents. Like we planned to be parents, we talked about it, we had a different scenario than my parents had for sure. But definitely what one thing that my parents gave me for sure was just like a really good work ethic, which I feel like has come over into our kids' lives. Like I don't feel bad making my kids do chores because as a kid, I did a lot of chores. Like I did laundry for my entire household of six people. And I feel like that has made me a really good human that knows what hard work looks like. And so when people like say, Oh, I'm robbing my children of their childhood on social media because they do chores, I disagree. I can see how having hard work and knowing how to be a hard worker and pitching in as a team is so important. And that's what we're doing. Guys, shh. Sorry, we are gonna have to have a lot of noises in this one because I'm not editing everything. So yeah, no, I don't think that we were raised anything like it for so many different reasons, but no, and it's a totally different world that we live in, so it's hard to compare the two so yeah, I guess that's not exactly an answer, but the one of the main things might be whether we were homeschooled or not.

SPEAKER_00:

We weren't. We went through public school. We do think it was different back then. I mean, both in how public school was compared to now and in how possible it was for people to homeschool back then compared to now.

SPEAKER_01:

And we we had a great public school experience. We both did. That's why we started our kids in public school. So things just were much different than they were for us, and they were different than what we were expecting. So just a different world now, you know. I think that with every generation you learn what your parents did and you take from that and you change it a little bit to fit what you feel could have been could have been done better, or you know, if you personally like have different beliefs. But that kind of goes into our second question that we got, which was are some family and friends starting to see the benefits of homeschooling? Because we've mentioned on a few episodes that it's not it didn't go over well with our with our family. And I would say some of our family, yes, and a lot of them no, which it's only been three months, so you know, only time will tell on that. So yes and no for that. The next question, which is how have your relationships with friends and family been since starting homeschool? And kind of like the same as the last question, I would say my family is definitely a little bit more standoffish with it, and when they don't understand something, they just choose not to talk about it. So it's such a huge part of my life right now, and I think they just don't know what to say at this point. So I don't know, your Carson's family's been more receptive.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. And they also thought at the beginning that they weren't like like no one treated us differently, really. It's just that you know, they kind of felt like, okay, are you sure? That was kind of like the questions, you know, people are like, have you thought about this? Have you thought about that? Yes, we've thought about all those things and a hundred other things that you probably haven't thought of because you never went through this process and considered this. We did think about all of that. We are sure, we do think this is the best option. And they're like, okay, so that's I mean, fine, they don't care. I mean, no big deal. But I mean, yes, since since you know, we've done it now. I mean, we've heard from them and they've said things like, oh yeah, I mean, looks like it's working really well, like good for y'all, and things like that. So yeah, I think people are starting to understand and and be supportive. Not that they were super unsupportive before, they just, you know, I think I mean they care about us, they they didn't want us to lead ourselves or our kids down a dark and uneducated role and or path in life. And but but but I mean we we aren't and they see that now.

SPEAKER_01:

So to a certain extent. And with with friends, I mean, we were in the public school system for four years in a very small school, and we knew everyone, and yeah, those relationships are really hard to keep when if you decide to homeschool. And it's not anyone's fault. It's just that they're busy doing what you used to be doing, and now you have this whole thing. But everyone's been super kind to us about it. Even a few friends have said, like, oh, I my kids really want to homeschool. I just don't know how we would do it. So I think friends have been nice, but as far as relationships, it's it's hard to keep those, you know. You kind of have to be okay learning to make friends with other people that homeschool.

SPEAKER_00:

And that can be hard because homeschool brings a lot. Homeschool brings a very wide variety of people.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And and we've talked about before, I don't know if we've ever talked about on this podcast, but making friends as adults is hard. And then it's even harder because you're trying to find people that like uh there there's certain things that are deal breakers for us. And it's it's not that we're judging those people, it's just that we're not going to enjoy being around them if they X, Y, or Z. And so whenever you've already put yourself into a a bubble of, okay, we need to find other people that homeschool so that so their schedule's similar to ours and things like that. It's not that we don't like people that do regular school or private school or whatever. It's just that, you know, we want to have friends that have a similar schedule so that our kids can hang out when their kids hang out and things like that. And it's really hard. I mean, it is.

SPEAKER_01:

So there's just such a large difference in some people that homeschool. You could you could find the people that homeschool that have like 15 kids and don't leave their house much and have vastly different views, or you can have people like us who, you know, live a completely different way with like working and homeschooling, and our kids have been in public school, and like there's just such a huge difference, just like in public school, you know, you're you have such a big mix. It is like that. It's just a smaller group of people to find your people in there, I guess.

SPEAKER_00:

But we've we've found a few. We found a a friend that we have, and and Taryn walks with her a lot several times a week, and her son is really nice, one of the friendliest kids I've ever met. And it's like as soon as my three kids see him, they're like, oh, like it's party time. It's about to be like whatever we're doing, I don't even know what it is, but it's gonna be fun. It's like one of those people that you just see them and you know that's gonna happen. He has that energy, and so it's been really fun to to make that friend. But but it wasn't easy. I mean, we it it didn't just happen. It wasn't like day one that you know we met this person.

SPEAKER_01:

So no, we tried really hard the first two months to just put ourselves out there because it's uncomfortable. It's you're not okay, you left one system that you're like really comfortable in, and then you go to this, and then you're the new people. You know nothing about homeschooling, and we're like at the park, like, oh hey, do you homeschool? Like, oh, we're like trying, we're going to all the meetups and everything. And I think it just takes time, and it's one thing in this whole change that's been the hardest because you do have to find a new group of people, even if you still keep your same friends and everything, you have to find people that are homeschooling.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. I mean, because other people just want to understand the schedule thing. It's like we've got to the point because we're homeschooling, we don't want to do things on Sunday night, which is when a lot of people that are in public school and intermediate sports or intramural, sorry, intramural sports or whatever.

SPEAKER_01:

Intural. Oh, that's college.

SPEAKER_00:

Whatever what am I thinking of? Pee-wee sports, rec sports, whatever. That you know, they're busy like six days a week. And it's like, okay, I'm free Sunday evening, and that's it. Okay. That that's not really that doesn't really work for us. And so that does make it hard because that's if that's the only time you're available, then we're probably not going to be very close friends because we're not going to spend a lot of time together.

SPEAKER_01:

And I think there's just something to being understood. People like being in groups of people that are similar-minded, doing similar things, and homeschool is all consuming, you know, it is your life when you pick to homeschool. And especially if you have family that don't necessarily understand or agree with it, you really need that support of other people. So that's definitely been hard for us because we had a good community in our school friends. And we were sad to leave that. And so now we're just trying to settle in and it is uncomfortable and it is difficult, but we know that eventually we'll get there.

SPEAKER_00:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

And we keep working on it. And the little friend that you were just talking about, like that's what I had hoped because our kids did make a lot of really unkind friends at school. And that's not for all the kids they went to school with, but there is a lot of really bullying and unkind things going on at school that just they didn't get discipline for things like that. And so my hope was that they could meet some homeschool friends that were kind, that could teach some what look like a really good friend would be like. And so then making this friend that we worked really hard to make sure that we're getting out there and making friends, like he is phenomenal. And I think it's been really great for them. So there is hope. We just have to keep going.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. They do always seem like they're having so much fun. I leave them alone, but sometimes I'm like, dang, I want to go play. Like they look like they're having a good time.

SPEAKER_01:

He's so kind and so outgoing, and we'll play with all three of them and just such a joyful kid. Like that is who I want my kids to be around.

SPEAKER_00:

For sure.

SPEAKER_01:

So another one that came in, I think this was probably based on something we touched on a couple of episodes ago, but they said for your movement device, do you have the subscription? So they're talking about the next playground that we talked about. The kids do sometimes if we need to get a little bit of extra work in. It's a movement-based video game system, and they have to be standing up to play. It does not have any sort of internet or talking to strangers. It's like 10 out of 10, we love it.

SPEAKER_00:

No remote control. It's all based on it, has a little camera that watches your kids' movement. That camera is not connected back into the internet, so there's nobody, you know, watching your kids play or anything like that. But the the games are downloaded to the device, so they're not playing with other people.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, we just we love it. We've had it for about a year now. We tell we tell everybody about it. So if you've seen that on my Instagram or if you've heard us talk about it on the podcast, it's called the Next Playground. And we do have the subscription on it. I think it's$60 a year. It might have gone up to$70 just because it's become so popular, but it's a yearly subscription, and you get all of the games that they have for it if you pay that subscription. And at first I was like, oh, that sucks. You hate to buy something and then you have to pay the subscription. But if you're looking at it like a video game system, like video games are expensive and you would have to keep buying them over and over again. And this, you just get all of them. And they do a really good job of releasing new games and making it fun and interesting. So I think it keeps them on their toes to make sure you have great games.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, there's like three or four new games that come out every month, and it's included in your subscription. So if you compare it to uh Xbox or PlayStation, you know, where you're paying$60 to$70 per game, and then some of those release new content, you know, over time. And most of those you're paying monthly subscriptions to be online to have access to most of those games. So I mean it's it's very reasonably priced compared to some of those. And even the ones, the games they have, sometimes they update them, like the Ninja Turtle games that the kids love so much. There was only you could only play it so far and they had beat the game. Well, they added, they like tripled the length of the game to make it harder and to make it, you know, more fun for the kids. And so, I mean, they really do put a lot into it. The kids get so excited to try the new games. And yeah, four come out every month. There's already dozens and dozens on there, but out of the four that come out, maybe only one of them they play regularly, but they try them all and I think it's a pretty good deal.

SPEAKER_01:

I think it gives you a good bang for your buck because the kids are excited, like it's a new toy all over again. So yeah, it does suck that there's a year yearly subscription for it, but ten out of ten, it's worth it. So if you're considering that, especially like for Christmas or something, just know there is a subscription. Yes, we do pay that, unfortunately, but we love it.

SPEAKER_00:

And just if you're wondering how much activity is it? I mean, I do it and I wear my watch that tracks my heart rate. And I'm talking, I'm in like hit level like heart rate, you know, 150, 160 from from the game, from the dance game, from the Ninja Turtle game. There's a few, there's like a trivia game on there that is very low activity, and you're still standing up, you're still moving your arms, but it's mostly like a trivia game. But m for the most part, the games on there require quite a bit of activity.

SPEAKER_01:

And the kids are exhausted after they play them, and so is Carson, because he likes to play a lot. So Yeah. It's we love it. It's perfect for days we need extra work, bad weather days, and gives them something inside to burn energy, which with having an ADHD kid, we all need all the ways to burn the energy. So 10 out of 10, we love it, we recommend it. All right, the last one that came in was what life skills are you teaching the kids? And I don't even know where to start with this answer because I started a life skills series on my Instagram, so this question came from Instagram. So if you haven't seen that, go all the way back to life skills.

SPEAKER_00:

But in general, laundry, cooking, cleaning, those are just basics. But how many people get out of high school and they don't know how to cook an egg? You know?

SPEAKER_01:

Or do their own laundry or turn on a dishwasher or clean up after themselves or scrub a toilet, those type of things. I know those are a lot of chore things, but one of the first reels I actually did about the life skills series was making new friends in new places. And guys, this is a huge life skill. And I'm really bad at it. Like I went to a very small school, and the people that I went to kindergarten with, I graduated with, I never had to make a friend. They were just there. They just appeared my whole life.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. And those are just the basics. There's plenty of other things. Like y'all know we travel all the time. So when we go to the airport, I have one of the kids lead the way. Okay, we're looking for gate A14. Okay. You lead the way, tell us where it is. Obviously, those are at low risk times. If we're cutting it close to, you know, missing our flight or something, you know, we're not going to have the kids lead the way, but most of the time that's not the case. Or when we go to Chicago, we're having sailor tell us, okay, like which train do we need to get on? Which way is it going? Follow the route. And they're learning a lot about traveling, navigating yourself through the world. And then, I mean, plenty of other things, finance. They already know more about taxes than most adults do.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes. And that's one of our big ones. We have started that. Like we, our kids have car funds and we are we've talked to them about big purchases and planning for those. We've already talked to them about credit cards and taxes and all of the things, but you know, they're just getting to that age. So a huge part of what we're going to be teaching them is finances, budgeting. We're going to be opening them a retirement account as soon as they hit 18. Like all of those things, they will have such a good foundation. And a lot of the reasons we're teaching some of these things is because we didn't have these skills as adults. Like we had to go through Dave Ramsey ourselves right when we got married, because we got ourselves in a situation simply because we did not make a good budget. And we both had like degrees in business. You would think that we would have been capable, but that literally is not something they teach you in school, and they didn't even teach us in college. And at that point, you're like, should they have to teach it to you? Well, yeah, they should. Because what happens is life happens and no one just tells you to think about that. And so it doesn't it's not important. But yeah, we've already drilled that into the kids. So I think finances is one of the biggest things. And then of course, we're teaching them all of these like chores and like household type things. And I don't think that like, yeah, you could probably go until you're 20 and not have scrubbed a toilet. But I think and you could probably figure it out. But I think the biggest part of learning that type of stuff now is not actually knowing how to do it. It's like the work ethic and the having a responsibility and like contributing in the home. Those are things that make or break relationships and marriages and stuff as they're older. So I think when you say like, oh, my kids do chores, it's so much bigger than that.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. And it all goes hand in hand with a successful life. Like it's easy to we could argue all day whether which came first, the chicken or the egg, when it comes to you have a nice, tidy house, you have a clean toilet, you have a bed that's made, you have laundry that's clean, and you have a successful career. You do well at work, you make good money, things like that. I mean, I I don't know which comes first. Maybe the type of person that's a type A that's a go-getter is also gonna do all those things. Or maybe part of it is when you live in filth, you feel like you're you're filth. I mean, that's a that's been proven. Yeah, that I mean they they've proven that in cities whenever they they spend money instead of on more policing, more arresting people, cleaning up broken windows, cleaning graffiti, things like that. It does more because people don't feel like they they they live in trash, they don't feel like they're trash anymore. And I think that that so these these basic life skills, even the cleaning, even the chores, things like that, a lot of people spend their early 20s living in what is, I don't know, filth basically. And I think that that permeates into your entire life. So I think that's a really important life skill too.

SPEAKER_01:

Another one that I think we have done for a while now, but now I just feel like that we can do so much better at is just all the life skills that if you're our age now listening, you're probably implementing them now because you weren't no one taught you then. Like, so I'm talking about things like if you're having a really bad day and your temper's up and you're stressed, maybe you're anxious and all that, what do you do? Do you go binge eat? Do you do, you know, do you do all of these behaviors that we're all trying to fix?

SPEAKER_00:

Drink alcohol, smoke a cigarette, like all the things that are not good for us.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes. No, what we've been teaching our kids and we will continue to do is things like that. Like, what do you do in a situation like that? We go for a walk. We don't say, hey, let's get some food and Benji on the couch. If your head's hurting, we're like, let's let's think about the water you've had today. Like, let's feel better, like let's feed our bodies better. All of the things that I feel like our generation specifically, we're carrying around water bottles, we're putting our feet in the grass. We're like, hey, did you know if you get outside in the sunlight, you'll feel better? Like all of these things we are going back to learn. We're teaching our kids those. And those are some of the most important tools I feel like anybody has in their toolbox. Whether if you get stressed, you go for a run, or every morning you get outside and you drink water and you make sure that you're fueling your body properly, you make sure that you're getting enough sleep. All those really basic things that your body needs to feel good. We as a sci society don't do a very good job at those. And I feel like schools kind of fall into the same thing. You know, the kids are getting up too early, they're staying up late for sports, so they're not getting good sleep, they're being fed crap at school, they're not getting enough outside time at school, they're sitting in a desk all day, they're not using these really good cope coping mechanisms whenever they're getting, you know, anxious, all of these things. So I feel like that's something that our huge life skills that we're teaching that maybe aren't super common.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, yeah. And we see it already in the kids. I mean, we'll we'll hear kids say, like, oh, I think I need to go like read in my room by myself, or I think I need to go outside and run around a little bit. They'll tell us sometimes. And, you know, I think that's such a a positive thing because it is in this world, like, okay, I'm not against psychological help, I'm not against medical help, but before you go to the medical doctor, before you go to a psychologist or anything, you should make sure you're drinking plenty of water, you're getting enough sleep, and you're eating a healthy diet and you're getting exercise. If you're doing all those things and you still are depressed, or you're doing all those things and you still feel sick, okay, now it's time to go to a doctor. But don't even don't don't waste the doctor's time. Don't waste your own time going there whenever you're dehydrated, you're full of junk food, and you haven't exercised in a year and you're sleeping four hours a night. Well, yeah, no wonder you feel like crap. Of course you do. Don't go to the doctor. I can tell you right now for free. That's why you feel bad.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, and that is our society. I mean, after I had the kids, I went to the doctor and I was feeling all kinds of things, but they Just wanted to give me a prescription. And you know, at the time I was not getting outside. I was not drinking my water. I was having copious amounts of coffee. All of the things that I needed, I wasn't getting because I was a new mom to three tiny children. And it it still didn't even dawn on me then that like if I could fix all of these things, I would feel much better. But I wasn't taught that. You know, I was taught so many different things.

SPEAKER_00:

So none of us were. I mean, and nobody even knew because you know, our parents grew up and they didn't even have the kind of processed foods they have. And then when they did have them, nobody knew how bad they are or how dangerous they can be for your health. But you know, this isn't a health podcast. It's just in general teaching your kids those things at a young age and it will stick in their brains. And and it really does. Our kids are very cognizant of some of those healthy lifestyle behaviors.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. And I think that those are just tools that they're gonna use the rest of their life. And like some of the things they're learning at school are pointless. So the list of life skills could just go on and on and on. We were shopping at the grocery store here and we were like converting the currencies and things, and the kids were picking out like the new fruits that they had tried earlier in the trip. And I was like, it just kind of dawned on me like how much they learned just on one trip like this. And you can't you could never list out all of the things that they learned. I mean, you talked about navigating the airport, but just they practiced their Spanish, they tried new foods, they talked to people from different countries, they experienced new things, like they learned how to repel. Yeah, they rappel down a freaking waterfall. Like they really in that moment, like them knowing that they can do something that's hard, like, yeah, you don't have to look at it like that, but they did. They were scared and they did something that was hard, it was difficult, and now they know they can. That is a huge life skill. Getting yourself outside of your comfort zone and being resilient and traveling when you're a little bit tired or you're a little bit hungry or a little bit grumpy or very uncomfortable, they are very good at that. And those are some life lessons that a lot of adults still need to learn.

SPEAKER_00:

And actually, those are really important too, because a lot of people go their entire childhood life without ever being tired and uncomfortable. I'm not saying a little bit tired, but I mean real, like the kind you get when you travel, when you're jet lagged, when you stay up way past when you're supposed to be, when you go past 24 hours with no sleep. A lot of kids get to adulthood, they've never experienced that. And those things come up when you're an adult. Hard things come up, and you can get really irritable, really grumpy, take it out on the people around you. But if if that happens to you when you're a child, then you develop coping mechanisms for that and you realize that okay, it's not okay to snap my brother's head off for no reason just because I'm tired, just because we've been traveling. And yeah, they're doing that. But but then you know, we talk to them about that and they learn that this isn't it's not okay. You need when you need to recognize when you feel that way, and you know, maybe normally we say think twice and speak once. Now maybe when you feel like that, think three times and speak once because you're feeling terrible and something terrible might come out of your mouth. And when you're 10, it's forgivable. But I mean, you could lose a friend when you're 20 just because you're tired and you said something terrible. So it's an important life lesson as well.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I think so. We've been able to talk a lot with our oldest about that lately. She's been a little bit more moody and stuff. And I said, you know, you're gonna have to start learning about how your hormones can fluctuate and it can make you feel really bad sometimes, and and you kind of have to learn that, okay, this is what I'm feeling, and I'm feeling that because of hormones. I am not going to snap at everybody in my family and treat them like crap just because of this. And you know what? As a 30-year-old perimenopause mom, I have to tell myself that now too, but also just an awesome conversation that we're able to have over and over again with our child because they are home and we are around them a lot and we can see these issues and we can, you know, work on them. I think we probably could talk about life skills all day long because that is one of the main reasons why we were really drawn to homeschool is just being able to teach them all of these things. I feel like we feel like we had we were given all this time and we feel like, okay, what are we gonna do with it? Because we want to just raise like awesome humans, humans that are great people in this world and great spouses and great friends, and just we feel like we have all the time in the world that we can do that now, whereas before we didn't feel like we did. We, you know, school had all of our time. So life skills, y'all. Yeah, we're gonna keep doing that series on my Instagram. But I think I have like six or seven life skills videos already. So if you haven't seen those, check it out. But we could talk about this all day and we need to not.

SPEAKER_00:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

But the kids are getting restless, so that's all we're gonna answer for today. Next week's episode will be back to normal things. We won't be homeschooling on the road anymore. We'll be home back in Texas, and we'll have, you know, normal work and homeschooling again.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, poor us.

SPEAKER_01:

I know, no more Costa Rica. But okay, that that wraps it up for today. So thank you so much for listening to Well, this wasn't the planned podcast.

SPEAKER_00:

We will work really hard on this podcast.