Well This Wasn't The Plan!

19. Bumps in The Road

• Carson and Teran Sands • Episode 19

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A holiday road trip, a house full of flu, and deadlines stacking up—then the realization that our “get back on track” grind was making everything worse. We decided to slow down, skip a day when fevers hit, say yes to hot chocolate and a matinee, and rebuild our rhythm around what actually makes our family feel good. The shift was simple and powerful: less pressure on perfect routines, more focus on presence, movement, water, sleep, and small, consistent moments that keep us close.

We open up about a blind spot that crept in as the kids got more independent: one-on-one time. Our fix is a private calendar packed with tiny 15-minute hangs—nails in a bedroom, a quick board game, a bike ride, a walk. These micro-moments are easy to keep and big on connection, making room for real talks without needing a whole afternoon. We also get honest about December burnout, messy counters, and the myth that chores must come before connection. Spoiler: the mess will wait.

If you’re craving a reset, this conversation offers permission and a plan: honor your energy, protect small moments, and use tools that fit your season. 

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SPEAKER_00:

We kind of had a rough week, and that was just a combination of the holidays, getting back from Thanksgiving, driving to go to the holidays, and then everyone came down with the flu. So it just was a really tough week, and probably one of the first that we've had since we started homeschooling. And it actually wasn't just the homeschooling, it was just all of it kind of piling down all at once. We are two full-time working parents who just made a crazy decision.

SPEAKER_01:

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

SPEAKER_00:

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

SPEAKER_01:

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

SPEAKER_02:

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

SPEAKER_01:

This podcast is our real-time journey, unexpectedly juggling homeschool, jobs, parenting, and everything in between.

SPEAKER_00:

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_01:

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

SPEAKER_02:

Let's go.

SPEAKER_00:

Good morning. It's super early on Sunday morning, and we're trying to get this podcast knocked out before we have a very busy week with a birthday boy.

SPEAKER_01:

A very busy day today. He has his birthday party.

SPEAKER_00:

And one of our traditions that I really love is every birthday we have since they were little, we take the day off work. No matter what, we plan ahead and we have like a whole day with them. So that's one of like my favorite traditions, and I think it's theirs too.

SPEAKER_01:

So Yeah, it's a day where it's not the same as the day we have their birthday party. That is on a different day. It's always during a weekday. When they were in school, they got to skip school, we skip work, and they have the whole day with just me and mom.

SPEAKER_00:

And I think that like that's so much more enjoyable as a parent than like a big birthday party. Not that if you do that, there's anything wrong with it, but I just felt like you would spend all that time and money on the birthday party, and then you don't really get time with them. So that I love that we plan ahead to have like this day with them because sometimes it's the only time all year that they get both of us one-on-one.

SPEAKER_01:

I think really early on we had even discussed if we would do that instead of a birthday party. And then, you know, we didn't want our kids telling their therapist in 20 years that we didn't throw them birthday parties. So we're like, well, there's no law that says you can't do both. They can have their big birthday party, they won't talk to us the whole time because they're gonna be playing with their friends, and that's okay. And we won't be like the jealous friend over on the wall not dancing at the party. We'll just be, you know, making sure they have their best day, and then they get a day with just us. And since we're the only ones there, and since we're taking them to do all the things they want, then it almost seems like we're fun.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it's so much easier when you're just one-on-one, and it's pretty much just like a yes day. So they pick where we're gonna go for breakfast, we pick an activity. I did last year a scavenger hunt with Sailor and her friend, but this year we're gonna do a scavenger hunt with Slate on his actual yes day, so it's like a whole day of fun, but that kind of leads us into today's topic, and it is that we kind of had a rough week, and that was just a combination of the holidays, getting back from Thanksgiving, driving to go to the holidays, and then everyone came down with the flu. So it just was a really tough week, and probably one of the first that we've had since we started homeschooling, and it actually wasn't just the homeschooling, it was just all of it kind of piling down all at once.

SPEAKER_01:

I mean, a lot of that would have been definitely harder if they were in school. Like when they're sick and they're in school, it's just such a pain because it throws off your routine. You know, now we're used to them being home, so that wasn't really disruptive to our week or anything, but it, I mean, it still makes it hard.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I just I was just feeling like overwhelmed, bubbling up. And I was just like, you know what? The whole reason or one of the big reasons we homeschooled was because we wanted to have some flexibility. So I felt like it was like, okay, we need to pump the brakes a little bit. And we did. We we skipped homeschooling on one of the days for our youngest because she was had a high fever, and we went to the park for longer, and we like, you know, got them outside. They sit in PJs all day one day, and we went to a matinee one day. We had hot chocolate. Like, I just felt like I was like, okay, we can slow down when we need to, and that's what we need to do. Because in my head, I was just like, we got to get back on routine, we got to do this, and it just felt like too much. So sometimes I have to remind myself that we're in charge here, you know, like we don't have a school schedule.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. And I think that it's okay to feel like you need to get back on a routine, but we weren't focusing on all the right things. We were focused on we need to get back on a routine for work and homeschooled only. And when I say homeschool, I mean just the core curriculum, since we're always talking about how homeschooling your kids isn't just the core curriculum, but that is what we're our brain was focused on. And then it's like we weren't doing all the things that we started off doing, you know, making sure we do go to the park with them for an hour and or more, and you know, all of these other things that we want to do, spending time with them, playing board games with them, and we weren't doing as good of a job on that. We were just focused on getting like the boxes ticked, works done, core curriculums done. Okay, we made it through the day. That's not really what we're all about.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I I think that's exactly what happened was that we got off routine, we had a trip, and then we had Thanksgiving, and things were just all over. And I don't operate well when we're not in a routine, but also we got bombarded with a lot of work, and so we were just like grinding away, and then I was like, you know, no wonder I feel overwhelmed. Like, I haven't been drinking my water, I haven't got outside like I'm supposed to, and we haven't been going to the gym during our time, and we haven't like we had skipped like our family day because we were so busy and all the holidays, so it's just like everything that makes us feel better, I wasn't doing. So that was this week was just a realization that you gotta do something different. So I do think the last part of the week we we slowed down and I feel much better, but we were just talking about how we got out of that routine, and the whole point of homeschooling was really some other things, not just their schooling, but like spending time with us and stuff. And so yesterday we were just talking about that. Like we have not been doing a very good job the last month or two getting some one-on-one time with the kids.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, they are getting better and better about playing together, playing outside. They've made friends around here, and so it's easy to, oh, you know, today we didn't get to it. All right, well, then that turns into another day and another day, and I mean it's easy to make excuses like, oh, well, they're doing other stuff that's good for them, and so I'm just gonna take care of some stuff that I need to take care of. It's not like we're ever doing anything fun. We're just I'm using that time to get things done that I feel like need to get done, but I really need to be more proactive about spending time with the kids and spending one-on-one time with the kids and some of those things.

SPEAKER_00:

So well, that's the problem, right? Is that we were worried from the very beginning that we're not gonna have enough time to work, we're not gonna have enough time to work. But now we're in this great routine that the kids kind of know what they're supposed to be doing, and then whenever they're not doing like the reading or their chores or those specific things, they're really good at just finding something to do, whether they read more or listen to an audiobook or grab some Legos or go outside. There's they really do a good job at that. So now that they're older, like and they're just doing their own thing, we're finding ourselves a lot in the afternoon just being able to put in another two or three hours easily. And so I don't know, I think we just got to where we were working maybe a little bit too much, especially for us this time of year. We really need to like step back because work's gonna like really creep up on us in January. So yeah, that's the hard part. But we did talk about something we're gonna do moving forward to kind of help make this better. So yesterday we were talking about this, and we decided that we're going to make a little calendar just between us, and the calendar is gonna have little specific things we want to do in a day. 15 minutes that we're gonna spend with the kids to get someone in one time, just to be intentional about it because if you're a parent with multiple kids, this is just something I think that you struggle with probably always, but so that's what we're gonna do. The kids aren't gonna know about it, and we're gonna make a calendar and write them down. So do you want to tell them like what kind of things are gonna be on the calendar?

SPEAKER_01:

Sure, it could be anything, it could be just like taking Sailor to get her nails done or Scotty, or you know, taking Slate, just me and him to go, I don't know, do something fun like play basketball, or just go on a bike ride just the two of us.

SPEAKER_00:

Um something easy, right? Not always going to get the nails done, but like maybe me going to Sailor's room with a bottle of her favorite nail polish and be like, Hey, do you want to do our nails? Something like that. Or like Slate enjoys board games. We talked about you being like, Hey, do you want to play a round of this board game? Just something that if we look at it, it could only take 15 minutes. Now, if we have more time and you're having fun, I mean it could be longer than that, but just something that if it's a 15-minute thing, we can't say no to that. Like we have 15 minutes to spend with our kids, right?

SPEAKER_01:

Or even for Scotty, it could be playing Barbies with her, she still likes to do that. But I think you know, we had talked about that it's real easy to let time slip by, and it's kind of sad that we're having to like add up, we're having to set aside time to make sure that we get 15 minutes of one-on-one time with our kid. But if you have multiple kids, you understand how hard it is because they play together, you have stuff that has to get done, and when you add it all up, a lot of time there's not a lot of one-on-one time at the end of the day. Even as homeschool parents, we're still we're spending a lot of time with our kids, but that's not really the same as having some one-on-one time to have fun or have a maybe they can have a conversation with you without the other kids around where they might talk about stuff they don't normally talk about. So it, I think it's it's good to be intentional with that time because one of the things that I had said yesterday was, well, I feel like I always want to do that when I get all the other work for actual work and all the other chores done for our house and everything else, right? And that's just that's just stupid. It's never gonna happen. We're never gonna be completely done with everything.

SPEAKER_00:

And our house is a mess a lot with kids home, as you can imagine, compared to them going to school and being gone all day. So I think we both feel like, oh, gotta get this mess cleaned up, I've got to get all of these, you know, meals cleaned up now that we're eating at the house more and things like that. But honestly, it doesn't matter. And I think parents have to remind themselves about that because there's an unlimited number of messes. Like, you know, yes, of course, get the food picked up and stuff, but you don't have to keep picking up toys and messes like that all the time. And I'm really bad about that because I like things to be tidy, and then that makes me feel better.

SPEAKER_01:

There's a part of me that really wants everything to be neat and organized too, which I know is probably surprising to some people because I wasn't usually that way. But there's I I do have the ability to turn that part of my brain off better than Taryn for sure. I mean, I can really just be like, okay, if I clean it all up now, the toys will all be on the floor again in 15 minutes. So I'm just gonna ignore it and it doesn't have to be picked up today. I can do that. It that's really hard for Taryn.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I think it's hard for a lot of moms. Like a clean counter is like the best thing for your brain. And that just doesn't happen a lot when you have kids. And then I think part of me is like, well, they're old enough that we're teaching them chores and stuff. When they leave something out, I'm like, oh, like they really need to be learning to clean up after themselves. But also they are getting better. It's just not as quickly as I would like them to, but they are pitching in a lot around the house.

SPEAKER_01:

They are getting better, but it takes longer to make them do it than it does to do it ourselves, which is why we spend so much time either, you know, making them pick up after themselves or just doing it ourselves. And those fall into the things where I'm like, oh, after all of this is done, then we're gonna have some good quality time with the kids. Those fall into that, and I think that they just need to be ignored sometimes so that the things that are more important can be done first.

SPEAKER_00:

For sure. So we are gonna move forward with the calendar and we will update you, let you guys know how it goes, and you know, hold us accountable for doing it since we said we're gonna do it on this podcast. But I just think that this episode was needed because we have just shared so much about how much we love homeschooling, and we do, but I think that what we anticipated was that homeschooling was gonna be difficult, and homeschooling is not that difficult. The way you know, I don't think that we find it very difficult, it's the other stuff, and I was kind of hoping to avoid the burnout in December because I always have like a mommy dearest freak out in December every time it's gonna come, and that's a combination of like school things and birthdays and bringing all of the magic to the holidays and everything. I just feel like it's a lot, and I was like, Yeah, this year that's not gonna happen because we don't have dress-up days and you know, school things and teacher gifts and parties. Like, I have so many things off my list, but it did still happen. I think just the time from Halloween and getting all the costumes, and then you you roll right into holiday season, that's just really stressful for moms. And then this year I'm doing content creation and I wasn't doing that last year, and that is really heavy in December. So I also had a freak out this year as well.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, and I think that it's it seems like it would have been easier because there's so many things that the school requires during the holiday season, but there is one perk because we weren't as busy with work, and the kids are at school for you know seven to eight hours a day, five days a week, for at least the first part of December, and that gives you a chance to do all the things that you have to do to make magic happen for Christmas. And now you're having to find time to do that, you know, when kids are always here. So I'm sure that added an element of difficulty.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, absolutely. It did. And I don't know, it's probably to just gonna feel like this every single year, and I need to do better about managing it any way I can. So definitely getting the flu right from the start and just getting way off of our routine, and I stopped like working out or walking or anything. Yeah, that's gonna make you feel bad every single time. But so I think we just brought this episode to share the light on it nothing is always rainbows and butterflies, you know, going to school isn't homeschooling, isn't it? No one's life is that, and I think maybe we left out some of that. So this is a keeping it real episode, just to know that yeah, you know, there's gonna be rough weeks, and we definitely had one. But we have actually got a lot of questions this week. So you want to answer some questions?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, let's do it.

SPEAKER_00:

This actually goes right into what we just talked about. But she says, I know illness is part of life, but did you find that once you started homeschooling your kids and a little bit more breaks? Oh, did you figure did you find sorry, there's some typos. Did you find that once you start homeschooling that there was breaks between the illnesses? And she says that her kids are not school age yet, but she hears that there's a lot of constant illnesses back to back from school age moms. And I think on this one is like a multiple answer. Yeah, because we have kids that went to daycare, so when they were little, they did have back-to-back illnesses 100%. And I I don't know anybody that's avoided that, honestly. And I think that is just them building their immune systems, and it's such a hard season of life. Now, I think that people that don't put their kids in daycare or public school and kindergarten is rough, yeah. Kindergarten is so hard, but maybe you delay that, maybe you don't go straight into kindergarten you homeschool. I'm sure you're just gonna see that later on. And yes, I do think that they would be spaced out more, but it's kind of gonna hit you as at one point. Like we've seen it from all of our friends and everything. And right now, this was the first time the entire 2025 that all of us have been sick.

SPEAKER_01:

So and it it depends on a lot what you do outside of homeschool, because you know, if your kids aren't going to public school, they might not catch everything that goes around. But if they're going to gymnastics, sports, whatever, I mean, we'd like to think people aren't sending their kids to sports when they're sick, but sometimes they don't know, or sometimes they really just don't care. Some people are like that. And if you go to church and you, you know, your kids in the Sunday school with all the other kids that are in public school, I don't know if it makes much difference. I don't know. I mean, I don't think we've seen a drop in child illnesses yet, but we are around a lot of other kids that are in public school and you know, different things like that. So it it's it's really hard to say.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, and our kids haven't been sick like that back to back for a few years now, but they were. So they kind of like paid their dues. Yeah. And then like Sailor, I know she didn't get sick for like two years straight. And so, you know, we've kind of already done that, been there, but like our kids, you don't always know where you get illnesses, but pretty sure this time it happened because my sister's kids were sick, like all the cousins at Thanksgiving, and then it kind of traveled through the whole family. Now we all have it, my grandparents have it. So, you know, I just think you're gonna be exposed to all of those things, and it can be scary. Like, I know where you're coming from to worry about it, but it is just something that you go through, and it's so hard to have you know, back-to-back stomach virus, and then the flu, and then RSV, and then a stomach virus, and then ear infection. Like, we get it, we've been there, and those are some rough, rough years.

SPEAKER_01:

Definitely very rough.

SPEAKER_00:

The next question was also something that I wanted to talk about on this episode, and she says, How do you manage your kids' social development? And that's something that I feel like I've been struggling. struggling with lately just because we're about to finish our first semester and the only thing that I feel like my kids are missing is that like closer relationships with kids their age and that has a lot to do with the huge change in our lives and just like trying to find our footing. And I know they will, but I do feel like if I'm being a hundred percent honest, like that's the only thing that they're not getting in it or it's not as often as I would like yet.

SPEAKER_01:

I think it just takes longer because you're not around kids your age every single day forced together. But I'm hoping that you know the friendships that develop will be more I guess chosen by our kids than circumstantial because sometimes it's just like well that's the best person in my class that I have to choose from. And so I'm hoping that even though it's harder to make friends, you know, they'll still get they'll still get there. Sailor has made a friend at gymnastics that she really likes and she sees her when they go to Fun Friday because her friend's almost always there and so she has her but she obviously she had a ton of friends back when we were still doing school. Slate has made actually a lot of friends so he's doing pretty well and then Scotty has her cousin here but yeah she's still you know she hasn't made like her any other friends besides that really.

SPEAKER_00:

And they are around kids a lot so that that's not really what I'm talking about. And they they have cousins all their age so we're really fortunate to have that. So they get to play and be around kids but it's just a different thing of like having that day-to-day relationship and I think that gets more important as they get in like junior high age. That's why I've been thinking about it because with Sailor with the other two I don't think I think being the biggest influence in your kids' lives in these early years are so important. So if they don't have that's fine because coming from people that had our kids in public school they are influenced by kids and it's not necessarily the right influence. So that's something that we were avoiding taking we wanted to take them out of public school because we've seen some really negative things from that. So I don't know it's just like a hard thing because you want to be intentional about your kids' friends and you want them to have good friends that support them and like be choosy absolutely but it's hard.

SPEAKER_01:

It's hard to find those people it is yeah I mean and I I agree I think that it's important at that teenage age range to have kind of like your best friend that you know that you that they're the first person you always call and you know that kind of person.

SPEAKER_00:

So how do we manage that? I think just moving forward for us obviously we have a unique situation because we've kind of moved and we're in two different places so we're like getting our like footing here and making new routines but as Sailor gets older I do feel like it's important for her to do things like she can try out for a volleyball team in junior high and it's all homeschooling people. So it's a homeschool league and they do things like riding the bus together and practicing like maybe daily things like that would be like a true junior high sport. So I think doing those and like the homeschool school dances and all of that stuff like I think it's really important to take the effort and to do those things as they get a little bit older so that they can build those closer friendships. And here there's like a cotillion a lot of opportunities but as a parent you have to put the work in and make sure to get them in those places so that they build that community. It can be done but you have to be more intentional about it.

SPEAKER_01:

For sure. And you're right about the sports I think that will help when we get to that point because you're putting them together with their peers right now when they do rec sports it it's all the same. It's people from school it's people that are homeschooled it's all mixed up because it at least here in Texas the sports don't really run through the schools until you get to seventh grade.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. So I think that's going to be a big change and I think that that is a good time to like get them ex like give them opportunities to do things like that whether like the fun Fridays and the lock-ins and the dances and the homecomings all of that we have that in our area we just need to make sure that we get her involved in it and we're definitely plan to do that like moving forward. So the next thing this came up a few times actually is how do you help your kids be independent so that they don't need you 247 and I just think that that boils down to a really good routine. I think that you need to tell your kids what needs to be done in certain times and I still do this to this day like I needed to get something out and they were just kind of like coming in and out of my office and like hey mom like what's going on like and it was really frustrating me because it was kind of out of our normal routine and so I was like Taryn anytime this happens give them a job and I'm not talking like a chore I'm saying hey here's this board game or here's this like craft thing that I got you you guys haven't done in a while and set it out and then that kind of gives them a purpose. So our normal routine gives them a purpose every single morning and every single afternoon. And if you're trying to work in homeschool you absolutely have to have that and for our kids it's get up get ready have breakfast and then they know they have to do their morning tour and then they get dressed and brush their teeth like they're doing all of those things they're not just like bebopping around the house. You have to give them some of that independence and it definitely is kind of hard to set that up but if you stick to it for a little bit they're gonna get it down.

SPEAKER_01:

But it is an interesting dynamic when you homeschool because you have them here to teach them independence in the sense that you're gonna teach them how to cook their own food, how to change a tire all the things we want to teach our kids that are outside of core curriculum but you are also always here which it it's easy to let that ruin their their chance of having independence because they can ask you for help on anything at any time and you know part of growing up is figuring out some things on your own.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah and I I just think that at this age our kids need that type of independence. They need to start doing little things like microwaving things and all of that and we're here in case anything were to happen but people ask me like well how did you do it before and we didn't so we know nothing about that. I don't think we could have maybe someone else could we couldn't have worked and tried to homeschool like our five and under like that's just wasn't gonna happen. The the beauty with all of this and the reason that it works is their ages and the fact that we can like give them a direction like okay right now you're gonna be reading and they'll do it. So that's why it actually works for us.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah and you just have to be intentional about it and sometimes I'm not because I'm just it's a habit. They ask me a question I answer it but I'm trying to get better about that. You know Sailor's made popcorn in this house more times than I have and sometimes she's still like how long do I make the popcorn and I have to be like you know better than me. Like just go do it.

SPEAKER_00:

Well and we've made big strides on that the last few months of homeschooling you know they didn't have a lot of experience in the kitchen rather other than just like cutting vegetables and stuff with us but now Sailor gets up and like makes eggs for everyone. So we have made a lot of progress I just think that it's little steps at a time like they're doing their own laundry now that wasn't happening. They are cleaning up after themselves in the kitchen in the mornings that wasn't happening. And I mean I do think with anything with kids you could you might take five steps forward and a few steps back. And like this week an example of that was that they kept coming into my office and I was like guys when do I work until and they're like 10 and I was like okay well it's nine o'clock so I have one more hour because they got up early for some reason and I'm like please respect my work time. So we're we're still staying on them like okay make sure you did your chores all of that but we're making a lot of progress.

SPEAKER_01:

Right that is an important note to remember we we are having to stay on top of them especially the younger two sailor is getting better and better but even her we have to remind her but at least once we do she can usually do like her laundry for example all by herself she can do it. But with Scotty yeah it still takes mom reminding her it's her laundry day dad picking up her hamper to dump it into the washing machine mom reminding her it's time to move it over to the dryer and helping her do that because it's hard for her to reach all the way down and then reminding her to take it out and fold it and then making sure she actually did put it all away and so right now for her I don't know if it's a whole lot easier than if you know if we did it but if if we didn't make her do it this way and go with her every step of the way then when she was sailor's age she would still be not able to do it. So that's kind of the goal.

SPEAKER_00:

Absolutely we're putting in the the work right now and she's six like you know obviously she can't do laundry start to finish perfectly yet but she can do a lot of other things that six year olds can't like she is responsible for wiping down the counters and putting her dishes up and unloading the dishwasher and she couldn't do that before so now she is so we're making a lot of strides but this episode was just a way to be like look things are not perfect and they're never gonna be so we don't want to come off that way ever on this podcast. We want to come off real and give you really what's going on and be open and honest. So hopefully this episode is that and you can see that while we love it and we are thriving with homeschooling not everything is going according to plan.

SPEAKER_01:

No but that's okay. I mean I just want people to know that you know you see people online or hear people and it just you only hear the good parts a lot and we are trying to bring the good and the bad it's just that we were so happy with it in the beginning and we still are but I mean we're like this is so awesome that it led us to only talk about the good parts and you know there's hard parts too so we want to make sure we put those in there too.

SPEAKER_00:

And the last question that came in so many times and I know we've answered this but I just want to direct anyone here that's new and listening is what curriculum we're using and we are using the good and the beautiful but we're only using that for core subjects we also are using out school a lot for certain things. We used reading.com so this was my question obviously number one question when you're thinking about homeschooling is what curriculum do you use? Well every single mom I asked that said well we kind of pieced together our own and look at that we're kind of piecing together our own but if you will scroll back to some of our very first episodes I think like four and five we talk about the curriculum because we started out with an online curriculum and then we decided that we wanted more of a pen and paper curriculum. So we changed to the good and the beautiful and we love it but we're not using it for all subjects we're piecing together our own and working working that out.

SPEAKER_01:

No and they really like out school whenever I told Sailor the other day because she's already enjoying her drawing class on there a lot but I told her she could take voice lessons on there and she got so excited and gave me a big hug. I was like oh okay I guess I guess that's what we're doing.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah they do love love love out school and it's an online platform so you know with 2020 I think we all kind of had like a bad thing about online at school especially for kids this age so I was not very hopeful about out school but they love it and you can do core curriculum on outschool but we don't we're using it more of like drawing Spanish voice lessons that type of thing that they are choosing to do. So it's fun they love it. And then we're also trying out right now Time for learning we just tried it they have a full blown curriculum with templates and you can get like the letters for your state and everything. So that is like a year program that has everything history, math, science. So the kids started some science on that but I just think that you can start somewhere and then you're gonna figure out what works best for you. Now if you are interested in the good and the beautiful please listen to that episode because it talks a lot more about why we love it.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah and at least until they're older and we know their writing is in good shape I I like this for the core curriculum.

SPEAKER_00:

Absolutely and also we're using Night Zookeeper like for getting them to write and stuff. So I just feel like there's so many tools and you got to figure out what works best for you. But using more tools for us does help like them get more practice and stuff in like Slate loved the time for learning math game and it was just like getting him doing his like multiplication tables. So we work on it but then these games help them like do stuff and practice things on their own when we can like answer a few emails and stuff.

SPEAKER_01:

And it's also a sneaky way that we have them do two hours of core curriculum a day but all this other stuff they do they don't consider at school. So they're doing all this extra learning on their own by their own choice. And so sometimes they're I don't know it's just it's kind of a sneaky way of getting them to learn more.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah you use your tools there it's like sneaking in vegetables to their mac and cheese. It's like that so we're sneaking in little things here and there that help them with the skills they're learning but also help us get a little bit more work in. So if I'm like man I really have like two hours of work to get done I'm like hey guys do you want to do your outschool lessons and they're like oh yeah so gotta use those tools especially if you are trying to work in homeschool but I think that's all we have for today. We got a lot of reviews left on the podcast which thank you so much for leaving those reviews. We really really appreciate it. If you haven't left a review and you're loving listening please do that.

SPEAKER_01:

It doesn't take very long it really helps other people find the podcast.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes and helps us out we are we're committing to this for a year but we don't know how you know how it will look next year if we're gonna stick to the podcast or not. So let us know if you're loving it so we can make those decisions.

SPEAKER_01:

So I guess that wraps it up for this episode. Until next time thank you so much for listening to Well This Wasn't the Plann podcast We will do really hard on this podcast make those doors so you don't miss a single podcast episode.

SPEAKER_02:

Thank you have a good day