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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!
21. Technology in Schools and Education
We push past holiday overload to unpack a big question: what happens when schools move all work onto screens, and what do kids lose along the way.
• school device policies and filter workarounds
• screen time displacing handwriting, grammar and composition
• our guardrails: shared computers, short videos, supervised access
• targeted skills: typing, file basics, safe browsing
• summer plan: light year‑round learning to prevent slide
• choosing electives with limits, Outschool for exploration
• non‑negotiables: daily reading and a physical activity
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The phone we have with NO social media and NO internet browser!
The thing was for us was that we were hearing a lot of things from our kids, but we also didn't we didn't know. They didn't give us any information, you know. We never could see like their device or how much time they were spending on it or what they were doing on it. So that was kind of the biggest like red flag for me at first. 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 homeschool people.
SPEAKER_00:Welcome to, well, this wasn't the plan podcast.
SPEAKER_01:I'm Slate, and school's in the kitchen now. I'm Scotty. We saw Scott to an I say so. I'm Sailor, and this whole podcast was my idea.
SPEAKER_00: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:After a few weeks off.
SPEAKER_00:It was a nice break.
SPEAKER_01:So we just decided over this Christmas break to have no podcast episodes because between podcasting and homeschooling and Christmas and skiing, all the things, it just seemed like too much. But obviously, we weren't homeschooling at the time.
SPEAKER_00:Right. So there might not have been as much to talk about anyway. And y'all didn't have time to listen to us talking about everything. Y'all had stuff to do Christmas, present buying, cleaning up afterwards, which takes forever.
SPEAKER_01:All the things. But we uh so let's just recap on Christmas. So we took when it was our last school day. It was like December 12th or something.
SPEAKER_00:Something like that.
SPEAKER_01:Maybe earlier. And then we had a volleyball tournament, and then right after that, the next day we drove to the mountains to go skiing, and we had an awesome trip with the kids. The kids love skiing. There was really no big bumps in the road, which is nice when you go on a trip with kids. And then we went straight into Christmas, like hardcore Christmas. We drove about 10 hours over the course of two days, maybe a little bit longer. Did Christmas with my family, which my family, my parents are divorced, Carson's parents are divorced, and so that just means we have like so many Christmases. And it was let's just say this it was a lot. It was it was a lot in December. So we have learned our lesson. Next year we will not be skiing right before we have all of this Christmas stuff.
SPEAKER_00:All the Christmases. That movie for Christmases, that's like a warm-up for our Christmases.
SPEAKER_01:It was nuts, like literally nuts. And what made it worse this year was the fact that obviously we have a unique situation where we have two homes and we had to figure out like, okay, where are we gonna do Christmas at? And that was just based on our family's Christmases and who did what. So first my family wanted to do theirs before Christmas, so we drove there, then did Christmas morning, and then we had to drive back here and do more Christmas. So a lot of that extra was just the traveling because we don't normally do that much back-to-back travel. So it was nuts. And it was just like, okay, next year it can't be like this. It that's how crazy it was. And we were just trying to figure out like, okay, like what can we do differently next year? And we can't really tell anyone no for Christmas. So the really, I guess the only thing to do is not go skiing right before it all happens, even though that was like the perfect time for us to go.
SPEAKER_00:It was great. There was snow, not a lot, but there was definitely snow enough for us to ski, and there weren't that many people there yet. So it was great.
SPEAKER_01:It was so nice. The kids did ski school and they basically just got private lessons because there were not enough kids. So Sailor and Slate had one instructor and they just went all over the mountain with them, and Scotty had her and one other kid, and so they got to do exactly what they needed to do. They got to ski all over the mountain. It was just like the skiing part of it was awesome, but it's just you can't go that that many days, you know, doing something every day with kids without feeling like, oh my gosh, I'm gonna pull my hair out.
SPEAKER_00:Right.
SPEAKER_01:So, needless to say, it was not the most relaxing break, but it was nice to not do homeschool.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, for sure. The kids loved it.
SPEAKER_01:The kids loved it. They have been having their best life, just getting up and doing whatever they want to do, listening to their audiobooks, crafting, playing with their new toys. So they have loved it. We have done no school, like nothing formal. The only thing that we stick to on these types of breaks is just reading, and they've been reading every day still.
SPEAKER_00:It's gonna be a rough wake up on January 5th when we start back.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Almost feel like we should send them back to eight-hour a day public school for two weeks just to like remind them. Because now they're not comparing homeschool for two hours to you know public school for eight hours. They're gonna be comparing it to doing nothing, doing whatever you want all day, every day, playing outside for hours, just disappearing and having a good time. And then when they go back to two hours of school, it's gonna it's gonna feel like a lot because that's how it always works with things. So, yeah, maybe just two weeks of like, hey, remember this, and then oh, want to go back to two hours a day. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I think that they have now forgotten maybe a little bit here and there. They absolutely a hundred percent still want to be homeschooled, but you know, they are definitely spoiled too, the two hours of schooling. I thought it was funny, so I can share this. About I wanted to start doing like family reading. One of my friends, she and her family, like they're such big readers, they will all sit around the fire and like read for hours for some specific, like it's like a cultural tradition. I don't I couldn't even pronounce it, but I was like, how fun like to have everybody sit down and read. So I made us do it, and the kids were super complaining about it. They were just like, that's weird. Like, are we gonna read out loud? And I'm like, no, we're just gonna like get cozy and all sit on the couch and like maybe turn on the fire and like read for 30 minutes, and it'll be like family reading time. They were so confused. They had, you know, because to us the kids read before bed, so it's kind of like a windown time. And so they were confused by it, but we did it, and then everybody ended up liking it.
SPEAKER_00:They did, but at the first they were like, Can I just read in my room?
SPEAKER_01:I know they were so confused. And I told Carson this is like I always say, the sooner you start with something, the easier it is with kids. So if that's you want to be the family that does Spartan races, or you want to be the family that I don't know, goes fishing on every Sunday morning. The sooner you start, the less pushback you're gonna have. And it was funny because Scotty was just like, sure, you know, she's our youngest. Like, oh, sounds fun. Can I sit by you? Like, she didn't really care that much about it. But Sailor was like, This is weird. Why are we why are we all reading together?
SPEAKER_00:She reads in a room, and with her ADD, she likes to read in a room where there's no distractions. And you know, she we our youngest was reading out loud some, and she's still learning, so and and I could just tell Sailor's just like, oh, stop.
SPEAKER_01:But at the 30-minute mark, everyone was still like just really into their books, and so afterwards we went around and I said, which I let it go a little long, but I didn't want to do like so long so that they wouldn't want to do it again.
SPEAKER_00:We wanted to stop while they were still having fun.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, they were still having fun, and you know, Slate was like, Oh man, like I was I was really having fun. I was getting into my book, but we went around and everybody talked about what they were reading, and so we'll definitely be doing that more, even though it's weird. I think that you know they liked it.
SPEAKER_00:So in general, homeschooling is weird, so we're just weird. That's okay.
SPEAKER_01:I think you just have to embrace being weird, especially like this year. I've just been like sharing a lot of the the things that we do, like making them eat healthy and making them read, and it is weird, actually. It it feels like when I say that, that's the right thing to do, right? But it's weird. It's weird not to give your kid a tablet while they eat breakfast. It's weird to make them go to sleep on time. All of these things are weird. So I think that we have just learned to embrace being weird, and so many of you have commented on my things being like, I feel alone because I'm the only one doing this, but I'm like, you know what? We're all be we'll all be weird together because that unfortunately is what it is right now.
SPEAKER_00:And sometimes you have to remember there's a silent minority, but a big minority. So it's yeah, I mean, it's being weird in some ways can be just doing anything that less than 50% of the population does. But that might mean there's 30% of us out here are doing it, but we're scared to talk about it because people judge us and act like we're weird and oh, you don't give your kids red dye, you must be some kind of freak hippie or something. I don't know. That's just how people act. And so nobody says anything, but we are out here. That's one of the reasons we're on this podcast, so you know that we're out here. And and just remember that if being weird is you know, doing what less than 50% of the people do, then in almost all cases it's a good thing because over 50% of the population is overweight, over 50% of the population lives paycheck to paycheck, over 50% of the population, the children are on the screens for more than four hours a day. All of these are facts, and so being weird in all of those cases is a pretty good idea.
SPEAKER_01:I think that it bothered me early on being a parent because I wasn't doing what other people are doing, but now you know, we're 10 years plus in. I have fully embraced being weird and just everybody has to do what's best for them. But I saw someone shared this post and it was so true. It was like basically saying how you will never get more criticism than if you're a parent like feeding your kid a healthy meal and getting them outside and saying no to screens. You will get so much criticism, like, oh my gosh, I bet they're sheltered. I can't, I can't believe like they never get to eat a cupcake, or they'll be like, they're never gonna be able to operate in this world because they don't know how to run an iPad. Like they will just, you will just have people left and right criticizing your parenting. Yet your kids on diabetes medication, your kids like on a screen all day, your kids doing your kids not getting any sleep, people will not say anything to you.
SPEAKER_00:No, no, don't don't dare, because we're supposed to punch up, right? So it this the assumption is that if you're doing all the right things that and you're a good parent, and then when people attack you, they're punching up and they feel like that's okay. And then but but you can't pick on those other people. They're you're punching down then because those people must not be able to help it. They must not be able to do any better.
SPEAKER_01:I guess. I don't know what the reason is, but I thought, man, she is absolutely correct. Because if you're doing something that's good for your kids, you're gonna have all these people come out telling you that for some reason you shouldn't be doing that. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:But if they're eating fast food every day, then how dare you judge them? You don't know their story.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's that basically sums it up. So let's get in today's actual episode, and this episode is going to be about technology in schools, and I think it's something that's important to talk talk about. And we did get a fan mail on it. So she just said that we had mentioned it in previous episodes about technology in schools, but she wanted to hear more about it. She doesn't have school age children yet, but she's been like touring schools, and she has heard that basically from third or fourth grade up, they're gonna do all of their work on laptops. And she said she went to a private school. They said the same thing, and she asked them, like, okay, why? And they basically just said they're gonna need to be on technology, so we're starting out that way so that they know what to do and they're prepared. So she just wants to know like what we do or what we think is a good way to balance all of this. Like, of course, they do need to know technology, but you know, what what's a good balance for this? And so we're gonna talk about what we're doing and some of the issues with like the technology in schools and things that we see and that we've talked to other parents about.
SPEAKER_00:And I don't know that they do need to be on technology, but we'll get into that.
SPEAKER_01:Sure. So in our experience, our kids started public school. This was not something that was like on our radar, we had never really talked about it, even though at home we have really strict rules about technology. Now, strict meaning a lot of people think they're strict, but like our kids don't get on an iPad daily or anything like that, and they don't watch a lot of TV. So maybe it is something we should have thought about, but we didn't. Well, fast forward to all of our kids being in school, it did become an issue because like our kindergartner got an iPad at school, and then I think by the time like Slate was in first grade, he had like a Chromebook, and then of course our oldest did. And there was just all these issues popping up, like stories about people getting sent to the principal's office, you know, multiple times a day for being on websites that they shouldn't, and you know, Googling things they shouldn't, being on Facebook, being on YouTube, and things like that. Our first grader, their class was, you know, always on eBay trying to buy stuff and things like that. And so that was a concern for us, but also a concern for us was just that we don't think kids need to be on screens for hours a day. So then we didn't know how much screen time they were getting at school, right? So then we felt like once they came home, we really couldn't give them any more screen time. Like they couldn't, we were like, I don't know, should they be watching TV at night? Or like, I don't know. So the thing was for us was that we were hearing a lot of things from our kids, but we also didn't we didn't know. They didn't give us any information, you know. We never could see like their device or how much time they were spending on it or what they were doing on it. So that was kind of the biggest like red flag for me at first.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and you know, all of the protections and everything that get put on the computers, about two weeks to a month later, they're useless. The kids have found a way around them. They're only useful if the teacher who's actually in daily control of those things is better at technology than the kids are, and I promise you're not. Because it's not because you're not as smart as them, it's because you don't have all day to sit around and figure out how to do something on a computer, and that's exactly what the kids are doing. They're literally sitting there all day trying to figure it out. It started even when we were in school, but luckily we had computer lab. We didn't have computers with us all the time, but even in computer lab, we played video games all the time, and they were supposed to be blocked. But at the time, it was as simple as putting www three instead of www at the first of the web address, and you could play any video game you want that's online. So this is the kids are gonna figure out a way around this. And if the teachers aren't monitoring, and how can they when they have 20 to 30 students, then the the kids are gonna be distracted by things that are way more fun than history.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely, and I think that the way that they're presenting it, one, is that yes, kids need to be on technology and learn it, and two, it's just a more efficient way to teach a large group of students because if they're doing all of their work on the iPad or the Chromebook, then it's logged in and they can, I guess, track progress, and then the teacher's not having to grade it physically, so supposedly it's supposed to be like more efficient. So that's you know, I guess the standing on that. But once we started like getting into this more and learning a little bit more about it, I obviously did more research on it and just wanted, you know, to see like what other people are saying about it. So I stumbled across a lot of people. This one woman specifically, she was having a lot of issues with her child at school and their iPad. And so she had to do something, sign some paperwork in order to be able to see her child's iPad. And so she went and got it and she was able to, and within like I want to say 30 seconds, she had pulled up a video that was just like teaching kids about suicide, like an awful video. And she named a few things that came up, and this was on a school device, and she was saying, like, okay, like to the school board, we need to do something about this. This is what they're seeing. This is what's on my child's iPad that I have no control of. Like, I don't even get to see it. They don't bring it home. And this is what I was able to find within literally 30 seconds.
SPEAKER_00:And let's be clear in that specific example, it was not a video on suicide prevention or suicide hotlines for people that are struggling. It was an instructional video on how to do it more efficiently.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, exactly. So that was the type of thing that I was finding was that parents that were a few steps ahead of us were having like major problems with their kids' school devices. So that's kind of where you know it kind of began for us. And then now with like teaching our kids, it's that they and we've talked to a lot of parents about this, they are behind in writing because they are doing every single thing on a screen. And that's been a problem for us, and almost every single parent I talk to about has the same problem, including a mom that I talked to in Belgium. So this is a worldwide problem.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. And I don't know. I mean, maybe maybe to some people we sound like, you know, there's the old school teachers that insist on teaching the kids cursive, and I'm like, dude, some of them can barely read and do math. Can we take that one thing out? And I don't think it's that important to learn cursive. Maybe we sound like that to some people because they're like, nobody writes things down anymore. But there's something about writing something that puts it in your brain and helps you remember it in a way that typing it in into a computer doesn't. You know, sitting and taking notes in a college class and doing it on pencil and paper, I still think is the best way to learn. But maybe I'm just old school.
SPEAKER_01:Well, that is one problem. But the problem that I was talking about with a mom yesterday at the park was that it's not that they okay, they can't write and their handwriting isn't very good. Okay, so maybe you're a person that says that's not important, all right? But the problem that we're seeing is that. They can't construct a sentence well. They're not putting like capitalization. They're not punctual, they're not doing punctuation correctly. They're forgetting their periods. They don't know how to spell recurring words. And this is like third and fourth graders. And the lady I was talking to yesterday, her kids are in public school and she was a public school teacher. And she's like, there's no reason we should be seeing this from kids that age. And it's just that, like she said, her daughter, all of her schoolwork is on a tablet. So she doesn't get any papers home, or you know, they don't have anything like that anymore. Everything's done on a tablet. So all of that little practice doing those worksheets and things like that, they're not getting the practice that they need to write. And so we even saw that with our kids. Like, I feel like our daughter, who's in fourth grade, she's definitely behind in the writing department. Our son definitely is. And it's just, they're not getting that practice. They're on a screen, they're not holding a pencil and writing things. And so when you go to ask them to write, oh, write a paragraph summarizing this article or whatever, they cannot do it in a timely manner. And if they do it, they don't do it well.
SPEAKER_00:They are catching up because we've, you know, but we've only had one semester with them. So it's going to take some more time, but to make up the shortfall that was created by, I, in my opinion, the public school system. So, you know, that's one aspect of it. The writing, it's it's one thing, but now let's address this other side that they have to be on this technology because they're gonna be using it every day, they're gonna be doing all this. I'm not so sure. No, and I'm not one of those people that's like, oh, the internet's a fad. I don't think it's going anywhere. But everybody thought that coding was the future, and that was the best thing you could put your kids in, and now all of those people are unemployed because as soon as they got AI going, they figured out that computers can write computer code way better than people can. So we don't know for sure where technology is heading, but I think what's more important is that kids need to be able to think critically because machines can't do that yet, and kids need to be creative, kids need to be hardworking, and they need to be adaptive more than anything because that's where the world's going. Sitting down and teaching them computer skills that are gonna be completely obsolete in 15 years is not going to help them. People might not even be typing in 15 years. The devices are gonna be so advanced that we'll probably just be talking to them.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, yeah, that wraps it up. Like, we have no idea. We have no idea what they're gonna need. And it's likely, very, very, very likely, that things are gonna look completely different when they get into the job force. So I don't think that it's doing them a disservice, keeping them off of technology while they are learning to read and write. Like I don't think that that is gonna harm your kid in any way. And if you look at it, the most intelligent people in our country are keeping their kids in schools that do not allow technology. So if that tells you anything.
SPEAKER_00:The people that run Google and the people that are in charge of Meta, which is Facebook's parent company, all of these people do not let their kids have devices in social media and they're sending them to schools where they're not using technology all the time. So I mean, I don't know, they they probably know something.
SPEAKER_01:They absolutely do, just like they're not giving their kids phones. So definitely, I think my personal opinion is that they are using devices in schools to babysit kids, just like parents do a lot. They are babysitting kids for us, and it's what kids like to do. Like, of course, kids want to be on an iPad, but guess what? They're not doing what they're supposed to be doing. So obviously, that's our opinions. Sure. But let's talk about what we do just to like have our kids learn a little bit about technology, since we're pretty much anti-technology at like this age. We did pick our curriculum based on the fact that we wanted them to do it on pen and paper. So that's why we like the good and the beautiful. But I do think that they slowly introduce a few things. So, like Sailors in fourth grade, there is a few videos that she watches, like a math video or something. So, okay, I'm showing her how to get to that on our computer. We saved it on the like bookmark, and we have computers that are in like our family homeschooling room. They do not go to their rooms, they are not using them without a parent nearby, things like that. So definitely she's using she is getting familiar with like a computer and like a mouse and things like that.
SPEAKER_00:And they're getting to the point where they're saying, okay, we're doing these essays, and they do it in parts, and so they think they say you can do it on pencil and paper if you want, but it's probably better to do it on the computer because you can save what you have so far, you can add to it, and you can go back and edit it more easily, which is good. I do want them to know how to type. I mean, obviously, I don't want them to be 22 years old and go into the workforce and be typing five words per minute.
SPEAKER_01:And well, and that's another thing that I was gonna say is that we value typing. Like we both type a lot every single day. We email a lot, and I don't think the email is going anywhere. And obviously, typing up a paper or whatever for college is gonna be necessary. So all of our kids want to learn typing, and we definitely support that. Sailor was learning actually in elementary, so they start pretty young now. They have like some typing classes, and so we are gonna start doing that in 2026. That's one of Sailor's goals, is to learn to type. So, what we're gonna do is just find her a little typing course that she's gonna do like, I don't know, 10, 15 minutes a day. That is totally fine with us. She's doing all of her work with pen and paper, she's getting better at writing. We're making her write those paragraphs, even if it's slow and steady, she's getting better. We're fine with her doing a typing course. But it's not like at school where she's gonna be on something that she shouldn't be, and you know, sitting there for every single lesson on something. So we support things like that. So that is one way that we do technology. They jump on some things like we have night zookeeper, we have time for learning, those little things we have out school. So all of those are on a computer. That's just not something that they're doing for hours a day. So I feel like they're getting like a I don't know, gradual teaching in that.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, and all of those things are specialized, which that's another point I wanted to make about the technology is they're like the kids are going to be using it and so on and so forth. And I do think they'll be using it in a different way, but we should still learn it to some extent because some of that knowledge is transferable. But the school teachers aren't really experts in technology, and that's nothing against them. I'm not either. But we have people teaching something that okay, some company figured out a way to make money off technology and they sold it to the state who filtered it through whoever's in charge of education for the state, who filtered it through the superintendent of each school district, and it was filtered through the principal, then it was filtered through the teacher. And by the time it gets to the students, it's just it's just not really learning what they need to learn about technology.
SPEAKER_01:No. What they need to learn about technology is all of the things that could happen and all of the things that they could stumble across and safety. That's what they should be learning about it, and they're not. They are learning how to get around certain things that you set up so that they can't see those things and then they figure it out.
SPEAKER_00:Hey, now that might give those kids an excellent future in cybersecurity, though.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, one of the first graders was so good at computers. I mean, he might be heading that way and he could get around all those things. And I was like, Slate's like, how do you turn this thing on? And the kid's like on eBay shopping.
SPEAKER_00:So aren't those blogs? Yeah, I know how to get around that. No problem.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Another point is if you don't let your kid have an iPad or a computer, they're gonna be behind. And I just want to point out that I got an iPhone at like age 25 or something. I didn't have any problem figuring out how to use an iPad or an iPhone.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I mean what it took like me two days, and I'm good to go.
SPEAKER_00:Right.
SPEAKER_01:So, no, I think that you're not doing a disservice keeping them from technology or at least doing it very mindful. But you definitely well, okay, you probably will regret introducing it too soon.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, definitely. If I mean, especially if you want your kids to know how to write with a pen or a pencil.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. And me for one, I think it's embarrassing if I say, hey, jot this down and you can't do it. So our kids are gonna learn how to write.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So I don't know if this episode was helpful. I mean, maybe it shed some light on what is going on in schools. There's so much more that we could possibly talk about here. But this is kind of like our opinion and how how we're working on it.
SPEAKER_00:So that was all based on one great question we got from fan mail, but we do want to wrap this episode up by going through a few more fan mails, and so Taryn has the first one ready.
SPEAKER_01:The first one is what are your plans for summer? Will you continue doing school-based learning? And yes and no. So I we were just talking about this morning. I am trying to find like a Spanish immersion program for this summer, and we love to travel, so I feel like that is a huge learning opportunity. So obviously they will be learning, and we've never done like this, but the kids really, really, really want to learn Spanish. So it is something that we're considering. So we would be able to work and then they go to camp for you can pick one week, two week, three week, whatever you want to do. We're looking for something like that. So that would be, you know, just language immersion, so it wouldn't be like core subjects. But I don't know, we really haven't talked about this, like both of us together. But I feel like I was working with Scotty on writing something she wanted to write over Christmas break, and I could see that she backslid a lot on her writing. I was like, oh my gosh, it's just been a few weeks. So that I don't know, that kind of made me feel like we need to do something a little more intentional over the summer.
SPEAKER_00:Like maybe to where they're still writing, certainly they'll still be reading every day. That's a given. But and then maybe even a little bit of like times tables or division practice that's not part of their main like textbooks that we get from Good and the Beautiful, but just maybe some extra worksheets and and not a daily two hours like we do necessarily. But also, we had talked about that you know, you don't necessarily have to stop in May, you can extend into June and July, especially if you know if this semester is a little bit harder to get in all the time, because we haven't done homeschooling during tax season. And I think we're still gonna be fine. I think we're still gonna be get, you know, be able to get our two hours a day, four days a week, like we have been. But if we got super busy for three or four weeks and we were a little behind, we might need to extend a little bit into the summer to make up for it and to make up for the fact that we travel a lot and we miss school days for that. And if if that's the case, then that's no big deal. That's one of the beauties of doing homeschool, is that you don't have to fit it into a certain box on the calendar.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and I so obviously we don't have it figured out yet. But I do think that when we started out, our thing was we'll break for summer, and then now at least I'm feeling like it might be good to school year round to some extent. That away when we do travel, like say we go for three weeks to this Spanish immersion program. Maybe we do take off that entire time minus like the reading, but then we pick up when we get back, and then like when we went to Costa Rica, we wouldn't have had to do really anything if we do year-round. When we're traveling, we can just let it be about travel.
SPEAKER_00:And other things too, like Spanish. You know, we're gonna start that this semester. And if if you don't stick with it, you're just gonna lose it all. I mean, we all know we took Spanish for two or three years in high school. None of us speak Spanish. Y'all know what I'm talking about. So if if you want them to learn, you need to start young and you need to do it all the way through the year, not for you know, an hour a day for five days a week and then not at all for a long period of time, but maybe just for 15 to 30 minutes every day for years, and then you'll have it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so I don't know. I think maybe we're leaning toward maybe doing some sort of year-round type thing. But yeah, this happens in public school too. The first two years, Sailor made a big backslide when they did their like end of year to beginning of year testing, and the teacher was like, This is completely normal. It's the summer slide, everyone does it. So then I ordered some workbooks off of Amazon, and it was just like a daily, like one or two like little sheets that I guess just keep them like not from sliding back over the summer, and we did that, and I think that was super helpful. So I do think that just taking off a big chunk of the year just isn't good for them. And you know, you could just throw in there maybe what's really important to you. Do you does your kids need to work on math or reading? Maybe just do some of that stuff so it doesn't feel so like much like school that they do get a break. But I don't know. I'm leaning towards like having more frequent little breaks instead of one big break.
SPEAKER_00:And again, this might just be to make you know, to to not backslide, not necessarily to make progress. You we do four hours of math and four hours of reading slash writing and language arts approximately every week, and that makes progress, but probably a single hour of each per week will be enough not to backslide.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I think so. So I don't know. I guess we're still working that out, but definitely the one thing we stick to all year round is they read every single day, and I think that is just an easy thing to do. Make sure they do that.
SPEAKER_00:And they our kids enjoy it now, and I think that everyone's kids will enjoy it eventually when they get good at it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, you just have to get over that hump. Like you have to get them to enjoy reading, and it can be hard, especially I feel like in the time we're living in, it's just like an uphill battle to get kids to love reading. But once they do, like they read all the time. When we went skiing, they brought books, and as soon as we got in, they're like, I just want to lay down and read. I'm like, Yeah, girl, me too. I want to lay down and read. And I'm like so proud of them. But people are like, How do you keep your kids entertained when you travel or on a plane or in the car or at a restaurant? And I'm like, Have you tried books? Yeah, have you tried reading?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, JK Rowling is keeping them very well entertained. Thank you, lady. So it and it's it's harder the longer you wait, but you can still do it. Obviously, if you start earlier, not only is it easier for the kids to learn and get used to it, but another thing people don't talk about is if you wait until they're you know 11, okay, their reading level might be at a first or second grade level if they're behind, but their brains are not at a first or second grade level. So these stories they're reading are so boring to them. They don't want to read about you know unicorns and and stupid crap that you know is is for for babies. That's what they feel like. But if you can just push them and push them until they get their reading level up to their actual age, then the books they're reading will be enjoyable for them.
SPEAKER_01:And that did happen to us. Like Sailor was at the end of first grade, she wasn't where she needed to be, and she didn't like reading. And we're like, yeah, because the stuff that she's reading is boring. Like she wants like mysteries and things where there's a lot going on and a bigger plot than just like these little tiny baby books. So that was something we had to like figure out and get over and get her caught up. And we were like, we're not doing that again. We are gonna be super proactive in getting them to read, and it's a non-negotiable in our family, like you have to be a reader. So sorry, guys. And honestly, we've seen with Scotty, it's way easier that way. She didn't fight it. She's like, Ooh, like I want to read like Sailor and Slate. Like, I'm so excited. And we make a big deal about it. Like, we did like a big celebration for her, and we all cheered her on and we're like, You're so smart, you're such a good reader. And so I just think that if you are willing to put in the work, like it pays off so much.
SPEAKER_00:Yes. And, you know, one of the things that was troublesome is that we had a kid that's listening to audiobooks too, which I love. It creates a love of reading and it proves that they enjoy those stories, but it did cause this problem where you know the books that she's capable of reading aren't at the same level of what she can listen to. So she's listening to sixth and seventh grade level stories when she's in third grade, but she's having to go back and read third and fourth grade books, and then those seem boring by comparison. So that was a problem. She's catching up now. Her her reading level and her listening level are catching up to each other.
SPEAKER_01:So and we totally support audiobooks. Like I actually like researched it a lot. Like, is it good for them like to listen? Oh, yeah. Oh my gosh, it's so good. It's so good for their brain, especially say they're having ADHD, to be able to sit there and focus on it. I don't know if you've ever tried, but when you first start listening, it's kind of hard. So absolutely big fans of the audiobooks. Just it is a slippery slope whenever they just want to have something at their level if they can't.
SPEAKER_00:So well, if you get old enough, then you read faster than the audiobook goes, and so then you enjoy that more. But when you're trying to catch up to that reading level, it can be frustrating.
SPEAKER_01:For sure. All right, let's do our last fan mail. She says she wants to try homeschooling, but she feels very overwhelmed with the endless possibilities: Spanish, Latin, music, appreciation, poetry, art history, paleontology course that she thinks her kids might like. Obviously, math and reading are core, but there's so much flexibility with everything else. How do you prior prioritize which courses are most important for your family? And does it vary by kid, or do you have any non-negotiable electives? So that was definitely us. We could have written that. Like, I feel like at the beginning of our first semester, I was overwhelmed because I felt like we have all of this time, and anything that they don't learn is our fault because we didn't choose correctly. We chose poorly. And we're like, we were like, man, they can learn Spanish and they can do art lessons and they can do piano, and yeah, but you do really have to dwindle it down because especially if you're trying to work, it's just there's not as much time in the day as you might think. The days actually go by a lot faster than I was thinking they would.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and remember this one of the perks of homeschooling is that you don't have to stick with something for a whole semester or a whole school year. I mean, it's not like when we were in junior high and you sign up for choir, if you hate. It. I mean, your mom literally had to go up and throw a fit in the office to get you transferred into a different elective. It's not like that. You could try the elective for two weeks. If the kids hate it or if you think it's a stupid waste of time, it's gone. And you can pick the next thing.
SPEAKER_01:The thing that we did was the first kind of elective was that it fit into our work schedule. It was art, and I picked that one because all three kids are very interested in art. So we picked that one and they all loved it. So we're going to keep that. Now, with all of these other things that you're talking about, if you have more than one kid, it's going to be really, really hard for you to take them out of your house to work on these things. So we stumbled across out school, which has things like that. So they have so many classes. Like they have voice lessons, they have writing, drawing, math, everything. So that's kind of the way that we're letting our kids explore those because they can take a couple of classes on there, and if they don't like it, that's it's no big deal. So in order for us to like explore some of those things, that's the best way that we've found for them to do that. Because if your kids are also like in sports and activities, like our girls do gymnastics twice a week, things like that, you just don't have a lot of time. So my advice is to talk to your kids and give them a few options and just try like maybe their top two for the first semester and then readdress. Like you don't have to, especially with out school, you don't even have to finish, you don't have to go the next week. We tried one class and like she liked it, but I was like, I don't think that that's kind of the way you're gonna learn. And she was like, Yeah, you're right. So we didn't do it again. So I think that helps. And then another thing that we do that helps with time and efficiency with three kids and working is that we use simply piano for slight piano lessons. And we have not been very good about making sure he's consistent with it, but it is a really wonderful way to learn like piano or guitar or anything like that without taking true lessons. You just have to put it on your calendar, like you just have to be like, okay, piano lessons are from four to four thirty every single day, and pick something to focus on that semester. And it it still can be overwhelming.
SPEAKER_00:It can be. There's so many choices, but you I mean, you need to lead some of them. You're right. What which electives are non-negotiable to you? Like, I I'm not sure where that fan lives, but if they're in Canada, in Quebec, probably can uh French Canadian is pretty important if you're on the southern border, like we are. Probably Spanish is a pretty important elective. You know, you you you can just decide based on that. I would say Latin is if your kid's gonna be a doctor or if you really want some bomb SAT scores, then maybe Latin. But other than that, I don't know, it's kind of a dead language.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, we definitely are not a kid-driven family, we're not gonna let them just do whatever they want.
SPEAKER_00:But they can pick a few things which makes them more excited for the whole process.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, we we have in the past and we will continue saying no to things that are just not gonna benefit them in the long term. It's just a waste of time, right? Or a waste of money. But like our son wants to do piano, we're obviously we're gonna support that.
SPEAKER_00:And that's a lifelong skill that you know you never stop reaping the rewards from that.
SPEAKER_01:And if there was a non-negotiable, like we really want them to learn Spanish, but they all really want to learn Spanish. So unfortunately, we're all on the same page. But for us, I think the only non-negotiable is reading, which it should be for everyone, and then having something that's like a physical activity, not they don't have to do sports or like, you know, traditional things, but they have to be doing something like swimming, golf, gymnastics, basketball, whatever. They can pick anything they want. They can't just sit and do nothing. Like, we think that that's very important for them to do things like that and to be physical, to meet people, to learn lessons, all the things.
SPEAKER_00:So that is another great point is the balance, yes. So not that is a non-negotiable, you're right, because as much as I love music and I would love for our kids to be playing multiple instruments like I do, I'm also not going to let them say, okay, I'm gonna learn piano lessons and I'm gonna do voice lessons and I'm gonna do guitar lessons, and now I don't have time for any sports at all, or to even be physically active in any way. Like, okay, nope, that's that's not gonna happen. So we're gonna have to space it out a little bit.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and right now, like we are about to start a semester, so we're trying to prioritize, and like our daughter wants to do voice lessons and drawing lessons in Spanish, and she also wants to find a typing course. So realistically, we cannot add all of that. But it it does make it easier for out school because her drawing class is like once a week. So if there's a way that we can find that she can do that stuff in the day, I mean I'm happy for her to do all of those, but we do need to dwindle that down. Just like the sports, we always have a rule that they can do like one thing, like you're not gonna sign up for baseball and soccer at the same time because that's too too many things. But I think that you have to, however you see fit, you have to dwindle it down and then just try things a semester by semester. Yeah. So that is all we have for you today. That was a long episode. I thought it was gonna be short, but it wasn't. So we are about to dive into tax season. We've been having a lot of talks about how we're gonna balance all this, and this podcast is one of them. We likely are not gonna have weekly episodes. For one reason, we don't have a lot of ups and downs in the homeschooling like we thought we were. We thought we were gonna be coming on saying, like, it was a bad week, here's what happened, here's what we did, but it's not. I just feel like we're trucking ahead. Yeah, we're we're smooth sailing, but we definitely will have updates for you as far as how we are balancing this incredibly busy season of our work and homeschooling for the first time. Because I don't know about you, but I'm a little scared of how it's all gonna go down.
SPEAKER_00:But but I'm excited because you know, if we get to March and April and we're still doing well with homeschool, then that's it. We can definitively say you have time to homeschool because you know CPAs during tax season work 80 to 90 hours a week, sometimes more. So if you know, if we're able to do that and homeschool, then okay, all the excuses are gone.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and I it's probably gonna look like Tieryn's homeschooling a lot of days herself, especially if there's a backlog of tax returns. But I think that we'll manage it. I think this semester has shown us that it's gonna be fine. And we do know we have in our back pocket the ability to pause homeschooling and have spring break or tax season break and not do it for a while. So we will keep you posted on all of that.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, we'll let you know. So I guess until next time, thank you so much for listening to Well is Welcome to the Planned Podcast.
SPEAKER_01:We will do very hard on this podcast. Make sure you screw so you don't miss a single contest episode. Thank you, have a good day.