How Homeschool Moms Can Earn an Income Without Leaving Their Kids

In this episode of HOMESCHOOL REVOLUTION, I sit down with veteran homeschool mom and entrepreneur Kelly Crawford to tackle one of the biggest concerns homeschool families face: money. Whether you're trying to afford curriculum, find educational funding opportunities, or earn an income while staying home with your children, we discuss practical options that can help make homeschooling financially sustainable.

We break down the different state funding programs available to homeschoolers, including ESA-style programs, curriculum providers, and scholarship opportunities. I also share my thoughts on the benefits and trade-offs that can come with accepting government-funded homeschool assistance and why every family should understand the long-term implications before participating.

In this episode, we also discuss:

• How ESA and state-funded homeschool programs work
• Finding financial assistance for curriculum and educational resources
• The pros and cons of government-funded homeschool programs
• Ways homeschool moms can earn income from home
• Affiliate marketing and sharing products you already use and love
• Why freedom matters more than simply earning a paycheck
• Avoiding business models that consume all your time and energy
• Building flexible income streams around family life
• Why homeschooling and entrepreneurship often go hand-in-hand
• The importance of de-schooling your mindset
• Simplifying homeschooling without expensive curriculum
• Why copywork, reading, and real-life learning can be enough
• Trusting your instincts as a homeschool parent
• Helping children thrive outside traditional educational systems

We also answer questions from parents about getting started with homeschooling, balancing finances, curriculum choices, special needs concerns, ADHD labels, medical advocacy, music education, government funding, and overcoming the fears that often keep families from taking the leap into homeschooling.

This episode is a reminder that homeschooling doesn't have to mean choosing between your children and your financial stability. With the right mindset, resources, and support, families can build a lifestyle that allows both education and family life to flourish together.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Homeschool Revolution. I'm Rebecca Stromstorfer, Homeschool Mama 5 for over 20 years, and I've been coaching moms just like you for decades. I've done this messy, done it wrong, and figured it out as I went. This podcast is for the working mom, single mom, stay-at-home mom, and yes, dads too. Any parent who is done with the old way and ready to raise creative, confident kids who actually changed the world. This isn't just homeschooling. This is a revolution. Let's get into it. Welcome to my homeschool village, Rebecca Stromstorfer here. Um, owner of my homeschool village, homeschool mom to five children, and we've been homeschooling for over 24 years now. Hi, Katie. I love helping people with their questions in homeschooling. I love telling you how it really is. I love helping with resources, all things that I can do for you as a homeschool mom after a long time. So come on in, welcome. Take a seat, grab something to drink, and let's chat. So, welcome, come on in. We are discussing financial ways to homeschool. So, whether you're looking for ways to pay for the homeschooling curriculums and ideas and things that you want, or whether you're looking for ways to make money while you homeschool, speak of the double. Here she comes. Speaking of making money from home while homeschooling, here comes Kelly Crawford, and she is think outside the classroom. Hi, Maria. And also, anytime you have questions, please post them right here anytime on any of my socials, and I do get back to you as fast as I can. So let's get started. Kelly should be joining us here any minute, but let's talk about financial help with homeschooling because it comes in many forms. Um Generation Cedar is watching. Okay. Hi. If you are a homeschool parent and you are um looking for information, looking for where to start. So how to make money or how to find money. Sometimes it's not about the job, sometimes it's about finding the right resources. If you are in certain states, for example, if you live in Arizona and you apply to the ESA program, then you can get funding and um they will help pay for a lot of the resources you use to homeschool. So we work with the ESA. You can sign up for ESA if you live in Arizona, and it will pay for the My Homeschool Village membership. So you can do that, um, and then it will pay for that. So we have a lot of ESA members, we have a lot of Arizonians in our My Homeschool Village program, and ESA pays for that program, and that's great. The other program we do work with is BrainTree. They also will pay for the program. Brain Free tends to be a little more lots of boxes to check. So though we work with them, um, I'm not a big fan of having you work with them because it requires so much extra work from mom. Hi, Julia. Um, hi Samantha. Hi, Donna. Welcome to my homeschool building. Hi, Jessica. Rebecca here. So ask me any questions you have as we go along, and I'm gonna start talking about financial options for homeschooling. Now, if you are looking for the curricula or like the programs, let me explain. Okay, first let's talk about the programs that help you pay for homeschooling. What does that mean? What do they look like? Where do you find out if you have one? So, number one, they are called curriculum providers. So, what they do is they basically started a company and they go to the state and say, if you'll give us the funding that was gonna go to the public school systems, we'll use that funding and give it to the homeschoolers and let them use it for their own education. Oh, by the way, we're gonna keep half of it. And yeah, that's what they're doing. So, like, for example, right now in Utah, thank you for asking. We did work with Odyssey and then they changed everything and I need to get back into it. That's on my list. Hi, Yvonne. So we don't today, but we are working on it now. For example, Utah. In Utah, the school gets about $7,000 to $8,000 a year for a high school student in school, and that's the money they get. Now, Odyssey goes in to the government and says, give me that seven to eight thousand dollars a year per high school student, and then I will give it to the people who sign up, but I'm only giving them $2,000, okay, or $4,000. Or it used to be like they passed it on, they don't do that anymore. Now it's like government requirements, and so they hold on to half of that just to do the paperwork. And then you guys go in and you use what they give you, and then you go in and you can spend them. And Odyssey is probably one of the freest ones right now, ish. And you can pay for ballet, karate, curriculums, books, musical instruments on Amazon, things like that. Utah also has Harmony and uh tech. IT tech, no, what's it called? The tech one and another one. Anyway, and so that's what they do. Well, each state has its own sum and they each work differently, and they all have their own rules. Florida has a step-up program. Uh, Braintree covers like four different states. Odyssey now covers multiple states. Um, it's the ESA in Arizona. Each state has their own rules, their own ideas. Companies like me have to apply to every single one, all across all 50 states. And it's really complicated and it's a lot of work and show companies like me, the small. We're small guys. We try to stay small. We like that we're small. We only work with a couple because the others are so much work, it's not worth our time. And we would love to have our moms in there and be able to pay for that. But to be honest, you have to have a full-time staff to run all those. And that's not something we have here because we try to keep our prices low. And if I started working with all those programs, my prices would go way up. And that's not something I want to do right now. So those are curriculum providers. Now, how to find out if you have a curriculum provider in your state? My homeschool village, I have a PDF for you. And you go in, you look at your state, I give you the link and the programs that are going on in your state. If you type in money, is it money? Show me the money, I think. Um, I will send you to your DM what is going on. Like you can go in, it'll be a link, look, click on your state, click on the program, and you can apply. So I do have that for you, the finances on using one of these curriculum providers. Personally, I think they stink, but at the same time, they're necessary at certain parts of our lives. I used them in our early years of homeschooling because we were broke and it was the only way to keep me home and be able to pay for what we had to do. Now that we are not in that financial situation, I got rid of them as fast as I could because you do trade freedoms for their money. You will trade it. Just know that. So if you need it, use it. Get out as fast as you can. Year one, it's like money for all. Year two, they start to crack down. So make sure you're paying attention to those types of things because it you slowly are required more and more and more every year for less and less money. And I've seen it over and over again. So show, oh, you are saying, okay, show me the money. It works. Woo! Okay, show me the money, and I will send you that to your inbox. Can you hear me, Rebecca? Yay, okay, Kelly, you're here, you're in, we can hear you. So, Kelly, I don't know if you saw the comment. We're talking about how to get money to homeschool today. So this is you are the inspiration, to be honest. So that's number one, how to get the funding, right? Um, Caitlin says, I'm just trying to get set up with a Chromebook and the general basics of everything before I signed up for the program. Or am I doing it wrong? Um, you there's no such thing as wrong. But if you're signing up for my homeschool village, um, once you're in, that you can set up an appointment with me or one of our other um mentor moms, and she'll help you set up. So don't do it the hard way. Just go in if you sign up for my homeschool village, and then I'll send you to Tony, or Tony will reach out to you and she'll sit down with you on a live and she'll be like, here's how you do it, where are your kids at? What do you need? And she'll help you customize it. Okay. And that's included. So how many members are there now, Rebecca? Uh, we have about uh just under 200 members, so it ends up to be about three kids average per family. So we're at over 300 children. Um, the classes though, here's what's interesting. We have over 300 kids, but the classes are still extremely small. I'm surprised at how many people actually take advantage of our classes that are included.

SPEAKER_02 8:06

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:07

But so we keep our classes small, and as they like if if they grow, then we just divide them by more ages and create more classes so that the classes stay small. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:17

What would you say is the number one resource from your community that people join for the most? Is it for just camaraderie with other moms? Is it getting access to you to ask questions? Like, what's what have people told you is their like why they joined?

SPEAKER_00 8:37

Oh, I love that you asked that because sometimes I'm like, which is it? And what I'm finding is I have three kinds of moms. I have the mom who comes in and says, I just need sisterhood and a place to dump and a place to get help and inspiration. And those women are always in the lives and they're always showing up to our different programs and our different hangouts. And and there's kind of a group of those moms. And then I have the moms who are like, I just love that your resources are in one place and I'm not searching all over the internet anymore. Just give me resources, but I don't need friends, and they just use the resources and we almost never hear from them, but they're in there. And then we've got another group of moms who are like, Look, I got my curriculum, I don't want it. I don't need friends, I just need my kids busy in the afternoon, and they're the ones that have their kids in the classes. Um, some there's very few who use all three, but I have found that all the moms like gravitate to one of the three sections. That makes sense, yeah. So, yeah, that's been interesting. Caitlin says, I talked to her. Oh, you talked to Tony. Okay, she's so nice, but I talked her ear off, and I love you guys, and you're the inspiration that made me do what I'm doing. Now they've been out for four months now. Yay! So you've already talked to Tony. Tony is the funnest woman. She has four children. Her oldest is like 25, and then she's four that we're way younger that she's been homeschooling for a long time. And she is the most down-to-earth, teaches you how to relax woman. She is my right-hand woman inside my homeschool village. I adore her, and she has helped so many moms. So oh, and Kayla says, and my personal opinion is she has a way to explain it to the moms that is so selective and understanding. Like, I need to take a picture of this for her. Is she has a way of explaining to understand? Like, she's been in our shoes, and that's what drove me to the one thing to homeschool then. Yeah, she has been in your shoes, and she's a single mom. And so she knows exactly how to take this on herself. So, and an ex-marine. So she's like, anyway, funnest woman ever. Hi, Julia. So, okay, I'm gonna turn this over to Kelly now because Kelly, now let's talk about how to work from home. Because there are a lot of ways to earn income while you're homeschooling, and I think too many women think that we have to do 40 hours a week. Maybe I have to be somebody's secretary online. Okay, number one, I have to leave home. Number two, I have to do it while my kids are up and I need to homeschool, or I have to do it online, but it's gonna be full-time work. So, why don't you explain to them what homeschooling while working from home can look like?

SPEAKER_02 11:14

Yeah, so there are lots of ways. I have done a number of things over the years. Some have been more time and labor intensive than others, which is why I now encourage women to do the kind of work, I don't want to say work, have the kind of business that is more automated than something that requires you to work all the time. And so, of all the things I've tried, I've had an Etsy shop that was labor intensive. I've you know made products, and anytime you get into that kind of business, you're spending a lot of time working. So, my favorite way to help moms now is just promoting other people's products. You may not know this, but I think it's set up already in the classroom, right? I created a course that helps you share my homeschool village. You're already using it, you already love it. That was a great comment that he just left about Tony. That kind of comment is what you can tell other people that helps them understand how my homeschool village can help them. You have an affiliate link. If you belong to my homeschool village, you have an affiliate link, which means that anytime you tell your friends or Facebook or anywhere about my homeschool village, and they join, they hop over there and they join, you get 40% of their membership. Again, you're already using it, you're already loving it, all you're doing is just telling social media, telling your friends about it. And the course that I created over in the classroom there shows you exactly, shows you where to get your affiliate link. It shows you how to use Rebecca's videos so that you don't even have to create your own videos. And this is huge. You could do this a 10, 15, 20 minutes a day, would you say? Oh, it's nice to hop over to this Facebook, her Facebook page, uh, find a video about my homeschool village, you share it to your page, grab, copy your affiliate link, add it to the video, and just say, come check us out. And when they click your link, if they choose to join, you get a commission, and you can stack those. You can get, you know, there's about 40% commission on a membership there could be substantial. That's just one way, and that's an example of sharing affiliate links to other people's products. Um, I've done this for years, and you know, a lot of affiliates they only give you a tiny, tiny, tiny percent. So 40% is huge. Amazon gives you like two or three percent if you share their products. So it's worth your time to do it on something with a larger. That's one thing. Um, I also sell other people's digital products. I had found this business model about a year and a half ago. Um, I knew digital products are huge. We all love and consume digital products, and so I ran across a business where I can just literally plug and play and sell other people's digital products. They gave me a website, they gave me a sales funnel sales system. So again, I'm a busy mom. I've still got five at home. My system is running for me on autopilot, the sales system that they created. I did not have to create anything. I love these business models for busy moms. We're too busy to go, but if you go out here and try to build something like that, ask me and Rebecca. We've done it, we know. It's so much work. Like the headache, the tech. It's so much work, so much learning and lots of moving parts. Take it from us. Promote products that are already out there, working, and it's just easy, it's plug and play, so simple.

SPEAKER_00 15:05

Yeah, I agree. Yeah, Kelly and I both, because we both got into the world of okay, I'm a homeschool mom, I gotta figure this out. And we started learning how to how can I do my own Etsy shop? Guess what? That is a really quick way to like go crazy. I actually had a sister. My sister did so well on Etsy, she was making $100,000 a year on Etsy. Wow. She also sold her freedom. She was working, she did labels and stickers, and she worked around the clock printing and sending and constantly, constantly to the point where she burned out and she was like, I would rather just go get a job than keep working this. And even though she did have a successful shop, she sold her freedom for it. And so she went back to school now and is doing something else, not a homeschool mom. And she kept saying, I couldn't do this if I was homeschooling. It's a good thing my kids go to school. And I was like, You've got the gifts. Why don't you share other people's products? Oh, that's too much work. It's too much tech. I couldn't possibly. And in the meantime, I'm like, oh, I learned affiliate, which means I sell yours and I get a chunk, right? Everybody's got their Amazon cards. And I'm like, you guys are doing Amazon. It's like one, two, five percent tops on a product. And so my homeschool village, I sat down with the other moms. I'm like, how can we make this so more moms can stay home? I'm so sad watching women getting divorced or husbands cheating, and women like all of us that we were homeschooling, now we're just destitute. How do I keep my kids home? And so we made them my homeschool village 40% on purpose because I wanted moms to be able to stay home with their kids and we're gonna, it's more like a profit share, really. So you brought them in, you might as well share the profit on it, and you get that. So 40% of $200 a month is $80, guys. And if you bring them, you get that every month, they stay. So if you bring in one person a month, there's 80 month one, another family on month two. Now there's 160 that you get on month two. And if you bring in a third, you still are getting paid for the other people, and so that really can stack up and you're not limited to how much you can sell, and you're not knocking doors, you're not making phone calls, you're literally just posting on social, like you already do.

SPEAKER_02 17:10

You're already doing it anyway. And the name of that course inside my homeschool village, by the way, is Pajama Payday. So if you think that sounds like a good thing that something that would be fun that you would like to do, but you're just not sure how to do it. Some people are like, I don't even know where to find my affiliate link. Or um, you know, I've laid it out all of that in the course for you. So it's just like you could start today. You could start today earning 40% affiliate.

SPEAKER_00 17:40

And it's like real quick online, you literally just wake up in the morning, do a post with your link, loving it because, and you're done for the day. Yeah. Yeah. It's easier than people think it is, and you're not even having to do videos like Kelly and I are doing.

SPEAKER_02 17:55

Right. Uh yeah, it's a no-brainer. I don't know why you're not doing it.

SPEAKER_00 17:59

And Caitlin's talking about, yes, Caitlin said, I had a feeling because of what you said that I have been on, she's been on TikTok and Facebook trying to advocate for her children. Agreed.

SPEAKER_02 18:09

Advocate for your children. Yeah, girls, there are so many, uh, like I said, just don't try to reinvent the wheel because it's already out there. Share products, share resources, share companies. Um, like I said, when I found the business that I found, which is I sell digital marketing programs, it doubled our income. And you know, the one thing that I refused to do before, all those years that I was trying, I didn't want to invest any money because I felt like I never had extra. But that one decision completely changed everything. Completely. Once I invested, um, because I got coaching, I got products that were proven that people were looking for. I got all that I needed for the first time. I didn't have to figure it out. And once I made that investment, it completely changed our financial picture. So, you know, I hear from moms all the time, I'm just so scared to spend money because what if I don't make it back? You're not gonna change your situation being fearful. That's the first thing I would say. So, um, yeah, absolutely. Just so many ways that moms, when I started homeschooling 24 years ago, we did not have these options. There were so few ways to earn extra money. You know, you could sell stuff farming for Craigslist. That was about it. eBay. And now we have all these options, so take advantage of them.

SPEAKER_00 19:38

And if you're getting sold on the TikTok live stuff, let me tell you something about that. Hi, Bethany, Janice, Julia, Caitlin are all joining us. Um, I've done some digging. So one of our homeschool moms decided she wanted to start doing like the Facebook Live things and trying to make an income on this whole world over there. No, Caitlin, you're never being too much. Keep going. And um, whether it was the selling, if you do a selling on TikTok, you get one or two dollars per product and you have to just keep going. Like you've never stopped TikTok shop. Uh-huh. Well, there's TikTok shop, and then there's something, some holy world about lives and following people and groups and whatever. Yeah. That woman was spending hours on lives trying to make that build. And I watched her and her children struggle and suffer because of the work. It's anyway, a couple of posts a day, whether you're using Kelly's program or mine, can make a large amount of income. And anytime fear steps in, I have this, I've learned this the hard way. Anytime I want to do something or I want to see a new result in my life and fear sets in, I used to act on the fear and be like, oh no, I'm afraid of it. I need to not. I've learned to go, oh, Satan doesn't want me to do it because fear stepped in. I must really need to. And I've started changing it into more of a testimony that that's where I need to be if I'm afraid of it. I obviously need to be doing that. Unless it's like immoral, right? And I don't get fear if it's immoral. I get a no, right? It's not a fear-based, it's like, I just know better. Hi Maria Maricela, welcome. So um, let me do a quick another for we've got some new followers in here. Um, this is Kelly, Kelly and Rebecca. Uh, we're both homeschool moms, have been for 24 years or more. And homeschooling, I have five, she has 11, and we both make money online while we homeschool. And so we also share how to do that for moms who are looking to do that. Kelly has multiple ways of doing that. So make sure you're clicking her, following her link, make sure you're following Kelly and getting on her email list. Guys, getting on our email list is perfect. We both do giveaways, we get both give all kinds of great information. Make sure you're on our email lists as well.

SPEAKER_02 21:44

And I meant to say so, earlier I was trying to join with my Facebook page, which is Think Outside the Classroom. This is my personal Facebook. I've got links on both pages. But if you want to see my homeschooling page, go to Think Outside the Classroom. I'm here and I'm on TikTok. And YouTube.

SPEAKER_00 22:01

And sometimes Instagram. Yeah. Caitlin says, I'm so excited. I'm so grateful you told me that I needed to get in back because it did come in handy, but I'm even more. I'm also part of the UGC. Oh, the TikTok. Okay. And I have over 2,700 followers on TikTok. Good job. But to sit here and watch my kids blossom and grow in their own humans is just a blessing and it in its own. Oh, that's beautiful. Hi Kaila. Um, I'm glad to hear that. I'm glad it's working for you. I'm glad that that it's all that makes me happy. I love to hear a mom discover the freedom of being mother.

SPEAKER_02 22:37

Yeah.

unknown 22:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:38

I guess. Because the world tells us it's too hard.

SPEAKER_02 22:42

I've gotten a number of those this week. Just comments like my kids are thriving. They were anxious at school. They were not doing well. They were all these things. And I just brought them home. And now we're all happy. And I'm like, that's the best.

SPEAKER_00 22:55

Don't you just go, one more family? Like, yep. One family at a time. We are changing motherhood, education, families. One family at a time. Absolutely. Yeah. And it's beautiful. It is fun. It is very fulfilling to be able to do that. So if you guys aren't doing that, once you find the freedom, spread it forward. We need to help more women and families find the joy. Yep. Go ahead and ask your questions, guys, as you're coming in here. Um, we answer all the questions: the homeschool questions, the family questions, the motherhood questions, the money questions. It's one big mess. You cannot separate, right? Like, I think the hardest part when you first start homeschooling is you're still separating things. There's the homeschool world and the home world and the family world, and how do you do it all? And it's not until somebody goes, Oh, wait, cooking and doing the grocery shopping is part of the homeschool world. You don't plan separately.

SPEAKER_02 24:00

It's all connected. That's where I got my name for my book and course, Think Outside the Classroom. We have to think outside of it's just we have to de-school, de school the brain. It's like I think that's the most important place to start for a new homeschool mom. Yeah. So, and by the way, I have a free course that helps you deschool. If anybody's hearing that and thinking, wait a minute, I don't know what that means. Or um, I was a former teacher before I came home to homeschool, so I had a lot of de-schooling to do. And it just changes the way that you homeschool so much and will bring you so much freedom. Um, again, you can find that in either of my profile, the link of my profile is the three R's of stress-free homeschooling.

SPEAKER_00 24:46

Which I love that. I love the three R's idea.

SPEAKER_02 24:49

It's totally free. It's about an hour long, pretty life-changing.

SPEAKER_00 24:53

Yeah. When Kelly and I met and we sat down together, we were like talking through, it's like it's interesting how most homeschoolers after 20 years all fall into the same rhythms, all come up with the same ideas because children are who they are. And it's like as families and stuff, you just start to. We both copy work for our writing, which we both fell into separately. We have all these same philosophies because after multiple kids, you start to see what works and what doesn't. And so following someone who's been homeschooling for a long time, you need to be doing. Um, following someone who's been homeschooling for less than five years, take it with a grain of salt. They don't necessarily know what the results are, and so you got to make sure you're following somebody who has proven results.

SPEAKER_02 25:34

Absolutely. And another little fun tidbit, if I can mention it, um, I have been asked so many questions about copy work. That's the number one thing I get probably asked about more, which is so funny because I'm like, you just copy, but how you just copy, but what doesn't really matter. But I got all these questions and I took all those questions and I created a course and I'm hoping to finish it today. I've got it all laid out, just gotta do the videos for the rest of it. It will have an affiliate link, by the way, for anybody who wants to share it. That's another way you can make money. But it's just a step-by-step called Simply Copy Work, um, how to teach English without a curriculum, and I'm excited about that.

SPEAKER_00 26:15

Oh, I'm excited to see that. Good for you because I answer more questions about that myself. And I'm like, guys, they have so overcomplicated grammar spelling because it's been uh commercialized. Yep. Because they wanted to be able to sell you a textbook. That's the only reason it's so complicated, and so language is so much simpler. And I think that's the biggest hole we fall into as homeschoolers thinking, overcomplicating everything. Yeah, and everything is a thousand times simpler than we think, and it just takes us so long to learn that, especially grammar, writing, language arts. It doesn't even need a topic. Read and write, right? Like the fact that there's in a language art curriculum to me is ridiculous. You don't need one. Read a book, write about it. You're done.

SPEAKER_02 27:03

It is funny, and I have, you know, the one of the questions, like, well, how do you teach all the parts of speech and grammar? You're never tested on that. Even if you have children that are college bound or whatever, you are tested on language usage. You remember the standardized test? You read a passage and then you have to say whether this sentence fits or not, or whether it's for whatever that's I don't remember, and correct me if I'm wrong, I don't remember ever being asked to define the parts of speech on a standardized like entrance exam test or anything. And most adults can't recall this. Like, I ask parents all the time give me the definition of an intransitive verb if it's so important. You tell me what, and they can't, and yet they use it all the time and they use it correctly. Like, I'm a real question the status quo about a lot of things, and that's one of them that we just haven't questioned enough, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_00 28:03

Oh, it's like before you can drive a car, you better know what all the parts mean. I have a daughter who's a mechanic, she can tell me what all the parts mean. It does not make her a better driver than me. Right. And so we tell people that to speak a language, you need to know what all the parts mean, how the parts go together, exactly how to put together uh the transitions and the you know, the transmissions. See, I can't even say it right, and how everything works together before you can drive a car. No, and it's language is the same thing. You speak it, you learn it, you hear it. You know when something's off with your car because the sound is different. It's the same thing in language. You use it, you learn it by using it, and you get better at it by using it.

SPEAKER_02 28:43

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 28:44

Yeah. Caitlin had a comment here. I wanted to see what that um, or that you can't do it because you have a disability. And oh, um, so Caitlin has a disability, and she was told that she couldn't homeschool because she had a disability, and then she found us, and we were like, uh, no. Um, and she said, Nobody's gonna take you seriously, but I found my voice and I'm speaking up for myself. I just can't wait whenever I hit that subscribe button and start classes for them. Um, and you, Miss Rebecca, has helped me convince my husband to let me homeschool his kids. So how good. I'm glad. Did you have any of that? Did you have issues with was your husband totally on board when you started?

SPEAKER_02 29:20

No, you know, when we first started thinking about it, somebody handed us back then, it was cassette tapes. I got a whole stack of cassette tapes by Greg Harris. Do you ever hear of him?

SPEAKER_00 29:31

I've heard of him, but I never used him.

SPEAKER_02 29:33

Um, and so we listened to him together and we kind of got excited about it together. So that was never really an issue.

SPEAKER_00 29:39

Yeah. And my husband was from South America. So, oh, Renee says music is the same. Look into music, learning theory. Amen, Renee. Amen to that. Um, I think most things are that way. It's just if we just embrace it. But yeah, my husband's from South America, and so he moved up when he was in his 20s to go to college, and he started college not even speaking English. And so he started all his classes straight English engineering levels. But he was like, wait a minute, I finally moved to the States, I marry an American girl, and you're telling me you don't want to put your kids into the schools that are 10 times better than where I came from? And I'm like, Nope, because they're not good. And he's like, What do you mean they're not good? You know how hard I fought to be here.

SPEAKER_02 30:21

And I was like, He had a different perspective for sure.

SPEAKER_00 30:24

He did, of course he did. And so the first couple years, he's like, I don't know, I don't know. And he would say, Rough day, maybe you should put him in school. Oh, that used to drive me crazy. And finally I was like, say that one more time. But now he's like the biggest advocate. He's like, everyone should homeschool. Yeah, I love that. But he doesn't always agree with my tactics though, like this idea of language arts, he struggles with. He's still waiting for tests, he's still waiting for the old way. And I'm like, I've studied this, I've read this, I've worked at it.

SPEAKER_02 30:57

Yeah, and I think it has a lot to do with the way, yeah. If you are typically more academically bent, and that's where you thrive, you feel like that's how it should be for everybody, but it doesn't have to be that. It like you said, we complicate it.

SPEAKER_00 31:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:14

Some people like to see the checks and boxes.

SPEAKER_00 31:17

And it makes sense, he's an engineer. He wants all the boxes checked. Uh, my pastor's advice is also a lawyer, and she said that she had somebody in homeschooling resources, and I just can't help myself, but I see that I had the Rebecca method, and that we'll cut through this one step at a time because I don't want to have the government funds and everything. Good for you. Julia says, My husband and I have been on the fence with the past year about switching our kids to homeschool. The past month, we have just felt like it's weighing on us more. And while I feel like a weight has been lifted off our shoulders, coming to the realization that this is what our kids and family need, I just feel completely overwhelmed on where to start. Oh, I love that you are so open about this, Julia, because that's why I'm here. So, Kelly, this is what Kelly and I do. We help you start. Um, I have a free course on how to start homeschooling, and then we provide your curriculums, we provide your resources, we provide even live classes for your kids in the afternoons like Minecraft education, clubs, chess club, book club, gaming, and stuff that the kids can do online with other homeschool kids. Don't worry, it's all supervised by a homeschool mom with high moral standards. Um, and Juliet, you've got to answer the call because homeschooling, and I know Kelly agrees with me on this, is a call from on high. Would you agree with me on that, Kelly? Or oh yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:40

Yeah, think of it homeschooling. It we use the word homeschooling, but it's really God has given us these children, they are ours to train, to impart wisdom and values, and we can't do that if we're not with them. And personally, for me to have a system that does not have the same values that I have, that actually is very much opposed to the values I have, to have that system mentoring my children is to me inherently wrong.

SPEAKER_00 33:16

For me, yes.

SPEAKER_02 33:18

Um, so I think we're called to train them up in the way they should go, and that involves protecting them from methodologies, ideologies that do not align with what we believe in.

SPEAKER_00 33:30

I agree 100%. And I have found that if you're feeling the call and not acting on it, Satan's against you. Homeschooling your children, keeping them home, building your family, and making them their true center of your life is the best thing you can do. So even just this last weekend, we were with our daughter in South Carolina who's now got two littles, and how she's also homeschooling and starting to work with her kids. And her husband came to me, just so cute and grateful because he was private schooled in elite private schools. And he's watching my daughter work with her kids, and he goes, Wow. And he's like, I had no idea that this could be done. I didn't know my children could be this smart. I didn't know. So, and I can tell it's because she just worked with them. She loves them, they're safe. And doing what it takes to be a homeschool parent is the best thing you can do for your child all around. And so Satan hates you for that. He's gonna work on you, he's gonna give you fear, he's gonna do everything he can against you. And so that's why Kelly and I come on here because we also feel it's not just a call to raise our own children this way, but to help others do so as well. Because we've seen the results in our own children. We know the other side and how grateful we are that we paid that price. And it is a price, you will have to pay a price, and it's not always easy, but that call gets you through the hard days. Yeah. I was looking at other comments here. Okay. You have to add the name Edwin Gordon to your search. Thank you. What does that mean? Hi Renee. I'm not sure what that means. Do you know what that means?

SPEAKER_02 35:01

Maybe she's saying he's another somebody we need to be looking at. Let me look him up real quick.

SPEAKER_00 35:08

Caitlin says homeschool is a way to bond with your children. You know what's best for your children, so why not do what is best, feel is best, and have control of this. You have the opportunity to see your children grow into a good human being and kind people, and you're gonna love this journey. And if you burn out, there's always somebody that you can come to. Yes, I agree. And you're not alone. There's millions of us now, and we are gathering.

SPEAKER_02 35:30

He has a music theory, um, at Edwin Gordon.

SPEAKER_00 35:34

Oh, for music theory.

SPEAKER_02 35:37

A research and psychology. Yeah, I can't read it because I can't see the whole thing, but there's some particular type of music theory.

SPEAKER_00 35:45

So Oh, think you're an A. I love new resources. I'll have to look into that. I'm always sending my kids to classes because I have music appreciation. And I have no gift. So my kids though love music, so I'm always sending them. But I have struggled because I've watched music become mature through a lot of teachers, and it's killed my kids' love of it, depending on who taught. And I'm still struggling with finding a way for them to get the music without the textbook. Yeah. I love yeah. I figured out everywhere else, just not music.

SPEAKER_02 36:22

Yeah, that's tough. Um, I play by ear, I played piano by ear, so I struggle with all of that because it just I took music lessons for six years, but it's not all the tedious stuff wasn't fun for me if I could just play it without having to do that.

SPEAKER_00 36:38

Well, and so my daughter, we were playing with AI. We're really going into AI. And my homeschool village creating, by the way, menthol. We're launching a course on AI for our teens, how to use AI appropriately and different ways you can use it to increase your creativity. And so we're practicing on some things, and my 16-year-old, who just loves music and she dreams of creating her own songs, got on Suno and has started making her own songs. And these songs are so her. They're her spunk, her attitude, they're so much her type of music. And she's learned to use this AI to create her own playlist that my husband and I have downloaded for our workouts because we love them so much. Wow. And she's having so much fun, and she didn't have to go through how to write a note and had all the music. She just got on and was like, what can I come up with? I want a song I like.

unknown 37:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:30

And she's just taken off. I had no idea.

SPEAKER_02 37:33

That's great. That's awesome. I needed to look up that site. Suno, S-U-N-O.

SPEAKER_00 37:39

Suno, yeah. And then there's even another website where if you put your music in, it will create a video for you, like a music video, which we haven't played with yet. Um, because she's not interested. So we'll see. But now she's working on AI to take those songs, remove the voice, and sing them herself. Oh, fun. She's working on that, so we'll see how it goes. Yeah. I wasn't for the longest time. We thought public, but over time we saw how public was going to the dump. We changed, and we are now almost one year done at home, and I love it. I agree with what you have said. Oh, thank you. Hi, Patty. So, yeah. John Schmidt Piano Guys has a piano for dummies. It is my sister's favorite way to teach her students. Oh, I'm gonna look into that because I love John Schmidt. We used to go to his concerts all the time when we lived in Utah. Um, yeah, I'm gonna look that up. Maybe my daughter wants to learn piano and she's not loving her piano teacher.

SPEAKER_02 38:36

Yeah, that's a good resource.

SPEAKER_00 38:39

John Schmidt, piano guy. I'm gonna tell you that one. Have you found music lessons? So have you found that some teachers that you would hire, right? Like we hire some things out music lessons, sports, whatever. Have you found that a teacher will make or break a topic for your kid?

SPEAKER_02 38:56

Yeah, it can make a big difference. Um, we've been fortunate in the years that our kids were taking piano. We had some really good teachers. Um, but yeah, it absolutely can be, especially if they don't have a passion and a love for it. And like you said, it becomes more of a chore. And then some kids are not gonna, you know, some are gonna get in there and do the work that they need to do, and some just are not driven. So we've been really careful to not try to gauge their interest at whatever point they're like, I this is just not my thing. I don't just keep forcing them to do it. Yeah, and I think it's I think it's good to have a foundation in music theory and music lessons, but I don't think it's for every kid. Again, they're all different.

SPEAKER_00 39:42

I used to hear a lot of moms say, um, I require piano of my children. Or I require piano before another instrument. Or um, what are your thoughts on that?

SPEAKER_02 39:54

I don't know. I would have to think through, I mean, hmm. I'm sure there's a lot of research about the benefit of studying music theory from a from maybe I think about the piano as being the bass line, the foundational, because you learn piano notes, then you can pretty much read other notes. Maybe that's what she's talking about. Yeah, I mean, I think it's a great thing to do. I just don't know how I feel about the whole I require it for every child.

SPEAKER_00 40:24

I don't, I'm not there yet, so yeah, I I've always been anti because my mom was that way, and so I made me hate the piano. Oh, I hated the piano. But what I always wanted to play the drum, like I just want to play a drum. And my mom would say, Not until you've learned the piano and it wasn't worth it to me. I was like, why would I learn? And so I've always been like, All right, if you pick an instrument, you pick an instrument, but I don't care what it is.

SPEAKER_02 40:50

Yeah, yeah, I have four take piano, and of the four, at least three that remember did really well. And um, then one switched to voice lessons because that was her gift. Um, so it's been a good experience for sure for us. I wish they'd stayed with it.

SPEAKER_00 41:07

Yeah, there's several. I have one daughter who's stuck with the piano, and yeah, that's all. But my college, my daughter, my second child, decided in college to teach herself piano, got herself an app, borrowed a piano in the quad or whatever, and taught herself piano. I was like, okay, that can be done. So, quick question says, Caitlin, is there any way that I can still take them out of their wellness checks and get their immunizations and stuff? So um, you haven't been to the doctor, you're afraid what they'll say. I don't have a pediatrician that we report to on a yearly basis. My kids are immunized-ish. Okay, a couple things on this, and I want to hear your opinion on this too, Kelly, because I do feel like they're shoving too much down our kids' throats. I do believe in some immunizations. I think, yeah, they're important. I don't think everything they're giving us is necessary. I personally pray before I go to the doctor and ask for guidance on what is good and what is not good. And I have at times walked either asked them not to give certain shots, or and then they'll try to convince me. And I'm like, the answer is no, you can do these. Um, there have been others where I would change a doctor and I would just say, if you're gonna pressure me, I'll find another doctor, and then be like, um, but I think the most important thing to remember when you're going to a doctor is that they work for you. You never have to put anything in your body while you are in the United States of America or your child's body without your permission, period. So you walk in going, you have to have the mindset I'm paying you. Even if it's going through your insurance, it's still you doing the paying, and they work for you. And if they're going to be pushy, they are not the right doctor, find a new one.

SPEAKER_02 42:54

I agree. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 42:56

Have you ever had a bad doctor?

SPEAKER_02 42:58

Pardon?

SPEAKER_00 42:59

Have you had this experience?

SPEAKER_02 43:01

Oh, yeah. I have fired a pediatrician, meaning I left. Um, we don't even have a pediatrician now, uh, actually. Of course, my kids are older. Um, and I've got two girls just about to have babies. In fact, I've got one that wrote me and she's like, not getting my hopes up, but so I've told them this because I think back to when you go into the hospital, especially as a new mom, I am floored at the things that they just will do as protocol without even asking you. And as an example, one of my daughters she said she had tested for strep B. It's a very common thing to be tested for. I tested for it a number of times during pregnancies. When I would go in, I didn't know to question it. They would start putting an ID in and giving me um antibiotics. They didn't ask me, they said you tested strep B positive, so this is what we're doing. And I just kind of, okay, whatever. Well, my daughter has been. Researching it turns out it's like a one percent chance of anything negative happening in the first place, and even of whatever it is, I don't even remember what it can the dangers that it can cause. It's not even a that big of a deal. So I'm just I'm encouraging them, like, yeah, question. You don't have to do anything, you don't have to have them, it's not protocol if you don't want it. So, yeah, but that's the way we're treated in the in the medical.

SPEAKER_00 44:28

You're not allowed to think just do what I tell you and don't ask questions. And they treat you like you're an idiot if you ask questions, like you're the uneducated one because you asked.

SPEAKER_02 44:36

Right.

SPEAKER_00 44:37

Um, but the truth is, and it's not easy, it's not easy to stand up to a doctor when they're pushing and pressuring you telling all the reasons you're a bad mother if you don't do something. I mean, I have walked out of a doctor's office in tears before because I was so upset knowing that what they were telling me was wrong, and I just had to leave. And I found other doctors that were like, What do you think is the mother? You're not comfortable with that? That's okay. And those doctors I stuck with as long as I could, as long as we live there. And I had others who, if you feel the pressure, if you get an ick feeling when you walk into a doctor's office, turn around, walk out, find another doctor. Like follow the ick, guys, or reject the ick. But um, I had one doctor that's just every time I went and saw him, it took me a while to trust that ick. Something was off, something was off. And I finally got up the courage to find another doctor. And sure enough, I was actually pushing because I had a feeling one of my children was sick and had a problem, a kidney problem. I could feel it. There was something off. And this doctor treated me like I was an overreactive mother, and I needed to chill. And so I finally, after being felt like an idiot over and over again with him, I found a different doctor, went in, he goes, Let's go with your gut and let's just do some tests. Sure enough, my baby had a kidney reflux, and had we left it, she'd have died. And that doctor refused to look because I was a panic mom. Wow. So you do have to follow, like, if there's anything else I teach, it's like follow your mother instinct. God talks to moms like direct line, like there is no confusion. So listen. Yeah, wow. Yeah, why would you submit his ADHD paperwork as a homeschool mom? There's no reason to. Just definitely need to know you have it, period. She's saying she doesn't want to submit ADHD paperwork. The school filled out ADHD paperwork for her son, and she doesn't want to turn it into the doctor because she doesn't want to medicate it, she wants to just work with it. Go ahead, do it.

SPEAKER_02 46:38

I had an internal rant about this yesterday. I don't even know why. Somebody was talking about their son and the struggle with ADD. What if ADHD is not a problem, but a personality? And it just means they weren't wired to sit still for hours at a time, and they weren't wired to pay attention to things that don't interest them. What if ADHD is a good thing? I think I call it a superpower personally. What if it's a superpower? What if it just means your kid doesn't need to be in a classroom? I think I'm not a doctor, and I'm not saying I'm fully on board with there are real diagnoses for real emotional and mental instabilities, and sometimes people need medicated. I'm not saying I don't agree with that on what I am saying. I truly believe that probably the majority of kids diagnosed, it's not that they have anything wrong with them, it's just that they don't conform to this one thing, and so in order to fix it, we have to medicate them. And I think a real problem with that.

SPEAKER_00 47:52

Yeah. I am with you, and a lot of times dyslexia goes with ADHD. Make sure you read the dyslexic advantage, it's on Amazon. Perfect. If you have a dyslexic child, that will actually make you wish you have dyslexia, even if you don't, because it shows you what a superpower is. It's actually just a symptom of the superpower that comes with it. So make sure you read the dyslexic advantage. And if your child has ADHD, make sure you read Sir Kenneth Robinson or watch his TED Talks. Have you seen those? Yes. Oh, I watched one of his TED Talks, and after that, I got all of his books and just like absorbed.

SPEAKER_02 48:26

TED Talks Skulls kill creativity.

SPEAKER_00 48:28

Yes, TED Talks, Sir Kenneth Robinson. Oh they're so good. So, so good. And he's passed away since, but man, I love his stuff. As a matter of fact, I maybe I should go back over all his TED Talks because they are my favorite.

SPEAKER_02 48:42

He's so good.

SPEAKER_00 48:44

Yeah. I need to put that in my list of references for people.

SPEAKER_02 48:48

We need to stop thinking about this as a negative thing. I mean, it's almost like saying, Let me think of an example, but um, I don't know, something that we think about as being really beneficial. It's almost like calling that a disorder or a disadvantage when it's not. To me, it's just proofs that the classroom is not a good way to educate kids because there are a lot of kids. If you've got to be medicated to sit in the classroom, let's ask the question maybe the classroom is the problem, not the kid.

SPEAKER_00 49:20

And I love Sir Kenneth Robinson says that he says, Children don't suffer from ADHD, they suffer from childhood. Like kids are supposed to move. And you shouldn't be expecting. And I think it's funny for us to expect as adults, I could not sit in a classroom right now. Make me sit. I can't do two hours of church without having something in my hands that I can like, my husband laughs because I'm bouncing. And it used to bug him, and now he just gets it. He gets if I can get my hands moving, my mind can rest. Uh-huh. Um, but we just suffer from being alive because we're there's so much to do and see. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 49:58

And it's so sad that energy is being medicated out. Think about what we're taking away from these kids, what their potential could be. Anyway, it's just wow.

SPEAKER_00 50:12

I know it makes me mad. It's like, how dare you tell that child something's wrong with them? And then the child who uses it as an excuse to not accomplish. Yeah. But instead, yeah, it's such a superpower. I know Kelly's got it, I've got it. Entrepreneurs have it. Like, we all do. Yeah, you should go if you wonder, go to an entrepreneur like um conference. Those are hilarious because they always have a room attached to like their speakers, right? Now this big area where everybody can sit, but they always have a room for people to move and listen, and you can and the walls, and you can just see people pacing because that's the only way they listen and moving and jumping, you know, and it's like you have to create the space for the entrepreneur ADHD brain to be able to understand what's happening. I gotta move. Yeah, I'm sitting still, it's not working. So that's where you find out the ADHD people, that's where they're congregating, are the entrepreneur conferences. That's funny. Hi, Julia, hi Angie. Caitlin, I love that you call it the Rebecca method. Thank you. But it's not, it's really just the I've been doing this for a long time method. Callie's using the same method because she's been doing this for a long time. It's the you'll get there eventually method. We all do. It's great. I'm just trying to help you get there faster.

SPEAKER_02 51:38

You can chill out about so much.

SPEAKER_00 51:42

Yeah. It's true. We taught the seven and eight-year-olds in our ward, and one kid did connect the dots during to help him focus when we asked him what we talked about or a question he could tell us everything. That is adorable. And that's exactly how it is. Connect the dots. I used to do that too when I would teach Sunday school. All right, who needs to walk around for a minute? Okay, guys, walk back and forth. Let's talk about this. And it's surprising how much better their brains do us. Sometimes I'm like, Can we have more treadmills at church? Probably wouldn't go over very well, but that's fine. It would be helpful. Anyway, it is time for us to go. You guys, thank you so much for being here. Any last-minute questions before Kelly and I sign off? Make sure you're following Think Outside the Classroom, Kelly Crawford. She is your expert on how to make money in homeschooling. And then make sure you're following my homeschool village, and we are here to help you homeschool and give you the system and the process to do so. So thanks guys for being here and Kelly. Bye. See ya. That's the wrap for today. I hope you're leaving with something real, something you can actually use. This is a long game. You don't have to get it all right today. Just show up tomorrow. That's enough. If this episode helped you, share it with another mom who needs it. And if you're ready for a village to do this with, find us in the show notes. Until next time, keep going. The revolution starts at home.