The Bonfire Principle That Changed How I Homeschool

In this episode of HOMESCHOOL REVOLUTION, I share one of the most personal and powerful stories from my homeschooling journey. More than 25 years ago, while wrestling with the decision to homeschool my children, I received a lesson that completely changed the way I viewed parenting, education, and my purpose as a mother. It became the foundation for everything I've built since, including My Homeschool Village and our newest project, Bonfire Academy.

I explain the difference between raising candles and raising bonfires, and why protecting, nurturing, and strengthening our children during their formative years can help them become powerful lights in the world later on. Homeschooling was never just about academics for me. It became a mission to help my children discover their gifts, develop confidence, build character, and prepare to make a meaningful impact wherever life takes them.

In this episode, I also discuss:

• The story behind the creation of Bonfire Academy
• Why homeschooling is about building strong, capable young adults
• Helping teens discover their God-given gifts and purpose
• Why character development matters more than curriculum
• Mentorship and its role in the teen years
• Entrepreneurship, financial literacy, and real-world skills for teenagers
• Creating freedom-focused education pathways
• Helping teens prepare for college, trades, business ownership, and life
• Following a child's interests to ignite a love of learning
• Why motivation grows when children pursue their passions
• Raising independent thinkers and problem-solvers
• The importance of protecting childhood while preparing for adulthood
• Creating a family culture centered on growth, purpose, and contribution

I also answer questions from homeschool parents about teen motivation, entrepreneurship, online learning, curriculum flexibility, homeschool communities, business-building, and helping children discover who they are and what they love.

This episode is a reminder that homeschooling is not simply about teaching subjects. It's about building people. When we focus on helping our children become strong, confident, purpose-driven individuals, we aren't just raising children. We're raising bonfires that can light the world around them.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Homeschool Revolution. I'm Rebecca Stromsdorfer, homeschool mom of five 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 change the world. This isn't just homeschooling. This is a revolution. Let's get into it. My youngest two children are gone for the week. They just went to a uh especially for youth camp for the week through our church. I've only got one very high maintenance. Just kidding. My 19-year-old's home with me today. But he's heading out to you see his eyes peek out. He's gonna go work out and then we're gonna work on his business later this afternoon. But aren't we?

SPEAKER_01 1:03

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:03

Okay. And then, but yeah, it's like all week. I've got time to get stuff done. So I'm gonna finish up the high school program this week. I will give you guys a little more info once Trisha and Tony have gone over it themselves and approved because I like that we have talked these things out. But I will tell you, it's actually, though we have some great work, what is happening inside my homeschool village, we're gonna keep as those programs and whatever. We're actually gonna be creating something absolutely separate, like a complete separate section. It's gonna be its own school, it's gonna be its own program, it's gonna be its own thing. And it is going, and I'll tell let me tell you the story. You know what? Let me tell you the story because I know that there's other moms that are gonna be hearing this too. And I want, I want to tell you the story. So this is actually what I'm building here for the high schoolers is actually what I set out to build five years ago when my homeschool village was started. And because my business partner at the time was more about elementary age, we kind of went that way. And I had a lot to learn at the time, and so I followed her lead more. Um, but my true passion and my true talent is with teenagers. They're my favorite. So let me explain. And maybe some of you have heard this story before, but for those of you who haven't, here you go. All right. So when I started homeschooling, I actually hadn't started homeschooling yet, 20 years ago, longer than that, I knew it was time to homeschool. We were living in a very bad area. I didn't want to homeschool, I was fighting it, but I couldn't afford the private schools in the area. The public schools were some of the worst in the country, right outside of DC. And even people at church were coming up to me, like the the teachers and the admins that were working in school would come up to me in church and be like, please don't put your kids here. Please don't. And they were begging me to homeschool. Okay, this is 25 years ago. Well, so I was feeling the pressure to homeschool, which is kind of like what a lot of people don't get, but in this area, that was the pressure. And so I was praying hard because my prayer was not, Lord, should I homeschool? My prayer was please don't make me homeschool. Because I didn't understand. I was overwhelmed, the idea of it. I was looking forward to having my time back, blah, blah, blah. Well, I was praying pretty hard about it and I was pondering a lot, and I kept thinking about the scripture that in the Bible that talks about putting our candle up on a hill, right? You put put your candle on the hill for the world to see. Don't hide your candle under a bushel. And so when I kept thinking, well, if I homeschool my kids, I'm just hiding my candles under a bushel. And I'm keeping them from the world, and maybe they could help and bless other children. And those were my thoughts. And as I'm praying about this, I'm like, Lord, you told me not to hide my candle under a bushel. That's what I'm doing if I homeschool my kids. And this was probably one of the clearest revelations I've ever seen. It was like, God might as well, He didn't need to come down and talk in front of me, but it was such a clear picture in my head. It is one of those moments that you can't deny for the rest of your life that God spoke. I had one of those moments. It changed my life. And he said, if you take your little candles and put them on the hill now, the winds will come, the trials of the world will come and they will snuff out your lights. But if you keep your candles home and you keep them protected and you build them into bonfires, then when it's time to put them on the hill and the winds come and the trials come, their fire will spread and they will light the world. And so I sat there going, You want me to keep them home and build them into bonfires? So that became my ultimate mission as a homeschool parent. My job is to build bonfires. My children, how do I do that? What does that look like? And that's kind of how my homeschool village came about. Building that bonfire meant each log is important. As you're building, and that that gets bigger and bigger, a curriculum is just one of the logs. How you teach religiously is one of those logs. And how you build their bodies and their minds and their souls, they're just logs. Who their teachers are, who they're surrounded by, what they're learning, how they're learning. These are all just logs we're putting into this bonfire and what you keep them from, right? When you're building a fire, you have to keep it protected while it's getting bigger until the winds actually build. And so for 25 years, I've been building bonfires. Well, I now have three complete bonfires. I've got two more. They're not there yet. They're getting there, they're pretty bright, but I've got three. And I knew I'd finally made it when um another adult came to me and said, I love it when your children enter a room because the the room lights up when your children enter. And that's when I knew God had fulfilled my promise. I would build bonfires. It was time for them to leave the home and to go to their own hills. And now they're building and doing and influencing in ways that I had no idea would ever happen. So now I'm building a high school program. Okay, I'm building a high school program. And I was kept up all weekend, you guys. I couldn't sleep. It was like I just kept getting woken up because I'm like, Lord, what does what does this need? What does this high school program look like? What does it need to be? Is it part of my homeschool village? Is it separate from my homeschool village? And I've been doing a lot of praying and I kept getting woken up one night, going, remember my bonfire story? And I was like, Oh, the bonfire! Like, I can't tell you, like eight times one night. I got woken up. It's about the bonfire. Oh, and then I get woken up, build the bonfire. Oh, so the name of our new high school program is the bonfire academy. And what we're gonna do is build our little bonfires. Oh, we're gonna take and not little bonfires, we're gonna be building big, love you, big bonfires. There goes one right now, one of my bonfires. And that's where we're going next. Don't worry, my homeschool village stays the same. Nothing's changing inside the village. Everything will be exactly as is. This is going to be an on top of for high school children who are looking to become more, who want entrepreneurship, who want actual skills that will help them in their future as adults, who want to discover who they are, who want to discover their talents, their gifts, their interests, their God-given purpose. And they want the skills to be able to build what they need to build. And it's gonna be a mentorship and it's gonna be mindset and it's gonna be all these things. So it will be separate, it will not be included. I'm sorry, it cannot be because I was gonna try to make it that way and I realized it can't be. It can't be included, it has to be its own baby. And so, what is included, how it is, what it costs, all those things I am working on right now, and when I'm ready to launch it and tell you all about it, I will. But in the meantime, I just wanted to let you know that the Bonfire Academy, and I'm like, I tried different names, I tried, and I just couldn't. And so its origin story is I kept my kids home to build them into bonfires and it worked. And I gotta say, I didn't know what I was doing at the time. I can look back now and just go, oh, the Lord guided every step. So the Bonfire Academy is coming. There will be an application process, it will not be open to anyone and everyone. It will be an elite academy, and it will be very much uh small on purpose. So that's all I can tell you for now. Anyway, that is what's coming, and I'm hoping to get it all up and launched and ready to go by um by July before the end of this week. So we'll see what, see if I can do it with my kids gone. Yeah. Well, thank you. I am excited to have it done. I I'll be honest, I've drugged my feet on this one for a long time. It's what's been in my mind, my head for years. And I, and I will tell you, when I wanted to build this, I wasn't ready. And it's been interesting to see looking back how God has shaped me to be ready for this. And I had growing and learning and doing to do so that I could make this the way I wanted it. Yeah, your son needs this, Karen. He does need this. It's and it's gonna be a mentorship. I actually have my son-in-law and my son are gonna help me mentor, and it's gonna be the it'll be, it'll probably be broken down into like different like accesses. Um, but for those who want the mentorship, I'm gonna have my son-in-law and my son, who are good men, be the men in the group who will also help mentor so they have a great influence, a male influence. So if you have, and a lot of you have great men in your lives, some don't, and they need some male influences, and so I'm gonna bring in some great male influences for them as well as part of those mentors. And the um there will be an opportunity to be such a mentor where they meet once a week with that mentor, with their goals, with their complaints, with their how do I's with their help me with this. Um, and even have a way to contact them in between. So I'm so excited, you guys. I I will be honest, I am so intimidated. But I have been praying hard and I don't believe this is mine. I don't, I believe I'm just a mouthpiece here. So Karen, I'd love to see your son in there. It's gonna be about individualizing for for the child. It will. It's a gift from God. I feel like it is, thank you. It is, it's what I wish if I had found. Hi, Yaddy. If I had found this program for my kids, I would have signed them up, but they didn't exist. And I will be honest, I have been looking for a great team program for 10 years. I have hired different people, I have tried different ones, different mentors, different my kids have tried multiple, and everyone fell so short. And I was like, none of them did what they promised. None of them. And the people who said they knew didn't know. And I it was frustrating to me. And so I'm being very careful with this because this will be what I needed for my kids. I'm just wish I could have provided it for my, and I guess I did, I'm their mom, but my own children sometimes don't want to listen to me. And I'm I'm kind of hoping this will help them too. So we'll see if they'll listen. I'll listen to their brother-in-law. We're gonna take advantage of that. So, anyway, that's what's happening right now. We've got our summer classes. Did you see the announcement on book club? We've got book club going on right now. So, questions, thoughts, and it doesn't have to be about the teens. I know I'm looking at a lot of the names on here. A lot of you don't even have an age yet for this group. They need to be 14 and up. They it has to be 14. They do need to fill out the application, and it will be an approval basis because I need parents who see the vision. I don't want a parent who's going, no, I just I just need a diploma and leave them alone. That's not where we're going with this. We're going bigger beyond. And then go college bound, and I will still help with that. This will also include, if you're college bound, us making sure they can get into college, right? Even helping maybe with transcripts and stuff like that. That's what's on my mind right now. So, what's on your guys' mind? Is it okay if they don't have a clue what they want to do? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Definitely. Well, 14-year-old knows that, right? They have interests, they have idea. That's the point. Like if ideally, if they start with us at 14 and they're working with us for several years, it we're gonna be guiding them to their loves. We're gonna help them discover their talents, their gifts. Sometimes it's about being exposed to the right things. And so part of that will be helping them understand what's out there, see what there is. Because we know enough now, right? I'm 50. I've I know enough now that I can study with a kid, I can talk to a child, I can hear what they're saying without them saying it. I can read between the lines, and we can sit down and then I can say, Why don't you try this? Why don't you try this? Get back to me, tell me what you think, and let them like buffet style learn. You know, me and my uh my my buffet. Um Rachel says, I'm stuck trying to motivate my kids to learn and to find the love and joy of learning. I tell them knowledge is power, yes. But I will tell you this a child is not motivated to learn. What they're motivated to do is learn about what they love. So you find what is it that your child loves. Base it all around that. So for a while there, I had one kid who was like obsessed that year with biology. He just kept asking me questions about the body. And I was like, okay, this is obviously a good time for you to learn about the body. So I bought biology books and we bought puzzles and we bought, and that year we just focused on the body. And he looked through every picture pop body book and had a million questions for like a year. To this day, he still loves it and he will still look through biology books. But when he was in love with biology, then we could tie other things like, did you know way back when? And we could talk history, we could talk medical, we could talk, and and we would go to the library and find more information. And when we did that, it was like, well, this is why you need math. If you love this, math is going to be really important, and here's why. And so let's write, you know, you could build it all around it, and then three months later, they're over the body and they're into cars. Fine, build it around cars. There's so much that they can do with it. And you can use some of my homeschool village resources for that. But it's not about you cannot inspire them to learn, you can inspire them to learn more of what they love, and then they start to see how learning just supports their love. Now learning becomes fun because it's their love that is doing better. Does that make sense? I sent my now adult homeschool children to private school for high school. The school now has a new board of directors as the founders of the school has passed away and is very different. Struggling with what would I would do for Ian? I'm so excited. Private school. What did you pay for that? Sorry, you know how to say that. Um, yeah. This is, and I will tell you, I'm gonna warn you, this is more than private school what we will be doing. They will have the schmoop, they will have the classes. We've got multiple live classes that'll be in there, but it because it will be so one-on-one, this is gonna be better than a private school. I need to get the application print that night is lost right now and say you doesn't want to listen to me. Okay. Oh well, I actually just finished making the application. I did. Um, I need to write up like the sales page so people even know what I'm talking about. And then I was gonna send out the application. But I can give you guys the application now because I will tell you. Um, let me give you. Here's the Google Doc. Um, you're welcome to go fill it out now. I will tell you, I'm keeping this limited. I really want to start out with just 10 kids. Maybe 20, but I really want just 10 kids because they can be in both. Yes. Um, they're different fees, but they can so anybody, let me explain. Anybody who signs up for the academy will have the access to my homeschool village and its resources. And yeah. So you don't have to pay for both. If you pay for just the academy, you will still have access to my homeschool village's co-op resources, all of that. Okay.

unknown 16:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:17

Now I will, yeah. So it's it'll be an upgrade, but anyway, we can talk about that later. So there's it, there's the Google Doc if you want to in, if you want to fill it out. I'm keeping the price as low as I can right now because I think the first 10 students were gonna leave it at that price, but the price will have to go up because the the time I will be putting into each child is significant. And so um the price will go up. So just FYI, this is the lowest price it's ever gonna be. So I'm gonna send out an email. Uh, my homeschool villagers, I'm I'm gonna give my homeschool village members a week to get in before I open it up to the email list, and then they get a week, and then I'm going to social media and letting them in. So I you guys, you guys get that first. You guys get first dibs. How's that? You get first in line for that. It was a very small Catholic school under 20 in the graduating class. It was classical education, phenomenal school, and they kept the tuition low. Nice. Can we lock in at the price before they are old enough? Oh, I don't know that I can promise that, Beth. I would love to. Uh, because don't you have like four more or five more years? Isn't he only 11? He's 11, right? Or was he 11 when you started? See, it what whatever child your guys' ages are when you start, that's what plugs into my head. He's not 14 yet. 12 in August. So he's got two more years. So now, right now I'm 14 to 18 is what I'm going for. Only because I've seen the brain develop differently, I've seen a 12 to 13 year old not ready yet. They want it, but they're not ready yet because they'll they're gonna, he's gonna go through that sleep stage. And the the rigorous plan I have is not gonna work with the sleep stage. So Beth, I'll tell you what, when he's ready, you just you me, you and me, we'll talk. You mean so yeah, you just call me when it's time. Beth, we'll talk. Okay. You've been here with us, what, four years or something? Like from the beginning. Does my homeschool village run on a year-two-year curriculum? Basically wondering if I should wait until August to get them started. No, we don't. Because when you do that, when you work year to year, you're also limiting by grade to grade, which means you're also saying, I can't excel until. And my homeschool village was based on you go as fast as you want to go when you want to do it. So if you want to do it all, like if you want to just homeschool hard in winter and not touch it all spring, you can. Um, if your child needs a third grade level math and eighth grade level reading, you can. If they can zip through math and a really, really slow reading, you can. There's no schedule. It's about how fast or how slow they need, period. And you run it like that. I know it's a lot of people struggle with this idea. It really works better once you've actually adopted it. It does work better, but you can start right away. Um, I would get them started in my homeschool village if that's what you're doing. If you're talking about now, if you're talking about the the Bonfire Academy, that's different. The Bonfire Academy will start in September 1 and it will be a year program, well, nine-month program, and it will start again in September. You sign up for the year. It's a contract. You're in for the year because if you don't, you they won't get anything. Like the courses will start and stop. We can't have people coming and going. It has to be a load up front, get all the way through because I want these kids to bond. I want them to be buddies, I want them to be future business partners. I want these kids to come in, have the year to get to know each other, work with each other on businesses and ideas and thoughts, and at the end have an actual business that they're using. And some of these kids might end up lifelong business partners. And so I'm trying to build the relationship between the kids with the mentor, with the program all at once. And so the academy is not a stop at any time, it's not a cancel at any time. It's you're in for the year or you're not. And because there's only so many spaces, and I don't want somebody coming and taking a space that's there for a month when another kid could have had it who wanted to be there for a year. So it's gonna be very elite that way. Like you commit for the year because there's a lot we're gonna accomplish. Summer ends August, September starts the fall semester. Yeah. Okay, sorry, I went off. You tell where my brain is. I'm trying to make sure I'm working out the details, and it's a lot of details. So, yeah, Rachel, as far as my homeschool village goes and children under eighth grade, okay, that's really where that we're at here. Eighth grade and under and high school, but we're really more powerful up to eighth grade in there. Um, September one is when we start like change our classes out. So we do a full June, July, August is our summer. September, October, November, and December, because December is only about half, is our next semester. And then January 1 through May. So they're like four semesters, right? It's kind of uneven, but in the end it works. Love that they will be together. When we started, Ian played Minecraft with your son Ben. He always talks about how much he misses him. I I don't know what Ben's problem is. You guys, we're having this. Um, he doesn't like Minecraft anymore. He doesn't, and he won't get in to play anymore. He's like, I just I'm bored. And so I know he's not alone in this. This is one of those holes I feel like we have inside my homeschool village is what to do with the kids who are bored of Minecraft but still want to be hanging out with each other. And I thought we would have that ready by summer. It's not yet. Um it better be done by Paul. Or I'm gonna be really, really annoyed. Um, so yeah, Ian Ben talks about Ian too. And I'm like, dude, why don't you like? He's like, Mom, I just don't like Minecraft anymore. So I would love to see these kids growing up together. I would love to see this. Yes, my own kids will be inside doing the academy. Well, Ben will. My 17-year-old has already decided, I don't know if she'll, I'm gonna let her. We'll see. Um, Ben will be inside the academy. He's 14 now. I'm very interested in getting started investing in entrepreneurship. But it was like he had to wake up at 14. He at 14 he woke up. He did. All of a sudden, he's up at seven and working out with his brother. I'm like, well, how do you do? I haven't seen you in a couple years. Oh, so yeah, I'm hoping I can get as many of these kids over into the academy and then we keep them together and then we can get them through high school together. And I know I have dreams, many, many dreams. Other questions, Rachel, or anybody else? Sorry, this I need to show you guys my screen. You put an app on your computer and now it blocks all my little corner stuff. Oh, Rachel, okay. Yep. Let me know if you have any other questions. Have a good one. I will not be here the next two weeks. Just FYI. No Mondays for two weeks. I will put it on the calendar. Um, so Beth, it's actually gonna be different than that. Yep. We will see you in two weeks. Three. Three weeks. Have a good summer. Keep showing up anyway. Lizzie will run our Wednesdays. Thank you, Lizzie. Oh, you're awesome. Okay, so here's how it actually is gonna work, Beth. It's gonna work similar to my homeschool village. However, right now, here is the plan. Okay, four classes a semester. The classes we have just partnered with program. Wow, loving it. Okay, and it's entrepreneurship, semester one. And then this is now this is loose. Okay, very, very loose because I'm still working out details. Entrepreneurship 101. Uh, finance, personal finance, um, philosophy. So they're learning how to critically think, right? And AI. Um, that's semester one. Semester two will be entrepreneurship two on, um, how to invest, which is stock market, stocks, bonds, like how to make your money grow, um, and then probably philosophy and AI as well. So those two classes will change. So it'll be a full year curriculum. What we do after that on year two will depend on how many return and how many startovers we do. Some kids will be like, that's what I needed and move on. And other kids might be like, okay, let's do it again. Now, at that point, we'll set up a, you know, the kids on the next version. While they're doing this, they can still do Schmoop, they can still do SATs, they can still do all that stuff. Um, and they can still do the high school route. Now, during this, they'll also be getting help and guidance getting into college, filling out transcripts, if that's the path they're on. If they're headed towards blue-collar work, it'll be about how to make sure they have all the knowledge and the help they need to be able to go where they want to go. So, if if they want to be an electrician, for example, let's make sure you have the business skills as well so you can make your own business as an electrician, because that's where the money's made. So, things like that. So, we'll take it a year at a time and see where it goes, whether we build on it or repeat. That will depend entirely on our signups every year. We'll see. My son hasn't been on Minecraft lately. He told me he is doing online classes from one to four. He needs to be off the computer for a bit so he can ride his bike. I had a hard time debating him with that. Yeah, I wouldn't either. I wouldn't either. Good for you, Karen. Don't get me wrong, Minecraft is great, and if the kids come on, great. But I don't think it's a high priority. It's great for those who need it, and that's fine. Um, I it it fit in need for about two years for Ben, and now it doesn't fit his need anymore. So he doesn't use it. Now that which is why I'm looking into the academy because my kids are growing out of my homeschool village, and I know some of yours are too, and they need the next thing. And so this is what I'm creating. Um, but yeah, I would rather they're outside playing too. I would rather they were, you know, and the whole point is that our children are learning how to manage their own lives. Like, as my son will say, he's he needs to get out and touch grass. Your kids ever say that, dude. Touch grass. I hear I hear them online sometimes saying that to each other. Look, I'm touching grass when they're in Minecraft. And um, huggatri, there you go. My son the other day, I was I was teasing him because he was on the computer all day. And I was like, dude, you gotta go touch grass. And he walked outside, picked a handful of grass, put it in his pocket, and he went back and sat down. He goes, Done. Like, try again. And we were just teasing me, but um, yeah, we were teasing. And I was like, hmm, you're about to get your face rubbed in the grass, sweetheart. Try that again.

SPEAKER_01 27:06

Anyway, we love to tease each other. So, yes, they need to touch grass or ride the bike or hug a tree.

SPEAKER_00 27:16

And if it means they skip Minecraft, that's okay. If you're gonna skip one of our classes, that's the one to skip. My kid is nine, and she has times where she just wants to jump in and time where she wants to be doing flips or play outside. I let her be. Amen to that. Right? And the freedom to follow those needs, like to be like, you know what? Today I just need to go play. And then you have another day where you're like, I just don't feel like it. I'm just I'm in a computer brain mode. I love my life is in that mode now. As an adult, I have made my life free enough that I can do that. Now, my poor husband still has to show up at the office every day and still work as an engineer. And watching our two lives, watching my husband still be the robot that has to show up, and watching my freedom and my kids' freedom that when we're sick, when we're not, when we feel like it, when we don't, when we need to move, when we we work our butts off when we're in the mood and we and we break like crazy when we're in the mood. And I like that we can do that. And I watch my husband still be in the slave. And this is actually one of the things that motivated me to start a business in the first place was freedom for my husband. I don't want him to die of a heart attack at 60 because he's worked so hard forever. I gotta get that man retired. Like I want that man retired because he needs, he has supported me and my children. He's kept me home. He's allowed me to, or he's made it possible for me to stay home with our kids. And it was his goal in life. His goal was to keep his wife. He always said, if you want to work, that's up to you. But he wanted a woman who wanted to stay home. And I wanted to stay home with my kids, and I wanted to be the mom. And he has done everything possible to allow me to have that freedom and that joy, and even to taking it off my plate when I need it. And now I'm watching him, I'm watching me and the kids have all this freedom. And my husband's still still the slave, and it kills me. And I don't want that for my boys. I want my boys the same freedom I have. I want them to be able to work and homeschool their own kids. I want them to be able to help their wives. I want it to be, I want them, and they've told me this. They're looking for work that they can do as an adult that will allow them the freedom that they watch their mother have. And I've worked in my homeschool village for years. I work until noon, I'm done. I don't do generally, I'll answer questions and I'll comment and stuff like that. But generally I try to be done by noon every day. And this is what I want for my boys. I want for both, I want my children to be able to support themselves at home, on a beach, in the mountains, wherever they happen to be want to be while they're spending time as a family. That's how the world can be now. And I do not want my kids picking a career that limits them in any way. Now, my son-in-law also chose engineering because of the pay raise or because of the pay. He thought it would be amazing. And he's also watching his kids grow up without him. And he's like, not what I wanted. Um it's time to free the men. It's time to free our slave husbands from having to be the eight, the 40-hour, 60-hour, 80-hour work a weekers. Yes, as women, we work hard, homeschooling and being at home with our kids, but I still get to be there when my kids need me. I still get to be there for the moments. I'm still, I can still grab an app if I need to, whereas my husband comes home and crashes. So this is what we need to be teaching our kids. Our next generation needs to be able to support themselves from a computer in half the time. At home, on a beach, wherever they're at. They need to learn businesses that free them. And that's that's really my goal for my own children, for your children, anybody who wants it. Don't you get tired of seeing it, Beth? I know your husband's worked hard too, right? I know Karen has a husband saying, I know Lizzie's, I mean, not to like call people out. And there's a lot of single women in here doing it too. And I just what it like, as women, what if we went to free the slaves? What would happen if we could go to our husbands and be like, your turn? Come play. Uh, don't get me wrong. Motherhood has not been a piece of cake or a walk in the park, but I still wouldn't trade it for my husband's job. Ever. Hi, Janelle. Didn't see you pop in there. How you doing? Okay, right? But can I just say, yes, dreaming for decades, Lizzie to bring him home? Janelle, did you guys know? Like, we can. We can. We can do it. This it's is it hard? Yeah. Is it a lot of work? Maybe. Um, well, I'm glad you made it, Janelle. But I do believe, and this is one of the reasons, by the way, that we made it so you guys can share my homeschool village for a very high commission. Very high. Like, you know how many? I get three to four requests a day to sell people's stuff on social media. And you know what commission they're offering me? 10%. I've got 150,000 followers and they're offering me 10% commission on $10 products, $100 products. Okay. My homeschool village offers 40% recurring commission. So you can make a lot of money sharing my homeschool village, bringing in recurring commission. Do you understand? Now, let me let me explain the recurring commission. And I know most of you get this. But if you bring in a family at $200 a month, $199, and you get 40% commission recurring. That means as long as that family is inside my homeschool village, you make 80 bucks a month. One family. Did I do the math on that right?

unknown 33:03

24.

SPEAKER_00 33:04

Yeah. Um and so I did do the math on that right. You make that 80. Well, now the next month you bring in one more family. So you bring in one family a month. On month two, you're making 160 bucks a month. And now you're not even doing anything. Well, month three, you bring on another family. Now you have three families inside. Now you're making 240 bucks a month. Okay, what could you do with 240? You brought in three people. And then say you did that one family all year. Every month you brought in one family. By the end of the year, you've got 12 families at $40 at $80 a month. I can't even do that in my head anymore. Okay, $12 times $80. It's $960 a month, automatically coming in every month for your family. And all you have to do is share the posts I already made with your link. That's it. You go into the Facebook, you just share with, and then change the link to your affiliate link. Share, change the link to your affiliate link. That's it. You do that four times a day. Guys, literally, I share to my posts when I have to pee. I'm like, I had to go to the bathroom. Oh, not until I've shared to the post. Share. Now I can pee. That's what I've had to do to myself, so I'll do it. And I'm posting to five. So I go in there and I'm like, okay, we're gonna share this real. Share the story, share the story, share a story. It takes me less than three minutes because I really have to pee. So I'm doing it fast. And then I share. You guys would go onto my website, share it to your post, change your link. You you do that four times a day, or every time you had to pee, you'd be making pretty dang good money real fast. And you could bring your husband's home. Was not meaning to go there, but we were talking about it. So um there's no reason you guys can't be making a ton of money. I've already set it up for you. It will not be 40% for the the high school program FYI. It might be 20. But um my homeschool village is a 40% share. Did you know? So anyway, and if it's not that, it's something else. If you're working on a business or a side gate or whatever, um, there's a lot of ways. There's a lot of ways we could be making money at home.

SPEAKER_02 35:21

Anyway, I'm going all in ourselves.

SPEAKER_00 35:31

Okay. Thoughts, questions, ideas, announcements. So I this will be my last Monday for the next three weeks. I will be. So here's what I'm doing. I'm going to Utah, back to Utah. Every year we have a family reunion. All my siblings, all seven, there's always at least one missing, but all seven siblings and the 30 grandchildren between them, between us, we all rent a cabin together on a lake for one week. And what we do is my um is we just take the total cost. Everybody picks a meal, everybody has to run one or two meals. We all bring our toys. Um, my brother rents water toys, my other brother rents the house, and then we put all the money into a pot at the end and we divide it up by how many people came, and then you're in charge of however many people you brought. And so we've been doing this for eight years now. And so my kids, when we moved to Alabama, my kids said, Okay, but mom, we can't miss out on this. And so we we promised we would budget to bring our kids back every year for this. Well, my mother-in-law, the Stromsdorfer side, said, if you're here, we're gonna do one too. So we're literally going to go to one lake for a week, go to my mother's for a day, then go to another lake with the Stromsdorfers for four days and spend it with them, and then um come home a couple days later. So that's what we are going to be doing over the next two weeks is just Brown, because my my maiden name is Brown. I know. Funny, right? Brown's reunion, and then we're gonna have a Stromsdorfer reunion, and then we're coming home. I need to figure something out and do something different. This is making me self-reflect hard. Karen, in a good way. Thank you. I plan on having fun, and usually and this year we're at a new place up in a canyon. I don't even know if I'm gonna have internet. So luckily, you have an amazing village inside here that will help if you guys need it. Um, so Karen, what kind of what kind of reflecting? How can we help? It's gonna be exhausting, Beth. It's so exhausting. The beds are always uncomfortable. Somebody always gets hurt. Last year, last year, my husband went on a hike with a bunch of boys scouts, like two days before, and like scraped up his leg, then decides that he's got to get in the lake, filthy, dirty lake with an open wound because he's not missing out on the fun. We spent the next week after that in the ER because the infection had gotten into his entire body and they couldn't get it down. And he spent the whole next week in the ER trying to get the infection out. So now it's just the big joke.

SPEAKER_01 38:20

Nobody goes into the lake with an open wound.

SPEAKER_00 38:24

I know it's like the joke. Like everybody's like, dude, what are you doing? And he's like, I'm not missing out on this, I'm gonna go play. Oh, it's always my family in the ER. Um, yeah, it'll be exhausting, it'll be fun. We come home the day before the fourth, so I have a whole weekend to recover, and then I'll be back here. But I'm excited. I'll miss you guys.

unknown 38:44

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 38:47

Questions, thoughts? Giveaway.

SPEAKER_00 38:52

Give away. Give, give, giveaway. Um, giveaway. I need to start thinking of these ahead of time. I really do. Karen, I'm working five to six days a week and trying to homeschool while my husband is still working. Listening to this has made me ask, what on earth am I doing? Yeah, Karen. Oh. Well, you're trying to support your family. But what you have to ask yourself is, is there a better way? Is there? There might be. I do think once you ask the question, it's amazing how God will start putting ideas and ways in your head. But as this is something that's come over time as a homeschooler. The first question came Yes, building a business while homeschooling is worth it. Lizzie, Lizzie knows she's doing this. Guys, um, and here's what it is it's not just about building the business. What my kids have learned by watching me build a business, I have no idea. I did not know that education would be so valuable to them. Didn't realize. But they've watched that they've even, when people say, What do you want to be? They go, I'm gonna follow mom's footsteps. I'm gonna build my own business. I like mom's lifestyle better than dad's. And I'm like, interesting. So, hi, Eve. Welcome, good to see you. Eve also, Eve works from home. You don't have your own business though, do you, Eve? You work from home, or you do, or is it your own business? You're a contractor. Remind me. My own business. That's right. And tell me again what it is. Gilliam consulting, and it's like marketing, online marketing. We've taught, and she has some serious skills that I want to hire. I just can't afford her yet because she's good. But as soon as I can afford Eve, we're getting her on the team. You're one of those people always on the back of my head, like, as soon as I can afford you, you are so getting hired. Yeah. Mortgage closing website socials, yeah. Which is why I'm surprised you're not making a crap load of money off my homeschool village. You know how. But that's okay. Um okay, I was on something here and I can't remember what it was. But Karen, you got some math skills. Even and um you could even be a VA for somebody who works from home, working from home. Just a thought. Because you probably I bet you could do it. Okay. I could have a whole nother conversation there. Some days I just want to talk business with other women. I really just want a female business group where we just sit and talk business. I saw Heather popping here, right? Thank you, Lizzie, for saying that. I agree. A VA is the best way to start working from home. I've I've always looked for um. Oh, Sama, hi! Welcome. I haven't seen you for a while. Um, being a VA is a great, great, great skill to learn. If you want to be a VA and you want an amazing program, like I've got a program for you. Um, I watched a my husband's cousin. She she's the one that turned me onto this program. She studied it to be a VA. She she actually had um, she was a beautician and a nail, what do they call nail artist, opened her own business, like her own, her own company, grew it, sold it, but then went to be a VA and learned VA. And now she's making a lot more money as a VA online. Um, this company not only will teach you how to VA, but but connect you to people who are looking for a VA. I need a VA. I really do. And that will probably be a higher hire sometime soon. I need a VA. Um, and and for those of you who don't know, a VA is a virtual assistant. So basically, you're like, you can you're like this the online secretary, right? Or assistant or whatever you want to call them to a business owner, and you're helping them get posts out and you're organizing the marketing and you're organizing the team, and you're you're just running back end for the leader of the gang. Um, and when you know those skills, a good one is worth her money. And I think she started out making 15 bucks an hour when she started, and then she started hiring, then she started bringing on too many clients and then hired newbies under her. She would train. So then she was making $30 to $35 an hour, and then the newbies were doing the work and she was just managing the newbies. And now I think she's at like, I think it's like $5,000 a month, and she has this package for you. Um, and honestly, I would have brought her on a long time ago, but she doesn't homeschool, so she doesn't get it. I need a homeschool VA. And because what I do, I need to be, I need a homeschool brain to be answering, to be helping with. And I keep telling her, she keeps saying I'm being called to homeschool. I'm like, when are you gonna do it? And she's like, I just don't want to. And like, then you're not my girl. I need a girl who's gonna homeschool. I support homeschoolers. I can't hire you if you're not a homeschool mom because that's kind of what I do. I want to hire. Homeschool moms. I want a homeschool mom army. So I'm like, that disqualifies you. I'm sorry. But she's good. My husband did have his mom growing up, so he wanted me home with our kids. Yeah. My husband had his mom growing up, and that was important to him. And he felt it was his responsibility to do whatever it took to keep me home with our kids. And I am so grateful every day because my kids and our best friends. My relationship with my kids is heavenly. And it's because my husband was willing to pay the price. I feel like I he was put on the altar and we sacrificed him for our happiness. And it breaks my heart every day. And I I still we still can't afford to retire him yet. Believe it or not, my homeschool village is not making the kind of money we need to do because I like giving too much away. I do. I like giving it away. Do you know how many people are telling me that I am giving away my program at the prices right now and that I shouldn't be doing this? And I'm like, but the parents need this.

SPEAKER_02 45:04

So wait, Lizzie, what do you mean you're a VA right now?

SPEAKER_00 45:14

How long have you been a full VA? And how do I not do this? Lizzie. Right, Beth? Oh, it's because Beth, we're in the same place right now, and we're watching these sweet men who have given their lives so that we can be with our kids. Because they didn't want their kids with anybody but us, because they believed in their wives so much and the power of a mom that they gave everything. Beth, it's time that we we need to free our sweet slaves. Sorry, I'm I'm since high school. You you're telling me you don't advertise yourself. You've been helping me out for years, and you never flat out said I'm a VA, and here's a list I could do. Lizzie, would you send me a resume? Lizzie! Send me your resume. I need to know what you can do because I have got to get some things off my plate. And I'm I can't because I don't. I'll tell you right, I have a list of things that need to get off my plate. But I haven't, number one, I haven't had the time to look. She's got to be a homeschool mom. I need her to know my homeschool village. I do. I don't have time to train somebody inside the village. I need them to know the village. Wait, Lizzie does that. I need them to already be a good VA. I don't want to train anybody. Oh wait, what? Beth. Really? Um I will I will find that. I've lost my pen. I need a pen. I've been writing notes like crazy all over the house and carrying a notebook with me and nothing. Have you guys met me on the airhead? Okay.

SPEAKER_01 47:11

Let me see.

SPEAKER_02 47:20

I got a ton on that wall over there. All right, Beth. I will do that. And I don't remember how much it costs.

SPEAKER_00 47:33

And I don't know. Last time I shared that link, I tried to get my daughter to do it, and um, she just wasn't interested. And I'm like, sweetie, come on. Uh okay. Beth wants it too. Okay. So Beth and Karen are gonna do VA together. Yes. I love this. Yes, that would be so love. I want to bring income in, but I am lost with all this online programs. I'm a registered dental assistant, but I would have to leave home. Yeah, don't leave home. Do it, you guys. Okay, I will put, I will do a post here in a minute on the VA link that you guys can get into. So you guys can grab that. Um, I gotta go look it up. It's gonna take me a minute to dig up. VA is a great thing. Now, and and I know a good VA manages multiple VAs. So, yeah. And actually, my my niece, I call her my niece. I think of her as a niece. She's my husband's cousin. Um, she might know people hiring, she might be hiring herself. So maybe I'll just connect you to her. Let me talk to her. I'll call her and see how she's doing. Um let me have you connect. I might just have her you connect to her and then she can get you that link, and then she can also, she can probably guide you a little further. So I'll get her on here. She's actually done some work for me inside my homeschool village. She loves my homeschool village. She's like, I just want to be on your team. I'm like, that's great. Homeschool. So um, who knows? Maybe we'll get big enough. I'll hire all of you. Wouldn't that be awesome? Oh, guys, my homeschool village could grow if I weren't so busy. We would grow. We would be able to help more women if I had more women that knew the village, the passion, the move, the movement, and they had the skills. I have, you guys have the passion, you have the knowledge of my homeschool village, but without the online skills, I can't hire you. Which is why I tried to set up the affiliate program for you. But I'm finding that I don't know why that intimidates people, but there's a ton of money to be had there. But either way, the VA skills are so vital right now, and it's only gonna get worse. There, they want more, and it is ideal for stay-at-home months because you can work in the midnight. I don't care. I have a VA right now who works in the Philippines. All she does for me is help me post on social media, and she probably works 20 hours a week, and she's working while I'm sleeping because she's in the Philippines, and I don't care. I don't care what time she's working. Um, but I she's reliable. I actually got her from my cousin and I love her, and she works very hard for my homeschool village, and it I don't care what time she works, it gets done. So, okay, I will get the VA link up.

SPEAKER_02 50:26

And what else?

SPEAKER_00 50:28

What else can I do for you guys today? I feel like I'm gonna miss you. I'm completely intimidated by the affiliate program. I try everything to stay off social media. Fair. Beth, that's fair. Um, you it works perfectly for people who are on social media anyway. If you're a scroller, you might as well be making money. If you're not a scroller and you're not on, I will be honest, if I didn't have my homeschool village, I would never get on social media. Ever. I'm on it way more than I want to be because I'm posting all the time and it's not my favorite part. Um, so I I I hear you. I do. Uh the giveaway. I love Trish, she keeps my brain on. Yes. Yeah, but I can you don't even have to do your own post. Like, oh, Janelle, I want to show you. You don't even have to be a poster on your own page. You literally just open up a different page, nobody knows it's you, put a name on it, nobody cares, and then just share my stuff. You don't even have to do it on your family, you don't have to do it on your personal, you don't have to do you literally just take someone else's stuff. It's like so easy. Maybe I should do a live on it when I get back. Should we do a Monday live on it and just I'll just show you guys how to do it? It's so easy, you're gonna cry that you're not making money on it. There is a video on it, it's inside the group. I did create one, but I think I could show it easier. I've come up with a better and easier solution. So I will do I will create a video and I will put that on there. No, you don't have to post under yourself. Okay, I'll go backwards, I'll start over, I'll get you a post on this, okay? Um, I will get you a post on this.

unknown 52:11

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 52:13

All right, giveaway. Trish, what are we giving away? Do you have anything right now, Trish, in your box of things? Or okay, I will do a video. A how-to video. So you guys can share. The hard part is like showing you my phone on here. I've I gotta figure that out. I know people do it. I just I'm not very good at it. Okay. Today's label's revolutionary. Thank you, Karen. I'm glad it helped. I'm glad it helped. All right, let's do a giveaway, guys. Here's your number. Oh, I'm not gonna tell you the number. 1 through 50. Okay, 1 through 50, give me your number. Uh, you have a couple of t-shirts. Are they they're the year ones? Sorry, I just had a thought, you guys. Um, okay, maybe we'll ask the person who wins because you may have already got something already, game boy. Couple of t-shirts, Trish. Okay, no journals or anything. Got it. All right, is everybody guessed? Carrying a little cheater. So which one is it?

unknown 53:50

I'm just decent.

SPEAKER_00 53:52

People do it all the time, and I think it's funny. Okay, 49. Final answer. Are we done? Oh, Karen, you had one until you put 49. It's number three. I wrote down three. I thought I was like, which one? Because it it was yours, Karen. It was yours. You bet wrong number. So, Ashley, congratulations. Ashley won. Um, Ashley, I bet do you have a Beauty and the Beast one? Have you seen the Beauty and the Beast t-shirts, you guys? Yay, Ashley. I'm sorry, Karen. That's funny. Um Ashley, do you have like uh have you seen the Beauty and the Beast t-shirt? What was the um I am both beauty and beast, depending on how you mess with my kids, something like that. Um, it's been a while. It's it's the t-shirt for those who are with us for a full year. We gave those away this year. Every year that you're with us on your year mark, Trish send you a present, a little gift from us in my Holly School Village to say thanks. Where mom is both beauty and beast. Depends on how you treat my kids. Yeah. Um, do we have anything to XL or more, Trish? If not, that's okay. We will find you another gift. I have to get to the UPS anyway. So um you do. Okay, you won you won the t-shirt. Yay! I like mine and I love the attitude. I know you're shocked that I like anything with attitude. Try not to be shocked. Okay. Thank you, Trish. Will you do that? Are you okay doing that? Thank you, thank you. Okay, you get a t-shirt. Still working on the t-shirts. Oh, the t-shirt competition. Um, I don't dare do that before I leave because I won't stay on top of it. But we need to, or maybe we'll just get that out. But t-shirt competition, guys. We need a t-shirt. In my homeschool village, I don't know. I just haven't been able to put it on my chest yet. So I need a t-shirt. And as my as my dear sweet sister says, this is very expensive. Um sword marketing. This is expensive marketing. Not just everything goes here, so it gotta look good. Yes, I want you to design a my homeschool village t-shirt that we can all wear, like team jersey that we all love and want, and then the winner will get the free shirt. And we'll like we'll take all the submissions, we'll vote inside the village, and we'll decide on it, and then we'll put it up, and everybody and we'll either do them for giveaways we you can buy it, you can we'll start doing them for giveaways, but the winner will get one made. But yeah, are you in eve? And you can use digital art, you guys. You don't you can use um has anybody tried mid journey yet? So fun for art. You can use mid journey, you can use AI, you can use Canva, you can use your hand drawing. I don't care. I want a t-shirt. Okay, that's my post today. I'm gonna go do that. All right, I got three posts today um t-shirt competition. I kind of want to do one for the kids too, and have the kids do a design. So we have a kids at my homeschool village, and then we have a parent. All in favor? Yeah. Okay. What is this, Trish? What'd you do? Ah, you're beautiful. Thank you. There you go, guys. Trish just put the link right there, right inside school, where the video is on how to share this. However, I think it needs updated. So um, amen to black shirts, Yadi. I love, I love black. Okay. All right, we'll do a post of the kids co-op. We'll do an adult. I will I'll get those out. Let's start getting those. Let's give you a few weeks. That way, when I get back, we'll close the competition. That'll give a couple of weeks to get it done and for people to see it. Okay, I like that. And agree on black shirts. I get make it work on black, guys. It's swimming. And we all want to feel that. Okay. Okay. Thank you so much for being here today. I am gonna miss you over the next two weeks, but I hope you guys have an amazing summer. Get out and play like crazy. Um, in the meantime, we'll come back and we'll decide some shirts. Um, we'll talk about the academy, the the uh bonfire academy. I'm so excited about, and and we'll get that started. So um thank you. Thank you, thank you. I will see you Wednesday. I'll be here Wednesday so that we can talk a little bit more. So hopefully I'll see you then. Thanks for being here, guys. We'll talk later. That's the rep 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. And until next time, keep going. The revolution starts at home.