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Hi everyone . Welcome to the

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Creative Mountain Mama podcast . This

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week I am joined by Hannah

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at the Casual Homeschooler

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. She has a really unique approach

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to homeschooling that I really think will

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resonate with everyone . She

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talks about homeschool as well as

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slow living and living a family-centered

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life . Thank you so much for joining me

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, hannah . Thanks for having me Anything

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new lately .

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Well , I just had my

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first teenager on Saturday , so

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she's just turned 13 , and so

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it's definitely hitting quickly

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. Thank you , you just don't it just

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comes in , knocks you off your feet , but

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I'm very grateful for her . She's an old

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soul , so she's , I think , what

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it didn't hit me as much because she literally

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always been like a 40 year old person

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and you know body , so it's

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just been kind of like she . She

1:01

hangs out with my friends and I , you know , so

1:03

she's , she's just great . But yeah , that's

1:06

been a , you know , a new

1:08

milestone for our family .

1:10

You were homeschooling through the pandemic

1:12

. Can you tell me a little bit about how you got started

1:15

?

1:15

Sure , well , I had always considered

1:18

homeschooling . In

1:20

fact I had met with a friend

1:22

who homeschooled . She had one child

1:25

and she , well , she still does , but she homeschooled him

1:27

. He was about three and

1:30

so was my daughter at the time , and it was just

1:32

kind of where , like , I was getting my you

1:34

know bearing straight with what to do with education

1:36

. I've come a

1:38

long way in our you know our

1:41

way of living everything . So back then I was just

1:43

kind of more conventional . You know

1:45

like they go to school , you know our way

1:47

of living everything . So back then I was just kind of more conventional

1:49

. You know like they go to school , you know , for they

1:51

go to preschool type thing , and

1:55

I hadn't enrolled her anywhere yet . But I did , you know , meet with her and try

1:57

to get her approach . And my first taste

1:59

of homeschooling with her was , you know , everything was

2:02

labeled , everything was kind of strictly

2:04

set out make sure you do this , make

2:06

sure you do that , um , you

2:08

know , kind of like not a whole lot of room

2:10

for the child to lead

2:13

, and I just kind of took that and ran

2:15

with it . Um , I took

2:17

a bunch of notes at her house , I brought a notebook and

2:19

, um , my . My way

2:21

of living being military , military family

2:23

is we're kind of like on the go all the time and just

2:26

kind of in survival mode . So , seeing

2:28

how her home was laid out , um

2:30

, I kind of set these expectations for myself

2:33

to meet . Um , you know , when I

2:35

was , I was younger , I was only 26 , 27

2:37

. Um , so it was just kind of like a lot

2:39

of pressure , um , and organization

2:41

, and that's what I was met with . And

2:43

and also , when I'm told how

2:46

someone does something , I will

2:48

literally run with that . I'm more of a follower

2:50

in life . I'm working on becoming a leader , as

2:53

you can see is how a lot of people come

2:55

to me asking for help in this

2:57

way , but I'm more of a follower , like

2:59

you tell me what to do and that's how I'm going to set up . You

3:02

know my home , um slowly

3:04

breaking off from that . But , um , so

3:06

, yeah , just kind of like kept that in my back

3:09

pocket , ended up enrolling her anyway

3:11

, um , and just kind of like

3:13

having to

3:15

. Um , we

3:18

had a . We had a great time in preschool

3:20

and kindergarten , but it still was always like

3:22

kind of like a conviction , like are you sure

3:24

, um , you know you can do this

3:26

? Um , then we had a , we

3:28

moved and I had pulled her

3:30

um because we had some issues

3:33

with one of the teaching assistants

3:35

, was kind of like kind

3:37

of harassing her , you know , and I was like you

3:40

know , forget that , we're gonna , I'm gonna pull her and

3:42

I had gotten out . Now she's five , so it's

3:44

been two years . I got out all my things . My

3:46

friend said , ordered everything , and

3:50

I just remember like

3:54

crying , you know , like so overwhelmed

3:56

on , like day one , I think I did that for

3:58

two years or two days , excuse me , two days

4:00

and I had my my middle child was a baby

4:03

and I just was like losing my mind

4:05

, still stuck in that . Um , you

4:07

know public school mindset of you

4:10

know you wake up , boom , you start

4:12

, you know you go till you're it's 3

4:14

pm type thing , um , and

4:17

so then I ended up . I lasted two days doing

4:19

that . So I ended up letting her go back to

4:21

public because I'm like I felt

4:23

like I was failing her , even though I didn't give it a chance

4:25

. Um , I was just like I can't do this

4:28

, sent her back and then

4:30

, um , we had a decent time

4:32

in public , like she's , she's more of a social butterfly

4:34

, so she kind of thrived , um

4:37

, and then COVID hit and , and she's

4:39

now at that time was in third grade , um

4:42

, and then we had found out , after

4:45

they sent all the kids home and closed

4:47

, that she was being like heavily harassed

4:49

by other peers . And

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she finally confessed to us and was saying

4:53

these words I'd never even heard of

4:56

, I had to actually Google them . You

4:58

know , and just you know , you're thinking , wow , this is starting

5:00

already . I mean , she's in third grade , are you

5:02

kidding me ? And it got so bad

5:04

that she kind of went through this stage of guilt

5:06

because even though she was on the receiving end um

5:09

, it was more , it was verbal stuff

5:11

, but receiving end she still felt guilty

5:13

and I was near getting her a therapist

5:15

. Um , and then finally had

5:17

been introduced to um , my

5:20

friend up in Virginia , and she

5:22

sat me in her living room , baked muffins

5:25

, had coffee , our kids

5:27

were playing like great , didn't

5:30

even really know her that well at the time . And

5:32

she's like look , there are people that are like

5:34

that homeschool , that are like your first experience

5:37

, that are really

5:39

set in their ways , really strict . There's no room . They schedule every

5:41

second of the day . There's really no room for like schedule every second

5:43

of the day , um , there's really no

5:45

room for like free play . Everything's labeled

5:48

, um , you know , there's no room for

5:50

your child to leave , basically . And

5:52

and then there's she's like homeschooling

5:54

moms like myself where , um

5:57

, I'm kind of in between that and the

5:59

whole unschooling thing , where she's like we take

6:01

certain things seriously , but if my child wants to learn about robots , she's

6:03

like we'll go things seriously , but if my child wants to learn about robots , she's

6:05

like we'll go to the library and get a bunch of books and

6:07

then I can look up a craft and robots . So a little bit

6:09

more um , freedom

6:12

and and her approach . And

6:14

I didn't know that , I didn't know that there were , you

6:16

know this , like your home

6:18

is a school you're that teacher as

6:21

opposed to like you're a mom teaching

6:23

your child how to thrive in this world and survive

6:25

. I didn't know there was like a

6:28

middle ground there , like you know

6:30

. So once I learned that , I'm like , okay

6:32

, maybe I can do this , you know , and

6:34

I blessed with

6:36

those women that had already been homeschooling pre

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COVID and just kind of like they led the

6:41

way and I just kind of , you

6:43

know , molded my myself and our family

6:45

into that and um , it was

6:47

supposed to just be temporarily , until the schools

6:49

open , um , but up

6:51

in Virginia the restrictions were just a little bit . Um

6:54

, they have plexiglass and the masks and my

6:56

son was about to enter kindergarten and I

6:58

couldn't picture him thriving in an environment

7:00

like that . So that kind of I kind of needed

7:02

the force to continue

7:05

to do it . I needed like an ultimatum and

7:08

enough to get me to where I am now , because it's

7:10

taken about three years for me to kind of like ease

7:13

into confidence and that , hey , I

7:15

can do this . And my goodness , this is like nine

7:17

times nine to 10 times better

7:20

than you know how

7:22

we were feeling during public school .

7:25

Sure , how have you and you

7:27

spoke to it a little bit how have you used

7:30

your story to

7:32

help others , give advice and

7:35

find a little inspiration ?

8:03

You know , we moved to a new state as a military family and so I've had to build my own

8:05

tribe here and a lot of my friends are younger

8:08

. They're like in between my daughter and I , so

8:10

she'll walk off with the baby while

8:13

my younger two will play with my friend's children

8:15

. So it's just been like that's . One thing I've

8:17

seen is my children just adapt to any

8:19

age they're around . You

8:22

know , my daughter being an old , old soul , like

8:24

I said , she'll take the baby . She'll

8:30

one of her best friends , is like a 60 year old woman . 60 year old woman that

8:32

, um , she helps take care of her horses with and they're like best friends . They send each

8:34

other horse memes , you know . So it's

8:36

just been , I think , just an example

8:39

for people to see and they'll say , like

8:41

, how are your kids so well behaved ? And I cannot take credit

8:43

. I honestly just believe that it's um

8:45

, the pressure has been off from state

8:48

testing every second , you know , sitting still

8:50

for the whole day , especially boys . My

8:52

middle is a boy , so he he's

8:55

more like hands on moving around

8:57

. I've had to kind of like manipulate

8:59

around that to help him out . And

9:01

yeah , I just think , leading

9:04

an example , I've never forced my

9:06

way on people . They just literally see how my children

9:08

are adaptive and like living

9:10

life , and then then the questions start like

9:12

well , what about this ? Or I'm afraid , you

9:15

know , like I'm afraid of one of the big ones , is

9:17

like that there'll be thought of as weird . Um

9:19

. So yeah , I think just being an example

9:21

, um , being Christ-like , um

9:24

, that's what draws people in to want to

9:26

kind of in a way mimic in a healthy

9:28

way , your style yeah

9:31

, leading as not

9:33

only a servant leader this is

9:35

the example to follow but also not

9:38

pushing it exactly going

9:40

yeah , yeah , just existing and

9:42

and I think too , um , I

9:46

I've like learned . Even

9:48

this is newer for me is letting my children

9:50

lead . Just it's

9:52

been amazing to watch you know , and I'm

9:55

like trying to cram you know like a

9:57

math test in or something , and they end

9:59

up they need a break and

10:01

they go over and make you know

10:03

some amazing like structure

10:06

you know out of Legos . And then I'm like blown

10:08

away and I mean that's just kind of letting them follow their own independence . Which structure you know out of Legos . And then I'm like blown away and I mean that's just kind of letting

10:11

them follow their own independence , which

10:14

is honestly what we want

10:16

our children to do . Like , where our goal is to

10:18

help support them and

10:20

lead them into the path that interests them the

10:22

most .

10:23

Sure , and I know you talk a

10:25

lot about being , I

10:28

want to say , like homeschool , student led , student

10:31

led learning Right . Can you

10:33

tell me a little bit about what sets you apart

10:35

?

10:36

I think , just the structure of

10:39

the teacher setting , where you're more

10:41

type A and just kind of like a little bit anal

10:43

about your schedule . You

10:46

know , I was trying to follow that and I was

10:48

also , you know , searching for trying to follow that and I was also , um , you know , searching

10:51

for inspiration on social media where

10:53

it would literally look like someone

10:56

is filming their homeschool day , Like their children

10:58

are in like muted colors and

11:00

they're like peeling apples at age two

11:02

, you know , and I just was like really

11:05

like down on myself , Like what

11:07

am I ? Kids are missing out on so much , Um

11:09

, and it hit me just that

11:11

you know that's

11:13

probably not real life . I mean , it's a great inspiration

11:16

. I'm sure people can get outfit ideas

11:18

or like , oh , it's a good idea to maybe try to bake

11:20

an apple pie with my toddler . But

11:23

I for myself , like I

11:25

think what sets me apart is just voicing

11:27

that it doesn't have to be that way . That's not a qualification

11:30

to homeschool and

11:32

, to be honest , your children don't want to

11:35

try to reach those expectations themselves

11:37

. They want to thrive in seeing

11:39

you calm , relaxed , and

11:42

a big thing is them being seen . You

11:44

know , that's a huge thing , I think , especially when

11:47

you're consolidating school one on one

11:49

or , like you know , altering between

11:52

children for the day with their , their lessons

11:54

. They're seen more

11:56

than they would be in a classroom . You know 15 to

11:59

25 students . So

12:01

I think just the one on one condensed

12:04

time , we're done by lunch in

12:06

a calm and relaxed way . And

12:08

honestly , I will give my children

12:11

goals , like one may say

12:13

, say they're bribes , but I'll say

12:15

you know , okay , if we get this done , you're free , you

12:17

know you can go do what you want . And other

12:19

days , like today , they

12:22

called my parents on FaceTime . We are military

12:24

, so we live far away from home and

12:27

you know they're in their

12:29

pajamas and they're relaxing . They woke

12:31

up when their bodies were ready to wake

12:33

up . So I think , just letting

12:36

them kind of dwell in that , you

12:38

know , letting their nervous systems just be relaxed

12:41

. We still do the things necessary

12:43

to teach them how to thrive someday

12:45

independently . But I think

12:47

that that's just not seen , unfortunately

12:50

, anymore in the public school when they're just concentrating

12:52

on sitting , still all day , test , test and they're

12:54

. They're not in the real world , experiencing , you

12:57

know their surroundings .

13:00

Absolutely . Is there a curriculum

13:02

that you follow or that you recommend , or

13:04

are you using several ?

13:07

I've kind of broken it up based upon

13:09

, um . You know

13:11

my children's needs . They're all very different . Um

13:13

, my daughter , the oldest , um

13:15

, she could do book work all day

13:17

long . Um , she thrives in

13:19

um , her handwriting . She's

13:22

a very beautiful person , you know she's

13:24

. She wants it to look pretty . She's

13:26

very um , you

13:28

know , she , she , I don't really need to encourage

13:30

her much to do her best . And

13:32

then my son he's a little bit more , he's

13:34

eight and he's just kind of all over the place . So

13:37

I've had to do a little bit more hands-on

13:39

, like bricks with math

13:42

and just kind of like , so he can visually see

13:44

things . And then my five-year-old

13:46

she's like a wild card , she just she's

13:50

just all over the place . And what's cool with the youngest is they can look up to

13:53

the older two what they're learning and they want to join in

13:55

as well . So it just works , you

13:57

know , like in a full circle , um , but yeah

13:59

, I , I definitely I love Matthew

14:01

C ? Um because of its visual

14:04

presentation . Um , I've

14:06

even like learned from matthew c like

14:08

just , oh , that's a full angle to view math

14:10

. Um , and then

14:12

, um , I do love that kind of language

14:14

. Um , that's just a simple book

14:17

work where they can just one page . We

14:19

go over it . It's it's beautifully designed

14:21

and easy to follow along . And

14:23

then I like all about learning

14:25

program . I do all about spelling and all about reading

14:28

. And then , just with

14:30

science and history , honestly

14:32

going to the local you know

14:34

plane museum . We have

14:36

a down here . We have like an

14:38

airplane military base

14:41

museum that they learn more from that

14:43

than any you know textbook . So

14:46

yeah , and I think too , when it comes to curriculum

14:49

, the way the world um has

14:51

had its challenges lately just you know prices

14:53

of groceries we ended up getting

14:55

chickens and I grew up near metro Detroit

14:58

so we did not have chicken , but

15:00

my husband grew up in the country of New York

15:02

and not the country , but in the country in

15:05

New York , not a country , where

15:07

they kind of had a ton of land animals

15:11

, you know . They really like got in the dirt and

15:13

have a big garden . And

15:15

one of the in

15:18

my learning process of kind of letting go was

15:20

we had gotten chicks

15:22

and we did . We incubated eggs and they hatched

15:25

and again it took me a minute to get . I'm like

15:27

, oh , they're going to smell , they're going to poop everywhere . But

15:30

my kids were really into it . It was a great learning

15:32

experience . And um , I

15:35

, one day , I , um , we had hatched the

15:37

chicks when they were all in the garage and I

15:39

had given my daughter , um

15:41

, like a math sheet . She's like

15:44

at least a year , a year and a half ahead

15:46

of where she should be at her age , um

15:48

, and but I was like

15:50

, help me with your math sheet . Here it is

15:52

, um , we try to get math over with quickly

15:54

, because it's like their least favorite , um

15:57

and I . I came back in the room

15:59

and noticed she was gone . I was like where the heck is

16:01

she ? And so I found her in the garage

16:03

and she's like the chicks were out of food you know

16:05

, this one was stuck and um , you

16:07

know , they're out of water . Um

16:10

, their lamp had fallen , just things like you

16:12

know , that were kind of detrimental to the safety

16:14

of the chicks . And um , I

16:17

caught myself . Well , I , I , you

16:19

know , scolded her and I was like I gave you , you

16:22

know , this lesson to do and like you're out here

16:24

playing with birds , you know . And

16:26

then I learned , like I mean it

16:28

took probably 20 minutes to think like , oh

16:30

, my gosh , that is like a life

16:33

lesson . She independently went

16:35

, sought after , took care of these living beings

16:37

. They're vulnerable . They're fragile

16:40

and especially with egg prices

16:42

. You know , like lately she's she's learning how

16:44

to be self-sufficient . I'm like that's more

16:46

of a lesson than this math

16:48

page . She's already ahead of

16:50

in and you know , that was

16:52

kind of like one of the turning points

16:55

where I was like , okay , what

16:57

really matters ? Obviously I want her

16:59

to stick with the math , but I want her to desire

17:01

things that can help

17:03

her be independent .

17:04

You know , as an adult , I

17:07

mean , I was public schooled and I

17:09

got into college

17:11

. Okay , you have some help , some

17:14

handholding . I didn't know how to do

17:16

anything . Nothing that we

17:18

learned in a school setting equals

17:20

real life responsibility .

17:23

Yeah , and I do believe , like the heart of

17:25

teachers , like I I I'm not like

17:27

I hate public school , I I definitely

17:29

we have a decent experience in public

17:31

school and she actually we had the opportunity

17:34

to move back home for him for a little

17:36

bit , um , and she actually had my

17:38

first grade teacher , which was awesome

17:41

. But my teacher would pull me aside

17:43

and say , you know , hannah , it felt

17:45

like it used to be where we would um have

17:47

like a big Thanksgiving dinner and everyone's have their . It

17:49

was like a big family . The

17:51

teacher was allowed to teach according

17:54

to you know , obviously , you know appropriately

17:56

teach out of their heart . She

17:59

said , now we're all like we

18:02

are told what to do every single day . And

18:04

she said first grade is when they start

18:06

testing , but they don't average the test , it's just

18:08

to prepare the child for

18:10

test taking , literally until they graduate

18:13

, you know , and she just was like heartbroken . Here's

18:16

someone who taught me as a first grader , you

18:19

know , telling me the difference , you

18:21

know , and the

18:24

school being a loving environment , things have just changed

18:27

drastically . Being a loving environment

18:29

, things have just changed drastically

18:32

. So , yeah , that was pretty eye opening to me that you know , teacher goes to

18:34

school for an education degree . A

18:36

lot of them have a big heart and

18:38

then they kind of have . You know they're under

18:40

the thumb of , you

18:42

know the district and told what to do and they're not

18:45

really allowed freedom in . You

18:47

know how they want to teach the child out of

18:49

their heart .

18:51

Yeah , is there anything and I'm dying

18:53

to know how do you balance the finances

18:56

of affording homeschool curriculums

18:59

? Is there a way to get creative ?

19:01

Oh yeah . So I mean that is also another

19:03

um , something

19:07

that turns people away quite quickly

19:09

because it's you know it's

19:11

hard , it's the temptation is to send them

19:13

to public school where that's

19:15

provided for your child . I

19:18

found , you know

19:21

, I would actually go on eBay and

19:23

you can find a lot of the teacher books on there

19:25

, because I do as my

19:27

kids get older , when they're younger I'm not like buying

19:29

the answer key when they're like five . You know

19:31

it's basically like what

19:33

shape is this ? But I do buy

19:35

the answer keys as they age

19:37

, just because I find myself learning

19:40

math all over again and sometimes

19:43

they'll come to me . My daughter is ahead of where

19:45

I stand developmentally

19:47

in math and so I

19:49

for sure buy the answer keys . So answer keys they're

19:51

not really written in , so those can definitely

19:54

be bought used . I

19:56

know there is like local Facebook

19:58

groups you can find , like our homeschooling swaps

20:00

. Our

20:06

library would have like a bin of donated

20:09

curriculum . I usually will at least buy , you know , the workbooks they write in new and

20:11

then kind of do what I can to find

20:13

books used , um , even

20:15

if they're a little , you know , like stained or whatever

20:18

I I don't mind , and then , um

20:20

, the beauty in it is . You can sell it

20:22

when you're done . You know if you , if you

20:24

please .

20:26

And I know you spoke to the community aspect

20:28

a little bit . That sounds like another

20:30

part of that . Hey , I'm

20:33

willing to purchase it Maybe the next person's

20:35

not and I can pay it forward down the line

20:37

.

20:38

Yes , and I also just have . I've also been learning

20:40

too about . I saw someone

20:43

post yesterday about not letting

20:45

the curriculum control you , basically . And I have

20:47

a friend that totally just she

20:49

does her own thing . And I remember

20:51

showing last year , showing all

20:54

the moms that I mean mean there are such

20:56

big groups of moms pulling each year , it

20:59

climbs every year . And I remember showing all

21:01

my curriculum and my friend said , yeah , I'm

21:03

not , don't worry about me , I'm not even

21:05

going to get any curriculum , and she just kind of does

21:07

her own thing and her kids are intelligent , they're

21:09

, they're happy . Um , so

21:11

yeah , you can't let the curriculum control you . And and there's

21:13

, there's also , you know there's books

21:16

on Amazon that kind of include

21:18

everything . You know I I piece apart

21:21

um , my curriculum as my kids age

21:23

, but my five-year-old literally , I found her

21:25

. You know , a friend recommended a

21:28

workbook on Amazon for like 17 bucks

21:30

, um

21:35

and so , and I think too , just , you know , we had a hummingbird feeder and my kids watched the

21:37

hummingbird and they wanted to learn about it . Or we in our

21:40

last station , we had crabs

21:42

in our neighborhood like one day

21:44

of the year . I don't know why , I'm sure there's science

21:46

behind it , but they would just be crawling everywhere

21:48

and they caught them and they're like I want to learn what they eat

21:50

. Um , so just just things like that that

21:53

can be be your curriculum , you know , choose . And

21:55

I also hear a lot of people when they hold

21:57

their children they'll take an entire year off

21:59

to kind of detox and

22:01

let their nervous system just kind

22:03

of relax out of that rushed , hurried

22:05

lifestyle that's

22:08

so hard on children , their age . I mean , I remember

22:10

arguing with my daughter every single morning

22:12

, you know , brushing her hair , making

22:14

sure her lunch was ready , going to the . You

22:16

know all these schools with drop off , pick up

22:18

, and then she'd get off the bus

22:20

at like 4pm and she

22:23

had dance and she had homework and it was just

22:25

like I wouldn't even like that

22:27

after sitting in you know school

22:29

for six hours , you know . So it

22:31

just , it just really proves how

22:33

um , how backwards unfortunately

22:36

we have it as a society absolutely

22:40

being a little bit more student-led

22:44

.

22:44

Hey , slow down , give them attention

22:46

. You know what are their needs . Making

22:48

it accessible you don't have to have

22:51

a Instagram worthy

22:53

right home school room

22:56

or a separate outbuilding

22:58

, exactly and then making

23:00

it creative and allowing

23:02

people to exactly what they

23:05

need to do , as you said and I I

23:07

have another example that , like my son , who's

23:09

busy , um he , I think

23:11

I in his science book , which I do

23:13

purchase the science books and the history

23:15

through Rebecca .

23:16

I just have them read through it . We answer little review

23:18

questions that are included .

23:20

It's great .

23:21

But we're learning about celery and their roots and

23:23

you know , when you cut them you can see their roots and whatever

23:25

. And you

23:27

know I could tell I was kind of losing his attention

23:30

. And he's like well , we have celery in the fridge

23:32

, can I go look at it ? I . And he's like , well , we have celery in the fridge , can

23:34

I go look at it ? I'm like that's

23:36

a great idea . And so then he's like well , I want to cut it because we

23:38

need to see how long they're cut . And I was like , okay

23:40

, so here I am teaching

23:42

him proper use of a knife , like on a

23:45

cutting board . You

23:47

hold it , like this . And then , while he was cutting it , I

23:49

was reading . I'm like there's no way he's going to grasp

23:51

this . But okay , he's distracted with cutting the

23:54

celery . Well , I'm learning that . That's

23:56

the way he learns . So I read it , did

23:58

a read aloud of , like the

24:00

you know the science behind

24:02

celery stocks , thinking like

24:04

, whatever , this probably wastes the time . And then he's

24:06

like hey , can I get ? When he was done

24:08

cutting , I'm still reading . He's

24:11

like can I get little bowls of peanut butter ? I want to bring them to the his

24:13

sisters , you know , for a snack . So here

24:15

we have , like he's

24:17

showing compassion and kindness to his siblings

24:20

, um , proper use of knife , you know , learning

24:22

how to cut , and then learning about

24:24

the structure of celery , and , um

24:27

, he went and gave it to them . They're all happy

24:29

. And then I asked him the review

24:31

questions and he got every single one of them right . You

24:33

know , here I thought he wasn't listening

24:36

and that that's just how he processes . He has

24:38

to be moving and which would not

24:40

? There's no way that'd be allowed , you know

24:42

, in a school setting , unfortunately . I mean that

24:45

gift of his that he needs to

24:47

work that way would totally . I mean he would be going

24:49

so against the grain , learning

24:51

in a different way .

24:53

Yeah , absolutely . Well , I

24:55

appreciate you making this accessible

24:57

and not scary and

25:01

very practical as well . Is there

25:03

somewhere that you would recommend

25:05

people go to find you

25:07

and learn more and get plugged in ?

25:10

Yeah , I'm pretty much only on Instagram

25:12

. It's just the casual homeschooler

25:15

and I'm pretty active on there

25:17

. I do a lot of you know questions

25:19

, because my goal is to make

25:21

people feel seen and I just think , um

25:23

, you know , it's taken

25:25

, like I said , it's taken me three , almost four years to get

25:27

to where I am . And my , my

25:30

biggest um , I

25:32

love when people say , oh , me too

25:34

, or yeah , how did you handle that

25:36

? Relating to people is like one of the best

25:39

gifts God's given us . You

25:41

know you can read the Bible and

25:44

get direction and guidance . But

25:47

when someone in person , in the flesh

25:49

, is like , oh , I had that problem

25:51

too . This helped a lot . That is

25:53

like the best gift ever . Oh

25:56

, I had that problem too . This , this helped a lot . That is like the best gift ever . So

25:58

I think just being able to relate , I try to stay pretty

26:00

down to earth on there and open to questions

26:02

, open to learning myself , like I've learned

26:05

, you know , from what other people's

26:07

experiences have been , and I think the

26:09

biggest key is having a tribe . It's

26:12

so easy to feel isolated . I'm

26:14

not a big social media person as

26:16

far as you know Facebook or anything like that

26:19

. I like in-person meetups

26:22

and letting our children play , and

26:25

I understand that's totally hard to

26:27

find sometimes , where I found

26:29

that a lot was like library story

26:31

time or I'd be in Carter's

26:33

store and would make a friend

26:35

. You know , just kind of throw . I am

26:37

a very introverted person

26:40

and being a military wife has had

26:42

to learn . You kind of got to throw yourself out there

26:44

Healthily . You know , like

26:46

make sure you protect yourself and

26:48

are on guard with you know friendships

26:50

that might be harmful to you . But I really

26:52

had to take a step out and

26:54

introduce myself and

26:57

a good way to introduce

26:59

yourself is to ask like , oh , how old is

27:01

he or she ? And then it just starts , you

27:03

know , from there . And but building a tribe is key

27:05

you need I know the

27:07

new term for it now is like couch friends . I've

27:10

seen on the internet and that's literally just the friends

27:13

you don't feel like you need to entertain . They can

27:15

come over , sit on your couch , you brew

27:17

some coffee , you know whatever

27:19

you like to do

27:22

Play

27:25

. So yeah , that's , that's big , is a tribe , awesome

27:29

. Thank you so much

27:32

and I appreciate it .