Latest / The Christy-Faith Show / Ep. 118 - How to Build a Professional Homeschool Transcript (With Joan Girkins from Homeschool Records)

Transcript

Ep. 118 - How to Build a Professional Homeschool Transcript (With Joan Girkins from Homeschool Records) · The Christy-Faith Show

• 0:00
  Christy-Faith: Welcome to the show today, everybody. Keeping homeschool records is a daunting task for a lot of people. In Thrive Homeschool Community, we have questions all of the time about how do I keep my homeschool records? Do I even need to keep my homeschool records? Which as you know, the laws are different in every state.
• 0:17
  But the real question is, what about high school? How should we be doing this? What if my child is college bound? What if they're not college bound? What exactly should I be doing?
• 0:26
  Well, I found the perfect guest to suss all of this out, help us with a really great action plan. She's an expert on homeschool planning. She homeschooled all of her kids. She'll tell us in a minute. I don't know how old your kids are, but she'll share with us her experience.
• 0:41
  And she started a business called Homeschool Records, which you can explore at the end of this show. But really today's show is about demystifying the whole complexity of the process because it's not as hard as you think. And, yes, in some states, you are required to do it. But in the states where you're not, is it a good idea to do it anyway? That's what we're gonna talk about today.
• 1:01
  Thank you so much for coming on the show today, Joan. Would you take a moment to introduce yourself a little bit more than I just did?
• 1:19
  Joan Girkins: Sure. Sure. Thank you, Christy. Thanks so much for having me. It's such a pleasure to be on your show today.
• 1:25
  As Christy said, I am a retired homeschooled mom. We homeschooled our four kids, two sons, two daughters from the start over twenty years. So now we have five grandkids and our school age grandkids are being homeschooled. Our oldest daughter is going to be turning 35 this year. And then we have a 33 year old son, 32 year old son, and a daughter going on 30.
• 1:54
  So we had four kids in five years, so it was pretty tight tight group there at the time when we were homeschooling. But but it's just a joy, and now I get to enjoy them homeschooling and support them as well.
• 2:06
  Christy-Faith: Well and so I'm so curious, and I know this is a little bit off topic, but I love meeting women who homeschooled in a very different time than we are now. Yeah. What was that like when you decided twenty, twenty five years ago? Because you said your your kids are now in your thirties, so around when they were five years old. Why did you decide to homeschool in the first place?
• 2:27
  Joan Girkins: Well, it was kind of a funny story like anybody else. God evolves our our He reveals things to us over time. And at the beginning, we did know I had one brother that homeschooled. I'm the eighth of 13 children, and so I have lots of siblings. And my One of my older brother was homeschooling.
• 2:44
  So it wasn't completely foreign to us, but it was it was very foreign in those days, you know, culture wise. So when our youngest daughter or oldest daughter got ready for school age, we knew we were gonna put her in the public schools. We lived in Southern California. It wasn't the best. So we looked at private school and you know, you'll laugh at the amount but I think it was something like $1,200 for kindergarten in that day.
• 3:10
  And in our day, I was like, I told my husband, I said, I can teach her to read for $1,200 So that's literally how we started. But over time, we just all grew to love it and then, you know, it was not too many years into it where it really for us became a biblical conviction for our family. Like, this is god's calling on our lives and we just loved it and just stayed through to the end, and they all went to college and got degrees and various things. And so we're just we're just grateful.
• 3:46
  Christy-Faith: That is such a cool story. Did you ever have moments where, like, you didn't let your kids go out to play until 3PM? Were you did you have face any of those fears at all?
• 3:56
  Joan Girkins: It was no. We didn't really face that so much. It wasn't so much a fear, but it was more like because all our neighbors around us, there were a lot of elderly people and they just loved the kids, know, but as different demographics started moving in different age groups and stuff, it was more just like, I don't want to have this conversation again as to why my kids are
• 4:15
  Christy-Faith: out front front yard. I think we could all relate to that. Right? Yep. Like, okay.
• 4:23
  Yeah. Let's talk about socialization again. Let's go. Mhmm. But, anyway so thank you for that.
• 4:29
  I know that was off topic, but I'm really excited about what you do. I met you because you came to our co op and you talked to the moms about homeschool records, and that's how I even met you in the first place. I was so impressed with what you've built and what you do and how you know what really impressed me was the excellence to which you have built out your program. So, mama, whether or not you use homeschool records or not, really that's not what we're about today. We're about unpacking homeschool records.
• 4:59
  Why should you do it? Is it important if it's not required? And so that leads to right to our first question here. So how would you advise a mom to keep records if she lives in a state that doesn't require them? What is the benefit of doing this?
• 5:13
  Joan Girkins: Well, throughout this podcast today, we'll be covering various reasons under different category types. But I think I'd like to start with, it brings integrity for the mom first and foremost. You know, when you've got a neighbor, a nosy neighbor or grandparents or somebody who's just like, what are you doing? To be able to share with them and we would just share casually with our family because my husband's, we live near his family and his mom and dad and stepmom and stepdad were all educators. And so for me to just in casual conversation be like, yeah, just get the kids transcript or we just got the test results back, whatever.
• 5:56
  It just, it brought integrity for myself that I felt like, okay, I can present this to people what they're used to. You know, it's not like I want to fit in a box, but it just brought integrity for myself and for what we were doing. But then also, I think as a community of homeschoolers, it helps the community when we all, you know, to various degrees have some kind of record keeping or accountability. It brings integrity to the homeschool movement in general, I think.
• 6:28
  Christy-Faith: Yeah. I agree with that. And one thing that really struck me is during that presentation to our co op, you said unschoolers love us. And I thought that was really cool because, you know, so much is is part of homeschooling is the different pedagogies that we believe in, whether it's Charlotte Mason or it's classical or unit study. All types of homeschooling styles are out there.
• 6:52
  And I think that even if you're doing record keeping kind of at the end of the day, you're just using it as a log of what you did, it's really valuable to track what you did for a lot of reasons. But first, I want to speak to what's your philosophy regarding different learning styles? Because a lot of people and the reason why I wanna ask you this specifically is a lot of people think record keeping is just for the traditional style homeschoolers who are kind of replicating school at home. Do you what are you what are your thoughts on
• 7:22
  Joan Girkins: So I've thought about this a lot over the years as I've had conversations with various people about it. And I I kind of came up with this analogy where it's like, let's let's talk about the weather. Weather is different weather all over the country, all over the world. It's sunny, it's rainy, it's snowy, or whatever. But so it's all different types of weather, all different types of homeschoolers.
• 7:44
  But getting back to the weather analogy, the sun rises in the morning, the sun sets at the end of the day. We have fall, we have winter, we have spring. My point here is there's order in creation even amongst the chaotic weather. And I do find that and I have found talking to like unschoolers like you said, it brings order to their homeschooling to be able to document that. And I don't look at it as gee this is we have to do this because the public school or private schoolers do this.
• 8:16
  Right. It's like we're going to get into a lot of other you know reasons and ways that it helps but I do think it brings some order and that's from the unschoolers of all people. They're the ones that have said like we do different things. Know, we'll do cooking for math or whatever and you know, it just feels good to put down and record that we did some math today or even if it's just at the end of the semester or whatever. They just find it brings we all desire order to varying degrees.
• 8:48
  And so I think that's really how home record keeping impacts different learning styles.
• 8:55
  Christy-Faith: Yeah. And and that's one thing too is I know that one thing I regret not doing from early on was a reading log. All of the literature that my kids have read, I honestly don't even remember. I they're reading all the time. We're we've talked about books all the time.
• 9:13
  But it would it would have helped me not be so hard on myself, I think. And and although that's a later question I was gonna ask you, I don't mind diving into that now because I think that's really valid and it speaks to our fears and how hard moms can be on themselves with our homeschooling where we are really good at minimizing what we do. We're really good at like, well, we're still behind rather than saying, look how far we've come. Look at how much we did. And I think with record keeping is it's a great way that it's the tangible evidence to kind of like that cognitive reappraisal.
• 9:49
  No. I we actually did an incredible amount, and my kids have come so far this year. Wow. This is incredible, and it's right there in front of you. And I think that's why it's so powerful.
• 10:00
  One regret that's one regret I have because I live in a state, Colorado, where we don't have to keep a lot of meticulous records. We do have to stay legal, and there are hoops that we have to jump through, like, with attendance and required subjects. But in terms of we are a mid regulation state. We're not a high regulation state where we have to tick every box and verify everything that we've done. But I know that a question I get a lot from homeschool curious families, and it originally, it's viewed as an objection to homeschooling in general.
• 10:30
  And so I wanna dive into this whole idea of accreditation. That scary word. Right? Well, your high school doesn't count. It's not accredited.
• 10:39
  I you shouldn't be homeschooling high school. It's not accredited. How will your kid get into college? So what's the truth? Does a homeschool transcript have the same weight as quote, unquote, accredited transcripts from a public school or private school?
• 10:55
  Joan Girkins: The answer is absolutely. Absolutely. And I'll I'll give you the definition. And I I started because I hear this a lot too. I'm like, I want to look up the exact definition of the word accredited.
• 11:05
  And it refers to an institution, program, or person that has received official recognition, authorization, or certification from a recognized authority proving they meet specific predetermined quality standards. So you look at the 30,000 foot level and if a homeschool parent, if a homeschool family is following their state law then we meet this definition of accredited. Now you know you could get split hairs, you talk to an educator and say well homeschool transcript is accredited, you know, from some stamp of somebody. The bottom line is because it could go into all different kinds of directions but the bottom line is is that homeschool transcripts don't need to be accredited. They are they carry the weight.
• 11:55
  You follow state law and follow the requirements to homeschool, then your student's transcript, you are the principal of your school. And your children are your students. And so when you produce a transcript, a diploma, everything, if you, so long as you meet the state requirements, then you are accredited. Now, you know, again, it can go down the road of is this course accredited by some institution whatever. I personally have never come across.
• 12:27
  I don't know of any college that's going to require a homeschool transcript to be accredited you know.
• 12:34
  Christy-Faith: So And they actually and if they did, they'd be breaking the law, actually.
• 12:38
  Joan Girkins: Exactly.
• 12:39
  Christy-Faith: Because it that's discrimination against us, which thank goodness we have all of our beautiful state organizations who support our rights. And nationally, we have HSLDA, and they are always going to bat. I know that it was either last year or two years ago, they were having problems. And I'm on the board of Nevada Homeschool Association, and we were having problems in Nevada, particularly with cosmetology schools not recognizing homeschool transcripts. Now the colleges know better, but some of these institutions, and of course, because we have constitutional grounds, we won.
• 13:11
  We win all those battles because Yes. Because it's it's literally discrimination to discriminate against a student who with a homeschool high school transcript. And so I think that that's it's really important for parents to know that this is our public school system was created a hundred and fifty years ago. And and it's like, this is still an experiment that's, by the way, failing. Look at the reading rates of the average high school graduate right now.
• 13:37
  And you'd be questioning the public school's validation of their transcripts, honestly.
• 13:42
  Joan Girkins: Yeah. Many levels.
• 13:43
  Christy-Faith: I know. On so many levels. And so, you know, not that I wanna, like, have a diatribe of that right now, but I think it's a silly question, because we're within fully our rights. Now, also, what we do know is that colleges are recruiting homeschoolers and and at more and more rates. And the reason why is because we are you know, colleges are businesses.
• 14:08
  Homeschool students are very good students generally, as particularly the ones who are college bound. They know how to learn things themselves. They know how to complete things. They are very good writers, Thanks to fantastic writing programs that are very popular in the homeschool space. And they finish their degrees, and that's what colleges want because at the bottom the bottom dollar is the bottom line.
• 14:31
  And so they've realized, wow. These homeschool students do very well in our programs. So don't let that mama listening or dad listening right now, don't let the idea of accreditation keep you from thinking that somehow what you're doing is not valid and it because it's not at all. We used to we used to advise families for college counseling back when we had our center in Los Angeles. And I tell homeschool families to do the same exact thing that I told those families who were applying to Yale and Princeton.
• 15:00
  And that is you look at the require the course requirements that this college wants for admissions
• 15:05
  Joan Girkins: Mhmm.
• 15:06
  Christy-Faith: And you work backwards. And you make sure your student has those classes in high school, and that's what you do. And that's how we've always done it. Homeschooling for kids means I'm juggling roughly 24 different subjects at any given time. And a few years back during a particularly busy season, I hit a wall.
• 15:23
  I needed some serious help with the heavy lifting of teaching everything myself and managing schedules for four kids. That's when I found BJU Press Homeschool, and we've loved their courses so much that we keep going back. Some families use them for everything and love it. I use them for certain subjects. Either way, total mental load relief.
• 15:40
  Here's what my mornings look like now. Let us take science for example. My three girls do that one together. They fire up the lesson taught by a real teacher, well produced, actual teaching, not just click through busy work. And I sit there with my coffee, watch them, or make breakfast, and we discuss the big ideas.
• 15:57
  Every BJU Press homeschool course prioritizes critical thinking, a biblical worldview, and hands on learning. I just guide the conversation and pick which activity or pages or projects we want to do, and everything's already planned out. They have an online platform included for you called the Homeschool Hub, and it keeps everyone on track, both me and my kids, without micromanaging or nagging. And when I have questions, I call my Homeworks consultant. These people don't just help you get set up.
• 16:22
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• 16:38
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• 17:01
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• 17:16
  So they're always challenged but never crushed. And mama, it does the teaching and grading for us. Yes. You heard that right. That's a homeschool mom's dream.
• 17:25
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• 17:53
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• 18:05
  Don't spend another year kissing math frogs. This one stuck for us and I have a feeling it's gonna stick for you too. That leads to the homeschool transcript question because I know you can get a free Pinterest download. You can go on Canva and do it. I don't advise that.
• 18:23
  I wanna talk a little bit about homeschool transcripts, and I agree with you, Joan. I've heard you say on multiple occasions how important it is that they look professional. Would you speak to that?
• 18:36
  Joan Girkins: Yeah, I'll just write up front an old adage I'll say is first impressions matter. Right? So when you're applying for a job and I've heard the same thing you have Christy where families are like it's just data, colleges data want to see and that may be true in some cases. I can't speak for every college but I just like parents to think about when you go apply for a job then you're putting together your resume. Are you just thinking like oh they just want data.
• 19:06
  They just want what the things I did, the jobs I work. I'm just going to slap it in Excel spreadsheet and send it out. It's like, no, we don't do that. You know, we pay attention to format and we pay attention to how it looks and professionalism. And so that's I think it's really important that we our kids have worked hard.
• 19:24
  We've worked hard. I remember in my day, I'll just sidebar a quick moment here to say that the heart of homeschool records came out from the fact I didn't have anything like this when I was creating records. And, you know, I'm sitting here with Excel and trying to color block and do all this stuff and, you know, Excel to try to because I'm looking at a transcript you could produce. I'm going, this is really depressing, like all that work and this is what how we send it off to a college, you know, and so that seed was kind of in my mind and I spent a lot of time formatting and doing things to make it look professional because I thought especially with colleges today, not very many colleges do interviews. And so documentation is all we have to communicate to the colleges who our student is and the kind of work they've done.
• 20:16
  So it's a it's a very important thing I think to make sure that it our students are professionally represented in the documentation.
• 20:24
  Christy-Faith: Yeah. And do you when do you advise a mom starts this high school transcript stuff? Do you is it something that she can put together the senior year of high school, or do you think she's she should start earlier?
• 20:37
  Joan Girkins: Well, the transcript is one thing. And I think just speaking to the transcript, I would say the earlier the better because, you know, you're gonna have to sit there and think back of four years of academics when you go to put together the transcript or three years and seven junior year. And I guarantee you by the time a mom has done that, she has spent more hours worrying about it and thinking about it. And it's like, I'm to do this one of these days and whatnot. So my recommendation is and because it's not just a transcript, you know, we have the student resume, which is activities, awards, achievements.
• 21:16
  You know, the transcript is academics and what the student has done academically. The activities, awards and achievements expound on that. So if a student is in speech and debate, they can get credit for speech and debate academically. On the resume then, now you talk about what tournaments they were involved in, what place did they take, and what did they achieve in that. And so, then what jobs they did.
• 21:39
  You know, the colleges want to see, they want to know the student. That's what I've worked with a lot of colleges over the years. And like you said, Christy, they are recruiting homeschoolers. They love them. And what I hear all the time is, but we need to understand you guys.
• 21:56
  Like who are your students? Know, they're used to boxes of fitting in with getting information. And so we try to help provide that information in the avenues they're used to. So kind of getting back to timing, I think ninth grade is the time to start. By the time ninth grade starts, you need to chosen.
• 22:16
  I don't care if it's homeschool records or something else. You need to have made that decision. Do the free trials of all the different places because whatever you use to document it, it has to fit you mom because you're the one that has to stay on top of it. So if you're not connecting with something and you're like, ah, this is just cumbersome. Try something else.
• 22:37
  But ninth grade, be ready to go out of the gate because every activity, award, achievement, semester by semester, job, course, everything. If you wait to your senior year, you're gonna be stressed beyond what you can imagine, really.
• 22:51
  Christy-Faith: Right. Well, and you'll you'll forget important things. You'll Yes. That one internship or the mission trip or the leadership opportunity. All those things are I mean, I can barely remember what I had for dinner last night.
• 23:06
  Can't speak to. So so yeah. I I think and I I agree with you so much. I mean, just from a not that a mom of a kindergartner needs to do it to this degree, but it also jogs your memory when you are putting together that transcript and you, oh, yeah. Remember that.
• 23:24
  And then you you might actually see a through line somewhere, a hit a talent that you didn't see before. It's it's a great it's a great fingerprint of of your kid, and you can see thing how they developed. And I'm a big believer in the, like, the gap in game thinking, meaning because I just I have this passion for homeschoolers. We we always feel like we're behind we're behind today. We're behind this week.
• 23:50
  What did I get accomplished this week? Ah, we're behind. Right? I just did a podcast episode on there's more lessons left than days left of the year, ladies. What are we gonna do?
• 23:59
  Which is everybody. Right? Well but, you know, when you keep records, you're it's literally evidence. Look how far you've come. Look at what you did.
• 24:10
  So for example, my son, he took cultural geography this year, and it was a very rigorous course. It was done at our co op and intense. We did cultural geography, physical geography, world religions. We did it all. We did it all.
• 24:29
  And part of that course was mapping. And the teacher of the course said, by the end of the year, you are going to be able to map the entire world and list all the countries on your hand drawn map by heart. And I'm gonna tell you, I I I was like, this kid, that, This one? Right? You know?
• 24:52
  Like, really? I don't know. And I couldn't
• 24:56
  Joan Girkins: do that, Frank.
• 24:57
  Christy-Faith: I know. Well, the thing is is because it was broken down, we did each continent. The kids prepared beautiful presentations all year. You know, they even had their public speaking credit in this they even had their writing credit. We incorporated literature.
• 25:11
  We just did a very cool thing, which actually is interesting with Homeschool Records because that one course fulfilled so many other credits that being able to piece that like, if you do a course and you did a ton of writing in it, well, could that go towards some writing credits? Right? Like, that's what you help moms do. But my point is is that yesterday was the last day, and all the kids put up on the walls their huge, huge these are massive world maps, and it was their final exam. They all sat there, not sat.
• 25:43
  They stood over the tables for four hours drawing their maps from heart and labeling all the countries. The reason why it applies to what we're talking about today is it was physical evidence we could see of how hard they worked and how much they did. I just think that what a gift that was. And then those younger kids were able to go in there and say, woah to these high schoolers. You did that.
• 26:07
  And the high schoolers were presenting their maps and all these things to the younger kids. If you are the type of mom listening right now and you're hard on yourself, you're kind of that perfectionist mom, one challenge you could give yourself for next year is maybe give yourself twenty minutes every Friday or something like that, and just write down what you did. You'll feel so much better about the education that you're giving your kids. So that was a little bit of a ramble, but I think that we're just so in alignment with this in terms of
• 26:36
  Joan Girkins: Yes.
• 26:36
  Christy-Faith: The the level of excellence. I wanna stop and ask you right now that if my podcast series has been helpful to you in any way, would you stop and do something for me? Even right now, it'll only take you ten seconds and it costs you nothing. Would you hit that thumbs up, give the show five stars if I've earned it, leave a comment or maybe click that notification so that you get a little bell that rings when a podcast episode drops, and make a comment about the show or ask a question. Those little tiny things that can be done so quickly, they tell the algorithm, those robots behind the screen that this show is worth showing other moms.
• 27:11
  There's probably a mom really overwhelmed right now that needs this podcast series, and just by you engaging in a little way, that can help her find us. And it also helps me give you oodles of value for free because when a lot of people watch the show, the sponsors are happy. And if someone comes to mind while you're listening, maybe a friend who's nervous about homeschooling, googling at night, not sure what to do, please go ahead and send her this series. And thank you so much ahead of time. Even if you only do one or two of those things, I really appreciate it from the bottom of my heart.
• 27:43
  So I wanna talk about you've probably seen moms who've been homeschooling for years with zero paper trail. Zero. Right? What's your don't panic, here's what to do advice for them?
• 27:56
  Joan Girkins: Well, I would say to get started. I know that sounds silly, but like I alluded to earlier, you're that mom has spent way more hours fretting, worrying, thinking about how am
• 28:09
  Christy-Faith: I gonna do this, how am
• 28:10
  Joan Girkins: gonna do that, then there it's actually gonna take if you just sit down and do it. And I will just speak for a moment because this is another heart of mine with homeschool records is I designed my site to be teaching site. So as you're creating the records, as you're building your transcript, I'm teaching you how to build it as you build it. It's integrated into the interface. And so that's a I think it's a twofold issue.
• 28:36
  The number one is the mom gets overwhelmed because she doesn't know how to do it. The thought of like, oh my goodness, I got to do this, I got to do that, and how am I going to do That's addressed through homeschool records. So in teaching them but the bigger piece too that goes along with that is you just have to get started and then you realize, oh, you know I remember another analogy, a friend of mine when we were raising our kids together and they were all toddlers, she had three, I had four, and we were both like, do you know how hard it is to make the bed every day? Like it is so hard to make the bed every day to get the time to do it. And her husband made this very wise observation.
• 29:14
  He said, it sounds silly, but you make the bed first thing in the morning because if you get through the day, you will have walked through that bedroom and made that bed 50 times in your head before you've actually done it. And so you've wasted all that energy on thinking about, I got to get to that. I need to do that. I need to do that. And I think that same analogy works for record keeping.
• 29:38
  It's like just sit down and start it. Yeah. And you'll be like, this is great. I, you know, I didn't have to fret all that time about it. It's just like you said, at the end of every semester, always send out an email to all the subscribers to say, okay, like I'm about ready to send it out now.
• 29:58
  Enter in the final grades from your student, enter in any activities they just completed, enter any of that, put in what they're gonna do this fall, and put in what things are doing over the summer. Like, it will take them to do all of that. It'll take like an hour of time tops, and most of that's just spent on thinking about, okay. Let's see. Yeah.
• 30:19
  They got a job. They're gonna be doing that missions trip, all of that. So it's, like, so little time to get so much done.
• 30:27
  Christy-Faith: Well, it it I gotta say I'm in that boat because it feels so much bigger, especially right? So Lincoln just finished his fresh freshman year, and it does. It feels bigger than it really is if I just sat down and did it. What about families? This is a really important thing to talk about.
• 30:45
  What about families who don't think their child is college bound?
• 30:50
  Joan Girkins: Yeah. That's a really, really great question. There are so many situations that come up for students. You have things like jobs. There are companies that want to see the fact that your student has finished high school.
• 31:06
  So they want to see a transcript. If they're going to enlist in the military, they're going to have it and maybe transcript or diploma. I'll kind of tie those two together because they can't get their diploma without the transcript being complete. But you have military enlistment, you have trade schools, you have jobs, you have apprenticeships, professional licensing that a student may want to pursue of some type that's outside of like a college situation. So there are so many different things that come up.
• 31:37
  Remember my younger brother one time went to, went out to buy a VCR and he calls me and he's like, Hey, Joni, bring me my high school diploma. And I'm like, Where are you? You went to get a VCR. He's like, I'm at a car dealer and they have this deal of if you prove you graduated from high school, if you prove you finished high school, you get $500 off a new car. And so it was just like, wow, they're so silly, but there's all kinds of situations that it's just a really good idea.
• 32:05
  Plus I have, I've had so many moms tell me that like my student graduated, they're going on to do whatever, but they downloaded all the documentation and they kept it as a keepsake for their student of it, like an academic yearbook is what you could call it. Right? So whether it's for mom or for student, it's like, there's just a lot of reasons to keep, you know, to do that.
• 32:28
  Christy-Faith: Yes. And for the record, the way that mom's listening and Joan already knows this, but the way I truly believe to advise homeschooling families in this is even if you don't think your child is college bound, this is my opinion, you want to build their transcript as if they are because I can't tell you how many kids change their mind. They get into what career they thought they wanted to do when they were 15, 16, and they realize, oh, this is kind of awful. I don't wanna be doing this the rest of my life. I think I wanna go to college.
• 33:02
  And you it's great if you have that ready because think of the position you're gonna be in if that is the case, and not every kid needs to go to college. In fact, it's kind of a a joke nowadays. But my point is is that you don't wanna be scrambling and trying to remember what they did to make them look, you know, all those wonderful things and the all the great experiences that you gave them. You're not gonna remember them five years ago or six years ago. And so if you just build it correctly now and it's there, you will be so thankful.
• 33:32
  And I love that that kids even keep it as a keepsake because it's evidence of what of what they did and all the things that they did accomplish.
• 33:39
  Joan Girkins: I thought it was something I wanted to swing back to in regards to your question about the parent who's thinking I'll I'll create the transcript or the documents when I need to to start the application process. There are outside of the stress we talked about that it causes the mom but there are situations like military service academies, NCAA athletes. By the end of the junior year and some scholarships as well, the end of the junior year that documentation has to be provided to like for the athletes for applications to service academies. So if you're just thinking, oh, you know, kick the can down to tomorrow. And I've just like you, I've come across families that are like, my student wasn't going to, my child wasn't going to go to whatever college or they weren't planning on participating NCAA athlete.
• 34:31
  And then this door opens and now they are those situations like military NCAA scholarships. Now they're really scrambling and I think that it it really and and I'll touch on this a little later when we talk about another topic but it really can affect the quality of the documentation because if you take time to ponder and remember and you're kind of keeping things as you're going then you're going to be it's going to be more comprehensive. But if you're waiting till the end and you have to scramble to put things together, you're like, well, I don't remember what that was anyway, so I'm not gonna do that. And you're not gonna produce as quality of documentation to represent your student.
• 35:12
  Christy-Faith: Yeah. Absolutely. Which let's talk about that representation a little bit more because I think one of the amazing flexes of homeschooling, especially in high school, is our kids generally have more breathing room and time to pursue interests and internships and do community service and things like that. So how can a well documented service record open doors for kids? I have to tell you about something because it falls squarely in category of things I wish someone had told me sooner.
• 35:46
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• 37:06
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• 37:17
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• 37:28
  Link is in the show notes. This podcast is also brought to you by The Christy-Faith List. Now hold up because I want you to know what this is. I'm really proud of what The Christy-Faith List has become. It started really scrappy just compiling recommendations because I was fed up with guessing which businesses and providers and doctors weren't gonna give me a hard time when I walked through those doors.
• 37:50
  And I had tons of friends and family members with nightmare situations where they felt like they were walking into an ambush situation just when they were trying to get help for their families. And I was sick and tired of the discrimination that homeschool families were getting. But since then, it has grown into a massive directory of colleges, businesses, doctor's offices, reading specialists, occupational therapists, homeschool graduates that are in business themselves now. You name it all in one place. Because why wouldn't we wanna do business with the people who share our values and actually want to work with homeschool families and not give us a hard time?
• 38:24
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• 38:45
  Joan Girkins: So yeah, outside of you know how how can this documentation and the activities awards achieve it, how how can the student resume help a student? I've had two families that have talked about their students getting a congressional letter of recommendation for their student as they apply to military service academies. So what they have said is that you know, you have to present a lot of documentation to get a congressional letter recommendation. There's only a handful of students that will receive that. And so they just felt like, you know, having the professional documentation helped because they have to present things in the application like essay, resume, transcript, you know, test scores, etcetera, letters of recommendation.
• 39:35
  And so again, when you're talking about professionally representing the things your student is doing outside of the academics even, even how that is presented like, you know, you think about, I think it was I read where the congressmen only give like two, yeah, two letters of recommendation out of all the applicants and they get thousands of applicants. And I think how cool is that that we've got you know, homeschool students that are achieving, you know, obtaining that letter of recommendation. So that's that's an importance of that resume and what they're doing, what they're accomplishing, not just academically, but all around.
• 40:18
  Christy-Faith: Yes. I love that. And I think that in general record keeping because a lot of moms listening to the show right now, they might have younger kids. I mean, we have everybody, but for the mom listening today who has younger kids, don't sleep on record keeping. You know, sometimes there's advice floating around there that's like, well, you know, it's just something that you can just show your mother-in-law to prove that you're learning.
• 40:43
  And then a mom would come to me and say, but we're kinda, we are deschooled. We don't really wanna replicate the system. So why would I keep records? But I think that keeping records to remember what you've done, not to prove something to other people, but more just to prove something to yourself that you are doing a great job, that you you know, when you meet once a year or twice a year to go over with your spouse, your what you're doing with your kiddos, you'll actually have the list. You'll be able to remember.
• 41:16
  Right? Because moms can barely remember anything. Well, I can't. So and I just I love that. And what I love about your homeschool records, because you were when we met on a Zoom earlier, like, I'm a little transcript and documentation nerd, but what excites me is we need you.
• 41:35
  We need women like you because you remember and will remind us to document the things we're not remembering to or that we might not think are important. And so because the way explain a little bit how what it's like to fill out a record in in your program.
• 41:55
  Joan Girkins: So I'll just address the transcript Yeah. First of all. It kind of equates to the other things but I mean you basically starting with the teaching part is just providing you number one with the fields that you need to enter. Yeah. That's the other thing.
• 42:08
  Some parents are like, what do colleges want on a transcript? Yeah. Right? So you know you go in there and you select this. There's the first button is semester and you'll see like fall, spring, summer.
• 42:19
  So just for example, right there's a teaching moment because a parent might be like, well this is a full year course. And so the teaching part that they don't realize is taking place is that there are many colleges like Hillsdale for example. They want to see the courses listed by semester and not just one grade full year. That teaching is I'm forcing you to select from the drop down, you know, and then you get to the next one of, you know, what's the what's the category of that? Well, that's like the subject.
• 42:48
  So you look at the dropdown, you see, oh, math, English, science, history. Okay. I get that. And then I have some preloaded courses like for math. There's pre algebra, algebra one.
• 42:59
  So everything along the way it's guided or that the template field itself like the student resume. It too will ask what's the activity title and you can look at that the drop down menu is like volunteer jobs, community service, that type of thing. It's like, okay. Get so the whole process there. It's you're constantly learning and I'm trying to teach you and help guide you along in the process to make it as least stressful as possible because honestly you guys it isn't rocket science but not everybody is good at administratively and understanding how to document things and I like I said I'm a nerd and I enjoy making things as intuitive and easy for the mom as possible to make it less stress to free you up to go have fun with your kids and homeschool them.
• 43:49
  You know?
• 43:50
  Christy-Faith: So say a mom doesn't necessarily homeschool per se with subjects like that because you mentioned that even unschoolers really like your program. What's that experience for them if they're are they still dropping down and picking a subject science?
• 44:07
  Joan Girkins: When it comes to high school, yes.
• 44:08
  Christy-Faith: Yeah.
• 44:09
  Joan Girkins: Okay. I mean, in high school, you have to fit into the college's boxes. I mean, from k through, you know, up through k through eight, you can enjoy that and, you know, do it how you want to do it. But honestly, really think that even and currently my site starts at eighth grade because I want it. And that's where the unschoolers are just like, this is really good for me because I've just been like, woo hoo doing this my own thing and it helps guide them like, okay, let's prepare you for the high school part.
• 44:39
  But if even a K through seven and I'm developing that right now, it'll be a not as structured in that way, like you have to put a subject or whatever. You can name things, but it's good, I think, to help a parent to even think about how do we name things? What do we call this thing? And I mean cooking is math but you could just put cooking when it's K through seven just put cooking or you know library day or whatever. Just getting used to documenting that is just really helpful to parents.
• 45:11
  But yeah for eight through 12 you really should you know, I'm helping you learn how to fit in the boxes. The colleges are that you just have to fit in for their documentation.
• 45:22
  Christy-Faith: Yes. Yeah. And you'd be surprised what you do cover. Sometimes I help families where the the parents are split up and as a courtesy, the mom who's the primary homeschooler will send her ex husband a a record that's it's not necessarily official. It's required or anything like that, but as a courtesy so that he knows what their child is learning.
• 45:47
  And and we meet and go over it sometimes, and I am always blown away at everything they've done because but her homeschool looks like all of ours. When you actually start writing the things down, you're you're think, wait a minute. That's SEL learning. This is so this is like a class in social emotional. This is amazing.
• 46:12
  And so when you start documenting those things, you'll get blown away at you know, when I hear on social media, everything's learning. I that's never landed with me. I want I want to see it. Right? Don't tell me that.
• 46:26
  That doesn't make me feel better about the meltdown that's happening in the other wall over here. Right? So so when that's why I that exercise, and that's what I see what what women would be doing on your website too is that same thing where, okay, let's actually figure out what these things were so that we have yeah. We have evidence and can feel really good about what we're doing. So I know that you prepared a discount for the listeners on the show today.
• 46:56
  Thank you so much. What is that?
• 46:59
  Joan Girkins: You're welcome. It is Christy-Faith. All of those spaces, no lines, anything, but all caps. Okay. Christy-Faith will get you 20% off your first student and your first subscription with your first student.
• 47:12
  So you can get a try but you have a seven day free trial. So I I I really genuinely mean this from the heart to the moms out there. Try different record keeping services because you just have to find something that fits you to give you confidence in moving forward. Because if it doesn't work, you're just gonna dread. You're gonna walk by that computer and go, I gotta log in to that place and do my thing.
• 47:38
  You know? And and you don't want that. You don't need that.
• 47:42
  Christy-Faith: Yeah. Exactly. So that's so great. Okay. We'll put a link in the show notes for that.
• 47:47
  Are there any last words of encouragement you have for the mamas listening today? As a mom who's graduated her homeschooler, you've seen them, you've been on the other side, and here we are still in the trenches. Any words of encouragement for us?
• 48:01
  Joan Girkins: I would just say you moms are doing an amazing thing for your kids. I look back and I just kind of marvel at like because you know you're in the trenches and you're at the grocery store and someone says to you, you know, oh your kids are so well behaved at the grocery store or whatever and you're just like, you weren't here thirty seconds ago. Just face that. So those are the real everyday moments through life but those moments add up. And I truly believe that are moms are just designed to connect and lead your kids and educate them better than anyone else on the face of the earth.
• 48:42
  And so while it's hard, I'll just say it is so worth it and your kids will rise up and call you blessed. They might be 23, 24, 25, but they will because they'll mature and recognize the effort that you've put in and it's an effort of the heart. So just keep staying the course and and all will be well. So keep it up, moms.
• 49:04
  Christy-Faith: Oh, and thank you so much for making what you didn't have so that we could have better tools. I I just love that story of how you're even though you're done with it, that you really saw that need, and you are helping us in a tremendous way. Thank you so much, Joan, for coming on the show.
• 49:22
  Joan Girkins: You're welcome, Christy. Thank you so much for having me. It's just my pleasure indeed.