Latest / Motherhood Alliance Podcast / How to Get Started With Homeschooling w/ Tina Hollenbeck | The Homeschool Loft
Transcript
- speaker-0: Welcome to the Motherhood Alliance podcast, the podcast dedicated to empowering moms and families on their health and wellness journey. I'm Brittany Sutner. speaker-1: and I'm Andrea Rankes. Together, we're here to explore holistic approaches that go beyond conventional medicine. speaker-0: Each week, we dive into topics that matter most to you, everything from nutrition and mental health to alternative therapies and natural living. speaker-1: We'll bring you the expert interviews, insightful discussions, and practical tips to make motherhood a little easier and help your family thrive. speaker-0: Please keep in mind that this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only, and is not intended to replace the advice, diagnosis, or treatment plans you have with your personal healthcare team. Please have a conversation with your trusted healthcare provider prior to making any changes or implementing any strategies or advice you learn from this podcast. speaker-1: Whether you're a new mom navigating the early stages of parenthood or a seasoned pro looking for new ways to support your family's wellbeing, you're in the right place. speaker-0: Here at the Motherhood Alliance podcast, we challenge the status quo, ask the tough questions, and offer a supportive community for moms who want to make an informed, holistic choice. speaker-1: Thank you for joining us on this journey. speaker-0: Let's get started. Hi, we are Britt Andrea from motherhoodalliance.com and we're excited to welcome you to a four episode series with Tina Hollenbeck, the founder of the Home School Loft. Through the Home School Loft, Tina provides support and encouragement for current and prospective home educating parents through free at one-on-one consultations, workshops, homeschooler gatherings, a bi-monthly podcast, and a very extensive community calendar, which lists a plethora of activities available to homeschool families. Tina is a former public school teacher and a veteran homeschooling mom. She's also the curator of the Homeschool Resource Roadmap, which is the most comprehensive curriculum database in existence. She's the author of Eight Great Smarts for Homeschoolers and an occasional speaker at major homeschool conferences. Her work is all about helping families feel confident, informed, and supported in their homeschooling journey. So whether you're considering homeschooling, are knee deep in it, or are simply curious, we're excited to share options and opportunities that exist for families all over Wisconsin. Let's jump into today's episode. Hi everyone. Welcome back to the podcast. We are excited to kick off a homeschooling series with Tina Hollenbeck. Welcome, Tina. We are so excited to learn from you, but before we jump in, as much as I'm tempted to just like jump into all the questions that I have, we do want to get to know you as a person because you are also an experienced homeschool mom, but you started out as a public school teacher. speaker-2: Thanks for having me, I'm really excited. ⁓ speaker-0: But even more so before that, let's jump into a fun fact, cause it's always fun to get to know people's hobbies and interests and you shared that you just love cats. So tell us about your experience with cats. speaker-2: Pretty much had them most of my life. ⁓ Used to live on a farm in Dodge County and my father would not take any of the cats to spay and neuter them. So we had like 30 cats at a certain point and I had names for all of them and I took care of them even though none of them were allowed to be in the house. And I think that just kind of set me on a journey. And so for my whole married life, my husband and I have had at least one cat. ⁓ except for our very first year we weren't allowed because of where we rented. But then for my college graduation present, he got me a cat. And I'm like, well, now you just ran. And at one point we had seven because we took in my sister-in-law's cats. And what are you going to do? You're not going to let them go to the Humane Society. And we currently have five. and they're just, we have a six-year-old, a two-year-old, and then. triplets that came from an Amish farm in Bondiwell. Really? And they are about six months old and they're just a hoot. speaker-1: bet they are. I bet that six-year-old one loves it. speaker-2: Christmas was interesting this past year because they were probably about what five months old or something at the time in the Christmas tree. We always we have to anchor our trees to the wall. I mean, that's just to give it. Yes, and they did. Yeah, it was really fun. We did. There was one cat that we had several years ago that the year he was a kitten. speaker-0: Yeah, because cats climb up into the trees. Do you even put ornaments on? speaker-2: Every morning the bottom third of the tree was naked. ⁓ Garland ornaments, everything off. And then we just kind of like threw it back up on the top every day. It's like, you know, if you have cats, you just have to realize that this is going to be your life. speaker-1: What is? speaker-0: It's like toddlers too, know. Exactly. It just looks different for a couple of years. speaker-2: That's right, that's but they're worth it so speaker-0: All right. Well, why don't you tell us your story a little bit, just from public teaching to homeschooling. And now your daughters are grown, but you are like the biggest resource in Wisconsin for homeschooling. tell us your journey. speaker-2: So yeah, I started out as a public school teacher. I had a long journey in college. I was supposed to be veterinarian is what I thought, but that didn't work out. So long story short, I had about six different majors and I ended up being an ESL teacher. So English as a Second Language is what they called it at the time. I know I think it's called ELL now. And I taught in the Green Bay Public Schools for nine years before my husband and I had kids. And taught at the middle school level. I love middle schoolers. They're amazing and they're... ⁓ I just love them. And then high schoolers. So I did that for nine years. Really enjoyed that season of my life. But I also knew that as soon as we had children that and my husband agreed that I would come home and that would be my gig. I had met some of the pioneer homeschoolers in Wisconsin way when we were first newlyweds before we ever had children. And it was really intrigued. was going in Wisconsin became legal in 1984. So that was not something that I could have been homeschooled. But I met this one family and their kids were really impressive. thought, huh, so I tucked that back in my mind. And then my public school teaching experience, it wasn't horrible, but I also got the sense that I didn't really want my children to be in the system. I wanted to be the one to see the light bulb go on. That's kind of how it started for me. It's like, so I had my children, my daughter, Rachel, in 2001. And then 11 and a half months later, my daughter, Abby came along. I was twins. I know I always wanted to early. Yeah. And I'm sure God was like, you can't do, you can't do twins, but maybe you can handle this. So, which was very cool because we, was a little bit older when I had them. And so was really nice to have them close together, worked out super well for homeschooling. They were and are each other's best friend. So, I mean, they fight like cats and dogs sometimes too, but you know, I was talking homeschooling right away from the beginning and my husband was a little bit freaked out. Not because he thought it was bad. He didn't know anything about it. But his parents are public school teachers and he is the first born. He's very much a boy scout. I want to please my parents kind of thing. And he said, well, what if they feel bad in my mind? And I love my in-laws. They're amazing. I knew they'd be fine. But I, in my mind, I was like, well, these are our children, not their children. And so he wasn't sure. And I was just like, okay, praying about it. And then he was an interim youth pastor when my girls were toddlers. And he got to know all the kids in the church. And he came back one day after about six months of getting to know everybody. And he said, okay, now I know all the kids and I like most of them. But those homeschoolers, there's something really interesting about them. You know, they're engaged in not only what I'm teaching, but just kind of learning in general. They're contrary to the stereotype. They were very interested in socializing with everybody and didn't have the cliques that some of the other kids dealt with. They could just converse with anybody, anytime. And he was really impressed. And he said, so if that's what homeschooling does, then I'm in. And I said, can I get that in writing? Yeah, no kidding. But and then he said, I'll talk to my parents. And of course, we did. And they were fine. They didn't know anything about it. But my in-laws are amazing people. really, they're actually inspiration for me because now that I have adult kids, to know how to let your adult kids make their own choices is a big one for me. And they have modeled it. really, really well with all of their kids and grandkids. So they were great and they learned along with us and they lived in New Holstein, we lived in Green Bay, so we got to go down there and spend a lot of time with them and we got that grandparent benefit which was so cool. And then I just went on with homeschooling and it became a, some people do year to year. I'm gonna decide year to year if we do this. For us it was like we're in, we're just in and this is our life and I suppose if there'd ever been a curve ball, we could have reevaluated but that never really happened. And I moved from being, I just want to be the person to see the light bulb go on. And I love being with my kids. so, and that always remained, but I became a real strong homeschool advocate after a while to like, I'm a firm believer in parental rights. Whatever you decide for your kids is what you should do. But if anybody asks me, should you homeschool? I'm like, okay, well now you've opened the floodgates with my cats. speaker-1: as you can go home school. speaker-2: Right. And I always leave it to the parents. I never try to strong arm them, but I'm hoping that if somebody has an interest, I can kind of convince them that it would be something good to pursue. speaker-0: Okay, so I do want to circle back to a couple things that you talked about. You said homeschooling became legal in the 80s. Was it illegal before that? speaker-2: No, it was always there. Some states that actually like from colonial times until about the early 20th century, most everybody was homeschooled in the entire country, right? Or they had a private tutor or something like that or a little Laura Ingalls schoolhouses type thing. Beginning of the 20th century is when we started getting the big public schools that we know of today. And around that time, some states actually did criminalize homeschooling. and said, you you're going to be truant if you keep your kids home. Wisconsin never did that, but it kind of went out of vogue. As everybody was trying this new thing called, you know, big public school, more more people were doing that and fewer and fewer were homeschooling. So people thought it was illegal, but it still happened. And the people who actually worked to get the law that we actually have to codify it now in Wisconsin. They were homeschooling the whole entire time. And part of the reason that they worked with the legislature was to make sure that people were not discriminated against and that there actually is a law and no one can say you can't do this. But they were already off grid. And then they came and talked to some legislatures and they had to work hard to get that law passed. speaker-0: Okay, well let's talk about all the options for schooling. I mean, I think a lot of people are going to be tuning into this. Maybe they already home school and they want to hear from you on maybe some extra tips and tricks, but there's gonna be a lot of people that are just like, you know, this has crossed my mind. I've heard of it. I don't really know about it. I've heard of stereotypes. What are the options, especially for those who have little kids and are just coming up to making decisions? So can you kind of walk through the different options for schooling and then maybe some pros and cons, high level of each? speaker-2: Sure, sure. Well, the main one obviously would be conventional public schools. That's the one that we're most familiar with. It's, you know, your children go to a brick and mortar building for a public slash government school. There are brick and mortar private schools. And so that's another option that people are really, really familiar with. There are also online public schools. And a lot of times people confuse that with homeschooling. And there's a really big difference. The online public schools are associated with a public school district somewhere in the state. It doesn't have to be like, Appleton doesn't need to have an Appleton online program. They could adopt something else, but it's just based in the Appleton district. But those programs, parents get, either they get money, which is taxpayer money to buy curriculum and things like that, or they will get like a quote unquote free computer, taxpayer funded computer that they will use in the home. And ⁓ so the kids are home if you're using a virtual public school and it is taxpayer funded. However, there's less freedom than with homeschooling because it's using other people's money. And so there needs to be accountability for how that money is used. And so a lot of times people think, you know, they say they're homeschooling if they're using one of those virtual online charters. They're not. There's a certain form that people fill out when they're homeschooling. And that does not happen when you're using a public online charter. Again, not a judgment call in that regard, but it's important to know the semantics and know what you're doing, depending on what you're choosing. There are actually also a couple of online Wisconsin registered private schools in the state over the last couple of years, which is the same kind of thing. They tend to be voucher schools. So if you qualify for these private online Wisconsin registered private schools, you will also get free curriculum, computers, that kind of thing. But again, those are not homeschooling because they operate under the private school law of the state. speaker-0: So, the virtual option, you're saying that you would get money to purchase curriculum. Can you choose whatever curriculum you want or are you doing curriculum that they dictate? speaker-2: For the online public, it's definitely the curriculum that they dictate. For the online private, there is some choice. What I have seen, though, I've seen a couple of these options through the years since this way of doing things kind of became a thing. Usually the programs start out with a very broad range of options, including Christian options, because they are private Christian schools. What has happened with every single one of them, though, is after a couple of years, the school I think because DPI gets on their case and says, can't have such a broad option, they narrow the options and they make the rules and the regulations stricter. That literally just happened in January of this year with one of the main online private options. They kind of got the rug pulled out from under them and said, you've had all this freedom, but now we're reining it in. And so that is a disadvantage to that. You might get used to having the money and the stipends and everything. And if they tighten the regulations, have to decide, am I willing to do that or is it time to move on to something else? speaker-0: Does virtual schooling mean that the kiddo is sitting on a computer and doing most of their work or is it more like you're schooling at home, not homeschooling, but schooling at home with the curriculum that we've dictated and we're just calling it virtual to give it kind of a header name? speaker-2: Both, both. The online public options tend to be online all day long. And because there is a supervising teacher that is assigned to each family, and there are rules of you must be logging in at X, Y, and Z time, just the same as if you went to a brick and mortar school, you have to be there at a certain time. And that supervising teacher is really the boss. And so if he or she says, you know, this is what you have to do this day, this week, you have to, because the parent pretty much functions as the paraprofessional in that situation. So you're the one home with your child, but you're not in charge. And with the online private, it's a mix. Some of them are online, and there's a teacher that is presenting the classes. Some of them are you're given the money, and you could do offline curriculum. But you still need to report to the school and make sure that you're following those rules for the school. Because again, you're not ultimately the authority for your kids because you're taking that other money and that kind of speaker-1: And with, I mean, when you have a conventional school, you're dropping your kids off, they're gone all day. When you have a more virtual school, yes, they're home, but they still have to be in front of the computer in a live class, usually, because I've looked into this too, in a live class throughout the day. So it's not like with homeschooling, you could be like, okay, we're gonna, you know, do our work in the morning, and then we have the rest of day to go and do an adventure, you know, or whatever, right? But with this, it's like, ⁓ you have a class at... 9 a.m., 11 a.m., you take a break, and now it's at two and three, and it's like, well, there goes your day, right? I mean, no judgment, it's just that's what it is. speaker-2: Well, and so, you know, the pro in that regard would be for either of those online options is there's you get money, right? And so it's it's it's free in a sense to you as a parent. But the downside is you lose some freedom. speaker-1: Yeah, it really depends too. mean, with all of these options, it just depends too on what your kid needs. you know, some, I know there's like some kids that with disabilities and so maybe the parents are like, you know, I want them in a public school, but I don't want them in the conventional school for whatever reason, you know, so maybe they want them home doing things. I don't know. There's different reasons. speaker-2: And like I said, my thing is I'm going to tell you all about homeschooling if you want to homeschool. But if you make another choice, I'm not going to harangue you or say, you know, we've made a bad choice for your child. My only thing that I really try to get onto people is please use the terminology properly. it's not people get offended by that. They're like, you're judging and you're saying, you know, school at home, public school at home is not as good as homeschooling. That's not it. But there are state rules and regulations. And if we as homeschoolers say that a public school at home program, their homeschooling, that could actually come back to hurt homeschool freedom by blurring those lines. so it has nothing to do with a family that chooses another option. It has everything to do with knowing that you don't want government bureaucrats questioning what you're doing and saying, well, homeschoolers get money from the state, so we need to regulate. No, we actually don't. Homeschoolers don't. speaker-1: Wisconsin, believe, is one of the most freedom as far as like with homeschool law. speaker-2: Right. Yeah. And that's, you we could talk about that too. So the reason that homeschooling that it is so free, I mean, there's a law for sure. And there's things that we have to follow. But one of the reasons that it is as free for parents as it is freedom wise is that we do not take taxpayer money. And so it's self pay that that can be a pro or a con, right? In exchange for paying everything for yourself by yourself, then you get freedom to arrange your days, your weeks, your months, your year. choose any curriculum you want, ⁓ but then you have to pay for everything on your own. And it is one of the best, most favorable toward parental rights, homeschool laws in the country. speaker-1: I know that there was, and you have to correct me because it's been a while since I looked into this, I know that there was a moment there with Wisconsin where the laws were saying homeschoolers were going to be able to participate in school sports or whatever. Is that something that they passed or is that, because I know that there were a lot of homeschool families that were like, we don't want anything to do with this because they don't want those lines blurred. speaker-2: Right, right. That was, that happened in 2015. And yes, that was, so the law was passed in 84. The only significant change to the law happened in 2015 where they added that sports provision where homeschoolers can play for the public school district in which they live. You can't play for anybody else, but that was a very contentious issue back in the day, exactly for what you said. The concern is, and the families who wanted to use the public schools for sports said, well, that's just our choice. If they add more regulation on us, and they do, you have to fill out stuff with the school district. They have to know who your child is, and you have to do the physicals and whatever. And every district is allowed to have its own homeschool athlete policy. Some are very laid back, and some are not. And so these families said, well, we'll make the choice for ourselves. It doesn't affect you. And they're right. Except there's always the concern again about are the bureaucrats going to come in and say, well, we like having all this information on the athletes. We want the same information on all homeschooled students. And so that's why that became so contentious. Thankfully, it hasn't in 11 years. Nothing has changed with that. it has remained where the people who don't play public school sports have the same situation they had before 2015. But it was a worthwhile consideration. you know, depending on who's in the legislature and who's in the governor's mansion. It's always something we have to be vigilant about. speaker-0: What are the state regulations for homeschooling? Can you kind of run through? are the expectations? What do have to give to the state? If somebody is looking at this, how overwhelmed are they going to be? speaker-2: It's actually pretty easy to get started. There is a form that all homeschoolers have to file with the state once a year. Generally speaking, it happens in the fall, but if you are pulling your child from another schooling situation in the middle of the year, you just simply file the form whenever you want to start homeschooling, and you can do that any time of year that you want. It's called the PI 1206 form. It's online at the DPI website. It takes about 10 minutes your first year and about three minutes thereafter because you keep the same password and username and just re-log in. and change the information. What you provide there is parent name and address, and then a tally of how many boys and girls you have in different ages or age ranges. You do not provide your children's names. You don't provide their birth dates. Really no identifying information about your children other than that. I have a boy who's between the ages of grades one and eight, and a girl who's between the ages of nine and 12, and then on the form, the parameters for the law are listed because it is a legal document. And when you submit it, you're saying, I'm going to abide by the homeschool law. So it is a legal document, but that's the only thing. And you file it with the DPI. DPI will send a notification to the school district in which you live. You are not under the authority of that school district. The form basically tells the school district that child's homeschooled. You need to leave them alone. They're not truant. it's basically for that, not. because the school can come and say, what are you using for curriculum or anything? They can't. The homeschool law actually prevents by law anybody asking you anything about what you do. It very much trusts the parent to say, if I'm going to do this and I sign the form, then we are left alone to presume that we're doing it. So what you agree to, there's three parameters. One is there are certain subjects that we have to teach every year. Now, the way the law is written, we can use any resources and materials that we want to. We can use various experiences. doesn't have to be sit down with textbooks at the kitchen table all day long. It could be outings and whatever we decide. But some way, somehow, every year you have to address reading, language arts, which would be spelling, penmanship, those kinds of things, math, science, social studies, and health. And so that's one parameter. The other parameter is we have to provide instruction, however we define it, for at least 875 hours a year. The law does not say track. That is something that I need to emphasize because there's misinformation out there in the homeschool world thinking that we have to keep a tally. The law never says that, it simply says provide. And when you look at how they wrote the law and what it means by parent defining instruction, it kind of comes down to if your child's awake, the time can count. Because even if it's not those six subject areas, you're allowed to add other subject areas in as well and still within that framework. So I did the math and. The average child is awake for about 4,000 hours a year. So you get the AD 75 without a problem. speaker-0: And you really think about it, I think especially for a homeschooling parent, they just have the mentality of schooling at home, right? And so it's like you're baking muffins and you're doing math. speaker-2: Yes, yes. And even if you're not specifically saying fractions and this and that, because we all talk to our kids. mean, everybody, every good parent does this. But homeschoolers get in this mindset of everything is an opportunity to learn. So they'll talk about the nutritional value of the muffins or whatever in addition to the math. And again, that's not our only math curriculum or our only health curriculum, but it's part and parcel. So yeah, if your kids are awake, It's almost every moment is a learning opportunity. So when parents get nervous about that 875 and somebody can ask, I'm like, A, remember they can't ask that you signed it, whatever. B, you're going to get 4,000 hours. So don't even worry. The 875 takes care of itself. And so there's that. And then the last one is super simple. It just says that you're going to be sequentially progressive, meaning you're going to let your child progress at his or her pace in whatever academics you choose. We're not keeping pace with public school, private school, anything. The state views a home school as a little, tiny, special case private school. And that means the parent is the administrator, and they get to decide on the pacing that works for each child in every subject area. So if you have a child with, let's say, a special need like cognitive delay, you can go at whatever pace you want to as long as you're seeing that your child's progressing for his or her long-term well-being. I have friends who homeschool kids with Down syndrome for their. abilities that parent just moves forward so that by the time that child is 18, 19, 21 years old they can meet the maximum of their potential. speaker-1: Okay, here's a question, because I know that you get this question a lot too, and this kind of has to do with, you know, those hours and everything else in the administrator part of it. So I know that some parents will be like, okay, so I work, and what if I bring my kid over to your house, and you can homeschool them, and we could have like a little group. Tell us about that. speaker-2: Yeah, that's not legal. Yes. It is fine if you want to exchange babysitting with other homeschool families. So if I'm working for part of the day and I ask my friend Sally, can Johnny come over to your house just to hang out? And if she thinks that's OK for her schedule, that's fine. But she cannot include Johnny in the homeschool academics. The one other provision, I guess, to know about in the homeschool law is that the education has to take place for the children of one family unit. That doesn't mean homeschoolers can't do co-ops and outings and activities. And again, all of that counts, even though we don't count. But with integrity, you have to know that the bulk of your child's education is simply your one family unit. That clause in the law was meant to distinguish homeschools from a conventional private school where there's groups of unrelated children all day long. And parents get really flipped out about that too. And I'm like... just think about it with integrity. Yes, you can do group things. It wasn't meant to isolate us. It wasn't actually meant to do anything but make a definition. But we don't in Wisconsin have a micro school option where you could get a group of two or three families and pool the resources and have those children all learn together. A lot of states have that. And there's a legislator who tried to get that passed in 2021 in Wisconsin. not as an addition to the homeschool law, but as a separate category. I completely supported it and a lot of homeschoolers did because it would not change the homeschool law. would just give parents another educational option. It passed the entire legislature and unfortunately the governor vetoed it. So we, and that was not a surprise. One of the reasons that this assemblyman put the bill forward was to get everybody on record so that if and when it looked like things might be able to be reintroduced again, And we're talking here in early 2026, there's an election in November of 2026. We don't know how that's going to go. Depending on how it goes, they might reintroduce that in early 2027. I think it'd be a phenomenal way for to extend choice to Wisconsin parents. speaker-1: Yeah, and it doesn't affect the current law and that's what matters. speaker-2: Exactly. speaker-0: What is unschooling? speaker-2: That's question. ⁓ It is basically a method of homeschooling. There's several different styles of homeschool curriculum that are out there and they all kind of follow different approaches. Unschooling is one method. It's not a separate thing. So if you want to unschool your children, you need to follow the homeschool law. You just do it in unschooling ways. Unschooling, another way to say it is child directed where A parent will not say, here's your math curriculum, you need to sit down and do a math lesson today and move forward. There's a range of unschoolers. Radical unschoolers will say, if my child wants to learn math, as soon as she shows an interest, we'll bake muffins. But I'm not going to force anything on my child. In the extreme, it can be un-parenting as well. It can be weird, but if there's any unschoolers listening, ⁓ the guy who started the idea of unschooling was a speaker-1: So speaker-2: a private school educator named John Holt and a researcher. And he was really disturbed by how a lot of conventional schools just stick kids kind of on a factory assembly line and keep them in rows and they have no choice. And so his idea was, let's include children in the deciding process. Let's give them some agency. Let's give them some say. He never meant for unschooled children to be unparented and to not know math because they never chose to learn math. I mean, my girls would have loved that. But it's so people can take anything to an extreme. I do like the idea of communicating with your child and saying, hey, you know, the state law says we need to do science, but let's give you some choice. You know, here's five options that I as a mom feel comfortable with. Which one do you want to use? Yeah, for sure. a lot of people with that. ⁓ Kind of approach on schooling in that way. I'm not going to just be a drill sergeant, but we're going to give choice And so it's kind of a spectrum speaker-0: Well to finish off this episode, I do want to just touch on a few of the common like fears or misconceptions you hear from parents. You already mentioned one earlier of like the socialization aspect. Can you just walk through a few of the common ⁓ holdbacks that people have when it comes to homeschooling? speaker-2: The socialization one is huge. How are my kids going to socialize? And that is, think, the biggest misconception. ⁓ 40 years ago, that might have been difficult because there weren't so many things around. The homeschool law was new, and so people were afraid that they would be bothered if they went out during the quote unquote school day. But we're 40 years down the road. There are options galore. There are. I don't know, I didn't count them. ⁓ Probably 30 homeschool groups within Northeast Wisconsin alone and others throughout the rest of the state. There are library programs and science programs and art programs and music programs. In Appleton, there is a homeschool music place that has 600 homeschool kids from ages five to 18 all doing music every week. So whatever you want to do with your children to get them out and about and socializing. The sky's the limit, really. And that, I would say, that's probably anywhere across the nation. If you live early, you've made a choice to live a little bit further out of town. You're going to have to drive, probably, but it's still not hard. Some people worry about cost, right? And that's one of the reasons that people choose one of the public or private online virtual things. But homeschooling doesn't have to cost an arm and a leg. It is self-pay. But one of the things I know that we'll talk about in another episode is curriculum. And I curate a curriculum database that shows literally everything that's out there for parents. And there are things that are free or very low cost. I always tell parents, if you can budget $300 to $500 a year for each child, and maybe lesser as you go, because you can save things from one child to the other child, right? And so what does that come down to? Maybe $20, $30 a month? Most people can do that, you know. So if you think you're going to home school a year from now, start setting that money aside and you can get really good curriculum and a lot of extracurricular activities and you can be solid. There are very pricey home school curricula too. So if you're like, I want the five grand one, you can find them. ⁓ But cost doesn't have to be a barrier. If you get creative, I have, I have friends who are single moms and they home school. and they find a way and they don't really have a lot of income, but they find a way. So that's a big one too, think is the financial. Those are probably the two main ones. speaker-0: Okay. And I'm sure we'll cover more as we continue our episodes, because this is really just hitting pause on the conversation. I love that by doing this series, we get like two hours of picking your brain because I'm just going to let you guys listening know that she is not looking at notes. Like she is spitting out these dates and these laws because she knows this stuff. And so we do have three more episodes coming up. The next one is going to be probably one that everybody will be interested in. We're going to be talking about how to effectively choose curriculum. What are the options? Cause there's thousands of options. Absolutely. I'm sure. And so speaker-1: overwhelming. speaker-0: Yeah, when you decide to do this, it's like analysis paralysis of just, don't know which one to pick and they do cost money and I don't want to waste my money and I want to make sure my kid is going to like it. And then also each kid is different, has a different learning style. I know my two kids are very, very different. And so how do you actually choose a curriculum based on that as well? So that's going to be our next episode. Third episode, make sure you hang around for that one. That is going to be kind of how do you balance homeschooling, but also everything else in life? Can you be a working parent and homeschool? How do you make sure that you're keeping the house clean and doing all the other tasks of life? How do you involve your kids in all of that? And then our fourth episode is going to be also really interesting. How to homeschool high school kids, which is pretty cool because I think a lot of people are like, well, homeschool homeschool up until high school, and then they'll go to a public or private school from there. But you're saying there's other choices. ⁓ yeah. Yeah. So we're going to have some great episodes. We can't wait to continue the conversation. 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