Latest / The BIG Home Ed Conversations | Home Education / Season 5 - Welcome Back! New Season, New Topic, New Sponsor!

Transcript

Season 5 - Welcome Back! New Season, New Topic, New Sponsor! · The BIG Home Ed Conversations | Home Education

0:19
Hello everyone, welcome back to the big home Ed conversations.
0:23
I'm Kelly Rig. I'm a home Ed mom of two and a
0:25
qualified mindset and ADHD coach.
0:27
I'm passionate about supporting parents and neuro divergent
0:30
families as they navigate children not okay at school and
0:32
ultimately then the transition from mainstream schooling into
0:35
home education. I'm here together as always with
0:38
my wonderful Co host Ashley Venerio.
0:40
She's a fellow homemade mum of three and a former primary
0:42
teacher. So we created the big Homemade
0:44
Conversations podcast with what began as honest, heartfelt talks
0:48
about her coffee table kids running at our ankles.
0:51
And it's now going into a space where hundreds of listeners now
0:53
tune in for real, unfiltered conversations about alternative
0:56
education, mindset and educational philosophies, and
0:59
often the really emotional journey of home education as
1:02
well. So we try to cut through the
1:04
noise and focus on what really matters to home educating
1:07
families on this podcast. We really hope that that is
1:09
something that you've come to know and love.
1:11
We are here with Season 5, which is just mental.
1:15
I cannot believe that we're in Season 5.
1:17
And I don't know about you, actually, I never imagined when
1:20
we first started doing this two years ago that we'd still be
1:22
here and still doing it. It's just crazy.
1:24
Yeah, it's absolutely incredible and super exciting and I think
1:28
we have such a good season planned, so it's it's going to
1:30
be amazing. I think what's really nice about
1:32
this season is a few months ago we had a very lovely company
1:37
reach out. So it's a brother and sister
1:39
duo. The sister is a home educating
1:41
mom and her brother is a developer and they are working
1:43
together on an app called strew. They've reached out to us and
1:46
asked if they could sponsor this season because I love the
1:49
podcast. I love what we talked about.
1:50
And they also know that you lovely people who are listening
1:53
are exactly the people that they want to know about.
1:55
Their, their incredible. It's still like adding features
1:58
all the time as well at the moment, which is really
2:00
exciting. Ultimately, it's a really handy
2:03
tool for those of us who are maybe feeling quite worried
2:06
about like Headspace. I often find myself sitting
2:09
there going, what have we done this week?
2:10
I can't remember what we've been up to.
2:12
Not necessarily a great forward planner.
2:13
We come up with ideas, but we don't necessarily have like a
2:15
set structure in place. And so it's really nice for me
2:18
to just reflect on the photos we've taken and the things we've
2:20
been up to every day. Not, I don't log everything, but
2:23
it gives me a chance to kind of give me a good basis of
2:27
understanding of the sorts of subjects we've covered and the
2:29
sorts of things the kids have been up to essentially.
2:32
We'll be telling you more about them over the course of this
2:35
next season. They'll be with us the whole
2:38
season. We'll be trying out lots of
2:39
different features on the app and letting you know all about
2:41
them, and you can obviously go and have a go at using it.
2:44
Yeah, we've been using it for the past couple weeks.
2:48
And of course this has coincided with the Easter holidays.
2:51
So we haven't had a ton of like academic components to look at.
2:55
But I found that while we're out and about, whether it's at a
2:59
park or if we're at the horse stables or wherever we might be,
3:04
that it's really easy to quickly add the activity and tag a few
3:08
keywords just so you're kind of putting it in a bucket.
3:12
Whether that's around like physical education or spending
3:16
some time with friends, whatever that looks like for you.
3:20
There is pre designated topics that are in there and I'm have
3:25
not personally played around with adjusting those yet, but
3:27
that's sort of next on my list. But what I've loved is that I
3:31
can just add that activity with very few clicks, choose to take
3:36
a picture or not. And then it just shows me this
3:40
very like neat and tidy flow of what we've been doing.
3:43
And I'm really excited to sort of see how this develops as we
3:47
go through with it across, you know, going forward basically.
3:50
So I will continue to report back on how it's working for us.
3:53
But so far it's been pretty easy to use it.
3:57
You know, it's very intuitive and I'm excited to sort of add
4:00
that academic component as we get back in.
4:02
So more of our regular schedule next week.
4:05
Yeah, no, it's really, really good.
4:07
I think it's, it's always nice to be supporting an actual K
4:10
home Med family as well who are just trying to make something
4:13
for the community because they really get it and they really
4:15
understand what it is that we're looking for.
4:17
So we'll tell you more about it as we go on.
4:19
But for today, we thought we'd introduce you to our season and
4:23
what we're planning to do this season.
4:24
Obviously, last season was all about looking at the different
4:27
angles and perspectives of individuals who maybe have or
4:31
have not had kind of a massive voice in the homemade community.
4:35
So we're looking at race and gender equality and refugees and
4:38
all kinds of interesting and quite emotional perspectives as
4:41
well. So there's some really, really
4:42
good episodes to go catch up on if you find yourself wanting
4:45
some really good books to help expand your kids minds, if you
4:48
want to expand your mind, if you want to consider some other
4:50
perspectives. We covered some incredibly deep
4:52
and interesting subjects on the last season before Christmas.
4:55
But we have had a break and I'll, I'll get to work where
4:58
that has been in a minute. So thank you for your patience
5:00
in waiting for us to come back to you.
5:02
But ultimately this season, we've got this kind of concept
5:05
of week to week. We're going to pick a subject
5:08
out of a hat. So me and Ashley have sat and
5:09
come up with loads of obscure topics that we might cover.
5:13
And we're going to pick one out of the hat.
5:15
And then we've got to go away and cover it with our kids that
5:18
week, coming up with whatever resources that we can find,
5:22
anything at all. We're not going to tell each
5:24
other what we're doing. That's the one main rule.
5:26
We can't tell each other what we're doing between recording to
5:29
give each other hints. We just have to come back
5:31
together again and then discuss it.
5:33
And we're going to be talking about things like what were some
5:35
of the observations the kids had?
5:36
When did they take it? Like what?
5:38
What was interesting about it for them?
5:40
Was there anything fun or interesting that we found out
5:42
once we did it? What other subjects did it end
5:44
up touching on? Like did we actually find that
5:46
it had a really deep seated basis in math or science or
5:50
whatever? And ultimately kind of looking
5:52
at if we were to cover this subject more broadly or to
5:56
include it more often in our home AD, what skills or types of
6:00
knowledge are we helping our children to build and sort of
6:02
awarenesses and perspectives that we might be helping them to
6:04
develop? Because there's so many.
6:06
Like the honestly, the things that we could learn about in
6:08
this world are just insane. Like there are so many things.
6:13
And so no matter where you go with Home Ed, then that's what I
6:16
always love about it. It's kind of no matter where you
6:17
go with it, you'll always find something interesting to cover
6:19
and something that's important. This is just going to give us a
6:22
little bit of fun, really something to be thinking about.
6:24
But and you're looking forward to Ashley, you're looking
6:26
forward to having something different to talk about other
6:28
than horses. So.
6:30
That's the goal, right? I mean, I think this all came
6:33
from our conversation that stemmed from, I think I was
6:38
having a little bit of a rant about language arts.
6:42
And sometimes you find yourself in those moments right, where
6:45
it's like, why does my kid need to know the name of every verb
6:50
tense? Like the pluperfect?
6:52
Like really? Like, is that going to help her
6:55
writing or does she just intuitively know them?
6:59
Like, does she need to know the name?
7:01
I guess was the specifics. She speaks the language
7:03
fluently. We live here, right?
7:05
So it's her first language. Is that going to mean that she
7:08
can't be an author because she doesn't know all these things?
7:11
I don't, I don't think so. Right.
7:13
I guess I was just sort of going down this rant, if you will, of
7:18
like, who decided that this has to be a primary component of
7:23
education for elementary school and then middle school and then
7:26
high school? Like, why?
7:28
Why is English a component that's required for all of the
7:31
children's educational years until they're considered an
7:34
adult and can make that choice not to do it?
7:36
But there's not something like changing the oil in your car,
7:40
which in reality, she's whatever she does, she's probably going
7:43
to drive a car every day of her life, more or less, unless she
7:46
lives in a city. Fair enough but most likely
7:48
given where we live now she will need to drive a car and so it
7:52
probably would be helpful if she could change a tire successfully
7:55
and change her oil. Why isn't that part of the
7:57
required curriculum for all children and honestly children?
8:01
I mean I don't want my 6 year old changing a tire but you know
8:03
as they get older as it works for for their physical abilities
8:08
like. I'm pretty sure I've seen a six
8:10
year old changing tires. I I mean definitely.
8:13
So I just, I think that there's like this is just a question of
8:19
like where did all these things come from?
8:20
Who decided that they were the most important and that's it.
8:23
And we've never revisited that, right, aside from maybe adding
8:28
in some technology components here and here typing, okay,
8:32
right, whatever that may be. So I, I kind of had this rant
8:35
and we were like, well, what, what, what are the important
8:37
things that we're probably neglecting?
8:39
What are the important pieces that we do want our kids to
8:42
learn about and that could give, you know, some more breath to
8:45
their, their education and, and frankly are just interesting.
8:49
So, so yeah, that's sort of how all this stemmed and I'm super
8:53
excited to actually have a practical component for us, like
8:56
a little take away homework, if you will, to just actually
8:59
report back to all the those listening and say like, yeah,
9:03
this totally works or no, this absolutely bombed.
9:05
And like, we did a horrible job and my kids didn't care about it
9:08
at all or, or no, look, we found this really cool resource or we
9:13
found this great video on YouTube or we went to this cool
9:16
place and this actually changed how we think about this.
9:19
And we're going to now incorporate, you know, XYZ going
9:22
forward, that kind of stuff. So I think I think there's a lot
9:25
of potential here to like, actually not only directly
9:27
impact like your and my home school, home education for our
9:31
children, but also to give some like really tangible pieces to
9:36
the listeners who are maybe thinking the same thing we are
9:38
like, hey, you know, why don't we talk more about architecture
9:42
or whatever. So yeah, I think it's also just
9:45
going to give our kids a little more exposure to topics that
9:50
they wouldn't necessarily be exposed to.
9:52
So yeah, I think it's all good things.
9:54
And I think it's, it's stuff like we're, we're literally
9:56
having this conversation yesterday as well about there's
9:58
a post that we both saw online that we were discussing that was
10:02
basically calling out some of things like when when asked as
10:05
home education said, well, like if you're looking for activities
10:07
to do, then like, I don't know that baking is math, like do
10:09
some baking. And it's like, but we tend to
10:12
generalize that one as a this is, this is a way of learning
10:16
math. And it's like, well, of course
10:17
it absolutely is like you can do fractions and weighing and
10:20
measuring and doubling recipes and all the things, right?
10:23
That there's so much that you can learn and not just math, but
10:25
science and chemistry and the way the ingredients react
10:28
together, where the ingredients come from, all of it.
10:31
Like there's so much you can get into with baking for sure, But
10:33
it's, it's kind of used as this generalized like when you get
10:36
into the forums where people are saying, like, what do you guys
10:38
do to help cover math? And people are like, oh, just do
10:40
some baking. And it's like it's used as an
10:43
example an awful lot. But we, we kind of forget that
10:46
there's so many other things to do.
10:47
And like I was saying to my son the other day, like we went to
10:50
do mini golf with our nun and pops basically with their
10:53
grandparents. And I said to him, like what you
10:55
don't always realise is that there is school happening whilst
10:59
we're doing something that is just fun.
11:01
Like stuff that would be considered important to cover in
11:04
school. Like, I don't know, like reading
11:06
the menu in the cafe, deciding what you wanted to get, looking
11:08
at how much it was counting up your points.
11:11
When you're doing the mini golf, you were mentally and you don't
11:14
even realize you're doing it, but mentally calculating the
11:16
force that you need to hit the ball with, the angle you need to
11:19
hit it at to get it to bounce off of things, to change it's
11:22
angular direction. And ultimately that that kind of
11:25
all of those different things. There's so many different.
11:27
I said there was science, there was maths, there was reading,
11:29
there was like all the literacy stuff, there was social,
11:31
emotional, there was like all of it.
11:34
I said, like if you think maybe you'd like actually properly
11:36
extracted everything from our day, you'd see that we touched
11:38
on pretty much every subject that we get taught in schools
11:42
very, very easily. And there's like, oh great, so
11:44
we can just go play mini golf every day and learn everything
11:46
we need to know. And I'm just like, we'll know.
11:47
Well, you know. Since it was the one that's
11:49
just. Like a mathematical concept or a
11:52
scientific concept or a certain type of literacy.
11:56
Like it's not, it's just a certain type of vocabulary,
11:58
whatever like that. This is not everything that you
12:00
need to know. It's just, it complements it and
12:04
it adds something to it. And I think what I really want
12:06
to see is if some of these subjects that we've picked, like
12:09
what random input does it actually end up giving us?
12:13
Like for example, the another great example, we're looking at
12:16
the Greek alphabet the other day, my son's massively into the
12:20
Greeks in just about every possible way at the moment.
12:23
And we were started to have a look at the letters and found
12:26
out they were also using them as numbers.
12:28
And then we were looking at how they're used now in scientific
12:31
and mathematical kind of equations and what they're used
12:34
for. So some of them are like used
12:35
for talk or for like psy was one of the ones we looked at is
12:40
actually the beginning of the word psychiatry and psychology
12:43
begins the study of the mind. But it's also used for logical
12:47
like the collection of logical statements in math, like the
12:50
symbols are used for these different things.
12:51
And his fascination with this was off the charts.
12:56
And like, we ended up researching a few of the
12:58
different letters and like, where they come from, what, what
13:00
people are using them for, What does that mean?
13:02
What does logic mean? And like, we went down this
13:04
lovely one for like a kid's encyclopedia online.
13:06
It was fantastic. And we were just reading and
13:07
reading and reading and just clicking the links where it came
13:09
back another word. And he's like, oh, I want to
13:10
learn more about that. We learned about Fibonacci
13:12
numbers and all kinds of stuff. And I think that no matter what
13:15
you cover, it does lead you off, if you allow it to, down this
13:18
lovely meandering path of fascinating thoughts and ideas.
13:23
And what I really want to do is see if some of the subjects that
13:26
I wouldn't necessarily think they'd be that interested in or
13:29
you wouldn't necessarily pick it up thinking this is a subject to
13:32
learn about actually could end up giving you some really
13:35
interesting insight. Or I don't know, who knows,
13:38
maybe like triggering an interest in going and doing that
13:41
one. Day or exactly?
13:42
Evolving it or improving it or doing something cool about it.
13:45
Like the people who developed the steam engine didn't develop
13:48
it just like because they, they enveloped, they developed it
13:53
because they were trying to improve productivity or
13:55
efficiency. And you know what I mean?
13:56
Like these, these were people who are really clever,
13:59
thoughtful tinkerers and collaborators.
14:01
And ultimately that has only happened because of the
14:03
situations they're in and the experiences they had.
14:05
And that was the other thing we're talking about, wasn't it?
14:07
Is that kind of, if we don't expose them to things, then
14:11
they'll never know if it's something which is interesting
14:15
and relevant for them. Like they will never know.
14:19
And we love kind of, I mean, I love picking up random topics
14:21
anyway, that is totally the way we home Ed.
14:23
But for some, I know sometimes it can feel a bit overwhelming.
14:27
So I guess I want to make that easier.
14:28
I want, I want to give you guys some fun stuff to do with your
14:30
kids that you might really love a topic.
14:32
We did. So you can either do it along
14:34
with us as a challenge. So you can literally do it along
14:36
with us. And we're going to post
14:37
hopefully every week and you can come and comment what you did
14:40
and whether or not you joined in or you can do it the week after
14:43
using our ideas. Completely up to you how you'd
14:45
like to play it. But that was kind of the the
14:46
thought behind it should be really fun.
14:48
So I don't know whether or not we want to pick.
14:51
Do we want to pick our subject for next week now, Ashley, And
14:54
then we can talk about that or should we just chat about life
14:56
and what we've been up to first? Should we do the pick at the
14:58
end? Should we keep people?
14:59
Hanging pick at the end I like. It maybe we should like it.
15:01
Let's do pick at the end. We'll do that right at the end.
15:04
There you go over the hook for everybody.
15:05
Keep, keep listening. So how how have you been Ashley?
15:09
What have you been up to? Because it's been ages.
15:11
I know we've all been missing now for months.
15:13
And I'm so sorry for everyone who has been catching up on all
15:15
episodes to keep yourselves going.
15:16
We've missed you too. We've missed talking to you all.
15:20
Yes, I was waking up this morning and just thinking like,
15:22
oh, we're back to the podcast like, and it does kind of anchor
15:25
of the day, right? And it gives a little a little
15:27
more purpose, a little more direction.
15:29
And it's just an exciting thing to be doing.
15:32
So we're, we're so thankful obviously to all the listeners
15:34
who keep us going here. And since I guess really since
15:39
before Christmas when we took a break, there's just been sort of
15:42
a lot and at the same time nothing new.
15:44
I mean, we've just been going along.
15:46
We swapped our share pony. So we ended up finding just a
15:51
better fit and that's been consuming the lives of my
15:54
children and myself at least one day a week anyway.
15:58
In fact, we're going later today and so they're just loving that
16:03
we're still massively in to horses and trying to find out
16:08
how we can become more involved shy of purchasing our own.
16:12
And so I feel like the, the horse world does really want you
16:17
to have your own ponies do a lot of the activities and stuff like
16:20
that, but the little ones would be involved in anyway.
16:22
And it's just, they're not something we can commit to.
16:26
So this has been our, our greatest compromise is just a
16:30
one day a week share a pony. And the girls are really loving
16:32
that. We have been just moving along
16:35
with, with school and, and all the activities, which every time
16:39
I feel like we're going to peel back, we end up somehow leaning
16:42
in more. My 2 youngest started to do
16:45
Stagecoach, which is a acting, singing and dancing group once a
16:53
week. And then at the end of the turn
16:55
they do this little recital or performance and they loved that.
16:59
I was super worried because it's a 3 hour drop off, but they
17:04
loved it, loved it, loved it. So it worked out really, really
17:06
well. And we're just getting ready for
17:08
what's teeing up to be a pretty busy summer.
17:11
So it's, it's, yeah, more, more travel coming up, hopefully some
17:15
nicer sunny weather here in England.
17:18
And if not, then thankfully we're going to escape it when we
17:21
travel. So yeah.
17:24
If the weather is not good, I'm coming with you.
17:26
You're just gonna have to make it work.
17:27
Please. Do.
17:29
I am so ready for a good summer this year.
17:31
Like I really, really am. It's been so wet, hasn't it?
17:35
And I think definitely kind of like through January and early
17:38
February, I was just in such a dark place.
17:41
Oh my goodness, it's the rain. I just couldn't take it anymore.
17:44
So, so grateful for the sunshine.
17:46
I felt my entire personality shift the second we got some
17:50
sunshine. And we've, we've had, we've had
17:53
like it. It really feels like it's gone
17:55
by in a flash. If I'm perfectly frank.
17:57
I have no idea where the past few months has gone.
17:59
I've done, I've, I've completely finished a, an ADHD coaching
18:03
course, which is huge. So that's basically me now very,
18:08
very neatly qualified. Like I've just got to get my, my
18:11
last paperwork submitted and then I'll be qualified.
18:13
So I've got one more coaching session practice to do with each
18:16
of my practice clients. So that's really exciting.
18:18
So that'll give once I've got myself accredited with the
18:21
universal coaching alliance as well.
18:23
Within the next couple of months, I'll actually have
18:24
letters after my name, which is absolutely awesome.
18:28
That's really, really cool. So I'm really proud of that and
18:30
obviously means that I'm that much more resource now to
18:33
support families and individuals who have got neurodivergence
18:36
going on and way, way safe for an option for them to get that
18:40
support that they need, which is really, really wonderful.
18:43
We've also done screen free March, which I honestly never
18:47
imagined that my kids would opt in to a challenge like that, but
18:52
they did. They, we had a chat about it in
18:54
February and as soon as the sun started coming out, I was like,
18:57
what would it be like if we just said no to staying at home on
19:00
screens for a month? And we just like kept going out
19:02
instead. But just go and have fun and see
19:05
people and be in the garden and do stuff.
19:06
And I'm like, oh, that sounds really fun.
19:08
And I think all of us have just been so locked up tight over the
19:10
winter and bored. We're just so grateful for the
19:12
idea to just get out more and to see people more and do things.
19:15
And it's been such a lovely shake up.
19:17
I'm really mourning the end of March if I'm perfectly honest.
19:20
Like I'm really missing that kind of everyone was just so
19:23
present and it was, I spent so much time with my kids, but it
19:27
was always so much karma. And yeah, I if, if you feel like
19:31
you could tolerate it, then I highly recommend it because I
19:33
honestly feel that it was going to be crazy like that.
19:36
I'd hate it that I'd be really stressed.
19:37
And don't get me wrong, there's a, there's a window, I've
19:39
realised roughly between 3:00 and 5:00 in the afternoon where
19:43
I really would like everybody to go away.
19:47
I have really, I have definitely realised I have got a little
19:50
window there that needs a cup of tea and a biscuit and some peace
19:53
and quiet. But yeah, the rest of the time,
19:56
honestly, I've really loved it. It's time when they're like
19:58
asking me to play chess repeatedly and like, can you
20:02
come in this picture with me? Could you give me a story?
20:05
And I'm just like, no, I've had enough now.
20:06
I'm not with it today. I think I'm done.
20:12
Bless them now. They've been really great
20:13
though. I've loved seeing how
20:14
industrious they are. My my daughter has jumped over
20:19
the milestone of being able to read during that time because
20:22
she's obviously think better to do so.
20:25
She's been picking up books. I love that.
20:28
If you're stuck in a reading slum, just take the screens
20:31
away. That's the trick.
20:32
Just take the screens away. They're just like desperate for
20:36
story time, basically like TV stories.
20:39
Isn't it really just made into a visual thing?
20:40
So I guess it's just like we ignited the love for it.
20:43
But no, she's done a great job with all of that.
20:45
And yeah, so anyway, so it's been lovely.
20:48
But yeah, I'm really excited that the course is finished.
20:50
So I've got my Tuesday mornings back, which means that we can
20:52
now get back to recording because mine and Ashley's busy
20:55
schedules means that we basically have one good, clear
20:57
morning a week that that's supposed to be when we record.
20:59
And if that's busy, then we've not got much chance.
21:03
Yeah, it's a bit mental, isn't it, really?
21:04
But yeah, really happy to be back and really excited to be
21:08
talking to you guys again and sharing, sharing our little bit,
21:12
little tidbits and wisdoms and ideas and, and to hear from you
21:15
guys as well. Obviously, we're on TikTok,
21:17
we're on Instagram. So do come and find us this big
21:21
home Ed podcast. Just go and look for us, but
21:23
drop us a photo, send us a message, tell us what you, what
21:25
you think of this season's ideas and what we're going to be
21:28
doing. And also like comment and give
21:31
us give us what you've been up to each week.
21:32
So if you, if you want to follow on the challenge with us, then
21:34
please do comment and tell us what you're doing.
21:36
Because it'd be so fun to kind of almost have those posts
21:39
collect loads of ideas around what our subject is that week.
21:44
People giving us suggestions and things that you've loved doing
21:46
around that before. And also like the random hidden
21:49
insights that your kids might end up having around it as well.
21:51
Because I suspect our kids are going to come up with some
21:53
really interesting angles for these subjects for sure.
21:56
Yes. Lots of good questions.
21:58
That's so good at that. So, yeah, so I think without
22:02
further ado, should we pick a subject and start off our our
22:04
fun new topic? So should I, should I go and get
22:07
us a a subject? Are we hoping for?
22:10
Actually, we're hoping for anything good I.
22:13
Don't know. There's so many good ones in
22:15
there. Maybe something on like mental
22:18
health or running a country or politics, Yeah, I don't know.
22:23
Yeah, I've got some good ones in here with me.
22:25
OK, They're all good. Got it.
22:28
Oh, this one's quite a meaty 1 to start off with.
22:31
So this one is capital allocation and investing.
22:35
Oh no, that was like I was kind of like we could break ourselves
22:38
in gently. OK, so.
22:41
Philosophy for this minute. Something, yeah, something
22:46
gentle would be nice. OK, capital allocation and
22:49
investing. Do you know what?
22:51
It really couldn't come at a better time there when you think
22:53
about it with the way the world has been very recently and
22:56
obviously the, the panic we all feel when like the fuel prices
23:00
are through the roof and we're we're panicking about our bills
23:03
going up and stuff like that. I think that this is so
23:06
important and it is definitely not something that I was given
23:11
much guidance on as a child. I really don't think I knew much
23:14
about this beyond earn money, pay your bills like I always
23:19
had, pay your bills first. Yeah, exactly.
23:23
Like, I don't know. I don't know if I even got that.
23:25
I literally was just like, pay your bills, ideally buy a house,
23:29
don't rent it. And I'm pretty sure that's about
23:31
as much as I knew about kind of capital allocation when I was a
23:34
kid. Like, I really don't think I
23:36
knew anything about investing until very recently.
23:39
What was, what was the advice you got around that as a kid?
23:42
What did you, what kind of did you know about it when you
23:43
became an adult and you had to start managing your own money?
23:47
Yeah. So we, we were given some
23:50
general guidance and it was more along the lines of like put your
23:54
money in an in an investment fund and and just watch it,
23:58
watch it go and don't touch it until you're 60, right or
24:02
something like that. And my parents are, are, yeah,
24:07
leave it alone. My parents are, are very good
24:10
with their money. They've invested quite wisely
24:12
over the years. But I think, and this might be
24:15
this is something that my husband and I talk about a lot
24:17
because I think because money and this might be an American
24:22
thing, I think because money is such a personal component.
24:25
Like you don't share how much you have.
24:29
You don't share how much you make you don't like.
24:31
So growing up, I never knew my parents salaries.
24:34
I never knew how much money we had.
24:36
It just is something that's like a very personal thing.
24:38
So you could make obvious like judgments looking at where
24:42
people lived or how they dressed or the cars they drove or the
24:44
vacations they went on and like, but that's not really a good
24:46
window, right? Because it all depends on how
24:48
people manage their money. I had a a friend who lived in a
24:51
very modest house and never needed material things, but they
24:56
had a ton of money in the bank. So looks can be deceiving I
24:59
guess is my point for that. But I think that in in the
25:03
States, what you make is very private and personal and it's
25:07
not something that you took that you share with others.
25:09
Like, again, I didn't know my friends salaries like when we
25:11
all entered the workforce, like it was not something you spoke
25:13
about. So remember, we went to Italy,
25:15
we moved to Italy and my husband would just tell his friends the,
25:20
the salary of the job that he had or versions of it, I guess.
25:26
And I was just flabbergasted. And I was like, I don't think we
25:30
should talk about that. Like that feels like something
25:33
that we wouldn't just share randomly.
25:36
And I've noticed that with a a lot of the professions, it was
25:42
very common to understand on how much people were making and it
25:47
just wasn't this guarded thing. And so I think that that
25:51
perspective really sheltered a lot of my understanding of
25:59
investing before I went and studied it myself.
26:03
So I think that that is something where I, I definitely
26:08
would love for my kids to have a much stronger foundation.
26:13
And now, now is the right time, right?
26:15
I mean, I know for example, my nephews who are in like high
26:19
school age, they recently they, they got their own investment
26:23
accounts and they are putting in some of their own money towards
26:27
that. I did not contribute to an
26:29
investment account in my teens and it wasn't until I had a job.
26:33
So I mean, they're getting like birthday money and things like
26:35
this, I'm assuming, and already starting to put that money to
26:39
work for them, right, for their future.
26:41
And I think that is such a smart thing to do.
26:44
And I also think that there is a lot of people who kind of get
26:48
stuck in a rut. And I'm, I'm not going to know
26:49
the right name of this, but like, you know, how your mind
26:52
wants to stay with what's familiar.
26:56
So I think it developing habits now of investing and saving and,
27:02
and not investing for yourself. Like you said, owning a home,
27:05
Yeah, you don't want to throw that rent money away.
27:07
You want it when you pay your mortgage, you're paying it into
27:10
yourself. I mean, obviously there's an
27:11
interest component, but largely, you know, you're paying that
27:14
money back to yourself. And so that is the kind of
27:18
mentality that I want my children to have, which is no,
27:21
there is comfort in having savings.
27:24
I don't want them to feel comfort in buying the newest
27:28
clothes, right? So kind of developing that plane
27:31
right now feels really crucial. So this is I think this is a
27:35
great. Topic yeah, I think it's going
27:38
to be really important and I mean I could I have definitely
27:40
sort of sat and done some bits with my kids on this just
27:43
because I've been playing with like plum and stuff like that
27:46
where you can invest like tiny, tiny amounts of money into stuff
27:49
but I am looking forward to showing them how it grows and
27:52
like there's so much maths to this as well and.
27:55
Yes, yeah. Exponential growth and yes, and
28:00
graphs and stuff like there's some really good stuff here that
28:03
I think is going to be really great for kind of just
28:04
demonstrating something to them. And I guess we're just going to
28:06
have to figure out how to try not to make this too dry.
28:09
Well, did you did you have in school?
28:14
This might be tricky at times. Yeah, we had in school where the
28:17
first thing was like, would you rather have like $1,000,000 or a
28:22
penny a day doubled for like a 30 days or something like that.
28:28
And everyone's initial reaction is like, Oh no, I'll take, I'll
28:31
take that $1,000,000 or I, I don't remember that's the right
28:35
number. So I'd have to actually go back
28:36
and look at the math on this, but I'm sure we can find that
28:40
and we can work out with our kids.
28:41
Like what would it be if you took, I guess, a pence a day,
28:44
doubled for 30 days? Like would that get you better
28:49
off? And then then doing the straight
28:53
payout, Right. So yeah, lots of fun here.
28:57
Yeah. No, I know exactly what you mean
28:58
that it does grow really well. And I think it's, it's like, I
29:02
guess it's like it's conversations around their
29:03
future and maybe some of the stuff they'd maybe like to have
29:06
as a grown up. And like those sorts of things
29:09
like how much, how much a house price is now versus how much
29:12
they likely to be when they grow up.
29:13
Like, Oh my God, it was 6. Sometimes when I think about
29:16
that, like God knows how they're going to afford a house.
29:18
But ultimately, I think these are like super important
29:21
conversations for them to be thinking about like, can I, can
29:25
I do something now or can I start to understand how I could
29:28
save my money? And I mean, they've both
29:30
recently saved up to buy their own pets and they, they wanted
29:33
to get a kitten and a snake. And so it's like, OK, great.
29:36
Well, in order to get that, I need to see some commitment.
29:38
And so they both had to save £150 and it took them well over
29:41
six months of selling stuff and pocket money and doing extra
29:45
stuff to earn it and all the rest of it.
29:47
But it felt like a really great exercise in not just like, you
29:51
know, when you go to like a zoo and you go, I hate the gift
29:54
shops. I hate them so much because it
29:56
doesn't even matter. Like if they've got like 10 LB
29:58
pocket money or whatever that they can spend.
30:00
Like the decision take forever and like they just want to spend
30:03
it. Even if they can't find
30:03
something they really want, they just want to spend some money.
30:05
They just want something to take away with them that day.
30:07
And it becomes so consumerist. And I much prefer to have a
30:11
lovely nest egg of money sitting in the bank for the moment.
30:15
I like experiences. I like to be able to spend my
30:17
money on memories. I want something that I'm going
30:19
to remember. I'm not going to remember a nice
30:21
set of pens I bought myself. I'm going to remember the trip
30:25
that we took to the zoo that day.
30:26
So I want to save money for those things.
30:29
That stuff matters to me. And I guess it's a great
30:31
opportunity to discuss values and their future and all the
30:34
rest of us anyway. I think there's so much, so many
30:37
angles we could take this down. There's no right or wrong answer
30:40
here people either. So if you're following on a
30:42
challenge with us and you want to do this yourself, there's no
30:45
right or wrong. Anything we've discussed plus
30:47
anything else you think of that could be related to this in some
30:51
way also, like your personal lived experiences, talking about
30:54
the experiences of your parents and, and how they managed to let
30:57
my parents, for example, my dad was homeless when he met my mum
31:01
like obviously very, very long time ago.
31:03
And he's built himself up into this incredible life that he has
31:06
worked so hard to make happen. And so is my mum, obviously.
31:10
And at one point they were both working three jobs and all these
31:13
things. And it's like when you think
31:14
about the, the effort and the sustained kind of momentum of
31:17
life and how important that was to kind of get them into a state
31:20
of having capital to allocate like money to actually put in a
31:25
pension and whatever rate like that was a massive, massive
31:28
thing for them. And ultimately I I that
31:31
definitely feeds into my attitude around money and not
31:35
often we do get really worried about our kids having too much
31:38
or things being too easy and then not having to fight for
31:40
stuff. And ultimately that can
31:41
obviously make them less appreciative of the cost of the
31:44
world around them. And my Sunday the day was
31:46
somewhere and it's like, Oh, it's only three cred for an ice
31:48
cream. That's not so bad.
31:49
It's like, Oh my goodness, like you really have like it was just
31:53
like, you need to realize that for me, 99 P out for an ice
31:57
cream was a lot when I was growing up.
31:59
Like that's crazy. But ultimately it's, it's just a
32:02
different perspective, different generation.
32:04
And we obviously have lived through the pandemic, which has
32:07
had a global effect on people's capital as well and investments.
32:12
So yeah, loads, loads and loads and loads of current affairs and
32:15
all sorts of stuff that could be related to this.
32:17
So have fun with it guys. Enjoy it too.
32:19
We will have some fun covering it with our kids this week and
32:23
we'll see where we end up taking it and what we end up doing with
32:25
it, what, what interest they show in it as well.
32:28
And I think let's let's definitely see what fun stuff is
32:31
out there. And we'll share with you what we
32:34
found next week. But I hope you enjoyed this
32:36
series. I hope you have fun with it.
32:38
And yeah, we're really glad to be back.
32:40
So thank you for taking some time to listen to us today, as
32:44
always. You've been listening to the Big
32:49
Home Ed Conversations podcast. Thanks for tuning in.
32:52
Don't forget to subscribe, leave a review, and share with a
32:55
friend. Follow us on Instagram and
32:58
TikTok at Big Home Ed Podcast for updates.
33:01
Also, check out our new website at Big Home, edpodcast.com.
33:06
We'll be back next week to talk about our experiences bringing
33:09
the topic of capital allocation and investing to our children.
33:13
We hope to hear your experience as well, so come talk to us
33:16
about it on social media. Thanks everyone.