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Homeschooling Simplified · 5–Minute Parenting: Tips to Help You Raise Competent, Godly Kids.

• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to another episode of Five Minute Parenting.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: Today I have a special guest, Melinda Poleing.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: She is she writes to encourage moms on their journey as daughters of the king, as wives, and as mothers.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: And she writes stories for their children so that they can experience the light of Christ.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: Melinda's the mother of eight sons and one daughter.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: And she and her kids run a small business raising chocolate and silver labs.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: How much fun! That sounds cool.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, she has um a free book for moms to download on her website, as well as a book for middle grade kids called Helium Farm.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: And she has a lot of other resources.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: So please go visit her website, which I will put in the show notes for this podcast.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: So welcome, Melinda.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Sandra.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_01: What a privilege to be here.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_01: I appreciate that.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: And you have homeschooled all of your children, correct?
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, we have all the way through high school.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: That is amazing.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you really had your own little classroom there with uh seven sons and one, eight sons and a daughter.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, that's right.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_01: Our oldest is 30.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: And I, when Sandra asked me to do this, I said, Oh, can I talk about the simplicity in homeschooling?
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_01: Because while there's a lot of details people could talk about, it can be overcomplicated.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: And that's well, if it seems too simple, you can dig deeper.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_01: But I I really just this my heart is for those who are just getting started or feeling overwhelmed to come back to this pattern.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_01: I'd like to talk about what being a pattern family looks like, uh, similar to just the sun comes up every morning.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: And so there's certain things we do every morning, and that allows stability for our children.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um what has worked for us over the last 25 years is a lifestyle of learning.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_01: So we greet God um first thing in the morning, and we want to be there for our favorite people as they wake up.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um, homeschooling to us means making a hearty breakfast so we can enjoy together, visit together and connect before, so we fuel up for the day.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: We talk over scripture at that time too.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_01: We sanction focus study time.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_01: So it's not just like as you can for us personally, for that many bodies, we had to have everything just a little ship-like.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: We're running things that, but there's a rhythm to the day that we can count on that they can count on.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_01: Chore time in our household, so it functions, we're functional.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_01: We have creative time scheduled into the day, and that looked different for every person.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: We have some boys that are super mechanical, and that's where they would work on projects.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: Or um when our firstborn was a big reader, and that's he loved that reading time.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_01: So he built a whole library just for him of great books.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we want to have our lives open for ministry.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_01: So we'll talk about that in a minute, but just serving others.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, time for reading and writing.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_01: And we also would listen to quality books while we'd fold laundry, dust, match socks, weed the garden.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_01: One of my favorite memories was pulling weeds with the kids, even though it wasn't like fun to pull weeds.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_01: We go out with our five-gallon buckets and we listen to Corey Ten Boom several summers in a row, we did that.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, when we've already done all our inside stuff and then they've, you know, summer adds this extra responsibility.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_01: They weren't always going out there smiling.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_01: But uh just a few minutes into the story, and they'd be captured and we'd all be pulling weeds and talk, you know, maybe pause to talk about it because kind of heavy material.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: But all of a sudden our burdens seemed so light by comparison of what that family went through.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: And and we're learning and we're processing, but we're learning more than just the history, we're learning about God's grace carrying them through that time.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_01: And that was really important for my heart, for all of our hearts.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um and then when my stepdad, who raised me from age three, when he got diagnosed with esophageal cancer, we were able to travel to Grants Pass, which is the distance here for us in Oregon, um, about four hours, and and help my mom just take care of him.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: And we'd stay for a week, and then I put one son in charge and just whatever grandma needs, help her out, and we'd go home for a week and then come back, stay for a week, and then trade out another son.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_01: And so there were three that were old enough to do that at that time, and they kind of like competed to to be responsible enough to do that.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_01: And I really, they were my heroes, and so six months.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um and then my and then when he passed away within six months, we were able to move my mom close to us.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: So, and then when my my dad, my birth dad had a stroke, a pretty major stroke, he was in the hospital for 30 days unconscious.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: And we went to the hospital almost every day uh because we didn't know if he was gonna live or die.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_01: And it was a it was a big deal.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_01: And I'd have the kids pack up their math and we'd eat before we left, and we'd just get down the road to go see dad and see if that was the day he was gonna wake up or not.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_01: And um, and he did.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_01: He um recovered, he's still in a wheelchair, but he lives with us, and that's been an amazing process.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_01: And he was a devout Scientologist, so we were able to share Christ with him.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_01: And to me, this is an important part of homeschool that my children know how to share their faith.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_01: And um so, anyway, the flexibility of homeschool allows us the benefit to share the great commission.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: It's not about teaching my kids from the most popular curriculum, it's about the heart, being available to love and teach our kids how to love.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_01: We don't flippantly call off a school day, but when urgent needs arise, we try and meet them.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_01: We can't do it all, so I'm super grateful for there's another family friend that stepped in when David's mom got dementia and Parkinson's.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_01: It was a long process, but they walked us through that entire process, sharing hours and cleaning, doing her hair.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_01: It was amazing.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um, that was yeah, so she needed a around the clock oversight, and it was too much for one family to do.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_01: So if we they weren't homeschooling families that were flexible and committed to loving the way Jesus loved, we would not have, we would have had to put her in a home a lot sooner, as it was, it was just the tail end that we did that.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_01: So now six of our sons are happily married and hold down quality jobs.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_01: They love Jesus and serve others.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_01: So my encouragement is find out what's most important for your to your family.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_01: For us, it was Bible reading, writing, music, chores, math, creative time or delight-directed time, making meals together as so they could develop life skills.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_01: They did a lot of work on the cars, their cars as they got old enough to do that, um, and time together.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_01: So, and inviting people over to talk about life and the love of Christ.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_01: So we would just encourage each family to soak up Christ, to provide time for your kids to read, journal, climb trees, have what we used to call a David time where they just sing to God or ask him questions and just sit still and enjoy his presence.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_01: My encouragement is to be as consistent as the sunrise.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um, don't let anything get in the way unless it's really urgent.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_01: In their high school years, we uh started an apologetics group.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_01: So that would be families coming to our home.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_01: We would teach about the nature of God, a different topic each round.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_01: We just met twice a month.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_01: That made it doable.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_01: I think we're on year like 12 or 13 of doing this, but it made it so families could just join in.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_01: The kids would write speeches and then present them that night, six-minute speeches on the nature of God.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_01: So one night it might be the about the omniscience of God, omniscience, omni-meaning all science.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_01: God is all-knowing, he knows all things.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_01: And another time it might be the eminence of God that he is very close at hand.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_01: They get to discover who God is, what he says, what he says, who he says he is in his word.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_01: And uh oh, if these kids could share the heart of God, oh my goodness, just the way they start out shaking, but then by the end or middle, we would just be taking notes on what they're teaching us.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_01: It was so heartfelt and so amazing.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_01: And they carry that with them for the rest of their life, the ability to talk, to speak publicly and not be afraid.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_01: So that was one of the things that we were really grateful that we've done.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so to wrap up, I want to encourage you to pray and talk and write down what's the most important to your family.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_01: Stay consistent, be flexible when urgent needs arise.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_01: Love like Jesus loved as best as he can.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: And then remember, it's not about perfection, it's about love.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_01: And this turns out responsible citizens, quality spouses, genuine followers of Christ that turn into hard workers, great mothers and fathers, sons and daughters.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_01: And I know no better way to train up a child to honor Christ and lead a productive life.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_01: God bless you as you homeschool.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, thank you for that.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: That was it.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: It just sounds so amazing.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, all the things that you did and just the core values of teaching your children to love God and you know, rather than a segmented day, the kids go out the door to a school, they come home.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: You know, so many of our families today are so segmented because the kids are going to school or they're going out somewhere to sports.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: And there's just a piece about how what you shared and what you did with your family.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: So sounds amazing.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for sharing with with our listeners.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate it, Melinda.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: You're welcome.