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531: Homeschool Quarter One Update 2026 · Now That We're A Family

0:00
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, folks, Katie's still pregnant, and she's here with us today in the studio, and she's, I mean, she gave you a 37-week pregnancy update, a last episode, last episode.
0:16
[SPEAKER_00]: And today, she's going to give you a home schooling update.
0:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Is that correct, Katie?
0:20
[SPEAKER_01]: that's correct.
0:21
[SPEAKER_01]: We're just doing the updates right now because we've done our first quarter first full quarter of homes going and of all years this was the one that I've entered into with the most trepidation and yet it is going really, really well.
0:38
[SPEAKER_01]: So I wanted to let you guys know what's working, what's not working, what we've reverted back to, what curriculum's we've stuck with,
0:46
[SPEAKER_01]: And because we have made some changes and then some curriculums that were new, I'm seeing real results with.
0:51
[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, we're going to let you guys know how it's going.
0:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that is interesting.
0:56
[SPEAKER_00]: We've gone through a couple of curriculum changes, which is, I'm sure listeners are going to want to know what those are and how that's looking.
1:03
[SPEAKER_00]: But overall, I would say when I hear the reports from you and when I see the kids thriving and growing,
1:10
[SPEAKER_00]: This has been like the best first, I guess, two and a half months of a home school here that we've ever had.
1:16
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and it's really been okay.
1:18
[SPEAKER_01]: We started like I want to say right at the beginning of I.
1:22
[SPEAKER_00]: So really were like three months in.
1:23
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
1:24
[SPEAKER_01]: So I do think it's almost been a full quarter.
1:27
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, like a quarter of a year.
1:27
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I thought you were saying like a quarter of the school year.
1:30
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, wow.
1:34
[SPEAKER_00]: That's crazy.
1:35
[SPEAKER_00]: How was the school you're broken up?
1:36
[SPEAKER_01]: I actually don't know.
1:38
[SPEAKER_01]: I break, I broke ours up in a 36 weeks.
1:41
[SPEAKER_01]: My goal is 36 weeks this year.
1:44
[SPEAKER_01]: Every state has different requirements.
1:46
[SPEAKER_01]: Idaho has no requirements for anything.
1:48
[SPEAKER_01]: Every school has different requirements.
1:50
[SPEAKER_01]: It's usually between like 32 to 36 weeks of school.
1:54
[SPEAKER_01]: And I figured we would try for 36 weeks this year.
1:57
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's what we mapped out on our class calendar, which I kind of break down and step stack.
2:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so we're not halfway, but we're definitely like we're more like a third than up through the school year.
2:09
[SPEAKER_00]: And that crazy.
2:10
[SPEAKER_01]: That is crazy.
2:10
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, we're like a third of the way through the school year.
2:13
[SPEAKER_00]: And then yeah.
2:14
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so I have this wrapping up at Memorial Day right before I'm Memorial Day.
2:18
[SPEAKER_00]: Nice.
2:19
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's when the weather gets nice around here and it's time to change.
2:23
[SPEAKER_01]: So anyways, yeah, I, if any of you guys have gone through my homeschool course, homeschool the first three years, or homeschooling through the little years or something, I don't know, I call it the first three years.
2:37
[SPEAKER_01]: but it was a homeschool program that I had that I've currently closed.
2:41
[SPEAKER_01]: Some of you guys have still found links to it and purchased it or whatever.
2:44
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm not saying there's not good material in there.
2:46
[SPEAKER_01]: I have a lot of be real of the kids learning it little years and stuff.
2:52
[SPEAKER_01]: But one thing that I say in that course that I stick by is don't jump around with curriculum as much as possible.
2:59
[SPEAKER_01]: because each curriculum builds on itself.
3:02
[SPEAKER_01]: And so if you switch curriculum every single year, there's going to be gaps and there's going to be holes versus sticking with a program.
3:09
[SPEAKER_01]: But that's said it can be really difficult for homeschooling moms to do that because it's not necessarily like we know starting now.
3:21
[SPEAKER_01]: What curriculum we like and what curriculum we don't like.
3:23
[SPEAKER_01]: So
3:27
[SPEAKER_01]: It's kind of hard, you want to do that trial and error kind of as fast as you can and then pick a path and stick with it through those years that are really formative, like third grade, fourth grade, fifth grade, sixth grade, seventh grade.
3:37
[SPEAKER_01]: I would say specifically.
3:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that is that whole sticking with something through till it's, you know, bitter end.
3:44
[SPEAKER_00]: No, to it's like rewarding end is something that is, it's a true principle with so many things in life.
3:50
[SPEAKER_00]: yet we were not able to do it with everything in life and so when we're trying to equip our kids, I think that if we wanted any of our children to be rocket scientists or high-level high-level scientists in any field, we probably would be educating differently now.
4:10
[SPEAKER_00]: However, when we're introduced to them to science,
4:12
[SPEAKER_00]: We still want them to be introduced since we want them to get like as much as they can in the few years that they have and I think that that's a way You can approach different things where you're kind of like if we you know you the seven habits of highly successful people begin with the end in mind And I think that sometimes the the curriculums that like people choose for this far out like you know premier
4:33
[SPEAKER_00]: and is actually not practical for why they're choosing the curriculum, if that makes sense for the formation of their children.
4:41
[SPEAKER_00]: And so that's something I consider, I think, you know.
4:44
[SPEAKER_01]: For sure.
4:45
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, there's certain things like classical conversations that we quit, because I saw the path.
4:52
[SPEAKER_01]: It made a lot of sense if you did the exact same path.
4:55
[SPEAKER_01]: If you stuck with CC, specifically through their high school path, I saw how it would build on itself.
5:02
[SPEAKER_01]: but I wasn't committed enough to the program and we weren't to decide that was gonna be the path we took.
5:09
[SPEAKER_01]: And so there wasn't gonna be a ton of benefit to us doing it for like a year or two and then quitting.
5:15
[SPEAKER_01]: And so we just did one year with the foundations and then...
5:20
[SPEAKER_01]: decided it wasn't going to be a long-term fit for our family because we weren't ready to commit to the whole path of the curriculum So anyways, trying to determine in the beginning what's fits and what's not a fit.
5:31
[SPEAKER_01]: So that said you guys knew From previous videos.
5:36
[SPEAKER_01]: I knew I had to commit to a language arts program this year and do it very rigorously
5:41
[SPEAKER_01]: because we had some gaps in language arts.
5:43
[SPEAKER_01]: We ended up picking spell to write and read, which is a really old program, which I love when programs are old, and you can, I just love that, okay?
5:52
[SPEAKER_01]: So what they end up teaching is they teach 70 phonograms, and they teach, I forget, but a certain number of rules, these spelling rules.
6:02
[SPEAKER_01]: And instead of teaching half rules, like a lot of us learn kind of half bake phonics in school, they teach all the rules, and they say there's only 1% of exceptions in the English language between their phonograms and their rules.
6:20
[SPEAKER_01]: So basically, it's always going to be a mathematical equation to figure out the spelling of something.
6:24
[SPEAKER_01]: You aren't just going to be guessing.
6:26
[SPEAKER_01]: Only one person of the time is there going to be an exception.
6:29
[SPEAKER_01]: The way I grew up with spelling, it was in exception 50% of the time.
6:34
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I didn't really like to bother with rules, but I'm seeing now the benefit of that.
6:38
[SPEAKER_01]: So that said, something I love about the spell to write in Read program is they teach you
6:50
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm like, that never dawned on me before.
6:52
[SPEAKER_01]: I just was told like, the silent G and H were silent sometimes.
6:57
[SPEAKER_01]: You're like, but the kids start to recognize that.
6:59
[SPEAKER_01]: Whole chunk is like, oh, that's just a four letter A.
7:02
[SPEAKER_01]: So it doesn't look like big and scary.
7:05
[SPEAKER_01]: They immediately know neighbor, if I say, you spell neighbor with a four letter A.
7:09
[SPEAKER_01]: Then that's all they have to remember.
7:10
[SPEAKER_01]: They don't have to remember like the E and the I and the G and the H and all the letters that don't make sense.
7:15
[SPEAKER_01]: because they have that chunk memorized in their brain if that makes sense.
7:21
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's been incredible.
7:23
[SPEAKER_01]: Something else that I love about it is they do 20 spelling words a week.
7:29
[SPEAKER_01]: And then I attack on 10 words from previous lists and we write sentences with previous lists.
7:35
[SPEAKER_01]: and there are no types of word lists.
7:38
[SPEAKER_01]: So you aren't writing like cat, bat, sat, fat, mat, and repetitive things.
7:45
[SPEAKER_01]: You're writing like, look, house, some thick.
7:50
[SPEAKER_01]: All the rules, all the spelling, they don't see any patterns.
7:55
[SPEAKER_01]: They have to think to spell and that's what it's they're big on they go think to spell And so they're using the rules and their phonograms to think how what I spell this word Instead of relying on a memorized pattern because say they memorize Call full ball stall and then they have dull.
8:16
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, that's that's not fair.
8:17
[SPEAKER_00]: Whoa.
8:17
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah
8:18
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, so if you are thinking to spell, you just put that in there.
8:23
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
8:23
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, so I love that they cannot rely on patterns.
8:28
[SPEAKER_01]: The patterns are relying on our rules and phonograms of the show.
8:32
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's worked really well.
8:34
[SPEAKER_01]: Why I say that is we did our first diagnostic test, diagnostic test this week.
8:39
[SPEAKER_01]: And my nine-year-old went from, I want to say below first grade, spelling, like kindergarten, spelling, cat with a K, spelling, two fourth grade, and three months.
8:55
[SPEAKER_01]: Nice.
8:56
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I was so like, I knew it's spelling to gotten better, but I was like, okay, they say to test them once a month.
9:01
[SPEAKER_01]: There's always tests in the back of the book.
9:04
[SPEAKER_01]: And he's the only one I've tested so far.
9:05
[SPEAKER_01]: The other kids have had time to test.
9:07
[SPEAKER_01]: And he was a solid fourth grade level.
9:11
[SPEAKER_00]: Nice.
9:11
[SPEAKER_01]: And a lot of the words on the spelling list, we have never gone over or spelled.
9:16
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
9:17
[SPEAKER_01]: So it wasn't like he'd memorize these.
9:19
[SPEAKER_01]: It was based on him thinking how to spell the word.
9:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Wow.
9:22
[SPEAKER_01]: So it is, I just feel like it's a godsend because I was really down in the dumps about how are we gonna teach the kids how to spell?
9:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
9:29
[SPEAKER_00]: That was like one of the primary motivations for considering the private Christian school.
9:33
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's like my feeling.
9:35
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you're like, I will never be able to teach them spelling.
9:37
[SPEAKER_00]: And they need that for life.
9:39
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
9:40
[SPEAKER_01]: And so even like the decoding awards is made all their reading go smoother.
9:44
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, our second grader is reading really well right now.
9:48
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's just
9:50
[SPEAKER_01]: helped him take off, and I know you guys who are phonics fans are like no duh, obviously, but it was new for me.
9:57
[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't grow up with phonics, and so I is a second generational homeschooler.
10:03
[SPEAKER_01]: I, there are things that I've practiced through homeschooling, that it's very easy for me to apply.
10:10
[SPEAKER_01]: And there's things that I didn't even know were out there.
10:12
[SPEAKER_01]: And this is one of those programs that I didn't know is out there that I'm just thrilled with.
10:16
[SPEAKER_00]: Awesome.
10:17
[SPEAKER_01]: So, okay.
10:18
[SPEAKER_01]: There's that.
10:19
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, a curriculum that we went back to.
10:20
[SPEAKER_01]: Do-do-do-do-do-do-do.
10:24
[SPEAKER_00]: Saxon math, back to the tried and true, the old familiar, the old purple, purple and orange is at the color of the books there in the book there, and right now.
10:32
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, they are in the hardcover second editions.
10:36
[SPEAKER_01]: You guys, like this is how much I'm a Saxon math and I'm like second edition, Saxon math.
10:42
[SPEAKER_00]: You like remember the story problems?
10:44
[SPEAKER_00]: I see the problems that he's going through and like no way, like this is the, like I remember this story.
10:50
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
10:52
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10:52
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11:08
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11:18
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11:32
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11:41
[SPEAKER_01]: So you guys know, I was going to do Singapore math.
11:44
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what we're going to do this year.
11:46
[SPEAKER_01]: We spent an arm in a leg on Singapore math.
11:48
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you to our.
11:51
[SPEAKER_01]: My husband.
11:52
[SPEAKER_01]: Thanks to me.
11:52
[SPEAKER_01]: Thought all the Singapore map.
11:55
[SPEAKER_01]: And doesn't rub it in my face.
11:56
[SPEAKER_01]: I need a figure out.
11:56
[SPEAKER_01]: If anyone's looking for a Singapore map book, I've got a lot.
12:02
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's it.
12:03
[SPEAKER_01]: We have done Saxon from kindergarten to seventh grade now.
12:08
[SPEAKER_01]: And the kids know the pattern, they know the rhythms, they know how it's taught.
12:13
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, it is a comfort zone for us, and I thought, hey, if we're going to be spending a lot more time on language arts, let's go back a few grades, because the kids were excelling and Saxon, and let's do a more conceptual, different style approach.
12:28
[SPEAKER_01]: We've kind of explained this, we've explained this before on other episodes, and bring the kids back to grade level, but have them do it in a different way, learn in a different way.
12:38
[SPEAKER_01]: And what I found with Singapore is I think it's a fantastic way to learn math, I don't think they obviously they have a lot of research to back that they're the way that you learn math through Singapore is great.
12:51
[SPEAKER_01]: But our problem with it was it was teaching things in a different way than how the kids had already learned things.
12:59
[SPEAKER_01]: So they were getting very frustrated because my eldest would be like great addition.
13:05
[SPEAKER_01]: I know how to do addition.
13:06
[SPEAKER_01]: and then they're really focused on the way that you get to the answer, not necessarily the right answer.
13:11
[SPEAKER_01]: So he'd give me the right answer and be like, no, no, no, but you didn't do it the way that they said.
13:16
[SPEAKER_01]: And so there was some good conceptual thinking that went through doing it the way that they said, but it was really frustrating and starting to hurt the kid's confidence.
13:25
[SPEAKER_01]: So every new subject, multiplication, division, specifically my older child children.
13:33
[SPEAKER_01]: would be like, oh, I know this.
13:35
[SPEAKER_01]: And then it's like backing up, backing up, and we're doing we're having a really stressful time doing a three-digit addition problem or two-digit multiplication problem.
13:46
[SPEAKER_01]: And they're like, why can't I just do this in two seconds?
13:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and that was an interesting, I think, experience for us to go through, because a part of the motivation that's going to Singapore was so that they would learn math from a completely different context, and they wouldn't just get used to the same patterns and the same instructions.
14:03
[SPEAKER_00]: We wanted them to understand math from a more complete holistic.
14:07
[SPEAKER_00]: perspective and I mean that sounds really good in theory and it's like if somebody's able to do that that seemed like it would be very helpful but I kind of liken it to you know they are young with confidence is critical right now at this point and I mean many people have advised us even prior to us changing it's like stick with the same after a healer like they're getting moment and they're getting confidence they can solve the problems in this manner like that's good let them continue doing that and I do like in it to like try and learn soul-fed after
14:35
[SPEAKER_00]: reading staff music or learning like the national number system and playing by ear, it's like you have to go back so far, it really does feel like it's stunting your growth.
14:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, like in an ideal world, you can play by ear, you can know the national number system, you can read staff, you can understand soul of edge, like that's all really.
14:54
[SPEAKER_00]: really, really great.
14:54
[SPEAKER_00]: So you've got momentum in one.
14:56
[SPEAKER_00]: The goal is to have your child playing music.
14:59
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I think that if you're hindering that goal, like that goal's being hindered, in any way, then it's probably worth sticking with the thing that's bringing fruit.
15:07
[SPEAKER_00]: That's, I mean, currently where we're at, it sounds like it's a little like compromise or like you're settling, but you do only have your kids for so long.
15:15
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's like if they want to pursue math, then maybe at some graduate level, they can then go and do all these different ways to understand math, you know, different philosophies.
15:23
[SPEAKER_01]: Exactly.
15:24
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that what kind of, I was like going back and forth, going back and forth, right?
15:29
[SPEAKER_01]: Because the whole reason we wanted to go to a different math curriculum is I wanted math to be very streamlined.
15:35
[SPEAKER_01]: And all of a sudden I was doing more math with the kids than I'd ever done.
15:39
[SPEAKER_01]: And it was stressful.
15:40
[SPEAKER_01]: And when it made the time I was spinning with the kids on Sachsen, just reading their new concept, seemed like nothing.
15:46
[SPEAKER_01]: in terms of my time spent.
15:48
[SPEAKER_01]: So it was kind of like going against, because I wanted to spend more time with the language arts, right?
15:52
[SPEAKER_01]: That was a whole point.
15:53
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I'm like, okay, this is kind of going against that.
15:55
[SPEAKER_01]: The Singapore website says it's transition kids to Singapore before 3rd grade.
16:02
[SPEAKER_01]: And I had a fourth grader and so I was like, okay, that's kind of like a red flag.
16:05
[SPEAKER_01]: This is going to be a heart transition for him.
16:08
[SPEAKER_01]: And then the other thing was, Singapore is really big on conceptual math, right?
16:12
[SPEAKER_01]: And, like, practical real world math.
16:16
[SPEAKER_01]: And, uh, mental math.
16:19
[SPEAKER_01]: By fourth grader, our fourth grader is actually great at mental math, but he does it a different way than what Singapore does.
16:26
[SPEAKER_01]: He's way better than I am, it mental math.
16:28
[SPEAKER_01]: And then he's great, a conceptual math.
16:30
[SPEAKER_01]: Like if you give him problems and that's the thing is like when Singapore would write out a story problem, people would say these problems are very complicated and they are.
16:39
[SPEAKER_01]: I would look at the problem and I'm like, whoa, there's a lot of variables here.
16:42
[SPEAKER_01]: He would just know he could get the right answer.
16:45
[SPEAKER_01]: And he always got those correct.
16:46
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I was like, I think he actually is a very good grip of math.
16:52
[SPEAKER_01]: He's not just procedurally doing the concepts, but he's not doing it in the exact way that Singapore's teaching.
16:58
[SPEAKER_01]: And I don't think I want to go back a few years to teach this.
17:02
[SPEAKER_01]: If we'd started from here, that would be great.
17:04
[SPEAKER_01]: We'd move forward that way.
17:05
[SPEAKER_01]: But we didn't start from here.
17:06
[SPEAKER_01]: We learned it a different way.
17:08
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think we'll just
17:10
[SPEAKER_01]: you know, move on.
17:11
[SPEAKER_01]: The other thing was I talked to a mom of 10 kids that I really respect.
17:15
[SPEAKER_01]: She's a homeschooling mother.
17:17
[SPEAKER_01]: And I would say like she is my homeschool goal.
17:22
[SPEAKER_01]: Like if you see someone who you want to be like it's her, she's gotten her kids into very prestigious programs and she's done it with a lot of kids and she's currently doing it now.
17:30
[SPEAKER_01]: Her kids are very, very good at math and they do rod and staff, which is very procedural, which is like Saxon.
17:38
[SPEAKER_01]: So I, you know, gave her a contact.
17:43
[SPEAKER_01]: And I was like, hey, what is your take on this?
17:45
[SPEAKER_01]: Is this real, like, will my kids be prepared to do higher level math, which is the goal here?
17:52
[SPEAKER_01]: Conceptually in all those things, if we aren't going to this jumping on the Singapore craze here, or do you think it would be a good idea to do this?
17:59
[SPEAKER_01]: And she's like, stick a 100% with what you're doing, do not change curriculums.
18:05
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the most important thing.
18:06
[SPEAKER_01]: So hearing from her and then knowing how excellent her children are, especially as engineers and they've gotten in a tough, what are their, like their programs are just very competitive.
18:18
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, in college they got into very tough math programs specifically.
18:22
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I was like, okay, if her kids could get there with rod and staff math, which is very similar, we're just going to stick with this.
18:31
[SPEAKER_01]: So that has been, that was three weeks ago.
18:36
[SPEAKER_01]: So, our fourth grader went back into Saxon.
18:41
[SPEAKER_01]: He's at the last little bit of Saxon 6.7 and our third grader went back into Saxon 5.6.
18:47
[SPEAKER_01]: She's halfway down with that book.
18:50
[SPEAKER_01]: And our second grader, I decided I wanted to use up the book with him and it's a lot of the same stuff that Saxon does.
18:56
[SPEAKER_01]: So he did the first half of Singapore 2A in two months.
19:02
[SPEAKER_01]: He's just like blow through it.
19:03
[SPEAKER_01]: It was very easy for him at his level.
19:05
[SPEAKER_01]: He's not like committed to a program, but I like Saxon, so we back into Saxon 4th grade with him and he's doing great.
19:15
[SPEAKER_01]: And then our first grader, he's five, and he is almost done with Saxon 1A.
19:21
[SPEAKER_01]: So we're working through it a little faster than what you would need to with the younger grades.
19:27
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm just gonna kind of use up the workbooks and then we're gonna jump back into Saxon for those guys.
19:32
[SPEAKER_01]: Because right now, it's just number-flancy.
19:33
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I just do feel like it's kind of like a branding thing.
19:36
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, do you think Asians are better at math than you go with Singapore?
19:40
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like if you think that like, I don't know, Anglo-Saxons are better at math.
19:44
[SPEAKER_00]: You go with sex and sex.
19:44
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I think historically, you would say... Well, the Singapore is better than that.
19:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Germans, I mean, don't, don't they have like a lot of, like successful engineers coming out of Germany?
19:54
[SPEAKER_01]: That's true, they do.
19:56
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.
19:57
[SPEAKER_01]: I do know Singapore is like really high math scores and stuff like that.
20:01
[SPEAKER_01]: But again, my, our goal for our kids is not for them to get the highest mask orders in the world.
20:07
[SPEAKER_01]: It is for them to be, uh, be able to enter into any program in any direction that they would like to go after high school.
20:16
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's like I want our kids to do high level math and high school.
20:20
[SPEAKER_01]: And should they choose to go into a mathematics field be prepared for that.
20:23
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
20:24
[SPEAKER_01]: Sounds like we could get there with a lot less tears just doing sex.
20:28
[SPEAKER_01]: So we're back.
20:29
[SPEAKER_01]: We are back and it has been a happy shift.
20:31
[SPEAKER_01]: And I've never heard my kids so excited to do their sexy math.
20:34
[SPEAKER_01]: They have not complained.
20:35
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
20:36
[SPEAKER_01]: One time.
20:38
[SPEAKER_00]: That in it of itself was worth going to sing a pour what for two months.
20:44
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, my kids, they would give me the hardest time with math, just if I asked them to do it in the afternoon, they would like, oh, you know.
20:50
[SPEAKER_01]: And now it's just like, sure, no big deal.
20:54
[SPEAKER_01]: I think if I had to threaten to go back to Singapore one time.
20:58
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, so that is where we are at.
21:00
[SPEAKER_01]: And again, if your kids are in Singapore, great, stick with it.
21:04
[SPEAKER_01]: Just stick with what you're in.
21:06
[SPEAKER_01]: It would be my encouragement.
21:08
[SPEAKER_01]: Because you're in a learn process as a certain way.
21:14
[SPEAKER_01]: Latin, Latina, Cristiana, we're doing through memoria press, it's online, it's lecture-based, our nine-year-olds doing that, and lecture's long, it's an hour and a half, for an hour and 45 minutes sometimes.
21:30
[SPEAKER_01]: But I feel like it's teaching great things.
21:32
[SPEAKER_01]: See us to do the quizzes by deadlines and do homework by deadlines and
21:37
[SPEAKER_01]: I will say sometimes I'm in there and they have a chat feed going with that while the lady's given the lecture and I'm just like, I don't know.
21:46
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, smart, this all is, because my son's just over there like loving the chat feed and the ladies, the instructors threatening to turn it off if everyone doesn't stay on subject and it's, but I think it's made Latin fun too, because the social element is a hazard.
22:10
[SPEAKER_00]: It is, yeah, I don't know how I feel about that.
22:11
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll see how much Latin he gets out of this.
22:13
[SPEAKER_00]: And I mean, it's been like whole sum and say, if up until this point, and it is very closely monitored by like a, you know, Christian woman.
22:20
[SPEAKER_00]: And so that's great, you know.
22:23
[SPEAKER_00]: But I, yeah, it's also like good to learn that.
22:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Because I mean, if he's ever on, I feel like that's what people do as grownups on all their zoom calls and Google meetups when you're on your work calls, everybody's,
22:36
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, and they're own little private chats, making fun of whoever's presenting, you know?
22:40
[SPEAKER_00]: And usually it's me and they're sitting there making fun of me, and they don't realize it's not private.
22:44
[SPEAKER_00]: I have to like, live with those comments for the rest of my life, just replay them in my head.
22:50
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, I'm about to point where he's discovering.
22:55
[SPEAKER_01]: It's nice.
22:55
[SPEAKER_01]: They just have a group chat and then they can message the instructor privately.
23:03
[SPEAKER_01]: But I think it's really distracting, obviously, in terms of a learning environment, to be able to talk the whole concept of why it's on is so that kids can answer the questions.
23:12
[SPEAKER_01]: And I do think it's been motivating for him to see other kids' age nailing the questions and memorizing them.
23:18
[SPEAKER_01]: And I do think you would have a really hard time doing this.
23:21
[SPEAKER_01]: If it was me making him, just, you know, conjugate nouns and decline verbs or decline verbs and conjugate nouns.
23:29
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.
23:29
[SPEAKER_01]: I get a little confused about it.
23:32
[SPEAKER_01]: But him seeing the other kids nail it, I think makes him feel like I should do this.
23:37
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it is.
23:38
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, we're all about the positive peer pressure and it is powerful.
23:41
[SPEAKER_00]: It's crazy.
23:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Even in Voper music academy, Lee on posted his fiddle, like competition submission.
23:48
[SPEAKER_00]: And there's the hour family.
23:50
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if any of the hours ever listen to the podcast, but their kids are just phenomenal.
23:55
[SPEAKER_01]: They dress, like guitar, mandolin, and all of it.
23:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Jack hour commented on Leon's video submission, like something positive, he was like, wow, you sound awesome, and that just, you know, like Leon was just playing his fiddle for the next 12-hour straight.
24:10
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like Jack hour said I sounded good.
24:15
[SPEAKER_00]: It really is.
24:16
[SPEAKER_00]: It's cool to see like the effects of positive peer pressure, you know, via
24:21
[SPEAKER_00]: And I know it, like the negative side of online communities gets talked about so length.
24:27
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's truly a serious thing.
24:29
[SPEAKER_00]: You can see, like, with how positive that impact can be in motivating, like, whoa, that it's all the more dangerous.
24:37
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, when somebody says something that tears you down, people are, you know, kids are doing all sorts of terrible things because of negative things online.
24:44
[SPEAKER_00]: But, yeah, it's a true, true conundrum there.
24:47
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so really happy with the Latin program overall.
24:50
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's good.
24:51
[SPEAKER_01]: I think the peer pressure has been good.
24:52
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think we'll probably do first form Latin through them next year and just keep going on.
24:58
[SPEAKER_01]: OK, in terms of history and science, because you guys ask me this, you're like, OK, great.
25:01
[SPEAKER_01]: You covered the big subjects.
25:03
[SPEAKER_01]: What are the things you're doing for history and science?
25:05
[SPEAKER_01]: We do a Charlotte Mason inspired approach.
25:08
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not a Charlotte Mason purist.
25:10
[SPEAKER_01]: I respect Charlotte Mason purists so much.
25:14
[SPEAKER_01]: part of me wants to be one, but I'm just not a purist in anything.
25:18
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm just too opinionated myself.
25:20
[SPEAKER_01]: So that said, we do history and science through living books.
25:27
[SPEAKER_01]: And again, that's not everything Charlotte Mason does.
25:31
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just snagging a piece of it and pulling it into our homeschool.
25:34
[SPEAKER_01]: So, I can post a list of all the books that we're doing on Substack at Bouted Be Hopeful, but the kids just read on their own through those booklists in the afternoons.
25:45
[SPEAKER_01]: And my older two, and then I read aloud through one of those books at lunchtime.
25:51
[SPEAKER_01]: And we alternate between history and science.
25:54
[SPEAKER_01]: In the mornings, I've been reading Plutarch after our language arts, and then we've been reading Shakespeare in the afternoons once or twice a week.
26:04
[SPEAKER_00]: Wow, okay, just another day in the life, the home school mom in North Idaho, just some blue-plu-tark over breakfast, Shakespeare over lunch, wow, okay.
26:19
[SPEAKER_01]: See, I just have to know the words to impress a little, I should have, I am doing something with your children.
26:24
[SPEAKER_00]: That's all you need to know, okay, you can just tell me that's what you read when I come home from work.
26:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Like whoa, keep it up, honey.
26:32
[SPEAKER_01]: So we are doing other things aside from the main things, but a lot of it's just reading and then I have a child narrate back to me here and there.
26:40
[SPEAKER_01]: It's very relaxed.
26:43
[SPEAKER_01]: For music, it's been fun.
26:44
[SPEAKER_01]: We've been doing a lot of family music in the evenings.
26:47
[SPEAKER_01]: Again, after a break, it's funny because in starting a music school, we initially thought we'd be playing a lot of music and then we realized actually all our energies going into teaching other people how to play music and we really want the kids to progress here.
27:01
[SPEAKER_00]: We found a really fun rhythm, I'd say, about two weeks ago.
27:04
[SPEAKER_00]: Because the first four weeks of the Imperson Music School here in North Idaho, which any of our listeners, if you're in town in North Idaho, if you live in the area, please come by, just drop in, we do drop in classes for people.
27:17
[SPEAKER_00]: You need to sign up and start the whole program or figure out, you can just come try an instrument, try a class, we love meeting you.
27:23
[SPEAKER_01]: We have all the instruments here, just need to drop in, you could use one here.
27:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and we've met a bunch of you, and it's been so fun.
27:29
[SPEAKER_00]: That's where we're recording the podcast right now.
27:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you can hear the piano class going on next door in the piano room.
27:34
[SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, the first four weeks in the school up and running, we were kind of frustrated because we loved the school.
27:42
[SPEAKER_00]: That was a blast, but we weren't able to do very much family music in the midst of it.
27:46
[SPEAKER_00]: But then a couple of weeks ago, we really found a rhythm where every night we're playing together, the kids are progressing, and it's like, I mean, again, I don't want to...
27:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, it's kind of like our dream come true and feels a little bit because our kids are able to utilize the music school, the online community to progress as musicians and then we're able to then share in that music together in the evening and in a very relational way and so yeah it's like I don't know how to not sound hyperbolic and like talking about this but it really is like
28:18
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like a pinch-free moment every night after dinner and the kids are progressing and so anyways That's a huge it's been a huge win and so it's fun.
28:27
[SPEAKER_01]: So I I bring that up because that is a big part of our day The kids are taking like our two boys are doing guitar In person here at the studio like three times a week and or piano and then our daughter's really taken off with piano And she loves coming in for piano classes, so she's doing like two or three of those a week
28:47
[SPEAKER_01]: And then our seven-year-old is utilizing the Fiddle online with VMA and doing classes on there.
28:56
[SPEAKER_01]: So anyways, they're doing a lot of classes with music right now, but it's been really fun.
29:00
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, we mentioned the competition online with Boburg Music Academy.
29:05
[SPEAKER_01]: And our one of our sons he submitted for the Fiddle, for the guitar, and for the mandolin, and he's loving playing all the different instruments, and it's just really cool seeing it all come together.
29:16
[SPEAKER_01]: So anyways, and then in terms of our two eldest typeers, typing games have been retired, they retired themselves.
29:27
[SPEAKER_01]: We thought we were going to have to like force it in because everyone was so obsessed with typing, and the two eldest learned how to type, took them like a month and a half, and then they just stopped playing the games.
29:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you're right.
29:39
[SPEAKER_00]: We didn't have to, they just got what board or tired of it.
29:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Did they, yeah, beat the game or something?
29:44
[SPEAKER_01]: One of our kids said, it stresses me out too much.
29:46
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm too worried about beating the game, but I like to just type stories.
29:50
[SPEAKER_01]: So, started typing stories.
29:53
[SPEAKER_01]: And then our other child, I think, is just straight up too busy.
29:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
30:00
[SPEAKER_01]: our daughter got really into reading like kind of obsessed with reading.
30:04
[SPEAKER_01]: And so that's been her go to this reading or playing the piano.
30:08
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think it just switched from like the typing games have no joy over reading or playing the piano.
30:14
[SPEAKER_00]: So I just, I don't know, I know you're not for you're probably not done yet, but I just get so much joy out of seeing our children.
30:23
[SPEAKER_00]: find joy, like our children are finding joy in learning new things and working hard.
30:29
[SPEAKER_00]: And I do think that is a gift to give to your children because as an adult, as an adult, I think most of us can relate to feeling accomplished from working through a problem or doing something that you felt like was of value to somebody else.
30:45
[SPEAKER_00]: you know, and completing a job that were a task that was truly a challenge and feeling like you're just adding values of the world and and we get to instill that I guess desire and then give our kids that ability to do that such a young age and now it and I mean our listeners are kids play a ton like when we left the house today it's like
31:05
[SPEAKER_00]: they're with their neighbor, our neighbor kids.
31:07
[SPEAKER_00]: We live in this between, I don't know, the whole thing is like this storybook setting where we live between two neighbors and they all go to our church and they've got kids and they always meet up at our yard or one of the other neighbors yards and they're playing flag football right now.
31:21
[SPEAKER_00]: They've all got like the flags and they,
31:23
[SPEAKER_00]: They wear them, and I'm like, man, this is just so fun to see our kids work hard and then play hard.
31:29
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think that that's when humans really are the most vibrant and thriving is when we're working hardly as unto the Lord.
31:36
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
31:36
[SPEAKER_00]: That might not always look like there might not always be this practical utility to the work that you're doing where it's monetarily of benefit.
31:45
[SPEAKER_00]: Or there's like something very tangible that you can see at the end of it.
31:48
[SPEAKER_00]: But for working hardly unto the Lord, I think there will always be this sense of
31:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, like accomplishment and, you know, doing being true to your duty, being honoring to the Lord, and then you get to enjoy those moments of reprieve and relaxation or just rest all the more they mean so much more.
32:05
[SPEAKER_00]: And yeah, it's just, again, people can probably probably relate to like,
32:10
[SPEAKER_00]: too much rest and too much relaxation and leisure and you just don't feel good about yourself and you're like, what's the point of anything?
32:18
[SPEAKER_00]: And you see that those lamentations in the Bible, you know, from different kings and people that have had so much wealth in excess and they're like, what are why are we even doing this?
32:26
[SPEAKER_00]: And so just to be able to see our kids working hard and then playing ours, like a little microcosm, I think of a human nature.
32:33
[SPEAKER_01]: That is, it's so sweet.
32:35
[SPEAKER_01]: I love saying it.
32:38
[SPEAKER_01]: We added in geography a couple weeks ago, and I have just done what we've consistently done for geography, which is something we stole from classical conversations.
32:48
[SPEAKER_01]: We sell the classical conversations maps, and we just trace on the maps.
32:54
[SPEAKER_01]: They're like these blank maps.
32:56
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's like, okay, where's the Mediterranean Sea, where's Rome, where's, you know, Italy, and you just kind of go through all the places on the map, review places that kids know, go over places that we're reading about, see where they are on location to other things.
33:13
[SPEAKER_01]: And I feel like it's a great way.
33:15
[SPEAKER_01]: It's the way that geographies gotten cemented in my mind the most is that drawing it and seeing it and not just looking at a map and then relating it back to what we are currently reading.
33:28
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I love that we do that just a couple times a week.
33:32
[SPEAKER_01]: But that's really simple and straightforward.
33:35
[SPEAKER_01]: And then our first grader, because I haven't really touched on him a lot, he's just again doing the finishing up his Singapore mouth.
33:43
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm just kind of doing it the way that I want to do it if that makes sense.
33:47
[SPEAKER_01]: I know where we're going now.
33:49
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I'm just kind of making it make sense.
33:52
[SPEAKER_01]: for me and my teaching style and then he's still reading through a hundred easy lessons and if you guys were familiar at the beginning of this quarter I started off our seven year old with the remedial reading through a hundred easy lessons he started at lesson one and he blew through that I want to stand like a month or something and so now he's reading easy readers and great illustrated classics and things like that so that was a great
34:20
[SPEAKER_01]: process to just go back to square one and do that.
34:24
[SPEAKER_01]: And then our five-year-old is also doing the spell to write and read, but I'm just kind of dumbing it down a little bit for his level.
34:36
[SPEAKER_01]: So he's learning cursive first and is just going through the phonograms and learning the cursive letters.
34:43
[SPEAKER_01]: And then just with the curse of letters, he had like, we've skipped a few like F or H or ones that are like a little more tricky.
34:50
[SPEAKER_01]: Then I have them putting together words and spelling words.
34:52
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm kind of just building my own little kindergarten first grade curriculum for him, based off the spell to write a read program.
35:02
[SPEAKER_01]: I got, um, oh, man, foundations.
35:06
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's what
35:13
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know why, I just, I just kind of wanted to do my own thing.
35:18
[SPEAKER_01]: I get, I know where I'm going, I want to get them into the Spell to Write and Read program.
35:22
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I'm just kind of creating my own thing to get as there as quick as possible.
35:27
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's what we're doing with him.
35:29
[SPEAKER_01]: And then in terms of the kids' sports, again, this is just another thing that I would add in because it is a part of our schedule.
35:36
[SPEAKER_01]: Our boys are doing just two, three times a week right now.
35:41
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's nice, the music schools right next week, we plan that, we did plan that.
35:47
[SPEAKER_01]: Right next to our kids' gyms.
35:50
[SPEAKER_01]: That's a blessing.
35:51
[SPEAKER_01]: Alisha's able to take them in, often to those classes, and then our daughter's doing between like five to seven hours of gymnastics a week.
36:00
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's also quite a bit on her schedule that we are working around.
36:04
[SPEAKER_01]: So like our homeschool days now, I have the oldest three kids getting up at 6.30, so they can get a big chunk of their math done before breakfast, because they're going in at all different times the day right now.
36:19
[SPEAKER_01]: And this is how it's going to be forever, but it is the way our life looks right now.
36:23
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm grateful we had that time in August before our daughter's gymnastics schedule got moved into the mornings and stuff like that.
36:31
[SPEAKER_01]: So we are able to have homeschool days that were
36:34
[SPEAKER_01]: the same and we really gain momentum and now we have a process and so sometimes they'll take the kids into their language arts on their own, sometimes they're down in the school room with everyone's home together.
36:45
[SPEAKER_01]: But our days are kind of all over the map right now.
36:48
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm just being like these are what we need to get done every day and it gets done every day.
36:55
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, if we didn't get up at 630 to do math because it was a late night, then everyone's doing math
37:03
[SPEAKER_01]: But we're still doing it and just really trying to get those 36 consistent weeks in this year at least four day weeks, but aiming for five.
37:13
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, it's been going great.
37:14
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm impressed with your consistency and I honestly think that the music school's been a very grounding thing for our family too as far as it's keeping us even though our days are very they fluctuate now and they're a little bit more healthier-scalter.
37:29
[SPEAKER_00]: We're a lot more geographically stable because in years past, because we were able to work online and work remotely, we would find ourselves on the road midweek often times in, you know, August, September, October, November, like year round.
37:46
[SPEAKER_00]: And now that we are here Monday through Friday in North Idaho because of the music school, that's actually, I think, been a benefit to the kids, schooling and their sports as well, just all their extracurriculars, and so, and that was a motivation for us, because we knew that, and honestly, just for you and I as well, we knew that for our...
38:05
[SPEAKER_00]: you know, our health or Bible reading are just like our prayer time that consistent geographical yet commitment was advantageous for us.
38:17
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we've really been enjoying that.
38:19
[SPEAKER_01]: You're so right and glad you brought that up because this is, yeah, we used to leave like Tuesday through Thursday.
38:25
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
38:25
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like that doesn't happen anymore.
38:27
[SPEAKER_01]: We can't miss classes here at the school.
38:29
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm so grateful because it really helps us stay consistent with homeschooling, which is the number one goal for this year.
38:36
[SPEAKER_01]: So anyways, yeah, really, really happy with how our first quarter, I'm going to say it's a quarter, might be a third, but you know, I still think in terms of 90 days as gone for this school year and we'll give you an update next next quarter, but hopefully not a lot of changes, and we're just able to keep moving forward.
38:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Bye.
38:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Bye.