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What Do Homeschool Parents Actually Do? · Making Everyday Magic: The Podcast

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  I think the worst part is that I get it.
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  I really do. I'll get back to making everyday magic.
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  My name is Shanna and if you are new here or homeschooling family of four.
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  We are in our 10th year of homeschooling and we have a ninth grader
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  and a fifth grader.
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  Today I want to talk to
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  the people who don't homeschool.
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  Before we go any further, please scroll down and hit the big red subscribe button.
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  Turn on the bell for notifications and give this video a thumbs up.
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  As always, you can find me down in the comments
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  or over on Instagram at Making Everyday Magic.
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  Naturally, 99.5% of you will be the people who homeschool.
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  99.5% of you will be the people that I normally talk to.
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  But every once in a while, somebody finds myself a piece of my content and they
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  don't homeschool.
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  They don't understand homeschool.
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  They have naturally
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  painted homeschool with a pretty broad brush.
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  And honestly, I get it, I really do.
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  I do understand that when you hear homeschool,
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  what that means to you is
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  that people are intentionally trying to keep their kids sheltered.
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  People are intentionally trying to keep their kids from learning,
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  things about the real world.
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  People who are
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  maybe not vaccinators, people
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  who maybe believe that the earth is not round, people
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  who want to use
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  the additional instruction time that they have with their homeschoolers
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  to force religion and maybe to limit science.
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  So I do get it.
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  I really, really do.
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  And that's kind of exactly why I come here and share
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  is because we are secular homeschoolers.
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  I always joke that we aren't those homeschoolers.
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  And if you're here to understand, welcome.
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  If you're here to truly listen, hey, awesome.
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  If you still think I'm cuckoo, cuckoo.
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  Great. Cool. Welcome to
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  I just
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  I want to take a minute and go through like what is happening.
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  What are people thinking?
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  What do people think that homeschool parents do?
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  And again, I, I get it, I really get it.
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  I'm out in the homeschool trenches and I see things that I'm not a fan of,
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  and I'm super concerned about educational neglect.
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  But again, we're secular homeschoolers.
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  We don't homeschool because we want a greater focus on religion.
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  We literally build our homeschool around an absence of religion.
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  We are out in the world.
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  My kids take classes at the Science Museum with real, bonafide scientists,
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  and we continue to search out what is best for our kids.
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  I recently you guys know I put up a video about designing high school,
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  and I talked about offering our kids in education,
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  and I got a comment that basically talked about
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  it is impossible for me to offer my kids or to say that I want
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  what's best for them,
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  or to even provide what is best for them because I'm homeschooling them.
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  And you know,
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  that should be left to the experts who have like a master's education.
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  And I referenced Olympic athletes and their elite training situations.
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  And this person was really passionate about the fact that because I am not,
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  you know, master's having in every subject everywhere, that therefore
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  I cannot do these things.
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  And it's really interesting to me because how many Olympic athletes,
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  how many times are their parents,
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  Olympic athletes, or did they recognize
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  the potential?
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  Did they recognize the desire, the talent?
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  And they then search out those experts.
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  And this happens a lot.
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  And now I have a lot of statistics that I will drop down.
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  I'm going to link them down below.
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  You do not have to take my word for it. Please do not.
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  I am backing this up with bona fide studies and statistics link down below.
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  But I am in Houston ISD, Houston
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  public school
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  school district.
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  And if you don't know, you're in Texas,
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  it is one of the school districts that has been taken over by the state.
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  It is one of the school districts that has teachers leaving in droves.
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  So not only are qualified teachers leaving the school district, there are
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  they are being replaced with people who are not even certified to teach.
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  And I don't know if you know this, but as homeschoolers,
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  when we want the best for our kids, when we are passionate
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  about what our kids can do in the world,
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  when we are very vocal and very driven and very motivated to give our kids
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  the best possible thing, we search out those pieces.
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  So I am not a, you know, limited and what my children can learn
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  based on what I know.
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  First of all, I am never going to pretend like I know
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  even most of any single subject I super do not.
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  I come here
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  and I share to hopefully give other people who haven't found that voice.
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  Again.
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  I hear you and I get it, who haven't found the voice that sounds like there's
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  hopefully a small glimpse into the world to know that they are not alone.
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  And what that means is that we are out here
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  searching out the best for our kids, and we are organizing
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  and curating and sourcing things that are the absolute possible best.
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  So again, no, my kids are not limited by my knowledge.
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  If so, they would have a theory.
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  Very very small educational world.
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  What I do, what I'm passionate about, in service
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  to their education is that I am searching out.
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  For example, this year they're taking classes with scientists
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  at the Houston Museum of Natural Science.
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  Real, true, bonafide scientists.
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  Their music instructor has a doctorate of music.
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  Okay, not even a master's, a doctorate of music. Why?
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  Because I couldn't read a sheet of music
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  if it smacked me in the face and gave me a phonetic lesson.
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  That is not a thing that I can do, but I can find the people who can do that.
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  Their language arts curriculum is taught by somebody who is or was written
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  by someone who is a leading voice in gifted and talented language arts.
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  Okay, so this is not something that I am relying on my knowledge to. No.
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  Absolutely not.
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  I am just as excited to sit with them and learn alongside of them.
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  They are not ever going to be limited by what I can offer on my own,
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  but what I can do and I can do a really, really good job of
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  is finding all the things.
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  Now, I don't know if you know any public school teachers personally.
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  I know several related to several and several are very good friends
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  and I do not mean to be disparaging to them.
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  I am a huge proponent, a huge fan of public school models, I truly am.
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  They need work, they need an overhaul, and teachers need way more support.
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  That is all very true.
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  But my kids are not not in public school because I think public school is garbage.
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  It is because I want to be able to give them
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  good, better, best in their educational pursuits.
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  And I know that I can do that because, again,
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  I can search out the people with the doctorates, I can search out
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  the handhold dissection lab that is taking place next Tuesday.
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  I can get that I can provide that I can pay the money
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  and drive the car to make sure that my children get that specific experience,
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  and that they are not limited by one teacher's scope of study,
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  or by their parents lack of knowledge or lack of masters.
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  In all of the subjects, I am wise enough to know what I do not know
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  and smart enough to search it out in every aspect.
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  So yes, I get it, I get it.
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  We are living through what I think could quite possibly be the start of a dark age,
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  the way that people are
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  turning their backs on science and being so loud and so proud
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  and so vocal against the things that we know to be true to verifiable,
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  truth based, evidence based fact
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  science advancements and endeavors.
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  And we live in a world where every Jewish thinks
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  that they are an expert in something.
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  And I assure you, I am not one of them.
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  I am an expert in nothing, but I am really good
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  at finding the people who are. So I get it.
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  I understand if you came to listen.
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  I hope that this maybe makes you feel a little bit better
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  about the state of the world, because I promise you, I also am worried.
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  I am worried about educational neglect in homeschool.
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  I think that like educational models across the board, public school,
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  private school, charter school, homeschool all need better accountability,
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  better standards, and better access to things that are provided by experts.
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  Now, it is not, I think, reasonable to expect every single public school
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  teacher to be an expert in every single little thing that they do.
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  Like I said, I know many of them am related to many of them and I love them so
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  much, but I would not believe that any one of them
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  was the best choice ever to teach my child 100% of anything.
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  And that is because, like I do, I would expect them to want to search out
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  the better options, the best options, those people who are
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  experts in those fields.
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  So when
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  my child can get a guided paleontology lesson from an actual paleontologist.
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  Yes, please. Thank you.
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  When my children can get geography straight from a bona fide
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  social scientist, that is what I want for them.
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  That is what I will provide for them.
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  So in the same way that one of them might turn out to be a piano virtuoso,
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  mommy can't play a tune. And that's okay.
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  But you know who can help them?
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  The people.
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  I'll put in their path to support them.
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  My job as a parent, my job as a homeschool educator, is to pick the pieces, to
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  gather the experts, to bring to my children
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  the best that I possibly can for every step of the way.
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  It's much like, you know, let's let's just say I am essentially the superintendent.
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  Superintendents don't have to have a background in education, okay?
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  I am essentially a superintendent, okay?
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  And I bring in the health teacher and I bring in the music instructor,
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  and I bring in the cafeteria workers and the janitors,
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  and I bring in the biologists
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  and the chemist, because even science isn't as basic as science.
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  Okay. So I'm going to continue to do my job.
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  I'm going to continue to do the best that I can.
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  And I get it. I really do get it.
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  And I hope that if anyone came here to actually
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  listen, to understand, I'm not asking you to agree with me,
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  but I hope that just a little bit, just a little bit.
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  This gives you
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  hope for
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  the possibility that it could be a little bit different than you thought.
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  It could be a little bit bigger than just
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  seclusion and antisocial and ignorance.
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  I hope that you realize that. It could be.
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  It could be.
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  There's potential for it to be a good thing.
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  I don't need to prove it to you.
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  I need to prove it to my kids, and I will.
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  I hope that you found any of this helpful, entertaining, or informative.
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  If you did, scroll down down to the comments.
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  While you're down there, give me a thumbs up,
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  turn on that bell for notifications and hit the big red subscribe button.
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  Okay, if you want to drop me a comment, you can do that down in the comments
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  or over on Instagram at Making Everyday Magic, I want you to know
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  I am very serious that I take my role
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  as somebody contributing to society very seriously.
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  Okay, my homeschool is about open doors, my homeschool isn't about taller walls,
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  and I know that there are many, many, many of you out there
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  who feel the exact same way.
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  And whether that means you do want to add Bible to your lessons,
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  but you don't entirely negate science.
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  I think that's great too.
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  There are a lot of ways to homeschool that aren't scary.
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  There are a lot of ways to homeschool
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  that are still going to benefit the world by the products that you're putting out
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  in your homeschool,
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  your learners, your children, your people who you are raising
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  for the next generation of the society to go out and change the world.
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  So I know, you know, I know that we're doing a great job.
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  You know, I know that we're working really hard
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  to do the absolute best possible situation that we can.
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  But to those who don't know, I really do get it, I really do.
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  Together, guys, I hope that we can keep making everyday magic.