Latest / The Christy-Faith Show / Ep. 27 - The Importance of Risky Play in Child Development (Part 2 of 2) // Sarah Collins

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Ep. 27 - The Importance of Risky Play in Child Development (Part 2 of 2) // Sarah Collins · The Christy-Faith Show

• 0:00
  Christy-Faith: All the moms listening are gonna, like, put that on replay. Right? Collins, the OT says you need to be doing chores right now. Welcome to the Christi Faith Show where we share game changing ideas with intentional parents like you. I'm your host, Christy Faith, experienced educational adviser and homeschool enthusiast.
• 0:18
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• 1:28
  Welcome back to part 2. In this episode, we'll continue delving deeper into game changing ideas for intentional parents like you. So grab your coffee, find a comfy spot, and let's dive right
• 1:39
  Sarah Collins: in. I I joke all the time, like and and if you've ever heard me speak, but, you know, at conventions or whatever I talk about, like, I used to have the cleanest floorboards in all of Pennsylvania because my son really needed a lot of core strengthening, but also needed that proprioception. And so we would do our morning time, and then we break in. I'm such a nerd into what we would call coop time because I mean, I told you we have chickens outside, and so we had to take care of our indoor coop too. And so that's when we would all kind of do some chores, see, do some chores together.
• 2:13
  And his for the longest time, because we were working on that strength and the coordination and needing that proprioception, he would crawl and wipe my floorboards, and crawl and wipe the floorboard, and wipe, crawl and wipe the floorboard. And then we could move on and to do something else, but he was so much calmer after that. So build into your day some of these activities. Now that's not risky, you know. That's just pulling out that that proprioception, right?
• 2:40
  But anything within inside when you are climbing or crawling. Now, jumping. I used to have to keep a his crib mattress. Like, I have videos of him from when he was 2 and 3, standing on top of furniture and literally just flopping right down onto that crib mattress, and standing back up and flopping back down because he needed that to understand his world. There's he is in podcast.
• 3:06
  I've kinda gone through a lot of his story and some of the things that have you know, that we've worked through with my own son. But a big piece of that was he was not getting information visually or auditorily. He had, convergence disorders. Eye muscles were not working correctly together. They weren't teaming ear tubes like all so he wasn't getting information correct through these senses, So we had to use his vestibular sense or the movement around him.
• 3:33
  And that is the most alerting. Right? So then he needed this proprioception to help keep him calm. Because we've got the most alerting, which partially is when you are doing Pilates and you're on your back, and your head is moving, and you're holding your core, that's why it's helping you so much. Because the vestibular system is alerting, and the proprioceptive system is organizing your calming.
• 3:57
  So you're using those together. And that's that's why that works so well for you. But, like, yeah. I do know that. But for him, that flopping was like a necessary thing.
• 4:09
  Now there's a whole lot of times and a lot of places, you know, going to grandma's house and they had a glass table and you you can't just, like, go diving off of it, but he still had those same needs. So we had to recognize for him, where can you do it? I couldn't remove it because then that's gonna remove his ability to regulate his body. So it's kind of the same thing with the trampoline, and that's why I have that trampoline. Right?
• 4:38
  Because now he's older. I can't remove it to take away and think if I remove the risk, he's I'm gonna remove the need? No. Then it's gonna be more dangerous because he's not meeting his own needs. So when we're thinking about risky play, we have to think about what specifically does my child need and why.
• 5:00
  So it's kind of the observation of your child. So let's go back to that proprioception because you asked me like indoor and outdoor. So indoor, like, yeah, bring in the chores. Right? And then making sure that you have a spot that they can do what they want.
• 5:15
  So whether or not that's that you're okay with moving couch cushions off and we're flopping down onto them or, you know, we're getting some, I don't know, little skates that fit on the bottom of your shoes, so you're going on the floor. Whatever is fine. I loved those, like, square scooters. Right? So he could lay on his belly and pull his body.
• 5:35
  Now that he's older, he is weightlifting in my basement. That's way easier. Give me some of that. Way easier, because that's motivating to him. But as a little guy, it wasn't.
• 5:49
  So that's knowing your kid. Outdoors, same thing as far as, like, chores and stuff can be the same. Like, push that wheelbarrow. Put I mean, it doesn't have to be a chore. He would build log houses in my backyard on like, with our sticks and stuff.
• 6:07
  He put all those sticks in a wheelbarrow, push them out to the back, and build this teepee or whatever that's back there. We have a slack line, you know, that you could stand on and he could jump on and off of that. As little guys, they would jump on and off, like, my deck stairs. You guys would really be like, oh my gosh, Sarah. The trampoline, like, he used to move it and climb up a tree and jump from the tree onto the trampoline.
• 6:34
  That's not coming from me. Don't do it. But unless you really know your child. Right? And for him, because this was what he did on a regular basis, and he really understood his body, and we had spent a lot of time talking and discussing safety needs, then that's that's what he would do.
• 6:56
  And he was completely safe and fine.
• 7:00
  Christy-Faith: Yes. That's so incredible. I think back to my childhood and the risky oh my goodness. The things that I would do, I have been a wild player my whole life. But I grew up in Southern California where there were cinder block cinder block fences.
• 7:17
  Right? Not fences like we have now, but they were cinder block. Right? I grew up in a city, and they were high, like, at least 6, 7 feet between the houses. And I was way too tall to actually do formal gymnastics because I am if you guys know, I'm almost 6 feet tall.
• 7:35
  Not really a fit for gymnastics, although that was fun. I used to literally, there would be concrete on both sides of that wall, that cinder block wall. I would do flips, cartwheels, the risk on and and I don't know. It wasn't as good for me to just do it on the grass. Doing it on that 4 inch what was it?
• 7:56
  Maybe 5 inches cinder block wall with that risk of falling on each side. And and then my parents would come outside, and my mom was like, oh, my goodness. And my dad is like, that's so cool. I can't believe you can do that. And, honestly, I could never be able to do it now.
• 8:10
  I don't have the right. I don't have all that strength and all of that. Tell me a little bit about Heights. What was I getting out of that with we let our girls, we have, climbing trees in our backyard. We have pine trees that come out really neat, like beautifully.
• 8:24
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• 11:03
  Sarah Collins: Yeah. So number 1, it's again that proprioception and that core strength because as you're climbing, you are organizing and you're understanding your body. So the more that you're doing that, then the more you understand your body. Again, I keep going back to this and back to this. The more and more and more that you understand, the easier it is to do.
• 11:20
  And so when they're going up high. Now the other advantage for that is especially for our kiddos now who are very used to having information and screens right smack in front of their faces. Their depth perception is off, which again is one reason why we're seeing so many more injuries. So when and now I don't think you should go from I've I sit inside and I'm very sedentary, and I absolutely love video games, so I'm gonna climb to the very top of a tree. But I do think incrementally that that should go.
• 11:57
  That's that easy plus one. So climb up a little bit, and then climb up a little bit farther. And then as you know, like, what you're seeing and how far away something is, again, you begin to understand your world around you in a different way, which prevents more injury. So without the risky play, you are more likely to be injured. The more and more we remove the risk, the more risky things actually are.
• 12:21
  Christy-Faith: Do we know any information about more than that? I I wrote down that, you know, being inside all day and having information close to us, like on a screen decreased depth perception can cause more injuries. Are there other things we're starting to see with kids that are, you know, and I'm a big proponent of I'm not against video games. I'm not against screen time. I think we need to honestly train our kids before 18 how to, like, what an addiction is, what it would look like, how to handle it.
• 12:51
  And and there's a lot of benefits even from video games and things like that, of course, in moderation. What are what are some other things we're seeing with kids that are just not active, staying inside too much, watching too much screen? What's going on?
• 13:08
  Sarah Collins: So watching a screen takes a 2 dimensional or takes a 3-dimensional area and puts it in 2 dimensional space. Does that make sense? So, for example, if I'm looking outside my window and I can tell, like, you know, my my son's right outside the window throwing the ball and then the trees are behind him and then there's a fence behind that. Right? So I can tell that because it still is three-dimensional even through my window.
• 13:32
  But if you're looking at a screen, it's 2 dimensional, yet it's perception perceiving 3. And so it's really hard for the brain. It's all the time confusing to the brain. In addition, because of the lights that are coming from the screen, it makes a difference in our brains and the ability to calm and regulate. Right?
• 13:55
  Because what we take in through our eyes, which then goes into the brain to perceive and to organize and to explain. Right? All of that is off. And what we're seeing then is an overactive nervous system, which then affects our ability within the executive functioning. Right?
• 14:14
  Which is on the prefrontal cortex. So if what's happening is you're becoming dysregulated, which then can put yourself into fight or flight a lot faster, which then decreases the blood flow to the prefrontal cortex, then we've got a disconnect here. Not only with development, but you know what else is happening in the prefrontal cortex? Safety awareness. Right?
• 14:36
  This is response inhibition. This is us saying, wait, there's a fire. I shouldn't touch it. Right? So not only are we not being exposed outside to some of these risky things, but our brains are literally being molded and wired in a way that makes us less able to understand the risk.
• 14:59
  Christy-Faith: That is so fascinating. And we do know this. We do know that our brains are wired and they can be rewired. It's a lot harder to do when you're an adult because I've tried. But that is so fascinating.
• 15:13
  Sarah Collins: Yeah. So let's talk a little bit about, like, that fire or, you know, the this response inhibition. Right? So, you know, we've talked a lot about the body itself and that body awareness and how we want our kids to be able to advocate for themselves. But I also want to acknowledge the parents that are like, I literally can't because my child isn't safe because they just see and then do something right away.
• 15:36
  Or they're just running across the street or we're sitting by a fire and they're gonna put their hand right in it. Right? Or sit a marshmallow and now we're literally running around with a flaming stick. So things like this. So there's kind of 2 things that we've used in our house that have been really, really helpful.
• 15:57
  The first was we talked a lot about the scientific method. Right? So let's bring in some some good old homeschooling. I'll write in this. And if you have to form a hypothesis.
• 16:08
  So when we would be going outside and doing something that I know is, you know, new or unfamiliar to my children, so let's just take the fire for example. We're sitting outside one night and my son wanted to throw every single thing into the fire that was around him. I'm like, okay, so let's talk about this for a minute. What's your hypothesis of when you throw that piece of foil in there? What's your hypothesis of when you throw a leaf in there?
• 16:34
  Because I needed him to slow down enough to think. And since we had just been going the scientific method, we were like, alright, so here's your question. What's going to happen when I throw my, you know, leaf in the fire? Alright. Well, what do you do after you form your question?
• 16:49
  You you have a research. Right? Question and research before you form your hypothesis. So ask the people around you. And then when we phrased it that way, it wasn't like I have to ask my mom before I do everything.
• 17:01
  It was like I'm getting research before I throw this into the fire. So it changed the mindset and made it more fun. Right? So that is one one way to do it, and we would do that in lots of different ways. Alright.
• 17:16
  So if you are gonna climb up this tree and how high up do you think it would go? Or you could go, before you can't see me, or before you couldn't catch this ball from up there. Okay. Well, we need to make a decision. Are you gonna be safer once you get up there?
• 17:33
  What's your hypothesis? Okay. So we would talk through that. And guys, sometimes even some really scary things. Like, if you run into that street and there's a car coming, what's your hypothesis of what's gonna happen?
• 17:45
  Like, we don't need to mince facts here. Like, that is a super dangerous thing. So we need to talk about it as it is and not be afraid to say, right? Like, that's a really important thing to talk about. And my role as your mom, you safe and healthy and be the best person you could be.
• 18:03
  So let's let's talk about that. Another thing that we would do is we would carry binoculars, like, for a while, it was all the time, and they were not just to see far away. We called them the safety seekers. Right? And so we would look like, all right, so we're coming up to, this is when they were little, but we're coming up to a street corner, like put on your safety seekers.
• 18:25
  What do you see? No, because I want to challenge them to look at their surroundings and to acknowledge what are the risks right now. And if you're able to do that and you know your body, then you're able to take more risks. So it's not like we're just going from 0 to I need you all to go outside and just figure out what you're gonna do and come back in later. But we're taking these easy plus one, these incremental steps towards allowing our children to be safe when they are unsupervised or to be safe when I'm out there.
• 19:02
  And I can't be 2 steps away from them at any given time.
• 19:06
  Christy-Faith: Well, and you bring up such a good point because if we never allow our kids to do anything that involves any risk, they actually don't know how to engage risk. And that goes back to what you were talking about with the fire, which I loved. Because what that brought to mind was what would most of us as a parent were like, you know, we're we're camping. The hospital is 3 hours away. Right?
• 19:31
  Our kids starts playing with the fire. What do we immediately do? Stop that. What were you thinking? Stop that.
• 19:36
  Right? But reframing that to actually training our children to assess risk and engage in risk in a healthy way is so incredibly empowering.
• 19:52
  Sarah Collins: I was gonna say another thing that we say all the time is be careful, be careful, be careful. And like, what does that actually mean, right? Like, if we're just saying that all the time, a child doesn't know. So if we can reframe our words to what do you see there or what's gonna happen next, right? Or I notice that you're, you know, if you jump from there, there's a giant stick underneath and you, whatever.
• 20:23
  You know, if we're like framing it or giving reasons why, it can actually be helpful. If we're just saying stop that and be careful, we're instilling fear and not confidence.
• 20:35
  Christy-Faith: Yes. Well and I wanna talk about that confidence, but this is coming to mind. I mean, please, I am not a perfect parent. What I will say is at a cooking is very important in our family and nutrition and health. So at a very young age, I have taught my kids knife skills, and I bought them special knives that were good for their hands.
• 20:53
  And they can cut all sorts of things at a young age, apples, all of this. But I but when I was teaching them their knife skills in the very beginning now I don't even need to be in the room, and they're young. Right? But at the very beginning, rather than be careful because that's not actually teaching them a knife skill, I would say, okay, so if you hold it like that, if your hand is there, watch what could happen. And then I would take the knife and like reenact, like, what could happen to their finger by accident.
• 21:23
  And then I also would incorporate my stories of how, like, I've actually cut myself pretty bad a couple of times. Yeah. And and how some foods are a little bit more prone to injuries because the these knives slip and things like that. And just talking through that, I think, is so important with all things in in homeschooling, kind of with everything. This is such a beautiful OT takeaway to apply to everything.
• 21:52
  Rather than, no, stop, be careful, what were you thinking? Let's stop and see how can I train my kid now? Walk through this to assess how to appropriately, you know, appropriately I want the my the word that's coming to mind is appropriately attack a problem because that's how I often I often say it so that they are empowered later and then essentially don't need us later for that. Right? This can apply to my son hit the Latin wall.
• 22:21
  Right? We all all the students if you guys are in classical education at all, you know that Latin is really fun when you're doing the sing song and the vocabulary and you're learning the endings in your co op. And, wow, look how kid my smart my kid is. And then you get to Latin. Yes.
• 22:39
  And then you get to Latin one. It comes early. Latin one, which was my son's 4th year of Latin. And he hit that wall, and he just did not know even this is what was brought to mind when you're like, they don't know their bodies, so they can't advocate for themselves. Because he's gifted, he did not know how to ask for help.
• 23:02
  He did not even know how to study because Latin had come so easy for him. And so and we hit the wall. And so, sure enough, we sit down, we teach him a couple of things. I walk through how to, you know, making mnemonic devices and things like that. And then he's kind of off to the races, not perfect, but taking that moment to teach our kids how to engage in risk, I think, is just such a valuable lesson.
• 23:30
  Now I want to ask you something. I want to talk about how risky play encourages resilience. We all want resilient children and we all want confident children. And what's so interesting about society today, and I'm gonna get a little abstract here, is we're so obsessed with self esteem. Get a lot of the parents behaviors and talk is actually making their kids self esteem worse because they don't actually understand what builds self esteem.
• 23:58
  And a lot of it is skill. It's skill, honestly. It's not just, you know, and if you're faith based, it's your identity and in Christ, for example, if you're a Christian and things like that. But I remember, you know, when I was going back to thinking about my childhood, how risky it was that I was do what I was doing on those cinder block walls, these back flips and cartwheels, and it just didn't feel the same doing it on grass. I had a lot of confidence.
• 24:24
  I was really proud of myself. I could do something that none of my friends could do. And and not in a prideful way. And I felt like I was resilient. It was hard.
• 24:35
  It was hard to learn some of those things and jumping off and on and things like that. And I would just be there for hours if my neighbors weren't available. I lived with neighbors that I played with a lot, and I could occupy myself on that wall jumping up and down and doing the flips. And it really I I will say it did build a sense of self confidence in me. Can you talk a little bit about how does child led play or risky play encourage this resilience and self confidence in our kiddos.
• 25:01
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• 27:47
  Sarah Collins: Yes. So I think there's a few things in there that I'm like jotting my notes down. It's like, don't forget, Sarah. Don't forget, Sarah. Yeah.
• 27:56
  A few things that come along with, you know, what you're talking about. Number 1 is that you had the ability to fail, right? And you probably didn't the first time start with a giant flip over top of the center block wall. You probably started maybe on the grass and you were like, alright, this isn't fun anymore. I've done this.
• 28:16
  I know I can do it. And so then you were like, hey, what's my easy plus one? But you did that for yourself because you had the time to ask yourself those questions. Now we often and we are living in a society that encourages busyness, busyness, busyness, busyness, busyness, busyness. And a lot of times that removes the ability for our children to problem solve and to just have some of this downtime where they can try their own easy plus one, like you did in that example there.
• 28:49
  And if we're removing those abilities to and then that privilege to have to problem solve, then how can you get through a problem? You don't have that confidence. You can't do it. Right? So we have to really remember, yeah, it's awesome that we can take our kids to gymnastics.
• 29:11
  It's awesome that we can take our kids to, you know, my my my boys are hockey players. My daughter's a volleyball player. We go all the time all over the place. I also want them involved in, you know, church activities, things like that. Like, great.
• 29:25
  But really think about the priorities. Are we allowing our children enough time to get to know their bodies, to fail safely, and then to be resilient and to come on to the next thing? One way to do that is through risky play and just that free play. So you're outside, you're trying your flip, you've tried it on the grass, you're like, alright. Well, that was cool.
• 29:50
  I know I can do that. Now let me try the next thing. And when you didn't do it, you were like, well, alright. Guess I should try again. You know?
• 29:58
  Like, you weren't scared and quit. Instead, you got on and you tried it again. And then mom comes out and she's like, oh my gosh, that's so scary. She turns her back and your dad's like, that's awesome. So then you're hearing it from other people as well.
• 30:13
  It didn't start with your parents telling you exactly what to do. It started with your own fruition. And that's a huge piece of that. The time to have your own fruition, that task initiation.
• 30:26
  Christy-Faith: Let our kids have their own cockamamie ideas that make no sense to us whatsoever. That's a beautiful thing.
• 30:34
  Sarah Collins: Again, it's okay if you have to turn your back sometimes to watch. There's actually maybe I will I don't know. There's a reel that I just posted not too long ago. I don't know if I've been tagged or we can point point right to it or something, But it's my son. We were on a hike and he really wanted to jump from this dam over top of the creek to the other side.
• 30:54
  And he knew we could do it. And we talked about it before and I also knew we could do it, but I also knew I could not watch it because I couldn't do it. So I literally I'm like, we we talked through it. I'm like, what are your risks? What is what can happen?
• 31:08
  Where's your body gonna go? Like, we talked through the whole thing, and then I literally turned my back and he jumped right off. And do you know he ended? And his arms are out like this. Like, you can see his confidence.
• 31:20
  And then everybody else kinda noticed the same thing. And they're like, look what he did. Right? So after it was his idea, his body, then came somebody else being like, that was really cool. So there's our confidence.
• 31:35
  Christy-Faith: Exactly. And you know, kids need attention. And if they don't get it in healthy ways, they get it they seek it in unhealthy ways too. And I love what you mentioned because we balance okay. So I'm gonna show my cards here a little bit.
• 31:51
  I don't know how many people know this about our family. If you're enjoying the show and you don't wanna miss out on future episodes, hit that like and subscribe button and show us some love with your comments. Those 5 star reviews really do make a difference. We love sports. In fact, I have several.
• 32:07
  I have 4 kids and a couple are quite gifted. However and I live in Colorado people, which may be similar to the sports culture of Texas or something like that, where it runs your life here. And I'm not saying that this is a forever decision for us and our family. I'm not saying that. What I am saying is every season, we evaluate and we deliberately have never joined a travel team.
• 32:38
  We have never joined highly competitive teams that totally suck up your life and your finances. Parents listening, by the way, there is no judgment. If you want this lifestyle, go get after it. In fact, if homeschooling allows you to have this sports lifestyle, get after it, girl. Go do it.
• 32:57
  I did the research one time on what's the actual financial ROI of doing these types of sports. And it is you literally it sucks your money for 12 years straight. And the average college scholarship is around $2,000 If it's a sports scholarship, like you just don't get the ROI. You're still. And so Scott and I have made very intentional decisions on what are we gonna pour into and invest in where we are gonna get an ROI for it.
• 33:25
  And part of that is the mind that we're gonna we're we're choosing the mind over sports. Right? Because we have great athletes, but do we have collegiate athletes? Maybe if we did all that, I don't know, but there wouldn't be like crazy. Anyway, my point is with all of this is please do not mistake adult directed sports and adult directed activities for play.
• 33:53
  It is not play. It never will be play. The kids are not allowed enough freedom for it to be play. So I beg you, my listeners listening to this, do the sports. We do them too.
• 34:03
  We do adult directed sports. We have, you know, tinnitus football practice. I I a highlight of my weekend are the football games. You better believe it. I am out there.
• 34:11
  However, we also prioritize play for all of our kids to the point where I'm probably judged by a lot of our neighbors. They probably think they probably think we're poor, like, can't afford it or something because we you know, or whatever. And I don't care what they think because my kids are out there building forts and reenacting the read aloud from this morning and my kids are engaged in play with other kids of all different ages and they're just wild out there and I'm not saying that I'm a perfect parent. I'm saying that this is decision based on research. I will say that we have made for our family is we just try to put everything in its proper place and based on research and how much our kids need play.
• 34:53
  Charlotte Mason was right. You know, she didn't have scientific she didn't have scientific research back then but there has been research since then. And she's right. Our kids need that undirected play. I want to end this episode asking you what I ask a lot of guests who are experts in their particular field and your field is occupational therapy.
• 35:16
  And I love this question, and it's not to be negative. It's actually something that I want my listeners to stop this episode and have something to really think about and chew on. What is something in your industry, Sarah, that you just can't get behind that you disagree with that kinda sets you apart?
• 35:36
  Sarah Collins: Yeah. It's really hard. I was actually talking to my my father about this this morning because we went on a walk. They were up here visiting. We went on a walk and I was like, yeah.
• 35:45
  But I'm different. That's why. And so I'm gonna be bet with a lot of disagreement on this. So I really, a lot of times, feel like occupational therapists want to bring people in, and we feel like that we are the ones to very much make the difference in a person's life. And I'm not discounting that.
• 36:06
  I think if we are absolutely joining in with a team and joining with our parents and really trying to work with parents, then we are making a huge difference. But sometimes I think we just need to encourage our kids to go outside and play, and that they don't necessarily be dragged need to be dragged to therapy over and over and over for years years years years years. But instead, if we focus in on parent training and what can you do throughout your day to encourage your children, then we're gonna have a larger impact. And that's actually what Homeschool OT is is built upon. It's built on this parent con parent consultation model of, I'm gonna talk to you about what your child specifically needs and wants to do and how we can carry this over into the day.
• 36:52
  And then, yes, absolutely. If you need direct therapy, I'm gonna help you to find the person to do that. I don't do that anymore. I don't work specifically with children. I work only with parents.
• 37:01
  But I don't think we need to set up kids that are going to need to be in therapy for years years years. We want to have that influence to move on out and find what fits within your lifestyle to help you be successful in what what you need and want to do can be very different.
• 37:22
  Christy-Faith: Yes. And that can I can definitely see that as being disruptive in your space because, you know, what do you mean parents aren't experts? We get a lot of pushback for that type of a thing. And I think you are kind of I know a couple people in other industries who have the same view as yours. It's like, no, the parent can do more than you think.
• 37:40
  And that's kind of what you do. I am a paying client of yours. You have helped us tremendously and I just want to share what my experience is with the consultations with you. Very detailed and you send a report afterwards and our report involved things I can do at home very directed things and also recommendations for outside resources which which we also are doing as well. And so if you have a kiddo who you think could benefit from occupational therapy, I would start with Sarah because she's gonna support you in your homeschooling and give you a a way a, I wanna say a sustainable way to do this.
• 38:22
  Right? Who wants to be driving their kids to therapies? And often if your kid needs you know, just because I know learning profiles, it's not uncommon that if your kid needs OT, they need other therapies as well. And so I just think what you are doing in the industry to empower us where we can still lean on your expertise and consult with you is really powerful and really cool. So Sarah speaks at a lot of conferences.
• 38:48
  So if you make sure to hit those state conferences, you guys, because that is where a lot of us love to go. We love supporting our states. We'll be at a lot of those conferences together in the probably in 2025. Sarah, is there any last words of encouragement for us homeschool moms that you have for us?
• 39:05
  Sarah Collins: Yes. I think that the biggest thing is to trust yourself as a parent. Right? But also don't be afraid to ask for help because I want you and to recognize your expertise in your child, but also like homeschooling is not alone schooling. Right?
• 39:22
  You don't have to do this all by yourself. Instead, build your team of those who are around you to help. And whether or not that's, you know, through direct therapy, great. I'm not gonna discount and say that that's never going to help for sure. I'm an OT.
• 39:38
  I love occupational therapy, but I want to make sure that you recognize that you are the leader of that team and then you build the supports around you.
• 39:49
  Christy-Faith: Yes. And so many of us are pulling our kids from the system because of special unique needs, and that requires building a team. Not gonna lie. You know, it's not finding the perfect curriculum always because it one, it doesn't exist. But so much of homeschooling intentionally and really setting our kids up for ultimately a successful life, which is why we're doing this, is building that beautiful team.
• 40:13
  And I, you are a gem in the homeschool space. She's kind of the lone wolf, I feel like, with who's who's helping parents in this way. And so protect Sarah Collins at all costs, people. And we're gonna put links to your website and all of that. Anything else that you want us to put in for the show notes, you will be able to just click and, be able to start a conversation with Sarah if you're feeling like your kiddo needs help or you.
• 40:42
  Sometimes I wanna hire you just for me because I know.
• 40:45
  Sarah Collins: There are families that I work with because the homeschool is not just a child. Right? The homeschool is everybody altogether. So
• 40:52
  Christy-Faith: Well, I don't I'll say this. I won't say which child we were on the Zoom with, but I was like, oh, she just called me out. You were on the Zoom and you're like, your mom is rocking right now. And I was like, oh, no. What is that showing?
• 41:06
  Sarah Collins: It's showing that we all have sensory needs. Yes. Like regulation.
• 41:10
  Christy-Faith: Yeah. So anyway, it's just so fun to know you. And anyway, thanks for coming on the show.
• 41:17
  Sarah Collins: Yes. Thank you very much for having me.