7 Reasons Why We Are Going to Homeschool

Episode transcript: Hey everyone, welcome to the Book Your Dream Clients Podcast. I am so excited about this episode. It's something I've been wanting to officially announce for quite some time.  And today's the day. So I wanted to do a whole podcast episode dedicated to why we are going to start homeschooling and I have seven huge reasons why that's going to happen and why I'm so, so very excited about it. So I just like to dig in right away. And just before it again, if you have any questions or any comments, any tips will be much appreciated. You can certainly put them in the comments or you can send me a DM on Instagram, or certainly just email me Lindsay@lindsaymaloney.com. So let's just dive right into those seven reasons why we are going to homeschool. 

Homeschooling has always been a huge interest of mine for years. I have three kids.I have two kids who were in public school. I have always wanted to be a teacher. Even when I remember when I was a senior in high school, I remember telling a teacher that I helped out in the classroom with. I remember telling her that I really wanted to be one and she was so excited and she was telling me all the things that I should do and, you know, what's what could be had for me. And it made me really nervous cause I was so afraid of putting myself out there and I thought, everyone's gonna think like since when, and it really has been something that I've always wanted to do. I used to play school with my brother all the time when I was little, but I never thought that I could actually do it. I didn't think I was good enough.

I would even feel tempted to watch homeschool videos on YouTube and I would stop myself because I didn't want, I get really easily inspired, and I just know myself really well. So I thought if you watch a video, one video on homeschooling, then you're going to be off to the races. So don't even watch it, don't even listen to anybody giving advice just don't do it. And so for years I just ignored that big pole that I really want to learn about it, but I guess I can't. So the main reason of course I feel for us is we want to reclaim our day. And I heard this on in a book or something that I was, I've listened to so many homeschooling books in the past six months, reclaiming our day when I heard that, I was like, wow, that's, that's so powerful because I feel like as entrepreneurs, we can reclaim parts of our day by making it our own.

I still have a nine to five, but I work from home. So it's really simple for me to create, to weave all of those things in a, it is a very jam packed day. So I don't, I can't completely claim my day, of course, but I can reclaim the way I spend the mornings with my kids. I can reclaim the way I spend my afternoons with my kids. And then I can reclaim the way I spend my evenings with my kids. And that is so important to me because we know that, you know, as the kids come home from school, they're exhausted. And like sometimes your chattiest kid doesn't even want to explain to you what they did and that I just don't want to, I don't want to go through, I don't want to have time without them if I don't have to.

And I'm not going to get into anything where I, I never found anything wrong with our school or anything like that. I think it's an amazing school. And, but I believe that no one wants my kids to be more well rounded and educated than their own mother. And I feel like if this is my calling to do, then I'm going to do it. And I'm not going to let anybody who might doubt me or feel like, you know, how are you going to do this? I got it. I can totally, I can, we can totally handle it. Okay. Reclaiming our day is like, I keep thinking about how amazing it will be to do so many things that we haven't been able to do for the last, you know, six, seven, eight years that we've had kids in school and hasn't even begun yet.

And I'm already excited. And I already feel like the whole dynamic of our family has changed for the better I'm. So going at our own pace, when we have all of our kids in school and homeschool,  it'll really, it'll be really interesting to see our youngest, start in homeschool. She's only three and the two big kids are, you know, they have some public school things that, you know, they're, it's going to be different for them. I think they think that we're going to start at eight o'clock in the morning and like have recess and lunch and recess. We're not doing any of that. And they think it's going to be an interesting transition for them. But my littlest one, she won't know any different. The biggest thing about school and homeschool, the difference, I feel like homeschool can foster, going at your own pace at a, at a better rate, because obviously there's not a ton of kids to look after and make sure that everyone's on the same page.

Right? Some kids go learn faster. Some kids learn slower. And so as their mom, I know how they learn more than anybody. So I am able to really feel that and make sure I can help them either. You know, if they get something quicker than I can help them, if they, then I can let them go further. If they need more time, I can give them more time. I think sometimes kids are pushed so fast and, when they do finally get it, they move on and then it's gone. Like it's not cemented in the brain. They're not allowed to really like, sit with it and understand it. It's just like, we gotta keep going. We gotta keep going. Hurry up, hurry up, hurry up. And I just, I'm a public school student too. So I know what it's like.  Discover new interests and nurture them.

I love this because my kids have awesome interests. And I know that they're probably not going to be able to foster them in a public school, which of course is fine. Cause how are you supposed to foster everyone's interest? But at home I can. And I know that like my daughter loves birds. My daughter loves bats gross. And my son, you know, has his amazing interests. And he wants to like, he, they're both so creative and I want to allow that to keep flowing. I don't want to stop that. I think that's so important. So I want to be able to, if they start to click with something, I can, I can still, I can feed that interest. I'm not going to say, well, you don't have time for that. You need to move on to this because we need to check the list. That's not how learning is supposed to be.

If you really enjoy something, then you, you're going to dig in and think about this. You know, you're probably listening because you know that I am an online coach and I've been a coach for 10 years. And the reason why my business is so successful is because I love every little, second piece of it. And I learn about it every single day. It's a daily task on my calendar to learn something new. And if I didn't do things that I didn't love learning about, it would feel horrible to come and sit here every single day. I wouldn't want to get up at five o'clock in the morning to do what I do. So imagine if we instilled that in our kids at a very young age, if you love something, you can keep learning about it and building on it and you, and you're not restricted on time.

That's so important to me. The next one is operate from our strengths. I think that most times, if we have something that may be a weakness, then it feels like everything is adapted to, to help for our weakness. Right? And I think that's backwards. I think we should operate from our strengths instead of saying, Oh, you have a weakness. So we have to make this simpler. What about at what we're really good at and why we're really good at it and keep building on that, building on the positivity and then watching that confidence blossom. I mean, there's nothing better than seeing your child feel confident, right? I mean, that's like, that's huge. So if I can, I know I can do that in my own way. And you know, these are my kids. I know what makes them feel confident. And I'm going to give them that every single day, I'm going to show them how they can be confident human beings, children, and adults.

I'm going to show them that they have so much more power and what they want to learn, how they want to learn it. It's just, it's going to be so fun. I am so excited every single night. When I talk my daughter into bed, she says, mom, I try the light. I say, good. I love you. Do you have any questions? And she says, I have one question. I can't wait for homeschool. She's been saying that for months. And I love that. And I always say, I hope you say that when we start and she's like, I will, but it's so sweet. The last one is, or no, we have two large becoming independent workers and thinkers. I think that being an independent person is so very important. You shouldn't have to sit there all day waiting for somebody to tell you what to do when to do it and how to do it.

Imagine creating a day that is on your arm, on your own terms. And that's, that's, you know, an entrepreneur's dream. And I think they see that I can do that during the day. And I want them to be able to see that they can make that happen for themselves too. And so we're, we're, we're going to try a certain schedule, and see how it goes. So for me, I work in the more I work all morning and I am done with work in the afternoon and I have independent work for them to do by themselves every single morning. And I think this is going to be a great way to build upon that confidence that I can sit down. I have a checklist that mom made me. I know what I'm supposed to do. I can finish it and then I'll wait for her to come in.

So we can do our work together. That right now is how we're going to. I was going to change. It's not, it's not like this is how it's going to be. And if you don't like it too bad, we're going to make this work in the most beautiful way we can and I'm going to really give them a lot of flexibility and free space to still do things that make them happy that they can still learn and then communicate that with me., So it's not, I'm not a partner here and I want to, I want to make sure that this is like such a treasure memory for them and something that I hope they will thank me for doing for them someday.

Maybe, maybe not, maybe not today or this year, but when they're adults, maybe they'll come and thank me for it. And the last one is to learn more about God and the Bible. So I, I grew up, I prayed and I did the things, you know, but I never really understood, you know, the Bible. And I didn't understand a lot of it because it would just seem like I, it wasn't a part of our daily lives, I guess. We were very attentive to prayer and going to church every weekend and things like that, but I never, I think I got my own Bible in high school. And then I really like, wow, this is pretty cool. And then you go in phases and you know how life goes and you, sometimes you just don't read it as much because you don't know how I think that's the biggest thing is you don't even know where to start.

I don't know how many times I've read the book of Genesis and I just burn out. and so I thought, you know, how amazing would it be to have a, a day filled with learning and fun, and then learning about God? And I told my daughter that, and she's only six. And she's like, yeah, I think that would be cool because we don't learn about God in school. And I said, no, you don't. I mean, when we were little, we had, I think we have the 10 commandments in our lunchroom, I think, and I believe we did. And then they took them down. Maybe I don't even know. I think they were still there when I graduated. That was 2002. So that was, that was a while ago. They're not there anymore. So there's no mention of, of God in school. And I think that's that's, that's disappointing.

And I want my kids, of course I can mention God all the time when my kids are home, but what about if I infused it into what they're learning every day? And when I found a certain school curriculum that did that, I was like, this is exactly what this is. It was the Gather Round Homeschool. And I, I couldn't believe that this was actually a thing. If you don't know about Gather Round Homeschool, you can go look it up. But I literally found something that I needed desperately because I knew I wanted to homeschool, you know, after all this COVID stuff. And so many things, I am not homeschooling because of COVID, but it really set things in, it made it put things in perspective as it ever. So many things have been put into perspective for all of us, but this video of Gather Round Homeschool, I think I found it because I was looking at different homeschool curriculum reviews.

And I was like, Oh my gosh, I got to pick something. Oh, for history and science and English and math. And I'm like, how am I going to pick all this stuff out? And then do it for all my kids. I was like, I don't know if I can do this. Cause I, I don't have interest in so much stuff. Like I want things to be simple. And then all of a sudden, Oh, you can just get this whole entire curriculum, gather all your kids around at one time, teach them the same thing. And then each kid has their own level of work to do, but they all, we all learned together in our living room for like an hour and a half, not all day. And we don't have to have a bunch of books and spend thousands of dollars on curriculum. And I was like, I am so in.

I was so excited. And so I think the only thing they don't cover is math. And so I bought my own math curriculum. And so we literally have the Gather Round Homeschool curriculum that we're going to do. And we have math and we have some extra things. So I'll tell you guys what we're all gonna use. We're gonna use the kids are going to be doing handwriting in the morning by themselves. They're going to use the Patriotic Handwriting in cursive. They're going to do that. I found a lefties curve, cursive writing book, which I was super excited because my son is a lefty. And like, that will just be such a game changer for him. And then they're going to do some Explode the Code by themselves. They're going to go on their laptops and they're going to do a couple of things on there.

Just like to improve on their typing skills and you know, different little assignments. So I wrote like a little checklist for them in Canva, of course, of all of the things that I want them to do in the morning and they can check the boxes and then they have to read a book and then they can get a ticket if they do all of their work and their tickets can be reimbursed for prizes. So we made like this really cute prize catalog, and it's going to show them that when they do the work and they can get paid and then they can choose a reward, they can either get something small or they can save up just giving that, you know, that perspective of wow. When I do things, I can get things. If I really, you know, focus and pay attention and save and all of that, you know, I don't know if this will work, but I they're excited about it.

They helped them. They helped me do everything, which I think is important. So they're seeing my daughter, she's really interested in all of that. And I think that the more you involve kids and things, the more onboard they are. And so they're going to be doing all of that. And of course, I'm here. If they have questions while they do their morning work, but they literally have all morning to do it. So it's really going to help them manage their time and think, you know, if I, if I would do my work right away in the morning, then maybe mom wouldn't be on me to get it done before we start school. So I think that's going to be really powerful for them too. So then they're gonna do their morning work. And when I'm done with my nine to five, or I don't know why I call it a nine to five, it's a five to one when I'm done with my five to one then we'll go in and we'll do our Gather Round Homeschool and our math.

And we are only doing school Monday through Friday or Monday through Thursday. And then usually, probably every five to six weeks. Once we can do more things, you know, coronavirus pending, we will do some field trips. So that's kind of how our days are going to be structured. And I am, I'm just unbelievably excited. I don't feel stressed out about it. I don't feel like, Oh my gosh, is this going to work while I have to send them back to school? It's, it's all good. And I'll just share something with you. I told you guys at the beginning that I've always wanted to do this. And then in the past, you know, six months, I just like, Hmm, maybe, maybe it's time to do this. And I asked God to give me a sign. Like, let me know, please, is there, can you just give me a sign that this is the right decision for us?

And I don't know if God could have been any clearer because I had a dream of God handing me a big pile of books. And it was like from these big arms, like, you know, I had never seen anything else. I saw arms hands with books in them, handing them over to me like here, here, here, it's all good. You got this. And I woke up in the morning and I just never felt so more sure of anything. And I still get like goosebumps when I tell that, because that was when you ask for a sign, you're going to get it. And so you better pay attention and you better listen. So that was like such a huge, important moment. But I have gotten questions from people who have overheard that we are going to homeschool. And so I've been writing them down so I can answer them for you.

But of course, if you have questions, you can certainly reach out, ask I'm an open book. One of those questions was how will you make this work with your business and your full time job? Like I said, I, I worked from five to one. We're going to do homeschool between like one and three or maybe one and two 30. And then we'll, you know, maybe go, go aside depending we live in North Dakota. So who knows what the weather will be like? The kids have all morning to do what they want to do to do their morning work, to go outside, to play whatever they want. So it doesn't take up your whole entire day. And that's a huge thing that I had to learn is it's you can't model public school at home. That's not how it works. And that was a huge relief to me because I thought, well, I can't do that.

I, and I don't want to, and neither would they so that's how our schedule is going to be. And they'll still do probably their morning work on Fridays, but then we won't like gather around in the afternoons. Are you doing this because of COVID no, I've always wanted to do this, but COVID has so many things into perspective for me. So I feel like, you know, I'm just, I'm just following the breadcrumbs and doing what I'm supposed to do. What will your schedule look like? Yeah, we're gonna just do from like one to three and see what happens. We'll see what happens. Maybe we'll be done faster than that. Or maybe we can do more things and, you know, art or watch videos or whatever it is. We can do whatever we want. And I'm looking forward to so many things like not having kids tired coming home and not in 30 pages of homework.

I'm looking forward to kids feeling like themselves in the morning and not having to, you know, hurry up. We gotta go in a rush and wake up and just have an easy life and having a freaking childhood, you know, these kids don't have, don't get childhoods. It's like, they go and go and go and go. And I can't remember what this one study was. And it was like under an hour, the time you get to spend with your kids, because you think about it, you wake them up, you push them off on the school bus. They go to school, they come home. They're so tired. You have to do homework. You still kind of have a conversation. You eat dinner, do baths, and you didn't even get to like really talk to them or do anything with them. And I don't like that lifestyle.

I just don't. And I'm so grateful that we don't have to do that. I'm so grateful that we can have control. We can reclaim our day. I'm so excited about it. And then the last question is, what materials will you be using again, we're going to be using the Gather Round Homeschool. We’ve already bought all of the books for the 20, 20, 20, and 2021 all of the books for all the months. And then I have one more thing to buy. I have to buy, in December there's a Christmas unit. So I'm gonna buy that. I'm so excited about that. I'm using the Cultivate What Matters Homeschool Planner, which is amazing. I am using Shiller math for the kids and we're using Patriotic Penmanship or patriotic handwriting. I can't remember. It's not in my room.

I don't know what it is. And then, Explode the Code. I think there's something else, but I can't remember. So who knows what? We'll just keep adding and, and doing what we need to do. It's going to be amazing. So if you have any suggestions or any tips, you know, this is going to be a huge entrepreneurship homeschooling and that five to one full time job. I am so excited. I can't wait. And I hope my kids love it too. I think they will. I know they will. We're going to make it amazing. So thank you so much for watching. Thank you for listening and, feel free to share anything that you might feel like what help or if you have any questions and I will be happy to answer them for you. And then maybe we can do more homeschooling updates along the way. So thank you so much. I appreciate you. And I'm so grateful that you are putting me in your earbuds watching this, and I will see you on the next one.