Full Transcript Intro and homeschool overview 0:00 I try to think of the day as, how did the ratio go in the way of questions versus commands? 0:06 And I think this is a good place to start, especially for families who are maybe either recovering from this past year of homeschool or amping themselves 0:17 up to start in August or September and getting ready to say, OK, I'm going to do this. 0:22 Try this first. 0:24 Ask more questions than command, than giving more commands. 0:27 see where that gets you. 0:28 And they could be leading questions, hey, what do you think could happen next in order to get out the door on time to soccer? 0:35 Do you think maybe finding your shoes would be best next? 0:38 Like, stuff like that just prompts a little bit more executive function thinking and it makes them laugh. 0:45 I make them laugh when you ask questions like that. 0:47 They just start laughing like, yeah, that would be a really good idea. 0:50 Yeah. 0:51 This is Doctor Talks, real talk from real doctors on the issues that matter to you most. 0:59 Hey, everyone. 1:00 Welcome back to another episode. 1:02 I'm really excited. 1:03 We are going to shift into homeschool mode today. 1:06 As all of you know, I've been a homeschool mom for a very long time, for 18 years, and my youngest is now graduated. 1:14 But I love interviewing homeschool people. 1:17 So this is what we're doing today. 1:18 So if you've ever wanted to homeschool or you know somebody that wants to homeschool, you're looking for resources and those types of things, 1:26 or you're just curious, then this episode is definitely for you. 1:30 So make sure you like, subscribe, and share. 1:32 And then I have a really big request that I need some more reviews. 1:36 So if you feel so inclined, I would love for you to review this podcast for me because I've got very specific goals. 1:43 for you guys and for myself. 1:45 And so in order for me to upgrade everything, I need you to review me and leave me a five star. 1:51 That would be amazing too. 1:52 So we're going to get started with the interview today. 1:54 We have Melissa Muir with us today and she's coming to us all the way from Ecuador. 2:02 which is super exciting to me. 2:03 So I can't wait to hear the story how they got all the way to Ecuador, but she is a homeschool mama. 2:09 She is a certified online teacher. 2:11 She has her own homeschool business where she teaches children from everywhere. 2:16 It's called Curio. 2:17 And so she really focuses on the middle grades students, and she's going to tell us how she does that, but to sharpen their thinking, 2:24 their writing, and their confidence.
Melissa's path to homeschooling in Ecuador 2:26 And I am so excited to have you here today, Melissa. 2:28 Thank you. 2:29 Thanks for having me, Laurie. 2:31 I'm excited to chat. 2:32 Yeah, I'm excited to chat, too. 2:34 Like, when I started homeschooling, of course, there weren't any podcasts, you know, 18 years ago. 2:40 So I wish I would have had all this information when I first started. 2:43 It is quite the time to be a homeschooler. 2:46 It is quite the time, yeah. 2:47 Yeah, I mean, we were just doing some online classes, and we thought that was pretty hip, so. 2:51 Yeah, you know, advanced. 2:53 Advanced, advanced, advanced. 2:54 And I never thought I would homeschool. 2:56 Did you think you would homeschool? 2:58 No, not by any stretch of the imagination. 3:00 I was like, public school all the way, even college and stuff. 3:04 Home schoolers are weird. 3:05 I cannot even imagine doing that. 3:07 You know, I was exposed to a few when I was younger and I'm like, I am never doing that. 3:11 I had some really good friends in college who were homeschooled. 3:15 They were like, I was like, oh, well, you're surprisingly normal. 3:17 So like, I went to UVA. 3:19 It was so binary, like, a very intellectual school, and we were all kind of nerdy in that way, I guess. 3:25 So maybe I fit in more than I thought I did. 3:28 I was like, you guys are cool. 3:29 I'm glad I can hang out with you. 3:30 And I really liked how they related with their families. 3:33 I was like, you guys are like buds with your parents. 3:35 This is weird. 3:37 I didn't have that, and I love my parents. 3:38 But we went up like that. 3:41 So anyway, surprised in a good way. 3:43 That is a good thing. 3:44 Yeah. 3:45 And then when I got married to my husband and his cousins, they homeschooled, and there was eight of them. 3:50 They're like, whoa. 3:51 If they can homeschool, she can handle the first one. 3:57 So we'll try it. 3:59 So how on earth, Melissa, did you get started into homeschooling? 4:03 Yeah. 4:03 I guess I probably need to back up a little bit because I am from Virginia. 4:08 I'm actually born somewhere else, born in California, but lived in Virginia pretty much my whole life. 4:14 But after I graduated from college a little bit early, I was like, what am I going to do at this time? 4:18 And came to Ecuador, had an internship, and the woman who was my boss was like, I had taught in Ecuador for a while. 4:25 Let me have a chat with some people. 4:26 So she hooked me up with a family that homeschooled. 4:28 I had six kids and I was like, wow, y'all are impressive. 4:32 And I met their family with eight, their friends with eight kids who homeschooled down here. 4:36 And I was like, this is an interesting environment. 4:39 And did some mission work down here on the coast was doing a teacher professional development. 4:44 as a 22-year-old, readily that. 4:46 And, you know, enjoyed it, met my future husband down here, went back to my teaching job that I had lined up in Richmond, 4:55 Virginia, taught there for a year, got engaged, and then came right back down here to get married and teach at an international school. 5:03 Due to part of our testimony is that we have kids in the first place. 5:08 Biologically, that was probably not likely in our case due to a few factors. 5:13 And we started having kids pretty much right away. 5:16 So every two years we had another and another and another. 5:20 And now we want some sort of bilingual because I speak English, our kids and my husband speaks Spanish to them. 5:27 And when we were looking around, we were like, it's going to cost like, I mean, this is wild. 5:31 I don't know if this perspective is new to you, but I mean, a thousand dollars per kid per month to go to a private school here. 5:39 Public schools are not truly an option here for us and for a few reasons, but wow, it was what it was going to be. 5:44 And I was like, even teaching at that school, the discount would not have been not enough to like make it. 5:51 Yeah, I was like, this doesn't match up. 5:54 I should be earning more than we spend. 5:56 So we started looking into homeschool. 5:58 And again, I never thought I would. 6:00 But with a teaching license from Virginia, as long as your teaching license is valid, you don't have, this is wild to me, 6:08 any oversight. 6:08 So there's no portfolios. 6:11 There's no testing, stuff like that. 6:13 So I was like, this is going to be pretty easy to do. 6:16 Yeah. 6:16 But I was K-12 Spanish. 6:18 That was my license. 6:19 And I was like, I don't know how to teach kids to read. 6:21 But like, let's try it. 6:23 And it worked. 6:23 And it was great. 6:25 Thankfully, that's where we're at nine years later. 6:28 So our oldest is just about to turn 12. So it was fun. 6:30 It's been a fun adventure. 6:32 Yeah, it is an adventure. 6:33 And so you're just going to stay in Brazil because that's where your husband's from. 6:37 Ecuador, yeah. 6:38 Ecuador, sorry, yes. 6:39 Yeah. 6:40 This is something that we're frustrating to no end, I'm sure, to our families. 6:43 But we've always just said, we don't really know. 6:45 We're fine for now. 6:47 But the goal would eventually be to do kind of a 50-50 thing. 6:50 We have family in both countries, so we would love to be around more and have some housing. 6:56 things that are happening. 6:57 We're building a house and yeah, so it's a fun time for us.
Building Curio and online learning options 7:01 Well, and we're so excited that you're homeschooling while you're doing all this because it's all the life skills, you know, 7:05 your kids are involved, you know, it's just life. 7:08 And that's why, you know, you talked earlier about kids being close to their parents. 7:11 Well, when you just do life together, you can't help but be close, right? 7:15 It's not that you don't have any arguments or you don't have any issues. 7:18 It's just that You just navigate life differently because you're always together. 7:23 Exactly. 7:23 Yeah. 7:24 I mean, we had an architect over this morning to talk through some things, and the kids were like, why was he talking about like, 7:29 oh my gosh, we were talking about like gray water. 7:31 He was like, what's great water? 7:32 Yeah. 7:32 Who would have great water? 7:33 We were like, well, there's black water and gray water and fratable water and stuff like that. 7:38 So it leads to fun conversations. 7:41 Yeah, absolutely. 7:43 So you have your own curio business or homeschool business. 7:47 So tell us about that. 7:48 Yeah. 7:49 So again, as a homeschooling family, we saw these kind of needs pop up where we're like, our kids know English and Spanish and they're doing fine. 7:56 We want them to have a third language. 7:57 So we started looking at like online classes for French. 8:00 So we have been taking French online since 2016. I mean, we felt like trailblazers then and you were taking online classes before that. 8:08 This has been around before the pandemic. 8:10 So I think when people think online classes, a lot of people think, oh, the pandemic was horrible. 8:14 Like Zoom, man, that was rough. 8:16 Of course it was rough. 8:18 Teachers were thrown into Zoom the next lesson, and it was just tough. 8:21 Yeah, that is not online teaching. 8:24 The idea of online classes kind of started coming forward, and I started teaching before the pandemic in 2019 online. 8:31 And I was like, this is amazing. 8:33 As long as these classes are appropriate, engaging, and at a short enough time frame that kids can pay attention and feel engaged, 8:43 this is gold. 8:44 for these families. 8:45 And so not only have our kids taken class online, but we found that this was a really good option. 8:50 So language classes, full language arts classes, writing, and now we have book clubs. 8:56 I was just saying that I am a mayor. 8:58 Yeah, yeah. 8:59 I just finished our book club right before this with a group of six, nine to 13 year olds, like tweens, middle school is just my jam. 9:08 I just love those kind of wet cement years when stuff is really starting to stick, they're starting to open up their world and see what's out there and 9:15 get curious about things. 9:15 So that's where the name of the company comes from, Curio. 9:18 When I get to meet all these different kids from Arizona to Alaska to Argentina, The kind of combining factor that brings them all together in these very 9:31 mishmash classes is just that they're curious about something and it's really fun to be able to dive into that together. 9:36 So that's kind of the foundation for our classes and whether it's language arts or French or Spanish or writing or public speaking, 9:43 the kind of where we're headed with these kids. 9:47 Oh, I think it's fantastic. 9:48 And I love the fact you love those. 9:49 I love your term, wet cement ears. 9:51 That's great. 9:53 Because those can be really challenging. 9:55 What do you do with kids who are so curious? 9:58 You're homeschooling, you've got other kids, or even if you don't have other kids, and they're so curious, and you're like... 10:03 I don't know what direction to take them. 10:07 What advice can you give parents in that aspect? 10:10 You have your online classes, but how did you come to those online classes and know this is what sparks them? 10:18 So I think part of the impetus to even get into a class is realizing a few things. 10:24 Number one, I'm not equipped to do this. 10:26 I'm not equipped to teach a French class. 10:28 I'm not fluent. 10:29 That's fine. 10:30 Hands up. 10:31 I'm giving that to somebody else. 10:32 If that's you in language arts, because... 10:35 Real life examples. 10:37 Kids who just have these big conflicts. 10:40 It just blows up at the kitchen table. 10:42 Nobody's having fun. 10:43 There are tears. 10:44 It is bad. 10:45 That's a time to outsource. 10:47 The next one is like you literally don't have time. 10:49 I have another family who they were starting a business and both mom and dad were like, we want to homeschool, but we can't do this. 10:55 Great. 10:56 Here to help. 10:57 And then the other one is just, I don't want to. 11:00 I want to focus on math. 11:01 I want to focus on the life skills. 11:02 I want to focus on the tinies who are also running around the house because this is part of life as well. 11:08 And I want somebody else to kind of feed the monster that is inside this kid who's super curious and wants to read everything and wants some challenge. 11:16 So those are kind of the three buckets that we see a lot of families come into our classes from. 11:22 And when they get into these classes, we're able to kind of lay things out in a way that's personalized. 11:28 And that's what I love about it is that there is people like, what curriculum do you use? 11:32 I'm like, don't, because I've got so many different things that I can choose from. 11:37 to really serve what each family needs. 11:40 So there's a lot. 11:41 One of my favorites is Nearpod. 11:43 Have you ever used Nearpod? 11:44 Well, I never have. 11:45 Okay. 11:46 So it's a lot of something wild, the statistic. 11:50 80% of classroom teachers in the US use Nearpod, which is wild to me. 11:56 I used it when I was in the classroom and then I started doing homeschool and I was like, duh, why wouldn't we use this? 12:00 So for example, I've got like this big Google sheet for my third grade son who is really excited about science, but I was like, 12:08 I can't buy curriculum right now. 12:10 Again, part of being abroad is like, weight in your suitcase and I'm not about to bring back a bunch of like physical curriculum. 12:17 And so we've got this big list of topics and there are links in there so he can click on that and it's basically like a pre-made slideshow but with VR, 12:27 with gamified quizzes, with videos that stop and ask questions and he has to either type the answer or give multiple choice answer. 12:36 So there's, again, like I mentioned before, it's not the pandemic type of online classes that you're taking.
Outsourcing subjects and easing homeschool guilt 12:42 It's like engaging and active, which is really fun and sometimes hard to do for the tinies. 12:48 But that's kind of what we're excited about. 12:51 Well, and I love when you have those three examples of people who like, you know, come to your online classes. 12:56 And I think let's address a little bit of that because some moms, and I was a supervising teacher for a long time, they just felt really guilty, 13:04 like not teaching at all, or they didn't feel equipped to teach at all. 13:07 And so sometimes they send their kids back to public school or, you know, like there's just a lot of guilt or maybe some condemnation and they're like, 13:14 I'm just not good enough to do this. 13:16 when, oh my goodness, outsource it. 13:19 If you want, that would fit your child best, then let's do it. 13:23 So can you address some of that? 13:25 Sure. 13:26 Yeah. 13:26 And I think a lot of times it's like, oh, you're homeschooling, you must do it all. 13:31 Yeah. 13:31 Right. 13:32 Let's push that aside. 13:33 Do we expect like the, I mentioned we're building a house, right? 13:38 Like, and so the idea of, do we expect the architects to design the house, build the house, plumb the house, put the electricity? 13:45 No, there are specialists. 13:47 There's a saying in Spanish, let the shoemaker be the shoemaker. 13:52 We're not expecting them to be the baker. 13:54 The homeschool mom, dad can do what they do best. 13:59 And I think that is the best service we can give to our kids. 14:03 So step one, just lower those expectations. 14:06 Also lower your shoulders and just take a deep breath because this is not something that needs to cause stress. 14:11 It's just going to transmit to your kids. 14:12 It doesn't also need to be as expensive as you might think it has to be. 14:16 So there are a few ways to do this. 14:18 The first one that I love that a lot of people don't think about is your family members, the grandparents, the neighbors, 14:24 the co-op that you might not know exists. 14:27 We're not in a co-op, but we know some other families who homeschool, and sometimes we'll talk to them on certain subjects. 14:33 We'll interview people. 14:34 I've got one kid who loves medical stuff. 14:37 My mother-in-law is a doctor, and so whenever she does, an injection of something or is stitching something. 14:44 And we've got friends who are scientists and midwives, and she interviews them. 14:48 It's weird. 14:49 I've never seen a kid so excited about this, but that's great. 14:52 So that's part of her science is just talking to people. 14:56 Again, free. 14:57 Doesn't have to cost anything. 14:59 Grandparents can be fantastic, especially in those younger years, just doing a read aloud. 15:03 Gives you 10 minutes to go get lunch on the table while grandparents are doing a read aloud or working on something else with them. 15:10 The next one is online classes that are in a group. 15:15 So there are lots of places to find these. 15:17 Outschool is a great one. 15:18 We can find classes of every stripe on there and it's really exciting to see what people are offering. 15:24 Things from like Lego clubs and Minecraft clubs and conversations and like AP lit. 15:31 You know, you can find everything on there. 15:32 Everything on there. 15:33 IndieEd.com is another one where you can find a lot of those classes, but these are independent teachers. 15:38 So we probably know this now, but a lot of those online platforms take a huge chunk of the teachers' pay. 15:44 And so this is one of those things where if you're up for supporting independent teachers, that's a great place to find them too. 15:49 And then I wouldn't even say as a last resort, one-to-one classes. 15:53 And that's what we offer. 15:54 We offer group classes too. 15:56 But those one-to-one classes, sure, they do cost more because you've got one-on-one time with the teacher with a master's degree. 16:01 I mean, this is an expert of the experts, right? 16:04 But there is a time and a place for that. 16:08 It's the kid with ADHD and autism, the 2E learner, the twice exceptional learner who's gifted and also has ADHD or gifted and also has autism. 16:19 I love meeting with those kids. 16:20 Those are some of my favorite kids because we can go in all sorts of directions, right? 16:24 And so when you have those cases, a lot of times, There are scholarships. 16:29 You can find a lot of states are offering things like ESA funds, educational scholarships, and those are different in every state. 16:35 So I would just encourage people to check those out. 16:38 And also, again, maybe you talk about this a good bit, but HSLDA membership or just getting a little bit more information on what your state offers and approves. 16:47 Yeah, yeah, absolutely. 16:49 I'm so curious, since you've been raising your kids in Ecuador, and you have all these different educational options that you've done, 16:55 you've created, you run, how has that shaped your approach to education and parenting? 17:02 Oh gosh. 17:03 I think it's made me way more chill. 17:06 I don't know if you did this when you started homeschooling, but like I had like the, yeah, school at home. 17:12 It was like... 17:13 You had myself, yeah. 17:15 Yeah, exactly. 17:16 Un-school yourself first, please. 17:18 I had them like saying the pledge. 17:20 We had like the schedule, little cards. 17:23 I mean, it was like... 17:24 just chill. 17:25 We quickly saw that that was not going to be feasible when like all the newborns were around. 17:29 It was just not okay. 17:31 And they were still thriving and thriving more because there were not all these other expectations placed. 17:37 So I would say it's maybe chill out a lot and realize that learning happens in so many different ways and every kid happens that learns in different ways. 17:47 So different. 17:48 Isn't it amazing how different I'm thinking, how did we ever think or who thought that we could put 30 kids in a classroom, 17:56 teach them all the same way, all the same subject, everything the same, and expect a really good outcome? 18:03 I have a really hard time comprehending that now that I've homeschooled for 18 years. 18:09 I don't understand why we would even want to try that. 18:13 I mentioned my classroom time in Richmond. 18:17 I was in a trailer with 32 gifted eighth graders who smelled like eighth graders and acted like eighth graders, but were curious as well.
How homeschooling shaped parenting and learning 18:28 It was a wild time, but it was not quality learning. 18:33 Having that opportunity to get the one-on-one and or one to four in our case or whatever what that looks like for me is a lot more asking questions. 18:42 I mentally like run through life and like progress bars and ratios. 18:46 Yeah, that might be a weird way to think. 18:48 But I try to think of the day as how did the ratio go in the way of questions versus commands? 18:56 And I think this is a good place to start, especially for families who are maybe either recovering from this past year of homeschool or amping themselves 19:06 up to start in August or September and getting ready to say, okay, I'm going to do this. 19:11 Try this first. 19:13 Ask more questions than giving more commands. 19:16 see where that gets you. 19:17 And they could be leading questions. 19:19 Hey, what do you think could happen next in order to get out the door on time to soccer? 19:24 Do you think maybe finding your shoes would be best next? 19:28 Stuff like that just prompts a little bit more executive function thinking. 19:32 And it makes them laugh. 19:34 It makes them laugh when you ask questions like that. 19:36 They just start laughing like, yeah, that would be a really good idea. 19:39 Yeah. 19:41 I know, let's do it. 19:42 Yeah, sounds good. 19:44 So, I don't know, taking it down to basics and then just, you know, taking away the timelines as well, skipping the pages. 19:50 We don't do any sentence diagramming in our homeschool. 19:53 Like, it's just like, make the choice. 19:56 Make the choice that's best and spend your time in better ways and that might not be sentence diagramming. 20:00 It might not be. 20:01 It might not be chemistry. 20:02 It might not be Algebra 2. It might not be, you know, a lot of different things. 20:06 You know, my son, he graduated and he went to Ireland and he participated in the University of Limerick, you know, in their music program and stuff over there. 20:15 He had a great time because we checked out colleges and stuff here and, He was very specific in what he wanted and nothing just really fit because we were 20:24 really specific in our education. 20:27 He got his piano tuning certification when he was 16, bought a piano tuning business from the local piano tuner. 20:34 He started all those things. 20:35 That's just because that's what he wanted to do. 20:37 We didn't do traditional high school. 20:40 We just did it because it wasn't necessary. 20:42 He helps a congressman run his campaign. 20:45 It was very eclectic in what he wanted to learn. 20:48 like, hey, I've had it. 20:50 And then you're got a job, how do I install sprinkler systems? 20:54 So I think that's such a much better education than everybody going through this whole same thing. 21:02 And now he's 26. They just bought a farm. 21:04 He wants to be like the next Joel Salatin. 21:07 He's County Supervisor and he still tunes pianos. 21:10 So that's amazing. 21:12 I love that. 21:13 I'm in a white man because he's not afraid to do it, you know, because like, Hey, if you want to try it, try it. 21:20 And you know, our daughter, she loves horses. 21:22 And so, I mean, I got, I found math horse books, which we did like half of them because she's like, I don't like math, but if you can figure out a recipe 21:32 and you can measure the stalls, the mats you need in your stalls, and you can balance your checkbook, I think we're pretty good at the moment. 21:40 Anything else you need to learn? 21:42 You can learn as you need it. 21:43 Yeah, exactly. 21:46 The process of learning rather than the... 21:48 Can you speak and can you write and do basic math skills? 21:51 I think we're doing pretty good. 21:54 Check, check, and check. 21:55 Yeah. 21:57 I also think with your business, with our business, my husband also owns his own business. 22:03 part of the learning. 22:04 So whatever families are working on, I think it's just really, it's a service. 22:10 It's not taking away their childhood. 22:12 It's letting them be curious about what's happening around them. 22:15 And, you know, such a gift and our kids cook are two oldest. 22:19 Yeah. 22:20 You know, divide the five days of the week and two of them do Tuesday and Thursday and it's all on their own. 22:25 They have to find the recipe. 22:26 They have to defrost the chicken and, you know, deal with it when they forget to like we all do and stuff like that. 22:33 Life skills, life skills for sure. 22:35 Yeah. 22:35 I mean, I take, I go to a lot of conferences. 22:37 I take my daughter with me to all my conferences. 22:38 You know, she's learned way more of those and better on people who have a high mindset and, you know, good business sense and all those things and learned 22:46 way more than I could have put her in a business class in, you know, a high school system. 22:50 So it is so fun. 22:52 Yeah. 22:52 And so when people want to start homeschooling, what would be your like top three things that you would tell them? 22:59 I would say, you know, analyze what was going well or what wasn't going well before, whatever that was, you know, if there are two. 23:06 And they're, you know, you're really just starting. 23:09 Fantastic. 23:10 But start. 23:11 Don't wait until they're like four and you should start teaching letters. 23:14 No, like, started two. 23:16 He did the same preschool curriculum for three years, but just an increasing difficulty. 23:21 And all of our kids were reading before they were five and like, it was fine. 23:24 And I was like, is this allowed? 23:26 Let's do it. 23:27 I think it is. 23:28 Maybe the first rule is challenge what is out there, and you don't have to follow the rules, just follow their lead. 23:35 I think the second one would be fomenting curiosity in some way, and it's gonna look different for every stinking kid. 23:42 It's gonna look like getting all the books for the bookworm. 23:45 It's gonna look like giving the kid who's really interested in the medical stuff, like, access to those people and things. 23:52 It's gonna look like, you know, my eight-year-old who's, like, MBA-obsessed, He started a YouTube channel. 23:59 We help him with it. 23:59 It takes a lot of time to edit a YouTube video, but I will edit your stats video because you love it. 24:05 You know, it's one of those things where we're giving him that runway to be curious about something. 24:09 And the five year old, I don't know what she's going to be excited about yet, but. 24:13 Okay, whenever she is. 24:14 Yes. 24:14 Yeah. 24:15 So again, challenge it, get curious about stuff, and then keep evolving.
Advice for new homeschool families 24:20 You don't have to buy the Good and the Beautiful curriculum from K-12. 24:25 No. 24:26 Please don't. 24:27 Don't do that. 24:27 Evaluate every year. 24:29 See if it's a good fit. 24:29 If it's not, buy a unit study and go unit study by unit study, or Don't buy history curriculum. 24:36 Just read historical fiction books and see where your kids land there. 24:39 I mean, that's a really open mindset, I think, but there's a lot of ways to check the boxes if your state has boxes to check and, 24:49 you know, glean some wisdom from others who have done it before. 24:52 There's a lot of people out there who have and they're willing to share. 24:55 Yeah, it is so true. 24:56 And ask other homeschoolers, like, what do you do? 24:59 What works for your family? 25:00 And it may not work for your family, but just get, you know, other ideas. 25:03 I used to homeschool 25 different, or not homeschool, supervise 25 homeschool families every single year, because that's what Iowa required for a long time. 25:12 And I got to see so many different styles of, what? 25:14 Insight. 25:15 Oh my gosh. 25:15 I know it was fantastic. 25:16 What was like the coolest thing you saw there? 25:18 I wanted to hear some stories. 25:19 Well, I mean, I had moms that were like putting Post-It notes all over their walls for like math problems, like jump to the one. 25:27 If that's the answer, you know, they would just call off numbers. 25:31 No problems. 25:31 Like, you know, seven plus five. 25:33 And then, you know, do you jump to the one where it was just because the kid was so active and she's like, I got it. 25:38 So this is the way that we're doing it, you know, or some people are just like, here's all of your stuff. 25:43 Go build something. 25:45 You know, and they would just, you know, very unschooling, like they just, which I loved. 25:49 But we were kind of like a mix of, you know, a little bit of mishmash of all of it, which was really great. 25:54 But some really creative mamas out there, I got to tell you. 25:58 Yeah. 25:58 Yeah. 25:59 And to see people homeschooling one child and other people homeschooling 20 was amazing. 26:04 I don't know, God bless all of you. 26:08 Exactly. 26:08 No, I'm kind of glad I wasn't called to the 20. Yeah, for sure. 26:14 Yeah. 26:14 But it was just so good. 26:16 So good. 26:17 Yeah. 26:17 Is there anything that you would do differently when you started homeschooling now that you know what you know? 26:22 I mean, your kids are still pretty young, so you're still kind of scary. 26:25 Yeah. 26:26 Well, yeah. 26:27 And I feel like I've seen a lot with the friends that we have here and have gotten to like watch them experiment and be flexible. 26:37 So I think I would tell my, you know, 2014 self, like, chill, like, don't try to make it school. 26:48 But beyond that, like, we were just low budget, winging it, everything was printed, TPT free, That was where I just lived for a long time. 26:59 And then started really branching out and seeing what else was out there and felt a little bit more freedom to pick and choose rather than just stay in 27:08 my lane. 27:09 So I think we've done well. 27:13 And if I can pat myself on the back, I would say, good job just being okay with it once we got there. 27:19 being flexible was just the key. 27:22 So not being afraid to change course, I think, is another thing that I was afraid of. 27:28 Yeah, it was huge. 27:29 Yeah. 27:29 Yeah. 27:30 But if the stakes are low, and again, I'm like the queen of free, and so anytime I can find something that's free and I can stretch it and I can, 27:38 you know, use ChatGBT to like build a science curriculum or a history curriculum or something like do it. 27:45 I have YouTube videos on that. 27:47 If anybody wants an idea on how we do that, it's a thing. 27:50 And so there's quite a lot out there that you can use in homeschooling in 2025 and beyond. 27:55 It's just like, oh my gosh, the jam. 27:58 Yeah, it's at GDP, it's going to totally change that landscape for sure. 28:03 Be careful. 28:03 Be careful with it. 28:04 Disclaimer. 28:06 Sure. 28:06 It's a great... 28:07 Where can my listeners find you? 28:09 Yeah, we're at thinkcurio, thinkcurio.com and all the socials and YouTube and Instagram and Facebook, Think Curio Learning. 28:18 And I just want people to understand like stuff that's out there. 28:22 You have options. 28:23 And so that's what I talk about a lot and try to share. 28:26 I love it. 28:27 Melissa, thank you so much for being here. 28:29 Thanks, Laurie. 28:29 Thanks for having me. 28:30 We love having you on here. 28:31 And thank you all for listening. 28:32 Make sure, again, that you like, subscribe, and share this video with anyone you know. 28:37 And don't forget to leave me a review. 28:39 God bless you all. 28:40 I will see you in the next episode. 28:42 Thank you for tuning into Dr. 28:44 Talks. 28:44 We hope today's episode has enlightened and inspired you on your path to optimal health. 28:49 Each day is a new opportunity to make choices that empower your well-being. 28:54 For more insights and strategies, subscribe to our podcast and visit our website, www.doctortalks.com. 29:03 Stay connected, stay healthy, and join us next time on Doctor Talks, real talks from real doctors on the issues that matter to you most.
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