Honey! I'm Homeschooling The Kids

Mia Lockhart– Mother, wife, entrepreneur, and traveler. Other ways to enjoy this Podcast The Lockhart family is from Nova Scotia. They have 4 kids — two daughters that are 17 and 15 and two sons that are 13 and 10 years old. 5 Years ago Mia’s family reached a point where they wanted a change and they took action to make it happen. What they wanted was Experiences Over Things. “What You Own Owns You” Mia’s family started by simplifying everything. They cleaned out their house and cut down on things. Simplification gave them greater freedom in their life. They were no longer tied to their things. Mia’s husband then sold his business and they both started working online. They went from a quiet life in Nova Scotia to become a travelling family that camped across the United States for 4 months.  The kids did well on the road and Mia felt that was a start to new experiences for them. After the 4 months on the road they they became more serious about downsizing — cleaning out everything and getting their belongings down to a minimum. With less to tie them down they decided to relocate. To Vancouver. Vancouver Mia and her family moved to Vancouver, rented a home and enrolled in school. Enrolling their kids in school in Vancouver was an important learning experience for them. Being in a new school, and new city, with new classmates was another opportunity for her kids to step out of their comfort zones. It gave them a chance to find a new part of themselves away from the pre-defined roles of their old home life. But by now they were bitten by the travel bug and they longed to be back on the road. They prepared for their next destination — Costa Rica. This was their chosen destination because they had travelled there before, were familiar with the area and loved the “pura vida” culture. The culture is close enough to home that it was not a large culture shock, and it is also a place where they feel safe with their teenage girls.   Costa Rica Mia and her family planned to spend 3 months in Costa Rica and when I caught up with her at the beginning of the summer they had just returned to Nova Scotia from this trip. When they had  announced their first road trip across the United States the kid’s teachers were extremely helpful. They sent the kids school work which the kids completed and then emailed back to their teachers. This worked well for their family life on the road. The biggest advantage that later became clear to the kids was that even though they would only work for an hour or 2 everyday they came back to school ahead of their classmates. Travelling Family and Online School The timing for Costa Rica was a bit different because at this point her daughters were now in high school. Mia looked at options for schooling while in Costa Rica and decided to use online school through the province of BC. It was important to Mia to have all options available, especially university. This way they could keep up with credits and curriculum. Mia also liked the idea of not having to take on the curriculum and teaching herself.

Worldschooling Mom Jamie Salonen Jaime is a business owner, wife, mother to two wonderful daughters. She does all of this while worldschooling. We caught up this summer while they were back in Canada before heading out again for their next journey to Mexico. Other ways to enjoy this Podcast Willing To Do Things Differently Jaime has always thought differently from others and never really wanted to follow the crowd. Both her and and her husband question society a lot more than others and are willing to do things differently. This is apparent in the way they live their life, and educate their children. Their daughters entered school from preschool. When their eldest was getting ready for grade 1 they began to evaluate what they wanted for their family. Family time is extremely important and with school, activities and work they knew they would be very busy. Russ, Jaime’s husband had the idea to homeschool. They both knew nothing about it. Russ supported Jamie as the full time stay-at-home parent at that time. They started homeschooling their daughters before transitioning to worldschooling. The Start of Wordlschooling Before they started their family Jaime and her husband traveled together in Australia. They lived on savings for 6 months while they toured the country. When they returned to Canada they kept hopes of one day traveling again. The start of their travel was when their oldest daughter was one year old. They took 6 weeks touring BC in a tent trailer then a few years later they took a 4 month trip. Jaime was the working parent then and her husband was the stay-at-home parent. Jaime took a 4 month leave so the family could travel up and down the coast of Canada and the US. During that trip they met a full time travelling family in Whitehorse that they connected with. This connection was the inspiring spark for their family to step into full time travel. “If they can do that, why can’t we?” Jaime and her family took 9 months to get rid of everything in their home to transition and move into their 25 foot travel trailer. In the beginning of November 2016 they left Canada for 6 months in Australia and 3 weeks in Bali. Full Time Worldschooling Their family now consider themselves worldschoolers that started out as homeschoolers. Jaime says that in the beginning they over thought it- worrying about their girls falling behind in their learning. When they started travelling Jaime says she took too much weight in books in her backpack. One thing she has learned in her journey “The way we want to teach it is not necessarily the way they want to learn it.” They went away from the book work, especially with travel. She feels that travel is one of the best forms of education. “You learn so much about yourself, you learn so much about the world around you, about what you are capable of. It challenges you in every way. It pushes you to think outside the box and come up with solutions.” “Learn as you go- don’t overthink it.”

“Make sure that every single year you reevaluate. Whether this is working for you as a couple, whether this is working for the kids, whether this is working for your family as a whole.”   Other ways to enjoy this Podcast This was advice that a homeschool facilitator gave to Worldschooler Jaime Salonen, my next guest on episode 007 which airs in 2 weeks.  I feel this advice is important for every parent, whether they home educate, unschool, worldschool or follow the traditional public school system. With Back to School just around the corner for many in Canada, and already started for many families in the US, this episode I take time to talk about the importance of reflection for a family and some strategies we can use. Reflection is important because we are taking the time to evaluate where we are, what we are doing and if these actions are still working for us or still reflect our values and beliefs. Are we living a happy, thriving life? Do we need a change? Is this a complete change in how we live, a paradigm shift or is it a few minor adjustments? What  key steps can you take to get to this process? Taking time out to think about and list your family’s education goals, family values and priorities. Do this on your own and then together as a family. These goals and values can include: * Creating a happy learning environment * Fostering communication * Self Respect * Fostering Independence * Developing a love of learning Think about and write down your values and beliefs around education and learning. When did they start to form? Reflect how and where you created these beliefs for yourself and others. * Is play an important part of learning process? Or does it only apply to certain ages? * Do you feel post secondary certification is the measure of educational success? * Do you feel grades and testing are the best measurement for proof of learning? * Is experience and application a true reflection of learning? Talk to others from differing backgrounds and ask questions. * What does learning look like for them? * How are they living this in their life? * Do any of their values and beliefs reflect yours? * Do their values and beliefs oppose yours? Where and how? You actually don’t have to wait for summer to come around to start the reflection process. It’s essential to do this throughout the year. Then we have a better idea of how we can move forward tomorrow, next mont, or next year. Sometimes it’s a great time to open communication with our children, friends and family. Our kids are always telling us in words, actions or subtle ways that we need to STOP AND LISTEN. They have important things to say.             Other ways to enjoy this Podcast

Exploring Unschooling with Pam Laricchia Pam shares her personal journey of how her family came into unschooling and why they chose to unschool after years of trying to get school to work. Other ways to enjoy this Podcast In this episode we talked about many parts of the home learning unschooling journey: The importance of the Deschooling process Getting comfortable with “not knowing” EXPECTATIONS The lifelong learning process for both parents and children Is unschooling for everyone? Making mistakes University and unschooling The Key to Unschooling: Building Trust Pam tells how she built trust with her children and how that is the key to unschooling. Finding the connection in simple unexpected times with your kids and giving the space to be with them is important. Those conversations are the key in unschooling. Taking the time to relax and process things. Creating the room to ask. These times show your children that they are important and what they have to say is important to you. It helps to understand each other better and they also come to see that we are not doing it with an ulterior motive, like throwing in a school lesson or getting our way for something. Instead, we sincerely have their best interests at heart. It is that openness, laughter and conversation that builds that trust. Definition of Deschooling Pam has an in-depth explanation of Deschooling: The process of releasing all conventional ideas about learning. Asking why certain things are important. It widens to how we live and engage with life. How we learn things, the content to what we learn and when we learn it. To be able to take the time to question all these assumptions that we have grown up with that we think are true: From how we learn things right up to the content of things that we (and school) think kids should learn. Why is that curriculum timeline any better than allowing them to encounter it on their own? Then if they don’t encounter it is it still something of value? Why is school  curriculum laid out in a 12-year time frame, instead of learning it in our life-long time frame when we need it or when it becomes important to us? When they left school Pam felt she was the one that had to go through a longer deschooling process. Giving herself that space and just paying attention for a year gave her time to see the bigger picture. The Important Deschooling Process in Unschooling The deschooling process is important because as parents we have triggers on learning. The discomfort we feel is usually about us. The triggers we have when we worry about our kids and if or what they are learning are our own personal issues, not theirs.  When you step back and give them time, you can begin to see how their learning is connecting, how their growth is happening. For Pam, that time started happening after a year of deschooling.

Mara Linaberger  Help! My Child Hates School. An Awakened parents guide to action. Note: we had some major interruptions in our conversation  as we started to talk about the major problems in education and what we can do about it. A storm was brewing outside and we both agree in the world of education as well. <iframe src=”https://omny.fm/shows/honey-im-homeschooling-the-kids/help-my-child-hates-school-mara-linaberger/embed” width=”100%” height=”180″ frameborder=”0″ title=”Help! My Child HATES School | Mara Linaberger”></iframe> Other ways to enjoy this Podcast Great Quotes from Mara “If your child hates school…..the kid is telling us – something doesn’t feel right. Help me figure out how to make it feel better… and that it’s actually an opportunity and a blessing to have your child speak up and say that something is not working.” “Kids have an inner BS detector that’s fully intact.” Public School Educator Mara was a public school educator for over 20 years. She taught at an amazing inner city Magnet school for 17 of those years, slowly moving up the chain of command. She obtained her doctoral degree in instructional technology because she decided she wanted to do more and reach more. She was hired by a regional education organization that supported school districts in implementing state mandates and legislation and wrote a grant for arts educators before she became a district level administrator. After quite a few years because of downsizing she lost her job. This lead her to soul searching and she realized that what she thought she knew about education wasn’t the whole story and that the old model no longer really works. She realized that: Standardized testing had been a benefit to give some common ideas to think about on things we want our children to learn but unfortunately they have become co-opted by textbook companies and assessment companies. Instead of assessments guiding our kids, measuring their value against test scores instead of their skills, abilities and gifts. School should be fun and kids should feel powerful. Kids are better connected and their imagination is better tuned than adults but a lot of kids are being misdiagnosed. Supporting Families Mara didn’t realize she’d come out so boldly and say “if your kid hates school- it’s not that big of a deal”. It is an important statement because “there is nothing wrong with your kid”. What kids are really saying is “I need you to see who I am, I need you to hear me that something isn’t working. Will you figure out what that is with me. Can we go find something that feels better”. It’s actually an opportunity to have your child speak up, say that something is not working and ask for help.  To support families in this journey Mara wrote the book Help! My Child Hates School. The How-To Guide For Parents Help! My Child Hates School is a how-to guide for parents. The book shows how to find the best educational setting for your family so that your kids are really happy and thriving. She details the logical process to figure out who your kid is, what they like,

Welcome to Honey! I’m Homeschooling The Kids. Why this podcast? What’s in this episode??   Other ways to enjoy this Podcast I’m Robyn. An unschooling mom to my wonderful son and daughter. We started out as homeschoolers and our life has slowly evolved into unschooling. Our journey started 5 years ago when my husband and I decided to make some major changes in our life. Our lives had become so consumed with living the rat race that we began losing site of the things that we loved and loved to do; having fun with our children, spending time in nature, creative pursuits, and travel. So instead of waiting and dreaming and saying “what if”- we took action. We decided to try 6 months in Jamaica. We rented our house, stored our things, sold my car, took our kids out of school, moved to Jamaica and started homeschooling. Like Jamaica, our life began to become colourful again. We laughed, did things we loved to do, spent everyday at the beach, and we were loving homeschool. Homeschooling became the unexpected gift. The longer we homeschooled the less anyone wanted to return to traditional school. Our relationships with our children grew closer, our communication improved and we were having a lot more fun. It was not easier. Homeschooling brought so many joys, and it also brought challenges. For parents homeschooling challenges us personally, testing our previous ideas and ideals around parenting, learning, freedom, self image, self worth and limitations. Reason one for this podcast. Was I the only one feeling this way? Was I doing things all wrong if I had these feelings? Even with the joys we were having homeschooling I still had questions. In in our time in Jamaica I could not find any other homeschoolers. We seemed alone in our journey. At that time the growing amount of blogs and social media groups that we have now were limited or non-existent. I was dying to connect with other families on the topics of home education, learning, education, and parenting. I wanted to access ideas, I wondered if I was doing things right, if I was doing things wrong, I wanted to hear about others’ experiences. Was I alone in what I was doing and how I was feeling? I wanted a like-minded community. After our 6 months in Jamaica we continued on to Seoul, South Korea. It was there I connected with a wonderful community of homeschooling families. I felt better connected, encouraged and inspired. We shared experiences, fears, ideas, and hung out. I wanted this to continue no matter where we went. Over the years our homeschooling journey has evolved into one of unschooling. My community has been growing and with that I continue to be inspired. I still have questions that come up, but I have learned to trust myself so much more. I notice each year that I am asked more and more about our experiences in home education, unschooling, world schooling and how and why we live our uniquely different life. How do I start homeschooling? What is the difference between homeschool and unschool? How do I start unschooling? What style of education best suits each family? How can I earn a living travelling and worldschool with my family? I want to offer a platform for these questions and discussions...

  Judy Arnall is a Canadian Certified Family Life Educator, best selling author of 3 books on non-punitive parenting, professional speaker and homeschooling mom to her 5 children. With years of experience as a parent educator and personal experience raising and homeschooling her 5 children Judy offers knowledge on home education, the power of letting go, and respectful parenting. “We are homeschoolers that never really got around to homeschooling.” Judy talks about how their homeschool journey began and why she originally wanted to homeschool and why her husband did not. After struggle in grade 2 with her oldest son who had learning disabilities and her youngest son completely not happy with grade 1 they tried homeschooling for a year.The first lesson from the first year- You have to find your groove. Find your parenting style, teaching style and what your child’s learning style is. Most important are your values for education and your goals for your relationship. As a certified family life educator Judy teaches parents how to be non-punitive and live respectful parenting practices. Homeschooling was a harder experience because as the “teacher” she didn’t want to use rewards and punishments. Instead she focused on building relationships.Second Lesson – The main factor in homeschooling is the parenting relationships. How did Home Education work for them?Her family started out structured in their homeschooling and then slid into unschooling. She gave her children the option to work towards a diploma for high school. She feels once they reached high school age they were ready for more structure because they had lived 10 years of unstructured unschooling. So far 3 out of 5 have graduated from university and adjusted well socially and academically. One child plans to head to university in the fall after completing high school requirements and the other is just entering grade 10. “Play allows passion to reveal themselves”. Each of her children have followed their playful passions in school and career paths, with 3 of her children focusing on STEM paths. Judy discusses socialization and why she feels home education is excellent for socialization. She describes what opportunities are created for socialization that school cannot offer.To her, she sums up homeschooling in this quote; “It’s like a bank. You put in the savings and you reap the rewards later on.” Judy also talks about the difficult days that happen and gives great advice on what to do for those inevitable days. Preparing ahead, having a support system on hand, going to the mountains, or packing a picnic and practicing self care. Model to your kids that you can and need to be good to yourself. Judy was honest when I asked what her major challenges with home education were. Her answer was a similar struggle to what we have in our home. Screen time. Her viewpoint on screen time is insightful and she gives honest, personal examples. The struggles with setting limits, and why she gave up the guilt. What is one thing she would do differently? Her answer surprised me. She talked about how this affected her children in post secondary studies but how it may no longer be as important 10 years down the road. What is Judy’s advice as a seasoned parent and home educator? She wishes she relaxed sooner, but explains it’s a learning curve for every parent. The number one factor is the caring adult relationship. “If they are not getting something- don’t stress. Eventually they will get it. Your relationship matters so much more.” Judy is also president of the AHEPS- Alberta Home Education Parents Society. The AHEPS represents parental choice and provides advocacy and a voice to parents. Links * www.aheps.ca * http://www.

Other ways to enjoy this Podcast “We were put here to be creative and to serve.” Brian is an entrepreneur from New Jersey that now resides in Florida. His owns a real estate business with his partner Jim whom you may have heard on a previous episode. They also run a unique parent/child retreat called the Family Board Meetings. Brian and his wife Coco have 2 beautiful boys aged 5 & 3. They do not homeschool, but currently have them in a local Montessori program that fits well with their educational beliefs of critical thinking, nurture and letting the child lead. Brian is a fantastic interview because he and his family practice strong values, and live a life that reflects life long learning and connection. His practices outline the first step in home education and learning for a parent- learning to parent ourselves first and setting the example for our children. Brian loves to surf. He believes in giving back and service to others but “what matters most is the relationship with ourselves.” Brian’s book What Matters Most – The 5 F’s focuses on life’s key relationships that are essential to living a great, creative life. * Faith * Fitness * Family * Friends * Finance Taking the relationship deeper Brian talks more about the need for the connection that everyone, especially every child wants and how parents can create that; * Getting into the rhythm of quality time by first giving the quantity. This is how he has developed his intimate relationships with his family, and he goes into detail on how to create this for our own relationships with what he calls the personal Family Board Meetings. The personal family board meetings structure falls into one on one time, every 90 days at a minimum of 4 hours. No electronics. Interaction. Keep it simple. End the time with focused reflection. * Mindfulness in our everyday. How can parents be more conscience about listening more to our children and practicing trying to respond and not react? Brian is a believer in the regular practice of meditation and mindfulness. He started the practice with his kids at age 2 and encourages the importance of starting with ourselves first. Both Brian and his wife have their own daily practice, including Brian’s 20 year yoga practice. His wife Coco teaches meditation as well. He explains how meditation is the link to connected parenting. “When we start parenting ourselves first, then we will lead better by example”. Brian goes into detail about the Family Board Meetings Retreat that they hold in Florida and the mountains of Utah. The main focus is the one on one parent/child relationship. They use the outdoors and hands on experiential, reflective time. There are not a lot of programs available in the world that brings parent and child together in this environment which allows for open conversation and connection.  What makes the difference in this journey is sharing this experience together with your child. Links * www.familyboardmeetings.

Other ways to enjoy this Podcast Are you an entrepreneur that also homeschools or unschools  your child? Can this actually be done? Find out in this episode how one family in Florida successfully does this, as well as helps other entrepreneurial parents reconnect with their own children and families. Not to mention takes time to surf. Jim Sheils lives in the beach community of St. Augustine Florida with his beautiful wife Jamie and their 4 children. He grew up in north New Jersey. Family Board Meetings He is a real estate investor and owns another company, Family Board Meetings where he and his business partner work with families doing specialized retreats for entrepreneurs and their children. The retreat focuses on ways to strengthen your parent/child relationship, have fun together, and open your eyes to some of those important lessons not taught in school. In this episode Jim tells the story of how Family Board Meetings started even before he had his own family. It has now grown into a transformational time for families to reconnect and grow their bond. Jim talks about the important topics and activities that take place at the Family Board Meetings around personal development, relationship skills, and better knowledge of finances. The time away is an intensive 3 days to talk and be real. Everyone is equal. Unschooling and Alternative Education Jim is a believer in alternative educational options and has a strong belief in what traditional schools are and are not able to accomplish with students. As an active learner, he found his style of learning did not always fit with school. School missed teaching the skills he uses the most now. Skills he learned on his own- providing for his family, deepening relationships and going after what is most important. He talks about the One Specialized Skill Principle. No one ever told him in school to get good at one specialized skill he enjoyed, which would have taken off so much pressure in school. Once he left school Jim quickly realized that the way to find more meaning and happiness is to go deep into a unique gift or talent. “We don’t need a ton, and if you start with one, you can leverage another”. Jim talks about how this works in his own life, and how they have incorporated this into their children’s education. With the exception of their infant, their 3 older children are being educated uniquely; Eclectic unschooling, public charter Montessori and a Waldorf playgroup. In learning and education he believes “loyalty has to stay to the children, not to one form of education”. There are different options for different needs. How They Home Educate Jim’s family has a rule in their home education model. “Know Thyself”. He elaborates on this and the exact tools they have used as a family to better understand how they work and process things. These tools have been an important part of their education and worked so well that every member of the family has used this. They now have a better idea of playing to their strengths and therefore inspiring to learn, not forcing. He also talks about why they decided to homeschool their oldest child and will do the same soon with their next child. He details the process he used when making the decision to homeschool and the key...