Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Hey. Okay.
You are precariously balancedon my dashboard today.
I brought my tiny microphone,that I don't always love,
but if I want to sit comfortably
in my car and utilize the AC without it
sounding like you are in a wind tunnel,this is how we are doing it today.
(00:22):
Okay, so has been the case lately.Any more?
I have my notes. So here we go.
Here is what I thinkI want to chat with you about this week.
Have you ever
felt like you're just
checking the boxes?
Have you ever had somebody tell youthat's not the right age for that?
(00:47):
Like, that's not the wayyou should be doing this.
Why are you even considering that?
That's crazy.
Have you ever hadthe realization that you're four
five year old is studying history,when none of their counterparts are?
And you sit and you wonder why?
What am I doing this for
(01:08):
today?
We're going to talk about that.
Welcome back to Making Everyday Magic.
My name is Shanna, and if you are new,here we are homeschooling family of four.
You're in hereighth year of homeschooling.
I have homeschooled both.
My kids have quite a wide gap,and that is where a lot of this
kind of took hold.
Anyways, today let's talk about planting
(01:32):
the seeds of prior knowledge.
Before we go any further,if we scroll down
and hit the big red subscribe button,
turn on that bell for notificationsand give this video a thumbs up.
As always, you can find me aroundand down in the comments
or over on Instagramat Making Everyday Magic.
Hey! Hi, how are you?
(01:53):
So yes, we're in the car.
Why are we in the car?We are in the car because
we have a jampacked week
and if I do not
utilize the time that I have,
if I do not decide how I am runningmy time, my time will run me
and I will not have a clear enoughhead to sit in to this.
(02:14):
Well,
and I will be jamming it into the end ofthe week in an effort to just get it done.
And that's not always fun.
Plus, I am sitting here,at one of our many events
and the normal mom friend that I hangwith is not here,
so I might as wellmake good use of this time.
And so I just brought you along in the carbecause, well, some days are like that
(02:35):
and this week is like that.
And if you don't know, our weekis very busy because we are hosting
a party of this week and I will have
a teenager, guys, a freaking teenager.
Can you believe it?
Okay, so let's jump into a bit of today's topic.
So what I want to talk aboutis planting prior knowledge.
How this serves us, why we're doing it,and what benefits there are to doing it.
(02:59):
So as I started off this video for you,if you homeschool,
I feel like you are somebody who is
valuing education
in all all manners of life.
Which is the same waythat my husband and I are.
So even if we didn't homeschool,
I feel like we would still be utilizingsome of these things and discussing
a lot of topics that are,
(03:21):
you know, above age level or abovegrade level.
It just naturally is
part of our vibeas people, as parents, as everything.
So I have found that
becausebecause there's such a spread on my girls,
because I am homeschoolingseventh grade and third grade,
(03:43):
because we started homeschoolingwhen my youngest was
a year old,less than a year old less than a year old.
We started homeschoolingwhen my youngest was like nine months old.
So literally all of her memory is in
some manner tied to home education.
Now. There are things even still,
(04:07):
I will combine as many subjects
as I possibly can, and that is because
when it for the little ones along for itanyway.
Like let's not cat.
So every time we did a history in the car,
even if we didn't do a history of the car,
even if you'rejust doing a read aloud at home,
your other kids are involved anyway.
(04:29):
So for me, it made sense to just go aheadand she was a kid who was ready.
And I've got videos on homeschoolingwith toddlers,
but she wanted to be included anyway.
Like, this is a high point in her life,so she can have her own history journal
that she can have access to the samethings that her sister has access to.
(04:51):
So planting prior knowledge for me
is that I never pump the brakes with
what I am exposing my kids
to as far as grade level ability
I subjects, you know, historyin kindergarten, things like that.
(05:14):
And that is because
I don't have unreasonable expectations
for what I am expecting of my kids.
So I will pour into them
things that are above grade level, thingsthat are bigger, meatier topics.
But I don't necessarily expectthese same outputs of them.
(05:36):
So my seventh grader is writingfull on papers at this point, right?
And my third grader is not.
So in combining history this year
or chemistry this year, for example,
they have end of unit tests.
And so yes, my third graderis doing middle school chemistry,
but what she's really doingis coming along for the ride.
(05:59):
So she is coming along for the lessons,the videos, the demonstrations,
the hands on experiments,and even when it comes to test time,
my expectation of my third grader
is that she can answermultiple choice questions.
My expectation for
my seventh graderis that she can answer multiple choice
(06:19):
questions, fill in the blank questions,and even open ended questions.
So I don't expect to have the same output.
Now you guys know this year again,as far as planting knowledge
or having expectations that are notdependent on age or grade level,
we did, diagnose oneat one out of University
of Alberta, Canada,and it's a college level course.
(06:41):
Like you can pay to have a transcriptID and like legit on a college transcript.
You didn't because no, but my third gradertook a college level course.
Now, why did we do that when she reallywanted to learn more about dinosaurs?
And two, I just don't have a crazy outputexpectation for my kids
when it comes to something that is,well, far and above their level now.
(07:06):
The ways, the ways that we are plantingprior knowledge.
One literal just exposure.
So just exposure. When was she can
see a word or hear a word?
For example, we can talk about,
chemistry molecules and she can sit down.
My kids can sit down and be like,oh, wait, I've heard about this before.
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Or if she is doing something
in her geography and it starts to talkabout the Mayans and the Aztecs,
and then she knows,oh, wait, I've heard of this before.
If we can sit here
and just fall back on the knowledge from
just dropping hints, tiny Easter eggsto hearing the words,
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a little bit of knowledgegoes a really long way, especially
because I am a big believerthat education comes in like layers.
So it's a little now
and a little more laterbecause they've got something
a little bit biggerthat they can build that on.
They can have a little bit of a deeperunderstanding later
if they've got a little bit of a bitesize, just prior knowledge,
(08:15):
a little bit of referencethat they can make,
you know, call itrecalling that information from before.
Now, I'm also somebody who doesn't feel
the need, and I know that a lot of peoplereally don't like this.
And I know that a lot of curriculum piecesreally, really
stressthings like memorization of math facts.
And yes, is it a little easier? Sure.
(08:37):
Does it help them out? Absolutely.But I don't harp on it.
I don't hold them back because I know thatthey're going to get that at some point.
It's not a thing that, you know,she's never going to make it
to the end of her lifewithout being able to easily recall
six times, for there's no reasonI need to stress it when she's young.
So I am somebody who does not subscribe
to the idea that kids have to be able to
(09:00):
memorize every little thing.
I am not a huge fan of memorization.
I am a huge fan of being ableto find the information and knowing
how to find the information,
because again, I just don't place as high
a value on memorization,so it is not a big deal to me.
Yes, my little one has done historyfor ages and ages.
(09:22):
Can she give you literal,you know, timelines of things?
Can she tell you what yearor Columbus made it to America?
No, she can'tand I am okay with that. Why?
Because she's only a third grade.
Like she will get there.
Those things will stick.
And there is no reason that I needto stress about that on the front end.
(09:43):
Now, this brings me into kind of a tangenton this same topic.
So often I have people ask me what?
How do you know they're learning?
Like, well then how do you know if youcan't test them and grade them on it?
If you are not, you know,sending out portfolios for review,
if you are not sending them infor some sort of standardized testing,
(10:06):
like how do you know?
How do you knowthey're learning if you're not doing that,
I would
absolutely love to meet the personwho is, you know,
homeschooling in a mannerthat is productive for their child,
that has no idea what their kidsare learning or where they're struggling.
I am with my children day in and day out.
(10:28):
I am next to themwhen they are working on things.
I am helping them when they struggleand I am like going
through and making sure verifyingthat they have put in the work.
And when there is something that's wrong,we we go back over it.
There is no question in my mindabout what my kids have mastered or what
my kids are struggling with,and so often people will.
(10:49):
How will you know?
How will you know how they're doing ifthey're not in a classroom of their peers,
if they're not taking standardized exams,if you don't have somebody else ensuring
that their knowledge is what they've got,because as a homeschool parent,
that is not a situationthat I am removed from. I
just basically basically the longand the short of it,
(11:10):
the message of this video,the whole point of this is to tell you
that not all knowledgeneeds to be testable.
Not every detail needs to be memorized
and not every thing
that you introduce or expose your children
to needs to be for a test,or needs to be for information
(11:34):
that they can recall back to youlike a tiny little crazy parrot.
Sometimes information is just information,
and sometimes in the really wonderfulsituations and circumstances.
Education information.
Information now is going to be something
(11:56):
that in two years, in ten years,that little snippet that you didn't think
was anything, that you didn't thinkthey caught on when you didn't
think they were listening, is going to bethe thing that they pull back out,
and they can either give you the factsyou didn't know they had, or
they can build on that
for something that is bigger laterand that is okay.
(12:18):
Not everything needs to be testable,not everything needs to be measured,
and not everything needs to be memorized.
It is okay if you are just planting
the seeds of knowledge now, just plantingthe seeds, giving them snippets.
There has been animal facts
that my daughter has pulled outwhere I did not know she was listening.
There has been thingswhere, you know, my husband's like,
(12:39):
hey, what did you guys learn today?What did you cover in school this week?
And they will pull outa piece of information that I just did
not know, even registered on their radar.
Being able
to watch my kids light upbecause they hear a city name.
A fun fact something.
They see a picture,which is one of the reasons that I love
(13:02):
family travels and value it so heavily,is that they will see a picture
of a landmarkand they can tell you where it is,
or remember what it was likewhen they saw it in person.
Having prior knowledge,
planting the seeds, and knowing
that you may never see the flower.
Being able
(13:23):
to know that your kids have some exposureto a wide range of topics.
I'm not telling you that it's alwaysgoing to benefit them, but I can tell you
that I like to learn and I will readway too much about anything.
And I file those bits of information away.
And I am really,really good at trivia games.
In case you're wondering, it'swhat I like to call channel logic.
(13:44):
I use what I've got, but I know whatI don't know and piece of together.
But being able
to just have a little bit of information,even if it's not testable, measured,
even if it's not even always 100%accurate, but having a little bit of that
prior knowledge, that exposure to varioustopics, especially things that are above
(14:07):
age level or grade level,that have your kids reaching and learning
and questioning and wanting more,or have them in a situation, guys
especially, let's just call it the pettyhomeschool mom situation.
When somebody comes outand they're like, well, what about this?
When they start doing those public quizzesand your kid can drop some, like,
you know, two little deep nuggetsthat are definitely above age
(14:29):
level, you're going to feelreally good about yourself.
So petty mom win for that one.
I just want to remind you
that not everything has to be hard.
Not everything has to be difficult.
Not everything has to be testableor measured.
It's not all schooleducation isn't school.
And I've got another video
coming up on that later this month,but it is a really important discussion
(14:50):
that we need to have, especially as we'reheading into the planning season.
So don't underestimate the powerof a simple audiobook.
Don't underestimatethe power of a great movie or
a wonderful, you know, read aloud.
Not everything has to be hard,and not everything
has to live up to the standardsof taking a test on it.
(15:11):
Okay?
It is meant to be learned, loved, enjoyed.
And again, even if they don'tpick up everything right now, planting
the seeds for lateris going to serve you so well every time.
But you have to do it in a manner
just like, yeah, you know,just like a farmer is going to do.
Our gardeners get it?
Do you plant it,you water it and you walk away.
It doesn't have to be a big involvedthing.
(15:32):
You're not constantly digging itup to make sure it's sprouting roots.
You just leave it alone.
Not enough people are good.
I think that just patience, patience,
letting it rise, letting the dough rest,letting the roots take hold,
whatever it is,however you want to call it.
As I hope that you found any of thishelpful, entertaining or informative.
(15:53):
If you did, please scroll down, hitthe big red subscribe button,
turn on that bell for notificationsand give this video a thumbs up.
I would love to hear,so do it for me down in the comments!
What is a thingthat your kid just pulled out of thin
air that you had no ideathey had in there?
Because those are my favorites,so please share with us.
Those are so motivating as more people
are coming to this way of life,I really think that we're going
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to get a big influx headed into the 2025,2026 school year, and I am here for it.
So let's band together, let's buildthis network.
Let's get a little inspiration
for those seeds that we are plantingnow that will be pulled back out later.
Guys, I.