October 30, 2025 • 45 mins
Read the blog post for this episode HERE: Trusting God as We and Our Kids Step Into What’s Next (with Judy Fulmer)
In this episode, I talk with Judy Fulmer, founder of College PrepXcel, an independent educational consulting company that guides students skillfully and strategically through the college admissions process so they know what to expect—and how to truly stand out.
Judy helps parents and teens navigate the often-overwhelming world of college prep with clarity and confidence. She works with all families, but as a former homeschool mom herself, she carries a special place in her heart for homeschooling parents walking this journey.
Together, we talk about what it looks like to trust God through the transition from homeschooling to higher education—and how His grace opens doors for both parents and students in every new season. If you’re a mom preparing your teen for college or simply navigating this next chapter of parenting, this conversation will remind you that God is already preparing the way.
Text Audrey a message! She would love to hear from you!
Get your copy of my new devotional here: Seek First: 31 Quiet Moments With Jesus
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Audrey McCracken (00:00):
Hello friends.
Welcome back to Grace for MyHome.
I'm Audrey McCracken and I amdelighted to be back with you
again this week.
Please forgive me for being alittle stuffy.
So if I sound stuffy, I am.
But luckily I recorded thispodcast last week before I was
so stuffy.
I have a special treat for youthis week.
(00:20):
I have my first interview.
I've been doing the podcasthere for about three years now.
I've done 150 episodes or so,and I have never had a guest.
I've always flown solo, but I'mbranching out.
I have a friend who I think youwill connect with.
Her name is Judy Former, andwe've gotten to know each other
(00:40):
over the last year, year and ahalf, and I just adore Judy, and
I think you will too.
Last week I had the opportunityto talk with Judy a little
about homeschooling and aboutwhat she does.
She we're in a very similarseason of life.
We are former homeschool momstrying to figure out what God
has for us now in this newseason of life.
And I just hope that you enjoythis conversation we had.
(01:02):
We certainly did.
We enjoyed talking and gettingto know each other a little
more.
Just to tell you a little bitabout Judy, she is an
independent educationalconsultant and she specializes
in college admissionscounseling.
She helps high school studentswith SAT ACT Prep, and she's the
founder of College Prep Excel.
Judy and her husband Philip,they've been married for 34
(01:25):
years and they live in Marion,South Carolina.
Philip, her husband, serves asthe pastor of Ebenezer Church,
and he's also a physics andengineering professor at Francis
Marion University, which is inFlorence, South Carolina.
They have four grown children,three sons and one daughter.
In addition to her work withcollege-bound students, Judy
(01:47):
also serves in ministry withcommunity Bible study.
She also serves as a childhoodcancer advocate.
I just love Judy.
She has a heart of gold.
So let's get started withtoday's podcast.
Well, Judy, welcome to Gracefor My Home.
It's such a blessing to haveyou with us today.
And I'm so excited to have youhere.
(02:09):
You're my first guest.
Okay.
You're my first actualinterview here.
Um, I've been wanting to dothis for a long time, and you
just were the perfect guest todo this because I knew you'd
have Grace and me.
Absolutely.
And um, and I'm Judy and I metat Awakened Coffee Shop, the
coffee shop that I run for mychurch.
(02:30):
She came in early on when wefirst opened, and she and some
of her friends, and we had animmediate connection.
Both of us loved Jesus, both ofus are pastors' wives.
We were both, Judy, you're youwere an engineering major,
weren't you?
Yep.
You were both in, I thought so.
We were both engineer majors.
We were former homeschool moms,and so it just, you know, we it
(02:53):
just clicked.
And I thought there's a kindredspirit right there.
But Judy, welcome.
Can you and I and I shared alittle bit in the intro about
you and and what you do now andand and what you have done, but
can you just share a little bitabout yourself?
Judy Fulmer (03:08):
Sure.
Well, first, thank you so muchfor having me.
This is truly enjoying, and youknow, I just absolutely love
you.
You are so dear to me.
You really are.
So as you mentioned, um, I'm aformer homeschool mama, and
golly, we homeschooled for about17 years.
(03:29):
And that's I never I don'treally count preschool, but you
know, we did homeschool forpreschool too.
So it's probably about 20 yearsall said and done.
But it was such a a precioustime of life.
I loved my time homeschooling.
We did have our kids in aprivate school for a little
while while I was caring for mymom.
Um I'm an only child, and mommoved here from Texas.
(03:52):
She was terminally ill, and shepassed away about halfway
through there and um throughthat time, and then I taught at
the school for a couple ofmonths, a couple more years.
But you know, the Lord calledus back home.
While, you know, we were home.
I guess we're trying toremember how old the kids were
when we came home.
Our youngest was going infourth grade, our oldest would
(04:14):
have been in going into ninthgrade.
We have four kids and they'rewithin five years, so they're
pretty tight.
Three boys and a girl in sixyears.
In five years.
Audrey McCracken (04:26):
Five years.
Oh, bless your heart.
Okay.
Four kids.
Judy Fulmer (04:28):
Yeah, they're not actually two years apart.
They're none of them areactually two years apart.
They're all less than twoyears.
Um, our two middle kids are 19months apart, they're the
closest.
But um, but anyway, so youknow, as Jonathan was in high
school, one of the things I'vealways taken homeschooling, I
(04:49):
always took it very seriously.
I knew the buck stopped withme.
And I wanted to make sure thatmy kids had a really great
education, a good socialnetwork, but I also wanted to
make sure they didn't missopportunities because we
homeschooled.
That was something that wasalways kind of on my mind.
I was always looking around tosee what I could do, what I
(05:11):
could offer them to take theirinterests deeper.
And you know, when you'rehomeschooling, you have more
time to do those things.
So that was pretty cool.
Um and so I guess I think ouroldest might have been a
sophomore.
And I had found this camp.
I don't know if it's stillgoing on.
(05:32):
It was through the CelebrateFreedom Foundation.
So it was an aviation camp witha leadership component.
So they had this wholeleadership curriculum built in.
It was a really great camp.
Kids actually got to fly Cessnawhile they were there.
It was awesome.
But the whole focus was onengineering and aerospace.
It was really good.
But it was competitive.
(05:53):
It, you know, you had to apply.
And um, so I remember he wasworking through that application
and he comes to me.
I remember distinctly where Iwas standing when this happened.
He's like, Mom, what what weremy extracurriculars?
What are my volunteeractivities?
What leadership things have Idone?
(06:13):
And I think that's one of thethings when you're
homeschooling, um, these thingsare just part of your lifestyle.
You don't realize there'sanything unique about the things
that you're doing.
Audrey McCracken (06:24):
I actually I remember my kids, it's just
live.
Judy Fulmer (06:28):
You know, they go, Well, we don't do anything about
any volunteer service.
I'm like, wait, let me think.
I no, yes, you do.
You've been running the soundat church for the past six
years, you know.
Stack tables and chairs everySunday, every Wednesday.
I mean, like, as we thoughtthrough what they do in our
(06:48):
community, we served with OMships quite a bit and did
different things.
It was like, no, we actuallyare doing that.
But that question, you know, hethrew a bunch at me.
You know, I need what's my GPAand what's this and what blah
blah blah, all these things.
And I went, yeah, we need ahigh school guidance counselor.
(07:08):
And I remember it struck melike so it was like a brick.
I went, whoa, that's me.
I remember, oh no, that's me.
I'm it, I'm the guidancecounselor.
Oh my goodness.
I felt this weight come down onme.
(07:29):
And I read and I mean it was adefining moment.
I said, you know what?
I'm gonna take ownership ofthis because I knew he was on a
college path.
He ended up, I two of my kidswere valedictorians of Grace
Homeschool Association.
Like I knew they were headed tocollege, and I said, Man, I I
don't want to mess this up.
Audrey McCracken (07:51):
You know?
Yes, I know that I rememberwith homeschool, you're as the
homeschool mom, you're taking onsuch a responsibility.
You know, there's no one elseto blame.
You can't blame the guidancecounselor or the principal or
the the teacher or the systembecause it's all on you.
And I remember many times thatrealization landed on my
(08:13):
shoulders, and I thought, oh mygoodness, I gotta get, I gotta
figure this thing out.
Cause like you said, there'sno, there's no one like
authority to go to to figure itout.
And there's so many differentways to homeschool.
And so I was constantly likeresearching and trying to to
figure out, you know, what do wedo?
And and we weren't sure.
(08:33):
I would have loved tohomeschool through the high
school years.
We didn't, but when I hear yourstory, it you know, I think I
wish I had known you when mykids were at home.
When I I think you would havegiven me a little bit of
comfort, a little bit of hopethat, hey, we can do this, you
know, because there's a lot offear.
You know, homeschool momsreally struggle a lot with um,
(08:55):
you know, why am I doing this?
What should I be doing?
Am I preparing?
My biggest fear was notpreparing them for the life that
I wanted to be able to set themup.
You know what I mean?
I want to set them up so thatthey can do whatever God's
called them to do, and nothing Idid would hinder that.
You know, I'm necessarily, youknow, and I and then and now
(09:17):
when I look back, you know, I Iknow a lot of it was grace, a
lot of it was just, you know,God's good.
Um, and they're very resilient.
But it would have been so niceto have somebody like you to sit
down and talk with and justsay, what should I be doing now
to prepare for those high schoolyears?
Judy Fulmer (09:35):
Yeah, for sure.
I do that with my clients.
I'm able to sit down and makesome course planning um
suggestions and teach the kidssome life skills they may not
realize they need to do and uhneed to know.
One of the things that happenedduring that time, I told you I
I really took some ownership ofthis and I did.
(09:57):
I researched just like you did.
I realized the buck stoppedwith me.
And also I think you hit thenail on the head when you were
talking about that fear and thatinsecurity.
I think, honestly, I think thehomeschool mantra is, am I doing
enough?
I know that was my question.
And I've not ever met ahomeschooler who didn't ask, am
(10:21):
I doing enough?
Are my kids gonna be prepared?
Are they gonna be able to holdtheir own?
Am I giving them enoughfoundation and background?
What I learned, at least at myhouse, I really had high
expectations.
My kids were very wellprepared.
But when they got to college,we had this whole conversation.
I was like, now you're gonnasee, now you're gonna see how
(10:42):
challenging it is.
And they all came home.
Every one of them came home andsaid, Oh, it's so much easier
than I was going.
Audrey McCracken (10:50):
My kids said the same thing about high
school.
They were like, Mama, we'reoverprepared.
I felt like not underprepared.
I did my job.
Exactly.
Judy Fulmer (11:02):
You know, but but I think the thing that reassured
me was when my kids did go intoa school a traditional school
system for that four-yearperiod.
And I realized they wereholding their own.
They were actually at the topof the class and they were
prepared.
So that helped me to helpothers, you know.
(11:24):
It's not that I would changeanything that I was doing.
I continued when we returnedback to homeschooling.
I continued on the same paththat we had been on because I
did see them lose some of theirskill.
They actually declined a littlebit academically.
That wasn't the only reason.
I mean, uh ultimately, God saidgo home.
He flat said go home.
(11:44):
And I was like, what do youmean you go home?
What exactly do you mean?
Because I wasn't sure I wantedto jump back into it.
It's a lot of work.
It's a lot, it's a lot.
Yes.
And so, yeah, I thought hemeant invest yourself in your
community.
Well, uh I rationalized that hemeant that we needed to invest
ourselves in our communitybecause we were driving to
(12:06):
another town for school andreally everything we did
socially was happening overthere.
And so I was like, maybe hemeans that we need to get more
invested in our own community,you know, bloom where you're
planted.
And that was part of it.
But the the next year he waslike, I told you to go home.
And I was like, Okay, and wedid, and I had no regrets.
(12:30):
And then I found out after thefact that our kids had had some
talent as I didn't realize.
Um, so it turned out to be areally good thing that we were
able to pour into them and helpthem overcome some of the stuff
they were dealing with.
But um brought all fourchildren back home to but you
know, as we were working in highschool and I was learning all
(12:52):
these things about scholarshipsand college admissions and you
know, just prepping my kids inthis way.
Other homeschoolers are askingme questions, and you know, I'm
speaking to our homeschool groupand I'm giving little workshops
and I'm learning all thesethings.
And then after our kidsgraduated, they did well.
(13:12):
We were really, really blessed.
Um, you know, they they earnedtop scholarships and they got
through college withoutundergraduate debt.
And so people are asking, howare you doing that?
And I the more I talked withother homeschool families and
even friends who had kids inother school systems, I realized
there's a big need for this.
(13:33):
And that's how College PrepExcel was born.
It was really born out of myheart to serve the homeschool
families because we didn't haveanybody in that college
admissions role really guidingus step by step through.
And you know, and and again,most of these families were
single income.
(13:54):
So you want to get throughschool without a lot of debt.
Um so you know, a smallinvestment on the front end
saves you uh tens of thousandson the back end, and and that's
why the business was born.
I serve all the students, Iserve public, private,
homeschooled anybody, but that'swhere it came from.
Audrey McCracken (14:16):
And let me ask you this are there anything
like if there's a homeschool momlistening right now, and maybe
she doesn't have high schoolers,but say middle school or even
elementary school, are there anythings that you would suggest
that she start doing right now?
Like what are some things, oreven if it's not doing thinking
(14:36):
about, like planning for thefuture, if she wants her her
kids to be ready for high schooland for eventually for entering
in college and this kind ofthings, what kind of things
should she be thinking about?
Judy Fulmer (14:49):
Well, at the younger ages, you know, older
elementary, middle school, makesure they can communicate, make
sure they can write well.
That's good.
You know, there's a bigdifference between the written
language and verbal language.
And a lot of students I'mseeing don't understand that
(15:11):
distinction.
And so, um not specifically inthe homeschool environment, just
in general.
So teaching a child tocommunicate and you and with all
of the new challenges that AIis bringing, students are
becoming reliant on AI toproduce their papers.
And I can look at something anddeter, I mean, it's easy for me
to tell what was AI written andwhat was not.
(15:33):
Because an AI produced documentcannot, it's not really
personal, it's not thoughtful.
You can't really work throughyour thoughts and creative ideas
the same way through AI thatyou can otherwise.
You know, and and then also ifyou plug something into an AI to
(15:57):
have it review it for grammaror whatever, then it goes into
the large language, what is it,the language learning model.
So what I'm seeing withstudents is they wrote
something, they had it evaluatedby AI.
Maybe they said make it clearand concise, maybe you know,
check it for grammar orwhatever.
It's their product that AItuned up, and now they've sent
(16:19):
it to a school and the schoolruns it through their AI checker
because they don't allow AIproduced things.
Well, because it's been addedto this language learning model,
now it's flagged as having beenAI, it's flagged as plagiarism.
So there are all these nuancesnow that the kids are dealing
with.
(16:40):
So I would teach them I I wouldteach them to write well.
I would teach them uh how toactually study.
And that's one of the benefitsof homeschool is that the kids
learn how to learn.
So learning critical thinkingskills, learning communication
skills, learning study skills,those are really, really
(17:01):
valuable things.
But then, you know, just uhidentifying a child's interest,
you know, if you can step back,because a lot of times there are
things in us that we don't see,but the people around us see.
So if you can help foster anddevelop those interests, because
the colleges now, when I wentthrough school, they wanted you
(17:23):
to be well-rounded, which meanta member of 25 clubs, you know.
The more better.
Yeah, it was like a the morethe better mentality.
The more the better when I wascoming out of high school and
going into college.
But now the schools are saying,well, we want a student to be
well-rounded because you do havea lot of elite athletes and
other things, and and that maybe the only thing they do
(17:46):
because it's so time consuming.
They're like, we want to see alittle bit more than that.
But we want a student to reallygo deeper in their area of
interest.
So, say you want to be a nurseor a doctor.
Okay, what are you doing toexpose yourself to this field so
you even know if this issomething you want to do?
Listen, some kids, it's crazy.
(18:10):
Some of these kids are actuallydoing research with university
professors and publishing papersin high school.
Audrey McCracken (18:17):
I can't even fathom that.
Yes, that's awesome.
And that was one of the thingsI loved about homeschool, is it
was you could be so out of thebox.
Oh yeah.
You if you had an interest insomething, you could deep dive
into that.
And we had the time to do that.
I love that freedom.
And that's why I think it's sonice to when you can tailor a
(18:40):
curriculum for that child.
That sounds a littleintimidating sometimes for
somebody who's just startingout.
Like, who am I to tailor acurriculum?
Well, you know that kid betterthan anybody.
Judy Fulmer (18:52):
That's right.
Audrey McCracken (18:53):
And you know, and and and it's really not as
um, what's the word?
It sounds a lot moreintimidating than it is, because
it's just finding somethingthat that lights that spark and
developing something or youknow, finding things to do
around that.
And I I loved that.
That was my favorite part ofhomeschool, is we can do
(19:13):
whatever we want to do, youknow.
We can't, you know, we can't dothat.
And but I like I said, I I dowish I had somebody like you at
that time because there's somuch fear on for homeschool
moms, like like you saidearlier, what if I don't do
enough, you know, and and we allface that.
And I think part of that isbecause we don't have sometimes
(19:35):
we are isolated and we don't seewhat other people are doing.
And so we often think we're notdoing enough.
Everybody else is doing enough,but I'm not doing enough.
How what kind of things haveyou seen?
Like what when when people cometo you, when when parents come
to you and they're like, helpus, what kind of misconceptions
do they have about college andhigh school and and what they
(19:57):
should be doing versus what theyare doing?
Do you see a lot of that, likea lot of fear-based decisions?
That yeah.
Judy Fulmer (20:04):
Oh yeah, definitely.
You know, I see the whole gamutand and not just homeschooling,
but in in other schoolsituations.
I've seen some families whodon't challenge their students
enough.
And they really, the studentcould do more, and they just
simply don't do it.
I actually had thisconversation with a couple of
(20:25):
homeschool girls the other dayand they were talking about the
the program that they use.
Like one of them actually said,I don't feel like I'm learning
anything.
And and she said this programthat she's using, she she's
doing some online school, andshe said, I can go back and
retake and retake and retakeuntil I ace it.
(20:45):
So I do I do see somemisconceptions there that uh the
parents want something maybe alittle easy for them.
They want something that'sgonna teach everything and grade
everything, and and I I thinksometimes maybe the the kids pay
the price on that.
Audrey McCracken (21:05):
I I completely I see that.
Yes, I I'm all for easy.
You know, if it's easy and itworks, I think that's great.
But I I think you're right.
I think sometimes we cansacrifice easy for actually
learning.
I won't call the name.
We had a math, um math was hardfor us.
When I say math was hard forus, I mean I thought it would be
(21:25):
easy for us because you know, Iwas an engineering major.
My husband was a math, he was amath teacher, and I thought,
oh, you know, we got math, but Ihad a hard time finding a math
that my kids liked, and youknow, they didn't necessarily
have to be fun math, right?
It didn't have necessarily haveto be fun, but it has to be
where they will sit down andthere won't be tears, you know.
I'm like, I don't think I'veset the bar too high, you know.
(21:49):
I just I just don't want to cryevery day.
Yeah, and so we struggled withfinding the right math.
And I remember somebody said,Oh, you should do this math,
it's so easy.
And so for a whole half a year,we did that math, and it was
easy, but they learned nothing.
Oh, when it was all said anddone, they passed all the tests,
(22:13):
but they didn't understand theconcepts.
They could they could figure itout, they could figure out how
to answer the questions, butthey didn't really understand
math.
And I thought this was easy andwith the price, and so we kind
of had to start all over, youknow, and and and and that was
(22:33):
another nice thing abouthomeschooling is we could just
start all over, right?
We could just mid-year say,this isn't working, and you
know, I think often thehomeschoolers feel like they're
behind, but you have so muchtime, yeah.
You know, you and I and youmight think, well, my son, my
son's a senior or junior.
You really like a a homeschoolyear and a public school year is
(22:55):
so different, you know.
Even my my middle son, hestruggled because he was the kid
who who would get up early, geteverything done.
So he had a whole afternoon todo whatever he wanted to do.
He would get up at six o'clockin the morning and I'd be like,
Why are you up?
You know, I'm trying to have aby myself, you know, and he's
(23:17):
like, I'm getting my math doneand I'm getting my, you know,
I'm getting this done because hewanted to go tramps in the
woods and do whatever he wantedto do.
Judy Fulmer (23:23):
Right.
Audrey McCracken (23:24):
So when he started public school, that was
very hard for him.
He said, Mama, we waste so muchtime.
Yeah.
You know, we waste so muchtime, you know, because he
wanted to just get it done.
And and I said, Well, honey,that's public education.
You you have to go with thegroup.
You don't, you can't jump aheadand do your so I and and that's
(23:45):
an advantage.
I think sometimes, you know,when we feel like we're behind
or we don't have enough time,you've got more time than you
think.
Yeah.
You can you you can changethings mid-year and still end up
in a good place.
(25:08):
So I think there's a lot ofreassurance that that homeschool
(25:28):
mamas are doing a really goodjob.
And like you said before, theyknow their child better than
anybody.
There's nobody that cares morethat that child learned than
their parent.
Yes, that's exactly that's you know, that's
what I kept telling myself too.
You know, I I would say, yes,there are probably there
(25:50):
definitely there are people whounderstand how to teach this
curriculum better than me.
And there are probablyhomeschool mamas who could who
would who could do this a lotbetter than me, but nobody loves
them as much as I love them,and nobody is gonna spend the
time to to find what they needmore than I am, you know, and
sometimes that means findingsomebody else to teach them.
(26:12):
You know, we did that fortutors in areas where I didn't
feel confident and and you know,and we found online classes in
areas where I knew I don't wantto, I don't want to, like you
said before, I don't want tolimit them because we're
homeschooled, right?
I want homeschooling to be anadvantage to them, not you know,
(26:33):
I don't want them to look backand say, I really wish my mom
hadn't homeschooled me.
You know, I want them to belike, yes, I'm so glad my mom
gave me a jump on life, youknow.
Right.
And and that's how I seehomeschooling.
You know, we we were, I wasvery careful when we went into
it that we're not doing this outof fear, we're doing this
faith.
You know, this is a faiththing, this is a faith journey.
(26:54):
Like you said, God called youhome.
You know, if God's asking thisof me, he's gonna give me the
grace to do it well.
And you know, and it may notlook like everybody else's
journey, but that's okay.
We don't look like everybodyelse's family, you know.
Judy Fulmer (27:08):
You know, my kids took art lessons from a
professional artist, they took aphysiology lab from a critical
care nurse, they took umInstitute for Excellence in
Writing.
Man, I absolutely loved thatcurriculum.
IEW.
We loved IEW.
I loved it.
They took that.
(27:28):
I couldn't get my kids to writefor me.
It was oh yeah, griping,complaining, whining, delaying,
procrastinating, but they woulddo it for these women when my
kids were babies and we werejust thinking about
homeschooling and you know, likethey were preschoolers, right?
I remember looking at thesewomen who had teenagers who were
(27:51):
in our homeschool group.
This this was when we lived inAiken.
We didn't even live here.
I remember looking at them andgoing, wow, she's so godly.
I want to be like her.
I mean, I remember thinkingthat those life goals.
I want to be like this woman.
I want to be like that woman.
They, their kids are amazingkids, and these women just love
(28:15):
Jesus.
They are so godly, they justlike radiate the love of Christ.
I want to be like that.
And you know what I learned?
Homeschooling all my kids, theygot that way being in the fire
every day and on their knees.
It's like there's nothingreally truly easy about
homeschooling, but it is thebest thing I've ever done.
Audrey McCracken (28:36):
Well, I I tell people that my not specifically
homeschooling, but my childrenand being home with them all
day, they were like sandpaperfor my soul.
Yeah, like they they polishedthe rough edges.
There were there were things inme that God worked out because
(28:56):
I was at home all day with mychildren, and I didn't want them
to have a mean, hateful mom.
Like I wanted them to havememories of a mom that smiled
and a mom that liked them.
Yes, I thought, wouldn't youhate to be stuck home all day
with somebody who didn't likeyou or somebody who's just mad
(29:16):
all the time or irritable?
And so it it it caused me to bea better person.
So, Judy, what kind of like Iknow like right now my kids are
preparing.
I have one who's in collegefreshman year, I have one who is
preparing for college nextyear.
Um, it is uh it can befrustrating.
(29:37):
Like last night, he sat downwith his laptop and he's filling
out his applications, he'sdoing the things that I've asked
him to do for months.
You know, he's finally, youknow, his guidance counselors
asked him to do for months.
What kind of things like do yourun into when it comes to like
um, you know, how do you helpwith that process?
(29:58):
Because it can be really.
It can be hard.
Like, I'm not sure that I we'vestarted it.
I know we've not started itsoon enough.
I mean, I know we haven't, butwe've started it.
Um, you know, what what kind ofadvice do you have?
Or do you see that a lot?
Is it just us?
Like, what's what's the deal?
Judy Fulmer (30:16):
No, it's not just you.
I mean, think about it.
Anytime we're working, well, wewere talking about it a few
minutes ago when we were talkingabout teaching your kids to
write and how they wouldn'twrite for us, but they wrote
really well for somebody else.
I find that to be true in thissituation too.
College admissions, this senioryear is such an exciting year,
(30:37):
and it's a busy year, but it canalso be really stressful, you
know, and and the parents havethe wisdom and the forethought,
the foresight to know that kidsneed to back up their schedule
and you know, this has to bedone by here.
So that means you need to startpreparing for it here, and you
need to get this done here.
(30:58):
And the kids are like, I'll getto it, I'll get to it.
Well, the the parent and thestudent often butt heads.
And that's a really hard thingbecause there's all the emotion
tied up in senior year.
And, you know, mom's like, Ijust, I, I don't want us to
fight, I don't want us to argue,they're about to graduate and
they're gonna go off to college,blah, blah, blah.
Like, I get it.
(31:19):
Poor kids over here.
Um, but one of the things thatI do is just like we were saying
with the writing, my kidlistens to them, they won't
listen to me.
Well, that happens with collegeadmissions.
A parent can tell their childthe same thing and they'll
completely ignore their parent.
I tell them and they're like,oh, really?
(31:42):
It's crazy.
But it's the fact.
It is a fact.
And the other thing is that I'mable to sit down.
If sometimes me just tellingthem, hey, we need to do this,
we need to get this done.
I want you to work on it, andwe'll meet next week.
And they do it.
Sometimes they either aren'tsure how to get started or
(32:02):
they're just not motivated.
So I sit with them one-on-oneand we do it together real time.
But I'm able to get them to thegoal where sometimes mom and
dad can't help them, can't getthem to realize the importance
of these deadlines.
But they are important.
And you don't want to miss thembecause missing these deadlines
can affect not only acceptance,but award money, you know?
Audrey McCracken (32:26):
So you can kind of act like the buffer, the
go thing, kind of like thereferee between like, I know we
need to do this, but we'rebutton heads trying to get it
done.
Judy Fulmer (32:37):
Yeah, and it saves the parents a lot of time, it
reduces their stress.
And also, you know, parents arehaving to do all this research
and try to figure these thingsout.
And I just I know it becauseI'm talking to the schools and
I'm working with the kids.
Yeah.
So it can save a lot of timeand save a lot of stress.
Audrey McCracken (32:56):
Yes.
And well, well, Judy, I don'twant, I know that we've talked a
long time.
I don't want to keep you allday.
Um, but I do I have enjoyedtalking to you.
This has been a blessing.
Um, what would you say to a momthat is um she's nearing that
the end of her homeschooljourney and um she's wondering
(33:17):
what's next for her children,but also for her.
Like, how have you transitionedfrom homeschool mom to what you
do now?
And and do you have any advicefor that mom that's like this
because for me, and I'll justthrow this in there.
For me, homeschooling was beinga homeschool mom was so much a
(33:38):
part of my identity that whenthat was gone, felt like I was
just kind of out on the island.
What do I do now?
Judy Fulmer (33:46):
I uh I that resonates.
So here's the thing.
We, you know, we went through atough time with our daughter
when she was in eighth, ninth,tenth grade.
She was very ill.
Um, and that changed.
She had so she was in cancertreatment and she had some
challenges coming out of that.
And I had to completely changehow I homeschooled her.
(34:09):
She's great now, but all thatto say, I was I was getting
tired.
I I was it was a lot tohomeschool for high achieving
students within five years ofage.
It was a lot.
And so there was this part ofme that was so glad to be done,
(34:30):
but there was this part of methat felt completely lost.
I did not know what to do withmyself.
Um I struggled because myhusband has worked two full-time
jobs for many, many years as aprofessor and a pastor, both
full-time positions.
(34:50):
And I I I felt bad not having ajob.
You know, like I need tocontribute to this family, but I
didn't know what to do.
I seriously considered goingback to college because I am I
love to learn.
I'm a lifelong learner, whichis actually a great thing for
the job that I do because I am astudent of colleges.
(35:12):
I am constantly learning sothat I can help my my families.
But I went through this periodwhere I just I cried out to the
Lord, I didn't know what I wasgonna do.
I wanted to be productive, Iwanted to help others, but I
didn't know what I was gonna do.
And to be honest, I started alittle like a little MLM kind of
(35:35):
business, which I still have.
It's not my priority, but Ibelieve in the product.
And that came kind of out ofthe cancer journey was, you
know, I need to protect my childfrom exposures to toxins that
could result in another cancer.
So I started working withNorwax because it gave me a
(35:56):
platform, if you will, to beable to share with others about
toxins in our environment.
But that wasn't that wasn't myhome, if you will.
That wasn't, that wasn't mycalling.
And so through a whole lot ofprayer, really evaluating what
what my interests are, mybackground, if you look at me,
if you look at my history, it'sfunny when I look back at it.
(36:20):
You know, I have an engineeringdegree, radiological health
engineering from Texas AMUniversity and a master's in
health physics.
Well, while I was in gradschool, I was asked to teach a
class called Becoming the MasterStudent.
And when I look back, I see howthe Lord has just woven these
threads together as a tapestry.
(36:41):
He he taught me and helped meteach others these basic skills
that you need to succeed incollege way back.
And then he gave me theopportunity to substitute in the
public schools and to teach ina private school for a couple of
years and to homeschool mykids.
So I have well over 20 years ofeducation and then you know,
(37:05):
the opportunity to guide my ownkids into college admissions.
And, you know, when I look atthis, I'm like, so I'm a college
admissions consultant.
I'm an expert in SAT and ACTprep, and and all the different
steps along the way to help astudent from this early high
(37:28):
school, late middle school stageuntil they're really even all
the way through, they'vereceived their acceptances and
let's make decisions aboutwhat's the best fit and let's
talk about transitioning tocollege.
But it's all these otherexperiences that flowed into
qualifying me for that and acrazy amount of training.
(37:49):
I'm always in training, always,always in training.
And so I started learning someskills.
And I think you have to be alittle bit uh patient with
yourself.
But I'll tell you, I've learnedtwo things that I think anybody
in this position needs to thinkabout.
The first one is if you don'tquit, you'll win.
(38:12):
You know, you can do a lot morethan you think you can do, but
we give up too easily.
Audrey McCracken (38:17):
Yes.
You we we count ourselves donebefore we yeah, we kind of count
ourselves as a failure beforeit's over, right?
Judy Fulmer (38:25):
And you can say that about homeschooling too.
But even this transition intointo life after homeschooling is
just remembering that there arethere's more to you than you
realize.
And there's there's much moreability, and and others need
what you have to offer.
(38:46):
You have unique experiencesthat can really benefit others.
So you're evaluating, you know,what are my gifts?
What are my talents?
What what are my what do I haveto share with others?
In my case, I realized myhusband and I talked about it
for years.
I could help other families getthrough this, navigate this
(39:08):
process and successfully notjust get their children into any
random college, but their bestfit college that's really going
to help them thrive.
And I can help them understandthe processes and find the
scholarships and do all thethings.
There's something in each oneof you.
Audrey McCracken (39:25):
Yes, exactly.
Judy Fulmer (39:27):
Is amazing.
Let's let's pull that out anddevelop that.
But the other thing that Ilearned was that the answers are
there and you just have to gofind them.
And even now, I mean, there'sso many, many more resources at
our fingertips than than I hadstarting out, or think about 10
(39:47):
years ago.
So many more resources.
Audrey McCracken (39:51):
You know, just the way that you've pulled them
together and gathered them forpeople, that's huge.
You know, the even theresources, there's a lot of
those resources that were outthere, but you've gathered them
for people, like you've put themall in one spot.
And you know, and that's that'sthat saves so much time and
money.
Oh yeah.
I mean, because you know, whereI would have, if I was starting
(40:13):
from scratch, I wouldn't evenknow where to start.
You've done a lot of thatlegwork, and then you have the
wisdom that goes with the yearsthat you've done that work for
yourself, for your kids, and andfor other people.
And that's invaluable.
I mean, it really is.
And it's very tailored.
I know you, I know you workwith more than just homeschool
students, but it's very tailoredto what our needs are, you
(40:37):
know, from transitioning fromhigh school to college and and
making those decisions.
It's hard to make the rightdecisions unless you have the
right information.
Judy Fulmer (40:46):
Yeah.
Audrey McCracken (40:46):
And sometimes you don't even know the
questions to ask, you know, andyou know, that transition for
for moms, because once you makethose transitions, you know,
like I said, I I struggled andand I'm still working through
that.
You know, what am I supposed tobe doing with my days?
Because so much of your ourlife is wrapped up in those
kids.
And, you know, when they startto make those decisions on their
(41:09):
own, and we have to back up,it's kind of like, well, where's
my place now?
You know, where's my place?
And um, you know, I appreciateall that you do for moms, I
appreciate all you do for thehomeschool moms and the
community and the homeschoolcommunity.
Um, just this week I had anopportunity to speak at um in
(41:29):
Mullins, the Baptist Church inMullins, the um WMU group.
Oh, and it was it was ablessing.
I have a friend who who who isa part of that, and she asked me
to come speak to their group.
And and I remember thinkingthere was a time I wouldn't have
time to do this.
Like there was a time Icouldn't just go do this.
(41:49):
And then even as I was speakingto these ladies, I had an
opportunity to share with them,you know, there's ministry all
around us.
We just have to have eyes opento see.
And once we're released fromone assignment, and that's how I
feel.
I feel like homeschooling mychildren was an assignment.
And once we're released fromthat assignment or completed
(42:10):
that assignment, you know, wehave to have eyes to see where's
where's my next assignment?
Where's God sending me now?
And um, and and he, you know,he's been showing me, Audrey,
there's ministry all around you.
Oh, yeah.
It's not always packagedneatly, you know, there's not
always a neon sign over it, butthere are needs that you are
uniquely created to meet.
(42:32):
Yeah, you just have to find,you have to find your people.
You have to find your people,you have to find, you know, what
God, what what have you put mehere for this time to do?
And um, and share that gift.
And like you said, that's agift, that's a gift that God's
given you, but it's also a gift,you're a gift that God's given
(42:53):
us.
And um, and thank you.
Thank you very much.
Thank you for sharing with ourgroup today.
We'll have you back on againand talk about other things.
And I tell you what, before wego, yeah, I'm gonna put you on
the spot.
Um, why don't you pray forthese ladies that are listening
today and just searching forGod's plan for their life?
(43:14):
Just pray that you know Godwould would open up the right
doors.
Judy Fulmer (43:18):
Yeah, absolutely.
Heavenly Father, oh, we justlove you.
And we thank you, Lord, thatyou are sovereign and you you
have this plan, this perfect,perfect plan.
We just thank you that we cancome before your throne of
grace.
Yes, because it is a privilegeand an honor, and we we bless
your name.
(43:39):
We do thank you that you havethis plan and it's a good, good
plan for us, a plan to bless usand give us a future and a hope.
And Father, for a woman who maybe coming to the end of her
homeschool journey, whereverthat is along the way of age
with her children, Lord, I justpray that you would speak into
(44:02):
her heart and give her someguidance and some direction,
reassure her that you see herbecause you do.
Reassure her that you know uhthe the call of her heart and
that you will use her to blessand minister to others.
These transitions, even thoughthey're uncomfortable, they can
(44:25):
be very, very fruitful.
And Lord, I thank you that yougive us the opportunity to rest
a little bit in you and justcome back come back to you and
to sit in your lap and and uh beheld.
So I just pray that you woulddo that for the woman who is uh
(44:46):
who is in this position today,who's looking for the next step,
because you you know what thatstep is.
And and you're faithful to showus.
So I thank you, Lord, that youguide and you direct, and I pray
that you would do that for hertoday.
And I thank you so much forAudrey and her ministry.
Thank you for this podcast.
Thank you for blessing itmightily, and I just pray that
(45:09):
you will continue to grow it andto bless it in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
I agree.
Audrey McCracken (45:16):
Thank you, thank you, Judy.
Hello friends.
Welcome back to Grace for MyHome.
I'm Audrey McCracken and I amdelighted to be back with you
again this week.
Please forgive me for being alittle stuffy.
So if I sound stuffy, I am.
But luckily I recorded thispodcast last week before I was
so stuffy.
I have a special treat for youthis week.
(00:20):
I have my first interview.
I've been doing the podcasthere for about three years now.
I've done 150 episodes or so,and I have never had a guest.
I've always flown solo, but I'mbranching out.
I have a friend who I think youwill connect with.
Her name is Judy Former, andwe've gotten to know each other
(00:40):
over the last year, year and ahalf, and I just adore Judy, and
I think you will too.
Last week I had the opportunityto talk with Judy a little
about homeschooling and aboutwhat she does.
She we're in a very similarseason of life.
We are former homeschool momstrying to figure out what God
has for us now in this newseason of life.
And I just hope that you enjoythis conversation we had.
(01:02):
We certainly did.
We enjoyed talking and gettingto know each other a little
more.
Just to tell you a little bitabout Judy, she is an
independent educationalconsultant and she specializes
in college admissionscounseling.
She helps high school studentswith SAT ACT Prep, and she's the
founder of College Prep Excel.
Judy and her husband Philip,they've been married for 34
(01:25):
years and they live in Marion,South Carolina.
Philip, her husband, serves asthe pastor of Ebenezer Church,
and he's also a physics andengineering professor at Francis
Marion University, which is inFlorence, South Carolina.
They have four grown children,three sons and one daughter.
In addition to her work withcollege-bound students, Judy
(01:47):
also serves in ministry withcommunity Bible study.
She also serves as a childhoodcancer advocate.
I just love Judy.
She has a heart of gold.
So let's get started withtoday's podcast.
Well, Judy, welcome to Gracefor My Home.
It's such a blessing to haveyou with us today.
And I'm so excited to have youhere.
(02:09):
You're my first guest.
Okay.
You're my first actualinterview here.
Um, I've been wanting to dothis for a long time, and you
just were the perfect guest todo this because I knew you'd
have Grace and me.
Absolutely.
And um, and I'm Judy and I metat Awakened Coffee Shop, the
coffee shop that I run for mychurch.
(02:30):
She came in early on when wefirst opened, and she and some
of her friends, and we had animmediate connection.
Both of us loved Jesus, both ofus are pastors' wives.
We were both, Judy, you're youwere an engineering major,
weren't you?
Yep.
You were both in, I thought so.
We were both engineer majors.
We were former homeschool moms,and so it just, you know, we it
(02:53):
just clicked.
And I thought there's a kindredspirit right there.
But Judy, welcome.
Can you and I and I shared alittle bit in the intro about
you and and what you do now andand and what you have done, but
can you just share a little bitabout yourself?
Judy Fulmer (03:08):
Sure.
Well, first, thank you so muchfor having me.
This is truly enjoying, and youknow, I just absolutely love
you.
You are so dear to me.
You really are.
So as you mentioned, um, I'm aformer homeschool mama, and
golly, we homeschooled for about17 years.
(03:29):
And that's I never I don'treally count preschool, but you
know, we did homeschool forpreschool too.
So it's probably about 20 yearsall said and done.
But it was such a a precioustime of life.
I loved my time homeschooling.
We did have our kids in aprivate school for a little
while while I was caring for mymom.
Um I'm an only child, and mommoved here from Texas.
(03:52):
She was terminally ill, and shepassed away about halfway
through there and um throughthat time, and then I taught at
the school for a couple ofmonths, a couple more years.
But you know, the Lord calledus back home.
While, you know, we were home.
I guess we're trying toremember how old the kids were
when we came home.
Our youngest was going infourth grade, our oldest would
(04:14):
have been in going into ninthgrade.
We have four kids and they'rewithin five years, so they're
pretty tight.
Three boys and a girl in sixyears.
In five years.
Audrey McCracken (04:26):
Five years.
Oh, bless your heart.
Okay.
Four kids.
Judy Fulmer (04:28):
Yeah, they're not actually two years apart.
They're none of them areactually two years apart.
They're all less than twoyears.
Um, our two middle kids are 19months apart, they're the
closest.
But um, but anyway, so youknow, as Jonathan was in high
school, one of the things I'vealways taken homeschooling, I
(04:49):
always took it very seriously.
I knew the buck stopped withme.
And I wanted to make sure thatmy kids had a really great
education, a good socialnetwork, but I also wanted to
make sure they didn't missopportunities because we
homeschooled.
That was something that wasalways kind of on my mind.
I was always looking around tosee what I could do, what I
(05:11):
could offer them to take theirinterests deeper.
And you know, when you'rehomeschooling, you have more
time to do those things.
So that was pretty cool.
Um and so I guess I think ouroldest might have been a
sophomore.
And I had found this camp.
I don't know if it's stillgoing on.
(05:32):
It was through the CelebrateFreedom Foundation.
So it was an aviation camp witha leadership component.
So they had this wholeleadership curriculum built in.
It was a really great camp.
Kids actually got to fly Cessnawhile they were there.
It was awesome.
But the whole focus was onengineering and aerospace.
It was really good.
But it was competitive.
(05:53):
It, you know, you had to apply.
And um, so I remember he wasworking through that application
and he comes to me.
I remember distinctly where Iwas standing when this happened.
He's like, Mom, what what weremy extracurriculars?
What are my volunteeractivities?
What leadership things have Idone?
(06:13):
And I think that's one of thethings when you're
homeschooling, um, these thingsare just part of your lifestyle.
You don't realize there'sanything unique about the things
that you're doing.
Audrey McCracken (06:24):
I actually I remember my kids, it's just
live.
Judy Fulmer (06:28):
You know, they go, Well, we don't do anything about
any volunteer service.
I'm like, wait, let me think.
I no, yes, you do.
You've been running the soundat church for the past six
years, you know.
Stack tables and chairs everySunday, every Wednesday.
I mean, like, as we thoughtthrough what they do in our
(06:48):
community, we served with OMships quite a bit and did
different things.
It was like, no, we actuallyare doing that.
But that question, you know, hethrew a bunch at me.
You know, I need what's my GPAand what's this and what blah
blah blah, all these things.
And I went, yeah, we need ahigh school guidance counselor.
(07:08):
And I remember it struck melike so it was like a brick.
I went, whoa, that's me.
I remember, oh no, that's me.
I'm it, I'm the guidancecounselor.
Oh my goodness.
I felt this weight come down onme.
(07:29):
And I read and I mean it was adefining moment.
I said, you know what?
I'm gonna take ownership ofthis because I knew he was on a
college path.
He ended up, I two of my kidswere valedictorians of Grace
Homeschool Association.
Like I knew they were headed tocollege, and I said, Man, I I
don't want to mess this up.
Audrey McCracken (07:51):
You know?
Yes, I know that I rememberwith homeschool, you're as the
homeschool mom, you're taking onsuch a responsibility.
You know, there's no one elseto blame.
You can't blame the guidancecounselor or the principal or
the the teacher or the systembecause it's all on you.
And I remember many times thatrealization landed on my
(08:13):
shoulders, and I thought, oh mygoodness, I gotta get, I gotta
figure this thing out.
Cause like you said, there'sno, there's no one like
authority to go to to figure itout.
And there's so many differentways to homeschool.
And so I was constantly likeresearching and trying to to
figure out, you know, what do wedo?
And and we weren't sure.
(08:33):
I would have loved tohomeschool through the high
school years.
We didn't, but when I hear yourstory, it you know, I think I
wish I had known you when mykids were at home.
When I I think you would havegiven me a little bit of
comfort, a little bit of hopethat, hey, we can do this, you
know, because there's a lot offear.
You know, homeschool momsreally struggle a lot with um,
(08:55):
you know, why am I doing this?
What should I be doing?
Am I preparing?
My biggest fear was notpreparing them for the life that
I wanted to be able to set themup.
You know what I mean?
I want to set them up so thatthey can do whatever God's
called them to do, and nothing Idid would hinder that.
You know, I'm necessarily, youknow, and I and then and now
(09:17):
when I look back, you know, I Iknow a lot of it was grace, a
lot of it was just, you know,God's good.
Um, and they're very resilient.
But it would have been so niceto have somebody like you to sit
down and talk with and justsay, what should I be doing now
to prepare for those high schoolyears?
Judy Fulmer (09:35):
Yeah, for sure.
I do that with my clients.
I'm able to sit down and makesome course planning um
suggestions and teach the kidssome life skills they may not
realize they need to do and uhneed to know.
One of the things that happenedduring that time, I told you I
I really took some ownership ofthis and I did.
(09:57):
I researched just like you did.
I realized the buck stoppedwith me.
And also I think you hit thenail on the head when you were
talking about that fear and thatinsecurity.
I think, honestly, I think thehomeschool mantra is, am I doing
enough?
I know that was my question.
And I've not ever met ahomeschooler who didn't ask, am
(10:21):
I doing enough?
Are my kids gonna be prepared?
Are they gonna be able to holdtheir own?
Am I giving them enoughfoundation and background?
What I learned, at least at myhouse, I really had high
expectations.
My kids were very wellprepared.
But when they got to college,we had this whole conversation.
I was like, now you're gonnasee, now you're gonna see how
(10:42):
challenging it is.
And they all came home.
Every one of them came home andsaid, Oh, it's so much easier
than I was going.
Audrey McCracken (10:50):
My kids said the same thing about high
school.
They were like, Mama, we'reoverprepared.
I felt like not underprepared.
I did my job.
Exactly.
Judy Fulmer (11:02):
You know, but but I think the thing that reassured
me was when my kids did go intoa school a traditional school
system for that four-yearperiod.
And I realized they wereholding their own.
They were actually at the topof the class and they were
prepared.
So that helped me to helpothers, you know.
(11:24):
It's not that I would changeanything that I was doing.
I continued when we returnedback to homeschooling.
I continued on the same paththat we had been on because I
did see them lose some of theirskill.
They actually declined a littlebit academically.
That wasn't the only reason.
I mean, uh ultimately, God saidgo home.
He flat said go home.
(11:44):
And I was like, what do youmean you go home?
What exactly do you mean?
Because I wasn't sure I wantedto jump back into it.
It's a lot of work.
It's a lot, it's a lot.
Yes.
And so, yeah, I thought hemeant invest yourself in your
community.
Well, uh I rationalized that hemeant that we needed to invest
ourselves in our communitybecause we were driving to
(12:06):
another town for school andreally everything we did
socially was happening overthere.
And so I was like, maybe hemeans that we need to get more
invested in our own community,you know, bloom where you're
planted.
And that was part of it.
But the the next year he waslike, I told you to go home.
And I was like, Okay, and wedid, and I had no regrets.
(12:30):
And then I found out after thefact that our kids had had some
talent as I didn't realize.
Um, so it turned out to be areally good thing that we were
able to pour into them and helpthem overcome some of the stuff
they were dealing with.
But um brought all fourchildren back home to but you
know, as we were working in highschool and I was learning all
(12:52):
these things about scholarshipsand college admissions and you
know, just prepping my kids inthis way.
Other homeschoolers are askingme questions, and you know, I'm
speaking to our homeschool groupand I'm giving little workshops
and I'm learning all thesethings.
And then after our kidsgraduated, they did well.
(13:12):
We were really, really blessed.
Um, you know, they they earnedtop scholarships and they got
through college withoutundergraduate debt.
And so people are asking, howare you doing that?
And I the more I talked withother homeschool families and
even friends who had kids inother school systems, I realized
there's a big need for this.
(13:33):
And that's how College PrepExcel was born.
It was really born out of myheart to serve the homeschool
families because we didn't haveanybody in that college
admissions role really guidingus step by step through.
And you know, and and again,most of these families were
single income.
(13:54):
So you want to get throughschool without a lot of debt.
Um so you know, a smallinvestment on the front end
saves you uh tens of thousandson the back end, and and that's
why the business was born.
I serve all the students, Iserve public, private,
homeschooled anybody, but that'swhere it came from.
Audrey McCracken (14:16):
And let me ask you this are there anything
like if there's a homeschool momlistening right now, and maybe
she doesn't have high schoolers,but say middle school or even
elementary school, are there anythings that you would suggest
that she start doing right now?
Like what are some things, oreven if it's not doing thinking
(14:36):
about, like planning for thefuture, if she wants her her
kids to be ready for high schooland for eventually for entering
in college and this kind ofthings, what kind of things
should she be thinking about?
Judy Fulmer (14:49):
Well, at the younger ages, you know, older
elementary, middle school, makesure they can communicate, make
sure they can write well.
That's good.
You know, there's a bigdifference between the written
language and verbal language.
And a lot of students I'mseeing don't understand that
(15:11):
distinction.
And so, um not specifically inthe homeschool environment, just
in general.
So teaching a child tocommunicate and you and with all
of the new challenges that AIis bringing, students are
becoming reliant on AI toproduce their papers.
And I can look at something anddeter, I mean, it's easy for me
to tell what was AI written andwhat was not.
(15:33):
Because an AI produced documentcannot, it's not really
personal, it's not thoughtful.
You can't really work throughyour thoughts and creative ideas
the same way through AI thatyou can otherwise.
You know, and and then also ifyou plug something into an AI to
(15:57):
have it review it for grammaror whatever, then it goes into
the large language, what is it,the language learning model.
So what I'm seeing withstudents is they wrote
something, they had it evaluatedby AI.
Maybe they said make it clearand concise, maybe you know,
check it for grammar orwhatever.
It's their product that AItuned up, and now they've sent
(16:19):
it to a school and the schoolruns it through their AI checker
because they don't allow AIproduced things.
Well, because it's been addedto this language learning model,
now it's flagged as having beenAI, it's flagged as plagiarism.
So there are all these nuancesnow that the kids are dealing
with.
(16:40):
So I would teach them I I wouldteach them to write well.
I would teach them uh how toactually study.
And that's one of the benefitsof homeschool is that the kids
learn how to learn.
So learning critical thinkingskills, learning communication
skills, learning study skills,those are really, really
(17:01):
valuable things.
But then, you know, just uhidentifying a child's interest,
you know, if you can step back,because a lot of times there are
things in us that we don't see,but the people around us see.
So if you can help foster anddevelop those interests, because
the colleges now, when I wentthrough school, they wanted you
(17:23):
to be well-rounded, which meanta member of 25 clubs, you know.
The more better.
Yeah, it was like a the morethe better mentality.
The more the better when I wascoming out of high school and
going into college.
But now the schools are saying,well, we want a student to be
well-rounded because you do havea lot of elite athletes and
other things, and and that maybe the only thing they do
(17:46):
because it's so time consuming.
They're like, we want to see alittle bit more than that.
But we want a student to reallygo deeper in their area of
interest.
So, say you want to be a nurseor a doctor.
Okay, what are you doing toexpose yourself to this field so
you even know if this issomething you want to do?
Listen, some kids, it's crazy.
(18:10):
Some of these kids are actuallydoing research with university
professors and publishing papersin high school.
Audrey McCracken (18:17):
I can't even fathom that.
Yes, that's awesome.
And that was one of the thingsI loved about homeschool, is it
was you could be so out of thebox.
Oh yeah.
You if you had an interest insomething, you could deep dive
into that.
And we had the time to do that.
I love that freedom.
And that's why I think it's sonice to when you can tailor a
(18:40):
curriculum for that child.
That sounds a littleintimidating sometimes for
somebody who's just startingout.
Like, who am I to tailor acurriculum?
Well, you know that kid betterthan anybody.
Judy Fulmer (18:52):
That's right.
Audrey McCracken (18:53):
And you know, and and and it's really not as
um, what's the word?
It sounds a lot moreintimidating than it is, because
it's just finding somethingthat that lights that spark and
developing something or youknow, finding things to do
around that.
And I I loved that.
That was my favorite part ofhomeschool, is we can do
(19:13):
whatever we want to do, youknow.
We can't, you know, we can't dothat.
And but I like I said, I I dowish I had somebody like you at
that time because there's somuch fear on for homeschool
moms, like like you saidearlier, what if I don't do
enough, you know, and and we allface that.
And I think part of that isbecause we don't have sometimes
(19:35):
we are isolated and we don't seewhat other people are doing.
And so we often think we're notdoing enough.
Everybody else is doing enough,but I'm not doing enough.
How what kind of things haveyou seen?
Like what when when people cometo you, when when parents come
to you and they're like, helpus, what kind of misconceptions
do they have about college andhigh school and and what they
(19:57):
should be doing versus what theyare doing?
Do you see a lot of that, likea lot of fear-based decisions?
That yeah.
Judy Fulmer (20:04):
Oh yeah, definitely.
You know, I see the whole gamutand and not just homeschooling,
but in in other schoolsituations.
I've seen some families whodon't challenge their students
enough.
And they really, the studentcould do more, and they just
simply don't do it.
I actually had thisconversation with a couple of
(20:25):
homeschool girls the other dayand they were talking about the
the program that they use.
Like one of them actually said,I don't feel like I'm learning
anything.
And and she said this programthat she's using, she she's
doing some online school, andshe said, I can go back and
retake and retake and retakeuntil I ace it.
(20:45):
So I do I do see somemisconceptions there that uh the
parents want something maybe alittle easy for them.
They want something that'sgonna teach everything and grade
everything, and and I I thinksometimes maybe the the kids pay
the price on that.
Audrey McCracken (21:05):
I I completely I see that.
Yes, I I'm all for easy.
You know, if it's easy and itworks, I think that's great.
But I I think you're right.
I think sometimes we cansacrifice easy for actually
learning.
I won't call the name.
We had a math, um math was hardfor us.
When I say math was hard forus, I mean I thought it would be
(21:25):
easy for us because you know, Iwas an engineering major.
My husband was a math, he was amath teacher, and I thought,
oh, you know, we got math, but Ihad a hard time finding a math
that my kids liked, and youknow, they didn't necessarily
have to be fun math, right?
It didn't have necessarily haveto be fun, but it has to be
where they will sit down andthere won't be tears, you know.
I'm like, I don't think I'veset the bar too high, you know.
(21:49):
I just I just don't want to cryevery day.
Yeah, and so we struggled withfinding the right math.
And I remember somebody said,Oh, you should do this math,
it's so easy.
And so for a whole half a year,we did that math, and it was
easy, but they learned nothing.
Oh, when it was all said anddone, they passed all the tests,
(22:13):
but they didn't understand theconcepts.
They could they could figure itout, they could figure out how
to answer the questions, butthey didn't really understand
math.
And I thought this was easy andwith the price, and so we kind
of had to start all over, youknow, and and and and that was
(22:33):
another nice thing abouthomeschooling is we could just
start all over, right?
We could just mid-year say,this isn't working, and you
know, I think often thehomeschoolers feel like they're
behind, but you have so muchtime, yeah.
You know, you and I and youmight think, well, my son, my
son's a senior or junior.
You really like a a homeschoolyear and a public school year is
(22:55):
so different, you know.
Even my my middle son, hestruggled because he was the kid
who who would get up early, geteverything done.
So he had a whole afternoon todo whatever he wanted to do.
He would get up at six o'clockin the morning and I'd be like,
Why are you up?
You know, I'm trying to have aby myself, you know, and he's
(23:17):
like, I'm getting my math doneand I'm getting my, you know,
I'm getting this done because hewanted to go tramps in the
woods and do whatever he wantedto do.
Judy Fulmer (23:23):
Right.
Audrey McCracken (23:24):
So when he started public school, that was
very hard for him.
He said, Mama, we waste so muchtime.
Yeah.
You know, we waste so muchtime, you know, because he
wanted to just get it done.
And and I said, Well, honey,that's public education.
You you have to go with thegroup.
You don't, you can't jump aheadand do your so I and and that's
(23:45):
an advantage.
I think sometimes, you know,when we feel like we're behind
or we don't have enough time,you've got more time than you
think.
Yeah.
You can you you can changethings mid-year and still end up
in a good place.
(25:08):
So I think there's a lot ofreassurance that that homeschool
(25:28):
mamas are doing a really goodjob.
And like you said before, theyknow their child better than
anybody.
There's nobody that cares morethat that child learned than
their parent.
Yes, that's exactly that's you know, that's
what I kept telling myself too.
You know, I I would say, yes,there are probably there
(25:50):
definitely there are people whounderstand how to teach this
curriculum better than me.
And there are probablyhomeschool mamas who could who
would who could do this a lotbetter than me, but nobody loves
them as much as I love them,and nobody is gonna spend the
time to to find what they needmore than I am, you know, and
sometimes that means findingsomebody else to teach them.
(26:12):
You know, we did that fortutors in areas where I didn't
feel confident and and you know,and we found online classes in
areas where I knew I don't wantto, I don't want to, like you
said before, I don't want tolimit them because we're
homeschooled, right?
I want homeschooling to be anadvantage to them, not you know,
(26:33):
I don't want them to look backand say, I really wish my mom
hadn't homeschooled me.
You know, I want them to belike, yes, I'm so glad my mom
gave me a jump on life, youknow.
Right.
And and that's how I seehomeschooling.
You know, we we were, I wasvery careful when we went into
it that we're not doing this outof fear, we're doing this
faith.
You know, this is a faiththing, this is a faith journey.
(26:54):
Like you said, God called youhome.
You know, if God's asking thisof me, he's gonna give me the
grace to do it well.
And you know, and it may notlook like everybody else's
journey, but that's okay.
We don't look like everybodyelse's family, you know.
Judy Fulmer (27:08):
You know, my kids took art lessons from a
professional artist, they took aphysiology lab from a critical
care nurse, they took umInstitute for Excellence in
Writing.
Man, I absolutely loved thatcurriculum.
IEW.
We loved IEW.
I loved it.
They took that.
(27:28):
I couldn't get my kids to writefor me.
It was oh yeah, griping,complaining, whining, delaying,
procrastinating, but they woulddo it for these women when my
kids were babies and we werejust thinking about
homeschooling and you know, likethey were preschoolers, right?
I remember looking at thesewomen who had teenagers who were
(27:51):
in our homeschool group.
This this was when we lived inAiken.
We didn't even live here.
I remember looking at them andgoing, wow, she's so godly.
I want to be like her.
I mean, I remember thinkingthat those life goals.
I want to be like this woman.
I want to be like that woman.
They, their kids are amazingkids, and these women just love
(28:15):
Jesus.
They are so godly, they justlike radiate the love of Christ.
I want to be like that.
And you know what I learned?
Homeschooling all my kids, theygot that way being in the fire
every day and on their knees.
It's like there's nothingreally truly easy about
homeschooling, but it is thebest thing I've ever done.
Audrey McCracken (28:36):
Well, I I tell people that my not specifically
homeschooling, but my childrenand being home with them all
day, they were like sandpaperfor my soul.
Yeah, like they they polishedthe rough edges.
There were there were things inme that God worked out because
(28:56):
I was at home all day with mychildren, and I didn't want them
to have a mean, hateful mom.
Like I wanted them to havememories of a mom that smiled
and a mom that liked them.
Yes, I thought, wouldn't youhate to be stuck home all day
with somebody who didn't likeyou or somebody who's just mad
(29:16):
all the time or irritable?
And so it it it caused me to bea better person.
So, Judy, what kind of like Iknow like right now my kids are
preparing.
I have one who's in collegefreshman year, I have one who is
preparing for college nextyear.
Um, it is uh it can befrustrating.
(29:37):
Like last night, he sat downwith his laptop and he's filling
out his applications, he'sdoing the things that I've asked
him to do for months.
You know, he's finally, youknow, his guidance counselors
asked him to do for months.
What kind of things like do yourun into when it comes to like
um, you know, how do you helpwith that process?
(29:58):
Because it can be really.
It can be hard.
Like, I'm not sure that I we'vestarted it.
I know we've not started itsoon enough.
I mean, I know we haven't, butwe've started it.
Um, you know, what what kind ofadvice do you have?
Or do you see that a lot?
Is it just us?
Like, what's what's the deal?
Judy Fulmer (30:16):
No, it's not just you.
I mean, think about it.
Anytime we're working, well, wewere talking about it a few
minutes ago when we were talkingabout teaching your kids to
write and how they wouldn'twrite for us, but they wrote
really well for somebody else.
I find that to be true in thissituation too.
College admissions, this senioryear is such an exciting year,
(30:37):
and it's a busy year, but it canalso be really stressful, you
know, and and the parents havethe wisdom and the forethought,
the foresight to know that kidsneed to back up their schedule
and you know, this has to bedone by here.
So that means you need to startpreparing for it here, and you
need to get this done here.
(30:58):
And the kids are like, I'll getto it, I'll get to it.
Well, the the parent and thestudent often butt heads.
And that's a really hard thingbecause there's all the emotion
tied up in senior year.
And, you know, mom's like, Ijust, I, I don't want us to
fight, I don't want us to argue,they're about to graduate and
they're gonna go off to college,blah, blah, blah.
Like, I get it.
(31:19):
Poor kids over here.
Um, but one of the things thatI do is just like we were saying
with the writing, my kidlistens to them, they won't
listen to me.
Well, that happens with collegeadmissions.
A parent can tell their childthe same thing and they'll
completely ignore their parent.
I tell them and they're like,oh, really?
(31:42):
It's crazy.
But it's the fact.
It is a fact.
And the other thing is that I'mable to sit down.
If sometimes me just tellingthem, hey, we need to do this,
we need to get this done.
I want you to work on it, andwe'll meet next week.
And they do it.
Sometimes they either aren'tsure how to get started or
(32:02):
they're just not motivated.
So I sit with them one-on-oneand we do it together real time.
But I'm able to get them to thegoal where sometimes mom and
dad can't help them, can't getthem to realize the importance
of these deadlines.
But they are important.
And you don't want to miss thembecause missing these deadlines
can affect not only acceptance,but award money, you know?
Audrey McCracken (32:26):
So you can kind of act like the buffer, the
go thing, kind of like thereferee between like, I know we
need to do this, but we'rebutton heads trying to get it
done.
Judy Fulmer (32:37):
Yeah, and it saves the parents a lot of time, it
reduces their stress.
And also, you know, parents arehaving to do all this research
and try to figure these thingsout.
And I just I know it becauseI'm talking to the schools and
I'm working with the kids.
Yeah.
So it can save a lot of timeand save a lot of stress.
Audrey McCracken (32:56):
Yes.
And well, well, Judy, I don'twant, I know that we've talked a
long time.
I don't want to keep you allday.
Um, but I do I have enjoyedtalking to you.
This has been a blessing.
Um, what would you say to a momthat is um she's nearing that
the end of her homeschooljourney and um she's wondering
(33:17):
what's next for her children,but also for her.
Like, how have you transitionedfrom homeschool mom to what you
do now?
And and do you have any advicefor that mom that's like this
because for me, and I'll justthrow this in there.
For me, homeschooling was beinga homeschool mom was so much a
(33:38):
part of my identity that whenthat was gone, felt like I was
just kind of out on the island.
What do I do now?
Judy Fulmer (33:46):
I uh I that resonates.
So here's the thing.
We, you know, we went through atough time with our daughter
when she was in eighth, ninth,tenth grade.
She was very ill.
Um, and that changed.
She had so she was in cancertreatment and she had some
challenges coming out of that.
And I had to completely changehow I homeschooled her.
(34:09):
She's great now, but all thatto say, I was I was getting
tired.
I I was it was a lot tohomeschool for high achieving
students within five years ofage.
It was a lot.
And so there was this part ofme that was so glad to be done,
(34:30):
but there was this part of methat felt completely lost.
I did not know what to do withmyself.
Um I struggled because myhusband has worked two full-time
jobs for many, many years as aprofessor and a pastor, both
full-time positions.
(34:50):
And I I I felt bad not having ajob.
You know, like I need tocontribute to this family, but I
didn't know what to do.
I seriously considered goingback to college because I am I
love to learn.
I'm a lifelong learner, whichis actually a great thing for
the job that I do because I am astudent of colleges.
(35:12):
I am constantly learning sothat I can help my my families.
But I went through this periodwhere I just I cried out to the
Lord, I didn't know what I wasgonna do.
I wanted to be productive, Iwanted to help others, but I
didn't know what I was gonna do.
And to be honest, I started alittle like a little MLM kind of
(35:35):
business, which I still have.
It's not my priority, but Ibelieve in the product.
And that came kind of out ofthe cancer journey was, you
know, I need to protect my childfrom exposures to toxins that
could result in another cancer.
So I started working withNorwax because it gave me a
(35:56):
platform, if you will, to beable to share with others about
toxins in our environment.
But that wasn't that wasn't myhome, if you will.
That wasn't, that wasn't mycalling.
And so through a whole lot ofprayer, really evaluating what
what my interests are, mybackground, if you look at me,
if you look at my history, it'sfunny when I look back at it.
(36:20):
You know, I have an engineeringdegree, radiological health
engineering from Texas AMUniversity and a master's in
health physics.
Well, while I was in gradschool, I was asked to teach a
class called Becoming the MasterStudent.
And when I look back, I see howthe Lord has just woven these
threads together as a tapestry.
(36:41):
He he taught me and helped meteach others these basic skills
that you need to succeed incollege way back.
And then he gave me theopportunity to substitute in the
public schools and to teach ina private school for a couple of
years and to homeschool mykids.
So I have well over 20 years ofeducation and then you know,
(37:05):
the opportunity to guide my ownkids into college admissions.
And, you know, when I look atthis, I'm like, so I'm a college
admissions consultant.
I'm an expert in SAT and ACTprep, and and all the different
steps along the way to help astudent from this early high
(37:28):
school, late middle school stageuntil they're really even all
the way through, they'vereceived their acceptances and
let's make decisions aboutwhat's the best fit and let's
talk about transitioning tocollege.
But it's all these otherexperiences that flowed into
qualifying me for that and acrazy amount of training.
(37:49):
I'm always in training, always,always in training.
And so I started learning someskills.
And I think you have to be alittle bit uh patient with
yourself.
But I'll tell you, I've learnedtwo things that I think anybody
in this position needs to thinkabout.
The first one is if you don'tquit, you'll win.
(38:12):
You know, you can do a lot morethan you think you can do, but
we give up too easily.
Audrey McCracken (38:17):
Yes.
You we we count ourselves donebefore we yeah, we kind of count
ourselves as a failure beforeit's over, right?
Judy Fulmer (38:25):
And you can say that about homeschooling too.
But even this transition intointo life after homeschooling is
just remembering that there arethere's more to you than you
realize.
And there's there's much moreability, and and others need
what you have to offer.
(38:46):
You have unique experiencesthat can really benefit others.
So you're evaluating, you know,what are my gifts?
What are my talents?
What what are my what do I haveto share with others?
In my case, I realized myhusband and I talked about it
for years.
I could help other families getthrough this, navigate this
(39:08):
process and successfully notjust get their children into any
random college, but their bestfit college that's really going
to help them thrive.
And I can help them understandthe processes and find the
scholarships and do all thethings.
There's something in each oneof you.
Audrey McCracken (39:25):
Yes, exactly.
Judy Fulmer (39:27):
Is amazing.
Let's let's pull that out anddevelop that.
But the other thing that Ilearned was that the answers are
there and you just have to gofind them.
And even now, I mean, there'sso many, many more resources at
our fingertips than than I hadstarting out, or think about 10
(39:47):
years ago.
So many more resources.
Audrey McCracken (39:51):
You know, just the way that you've pulled them
together and gathered them forpeople, that's huge.
You know, the even theresources, there's a lot of
those resources that were outthere, but you've gathered them
for people, like you've put themall in one spot.
And you know, and that's that'sthat saves so much time and
money.
Oh yeah.
I mean, because you know, whereI would have, if I was starting
(40:13):
from scratch, I wouldn't evenknow where to start.
You've done a lot of thatlegwork, and then you have the
wisdom that goes with the yearsthat you've done that work for
yourself, for your kids, and andfor other people.
And that's invaluable.
I mean, it really is.
And it's very tailored.
I know you, I know you workwith more than just homeschool
students, but it's very tailoredto what our needs are, you
(40:37):
know, from transitioning fromhigh school to college and and
making those decisions.
It's hard to make the rightdecisions unless you have the
right information.
Judy Fulmer (40:46):
Yeah.
Audrey McCracken (40:46):
And sometimes you don't even know the
questions to ask, you know, andyou know, that transition for
for moms, because once you makethose transitions, you know,
like I said, I I struggled andand I'm still working through
that.
You know, what am I supposed tobe doing with my days?
Because so much of your ourlife is wrapped up in those
kids.
And, you know, when they startto make those decisions on their
(41:09):
own, and we have to back up,it's kind of like, well, where's
my place now?
You know, where's my place?
And um, you know, I appreciateall that you do for moms, I
appreciate all you do for thehomeschool moms and the
community and the homeschoolcommunity.
Um, just this week I had anopportunity to speak at um in
(41:29):
Mullins, the Baptist Church inMullins, the um WMU group.
Oh, and it was it was ablessing.
I have a friend who who who isa part of that, and she asked me
to come speak to their group.
And and I remember thinkingthere was a time I wouldn't have
time to do this.
Like there was a time Icouldn't just go do this.
(41:49):
And then even as I was speakingto these ladies, I had an
opportunity to share with them,you know, there's ministry all
around us.
We just have to have eyes opento see.
And once we're released fromone assignment, and that's how I
feel.
I feel like homeschooling mychildren was an assignment.
And once we're released fromthat assignment or completed
(42:10):
that assignment, you know, wehave to have eyes to see where's
where's my next assignment?
Where's God sending me now?
And um, and and he, you know,he's been showing me, Audrey,
there's ministry all around you.
Oh, yeah.
It's not always packagedneatly, you know, there's not
always a neon sign over it, butthere are needs that you are
uniquely created to meet.
(42:32):
Yeah, you just have to find,you have to find your people.
You have to find your people,you have to find, you know, what
God, what what have you put mehere for this time to do?
And um, and share that gift.
And like you said, that's agift, that's a gift that God's
given you, but it's also a gift,you're a gift that God's given
(42:53):
us.
And um, and thank you.
Thank you very much.
Thank you for sharing with ourgroup today.
We'll have you back on againand talk about other things.
And I tell you what, before wego, yeah, I'm gonna put you on
the spot.
Um, why don't you pray forthese ladies that are listening
today and just searching forGod's plan for their life?
(43:14):
Just pray that you know Godwould would open up the right
doors.
Judy Fulmer (43:18):
Yeah, absolutely.
Heavenly Father, oh, we justlove you.
And we thank you, Lord, thatyou are sovereign and you you
have this plan, this perfect,perfect plan.
We just thank you that we cancome before your throne of
grace.
Yes, because it is a privilegeand an honor, and we we bless
your name.
(43:39):
We do thank you that you havethis plan and it's a good, good
plan for us, a plan to bless usand give us a future and a hope.
And Father, for a woman who maybe coming to the end of her
homeschool journey, whereverthat is along the way of age
with her children, Lord, I justpray that you would speak into
(44:02):
her heart and give her someguidance and some direction,
reassure her that you see herbecause you do.
Reassure her that you know uhthe the call of her heart and
that you will use her to blessand minister to others.
These transitions, even thoughthey're uncomfortable, they can
(44:25):
be very, very fruitful.
And Lord, I thank you that yougive us the opportunity to rest
a little bit in you and justcome back come back to you and
to sit in your lap and and uh beheld.
So I just pray that you woulddo that for the woman who is uh
(44:46):
who is in this position today,who's looking for the next step,
because you you know what thatstep is.
And and you're faithful to showus.
So I thank you, Lord, that youguide and you direct, and I pray
that you would do that for hertoday.
And I thank you so much forAudrey and her ministry.
Thank you for this podcast.
Thank you for blessing itmightily, and I just pray that
(45:09):
you will continue to grow it andto bless it in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
I agree.
Audrey McCracken (45:16):
Thank you, thank you, Judy.
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