April 5, 2025 • 47 mins
The moment Laura Bains heard the word "homeschooling," she knew it was her calling—even before understanding what it meant. Though her husband, a first-generation immigrant who valued traditional education, needed convincing, Laura's instincts proved right. In this revealing conversation, Laura shares how just five years of homeschooling transformed not only her children's lives but her own professional journey.
Laura's refreshingly practical approach focused on fundamentals: "I need you to be able to read, write, and do math—the rest you'll figure out on your own." With structured learning from 9 AM to 1 PM and afternoons free for self-directed exploration, her children thrived. Her son discovered electrical engineering at age four, building circuits and programming while her daughter read far beyond grade level. Most importantly, both learned to teach themselves—a skill that would define their academic futures.
When they eventually returned to traditional school, they excelled beyond expectations. Laura's daughter medaled on the honor roll throughout high school before pursuing a mathematics degree, while her son took senior-level classes as a freshman and became the school's unofficial tech specialist. Their success showcases how even a limited homeschooling period can provide a lifetime foundation.
Now a full-time tutor with extraordinary results, Laura's final message resonates deeply: "Homeschooling is not just about your kids. Find yourself in there too."
Whether you're considering homeschooling, currently in the trenches, or simply curious about alternative education paths, this conversation offers both practical insights and inspiring encouragement. What might your homeschooling journey unlock—not just for your children, but for you?
Laura's FB group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1385951045396974
Laura's website: www.amuseinphonics.ca
Home Grown Collective: It’s time to take food security into our own hands! Responsibly grown, locally sourced, and accessible to all. This app is free and easy to use! Just download in the app store or log on at HomeGrownCollective.org to connect with local farmers, find fresh food, and support sustainable agriculture. Whether you’re a consumer or a grower looking to expand your business, this platform has the tools to make it happen—commission-free sales, a social share tool, and even a farmer reimbursement program!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome to this week's episode of the Homeschool
How-To.
I'm Cheryl and I invite you tojoin me on my quest to find out
why are people homeschooling,how do you do it, how does it
differ from region to region,and should I homeschool my kids?
Stick with me as I interviewhomeschooling families across
the country to unfold theanswers to each of these
(00:26):
questions week by week.
Welcome, and with us today Ihave Laura Baines.
Laura, thanks for being here.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Thank you so much for having me.
I'm really excited to be here.
It's my very first podcastAwesome.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Yeah, well, when you were homeschooling, they
probably didn't have podcasts?
Speaker 2 (00:47):
huh, they did not.
They did not.
It was a fly by the seat ofyour pants kind of deals.
We didn't really even haveinternet, really, but like that,
that's how far back we weregoing.
It was like you orderedcurriculum on the phone and I
don't I'm trying to.
I don't remember even how wefound it, but yeah, that's what
you did.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Yeah, all right.
So what, how many kids do youhave and how old are they now?
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Okay, so I have two kids, uh well, two adults.
Now they are 26 and just turned23.
Um, so I have, my oldest is agirl and my youngest is a is a
boy, and uh yeah, they're bothout working now full-time.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
So what did you?
Always homeschool them, or werethey in school first?
Speaker 2 (01:29):
so, um, the moment I heard the word homeschooling, I
knew I wanted to do it.
I'd never heard the word before.
It was like a two by four,straight out of heaven.
I it was like a stop in yourtracks.
I didn't know what it was, butI was like I didn't know what it
was, but I was like I don'tknow what that is.
But I got to do this.
And then so my daughter went toschool for junior kindergarten
(01:50):
and kindergarten, seniorkindergarten, and let me just
see, I went kicking andscreaming.
I did not want her there, andmy husband, who is a first
generation immigrant, came toCanada for the education system.
So it was a little bit of astruggle, let me tell you, to
convince them, or convince himto take them out, and he's like,
(02:12):
no, they're fine, they're fine,and so that's all.
That was a little bit of achallenge.
So they came out in.
My daughter came out threeweeks into grade one.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
I was gonna say are you from Canada?
Because I interviewed a woman,chloe, a couple of weeks ago
about game schooling and shecalled it junior kindergarten
and senior kindergarten.
I hadn't.
She was from Canada and Ihadn't heard that before,
because we preschool andkindergarten.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Oh, okay, yeah, so we have preschool here, so that's
kind of like a toddler ishprogram and then you go to like
grade uh, junior kindergarten iswhen you're four, senior
kindergarten is when you arefive, and then grade one is when
you're six.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Okay, you know, that's interesting and I wonder
if we're headed to thatdirection, because when I was
going to kindergarten it was ahalf a day, and I'm I'll be 41
tomorrow, so uh, yeah, it wasonly half day, and now you have
kids in kindergarten full day.
I remember when my sister'syoungest son was in school and
he's 18 now it became mandatorythat you have to go for a full
(03:15):
day, because I think they had atime where you could be full day
or half day, whatever theparent wanted.
But now, like you said, thenthere's the year before that in
Canada, the junior kindergarten,or we call it preschool, but we
have two years of preschool.
Because, yeah, my son was fourin a preschool program but there
were three-year-olds in it aswell, so it was a three four
(03:37):
program, so you could do it fortwo years, but what a lot of
people did was send theirthree-year-old and then, when
they were four, they went to theschool where you're actually in
the elementary school for thefull day, taking a bus, doing
all the real school things,which is just crazy to me.
So, yeah, so where did yourhusband come from originally?
Speaker 2 (03:57):
So he's from Punjab, so he's East Indian, and they
came over to Canada when he wasfour.
So he came over right in juniorkindergarten and didn't speak a
word of English and had theJehovah Witnesses actually
taught them how to read andspeak English which is really
(04:19):
funny to me and yeah, and thenby the time he was in grade one,
he had an incredible vocabulary.
So he skipped grade two becausehe came right at that time when
language is really rich, likehis brain was just so receptive
to all things language.
So he was, he was way, way, wayfar ahead of his classmates.
(04:39):
For sure, by the time he was in, by the time he went to school,
he was so far ahead of hisclassmates because he was just
in such a rich environment Withthe Jehovah Witnesses.
Yeah, the Jehovah Witnesses,literally the Kate, because they
were, you know, they were quitehappy to come in and they would
just read the Bible storiesthree or four times a week.
So they had free tutoring threeor four times a week from the
(05:00):
Jehovah Witnesses, and so that'show they.
Uh, and they're Sikhs, just tolet you know, my, my in-laws are
Sikhs and but they were like,yeah, come on in.
And uh, yeah, so that's how helearned how to, that's where
they learned how to speakEnglish, and that's where they
learned how to read Wow.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
So it's funny because he has this connotation about
the school system being sowonderful.
But really he didn't learn thatin the school system, he
learned that privately he didnot.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
He didn't learn it in the school system at all, which
is really funny, um, but he sohis brothers and sisters they
were all in school by the timethat they got here.
It was a.
It was a whole uh thing the waythey.
They came over to india inthree, or came over from india
in three, um, like toursbasically.
There was like some came andthen some came, and then the
(05:46):
rest of them came and so, but hewas the only one that came in
while he was still not supposedto be in school.
So that's how he learned how toEnglish was all about.
The Jehovah's Witnesses werethere for weeks on end teaching
them.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
Yeah, wow, funny story, yeah.
So I mean, eventually you gothim to agree to homeschool, you
know, to let you homeschool thekids.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Well, yeah, no, well, you know what I just so you
know what did, as I'm like, I'ma naturally born teacher, I'm
just naturally gifted that way.
And so the whole year before umgrade one I had was doing unit
studies with my kids for fun.
Like we were like have an oceanday, and I remember we had like
(06:27):
streamers hanging from theceiling and we would have like
fish food and we had ladybugdays and all that, and without
thinking twice about what wewere doing, like it wasn't
intentional, it was just like,oh, you want to learn about fish
this week, let's do that.
And then, of course, by thetime we got into grade one, I
realized that we had done all ofthe science from grade one,
(06:48):
just for fun.
And so, yeah, so what it reallywas was that they had an open
house at the school and but theteacher was sick, and so she
just opened up her classroom andyou could just walk through.
I mean, I don't think thatwould happen these days, but you
could just walk through theclassroom and there was a whole
pile of things that we kind ofwent.
(07:09):
Hmm, hmm, really.
And I think it was sort ofafter that that I said to him
we've done, I've done all theschool work, like I've done
everything.
She was reading at a grade six.
She was reading Black Beautybefore she went into grade one.
So yeah, so she was an earlyreader and so you know, of
course.
(07:29):
So, yeah, and so in grade one,you know of course, we went on
there.
They had a capital A and alowercase a and we're thinking,
are you kidding me?
Like this is not going to gowell.
So I just said to my husband,like let me just try it for this
year, like let's give it a shotfor a year.
She's already done all thescience, she's clearly reading,
no problem.
So yeah, so that's whathappened was, uh, we said it was
(07:52):
going to be a year by yeardecision, but it was a kicking
and screaming he.
He didn't really want them tocome out, but I was really
feeling very convicted about it.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
So so I did, wow, okay, so at that time your
daughter was first grade andyou're how old was your son, or
he wasn't in school yet.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Uh, he wasn't in school yet, he was three.
Uh, um, just, I think, yeah, hewas three when we started, so
he would have still been in thatpreschool age, but the
preschool actually kicked himout cause he wouldn't stop
crying, so he wasn't evenallowed to be in preschool.
So he was home with me all thetime anyway.
So he was already home with meanyway.
So it made sense Okay.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
So you said that you kind of had to order curriculum
by phone.
Back then Was it did a Becca,even were they a thing.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Yep, so that's who.
We used a Becca for math andlanguage, the math program we
loved about Becker Math my kidsso.
My husband's an engineer, he'san electrical engineer, and so
math is a thing in our house forsure, and so, yeah, so we did a
Becker Math and my kids lovedit.
And they were just recallingthey're like the time trials
(09:00):
were the best, remember when wecould do all that math, and they
timed us to see how good theywere.
So my kids loved they.
We did about two and a halfhours of math a day.
They loved math.
Well, they loved it.
It was like can we do more?
Can we do more?
And I'm thinking, well, yeah,of course.
So we did a Becca, we did tonsand tons of math, and then we
did a Becca language for oneyear, but that was just not our
(09:20):
thing.
So we switched off of a Beccaafter the first year.
It was just, it was way toocomplex for me.
I didn't understand.
I didn't understand it.
So I was like I don't know howthey're going to do it.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
So um, I think that makes people feel like, oh good,
all right, math comes, becausemost of us are not doing two and
a half hours of math every day.
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
I don't think I do that a week, but six-year-old.
But my kids loved it, literally.
I think they loved the factthat there was little pictures
on there and I never checkedtheir work.
I ordered the what do you callthem the answer books, and so
they would do a page and checktheir answers and so I would
look at it maybe once a week andgo, okay, we're good.
I wasn't even.
I would look at it maybe once aweek and go, okay, we're good.
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Speaker 2 (11:02):
And then so they were doing all of it.
They were doing the teachingthemselves because they could
both read.
They were doing the teachingthemselves and the correcting
themselves.
So I would just kind of flipthrough and go yeah, you're
right, it's good, let's keepgoing.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
But, but then it's good to hear that, you know.
Then you tried the Abeka forthe language and that just
wasn't a good fit.
So I think that's good forpeople to know that just because
you have one brand doesn't meanit's going to be across the
board.
Everything works for you andthere's nothing wrong with you.
If it doesn't work for you, youcan seek other things.
And I love what you were sayingabout the unit studies, cause as
I've delved into talking tomore homeschoolers and trying
(11:37):
unit studies myself, those aremy favorite because I do get
bored with the okay, what'stoday's lesson and let's do some
practice on some, you know.
But I love the unit studies andhow you can kind of blend in
your language arts and yourscience and all got a lot of the
subjects right into that onetopic that you're discussing.
(11:58):
Like we had done some for thefall.
So it was learning about themoon and looking at some poetry
about the moon and listening toa song, and you know you're
doing a science project holdinga clementine and a flashlight.
You know, clementine on thepencil and a flashlight and
moving around a dark pantry.
But yeah, I love the unit studyaspect.
I have not hung streamers frommy ceiling yet or eaten fish
(12:22):
food.
But I mean, you're bringing upgreat ideas and which is why you
create a curriculum and we'llget into that in a little bit.
But how did it go?
How long did?
Did you homeschool them?
Did they go through for thewhole ride?
Speaker 2 (12:33):
No, so they okay.
So what happened?
Was we?
Um, the sad part was is, when Ipulled my kids out of school,
my neighbor stopped talking tome.
So the neighbor, the, theneighborhood kids, would not
talk to my kids anymore.
I don't know what happened, itwas.
It was um heartbreaking.
So we ultimately moved out ofthat um, out of that house.
(12:54):
Um, I know I can't even.
Yeah, they just they were likeNope, you're good.
There was some perception thatmy kids were better than theirs
or whatever.
It was devastating for ourfamily for sure, because all of
a sudden they had no kids andthey had no friends anymore,
because nobody would talk to usanymore.
It was the strangest thing Icould even imagine.
(13:14):
And then so we ultimately movedout to the country, which it was
funny because when I just askedmy daughter, I said what do you
guys remember abouthomeschooling?
Like you know, I really didn'tknow.
They're old and so anyway, butthey both remember the
environment.
They both remember like, thecountry, property we lived on.
They both remembered like itwas interesting.
(13:36):
They remember that far morethan any other lessons.
So, yeah, so we moved out to thecountry and and then so we were
only, we were home for fiveyears and they both wanted to go
back.
So they were both like lookingfor more than what I could give
them anymore, because now wewere in the country, we were
driving all the time to whereverwe needed to go and so, yeah,
(13:58):
so they went back in grade sixand grade three.
But the interesting thing was,as at home I had skipped, I had
skipped them each a grade.
So when they went back to gradesix and grade three, they had
already done grade six and gradethree.
But the grade six and gradethree, that in the school was
completely different than whatwe had done at home.
There was nothing the same.
(14:20):
All the language was different,all the the books were
different, the writing wasdifferent.
Really weird.
So, yeah, but they but so yeah,they went back in grade six and
grade three, which you guysdon't have down here, but we
have something up here calledeqao.
Eqao is standardized testingand the kids do it in grade
three, grade six, grade nine, ingrade 10, and so let me tell
(14:43):
you how excited the principalwas when I bring in my grade
three and grade six homeschooledstudents.
She was thinking our scores aregoing to go through the roof
with these kids.
It was really funny.
Actually, she was so excitedthat they were coming in in the
EQAO years to do these tests forthem.
So that was funny.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
So did they do better than the other kids.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Oh they were.
So they were off the charts, sothey, it's OK.
So here's the thing I'm justgoing to tell you about the
homeschool world.
I remember thinking, you know,we were in a, we were in a co-op
and the people around me werelifers.
They were homeschool lifers,for sure.
I knew my kids were going to goback to school someday, like I
(15:26):
just knew that and so.
But the other people around us?
We were lifers, that.
So these were people who weredoing things like you know.
They were like horseback ridingat international levels.
They played six instruments,they talked four languages, they
traveled the world.
You know, these were people whowere like homeschoolers extreme
.
And so I look at my kids and Iwas like, well, we didn't even
(15:48):
bother with geography, because Idon't.
I was like my goal forhomeschooling was literally,
let's do language.
I need you to be able to read,I need you to be able to write
and I need you to be able to domath.
The rest of it you can figureout on your own.
I really don't care about anyof the rest of it.
You'll figure it out.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
You're smart, you'll figure it out.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
So that was literally my goal was like, okay, math
and language and writing.
And then, um, so when, so whenwe went back I didn't really
think my kids were that smart.
I mean, they, they, they playany instruments, they, they
could do math and they couldread and they could write.
That's what they could do.
And they got back into schooland they were like killing it.
They were like teaching theirteachers how to do stuff.
(16:25):
They were.
It was crazy.
So my son in grade three, he had, um, he's an electrical guy.
He had he was building circuitsat home, he was building
software programs at home.
He was like he was.
He knew from the time he wasfour he was going to be an
electrical engineer.
He just knew that.
And so when he got into school,of course there was no issues
(16:46):
with reading, no issues withmath and no issues with writing.
So he was bored like boredsilly.
And so they had him and theyrealized he was really good with
technology.
So he was the school technologyguy for the whole time he was
there.
They were like something'sbroken, call Clark, he can do it
.
It was like, literally, and OK.
So here's the funny thing isthat when he went to high school
(17:08):
they still called him.
They're like Clark, can youcome back and fix this?
So they were calling histeachers would be like can you
find this thing on the Internetfor me Like it was crazy?
So yeah, so neither one of themstruggled academically at all,
but this was in the time.
This was here's my little thing.
This was in the time when they,the schools, were focusing more
(17:31):
on character development.
So my kids would have like wonevery single award in the school
, every single academic award inthe school and some of the
character ones too.
In the graduations.
There was no mention ofacademics at all, which I
thought was telling, because Ithought my schools were going,
my kids were going to school foracademics, but that wasn't the
(17:54):
case, there was no mention ofacademics at that graduation at
all, and so this was their highschool graduation, so this would
have been maybe five 10 yearsago.
So this was at their grade eight.
When they went from grade eightto grade nine, so maybe 15
years ago.
Yeah, mention of academics.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
That's interesting.
I I bet you most people didn'teven notice that.
You know but you're.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
But we did because we did because they would have won
them all.
So you know yeah yeah oh, wowyeah that is interesting so.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
So then did they continue on with high school?
Speaker 2 (18:27):
yep so they both were in high school and um.
So my daughter was the only onein her high school year that uh
was on the um, like meddled inthe honor role all four years.
She won gold twice, silver onceand bronze once.
So we have four years of highschool here and so she, she
meddled all four years.
She um came in second in hergraduating year.
(18:49):
So she was always book smart.
She was always.
You know, she's like oh, I havea math test today.
Whoops, I forgot to study.
Let me get 110% on it.
One of those ones, right?
Yeah, one of those.
And she went on to go do mathas her degree.
Like she has a math degree.
My son wasn't as smart as that,like, he didn't get the marks,
like that, but he was um.
(19:09):
He was taking grade 12 classeswhen he was in grade nine, all
the computer ones and thescience ones.
He was taking all of those onesbecause he just liked it.
I mean, he, he, he was, he wasself-taught.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
And that you know.
It's amazing because just thoseyears, like do you think that
would have happened to them hadyou never homeschooled them?
Speaker 2 (19:27):
No, no, no, no, no, no, not at all, because we
schooled from nine o'clock inthe morning on the dot until one
on the dot, and then we alwayshad lunch at one and then.
So they had the afternoon to dowhatever they wanted.
And so he decided when heliterally decided when he was
four he was going to be anengineer, and so we bought him
(19:48):
snap circuits.
Do you know snap circuits?
Speaker 1 (19:50):
No, okay, so snap circuits no.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
Okay, so snap, circuits are like Lego and then
but they attach by and there's,you can run circuits in them.
You can actually make lights goand sirens go and that's all
battery things and you it's allby battery and so you actually
can build circuits to makethings happen.
And so he was building circuitswhen he was four and five years
old and teach himself that.
(20:15):
But he, you know they'd alreadylearned how to teach themselves
stuff because I never taughtthem any math, like I never
(20:37):
taught them math, they justtaught themselves math.
So they had.
So he was self-taught for sure.
I do not think.
I don't think he would havebeen as far ahead as he was had
he not had that kind of it wasinteresting, because it wasn't,
it wasn't really a good.
I didn't think he would havebeen as far ahead as he was had
he not had that kind of it wasinteresting, because it wasn't,
it wasn't really a good, Ididn't teach them anything, it
was him Like it was him.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
He did it, but you gave them the time and ability
to one know that they can teachthemselves things once they
learned how to read, and to theboredom of the afternoons, to
give them the time to learn whatinterests them, which is what
I'm seeing.
A lot of that we are beingdenied as humans because we're
(21:18):
just told where to be at allhours of the day.
And if we're not told where tobe, if it's like our downtime in
the evening, it's getting readyfor the next day when we're
told where to be.
So you don't have that time toreally find what interests you.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
So that's huge.
You need to be bored in orderfor you to find out what makes
you tick Like.
You can't do that while you'rebombarded with all of the
information about where you'resupposed to be and what you're
supposed to do.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Yeah, and it's funny because if there's one thing
that you know anybody says, whenyou say, oh, how was school
today?
You always say boring.
So it's like you are bored allday, but you're sitting there at
a desk with nothing interestingaround you, so it's not the
right kind of boredom, becauseyou don't have the freedom to
find something that interestsyou.
(22:04):
So it's they're different board.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
They're different ways to be bored.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Um, all right, that's so cool.
So then, all right.
So once your kids went backinto school, did you notice any
sort of difference?
Like you know, I know they werethey must've been a little bit
bored in class.
Did they ever talk aboutwanting to be homeschooled again
, or were they happy that theywere there?
Speaker 2 (22:22):
They were happy.
They were there, they, they,they.
It was funny.
We all decided at five yearswe'd had enough, like we, we all
were like we've done what weneeded to do, we got it, and so,
no, they never wanted to comeout.
But don't forget, they werekind of um hand chosen at school
or I'm trying to think whatthat expression is, but they
were sort of handpicked.
At school I had one that wasdoing all the technology and the
(22:45):
other one, my, the.
My daughter was the older one.
She was teaching everybody howto do stuff, like she was um.
So if they ever needed help inthe kindergarten room or
whatever they were doing, that'swho they were pulling out of
class.
They were pulling her out ofclass because there was.
She wasn't missing anything atall yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
So they really found like what kind of what interests
them and their passions throughthat, through being needed
there yeah, and they and theywere and they were, they were
chosen.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
I mean, I don't think every kid had that experience.
I had the same experiencegrowing up, but like chosen out
of out of the classroom to dosome of these special things,
which does make a difference forhow you see yourself.
And the other thing too is whenmy daughter was in school, so
she went in in grade six, shewas 5'11 when she went into
(23:33):
grade six, so she stood out likea sore thumb.
She was extremely tall.
She was a head taller thananybody else in the school and
she's 6'3 now.
So she's 6'3 and my son's 6'5.
So it's like their size made adifference.
For sure, yeah, their size madea difference, but yeah, they
were just chosen to do theirthing, so they didn't.
(23:53):
They didn't lose school at all.
They.
They quite liked it because itwas just fun.
They got to do all the funstuff.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
Yeah, all right.
So then, once they graduatedand they went on to, you know,
to college and to do theircareers, you found yourself in
the teaching realm again.
So why don't you tell us alittle bit about that?
Speaker 2 (24:13):
I did so when they went back to school, I went back
to teacher's college so that weall started school on the same
day.
So I went to teacher's college,which was kind of neat, you
know.
You kind of come home at nightand you're like, well, who did
you have lunch with, well, whodid you have lunch with, well,
who did you have lunch with?
You know, it was all three ofus.
And so, yeah, I went toteacher's college and then was
in the classroom to do mypracticums and hated it, hated,
(24:36):
hated, hated the classroom.
It was like there wasn't enoughtime to teach, and so I ended
up trying to figure out how Iwas going to teach without
having a classroom, which is notthe easiest thing to do.
But you know, where there's awill, there's a way, and ended
up sort of doing a variety ofthings.
I ended up tutoring thoughreally using a lot of the
(24:57):
homeschool ideas that, because Iknew that it was effective.
Right, I already had seen it myown kids.
So, yeah, so I end up tutoringmath for one, because math is
easy to teach, and for me it wasanyway, it makes complete sense
.
And then, so parents thenstarted to say to me well, if
you can do that with math, canyou do with language?
(25:19):
And I was like, well, I don'tknow, language is a whole
different ball game.
It requires way more parts ofthe brain.
Let me think about that.
So, anyway, I thought about itfor about a year and thought,
wow, how would I do that?
And then I kind of came up witha game plan and I was full
before I could even put the wordout.
There they were like Laura'sgoing to do language.
(25:39):
So the word got out and I wassix kids a day.
I had six kids a day to bedoing that, and then the
lockdowns hit and what I haddone before was, when I had the
six kids, I would have three inat a time.
So it was kind of like a littlehomeschool, but mom wasn't the
teacher, so, and in order to beinto that program you had to be
(26:01):
three grade levels behind.
That was my, my cutoff, and so,anyway, so we were doing Okay,
so these were kids in school.
These were kids in school andtheir parents were pulling get
this one.
Their parents were pulling themout of school for two and a
half hours a day, three times aweek, to come and see me Yep, to
come and see me.
Just because they knew what Icould do.
They'd seen it in my own kids.
Teachers were recommending meand then, which is funny to me,
(26:26):
that teachers recommend me, butanyway, then the lockdowns hit
and I had to not do that anymoreand had to go one-on-one
virtual and then, um, so then,as the kids started to come back
into my office, I realizedthere was a gap of five, six
years now with some of thesekids from expectation to what
they were capable of.
It was driving me crazy.
Like I had a grade five studentwho came to me who couldn't
(26:48):
read.
He could read the word the, andthat was it.
Like he couldn't read anythingat grade.
A grade five student who cameto me who couldn't read he could
read the word the, and that wasit.
Like he couldn't read anythingat grade five.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
Grade five.
And how old are you then?
You're about 10?
Speaker 2 (26:59):
10.
Couldn't read.
A thing had been.
He was a farm, he was a farmkid they had.
They lacked a good internetduring the lockdown so they did
no school at all during thelockdowns internet during the
lockdown, so they did no schoolat all during the lockdowns and
they were farming.
They were like they had.
They had cows, they needed todo stuff, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
I'm not sure how to do some things.
He just didn't know how to read.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
Yes, but you know, as soon as you go back into school
and people realize that you,there's a gap, now you're
targeted as a bully for bullying, right, and so this stopped
going to school he was.
He was so much anxiety that hewas no longer going to school
anymore.
So when his parents found meand said, you know, and then I
worked as a tutor full-time thathe could, they could bring him
(27:42):
at noon I was be like okay, so,uh, yeah.
So I had a pile of kids likethis all in grade five, grade
six couldn't read a thing, andso I needed so this is where it
kind of came up I needed aresource that was it gave them a
better sort of diet of foodthan dog on a log and cat on a
(28:04):
mat.
Because by the time you're ingrade five, you know I had to
start with Matt and Sam.
Like I had to start with Mattand Sam, but I couldn't keep him
on that forever because weneeded to make some progress,
and so I ended up writing somebooks for him.
Um, I ended up writing somebooks for him and then I was
surprised I actually was shockedat how well they worked.
And uh, and what?
(28:27):
Not only how well they worked,but how he was feeling when he
was reading them.
He's like, wow, look at thesebig words I can read.
I go yes, when you have theright resource in front of you
for where you are, then it works.
And so, actually, I just pulledthis one out.
This is the one that I wrotefor him.
I wrote AR.
I wrote the AR book, and AR saysR and this is all about Clark
(28:52):
the shark and scarlet the larkand they're stuck on an arc.
Uh, yeah, so it's a whole, it'sa book, just with lots and lots
of these ar words in it.
Like about about half the wordson every page have the ar word
in it and then so he was able todecode it and he was able to
figure it out.
So he was not stuck at and onmatt and, uh, you know, on matt
and sam, like he just wasn'tstuck there.
And the reason I took this isbecause this was in his name, so
(29:14):
the AR was straight from hisname.
So he already knew that AR saidR from his name, so I was able
just to just pull that out andgo from there.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
Hey everyone.
This is Cheryl.
I want to thank you so much forchecking out the podcast.
I'm going to keep this shortand sweet because I know your
time is valuable.
I want to ask you a seriousquestion Do your kids know what
to do to actually save theirlife in an emergency?
The most important thing we cantalk to our kids about is
knowing their first and lastname, knowing mom and dad's
first and last name, mom's phonenumber, dad's phone number,
(29:45):
their address, what to do ifthey get lost, what to do if
someone who's watching them hasa heart attack, a stroke, an
accident where they fall andyour child needs to get help.
We live in a world wherethere's no landline phones
anymore, basically, and cellphones lock.
Does your child know how tocall 911 from a locked cell
phone?
It is absolutely possible, andmy book demonstrates how to do
(30:08):
that, whether it's an Android,whether it's an iPhone and, most
importantly, it starts theconversation, because I was
going through homeschoolingcurriculum with my kids,
realizing that, gee, maybe theyskim over this stuff, but they
don't get into depth, so mychild's not gonna remember this
should an accident occur, right?
I asked a couple of teacherswhat they do in school and they
(30:30):
said they really don't doanything either other than talk
about what to do in a fireduring the month of October fire
prevention month.
So I wrote a book because thisis near and dear to my heart.
I have had multiple friendsthat have lost kids in tragedies
and I don't want to see ithappen again if it doesn't have
to.
We were at the fair over thesummer and the first thing I
said to my son when we walkedthrough that gate was what's my
(30:52):
first and last name, what isyour first and last name and
what is my phone number?
And if you get lost, what areyou going to do?
You can get my book on Amazonand I will put the link in my
show's description Again.
It's called let's TalkEmergencies and I really hope
you'll check it out becausethere's just no need to be
scared when you can chooseprepared.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
I wrote these books for him, and then they worked.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
How many books did you?
Speaker 2 (31:17):
write for him.
Well, in total I ended upwriting 41 books.
So I have 41 different books.
So all the different letterpatterns, like A, w, a, u, e, W,
like tons of like all thedifferent letter patterns, a-u,
e-w, like tons of like all thedifferent letter patterns, all
the R-controlled vowels, all theW-controlled vowels, you know
(31:40):
the vowel teams, all those.
So I wrote there's 41 of them,and so this.
So the cool thing about thisthough the cool thing I just got
to show you, the cool thingabout this is that on this page
I don't know if your viewers cansee this or not, but on this
page it says I can read thesewords right at the top, and what
I did was, for any word thatdoesn't sound out completely, I
sounded out for them.
The play is, I had a lowercaseP and a lowercase L and then a
(32:01):
capital A so that they recognizethat play.
So anytime I use a capitalletter on this page, it actually
said the letter name.
So as the kids are reading, soas the kids are reading, so as
the kids are reading, look atthis.
So let me just find a good pageon this one.
So on this page you can see ifyou can see that or not, words
that are underlying there.
So everything on that pageeither has the AR word on it or
(32:24):
it sounds out, or or if itdoesn't sound out, like the word
make doesn't sound out, but soI have the word make on the
front page and they can actuallyflip there and figure out that
that's the word make.
Because for a kid like this, I Ican't teach them all the vowel
teams, I can't teach them allthe things at once.
We just needed to focus.
For somebody in grade five, wejust needed, like high level,
(32:47):
high concentration, to just doone at a time and not have to
worry about all the rest of them.
So that's how I did it.
So, yeah, so I ended up writingthis curriculum and of course I
have, you know, I have myhomeschool experience in there
because I have, like all thesecool ideas.
What's this one?
So this one, it's called Amuseat Home.
Oh, amuse at Home has so onthis book.
(33:10):
They all have different books,but on this one.
So Clark the Shark and Scarletthe Lark end up playing cards at
dark on the ark in this book,and so what I did was, in the
back of it, I actually taughtyou how to play a card game and
this was one of the favoritecard games I used when we were
homeschooling and it's a mathgame, so it's for basic numeracy
(33:31):
and I just gave you the rulesin there on how to play that, so
, which I thought was kind offun.
So that would be like you know,that's that sort of post one
o'clock time when you know likewhat are we going to do now that
all the sort of the formalstuff is done?
Well, let's learn how to playcards, or you know that.
So there's all sorts of like Ihave like spelling activities in
there and games and puzzles andoh I don't know recipes.
(33:54):
There's 41 different activitieslike outing ideas, and then
there's this other part in ittoo.
So this is like the teacher inme that went to teacher's
college.
So this one it just saysresearch shark, research shark,
behavior and their habits, andthen also name all the months in
order, because of course, thishappens in March, and so all
(34:16):
these ideas about how to likeextend your learning, like as a
homeschooler, I would have lovedthis be like oh, that's a good
idea, let's do that today.
Or you know, let's.
You know, one of them has likean idea for a puppet show.
One of them has ideas for likesewing something you know, let's
.
You know, one of them has likean idea for a puppet show.
One of them has ideas for likesewing something you know,
whatever.
So, whatever it is, there'ssomething related to all of them
(34:36):
in there.
So, yeah, so can I just showyou this?
This is what it looks like.
This is the book.
It's 600 pages of learning andI wrote this is the cool thing,
this is this one.
So the cool thing is I don'tknow if you can see that there's
two copies of every book inthere.
There's actually 82 of thesebooks in there, okay, so if you
(34:58):
have multiple children at homewhich you probably do, if you're
homeschooling, then you havelots of chances to use the books
.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
So, and where can people find that?
Speaker 2 (35:15):
I can put a link in the show's description.
But yeah, so that's uh, so it'scalled Amuse and Phonics, so
it's wwwamuseinphonicsca.
Spelled exactly how you wouldexpect it A M U S E I N P H O N
I.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
C, sca.
So there, yeah, we'll put alink to that.
That's awesome.
I'm going through that processnow with my son, who's six,
trying to learn to.
He is not reading black beautyon his own.
Um, we have been working onphonics for geez I think, two
years now, at least a year and ahalf now, starting out with the
Hagerty phonics which is likeused in the schools and
(35:42):
kindergarten, and but it's, itwas just so dry.
But I'm like, okay, we have todo this stuff and we I would
force them through it.
And then it was like, okay,let's take a break.
And then we did the all aboutreading, pre-reading, and that
was fine and, um, and he likedit.
And then this year I was like,oh, let's try the teacher child
to eat and run, read in 100 easylessons.
(36:03):
But there, they don't likeafter the first 20, they're not
easy lessons anymore.
They're probably easy for yourkids.
They are not easy for him.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
I don't even remember teaching my kids how to read.
Do you know that, Honestly?
Speaker 1 (36:17):
really.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
We did it from spelling.
Like I think we did it fromspelling.
We would do a craft and then Iwould say well, let's write down
whatever it was we just did.
And I would this is what Iremember and I would say would
say okay, so we just did abutterfly, so what's the first
sound of butterfly book?
What letter is that b?
And then I would say the ah.
And so they I think that's howwe I don't even remember
teaching them how to read-honestly, I don't.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
The funny part about that is my son makes lists all
the time and I'm always going,okay, well, what's?
And my husband too all right,well, what sound is it?
Well, what's next, what's now?
Speaker 2 (36:48):
finally, I'm just like it's u-t-t-e-r-f-l-y while
you're doing that you have totell them why you have to have
two t's in the word butter.
So the e doesn't change the u,right, so you actually right,
you have to explain that that'swhy butter has to have two t's
in it, so that the e is too faraway from the U to change it
(37:08):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
Well see, I didn't get to that part yet in the
courses, so maybe I do need toget your book so that it
explains why?
Speaker 2 (37:19):
Well, you know, you know the interesting.
So part of the thing that I hadto figure out was for this,
these students that were comingin, we didn't have time to do
the sequenced, we didn't havetime to do all the sequence
stuff like, and we just didn'thave time to do it.
And their parents expected farmore progress than what we were.
They we needed progress everysingle day and so I didn't want
(37:43):
a sequenced program.
I wanted them to feel like lookat what I can do.
Because as soon as they get tolook at what I can do, then
their whole mindset has changedto be like wow, I can read.
Yes, you can.
Actually it's not really rocketscience.
It's not rocket science toteach somebody to read as long
(38:04):
as you can start to figure outand decode.
And actually I'm just going totell you something.
When we were using these bookswith him, I had originally told
his parents it was going to takeprobably two to two and a half
years of tutoring to try and gethim like up to speed.
And he was reading in about Itried to kick him out of the
program after five monthsbecause he was reading by.
(38:24):
In five months he was readingand they kept him in for another
like six months, just becauseit was just a nice little safety
net for them.
But uh, he was reading novels.
He was reading novels.
After about, um, like afterabout five months, he was
reading novels.
I thought you don't really needto be here you've got enough of
a base to figure him out, and Ihave such a waiting list that I
don't like to keep kids in toolong, because because it becomes
(38:48):
sort of like this security yeahlike you've got.
You've got the information, nowjust go be awesome.
And um, so I tried to get himout of the program.
It didn't really work and then,um so they stayed in for about
another six months or so and I,uh, I was as you were saying
with the you and the reason forthe two T's.
Speaker 1 (39:08):
it made me think of a post that I had on Instagram
recently.
This was from a comic.
I'll see if I can play it inthe microphone here, but it
makes so much sense.
Speaker 2 (39:19):
That's it.
H-o-e-m home.
No, home is H-O-E-M.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
Something is dumb and I think we don't realize it
until we're teaching our kids.
Speaker 2 (39:30):
I know right, some of those we can explain.
I can explain the sum away forsure, but you know some of those
we can explain.
But yeah, I know it's fun,that's actually called the
scribal O, just to let you know.
That's called the scribal O inthe sum and it's from when they
used to do cursive.
So here's the thing when theythey used to do cursive.
(39:51):
So here's the thing when theyused this is some s-o-m-e,
s-o-m-e, so yes, so when theyused to do cursive, they it
would look so that they was a uand then an m and it just kind
of looked like a whole bunch ofjust loops, and so what they did
was they just closed off thethey.
They put kind of a cap on topof the o so that it separated it
from the M.
So that's why the O, when it'snext to an N, an M or a V, often
(40:15):
sounds like a U, like that's sointeresting.
Yeah, it's called the scribal O.
So like love, money, glove,yeah, it's called the scribal O.
Speaker 1 (40:24):
They never taught me that in school.
What about num and U?
Speaker 2 (40:28):
and I don't know okay , so the, so the well, the and
the b.
I mean, who knows what the b isfor?
I didn't go into a big thingabout, uh, you know morphology
and all that.
The b is silent.
Uh, there must be a reason forit to be there, like in thumb
and comb, I don't know um, butso there are, but there is some,
but there is some.
There's a, lots of words that,that, um, that work with that
(40:51):
scribal, oh theory okay.
Speaker 1 (40:53):
Well, at least you know there might be a reason
somewhere, and it's not thatthey're just trying to make us
go nuts, and it's the same incanada as it is in america
except for we have a u in a lotsof our words, like color.
Speaker 2 (41:06):
We have a u in that, in that right, yes, okay, so our
color is C O L O U?
R, which makes it really funfor reading, because then it
should be clower.
Speaker 1 (41:16):
Right.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
But when you're trying to teach it.
So actually I like the, I likethe American stuff better for
that one, it's easier to teachit all.
Speaker 1 (41:24):
Oh funny.
Yeah, oh well, is thereanything else, laura, that you
wanted to make sure we touchedupon while we have you here
today?
I, like I said, I'll make sureto share the link to your your
phonics book in the show'sdescription, so people can check
that out.
Speaker 2 (41:37):
You know what I want to say.
I want to say to the moms outthere.
I want to say to the moms thathomeschooling is not just about
your kids.
I want moms to know thatthere's something in there for
them too.
And so while you'rehomeschooling your children, you
are also learning.
You're learning somethingYou're probably relearning, like
I know.
For me, when I had to teachhistory, I was terrified about
(42:00):
teaching history and thenrealized, with the right
resource, it was way more funthan what I remember from grade
nine.
But you know, while I want tospeak to the moms, really
because I kind of found my, myraison d'etre through
homeschooling, like I knew thatI was going to be a teacher
somehow some way, and Iliterally tutor full time.
(42:22):
Now I have like 12 students aday or something like that.
So I really want moms to beencouraged in this, because it
seems like it's all about thekids all the time.
I mean, it's very busy that way.
You have your kids with you24-7.
But really there's something inthere for a mom to sort of
glean out of that and find a newpart of their personality they
(42:46):
may have never seen before, anda new part of their identity,
and whether it's a new hobby,whether it's a new realization
about themselves, whether it's anew way to perceive themselves,
whether it's how they fit intothat community and how they're
going to stand up to some of thenaysayers that's a big one,
(43:10):
sayers.
That's a big one Just to havethe confidence to know that
they're doing the right thing bytheir children and to really
stand up to some of those peopleOften it's parents, spouses,
neighbors it's all of that thatyou have to fight against and
you're going against the grainmany, many, many times.
I really want the women to findthe strength in that because we
do know that it's mostly womendoing the homeschooling and find
the strength in that to reallyjust be themselves and just come
(43:32):
out of this a thousand timesstronger than when they went
into it, way more confident, uh,willing to take up the space
that is they deserve to take upon this planet, just like own
their space, own their identity,own their own, all of that, um,
and because the kids are goingto leave, the kids will leave
home one day They'll be offdoing their thing, because
(43:55):
you've groomed them to haveinterests and personality and
all of those things and at theend of the day they're still a
human being, they're still a mom, they're still a woman there
that you know they've got theirthing going on.
They've got it going on,they've.
They've worked all that through.
And so I just really want tospeak to the women out there and
(44:16):
just really encourage them thatthis is not just about the
children.
Find yourself in there too.
Speaker 1 (44:20):
That's beautiful, thank you, and I, yeah, you're,
you're so right.
And I think, like because I wasworking, you know, in a cubicle
for 16 years and it was like wehad talked about in the
beginning of the episode,someone always telling you where
to be, and it wasn't until Istarted homeschooling that I was
like, wow, I, this is, I'mlearning about the Silk Road.
(44:41):
I don't ever remember learningabout it in school and if I did,
it was presented in the mostboring way, or or I just didn't
care, or a little bit of both.
But it's like when you're atthat age now where it makes
sense and then your kids can seeyou light up about learning it,
it really is something special.
And then to find time to youknow, whether it's learning how
(45:01):
to cook or grow food, you know,have a garden or or read books
that you never thought you'dread, that make you think ways
that you never thought you would.
You're so right and I love thatthat you ended on that note.
Thank you so much, laura, forjoining me today.
Speaker 2 (45:15):
Well, thank you so much for having me.
What a joy and what a pleasurethis has been.
What an experience.
I feel like I just I've hit thejackpot today.
It's just been such a neatexperience to be able to kind of
revisit and relive.
Probably the very best fiveyears of my life was
homeschooling, so I say that allthe time.
Speaker 1 (45:34):
And look at the solid foundation that it built with
your kids in just those fiveyears, but it carried on for the
lifetime.
Speaker 2 (45:42):
Yeah, it was, it really is, and it's uh, it's
really cool to watch them.
I don't know what your audienceis, but it's really cool to
watch them as adults sort offigure that out.
I mean, did I do it perfectly?
No, no, did I make mistakes?
Of course I made mistakes, butyou know, to watch them sort of
be so confident in who they arenow and have the full assurance
(46:04):
that they are just walking inthe road they're supposed to be
walking on, that to me is reallya treasure, as somebody who's
finished this journey many, manyyears ago.
So, yeah, it's really awesometo see that.
Speaker 1 (46:17):
Well, thank you for paving the way for us too.
Speaker 2 (46:20):
Thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (46:21):
Making way for the homeschoolers.
Speaker 2 (46:23):
All right, laura, thanks so much, thank you All
right, bye-bye.
Speaker 1 (46:32):
Thank you for tuning into this week's episode of the
homeschool how to.
If you've enjoyed what youheard and you'd like to
contribute to the show, pleaseconsider leaving a small tip
using the link in my show'sdescription.
Or, if you'd rather, please usethe link in the description to
share this podcast with a friendor on your favorite homeschool
group Facebook page.
Any effort to help us keep thepodcast going is greatly
appreciated.
Thank you for tuning in and foryour love of the next
(46:54):
generation.
Welcome to this week's episode of the Homeschool
How-To.
I'm Cheryl and I invite you tojoin me on my quest to find out
why are people homeschooling,how do you do it, how does it
differ from region to region,and should I homeschool my kids?
Stick with me as I interviewhomeschooling families across
the country to unfold theanswers to each of these
(00:26):
questions week by week.
Welcome, and with us today Ihave Laura Baines.
Laura, thanks for being here.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Thank you so much for having me.
I'm really excited to be here.
It's my very first podcastAwesome.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Yeah, well, when you were homeschooling, they
probably didn't have podcasts?
Speaker 2 (00:47):
huh, they did not.
They did not.
It was a fly by the seat ofyour pants kind of deals.
We didn't really even haveinternet, really, but like that,
that's how far back we weregoing.
It was like you orderedcurriculum on the phone and I
don't I'm trying to.
I don't remember even how wefound it, but yeah, that's what
you did.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Yeah, all right.
So what, how many kids do youhave and how old are they now?
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Okay, so I have two kids, uh well, two adults.
Now they are 26 and just turned23.
Um, so I have, my oldest is agirl and my youngest is a is a
boy, and uh yeah, they're bothout working now full-time.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
So what did you?
Always homeschool them, or werethey in school first?
Speaker 2 (01:29):
so, um, the moment I heard the word homeschooling, I
knew I wanted to do it.
I'd never heard the word before.
It was like a two by four,straight out of heaven.
I it was like a stop in yourtracks.
I didn't know what it was, butI was like I didn't know what it
was, but I was like I don'tknow what that is.
But I got to do this.
And then so my daughter went toschool for junior kindergarten
(01:50):
and kindergarten, seniorkindergarten, and let me just
see, I went kicking andscreaming.
I did not want her there, andmy husband, who is a first
generation immigrant, came toCanada for the education system.
So it was a little bit of astruggle, let me tell you, to
convince them, or convince himto take them out, and he's like,
(02:12):
no, they're fine, they're fine,and so that's all.
That was a little bit of achallenge.
So they came out in.
My daughter came out threeweeks into grade one.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
I was gonna say are you from Canada?
Because I interviewed a woman,chloe, a couple of weeks ago
about game schooling and shecalled it junior kindergarten
and senior kindergarten.
I hadn't.
She was from Canada and Ihadn't heard that before,
because we preschool andkindergarten.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Oh, okay, yeah, so we have preschool here, so that's
kind of like a toddler ishprogram and then you go to like
grade uh, junior kindergarten iswhen you're four, senior
kindergarten is when you arefive, and then grade one is when
you're six.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Okay, you know, that's interesting and I wonder
if we're headed to thatdirection, because when I was
going to kindergarten it was ahalf a day, and I'm I'll be 41
tomorrow, so uh, yeah, it wasonly half day, and now you have
kids in kindergarten full day.
I remember when my sister'syoungest son was in school and
he's 18 now it became mandatorythat you have to go for a full
(03:15):
day, because I think they had atime where you could be full day
or half day, whatever theparent wanted.
But now, like you said, thenthere's the year before that in
Canada, the junior kindergarten,or we call it preschool, but we
have two years of preschool.
Because, yeah, my son was fourin a preschool program but there
were three-year-olds in it aswell, so it was a three four
(03:37):
program, so you could do it fortwo years, but what a lot of
people did was send theirthree-year-old and then, when
they were four, they went to theschool where you're actually in
the elementary school for thefull day, taking a bus, doing
all the real school things,which is just crazy to me.
So, yeah, so where did yourhusband come from originally?
Speaker 2 (03:57):
So he's from Punjab, so he's East Indian, and they
came over to Canada when he wasfour.
So he came over right in juniorkindergarten and didn't speak a
word of English and had theJehovah Witnesses actually
taught them how to read andspeak English which is really
(04:19):
funny to me and yeah, and thenby the time he was in grade one,
he had an incredible vocabulary.
So he skipped grade two becausehe came right at that time when
language is really rich, likehis brain was just so receptive
to all things language.
So he was, he was way, way, wayfar ahead of his classmates.
(04:39):
For sure, by the time he was in, by the time he went to school,
he was so far ahead of hisclassmates because he was just
in such a rich environment Withthe Jehovah Witnesses.
Yeah, the Jehovah Witnesses,literally the Kate, because they
were, you know, they were quitehappy to come in and they would
just read the Bible storiesthree or four times a week.
So they had free tutoring threeor four times a week from the
(05:00):
Jehovah Witnesses, and so that'show they.
Uh, and they're Sikhs, just tolet you know, my, my in-laws are
Sikhs and but they were like,yeah, come on in.
And uh, yeah, so that's how helearned how to, that's where
they learned how to speakEnglish, and that's where they
learned how to read Wow.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
So it's funny because he has this connotation about
the school system being sowonderful.
But really he didn't learn thatin the school system, he
learned that privately he didnot.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
He didn't learn it in the school system at all, which
is really funny, um, but he sohis brothers and sisters they
were all in school by the timethat they got here.
It was a.
It was a whole uh thing the waythey.
They came over to india inthree, or came over from india
in three, um, like toursbasically.
There was like some came andthen some came, and then the
(05:46):
rest of them came and so, but hewas the only one that came in
while he was still not supposedto be in school.
So that's how he learned how toEnglish was all about.
The Jehovah's Witnesses werethere for weeks on end teaching
them.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
Yeah, wow, funny story, yeah.
So I mean, eventually you gothim to agree to homeschool, you
know, to let you homeschool thekids.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Well, yeah, no, well, you know what I just so you
know what did, as I'm like, I'ma naturally born teacher, I'm
just naturally gifted that way.
And so the whole year before umgrade one I had was doing unit
studies with my kids for fun.
Like we were like have an oceanday, and I remember we had like
(06:27):
streamers hanging from theceiling and we would have like
fish food and we had ladybugdays and all that, and without
thinking twice about what wewere doing, like it wasn't
intentional, it was just like,oh, you want to learn about fish
this week, let's do that.
And then, of course, by thetime we got into grade one, I
realized that we had done all ofthe science from grade one,
(06:48):
just for fun.
And so, yeah, so what it reallywas was that they had an open
house at the school and but theteacher was sick, and so she
just opened up her classroom andyou could just walk through.
I mean, I don't think thatwould happen these days, but you
could just walk through theclassroom and there was a whole
pile of things that we kind ofwent.
(07:09):
Hmm, hmm, really.
And I think it was sort ofafter that that I said to him
we've done, I've done all theschool work, like I've done
everything.
She was reading at a grade six.
She was reading Black Beautybefore she went into grade one.
So yeah, so she was an earlyreader and so you know, of
course.
(07:29):
So, yeah, and so in grade one,you know of course, we went on
there.
They had a capital A and alowercase a and we're thinking,
are you kidding me?
Like this is not going to gowell.
So I just said to my husband,like let me just try it for this
year, like let's give it a shotfor a year.
She's already done all thescience, she's clearly reading,
no problem.
So yeah, so that's whathappened was, uh, we said it was
(07:52):
going to be a year by yeardecision, but it was a kicking
and screaming he.
He didn't really want them tocome out, but I was really
feeling very convicted about it.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
So so I did, wow, okay, so at that time your
daughter was first grade andyou're how old was your son, or
he wasn't in school yet.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Uh, he wasn't in school yet, he was three.
Uh, um, just, I think, yeah, hewas three when we started, so
he would have still been in thatpreschool age, but the
preschool actually kicked himout cause he wouldn't stop
crying, so he wasn't evenallowed to be in preschool.
So he was home with me all thetime anyway.
So he was already home with meanyway.
So it made sense Okay.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
So you said that you kind of had to order curriculum
by phone.
Back then Was it did a Becca,even were they a thing.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Yep, so that's who.
We used a Becca for math andlanguage, the math program we
loved about Becker Math my kidsso.
My husband's an engineer, he'san electrical engineer, and so
math is a thing in our house forsure, and so, yeah, so we did a
Becker Math and my kids lovedit.
And they were just recallingthey're like the time trials
(09:00):
were the best, remember when wecould do all that math, and they
timed us to see how good theywere.
So my kids loved they.
We did about two and a halfhours of math a day.
They loved math.
Well, they loved it.
It was like can we do more?
Can we do more?
And I'm thinking, well, yeah,of course.
So we did a Becca, we did tonsand tons of math, and then we
did a Becca language for oneyear, but that was just not our
(09:20):
thing.
So we switched off of a Beccaafter the first year.
It was just, it was way toocomplex for me.
I didn't understand.
I didn't understand it.
So I was like I don't know howthey're going to do it.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
So um, I think that makes people feel like, oh good,
all right, math comes, becausemost of us are not doing two and
a half hours of math every day.
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
I don't think I do that a week, but six-year-old.
But my kids loved it, literally.
I think they loved the factthat there was little pictures
on there and I never checkedtheir work.
I ordered the what do you callthem the answer books, and so
they would do a page and checktheir answers and so I would
look at it maybe once a week andgo, okay, we're good.
I wasn't even.
I would look at it maybe once aweek and go, okay, we're good.
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Speaker 2 (11:02):
And then so they were doing all of it.
They were doing the teachingthemselves because they could
both read.
They were doing the teachingthemselves and the correcting
themselves.
So I would just kind of flipthrough and go yeah, you're
right, it's good, let's keepgoing.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
But, but then it's good to hear that, you know.
Then you tried the Abeka forthe language and that just
wasn't a good fit.
So I think that's good forpeople to know that just because
you have one brand doesn't meanit's going to be across the
board.
Everything works for you andthere's nothing wrong with you.
If it doesn't work for you, youcan seek other things.
And I love what you were sayingabout the unit studies, cause as
I've delved into talking tomore homeschoolers and trying
(11:37):
unit studies myself, those aremy favorite because I do get
bored with the okay, what'stoday's lesson and let's do some
practice on some, you know.
But I love the unit studies andhow you can kind of blend in
your language arts and yourscience and all got a lot of the
subjects right into that onetopic that you're discussing.
(11:58):
Like we had done some for thefall.
So it was learning about themoon and looking at some poetry
about the moon and listening toa song, and you know you're
doing a science project holdinga clementine and a flashlight.
You know, clementine on thepencil and a flashlight and
moving around a dark pantry.
But yeah, I love the unit studyaspect.
I have not hung streamers frommy ceiling yet or eaten fish
(12:22):
food.
But I mean, you're bringing upgreat ideas and which is why you
create a curriculum and we'llget into that in a little bit.
But how did it go?
How long did?
Did you homeschool them?
Did they go through for thewhole ride?
Speaker 2 (12:33):
No, so they okay.
So what happened?
Was we?
Um, the sad part was is, when Ipulled my kids out of school,
my neighbor stopped talking tome.
So the neighbor, the, theneighborhood kids, would not
talk to my kids anymore.
I don't know what happened, itwas.
It was um heartbreaking.
So we ultimately moved out ofthat um, out of that house.
(12:54):
Um, I know I can't even.
Yeah, they just they were likeNope, you're good.
There was some perception thatmy kids were better than theirs
or whatever.
It was devastating for ourfamily for sure, because all of
a sudden they had no kids andthey had no friends anymore,
because nobody would talk to usanymore.
It was the strangest thing Icould even imagine.
(13:14):
And then so we ultimately movedout to the country, which it was
funny because when I just askedmy daughter, I said what do you
guys remember abouthomeschooling?
Like you know, I really didn'tknow.
They're old and so anyway, butthey both remember the
environment.
They both remember like, thecountry, property we lived on.
They both remembered like itwas interesting.
(13:36):
They remember that far morethan any other lessons.
So, yeah, so we moved out to thecountry and and then so we were
only, we were home for fiveyears and they both wanted to go
back.
So they were both like lookingfor more than what I could give
them anymore, because now wewere in the country, we were
driving all the time to whereverwe needed to go and so, yeah,
(13:58):
so they went back in grade sixand grade three.
But the interesting thing was,as at home I had skipped, I had
skipped them each a grade.
So when they went back to gradesix and grade three, they had
already done grade six and gradethree.
But the grade six and gradethree, that in the school was
completely different than whatwe had done at home.
There was nothing the same.
(14:20):
All the language was different,all the the books were
different, the writing wasdifferent.
Really weird.
So, yeah, but they but so yeah,they went back in grade six and
grade three, which you guysdon't have down here, but we
have something up here calledeqao.
Eqao is standardized testingand the kids do it in grade
three, grade six, grade nine, ingrade 10, and so let me tell
(14:43):
you how excited the principalwas when I bring in my grade
three and grade six homeschooledstudents.
She was thinking our scores aregoing to go through the roof
with these kids.
It was really funny.
Actually, she was so excitedthat they were coming in in the
EQAO years to do these tests forthem.
So that was funny.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
So did they do better than the other kids.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Oh they were.
So they were off the charts, sothey, it's OK.
So here's the thing I'm justgoing to tell you about the
homeschool world.
I remember thinking, you know,we were in a, we were in a co-op
and the people around me werelifers.
They were homeschool lifers,for sure.
I knew my kids were going to goback to school someday, like I
(15:26):
just knew that and so.
But the other people around us?
We were lifers, that.
So these were people who weredoing things like you know.
They were like horseback ridingat international levels.
They played six instruments,they talked four languages, they
traveled the world.
You know, these were people whowere like homeschoolers extreme
.
And so I look at my kids and Iwas like, well, we didn't even
(15:48):
bother with geography, because Idon't.
I was like my goal forhomeschooling was literally,
let's do language.
I need you to be able to read,I need you to be able to write
and I need you to be able to domath.
The rest of it you can figureout on your own.
I really don't care about anyof the rest of it.
You'll figure it out.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
You're smart, you'll figure it out.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
So that was literally my goal was like, okay, math
and language and writing.
And then, um, so when, so whenwe went back I didn't really
think my kids were that smart.
I mean, they, they, they playany instruments, they, they
could do math and they couldread and they could write.
That's what they could do.
And they got back into schooland they were like killing it.
They were like teaching theirteachers how to do stuff.
(16:25):
They were.
It was crazy.
So my son in grade three, he had, um, he's an electrical guy.
He had he was building circuitsat home, he was building
software programs at home.
He was like he was.
He knew from the time he wasfour he was going to be an
electrical engineer.
He just knew that.
And so when he got into school,of course there was no issues
(16:46):
with reading, no issues withmath and no issues with writing.
So he was bored like boredsilly.
And so they had him and theyrealized he was really good with
technology.
So he was the school technologyguy for the whole time he was
there.
They were like something'sbroken, call Clark, he can do it
.
It was like, literally, and OK.
So here's the funny thing isthat when he went to high school
(17:08):
they still called him.
They're like Clark, can youcome back and fix this?
So they were calling histeachers would be like can you
find this thing on the Internetfor me Like it was crazy?
So yeah, so neither one of themstruggled academically at all,
but this was in the time.
This was here's my little thing.
This was in the time when they,the schools, were focusing more
(17:31):
on character development.
So my kids would have like wonevery single award in the school
, every single academic award inthe school and some of the
character ones too.
In the graduations.
There was no mention ofacademics at all, which I
thought was telling, because Ithought my schools were going,
my kids were going to school foracademics, but that wasn't the
(17:54):
case, there was no mention ofacademics at that graduation at
all, and so this was their highschool graduation, so this would
have been maybe five 10 yearsago.
So this was at their grade eight.
When they went from grade eightto grade nine, so maybe 15
years ago.
Yeah, mention of academics.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
That's interesting.
I I bet you most people didn'teven notice that.
You know but you're.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
But we did because we did because they would have won
them all.
So you know yeah yeah oh, wowyeah that is interesting so.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
So then did they continue on with high school?
Speaker 2 (18:27):
yep so they both were in high school and um.
So my daughter was the only onein her high school year that uh
was on the um, like meddled inthe honor role all four years.
She won gold twice, silver onceand bronze once.
So we have four years of highschool here and so she, she
meddled all four years.
She um came in second in hergraduating year.
(18:49):
So she was always book smart.
She was always.
You know, she's like oh, I havea math test today.
Whoops, I forgot to study.
Let me get 110% on it.
One of those ones, right?
Yeah, one of those.
And she went on to go do mathas her degree.
Like she has a math degree.
My son wasn't as smart as that,like, he didn't get the marks,
like that, but he was um.
(19:09):
He was taking grade 12 classeswhen he was in grade nine, all
the computer ones and thescience ones.
He was taking all of those onesbecause he just liked it.
I mean, he, he, he was, he wasself-taught.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
And that you know.
It's amazing because just thoseyears, like do you think that
would have happened to them hadyou never homeschooled them?
Speaker 2 (19:27):
No, no, no, no, no, no, not at all, because we
schooled from nine o'clock inthe morning on the dot until one
on the dot, and then we alwayshad lunch at one and then.
So they had the afternoon to dowhatever they wanted.
And so he decided when heliterally decided when he was
four he was going to be anengineer, and so we bought him
(19:48):
snap circuits.
Do you know snap circuits?
Speaker 1 (19:50):
No, okay, so snap circuits no.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
Okay, so snap, circuits are like Lego and then
but they attach by and there's,you can run circuits in them.
You can actually make lights goand sirens go and that's all
battery things and you it's allby battery and so you actually
can build circuits to makethings happen.
And so he was building circuitswhen he was four and five years
old and teach himself that.
(20:15):
But he, you know they'd alreadylearned how to teach themselves
stuff because I never taughtthem any math, like I never
(20:37):
taught them math, they justtaught themselves math.
So they had.
So he was self-taught for sure.
I do not think.
I don't think he would havebeen as far ahead as he was had
he not had that kind of it wasinteresting, because it wasn't,
it wasn't really a good.
I didn't think he would havebeen as far ahead as he was had
he not had that kind of it wasinteresting, because it wasn't,
it wasn't really a good, Ididn't teach them anything, it
was him Like it was him.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
He did it, but you gave them the time and ability
to one know that they can teachthemselves things once they
learned how to read, and to theboredom of the afternoons, to
give them the time to learn whatinterests them, which is what
I'm seeing.
A lot of that we are beingdenied as humans because we're
(21:18):
just told where to be at allhours of the day.
And if we're not told where tobe, if it's like our downtime in
the evening, it's getting readyfor the next day when we're
told where to be.
So you don't have that time toreally find what interests you.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
So that's huge.
You need to be bored in orderfor you to find out what makes
you tick Like.
You can't do that while you'rebombarded with all of the
information about where you'resupposed to be and what you're
supposed to do.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Yeah, and it's funny because if there's one thing
that you know anybody says, whenyou say, oh, how was school
today?
You always say boring.
So it's like you are bored allday, but you're sitting there at
a desk with nothing interestingaround you, so it's not the
right kind of boredom, becauseyou don't have the freedom to
find something that interestsyou.
(22:04):
So it's they're different board.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
They're different ways to be bored.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Um, all right, that's so cool.
So then, all right.
So once your kids went backinto school, did you notice any
sort of difference?
Like you know, I know they werethey must've been a little bit
bored in class.
Did they ever talk aboutwanting to be homeschooled again
, or were they happy that theywere there?
Speaker 2 (22:22):
They were happy.
They were there, they, they,they.
It was funny.
We all decided at five yearswe'd had enough, like we, we all
were like we've done what weneeded to do, we got it, and so,
no, they never wanted to comeout.
But don't forget, they werekind of um hand chosen at school
or I'm trying to think whatthat expression is, but they
were sort of handpicked.
At school I had one that wasdoing all the technology and the
(22:45):
other one, my, the.
My daughter was the older one.
She was teaching everybody howto do stuff, like she was um.
So if they ever needed help inthe kindergarten room or
whatever they were doing, that'swho they were pulling out of
class.
They were pulling her out ofclass because there was.
She wasn't missing anything atall yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
So they really found like what kind of what interests
them and their passions throughthat, through being needed
there yeah, and they and theywere and they were, they were
chosen.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
I mean, I don't think every kid had that experience.
I had the same experiencegrowing up, but like chosen out
of out of the classroom to dosome of these special things,
which does make a difference forhow you see yourself.
And the other thing too is whenmy daughter was in school, so
she went in in grade six, shewas 5'11 when she went into
(23:33):
grade six, so she stood out likea sore thumb.
She was extremely tall.
She was a head taller thananybody else in the school and
she's 6'3 now.
So she's 6'3 and my son's 6'5.
So it's like their size made adifference.
For sure, yeah, their size madea difference, but yeah, they
were just chosen to do theirthing, so they didn't.
(23:53):
They didn't lose school at all.
They.
They quite liked it because itwas just fun.
They got to do all the funstuff.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
Yeah, all right.
So then, once they graduatedand they went on to, you know,
to college and to do theircareers, you found yourself in
the teaching realm again.
So why don't you tell us alittle bit about that?
Speaker 2 (24:13):
I did so when they went back to school, I went back
to teacher's college so that weall started school on the same
day.
So I went to teacher's college,which was kind of neat, you
know.
You kind of come home at nightand you're like, well, who did
you have lunch with, well, whodid you have lunch with, well,
who did you have lunch with?
You know, it was all three ofus.
And so, yeah, I went toteacher's college and then was
in the classroom to do mypracticums and hated it, hated,
(24:36):
hated, hated the classroom.
It was like there wasn't enoughtime to teach, and so I ended
up trying to figure out how Iwas going to teach without
having a classroom, which is notthe easiest thing to do.
But you know, where there's awill, there's a way, and ended
up sort of doing a variety ofthings.
I ended up tutoring thoughreally using a lot of the
(24:57):
homeschool ideas that, because Iknew that it was effective.
Right, I already had seen it myown kids.
So, yeah, so I end up tutoringmath for one, because math is
easy to teach, and for me it wasanyway, it makes complete sense
.
And then, so parents thenstarted to say to me well, if
you can do that with math, canyou do with language?
(25:19):
And I was like, well, I don'tknow, language is a whole
different ball game.
It requires way more parts ofthe brain.
Let me think about that.
So, anyway, I thought about itfor about a year and thought,
wow, how would I do that?
And then I kind of came up witha game plan and I was full
before I could even put the wordout.
There they were like Laura'sgoing to do language.
(25:39):
So the word got out and I wassix kids a day.
I had six kids a day to bedoing that, and then the
lockdowns hit and what I haddone before was, when I had the
six kids, I would have three inat a time.
So it was kind of like a littlehomeschool, but mom wasn't the
teacher, so, and in order to beinto that program you had to be
(26:01):
three grade levels behind.
That was my, my cutoff, and so,anyway, so we were doing Okay,
so these were kids in school.
These were kids in school andtheir parents were pulling get
this one.
Their parents were pulling themout of school for two and a
half hours a day, three times aweek, to come and see me Yep, to
come and see me.
Just because they knew what Icould do.
They'd seen it in my own kids.
Teachers were recommending meand then, which is funny to me,
(26:26):
that teachers recommend me, butanyway, then the lockdowns hit
and I had to not do that anymoreand had to go one-on-one
virtual and then, um, so then,as the kids started to come back
into my office, I realizedthere was a gap of five, six
years now with some of thesekids from expectation to what
they were capable of.
It was driving me crazy.
Like I had a grade five studentwho came to me who couldn't
(26:48):
read.
He could read the word the, andthat was it.
Like he couldn't read anythingat grade.
A grade five student who cameto me who couldn't read he could
read the word the, and that wasit.
Like he couldn't read anythingat grade five.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
Grade five.
And how old are you then?
You're about 10?
Speaker 2 (26:59):
10.
Couldn't read.
A thing had been.
He was a farm, he was a farmkid they had.
They lacked a good internetduring the lockdown so they did
no school at all during thelockdowns internet during the
lockdown, so they did no schoolat all during the lockdowns and
they were farming.
They were like they had.
They had cows, they needed todo stuff, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
I'm not sure how to do some things.
He just didn't know how to read.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
Yes, but you know, as soon as you go back into school
and people realize that you,there's a gap, now you're
targeted as a bully for bullying, right, and so this stopped
going to school he was.
He was so much anxiety that hewas no longer going to school
anymore.
So when his parents found meand said, you know, and then I
worked as a tutor full-time thathe could, they could bring him
(27:42):
at noon I was be like okay, so,uh, yeah.
So I had a pile of kids likethis all in grade five, grade
six couldn't read a thing, andso I needed so this is where it
kind of came up I needed aresource that was it gave them a
better sort of diet of foodthan dog on a log and cat on a
(28:04):
mat.
Because by the time you're ingrade five, you know I had to
start with Matt and Sam.
Like I had to start with Mattand Sam, but I couldn't keep him
on that forever because weneeded to make some progress,
and so I ended up writing somebooks for him.
Um, I ended up writing somebooks for him and then I was
surprised I actually was shockedat how well they worked.
And uh, and what?
(28:27):
Not only how well they worked,but how he was feeling when he
was reading them.
He's like, wow, look at thesebig words I can read.
I go yes, when you have theright resource in front of you
for where you are, then it works.
And so, actually, I just pulledthis one out.
This is the one that I wrotefor him.
I wrote AR.
I wrote the AR book, and AR saysR and this is all about Clark
(28:52):
the shark and scarlet the larkand they're stuck on an arc.
Uh, yeah, so it's a whole, it'sa book, just with lots and lots
of these ar words in it.
Like about about half the wordson every page have the ar word
in it and then so he was able todecode it and he was able to
figure it out.
So he was not stuck at and onmatt and, uh, you know, on matt
and sam, like he just wasn'tstuck there.
And the reason I took this isbecause this was in his name, so
(29:14):
the AR was straight from hisname.
So he already knew that AR saidR from his name, so I was able
just to just pull that out andgo from there.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
Hey everyone.
This is Cheryl.
I want to thank you so much forchecking out the podcast.
I'm going to keep this shortand sweet because I know your
time is valuable.
I want to ask you a seriousquestion Do your kids know what
to do to actually save theirlife in an emergency?
The most important thing we cantalk to our kids about is
knowing their first and lastname, knowing mom and dad's
first and last name, mom's phonenumber, dad's phone number,
(29:45):
their address, what to do ifthey get lost, what to do if
someone who's watching them hasa heart attack, a stroke, an
accident where they fall andyour child needs to get help.
We live in a world wherethere's no landline phones
anymore, basically, and cellphones lock.
Does your child know how tocall 911 from a locked cell
phone?
It is absolutely possible, andmy book demonstrates how to do
(30:08):
that, whether it's an Android,whether it's an iPhone and, most
importantly, it starts theconversation, because I was
going through homeschoolingcurriculum with my kids,
realizing that, gee, maybe theyskim over this stuff, but they
don't get into depth, so mychild's not gonna remember this
should an accident occur, right?
I asked a couple of teacherswhat they do in school and they
(30:30):
said they really don't doanything either other than talk
about what to do in a fireduring the month of October fire
prevention month.
So I wrote a book because thisis near and dear to my heart.
I have had multiple friendsthat have lost kids in tragedies
and I don't want to see ithappen again if it doesn't have
to.
We were at the fair over thesummer and the first thing I
said to my son when we walkedthrough that gate was what's my
(30:52):
first and last name, what isyour first and last name and
what is my phone number?
And if you get lost, what areyou going to do?
You can get my book on Amazonand I will put the link in my
show's description Again.
It's called let's TalkEmergencies and I really hope
you'll check it out becausethere's just no need to be
scared when you can chooseprepared.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
I wrote these books for him, and then they worked.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
How many books did you?
Speaker 2 (31:17):
write for him.
Well, in total I ended upwriting 41 books.
So I have 41 different books.
So all the different letterpatterns, like A, w, a, u, e, W,
like tons of like all thedifferent letter patterns, a-u,
e-w, like tons of like all thedifferent letter patterns, all
the R-controlled vowels, all theW-controlled vowels, you know
(31:40):
the vowel teams, all those.
So I wrote there's 41 of them,and so this.
So the cool thing about thisthough the cool thing I just got
to show you, the cool thingabout this is that on this page
I don't know if your viewers cansee this or not, but on this
page it says I can read thesewords right at the top, and what
I did was, for any word thatdoesn't sound out completely, I
sounded out for them.
The play is, I had a lowercaseP and a lowercase L and then a
(32:01):
capital A so that they recognizethat play.
So anytime I use a capitalletter on this page, it actually
said the letter name.
So as the kids are reading, soas the kids are reading, so as
the kids are reading, look atthis.
So let me just find a good pageon this one.
So on this page you can see ifyou can see that or not, words
that are underlying there.
So everything on that pageeither has the AR word on it or
(32:24):
it sounds out, or or if itdoesn't sound out, like the word
make doesn't sound out, but soI have the word make on the
front page and they can actuallyflip there and figure out that
that's the word make.
Because for a kid like this, I Ican't teach them all the vowel
teams, I can't teach them allthe things at once.
We just needed to focus.
For somebody in grade five, wejust needed, like high level,
(32:47):
high concentration, to just doone at a time and not have to
worry about all the rest of them.
So that's how I did it.
So, yeah, so I ended up writingthis curriculum and of course I
have, you know, I have myhomeschool experience in there
because I have, like all thesecool ideas.
What's this one?
So this one, it's called Amuseat Home.
Oh, amuse at Home has so onthis book.
(33:10):
They all have different books,but on this one.
So Clark the Shark and Scarletthe Lark end up playing cards at
dark on the ark in this book,and so what I did was, in the
back of it, I actually taughtyou how to play a card game and
this was one of the favoritecard games I used when we were
homeschooling and it's a mathgame, so it's for basic numeracy
(33:31):
and I just gave you the rulesin there on how to play that, so
, which I thought was kind offun.
So that would be like you know,that's that sort of post one
o'clock time when you know likewhat are we going to do now that
all the sort of the formalstuff is done?
Well, let's learn how to playcards, or you know that.
So there's all sorts of like Ihave like spelling activities in
there and games and puzzles andoh I don't know recipes.
(33:54):
There's 41 different activitieslike outing ideas, and then
there's this other part in ittoo.
So this is like the teacher inme that went to teacher's
college.
So this one it just saysresearch shark, research shark,
behavior and their habits, andthen also name all the months in
order, because of course, thishappens in March, and so all
(34:16):
these ideas about how to likeextend your learning, like as a
homeschooler, I would have lovedthis be like oh, that's a good
idea, let's do that today.
Or you know, let's.
You know, one of them has likean idea for a puppet show.
One of them has ideas for likesewing something you know, let's
.
You know, one of them has likean idea for a puppet show.
One of them has ideas for likesewing something you know,
whatever.
So, whatever it is, there'ssomething related to all of them
(34:36):
in there.
So, yeah, so can I just showyou this?
This is what it looks like.
This is the book.
It's 600 pages of learning andI wrote this is the cool thing,
this is this one.
So the cool thing is I don'tknow if you can see that there's
two copies of every book inthere.
There's actually 82 of thesebooks in there, okay, so if you
(34:58):
have multiple children at homewhich you probably do, if you're
homeschooling, then you havelots of chances to use the books
.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
So, and where can people find that?
Speaker 2 (35:15):
I can put a link in the show's description.
But yeah, so that's uh, so it'scalled Amuse and Phonics, so
it's wwwamuseinphonicsca.
Spelled exactly how you wouldexpect it A M U S E I N P H O N
I.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
C, sca.
So there, yeah, we'll put alink to that.
That's awesome.
I'm going through that processnow with my son, who's six,
trying to learn to.
He is not reading black beautyon his own.
Um, we have been working onphonics for geez I think, two
years now, at least a year and ahalf now, starting out with the
Hagerty phonics which is likeused in the schools and
(35:42):
kindergarten, and but it's, itwas just so dry.
But I'm like, okay, we have todo this stuff and we I would
force them through it.
And then it was like, okay,let's take a break.
And then we did the all aboutreading, pre-reading, and that
was fine and, um, and he likedit.
And then this year I was like,oh, let's try the teacher child
to eat and run, read in 100 easylessons.
(36:03):
But there, they don't likeafter the first 20, they're not
easy lessons anymore.
They're probably easy for yourkids.
They are not easy for him.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
I don't even remember teaching my kids how to read.
Do you know that, Honestly?
Speaker 1 (36:17):
really.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
We did it from spelling.
Like I think we did it fromspelling.
We would do a craft and then Iwould say well, let's write down
whatever it was we just did.
And I would this is what Iremember and I would say would
say okay, so we just did abutterfly, so what's the first
sound of butterfly book?
What letter is that b?
And then I would say the ah.
And so they I think that's howwe I don't even remember
teaching them how to read-honestly, I don't.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
The funny part about that is my son makes lists all
the time and I'm always going,okay, well, what's?
And my husband too all right,well, what sound is it?
Well, what's next, what's now?
Speaker 2 (36:48):
finally, I'm just like it's u-t-t-e-r-f-l-y while
you're doing that you have totell them why you have to have
two t's in the word butter.
So the e doesn't change the u,right, so you actually right,
you have to explain that that'swhy butter has to have two t's
in it, so that the e is too faraway from the U to change it
(37:08):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
Well see, I didn't get to that part yet in the
courses, so maybe I do need toget your book so that it
explains why?
Speaker 2 (37:19):
Well, you know, you know the interesting.
So part of the thing that I hadto figure out was for this,
these students that were comingin, we didn't have time to do
the sequenced, we didn't havetime to do all the sequence
stuff like, and we just didn'thave time to do it.
And their parents expected farmore progress than what we were.
They we needed progress everysingle day and so I didn't want
(37:43):
a sequenced program.
I wanted them to feel like lookat what I can do.
Because as soon as they get tolook at what I can do, then
their whole mindset has changedto be like wow, I can read.
Yes, you can.
Actually it's not really rocketscience.
It's not rocket science toteach somebody to read as long
(38:04):
as you can start to figure outand decode.
And actually I'm just going totell you something.
When we were using these bookswith him, I had originally told
his parents it was going to takeprobably two to two and a half
years of tutoring to try and gethim like up to speed.
And he was reading in about Itried to kick him out of the
program after five monthsbecause he was reading by.
(38:24):
In five months he was readingand they kept him in for another
like six months, just becauseit was just a nice little safety
net for them.
But uh, he was reading novels.
He was reading novels.
After about, um, like afterabout five months, he was
reading novels.
I thought you don't really needto be here you've got enough of
a base to figure him out, and Ihave such a waiting list that I
don't like to keep kids in toolong, because because it becomes
(38:48):
sort of like this security yeahlike you've got.
You've got the information, nowjust go be awesome.
And um, so I tried to get himout of the program.
It didn't really work and then,um so they stayed in for about
another six months or so and I,uh, I was as you were saying
with the you and the reason forthe two T's.
Speaker 1 (39:08):
it made me think of a post that I had on Instagram
recently.
This was from a comic.
I'll see if I can play it inthe microphone here, but it
makes so much sense.
Speaker 2 (39:19):
That's it.
H-o-e-m home.
No, home is H-O-E-M.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
Something is dumb and I think we don't realize it
until we're teaching our kids.
Speaker 2 (39:30):
I know right, some of those we can explain.
I can explain the sum away forsure, but you know some of those
we can explain.
But yeah, I know it's fun,that's actually called the
scribal O, just to let you know.
That's called the scribal O inthe sum and it's from when they
used to do cursive.
So here's the thing when theythey used to do cursive.
(39:51):
So here's the thing when theyused this is some s-o-m-e,
s-o-m-e, so yes, so when theyused to do cursive, they it
would look so that they was a uand then an m and it just kind
of looked like a whole bunch ofjust loops, and so what they did
was they just closed off thethey.
They put kind of a cap on topof the o so that it separated it
from the M.
So that's why the O, when it'snext to an N, an M or a V, often
(40:15):
sounds like a U, like that's sointeresting.
Yeah, it's called the scribal O.
So like love, money, glove,yeah, it's called the scribal O.
Speaker 1 (40:24):
They never taught me that in school.
What about num and U?
Speaker 2 (40:28):
and I don't know okay , so the, so the well, the and
the b.
I mean, who knows what the b isfor?
I didn't go into a big thingabout, uh, you know morphology
and all that.
The b is silent.
Uh, there must be a reason forit to be there, like in thumb
and comb, I don't know um, butso there are, but there is some,
but there is some.
There's a, lots of words that,that, um, that work with that
(40:51):
scribal, oh theory okay.
Speaker 1 (40:53):
Well, at least you know there might be a reason
somewhere, and it's not thatthey're just trying to make us
go nuts, and it's the same incanada as it is in america
except for we have a u in a lotsof our words, like color.
Speaker 2 (41:06):
We have a u in that, in that right, yes, okay, so our
color is C O L O U?
R, which makes it really funfor reading, because then it
should be clower.
Speaker 1 (41:16):
Right.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
But when you're trying to teach it.
So actually I like the, I likethe American stuff better for
that one, it's easier to teachit all.
Speaker 1 (41:24):
Oh funny.
Yeah, oh well, is thereanything else, laura, that you
wanted to make sure we touchedupon while we have you here
today?
I, like I said, I'll make sureto share the link to your your
phonics book in the show'sdescription, so people can check
that out.
Speaker 2 (41:37):
You know what I want to say.
I want to say to the moms outthere.
I want to say to the moms thathomeschooling is not just about
your kids.
I want moms to know thatthere's something in there for
them too.
And so while you'rehomeschooling your children, you
are also learning.
You're learning somethingYou're probably relearning, like
I know.
For me, when I had to teachhistory, I was terrified about
(42:00):
teaching history and thenrealized, with the right
resource, it was way more funthan what I remember from grade
nine.
But you know, while I want tospeak to the moms, really
because I kind of found my, myraison d'etre through
homeschooling, like I knew thatI was going to be a teacher
somehow some way, and Iliterally tutor full time.
(42:22):
Now I have like 12 students aday or something like that.
So I really want moms to beencouraged in this, because it
seems like it's all about thekids all the time.
I mean, it's very busy that way.
You have your kids with you24-7.
But really there's something inthere for a mom to sort of
glean out of that and find a newpart of their personality they
(42:46):
may have never seen before, anda new part of their identity,
and whether it's a new hobby,whether it's a new realization
about themselves, whether it's anew way to perceive themselves,
whether it's how they fit intothat community and how they're
going to stand up to some of thenaysayers that's a big one,
(43:10):
sayers.
That's a big one Just to havethe confidence to know that
they're doing the right thing bytheir children and to really
stand up to some of those peopleOften it's parents, spouses,
neighbors it's all of that thatyou have to fight against and
you're going against the grainmany, many, many times.
I really want the women to findthe strength in that because we
do know that it's mostly womendoing the homeschooling and find
the strength in that to reallyjust be themselves and just come
(43:32):
out of this a thousand timesstronger than when they went
into it, way more confident, uh,willing to take up the space
that is they deserve to take upon this planet, just like own
their space, own their identity,own their own, all of that, um,
and because the kids are goingto leave, the kids will leave
home one day They'll be offdoing their thing, because
(43:55):
you've groomed them to haveinterests and personality and
all of those things and at theend of the day they're still a
human being, they're still a mom, they're still a woman there
that you know they've got theirthing going on.
They've got it going on,they've.
They've worked all that through.
And so I just really want tospeak to the women out there and
(44:16):
just really encourage them thatthis is not just about the
children.
Find yourself in there too.
Speaker 1 (44:20):
That's beautiful, thank you, and I, yeah, you're,
you're so right.
And I think, like because I wasworking, you know, in a cubicle
for 16 years and it was like wehad talked about in the
beginning of the episode,someone always telling you where
to be, and it wasn't until Istarted homeschooling that I was
like, wow, I, this is, I'mlearning about the Silk Road.
(44:41):
I don't ever remember learningabout it in school and if I did,
it was presented in the mostboring way, or or I just didn't
care, or a little bit of both.
But it's like when you're atthat age now where it makes
sense and then your kids can seeyou light up about learning it,
it really is something special.
And then to find time to youknow, whether it's learning how
(45:01):
to cook or grow food, you know,have a garden or or read books
that you never thought you'dread, that make you think ways
that you never thought you would.
You're so right and I love thatthat you ended on that note.
Thank you so much, laura, forjoining me today.
Speaker 2 (45:15):
Well, thank you so much for having me.
What a joy and what a pleasurethis has been.
What an experience.
I feel like I just I've hit thejackpot today.
It's just been such a neatexperience to be able to kind of
revisit and relive.
Probably the very best fiveyears of my life was
homeschooling, so I say that allthe time.
Speaker 1 (45:34):
And look at the solid foundation that it built with
your kids in just those fiveyears, but it carried on for the
lifetime.
Speaker 2 (45:42):
Yeah, it was, it really is, and it's uh, it's
really cool to watch them.
I don't know what your audienceis, but it's really cool to
watch them as adults sort offigure that out.
I mean, did I do it perfectly?
No, no, did I make mistakes?
Of course I made mistakes, butyou know, to watch them sort of
be so confident in who they arenow and have the full assurance
(46:04):
that they are just walking inthe road they're supposed to be
walking on, that to me is reallya treasure, as somebody who's
finished this journey many, manyyears ago.
So, yeah, it's really awesometo see that.
Speaker 1 (46:17):
Well, thank you for paving the way for us too.
Speaker 2 (46:20):
Thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (46:21):
Making way for the homeschoolers.
Speaker 2 (46:23):
All right, laura, thanks so much, thank you All
right, bye-bye.
Speaker 1 (46:32):
Thank you for tuning into this week's episode of the
homeschool how to.
If you've enjoyed what youheard and you'd like to
contribute to the show, pleaseconsider leaving a small tip
using the link in my show'sdescription.
Or, if you'd rather, please usethe link in the description to
share this podcast with a friendor on your favorite homeschool
group Facebook page.
Any effort to help us keep thepodcast going is greatly
appreciated.
Thank you for tuning in and foryour love of the next
(46:54):
generation.
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