#115: Shifting from Curriculum-Heavy to Self-Directed Learning with Katie Berry

Katie Berry returns to The Homeschool How To Podcast with a refreshingly honest revelation about her educational transformation. Once a curriculum devotee who meticulously planned each subject for her five children, Katie now champions a dramatically different approach that has revolutionized learning in her home.

The catalyst? Life's demands forced her hand when increasing work responsibilities made her traditional teaching schedule unsustainable. What began as a necessary adaptation revealed an unexpected truth: her children learned more, retained information better, and developed genuine enthusiasm when given agency over their education. From her eight-year-old narrating detailed animal facts after watching Wild Kratts to her older son eagerly sharing discoveries from science comics, the evidence was undeniable.

Katie still maintains that some subjects—particularly reading—benefit from direct instruction. If a child hasn't begun reading spontaneously by age six or seven, structured phonics teaching becomes essential. But for history, science, and other subjects, she's transitioned from teacher to mentor, guiding her children toward resources while allowing them to chart their learning paths through documentaries, podcasts, books, and hands-on activities.

This shift addresses a profound educational gap Katie observed when her public-schooled daughter, despite graduating with honors, called home during her first month of college having panic attacks because she didn't know how to learn independently. The checkbox mentality of traditional education hadn't prepared her for self-directed learning. By contrast, Katie's homeschooled children are developing the exact skills needed for higher education success—finding resources, managing time, and pursuing knowledge without constant direction.

Are you struggling with curriculum overload or wondering if your approach is sustainable? Join us for this thought-provoking conversation about loosening the reins, trusting your children's natural curiosity, and reimagining what effective education truly means.

 ✨ This episode is brought to you by Excelsior Classes — live, online courses for homeschoolers taught by passionate, Christian instructors. Whether your student needs support in core subjects or wants to explore exciting electives, Excelsior offers rigorous academics in a nurturing environment. Learn more at excelsiorclasses.com! 

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Episode Transcript

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 I am welcoming back KatieBerry.
Katie, thank you so much forbeing here again.
Yeah, absolutely, I always lovetalking with you, cheryl, I love
having you on.
You've been on a couple oftimes.
We did a live together a coupleI guess last week, where we had

(00:47):
a couple of other homeschoolingmoms on and that was really fun
.
We had kind of an open Q&Asession.
We went over a lot of the howto even begin homeschooling.
So if you didn't check that out, please go check that out.
It's on YouTube and ApplePodcasts, spotify, all the good
places.

(01:12):
But today we wanted to kind ofjust touch base on where you
have come, because you were onepisode four originally, so like
the very beginning and we itwas titled, I think, curriculum,
curriculum, curriculum, how doI pick a curriculum?
And you have also been on acouple couple other episodes on
my curriculum series talkingabout different curriculums that
you've used.
And we also had an episode forMother's Day where we talked

(01:33):
about books that you recommendto the homeschooling mom to help
us sort of find comfort in oureveryday homeschooling and find
peace within our homeschool.
So thank you so much for allthat you've added to the show so
far.
Yeah, absolutely All right.
Today we are going to touchbase on where did you want to
begin this one?

Speaker 2 (01:52):
So I think that it would be best if we start where
I talk about how my views aroundcurriculum and homeschooling
has changed, because it reallyhas changed and shifted over the
last year or year or two, sincewe talked at the very beginning
about curriculum.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
Okay, and if I remember back to that episode,
let's recap a little bit.
Where were you in the beginning?
You know what were your viewssurrounding when you started
homeschooling, Because you hadsome kids that were in public
school right and then othersthat you were choosing to
homeschool.

Speaker 2 (02:25):
Yeah, so I have five children.
My oldest two were neverhomeschooled.
They went to a brick and mortarcharter school for K-8 and then
went to public high school andgraduated that way, and then my
younger three had beenexclusively homeschooled.
But when we talked a few yearsago I was still very heavy into

(02:45):
curriculum and choosing thingslike per subject for each of my
kids and just really like very,very curriculum heavy in my home
, and that has changed over thelast few years.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
Okay, that's interesting.
And you know, yeah, yourecommended to me the Hegarty
Phonics, which I did do with myson he was four at the time,
turning five and in conjunctionwith All About Reading, the
pre-reading, and you may haveeven recommended the Good and
the Beautiful for math.
But so those were like thethree main things that we did

(03:19):
and, honestly, the year wentpretty well.
But I'm like you, honestly, theyear went pretty well.
But I'm like you, I kind ofpulled back.
The more I started homeschoolingand talking to other
homeschooling families, I pulledback with the curriculum and
started kind of looking at theHagerty.
I can see where that isnecessary, right, like it's,
we're breaking up words, we'rereally listening to the

(03:39):
beginning sound, the middlesound, the end sound, and I do
think that that makes thingseasier when you go on.
But, however, my son is stillsix and we're still like, kind
of like struggling to find thegroove of like what he likes
doing and you know how to gethim there to where he's actually
reading on his own.
Um, and it does take changingup things.
So it's to let parents know,like it's, you're never going to

(04:01):
get it right on the first try,right it's.
That's just the beauty ofhomeschooling is we have that
ability to do trial and error.
What was what works for onemight not for another.
So yeah, tell me yourexperience and what has changed
for you.

Speaker 2 (04:15):
Yeah.
So I still believe that thereare certain subjects that do
need direct instruction, readingbeing one of them.
While there are kids that someof them that can learn to read
very naturally through aliterature rich environment,
Most of those kids are learningto read on their own before the
age of six, the ones that arenatural readers.
If, by age six or seven, theyhave not started reading

(04:37):
spontaneously, they're notprobably not going to become
readers unless they're givendirect instruction.
So I'm not saying that kidscan't learn on their own to read
.
I'm just saying that usuallythose kids that do do so before
the age of six or seven.
So I still hold the view thatreading instruction is important
.
I think reading is the base ofall learning and although I do

(05:02):
think that kids are ready tolearn between the ages of like
four and seven so if you have asix-year-old that's not reading
yet, there's nothing to bealarmed about.
I'm just saying that theyprobably will need direct
instruction and if you want todelay that until age seven, I'm
in support of that as well.
Sometimes delaying until thebrain is ready to learn is a
better choice, but I still thinkthat no matter if you wait till
age seven or what have you thatthere should be some direct

(05:26):
instruction in the home when itcomes?

Speaker 1 (05:27):
to reading.
Ok, so when you say directinstruction, you mean just like
a, like a curriculum orsomething that you are
intentionally doing every day,Because I think I know what you
mean by the spontaneous.
I've talked to some parentsthat are like I didn't even
teach my kid how to read, thatare like I didn't even teach my
kid how to read, they just allof a sudden absorbed it from

(05:48):
maybe hearing me talk.
You know, teach the older childor you know they just their
four year old picked up a bookand just started saying the
sounds.
So is that the difference, thatsort of intentional versus
unintentional?

Speaker 2 (05:59):
Yes, so, for example, my youngest daughter, who is
now eight years old.
I started homeschooling whenshe was eight months old and she
has been raised in a veryliterature-rich environment
where I was reading aloud a lotto my kids.
They were reading aloud a lotand she also was immersed in the

(06:21):
homeschooling world.
Because you know as youprobably know're doing something
with an older child.
Those toddlers want to join inand so I always tried to find a
way to incorporate her, likewhether I would let her paint
with water.
So I'd get like constructionpaper that was red or a dark
color and give her a paintbrushwith water and she would, you
know, the paper would darken asshe painted with water, things

(06:42):
like that that were very likenon-messy.
But she could sit and beinvolved with us and she's my
one that did spontaneously read.
So at age five she wasstruggling to blend.
So I just used Hegarty with her, and I only did Hegarty for a
year with her when she wasbetween the age of five and six,

(07:03):
and at the end of that year shewas a spontaneous reader and
began reading.
I decided to use all aboutreading with her anyway, because
I thought all about reading isimportant to helping kids decode
harder words, because all of ushave gotten to a point where
there's a word that we don't,we've never come upon and it
requires us to sound out a wordand decode that.

(07:26):
I still have that happen everyonce in a while as an adult.
I'm sorry my dog Dogs happen,but anyway so.
So I still did all that readingwith her, but she has kind of
outpaced it.
So, like every time I give hera new lesson, she is getting it
down fluent, but I'm still doingit with her because I feel like
she's still learning skillsalong the way.

(07:47):
However, my son that's directlyolder than her, that's now 11,
he's my one that like he wasn'treally ready until age 8.
Like I would try to teach him,try to teach him, and it just
wasn't sticking.
It wasn't sticking and all of asudden he turned 8 years old
and it clicked and then he wasgreat.
But he's one that needed directinstruction.
The visual motor delay, thatmimics dyslexia, and I didn't

(08:08):
know that at the time, I didn'tknow that until he was 10, that
he had that and so and all aboutreading is one of those
curricula that kind of capturesall learners, including
struggling learners, and sousing that with him allowed him
to be a successful reader, whereif I had chosen maybe a less
robust program or tried to lethim learn on his own, he would

(08:29):
have never learned to read.
Okay interesting.

Speaker 1 (08:40):
Yeah, I did the All About Reading pre wanted to try
other like see what othercurriculums were, especially
since I was, you know, havingthe podcast.
I wanted to have the experience, the knowledge to be able to
tell people well, this one islike this and this one is like
that.
That's why I have thecurriculum series.
So I switched it up and, yeah,I think I would definitely go
back to the all about reading.

(09:02):
Um, you know, when we move onfor next year.
I think there was a structureto it.
I don't.
It's funny that you say robust,because it never felt like hard
work.
You know it had so manydifferent elements to it, but
whether it's a game, whetherit's rhyming, you know the

(09:22):
pre-reading has the puppet.
So there were a lot of funelements to it.
That was never the part that myson gave me a hard time with.
It was more the haggardybecause it was like repeat after
me.
Yeah, so it which the middlesound.
So that was what aggravated him.
But yeah, he loved the allabout reading pre-reading.

Speaker 2 (09:42):
Yeah, and the levels one through four are pretty
different than the pre-readingum, they are like you use letter
tiles, so they're like littlemagnets and the consonants are
blue, the vowels are red andthey build words with these
magnets you.
There's also an app you candownload if you have a tablet,
and they won't download onphones, but you can download it
on a tablet if you don't want touse the magnets.

Speaker 1 (10:03):
That makes a a lot of sense.
They kind of have thatmanipulative where they're using
it with their hands to kind ofmake what words that they need.
Where we used this year theteach your child to read in 100
easy lessons.
But they didn't pan out to be100 easy lessons for us.
But I've had many people on theshow that absolutely love it
and rave about it and that istotally fine.

(10:24):
That works for some people.
It just doesn't work for my son.
We went through lessons onethrough 50 twice, still up to
lesson that around lesson 50, itjust started getting so hard
for him and so frustrating thatwe actually just kiboshed it all
together and switched now towe're doing a little bit of
reading eggs, a little bit ofexplode the Code and a little

(10:46):
bit of reading Bob books.

Speaker 2 (10:48):
Yeah, and Explode the Code books are awesome.
I've always, I've used thosewith my kids in the past, almost
like focused, busy work is likewhat I want to say, like
sometimes I was helping an olderchild and I just needed someone
to be busy for a minute while Ihelped the older child and
explode the code books wereperfect for that.
Yeah, so, um, yeah, I've usedthose.
And I think reading eggs isanother great program.

(11:09):
Um, I, I think my older son um,that is 11 now when he tried
reading eggs he would sometimesguess and get really far ahead
in the program and then getfrustrated.
So, um, it depends on the typeof learner.
If you have a kid that iswilling to put in the work and
not guess their way ahead,reading X can also be a great
supplement.
But, yeah, so Teach your Childto Read in 100 Easy Lessons is a

(11:33):
great program.
In fact, my degrees inpsychology and when I was in
behavioral psychology in thatcourse, my teacher mentioned
Teach your Child to Read in 100Easy Lessons as one of the best
ways to teach a child to learn,which they call it errorless
learning, e-r-r-o-r.
Errorless learning, where yougive the student or the child

(11:55):
the you say, like the questionis, you give them the answer and
ask them to repeat it, soyou're modeling the right answer
to them and not making themguess.
When you ask a student to guess, that's where they make
mistakes.
So you model the right answerto them and not making them
guess.
When you ask a student to guess, that's where they make
mistakes.
So you model the right answerand then ask them to repeat it
and that's errorless learning,because the child never has to
make an error.
And she said that in behavioralpsychology they consider that

(12:18):
the best way to teach.

Speaker 1 (12:20):
Okay, I don't know how that relates to the 180
lessons, but yes, there was,like you know, the way that they
would manipulate an A or youknow, if they want the long A,
they would put a line over thetop.
And I get that.
That totally makes sense.
And it says try not to readthings that are outside of this

(12:42):
program until you've completedthe program, because I assume
when you get past the 50 lessonsthey will drop those little
nuances, like you know, the lineover the long a.
So you know that.
But and there and there wereother things throughout the way
that they did a D a little bitdifferently so that you could
distinguish it from a B.

(13:03):
So that was great, but it wastaking my son so long, and since
he went through one, through 50, and then it was like, okay,
this is draining you and you'restarting to hate reading, let's
take a break.
And then it was like, well, wecan't go to something else
because we haven't learned,unlearned, the tricks that they
were teaching us.
So then we took some time forme to just read to him, then

(13:30):
went back to lesson one up to 50again, and again it was the
same hurdle, so I never actuallymade it to where they like took
.
So now we're trying to countercorrect.
So when you know he sees an Ain Explode the Code or the Bob
book, um, you know we have tosay no, this is, this is an A
sound, because then there's avowel and an E next to it, and
so I'm like so yeah, it'sinteresting.
I definitely, definitely wentabout this a different way, but

(13:51):
that's okay, because he's onlysix, so I couldn't have damaged
him too hard.

Speaker 2 (13:56):
Yeah, well, and I mentioned the um, the a hundred
easy lessons, as an example oferrorless learning.
That's why my professor hadmentioned that book as a great
way to teach reading, because itwas a example of a program that
used errorless learning.
However, I agree I've used it.
I used it briefly with myactually my older two that were

(14:16):
in public school.
I used it at home with them andI agree that the way that they
structure that, with the lettersbeing bigger or smaller and
lines over them and things likethat, it was really hard for my
children to translate that toother material, which is why I
think something like All AboutReading is better.
All About Reading also uses anerrorless method because you're
modeling and then you have themrepeat what you've modeled, and

(14:40):
so it uses a very similar systemas 100 Easy Lessons, but it
goes more in depth and All AboutReading includes readers and
they're completely decodable.
So, even in level one, oncethey have done a lesson, like
every other lesson, there's astory that they read and all of

(15:01):
the words in that story they canread using the skills that they
have learned is your childinterested in aviation,
chemistry, maybe even podcasting, but you have no time or desire
to teach it yourself.

Speaker 1 (15:14):
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the homeschool how to podcast,and one name keeps coming up
excelsior classes.
They're a fully accreditedonline program for 5th through
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it gives your kids valuableonline learning experience.

(15:36):
Check out their course catalogby clicking in the link in the
show's description ExcelsiorClasses live online learning for
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homeschooling families, and so Ilike that.

Speaker 2 (15:50):
It includes the readers decodable readers with
it.
But yeah, all About Readinguses a very structured,
systematic phonics approach thatuses an Orton-Gillingham method
, which is a specific type ofreading method that does hit
multi-isensory learners.
If you have a visual learnerversus an auditory learner
versus a tactile learner, itkind of hits everybody.

(16:12):
And it does include goodinstruction for struggling
learners in particular.
I do still, and I don't want tospend too much time on reading
in particular, but that is oneview that has not changed is
that reading instruction doesneed to be explicit, systematic
and taught by the parent, and Ilike all about reading because

(16:33):
of the things I've mentioned,but also it's very easy for the
parents because it's scripted.
You open the teacher manual andthe lesson actually tells you
exactly what to read for theinstruction to your child.
So I think it takes theguesswork out of like, how do I
teach my child this?

Speaker 1 (17:00):
So did you get into now what you have changed into?

Speaker 2 (17:01):
you know how you viewed it before to now what
you're doing with your son.
So pretty much my stance onreading is the only thing that
hasn't changed.
I pretty much have completelydone a 180 as far as how I view
curriculum and how I viewhomeschooling, and part of this
came about because of necessity.
I work part-time from home andI just, frankly, didn't have

(17:27):
enough time in the day to teachmy kids all subjects all the
time, and so I started havingthem learn on their own, using
basically choosing their ownmaterials to learn, and what I
found was that my childrenlearned way more choosing the
materials and learning on theirown than then.

(17:48):
I pick curricula that is lessof like written as a textbook

(18:12):
and it's a lot more of like aguide on how to do something on
my own.

Speaker 1 (18:18):
What are the differences that you kind of see
in the ones that graduated?

Speaker 2 (18:21):
I mean they might listen to this, so it can be too
hard, but are there anydifferences in their learning or
what they learn or how theylearn?
That you saw, yeah.
So, um, my oldest daughter wasone that, um, like she always
loved school, she did well inschool.
She graduated with almost a 4.0.
She graduated with high honorsand scholarships and she had

(18:47):
almost had an associate's degreebecause she'd been doing dual
credit classes in high school,taking, like college, algebra
and things like that, and justvery, very successful in public
school.
She went to college and withinthe first month of being in
college, she called me having apanic attack because she didn't
know how to study and she did asemester and then she took us a

(19:11):
year and a half off to go on achurch mission and then she came
back into the semester andbasically failed every class, oh
my goodness.
And so she has decided thatcollege is not for her.
She recently got married, lastyear, and she's looking at
either doing a tech degree orsomething like that.
So right now she's just workinguntil she figures out what she

(19:32):
wants to do educationally, butshe's not going to back, going
to go back to a four-yearuniversity because of the
experiences that she had there.
Just kind of tainted.

Speaker 1 (19:40):
So it's like, and it's like, how do you study?
I don't know you.
You read the material, but areyou retaining it?
Do you know how to retain it?
Or is the stuff just so boringthat you can't retain it.

Speaker 2 (19:50):
Well, and I remember so, during COVID I think she was
a junior in 2020.
And so I remember watching theschool board meetings that they
would have locally, and Iremember there was a dad that
got up and he and I had beenhomeschooling my younger kids at
this point.
But this dad got up and he saidwhat are we going to do about
our high schoolers?
I have a kid that's 15 and hewasted a whole year of learning

(20:13):
Like, how are you going to getmy kid caught up to graduate?
And in that moment, the firstthought that came to my mind was
if you have a 15 year old thatdoesn't know how to learn on
their own, you have a biggerproblem.
A 15 year old, should know howto search out information and
learn without anybody tellingthem what or how to learn.
So I think that that, um, thatmoment really solidified in my

(20:37):
mind that, like, one of our jobsas homeschool moms is to teach
our children how to learn.
We teach them you know how tobecome self-learners.
Where to go to find ourchildren how to learn?
We teach them you know how tobecome self-learners.
Where to go to find information, how to find information, how
to use that information.
That's what our job is.
It's not to really teach them,it's to teach them how to learn
on their own.
And that's something that hasreally shifted in my mind, and

(20:59):
one of the reasons why I'vemoved away from using curriculum
so heavily as I used to isbecause I've realized that my
children actually learn more ifthey're self-learning, if
they're seeking out their ownmaterials.
They're doing their ownlearning.
They learn more that way.
So I've kind of taken adifferent role, especially with
my older two that are 11 and 13.

(21:21):
I let them choose a lot of howthey learn and what they learn
now, because I have seen thatthey learn more that way, and so
I've become more of a mentorrather than a teacher.

Speaker 1 (21:36):
So how does that work when you know, you think about
I mean, we talked about it inour q&a different states have
different reporting requirements.
You in Idaho are pretty laidback in New York.
Here we have to do more strictguidelines on the subjects that
you have to teach every year andeven the testing.

(21:59):
So once you hit like third orfourth grade you have to do a
testing every year.
So how do you in a state likemine at least you allow your
child to learn what they want tolearn, how they want to learn
it, but still maintain, you know, the reporting requirements or
the testing that's required?

Speaker 2 (22:19):
Yeah.
So there's a couple of ways youcan do that.
First of all, I would suggestyou talk to other homeschoolers
in your area that are familiarwith the laws and ask what
they're doing.
The first thing I would suggestbut I think it's okay to say
you know, this is what the staterequires how can we meet that
in a way that you like?
How can we meet thisrequirement in a way that you

(22:40):
choose?
So that could look like themchoosing a curriculum Like I've
done that with my own kids andsaid, okay, you can do this,
this or this, what do you chooseout of these choices?
And then that gives them achoice you know in how they
learn.
So you could do something likethat where you say this is what
the state is saying we have todo.
How would you like to meet thatrequirement?

(23:03):
And realizing that a lot ofthings, like portfolios, for
example, they just what thestate's looking for is that
there's student learning.
They want evidence the studentis learning right.
So you can get creative how youdo that evidence.
Something I've done with myeighth grader this year is he
just writes about everythinghe's learned, so like he reads a
biography for history, hewrites a paragraph about what he

(23:26):
learned from that biography.
He reads something for science.
He can write a paragraph aboutwhat he learned for science, and
so I've had him start writing alot this year about what he's
learned in the other subjectsand I think that's one way you
can do things.
It just really depends on whatthe state laws are and what
they're asking for.
But in general, I think, nomatter what your state law is,

(23:50):
they're asking for proof oflearning and you can decide how
you want to show that proof.
But I think that how thestudent learns, they still can
have some choice, no matter howregulated your state is.
Like I said, whether that'schoosing curriculum or choosing
the resources that they use tolearn.

Speaker 1 (24:07):
Yeah, and that's a good point.
So if I have to teach the UShistory in ninth and 10th grade,
I mean that's just what I thinkI had to do in school.
So, say, that's what New Yorkis requiring of me, I can sit
down with my child and say, okay, how do we want to learn this?
What time periods do we want togo through?
What books do you want to use?
What trips do you want to take?

(24:30):
Do we want to go to a museum?
Do we want to go to a monument?
Want to take, you know, do wewant to go to a museum?
Do we want to go to a monument?
Do we want to go down toVirginia and go to Gettysburg
and really learn about that?
And what do we want to researchbefore we get there?
And how will we put that alltogether once we're there and
afterwards come home and, likeyou said, write about it and you
know, is there something we canput together?
A book, put together a book ora scrapbook about it, really

(24:54):
connecting all the pieces.
So, yeah, I that is, as youthink it over, you know, really
cool.
And yes, schools take fieldtrips.
However, I've noticed in justthe short amount of, you know
year or two that I've beenhomeschooling field trips with
groups don't usually work, sofield trips with classrooms
don't usually work either.
Okay, and it's not just the ageof my kid going to a museum

(25:17):
with, you know, 15 of hisfriends.
They're not going to learnanything, they just want to play
.
So keep that in mind, as youare, you know, looking up.
It's great to look at the fieldtrips that the homeschool groups
are doing in your area to giveyou ideas of where you might
want to go.
But yeah, that's what I'velearned Like fine, spending the

(25:38):
money and taking the bus orwhatever to get down there, the
kid's not paying attentionanyway.
So if you can take just thetime for you and your family to
go, you'll have a much morepersonalized experience and they
might pay attention a littlebit more and be a little less
distracted.
And you can kind of includethat this into oh, that is
that's what we just read in theTuttle Twins book.
Look at, this is where it is,you know.

Speaker 2 (26:01):
Well, and I and I agree, like we definitely have
our homeschool friends we loveto get together with, but I
actually don't like schedulingfield trips with other people
because I don't like a scheduleLike I like to be like today
let's go to the museum or youknow so, and so had this planned
but we're too busy today.
Like I don't like all thescheduling with other people

(26:22):
because then you're kind oflocked in and I like to do
things like field trips morespontaneously or when it fits
into my life the best.
And so lots of times you haveto be accommodating to schedule
with other people, and sometimesI don't have to be
accommodating to schedule withother people and sometimes I
don't want to be accommodating,I just want to go when it's good
for us.
So there's that.
But, like I said, like thisyear my kids kind of switched to

(26:46):
doing independent learningbecause I ended up having more
work put on my plate and I justdidn't have time to do it all.
And what I found was that I hadused a popular science
curricula for the first fiveyears.
We homeschooled like the samecurriculum and it was me sitting
at the table with all my kidsat the table and I was reading
from the manual and teachingthem, and then there were

(27:07):
hands-on activities and scienceexperiments.
But most of the instruction wasme as the teacher at the table
instructing them, and a lot oftimes it was in one ear and out
the other and that they onlyremembered or learned from the
hands-on activities or theexperiments.
And this year, like I said, I'vebeen having them learn on their
own and, like my eight-year-old, watches, like Wild Kratts, you

(27:29):
know, or Magic School Bus, andshe can come to me and give me a
10 minute narration about ananimal she learned about.
Or she can give me, you know,this whole long 10 minute
narration about what she learnedfrom magic school bus.
Um, my older son has readingscience comics.
There are these comic booksthat each book is around a
different science topic and hecomes to me and tells me what he

(27:51):
learned from science comics.
And so I just learned this yearthat, like when they are
picking what they learn and howthey learn, they remember so
much more.
And I think that, like I said,I don't know if I would have
made this shift unless it wassomething that was like kind of
just had to happen.
But I see now the fruits ofthis that children can learn on

(28:15):
their own and really retain alot more.
Something else that I have foundfor my older son is I have
found podcasts.
I found a history podcast thatwas American history based, and
I preview episodes to make surethey're appropriate for him and
there's no like wonky ads oranything.
But lots of times I will tellhim like oh, this podcast

(28:38):
episode is kind of about whatyou're learning about.
You might want to listen to itwhen you go on a walk today or
something like that, and so likeopening up ways of learning too
and realizing that there'slearning that happens all the
time and everywhere.
They can learn from YouTubevideos.
They can learn from podcasts.
They can time and everywherethey can learn from YouTube
videos.
They can learn from podcasts.
They can learn fromdocumentaries.
They can learn from books.

(28:58):
They can learn from field tripsand museums.
There's virtual field trips.
Now, all you know on theinternet there's lots of virtual
field trips.
If you go to like, for example,mountvernonorg, there's virtual
field trips of Mount Vernon.
So there's things like thatthat you can do, um, that they
can learn so much more.
And if you have a state whereyou have to show learning things

(29:20):
like um.
Like I said, teaching them towrite about what they learned is
a really excellent way to showthat they've learned.
Um, teach them how to makepresentations in Canva, you know
, um, I'm like all you need islike a free Canva account in a
dream and you can show anybodyanything you know.

(29:41):
So, yeah, I think teaching themhow to you know make things in
Canva to show what they learnedis another good skill.
My eight year old actuallyasked me if she could start a
blog the other day because shehad watched some show called Dog
with a Blog and she asked mewhat a blog was.
And she said Mom, can I start ablog?
And so I said well, I'll see ifI can find a way to do that

(30:03):
securely.
Where you're eight years old, Idon't think that should be
public, but I thought why not?
If you want to start a bloglike, let's get you a blog.
So yeah there's lots of thingsthat you can do to show learning
for state requirement.

Speaker 1 (30:16):
I love that.
Was there a specific podcastfor the history podcast?

Speaker 2 (30:21):
So the one that my son has listened to is American
History Hit.
It's a podcast within a wholeprogram called History Hit.
I kind of found them onaccident.
It's kind of a funny story, butI was scrolling on Instagram
and saw a reel that mentioned apodcast and when I found it I
found out it was in a network ofpodcasts called History Hit.

(30:43):
But I have researched them andthey actually have a website
where you can subscribe andthere's documentaries and they
have eight podcasts they offer.
I will say that it's notdirected towards students, it's
more directed towards adults,which is why I preview the
episodes before he listens tothem, and at least out of their
eight podcasts, one is veryadult directed and so I wouldn't

(31:06):
just hand it over to your kids.
But so far the American HistoryHit podcast has been awesome.
The host he interviews peoplethat are experts in their field
or they've written books or theywork at historical places, like
they do research at historicalJamestown and so forth.
They just had a really funepisode about the history of the
Illuminati that I listened tothe other day.

(31:28):
But yeah, so we've listened to,like the Viking episodes.
We listened to a lot of theJamestown and the Mayflower
episodes so far and a lot oflearning happening in those.

Speaker 1 (31:40):
I love that.
And what about the sciencecomics?
Is that something specific?

Speaker 2 (31:44):
So it's actually a book series and it's literally
called Science Comics.
If you went to Amazon andsearched Science Comics, they
would come up.
I think the publisher isMacmillan Don't quote me on that
, but there are probably 25 to30 of those books currently on
the market and they are colorfulcomic books about science

(32:07):
topics.
So there's frogs, one on frogs.
There's sharks, there'sskyscrapers, there's robots,
there's cars, I'm trying tothink.
There's spiders, there'sweather, yeah, plagues, like
human body plagues, and there'sthat one.
So there's a whole bunch ofthose and they're continuing to
publish them.
Like they come out with a fewmore every year.
We have those and they're veryeconomical.

(32:30):
I think they're like forpaperback.
They're like ten dollars a book.
A lot of times when, um, amazonor target has their book sales,
they can get buy two, get onefree.
So anyway, we've kind ofstockpiled quite a home library
of those science comics.

Speaker 1 (32:43):
Oh, that's so cool, um, okay so and oh.
I remember back on episode four, you recommending wild kratts
and magic school bus, and wehave watched both of those
series, both amazing.
I love them, my kids love them.
It's funny because you know youput them in front of a TV
because you're like trying to dosomething else.

(33:06):
You know you're trying to likedo laundry or cook or do a
podcast, but I'm like, wait, Iwant to watch that.
I need to learn about what thatlike bab to watch that.
I need to learn about what thatlike baboon is doing.
I need to learn about thebaboons.
But um and and yeah, the magicschool, but it's the same thing.
I love watching them.
I learned so much and they'reso entertaining.

(33:26):
Uh, so I I do love those.
Thank you for recommending themand I would recommend them to
people who, you know, do usescreens.
It's you know I commend thefamilies that don't.
I'm just not one of them.
We do so it's nice to havesomething trustworthy that I
could put on and they're alittle bit older of show like
Magic School Bus is an old show,so you know they didn't quite

(33:48):
have all of the.
They don't have all the stuffthat the newer shows today have,
so all the stuff that the newershows today have.
So it's just a lot of funlearning.
So, okay, when I was having mytechnical difficulties was that
when you were talking about whatyou have changed now as far as
kind of being less curriculumheavy, so your views around

(34:08):
homeschooling, did you talkabout that in that segment?

Speaker 2 (34:11):
Yeah, well, I think that that was mostly my view.
How my views has changed isthat if we are trying to be
teacher mom, they will learn,but probably only you know what
they want to learn from that.
I just feel like, in general,when they have more control over
what they're learning, theylearn more and they're more

(34:33):
willing to learn.
So I've learned that, like Isaid, rather than being a
teacher, I've become more of amentor and, you know, guiding
them towards you know what theychoose.
So how that might look isoffering curriculum and letting
them choose that or letting themchoose their own materials.
So, for example, my son that'sin eighth grade I said for you

(34:54):
know, for next year, for highschool, for history, you can use
this program, or you can usethis program, or, if you want, I
can kind of like createsomething for you out of like
the things that you want.
And he said I want you tocreate it.
So we've collaborated togetherand I've said, okay, you know,
if we're going to learn aboutAmerican history and you know
this is the topics in ancienthistory what do you want to

(35:16):
learn about in ancient history?
Do you want to learn throughbooks, documentaries or a
podcast or a combination of them, you know, and then I present
him kind of some materials andsay this is what I found, what
do you want to use with?
Do with this?
So it can look like that whereyou're offering different
choices and they're pickingwithin those choices.
I did that for high school forhim, because I felt like high

(35:39):
school's a little bit of youknow, a different thing where
you want to make sure thatthey're equipped for adulthood
and to be able to make choicesfor their future, and so to for
him.
I try to give him choice withinparameters, like we need to be
teaching math.
You know we need to be teachingthese things, but how we do
that is up to you.

Speaker 1 (35:57):
Do you give tests or projects?
No, no, hey everyone, this isCheryl.
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

(36:18):
knowing their first and lastname, knowing mom and dad's
first and last name, mom's phonenumber, dad's phone number,
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 a lot.

(36:39):
Does your child know how tocall 9-1-1 from a locked cell
phone?
It is absolutely possible, andmy book demonstrates how to do
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 going to remember

(37:03):
this should an accident occurright?
I asked a couple of teacherswhat they do in school and they
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

(37:25):
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
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'scalled let's Talk Emergencies
and I really hope you'll checkit out, because there's just no

(37:47):
need to be scared when you canchoose prepared.

Speaker 2 (37:51):
Not at all.
I do, depending on what'srequired, you know, by the state
.
I think you could assign thoseif you wanted to or you felt
like you needed to, butcurrently no.
When for history?
For example, when he reads abook, he'll either, like I said,
write me a paragraph, or we'llhave a discussion, like he
finished a book on the Aztecstoday and I said, okay, did you

(38:17):
like that book?
And he said, yeah, I'm like,hey, tell me something you liked
about it, something you learned, and he's like I didn't know,
they invented this or whateverand they sacrificed humans
because of this reason, you know.
And so sometimes it's just adiscussion like that that, like
you know, I'm not making himwrite an essay for like
everything he's read, cause then, like you know, I'm not making

(38:38):
him write an essay for likeeverything he's read, because
then, like, who would want to dothat, right?
Like if I had to write an essayfor every time I read a book I
probably wouldn't read as muchas I do, so that's why school
does it.
So you know, occasionally I'llask for a written paragraph or
something like that, but it'snot every day.
I do that.
Lots of times it's just havinga discussion and him telling me
what he learned what has beenyour favorite American history

(38:58):
curriculum so far?
That's a trick question becauseI love history.
I personally love history and Ithink that the best history is
one that I have pulled fromvarious places.
So I'd still love BeautifulFeet.
One of the reasons why I loveBeautiful Feet is because it

(39:19):
comes with a book pack, but alsothe guides are exactly that
they're guides, so they're notlike a curriculum that's written
that you read this out loud toyour child.
It basically will say, likeread this book and have this
discussion.
Here is an optional project ifyou want to do that.
So that's why I like BeautifulFeet is because it really does.
Even though it's a guide tohelp you with learning, it does

(39:40):
put you in the driver's seat asfar as how you're using it.
So that's probably still one ofmy favorites.
But I kind of this year, kind ofwinging it, like I feel like
I've liked what we've donebetter, like I have a book that
I got about a year ago calledAll Through the Ages.
It's by Christine Miller.

(40:00):
I believe and it's basically ahomeschool mom that she went and
researched all of theliterature history curriculum
and created a giant book listfrom all of them into one big
book list and published it as abook.
So the whole book is just abook list and it goes
chronologically from ancienthistory to modern and it has
book suggestions for grades onethrough three, four through six,

(40:23):
seven through nine and 10through 12.
And so like, if you're studyinglet's say you want to study
civil war you can go to thatsection and you can pick a book
for your first through thirdgrader, you can pick a book for
your fourth through sixth, onefor your high schooler, and they
can all read their book andyou're all in the same time
period together.
But the books are on theirgrade level.

Speaker 1 (40:42):
Wow and now what is?

Speaker 2 (40:44):
this called um all through the ages.
All right, um, I will say thatsome a fair amount of the book
suggestions in there could beout of print books but I have
found them very economicallybuying them used um.
But for example, the other,like when I was learning about
like jamestown and stuff, Ithought, okay, from the time

(41:05):
columbus hit, you know, likecentral america, when did the
french come in?
Like the french missionarieswere there at some point and
doing trading right.
And then you have, like the umenglanders, like the French
missionaries were there at somepoint and doing trading right.
And then you have, like theEnglanders, like the people from
like coming over from theMayflower, so you have the
Puritans on the Mayflower, thenyou have, you know, people
coming over with Jamestown, andthere's the Roanoke colony,

(41:26):
there's all these.
So I'm like, how did?
Like I want to know whathappened there and then what
happened between Jamestown andlike the colonial era, like what
was happening during that timeperiod?
I had that question in my mindand I went to all through the
ages and found a book thatliterally covers that time
period.
It covers from Columbus to thecolonial age, and so I'm reading
that because I want to learnabout it.

(41:47):
But yeah, so I've loved thatguide because it answers
questions like that.
Like, if you're like, okay, Iwant to learn about this.
There's a guide, there's asuggestion for a book in there.

Speaker 1 (41:58):
Wow, I love that.
And we just recently bought alike a timeline of the world.
That's now whether it'saccurate or not, I don't know,
but it's more than I ever got inschool.
So I was just like sittingthere looking at it the other
day my kids must have thought Iwas nuts because I like pulled
up a chair to the wall whereit's taped and I'm just like
what?
Like, for instance, greatexample.

(42:20):
Okay, I went to public school.
So to me, when I hear of theRoman empire, I've always been
like, like Italy is really small.
So Rome's even smaller.
So what the hell are thesepeople talking about?
Like why was this an empire?

(42:44):
And then, not until I put thaton there, I was like it was.
How big it's not just Roman.
Like that's.
Nobody ever told me that inschool, nobody ever showed a map
of it compared to like today'smap.
So I agree with you.
And as I was reading our TuttleTwins US history book, which
that's what you were supposed tosay, that's what I was leading
you to, you didn't say it, but Iknow you love the Tuttle Twins
too.
Yes, I do love the Tuttle Twins.
We're reading the Tuttle Twins,america's History Volume 1

(43:04):
right now and my son's only six,but he does still love it
because it's in story and I'mlike learning too, because it
starts with the Silk Road andthey're like, okay, this
obviously didn't take place inAmerica but the trade on the
Silk Road had it led into whathappened in America.
And then that kind of got melooking into like the Hudson

(43:24):
River where I live and I'm likeno one ever told me about the
Hudson River and apparently thiswas like the start of trade for
America, like this is a hugething.
So last week they actually hadat our library these people come
in and talk about how theHudson River impacted our town
and I went to it and I was theonly one under like 75 that was

(43:45):
there.

Speaker 2 (43:48):
It was really sad.

Speaker 1 (43:49):
I'm like nobody else cares.
Oh but yeah, well, and I do.

Speaker 2 (43:54):
Yeah, and I do love the Tuttle Twins, like I have
almost everything they sell.
I think the only thing I don'thave is their um toddler books
because my kids were older bythe time those came out.
But I, um, like I have thethird, the kids books.
I have the history books, Ihave the um economics, I have
the monthly magazine.
We've gone deep into TuttleTwins and I still love the

(44:18):
Tuttle Twins.
Sorry, my light got reallyorange but it was getting dark,
but I think with Tuttle Twins Iuse that also.
Like here, read this.
I don't read it aloud to mykids, I wait until my 11-.
My 11 year old is reading theAmerican history books.
I'm just like, okay, here, readthe book and learn something.

Speaker 1 (44:39):
Yeah, which is why I love reading it now with my six
year old Cause I'm the onereally learning.
I'm like Ooh, no one everexplained it this way to me
before, and it really it's sointeresting.
How did they manage to takehistory and make it the most
boring thing ever in school?
I mean that it makes you angrywhen you think about it.

(45:01):
It is so interesting I know itis.

Speaker 2 (45:03):
yeah, like I said, history, social studies is my
favorite thing to learn about.
It's so interesting, um, and Ijust find learning about people
fascinating, like I I've alwaysbeen a people watcher and I'm
like history is another form ofpeople watching, I guess.
But yeah, so, and I love likethe monthly magazines they
started creating.

(45:24):
Well, and I've had the pluspacks with those for a while
where they came with like extrabonus content, like little
worksheets and crossword puzzlesand coloring pages and stuff.
But they just recently recentlyrevamped their plus packs that
now are cross-curricular, so itcomes with like some math stuff
and it comes with like a scienceproject and something with

(45:44):
history and so like the monthlymagazines now are
cross-curricular and kind of hiton all subjects and that's a
new feature as of February andabsolutely loving that.
So, yes, I still love, loveTuttle Twins.
I just don't use it as acurriculum, I use it more as
like learn on your own with it.

Speaker 1 (46:05):
And that's one of the things I've shifted.

Speaker 2 (46:08):
Yeah, and I'm not against curriculum.
I just have learned that I likethe curriculum that is more of
a guide.
So, for example, like LittleSchool of Smiths, she has an
American Girl History curriculumthat I purchased for my
daughter to use and it basicallyis like here's the doll, you do
one doll for four weeks andit's like read this book, if you

(46:31):
want to learn more about thissubject, you can learn more
about this, and do a notebookingpage, and so it's basically
just guiding you how to learnthrough books.
And so I still like curriculalike that.
That's more of like a guiderather than a written curricula
that you read aloud.

Speaker 1 (46:49):
So, all right, let me ask you this how do you think
your children that you'rehomeschooling will differ when
they get to college and theyneed to know how to study?
Something Like what is thedifference between your oldest
daughter and them?
Like?
Is it the way that they'rereading, or how they retain, or

(47:10):
what they'll seek out?
You know, like, what is it thatyour daughter didn't learn in
school?
That your homeschool kids are?

Speaker 2 (47:16):
So I think public schools really create an
environment where the kidsbecome complacent and they're
learning and they're wait totold what to do.
So, like they sit in their seat, they're wait until the teacher
writes on the board what theirassignment is and tells them
exactly what pages to read andwhat to do.
When you go to college it's notreally like that.
They give you a syllabus butreally most of the learning has

(47:36):
to come through you.
You have to read the textbookor do whatever, and you have to
attend the lectures, but youhave to get out of that on your
own.
No one's going to spoon feed youin college and I think in
public schools and I think inpublic schools students learn to
wait until somebody has spoonfed them, basically giving them
exactly what to do, telling themexactly what to do.

(47:57):
And you know teachers,depending on where you're at, if
they are being, you know, paidbased on performance, they want
their students to get an Abecause they get paid more and
so they probably provide morehelp than a college professor
can do, because a collegeprofessor has hundreds of
students.
They can't give one-on-oneattention to all those students,

(48:19):
although there are office hoursand such.
But I think the big thing wasthat she was so used to checking
a box Like somebody would tellher what to do and she would do
that thing and get an a right.
But she never learned how toactually learn.
She just learned how to check abox or meet a requirement if
that makes sense.

Speaker 1 (48:37):
Because one thing that stands out to me in in high
school uh, I'd always think ofthis we were in the library and
it must have been like anenglish teacher or something had
us down there and she said tome okay, highlight, highlight
the main idea.
So I just like highlighted somesentences, I don't know, and
she's like that's not the mainidea, you're right.
Like, but no one's ever told mewhat to look for in the main

(49:00):
idea, or like how to read andretain it, or you know, I get
it's.
Yeah, that that makes sense.
That like, if you'rehomeschooled, you're doing,
you're reading it because it'ssomething that interests you, or
at least it's related tosomething that you know, maybe
you picked.
So I don't know where I'm goingwith this, but that always stuck
out to me that, yeah, I did,and I didn't know how to study

(49:22):
in college either.
I think it was all preparationfor you just learn how to like,
get by by, like the the trickythings, like you know, telling
them oh, I had an you know unclebreak his leg and I had to sit
with him last night, so that'swhy I didn't turn in my paper.
So I'm going to need an extraweek, you know, and just getting
really good at trying to scamyour way through.

(49:44):
And then, when I worked ingovernment, I sure needed all
those skills.

Speaker 2 (49:48):
So yeah, I think anything when it, when it comes
to any sort of institution likea government, school or college,
it's a game.
It's just a game.
You learn how to play.
You know it's like, okay, thisprofessor wants me to do things
this way and give them thisinformation.
This professor wants me to doit this way, and I mean honestly

(50:09):
as someone that leans moreconservative.
You know, in schools now, youhave to almost pretend to be not
yourself.
You have to give the professorthe answer they're looking for,
to get that A, so that you canget your certification, so you
can work in the job that youwant.
You know it's a total game andto do well, you have to learn to
play the game, and I thinkthat's the people that do well

(50:31):
in college have learned how toplay the game well.
I don't think that learningreally happens in institutions.
I know for myself I havelearned vastly a lot more since
I have graduated college andjust become a homeschool mom.
I'm reading more and learningmore than I ever learned, um,

(50:55):
you know.
So, yeah, and I think that, um,writing what you've learned can
help with with comprehension orretention, and so that's why
sometimes I have my son writewhat he's learned, because I
feel like it does help with umre, you know, retaining that
knowledge, because I feel likeit does help with you know
retaining that knowledge.
So, anyway, but I don't makehim write for everything, just
sometimes.

Speaker 1 (51:14):
Yeah, I agree with that a lot as we round out.
You know you would also wantedto touch on what your plans were
for high school for your ninthgrader.
Did you touch on that before,when I was not able to hear you?

Speaker 2 (51:29):
No, so I kind of alluded to it.
Uh, not able to hear you.
No, so I kind of alluded to it.
So for history, I'm kind ofdesigning that with my son using
the All Through the Ages book,documentaries and podcasts, and
then I'm just going kind of bytime period, so I have like
exploration, and then we havecolonization, and then we have
colonial era, americanRevolution, you know,

(51:51):
post-revolution, and so I'vekind of broken up into time
periods and we're just choosingresources in those time periods
for him to learn with.
For science, he's actuallychosen to go to our local public
high school and take a scienceclass there.
That was something that hewanted to try, so he'll just be
doing one class at the highschool.
We're very lucky where we livethey do allow homeschoolers to

(52:14):
do that.
So and then, yeah, for languagearts, he's mostly just going to
be writing a lot about whathe's read.
I feel like reading and writingis enough.
Something I've learned is thatsubjects when they're learned
together, it kind of createsmore learning and more retention

(52:36):
when they're learning together.
So, for example, grammar,learning grammar in isolation is
kind of pointless because youneed good grammar to write, so
it's better to learn it withyour writing.
So, for example, when you'rewriting, you can talk about
adjectives because they describenouns.
So you can say, ok, thisparagraph would be better if you
added more adjectives todescribe your nouns.

(52:57):
Like you can teach the grammarwithin context of writing and
then your writing centeredaround what you're learning in
the other subjects.
I think that is actually thebest way to do language arts.

Speaker 1 (53:11):
So you mean, for example, like combining what
he's reading for history that'sreading because he's reading
books about it and whatnot he'swriting because you have him
summarizing his main points orwhat he liked about it, and then
you're also, you know, doingthe grammar within that writing.
So you're combining all thesesubjects into one, which is a
huge time saver and just puts itinto context why this stuff is

(53:33):
important.
Yes, yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2 (53:36):
And then, yeah, with math we found a program last
year called Denison that he'sgoing to keep using.
But I've also come to realizethat math is math, can be
playful.
Math doesn't have to be sittingdown and memorizing algorithms.
So, for example, I've beenreading a book called let's Play

(53:57):
Math by Denise Gaskins and shetalks about how math should be
taught with.
Cross-training is how she callsit learning math in different
ways.
In the foreword I found a guythat he had mentioned an article
that he had written, somethingthat I went and read this
article he talked about howalgebra was developed anciently

(54:19):
as a way to work with money.
So they would, for example,they would say you know, I want
to charge this amount for theproduct I'm selling.
I need to earn this much money.
How many products do I need tosell to earn that?
And that's how algebra wasdeveloped.
And then, of course, nowthere's linear algebra and also
other crazy stuff, but basicalgebra.

(54:41):
That's how it was developed andthey were using numbers as
adjectives.
They were using numbers todescribe quantities of money or
numbers of items.
And when I read that article,all of a sudden my brain
something switched in my brainand I understood algebra.
You guys I have.
I failed algebra too in highschool when I read that article,

(55:02):
just learning how ancientlythey developed algebra.
All of a sudden now I know Iunderstand algebra.

Speaker 1 (55:09):
Because that's something.
When it was put into context,it made sense.

Speaker 2 (55:12):
Yes, yes, exactly.
And like she gives in this bookshe talks about, her daughter
came in one day and said I wantto learn about even an odd
numbers.
And so she sat down and she hadbeen doing paperwork and she
said let's imagine this paper orcookies and we need to divide
them between us.
And so they would divide.
Her daughter was helping dividethe papers as these pretend

(55:35):
cookies, and then they get toone and there's one left they
can't divide.
And so she's like oh, this mustbe an odd number.
There's this extra one, youknow there's.
We have an extra cookie, and sowe can't divide that.
And so she talked about, youknow, like just things like that
Math can happen all the time.
So like, for example, with myown kids when we learned about
fractions, I would get an appleand a cutting board and say,
okay, this is one apple, nowI've cut it in half, now I have

(55:56):
two halves, they still equal awhole.
There's still two halves of anapple that equal whole.
And then what happens if I cutthose more?
Now we have fours, but fourfours still equal one whole.
Or two fourths equal a half.
And so just cutting an applewe've talked about fractions.
Sometimes when we're bakingit'll be like, oh no, our one
cup is dirty, we need one cup offlour.
What can we use instead?

(56:20):
And how many of those do weneed to use, you know?
Or when we go out to dinner andsaying like how much should we
tip the waiter?
If we want to pay the waiter20% tip, how do we find that tip
?
You know that amount, and so,although I still use math
curriculum, I've started doingmore playful math.
So, denise Gaskins she actuallyhas books that have math games

(56:41):
in them that you can do.
I found a series called JunkDrawer Algebra and Junk Drawer
Geometry that have activitiesyou can do for algebra and
geometry and I've just tried tobe more playful with our math.
But yeah, and I also for my sonthat's going into high school.
I kind of looked at what wasimportant for him when it came

(57:02):
to math and something I realizedis that I wanted him to
understand personal finances andI wanted him to understand
statistics because I didn't wanthim to be swayed by false
statistics and false data.
That's all over in the news andso for him 99% effective.
Yes.
So I'm like, once he's learned,I don't know, you know, two

(57:24):
years more of math, let's sayalgebra, like geometry, and
algebra too, what he's got there.
We're not going to pursue likecalculus and stuff.
We're going to be doingconsumer math and we're going to
be doing statistics, because,to me, unless you're going into
a field where you need thehigher math, it's makes more
sense to focus on the real worldthings.
So, um, yeah, so I've kind ofum taken an approach where um,

(57:47):
like I said, he's more, he'sgoing to be more involved in how
he learns and then trying tomake learning more just part of
our life rather than somethingthat we have to do today.

Speaker 1 (57:59):
I love that and, yeah , it can be in anything that
your kid loves.
Do they love, you know, workingon cars?
Math can go, you know, intoanything there, history even.
Where did they even learn howthe motor engine started working
and who invented it and whatyear?
And how did cars getimplemented?

(58:21):
Okay, well, how did roadwaysget implemented?
And then all of a sudden,you're going down this road no
pun intended about so manysubjects and then it actually
interests your kid because it'ssomething relevant to today.
We drive cars, but they'relearning history, math reading.
They can write with it, youknow, give you a presentation on

(58:42):
it.
It's like really such abeautiful way to learn.
And you hope that you'recreating that lifelong learner
in them.
Cause I agree with you, I'velearned way more in the last two
years of homeschooling than Iever did.
With 13 years of, you know,grade school, four years of
university and then 16 yearsworking for the government, I

(59:03):
didn't learn anything.

Speaker 2 (59:04):
Yeah, well, and I, yeah, I'm the same way.
I'm like school, college, youknow, working, and then I
actually have my teachingcertification too and I'm like I
still learn more just readingand naturally learning with my
kids.
So, yeah, I still, like I said,I'm not anti-curriculum.
I think it serves a purpose.
I just have found that, for myfamily, we do better when, if we

(59:29):
use a curriculum, it's more ofa general guide that puts us in
the driver's seat with how weuse that.

Speaker 1 (59:36):
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
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Or, if you'd rather, please usethe link in the description to
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Any effort to help us keep thepodcast going is greatly

(59:58):
appreciated.
Thank you for tuning in and foryour love of the next
generation.