Join host Cheryl as she interviews Raven Kramer, a homeschool mom of four and successful online marketing entrepreneur, who shares her unschooling journey and family-first lifestyle. Living in a 1,000-square-foot house in Florida with no debt except their mortgage, Raven and her husband have built a life centered around their children's education and their family business.
In This Episode, You'll Learn:
- What unschooling really looks like: Daily routines that balance core subjects with passion-led learning
- How to work from home with kids: Raven's strategies for building a marketing business while homeschooling
- Screen time boundaries that work: Why her kids get only 30-60 minutes of TV daily and no phones until they have jobs
- Real family rhythms: 5+ hours outside daily, morning and afternoon outings, and structured quiet time
- Social media and kids: Her approach to family content creation and setting boundaries with neighbor kids who have phones
- Preparing kids for an uncertain future: Why she focuses on reading, writing, math fundamentals over rigid curriculum
- College alternatives: Teaching kids about trades, entrepreneurship, and real-world skills
Key Takeaways:
- One-third of kids learn to read easily, one-third need more help, one-third need lots of help - and that's all normal
- Living below your means enables one-parent income and homeschool freedom
- Kids don't need constant entertainment - they need freedom to be kids and play
- Reading aloud to children and emotional regulation modeling are the most important "subjects"
- Progress over time matters more than grade-level expectations
Perfect for: Parents considering homeschooling, current homeschoolers looking for encouragement, families interested in unschooling approaches, and anyone wanting to balance entrepreneurship with family-centered living.
Resources Mentioned:
- Tuttle Twins books and curriculum
- "Good Pictures, Bad Pictures" book for internet safety
- Raven's Guide to Homeschooling e-course
- Reading Horizons curriculum
Raven's E-Couse: Guide to Homeschooling E Course
And check out: Raven's Instagram
Cheryl's Guide to Homeschooling: Check out The Homeschool How To Complete Starter Guide- Cheryl's eBook compiling everything she's learned from her interviews on The Homeschool How To Podcast.
👉 15% off Tuttle Twins books with code Cheryl15
What is the most important thing we can teach our kids?
HOW TO HANDLE AN EMERGENCY!
This could mean life or death in some cases!
Help a child you know navigate how to handle an emergency situation with ease: Let's Talk, Emergencies!
Instagram: TheHomeschoolHowToPodcast
Facebook: The Homeschool How To Podcast
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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 Raven Kramer, homeschool
mom, and other Tuttle Twinsaffiliate.
So if you didn't see my TuttleTwins ad, you've seen hers.
Welcome, raven.
How are you?
Speaker 2 (00:44):
I'm amazing.
How are you?
I am amazing, how are you.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
I'm good, it's so cool to finally like talk to you
in real life, because I feellike I know you, because I
always see your Instagram reelsand I see you doing the Tuttle
Twins stuff and see your familyon there, and then I was kind of
like oh, wait, yeah, I haven'tmet her yet I feel like I know
her, though Weird world that welive in, yes, same, oh my
goodness.
So how many kids do you haveand what got you into
(01:07):
homeschooling?
Speaker 2 (01:08):
So I have four kids.
I have a nine year old, a sevenyear old, a five year old and
my daughter is just about toturn four.
And my husband and I havealways known we wanted to
homeschool before we even hadkids.
Like when we were gettingmarried I was like we're going
to have 12 kids and we're goingto homeschool all of them.
We stopped at four.
That felt good, but we've justalways known that we've always
really had a big priority forour family and it didn't make
(01:30):
sense that the traditional modelis to immediately send our kids
away for eight hours a day whenthey turn five years old.
That didn't make any sense toeither one of us, and so
homeschooling made sense as thedefault, and it's like if this
default doesn't work for somereason, then we can look into
other options.
But it was always our default,whereas I feel like culture is
more their default as, like,traditional school, and if that
(01:52):
doesn't work then we look atother options.
We kind of had a different viewof like this is our, this is
our standard, and if we can'thit that, that's okay, we can
pivot, but this is what we goingto do.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
I don't feel, like many people go in knowing that's
what they want to do, whatclicked for you?
That just like we're going totake this untraditional route.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Yeah, I've.
Like I said, we have a reallybig priority for our family and
that has was always driven us tolike I own my own business.
My husband works from home.
We homeschool our kids.
I joke that we couldn't doanything outside the home
because we just reallyprioritize our family and know
that that's like the mostimportant thing for us.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
So homeschooling made sense because we all got to be
together and it's it's so truebecause, like you send your kids
off, I mean I remember I wasquote unquote lucky because I
got to take six months off ofwork, even though it was like my
own time I was using.
I didn't get like a paidmaternity leave or anything.
They're like we're letting youtake six months to be with your
(02:49):
baby, thank you.
And like sending him to daycareat six months, and it was just
like, oh, this is just whatpeople do.
But it was so sad when theytell you like, oh, you're
supposed to cry and they'resupposed to cry like no,
nobody's supposed to cry becauseyou're not supposed to do it.
What the hell.
But I mean, I went through whatI went through, I know what I
know I changed it for mydaughter and it is, you know,
(03:12):
crazy seeing both sides,everything that I was there for
with her.
I'm like my God, I miss thiswith my son, like I feel so bad.
And if you always send yourkids to daycare, you never knew
what you missed and your kidsdon't know what they missed
either.
So it's not like the end of theworld.
But then when I saw it with mydaughter, like just she'd wake
up from a nap, but it was justbecause something woke her up
(03:34):
and she wanted to be nursed andput back to bed and they didn't.
They can't get that in daycareLike she just wanted.
Mom, she has this thing whereshe just rubs my arm.
It's the weirdest thing.
She's always done it and it'slike a comfort blanket for her.
She's like I just, mom, can youroll up your sleeve?
I need to rub your arm.
I'm like what?
Okay, it's so weird.
But like those are the things.
(03:55):
I don't have that bond with myson and I don't know if it's
just because the the boy momthing, or just our personalities
, or because I was, I didn'tnurse him, I wasn't there with
him those critical years, uh,all the time.
But we definitely have more ofa divide in between us, a
butting of the heads, if youwill.
So I wonder if that's why, butit's so true.
(04:18):
I wish more people went in withthat innate feeling like this
doesn't feel right.
Send my kids off and then dosomething about it.
And it's hard.
Was it hard to like?
Think we're all just going towork from home and start our
businesses from home.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
So originally, when my husband and I first got
married, we had always plannedour lives off of one income.
We live in a thousand squarefoot house, we have one car, we
have no car payments, no creditcard debt, no debt besides our
mortgage, and my husband has alittle bit on his student loans.
So we've always lived a verywell within our means lifestyle.
So originally it had planned oflike you're working from home,
(04:54):
I'm like staying home home, likejust, you know, being a mom,
being a stay at home momoriginally.
And it wasn't until like fouryears ago that I started to grow
my own business.
Because the recession hit,things became, even though we
were living, very smallgroceries were rising, prices
were rising on everything,insurance, all the things.
(05:15):
So that's when I kind ofavenueed of like, okay, I need
to do something, what can I do?
And I had started to kind ofdabble.
I own my own marketing businessonline.
So I had started to dabble intosocial media marketing and I
told my husband I'm like I thinkthat if I take this seriously,
I can really make money withthis, and it's become an amazing
business, for our whole familynow is involved in this family
business and it's been anincredible stream of revenue for
(05:36):
our family.
So we didn't necessarily gointo it of like we're all going
to I'm going to homework andyou're going to homework.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
We just kind of would pivot as needed to make it work
for our family.
So, and we'll get into thehomeschooling in a minute but I
wanted to ask you that questiontoo, because there's is
controversy between, like,letting your kids be involved in
the content creation on thesocial media.
You know, and I know you do it,I do it as well.
So how did you, did you guys,come to that?
Really, you obviously planahead.
You think about things beforeyou do them.
How did you come to therealization that, like, we're
(06:09):
going to do this, this is afamily business and we're all
going to be kind of involved and, you know, be okay with that.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Yeah, I feel like, because we just kind of slowly
pivoted over time, it was neverlike this thing of like, like
this is what we're going to doand this is what it's gonna be.
You know, I feel like my visionat first was kind of smaller,
and so, and originally, when Ihad like you got to think like
eight to 10 years ago, no onewould have ever thought you can
make money on social media,right, like that wasn't even a
(06:36):
thing that, even like five yearsago, you wouldn't have thought
we can see now how things can bemanipulated and change with AI
and how it feels sometimes a lotmore scary to have pictures or
videos of our kids online, andso I totally understand that.
I totally understand why somepeople choose not to show that
at all.
For me, I genuinely do havefaith in a higher power.
(06:57):
I know I have a deep sense ofall things are going to work out
, it's all going to be okay.
All things are going to workout, it's all going to be okay.
And I feel like the number onething people approach me with
with that is what if your kidsgrow up at 18 and they say I did
not want to be online, I didn'twant my video shown, like this
was an invasion of my privacy,and at that moment I'll just
have to own up and be like I amso sorry, and at the time I did
(07:17):
what I thought was the best thatI could and I'm so sorry.
You feel that way now.
I think, too.
Also, the reality will be howmany kids in 50 years are not
going to have their stuff online?
You know, it's just so commonthat kids are online now.
So, I can own my mistakes in theend.
And also I say because my kidswork for me at 18, they will
(07:39):
graduate with significantincomes and bank accounts that
they will come into to be ableto buy a house, start a business
, pay for therapy if they needtherapy.
So I also have that of likethey do work and they do make
money and I give them like pettycash, like five, 10 bucks, and
they're happy with that, but I'mputting like 50 bucks, a
hundred bucks every time intheir investment accounts.
(07:59):
That is going to be, Lordwilling, well over six figures
by the time that they graduated18.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
going to be, lord willing, well over six figures
by the time that they graduated18.
Oh, wow, yeah, I signed my kidson under me as employees as
well.
So we just do kind of likewhatever we would have
contributed to, like uh, I thinkwhen I worked for the
government I'd had like a 503 Bor something like I don't know
it's called, where you put moneyin to set aside for college.
We instead took that money andwe put it into, uh, I think it's
(08:28):
a roth ira.
So just every week money goesinto that account and it's a
write-off for our businessexpense and it is income for
them that's not taxable under acertain amount of year and under
a certain age.
So, yeah, it like when you'resmart about it.
It's like can you really be madat me because you have all this
money now?
I don't know, I don't know thatthey're really gonna have all
(08:48):
this money, but they won't havesix figures from my business yet
.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
A couple more ebooks couple.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
More ebooks need to be sold, but so would you
consider yourself an unschooler?
Yes, all right.
Explain to the audience whatthat is.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
So unschooling is just more child-led learning and
self-directed learning, and Idefinitely consider myself more
of an unschooler because when Isee what the traditional
homeschoolers are doing, I'mlike, yeah, that's not me.
Not that every singlehomeschool mom is like this, but
I would say the decent majorityof homeschool moms plan, they
(09:23):
lesson plan, they have theteacher books, they have usually
a schedule.
Whereas I don't look at theteacher books, I do use a
workbook for math, but otherwiseI kind of make up, like not
make up, but we are learningthings based on their passions,
so like, and we are practicing.
I'm very big on the foundationsreading, writing, math.
I'm a really big advocate thatmy kids need to be strong
(09:45):
readers.
Good mathematicians know how towrite.
I think that those skills, nomatter what happens in the
future world, are going to bereally crucial, really important
.
But I'm not giving them ahandwriting book and saying,
here, do this worksheet.
We're writing stories aboutPokemon to learn about math.
We're playing multiplicationgames.
You know, science is we, youknow, live on the beach, so
science is.
(10:06):
We're going outside.
We're going to look at all thedifferent types of marine
biology and we're going to talkabout them and whatever you love
, we're going to get books onthat.
We're going to read all aboutit.
We're going to get like my sonis the biggest shark nerd you
will ever meet Like he couldtell you every single species of
shark, how big they get, whatthey eat, what waters they live
in, like all those things.
He's like science, geeked outon sharks.
(10:28):
And so unschooling is reallyjust passion led learning of
like my kids learn what theywant to learn and we're getting
in those basics, we're gettingin those foundational skills,
but we're doing it through morepassion led than through
specific curriculum schedules.
I follow far more of a routine.
We have a general routine inour day, but I am not a schedule
(10:48):
person.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Yeah, so you're down in Florida, right?
Is it St Pete's?
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Yes, I live, technically in a town called
Gulfport.
I literally love Gulfport.
It's my favorite place ever.
But St Pete is kind of thebigger.
It's literally I could throw arock and hit St Pete.
I'm that close to St Pete.
Gulfport's very, very small andthen, like Tampa, is a big city
near us too.
It is Clearwater near there.
Yeah, I'm like 35 minutes fromClearwater.
I'm close.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Okay, so I've been there and I think I you had a
video up the other day at Ford'sgarage and I swear I ate dinner
there.
Like I think that's the sameplace I went and I was trying to
find.
I was going through my phonelike when was I in Florida?
When was I in Florida?
And trying to get the AI topull up Florida pictures,
because I was like did we take apicture at this place for
dinner?
(11:30):
But of course it was like oneof those random you know your
phone wipes out everything thatyou need because it only gave me
two pictures from Florida andI'm like I took more than two
pictures iPhone, but I think Iwas a google phone at that time
so maybe I could find it inthere.
But I'm like the videos youwere showing, I was like I was
there.
Um, yeah, it's down.
(11:50):
Like I remember having to likego down a couple of one-way
streets to get to the area thatwe were going to and then we ate
dinner at ford's garage.
Does that sound?
Speaker 2 (11:59):
there's some one-way streets down there there are,
but I wonder if you were inclearwater not st pete's,
because I bet they havelocations at both.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Okay, I don't know.
I stayed in some place calledtreasure island, which is
actually meant for gay people,and I didn't know that so
there's a southern beach, sunsetbeach that's known as, like, a
gay beach.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Hilariously, I go there all the time.
I'm heterosexual, so it was.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
It was fun.
But my husband was like why didyou pick this place?
There's so many men and speedoshere.
God, I didn't know this comingin.
I guess I should have knownsomething called treasure island
.
That was a treasure, but it wasbeautiful.
I guess if I lived there Iwould not go in an office either
.
I would be like heck.
No, I am working from home.
(12:41):
My kids are staying home.
How could you put a kid inschool when you've got the ocean
right there outside your window, you know, and beautiful
weather, yes exactly, and evenwhen it's hot, I'm like, no,
still go outside.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
We're still spending five to six hours a day outside.
I don't care if it's a hundreddegrees, yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
You get used to it, all right, so give us an idea.
What is the typical day for anunschooler or for you guys?
What does it look like?
Speaker 2 (13:04):
so we wake up.
I usually go to the gym.
My kids have free play.
They wake up at like 6 15.
My kids are very early risers.
They're early betters too, sothat's kind of nice.
Um, they wake up and they havefree play to like 9 9 30, and
then around 9 9 30 is when I'mlike, hey, we're gonna do a
couple of like core subjectthings.
We'll do like some.
Like you know, know, I have twodifferent grades.
(13:25):
So I have one son who you knowwill like read.
He's actually really intomedieval times right now.
So right now we're reading amedieval times book.
He's like in the medieval timesbook they have little questions
you can write, and so sometimesI'll have him right there.
Sometimes he's writing.
He, like I said, he's making aPokemon book, so sometimes he'll
write a few sentences in thispokemon book.
Like I said, I do use a mathcurriculum.
(13:45):
I use curriculum far more as aguide than as like a schedule.
We need to do this because ifhe's flying through stuff, if he
knows that I'm skipping thatchapter, if he is not
necessarily mastery, masteringthis of this concept, um, like
my first, my younger son hasbeen struggling with subtraction
, with remainders or carryingover, and so we spent a lot more
(14:07):
time on that than the book gaveus.
It's totally okay.
There's no ahead, there's nobehind, we're just looking for
I'm looking for progress overtime.
So we spend literally an houror less doing our three core
subjects, which for me isreading, writing, math, and then
we usually have like a morningouting.
That's the library, the, thebeach, a nature preserve,
anything like that.
My kids are big into fishing sowe do a lot of fishing.
(14:29):
They're really big, like I said, marine kids, so like we're
creature adventuring, we'redoing all sorts of things.
We come home, we do lunch.
We usually do a read aloud withour lunch.
That's when I read to them outloud.
I'm a big advocate for readingout loud.
If all you do in yourhomeschooling is read out loud
to your kids and learn toemotionally regulate yourself,
and then them see youemotionally regulating yourself
(14:51):
and they learn that yourchildren will be golden.
You don't even have to worryabout the reading, writing, math
.
Probably you'll just be fineand get them outside for five
hours I've got number one,definitely not emotionally
regulating.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Over here today I was like oh my, one percent it's
like all those days like birdschirping in your ear.
Mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, oh yes, but uh, you know one step
better than my parents, theyprobably would have thrown
something at me at that point.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
That's what I say.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
That's what I say thinking about homeschooling,
but don't know where to start.
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(15:39):
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(16:01):
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Speaker 2 (16:14):
So, yeah, we'll do it real loud.
And then they do one hour ofquiet time every single day, and
this doesn't have to be a timewhere they have to be quiet, but
it is one hour where theycannot bother me.
They have to play unstructured,without me, without my help,
without my interference, withoutmy refereeing, for one hour a
day.
If they come get me, it addsfive minutes every time.
I do have a four-year-old and afive-year-old.
Sometimes I do have to getinvolved, but then they add five
(16:37):
minutes and that's reallyhelpful for me because, like I
said, I own my own business.
So that's when usually I'mworking during that time.
And then we usually go do anafternoon outing Again.
We're going to the park, we'regoing to the library, we're
going to the beach, we're goingto the bay where we are going
out and doing something, orthey're even just outside riding
their bikes, riding theirscooters.
Like I said, my kids spendevery at least five hours
outside a day, every day.
(16:58):
I'm a really big like get kidsoutside.
Kids.
Being kids in nature makes theworld a better place.
And I say a lot of times tokids being in nature is far more
valuable at this age than themdoing a math lesson, like it is
just so crucial for kids to beoutside, it's so good for them
on their emotional, physical,mental, emotional health,
everything all around.
Get your kids outside and thenusually you know 430, my husband
(17:21):
gets off work and we start, youknow, dinner, bedtime, routine
type of stuff, because my kidswake up early.
They are in bed by like 730,which is such a blessing and,
yeah, that's our day.
That's about our routine.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
Okay.
So how do you, if you get thatone hour in the afternoon to
maybe do some work, when they'rein bed at 730?
I mean, is that when you'relike I have to get back to work,
or how do you regulate it?
Like, no, I have to also havetime for me, have time for my
husband, or just cleaning thehouse, laundry that stuff?
Like how do you manage that?
Because it's very hard when youhave your own business and you
(17:56):
don't have a babysitter orsomewhere for your kids to go to
.
You know, manage that time, howdo you do that?
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Yeah, so one hour.
Like I said, their quiet timealways one hour.
I always get that, probablyfive days out of seven.
They also get a half hour to anhour of TV time.
That's it.
I don't do any any screen timeoutside of that.
We don't do iPads, we don't dotablets, we don't do phones, we
don't do video games, somethinglike that.
So if it is a day where wedon't have a big afternoon
(18:24):
outing plan, they are allowed towatch like a half hour to an
hour of TV.
I'll work that shift too, likeI'll sit next to them.
They're watching TV and theyare usually watching like
classics from when we were kids,so like hey Arnold, catdog,
powerpuff Girls, curtsy, carlydog, the old pokemon even new
pokemon is pretty good.
But I also work during thattime.
Sometimes at night I will workan extra hour and then one day a
(18:46):
week I actually work like athree hour, like little time
block, and my husband does likedinner, bedtime, everything.
So on thursdays I work fromlike 3, 30 to like 6, 30, maybe
sometimes seven, um, andthankfully I've structured my
business where just doing a fewhours every day I can do enough
that it pays the bills.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Yeah, that's what I find hard is managing the time.
So, yeah, my husband would lovefor me to get up and work out
with him at six, but I'm like Igotta get this podcast edited.
I'll get there.
You know you're right, it allfalls into place because
different projects come up atdifferent times.
Sometimes you're overloaded,sometimes you're not, and as you
do it too, I think it getseasier Like, ok, what kind of
(19:29):
flow.
You know you have a certainkind of flow when you make your
reels, like this is what works,this is what my audience likes.
So, so, when you're still inkind of the guessing game, like
what works today didn't worktomorrow, and then every now and
then, instagram will just likeblock me from getting any new
followers.
And it'll be like you're atthis number for a month and I'm
like, oh, all right, I guess thegig's up.
(19:51):
Nobody else likes my stuff, soI'll just stop.
And then it'll be like, oh wait, we want her back now.
So it'll say like you got 100new followers.
You got 100 new followers.
So then I'm like, oh, I bettercreate some content again.
It's there's a movie called wasit the Social Experiment, I
think, and how like it playsgames with you like that to get
you coming back.
(20:12):
And it's an actual thing.
How do you OK, this is a goodquestion, I think, for somebody
who you don't have your kidsusing social media or ipads or
stuff like that, but you'reallowing them to be on it like,
and I'm the same.
I'm the same, right.
Like my kids don't have phones.
My son has an ipad but like heuses it to listen to spotify,
(20:34):
like old country music, and hethinks it's new.
He thinks it's new countrymusic.
So he had his friend in the cara couple weeks ago and he he's
like, listen to this.
And he hooks up to my hot spotand he plays, like I don't know,
toby Keith or something.
He's singing along with it andI'm like, holy crap, we are
(20:55):
homeschoolers, we arehomeschoolers.
This is it.
The kid's looking at him like,are you for real?
So yeah, it's funny.
But then today he played prettyfly for a white guy.
So I'm like, oh lordy, okay,well, he is though but yeah, but
yeah.
How do you like?
Will you ever be?
What is your long-term goal?
(21:15):
Because, with ai coming intheir lives and, first of all,
it's never been easier to keepyour kids away from electronics
and social media than tohomeschool, because you don't
have to deal with it.
These kids are on a group chatand they're leaving your kid out
because your kid doesn't havethe phone.
Meanwhile they're all 12 yearsold and Snapchatting and this
and that, whatever app, is thething.
(21:36):
Now, if you don't know if youwant to homeschool for this
reason alone, if you don't wantto have to deal with the social
media and all of the pressuresfrom AI and them targeting you
and telling kids to hurtthemselves and it's just, it's
crazy out there, homeschool forthat reason alone.
But what is your goal?
Will you ever let them havethat stuff?
Speaker 2 (21:56):
So I have told that because so we live on a block
with 12 kids.
All of them are public schooled, and it's very funny because
exactly they, since they werelike six years old, all had cell
phones.
And so I remember when, aboutthree years ago, when the little
girl across the street she'slike, when will you let Cephas
get a phone my oldest son, whowas six at the time because
she's six and I laughed and Isaid, well, one day, when he has
(22:19):
a job, I'd be willing to gethim a bark phone, but until then
he won't have any smartphone.
So that's kind of always beenmy standard with my kids and, to
be fair, my kids, all theirfriends, their close friends,
are homeschooled kids who do nothave cell phones, who do not
have their very low tech, lowscreen kids like my kids, so
(22:40):
they don't interact with kidswho are like having these phones
, doing these things.
I think that's super helpful.
But also my standard is exactlywhen you get a job at 14, 15,
16, 17, and you need tocommunicate with me, to like
coordinate rides or, honestly,hopefully you can get a job you
can just bike to, or somethinglike that would be my goal to
make them equipped enough that,if you get a job you can figure
(23:00):
out all your own stuff.
But I'm willing to get you abark phone that doesn't have any
internet access, that I can seeevery call and every text that
you are doing and that just isvery like calling, texting.
That's it.
I would not let any child onsocial media period.
So when my kids are 18, if theyhave a job and they want to go
get their own smartphone andthey want to download social
(23:23):
media, go for it.
You're an adult and, lordwilling, I've equipped you well
enough at that point that youknow not to go on certain sites.
So when certain things come upbecause they will come up if
your child has access to ascreen there is a PORN site
within 10 clicks of that websiteand it is just going to happen
that something will pop up andmy children by 18, even now
(23:45):
they're very well equipped.
We I actually would highlyrecommend, if anyone does let
their kids on any sort of screen, to read a book.
It's called Good Pictures, badPictures.
You can find it on Amazon.
They have a junior version, anolder kid version, and it, in
very childlike terms, explainswhat PORORN is in childlike,
very, very on par with their age.
Not scary, not weird, nothing.
(24:05):
But it talks about how thereare good pictures, great things
for our brains that we like tosee, and that there are bad
pictures.
That's like picture poison forour brain and we don't want to
look and see those things.
So, anyways, a longer story madeshort.
Lord willing by them Actually,I won't even say Lord willing,
lord willing by them, actually,I won't even say Lord willing by
then they will be equipped toknow how to handle the internet,
to understand that exactly theInstagram algorithm works on
(24:26):
shame.
It wants you to think that whatyou do is who you are, and by
18, my goal is that my kids arefirm in their identity of I know
who I am, outside of what I do,outside of what the world says
that I am, outside of anything.
I know who I am because thishas been imparted to me for the
last you know 18 years.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
Yeah, and it sounds crazy like, oh, they're not
going to have social media untilthey're 18.
But I'm 41.
I didn't have social mediauntil I was with it didn't exist
.
I was in college when Facebookwas created and you had to have
a college email address in orderto get on it, because I
remember years later my motherbeing on it and I'm like, how
(25:07):
the heck are you on this?
You need to be in college andthen they were letting all the
grandmas on and stuff.
So it's like we didn't have itand we're fine.
So the majority of us raisingkids today never had social
media until we were 18.
So when we think about even howmuch damage it did to us in our
like 20s and stuff affairs thatwere created from that, you
(25:32):
know our kids, they don't have ashot if they're on this stuff
at 8, 9, 10 years old.
And the biggest thing for menow I don't know if you're
dealing with this at all.
I mean, probably because youhave kids right in your
neighborhood that have socialmedia but like, just if they're
around, other kids that areshowing them a screen, this, and
you know, and then this nextone pops up, like you said, the
(25:54):
sites that you don't want themto see are just within 10 clicks
and probably not even that far.
So if you're watching, forinstance, youtube shorts and
they're just, you know, watchingfunny cat videos, and then
something comes up that youdon't want your kid to see, it's
not even that other kid's fault.
But that's where I'm strugglingright now, because, like, kids
want to have sleepovers or theywant to.
(26:14):
You know, we all go camping andthey want to be in a tent alone
together, and I'm like the badparent that's like no, you're
sleeping with me, no, you sleepat home at night.
Because I don't even want evenan innocent enough child showing
them something that they can'tcontrol, because the next click,
the next swipe is going to besomething inappropriate.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
Exactly.
And actually it's so funnybecause our family has had a
rule, and it's been a rule sincethe very beginning, that we
don't do sleepovers.
And my kids no kids who do getto sleepovers, and they're like
but so-and-so gets to do asleepover and I'm like, yeah,
and this is our family rule andthis is how our family runs, and
you have to trust God that hehas equipped me to be your mom,
not Jones's mom, like I'm yourmom and so this is our family
(26:59):
rules.
And so you, I totallyunderstand what you're saying of
like coming up against that,like you're not a bad mom.
I'm not a bad mom, maybe notalways the fun mom, but I feel
like you and I are making up forit another way.
So it's all going to work outin the end.
So don't worry and that's alsowhy our household too all the
neighbor kids know this who dohave phones.
Phones are not allowed on ourproperty.
(27:19):
Like, if you want to hang outwith your phone, go do it at
your own house.
Like you know, I can onlycontrol my property and my kids
and that's why under nocircumstance would they hang out
with kids who have phonesunsupervised.
Because no way.
Just because, like you'resaying, even the most sweet,
innocent, not trying to be weirdchild, it can just pop up, it
can just pop up.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
Yeah, there to be weird child.
It can just pop up.
It can just pop up.
Yeah, there was that lady.
She has the site scrolling todeath on Instagram and she said,
like in a third grade classroomshe went on her daughter's
computer laptop, like in theschool, in the classroom, and
swiped and like got to the PORNsite that you're talking about
right in the classroom.
Her daughter just had to do acouple of clicks, or she, you
know, the mother did it, butit's not like she typed anything
(28:03):
in.
Even she was honest.
It was allowing YouTube andthat shouldn't even be allowed
in the school.
And then the school was likesorry, we didn't know, and now
we'll do something about it.
Like we would think that thosewhat do you?
You know, shelters are in place, like what's the word?
Like those sort of codes, likeyou can't get in access.
Those sites are already inplace before the teachers roll
(28:26):
out.
You know, here's your classroomassignment, so and that's
another thing in schools nowthey're in.
And yeah, and you're, I assume,probably more on the
conservative side, what do youthink about?
Like they're rolling out AIdown from like kindergarten.
Now it's like who's controllingthe world?
Because that's why this isweird.
(28:46):
And RFK who wants a universalvaccine.
Now, like what is going on withthe world.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
Dude, I wish I knew and that's actually probably why
I don't keep up with like anyworld events type things, which
is I'm sure some people would belike, oh my gosh, that's so
irresponsible, selfish.
I don't know what avenue peoplewould throw me under.
But I'm just like bro, all Ineed to do is manage my own nice
number one, manage myself,because reality, that's all.
(29:13):
The only thing I can havecontrol over is myself and
steward what I have well, andI'm just like let the world burn
.
It's the world is going to dowhat the world's going to do.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
Well, and that is brilliant advice, and I think I
had to come to that conclusionand just say like, yeah, there
are people in control way aboveyou know, whatever we see.
So what can I control?
Can I teach my kids how to findfresh water, if they needed to,
how to build a house, how to,you know, find food?
Can they fish?
Could they hunt?
(29:45):
Could they, you know, skin adeer and process it?
Not yet, but hopefully soon.
You know, that's on the bucketlist.
It's like these things, youknow, are I want to make sure
our family doesn't need FEMA ina hurricane or tornado or a
flood or a whatever aliensapproaching.
I don't know what they're gonnathrow at us, but it's like,
(30:06):
yeah, these are the things youcan only control within your
home, so you do have to let thatother stuff go.
Yeah, what about our?
Is college something that youthink you would influence your
kids towards?
Or are you kind of on the likelet's not waste our money, let's
figure things out before we getthere?
Speaker 2 (30:24):
It'll be so interesting to see what college
looks like by the time our kidsget to even college age, because
I think we're already startingto see the radical shift of like
people are realizing collegeisn't worth it for many jobs.
Obviously, I want my surgeongoing to college.
I don't want my surgeon gettingthrough medical school because
he AI'd his whole, you knowtests and peppers and all that
(30:46):
type of stuff.
So I think that college isgoing to look very, very
different by the time our kidsget into college and honestly,
with the personnel, I have threeboys and a little girl.
I just with their personality,like my one son wants to be an
alligator hunter.
Well, thankfully you don't haveto have a college degree to be
an alligator hunter.
My other son actually wants totrain dolphins.
Funny enough, you don't need adegree to do that.
(31:09):
I actually asked.
We went and swam with thedolphins and I asked do you need
a marine biology degree tolearn to do this?
She's like oh no, like you canturn internships and do this and
this and this and I'm likethat's so cool, like that
actually is a job I thoughtwould need college, but you
actually don't even need collegefor that.
So all this to say if my kidshave careers where you need
higher education, you're gonnahave to do that.
That's okay.
(31:29):
I'm also a huge fan of like thetrades.
I say all the time I'm like wecould use a mechanic in the
family, we could use an H thatguy in the family like my
collection, and in the 90s hewas making six figures.
So like jobs in the tradesfields are very, very lucrative,
very, very good for, like handson kinesthetic people.
My kids are not, I don't think,going to be sitting in the
(31:49):
office work type people.
Maybe they will.
I don't want to put a label onthem.
They can do whatever they wantto do.
But they also are very aware.
Thank God because the totaltwins if you want to go to
college, it has to be for a likea college career.
Like you want to be a surgeon,you want to be a doctor, you
want to be a nurse, you want tobe you know, something that
needs specific higher leveltraining.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
So yeah, yeah, yeah, same here.
My husband is HVAC and it'syeah, he has a T-shirt he's had
for a long time that says deathto cubicles.
Even when I was working for thegovernment like now I
understand, because I didn'tknow any better I was in like
the prison that I made formyself in the cubicle, so I just
walked there every day, sat inmy cubicle, 10 o'clock.
(32:33):
I take my break.
At noon I take my break, and attwo I take my break and then go
home and you know, like, evenif I had no work to do, just sat
in my cubicle and like it's soweird, now that I'm out of that
matrix, that I'm like holy crap,why were you doing that?
Like why there's a whole worldout there, there's so many
things you can do, and I didn'tfeel that there was anything I
(32:55):
could do other than sit in acubicle and get government money
, which is basically a glorifiedwelfare recipient.
Put it plainly I did what theytold me to do and then I got
taxpayer dollars for it.
So, but you know, I didn'tthink there was anything else
because school kept me so busyall the time with just busy work
, that I didn't care about.
I never actually found apassion of my own and I never
(33:17):
would have said like, oh, Icould be a podcaster, because I
was never bored enough to dothat.
Or, you know, make reels onInstagram or write an ebook or
whatever write a children's bookbecause I was never had the
time to do it or the time toeven find anything that I liked
to do.
So that's something thathomeschool definitely allows
your kids to do, and us as theparent.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
What is your favorite ?
Speaker 2 (33:41):
title to this book Medals of Merit.
It made me cry the first time Iread it.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
I literally cried the first time I read it Because of
the girl in the wheelchair.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
Because of how well they described like Marxism,
principles and how it's likethis is not actually equal, and
I was like this is not equal.
And how do a kid like that youknow that this is like in our
culture like more people arelike universal health care,
socialism, this and this, andI'm like you have no idea what
those things could actuallybring and how.
That's actually not.
(34:09):
First off, the world's not fair.
Let's just start there.
But that that's actually notfair.
That's not true equality.
True equality is free marketswhere we can all compete and be
able to pull our best resourcesto be able to do the best work
that we can do and be rewardedfor that work.
Yeah, so I love that.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
And it's so true, and I just had Del Bigtree on.
You know no shout out to myselfthere for getting Dell on.
But but he said that he waslike the reason that vaccine
manufacturers do not have tocompete there because it's
mandated on people and it's you.
Most people have to get them togo to school, or at least they
make you think that you do, inall the states.
(34:47):
But, like my state, my kidswould have to be vaccinated with
everything in order to go toschool.
So if it's already mandated onpeople, the pediatricians are
are your advertisers.
You don't have to pay formarketing, you don't have to
compete because there's, theyhave to get it.
That's the one on the market.
So nobody's competing for abetter product.
(35:07):
Like, why would Pfizer say I amgoing to improve my product
when they're already getting themillions of kids to take it
because it's on the CDC schedule, right?
Like if it was an option?
And they and it was like do youwant this product today?
Well, I don't know.
Show me all the safety studies.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
If you have them, and you know, maybe they'd have
some at that point, show me justthe ingredient list, look at
how much aluminum is supposed tobe in a human body and then
look at the amount of aluminumthat's put in vaccines that they
are, you know, have a shelflife.
That's actually what kind ofstarted me down the rabbit hole
that is.
Someone just sent me theingredients and I was like what?
I had never thought about.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
This Like yeah, you don't know what you don't know.
It's true, it's so true.
Have you taught your kids whatto do in an emergency?
It's a conversation weshouldn't put off, and it's a
conversation we should haveoften.
That's why I wrote let's TalkEmergencies, a book that covers
everything from dialing 911 on alocked cell phone to staying
safe online water safety, firesafety and more.
(36:08):
The most important lessons wecan teach our kids are not
reading, writing and math.
They're how to keep themselvesand others safe In today's world
of uncertainty.
Give them the tools they need.
Grab a copy today.
Check out the link in thisepisode's description.
So that's your favorite book.
(36:31):
I'm going to name a TuttleTwins scenario, and you got to
tell me what book it's from.
Okay, all right, they go toGermany Vacation vacation.
Yes, okay, we got.
We've got another one here.
Emma had a theater.
This is a hard one.
I know this is a hard one.
Let me see what else.
Oh, she had a ballet theater.
Why hard one, I know this is ahard one.
Let me see what else.
Oh, she had a ballet theaterwhy am I thinking?
Speaker 2 (36:45):
the miraculous pencil , the spectacular show business?
Yes, the history books.
My kids will just pick them upand read them, like all the time
, like they love to leisure readthose history books.
They're so into them becausethey're written in the storybook
format.
Speaker 1 (36:59):
I genuinely love those books so I genuinely love
those and it's funny becauseI'll be like reading them to my
son as part of his curriculum,but it'll be our nightly read
and then if my husband's puttingthem to bed and I hear him pick
up like where I left off, I'llbe mad.
I'm like do I wanted to knowthat part?
Stop that's.
(37:22):
I want to to learn it.
So I have to go back the nextday and skim through.
Speaker 2 (37:26):
Yes, and that's what I love about the tuttle twins is
we learn right alongside thembecause they do such a good job
of explaining the things that wewere not taught as kids.
Like I didn't know about thecreature from jekyll island, I
didn't know about these peoplewho printed, you know, money out
of thin air, that we didn't usethe gold standard anymore, that
you know because of that, ourmoney is like valueless.
(37:47):
Like those are good things toknow, I need to know what to
invest in.
Speaker 1 (37:51):
Yeah, I think when I read the miraculous pencil is
when I was like whoa, like thereare so many moving parts and so
many jobs we just don't evenknow about.
And then we're sending our kidsto school for eight, you know,
six hours a day, six plus hoursa day.
They're away from us eight toten hours a day, you know, 180
days out of the year.
(38:11):
And then college, where theyget into two hundred thousand
dollars of debt and they don'teven know that.
There's like a lady looking forwhat is it lacquer in Egypt or
something.
And it's like these are alljobs that you don't need all
that schooling for.
Like you said before,apprenticeships you know, you
learn this stuff.
We're at a dolphin exhibit.
(38:32):
Do we need to have a degree forthis?
Like, you learn it when youdecide that it's something that
you want to do.
And even, like you were saying,education will be different
when our kids get there andcollege will be different when
our kids get there.
But the jobs will be sodifferent that even going to,
like going to my husband's HVACschool, what he learned back in
(38:56):
2000 is so different than whatyou would learn on the job today
.
He's had to roll because thereare like computers and
everything.
Now this morning he was justtelling me he goes.
They want me to sign in to thisjob to like remotely do stuff
on the computer, but the placeis 20 minutes away.
I could just go there and fixthe problem.
(39:18):
But they're like making them doall these steps that they think
help, like, oh, just sign in.
Then he's got to do all thesesteps that they think help, like
, oh, just sign in.
And then he's got to write allthese reports about what he
found when he signed in and buthe can't actually fix it because
he's not there.
So it's just a crazy world.
And I agree with you completelyas far as the higher education,
because what jobs are evengoing to be available if they're
not in the real world?
Speaker 2 (39:39):
they'll never know, oh yeah, and literally nobody
could say what jobs are going tobe like in 10 years.
Like we genuinely have no ideait's going to look vastly
different than what we have now.
Does the ai scare you?
No, but I'm not easily shakenand I've seen some of the
benefits and I just see how itdoesn't like always like do a
great job.
Like I just use chat gpt likevery casually, and sometimes
(40:01):
I'll ask you things and I'm likebro, this is not, this is not
it.
This is not helpful.
Like you, you are not doing agood job on this Because,
especially like I work in onlineadvertising, marketing, social
media people like are you afraidI was gonna take your job?
I'm like heck, no, they couldn'tdo my job.
Are you kidding me?
They can't even write mycaption right half the time.
Like they're not going to beable to edit videos and sync it
(40:22):
to the music and do this andfind the right clips.
You know you can easily pickout AI art versus actual art,
right, like we can all super seeof like something that's using
like AI for advertising versusreal advertising, and most
people are drawn to realadvertising.
Real pictures, real art, real,you know, whatever.
Speaker 1 (40:44):
Yes, and I've looked for that.
I'm like, okay, there's gottabe some sort of program I can
just pay for monthly that liketakes like the text I want to
put in and fits it all nicely ina one, you know, 30 second, one
minute reel and puts it to thebeat and puts in or like a
podcast episode, you know, andputs in overlays.
(41:06):
But yes, I've looked for AIprograms to do all that stuff
for me and it doesn't exist.
And you're right when I put instuff like AI is great for hey,
I have these ingredients in myfridge and my pantry.
What can I make for dinner inthe instapot?
It will give me a good meal.
But yeah, I've put in stuffbefore, asked it something, and
(41:28):
then like I'm like, no, that'snot true, can you try again?
And it'll be like, oh, you'reright, thank you for being on
top of things.
And it's I could see it's liketrying to groom me to be its
friend.
Speaker 2 (41:39):
we're not buddies yeah, yeah, I actually asked it
today to make me a headshotbecause I had a photo, but I
wanted it of just my face.
It was like a full, like morebody photo and I'm like, oh,
I'll ask ai to just like, and Iassume they just like crop my
face, make the backgroundnothing, whatever.
They literally instead like,drew like a picture, like a
digital art of me, and I'm likethis doesn't even look like this
(42:00):
is for you to generate thisphoto, thinking that you're
actually to do what I'm askingyou've also with your work.
Speaker 1 (42:06):
You have a cup, you have like a course, right?
Can you tell us about that?
Speaker 2 (42:10):
yes, I have a guide to homeschooling e-course
because, exactly when I I sharehomeschooling on my instagram
and I would get so many peopleasking so many questions
curriculum questions, how do youhomeschool?
Questions, routine questionslike how do I homeschool?
Like, what do I need to do allthis different types of stuff
and so, instead of answeringevery single person which I just
got to the point I could not dothat anymore I was like, okay,
(42:32):
I'm gonna make a guide.
And I actually co created thiswith literally the most
brilliant woman that I know.
She's an absolutely incredibleperson.
She was a teacher turnedhomeschool mom.
Her husband was a homeschooler,so her kids are second
generation homeschool kids andshe is just a wealth of
knowledge and has seen thebackground of like the public
(42:52):
school and the private school.
She taught in both and then nowas a homeschool mom, so she has
a lot of educational backgroundand then the actual
homeschooling like knowledge andas well, and so her and I tag
team and made this and it isjust truly very helpful for
anyone who is just gettingstarted on homeschooling or who
needs, like even clarity ontheir homeschooling of like why
(43:13):
am I doing this?
Like, why does it matter if mykids go outside like they're
playing for how wheels for threehours.
Is this a problem?
Spoiler alert it's not.
They're actually learning whileplaying how wheels.
You don't have to worry.
That's probably the best thingthat they can be doing right now
.
So, yeah, it is to help anyoneget started on their
homeschooling journey or justget clarity, encouragement of
like where you're at in yourhomeschooling journey, like I
(43:34):
feel like so many homeschoolmoms are, like am I doing enough
?
Am I failing my kids?
That's probably like the twobiggest fears I hear.
And like you are enough, youare not failing your kids.
Like if you are trying, if youare even just doing read-alouds,
if you're just beingintentional with your time with
them, it's just not possible.
It's not possible for you tofail your kids in that way.
So that is my guide, and I meanI'm biased, but I think it's
(43:58):
pretty awesome.
Speaker 1 (43:59):
Well, I'm going to put a link to that so people can
just head right to thedescription, click on it and
it's everything that they need.
So easy, easy way.
And I'm going to link yourInstagram too, so people can
follow you along on your journey.
And I, you know, I know, yeah,and I know, like for the people
that aren't even inhomeschooling yet, like for me,
I was like what would we even doall day?
But it's funny how these thingslike it sounds overwhelming
(44:20):
when you're like I have anouting in the morning and an
outing in the afternoon, but itprobably happens more naturally
than that.
Right, like what, now that I'min it, it's like life, my, my
son.
You know we had a neighbor movein a couple months ago, so their
11 year old is home for thesummer and, you know, my son is
seven.
But they like ride dirt bikesto get.
(44:43):
Well, I took away the dirt bikebecause they were getting a
little nuts, but they ride fourwheelers together and they've
been working for the last twoweeks endlessly on building tiny
houses in the backyard.
So I love that.
Like today, like my son got inhis tractor which is from his
great-grandfather it was hisgreat-grandfather's tractor.
He gets in tractor and he'staking all the wood that we just
(45:04):
built this podcast studio downhere in my basement and all the
leftover wood they're taking in.
They're bringing it up to theneighbor's house and I hear them
out there pounding on nails andI'm waiting for the screams and
he's like ah, I got my finger,but I haven't heard that yet.
Knock on wood, but it is.
It's so funny how, like whenyou just let them live, they
(45:26):
naturally do stuff that theywant to learn.
Now my daughter, on the otherhand, she just wants to watch
Blippi all day long.
But so like you got to cap itand like I lost the remote every
now and then, and you know.
But so I sat with her and wewere playing the matching game
that she got for her birthdaythat last weekend.
So you know it was cute.
It was like the first time shecould actually play a game like
(45:47):
and get it.
You know where she's not justmoving pieces effortlessly or
aimlessly, but she was like ohyeah, I got a match too for me.
And she gets so excited and I'mlike all I had to do was like
stop cooking, stop trying to getpodcasts edited.
Stop trying to do laundry andjust sit with her and like it
does.
You're right, it just sonaturally comes and I need to be
(46:10):
more intentional about that,for sure.
Speaker 2 (46:12):
Oh yeah, exactly.
My outing is not always funstuff.
It's like we're going groceryshopping once a week.
Me and all my kids are goinggrocery shopping.
You're going to come to thestore, you're gonna learn how
life works.
It's not always like thesesuper fun things.
And, like you said too, so manypeople like I couldn't
entertain my kids all day long,bro, neither can I.
I'm not doing that.
I am not doing that at all.
(46:33):
They are going to find their ownthings to do.
They're going to naturally, goplay.
They are going to theirchildren.
They are literally built andmade to play and when you kind
of set up the routine, when youkind of have like the baseline
of, like you know, like you go,do you not to say I don't play
Monopoly with my kids all thetime?
I do, they love that.
(46:53):
I actually am a big advocate forgame schooling.
That's like one of the bestways for your kids to learn math
and so many other skills.
But a lot of time they're justlike they go, do their own thing
.
They're out.
You know my kids four wheelersare so cool.
That's so cool that you do that.
But my kids are, like you know,playing with the mud kitchen in
the backyard, which is just aplastic kitchen that has totally
been destroyed and is just mudand gross now.
(47:15):
Um, and like literally old potsand pans that we're just like
using, because we finally had toget new pots and pans because
like they were nonstick and likeyou know I know now nonstick is
not the best right um, all thisto say exactly they go, they do
their own thing.
We are not constantlyentertaining our kids.
We're not constantly, you know,micromanaging everything they
do.
They have the freedom to bekids yeah, when you give them
(47:38):
that freedom.
Speaker 1 (47:39):
Yeah, and I, I'm guilty of it, we're.
It's all a work in progress,like you said, you know none of
us are perfect?
Oh my God Right, none of us areperfect.
We might have to say someapologies some days, but are we
doing it better than our parentsdid?
Speaker 2 (47:51):
Yes, exactly, and me and my husband are doing like
way better.
So I'm sure you are all thetime we're before, but we don't.
We don't use that consequencevery often.
But we will look at each othera lot of times, like today my
son broke a fan, like literallybroke a hole, like you know, it
has like four little spinnythings.
(48:11):
He literally broke a wholething off and I was like we
looked at each other and we'relike this is why our parents
beat us, like this is why peopleused to beat their kids, you
know, and we gotta hope them issomehow gonna be a little bit
better.
Speaker 1 (48:30):
On beating them, try to regulate those emotions
exactly.
It is hard and I find too likemy son will do things that like
trigger my childhood, so likehe'll just be loud and yelling
and stomping the feet and it itdoes it like put you back and
like the trauma, and it took mefor a little while to figure
that out and that's probably whywe butt heads too.
Because I remember one timejust chasing after him as he's
(48:52):
hopping along, running like thelittle kid from home alone,
right, and he's running and I helike ran into the bathroom and
I opened the bathroom door and Ismacked him in the head with it
.
I didn't mean to yeah, it'shard.
You know what life does not comewith a handbook.
It is all right.
Oh, I'm gonna link everythingto this episode.
We're already up on an hour.
Is there anything, any lastingwords you want to say to the
(49:14):
homeschooling parents that arethinking about homeschooling, or
prospective homeschoolingparents, or just starting out on
their journey?
Speaker 2 (49:20):
if you're just starting starting out, if you
want to, you are so equipped todo this.
You taught your kid how to walk.
You caught your kid how to talk.
You can teach them to read.
You can teach them to write.
You can live a thriving familylife and have more joy and
freedom than you could have everimagined, than being in the
bubble.
And if you're even slightlyconsidering it 1000%, take the
(49:41):
jump because you are literallygoing to love it.
You genuinely love it, and letgo of all your expectations of
it needs to look like this, orshe does.
Ginny does it this way, so Ineed to do it this way.
Follow the flow of your ownfamily and all you're looking
for is progress over time.
It doesn't matter how long thatprogress takes.
If it takes your son threeyears to learn how to read,
(50:02):
that's okay.
Like it's going to be okay.
Speaker 1 (50:04):
Yeah, we're on that three-year journey right now.
Like I'll look at him sometimesI'm like dude, are you dyslexic
?
He is totally going to be intherapy one day.
But where I think we're finallyon the journey.
Now I found Reading Horizonsand he's doing well with it.
Speaker 2 (50:23):
I'm'm, we're liking it.
One third of kids get readingright away very easy.
One third of kids need a decentamount more help to learn to
read and the other third of kidsneed a lot of help to learn to
read.
Oh, I, my firstborn, was a veryfast, easy reader.
He literally picked it.
I did.
I barely even taught that kidhow to read, like he was like a
ab, and I'm like oh, good foryou, like, look at me, I'm such
a great homeschool mom, you'regetting it.
(50:43):
And then my second son I'd belike this is a.
It makes an ass sound.
I'm like what letter is that?
He's like q.
I'm like what.
I'm like what sound does thatmake?
He's like buh.
I'm like what?
Like something different.
And so if you have thatsituation happen, it's totally
okay.
A third get it.
A third need a little bit ofhelp, a third need a lot of bit
of help and it's totally okay.
Speaker 1 (51:04):
And in Finland they don't even start any of that
formal stuff till age seven.
So what's it for anyway?
Speaker 2 (51:09):
Yeah it's not.
I don't push reading right away.
Not very young.
Speaker 1 (51:12):
Yeah, as long as you're reading to them, like you
said, most important thing.
So grab a Tuttle Twins book andsit down tonight with your kids
.
Thank you, Raven, for beinghere.
It was so nice meeting you andchatting with you.
I look forward to seeing moreof your videos on Instagram.
Speaker 2 (51:27):
Yes, thank you so much for having me.
It's such a joy to be here, andsame I literally love your
videos too Well.
Speaker 1 (51:32):
I copy some of your formats.
It's like looking in a mirror.
I love that.
Thank you for tuning into thisweek'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
(51:53):
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
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 Raven Kramer, homeschool
mom, and other Tuttle Twinsaffiliate.
So if you didn't see my TuttleTwins ad, you've seen hers.
Welcome, raven.
How are you?
Speaker 2 (00:44):
I'm amazing.
How are you?
I am amazing, how are you.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
I'm good, it's so cool to finally like talk to you
in real life, because I feellike I know you, because I
always see your Instagram reelsand I see you doing the Tuttle
Twins stuff and see your familyon there, and then I was kind of
like oh, wait, yeah, I haven'tmet her yet I feel like I know
her, though Weird world that welive in, yes, same, oh my
goodness.
So how many kids do you haveand what got you into
(01:07):
homeschooling?
Speaker 2 (01:08):
So I have four kids.
I have a nine year old, a sevenyear old, a five year old and
my daughter is just about toturn four.
And my husband and I havealways known we wanted to
homeschool before we even hadkids.
Like when we were gettingmarried I was like we're going
to have 12 kids and we're goingto homeschool all of them.
We stopped at four.
That felt good, but we've justalways known that we've always
really had a big priority forour family and it didn't make
(01:30):
sense that the traditional modelis to immediately send our kids
away for eight hours a day whenthey turn five years old.
That didn't make any sense toeither one of us, and so
homeschooling made sense as thedefault, and it's like if this
default doesn't work for somereason, then we can look into
other options.
But it was always our default,whereas I feel like culture is
more their default as, like,traditional school, and if that
(01:52):
doesn't work then we look atother options.
We kind of had a different viewof like this is our, this is
our standard, and if we can'thit that, that's okay, we can
pivot, but this is what we goingto do.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
I don't feel, like many people go in knowing that's
what they want to do, whatclicked for you?
That just like we're going totake this untraditional route.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Yeah, I've.
Like I said, we have a reallybig priority for our family and
that has was always driven us tolike I own my own business.
My husband works from home.
We homeschool our kids.
I joke that we couldn't doanything outside the home
because we just reallyprioritize our family and know
that that's like the mostimportant thing for us.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
So homeschooling made sense because we all got to be
together and it's it's so truebecause, like you send your kids
off, I mean I remember I wasquote unquote lucky because I
got to take six months off ofwork, even though it was like my
own time I was using.
I didn't get like a paidmaternity leave or anything.
They're like we're letting youtake six months to be with your
(02:49):
baby, thank you.
And like sending him to daycareat six months, and it was just
like, oh, this is just whatpeople do.
But it was so sad when theytell you like, oh, you're
supposed to cry and they'resupposed to cry like no,
nobody's supposed to cry becauseyou're not supposed to do it.
What the hell.
But I mean, I went through whatI went through, I know what I
know I changed it for mydaughter and it is, you know,
(03:12):
crazy seeing both sides,everything that I was there for
with her.
I'm like my God, I miss thiswith my son, like I feel so bad.
And if you always send yourkids to daycare, you never knew
what you missed and your kidsdon't know what they missed
either.
So it's not like the end of theworld.
But then when I saw it with mydaughter, like just she'd wake
up from a nap, but it was justbecause something woke her up
(03:34):
and she wanted to be nursed andput back to bed and they didn't.
They can't get that in daycareLike she just wanted.
Mom, she has this thing whereshe just rubs my arm.
It's the weirdest thing.
She's always done it and it'slike a comfort blanket for her.
She's like I just, mom, can youroll up your sleeve?
I need to rub your arm.
I'm like what?
Okay, it's so weird.
But like those are the things.
(03:55):
I don't have that bond with myson and I don't know if it's
just because the the boy momthing, or just our personalities
, or because I was, I didn'tnurse him, I wasn't there with
him those critical years, uh,all the time.
But we definitely have more ofa divide in between us, a
butting of the heads, if youwill.
So I wonder if that's why, butit's so true.
(04:18):
I wish more people went in withthat innate feeling like this
doesn't feel right.
Send my kids off and then dosomething about it.
And it's hard.
Was it hard to like?
Think we're all just going towork from home and start our
businesses from home.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
So originally, when my husband and I first got
married, we had always plannedour lives off of one income.
We live in a thousand squarefoot house, we have one car, we
have no car payments, no creditcard debt, no debt besides our
mortgage, and my husband has alittle bit on his student loans.
So we've always lived a verywell within our means lifestyle.
So originally it had planned oflike you're working from home,
(04:54):
I'm like staying home home, likejust, you know, being a mom,
being a stay at home momoriginally.
And it wasn't until like fouryears ago that I started to grow
my own business.
Because the recession hit,things became, even though we
were living, very smallgroceries were rising, prices
were rising on everything,insurance, all the things.
(05:15):
So that's when I kind ofavenueed of like, okay, I need
to do something, what can I do?
And I had started to kind ofdabble.
I own my own marketing businessonline.
So I had started to dabble intosocial media marketing and I
told my husband I'm like I thinkthat if I take this seriously,
I can really make money withthis, and it's become an amazing
business, for our whole familynow is involved in this family
business and it's been anincredible stream of revenue for
(05:36):
our family.
So we didn't necessarily gointo it of like we're all going
to I'm going to homework andyou're going to homework.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
We just kind of would pivot as needed to make it work
for our family.
So, and we'll get into thehomeschooling in a minute but I
wanted to ask you that questiontoo, because there's is
controversy between, like,letting your kids be involved in
the content creation on thesocial media.
You know, and I know you do it,I do it as well.
So how did you, did you guys,come to that?
Really, you obviously planahead.
You think about things beforeyou do them.
How did you come to therealization that, like, we're
(06:09):
going to do this, this is afamily business and we're all
going to be kind of involved and, you know, be okay with that.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Yeah, I feel like, because we just kind of slowly
pivoted over time, it was neverlike this thing of like, like
this is what we're going to doand this is what it's gonna be.
You know, I feel like my visionat first was kind of smaller,
and so, and originally, when Ihad like you got to think like
eight to 10 years ago, no onewould have ever thought you can
make money on social media,right, like that wasn't even a
(06:36):
thing that, even like five yearsago, you wouldn't have thought
we can see now how things can bemanipulated and change with AI
and how it feels sometimes a lotmore scary to have pictures or
videos of our kids online, andso I totally understand that.
I totally understand why somepeople choose not to show that
at all.
For me, I genuinely do havefaith in a higher power.
(06:57):
I know I have a deep sense ofall things are going to work out
, it's all going to be okay.
All things are going to workout, it's all going to be okay.
And I feel like the number onething people approach me with
with that is what if your kidsgrow up at 18 and they say I did
not want to be online, I didn'twant my video shown, like this
was an invasion of my privacy,and at that moment I'll just
have to own up and be like I amso sorry, and at the time I did
(07:17):
what I thought was the best thatI could and I'm so sorry.
You feel that way now.
I think, too.
Also, the reality will be howmany kids in 50 years are not
going to have their stuff online?
You know, it's just so commonthat kids are online now.
So, I can own my mistakes in theend.
And also I say because my kidswork for me at 18, they will
(07:39):
graduate with significantincomes and bank accounts that
they will come into to be ableto buy a house, start a business
, pay for therapy if they needtherapy.
So I also have that of likethey do work and they do make
money and I give them like pettycash, like five, 10 bucks, and
they're happy with that, but I'mputting like 50 bucks, a
hundred bucks every time intheir investment accounts.
(07:59):
That is going to be, Lordwilling, well over six figures
by the time that they graduated18.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
going to be, lord willing, well over six figures
by the time that they graduated18.
Oh, wow, yeah, I signed my kidson under me as employees as
well.
So we just do kind of likewhatever we would have
contributed to, like uh, I thinkwhen I worked for the
government I'd had like a 503 Bor something like I don't know
it's called, where you put moneyin to set aside for college.
We instead took that money andwe put it into, uh, I think it's
(08:28):
a roth ira.
So just every week money goesinto that account and it's a
write-off for our businessexpense and it is income for
them that's not taxable under acertain amount of year and under
a certain age.
So, yeah, it like when you'resmart about it.
It's like can you really be madat me because you have all this
money now?
I don't know, I don't know thatthey're really gonna have all
(08:48):
this money, but they won't havesix figures from my business yet
.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
A couple more ebooks couple.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
More ebooks need to be sold, but so would you
consider yourself an unschooler?
Yes, all right.
Explain to the audience whatthat is.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
So unschooling is just more child-led learning and
self-directed learning, and Idefinitely consider myself more
of an unschooler because when Isee what the traditional
homeschoolers are doing, I'mlike, yeah, that's not me.
Not that every singlehomeschool mom is like this, but
I would say the decent majorityof homeschool moms plan, they
(09:23):
lesson plan, they have theteacher books, they have usually
a schedule.
Whereas I don't look at theteacher books, I do use a
workbook for math, but otherwiseI kind of make up, like not
make up, but we are learningthings based on their passions,
so like, and we are practicing.
I'm very big on the foundationsreading, writing, math.
I'm a really big advocate thatmy kids need to be strong
(09:45):
readers.
Good mathematicians know how towrite.
I think that those skills, nomatter what happens in the
future world, are going to bereally crucial, really important
.
But I'm not giving them ahandwriting book and saying,
here, do this worksheet.
We're writing stories aboutPokemon to learn about math.
We're playing multiplicationgames.
You know, science is we, youknow, live on the beach, so
science is.
(10:06):
We're going outside.
We're going to look at all thedifferent types of marine
biology and we're going to talkabout them and whatever you love
, we're going to get books onthat.
We're going to read all aboutit.
We're going to get like my sonis the biggest shark nerd you
will ever meet Like he couldtell you every single species of
shark, how big they get, whatthey eat, what waters they live
in, like all those things.
He's like science, geeked outon sharks.
(10:28):
And so unschooling is reallyjust passion led learning of
like my kids learn what theywant to learn and we're getting
in those basics, we're gettingin those foundational skills,
but we're doing it through morepassion led than through
specific curriculum schedules.
I follow far more of a routine.
We have a general routine inour day, but I am not a schedule
(10:48):
person.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Yeah, so you're down in Florida, right?
Is it St Pete's?
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Yes, I live, technically in a town called
Gulfport.
I literally love Gulfport.
It's my favorite place ever.
But St Pete is kind of thebigger.
It's literally I could throw arock and hit St Pete.
I'm that close to St Pete.
Gulfport's very, very small andthen, like Tampa, is a big city
near us too.
It is Clearwater near there.
Yeah, I'm like 35 minutes fromClearwater.
I'm close.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Okay, so I've been there and I think I you had a
video up the other day at Ford'sgarage and I swear I ate dinner
there.
Like I think that's the sameplace I went and I was trying to
find.
I was going through my phonelike when was I in Florida?
When was I in Florida?
And trying to get the AI topull up Florida pictures,
because I was like did we take apicture at this place for
dinner?
(11:30):
But of course it was like oneof those random you know your
phone wipes out everything thatyou need because it only gave me
two pictures from Florida andI'm like I took more than two
pictures iPhone, but I think Iwas a google phone at that time
so maybe I could find it inthere.
But I'm like the videos youwere showing, I was like I was
there.
Um, yeah, it's down.
(11:50):
Like I remember having to likego down a couple of one-way
streets to get to the area thatwe were going to and then we ate
dinner at ford's garage.
Does that sound?
Speaker 2 (11:59):
there's some one-way streets down there there are,
but I wonder if you were inclearwater not st pete's,
because I bet they havelocations at both.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Okay, I don't know.
I stayed in some place calledtreasure island, which is
actually meant for gay people,and I didn't know that so
there's a southern beach, sunsetbeach that's known as, like, a
gay beach.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Hilariously, I go there all the time.
I'm heterosexual, so it was.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
It was fun.
But my husband was like why didyou pick this place?
There's so many men and speedoshere.
God, I didn't know this comingin.
I guess I should have knownsomething called treasure island
.
That was a treasure, but it wasbeautiful.
I guess if I lived there Iwould not go in an office either
.
I would be like heck.
No, I am working from home.
(12:41):
My kids are staying home.
How could you put a kid inschool when you've got the ocean
right there outside your window, you know, and beautiful
weather, yes exactly, and evenwhen it's hot, I'm like, no,
still go outside.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
We're still spending five to six hours a day outside.
I don't care if it's a hundreddegrees, yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
You get used to it, all right, so give us an idea.
What is the typical day for anunschooler or for you guys?
What does it look like?
Speaker 2 (13:04):
so we wake up.
I usually go to the gym.
My kids have free play.
They wake up at like 6 15.
My kids are very early risers.
They're early betters too, sothat's kind of nice.
Um, they wake up and they havefree play to like 9 9 30, and
then around 9 9 30 is when I'mlike, hey, we're gonna do a
couple of like core subjectthings.
We'll do like some.
Like you know, know, I have twodifferent grades.
(13:25):
So I have one son who you knowwill like read.
He's actually really intomedieval times right now.
So right now we're reading amedieval times book.
He's like in the medieval timesbook they have little questions
you can write, and so sometimesI'll have him right there.
Sometimes he's writing.
He, like I said, he's making aPokemon book, so sometimes he'll
write a few sentences in thispokemon book.
Like I said, I do use a mathcurriculum.
(13:45):
I use curriculum far more as aguide than as like a schedule.
We need to do this because ifhe's flying through stuff, if he
knows that I'm skipping thatchapter, if he is not
necessarily mastery, masteringthis of this concept, um, like
my first, my younger son hasbeen struggling with subtraction
, with remainders or carryingover, and so we spent a lot more
(14:07):
time on that than the book gaveus.
It's totally okay.
There's no ahead, there's nobehind, we're just looking for
I'm looking for progress overtime.
So we spend literally an houror less doing our three core
subjects, which for me isreading, writing, math, and then
we usually have like a morningouting.
That's the library, the, thebeach, a nature preserve,
anything like that.
My kids are big into fishing sowe do a lot of fishing.
(14:29):
They're really big, like I said, marine kids, so like we're
creature adventuring, we'redoing all sorts of things.
We come home, we do lunch.
We usually do a read aloud withour lunch.
That's when I read to them outloud.
I'm a big advocate for readingout loud.
If all you do in yourhomeschooling is read out loud
to your kids and learn toemotionally regulate yourself,
and then them see youemotionally regulating yourself
(14:51):
and they learn that yourchildren will be golden.
You don't even have to worryabout the reading, writing, math
.
Probably you'll just be fineand get them outside for five
hours I've got number one,definitely not emotionally
regulating.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Over here today I was like oh my, one percent it's
like all those days like birdschirping in your ear.
Mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, oh yes, but uh, you know one step
better than my parents, theyprobably would have thrown
something at me at that point.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
That's what I say.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
That's what I say thinking about homeschooling,
but don't know where to start.
Well, I've interviewed a fewpeople on the topic actually 120
interviews at this point withhomeschooling but don't know
where to start.
Well, I've interviewed a fewpeople on the topic Actually 120
interviews at this point withhomeschooling families from
across the country and the world, and what I've done is I've
packed everything I've learnedinto an e-book called the
Homeschool How-To CompleteStarter Guide.
From navigating your state'slaws to finding your
(15:39):
homeschooling style, fromworking while homeschooling to
supporting kids with specialneeds, this guide covers it all,
with real stories from realfamilies who've walked this path
.
I've taken the best insights,the best resources and put them
all into this guide.
Stop feeling overwhelmed andstart feeling confident.
Get your copy of the HomeschoolHow-To Complete Starter Guide
(16:01):
today and discover thathomeschooling isn't just about
education.
It's about getting what youwant out of each day, not what
somebody else wants out of you.
You can grab the link to thisebook in the show's description
or head on over tothehomeschoolhowtocom.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
So, yeah, we'll do it real loud.
And then they do one hour ofquiet time every single day, and
this doesn't have to be a timewhere they have to be quiet, but
it is one hour where theycannot bother me.
They have to play unstructured,without me, without my help,
without my interference, withoutmy refereeing, for one hour a
day.
If they come get me, it addsfive minutes every time.
I do have a four-year-old and afive-year-old.
Sometimes I do have to getinvolved, but then they add five
(16:37):
minutes and that's reallyhelpful for me because, like I
said, I own my own business.
So that's when usually I'mworking during that time.
And then we usually go do anafternoon outing Again.
We're going to the park, we'regoing to the library, we're
going to the beach, we're goingto the bay where we are going
out and doing something, orthey're even just outside riding
their bikes, riding theirscooters.
Like I said, my kids spendevery at least five hours
outside a day, every day.
(16:58):
I'm a really big like get kidsoutside.
Kids.
Being kids in nature makes theworld a better place.
And I say a lot of times tokids being in nature is far more
valuable at this age than themdoing a math lesson, like it is
just so crucial for kids to beoutside, it's so good for them
on their emotional, physical,mental, emotional health,
everything all around.
Get your kids outside and thenusually you know 430, my husband
(17:21):
gets off work and we start, youknow, dinner, bedtime, routine
type of stuff, because my kidswake up early.
They are in bed by like 730,which is such a blessing and,
yeah, that's our day.
That's about our routine.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
Okay.
So how do you, if you get thatone hour in the afternoon to
maybe do some work, when they'rein bed at 730?
I mean, is that when you'relike I have to get back to work,
or how do you regulate it?
Like, no, I have to also havetime for me, have time for my
husband, or just cleaning thehouse, laundry that stuff?
Like how do you manage that?
Because it's very hard when youhave your own business and you
(17:56):
don't have a babysitter orsomewhere for your kids to go to
.
You know, manage that time, howdo you do that?
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Yeah, so one hour.
Like I said, their quiet timealways one hour.
I always get that, probablyfive days out of seven.
They also get a half hour to anhour of TV time.
That's it.
I don't do any any screen timeoutside of that.
We don't do iPads, we don't dotablets, we don't do phones, we
don't do video games, somethinglike that.
So if it is a day where wedon't have a big afternoon
(18:24):
outing plan, they are allowed towatch like a half hour to an
hour of TV.
I'll work that shift too, likeI'll sit next to them.
They're watching TV and theyare usually watching like
classics from when we were kids,so like hey Arnold, catdog,
powerpuff Girls, curtsy, carlydog, the old pokemon even new
pokemon is pretty good.
But I also work during thattime.
Sometimes at night I will workan extra hour and then one day a
(18:46):
week I actually work like athree hour, like little time
block, and my husband does likedinner, bedtime, everything.
So on thursdays I work fromlike 3, 30 to like 6, 30, maybe
sometimes seven, um, andthankfully I've structured my
business where just doing a fewhours every day I can do enough
that it pays the bills.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Yeah, that's what I find hard is managing the time.
So, yeah, my husband would lovefor me to get up and work out
with him at six, but I'm like Igotta get this podcast edited.
I'll get there.
You know you're right, it allfalls into place because
different projects come up atdifferent times.
Sometimes you're overloaded,sometimes you're not, and as you
do it too, I think it getseasier Like, ok, what kind of
(19:29):
flow.
You know you have a certainkind of flow when you make your
reels, like this is what works,this is what my audience likes.
So, so, when you're still inkind of the guessing game, like
what works today didn't worktomorrow, and then every now and
then, instagram will just likeblock me from getting any new
followers.
And it'll be like you're atthis number for a month and I'm
like, oh, all right, I guess thegig's up.
(19:51):
Nobody else likes my stuff, soI'll just stop.
And then it'll be like, oh wait, we want her back now.
So it'll say like you got 100new followers.
You got 100 new followers.
So then I'm like, oh, I bettercreate some content again.
It's there's a movie called wasit the Social Experiment, I
think, and how like it playsgames with you like that to get
you coming back.
(20:12):
And it's an actual thing.
How do you OK, this is a goodquestion, I think, for somebody
who you don't have your kidsusing social media or ipads or
stuff like that, but you'reallowing them to be on it like,
and I'm the same.
I'm the same, right.
Like my kids don't have phones.
My son has an ipad but like heuses it to listen to spotify,
(20:34):
like old country music, and hethinks it's new.
He thinks it's new countrymusic.
So he had his friend in the cara couple weeks ago and he he's
like, listen to this.
And he hooks up to my hot spotand he plays, like I don't know,
toby Keith or something.
He's singing along with it andI'm like, holy crap, we are
(20:55):
homeschoolers, we arehomeschoolers.
This is it.
The kid's looking at him like,are you for real?
So yeah, it's funny.
But then today he played prettyfly for a white guy.
So I'm like, oh lordy, okay,well, he is though but yeah, but
yeah.
How do you like?
Will you ever be?
What is your long-term goal?
(21:15):
Because, with ai coming intheir lives and, first of all,
it's never been easier to keepyour kids away from electronics
and social media than tohomeschool, because you don't
have to deal with it.
These kids are on a group chatand they're leaving your kid out
because your kid doesn't havethe phone.
Meanwhile they're all 12 yearsold and Snapchatting and this
and that, whatever app, is thething.
(21:36):
Now, if you don't know if youwant to homeschool for this
reason alone, if you don't wantto have to deal with the social
media and all of the pressuresfrom AI and them targeting you
and telling kids to hurtthemselves and it's just, it's
crazy out there, homeschool forthat reason alone.
But what is your goal?
Will you ever let them havethat stuff?
Speaker 2 (21:56):
So I have told that because so we live on a block
with 12 kids.
All of them are public schooled, and it's very funny because
exactly they, since they werelike six years old, all had cell
phones.
And so I remember when, aboutthree years ago, when the little
girl across the street she'slike, when will you let Cephas
get a phone my oldest son, whowas six at the time because
she's six and I laughed and Isaid, well, one day, when he has
(22:19):
a job, I'd be willing to gethim a bark phone, but until then
he won't have any smartphone.
So that's kind of always beenmy standard with my kids and, to
be fair, my kids, all theirfriends, their close friends,
are homeschooled kids who do nothave cell phones, who do not
have their very low tech, lowscreen kids like my kids, so
(22:40):
they don't interact with kidswho are like having these phones
, doing these things.
I think that's super helpful.
But also my standard is exactlywhen you get a job at 14, 15,
16, 17, and you need tocommunicate with me, to like
coordinate rides or, honestly,hopefully you can get a job you
can just bike to, or somethinglike that would be my goal to
make them equipped enough that,if you get a job you can figure
(23:00):
out all your own stuff.
But I'm willing to get you abark phone that doesn't have any
internet access, that I can seeevery call and every text that
you are doing and that just isvery like calling, texting.
That's it.
I would not let any child onsocial media period.
So when my kids are 18, if theyhave a job and they want to go
get their own smartphone andthey want to download social
(23:23):
media, go for it.
You're an adult and, lordwilling, I've equipped you well
enough at that point that youknow not to go on certain sites.
So when certain things come upbecause they will come up if
your child has access to ascreen there is a PORN site
within 10 clicks of that websiteand it is just going to happen
that something will pop up andmy children by 18, even now
(23:45):
they're very well equipped.
We I actually would highlyrecommend, if anyone does let
their kids on any sort of screen, to read a book.
It's called Good Pictures, badPictures.
You can find it on Amazon.
They have a junior version, anolder kid version, and it, in
very childlike terms, explainswhat PORORN is in childlike,
very, very on par with their age.
Not scary, not weird, nothing.
(24:05):
But it talks about how thereare good pictures, great things
for our brains that we like tosee, and that there are bad
pictures.
That's like picture poison forour brain and we don't want to
look and see those things.
So, anyways, a longer story madeshort.
Lord willing by them Actually,I won't even say Lord willing,
lord willing by them, actually,I won't even say Lord willing by
then they will be equipped toknow how to handle the internet,
to understand that exactly theInstagram algorithm works on
(24:26):
shame.
It wants you to think that whatyou do is who you are, and by
18, my goal is that my kids arefirm in their identity of I know
who I am, outside of what I do,outside of what the world says
that I am, outside of anything.
I know who I am because thishas been imparted to me for the
last you know 18 years.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
Yeah, and it sounds crazy like, oh, they're not
going to have social media untilthey're 18.
But I'm 41.
I didn't have social mediauntil I was with it didn't exist
.
I was in college when Facebookwas created and you had to have
a college email address in orderto get on it, because I
remember years later my motherbeing on it and I'm like, how
(25:07):
the heck are you on this?
You need to be in college andthen they were letting all the
grandmas on and stuff.
So it's like we didn't have itand we're fine.
So the majority of us raisingkids today never had social
media until we were 18.
So when we think about even howmuch damage it did to us in our
like 20s and stuff affairs thatwere created from that, you
(25:32):
know our kids, they don't have ashot if they're on this stuff
at 8, 9, 10 years old.
And the biggest thing for menow I don't know if you're
dealing with this at all.
I mean, probably because youhave kids right in your
neighborhood that have socialmedia but like, just if they're
around, other kids that areshowing them a screen, this, and
you know, and then this nextone pops up, like you said, the
(25:54):
sites that you don't want themto see are just within 10 clicks
and probably not even that far.
So if you're watching, forinstance, youtube shorts and
they're just, you know, watchingfunny cat videos, and then
something comes up that youdon't want your kid to see, it's
not even that other kid's fault.
But that's where I'm strugglingright now, because, like, kids
want to have sleepovers or theywant to.
(26:14):
You know, we all go camping andthey want to be in a tent alone
together, and I'm like the badparent that's like no, you're
sleeping with me, no, you sleepat home at night.
Because I don't even want evenan innocent enough child showing
them something that they can'tcontrol, because the next click,
the next swipe is going to besomething inappropriate.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
Exactly.
And actually it's so funnybecause our family has had a
rule, and it's been a rule sincethe very beginning, that we
don't do sleepovers.
And my kids no kids who do getto sleepovers, and they're like
but so-and-so gets to do asleepover and I'm like, yeah,
and this is our family rule andthis is how our family runs, and
you have to trust God that hehas equipped me to be your mom,
not Jones's mom, like I'm yourmom and so this is our family
(26:59):
rules.
And so you, I totallyunderstand what you're saying of
like coming up against that,like you're not a bad mom.
I'm not a bad mom, maybe notalways the fun mom, but I feel
like you and I are making up forit another way.
So it's all going to work outin the end.
So don't worry and that's alsowhy our household too all the
neighbor kids know this who dohave phones.
Phones are not allowed on ourproperty.
(27:19):
Like, if you want to hang outwith your phone, go do it at
your own house.
Like you know, I can onlycontrol my property and my kids
and that's why under nocircumstance would they hang out
with kids who have phonesunsupervised.
Because no way.
Just because, like you'resaying, even the most sweet,
innocent, not trying to be weirdchild, it can just pop up, it
can just pop up.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
Yeah, there to be weird child.
It can just pop up.
It can just pop up.
Yeah, there was that lady.
She has the site scrolling todeath on Instagram and she said,
like in a third grade classroomshe went on her daughter's
computer laptop, like in theschool, in the classroom, and
swiped and like got to the PORNsite that you're talking about
right in the classroom.
Her daughter just had to do acouple of clicks, or she, you
know, the mother did it, butit's not like she typed anything
(28:03):
in.
Even she was honest.
It was allowing YouTube andthat shouldn't even be allowed
in the school.
And then the school was likesorry, we didn't know, and now
we'll do something about it.
Like we would think that thosewhat do you?
You know, shelters are in place, like what's the word?
Like those sort of codes, likeyou can't get in access.
Those sites are already inplace before the teachers roll
(28:26):
out.
You know, here's your classroomassignment, so and that's
another thing in schools nowthey're in.
And yeah, and you're, I assume,probably more on the
conservative side, what do youthink about?
Like they're rolling out AIdown from like kindergarten.
Now it's like who's controllingthe world?
Because that's why this isweird.
(28:46):
And RFK who wants a universalvaccine.
Now, like what is going on withthe world.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
Dude, I wish I knew and that's actually probably why
I don't keep up with like anyworld events type things, which
is I'm sure some people would belike, oh my gosh, that's so
irresponsible, selfish.
I don't know what avenue peoplewould throw me under.
But I'm just like bro, all Ineed to do is manage my own nice
number one, manage myself,because reality, that's all.
(29:13):
The only thing I can havecontrol over is myself and
steward what I have well, andI'm just like let the world burn
.
It's the world is going to dowhat the world's going to do.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
Well, and that is brilliant advice, and I think I
had to come to that conclusionand just say like, yeah, there
are people in control way aboveyou know, whatever we see.
So what can I control?
Can I teach my kids how to findfresh water, if they needed to,
how to build a house, how to,you know, find food?
Can they fish?
Could they hunt?
(29:45):
Could they, you know, skin adeer and process it?
Not yet, but hopefully soon.
You know, that's on the bucketlist.
It's like these things, youknow, are I want to make sure
our family doesn't need FEMA ina hurricane or tornado or a
flood or a whatever aliensapproaching.
I don't know what they're gonnathrow at us, but it's like,
(30:06):
yeah, these are the things youcan only control within your
home, so you do have to let thatother stuff go.
Yeah, what about our?
Is college something that youthink you would influence your
kids towards?
Or are you kind of on the likelet's not waste our money, let's
figure things out before we getthere?
Speaker 2 (30:24):
It'll be so interesting to see what college
looks like by the time our kidsget to even college age, because
I think we're already startingto see the radical shift of like
people are realizing collegeisn't worth it for many jobs.
Obviously, I want my surgeongoing to college.
I don't want my surgeon gettingthrough medical school because
he AI'd his whole, you knowtests and peppers and all that
(30:46):
type of stuff.
So I think that college isgoing to look very, very
different by the time our kidsget into college and honestly,
with the personnel, I have threeboys and a little girl.
I just with their personality,like my one son wants to be an
alligator hunter.
Well, thankfully you don't haveto have a college degree to be
an alligator hunter.
My other son actually wants totrain dolphins.
Funny enough, you don't need adegree to do that.
(31:09):
I actually asked.
We went and swam with thedolphins and I asked do you need
a marine biology degree tolearn to do this?
She's like oh no, like you canturn internships and do this and
this and this and I'm likethat's so cool, like that
actually is a job I thoughtwould need college, but you
actually don't even need collegefor that.
So all this to say if my kidshave careers where you need
higher education, you're gonnahave to do that.
That's okay.
(31:29):
I'm also a huge fan of like thetrades.
I say all the time I'm like wecould use a mechanic in the
family, we could use an H thatguy in the family like my
collection, and in the 90s hewas making six figures.
So like jobs in the tradesfields are very, very lucrative,
very, very good for, like handson kinesthetic people.
My kids are not, I don't think,going to be sitting in the
(31:49):
office work type people.
Maybe they will.
I don't want to put a label onthem.
They can do whatever they wantto do.
But they also are very aware.
Thank God because the totaltwins if you want to go to
college, it has to be for a likea college career.
Like you want to be a surgeon,you want to be a doctor, you
want to be a nurse, you want tobe you know, something that
needs specific higher leveltraining.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
So yeah, yeah, yeah, same here.
My husband is HVAC and it'syeah, he has a T-shirt he's had
for a long time that says deathto cubicles.
Even when I was working for thegovernment like now I
understand, because I didn'tknow any better I was in like
the prison that I made formyself in the cubicle, so I just
walked there every day, sat inmy cubicle, 10 o'clock.
(32:33):
I take my break.
At noon I take my break, and attwo I take my break and then go
home and you know, like, evenif I had no work to do, just sat
in my cubicle and like it's soweird, now that I'm out of that
matrix, that I'm like holy crap,why were you doing that?
Like why there's a whole worldout there, there's so many
things you can do, and I didn'tfeel that there was anything I
(32:55):
could do other than sit in acubicle and get government money
, which is basically a glorifiedwelfare recipient.
Put it plainly I did what theytold me to do and then I got
taxpayer dollars for it.
So, but you know, I didn'tthink there was anything else
because school kept me so busyall the time with just busy work
, that I didn't care about.
I never actually found apassion of my own and I never
(33:17):
would have said like, oh, Icould be a podcaster, because I
was never bored enough to dothat.
Or, you know, make reels onInstagram or write an ebook or
whatever write a children's bookbecause I was never had the
time to do it or the time toeven find anything that I liked
to do.
So that's something thathomeschool definitely allows
your kids to do, and us as theparent.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
What is your favorite ?
Speaker 2 (33:41):
title to this book Medals of Merit.
It made me cry the first time Iread it.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
I literally cried the first time I read it Because of
the girl in the wheelchair.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
Because of how well they described like Marxism,
principles and how it's likethis is not actually equal, and
I was like this is not equal.
And how do a kid like that youknow that this is like in our
culture like more people arelike universal health care,
socialism, this and this, andI'm like you have no idea what
those things could actuallybring and how.
That's actually not.
(34:09):
First off, the world's not fair.
Let's just start there.
But that that's actually notfair.
That's not true equality.
True equality is free marketswhere we can all compete and be
able to pull our best resourcesto be able to do the best work
that we can do and be rewardedfor that work.
Yeah, so I love that.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
And it's so true, and I just had Del Bigtree on.
You know no shout out to myselfthere for getting Dell on.
But but he said that he waslike the reason that vaccine
manufacturers do not have tocompete there because it's
mandated on people and it's you.
Most people have to get them togo to school, or at least they
make you think that you do, inall the states.
(34:47):
But, like my state, my kidswould have to be vaccinated with
everything in order to go toschool.
So if it's already mandated onpeople, the pediatricians are
are your advertisers.
You don't have to pay formarketing, you don't have to
compete because there's, theyhave to get it.
That's the one on the market.
So nobody's competing for abetter product.
(35:07):
Like, why would Pfizer say I amgoing to improve my product
when they're already getting themillions of kids to take it
because it's on the CDC schedule, right?
Like if it was an option?
And they and it was like do youwant this product today?
Well, I don't know.
Show me all the safety studies.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
If you have them, and you know, maybe they'd have
some at that point, show me justthe ingredient list, look at
how much aluminum is supposed tobe in a human body and then
look at the amount of aluminumthat's put in vaccines that they
are, you know, have a shelflife.
That's actually what kind ofstarted me down the rabbit hole
that is.
Someone just sent me theingredients and I was like what?
I had never thought about.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
This Like yeah, you don't know what you don't know.
It's true, it's so true.
Have you taught your kids whatto do in an emergency?
It's a conversation weshouldn't put off, and it's a
conversation we should haveoften.
That's why I wrote let's TalkEmergencies, a book that covers
everything from dialing 911 on alocked cell phone to staying
safe online water safety, firesafety and more.
(36:08):
The most important lessons wecan teach our kids are not
reading, writing and math.
They're how to keep themselvesand others safe In today's world
of uncertainty.
Give them the tools they need.
Grab a copy today.
Check out the link in thisepisode's description.
So that's your favorite book.
(36:31):
I'm going to name a TuttleTwins scenario, and you got to
tell me what book it's from.
Okay, all right, they go toGermany Vacation vacation.
Yes, okay, we got.
We've got another one here.
Emma had a theater.
This is a hard one.
I know this is a hard one.
Let me see what else.
Oh, she had a ballet theater.
Why hard one, I know this is ahard one.
Let me see what else.
Oh, she had a ballet theaterwhy am I thinking?
Speaker 2 (36:45):
the miraculous pencil , the spectacular show business?
Yes, the history books.
My kids will just pick them upand read them, like all the time
, like they love to leisure readthose history books.
They're so into them becausethey're written in the storybook
format.
Speaker 1 (36:59):
I genuinely love those books so I genuinely love
those and it's funny becauseI'll be like reading them to my
son as part of his curriculum,but it'll be our nightly read
and then if my husband's puttingthem to bed and I hear him pick
up like where I left off, I'llbe mad.
I'm like do I wanted to knowthat part?
Stop that's.
(37:22):
I want to to learn it.
So I have to go back the nextday and skim through.
Speaker 2 (37:26):
Yes, and that's what I love about the tuttle twins is
we learn right alongside thembecause they do such a good job
of explaining the things that wewere not taught as kids.
Like I didn't know about thecreature from jekyll island, I
didn't know about these peoplewho printed, you know, money out
of thin air, that we didn't usethe gold standard anymore, that
you know because of that, ourmoney is like valueless.
(37:47):
Like those are good things toknow, I need to know what to
invest in.
Speaker 1 (37:51):
Yeah, I think when I read the miraculous pencil is
when I was like whoa, like thereare so many moving parts and so
many jobs we just don't evenknow about.
And then we're sending our kidsto school for eight, you know,
six hours a day, six plus hoursa day.
They're away from us eight toten hours a day, you know, 180
days out of the year.
(38:11):
And then college, where theyget into two hundred thousand
dollars of debt and they don'teven know that.
There's like a lady looking forwhat is it lacquer in Egypt or
something.
And it's like these are alljobs that you don't need all
that schooling for.
Like you said before,apprenticeships you know, you
learn this stuff.
We're at a dolphin exhibit.
(38:32):
Do we need to have a degree forthis?
Like, you learn it when youdecide that it's something that
you want to do.
And even, like you were saying,education will be different
when our kids get there andcollege will be different when
our kids get there.
But the jobs will be sodifferent that even going to,
like going to my husband's HVACschool, what he learned back in
(38:56):
2000 is so different than whatyou would learn on the job today
.
He's had to roll because thereare like computers and
everything.
Now this morning he was justtelling me he goes.
They want me to sign in to thisjob to like remotely do stuff
on the computer, but the placeis 20 minutes away.
I could just go there and fixthe problem.
(39:18):
But they're like making them doall these steps that they think
help, like, oh, just sign in.
Then he's got to do all thesesteps that they think help, like
, oh, just sign in.
And then he's got to write allthese reports about what he
found when he signed in and buthe can't actually fix it because
he's not there.
So it's just a crazy world.
And I agree with you completelyas far as the higher education,
because what jobs are evengoing to be available if they're
not in the real world?
Speaker 2 (39:39):
they'll never know, oh yeah, and literally nobody
could say what jobs are going tobe like in 10 years.
Like we genuinely have no ideait's going to look vastly
different than what we have now.
Does the ai scare you?
No, but I'm not easily shakenand I've seen some of the
benefits and I just see how itdoesn't like always like do a
great job.
Like I just use chat gpt likevery casually, and sometimes
(40:01):
I'll ask you things and I'm likebro, this is not, this is not
it.
This is not helpful.
Like you, you are not doing agood job on this Because,
especially like I work in onlineadvertising, marketing, social
media people like are you afraidI was gonna take your job?
I'm like heck, no, they couldn'tdo my job.
Are you kidding me?
They can't even write mycaption right half the time.
Like they're not going to beable to edit videos and sync it
(40:22):
to the music and do this andfind the right clips.
You know you can easily pickout AI art versus actual art,
right, like we can all super seeof like something that's using
like AI for advertising versusreal advertising, and most
people are drawn to realadvertising.
Real pictures, real art, real,you know, whatever.
Speaker 1 (40:44):
Yes, and I've looked for that.
I'm like, okay, there's gottabe some sort of program I can
just pay for monthly that liketakes like the text I want to
put in and fits it all nicely ina one, you know, 30 second, one
minute reel and puts it to thebeat and puts in or like a
podcast episode, you know, andputs in overlays.
(41:06):
But yes, I've looked for AIprograms to do all that stuff
for me and it doesn't exist.
And you're right when I put instuff like AI is great for hey,
I have these ingredients in myfridge and my pantry.
What can I make for dinner inthe instapot?
It will give me a good meal.
But yeah, I've put in stuffbefore, asked it something, and
(41:28):
then like I'm like, no, that'snot true, can you try again?
And it'll be like, oh, you'reright, thank you for being on
top of things.
And it's I could see it's liketrying to groom me to be its
friend.
Speaker 2 (41:39):
we're not buddies yeah, yeah, I actually asked it
today to make me a headshotbecause I had a photo, but I
wanted it of just my face.
It was like a full, like morebody photo and I'm like, oh,
I'll ask ai to just like, and Iassume they just like crop my
face, make the backgroundnothing, whatever.
They literally instead like,drew like a picture, like a
digital art of me, and I'm likethis doesn't even look like this
(42:00):
is for you to generate thisphoto, thinking that you're
actually to do what I'm askingyou've also with your work.
Speaker 1 (42:06):
You have a cup, you have like a course, right?
Can you tell us about that?
Speaker 2 (42:10):
yes, I have a guide to homeschooling e-course
because, exactly when I I sharehomeschooling on my instagram
and I would get so many peopleasking so many questions
curriculum questions, how do youhomeschool?
Questions, routine questionslike how do I homeschool?
Like, what do I need to do allthis different types of stuff
and so, instead of answeringevery single person which I just
got to the point I could not dothat anymore I was like, okay,
(42:32):
I'm gonna make a guide.
And I actually co created thiswith literally the most
brilliant woman that I know.
She's an absolutely incredibleperson.
She was a teacher turnedhomeschool mom.
Her husband was a homeschooler,so her kids are second
generation homeschool kids andshe is just a wealth of
knowledge and has seen thebackground of like the public
(42:52):
school and the private school.
She taught in both and then nowas a homeschool mom, so she has
a lot of educational backgroundand then the actual
homeschooling like knowledge andas well, and so her and I tag
team and made this and it isjust truly very helpful for
anyone who is just gettingstarted on homeschooling or who
needs, like even clarity ontheir homeschooling of like why
(43:13):
am I doing this?
Like, why does it matter if mykids go outside like they're
playing for how wheels for threehours.
Is this a problem?
Spoiler alert it's not.
They're actually learning whileplaying how wheels.
You don't have to worry.
That's probably the best thingthat they can be doing right now
.
So, yeah, it is to help anyoneget started on their
homeschooling journey or justget clarity, encouragement of
like where you're at in yourhomeschooling journey, like I
(43:34):
feel like so many homeschoolmoms are, like am I doing enough
?
Am I failing my kids?
That's probably like the twobiggest fears I hear.
And like you are enough, youare not failing your kids.
Like if you are trying, if youare even just doing read-alouds,
if you're just beingintentional with your time with
them, it's just not possible.
It's not possible for you tofail your kids in that way.
So that is my guide, and I meanI'm biased, but I think it's
(43:58):
pretty awesome.
Speaker 1 (43:59):
Well, I'm going to put a link to that so people can
just head right to thedescription, click on it and
it's everything that they need.
So easy, easy way.
And I'm going to link yourInstagram too, so people can
follow you along on your journey.
And I, you know, I know, yeah,and I know, like for the people
that aren't even inhomeschooling yet, like for me,
I was like what would we even doall day?
But it's funny how these thingslike it sounds overwhelming
(44:20):
when you're like I have anouting in the morning and an
outing in the afternoon, but itprobably happens more naturally
than that.
Right, like what, now that I'min it, it's like life, my, my
son.
You know we had a neighbor movein a couple months ago, so their
11 year old is home for thesummer and, you know, my son is
seven.
But they like ride dirt bikesto get.
(44:43):
Well, I took away the dirt bikebecause they were getting a
little nuts, but they ride fourwheelers together and they've
been working for the last twoweeks endlessly on building tiny
houses in the backyard.
So I love that.
Like today, like my son got inhis tractor which is from his
great-grandfather it was hisgreat-grandfather's tractor.
He gets in tractor and he'staking all the wood that we just
(45:04):
built this podcast studio downhere in my basement and all the
leftover wood they're taking in.
They're bringing it up to theneighbor's house and I hear them
out there pounding on nails andI'm waiting for the screams and
he's like ah, I got my finger,but I haven't heard that yet.
Knock on wood, but it is.
It's so funny how, like whenyou just let them live, they
(45:26):
naturally do stuff that theywant to learn.
Now my daughter, on the otherhand, she just wants to watch
Blippi all day long.
But so like you got to cap itand like I lost the remote every
now and then, and you know.
But so I sat with her and wewere playing the matching game
that she got for her birthdaythat last weekend.
So you know it was cute.
It was like the first time shecould actually play a game like
(45:47):
and get it.
You know where she's not justmoving pieces effortlessly or
aimlessly, but she was like ohyeah, I got a match too for me.
And she gets so excited and I'mlike all I had to do was like
stop cooking, stop trying to getpodcasts edited.
Stop trying to do laundry andjust sit with her and like it
does.
You're right, it just sonaturally comes and I need to be
(46:10):
more intentional about that,for sure.
Speaker 2 (46:12):
Oh yeah, exactly.
My outing is not always funstuff.
It's like we're going groceryshopping once a week.
Me and all my kids are goinggrocery shopping.
You're going to come to thestore, you're gonna learn how
life works.
It's not always like thesesuper fun things.
And, like you said too, so manypeople like I couldn't
entertain my kids all day long,bro, neither can I.
I'm not doing that.
I am not doing that at all.
(46:33):
They are going to find their ownthings to do.
They're going to naturally, goplay.
They are going to theirchildren.
They are literally built andmade to play and when you kind
of set up the routine, when youkind of have like the baseline
of, like you know, like you go,do you not to say I don't play
Monopoly with my kids all thetime?
I do, they love that.
(46:53):
I actually am a big advocate forgame schooling.
That's like one of the bestways for your kids to learn math
and so many other skills.
But a lot of time they're justlike they go, do their own thing
.
They're out.
You know my kids four wheelersare so cool.
That's so cool that you do that.
But my kids are, like you know,playing with the mud kitchen in
the backyard, which is just aplastic kitchen that has totally
been destroyed and is just mudand gross now.
(47:15):
Um, and like literally old potsand pans that we're just like
using, because we finally had toget new pots and pans because
like they were nonstick and likeyou know I know now nonstick is
not the best right um, all thisto say exactly they go, they do
their own thing.
We are not constantlyentertaining our kids.
We're not constantly, you know,micromanaging everything they
do.
They have the freedom to bekids yeah, when you give them
(47:38):
that freedom.
Speaker 1 (47:39):
Yeah, and I, I'm guilty of it, we're.
It's all a work in progress,like you said, you know none of
us are perfect?
Oh my God Right, none of us areperfect.
We might have to say someapologies some days, but are we
doing it better than our parentsdid?
Speaker 2 (47:51):
Yes, exactly, and me and my husband are doing like
way better.
So I'm sure you are all thetime we're before, but we don't.
We don't use that consequencevery often.
But we will look at each othera lot of times, like today my
son broke a fan, like literallybroke a hole, like you know, it
has like four little spinnythings.
(48:11):
He literally broke a wholething off and I was like we
looked at each other and we'relike this is why our parents
beat us, like this is why peopleused to beat their kids, you
know, and we gotta hope them issomehow gonna be a little bit
better.
Speaker 1 (48:30):
On beating them, try to regulate those emotions
exactly.
It is hard and I find too likemy son will do things that like
trigger my childhood, so likehe'll just be loud and yelling
and stomping the feet and it itdoes it like put you back and
like the trauma, and it took mefor a little while to figure
that out and that's probably whywe butt heads too.
Because I remember one timejust chasing after him as he's
(48:52):
hopping along, running like thelittle kid from home alone,
right, and he's running and I helike ran into the bathroom and
I opened the bathroom door and Ismacked him in the head with it
.
I didn't mean to yeah, it'shard.
You know what life does not comewith a handbook.
It is all right.
Oh, I'm gonna link everythingto this episode.
We're already up on an hour.
Is there anything, any lastingwords you want to say to the
(49:14):
homeschooling parents that arethinking about homeschooling, or
prospective homeschoolingparents, or just starting out on
their journey?
Speaker 2 (49:20):
if you're just starting starting out, if you
want to, you are so equipped todo this.
You taught your kid how to walk.
You caught your kid how to talk.
You can teach them to read.
You can teach them to write.
You can live a thriving familylife and have more joy and
freedom than you could have everimagined, than being in the
bubble.
And if you're even slightlyconsidering it 1000%, take the
(49:41):
jump because you are literallygoing to love it.
You genuinely love it, and letgo of all your expectations of
it needs to look like this, orshe does.
Ginny does it this way, so Ineed to do it this way.
Follow the flow of your ownfamily and all you're looking
for is progress over time.
It doesn't matter how long thatprogress takes.
If it takes your son threeyears to learn how to read,
(50:02):
that's okay.
Like it's going to be okay.
Speaker 1 (50:04):
Yeah, we're on that three-year journey right now.
Like I'll look at him sometimesI'm like dude, are you dyslexic
?
He is totally going to be intherapy one day.
But where I think we're finallyon the journey.
Now I found Reading Horizonsand he's doing well with it.
Speaker 2 (50:23):
I'm'm, we're liking it.
One third of kids get readingright away very easy.
One third of kids need a decentamount more help to learn to
read and the other third of kidsneed a lot of help to learn to
read.
Oh, I, my firstborn, was a veryfast, easy reader.
He literally picked it.
I did.
I barely even taught that kidhow to read, like he was like a
ab, and I'm like oh, good foryou, like, look at me, I'm such
a great homeschool mom, you'regetting it.
(50:43):
And then my second son I'd belike this is a.
It makes an ass sound.
I'm like what letter is that?
He's like q.
I'm like what.
I'm like what sound does thatmake?
He's like buh.
I'm like what?
Like something different.
And so if you have thatsituation happen, it's totally
okay.
A third get it.
A third need a little bit ofhelp, a third need a lot of bit
of help and it's totally okay.
Speaker 1 (51:04):
And in Finland they don't even start any of that
formal stuff till age seven.
So what's it for anyway?
Speaker 2 (51:09):
Yeah it's not.
I don't push reading right away.
Not very young.
Speaker 1 (51:12):
Yeah, as long as you're reading to them, like you
said, most important thing.
So grab a Tuttle Twins book andsit down tonight with your kids
.
Thank you, Raven, for beinghere.
It was so nice meeting you andchatting with you.
I look forward to seeing moreof your videos on Instagram.
Speaker 2 (51:27):
Yes, thank you so much for having me.
It's such a joy to be here, andsame I literally love your
videos too Well.
Speaker 1 (51:32):
I copy some of your formats.
It's like looking in a mirror.
I love that.
Thank you for tuning into thisweek'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
(51:53):
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
generation.
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