#138: Mama Bears vs. Overreaching Legislation

In this critical episode of The Homeschool How To Podcast, host Cheryl interviews Mariama, a homeschooling mother from New Jersey who's been tracking dangerous legislation threatening homeschool freedom. With homeschooling rates skyrocketing from less than 1% to 3.7% post-pandemic in New Jersey, lawmakers are pushing unprecedented restrictions that could spread nationwide.

What You'll Learn:

The Four Bills Threatening New Jersey Homeschoolers:

• Assembly Bill 5825 & Senate Bill 1796: Mandatory curriculum alignment with state standards
• Assembly Bill 5796 & Senate Bill 4589: Required annual "health and wellness checks" with school district representatives

Constitutional Concerns:

• First Amendment religious freedom violations
• Fourth Amendment search and seizure issues
• 14th Amendment equal protection and parental rights infringement

The Real Story Behind Homeschool Success:

• African American and Latino homeschooled children outperform public school peers by 20-25 points on standardized tests
• New Jersey public schools: Only 52% pass ELA, 39% pass math, 24% pass science
• Why homeschool families are achieving superior educational outcomes

From COVID Awakening to Homeschool Advocacy: Mariama shares her journey from concerned parent during the pandemic to homeschool advocate, discussing vaccine mandates, gender ideology in schools, and the importance of biblical worldview education.

Key Topics Covered:

• Homeschool laws by state and how to track legislation
• HSLDA (Home School Legal Defense Association) resources
• Responding to "sheltering" and "privilege" criticisms
• The historical context of compulsory education
• Building community and authentic cultural education at home
• Why school "confidential curriculum" policies are red flags

Critical Action Items:

• Follow HSLDA updates on pending legislation
• Share your homeschool story on social media
• Monitor your state's legislative calendar
• Connect with local homeschool advocacy groups

Featured Guest: Mariama (@GodlyMothersChosenLittles) - New Jersey homeschool advocate and mother of two

Blog: https://www.godlymotherschosenlittles.com/

Mariama's YouTube

Resources Mentioned:

• Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA.org)
• New Jersey homeschool law information
• Constitutional amendments and parental rights

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!
Help

Support the show

Instagram: TheHomeschoolHowToPodcast
Facebook: The Homeschool How To Podcast

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome to this week's episode of the Homeschool
How-To.
I'm Cheryl and I invite you tojoin me on my quest to find out
why are people homeschooling,how do you do it, how does it
differ from region to region?
And should I homeschool my kids?
Stick with me as I interviewhomeschooling families across
the country to unfold theanswers to each of these

(00:26):
questions week by week.
Welcome, and with us today Ihave Mariama from New Jersey.
Welcome, mariama.
How are you?
Great?
Thanks for having me, cheryl.
Oh, thank you so much for beinghere.
I've been watching your stuffon Instagram because you are all
about the laws that are beingpassed in New Jersey, and even

(00:47):
if you don't live in New Jersey,it doesn't matter, because
where a law is passed somewhere,it is going to trickle.
So thank you so much forstaying on top of this, and I
can't wait to get into thistoday on what kind of laws
they're trying to pass forhomeschoolers.
So let's just start off the batwith how many kids do you have
and what are their ages?

Speaker 2 (01:05):
So I am homeschooling my two youngest, and they are
five and seven.
Okay, so do you have older kidstoo?
So just at home, I just havethose two.
So technically one is schoolage and one is not, but in New
Jersey you can start as early asfive.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
Okay, all right.
Yeah, you know, I haven'tlooked at New Jersey's laws for
reporting.
I'm in New York so I'm rightover the Hudson from you, I
don't know.
Yeah, I think that would beappropriate.
I'm like throwing it out therelike I know geography, but yeah,
so we are very strict here inNew York and I know that New
Jersey fairly recently justpassed a law saying that

(01:42):
teachers no longer even have topass like regular literacy tests
.
Can you tell us a little bitabout that?
That one.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
I did hear about that one.
I did hear about that one, thatone.
From what I understand, they'reclaiming that you do have to
have a bachelor's degree, thatyou're supposed to, you know
like, be proficient in literacy.
So there's some, you know some,that are saying that it's not
as bad as it sounds.
Okay.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
And that's the hard part, isn't it?
I mean, you want to be informed, but obviously reading the
headlines is not enough, becauseyou really have to get into it.
The headlines are going to tryto make you think one way and
we're like oh, as thehomeschooler, I want to share
this.
And if you don't really readinto it and I did I did read
into it and I think you'recorrect too, that it was like

(02:30):
they did still have to havetheir bachelor's.
They just no longer had to passthis basic literacy exam.

Speaker 2 (02:34):
That most other states Because it was like
redundant.

Speaker 1 (02:37):
Yeah, you do have to pass it in other states.
So then it's to the point oflike, well then, why take it
away?
So then it's to the point oflike, well then, why take it
away?
Can they not pass it?
Now that I don't know.
It's been a good, it's veryinteresting, a lot of it, I have
found.
That has to do with funding,and we as the common folk will
just never know the ins and outs.
But what even got you intohomeschooling in the first place
?

Speaker 2 (02:56):
Well, in the I would say the height of COVID, which
was like spring 2020, that'swhen my oldest was two and I
just had a newborn, and so forus it was the first initial
thought was we need to protectour kids.
It was about their physicalsafety I love, you know,
watching your channel andlistening to your content about

(03:19):
health awareness vaccines andfor us it was a matter of
protecting them.
Not for my youngest could havestarted preschool.
We considered, you know, at thetime we were living in
Pennsylvania, which also hasstrict laws, and we were
thinking, well, maybe we'll sendthem to preschool and then
maybe we'll start withkindergarten.
And when I started talking toteachers in my neighborhood and

(03:41):
talking to parents in theneighborhood, they started
talking about vaccines and theCOVID vaccine being mandatory
for all staff and for students,and we started thinking, wait a
second.
You know, our little one wasn'told enough yet, but we could
see where this was going, thatat some point they might require
him to be vaccinated, and wejust felt like that was not an

(04:03):
option for us.
So we started just doing simplelittle learning activities at
home hands-on learningactivities, reading books, lots
of nature time outside and thenI started hearing even more
horror stories about familiesthat had been vaccinated, and so
I know it's not a debate aboutvaccinations and stuff whether

(04:23):
you should get vaccinated or notbut for us it was a matter of
protecting our son.
We did not want him to have toundergo any, you know for lack
of a better term like a guineapig experiment.
We felt like that just was notan option for us, and that was
initially what it was about.
And then I started, you know,talking again to more families
and teachers, because I would goout and we would always meet

(04:45):
people in the parks and haveconversations with people and I
started hearing about some ofthe ideologies that were being
presented to kindergartners andeven preschoolers, like gender
ideology and certain things thatI felt were just not ever going
to align with it, just didn'talign with our faith.
We are Christ followers and sofor us it was like almost like

(05:08):
an awakening.
We started to see and hearthings from parents that really
it became I think that's whatthe best word for it is an
awakening.
We started to realize that thisis not the public school that
we were, you know, coming upunder.
Like this experience is totallydifferent.
There were certain things thatwe just, you know, coming up
under like this experience istotally different.
There were certain things thatwe just were never taught in
schools and my husband and I weattended public, private.

(05:31):
I even did a magnet schoolgrowing up.
So we had I even went toCatholic school, so we had those
experiences and not at anypoint were we introduced to
gender ideology.
So that was one of those things.
For us it was like no, this is ano, no go for us.
And so once my son was of age Ibelieve in Pennsylvania you can
start at five when we moved toJersey, they were already asking

(05:55):
.
There were teachers in myneighborhood asking me well, are
you going to bring your sonhere at the age of five?
And I've said no, we have nointentions.
And they recruited heavily andI said no, my husband and I said
no, we have no intentions.
And so we just continued on thepath and haven't looked back.
And so now he is seven, we haveno intentions of looking
backwards, we have no intentionsof putting him in a traditional

(06:17):
school setting.
We actually plan to homeschoolour kids through high school
Awesome.

Speaker 1 (06:21):
Okay, can I make things uncomfortable for a
second here?
And that's just because that'swho I am.
So I get told like, not all thetime, but you know, you're just
so privileged because you knowyou can homeschool your kids, or
you want to shelter your kids,you don't want to expose them to
different cultures, or you know, you, you want your kid to live
in a bubble, you don't wantthem to know the reality of, you

(06:44):
know, say, slavery, anythinglike that.
And then and I look back atthings and I'm like, well, I
don't know, when I think aboutsending my kids to school, it's
more about do you trust thegovernment, Because they're the
ones really trickling down thecurriculum that our kids are
learning.
And then I think about who hasour government been worst to?
It's like, okay, I mean, therewere the Tuskegee experiments,

(07:05):
there was slavery, and even youknow, my son goes to a
wilderness class where theleader is a Native American guy
and he's like, well, we have towear masks during COVID.
I mean my son didn't go thereduring then.
But I'm like, since when didyou guys start thinking the
government was like, you know,had your back?
You know?
So like, do you ever get thosequestions?
Or like to me, it seems to melike plain as day, like it's

(07:28):
these questions.
I'm trying to say it in adelicate way, but like I know
where I went to school.
I went to an inner city schooland if a black person was like
trying to be smart, they'd belike, why are you trying to be
white?
And it's just.
It's like ah, what is it Crabsin the pot like you try to take
down others.
I mean, why would any of ustrust the government if we know

(07:50):
what they've done to us in thepast?
It's true, it's absolutely true.
What's your response to that?

Speaker 2 (07:54):
Believe it or not, believe it or not, and I'm not
going to go down the rabbit hole, but I have been asked by
people of African descent,african American relatives,
people that you know, that weused to talk to and no longer
talk to.
But I've been asked by peopleyou know how could you, how
could you, you know, I guess,forsake all of the blessings

(08:17):
that came from the landmark caseBrown v Board of Education?
It's like, how could you?
You know how could you?
We finally got our kids inschool, right, we finally got
the freedom to get into theseschools.
And it's like, no, that's notwhat our ancestors fought for.
They didn't fight for our kidsto, you know, be pigeonholed and
put in a box.

(08:38):
And we dealt with segregation.
And then after that it was like, well, now we're in the schools
, yeah, but you're pigeonholed,you're in a box, you're in
underperforming schools, they'renot educating you.
And, yes, you have the freedomto go to the school, but what
are they actually doing there?
They're not educating us.
And this is one of the thingsthat I love about homeschooling
because, if you look at thestats, african-american children

(08:59):
and even Latino childrenoutperform their peers in public
school.
Now, I don't know the exactstatistics and it's never really
exact because, you know, insome states there's no reporting
required, like in New Jersey.
There are no reports required.
You don't have to file a letter, a letter of intent, you don't
have to submit registration,assessments, nothing.

(09:19):
In New Jersey, there is nooversight.
It's one of the 12 states thathave no oversight for
homeschoolers.
So you're not going to get allthe stats, but across the nation
, african-americans and Latinosoutperform their peers in public
school, traditional schools,they outperform them.

Speaker 1 (09:34):
The ones that are homeschooled.

Speaker 2 (09:35):
ACT that are homeschooled outperform their
peers in public and traditionalschools.
They outperform them on theACTs, SATs, and I believe let me
just double check I think it's20.
Let's just double check becauseI had it in front of me.
I believe it's 20 to 25 pointshigher, if I'm not mistaken.

Speaker 1 (09:53):
I would bet that they outperform everybody.
They do.

Speaker 2 (09:56):
Yeah, but that is a stat.
That's a stat that.
Let me just double check.
Yes, I believe it is.
Yeah, I believe it's 20 to 25points higher.
That's one of the I think, oneof the alarming stats that I saw
, because when you talk to a lotof people, they'll say oh well,
you know, but the system hasthe supports in place,

(10:17):
especially for underprivilegedcommunities.
They're usually pointing atpeople of color.
You need to be in the systembecause they have the supports,
and they have, you know, thesupports for special needs and
the supports that you need forunderprivileged communities, and
they're usually talking aboutinner city areas.
But the reality is, regardlessof socioeconomic background,

(10:37):
black children are stilloutperforming their
traditionally schooled peers,regardless of where they live,
how much money their family has,their family size doesn't
matter, they're stilloutperforming.
So when, I hear people make thatargument.
You know, what about Brown vBoard of Education?
I'm like, what about it?

Speaker 1 (10:53):
They fought for the right for us to have the freedom
to be educated, to have thebest education possible, and
it's not the government schoolsystem, and you know what that
reminds me of, because I had apost a long time ago too, where
I was like you know, so manystates fought Like.
I grew up in New York where youcouldn't get married legally if
you were gay.
Right, and then that overturned.

(11:16):
And you know, I knew some gaypeople that got married and you
attend the wedding and I neverreally thought about it.
But it's like you're fightingso hard to have the right to be
married.
But what does marriage reallydo?
First of all, a hundred yearsago, 200 years ago, marriage was
between you, your spouse, andthe pastor, priest, whatever

(11:36):
religion you were, and you wroteit in a Bible and that's it.
The state had nothing to dowith it.
And then now we're making peoplefight for the right so that the
government can just keep trackof you.
Okay, I never knew that.
It's like a very similar thing.
We're fighting for this rightto be in the schools so that
they can actually just keeptrack of us better, so that they
can keep track of ourstatistics, keep track of where

(11:57):
we are, where we are at all day,what we're eating.
I mean it really is.
Nobody stops to like stepoutside and look at what are we
fighting for and why.
It's like the women's movementtoo, right Of the sixties.
I want to get out and work likereally, cause you're still
going to have to do laundry whenyou get home, you still have to
feed these people, you stillhave to clean, so why are we
fighting to?

Speaker 2 (12:16):
work.
It's true, that's like yeah,that's like a whole different.
Yeah, that's a whole differenttopic it's funny because I used
to be one of those people whowas like I've got to get out
there and I've got to fight formy right to have a voice, to

(12:37):
break the glass ceiling, andthen I ended up home because
this was what I was supposed tobe fighting for.
I was supposed to be fightingfor the right to protect my
children and the right to be aparent which is something that
the state is trying to literallytake from us is the right to be
parents, and it's just sad.
It's sad what we're seeingacross the nation.
But in New Jersey right now,what we're up against is we're

(12:57):
up against four bills.
We're up against four billsAssembly Bill 5825 and Senate
Bill 1796.
These bills are would requireNew Jersey homeschoolers to file
a letter of intent stating thatyou want to homeschool, but you
also have to provide curriculumthat aligns with state
standards.
You're going to have toessentially adopt whatever
curriculum is approved by thestate and include topics that

(13:22):
may go against your faith, whichis our religious freedom as
Christian parents, and aChristian homeschool is
protected under the FirstAmendment.
Our parental rights areprotected under the 14th
Amendment.
But you're saying you knowyou're going to have to do X, y,
z, which is again, it's clearlyoverreach.
You know this is not aboutaccountability.
This is about overreach andtaking the rights of parents

(13:45):
away from them.
This is not even about what'sbest for the children.
It's really like you said, it'sabout tracking families.
File that letter of intent sowe can track you, every one of
your moves, and then we controlwhat we teach in our traditional
schools.
Right.
But now we want to control whatyou're teaching your kids too.
Overreach.
That's a big issue here.
And then not only do we havethose two, we have two identical

(14:08):
bills.
Don't ask me why they filed twoseparate bills.
They're exactly the same billbut it's filed two bills, I
guess to make sure that it gotpassed through.
But Assembly Bill 5796 andSenate Bill 4589 are requiring
homeschoolers to meet annuallywith a school district
representative for a generalhealth and wellness check.
Now, private public they don'thave to do that.

(14:28):
And now it begs the question areyou trying to violate our
Fourth Amendment rights?
You can't go and you know,search and inspect a private
home without you know, without aprobable cause or without a
warrant, right, and so whatthey're trying to do is get
families to meet at a schooldistrict or a location where you
meet a school districtrepresentative.

(14:49):
And now they're saying well, wehave, you know, we want you to
come here because they know theycan't inspect your home without
probable cause and they'remaking this blanket requirement
for all homeschoolers.
This is what they want to doAll homeschoolers, regardless of
whether you're a goodhomeschooler or not.
There's no evidence that you'vedone anything wrong, but we
want you all to come so that youcan meet with our school
district representative to do ageneral health and wellness

(15:11):
check.
That could be mental health,that could be sexual health,
that could be nutritional health.
What kind of health are wetalking about?
You know, why are you concernedabout the health and wellness
of my child?
Unless you have evidence thatthere was abuse or neglect,
right, and so that's.
You're going against,potentially going against Fourth
Amendment rights, and you'realso going against my parental

(15:32):
rights to take care of my childand provide care for my child
without the state's interferenceand equal protections clause of
the 14th Amendment, becauseyou're not doing that for
private and public schools.
They are not required to dothat.

Speaker 1 (15:44):
Okay, so dumb it down for us.
What's the Fourth Amendment?

Speaker 2 (15:47):
So the Fourth Amendment basically says that we
are not to have anysuspicionless intrusion, right,
or nobody can come into yourhouse and nobody can come and
inspect your home and nobody cancheck on your kids and come and
see what's going on without awarrant or without probable
cause.
So if a mandated reporter, likea pediatrician you go to the

(16:08):
doctor, the doctor sees yourbaby and says, oh, we think
there's a problem with your baby, that you might've done
something wrong, we're going tocall ACS in New York or in, I
think, in Jersey, it's calledDIPHIS.
We're going to call DIPHIS onyou and we're going to tell them
that we think that there'spotential here for neglect or
abuse.
And then they take the case,they open it up and they start
the investigation.

(16:28):
Now they can come to your house, they can knock on your door
because they have probable cause.
There might be abuse or neglect.
We have to investigate.
But unless there is a case likethat, you can't do that
Thinking about homeschooling,but don't know where to start.

Speaker 1 (16:41):
Well, I've interviewed a few people on the
topic about homeschooling, butdon'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 worldand what I've done is I've
packed everything I've learnedinto an ebook called the
homeschool how to completestarter guide.
From navigating your state'slaws to finding your
homeschooling style, fromworking while homeschooling to
supporting kids with specialneeds, this guide covers it all

(17:04):
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
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.

(17:25):
You can grab the link to thisebook in the show's description
or head on over tothehomeschoolhowtocom.
I have so many things runningthrough my head right now.
First of all, I know manyteachers here in New York and
she's my one friend inparticular has said I know there
is abuse in this home and thereis literally nothing the school
can do about it.

(17:47):
They will not take the child.
I know somebody that works forCPS here in New York, which is
called Child Protective Services, and they said, unless we
literally watch the parent beatthe child, we cannot take the
child because of the lawsprotecting that parent and
there's nowhere to put the childanyway.
Anyway, exactly this is likeand I get that they are, because

(18:10):
I think there's a similar billfederally going, like it's being
written and it's about like theprotecting of the child, that
abused child that you know, thathillbilly that just leaves
their kid to work the farm andwon't educate them and beats
them and doesn't feed them.
They're targeting theheartstrings of people to say

(18:32):
that that's who homeschools.

Speaker 2 (18:35):
Which is not accurate .
It's insane to me.
Believe it or not, there arepeople that buy into this, this
emotional language, becausethere are people that still
think that homeschoolers looklike the homeschoolers from the
70s, you know where.
In some cases they were keepingtheir kids in the house and
they were protecting them andthey didn't go far and they

(18:55):
don't go anywhere.
Sometimes they never left theproperty because there were
other people that were willingto put their parents in jail or
their parents could potentiallygo to jail.

Speaker 1 (19:03):
Right, or they beat the child and they didn't want
the school to see the bruises,that sort of thing.
But yes, the majority.
Now and I'm in New York, wehave pretty strict laws.
So I do have to send a notice ofintent every year.
I have to send something calledan IHIP, which is an
individualized home instructionplan saying what I intend to do.
And then I send a quarterlyreport saying what I did do, and

(19:24):
it sounds a lot worse than itis.
Um, cause, you know, I just gothrough my pictures and the
books I took out of library.
I'm like, yep, we did this,that and the other thing.
And then the school's probablylike way more than we did in
school, so you're good.
And then at the end of the yearyou give a final report, or a
couple of the years they need atest or something, or you can
pick one or the other.
So it's really not that bad,but we do have it as one of the

(19:45):
worst.
How do you jump from New Jerseywith no reporting to, all of a
sudden, we're going to do somehome visits.

Speaker 2 (19:52):
Well, believe it or not, and I was looking, I was
researching the homeschool lawsin New Jersey.
New Jersey enacted the.
They don't even really havetechnically a homeschool law,
they don't even call ithomeschool.
But in 1967, new Jersey enactedI think it was a New Jersey
statute section 18A that saidall you have to do is provide
equivalent instruction in anyplace other than school.

(20:15):
That's it.
You just have to provideequivalent instruction.
In the 60s they determined thathomeschooling met the state's
requirements.
But then, in 2004, you know,proponents of regular, you know
regulations on homeschoolerssaid you know what?
We want to propose some billsthat would mandate content for
curriculum and oversight andmedical exams.
It was never enacted.

(20:37):
Never enacted.
I guess they didn't get enoughvotes to pass these bills.
And so it's been what?
21 years later, and we'reliving in a very different
climate in our country and thereare multiple political leaders
that are fighting really hard toget these bills passed why now
I'm not really sure.
I don't know what it is aboutthis year, but we went from you

(20:59):
know again, 58 years ago, thelaw was passed that we could,
you know, said that we could,homeschool.
And then, you know, 21 yearsago, they tried to attack the
families.
And now here we are.
Today they're doing it again.
It could have something to dowith the pandemic levels and the
rates of homeschoolers.
In the pandemic the levels wentup.
They shot up.
Prior to pandemic it was lessthan 1% of homeschoolers in New

(21:20):
Jersey, post-pandemic 3.7%.
That number just keeps rising,right, because the national rate
of homeschooling keeps risinglike 2% to 8% annually.
So they're probably projectingin the next five to 10 years
that number will be so high thatit's going to be a problem,
right?

Speaker 1 (21:36):
Because we don't have control over these families.

Speaker 2 (21:38):
Not only that, we're losing these bodies, we're
losing money Funding yeah.
Funding.
That's the big one.
It's not about accountabilityand oversight, it's just.
It is about oversight, but it'snot about accountability.
It's not about the kids andtheir welfare, it's just.
We need to get ahold of thesepeople because if they keep
growing at this rate, we're notgoing to have anybody in these
schools.

Speaker 1 (21:57):
Yeah.
And so when you think back tothe original reason of why we
even have the school, set up theway we do with Horace Mann, he
went over to Prussia.
He saw that they were had theseschools where kids were
learning how to be obedientcitizens and obedient workers.
And oh, he brought it over hereto Massachusetts and
implemented it there, convincedeverybody, hey, let's do this.

(22:17):
And then John Dewey and theRockefellers really pushed that
forward, invested all the moneyinto a modern school system.
So we have obedient workerssmart enough to do the job but
not smart enough to question it.
We get too many of us educatingour kids on things like the
total twin stuff where, hey, youcan have your own business.
Be an entrepreneur, thinkoutside the box.

(22:37):
I can definitely see why that'sa threat.
If it's going up 2% a year and,like you said, you project in
five, 10 years they've lost alot of bodies at that point and
not even wow, yeah, like who'sgoing to be in the military then
?
Who's going to work thesegovernments?
I worked in government for 16years who else is just going to
sit there and push papers in acubicle, like at some point

(22:58):
you're like holy crap, there'sgot to be more to life than this
.
That's a great point.
I hadn't really thought aboutit in terms of that, like the
exponential growth ofhomeschooling and like you were
mentioning earlier.
You know, without having theprobable cause, like I
understand that they want me tosend the reports I'm not even
mad about that every quarter.
I don't think they read them.
I think they're just like, oh,that family is doing what

(23:20):
they're supposed to do, so ifthey're on top of this, they're
probably on top of providing aneducation for their kid.
And so if you fail to do that,that's like okay, they're not
even paying attention to whatwe're asking.
Let's go see if this kid isgetting beaten.
But yeah, they're jumping inNew Jersey from zero to 60,

(23:40):
where, like, we're not evengiving you the time to send the
report.

Speaker 2 (23:42):
We're just going to assume you're beating your kid,
right.
I will say, um, I did attend aI think it was, um, it was like
a little open air event orsomething like that with HSLDA,
the school legal defenseassociation.
We're talking to some of theattorneys there and they did did
tell us that these bills werebrought on by one single abuse
case.
Like in all of the other casesacross the country, there's this

(24:03):
one single case that they can'talways prove that it was a
homeschooling family.
But it's like what you weresaying.
There's this picture they paintof this family that is, you
know, out there in the woodssomewhere or whatever, like away
from society, I don't know,abusing their kid, neglecting
them, not feeding them, nottaking care of them, emotional
neglect and all this other stuff.
This.
There was a child that had beenemotionally, I believe,

(24:26):
neglected, physically, like theyweren't eating, they were
malnourished, and this storybecame a big deal and that led
to the bills being proposed,just like that one story.
And, to my knowledge, the numberof homeschoolers who have been
involved with Diofus or CPSacross the nation.
It's a negligible amount.
It's like less than like 0.1%,it's just.

(24:47):
It's such a small amount.
And so this is what they do.
They in 2004, there was oneincidence of child abuse with a
family that claimed that theywere homeschooling, and that's
why they attempted the overreachthen, but they didn't.
I guess they didn't get enoughvotes and so now they're doing
it again.
One single case, that onesingle case is supposed to be
probable cause to infect everysingle homeschool family and the

(25:08):
way that they're caring fortheir kids.
You know, it's not a trend,it's not conclusive, it's
nothing essentially, but they'rejust using this one case to
punish the 99% that are doingright by their kids.
It's overreach and proportionallevels that I can't even
describe.
It's just.
How do you think?
How do you go from, like yousaid, how do you go from nothing
, having no oversight?

(25:28):
They're doing better than theirpeers in traditional schools
for 58 years.

Speaker 1 (25:39):
But now, because another case popped up, I'd love
to see a study about, you know,comparing how many kids in
school that are abused andnothing is done about it by
their parents, how many kids inschool are bullied or commit
suicide, or even are victims ofschool shootings?
Bullied or commit suicide oreven are victims of school
shootings, and yet we'resupposed to be the ones that are

(26:01):
on the stand and have to proveourselves, because this is how
families are supposed to havelived since the beginning of
time.
You're educated by your home,your family and your community,
your loved ones, people thatknow you, and it is a silly
concept when you think about it.
Like I'm just going to drop mylittle kid off.
I have a seven-year-old son aswell.
I can't imagine just droppingthem off to somebody that I

(26:22):
don't know.
Don't know Any 9% chance theydo not align with my values and
yeah, they're just going to bewith them for most of the week.
It's crazy.

Speaker 2 (26:31):
Yeah it is.
It's absolutely nuts when youthink about it.
I mean my husband and I, weboth grew up in households where
our parents worked.
Yeah, and we went to daycare andwe went.
You know it was somebodywatching us.
A lot of times it was.
If it was, it could have been arelative usually, but if it
wasn't, it was somebody thatthey felt like they knew really
well.
And then we went right intopublic school.
We started out in privateschool, like the first couple of

(26:52):
years we both did public school.
I did the Magna school and whenwe weren't in school, somebody
else was watching us.
Somebody else was, you know,just you know, supervising us
until our parents got home,until we were old enough to be
latchkey kids, and then you gohome by yourself.
But it's funny, someone asked mebefore I got this actually a
couple of times in the beginningof my homeschool journey, they

(27:12):
said don't you feel?
Don't you feel like it's likethat?
There's something wrong, youknow, with not having the
village, Like you said earlier,are you sheltering your kids?
You know you can't keep themsheltered forever.
You know.
How long are you going toshelter them?
At what point are you going tosend them?
And I'm like, why should thereever be a point when I have to
send them anywhere?
Why, you know?

(27:33):
Because I think, ideally, ifthings were different and we
were, you know, more close as afamily if families were more
interconnected, because they'rejust so broken, right?
If families were moreinterconnected like they were
years ago, there would really beno need to send a child
anywhere, because they couldstay home as long as needed and

(27:54):
the family support system wasthere, and grandma and grandpa
there were all these supports tohelp you, so they didn't have
to necessarily go anywhere.
But now it's almost like there'sno other option you know, and
I've had people ask me thatplenty of times like why are you
trying to shelter your kids?
Or?
Or they'll come up with theargument that people who
homeschool are doing itintentionally so that they can

(28:15):
shelter their kids from the restof the world.
And then those homeschool kidsare going to grow up weird right
, and they're going to grow upwith this like very narrow view
of the world and they're goingto be unable to socialize with
everybody else, I guess whenthey enter the real world,
because their parents havesheltered them.
And it couldn't be farther fromthe truth.
Personally, like we teach ourkids, we teach our kids our

(28:36):
faith.
That's first and foremost inour house.
So they learn about the Bibleand they learn the truth.
But we also help teach them tobe discerning and they ask lots
of questions.
They're not being indoctrinated, they ask tons of questions.
We want them to have a faiththat is rooted in, grounded in
truth and in evidence, and forus we believe that there is
evidence that Jesus was the Sonof God, is the Son of God, that

(28:58):
he died and was resurrected fromthe dead and that he lives.
Thousands of people saw him onthe earth.
Like, we teach our kids ourfaith, but we also teach them
about the basic tenets of otherbeliefs and practices.
But we do it from a biblicalworldview, so that our kids know
, when they encounter someonewho says, well, hey, I believe
in secular humanism or you know,I believe that you know there's

(29:19):
moral relativism and you knowlike there is no absolute truth
or whatever, that they know evenat the age of five and seven,
how to deal with those argumentswhen they come across.
So, um, like we, we teach ourkids you know their foundational
faith and their beliefs and weteach them about different views
.
We want them to see differentcultures, but we don't want
someone else to tell them youknow the story of someone else's

(29:43):
culture from a single lens view.
We want them to see authenticculture.
If I'm going to teach my kidsyou know about other people's
cultures and their ways of life,well, let's dig in and like act
like we go, like we're livingin Chile or we're going to
Africa and we're going to take atrip there, and let's see the
stories and hear the storiesfrom the people that live there,
not from a textbook wheresomeone's telling you you know

(30:03):
their narrow, you know view ofthis person's history.
Like right now we're gettingready to go into a study about
New Jersey and the NativeAmericans that lived here and
looking into BIPOC literatureBlack Indigenous people of color
books, picture books by peoplewho wrote these stories, because
these are stories passed downfrom their family and their

(30:24):
heritage oral history, thingslike that, you know and again,
helping them to like learn howto be compassionate and
empathetic to other people andlearning like things that they
don't teach in school anymore,like empathy and compassion.
You know, there's just certainthings that they don't teach in
life skills, and there's so manythings we want to teach our
kids and we want to do it for us.
We want to do it from abiblical worldview, and that was

(30:45):
pretty much the primary reasonwhy we started homeschooling.
Outside of trying to protectour kids physically from
vaccines and anything else thatwe weren't really sure about was
, you know, if it was going tobe good for them.
We wanted them to learn aboutthe world from a biblical
worldview, but that doesn't meanthat they're going to be, you
know, biased and or that they'regoing to be unkind, you know,

(31:06):
to other people because theywere raised differently.
We actually feel like we'reexposing them to way more, more
than they would, you know, beexposed to in the schools, but
from a positive and a holisticand you know view, and from a
loving family and in a safeenvironment.
These are all things thatreally matter to us.
I think it matters to mosthomeschoolers, which is why it

(31:26):
seems almost ridiculous to thinkthat a person that would go out
of their way to take their kidsout of the system, to bring
them into a loving, warmenvironment, to do all of this,
to make all these sacrifices togive them a good childhood, a
real education, a livingeducation and a warm home and a
loving environment, why wouldthey go through all of that?
Just to amuse their kid?
Why?

Speaker 1 (31:46):
are you doing all of that?
You know it makes no sense andI love what you said too.
It sparked kind of aconversation I had today with my
seven-year-old son in the carat one of the stations that I
was just kind of flippingthrough was our K-Love and it's,
you know, the religious musicchannel and we don't listen to
it a lot.
But the song was catchy and Ikind of had it on and my

(32:06):
daughter started like pretendingshe was singing to it and it
was so cute.
It brought me back to aconversation that my son had
said to me before one of ourplay groups that we go to.
He came home one day and he saidmom, so and so doesn't believe
in god and we're not like, uh,we don't like go to church every
week.
We've gone to church before,we've read children's bibles and

(32:26):
stuff together, we praytogether every night, but as far
as like we haven't gone over.
Yeah, it's not part of our.
I guess like it's just kind ofin in our, in our daily routine,
to like pray together and it'snot part of our.
I guess like it's just kind ofin in our, in our daily routine,
to like pray together and it'smostly to let's thank God for
everything that we have.
So it was interesting that hewas like Soren doesn't I don't
know I said the kid's name,whatever but he doesn't believe
in God and it was really coolopportunity for me to talk to

(32:48):
him about.
Okay, his family might not andnot everybody does, and this is
why you know we can and you knowI was kind of explaining to him
today as I turned on the Calebchannel and you know, I said to
him like yeah, not everybodydoes believe in that, but
there's a lot of things in theworld that not everybody
believes in.
But my job is to expose you toit all and as you grow up and

(33:10):
become a man, you will pick andchoose what seems right for you.
And you know.
It got us into this really coolconversation just driving in
the car about how, like you knowreally what and I actually
explained that to him theresurrection.
And I said you know, that's why.
That's why people celebrateGood Friday, and isn't that a
weird term for it?
Because there's nothing goodabout it.

(33:30):
Jesus was murdered on this dayand then three days later he
rose again and I said you know,there are people that saw it and
then there are other peoplethat say, no, you were lying.
And so I said but there arealso historians that cannot
disprove it either, and that'svery interesting.
I went to catechism growing upand made my confirmation in the

(33:51):
Roman Catholic Church and nobodyever explained any of that to
me.
A really cool book and movie isthe Case for Christ, where the
atheist goes in to try todisprove the resurrection.
That was super interesting.
It was just so cool to have thisconversation with my son.
I'm like if you were in schooland I was at a cubicle right now
, we would not be having thisconversation, this connection.

(34:12):
It was just cool that I was noteven pushing anything on him.
I was just like you know what?
All we need to know is thatsomebody created this for us,
for us to be here, and we'rehere to learn and we're going to
make mistakes, but there'sforgiveness and the best thing
you can do is service to othersand that that is just going.
That's the message, and it was.
I just loved that I could havethat conversation with my son,

(34:34):
because it never would havehappened if I were in a cubicle
and he was in his classroom andwe were rushing around to soccer
practice after school and thenrushing to daycare, rushing to
this place or even rushing toput dinner on the table or God
forbid eating McDonald's.
Those kinds of conversations arejust so cool to have.
It's just planting little seedsin them and we can discover it
together, and that's my thingtoo.

(34:55):
I'm like I don't know all aboutit, but we're going to discover
it together as part of yourhomeschool.
We're going to be on thisjourney together.
And what do we believe in?
Why are we here?
What is our purpose?
And like that's exciting.

Speaker 2 (35:09):
It is.
It really is exciting.
And I think one of the otherthings you know that when I get
that question about, well, youknow, what are you afraid of?
That you're?
You know you're trying toshelter your kids from.
Or what are you so afraid of?
Like I've had people say thatto me, like it's good enough for
my kids.
So like, what are you afraid of?
Or I've had another mother.
I literally just met a motherdown the block.

(35:29):
She just lives down the blockhere, she just moved in the
neighborhood and she goes.
Schools in this district areexcellent.
They're so good.
You know you haven't even triedthem, not once.
They even give moms a break.
You know it's a we get a breakfrom the kids, and I said very
matter of factly, the schoolsystem has absolutely nothing
that I want.

Speaker 1 (35:47):
Have you taught your kids what to 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.
The most important lessons wecan teach our kids are not
reading, writing and math.

(36:08):
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.

Speaker 2 (36:19):
Nothing that I want for my kids and I didn't get
into a whole debate or anything,but she was so shocked you
should have seen the face.
Look on her face.
It was like what?
Because she like a lot ofpeople and I've been approached
by many people over the years.
They have this.
Many of them have the same youknow view of the system.
It's like this is a good placeIf you can move to a place where
there's an excellent district.

(36:40):
You know it's that's, that'severything.
You've got to move.
Whenever you're thinking aboutmove, you got to move to the
right place.
So the best, the best schoolsare like Ribbon School District,
this, and that you know, aslong as you have the best school
district and it's like okay,even if you found what you think
is the best school district,there's going to still be
something that you're going toneed to shelter your kids from,
especially when they're younger.

(37:00):
I think older kids can probablyfend for themselves when they
have a good foundation, but whenyou have young kids, like we do
for me, you might call itsheltering.
You might say that we're tryingto be overly protective, but
really I see it as a bold way ofliving.
It's not about sheltering themfrom everything.
It's about sheltering them fromthe things that are harmful to

(37:21):
them.
Right, that they really are notin a place at this young age to
mentally handle, until they'reolder, a lot of the things that,
like, I have time to talk to mykids about, a lot of things,
like you said, conversationsthat would never have happened
if I was working full-timeoutside the home.
And when I have theseconversations and I listen to my
kids talking now they're fiveand seven, but they have the
comprehension level of a thirdgrader when I have conversations

(37:43):
with my kids, I think, well,what if they were in this
environment?
You know they wouldn't be ableto have a healthy conversation
with somebody who is responsiblethat you know that, because I
don't believe every teacher isresponsible someone that really
has their best interests atheart and someone really, really
cares about educating them andthem growing and learning.
What if there is an opportunity, you know, in this school

(38:06):
system and they're there andthey're using this opportunity
to have this conversation withthem that I should be having
with them to steer them in acertain direction?
And I know that you've heardabout this because and I've
heard about it so many times Iknow you've had to hear about it
, about the stories about kidsthat are being socially
transitioned in schools withouttheir parents' knowledge yeah,
all the time, and lawsuits thatare happening because parents

(38:28):
are like wait a second, I didn'tknow you were socially
transitioning my kid.
When did you have time to haveconversations with your kid?
Well, you were at work.
You were at work all day and sothey were talking to their
guidance counselor, or they weretalking to their teacher, or
they were talking to whoevertheir club leader or somebody
that's been helping themsocially transition for a year
now and you didn't know anythingabout it.
That's harmful, oh, yeah, that'sharmful, and so you know.

(38:49):
For me it's.
No, I'm not.
You might look at it shelter.
I'm sheltering andoverprotective, call it what you
want, but I am a mama bear andI am going to do what is
necessary to cover my childrenfrom things that are harmful
while exposing them to thingsthat are good for them.
I mean, it's my job as a motherto know what's good and what's
dangerous, how to expose you tothe good, the beautiful.

(39:10):
You know, the pure, the.
You know the the things thatare going to be helpful to you
as you grow and keep you fromthe dangerous stuff until you're
ready to handle it on your own,that's our right as parents to
do that.
But I get it all the time and Ithink it comes from a place
where most parents feel like,well, it's good enough for my
kids, so why isn't it goodenough for your kids?

Speaker 1 (39:30):
Yeah, and I think they've never thought twice
about it, and that's why I justwent to college.
I didn't think twice about itand that's why, like I never, I
just, you know, went to college.
I didn't think twice about it.
It was just well, that's whatyou did if you didn't want to be
a loser.
And then you just go get a job,because you're applying to jobs
and this one interviewed me andthis one offered the job.
It's not like, oh, that was mydream.
And then you know, 16 yearslater, you're like what have I

(39:52):
been here for my whole life?

Speaker 2 (39:54):
Yeah, so you don't think about it.

Speaker 1 (39:56):
You just send the kids to school, and that's how I
always thought I would too.
And it was during COVID for meas well, when I realized, oh, I
don't even have control over mychildren when they're in school.
And we were just in a privatedaycare my son was in daycare
and I was working and they saidwe have to start masking
three-year-olds, because in NewYork Cuomo was going to mask
three-year-olds.
And I was like but you're anin-home daycare.

(40:17):
I said, well, we still followthe rules and we get audited by
the state.
So if they walk in and your kidis three and he's not masked,
we would get cited.
And I was like, well then Ireally have no control over my
child.
If I don't have control overhim in an in-home daycare,
there's no way I have control.
They're going to be puttingmasks on them in school hand
sanitizer.
They're going to be feedingthem crap.
They're going to be injectingthem with God knows what because

(40:38):
they're going to say thatthat's the good for the good of
all.
Right, that's where all of thisis headed for the good of all.
So toxic, yeah it is.

Speaker 2 (40:44):
It's absolutely that's and that's how we feel.
And I don't know when.
I really don't know when we asparents stopped wanting to
protect our kids.
I don't know if it's because we, many of us, have been
indoctrinated by the schoolsystem to think that this is
what's best.
I know a lot of immigrants feelthat way.
You know, because I've spokento a lot of immigrant families
who say, like well, theeducation system in America is

(41:06):
the best, and I'm like maybe inthe 1800s, but no, not now.
But that's what they think.
When I come over here, that'sthe first thing I'm going to do
do everything I can to get mychild in the best schools so
that they can go to college, andthat's.
They feel like this is the wayout, to financial freedom or you
know whatever.
And then a lot of parents here,like you said, they don't like

(41:26):
most of the parents I talked to.
They don't even question it andit's amazing to me how they
won't question the system, butthey will question me.
They have 20 million questionsfor me all day, every day, but
they don't question the system,they don't question them.

Speaker 1 (41:39):
Oh God, that's the best line I've heard.

Speaker 2 (41:41):
Yeah, I'm saying wait , you're not worried at all
about what's going on in thereLike does it never cross your
mind to ask them like at leastthree questions?
Because I'm pretty sure, if youstart asking questions, one mom
I met recently.
She came here from Hawaii.
She had her daughter was likefourth or fifth grade and she
was in a private school all upuntil this point and she said
she just sent her to one of thepublic schools here in New

(42:03):
Jersey last year and she simplyasked a question, one question
what is in your curriculum?
They said, ma'am, that'sconfidential.
I said welcome to New Jersey.

Speaker 1 (42:11):
You've got to be kidding.
It's confidential.
It's confidential, we pay thetaxes, we pay the taxes and
there are flesh and blood thatyou're teaching it to.
That's what she got, so shewent into it.

Speaker 2 (42:23):
She asked them more and more questions and they were
livid.
Who is this woman asking usquestions?
How dare she?
This is confidential.
And I said I was like I'm soglad that you asked all those
questions.
You know what?
Where did it lead to?
And she said well, ultimatelythey did have to, you know, at
some point have a sit down andtalk with me, and but they made

(42:44):
a really big deal out of it.
She wasn't happy.
Her daughter also, through thewhole process of this, was, you
know, being mistreated by theteachers that were being
interrogated and so they weretaking out their frustrations on
her daughter.
She just pulled her out and Ithink she put her somewhere else
.
But it was just the fact thatthey said to her it is
confidential.
And I said you know, this is ifyou could not see before, I hope

(43:06):
that you can see now that thereis an agenda.
There's an agenda to keepparents in the dark about their
kids.
Right, if you're the system,that's, you're all caring about
the children and what's best forthe children, what's best for
their future?
The children are our future.
The parents are the ones thatare responsible for them.
And if you're keeping them inthe dark about what's in the

(43:27):
curriculum, then what else areyou keeping in the dark about?
But you want to ask me ahundred million questions at an
annual health and wellness checkand also an annual meeting with
a licensed evaluator from thestate.
Who's going to evaluate mychild's portfolio at the end of
the year this is also part ofthe bill who's going to evaluate
the portfolio and then has tosend it to a superintendent of

(43:49):
the district to approve it, andthat person has the power to
disprove it as well.
Disapprove of it, and so thatcould bring you all the way back
to square one.
It's almost like you didnothing for the year.
Wow, and I said this issomething.
You're keeping parents in thedark.
You're not educating kids.
You're socially transitioningkids without their parents'
knowledge.
Most New Jersey kids most ofthem last year ELA English

(44:12):
language arts.
52% of them passed, met orexceeded standards, which means
almost half of the kids failed39% math.

Speaker 1 (44:19):
This is in the school .

Speaker 2 (44:20):
In the states in the public schools in New Jersey, 30
, I think 39% last year passedmath.
It met or exceeded the mathstandards 39%, which means that
more than half of them failedright.
Science was even low, it waslike 24%.
So you're not educating thekids.
Those levels are where they arenow.
Pre-pandemic levels were justslightly higher.
So you're not educating thekids.

(44:41):
No one's proficient in writingand reading math the basics but
you're socially transitioningkids and you're keeping parents
in the dark and they get aphysical and a vaccination at
the beginning of the year andyou're done with them.
But you want to come into myhome to see how I care for my
kids without any probable cause.
You want to meet with my child,to meet with some state

(45:03):
representative whoever?

Speaker 1 (45:12):
Yeah, so when are these bills getting voted on and
what can people in other statesdo to keep an eye on it, to see
if it's coming to them?
Like, where do we find thisinformation?

Speaker 2 (45:18):
So I always direct people to HSLDA because I feel
like they make it so much easierto find.
You could go to the New Jerseylegislature, you could Google,
you know, like the state ofhomeschool laws in New Jersey,
but you're not going to findanything.
Hslda, you don't have to be amember.
You could just follow them onInstagram or YouTube.
I like their Instagram channelbecause they just updated it

(45:40):
today.
They update it often.
You can also follow my pagebecause I'm always talking about
it.
And what I like about HSLDA isthat they will, once you're part
of their I think it's theirmailing list, they will send you
an email with live updates ofwhat's going on and then they'll
tell you what you can do.
And today they dropped anupdate stating that these bills

(46:03):
are basically like they're kindof in limbo.
They're just kind of holding,holding like in a holding
pattern before the summer startof summer recess.
They just couldn't get to them.
They could barely get to thebills that they had.
So now they're kind of likeholding them in, like it's like
in a standstill until thegubernatorial election, right,
so that's a big deal.
In New Jersey there's aRepublican candidate.

(46:24):
That is very much for.
You know.
Limited or no restrictions onhomeschoolers, and then you have
a Democratic candidate who'sobviously of the other mindset,
and so until that election takesplace, I think in November,
we're probably not going to seeanything happen.
Today they also mentioned thatSenator Paul Moriarty said on
different news outlets that heis planning to unleash some more

(46:47):
bills this fall, and I guessthey're waiting for the
gubernatorial election and thenthey'll proceed with those.
So we're looking probably atlike November between November
and December, we're looking atsome.
I'm just hoping and praying thatthese bills don't get enough
votes to pass.
I'm hoping that there'll be arepeat of 2004, because this is

(47:07):
overreach.
This is like beyond.
I mean filing a letter ofintent and submitting a letter
annually.
Okay, I think a lot of peoplewould be open to doing that
right, because it doesn't seemtoo bad.
But once you give them afoothold in, they come and they
take over, and now they'retrying to flood us with more
bills and it's verydisheartening, but at the same

(47:29):
time it's also keeping me on mytoes, so that's why I stay on
HSLDA's page.
I follow them on Instagram.
I get their newsletters.
Moms can follow me as well onInstagram at Godly Mother's
Chosen Littles, and I'm alwayssharing it in stories or a feed,
because it's really it'ssomething that's very dear to me
, because I'm obviously becauseI'm here in this state and one
of the reasons why we moved herewas because it was one of the

(47:51):
12 free states.
If it's no longer free now,we're looking at potentially
other states enforcing similarlaws.
I know in Illinois a few monthsago they were trying to make it
almost criminalized parents whodidn't file their letter of
intent on time.
They were going to go to jail,but HSLDA fought against that
bill and they were able to getthat thrown out.

(48:11):
But they're coming at us hardand it's just.
It's just proving to me moreand more that we are effective
in what we're doing empoweringour kids and educating our kids,
empowering them with the truth,and we are raising up a
generation of critical thinkers,and so this is a problem.
This is a problem, like yousaid, because they're who was
going to be there to be theirfactory workers and their

(48:34):
cubicle workers and who's goingto be there, you know, in the
future.
So they're coming at us hardand we're just praying and
trying to stay positive.

Speaker 1 (48:41):
Yeah, and that's a great point.
I will put the link to HSLDAorgin the show notes.
I direct people there as welland my membership just ran out
because I think my credit cardwas like at the end of the
expiration date and I have torenew it because they do do so
much work and you can even usetheir templates to file your
reports if you're in one of thestates that has to do that.
So I always make sure to fileon HSLDA templates and then the

(49:04):
school really doesn't bother mebecause they know I have legal
defense backing me, but they arethere for so much.
So if you can donate to andbecome a member I think it was
like a hundred dollars for thewhole year to be a member of
HSLDA.
So I just I got to go back onand do that, because they do
such good work.
But, like you said, you don'teven have to be a member to get
all of this information.

(49:24):
It's so important that we stayon top of it, because they're
banking on our ignorance and wecan't be homeschooling our kids
to keep them on top of thingsand then not keep on top of it
ourselves.
That's like our one job.
We have to be on these laws,and I'm not good at it myself,
but that's why I love havingpeople like you on to give us
that push and like, show us howeasy it is just to like hey,
read their Instagram page, andthis is how you'll know it's

(49:47):
coming down the pipeline, soimportant.
So, thank you, and I'm going toput your Instagram in the show
notes as well, because you kindof just like put it in a way
that's easy to understand.
We don't have to read a wholearticle.
You've read it and you'veinterpreted it into layman's
terms and it makes sense, andthank you for doing that.

Speaker 2 (50:03):
Absolutely.
And parents.
I also wanted to say somethingthat I think sometimes you know
parents may not realize isreally, really powerful is your
voice, your story.
Get on social media, talk aboutyour homeschool story, what
caused you to starthomeschooling, what you're doing
right now, you know thehomeschool how to podcast is
very powerful because whenpeople hear the stories of other

(50:23):
people, they're like wait,that's like a regular person
just like me, like they did thatI can do that, because a lot of
people have misconceptionsabout homeschoolers.
They think most of us are eliteand wealthy and highly educated
you know, go figure and theythink that it's just for, like
you said, the privilege and thepeople that have connections and

(50:44):
support and all these resources.
And the reality is it's justeveryday American mothers and
fathers that have a burningpassion and desire to raise
their kids in truth.
They want their kids to beliberated.
They want their kids to knowyou know, to be empowered with
truth.
They want their kids to have areal childhood.
They want their kids to youknow, be truly educated and
regardless of socioeconomicbackground.

(51:05):
So I think it's so importantwhen parents tell their story,
get on social media and tellyour story.
Talk to friends and family,because they don't know what's
going on.
You know a lot of thehomeschool parents that have
been following my page in NewJersey said they didn't even
know.
They didn't even know what washappening.
I said follow HSLDA, you know,and then you can follow my
channel, get out there and shareyour story and tell people why

(51:26):
you started homeschooling and,believe it or not, that's how
other people are inspired tohomeschool, because they see
stories like that.
People are always on socialmedia and YouTube.
People are on their phone allthe time.
They might not look up to have aconversation, but they're
online, they're on their phoneand they're going to look at
clips like that and say you knowwhat, I can probably do that
too, or maybe I need to startthinking about that when I come
across your content and I seeyou know the content that you

(51:48):
make.
It sparks debate, it sparksconversation.
It gets people thinking likewait a second, you know, maybe I
should be questioningeverything.
Maybe I shouldn't just believewhatever I'm hearing from the
government and from the schoolsystems.
Maybe the experts really don'tknow it.
All you know, and so you startquestioning everything and then
you go down the rabbit hole.
But and then you end up doingwhat we're doing.

(52:10):
But it's, it's such a blessing.
I'm so grateful that you askedme to be on to talk about this.
I'm grateful that you took theopportunity.
You saw the opportunity thatnot only to like just give me an
opportunity to talk about this,but also you saw it as an
opportunity to educate othersBecause, like you said, when one
act of you know infringement onparental rights or
homeschoolers rights happens inone state, it just is a matter

(52:33):
of time before it trickles onover to other states.

Speaker 1 (52:36):
Yeah, for sure, For sure.
Mariamma, thank you so much forbeing here today.
I hope you'll come back onagain and update us on laws.
You know what did pass, whatdidn't and what we can do in the
future, because it's alwaysgoing to be like a like a
baseball game.
They're going to be throwingpitches at us and we have to try
to hit them out of the park,Absolutely.

Speaker 2 (52:55):
Thank you so much for having me Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (53:01):
Thank you for being here.
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
share this podcast with a friendor on your favorite homeschool
group Facebook page.
Any effort to help us keep thepodcast going is greatly

(53:23):
appreciated.
Thank you for tuning in and foryour love of the next
generation.