August 3, 2024 • 31 mins
Welcome to the 90-Minute School Day podcast, hosted by Kelly Edwards.
In this episode, Kelly delves into the significant role that community plays in homeschooling. The episode is divided into three parts, featuring excerpts from a recent open house hosted live on Zoom.
- In the first segment, Kelly reintroduces herself and shares her family's homeschooling journey, along with an overview of the 90-Minute School Day framework.
- The second part explores the 90-Minute School Day in the Life community, discussing its mission, platforms, and how it operates to support homeschooling families.
- The final segment offers a glimpse into the "Chart Your Homeschool Learning Year" workshop, using the metaphor of sailing to plan the school year based on existing strengths and interests.
Throughout, Kelly emphasizes the importance of focusing on relationships and attachment to foster a thriving learning environment at home with your kids.
Join Kelly as she provides insights, inspiration, and practical tools for making homeschooling a more connected and joyful experience.
Resources Mentioned:
- 90-Minute School Day in the Life community is for families who've begun deschooling and are implementing natural learning.
- AUGUST 2024 is FREE for the waitlist.
- Our first gathering is Wednesday, August 7th.
- Join the waitlist by clicking here and receive 2 emails explaining more with links to take advantage of this limited time offer.
- Guide Training™, our signature, live group coaching program for parents looking to deschool with in-depth, immersive education and trainings around deschooling, neurobiology of learning, synching biological rhythms, the 90-Minute School Day and creating environments for independence. This co-hort is offered twice a year, in the Spring and Fall. Join the waitlist here.
- One-on-one coaching
- Self-paced course on the 90-Minute School Day method.
- Listen to or invite Kelly to speak about the 90-Minute School Day™.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome back to the 90-Minute School Day podcast. I'm your host,
Kelly Edwards, and today's podcast is all about community and the power that
community has in our homeschools.
Today's podcast is broken into three parts.
All three of these portions of the podcast are excerpts from an open house I
(00:25):
hosted a few weeks ago, live on Zoom.
The first portion of the podcast will be a reintroduction to myself,
my family's story through our homeschooling journey, and the 90-minute school day in a nutshell.
The second portion of today's podcast is devoted to learning more about the
(00:46):
90-minute school day in the life community.
In this segment, I explain how our community operates, the platforms we will
be using, and the mission behind this community.
I hope that it will be educational and inspirational and allow you to see if
(01:08):
this might be the just right fit for you this homeschool year.
The third part of today's podcast is a snapshot into the workshop,
Chart Your Homeschool Learning Year.
In this workshop, we were using the metaphor of sailing to chart our year from
(01:29):
a place of strengths and interests and skills that our families already have
that are well-developed.
This is a different way to plan than what most of us are used to.
Typically, we look at where we want to be, and we take kind of backwards planning
to get there, and it's problem solving.
(01:51):
We're looking to solve the deficits that we're currently experiencing in our goal setting.
When we look at the strengths and the skills and what is already going right
in our homes to plan forward,
we can take our strengths and all of the assets that we already are well-tooled
in to fill in those holes, those gaps, those deficits that we all have in our learning.
(02:18):
The portion of the workshop that is shared today on the podcast gives you a
good snapshot into how this works,
the transformation that those who attended were experiencing as they let go
of the time and stress that they were putting on themselves,
the judgments, and the coercion that kind of comes along with that over our
(02:43):
children and recentering our focus on relationship and attachment first.
And out of that connection and that community inside of our families comes the
strengths and the joint goals that we move towards in the upcoming school year.
(03:03):
I do hope that you enjoy today's podcast.
All the things that we talk about are linked in the show notes.
Once you're there in the show notes, go ahead and take an extra second and rate the podcast five stars.
This helps families like yours find this information and content. Thank you in advance.
(03:24):
And if you have a few extra minutes, we would really appreciate a review. you.
Thank you so much. Now let's jump into today's podcast on community.
School is out. Natural learning is in.
Hey there, I am Kelly Edwards, your host of this podcast and creator of the 90-Minute School Day.
(03:50):
This is not your typical homeschooling podcast.
Here, you will find out-of-the-box stories from the trenches.
Music.
Trainings, tools, and tips to guide you forward.
Yes, I like alliteration. We will also share results and mindset shifts to support
you in your journey of living and learning alongside your out-of-the-box neurodiverse kids.
(04:17):
I'm so glad you're here. So I know that some of you all are familiar with me,
but in case some of you are just new to me and 90-Minute School Day,
I'm going to quickly go through who I am, my story,
why 90-Minute School Day is here, and what it's about.
So I'm Kelly Edwards. I have three children. They are are 16.
(04:38):
We just had a birthday, so I have a 10-year-old now and then a six-year-old.
All girls, all of my children are foster adopted.
So all of my children have had developmental trauma and they are all neurodiverse.
So we have a lot of letters in our home. We have a lot of diagnoses and then
we have some suspected diagnoses that we haven't vetted out yet.
(04:59):
So whatever the mix is in your home. That's what we're here for.
Part of my story was attachment.
My oldest came to our family when she was six and we started homeschooling her to form relationships.
She had been disrupted from her family of origin and now she was becoming a member of our family.
(05:20):
Homeschooling seemed to be the right fit at the time, but I brought the school home.
We were sitting at vintage desks saying the Pledge of Allegiance.
I had a boxed curriculum. I had a grade book.
I was administering school for several hours each day with my seven-year-old
little girl in second grade.
And instead of bringing us together, we did have our fun moments.
(05:43):
It was also tearing us apart because I felt like I had to wear a teacher hat,
and then I had to wear a mom hat, and I didn't know where the line was.
I felt like I was having a parent-teacher conversation with myself, self.
I mean, like multiple personality disorders with just the struggle of trying to manage both roles.
(06:03):
And that really truly began my de-schooling process is like, this isn't working.
I need to find something that will work. And that's the process of just laying
down what's not working, picking up what is working and moving forward.
Finding community was pivotal for me because I was surrounded by a lot of conventional
homeschoolers that were telling me, oh, well, this is the way and this is the way.
(06:24):
And I was walking around trying all the right ways that were being offered to
me out of love and genuine affection, and it just wasn't working. And so.
For me, my de-schooling process started with actually my middle daughter going
to a Montessori school and seeing how this entire classroom of children could operate in peace.
And so I started learning about Maria Montessori. And then I started learning
(06:47):
about Charlotte Mason as I stumbled across more and more homeschool resources.
And then I found John Holt, who's the father of unschooling.
And that is really where the magic started to take off and relationship was
established, felt safety was established, and the learning was flourishing,
and I wasn't having to work so hard.
(07:08):
So that's where the 90-Minute School Day came out of. And we're going to go
into the recipe here in a minute.
My philosophy of learning is that every single child is intelligent and gifted.
And that's what we recognize here at the 90-Minute School Day,
regardless of diagnoses. Children are natural learners, and they need six things to thrive at home.
(07:30):
The first thing is they need a de-schooled parent if you're going to homeschool your kids.
The second thing is a prepared environment for independence.
And then the other things we need are just these are basic human needs to be motivated.
You need to have felt safety so that you can have relationship.
You have relationship so that you can have competency and you can start to develop
(07:53):
skills because you feel safe and you've got someone with you.
And then you have that autonomy, that self-governance that comes along after that.
So that's how we stay motivated as human beings by having those.
And we want to extend those to our children.
We understand at the 90-minute school day that behavior is communication.
And so if our children are communicating to us, whining, they're being disrespectful,
(08:16):
they're being disobedient, they are letting us know that they don't like school,
they don't like learning, they just want to be on their screens.
All of that is giving us information for us to be able to support them better
and to skill them better and to skill ourselves because so much of this is really
a journey in our parenting.
So that's a little bit about the 90-minute school day.
(08:38):
I would like each of you to walk away today knowing that you're enough.
And then I want you to also feel like you are not not alone,
and that you have a home here at the 90-Minute School Day. So that's what I want for you.
Music.
(09:00):
The 90-minute school day in a nutshell, real quick, is we have two buckets.
We have content pathways and we have skill-based pathways.
And so when you think about your day, I want you to think about six pathways
that you can choose to walk down each day.
These can be physical pathways, but they're also neurological pathways that
(09:21):
we are building in our brain.
And what these areas are is content is how you build.
I love seeing these. Content is how you build libraries in your mind.
You just pull in knowledge acquisition. We're all learning every day,
adding to our content libraries.
And the three ways we format that here at the 90-Minute School Day is morning
(09:41):
time, which is simply family time.
Don't get hung up on the morning part of it. It's building family culture and values.
We have read-alouds, which is just what it sounds like. It's reading aloud.
And we have activities. And activities is just doing something with your kids.
You're participating with them.
And all three of those content pathways are no more than 20 minutes a day.
(10:02):
And this is for all of your children, regardless of how many you have.
That's all you have to do.
And then the skill-based pathways are reading, writing, and arithmetic.
We need our children to develop in those areas so that they can become self-directed learners.
They can read themselves. They can read instructions.
If we've got dyslexia, that is something that we can can work through because
(10:24):
essentially all reading is is taking communication from another person in a
different point of time and assimilating it.
So with technology, there are so many bridges to that hurdle.
So that is how we kind of approach the 90-minute school day and we just spend 10 minutes.
No more is needed to be able to develop in reading and writing and math,
(10:46):
and you get to decide the pace of that. So that's the 90-minute school day.
Do you like learning with me on the podcast? Consider joining the waitlist for guide training.
This cohort coaching series meets twice a year in the fall and spring.
We gather here together, learning in community to be a guide, not a teacher.
(11:11):
Guides don't do it for you. They help you do it for yourself.
Guides go with you. Guides lead when it gets tricky and confidence is lost.
They hold your hand when you need it. They walk beside you in relationship.
Guides follow and cheer you on as you lead the way.
Get the guidance you need to guide your homeschool.
(11:35):
Learn more about guide training and join the waitlist by clicking the link in the show notes.
And here we are. So this is the 90-Minute School Day in the Life.
This is all about community.
And what we're offering here is the weekly Zoom meeting.
So it'd be something like this, where we're all together. We're having a conversation.
(11:58):
They will be structured differently depending on the topic.
So it might be a guest coming to speak to us. It might just be a Q&A format.
It might be topical-based, where we're just sharing around a topic,
or it could be a more formal training like the workshop we're going to get into.
But we would meet weekly on Wednesdays at 7 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time,
(12:19):
Eastern Standard in the wintertime.
And so they will be recorded and added to the library of resources if your time
zone or your schedule doesn't align for you to make those meetings.
The other things that it has is, again, it's about the implementation.
We're going to accomplish watching each other's homeschools,
what we feel like sharing, being able to see.
(12:41):
We're going to be able to ideate. All of you all are so creative and inspiring.
And we're able to share in this closed community in a way that you may not feel
comfortable sharing in social media or another online platform.
So that's really powerful to be able to implement, to ask questions, to be in the community.
(13:02):
Everybody will be in an asynchronous small group. It'll be about five to eight people in each group.
And I will onboard board, each of you who are interested in joining the community,
and we will fit you together in groups of families that are going through similar
situations so that you guys can support one another.
So that's one of the big, that's the glue here of the community is these small groups.
(13:26):
Then there will also be a private forum. This is where we can share links.
This is more of a traditional online community, as I'm sure you guys have participated in other groups.
And this is It's going to be just asking questions. It's more written.
You're using the computer screen.
We're also going to be having that resource library that I mentioned.
(13:46):
The Zoom meetings are every week. Yeah, that's a great question.
Just keep your questions coming. If they're a quick answer, I'll do them here.
Otherwise, they'll be at the end.
So that's kind of how this community works. It's going to be those weekly meetings.
It's our small groups. And the small groups are asynchronous.
So that's what's really great about using that, which I'll go to the next slide
here. We're using Marco Polo.
(14:08):
So if you're familiar with Marco Polo, let us know in the chat.
If it's new to you, let us know.
But we've chosen Marco Polo for several reasons. The first and foremost is their
core value is about bringing people together.
And it was a husband and wife who started this for their families to connect families.
And it has become a really great avenue to be able to create community and groups.
(14:33):
And so we are going to be using it in that format. They have three types of
chat and it's video chat, which might automatically put some of you guys off.
But the reason that I've chosen video chat is because this is the closest thing
we can get to experiencing each other in real life.
So you can communicate so much more with your tone, with your facial expressions,
(14:56):
in addition to your words, than you can just typing. It's also quicker.
And Marco Polo allows you to go faster. So you can listen to someone at one
and a half times speed or not.
So there's just a lot of functionality. It's really a beautiful way to communicate
and to be with one another.
And it also allows you to talk without being interrupted.
(15:17):
So if we were dialoguing in a normal conversation, inevitably one of us would
get excited and interrupt the other or kids would interrupt.
But with Marco Polo, you can get your whole thought process out.
You can do it when it's convenient for you, when you have a quick moment to
catch up, ask a question, vent, those things.
And then your small group is going to listen when it's convenient for them.
(15:37):
So it's just like a text message, except it's video. And so.
That's kind of how it's sketched out.
Marco Polo is very big on there's no ads, there's no algorithm,
and they don't sell your information.
So it's really private. It's something that is really user-friendly.
(15:58):
And I'm just really excited about it. So I can answer more questions about that.
There's 3 chat functions with Marco Polo. There's one-on-one,
which is how I'll onboard you. It'll just be me and you. We'll just be talking,
you'll get kind of comfortable with it.
We come as we are. We don't have to be makeup ready. I won't be makeup ready
on the onboarding. You'll see me.
I put on some makeup today, but it's going to be my real life.
(16:19):
I'm going to see you in your real life.
So we have the one-on-one functions. And then we have the group functions,
which will be the small groups. And then there's something that's called Sharecast.
And Sharecast is how I will disseminate trainings.
You'll be able to look in my homeschool. I share a lot of it on Instagram,
but you're going to get so much more because I can share in a way on Marco Polo.
(16:41):
I can walk you through what this looks like. I can walk you through what's happening
and show you the learning in the regular everyday play.
So those will come to you via Sharecast where I just blast it to everybody in the community.
Small trainings I can do that way. So we're just going to kind of learn together
other ways that we can make this work for us.
There'll be five date parents in each group. And I think we've kind of covered
(17:05):
the rest of this accessible when you are asynchronous time zones.
So that's Marco Polo. This is the biggest part of this community is being able
to access one another in this format.
And why do you need community? Why is this so essential?
And it's so essential because all of us deal with confidence as a homeschooling
(17:27):
parent, as a parent, as a human being.
Are we doing this right? You get those fear questions.
You have the relative that really won't let it go.
You have, you know, whatever it is, you know, what's hitting you on your confidence journey.
This is what community is built for, right? Way back in the day,
all of us lived in the same town, you know, and we had our community locally to support one another.
(17:52):
And that's just not the case anymore. We don't, a lot of us don't live near
family. A lot of us are living in a different place than where we grew up.
Mentoring. All of us have different life experiences and different giftings to offer one another.
So if we have the same neurodivergence in our families, this is powerful to
be able to get to know one another, to be able to open up and really share the
(18:14):
painful things, the things that we're frustrated with, and someone else may
have tried something that would be helpful for us.
So it's that mentoring, it's the belonging, being with parents who get it,
being able to get those trainings and the continued education that's offered
within this community. It's weekly.
If you can't make the Zoom, you can listen to it.
And then just friendship, having other homeschool moms and dads that are friends,
(18:39):
right, in this community is going to be important for encouragement,
validation, resourcing one another.
And this is how you hit maintenance. I'm releasing a podcast this week that
talks about the change process.
And part of the change process is going from not knowing that you have something
that you want to change, to having awareness that you want to change something,
(19:00):
to getting ready to change that thing, to actually changing that thing.
I think of it as walking over a hill. That's why I'm moving my hands this way.
Then once you've started to change, it's just like a diet, right?
We're all familiar with this.
We need to have a real shift in our lifestyle.
And that's where the day in the life community comes in. We're surrounding each
(19:20):
other with community and all of these resources to keep us headed in the direction
that we want to go and not kind of sliding back.
Think of it like our own personal AA group for homeschoolers.
So that's the power of community, the personal growth that will come from this.
And I'm just so excited to be in the community with you guys.
(19:43):
It's going to be great. Are you tired of homeschooling alone?
Would you like to reclaim claim time, sanity, and confidence,
and make some amazing homeschool parent friends along the way?
Come join our new community, 90-Minute School Day in the Life.
(20:04):
This community is for homeschooling families who have gotten comfortable in
the waters of de-schooling and are journeying through the avenues of learning as a lifestyle.
This community is about support, ideation, and implementation.
We walk alongside each other on our separate but similar journeys in natural
(20:27):
learning or unschooling.
Included in your monthly membership are weekly topical conversations or trainings
on Zoom, a private moderated community forum, a resource library, office hours,
guest experts, and what we're most excited about is our small group opportunity
(20:50):
of like-minded friends who connect when it's convenient for you via asynchronous video chat.
So if you've been hungry for a group of friends to bounce ideas with,
share stories of your daily homeschool lives,
and to celebrate with you, or to lend an ear and understanding after a hard
(21:11):
day, to glean wisdom from, and a place to share and swap resources, look no further.
Click the link in the show notes to see how you can join 90-Minute School Day in the Life.
You don't have to homeschool alone anymore.
Man, I hope that you are feeling all of the love and the generosity and the
(21:35):
support that comes from being together.
We are about to listen in on a portion of the workshop I mentioned earlier in
the podcast. this workshop was titled, How to Chart Your Homeschool Learning Year.
And it was made up of five D's.
(21:57):
Designate, Discover, Dream, Design, and Deliver.
The entirety of this workshop is inside the 90-Minute School Day in the Life Communities Library.
This library is growing over time with all kinds of live resources like this workshop.
(22:18):
But we also have other podcast offerings that aren't public.
And we also have a lot of resources, templates, worksheets, things that can
support your learning journey.
Let's listen in on this workshop. And I want you to really hear not only the
content that we're sharing and the value, but I want you to hear and listen
(22:40):
carefully to the contributions,
transformation, and joy of just collaborating together as a group.
We look at charting our homeschool course for the year. Enjoy.
Music.
(23:02):
So right now we've just shifted our focus away from the problems and on what
currently is going right in our homes, what currently our children are strong
at, things that they enjoy, what we enjoy.
These are things that we are focusing on for point A.
Now we're going to point B. Point B is where we're going to envision next summer.
(23:25):
When you do this with your family, you can envision six months from now.
You could envision two years from now.
But for the sake of this workshop, let's just envision ourselves next summer.
Where are you? What does it look like? Really put yourself into next summer. You're dreaming.
What does it look like? What's your dream for next summer?
(23:46):
Where are you? Where is your family? What is going on?
Get really kind of grounded in your hopes and dreams one year from now?
What does that look like for you?
What does it feel like? What does it sound like?
So take a moment, plop that in the chat.
(24:07):
What does it feel like when everyone is excited next summer,
when everyone is empowered, when they're engaged and connected?
What does that look like for you?
Okay. Makes me teary-eyed, honestly. Connected and grateful.
Grateful awesome yeah how far have you come really visualize where you are next
next summer what does that look like get really specific someone else said feels
(24:30):
like we all contributed to the joy we all experience together that's awesome i love that.
Yeah. When I envision next summer, I envision laughter and smiles.
I envision more of what's going right in my home right now.
My children are very free with their time and their time demands,
and they are improving on their communication with us, on how they're feeling
(24:55):
and their ability to regulate.
So next summer, I see even more of that, like less meltdowns.
I see more concrete create learning.
I look back at this year and I say to myself, oh, you were so worried about
that and it wasn't anything to worry about. It worked out.
Freedom. Okay, here's some more here. Freedom mainly in my own thoughts.
(25:18):
I think my kids love the life we are living and the way we are learning,
but I am constantly second guessing.
So my dream would be that I am right in it with them and I'm connected, grateful, and excited.
Looks like us living life together in the messy, hard part and the beautiful
parts, being totally present. That's beautiful.
Another parent wrote, I would love for both of my kids to have more friends around.
(25:43):
I want running around and laughing in my house, yes, with friendship and community.
Deeply connected and confident in our path, playful, freedom, outside, peaceful.
We're on adventures. We're deep in each other's area of interest.
We're buried in books. We're loving our time together.
Man, next summer is awesome, guys.
I love it. Next summer, my daughter has recovered from burnout. out. Yes.
(26:04):
I love that one. I have recovered from burnout. Yes.
We don't have daily or even weekly meltdowns.
All of these comments are coming through, being present. I was drawing a blank.
Sorry. My chat jumped on me. I can be silly again. Yes. We laugh more. Yes. Okay.
This is my story. I love this share so much. Thank you for sharing this.
I don't feel the weight of my daughter's future weighing down on me today.
(26:28):
I know exactly how you feel. My daughter is healthy and more more self-regulated.
I am healthy and more self-regulated. My family is more hopeful.
Yes, this is what we want for all of us, especially... I stopped caring what
other people are thinking about my parenting.
My team drives more than I do. Yes. Okay. So we're capturing the vision.
There's another one about stop caring what other people think of our parenting.
(26:51):
Yeah, that's a huge shift. That is empowerment right there for ourselves.
So that's what next summer is looking like. And I think we've all heard it, right?
We've just heard when someone else put something in the chat,
you were like, yeah, me too. I want that too.
There's so much of us. We all want to feel more more secure and confident in our parenting.
We want our children to be laughing. We want to feel connected with our children
(27:12):
and feeling silly and laughing.
And so this again is what community does for us. We are all going in the same direction.
This when you talk to your family, your kids want this too, as you're sharing
these things, your kids want these things.
And so this is where the dream phase gets really powerful because this is where
(27:33):
you start to plot your B and the common themes.
So just I'm going to go back through the chat. And I'm going to mention the
ones that I know several people mentioned.
These are the common plots that all of us are putting on our on our destination.
So feeling connected and confident that was said over and over again.
(27:54):
For for my kids to have more connections with others is something I keep seeing freedom.
And And then the big one was stop caring what other people think of my parenting.
And so those are those plot points. That's what we want.
That's the goal. So that's the B. So where we are today, now the dream part is where we're headed.
(28:18):
And then the design part is it's time to move. So we know where we're going.
We know where we are. And now we need to start sailing.
I hope that you and your family have smooth sailing this year in your homeschool.
Please know that storms are going to come.
(28:41):
Delays will happen.
Maintenance and that old man Murphy are going to show up.
But when they do, and they will, you will have a plan that is flexible.
You will know where you are headed, and you will know how to adjust your expectations
(29:03):
and timeline to make sure that you arrive safely, along with your entire family, deeply connected,
making memories, and having stories to share of your journeys along the way.
Oftentimes, the best stories come from the deepest challenges.
(29:24):
Having community to share these stories is invaluable.
Listening to the stories of others in community is resourceful.
And the best part about having a community when you're homeschooling is to know that you are not alone.
I'm looking forward to meeting you if you have decided that 90-minute school
(29:48):
day in the life is something that would be a good fit for you and your family.
Please click the links in the show notes to be in touch on how you can sign up and join us.
I can't wait to see you there.
Welcome back to the 90-Minute School Day podcast. I'm your host,
Kelly Edwards, and today's podcast is all about community and the power that
community has in our homeschools.
Today's podcast is broken into three parts.
All three of these portions of the podcast are excerpts from an open house I
(00:25):
hosted a few weeks ago, live on Zoom.
The first portion of the podcast will be a reintroduction to myself,
my family's story through our homeschooling journey, and the 90-minute school day in a nutshell.
The second portion of today's podcast is devoted to learning more about the
(00:46):
90-minute school day in the life community.
In this segment, I explain how our community operates, the platforms we will
be using, and the mission behind this community.
I hope that it will be educational and inspirational and allow you to see if
(01:08):
this might be the just right fit for you this homeschool year.
The third part of today's podcast is a snapshot into the workshop,
Chart Your Homeschool Learning Year.
In this workshop, we were using the metaphor of sailing to chart our year from
(01:29):
a place of strengths and interests and skills that our families already have
that are well-developed.
This is a different way to plan than what most of us are used to.
Typically, we look at where we want to be, and we take kind of backwards planning
to get there, and it's problem solving.
(01:51):
We're looking to solve the deficits that we're currently experiencing in our goal setting.
When we look at the strengths and the skills and what is already going right
in our homes to plan forward,
we can take our strengths and all of the assets that we already are well-tooled
in to fill in those holes, those gaps, those deficits that we all have in our learning.
(02:18):
The portion of the workshop that is shared today on the podcast gives you a
good snapshot into how this works,
the transformation that those who attended were experiencing as they let go
of the time and stress that they were putting on themselves,
the judgments, and the coercion that kind of comes along with that over our
(02:43):
children and recentering our focus on relationship and attachment first.
And out of that connection and that community inside of our families comes the
strengths and the joint goals that we move towards in the upcoming school year.
(03:03):
I do hope that you enjoy today's podcast.
All the things that we talk about are linked in the show notes.
Once you're there in the show notes, go ahead and take an extra second and rate the podcast five stars.
This helps families like yours find this information and content. Thank you in advance.
(03:24):
And if you have a few extra minutes, we would really appreciate a review. you.
Thank you so much. Now let's jump into today's podcast on community.
School is out. Natural learning is in.
Hey there, I am Kelly Edwards, your host of this podcast and creator of the 90-Minute School Day.
(03:50):
This is not your typical homeschooling podcast.
Here, you will find out-of-the-box stories from the trenches.
Music.
Trainings, tools, and tips to guide you forward.
Yes, I like alliteration. We will also share results and mindset shifts to support
you in your journey of living and learning alongside your out-of-the-box neurodiverse kids.
(04:17):
I'm so glad you're here. So I know that some of you all are familiar with me,
but in case some of you are just new to me and 90-Minute School Day,
I'm going to quickly go through who I am, my story,
why 90-Minute School Day is here, and what it's about.
So I'm Kelly Edwards. I have three children. They are are 16.
(04:38):
We just had a birthday, so I have a 10-year-old now and then a six-year-old.
All girls, all of my children are foster adopted.
So all of my children have had developmental trauma and they are all neurodiverse.
So we have a lot of letters in our home. We have a lot of diagnoses and then
we have some suspected diagnoses that we haven't vetted out yet.
(04:59):
So whatever the mix is in your home. That's what we're here for.
Part of my story was attachment.
My oldest came to our family when she was six and we started homeschooling her to form relationships.
She had been disrupted from her family of origin and now she was becoming a member of our family.
(05:20):
Homeschooling seemed to be the right fit at the time, but I brought the school home.
We were sitting at vintage desks saying the Pledge of Allegiance.
I had a boxed curriculum. I had a grade book.
I was administering school for several hours each day with my seven-year-old
little girl in second grade.
And instead of bringing us together, we did have our fun moments.
(05:43):
It was also tearing us apart because I felt like I had to wear a teacher hat,
and then I had to wear a mom hat, and I didn't know where the line was.
I felt like I was having a parent-teacher conversation with myself, self.
I mean, like multiple personality disorders with just the struggle of trying to manage both roles.
(06:03):
And that really truly began my de-schooling process is like, this isn't working.
I need to find something that will work. And that's the process of just laying
down what's not working, picking up what is working and moving forward.
Finding community was pivotal for me because I was surrounded by a lot of conventional
homeschoolers that were telling me, oh, well, this is the way and this is the way.
(06:24):
And I was walking around trying all the right ways that were being offered to
me out of love and genuine affection, and it just wasn't working. And so.
For me, my de-schooling process started with actually my middle daughter going
to a Montessori school and seeing how this entire classroom of children could operate in peace.
And so I started learning about Maria Montessori. And then I started learning
(06:47):
about Charlotte Mason as I stumbled across more and more homeschool resources.
And then I found John Holt, who's the father of unschooling.
And that is really where the magic started to take off and relationship was
established, felt safety was established, and the learning was flourishing,
and I wasn't having to work so hard.
(07:08):
So that's where the 90-Minute School Day came out of. And we're going to go
into the recipe here in a minute.
My philosophy of learning is that every single child is intelligent and gifted.
And that's what we recognize here at the 90-Minute School Day,
regardless of diagnoses. Children are natural learners, and they need six things to thrive at home.
(07:30):
The first thing is they need a de-schooled parent if you're going to homeschool your kids.
The second thing is a prepared environment for independence.
And then the other things we need are just these are basic human needs to be motivated.
You need to have felt safety so that you can have relationship.
You have relationship so that you can have competency and you can start to develop
(07:53):
skills because you feel safe and you've got someone with you.
And then you have that autonomy, that self-governance that comes along after that.
So that's how we stay motivated as human beings by having those.
And we want to extend those to our children.
We understand at the 90-minute school day that behavior is communication.
And so if our children are communicating to us, whining, they're being disrespectful,
(08:16):
they're being disobedient, they are letting us know that they don't like school,
they don't like learning, they just want to be on their screens.
All of that is giving us information for us to be able to support them better
and to skill them better and to skill ourselves because so much of this is really
a journey in our parenting.
So that's a little bit about the 90-minute school day.
(08:38):
I would like each of you to walk away today knowing that you're enough.
And then I want you to also feel like you are not not alone,
and that you have a home here at the 90-Minute School Day. So that's what I want for you.
Music.
(09:00):
The 90-minute school day in a nutshell, real quick, is we have two buckets.
We have content pathways and we have skill-based pathways.
And so when you think about your day, I want you to think about six pathways
that you can choose to walk down each day.
These can be physical pathways, but they're also neurological pathways that
(09:21):
we are building in our brain.
And what these areas are is content is how you build.
I love seeing these. Content is how you build libraries in your mind.
You just pull in knowledge acquisition. We're all learning every day,
adding to our content libraries.
And the three ways we format that here at the 90-Minute School Day is morning
(09:41):
time, which is simply family time.
Don't get hung up on the morning part of it. It's building family culture and values.
We have read-alouds, which is just what it sounds like. It's reading aloud.
And we have activities. And activities is just doing something with your kids.
You're participating with them.
And all three of those content pathways are no more than 20 minutes a day.
(10:02):
And this is for all of your children, regardless of how many you have.
That's all you have to do.
And then the skill-based pathways are reading, writing, and arithmetic.
We need our children to develop in those areas so that they can become self-directed learners.
They can read themselves. They can read instructions.
If we've got dyslexia, that is something that we can can work through because
(10:24):
essentially all reading is is taking communication from another person in a
different point of time and assimilating it.
So with technology, there are so many bridges to that hurdle.
So that is how we kind of approach the 90-minute school day and we just spend 10 minutes.
No more is needed to be able to develop in reading and writing and math,
(10:46):
and you get to decide the pace of that. So that's the 90-minute school day.
Do you like learning with me on the podcast? Consider joining the waitlist for guide training.
This cohort coaching series meets twice a year in the fall and spring.
We gather here together, learning in community to be a guide, not a teacher.
(11:11):
Guides don't do it for you. They help you do it for yourself.
Guides go with you. Guides lead when it gets tricky and confidence is lost.
They hold your hand when you need it. They walk beside you in relationship.
Guides follow and cheer you on as you lead the way.
Get the guidance you need to guide your homeschool.
(11:35):
Learn more about guide training and join the waitlist by clicking the link in the show notes.
And here we are. So this is the 90-Minute School Day in the Life.
This is all about community.
And what we're offering here is the weekly Zoom meeting.
So it'd be something like this, where we're all together. We're having a conversation.
(11:58):
They will be structured differently depending on the topic.
So it might be a guest coming to speak to us. It might just be a Q&A format.
It might be topical-based, where we're just sharing around a topic,
or it could be a more formal training like the workshop we're going to get into.
But we would meet weekly on Wednesdays at 7 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time,
(12:19):
Eastern Standard in the wintertime.
And so they will be recorded and added to the library of resources if your time
zone or your schedule doesn't align for you to make those meetings.
The other things that it has is, again, it's about the implementation.
We're going to accomplish watching each other's homeschools,
what we feel like sharing, being able to see.
(12:41):
We're going to be able to ideate. All of you all are so creative and inspiring.
And we're able to share in this closed community in a way that you may not feel
comfortable sharing in social media or another online platform.
So that's really powerful to be able to implement, to ask questions, to be in the community.
(13:02):
Everybody will be in an asynchronous small group. It'll be about five to eight people in each group.
And I will onboard board, each of you who are interested in joining the community,
and we will fit you together in groups of families that are going through similar
situations so that you guys can support one another.
So that's one of the big, that's the glue here of the community is these small groups.
(13:26):
Then there will also be a private forum. This is where we can share links.
This is more of a traditional online community, as I'm sure you guys have participated in other groups.
And this is It's going to be just asking questions. It's more written.
You're using the computer screen.
We're also going to be having that resource library that I mentioned.
(13:46):
The Zoom meetings are every week. Yeah, that's a great question.
Just keep your questions coming. If they're a quick answer, I'll do them here.
Otherwise, they'll be at the end.
So that's kind of how this community works. It's going to be those weekly meetings.
It's our small groups. And the small groups are asynchronous.
So that's what's really great about using that, which I'll go to the next slide
here. We're using Marco Polo.
(14:08):
So if you're familiar with Marco Polo, let us know in the chat.
If it's new to you, let us know.
But we've chosen Marco Polo for several reasons. The first and foremost is their
core value is about bringing people together.
And it was a husband and wife who started this for their families to connect families.
And it has become a really great avenue to be able to create community and groups.
(14:33):
And so we are going to be using it in that format. They have three types of
chat and it's video chat, which might automatically put some of you guys off.
But the reason that I've chosen video chat is because this is the closest thing
we can get to experiencing each other in real life.
So you can communicate so much more with your tone, with your facial expressions,
(14:56):
in addition to your words, than you can just typing. It's also quicker.
And Marco Polo allows you to go faster. So you can listen to someone at one
and a half times speed or not.
So there's just a lot of functionality. It's really a beautiful way to communicate
and to be with one another.
And it also allows you to talk without being interrupted.
(15:17):
So if we were dialoguing in a normal conversation, inevitably one of us would
get excited and interrupt the other or kids would interrupt.
But with Marco Polo, you can get your whole thought process out.
You can do it when it's convenient for you, when you have a quick moment to
catch up, ask a question, vent, those things.
And then your small group is going to listen when it's convenient for them.
(15:37):
So it's just like a text message, except it's video. And so.
That's kind of how it's sketched out.
Marco Polo is very big on there's no ads, there's no algorithm,
and they don't sell your information.
So it's really private. It's something that is really user-friendly.
(15:58):
And I'm just really excited about it. So I can answer more questions about that.
There's 3 chat functions with Marco Polo. There's one-on-one,
which is how I'll onboard you. It'll just be me and you. We'll just be talking,
you'll get kind of comfortable with it.
We come as we are. We don't have to be makeup ready. I won't be makeup ready
on the onboarding. You'll see me.
I put on some makeup today, but it's going to be my real life.
(16:19):
I'm going to see you in your real life.
So we have the one-on-one functions. And then we have the group functions,
which will be the small groups. And then there's something that's called Sharecast.
And Sharecast is how I will disseminate trainings.
You'll be able to look in my homeschool. I share a lot of it on Instagram,
but you're going to get so much more because I can share in a way on Marco Polo.
(16:41):
I can walk you through what this looks like. I can walk you through what's happening
and show you the learning in the regular everyday play.
So those will come to you via Sharecast where I just blast it to everybody in the community.
Small trainings I can do that way. So we're just going to kind of learn together
other ways that we can make this work for us.
There'll be five date parents in each group. And I think we've kind of covered
(17:05):
the rest of this accessible when you are asynchronous time zones.
So that's Marco Polo. This is the biggest part of this community is being able
to access one another in this format.
And why do you need community? Why is this so essential?
And it's so essential because all of us deal with confidence as a homeschooling
(17:27):
parent, as a parent, as a human being.
Are we doing this right? You get those fear questions.
You have the relative that really won't let it go.
You have, you know, whatever it is, you know, what's hitting you on your confidence journey.
This is what community is built for, right? Way back in the day,
all of us lived in the same town, you know, and we had our community locally to support one another.
(17:52):
And that's just not the case anymore. We don't, a lot of us don't live near
family. A lot of us are living in a different place than where we grew up.
Mentoring. All of us have different life experiences and different giftings to offer one another.
So if we have the same neurodivergence in our families, this is powerful to
be able to get to know one another, to be able to open up and really share the
(18:14):
painful things, the things that we're frustrated with, and someone else may
have tried something that would be helpful for us.
So it's that mentoring, it's the belonging, being with parents who get it,
being able to get those trainings and the continued education that's offered
within this community. It's weekly.
If you can't make the Zoom, you can listen to it.
And then just friendship, having other homeschool moms and dads that are friends,
(18:39):
right, in this community is going to be important for encouragement,
validation, resourcing one another.
And this is how you hit maintenance. I'm releasing a podcast this week that
talks about the change process.
And part of the change process is going from not knowing that you have something
that you want to change, to having awareness that you want to change something,
(19:00):
to getting ready to change that thing, to actually changing that thing.
I think of it as walking over a hill. That's why I'm moving my hands this way.
Then once you've started to change, it's just like a diet, right?
We're all familiar with this.
We need to have a real shift in our lifestyle.
And that's where the day in the life community comes in. We're surrounding each
(19:20):
other with community and all of these resources to keep us headed in the direction
that we want to go and not kind of sliding back.
Think of it like our own personal AA group for homeschoolers.
So that's the power of community, the personal growth that will come from this.
And I'm just so excited to be in the community with you guys.
(19:43):
It's going to be great. Are you tired of homeschooling alone?
Would you like to reclaim claim time, sanity, and confidence,
and make some amazing homeschool parent friends along the way?
Come join our new community, 90-Minute School Day in the Life.
(20:04):
This community is for homeschooling families who have gotten comfortable in
the waters of de-schooling and are journeying through the avenues of learning as a lifestyle.
This community is about support, ideation, and implementation.
We walk alongside each other on our separate but similar journeys in natural
(20:27):
learning or unschooling.
Included in your monthly membership are weekly topical conversations or trainings
on Zoom, a private moderated community forum, a resource library, office hours,
guest experts, and what we're most excited about is our small group opportunity
(20:50):
of like-minded friends who connect when it's convenient for you via asynchronous video chat.
So if you've been hungry for a group of friends to bounce ideas with,
share stories of your daily homeschool lives,
and to celebrate with you, or to lend an ear and understanding after a hard
(21:11):
day, to glean wisdom from, and a place to share and swap resources, look no further.
Click the link in the show notes to see how you can join 90-Minute School Day in the Life.
You don't have to homeschool alone anymore.
Man, I hope that you are feeling all of the love and the generosity and the
(21:35):
support that comes from being together.
We are about to listen in on a portion of the workshop I mentioned earlier in
the podcast. this workshop was titled, How to Chart Your Homeschool Learning Year.
And it was made up of five D's.
(21:57):
Designate, Discover, Dream, Design, and Deliver.
The entirety of this workshop is inside the 90-Minute School Day in the Life Communities Library.
This library is growing over time with all kinds of live resources like this workshop.
(22:18):
But we also have other podcast offerings that aren't public.
And we also have a lot of resources, templates, worksheets, things that can
support your learning journey.
Let's listen in on this workshop. And I want you to really hear not only the
content that we're sharing and the value, but I want you to hear and listen
(22:40):
carefully to the contributions,
transformation, and joy of just collaborating together as a group.
We look at charting our homeschool course for the year. Enjoy.
Music.
(23:02):
So right now we've just shifted our focus away from the problems and on what
currently is going right in our homes, what currently our children are strong
at, things that they enjoy, what we enjoy.
These are things that we are focusing on for point A.
Now we're going to point B. Point B is where we're going to envision next summer.
(23:25):
When you do this with your family, you can envision six months from now.
You could envision two years from now.
But for the sake of this workshop, let's just envision ourselves next summer.
Where are you? What does it look like? Really put yourself into next summer. You're dreaming.
What does it look like? What's your dream for next summer?
(23:46):
Where are you? Where is your family? What is going on?
Get really kind of grounded in your hopes and dreams one year from now?
What does that look like for you?
What does it feel like? What does it sound like?
So take a moment, plop that in the chat.
(24:07):
What does it feel like when everyone is excited next summer,
when everyone is empowered, when they're engaged and connected?
What does that look like for you?
Okay. Makes me teary-eyed, honestly. Connected and grateful.
Grateful awesome yeah how far have you come really visualize where you are next
next summer what does that look like get really specific someone else said feels
(24:30):
like we all contributed to the joy we all experience together that's awesome i love that.
Yeah. When I envision next summer, I envision laughter and smiles.
I envision more of what's going right in my home right now.
My children are very free with their time and their time demands,
and they are improving on their communication with us, on how they're feeling
(24:55):
and their ability to regulate.
So next summer, I see even more of that, like less meltdowns.
I see more concrete create learning.
I look back at this year and I say to myself, oh, you were so worried about
that and it wasn't anything to worry about. It worked out.
Freedom. Okay, here's some more here. Freedom mainly in my own thoughts.
(25:18):
I think my kids love the life we are living and the way we are learning,
but I am constantly second guessing.
So my dream would be that I am right in it with them and I'm connected, grateful, and excited.
Looks like us living life together in the messy, hard part and the beautiful
parts, being totally present. That's beautiful.
Another parent wrote, I would love for both of my kids to have more friends around.
(25:43):
I want running around and laughing in my house, yes, with friendship and community.
Deeply connected and confident in our path, playful, freedom, outside, peaceful.
We're on adventures. We're deep in each other's area of interest.
We're buried in books. We're loving our time together.
Man, next summer is awesome, guys.
I love it. Next summer, my daughter has recovered from burnout. out. Yes.
(26:04):
I love that one. I have recovered from burnout. Yes.
We don't have daily or even weekly meltdowns.
All of these comments are coming through, being present. I was drawing a blank.
Sorry. My chat jumped on me. I can be silly again. Yes. We laugh more. Yes. Okay.
This is my story. I love this share so much. Thank you for sharing this.
I don't feel the weight of my daughter's future weighing down on me today.
(26:28):
I know exactly how you feel. My daughter is healthy and more more self-regulated.
I am healthy and more self-regulated. My family is more hopeful.
Yes, this is what we want for all of us, especially... I stopped caring what
other people are thinking about my parenting.
My team drives more than I do. Yes. Okay. So we're capturing the vision.
There's another one about stop caring what other people think of our parenting.
(26:51):
Yeah, that's a huge shift. That is empowerment right there for ourselves.
So that's what next summer is looking like. And I think we've all heard it, right?
We've just heard when someone else put something in the chat,
you were like, yeah, me too. I want that too.
There's so much of us. We all want to feel more more secure and confident in our parenting.
We want our children to be laughing. We want to feel connected with our children
(27:12):
and feeling silly and laughing.
And so this again is what community does for us. We are all going in the same direction.
This when you talk to your family, your kids want this too, as you're sharing
these things, your kids want these things.
And so this is where the dream phase gets really powerful because this is where
(27:33):
you start to plot your B and the common themes.
So just I'm going to go back through the chat. And I'm going to mention the
ones that I know several people mentioned.
These are the common plots that all of us are putting on our on our destination.
So feeling connected and confident that was said over and over again.
(27:54):
For for my kids to have more connections with others is something I keep seeing freedom.
And And then the big one was stop caring what other people think of my parenting.
And so those are those plot points. That's what we want.
That's the goal. So that's the B. So where we are today, now the dream part is where we're headed.
(28:18):
And then the design part is it's time to move. So we know where we're going.
We know where we are. And now we need to start sailing.
I hope that you and your family have smooth sailing this year in your homeschool.
Please know that storms are going to come.
(28:41):
Delays will happen.
Maintenance and that old man Murphy are going to show up.
But when they do, and they will, you will have a plan that is flexible.
You will know where you are headed, and you will know how to adjust your expectations
(29:03):
and timeline to make sure that you arrive safely, along with your entire family, deeply connected,
making memories, and having stories to share of your journeys along the way.
Oftentimes, the best stories come from the deepest challenges.
(29:24):
Having community to share these stories is invaluable.
Listening to the stories of others in community is resourceful.
And the best part about having a community when you're homeschooling is to know that you are not alone.
I'm looking forward to meeting you if you have decided that 90-minute school
(29:48):
day in the life is something that would be a good fit for you and your family.
Please click the links in the show notes to be in touch on how you can sign up and join us.
I can't wait to see you there.
Popular Podcasts
Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club
Welcome to Bookmarked by Reese’s Book Club — the podcast where great stories, bold women, and irresistible conversations collide! Hosted by award-winning journalist Danielle Robay, each week new episodes balance thoughtful literary insight with the fervor of buzzy book trends, pop culture and more. Bookmarked brings together celebrities, tastemakers, influencers and authors from Reese's Book Club and beyond to share stories that transcend the page. Pull up a chair. You’re not just listening — you’re part of the conversation.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com