Homeschooling on the Move: Navigating Homeschooling as a Military Family – Lydia Rosado (Hosted by Cindy West) - Schoolhouse Rocked: The Homeschool Revolution

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
I think the longest I've ever lived somewhere is four years, and that was before
kids. But because we move, we've lived on both coasts.
We've lived in the Midwest, in the west, in the south.
And that in and of itself is quite the education. We
have really gotten to explore so many different parts of the United
States. And we make it a point to include that in our

(00:22):
homeschool. I guess preparing for a move, you let go of the academics
and you focus on read alouds. I focus on read alouds
because there's something about the connection to the characters and the
living vicariously through them as well as that
secret language that you build with your family about the
story. Hey everyone, this is Yvette Hampton.

(00:44):
Welcome back to the Schoolhouse Rocked Podcast. I'm so glad that you've joined us
this week. This week's host is Cindy West and she's back again with Lydia
Rosado. I can't wait to turn the show over to her. But first, I want
to say thank you to our sponsor, BJU Press Homeschool. If you're looking for
curriculum that's rooted in a solid biblical foundation, check out
bjupresshomeschool.com Their materials won't just

(01:07):
equip you for a successful homeschool journey. They'll prepare your child for
a future full of possibilities so that they can confidently move
beyond Homeschool, ready for whatever God has next. They offer
lessons that encourage critical thinking skills as well as activities
that support multi sensory learning and the unique learning styles of your
children. And they have both online and parent led formats to

(01:29):
fit your lifestyle. They also encourage a love of learning in your child
and will be with you every step of the way. Visit
them at bjupresshomeschool.com that's
bjupresshomeschool.com hey
there everybody. I am Cindy West from Our
Journey Westward and No Sweat Nature Study. And I am

(01:50):
joined back again this week with Lydia
Rosado. She she is a nomad,
partial nomad. She says that's a hazard of being an Air Force
wife. And that is what we're going to talk to her about this week.
If you didn't catch our interview last week, we
discussed the ins and outs of unit studies in

(02:12):
homeschooling, why she chooses to use those,
how she's done those, and how you can dip your
toes into that world if you're interested in creating some
awesome learning times with your family. Okay,
Lydia, welcome back. You
are a military family and this is

(02:34):
something that I really am not
privy to. I have one best friend whose
husband was in the military, but they haven't done that
for a. A long, long time. In fact, they homeschooled
probably half of their homeschooling in my town when
he was outside of the military. So I'm very,

(02:56):
very interested to talk to you about your
nomadic military lifestyle. So first and foremost,
can you just tell us a little bit about what it's like to be a
military family, particularly in the homeschooling
realm, and how maybe that's even shaped some of your.
How you do homeschooling and things. It has

(03:18):
shaped. We move every. Well, it could
be one, two, or three years. I think the longest I've ever lived somewhere
is four years, and that was before kids.
So because we move often and we move all
over, we've never been overseas, which is
kind of crazy for us, but we've never been overseas. But

(03:41):
because we move, we've lived on both coasts. We've lived
in the Midwest, in the west, in the South. And
that in and of itself is quite the education. Yes.
We have really gotten to explore so many different parts of the United
States, and we make it a point to include that in our
homeschool. And so that has definitely

(04:04):
shaped us in our journey. And then I would say
the other thing that has really shaped us is, is giving
ourselves space for a move
and post move, because we
can find out either very soon before move,
or we have almost a full year knowing that we're

(04:26):
going to move. And that takes up
a lot of mental space and emotional kind of
stress, I guess you could say, because you know it's coming and
you're trying to stay normal, but you know you're about to change everything, and that
can be really hard. Or after you've moved and that realization
of I'm starting over again,

(04:49):
it can be exciting, but it can also be hard because you've just
said goodbye to the community that you built
and knew, and now you're starting all over
again. And that can be really hard. And there can be feelings with the
kids that's really hard to process.
And so having to put academics

(05:11):
aside and instead put
family and individual people, persons
first, that really shaped our homeschool, learning how to do
that, because life really isn't just the next
thing in a career. It's all of this stuff around it as well.
And that's been one of the biggest challenges

(05:33):
as well as a military family. So what
I hear you saying is each time you move,
you kind of have to re Envision your
homeschool a little bit, if nothing else, rearrange
schedules, rearrange perhaps how
you're teaching, because you will be in a new place

(05:56):
and then all of the social structures
have to be rebuilt. Is it true that all of the social structures have to
be rebuilt or have you found ways to maybe maintain
from one place to another some basic foundations
of social structures? I think it depends on the move
and the ages of the kids. Maybe

(06:19):
like my. My older kids can now, you know,
through technology. I'll let you know, they email or they
text their friends. But a lot of it just has to. You just
have to start over. Yeah. Because if you were. We were part of a
group, a small one that we kind of created ourselves
with friends, but now we don't have that. Like

(06:40):
we. My daughter did a book club with them and my sons did
Lego club with them at the same time that the girls did the book club.
We don't have that now and we aren't starting that
again because we haven't found anybody to start it with.
Okay, so you have recently moved, correct?
Yeah, we moved at the end of last school year. So you've

(07:02):
been in a place for not quite a year,
right? Seven months. So what do you do
to try to re. I can imagine that
social structures are very important. What
are some things you do when you go to a new place where you
immediately, immediately and then long term start

(07:24):
to help your kiddos? We immediately
go to church. We immediately try to find a church home.
And through that we try to
find some locals or other military families, I
guess. But throughout, through that, we really try to kind of find people that we
can build community with. And

(07:46):
honestly, sometimes it's easier than other times. It doesn't always happen
easily. And I have some kids who
have some very interesting personalities, I guess
you could say. And I think sometimes the assumption is
that military kids are resilient and they just are used to doing
this because they have to. And I think that kind of

(08:10):
undermines their strength a little bit because they've had to
learn that resilience. They've had to cultivate it.
It's not something that naturally happens. And so
they're just kids, but they're kids that are being forced to cultivate
a resilience and learn how to put
themselves out there. And sometimes it doesn't work out. To be

(08:32):
honest, we have spent. There have been times where we go
and we put ourselves out. We put ourselves out and we just. We
cannot find our tribe or our community,
people and that that's been hard. Usually
we can find at least one other family, but then you
also have times where you have an area full of homeschoolers

(08:55):
and then you move to a place that really doesn't have
any. And therefore, just
by the nature of it, it's a lot harder to connect
sometimes because everything is based on
public school expectations, I guess,
and the things of that. And so

(09:17):
church is always the place that we go to first and then we
try to, you know, if we have neighbors or anything else.
But I would say the strongest community has always been our church community, youth
group, Sunday school kids, church
and things like that. So kind of two
questions. Do you ever use

(09:40):
online resources to maintain any
consistency from one move to another? That could
be, I don't know, like an online Lego group.
And secondary to that is are there
any family unit, your own family unit, are there any
traditions, structures, things that you do within your own family to say, you know

(10:02):
what, we're our own tribe. Yes, we've moved again, but here we go.
The things that are online are for school, which is nice
because we don't have to figure
that out again. But my
kids prefer in person community to an online
community. That being said, we do FaceTime

(10:26):
friends from previous places
and so that's really, that's really fun. And my daughter,
she's, she's quite the pen pal. Oh, I love
that. Actually quite a few of my kids pen pal some of their friends
but she's probably consistent so we do it that way as well. Which
I mean is honestly sneaky learning, which is nice, but it's

(10:49):
much more for just the connection. Well, but that's
sneaky connection too. You know, you get sneaky learning and sneaky connection
in there and that's going to matter to them way more than you
think. My mother in law had a pen pal from
childhood in Australia and she
visited her in Australia, oh, I don't know, when she was probably in her

(11:11):
50s or 60s. And then the pen pal visited her in
a America during that same era. And
they just absolutely loved that they had been writing
together for so many years and got to meet in person and see one another's
cultures that they had always heard about. This is so cool.
Absolutely. Yeah. And I guess in that sense, even though my kids don't have

(11:32):
social media, I do. And so sometimes
with what I post, people will respond or we, I make
friendships that way as well. And then we have had a chance to
connect with some of those peoples on our travel. Yeah, not on
our moves. And things. And so our kids will become
friends. And I think one of the things with military folks is

(11:55):
just because you don't talk
regularly, always as soon as you pick up that, you know,
phone and send a text saying, I'm traveling through, it's always,
yeah, come stay with us. We want to see you and your kids. The kids
want to see you guys. You and I have talked about that.
When with the Creation Museum or the art in

(12:16):
Kentucky. Yes. Comes to visit, we are going to make.
We've never met in person before. We are social
media friends, which I can see. You know, back to our discussion.
You as a mom, you probably have some
decent connections via social media that
is more difficult for kids to do because they are not allowed on

(12:38):
social media. Let's take a break
and hear from one of our awesome sponsors. And when we come back,
we'll talk a little bit more about your family structure, maybe some of the things
you do to protect them and you in
the midst of maybe a little bit of loneliness on a move.

(14:06):
So do you guys do anything as a family to
really build those relationships during these
move times before new friends are established?
Hopefully when new friends are established, but if they aren't for
kind of the long haul of that. We spend a lot of time
together. We spend a lot of time together doing fun things,

(14:29):
though, I guess, preparing for a move. You let go of the academics and
you focus on read alouds. I focus on read alouds because
there's something about the connection to the characters, the
living vicariously through them, as well as that secret
language that you build with your family about the story
and the discussions. Sometimes we revisit

(14:51):
those as well. So we are right now rereading a
series that my youngest two don't remember,
but my older two do. And so it's been really fun in this
season of trying to establish in a new place how we're kind of
revisiting that, but also they're kind of getting it for the
first time. And now we have a whole new language surrounding that book.

(15:14):
So I think reading together is huge. And then we play a lot
of games as well. My children, all
three now who are adults. One just turned 18.
Some of the best memories we have and discussions we have are about
characters from books in. In books that we enjoyed together.
And even though I knew we were doing awesome things when

(15:37):
we were reading aloud, I really had no idea of the impact that was going
to have years and years and years later where we had almost shared
experiences through books. I think that's Excellent games,
as you mentioned. Always excellent
and sneaky learning. But, you know, I can only
imagine one thing that you

(15:59):
could do together as a family, or, you know, even just you with the
kiddos while your husband is doing his work.
Because you are a stay at home mom, right? Yes. Okay.
Exploring the area through field trips and things. Is that
a big deal? I was just about to bring that up as well. One of
the things we do when we find out we're going someplace is we look to

(16:21):
see what could we do, where could we go, what trips could we
take? And that often influences what
we choose to learn as well. Yeah. When we lived in
Southern California, we did a
lot of little trips because everything. There are a lot of places in Southern
California, but, you know, you can go to Joshua Tree National

(16:43):
Park. We drove up to the redwoods in Northern
California from Southern California, and we look at it like, we've
got a couple of years. Let's see as much as we can.
And because we homeschool, we can go in the off season. And so you
actually can see more in some ways that way because you're not
battling with different people or with the crowds.

(17:05):
And so we make it a big priority to
see everything we can. We lived in Virginia, and so
we saw Founding Fathers homes. We saw five battlefields,
and we were there for one year. Wow. In Virginia and
Jamestown, and just all of the things that were
right there, we made sure to see. But that is a big

(17:28):
thing for us is the traveling
in that area. We make a bucket list and we try to see what we
can see. In our last episode, we talked a lot about unit
studies. Do you ever turn those field trips
into some of your unit studies or incorporate those into
your learning? 100%. Almost always. In

(17:50):
fact, in Virginia, like I said, we
visited George Washington's homes and Thomas
Jefferson's home, and we did a Founding
Fathers unit study. So that was
really fun. And Colonial Williamsburg is another. Even
though it's not them, it's that same time frame. And

(18:11):
so all of those were just extensions of our. Our learning.
But I chose Founding Fathers because I wanted to visit those
places and I wanted them to have a sense of who
lived there and the time and place and what
was going on. Same thing with the Civil War and all those
battlefields. You know, I chose the Civil War because I

(18:33):
wanted to learn about it and then go see the battlefield
and understand what we had just learned. And
I don't know about the kids. I'm sure some of them were kind of little.
My Older ones might remember, but for me, it
transformed my understanding of the Civil War on so many
levels. And so that was pretty cool. But we always do that,

(18:55):
even if it's. I mean, those were long
units. We've even done it where we're going to an art museum
and they have an exhibit on impressionists. So I grab my
picture books and my calendar a day from
2017, those pictures, and we just, we read
about the. The artists and we look at pictures and then we go and

(19:17):
we see some of these things. And you.
My. My nine year old. My daughter is not super into art,
but man, she walked in and said, that's a Matisse.
Oh, she actually said, because
the picture book is mutis. But anyway.
But that's okay, right?

(19:40):
When you just spend that little bit of time preparing for the trip or you
add it into the unit, it has
a huge, huge meaning. It changes it
completely. Oh, absolutely. I love that.
You know, we have always used Civil War. We have
a lot of Civil War history here in Kentucky. But I've

(20:02):
been. I'm not going to say jealous. I would love to have been
able to live in certain spots around the country to
really immerse into Revolutionary War history or any.
Anything else, because we have a lot of Civil War history.
That was the thing we have focused the most on here. But yeah, you
have an awesome opportunity there. I definitely

(20:24):
feel like that is one of the greatest gifts that military life
can give is the opportunity to experience different parts
of the country, the people, the different kind of cultures
in each place, and also the history and the science
as well. And one good thing that I've noticed about field
trip destinations is there is often someone who is an

(20:47):
expert at the thing. So the
state park will have a place where the kids can go and learn from that
person. And you don't necessarily even have to be the
teacher of that thing. Yeah. Field trips
everywhere and the museums and places like that will have docents that are
always willing to talk with you. Oh, yes, absolutely. When the

(21:09):
kids walk in, and I'll never forget, I will probably
get the name wrong, but he walked into Jefferson's home and said, is that a
Gilbert Stewart painting? And the lady
just went, what? Yeah. Yes. How do
you know that? And then she literally took
him through the entire house herself. And we just followed.

(21:31):
Listening. Well, let's switch gears for a minute and let's talk about the
level of organization that you must have to
have in order to make these constant
moves. Talk to us a little bit about how you
organize not only Your home, maybe your
schedule, but even your homeschooling. How is all of this happening

(21:54):
frequently to keep it together? I don't even
know. There
might be really organized military homeschool moms out there. I'm probably not
one of them. I would say the biggest things are just learning
when to let things go. And for me, like in preparation
of a move. And for me, that's when it feels like one more

(22:17):
thing that I can't get to that's stressing me out. And so you
just. Those things slowly drop. But as those things drop, speaking
of organization, I have to constantly be clearing out my
freezers and pantry and refrigerator.
And that's always a fun balance of what random meal can I
make and what do I absolutely need to buy

(22:39):
in order to get us through so that I can use up all of this
stuff. Yes. It's almost like a logic puzzle itself, isn't
Is. And I think that juggling of kind of the soul school
aspect with how's everybody feeling? Do we have any
big emotions that are about to overtake us?
Because it hits certain kids on certain days

(23:01):
differently, as well as that kind of, okay, we need
to figure out the pantry and the food. And then there's
also, what are we taking in our
immediate vehicle with us? What do we need to survive? Yeah.
Because one of the kind of fun things about the
moves is if you let them move you, you're not quite sure when

(23:23):
you're going to get your stuff back. Oh, wow. And so
sometimes it can be a little while and sometimes it can be kind of quick.
So you kind of have to figure that out. But that can happen even if
you move yourself. Because if you don't have a place to live and put the
stuff in, it has to go in storage. Um,
so it's. It's been different every time. And

(23:46):
it's just a matter of juggling or rotating
the priorities. I have a feeling I know the answer to this
question. How do you organize a
school year when you are in the middle of a
move? So the pre preparation, the
move, and then the get the house back together,

(24:08):
do you stop? I know you already mentioned, you know, you do a lot of
read alouds and things. Do you stop school for that portion and maybe homeschool through
the summer if you need to? How are you? Or is life. Do you just
consider, you know, we're. We're doing life. Life is learning every single day. We're
doing stuff. I'm just not all that concerned about every
single moment being planned. How do how do you handle that? For

(24:29):
me, I have certain. I do try to keep reading
up until the end. However, when we finish a
book, if it's a good place to stop, then I won't pick up another read
aloud until maybe the road trip. Okay. And then
we listen to an audiobook in the car. Because I don't
want to, because I've done this where the move completely wrecks

(24:52):
it. And so you're halfway through a book and then you're
moving. And for us, it's impossible. When you drive a
really long day and you're just at a place overnight and then you get up
and you drive again, or you get up and you kind of go do something
in that area, and then you move. There's an extra layer of
exhaustion. And reading aloud on a move I just. I can't

(25:13):
do. For me, I've learned I can't do it. So I try
not to have them. Would you say then that you are
doing what we're going to call regular school up until
when? And then at what point. How long do you give yourself
before kind of regular school kicks back in?
Last move. We moved at the end of the school year, and I did not

(25:36):
do regular school all the way up to the end. Okay. My
high schooler had priorities that he had to try to finish. And
then everybody else just. It kind of naturally tapered off. I finished
this project. Great. You are now checked
off. You know, independent reading and math. That's all I'd like you
to do. That's it? Yeah. And then over the

(25:58):
summer, a lot of it was recognizing that school just
happens. Not school learning happens. And for us, learning
happened through watching comfort movies for us and
having discussions. And then the Olympics was happening. So
I grabbed a book and we read a book about ancient Olympics,
which kind of brought some philosophy questions in and

(26:20):
as well as a little bit of history. And then around the
time of the Olympics, I had my kids start math back up. I think I
gave us about a month to just have nothing, no
expectations, other than some chores to keep the house
running. But everybody just needed that breather.
And then they read if they wanted to or if they just took the month

(26:41):
off. They took the month off. And then we just started back with
math and read aloud
and then maybe some reading on their own. So what I hear you saying is
you give a lot of grace in the move before and
after as much for the actual physical things that need to
be done as the emotional

(27:04):
pull it together kind of. Yes. Because there are
times when you're super excited to move. Like, we were in Virginia for
a year and it was the COVID year, and we didn't
really have a great community. We had neighbors and they were
actually really wonderful. But we
knew where we were moving after that. And my family was also moving

(27:27):
there as well. And so we were all really excited to move.
Yes. And so that was super fun. So we did school up
until very close. Until we moved. We just really wanted to get it
in. However, then we had to move away from family.
And we had a really good community there with a lot of
friends, and that was much harder. And so

(27:49):
we kind of slowly, one by one, gave up certain subjects
or gave up, you know, as intense learning and
academics in lieu of, you know, maybe documentaries
or just read alouds and a little bit of math.
Because that was much harder. That was a harder thing. And we
prioritized seeing our friends over, getting the schoolwork

(28:11):
done. Yeah. Because there is time for everything.
Yeah. And you know that sometimes the friends won't be there and
you can dig a little bit deeper into the school. When you have a
kiddo that's having a breakdown from a
move, what would you say is your go
to or a couple of maybe go to things

(28:33):
to really help them overcome that moment?
Sometimes you just have to let it happen
because you've had this big move and there's
a lot of stress and intensity involved.
Whether you're feeling it consciously or whether it's just beneath the
surface and you don't recognize it.

(28:57):
If it's just like a sort of a meltdown
type moment, I
just kind of let that happen and I sit there with them and let them
have that. Because who hasn't sort of had a bit of a
meltdown? I mean, I have over a month.
Yes. I'm just getting ready to just raise my hand

(29:18):
and. But there are also times where. And this
is going years back, so I'm not trying to call
out like a teenager or anything. This is not that.
Where behaviors have just changed drastically
after the move and trying to figure that out.
And when that happens, I just. I give a lot of grace

(29:41):
and space. You don't want to write, don't write. Okay.
You don't want to read, don't read. Let's go outside. You want to take a
walk? Let's go outside. And allowing
those emotions to be processed because half the time, especially if
they're younger, they don't even know what they're trying to process.
Yeah. And I did have a kid, a young kid at some

(30:03):
point, have a really hard move. And he was
very different after the move. Just really
moody and not like himself. And then he blew up one
day and, you know, lost it. And I realized that
he was struggling not just with missing people, but being angry
that we moved him. And so at that

(30:25):
point, you just. You love him.
You give him a lot of grace, and you. And you love him because. And
the academics don't matter at that moment. His heart matters,
and you remind him that, you know, his
family's with him. Jesus is always with him, and he's
that friend that will never, never leave.

(30:48):
He's going to be closer. And as much as he misses his
friends, we love him and Jesus loves him,
and that's what matters. His heart matters. And the
relationship with the family matters. And as they.
When you do it, when they're younger, as they get older, you know,
they can kind of tell you, I hate that I have to move, or, you

(31:10):
know, I'm struggling, or this is. I don't want to. Rather
than just that feeling of, I don't know what all of
this is. Yeah. But giving them the space to
learn how to speak about that is precious.
That is doing those young men and young ladies such a
favor. As they get older, they will know how to

(31:33):
communicate their emotions with anyone. With their friends,
with their spouses, with their children. And giving
them space to have those emotions, I think is really, really important.
So we are out of time today. I wish we could talk more about this
because I have a feeling there are several families who have been put in a
nomadic lifestyle of sorts that could really

(31:54):
hear more from you. How can they
reach you? If somebody really needs to just have a chat? How. What's the
best way they can reach you? Um, probably Instagram.
@HappilyEverCaffeinated on Instagram is probably the best way.
Way you can just send me a message. I do check that.
And then I think you can also contact me through substack

(32:16):
Happily Ever Caffeinated on Substack. And I get those messages as
well. And just in case you guys didn't listen last week, Lydia
is an amazing homeschool resource for you at
@HappilyEverCaffeinated on Instagram. You will watch her stories and
kind of see the cool things she's doing, and you'll realize that she
is really pouring herself into making homeschooling a

(32:39):
fun, engaging, unique place for
these kiddos of hers. And lots and lots of ideas
come through those stories for you. So follow her there. And then again,
any link that we ever mention will be in your podcast show
notes. Lydia, thank you so much for joining me here. You
and I should have another chat sometime here because I think we have a

(33:02):
lot more that we could have chats about. Absolutely. I hope
everyone will join us again on the Schoolhouse
Rocked Podcast next week. I am Cindy West.
I'm so thankful to be one of your hosts. You can find me at
ourjourneywestward.com or no
sweatnaturestudy.com.

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Homeschooling on the Move: Navigating Homeschooling as a Military Family – Lydia Rosado (Hosted by Cindy West)

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Homeschooling on the Move: Navigating Homeschooling as a Military Family – Lydia Rosado (Hosted by Cindy West)