August 19, 2025 • 32 mins
Yvette Hampton sits down with Sarah Molitor of Modern Farmhouse Family to discuss faith, family, and the joys and challenges of homeschooling seven children. Sarah shares her powerful testimony of growing up in a Christian home, learning to stand firm in her faith through high school and college, how she built resilience during lonely college years, and how God has preserved her throughout her journey.
Learn practical tips for homeschooling multiple ages, how to stay flexible and grace-filled, building a strong family foundation, and gracefully navigating the ups and downs of motherhood and the vital importance of nurturing your child’s faith through it all. If you’re a homeschool mom seeking encouragement, authentic conversation, and real-life advice, you don’t want to miss this fun and compelling conversation!
Recommended Resources:
I Grew with You, by Sarah Molitor
The Song That Goes On and On and On and On, by Sarah Molitor
Any Given Moment: 52 Devotions and Prayers to Feel the Goodness of God, by Sarah Molitor
Well Said: Choosing Words that Speak Life, Give Grace, and Strengthen Your Faith and Family, by Sarah MolitorSarah’s Gender Reveal Video
Sponsors:
Apologia is a Christ-centered, award-winning homeschool curriculum provider. Our mission is to help homeschooling students and families learn, live, and defend the Christian faith through our print and digital curriculum and online classes.
BJU Press Homeschool is dedicated to providing homeschool families with academically strong curriculum rooted in a biblical worldview. They offer a complete curriculum from preschool through 12th grade, available in both traditional textbooks and video courses. By teaching through the lens of Christ’s power, they help students view the world through the transformative story of God’s creation
CTCMath specializes in providing online video tutorials that take a multi-sensory approach to learning. Creative graphics and animation, synchronized with the friendly voice of internationally acclaimed teacher, Pat Murray, make learning math easy and effective. Start your free trial today.
The Schoolhouse Rocked Podcast is a member of the Biblical Family Network. Our mission is to support and encourage the family by providing the very best podcasts on family, discipleship, marriage, parenting, worldview, culture, and education, all from a Biblical perspective. Visit the website for more great shows, like the Thinking Dad, Culture Proof, Homeschool Insights, and Made2Homeschool.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
I just felt a big dose of grace pour over us in Year 5, and I
think that was good because it was like, I want to keep going,
but Laura, I need you to step inand kind of let me know that I'm
still in the right place. I will say the latter years have
been way better than the first years.
Hey everyone, this is Yvette Hampton.
Welcome back to the Schoolhouse Rock podcast.
(00:21):
I am so excited to be your host this week.
I am glad you are back with me and hope you guys are having a
great week. Whatever you're doing, I love
hearing from you guys the different things that you do
while you are listening to the podcast.
Some of you watch it on YouTube and others of you listen to it
when you're in the car. You listen to it while you're
doing laundry, you listen to it when you're doing dishes.
And it's really funny because sometimes people say I just
(00:42):
popped you up on my phone while I was doing dishes and cleaning
the kitchen. And I just feel like I get to be
kind of part of your life on those days.
And so I am so grateful that youare on the other side of this
mic. I have an amazing guest for you
this week and next. You guys are going to be so
blessed by her. Some of you, most of you
probably already know who she is.
Her name is Sarah Molitor and she is the creator of the Super
(01:04):
popular modern farmhouse family on Instagram.
And so if you guys are on Instagram, which I know that
most of you are, you have probably seen her hanging out
there. She's a Christian homeschool
mom. She's got 7 kids.
She's an author, and she loves Jesus.
And so I was like, well, hey, come on the Schoolhouse Rock
podcast because we have things to talk about.
So she is here to join me this week.
(01:25):
But before we get into the conversation, I want to say
thank you to our sponsor, Bjupress Homeschool.
If you guys are looking for great biblical worldview
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(01:48):
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That's bjupresshomeschool.com. Well, Sarah, welcome to the
Schoolhouse Watch podcast. I am so excited to have you with
(02:10):
me. This has been a long time
coming. We've had to reschedule a couple
of times more because of my schedule than yours.
And you have been so gracious tospend some time with me today.
And so I'm really excited to just dig in and and really learn
who you are. I know a lot of people see you
on Instagram, but often times wejust see kind of an an image
(02:33):
sometimes of who who we think people are, but we don't get
really deep into who they are aspeople.
And so I'm excited. Tell us a little bit for those
who might not be familiar with you.
Tell us a little bit about yourself and your family.
Yeah, thank you for having me, First off, and I'm excited too.
Our family lives in Central Washington state.
My husband Tim grew up here and we have 7 kiddos that we are
(02:55):
raising on a little splice of acreage in the middle of the
city and we absolutely love it. Their ages range from like 12:00
to 2:00. We have 6 boys.
We had a little girl and I thinka lot of people have come to
know us by that. You kind of get marked when you
have 6 boys in a row and then all of a sudden, shocker of all
shockers, you have a little girl.
But yes, we have been going fromthe beginning.
(03:16):
We are just about to finish our 7th year, which has been really
amazing. And so I feel like I've learned
a lot and I still have a lot to learn in that.
But we love Jesus, we love getting to share bits of our
lives on Instagram and really feel like that is just a slice
of the Kingdom of heaven that wecan play a part in.
And I was telling you earlier, but it feels like a joy and a
(03:38):
hobby and a ministry more than it feels like a job.
So I'm very thankful for that. And as long as we can do that,
we have our hands open to that. So.
I love that. It's so funny.
You talk about having your six boys and then your little girl
and your video, your gender reveal video, I had seen it so
many times before. Like it just kind of pops out.
(04:00):
It's gone totally viral. Your response, your reaction to
finding out that you were havinga girl was so much fun.
Maybe we'll put maybe a link to it from your Instagram and our
show notes for those who maybe haven't seen it.
But it's like, I was so excited for you because I have two
girls. And so, I mean, I would love
boys, but girls, there's just something special about a Mama
(04:20):
having a daughter. And so, like, your reaction is
just precious. I love the way I reacted.
It was so genuine. That's what I thought.
Was it was, I think a lot of people were like, wait, didn't
you know, wait how that worked? But we had really planned this
whole thing. So none of us had a clue.
No one in the room had a clue except for whoever blessed the
ultrasound lady that she was theonly person that knew.
(04:42):
And so I remember right when that happened and all the
confetti went and we're all celebrating.
My next words were, well, somebody go get the envelope to
like double check it because I like told her I was like, put an
envelope in there. Not that, 'cause you know, after
six boys, it's hard to believe. It's hard to imagine.
And I think even up until birth,The funny thing was there was
(05:03):
about 10% of me that was like, Sarah, if this is a boy, if it's
just for some reason pops out a boy like you will be OK.
Because it was just almost hard to like, yeah, be like, oh, are
Are you sure? Because none of nothing in my
pregnancy pointed to different, right?
So I was like, OK, that's like trying to get my mind.
But anyway, real sweet moment. Obviously she came out a girl,
(05:24):
so. Yeah, so fun.
I, I, I bet that she is very loved by her brothers and Oh my
goodness, she is going to have some serious protection around
her for her whole life. That's awesome.
So fun. Well, as I was preparing for
this interview, you know, I always pray through and think
through what each interview is going to look like.
(05:44):
And I always have specific questions that it just kind of
guide the interview, though usually we end up going off into
different topics and, and I ask other questions and stuff, but
the Lord really put it on my heart.
And I don't usually do this withmy guests, but the Lord really
put it on my heart to ask you toshare your testimony because
I've never heard your testimony before.
And I, I know that you are a mom, a wife, a woman who loves
(06:07):
the Lord and you are fully surrendered to him.
And so I would love to just hearyour testimony about how you
came to be a Christian and just how that's impacted your life
and your family. You know, how is it filtered
down to your children? So I would like to just hear
your story. Yeah, I love that because I feel
like you've been on Instagram and different avenues that we
(06:29):
talk. I don't get a chance to like
fully say it or else it's more long form.
So you can't just sit down for 20 minutes and be like, listen,
I want to tell you this, so thanks for asking.
I grew up in a Christian home, very loving parents.
To this day, they have a very open door into my life to speak
into my life. Still.
I open that for them and they walk in it very gracefully.
And I'm thankful for that. And I feel like they built a lot
(06:51):
of that in me. Just kind of that teachability
growing up. Not that that's always easy, but
we grew up in a Christian home, love the Lord.
I remember very distinctly, I don't know, 5 or 6 years of age,
you know, accepted the Lord intomy life.
I think I did it about every dayfor like several weeks there
just to make sure we're really stuck like Lord, just want to
make sure I was also, and I'm also a chatterbox.
(07:13):
And so, you know, I feel like I was just reminding the Lord,
like I made this decision, just want to tell you, but that was
my first yes to Jesus. And then to be honest, yes, it's
felt pretty easy through my lifebecause my parents love the
Lord, because all my siblings serve the Lord.
We went to church, we did all the things.
And so loving Jesus came easier,I would say, because of all
(07:37):
those factors. Fast forward to high school.
I remember high school, I, I don't have fond memories of it.
It was very hard. You know, people aren't like
you, they don't love Jesus like you do.
And then there's all the pressures of growing up and all
the things that are happening surrounding being a teenager.
And it was probably the first time in my life I really felt
(07:57):
like, OK, I have to make some different decisions.
And those decisions are going tohave some probably consequences,
like natural consequences, right?
Whether that's separation from friends or just not being able
to be included in things by choice, that happened.
And that also hurt. It also was like, God, like, I
want to say yes to you, but that's really hard.
(08:20):
Like, how am I going to make it if I don't have a good friend,
if I don't have someone to walk with me?
But again, my parents were a very sweet, stable foundation in
my life and they carried us through that.
And I have sisters. And then I got to college and
kind of the same thing, just a little bit more so, right.
You get to college and suddenly you're not under your parents
roof. And the college I went to was
(08:42):
very secular. There wasn't a Christian notch
about it. And I was there playing sports
on a scholarship. So you kind of get dumped into
this team and this group of people that are you're kind of
instant community, not by choice, but also by choice.
And I don't think I really felt like I had a chance to form my
(09:03):
own community. It was kind of there.
And outside of that, if I had a minute outside of playing
college sports, I could try to find a church and try to do all
that, which I did. But there was this one distinct
time when a girl was like, hey, we're going to just hang out
tonight. Like our whole team.
We're going to go hang out with some baseball guys.
And I was like, oh, great, get to hang out with people.
Like, wonderful. Went there, sat down and they
(09:24):
started taking like alcohol orders.
And I was like, oh, this is not a hangout.
This is a party. Probably.
I've heard of these, right? And so just instantly, and I
feel like it was just the Lord protecting me.
I got up and I said, hey, could you drive me back to my dorm?
And she was like, sure, what do you need?
And I was like, I just need to run back there.
And on the drive back, I said, hey, I'm, I'm going to stay.
(09:45):
I'm not going to come back. And she's like, oh, you'll get
used to it. And I said, you know, I don't
think I want to. And that was kind of that moment
of separation in college. All of a sudden, even though I
was in community, I didn't have community.
It was like, oh, Sarah is this, you're not going to be a part of
what we do. So you're not going to be a part
of our friend group. So you're different.
(10:07):
So we don't know if we like that, that you're different.
We don't know. And I would say those two years
of college before I made the decision to come home and quit
my scholarship and say, hey, I'mgoing to go pursue my career.
We're really lonely, really hard, really pressed into the
Lord, really learned a lot aboutmyself.
But you know, when you're halfway across the country and
it's a $500 plane ticket and youdon't have $5 to your name, that
(10:31):
is not an option. And so the Lord really became my
only option. And when I came back home,
things happened from there. But I feel like those formative
years really helped me establishthis super solid foundation.
And my husband still to this dayjokes, he's like, you cannot be
swayed. Like one of the things about you
(10:53):
is like, you do not succumb to social pressure.
Like no matter what people ask if you're like, if your no is
your no and he's like, and you're fine with that.
Like if you miss out, you miss out and he's like, I love that
about you. Also.
You're stubborn. I'm like, I know, I know I am,
but I'm like, I like to think that I'm stubborn for the Lord,
that I'm like so sure of who I am and that I'm not swayed.
(11:15):
And that's something I really hope to pass to my children that
like you can be so confident of who you are in Christ in a
really wonderful way that you don't have to be pulled in every
direction. But the part of the testimony
that I also want to say about that is, yes, there were those
years and maybe they weren't as hard or stretching as some other
people because I had that faith foundation.
(11:36):
But I've thought about this a lot and I thought, Lord, thank
you so much that a part of my testimony is just this
overarching theme of preservation.
Like you preserved me. I love it when people come in
the church and they're like, I was radically saved from this
and this and this and like the Lord turned my life And that is
so inspiring. And I'm like, ah, give me that
fire for you, Lord. But also I'm like, God, I'm
(11:57):
grateful. Like you preserved me from so
much of that. And like, not by any like thing
I did or thing I earned, but like you just gave me that gift.
And so I feel like when I meet people who kind of have a
similar story, like, oh, grew upin a Christian home, nothing
exciting. I'm like, no, that is exciting.
Like you were preserved and the Lord's put something in you to
(12:22):
say like you stood through it, you stayed with me and like
that's something that you're going to be able to build in
your children, build in other people and you're not going to
be swayed because you have that foundation.
And we need that too. We need the on fire radically
saved, but we need the people who have been in it and in it
and stayed in it and done it to stay that way and just kind of
(12:44):
mesh the 2. So that's my testimony.
I love that because I love, likeyou said, there are so many
people who have been radically saved.
But I think as homeschool parents, you know, obviously
most of our listeners are homeschool moms.
That's what we're trying to establish for our kids is a life
of them following Jesus so that they will go on into their adult
(13:05):
life following Jesus. And there's going to be those
times where they're going to go to college, they're going to be
tempted, they're going to get into the adult world, they're
going to be tempted. They are going to be tempted by
the world around them, but hopefully we have instilled the
values of God's word into them so that they can hold tight to
that and continue to chase afterthe Lord when they leave our
(13:28):
home. And that's a scary, scary thing
for us as parents because you never know.
I mean, we have no control over what our kids are going to do.
And you know, I have told my girls so many times, like there
is nothing, nothing in the worldthat would be more devastating
to me than to find out that you're not following Jesus.
Like that's it. And, and praise God, by his
grace and mercy, both of my girls are following the Lord.
(13:51):
And I, I pray that it stays thatway because I don't want them to
experience the hard life is hardenough, right?
I mean, you and I were just talking about this before we hit
record. I don't know how people deal
with life apart from Christ. It's hard enough.
And so I don't want them to experience more pain that's
caused by their own sin than thepain that they're going to
already experience because of the simple world that we live
(14:12):
in. So I love that.
I love that testimony. Let's take a break.
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(14:34):
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(15:21):
Find this incredible free See Homeschool
resource@apologia.com/bootcamp We are back with Sarah.
You know, before the break we were talking about your
testimony and just how you grew up in a Christian home.
You have parents that you trusted and I think that's
amazing. Again, as homeschool parents, as
a homeschool mom, like that is one of my desires is that my
(15:42):
girls will continue to trust me that I can go to them and they
can come to me and we can do life together.
I I, I've said this so many times on the podcast.
I joke with my girls all the time.
I always make them pinky promiseme.
I trick them into pinky promising me that they will live
next door to me forever. Yeah.
Oh, man, I'm like, you know, it just it, it's a pinky promise
(16:05):
and you can't break a pinky promise.
And so like, that's just how it's going to have to be, but
it's because I want to be able to be there to continue to pass
down the legacy of Jesus into mygrandchildren.
I don't want to parent them, youknow, and I don't want to
overstep my responsibilities, but I do want to be there.
We do have a responsibility as parents and then as grandparents
(16:26):
to carry that on to the next generation.
And so as a homeschooler, I would love to know, you know,
how, how did you even get into homeschooling?
Cause I'm assuming you were not homeschooled yourself growing
up. There was a small stint in
there. So my mom actually did quite a
bit of homeschooling. She homeschooled.
I have there's four of us. She homeschooled us until my
oldest sibling was in 6th grade.And at that point, she just has
(16:50):
told me over there, she just said it became too much.
My dad had a job that he was gone three days, gone couple
days home, you know, on the roada lot.
Well, I shouldn't say on the road.
He was on the train a lot. He was a train engineer.
And so, yeah, he was driving trains.
And my mom was like, it just gothard.
Like it just got really, really hard to be alone and to home
school and to do it all with four children in school.
(17:13):
So she made a decision when my old sibling was in 6th grade and
she kind of dumped us all into school at once.
And so I was in second grade at that time.
So I homeschooled through 2nd grade and went into kind of a
public school in 3rd grade. It was a little farm school out
in the country. We were very blessed and so very
small, very great teachers, verywonderful atmosphere.
(17:34):
But my first introduction into public school from there, dumped
into the public school system intown and then public high
school, public college. So yeah, most of my time is
there from the public school. So, so then talk about your
decision. If you know you grew up in that
kind of a schooling environment,talk about your decision that
you and your husband made to homeschool your kids and what
that journey's been like so far.Yeah, when we had our first was
(17:57):
getting old enough, I just remember telling my husband
probably truly from the beginning to like, I would like
to homeschool our children. I'd like to give a shot, like
give it a shot, right. And he was like, sure, whatever.
But his homeschooling experiencewas really terrible.
His mom, Wonderful. She had had five children.
And on their 25th wedding anniversary, surprise, you're
(18:18):
having another baby. And their oldest is 2223.
Their youngest is 13, and she's 45 and her husband's 50.
And they're now. And they're like, I'm sorry,
Lord, what was that like? You're.
Yeah. So he grew up kind of like an
only child, you know, by the time he's 5.
He was sittings up. He was the surprise baby who's
(18:39):
way younger. And so he kind of did a mix.
You know, there was a time when he went to elementary school and
then his mom kept him home and tried to home school for two
years. And he said it was just not
good. And I think she would say that
as well. It just she's like, my
personality. His personality didn't mesh.
He's like, I remember we would sit in this room and had mirrors
all around and I just had to sitthere and do all my work till
(19:01):
the end of the day. And I'm like, that might be a
little bit exaggerated, but also, but it just wasn't a mesh.
So I think he was a little cautious on that.
He was like, I, I hear you, but like also didn't love it.
So I don't want my kids to be the typical like weird non
social, you know, I don't want them to lose their footing.
And I was like, that's not my experience, so let me try.
(19:21):
So we started and couple things I found right off the bat 1 I
loved it when I was like, Oh my gosh, you couldn't why would I
send my kid to school for this? Like I'm having so much fun
teaching them like this is a blast.
And also kindergarten took like,you know, 30 minutes, so that's
not hard. And then two, as the years kept
going, I was like, I don't want my kids to leave.
(19:42):
Like, I really want a home, babe.
And I would tell him that. And he's like, yeah, if you
wanna keep going, you just do that.
Just know, like, again, not my favorite thing.
So it took and still takes. He still has some things.
I wanna be honest about that. You know, it's not like he's
like this. Yes, we just love it.
We're gonna do it, you know, make sure you're doing all this.
And I think that's okay. I think that's okay.
When someone really feels like Iwant to home school.
(20:04):
He is supportive 100%, but it just wasn't his background.
Yeah. So as time has gone on, he sees
and he's like, you can. You can pay me to put my kids
some girls right now, like they're exactly where they need
to be and they're getting the best education they could.
And he's like, and I see that you love it and I see that you
thrive in it. I also see that they're hard
days. But thank you for making that
(20:27):
decision for our children. Like I'm 100% behind you.
So just as time went on, it was really the gain back time and
truly like, I love this now early days, I loved it.
That didn't mean I wasn't nice sometimes, right?
And like didn't have grace and didn't have my wits about me and
how I responded to some things when things didn't go the way I
(20:48):
expected, especially as kids getolder.
But I've told people recently, we're in year 7 almost and I
told them, are we just finishingseven that I really feel like
grace kind of inserted itself inYear 5.
Like it was kind of like the first time.
I remember like almost day one of Year 5 sitting in our
homeschool room and I was like, this year just feels different.
(21:10):
I feel peace. And I think a lot of it was work
I had to do in myself, attitude,how I speak, adjustments, all
that, how I respond, how I react.
And so that reflected on my children, how they spoke, how
they reacted, how they approach things.
And I just felt a big dose of grace pour over us in Year 5.
(21:30):
And I think that was good because it was like, I want to
keep going, but Laura, I need you to step in and kind of let
me know that I'm still in the right place.
And each year since then, 567, the energy and the fun is in
there. And we found our step, we're
finding new things. And I, yeah, I will say the
(21:51):
latter years have been way better than the first years.
That's so encouraging because somany moms, they want to give up
in the first year. Yeah, so, so often in the first
couple months, they're like, this is just not working for me.
I don't like it, The kids don't like it.
So we're just going to put it back in school.
And so it's, it's interesting that it took, you know, up to
Year 5 and at that point you would have, you would have
(22:13):
either been pregnant or had a newborn, right?
At that time I feel like I was been pregnant every year.
So I feel like yes, no, I think in Year 5, I mean, Jude would
have been about 8 so or yeah, year five would have been yeah,
oh, fifth grade, so about 10. So Jude would have been 10.
So I would have had a 108642 andpregnant.
(22:35):
Wow. Yeah, and you know, the babies,
the pregnancy, that's the easy ones.
Like it's as they get older, right?
But yeah, I'm going into year 8 next year and I'm going to be
adding in my 5th kid. And so we'll have 5A5 grade
span. And trust me when I say every
year I take a big deep breath and I'm like, OK, you're going
to do this. I'm going to add a new kid and
(22:57):
we're going to do. This by the grace of God.
And yes, by the grace of God, and it takes me a few months
usually to find my routine and find my footing in that.
But yes, I am like, guys, stay in it like the fruits start
coming and you start seeing those and it's enough to keep
you going. Yeah, So talk really quickly
then about homeschooling multiple ages because you've
(23:18):
you've got a a pretty decent range there of kids.
How do you manage? And this is one of the questions
we get asked all the time. And honestly, it's a hard
question for me to answer because I have two girls,
they're almost five years apart and my oldest is now graduated.
So really I'm, I'm homeschoolingjust one child.
You know, she's 14 and she's very independent.
(23:39):
And so, you know, it's, it is much easier for me to homeschool
114 year old girl who's mature than to have 5678 kids in my
home, all under the age of 12 who I'm trying to navigate.
So how do you go about homeschooling all of your kids?
Yeah, I think a lot of one. I first want to say trial and
(24:00):
error. I heard someone say something
the other day and when I loved what they said, and it was, and
I want to say it right, it was homeschooling doesn't mean you
do it all. It just means you control what
they're doing right. Or like control, maybe that's
not the right word, but you get to choose what they're doing and
learning that is something. And that is something I don't
think I, I embraced in the firstfew years.
(24:22):
I really took that as I control it all.
I have a hand in everything. I have a say in everything.
My no one can move forward a lesson unless I am sitting by
you watching you. And that became really taxing.
And I those that's when my hard days would happen.
I can't do it all. Yeah, it does, Sarah, because
you literally can't. And so I again, I don't think it
(24:44):
was into your, your 5 or 6 that I really was like, I can't do it
all. Ding, Ding, Ding, like hello,
you can't. And so we started experimenting
with different things, differentways, whether that was, hey,
you're going to do this subject on video, just that one subject.
Mom's going to still help you here.
Hey, we're going to try writing out the schedule for the week on
the board. That worked really well for a
year. This year we're not doing that.
And once I got in this realization that, oh, I can
(25:08):
change it, I can switch things up year to year.
Oh, I, I don't have to hold on to that same thing I did last
year. It worked really well last year,
but maybe it's just not for us this year.
And when I started letting go ofthat and letting my kids kind of
have some leeway in that, like my oldest Jude, you know,
because by virtue he's my oldest, he also loves math.
He's pretty independent in math.And so I used to want to sit
(25:30):
there and be like, OK, today's lesson.
And finally one day he was like,Oh, I already read it.
I already know what I'm doing. And I was like, Are you sure?
Like I, I can help you. And he's like, no, mommy.
Yeah, right. Like he's like, I'll let you
know if I need help. And I'm like, oh, OK, right here
if you need me. And that was good for me.
That was healthy for me. And so from that has stemmed
(25:50):
this. Maybe my 7 year old in first
grade needs more full attention.He needs me to be that parent
LED homeschooling parent, which I was for my other older boys.
Because Jude can do math, Hudsoncan do spelling, and Chase can
work on his language independently, you know, or I
can say, hey, I wasn't getting to history and science because
(26:11):
let's be honest, those read alouds took 1/2 an hour per
person. And we're just, we're not, we're
not homeschooling to be in school for 10 hours a day.
So I could offload that to a video knowing they're getting
far more than I could have giventhem.
But that's hard to let go of sometimes as moms, right?
Like I want to give them the best.
So just going back to that flexibility and that willingness
(26:34):
to change, which is so hard. I think for us as women, it's
really hard for me personally. But once I took hold of that,
like once I took hold, this might sound so funny of letting
each child be on a different lesson.
Like even I wanted to be on, youknow, if we're on lesson 132,
everyone's on lesson. Don't ask me why I don't, I have
(26:56):
no good rationale for that otherthan it's just what I thought
worked. And suddenly this year, my, my
third grader is like, mom, I'm almost finished with my phonics
book and it's not even May. And I'm like, oh, wow.
And he's like, when I'm done, can I be done?
And I'm like, yes, you finished phonics.
And I'm like a little bit shocked, but you know, he's in
(27:17):
lesson 135 on math and I'm like,that's OK.
We're so anyway, just really leaning into what each child can
do, what you can do, and findingthe specifics of that have
allowed me to be a lot freer while still overarchingly
choosing what my children are learning.
Do you have a time in the morning or maybe sometime during
(27:38):
the day where you all come together and do like a morning
basket time or something like that and do read alouds
together? We do read aloud, but it's not
in the morning, it's in the evening.
I actually don't. And it's funny because my my
friends, I have friends that like, I aspire to be like them.
They are so good. They're like at 9:30, we do our
devotional at 10, we do this andI'm like, OK, Sarah, that
(28:00):
doesn't look like your day. But again, going back to that,
but that's not your day and that's not you and that's not
her. And so in years past, we've had
morning Bible verse time, we've had our pledges, We do group
flash cards. We pop up and we're like, let's
run some laps around the house and do some exercises.
But for me, it has been, I won'ttell you that I've done some
(28:24):
beautiful secret sauce in the morning.
It is really just what works each day.
And then we have our read aloudsat night.
That is a hard stop for me. I love reading to my kids.
They love reading and so that's been a real fun thing in the
evenings to gather around for. I love the flexibility of
homeschooling and doing what works best for your family.
(28:44):
And you know, I read, I did readalouds with my girls until my
daughter graduated last year. I mean, I still do them with my
youngest every day. We're actually right now, we're
reading The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel and it's so good.
And she's loving it. It's so funny.
She's totally tracking with it. She's loving it.
But until, you know, my oldest graduated, we still sat down
(29:05):
together every single day and weread together.
And I love that we get to do that, but we do it in our time.
And when I say morning, like mornings for us are like 11:00,
not 8:00. I'm not even kidding.
We're just, we are a late family.
We are rarely in bed before 11 or 12:00 at night.
And so we sleep in late in the morning And it's just, it's how
(29:27):
we roll. But it's great for our family
and we have that flexibility because we homeschool, you know,
they don't. I, I watch the kids walk to the
bus stop every morning in our neighborhood and it breaks my
heart because it's like 7:30 in the morning and it's cold or
it's hot And I'm like, oh, my kids are just snoozing, you
know, in the room next to me. And man, it's, but I, I love
that we get to be flexible and do what works best with our
(29:49):
schedule and with, you know, whatever personality our family
has. So, so much good stuff.
While we've got lots more to talk about, including a, a new
book that you have out called the Well said.
We're going to talk about our words and how we can use our
words in a way that is encouraging and uplifting for
kids. So we'll be back next week to
talk about those. Sarah, tell our audience for
(30:09):
those who maybe are not yeah, following you on Instagram, but
they will be after today, Tell them where they can find out
more about. You yeah, of course Instagram we
share snippets of our life that's really fun for us but we
also have a website, modernfarmhousefamily.com, so
we've just tried to keep it the same and there we share other
stuff like recipes, encouragement.
(30:29):
We have a blog, I have a newsletter and sometimes we have
other fun giveaways and stuff off of Instagram.
So I really like being able to have kind of a couple different
places to connect with people, but we I'd love to connect with
you there as. Well, awesome, I will put those
links in the show notes and you've got some good blog posts
on there and lots of fun stuff I've had fun perusing through
your website. So lots of great encouragement.
(30:51):
We will put those links in the show notes.
Sarah, thank you for being with me.
Thank you guys for being with usthis week.
I am so excited to come back with Sarah next week.
For those who have not yet been to the Schoolhouse Rock website,
you can go to schoolhouserock.com.
Find everything on there. Also, for those who maybe don't
know, we have another podcast. It's a end of sister podcast
(31:11):
called Homeschool Insights, and that is five days a week.
And it's just little snippets from the Schoolhouse Rocked
podcast, but it's from like, youknow, past episodes that are
just really encouraging snippetsand they're usually like 5 to 7
minutes. And so if you just want a daily
dose of encouragement, subscribeto Homeschool Insights.
(31:31):
And you can also find us on YouTube at Schoolhouse Rocked,
the Schoolhouse Rock YouTube channel.
So follow us there, share it with your friends.
We love you guys, have a great rest of your day and we will see
you back here next week. Bye.
You're listening to the BiblicalFamily Network.
Hey, I'm Miki and I'm Will and we're the Co host of the Culture
(31:53):
Proof podcast. We want to invite you to join us
every week as we discuss what's happening in the world and then
filter those happenings through a decidedly biblical lens.
There are many questions, especially when we see what's
happening in our culture today, but the answers are found within
the Word of God, so that's wherewe want to look.
Amen. When we resist those cultural
trends that rival the truth. We remain culture proof.
(32:17):
Do you need to jump on the trampoline while you do flash
cards? There was three years Yvette
where we had a mini trampoline in there because my kid learned
best on a trampoline. He would sit there and he would
jump and I would just hold up flash cards.
Or I would say A says, B says, but you know, we'd do this and
he'd just jump, blah, blah, blahand bounce around and do it.
(32:38):
And he retained it far better than if I was like, sit down, be
quiet, listen to mother.
I just felt a big dose of grace pour over us in Year 5, and I
think that was good because it was like, I want to keep going,
but Laura, I need you to step inand kind of let me know that I'm
still in the right place. I will say the latter years have
been way better than the first years.
Hey everyone, this is Yvette Hampton.
Welcome back to the Schoolhouse Rock podcast.
(00:21):
I am so excited to be your host this week.
I am glad you are back with me and hope you guys are having a
great week. Whatever you're doing, I love
hearing from you guys the different things that you do
while you are listening to the podcast.
Some of you watch it on YouTube and others of you listen to it
when you're in the car. You listen to it while you're
doing laundry, you listen to it when you're doing dishes.
And it's really funny because sometimes people say I just
(00:42):
popped you up on my phone while I was doing dishes and cleaning
the kitchen. And I just feel like I get to be
kind of part of your life on those days.
And so I am so grateful that youare on the other side of this
mic. I have an amazing guest for you
this week and next. You guys are going to be so
blessed by her. Some of you, most of you
probably already know who she is.
Her name is Sarah Molitor and she is the creator of the Super
(01:04):
popular modern farmhouse family on Instagram.
And so if you guys are on Instagram, which I know that
most of you are, you have probably seen her hanging out
there. She's a Christian homeschool
mom. She's got 7 kids.
She's an author, and she loves Jesus.
And so I was like, well, hey, come on the Schoolhouse Rock
podcast because we have things to talk about.
So she is here to join me this week.
(01:25):
But before we get into the conversation, I want to say
thank you to our sponsor, Bjupress Homeschool.
If you guys are looking for great biblical worldview
curriculum, try out bjupresshomeschool.com.
Their materials won't just equipyou for a successful homeschool
journey, they'll prepare your child for a future full of
possibilities so that your kids can confidently move beyond
homeschool, ready for whatever God has next.
(01:48):
They've crafted their curriculumto give you the tools you need
that are rooted in a solid biblical foundation.
Bjupress Homeschool will encourage a love of learning in
your child, and they'll be with you every step of the way.
Visit them at bjupresshomeschool.com.
That's bjupresshomeschool.com. Well, Sarah, welcome to the
Schoolhouse Watch podcast. I am so excited to have you with
(02:10):
me. This has been a long time
coming. We've had to reschedule a couple
of times more because of my schedule than yours.
And you have been so gracious tospend some time with me today.
And so I'm really excited to just dig in and and really learn
who you are. I know a lot of people see you
on Instagram, but often times wejust see kind of an an image
(02:33):
sometimes of who who we think people are, but we don't get
really deep into who they are aspeople.
And so I'm excited. Tell us a little bit for those
who might not be familiar with you.
Tell us a little bit about yourself and your family.
Yeah, thank you for having me, First off, and I'm excited too.
Our family lives in Central Washington state.
My husband Tim grew up here and we have 7 kiddos that we are
(02:55):
raising on a little splice of acreage in the middle of the
city and we absolutely love it. Their ages range from like 12:00
to 2:00. We have 6 boys.
We had a little girl and I thinka lot of people have come to
know us by that. You kind of get marked when you
have 6 boys in a row and then all of a sudden, shocker of all
shockers, you have a little girl.
But yes, we have been going fromthe beginning.
(03:16):
We are just about to finish our 7th year, which has been really
amazing. And so I feel like I've learned
a lot and I still have a lot to learn in that.
But we love Jesus, we love getting to share bits of our
lives on Instagram and really feel like that is just a slice
of the Kingdom of heaven that wecan play a part in.
And I was telling you earlier, but it feels like a joy and a
(03:38):
hobby and a ministry more than it feels like a job.
So I'm very thankful for that. And as long as we can do that,
we have our hands open to that. So.
I love that. It's so funny.
You talk about having your six boys and then your little girl
and your video, your gender reveal video, I had seen it so
many times before. Like it just kind of pops out.
(04:00):
It's gone totally viral. Your response, your reaction to
finding out that you were havinga girl was so much fun.
Maybe we'll put maybe a link to it from your Instagram and our
show notes for those who maybe haven't seen it.
But it's like, I was so excited for you because I have two
girls. And so, I mean, I would love
boys, but girls, there's just something special about a Mama
(04:20):
having a daughter. And so, like, your reaction is
just precious. I love the way I reacted.
It was so genuine. That's what I thought.
Was it was, I think a lot of people were like, wait, didn't
you know, wait how that worked? But we had really planned this
whole thing. So none of us had a clue.
No one in the room had a clue except for whoever blessed the
ultrasound lady that she was theonly person that knew.
(04:42):
And so I remember right when that happened and all the
confetti went and we're all celebrating.
My next words were, well, somebody go get the envelope to
like double check it because I like told her I was like, put an
envelope in there. Not that, 'cause you know, after
six boys, it's hard to believe. It's hard to imagine.
And I think even up until birth,The funny thing was there was
(05:03):
about 10% of me that was like, Sarah, if this is a boy, if it's
just for some reason pops out a boy like you will be OK.
Because it was just almost hard to like, yeah, be like, oh, are
Are you sure? Because none of nothing in my
pregnancy pointed to different, right?
So I was like, OK, that's like trying to get my mind.
But anyway, real sweet moment. Obviously she came out a girl,
(05:24):
so. Yeah, so fun.
I, I, I bet that she is very loved by her brothers and Oh my
goodness, she is going to have some serious protection around
her for her whole life. That's awesome.
So fun. Well, as I was preparing for
this interview, you know, I always pray through and think
through what each interview is going to look like.
(05:44):
And I always have specific questions that it just kind of
guide the interview, though usually we end up going off into
different topics and, and I ask other questions and stuff, but
the Lord really put it on my heart.
And I don't usually do this withmy guests, but the Lord really
put it on my heart to ask you toshare your testimony because
I've never heard your testimony before.
And I, I know that you are a mom, a wife, a woman who loves
(06:07):
the Lord and you are fully surrendered to him.
And so I would love to just hearyour testimony about how you
came to be a Christian and just how that's impacted your life
and your family. You know, how is it filtered
down to your children? So I would like to just hear
your story. Yeah, I love that because I feel
like you've been on Instagram and different avenues that we
(06:29):
talk. I don't get a chance to like
fully say it or else it's more long form.
So you can't just sit down for 20 minutes and be like, listen,
I want to tell you this, so thanks for asking.
I grew up in a Christian home, very loving parents.
To this day, they have a very open door into my life to speak
into my life. Still.
I open that for them and they walk in it very gracefully.
And I'm thankful for that. And I feel like they built a lot
(06:51):
of that in me. Just kind of that teachability
growing up. Not that that's always easy, but
we grew up in a Christian home, love the Lord.
I remember very distinctly, I don't know, 5 or 6 years of age,
you know, accepted the Lord intomy life.
I think I did it about every dayfor like several weeks there
just to make sure we're really stuck like Lord, just want to
make sure I was also, and I'm also a chatterbox.
(07:13):
And so, you know, I feel like I was just reminding the Lord,
like I made this decision, just want to tell you, but that was
my first yes to Jesus. And then to be honest, yes, it's
felt pretty easy through my lifebecause my parents love the
Lord, because all my siblings serve the Lord.
We went to church, we did all the things.
And so loving Jesus came easier,I would say, because of all
(07:37):
those factors. Fast forward to high school.
I remember high school, I, I don't have fond memories of it.
It was very hard. You know, people aren't like
you, they don't love Jesus like you do.
And then there's all the pressures of growing up and all
the things that are happening surrounding being a teenager.
And it was probably the first time in my life I really felt
(07:57):
like, OK, I have to make some different decisions.
And those decisions are going tohave some probably consequences,
like natural consequences, right?
Whether that's separation from friends or just not being able
to be included in things by choice, that happened.
And that also hurt. It also was like, God, like, I
want to say yes to you, but that's really hard.
(08:20):
Like, how am I going to make it if I don't have a good friend,
if I don't have someone to walk with me?
But again, my parents were a very sweet, stable foundation in
my life and they carried us through that.
And I have sisters. And then I got to college and
kind of the same thing, just a little bit more so, right.
You get to college and suddenly you're not under your parents
roof. And the college I went to was
(08:42):
very secular. There wasn't a Christian notch
about it. And I was there playing sports
on a scholarship. So you kind of get dumped into
this team and this group of people that are you're kind of
instant community, not by choice, but also by choice.
And I don't think I really felt like I had a chance to form my
(09:03):
own community. It was kind of there.
And outside of that, if I had a minute outside of playing
college sports, I could try to find a church and try to do all
that, which I did. But there was this one distinct
time when a girl was like, hey, we're going to just hang out
tonight. Like our whole team.
We're going to go hang out with some baseball guys.
And I was like, oh, great, get to hang out with people.
Like, wonderful. Went there, sat down and they
(09:24):
started taking like alcohol orders.
And I was like, oh, this is not a hangout.
This is a party. Probably.
I've heard of these, right? And so just instantly, and I
feel like it was just the Lord protecting me.
I got up and I said, hey, could you drive me back to my dorm?
And she was like, sure, what do you need?
And I was like, I just need to run back there.
And on the drive back, I said, hey, I'm, I'm going to stay.
(09:45):
I'm not going to come back. And she's like, oh, you'll get
used to it. And I said, you know, I don't
think I want to. And that was kind of that moment
of separation in college. All of a sudden, even though I
was in community, I didn't have community.
It was like, oh, Sarah is this, you're not going to be a part of
what we do. So you're not going to be a part
of our friend group. So you're different.
(10:07):
So we don't know if we like that, that you're different.
We don't know. And I would say those two years
of college before I made the decision to come home and quit
my scholarship and say, hey, I'mgoing to go pursue my career.
We're really lonely, really hard, really pressed into the
Lord, really learned a lot aboutmyself.
But you know, when you're halfway across the country and
it's a $500 plane ticket and youdon't have $5 to your name, that
(10:31):
is not an option. And so the Lord really became my
only option. And when I came back home,
things happened from there. But I feel like those formative
years really helped me establishthis super solid foundation.
And my husband still to this dayjokes, he's like, you cannot be
swayed. Like one of the things about you
(10:53):
is like, you do not succumb to social pressure.
Like no matter what people ask if you're like, if your no is
your no and he's like, and you're fine with that.
Like if you miss out, you miss out and he's like, I love that
about you. Also.
You're stubborn. I'm like, I know, I know I am,
but I'm like, I like to think that I'm stubborn for the Lord,
that I'm like so sure of who I am and that I'm not swayed.
(11:15):
And that's something I really hope to pass to my children that
like you can be so confident of who you are in Christ in a
really wonderful way that you don't have to be pulled in every
direction. But the part of the testimony
that I also want to say about that is, yes, there were those
years and maybe they weren't as hard or stretching as some other
people because I had that faith foundation.
(11:36):
But I've thought about this a lot and I thought, Lord, thank
you so much that a part of my testimony is just this
overarching theme of preservation.
Like you preserved me. I love it when people come in
the church and they're like, I was radically saved from this
and this and this and like the Lord turned my life And that is
so inspiring. And I'm like, ah, give me that
fire for you, Lord. But also I'm like, God, I'm
(11:57):
grateful. Like you preserved me from so
much of that. And like, not by any like thing
I did or thing I earned, but like you just gave me that gift.
And so I feel like when I meet people who kind of have a
similar story, like, oh, grew upin a Christian home, nothing
exciting. I'm like, no, that is exciting.
Like you were preserved and the Lord's put something in you to
(12:22):
say like you stood through it, you stayed with me and like
that's something that you're going to be able to build in
your children, build in other people and you're not going to
be swayed because you have that foundation.
And we need that too. We need the on fire radically
saved, but we need the people who have been in it and in it
and stayed in it and done it to stay that way and just kind of
(12:44):
mesh the 2. So that's my testimony.
I love that because I love, likeyou said, there are so many
people who have been radically saved.
But I think as homeschool parents, you know, obviously
most of our listeners are homeschool moms.
That's what we're trying to establish for our kids is a life
of them following Jesus so that they will go on into their adult
(13:05):
life following Jesus. And there's going to be those
times where they're going to go to college, they're going to be
tempted, they're going to get into the adult world, they're
going to be tempted. They are going to be tempted by
the world around them, but hopefully we have instilled the
values of God's word into them so that they can hold tight to
that and continue to chase afterthe Lord when they leave our
(13:28):
home. And that's a scary, scary thing
for us as parents because you never know.
I mean, we have no control over what our kids are going to do.
And you know, I have told my girls so many times, like there
is nothing, nothing in the worldthat would be more devastating
to me than to find out that you're not following Jesus.
Like that's it. And, and praise God, by his
grace and mercy, both of my girls are following the Lord.
(13:51):
And I, I pray that it stays thatway because I don't want them to
experience the hard life is hardenough, right?
I mean, you and I were just talking about this before we hit
record. I don't know how people deal
with life apart from Christ. It's hard enough.
And so I don't want them to experience more pain that's
caused by their own sin than thepain that they're going to
already experience because of the simple world that we live
(14:12):
in. So I love that.
I love that testimony. Let's take a break.
We'll be right back. Have you tried CTC math yet with
your child? Here's a testimonial from
another happy homeschool mom. Amber said.
I'm absolutely thrilled with CTCMath.
It's a rare find that I've used with my children for more than
five years now. I have six children using CTC
(14:34):
Math and each child has found iteasy to navigate and very
applicable. Thank you so much for all that
you are doing and providing quality math lessons for my
children. If you're looking for a great
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That's ctcmath.com. Join Apologia for the Homeschool
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(15:21):
Find this incredible free See Homeschool
resource@apologia.com/bootcamp We are back with Sarah.
You know, before the break we were talking about your
testimony and just how you grew up in a Christian home.
You have parents that you trusted and I think that's
amazing. Again, as homeschool parents, as
a homeschool mom, like that is one of my desires is that my
(15:42):
girls will continue to trust me that I can go to them and they
can come to me and we can do life together.
I I, I've said this so many times on the podcast.
I joke with my girls all the time.
I always make them pinky promiseme.
I trick them into pinky promising me that they will live
next door to me forever. Yeah.
Oh, man, I'm like, you know, it just it, it's a pinky promise
(16:05):
and you can't break a pinky promise.
And so like, that's just how it's going to have to be, but
it's because I want to be able to be there to continue to pass
down the legacy of Jesus into mygrandchildren.
I don't want to parent them, youknow, and I don't want to
overstep my responsibilities, but I do want to be there.
We do have a responsibility as parents and then as grandparents
(16:26):
to carry that on to the next generation.
And so as a homeschooler, I would love to know, you know,
how, how did you even get into homeschooling?
Cause I'm assuming you were not homeschooled yourself growing
up. There was a small stint in
there. So my mom actually did quite a
bit of homeschooling. She homeschooled.
I have there's four of us. She homeschooled us until my
oldest sibling was in 6th grade.And at that point, she just has
(16:50):
told me over there, she just said it became too much.
My dad had a job that he was gone three days, gone couple
days home, you know, on the roada lot.
Well, I shouldn't say on the road.
He was on the train a lot. He was a train engineer.
And so, yeah, he was driving trains.
And my mom was like, it just gothard.
Like it just got really, really hard to be alone and to home
school and to do it all with four children in school.
(17:13):
So she made a decision when my old sibling was in 6th grade and
she kind of dumped us all into school at once.
And so I was in second grade at that time.
So I homeschooled through 2nd grade and went into kind of a
public school in 3rd grade. It was a little farm school out
in the country. We were very blessed and so very
small, very great teachers, verywonderful atmosphere.
(17:34):
But my first introduction into public school from there, dumped
into the public school system intown and then public high
school, public college. So yeah, most of my time is
there from the public school. So, so then talk about your
decision. If you know you grew up in that
kind of a schooling environment,talk about your decision that
you and your husband made to homeschool your kids and what
that journey's been like so far.Yeah, when we had our first was
(17:57):
getting old enough, I just remember telling my husband
probably truly from the beginning to like, I would like
to homeschool our children. I'd like to give a shot, like
give it a shot, right. And he was like, sure, whatever.
But his homeschooling experiencewas really terrible.
His mom, Wonderful. She had had five children.
And on their 25th wedding anniversary, surprise, you're
(18:18):
having another baby. And their oldest is 2223.
Their youngest is 13, and she's 45 and her husband's 50.
And they're now. And they're like, I'm sorry,
Lord, what was that like? You're.
Yeah. So he grew up kind of like an
only child, you know, by the time he's 5.
He was sittings up. He was the surprise baby who's
(18:39):
way younger. And so he kind of did a mix.
You know, there was a time when he went to elementary school and
then his mom kept him home and tried to home school for two
years. And he said it was just not
good. And I think she would say that
as well. It just she's like, my
personality. His personality didn't mesh.
He's like, I remember we would sit in this room and had mirrors
all around and I just had to sitthere and do all my work till
(19:01):
the end of the day. And I'm like, that might be a
little bit exaggerated, but also, but it just wasn't a mesh.
So I think he was a little cautious on that.
He was like, I, I hear you, but like also didn't love it.
So I don't want my kids to be the typical like weird non
social, you know, I don't want them to lose their footing.
And I was like, that's not my experience, so let me try.
(19:21):
So we started and couple things I found right off the bat 1 I
loved it when I was like, Oh my gosh, you couldn't why would I
send my kid to school for this? Like I'm having so much fun
teaching them like this is a blast.
And also kindergarten took like,you know, 30 minutes, so that's
not hard. And then two, as the years kept
going, I was like, I don't want my kids to leave.
(19:42):
Like, I really want a home, babe.
And I would tell him that. And he's like, yeah, if you
wanna keep going, you just do that.
Just know, like, again, not my favorite thing.
So it took and still takes. He still has some things.
I wanna be honest about that. You know, it's not like he's
like this. Yes, we just love it.
We're gonna do it, you know, make sure you're doing all this.
And I think that's okay. I think that's okay.
When someone really feels like Iwant to home school.
(20:04):
He is supportive 100%, but it just wasn't his background.
Yeah. So as time has gone on, he sees
and he's like, you can. You can pay me to put my kids
some girls right now, like they're exactly where they need
to be and they're getting the best education they could.
And he's like, and I see that you love it and I see that you
thrive in it. I also see that they're hard
days. But thank you for making that
(20:27):
decision for our children. Like I'm 100% behind you.
So just as time went on, it was really the gain back time and
truly like, I love this now early days, I loved it.
That didn't mean I wasn't nice sometimes, right?
And like didn't have grace and didn't have my wits about me and
how I responded to some things when things didn't go the way I
(20:48):
expected, especially as kids getolder.
But I've told people recently, we're in year 7 almost and I
told them, are we just finishingseven that I really feel like
grace kind of inserted itself inYear 5.
Like it was kind of like the first time.
I remember like almost day one of Year 5 sitting in our
homeschool room and I was like, this year just feels different.
(21:10):
I feel peace. And I think a lot of it was work
I had to do in myself, attitude,how I speak, adjustments, all
that, how I respond, how I react.
And so that reflected on my children, how they spoke, how
they reacted, how they approach things.
And I just felt a big dose of grace pour over us in Year 5.
(21:30):
And I think that was good because it was like, I want to
keep going, but Laura, I need you to step in and kind of let
me know that I'm still in the right place.
And each year since then, 567, the energy and the fun is in
there. And we found our step, we're
finding new things. And I, yeah, I will say the
(21:51):
latter years have been way better than the first years.
That's so encouraging because somany moms, they want to give up
in the first year. Yeah, so, so often in the first
couple months, they're like, this is just not working for me.
I don't like it, The kids don't like it.
So we're just going to put it back in school.
And so it's, it's interesting that it took, you know, up to
Year 5 and at that point you would have, you would have
(22:13):
either been pregnant or had a newborn, right?
At that time I feel like I was been pregnant every year.
So I feel like yes, no, I think in Year 5, I mean, Jude would
have been about 8 so or yeah, year five would have been yeah,
oh, fifth grade, so about 10. So Jude would have been 10.
So I would have had a 108642 andpregnant.
(22:35):
Wow. Yeah, and you know, the babies,
the pregnancy, that's the easy ones.
Like it's as they get older, right?
But yeah, I'm going into year 8 next year and I'm going to be
adding in my 5th kid. And so we'll have 5A5 grade
span. And trust me when I say every
year I take a big deep breath and I'm like, OK, you're going
to do this. I'm going to add a new kid and
(22:57):
we're going to do. This by the grace of God.
And yes, by the grace of God, and it takes me a few months
usually to find my routine and find my footing in that.
But yes, I am like, guys, stay in it like the fruits start
coming and you start seeing those and it's enough to keep
you going. Yeah, So talk really quickly
then about homeschooling multiple ages because you've
(23:18):
you've got a a pretty decent range there of kids.
How do you manage? And this is one of the questions
we get asked all the time. And honestly, it's a hard
question for me to answer because I have two girls,
they're almost five years apart and my oldest is now graduated.
So really I'm, I'm homeschoolingjust one child.
You know, she's 14 and she's very independent.
(23:39):
And so, you know, it's, it is much easier for me to homeschool
114 year old girl who's mature than to have 5678 kids in my
home, all under the age of 12 who I'm trying to navigate.
So how do you go about homeschooling all of your kids?
Yeah, I think a lot of one. I first want to say trial and
(24:00):
error. I heard someone say something
the other day and when I loved what they said, and it was, and
I want to say it right, it was homeschooling doesn't mean you
do it all. It just means you control what
they're doing right. Or like control, maybe that's
not the right word, but you get to choose what they're doing and
learning that is something. And that is something I don't
think I, I embraced in the firstfew years.
(24:22):
I really took that as I control it all.
I have a hand in everything. I have a say in everything.
My no one can move forward a lesson unless I am sitting by
you watching you. And that became really taxing.
And I those that's when my hard days would happen.
I can't do it all. Yeah, it does, Sarah, because
you literally can't. And so I again, I don't think it
(24:44):
was into your, your 5 or 6 that I really was like, I can't do it
all. Ding, Ding, Ding, like hello,
you can't. And so we started experimenting
with different things, differentways, whether that was, hey,
you're going to do this subject on video, just that one subject.
Mom's going to still help you here.
Hey, we're going to try writing out the schedule for the week on
the board. That worked really well for a
year. This year we're not doing that.
And once I got in this realization that, oh, I can
(25:08):
change it, I can switch things up year to year.
Oh, I, I don't have to hold on to that same thing I did last
year. It worked really well last year,
but maybe it's just not for us this year.
And when I started letting go ofthat and letting my kids kind of
have some leeway in that, like my oldest Jude, you know,
because by virtue he's my oldest, he also loves math.
He's pretty independent in math.And so I used to want to sit
(25:30):
there and be like, OK, today's lesson.
And finally one day he was like,Oh, I already read it.
I already know what I'm doing. And I was like, Are you sure?
Like I, I can help you. And he's like, no, mommy.
Yeah, right. Like he's like, I'll let you
know if I need help. And I'm like, oh, OK, right here
if you need me. And that was good for me.
That was healthy for me. And so from that has stemmed
(25:50):
this. Maybe my 7 year old in first
grade needs more full attention.He needs me to be that parent
LED homeschooling parent, which I was for my other older boys.
Because Jude can do math, Hudsoncan do spelling, and Chase can
work on his language independently, you know, or I
can say, hey, I wasn't getting to history and science because
(26:11):
let's be honest, those read alouds took 1/2 an hour per
person. And we're just, we're not, we're
not homeschooling to be in school for 10 hours a day.
So I could offload that to a video knowing they're getting
far more than I could have giventhem.
But that's hard to let go of sometimes as moms, right?
Like I want to give them the best.
So just going back to that flexibility and that willingness
(26:34):
to change, which is so hard. I think for us as women, it's
really hard for me personally. But once I took hold of that,
like once I took hold, this might sound so funny of letting
each child be on a different lesson.
Like even I wanted to be on, youknow, if we're on lesson 132,
everyone's on lesson. Don't ask me why I don't, I have
(26:56):
no good rationale for that otherthan it's just what I thought
worked. And suddenly this year, my, my
third grader is like, mom, I'm almost finished with my phonics
book and it's not even May. And I'm like, oh, wow.
And he's like, when I'm done, can I be done?
And I'm like, yes, you finished phonics.
And I'm like a little bit shocked, but you know, he's in
(27:17):
lesson 135 on math and I'm like,that's OK.
We're so anyway, just really leaning into what each child can
do, what you can do, and findingthe specifics of that have
allowed me to be a lot freer while still overarchingly
choosing what my children are learning.
Do you have a time in the morning or maybe sometime during
(27:38):
the day where you all come together and do like a morning
basket time or something like that and do read alouds
together? We do read aloud, but it's not
in the morning, it's in the evening.
I actually don't. And it's funny because my my
friends, I have friends that like, I aspire to be like them.
They are so good. They're like at 9:30, we do our
devotional at 10, we do this andI'm like, OK, Sarah, that
(28:00):
doesn't look like your day. But again, going back to that,
but that's not your day and that's not you and that's not
her. And so in years past, we've had
morning Bible verse time, we've had our pledges, We do group
flash cards. We pop up and we're like, let's
run some laps around the house and do some exercises.
But for me, it has been, I won'ttell you that I've done some
(28:24):
beautiful secret sauce in the morning.
It is really just what works each day.
And then we have our read aloudsat night.
That is a hard stop for me. I love reading to my kids.
They love reading and so that's been a real fun thing in the
evenings to gather around for. I love the flexibility of
homeschooling and doing what works best for your family.
(28:44):
And you know, I read, I did readalouds with my girls until my
daughter graduated last year. I mean, I still do them with my
youngest every day. We're actually right now, we're
reading The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel and it's so good.
And she's loving it. It's so funny.
She's totally tracking with it. She's loving it.
But until, you know, my oldest graduated, we still sat down
(29:05):
together every single day and weread together.
And I love that we get to do that, but we do it in our time.
And when I say morning, like mornings for us are like 11:00,
not 8:00. I'm not even kidding.
We're just, we are a late family.
We are rarely in bed before 11 or 12:00 at night.
And so we sleep in late in the morning And it's just, it's how
(29:27):
we roll. But it's great for our family
and we have that flexibility because we homeschool, you know,
they don't. I, I watch the kids walk to the
bus stop every morning in our neighborhood and it breaks my
heart because it's like 7:30 in the morning and it's cold or
it's hot And I'm like, oh, my kids are just snoozing, you
know, in the room next to me. And man, it's, but I, I love
that we get to be flexible and do what works best with our
(29:49):
schedule and with, you know, whatever personality our family
has. So, so much good stuff.
While we've got lots more to talk about, including a, a new
book that you have out called the Well said.
We're going to talk about our words and how we can use our
words in a way that is encouraging and uplifting for
kids. So we'll be back next week to
talk about those. Sarah, tell our audience for
(30:09):
those who maybe are not yeah, following you on Instagram, but
they will be after today, Tell them where they can find out
more about. You yeah, of course Instagram we
share snippets of our life that's really fun for us but we
also have a website, modernfarmhousefamily.com, so
we've just tried to keep it the same and there we share other
stuff like recipes, encouragement.
(30:29):
We have a blog, I have a newsletter and sometimes we have
other fun giveaways and stuff off of Instagram.
So I really like being able to have kind of a couple different
places to connect with people, but we I'd love to connect with
you there as. Well, awesome, I will put those
links in the show notes and you've got some good blog posts
on there and lots of fun stuff I've had fun perusing through
your website. So lots of great encouragement.
(30:51):
We will put those links in the show notes.
Sarah, thank you for being with me.
Thank you guys for being with usthis week.
I am so excited to come back with Sarah next week.
For those who have not yet been to the Schoolhouse Rock website,
you can go to schoolhouserock.com.
Find everything on there. Also, for those who maybe don't
know, we have another podcast. It's a end of sister podcast
(31:11):
called Homeschool Insights, and that is five days a week.
And it's just little snippets from the Schoolhouse Rocked
podcast, but it's from like, youknow, past episodes that are
just really encouraging snippetsand they're usually like 5 to 7
minutes. And so if you just want a daily
dose of encouragement, subscribeto Homeschool Insights.
(31:31):
And you can also find us on YouTube at Schoolhouse Rocked,
the Schoolhouse Rock YouTube channel.
So follow us there, share it with your friends.
We love you guys, have a great rest of your day and we will see
you back here next week. Bye.
You're listening to the BiblicalFamily Network.
Hey, I'm Miki and I'm Will and we're the Co host of the Culture
(31:53):
Proof podcast. We want to invite you to join us
every week as we discuss what's happening in the world and then
filter those happenings through a decidedly biblical lens.
There are many questions, especially when we see what's
happening in our culture today, but the answers are found within
the Word of God, so that's wherewe want to look.
Amen. When we resist those cultural
trends that rival the truth. We remain culture proof.
(32:17):
Do you need to jump on the trampoline while you do flash
cards? There was three years Yvette
where we had a mini trampoline in there because my kid learned
best on a trampoline. He would sit there and he would
jump and I would just hold up flash cards.
Or I would say A says, B says, but you know, we'd do this and
he'd just jump, blah, blah, blahand bounce around and do it.
(32:38):
And he retained it far better than if I was like, sit down, be
quiet, listen to mother.
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