The Radiant Mission
The Radiant Mission
101. Why Homeschool? Insights, Challenges, and Encouragement for Parents
In this episode of The Radiant Mission Podcast, Rebecca and Rachel dive into the world of homeschooling, sharing their personal experiences, challenges, and tips for creating a balanced, effective, and joyful homeschooling environment. They discuss how homeschooling differs from traditional schooling, the importance of developing practical life skills, and how to nurture creativity in children. Whether you're a seasoned homeschooler or just considering it, this episode offers valuable insights and encouragement.
Listen in as they share stories about their own children, from mastering cooking skills at a young age to the adventures of a craft kit with endless possibilities. They also tackle common concerns, like structuring the homeschool day and fostering patience as a parent-teacher.
Don't miss the helpful resources and tips on finding local homeschool communities and online support, making homeschooling a more connected and supported journey.
Key Topics:
- The evolution of schooling from pioneer days to modern times.
- Deconstructing public school myths for homeschoolers.
- Practical tips for integrating life skills into your homeschool day.
- Encouragement for parents considering or currently homeschooling.
- How to find local and online homeschool communities.
Keywords: homeschooling, homeschool tips, life skills, creative learning, parenting, education, Christian homeschooling
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For the full show notes, including links to any resources mentioned, please visit The Radiant Mission Blog.
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Hello and welcome to the Radiant Mission podcast. My name is Rebecca Twomey and I'm here with my amazing co-host and sister, Rachel Smith.
Rachel Smith:Hi everyone.
Rebecca Twomey:We are on a mission to encourage and inspire you as you're navigating through your life and with your relationship with Yahweh. And today we are talking about a super fun topic homeschooling yeah, yay. So for those of you that may not know, rachel and I were actually homeschooled when we were kids. I was homeschooled all the way until I started college at the age of 16. Rachel was homeschooled until high school and then she went to public school for high school. So we have varying degrees of experience with homeschooling.
Rebecca Twomey:Rachel's going to share a little bit about kind of her journey going into becoming a homeschooling mom Not really her plan, but she did and I was a big fan of homeschooling and then am doing that. So you know, we're going to just talk a little bit about that today, about really our journey with homeschooling and kind of how we've started with this process so far and kind of. The goal is just to encourage you if you're thinking about getting started with homeschooling or considering it and you have kids that are elementary school age. That's mostly what we're going to be addressing. We can certainly address the other stuff the older kids in a future episode, if you're interested. So send us a text. You can do that now on whatever podcast you're listening to. Just click that, send a text and say, hey, do an episode on this with homeschooling, or I have a question about this. We'd be happy to answer questions or talk more about homeschooling.
Rachel Smith:Yeah, yeah. So, part of our lives.
Rebecca Twomey:Yeah, it has been. And also if you want to hear more about why I started or how I started college at 16, let me know if you want to hear more about that, because that's kind of the segue out of homeschooling into what's next and maybe that could be. I'm sure that could be its own episode all in and of itself and that process, so we're going to jump into it. You actually discovered something very interesting and it's that when you are not working on formal schooling not working on formal schooling your kids actually like take a leap with their learning, tell us about that for a minute.
Rachel Smith:Yeah, so I noticed that with my oldest, everett, and he is eight now and when he was around six he would say he couldn't read yet because I hadn't done reading lessons with him yet. And I remember he would say all the time like I don't know how to read because my mom hasn't taught me. And so then I was like, after he said it a few times, I'm like okay, I really need to teach him to read. And he seemed very interested, and so he was probably getting close to six, or it was between six and six and a half, I think somewhere around there and I started doing reading lessons with him and the book I use and I love it is called Teach your Child to Read in 100 Lessons.
Rachel Smith:In case anyone is interested, whether you homeschool or not, if you have a kid interested in learning to read, it's such a good resource. It's a book or it's online. It's a book. You can actually get it on Amazon. It's like $30 and it's so easy. I'm the type of homeschool parent that I have found. I like the type of stuff that tells me exactly what to do. So it really has the lessons modeled that everything in red is what the parent reads. And then you point to do a lesson every day.
Rebecca Twomey:And you got hey, you cut out for a second, go back to the parents, are in red.
Rachel Smith:And then what you said oh, the, the parents are in red, and then it shows, like you point here, for the kid and it just breaks down every, everything to do, uh, and it just makes it very simple and straightforward and lessons are super, not that long and actually everett might have been closer to seven now that I think about it, because the reason I realized he might have been closer to seven is because we got about halfway through this book we were a little over 50 lessons, because it's 100 lessons. And then I got pregnant with Haven and once I got pregnant I was so sick and he was in first grade and I could barely do anything. I couldn't even get out of bed the first few months. I was so sick, and so we essentially took a pause on all school. I felt like that homeschool year was just. It felt like a flop because I was newly pregnant. I literally found out I was pregnant September 1stchool year was just. It felt like a flop because I was newly pregnant. I literally found out I was pregnant September 1st. So it was like we were in the school year two months or two weeks, but I had been doing these reading lessons with him over the summer. So I guess it was between kindergarten and first grade when I had started this with him. So anyway, all that to say, once I got really sick, the school year was a wash almost at that point, because then we moved and it was just a lot going on and I felt so guilty about it. I kept feeling guilty like he's going to get so behind and first grade.
Rachel Smith:I will also say this kindergarten and first grade. I think people put too much pressure on themselves as a parent, as a homeschool parent, and on the kids. If they're done with first grade and they have a grasp on reading and can write and know their numbers and maybe do a little addition, I think that's a good place to be. But they don't need to be like a scholar and have like all these different. I mean this is just my opinion, um, yeah, but anyway, all that to say, I was feeling really guilty at that point because this is my first experience and he's my oldest. And then I noticed one day he was just like reading all his kids books himself and then I noticed he can like read every sign in the store and he's just constantly reading all the time and we hadn't done any lessons in like two or three months and then I kind of like sat back and I watched him and I had us read some stuff together and I realized like he can read everything and it really-.
Rachel Smith:He learned how to read. It only took 50 lessons, Exactly. So you can teach your child to read 50 lessons, but I think everyone it could be different for each child, but in my experience what I saw is I gave him the initial introduction and the basics. That's also what I really like about that curriculum is it doesn't teach sight words, it teaches sounds and as the kids can learn each one of those it's like, then they start figuring out how to sound any word out once they learn those.
Rachel Smith:So I thought that was really cool and I didn't really. It definitely changed my perspective as a homeschool mom on giving kids space, letting them have breaks. And so now, two years later almost, he's going to be in third grade this fall and I have my second is six and I decided in his kindergarten year to start the reading lessons with him so much earlier than Everett because I kind of felt like I was late on it and I had felt guilty about it. So I'm like I'm gonna start early with Maverick and Maverick pushed back so much more, like it would be hard for me to do reading lessons with him sometimes because he'd be like no, I don't want to do it, and this is another thing that I think is really helpful, for that I this is my homeschooling philosophy, and again, everybody can have a different philosophy, but sometimes I think it's.
Rachel Smith:It's nice to hear this from someone else and I talk to. Other homeschool moms have heard it that we don't have to push and pressure our kids every day if they're pushing back on something, because I don't want my kids to hate learning, I don't want them to hate reading, I don't want them to hate writing, and unfortunately, everett was a little bit more of my guinea pig that I would kind of pressure him to do stuff more, even when he didn't want to do it. So then with my second, when he came around and I realized, oh, they're going to learn it anyway. About it, we can be like hey, if you're having a hard time with this right now, then we'll take a break and we'll do it later. And if later he's still just not being cooperative with it, instead of punishing him for that, be like we it tomorrow.
Rachel Smith:I don't. I don't take school as a way to punish my kids and so I struggle, and I also gave maverick a lot of grace because I realized I was starting him younger and he had less of an interest and a desire to learn to read, and it was really me kind of trying to prompt introducing it to him and he was essentially saying like I'm not ready for this, but the reason I kept trying to do it is he got everything. So all of that came to the springtime and he was really pushing back a lot more and we were almost at lesson 50. And I Not lesson 50.
Rachel Smith:50. And I Lesson 50. Yeah, lesson 50. We didn't even get to lesson 50 with him and then he was getting so upset more often than not and we were skipping more days than we were doing, that I was like you know what, we're just going to take a break. And so we didn't do it for the last month or so of the school year. And then summer started and he's constantly saying I don't know how to read, I can't do that, I don't know how to read. He says it all the time. It's so much. So about a month and a half or so ago it was at the beginning of summer Everett took it upon himself that he's like I'm gonna teach him to read. In their room was doing a reading lesson. I just heard him yelling at him. I hope I don't sound like that. It doesn't sound like me, but what did he say?
Rachel Smith:you're never getting this yeah, you're never gonna get this, and then never was like you can't and anyway it was ever. It just came out and he's like he's not listening to me and I'm like I don't know what to tell you. Bud, it was hard for me. Welcome to the club, nice try. And so that was kind of the last of anyone trying to formally teach Maverick. And then in the past several weeks they have these kind of comic style books that are really popular with kids and Everett is always reading them. He reads them over and over again and sometimes he reads them to Maverick. Maverick. And I noticed Maverick. He sits there and I just figured he was looking at the pictures and he's like mom, look at this. And he just starts reading every single word on every page and I'm like you're reading all that. He's like no, I don't know how to read, I just know all these words. That's reading buddy.
Rachel Smith:I just remember it. I'm like reading is literally memorizing.
Rebecca Twomey:That's what it is.
Rachel Smith:And so it's so funny because with both of them I guess this was my very long-winded way which hopefully had some encouragement in it that when we take a break and I take the pressure off, they just explode in their learning. And I said with Everett, I feel like he taught himself to read, I just gave him the tools to do it. And kind of the same with Maverick he taught himself to read. He didn't like having pressure of someone making him do the lesson, and that's just a really cool thing about homeschooling and I do think it's important to take breaks. And yeah, that's just a really cool thing about homeschooling and and I do think it's important to take breaks, and I actually, before the summer, was thinking about doing year round school.
Rebecca Twomey:A lot of homeschoolers do that where you don't year around, year around school.
Rachel Smith:Yeah, yeah, where you.
Rebecca Twomey:I thought you said you're, you're into school and I was like I have never heard of that before Year round, year round school.
Rachel Smith:Okay, so you don't take off in the summer.
Rebecca Twomey:Isn't that what you did?
Rachel Smith:I did because I never got any of my work done. Yes, but the concept is to take longer breaks throughout the year, especially in months that the weather is nice, when you can be outside more. So like take all of December off or, you know, take all of you know, just you take long breaks throughout the year and then do it over the summer.
Rachel Smith:So I was thinking about that before this school year, but then I just really realized like we all need a break. We all need a break. We just really realized like we all need a break.
Rebecca Twomey:We all need a break.
Rachel Smith:We're taking a break, we need a break, we need this summer break.
Rebecca Twomey:So yeah, so well, yeah, that's awesome and those are some good tips, and I don't even think that I've had a chance to even talk to you about this. We actually have been doing Hooked on Phonics with Brooke because she okay, so she's four and a half. When she was three, we were doing the Duo ABC app, which kind of teaches you letters and stuff like that, and I had gotten some preschool and one kindergarten workbook from five below of all places and she completed all of those books, all of them. There was like five or six of them. She loves to do quote school. She's always like mom, can we do school? And what I've learned about her is that she prefers to be hands-on with me and have like one-to-one time where I'm doing things with her, versus go on an app and like go through it. Even though they're gamified and all that, she doesn't care about that. She gets very tired by it quickly. So, anyway, she finishes all these books and I'm like I don't know what to do next. And I kept getting all these ads for Hooked on Phonics and she kept saying things to me similar to your boys, like well, I can't read that yet, I don't know how to read yet, funny enough, she actually has memorized some books and she doesn't know how to read, but she knows what some books say and she won't even look at the pages and she'll just repeat what she knows is on that page. So that's why I know she's not reading. But I kept getting these ads for Heptanphonics and so I'm like all right, well, maybe we'll do this to kind of just you know, supplement for now. And the way that it works is you can use their app and then they also send you a book like a workbook, and they send you two readers I think it's like every month or something like that and so the first month went better than the second month. I'll just say that the first month she would do the app, but then she would get tired of doing it the workbook she loved doing and she would do with me and we got through that book fast. Then the second month comes, I lost the workbook and she refuses to do the app because she doesn't like it. She doesn't enjoy, refuses to do the app because she doesn't like it, she doesn't enjoy. That's not how she likes to learn. And so I've gone back and I'm going back to finding books that she can practice writing her letters and stuff like that, cause she still needs some work on the actual letter.
Rebecca Twomey:She can spell her name. She can spell. The first word she ever learned how to spell was blippy, because blippy's a genius. In his episodes say kids, how do you spell my name? B-l-i-p-p-i, so she can spell blippy and mika and brooke and mom, dad. There's a couple of things that she can't already spell, but you know, just working on her letter. So I figured we'd do that for now. I'm glad you told me about that book, because now maybe I'll get that instead. And she asked me I want to do school. Mom, can we do school? But she doesn't like apps and I don't blame her and I don't want her on screens anyway. So it's fine by me.
Rachel Smith:Yeah, and you also find with curriculums or at least in my experience, is you start one out, whether it's an app or sometimes even workbooks that we do, that we start out really strong and like everybody's excited about it and then like a month in yeah, they're over it, we're all over it. So yeah, yeah, that's and and me just as much as them.
Rachel Smith:I, I've, I've done that a lot with, I guess, she has another year till kindergarten, but you she does start anything whenever you want as you feel she's ready. But a really popular kindergarten curriculum is called kindergarten math with confidence. It's really popular, okay, and it's highly recommended. I got that one Actually, I think I still have it, and you can have it if you want to try it, because I hated it.
Rachel Smith:But, you might like it, because actually it might be great to start with her now, even before kindergarten. The reason I hated it is it felt way too easy, like I remember Everett at kindergarten level was like why am I doing this? Because it would be like which of these lines is longer? And it was very hands-on lessons and so it kind of felt like both him and I were like why are we doing this? This is a waste of time. Because he knows all of it.
Rachel Smith:And so it gets frustrating, and it didn't even feel like it was because he was so advanced. It just, to me, felt like more preschool. That's funny, but other people love it, and maybe it's because it's like these building blocks of harder concepts, so I've yeah. That's the whole thing with homeschooling, though, is curriculum hopping.
Rebecca Twomey:Totally, Totally. And you know I do want to throw out there that I am not advocating for pushing kids too young to do things at a young age. The only reason why I have done any of this is because she's asked me and because she's shown interest in this and because I know she can because she literally sits down and writes in colors all day long and she's trying to write words and she writes people letters and she writes what she knows and it's not always letters that make up actual words and so I'm trying to encourage and help her along in that process because I know that's what she's trying to do but, like you, it's very much like she doesn't want to do it. I'm not going to be like you have to do this today, you don't want to do, but, like you, it's very much like she doesn't want to do it. I'm not going to be like you have to do this today, you don't want to do it. Okay, I don't blame you if the app seems harder, and there are times where I'll sit with her and it's what I'm realizing is the challenge for her is it's the same thing, Like they're teaching word sounds and I think sometimes she just has a hard time associating that with the words that she that she's being given because it's all new and so when she gets she does a couple in a row.
Rebecca Twomey:She gets them right.
Rebecca Twomey:If she gets one wrong, she's like totally turned off by it and then she doesn't really want to do it anymore, and so it's interesting to see how that demotivates and just to learn her personality, because that's part of our jobs as homeschool moms is to learn each of our kids' individual learning styles and really learn how to work with that, versus force them into something. Our listeners may not know this, but I used to teach college writing and when I was in my master's program I started off in English education before I just changed to English and so I started out learning about learning styles and the importance of understanding how people learn and that some people are visual learners, some people are auditory, some people are kinesthetic, which means they like to be more hands-on. There's all different types of learners and it's funny because you know, I can see already my son is two years old and I know he's totally different than Brooke, right, and even Brynn she's only one, but I can tell that they're all very different, Just like your kids are different, Everybody's different.
Rachel Smith:You and I were very different learners. Oh yeah, and I remember you hated math and I hated English and I remember flip-flopped. Yeah, when I was it was when we lived in New York, so I must've been five or six you hated doing your math problems and you would have me do it.
Rebecca Twomey:Yeah, well, also that would help me get done faster, so we could play Barbie.
Rachel Smith:Yes, yeah, you would have me do them and I was like a six-year-old probably barely had any schoolwork yet, because I was probably in kindergarten.
Rebecca Twomey:Yeah, I don't even know if you were even in. You would have been already at least in kindergarten, but you probably barely had any work to do. And I just remember being like hey, do you want to do this? And you were like, yeah, I'll do that. Yeah, because I loved math.
Rachel Smith:Yeah, and that's. It's funny because Everett, my oldest, is so much like me and I thought he was going to love math, like I did too, but he hates it. Math like I did too, but he hates it, he hates it and it's. And just I bring up you and I as kids because this past year, maverick being kindergarten and Everett being second grade, we had, I had them doing a computer curriculum and there were so many times where Everett was sitting at the computer, frustrated doing his math problems, and Maverick would be shouting out the answer across the table.
Rebecca Twomey:And you're like, oh, I remember that he's got to get it Listen just tell him it'll all work out in the end.
Rachel Smith:It'll all work out.
Rebecca Twomey:I didn't prioritize math and it still somehow managed to work out in life.
Rachel Smith:So yeah, yeah, exactly so yeah, it's homeschooling. With us having the background, we can understand a lot of it in some ways, and it also to me. It's funny that I'm doing it because I never particularly enjoyed homeschooling or maybe appreciated it is the better word as a kid, and I get it now. You loved it and you loved learning and getting all your work done months in advance.
Rachel Smith:That's how you always worked, but I don't know if you remember this or maybe it was just me Looking at kids who go to school like, almost like the Little Mermaid, like I want to be a part of your world. Like it seemed like so, just because we didn't know what they did, like riding on a school bus or like being with other kids all day, like it just seemed so intriguing and I remember wishing and wanting to do that that's funny.
Rebecca Twomey:I did not feel that way. I felt the opposite. I was like I don't want to have to get up early and go anywhere because I have never been an early bird. From the time I was a young child until now, I don't like to get up early. And the thought of getting up early and being around strangers, believe it or not, I was pretty introverted as a child.
Rebecca Twomey:You know, growing up I wasn't super outgoing. I got embarrassed very easily. I wasn't out, you know, just outgoing in the way that I felt like I needed to be if I went to school. So going to school to me seems like a punishment. It didn't seem like something that I wanted to do at all. Yeah, so it's interesting. I just had a different perspective.
Rebecca Twomey:I liked being homeschooled. I liked doing my work as fast as I could so that I could go do other things. I was always into crafts and different activities. So, you know, I cross-stitch, I loved reading, and so I wanted to get my schoolwork done so I could go, stick my nose in a book and just read as much as I could. You know different ages, I had different interests, but I'm thinking about when we lived in Florida, which is where we lived as kids for the longest period of time, and it was like I just wanted to read or do some whatever craft I was into at that time, whether it was cross stitching or sewing or something. But that was the cool thing about being homeschooled is that I felt like you could do whatever you want once you're done with your work, you really own your own time.
Rachel Smith:And it's one of the reasons I ended up changing my mind and wanting to homeschool is just wanting my kids to have their childhood to own their time, essentially, and and also. But it is funny because I hear my kids now saying sometimes we have an elementary school like right across the street from us, and they're like I want to go there and I think about how I felt at that age and so I get it. But I just say things like do you realize that you would have to wake up at like six in the morning and be out the door and we'd have to be over there by whatever time? So the same thing you said and I'm like and also, you get 20 minutes to eat lunch, because my kids have never taken less than an hour and a half to eat a meal in their entire life, like they would never make it in school, they wouldn't get to eat.
Rebecca Twomey:Yeah and I I think the allure is there for a lot of kids that are homeschooled, Like I know for Brooke. She's only four, she can go to school if she wanted to. But people say that to me in front of her all the time. They're like, oh, or to her oh, are you excited to go to school? Yeah, and I'm like guys, have you met me before? Have we met ever? Because you should know that I'm all about homeschooling and it's just interesting because then it gets in her head and then of course she's hearing all these kids A lot of her little friends are five and so they're going to school for the first time. Or even kids that aren't in kindergarten, If they're going to pre-K, they say they're going to school. So she hears that a lot, that kids are going to school, and so she'll say to me sometimes mommy, am I going to go to school? Or when am I going to go to school? And I'm like, well, you actually already started school, girl, and it's at home homeschool.
Rachel Smith:And I don't know. This is it, this is it.
Rebecca Twomey:This is it, this is where you are. But you know what's interesting is, she always tells me that her favorite place to be is with me and that she doesn't want to be away. And so sometimes I'll say, she's like, am I going to go to school? I'll be like, well, you know, you would have to go there for the whole day and I would not be there. And she's like, oh well, then I want to stay here with you, and so that's kind of sweet.
Rachel Smith:But she'll probably be over that by the time she's five. Yeah, yeah, that's true. I offset that desire in this past year by so, for kindergarten and second grade, having the boys go to a co-op. True, that's true, except it's at a church. It's really small classrooms and they learn extracurriculars and to me, I really like it too, because it's things that I'm really I would have a hard time teaching, like Spanish and music and art.
Rebecca Twomey:So has that helped? Did that stop you that stop?
Rachel Smith:yeah, I want to go to definitely did so much so that maverick doesn't even want to go there. All he wants to do is stay home. He doesn't want that like he. Yeah, he, and it's funny because he does really well there and he has friends and he has fun. But then he he's like I don't want to do this and but I I do. You know, we were always involved in homeschool group stuff like that when we were kids and having classes, and so I do find value in that.
Rachel Smith:And that's the thing as a homeschool families is you utilizes the resources that you have or that you can afford, and I think that there is an important of uh, not just the socialization, but also making friends. Everett loves it way more than maverick and he has all these friends there. So it's, it is really, it is really great. And then it's only once a week for half the day, so it's not. It's them going to school, sure, sure, yeah. So maybe one day Brooke could do something like that and quote unquote go to camp.
Rebecca Twomey:She went to gymnastics camp and after the third week she was like no, I am not going back there, you are not leaving me here, we're not doing this. And so this summer she did VBS. She did not want to go to either, because she did not want me to leave her, and I had to stay for a little while and she ended up doing fine, but then after the week she was like I'm done, I don't want to do any more things. And so it is interesting that she wants, she has the interest, but I know that she's just not quite ready.
Rebecca Twomey:And you know, I always think about back in the day and I'm not talking about like when we were kids back in the day, I'm talking about pioneer times, when school was invented.
Rebecca Twomey:You know, the Laura Ingalls Wilder times yeah, shout out, little House on the Prairie and how school has kind of adapted and started. You know, because prior to the one-room schoolhouses and we're talking late 1700s, early 1800s that formal school really came to be. Kids didn't go to school, kids started work, they worked, work, they worked from some children five, six years old working on the farm helping the family collect eggs or milk cows or whatever it might be, and then some kids even going out with their dads, like boys, would go with their fathers at nine, ten years old to go do activities that were work related. And when you and I are such homeschool nerds that we've been to a lot of one room school houses to learn this history, we've been to the first school house in the state of Florida and a couple of others and we were probably dressed up in dresses like they would have worn at those times, and we were probably dressed up in dresses like they would have worn at those times?
Rebecca Twomey:We probably were. And it's just interesting because, to think about how things were then and you were not sending four-year-olds, three-year-olds, four-year-olds, five-year-olds you weren't sending little kids like that to these one-room schoolhouses. Those little children were still home with mom. You were sending maybe seven-year-olds until they were working age, so probably 10 or 11. And they were going to these classrooms and starting to learn some basic skills and things like that reading and math and over time. Now, what a school You're starting when you're born and you're there until you're 25 or 30. If you're going to get your PhD or whatever, you're spending the first 30 years of your life in school, in classrooms and things like that. So it's very interesting how things have changed.
Rebecca Twomey:And I think one of the big things with those that are considering homeschooling, those that want to homeschool but weren't homeschooled and don't have a background in homeschooling, is they don't you know, they don't know how to structure the day and they're like what does that look like? You know? What do you do all day? And that's my favorite question to answer, because I'm like first thing, you need to deconstruct what you think about school, because the purpose of public school is to have a place for your children to be while you're at work and they keep your kids busy the whole time. And yeah, of course they're learning things. It's not to say that they're not going to learn stuff while they're there. It's not just childcare, it's not what the purpose of school is. But when you're homeschooling you're not sitting children down doing formal lessons from 6 am until 3 pm. That's just not how it is, and if that is how you're teaching them, you must be tired.
Rachel Smith:My kids would riot. They wouldn't allow for that.
Rebecca Twomey:Exactly, and it's much shorter periods of time doing educational things, teaching lessons on, say, writing, reading, math as they get older, history and other subjects, bible, but then there's a lot of other stuff mixed in, like for us when we were kids cooking. You wouldn't think that that was something that, but that's a very valuable skill. These days, a lot of people don't know how to cook and we learned how to cook as small children and we would make ourselves lunch every single day, and not that we were like making gourmet you know Michelin meals or anything like that but we knew how to use the stove, we knew how to use the toaster oven, the microwave, we knew how to boil water and read the steps to making a recipe and things like that, and that's an important skill for kids to learn. That teaches you about math and it also teaches you about science, because you're learning about reactions and things like that.
Rebecca Twomey:When you're doing crafts or you're building things with clay or you're drawing something or you're building something out of sticks, I think about this kit that Brooke got. That's just listen. I put this on her list. So I want to be clear that I asked for this craft kit and it's like 500 million pieces of crafts to make crafts with Right. And one day I thought I'd take this thing out and I'm like she loves doing crafts. I'm like, all right, we're going to do crafts. And I opened the box and they're like this is the best craft kit ever, because it's just stuff and you get to make up what you make. And I'm like, no, how am I gonna think up ideas like I need, I need instructions, I need something. And then Brooke is like, uh, can we make a picture frame?
Rebecca Twomey:I was like she's got the ideas. And so then there's popsicle sticks in there. We glued those together. She decorated them with some stuff and glitter. And then the second thing can we make mermaids? And I was like, okay, we'll figure it out. So it's funny because she has like the creative idea. And then I'm like the adult, trying to figure out how we're going to do this with this craft kit. But think about how that is teaching her and it's teaching me too at the same time. You know, and it's the same type of thing that she would be doing if she was in preschool right, she'd be doing crafts. But we're doing them harder because we have to figure it out for ourselves.
Rachel Smith:Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And that has its place in development too, because children's hands, their bones are soft and not even fully fused for them to be able to write super neatly until they're developed more and the more that they handle. You know, fine motor things of gluing and sticking little decorations or playing with clay, like that's strengthening their hands, like all of it is education. So yeah, it just. It just looks differently for us at home, but you know we we kind of get it done in less time and then they bounce off the walls the rest of the day, my kids anyway.
Rebecca Twomey:Yeah, her favorite thing to do right now is use scissors. That craft kit came with scissors. Oh, that's a huge developmental thing she loves she wants to cut out everything. So she likes to draw things and then cut them out, and it'll be like I made a pocket. And then she likes to cut out everything. So she likes to draw things and then cut them out, and it'll be like I made a pocket. And then she likes to use tape too, so she's like I'm going to tape this pocket on you.
Rachel Smith:Like okay, I can't even keep tape in my house anymore. Like you know how, you always have tape around for wrapping a present or something. I have no tape because my kids are always finding every roll of tape that they can to tape things together in some kind of craft or something. I even so much as like this is my tape. I bought you a pack and only this one is mine. And then they run through all theirs, have none left and they're going for mine, and then I never have tape. I can't even wrap presents anymore's also the thing with the scissors too. Brooke probably won't do this, but maybe ben, when he's her age is. Maverick was mine that at that age around four, when he discovered a love for scissors, went around the house cutting holes in every single blanket that we own, like every one day. I'm like why don't all of our blankets have?
Rebecca Twomey:holes in every single blanket that we own.
Rachel Smith:Like every one day, I'm like why don't all of our blankets have holes in them? Like, how does everything develop holes at the same time? Almost, like you know, they're all wearing out. And those were all those like shabby chic, expensive blankets. Oh no, I was so mad and I realized he was doing it with scissors. Oh, my gosh, that's so funny, he's also the one that cut his hair down, his scalp right in the front.
Rebecca Twomey:I hate to say this, but I did recently find a hole in a blanket. Sorry, I better watch this. I actually had to hide the regular scissors because Ben does know where. He knew where those were. They were in this drawer and he would see her with them. So then he was. I was like no, no, no. So I had to put them up where neither of them could get to them. But I'm going to have to watch these blankets. That's nerve wracking.
Rachel Smith:It is. I still use them with the holes, because we still have some with holes in them. I just got over it, so that's funny.
Rebecca Twomey:All right. So any final tips or thoughts on homeschooling that you want to share?
Rachel Smith:So I think for me you know I mentioned before how homeschooling was not necessarily my plan, that I didn't appreciate it enough growing up and my experience with it, and I might have said before that the reason I decided to homeschool is the pandemic started when my oldest Everett was going into kindergarten and I just couldn't imagine sending him away from me and having to wear a mask and be at a little desk with all this plastic around him, like I just couldn't imagine doing that. So I really kind of felt like in that moment I was being forced into it. But I remember a good friend of mine actually I am friends with her from since high school and she was homeschooling at that time and we were just kind of chatting in DMs and she was so encouraging to me that you are the best teacher that they could have and that God gave these kids to you. And I remember feeling so encouraged by what she said that now I'm the mom saying that to other moms who are thinking about homeschooling, but in that same place of like afraid to do it, like I can't do it. I remember for me I thought I could never teach a kid to read. Well, here I am I've taught two kids to read, because you know what the kids teach themselves to read. Yeah, that's the message, but I just want to offer some encouragement of whatever place you're at, you know whether you homeschool or not.
Rachel Smith:Like I'm not necessarily trying to sell homeschooling and even some people in homeschooling we have struggles. It is not easy, and one thing I hear people say a lot is I could never do that. I don't have the patience. Let me tell you, I do not have the patience either. I never have and I never will. I never will.
Rachel Smith:The beautiful thing about homeschooling is that we grow with our children. I have grown more patience. It has been good for me. I definitely have my moments where I'm getting super frustrated on working on something with them and, like I was saying before, those are the times whether it's one of my kids struggling or me struggling that I step back and I'm like, hey, we homeschool, we don't need to get frustrated over something like this, we can come back to it. So I really think that anyone who has a desire to do this can, and it's a great time in our culture to homeschool too. There's just so many resources out there that have never been available before. So I just I hope that this could be you know, we might've been all over the place a little bit and also just kind of chit-chatting about our own experiences with it and just an introduction really but I hope we could be encouraging that we can all. If I can do it, anybody can do it. It's really the moral of the story.
Rebecca Twomey:Sure, and I'll point some folks to some resources, because I know it can be tough Go on Facebook and look up local homeschool groups in your area. That's a great place to find local homeschool groups. You can search for Christian homeschool groups in your area. Ask around at your church or at the local churches that are around you to see if they have co-ops and programs. It has honestly never been easier. You could just Google homeschool groups in my area, co-op homeschool groups in my area, and come across stuff. There are a million Instagram accounts that are dedicated to Christian homeschooling too, so definitely just search the web, because there's a lot of people that you can connect to. Funny enough, our mom was actually on a homeschooling forum when we were kids. I mean, this is like the internet was not what it is today.
Rachel Smith:It was just a black screen with green letters. That's what the internet was like then remember.
Rebecca Twomey:I'm pretty sure it was homeschoolmomscom or something like that and she made some great friends and had just had other people to talk to about her experience, which I know really helped her through that time. So definitely get connected to some folks in the homeschool communities around you, or even virtually, because that can help a lot as you're going through your journey, to just not feel like you're so alone in it. But yeah, anybody can homeschool anybody.
Rachel Smith:Yeah, absolutely.
Rebecca Twomey:Awesome. Well, we are so grateful that you listened to this episode. Like Rachel said, hopefully you took a nugget out of this. We were a little bit informal today, but hopefully there's something here for you to take home and homeschool on or not. And if you'd like to follow along outside the podcast, you can do so on social media, as always on YouTube, instagram, facebook at the Radiant Mission. And today we're going to close with Proverbs 22, 6, train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it. We're wishing you a radiant week and we'll see you next time. Bye, everyone.
