The Radiant Mission
The Radiant Mission
108. From IT to Homeschooling: Michelle's Faith-Focused Journey
Ever wondered how a career in IT could transition into an enriching homeschooling journey? Join us for an enlightening conversation with Michelle Summitt, a former IT professional who swapped her fast-paced career for the intentional lifestyle of homeschooling her two sons. Michelle shares how early retirement ambitions led her family to prioritize quality time and personalized education, revealing her unique approach that draws on her methodical IT background to cater to her sons' differing learning styles. Her story is a testament to the courage it takes to redefine life priorities and focus on what truly matters.
Michelle opens up about the myriad joys and challenges of homeschooling energetic young boys while nurturing biblical values. She emphasizes the importance of meeting children at their developmental level and embracing active learning experiences, such as forest school. Michelle candidly addresses societal pressures on women to achieve perfection, advocating for prioritizing meaningful family interactions over a flawless home. Her insights into intentional living, reducing social media time, and fostering deep relationships offer a refreshing perspective on educational and life choices.
Discover the supportive community Michelle has built for homeschooling families in East Tennessee and her inspirational journey from electrical engineering to biblical counseling. Learn about Tennessee Homeschool, a resourceful website she created to help newcomers and the significance of community support and shared faith. Michelle's practical advice for new homeschoolers and insights into integrating educational travel provide valuable guidance for families considering this path. Stepping away from traditional schooling, Michelle shares her vision for raising godly men and the family's future goals, including counseling couples in their church community, underscoring the impact of faith in navigating life's challenges.
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Hello and welcome to the Radiant Mission podcast. My name is Rebecca Twomey and we are on a mission to encourage and inspire you as you're navigating through this life and with your relationship with Christ. We have been in a series on homeschooling and today we welcome Michelle Summitt. Inspire you as you're navigating through this life and with your relationship with Christ. We have been in a series on homeschooling and today we welcome Michelle Summit. She is a former IT professional and a homeschooling mom of two crazy monkeys aka boys who enjoys homemaking, cooking, sewing and traveling. She is also an ACBC certified biblical counselor and part of her church's counseling ministry and founded tnhomeschoolcom so tennesseehomeschoolcom which is a homeschool resource site for those new to homeschooling in the Knoxville Tennessee area, which I love. She and her husband, matthew, live in rural East Tennessee with their boys, their two dogs and cat. Michelle, thank you so much for being here today. Thank you, I'm excited to be here, Absolutely so.
Rebecca Twomey:let's kind of we'll start at the beginning, which is you had mentioned to me that you had a career in IT prior to transitioning to being a homeschool mama. What inspired your shift to homeschooling, and do you feel like your background influenced your approach to homeschooling at all or has played into your journey?
Michelle Summitt:Okay, well, the shift is a bit of a long story.
Rebecca Twomey:We're here for it Okay.
Michelle Summitt:When my oldest son was two, my husband and I became debt free and at that point we were like Lord, we want to do better. We didn't know what better looked like, but we wanted to do better. So we decided that having time would allow us the opportunity to do better, to serve others, just to live life. So our goal was to retire early. At that point the goal was to, I believe, retire by about 49. So we started living on a quarter of our income. We were both working full-time and continued along that path.
Michelle Summitt:A few years later I think how many years later, it was about five the Lord allowed my husband to slow down and start working part-time in the automotive industry. He was at a large manufacturing plant in Maryville and he was one of, I think, three people who was allowed to work part-time as a professional there, which was just totally the Lord's providence. And in that happening it kind of slowed our life down to where we could start thinking, not just being on that hamster wheel, you know, week in, week out we just got to get stuff done but really thinking about life and how things are done, why we do what we do, which kind of made us think about the church culture we were in and we saw some issues with that and made a major decision to leave that, but then also made us start thinking about schooling. My eldest was in first grade at the time and, as I said, we were both working. He was able to work part-time some, or part-time.
Michelle Summitt:My mother-in-law was taking my boys to school or my older son to school, and by the end of the week he would be exhausted. He would come home with homework every night since, I think, pre-k or kindergarten, and then talk about the Netflix he was watching in school. And as we started to discuss this and talk about it, we're like something doesn't add up here. Why is there homework when they're watching Netflix?
Rebecca Twomey:Yeah, interesting.
Michelle Summitt:And it was never homeschool, was never a thought to us before that. We had some dear friends who homeschooled and we started to talk to them about it and the Lord just put it upon our hearts. Just, we wanted that time with our boys. It's so precious um, the school is not a bad school that they were going to um it's. It's touted as one of the best schools in the area because it's very small and quaint. Um, but we decided that the time was what we really wanted.
Michelle Summitt:So that's really what um influenced the shift and I'd say, as an IT professional, I'm extremely methodical about the scheduling Everything is a spreadsheet, I know exactly how many hours we've done year to date and when we hit that 180, we're done, or 180 days, I guess. But yeah, I'd say I'm very methodical and sometimes I need to learn to relax and take it easy and just let things flow, rather than having you know the the list for the day that must be done. So it definitely influences my style.
Rebecca Twomey:Have you noticed that in either of your boys, with their personalities, do you find that they're like you in that way or not like you in that way? How are their learning styles?
Michelle Summitt:My older son is basically my male clone, so he's definitely like me. So it's much easier to teach him because we're kind of on the same page. But my younger son is much more like my husband. My husband is very sensitive and kind and just has a really big heart, and my younger son has. He's a very compassionate person, he loves people and he just wants to serve people, and so I've learned that I need to meet him where he's at and be more gentle and patient with him than I might naturally be with my older son.
Rebecca Twomey:I think that that's something that a lot of moms need to hear to encourage them along, you know, is that not every child is going to be the same. Every person is different and every personality is different, and figuring out how your kids tick when it comes to how they like to learn and what motivates them is very different and, like you said, it can be easy if they're very much like you. I was homeschooled as a child and I think I was very much like my mom in that I was kind of like you. I was structured, I knew. If I knew what I needed to do, I would go through the list, check it off, get it done.
Rebecca Twomey:But that wasn't always the case for my siblings. They were very different, personality wise, and so when we're homeschooling it's very much about finding that balance right and finding what works for each child. It's not going to look exactly the same. You and I were actually talking right before this about how sometimes it's the toughest for moms who were former school teachers to become homeschool moms, because they have a lot of concerns about you know, they're just used to that structure. But I think this points to that If you can teach many different children 30 even, or 20 or 15, I guess if you're in a good school that doesn't overpack them different learning styles, then you could certainly teach two or three.
Michelle Summitt:Definitely, and they're your own, so you love them. You're going to give them your best because they're yours.
Rebecca Twomey:Absolutely, absolutely. So I want to touch on something else, because you left your career. Then right, you left work to be home with your kids, spend time with them and homeschool them, something that I hear a lot, especially online. When someone suggests homeschooling, you get a lot of comments of people saying, wow, you're so privileged. It must be such a privilege, and I, my opinion, is that it's the opposite. It's a sacrifice. You are very much making a sacrifice because you just went from full-time working right to not. So how, how was that transition? And you know, kind of going from two people working to one.
Michelle Summitt:It was really good. I loved my job. I love the company I work for. I had great coworkers, great clients. It was wonderful. So I certainly wasn't happy to leave my job in that Sure yeah. But coming home and realizing that I had 100% of my time to devote to my family and my home was just so wonderful. I love to cook, I love to take care of my home and I realized how, in many senses and trying to strike that balance, there's only 168 hours in the week, right? You're only given so much and you can't do everything well. So I was able to then put more time and energy into things that I felt like truly mattered. Yes, we didn't have as much money, but it didn't matter, it really didn't matter.
Michelle Summitt:I think, honestly, homeschooling can be financially advantageous in many cases, rather than maybe seeing it as a burden. I think one thing for us was stepping out of the public school system. The materialism is gone. Good point, you don't try to keep up with the Joneses anymore because you're not around them. My mother-in-law buys all my kids clothes at Walmart and it's fine, and we teach them to be content with those clothes, you know, because with food and raiment they would be content. So I think in some ways it might be able to be a financial advantage, actually not a privilege, but a choice. That's great.
Rebecca Twomey:That's a great way to put it. A great perspective is that you know when you're not having to keep up with the Adidas and the other name brand stuff that's out there. And I grew up in South Florida and the high school that was zoned for where we would have gone if I wasn't homeschooled. I mean, kids were driving Lexuses in sophomore year to high school. When you don't have that competition and that you know, am I going to get a Mercedes for my 16th birthday. Think about the savings on the parents' end that then you can reinvest into time together, into doing things together. That's something that I remember about my homeschooling journey as a kid is that we got to do a lot of stuff together. You know, go to plays. We could go to a play two, three days a week if we wanted to, not on a field trip once a year. You know, and I love that freedom about homeschooling.
Michelle Summitt:Definitely yeah, there's a lot of freedom, I have to agree.
Rebecca Twomey:Let's talk about boys. You mentioned to me your little crazy monkeys. I have one boy, so I can attest I have one crazy monkey. Can you share some of the unique challenges that and Joyce, that you have faced, homeschooling two energetic boys, and how you manage their learning and behavior?
Michelle Summitt:I think the energy has been a challenge. Um, I think a lot of little boys are labeled as add or adhd, something like that, when in fact they just have a lot of energy and it takes them longer to work it out, I think, than little girls. Little girls tend to be, on average, a little bit more calm. Um, so just meeting them where they're at Once again. My younger son especially he has to take more breaks. He needs that outside time with his dogs. It's good for him, just really considering where they're at and knowing that that's not going to last forever.
Michelle Summitt:As I said, my younger son is a total clone of my husband and my husband is a very calm and centered person and that's who Hudson will be eventually. But he has to grow into that. He has to learn self-control. These are things they're not born with. They have to learn them. So, just really considering who they are and where they're at and who God has really made them, it's a fun stage, you know. So we do do a lot of outdoor activities going on, hikes, just kind of running around, and that's learning too, and I think that's what you know. We get into this construct that the public school system has created. You know you have to sit at a desk and work on paper in order to learn, and that's so not true. Children can learn a myriad of ways, and for little boys, it's oftentimes going and doing.
Rebecca Twomey:Absolutely. They're a lot more hands-on, a lot more you know, can be a lot more mechanical with things. It's very interesting to see the difference. My oldest is a girl and then my second is a boy, and just to see the difference between the way the two of them think and the way the two of them, you know, do things is very different. But then to see them playing together too is really sweet.
Rebecca Twomey:Yeah, and little boys, like you said, there is a lot of energy there and I love that. You mentioned going outside and just you can learn a lot. I know my sister.
Rebecca Twomey:Actually, the first school she ever did with her boys when they were kindergarten age was called Forest School, where they go learn survival skills out in the woods and they would go I think it was once a week, something like that, for two hours and they would go learn about different types of trees and leaves and rocks and bugs and what was dangerous and what was not and how to be resourceful, and they did this for a period of time.
Rebecca Twomey:It was so funny I somehow ended up visiting her both times that her two older boys were having their graduation from forest school and the parents get to go and kind of see everything and they, the little boys, bring you around in the woods and tell you stuff that they learned throughout their time in forest school and I think that that's such a cool and unique thing for little boys and girls there were girls there too but for kids to have that time in nature and to learn about nature, and that's learning too. And think about the difference between a kid who sit in a classroom for eight hours a day and now these other children who have these survival skills at five years old. It's interesting.
Michelle Summitt:Oh yeah, definitely yeah, and just that, learning by doing right, experiencing it and touching it and feeling it, that's. That's a whole different experience than seeing something in a book.
Rebecca Twomey:Absolutely, and learning how to build things, learning how to climb and that's one of my favorite parts about homeschooling is that freedom? So I'd love to talk to you about how you juggle it all, because I think that that's a struggle for many of us. You mentioned you know the juggle when you were working and now it's still a juggle, I'm sure, because you're homeschooling and homemaking. How do you balance? You know your responsibilities and what advice would you give to other moms that are managing multiple roles?
Michelle Summitt:Yes, one thing, um, the lord's really been putting on my heart lately is that the people are number one, that the people that the lord has put in my house are more important than the house, because I tend to want things to be clean and orderly and just so, um. So I think that that's number one. It doesn't matter if the floors get clean, if the children aren't at peace and have joy in the home. I think the other thing is you, just you can't do it all. I think our society lies to, especially women, saying you can do and have it all and I don't want it all, Like there are so many things that really do not matter. It doesn't matter what kind of car I drive or what kind of house I live in, it doesn't matter really what I look like, honestly, because you know we're to be living for God's glory, not our own. We're to be pointing people to him, not saying, hey, look at me. So just remember what is truly important, even as you invest in your children, in their academics, what really matters and what can go by the wayside. And it doesn't matter if they ever learn it I think we can get. So just locked in that construct of you know I have to teach them everything when we really don't um and just be wasting a lot of time.
Michelle Summitt:And I think I guess another thing that is so easy to do these days is to waste time on social media and different things like that. You know, I know we're talking right here on YouTube, but it can be easy to escape into that and waste that time. I somehow a timer got put on my phone where I get this weekly report. I get this weekly report. I don't know how it got on there, but it is so convicting to see how much time I'm spending on my phone basically messing around with stuff that is really of no value. So the Lord has been convicting me of that. You know, put the phone down and if you have five, 10 minutes there is, there is a task you can do or you can spend some time with a child, just one on one, and and's of so much more value.
Rebecca Twomey:Absolutely. I think that Apple defaulted that at some point where everybody started to get those notifications. I definitely get them weekly and my goal is always can I do less this week on my phone? I want it to be down every week, right, instead of up. When it's up it's not good, but you're spot on here.
Rebecca Twomey:I think it is very important for us to remember what matters most at the end of the day and I think a lot of us get caught up in keeping up with everybody, and that's one of the beauties of homeschooling is when you're outside of the world. In a sense, because you're outside of the you know world's public school system or private school A lot of people go to private school, but being outside of that, you are able to refocus and recenter and create a day that starts with the Lord, ends with the Lord. Prayer is a part of your day. Kids are not getting that in public schools, unfortunately, and it makes a big difference in how we see things around us. Because, you're right, none of this other stuff matters at the end of the day.
Rebecca Twomey:What is the stuff? Our treasures are not here on earth. Our treasure treasures are in heaven and you. That's such a beautiful point that you you made there. I love that and you can't do it all. This is a recurring, I don't want to say argument, but maybe sometimes it is with my husband and I about the house. He gets very frustrated by all the toys everywhere. He was an only child, his mom did everything.
Rebecca Twomey:He never had to pick up one thing after himself, and it's very hard for him with three little kids that it becomes hurricane zone after a very short period of time. And you know, I'm constantly kind of trying to encourage him like, this is, this is how it is and it's not always going to be this way, and one day all these toys are going to be gone and you're going to be lucky if you get a phone call.
Rebecca Twomey:So you know, enjoy that plastic car or toy that you just stepped on, because one day it's going to be a memory for us, you know.
Michelle Summitt:That's true, that's true.
Rebecca Twomey:Now we do have to. There is a level to. If the kids are in bed, we got to make sure to tidy up here here, guy. No, that's just me being neurotic about it, right, let's talk a little bit about your biblical counseling. That really stood out to me. You know that you are an ACBC certified biblical counselor and you know I just want to hear more about that and how your faith has influenced your approach to homeschooling and perhaps how you integrate biblical values into your children's education.
Michelle Summitt:Okay, well, I mean, christ is everything for my husband and I, and the passage that really kind of is always in the back of mind is in Deuteronomy 6, where we are to teach our children when we walk along the way, when we lie down, when we rise up. Biblical education is to be integrated in all of life, and my husband's father modeled this very well. He was a pastor and he and my husband would cut wood together because they used wood to heat their house, as we supplement ours with wood heat as well. So this is something we get to do with my boys now as they're growing. And as they were busy cutting wood and maybe taking a break, he would just say, hey, you think about that passage over there in Isaiah where it says and they would just organically have a conversation about it.
Michelle Summitt:It wasn't sitting down having a formal devotion time, it was just part of their everyday conversation. So we try to do the same thing, but maybe a little bit more formally. We of course, have our standard prayers and our meals, but also we do a verse every two weeks. I'm not so concerned with Word Perfect as I am with my boys hiding the word in their heart so that they might obey the Lord more closely. So what we'll do is we'll have the verse on the board and then we will recite it out loud together and then as part of their writing homework Haddon's doing cursive, he's in sixth and Hudson's in fourth. They each write out that verse a couple of times a week and that kind of reinforces that learning of the verse.
Michelle Summitt:In addition to that, we do a family devotion every evening where we just look at a passage. Usually my husband will pick a passage and sometimes we'll be going through a book. Sometimes he'll just pick out something. Maybe that has to deal with something we're going through as a family or a challenge we're having. Recently we did one on just trying to love people more, because we were struggling with that, and we'll read the passage and just sit down and talk about it. And then we follow that every other night with either singing of hymns or we do a short prayer time where we're praying about something specific, whether it be something we're challenged with or some people we need to pray for, an issue that's going on, things of that nature. So we we try to integrate it really throughout the day.
Michelle Summitt:Each of the boys reads a passage themselves from their Bible and then they come in and they explain to them to my husband not only what it's about but what they learned from it and how they can apply it. And then before bed we do what's called rock and sing. We started this, I think, when Haddon was a baby. We have one of those rocking chairs that their granny bought me when they were little and they both sit on either of our laps, even though it's like probably about 350 pounds on the rocking chair at this point. We sit there together and sing a hymn. They choose the hymn and we take turns doing that, my husband and I, just to have that precious time before we go to bed, just kind of focusing on the Lord again before we sleep.
Rebecca Twomey:That's very sweet. That sounds like a very encouraging day and it probably helps to bring a lot of peace and calmness throughout what could be a crazier day.
Michelle Summitt:Yeah, I mean, I think that's something you know we struggle with having the peace, having the joy, I think, when you just it's easy to get distracted by the world and all that's going on and it can be so overwhelming. So, really being intentional about focusing on the Lord, being thankful for what we do have, rather than pining after what we don't, sometimes we'll do thankfulness for each of us in the family. We'll all go around and say something we're thankful about that person for that day, so that even just kind of encourages that family unity and appreciation for one another. I love that.
Rebecca Twomey:It's beautiful. Now tell me about tennesseehomeschoolcom or tnhomeschoolcom. What inspired you to create that resource for homeschooling families, and can you tell us a little bit about how it helps to support those starting out with homeschooling Sure?
Michelle Summitt:So my undergrad degree is in electrical engineering but as part of that I took a programming class my freshman year and just loved it. I probably should have changed my major and done computer programming. So I've always wanted to like create a site. So once I started homeschooling kind of got my feet under me and kind of, you know, started, got to that point I think I had about maybe three years where, ok, we're, ok, we're going to do this. So you know, to my husband, I want to try this. I want to create a site for new people because, as you know, there are so many people moving here and a lot of them are homeschoolers.
Michelle Summitt:I don't know how much the homeschooling community has grown in East Tennessee, but it has grown significantly. So really my heart was for those who, like, are new to homeschooling or new to the area and just don't understand, you know, because every state has different rules and regulations and how you need to apply really to meet those people where they're at. So they have the tools in one place to know how to either get an umbrella or register with your local district, kind of just how to start out, especially with littles. I think it's so many moms want to do it all right away. You know, they go out and spend like a thousand dollars on this curriculum and then two weeks later they realize that's not a good fit for my kid, you know, and they're super disappointed and dad's like, really, now you want to buy more curriculum. You know, just to help them to focus on what truly matters. I kind of have a list of things in there. You know, in your first year, just do this. You know, focus on those three R's reading, writing. You know, in your first year, just just do this. Um, you know, focus on those three R's reading, writing and arithmetic. Right, we're, we're Appalachian people, right, so we say I love it.
Michelle Summitt:Um, this is really kind of a lot of essential tools discounts you know where you can get homeschool discounts, cause, of course, the money's tight and you got to spread it and you want to go do fun stuff, right, but there's a page for discounts. Um, let's see, I'm trying to think what else is on there. Um, all the co-ops in the area are listed, just so it's. You know, one shop stop, wherever you are they're. They're broken down by county. You can just go and find out what co-ops in your area and pick one. Um. So really just trying to to cater to you know, people are new who don't have their feet on them yet and really have one place where they can get everything. So it's not all spread out.
Rebecca Twomey:I love that. That's so amazing that you did that for other moms and other parents that are getting into homeschooling such a helpful resource and I really want to give you kudos for doing that, because that took a lot of generosity out of your heart to take the time to say you know what. I'm going to go help the next mom to get under her feet. You know that's amazing.
Michelle Summitt:Thank you. Yeah, I think I mean as believers. That's why we're here. You know. Jesus said it's better to give than to receive. We're here to serve others, we're here to point them toward Christ, and that's really, you know, and the site is for anyone. It's not just for believers, of course, but I do kind of cater to other Christian homeschooling moms in it, you know, letting them know which co-ops are more secular. I have a section on faith even in there, encouraging people to be involved in the local church. Do not isolate yourself from the local church. Get involved so you're learning and growing and pouring into others, absolutely.
Rebecca Twomey:Now, absolutely yeah. When I was growing up, there was this A plus wheel thing you mentioned discounts and that reminded me of that where homeschoolers were eligible to get these little circle things that had coupons for kids to go to different places and they would get a discount, like, let's say, they won game bowling at the local bowling alley, things like that. Are there some kind of cool resources like that in this area that homeschoolers can take advantage of? You know, maybe trampoline parks where you go on a homeschool day, or something like that. Is there anything like that?
Michelle Summitt:Well, I know that Dollywood every August does Dollywood and Dollywood Splash Country both have homeschool rates.
Michelle Summitt:Oh, wow, okay, that's cool yeah, and they do it, you know, once the schools are back in session so you can go and it's not as crowded. So it's really great, sure, um? And then one that we love is wonderworks. They'll do every february they'll do a homeschool discount and then periodically throughout the year they'll announce it where you can get in, for I think maybe it would have cost I don don't remember our family like a hundred dollars and we got in for like $44 for the four of us. So that's another one we love because it's a little bit of learning. You know it's fun, but a little bit of learning, so we kind of count it as a school day. And then there's a couple others over in Gatlinburg I think I can't remember if the Titanic might have one and a few other places. So they definitely know we're here and want our business, which is good, so they tend to give us some deals. That's awesome.
Rebecca Twomey:I love it, I love it. So now you are also had mentioned that you're part of your church's counseling ministry how do you feel that your experience as a biblical counselor has kind of shaped your journey? I know this is kind of a similar question I was asking before, but you know, I'd just love to learn more about, kind of how you strike that balance. I'm not sure if you're still doing counseling currently or if this was something that you were, you know, doing previously and have kind of stepped back from, but I'd love to hear more about it.
Michelle Summitt:I actually just started, oh, okay, okay, yeah, I got the degree before I was married, then got married and got real busy having kids and all that, so really wasn't in a place and wasn't at a church at that time that embraced biblical counseling. But my church, first Baptist, lenore City, has a counseling ministry that our pastor started four years ago and it's open to anyone, not just church members, and it's free of charge and they just want to come alongside people who are struggling or going through challenges and really do intensive discipling. So I just got recertified. I have my master's degree in it, but I also just got my certification back. I think it was like last Wednesday, which I'm so excited about this long process.
Michelle Summitt:But I think the primary way that the counseling helps me is a saying that's very common in the counseling community the heart of the matter is a matter of the heart. So whatever outside behavior is going on, what we need to dig down and find out is what's happening inside that person's heart that is resulting in the behavior. If you address the heart issue, everything else will resolve itself. So even with my boys say they don't want to do their work. What's going on? What's really going on? Are they being lazy? Are they confused, are they overwhelmed? What's kind of taking the time to dig and find out what's really going on, so we can address that, so that we can then move forward with what we need to do, what God has given us to do. So I think just that heart focus instead of looking at just the outside, you know, let's dig a little deeper, let's take a little time, for that has really been very helpful.
Rebecca Twomey:That's a great perspective and great advice. What questions might you ask your boys in that type of situation? So let's say they just don't want to do it. What kind of questions or how? How would you get to the root of it?
Michelle Summitt:One piece of advice that I received once that I think is super helpful is ask why five times. And if you keep asking why, you get to kind of what, what's really going on here. The other questions can be just around how they're feeling. You know, help me understand. I guess maybe it's another why question, but why you don't want to. Why is this problem difficult for you? At one point we wondered if one of the boys might need to have his eye checked because he was saying well, it looks a little blurry, right? So it's not that you couldn't do it or didn't know how, you just maybe couldn't see it well. So just kind of looking at it from different angles, you know, how are you feeling? You may be not feeling well. Well, when you're not feeling well, it's hard to do any work, right? You're not feeling well, it's hard to do any work, right. So, considering various aspects of their life, asking questions that don't just have to do with the academics but with the person?
Rebecca Twomey:Yeah, absolutely, because you never know what's going on with a kid, especially if they, maybe one of their siblings, upset them or something like that, and they're just, you know, didn't get over that yet. You're right Asking what's going on with you, why, why are you feeling like you don't want to do this right now? And you're right. It just comes with. Asking some more questions can kind of open that up. So that's great. Now, what about new homeschoolers? What advice can you give to families? You know, whether that's an East Tennessee or not, we have listeners from everywhere. But to anybody that's just beginning their journey, what advice would you give to them?
Michelle Summitt:I think the first thing would be do not, do not, do not try to recreate school at home. Do not take that public school structure or order and try to recreate it, because I guess one thing I've really noticed is it seems like there's a lot of encouraging children to regurgitate information rather than to truly learn, than to truly learn, and I think it's much better if you learn a few things well than being exposed to a large amount of things and really not understand them. You know there's a difference between just reiterating something and really understanding it. So don't try to recreate that public school system. I would even say in the first year I think it's good to have other homeschooling moms that you're associated with so you can ask questions of people who are veterans in it. But I wouldn't even encourage a co-op.
Michelle Summitt:I think you need to get your bearings about you in that first year, as your family culture has changed so much bringing those kids home. Family culture has changed so much bringing those kids home. So you can just really kind of get to know one another again and enjoy one another's presence and just be free to hey, let's not do school today, let's go to the park, you know, simply because we can. So just taking that time to slow down and figure out how you're going to do it you know what it's going to look like for you all and just get acclimated with the process I mean, I remember I changed curriculum, I think twice in the first year and not having anything else going on was so helpful.
Michelle Summitt:We don't do a lot of extracurriculars even now, and it's just so nice to have that freedom, that time to really just think and consider your ways, because our culture does not encourage that. I don't think at all. If the world has its way, we'll just be running around like chickens with their heads cut off and really not saying why am I doing what I'm doing? So just that slowing down. Even. One thing I say on the side is don't buy any curriculum, and I know that might sound a little crazy, but there's great things out there, like Easy Peasy. It's an online homeschool developed by some great homeschooling parents. That's absolutely free and you know you can start there and then decide okay, you know, maybe we're going to consider something else a little later, but don't commit to a lot. Really, take it easy.
Rebecca Twomey:I'd love to talk on the child side too. It sounds like your oldest went to school first, before he was homeschooled, but your younger child was homeschooled from the start. Is that correct? How was your son's experience going to school and then transitioning to homeschooling? Did he have a hard time with it? Was he excited to be homeschooled? And then, how are things in public? I know this is something I run into a lot with my daughter. Oh, how is school? What school do you go to? Have you started school? She gets those kinds of questions all the time and she's still little, so she's learning how to say well, I'm homeschooled, I homeschool. So tell me a little bit about that with your oldest.
Michelle Summitt:So initially he wasn't like vehemently opposed to it, but he did not like the fact that he would be leaving what he perceived to be were his friends. From my perspective, these kids were not great friends to him, they weren't really his friends, but he perceived them to be his friends. So he was constantly saying, hey, can we get together with so-and-so? Can you call so-and-so's mom, so-and-so? You know it's kind of hounding me that, I think you know.
Michelle Summitt:After he kind of understood the value of us being together and the opportunities I remember early on we would just go on hikes we have these great hiking trails along the lake here and we would go on hikes like every Thursday. And once he started to understand like these are things we can do because we're not in school right now, where everyone else is, you know, and the fact that there is pros and cons to everything in life, he really embraced it to the point now where he loves our family culture and he's okay with where we are in life in terms of kind of a lot of lack of socialization. But it's just he's accepted, you know. He's, I think, very content in what God has done. And what was the second question?
Rebecca Twomey:Yeah, I guess I was just what was it? I was just asking about his experience because I know that a lot of parents that is their concern, right Is that they feel called to bring their children home, and a lot of it does have to do with them feeling like there are negative influences at school, because that's who is influencing their children, right? Other kids. And if other kids don't have, you know, certain roles at home, maybe they're showing other kids things that they shouldn't see at a young age, stuff like that.
Rebecca Twomey:We don't know what happens when our kids are not with us, right, and I think that is a motivator for a lot of parents is to bring their kids home, to not have, you know, that capability for their kids, that they might be exposed to something too young. But it can also be hard for the child to understand that we're protecting you, right, we're protecting you from a potential situation that we don't want you to be in as a young kid. So I guess it's more. My question was more around this idea of understanding that it might be easy for some kids, it might be hard for others, and you know it's our job as parents and moms to help them navigate that. Oh, the second part of the question was around other people asking him, you know, do you go to school? Or asking him questions about school? I'd imagine at this point he's been homeschooled for so long. Then it's probably nothing to him, you know.
Michelle Summitt:Yeah, he's very. You know, well, I'm from school and you know. And then they're like yeah, you know. So, yeah, he's able, yeah, and and you know the whole socialization thing he is able to interact with adults very well. You know, I think that the the peer influence is the lack of exposure to things that most kids are exposed to. Like you know, he was in youth group and some of the girls were talking about Taylor Swift. Okay, the child doesn't know who Taylor Swift is. We don't listen to Taylor Swift. So he was like who is this Taylor Swift person? They were just rolling, you know, because they're like you don't know who Taylor Swift is, and he's like no, you know, he was fine with it, good for him.
Rebecca Twomey:He doesn't need to know who she is, and exactly that is the kind of thing that you know. We're talking about the difference between being in the world and not and it's the Taylor Swift thing. Honestly, I could have a whole episode on Taylor. I could probably do a mini series on Taylor Swift. Just on how swindled I feel. Man people are gonna be so mad when I say this because you know how culty the T-Swift fans can be but how swindled I feel like young people are, and not even young people people our age that love Taylor can be about her and her music, but the truth is that she's not the same little girl that she was back in the day. She's in a different era and they're anyway.
Rebecca Twomey:There's a lot of um, a lot of very negative influences and I mean, heck, just listen to her lyrics for one song and tell me that your six or seven year old should be listening to it. Which six and seven year olds do listen to her music? And I definitely don't agree with that, and one of the reasons that I, you know, caution people about public school and going to this is that then your, your kids, are going to be exposed to this stuff. So all right, we'll get to something more fun now. You love travel. How do you incorporate travel into your homeschooling experience and you know what are the educational benefits that you have found in exploring new places as a family?
Michelle Summitt:Well. So I think I told you about, you know, our financial journey, but didn't end it. We retired two years ago, so we have nothing but time on our hands. Thank you, it's. It's been amazing and it's, honestly, primarily because of my husband's very wise stewardship. I have to give him the credit. Um, but because of that we we are able to use time in a way that a lot of people aren't um, because we have it to spend.
Michelle Summitt:So we actually just came back from two weeks in DC and so that was pretty much our history lesson for the year. Sure, I bet, okay, because the boys are reenactors at Fort Loudoun. So we and you know every time, if you go there on a Saturday, you'll you'll see my boys doing their thing, but just really getting to take the time in Washington. I know a lot of people will go for four days or whatever, and you barely get to glimpse at things when you're there for that short period of time. So even the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History was my older son's favorite. He loves, loves, loves history. We went there twice because we had the bandwidth to do it and just not just looking at things but learning about them. For example, the Washington Monument. You see about a third. The way up, the stone color changes. Well, that was because of the Civil War. They stopped building it and then they couldn't get that stone from that quarry again because it had been deplenished and uh, so they had to choose other stones. So that's why it changes.
Michelle Summitt:You know, just kind of learning those important things, going to arlington, the tomb of the unknown soldier, and explaining to the boys why that's there and why it's so important and so sacred that we honor those who have served, and just taking the time while we travel, not just going to see things and check that box right, we saw it move on to the next thing but really understanding the value of that place or whatever it is. So we really like to do, like, education travel as opposed to amusement travel, not that we never do amusement. One of our hotels had a pool and my younger son just ate that up, know swimming. I think that was one of his favorite things. Um, but really, um, I guess, quality over quantity. We have a long list of various national parks and some revolutionary war battlefields that we want to go to. So we're, we're kind of just starting that journey, but really taking the time to learn while we're there, not just seeing. I think is very key.
Rebecca Twomey:I love that you're doing that. That was seriously one of my favorite parts of being homeschooled as a child myself was my mom loved all that stuff too Jamestown, going to Plymouth, going to the battlefields and just talking about our own history right here in America, because there's a lot of it and I think it's very different reading a book than it is traveling to a location, learning about the actual history and the sites and people that were involved in these scenarios. I love that. Your boys love to reenact. That's very cool. I'm going to have to go see them. That's very neat. Have you guys been to Jamestown?
Michelle Summitt:We have not been to Jamestown.
Rebecca Twomey:Oh, they would love that?
Michelle Summitt:Yeah, I think they probably would. And even for those, you know, I don't want to be a discouragement, if you know, I think with the economy, the way it is, travel is not as possible for a lot of people right now. There is so much here in East Tennessee, there are so many state parks and historic sites I mean, the list is just forever. So it's like you can take a day and go somewhere and it's just a wonderful blessing, you know, and you don't have to spend a lot of money Like we'll pack the lunch, you know, we go to a state park or whatever and go hiking. It doesn't have to be expensive to be wonderful. It doesn't have to be this big grand thing to be a benefit.
Rebecca Twomey:Absolutely, absolutely. So I would love to ask a little bit about community and support. You've mentioned co-ops. What has really been the role of community, either through your church or your local homeschool groups, or co-ops in supporting your homeschool journey?
Michelle Summitt:So we try to co-op. I'm trying to think what year it was maybe our second or third year and for us it wasn't the best fit. I didn't feel like my boys were getting much out of it compared to what I was putting into it as a teacher. So as a result of that, and kind of in association with the website, I formed a Christian homeschool fellowship group here in East Tennessee. We meet here in Loudoun County and at our highest I think we maybe had about I don't know 40, 50 moms and kids meeting once every other week. We needed a park or we needed a community center and we just sit there in fellowship and a lot of that fellowship is around encouraging each other in the journey and helping each other.
Michelle Summitt:It was one Saturday or Friday recently where we all brought our curriculum so the others could just take a look at it, especially because my son's the oldest now in the group.
Michelle Summitt:So as some of them are kind of coming to those middle school years, they're saying, hey, well, what should I do for math? Or what should I do for English? And I brought them what I use and said, well, check this out, see what you think you know. And then I was thinking about switching my younger son to a different math, about switching my younger son to a different math. So one of the ladies brought her daughter's math because they're in the same grade and I was able to touch it and, you know, get hands-on, which is way different than I think looking at it online. So just really having that community of women to support each other and encourage each other and pray for each other is so vital I think and you know I'll do Bible studies now and then in the group sometimes but sometimes we just leave that time open so we can talk about whatever's on people's hearts, whatever they're struggling with and so forth, and be an encouragement.
Rebecca Twomey:That's beautiful. That's such a wonderful thing for other moms to have, especially new moms who might have a lot of questions. You know might be struggling with something so fantastic. I love that. Now let's talk about the future. You know, do you have any as you continue to homeschool? Do you have any future?
Michelle Summitt:goals or anything else that you would like to share with listeners today. Hmm, I think for the boys we're just really wanting to you know. If you ask them what is our goal for you, and they'll say that we want to grow up to be godly men. That's the goal, that's number one in everything we do. You know, we hope they go to college, but if they don't, that's okay, as long as they honor the Lord in whatever they go to college. But if they don't, that's okay, as long as they honor the lord and whatever they choose to do, work wise and provide for their families. So really just equipping them to do that.
Michelle Summitt:Academics are important, but they need to have their place. They need to do well within their ability. But even that is within reason, right. You can take something to an extreme. For example, my older son plays the fiddle, not the violin. He's an Appalachian boy. It's the fiddle for him and he'll tell you that. And even in that it's like what are you going to do with it? How are we going to honor God with this? We're not just playing the fiddle for the sake of playing the fiddle. Maybe you can join the orchestrated church. That would be a way you can honor the Lord with it.
Michelle Summitt:So really just being very practical about the journey. About the homeschooling, one thing we envision is they'll probably finish high school around 15 or so, maybe really taking the GED, maybe just taking it, you know, like a practice one to see how they do, and then using those additional years between, say, 15 and 18 to maybe do some dual enrollment or maybe just learn some hands-on practical things that will help them going forward. So just trying to use our time very wisely and be very intentional about the time, not learning for the sake of learning, but learning with a purpose in whatever we're doing. The other thing we're really passionate about is, you know, I'm certified, of course, as an ACBC counselor, but my husband's going through the certification, so our hope is that once he gets joined in the counseling ministry at our church we can counsel couples and come alongside them and encourage them in their marriage and their walk with the Lord. So just really hoping to get more involved there with the time.
Michelle Summitt:God's given us.
Rebecca Twomey:Beautiful. I love that. Congratulations to both of you guys and anything else that you want to encourage listeners with.
Michelle Summitt:Just don't give up. Keep your eyes on the Lord. Do not give up. Like it, there will be bad days, there will be hard days. You know your mom's cranky and tired. If you get too cranky and tired or whatever it be, just all that's swirling in the world, I think you know. Especially now we're in an election time everybody just gets hyper, every. You know it's, I don't know. Things get a little bit crazy, but it's like no, god's still in control and no matter who wins, no matter who's in charge, his will will be done, you know, and we are his children and we can rest in that. We can trust that he has our best in mind and it will come to pass.
Rebecca Twomey:Absolutely, Michelle. Thank you so much for being here and sharing all of your wisdom with us today.
Michelle Summitt:Thank you, it was really fun, thank you.
Rebecca Twomey:Awesome, and you can find Michelle at tnhomeschoolcom. Thank you so much for tuning in and for being on this journey with us. If you'd like to follow along outside the podcast, you can do so on Instagram, facebook and, of course, you can watch on YouTube at the Radiant Mission. And today we are going to close with Michelle's favorite verse that she shared with us this week, which is Hebrews 4.12. And she mentioned that she loves this verse right now because God's word is so essential to the Christian life. It's the only book that can literally change someone's heart and has all of the answers to life's issues. So Hebrews 4.12, for the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and the attitudes of the heart. We are wishing you a radiant week and we'll see you next time. Bye, everyone.
