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There's a ton of reasons that people choose to homeschool their kids. And today my guest is going to share what
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made their family of four, pack up everything, move into an RV, and travel across the country and do just that. I'm
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Jacob Gooden, and this is the Exhomeschoolers Club, where we talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly of
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growing up a homeschool kid. If you're new here, welcome. Glad it's your first
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time. And if you're returning, hey, how's it going? Welcome back. So glad to
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see you. Before I bring my guest in, I've got a favor to ask. If you have not
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signed up for our email newsletter, I would highly appreciate it if you did. I send out every two weeks when these
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episodes come out, a newsletter just with things about the episode, a little bit more of a deeper dive, um, as well
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as some resources, books I'm reading, things I'm watching, stuff that I find
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interesting. So, if that's interesting to you, top link in the description, in
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the show notes is going to be to the newsletter. And with [music] that, let's
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get into our episode. >> [music] >> All right, Kayla, welcome to the Ex
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Homeschoolers Club. I'm so pumped for [music] you to be here. Normally, I talk
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with ex-h homeschoolers. Today, I'm talking with like a current homeschool mom. Um, but welcome to the Ex
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Homeschoolers Club. I'm going to give you an honorary pass here. [laughter] >> Hi. Thank you. It's great to be here.
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>> So, tell me a little bit about how you got into homeschooling. Um, we talked
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before about you guys having some some issues with more of the public and traditional school settings, but kind of
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give us your story of like what led you down the path of homeschooling and and and why why basically?
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>> Yes. So, our journey started even before my son was in school. So, he was in
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preschool and was getting in a lot of trouble. Uh he had an issue with biting and that is an absolutely not acceptable
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thing in daycarees or any school setting and he would always be in a fight orflight mode. So if he was getting in
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trouble or he wasn't getting something done, he would either run or fight his
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way out of it. And that started pretty I want to say he was about three or four years old when we started really having
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some issues and we took him to several different daycarees. One of the daycarees we took him to um
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he got into a bite was biting. He was put into the principal's office. He spent
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hours in the principal's office. Um, he when I went to pick him up, he was still in the principal's office. He was
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by himself. There was nobody there. He was balling his eyes out. He just had a handful of Legos to play with. And
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that was it. And I found the principal. I asked her what was going on. She's
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like, "Nobody has been in here. I don't know why he's crying." She said one of
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the teachers had, my son had said one of the teachers had grabbed his face and it
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scared him. Like, well, this is absolutely unacceptable. you can't be doing that. So, they kicked
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us out of the school. We had to find a new and this was preschool. So, we had to find a new
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preschool. Within two weeks, he was in trouble for biting again. Was kicked out of that school. And he didn't understand
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what was going on. He was very concerned about why do these teachers not like me? Why am I not
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allowed to go back to this school? Mom, what did I do wrong? like he did not understand what was going on. We had him
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tested to see if he was on the spectrum, but because he was only four years old,
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they he was too young and they couldn't determine whether or not he uh was on
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the spectrum or not. So went to another daycare, still getting into trouble, still unable to
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like the punishments that they have are you can't go on field trips, you got to
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be in the corner, you got to go to the office. Like >> so he just felt very alone and didn't
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understand why. We get him into kindergarten at the public school, same thing. He's alone. He's getting in
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trouble. He's in the principal's office. I mean, kindergarter getting suspended
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from school. Um, so the summer between, let me back up. By the time we got to kindergarten,
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um, I had been talking to a friend who had said, "Maybe get him on an IEP. Maybe
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that'll help." So, we did that. We I mean, we tried everything. Like, so we
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got him on the IEP. We went through and talked to all the teachers, the principal. We were in the rooms talking
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to them all the time trying to get this figured out to help him the best that we
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could. And by the summer going from kindergarten into first grade, he was so depressed
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and he had overheard me talking to my husband about an incident that happened at the um in town
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where somebody had fallen asleep in their car and summers are hot, windows up, the person actually passed away from
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being in their car and my son overheard me talking about this to my husband. him
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and he told my son told the day daycare teachers that he was going to sit on the
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bus and just stay there until it got too hot for him. And hearing that from the daycare teachers,
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the daycare teachers are the one that told me that I am a nurse by trade. And I know from schooling that if you have
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somebody who is talking about suicide, the first thing you need to ask them is, do they have a plan? Because if they
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have a plan, that means they're serious. They're not just willy-nilly talking
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about it or bringing it up as a joke. So, I asked him, I'm like, "Honey,
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what's going on? Like, are you serious? Like, do you have a plan?" And he said,
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and this breaks my heart. He said to me, "Yes, I'm going to stab myself in the
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stomach." >> And I said, "Baby, you know that's going to hurt really bad." And he said, "I
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know, but then this will all be over soon and it'll end quickly." And that's
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when I knew he needed some serious help. Like he didn't understand why he was
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always getting in trouble. He didn't understand why the teachers didn't like
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him. He didn't understand any of it. >> We took him to a counselor who decided
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he needed to immediately be admitted. And he spent a week in the hospital in a behavioral health trying to figure out
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what was going on. He was diagnosed with disruptive mood dysregulation disorder and ADHD.
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and he did have a hard time being in the hospital setting. Uh we were told he was
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throwing chairs and he was he struggled there too. And but when he was sent home from the hospital,
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they didn't send him home with a psychiatrist. They just gave us medications and said good luck. Like
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okay. And the medication that they gave us was not he struggled with it. like he went very
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lethargic immediately. >> So, we called the hospital. They're like, "Sorry, you need to find a
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psychiatrist." Well, they're all booked out. We couldn't find one right away.
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So, we had to go to his um family care provider until we could get into a psychiatrist, which was months later.
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So, it was about uh January of his first grade year, and he was upset with school. And like I said, he goes into
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the fight orflight modes, and he decided to run away from school. and they had to
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send the police out to go get him. We called his psychiatrist. The psychiatrist had him admitted again. And
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this kind of behavior continued on. We kept trying everything, meeting with the IEPs,
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still dealing with suspension, still dealing with just all of the behavior issues. So, fast forwarding into he went
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into an intermediate school. until he was in the fifth grade and at this point he's 11 years old and
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there's not as much tolerance for behavioral issues, >> right? >> And he's still having the same issues.
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And we were told when he left the elementary school that if he doesn't figure this out, there's going to be
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some serious repercussions. And we saw that within his fifth grade year, he got into
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a fight. Um, and the parents of the child that he was fighting with decided they wanted to
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press charges against him and he was suspended from school. So, we got a lawyer. We're going to fight the
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charges. I mean, he's only 11. We didn't want him to already have a record. and
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we made the decision to put him in a school for autistic children. Even though he doesn't have the diagnosis of
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autism, we decided that that was probably what was going on and that was the best route to go. While he
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was in the school for autistic children, he did what he has been known to do and
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he got into another fight. At this point, a teacher's aid said that she was in fear of the other child's life
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because he had put that child in the headlock. So, he from there was arrested and taken to Lutheran Social Services
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where we had to uh have a custody hearing in order to get him back into our care.
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And we had a six-monthlong legal battle to fight not only the charges that were on him that the parent of the uh child
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had pressed on him before, but now we also had felony assault charges because of he put a child in a choke hold and
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that is a very serious offense. After six months of the legal battles, um he was deemed unfit to stand trial due to
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his age and his diagnosis. And at that point, we had hit our breaking point. Like we just could not keep going down
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this path. It was obviously not working for him. It wasn't working for us. We're
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spending thousands of dollars in legal fees. We have tried everything. Doctors, hospital, we didn't know what else to
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do. So, we just decided to sell our house, move into an RV, and start homeschooling. And initially, it was
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just going to be an eight-monthlong reset. And it worked and things got better. We've been doing this for three years
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now. >> Wow. Well, firstly, that it it's a heavy story, but I thank you for sharing and um Absolutely. I'm
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glad that I'm glad it's nice when things have a happier ending. Um, and it seems
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like it seems like things have turned around and that's that's good. And we're
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going to talk about more more about that. So, >> leading up to that, had you considered
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homeschooling before just selling everything and moving into an RV or or were you really no, you were like,
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>> "We're going to just find a school that works at some point and that's going to
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be the route." >> I don't know anything about homeschooling. I didn't I didn't want to
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relearn all of that. I had no idea what I was doing. So, but I mean, we had hit our breaking point. Was like, "All
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right, well, we're going to figure it out." >> So, that first kind of year of doing it,
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what like I I come from a homeschool family where my my mom very much built our curriculum. She chose every little
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piece. I think the first couple years she maybe had like, hey, I'm just gonna
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pick a curriculum brand uh and and pull everything that they have, right? Um but
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how like tell me a little bit about that because because you how old are your kids now?
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>> Uh my son is now 15 and my daughter's nine. >> Okay. So yeah, I mean and you're you're
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still in it. So, it's very much like it things have changed, I guess, is what
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I'm trying to say. But I was homeschooled back in I graduated in 2014. Um, and and things like that. So,
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so how easy was it to find your first set of curriculum where you're like, "Okay, I'm going from like I have no
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clue what I'm doing when it comes to the homeschool world to like, okay, we're
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rocking and rolling. We've got the first set of stuff. Even if it's not working,
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you're like, okay, I at least got curriculum on the table that I can use."
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>> Yeah. So, I went to Amazon and I just went to find some workbooks that were
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appropriate and I was just winging it. My mistake that I made that first year was trying to mimic
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how the school system sets up their curriculum. So, I had it set up where we're getting up at this time. We are
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going to do this class at this time and we're going to try and get through this
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many pages until this time and then we're going to switch and go to this topic and then we're going to switch and
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go to this topic. And these books, they did not come with a teacher aid with it. So, I'm trying to go
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through my son's fractions like I don't I don't know. We [laughter] have to look
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this up. Like >> Yeah, you did. You had the workbook, but you didn't have the teacher guide to go
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with it. >> I just had an answer key. >> Yeah. I Yeah. You were like, I don't
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know the the steps between. >> Yeah. Like I don't know how they got there.
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>> No, I feel I I relate to the kind of mimicking the public school system
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because I started homeschooling when I was in second grade. I was 8 years old. And um and my mom kind of did that, too.
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She kind of was like, "Okay, we're going to do the very like we're going to be up
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at 7:00 a.m. and we're going to be at the table by 8:00 a.m. and and we're
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going to, you know, do math for 30 minutes and get this much done and then we're going to do this for 30 minutes
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and then this is an hour and, you know, all these different things." And she had
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this grand plan in her head >> and within, I don't know, maybe a week or two, that whole plan just got thrown
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out the window. She was just like, "None of this is working." Um, [laughter]
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we were all frustrated at each other. We were pissed off. I had already gone to public school, so I just wanted to be
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back with my friends. Um, but >> it was definitely >> it's definitely a learning curve right
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at the beginning where you're just like, okay, like this this isn't working. So,
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so as things weren't working, what what's going through your head? Are you
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like how are you solving this problem now that you've created again for yourself where you're like, okay, now
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nothing is working still. So, traveling around the country, I actually went to go and pick up an Amazon box.
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Uh, and you know, when you're traveling, it's not going to be delivered to my
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house. I don't have a house anymore. So, I have to go to a station to go pick up
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my Amazon. And while I was there, I was just chitchatting with the guy. It was like a Wednesday in the middle of the
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day. He's like, "Why is your kid not in school?" Oh, well, I'm I'm
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homeschooling. and he started telling me, "Oh, I homeschooled my kid for so
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long. This is the issues that we had." And we just got into a conversation and
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he was like, "We used this online program and it was really great and it really helped my kiddo." I'm like, "I
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didn't even know that existed." So then I started researching it. I'm like,
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"What are these online schools look like? What is there that's out there for
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them? What's, you know, what is available to me? How much does it cost?" and I found
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a program that I really thought looked interesting and we we started with a couple of different
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ones that were free first and the kids really enjoyed that a lot more than the workbook. So, we started
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with a hybrid of the workbooks and a free online program. And my kids really gravitated towards the online
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because it was more animated. It was easier to follow. So then that following year, we're like,
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okay, we're going all in on an online program. And it really worked and it really helped. And even with my son
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being in high school now, the program that they have is more interesting. and the way they present it is more
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entertaining. So, he'll actually sit down now and knock his schoolwork out. He doesn't
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need to ask me about any of it because if he has any problems, he can re rewind it. He can rewatch it. There are more
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options for him to help him get through it. And then same with my daughter. If they have problems, they do still come
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and ask me and I will help them as much as I can. And if they don't understand
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something, they do have that option of redoing it. So if like they failed it, okay, you failed it, you didn't
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understand it, just do it again. No big deal. >> Versus in the school system where you
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fail it, you failed. >> Right. Right. We're already on to the next thing. Yeah. At that point.
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>> Yeah. No, I I I agree. I think that's one of the things that like my my math
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program was on DVDs and Yeah. I would sit there with the remote and I'd be like, I don't understand. Like you
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talked about fractions. fractions was hard for me too. I like would sit there and rewind and rewatch and rewind and
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re-watch, you know, and um and yeah, I think my parents very much believed in the the learning style of like learn to
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understanding right like you're just going to do it over and over and over again till you get it. And and if you
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got to do it a couple different ways, you'll do it a couple different ways. But like
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>> you're going to get there and it's important that you understand this,
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especially things like fractions, right? That's something we kind of use, maybe
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not in our everyday lives, but we we use that a lot. [laughter] >> Yes. >> You know, there's a lot of things like
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that where it's just like, you know, it actually is much more valuable to do
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like you were saying the repetitive over and over and over, go back, rewind, have
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mom as a tutor is is helpful where it's like, mom, I really just don't understand this lesson. Okay. Well,
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let's let's look at it together and let me see if I can explain it a different
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way. I can imagine with the internet it's definitely it's I mean I still ask the internet a
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bunch of questions about stuff I don't know. So I'm sure that getting the
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answers you need is way easier now than it was back then because even if you don't understand a lesson I'm sure you
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could find a YouTube video of somebody explaining a different way that makes a lot more sense. And that's one of the
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things that we try to teach too is instead of that memorization and being able to word vomit all of the
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information, being able to figure out how to find the answers, >> right? >> Which I think that's important. If you
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don't know how to find the answers, that makes things even harder, especially as an adult.
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>> Yeah. >> You can't memorize everything. When I got to college, my uh one of my
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professors my first semester was like, "In this class, you were going to become
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expert Googlers and you're going to know how to do everything." And that was sure
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enough, by the end of it, we knew how to find anything we wanted on the internet.
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If we needed to get in contact with somebody, we could find their email. We could, you know, anything you wanted to
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know about that person, we could we could pretty much find it. Um, we knew how to internet stock, which probably is
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not [laughter] >> Yeah. >> the greatest thing in the world, but we we knew we knew how to find a lot of
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information and it was it was important. We got the answers we wanted. Um, I was
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going to ask too with being on the road and you know there's a lot a couple of the families
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that I've talked to who have done the RV homeschool life, they they kind of they
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do this cool thing where they pair what they're learning with places they're
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going on the road. Um, could be Gettysburg, could be, you know, anywhere in the anywhere in the country,
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sometimes anywhere in the world. Have you guys done anything like that where you've focused in on, hey, we know we're
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going to go to this area. Let's learn some of the history there or or do you
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you use the RV experience as more of like, hey, we're going to learn a bunch
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of stuff when we get there. >> More on the second side. We're just going to learn a bunch of stuff when we
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get there. And then it does correlate with things that they're learning later
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on. So, we have done when we went out to the east coast, we did Paul River's
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Midnight Ride and we went to Lexington, we went to Concord, we did go to Gettysburg, and when my daughter did
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eventually get into those lessons in her history class, she was able to uh relearn all of that. So, she had seen
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it before and she's like, "Mom, I'm learning about Lexington and Concord and
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I've been recording all of our travels and things we do and I've been putting
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them up on YouTube." So, when we got to that lesson in her schooling, she was
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able to pull up the YouTube video, recall the memory of what happened, and go, "Oh, yeah. I remember that."
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>> That's awesome. I I love that because like I'm also like Revolutionary War
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history is so interesting to me and and that was my one of my biggest areas of study and so in more recent years doing
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a lot more East Coast travel and like seeing these places like I went to Boston last year for the second time and
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I was just like, "Oh, this chapel was that and this this street is important
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because of this reason and and all of those things kind of came flooded back because that pairing the the knowledge
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that you have with like an actual task or a place or something is just like >> I it really locks it in. I've I've come
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to realize it just really locks it in the brain where you're like, "Okay, I've
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got this now." Um [laughter] >> and um I I Yeah, that's amazing. I I
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wanted to ask going back to your son a little bit and kind of some of the some of the mood things and the and the ADHD
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and and um I know it's undiagnosed but potential autism in there and things like that. How have you guys learned to
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navigate that? Because you know the things like mood swings and and getting in fights and and some of the the things
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that trigger those those responses. How have you guys learned to like manage those and maybe come out of some of the
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awful things that happened when you were in the public school system? >> A lot of it is just communication and us
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sitting and talking about it. He has learned to communicate with us better. I will say he is a teenager now, so now I
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have that. But [laughter] he has not been in a single fight and he's around kids all the time. I mean, I
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think that's a misconception of >> us being in an RV and moving around
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like, "Oh, you don't see any kids anymore. Your kids aren't socialized."
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No, he's around kids all the time. >> He's got plenty of friends and he has
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not been in a single fight. He hasn't had any of those issues. Um, if he's
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frustrated with school or just needs a break, for example, like right now, he he's out fishing. He just needed a
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break, so he went fishing. That's his that's his happy place. That's where he
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goes if he needs some time to himself. And being out in nature and doing some sort of calming activity has been
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extremely beneficial for him. >> Yeah. going outside just touching touching grass as as like as simple as
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that sounds. It it truly is one of like the most calming things in the world because like getting back in touch with
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nature and >> we we all kind of come from dust um to some degree, you know, we're all made up
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of the same stuff. Um and so that that's that's awesome. And um it's cool too. I
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I I don't know if you guys are a part of any of these, but I have heard about
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some there are some RV groups that are like homeschool groups, right, that kind of meet and and maybe don't travel
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together, but there there are meet there are homeschool RV meetups across the country, right?
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>> Yeah, there are a lot of families that will meet up. In fact, where I'm at
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right now, um I'm at Fireflies Hills in Kentucky, and they have a lot of programs where they'll bring in
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different RVers. We just recently had a Halloween. It was a two-week long Halloween bash, and one of the things
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that they focused on was the Day of the Dead. So, we got to learn about the Mexican culture and incorporate uh world
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schooling for all of the homeschooling kiddos out here. And they get to meet other kids who are doing the same things
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that they're doing, which is great. And it was a whole good learning experience
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for all the kids. >> That's awesome. Yeah, Firefly Hills is super cool. I haven't had a chance to
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go, but um yeah, but actually self little selfish plug, the uh the podcast Inspired Travels with Patty. I edit for
00:25:01
that show. And we actually just had, as of recording this, it just came out today. This episode's going to come out
00:25:06
a little bit later, but as of today, go check it out. Inspired Travels with Patty. We had um the owner um I'm
00:25:12
blanking. Tony uh Tanya Tanya. >> Yes. Um Tanya was on the podcast talking
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a little bit about that and and some of the other things that she does. But Firefly Hills looks amazing. I'm really
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I'm >> hopefully we'll get there someday. I'm I'm I'm in Tennessee. I'm not that far.
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Only only a handful of hours. [laughter] There's a lot of things to do out here.
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We're in the Red River Gorge. If you've got kids, this is a kid heaven out here.
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>> Oh, yeah. Yeah. Go Yeah. Go check out their website because they have like a
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fairy garden and they've got all kinds of really cool unique stuff that Yeah.
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is like very um it's just it's just super cool and unique. Very very different from most places I've seen.
00:25:50
>> I wanted to ask too with So, you've been you've done the RV life thing for three
00:25:55
years now, right? Is that what you said? Three years. And so, have you guys found a favorite spot that
00:26:04
you like to go that that you know is is that memorable thing? And maybe it's
00:26:08
just yours. Um, I'm sure everybody's kind of got their own opinion on it, but
00:26:12
but do you have a favorite spot that you guys have hit up? >> Yes. And it really just depends on which
00:26:16
person in our family you ask because we all have a different favorite. My son, for example, so we've hit all 50
00:26:24
states. That was kind of our mission in the three years. We wanted to go to all 50. We made it. We've been to all 50. Uh
00:26:31
my son's favorite spot is Hawaii. He really enjoyed boogie boarding in Maui.
00:26:36
Uh my daughter loved Alaska. Uh my son uh my husband remember which one was his favorite,
00:26:46
[laughter] but mine is Utah. Southern Utah. >> Okay. >> I really like uh Hurricane Utah is
00:26:53
probably one of my favorite places. >> Okay. Yeah. I love I love Utah. I grew
00:26:57
up in California and so been to Utah a few times and it's beautiful. It's it's
00:27:02
one of every state is so unique and it's awesome that you guys have hit all 50.
00:27:06
That's that's incredible. That's an amazing feat. Uh so kudo kudos to you
00:27:11
guys. [laughter] >> Thank you. >> One of the things that I think is great
00:27:14
about homeschooling is the ability to individualize the schooling to what your kids need. And you have two kids. I'm
00:27:22
very sure they're very different. Um I have a sister. Our schooling was very
00:27:26
different. We both had different challenges in school and things like that. And that was one of the things
00:27:30
that like I talked about at the beginning, my mom at the beginning tried to mimic the
00:27:36
public school system where it was very much the same for both of us. Even though we were in separate grades, but
00:27:40
it was very similar structure throughout the day. And by the time we were graduating, by the time I was
00:27:45
graduating, we were like on completely different wavelengths. Just the way that we did math, the way we did science,
00:27:52
everything was just vastly different. And a lot of times different curriculums, different learning styles.
00:27:58
There was a period where I was a night owl and I was just like, I'm going to
00:28:01
work all night and sleep till 10 or 11 in the morning kind of a thing. And so, how have you seen that play out like
00:28:09
with your kids? And what kind of adjustments have you had to make to to accommodate those?
00:28:15
>> Honestly, my kids are the exact same way. Like, and it just kind of varies.
00:28:20
Sometimes my kids will want to do their schoolwork at night or they'll want to
00:28:24
do it first thing in the morning. It just depends on what they've got going on in that day. Um yeah, they have
00:28:29
different learning styles. Uh my son, for example, he learns better if he's listening to music. So
00:28:37
I will allow him to have earbuds in and listen to music while he's learning because that helps soothe him,
00:28:45
>> right? >> Uh my daughter, not so much. She needs it silent. >> Yeah. Yeah. No, that's that's huge.
00:28:54
Music is I'm kind of with your son. I a lot of times I'll put it on the TV. I'll put
00:29:00
like lowfi or classical music or something on the TV. Um and uh yeah, there's a lot of there's a lot of
00:29:06
studies around what it does to the brain and how it activates certain parts of the brain uh to learn. But there are
00:29:11
other times like your daughter, I'm I'm that way too. I'm like got to put on my
00:29:15
noise cancelling headphones. I want the world to be utterly silent. Don't talk
00:29:19
to me. Don't mess with me. Um, yeah, that's very cool. The other thing I
00:29:25
wanted to ask you about, this is something that you and I talked a little bit about uh when we had our first kind
00:29:30
of our pre-in if you will, but um you had mentioned that you have a very strong and you kind of brought it up on
00:29:37
this interview too, but um you love the reconnection with nature and you see that as being super beneficial for your
00:29:44
family and your kids. And so I'm interested like, you know, if someone is feeling disconnected, what do you what
00:29:52
are your recommendations or what are or do you have some favorite things that you're like, this is how I reconnect
00:29:57
with nature and and it's kind of a reentering is the way I view it of like yourself. So
00:30:03
>> anything in that vein, >> you know, just getting outside. It is so
00:30:06
important to get out there. We tend to spend our lives in a box inside fluorescent lights. Um, where I worked
00:30:15
as a nurse, we didn't even have windows. I didn't know what it looked like
00:30:20
outside. I didn't know if it was raining. I didn't know if the sun was out. I never knew what was going on. I
00:30:25
was just in a room all day long under fluorescent lights. And that's a lot of
00:30:30
like office work, same thing. School, same thing. You are in your seat, locked in your box, fluorescent lights. You're
00:30:39
not getting any of that vitamin D from the sun. You're not getting that wind.
00:30:43
you're not feeling nature at all. And there's a lot of studies out there that
00:30:49
show that we are all vitamin D deficient because we're not getting enough natural
00:30:54
sunlight. There are lots of studies that show that being outside and being in nature helps calm our nervous systems
00:31:03
and relaxes us and makes us feel better. So that's why I started my um blog is to
00:31:13
give people some of those studies and help people reconnect with nature. So you can find me at wandering past limits
00:31:20
where I talk about how nature not only has affected my son and helping him calm his nervous system. Like I said, he's
00:31:29
out fishing right now, getting that fresh air. Uh because, you know, he gets ramped up,
00:31:36
>> he goes outside, he comes back a whole new person. He feels better when he gets
00:31:41
back. And we all need that. We all need to get outside and calm our nervous systems.
00:31:49
>> Yeah. No, 100%. And yeah, shout out to your blog, Wandering Past Limits. Link
00:31:53
is going to be in the description or it's popping up on the screen if you're
00:31:56
watching this. Um, is that also like social handles and stuff also wandering past limits? But yeah, go to the
00:32:01
website. I'm sure it's I'm sure it links out to everything um [laughter]
00:32:05
necessary there as well. That's that's the great thing about websites. They're
00:32:10
kind of the hub for everything. Um, I agree with you on the nature thing. I think it's
00:32:15
>> it it has changed. I I got locked into like co really locked me in the house and I became a
00:32:22
hermit and I just really didn't >> I didn't want to go outside. I didn't
00:32:26
want to see other people, didn't want to do anything. And in more recent years, I
00:32:30
I try to go for a walk most days. I try to go outside a little bit. I sit near a
00:32:34
window now, so I'm getting some sunlight, you know, things like that. >> But yeah, going outside and just like
00:32:41
enjoying and breathing fresh air and like touching the ground and getting dirty um [laughter]
00:32:48
is like amazing. It It really does. >> It's weird. It's It's like a drug. It
00:32:54
just It really resets you. It's Yeah. So, highly encourage it if you're watching this,
00:32:59
>> you know, when we're done. Yeah. When we're done, go outside, go touch some
00:33:02
grass, go experience the outside. Um [laughter] and uh Yeah. And and report back on uh
00:33:09
on how it made you feel? Well, uh well, Kayla, is there anything I haven't hit
00:33:13
on that we need to talk about? Um when it comes to homeschooling, when it comes to being on the road, when it comes to
00:33:20
resetting our nervous systems, is there anything I haven't touched on yet? No, I don't think so.
00:33:26
>> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Well, thank you so much for coming on and sharing your story. And I'm glad
00:33:32
I'm glad that you guys have worked and figured out, you know, some things that work for your
00:33:38
family. And that's that's the beauty about homeschooling, right? Is that it's
00:33:41
finding the thing that works for you and and you know, providing the best education for your kiddo. And that's
00:33:47
something, you know, as an ex-h homeschooler, that's the thing I try to encourage current homeschool families
00:33:52
and people who are thinking about it to do is like what does your kid need and let's get them that, right? And how do
00:33:58
we how do we accomplish that? >> I have one last question before I let you go. And that is
00:34:04
if a family is coming to you and they're thinking about homeschooling, what are you how are you advising them?
00:34:11
What are you where are you telling them to look? If they're coming to you and
00:34:13
they're like, "Hey, we're thinking about this little Johnny, little Debbie,
00:34:17
they've got, you know, whatever." Where what are you feeding them to first? What
00:34:22
is kind of your your go-to advice there? >> Give yourself some grace. Give yourself
00:34:28
time to figure out what works best for your family because not everything is the same for every family. It takes time
00:34:36
and enjoy that journey. I know it's hard to say enjoy that journey. It's a rough
00:34:41
journey, but >> [gasps] >> Enjoy the journey getting there and finding what works best for your family.
00:34:47
Sometimes those workbooks are what your kids need. They didn't work for us. We
00:34:52
tried it. It didn't work. Sometimes those online schools, they're great and
00:34:56
they help. Sometimes even that doesn't work. I know there's a lot of different
00:34:59
options of unschooling is another big one where parents are just going out and letting the kids learn
00:35:09
by going to places and that's how they're learning about it. So, there's
00:35:13
so many different options out there. Do your research and find out what works best for you.
00:35:18
>> And there's always communities. That's I think the other thing is is
00:35:22
>> homeschooling tends to get lumped in this bubble of very antisocial. And the
00:35:26
reality is there's actually a lot of us and there's a lot of communities and
00:35:29
there's a lot of forums and there's a lot of there's a lot of shows like this
00:35:32
one. There's a lot of shows with current homeschool families. Um but there's
00:35:35
always someone to reach out to and you never know like you said talking to the Amazon guy and he was like I
00:35:40
homeschooled my kids. You never know who you're going to run into out in the
00:35:43
wild. Open up that conversation and uh >> Absolutely. >> Yeah, for sure. Well,
00:35:49
>> yes, there are a lot of places to go. I didn't know that either first starting,
00:35:53
but there are a lot of communities. >> Oh, yeah. No, I I Yeah, I didn't I grew
00:35:59
up in a very big homeschool community and I I I didn't really realize the number until I started doing these
00:36:06
interviews and I started talking to people all over the country and I was like, "Holy
00:36:10
>> they're everywhere." Excuse my language, but they're they're everywhere.
00:36:12
>> Yeah, they are. >> Yeah. It really blew me away. So, >> yeah.
00:36:16
>> Yeah. I was like, "Wow." Well, Kayla, this has been fun. I appreciate you
00:36:20
coming on. Thank you for being vulnerable and sharing your story and and what has worked for your family. And
00:36:26
again, I I'm I'm looking forward to checking in with you, you know, every
00:36:29
now and then and hearing where things are at and and how things are going. So, keep us up to date.
00:36:35
>> Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it. It's been a it's
00:36:39
been fun. >> Good. Good. And uh and to my exhies, this has been the X homeschoolers club.
00:36:45
Do all the things that you know how to do. Like, subscribe, leave a comment, share this with a friend that needs to
00:36:49
hear it, and uh until we see you. Peace. [music] >> [music]