00:00:03
ladies and gentlemen boys and girls we
00:00:05
are back another week another episode of
00:00:07
The X homeschoolers Club I am of course
00:00:09
your host Jacob Gooden and uh this week
00:00:11
is going to be fun I have my friend Adam
00:00:13
gs on we I until recently didn't
00:00:16
actually know that Adam was a homeschool
00:00:17
kid uh we went to college together and
00:00:19
we were in band together and all kinds
00:00:21
of stuff we're going to get into all
00:00:22
that but um but yeah until recently I
00:00:24
had really no clue that he was a
00:00:26
homeschool kid so we're going to hear
00:00:27
about his experience but before we do
00:00:29
that I have a couple things to ask you
00:00:31
number one uh if you enjoy the show
00:00:34
please share it with a friend pick your
00:00:36
favorite episode shoot him a text say
00:00:38
hey what's up hey by the way there's
00:00:39
this podcast out with uh our good buddy
00:00:42
Jacob Gooden and uh you should give it a
00:00:43
listen and a follow and all of the good
00:00:45
things um so there's that the second
00:00:48
thing is I want to know from you guys
00:00:50
what you want to hear on this show the
00:00:52
best way to do that I now have a six
00:00:55
question survey okay there's a link it's
00:00:57
going to be the top Link in the
00:00:59
description of this video of this
00:01:00
episode um click it two of the questions
00:01:03
are just your name and your email
00:01:04
address the rest of them are questions
00:01:06
about more things you want to hear
00:01:07
people you want to hear on the episodes
00:01:09
um and some other community related
00:01:11
things so give that a click we can wait
00:01:14
pause it if you need
00:01:16
to okay we're back so without further
00:01:19
Ado let's get into the episode Adam
00:01:23
welcome to the X homeschoolers Club
00:01:25
thanks so much for having me I'm I'm
00:01:27
excited I have uh never been on a
00:01:29
podcast before so let's see how this
00:01:32
goes I I'm amazed because your wife also
00:01:34
has a podcast um and she you yeah she
00:01:37
needs to have you on her show um shout
00:01:40
out to Niche knowledge and nonsense um
00:01:42
yes if you haven't listened to that show
00:01:44
go check it out it's amazing um but yeah
00:01:48
no I'm uh I'm beating her to it so
00:01:51
absolutely maybe this will be the uh the
00:01:54
what gets her to finally invite me on
00:01:56
the show yeah yeah hopefully she'll hear
00:01:59
she'll hear good you are on the
00:02:00
microphone I she'll know this it's it
00:02:02
needs to happen um so Adam you and I
00:02:05
know each other we met in college really
00:02:06
early on in college well at least for me
00:02:08
I it was I think your sophomore year but
00:02:10
were we the same year or no you came
00:02:12
after I I joined I got into college in
00:02:16
2014 I think I
00:02:18
started in 2013 okay yeah but I know for
00:02:23
me it was very early that's not true no
00:02:26
I started in 2012 because I graduated in
00:02:28
2016 so we were we overlapped for two
00:02:31
years at Greenville okay yeah I met you
00:02:35
very early on though because we took a
00:02:37
band class together and got put in a
00:02:39
band together it was like one of those
00:02:40
like just almost draw names from a hat
00:02:42
type of thing um and so it's these
00:02:45
random band assments I'll bet that you
00:02:47
probably remember that way better than I
00:02:49
do because it was your freshman year and
00:02:51
it would have been what my junior year
00:02:54
so like for me it was just like whatever
00:02:55
let's just get this over with I I have
00:02:57
crap to do after after class you know
00:03:00
absolutely don't well it was definitely
00:03:01
like it was kind of a filler class let's
00:03:04
be honest it was but yeah we were in a
00:03:06
band together with yeah I think you
00:03:08
really got stuck in a band with all
00:03:09
freshman um which probably also wasn't
00:03:13
uh super fun but that was a symptom of
00:03:16
my changing Majors a little late so I
00:03:19
had to get that class
00:03:21
in uh which I would have probably taken
00:03:23
as a freshman but then I was in it as a
00:03:25
junior you know yeah so it's all good
00:03:27
yeah hey it happens but ended up we
00:03:30
ended up getting to know each other your
00:03:32
wife also went to college with us she
00:03:34
and my wife were roommates at one point
00:03:36
and so our lives have definitely
00:03:38
overlapped uh a little bit and then um
00:03:41
yeah and then we've just kind of stayed
00:03:42
in rough contact I guess over the years
00:03:44
but um but yeah I got follow you on
00:03:47
Instagram yeah exactly on
00:03:50
Facebook so yeah I didn't know you were
00:03:52
a homeschool kid until uh I was chatting
00:03:55
with your wife because she has a podcast
00:03:56
and since I work in podcasting we've
00:03:58
chatted a few times and she brought up
00:04:00
that you were homeschooled and I was
00:04:01
like no way I would have first of all
00:04:03
never guessed that uh in a million years
00:04:05
but secondly I was like okay I think
00:04:07
Adam needs to come on the show um
00:04:09
because I want to hear this story and I
00:04:11
want to hear all these things so give me
00:04:14
kind of the rundown what was your
00:04:15
homeschool experience like you know set
00:04:17
the stage a little bit of like family
00:04:18
life and all those types of things I
00:04:20
know probably everybody's going to say
00:04:22
this but I feel like I had a unique
00:04:24
experience as a homeschooler because I
00:04:27
was what I would consider 5050 50 um for
00:04:31
about half of my education I attended a
00:04:34
public school um and then the other half
00:04:36
of it it was of course homeschooled um
00:04:39
and so that divide was like uh I think I
00:04:42
was public schooled from uh early age
00:04:45
until fifth grade and then it was the
00:04:48
summer of when I would be going into
00:04:50
sixth grade that my Mom and Dad decided
00:04:52
that they wanted to take my older sister
00:04:54
and I and put us into
00:04:57
homeschooling and then I have I have
00:04:59
three siblings so then the younger two
00:05:00
siblings they decided you know what
00:05:03
let's put them in public school let's
00:05:04
just figure out if this works for us
00:05:05
we're just going to do the two older
00:05:07
siblings and it was so successful for my
00:05:10
sister and I that they decided the
00:05:12
following year to take all four of us
00:05:14
and homeschool us and it wasn't until my
00:05:17
junior year of um high school that I had
00:05:23
actually ended up taking a couple of
00:05:25
courses at the high school so I feel
00:05:27
like uh really the only thing I missed
00:05:29
out on
00:05:30
public schoolwise was the Middle School
00:05:32
experience and I think if anybody's
00:05:34
being honest with themselves like I
00:05:35
don't know that there was much that was
00:05:37
missed I think that those years are
00:05:39
usually like people's blender years they
00:05:40
definitely were my blender years and so
00:05:43
it was probably a good thing that I was
00:05:45
insulated from you know the Behemoth of
00:05:48
of middle school so but that's kind of
00:05:51
like a a brief rundown of my experience
00:05:53
as a homeschooler yeah that's a
00:05:55
definitely a unique experience CU yeah I
00:05:57
know I know a lot of families where it's
00:05:59
almost the opposite where they they
00:06:01
homeschool their kids pretty much grade
00:06:03
school through middle school and then
00:06:05
High the high school years or even the
00:06:07
junior high years they send them to to a
00:06:09
public school or private school but yeah
00:06:11
kind of the opposite for you is is
00:06:13
interesting so what like so that that
00:06:17
transition then from going to public
00:06:18
school and then being at home all the
00:06:21
time was that difficult because I mean
00:06:22
you're going from like I'm sure you have
00:06:24
friends and you're used to seeing
00:06:26
everybody to like yeah are you then just
00:06:28
stuck at home with mom and and sister
00:06:31
and being like what do we do now so that
00:06:34
period of my life well I guess our
00:06:36
family's uh life was
00:06:40
very very filled with change it was that
00:06:43
summer that we um moved from Baran
00:06:46
Springs Michigan to Herman Missouri and
00:06:50
a big part of that move there was really
00:06:52
two big reasons I didn't understand this
00:06:54
at the time but now I do you know
00:06:56
because I've talked with Mom and Dad
00:06:57
about it and it was because Dad's
00:06:59
position at the University was downsized
00:07:01
so he didn't have a job in Michigan
00:07:03
right so was nothing holding us there
00:07:05
and my grandma was very close to passing
00:07:07
away so we moved to Missouri to be close
00:07:10
to her um and she passed a few years
00:07:12
after we moved there so we got some good
00:07:13
time with her but so that summer with
00:07:17
that transition to homeschooling it
00:07:20
almost felt like maybe that was the
00:07:23
smallest transition you know because I
00:07:26
had already left all my friends I didn't
00:07:28
have any friends I didn't have a school
00:07:31
you know system that I was familiar with
00:07:33
um so it almost felt natural and just
00:07:37
one more thing to change uh I don't
00:07:38
remember being traumatized or like
00:07:41
bummed or you know about homeschooling I
00:07:44
was bummed about moving right um but it
00:07:47
kind of felt kind of felt seamless
00:07:49
almost yeah I can kind of relate because
00:07:52
my parents I transition in home school
00:07:55
because of a move as well so I had gone
00:07:56
to public
00:07:57
school for through first grade um and
00:08:01
then we moved and yeah and so second
00:08:03
grade kicked off and I was a home home
00:08:05
school kid but we moved it wasn't very
00:08:07
far it was only about 30 minutes away
00:08:08
but it was definitely weird um there
00:08:12
were other changes going on we had
00:08:13
bought a fixer uper that kind of a thing
00:08:15
so there was like we didn't we didn't
00:08:18
have like a kitchen like we wash dishes
00:08:20
in the in the um in the garage the sink
00:08:23
in the garage and stuff yeah exactly we
00:08:25
had one functioning bathroom like it was
00:08:27
it was definitely nuts though so we had
00:08:30
a very similar experience to that when
00:08:32
we moved because we moved into my
00:08:33
Grandpa's uh he owned a Farmstead and
00:08:37
the The Farmhouse was not habitable when
00:08:39
we moved there so like for a month we
00:08:42
were living in a tent in the front yard
00:08:44
and like Mom and Dad every day we just
00:08:46
working on gutting that house and so
00:08:49
yeah it was like a literally the same
00:08:51
experience we didn't have like toilets
00:08:52
sinks nothing you know it's crazy man
00:08:56
yeah no that's so that's so wild like
00:09:00
I think it's interesting because I've
00:09:02
ched with a few people who have kind of
00:09:04
that similar story of like there's big
00:09:07
change it happens in life and so on they
00:09:09
just kind of tack homeschool on top of
00:09:10
it and so it almost feels less like you
00:09:13
said it's not you if you remember that
00:09:16
part of your life being a big shift but
00:09:19
your least favorite part of it wasn't
00:09:21
changing to homeschool it was just like
00:09:23
I didn't want to move as opposed to
00:09:26
other friends I have who yeah they went
00:09:28
to public school and then their parents
00:09:29
decided to homeschool them and that was
00:09:30
the only change that was really
00:09:32
happening and for them it was a much
00:09:33
bigger situation so with that kind of
00:09:36
that shift and and now being
00:09:38
homeschooled so we're looking at that
00:09:40
first
00:09:40
year was there obviously it's a big
00:09:44
shift first experience for you guys
00:09:46
first experience maybe for mom being an
00:09:48
educator but also like did you I did she
00:09:52
I don't know did you get involved in
00:09:55
homeschool groups that were in the area
00:09:57
or like meet other homeschool families
00:09:58
or did you have kind of a sense of
00:10:00
community at all because that's one of
00:10:02
the biggest things that I think a lot of
00:10:04
people when they hear homeschool they
00:10:06
just hear isolation and you know y
00:10:09
antisocial right so so yeah um Mom and
00:10:15
Dad were not Educators before that Dad
00:10:17
had spent a lot of time in um higher
00:10:21
curriculum his his my grandpa his dad
00:10:23
was a professor at maou and dad went
00:10:27
there for his PhD program so I think Dad
00:10:31
was very familiar with education being a
00:10:34
professor's son and spending a lot of
00:10:35
time you know so there was there was
00:10:37
that experience that I'm sure that they
00:10:39
pulled off of um but no not really uh
00:10:43
mom has always been kind of a just let's
00:10:46
just do it roll my sleeves up let's do
00:10:48
it and so I think a big thing that
00:10:52
emboldened them to make that decision
00:10:54
and probably you know was a big factor
00:10:58
was that we were involved with a church
00:11:01
very early after moving to um
00:11:05
Herman and in that church there were
00:11:07
many families that homeschooled so I'm
00:11:10
sure that during that summer where I
00:11:12
think one of the first things mom and
00:11:13
dad did when we moved there during that
00:11:14
summer was find a church family because
00:11:17
that was important to them you know and
00:11:19
so that was probably very very big uh
00:11:23
for them to have that support that
00:11:25
system those people that you know and
00:11:27
can make friends with you have a common
00:11:29
you know common Bond so yeah I'm sure
00:11:31
Mom had conversations with the other
00:11:33
moms and dad talked you know with the
00:11:35
other dads and was they they figured out
00:11:38
that homeschooling was an option you
00:11:39
know yeah so yeah we did have a
00:11:42
community we did have other
00:11:44
homeschoolers we did things together you
00:11:46
know it it was good in that sense I just
00:11:50
had a conversation with with my mom and
00:11:52
I was kind of piecing together some of
00:11:54
the things of like when we got started
00:11:56
because my memory was a lot of like
00:11:59
feeling isolated but one of the things
00:12:01
that she was telling me was that yeah
00:12:03
for her as well she was like she had met
00:12:06
other homeschool moms and was already
00:12:07
living in community with other
00:12:09
homeschool moms and so kind of doing
00:12:11
this like they were encouraging her to
00:12:13
be like hey you should at least just
00:12:15
like think about it kind of a thing yeah
00:12:17
and then when she bit the bullet they
00:12:19
were like okay here's what you're going
00:12:20
to join right you're going to be part of
00:12:22
this Association and you're going to
00:12:23
join this group of homeschool kids um
00:12:26
and so we kind of had a built-in
00:12:28
Community uh unfortunately it was still
00:12:30
like 30 minutes away but but it was at
00:12:32
least there I still had like friends and
00:12:34
stuff and I think that was like it it
00:12:37
helped right um because again it's like
00:12:40
one of those things where I think so
00:12:41
many people think of homeschool kids as
00:12:42
just these like isolated weird weird
00:12:44
isolated little nobody yeah we don't
00:12:47
know anybody like we don't know how to
00:12:49
talk to people yeah exactly and um and
00:12:53
my dad always told me he's like the
00:12:55
thing that was different with like my
00:12:56
sister and I he's like you guys could
00:12:58
talk to to like adults and like have a
00:13:01
conversation with them and carry
00:13:03
conversation and he's like I don't know
00:13:05
if I can 100% attribute that to like
00:13:07
being homeschooled but like he's like I
00:13:08
think it was partly that because you
00:13:10
just had no fear to go up to somebody
00:13:12
and start a conversation I don't know
00:13:14
maybe that's the I kind of feel the same
00:13:16
way like yeah I I remember you know
00:13:19
articulating with the other homeschool
00:13:22
moms frequently like we would be out on
00:13:24
playdates or something with the other
00:13:26
kids and they would be my guard for the
00:13:29
day and you know they were basically the
00:13:31
mom figure or the dad figure so yeah do
00:13:35
did you guys do anything along the lines
00:13:36
of like co-ops or anything where you
00:13:38
would go to somebody's house for like a
00:13:40
class more of a classroom setting where
00:13:41
you had other kids like doing the same
00:13:43
thing or was it very much like we get
00:13:46
together and have play dates but like
00:13:47
you have your H school I have my home
00:13:49
school and it's all kind of more
00:13:51
individualized definitely the latter
00:13:53
option I don't think I ever recall a
00:13:56
time where we would Co-op like that you
00:13:59
know it was always school was at home
00:14:02
usually it was like morning times were
00:14:04
for school and then afternoons were for
00:14:06
socializing you know that's when we
00:14:07
would do activities with the other moms
00:14:09
the other families yeah so you you also
00:14:13
brought up that when you got into High
00:14:14
School you started also taking some
00:14:16
additional classes at the local high
00:14:18
school so what what did that look like
00:14:20
like what was kind of that 50-50 split
00:14:23
there mom was my main educator dad was
00:14:26
you know working outside the home so Mom
00:14:28
was the main educator and she did not
00:14:30
feel up to
00:14:33
par teaching specific subjects at a high
00:14:37
school level and the reason for that is
00:14:38
you have to have so many credits to
00:14:40
graduate I mean right that's you have to
00:14:42
have it like that's maybe one thing
00:14:44
people don't understand about homeschool
00:14:46
or maybe they do I don't know I've
00:14:48
always had to explain this to people
00:14:49
it's like you don't just get to do what
00:14:50
you want there's a very clearly defined
00:14:53
set of tests you have to pass uh
00:14:56
curriculum you have to undertake they
00:14:57
have to be approved I think had them
00:14:59
approved like by the state of Missouri
00:15:01
you know so there were there were
00:15:03
benchmarks to make uh yeah for my
00:15:07
education and two of the subjects that
00:15:09
she did not feel like she had the
00:15:11
ability to teach me to to pass you know
00:15:14
was math and art she's not artistic and
00:15:19
you know unless you're a math Wiz or a
00:15:21
genius math just sucks I mean sorry guys
00:15:24
if you like math I don't know what to
00:15:26
tell you math is awful Adam and I cut
00:15:29
more from the creative cloth so yes
00:15:32
absolutely um so yeah uh what what what
00:15:34
she ended up doing was researching
00:15:38
options for someone in her situation
00:15:41
where she had a student that you know
00:15:43
her child her student that needed these
00:15:44
credits and wasn't sure how to get them
00:15:46
and it came up that you can actually I
00:15:48
don't know if this is everywhere or if
00:15:50
it was just in Herman Missouri you can
00:15:52
just take a class much like a college
00:15:55
you can just sign up for a class show up
00:15:57
take the class um maybe it was a special
00:16:01
arrangement with the school because of
00:16:02
this you know Herman is a smaller
00:16:03
community and and the school's like yeah
00:16:05
we'll do him a solid we you know he can
00:16:07
attend for that class as long as I'm
00:16:09
sure she probably had to send over like
00:16:11
documentation of my education so that
00:16:13
you know Mom and Dad didn't end up going
00:16:14
to prison you know for failing to
00:16:17
educate me but so yeah I signed up for
00:16:20
two art classes art one and art two
00:16:22
Junior and Senior year and then I took
00:16:24
uh geometry junior year and
00:16:27
algebra two senior year I think I took
00:16:30
algebra one at home you brought up
00:16:32
something that I've recently had a talk
00:16:35
with somebody about this because so
00:16:36
California actually has some of I GR in
00:16:39
California so that it has some of the
00:16:41
most LAX home education rules so so you
00:16:46
can do all you do have to submit things
00:16:48
to the state and you are like a private
00:16:51
education you you private school right
00:16:54
other kids could enroll in your school
00:16:55
if you wanted them to um but you're a
00:16:59
home educator so but the way there
00:17:01
there's not this process really of like
00:17:04
hey like submit your curriculum and we
00:17:07
approve it we say this is good like it
00:17:09
there's a lot more F Flex to it and
00:17:11
things and so um unfortunately there's
00:17:14
some good and there's some bad to that
00:17:16
right like yeah it does open up more of
00:17:18
ability to kind of create some really
00:17:21
cool curriculums however it also for the
00:17:24
people who are maybe a little bit more
00:17:26
the Bad actors in the space and they
00:17:28
don't actually teach kids anything can
00:17:29
get away with a lot more right and then
00:17:31
you end up with with some other kids but
00:17:33
I was looking into a couple other states
00:17:35
and I was like okay this is interesting
00:17:37
because there are some states where yeah
00:17:38
you have to go take standardized testing
00:17:40
so as a way to also prove that your kid
00:17:42
is educated enough to to go on right to
00:17:45
continue on um which is good uh and then
00:17:48
like you said you have to submit your
00:17:50
curriculum choices to the state to kind
00:17:52
of get them approved or you know explain
00:17:54
yourself to them so that's definitely an
00:17:57
interesting difference I don't know that
00:17:59
I've had very many guests who have been
00:18:00
able to kind of like talk to that
00:18:02
because a lot of my friends like we
00:18:04
didn't do very much standardized testing
00:18:05
or the few times that we did it was it
00:18:07
was just not consistent right um so kind
00:18:11
of interesting I thankfully I had a mom
00:18:13
who was like I'm going to keep really
00:18:14
good records you know her goal was get
00:18:17
me to college so she was like you know
00:18:19
you have to have all this stuff which I
00:18:21
mean obviously your mom also was kind of
00:18:23
had that mindset of like my kids need to
00:18:25
be able to go to college if they want to
00:18:27
right yes that was very important her I
00:18:29
remember having the discussion every
00:18:31
year of all right the end of the school
00:18:33
Year's coming up you have to have this
00:18:35
done you have to have this done you have
00:18:36
to take this test I have you know it
00:18:38
needs to be done by this date so I can
00:18:39
send it off and um kind of something I
00:18:43
want to bring up here is uh maybe trying
00:18:46
to steer the conversation myself a
00:18:48
little bit I feel like that
00:18:51
experience of being responsible for my
00:18:54
own education in a sense has shaped who
00:18:57
I am today greatly because my sense of
00:19:03
responsibility to getting things done
00:19:06
and meeting expectations and deadlines I
00:19:09
feel like I
00:19:10
have benefited from that experience in
00:19:13
high school greatly or uh well not high
00:19:16
school homeschool sorry because of that
00:19:19
it was on us it was me and Mom you know
00:19:22
and and if we didn't get it done I
00:19:23
didn't get an education and so that was
00:19:25
a a value that was instilled in me early
00:19:27
you know yeah
00:19:29
I it's interesting I had a conversation
00:19:31
with a friend and we were talking about
00:19:32
go getting to college and she was also
00:19:34
homeschooled and and one of the things
00:19:36
she brought up was that she had friends
00:19:37
who they had been public schooled all
00:19:39
the way through and they struggled in
00:19:41
college for different reasons than her
00:19:43
and I struggled in college I struggled a
00:19:45
little bit more with the social aspect
00:19:46
but when it came to school workor I was
00:19:48
like I was because I had the motivation
00:19:51
to just like do it and like set aside
00:19:54
the time I knew how much time I needed
00:19:55
to get it done and I just did it um and
00:19:57
so very rar were things late but yeah
00:20:01
but then there were other students who
00:20:02
yeah you could tell they just struggled
00:20:04
a lot more with the deadlines thing
00:20:06
because of the fact that scheduling time
00:20:08
management exactly they didn't have that
00:20:11
so that is a huge benefit I think to if
00:20:13
you do homeschool I'm going to say right
00:20:17
um there's that ownership piece of like
00:20:19
as a student you have ownership over the
00:20:21
fact that like you got to do this you
00:20:23
know because usually mom and dad are in
00:20:26
addition to playing teacher they're also
00:20:28
still mom and dad and they got a billion
00:20:30
on their plate anyways and try
00:20:32
toig so yeah so they they you know they
00:20:35
need you to have some ownership over it
00:20:37
um which is you know important it's good
00:20:40
and like you said it shaped you into who
00:20:42
you are today and so yeah so let's talk
00:20:45
a little bit I guess more about that
00:20:46
transition into college you definitely
00:20:48
had
00:20:50
probably to some degree a little bit
00:20:52
better of an understanding of like I
00:20:54
mean your mom was keeping Good Records
00:20:55
going to college was seems like talked
00:20:57
about consistently at your house so like
00:20:59
yeah was College always in the plans was
00:21:02
it you know were you thinking about
00:21:03
other things pretty much um pretty much
00:21:08
I had had a lot of people tell me that I
00:21:11
needed to go to college and I think
00:21:12
that's a very uh Universal experience
00:21:15
for Millennials and maybe even for J Z
00:21:18
yeah um and people younger is the stress
00:21:21
that was placed on attending college so
00:21:24
I had picked out very many colleges to
00:21:27
look at and eventually
00:21:29
uh settled on Greenville which you know
00:21:32
the rest is history there uh I I think
00:21:35
that my experience at Greenville was
00:21:38
good
00:21:39
um but yeah we'll talk about that in a
00:21:41
second the transition it was strange um
00:21:44
I remember choosing Greenville applying
00:21:47
getting accepted and attending and just
00:21:49
being absolutely in love with Greenville
00:21:52
campus you know what I mean that first
00:21:54
visit and you're like yeah this is this
00:21:56
is GNA be good you know
00:21:59
yeah oh man how how naive we were but I
00:22:03
had a similar I mean it was it was
00:22:05
interesting because I originally didn't
00:22:08
want to leave the state or if I did I
00:22:10
like okay maybe some of the closer
00:22:12
States was that the thing with
00:22:13
Greenville is that they didn't have
00:22:15
outof state tuition I think that was the
00:22:17
thing um it might have been and the for
00:22:22
me I wanted to major in audio
00:22:24
engineering so I was like there was
00:22:26
limited schools who were doing that um a
00:22:29
lot of a lot of the schools that
00:22:31
advertise it tend to be kind of like the
00:22:32
full sale style schools where it's like
00:22:35
we're not a traditional education kind
00:22:37
of a thing we're actually a scam um and
00:22:41
so I was like talking as much as I could
00:22:44
I was talking to like audio
00:22:46
professionals to kind of be like what do
00:22:47
I need to do and a lot of them were like
00:22:49
it honestly doesn't really matter if you
00:22:51
have an audio engineering degree or not
00:22:53
but they were like but you should find a
00:22:54
school that has a program like that and
00:22:56
has a traditional education because it
00:22:58
will take you further and I was like
00:23:00
okay found Greenville like you I tored
00:23:02
it I fell in love with it I spent the
00:23:04
night I was like oh my gosh I think this
00:23:05
is the place and then moved and yeah I
00:23:10
my first year I struggled with being so
00:23:12
far away from family but aside from that
00:23:15
I loved it there I loved College I
00:23:17
thought it was fantastic you know it's
00:23:18
like yeah I'm on my own I remember the
00:23:21
same yeah yeah yeah and then we woke up
00:23:24
finally
00:23:25
to to what Greenville was because
00:23:27
Greenville
00:23:28
I don't know I don't know if this was a
00:23:30
factor for you but we haven't even
00:23:32
touched on the fact that
00:23:34
like religion played a big part in both
00:23:37
of our homeschool experiences and we
00:23:40
were going to church consistently
00:23:42
Greenville was a Christian campus and so
00:23:44
for me some of the things that were
00:23:45
attractive to it were things like the
00:23:47
lifestyle statement and the fact that
00:23:50
there was like a billion in one churches
00:23:52
inside that little town and I liked it
00:23:55
because I felt I still felt safe like it
00:23:58
felt like a bigger homeschool bubble in
00:24:00
a lot of ways I absolutely can agree
00:24:03
with that it it definitely had that Vibe
00:24:07
of this this it it felt like a youth
00:24:11
group yeah like it legit felt like an
00:24:13
adult the next level youth group and I
00:24:16
think that if if I were
00:24:20
to you know let's say there's like a
00:24:22
strange tour of events and I were to
00:24:23
like consider attending something like
00:24:25
that today with my current knowledge I'd
00:24:26
be like absolutely not it's a cult I'm
00:24:30
I'm going to walk away but at the time I
00:24:32
was super into it you know and I think
00:24:35
that that was one of the main things
00:24:36
that attracted me to it and probably
00:24:38
helped the transition from living in
00:24:40
Herman to living at Greenville um was
00:24:43
that that that feeling the The Vespers
00:24:45
on Thursday nights and you know it was
00:24:48
comfortable it was definitely yeah I I
00:24:50
just agree with you it was just kind of
00:24:51
that like next step because you brought
00:24:55
it up before we hit record but like I
00:24:57
mean well brought it up even in while we
00:24:59
were recording is that like your parents
00:25:02
you you were involved in a church that
00:25:04
had a lot of homes school
00:25:06
kids that church it sounds like played a
00:25:08
big significant role throughout kind of
00:25:10
childhood and those high school years in
00:25:13
particular um so I don't know about you
00:25:16
I can speak to myself I mean I was
00:25:17
heavily involved in things like youth
00:25:19
group I served in the worship Ministry I
00:25:21
was like you know I would stack chairs
00:25:23
on Sunday and do Bible study and
00:25:25
community group and every other thing I
00:25:27
could get my hands on I would I would do
00:25:29
that is that kind of a similar thing for
00:25:30
you 100% um being you know Mom and Dad
00:25:35
raised us to try to be you know as much
00:25:39
like Jesus
00:25:40
as as we could and so a lot of that was
00:25:43
serving doing things for other people
00:25:45
being involved in church activities you
00:25:46
know like you said stacking chairs
00:25:48
helping with the sound booth I played on
00:25:50
the worship team I it was just normal
00:25:52
like and then yeah the transition toille
00:25:54
it just felt normal right it was just
00:25:55
like continue doing the same thing I
00:25:57
know from me one of the big things I the
00:26:01
reason I burned out of church was
00:26:02
because honestly at Greenville I was
00:26:04
going to church like things six days a
00:26:05
week I had one day off and I was like I
00:26:09
after six months of that I was like I
00:26:11
can't do this anymore I was like I I
00:26:12
need a break somewhere I think by my
00:26:14
senior year I was only attending the
00:26:17
church services that Greenville put on
00:26:21
to the number minimum you had to attend
00:26:23
to graduate like I had it mapped out how
00:26:26
many Vespers I needed to tend and you
00:26:29
know I was always bringing homework and
00:26:31
sitting in the balcony like yeah no that
00:26:34
same I yeah I think I even just kind of
00:26:37
at one point said like screw it like
00:26:39
what are they going to do they're not
00:26:40
going to let me graduate because I
00:26:41
didn't go to church like I don't know
00:26:43
right uh actually I think that was a
00:26:45
thing I think like they were saying you
00:26:47
couldn't graduate but I bet you they
00:26:49
probably couldn't prevent you I mean I
00:26:52
don't know I I was I don't know I I feel
00:26:55
bad for this but I would always go in
00:26:57
especially
00:26:58
I was lucky and unlucky by my senior
00:27:00
year because I W I was my I was having
00:27:03
some health issues and also I had a
00:27:05
grandparent who was dying at the time
00:27:06
and stuff like that so I feel like I got
00:27:08
a little bit I got a lot more leeway
00:27:10
because I had a lot of these things that
00:27:11
I could go in and be like Oh but I just
00:27:14
I couldn't even get out of bed or I
00:27:15
couldn't whatever they' be like oh yeah
00:27:17
sign the paper it's all good you're you
00:27:18
know good to kind of transition I guess
00:27:21
a little bit off of that now so you're
00:27:24
dad now you got two kids two wonderful
00:27:26
kids who are they're both in in school
00:27:30
school age and so what has I guess like
00:27:35
you know you did The Homeschool thing
00:27:37
you're married to somebody who didn't do
00:27:38
the homeschool thing what like I guess
00:27:41
what has shaped like your thoughts when
00:27:43
it comes to your kids education now so I
00:27:46
want to say early on in brinn's life
00:27:50
Brinn is my daughter she's six now okay
00:27:53
and attakus is my son and he's four so
00:27:56
they are in kindergarten and preschool
00:28:00
respectively early on in her life bayy
00:28:04
and I agreed she would be attending the
00:28:07
public school system private schools out
00:28:09
of the question that's super expensive
00:28:12
yeah if you can send your kid to private
00:28:14
school like I don't know Screw you like
00:28:17
share a little bit of that wealth around
00:28:19
man like it's that's so much money to
00:28:22
spend on what you could get for free but
00:28:23
anyway people have their reasons uh not
00:28:26
judging um and homeschool also is not
00:28:30
really an option uh I work
00:28:32
full-time to pay the bills and Bailey is
00:28:35
at home with the kids currently that's
00:28:37
our you know we're we're really sticking
00:28:39
it to the patriarchy there with that
00:28:40
Arrangement but it's working out for our
00:28:43
family um yeah and she's just not
00:28:46
interested in homeschooling uh and I I I
00:28:49
respect her for knowing her limitations
00:28:51
because it is a challenge homeschooling
00:28:54
is not for everyone it requires a
00:28:57
certain type of person a certain um you
00:29:01
know it's a lot of responsibility to
00:29:02
take on in addition to like what you
00:29:04
mentioned
00:29:06
earlier nothing else stops you're
00:29:09
homeschooling but you also have to go to
00:29:12
work you also have to pay the bills you
00:29:14
have to maintain your household you know
00:29:16
all the things that are involved with
00:29:17
that don't go away when you just decide
00:29:19
to be an educator as well so that's a
00:29:22
big deciding factor for us and I think
00:29:25
that if the situation were different I
00:29:27
would love to consider the possibility
00:29:29
of homeschooling and I'm not necessarily
00:29:32
saying that that's not possible in the
00:29:33
future um right you know we'll say
00:29:36
situations change and opportunities
00:29:38
arise and whatnot but for now yeah so
00:29:40
we're we're we're
00:29:43
definitely taking advantage of the fact
00:29:45
that public schooling exists and just
00:29:47
placing our trust in it you know I I
00:29:50
spent half of my education in the public
00:29:53
school system Bailey spent her whole
00:29:54
education in the public school system I
00:29:56
think that it as long as you are
00:29:59
supportive of your child and making sure
00:30:01
that they're benefiting from their
00:30:03
education and being involved in their
00:30:05
life you can you can get a good
00:30:07
education from what is available in the
00:30:09
public school system it's not without
00:30:10
its faults that's not what I'm trying to
00:30:12
say but so that's kind of where we're at
00:30:14
as parents with our kids as just yeah
00:30:17
yeah sorry it's not the vibe this is the
00:30:19
homeschoolers
00:30:21
podcast no you're you're all good it's
00:30:23
it's funny because I think I I got to
00:30:25
run the numbers at some point but of the
00:30:27
people I've talked to and kind of ask
00:30:29
that yeah you know I I usually ask them
00:30:32
well one if they have kids or they're
00:30:33
think about having kids or you know if
00:30:35
someone comes to them and says oh would
00:30:36
you recommend homeschool it's
00:30:38
like I it's pretty high that most of
00:30:40
them are like no don't don't go down
00:30:43
heav dependent on you and your lifestyle
00:30:45
but
00:30:45
probably and but I think the thing that
00:30:49
you said that I think this is what I
00:30:51
tell any parent is just the fact that
00:30:54
it's like you being involved in your
00:30:55
kids life and understanding how they
00:30:57
their thinking works and how like if
00:31:00
they have learning disabilities or they
00:31:03
just learn differently or they have
00:31:04
whatever it's like if you as a parent
00:31:06
can understand that regardless of if
00:31:08
they go to public school private school
00:31:09
or they're home educated you can
00:31:11
advocate for them to have the best
00:31:13
education they possibly can and learning
00:31:16
never stops um if you don't want it to
00:31:19
right it's like you can also Foster that
00:31:21
healthy desire to always be learning
00:31:23
about the things that they're interested
00:31:24
in and so abely you know I I definitely
00:31:29
that's encouraging to hear you know
00:31:30
because it's just I don't know I had I
00:31:32
had parents who they encourag me to
00:31:33
always chase the things I was interested
00:31:35
in and if I ever have kids or nieces and
00:31:39
nephews that's I want to do that to them
00:31:41
too it's like I want to provide them
00:31:42
with that as well it's just like go
00:31:44
after the things that you love you know
00:31:47
so absolutely and you know
00:31:50
our our transition from young childhood
00:31:53
to early school years has not been
00:31:56
without its challenges um particularly
00:31:59
with my son and I think that this is a
00:32:01
big reason why we are going to go with
00:32:04
public schooling for him especially not
00:32:06
that like we're like sitting here
00:32:08
talking about it but I think that the
00:32:09
fact that this will be such an advantage
00:32:11
to him is that he we had some
00:32:14
significant issues with him going into
00:32:17
preschool um so my daughter is ADHD
00:32:21
which is very common for kids in fact
00:32:23
most of most of the time I think people
00:32:24
will like grow out of that so like part
00:32:27
of me is like is it actually ADHD or is
00:32:29
it just them being a kid but then again
00:32:32
I'm not you know a psychiatrist or a
00:32:35
psychologist or whatever so yeah take
00:32:37
take my take what I say with a grain of
00:32:39
salt on that subject so my son is
00:32:41
probably the same you know I think I
00:32:44
probably could have been diagnosed when
00:32:45
I was a kid biley as well so we're just
00:32:47
a crazy bunch of people over here you
00:32:50
know yeah we're uh but anyway his he
00:32:53
started preschool and it it just was not
00:32:55
good uh what we ended up doing is is uh
00:32:58
there's a school in town called The
00:33:01
Early Childhood and Family Center and
00:33:03
they're they exist mainly for uh like
00:33:06
less privileged or disadvantaged
00:33:08
families so they have like an assessment
00:33:10
they do and they they they take all
00:33:12
factors of a child's life and whether or
00:33:14
not they can attend there and Bren got
00:33:17
in and it was really good uh her
00:33:19
experience at the Early Childhood Center
00:33:21
and so we naturally signed my son up and
00:33:24
he was not qualified uh for whatever
00:33:26
reason he's dang smart or something you
00:33:29
know I make too much money whatever
00:33:31
whatever reason they told him that he
00:33:33
couldn't attend and um so we decided to
00:33:36
sign him up for a montauri school which
00:33:39
is a whole another style of Education
00:33:41
that I don't think has been brought up
00:33:43
yet and I think that that style if you
00:33:46
don't know what monu education is it's
00:33:48
basically
00:33:50
student-led education so the child will
00:33:53
steer their own schooling uh it's a very
00:33:57
wild concept to me when when you say it
00:33:59
out loud like that um but I think the
00:34:02
idea is to Foster that sense of wonder
00:34:05
that we were just talking about that
00:34:06
sense of always wanting to learn new
00:34:08
things and I think it can be good I mean
00:34:10
uh there's it had the school had high
00:34:12
ratings you know we were gonna have to
00:34:14
end up paying for it but it was it was
00:34:16
affordable because of he was only going
00:34:17
to go like part of the day or something
00:34:19
yeah well that student Le thing did not
00:34:23
work out for my son uh he he just would
00:34:26
not listen to the teacher
00:34:28
he was like stealing toys from other
00:34:30
kids there were even a couple times
00:34:32
where he would like hit another kid and
00:34:34
so we ended up we ended up taking him
00:34:36
out of that and putting him but we
00:34:38
reapplied to the Early Childhood Center
00:34:40
and he was
00:34:42
eventually uh approved to go into that
00:34:45
so he's now in school now he started I
00:34:47
think it was like December 5th or
00:34:50
something so he got a little bit of a
00:34:51
late start to his education but that's
00:34:54
where we're at with our kids you know
00:34:56
little bit of a rocky start
00:34:58
yeah I mean hey everybody learns
00:35:00
differently right it's like I my sister
00:35:03
has uh add and dyslexia and so I but I
00:35:07
don't and so I could sit there and read
00:35:09
a book for hours and it just my brain
00:35:11
just would absorb it but she's an
00:35:12
auditory learner and so for her yeah
00:35:14
having it read to her or whatever so it
00:35:16
was interesting I that was an advantage
00:35:18
I think for Me growing Up In The
00:35:19
Homeschool Community was like we had
00:35:21
such a vast variety of kids who had all
00:35:24
different types of learning capabilities
00:35:26
and needs
00:35:28
and we learned to just play with each
00:35:30
other right we learned how to understand
00:35:32
each other um and it's coming super
00:35:36
beneficial now as an adult um I worked
00:35:38
in a toy store for a number of years and
00:35:41
we would do birthday parties and kids
00:35:42
would come in and there' be that one kid
00:35:45
who kind of he just got invited because
00:35:46
he's in the class kind of a thing but
00:35:48
nobody really likes him um and it's
00:35:50
because he's a little different right
00:35:52
and and but I understood that it's like
00:35:54
well they just need this you know and
00:35:56
and not to my own horn but it just it
00:35:58
was always interesting because the
00:35:59
parents usually would come up afterwards
00:36:01
and be like how do you like are you an
00:36:03
educator I'm like no I just grew up with
00:36:05
friends who also you know are like that
00:36:07
and so we just knew you know here's when
00:36:09
you give your space Here's when you lean
00:36:10
really in you know all those types of
00:36:12
things and so learning your kid style of
00:36:15
of learning and just their personalities
00:36:17
it's like you and Bailey are you know
00:36:19
you're the the best equipped to to lean
00:36:21
into that and figure it out to see it
00:36:23
every single day you know yeah I was I
00:36:26
have been wondering
00:36:28
how homeschooling I don't know this is
00:36:30
kind of a new A New Concept that I've
00:36:31
been introducing to the show is kind of
00:36:33
this like how homeschooling impacted
00:36:35
your relationship with like your parents
00:36:38
and your siblings years later and what I
00:36:41
mean by that is like do you have like
00:36:44
different views than like your siblings
00:36:46
you know like the way I look at
00:36:48
homeschooling I had a very positive
00:36:49
experience but I know for other people
00:36:53
it wasn't right and so and even with
00:36:55
people I've met I've talked to now I'm
00:36:57
like their their siblings are like all
00:36:59
super gung-ho for homeschooling and
00:37:00
going to do it for their kids and and
00:37:02
they themselves are like uh no I'm I'm
00:37:04
good I want to do public school and that
00:37:06
kind of thing but I I'm I'm trying to
00:37:10
flesh out I guess the question here a
00:37:11
little bit better but like how have you
00:37:14
seen that your homeschool experience
00:37:16
within like your family and stuff has
00:37:18
shaped your your your family
00:37:21
relationship you know with your siblings
00:37:22
and and your parents like where you look
00:37:25
back on it kind of differently than them
00:37:27
almost like in a disagreement kind of a
00:37:29
way or or you guys have kind of a
00:37:30
similar like like and dislike for
00:37:35
it this is a really difficult question
00:37:39
to answer I know it's like really I'm
00:37:42
sorry it's okay I'm I'm here for
00:37:47
it I would say that I think that one of
00:37:52
the things that homeschooling has
00:37:55
significantly benefited and that would
00:37:57
share the sentiment with my siblings is
00:38:00
the ability
00:38:02
to be be CR like what am I trying to say
00:38:06
the ability to be critical of what
00:38:08
you're
00:38:09
learning verify information for yourself
00:38:12
yeah because you know when you're your
00:38:15
own teacher which I mean maybe this was
00:38:17
your experience maybe it wasn't mom
00:38:21
wasn't like actively sitting there
00:38:23
teaching me stuff all the time right I
00:38:26
was mostly just going through my
00:38:28
curriculum on my own and then Mom was in
00:38:30
the room if I had a question or didn't
00:38:32
understand something she could go over
00:38:34
it with me right so that ability to take
00:38:37
in information process it catalog it and
00:38:40
figure out okay this is this that is
00:38:43
that you know organize it that I feel
00:38:47
like I have seen my siblings and
00:38:49
I not NE not not necessarily uniquely
00:38:52
but I'll use that word uniquely in the
00:38:53
world be able
00:38:55
to sift through
00:38:58
navigate life's challenges um there's
00:39:00
there's like a self- dependency to us
00:39:03
that I do not observe in in some other
00:39:05
people that you encounter in life and so
00:39:09
I think that on the by and
00:39:12
large my siblings and I would all say
00:39:14
that homeschooling was a good experience
00:39:16
and I think that my parents would share
00:39:18
that same sentiment um but I think
00:39:21
that we're just going to turn the stone
00:39:23
over I think that one of the things that
00:39:25
homeschooling might have actually done
00:39:27
is killed personally mine and I know my
00:39:30
brothers because I've spoke to him about
00:39:31
it I haven't really spoke to my sisters
00:39:33
about it but like that the
00:39:35
religion aspect of Our Lives you know I
00:39:37
kind of have critical thinked my way out
00:39:39
of that and that's that's a personal
00:39:41
decision you know yeah and I think that
00:39:43
that that's kind of like the vibe in my
00:39:44
family now is that like my mom even
00:39:47
which surprises me has shared with me
00:39:49
that she's not super big into church
00:39:51
anymore and it was because of that time
00:39:53
in Herman
00:39:55
and her buying into to it fully and not
00:39:59
getting back that same effort from her
00:40:01
peers in the church and um so yeah it
00:40:05
yeah I think that maybe I answered your
00:40:07
question or maybe the question just
00:40:08
prompted a thought but yeah no I that's
00:40:10
really what it's meant to do I just
00:40:15
I I just did interviews with my parents
00:40:18
at the time of recording this they just
00:40:19
went live and and one of the things that
00:40:22
we
00:40:22
keep them and I keep coming back to is
00:40:25
this thought of like I mean I took
00:40:27
critical thinking that was a class that
00:40:29
I had yes I remember taking something
00:40:31
like that too yeah my dad and I we
00:40:33
talked about we we did a whole I don't
00:40:36
even know it was a couple months we read
00:40:37
like The Da Vinci Code when The Da Vinci
00:40:39
Code was super controversial inside of
00:40:41
the church and we would discuss it and
00:40:43
and look at it and go okay well this is
00:40:45
a work of fiction right and like so we
00:40:47
could kind of break it down and and kind
00:40:49
of come from it from a different point
00:40:50
of view but to your point we learned how
00:40:54
to have critical thinking skills and how
00:40:55
to do our own you know for information
00:40:58
find correct information or find
00:40:59
information that you know we believed we
00:41:03
resonated with right and so same as you
00:41:07
that led me down the path of like I I'm
00:41:09
no longer religious I identify as
00:41:11
agnostic but yeah I definitely like it
00:41:15
took a long time and then it was really
00:41:17
scary to kind of like be like I don't
00:41:19
know I I don't know if you had this
00:41:21
exper I I really I hated and loved that
00:41:23
whole experience because I was I was
00:41:25
super angry the entire time but I also
00:41:27
was very much like I just I I I was like
00:41:31
I don't want to give it up because there
00:41:32
was a comfort to it like we were talking
00:41:34
about Green such a to go from Comfort to
00:41:36
a comfort I I was like I don't want to I
00:41:39
I just knew it was going to be
00:41:40
uncomfortable and it's this big scary
00:41:42
world out there and so I was like I
00:41:44
don't I don't know and then to feel all
00:41:46
alone in it you know but it's been nice
00:41:49
because to your point my parents and I
00:41:51
we can have discussions on it and they
00:41:53
still are very much involved in church
00:41:55
and religion but we can just have open
00:41:58
dialogue and and ask questions of each
00:41:59
other and stuff and I think that that is
00:42:02
a lot better
00:42:03
than that some people some homes school
00:42:06
kids don't end up with that
00:42:07
unfortunately you know their their
00:42:09
parents definitely are just very stuck
00:42:11
in the like I'm your teacher this is I'm
00:42:14
teaching you the correct thing this be
00:42:15
this how it is you know and you either
00:42:17
accept it or or don't you know and if
00:42:19
you don't well yeah
00:42:22
AO um but that's good that you you can
00:42:26
have kind of those open conversations it
00:42:28
sounds like with your family yeah I mean
00:42:30
I would say that I would say that
00:42:32
homeschooling made us very close yeah
00:42:35
you know um and I think that's a big
00:42:38
benefit you know yeah a big benefit to
00:42:41
homeschooling I I work on a show right
00:42:43
now that it deals a lot
00:42:46
with you know college kids young early
00:42:50
20s um and they talk about relationships
00:42:54
and sex and and you know uh um life
00:42:58
being a young person today and and how
00:43:00
it's shifted and how it's changed and
00:43:02
then they they very it's to um they're
00:43:06
not old by any means but older ladies
00:43:08
kind of coming in and one of one of them
00:43:10
is a therapist and she talks about that
00:43:12
that process of being like you know if
00:43:13
you're a parent and your kid is like you
00:43:17
you view it as like them being like
00:43:20
defiant or pushing back on whether it's
00:43:22
religion or whatever um usually it's not
00:43:24
it's just them being Cur they're being
00:43:26
human right they're being curious they
00:43:27
asking questions and that kind of a
00:43:29
thing and so you either you have two
00:43:30
options you either open yourself up to
00:43:33
being able to accept that we can have
00:43:34
dialogue around this or you just close
00:43:36
yourself off and when you close yourself
00:43:38
off it's no wonder that you're going to
00:43:39
lose your kids right and that's the sad
00:43:43
thing um and so yeah so if there are
00:43:47
parents listening to this don't shut
00:43:49
your kids out
00:43:51
please
00:43:53
conversations um and it's not easy I
00:43:55
don't know I don't know about you I
00:43:56
definitely gone through times with my
00:43:57
parents where it's a little bit more
00:43:58
strained or you know conversations can
00:44:00
be awkward but it just yeah you just do
00:44:03
it right you just push through it and
00:44:05
eventually you'll come out another side
00:44:06
of it and usually it's a little bit
00:44:08
better so yeah
00:44:11
anyway okay I gotta I got to ask this to
00:44:14
kind of get us maybe a little off the
00:44:16
heavy notes but is there a cringy
00:44:20
homeschool moment that you can remember
00:44:22
and I'll give you an example it comes up
00:44:24
a lot on this show so if you're playing
00:44:26
the ex- homeschoolers drinking game I'm
00:44:27
going to bring up my red pants um I had
00:44:30
skin tight red skinny jeans that I wore
00:44:33
I looked like somebody from One
00:44:35
Direction that was kind of the vibe I
00:44:36
was going for uh it was super cringey
00:44:39
and I look back on it and it's not
00:44:40
exclusively a homeschool thing right
00:44:41
it's just a fashion statement of the
00:44:43
time but are there any moments like that
00:44:46
that you can think of that you're like
00:44:47
that you're willing to share with the
00:44:48
class I guess also yeah I mean hey it
00:44:52
there's I have been I've had some
00:44:54
blunder years let's just leave it at
00:44:56
that um and so I'm not really okay so
00:44:59
something that has to do I wrote down
00:45:01
some funny stories because I didn't want
00:45:03
to like be on the podcast you're like
00:45:04
what's a funny story and I'm
00:45:06
like yeah so uh specifically with
00:45:11
homeschooling and this still cracks me
00:45:12
up to this day uh mom and I were like
00:45:15
you know what we need some elective
00:45:17
credits like what if what if we learned
00:45:20
what if you took like a foreign language
00:45:22
as a
00:45:23
class and I'm surprised that art made it
00:45:26
to the high school public school choice
00:45:30
and like right I was kind of amazed when
00:45:32
you said that too I was like art of all
00:45:34
things like just go buy some paint and
00:45:35
some brushes and you're good right yeah
00:45:38
for real well I do appreciate those two
00:45:41
art classes because truly I learned a
00:45:44
lot in them about Humanity the culture
00:45:47
you know it's not just art right it's
00:45:50
almost a history course yeah because you
00:45:52
go anyway we're getting off
00:45:55
topic so I tried to take
00:45:58
German as a foreign language as a
00:46:01
homeschooler and the only resources we
00:46:04
had was my mom my dad and me and I
00:46:08
remember we took about a month of this
00:46:12
course of just trying to get wheels off
00:46:15
the ground and the only phrase well I
00:46:18
probably learned like hello yes goodbye
00:46:20
you know no whatnot the only phrase that
00:46:23
I remember from this failed German class
00:46:26
was
00:46:28
to which translates to where's the
00:46:31
toilet which was the first phrase in the
00:46:35
book of what you needed to know if
00:46:36
you're gonna visit
00:46:39
Germany hey I mean hey if I ever go to
00:46:42
Germany you yeah you're prepped you're
00:46:45
ready that's all you need to know you
00:46:48
know yep you know I growing up in
00:46:51
California you're surrounded you know
00:46:53
we're on the border of Mexico
00:46:54
technically if you don't know how to
00:46:56
stay d
00:46:58
yeah you know same thing you know you're
00:47:00
you're screwed I'm probably saying it
00:47:02
wrong too you know it's been so many
00:47:04
years my aunt is from she was a German
00:47:08
uh Native a Germany she was born in
00:47:10
Germany and so that was I think probably
00:47:13
why we chose German because it would be
00:47:14
really fun to talk to my aunt in German
00:47:16
yeah and so if you're if you're
00:47:18
listening to this aun DJ I'm sorry for
00:47:21
butchering uh butchering how to ask
00:47:23
where's the toilet in German
00:47:27
oh my gosh that's I also struggled with
00:47:29
foreign language yeah I still can't
00:47:31
speak Spanish but you know I know that's
00:47:34
what I should have chosen I feel like
00:47:35
Spanish would have been a lot easier as
00:47:37
a first language or like well as a first
00:47:39
second language yeah I think the and the
00:47:43
thing with choosing like a Latin based
00:47:46
language is then it opens up the door to
00:47:48
so many so if you have the aspiration of
00:47:50
like you want to learn a lot of
00:47:52
languages Spanish tends any of the Latin
00:47:55
based languages tend to be a good yeah
00:47:57
jumping off but German's hard I'm going
00:47:59
to give it to you I have an uncle who's
00:48:00
German yeah it I'm like I don't even
00:48:04
sometimes I don't even know how he makes
00:48:06
certain noises with his mouth that you
00:48:07
know yeah awes it's a one like that yes
00:48:12
yeah oh my gosh that's a good one there
00:48:16
was another experience that we had um
00:48:20
and this one was like
00:48:22
simultaneously cool I feel like this was
00:48:24
a really neat experience uh as a
00:48:27
homeschooler specifically because I
00:48:29
think it bought me a lot of like street
00:48:31
cred okay with the kids in town I was 15
00:48:35
at the time but it was also like Mega
00:48:37
cringe like Mega
00:48:41
cringe um so I was uh super interested
00:48:46
in music from a very young age I played
00:48:49
Sports in elementary school you know
00:48:51
basketball soccer whatnot but when I
00:48:54
became kind of like into my ad lons
00:48:57
started figuring out who am I what do I
00:48:59
like it was guitar man I was obsessed
00:49:01
with guitar I was obsessed with metal
00:49:04
hardcore music you know under oath Demon
00:49:06
Slayer represent you know yeah uh
00:49:11
religious Christian metal music was my
00:49:13
thing yeah uh so anyway uh my parents
00:49:16
signed me up for lessons at 12 years old
00:49:19
and we went we went consistently I want
00:49:23
to say for
00:49:25
years and I was not one of their kids
00:49:28
that they had to remind to practice like
00:49:30
you better go upstairs and practice your
00:49:31
teacher said you have to practice for 30
00:49:33
minutes every day you know I was
00:49:35
upstairs playing my guitar for hours and
00:49:38
hours and hours and so one of the things
00:49:42
that we wanted to do is my friends and I
00:49:44
at the church we had uh I think all five
00:49:46
members of the band were kids that went
00:49:49
to church we started this metal band
00:49:53
okay but if you know do you know attack
00:49:56
attack
00:49:57
I do day like the people's elbow sticks
00:50:00
thickly yeah that was what we were
00:50:02
trying to be so we had a keyboardist and
00:50:05
we were trying to do the whole techno
00:50:06
thing and we played we had an
00:50:08
opportunity to play a show in Herman
00:50:11
Missouri and the only other
00:50:14
bands that were playing there was one
00:50:16
like hard rock metal adjacent band that
00:50:19
was headlining kind of like countryfied
00:50:22
metal Rock if you can imagine it okay
00:50:24
but everybody else was just like a
00:50:25
country band or like a a I don't know
00:50:28
pop band so here we were these
00:50:31
15-year-old kids in like what you were
00:50:33
saying like the red skinny jeans the
00:50:35
long Sid swept hair yeah you know the
00:50:38
spiky belt we roll up to this show and
00:50:42
we start playing this horrible poorly
00:50:46
rehearsed not organized at all metal
00:50:49
music and then all of a sudden we go
00:50:50
straight into this like super cringey
00:50:53
techno breakdown thing we had like a
00:50:55
choreographed dance that we we were
00:50:57
doing and let me tell you everybody at
00:51:00
the paloa was like what is
00:51:03
happening except for and this is the
00:51:06
cool part except for the high schoolers
00:51:09
right they all came up from the crowd
00:51:12
and stood on the steps and they were
00:51:14
getting into it and I want to say it was
00:51:16
because the lead singer was uh very
00:51:19
popular at school like he had a lot of
00:51:22
friends and so that experience was
00:51:24
really fun because here I was this
00:51:26
yearold kid I had not taken any classes
00:51:29
at the high school at this point I met a
00:51:31
lot of people that night yeah like it
00:51:33
was cool I got a lot of a lot of
00:51:36
exposure to the high school crowd in
00:51:38
Herman because of that night and so even
00:51:41
though like that was like probably the
00:51:43
cringiest thing I did was getting up in
00:51:46
front of that crowd and playing that
00:51:48
awful metal music that nobody liked um
00:51:51
it was it was honestly one of the best
00:51:53
nights of my life oh my gosh that's
00:51:55
amazing I very similarly I yeah I also
00:51:58
played guitar and same as you I would
00:52:01
you know they 30 minutes a day I would
00:52:03
play for hours especially when I started
00:52:07
learning how to play more lead guitar I
00:52:09
would play the same guitar lick over and
00:52:12
over and over again and uh I remember
00:52:15
one day my sister barging in my room
00:52:17
because we lived in a tiny little house
00:52:18
and she goes are you ever going to stop
00:52:21
because it was just our the same thing
00:52:23
over and over and over just like slight
00:52:25
differences right or change yeah
00:52:27
you're exactly just perfecting it I'm
00:52:29
like you know and I'm sitting there
00:52:31
going well if I want to be John may
00:52:33
somay I have to I have to do this you
00:52:35
know she's like you're not gonna be John
00:52:37
May I'm not gonna be John may but but um
00:52:42
oh my gosh yeah and then dude I also had
00:52:45
a band The the choreograph dances I mean
00:52:48
at one point we wanted to be the
00:52:49
All-American Rejects or like Fallout Boy
00:52:52
or something like that so we just kind
00:52:53
of were like you know we would dress
00:52:56
like that and act like that and wear our
00:52:58
guitars like at our knees and all the
00:53:00
stuff and it's just it's so dumb looking
00:53:02
back on but at the same time I don't I
00:53:04
don't really regret it because
00:53:06
absolutely not just such fun memories
00:53:09
it's such a fun memory I remember that
00:53:11
night we found a phone like that same
00:53:14
night of the Pala we found a phone in
00:53:16
the grass and we're like oh crap we got
00:53:18
to figure out who this belongs to so we
00:53:20
took the phone which was a mistake
00:53:22
because then the police got called and
00:53:24
they found us and we had the phone and
00:53:26
so like we were being accused of
00:53:27
stealing the phone and it was yeah no
00:53:31
regrets Man Memories high school high
00:53:34
school was like the best it's it's like
00:53:36
the best and worst time because y
00:53:38
there's so many things to be like
00:53:39
cringed out and be like oh it was
00:53:41
terrible but at the same time it's like
00:53:42
but we all did it together and anytime I
00:53:45
I get together with my high school
00:53:46
buddies it's just like we just remember
00:53:49
the most cringy stuff we ever did and
00:53:52
it's hilarious it's just hilarious cuz
00:53:54
like some of us are parents now and some
00:53:56
of of us are like doing completely
00:53:57
different things and it's like it it's
00:54:00
great to just we mock each other with it
00:54:02
I think it's just what it is it is but
00:54:04
it's all it it ends up all being equal
00:54:06
because we all were the cringiest people
00:54:09
in the world so
00:54:12
anyway dude Adam this has been so fun I
00:54:15
it's been love getting to know more
00:54:18
about your homeschool experience because
00:54:20
it is very different than mine it's very
00:54:22
different than a lot of people who have
00:54:23
been on the show and and the fact that
00:54:25
you have two kids who are are uh school
00:54:29
age is is awesome because kind of get to
00:54:32
actually hear not the hypotheticals of
00:54:35
like well what would you do if you had
00:54:37
kids but it actually getting to hear
00:54:38
from somebody this is the thought
00:54:40
process behind it and here's how we want
00:54:41
to be involved in our kids life it's
00:54:43
amazing um and just like I don't know I
00:54:47
I love you and Bailey you guys seem like
00:54:49
amazing parents to me um anytime I chat
00:54:51
with either of you I'm like you guys
00:54:53
it's so clear you love your kids it's so
00:54:55
clear you want the best for them um and
00:54:58
so and that's just I don't know it warms
00:54:59
my heart let's just say that well thank
00:55:01
you for saying that because it's
00:55:02
important to hear because there are
00:55:03
times where I'm like God I just this old
00:55:06
dead thing is not it man but then again
00:55:10
it is you know it's just in the moment
00:55:12
it can feel like a challenge but it's
00:55:14
it's it's encouraging to hear people see
00:55:17
see that the fruit of that labor you
00:55:19
know yeah even even through just
00:55:21
something as as frivolous and and
00:55:24
unimportant as social media you're able
00:55:25
to pick on that pick up on that so it's
00:55:28
meaningful absolutely absolutely well um
00:55:33
any last words before we sign off this
00:55:36
has been a great experience honestly you
00:55:38
know I I legit thinking before starting
00:55:41
the show today I was like what are we
00:55:43
even gonna talk about man like
00:55:45
homeschooling yeah I I guess and you
00:55:48
know it's actually been I feel like a
00:55:50
really fruitful positive conversation
00:55:53
it's it's been enjoyable you're you're a
00:55:55
great host and I just thank you for the
00:55:57
opportunity thank you I mean the point I
00:56:00
really have wanted this show to be a
00:56:02
space one to share stories to to
00:56:04
remnance to to know that you are not
00:56:07
alone um in any of those thinkings
00:56:09
because I for many years even though I
00:56:11
had so many homeschool friends growing
00:56:13
up that I know had similar experiences I
00:56:16
sat for so many years just being like no
00:56:19
my experience is so weird it's like such
00:56:21
a bubble nobody else has had that and so
00:56:23
even getting to just chat with you who
00:56:25
it's like you were not a part of my
00:56:27
bubble you had your own bubble but like
00:56:29
there are shared commonalities there um
00:56:32
so it is not it is not an individualized
00:56:35
thing I guess is what I'm trying to say
00:56:36
yeah and um that's really the point of
00:56:38
this is to build a community of people
00:56:41
who we had similar experiences and we
00:56:43
can get together and and like we were
00:56:44
talking about you know getting together
00:56:46
with buddies and reminiscing about our
00:56:47
cringey high school stuff it's like yeah
00:56:49
I want to get together with people and
00:56:50
reminisce about cringey homeschool stuff
00:56:52
together so Adam this has been amazing
00:56:55
thank you so much much to our audience I
00:56:58
hope you guys enjoyed this if you've got
00:57:00
questions for me if you got questions
00:57:01
for Adam you can you know shoot me a DM
00:57:04
shoot me a message um exhs Club on uh
00:57:08
pretty much all the social medias I know
00:57:09
Tik tok's going to go away here soon
00:57:11
sadly but Instagram it will be there I'm
00:57:12
not I'm not happy about that yeah me
00:57:15
neither uh or email me because email is
00:57:18
definitely not going away um at exhs
00:57:21
00:57:22
um yeah shoot me questions and like I
00:57:24
said at the top of the show share the
00:57:26
with a friend um if you you know if you
00:57:28
got somebody in your life who you just
00:57:31
even even just somebody came to mind
00:57:32
while you were listening to this and you
00:57:33
go oh my gosh I remember this hes school
00:57:34
friend track him down send him this
00:57:36
episode send him your favorite episode
00:57:39
whatever it is um get him in the club
00:57:41
you know uh we're where the doors are
00:57:43
open so uh until next week this has been
00:57:46
the X homeschoolers club and uh we'll
00:57:48
see you all right peace
00:57:51
[Music]
00:58:03
[Music]
