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What is good my exhies? It is your boy
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Jacob Gooden and we are back for another
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week of the exhomeschoolers club. Uh,
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got a special episode for you today
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because recently I've noticed there's
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been kind of this theme in some
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conversations I've been having behind
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the scenes as I'm I'm prepping some some
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cool guests that are coming on the show
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and uh they've turned around a lot of
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the questions that I ask them on me and
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been wondering like Jacob tell us about
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your homeschool experience and I know
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I've you know I've sprinkled it in a few
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episodes here or there. I've done a few
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episodes where it has been me mostly
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talking but maybe on a specific subject
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of of my homeschool experience. So today
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I figured, you know what? I'm just going
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to run down the list of questions that I
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normally ask you guys uh about your
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homeschool experience and I'm going to
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turn them on myself and we'll see uh
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we'll see how this goes. But before we
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get into that, I've got a quick favor to
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ask and that is I want you on my email
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newsletter. Okay, so top link in the
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description is going to be a signup
00:01:02
sheet to get on my newsletter. I send it
00:01:04
out every two weeks just about. I've
00:01:07
been a little inconsistent, but I'm
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back. I'm back on the grind every two
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weeks an email. It's got the latest
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episodes with a little breakdown about
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them. It's got whatever I'm currently
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reading, uh, some of the things I'm
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watching, tools I find, promotion for
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stuff that cool homeschool people are
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doing, like music they're putting out or
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movies or YouTube videos, all kinds of
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different stuff. Okay. Uh, it is, I
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don't know, it's just been kind of a fun
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secondary outlet uh to this podcast and
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I would love to have you on there. So,
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like I said, link is in the description.
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Go sign up. It costs you nothing. Okay,
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now let's get on with the episode.
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So, let's kick things off with kind of
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the quick and dirty, the elevator pitch,
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if you will, of my homeschool
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experience. Okay, I started
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homeschooling when I was in second
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grade. So, I did a few years of public
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school uh before that, but second grade,
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it was me and my sister. She went all
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the way kindergarten through 12th grade.
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Um, but yeah, very much like a private
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homeschool education experience. Uh, it
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was Christian Christian homechool
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experience. And um yeah, in Southern
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California, we were involved in a ton of
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co-ops. I know socialization was like a
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very important thing and to my mom. Uh
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she did not want us to be the
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unsocialized homeschool stereotype. And
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so we were definitely involved a lot in
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co-ops and and just with other
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homeschool families and even like other
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church families and things like that. So
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they did a good job trying to get us out
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of the house, I think. And the overall
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my takeaway from my home school
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experience, I enjoyed it. Okay, I I
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liked it. I don't look back on it with
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too much distaste
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um or disdain. Uh it got me where I
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needed to go. I think of course there's
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holes in my education that maybe could
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have been done better. There's changes
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that I personally make from the
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perspective of who I am today.
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But overall, I think it got me to where
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I needed to go. Got me into college. uh
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which got me the skills I needed to to
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do my career today. So, you know,
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overall good experience. I don't have
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that much to to complain about, if you
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will. But before I go on, I do want to
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quickly like touch on the different
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types of homeschooling, quote unquote,
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right? Because I think there's there's
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some kind of I have a lot of different
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people on. We when we ask them about
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their education experience, it varies,
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right? And we've had people who have
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done more charter school type stuff, who
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have done the private homeschool thing.
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I haven't had any unschooling people,
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but maybe we'll get there. Road
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schooling. There's there's a lot of
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different paths you can go. So, my
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family fell under the private
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homeschooling
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umbrella category, whatever you want to
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call it, which basically means that my
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parents were in charge of everything.
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There was no funding from the state.
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There was no funding from uh the
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government in any shape or form when it
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came to my schooling. They picked all of
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the curriculum. They did all of the
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research for it. Uh they uh did all of
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the recordkeeping, all these types of
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things. Um and then they had to submit
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whatever they needed to submit to the
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California government to make sure that,
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you know, I wasn't going to get taken
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away for like child neglect or something
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like that. But I know this also varies
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stateto state. Every state is different.
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California tends to have a little bit
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more lax rules when it comes to that
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kind of stuff. But essentially, we were
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a private school operating out of our
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house. Okay, that's the best way to
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describe it, I think. Now, there's also
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public and charter school situations
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where it's a lot of like online teaching
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or virtual teaching. Back in the day,
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probably was like cassettes and DVDs,
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but yeah, so at home learning, but with
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the schooling of like a public school.
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Okay, so these are sometimes state
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funded um or government funded, so
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they're they can be a little bit less
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expensive. Um, but you're sacrificing
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that that aspect of like choosing every
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piece of the curriculum that your child
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uses during their school experience. And
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then lastly, the other major category
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that gets talked about is unschooling.
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And I'll be honest, I don't know that
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much about it. I'm learning some about
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it. But essentially, unschooling
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is this idea, this philosophy that we
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teach kids based on the things that they
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show an interest in. Okay? And
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that goes for everything. So when they
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want to learn how to read, that's when
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we teach them how to read. When they
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want to learn how to do math, that's
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when we teach them how to math. And so
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it's very much a childdriven education.
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Now, I think my experience with
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homeschool lended itself to my parents
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had guidelines and rules that they were
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like, "Okay, we know that we want to get
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our kid through these levels of math and
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these levels of English and he needs to
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be able to read at a certain level and
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all these types of things." They also
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did a good job of leaning into the
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things that we were interested in. I've
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talked a lot on the show about being
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really into the history of pirates and I
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remember buying a bunch of books about
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it. had coloring books and all kinds of
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different things to learn about the
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history of pirates and you know that
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very much was catered to me. It was
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catered to my education style and need
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uh in the same way like as time went on.
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I mean I remember one year my mom
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handing us a list of books and she had
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decided hey you're going to read these
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six books but you get to pick out five
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from this list that you get to read. Um,
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and so there was kind of a mix of of
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things going on there. And that was I
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think what set my homeschool experience
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kind of apart from some other people was
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like even though my parents made a lot
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of the decisions, my sister and I also
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got some say in what was working, what
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wasn't working, and things we were
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interested in. Okay. Now, let's talk
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about some of the curriculum I used
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because I was thinking about about this
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and for the most part
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once we found what was working, we
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really stuck with it. Okay, so those
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first couple years of school when we
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were getting our bearings, so second
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grade, probably second, third, maybe
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fourth grade was like a Becca pretty
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much everything. And man, oh man, it
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just did not work. It was not
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It just wasn't it for my family. And I
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don't even It's been so long at this
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point. I was 8 years old when we started
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homeschooling. I'm 29 now, so 20 years
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ago. I just remember it really not
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working. But once we started to find
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things like we found Matthew C. And if
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you don't know what Matthew C is, I
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highly encourage you go look it up. Uh
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but it's like building blocks and you
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learn how to do math based off of
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blocks, which as a kid who grew up
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playing with Legos, right up my alley,
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you know. Um it made sense. it clicked
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in my brain and I was able to like
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actually progress through math pretty
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quickly and at like a normal speed like
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I was on par with everybody and for my
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sister it's same deal like she thrived
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with the Matthew C stuff that's not to
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say there wasn't challenging aspects of
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it just was the thing that worked for us
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okay so Matthew C absolute like gold
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standard favorite what's interesting
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I'll get into the the religious aspect
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of of the curriculum in a minute but so
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some other things that we looked at. So,
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we did exploring creation for science.
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Um, I think that was primarily high
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school science. I I don't remember. I
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feel like there was another curriculum
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maybe in like late grade school, junior
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high um times that we used. But most of
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our science was all like a science or
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Christian based science type thing. But
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I do remember that exploring creation, I
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remember taking a few things that
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I feel like were pretty solid. Like when
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I was in college and took science
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classes, I was like, "Oh, I I know this
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um pretty well." And so
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overall, like I said, I think it did it
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did its job. It wasn't maybe the
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greatest, but it it it did its job. It
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got me where I needed to go. History, we
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did this thing called Story of the
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World. And I'm trying to think of how to
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describe this, but they were these
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little books and they almost look like
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thick novels and we would read them and
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I remember them being pretty good
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storytelling
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like books. Um, and then if I remember
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correctly, my mom would pair them with
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we read a lot of like historical fiction
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and some biographies and things like
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that. But
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so for in let me give you an example. So
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for instance, when we learned about like
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Louiswis and Clark, the expedition of
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Louiswis and Clark, we read in addition
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to reading our history book, um we also
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would we read a a book about Sack Jia
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and it was historical fiction, but it
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painted the picture so beautifully and
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it was such a great novel to read like
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as a companion piece to this because it
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really it was written from her
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perspective and being with these strange
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men that she was getting to know but
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couldn't totally communicate with and
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even some of the villages that they went
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to uh and meeting other like America
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Native American tribes and things like
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that and her struggle with knowing the
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languages. Uh it it was interesting. It
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was like a wonderful piece of history.
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Now what's cool about the story of the
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world curriculum was that we also did it
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with a couple other families. And so we
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had kind of this co-op thing going and
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we would do we would get together
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once a month, maybe every two weeks,
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something like that. I don't think it
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was every week, but it definitely was
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fairly regularly. And we would do some
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kind of like
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I I'm going to call it a craft, but like
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an activity together. Okay. So, for
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instance, we at some point in our
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history learned something about
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Australia and there was something in the
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book about boomerangs and so we got
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together and we built boomerangs and we
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went to the park and played with
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boomerangs.
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It was dumb. It was little kids stuff,
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but it was so cool to be able to do that
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with other kids as opposed to just like
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my sister and I making them at home and
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then having nobody to play with them.
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That was what made that co-op so special
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was that it was like a play date mixed
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with school. And so we would get to do
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some fun activity. Like I said, I was
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really into pirates. So when we studied
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a lot of exploration, right, and
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discovery of the new world, very much in
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an era of pirates and we would make hard
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tac and we would make some kind of we
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made some kind of like,
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you know, beer or something cuz they
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couldn't take water with them was a
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little bit dangerous because it could
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get contaminated, but alcohol was a
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safer bet. Um, funny enough, but um
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anyway, story of the world. I don't
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know. I haven't done enough research
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into it to know totally like the
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accuracy or inaccuracy of those
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textbooks, but I do remember them being
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super fun. Okay, next up, Rod and Staff
00:12:30
English. Okay, this I pulled this up
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last night as I was prepping for to
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record this episode. So, this was a
00:12:38
Menanite based education system. So, Rod
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and Staff, big brand. They have a lot of
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different uh categories of um curriculum
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under them, right? All the different
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subjects. And we specifically used it
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for English and learning to write uh
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papers and stuff.
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It's funny because on the website
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there's a huge emphasis on like the
00:13:03
Bible and uh the Menanite church and and
00:13:06
those kinds of things, but
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as I'm looking back again, think it's 20
00:13:12
years um at this point of when I would
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have used this. I don't remember it
00:13:18
being super religious um in that aspect.
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But these books were I don't know they
00:13:24
were these cute little hardbacks with it
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almost was like a fun with Dick and Jane
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picture on the front. And um I remember
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them yeah I remember them learning learn
00:13:35
reading them and learning like sentence
00:13:37
structure and learning how to put
00:13:39
together a paper. They taught me how to
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address an envelope.
00:13:42
All those kinds of things all the basics
00:13:45
uh of what I needed to know
00:13:47
how to do English essentially. And then
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once I got to junior high, we started up
00:13:54
uh with Mrs. Yip's writing class. And
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man oh man, I gotta say she saved my
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butt so much in college. Okay, this
00:14:01
woman,
00:14:03
she would walk us through, I mean, all
00:14:04
types of different writing, right? C
00:14:06
from creative writing to doing a
00:14:07
research paper to when I was doing um
00:14:10
high school stuff with her, she was
00:14:12
teaching us how to write uh college
00:14:14
entrance uh essays and things like that.
00:14:17
But I remember, I will never forget, she
00:14:19
gave us these lists of sentence openers.
00:14:22
I saved that and when I was in college,
00:14:25
I taped it to my wall so when I would
00:14:28
write my essays in college, it was just
00:14:30
right there ready for me at any um
00:14:33
whenever I needed it. Okay? And oh my
00:14:36
gosh, her class, she she knew how to
00:14:38
balance the fun and the serious, okay?
00:14:41
Because obviously we're there to get
00:14:43
things done. We can't just goof off the
00:14:45
entire time. But she made writing into
00:14:48
kind of it felt like a game at times,
00:14:51
like I said, with sentence structure and
00:14:53
like the sentence openers, but also the
00:14:56
way she would talk about, okay, so
00:14:58
there's all these different types of
00:14:59
sentences and here's how you do this and
00:15:01
here's how you avoid runon sentences and
00:15:03
all these types of things. What was cool
00:15:05
was then she started giving us
00:15:07
guidelines to say, okay, you're going to
00:15:08
write a paper and here's all the
00:15:10
requirements for the paper. It has to
00:15:11
have however many uh adjectives, this
00:15:15
many adverbs, this many nouns, you know,
00:15:17
all of these things, this many sentence
00:15:19
openers, uh this many prepositions, all
00:15:21
those types of things. So, it became
00:15:23
like a game of like how many of these
00:15:25
things can we check off? And what's so
00:15:27
funny is that uh I was thinking about
00:15:30
this as the other day because
00:15:33
one of the podcasts that I work on, I
00:15:36
also manage their blog. And while I
00:15:40
don't do most of the writing for the
00:15:41
blog, I do some of the editing for it.
00:15:43
But one of the funny things about
00:15:45
publishing things on the internet is
00:15:48
SEO. And if you don't know what SEO is,
00:15:50
it's search engine optimization. Okay?
00:15:53
And so our blog has this tool on it that
00:15:56
is
00:15:58
it's like a s it's a search engine. It's
00:16:00
an SEO optimizer type thing. And what
00:16:03
it'll do is it ranks you based on how
00:16:05
well you've done. So you pick keywords.
00:16:07
So, for instance, this podcast, one of
00:16:09
the big keywords would be homeschool
00:16:11
kids, right? Homeschool would be a big
00:16:13
one. Uh, exeangelical is probably a big
00:16:16
one. Uh, homeschool education,
00:16:19
all these different things. Okay? So,
00:16:20
you would pick your keyword. Now, what's
00:16:22
cool about this tool on these blog sites
00:16:25
is it it gives you kind of a ranking.
00:16:27
So, you've got green, green is good,
00:16:29
right? Yellow is it's kind of mid and
00:16:31
red is this is really bad. Okay? But it
00:16:35
has all these different things in it.
00:16:36
talks about all these keywords. It talks
00:16:38
about your sentence structure, all these
00:16:39
things. And it's like that game that I
00:16:41
used to play with Mrs. Yip of just like
00:16:43
how many of these things can we fit in
00:16:45
and how many of these things can we get
00:16:46
to go green? And I remember in a private
00:16:50
conversation with Mrs. Yip years and
00:16:51
years and years ago as I was prepping
00:16:52
for college, she told me, she's like,
00:16:54
"Look, I pushed you to do all of these
00:16:57
things. That doesn't mean that those
00:16:59
things make great writing, okay? And you
00:17:01
don't need to always do all of them all
00:17:03
the time, but it was an exercise to get
00:17:06
you to at least use them and know how to
00:17:09
use them properly.
00:17:11
And that's again, I'm still using that
00:17:14
kind of a skill in what I'm doing today.
00:17:16
So anyway, I've talked enough about
00:17:18
English. Let's move on. Spanish Rosetta
00:17:20
Stone. Okay.
00:17:22
I'm gonna say this was a weak spot in my
00:17:25
education because I think I would have
00:17:28
definitely benefited from going to a
00:17:30
class and learning Spanish with other
00:17:32
students. Rosetta Stone. I'm sure it's
00:17:35
probably a lot better now than it was
00:17:37
then, but oh my gosh, I had this headset
00:17:40
that I would wear with a microphone and
00:17:43
then it was a computer program and so a
00:17:46
lot of it was they would say a sentence
00:17:47
or a word or something like that and
00:17:49
you'd say it back and it would use, you
00:17:51
know, computer knowledge to tell you if
00:17:54
it was good or bad. Okay? And uh I just
00:17:58
I just wasn't good at it. It did not
00:18:00
teach me conversational Spanish, which
00:18:02
is honestly what I probably kind of
00:18:05
needed. Um, which is hilarious because
00:18:07
I'm a quarter Hispanic. So, I Yeah, I
00:18:10
can order food and I can count my
00:18:12
numbers, but that's about it. Okay. I
00:18:13
can't really hold a conversation very
00:18:16
well. So, definitely a weak spot, I
00:18:19
think, in the home homeschool education
00:18:21
arena, but yeah. So, okay. So, in
00:18:26
researching all these textbooks and
00:18:27
looking all these things up, I was
00:18:29
curious at the percentage of them being
00:18:32
like a Christian curriculum versus a
00:18:34
secular curriculum. Uh, those kinds of
00:18:37
things because
00:18:39
my family, we bought a lot of our
00:18:41
curriculum. We would go to the Chia
00:18:42
Convention and the Chia Convention was
00:18:44
like a Christian home educator
00:18:49
association
00:18:51
uh conference I think uh is what it
00:18:53
stood for. And essentially it was like a
00:18:56
lot of teaching. Um they would do some
00:18:58
classes for students about I don't even
00:19:01
remember but I know for parents it would
00:19:03
be about they would have some of the
00:19:05
these people who created these
00:19:06
curriculums come in and talk about them
00:19:07
and then they had a big uh vendor room
00:19:09
and you could go buy your curriculum for
00:19:12
the year. And so I was just wondering
00:19:14
percentage-wise. And so as I as I was
00:19:16
researching this, I would argue 90% of
00:19:20
of the textbooks that I used were
00:19:23
Christianbased.
00:19:24
That's not to say that some of them like
00:19:26
Matthew C for instance, math, I'm sure
00:19:29
there's some curriculums out there that
00:19:30
somehow really finagle the story of
00:19:33
Jesus into them. Uh but Matthew C very
00:19:36
much very cut and dry of like we're here
00:19:38
to talk about numbers and numbers only.
00:19:40
kind of on that borderline of like it is
00:19:42
a Christian company but
00:19:45
not a Christian curriculum per se. So
00:19:49
I bring up the Christian curriculum
00:19:51
aspect because we talked we've talked a
00:19:54
lot on this podcast, okay, with other
00:19:56
people about
00:19:59
the good and the bad of of being raised
00:20:03
in a Christian environment, a Christian
00:20:04
homeschool environment where that is all
00:20:06
you ever know. There's something to be
00:20:08
said about the lack. I I understand one
00:20:12
of the one of the big reasons that
00:20:13
parents homeschool their kids is to
00:20:15
control what is going in. And there is a
00:20:19
fear among parents, especially Christian
00:20:21
parents, that when a kid goes off to
00:20:23
public school, they're being uh fed lies
00:20:28
about the beginning of the world,
00:20:30
evolution, Darwinism, those types of
00:20:32
things. That was a big emphasis, at
00:20:33
least when I was younger. And so
00:20:37
a lot of my friends, myself included,
00:20:39
were forced fed science that was a young
00:20:44
earth creationism, a lot of Ken
00:20:46
Hamesness
00:20:47
to it. Um, a lot of Ken Ham teaching to
00:20:50
be honest. Um, and yeah, and given these
00:20:53
talking points of like, no, here's like
00:20:56
the truth without ever being given the
00:21:00
opposite side of that. You know, what
00:21:02
what is evolution? What are these people
00:21:04
saying? Um, and what do I believe? Where
00:21:08
is the evidence for these things? Ken
00:21:10
Ham can talk a good talk. I'll give him
00:21:12
that. Okay. Uh, I listened to a couple
00:21:14
of his
00:21:16
um talks recently. Uh, because I was
00:21:19
doing some research for something else I
00:21:20
was doing and I was like, man, he's
00:21:22
still kind of got this charisma that I
00:21:25
appreciate. And he speaks with very much
00:21:26
an authority of what he knows uh of what
00:21:30
he thinks he knows he's talking about.
00:21:32
The reality is though that when you go
00:21:34
to his website,
00:21:37
oh man, it is not sourced very well at
00:21:40
all. Um, they make very bold claims
00:21:42
about dinosaurs. They make very bold
00:21:44
claims about uh Noah and the flood and
00:21:47
all these different things as if they're
00:21:49
just well-known facts without giving any
00:21:53
kind of research, data points, backing
00:21:57
to these things. And so now as an adult,
00:22:00
I can look at those things and go, "Oh,
00:22:03
okay, like maybe he wasn't such an
00:22:06
authority on this to be talking about
00:22:08
these things." I'm also the type of
00:22:10
person I like research. Um, some of the
00:22:14
books that uh I've been reading and
00:22:17
rereading, you guys know, I just
00:22:19
finished the I stating goodbye series.
00:22:21
Uh, previous to that on the show, I read
00:22:23
uh When Religion Hurts You. One of the
00:22:26
stark differences between books like
00:22:27
that was that in a book like I stating
00:22:30
goodbye, there's little to no
00:22:34
sources cited other than the Bible and a
00:22:37
couple Christian marriage books. Uh but
00:22:41
no
00:22:42
no backing no like oh this is actually
00:22:45
you know there's uh you know there's
00:22:48
evidence to show that actually doing it
00:22:50
this way leads to longerl lasting
00:22:52
marriages or uh healthier relationships
00:22:55
overall. Whereas a book like when
00:22:58
religion hurts you uh she has a lot of
00:23:01
things sourced there. Uh a lot of the
00:23:04
studies that she references all sourced
00:23:06
all easily accessible for you to go and
00:23:09
dig deeper right and find find for
00:23:12
yourself what you're looking for. And as
00:23:14
someone who has a desire to like know
00:23:17
things and learn about things like I go
00:23:19
down these deep dark rabbit holes
00:23:22
sometimes of like discovering all of
00:23:24
this education uh stuff. I talked about
00:23:27
looking up a lot of these curriculums uh
00:23:29
over the last couple days as I've been
00:23:30
prepping for this episode and man oh man
00:23:34
I got lost in a couple dark rabbit holes
00:23:37
of going into Reddit threads and off of
00:23:39
you know maybe starting at a Wikipedia
00:23:42
article but linking off and going down
00:23:44
these rabbit holes of looking at you
00:23:46
know the histories of these education
00:23:48
systems and where they come from and I
00:23:50
could bore you all day with some of that
00:23:51
stuff and I'm not going to do that but
00:23:54
again what I find so interesting about
00:23:57
the very religious Christian experience
00:24:00
homeschooling and curriculum is again
00:24:03
there's a lack of perspective a lot of
00:24:06
times and I think that that's somewhat
00:24:10
dangerous um
00:24:13
it hurt me when I left uh home because
00:24:18
when I got to college I knew one way and
00:24:21
one way only. Okay. And when I started
00:24:23
taking classes and and people didn't
00:24:26
agree with that, even though I was at a
00:24:28
small Christian college, um it was hard
00:24:32
because I was getting hit with these
00:24:34
things that I had never I feel like
00:24:36
prepared for these questions and also
00:24:39
these people who I was meeting who were
00:24:41
Christians but didn't believe in a
00:24:44
literal 7-day creation or didn't believe
00:24:46
that Noah's Arc was a worldwide flood.
00:24:48
Uh things like that. Uh, and so I had
00:24:52
never been met with anything like that
00:24:53
before. And so all I had was my talking
00:24:55
point without having ever looked at any
00:24:58
evidence for anything else. And so
00:25:01
again, that's not to say all of these
00:25:04
curriculums were bad. They got me to
00:25:05
where I needed to go a lot of times. Uh,
00:25:08
science probably being the weakest one
00:25:10
of the bunch. Uh, well, aside from
00:25:12
Spanish, still can't really speak uh a
00:25:15
lick of espanol. But yeah, I think like
00:25:19
I said, I think overall decent. Okay,
00:25:22
I'm going to give my parents a passing
00:25:24
grade on the curriculum when it comes to
00:25:26
that. Let's talk about socialization a
00:25:28
little bit. I mentioned at the beginning
00:25:29
of the episode, it was really important
00:25:31
to my mom. Uh, right off the rip, I
00:25:34
remember part of us also transitioning
00:25:37
into homeschool was the fact that we
00:25:39
moved. So, we had lived in Ventura
00:25:42
County. Uh well, I guess we still
00:25:44
technically lived in Ventura County, but
00:25:46
we had lived in Ventura and when I was
00:25:48
eight moved to Oak View, so about a 20
00:25:52
to 30 minute drive depending on where
00:25:53
you are. Uh and yeah, it was a big
00:25:56
shift. I was no longer going to be able
00:25:58
to go to the same school I had been used
00:25:59
to going to. And my mom was like, "Okay,
00:26:02
let's give this home school thing a
00:26:03
shot." Okay,
00:26:06
but all of a sudden, I don't have
00:26:07
friends. And so, how do we build those?
00:26:11
Well, lean into church a little bit
00:26:14
more. We got involved with a local Aana
00:26:17
in our area, which Aana is essentially
00:26:20
the best way to describe it for people
00:26:22
who don't know, I think is probably it's
00:26:24
like a mix of Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts
00:26:28
with a game aspect to it. So, imagine
00:26:31
once a week and also like a youth group
00:26:34
element uh to it as well. So imagine
00:26:38
once a week going to a church and you
00:26:41
spend some time learning and memorizing
00:26:45
Bible verses and reciting them and based
00:26:48
on
00:26:50
you it's like a workbook. So based on
00:26:52
how far you get through the workbook,
00:26:54
you earn badges similar to Boy Scouts
00:26:57
except these are tied to Bible um and
00:27:00
scripture memorization as opposed to
00:27:02
actual like useful life skills that you
00:27:04
would learn um in the scouts. Um, and
00:27:07
then there was a time of like games.
00:27:09
Okay, so and they had I'm gonna hand it
00:27:11
to Wana. They knocked it out of the park
00:27:13
when it comes to games. Okay, so they
00:27:16
basically had the circle and the circle
00:27:19
was like a square asphalt area and you
00:27:23
had four colored teams. So it's like
00:27:25
red, yellow, blue, green I think I want
00:27:28
to say. And um but this circle was
00:27:32
designed and painted in such a way that
00:27:34
you had all these like little markers
00:27:35
all over the place. And so you could do
00:27:37
laps around it. You could do uh there
00:27:40
was different games we would play with
00:27:42
like dodge balls and things like that.
00:27:44
You had inner and outer circles uh those
00:27:47
types of things. And so we play like hot
00:27:49
lava games where the circle would creep
00:27:51
in and um things with bean bags where
00:27:54
very similar to like cornhole. you got
00:27:56
to land the bean bag on a certain mark
00:27:58
on the ground and all all these
00:28:00
different things. Anyway, look it up. If
00:28:02
if you Google Awana and then Google like
00:28:05
Awana like circle or something like
00:28:08
that, it probably will come up or I want
00:28:10
to like activity circle or something
00:28:12
like that. But anyway, so heavily
00:28:16
involved in that. I met a lot of
00:28:17
homeschool kids through that. A lot of
00:28:19
those people have been on the show or
00:28:22
we've chatted off air um recently as
00:28:25
we've gotten reconnected. But man oh man
00:28:27
that fun times I got to say the games
00:28:29
the games was it but also my parents got
00:28:32
us involved in some wreck stuff. Um so I
00:28:35
played soccer for a little while and I
00:28:38
played tennis for a couple years or
00:28:40
maybe a year I don't know. Uh tennis was
00:28:42
not my game. Um and did like basketball
00:28:45
camp and things like that. The other
00:28:47
thing that my mom did was got involved
00:28:50
with a couple co-ops. So,
00:28:53
the two main ones being group solutions
00:28:57
and Achieve. And Achieve I don't think
00:28:59
is technically a co-op. I think it's an
00:29:02
association of homeschool families that
00:29:05
kind of bond together to do some stuff.
00:29:06
So, but we're let's talk about group
00:29:08
solutions first. So, group solutions,
00:29:10
the basic premise of group solutions was
00:29:12
meeting twice a month to give kids, give
00:29:16
homeschool kids a little bit more of
00:29:18
like a schoollike experience. And so,
00:29:22
parents would teach a class. So, you and
00:29:24
then kids would take it and it was maybe
00:29:27
15 students per class, maybe a little
00:29:29
bit more. And so, Group Solutions taught
00:29:31
us a bunch of different things. I took
00:29:33
some science classes at groups. I took
00:29:35
music lessons. I took we did a uh there
00:29:40
was a boot camp for boys class that was
00:29:42
very
00:29:43
kind of Boy Scoutes. It was eventually
00:29:46
taught by a former Boy Scout Eagle
00:29:47
Scout, John Slagboom, who's been on the
00:29:49
show. Shout out John. Um
00:29:53
we did he did another survival class. We
00:29:56
did um I'm trying to think what else we
00:29:59
did. There was cooking classes, there
00:30:00
was sewing class, art classes, uh
00:30:03
literature classes, uh all kinds of
00:30:06
different aspects, okay? And it was all
00:30:08
these homeschool families uh in the
00:30:10
Ventura accounting area that would come
00:30:12
together and do this. And so I remember
00:30:14
the first couple years doing it, it was
00:30:16
big, but like by big maybe couple
00:30:20
hundred people. And by the time we were
00:30:22
leaving uh that, which was right around
00:30:25
high school for me, they were splitting
00:30:27
off and actually turning group solutions
00:30:28
into like two separate uh town events
00:30:31
because the homeschool group had just
00:30:33
grown so exponentially uh throughout
00:30:35
that time. And so anyway, very cool
00:30:39
experience. I think what was so great
00:30:41
about that was it was an opportunity to
00:30:43
make friends. It was also an opportunity
00:30:47
to socialize, to have a real school
00:30:50
environment. So, we learned things like
00:30:52
how to raise our hand in class, right?
00:30:54
How to ask questions and how to have
00:30:56
meaningful discussion. My mom taught
00:30:58
English class for many years at group
00:31:00
solutions and uh both like British and
00:31:03
American literature and all these
00:31:05
different things. She she's good about
00:31:07
creating a cool discussion group. Uh and
00:31:11
and so we could like we learned how to
00:31:13
have like actual meaningful conversation
00:31:16
around the books we were reading. Uh as
00:31:18
opposed to just being like oh I kind of
00:31:20
like this character. It's like well no
00:31:21
tell us about that character and why
00:31:24
that speaks to you. And so another
00:31:26
useful skill thank you mom. uh that came
00:31:29
in handy when I got to college um
00:31:32
because I could actually hold meaningful
00:31:34
conversation around textbooks and
00:31:36
research that we were doing uh and why
00:31:38
things stuck out and spoke to us. So,
00:31:42
shout out to that. Also, shout out to
00:31:44
the Sanchezes who put that on because
00:31:45
I'm sure that was a nightmare at times
00:31:48
probably for you guys. So, shout out to
00:31:50
you guys because that was an incredible
00:31:52
time and I know myself and a lot of
00:31:54
other homeschool families appreciate the
00:31:56
effort and the time that you spent doing
00:31:59
that. Okay, so thank you. The other
00:32:02
thing that we were heavily involved in
00:32:03
was Achieve. And Achieve, like I said,
00:32:07
was a little bit more of an association.
00:32:08
I think it stood for the Association of
00:32:11
uh Christian Home Educators of Ventura
00:32:14
County, I think. And this was a group
00:32:19
that so it was like a membership and you
00:32:21
would pay to be a part of it. It was
00:32:24
exclusively for private homeschoolers.
00:32:26
So we didn't have any public or charter
00:32:27
school kids in that group. And it gave
00:32:31
you access to a couple different things.
00:32:33
So we had like park days, we did school
00:32:36
dances, there was a spelling bee,
00:32:39
science fair, um there was like
00:32:41
curriculum swap or like a curriculum
00:32:43
like yard sale type of thing. It was
00:32:46
also a way for parents to get to know
00:32:49
each other and so getting like the moms
00:32:52
together uh for like a mom's night out
00:32:55
kind of a thing and similar like for the
00:32:56
dads and get them involved. There was I
00:32:59
think I said the dancing stuff already.
00:33:01
So yeah, swinging ballroom dance,
00:33:02
English country dance, graduations
00:33:04
happen through Achieve. Uh, so we had
00:33:07
actually like normal uh, well
00:33:09
quoteunquote normal graduations, but
00:33:11
more of a traditional graduation
00:33:13
ceremony as opposed to in the homeschool
00:33:15
world. I'm sure there's lots of kids who
00:33:17
their parent just hands them a diploma
00:33:19
and it's like here you go. Um, no, we
00:33:22
actually had like a ceremony with capp
00:33:23
and gown, uh, you know, the progression,
00:33:26
all that kind of stuff. And I think they
00:33:28
would do that also for like eighth
00:33:29
grade. So like exiting junior high and
00:33:33
going into high school and then exiting
00:33:34
high school going into college age. So
00:33:36
yeah, a bunch inside of Achieve. Achieve
00:33:41
I as someone who had parents who served
00:33:44
on the board of Achieve. Uh I know that
00:33:47
there was a lot of messiness that
00:33:48
happened behind the scenes with that.
00:33:50
Don't know if it still exists today or
00:33:52
how it's changed. Um but I know my
00:33:55
experience with Achieve from is great. I
00:33:58
loved it. specifically the dancing. Um,
00:34:01
you know, I'm going to get into
00:34:02
extracurriculars in a minute, but yeah,
00:34:04
it definitely was like a big deal and I
00:34:07
loved I loved it so much. It also just
00:34:10
opened you to a network of people, which
00:34:12
was cool because even when I was in high
00:34:15
school and starting my own businesses
00:34:17
and wanting to teach guitar lessons and
00:34:19
wanting to to offer things to my
00:34:21
community, I had this network of people
00:34:23
that I could put that out to. Um, and so
00:34:25
I wasn't just like left with nothing,
00:34:28
you know what I mean? So, other co-ops
00:34:32
and other socialization things. I kind
00:34:34
of hit on this when I talked about
00:34:36
my history curriculum, but
00:34:39
my family was involved in some smaller
00:34:42
like three to four family co-op type
00:34:46
things where we get together for history
00:34:48
or I know in high school we also kind of
00:34:50
did small co-opy things with uh English
00:34:54
lit um with science, those types of
00:34:57
things where we would get together with
00:35:00
under 10 families but maybe a little bit
00:35:02
more than four. uh and do like our labs
00:35:04
together for science or do some kind of
00:35:08
uh like a like I talked about discussion
00:35:11
groups, my mom teaching that kind of a
00:35:14
thing. Uh so there was that. I feel like
00:35:16
there was another subject that I'm just
00:35:18
totally spacing on. But a lot of
00:35:21
particularly in the Ohigh Valley, which
00:35:23
is where all of my homeschool years
00:35:25
happened,
00:35:27
there was always opportunities for, you
00:35:29
know, someone's mom is is going to teach
00:35:31
a baking class or someone's mom is doing
00:35:33
this or so and so's dad uh wants to
00:35:36
teach, you know, all the boys how to
00:35:37
drive a tractor or, you know, whatever.
00:35:39
There was just opportunity to do things
00:35:41
like that. And so, I don't know if those
00:35:44
would maybe 100% be labeled co-op. I'm
00:35:47
just kind of putting that label on them
00:35:49
to be like there was also a lot of just
00:35:51
this kind of support system because
00:35:56
as I've gotten older and I've talked a
00:35:58
lot more to homeschool parents um it's
00:36:02
really interesting because like my
00:36:05
parents both college educated people my
00:36:08
mom wanted to be an English teacher um
00:36:11
kind of a thing so she has some of the
00:36:13
knowhow for like how to do that and I
00:36:16
have other friends who their their mom
00:36:18
was a school teacher or went to school
00:36:20
to be a school teacher and so their
00:36:22
homeschool experience is pretty
00:36:25
I'd say it's like pretty solid because
00:36:27
their parent like knew what went into
00:36:30
like managing a classroom. Uh and then
00:36:33
you have other homes parents who didn't
00:36:35
have any of that. And I'm not saying
00:36:36
that they gave their kid a terrible
00:36:38
experience, but just it's
00:36:41
interesting to see the parents that
00:36:42
maybe only have a GED or a high school
00:36:44
diploma
00:36:46
became teachers and became, you know,
00:36:48
and and and homeschooled their kids and
00:36:51
why they did it. Um, that kind of a
00:36:53
thing. All that to say, it was important
00:36:55
for the families of Ohio in particular
00:36:58
to bond together, hopefully to help out
00:37:00
in the weak spots that some parents had.
00:37:03
Um cuz even my own parents, they were
00:37:05
not good. Science was not their area and
00:37:08
thankfully we had friends who that was
00:37:09
their area and so we leaned into that
00:37:11
and we used them as best we could uh to
00:37:14
to make that happen. So let's talk about
00:37:16
extracurriculars a little bit. I've
00:37:19
talked a lot on the show previously
00:37:20
about swing dance being massive for me.
00:37:22
And you know what's so funny about that
00:37:25
is that
00:37:27
I think I started dancing when I was 11
00:37:28
years old and my mom stuck me in this
00:37:32
class. And I think it was with the
00:37:34
mindset of let's Jacob's about to be a
00:37:38
teenager and he's going to need to know
00:37:40
how to talk to the opposite sex and to
00:37:43
not be weird. Um,
00:37:46
I don't know that it totally succeeded
00:37:47
in that, but it definitely gave me an
00:37:51
opening to like understand like
00:37:56
that dynamic, the boy girl dynamic, I
00:37:58
guess. Um, and so it was cool.
00:38:01
Definitely shout out to the Bozart girls
00:38:03
for teaching me how to swing dance.
00:38:05
Shout out to John Pettit for teaching me
00:38:06
how to swing dance. I loved it so much
00:38:08
that I ended up taking over um when they
00:38:12
all graduated high school and I taught
00:38:13
dance for a number of years, but so much
00:38:16
fun from East Coast Swing to Lindy Hop,
00:38:18
Charleston. Uh learned a little bit of
00:38:20
West Coast Swing as well. uh was not the
00:38:24
homeschool community preferred east
00:38:25
coast swing because it's a lot more like
00:38:27
big band um kind of a thing where west
00:38:29
coast swing what's funny about west
00:38:32
coast swing is the reason it's called
00:38:34
that is because it's a slot dance and I
00:38:36
could talk all day about this if you
00:38:38
want to know more comment down below let
00:38:39
me know I'll do a whole episode on swing
00:38:41
dance if you like but uh it's a slot
00:38:44
dance that was designed for the movies
00:38:46
okay and so east coast swing is danced
00:38:50
in a circle And so so when the movies
00:38:55
became big in the 1920s era, right, they
00:38:59
needed to do d they they wanted to put
00:39:02
dancing in the in the films, okay? And
00:39:05
they needed dances that still showed uh
00:39:08
either a person's profile or the front
00:39:10
of a person. And so Charleston and West
00:39:12
Coast Swing became the thing. And so
00:39:14
they turned East Coast Swing uh slowly
00:39:17
but surely into West Coast Swing. And it
00:39:19
became a slot dance. And so when you
00:39:21
dance it, what I mean by that is that if
00:39:23
you're staring directly at your partner,
00:39:25
let's say you're my partner, okay, as we
00:39:28
dance, when when uh we're going to swap
00:39:31
spots and then swap back, okay, that's
00:39:34
what a slot dance is. And so you would
00:39:37
always have, let's say your camera is on
00:39:38
your left side here, pointed at you,
00:39:41
your profile would always be uh visible
00:39:44
to the camera um whether it's your left
00:39:48
side or your right side. Okay. uh east
00:39:50
coast it was always it was a circle like
00:39:52
I said and so you would never end in the
00:39:54
same spots. Sometimes back would be to
00:39:56
the camera uh and that was just not
00:39:59
ideal. And so when they were filming
00:40:00
movies especially dance sequences like I
00:40:02
said you needed to be able to like see
00:40:05
the person but also if they needed to
00:40:06
shoot direct on someone was having
00:40:08
conversation while dancing or something
00:40:10
like that. Even if they moved they
00:40:12
needed to make sure that person was
00:40:14
going to end up either right back in the
00:40:15
same spot or on the opposite side. uh
00:40:19
kind of thing. And then Charleston, if
00:40:21
you don't know what Charleston is, look
00:40:23
it up. But Charleston is a side by side
00:40:25
uh swing dance. So you hold your partner
00:40:28
um as as the lead, you hold your partner
00:40:30
with your right hand um and you
00:40:33
basically are in an open V formation and
00:40:36
they would point you at the at the
00:40:38
camera and tell you to boogie on down.
00:40:41
Okay, so little history lesson kind of a
00:40:44
thing. Uh correct me if I'm wrong if you
00:40:46
swim dance people. Maybe I maybe I have
00:40:48
my facts wrong, but that's what I
00:40:50
remember uh in learning swing dance type
00:40:53
stuff. But anyway, I also brought up
00:40:56
extracurriculars. Okay,
00:40:57
extracurriculars. What else we had? I
00:40:59
kind of brought up tennis and and soccer
00:41:02
and basketball. I was not a big sports
00:41:04
person uh at all. I played basketball
00:41:07
like in my neighborhood just on the
00:41:09
street and things like that, but I
00:41:11
definitely I didn't like it. I was I was
00:41:14
always the artsy kid. um kind of a
00:41:18
person, but I did get into airsoft and
00:41:22
that was so much fun and paintball. And
00:41:24
when I got into those things, those kind
00:41:25
of became my sport uh of choice. And so
00:41:28
me and my buddies would get together at
00:41:29
least once a month. Then the summers I
00:41:31
felt like we got together like every
00:41:32
week, sometimes like all weekend long.
00:41:35
Uh we would play, but yeah, we would do
00:41:37
we would do that just like get outside,
00:41:40
get dirty, roll around, have fun. um you
00:41:44
know like an elevated Nerf battle uh so
00:41:47
to speak and so that was a lot of fun.
00:41:51
Obviously, I brought up like church and
00:41:52
Aana and youth group. Those things
00:41:54
played huge roles as extracurriculars in
00:41:56
my life. Like, uh the different churches
00:42:00
that I went to, not only did I attend
00:42:03
and was a member, but also like would
00:42:05
serve on the worship team or sound team,
00:42:08
lights, multimedia,
00:42:10
uh children's ministry,
00:42:13
a whole plethora of different things, uh
00:42:16
as well. And the same with youth group.
00:42:17
like not only did I like attend, but I
00:42:19
ended up on the worship team and then I
00:42:21
ended up like going to junior high camp
00:42:22
as a leader a couple times and uh being
00:42:25
on the band and stuff. So definitely
00:42:27
like was heavily involved in those
00:42:30
things. Um as well music was like a huge
00:42:34
extracurricular. I started playing
00:42:36
guitar.
00:42:38
Oh man,
00:42:40
I want to say I was like 12 years old.
00:42:42
Could have been a little earlier than
00:42:43
that. I don't 100% remember. But uh I
00:42:47
started Roseanne Walrip was my guitar
00:42:49
teacher and uh I played we rented a
00:42:54
crappy guitar from her and I would play
00:42:56
and I was learning scales and learning
00:42:59
little songs here or there and the deal
00:43:01
was I think at 6 months or a year or
00:43:03
something like that. My parents would
00:43:04
buy me my own guitar
00:43:06
and I hit it and I was like yeah I want
00:43:09
to I want to play guitar. And they were
00:43:11
like are you sure? Yeah, absolutely. I
00:43:14
want to play guitar. And so we went and
00:43:16
bought a guitar and I was really shy. Uh
00:43:20
super super shy to the point where I
00:43:23
wouldn't touch the guitar in the store.
00:43:25
Mostly I I know for me there was there's
00:43:29
two aspects to this. One, I did not want
00:43:31
to play in front of people because I
00:43:33
didn't know if I was any good. And when
00:43:34
you go to a a little guitar store, you
00:43:37
know, you're hearing people shred.
00:43:38
You're hearing people who are incredible
00:43:40
guitar players do their thing. and I
00:43:42
knew that I wasn't that. And so I was I
00:43:45
felt like I was just going to be
00:43:45
embarrassing myself. But two,
00:43:49
um I also had this nervousness that I
00:43:53
was like going to break it. And so I
00:43:55
feel like I didn't want to touch
00:43:56
anything because they weren't mine and
00:43:59
they're expensive, right? Guitars are
00:44:01
crazy expensive. And so anyway, so the
00:44:05
owner of the store, such a nice
00:44:07
gentleman, he would play the different
00:44:09
guitars and I picked a guitar based on
00:44:12
the sound that it made and what I liked.
00:44:15
And so we found this really nice guitar,
00:44:17
got a great discount on it. Um, I still
00:44:19
have it to this day. It's a beautiful,
00:44:20
beautiful handmade guitar from Canada.
00:44:23
And um, what's funny, took it home,
00:44:25
still had not played it, pulled it out,
00:44:27
tuned it up, played the guitar. Both my
00:44:29
parents went, "Oh my gosh, Jacob can
00:44:31
play guitar.
00:44:32
Yeah, I could play guitar. I just had
00:44:34
been playing on a piece of trash. Um, so
00:44:38
anyway, like I said, shout out to
00:44:40
Rosanne Walrip for those early guitar
00:44:42
lessons. I then transitioned Tim Frans.
00:44:45
Uh, you guys know Carrie and Ellia and
00:44:47
Katrin who've been on the show, but Tim
00:44:49
Frans uh was my guitar teacher for many,
00:44:52
many years. Got me into electric guitar,
00:44:53
taught me how to play bass, taught me
00:44:55
how to run a studio a lot about
00:44:57
microphone placement and all these
00:44:58
different things. But anyway, phenomenal
00:45:00
guitar player and instrumentalist.
00:45:03
Absolutely incredible. But yeah, he kind
00:45:05
of took me to that next level and um
00:45:09
just so much fun. I loved music and
00:45:10
that's what I ended up going to college
00:45:12
for originally was I wanted to work in
00:45:14
the music industry. We're going to get
00:45:16
there in the college years in just a
00:45:17
minute. But yeah, so music huge part of
00:45:20
my education. I'm also trying to think
00:45:22
about extracurriculars. There was
00:45:24
something else I thought of and I cannot
00:45:26
place what it was. I've got it. The
00:45:30
other big extracurricular item on a lot
00:45:34
of the homeschool families uh was
00:45:36
theater and
00:45:39
it's so interesting because it all
00:45:40
revolves around the Mitchell family. I
00:45:42
think my personal opinion but the
00:45:45
Mitchell's had would do theater
00:45:49
in the round at their house. They had a
00:45:51
round driveway and right in the center
00:45:53
we build a uh stage and have plays every
00:45:58
summer. Uh yeah, pretty much every
00:46:01
summer. And uh they had already been
00:46:03
doing it for a couple of years before I
00:46:05
got involved. And like I said, I was a
00:46:07
shy kid, so most of the time I just did
00:46:09
backstage stuff, wear all black, go out,
00:46:13
do my thing, change props out, whatever.
00:46:15
Not a big deal. Uh, as time went on and
00:46:19
I got a little bit more uh, courage, uh,
00:46:22
I started making my way out on the stage
00:46:24
and singing and dancing and, uh, having
00:46:27
fun. And what's so funny is like it's
00:46:31
such a important memory to me because I
00:46:35
gained so much confidence doing theater
00:46:38
and I never went on to do theater like
00:46:40
in college or anywhere else other than
00:46:43
the Mitchell's backyard, but it gave me
00:46:45
so much confidence to just be goofy and
00:46:49
silly and have characters and that kind
00:46:51
of a thing. I did improv in college and
00:46:53
like it just I had so much more
00:46:55
confidence from having that that theater
00:46:58
background. Um, so anyway, but I also,
00:47:02
like I said, I loved music and I love
00:47:04
like the entertainment industry in
00:47:06
general.
00:47:07
And so it was just like such a great
00:47:09
fit. And so I think there's many of you
00:47:12
uh who were my friends back in the day.
00:47:14
You guys know the Mitchell's Backyard
00:47:16
Theater Productions was like the place
00:47:18
to be during the summer. And uh yeah, it
00:47:21
was great. So that's kind of uh probably
00:47:24
the majority of my extracurriculars. I
00:47:26
wanted to also briefly touch on
00:47:29
uh college and that experience because
00:47:33
when I was growing up there was just
00:47:34
somewhat of a stigma around homesooled
00:47:36
kids being able to get into college and
00:47:38
what that looked like. And I think you
00:47:41
know the history of homeschooling you
00:47:43
know it took a while for it to get kind
00:47:45
of more socially accepted and adopted in
00:47:48
our country. And so, but I think I was
00:47:52
really on the tail end of that where it
00:47:55
was pretty legitimate where my parents
00:47:58
kept a really good record of what I did
00:47:59
and I had transcripts and all those
00:48:01
types of things. So, for me, college
00:48:03
wasn't really an issue as far as getting
00:48:06
into it. Okay. I also had parents who
00:48:09
thankfully got me the help I needed as
00:48:12
we got closer. So, I had a college
00:48:14
guidance counselor who helped me pick
00:48:15
out a school and figure out what I
00:48:16
wanted to do because originally I was
00:48:18
like, I'm not leaving California because
00:48:20
why the heck would I not going to go
00:48:22
super far away? Um, I want to work in
00:48:24
the entertainment industry, specifically
00:48:26
audio engineering, and I want to make
00:48:28
albums. I want to make music albums.
00:48:30
Okay,
00:48:32
not a lot of schools uh do that
00:48:35
surprisingly. Uh, it's probably a few
00:48:37
more, but in 2013, 2014 when I was
00:48:40
starting to look at colleges, that was
00:48:42
not the case. Um, there's a big music
00:48:45
school here in Nashville, Tennessee
00:48:46
called Belmont. They do that. Uh,
00:48:49
there's a couple schools throughout the
00:48:50
Midwest. There's a big school in Chicago
00:48:52
I'm blanking on the name of right now
00:48:54
that does it. There's Fullale University
00:48:56
in Florida, uh, that is not a bachelor's
00:49:01
program. It's more of like a trade
00:49:02
school type of thing. there's still a
00:49:04
lot of question on if it's legitimate or
00:49:06
not. So, I knew I wanted a four-year
00:49:08
degree because I wanted I wanted a
00:49:10
bachelor's to be able to fall back on if
00:49:12
the music industry thing didn't work.
00:49:14
Okay. Um, but
00:49:17
I wasn't willing to leave California. At
00:49:20
the time, there was only
00:49:23
two schools, I think, in California
00:49:26
that were offering what I was looking
00:49:28
for. One was a master's college and one
00:49:32
was
00:49:34
a state school and I can't remember
00:49:36
which one it was but anyway but what was
00:49:39
so funny was I had all these other
00:49:41
criteria that I wanted to meet. Okay. I
00:49:43
was really scared of going to a big
00:49:44
school because well I wasn't used to
00:49:46
being in a classroom with a lot of
00:49:47
people. I like the smaller intimate
00:49:49
settings. So they're like okay that's
00:49:51
big school's probably going to be out.
00:49:54
Okay so there was that. The second thing
00:49:57
was my guidance counselor was like,
00:49:59
"Okay, well, I think you need to start
00:50:00
looking outside of California because
00:50:02
you're starting to put your eggs all in
00:50:04
one basket, which was the M's College."
00:50:07
And thankfully, they were just like,
00:50:08
"Why don't you just apply some of these
00:50:10
other schools?" Cuz at the very least,
00:50:12
even if you don't go to them, you can
00:50:14
get the financial aid uh offer and then
00:50:17
you can use them against you can use the
00:50:20
colleges against each other to get the
00:50:21
best offer possible. And I was like,
00:50:24
"Okay." So, I started applying applied
00:50:25
to Greenville College, applied to a
00:50:28
school in like Iowa and some other
00:50:30
school in the Midwest and uh I think
00:50:33
somewhere in Colorado potentially just
00:50:35
like kind of spread myself a little thin
00:50:38
and some of them didn't really have
00:50:39
totally the degree I was looking for but
00:50:41
maybe had something adjacent to it and
00:50:45
surprise surprise got into every single
00:50:47
school I applied for. I am not a smart
00:50:49
person by the way, okay? Not super
00:50:51
smart. did very average on my SATs and
00:50:54
ACT scores. I got into every school I
00:50:57
wanted. Um, and I got two schools that
00:50:59
offered me really good packages where I
00:51:02
was like, "Okay, I'd be kind of dumb not
00:51:04
to." And, uh, yeah. So, anyway, weeded
00:51:07
it down, ended up in Illinois, went to
00:51:10
college. It was both the best three
00:51:13
years of my life and the worst three
00:51:14
years of my life. um for for varying
00:51:17
reasons, but college was really crazy
00:51:21
because it was the first time I'd ever
00:51:23
really been on my own and it was the
00:51:25
first time I didn't have friends. And
00:51:28
two things that were,
00:51:30
I think, big and important was one, I
00:51:35
chose not to identify as a homeschool
00:51:37
kid right off the bat. It came out
00:51:39
probably at the end of my freshman year,
00:51:41
and it's not like I lied to people. If
00:51:43
people asked, I would just say it. But I
00:51:46
didn't, if someone was like, "Oh, tell
00:51:48
me about your education." I'd be like,
00:51:49
"Oh, I went to private school in
00:51:51
California, small private school in
00:51:52
California." kind of a thing. Um, as
00:51:54
opposed to saying, "Oh, I was
00:51:56
homeschooled." That kind of a thing. And
00:51:58
um, so I did that. And then the other
00:52:01
thing was that I learned that I actually
00:52:04
my socialization skills kind of crap.
00:52:07
Um, I was used to being around
00:52:09
homeschool kids and we're a bunch of
00:52:11
weirdos. And that's I mean that in the
00:52:13
best possible way po, you know, ever.
00:52:15
But, um, we are a couple weirdos. And
00:52:18
so, I'm thankful I had a college
00:52:20
professor who was like, you need to
00:52:21
learn to chill out, okay? You need to
00:52:23
like tone it down. You're you're at an
00:52:26
11. Bring it down to like a six. Um, you
00:52:29
know, or a five and just like chill.
00:52:32
Just like be cool. Be in the room. And
00:52:35
especially if you want to work in the
00:52:36
entertainment industry, uh it's all
00:52:38
about like can you hang? Uh which is
00:52:41
very true, still remains true to this
00:52:43
day. Okay? Can you be a good hang? And
00:52:46
so anyway, college was great. Gave me
00:52:50
some great friends. Um met my wife. It
00:52:53
was tough. Classes were hard. Um tell
00:52:57
you that right now. Um I got like my
00:52:59
first like B's and C's in college and I
00:53:02
was like, "Oh man." Um, I got a D in
00:53:04
college, somehow still graduated. Uh,
00:53:08
but yeah, it definitely
00:53:11
it woke me up, I think, to a lot of
00:53:13
things. It was this big shift in my life
00:53:15
where I was I started thinking for
00:53:18
myself uh in a lot of ways. And uh at
00:53:20
the tail end of it, I definitely
00:53:25
I had definitely changed. Okay. And what
00:53:29
I mean by that is when I when I talked
00:53:31
earlier about my curriculum and it
00:53:33
teaching a very one-sided perspective, I
00:53:35
walked out of college really feeling
00:53:37
open to a lot of different things, which
00:53:40
is crazy considering I went to a small
00:53:42
Christian college that very much like it
00:53:44
was a Methodist college, think United
00:53:46
Methodist. So we had a lot of rules
00:53:48
around everything we could and couldn't
00:53:50
do. We had all of our a lot of our
00:53:53
teaching was very much still based in
00:53:55
like a Christian aspect. Uh I took
00:53:58
religion uh religions class. I took an
00:54:00
Old Testament class. I had Bible class.
00:54:02
I went to church. I served at church. It
00:54:05
was mandatory that we go to chapel like
00:54:07
three days a week. Uh be in Bible
00:54:09
studies and all this different stuff.
00:54:11
But I think what it taught me, one of
00:54:13
the big things that
00:54:15
I woke up to in college was the fact
00:54:18
that like even though a lot of the
00:54:20
people there were Christians, we
00:54:23
believed vastly different things.
00:54:27
And it was okay to ask questions of each
00:54:29
other and it was like this safe
00:54:30
environment to kind of do that and we
00:54:32
would disagree on a lot of stuff and uh
00:54:35
I had a buddy who's like he was a
00:54:37
Calvinist and I was non- denominational
00:54:39
with more of an emphasis and like a
00:54:40
Baptist background um kind of a thing.
00:54:43
And so if you're not religious and you
00:54:45
don't know anything about like there's
00:54:48
Christianity and then within
00:54:50
Christianity there's all these little
00:54:51
subgroups of what's going on. um it is
00:54:55
crazy church drama inside of there and
00:54:57
there's crazy like little tweaks that
00:55:00
people make um and and two uh it's it's
00:55:03
their interpretation of the Bible,
00:55:05
right? It's their interpretation of
00:55:06
religion and the history of religion and
00:55:08
all these different things uh that set
00:55:10
us on these paths of like I must
00:55:13
identify with this and I must identify
00:55:14
with that and that kind of a thing. And
00:55:16
I think that's great. That's wonderful
00:55:17
that we we can be that way. Um, but like
00:55:20
I said, I think college gave me that
00:55:22
freedom finally to like ask in a lot of
00:55:25
senses dumb questions of people and be
00:55:27
like, "Okay, so why do you believe
00:55:29
that?" And because I started getting
00:55:31
asked that question a lot. And it made
00:55:33
me realize that I was like, "Oh, maybe I
00:55:34
need to actually like think about these
00:55:36
things more than just like my pastor
00:55:38
told me this or my mom and dad told me
00:55:40
this or this was my understanding of
00:55:43
what the Bible said." um and kind of
00:55:46
look at actually like you know some
00:55:49
theological evidence
00:55:52
for those things. And so that served me
00:55:55
well because when I left college and I
00:55:58
was out in the real world then you
00:56:01
really start to come across vastly
00:56:02
different world beliefs. And as I got my
00:56:04
first jobs and I started asking people
00:56:06
questions and all these different
00:56:07
things. I've always thankfully worked in
00:56:09
environments that
00:56:12
the people I work with are very open
00:56:15
about what they believe and they're very
00:56:16
willing to talk and they're very
00:56:18
accepting of who you are as a person and
00:56:21
that kind of a thing. And so it also set
00:56:24
a very hopefully good standard for me to
00:56:26
be the same way uh to people and say,
00:56:29
"Okay, let me just like meet you where
00:56:30
you're at and uh ask questions and
00:56:33
that's cool." So anyway, I could rant
00:56:36
and rave about that all day of like that
00:56:38
transition
00:56:40
away from from Christianity uh and and
00:56:43
my belief system and things like that,
00:56:44
but I already made an episode on that
00:56:45
and my why I deconstructed uh and I've
00:56:48
talked pretty extensively on this
00:56:49
podcast about it. But all of these
00:56:52
things to be said, okay, I'm now
00:56:56
officially 10 years, no 12 years, oh my
00:57:01
gosh, 12 years, uh, out of home school.
00:57:04
Okay. Or coming up on 12 years out of
00:57:05
home school. And
00:57:09
I still look back on it very fondly. I
00:57:11
still look back on it and it's one of
00:57:13
those things where if someone comes to
00:57:15
me and they're like, you know, I'm
00:57:16
thinking about homeschooling my kid or,
00:57:18
you know, maybe I'm just like, you know,
00:57:20
exploring education options, I will talk
00:57:22
about it from a very fond perspective
00:57:25
because I had a great time. I learned a
00:57:28
lot of really incredible things that I
00:57:30
don't think I would have learned in
00:57:32
public school. I also missed some
00:57:34
important things that I probably would
00:57:35
have gotten in public school, but
00:57:38
overall, I came out okay. I survived. I
00:57:41
survived college. I've survived uh I
00:57:45
mean almost a decade out of college. Uh
00:57:47
now, uh dang, that's crazy. Uh and I'm
00:57:53
alive. I'm thriving. My career has been
00:57:55
what it's been, you know, like I I
00:57:59
have done the thing. I have succeeded uh
00:58:01
in a lot of senses. And so anyway, so
00:58:05
like I said, when people come to me and
00:58:06
they're talking to me, the things that I
00:58:07
point out to them are like
00:58:10
to me, the reason that I'm successful is
00:58:14
because my parents advocated for me
00:58:17
having education that I needed to
00:58:19
succeed. When I struggled in something,
00:58:21
they helped find a new curriculum or a
00:58:24
new way of teaching it that made sense
00:58:26
to me and my sister. Okay? when uh you
00:58:29
know when I had questions, they didn't
00:58:32
always steer away from every little
00:58:35
thing. And
00:58:37
sometimes they did, but they would
00:58:40
encourage us to research and to learn
00:58:42
things and to ask questions. And when I
00:58:45
say that,
00:58:47
it could mean a lot of different things.
00:58:48
It could obviously mean religion, but I
00:58:50
I'm thinking more in the sense of when I
00:58:53
was really into something specific like
00:58:56
music and really got into like John
00:58:58
Mayer or Eric Clapton or something like
00:59:00
that, wanting to learn the history of
00:59:03
those people and what they've played and
00:59:04
the styles and their teachers and all
00:59:06
those types of things. Like my parents
00:59:08
gave me the tools and the resources to
00:59:10
get that knowledge. Uh, and so it gave
00:59:13
me a deep appreciation for learning and
00:59:15
it gave me a deep like wanting to learn.
00:59:18
And so anyway, I still hold that to this
00:59:21
day. So I think that that's more
00:59:24
important. And that's why I say I think
00:59:26
my parents were great advocates for me
00:59:28
and my sister uh as as students um
00:59:32
because they gave us the tools. They saw
00:59:34
where we were lacking and they helped
00:59:36
give us the tools we needed to to make
00:59:38
it. Okay. So that to me is the more
00:59:40
important thing as someone who's looking
00:59:42
at like the best education style for
00:59:44
their kid is like, well, where's your
00:59:46
kid at and what does your kid need?
00:59:48
Because it might be public school
00:59:49
because they're like super social
00:59:52
butterfly need to be around people 24/7
00:59:55
kind of a person. Um or maybe they're
00:59:58
more introverted and school is
01:00:00
overwhelming, right? The big classroom
01:00:02
setting is overwhelming. So like looking
01:00:04
at those different things is important.
01:00:07
Um, the other thing that I say to those
01:00:10
people is like, why do you want to do
01:00:12
this?
01:00:14
Is it selfish or not? And I think
01:00:17
there's a large there's a vast majority
01:00:20
of people who I think do it for selfish
01:00:22
reasons. They want their kid to be, and
01:00:27
I don't know that they would argue that
01:00:28
it's a selfish reason, but they want
01:00:30
their kid to turn out maybe just like
01:00:32
them or to be protected from all these
01:00:36
different things. and um and not go
01:00:39
through hardships, which I don't think
01:00:40
is like totally always a bad thing. And
01:00:42
and like I said, it's kind of painted in
01:00:44
this light of like it's for you um kind
01:00:46
of a thing, but what is your motivation
01:00:49
for doing it because
01:00:51
it it sometimes is selfish and but if
01:00:54
you can come at it from a non-selfish
01:00:56
place, if you can come at it, like I
01:00:57
said, from wanting to give your kid the
01:00:59
best possible uh education possible, I'm
01:01:03
using possible a lot. Um can you tell?
01:01:07
Maybe it's it's stemming from a good
01:01:09
place. So anyway, I've rambled probably
01:01:13
long enough at this point on my
01:01:15
homeschool experience. And um yeah, I
01:01:19
hope that's cleared up maybe some
01:01:20
questions that people have around it. Um
01:01:23
if you got more, let me know. I'd love
01:01:25
to answer them. And uh yeah, I'm trying
01:01:29
to think. Anything else? You got
01:01:31
anything? Okay, good. I guess it's just
01:01:34
me. This has been fun. Uh, it's always
01:01:37
fun chatting with you guys and um, yeah,
01:01:40
do all of the internet things that you
01:01:41
know how to do. Get the show, share the
01:01:43
show with someone uh, that you love,
01:01:45
someone you care about. Uh, leave me a
01:01:47
comment, leave me a like, do whatever
01:01:49
you feel comfortable doing uh, to help
01:01:52
get the show out to more people.
01:01:54
Remember, subscribe to the newsletter.
01:01:56
Uh, link is in the description. It's the
01:01:58
top one in the description. Just do it.
01:02:00
It cost you nothing. If you don't want
01:02:01
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01:02:03
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account in there. Okay. Um,
01:02:08
and uh, yeah, and if you want to get a
01:02:10
hold of me, you know how to do that. You
01:02:11
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01:02:15
or you can shoot me a DM at exhclub on
01:02:18
Instagram, threads, and Tik Tok. Uh,
01:02:21
yeah, that's where I'll be. So, until
01:02:23
next week, we'll see you. All right.
01:02:25
Peace.
01:02:32
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01:02:39
[Music]
