Homeschooling Info + Common Misconceptions

The speaker introduces herself as Samantha and explains that she decided to start a podcast about homeschooling due to the current state of the world and parents' uncertainty about whether to homeschool. She discusses her own reasons for homeschooling, including concerns about school shootings, the passing of discriminatory legislation, and the erasure of black history. She also emphasizes the importance of teaching life skills and real-world knowledge to children. The speaker addresses common misconceptions about homeschooling, such as concerns about socialization and the belief that it is a miserable and stressful experience. She shares that homeschooling allows for more flexibility and quality time with children. The speaker concludes by mentioning the different types of homeschooling approaches and the freedom to choose the best fit for individual families. Hello, everybody, and welcome to the first ever Little Indie Babes podcast. My name is Samantha. So I wish I was making my first podcast off of something really exciting or positive, but unfortunately, just the way the world is right now, I think there are a lot of parents that are kind of scrambling to figure out their next move in terms of whether or not they should homeschool. And I just kind of wanted to put a podcast together to give some helpful tips, information, and go over some common misconceptions as somebody who has just started their homeschool journey. I'm brand spanking new into this. I've been doing this for about, I want to say, six months now, whenever the recent school year started. Honestly, it's been a blur. It's gone by really fast. But let's dive right in. All right, so let's dive right into why Samantha, the person who never saw herself being a homeschooling parent, turned into a homeschooling parent. And loves it, by the way. I fucking love this. I will never turn back. But anyways, I was the person who years ago would have said, I will never homeschool. I am looking forward to my quiet time, having a break, to actually have time to run my business and process my thoughts and have some clarity. And unfortunately, just where we are in the United States right now made it really impossible for that to be something I would allow. So, a few reasons why I decided to homeschool. First and foremost was mass shootings, school shootings. That doesn't seem to be getting any better or going away. Our government doesn't seem to want to do jack shit about it. They're just, you know, thoughts and prayers, thoughts and prayers. And dealing with the heartache and loss and grieving one of my children. I just, I could not fathom the heartbreak that comes along with this. And it shouldn't be something that any parent has to go through. There should be no reason for this. Number two was the, here in the state of Florida, where I live, was the passing of the Don't Say Gay Bill. I am all about supporting the LGBTQIA community. I believe that love is love and that everybody should be treated with love and equality. No matter who you love and who you are, I just don't understand this way of thinking for people who do not think that these amazing humans deserve the same basic human rights that we all do. That was a huge thing for me. You know, if one of my children is in the LGBTQ community, I want them to know that they are loved and accepted and deserving of absolutely everything and anything. And I just preach being a good person to my children. Just do good. Just be a nice person. Number three, which this is something that happened after I decided to homeschool, which is kind of crazy, this actually reassured me that I made the right decision, is now the book banning here in Florida and the erasure of black history. I am dumbfounded by this. I cannot believe that this is happening. It's disgusting to me. I believe that, you know, our children deserve to know the actual legitimate history of this country and how it was founded, where it came from, how it all started, and how we got to where we are today. I will say that, you know, there's shit that I just learned as a 30-year-old adult about the history of this country that has me shocked and upset and pissed. Like, I can't believe that these things were suppressed from me my entire life. And it's shocking to find out some of the things that you learn when you start to dig a little deeper. I mean, the list goes on. I feel like, you know, these poor kids are in school for so many hours a day, you know, and at the end of the day, I just don't feel that they are learning actual life skills and things and knowledge that they need for the real world. We're not teaching our kids about finances or debt or investing. We're not teaching our kids about how to take care of themselves, how to do house chores, how to cook, how to clean, how to be self-sufficient, how to garden, how to grow your own food. Like, these were all things that were really important for me when I decided to do this. These are things and skills that I want my children to know. I want them to be successful, able adults who can take care of themselves and, you know, take care of their own families and not be reliant on, you know, asking for help from everybody. So those are some of the reasons why I personally decided to go to school. And now we're going to dive into some common misconceptions when it comes to homeschooling. Okay, so please bear with me. I am exhausted. I am tired. But I do want to get this out because I know people need to hear this stuff now. So common misconceptions when it comes to homeschooling. Number one is the socialization thing. I think that is very – people are so uninformed when it comes to this. And this is a big concern I had, too, when I was deciding to homeschool. Because my daughter was already very standoffish and reclusive. And I got to say, she started to blossom when we decided to homeschool. She – I had never seen – I never thought that she would be a social person. Turns out she's very fucking social. And that's because we've done, you know, amazing co-ops with other homeschooling children and gone on so many adventures. And she's been exposed to so many experiences that have really allowed her to feel safe and to come out of her own. But, you know, this is – it's so funny because in the homeschool community, they talk about how kids in school are actually overly socialized. And you don't actually need to be socialized for them the hours a day. And if they're – they're either being overly socialized or they're being suppressed. You know, being told to sit down and be quiet and stop talking. It's one of two things. Not to mention, you know, the fact that when you are homeschooling, you are able to help and guide your children when they need extra assistance. You cannot expect a teacher who's dealing with 18 to 20 children to be able to pause and just really give certain kids who need a little bit extra what they need. And it's totally reasonable that they're not able to have five million hats on at once. You know, they're humans. So it makes sense, doesn't it? Okay, another really, really, really big common misconception is like this depiction of a torturous, you know, workbook at-a-table textbook lifestyle where, you know, you're miserable and your kids are unhappy and it's stressful and I hate to break it to you. That ain't it. That ain't it. You know what it is? It is shorter hours and happy dancing and celebration. Because let me tell you, there is nothing fucking balmer than your kids learning as you're guiding them. And literally watching their little brains unfold and like actually grasp the concept of something and apply it. You know, we happy dance, we sing, we dance in this house. Like, it is such a beautiful experience. We celebrate all the small stuff. And I have a saying that I tell Ellie this every day. Practice makes progress. And, you know, she's confused or not getting something. It's okay because guess what? We're going to keep trying and keep trying. There's no pressure. And eventually we're going to get it. And guess what? Aha. Amazing. Anyways, getting off track here. You know, the amount of hours, there's a certain amount of hours per day that is recommended for children depending on their age and their grade. And for kindergartners, I believe what I had researched was 30 minutes to one hour of curriculum per day. 30 minutes to an hour. Let that sink in. And guess what? The time does not change much from grade to grade. Even in the higher grades, I want to say the maximum amount of hours recommended is probably like four or five. So, I mean, that just goes to show that they're in school working their little butts off for far too long every day. Basically, there's a lot of things when you start homeschooling that you have to kind of unlearn and relearn because the way that we were brought up in the public school system is not what homeschool is at all. It's so much the opposite in so many ways. And it truly is beautiful and magical. So, I'm going to go over some of the pluses now to homeschooling. And like I said, please bear with me because I'm absolutely exhausted right now. It has been a really, really long day. But there are so many pluses to homeschooling. One is quality time and poor memory. You know, I used to think I needed a break from my children, but I honestly was in this scarcity mindset with my own business and that I honestly let a lot of time and quality memory slip away. So, now I feel like I'm just trying to, like, grab that back. And I'm really grateful that this is something I am able to do. But quality time is a huge plus. You know, we get to get outside and have amazing adventures. We can have a field trip every frickin' day if we want to. That's awesome. You know, our homeschool days don't always start at the same time every day. You do not need to be a type A kind of person who's, like, super organized to homeschool. I am not. I really wish I was. Truly admire that quality about certain people. I just – it is not me. I'm a fucking mess. And we make it work. You know, I'm still learning every single day. I have not found my perfect way of doing homeschool. I'm still trying to semester how we do things. And there's a huge freedom that comes along with homeschool. You do not have to be perfect at it. You know, you will learn as time goes on what works for you and what doesn't. There are so many different types of homeschooling that you can do. You know, I decided to go down a more eclectic homeschooling path. So we do, like, a mixture of a few different types of homeschool. We do unschooling, wild school, and we do curriculum. You know, there are some people that do, like, the Charlotte Mason. There is Montessori. There are so many different routes that you can choose. And you have the freedom to do that. You can do it however you want. Like, whatever your idea and whatever you think is going to work best for your individual child, you can do that. And the great part is, like, you know, today we had brunch. We had brunch, and then we homeschooled at, like, 1 o'clock. And we were done by 2, maybe 2.30. You know, and then we're outside just having a good time in nature and playing, and then we eat. And it's just a very chill vibe. I'm about the chill vibe all night. That is a huge freaking plus. It's a huge win. And with that, I'll say, like, you know, if you work during the day, you can homeschool at night. You can homeschool on the weekend. You know, and there are a lot of homeschool moms that I've met that don't even do five-day curriculum. Most of them do, you know, three-day school day or, sorry, three-day school week. And their kids are sharp as a tack, smart AF. You know, they are thriving. Oh, and guess what? For those of you who love to adventure and go on vacations and travel, yeah, homeschool is bomb.com for you. Because guess what? You can do it in a car. You can do it in an airplane. You can do it anywhere. Honestly, kids learn through doing and through experience. They learn all throughout the day just by observing and asking questions. And it's just such a beautiful thing. I feel like anybody who is on the fence about it or wants to do it, do it. Like, if you are able, it is so beautiful. It's really not what you think it is, I promise you. And honestly, so far since starting my homeschool journey, the only negative thing that I can even say is money. You know, just look at it this way. You know when your kids are home for the summertime and you're like, oh, my grocery bill is going to go up because I have to feed these kids three times a day? Yeah, that. These kids seem to be ravenous and they just never want to stop eating. So, yes, it's a little bit more expensive to have them home all the time, to be feeding them all the time. And then there is the cost that goes into starting it. I probably dropped a couple hundred dollars just getting all the supplies that we would need, you know, like crayons, colored pencils, markers, paint, paper, curriculum, random workbooks, which I ended up not needing a lot of the random workbooks I bought. Honestly, if I could go back, I wouldn't have wasted my money on a lot of things. But I will end up doing like a blog post on this. You know, the Dollar Tree is amazing for certain things, which I am going to put a blog post together for budget-friendly resources and home school supplies and all sorts of goodies in the future. So stay tuned for that. But, you know, depending on the curriculum you want to do, it's not cheap, but it's also really not expensive when you think about it. So if you're worried about the cost, it's not a lot up front, but it's, you know, it's not free. Now, as far as starting homeschool, depending on where you live, each state has different rules and regulations for homeschool. So Florida is surprisingly chill and lax for now. When it comes to homeschool, all Florida requires is that, you know, if your kids are previously in the public school system, you have to send a letter to the school board basically letting them know that you're going to be homeschooling your child. It's very simple, you send it online, you mail it, boom, done. And the only other thing that you need to do is keep a homeschool log every day for what you're doing with your kids, write it down. I have a binder. I also take a lot of pictures and have, you know, pictures of the things that we do in my book. And then the only other thing you need to do in Florida is get them evaluated once a year. The evaluation, you know, is not detrimental to them being homeschooled. They're not going to be revoked the right to be homeschooled because they're not progressing quickly enough or, you know, on some certain level. They just want to know that your kids are progressing from year to year and that they are learning something. Now, I really hope that this was informative and answered some questions. I, you know, if I can do this, truly anybody can. I mean, I am, like I said, I'm not an organized person. I do not have my shit together. I am a mess of a human. I am a dumpster fire. But, you know, we make it work. And I surely do try. I try my best. But homeschooling has been the most rewarding thing that I've ever done. And honestly, it's crazy to say this because I'm head over heels for my business. But I would sacrifice and close my business in a heartbeat if I had to to continue homeschooling. Because I am just invested in it that much. I truly believe it's what's best for my children. And I think that it's such a beautiful thing, this little life and, you know, community that we're building, you know, through homeschool. And I have no regrets, not even one. I think if you're afraid, then, you know, sometimes in life you just have to take that leap. And that's always been something that I've done. I've never been afraid to jump off that edge. So I really hope that this was helpful. If you have any questions at all, please let me know. And I am more than happy to help. Thank you so much for listening. I truly, truly appreciate it. And listening to this means that you are wanting to make some changes. And that's really noble. Like, it really is. This shit is terrifying. You know, like, it's scary to dive into this, but I promise you, it's not. It really isn't. It's amazing. I do plan to have multiple podcasts. This is going to be a whole shebang. Okay? We're going to go over the good, the bad, the ugly, as time goes on. I would love to have, like, guest speakers on here with me. We're going through it, too. And maybe have different ways of doing things. Because there's no one place to fall for this. And I'm just really looking forward to where this is going to go in the future. And how I can help serve others. So thank you so much for being here. And I am wishing you the best right now. Because I know shit is scary out there. Just know you're not alone. You can always come to me and talk to me if you have questions. Or you just want to vent. Or if you have any concerns in regards to any of the shit that we're talking about here. I am an open book. And I am all ears. And I am wishing you the best, Mama. On your new journey. And sending you all the freaking hugs. All the awkwardly long hugs.