00:01:08.320We're so grateful to have you as a part of our community.
00:01:12.260Doris Livingstone will be hosting tonight's show,
00:01:15.960and our guest speakers are Dwayne and Jalene Hay.
00:01:18.780The title of tonight's show is Homeschooling, the Best and Safest Choice.
00:01:25.040It's Wednesday, August 12th, 2026, and this is the Empower Hour.
00:01:31.400Here we are in the second week of August already, and a new school season will be starting in just a few short weeks.
00:01:38.420We'd like to invite you to take a look at our Homeschool Revolution page,
00:01:42.620where we provide help for those of you who are thinking of homeschooling your children this coming September,
00:01:48.280whether you're a first-timer or a veteran. Our goal is to assist and support parents,
00:01:54.900grandparents and guardians with powerful resources and solutions to counter the assault against our
00:02:01.080children that is being committed by the government and education systems. We also provide support and
00:02:07.720resources for those of you who will be keeping your children in the school system. Be sure to
00:02:12.820head over to the Action for Canada website to take a look at the many resources available to you.
00:02:21.020I'm so pleased to introduce you to tonight's host, Doris Livingstone.
00:02:26.440Doris is Action for Canada's homeschool lead and a veteran homeschooling mom who began her homeschooling journey in 1995,
00:02:34.780shortly after moving to Euclid, B.C. with her husband and three preschool children.
00:02:40.860After her husband passed away while the children were still teenagers, Doris continued to homeschool as a single parent until graduation.
00:02:48.880And now she's a passionate advocate of homeschooling, promoting it as an adventurous, exciting family life that is truly rewarding for everyone.
00:02:59.680Before Doris comes on, I'd like to introduce tonight's guests.
00:03:03.340i'm so pleased to introduce tonight's special guest speakers for the past 12 years while
00:03:10.440operating a successful home business duane and jolene hay have faithfully homeschooled their
00:03:16.000four children and will continue to do so until graduation tonight they're joining us to discuss
00:03:22.560why they decided to homeschool some of the challenges they've had to deal with the many
00:03:27.740blessings they've experienced and how homeschooling enables parents to tailor each child's education
00:03:34.020to their unique learning style, cultivate strong character, develop a biblical worldview,
00:03:40.620a healthy work ethic, critical thinking skills, meaningful friendships, and close family
00:03:46.780relationships. Thank you, Heather. Thank you very much. And welcome, Dwayne and Jolene Hay.
00:03:53.160and return of jolene i had you once on our on our uh webinars on a panel of homeschooling moms
00:04:01.960and so it's great to have you both here today um tell us a little bit about how you got started
00:04:08.740in homeschooling and uh you know how many years ago that would have been and how might have your
00:04:15.580kids been and really what prompted you at the time to to get started a lot of people want to know how
00:04:21.460people get started so we let's hear from what you have to say so okay so we started right from
00:04:28.500kindergarten with our oldest avon who will be graduating this year so we have our first grad
00:04:33.620coming up and um i think there was a lot of you know i definitely didn't come from a homeschooling
00:04:40.360background um i was definitely of the camp where i thought homeschooled kids were weirdos you know
00:04:46.380as a lot of us think, right? But there was a couple of things that kind of happened all at
00:04:52.080the same time when we had our first daughter and we were kind of approaching school age.
00:04:56.760And Duane was on the worship team at the church that we were at back in Red Deer. So we lived in
00:05:02.720Alberta at the time. And there was one of the girls on the worship team who was homeschooled
00:05:08.980and we're like, hey, she's actually like really cool. She's actually very talented and she's
00:05:13.880doing amazing things at 16 years old that, you know, when most kids that age don't look an adult
00:05:19.220in the eye, she's having these powerful conversations with adults. And we thought,
00:05:23.060okay, well, this is, this is different. Not all homeschooled kids are weird. And so that was kind
00:05:27.660of like the first little like nudge, the little seed planting, if you will. And then I remember
00:05:32.760like we had, we were in a small group with, within our church and one of the moms there who, you know,
00:05:39.880she had kids older than our kids and she was just kind of talking about the lifestyle that they had
00:05:46.920and it was you know rush to get the kids up in the morning rush to get them to school
00:05:51.020pack all the lunches then they get home from school and it's homework and activities and
00:05:55.460then bed and then do it all again and I just thought like well when do you actually get to
00:05:59.200spend time with your kids when do you get to actually be together because the thought of
00:06:03.840just like sending my kids away for somebody else to do the majority of the raising just
00:06:08.400didn't really sit well with me. So I think those were kind of the first little pieces that really
00:06:15.060kind of opened up the door of the possibility of homeschooling. Yeah, I think I had a friend
00:06:23.980who recommended I listen to a Votie Bauckham talk on homeschooling. So if you've never heard
00:06:31.300Votie talk about homeschooling, and you're a Christian, go listen to his reasoning behind why
00:06:38.220you should consider homeschooling your family. Just a really encouraging look at how God places
00:06:45.180the responsibility of the parents for the education of their children.
00:06:50.540He places that on us. And so that's not saying that you can't fulfill your role to be responsible
00:06:59.440for your kid's education outside of homeschooling, but that homeschooling is maybe a better way to
00:07:06.820kind of uh honor god in that responsibility he's put on us to be the mentors and leaders and
00:07:15.460trainers and even spiritual guides for for our kids so that that was that votey talk was really
00:07:22.580awesome too convicting yeah yeah i think it says in there like if you send your kids to caesar then
00:07:29.020why would you expect them to come home with anything other than romans right so um that
00:07:34.000was powerful right if we're if we're wanting to raise godly christian children for the kingdom
00:07:39.200of god for his glory then i think we need to be the biggest influence into their lives and
00:07:45.180homeschooling definitely opens that door to have that you know greatest chance to be effective in
00:07:50.960that mission i i agree and i noticed kim put it in the chat the spelling for votey so if you
00:07:57.880We want to thank you. Yeah. Then you guys can look it up there. So when you started,
00:08:05.180most parents start with enthusiasm. They go to Walmart and they're buying new pencil crayons as
00:08:12.660they, you know, everybody does at the school season. And then, you know, you start going,
00:08:16.940I don't know if I'm cut out for this, but you're going to courageously go. And
00:08:20.560at what point did you realize the struggle started happening and you're going either in the mind
00:08:29.820about oh man you're second guessing yourself or is it like no we're doing this but yet you're
00:08:36.460having either behavioral issues like with a child on a day or a pattern you see or I don't know just
00:08:42.940the house is falling apart like what were some of the earliest challenges and in hindsight now
00:08:48.180you look at going I'm glad we overcame some of those or we should have done a better job in you
00:08:55.720know maybe one area where it's still showing up those kind of little things yes I mean picking
00:09:02.100curriculum is always a overwhelming it's overwhelming because there's so many options
00:09:08.820out there and each kid is so different and their learning styles are so different so it definitely
00:09:14.020can be overwhelming and but it's a good problem like the homeschooling world is so heavily
00:09:20.220resourced with so many options it's it's limitless but when you're just entering in it's a little
00:09:27.540daunting yeah choose which path you're going to take I think also for us we didn't have anybody
00:09:33.600really in our circle that was homeschooling we didn't have like we kind of didn't really have
00:09:38.760a lot of friends with kids first of all and not really any of them that were homeschooling
00:09:42.660And then when we when we actually started, I'm pretty sure we started kindergarten in BC. So we had to move in there, too. So we were kind of starting completely fresh. And one of the things that I did right away was try to plug into community in whatever way that I can and find the people that had kind of come before me, because there's so much to learn from asking questions of others who have gone before you.
00:10:05.960you can learn about what's worked for them what didn't work um what like be encouraged when you're
00:10:12.300having doubts right because of course those doubts will come in and and um make you question
00:10:18.440everything that you're doing and um so definitely finding that community and i think i think 12 years
00:10:24.240ago when we were getting started 12 13 years ago it definitely was a bit more challenging to find
00:10:29.000that community for us especially in a new town but um yeah it's it's definitely one of the biggest
00:10:34.960blessings that we have found over the years too, is, is finding that mentorship and yeah.
00:10:41.340And it's great to see Action for Canada is kind of bridging the gap there and helping people
00:10:45.420find what's in their community that they can get connected to. Um, one, I think early hurdle for me
00:10:52.860was, um, this idea that homeschooling is supposed to look exactly like traditional school,
00:11:00.300just at your home and so the way we you know put the child at the table the way we taught
00:11:06.860sort of the the way we would structure the time that we would focus on the subject
00:11:12.020kind of the level of sit still and pay attention that you're looking for from the kid
00:11:19.480those kinds of things didn't really happen super easily with our first child and it was really
00:11:25.720encouraging to have someone go like don't try to recreate a classroom environment when you're
00:11:30.260homeschooling like you're homeschooling so it can be whatever you want and you can tailor it to the
00:11:36.380child and um especially between kindergarten and grade three like the world's your oyster you can
00:11:43.200teach math while you're going to the grocery store and doing your running your daily errands
00:11:48.180And you don't need, you know, six hours a day to teach your kid, you know, for the first few years of homeschooling.
00:11:56.560It's very much just do life together, go have experiences.
00:12:01.440And once we kind of allowed that freedom to come in and that freedom to, hey, if you pick a curriculum and it's really not clicking and it's just a battle for you, they're not having fun.
00:12:13.460There's a thousand other options out there.
00:12:15.240go try something different or ask around see what's worked for other people so like
00:12:19.000yeah year to year subject to subject child to child you have that customizability that you
00:12:26.560should take advantage of and not feel like you're stuck in a box where you're standing up at the
00:12:30.840whiteboard and writing stuff down and they should be sitting quietly in their chair paying attention
00:12:35.560i totally relate to that and i would especially after lunch when the afternoon slump starts and
00:12:47.100kicks in and most adults need their coffee and the kids kind of like start checking out too
00:12:53.200and i would look at my kids and there's this glaze and i'm going they're done so yeah duane you are
00:13:00.200right when they're very young, you can be done everything by noon. And yeah, the attention span
00:13:08.020is very short, the younger they are. And depending on what it is, of course.
00:13:15.920One of the phrases that was really big when I was homeschooling was delight-directed studies.
00:13:24.320And what delights the heart is areas worth studying.
00:13:30.620So my oldest, for example, loved horses.
00:13:33.240My middle one was all about videos and cameras and pictures.
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00:23:52.560To be able to kind of have some tools and resources to be able to understand what your kids
00:23:58.520are needing and actually here's kind of an interesting thing that i did some people work
00:24:02.900really really well if they have a support teacher that that can be really beneficial if you're
00:24:06.780working with a support and they can help pick they can help pick curricular and make recommendations
00:24:10.340for you but i actually um had kind of a weird techie experience now this is going to be weird
00:24:16.100for homeschoolers i'm sure but we live in a world now where there is technology out there that can
00:24:20.620really help us narrow things down so i actually did a couple of tests with one of my kids because
00:24:25.220she has some learning challenges, and just a really unique brain. And for me, that was the
00:24:30.320hardest part. And like, what do I do with this super unique brain? How do I get her to engage
00:24:34.060in learning? What's going to work well for her? Because I don't want to spend money on all these
00:24:38.080resources that I don't use, right? And so I actually put these tests through chat GPT. And
00:24:43.500I was like, Hey, what would you do with this brain? These are the likes, these are the interests,
00:24:46.800these are like, how do I work, help me sort through some curriculum. And it actually popped
00:24:51.100up some really great resources and just kind of I can fine tune it again to be able to narrow down
00:24:57.820things that really work but I use that as a resource this year and I found it very beneficial
00:25:02.200because I found a math program that I had never heard of before that really does seem to suit
00:25:06.920her specific brain and so yeah there's just today there's so many opportunities and resources and
00:25:13.400ways of narrowing down what really works for your specific child so I find when going into
00:25:20.920these conferences to have a list of what it is that you're looking for um because you can save
00:25:25.420a lot of money at them with like shipping and and if you go to the Alberta conference which I usually
00:25:29.520do then you're not paying the PST and actually I think sometimes it's not included on books but
00:25:34.500anyways um yeah it's just a it can be overwhelming so going in with a list and being prepared is
00:25:39.760helpful yeah I would agree with all of that I would go to a convention actually very excited
00:25:48.460I'd go with some friends of mine, girlfriends who homeschooled in B.C., and we'd go and have a weekend there, and I'd come out recharged going, I know why I'm doing this.
00:26:00.860One of the things I would encourage anybody starting, and even those who were in it, and particularly those even who perhaps pulled their child out from a school system, whether it's public or private,
00:26:15.420and you're in that first and second year and you're wondering, like, I don't know about this
00:26:21.160and you're feeling discouraged, just write down your reasons why you started and maybe have a
00:26:25.860sticky note either on your fridge or on your mirror and look at that often. Because sometimes
00:26:32.280you just need a little reminders like this is why we're doing what we're doing. And then get
00:26:38.540yourself to a convention. Surround yourself with like-minded people. And again, at the link at the
00:26:44.900I'll show you how to find your your provincial support groups and we got them like we have
00:26:50.640chapters that with Action for Canada we have regional support groups and community homeschool
00:26:55.820communities for kids and for for parents who connect and you can find new friend groups you
00:27:02.440can find like-minded people surround yourself so that you can have conversations and share ideas
00:27:09.240on on how to do certain either subjects or certain discipline issues that perhaps that might be
00:27:16.780happening in the home and how do you overcome things and and just yeah have your people around
00:27:21.040you that I think is really really important um to sort of go on day after day year after year
00:27:28.960and then you look back and going wow I did another year and it really wasn't so bad you know um I'd
00:27:35.020like to switch a little bit over to laying the foundation in the home for success, discipline
00:27:41.760in the home. And what I mean by that is the disciplines of the home, the routines. So for
00:27:47.800example, one of the routines I established at the morning was the dishwasher had to be emptied,
00:27:55.340breakfast had to be, we had to finish eating it, everybody at once, we had to clean up the dishes,
00:28:02.300the beds had to be made um if there was any sort of business call that had to happen that day
00:28:12.500because we had home businesses as well I tried to do them either before nine or after three
00:28:18.940if possible this is before cell phones so nowadays you can text um what kind of establishments do you
00:28:26.660have in your home to sort of set the tone for the day? How do you make your breaks? How do you
00:28:33.580resume school after lunch? Sort of what's important? We're probably a little more loose than what you
00:28:44.500made it sound like your family does. And I think that's going to be a little different for every
00:28:50.840family um what one thing i like about what you said is that when you're using the same place
00:28:57.480that you live and you eat and you sleep and you relax and your schooling is all happening in the
00:29:02.840same place having some semblance of organization cleanup everybody work together to kind of take
00:29:09.640care of the space and set it up so that you can have some focus time for learning goes a really
00:29:15.540long way as opposed to try to bring your learning on top of you know tv's running in the background
00:29:21.240dishes are piled up in the sink it's just makes it tougher to tougher to focus and so um i would
00:29:27.540say like our kids are really good at dishes by this point and and uh that has been a real big
00:29:34.600thing that we can lean on them for and it's not always done with joy and glee but uh you know we
00:29:40.320set the tone for this is a responsibility of a member of this family to help care for the space
00:29:45.100at this point like everybody can cook their own food and stuff so you know like our our youngest
00:29:52.240you know when he was probably six years old he could fry an egg and make some toast and get his
00:29:56.280breakfast going kind of thing so having everybody I would say up and up and out of bed and getting
00:30:02.420ready for the day getting breakfast done so that you know at least by say 9 9 30 we're getting
00:30:09.360schooling started and then probably go for a couple hours and we call it a brain break that
00:30:17.100will come at times where they'll just be like mom i need to take a break because that frustration
00:30:21.980can pile up a little bit sometimes um and so little brain breaks so you might have like a
00:30:27.840mini recess even before lunch and then come back and complete so we almost do it i would say by
00:30:33.480subjects like yeah subject one brain break subject to break and then lunch break we'll say
00:30:40.780i would also say the our days that go the best are the days that we start with um bible study
00:30:48.360i think that those are our best days because it just kind of sets the tone we have a moment of
00:30:53.000like um i think just family worship it's just it's i don't know it just sets the whole tone for the
00:30:58.600the best day I think so the days that we do that seem to be the best days um and then oftentimes
00:31:05.020what we'll do for breaks is um because I can't be with everybody all at once and there have been
00:31:10.500times where we've done curriculum where it's like we're all learning together and that works really
00:31:14.660well and I love those types of curriculums um but sometimes that's not what we're doing and it is
00:31:19.040more individualized so I will have one person working on something independently and then I'm
00:31:23.820working with another one one-on-one because some kids just need more guidance I guess in that
00:31:29.340interaction with mom as they get older they tend to get a bit more independent with these types of0.64
00:31:34.480things so that like our oldest is super independent so she can just like we can trust her to just get
00:31:41.200it all done and she's very disciplined with her with our studies our two middles would not would0.98
00:31:48.240be less that more hand holding there yeah holding with them so it just yeah it depends but um so
00:31:54.160i'll just have them doing different things but we definitely have a rule like there's no screens
00:31:58.320um other than if they're using a screen for a learning experience but there's no screens in
00:32:03.120the mornings ever ever ever because their brains just turn to mush if that door even opens and so
00:32:09.360yeah just kind of some and then yeah they get to play when this work is done right so yeah
00:32:18.240Yeah, I just found that it so I like order in that I need to know where my stuff is. So like the scissor goes back in the drawer where the scissor goes. You know, certain things are just predictable, you can find them. And I found that if I had every room was a mess, I couldn't start school until something was resolved.
00:32:46.740And one of the tips that I was told at a convention was try to keep one room in the house that's not full of toys and full of clutter, and so you're not stepping on everything.
00:33:00.240Especially when you've got very young kids, they tend to just pick up a toy and drop it as they walk around the house, taking everything apart, right?
00:33:08.260And that would be hard if you've got, let's say you're starting homeschooling and you've got a five or six year old and you're getting started and you've got a two or three year old dropping toys and you've got a nursing baby and you're exhausted and sleepy.
00:33:25.280Even those tiny little disciplines of just even creating one space for some people, the kitchen, you know, and not that everything has to be immaculate, but I don't know.
00:33:37.120it's one of those little things if it helps that person if they're that kind of person and they're
00:33:41.520wired like that then that i would set that tone and like you said jillian no screen time in the
00:33:47.140morning that's something i would have done too yeah the amount of time and frustration you can
00:33:52.380save by not having to look for a pencil or not having to look for your math book or not having
00:33:57.260to find that textbook that you need to start the daily that can waste uh 15 20 minutes of like
00:34:03.760whining and belly aching and foot dragging when it's just easy and so maybe maybe it could be on
00:34:10.300us parents to make sure everything's put away at the end of the day and then once breakfast is done
00:34:16.060and cleanup's happening you could go then bring out the stuff and set each person's station up
00:34:20.700and go there's your books let's get going and yeah they can do it themselves they can do it
00:34:25.660themselves and you can have a coffee while they get their stuff yes like i think one of the biggest
00:34:30.420things is like I don't I don't want to raise kids that need me to do the things for them right like
00:34:35.240I want to raise independent adults and good humans and so as much as we can um encourage them to be
00:34:43.020responsible that's huge like I'm saying I see people making comments about making your bed
00:34:47.300absolutely that's such a great like basic basic expectation like make your bed brush your teeth
00:34:54.220um clean up your dishes you know yes it definitely does when the when the house isn't chaotic and
00:35:00.060cluttered, it definitely makes for more clarity for the day for sure. Yeah. And it's interesting
00:35:07.700because we don't consider that homeschooling because it's not directly like the school book
00:35:14.360and the reading and the math and all that, but it's the whole child. And that's the beautiful
00:35:20.200thing about home education is that you're developing and influencing, you're the primary
00:35:25.240overseer of of molding this child and raising them and protecting their mind and guarding them
00:35:33.680and yet freeing them and it's just beautiful to watch how children grow and develop and and the
00:35:40.880other thing too is a lot of times we think oh my goodness my child's not reading and they're in
00:35:45.100grade two and I'm thinking well you know what children read from I think was age four to age
00:35:52.420nine before they actually kind of flourish so what if they're seven and they're eight and they're nine
00:35:57.840you know what if they're home and it's a safe place they're going to read they will read and
00:36:03.700you know what if they were behind in a subject in grade eight you have grade nine to catch up
00:36:10.900it's okay because you've got 13 years to get it all done and if they're really motivated they can
00:36:18.380even be done a year early two of my kids were done a year early and then they have a gap year
00:36:24.820to do other things and which we'll get into shortly here as well um how can dads be involved
00:36:34.180duane if you want to speak into that what's what how do you find your role in your homeschool
00:36:39.840well um i think the first thing that comes to mind is that there it's a heavy burden to be
00:36:49.560the parent who um initiates and sits with and walks through the um step-by-step of doing the
00:36:59.860going through the resource that you're doing with each child each day which most of the time is
00:37:04.840Jaleen. And there are times where she just gets burnt out, like there could be pushback from the
00:37:11.540kids, like they don't want to do it today, or they're struggling with something in math, or,
00:37:16.700you know, oh, do I have to do seven pages? I always only do four pages. Why do I have to do seven?
00:37:22.900And so you can see why God made it such that you need, that it's ideal to have a wife and a husband,
00:37:33.340a mother and a father because there are times where you need that that backup voice you need
00:37:38.480that kind of voice of authority where i think god has gifted dads with just um sort of an
00:37:46.500authoritative role where when when we step in and say like um if your mom says you're doing seven
00:37:52.820pages it's seven pages so quit your belly aching and let's get to it sometimes like that's my role
00:37:59.020to just come in and support and keep keep keep them focused keep the wheels moving keep us
00:38:04.720going forward um and then there can be times where there's just like you know because of that
00:38:12.640that sort of um reluctance to actually do the work there can be behavior stuff that crops up
00:38:20.900and they're just so almost looking for like a negative attention outlet where they'll try to
00:38:26.320push mom's buttons because anything but doing school even if that means getting in a fight
00:38:30.720with mom and so it can be really helpful to to have dad there to say like that's my wife don't
00:38:37.140talk to her like that get back to work kind of thing so it can be helpful to have that second
00:38:42.940voice there um to be the disciplinarian and to keep things focused and then even just to like
00:38:50.500i i always really um loved learning and thought i would teach kind of thing and i've done different
00:38:58.260like i was a lifeguard and swim instructor for a while i was a flight instructor and taught
00:39:03.040taught meteorology and and flying lessons and so i've taught different things along the way so
00:39:08.540i enjoy taking things that i know and sharing them with other people and seeing them get it
00:39:14.180and so it's it's fun sometimes to go okay you sit with him while he does his language arts
00:39:19.560and i'll sit with her while she does her math and spend half an hour kind of dividing and
00:39:25.020conquering like that um yeah i think the first things i can think of i think also he makes it
00:39:31.940sound like he's a major disciplinarian which doris i'm sure you can imagine he's actually
00:39:36.260super fun too so he also gets to be fun dad so he's not just like coming in with an iron rod he's
00:39:41.520he's the fun dad and he teaches them a lot of life skills as well and so whether that's like
00:39:46.280getting out there with the boys, especially like, okay, today we're going to learn how to mow the
00:39:49.540lawn or we're going to learn how to do this or that, or we're going to go for a hike or, you know,
00:39:53.540those kinds of adventure type of stuff too. I think he's really great for that type of stuff
00:39:58.720or taking them up snowshoeing or whatever, those kinds of things. And then also I love it. I really
00:40:06.140love it when Dwayne leads like the Bible study in the morning. I feel like the kids just take
00:40:11.640so much, they listen so much better and it's just different when dad is speaking, right?
00:40:16.020And so, um, yeah, it's definitely a partnership and there's sometimes where I'm kind of like,
00:40:20.860you know what, I'll take the, I'll take the curriculum.
00:40:22.780Cause I'm in a process of like working through this and I know where we're at and you might
00:40:26.940not know how to quite teach it as well.
00:40:28.480So I prefer sometimes if he does some of that other stuff, but, um, yeah, anyways, yeah,
00:40:36.400it's good to have that balance to bounce off of each other where we need them.
00:40:43.660And if there's days where I'm away to like, he will be able to step in because we also have a business as well. And sometimes it requires some travel or I need to be away for certain periods. So he's great to step in and make sure everything gets done too. So yeah, when we lived in our little tourist town, come spring, you know, motivation for school starts waning. And that was predictable. And I got into a cycle by spring by April, end of April.
00:41:13.660We were done school by noon on many days because tourism started and my kids, because they were already freed up and available, picked up the jobs after lunch.
00:41:25.160And they work one day, two days a week at an after school, maybe after 12 type of a job.
00:41:33.160and uh so you know they're starting to branch out into the next thing of um learning how to own a
00:41:41.800job and how to um be responsible and be on time and so all those things we're teaching them when
00:41:48.700they're young start to really become important as they become young adults and move into
00:41:57.340the adulting years yeah so yeah did you want to speak to that well it just reminded me of
00:42:05.460some of the young men i know who are tradesmen and you know they're they're say in their early
00:42:10.74030s and they're a tile guy or they're a um plumber or an electrician or something like that and they
00:42:18.520started apprenticing when they were 15 16 because they could get their schooling done in the morning
00:42:23.240and then go to work with dad or go to work with uncle or grandpa or, you know, find someone who
00:42:28.900would take them under their wing. So if there is like, you know, sort of a skill that a boy or
00:42:37.280girl is interested in, they can look for a pathway to really dive into that. A lot of the first
00:42:42.900homeschoolers that really piqued my interest were all musicians. And these were ones who
00:42:47.660fell in love with their instrument in, you know, their early teens. And so by the time they were
00:42:52.76018 they already had 10 000 hours on the violin or the keyboard or vocalist or guitar player kind of
00:42:59.920thing and and we're just like well-rounded intelligent um kids who could carry on a great
00:43:06.480conversation with any adult in any situation and and even though they were just you know 17 18 19
00:43:12.440or whatever it kind of had that maturity of most 25 year olds kind of thing and i'm like if this
00:43:17.940is what homeschooling kids can do and can put their time in instead of wasting eight hours a
00:43:23.980day in a classroom and hanging out with everyone who's exactly the same age as them. And, you know,
00:43:30.300just do the bare minimum until you graduate. That really piqued my interest on, yeah, what you might
00:43:36.380be able to do as a homeschooler. Yeah. Yeah. Like going back to the things that delighted their
00:43:43.860hearts when they were young is still interestingly the same thing that delights them now and they're
00:43:49.460in their 30s and like so my middle child was into yeah um photography and and videos and pictures
00:44:00.100and if I lost something she always knew where it was because it's like she knew where everything
00:44:04.640was in the house and today well let's go back during her high school years I had asked one of
00:44:11.760our local photographers to mentor her take her in once a week show her something or take her along
00:44:18.580to a photo shoot she did weddings at the on the coast at the time and so my daughter would just
00:44:23.440tag along and learn and so and today this is she's gone back to her first love now she's a
00:44:28.660photographer so it's you you got to pay attention to those little things that just excites them and
00:44:35.860I love watching that flourish in a child and they may have two or three things that they're really
00:44:41.080loving. And so just sort of opening up the doors and the opportunities and the people in their
00:44:49.520life that can build that, whether, like you said, a grandpa or an uncle, taking them along to a
00:44:55.480work site or building something in the shed together, such great opportunities of learning
00:45:00.600and building relationships at the same time. And one of the things that I would say too,
00:45:07.060is that where homeschooling really shines is that I don't think that our kids need to be jackable
00:45:12.540trades. Like they don't have to be mediocre at everything, or they don't have to be good at
00:45:15.940everything. But if they are really good at this one particular area, like let's kind of direct
00:45:21.080them that way and get them into a mentorship or get them trying out practical skills with this
00:45:27.140specific talent that they have. And that's the beauty of homeschooling. You don't have to be
00:45:32.500like by the time that they graduate they can be if the kid is excited about something and you know
00:45:37.860where they're going they could be already like launched into a business right like our son who's
00:45:43.480going into grade 10 right now he's like he's not my academic kid my first one is like i'm dogwood
00:45:48.740all the way i want to go to university or college or do something like that after um but our son i'm
00:45:54.940like i don't think that's his path right so i would love to just kind of cater more to like
00:45:59.140he's probably going to be our business guy so let's focus on like what does it take to run a
00:46:02.940business what does it take to what are you interested in let's start developing these
00:46:06.760types of things right and so to be able to um to be able to have that flexibility to really hone in
00:46:12.920on those skills and who they are going to be because I don't want my kids to like like how
00:46:17.560many kids go through university and at the end of four or eight years they still don't know what
00:46:21.980they're going to do right and not like not to get into like all of how terrible universities are and
00:46:27.120stuff because that's a whole other topic but um yeah it's it's we have a lot more opportunity for
00:46:34.160them um but yeah that's a benefit of homeschooling absolutely um as you're preparing your oldest for
00:46:44.220post-secondary it sounds like um i i've got a few ideas of how people can enter uh universities
00:46:53.480colleges um what are your what kind of things can parents do in the senior high years to prepare
00:47:01.340them for that next level as a as a homeschool child how do they get into those places well
00:47:08.640i she's doing a dogwood so getting in i think for her won't be an issue and even if you did
00:47:13.800a traditional homeschooling and you didn't do the like bc and she she's done it through hcos and
00:47:20.020she's done like more of a christian route which was super important to us like the whole secular
00:47:25.320public education system was never on the table um so that won't be an issue my my concern with0.83
00:47:33.160going into that path is is she ready for that is she is she equipped to be able to handle what the
00:47:39.640world is going to throw at her and so um focusing on her heart where she is with the lord and her
00:47:45.980walk with the Lord, I think is the most important thing we can do with our kids and for our kids
00:47:50.660to equip them as they, I mean, we want them to step out as independent adults. We want them to
00:47:56.340walk into these situations and be able to stand firm with who they are in Christ, right? And so
00:48:04.260for us, my heart for her, and she is like probably the most, if you think I am a strong independent
00:48:11.800woman oh my goodness i am raising one as well so we kind of do not necessarily see eye to eye on
00:48:18.000how this works but my heart for her would be to take some time in a i like she loves to travel
00:48:24.800so i'm like well you want to travel let's do a overseas bible program for a year where you can
00:48:31.740really come to term with faith on your own this is your first stepping out experience
00:48:35.460out from under our wing but like have her grow her faith before she enters any kind of a
00:48:41.320an institution of hopefully would have a Christian worldview to it because there's some
00:48:47.240there's some scary ones so there's a lot of conversations there's a lot of prayer that
00:48:51.780goes into this and but ultimately one day we're just going to have to like okay God like we've
00:48:57.760done all that we can just yeah I pray that you just you know take our child and raise them up
00:49:04.820to be the adult that you've intended them to be right so but but if you're asking like how how do
00:49:11.060you plan on doing post-secondary education if you're homeschooling how how does one make that
00:49:16.980happen um like you were explaining there is the there is the satisfy the requirements of the
00:49:22.760curriculum and get enough credits get a high school diploma that's your kind of entrance into
00:49:28.480the post-secondary education so you can do that through homeschooling that's that's really easy
00:49:33.600to do um we have found our local homeschooling organization heritage christian online schools
00:49:40.680is a very large organization in bc and there should be something like that in each province
00:49:45.360where they can help um advise you that path then if you decided to be outside of that curriculum
00:49:54.400and you're kind of going your own path and you have you know an 18 year old student who's been
00:49:58.060homeschooled to grade 12 and but you don't have like a transcript or a um a traditional diploma
00:50:05.340to apply to those schools with um what what we've been encouraged with by a lot of other
00:50:10.500homeschooling families is that post-secondary there's great post-secondary institutions who
00:50:15.440love homeschooling kids and love their their independent minds and they want to help you
00:50:20.380find a pathway to get into their school so talk to that school and there's often like take a
00:50:25.320semester where you just complete this math course this science course this language arts course and
00:50:31.640now you've got your boxes checked so you can kind of enter into your first year of your university
00:50:36.080program so there is that that kind of a plan where even you know me when I went into post-secondary
00:50:43.320I still needed to kind of oh I need to up my math to this and I need to up my science to this in
00:50:48.940order to enter into the program that I was taking so that's happening even with a lot of students
00:50:54.020who do have a diploma you still need to do that that touch-up semester in your in your college
00:50:59.140or university so I think using that same method even without a diploma is is possible yeah it is
00:51:05.900actually possible because two of my three kids graduated without the provincial what do you call
00:51:15.560diploma and so um but they were granted a homeschool equivalency certificate and um by by
00:51:24.460the school that they were registered through now this is in bc each province is a little bit
00:51:29.140different on what's required and what um sort of ways to graduate there are but other ways can be
00:51:40.000creating a portfolio of all the things you've sort of covered and learned from grade 10 11 12
00:51:48.040some provinces it might just be grade 11 12 some are grade 10 11 12 and then what my oldest did to
00:51:56.160get herself this was about two years after high school she wanted to go to the local university0.85
00:52:03.860and she wrote them a letter because she was missing, I think, one course or something to
00:52:09.820get in. So she wrote a letter convincing them why they needed her. And it worked.
01:02:24.000Yeah, we did do a Bible class. But the cool thing is like, it's your kids. It's your vision for what
01:02:31.080their education looks like. And so you really have the opportunity to create something that works for
01:02:36.580you and works for your family. So maybe that is just like, maybe if you are a single mom, maybe
01:02:41.300you have something worked out where it's like you have another single mom and you teach one day and
01:02:45.320she teaches the other day and you can kind of work in between there, right? So there's so much0.54
01:02:49.220flexibility that if you're just a little bit creative, if you have that vision, and I truly
01:02:54.280believe that this is a desire that is in your heart. If you are praying to God to say like,
01:02:58.720I want to homeschool my kids, make it happen. I, I honestly believe that that is a prayer that he
01:03:03.460will answer because he sees your heart. He knows your, you love your child more than anybody in
01:03:09.160the entire world. And, um, he wants to help you with that. Right. So I, I, you know, where there's
01:03:15.360a will, there's a way, be creative. Don't ever say like, I can't do it. Right. As soon as you're
01:03:21.240saying those things, that's, what's going to happen. So just, yeah, if just be creative,
01:03:25.500be flexible um there's ways out there right and um don't do it alone tap into the resources that
01:03:31.920you guys have for action for canada that's a great place to start and yeah we want to encourage you
01:03:37.960all well that made me think of um you know how people don't have any trouble believing that
01:03:43.720hey maybe we should eat you know when it comes to our diet maybe we should eat in a healthy way
01:03:48.900like they would have ate you know thousands of years ago where it's very single ingredient based
01:03:54.100foods and that seems like an easy concept to grasp but when it comes to homeschooling we're
01:04:01.080just educating our kids the way thousands of generations of humans would have educated their
01:04:05.240kids before the last couple hundred years of the modern education system so in the same way it's
01:04:10.740like the caveman diet or whatever they would call that uh type of eating education yeah and
01:04:18.060it's for education so um yeah yeah no that's really really good um i also wanted to just put
01:04:26.080it out there too if um any of the our listeners are have a special needs child many of the
01:04:32.700provinces are set up to have um resources available to homeschool families to help with that
01:04:39.940And I know in B.C., where I live, if you enroll through, for example, HCOS or other schools, you can actually get provincial funding to help and get an educational assistant.
01:04:54.420And then you can still have your child at home and you can still homeschool the other kids.