How Homeschoolers Can Make the Most of Summer - A Discussion Panel with Homeschooling Moms
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Summary
In this episode, we have two fabulous homeschooling moms, Grace and Laurie, who talk about why they chose to homeschool their four kids, what keeps them going, and how to make the most of the summer.
Transcript
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so i'm excited we've got two fabulous women here who are experienced homeschooling moms
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and they are and i are going to talk about how to make the most of our summer
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and our first guest is grace peters and we have laurie dunbar as well grace is from british
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columbia and laurie's from saskatchewan and i'm just going to let them um introduce themselves tell us
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how many kids you have what the ages are why you chose to homeschool and what keeps you going and
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then we'll go into our questions about summer etc so grace go ahead and tell us about yourself
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thank you doris so i'm grace peters and i am a wife and a mom living in bc i have four kids
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um they are 10 15 16 and 18 i am homeschooling so the three younger ones my oldest she graduated last
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year and yeah i'm a second generation homeschooler i was homeschooled i went to public school i went
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to private school and i loved homeschooling but i never planned to do it myself um but god had
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different plans for us and when we were going to enter my daughter into kindergarten the night
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before we were going to register her or enroll her um i had no peace i couldn't sleep and i tossed and
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turned and the idea of homeschooling kept coming to mind and i was like i don't want to do that i have
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no plans to do that i want to go back to work and god just kept bringing it back and i couldn't sleep
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that night and so finally after i don't know hours it was probably about three in the morning
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i woke my husband up and i said i really think we need to homeschool god's calling us to homeschool
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and he was like okay like whatever we'll we'll look into it and um see how it works and so when i
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finally said yeah let's do this i finally got to sleep that night and so that was we are going into
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our 15th year uh starting in september and all along the way um it's been hard there's times i
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wanted to quit and god kept saying to keep going and now i'm so glad because um i wouldn't want it
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any other way so yeah that's a bit about me um we are going yeah into our 15th year and i only have
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three homeschooling now and yeah i don't know all right you just say anything else thank you oh a lot
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more will come out as we keep going here and uh laurie dunbar um welcome and tell us about yourself
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i'm from scatron and again i'm very similar in a lot of ways to grace i'm i was actually homeschooled
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in grade three and loved it and a little bit in grade nine but never really thought of myself as
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a as going into homeschooling i actually at 22 years old i got married to my husband who is a widower
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and immediately became a mom of a five and an eight year old and they went into school just like normal
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what we thought was normal uh well i finished my degree and then had a couple more kids a couple of my
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daughters and um and started to watch my older two um their curiosity wane their desire to learn
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diminish and all of these things and and uh and started to kind of think huh well insanity is doing
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the same thing twice and expecting different results so started to think about some other alternatives
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and started looking into homeschooling and um and thought well we'll just you know give it a try
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we'll just you know do the first few years and and get them a good foundation took our older daughter
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out of school uh middle of grade six and homeschooled her for five months and got her caught up in record
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time and was really impressed with how that went but did eventually put her back into school
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unfortunately um just with relational stuff we needed to do that um and started homeschooling
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our younger ones and 14 years later we've just kind of gone okay well i think we'll do it this year i
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think we'll do it this year and eventually we went into high school and and you know talked to our
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daughters about it there is a christian school in our community um but our older two again had gone to
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it and we weren't really excited about the results so i have learned along the way that that even though
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i got into it for teaching them um just thinking that the education would be better i've actually stayed
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in it because of the discipleship i really firmly believe that that education is discipleship
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and i have absolutely loved to disciple my girls so now they are 16 and 18 my younger two
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my 16 year old is going to be graduating this month at the end of this month and my 18 year
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old graduated last year she's just finished uh a year of briarcrest college and has her business
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certificate and going into music and then our older two are 24 and 27 so believe it or not i am a
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grandma of two and our our oldest granddaughter is going to be four here pretty soon and they're
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seriously considering homeschooling so part of the reason why i advocate for homeschooling so
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strongly is because i want that freedom for my grandchildren that they can also be able to be
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homeschooled if they're if my kids choose to um i have also served on the saskatchewan home-based
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educator board for four and a half years i served as president for a year and really enjoyed my
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journey helping others homeschool and um and being a bit of a liaison with the government
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um and i'm pretty passionate about uh getting involved in politics and uh having our voices heard
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because uh otherwise we're not going to have a nation we can recognize so um yeah so just being
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able to stand up for our rights and uh and help others to see the value of of home education and
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helping them to think outside the box is something i'm really passionate about so i'm happy to be here
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today oh it's lovely to have you and um you know you've tapped into so many things i remember we took
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it one year at a time to starting a kindergarten and by grade seven i went this is so fun i'm just
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loving this we're doing this right to the end and uh so my kids were homeschool k to 12 and uh i just
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loved it did we have our hard days oh yeah we did but we also got through them i mean we all have hard
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days no matter what we choose in life right and grace i just tell us a little bit about the the thing
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you do on the side with your social media yeah so i have a social media page specifically for homeschool
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moms and it's a place where i like to encourage um moms on the journey and just all the different parts
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that are part of the homeschool mom life so simplifying the curriculum schooling um meals
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because everybody's got to eat and just the home management and taking care of the home because it's
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a lot that we have to juggle and so i like to simplify that and just encourage others in that so yeah
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all right so we're going to move into the actual topic here and as we move into the summer we
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often think it's a it's a fun free time let's do nothing and just go to the beach and chill out
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but there are some reality days where we could be a little bit more structured and and the kids could
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keep learning um maybe away from the the classic you know uh pen and paper um format that we're used
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to doing during the school year and the summer provides us opportunities to explore new things
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and also tap into um what i call delight directed studies which is those things that just bring our
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children so much joy and uh and personal growth um and so we can talk about that and we can even get
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into the hard things about chores but uh um why don't one of you just start and tell us some of the ideas
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you've come up with um with summer and maybe age appropriate and just before we do actually folks
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we're going to create a uh a pdf that a handout you can print once this video is uploaded to the
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our website which will probably be by the weekend we'll have a handout ready for you to print so you
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just have a tool ready to go and uh whether it's a sunny day or rainy day um ideas to um keep uh education
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rich in the home and continue on it brings you back into the fall season where you're not falling behind
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the cracks as well so um grace why don't you go and let us know tell us what you what you've experienced
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and some good things that we can do this summer yeah sure um so when my kids were younger um we would
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take a break from the schoolwork all the books because i desperately needed a break um and so the
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kids had a lot of free time we would do swimming lessons um lots of outdoor play days to the beach
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we'd go camping um if it was a rainy day we would head to the library and grab books on whatever
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subject that the kids were excited about at the time so for some it would be planes other people would
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be horses and they would just spend the day reading and drawing and just kind of immersing themselves in
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that topic um now that the kids are older um they some of them have jobs and so our summers look a lot
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different but also um we tend to do our studies a little bit more over the summer not a lot um but
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just to kind of keep in a routine because i was finding that when we would stop everything for the summer
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it was really hard to get back into the routine in the fall and so um we'll do probably like one
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subject a day some days nothing um but it's a lot of we have a lot of free time a lot of play a lot of um
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just exploring the subjects that my kids are excited about so they'll search something google it and
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you know just immerse themselves for the day in that topic um yeah so again going back to when they
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were younger um they would do lego camps or they would they love to write plan and write a um a script
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for a play and then they would perform for us and it's funny because now my uh three of my kids are
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actually in musicals and they really enjoy that so that started when they were younger um yeah so
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just a lot of um a lot of time to just do life and play and explore and that's yeah what our summers
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look like how about you laurie that's great very similar in a lot of ways uh we usually do like
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swimming lessons um going into like in the spring there's community soccer in our little town so
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they've done that uh this is also a great time depending on their age to kind of take on maybe
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a bit of a more challenging book for the older ones like a classic uh something that they can
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challenge themselves to get through for the summer especially on those rainy days we like to bake we like
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to uh like the summer is a great time to learn how to plan a garden or you know those conversations
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while we're weeding i find conversations while we're doing things are great so being able to
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have friends over we're really into imaginative play when they were young so we've got a a nice meadow
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out back so they'd have lots of outdoor time and getting creative there my parents are from a farm
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we're from saskatchewan so being able to get out there and and help out where we can with the garden
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or with the farming um this is also a great time um just to be able to even connect with those that
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they may not connect with regularly so things like you know maybe some grandparent time where
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we ask a grandparent like one time we asked um my mother-in-law can you can peaches with the girls or
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you know like things like that you just don't have time for normally um or you know okay we're
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gonna learn how to do sourdough baking or we're gonna learn how to whatever it be like that their
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interests or the things that you're like oh you know what i just never seem to have time for that
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in the summer or sorry in the in the fall in the normal school year um one thing that we did when they
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were younger to kind of keep their brains engaged was math competitions so we'd i'd print out a you know some
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math facts and they'd have a little contest for like how who can get as many math questions done
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in two minutes as they can just to keep those sharp um we'd also maybe do a history lesson every once in
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a while or yeah like like grace was saying go to the library do some reading competitions i had one
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daughter that absolutely loves to read and write plays and things like that so she would be able to
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spend some more time doing those kinds of things um whereas my other daughter is super active so it's
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important that she you know be um very active in the summer as much as possible so just you know like
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those kind of things i also found really interesting depending on your child the importance of rest so
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the importance of just taking a break and being able to come back to a subject i was always amazed
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especially with one of my daughters that i actually launched her into the next year to be able to take
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a brain break and she was actually my most academic one but being able to take a break really launched her
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in music and um math and all these things like sometimes it just her brain just needed to develop that much
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more and and take a break and then um she really made a lot of progress in the fall and i was really impressed
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with that so um yeah just doing things like that um going to museums on rainy days or doing um you know
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we tripped did a trip to drum heller and did the the dinosaur museum or you know like just doing things
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like that that uh that we just don't maybe get time to do in the normal year or being able to do a
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project with dad you know like um our girls are learning how to change their oil and change a tire and
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and uh we've got some rental properties so they're learning how to take care of things and just
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there's so many opportunities that like once you get out of the book work you can actually start
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maybe even thinking outside the box for how to keep them busy um i was also going to just mention
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at some point i'm just going to take the opportunity this is a book that i found really helpful i don't
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know if you can read it but it's the ultimate book of homeschooling ideas and it just has some
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great ideas in there even for for you know summer and things like that it's by linda dobson um and
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then there's just you know there's books like like this one um this is obviously our province but it's
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the saskatch the great saskatchewan bucket list so we got this one year and we went to a place called
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big muddy and we just did a day trip it's like a two-hour drive but we'd never been there and we
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explored little towns along the way and you know saw like we went to you know the town museum or
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things like that and just be able to take advantage of you know just even around you just go okay maybe
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we can't afford to get away to you know somewhere exotic or somewhere far away but maybe we can make it
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a fun summer of doing um doing things around us that maybe we just have never taken the opportunity
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to do so yeah so those are a few ideas to start you got me thinking about when you were talking
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about weeding so these are the mundane things of reality there's weeding there's empty the dishwasher
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there's um cleaning floors there's we might be a little bit more aggressive and actually cleaner
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windows and uh i'm just looking around my house here right now what what would i be doing uh baseboards
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oh how boring and mundane but they get dusty too right and how to make it fun and um sometimes that
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is what we have to do but the one thing i always told my kids and i'm a musician and music runs strongly
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through my family is even when you're working and doing the mundane chores it doesn't have to be in
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silence why don't we turn the music on and we always had music on all the time and uh they
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developed a love for music all three of them my youngest one um became a musician and uh so her
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down time would be in her room um writing songs so now she's accomplishing her writing skills
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and she's being creative by writing music she's learning um
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she was learning how to play guitar i taught her piano but she really actually preferred the guitar
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and she would spend hours just in her downtime space to make and write music and then she
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i one year this is back in the day when uh garage band was an app i don't know if it's still a thing
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but it was then and so she could record herself and uh i've got all those originals still in the hard
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drive on my computer because you know there's some good memories there and that's where it all began
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for her and um another example is my my my middle one she was the kind of girl where
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if i lost my keys anybody i'd say where anybody know where my keys are she goes oh yeah mom they
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would be uh on the desk in the school room under a piece of paper and it's like wow
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she just had this sort of almost photographic memorable mind and uh i remember we were driving
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we lived in a very remote area at that time and we would always there was deer everywhere and i'd be
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driving i would see deer if they were in front of me but she saw a deer like everywhere she could see a
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deer so there's something about the way she saw things and so um i looked into getting her photography
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classes and uh she did them all year long and in the summer we we continued that she loved to make home
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videos things like that she's learning tech um information on the laptop she's learning how to uh
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create continuity in a video and then pictures how to capture the moment and today she's a
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professional photographer so you never know where they're going to go and then like with my oldest
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she's the reader the writer just read read read read so i had her really plugged in at the library
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the local library and joined in all the competitions for reading etc and i did it actually for all three
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that's one thing i think for me was important was to continue the reading through the summer
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and it could be any book they wanted it to be as long as they uh did some reading but my oldest
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loved to read and write and man can that girl write she writes when she when she's uh
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she's on a mat leave right now but when she's at work she's always asked to write all the
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forms whatever they need written the emails whatever she's the writer and so it's really
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cool to watch now they're they're in their 30s how how they've developed from for the very earliest
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years you start to see what they shine in what they're good at and then just opening up little
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opportunities through high school and then what they gravitate to naturally as an adult it's pretty
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cool to watch and i think it's it's awesome that you recognize that doris because um i'm a really
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task-orientated person um and it takes a lot of intentionality to go okay i have things that i
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could get that daughter to do but right now she's you know she is learning she is even if it's something
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that you know it seems like recreational um being able to see that oh you know what she's she's
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songwriting right now she's developing her musical skills she's you know even refreshing her herself
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and like helping the pathways in her brain and all those kinds of things are really important to be
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able to recognize and foster those things so so good for you that's awesome let me tell you i had my days
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where i'm a task person too and there was days there was no time in the room bluffing and whatever
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they had to help me because there was a lot of work to do and yeah it's good for them but yeah
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creating that balance is definitely yeah definitely um any other comments to that grace did you want to
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add before we move on yeah i just think like less is more as far as like scheduling because having
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when kids have that time to explore they they figure out what they enjoy and they're they get to be
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creative and um yeah it's really neat to see um like you're saying with your girls um when they have
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the time what they gravitate towards and what they want to learn and what they enjoy and what they're
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good at and when they have free time which i find with homeschool kids they have more free time than
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kids in school but they have the time to explore and see what they enjoy and see what they're good at
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and it's really fun to watch the kids develop and learn and what it is that they spend their time on
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when they have free time so yeah yeah i was uh with my my grand sons last week at uh a park um that has
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a creek there's a playground and a creek and a bit of a bush at the back and so we were doing the trails in
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the bush they're both four they're cousins and um they found some loose bark and so they took the
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bark and they're just whacking it and watching it break and behind the bark um i didn't want them to
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peel it too you know they just took the loose stuff but behind the bark there was this red um i think it
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was a termite but it was bright red almost orange red and we all looked at it and my mind went teachable
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moment and so we talked about this thing and uh i told them that it lives there i didn't know
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anything about it so here i'm humbled i'm having to learn what this thing is but um it was pretty
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exciting to watch them both stop and both zero in on this red buck and it's those small small things
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that just delight their heart yeah and uh when we when i was homeschooling then if i had the time
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i'd take well if i had a phone and i had a picture we would explore that at least on the internet and go
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take a few minutes it may not have been anything formal yeah but it's something that they could
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discover and explore on their own to make it fun um so we've talked about teachable moments and um
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um we've talked about down time and how important that is
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what do you do when the child comes to you and says mom i'm bored
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exactly just thinking about that because um i find that one of the one of the ways that i helped to
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develop their imaginative play when they were little is to be able to go like take something maybe even out
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of history one of our history lessons and go okay why don't you pretend that you're harriet tubman
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and you're getting slaves to you know to canada or or why don't you pretend that you're this
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historical figure and you've just discovered this or you know that kind of thing so even just being able to
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to bring in some of our learning and be able to connect it with their imaginative play
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was really helpful um and then another uh thing like i've got a i've got a four-year-old
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granddaughter as well or almost four and being able to um she was just my my son just called me
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yesterday on facetime and they were in the car and she was really bored and she was like can i call
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mana and he was like yes i can do that so i just went okay willow how many colors do you see like can you
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see orange can you see you know these different things and and being able just to get their their
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head out of i'm bored and start to be able to go okay well you know like for a teenager my kids
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hardly ever ever say that i don't remember the last time they said that but um you know being able to go
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okay well you were really wanting to try this or you're really wanting to bake this this might be a
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good opportunity or hey why don't you help me with this and you know like or let's go for a walk and
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i i love chatting with my girls so i take every opportunity just to go why don't you join me
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we're gonna let's do this together or that kind of thing and be able to um to just take the teachable
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moment or or be able to inspire their imagination again because sometimes they just get in that
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oh i have no idea what to do but being able just to kind of go okay well why don't we do
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like what what about this and try to ignite a different part of their brain often helps
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definitely grace yeah well my kids don't say they're bored anymore um they learned that if
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they said they were bored i would have work for them um and now that they're older they all have
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their their different interests so when they have the time they will go explore and do that um but when
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they were younger um there was a lot of a lot of pretend play uh building forts and like i said
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earlier doing skits together i had uh craft materials for them so that they could do art and craft um
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yeah so they they learned to be kind of come up with their own fun um i didn't i didn't entertain them i
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didn't turn the tv on often for them so they would just play together and one person would suggest hey
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let's let's build a fort and so they'd all build a fort and they drag all their toys in there and
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spend the day in there and so they just they work together to come up with things to do together and
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have fun and it yeah it just it worked well when they're younger yeah yeah i was just thinking um
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um if i was to do uh some of that stuff again i wonder if i if i had had a list on the wall of
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things to do i don't know i don't know if it works but it could be worth a try to have a list um just
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write out some ideas and you know and take some of the ideas that we're going to be posting and make a
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sort of a chart and you know go to the library could be one like one of the things my kids love
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to do my poor little dog but they put her on the leash and they made an obstacle course and the dog
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and the kids all did the obstacle course together but the neighborhood kids would come over and i mean
00:28:32.880
talk about being creative it was so fun and i'd be watching from the kitchen window of them all just
00:28:37.840
going around and doing all this stuff in the obstacle course it's just such simple things
00:28:45.040
yeah one year we made a float actually a couple years we made a float for the town parade
00:28:52.160
and so the artwork became a big deal and how are you gonna make how are you gonna make this thing
00:28:58.560
happen on the on this flat deck trailer um we probably spent about two weeks on that
00:29:05.280
um but we also want them to be independent of us too we don't want because we have things we need
00:29:11.040
to do too we have our chores to do um what do we talk about chores because that's something uh we
00:29:18.480
want our kids to learn how to do how do you guys do that with your children uh well when my kids were
00:29:25.920
younger like quite a bit younger they always wanted to be involved and i think as parents it's really easy
00:29:32.480
to no i'll do it i'll do it because it's quicker and easier if we do it ourselves but i learned early
00:29:38.400
on that i needed to allow them to help so that they saw that it was a normal part of family life
00:29:51.200
so that it was normal for them i guess so that growing up as i got older it wasn't like oh i gotta
00:29:56.560
do chores it was oh this is what we do as a family this is just how it works um so yeah i started them
00:30:04.000
pretty young even if they didn't do a very good job just so that they got used to being a part of the
00:30:09.920
family routine um and now that they're older like each week everybody gets assigned a task and that's
00:30:18.000
theirs for the week and yeah it's just kind of the rhythm how we do things um when they were younger
00:30:26.320
um they would have their chores and i would check them to make sure that you know they did what they
00:30:31.760
were supposed to do and but now they're pretty independent when it comes to getting stuff done
00:30:39.280
how are you laurie yeah very similar at a very young age i tried to get them involved so you know by
00:30:45.840
even three years old they were you know sweeping or vacuuming the stairs or just something little
00:30:51.120
that they could be involved with and then as they grew they learned how to do more and more because
00:30:56.160
i really wanted them to be independent and be able to you know do everything that i could do so um you
00:31:02.080
know by 10 years old they were doing their own laundry or you know like i don't i don't vacuum my
00:31:08.400
house i don't mop they do it all they clean the bathrooms um but then when there's special tasks
00:31:14.480
to be done like okay we need to clean the windows this week or what have you like we'll we'll try to
00:31:20.000
you know tackle that together if we can um and things like you know mowing the lawn or you just
00:31:26.240
being able to be be okay with them maybe not doing the greatest job and learning from that and not um
00:31:34.960
not you know shaming them when they don't do it well but you know coming alongside them and go like
00:31:41.040
okay what if we do it this way or hey did you notice that the toilet bowls got dirty really
00:31:46.160
quickly this week we're gonna need to do them over again you know those kinds of things um just
00:31:52.480
learning from their mistakes getting them to help with cooking and being able to make simple meals
00:31:58.240
even from a young age um planning ahead because sometimes they want to make meals that i don't
00:32:04.320
always have the ingredients for so or being able just to go okay well you know what i know you can do
00:32:09.200
this but this week i want you to make this um and just challenging them in that way um so yeah just
00:32:15.920
getting them involved in like i want them to be able to do whatever i can do right so um yeah just being
00:32:22.720
intentional about going okay well this is something that they actually you know haven't done and and so
00:32:29.600
just trying to make sure that we um involve them in those kinds of things or yeah just equipping
00:32:35.680
them for life really because we're not doing them any kind of service if they can't do these things
00:32:40.000
on their own and do it do them competently like like grace my all my kids have jobs now and my youngest
00:32:47.920
just got a job recently and and the somebody was was just telling me how good of a job she's doing that
00:32:55.200
she's um she really understands the importance of doing things well and those things i think actually come
00:33:00.800
from chores so it's it's important to be able to teach them how to do something well do it thoroughly
00:33:07.280
do it timely um those kinds of things are all very important life lessons yeah no good stuff there um
00:33:16.800
it could even be a summer project for a mom right now is to develop um a a sort of a chore discipline or a
00:33:26.480
chore uh chart or something for the summer and um you know maybe the four or five year old can
00:33:35.280
learn to empty the dishwasher and then the the mom can focus her attention on the the heavier chores
00:33:43.600
and then as the children get older than the one who did the dishwasher is now actually washing maybe
00:33:49.040
the pots or washing the dishes or the younger one is learning to take the trash out and then as they
00:33:56.080
get older then you pass that on to the youngest again and then they develop and grow into older
00:34:00.720
ones one of the because my kids were quite close in age um one of the things i didn't want to become
00:34:08.480
a drudgery and i did create um a chore chart for the kitchen i needed help with uh emptying the dishwasher
00:34:16.240
washing the dishes um what was the third one there was three things because there's three kids
00:34:23.680
maybe it was their free day where they got to take the garbage out but they had to take it out like
00:34:29.040
they have to wrap it up go all the way downstairs into the garage to the garbage can come up and replace
00:34:33.520
the bag all that too right and some people have a compost so as a child we had a compost i had to go
00:34:39.520
back in the scary bush and drop it there in the dark it was so scary at night but i brought it back and
00:34:46.320
that was that was the only thing i had to do that day and i just remember like as a child when my mom had the
00:34:52.160
kitchen chore chart there was five of us how we all took turns and so to not create drudgery
00:35:00.080
the kids would um i think it was every week and they would have been between the ages of maybe
00:35:09.280
seven and up that we continued this so one week all they had to do was empty the dishwasher the next
00:35:18.080
week all they had to do was work with me at the sink whether it was washing all the big pots drying
00:35:23.920
them putting them away the other one was to take the garbage out and then the next week they all switch
00:35:29.040
and then they'd be and then they got really good at what they were doing and then at some point you
00:35:33.280
realize okay they've mastered this i still need the help now i'm going to relinquish that and put that on
00:35:39.840
them not that i never did dishes i did but i gave them more responsibilities so that it put me
00:35:46.880
somewhere else like preparing lessons for them for the next day or the next week etc so yeah it's
00:35:54.320
interesting how that works gracie do you want to comment at that you're nodding your head i thought
00:35:58.240
maybe you might want to add something just oh that's great yeah for my kids too like i have every week
00:36:03.920
they'll kind of rotate because they're older now somebody will do vacuuming for the week somebody
00:36:08.640
will do bathrooms for the week somebody will do um what's the other thing um somebody will kind of
00:36:15.520
look after the kitchen for the week and then also with the dishes one day it's one person they'll do it
00:36:21.280
for the whole day and then the next day one of them will do it for the whole day and so um yeah they
00:36:27.040
we've gotten into a routine so they know what to expect from week to week and they don't even have to
00:36:32.320
tell them anymore they'll just go okay this is my chore i'm going to go do it and so yeah that
00:36:37.040
started when they were younger yeah it's starting as soon as you can and and they want to they
00:36:42.720
desperately want to to do it when they're two and three yeah and then work with with the desire and
00:36:49.040
hopefully it doesn't wane yeah yeah but yeah i was thinking of it go ahead sorry i also found it
00:36:56.800
helpful to be able to take those moments and like for dishes for instance in the evening
00:37:01.120
um if you have time to make it fun so you know like we'll put on music like you said doris but
00:37:08.160
my husband and i love to swing dance so oftentimes he's swing dancing with the girls for a few songs
00:37:14.240
and then we get back to chores or whatever just being able to make it fun or have great conversations
00:37:20.240
or sometimes we'll we'll watch a a podcast or and then discuss it or you know just making use of
00:37:26.720
your time that you're all together in the in the kitchen anyways that we we do dishes together
00:37:32.320
so um yeah just taking advantage of those opportunities as a family and and create
00:37:37.280
bonding experiences has has been pretty fun those are great ideas for sure and yeah so i was thinking
00:37:44.720
if it's a summer project to develop some sort of a chore lifestyle this would be very handy moving
00:37:50.720
into the fall school year to continue one now you've sort of laid the groundwork and now it'll be
00:37:56.400
part of your your school life because those are just basic essentials that need to happen every day
00:38:02.640
and um why not take the summer to learn that i think it'd be a great idea um we're going to move into uh
00:38:10.880
moms and uh parents in most cases mothers are the primary home educators and uh we know there are some dads as well
00:38:20.960
and uh summer is also a great time to recharge for for parents and moms and and prepare and plan for the
00:38:28.640
fall and uh i know some of the things that i did but uh go ahead um grace you can tell us what are the
00:38:37.680
some of the things that we're in that season now we're moving into it that you're going to take the
00:38:41.920
time to recharge yourself and prepare for the fall yeah so i i find i guess you would call it recharging
00:38:53.040
for myself i recharge when i know i'm prepared if that makes sense like i because i feel like i can
00:38:59.840
relax a little more if that makes sense so preparing for the fall um like as far as the curriculum goes
00:39:09.360
i will go through and like declutter everything um sort it and organize it and have that ready
00:39:16.480
as far as like for the home um i like to have meals prepared ahead of time for the beginning of the
00:39:24.880
school year and for the fall because it's tends to be busier and we're trying to get back into the full
00:39:30.400
school routine so if i have meals in the freezer um it just takes one more thing off my plate um what
00:39:39.920
else do i do yeah that's kind of how i prepare for the fall um
00:39:46.320
um what about uh note taking lesson planning um i know for me i learned this more so as i moved into
00:39:56.960
the high school years while it was still fresh in my mind in april and may i would write notes this is
00:40:03.680
what we're doing in september this is where we finished off because because when i take my summer
00:40:09.760
break too i would sometimes forget what i was supposed to do in september and i would make notes
00:40:14.720
so that i was ready to go again yeah yeah so usually what i've gone through like our curriculum
00:40:20.720
and i declutter and get rid of like what's not working what we're not going to be using anymore
00:40:26.640
and then prepping stuff ahead i tend to use a lot of curriculum that doesn't take a lot of planning
00:40:32.880
like we just follow the lessons so that the kids can work more independently um but yeah i will write out
00:40:40.160
what we're going to be using um for each kid for each subject and have an idea of kind of
00:40:46.960
when we're going to start and just have that prepared ahead of time yeah how about you laurie
00:40:56.560
yeah so in saskatchewan we have to do some paperwork so um be able to get my my paperwork done for the end
00:41:04.320
of the year in june um a lot of a lot of homeschool moms around here actually try to do their paperwork
00:41:09.760
for the fall um in june to be able just to get that out of the way i've i've done both i've done it
00:41:17.680
in august when it's you know before it's due as well that uh being able to have that ready and and
00:41:23.200
prepared and my curriculum all ordered before the summer is has been really helpful for me and then
00:41:28.880
being able to recharge in the summer so that might look like you know making some coffee dates so that
00:41:34.960
you know like being able to catch up with friends that i haven't had time with or reading a book like
00:41:40.320
reading a parenting book or a homeschool book or being able to you know invest in myself as a homeschool
00:41:48.400
mom um being able to yeah just do those kinds of things has been really recharging for me and just the
00:41:56.160
break of routine being able to uh you know have some more time for for bible time for myself or you
00:42:04.320
know those kinds of things has been always just really refreshing for me uh letting creativity
00:42:10.320
creativity flow and rethinking some of the things that we've been doing like some of those things that
00:42:15.120
are okay that worked really well i'm just going to continue doing it that way and then some things
00:42:20.080
that you're just like okay but this really didn't work well let's let's maybe rethink some of those
00:42:25.920
things so um yeah just or or even listening to a book you know if you if you're gardening or you're
00:42:33.520
you know um you've got a few moments to yourself just investing in yourself um and being able to just
00:42:40.160
break up the routine has been kind of a big deal for me i've i've really enjoyed just not having as much
00:42:46.240
pressure during the summer where i can um maybe even do some things that that give me more life um i'm a
00:42:53.920
musician as well so maybe being able just to you know get creative again and do some songwriting or
00:42:59.520
you know just something that you might not normally have time for that you can just um you know the
00:43:04.480
kids are outside and everybody's busy and okay i could do that that chore i could you know whatever
00:43:11.200
but but i'm actually going to take the time and and just uh invest in myself um has been important for
00:43:17.280
me yeah no those are good points you um reminded me um this goes back to the provincial homeschool laws
00:43:26.560
what what is required of a homeschooling parent um in like you said in saskatchewan you need to
00:43:34.320
submit a learning plan it sounds like right yeah yeah and we don't need to do that in bc i don't think
00:43:40.560
alberta either um not ontario i i don't know about the east but um if anybody's watching this and
00:43:49.600
doesn't know do reach out to those associations those provincial association groups that i mentioned
00:43:56.480
that they're posted on our website at action for canada.com look under homeschooling revolution
00:44:02.240
and you will find your province there um it's very very simple nothing's too complicated
00:44:07.520
uh it's just knowing what's expected of you is important yeah that's right yeah um
00:44:16.800
i had a thought and it's gone and that's okay um grace did you want to add to that or
00:44:27.200
mom's recharging i one of the actually my thought came back um
00:44:31.520
um as an extrovert i always love to have people over and uh we would have potlucks
00:44:41.520
uh not so much the barbecue going because there's too many people but the yard was full of children
00:44:47.920
and the adults got to connect and summer for us was a good time for that
00:44:52.880
and uh if we didn't meet at somebody's house then we would all agree to meet at the beach
00:44:58.960
or um the ocean so i lived on the ocean and i lived near the lake so either one
00:45:05.600
and uh we would connect that way and even though it was work to prepare food
00:45:12.720
um everybody brought something so that took the pressure off but for me that was recharging because
00:45:18.160
i wasn't thinking about the the mundane the house the chores work uh anything i was just connecting
00:45:26.880
with people relationally and my children were building friendships and to this day these these
00:45:32.640
kids they hung out with when they were young are still friends in their lives as adults and i think the
00:45:41.040
payoff is showing now because we invested in spending time with other families and for like my husband he
00:45:47.760
was an introvert so he's like okay honey i'll let you do that
00:45:55.440
and uh but i think for him too he enjoyed that because um he met some really great dads to chat with
00:46:05.360
and just knowing that our kids were having a good time together was truly a blessing and it can turn
00:46:10.560
into a ministry as well when you're just being intentional to build relationships
00:46:15.440
relationships and in this day and age that what we've experienced the last four years of so much
00:46:20.240
division and separation um due to a lockdown and mandates and all that stuff it's so refreshing to uh
00:46:29.120
have um people in our lives that we can connect to and so that was one of the things we did in our summers
00:46:37.840
was uh extend um relationships outside of the home and invest in that
00:46:48.400
so we're going to wrap this up and i just wanted to give you both an opportunity to offer some closing
00:46:54.480
comments um grace why don't you go ahead sure um yeah i think i think as homeschool moms sometimes
00:47:06.800
we over complicate things and it just adds overwhelm and it feels it can feel heavy so
00:47:18.240
if i could encourage anybody it would be just to keep things simple um for the summer and use that time
00:47:24.320
to refresh and recharge and then even going into the school year it really doesn't have to be as
00:47:30.320
complicated as we think it needs to be i think sometimes we we feel like our kids are going to
00:47:38.800
miss out and so we pile on a ton of things and and then it's overwhelming and then it feels heavy and
00:47:46.720
then it can feel like a burden and so i would just say just keep things simple in your curriculum
00:47:54.720
in your schedule and your activities and how many things you're involved in um and don't feel like
00:48:00.880
you have to do everything just because there's a class available just because there's a homeschool
00:48:06.800
meetup doesn't mean you have to be part of it um i recently read something that said it was along the
00:48:15.040
lines of just because you have free time doesn't mean you have to say yes to something like you can
00:48:20.240
still say no and that was that was very encouraging to me because i'm actually an introvert and i recharge
00:48:28.560
being at home and you know doing things around the house puttering and just making sure things are in
00:48:34.480
order and i have friends who are extroverts and they always want to be out and doing things and
00:48:39.120
inviting us and i'm like i do have the time to go today but it's okay to say no it's okay to just be
00:48:45.440
home and be a family and and um keep it simple i agree yeah finding that balance for sure laurie
00:48:59.440
i would i would definitely reiterate just taking the pressure off but be able to maybe even just
00:49:05.280
choose one thing that you can go okay this is maybe what i want to um look into this summer
00:49:10.800
for yourself or for your homeschooling and be able to go just like um okay this hasn't been
00:49:16.400
working really well and be able to find the resources for that having conversations with friends
00:49:20.960
being on you know a webinar like this to be able to get creative ideas um reading a book that that might
00:49:27.760
address those things that um that maybe just one thing that you can learn and grow in um and that you
00:49:34.560
can take into your year would be really helpful um again i'm i'm a i'm a i love books and uh and
00:49:42.400
some of the the parenting books that i've found um i just wanted to mention is that okay doris
00:49:51.200
this is one of my favorite books loving your kids on purpose by danny silk um has been a great resource
00:49:57.360
for us i wish i had read it when my kids were even smaller be able to incorporate um the ideas
00:50:04.320
there but it just helps with having a stress-free home and i think that's really important so being
00:50:09.600
able just to take time to refresh yourself and knowing that your kids need refreshing too they
00:50:14.480
need a brain break uh just being able to balance those things of you know the occasional you know
00:50:19.920
learning experience but know that your kids are learning like you said doris out on a walk you know in
00:50:26.080
nature or uh in the car or wherever you are you can make these learning experiences but don't don't
00:50:33.520
don't put pressure on yourself unduly but but be able just to um recognize those opportunities and and
00:50:40.320
take them when they come and know that their brains are developing just as much in the summer as they are
00:50:46.320
the rest of the year and be able to to really um take the time to be able to uh let them discover
00:50:54.800
their passions and discover the things that they're really good at and and be able to recognize those as
00:51:00.320
learning opportunities as well as is uh is really important no i'm really glad you you mentioned
00:51:07.200
all of that um i was a very task-oriented homeschool mom and for me to slow down and
00:51:15.360
just go on these nature walks was i had to push myself because i was a i was i called my my brothers call
00:51:24.080
me the list lady and i felt better if i could mentally check the box off or cross the line
00:51:31.520
through or something um but uh now as a grandparent i'm leaning way back on this because i've realized
00:51:40.240
the value of just letting them explore and being engaged and being part of it and um of course as
00:51:49.280
as introverts and extroverts and as task people and as uh freedom uh what's the unschooling type
00:51:57.120
philosophy um it's finding that balance of incorporating all of that um because our children are all different
00:52:05.840
too some of them thrive on this and the other one thrives on that so being flexible to work with all
00:52:12.320
of that and i just also want to say like um when i remember back to my friends who were homeschooling
00:52:21.360
and they were very different in how they did their homeschool compared to me um they were the ones that
00:52:28.720
were like more uh flexible and less schooly less paper based their kids still went to college too
00:52:39.440
and they all you know like it it it it really is how you resonate with what's in front of you and how
00:52:46.800
god works in your life to uh be as most effective as you can for each child and you learn a lot about
00:52:55.760
yourself too and uh somehow it all comes together take care folks see you later see you next time