Episode 1 Jan 2024 The Homeschool Sisters Podcast
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[00:00:00] Hey sisters, it's Kate here. Happy 2024. It has been a minute since I talked with you. I am so happy to be back and I'm excited to share with you today. All of the fun things we have coming down the pike for our 2024 season. Um, but first I wanted to back up a second and just say that. 2023 was a year of big changes here.
[00:00:24] And as you know, in early 2023, Kara's kiddos were off at college and we had an episode in December 2022, which I will link in the show notes for today's episode, we had a podcast episode where we talked about all of those changes at that point in time, and then Cara passed the torch, and I decided, podcasting has been fun that I would continue it and see how it goes, and 2023 was so much fun.
[00:00:53] But there were tons of changes. So Kara's kids were in college and then I had a couple kids that were trying public school, which was very new to us.
[00:01:02] Solo podcasting was also a foreign thing to me because I'm so used to chatting with Kara. So it took a while to be able to chat with you, just me, uh, talking into the and it was a learning process and then more recently, our family had a very unexpected loss of my mother in law, who was the world's best Nana.
[00:01:24] It was very, very sudden happened right around the 4th of July and my 84 year old father in law and his 12 year old dog moved in with us. And it was a very quick, it all happened in a matter of a week basically.
[00:01:39] As you can imagine, it was and continues to be a huge transition for our family. It is bittersweet,
[00:01:46] it's been super challenging for a number of different reasons. We live in New Hampshire. It's really icy right now. We're in the granite state. There are a lot of hills. There are a lot of stairs. You know, things that you don't think about when you purchase a home. Our property is not cut out for an 84 year old, but we really want him here as long as possible.
[00:02:09] And so we have been making the best of an imperfect situation.
[00:02:14] If you're a member of the Never Bored Learning community, this is old news to you, because I've been very transparent about this change and how it has impacted a number of different things, including my ability to, for a while, to work and to be creative, because there was just a lot of, um, things to attend to here.
[00:02:35] There continues to be things to attend to.
[00:02:37] If you've experienced loss of someone close to you, you know how much logistical, legal, it's just a never ending barrage of things, like one task after another, after another, uh, makes it really hard to grieve and to adjust to your new normal. So there's been a lot of that.
[00:02:56] And I, and so I know sharing this right now that there's going to be a lot of sisters out there that can relate to this situation because I know I'm not the only one walking through the sandwich generation. And so I just want to let you know that you're not alone and I thought I would share with you part of an email that I received from a Never Bored Learning community member when we were right in the thick of it.
[00:03:16] And I won't share her name because I didn't tell her I was going to be quoting part of. And email of hers on the podcast, but you know who you are, and I've already told you that you completely made my entire week when you sent this to me.
[00:03:30] So one of the things that she said to me was,
[00:03:32] I've been out of the Never Bored Learning Community loop for a few months owing to having too many tabs open, lol, but I've been catching up this past week on your situation. I just wanted to reach out in solidarity.
[00:03:44] My 84 year old mom has been living with us for the past two and a half years, and my dad too, until he recently had to go into a nursing home.
[00:03:52] The adjustment was huge for our family. It requires grit, patience, and grace. And a ton of self compassion for the days when I have none of these things. I have had to learn bite sized self care Because I'm often having to draw plans to respond to a new little fire.
[00:04:09] We laugh a lot, and we have to stifle the urge to scream or cry at times. But the core, this is the part that I especially loved and why I'm sharing it, because it sounds like this doesn't relate to homeschooling, but it, this transition to me and to this community member from Never Bore Learning feels Very similar to homeschooling, so I'm going to go back to the email and to what she said.
[00:04:35] But the core values that motivated me to pull my kids out of school many years ago
[00:04:40] Are the same ones at play in my wish to help my parents avoid or at least delay nursing home living.
[00:04:46] And I wanted to share that in case there is anyone out there listening that needs to hear it who is stuck in this very different stage of life where you are caring for not just your children and teens, but also aging parents and grandparents.
[00:05:03] This season does remind me very much of why we decided to homeschool. There's a lot of the same feelings involved where our society says someone quote unquote should be, whether that is a public school, whether it is assisted living or nursing home care. And you know that for at least right now, that is not where you see this person.
[00:05:26] And so while you might not feel equipped. You might not have ever thought of homeschooling in our situation. I, it was never something that I thought of until we basically were about to do it. You might not have ever pictured your home to be a home where you would care for an elderly individual. And yet , you know, in your heart, it's the best choice for right now.
[00:05:47] It's also a time of, like, stopping and trying to figure things out, so you just very naturally need to slow down, and you can feel like you're dropping a lot of balls because you're honed in on these certain aspects of your home and your family, and I found that to be very similar when I first started homeschooling, I had to cut out a whole bunch of other things that I had been doing so that I could just focus and figure this part out.
[00:06:14] And I feel like right now it's the very similar thing with having my father in law and his pooch here in our home and just having to figure out what that looks like, how to do it well, as well as possible and as safely as possible. And also take care of everybody else. So there had been a lot of balls dropping that have not been within our family.
[00:06:33] A lot of missed calls and emails and having to put off parts of my work, which I love my work. But having to say, these things can't happen right now because we are focused on our family.
[00:06:47] We're also trying to find new rhythms and routines, anyone who has first started homeschooling or who has first started caring for the, older generation knows how hard it is to find that new rhythm, especially if you're grieving, let's be honest, or if you're going through,
[00:07:04] if your kiddo is You know, coming from a school situation that was really hurtful for them, as my son was, you might need to go through de schooling and then figure out what your next step is going to be and what that routine and rhythm will look like, and you might not even know it yet. And,
[00:07:25] it's very similar with bringing a beloved family member into your home, um, while he's grieving, while we're all grieving.
[00:07:33] It's a very challenging, very raw, and Also very beautiful time of transition. There's a lot of really beautiful moments because it's almost like you put on the brakes of life and this go go go society. So when you pull your kid out of school, you just put on the brakes and you're focusing on that child and your family and how you're going to operate now in relationships.
[00:07:58] And it's all about relationships. And again, it's very similar now with bringing Puppet into our folds because we are wholly focused on relationships and making sure that everyone is okay in a situation that is perfectly imperfect. Like it's, it's not the best situation and all parties would agree, but we wouldn't have it any other way right now, if that makes sense.
[00:08:20] So it's all about leaning into that challenging season and slowing it down and giving yourself a lot of grace and giving everyone else in the, in the family and the household a lot of grace and a lot of space and patience. And I love how this community member from Never Bored Learning who wrote the email to me talked about bite sized chunks of self care.
[00:08:43] That has been hugely important. The best thing I can liken it to is when you are When you have, uh, young kids and toddlers, and maybe you're in this phase right now as you're listening. I remember when Cara and I recorded our episode, Where's My Zen, very early on it was one of our first episodes about how challenging it is to exercise when you are homeschooling and you also have a bunch of little kids.
[00:09:06] And It's the same thing for self care. I know we had an episode on self care. I'll link all of these in the show notes. But you have to find what works in this moment, in this season, and honor that, knowing that you're going to be dropping additional balls. And those balls aren't as important as taking care of the people in your home.
[00:09:28] So that's a little bit about all of the changes that happened here at the Homeschool Sisters podcast, starting in very late 2022, when Cara and I had our episode where we talked about moving on from what we had known. because of kids getting older and kids going to public school and myself taking on the podcast and figuring out what that looks like as a solo podcaster and making sure that I'm inviting on, and I'll get to this in a second, fighting on a very wide array of guests who have a variety of experiences in homeschooling and education with a variety of different ages.
[00:10:11] I want to make sure that we are delivering to you episodes that are real life and authentic and that meet you where you are, whether you have. toddlers or a newborn or you have kids that you're launching off to college or you have kids who are taking a gap year and maybe aren't going to college and you're trying to figure that piece out or you have you're somewhere in the middle you have elementary school kiddos you have middle schoolers you're worried about starting high school these are all of the areas that I've wanted to cover and I think we did a pretty good job in 2023 covering a lot of those areas and again I'll go over that in a second. I'm coming on today just to let you know that we're really excited for 2024. I know you'll be excited about many of the guests that we are having on in 2024, including my beloved homeschool sister. So that's just a teaser right there.
[00:11:04] In addition to having guests that I know that you will adore,
[00:11:08] we are also planning to have episodes on specific topics that are either questions that we receive all the time in our inbox or are very frequent pain points for homeschoolers. And as you're sitting there. You know what a lot of them are. So we're going to have discussions around those things.
[00:11:28] And I'm really excited to have a conversation, not only with other guests here at the homeschool sisters podcast, but also with a larger community.
[00:11:37] In addition to all that, I have an amazing partnership sponsorship for the winter 2024 season that I cannot wait to share with you.
[00:11:46] And as always, we welcome feedback from the Homeschool Sisters community. You can send us an email at thehomeschoolsisters at gmail dot com, or if you head to our website, you can actually leave us a voicemail message or you can DM us on Instagram. We would love to hear what topics you would like to see discussed.
[00:12:07] We always get our best ideas from you. So please feel free to share them with us in whatever way you're comfortable
[00:12:14] New episodes will be coming out approximately every other week or more, and I know you're going to be as excited as I am about this upcoming season.
[00:12:25] But before we get to those new episodes, I thought it might be helpful because I can't be the only one out there who has been dropping a lot of balls in recent months. I thought it would be helpful if I gave a very brief rundown of the episodes that we had in 2023, just in case you missed them or you'd like to catch up or you've been meaning to catch up, but life just gets in the way.
[00:12:46] I will highlight them for you and I will link them all in the show notes. So if there's a particular episode. That really seems to be something that meets you where you are right now, you'll be able to go directly to that episode without wasting time because we know all the interruptions that we have as homeschool mothers. I have a little cheat sheet here because I can't remember them all in order off the top of my head. So if you are joining us on our YouTube station, I apologize for looking down, but my brain can't hold all this information right now.
[00:13:16] So as I mentioned, The episode before our 2023 season launched was in December, late December of 2022. And it was the episode where Cara and I were on together talking about all of the changes that have been happening in our lives that lead us to the point where I am going to be continuing the podcast solo.
[00:13:36] I will link that and all of the episodes I'm about to talk to in the show notes. So you don't have to worry about searching or writing anything down. You can just click the link and it will take you directly there. Our first episode of the 2023 season was episode 115, Homeschooling and Only Child with my friend Jessica Waldock. In this episode, we discussed the myths. and the realities of homeschooling one child, whether that is homeschooling one child because you have one child or homeschooling one of your children when other children are in different situations.
[00:14:09] Jessica shared a lot of gems as she always does. She's been on a few times onto the homeschool sisters podcast and also into Nevermore learning. And it is always a pleasure to speak with her. Episode 116 is titled When Homeschool Kids Go to Public School and it was actually our most popular episode of the entire season and it is the episode I almost didn't record because it was me for the first time talking to you without Cara by my side or without a guest and I was sharing very.
[00:14:43] Honestly, our experience, how we fell into homeschooling in the first place,
[00:14:49] And I also talked about how we were unexpected homeschoolers and how I really wanted to meet my kids. Where they were in that moment every year. And so we reassessed at the end of every year. We would see if homeschooling was still working. If any of them wanted to go to public school.
[00:15:07] My oldest always said he wanted to try high school. So I talked about some of the The fears that you hold when you know that your child is going to try public school, whether or not you say those fears aloud or not, but some of your worries, some of their worries, and also what that transition was like and what I learned from it and.
[00:15:28] what I wouldn't be worried about now if you're in a similar situation. So again, it's really candid. It's really raw. It's emotional. A lot of people told me they cried. I believe I cried, but I cry frequently. So that's not a big surprise, but that is episode 116. And it was our most. popular of the season.
[00:15:48] Episode 117 was intuitive homeschooling with Camille Kirksey. This was such a fun conversation. I had always wanted to speak with Camille. Camille is an experienced homeschooler. She's been homeschooling for many years, and she's a homeschool mindset coach.
[00:16:03] She works with homeschool parents, not just new homeschool parents, but also seasoned homeschool parents who Find themselves in need of a little oomph and want to bring out the best in their kids, and she's really good about doing that. And the other thing that I love about Camille is that she loves teenagers, and I say this in the episode, we both talk about it, I , prior to being a parent, I always worked with teenagers.
[00:16:29] And so I love tweens and teens. And I was always like, gosh, I hope when I get my own that I will love them too. And yes, they are exhausting. And yes, sometimes you're like, your brain is bananas. What, what were you thinking? Were you thinking, um, they make you get more gray hairs in your eyebrows, but I adore.
[00:16:49] Tweens and teens, my own included, and it was really nice to speak with someone who was as pro teen as I am. So , if you have tweens or teens or you're almost there, you might really enjoy that conversation. Episode 118 is titled Real Life Homeschooling with Rachel Baker. Rachel Baker is a mom of four.
[00:17:11] At the time, her kids were ranged in age from about 15 down to nine. And she's a longtime sisters listener who reached out to us and she gave a really honest look of what it's like Setting up your homeschool.
[00:17:24] Her family has a homeschool, I, I believe it's called a mission statement. I'm sorry if I'm misquoting, but creating your homeschool, your unique homeschool, and then the concern about how do I homeschool high school. And Rachel is very honest about how that was really nerve wracking to her at first and how she figured it out.
[00:17:43] So, , if you want a really down to earth, real life homeschooling conversation about what it's like. To start homeschooling and continue through high school, that's one to look at. Episode 119 is titled bittersweet transitions in our homeschool and it's with Christy and Christy, if you're on Instagram is Christy kindness mischief.
[00:18:05] She is someone who I discovered very early on in my homeschool journey when I was trying to find like minded homeschoolers in an area where we didn't have a ton of homeschoolers. So I reached out, I found, I really found my initial people. on the internet because it took a while to find them here in New Hampshire.
[00:18:23] And Christy was someone I connect with right away. I love her book recommendations. I loved the way she incorporated literature into her homeschool. So many other things I could go into now, but it was great to finally sit down with her and have a conversation. It was, I believe, our second most popular episode of the season.
[00:18:39] Christy and I chatted about the homeschool journey, homeschooling kids when they're younger. Meeting their unique needs and then as they get older and they become more independent supporting them in that in figuring out who they are in taking chances and trying new things at the time, two of Christie's kiddos, all she has all teenagers to had opted to try a school outside of the home.
[00:19:06] It's not a traditional public school, but they were in school outside of the home while her oldest was a teenager. Just about wrapping up high school and was still at home. And just what it's like to homeschool teenagers. You kind of go, if you're not there yet, you go through this transition where, and Christy says in this episode, I didn't realize how much I was doing.
[00:19:28] Your whole life is homeschooling and it's not that it. It doesn't still happen when they're teenagers, but it's just that they're so much more independent that you find yourself with more time. And then you're kind of left with this question, you know, what am I going to be when I grow up? Like I all of a sudden have all this time.
[00:19:45] What, what am I going to do? So it's a very bittersweet time of, you know, finding yourself too. So we talk a lot about tweens and teens and unique learners. And then we also talk about from a mom perspective, how challenging that can be. , it's a very bittersweet season. And Christy also is amazing at, , keeping book journals for the entire year.
[00:20:09] And we talk about that too. So if you're a book nerd, you also might like that one.
[00:20:12] Episode 120 is titled Homeschooling Through Hard Things with Laurel. And Laurel is someone who Cara and I connected with many years ago. And I don't want to tell her story, but it's a really beautiful story. She talks about. What it's like to homeschool through a , very challenging season
[00:20:32] and she purposefully says, your challenging season could be something entirely different that maybe doesn't seem as quote unquote challenging as someone else's, but that you shouldn't compare because all challenging seasons are challenging. In this episode, Laurel talks about her cancer journey.
[00:20:50] Which happened to coincide with when the world shut down and she was homeschooling. I would invite you to go listen to that. She speaks so beautifully about such a hard time. I'm going to tear up and about how your community can show up for you and about the silver lining about what your children learn after going through these hard times, if that makes sense. So that is episode 120 if you want to tune into that one. Episode 121 is Homeschooling Kids with Learning Differences with Danessa. Danessa is a founding member of the Neverboard Learning Community.
[00:21:26] I absolutely adore her. She is the parent of very unique learners. And it can be challenging if you have unique learners and you're homeschooling, and maybe your kids aren't doing exactly what the kids in their grade would be doing in the public school. Perhaps you're working on skills that aren't necessarily quote unquote academic, and just seeing your kids where they are, meeting their needs, prioritizing things that are really important in your family, and letting your kids thrive in their uniqueness, despite challenges.
[00:21:59] Danessa is super creative and just loves on our kiddos so much. And I just know that you will enjoy this conversation. It was originally a day in the life event in Neverboard Learning. We have those every month and they're one of my favorite, highlights of, , Neverboard Learning is getting to talk with real life homeschoolers every month and just seeing how we all do this thing so differently and so wonderfully.
[00:22:22] And I never failed to learn something and I learned a lot from that conversation with Danessa. Bye.
[00:22:28] Episode 122 is what I'd tell my younger homeschool self, and it is another reflective podcast where I look back after nine plus years of homeschooling, and I think about it. Thanks. What I know now, after all these years, and I think back to the woman who was flying by the seat of her pants in 2015, 16, and didn't know how she was going to do this, and I talk about, with the gift of hindsight, what I would tell people.
[00:23:04] That version of Kate. Now,
[00:23:05] I was an unexpected homeschooler. I think any new homeschooler would appreciate this episode, but particularly if this wasn't something that you felt called to do.
[00:23:14] It was just something that you just kind of landed in the world of homeschooling. I think that episode will really strike a chord with you. Between episodes 122 and 123, we had our bonus episode, which is a much loved tradition by the homeschool sisters, and it is called Poolside Professional Development.
[00:23:35] So ever since our first year of podcasting back in 2016, Kara and I always wrapped up the season right before summer. with sharing what we intended to read that summer, both fiction and nonfiction, and we call it Bullseye Professional Development. We don't always, we always joke about how we need to do a follow up and that never happens, but we don't always get to read all of what we intended to.
[00:23:58] Sometimes we find some really brilliant things and we get lost on some rabbit trail, but if you are a book lover and you want to fill your library tote, you will want to listen to the bonus episode, which is which I will link in the show notes. It was published between episodes 122 and 123. And there are a whole series of them.
[00:24:17] So you could go back and listen to them. All the books remain high quality, fantastic reads.
[00:24:22] Episode 123 is titled Mothering in Midlife with Vanessa Wright. Vanessa Wright is a friend of mine. If you enjoyed the conversation with Christy about bittersweet homeschool transitions, you're going to love this one because Vanessa talks about homeschooling, tweens and teens, and Embracing their independence and their uniqueness, and also during all of that,
[00:24:48] how can we, moms in midlife, create beauty, find joy, and embrace the now, while also getting ready for that transition of launching our kiddos, no matter what that launch looks like.
[00:25:04] I always love talking to Vanessa. Vanessa's been in Never Bored Learning before talking about self care. She is coming in again very soon to talk about finding daily joy. And if you're feeling kind of in midlife, if you're going through perimenopause and menopause, This is the episode for you, because you need to, you need to have Vanessa in your life.
[00:25:28] And that is, again, episode 123, and I will link it in the show notes. Episode 124 is Lazy Unit Studies and Older Kids. So if you've been hanging around with me at any, for any length of time, you know that One of my go to core ways of learning in our homeschool has always been lazy unit studies, which is to simplify, it's a unit study, but it's the laziest one ever where you, you embrace a child's interest.
[00:25:54] And then you keep layering on books, then activities and documentaries and hands on experiences, little rabbit holes until they lose interest. So you're not spending, you know, 80 on a unit study that your kid then loses interest in two weeks because they move on to Greek mythology.
[00:26:11] , you're just layering on the learning and then when they're done, you move on to the next thing, whatever the next interest is. And I, I have a course on this, but I am, I, I, one of my favorite things in life is finding rabbit holes. And I truly believe that any area of interest, even if it's something you can't stand that your kids are into, say it's like fortnight or arc, or, you know, I'm thinking of video games that my kids play, but you can take any interest.
[00:26:37] And there is a way to. weave in every academic subject. So I talk about that. One of the biggest questions I get asked when it comes to lazy unit studies is, can you still do it with tweens and teens? And in episode 124, I addressed that question. The spoiler is that yes, you can, but it looks different.
[00:26:55] Episode 125 is Innovative Homeschooling with Dr. Robin. I discovered Dr. Robin several years ago. She reached out to me and She's such, she's such a fun person to talk to, but she's really interesting because for over a decade, she's a doctor, and for over a decade, she had a private practice, and then she began homeschooling her own children, and she realized that a lot of the science curriculum out there, she didn't really thought it was kind of dry, or kind of rude, kind of boring, and so Long story short, she ended up creating her own curriculum, which started with human anatomy video lessons.
[00:27:34] Uh, my kids fell immediately in love with her. It was a completely safe way to just let them embrace rabbit holes. You know, one kid would be learning about teeth. The other one would be learning about the brain. The other one would be doing, you know, like the intestines because poop. And she is such a delight to speak with and a really engaging.
[00:27:55] Teacher who also I say this in the episode too, but she'll make mistakes on her during her experiments and she will talk about them. And I just love when an adult can model real things, you know, this, this experiment. This is how it's supposed to go. Let me try it again. Let me show you. It's not this, you know.
[00:28:16] It's very real and that's one of the reasons why I love her. So it was a really great conversation. We talk about science, but we talk about so much more than science. One of the things Robin says in that episode is that science, everything is science. So if you are interested in that, head over to episode 125.
[00:28:33] Episode 126 is when homeschool kids become adults with Samantha Schenck.
[00:28:38] This was such a fun conversation. I know that so many of us parents, as we're homeschooling, have this fear, like, what will happen? When they leave the house, if they go to college, if they go to work, working, relationship wise, like what will that look like? And you have a lot of worries, even if you, you know, in your gut, it will be fine, but you're still, you question it.
[00:28:58] And perhaps if you have a child who is gifted or twice exceptional, which means a gifted student with special needs, learning disability, learning challenges, , Samantha. Was homeschooled. Started a business at 14. And not like a thriving business that is still in existence, which is how I met her was through her business.
[00:29:21] So she started it at 14. She went to college and graduate school, no debt and is a world traveler.
[00:29:28] She has a master's in education in curriculum and instruction with a focus on gifted education. And she's currently traveling the world. To follow her on Instagram is such a joy to see where she is and what she's doing. This is just a fantastic conversation. It's so great to see a kid, a unique learner.
[00:29:48] Go through the homeschool journey and come out and thrive, and that is exactly what Samantha is doing. That's episode 126.
[00:29:57] Episode 127 is celebrating books with Mary Hannah Wilson. Mary is a dear friend of mine. She is a total book nerd. She was a math teacher in her previous life, has four homeschool kids, two of them have graduated, is a master at, delighting in tweens and teens, which is something I love about her. And she has a super power for taking books and making them not the books aren't fun because I'm a book nerd, but she can make books so fun.
[00:30:24] So she's currently teaching classes on out school. My youngest took classes with her all last year and absolutely. loved them. She is such a great teacher. In this conversation, we talk about books and how to make them fun, how to celebrate books. We talk about her business, and we also just talk about education and homeschooling.
[00:30:43] We are two friends just chatting. , I know everybody loves Mary out there. So that's episode 127. Episode 128 is Five Things That Surprised Me as a Homeschool Mom with Shawna Wingert. Shawna is my partner in crime over at Nevermore Learning, and she is, we call her a homeschool cousin.
[00:31:01] She's been on the Homeschool Sisters podcast more than anyone else, and in this conversation, we sit down and we talk really openly about the five, if forced to choose, what are the top five things that surprised me as a homeschooling mom. It was a really great conversation and we received a ton of positive feedback about that one.
[00:31:23] Episode 129 is Homeschool Language Classes from A Mom Who Gets It with Sofia Storm.
[00:31:28] This was such a fun conversation. I had never spoken with Sofia before, but Sofia is a homeschool grad, world traveler, new mom, and Spanish teacher. And , in this conversation, talks about her homeschool upbringing and how it allowed her. We talk about falling rabbit holes and embracing our kids interests.
[00:31:47] It allowed her the opportunity to really immerse herself in a passion, which was language, specifically the Spanish language and culture. And so she talks about her travels. She talks about growing up and how this early Opportunity to just dive head on in, led to the career that she has right now.
[00:32:08] And she also talks about best practices for learning a language when you are a homeschool family. Episode 130 is middle school math that's actually fun with Betsy Mays. I, I met Betsy Mays through My Little Poppies and Never Bored Learning because she's a game designer, but she's not just a game designer.
[00:32:26] So she has a mom, she's a veteran teacher, middle school teacher, middle school math teacher. So right there, that's, wow. And
[00:32:35] she's also an instruction and curriculum specialist, and like I said, a game designer. Specifically math games, and we had Betsy into never board learning pretty early on when we first opened our doors, and she I was just struck by the way that a public school teacher having worked in public schools, knowing the pressure put on teachers and the pressure with testing and especially as a subject like math, , getting everyone where there's quote unquote supposed to be, Betsy has a knack for taking math, making it real and making it fun.
[00:33:13] So one example that she gave at the time was the Olympics, and I believe she talks about it in this episode too, so I'm not going to share the whole thing, but it, if you need some inspiration when it comes to math, particularly for middle school, although Betsy talks about all ages, cause her games are designed for all ages.
[00:33:29] This is a great episode to listen to. We've since had her into never board learning again, and I'm sure we will in the future because I just find it so delightful to talk. with her, and I learned so much every single time. Episode 131 is Reading Aloud with Older Kids with Sarah MacKenzie. I think everyone knows Sarah from Read Aloud Revival, and in this episode, we talk about, you know, we all know it's important to read aloud.
[00:33:52] We all set out to hopefully still be reading aloud to our tweens and teens, but things get tricky. So how can you keep their interest if you're transitioning into those years? Or if you, for whatever reason, stopped reading aloud to your tween and teen, and now you're thinking, gosh, I'd really like to start that back up again.
[00:34:13] How can you do that in a way that they're not going to be like, come on, mom, and just think it's the worst idea ever. In addition, Sarah gives us a lot of insight in this episode into the world of writing and publishing children's books.
[00:34:26] Episode 132 is The Ins and Outs of College for Neurodivergent Homeschoolers with Jessica Nelson. Jessica reached out to me last year, and I was so struck by her experience in the world of college, career counseling, college admissions, particularly working with students at schools that were specifically geared for children with unique.
[00:34:52] Needs and learning challenges and also in counseling kids who want to go to college that have very unique needs that are neurodivergent. And this, in this conversation, you'll learn more about her background and the wealth of information that she has to offer. And if you are thinking about college. For any kid, but especially if you have a neurodivergent student, you're going to want to listen to this episode because it's going to make you feel so much better and that the process could be a whole lot less stressful than we think it's going to be.
[00:35:34] And then finally.
[00:35:35] My apologies to those who are watching on YouTube. I am losing my daylight right now, so I just put on a very harsh light because the camera kept zooming in and out. Um, doing the best we can here. It gets dark way too early in the winter here in New Hampshire. So our final episode of the 2023 season was episode 133, Teaching Your Child to Read.
[00:35:59] Tips for success and when you need to worry with Sarah Constantine. Sarah is a former elementary school teacher and she has her master's in childhood education with a focus on literature. She is also LTRS certified.
[00:36:14] She's a homeschool mom to three and she is a literacy specialist and this was a great conversation. You know, I think reading is one of the pain points that a lot of homeschool parents worry about early on. You know, what should that look like? When should I start teaching my child to read?
[00:36:32] What does that look like? How long does it take? You know, if my kid is not reading at seven, at eight, do I need to worry? Maybe on the later stage? And when are there, and when should I worry?
[00:36:45] And what are do?
[00:36:51] If you have any of these questions, if you are currently teaching kids to read, if you have a struggling reader, this is going to be a really interesting and helpful conversation for you.
[00:37:03] And that was our 2023 season in a nutshell.
[00:37:06] And again, I am going to share all links to all of the episodes that I just mentioned in addition to anything I mentioned before that in the show notes for this episode, I am so grateful that you are a member of the homeschool sisters community. I am
[00:37:27] I think you are going to thoroughly enjoy the guests that are coming on, especially a sister, and that you're going to be really excited about the topics that we're covering, because there are topics that we hear about over and over and over, and we just really wanted to hone in and give you real, authentic conversations about homeschooling, real life homeschooling, and the many different ways we can do that.
[00:37:52] Until next time, sisters, I hope you have a great start to 2024. I will see you in two weeks, and just remember, you've got the sister. Bye for now.
