SR 824: Generations of Faith: Homeschooling and Ministry – Abby Joy, Part 3

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When we see God’s hand in education and in everything

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around us, science, math, history, when we

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view it as learning about God or what

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he has done or what his story is, why did he create things? How creative

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is he? It becomes really exciting.

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Hey, everyone, this is Yvette Hampton. Welcome back to the Schoolhouse Rocked

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Podcast. I am back with my friend Abby Joy, and it’s been

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a fun week of just talking about homeschooling

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family, raising our kids. What a privilege it is to raise

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our kids. All the things, all the things that we, you know, encounter

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as homeschool families. And so I hope that you have been encouraged. We’re going to

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talk about more of that today. But before we do, I want to say thank

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you to our sponsor, BJU Press Homeschool. If you’re looking for a

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dot well, Abby, welcome back to the podcast. This has

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been such a fun conversation this week. I want to talk with you today because

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we, you talked, I, I think it was in yesterday’s episode on

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Wednesday. If you guys missed that, go back and listen. If you missed Mondays, go

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back and listen to that one. But you talked about how your

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family has, has left several generations of

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just a christian legacy. And I think that’s so important.

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Many of us don’t come from generations of christians. I

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don’t. My parents, my husband’s parents were christians.

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Their parents were not. And so we’re, I guess you would call

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us kind of second generational christians. And it’s so important for us

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to hand that off to the next generation. You’re in Minnesota. You

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and I have talked about Josh Mulva Hill, and he talks about grandparenting

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and the importance of grandparents leaving legacies for their kids and,

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and how we can prepare to do that. But one of the ways

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we do that is right now setting that foundation for our

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kids. So what does that look like for your

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family as they have left that legacy for you and you’re now

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trying to pass that on to your kids with

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homeschooling. You know, we, we don’t just teach to the book, just to teach that

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two plus two equals four. We want to teach our kids with a

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focus on eternity, you know, what has God called us to do? And

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ultimately, when they come face to face with their lord and

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savior, what is he going to say to them? So.

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So maybe back up a little bit and talk about how that legacy was left

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for you and then what you’re doing to leave that legacy

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for your children and your grandchildren. And your

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grandchildren’s children. Yeah. Yeah. So, um.

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Well, I think my parents had the biggest impact on

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me. We moved a lot growing up, and so while I had

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grandparents and I knew their legacy, right? Like, I had

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grandparents that were, um, missionaries and church builders

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on the Texas Mexico border, and then my other

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grandparents were elders in their church. So, like, I knew of those

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things. And when I visited them, we always went to church with them. Like,

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and. And our conversations in our house were healthy

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conversations going on. Right. And so I think that just really formed

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a lot of, like, what was expected in a family and a house. And. And

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the way my parents talked about their parents was honoring. Right. And

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obedient. Like, we. Some of the moves that we made were to live closer

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to grandparents in their final years and to help take care of

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them during that time. And that was very impactful on me.

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But my parents specifically in my house, like,

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I knew that when they were doing ministry or whatever they were doing, whatever

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their actions were, I could see that authenticity. We talked about that

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yesterday, and, like, our kids know us, right? And I knew my

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parents and my parents were incredibly,

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incredibly generous. So my parents were actually foster

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parents for most of my life. Like, I grew up in boys group homes, even

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on and off. And my parents just continued to

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give sacrificially and to love on these kids

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who needed it because they weren’t getting it anywhere else. And I also got to

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see what the lives of children looked like when they came from families that

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weren’t christians. And I knew I didn’t want that in my life.

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And so, I mean, they gave so generously that to this

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point, like, and this is a fun fact, my parents are actually

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moving. They just bought a house, and they are moving into my town,

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which is wild, because right now they live, like, across the

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country, but they want to be here for their grandsons who are now

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growing up. And we’ve been so far from family up until this

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point. And so it’s, like, really exciting that they’re going to be able to be

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here because. Because my boys have reached this point, too. We’re like, it’s been

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fun. I’ve been able to teach them, but they need men

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in their lives. They need men to teach them those

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skills and hands on crafts. And. And my dad’s always been

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somebody who will teach himself those things if he needed to. Like, I grew

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up with the for dummies books, like plumbing for dummies books

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right in the house because my dad was always teaching himself those things. And so

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I’m so excited for them to have this relationship with their grandpa now

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who’s going to be able to help him because, like, they have a great relationship

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with my husband, but he also works full time. So to have, like, a retired

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grandparent that can really. Come on, boys, we’re cleaning out the gutters

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today. Like, yeah, that is so cool. But just that

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authenticity that’s been passed down super important.

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And then the excitement for the word of God, right? And this is

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something that’s kind of been like a newer thought to

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me, and I’m excited to share, is that I

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think when we see God’s hand in education

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and in everything around us, science, math, history,

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when we view it as learning about God

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or what he has done or what his story is, why did he create things?

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How creative is he? It becomes really exciting. And

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so now science, that has always been a dud subject for

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me. Now it’s like, whoa, hold on a second. Like, God

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really knew what he was doing there and he had a plan for that, and

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that is cool. And so now I have this passion when I’m teaching my kids,

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and I think my parents had that, too, in ways. And I just didn’t necessarily

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see some of that because of where I was. But now I see it. And

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so we’ve recently, we use several different curriculums. We’re

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eclectic. I love gather round unit studies. I’ve

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recently switched over to using generations. And I

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just listened to a webcast yesterday with Kevin Swanson just

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sharing that same idea of, like, when you’re sharing about

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God to your kids and you’re excited about it and you’re passionate about God and

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you get to teach them about him through these

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subjects, it all becomes so much more real and it

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has purpose to it. Even if you’re never going to use this subject, it suddenly

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has purpose to it because you’re learning more about God. And so when we’re

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looking at education in light of eternity, one thing I think we need to

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stop asking when we look at curriculums is,

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does it meet state standards or how am I going to

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fulfill these different things? Like, who cares? Who

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cares? Okay. If you live in a state where you have to, we’ve

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got creative ways to do that. Sure. But that’s

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not my end goal. My citizenship is in heaven. Right? My children, I want

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their citizenship to be in heaven. And so the things that are most important

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to me are that they learn about their creator. And yes, we’re going to learn

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history because God wove that whole story. That’s right.

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And we’re going to learn about science. But let’s understand, like,

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God’s creativity in that. And even math,

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like, apologia, math, generations,

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math. I like life. It doesn’t necessarily teach about God, but I

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love wordy maths that explain to you why you need to

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know something in a practical sense. Apologia. And generations really teach

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God and how he used math and uses math to, like,

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set order to things. It is so cool. There are so many

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great options out there. Why would you settle for something

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that leaves God out of the picture? God is in every picture.

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He is part of it all. And I understand when people are like, do

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we really have to include God in everything? Because your heart is wrong.

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Because if your heart is right, you

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say we get to include God in this. Like, your children won’t

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feel like, oh, my parents brainwashed me. If you teach it right,

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they will be joyful and excited about that as well.

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Yeah. Oh, you are so right on. And it’s. It’s not putting God

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in a box. Right. It’s not saying, okay, we’re gonna do Bible time right

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now from eight to 830, and then we’re gonna move on and do the rest

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of our subjects. Right. It’s teaching God in the course of all

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of our studies. But also, you talked earlier about having conversations,

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and that is such an important part of raising our kids, is that throughout

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the day, he should just always be part of your world,

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of your conversation. Like, it just should be such a

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natural thing that God is always on the forefront of your

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mind. Deuteronomy six. You know, as you’re going about your

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day with your kids, you just talk about the Lord. You

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see his glory and his might and his creation and his

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power in every part of your life and every part

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of your family, and there are always opportunities to

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bring God into it. And it doesn’t. It just, like

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you said, it’s so much having. It has to do with our heart towards the

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Lord. Because if we are right with the Lord, we love him,

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then we desire to know him. And the more we know him, yes. The more

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we. He will just come out of us, you know, we will exude

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the love of Jesus overflow. Yeah. Right, right. And

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so on for people who are thinking,

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but that isn’t me. Like, I don’t know how to just bring Jesus into every

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subject like some people do. Right. Well, good news. There’s

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great curriculum out there to help you do that. Right. Because, like, I remember there

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being times that I was like, oh, I want. I want to teach my kids

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God and everything, but I don’t know how to do that. Like, yeah, and there

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are so many great ways, like, like generations or a

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better apologia. Yeah. Just

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automatically naturally include those in for you. For

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you. And so, like, you are learning and growing as well, and.

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Oh, and I think that’s so important. Like, I’m not just teaching my children.

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Right. I am learning alongside of them, like, gaps

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in my education. Absolutely. Like, I am learning along

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with my children, which I think brings encouragement to my children and excitement for my

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children, too, I admit, all the time. I don’t know how to spell that, honey.

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Sorry. Like, let’s go look that up, or, I don’t actually know about

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rocks and minerals. Like, I’m excited to learn about this with you in this unit

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study. And. And those are really important and good and

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humbling things to show our kids as well. Oh,

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absolutely. It is so much fun getting to teach our kids. And.

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And you’re right. I mean, if people don’t know and they’re just like, how do

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I do this? How do I incorporate God into everything?

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Start your day out reading your Bible. Spend time in God’s

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word. That’s how you do it. Yeah, there’s. There’s not a secret

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formula. There’s nothing secret to it. Spend time in God’s word.

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Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. And when you have

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Jesus and he is the most important thing to you, it will,

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like you said, it will just flow out of you. It will. And you.

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As I grow closer to the Lord and as I understand him better and

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his love for me and his love for my children and his amazing creation,

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like, you just want to talk about him, you know? And I’m far, far

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from. I’m far from where I was 1020 years

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ago, and I’m far from where I’m going to be in ten or 20 years

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from now, because until the day we die, we’re always going to be growing closer

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to him. We’re always going to be learning more about him. We’re always going to

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be understanding him better. And so it is

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such a. Homeschooling is so fun because you get

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to do that alongside of your kids, like you said. And is that continually putting

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off the acts of the simple nature and putting on the things of God? Right.

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So, like, turning off the radio stations that we used to

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listen to is even a great first start. It’s intentionally making that

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step. No, we’re gonna listen to christian music in the car because that,

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that does it. It pulls us a little bit closer. Like, it’s every choice

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that we are making is either for him or against him. And so,

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like, let’s make those choices that are drawing us in now. And I will

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say, I, I love, love the Bible. Quiet morning times when I can get

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them. As a mom of twins, which we talked about before, there were times

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that it is like, up and going, right? Like the baby screams, you’re up,

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you’re at it. And you don’t get to your bible until nap time at 01:00

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when the toddler’s down and the twins are down. And so just

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filling myself, surrounding everything that we do throughout the day. So I am

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continually being fed truth, whether it’s just telling my

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alexa, like, play praise and worship music while I’m doing the dishes

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or listening to a podcast or whatever, like grabbing those little

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tidbits when I can and then finding time to, like,

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deeper sit and soak in the truth. At other points, that might be a season

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of life, right? But also, if we’re just doing alongside our kids who are learning

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anyway, then we’re getting a lot there as well. But it’s just starting. It’s

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just, it’s being intentional dwelling and being intentional and

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inviting him into everything that we’re doing. Yeah. Yep. Great

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stuff. Let’s take a break. We’ll be right back. Have you tried

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online math program, visit CTCMath.com.

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That’s CTCMath.com.

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today at Apologia.com. We

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are back with Abby. Abby, I know that you are part of the

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made to homeschool community, and a few months ago

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we somehow, I think it was through one of our, a couple of the

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homeschool moms who are part of the community there, introduced us

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to Brandon Beckley, and he and his wife are the ones who started

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me to homeschool. And we have had so much fun getting to know him and

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his wife and just the community and what you all are doing

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there. Talk a little bit about what you’re doing with the made to homeschool community

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and then what it is. So made to homeschool

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was started by Brandon and Brigitte, and I actually got a chance

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to meet them about a year prior to starting this. And some of my other

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homeschool friends, we were working with Brandon on some projects, and we were continually

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expressing like, well, we’re on YouTube because we want to support the community. And he’s

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like, YouTube isn’t a community, it’s a platform. Like, that’s not how that works.

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We’re like, oh, but people need encouragement. We need to support them and all these

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things. And he’s like, you need a different platform. Like, you need something where you

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can, like, really talk and interact and have live

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conversations but not get trolled also, right? And so that’s

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what made the homeschoolers. And that’s actually, like, how it was birthed, too. Him and

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Brigitte had this really big heart that, like, they wanted to be homeschooling

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as well, but they needed to learn and to grow. And so they had questions

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for us, their friends, and they’re like, okay, we’re going to create this platform. You

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guys are going to help us learn how to homeschool, and we’re going to help

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you help others. Yeah. And we’re like, yeah, sign us up. That

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sounds great. And so me, homeschool is really made up of just

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a bunch of homeschool parents. And you’ll recognize faces from YouTube or

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Instagram. We’re all christians. We all agree to the

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statement of faith. And then within there, there’s things like

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chat rooms, like you might find on Facebook, but there’s no trolls in this.

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Like, you can ask genuine questions there. You can join live

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workshops every week. You can join live meetups. I host a meetup

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every first Thursday of the month and I just do a little

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presentation and then we talk about things on there as a group and I ask

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other people questions. And I’m learning from people because I’m in the thick of it,

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too. Like, imposter syndrome hits me all the time because, like, really,

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I’m still learning, too. There’s everything,

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there’s articles, printables, like all kinds of things to help

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homeschool parents homeschool well and intentionally and to get their

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questions asked and to have that support to learn about resources. There’s

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so much there and it’s really just filled with a lot of

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people that want to care and support. And we see that community is

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what people need. Right? Like, we’re seeing that need everywhere. And I’ve

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seen it, too, where I just hosted a homeschool retreat this

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last march, and there were so many moms here in Minnesota. They’re like,

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this is what we want. This is what we need. We need to develop our

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community. And we just got together and we

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just talked and we had some sessions that were actually led by two of the

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ladies at meads of homeschool. I had Katie from life in the mundane and Anna

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from just making it work come be our speakers. And we just got to

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encourage each other and not be sold anything. Like, we had sponsors,

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there were like companies that sent things to be able to flip through and look

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at, but you weren’t being sold anything. You weren’t being pushed

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towards anything. You just got to be with others who are

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like minded and ask genuine questions and feel

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refreshed and encouraged to finish the year strong. And so I’m looking forward to doing

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that again in the fall as well in another part of Minnesota, hopefully,

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because it is so needed. So if you can’t find that locally

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made to, homeschool is a great option for online

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because it is people that genuinely care about you. Yeah. And it

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seems like a very healthy community of people because,

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and I’ve been able to dabble in it a little bit.

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There are Facebook groups and Instagram, you know, pages and stuff

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where. And especially Facebook, where people will ask questions and stuff,

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which is great. I want people to be able to go somewhere where they’ll have

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their questions answered. But you’re not necessarily going to get your

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questions answered from people who actually know what they’re talking about. They’re going to

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answer questions. I mean, some of these answers

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are just so wild. Yeah, wild is a good word. And I’m just

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like, what in the world are you saying to this person? And

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it puts, I think, oftentimes more pressure on these

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moms. That is unnecessary. Whereas the me

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to homeschool community, I think, seems to be a really

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healthy community of parents and

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of parents. It’s a collaboration of styles, too. Right? So, like, we

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have Amy, humility and doxology, who loves her

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classical education, and then you’ve got somebody like

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Christina from rooted home life who leans more

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unschooling. There’s, like, everything in between in

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there. And we all get along. Like, we all support each

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other. And it is such a positive, healthy community where you

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can find someone that kind of matches your style, or

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can. We have found a lot of people with children

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with learning disabilities or struggles. And

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those parents specifically are loving the community

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because it’s a safe place to discuss what’s going on and to

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get genuine answers and not be judged. Telling you that,

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like, no, you need to send them to school for their speech therapy

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because you can’t do it as a parent. Like, no, you’re

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getting a bunch of moms together that can really support you,

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whatever your situation is. Yeah. Yep. It’s awesome. I love it so

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much. We will put links to the made to homeschool community in the

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show notes. You guys definitely check it out. It is a really fun place to

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go. And they, you guys, like, I get the emails, too. And there’s

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always something going on. There’s always some. Some live something or

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other, you know? And so, yeah, it’s. It’s a lot of fun. And you can

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choose, like, which ones you want to be part of and which ones you don’t.

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Absolutely. So, yeah, it’s a great community. I highly

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recommend you guys checking it out. And again, we’ll put notes. We’ll put

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links to that in the show notes. So, Abby, tell us one more time where

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people can find out more about you. And then if you have one last word

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of encouragement, I would love for you to leave our audience with that. Sure.

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Yeah. Family style learning, whether it’s dot or on YouTube

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or on Instagram. And then also bear Hill adventures if you want to learn

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more about teaching your kids about the world and made to homeschool, where we can

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actually chat and interact and get into some of those deep subjects that don’t fit

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the YouTube algorithm. So it’s a really great place

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to be, I guess like my encouragement, I feel like

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there’s so many things. I’ve loved our conversation here. But, you know,

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you well made to homeschool, right? You were

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made to raise your children. And if God has called you

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to homeschool, he will equip you to homeschool. There is support. You are

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not alone. You can find your people. And, and all of

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us here, we just want to be encouraging you and walking alongside of you. So

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allow us to do that, too. Amen. Well, thank you so

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much, Abby, for being with me this week. It has been such a pleasure chatting

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with you and you guys, thank you for listening. We love you so much. We

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are so grateful for you. If you were not on the other side of this

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camera and microphone, there would be no purpose in us being here. So we are

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so grateful for you. We love hearing from you. If you ever want to send

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an email to us, you can always do that by going to our website,

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SchoolhouseRocked.com. sign up for a newsletter and you can always respond to those

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00:22:22,804 –> 00:22:26,628
newsletters. And we will respond to you that the responses,

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they don’t go to, you know, like, what’s the, you know, the,

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like, don’t respond email addresses. That’s not us. We don’t have one of those.

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Like, if you actually just hit reply, it will come straight back to Garritt and

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00:22:37,920 –> 00:22:41,632
myself, and we will respond back to you. So you can respond to

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00:22:41,648 –> 00:22:45,488
us that way and you can sign up for our newsletter at our website, SchoolhouseRocked.com,

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00:22:45,536 –> 00:22:49,096
where you can find everything else Schoolhouse Rocked. And again, if you’ve not left a

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00:22:49,120 –> 00:22:52,560
review for the podcast, we would appreciate it if you would do that. We love

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you guys. Have a great rest of your week, and we will see you back

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here on Monday with another fantastic guest. Bye.

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I had posters on the wall and we created the school at home because that’s

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all I knew. That’s what I thought. School always equals education.

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Education has to equal school. Those two things have to be the same. It can’t

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look any different. I didn’t have friends at homeschooled. I didn’t have any

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exposure to styles of homeschooling. Nothing. And so it was

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just kind of just jumping into and just recreating,

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recreating that. And so over the years, then, as I became exposed to others

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and lots of resources. I was like, oh, this. This can look different. I

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like to say, who are the young adults that you want to put out into

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the world and then reverse engineer that? So I think it’s

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really important for us to know our why. Like, why are you homeschooling?

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Every family is so different. And I remember thinking years ago,

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encountering families who are really into poetry and tea

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time and all this stuff, and I was like, okay, we tried it. It did

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not go well. It just was not a part of our family, and that’s okay.