If public school is all you know, it's natural to try to recreate that experience at home. But guest Sarah Hercules warns us against falling into that trap. Instead, let your family's needs guide your decisions. Flex to what serves your routines and your well being! You don't have to have desks in a row or start lessons at 8 am each morning. (Of course, you can if you want to!) When you get outside the public school box, you have the freedom to truly savor the learning journey with your children and stop worrying about wearing the parent hat or the teacher hat. 

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QUOTABLES 

Janna: "So think of curriculum like an outline. So as long as you're hitting the main points, you're getting the information that your child needs. If you're super creative, then you can take that creativity and expand your outline to include a lot more activities or different ideas. But if you're bare bones getting through the day, you're working full time, and trying to homeschool your children, just having that outline and knowing that this is what we need to accomplish today, it can be very basic."

Sarah: "... there's not a distinction between being a parent and being a teacher because parents teach. That's one of the jobs that we have and that we get to do so, and so if we're mentally separating them, that's because that's what public school does."

Sarah: "But I can be really good at finding out information or I can be really good at finding the perfect YouTube video that's going to help my child with that concept. And that makes me a great teacher."

TIMESTAMPS

02:25 Sarah shares her transition from a public school believer to a homeschooler. 

03:55 How Sarah's attempt to use desks, schedules, worksheets in organized drawers, etc. led to disaster.

05:54 Sarah's epiphany while nursing the baby and reading to the other children on the couch. 

07:17 Managing a classroom requires certain structures that you don't need in a homeschool setting.

08:13 Insights from A Thomas Jefferson Education by Oliver DeMille: Public education grinds everyone into sausage. With homeschooling, our kids don't have to be funneled through the same tube.

09:17 How to homeschool six unique children, some with special needs, while combining them for history and science (and life skills like cooking dinner)! 

13:44 How long homeschooling actually takes and why the school day at home is so much shorter.

15:30 Sarah outlines a typical day.

22:28 Why you don't need to worry about juggling or switching roles. A parent is a teacher. 

24:44 Learning alongside your children takes away a lot of the fear of homeschooling.

26:00 Janna shares how she embraced her role of mom and stopped trying to be a teacher. 

27:57 How to learn better discussion skills so that homeschooling becomes more and more natural. 

34:04 Examples that you really don't need tests, worksheets, and grades. 

SPECIAL SEGMENTS

01:33 Self-care Your Way

A snowshoe retreat in the mountains —without snow — that turned into a Netflix binge.  

21:46 What We’re Reading

The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell

Thanks to show sponsor BookShark. Request a homeschool curriculum catalog or download samples at bookshark.com.