This Golden Hour

In today’s episode, we get to spend time with Jacquelyn Cornish from Alberta, Canada. Although relatively new to homeschooling, Jacquelyn shares many valuable insights and much wisdom. She stresses the increased quality of life that homeschooling is affording her family, specifically by fostering unrushed mornings, more time outside, and more focus on the kids’ own interests. She loves the flexibility of homeschooling and is learning to be more patient with herself and take breaks when needed. We talked about why loving your kids, getting good sleep, and feeling good are more important than academics or anything else. Jacquelyn helps us consider the challenge of managing and navigating technology and video games in our homeschooling. She emphasizes how crucial it is for homeschooling parents to receive support from their spouses and others, and to take time to fill their bucket in ways that replenish them. One of the greatest highlights from this interview is learning more about dyslexia and what that looks like in the homeschooling setting. Jacquelyn believes that she has been able to help her children more at home with their dyslexia than if they were still in the school. She is pleased to see her kids become more confident and happy and sociable through homeschooling.

This Golden Hour

In today’s episode, we get to spend time with Marie Morphis from Alberta, Canada. After having three of her eventual eight children, Marie left being a police officer in Quebec to explore homeschooling. As a devout believer in God and Jesus Christ, Marie prayed often on her own and with her children to know if they should homeschool and to be guided in their decisions along the journey. They started with a consistent structured morning routine of singing, praying, reading scripture, and writing in their journals. Then they moved on to music and Math and reading the classics and going outside to play and enjoy nature. Marie shares how they were led to write a family mission statement, and how they were invited initially to Taiwan to play 37 concerts there, and eventually traveled to Tahiti, France, California, and Philippines to share their musical talents with the people in those places. Marie stresses the importance of finding joy in homeschooling and playing with your children and having fun with them. She also encourages homeschool mothers and parents to find time for themselves and be replenished to do the important work of homeschooling. 

Education Philosophy and Curriculum
https://tjed.org/
https://www.williamsburgacademy.org/

Books
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families
Drawing On the Powers of Heaven

Music Education
Suzuki Method

This Golden Hour

In today’s episode, we get to spend time with Heather Burton from Alberta, Canada. Heather, prolific writer and mom of nine children with over 25 years of homeschooling experience, was always curious growing up and loved to read and learn. As a young mother, she began to discover how much she loved her kids, and she became protective and wanted to be with them as they experienced and mapped the world. Heather read and studied continuously to know how to best help her children learn and live a full life. After attending many homeschool conferences and learning from friends and mentors, Heather realized that she didn’t have to be what she called “The Queen of Homeschooling,” and didn’t have to maintain so much control for her children to receive the education and development she wanted for them. Heather believes that homeschooling parents need only to love their children enough to change and grow, and to love learning as a family to successfully homeschool.

Connect with Heather
https://www.heatherburton.ca/

 Homeschool Philosophy
Better Late Than Early
Dumbing Us Down
Homeschooling for Excellence
https://tjed.org/

This Golden Hour

In today’s episode, we get to spend time with Kathryn and Mike Parker from southern Alberta, Canada. These veteran homeschool parents share their wisdom about engaging in homeschool communities, reading great books and discussing them as a family, and taking time to nurture yourself as a homeschool parent. They explain how important it is to remember that we make a lot of mistakes in our homeschooling, but that we need not panic or become unduly concerned. The fruits of homeschooling our kids show up, and usually later in the youth years and older. I love how Kathryn and Mike teach us to seek out an “old school” homeschool mom to discover what is best for our children’s learning and development. 

Websites
https://readaloudrevival.com/
https://www.amblesideonline.org/
https://tjed.org/

Books
The Bronze Bow
Littles Britches
Little Men: Life at Plumfield with Jo's Boys
Little House on the Prairie
Farmer Boy
Laddie: A True Blue Story

 Homeschool Philosophy and Curriculum
Better Late Than Early
The Story of the World
Hold On To Your Kids

Screen-Free Audio Player
Yoto Player

This Golden Hour

In today’s episode, we get to hang out with Savannah Penny from New Brunswick, Canada. Savannah knew as a senior in high school that she would homeschool her children because she could tell her education was lacking and that it was dumbing her down. In our conversation, Savannah talked about homeschooling as the best educational option out there, navigating friendships and busy schedules, and preparing kids for an amazing future. In this show we learn a lot about excellent literature and the importance of reading great books and classics.

Connect with Savannah
https://www.classicsallowed.org/

Homeschool Philosophy and Curriculum
https://tjed.org/
Hold On To Your Kids

Screen-Free Audio Player
Yoto Player

Websites
Classics Allowed
https://simplycharlottemason.com/
https://readaloudrevival.com/

Documentary
https://www.thehomeschoolawakening.com/

Books
The Pilgrim's Progress
War and Peace
Summer of the Monkeys
Where the Red Fern Grows
The Hiding Place
The Screwtape Letters
Carry On, Mr. Bowditch

This Golden Hour

In today’s episode, we get to spend time with Brittany Stanford from southern Alberta, Canada. When she was young, Brittany’s family explored educational alternatives and decided to move to Mexico where they did both homeschool and public school. Later, Brittany and her siblings did homeschool and took some classes in the school as a hybrid approach based on subjects they wanted to study in school. Although Brittany always did well in school and in university, she describes feeling disappointed and less competent than she would have anticipated after earning a bachelor’s degree. This caused her to begin reading homeschool literature and she was reminded of the principles of learning she had experienced through her homeschool experience. Covid gave Brittany a good trial run to try homeschooling her children and she especially loved the homeschool community she found where she lives. In our conversation, Brittany emphasized the importance of having a local and online community for support and ideas. She encourages parents to model learning for their children and not to be afraid to make mistakes and fail at times. Brittany reminds us that homeschooling is flexible and customizable.

 Homeschool Philosophy and Curriculum
TJED

 Brit Stanford Books
Brit Stanford

This Golden Hour

In today’s episode, we get to spend time with Naomi and Steve Pedersen who are from Alberta, Canada. Naomi describes being homeschooled and sailing with her family from British Columbia, Canada to American Samoa when she was 11. She was worried about  being behind academically by the time she returned to Canada but found that she was ahead, and she attributes this to the unique educational experiences and exposure she had while travelling. Our conversation quickly moved to talking about how the traditional education system is not set up well to help students become self-actualized and develop self-esteem and confidence, because peers are typically the most common influence in students’ lives. This conversation led to a lengthy discussion about self-actualization, resiliency, and especially social intelligence.

Sir Ken Robinson TED Talk
Do Schools Kill Creativity?

Books and Authors
Brene Brown - https://brenebrown.com/
Atomic Habits

Learning Sites
The Magic School Bus
Khan Academy
IXL
Coursera

Concepts
Social Intelligence

This Golden Hour

In today’s episode, we get to spend time with Chelsea and Andrew Sheer from Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The Sheer’s have been homeschooling for about five years after frustrations with how the schools and teachers were not responding, in their view, to the needs of their children. Their children were concerned with the undesirable sociality that they observed at school, and they feel that better socialization is taught and fostered and modeled in the home. Chelsea started homeschooling by basically doing what she thought was done at school and transferring it home, and she was worried about failing her children academically. But over time she has realized that what matters most is nurturing children to become happy and healthy people, and that her role is to help her children love learning and explore the wonderful world.

This Golden Hour

In today’s episode, we get to spend time with Rachel Hanks from Bountiful, Utah in the United States. Rachel is unique from others I have interviewed so far because she was homeschooled for several years. She described her experience reading tons of books and not realizing how much she was learning at home. But when she went back to school after a few years she wondered what her peers had been doing because she felt like she had been doing nothing at home, yet she was so much further ahead academically. Rachel affirms that because she was homeschooled she was confident to homeschool her own children because she knows it works out well. Although Rachel did not earn a high school diploma, she had no problem entering university and she reminds us that no one cares about a diploma if you have a university degree. Rachel emphasizes the love of learning and that learning is elevated when children are interested and invested in what they learn. She teaches us that curiosity, patience, Internet connection, and reading books in all its forms are the essentials to a successful homeschool.

Alberta School Authority for Homeschooling
School of Hope

 Mark Rober
https://www.crunchlabs.com/

 Books
What Your First Grader Needs to Know

This Golden Hour

In today’s episode, we get to spend time with Amy Bay from Alberta, Canada. In this conversation, Amy covers a number of important homeschool topics, like participating in a homeschool community, finding mentors and outsourcing, field trips, and cultivating healthy family and peer relationships. She encourages homeschool parents to trust their intuition about what to do for their children, especially when they are starting. Loving parents trying to do the best they can for their children matters most. We discuss caring more about good books rather than finding specific curricula, and Amy explains why we don’t need to worry so much about the “should-do’s” of homeschooling and learning.

Homeschool Philosophy and Curriculum
Thomas Jefferson Education

 YouTube Resource
Operation Ouch

This Golden Hour