Everyday Educator - Juggling Act: Managing Multiple Students
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | - Welcome friends to this episode
00:00:06.220 | of the "Everyday Educator" podcast.
00:00:09.140 | I'm your host, Lisa Bailey,
00:00:11.020 | and I'm excited to spend some time with you today
00:00:14.220 | as we encourage one another, learn together,
00:00:17.820 | and ponder the delights and challenges
00:00:20.740 | that make homeschooling the adventure of a lifetime.
00:00:24.300 | Whether you're just considering
00:00:26.640 | this homeschooling possibility or deep
00:00:30.120 | into the daily delight of family learning,
00:00:33.460 | I believe you'll enjoy thinking along with us.
00:00:36.880 | But don't forget, although this online community is awesome,
00:00:41.760 | you'll find even closer support in a local CC community.
00:00:46.760 | So go to classicalconversations.com
00:00:51.120 | and find a community near you today.
00:00:56.440 | Well, listeners, I'm excited to welcome you
00:00:59.160 | to this episode of the "Everyday Educator" podcast.
00:01:03.460 | We are gonna talk today about juggling acts.
00:01:07.600 | Now, I don't mean at the circus,
00:01:10.240 | I mean the kind of juggling acts
00:01:12.280 | that we homeschool parents do every day.
00:01:16.000 | We are juggling our own lives, our own families,
00:01:20.000 | the health of our family, the wellbeing of our family,
00:01:22.960 | our housework, sometimes a part-time job,
00:01:26.980 | all of the education of our kids,
00:01:29.720 | our spouse may be working full-time outside of the home.
00:01:33.340 | You might feel like a juggler,
00:01:36.480 | but what if you have a bunch of children
00:01:40.500 | that you're trying to homeschool?
00:01:42.140 | I remember years ago, my friend Lee looking at me
00:01:46.600 | and saying, "Oh, you just have two girls.
00:01:49.480 | You have a hobby family."
00:01:51.920 | And I was slightly offended.
00:01:53.720 | I didn't feel like it was a hobby.
00:01:56.240 | I felt like they were really my vocation.
00:01:59.920 | But what she meant is that there are additional challenges
00:02:04.720 | that face moms and dads
00:02:07.200 | who are juggling multiple students at home.
00:02:10.120 | And I know that that is the case for some of you,
00:02:13.280 | and we don't want to ignore that.
00:02:14.960 | We don't want to ignore the fact that,
00:02:16.760 | yeah, you may have a kid in foundations
00:02:19.640 | and one or two in foundations and essentials
00:02:22.440 | and some challenge kids as well.
00:02:24.720 | And what's a mom and dad to do?
00:02:27.500 | So I brought with me a dear friend, Denise McClain,
00:02:32.500 | who is a mom of six,
00:02:37.600 | a very experienced classical educator.
00:02:43.480 | And she's gonna give us all the answers
00:02:46.760 | to the juggling act that is our life.
00:02:49.040 | See, she's laughing.
00:02:50.240 | Denise, thank you.
00:02:52.280 | Thank you for being with us today.
00:02:54.740 | - I'm so glad to be here, Lisa.
00:02:57.440 | Thanks for having me.
00:02:58.320 | - This is gonna be a great, enriching conversation.
00:03:02.040 | Every time I talk to you, Denise,
00:03:03.880 | I gain a little nugget of wisdom.
00:03:06.000 | And lots of times I write it down and I think on it
00:03:08.920 | after we get off the call together.
00:03:11.960 | So I know that you are gonna bless the moms and dads
00:03:15.520 | who are listening today,
00:03:17.720 | who just want to, all of us, learn from one another.
00:03:22.160 | And so you have had some experiences
00:03:25.880 | as a longtime homeschool mom
00:03:29.120 | that are gonna benefit some of us.
00:03:31.880 | So let me ask you this.
00:03:33.480 | How long have you been homeschooling
00:03:36.600 | and tell us about those six kids?
00:03:39.320 | - Oh, sure.
00:03:40.680 | The drum roll, we've been going for,
00:03:44.000 | since 2003 is how long we've been homeschooling.
00:03:48.760 | Yes, my babies. - That's awesome.
00:03:51.080 | - My first baby showed up then and she came out
00:03:55.640 | and we already had lesson plans.
00:03:57.640 | - Oh my gosh.
00:03:58.480 | Okay, I love it.
00:03:59.320 | You are counting from the birth of your child.
00:04:02.560 | - Oh yeah.
00:04:03.400 | - Not from where, that's so cool though.
00:04:06.320 | You're not counting from where most people
00:04:08.680 | out in the quote unquote real world
00:04:11.280 | would start talking about schooling.
00:04:13.120 | So you homeschooled from the birth of your child.
00:04:16.880 | I love it.
00:04:17.720 | - We did.
00:04:19.040 | I had the benefit of, my husband and I decided
00:04:22.040 | before we had kids
00:04:24.120 | that we wanted to classically educate our children.
00:04:27.000 | And then eventually we figured out,
00:04:28.560 | well, we're gonna do that through homeschooling.
00:04:30.240 | - Gotcha.
00:04:31.520 | - And so it was interesting to me that I went into it
00:04:34.960 | having this whole notion.
00:04:36.880 | First time mom, all the bells and whistles
00:04:40.080 | that go along with that.
00:04:41.480 | And a mother-in-law that was super complacent
00:04:44.800 | in all of that.
00:04:46.160 | She enabled me quite a bit
00:04:47.720 | to help me accomplish those desires and dreams
00:04:52.560 | to just start out strong in setting up children
00:04:55.760 | who love God and love to learn,
00:04:59.400 | love to be with their family.
00:05:00.640 | - Oh Denise, that's so beautiful.
00:05:02.760 | - Enjoyed that.
00:05:04.120 | - I love that.
00:05:05.200 | So you have six kids.
00:05:08.840 | Tell us about your family.
00:05:11.200 | - All right, so my eldest has graduated
00:05:14.920 | from Classical Conversations a few years back
00:05:17.440 | and she's 21 and newly engaged.
00:05:21.320 | So we're excited about that.
00:05:23.640 | Yes, and my second born graduated a year ago.
00:05:28.320 | She's 19.
00:05:30.080 | And then we have a 16 year old girl,
00:05:33.360 | a 14 year old, a 12 year old, and a nine year old.
00:05:38.000 | - Wow. - All girls.
00:05:39.200 | - All girls. - Just keep going
00:05:40.040 | with the girls.
00:05:40.880 | - Six girls. - All the girls.
00:05:43.080 | - We're gonna have some good conversation, I can tell.
00:05:45.520 | - Yes.
00:05:46.360 | - That's awesome.
00:05:48.720 | So it sounds like you've got not just a big family,
00:05:53.720 | but a spread out family.
00:05:55.600 | So you were still Foundations and Essentials
00:05:59.360 | when you had challenge kiddos too.
00:06:03.240 | - Oh, yes.
00:06:04.080 | Yeah, we have been doing a stint
00:06:07.280 | in Foundations and Essentials for quite some time.
00:06:11.040 | And we've only just seen the light at the end of the tunnel
00:06:14.000 | because my youngest has begun her first year of Essentials.
00:06:18.240 | So we've been counting down.
00:06:20.960 | We did that chart many years ago.
00:06:22.560 | Like how old will everybody be when your last one starts?
00:06:25.840 | Yeah, so it's fun.
00:06:27.680 | We're excited and I'm sad at the same time
00:06:30.520 | because we have thoroughly enjoyed our time
00:06:34.040 | with Foundations and Essentials
00:06:35.800 | and sitting in there all these years,
00:06:37.840 | 10 plus years of being a parent in Essentials.
00:06:41.240 | I've learned something every single time.
00:06:44.720 | It's amazing.
00:06:45.560 | - Do you feel like just when you're beginning
00:06:47.840 | to get the hang of it, it's hard to hang it up?
00:06:50.960 | - Yes, wait a second.
00:06:53.640 | Now I think I understand what's going on 10 years later.
00:06:56.920 | - Yes.
00:06:57.760 | - Okay, so that is the first nugget of encouragement,
00:07:00.480 | family, that you keep learning
00:07:03.840 | and that don't berate yourself for quote unquote
00:07:08.840 | not getting it all right away.
00:07:12.720 | I mean, Denise is super smart and super dedicated.
00:07:17.240 | She'd been doing this 10 years and still learned stuff.
00:07:19.960 | So the encouragement is that you're gonna keep learning
00:07:24.960 | alongside of your kids the whole time.
00:07:27.920 | If you're doing it right, you're still learning.
00:07:31.720 | You haven't stopped learning yet.
00:07:34.400 | So you've got a big family of homeschoolers.
00:07:37.840 | What are some of the blessings
00:07:40.280 | of a big family of homeschoolers?
00:07:42.360 | And then we'll talk about the challenges,
00:07:44.080 | but I wanna hear the good stuff first.
00:07:46.640 | - Well, I laugh at the big family definition
00:07:49.480 | because it really depends on what circles you're in.
00:07:51.920 | I might just be an average size family,
00:07:54.640 | especially the town that we came from
00:07:56.880 | that we raised our girls in the last 15 years,
00:07:59.480 | the average family size was four.
00:08:01.600 | So it was higher than the national average overall.
00:08:05.560 | So it's just funny to me.
00:08:06.920 | But anyway, it's a great size.
00:08:09.960 | We've thoroughly enjoyed it.
00:08:11.440 | Some find it big, especially if you have two.
00:08:14.240 | It took me six for the Lord to finish his work
00:08:19.560 | is what I figured.
00:08:20.640 | - I know, right?
00:08:21.480 | - It took a lot more work for me to-
00:08:23.360 | - You know what?
00:08:24.200 | I'm just curious in his timing.
00:08:25.040 | - I realized that God did a lot more with me
00:08:30.040 | as I homeschooled my children
00:08:32.640 | than I feel like I did with them.
00:08:34.680 | I mean, they came out, they started pretty good
00:08:37.200 | and they ended great.
00:08:38.520 | And I started kind of pitiful and ended pretty good.
00:08:41.720 | And so I think that's really true.
00:08:44.400 | The Lord works on us as parents
00:08:47.840 | while we are homeschooling our kids.
00:08:50.400 | So I love that, that it took you six kids
00:08:53.360 | to get your rough edges marked off.
00:08:56.200 | - Yes, yes.
00:08:57.120 | So it's definitely a grace of the Lord
00:09:00.240 | to give us what he has.
00:09:02.160 | The blessings that we've experienced though is,
00:09:05.200 | I have to say, it's marked mostly with joy and laughter.
00:09:09.080 | That is what we have hoped to have in our home.
00:09:13.800 | And I'm so thankful to be able to say all these years
00:09:16.440 | that we have been able to maintain that joy,
00:09:20.880 | that sheer desire to just enjoy being with one another
00:09:24.640 | and learning alongside each other
00:09:26.800 | and strengthening one another,
00:09:28.080 | sharpening one another as we pursue learning
00:09:32.360 | about who our creator is
00:09:34.880 | and what he has for us to learn about him.
00:09:37.360 | - That's really neat.
00:09:39.000 | I imagine that having six girls,
00:09:43.440 | you had a built-in community, you had a built...
00:09:50.280 | And so did they help each other?
00:09:54.200 | Did they buddy up?
00:09:56.280 | Did you have help?
00:09:57.360 | I'm assuming that your older girls were a big help
00:10:01.120 | with the younger ones when they were coming through.
00:10:04.400 | - Oh, absolutely.
00:10:06.000 | I do, most of the time you'll find me saying
00:10:09.760 | that somewhere around nine years old,
00:10:12.200 | I think is like a magic time for little girls especially.
00:10:16.320 | Of course, I have experience with girls.
00:10:18.080 | They become so helpful.
00:10:20.600 | And by the time we were getting to the last few kids
00:10:24.040 | that we've ended up with,
00:10:25.520 | it's been interesting to see
00:10:27.080 | how those natural mothering skills come into play,
00:10:31.360 | caring skills for one another.
00:10:33.040 | So it's not just go grab mom a diaper,
00:10:36.280 | it's let's sit down and read a book together.
00:10:38.840 | And how can I help you with this puzzle?
00:10:41.880 | Or let's go outside and do this activity together
00:10:45.000 | or do nature sketching
00:10:46.240 | and watching how each other develops in their skillset.
00:10:51.240 | They learn by watching their older siblings.
00:10:55.240 | And then my older ones,
00:10:57.200 | they reinforce what they do know
00:10:59.240 | because they have to explain it to somebody else.
00:11:01.240 | - Right, or help them with their memory work.
00:11:03.680 | I can remember, yeah, my older daughter saying
00:11:07.200 | to my younger daughter, okay, really get this
00:11:10.280 | 'cause you're gonna use it in challenge.
00:11:12.280 | So go ahead and remember this.
00:11:14.600 | Be sure that- - You're gonna want it.
00:11:16.000 | - Yes, that you're gonna want it.
00:11:18.440 | That's really true. - Absolutely.
00:11:20.000 | - That's nice that you had the counsel
00:11:23.360 | of the wiser older sisters to reinforce.
00:11:27.240 | 'Cause sometimes, let's be real,
00:11:28.960 | sometimes our kids take it better from somebody besides us.
00:11:33.960 | I know there were times when my younger daughter
00:11:37.960 | would go to her sister first for advice,
00:11:41.880 | whether she thought I was an old fuddy-duddy
00:11:44.080 | or that I didn't quite understand her the way her sister.
00:11:48.440 | That was beautiful to me though,
00:11:50.720 | because like you said,
00:11:52.960 | it fosters those nurturing skills between the children.
00:11:57.960 | I really like that. - It does, yes.
00:12:02.200 | - I feel like there's a lot of sharing of ideas
00:12:08.160 | and sharing of ways to do things.
00:12:12.360 | I remember my older daughter giving my younger daughter tips
00:12:17.120 | on how to make this spreadsheet or how to fix this timeline
00:12:21.240 | or how to format this thing
00:12:23.280 | or the best way to memorize something.
00:12:25.880 | So that's a beauty of a larger family
00:12:29.880 | is that you've got all different learning styles
00:12:32.520 | and always somebody has something to say
00:12:35.120 | about all the things.
00:12:36.760 | That's kind of nice. - Absolutely.
00:12:38.000 | - And somebody who's always willing
00:12:40.480 | to do memory work with you.
00:12:41.920 | - Oh, yes. - That was very handy.
00:12:45.200 | I'm just really thankful
00:12:47.720 | that they are willing to pour into one another
00:12:50.480 | and they do see it as an advantage
00:12:52.480 | to get to review the memory work time and time again.
00:12:57.120 | It comes up at the dinner table often,
00:12:59.400 | you say one little word
00:13:00.840 | and they bust out into a timeline song, right?
00:13:03.680 | - I know. - And you have to wait.
00:13:05.280 | Sometimes that's how our kids,
00:13:07.160 | after they grow up and go away to college,
00:13:09.600 | they find each other
00:13:10.760 | because of the way they answer a question in class.
00:13:14.000 | I know one of my daughters had a girl wait for her
00:13:16.640 | outside a college classroom.
00:13:18.480 | And she said, when my daughter came out,
00:13:20.520 | she said, "Are you CC?"
00:13:23.320 | Like, "Are you FBI?"
00:13:24.640 | "Are you CC?"
00:13:26.000 | And she could tell by the way
00:13:28.120 | that my daughter had answered a question in class,
00:13:31.160 | these kids are gonna find each other
00:13:32.960 | 'cause that memory work doesn't let you go.
00:13:36.320 | So those are great blessings of a larger family,
00:13:40.120 | but what about some of the challenges, Denise?
00:13:43.120 | - Let's see, challenges.
00:13:45.240 | I would say that scheduling
00:13:48.400 | is definitely something that we have been,
00:13:52.440 | I can't say were because we're still doing it.
00:13:55.440 | Scheduling is definitely one of the most challenging parts
00:13:58.960 | of large family or just multiple levels.
00:14:03.160 | - Okay, do you mean juggling the schoolwork
00:14:06.040 | or juggling life or both?
00:14:08.760 | - Both, oh yes, both.
00:14:10.480 | Because you want to have
00:14:11.880 | some kind of extracurricular sometimes,
00:14:14.960 | whether it be, I call it extracurriculars, not church,
00:14:18.760 | but church activities alone are busy.
00:14:22.080 | And then you have, if you introduce one sport-
00:14:25.040 | - Oh my word, I know.
00:14:26.800 | - Ballet or dance class or something,
00:14:29.320 | it adds a whole nother layer of things
00:14:32.240 | that you have to shift around constantly.
00:14:34.840 | - And if they pick something different,
00:14:37.000 | if they each pick a different thing, that's even crazier.
00:14:41.080 | - And there are so many ways
00:14:42.840 | in which one can arrange how to pick
00:14:45.800 | for all of your children.
00:14:46.760 | I know one mom,
00:14:47.960 | she lets every kid pick a different thing if they want
00:14:52.120 | and lets them land where they are and she manages it.
00:14:54.680 | I don't know how she does it.
00:14:55.520 | - That's really hard.
00:14:56.800 | - That's not a way that I could manage it.
00:14:59.320 | - Absolutely, especially if you live farther
00:15:03.320 | and everybody has to be driven to their activity,
00:15:07.320 | that could be really hard, okay?
00:15:08.800 | So what are some other ways to manage it?
00:15:11.040 | - There's, well, the way that we've enjoyed doing it
00:15:15.960 | is I will let the oldest one pick
00:15:19.520 | what they would like to do
00:15:21.120 | because they've also gone through
00:15:22.720 | what everybody else has picked ahead of them.
00:15:25.080 | And so we all do it as a family
00:15:28.160 | and we try and pick something
00:15:29.600 | that has a large spread for the age range.
00:15:32.520 | We hadn't done sports up until last year.
00:15:37.160 | And so we got into soccer
00:15:39.280 | after having done dance and theater.
00:15:41.880 | So now we're all doing soccer
00:15:43.880 | and it's a homeschool league, thankfully,
00:15:46.320 | but they start at age 10.
00:15:48.040 | So my baby, she couldn't actually do it.
00:15:51.840 | So what did they do?
00:15:52.960 | Because it's a homeschool league.
00:15:54.200 | They said, "Well, she can be our mascot."
00:15:56.200 | She gets to go to all the practices
00:15:58.240 | and do some of the scrimmage games with them,
00:16:00.360 | but she doesn't have a jersey
00:16:01.960 | and she doesn't play on the Saturday games,
00:16:05.040 | but she is included in all of that.
00:16:07.320 | And how wonderful that the community is set up that way,
00:16:10.800 | that they are understanding,
00:16:12.240 | hey, here's the little last one of the family.
00:16:15.840 | We're gonna just fold her in, yes.
00:16:17.560 | And she gets to learn and play with her sisters.
00:16:20.800 | And we all get to enjoy doing that together,
00:16:23.040 | but not being so spread apart.
00:16:25.120 | So thinking outside of the box,
00:16:26.400 | sometimes on those sport things
00:16:28.520 | to see what kind of sports can you be involved in
00:16:31.000 | that do have a spread
00:16:32.640 | and will allow you to enjoy team sports
00:16:35.560 | or some other aspect, whether it be theater or dance.
00:16:38.400 | We've done that a number of times throughout the years
00:16:41.840 | of just switching all together and doing it together
00:16:44.960 | so we can learn and grow and experience it as a family.
00:16:48.640 | - That is actually a really lovely idea, Denise.
00:16:52.200 | With my hobby family of only two girls,
00:16:56.080 | I was able to let them choose.
00:16:58.200 | And blessedly, they mostly picked the same things.
00:17:02.200 | They both were dancers from three years old
00:17:05.760 | up through high school and they played soccer,
00:17:09.320 | but they, well, one played longer than the other,
00:17:12.040 | but they picked, but I actually think
00:17:16.040 | that that's a lovely way to put family first
00:17:20.240 | and these extra activities second,
00:17:23.000 | keeping the perspective of family first is really beautiful.
00:17:27.320 | So Denise, what was your initial experience with CC like?
00:17:32.320 | - Oh, sure.
00:17:36.840 | So my first experience with Classical Conversations
00:17:40.760 | was a year before my daughter, even before we could join,
00:17:45.760 | it wasn't in our town where we lived.
00:17:48.920 | And so I studied it for about a year
00:17:51.120 | and then I heard of a friend that was starting a community.
00:17:54.760 | I went to an information meeting and she says,
00:17:57.480 | "I'm gonna start this community."
00:17:59.160 | And I said, "Well, I need it too.
00:18:01.040 | "And whatever you need me to do,
00:18:02.560 | "I'll do it to help bring this together," right?
00:18:06.320 | So that was my first year tutoring foundations.
00:18:11.320 | And it was my first year for the next 10 years,
00:18:14.680 | that's what I did, is tutor foundations
00:18:17.120 | with babies on the hip all throughout.
00:18:19.960 | 'Cause at that point I only had three girls
00:18:23.120 | and I just kept right on going.
00:18:25.320 | It was second nature at that point.
00:18:27.880 | It wasn't anything challenging or hard
00:18:30.920 | in the sense of going and doing.
00:18:33.360 | I wanted to learn alongside my girls.
00:18:36.440 | It really helped me stay engaged with the memory work.
00:18:39.160 | I got training.
00:18:40.840 | - That's so awesome.
00:18:41.840 | - I'm gonna go to home school.
00:18:43.920 | - So tutoring actually was not an extra burden,
00:18:47.680 | but a help to you at that point.
00:18:50.880 | And so-
00:18:51.720 | - Yes, I was confused about how to employ
00:18:55.520 | the classical model.
00:18:56.920 | So it really helped me put some pieces together
00:19:00.520 | that I was missing on my own.
00:19:02.160 | - That has got to be encouraging.
00:19:04.480 | Okay, listeners, you heard it here.
00:19:07.840 | If you volunteer, if you agree to be a tutor,
00:19:13.840 | you will get so much more out of it than you put into it.
00:19:18.800 | Because like Denise said, you'll get training,
00:19:21.600 | you will be employing the classical model
00:19:24.720 | and you'll have people who will mentor you
00:19:27.280 | as you learn to do that.
00:19:29.280 | And once you know how to do it in community,
00:19:33.240 | you do it naturally at home.
00:19:36.280 | 'Cause that's what I was gonna ask you, Denise.
00:19:38.480 | Did your tutoring experience in those early years
00:19:42.840 | pay dividends as you became the lead learner
00:19:47.440 | in front of six little girls?
00:19:50.080 | - Oh, definitely.
00:19:52.080 | We thoroughly repeated what we did in class.
00:19:57.080 | And so I could take what each of the girls,
00:20:01.040 | they were in different levels, right?
00:20:03.880 | And so they would come home
00:20:05.240 | and they would have three different versions
00:20:06.880 | of the way that they learned stuff in class.
00:20:09.920 | We would come back home together
00:20:12.080 | and we would get to see what each other did.
00:20:14.080 | So then I facilitated another kind of class at home
00:20:18.040 | with the girls and they all would get their turn
00:20:20.760 | of demonstrating how they learned the memory work
00:20:23.960 | and model that for their sisters.
00:20:26.920 | So it was a fun way for me to incorporate
00:20:30.360 | all of them together and not have to sit with each child
00:20:33.480 | individually with their own little play
00:20:35.320 | in of what they were doing,
00:20:36.520 | which is what I had been doing up until that point.
00:20:40.000 | And so it was wonderful to get to do
00:20:43.040 | all of this learning together
00:20:44.680 | and not be siloed into these individual plans.
00:20:49.680 | Yes.
00:20:52.160 | - It strikes me that it is actually a blessing
00:20:56.640 | to have lots of kids
00:20:58.440 | because you've got lots of different learning styles.
00:21:01.480 | And then if they're all in different foundations groups,
00:21:04.880 | you or classes, small groups within your own community,
00:21:09.680 | they've got exposure to lots of different ways
00:21:12.840 | of playing with the memory work
00:21:14.920 | and lots of different memory tools.
00:21:17.280 | And so you've got a bigger pool to pull from
00:21:21.600 | when you've got a bunch of kids.
00:21:24.000 | - We do.
00:21:24.840 | - I suppose that it means
00:21:25.920 | that somebody always has a buddy too.
00:21:28.720 | Always has a buddy to play with,
00:21:30.520 | always has a buddy to practice with,
00:21:32.640 | always have a buddy to mentor them.
00:21:35.920 | - It is funny you say that
00:21:37.000 | because I definitely wanted to have an even number of kids
00:21:42.000 | if there's anything I can do about it.
00:21:44.600 | I grew up with an odd number
00:21:46.240 | and for whatever reason,
00:21:47.440 | there was always two against one, right?
00:21:49.560 | It's somebody who was always left out.
00:21:51.560 | And so the Lord was kind.
00:21:52.960 | And I'm gonna say,
00:21:55.240 | here we are 21 years down the road that I was right.
00:21:58.880 | Even numbers really helps.
00:22:01.280 | - That is so fun.
00:22:02.720 | Well, there's always a pair.
00:22:04.960 | There's always a pair that can go together.
00:22:07.840 | Well, that's really good.
00:22:09.400 | Well, let me ask you this
00:22:10.960 | because I know it's not just,
00:22:14.080 | even though we're talking homeschooling,
00:22:16.760 | the juggling act is not just academically.
00:22:20.360 | What's harder keeping up with multiple kids
00:22:25.080 | physically, emotionally, relationally, or academically?
00:22:30.080 | - Wow, that's heavy.
00:22:34.840 | The, I would say the emotional side slash spiritual
00:22:39.840 | is harder because you want to be present with them
00:22:47.240 | in what they're experiencing,
00:22:48.840 | in what they're seeing from their vantage point, right?
00:22:51.760 | We're experiencing a little bit
00:22:53.840 | of what our heavenly father sees
00:22:55.200 | watching our children grow up
00:22:57.280 | and we're one step removed thinking,
00:22:59.400 | oh, I remember that or I experienced that
00:23:02.240 | or that's not how I experienced it.
00:23:04.600 | But it's interesting to see what they see.
00:23:06.160 | - It's not what I would do, yeah.
00:23:07.960 | - Exactly, it's not exactly what I would do.
00:23:09.520 | But it has been challenging there
00:23:12.480 | because you want to be present with them
00:23:14.120 | and not be ruled by this academic world
00:23:17.800 | that we are also doing.
00:23:19.560 | And so it's so important for us to keep in mind
00:23:23.280 | what the priorities are to remember
00:23:25.920 | to stay present with them,
00:23:28.120 | whether it be a spiritual struggle,
00:23:30.560 | an emotional struggle today or an academic one.
00:23:33.720 | Usually the academics just highlight
00:23:36.160 | what is already brewing, right?
00:23:38.440 | It's just a tool that we use to help flush out
00:23:42.760 | some of those other areas of life
00:23:44.360 | because we are just trying to grow up mature Christians
00:23:48.840 | that will function in a society
00:23:51.240 | and be a blessing to the community around them.
00:23:55.000 | It's not like the academics
00:23:56.600 | is gonna be the only thing that carries them.
00:23:59.360 | - No, and I've heard you say before that
00:24:02.400 | what your goal, you and Brian's goal
00:24:05.880 | was to lean into the resources
00:24:10.000 | but use them to guide good conversations
00:24:13.960 | that would help you shape the character
00:24:17.040 | you wanted your daughters to have.
00:24:19.960 | - That's true, it is.
00:24:21.240 | We focused more on that.
00:24:23.400 | And I did have a community of women,
00:24:26.600 | parents around us in our CC group and in our church
00:24:30.640 | that helped us keep that focus.
00:24:32.640 | It wasn't something that we just came up with
00:24:34.560 | on our own, of course,
00:24:36.280 | but if you keep your focus
00:24:38.520 | on creating that mature Christian person,
00:24:42.520 | that's what we're all striving to do
00:24:44.480 | in this Christian worldview is to generate that,
00:24:48.240 | then we're not going to be as easily distracted
00:24:52.320 | by what needs to go on the transcript
00:24:55.280 | or what college they're gonna go to.
00:24:58.240 | It's more about how are they going,
00:25:00.200 | are they going to persevere
00:25:01.560 | in raising up their own faithful family?
00:25:04.200 | That's what we're trying to accomplish
00:25:06.000 | and not just this more present,
00:25:09.680 | immediate future that they have.
00:25:11.440 | - That is a great, great reminder for all of us.
00:25:14.680 | No matter how many kids we have,
00:25:16.760 | it's a great reminder of the eternal purpose
00:25:21.200 | of what we're doing.
00:25:22.400 | We're not raising kids to have perfect transcripts
00:25:26.520 | or full transcripts or any transcript at all, really.
00:25:30.320 | - Right, right.
00:25:31.280 | - We're raising, I've heard you say before,
00:25:33.480 | beautiful humans that worship God.
00:25:36.600 | - That's our goal, beautiful humans.
00:25:40.840 | - And then realizing that small families,
00:25:45.240 | medium-sized families, big families,
00:25:47.000 | we get really involved with making sure
00:25:51.280 | that all the academics are covered
00:25:53.240 | and that everybody has a buddy to study with
00:25:56.400 | and a mentor and everybody has got a reading
00:26:00.520 | and a discussing buddy.
00:26:02.680 | But then you've helped me see, Denise,
00:26:04.520 | that really the thing that we need to be certain of
00:26:09.120 | is that we are giving every child
00:26:12.360 | the love and the attention that their heart needs
00:26:20.880 | and that their spirit needs.
00:26:23.120 | And yeah, if you figure out a way to do all the school
00:26:27.360 | with all the kids, that's great,
00:26:30.440 | but you also need to find a way to be there
00:26:33.640 | with each child as they grow towards the Lord.
00:26:38.640 | That's really great.
00:26:40.000 | There's lots of details to manage.
00:26:44.200 | When did you realize you needed some help
00:26:47.360 | to manage all the details and what kind of help?
00:26:49.840 | Did you just pair the girls up?
00:26:52.880 | Did you have them studying the same thing,
00:26:57.880 | some of them studying the same things at the same time?
00:27:00.640 | Did you have a schedule?
00:27:02.800 | Did you have a system?
00:27:04.200 | Did you have tutor help?
00:27:05.560 | How did you do it, Denise?
00:27:08.280 | - Oh, well, we did employ plenty of help
00:27:11.440 | 'cause it does take a community to support you
00:27:15.000 | and raise up faithful Christians.
00:27:19.560 | And so- - That's encouraging.
00:27:21.280 | Okay, I want everybody to hear that.
00:27:23.640 | Yes, you don't have to do it all by yourself.
00:27:26.600 | Okay, that's awesome.
00:27:28.080 | Thank you for saying that out loud.
00:27:29.840 | You employed other people to help you with this big task.
00:27:33.840 | Gotcha.
00:27:35.000 | - We did do just friends down the street.
00:27:39.880 | We would pair up and do schedules
00:27:43.440 | that we could do memory work together
00:27:45.760 | or maybe do a strand together.
00:27:48.280 | That's been one thing.
00:27:50.160 | There was a time period early on
00:27:53.200 | when we were trying to juggle all the math struggles
00:27:56.560 | and trying to figure out how do we meet the demands
00:27:59.080 | of what each child needs in all these different curricula.
00:28:02.760 | I had employed the use of a tutor,
00:28:04.960 | my friend, Joni, God bless your soul.
00:28:07.120 | She's helped so many of us get through those years
00:28:10.760 | because trying to meet the needs of each student
00:28:14.000 | and keep consistent on going back and checking the lesson
00:28:18.360 | and grading the lesson
00:28:19.840 | and reviewing the questions that they have.
00:28:22.080 | It's a lot of work for each individual child
00:28:24.720 | at each individual level.
00:28:26.160 | And that can be the case for several subjects
00:28:29.840 | the way that our traditional system has set up.
00:28:32.840 | So I'm thankful that homeschooling does allow you
00:28:35.320 | to adjust what you need,
00:28:38.400 | design it in a way that you can create it
00:28:40.480 | into a one-room schoolhouse.
00:28:42.320 | Joni even did that in the way that she was handling the math.
00:28:45.480 | We got to all see how that was.
00:28:47.240 | And so it was a temporary solution
00:28:50.560 | that several of us used for a time
00:28:52.400 | because we saw how she did that.
00:28:54.600 | And then we figured out, okay,
00:28:55.760 | how can I do that at home too?
00:28:57.880 | Because that's not something necessarily
00:29:00.040 | we all wanna leave the house all the time to go do things,
00:29:03.600 | but you use it as a tool to help sharpen
00:29:06.480 | what you're doing at home.
00:29:07.520 | - You have a mentor yourself.
00:29:09.360 | You're learning a system.
00:29:11.320 | I love that 'cause as parents,
00:29:12.920 | we don't just grow up knowing it all.
00:29:15.360 | So we have to learn.
00:29:16.920 | Good, good.
00:29:18.640 | We are gonna talk,
00:29:20.920 | 'cause I have some questions about math.
00:29:24.240 | Specifically, I wanna talk to you a little bit
00:29:26.440 | about the math map
00:29:27.920 | and how that makes one-room schoolhouse
00:29:30.280 | that you were just talking about more possible.
00:29:32.880 | But I wanna hold that for a minute.
00:29:34.480 | I know that there are-
00:29:36.120 | - Hold off my gushing.
00:29:37.520 | - Well, there are lots of families
00:29:39.480 | that are just getting a toe in the water of the math map.
00:29:43.960 | And I want you to kind of wet our appetite
00:29:48.040 | a little bit more for that
00:29:48.920 | so that we are gonna do that.
00:29:51.480 | So you had some tutors, you had some schedules.
00:29:57.120 | How did you stay connected
00:29:58.560 | to the learning that was happening?
00:30:00.480 | Did you have one-on-one time?
00:30:02.560 | Do you still have one-on-one time with everybody?
00:30:06.000 | And how often do you do that?
00:30:08.160 | And how do you choose what to talk to them about
00:30:12.560 | in this one-on-one time?
00:30:14.880 | - Well, I will say that I used Lees,
00:30:18.480 | which is at the core that has the schedule in it,
00:30:21.560 | my age, right?
00:30:22.760 | And you start out with everybody all together,
00:30:24.960 | and then you just peel off the youngest ones
00:30:27.760 | as they either lose interest
00:30:30.400 | or you've covered what their level is at.
00:30:33.320 | And so it's a review for everybody else.
00:30:35.520 | Start with the all together and then just peel them off.
00:30:38.400 | And I found that to be really helpful
00:30:40.560 | in the number of areas of study for our girls.
00:30:44.160 | And so then it allowed me a few minutes each hour
00:30:48.480 | to finish up with the oldest children
00:30:51.840 | so that they would be able to finish out
00:30:53.920 | or get additional one-on-one attention or two-on-one,
00:30:57.720 | 'cause honestly they were close enough
00:30:59.280 | that I was usually sitting with a couple of kids
00:31:02.440 | right up next to me
00:31:03.840 | as we were going through those essentials years.
00:31:06.200 | And then even in the challenge,
00:31:08.560 | it's just shifted a little bit.
00:31:10.040 | So instead of, while we do start out all together,
00:31:13.880 | we do have certain subjects that I like to do together.
00:31:16.640 | We would like, I like to start out math,
00:31:18.920 | everybody together around the table,
00:31:20.880 | 'cause it doesn't matter what level you're doing,
00:31:22.680 | we're all doing the same topic
00:31:25.240 | and can dig into and hear each other's questions.
00:31:28.600 | Well, then we can do the same thing for reading.
00:31:32.000 | We can do read-alouds of some of the work
00:31:34.680 | that challenge kids are doing
00:31:36.400 | so that the other kids get to experience it
00:31:38.680 | and come to love those stories and hear about them
00:31:41.280 | before they actually read and write about them themselves.
00:31:45.200 | So that's been helpful over the years.
00:31:48.000 | And then we would also set up designated times
00:31:52.480 | for certain kids, for certain subjects.
00:31:55.760 | So you can pick a particular subject
00:31:58.960 | that you wanna concentrate on and grow your family
00:32:01.560 | and say, this year, we're gonna really concentrate
00:32:03.440 | on science and try and dig in deeper to this.
00:32:06.880 | And all the other ones,
00:32:07.720 | you do what you need to do to get through that year,
00:32:10.640 | but then you can really dig in deep on that one subject.
00:32:13.800 | So that was a favorite way.
00:32:15.240 | Another friend had explained to me
00:32:17.200 | that that's how she did it.
00:32:18.680 | I loved that.
00:32:19.520 | - Did you let each girl pick the subject
00:32:22.520 | that they wanted to dive deep with you on?
00:32:24.720 | Or did you guys just,
00:32:26.360 | did everybody dove deep into science in the same year?
00:32:29.480 | Did you do it?
00:32:30.320 | - It was the same subject for the whole family
00:32:32.840 | for that year.
00:32:33.720 | And it was picked by mom
00:32:35.880 | because it was usually an observation
00:32:40.320 | of what I thought we needed to strengthen as a family
00:32:43.800 | or what we needed to prepare,
00:32:45.240 | perhaps the oldest one,
00:32:46.880 | depending on where we were in the transcript years,
00:32:49.920 | the challenge years of what do I wanna ensure
00:32:52.800 | that we hone in on their comprehension and understanding
00:32:56.680 | so that they can continue to learn
00:32:58.320 | because it wasn't like I was gonna teach them everything
00:33:00.760 | they were gonna need to ever learn about this topic.
00:33:03.920 | It was, what do they need to know
00:33:05.760 | so that they will persevere in learning
00:33:08.240 | throughout their lifetime?
00:33:10.520 | - Yeah, that's really true.
00:33:12.000 | That is a hard key for us
00:33:14.360 | who were not classically educated to grab ahold of
00:33:17.840 | is that we're not teaching the exhaustive list
00:33:21.360 | of all the things about every subject.
00:33:24.840 | We are teaching the skills of learning.
00:33:26.800 | I'm teaching my girls,
00:33:28.640 | not everything they'll ever need to know about biology,
00:33:33.120 | but how to learn whatever it is
00:33:36.360 | that they need to learn about biology
00:33:38.520 | even after they leave my home.
00:33:40.920 | - Right, exactly. - I like that.
00:33:42.240 | That's really good.
00:33:43.120 | Did you ever have
00:33:44.480 | like one-on-one times that you had with each girl?
00:33:51.880 | Maybe, I know I had one daughter who,
00:33:56.000 | if I did not sit and do her math with her,
00:33:58.360 | it was probably not gonna happen
00:33:59.760 | 'cause there's always a good reason to move on.
00:34:02.360 | And I had one that I did,
00:34:04.920 | I remember doing foundations geography with her at one point
00:34:09.920 | because she got really flustered
00:34:12.720 | by all the big strange names of African capitals.
00:34:17.200 | And I can remember sitting down
00:34:18.840 | and doing all of chemistry with one
00:34:22.040 | just so that we kept moving forward.
00:34:24.680 | Did you have check-in times or with your girls
00:34:27.960 | or special one-on-ones for subjects
00:34:31.080 | that were either troublesome or delightful for them?
00:34:35.760 | - Absolutely.
00:34:37.600 | Having the schedule written out or on a device,
00:34:42.480 | whatever needs your family has in that area,
00:34:47.480 | it definitely requires planning.
00:34:49.480 | So we would pick specific blocks of time for a specific child
00:34:53.680 | and say, this is gonna be your opportunity to ask questions.
00:34:56.960 | I would really love to hear about this particular subject
00:35:00.520 | or this strand that you're studying and have a check-in.
00:35:04.520 | But if you have other questions that are more pressing,
00:35:06.880 | I would be really glad to chat with you about those.
00:35:09.640 | And so teaching them how to use their time wisely
00:35:13.600 | so they could come forward and ask questions
00:35:16.680 | that are gonna help them persevere in their studies
00:35:19.760 | is really a skill that they have to learn
00:35:22.960 | because I told them, I don't wanna sit here
00:35:25.600 | and figure out whether or not you added something correctly
00:35:29.600 | or multiplied something correctly on your math.
00:35:33.040 | I'd rather spend an hour with you
00:35:34.880 | digging into one problem that really stumped you.
00:35:37.240 | - Yes, good.
00:35:38.080 | - And have fun with that, right?
00:35:39.520 | And so it was teaching them how to use that time effectively
00:35:44.280 | was something that we worked on over time.
00:35:46.720 | - That's really good.
00:35:47.560 | That really trains them to expect that consistency
00:35:51.960 | of time with you and it trains them to use the time well.
00:35:56.840 | I like that, I like that.
00:36:00.440 | You know what I discovered too is that
00:36:04.760 | even as my girls got older, if we had a scheduled time,
00:36:09.120 | if they knew every day at this time,
00:36:13.120 | I'm gonna have mom's full attention.
00:36:15.320 | I'm gonna have mama just to myself
00:36:17.720 | and she's not gonna let any work bother her
00:36:20.640 | or my sister come in, nothing's gonna...
00:36:23.680 | It somehow was comforting to them.
00:36:26.480 | I mean, they could kind of rest in that.
00:36:29.440 | - It is.
00:36:31.280 | They do enjoy having that thing to look forward to,
00:36:35.920 | that time to look forward to.
00:36:37.680 | They can count on it and the Lord willing,
00:36:41.160 | we work out that schedule and each time,
00:36:44.160 | maybe we'll flex if there's something weird in a week,
00:36:48.160 | but they do look for and ask for their time.
00:36:51.600 | It's definitely something that they've leaned into
00:36:55.080 | and appreciate the time that we do spend with them
00:36:58.000 | 'cause my husband and I do it together.
00:37:01.160 | It's not that I'm doing all of this on my own,
00:37:03.720 | not by any sense of the imagination.
00:37:06.480 | So we will pair off and pick different subjects
00:37:09.400 | that we enjoy, especially that we're more gifted in
00:37:12.960 | and bless the children that way by spending that time
00:37:16.240 | and demonstrating the kind of joy that you have
00:37:19.200 | and learning beyond where they are at this point.
00:37:22.080 | - So much good riches in there, you guys.
00:37:24.400 | I mean, she's just talked a lot about a lot of things,
00:37:26.600 | about having the spouse help, not doing it all by yourself
00:37:30.640 | and really focusing in on the relationship you have
00:37:35.040 | with your individual child, giving them something,
00:37:37.960 | some time that they can count on.
00:37:40.680 | And then two, modeling for your child
00:37:44.520 | the skills of lifelong learning.
00:37:46.440 | Let them see you learning with them.
00:37:49.840 | Just let learning be something your family does,
00:37:55.480 | no matter what size your family is.
00:37:58.480 | That's really good.
00:37:59.560 | You have mentioned One Room Schoolhouse a bunch today
00:38:03.480 | in our conversation, and we've talked about
00:38:05.720 | the One Room Schoolhouse and how that's such a goal.
00:38:08.880 | And Leigh, in a lot of the books that Leigh has written,
00:38:12.600 | she talks about how great the One Room Schoolhouse concept
00:38:16.880 | is and how that should be our goal.
00:38:18.960 | Sometimes that's really hard to wrap our modern minds around
00:38:23.200 | that we could all do something together,
00:38:26.200 | a six-year-old and a 10-year-old and a 16-year-old
00:38:29.440 | and a 35-year-old.
00:38:31.680 | And how could we all be getting something
00:38:34.840 | out of this together?
00:38:37.160 | What did you think about the One Room Schoolhouse
00:38:40.080 | when that was first presented to you?
00:38:42.480 | It's funny that you bring that part up in particular.
00:38:47.960 | And I might use that word a lot
00:38:50.080 | just because that was my keyhole that I was missing
00:38:54.240 | that could not open the door
00:38:56.040 | to how to manage homeschooling.
00:38:58.880 | That's what I was most overwhelmed by
00:39:01.400 | when I first was homeschooling.
00:39:03.320 | I was a few years in and I did one cycle with one kid.
00:39:07.560 | And then when the next one started kindergarten,
00:39:09.720 | I started her on cycle one again.
00:39:12.400 | And so I'm doing cycle three over here.
00:39:14.600 | I don't remember which curriculum it was now,
00:39:17.120 | but it's like what we have our cycles
00:39:19.400 | in Classical Conversations, but it was that kind of track.
00:39:22.600 | And I'm thinking, how in the world am I gonna track
00:39:24.520 | two different parts of history and two different sciences
00:39:29.080 | and all this kind of stuff?
00:39:29.960 | So I didn't really understand how to put that together
00:39:32.160 | until we were with our Classical Conversations community
00:39:36.000 | and got the training in there.
00:39:37.160 | So I was amazed at how simple it was
00:39:40.920 | and how it just completely, I was completely obscured
00:39:44.520 | in seeing how to play that out with my three little people
00:39:48.200 | that I had at the time.
00:39:49.280 | - Yes, it does make life easier.
00:39:53.000 | If you can wrap your modern mind around the whole concept,
00:39:59.080 | it does make life easier.
00:40:00.760 | It's not that you're doing history
00:40:03.640 | at three different levels.
00:40:05.200 | It's that your children may be taking it in
00:40:09.040 | in three different ways and to three different degrees,
00:40:12.920 | but you are sharing the same information.
00:40:16.480 | You are all bathing in the same pool of water
00:40:19.720 | and some people are just getting wetter than others, okay?
00:40:22.720 | - I love that analogy.
00:40:25.640 | - So I like that.
00:40:27.240 | And that is the ideal that is attached
00:40:33.480 | to the MathMap now.
00:40:35.880 | The MathMap is the new classical math curriculum
00:40:40.880 | that CC is rolling out
00:40:43.600 | and that some families have begun to use now.
00:40:47.520 | Talk about, I know, Denise,
00:40:48.960 | that you are a big proponent of the MathMap.
00:40:51.880 | So I want you to talk about MathMap
00:40:54.080 | and how it's revolutionizing
00:40:58.200 | your math education at your house.
00:41:01.400 | - Thank you.
00:41:02.240 | Certainly, I am so thankful
00:41:05.160 | at how the concept is put together
00:41:07.440 | that you can have one lesson for mom to teach from
00:41:12.440 | and reach all the children that you have sitting around you.
00:41:16.880 | For my many years of math,
00:41:18.560 | we often, it was easy to just say it,
00:41:21.120 | we had four levels of math going.
00:41:23.400 | Throughout many of our homeschool years
00:41:25.440 | that we've been going through.
00:41:27.080 | And there was never a time in which I had four hours
00:41:30.480 | to dedicate to my children
00:41:33.640 | in order to accomplish their math lesson.
00:41:35.720 | - Okay, let me just--
00:41:36.560 | - So each one needed a separate window of time
00:41:39.960 | just for that one subject.
00:41:40.800 | - Just let me say this for a minute.
00:41:42.120 | That's why a lot of our listeners
00:41:44.080 | are listening to this podcast
00:41:45.680 | because they've got four or five or six or seven children
00:41:49.240 | and everybody needs math
00:41:51.240 | and everybody needs language arts
00:41:53.240 | and everybody needs something different.
00:41:55.160 | And I don't have 14 hours in every day
00:41:59.320 | to do this individually.
00:42:00.720 | What am I supposed to do?
00:42:02.360 | All right, tell us how this works.
00:42:04.760 | - Well, what I have found is that the lesson
00:42:09.840 | does go from a very high level view
00:42:14.160 | of seeing what beauty there is in this particular dimension,
00:42:18.280 | this particular level or week that we're studying in.
00:42:21.520 | And you can go as deep as your children comprehend
00:42:25.960 | and then take them just a little bit farther
00:42:27.960 | to whet their appetite for another time of exposure
00:42:31.600 | that they're gonna get down the road.
00:42:32.880 | But there is such a feast that's offered that we,
00:42:36.680 | I am stretched in what I am learning
00:42:39.440 | and understanding the language of math
00:42:41.760 | in my own understanding.
00:42:43.200 | I love the pages of invention that we get to look over
00:42:46.680 | and see what's familiar and what's unfamiliar.
00:42:49.320 | And that's not a threat
00:42:51.280 | to what we have experienced in the past
00:42:54.720 | is my child, for some reason,
00:42:57.160 | several of my children would get frustrated at the lesson
00:42:59.760 | and thinking I should already know this.
00:43:01.520 | - Yes.
00:43:02.760 | - Right? - Yes.
00:43:03.600 | - And then their emotions start riling up
00:43:06.120 | all over the place and it makes math last two hours.
00:43:10.360 | It's really frustrating, right?
00:43:12.800 | But then with this, I feel like the frustration level
00:43:15.680 | has been significantly dropped
00:43:18.680 | because it is about exploring, discovering, wondering
00:43:23.960 | and fanning that flame about their study
00:43:27.840 | of this particular topic
00:43:29.400 | instead of why don't you know this already?
00:43:32.440 | Why don't you understand this layer
00:43:34.760 | that you should have comprehended two lessons ago?
00:43:38.120 | So it's relieving a lot of pressure, frustration on them
00:43:42.880 | in the way that we are approaching our studies at this point.
00:43:46.080 | - Well, I remember as a child,
00:43:49.040 | there were some math concepts that were hard for me.
00:43:51.680 | And I look back now and I blame the way it was presented.
00:43:56.680 | But for me, there was a lot of blame and shame
00:44:02.600 | connected with math.
00:44:04.040 | And it's not that my parents shamed me
00:44:08.320 | and probably not that my teachers did, but I felt it.
00:44:13.240 | I felt ashamed if I didn't, like you said,
00:44:15.760 | already know something.
00:44:17.400 | And so I love what you said about the math map
00:44:20.800 | that it brings us into a discussion.
00:44:25.800 | It ushers us into wonder
00:44:29.440 | and it's okay for us to observe and to compare
00:44:34.440 | and to attend to things.
00:44:36.800 | The whole point is that we're noticing things,
00:44:39.720 | that the point is thinking and conversation.
00:44:44.720 | - Yes. - And I like it that-
00:44:47.200 | - Reading, a lot of reading.
00:44:50.080 | - Yes, there's a lot of reading.
00:44:51.920 | I love that the connections
00:44:55.360 | sometimes are not made during the lesson,
00:44:59.800 | but later during the day.
00:45:01.680 | Has that happened to you?
00:45:03.600 | - Oh, absolutely.
00:45:04.840 | Their playtime, they are allowed to contemplate
00:45:08.800 | whatever's going through their little brains.
00:45:11.400 | And with their playtime,
00:45:13.680 | the studies have shown that during playtime,
00:45:15.840 | it does allow them to put ideas and concepts together.
00:45:19.720 | And the children are coming back
00:45:21.600 | and my neighbor can attest to this.
00:45:23.800 | Her son is putting ideas together
00:45:25.960 | about the concept of fractions
00:45:28.880 | and relationship of numbers. - Oh, cool.
00:45:31.520 | - And we're seeing that with our girls as well,
00:45:34.080 | of how they're thinking about bigger ideas
00:45:37.240 | and the concept of the idea of what we're talking about
00:45:41.000 | and not getting hung up on the actual numbers
00:45:43.720 | or the computation of numbers.
00:45:46.280 | It's what are the big ideas?
00:45:48.040 | What are the bigger shapes that we're looking at?
00:45:50.520 | How is this a conversation
00:45:52.240 | that has been going on for centuries, right?
00:45:55.440 | And we are getting to jump in the pool at this level
00:45:59.480 | and see what's been happening all around us.
00:46:02.520 | And now we get to learn about it
00:46:04.360 | and start contributing and asking questions.
00:46:06.680 | - That is so cool.
00:46:07.960 | And the cool thing about what you just said is that,
00:46:11.000 | so a six-year-old is having exposure to the same thing
00:46:15.360 | that the 10-year-old is having exposure to.
00:46:18.120 | But that means that when the six-year-old is 10 years old,
00:46:22.520 | he or she is gonna be exposed to those ideas again.
00:46:26.640 | So it's a restful way to learn,
00:46:29.680 | knowing that you're gonna come back to these concepts,
00:46:33.360 | to these ideas over and over again.
00:46:36.560 | And as your understanding deepens,
00:46:41.560 | then the hold it will have on your mind
00:46:44.320 | and your heart and your life will also deepen.
00:46:47.560 | So that's cool.
00:46:50.600 | It's kind of like a feast and we eat a little bit now
00:46:53.880 | and we're gonna eat a little bit next year
00:46:55.800 | and we're gonna eat a little bit the year after that.
00:46:58.080 | And eventually our palates will be really well-developed.
00:47:03.080 | - Eventually.
00:47:03.960 | And that's what I'm counting on.
00:47:06.040 | I can see the fruit of what we've done
00:47:07.920 | in these other subjects.
00:47:09.600 | Latin is one that I have just grown to love
00:47:13.520 | because of the way that it's just been the repetition
00:47:17.360 | of me going back through and starting over with another kid
00:47:20.320 | and doing the foundation's memory work
00:47:22.040 | and seeing the connections as I learned
00:47:24.440 | and taught essentials.
00:47:25.840 | It's been really fascinating.
00:47:28.240 | And so I have that same hope for this conversation in math
00:47:32.080 | that we are all going to grow up and love this together.
00:47:35.840 | I am a person who does love and enjoy math.
00:47:39.480 | I thought physics was the coolest thing ever
00:47:41.560 | when I was in high school.
00:47:42.400 | - My husband loves physics.
00:47:44.720 | - I could not translate that
00:47:46.440 | or explain it to anybody else, right?
00:47:49.120 | And it's hard to do that.
00:47:50.280 | Well, this is giving us the shared common language
00:47:53.680 | that we can use with one another
00:47:55.160 | and converse with one another
00:47:56.560 | and share these tidbits that I've picked up
00:47:59.000 | and share the excitement
00:48:00.640 | so that we can all journey down this conversation together
00:48:04.280 | over the next however many years
00:48:06.360 | we're gonna be doing this.
00:48:07.440 | - That is so cool.
00:48:09.360 | And because you have lots of voices in the conversation,
00:48:13.800 | your conversation is richer and richer every day.
00:48:18.120 | That is so cool.
00:48:19.480 | Yet another blessing of juggling multiple students
00:48:23.680 | is that you have enough voices to make a chorus,
00:48:26.600 | not just a solo or a duet.
00:48:28.840 | That's kind of nice.
00:48:30.320 | I love that.
00:48:31.160 | Okay, Denise, we have to bring it to a close.
00:48:34.000 | Although this has been the best part of my day so far,
00:48:36.680 | I have to tell you.
00:48:38.480 | Let me ask you, if you had one encouraging word to say
00:48:43.480 | to families with lots of students
00:48:47.920 | and to parents who are worried that they're juggling
00:48:52.160 | but they're almost dropping something,
00:48:54.200 | what would you say?
00:48:55.480 | - I would say, know that we've all heard the adage,
00:49:01.400 | the days are long and the years are short.
00:49:05.280 | Keep focused on the point
00:49:07.240 | that you are building worshipers of God
00:49:10.160 | and that this academics,
00:49:12.840 | the academics that you're dealing with
00:49:14.440 | right there in front of you
00:49:15.360 | is such a very temporal time of their life.
00:49:19.120 | It's such a small percentage of their life.
00:49:21.000 | It does set them up for a lot, for many, many years,
00:49:25.000 | but really the goal is to set up really strong,
00:49:28.840 | faithful worshipers of God.
00:49:30.800 | And if your school is impeding on that,
00:49:34.400 | we need to rethink and we have the conversation
00:49:37.280 | with your household about how to repair that.
00:49:40.960 | You're not gonna end up winning or checking all your boxes
00:49:45.480 | if you've left your children's heart behind.
00:49:47.680 | - That is so deeply true.
00:49:51.000 | I appreciate that.
00:49:53.000 | What I hear is that if I'm juggling a lot of balls
00:49:57.240 | and I have to let one drop, it needs to be the academics.
00:50:01.320 | We need to hold those heart balls and those spirit balls
00:50:05.720 | and keep juggling.
00:50:06.880 | Thank you, Denise, for sharing that.
00:50:08.880 | I appreciate you sharing your heart.
00:50:11.400 | This has been awesome.
00:50:13.000 | Families, I know that you have gleaned lots of nuggets
00:50:16.720 | that you're gonna chew on again and again.
00:50:19.880 | If we have families who are listening today
00:50:22.160 | who've thought, "Hmm, what do you mean
00:50:25.040 | "you homeschool classically?"
00:50:26.840 | Or, "What is this classical conversations foundations
00:50:30.560 | "of which you speak?"
00:50:31.720 | And, "How are you guys learning all about things together?"
00:50:36.720 | And, "Could I go actually see a one-room schoolhouse?"
00:50:40.680 | Well, actually you could.
00:50:41.800 | I wanna tell you that you can observe
00:50:46.000 | a classical conversations community day in action
00:50:50.440 | for yourself by visiting an open house.
00:50:54.160 | During an open house, you and your children
00:50:56.320 | will get some hands-on experience
00:50:59.600 | with homeschooling within community.
00:51:02.080 | And, you'll see firsthand
00:51:03.600 | what classical conversations is all about.
00:51:06.640 | So, if you're curious, if you wanna visit,
00:51:09.680 | here's what you do.
00:51:10.680 | Go to classicalconversations.com/events/, okay?
00:51:15.680 | And, you will be able to find an open house near you.
00:51:24.280 | You'll be able to see what Denise has described in action.
00:51:28.560 | So, classicalconversations.com/events/, all right?
00:51:33.560 | Denise, thank you again.
00:51:38.640 | This has been awesome.
00:51:40.680 | Listeners--
00:51:41.520 | - Always a pleasure, thank you.
00:51:43.000 | - I loved it.
00:51:43.960 | Listeners, I will see you next week, all right?
00:51:47.000 | Bye-bye.
00:51:47.840 | (gentle music)
00:51:51.300 | you
00:51:53.360 | [BLANK_AUDIO]