back to indexEveryday Educator - Cultivating a Legacy

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Welcome, friends, to this episode of the Everyday Educator Podcast. 00:00:09.800 |
I'm your host, Lisa Bailey, and I'm excited to spend some time today with you as we learn 00:00:16.360 |
together and just really explore the delights and challenges that make homeschooling the 00:00:24.840 |
Now, whether you are just considering this homeschooling possibility or deep into the daily delight 00:00:32.480 |
of family learning, I think you're going to enjoy thinking along with us. 00:00:36.820 |
But don't forget, although our online community is awesome, you'll find even closer support 00:00:46.280 |
So go to classicalconversations.com and find a community near you today. 00:00:53.760 |
Well, listeners, I'm so excited to welcome you to this episode of Everyday Educator. 00:01:03.660 |
Delise is here, and we have a dear friend, Olivia Walsh, with us, too. 00:01:10.120 |
And we're going to talk about homeschooling, as always, but we're going to talk about it 00:01:16.080 |
in a way that the three of us were just discussing. 00:01:19.180 |
We've never really thought about homeschooling as producing a legacy before. 00:01:26.200 |
So we're going to talk about building a legacy with our homeschooling. 00:01:33.680 |
Olivia, thank you for joining me and Delise today. 00:01:39.800 |
You said that you had never really thought about homeschooling and legacy kind of in the same 00:01:48.300 |
What do you usually think about when you think about legacies? 00:01:53.980 |
So I guess I just don't think about legacies a whole lot. 00:01:57.040 |
But I do think of it, truly, but I do think of it mostly in the sense of passing down a 00:02:06.020 |
But then I kind of also think about it as passing down something, but maybe not all things. 00:02:11.640 |
So I, being a homeschool nerd, I literally went to my Webster dictionary before I came on 00:02:17.960 |
And legacy, in my 1984 copy dictionary, says money, that legacy is money or property bequeathed 00:02:27.340 |
by a will, or that it's something handed down from an ancestor or from the past, like a strong 00:02:34.140 |
So I was thinking of like, you know, when you have this legacy of maybe your dad was a lawyer 00:02:40.540 |
and you're a lawyer, or you have some gift that you give to your community. 00:02:46.420 |
You know, maybe you are some good benefactor, you know, like a family legacy. 00:02:50.640 |
But I don't always think of literal things as being passed down on their own. 00:02:58.620 |
Like, for example, I have a painting, a beautiful painting of my father-in-law from when he was 00:03:04.540 |
a kid, and it's hanging in our living room because I loved it because, you know, it makes 00:03:11.800 |
But I wouldn't necessarily think of that painting as holding any much value to it, unless I told 00:03:18.300 |
my kids, this is your grandfather, and these are the things he stood for. 00:03:25.380 |
Be like, if I had, one thing for me in particular, when I had to sit and think through some of the 00:03:32.060 |
questions you sent over with legacy was it made me think about my maternal grandparents' legacy 00:03:38.440 |
when it comes to how I stay connected with them through gardening. 00:03:42.520 |
Like, I have my grandfather's blackberry vines in my yard, and several of my cousins do, and 00:03:48.220 |
my aunts do, and my parents do, and Iris is in honor of my grandmother. 00:03:53.180 |
But just, I don't want to, like, ramble, ramble the whole time, but I did want to say one other 00:03:58.920 |
thing was that it made me think about how small my perspective on legacy really is, because I 00:04:05.820 |
only think back one or two generations, maybe three. 00:04:10.700 |
I don't think of something that has lasted for generations, like, with a society or culture 00:04:15.680 |
that has a tradition that's passed down that says, hey, this is a piece of our identity. 00:04:20.600 |
So it was a really interesting question that you posed. 00:04:28.460 |
Because a lot of times, I know, for me, legacies tend to be something that you inherit, something 00:04:38.180 |
I know that I have a stone from my great-grandmother's ring that my dad gave me after his grandmother 00:04:49.700 |
I was the daughter who had the most relationship with that great-grandmother, and so I have that. 00:04:59.420 |
I have a, my husband and I have a plant that came from a cutting that was his grandmother's, 00:05:13.340 |
But I love the whole idea of a legacy being part of your family identity, 00:05:21.420 |
or you inheriting a legacy that speaks into your identity. 00:05:31.220 |
Do you have any legacies that are identity-making? 00:05:36.180 |
And I think I love having this conversation with people because I'm starting to realize that 00:05:43.680 |
what I have is maybe more unique than I thought. 00:05:47.960 |
Because I think it's the idea of legacy all the time. 00:05:51.220 |
I mean, like multiple times in a week, usually every day. 00:05:56.340 |
And I realize now that I think about it because it's been planted in me. 00:06:02.960 |
So it very much is a legacy that I'm carrying on. 00:06:12.960 |
Like, I know my husband's family history and the things that we're retaining in his family 00:06:19.560 |
But I also know the things that, when you talk about culture, Olivia, like I know the 00:06:24.700 |
things that six generations back, like I know my whole family line. 00:06:28.740 |
I know the things that generations back, they tried to preserve that I'm still trying to 00:06:35.380 |
And even down to very specific things, like my family has a legacy of hosting and hospitality. 00:06:40.900 |
And my family has, the women have a legacy of sewing. 00:06:45.320 |
And so like, there are all kinds of really fun stories about my grandmother and my great 00:06:49.580 |
grandmother and the things that they made for different people that they sewed for them. 00:06:53.020 |
And I mean, I could go on and on about this, but I do find it so fascinating. 00:06:58.000 |
And I think it has the potential to really shape and inspire your children as a child who was 00:07:05.400 |
fed a very specific type of legacy in the way that they view themselves in the scope of the 00:07:17.420 |
I was having a conversation with my daughters who are grown, who one is getting ready to have 00:07:23.740 |
her first baby and one has two little ones already. 00:07:26.460 |
And we were talking about things in our home that we have received as physical legacies. 00:07:33.200 |
And I was explaining to them that there are going to be some things that it would be important 00:07:40.940 |
And, you know, I mean, they are not really attached to some of the things, the things 00:07:47.260 |
But I stumbled across something really interesting. 00:07:51.500 |
I said, well, let me tell you why this thing is important to me. 00:07:57.460 |
And I told my daughter this whole story about why this piece of furniture had been important 00:08:08.640 |
What little child memories I had and what growing up memories I had. 00:08:16.340 |
And she said, Mama, that makes me want to keep it. 00:08:23.460 |
The story that connected that object to me as your child and as Pawpaw's granddaughter and 00:08:33.480 |
as the great-granddaughter, great-great-granddaughter of a woman I never knew, she said, it's the 00:08:41.100 |
Because she said, now I can identify with that piece. 00:08:44.020 |
And so something you said, Delise, brought that to my mind. 00:08:49.280 |
Because you said you love to hear the stories of how these legacies of hospitality or sewing 00:09:02.220 |
And so I think it's all about the stories that we tell our children that show them how those 00:09:11.940 |
things are intrinsic to who our family has become. 00:09:21.260 |
Olivia, what do you think is the benefit of a legacy? 00:09:26.720 |
Well, I think it benefits you even when you don't necessarily know it. 00:09:31.540 |
Like you said, your daughters are young and you want to give them things. 00:09:34.420 |
I've been in that position as the daughter multiple times. 00:09:37.800 |
And I can tell you, I don't like stuff being brought to my house. 00:09:45.740 |
But when you give me understanding as to why this is actually a richness, you know, this is a good 00:09:56.220 |
I mean, even when you don't understand it, you take it on as you age and your kids grow up. 00:10:02.820 |
The value is just instilled even more and the understanding grows. 00:10:07.400 |
So I was thinking about that it can be beneficial if I see it not just like the burden side of it, 00:10:28.880 |
It's now something that you're picking up, like the idea of passing on the baton or the torch. 00:10:33.600 |
It's now a calling on my life because what does this do for other people? 00:10:44.660 |
Because I think something that's really special about classical education is that we say it is God-centered, 00:10:51.700 |
and all these subjects are really just your whole world, right? 00:10:54.560 |
And you see Christ in the midst of it because he's there with you in the midst of it. 00:10:59.180 |
And so no matter what it is that we are called to do, we do it for the glory of the Lord, right? 00:11:06.280 |
And it's another area that we can now teach our children strength in their faith. 00:11:11.740 |
So I think that it's beneficial to you on a much deeper level than you can comprehend as an 8-year-old kid or a 15-year-old, 00:11:22.600 |
So I think it has great value beyond what we can see. 00:11:34.060 |
Does your mom actually be like, this is who we are? 00:11:38.240 |
Like, did you have family members that were like, hey, don't just come sew with me, 00:11:47.460 |
I can hear your mom's voice, Delisa, saying things like that. 00:11:54.540 |
So I have a really strong line of matriarchs in my family. 00:12:02.300 |
So, like, I know the stories of my grandmother, my great-grandmother, of course, my mother, 00:12:08.480 |
And so people are still telling me really beautiful stories about sewing. 00:12:13.020 |
Like, for example, my grandmother has always been really generous. 00:12:18.760 |
And I will get to the benefit of it, but we'll use it. 00:12:25.280 |
And so when she met her little brother's girlfriend for the first time, 00:12:36.960 |
And then I think that people think that we're drinking and moving crazy. 00:12:41.860 |
We're staying up late, playing cards and loving each other. 00:12:46.900 |
And so they were going to do what they always do, which was go dancing. 00:12:57.240 |
And so they were like, oh, no, what are we going to do? 00:12:59.300 |
Because, you know, this is, I think it was the 50s at that point. 00:13:06.580 |
So my grandmother, knowing that they were planning to go out the next day, 00:13:09.900 |
spent the whole night making her a dress from scratch. 00:13:13.000 |
And when Jean woke up the next morning, she had this dancing dress to go out in. 00:13:17.680 |
And she just couldn't believe, you know, like the generosity of my grandmother's heart 00:13:22.800 |
and the way that she had used the skill that she had. 00:13:25.440 |
But what it does for me and the benefit of knowing some of these different legacies on 00:13:33.300 |
a regular basis is it causes me to want to live up, if that makes sense. 00:13:39.000 |
Because I know about the courage and the strength that the people who raised me and raised the 00:13:46.620 |
people who raised me apply to their lives in these really practical ways, I consider it 00:13:53.700 |
Even if it's just that I know that Hattie Duren, who was my great-grandmother, would 00:13:57.420 |
never have left the house in X way, you know, like I just think about it because I know that 00:14:02.620 |
I'm carrying them and we have very strong genes too. 00:14:05.380 |
So depending on where I am in the United States, if I show up in a town, people know that I'm 00:14:10.320 |
related to these people because I look like them. 00:14:16.440 |
And yeah, it's been empowering to me too, especially, you know, being a parent is difficult. 00:14:23.320 |
And so sometimes we have challenging moments. 00:14:26.200 |
And I think about the legacy of the women who have been leaders in my family over the years 00:14:34.340 |
and the fact that the Lord did those things through them and that he can do it through 00:14:39.040 |
Um, when I'm raising my son and, you know, facing something that I've never faced before, 00:14:50.620 |
It, it, it causes you, it calls you to live up. 00:14:56.600 |
If we have received a legacy of hospitality or a legacy of perseverance or a legacy of leadership 00:15:07.200 |
or a legacy of strength or, and I promise guys, we're going to get to it, a legacy of homeschooling, 00:15:16.940 |
It helps you to live up in those moments that would drag you down. 00:15:28.760 |
I mean, this is not, this is clearly not meant for me, or this is no longer working for us. 00:15:34.240 |
You lean into, you lean into, and you live up to that legacy. 00:15:42.320 |
Now, for me, I don't have a look back legacy of homeschooling. 00:15:51.180 |
Um, when, I don't think, well, I mean, I'm a good bit older than you guys. 00:15:57.260 |
And so when I was little, um, I don't know that homeschooling was a thing. 00:16:03.700 |
I mean, you know, it was a thing on the prairie, but like I tell my kids, I'm not that old. 00:16:10.660 |
I went to public school and my, and my parents never considered, and nobody I knew ever considered 00:16:19.040 |
So I don't have a legacy of home education, but my children do. 00:16:26.320 |
And I know that when we began homeschooling, um, I was very, my husband and I were very intentional 00:16:34.620 |
about establishing what we hoped would be a legacy of a family culture of learning. 00:16:44.980 |
We hoped, especially after the first couple of years, when we thought this is the best 00:16:49.660 |
thing we have ever done in between those moments when we thought this is the hardest thing God 00:16:57.800 |
And, and I hope my children will choose this path, but I know that both of you guys were homeschooled. 00:17:06.980 |
Um, and so I want to know, um, why did your parents choose to homeschool you? 00:17:15.540 |
And did you know what their reason was at the time that you were being homeschooled? 00:17:29.880 |
Um, do you know why your parents picked homeschooling and did you agree with their reason? 00:17:46.140 |
But, um, I know that the reason we were homeschooled really came down more to my mom than my dad. 00:17:52.200 |
My mom had been interested in homeschool for a very long time. 00:17:59.480 |
So she had been married and had her oldest and my dad had been married and had his oldest. 00:18:04.260 |
And then they met and grew the family with me and my, one of my sisters. 00:18:08.040 |
Um, but she had been interested in home education since my brother who is 16 years older than I am. 00:18:17.480 |
But, um, it just wasn't something she could do very well at the time. 00:18:23.320 |
She was a single mom, but I know it had always been at the back of her mind. 00:18:27.240 |
Um, and I think it had a lot to do with the way she wanted the culture around her, her kids. 00:18:33.960 |
I think she just wanted them to be around the right people and have truth spoken to them. 00:18:38.240 |
Like I can, I was thinking back to my mom and I think a big thing for my mom was always just truth. 00:18:45.740 |
I don't know if she necessarily knew exactly what that looked like when she set out and 00:18:52.420 |
But I know that that was a big motivator for her was that she wanted us to learn the truth 00:18:59.420 |
and she wanted us not just like facts, right? 00:19:02.040 |
Not just about where the world came from, but also about the people who were big influences 00:19:11.980 |
And when you're in, let's say a public school setting, you don't have control over who's 00:19:17.940 |
You don't have control over what the peers in their life are saying. 00:19:21.300 |
And I think she saw a lot of, uh, honestly, like a negative impact on, on my brother from 00:19:27.060 |
being around, um, not the truth all the time. 00:19:31.180 |
I mean, it did make a long-term impact on his life. 00:19:33.300 |
Um, but, uh, I, I know that that was important to her and I know that as she home educated 00:19:40.100 |
us, it was, she didn't know how to put it into words. 00:19:43.700 |
That's actually why she started classically educating us. 00:19:46.680 |
Cause we did CC was she, she wanted to show, she wanted to teach us like everything is 00:19:55.600 |
She was like, I know that when we're talking about history, I know we're talking about math 00:20:00.320 |
and I know we're talking about science and I know we're talking about scripture, but how 00:20:09.440 |
And so, uh, I, I was happy to be homeschooled as far as like, was I considered, I had my oldest 00:20:16.200 |
sister was in the public school all the way through graduation. 00:20:18.980 |
So we would go to, you know, plays and different activities at the public school. 00:20:24.400 |
And my mom taught art classes to afterschool students at the public schools at the middle 00:20:31.360 |
So I had spent every week time in the public schools and I didn't, it didn't interest me. 00:20:38.600 |
I didn't want to be there any more than I already was. 00:20:45.740 |
I don't, I don't know what it was like for Delise. 00:20:53.420 |
And like you, Olivia, you know, not being the first child does kind of mean that you get 00:21:00.720 |
Um, so I was the third for, and then we always had a cousin who my mom was homeschooling. 00:21:09.860 |
Interestingly enough, I think she's about to graduate her sixth student from homeschool. 00:21:13.880 |
That's how, how many children do you have to graduate. 00:21:19.800 |
And we have a legacy of education even before, like you said, it didn't used to be a thing 00:21:28.860 |
Um, but I know initially the choice to homeschool was because my oldest brother who was quite 00:21:36.760 |
bright could read early on and the teacher would not allow him to read. 00:21:43.120 |
And so she said, you know, I know, can you please just hand him a book because he knows 00:21:48.600 |
his ABCs and I don't want him to lose his skills or, you know, just, I don't want him to be 00:21:52.900 |
Well, and you shouldn't want him to be disruptive because he's bored. 00:22:04.920 |
And then another one of the reasons, just to be honest, was to, to depart from the statistics, 00:22:13.940 |
And so growing up in the nineties in the South was a challenging time for academics. 00:22:20.460 |
And my parents knew that, and they knew that they wanted to give my brothers and me the 00:22:28.660 |
And so they realized very early on with that example that it might be wise for them to choose 00:22:35.040 |
to homeschool us so that they could maintain our legacy. 00:22:38.140 |
You know, we have all kinds of things that my family's into classical music. 00:22:42.440 |
And so they wanted to, like what you were saying, Olivia, just make sure that the influences 00:22:48.320 |
of my brother's lives and in my life were good influences and that we had more access to truth 00:22:54.680 |
And homeschooling really did afford my family that. 00:22:59.840 |
And I had the choice, but I saw that, you know, my life would have looked really different 00:23:07.140 |
I wanted to do all the extracurriculars and I wanted to work and I wanted to make my 00:23:11.440 |
own schedule, you know, by the time I was graduating and homeschooling is the way to do it. 00:23:18.460 |
I love it that you both can look at your parents' choices and see that they were intentionally 00:23:27.240 |
crafting an educational experience and not just educating your mind, but educating your heart. 00:23:37.380 |
And really impacting who you became and how you thought about things and what weight you 00:23:50.520 |
Like truth was very important to you and choices and freedom and just recognizing that that choice 00:24:00.020 |
that your parent made was perhaps the, either the beginning or the next step and a legacy that 00:24:13.600 |
So I know that both of you are set on home educating your own children. 00:24:30.020 |
It was just, has it just become how you would obviously raise your children? 00:24:35.120 |
Or did you and your husband, husbands have to think, are we going to do this homeschool thing 00:24:44.460 |
For Ian and I, Ian is my husband, for us, well, by the time our oldest started being ready for school, 00:24:51.940 |
I was still working part-time and he works full-time. 00:24:55.520 |
And it wasn't, I don't want to like discourage anyone because that's not it at all. 00:25:00.520 |
Homeschool is very natural for me and homeschool is very natural for my husband. 00:25:05.560 |
There was never a question of, could we do it? 00:25:10.180 |
It was just, that is the default in my brain. 00:25:19.320 |
So the question for us was more like, okay, well, would it benefit us if we sent him to 00:25:26.740 |
And for us, it was like, no, like, you know, we could, but let's just do what we know to do 00:25:33.000 |
best because it is very natural when you've been homeschooled because you just, you just, 00:25:42.760 |
Like, I feel like I'm constantly learning and I'm constantly seeing the world, you know, 00:25:50.220 |
through education and, you know, not getting any credentials for anything I'm learning or 00:25:58.400 |
And so my son is now just living life with me. 00:26:04.580 |
Like, our kids are born and they just start living life with us and they start learning 00:26:12.980 |
Do you think that's the legacy that your mom passed on to you that you just live, you 00:26:19.340 |
just learn as part of the process of living and that a family culture of learning is just 00:26:29.060 |
Do you think that's part of the legacy she passed to you? 00:26:32.100 |
I think it's part of the legacy that they started to build without realizing it. 00:26:40.000 |
So, like, it sounds like Delise has this, this true legacy that is being handed down 00:26:45.860 |
And I'm sure I have stuff like that, but has it always been put into words exactly? 00:26:51.400 |
I don't think so because my mom's still trying to figure it out. 00:26:53.800 |
My dad's figuring stuff out and then getting what I can to pass down. 00:26:58.260 |
But I think it is like, maybe my family does love truth. 00:27:01.820 |
I know they do, like my siblings and my parents, but has it, do I remember my mom saying, you 00:27:22.200 |
And what I say out loud currently is probably building on it. 00:27:26.040 |
But I say that we're seeking to worship God in all we do. 00:27:30.300 |
And for me and my kids and my husband, it's in everything we do, we want to worship God. 00:27:34.140 |
So am I just building onto that legacy without realizing it? 00:27:39.740 |
How do we, you know, how do we keep that momentum? 00:27:45.980 |
I think, I mean, I think we all come to the point where we eventually do see it as something 00:27:55.300 |
we intentionally want to pass on, that we intentionally cherish and want to pass on. 00:28:02.100 |
But maybe like you said, Olivia, not right at first. 00:28:04.820 |
We just are doing this thing that seems right and good to us at first. 00:28:15.660 |
And are you intentionally passing on a legacy when you look at homeschooling Leo? 00:28:26.660 |
I will say the process of making that decision, you know, it was a partnership because, of course, 00:28:39.060 |
He wasn't really exposed to any of the homeschool community. 00:28:43.580 |
And so homeschooling was definitely something for him to wrap his mind around. 00:28:55.920 |
So we could have had more time for him to become convinced. 00:29:10.760 |
It would have been a no-brainer, but something weird happened there. 00:29:16.120 |
And so I prayed a lot about it, but I knew I wanted it personally because I wanted it there 00:29:24.860 |
And I remember how much I loved that my mom was there. 00:29:28.780 |
I was never one of those teenagers who didn't want their mom around. 00:29:34.480 |
And that's why I want her to move across the street from my house. 00:29:38.260 |
And so I hope that my son will feel that way. 00:29:42.000 |
But regardless, I know it's a gift to, like what you're saying, Olivia, to learn as you 00:29:48.220 |
It's just a really special and natural way to live. 00:29:54.520 |
But then as we got to know Leo and as Evan continued to talk with me about just my thoughts 00:30:02.760 |
of classical education and homeschooling and stuff like that, he started to see, we both 00:30:07.720 |
started to see that homeschooling was absolutely the perfect fit for our son because of the way 00:30:15.700 |
And Evan is a very, very bright person who is a textbook case of falling through the cracks. 00:30:28.820 |
I could go on and on by way of just learning as you go, just like homeschoolers do. 00:30:34.800 |
However, in school, his teachers were constantly just telling him, hey, we know you're really 00:30:46.140 |
He could see that the way that they were presenting the information was kind of like usurping the 00:30:50.880 |
And so he just spent his time doing something else. 00:30:55.480 |
And therefore, no one ever pushed him to meet his potential in school. 00:31:01.420 |
And so I don't want that to happen to my son. 00:31:10.060 |
But also, there are a lot of ways you can assess a person. 00:31:12.540 |
So if a test is the only thing they're offering him to assess whether or not he's understood 00:31:22.800 |
So I'm excited about the flexibility that homeschooling affords, but also just the potential to help 00:31:37.920 |
I think I talk to a lot of people about why they chose to homeschool. 00:31:42.400 |
And a lot of us are jealous of the light bulb moments. 00:31:46.980 |
Like I absolutely, that's one of the reasons I chose to homeschool. 00:31:51.120 |
My husband and I really loved being there for the light bulb moments. 00:31:56.440 |
When the understanding dawns and you see them thinking, and also this, and this too. 00:32:15.740 |
If we can pass that on, I wanted to give my children memories of how fun it was to learn 00:32:25.500 |
something new with mama and daddy so that we could all learn it. 00:32:30.460 |
There were things that we learned at the same time, like, you know, aha moments that struck 00:32:36.940 |
me at the same time they struck this child of mine. 00:32:42.900 |
And that is something that they still look back on and say, remember when we figured 00:32:55.940 |
I've heard my girls just tell people, yeah, we read books together. 00:33:03.640 |
That anything that you do because your family did it, that has created an identity for you 00:33:12.920 |
And so I know I am, I'm farther along this road. 00:33:21.020 |
I mean, I'm going to ask you too, but you're not going to have any idea if you can answer 00:33:26.300 |
Like, what is it that you, what kind of legacy do you, are you hoping to create with your children 00:33:38.380 |
Because I've got girls that were homeschooled the whole way and I didn't know what I was 00:33:46.560 |
And so maybe I was like your mom, Olivia, that just said, I want them to appreciate truth and 00:33:53.820 |
I want them to see that everything we learn is of God and from God. 00:34:00.300 |
But I didn't know a lot of that other integration stuff because it's not the way I was taught. 00:34:06.380 |
But I do know that now I hope that I have, through the learning that I did gradually, I hope that I 00:34:17.460 |
put that in them so that it is a legacy of family learning and a thirst and an excitement about 00:34:25.080 |
knowing things and knowing the Lord, I hope I placed that in their hearts. 00:34:30.380 |
And so I hope that I have passed on a legacy that they will consider valuable enough to pass 00:34:40.520 |
So what I want to ask from, you know, I'll ask you first, Elise, how is, what kind of legacy 00:34:51.960 |
And do you hope that one day, you know, 25 years from now, he might homeschool his own child? 00:35:04.120 |
And it makes you speculate because who knows? 00:35:07.900 |
I'm going to choose to answer it just in the realm of homeschool and education. 00:35:12.320 |
And if you want me to go on more than how to talk later. 00:35:17.840 |
So as far as learning is concerned, I, right now, I really want to pass on to him the legacy 00:35:29.660 |
And I don't know if I feel that way because right now I just have one in the womb, you know, 00:35:36.700 |
And I know that that is something that was given to me that he needs because for a firstborn child, 00:35:45.860 |
for like a type A personality, it can be so easy to want to get everything right. 00:35:50.640 |
And I think sometimes that inhibits learning. 00:35:55.780 |
So I really want him to have that legacy because his father has that. 00:36:02.160 |
Like I can see it coming down from the other side as well. 00:36:06.720 |
But he will try and he will try and he's not afraid of failing. 00:36:09.900 |
And so that causes him to accomplish a lot more, I think, than the average person because 00:36:16.960 |
he's willing to try again and to perfect an art, you know, as much as we can as humans. 00:36:23.820 |
So I'm hoping that that grace-filled learning mindset is something that Leo really gets 00:36:30.340 |
I'm also hoping, and this is more from my side of family, that Leo gleans a love of ideas. 00:36:37.500 |
Like I have so many just happy memories of talking with my little brother specifically, but all 00:36:50.100 |
We like to entertain an idea and we like to tease it apart until it's like most dead. 00:36:57.320 |
And I think the love of thinking is, is almost a lost art these days. 00:37:05.340 |
We have a lot of people who, you know, you can self-publish, but people don't necessarily 00:37:16.480 |
And it's actually, I think it's the ability to use your imagination and to apply the things 00:37:30.420 |
Oh, that's a great, what an awesome legacy to leave. 00:37:36.020 |
If he gets those, he will be one lucky little man. 00:37:42.920 |
So what is it that you, that you want to add to the legacy that your, your family gave 00:37:51.140 |
What would you like to add to the legacy of homeschooling? 00:37:54.540 |
I feel like I speak in too much abstract because I listened to Alicia, she's like sewing grace. 00:38:03.940 |
No, but I just, I feel like for me, it genuinely is, I think I said it already, but seeing that 00:38:10.240 |
no matter what we're doing, that we're worshiping God, I really want that to be the heart of what 00:38:16.060 |
Even in the, even in the mistakes, when we mistake, when we make mistakes, either, either one of us 00:38:21.840 |
sins relationally trying to do this school together, or we're not understanding something, to have 00:38:28.480 |
repentance, ask forgiveness, all of that as a form of worship, to actually pray and to actually 00:38:35.120 |
have good fellowship with one another, and then to go and thank God for all that he's done 00:38:39.660 |
and have this life filled with this liturgy of worshiping God. 00:38:44.140 |
And that's, that's the biggest thing about my, my homeschool. 00:38:48.160 |
It's pretty much the reason why I homeschool and why we do what we do, why we learned, why 00:38:52.580 |
we did memory master this year, how, you know, why we did math every single day. 00:38:57.260 |
Like that's, that's why we do it is so that it gives us something we can look at and then 00:39:01.700 |
turn to God and give thanks and see him and see glorifying him in every single little 00:39:07.780 |
So that's kind of the heart of what I'm doing with my kids. 00:39:12.400 |
But if I had to think of a legacy of something that I know I do with them and that I know 00:39:18.460 |
my mom did, and I can see all my grandparents have passed, but I could see looking back was 00:39:23.700 |
the ability to just sit and observe, just to sit and watch and take in and be humble, not 00:39:31.220 |
to say what you think right away, but to just sometimes sit and listen and take it in. 00:39:37.480 |
And be really understanding and open to what's going on around you, not to accept it all 00:39:42.280 |
as truth, but to then just be able to sit and listen humbly and observe. 00:39:47.140 |
I think that that's a really important skill and can help you to love others really well 00:39:53.240 |
when they feel that they can come to you or you can sit and look at creation and pay attention 00:39:57.460 |
to what's really going on or listen to the news and try to listen for what's really happening 00:40:02.240 |
so you can see through stuff that's just being pushed in your face, right? 00:40:05.420 |
So I think being humble, being still, just paying attention to what's going on and listening. 00:40:12.540 |
This has been so refreshing and so encouraging to hear you guys talk about what you see as 00:40:20.740 |
the legacy that was passed to you and what legacy you intend to pass on. 00:40:26.200 |
I can imagine that people may have clicked onto this podcast thinking, okay, they're going 00:40:32.420 |
to talk about how we pass down the love of academics and how we pass down perseverance and hard work 00:40:41.500 |
and those things are great, but the legacy that we want to pass down, the educational legacy that we want to pass down, 00:40:53.980 |
you ladies have highlighted beautiful things, relational things, big idea things, heart things, 00:41:03.180 |
the connection between who we are in Christ with who he calls us to be as we are learning about his world 00:41:15.540 |
and as we're learning about how to live in a family and as we are learning how to live as stewards of the world 00:41:26.000 |
that he has put us in is beautiful and that is what I want to encourage people. 00:41:33.480 |
That's the legacy that you're building, not a college scholarship, not a great job, not an immaculate transcript. 00:41:46.060 |
You are building a family culture of respect and learning and worship and that is a legacy. 00:42:02.240 |
It could have been 15 different conversations and I had to keep pulling my mind back from the bunny trail 00:42:12.160 |
So, so listeners, you just keep listening because maybe we'll come back and talk with Olivia and Delise again 00:42:22.340 |
I just want to remind people that this season of the year is when a lot of our brand new Classical Conversations books come out. 00:42:35.140 |
There's lots of math map books available now in the bookstore. 00:42:44.960 |
There are flashcards that would be an awful lot of fun to play with in the summertime. 00:42:50.760 |
Coming out that will be new and used in community in the fall is monomials. 00:42:57.100 |
And all of this math map work is an awesome way. 00:43:02.260 |
It's a classical presentation of math so that you can learn to worship the God of order as you learn to do computation, 00:43:11.600 |
as you learn to build a good math vocabulary. 00:43:15.680 |
Something that our Challenge 3 students will be using is Reasoning Together Philosophy, 00:43:21.420 |
but it is a really cool book for families to have at home. 00:43:25.880 |
There are excerpts of all kinds of philosophers that you could read, 00:43:29.680 |
short excerpts that you could enjoy with your family and talk about. 00:43:41.280 |
I can't tell you all, but I'll tell you what. 00:43:43.260 |
You can find out what's new by going to classicalconversations.com slash what's new. 00:44:00.460 |
It'll give you something to talk about with your family as you build a legacy.