Welcome, friends, to this episode of the Everyday Educator Podcast. I'm your host, Lisa Bailey, and I'm excited to spend time with you today as we encourage one another, learn together, and ponder the delights and challenges that make homeschooling the adventure of a lifetime. Whether you're just considering this homeschooling possibility or deep into the daily delight of family learning, I believe you'll enjoy thinking along with us.

But don't forget, although this online community is awesome, you'll find even closer support in a local CC community. So, go to classicalconversations.com and find a community near you today. Well, listeners, I don't know about you, but it is dark and dreary and hurricane windy where I am today, but the fellowship we have here together is warm and wonderful.

So, I am welcoming you to this podcast. Most of us are almost at the halfway point of our fall semester. That is hard to believe. We have settled into some of our routines. We have gotten our schedules in hand. Our students, for the most part, are in the groove of acquiring knowledge and practicing the classical skills of learning.

And you, as parents, are able to sit back and take a break and think, Now, everything's set. I'm satisfied. I'm completely satisfied with what my children are learning. Or maybe you're not saying that. Maybe you've got just enough time on your hands to start wondering, Is this what I want my kids to be learning?

Is this all that I want my kids to be learning? Are we learning the right stuff? Is my emphasis on the right things? Well, today, I have two perfect guests to help us explore those questions and maybe find some answers. I have with me Kelly Wilt and Brittany Lewis.

Ladies, welcome. Thanks, Lisa. It's such a joy to be able to record today with you. And yes, it's a little gray and cloudy here as well, but I'm looking forward to some warm, sunny conversation. Excellent. Brittany, I invited you because you are an upper challenge tutor and you have shepherded children, your own and those that you feel like are yours through your community, through the end of those challenge years.

And Kelly has spent a lot of time working with young mamas and young daddies as they get their kids off on the journey of classical learning. So I sort of feel like you ladies are going to be able to help me kind of shoot the gamut of all the questions that we might have.

So I'm glad that you're here with me. You have both homeschooled and directed for lots of years. So I want you guys to think back when you talk to families who are beginning the homeschool journey and some of those start their journey when their kids are young. But but I've had lots of friends and lots of students in my challenge classes who have begun the homeschooling journey at high school or even into the high school years.

So when these families are just starting out, what do they mention wanting their kids to learn? What comes first on the list usually? And Kelly, I'll let you start first. I really wanted you to talk to me about young families that are just jumping in. Absolutely. So most of the young families that I have come across in the years that we have participated in classical conversations come to CC from one of two places.

Either they have looked at their past education and thought, well, I don't want to duplicate that for my kids. Or they are being proactive in choosing something new and different based on the priorities that they've already set for themselves in their own family. They've been proactive about thinking about what are the things that we want to be important to our children?

How can we be more involved in rearing them with Christ-centered hearts and with eyes to live for Him in this world? And so when those parents are coming into the homeschooling journey, some may have, unfortunately, I fell into this category when we chose homeschooling, they may have the mindset of, we're going to be homeschoolers who exemplify excellence academically.

And that will be our distinction in this world. You know, our children will be lawyers by the time they turn six or they will be surgeons at 12 or, you know, things like that. They'll win all of the spelling bees. Right, right. My kids will read before any other child and be able to do multiplication in their head and all that stuff.

Exactly. And that will be our testimony in the world that we like Christ simply because we pursue academic excellence. But there are other families wiser than I was at the beginning of this journey who see homeschooling as a ministry. They see it as a way to emulate Christ in the lives of their children on a daily basis.

And in retrospect, looking back, I wish that my mindset had been more in that camp than in the other because I think it would have established a better pattern at the beginning of our journey than we did. But hindsight is 20-20. And so it's good for us to talk about this because as families are coming into homeschooling, it definitely is in a different place now than it was in 2009 when our family first began.

What about you, Brittany? Um, I, I resonate that what you have said is resonates with me too. I think I tried, um, when we were first beginning, because I'd actually taught in a classical Christian school. I tried to be a private school at home and I knew I didn't want, I'm thankful for the things I did receive from my public school, but I knew I wanted something better and richer and Christ-centered for my children.

I also knew that I wanted it to be academically excellent. And I think I'm thankful for what I've learned from CeCe and homeschooling, um, that there's a human, gracious, kind way to do that with my kids instead of, you know, boiling them in the mother's milk, like, like the Bible says not to do.

Taking something great, that's good for you. And then just, you know, making it really, really, really strong for our children. Um, I've had families join us in upper challenge classes though, who have just looked at what their kids are getting and realized that's not at all what they wanted.

And so they've, they've come to us, some, some of them for refuge. I know lots of students have, have told me that they are, they were tired of being constantly measured and numbered in the schools. And they, and they also were tired of being constantly measured and assessed by their peers in not so kind ways, socially and academically.

And, um, that was, I think took an emotional toll on them too. So we've had it, I've seen a, a wide range of people, um, especially post 2020, when people sort of woke up to what they were getting from their local schools and thought, I'm not sure this is what I want for my kids.

But I do talk to lots of, lots of my friends who have young children who were just starting out. They have the benefit, some of them of having families ahead of them in the journey. Like I didn't really know anyone who was homeschooling at the beginning. My journey. And I never heard of it, but they've seen, um, families I know have, have gotten to know children that had this kind of education and they thought, oh, what is that?

I think I want that for my kids. So that's a really fun, exciting, um, part of, I think the classical Christian renewal that's going on and CC has had a huge impact on that with lots of families, um, that want this kind of education for their kids and this kind of community for their kids too.

And for themselves. I think, I think you're right. Um, I know we, we found classical conversations in 2004. I know that really dates me 20 years ago. My kids were in elementary school 20 years ago. Um, and we had been homeschooling for a number of years. My oldest, um, was 10 when we found CC.

So we had done homeschooling for a long time. And I will be honest, um, we had at best a mixture of purposes for homeschooling our kids. Um, I really did want excellent academics, um, and I wanted the ability to nurture our family faith into the lives of my little girls.

I wanted to introduce them to Jesus and I wanted them to see him, um, in everything they did. I wanted them to see him in the academics, but I know that I started off really excited about, um, being able to teach them at their own pace and have them learn a lot of things.

And, and, and both of you were right. Um, we have learned so much over our years, what the beauty of a classical Christian education really is, um, seeing God in everything and really making it our first priority to pursue him and to know him. Um, and so that is really beautiful.

I love what you said, Brittany, um, about ministering to families who've come out of other types of education, feeling battered, um, and bereft and just like they are not being loved and nurtured that they're being measured like products and assessed, um, and they just need a refuge. They're tired of being a product.

And so how is it that classical education can pursue a different kind of education? What is it that we are helping our children learn? You know, I think, uh, when, when I, when I reflect on our family's home education journey, I think I think I came into this journey thinking there were certain things that I could measure as indicators of our success, um, because I am a former public school teacher.

And so I thought I could measure our success by things that were quantifiable. Um, when my kids were little, I could say they know all of their letters of the alphabet. They know all of their sounds, they know all of their numbers. And there was a sense of satisfaction in measuring those things that were, um, enumerated, I guess.

Yes, they were quantifiable. And so if someone who had chosen a different education path asked me, you know, how do you know you're doing this? Well, I could rattle off a list of statistics that made me feel that we had been successful. However, I think a differentiator for classical education is that we are not only training minds, but we are cultivating hearts.

And so, you know, when I, that, that is infinitely more difficult to measure, right? Whether or not our children are, are, you know, reaching for those things, which are true and good and beautiful. But I think through our classical, um, methodologies and the pedagogy that we very lovingly present and community for our families, I think we are encouraging families to aspire to something different than a quantifiable statistic.

And that to me is, that makes us a differentiator in this world because our children are more than products to be produced. They are souls to be nurtured. And that, I think, is one thing that is outstanding, um, for classical education and for classical conversations. Yeah, you're right. That does set us apart.

It definitely sets us apart. And I was talking to my husband, um, before I talked to you guys this morning, I was talking to my husband about this whole idea, um, you know, that we tend to, as homeschoolers, just like every other parent, we tend to, in times of stress, especially, um, harken back to those things that you, like you said, that we can measure, that we can quantify.

I know I'm doing a good job because my child knows X number of math facts or can read on this level or, um, knows all of these places, can locate all these places on a map. Um, I said, but you know, we really, really, really want to nurture their hearts and we want to grow them in the fruit of the spirit and that's harder to measure.

And he said to me, but there are ways to measure those things that are important to us. Brittany, do you agree with that? Are there ways that we can measure those things that we claim are most important to us? I think so. So, I mean, I think that's the benefit of being in community and the benefit of knowing our children and being able to set goals and, and look at progress.

It may not be like a quantifiable, you know, my child is 96% better reader than last year or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But, um, you can see progress and that's hard. That's hard for a child to judge themselves. It's hard for a high school student to judge themselves. Um, sometimes it's hard for a teacher like a mom or a dad to, to, to judge themselves, but, um, to be able to assess growth in compassion and in self-discipline, um, even like a heart for service in patience and being quick to repent, you know, in joyfulness.

I mean, like there's, there are things that we can, it may not look like a graph or something. Yes. Yes. But there are unseen things, you know, that we can see progress of a child or us on our journey to become more Christ-like. I, I think that we definitely are able as parents who spend all day, every day with our children, we are able to see progress in those quote unquote unseen things, in the quality of mercy that our children offer to their siblings or to people they don't know, um, and the amount of grace they extend to others.

Like you said, in their willingness to serve others in their self-discipline. So how do we, how do we communicate to our children that those values are important? I mean, they know that, that, um, reading is important because we make them do that and we assess them and we tell them, oh, that's great.

And we spend a lot of time teaching them math concepts or showing them how to, um, work a geometry or a logic proof. So they know those things are important. How do we show them that the growth they are exhibiting in the fruits of the spirit are important? Lisa, I think the answer to that question is Deuteronomy 6, 7.

Um, thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house and when thou walkest by the way and when thou liest down and when thou thou risest up. We have to, as families talk about those things that are important to us.

Um, we can't say flippantly, you know, Christ is a priority in our education and not talk about him, how we see him in the world around us, how we interact with others to honor and glorify him, how we strive to become more like him. Um, not only in what we do, but the type of people that we strive to be.

Um, and so I think for, you know, a lot of us, we, we expect things, but we don't inspect what we expect. Um, we don't make it a verbal priority. Um, and when we tell our children, you know, be like Jesus, but we, but we don't talk specifically about how we see him in this world, how we can interact like him in this world.

We're not equipping them with the skills that they need to pursue him wholeheartedly, not only in their education, but even afterward. And that's a shame because as homeschoolers, you know, if you think about a quantifiable statistic, we have a greater percentage of time to have those conversations with our children than families who may choose an alternative education route where children are away for eight to 12 hours a day out of the home.

And so, you know, unfortunately, you know, unfortunately or fortunately, our children will see us, um, they'll see us fail, they will see us succeed. And so in order to model for them, um, how to be like Christ, um, you know, talking about those things consistently and thoroughly is one of the ways that we can do that.

And fortunately homeschooling provides us with the time and the opportunity to do that. Um, I know when we first came into homeschooling, a popular saying was, heaven or Harvard, what do you choose? And so I, you know, there were a faction of people who say, we're only striving for heaven and it doesn't matter if my child can't, you know, they can't identify any numbers because, you know, that's not our goal.

And we know that that's not reasonable. That's not quite it. Right. That can't be our testimony either. Um, so, you know, as homeschoolers, I think we have to be, we have to be verbally intentional about those things that we want our children to, to see and the things that we want them to emulate and, you know, virtue training, thinking about how we want our children to pursue virtue, to pursue what is, what is good and true and beautiful has to be something that we lead through our conversations with our families.

I love that. Okay. Y'all, you need to go somewhere, write down, inspect what you expect because that's awesome. And that's a really pithy way of reminding ourselves that we set the example. And like you said, we need to talk about it. We need to act it out in front of our kids.

They are looking to mold and measure their lives by what, by the example that you set. So what, how are you spending your time and your resources that will tell your children what's really important to you? That's really good. Brittany, I want to ask you, do you think, cause you've had little children and you've had older children and you tutor a lot of older children.

Is there a difference between what we think is important for little kids to learn and what we want older kids to learn? Like in high school, does the emphasis for parents change? What's been your experience? I think so. I mean, I think once our kids hit high school, we sort of, everything gets really real for us.

You know, um, one of, one of my favorite quotes from recent years has been, um, the day you plant the seed is not the day you eat the fruit. And I think sometimes at the end of our homeschooling journey, um, we're quick to want to inspect the harvest. We want to see the harvest right now and we want to measure it and see how we did.

Um, and that can feel like a lot of pressure on, on students who are also trying to figure out what is my calling in life and what should I do next? And what is, what is the next step in my journey of this lifelong education? Um, but I think, I think there's, there's so much that we are still growing in as students are beginning their next steps.

Sometimes parents, because we think, okay, well, this is the end of their education. It's really their beginning when they're graduating and, and their beginning of, of living out on their own, what you have sown into them. Um, but it's hard when they're little as we're going from day to day, especially this time in the semester, when you can kind of really get down in the weeds and think, what did I do today?

Was I successful today? And that faithful planting of seeds sometimes is being done without, you know, you've, you've got to, you want to, an eternal perspective. You want to keep your eye on seeking the kingdom first, but we also get down in the weeds of, can my child read yet?

Or, or can they write, can they calculate the way that I want them to? But I also see a shift. Um, and, and I think our challenge guides are one really great encouragement, um, because they talk right at the beginning, all of our challenge guides talk about how we're pursuing knowledge, wisdom, and virtue.

And you start to really want to see those things played out in your children's lives. I think our, we are concerned about them being equipped for their next steps, whether they're called to college or other types of vocations, but we also want to see, um, them growing in as a human being.

And I think this kind of education actually is a human way to learn and a human way to grow up a child. Um, and by God's grace, of course, I mean, you, I think early on in my, um, educational career with my student, my kids at home, um, I really thought, I think I had this unspoken bargain with the Lord that if I do these things, they will turn out a certain way.

And I know for me, depending on the child, um, I might've felt, um, I might've doubted myself as towards the end of the, of the high school years, because sometimes my eyes were shifted to, to more worldly goals than, than eternal goals. And I think, I don't know, that's the value of community to have wisdom, um, to remind each other and to have friends that are going to remind each other of, of the path we are pursuing and the goals.

I mean, I know my husband has reminded me time and time again, when, when I was distracted by a beautiful vision of a, of a homeschool blogger, um, or someone I thought I understood in community where I saw a kid really excelling, but my kid was really struggling, you know, he's always reminded me like to keep first things first and to seek to assess, assess in a way that the Lord wants us to assess.

And that's been something that also the challenge program has helped remind me of not loading up the kid with too many expectations all at once or too much assessment all at once, you know, thinking about that really human way of, I see you doing this well, and I, I see this place for you to grow in.

So I think those, those questions are different than when I first began is did, did we do our reading today? Check. Yes. Did we do our math today? Check. Later on, I'm going, how is my child growing? You know, how is she interacting with her peers? How is she, um, devout in her own devotions with the Lord?

How is she growing in that? How is she growing in her understanding of, of who she is as a child of the King? You know, how is she, um, how am I encouraging her to continue to hone her, these skills of communicating to others in a way that is, um, winsome and persuasive and powerful, you know, how am I helping her with those kinds of things?

How are we progressing in perseverance and math? You know, these are the types of questions we're asking at the end that I don't think I was, I just, I was just trying to keep everybody alive. Keep the kids, you know, getting along and, and trying to be a good, a good person to imitate, but yeah, and failing, you know, I also think it's easier, you know, at the beginning, I mean, we do have to teach people to read, you know, and we do, do have to teach people how to take care of the pets and the family and their own rooms and their own bodies.

And we do need to teach people to recognize numbers and to count change and to read a calendar and to tell time. There are all those things. And we do teach our children to love one another and to be kind, um, and to love Jesus and to say prayers.

But you're right when our kids are older and you're right, Brittany, the challenge guides and the challenge curriculum helps us as parents, um, move our students to asking the bigger, deeper questions. Who is God and who am I in God's economy? And what does God call me to do as a virtuous human?

And what is more important? And so we can teach virtue and character sometimes a little more intentionally after the basics of education have been established. I can see that. Lisa, can I chime in too? As Brittany was talking about seeds, my, I was drawn to the windowsill in our kitchen.

Our daughter is in challenge two right now. And as part of an experiment, she's had to plant some beans into cups of dirt and she has been faithful to water them and to set them in a sunny location. And we've delighted in watching these beans sprout over the last few weeks.

And, um, you know, as we've watched the beans, I've paid close attention to how they have, how their, their form has changed, how they've gotten taller. There are things that I can see almost like when we talk about things that are quantifiable, you know, um, when we think about our children's education, we can, we can be able, we can measure that they know, you know, the, the letters of the alphabet, they know phonemic sounds, they know mathematical facts, but there is also a portion of that plant that is unseen, a portion that is under the soil, the roots that help that plant to receive nutrition and help it to be able to grow.

And so, you know, as, as Brittany was talking, I kept thinking about how, when our children are younger, when they're in foundations and when they're in essentials, we have see a lot of that upward growth because they're memorizing facts in foundations. They're beginning to break apart the, the parts of the English language in essentials.

And then they, they continue to grow through challenge. Now we'll say this, her plants, I think at this point might have topped out as far as upward growth is concerned because the one cup is looking a little whoopy. But I know that the roots, the strength of the roots continues to be fortified as that little plant grows.

And it reminds me a lot of our challenge, like what you were saying, how those questions are asked that our students become very richly rooted in their faith. And that gives them strength to continue to grow upward in those things that are quantifiable because the parts that are more difficult to discern for us as parents, the inward parts, the hidden parts are still continuing to be formed.

And I just looked over and I just, I'm praising the Lord for that lovely little metaphor, because now I won't see her beans as something that need to be moved and dusted around. I'll see them as a reflection of what has happened, you know, in our family's education journey.

But there are parts that are easy to see, there are parts that are not quite as easy to discern, but are infinitely as important, if not more so than what we can see and measure. That's really, that's a great way to look at that. And, you know, if virtue, inculcating virtue in our children is important, planting the seeds of virtue in our young kids is very important.

But here's the deal, they will grow according to our nurture of them. And so if you want your children to be merciful or joyful or patient or kind, we need to be sure that what we do with our kids every day is in nurturing those virtues, as well as the memory pegs of knowledge that we're, that we're beating in.

You guys, I knew that you were the people to talk about this. You are helping us sort through what's really important. Let me ask you this. And you guys, maybe you have done this as homeschoolers yourselves, or maybe you can help us think through this, how can parents craft a family mission or a family homeschool plan that truly elevates what's most important to them?

Have you got a plan like that? Did you, did you craft a family mission, Kelly, when you started out with your kids? Oh, Lisa, I wish that I could say yes. I do now, you know, now where we are in the journey, I wish that at that point, I had the foresight to do that.

You know, I think we're a lot more vocal about those types of things. Now, I think like, like Brittany said, it was all about survival. Keeping all the children alive and everybody is, you know, reading. That's right. You know, we did not measure our days successfully as we do with the Scribblers at Home curriculum.

You know, if we accomplished certain things during the day, we were successful. Oh, how I wish I'd had that in my hands when I was a young mama. But, you know, I think that if families are going to craft a homeschool plan, then they need to really think about what are the things that are most important.

And there needs to be conversation about that. And as you were discussing that within your family, take care not to be swayed to things that others value. Your family does not. You know, when Brittany mentioned, you know, being, being derailed by a blogger who has wonderful pictures or who has great ideas.

And, you know, I think as a family, individual families are exactly that. They are individual. And what may be a priority for our family may not be a priority for another family, even though we share the same love of the Lord and we want to use the same tool, classical education to achieve a goal.

And so, you know, I think having a conversation about what is the, what are the spiritually important things that we need to express in our children's education? What are the emotional things, the relational things? What, and I'm intentionally saving this for last. What are the academic things? And identifying those first and writing a vision statement about how those things will be accomplished is really important because you have to cast the vision.

It is better to cast the vision first before undertaking a task than to shoot an arrow and then draw a target around it. Because you, you know, nine times out of 10, maybe even greater than that, you are not going to hit what you wanted to aim for in the first place.

And so I think making that plan and doing this, you know, if you're a mom listening to this or a dad or, you know, whomever, have that conversation with your kids so they can hear you say, this is of importance to our family and making that something that you verbalize intentionally is super helpful.

I can remember when my children were little, oh, we would start doing difficult things and they would begin to whine. Oh, mom, do we have to do this? And just in a moment of desperation, one day I told them, Wilt, that's my last name is Wilt. Wilt's don't whine, we do things.

And it is hilarious how that has become the catchphrase in our family for when we do difficult things. You know, I'll just look at them and I'll go, I know, Wilt's don't whine, we do things. And I'm telling you, families listening to this, if you verbalize those priorities, your children will take that in and it will become a fully formed part of who they are.

And that type of, you know, planning for what do we want in our homeschool starts coming from your lips into the ears of your children who listen and take that in to become a part of themselves. That's great, Kelly. That is great. Brittany, what would you add to that?

Or what have you done? How do you, how would you encourage families to craft a mission statement that allows them to keep what's most important to them primary in what they do with their days? I think, um, I agree with what Kelly said. I, I did not have one of these either when we were first starting out, but I think, um, through prayer and conversation with your spouse, if you're married, uh, choosing a vision statement and then thinking about where each of your children are in their journey, um, in their spiritual journey, their relationship journey and their academic journey and setting some goals for them and maybe even per semester might be helpful so that you can not wait till the very end of the year to kind of review how you were doing that can help you keep first things first.

Um, and I know, you know, the Bible is so good about Christ himself reminded us to seek first the kingdom and all these things will be given to you. And that's something that's been in my mind. Um, I guess for a while now, like what, what is it that we are doing that is seeking first the kingdom and how can we train up our children to love the things that they ought to love?

And I think the mission statement and specific goals for our kids to grow in every area is really helpful. That can be a helpful way to keep our eyes on the prize. And then ultimately we need to keep submitting ourselves to the Lord and to, um, his word, which is a great mirror for us and often a, a sword that divides us, you know, um, to keep our eyes on Christ and our own cup filled up with him so that we can pursue these things with our children by modeling them, um, by continuing to not lose heart when things are hard and directing them back to the goals that are most important each day.

And then, um, just relying on him to, to help us be gracious parents that can model repentance and that can nurture and love our children, these little seeds that we're growing up as Kelly so beautifully expressed. I really, I really love that. I think that, um, there is value in us all taking a break and sitting back at this time of the year and thinking, wow, we jumped in and we started the year and we did all the things with all the enthusiasm and we are working.

And now let me sit back and think and assess, are we majoring on the right things? Do we have a plan to build godly character in our children? How are we going to assess that? How are we going to set individual goals? Like you were talking about, Brittany, for each of our children, um, what is the Lord entrusting to us about each of our children?

They are not ours, they are his, and we are stewards of their little souls. And so what is it that God wants me to model for this young lady or this young man? How will I nurture the love of the Lord and the faithfulness that he's calling them to?

How will I model that for them and how will I help them grow in that? And I think that both of y'all are right. I think all three of us have now repented that we didn't have a family mission when we started beyond do a good job of this big task that God set before us.

Do our best. That was my family mission. Do the best not to screw up my kids. And that has failed utterly, right? We have all screwed up our kids in one way or the other. Um, but now I recognize that my family mission needs to be to love the Lord, my God, with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my might, um, with all my mind.

And so you're right, Kelly, Scribblers, that's a great resource, families. It will lead you to consider all of the things that your family might be about, all of the ways that God might be putting the call on your life. And so having a plan is key. Exactly what you guys said through prayer and discussion, you make a vision statement and you just, you consider each child and you seek the kingdom of God.

Um, I had a podcast guest not too long ago and I asked her at the end, um, what is it? What is it that you want your children to have at the end of this homeschooling? And she has a bunch of kids and she's been doing this for a long time.

And so I really wanted to hear her answer and she said, the knowledge that I want my children to have is the knowledge that fits them to be beautiful humans who know how to worship God. And I thought, that's, that's it. You know, it's the Charlie Brown. So the Charlie Brown, when Lucy finally gets Charlie Brown's problem, he just yells, that's it.

And she rolls over backwards. I thought, Oh, you have just knocked me over backwards. That's what it is. So parents, um, I'm going to give Kelly and Brittany a last moment to tell you something really profound or to encourage you and to speak, um, inspiration or encouragement or equipping into your life.

Um, that's what we're about at this point in your homeschool year, take a deep breath and think, what is it that we really want them to learn and then model your lesson plans for that. Right, right. Uh, you know, Lisa, I, you know, the focus of this podcast has been what we really want our children to learn.

And as classical conversations parents, one of the tools that equips us to find the right resources to do that is our catalog. Um, and you know, many times we'll use the catalog to locate the curriculum that we need. Um, and then after the beginning of the year, it, it might sadly sit on your shelf and it might not be used.

And I will say to every family that is listening to this podcast, this is the season when your, your catalog shows its, um, its benefits the most in the in-between when you were in community. And I would encourage all listeners to, if you have a copy of the catalog for this year, turn to page 21.

It is the catechesis wheel, which demonstrates the relationships that we believe that God has with all subjects of learning, um, and how we can be equipped to share him with the world. There is a sentence on this page that when I was reading the catalog, um, this year, just tears came to my eyes and I feel like this is the Charlie Brown sentence that I would say, this is it.

The aha for me is this sentence. True education is the pursuit of truth and truth. Capital T is a person whose name is Jesus Christ. And when I read that this year, as I was flipping through my catalog, tears came to my eyes because we as classical educators have a rare, precious opportunity to point our children to truth, lowercase T so that they can receive truth, capital T and recognize him in his word and in his world.

And so I would encourage families in this, in this off season, in between the beginning and the end of the semester, invest time in your catalog, looking for those nuggets of refreshment and truth and goodness to continue to shape why you were doing this, you know, um, how you're going to do this and, and how you want to see your family's home education journey, glorify God so that you can produce beautiful humans who know how to worship God.

We have a rare opportunity. Let's not squander it. That's awesome. Kelly, Brittany, what are your, your last encouragement for families who are thinking about what do we really want our kids to know? I think, um, it's, this type of education has been such a beautiful gift to my family and me.

And I, I think I thought at the beginning that it was for my children. Um, but I've realized that it's also for me. So, I mean, for, if we want our children to be beautiful humans who know how to worship God, then therefore we need to be beautiful humans who know how to worship God.

And this is only possible if, if we know, um, and if we're in communion with Christ, who is true and good and beautiful and as we worship him and as we, um, spend time with him, we can pray that he directs us and he will, he'll give us wisdom.

He'll give us, um, knowledge and he'll give us, um, the virtue to be able to model him to our children. And I'm grateful that I think I've come to understand who I am in Christ as a child of God. And I've come to understand what the world is because he's, he's given us two books, the book of scripture and the world itself.

And I thought parts of what I wanted my kids to learn were not really mine and they are for us, all of it's for us. And, um, as I'm looking at, I've been sharing before cleaning out all of the, uh, bookshelves and things in my house, our house is a little bit upside down right now.

I have stacks and stacks of, of studies and learning as I've tutored different levels, um, or studied, you know, tried to understand Latin or tried to grow in my math journey. Um, it's been wonderful to see that, that Christ's fingerprints are on all of it and that he's with us.

He loves us. He wants us to know it. And we get to explore this with our children and model that with our kids. And the joy at the end of the journey is hearing, you know, I've got a student of mine tutoring alongside me in the challenge program of our community and she wants it for her kids.

I have my own children thinking about their choices in the future because they want this kind of education for their kids. And they know it's important. And I didn't do that. That was the Lord. So the Lord has done all of that. Um, so I think first remembering that, that the Lord is with us and that he's there for us daily to help us do these, this hard thing to plant these seeds.

He's the Lord of the harvest. He's the one who's going to bring, bring the growth. And sometimes we just have to wait, wait for him to bring the growth in our kids. And sometimes we see it immediately, but it's for our whole family. And that has been a huge, unexpected gift for my husband and me.

We thought we were doing it for them, but it was, the Lord has transformed our family really as we've learned to, um, to know him and to see him and, and everything. And, um, it's, it's cultivated a love in our own hearts to want to, to, um, share that good news with others and encourage them on their journey too.

That's so great. That's beautiful, Brittany. And, and I feel like that is really encouraging, you know, parents, isn't it encouraging to think as we do this wonderful, beautiful, hard thing for our kids, the Lord is, you know, Lord is using it to refine and redeem us. And that is God's gift.

He is truly a giver of the best gifts. Well, parents, I hope that you have been encouraged that some of your questions have been answered and that you've been called to contemplate what God would have you to do differently or the same in your homeschool, um, going forward. Um, I have nothing, but thanks to offer to you, Kelly and Brittany.

I really appreciate you guys being with us, um, here at the beginning of the school year. And now I've got an announcement that's about the end of it, the end of the school year. And, and I know that seems like a weird juxtaposition, but it is always wonderful to look ahead at what God is calling us to in the future.

And partly, I just want you guys to put this on your radar, um, national commencement. If you've got, uh, seniors who are graduating, who would love to be part of classical conversations, national commencement. Um, and there's even more than graduation on the agenda. So if you don't have a graduate, there's still something for you to see.

Um, there will be a celebration for graduates and families. There will be a Q and a time with Lee and with Robert. And then I want Kelly to talk about this. This is always exciting for families. The 2025 national memory master championship. Kelly, just a snapshot, just a little bit.

You could talk all day about this. Yes, I could. We can talk easily about the things we love, right? And I love national memory master. Um, the national memory master competition is an opportunity for us to recognize foundation students who have excelled in the art of memory. And so, um, it, throughout their foundation's journey, they've committed our memory work to their minds.

And they come together and we celebrate, um, the excellence that they pursue in, um, reaching for the goal of memory master in community and national memory master though is regular memory master on steroids. And it's amazing to see what our students have committed to memory and what a joy it is to celebrate each of them when they come together for this competition.

If you come, prepare to be amazed, prepare to be encouraged, and prepare to go home and tell someone about what you have seen. It is truly an amazing thing to see our students reciting effortless effortlessly from all three cycles of foundations memory work. And it's a, it's an encouragement to families when they come together to see that they are not alone in their corner of the world to see that we, um, we are a body, um, as not only as the body of Christ, but a body of classical educators who are choosing these important things to impart to our children.

And what a blessing it is to see, as Brittany was saying, the harvest of that time and energy spent. So yes, definitely. If you can make it a priority to come to the national memory master competition this year, you will not be disappointed. All right. You heard it. You heard the enthusiasm.

So if you've got a national memory master, or if you've got a graduate, again, those dates are May 16th and 17th of 2025. I'm in Southern Pines. Registration is open now. And if you want to find out a little bit more about this event, you can learn more at classicalconversationsfoundation.org.

All right, families, thanks for being with us. Ladies, I appreciate you more than words can tell. Listeners, we'll see you next week. Listeners, we'll see you next week. Listeners, we'll see you next week. Listeners, we'll see you next week. Listeners, we'll see you next week. Listeners, we'll see you next week.

Listeners, we'll see you next week. Listeners, we'll see you next week. Listeners, we'll see you next week. Listeners, we'll see you next week. Listeners, we'll see you next week. Listeners, we'll see you next week. Listeners, we'll see you next week. Listeners, we'll see you next week.