Welcome, friends, to this episode of the Everyday Educator Podcast. I'm your host, Lisa Bailey, and I'm excited to spend some time today with you as we learn together and just really explore the delights and challenges that make homeschooling the adventure of a lifetime. Now, whether you are just considering this homeschooling possibility or deep into the daily delight of family learning, I think you're going to enjoy thinking along with us.

But don't forget, although our 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'm so excited to welcome you to this episode of Everyday Educator. I've got Delise with us, as usual.

Delise is here, and we have a dear friend, Olivia Walsh, with us, too. And we're going to talk about homeschooling, as always, but we're going to talk about it in a way that the three of us were just discussing. We've never really thought about homeschooling as producing a legacy before.

So we're going to talk about building a legacy with our homeschooling. And what does that mean? And what does that look like? Olivia, thank you for joining me and Delise today. Thank you for having me. You said that you had never really thought about homeschooling and legacy kind of in the same sentence.

What do you usually think about when you think about legacies? Sure. So I guess I just don't think about legacies a whole lot. But I do think of it, truly, but I do think of it mostly in the sense of passing down a value, an idea. But then I kind of also think about it as passing down something, but maybe not all things.

So I, being a homeschool nerd, I literally went to my Webster dictionary before I came on the call. Yeah, I have to. And legacy, in my 1984 copy dictionary, says money, that legacy is money or property bequeathed by a will, or that it's something handed down from an ancestor or from the past, like a strong legacy of personal freedom.

So I was thinking of like, you know, when you have this legacy of maybe your dad was a lawyer and you're a lawyer, or you have some gift that you give to your community. You know, maybe you are some good benefactor, you know, like a family legacy. But I don't always think of literal things as being passed down on their own.

Like, for example, I have a painting, a beautiful painting of my father-in-law from when he was a kid, and it's hanging in our living room because I loved it because, you know, it makes me think of Doug, and I love who Doug is. But I wouldn't necessarily think of that painting as holding any much value to it, unless I told my kids, this is your grandfather, and these are the things he stood for.

Yeah, the story that goes with the thing. Yeah, exactly. Be like, if I had, one thing for me in particular, when I had to sit and think through some of the questions you sent over with legacy was it made me think about my maternal grandparents' legacy when it comes to how I stay connected with them through gardening.

Like, I have my grandfather's blackberry vines in my yard, and several of my cousins do, and my aunts do, and my parents do, and Iris is in honor of my grandmother. But just, I don't want to, like, ramble, ramble the whole time, but I did want to say one other thing was that it made me think about how small my perspective on legacy really is, because I only think back one or two generations, maybe three.

I don't think of something that has lasted for generations, like, with a society or culture that has a tradition that's passed down that says, hey, this is a piece of our identity. Yes. So it was a really interesting question that you posed. I love what you just said. It has something to do with our identity.

Because a lot of times, I know, for me, legacies tend to be something that you inherit, something that was passed down. I know that I have a stone from my great-grandmother's ring that my dad gave me after his grandmother passed away. I was the daughter who had the most relationship with that great-grandmother, and so I have that.

And, you know, we have some similar stories. I have a, my husband and I have a plant that came from a cutting that was his grandmother's, and our girls have cuttings from that plant. And so I guess that's kind of a legacy. But I love the whole idea of a legacy being part of your family identity, or you inheriting a legacy that speaks into your identity.

Delise, do you have anything like that? Do you have any legacies that are identity-making? I do. And I think I love having this conversation with people because I'm starting to realize that what I have is maybe more unique than I thought. Because I think it's the idea of legacy all the time.

I mean, like multiple times in a week, usually every day. And I realize now that I think about it because it's been planted in me. So it very much is a legacy that I'm carrying on. And thinking about legacies. Yeah, truly. And not just me, but also my husband.

Like, I know my husband's family history and the things that we're retaining in his family history for our sons. But I also know the things that, when you talk about culture, Olivia, like I know the things that six generations back, like I know my whole family line. I know the things that generations back, they tried to preserve that I'm still trying to steward and pass to my son.

And even down to very specific things, like my family has a legacy of hosting and hospitality. And my family has, the women have a legacy of sewing. And so like, there are all kinds of really fun stories about my grandmother and my great grandmother and the things that they made for different people that they sewed for them.

And I mean, I could go on and on about this, but I do find it so fascinating. And I think it has the potential to really shape and inspire your children as a child who was fed a very specific type of legacy in the way that they view themselves in the scope of the world.

So, yeah, I love this topic. That's really cool. And you know what? I was having a conversation with my daughters who are grown, who one is getting ready to have her first baby and one has two little ones already. And we were talking about things in our home that we have received as physical legacies.

And I was explaining to them that there are going to be some things that it would be important to me for them to keep. And, you know, I mean, they are not really attached to some of the things, the things that I am attached to. But I stumbled across something really interesting.

I said, well, let me tell you why this thing is important to me. And I told my daughter this whole story about why this piece of furniture had been important to her grandfather and why it was important. What little child memories I had and what growing up memories I had.

And she was really quiet when I got done. And she said, Mama, that makes me want to keep it. The object I don't really care about. The story that connected that object to me as your child and as Pawpaw's granddaughter and as the great-granddaughter, great-great-granddaughter of a woman I never knew, she said, it's the story that connects me.

Because she said, now I can identify with that piece. And so something you said, Delise, brought that to my mind. Because you said you love to hear the stories of how these legacies of hospitality or sewing have established a family identity to you. And so I think it's all about the stories that we tell our children that show them how those things are intrinsic to who our family has become.

And maybe that's the benefit of the legacy. What do y'all think? Olivia, what do you think is the benefit of a legacy? Well, I think it benefits you even when you don't necessarily know it. Like you said, your daughters are young and you want to give them things. I've been in that position as the daughter multiple times.

And I can tell you, I don't like stuff being brought to my house. Right, that's how they are. It's just the truth. I hate to say it, but it's true. I don't like it. But when you give me understanding as to why this is actually a richness, you know, this is a good thing for you to pass down.

I mean, even when you don't understand it, you take it on as you age and your kids grow up. The value is just instilled even more and the understanding grows. So I was thinking about that it can be beneficial if I see it not just like the burden side of it, like literally taking something on.

Like, okay, now I have to, whatever. Now I have to sew. Maybe you don't like sewing. Now I have to sew. Well, you don't see it as a burden. You see it as it's a calling now. Right? So now it's a way that you are. It's now something that you're picking up, like the idea of passing on the baton or the torch.

It's now a calling on my life because what does this do for other people? How can I help other people with this? How can I love others? How can I teach my children through this? Because I think something that's really special about classical education is that we say it is God-centered, and all these subjects are really just your whole world, right?

And you see Christ in the midst of it because he's there with you in the midst of it. And so no matter what it is that we are called to do, we do it for the glory of the Lord, right? And it's another area that we can now teach our children strength in their faith.

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, or even now at 30, I miss things, you know? So I think it has great value beyond what we can see. Oh, that's lovely. Which I want to hear more from Delisa.

I know. I want to say what Delisa thinks. Does your mom actually be like, this is who we are? Because, like, that's kind of what I wonder. Like, did you have family members that were like, hey, don't just come sew with me, but, like, let me tell you about us?

Yes. I can hear your mom. I can hear your mom's voice, Delisa, saying things like that. Yeah. And even now, like, my grandmother. So I have a really strong line of matriarchs in my family. So, like, I know the stories of my grandmother, my great-grandmother, of course, my mother, and et cetera.

And so people are still telling me really beautiful stories about sewing. Like, for example, my grandmother has always been really generous. That's another one of her legacies. And I will get to the benefit of it, but we'll use it. Oh, yeah. I want to, yeah. A little story. And so when she met her little brother's girlfriend for the first time, they were going to go out dancing.

That's something my family does. We dance. I always call it partying. And then I think that people think that we're drinking and moving crazy. We're not doing that. We're eating good food. We're staying up late, playing cards and loving each other. But, you know, we're having a great time.

And so they were going to do what they always do, which was go dancing. And my now Aunt Jean didn't have a dress. She had nothing to wear. And so they were like, oh, no, what are we going to do? Because, you know, this is, I think it was the 50s at that point.

So you have to have a dress. Oh, yeah. You have to be dressed up. Yeah. Can't go out without a dress. So my grandmother, knowing that they were planning to go out the next day, spent the whole night making her a dress from scratch. And when Jean woke up the next morning, she had this dancing dress to go out in.

And she just couldn't believe, you know, like the generosity of my grandmother's heart and the way that she had used the skill that she had. But what it does for me and the benefit of knowing some of these different legacies on a regular basis is it causes me to want to live up, if that makes sense.

Yes, absolutely. Because I know about the courage and the strength that the people who raised me and raised the people who raised me apply to their lives in these really practical ways, I consider it when I'm making a decision. Even if it's just that I know that Hattie Duren, who was my great-grandmother, would never have left the house in X way, you know, like I just think about it because I know that I'm carrying them and we have very strong genes too.

So depending on where I am in the United States, if I show up in a town, people know that I'm related to these people because I look like them. So I think about it a lot. And yeah, it's been empowering to me too, especially, you know, being a parent is difficult.

And so sometimes we have challenging moments. And I think about the legacy of the women who have been leaders in my family over the years and the fact that the Lord did those things through them and that he can do it through me as well. Um, when I'm raising my son and, you know, facing something that I've never faced before, but I know they've faced this.

Yes. And so you are, you, I like what you said. It, it, it causes you, it calls you to live up. Um, it is an encouragement. If we have received a legacy of hospitality or a legacy of perseverance or a legacy of leadership or a legacy of strength or, and I promise guys, we're going to get to it, a legacy of homeschooling, a legacy of valuing education.

It helps you to live up in those moments that would drag you down. That would, you just say, yeah, I'm out. I mean, I'm tapping out here. I can't. I mean, this is not, this is clearly not meant for me, or this is no longer working for us. You lean into, you lean into, and you live up to that legacy.

Um, and it can be a beautiful thing. Now, for me, I don't have a look back legacy of homeschooling. Um, when, I don't think, well, I mean, I'm a good bit older than you guys. And so when I was little, um, I don't know that homeschooling was a thing.

Okay. I mean, you know, it was a thing on the prairie, but like I tell my kids, I'm not that old. Okay. But it was not a thing. I went to public school and my, and my parents never considered, and nobody I knew ever considered anything, but going to school.

So I don't have a legacy of home education, but my children do. And I know that when we began homeschooling, um, I was very, my husband and I were very intentional about establishing what we hoped would be a legacy of a family culture of learning. We hoped, especially after the first couple of years, when we thought this is the best thing we have ever done in between those moments when we thought this is the hardest thing God has ever asked me to do.

And we thought this is the best thing. And, and I hope my children will choose this path, but I know that both of you guys were homeschooled. Um, and so I want to know, um, why did your parents choose to homeschool you? And did you know what their reason was at the time that you were being homeschooled?

And did you agree with it? Did you want to be homeschooled? Olivia, I'll ask you first. Um, do you know why your parents picked homeschooling and did you agree with their reason? Did you like it? Um, I, I liked being homeschooled there. I, I was homeschooled K through 12.

So it's not like there was like much option. A come home day. Yeah. Yeah. But, um, I know that the reason we were homeschooled really came down more to my mom than my dad. My mom had been interested in homeschool for a very long time. Um, I'm from a mixed home, a mixed family.

So she had been married and had her oldest and my dad had been married and had his oldest. And then they met and grew the family with me and my, one of my sisters. Um, but she had been interested in home education since my brother who is 16 years older than I am.

Wow. In elementary school. Okay. But, um, it just wasn't something she could do very well at the time. She was a single mom, but I know it had always been at the back of her mind. Um, and I think it had a lot to do with the way she wanted the culture around her, her kids.

I think she just wanted them to be around the right people and have truth spoken to them. Like I can, I was thinking back to my mom and I think a big thing for my mom was always just truth. You know, she wanted to pursue the truth. I don't know if she necessarily knew exactly what that looked like when she set out and what the outcomes of that were going to be.

But I know that that was a big motivator for her was that she wanted us to learn the truth and she wanted us not just like facts, right? Not just about where the world came from, but also about the people who were big influences in our lives. She wanted them to speak the truth to us.

And when you're in, let's say a public school setting, you don't have control over who's in there with your kids all the time. You don't have control over what the peers in their life are saying. And I think she saw a lot of, uh, honestly, like a negative impact on, on my brother from being around, um, not the truth all the time.

I mean, it did make a long-term impact on his life. Um, but, uh, I, I know that that was important to her and I know that as she home educated us, it was, she didn't know how to put it into words. That's actually why she started classically educating us.

Uh-huh. Cause we did CC was she, she wanted to show, she wanted to teach us like everything is connected. She didn't know how to do it. She was like, I know that when we're talking about history, I know we're talking about math and I know we're talking about science and I know we're talking about scripture, but how do I teach you that?

How do I package that? Right. So, um, yeah. And so, uh, I, I was happy to be homeschooled as far as like, was I considered, I had my oldest sister was in the public school all the way through graduation. So we would go to, you know, plays and different activities at the public school.

And my mom taught art classes to afterschool students at the public schools at the middle and elementary schools in our town. So I had spent every week time in the public schools and I didn't, it didn't interest me. I didn't want to be there any more than I already was.

I liked being at home. I liked my studies at home. That's just me. I don't, I don't know what it was like for Delise. Cause Delise, you were homeschooled also. Yep. I was homeschooled all the way through. And like you, Olivia, you know, not being the first child does kind of mean that you get grandfathered in, in the best way.

Um, so I was the third for, and then we always had a cousin who my mom was homeschooling. Interestingly enough, I think she's about to graduate her sixth student from homeschool. That's how, how many children do you have to graduate. Now that's a legacy. Yeah, that's a legacy. And we have a legacy of education even before, like you said, it didn't used to be a thing that homeschooling was a normal choice.

And so my family, they were educators. Um, but I know initially the choice to homeschool was because my oldest brother who was quite bright could read early on and the teacher would not allow him to read. And my mother couldn't understand that. And so she said, you know, I know, can you please just hand him a book because he knows his ABCs and I don't want him to lose his skills or, you know, just, I don't want him to be one.

Well, and you shouldn't want him to be disruptive because he's bored. Exactly. So give him something to do. And the teacher just wouldn't. And my mother couldn't understand it. And so she, she pulled him out. So that was one of the reasons. And then another one of the reasons, just to be honest, was to, to depart from the statistics, um, because I am an African-American.

And so growing up in the nineties in the South was a challenging time for academics. You're right. And my parents knew that, and they knew that they wanted to give my brothers and me the best chance that we possibly could get. And so they realized very early on with that example that it might be wise for them to choose to homeschool us so that they could maintain our legacy.

You know, we have all kinds of things that my family's into classical music. All kinds of stuff. And so they wanted to, like what you were saying, Olivia, just make sure that the influences of my brother's lives and in my life were good influences and that we had more access to truth than anything else.

And homeschooling really did afford my family that. And so I'm grateful for it. And I had the choice, but I saw that, you know, my life would have looked really different if I chose to do public school. I wanted to do all the extracurriculars and I wanted to work and I wanted to make my own schedule, you know, by the time I was graduating and homeschooling is the way to do it.

So I loved it. Yes. I love it that you both can look at your parents' choices and see that they were intentionally crafting an educational experience and not just educating your mind, but educating your heart. And really impacting who you became and how you thought about things and what weight you gave to things.

Like truth was very important to you and choices and freedom and just recognizing that that choice that your parent made was perhaps the, either the beginning or the next step and a legacy that had been there for a while. That's really cool. So I know that both of you are set on home educating your own children.

Did you have to think twice about that? Was it just not really a decision? It was just, has it just become how you would obviously raise your children? Or did you and your husband, husbands have to think, are we going to do this homeschool thing or are we going to go another direction?

What do you think, Olivia? For Ian and I, Ian is my husband, for us, well, by the time our oldest started being ready for school, I was still working part-time and he works full-time. And it wasn't, I don't want to like discourage anyone because that's not it at all.

Right. Homeschool is very natural for me and homeschool is very natural for my husband. There was never a question of, could we do it? Or do we want to try it? It was just, that is the default in my brain. That's the legacy. That is the legacy. It has just come down to you as natural.

Yeah. So the question for us was more like, okay, well, would it benefit us if we sent him to this hybrid school? Do we want to look into this? And for us, it was like, no, like, you know, we could, but let's just do what we know to do best because it is very natural when you've been homeschooled because you just, you just, like, it never stops in my opinion.

Like, I feel like I'm constantly learning and I'm constantly seeing the world, you know, through education and, you know, not getting any credentials for anything I'm learning or studying or spending all this time on. Right. It's just the way we live. Right. And so my son is now just living life with me.

So, you know what I mean? Like, our kids are born and they just start living life with us and they start learning with us. So, yeah, home school is never a question. Yeah. Yeah. Do you think that's the legacy that your mom passed on to you that you just live, you just learn as part of the process of living and that a family culture of learning is just the same thing as a family culture?

Do you think that's part of the legacy she passed to you? I think it's part of the legacy that they started to build without realizing it. Yeah. I don't think they, you know what I mean? I think, I think of it more that way. So, like, it sounds like Delise has this, this true legacy that is being handed down and described.

And I'm sure I have stuff like that, but has it always been put into words exactly? I don't think so because my mom's still trying to figure it out. My dad's figuring stuff out and then getting what I can to pass down. But I think it is like, maybe my family does love truth.

I know they do, like my siblings and my parents, but has it, do I remember my mom saying, you know that she wanted us to learn the truth? Yes. And did that stick? And so now do I say that to my kids? Maybe I should. I'm learning from Delise.

Maybe I should. But now it's like just an understanding. No, in our education, we seek truth. And what I say out loud currently is probably building on it. But I say that we're seeking to worship God in all we do. So we're seeking truth. And for me and my kids and my husband, it's in everything we do, we want to worship God.

So am I just building onto that legacy without realizing it? Like probably. Yeah. How do we, you know, how do we keep that momentum? Yeah. We talk about it. Yeah. Yeah. I think, I mean, I think we all come to the point where we eventually do see it as something we intentionally want to pass on, that we intentionally cherish and want to pass on.

But maybe like you said, Olivia, not right at first. We just are doing this thing that seems right and good to us at first. Delise, what would you say? What's the legacy? And are you intentionally passing on a legacy when you look at homeschooling Leo? Well, I am now.

I will say the process of making that decision, you know, it was a partnership because, of course, I'm married as well to Evan. And so my husband, he wasn't homeschooled. He wasn't really exposed to any of the homeschool community. And so homeschooling was definitely something for him to wrap his mind around.

Right. And he was not entirely convinced. Now, granted, Leo is three. So we could have had more time for him to become convinced. He told me the other day, actually. He said, honey, just look at me. Yeah. Am I not convinced? Don't you want this for our child? It would have been a no-brainer, but something weird happened there.

So he wasn't convinced. And so I prayed a lot about it, but I knew I wanted it personally because I wanted it there for the moments. And I remember how much I loved that my mom was there. I was never one of those teenagers who didn't want their mom around.

I just loved it. She's the coolest, and I still love it. And that's why I want her to move across the street from my house. I just want her there. And so I hope that my son will feel that way. But regardless, I know it's a gift to, like what you're saying, Olivia, to learn as you go with your parent.

It's just a really special and natural way to live. And so I'm hopeful about that. But then as we got to know Leo and as Evan continued to talk with me about just my thoughts of classical education and homeschooling and stuff like that, he started to see, we both started to see that homeschooling was absolutely the perfect fit for our son because of the way that he thinks.

And Evan is a very, very bright person who is a textbook case of falling through the cracks. So he's brilliant. I mean, he has done so many things. I could go on and on by way of just learning as you go, just like homeschoolers do. However, in school, his teachers were constantly just telling him, hey, we know you're really smart.

Why don't you make better grades? Why won't you apply yourself to this? And the truth was he was bored. He could see that the way that they were presenting the information was kind of like usurping the point. And so he just spent his time doing something else. And therefore, no one ever pushed him to meet his potential in school.

And it was just a true waste of his time. And so I don't want that to happen to my son. I can see that that's the way that we think. Leo doesn't like to be, quote, tested. He's going to have to work through that. But also, there are a lot of ways you can assess a person.

So if a test is the only thing they're offering him to assess whether or not he's understood a topic, we have a problem. Yeah, absolutely. Right? So I'm excited about the flexibility that homeschooling affords, but also just the potential to help my son to rise to his potential. And I selfishly want to be there.

Yes, yes, I know. I think I talk to a lot of people about why they chose to homeschool. And a lot of us are jealous of the light bulb moments. Like I absolutely, that's one of the reasons I chose to homeschool. My husband and I really loved being there for the light bulb moments.

When the understanding dawns and you see them thinking, and also this, and this too. And the pieces get put together. And then there's a thirst and an excitement. And I did not want to give that away. And that, I think, is a learning legacy. If we can pass that on, I wanted to give my children memories of how fun it was to learn something new with mama and daddy so that we could all learn it.

There were things that we learned at the same time, like, you know, aha moments that struck me at the same time they struck this child of mine. But that became a shared legacy. And that is something that they still look back on and say, remember when we figured out how to do that problem.

Or remember when we both learned this thing. And that's a legacy. That is a family culture of learning. I've heard my girls just tell people, yeah, we read books together. That's just what we do. Well, that's a legacy, y'all. That anything that you do because your family did it, that has created an identity for you is awesome.

And so I know I am, I'm farther along this road. And so I can ask myself this question. I mean, I'm going to ask you too, but you're not going to have any idea if you can answer it now or not. Like, what is it that you, what kind of legacy do you, are you hoping to create with your children children as you homeschool them?

Because I've got girls that were homeschooled the whole way and I didn't know what I was doing at the beginning. And so maybe I was like your mom, Olivia, that just said, I want them to appreciate truth and I want them to see that everything we learn is of God and from God.

But I didn't know a lot of that other integration stuff because it's not the way I was taught. But I do know that now I hope that I have, through the learning that I did gradually, I hope that I put that in them so that it is a legacy of family learning and a thirst and an excitement about knowing things and knowing the Lord, I hope I placed that in their hearts.

And so I hope that I have passed on a legacy that they will consider valuable enough to pass on to their children. So what I want to ask from, you know, I'll ask you first, Elise, how is, what kind of legacy is it that you're hoping to pass on to Leo?

And do you hope that one day, you know, 25 years from now, he might homeschool his own child? This is such a big question. I know. And it makes you speculate because who knows? I'm going to choose to answer it just in the realm of homeschool and education. And if you want me to go on more than how to talk later.

So as far as learning is concerned, I, right now, I really want to pass on to him the legacy of grace-filled learning. And I don't know if I feel that way because right now I just have one in the womb, you know, and one in front. And I know that that is something that was given to me that he needs because for a firstborn child, for like a type A personality, it can be so easy to want to get everything right.

And I think sometimes that inhibits learning. Yes, it does. So I really want him to have that legacy because his father has that. Like I can see it coming down from the other side as well. His dad is so good. He wants it to be right. But he will try and he will try and he's not afraid of failing.

And so that causes him to accomplish a lot more, I think, than the average person because he's willing to try again and to perfect an art, you know, as much as we can as humans. Yeah. So I'm hoping that that grace-filled learning mindset is something that Leo really gets from us.

I'm also hoping, and this is more from my side of family, that Leo gleans a love of ideas. Like I have so many just happy memories of talking with my little brother specifically, but all my brothers, about ideas. We just like to, we like to banter. I've said that on the podcast before.

We like to entertain an idea and we like to tease it apart until it's like most dead. And then we want to talk about it. And I think the love of thinking is, is almost a lost art these days. You know, we have a lot of podcasts. We have a lot of people who, you know, you can self-publish, but people don't necessarily want to go deep on one topic.

And I think that is still important. And I want to pass that on to my son. And it's actually, I think it's the ability to use your imagination and to apply the things that you see to your imagination. So I hope he gets those things. Oh, that's a great, what an awesome legacy to leave.

If he gets those, he will be one lucky little man. That's awesome. All right, Olivia. So what is it that you, that you want to add to the legacy that your, your family gave you? What would you like to add to the legacy of homeschooling? I feel like I speak in too much abstract because I listened to Alicia, she's like sewing grace.

Like all these, I think it's great. No, but I just, I feel like for me, it genuinely is, I think I said it already, but seeing that no matter what we're doing, that we're worshiping God, I really want that to be the heart of what I, what I teach them.

Even in the, even in the mistakes, when we mistake, when we make mistakes, either, either one of us sins relationally trying to do this school together, or we're not understanding something, to have repentance, ask forgiveness, all of that as a form of worship, to actually pray and to actually have good fellowship with one another, and then to go and thank God for all that he's done and have this life filled with this liturgy of worshiping God.

And that's, that's the biggest thing about my, my homeschool. It's pretty much the reason why I homeschool and why we do what we do, why we learned, why we did memory master this year, how, you know, why we did math every single day. Like that's, that's why we do it is so that it gives us something we can look at and then turn to God and give thanks and see him and see glorifying him in every single little thing that we're doing.

So that's kind of the heart of what I'm doing with my kids. But if I had to think of a legacy of something that I know I do with them and that I know my mom did, and I can see all my grandparents have passed, but I could see looking back was the ability to just sit and observe, just to sit and watch and take in and be humble, not to say what you think right away, but to just sometimes sit and listen and take it in.

And be really understanding and open to what's going on around you, not to accept it all as truth, but to then just be able to sit and listen humbly and observe. I think that that's a really important skill and can help you to love others really well when they feel that they can come to you or you can sit and look at creation and pay attention to what's really going on or listen to the news and try to listen for what's really happening so you can see through stuff that's just being pushed in your face, right?

So I think being humble, being still, just paying attention to what's going on and listening. This has been so refreshing and so encouraging to hear you guys talk about what you see as the legacy that was passed to you and what legacy you intend to pass on. I can imagine that people may have clicked onto this podcast thinking, okay, they're going to talk about how we pass down the love of academics and how we pass down perseverance and hard work and those things are great, but the legacy that we want to pass down, the educational legacy that we want to pass down, you ladies have highlighted beautiful things, relational things, big idea things, heart things, the connection between who we are in Christ with who he calls us to be as we are learning about his world 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 that he has put us in is beautiful and that is what I want to encourage people.

That's the legacy that you're building, not a college scholarship, not a great job, not an immaculate transcript. You are building a family culture of respect and learning and worship and that is a legacy. worth leaving. So thank y'all for having this conversation. It could have been 15 different conversations and I had to keep pulling my mind back from the bunny trail that I would love to go down with you guys.

So, so listeners, you just keep listening because maybe we'll come back and talk with Olivia and Delise again and mine this legacy. 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. The new books of 2025 are out now.

There's lots of math map books available now in the bookstore. We've got digits and integers and fractions. There are flashcards that would be an awful lot of fun to play with in the summertime. Coming out that will be new and used in community in the fall is monomials. And all of this math map work is an awesome way.

It's a classical presentation of math so that you can learn to worship the God of order as you learn to do computation, as you learn to build a good math vocabulary. Something that our Challenge 3 students will be using is Reasoning Together Philosophy, but it is a really cool book for families to have at home.

There are excerpts of all kinds of philosophers that you could read, short excerpts that you could enjoy with your family and talk about. There are Copper Lodge library books. There are four new Copper Lodge books out. So many new things. I can't tell you all, but I'll tell you what.

You can find out what's new by going to classicalconversations.com slash what's new. I mean, you can find out all the skinny. Classicalconversations.com slash what's new. Go look it up. It'll give you something to talk about with your family as you build a legacy. And we'll see you guys next time.

Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. you For more information, visit www.fema.org