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Homeschool Coffee Break

Kerry Beck

Homeschool Coffee Break helps you stop overwhelm and gain confidence so you know you're doing enough with your kids' education. Our top-notch interviews, practical tips & tricks, and real solutions will give you confidence in your homeschool.

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  • 20 episodes
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  • English

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  • Wednesday · 12 min

    201: Flexible Homeschooling When Life Gets Hard

    What if your homeschool needs to change because life has changed? Flexible homeschooling gives you permission to adjust your lessons, priorities, and expectations without feeling like you are failing your children. In this episode, you’ll discover how to keep learning meaningful when life gets hard, even if your normal homeschool schedule is impossible right now. You’ll learn how everyday life, books, nature, conversations, and relationships can still provide rich educational experiences. ✅3 priorities to preserve when life feels overwhelming ✅Why a minimum viable homeschool may be exactly what you need ✅How everyday life can become meaningful education ✅Why your relationship with your children is not an interruption ✅How 2–3 minutes of quiet prayer can help you find direction Want help simplifying your homeschool during a difficult season? Grab the resources below by clicking the links. Resources for You Don’t Worry Prayers Homeschool Encouragement Circle Read Aloud Magic Pack Jim Hodges Audio Books Show Notes: What If Homeschool Doesn't Look Like Homeschool for a While? Sometimes we sit down with our carefully planned homeschool planner and schedule — and then life happens. Someone gets sick. A parent needs care. You move. A child isn't sleeping. You have appointments every week, sometimes every single day. And you can't make homeschool look like what you're picturing in your mind. What if the most faithful thing you can do in this season isn't to figure out how to get your old homeschool back — but to figure out what homeschool needs to look like for now? You Are Not a Failure When life falls apart and you're trying to homeschool, the guilt pressure is real. I'm not doing enough. I'm not doing it right. My kids are not going to be prepared for adult life. I'm a failure. That is not true. Let me just say it again. You are not a failure. You are doing exactly what God has called you to do. You just need to press into the season of life you're actually in right now. Give yourself permission to acknowledge this — this is a hard season. You don't have to pretend everything is normal when it isn't. Hard seasons may require fewer subjects, shorter lessons, more read-alouds, more audiobooks, more independent work, and more learning through everyday life. That is not quitting. That is adjusting. What Are Two or Three Things You Want to Preserve? If life is falling apart, I want to encourage you — what are two or three things you want to preserve in your homeschool right now? Not five subjects, not ten activities. Two or three things. Let those become your priorities. Everything else is secondary. For me, personally, thinking back to when we were homeschooling, I know what I would choose. The first would be Bible. The second would be reading — reading aloud to my children, and my kids reading on their own if they knew how. Because I believe with reading you can cover almost anything. If those were the only two things I got done every day for an entire month because I was in a hard season of life, I would say — okay. It'd be hard, because I'm a Type A person. But that's where I would be. Think minimum viable homeschool instead of perfect homeschool. Keep the basics moving without trying to maintain your ideal schedule. Reading plus one meaningful thing might be all you get done during a difficult day. And that's enough. Maria Montessori Started Without the Perfect Anything Maria Montessori's first children's house opened in 1907 in a very poor neighborhood in Rome. She was serving about 50 kids ages 2 through 6 who had been left without adequate care from their parents. She didn't begin with the perfect classroom or perfect curriculum. She observed the kids and created an environment around what they actually needed — real-life activities, independence, exploration, and allowing kids to work at their own pace. Sometimes our job isn't to force our original plan to work. It's to observe our kids and our circumstances and ask — what do they need right now? Don't Underestimate Real Life as Learning A sick child can learn about the body by taking care of their body. Moving to a new place can involve geography, budgeting, planning, writing, and research about where you're going. Caring for grandparents teaches compassion and responsibility. Cooking gives you math, reading, science, and lots of practical skills. A difficult season can still be an educated season. Don't write it off. If you're in this season of life, make a life as school list. Write down three things your kids can learn from the season you're in right now. If it's moving — map the new area, calculate the distance, write about the experience, start a travel journal. Real life provides so many educational opportunities. Take advantage of it. Charlotte Mason was educated at home as an only child, and her later educational philosophy was built on a broad education through books, nature, history, literature, and experiences — not dry facts. If you're moving, you can read books in the car. You can visit new parks. You can look at the history of the area. You can find literature set in the places you're driving through. That's natural. That's real learning. Protect Your Relationships It's not we have to get school done. That becomes a checklist. If everyone is exhausted, no one is going to learn anything and there is no lesson there. Use this time to read together. Eat lunch together. Go outside for a walk. Go to the backyard, eat lunch in the fort, or have an outside picnic. Even that can be educational — you can look at the nature around you, listen to what you hear, see what's happening, and go back inside and research some of those things. But more than anything, your relationship with your children is not an interruption to your homeschool. It is the most essential part of it. Pray — and Read the Psalms Hard situations require prayer. Two things — pray and read the Psalms. The Psalms are soothing to the soul when things are hard. Open up and just start reading, and it will be calming. Go to God and ask for peace and wisdom. I would encourage you to have silent prayer — put a timer on for two or three minutes, ask God what He wants you to do in your situation, and then be quiet and listen. Write down any thoughts you receive during that time. When it's over, evaluate them. If those thoughts don't contradict the Bible, I would say go for it. That is what I do pretty much every morning right here at this table as I plan my day. When I started it with a genuine desire — God, what do you want me to know today, what do you want me to do today — it changed my prayer life. And I think it will change yours, especially in a hard season. A hard situation does not mean you failed at homeschooling. Sometimes faithfulness looks like doing less and knowing what matters most. Your homeschool can change as seasons change in your life. That's not failure — that's wisdom. I have a few things to help you right now. The Don't Worry Prayers are scripture-based prayers moms can use when they're in the middle of a hard situation and feeling worried. I'll put a link in the show notes. Our new Homeschool Encouragement Circle is centered around what matters most — that's the theme, and I'll leave a link to that as well. And if you'd like help with read-alouds, the Read Aloud Magic pack gives lists of books and shows you how to use read-alouds in any season of life. All links are in the show notes.

  • August 18 · 29 min

    200: The Homeschool Help You Actually Need Right Now

    Let’s celebrate - 200 episodes! You’re doing everything you think you’re supposed to do — finishing the curriculum, adding more activities, checking every box — but still wondering if it is enough. The homeschool help you actually need is not another thing to add. It is permission to do less and purpose to guide what stays. After 200 episodes of conversations with homeschool moms, this episode shares 5 things that actually matter in your homeschool — and most of them will surprise you with how much they simplify instead of adding to your plate: ✅Why you do NOT have to teach every subject every day or even every year — and what to do instead ✅Why more curriculum & activities almost always lead to more burnout, not better kids ✅How to shift from teaching your kids what to know to teaching them how to think ✅Why character and leadership must be built intentionally — not left to chance ✅The simple purpose filter that helps you make every homeschool decision easier Click the link below to join Raising Leaders Not Followers and get the framework that finally makes your homeschool feel purposeful. Resources for You Raising Leaders Not Followers fall class Homeschool Encouragement Circle Show Notes: 200 Episodes — 5 Things I Wish I'd Known Sooner 200 episodes. When I recorded my first episode back in 2022, I couldn't even imagine that. Almost four years later, here we are — years of conversations about homeschooling, thousands of moms listening, asking questions, struggling, learning, trying to figure it all out. And meanwhile, my kids are grown adults raising their own kids, and I'm getting to do some of the homeschool activities with my grandkids now. These are not five things to add to your schedule — that would be completely overwhelming and would never give you that coffee break. These are five things to help you take things off your plate so you can do what's most important. #1: You Don't Have to Teach Everything, Every Day, or Every Year Homeschool moms feel like they're constantly behind. You're looking at the curriculum thinking — we didn't finish this, we haven't covered that, we're already behind in this subject. But when I was a public school teacher for six years, I never finished a curriculum. Not once. Does that give you some grace and permission to take a step back? Your kids have years to learn. Not everything has to happen this week. Not every subject needs the same amount of attention every single year. Some seasons require more academics. Some seasons require more rest, relationship, and character building. Simply getting through life. The verse of the day when I was preparing this episode was Galatians 6:9 — let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. There are seasons of dormancy, and what's happening under the earth is preparing for growth. When you slow down, your kids will be more prepared to grow into whatever God has called them to do. Rest isn't failure. Homeschool is not a race to see how much you can get done in 180 days. Homeschool is to truly prepare our kids for life. I took Hunter off math from 1st grade through 5th or 6th grade. In 6th grade, he caught up in a year and a half. When we sent him to a private school in 10th grade, he won the math award his first year. I took Gentry off math in 7th grade because she had a real negative attitude and struggled with her times tables. We started again in 8th grade. By Algebra 1, she knew her times tables — and in college, she helped her friends with their math homework. You don't have to teach every subject, every day, or every year. Look at tomorrow's homeschool plan and circle one thing that absolutely has to happen. Everything else is negotiable. #2: More Isn't Necessarily Better More curriculum, more activities, more field trips, more co-ops, more extracurriculars, more worksheets, more enrichment — I was tired just making that list. Sometimes more simply means more overwhelmed for you, more rushing, more frustration for you and your kids, more mom burnout, and less time actually spent with your children. When your children are grown, what do you think they're going to remember? Will they remember that you finished every workbook page? Or will they remember reading together? Both of my girls read to their children. My grandkids love being read to. I think that goes all the way back to the memories of reading aloud together. Or they'll remember the spontaneous trips. The family conversations. Our family loved sports, and we had big back-and-forth debates around the dinner table. Ashley brought Jesse home for the first time — now her husband — and Gentry immediately started bantering with him over the Yankees and the Red Sox because that was just normal for us. I was mortified. But those are the conversations my kids still remember. Or maybe the crazy breakfast traditions. Every first day of school, we had ice cream sundaes for breakfast. Even Hunter's senior year. My grandkids had it for the first time last year and were thrilled because they'd heard all about it from their parents. Your kids are going to remember more about time together than all the activities. Here's the what-can-we-remove challenge — look at your coming week, pick one activity or commitment that really isn't necessary, and cross it off your schedule. Use that time to reconnect with your children. Each of our kids could have two outside activities. That was it. They had to choose. Because I was driving them to two activities a day sometimes, and I said — this is not happening anymore. More is not better. #3: Your Child Needs to Learn How to Think — Not Just What to Know Information is everywhere. My grandkids ask Hey Google a question and get the answer instantly. The question isn't does my child know this. The questions are — can my child think about this? Can they evaluate it and come up with a wise judgment call? Can they make a wise decision? Can they look at it through a biblical worldview? Can they solve a problem without mom standing right here? I wanted my kids to grow up and influence the people around them — influence the world for Jesus, at least their neighborhood, at least their family. I wanted them to make wise, biblical decisions. I wanted them to be prepared for adult life. When our kids were in high school, they did a humanities class every year — watching two lectures a week, going through time periods. Steve and I listened to the same lectures so we could have discussions with them over dinner, guiding their thinking biblically. One of the first books they read in high school was More Than Dates and Dead People by Stephen Mansfield — recovering a Christian view of history. At dinner tonight, replace what did you learn today with what made you think today? And then zip your lips. Let them think. Don't fill the silence. Silence encourages them to get their brains working. #4: Character and Leadership Can't Be Left to Chance Academics matter, but character is the foundation for adult life. You can have a child who knows a lot and learns a lot but still struggles with perseverance, work ethic, self-control, integrity, and responsibility. Character is something we need to intentionally develop — not just hope for. I used the Bible and took it off my shoulders and put it on God's. His shoulders are a lot bigger. Ashley participated in 4-H skeet shooting — she didn't always win, had to deal with defeat, but also had leadership opportunities there. Hunter didn't make a basketball team in 6th or 7th grade — he had to figure out how to handle that. But he later went to a week-long high school sports leadership program in New York City. Gentry was the only homeschooler on a public school basketball and softball team in high school. She became captain — voted by her peers — as a junior and a senior, and won the Bear Award in both basketball and softball her senior year. I believe all of those things happened because of their character foundation. Look for one responsibility this week that actually belongs to your child. Don't micromanage it. Don't immediately rescue them. Let them experience responsibility, work ethic, consequences, and problems. If the dog doesn't get fed, the dog's going to be hungry — and whose responsibility is it? This is where we move past how to homeschool and start thinking about who our children are becoming. #5: A Simple Framework Makes Homeschooling Easier and More Purposeful About five years into homeschooling, I discovered leadership education. And all of a sudden I had purpose. I had intention. I knew why we were homeschooling because I could see the end goal. Do you know why you're homeschooling? More than just getting away from the public school — do you know the real end goal? Andrew Pudewa put me onto leadership education, and it changed the way we homeschooled for the rest of the journey. I figured out our vision. I figured out our mission. I set annual goals for each of the kids. And I became a lot more intentional. When you know your purpose, you can make decisions on curriculum — does this help me accomplish what I'm trying to accomplish? On books — will this help my child think, grow, develop character, understand God's world? On activities — does this serve our purpose as a family, or are we doing it just because everyone else is? On schedule — does our schedule allow room for relationships and real life? Suddenly you're not asking am I doing enough? You're asking what matters most to my family? Use a purpose filter. Before you add something to your homeschool — books, activities, whatever — ask does this help me raise the child I want to raise? If the answer is no or you're not sure, don't automatically do it. A Note for Episode 200 When I started this podcast back in 2022, I wasn't thinking about episode 200. I was thinking about one episode at a time. One conversation. One homeschool mom who needed to hear — you're not failing. You don't have to do everything. You don't have to do it alone. Thank you to everyone who has downloaded an episode, shared one, left a review, sent a kind message, or told another mom about it. That means the world to me. Here are the five things I'd go back and tell myself: You don't have to teach everything every day or every year. More isn't necessarily better. Teach your kids how to think. Build character and leadership intentionally. And have a purpose for your homeschool. Enrollment for Raising Leaders, Not Followers is open for the fall class right now. We start next week. If this is the kind of homeschool you want, I would love to help you put it all together — the things I learned the hard way, so you don't have to. The link is in the show notes wherever you're listening. If you have questions, send me an email or leave a comment. Here's to the next episode, the next 200, and the next season of your homeschool.

  • August 11 · 12 min

    199: Thinking Differently Changes Your Homeschool Forever

    Most schools reward kids who give the right answer — but real life rewards kids who know how to ask the right question. If you want your child to lead instead of simply follow, thinking differently about education is where everything starts. This episode shows you exactly how to shift from raising compliant students to raising confident thinkers, with 3 practical changes you can make starting this week: ✅Why followers wait for answers but leaders learn to ask better questions ✅The difference between checking memory and developing real thinking skills ✅How discussion builds discernment, communication, and confidence in your kids ✅Why one better question this week can do more than an entire curriculum change ✅What two brothers with no college degrees teach us about thinking differently ✅One practical thing to do this week that builds wisdom instead of knowledge Click the link below to join the Raising Leaders Not Followers Early Access List and get a private homeschool chat. Resources for You Raising Leaders Not Followers Early Access List FREE Masterclass - Start School Right in 2026 STOP your overwhelm and find confidence for this school year Show Notes: Followers Wait for Answers. Leaders Ask Better Questions. Imagine your child is 25 years old. The boss gives them a problem no one has seen before. How does your child react? Do they say — well, what am I supposed to do? Or do they say — let me think through this? That's the difference between followers and leaders. Most schools reward students with the right answer. Leaders become leaders because they learn to ask the right questions. Today I want to challenge you with one of the biggest assumptions we've inherited from the current school system. The School System Was Built for Workers, Not Leaders Traditional education often rewards memorization, compliance, following directions, and getting the right answers. Those skills have value. But leadership requires something different. Leaders evaluate. Leaders solve problems. Leaders make decisions where there isn't one correct answer. The Wright Brothers Never Had Engineering Degrees Most people think of the Wright brothers as one person. There were really two of them — and they used their individual giftedness together. Wilbur Wright was steady and focused. His father described him as never rattled in thought or temper. He was highly intelligent, an avid reader, a talented writer, and a gifted speaker. After an accident in high school, he was uncertain of his health and future, dropped his plans to attend Yale, and spent most of his time alone — reading and thinking. Orville Wright was curious, optimistic, energetic, and impulsive. He had a wide range of interests, a quick mind, and was always coming up with new inventions. He actually chose a series of advanced college prep courses in his junior year of high school — but that meant he couldn't graduate at the end of his senior year. So he just decided not to attend school that term. That's right. The co-inventor of the airplane never graduated from high school. Despite their lack of formal diplomas, both brothers committed to broad learning. All the reading they did would have been equivalent to — or bigger than — a modern four-year college degree. And they did it on their own, outside of school. Neither one had an engineering degree. They owned a bicycle shop. They questioned accepted scientific ideas instead of assuming the experts were right. They built wind tunnels, tested hundreds of wing designs, and learned by experimenting. Their willingness to think independently led to the first successful powered flight. They weren't simply collecting information. They were learning how to think through problems. And that's what I want for my kids — and I think that's what you want for yours too. The Questions That Develop Thinking — Not Just Memory Instead of asking what did you learn today, ask what surprised you today? What question do you still have? There's a real difference. What did you learn just repeats facts. What surprised you and what questions do you still have make your kids think. One checks memory. The other develops thinking. For older kids, ask what do you think about this topic? That forces them to have an opinion. And opinion is a higher-level thinking skill. Followers wait for answers. Leaders ask better questions. And great education is less about you, mom, giving answers — it's about teaching children to investigate. It's about asking questions and letting them discover answers. Instead of saying here's what to believe or here's what to know, teach them to ask — is that true? How do we know? What's the evidence? Does this line up with Scripture? What are the consequences? Charlotte Mason understood this over a hundred years ago. She believed education is the science of relations — that children connect ideas, not just memorize facts. She encouraged narration, living books, nature study, and discussion because those require children to think instead of repeat information. Louis Braille Changed the World by Refusing to Accept the Problem Louis Braille lost eyesight in one eye at age three, and by the time he was five, an infection took his sight in both eyes. But instead of giving up, he kept learning. Schools for the blind had almost no useful books. And so he thought — there has to be a better way. His curiosity changed education around the world. At age 15, he invented the Braille reading system, which has impacted millions — possibly billions — of blind readers around the world. His education wasn't just about covering subjects. It was about persistence, creativity, and solving real problems. Followers in life accept problems. Leaders solve them. The Power of Discussion One reason homeschooling is so powerful is that you can have real conversations with your children. Discussions develop thinking in ways that lectures, worksheets, and fill-in-the-blank assignments simply cannot. Try asking — why do you think the character acted the way they did? What would you have done? Was it wise? Is this what God would want? Those open-ended questions build discernment, communication skills, and confidence — all part of leadership education. Katherine Johnson was a NASA mathematician featured in the movie Hidden Figures. She was known for asking serious, careful questions and checking her calculations before accepting anything. Even after computers arrived, astronauts trusted her mathematical reasoning. John Glenn specifically requested that Katherine run the same numbers by hand — and said if she says they're good to go, I'm ready to go. Leadership often begins by asking better questions. That's exactly what Katherine Johnson did. What to Do This Week When your child asks a question this week — don't answer it. Ask them instead — what do you think? How could we find out? You might be amazed at what happens when your children have permission from you to wrestle with ideas. Replace one answer this week with a question. Just watch what happens. The goal isn't smarter kids. It's wiser leaders. Twenty years from now, would you rather your child know every state capital — or know how to make wise decisions? Knowledge matters. But wisdom matters more. In Proverbs it says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. That is the direction we need to go if we're raising godly Christian leaders — not simply educated children, but leaders who love God, think biblically, and influence the world around them. Every discussion, every read aloud, every family conversation, every dinner table question can become leadership training. Leadership education is at the heart of my Raising Leaders, Not Followers course. Right now there's an early access VIP list open. Join it and you'll be invited to my private VIP chat, get early access to Raising Leaders, and receive $150 in early bird bonuses.

  • August 3 · 11 min

    198: Good Grades Are Not Enough for Real Life Success

    Good grades can open a door — but wisdom determines what your child does after they walk through it. Your child could finish every curriculum, earn good grades, and still walk into adulthood completely unprepared — and most homeschool moms never see it coming until it is too late. The trap is real, and this episode shows you exactly how to avoid it. We are breaking down why good grades are not enough and sharing 2 practical things you can start doing this week to raise kids who are ready for real life, not just the next test: ✅Why good grades measure compliance and memory but miss what actually determines adult success ✅The difference between knowledge and wisdom — and which one the real world rewards ✅What the most influential problem-solvers in history had in common that no test could measure ✅ONE dinner table question that trains wisdom starting tonight ✅How to stop solving your child's problems & start building real independence instead Click the link below to join the Raising Leaders Not Followers Early Access List and get up to $150 in bonuses plus a private homeschool chat. Resources for You Raising Leaders Not Followers early access waitlist (FREE fireside chat, FREE Back to School Pack, & up to $150 in bonuses) Show Notes: What If Your Child Got Straight A's and Still Wasn't Prepared for Adulthood? What if your child got straight A's, completed every assignment, finished every curriculum — and still wasn't prepared for adulthood? That would be really sad and scary. And yet, some of us as homeschoolers, that's exactly what we're focused on — getting good grades. But do good grades really prepare your kids for what they need in adult life? When someone is 45 years old and looking for a job, does anyone go back and look at their high school transcript? I don't think so. Real life success and good grades are not the same thing. The Trap Many Homeschool Moms Fall Into A lot of homeschoolers assume that good grades mean success. Advanced academics, harder and harder curriculum — that'll be a better education. But none of that is automatically true. That's what most of us were taught because we grew up on the conveyor belt. Always checking off the boxes. If we check off all the right boxes, everything will be fine. But many top students struggle when nobody tells them what to do. They can follow really well — but they can't necessarily think for themselves. David Green Started Hobby Lobby in His Garage David Green, who founded Hobby Lobby, grew up in a poor family and did not attend college. After high school, he started a business by learning through hard work and hands-on experience. In 1970, he started building frames in his garage and selling them to family and friends. Two years later, in 1972, he founded the first Hobby Lobby store. His business became one of the top privately held retail companies in America. But he didn't build Hobby Lobby by chasing grades or accumulating knowledge. He focused on principles that mattered — honesty, serving customers, treating employees well, and honoring God through his business. The skills that actually grew that company were not good grades. They were vision, perseverance, leadership, problem solving, and the ability to make wise decisions. Education is not only about what someone knows. It's about who they will become and how they will use their giftedness to serve others. What Good Grades Actually Measure Good grades measure the ability to remember information, complete assignments, follow directions, and perform on a test. Those aren't bad skills — they're just incomplete. Real life requires other types of skills. Making decisions without a teacher or parent nearby. Managing your time. Solving problems. Following God's direction. Leading a family. Evaluating culture through a biblical lens. Your kids may not become CEO of Hobby Lobby or president of the United States, but they will influence the people around them. And almost all of them will grow up to be moms and dads who need to lead their families well. That is what leadership is — influence. Nothing more, nothing less. It's not the ability to pass a test, but the ability to lead well, that will send your kids into adulthood ready for real life. Florence Nightingale Didn't Save Lives With Good Grades During the Crimean War, Florence Nightingale arrived at a military hospital where soldiers were dying at alarming rates. Most people assumed the dying was just from wounds. But Florence looked further. She observed what many overlooked — the hospital was filthy. The sewage contaminated the water, ventilation was poor, beds were crowded. Instead of accepting that, she asked — what is causing this problem and how can we fix it? She organized nurses to clean the wards, improve sanitation, increase ventilation, and improve patient care. The death rate plummeted. Florence wasn't remembered for the medical information she knew. She became a leader because she observed, thought critically, and had the courage to do what needed to be done. She revolutionized nursing through observation, leadership, and courage — not through a test score. The Difference Between Knowledge and Wisdom Knowledge is knowing facts. Wisdom is the ability to apply truth. Let me give you a few examples. A smart person knows how compound interest works. A wise person avoids unnecessary debt. A smart person can win an argument. A wise person knows when not to argue. A smart person memorizes Bible verses. A wise person lives them out. Louis Pasteur is another great example. In the 1850s and 60s, French winemakers kept losing their wine because it spoiled, and most people just accepted it as the way things were. But Pasteur wasn't satisfied. He started observing under a microscope. He discovered microbes were causing the wine and milk to spoil. He asked how we could stop it. He found that heating the liquid would kill harmful microbes without ruining the taste. That discovery is called pasteurization. Pasteur didn't become influential because he memorized a science textbook. He became influential because he learned how to ask good questions, investigate carefully, and work toward a solution. That's what I want for your kids — to see problems, collect information, observe, think, persevere, and find solutions. What to Do Tonight At dinner this week — and I hope you're eating dinner together — ask your kids one day this week: what decision did you make today, and why did you make that decision? You're training wisdom, not just knowledge. You might be really surprised at what they say. And when your kids are stuck and don't know how to figure something out — don't solve it for them. Ask them — what do you think? Why? Give them a chance to work through it on their own. Good grades can open doors. But wisdom determines what happens after they open that door. The goal isn't academic kids. The goal is prepared adults. That is something we teach in Raising Leaders, Not Followers. Right now, there's an early access opportunity — join the VIP list and you'll get an exclusive private homeschool chat with me to help you become confident this year and make wise decisions for your upcoming school year. You'll also get early access to Raising Leaders and up to $150 in bonuses. The link is in the show notes wherever you're watching or listening. If this meant anything to you, would you please share it with one or two other homeschoolers or in a co-op? And if you're listening on a podcast, it would mean the world to me if you'd leave a five-star review.

  • July 28 · 12 min

    197: Real Education or Just Assigning Work?

    There’s a quiet difference between a child who checks a box and a child who actually understands — and most homeschool moms don’t realize they’ve been getting one when they thought they were getting the other. Real education looks different than what most of us grew up with, and it’s time to talk about why that matters in your homeschool. This episode gives you 3 practical things to try this week to shift from assigning work to cultivating real education — without overhauling your whole curriculum. ✅Why a completed worksheet is not proof your child learned anything ✅Why checking boxes feels like success but often isn’t ✅ONE question to ask after every read-aloud that changes everything ✅How to remove one piece of busy work tomorrow — without replacing it ✅What Beatrix Potter’s childhood reveals about real education ✅How to shift from completion tasks to conversation that builds critical thinkers If you’ve ever wondered whether you’re doing enough, this episode will shift your focus from checking boxes to building thinkers. Click the links below to grab the Raising Leaders waitlist and lock in your VIP bonus. Resources for You Raising Leaders, Not Followers — VIP Waitlist New Homeschool Community Support Group Show Notes: Checking the Box Is Not the Same as Real Education It's 3 p.m. on a homeschool day. Your dining table is covered with textbooks, workbooks, and colored pencils. Your child proudly draws a thick black line through that last math box. And you're thinking — thank goodness, we did it, we finished the day. But if we're completely honest — did actual life-changing education take place in your home just because your child checked the box? Or was he just trying to get you off his back so he could go play video games? There is a massive and quiet difference between checking a box to finish a lesson and a child who deeply understands a concept. The Problem With Falling in Love With Curriculum A lot of homeschool moms want the best for their kids, but accidentally fall in love with curriculum. You buy whatever the thickest, current teacher manual is. You assign every problem on page 42. You treat that scope and sequence like it came down from Mount Sinai. Today I want to talk about doing something better. Beatrix Potter Didn't Need a Checklist Long before Beatrix Potter was a literary icon — before Peter Rabbit and all those wonderful books — her education was completely devoid of a rigid checklist. She was left as a child to explore her family's extensive library and to wander the fields of Scotland. She spent hours meticulously observing, sketching, and dissecting flowers, trees, and nature. The bunnies. How do you think she learned to draw and paint Peter Rabbit? Her parents prioritized deep, independent observation over rigid schoolwork and busywork. And she developed an elite, self-taught mastery of scientific illustration. Her storytelling is beyond wonderful — and it came from real learning, not a prepackaged curriculum. Does that sound like your homeschool? Do you want it to? Checking a Box Feels Productive — But Is It? Checking a box feels incredible. It's a dopamine hit. We are all busy juggling laundry, dinner, and toddlers. A completed worksheet is tangible proof that we're doing enough. And that is one of my biggest questions — am I doing enough? Am I doing the right things? But public school systems are built like automated factories. They want you to conform and complete whatever they tell you, instead of think critically. They teach your kids what to think and how to pass a standardized exam, instead of how to navigate real life. When we force our kids to complete every single line of a prepackaged curriculum just because it's there, we accidentally keep them on that conveyor belt. We're training them to be professional rule followers — people who wait until the boss tells them what to do because they can't really think for themselves. True leaders do not wait for a worksheet. They look at a problem, analyze it using the tools of learning, and formulate an original solution. One Baby Step Off the Conveyor Belt Go find your student's daily planner, spreadsheet, or schedule book right now. Look for one recurring assignment block — maybe an automated daily vocabulary worksheet or a repetitive review page. Find one. And draw a single line through what it will be tomorrow. If you're listening in the summer, think of one thing you usually do during the school year that you could cross off. Don't replace it. Remove it. When you intentionally skip one piece of textbook filler, you're making a conscious choice to quit the checklist, quit the conveyor belt, and let your kids find real meaning in learning. Sometimes that's exactly why they're not excited about school — it's boring. It's just boxes to check. The Difference Between Assigning Work and Cultivating Real Education There's a myth that if you sit and teach your kids everything, or get videos to teach them everything, that's successful educating. It isn't. If your child can instantly recite a definition word for word but can't explain what it means — they're not really being educated. All they've done is memorize it to survive the afternoon. The next time you finish a read aloud, ask your kids — can you explain to me what we just read in your own words? What do you think? Why do you think this matters? I remember when Hunter was in sixth grade, we were reading a church history book — just one page, a story, not facts and figures. I said, Hunter, what was that about? I don't know. We really had to work on that. Your kids may look like a deer in headlights and say, I don't know. I just read it. If that's the case, you've been assigning work — but not cultivating education. Maria Montessori saw this problem, just like Charlotte Mason did, at the turn of the 20th century. They both realized that children excelled when educators stepped back and let kids follow their natural instincts and interests — and then learn how to solve problems within those interests. That produces highly confident, self-directed thinkers who have the actual tools of learning. Turn Completion Into Conversation Stop asking your kids — did you finish your schoolwork today? Instead, pick one topic they read about and ask — what was most surprising about that science lesson? What was the weirdest thing about that history book we read? Turn it from a completion task to a conversation. Not only will you develop critical thinking — you'll build relationships with your kids as well. If you've listened to this and realized — I think I've just been assigning work — don't feel guilty. You are not alone. Plenty of people are there. I've been there too. But you now have the total freedom in your homeschool to change that mindset. Jump off the conveyor belt, quit checking the boxes, and start creating an environment where kids learn to think critically, communicate persuasively, and love learning for a lifetime. If you're still not sure where to start, Raising Leaders, Not Followers is a six-week biblical model framework that gives you a completely different game plan. We're opening doors for the fall class soon and the waitlist is open now. VIPers get $150 in bonus items just for being on the VIP list, plus a special VIP session before the class opens. Get on the VIP waitlist here. If you also just want to dip your toe in, I'm working on a brand new homeschool support community — early access means a discount. That link is in the show notes as well. Please share this with a friend who feels like they're not doing enough, or a co-op that's trying to get away from the conveyor belt. That would mean so much to me.

  • July 20 · 14 min

    196: Shark Week Activities to Beat Screen Time This Summer

    Your kids are glued to screens all summer and you are running out of ideas to pull them away. But what if 3 items from your kitchen pantry could spark more curiosity than any tablet ever could? Shark Week is the perfect excuse to make it happen. This episode walks you through 3 hands-on shark week activities that bust common shark myths, teach real marine biology, and get your kids off screens without a single worksheet or complicated plan: ✅Why hands-on observation builds deeper thinking skills than any screen or textbook ✅Discover how Shark Week can spark curiosity beyond marine biology, inspiring kids to ask better questions and pursue learning on their own. ✅How following your child's natural interests develops confidence, critical thinking, and the drive to keep learning long after the lesson ends. ✅Practical ways to replace passive learning with hands-on exploration that encourages curiosity, resilience, and independent learners. Resources for You: Shark Unit Study Flash Sale — save $10 with code SHARKWEEK (you pay only $5) Show Notes: Your Secret Weapon for Getting Kids Off Screens This Summer It's a hot summer morning in July. You planned for a peaceful, screen-free summer. Instead, you're exhausted, and that phrase — Mom, I'm bored — is just echoing through your house. There's a magnetic pull between your kids and their tablets, the TV, the video games. And somehow that is winning the battle, especially with high-energy boys. They're zoning out in front of those screens and you feel guilty because you want them to love learning, not consume a bunch of pixels. I've got a secret weapon for you today. You don't need a complicated curriculum or a lecture to fix this. You need a topic that instantly captures their imagination. And with Shark Week coming up next week, we're going to use sharks to get your kids off those tablets and into real learning — right at the kitchen table. Mary Anning and the Power of Curiosity Before we dive in, I want to give you a little historical background. There was a woman named Mary Anning in the 19th century. She was completely self-taught. She lived in England, gathered fossils, and had no formal science background. Out of 9 kids, only Mary and her older brother Joseph survived to adulthood. Life was hard. But she had a dad with great influence. Her father Richard was a cabinet maker and an avid fossil collector. His five-year-old sidekick Mary would come along and he would show her how to collect fossils at the beaches where they worked. He meticulously taught her how to locate specimens, get them out safely, and clean the delicate finds. Then he would put what they found in the storefront of his cabinet shop. Dads, you have a great impact on your kids. Mary was denied formal education — like most women and girls of her time — but she taught herself to read. And she used curiosity, drive, and perseverance to make contributions to science that are still recognized today. That is what I want for your kids in this episode. Before You Start — Grab Three Things Go to your kitchen cabinet right now and get these three things. A bottle of cooking oil. A small empty plastic bottle. And a handful of pennies. Just put them on the counter. Physically setting them out says — today is a hands-on learning day. Myth Buster #1: Sharks Sink Like Stones If They Stop Swimming The myth is that sharks sink like stones if they stop swimming. Here's the truth — bony fish have swim bladders filled with gas to float. Sharks don't have swim bladders. Instead, they have a massive, oily liver that acts like a natural flotation device. Oil is lighter than water, so that giant oily liver keeps them buoyant. Here's the activity. Fill your sink with water. Drop in your empty bottle and let your kids watch. It sinks. Now ask them — what do you think happens if I fill the bottle with oil? Don't tell them. Let them observe and be curious. Fill the bottle with cooking oil, close it tightly, and drop it in. It floats. The oil is lighter than the water and rises to the top. Super easy, but so powerful. Myth Buster #2: Sharks Can Smell Blood From Miles Away Through Magic It's not magic — it's a highly acute olfactory navigation system. Sharks track scent gradients through water currents. God gave them the ability to smell, and that is essentially their steering wheel. Like we drive a car with our eyes, sharks navigate with their smell. Here's the activity. Get a bowl of warm water. Have your kids sit perfectly still. Drop red food coloring on one side and watch what happens. The current in that warm water carries the food coloring across the bowl — just like the way a scent pathway travels to a shark through the ocean. Let them observe, ask questions, and come up with conclusions. This is exactly what Charlotte Mason was talking about when she said kids learn best when they're allowed to interact with the real world — not reading dry textbook summaries. When kids use their own senses to observe nature, they develop deep analytical skills. No prepackaged textbook or screen can duplicate this. Myth Buster #3: Losing a Tooth Is an Emergency for a Shark For us humans, we get two sets of teeth. Lose one from the second set and it's gone for good. Sharks are completely different. They have a conveyor belt system of teeth and can grow up to 35,000 teeth in a lifetime. Their teeth don't have deep roots, so they fall out easily while hunting — and new ones just move right into place. Here's the activity. You'll need Play-Doh or modeling clay and your pennies — or small pebbles. Roll the clay into a thick strip representing a shark's jaw. Push the pennies in one by one, layered behind each other like shingles on a roof. Have one of your kids pull out the front tooth and watch how the others shift right into place. Simple visual, powerful concept. What to Do From Here Those are your three myth busters — the oily liver, the olfactory steering system, and the conveyor belt tooth system. From here, get your library card and spend no more than five minutes searching sharks online. Pick up two or three books, or a documentary if you have DVDs. Give your kids immediate, high-quality material to dig into right after they make a mess at the kitchen table. Hands-on learning gets kids off the screens. I know for a fact — when I go visit my grandkids, they are not on their screens. They're not even watching TV. But it does take energy to plan, to find the books, to build activities, and to organize a week from scratch. If you want to skip the planning completely and be ready for Shark Week with everything done for you, grab our Shark Unit Study. Today is day one of our flash sale — use the code SHARKWEEK by Friday and save $10, which means you pay only $5. You get shark life cycle activities, a curated list of books and videos with activities to go with each one, these three myth busters, shark-themed snacks, crafts, shark binoculars, and an ocean unit tie-in as well. It's plug-and-play for your summer. If this sparked one little idea, would you share it with one homeschool mom or your co-op? That would mean the world to me.

  • July 14 · 11 min

    195: Why Some Homeschool Graduates Thrive (and Others Struggle)

    Some homeschool graduates launch into adulthood with confidence, while others finish all the curriculum and still feel stuck. The difference is rarely grades — and this episode is going to show you exactly what it is. We are breaking down the shift from raising students to raising homeschool graduates who are truly prepared for real life, with 3 practical things you can start doing this week: ✅Why completed curriculum and good grades do not equal real-life readiness ✅1 question every homeschool mom needs to ask about building life skills in your kids ✅What truly successful adults have in common — and how to build it before they leave home ✅Why character, initiative, and problem solving matter more than any test score ✅How to let your child solve one problem this week without stepping in — starting today Grab the Free Character Building Mini Chart mentioned in this episode and start building what really matters in your homeschool today. Resources for You Free Character Building Mini Chart New homeschool support community early access Show Notes: Why Some Homeschool Graduates Launch Into Adulthood With Confidence — And Others Don't Have you ever wondered why some homeschool graduates launch into adulthood with confidence while others seem stuck — even though both finished their curriculum and both made good grades? What if you are checking off all the boxes but missing the thing that actually prepares your child for adult life? Today we're talking about the difference between information and preparation for real life. What Traditional Education Rewards vs. What Real Life Rewards Many graduates know facts, but they struggle with decision-making, responsibility, work ethic, communication, and initiative. Traditional education — at least for the past 200 years — rewards compliance and completion. Real life rewards wisdom, perseverance, and leadership. We tend to measure success by completed curriculum, grades, transcripts, and test scores. Those things are easy to measure, so we feel secure in them. And yet that isn't always what is best for our kids. The things that are easy to measure aren't always what will prepare them for real life. Character, wisdom, initiative, responsibility, leadership — those are harder to measure. And yet those are the qualities that determine success as an adult. So I want you to ask yourself this question today. What adult skill are you intentionally building in your children right now? Time management? Communication? Problem solving? Responsibility? Grab a piece of paper and write down three things you want your kids to be able to do or be known for at the age of 25. Then see if those are things you're actually working on with them right now. You might notice that most of what you write down are character qualities — not academic achievements. Clara Barton Didn't Change the World With a Transcript Clara Barton started the American Red Cross. She was educated largely at home because she was very shy and struggled in traditional settings. She had very little formal schooling compared to what standards are today. Why? Because her family focused on character, service, and practical responsibility. She later founded the American Red Cross and became one of the most influential humanitarians in our history. Her impact didn't come from a high school transcript. It came from compassion, leadership, courage, and a willingness to take responsibility when others wouldn't. Does anyone remember Clara Barton because she completed a curriculum? No. They remember her because she had an impact on others. She served others well. The Real Question Is Not Can They Find Information Information has never been more readily available. Kids can find any fact they want instantly on their phones. The question is not can they find information. The question is can they use that information wisely? Can they solve problems? Can they make wise decisions? Can they think critically? Can they follow God when life gets hard? Those are the things I wanted for my own children. Now that I watch them going through some trials — they're all in their 30s — I am thankful that God is still working in them and they are making wise decisions. What qualities consistently show up in successful adults? The ability to think critically and biblically. To communicate. To solve problems. To keep learning. To have a strong character and a strong work ethic. To persevere. To have integrity and dignity. These are not measured by a worksheet or a test score. Booker T. Washington and the Tuskegee Model Booker T. Washington is one of my favorite historical characters. He was born into slavery. He had very little formal education. He pursued learning relentlessly and went to Hampton Institute, where he was trained not only academically but in discipline, responsibility, and leadership. He later founded Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. When you went to Tuskegee, yes, you chose an academic major — but you also had to choose a practical activity you would use to help build the university. Some students were construction workers who built the new buildings. Some were cooks who cooked the food all the students ate. Some were gardeners who grew the food. It was a dual pathway to graduation — academics and real-world responsibility together. Booker T. Washington's success came from perseverance, leadership, and responsibility. And in one particular year, there were more millionaires from Tuskegee than from Harvard, Yale, and Princeton combined — because his system worked. He didn't just teach academics. He taught life skills that students could use for the rest of their lives. The education that changes life isn't just information. It includes character formation and practical wisdom. Who Is Your Child Becoming? Many moms can plan subjects, lessons, and activities. But few intentionally plan character building, leadership opportunities, decision-making practice, independent thinking, real-world responsibility, work ethic, self-discipline, communication, and biblical wisdom. Those are all things your children need to be successful as adults. Most homeschool moms ask — what should my child learn? But the real question is — who is my child becoming? Make a list of who you want your child to be when they leave your home. If they're five, you have lots of time. If they're 15, that's okay too. There is still time. God is gracious and He has the Holy Spirit — and that is what can take you through and get your kids prepared. Most adults don't struggle because they forgot algebra. They struggle because they can't manage money, relationships, priorities, or decisions. If your child graduated tomorrow, what would you want people to say about them? I know what I wanted. I wanted someone to say they're following Jesus. They honor Jesus. They live a life of godly character. They have perseverance, work ethic, and integrity. It's not what your kids are memorizing — it's who they become. What to Do This Week Let your child solve one problem without you. Don't step in immediately. Give them time to think it through. That builds lifelong skills. If they're not sure where to start, ask them — what do you think you should do first? Let them find the answer. That one shift — from solving it for them to asking them to think — is the beginning of everything. If this episode helped you, would you please share it with someone? That would mean the world to me. I also have two things for you. First, a free character building mini chart — the link is in the show notes. Second, I'm building a limited community of homeschool moms where we can encourage each other and answer questions about where you are right now. If you'd like early access, there is a sign-up link in the show notes as well. year?

  • July 7 · 18 min

    194: Why Your Homeschool Doesn't Need More Curriculum

    You have been researching homeschool curriculum for weeks, filling carts, reading reviews, and asking everyone what they use. What if none of that matters as much as what you do before you ever open a single book? This episode shares 3 simple tips that will make a bigger difference in your homeschool this year than any homeschool curriculum purchase ever could: ✅Why your attitude and atmosphere are more important than the curriculum you choose ✅How to take a CEO planning date that prepares you for the whole year ✅1 tradition that creates lasting memories your kids will still talk about decades from now ✅3 questions to ask about each child before buying any homeschool curriculum ✅Why knowing your learner always comes before choosing any program Join the waitlist for the new homeschool support community mentioned in this episode and be first to know when it opens. Resources for You Raising Leaders Not Followers Course waitlist New homeschool support community waitlist Your Biggest Homeschool Decision This Year Is Not Curriculum Raise your hand if you've already started looking for curriculum. Maybe you've already spent hours reading reviews or filled up an online shopping cart. What if I told you your biggest decision in your homeschool this year is not curriculum? It's the atmosphere and the expectations you create before you ever open a book. Today I'm sharing three simple tips that will make a bigger difference in your homeschool than which curriculum you buy. Tip #1: Prepare Yourself Before You Prepare for School There are moms like yourself that spend weeks organizing books, labeling bins, printing out schedules — but almost no time preparing themselves. What kind of mom do you want to be this year? Peaceful? Flexible? Intentional? Joyful? You really do need to decide that before you move forward, because when you are ready, your kids will automatically follow along. I want to strongly encourage you to take a CEO homeschool planning date. I used to do this. I still remember one particular planning date — we were living in Idaho, and there was a coffee shop called Bootser's. I went up there for a whole Saturday morning and worked on things to prepare for our homeschool that year. Get somewhere you can be by yourself with a notebook and a calendar. You're not going to plan the whole year — I don't even understand when people say they plan the whole year in a day. What if your child, three weeks in, doesn't understand the Pythagorean theorem and you've got to go back? Plan an overall idea of what you'll cover each month, but the weekly details? Plan one or two weeks at a time. Life happens. My past two weeks, I had no idea I was going to spend two weeks helping my mom recover from surgery. That just wasn't what we expected. But I had the freedom and the blessing to go be there for her. One of the most important things you can do before that planning date is pray. Ask God what He wants you to do, how to plan for this year, what is special about each of your children right now. When mom is prepared emotionally, the whole homeschool changes. Charlotte Mason was having dinner at her home once and asked her guests — what is the most important thing in your home? Someone said bookcases. Someone said the cradle. She said no. Space is the most precious thing, because that will help you clarify your attitude and create a life-giving atmosphere. Mom, a life-giving atmosphere starts with you. For some of you that may mean purging the clutter. Have a garage sale before September. Maybe it means getting rid of some extra activities — even that tournament team your kids are on. You need to look and see what is really life-giving and what will make a lifelong impact on your children. Charlotte Mason said — education is an atmosphere, a discipline of life. And a mother's attitude shapes the home more than the curriculum you choose. She spent enormous time preparing mothers, not just preparing lessons. Tip #2: Create Traditions Your Kids Will Remember Almost all of you get on social media and take a first-day-of-school photo — and those are cute, I love them too. But I want to challenge you to create at least one tradition that goes deeper than a photo. My mom took each of us four kids out for an individual back-to-school lunch before school started. I still remember sitting in a little restaurant in the mall with the windows open where you could watch people walk by. We'd go buy school supplies after lunch. I do this with my grandkids now — usually Jason's Deli because they can get a free ice cream cone with their meal. But the number one tradition in our home? Ice cream sundaes for breakfast on the first day of school. The first year I did this, my kids came to the table and their eyes got wide as saucers. Hunter, the youngest, as a senior in high school, still expected ice cream sundaes. Last year I started it with my grandkids, and they came downstairs and were thrilled — because they'd heard all about it from their parents. These weren't educational moments. But they are something my children remember. And something my grandkids are already hearing about and looking forward to. Choose one tradition this year — not ten, just one. Maybe it's pancakes shaped like their age. Maybe it's donuts with dad. Maybe it's a special prayer or a family blessing over the children on the first day. Maybe it's a lunch date or buying something new. You see, God knows children remember experiences better than lectures. In Deuteronomy 6, God created annual family traditions around Israel's calendar. In Joshua 4, they built a stone memorial so that when children asked, what do these stones mean, the parents could tell the story of what God had done. I have a memory from 50 years ago — I was in a high school youth group, we went to Colorado, we were studying Joshua, and we each brought back a small stone and built a stone memorial in the churchyard. I don't know if it's still there. But I still have that memory. That's the thing about memories. They come back and jog your mind. What experiences are you giving your children? Tip #3: Don't Choose Curriculum Until You Know Your Family Many of you are going backwards. You're choosing the curriculum first and then trying to fit your family into it. Instead of asking what curriculum should I buy, ask these questions first. Who are my children? How do they learn? What season is our family in? What kind of homeschool do I want? If you're homeschooling a six and eight-year-old while a two and four-year-old are running around, that is going to look completely different than when those older ones are teenagers. You need to know your family before you ever start choosing homeschool curriculum. What is your personality? Are you willing to change something if it's not working for your kids? I remember using a particular math program all the way through, but when it came to algebra, it just was not clicking for one of our kids. I changed it and found something that worked. Are you so tied to the choices you already made that you'd fit the child into the curriculum instead of the other way around? What is your family's schedule? Do you have special needs in your family? How big is your house? What is your stress level? Just because your friend loves a curriculum doesn't mean it will be right for your family. Before buying anything, write down these three questions for each of your children. What is one strength of this child? What is one struggle of this child? What do I want this child to love this year? Then buy the curriculum. Maria Montessori developed her educational ideas at the turn of the 20th century by observing children before she ever created any materials. She didn't begin with the curriculum — she began with the child and their needs. Her students became confident, enthusiastic, and self-directed learners. They had the tools of learning. They could think critically, work collaboratively, and act boldly. Great educators always start with the learner, not the program. What You Actually Need As I've talked to hundreds of homeschool moms, I've realized something. You don't need another curriculum recommendation. What you need is encouragement. You need a community of other people walking beside you. You need accountability. So instead of asking what should we study, ask — who are we becoming as a family? What atmosphere do I want in our home? What traditions will my kids remember? What actually fits our family — not everyone else's? Those questions will shape your homeschool far more than another curriculum purchase. Moms don't need more curriculum. They need support. You don't need another planner — you need confidence. You don't need more information — you need community. If you'd like to hear first when our new homeschool support community opens — with a special founding member discount — join the waitlist at howtohomeschoolmychild.com/wait. The link is in the show notes wherever you're listening. And if you're watching on YouTube, would you please leave a comment and let me know your biggest takeaway? What is the one thing you're going to implement this week as you plan for your next homeschool year?

  • June 30 · 40 min

    193: What Sports Teach Kids About Character Development

    What if the sport your child plays every week is one of the most powerful character development tools you have — and you are not fully using it yet? Character development through sports goes so much deeper than winning and losing. This episode pulls back the curtain on what it actually takes to raise coachable, confident, resilient kids, sharing 5 practical insights from a coach with 26 years of experience at the college and NBA level: ✅The number one life skill that separates great players from average ones — and it is not talent ✅Why 70 percent of kids quit youth sports by age 13 and the surprising reason behind it ✅The one thing every parent should say after a game — and nothing more ✅What you say on the ride home after a game matters more than you think ✅How to turn failure into the most powerful character-building moment of all ✅The simple 3-step approach to test taking and decision making that builds real confidence Check out the resources mentioned in this episode and start building character development through sports in your family today. Resources for You On the Right Path website and all resources On the Right Path six-book series for kids ages 3 and up Life and Basketball 12-week interactive curriculum for middle and high school Online educational classroom with videos from NBA players on life skills Show Notes: Building Leadership and Life Skills Through Sports — A Conversation With Brett Gunning Today I have Brett Gunning here, and we're talking about building leadership skills and life skills through sports. I love sports. My kids grew up in a sports family. And Brett has spent 26 years coaching — 14 years at the college level and 12 years in the NBA. What he's sharing today goes way beyond basketball. These are life skills that apply to any sport and really to any area of life. The Number One Life Skill: Be Coachable Brett spent years watching what separated great college players from great NBA players. And it kept coming back to one thing — being coachable. Being teachable. When a parent, teacher, or coach gets on you, it's most likely rooted in a desire to help you. But a lot of kids can't get past the ego part to see that. They can't move from why are they getting on me to — this person loves me, they care about me, what is the message they're trying to give me? For as simple as it sounds, most kids are not coachable. So that's where we have to start. Whether it's basketball, football, gymnastics, music — whatever it is — being coachable is the foundation. Honesty and Letting Kids Make Decisions Brett learned from a great coach who used to say — the greatest gift anyone can ever give you is the truth. And that's a biblical principle. When you're honest with your kids, you may not get the result you want immediately. But over time, when they start seeing on their own — every time dad told me something, he was right — that's when it sinks in. Let them make the decision. Then sit down and have the difficult conversations about what happened. Let them learn the natural consequences. Instead of making your kid do something, be honest with them and give them the freedom to make the choice — then hold that conversation afterward about what they could do differently next time. That's what coaches do. Right after a game, the best coaching moment is watching the film and evaluating the decisions. Then sitting down and saying — next time you're in this position, here's something to think about. You can do the same thing at the dinner table. For a spelling test — if they waited until Thursday to study for a Friday test, have the conversation about how to prepare differently next week. That's not punishment. That's coaching. The Ride Home — The Gut Punch That Changed Everything 70% of kids quit youth sports by the age of 13. And the number one reason? The ride home. When Brett Gunning heard that statistic, he said — I'm done. Because making it to the college or professional level is about as likely as winning the lottery. So let's take that pressure off the table. What matters is that your kid has a great experience playing the sport through their high school years. Here's the advice — after every game, say one thing. Just one thing. I loved watching you play today. Not — why didn't you do this? Why didn't you pass to Johnny? Why didn't you catch that? Just — I loved watching you play. Let the ride home be that. Then maybe later that night or the next day, circle back to one teaching moment. But the ride home is where we are losing kids. Don't let that be the moment. Building Confidence and Resilience Brett's eight-year-old son was playing in a basketball game, down one with 10 seconds left, bringing the ball up for the last shot. He missed it. And Brett said — right away I flipped a switch and thought, this is going to be a much bigger teaching moment than if he made it. Because it's easy to handle success. It's hard to handle failure. How do you build resilience? You have to embrace the hard moments. You can't run from them. You don't tell your kid — it was the ref's fault, you got fouled. You say — you missed the shot. It's okay. You're not going to win every game. Keep a great attitude. Shake their hand. You're going to have other opportunities in your life to hit the game-winning shot. And guess what — one week later, same scenario, last game of the season. His son hit the game-winner. He said, "Dad, how did you know?" Brett told him — I didn't know it was going to happen next week. I just knew at some point you were going to be in that spot again. Whether it's a failed test, a hard season, or a breakup — the only way kids become resilient is if we let them face the difficult moments, accept them, and learn from them. If we go through a failure and don't take the lesson from it, it's a wasted opportunity. Teamwork, Humility, and Helping Others If you don't want to be part of something bigger than yourself, go play tennis or golf. If you're going to play a team sport, you are part of something. And that requires humility. In basketball, someone sets a screen so you can get open for a shot. If they don't do their job, you don't get the shot. Having the humility to recognize — I am part of something bigger than myself — is everything. After 26 years in the game, Brett has seen it over and over. When you help someone else get open, the ball moves, your defender goes to help, and you end up getting the shot. You helped someone else and it came back to you. That's a biblical principle. When you help someone, it always comes back. As parents, praise the unselfish things. Don't just say great job, you scored 10 points. Say — great job helping your teammate up when he fell. Great job cheering for your buddy when his head was down. Great job passing. Every kid already knows how many points they scored. Emphasize the things that don't show up in the box score. Be Knowledgeable — Go Seek the Information The second life skill Brett Gunning teaches is being knowledgeable. There has never been more information available. Whatever you want to be great at, every morsel of information is out there. Go get it. Don't wait for someone to hand it to you. Go seek it. Whether it's cooking, basketball, coding, music — no matter what the profession, there are no secrets. It's all available. Our job as parents and coaches is to help kids understand they have to go pursue it. Learn as if you're going to live forever. On the Right Path — Brett's Nonprofit and Book Series Brett started On the Right Path based on Proverbs 22:6 — train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it. He uses basketball to guide kids on the right path at the beginning of their journeys, tying every life skill and basketball skill together with a Bible verse. He has three resources available. A six-book series for younger kids — each book teaches a life skill through basketball in a way kids and parents can read together. A 12-week interactive curriculum called Life and Basketball for middle school and high school ages — a great parent-child learning experience built around the game. And an online educational classroom on the website with videos from current and former NBA players talking about humility, resilience, and being coachable. The Lesson From John Wooden Brett Gunning once had the privilege of spending two to three hours with John Wooden — one of the greatest coaches of all time — about a year before Wooden passed away. At the end of that visit, Brett asked him one question. Coach, you've been through it all. What is the most important thing for a young coach to remember? Wooden thought for a moment. Then he said — patience. Patience with your team. Patience with your players. And that is a great place to close. For as much as we want our kids to get it as fast as possible, because we care about them and we know what's on the other side — we also have to hang in there with them. There's a dynamic of patience that we cannot overlook. You can find Brett's book series, 12-week curriculum, and online educational classroom at ontherightpath.org. Links to all of it are below this video.

  • June 22 · 16 min

    192: Skip the Screen With These Summer Reading Activities

    What if one simple daily habit this summer could reduce screen battles, spark meaningful conversations, and build your child's character — all at the same time? Summer reading activities do not have to be complicated to be powerful. This episode shows how 10 minutes a day of read alouds can transform your summer into something your kids actually remember . . . with practical ideas for every age from elementary all the way through high school: ✅Why read alouds are the single most powerful summer reading activity you can do ✅Age-by-age ideas for elementary, middle school, and high school that actually work ✅How one question after any chapter sparks real conversations without any pressure ✅Simple hands-on activities that pair perfectly with any book your family is reading ✅Why stopping read alouds when kids can read on their own is one of the biggest homeschool mistakes ✅Why 10 consistent minutes beats any elaborate summer learning plan every time Grab the FREE Read Aloud Magic and start your summer reading activities this week. Resources for You Read Aloud Magic (free resource — favorite read aloud books, tips, and ideas, linked in show notes) Show Notes: One Simple Summer Habit That Does More Than Any Curriculum What if I told you there is one simple habit this summer that could reduce screen battles, build family relationships, improve reading skills, spark meaningful conversations, and create memories your kids remember for years? It doesn't require expensive curriculum, elaborate lesson plans, or hours of preparation. Many homeschool moms during the summer are thinking — should we keep schooling? What if they forget something? Do I have enough time to take a break? What if summer learning could feel more like family connection and less like school? Summer is the perfect time to shift from worksheets to stories, from checklists to conversations, and from assignments to curiosity. The One Habit: Read Alouds Read alouds give you so much more than just reading. They give you leadership. They give you learning. They give you character development. They give you family bonding and family conversation. And best of all, one book can work for many ages. I still remember when Steve was reading the Little Bridges series to our kids. We were driving in our giant van and all of a sudden the kids started talking about how that grandpa in the story was so crotchety. They said they'd never want their grandpa to act like that. Did I ask them questions? Did I give them a multiple-choice test? No. They had been so involved in the story that they were comparing the grandpa's character to their own grandpa's. That is family bonding, character development, and family conversation — all happening naturally. How to Get Started This Week If you are not reading aloud, especially in the summer when things slow down, I want to challenge you to pick a book today or tomorrow and start reading 10 minutes a day. Before breakfast, after breakfast, before bed, during lunch while the kids are eating and you have their full attention. Don't overthink it. Consistency matters more than length. It is better to do 10 minutes every single day this summer than to do 30 minutes today and then nothing for five days. Schedule it. Put it on your calendar so it actually happens. What C.S. Lewis Knew About Stories and Imagination C.S. Lewis lost his mother when he was very young, and books became a refuge for him. He spent countless hours in mythology, fairy tales, and classic literature. That imagination was what inspired the Chronicles of Narnia, Mere Christianity, and The Screwtape Letters. He said — reason is the natural organ of truth, but imagination is the organ of meaning. He believed this is where children grasp meaning. Through stories, children encounter courage, sacrifice, honesty, loyalty, and faith before they are even able to explain those things. Read alouds feed both the mind and the heart. They do more than teach reading skills. They shape your kids' imagination, character, and faith. Too often when we start school, we squash that imagination — sit down, do a bunch of workbooks, read this short story and answer these questions. That is not education. We need to protect curiosity and imagination. How did we get to where we are with technology and creativity? Because someone had imagination. And a lot of times that starts with really good books. Summer Reading Activities for Elementary Ages For elementary-aged kids, focus on wonder, curiosity, and family connection. Picture books, chapter books, family read alouds are all great places to start. Read under a tree. Go up in a backyard fort. Spread out a blanket at the park. Read during popsicle time. Build a blanket fort and read underneath it. Listen to audiobooks in the car. Make it fun. Draw your favorite characters. Create a craft related to the story. Act out scenes. Create a treasure hunt based on a book. Laura Ingalls Wilder's mother Caroline was a certified school teacher who believed in education and literacy as essential, not optional. Even during the difficult frontier years, no matter where they lived, she prioritized teaching her children to read. And those family experiences became the inspiration for the entire Little House series. What if you read Little House in the Big Woods this summer? Make homemade butter. Learn a pioneer chore. Cook over a fire. Compare pioneer life to modern life. Easy, fun, and meaningful — not just reading and writing. Summer Reading Activities for Middle School Middle schoolers often become passionate about specific topics. Right now my 11-year-old is into history and has been reading historical fiction. Maybe your kids are into horses, planes, ancient history, missions, nature, or sports. Let your child pick the topic — not you. They will be so much more interested. Then let them read three kinds of books on that topic — a fiction book, a biography, and a nonfiction. For Hunter, that looked like a fictional baseball story, a biography of Derek Jeter, and a book on the science and math of baseball. Ask one question after reading each day — what surprised you? What would you like to learn more about? What would you have done differently in that story? Then maybe do one extra activity. Watch a documentary, go to a museum, cook a related meal, build a model. These things develop critical thinking skills, ownership, and independent learning. I didn't want my kids to always have to do everything a teacher told them. I wanted them to think for themselves, plan for themselves, and make choices for themselves. Summer Reading Activities for High School Many moms stop reading aloud when their kids can read on their own. Big mistake. Many stop in high school. Even bigger mistake. Teens still need discussion. They still need to develop their listening skills. They need exposure to great ideas. And they still need family connection. We still read aloud in the morning, and Steve would read to them several evenings a week. For older kids, try a Christian biography, a mission story, historical fiction, great literature, the classics, or an apologetics book. Don't be afraid of a classic just because the vocabulary feels heavy — the ideas are worth it. Ask questions like — what character stood out today? What would you have done in that person's place? How does this compare to Scripture? What leadership lesson do you see? Choose one biography or one classic and read it together, then discuss it once a week. Over ice cream. At a coffee shop. On an evening walk. Keep it simple. Bringing It All Together Pair your read alouds with simple summer experiences. If you're reading about Harriet Tubman, go outside at night and look at the North Star — she followed it to guide enslaved people to freedom. If you're reading about a historical time period, bake something from that era. Just last week we were reading Why Don't You Get a Horse, Sam Adams? and we made Johnny Cakes for breakfast — which we found out are actually called journey cakes because you could take them on a long journey and they wouldn't go bad. She was telling her dad all about it when he got home that evening. That is learning that sticks. Summer becomes intentional, relational, and memorable — not just educational. You don't have to recreate school. You don't need elaborate plans or expensive curriculum. One book. One conversation. One family read aloud can inspire a love of learning. And inspiring a love of learning? That's the easiest thing read alouds do. To help you get started, grab my free Read Aloud Magic resource in the show notes. It has 20 to 30 of our family's favorite read aloud books, tips for how to run read alouds, and simple ideas for turning books into meaningful family learning experiences — no workbook required. Will you take the read aloud challenge this summer? Start this week — just 10 minutes a day. That's all it takes.

  • June 16 · 32 min

    191: How Youth Filmmaking Builds Real Life Skills

    Your kids are already making videos on their phones — but what if that creativity became something much bigger? Youth filmmaking is one of the most powerful ways to build storytelling, teamwork, and real-world skills all at the same time. David Alford, of Cross Purposes Products, pulls back the curtain on what it actually takes to make a film from scratch, sharing 5 practical insights every aspiring young filmmaker needs to know before they ever pick up a camera: ✅Why the story always comes before the equipment in youth filmmaking ✅The biggest mistake young filmmakers make that loses the audience every time ✅How to find free locations, borrow gear, and a willing crew in your community ✅What 4 months of pre-production looks like and why it makes everything work ✅How a $6,000 short film made it to film festivals and international distribution ✅Why telling stories from a Christian worldview matters more now than ever Visit Crosspurposes Productions to watch the films mentioned in this episode and reach out if you want guidance on getting started. Resources for You Cross Purposes short film and all films Contact email for filmmaking questions Cross Purposes available on Pureflix, Tubi, Apple TV, TBN, Amazon, and international platforms Life Skills Leadership Summit Show Notes: Making Movies With Your Kids — A Conversation With Filmmaker David Alford Today I have filmmaker David Alford here, and we're talking about a topic I personally think you'll find exciting — making movies. When I think about my grandkids, they're always making movies with my phone. Kids today are walking around with little movie studios in their hands. So let's talk about what's actually possible. How David Got Started — And How Homeschool Kids Changed Everything David is a graduate of UT Austin with a degree in radio, television, and film. He worked in Christian radio for about 12 years as a drive-time radio host, then did some television work at a local ABC affiliate. But he'd never done the film part of his degree. So in his 50s, he decided to round off the trifecta — and he started making movies. He also became a homeschool dad. His kids grew up in a community of homeschool families, and over time that community became his surrogate family. He was a drama teacher at a local theater and had this pool of artistic, creative kids around him who were interested in storytelling. When it came time to make his first film, he pulled those homeschool kids in — some as actors, some as crew. All you have to do is put a task in front of homeschool kids and they'll figure it out. Tell them to learn about makeup or lighting, and they'd go study on YouTube and come to set ready to go. With a makeshift crew of college film graduates and homeschool kids, they made a short film called Cross Purposes over four days. It had heart. A lot of heart. And that little film — made on a shoestring budget with mostly volunteers — got picked up by a distribution company and is now being distributed worldwide in several languages. Where to Start: Tell the Story Only You Can Tell If you want to make a movie, start with what's around you. Start with your environment. You're not going to wow anyone with special effects on a $3,000 film. What you can do is tell a story that only you can tell. A story that comes from your heart, that God has put on your heart to tell, told to the best of your ability with what's around you. Take people somewhere they don't normally get to go. If you work at a grocery store, you see a side of it that most people never see. Take people on that journey. Your world doesn't have to be giant or spectacular. It just needs to be different — because people who watch movies want to go somewhere they've never been before with people who are interesting to spend time with. Writing Characters That Connect When writing a screenplay, look for a character who is conflicted. Nobody likes to see stories about perfect people — there's only one perfect person who ever walked this planet. The rest of us fall pretty short. We don't relate to perfect characters and we're not interested in them. Find a character who fascinates you. Someone you want to spend time with. Someone when they walk in the room, you perk up a little. Warts and all. They need to have problems, because we all do. If you look at Bible characters, so many of them had serious issues — and we learned from those issues. Christian films are the same way. The biggest mistake new filmmakers make is that they telegraph everything too quickly. Two minutes into a scene, the audience already knows exactly what's happening and they're just waiting for it to end. You have to constantly feed your audience new information — about the character, about the conflict, about the scene. Every scene needs to be triggered by the scene before it. If you can remove a scene and not feel any difference, that scene doesn't belong in the script. And your main character must change from beginning to end. They need to have gone through a metamorphosis. Something real has to happen to them. From Script to Screen — The Production Process Once your screenplay is locked — meaning you and your team are genuinely happy with it and it's been through feedback — that script becomes the foundation for everything else. Then you find your team. A director of photography, lighting people, sound, set design, costume. David's oldest daughter is their production designer. His youngest daughter is the assistant director. His son worked on sound. You storyboard the entire film — drawing what the camera will see in each shot, almost like a comic book. By the time you get on set, the movie is already made in your heads. It's just a matter of making it happen. Pre-production takes about four to five months. And when you do get on set, you have a short amount of time. Even with volunteers, treat them like paid professionals — start on time, end on time, don't waste their time. People will work hard for you even if they're learning their jobs for the first time, as long as you respect them. One more thing — please do not cheat on your actors. If you have two actors doing a beautiful job and then you cut to someone who can't act, the whole story falls apart. Find actors who can genuinely convince you. Funding a Film on a Small Budget Cross Purposes was made for about $6,000. David went to local locations and asked if they could shoot there for free. Most people said yes. The hospital where much of it was shot had an entire wing closed due to staffing shortages and let them use it for free. All you have to do is ask. Equipment can be rented from production houses for a couple hundred dollars. Some local universities will let students check out cameras. Free editing software is available online. Work lights aren't fancy, but they work — just make sure the shadows are off the faces. Cross Purposes has now been making money for about five years. The money it earns funds the next film. The budget has gotten bigger every time and the quality has improved. It's a snowball effect. Where Films Can Go After You Make Them After post-production and editing, short films can go to film festivals — Christian and secular ones all over the country. Cross Purposes was accepted at 13 out of 15 festivals it was submitted to. Those acceptances led to a distribution company reaching out, which now distributes the film worldwide — on Tubi, Apple TV, TBN, and platforms in Russia, Australia, Europe, and South America. David's First Step Advice Have a story that when you tell it to people, they react. It makes them smile, it makes them cry, it makes them something. Don't start until you have a story you feel like you have to get in front of other people. And don't make it about you being in front of a camera. It's a service. You're there to serve the people who work with you and the audience watching. If it becomes an ego trip, it shows up on screen. Start with the story, and the pieces will start falling into place. People need to hear your voice. As many voices as there are out there, people need to hear yours. Do it because it's something God wants you to do. Make it joyful. And make it joyful with the people you do it with — because this is a team sport. You can find all of David's films and links to where you can watch them at crosspurposes.productions. If you want to get in touch with David directly or ask questions about getting started, you can reach him at crosspurposes@yahoo.com. Links to both are below this video.to both are below this video.

  • June 9 · 16 min

    190: America 250 Celebration Ideas for Your Family

    America turns 250 and most families will watch fireworks — but “what if” your kids actually understood the stories, the sacrifices, and the people who made this country possible? Your America 250 celebration does not have to be complicated to be meaningful. This episode shares 3 real Americans from 250 years ago whose stories will spark great conversations with your kids, plus simple ideas to make your America 250 celebration come alive this summer with no big unit study or hours of preparation: ✅Why history sticks when it is told through stories instead of textbooks ✅The 1 question to ask after reading any biography that sparks real thinking ✅3 ordinary people from 250 years ago that changed history with everyday courage ✅Simple hands-on activity ideas that connect colonial history to real life today ✅Why your kitchen table is the most powerful classroom in America right now Grab the America 250 Leadership and Freedom Bundle mentioned in this episode and start your celebration this week. Resources for You America 250 Leadership and Freedom Bundle includes use code 250 for 20% off America 250 Leadership and Freedom Unit Study Johnny Tremain Literature Study Flag Day Unit - June 14 4th of July Unit Study Election Day Unit Study use code 250 for 25% off What If Your Family Actually Understood the People Who Made America Possible? What if your family read a book together this summer, ate a colonial meal, and had a few great conversations? Would your children remember more about America's founding than an entire textbook? America turns 250 years old in just a few weeks, and the celebration has already begun. Most of you will go watch fireworks. But what if your children actually understood the people, the stories, the sacrifices, and the leadership that made America possible? It doesn't require a giant unit study or hours of preparation. Today I want to show you some simple ways to celebrate America 250 while inspiring a love of learning and having fun with your kids. History Is More Than Dates and Dead People Most moms feel the pressure to cover the history and check off all the checkboxes. But history is so much bigger than that. When our kids were teenagers, they read a book in ninth grade called More Than Dates and Dead People — and that title says it all. We need to look at the stories of ordinary people who influenced others. That's leadership. Leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less. America 250, right now in the summertime when you may not even be doing regular school, is the perfect opportunity to help our kids see themselves as part of a much bigger picture. Paul Revere — One Ordinary Person Who Changed History Let's start with Paul Revere and his Midnight Ride. Longfellow wrote a whole poem about it — The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere — and I still remember reciting it in junior high. Listen, my children, and you shall hear of the midnight ride of Paul Revere. On the 18th of April in 75, hardly a man is now alive who remembers that famous day and year. Most families know who Paul Revere is. But do they realize he was just a silversmith? When we were in Boston, we actually got to visit his house. He was just an ordinary craftsman who risked arrest to warn fellow patriots that the British troops were moving in on Lexington and Concord. One regular person used his influence to help change history. So how could you apply this to your family? Read a one-page biography of someone from 250 years ago in America. Read it aloud at lunch and ask one question — how did this person influence others? Then close your mouth and see what they say. That's leadership education in action. How easy is that? Great Books Bring History to Life One of the easiest ways to learn history — and the way we did it best — was through literature. Kids remember stories so much more than worksheets. One of our favorites is Johnny Tremaine. Johnny begins the story as a proud silversmith's apprentice, goes through a lot of hardship, makes mistakes, grows in friendships and responsibilities, and eventually grows into a leader during the American Revolution. Kids naturally connect with his struggles, and you can discuss courage, teachability, responsibility, and wise decision-making as you go through the book. Instead of worksheets, add some hands-on activities. Build a Boston Tea Party crane. Become a midnight messenger like Paul Revere. Do a colonial apprenticeship project. Make colonial meals together. My kids always perked up when food was involved. Learning becomes so much more memorable when you're doing history — not just memorizing and regurgitating facts. What could you do this week or next week? Read one chapter from a historical book. Have your kids narrate what they hear each day and ask one question — what leadership trait did this person show? Or not show? Not everyone's a good leader. Get a book from the library and start reading. That's enough. Abigail Adams — Leadership Doesn't Always Look Like Standing in Front of a Crowd A lot of people think it was only men participating 250 years ago. That is just not true. There were plenty of strong women fighting for the cause and supporting their families. Abigail Adams is one of them. She was home while John Adams was away serving his country — managing the farm, the finances, the household, and the children during very uncertain times. Many homeschool moms I know can relate to carrying the weight of everything that's going on. Her letters reveal courage, wisdom, and perseverance. On March 31st, 1776 — 250 years ago — John was helping to shape a new government. Here's what Abigail wrote: Remember the ladies, and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. That sounds simple at first, but it reveals so much wisdom. Abigail understood that a new nation wasn't just about defeating Great Britain. It was about creating a better society. She encouraged leaders to think not only about the immediate crisis but also about the rights and needs of others. Leadership isn't always standing in front of a crowd. Sometimes it's a thoughtful letter. A meaningful conversation. Influencing the people around you. Something homeschool moms do every day. You are influencing the next generation. You may feel like you're not doing much, but you have more impact on your children than anyone else. Leadership is happening around the kitchen table. Patrick Henry and the Courage to Say What Others Won't On March 23rd, 1775, Patrick Henry challenged Virginians to prepare for difficult days. And one of the lines that most of us can remember — I hope your children will remember it too — is this: Give me liberty, or give me death. His speech helped persuade many colonists to take action when others were still uncertain what to do. He had influence. What could you do with his story? Read his speech and then ask — would you choose liberty? Or would you choose to just do whatever everyone else tells you, whatever the government says? There's a lot of conversation right there for your family. Have you ever needed courage to do something difficult? What does courage look like for a child? What does it look like for a homeschool mom? You Don't Need More Resources — You Need the Right One The problem with history isn't a lack of resources. There are resources abounding — printable packs, websites, YouTube videos. The problem is too many resources. You could spend 5 to 10 hours just trying to figure out what to do over the next few weeks. What you need is something that's organized and ready to use. America 250 is more than a birthday celebration. It's an opportunity to help your kids understand freedom, responsibility, leadership, and character. You don't have to recreate this in a classroom. Find some great books to read, tell great stories, have meaningful conversations around the dinner table, and let your kids see that history comes alive. 250 years ago, ordinary people made choices that changed history. Paul Revere. Abigail Adams. Patrick Henry. Today, the conversations you have around the dinner table will influence the next generation just as quickly. That's why we made our America 250 Leadership and Freedom Bundle. It includes our Leadership and Freedom Unit Study, a bonus Johnny Tremaine literature study with silversmith STEM activities, history, writing, and math, a Flag Day unit study, a 4th of July unit study, and an Election Day unit study for November. It's literature-based, hands-on, all ages can learn at the same time, and it's leadership-focused. Every activity has a leadership tie-in. It's not a bunch of worksheets. It's not a textbook with multiple choice questions. It's easy for moms to use, it's all in one place, and you can start this week with Flag Day. Use code 250 to save 20%. Get all the details in the show notes.

  • June 2 · 48 min

    189: Is Your Teen Actually Ready for Adulthood?

    What if, instead of asking which college your teen should attend, you started asking what kind of person they want to become? That one shift changes everything about how you prepare your kids for adulthood — and this episode lays out a completely different path forward. This episode introduces a 16-cycle blueprint designed to build genuine life skills for young adults one quarter at a time — from EMT certification to sailing through the South Atlantic to starting a business and making the first sale. You will hear a father and son tell the real story of what this journey has looked like, how it was funded, and what the outcome has been so far. Discover ways to build character, and create confident, capable adults by age 20. ✅The one question that replaces "what college should I attend" ✅How 16 hands-on cycles stack real skills and real-world experience ✅How one teen earned $600 a day to fund his own real-world education ✅Why a personal code of rules and virtues is the foundation of true self-government ✅The patron relationship that opens doors traditional mentoring never could ✅Why most teens launch into adulthood anxious, unprepared, and waiting for someone to tell them what to do Grab the book mentioned in this episode and start building the kind of young adult your family is proud to launch into the world. Resources for You The Preparation by Matt and Maxim Smith Maxim's Substack More life skills for teens help Show Notes: Preparing Your Kids for Adult Life — A Conversation With Matt and Maxim Smith Today I have a long-time friend Matt Smith here with his son Maxim, and we're talking about a brand new book they wrote together called The Preparation — all about preparing young people for adult life. Matt and I met in a mastermind back in 2009, so it's great to reconnect. Maxim is the guinea pig for the whole thing, and he's got some incredible stories to share. What Kind of Man Do I Want to Become? Instead of starting with outcomes like career and college, the book opens with a much bigger question — what kind of man do I want to become? Matt explains why. The whole idea of college is — so that what? So you can pay your own rent? That's not a very motivating vision. So they started thinking about what the real outcome actually is. What would inspire a young man, challenge him, and make him want to come into his own adulthood? The only answer to that question is one he has to find for himself — what kind of man does he want to become? The book is designed as a program that could fully replace college. It lays out exactly what to do, quarter by quarter, and still covers all the academics. But the motivating driving force behind it — the thing strong enough to push you through the hard parts — is that personal vision of who you want to be. Maxim says when he was first introduced to the program, the question took shape through a concept called be, do, and have — the three most important verbs. Most people focus on the have. But be is the most important. And do is where young people have their greatest power, because when you're young, you have unlimited energy and high openness to new experiences. Doing is your leverage. For his own answer to that question, Maxim found inspiration in a fictional character — Edmund Dantes from The Count of Monte Cristo. Not the revenge part of the story, but the 14 years he dedicated to gaining as many skills as possible. Learning to read and write, sword fighting, hand-to-hand combat, economics, math, multiple languages. That was the vision Maxim worked from. Wisdom as Righteousness in Action The Preparation focuses heavily on the classical virtues — courage, wisdom, hospitality — and especially stoic thinking, particularly the work of Epictetus. Matt says wisdom is the key to being a happy, healthy, successful individual, but you have to make it practical. Get away from abstract ideas and give young people real examples of what good looks like and how to model it. One of the most powerful exercises in the book is building a personal code. It has three parts. First, they think about their own actions — what are the things I do that make me feel small or ashamed? No one else might even know about these things, but the kid knows. They decide to stop doing those things — not because someone else made a rule, but because they made the rule for themselves. This is the very beginning of identity formation. For the first time, they're choosing not to do something on their own authority. Second, they go through a list of the ancient virtues and find the ones that call to them. Unlike the rules, which are binary — you either kept them or you didn't — the virtues are aspirational. You can always be more courageous. There's no ceiling. Third, they start listing their accomplishments. When you're starting out, you feel like you have nothing. But skills stack up fast in the preparation. After just one cycle, looking back at the actual skills you've gained — not just what you've studied, but what you can actually do — gives you a sense of pride and identity you didn't have before. And that's what young people are missing. Patrons, Not Just Mentors Most people think of a mentor like Gandalf — someone who shows up and offers you everything for nothing. That's not really how it works. The Preparation uses the term patron, drawn from ancient Roman society, where an older established person would come alongside a younger person who had skills, motivation, and hunger but not much yet. It was a two-way street. The patron would publicly say — this person is under my protection. One of us. The key insight is that you can earn a mentor or patron. Young people who are ambitious, smart, detail-oriented, hungry, and virtuous — when Matt encounters young people like that, he wants to help them. But the relationship only works if the young person is adding something to it in return. Intergenerational relationships are often the richest in life — because there's no competition, no status jockeying. You're not trying to prove anything. Matt says the best relationships in his life are not with his peers. They're intergenerational. The Cycles of Preparation There are 16 cycles in the program, each centered around an anchor course — anything from a cooking school in Florence, Italy, to a heavy equipment operator course in Florida, to an entrepreneur cycle, a sailing cycle, an EMT certification, learning to build a house at the Shelter Institute in Maine, a fighter cycle in Thailand. Sixteen different real-world skill areas. Each cycle also includes activities the student chooses themselves — skydiving, learning guitar, a second language, motorbikes — plus online academic courses related to the anchor activity, and a required reading list. For the entrepreneur cycle, there are about 10 books to complete in three months, along with courses in sales, marketing, and social media marketing. Students are also required to post a weekly update on Substack — for accountability and to build a public record of what they're doing. Maxim now has over 6,000 followers on Substack, which has opened up opportunities he never expected — working on wildfires, a sailing cycle recommendation from a reader, geophysics crew work in Nevada, mule packing. The most memorable cycle so far? Sailing. Maxim had never been on a sailboat in his life when he flew to the Falkland Islands — all the way at the bottom of South America — to join a 72-foot sailing vessel for 21 days. The winds were so strong the bus was swaying on the road. They couldn't leave for several days. He got seasick two or three times. They crossed the South Atlantic through the Strait of Magellan — from the Falklands back to Chile — and he said the moment the water calmed down on the Pacific side, he finally understood why Magellan named it the Pacific. Each cycle, virtually every anchor activity, leaves you with a real skill that has real economic value. Something you could get a job from. And when you stack 16 of those, by the time you're 20 you are the most interesting 20-year-old you'll meet. How to Fund the Preparation Yes, some cycles cost money. But compared to college — with one year of college tuition, Maxim has been funding multiple real-world experiences. There's also a work cycle built into the program where the entire three-month focus is earning as much money as possible. Maxim's first cycle was getting his EMT certification. Because of that — and because a reader found him on Substack — he was offered work on wildfires earning $600 a day. That funded his sailing cycle. He also worked at Office Depot and as a pizza delivery driver. In six weeks at Office Depot, he saved over $5,000. And here's a perspective shift — training Muay Thai in Thailand for two months, including room, board, and meals six days a week, costs less than EMT school. Not everything real costs more than college. Maxim's Advice to Teenagers If you could tell another teenager one thing about preparing for adulthood, what would it be? Realize how limited time actually is. Figure out as soon as possible what you should be doing to make the most of it — not pursuing vices, but pursuing what is actually fulfilling. Gain as many practical skills as possible. Study the classical virtues. Study the stoics. And see how many opportunities open up from that work and that effort. You can find The Preparation on Amazon. Read the reviews before you buy — many of the reviewers are parents who read it first before giving it to their kids, and many say they wish they had this when they were that age. If you want to follow what Maxim is doing, go to maximsmith.com on Substack. We'll put a link right below this video.

  • May 26 · 8 min

    188: The Secret to an Elite Education at Home

    If your homeschool feels like a never-ending pile of curriculum, co-ops, and pressure, there is a better way — and it starts with doing less. This episode digs into what an elite education actually means, why most homeschool moms are overcomplicating & adding more things out of fear, and how simplifying your homeschool gives your kids more time to think, go deeper, and actually love learning. You will walk away with one practical step to take this week and a completely different lens for every homeschool decision you make going forward. Homeschool moms who are exhausted from checking every box and still wondering if it is enough will find this episode both freeing and clarifying. Elite education is not about harder curriculum or longer school days — it is about raising kids who think critically, make wise decisions, and love learning for a lifetime. What is covered in this episode: ✅Why fear drives homeschool overwhelm and how to break the cycle ✅What an elite education really means — and it has nothing to do with harder subjects ✅Why deep focus beats scattered assignments every single time ✅How doing less gives your child more time to actually think ✅1 thing to remove from your homeschool this week Check out Raising Leaders, Not Followers and start giving your kids the elite (BEST) education they were made for. Resources for You: Raising Leaders, Not Followers Course Show Notes: What If the Best Education Actually Comes From Doing Less? Most homeschool moms secretly wonder — am I doing enough? What if my kids fall behind? What if I miss something important? So what do we do? We add more and more — more curriculum, more activities, more pressure on everyone. But what if the best education actually comes from doing less? Doing less and doing it differently. Fear Is Driving Your Overwhelm I think too many moms are homeschooling from fear. The fear of not preparing your kids for the future. The fear they won't succeed. The fear they'll miss some opportunities. And this fear leads to overloading your schedules and chasing everything. When's the last time your kids could just hang out, go outside and play, go shoot some hoops? Most moms think more is better. So they sign their kids up for multiple programs, all the co-ops, all the curriculum — and they still feel unsure about whether their kids are going to be ready. Abraham Lincoln had less than one year of formal schooling. He was self-educated. He learned through reading, through reflecting, and through real life experiences. And he went on to be one of the most influential people in history. His education would not be complete according to public school standards — they've got a long list of things you're supposed to do and it's just busy work. But he developed into an educated person through thinking, through character, and through leadership. What Is an Elite Education? This is what I call an elite education. And I think most of you would like to give that to your kids — but you're not sure how. Elite education is not harder curriculum. It's not more subjects. Elite education means thinking critically, understanding deeply, making wise biblical decisions, loving learning for a lifetime, and having a foundation of godly biblical character. This is what actually prepares kids for adulthood. The academics come along, but that is not the focus. An elite education prepares a child for adulthood. George Washington Carver and Tuskegee University George Washington Carver was born into slavery and had very limited formal education as a child. But he was curious. He spent hours in nature exploring and experimenting and teaching himself — because schools for Black children were not really available back then. He educated himself through observation and personal study, and he later became one of the leading agricultural scientists. He developed hundreds of uses for peanuts and other plants. What made him exceptional was not a traditional school. It was curiosity, perseverance, and a love for learning. He eventually started teaching at Tuskegee University, founded by Booker T. Washington. And this university was more than academics. Every student who came there had to learn a trade. Maybe they learned cooking and actually cooked the food for the other students in the dorms. Maybe they learned carpentry and built the buildings for the university. Everyone had a trade as well as a field of study. And you know what happened in 1905? Tuskegee University had more self-made millionaires than Harvard, Yale, and Princeton combined. Because they had a different approach to education. It was more than just academics. They learned real life skills. What Happens When You Simplify When you simplify your homeschool, your kids have time to think. They go deeper instead of rushing through their assignments. Learning becomes meaningful because it has purpose and intention. When you overload your children, all they do is check off the boxes. Retention drops drastically. Motivation disappears. That's when you get all those attitude problems and learning doesn't really happen. A child that is deeply interested in one topic — just one topic — learns reading through books, writing through a reading journal, thinking through discussion. Reading, writing, discussion. That is real learning, not a bunch of scattered assignments. You don't need to do more. You need a clear framework — a way to filter your decisions, a way to know that you are doing the right activities and studying the right subject areas for each of your kids. What to Do This Week Look at your current homeschool plan and remove one thing this week that is not serving your goals. If you don't have goals, you need to make a vision. We talked about that in an earlier episode. If you want to raise your kids to be leaders, you've got to have a vision for your homeschool. And I want you to know — all three of my kids are in their 30s now, and they all love learning. I think a lot of it has to do with the foundation we gave them in their homeschool. That is exactly what Raising Leaders, Not Followers gives you — a way to make wise and purposeful decisions for your upcoming year, for each of your kids. It helps your kids make wise decisions too. It gives your kids an elite education for life so that they can think critically, make wise decisions, have a love for learning, and have a foundation of character. If you have any questions, let me know. It's not for everyone all the time — but it is for the mom or dad who wants to raise their kids with purpose, prepared for adult life, thinking critically, making wise decisions, and loving learning for a lifetime. Come check out Raising Leaders, Not Followers — the link is in the show notes.

  • May 19 · 9 min

    187: Mentoring Examples Every Homeschool Mom Needs

    You have done all the lessons, checked all the boxes, and finished the curriculum — but something still feels off. The problem is not your effort. It’s the role you have been playing in your homeschool. Today, we talk about real mentoring examples that shift your kids from waiting for direction to thinking for themselves, and what it actually looks like to move from teacher mode to mentor mode in a real homeschool day. You will walk away with one practical step to take tomorrow and four questions that do more for your kids than any worksheet ever could. Homeschool moms who are exhausted from carrying the weight of everything will find this episode both relieving and clarifying. When you stop delivering information and start developing thinkers, your kids grow in ownership and confidence — and you finally get to breathe again. ✅Why staying in teacher mode all day is burning you out and creating dependent kids ✅The difference between teaching and mentoring — and why it changes everything ✅Practical mentoring examples you can use in any subject starting tomorrow ✅4 questions to ask yourself instead of answering your kids right away ✅How transformation — not information — becomes the goal of your homeschool Join the free masterclass mentioned in this episode and take your first step toward mentoring your kids to think, lead, and own their education. Resources for You Free Masterclass: 4 Steps to Raising Christian Leaders in Your Homeschool Show Notes: The Shift That Changes Everything in Your Homeschool Have you ever done all the lessons, checked all the boxes, finished the curriculum, and you still feel like something is missing? Many moms are working harder than ever, but their kids still struggle with motivation, with ownership, with even really understanding what they're doing. The problem is not your effort, Mom. It's the role that you've been taught to play in your homeschool. The Traditional Mindset Is Burning You Out The traditional mindset — and we're talking in the last hundred years, not 500 years ago — says your job, mom, is to deliver information and make sure it gets done. Check that checkbox off. But what does this do? It creates dependence. Your kids wait for you to tell them what to do. They follow the teacher. But they are not thinking, or learning, or studying independently. And what are they going to do when they get out on their own? They'll just wait until the boss tells them what to do. They are not thinking critically and they are not making wise decisions. Leaders are not created through constant instruction. They're developed through thinking, ownership, and taking responsibility for their own education. When you stay in teacher mode, you carry the weight of everything and everyone. Now, there is a time to teach. You teach your five-year-old how to read or your eight-year-old the multiplication facts. There is a time to teach. But when you stay in teaching mode all day long, you are going to burn yourself out. You have got to shift from teacher to mentor — to coaching and guiding your kids as they learn independently. The Simple Shift You Can Make Today Instead of answering your child right away, I want you to pause and ask — what do you think you should do next? When they finish an assignment and ask what to do, say — what do you think your next step should be? Give them a chance to think and make a decision. When they get stuck, ask — what do you think you could try first? When they ask for help right away, ask — what ideas have you already tried? When they rush through their work, ask — what do you think would make this better? This begins to shift the responsibility off of your shoulders and onto your children immediately. It shifts them from waiting to thinking, from depending to deciding. It changes their attitude — and it will change yours. It trains ownership in their education in real time, not just in theory. What Mentoring Actually Looks Like A lot of people think mentoring is just letting go and not doing very much. It is not about doing less. It is about doing what matters most. You shift from telling to asking. From managing to guiding. From controlling to training. Think of it like a coach. The coach plans the drills and the strategy, but when it comes to the game, they are not pitching the ball or throwing the touchdown. They are on the sidelines coaching and guiding. That is what you need to do. If you are burned out, it's probably because you're doing too much teaching and you're still on that conveyor belt. Instead of correcting every mistake in their writing, ask them to evaluate their work before they give it to you. Ask them — what do you think you could improve in this writing? You are training thinking, not just fixing papers. Especially by high school, they should be editing their own work themselves. Mentoring Examples From History This is really what early America was all about. Teenagers had apprenticeships. They learned under a mentor — blacksmiths, printers, farmers. They learned by doing, observing, and gradually taking ownership until eventually they could go off and do it all themselves. This built independence, life skills, and leadership. Thomas Jefferson had a mentor named George Wythe who would assign books to read. They would write and they would discuss. That is an academic mentorship. And it produced one of the greatest leaders in American history. Education back then wasn't just about information. It was about transformation. So my question to you is — what transformation is happening in your homeschool? That is the difference between teaching and mentoring. If you are mentoring, you will see transformation over time. Your kids begin to take ownership. They think critically. They develop confidence. And you, mom, begin to feel less pressure. You have more peace. You can actually enjoy your homeschool again. What to Do This Week Choose one subject today or tomorrow and step back. Let your child take the lead while you guide with questions. Questions are some of the best ways to develop critical thinking skills and wise decision making. Step back from one subject for each of your kids and guide them with questions instead of instruction. We've had moms say that course changed my mindset. It shifted me. And they say — my kids are loving their new teacher because she's not the dictator anymore. She's not the teacher of everything. She is mentoring them. I would love for you to join me for my free masterclass — Four Steps to Raising Christian Leaders in Your Homeschool. We will be talking about questions and how to use them as one of the key steps in mentoring your kids. There are two different dates and times you can join. The link is in the show notes. And be looking out for more information about my Raising Leaders, Not Followers course — it has helped so many moms and dads and kids see real transformation in their homeschool.

  • May 12 · 9 min

    186: How to Motivate Students When Nothing Seems to Be Working

    If your child acts like every lesson is punishment, the problem is probably not laziness — and this episode shows you what is really going on. We are talking about how to motivate students not through pressure or entertainment, but through purpose and ownership. You will walk away with simple activities to try this week and a completely different way of looking at why your child resists learning in the first place. Homeschool moms who are exhausted from pushing, bribing, and wondering what is wrong with their kids will find this episode both relieving and practical. When you understand what actually drives motivation in a child, you stop fighting the resistance and start working with who your child really is. ✅Why pressure and entertainment fail to produce lasting motivation ✅1 question to ask after any lesson that opens up real conversation ✅How one small choice completely shifts your child's attitude toward learning ✅Why motivation grows from meaning, not rewards ✅What it looks like when learning finally connects to real life Grab the free masterclass mentioned in this episode and start raising motivated, purpose-driven learners today. Resources for You Free Masterclass: Four Steps to Raising Christian Leaders Knowing Rediscovered Course (coming this summer) The Missing Piece in Your Homeschool Vision Show Notes: Why Your Kids Resist Learning — And It's Not What You Think If your child drags through school all day, resists every assignment, and acts like learning is punishment — that doesn't automatically mean you have a lazy child. Often the problem isn't laziness. It's a lack of purpose, a lack of ownership, and the feeling that they are just forced to learn these things. And that forcedness produces resistance. Meaningful learning produces engagement. Kids don't need more constant pressure to go learn something. What do they need? They need a reason to care. John Wesley Was the Fruit of Intentional Parenting Last week we talked about Susanna Wesley and her sons John and Charles. I want to look a little bit at the fruit of what we talked about. Homeschooling should look like it has some kind of purpose and intention besides checking off the boxes. This is not theory. We see so many stories in history that show the fruit. John Wesley is the fruit of Susanna's intention and purpose in raising her kids with a wide variety of types of education. He was shaped by a purposeful home. John Wesley grew up under Susanna Wesley's intentional instruction and discipline. The upbringing didn't simply train him to comply. It prepared him to think, to lead, and eventually shape others along the way. She prepared him spiritually, critically, academically — and he flew with it. How are you raising your kids? Do they see any purpose in what they're doing? Or are they just sitting there waiting for mom to tell them the next thing to do? Motivation Is Connected to Ownership, Not Entertainment I believe motivation grows when a child knows that his life matters and his learning is going somewhere — instead of just doing something that someone told him to do. When a child feels like school is something being done to them, they're going to resist. They need to understand that learning is helping them grow into who God has made them to be. If you're multitasking, come back to me for this one. Motivation is often connected to ownership, not entertainment. We think if we entertain our kids enough in school, they'll be motivated. That's not right. If every lesson feels like busy work, don't be surprised when your kids tune you out. Kids will lean in when they see some meaning in their lessons and their studies. How to Start Connecting Learning to Real Life I want to give you a little activity you can do this week. After your kids finish their schoolwork, ask each of them individually one simple question — why does this matter? Then zip your lips and listen. Don't turn it into a lecture. Use your two ears. Let it be a conversation. They may actually have a reason. Or they may not have a reason at all. That will be very eye-opening — to see whether your kids think their learning really matters and what they have to say about it. You want to start helping them connect their schoolwork to real life. My son Hunter was working on a paper and we were supposed to be studying Roman history. He didn't really care about history at the time. So the next day I said — what if we write it about Derek Jeter, the baseball player? Do you think he was motivated? You better believe it. He read the book. He was interested. Do you think he wrote a better paper? Yes. Why? He was motivated. He saw a purpose. He was interested in it. We also ended up doing the science of baseball — the math and science of it — because he loves sports. All of a sudden he's interested because he sees a purpose. It connects to real life. Give Your Kids One Small Choice Let your child make one small choice in their subject. Ownership can begin with something very small. Hunter was also into animals, and one year he wrote the ABC Jungle Book — every page had a jungle animal with that letter, a paragraph about it, and an illustration. That was motivating because he thought those jungle animals were really cool. You're not trying to overhaul everything overnight. I'm not telling you to do it all. Just pick one place where your child can make a choice about their school. One. And let them do it. Don't dictate. Don't tell them what to do. Let them learn their way. A little ownership in homeschooling is going to go a long way. Does it really matter what topic they pick for their writing? No. Maybe your child is into animals, or dance, or boats — whatever it is. Especially in elementary, let them go to the library and pick a topic and get some books about it. It's that simple. Traditional school trains children to wait for direction, and that produces compliance — but it does not produce motivation. We're not trying to raise kids who only work when someone is watching or when they get a reward. We want to raise kids who learn in all areas of life. What This Looks Like in Real Life I've had to learn the hard way too. Many times I told Hunter — no, you're going to write on this, you're going to do this — and it didn't work. They were not motivated. So if you've been feeling like you need to push your kids harder to motivate them, you are not alone. Knowing how to motivate students starts with one simple shift — connecting their learning to purpose. That's where motivation begins to change. And that is a part of raising leaders, not followers. I'm hosting a free masterclass — Four Steps to Raising Christian Leaders — and we will be talking about this very topic, including connecting your child's learning to purpose. It's completely free. The link is in the show notes. I hope to see you there.

  • May 6 · 11 min

    185: The Missing Piece in Your Homeschool Vision

    If your homeschool feels like a scattered pile of tasks instead of a clear path forward, this episode is going to change how you see everything. We are talking about homeschool vision — what it is, why most moms are missing it, and how two simple, practical activities this week can give your homeschool real direction and purpose. You will walk away with a one-sentence vision statement and a question that helps you evaluate everything you are already doing. Homeschool moms who are tired of feeling reactive, copying everyone else, and second-guessing every decision will find this episode both clarifying and freeing. When you build from vision instead of reacting to everything around you, your homeschool starts to feel like something you are intentionally building — not just surviving. ✅2 practical activities to do this week to add purpose in your homeschool ✅Why a homeschool without vision is just a pile of lessons ✅The 1 sentence that gives your entire homeschool a clear direction ✅The question that reveals if you are building something or just staying busy ✅Why reactive homeschooling is keeping you exhausted and stuck Grab the free resource mentioned in this episode and start building a homeschool with real vision and direction today. Resources for You Homeschool Freedom Boot Camp: A 5-Day Live Experience (begins May 12) Raising Leaders Not Followers Course VIP Wait List - FREE with exclusive benefits & events, just for our VIPers Show Notes: The Missing Piece in Your Homeschool: Vision If your homeschool feels reactive, scattered, or like you're just trying to get through the day — you're not alone. A lot of us homeschool moms, homeschooling starts to feel like just a big string of tasks instead of a clear direction of where you are going. And some of that is because we are just giving our kids tasks. We are developing followers. They're not thinking for themselves. Followers complete tasks. But leaders live from vision. A homeschool without vision is just a pile of lessons. A homeschool with vision gives you, mom, a path to shape your child, a path to make wise decisions, and a path to prepare for the upcoming school year. Susanna Wesley Parented with Intention I've talked about Susanna Wesley many times, but I want to go in a little different direction with her today. She was a mom who parented with intention. She didn't just drift around. She had 19 kids — and she raised a large family without her husband there many times. And yet she still set aside time, even with a large family, to teach her children individually and regularly. About once a week or once every other week, she spent time individually with each of her kids. She didn't just manage behavior. She wanted to shape their minds and their hearts with a purpose. Two of her sons, John and Charles Wesley, became very strong leaders in the Christian community. John Wesley began the Methodist denomination. Charles Wesley wrote over 4,000 to 6,000 hymns. They are the fruit and the results of an intentional mother. I bet you would like your kids to be raised up like that — so that when they are adults, they are leading for Jesus and influencing for Jesus. What Susanna Wesley Actually Did Susanna Wesley realized education was more than academics. Here are a few of the things she made sure were going on in her home. She had a religious education that included daily devotions, time for worship and singing, and a Sabbath each week. She built routines — for sleeping, for meals, for dining. She worked on her kids being orderly and disciplined and taught them how to self-regulate. Many of us need to be teaching our kids how to self-regulate, because when they have that self-control, they are going to grow up to be a different kind of person. I was listening to a podcast from Revive Our Hearts and they talked about a study done with four-year-olds. Each child was brought in and given a marshmallow. They were told — you can have it now, or if you wait until I come back, you get two. About a third ate that marshmallow immediately. A third waited but not long enough. A third waited for the second marshmallow. When they followed up with these same kids at 18 years old, the ones who waited had self-control, could regulate themselves, and went on to have more successful lives. They had perseverance, strong work ethic, and could deal with frustrations and hard times. Even a four-year-old can begin learning to self-regulate. She also was very purposeful in teaching manners. This is building character. She had a purpose with each of her kids and was teaching them far more than academics — because some of this other stuff is what will truly prepare our kids for adult life. Do You Have a Vision for Your Homeschool? Vision gives your homeschool direction instead of just a bunch of activities. It's what keeps you from making all your decisions based on feelings or what feels urgent. When you know why you are homeschooling, your choices get clear. You stop asking what do I do next and you start asking what are we building. For me, I wanted to build my kids to think critically and think biblically. That is homeschooling and mothering with intention — and it is very different than reactive. If you have a reactive homeschool, you're just chasing whatever the curriculum trends are, copying other moms because it looks like the right thing, changing direction constantly. But when you homeschool with intention and purpose, you are choosing tools and activities that match your family's goals. God made you different. He made your kids different. You need a vision for your homeschool. Public school trains your kids to follow a system and wait for someone to tell them what to do. Christian homeschool vision trains kids to follow the truth. Two Things to Do This Week First, write one sentence that says what you want your homeschool to produce in your child. It doesn't need to be fancy — it needs to be simple and easy to understand. You might even put it on a sticky note wherever you sit down to homeschool or where you do your planning. Character, faith, confidence, wise thinking, a love of learning — what is it that you want to build in your children? Second, pick one thing you already do in your homeschool and ask yourself — does this support our vision, or does it just fill up time? That one question can save you from a lot of busy work you don't need to be doing. You don't need more guilt, mom. You need direction. What Happens When You Stop Copying Everyone Else Janelle Kudson — she has seven kids — said she became so consumed with academics, and then God showed her there were more important things than just a rigorous academic experience. When she realized this, the way she saw homeschooling changed. She stopped measuring her success by checking off the checkboxes and started measuring it on a long-term foundation. Are you building a long-term foundation? You may not see the results for years to come, but you should be making small steps each and every year to give your kids a solid foundation from where they can move into adult life. That's what happens when you stop copying everyone else and start homeschooling on purpose — your family's purpose. And that's really what raising leaders is all about. Knowing where you are going. I've got a few events this month, and one of them is our Homeschool Freedom Boot Camp. We spend one day on vision and goals so that you can know exactly where you're headed. It is a five-day live experience — six days if you come as a VIP. If you've been homeschooling reactively — just reacting to everything and copying everyone else — this is your chance to shift your perspective. Homeschool Freedom Boot Camp is where we start building a homeschool with direction, confidence, and purpose. And yes, this is the kind of foundation that leads right into Raising Leaders, Not Followers. We begin on May 12th. Join here. You can also join the Raising Leaders, Not Followers VIP list for exclusive access to special bonuses and events in May. I can't wait to see you there.

  • April 28 · 14 min

    184: Hidden Skill Your Kids Need Before College or Career

    Your kids can pass a test — but can they evaluate an idea, make a wise decision, or stand for truth when no one is watching? If that question makes you pause, this episode is exactly what you need to hear. We are breaking down why the skills of critical thinking matter more than any answer in a textbook.. I’m also sharing 1 powerful habit that changes everything about how your kids learn and think: ✅The 1 daily habit that builds skills of critical thinking in any subject ✅Whether memorizing answers produces followers or leaders ✅Why asking questions is more powerful than any curriculum you can buy ✅What to do so you can see your kids start thinking ✅What it looks like when your child can finally evaluate ideas on their own Grab the free resources mentioned in this episode and start building thinkers in your homeschool today. Resources for You FREE Read Aloud Magic FREE Notebooking Pages Become a VIP when you join the Raising Leaders Not Followers VIP Wait List . . . . - Get extra perks as a VIP in May! Show Notes: Your Child Doesn't Need to Know the Answer — They Need to Know How to Think Your child doesn't need to just know the answer. They need to know how to think and make decisions. A kid who can memorize facts but can't evaluate ideas is going to struggle in college, in work, and in life. Let's talk about a way to solve this problem today. What Are You Actually Training Your Kids For? I know you want the best for your kids. You want them to be prepared for the real world. You want them to have strong faith and discernment. But you're worried your kids may not be ready. You're tired of the idea that more school automatically means more success — that the more we do in school, the more successful they're going to be. These are myths. Your goal shouldn't just be that your kid can pass a test. A test just memorizes — it analyzes facts. For me, our goal was that our kids would follow Jesus, think clearly and biblically, and make wise decisions when we weren't around. We wanted to prepare them for real life. Schools teach answers. But leaders evaluate ideas. The problem is answers aren't enough. Schools teach to the test — it's the conveyor belt. Everyone does the same thing and gets a test to see if they've memorized all the answers. And it produces followers. Followers who just wait for direction. Followers who are waiting for approval or waiting for a worksheet to turn in. Thinkers and leaders — that's what I wanted for my kids. Not necessarily the president of the United States, but kids who lead in their own life, in their home, in their family. If your child has only been trained to fill in the blanks, don't be surprised when they struggle to take ownership and they're just waiting for someone to tell them what to do. So my question to you is — what are you training your children for? Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Courage to Think for Yourself I want to share a story about a man named Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He was a German pastor and theologian during Nazi rule. The surrounding culture was demanding conformity, fear, and silence. But he refused to follow. He was going to stand for truth. He kept asking what was right before God — not what was safe or popular. Bonhoeffer did not let the culture tell him what was true. He was surrounded by pressure, but he chose his own conviction. That is what discernment looks like. I don't remember the entire story, but I think it's important that we raise our kids to not have blind compliance to what everyone's telling them to do — but the courage to stand for truth. Spiritually, yes, but also in what they're learning. The history books are being rewritten, and we need to have discernment to know what is truth and what is not. Kids learn in school that it's just about the right answer, not the right question. They're afraid to be wrong. Discernment is both spiritual and practical. And kids need to learn how to pause, reflect, and ask what matters — and make sure their thinking is biblically based. Susanna Wesley Raised Thinkers Susanna Wesley was the mother of John Wesley and Charles Wesley. She home educated her children in the 1600s and was known for setting aside time to teach each of her kids individually rather than just letting them drift. She emphasized spiritual formation, discipline, and thoughtful thinking. She would ask questions. John Wesley went on to start the Methodist church. Charles Wesley wrote somewhere between 6,500 and 9,000 hymns. I can't imagine writing a hymn — that takes a lot of thinking ability. Susanna Wesley's home became a place where children learned to think about God, truth, and obedience with purpose. She wasn't just managing a household. She was shaping her children in character and in thinking. She didn't raise them to comply. She trained them to think, to question, and to live under God's truth. Again — what are you training your kids for? Just to do what mom tells them to do? Or to think critically and biblically? The One Habit That Changes Everything: Questions Okay, how do you actually do this? It's really one habit that changes everything — questions. You can use questions in any subject area. When I started using questions, it helped me relax and not be so worried about a checklist. I didn't even need curriculum for every subject because we could read books and ask questions. When I was a school teacher, I was supposed to follow the curriculum and couldn't really veer off of it — and that didn't encourage thinking on the part of my students. When I started homeschooling and started using questions, it changed everything. I was much more relaxed and much more intentional. My kids could take ownership by following their interests. I remember Hunter was into sports, and we were studying Roman history — which he didn't love at the time. But he did love sports, so we let him write a paper on Derek Jeter, one of the greatest shortstops in baseball. He learned about baseball science, math, history — all of it. And you can always ask questions like — why does this matter? What am I missing? What does this tell me about God, people, or truth? Did this person act the way God would want them to act? Did they have honor? And then — now that you've done all this, what are we going to do with this information? How to Start Using Questions This Week Take one subject you're doing this week. Instead of a worksheet, ask one question about that topic. Keep it simple. Don't overteach. Let the conversation do the work. And here's my trick — when you ask a question, do not answer your own question. Ask another question. You know what happens when there's quiet and you can't handle it? You give them the answer. And what are you training your kids to do? To wait until mom answers her own question, and then we can move on because I don't have to think. Allow some time for quiet and for them to think. If they don't know the answer, ask a different question until you can begin a conversation. This is not a system or a lot of extra things to do. It is a way of life. This is how I teach my grandkids. This is how I taught my kids — in science, literature, music, art, math, history, character building, even cleaning the house. Why do I have to do this? Well, why do you think you have to do this? Turn everything into a question and let them come up with the answers. It's not about your children having the right answer. It's about asking the right question. What This Produces in Your Kids Imagine your kids as confident decision makers. Kids who recognize truth. Teenagers who can question lies because they've been thinking on their own. Young adults who know how to act without panicking. Faith that lasts beyond your home. One of my students, Tracy Smith, said it so well — I love the idea of getting off the conveyor belt. Our kids are not cookie cutters. They all have unique thoughts, ideas, and talents that God has given them. If they are not given the opportunity to explore those, their gifts and offerings to this world are stifled. We need to allow them the chance to come to their individual conclusions — and they will give the world something to think about instead of the world telling them what to think. Another student, Rose, said after taking our leadership course — this helped me see how I could teach my kids to think logically. She was encouraged by the real life stories she could relate to, and she said the methods were transformational. You are not alone. These are methods that work. They are real and you can achieve them. The two free tools from last week — the Read Aloud Magic e-book and the free notebooking pages — combined with this idea of questions are three tools that can help you raise your kids to think well and think on their own. Grab those links in the show notes. And stay close to my emails and this podcast because I've got a boot camp coming up that is going to show you how to implement all of this in a real homeschool life. I can't wait to share more details. If you want to get on the waitlist, the link is in the show notes.

  • April 21 · 17 min

    183: Stop Overwhelm With These 2 Homeschool Tools

    Is your homeschool stuck in the explain-assign-check cycle? You're drowning in curriculum choices, trying to do all the activities, worried your kids are just going through the motions. The problem isn't that you need more homeschool tools—you need better purpose. This episode reveals the 2 simple homeschooling tools that stop the overwhelm and raise your kids to be thinkers, not followers. These aren't random homeschool tools that add to your pile of things to do. They're the foundational homeschooling tools that shape character, build critical thinking, and make learning engaging, effective, and enjoyable for the whole family. ✅Why the explain-assign-check cycle doesn't raise thinkers (and what to do instead) ✅The 2 homeschool tools you can use today in any subject at any age level ✅How one homeschooling tool builds vocabulary, shapes worldview, and creates shared family experiences ✅Why the second tool slows learning down so kids actually understand and own it ✅How these homeschool tools give you confidence and stop the frantic forever feeling Ready to simplify your homeschool with the right homeschooling tools? Grab the free Read Aloud Magic eBook and Notebooking Pages to start raising thinkers this week! Resources for You: Read Aloud Magic eBook (free) Notebooking Pages (free) Raising Leaders Not Followers VIP Waitlist Show Notes: Two Simple Homeschool Tools That Actually Teach Your Kids to Think Does your homeschool feel like one long cycle of explain, assign, check, repeat — wash, rinse, repeat? If that's all you're doing is explaining, assigning, and checking, you're not raising your kids to be thinkers. You're just expecting them to regurgitate a lot of information. Most homeschoolers are drowning in all the what to teach. They're not thinking enough about how kids actually learn. Today we're going to talk about two tools you can use this week — easy tools — so your kids are actually learning. You Don't Need More Stuff. You Need a Better Purpose. I don't know where you are right now in this part of the year, but some of you are finishing up your school year. A lot of you are already planning what curriculum to buy next. You're overwhelmed. There are so many choices. You're trying to be faithful to your kids and to homeschooling, but you're scattered. You want your kids to love Jesus, to think well, and to live life with confidence. But how do you do that in the midst of cooking three meals a day and chauffeuring your kids everywhere? You don't need random homeschool stuff. You don't need a bigger pile. You just need a better purpose. Here's what we do — and I say this on a regular basis. We leave the school but then we copy the school at home. We are tied to checklists. We are in a productivity mindset. We've got to go, go, go, check that off. Memorizing facts but not thinking. And I know you want your kids to be able to think for themselves, evaluate, and make wise decisions. But they don't become wise thinkers just by consuming a lot of information. Leaders are shaped by the right tools, habits, questions, and reflection. So let's talk about those tools. Tool #1: Read Aloud and Questions One of my favorites. It is so simple. You can do it today. And it is reading aloud as a family. Reading aloud strengthens your relationships because it happens together. It's like taking a trip together just going through a book. Quality fiction helps your kids learn empathy, compassion, and how to evaluate different circumstances — to see if this is the right way to live or not. They can discern between good and evil. It builds vocabulary. It exposes your kids to big ideas. It's going to help shape their worldview. And it creates shared reference points for conversation. I remember when we were reading the Little Bridges series. Steve was reading it at night for our kids, and we were somewhere in the van and they started talking about that grumpy old grandpa. We're so glad we don't have a grandpa like that. And we had a great discussion just driving down the road. That meant they had entered into the story and were participating in it on an emotional level. When you're finished reading — and I do not stop in the middle of reading aloud and analyze all the parts — just let it soak over everyone and ask, what stood out to you? What do you remember most about this part of the story? And just see what they say. You might suddenly realize they're learning things you didn't even know they had paid attention to. You don't need a lecture. You don't need a guidebook. You don't need a perfect discussion plan. You don't even need a degree in English. You just need a heart for your kids and for God — and then ask questions. Questions are such an easy way to learn. When you ask questions, learning becomes alive. This is how homeschooling feels less like school at home and more like formation — discipleship, life skills. I created a Read Aloud Magic bundle that has an e-book with all sorts of things about how to read aloud and a list of our family's favorite read aloud books. It's free in the show notes at howtohomeschoolmychild.com/readaloudmagic. Tool #2: Notebooking A lot of you are familiar with Charlotte Mason, but you don't really think notebooking is important so you don't do it. And yet it is one of the ways you can stop the overwhelm and stop the stress. I have moms that have said — when we started using this tool, things got better in our homeschool. So what is notebooking? It gives your kids the freedom to express their understanding and be creative. It could be a written notebook. They may draw pictures. But it allows your kids ownership and responsibility for their own education. I like to say they take leadership in their own education. That's what I wanted. I didn't want my kids to just do whatever I told them to do. I wanted it to be what they were learning — when we read a book or when we studied a topic. Notebooking is not busy work like worksheets and textbooks. Notebooking is thinking on paper. It helps your kids process, reflect, and connect ideas. Thomas Edison didn't sit around memorizing facts and hoping an invention would happen. He kept notebooks full of sketches, ideas, and experiments. His notebook was not just a record — it was part of his thinking process. He didn't separate thinking from writing. And that is exactly why I think notebooking matters so much in your homeschool. It slows the learning down. Are you rushing your kids just to finish that checklist? Notebooking slows the learning down so your child can really understand it, learn it, and own it for themselves. It becomes a part of them. Worksheets just check recall. Notebooking builds ownership and understanding. It takes the pressure off getting the right answer and just getting through it. When Hunter was about seven, he would tell me what he learned and I would type it out and then he could copy it into his notebook — because he may not have been ready to get all the thoughts on paper yet. But as they get older, they should be able to do this on their own. I had one mom tell me — homeschooling wasn't working out as I envisioned. I felt like a slave to the curriculum. After six years of schooling that way, she discovered notebooking. It cut the busy work from their day and helped her take the reins of their homeschool with confidence. Don't you want that confidence? What to Do This Week Pick a book and read it out loud, then ask one question — what stood out to you? That's it. For notebooking, grab the free notebooking pages linked in the show notes. Then find one worksheet you were going to use — and get rid of it. Replace it with a notebooking page. Or better yet — let your children pick a topic from the notebooking pages. They are taking ownership and leadership of their own education. They are growing into a leader and not a follower that just does what someone tells them to do. For younger kids, they may not be able to write sentences yet — but they can draw pictures. Put the pages together in a notebook, staple it, or get a binder. Super easy. Read aloud encourages them to enjoy reading and learning. Notebooking allows them to follow topics they are actually interested in. Your homeschool does not need to feel frantic — not forever, and not even now. When you use the right tools, your kids become thinkers, not followers. Grab the free Read Aloud Magic e-book and the free notebooking pages — links are in the show notes. Both of these can help you step out with confidence in your homeschool. And if you want help building a homeschool that actually forms your kids, I've got two exciting events coming up in a few weeks. Get on the waitlist and I'll tell you exactly what's going on. In the past, this has helped moms stop the overwhelm, stop the guessing, and start homeschooling with a purpose instead of a checklist.

  • April 14 · 11 min

    182: Why Homeschool Moms Should Do Less, Not More

    What if adding more to your homeschool day is actually hurting your kids' education? More activities, more workbooks, more subjects — it sounds like the right move, but it may be doing the opposite of what you think. There's a better way, and it's simpler than you'd expect. In this episode, we dig into why doing less in your homeschool can lead to more real learning — and how to start making that shift today. Here's what we cover: ✅Why piling on more subjects and activities produces less actual education (not more) ✅How to replace a workbook with 1 simple question that builds real thinking skills ✅The power of going deep into one topic — and why your kids will actually enjoy learning again ✅Why you need to stop asking "did we finish everything?" — and what to ask instead ✅The Charlotte Mason method that helps kids retain more with shorter, focused lessons You don't have to do it all. Listen to this episode and walk away with a simpler, more intentional homeschool day — starting tomorrow. 👉 Grab the free Read, Write, Discuss chart in the show notes and start using it this week! Resources for You Free Read, Write, Discuss Chart How to Simplify Your Homeschool (free 3-day video course) Show Notes: What If Doing Less Actually Gave Your Kids a Better Education? What if the reason you feel overwhelmed as a homeschool mom is because you're trying to do too much? And what if doing less actually gave your kids a better education? Today we're going to talk about a problem that I think many homeschool moms have. They want their kids to have the best education, so they just keep adding and adding and adding. And all you're doing is strangling your kids' love for learning and setting them up to have a bad attitude. We Left Public School But Brought It With Us Here's what happens. We leave the public school system, but we bring it with us. We don't like what they did or are doing, but we bring it with us anyway. Traditional schools are designed to cover material. They produce followers. They produce workers. The Industrial Revolution changed education. They wanted workers. They wanted people that would follow. They didn't want thinkers, they did not want leaders — they wanted workers to come to work and not question. And that's the model you're following when you do the same things as the public school or the traditional grade-level model. It's not designed for deep understanding. People say, oh, that one-room schoolhouse — they didn't learn hardly anything. But they learned a lot more in the one-room schoolhouse than I think our kids do today. They had kids at different levels, and an 8-year-old might hear something that a 12-year-old was learning and pick it up right alongside them. Charlotte Mason Had It Right — Go Deep, Not Wide Charlotte Mason emphasized short lessons, but go deep. Her students retained more because they engaged deeply. How about today? Are you just trying to get through the checklist and get through everything? Or do you focus on one topic deeply? Especially with older kids and teenagers — and this is something we talk about in our Raising Leaders course — they need to pick a topic and dive deep into it. Maybe for a whole month. If a kid likes motorcycles, he can do the science of motorcycles, the math of motorcycles, the history of motorcycles, he can draw some motorcycles. There's a lot you can do with one topic. And when you let them choose, they take ownership. They dive deep. And they're going to learn their math, they're going to learn science — all of it. With younger kids, you can still do the same thing. It's called a unit study. Read some books, do some hands-on activities, watch some videos. Because here's the thing — we think if we give them a whole lot to do, they're learning. But that's not really the case. Your kids take a test on Friday and forget it by Monday. That's not real learning. More Activities Can Actually Produce Less Education When we have a lot of activities and a lot to cover in a day, more really produces less education. Kids are rushing to get it all done. They're not taking time to think about it. They're in information overload and they're not retaining the information. It's just a checklist. It's the conveyor belt. It's a productivity system — and I know you want something better for your kids. You want a true education. My son Hunter didn't do math from 1st grade to 5th grade, and he caught up in a year and a half. When we put him in private school in 10th grade, he won the math award for the whole school. So go figure. It's okay to not do every subject every day. Even when I was a public school teacher, we didn't do every subject every day. I taught social studies, the teacher next door taught science, and we would flip-flop every three weeks. My kids got social studies for three weeks, then science for three weeks. Practical Things You Can Do Right Now First, if you've got a bunch of workbooks — stop the workbooks. Use real books, like Charlotte Mason talks about. Read together, use it for copy work, use it for dictation, notebooking, narration back. Narrate orally. If you've got younger kids, let them write a narration in a notebook. As they get older, keep a reading journal where they write about whatever they're reading. It's very simple and you can do it in any subject that you have a book. You could even do it with a movie you watch together or a newspaper. As your kids get older, I really encourage you to use our Read, Write, Discuss method. Every day they read. Every day they write one page in their journal. And once a week, you have a discussion about whatever book you're reading together. Another thing you can do is cut one assignment today. No workbook page, no nothing. Instead, replace that one assignment with — tell me what you learned, and what do you think about it. Let them talk. Most kids would rather sit and talk about it than do a workbook. Those workbooks strangle them and bring bad attitudes, I think. Stop Asking "Did We Finish Everything?" That question puts pressure on your kids. That is a source of bad attitude. I'm a Labor Day to Memorial Day schooler, and wherever we were at Memorial Day, we took the summer off and picked right back up on Labor Day. We still learned. My kids were still being educated — they just weren't doing the formal reading and writing, but wherever we were in our subjects, we just picked it right back up. Instead of asking, did we finish everything — ask this instead. Did my child think today? If they didn't, they're just regurgitating information. At dinner tonight, ask — what's the one thing that stood out to you today? Or what was your high and your low? Even a 3-year-old can answer that. When you hear what stood out to them, you begin to see inside your child's mind and their heart about what they are truly learning. And you might be able to pursue it in ways you didn't even think about. Leaders think deeply. They don't need to think widely. Focus on fewer subjects, but go deep in each one of them. Quit doing more. Do less subject areas, and go deep. In the show notes, I have our Read, Write, Discuss chart — grab that here. I also have our How to Simplify Your Homeschool three-day video course. They're very short videos, less than five minutes each, and each one has an activity you can do. It's for you, Mom — to help you simplify and stop the overwhelm.

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