00:00 - Janae Daniels (Host)

What do minimalism and education have in common? Today we're going to talk about it. Before we get started. However, I'm excited to share a new thing that we're doing here at School to Homeschool. Every third Wednesday of the month, we will be hosting a free workshop all about homeschooling. This first workshop will be held July 16th at 12 pm Mountain Time, and we'll be discussing preparing for the fall. It is a free workshop. You can sign up on our website, schooltohomeschoolcom, or you can go to the private Facebook page School to Homeschool, and we will have a link there for you to sign up for the workshop. Again, it's free. It'll be 45 minutes to an hour and we'll discuss this month We'll be discussing preparing for the fall, because y'all tis the season. So with that let's get started.

00:59

Hello and welcome to School to Homeschool. I am Janae Daniels. I'm a wife, a mother of six and a former middle school teacher turned homeschool mom. I have kids in their 20s all the way down to elementary age and everything in between. Are you thinking about pulling your kids from the school system, like I did, but you're scared to death and don't know what to do next. My friends, I felt the same way and you have come to the right place. I want to help your family leave the system so that you can take the hearts and minds of your children back. I am so glad to be back with you.

01:41

July was, excuse me, june was a somewhat refreshing month for me, but really it was a month of cleaning out my house and trying to get my life organized and all the things done. You know, we have to get all those things done, which is what spurred today's topic and for for months I've told you all like, but in my heart I am a minimalist, but in practice I am not and it's something that I've wanted for a long, long time. And so the month of June, I'm like I am going to declutter my house, which is I'm still in the process of where I'm seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. But I'm in, I am going to declutter my house, which is I'm still in the process of where I'm seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. But I'm in the process of the decluttering and I've been listening to all these different books on a minimalism and uh organization and what I realized is, no matter how many bins I have, like, I still feel cluttered, and I realized that all of the stuff in my house, which is a lot, has started overwhelming me. It's overwhelmed my brain, it's overwhelmed just every aspect of my life and I feel like just everything is just falling out of the cupboards. And you go into my laundry room and it looks like a bomb went off and it's just been awful. So I decided I'm going to do it, I'm going to organize my house. But the reality is it's more than organization. I have to get rid of stuff.

03:10

And so I was revisiting the books on essentialism again and minimalism, and you know, everything to do with having less, and I thought, man, this is really coincided well with this last semester of homeschooling for us. Um, this last, you know, from March on, I, kara, really wanted to do these some extra enrichment programs. So, y'all, she ended up doing four days of enrichment programs and one day actually homeschooling from March to May. And, and you know how I've always said, like, don't put too much on your plate, mm. Remember, remember how I said that, um, well, I put too much on my plate and so I felt like I became a taxi. And she didn't do any extracurricular beyond that, except for some church activities, but but it was really overwhelming for me.

04:16

And then Jacob had his stuff, and Katie had his stuff or her stuff, and then Josh was doing his stuff and and I started to feel really, really overwhelmed. And then, on top of it, I looked around at my house and it's, it's just a pigsty and um, and I'm like I've got to do something about about this. More than buying more bins to organize, I need to get rid of stuff. So, again, revisited all of the books and I started decluttering and I have become pretty ruthless. Like my husband was like, did you throw away any of my stuff? I'm like, oh, not yet, but you better get your stuff together because I'm about to um, which is not great for a marriage, by the way. So I didn't touch his stuff, like I said, yet. So anyway, as I'm going through this and I'm feeling all this clutter in my house and I'm feeling cluttered, driving my kids everywhere and doing all these extra things, it got me thinking about how much we've become consumers. We've lost the creator in us and we've become consumers, which, by the way, was the whole. John D Rockefeller would be so grateful that we became consumers that built his empire. Fellow would be so grateful that we became consumers. That built his empire.

05:48

So, as I'm decluttering y'all, um, I'm going through these boxes, one at a time. I pulled everything out of several closets, out of our storage room, and I put it all in our basement. I mean, and it's just, my basement is totally full of all this stuff and I'm like, why do I have this stuff? Like what the heck? I mean, it is ceiling to floor in my basement. Well, okay, it's not ceiling to floor, but it's just like the floors are covered with boxes and boxes and boxes of garbage, just stuff that I'm like, oh my gosh, how did we accumulate so much stuff? I haven't even hit my kids' bedrooms. I did my bedroom end of May and got rid of so much and then so I'm working on the basement and pulling out everything from the closets and my homeschooling stuff and just all the things. And, by the way, I pulled out everything from one closet.

06:45

I'm like this would be a perfect podcast recording studio, because my home office my husband and I share, and so we have to work out who's going to be in it at any given time. He has another office he goes to, that's away from the house, but when he works from home I can't record the podcast or if I am, then he can't work. And so I found this and it echoes here in this office because it has wood floors and even though I put a carpet it does echo and it drives me nuts. So I was like I could turn the closet under the stairs into a podcast studio. I'll be like Harry Potter. Which is what I'm working on right now is turning this into a podcast studio underneath my stairs.

07:25

So as I'm looking at all this stuff, I like I pull up a dress from it's orange with yellow or white flowers and it's very 1960s-esque and I used it for a costume for when we did Willy Wonka and I put somebody in it because we did 1960s influence and I put I put one of the characters in, and I put somebody in it because we did 1960s influence and I put one of the characters in it, and then they gave it back to me because you know it belonged to me. And so I'm going through this and I thought why didn't I just let the theater department keep it? And I'm like I know why. Because my intention was, when I bought the dress actually wasn't for the play, it was because my thought process at the thrift store when I bought it was oh, someday I could wear this dress to a 1960s themed party, y'all. That was my thought process. I don't know if you're as crazy as me as far as that goes. I was like, oh, I need this because someday I could use this here.

08:41

I used to do some catering for my husband's real estate team and for our real estate brokerage and I had accumulated seven large chafing dishes because we did a lot of events. But I stopped doing events with COVID and then, after COVID, we started doing events again and the turnout just wasn't as good as it had been. We went from one event where we had, you know, upwards of 400 people at the event, to we were lucky the second year, 2021, to get 50 people there. So I had all this catering stuff that's been sitting there and the reason. I kept saying, well, but if I cater again, just in case I start catering again, I might need these seven huge chafing dishes and these bins of tablecloths and I, just in case I might, I might need this stuff Like that. That was my thought process.

09:41

So, as I'm decluttering and I'm thinking about this, I'm like that was my thought process. So, as I'm decluttering and I'm thinking about this, I'm like have I ever been invited to a 1960s themed party? No, not, ever, not ever. Have I been invited to a 1960s? Have I ever known anybody to host a 1960s themed party? Also, no, no, I have not.

10:02

And so I am thinking about this as I'm decluttering, right as I'm like, putting piles and piles. By the way, I've taken carloads of stuff to Goodwill. And then I have a friend who is catering now and I gave all of my catering stuff to her. I'm like this is your gift, let me give you this entire carload of stuff to you. And she was elated because it's her business. Now, right? So I'm thinking about this as I'm declaring, I'm like what the heck? I have accumulated all this stuff which has cluttered my brain so much, and I have felt overwhelmed and I felt smothered. And so, as I'm doing this and I'm thinking about what kind of thought is that? Just in case I go to a party, I need this dress. By the way, I'm donating most of the costumes that I have to the homeschool academy.

10:52

So, as I'm doing this, this thought hits my head, it comes right into my head and it's like that's exactly how today's education is. It is a just in case education, which Connor Boyack talked about. I put that as a musing, as a throwback. Musing, because that's something that Connor talked about is we have this just in case mentality, just just in case I have a huge dinner party, I need to have service for 16 people, just in case, just in case I do this.

11:30

I, my husband, is in real estate and he hears it all the time. Oh, people will say, oh, yes, I'm, you know, we want to entertain a lot, but the reality is they never entertained before. But suddenly they, you know, think they're going to entertain now. Now, this isn't everybody, but he hears that a lot, like, oh, we want this space because we want to entertain. And and that's the mentality that I've had is like, oh, just in case, I want this, because, just in case I need this for the future, I should accumulate it, and that's how our education system is right. Just in case, I end up in a lab somewhere with a white coat on and I need to know a quadratic equation. I better learn it now.

12:12

And so I'm sitting here decluttering and by the way, y'all it was, it's still. I'm in the process. It has been so freeing, getting rid of all of the stuff and then being able to think again and not feel overwhelmed. It really got me thinking about how I've been doing homeschooling in this last semester, where I felt so overwhelmed, driving Kara everywhere every single day. And then in the end of May she says to me again I broke my own rule of keeping things simple, of not overextending myself or overextending my kids, broke that rule.

12:53

Kara says to me she's nine and she said at the end of May she said, mom, I'm tired. And I said oh, I know, baby, she goes. No, mom, my heart is tired. And I said oh, I know, baby, she goes. No, mom, my heart is tired. I want to homeschool more and do other things less. And I was like what are you saying exactly? And she said I don't want to do so many enrichment programs. I love them all, but it's too much, mama, it's too much for my brain, I'm tired. And like from the mouths of babes y'all. And I step back and I'm like okay, then let's talk about the two that you're not going to do anymore, or the three that you're not going to do. How many do you want to do? And she goes I don't want to give up these two. Those are the two that I want and the other two I love, but I need to say goodbye to. Now she's nine, I am 48.

13:58

And that little nine-year-old taught me again a lesson that I had to relearn again that we have too much, we have too much, it's too much. So I started really thinking about that's when I really, like, started decluttering not only my house but also went back to the basics in my brain, in my mind, um, that I want my kids to have a just-in-time education and not a just-in-case education where they learn things just in time. But in order to do that, there are fundamentals that they have to know. There is a certain toolbox that they have to have in order to be successful and have a just-in-time education, and I'll explain just-in-time here in a second. So, as I've mentioned before, I'm an eclectic unschooler. So for those of y'all new to homeschooling what, there's several different philosophies that people choose from to homeschool. Two of the philosophies are unschooling and eclectic homeschooling. Eclectic homeschooling it seems for the people that I know is the most common, which eclectic homeschooling means that you kind of pull from a variety of sources ideas, philosophies and you do what works. You might use curriculums, you might not use curriculums, but you pull from different sources and you kind of create, you know your own curated little education for your kids Unschooling the philosophy of unschooling is child-led learning or passion-driven learning, and if you've seen, if you've watched any TikTok videos, there's some people calling themselves radical unschoolers.

16:03

Where they're like there's this one kind of crazy looking lady who's like I teach my children nothing, I won't teach them anything, I, you know. And she's like I'm an unschooler and I'm like oh, no, no, no, that is not unschooling, that's just straight up not schooling. Like that's just straight up educational neglect, right when her children are showing interest to learn something, and she's like figure it out yourself. Like they're like five, what? Um? But we call ourselves eclectic unschoolers in that there are pieces that I expect my kids to learn and I understand that there are certain things that they cannot learn on their own, or they would have a very hard time learn on their own, or they would have a very hard time learning on their own. And as their mother and as their, their teacher and the person who's in charge of their education, I need to teach them. Also when they're little, they don't know what they don't know, and so as a mom, it's my job to introduce them to beautiful concepts all over the world you know, and beautiful ideas and beautiful things, and take them into nature and study birds and and introduce them to all of these beautiful things, cause I know if I don't expose them to stuff they're not, they're not, they may not ever get that exposure right. So when they're little, expose them to wonderful things and then give them the essential tools that they need so that as they start being driven by their passions and their ideas and their interests, that they'll have the tools to go after those interests, non-negotiables in our household. Children must be able to read, they must be able to write well and they must know basic math to up to decimals and percentages. Beyond that, again, it's very, very child-driven. I have a child that's really interested in geometry. He just turned 13. He's just finishing geometry. He's moving on to algebra. Two Loves math. He's very interested in that. But otherwise, like I give them the toolbox Now, I do feel it's important to know our, our, the America's founding.

18:21

I do feel like it's important to know constitution, and so we do go over those things. But those aren't like you have. We have to do this every single week, right? Sometimes we'll go in spurts and be like three months of this or two months of that, but the the non-negotiables are those three.

18:40

And then also, I believe in a religious education. Because I'm a religious education, because I'm a religious person, I consider myself a religious and spiritual person and I want my children to know God, I want them to know Jesus Christ, I want them to have a relationship with him and to know him, and so that is a fundamental in our household. But they can't read scripture if they don't know how to read. Right, so I? So that is our basic toolbox, and those are, those are the non-negotiables, because once they know those things, they can learn anything else.

19:15

And so, as I've thought about this, with essentially, with um, minimalism, I'm like what are the things that I absolutely must have that are non-negotiables, like in my household? And then the other things. There's other things that I like, I like um, that are important, but I'm not going to have a million of. And then there's other things that I might have a lot more of. For example let me give you a for instance, as I was thinking about this, because I thought okay, everybody needs cups and plates, right, and silverware, we all do, like all of us. All of us need it, kind of like reading, writing, math, right, we all need cups, plates and silverware. That's a, it's a basic, a basic thing to to eat, to cook, we all need pots and pans, but how much we need that is a different story.

20:16

Uh, my husband told me when he was, uh, living on his own in college, he had a fork, a knife, a spoon, a cup and a plate and he had his. They, each of his roommates, they had their own, a one, they each had one, and that suited him for a time. Right, that's what he needed for a time. That was the absolute essential that he needed. As a family, there are seven of us in the household for a short time longer, until Joshua heads out, and so now we have I actually have 12 servings of plates of silverware, not any more of cups, because a couple broke again. Um, so I need to get a couple more cups, but that's what we have, and we have 12 because Jason's family often comes over they were just over yesterday and, um, they come over fairly regularly and that way we have enough for everybody.

21:26

Although I yesterday resorted to paper plates. I try not to use too much paper. I do use it, but I try not to use it as much. I try to, you know, use my resources, that and things I have. Compare that to which. That that's essential. Our family, that's enough for our family and enough for our guests that come regularly, versus a person who is running a catering company and or they're, you know, they're running a rental company, where they need to have 500 plates and 500 sets of silverware and 500 glasses and 200 chairs. Right, they still need those essentials, but they might need more of it.

22:11

So I think of education, similar in a similar regard as I again, this is all as I'm cleaning out my house going why do I have all this stuff and what do I need and what do I not need? Um, like with math, for example. Math is important and it's beautiful, right, and there's mathematical concepts that are so beautiful, but most of us really only need the like the, the basic toolbox of. I need, I need arithmetic, I need um, I need subtraction, multiplication, division. I need um, addition, I need multiple uh percentages, I need decimals. Those are key for me to understanding all of the rest of math. I might need to know some basic algebraic problems. I may need to know some basic algebraic problems. I may need to know some basic geometry, but beyond that I may not need that much more, but I have a child who wants to be an engineer, and so they're going to need to have more math under their belt. I thought this was really fascinating, george Washington. I'm going to share this with you because this is pretty cool.

23:29

George Washington, this is from Mount Vernon. Okay, they don't, we know. So when George Washington was 11, his dad died unexpectedly, which prevented him from receiving the education that his older, his half-brothers received. His two older half-brothers. They went to school in England. They had a classical Latin based education, which, the classical philosophy, is still around today. It's the most strict of the philosophies, in my opinion.

24:01

Um, and so his education looked very different. Um, he received a lot of scrutiny because he wasn't considered educated by like continental congress I love. A historian said this. He said adams, this is joseph ellis. Um, the author of the quartet orchestrating the second American revolution said John Adams, sorry, adams had gone to Harvard, jefferson went to William and Mary Washington had gone to war. Right, so his education was very, very different than some of the other founding fathers. And and so he had the basics. They think that he may have gotten a few private tutors. They think he may have gone to some, spent a little bit of time at a local school in Fredericksburg, but his the rest was at home. His education was really really limited, right, very basic. But get this okay. So I'm going to read this from mountvernonorg.

25:12

The Washington library acquired the 1679 edition of the Complete Surveyor by William Leborn from George Washington's personal library At the age of 13,. Washington borrowed the book from his friend and neighbor, colonel William Fairfax, and it remained in his possession for 54 years. Washington copied these geometrical problems from the textbook the Complete Surveyor. Striking in their precision, washington's geometrical problems represent one set of exercises within a larger group of school papers that he produced as a teenager between 1744 and 1748. These papers are the primary evidence for the scope and quality of Washington's formal education and document some of the earliest formative influences on him. Having been originally preserved by Washington himself, they also attest to the value he placed on their contents. Washington mastered 17 of the problems provided in the text, presumably ones chosen by his tutor. Again, they think he had a tutor.

26:24

There's some speculation as to all of the nature of his education. In 1747, within a year or two of completing the problems, washington executed his first practice surveys. And in 1749, he secured the lucrative office of county surveyor in Culpeper County, virginia. Y'all he was 17 years old. Just FYI, I continue to quote.

26:54

Even after years of experience in the field as a surveyor, washington appears to have continued to draw on Leiborn's texts as a reference. The Circus 1764 list of Mount Vernon includes Leiborn's surveying with a notation indicating that it had been borrowed from his neighbor, George William Fairfax, which he kept all those years. And then, of course I've brought this up in a past episode he also copied Rules of Civility, which is where he learned manners. So this is what I found interesting is, when Washington needed the information, he got it. He was 13 years old when he was able to secure a copy of the Complete Surveyor by William Leiborn, and that's when he needed to learn the algebra and the geometry that he needed to become a surveyor, of which he did when he was 17. And then he goes on, he goes to war and all of the things, and he's, of course, elected as the first president of the United States of America. Um, he had a just-in-time education. That's what he had, just in time when he needed the information. He sought after the information. He got the information.

28:15

The other thing I was reading by another of his biographers was that he was very, very, very well read. He would read all of the time. Again, he had that tool in his belt of reading and so he read and read, and read, and read, and read, and read, and read, and read, and read, and read, and read and read, and he was very well read and that became the bulk of his, of his education. He was taught in morality. That was something that common schools often taught too was morality and religion was taught. If you've ever picked up a copy of New England Primer, it is all biblical, like the whole thing. They do the alphabets and it's like it is all biblical, like the whole thing. They do the alphabets and it's like Adam died. You know like it's very. It's all biblical. So I just found this so interesting that here here's Washington, a perfect example of a just in time mentality. When he needed it, he got it Y'all.

29:17

If I ever get invited to a 1960s party, like a 1960s themed party, I can go back and find something that looks 1960s-esque, but I don't have to hold on one for 15 years, just in case, just in case I get invited to a party, and so that that's what's been on my mind. So now, as I'm planning for the fall, which I've got a workshop coming up on July 16th. That's free. I'll be doing them every third Wednesday. We'll we'll be doing different workshops for free. You just have to register for them. That's where you're going to get the link, um to join them. It'd be 45 minutes to an hour.

30:13

Um, as I'm planning for the fall, that's what's been on my mind is I want my kids to have the tools that they need, right, and then, if they need more, if they need more plates, if you will, if they decide to become, you know, decide to become engineers or doctors or whatever, then they can pursue those, the extra tools that they might need. I would much rather do that than accumulate a bunch of information, facts and figures that don't serve me in the present, that don't serve my children in the present time. Now, again, that's not like, like I said, for for my family, um, reading, writing, math, those are non-negotiables. But then I do introduce history and I do have to still go with the state standards for homeschoolers, and so I do have to bring in a few other things. Right, we do talk about science. Actually, the enrichment programs they go to do teach science principles. Check that box, right.

31:24

We've done a little bit more with science this summer, in that the coolest thing has happened. We had a robin build its nest on our back porch and then we had a house finch build its nest on our uh, front door in our wreath. In the wreath. Like none of us use the front door right now, y'all, we have not used the front door for weeks. We go through the garage or the back door because nobody want. Well, what happened is one of the kids opened the door and then the wreath fell off and then two of the eggs broke and two baby birds were laying there. So we scooped them up with tongs and put them back in the nest and then hung it back up.

32:06

Lots of tears. Even my 23-year-old son was sobbing over these birds and he does not cry and he's like he was the one who did it and he's like I killed them, I killed the birds, it's all my fault, anyway. He felt so bad because he forgot the nest was there, anyway. So now we have a rule, and he was the one who's like I think we should institute a new rule. No one is allowed to go through the front door. So anyway, it was so tender and we all cried and they're okay, the two eggs are gone, but the two baby birds are okay, and the birds actually had another three eggs, which is crazy, because we sneak and we'll look at the nest, okay, so then, so that's nest number two.

32:45

Then another Robin built its nest two feet away in a storm pipe, like underneath, like the roof and the storm pipe. And then anotherin built its nest on the right side of our house. And then last week, as Kara was turning on the hose, she found another robin on the left side of our house had built a nest in a tree, like a foot away from the house, like we are surrounded by robin's nests. So this has sparked all sorts of like. We hadn't studied about robins before, but because of this phenomenon of them building their nests right around the house, we started studying about robins. Right, we accumulated more plates, if you will Like. There was a reason to get more plates. It gave us reason to go.

33:39

Oh, specifically, like my kids immediately. Like when the nest fell, my kids immediately went online and were like, how do we put them back? Will they be killed by the parents? What will happen with the baby robins? What will? Or with the baby finches? Like, what's going to happen? How do we protect them? What do we do? Like immediately went to to research on all about these birds and how to protect baby birds and how do we know if they're okay. It was such a powerful learning experience for my kids versus had four years ago. I've been like we're going to study about Robbins today. Okay, get out your textbooks, we're going to study right now. Um, the impact was far more powerful because just when they needed the information they they wanted to look it up. Another thing y'all, I have never studied the car manual for my car, but by golly it needs a new air filter and it costs $25 by the air filter, and if I had the mechanic do it it was going to be $75. But wouldn't you know it? I learned how to change an air filter. Thank you very much. When I needed to learn the information, I learned it. I figured it out.

35:02

When people ask you about gaps in your kids' education, don't you worry about gaps in their education. I want you to keep in mind and remember we all have gaps in our education, but when we need the information, we will get it just in time. So that's what I have to say today, and I'm excited to show you my new office as soon as it's done, and I'm going to be taking pictures of the before and after, pictures of my basement, which we're still, like I said, I'm still in the thick of it. I still have several boxes that I'm going through and I'm still trying to convince my husband that he does not need to keep his college textbooks Like I am working really hard because we have three boxes of his college textbooks that he does not want to get rid of and he's like but I need them. Like when you have not opened them in like 25 years. Like, get rid of them.

35:58

Patience, I have to be patient. Not everybody is on the same journey. I am, anyway, with that. My friends, I want you to switch from a just in case oh, I said just in case earlier. No, just in time. I want you to switch from a just in case earlier, no, just in time. I want you to switch from a just in case mindset for education to a just in time mindset for education.

36:28

Rather than just in case, just in case you go to a 1960s party, let's switch to a just in time when you're invited to a 1960s party. Just in time. When you're invited to a 1960s party, then that's when you're going to get the 1960s costume. But in the meantime, save your resources for more important things that are relevant today. With that, I hope you have a wonderful time. Mamas, papas, grandmas, grandpas, you are doing so much better than you think you are. You got this. We'll talk next week. If you found this podcast helpful, sign up for our newsletter at schooltohomeschoolcom, where there's also lots of other resources. You can also subscribe to us on YouTube at School to Homeschool or join our private Facebook page, school to Homeschool. You can also subscribe to us on YouTube at School to Homeschool or join our private Facebook page, school to Homeschool. You've got this, my friends.