Hi, friend. We have got a fun one for you today because today, we are going behind the scenes. Yep. We're pulling back the curtain on the Thrive Homeschool community to give you the inside scoop on what it's really like in our special little corner of the Internet. We're making this episode today because we get asked about Thrive Constantly.

What do we actually do in there? What are these things called master classes and you get free stuff? I hear you have office hours. What are those like? And every time I try to explain Thrive Homeschool Community, I feel like one of those infomercial hosts.

Thrive offers so much value. I'm always this close to shouting, but wait, there's more, and I start to get embarrassed. And now I'll be the to admit that I really don't like being cheesy, but here's the deal. Thrive really is that special. It's packed with so much incredible content and so many opportunities that it's hard to sum up in just a few words.

The closest thing we've come to is that it's kinda like starting a master's program for homeschooling and parenting, but with a safe and supportive community. But today, I wanted to take things a step further for a couple of reasons. I do get tired of hearing myself talk about Thrive. I'm asked so much about it, and I knew we just had to make a show. And it's honestly so helpful to hear from real moms just like you and learn about their experience.

So I've invited two amazing Thrive members to take the mic with me today. These ladies have been with Thrive since the very beginning, soaking up the trainings, showing up for office hours, and now they're the ones dishing out the best advice and encouragement to the newer homeschool moms in our community. And let me tell you, these mamas have been through it all, laughing, learning, and, yes, shedding a cure too on those tougher days. Because, honestly, who hasn't? Today, they're here to share their unfiltered stories and reveal what the Thrive homeschool community has done for them.

Whether you're here to learn, be a fly on the wall, or see if Thrive might be your thing because I know you've been stalking us, girl. I hear that all of the time. This is your chance to get the inside scoop. Thrive might be your perfect fit or not, but my goal with this episode today is that you'll know exactly what to expect, and I cannot wait to dive in. All right, let's get started.

I have Julie and Becca with me here today. And I wanna start out the show with you telling us a bit about yourselves. How many kids do you have? And tell us a brief history of your homeschooling journey. And Becca, why don't we start with you?

Sure. So I have three kids and they are I have a high school, a middle school, and an elementary school, but that's not where I started. I was a stay at home mom for the twelve years. And then when my oldest started middle school, we had been going through fights, not with him, but with the school, all through elementary school. And I started to feel like that mama bear that wasn't being listened to.

I couldn't get the help for him that I needed because he fell in that gray area. And so after we hit middle school, we realized that we were gonna come to a point where we needed to make a decision on what was best for his future. And so I was always a, I will never homeschool mom. I I was that person that when people say, oh, I homeschool, I was the one that was like, oh, that's weird. You know?

And so I said I would never homeschool. But then when it came to my kids and I realized what they needed and that the school wasn't gonna be able to offer that for them, I realized that it's time to take that leap. So we started with Jess, my oldest, when he was going into his grade year, and we are now entering our year of homeschooling. The goal was not to homeschool all of our kids. He was just the one that needed it at the time, and we were just gonna take it as long as it it needed.

But after about six months of that, the younger two saw what he was doing in homeschool and they asked, please bring us home too. So we decided to take the leap and brought all three home. So here I was a stay at home mom and then at the same season that I was beginning to homeschool my oldest, I actually began working full time as well. So I thought the Lord had played a funny joke on me that he decided that I would be thrust into the world of homeschooling at the same time I was going back to work. So we had a lot to figure out.

So it was definitely an adventure, but that's how we have gotten there. And like I said, we are going four years strong now with no plans of turning back.

Nice. Now did did we meet each other in your year?

Yes. I had just started homeschooling, and that's when I came across you on TikTok.

Okay. Crazy. Awesome. Alright. Julie, your turn.

I'm an I'm similar with Becca with my timing. I started homeschooling when I have two that are nine and 11, but they were in grade, and I just put my baby in kindergarten. And I think that really broke my heart to have to put my baby in school, and I had struggled even when I put my oldest in school because I also was at home with them besides a couple days of preschool, and I had worked from home with them since they were born. And so just kind of like, you know, not a full time, but kind of part time. But I had always been with them, and it was so hard to put them both in school all day.

And I just remember thinking after chasing that school schedule, I told my husband, we are chasing logistics. We were chasing time frames and bedtimes, and I told him, where is the life that we are living with these kids? We made such a conscious decision to have kids to enjoy them, to live with such a full life with them, and where are we actually living? Unlike Becca, I wasn't I wasn't a naysayer of homeschooling. I went to public and private school my whole life.

It was just truly never on my radar. I had I really never thought about it, but it was like, sometimes I'm thankful for that social media algorithm because I think just as the thought entered my brain, it started showing up on my feeds, and I started seeing things about it. And I think I saw Christy. I saw you so early on in that time frame, and so I really just started, like, taking in all of the information I could. After that kindergarten year with my youngest in grade, we decided to pull them, and and we just finished our year.

So going into our and, yeah, I hope that we never turn back.

One thing I love about both of you and why you are a great fit to be on today's show is how thoughtful you are about your lives. And you mentioned something, Julie, that I wanna have a brief conversation about, and I know this is a little bit off script, so I'm sorry if I'm throwing you off. But I wanna talk a little bit about that. It's built in society as a human rite of passage in preschool to drop your kids off or in kindergarten or however you do it. But at some point, you let your kids go.

And I hear from so many homeschool moms, I just didn't want to. I just didn't want to. What are your thoughts on that?

That was the exact thought I had. When my oldest was going into kindergarten, I cried the entire night before, and I wrote this heartfelt letter to his teacher that, like, we are bringing you this child that we wanted, that we prayed for, that we have nurtured, and, you know, we're giving him to you. And please know that when you're looking into his blue eyes that you're seeing, you know, the best of us. And truly, truly cried all night. It was so difficult.

And so it was hard even from the beginning, but like I said, then when we put our one in, I just hit that moment of why do they have to be gone all day? Why do they have to do this? They're so little. They're so impressionable. Why does someone else get that time with them?

And that really started the ball rolling for me. Like you said, it's a rite of passage. And, you know, the thought is like, well, you have to prepare them for the world. I thought, what am I preparing them for? Middle management when they're five and seven?

Like, they don't need to know how to pull a nine to five. They're, like, barely above toddlers. And so that I mean, it really flipped

me. It really does that. And in one of my talks, I mentioned that people often worry about things much later in the homeschool years like a high high school transcript, and I asked the mom how old her kid is, and she says five. And it's like, okay. Just baby steps.

You don't have to stress about those things yet, and they're actually more doable than you think. But I do feel like our society treats childhood almost like we're rushing through a garden to get to the gate to the other side, and we're missing out on this beauty and what we can give our kids. But let's move on to the next question, which is number two. Let's go ahead and start with Becca. What drew you to Thrive Homeschool Community, and was there something that you were specifically looking for?

Sure. When I came to Thrive, I had no idea what I was looking for because it was my year of starting to home school. And like Julie had shared before, the TikTok algorithm is real. It knows your thoughts. And so as I was just researching, I'm an avid researcher.

And so if I'm gonna do something, I need to understand everything about it. So when I took this leap into start homeschooling, I was just constantly researching. And so, of course, my TikTok algorithm picked up on that. And as I came across your TikTok, you started to answer questions that I had. And I remember I reached out to you directly and you said to me, I am just about to start a homeschool group and what you're sharing with me is exactly what I'm creating this for.

Would you consider joining? And at I was like, I don't know if that's really for me or not. Like, I'm really cheap, like the cheapest of cheap. And I have nicknames. I'm I'm Budget Beck.

I'm I'm Squeaks because when my when my wallet opens, it it it squeaks. But I value, you know, what it is that is gonna pour into me. And so I saw value in joining. So I was like, you know what? I'm just gonna go for it because I need help.

And when I need help, I'm willing to part the oceans to get what I needed. And I really I value mentorship. And so I saw this as an ability to get that mentorship that I needed through this community. And so I guess that's really what I was looking for out of this community was some mentorship, guidance, and knowledge. I just I needed help and I needed it fast.

And I also was a homeschooling mom who was working. I didn't have the ability to join a co op. I didn't know anybody else who was homeschooling. So this was my next best option, and it became my very best option.

And I remember early on with both of you, you guys came to the office hours, which are we'll talk about those in a minute, but they're kind of the live coaching Zooms with me and the other mentors. And that's even how we were able to become friends in the place. And I do think there's an element with anything that you do that you get out of it what you put in. And so that's why I encourage moms, even if they're not comfortable talking on a Zoom, I get so many DMs after the Zooms for moms who said nothing, and they're like, I'm so glad I came to that today. I was just a fly on the wall, but I learned so much.

But I wanna move to Julie now. What drew you to Thrive Homeschool Community, and was there something specifically that you were looking for?

I think I too was looking for something that was gonna give me sort of what homeschool could look like because I didn't have any idea. And I think I felt like I could figure out the school part of it, but I just sort of wanted to a feel for the rest of it. So like Becca was saying, I started consuming everything I could on social media and just sort of reading everything I could about homeschooling. And there were a couple of different things that I had found, and this is when I found you. But I could feel your heart for moms through the videos I was watching, and I could feel your heart for, like, a a homeschool that was connected and families being connected and just instilling a love of learning.

And my kids were so young. I mean, we're three years in, but they were so young just finishing kindergarten. So, you know, that's like, you know, puppy dogs and butterflies. It's so fun, and it's recess and open play. And so I thought, just wanna make sure that I'm creating something that's gonna be really fulfilling for all of us and really just create the love of learning because my grader at the time, I could see how school was draining his love of learning.

This was a child who was so, so curious and so wide eyed in the world, and I could just feel almost him dimming that at school. He was bored. There's so much downtime. There's so much, you know, in between time and all of that. And so I really wanted to just make sure that I was offering and creating a space here in our home that was just so fulfilling for everybody.

But that's what drew me in, and then I thought, if this is who you are, then Thrive is gonna be an extension of that. And so, like, Becca, I watched and I watched, and I was in a lot of lives even when you were on, you know, TikTok and social media answering questions, and I would just be in there. And you were just promoting Thrive. It was just starting. And that's when I was like, I've gotta do it.

I told my husband, I've gotta do it. There's nowhere else that I feel like I'm gonna be connected with people who are trying to do the same thing I'm doing.

It was really my heart to support the mom because we have a lot of co ops around and everyone can hopefully, if you don't live in too rural of an area, you probably have a coop that you can join near you. But I don't see a lot of trainings for moms. How do we help you love this life? Which I knew just from my experience, it had to be with building skills because that's what builds confidence. And so that leads right into our next question.

There's a lot in Thrive, but two of the things you have access to right away is the eight step homeschool success framework and the fail safe homeschool setup. So the eight step homeschool success framework is eight module, basically, a course, and the intention of it is to kinda crush your worries and insecurities about messing up. We do a lot of deschooling in there. We do a lot of skill building. And the fail safe homeschool setup, it walks you through all the logistics.

It's kind of the nitty gritty of the planning, the choosing curriculum, and organizing your life. I wanna talk about the eight step homeschool success framework because I know both of you have gone through those trainings. What was it like going through the eight step homeschool success framework, and were there any big takeaways or game changers for you? Let's go ahead and start with Julie this time.

So I was in Thrive so early on that these eight steps came in as our monthly master classes. It wasn't even all put together as one eight step framework, but I think that the timing of that was good for me because I was just starting. I was taking it all in. So I think I was able to take in each component of it and really sit with it. I think that as a general overall, the eight step filled my heart with so much hope with what this was going to look like.

And I felt so hopeful that it was gonna be such a great connected thing for me and for my family. The things like finding my why. I knew in my heart why I was doing this, but I needed to put it to words. And I felt like I needed that for myself. I needed to fully understand.

I'm so thankful for that because three years in, in the really hard days that have been so challenging for me, knowing so clearly why I'm doing this has been so helpful for me. So I think that it's allowed me to relax and, like, know what's important and what isn't. So I have been fortunate enough through this to have things like, I've not been super hung up on curriculum, which is I know what so many people when they're coming into homeschool are saying, what curriculum am I gonna choose? And that that is gonna make or break their homeschool. But I came into this learning through this that it's not what I'm using, it's how I'm using it, it's how I'm approaching it, how my kids are taking it in.

It's so many things matter more than the, you know, exactly what I'm using, it's how we're using it, what we're doing with it, our attitude toward it. So I I just was able to completely relax and just be strong and confident in knowing why I was doing it and had those skills to know how to move through it.

That's really encouraging to me because I built the framework out to be the most common pitfalls and questions and worries that moms have. And that's so cool because as you know, everyone that comes in, the thing I ask them to do is to take module one of the eight step framework, which is the finding your why workshop. So at the end of those forty five minutes, they have a a sentence that they can memorize and they can tell uncle John at Thanksgiving when you're asked why you homeschool. And that's why I call that framework a deschooling framework because, like, Julie, just you saying that, you starting the homeschool game knowing that your biggest, most important decision is not your curriculum, it's more your posture. That took me so many years to realize, and so that's a real blessing for me to hear.

By the way, I didn't know their answers ahead of time. They had their questions ahead, but I didn't know the answers, and I didn't realize I was gonna be so blessed. But, Becca, let's go ahead and hear your answer. What was your takeaway from the eight step framework? As a homeschool mom who values a family together approach and leans towards the classical and Charlotte Mason styles, I often struggle to bring my educational vision to life with my kids' diverse ages and learning needs.

With all our interests and super packed schedule, bridging that gap between the dreamy homeschool I want and reality, I gotta be honest. It's a challenge. Now, yes, I know perfection isn't the goal. But if you're listening and you could use a little easing of your mental load in your day to day, I found a resource that has become the quiet hero of our routine and it could be a really great option for you too. BJU Press homeschool curriculum.

Now many think that BJU Press homeschool is solely an all in one option, and though it does excel in that role, did you know you can also opt for specific courses and tailor them to fit your family's needs just as I have? BJU Press homeschool provides the perfect balance of structure and flexibility and easily complements my family's mixed age family together on the couch learning style. They are to none in integrating a biblical worldview, stimulating critical thinking, and offering tons of hands on activities in the lessons. To find out how BJU Press Homeschool can come alongside you in your homeschooling goals too, visit bjupresshomeschool.com or click the link in the show notes. I've got some news.

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So I hate to echo the same thing as you guys, but finding your why, that one really is the game changer. And I think it's because I mean, for me personally, I'm a why person. And so in order to follow through on everything or anything, you have to know why you're doing it. Because I remember coming into it and I felt so sure of my decision to homeschool that even when I would be in the homeschool groups and people would be lamenting about they're not sure if they should still be doing this. You know, it's really hard.

I'd be like, you know why you're doing this? Just keep doing it, girl. And so there was this sense of pride there because, you know, you have like that that zeal without knowledge. And that was me in the beginning. Like, I was just gung ho.

I knew why we were doing this, but I also realized very quickly, like Julie said, I couldn't necessarily put words to why I knew why I was doing this. And to have that tangible why is a game changer on the days that you do doubt yourself. And so whether you're the homeschooler who's coming in fully assured that you know you're making the right decision or you're the one who's coming in with full of doubt and just not even sure if you're making the right decision, that that why just gives you that backbone behind what you're doing. And so that for me was the biggest takeaway. I loved the layout of the course.

It was really enjoyable to walk through it. I'm the kind of person that I figure out, like, the science behind things. And so if you give me a quiz, I can quickly summarize what it is that you're trying to get me to to get to me to the end of that quiz. And so I start answering it the way that I think that you want me to answer it. But in finding your why, everything was, like, bite sized pieces.

You didn't even know what the next question was going to be, so you couldn't skip to the end. You had to just see what was right in front of you. And so a lot of the times you get to the end of that finding your why module, and you are surprised actually by the answer because it's not necessarily what you thought it would be. And yet it put to words exactly why you made this journey. So I really enjoyed that part as well.

And then the rest of them, I loved it because it's sprinkled in with practicalities as well as encouragement. And so we all need to be inspired and then we all need to know how to do it. And so when you're overly inspired, that's irritating because it's like, great, I'm inspired. How do I do this? Like, can you just tell me what to do?

But then if you're only telling me what to do, I'm like, I need a little juice, you know, to to grease the wheel. And so I think it's a really good balance when you go through the framework is that there's inspiration, but then there's also the practicalities to be like, now how do you do this? So that has been my takeaway. I really enjoyed just being able to have somebody take me by the hand and guide me through a process. And like Julie said, we got to go on the journey with you as you were building it.

And so when it was all done and built, it was fun to actually go back through it. And I still find myself going to it each year when we're going through that process of selecting and needing reminders. So it's definitely it's not a one and done. You you go back to it many times.

As your kids grow up, your why changes. But one thing that is for sure that I find powerful when I went through the journey of finding my why is when you read that sentence, you realize there is no way that any school system, whether public or private, will be able to provide for my kids what I actually want for them, whether it's in the childhood I want for them now or in their preparation for the future. And that alone is what makes it such a powerful sentence to say in public settings or to naysayers or family members who just don't get it. It's almost like you don't need them to get it. You don't need to convince them of anything.

You're just telling them there is no way they could answer back and say, well, the school system does that for my kids too. Like, you literally can't because the school system is still preparing kids for a world that doesn't even exist. So I wanna transition to the next question, and that's about the fail safe homeschool setup. I loved I'm a logistics systems person. I loved putting together that framework.

That covers all your logistics for homeschooling. It covers how to stay legal. It starts out with interview questions actually for your kiddos and for you, moves right into making sure you're legal, then talks about how to buy curriculum. I give you a structure for how to do it. One way one way that works for me, it's not the only way, but it is a way to stay organized.

Lots of handouts to keep you organized. And we move on through how to schedule your whole year, how to schedule your months, how to schedule your days, and then how to start your year. I actually go through my own fail safe homeschool setup every single year. It's the only way I can stay organized. But that came along, I think, only two years ago.

That came along after the eight step framework. Do you guys remember going through that with me for the time, and what was that like?

Yes. I totally remember going through it for the time. I am the same that I love a good plan. I'm a I'm a Post it note and a list and all the reminders and all the things kind of person. And so when that came out, it felt like all of my dreams had come true, and I could make a total plan.

I had my road map for what our year was gonna look like. But at the same time, so I was going into it so confident because I knew even just as my kids are growing, I'm thinking, what subjects do I need to be introducing? And there's a list in there by age, by grade of all the different subjects that would be out there. So I think, okay. Yeah.

That would be a great one to add in for this next school year or even to then have it on my radar to talk to my kids about it, like in the interviewing portion of it. You know, what would you guys like to learn? And here's, like, some suggestions of things that we haven't looked at yet. Is there any of this you'd like us to introduce? And then actually, you know, all the way to executing how many days, all of that has helped us so much.

It's helped me to know what's coming, like to know what it's gonna look like, and that helps having the big picture, and then we're sort of, like, taking it down to the days and having my calendar all planned out for the year. But there's always still so much flexibility and margin built into it, but just having the overall plan totally in place gives me such, like, a sure footing to start each school year. So really I really think that that's something that I've I've never seen in all the searching of all the homeschool research that I've done to actually have, like, a road map of your school year. That would have to be that would be a draw for me if I wasn't in Thrive to come to come get that because I would feel so much more confident in my year knowing I had it planned out like that.

Well, this is the next question I wanna hear Becca's answer. But also what I noticed is as women are working through the modules, they're DMing the mentors and asking specific questions about the modules as they're working through. So it's not just doing trainings and you're on your own. This is training with a community. But, Becca, I wanna hear your answer to the fail safe homeschool setup.

Yeah. I love the fail safe homeschool setup because I I'm like you. I like systems. I'm not always good at coming up with but I love a system to follow. And so for me, it was so awesome to have a system just laid out.

And one of the questions I feel like I see so much, especially on social media, is when moms begin to homeschool, their question, it's like they're cited and then there's like that panic. What do I do? Where do I start? How do I even get going? And this framework literally takes you by the hand and says step one, step two, step three, step four.

It doesn't leave any room for you to even question what you should be doing next. And so I really appreciated that part of it was just I needed that practicality of, you know, how do we do this? And then even that when you did that module that took you through, like Julie was sharing of how to layout and plan your whole year, that very concept and idea was so overwhelming to me when people would talk about like, okay, this is your curriculum. This is how many weeks it is. This is how many days it is.

I mean, that would be enough to just, like, put me into, like, a little panic attack. Like, how am I supposed to plan those with three kids, three separate, all these different curriculums? And they have programs, you know, some of the curriculum companies have programs that do that. But when you're using multiple curriculums, it's like, how, how do I actually figure out what this looks like? And so to have that, you know, broken down of these are when we plan on taking vacations.

Cause for the most part, you know when you're gonna be taking a day off. And even if you don't like this past year when I went through it, I just knew how much time we wanted to have off. And so I told the kids that when we made our calendar, guys, we have built in three weeks of vacation. You just let me know when you need them. And so we could sprinkle them anytime, but we just I just knew to build that margin in.

And it was just because, you know, you walked us through so simply, how do you build your year and how do you build in that margin? So that was a huge game changer. I really enjoyed that. And I like you said, we do it every year.

I think that concept of flex days and planning those ahead of time is really a game changer. And feedback that I get from moms in terms of joining Thrive is that where the anxiety comes is they know there's a lot they don't know. And they don't know what they don't know. And then that's really it freaks them out. And so that's kind of where the fail safe homeschool setup comes in because we literally leave no stone unturned.

Like, there isn't even a subject in school that I'm not gonna put right in front of you so that at least you can make the decision if you wanna do that this year or not. And that leads to the next question, which this is what I've been excited to talk about because I think this is where Thrive is really special and unique and where people don't get it. So people often join Thrive because they have a problem to solve. They need to figure out how to homeschool, the logistics, how are they gonna do this. But I really believe women stay because of the community.

And part of that are these live Zoom calls that we have. We call them office hours. And on the office hours, we it's myself and two to two to three other mentors that do the Zoom calls with me. And you guys are always at the office hours, and I want you to maybe explain in your best own words what has been the value for you in being in those office hours and experiencing those. Let's go ahead and start with Becca this time.

I would say support. If you had to just put one word to it, support. The amount of times that I have come to an office hours and there were days that I didn't even wanna come because I was overwhelmed. I was tired. I had a lot going on.

I had just fallen asleep on the couch, like, for the nighttime one. I thought, no, you're going to office hours. And the way you leave so encouraged because you didn't realize how much you needed that connection the way that you needed that community. And so office hours can be filled with logistics or office hours can be filled with tears. Office hours can be filled with teary eyed confessionals because we always say what happens in office hours stays in office hours.

And I can say since we began, I don't feel that a confidence has ever been betrayed in office hours. Nothing ever shared has ever been held against you. I have never felt judged by sharing anything in an office hours no matter how vulnerable it is. And I think that's a really hard thing, especially in women, in circles of women, in groups of women, is that we often feel judged or someone's going to be judging you. And that's why it's so hard to open up and why maybe some women don't always open up on office hours.

But in my experience, that has been such a safe community, and it has done it in a way that, like I said, it's so multifaceted, and there's never a time I haven't walked away feeling encouraged. And so that's why I keep coming to office hours because I need it.

Now and because you've been through all the trainings and you go to so many office hours, one thing that brings a lot of joy, and this is for Julie too, Marni and Denise and I talk about this is just how much you guys offer in the chat, in the Zoom call, and how you just beat us to what we were gonna say anyway, and that warms our hearts and brings us so much joy. But, Julie, I want you to share about Office Hours now.

I'll just echo what Becca said. It's the same for me. I feel like I didn't even maybe realize I was gonna get that much out of Thrive. I didn't realize that all of the community that I would actually find. I thought that I would get so much knowledge and learn how to set up my homeschool.

And the office hours, as they started, like like I said, I found myself knowing that I needed to go because I knew there was always gonna be something that I was gonna glean from an office hours to answer a question that I might have down the road. I attend office hours for teenagers. I'll attend all of them because I don't even have a teenager yet, but I feel like I'm getting close to that. And I'm like, okay. I wanna take it all in, moms.

Give me the good, the bad, the ugly, and I wanna be prepared so that when I see this, I think, oh, I we've talked about this. This is normal. This is to be expected. But office hours are where the heart of the community is, I think, because like Becca said, it's it's such a safe space. And I think even when we get new moms in there, you know, some of them I've noticed will even share, like, more quickly than any of us did, and I think it's because we're all there and we're pretty vulnerable.

And we're willing to share things that aren't even always putting us in our best light, but they're so real. And I think when you see other people being so real and nobody is being judged for it is when you can get that true connection because people are real and honest about, you know, what they might be feeling and, you know, feeling like, I just don't know if I'm doing this right. I don't know if I can do this. Or so you can get so much support that I think I know in my real life here, I just don't have a homeschool community that that feels that way. Like Becca was saying, women sometimes are a little competitive or wanna feel like I'm not oh, I'm glad I'm not in that situation or something.

And here, everyone has the empathy to know that we could all sort of have these same hard days, and maybe they look a little bit different, but the feeling in us is the same. Feeling we've all had those days where we feel like we failed our we failed ourselves. This is not the person I wanted to be, you know, show up as today. And so I think even when you come in with such a struggle, you leave feeling so encouraged and that that is normal. And then the other thing I'll say is every office hours I attend, I have a notepad next to me with the date and what it is, and I write stuff down.

I write down books. I write down curriculum someone talks about that sounds neat. Like, oh, you know, that's a neat nature study. What's that called? I write that down.

And then I just look stuff up or I come back to it later. Or I always write stuff down. Even if one of the mentors says something that's, you know, super helpful to somebody else, I think I'm gonna be in a position where I need that one day. I write it down. A nugget for Marni, something that that Denise brings to read just to encourage.

I'll write those things down because I'll think there's gonna be a day when I need to read that when I need that in front of me again. So I have notes from, like, every office hours I've ever attended.

Oh, that's good to know. If I forget something, know who to ask. Yeah. It's lots of book recommendations and tips, tricks, hacks. And so not only are we on the live Zoom call on the video, but also the chat is so bubbly.

And, you know, I've been on so many done so many seminars and workshops and online stuff even nationwide, and nothing is like a Thrive chat. I mean, this is blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah And it is so fun and so lively. And I think that that you you both mentioned vulnerability. I think it's because there's a couple of rules we have in Thrive to make sure it's a safe place, and we really try to preserve that and keep it extremely healthy environment. So that's encouraging.

And I think that often people are very surprised because you've seen some days how I show up. Sure people sometimes don't even recognize me. I'm in my glasses at a at a on a writing day. I look forward to the office hours because it's usually my break from writing, and I am like, my hair is back. My roots are bad and everything.

But that's how we come. We just show up as we are. And in fact, we have office hours today, this afternoon, and this evening. Let's go ahead and transition to the master classes. Now I don't know if I've ever shared with you the vision for the master classes.

So once a month, we have master classes that are on specific topics. They're either taught by me, one of the mentors, or expert that I bring in to Thrive Homeschool Community. But the very year of Thrive was we were building out that eight step framework, and then we made that the framework. And then Thrive kind of became like an adolescent. And Thrive is a place where we want to meet the needs of every homeschooler no matter what age your kids are or what stage of homeschooling you're in.

And so what we did is we kind of and this was always the plan is we moved from, okay. What about all these founding members who've been through the fail safe setup? They've been through the eight step framework. How do we keep them on the growth plan? And that is where the master classes kind of come in.

Specific. And what they are is they're put in a library, so you can come to a masterclass live. Those are always fun, but they're always put up on replay so that if you have an issue in your homeschool, if you have a little one struggling to read or if your your kid is struggling with being independent or, you know, I even have a master class in there where I do a deep dive on homeschool socialization. You can just peruse that library and watch a master class. You have access to that entire library.

I wanna hear from each of you. Like, is there a master class that has really stood out to you that was kind of a game changer for your homeschool at all? And we can start with Becca.

I think if I think back to all the master classes that we've been through, the one that they always come right when you need them. And you had a guess one time, was Inga Messek. Did I I pronounce her name right? And hers, it was mama said there'd be days like this. And so like I said, I came in the homeschooling hot.

I was zeal without knowledge, but I was excited to be there. And then reality smacked me right in the face. And it was right in, I think, like, that mid year crunch when everybody questions all their life choices. And it was just one of those times I was questioning my life choices, and I thought, why did I sign up for this? Like, I feel like I played a cool joke on myself.

And the masterclass that month was with Inga on Mama Said There Be Days Like This. And she was so encouraging. It was like you were just being hugged through that Zoom and it was just really awesome. I really enjoyed it. It it definitely always comes back to me as one that was really impactful.

And the thing that I love so much about all the master classes is if you've never been to homeschool convention, master classes are that, but without the overwhelm. I recently attended homeschool convention and I love homeschool convention, but it is information overload. You are just bombarded with information constantly. And so to be a part of Thrive, it's like you have a year long homeschool convention, but once a month, you get to take those bite sized sessions that you want to visit. And so I love that because every month is something.

And like Julie said, that even if it doesn't fit necessarily what you need in that season, there is always a nugget to glean from it. And so you don't want to miss it even if you have to catch it on a replay. But it's really fun to go to the live one because there's always a q and a at the end, and you only get the q and a if you're there live.

Yeah. That's right. We do cut that out because we wanna preserve people's privacy. Yeah. Absolutely.

Actually, I just saw Inga in North Carolina at the convention, and it was like this massive reunion because we had never met in person. That was a great one. I actually remember you commenting, Becca, during that master class, like, wow. I needed this. And, yeah, she's a really great person, and she and a lot of people don't realize that those master classes that we have in Thrive, often they're the same talks that people do give at conventions because I'm choosing from their speaker kit what I think Thrive needs in that moment.

So if there's a particular speaker that you love, that you would love to have in Thrive, I'm always fielding people's suggestions and getting the best speakers that I possibly can into Thrive to teach those master classes. What about you, Julie? Is there a master class that stood out to you?

There is. I think it was it was probably in one of those couple years that I was in Thrive, and Marni taught a class on calm calm moms and calm kids. And I think one of the biggest I don't know why this was a surprise because I'd been at home with my kids, but I think being at home with my kids and doing school was a little bit different than when they were littler. And even though we did preschool, I think that was, you know, so low key, and and I felt the pressure once we started homeschooling of getting things right, not failing my kids. And so one of the things I realized the year was that I would be triggered by pushback, by even their struggles, I would be triggered by those things because I would think I'm not doing a good job.

I would take it so personally if they gave me pushback, forgetting that we had also had hard days when they were in public school. We are still doing school. This is not, you know, magic. But I think that I realized I was getting triggered, and I needed help in finding ways to regulate myself. I learned so much in a couple of those that Marnie did.

There was another one about discipline. There was another one she did about if you're having, like, struggles, that these aren't your kids aren't defying you, that they are having an issue or struggle in another way. But those were so helpful to me, especially the calm moms because I realized how much I needed to work on myself in order to truly have the homeschool that I wanted. And, you know, when your kids are with you in those shorter blips or whatever, you can just think, oh my gosh. These kids are making me nuts.

But then when you're with them all day and you are truly parenting twenty four seven, you realize you can't point the finger at anybody else. You are creating the environment. You're setting the tone. And so I realized I really had to do the work on myself. And so that was helpful to me to learn about it.

And, honestly, I've thought, like, gosh, I feel like I paid for therapy through for so many of these classes that Marni taught and other people that came in. Like, mama said there'd be days like this because I've I've truly learned so much about myself, and that may be the biggest gift to my kids and our family is what I've learned about myself and how to regulate myself and how that affects our entire, you know, house with that. So I absolutely love that one. And then even more recently, you had someone on about spelling, and that came to me at just the right time. I was hitting a point where I was thinking, we are three years in of me teaching them.

You know, my kids are are nine and 11. Should we be farther along with spelling? And I was really starting to stress myself over it. And that came at the exact right time, and she gave us some great tips on, you know, what to be looking for. And she basically explained that spelling is ongoing forever.

You are always learning spelling. That is just something you will always be working on. And so that just really set my mind at ease with that, and it gave me real practical things to look for to find out, are we having a real issue, or is this normal, and we need to work on this.

And and I think it's so vital, those ongoing trainings, especially especially since we've already started our homeschooling journey, and then we start to have these little worries pop up. But one thing for sure, just when you were speaking, Julie, is just how interconnected parenting is with homeschooling, and you really can't separate the two. And that's why I love what Marni brings to the table in Thrive Homeschool Community. She's a certified parenting coach, and she is on all the Zooms. She does all the coaching with me in the direct messaging, and we do that all together, and it is such a blessing.

She is a gem. You know how I met her is I had a speaker lined up who had a medical emergency, and I had to find a speaker very last minute. And I went into some forum and someone recommended her, and I reached out and I was like, so my emergency is not your emergency. What? I need a speaker because I think I was out of town or there was something going on.

And, oh, from the minute, from our very Zoom call, I was like, give me give me this woman. She's amazing. And isn't she just fabulous? And I just love what she brings to the table. And Denise too, who is our grandma, mentor.

She just pours into our hearts. That transitions really well to kind of what sets Thrive apart as a community. I'm gonna combine a couple of questions here. You know, we are unique in that we the mentors are available through direct messaging. You can direct message other members in the community.

And I know you guys have taken advantage of that. I know some moms, they DM us like their whole lineup of their curriculum or they snap a shot of their curriculum blueprint and they're like, how is this? Have how do you guys feel about the accessibility? Because, know, a lot of people assume that when someone starts a membership, it's kind of like a a scale model where it's just a way to make more money because you can get higher volumes of people. But, my motivation was I wanted to be able to figure out a way to encourage more moms at a price point that was more reasonable rather than a one on one consultation.

And I still do consultations, but those are kinda one and done. And maybe this is selfish, but I wanted this and I thought other people would too is who are we gonna do homeschool life with? Right? Questions are gonna come up. Our kids are gonna get older.

We're gonna all of a sudden have this teenager that's driving us crazy. And who who's gonna already know me, my background, my kid? Who's kind of done this homeschooling thing with us? And so that was really my motivation for starting Thrive, making it more affordable, but also with that follow-up. Like, hey.

How did that thing go? Or this or that or did you get that form turned in? And so we're always striving for ways to try to keep it as intimate as possible. But did that part surprise you in the beginning? Like, wait a minute.

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I'm not gonna lie. When I messaged you before, you know, Thrive was open and you're like, oh, this you would be the perfect fit. You know? Join this community. I thought, am I being sold on something?

You know? So exactly what you just I mean, it it went through my brain. Like, is this just a sales pitch? And so exactly what you described, that those are the things that go through our our heads sometimes that it's like, I really gonna get, you know, something out of this? And so when I got into Thrive and I'm DMing you and then eventually, you know, like you said, Marni came on, eventually Denise came on, I've been able to DM all of you.

And not only DM you, I mean, you're, like, spilling your guts sometimes in those DMs because you just need some help through situations through people who are gonna understand it. And so you don't get, like, these robotic, nonpersonal information. You get a lot of help through those DMs. There have been times that I know I have reached out to you with, like, teenager issues, and you've been able to not even necessarily offer advice, but just come alongside and support and encourage and make me feel seen and not crazy because that's the biggest thing is sometimes you just feel crazy. And so it's like, you're not crazy.

Like, a lot of moms are, you know, dealing with these struggles. And I remember even the I wanna say it was maybe the year and a half of schooling. It wasn't long that Marni came along. And I remember with her being a parent coach, I reached out to her because my daughter and I were having power struggles when she started. She actually looked at me one day and was like, mom, you are not a real teacher.

I remember that. I remembered.

And I was like, okay. Thanks, girl. And so I was accused of not being a real teacher. And so I remember I reached out to Marnie, and I was just in tears because I just didn't know what to do. And I felt like there was so like, I had all my insecurities and my doubts with I like, we had said before, was I doing enough?

Am I doing the right thing? And I realized through talking with Marnie that I was putting that pressure on my daughter, and that was just her response back to me. So we were just in this open power struggle of who was gonna have control over the situation. And so she was able to give so much insight. She was able to send me, you know, some blog posts of things, you know, from where she certified through Connected Families.

And they were game changers so much so that my daughter and I it was probably about a month ago, we were walking through the store and she saw a kid wearing one of the private school shirts of our local school. And she said, I am so glad I don't go to school. I love being homeschooled. What? I was like, it was not long ago.

You said I was not a real teacher. And now she's saying she's and I said, what do you love about being homeschooled? She said, I just I just love being home. I just love doing my work with you. I love doing it in our time, and it and she's just expressing these things.

Mind you, she just turned eight years old, and she's sharing these feelings and these emotions with me in in great conversation. And I I attribute a lot to that in that early time that Marni helped me through that struggle, that power struggle,

and that

controlled struggle. So just being able to have that direct access is I didn't think it was gonna be possible. Like I said, I thought it was a sales pitch. It was a gimmick of some sort. And so when you get in there, you're like, oh, wow.

I really have support. I I have loved it so much.

Nice. What about you, Julie? Did you think I was pitching you?

Oh, I I it's the same. I have reached out to each each of you independently, and it has been encouraging just how timely it is. Like, if it's something that, you know, you feel like, oh, I'm getting ready to pull the trigger on something. And I just have a quick question. Like, do you think this you know me now.

You kind of know this. Would this be the right direction for us? I remember a time, Christy, when I was gonna introduce I think it was when I was gonna introduce writing, and I thought, I've not done this yet. Maybe I'm a little bit late. I wonder if I should go back and, like, start them back a little bit so that they come in and they feel so confident and sore versus bringing them in at their grade level since I feel like I'm a little behind and then them struggle and not and not enjoy it the way I hope that they can.

And so you had encouraged me and told me, you know, exactly what you thought that was a great idea too that would work. And so, you know, here's the other year under that. We did that, and it works. My kids have loved it.

Yeah. And, you know, sometimes we just need confirmation from a party. Right?

That's exactly it. I thought if I start them behind, are they behind? Right. Does that mean we stay behind? You know?

But, no, it's I needed that encouragement exactly to know. So just so quickly, I remember you got back to me on that one. But, yes, I've reached out to every every one of you, and it's always just been so much compassion. You know, like you said, sometimes you're coming in with, like, this isn't like a great side of me that I'm about to expose, or am I gonna show you that my kids, you know, aren't where I think they should be or something with a skill. But always so much compassion.

And I think also the connection there too that we've been able to make with being able to to speak to everyone directly. And, I mean, I have DM'd with Denise at this point, like, the some of the biggest laughs. You know? Just like you become you get everybody's personality in the end, and you end up end up with these great conversations.

Yes. Yeah. And, you know, we're always thinking about because Thrive is growing gangbusters, and we're always planning ahead. Like, how are we gonna maintain this level of intimacy? How are we gonna maintain the direct messaging?

And the way we solve that during conference season is we moved to all the the DMing was done as coaching because if I'm away at a three day conference, that means it's three days where I can't check-in. But what was so amazing is Marni and Denise just came right in and kept things moving along because honestly, they would be giving the same advice that I would. And then I was able to just, like, check-in and kinda track things. And so so far so good. We're managing it really well, and we have really great things in store for the future of Thrive on, like because we are gonna grow, we are gonna get really large, we already are a nationwide community, and it's only gonna get better.

Like, wait till you see what's coming up in the coming years in Thrive. We are already in meetings for it, different frameworks, all sorts of really cool things. Now one little side piece to Thrive that I think is really cool are these monthly supplements. And a lot of people don't even realize that we do this, but if you go to my shop on my online store or my website, christy-faith.com, you'll see a lot of unit studies and book studies and other supplements for moms. And what people don't realize is when I write a new one of those, Thrive Homeschool Community gets that supplement for free right away even months before it will even show up on my shop.

Becca and Julie, have you I know Becca. You do them, don't you? Do you have a favorite one?

One of the ones I feel like it was not the one, but one of the beginning ones I remember that sticks most of my mind was the apple supplement one. And I remember that when I was going through that that hard time with my daughter, and I think we were probably deschooling at that point, and we just need to put things to the side. And then the apples supplement came out, and it was so fun. She really enjoyed it, and it was just a great way. I remember you always say, like, just you can do this whole thing, just add in math.

And it did. It covered science. It covered reading. It covered you know, we were doing sorting of things. Like, it was just it was all encompassing.

It was really fun. It was simple. I've done some unit studies before where I get confused by them. And so it was just fun. It was just a simple thing that would just it took us the week to go through it, but they've always been fun to do.

Most recently, offered one too. It was actually the hatchet one with the teens. And so it's fun. And you always try to offer supplements that are for the varying age groups. And so it's not always just for the lit moles.

And so it was really fun to have now a book study come out because we've been talking so much about read alouds and even still reading to your teens. And yes, even the teens enjoy being read to. And so to even have that book study to go along the teenagers with. So it's been really fun. It's been really neat just the different types of supplements that are offered.

Yeah. And we have I don't know if you know this, but we have three rules for ours. One is they have to be open and go. Meaning mom doesn't need to be searching the entire house for the right size paper clip just to be able to do this with her kids. Number two, it has to be multidisciplinary, which is what you mentioned.

So we wanna incorporate literature, math, art study, as many disciplines as we can because that just really makes learning fun. And then number three is our requirement is that they are family together learning, which actually that's a really hard challenge because it's easy to make something just for preschoolers, and it's also easy to make something just for teens. But we wanna make sure that the entire family can do this together. So that's why you see in our supplements, like, the littles, do this, for the middles, do this, and the olders, do this. But, Julie, do you have a particular favorite one?

We always I I know for sure we've always done the Christmas ones. I remember the different Christmas book studies and reading and doing the activities. My kids love the cooking, so we always enjoy making the recipes that go along with all of those. I feel like one year, there was sort of like an Christmas advent where it was, like, all these different activities. I loved that.

My kids loved that because it was things maybe I wouldn't have thought of. That's like, you know, I need inspiration for my creativity. I can be creative if someone tells me exactly what to do. And so and then I'm super creative. And so I love those.

And then the midyear check-in, I think, was one that was was one of my favorites because I always love those interviews, and I loved the idea of checking in halfway through a year. We always do it, like, with the setup of, you know, at the beginning of the year where we're talking about or the end of wherever we put it of what we're gonna do for the next year. But checking in in the middle of the year is always so good because I just love that my kids know that I value their input and that they have a say in what we're doing. And so going through those questions and just the conversations that we've had from from even those questions have been so great.

I remember you mentioning that, and we try to always do that midyear check-in because the the Christmas supplement is always really, really large. It's kind of we consider that for two months. So I do like to drop that midyear check-in always. And before we start, I'll resume homeschooling in January just to make sure our kids feel seen and heard, and we're on we're on track with our own goals with our homeschooling. So we have had a great time today, and I wanna ask you this one last question before we go.

If a friend was on the fence about joining Thrive, what would you tell them from your heart? Let's start with you, Becca.

I would say take the leap. I know once upon a time I was on the fence and it offered me above and beyond what I was looking for. You know, at I came looking for guidance and what I walked away with was community. And so I think that's a really hard thing to get online and that might be something that you might think, what could I really get out of Thrive other other than some information? Or maybe I already know enough, but what you're not seeing is the the community element.

Being able to connect with people in a real way. I know even Julie, I was able to meet at person one time and we had such a great time. It was like we were old friends because of being on so many things together. And so that for me is the biggest takeaway that if you are a mom that you're looking for not just information, but you're lacking community, that this is definitely the place for you to go to because you're gonna find that and then some.

And you're gonna get those mama bears you need. Like, if you are in a family that doesn't support your homeschooling, oh, man, we get really mad and we get protective. And we also help you out with that stuff too. Julie, what would you say to a friend who's on the fence?

I agree with Becca. I think that Thrive is for every mom that's out there looking for a lifeline for their homeschool of whether it's the logistics of how to set it up, the skills that they need personally to to get through the days and to be the mom and the homeschool parent that they wanna be, and then to connect with other moms, other women, and mentors. I saw something one time that said, we as society have have sort of, like, dropped the thought of mentors and going getting information from the people that have come before us. And I feel like Thrive has so much of that, and we've got, like, Denise and and some others, and at this point, Marnie, their kids may have graduated and moved on. So you have people who have seen it all the way through to people who are just at the beginning, and sometimes you need that person who's seen it all the way through to say, I'm looking at the big picture, and this is you know, even through the minutiae where I know I screwed things up, you know, in the big picture on the other side is that every everybody's alive and well.

And then sometimes you need that mom who's one step ahead of you, who can, you know, sort of reach back and and throw you a lifeline of, yeah, I just got through that stage. That was tough. There were tough days, but I just got through it. But, yeah, the connection and thrive is something that I just think is unmatched. It's the number one thing that would make me never wanna leave because I need that connection of other people who and if you looked at other aspects of our lives, we may be so different.

We're geographically different. You know? We may have different interests, different politics. We don't know any of that about each other, but we're all here trying to do right by our kids. We're all trying to grow into, you know, the best parent we can be, the best teacher for our kid, give them all the tools.

And Thrive, I feel like, is the only place that I've ever seen where you can get all of that and have the connection and the compassion and the judgment free zone. And, you know, also, the other thing we haven't mentioned is just have a lot of fun.

We do. We have a we cry, and we also laugh. Absolutely. And what's so cool is, Becca, I haven't been able to meet you in person but I know if we did, we would literally be just like walking around. But with Julie and I have met, it's so fun because as I travel around the country and I meet up with Thrive Homeschool Bombs, it's literally like you guys mentioned when you saw each other because I know you guys saw each other recently.

It was like, you just sat down like girlfriends and it's crazy to think that we're able to make that connection. Like, Julie, I ate a protein bar out of your purse. I was like, I'm hungry. You're like, here's a protein bar. Anyway but it really is cool.

And, you know, we have these other, like, other subgroups in Thrive like that book club, man. Those ladies are tight, and they are they're talking about that book, Past Midnight Sundays. And it's so cool to see these real true friendships flourish in Thrive and be able to meet up with people that we love as at least that's been a blessing for me as I'm traveling throughout the country. Because I don't know if you guys realize, but I love making social media content. I love making the podcast, but I'm staring into a camera.

I'm staring into a dot. It's not actual real community. And so that's been a surprise blessing is I knew that I had a calling to serve. But in in that calling with Thrive in particular, I didn't realize how much it would be giving to me too. Like, you you too and all those women in Thrive, the you've blessed my life, and you've given me my why, and you guys keep going.

I know yesterday, I texted both of you. I am having a hard day. I wanna crawl on my bed and cry. And I felt comfortable saying that to you and vulnerable, and it's just a really beautiful thing. So thank you so much, the two of you, for being a part of making the atmosphere and Thrive so safe for encouraging all those new homeschool moms coming on.

And thank you for being on the show today to help me explain and put to words without, you know, like, but wait, there's more. Right? Because it's really hard to explain just how cool it is without droning on and on. And so thank you so much for coming on the show today, and I just loved my time with you.

Thank you much.

We loved it.