Hello, and welcome. This is episode two of my new homeschooler series, a three episode series that we are doing right now on The Kristy Face Show to help you start your homeschool the right way, the first time without the overwhelm and with all those rookie mistakes that can really set you back. If you're just finding this now, go ahead and go back and listen to episode one first. The steps in this three part series do build on each other, and it's probably not the best idea to skip ahead. Back in the first episode, we covered your state's legal requirements, what to do if your child is preschool age, has never been enrolled, what to do if your child is currently in school and you want to pull them out, and how to figure out your homeschooling style or pedagogy, which is the fancy word for it.

Those are three really important steps. They are your foundation. Please don't skip it. I will see you back here later. If you haven't grabbed the new homeschooler roadmap yet, it is a download that is a companion to the series.

It is a totally free download. It has all of the steps, all of the links, plus episode playlists for whatever you're worried about right now. Socialization, there's a playlist. Special needs playlist. Feeling unqualified, I've got episodes for that.

Not sure how you're gonna juggle all the things, all the kids at different grade levels, the house, all of that, boom, I got a playlist. The link for that is in the show notes. You're probably gonna wanna save it to your desktop because there are so many links in that. It is gonna be your command center for this whole journey. You might even wanna make a binder.

If you do, we also include a beautiful binder cover in the appendix of that download. I am a binder girl. So, okay, where are we now in our series? So episode one, we covered steps one, two, and three. Today, we're gonna cover steps four, five, and six.

Those are deschooling, dreaming with your kids, hang on, I don't wanna lose you there, and what curriculum do I buy? Curriculum. Now I know what some of you are thinking right now. Curriculum. Finally, Christy's gonna get to it.

That's what I actually need. Yay. My number one download is actually my curriculum recommendations. I get it. Curriculum, especially when you're new to homeschooling, it feels like the answer to all of the chaos.

If I can just find the right curriculum, everything will be fine. Right? But here's what I've learned after coaching hundreds of moms through this exact process. If you skip what we're covering today and go straight to buying curriculum, you are gonna regret it. I'm so sorry to deliver that news to you, but you will.

And I don't want you wasting all that time or money. And it's really deflating for kids when you get everything all set up just to realize it's not gonna work for your family. I don't want the stuff that you buy to end up in a closet. But please, please, please know that getting yourself set up properly will make those later steps go so much easier, and you're gonna make decisions that are good for your family that you won't regret later. And that's what we are doing today and actually what this whole series is about.

We are giving you a clear step by step path, the framework that I have used with hundreds and hundreds of families so you don't have to guess because there's no reason to reinvent the wheel we already have. So we don't need anyone piecing anything together at 2AM just crossing their fingers and hoping they're getting their homeschooling right. I mean, this is our children's education. It's serious business, right? I've seen all the mistakes.

I see where the new homeschool moms go wrong, and I really wanna prevent you from those pitfalls. But I will tell you this, that by the end of today's episode, you will know exactly what to do before you spend a dime on curriculum. And I want you to feel clear and not overwhelmed. And when you do start buying the way you're gonna feel about it is you're gonna know that you're buying the right things the first time. Sound good?

Okay. Let's get into it. This podcast is brought to you by Summit HealthShare. It happens to be my husband's company. Thank you over there.

I am grateful every day for Summit HealthShare's support of what we are building over here in Christi Faith Homeschool Land. If you have been looking at your budget and you feel squeezed right now and you're wondering where is all of our money going, would you do me a favor and take a look at your health insurance bill and what you're paying? Because chances are Summit HealthShare can save you between 4060% monthly. For our family, it cut our medical expenses in half. Now health sharing is not insurance, but it does replace health insurance.

And what's cool is you can see any doctor that you want, even holistic ones, and there are no networks. There are three different plan options depending on what you need, and they have a 98% customer satisfaction. On the plan that our family is currently on, we get free doctor visits, free prescriptions, free labs, and no co pays. And, yes, that was a thousand dollars less than what we were paying for not as good of care. And I know it probably sounds too good to be true to you right now, but it really isn't.

It's how health care should work. It's just not how the insurance companies do it. If you are paying anything to a traditional health insurance company right now, do me a favor. Go to summithealthshare.com. Click on the savings calculator.

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Go to summithealthshare.com, and I will put the link in the show notes. This podcast is also brought to you by the Christie faith list. A lot of people know about me because of my book, Thrive Homeschool Community, or this podcast. But did you know that we started the Christie faith list, and it is a beautiful thing for homeschooling families. You know that exhale when you finally find somebody who just gets it, who just understands your homeschooling, where you don't get that look or that pause or that question about socialization?

Or maybe you go into a doctor's office and then you find out that they homeschool their kids too. Isn't that so cool? And what do we do? We hold on to those people, and we tell our friends about all of those people. Well, that's why we created the Christie faith list.

It actually started out of necessity because we needed to find doctors and service providers who wouldn't discriminate against us, but it has grown into something so big and beautiful. Now it is an entire directory of colleges, businesses, doctor's offices, occupational therapists, reading specialists, homeschool graduates who are doing loans, you name it. It is a network of people who are all homeschool friendly and share our values. And more than that, they want to work with homeschooling families. It is free for all homeschooling families to search, and it is growing every day.

And if you are a business owner or part of an organization that wants to reach more homeschooling families, or you just want more business from us, sign yourself up. We want to know who you are. And to my listeners, your people, my people, they are in business, and now we have a way to find them. Go to the christy faith list dot com. The link is in the show notes.

Okay. Thank you so much to the sponsors. You are why this show can be free to homeschooling families, and I really do love you for it. If you are a listener, please do click on those show notes. It means the world to us and keeps this show free to you, and I love that.

So thank you sponsors. Welcome to the Kristi Faith Show. If you are new to this show today, we are a podcast for homeschooling parents who take their craft seriously, And I am your host, Kristi Faith. I am the author of Homeschool Rising, the founder of Thrive Homeschool Community, speaker across the country. And if you want to know more in the full story about who I am and why I'm passionate about helping parents homeschool well, I share a longer version of that in episode one of this series, and so I won't go over it all again, but I will give you a short brief version if you are joining me for the first time today.

Where I shine and where God has gifted me is in taking a mom who's convinced that she can't do this or worried that she might mess all of this up, this homeschooling gig up, and turning her into a confident homeschooling powerhouse. I'm a teacher's teacher. Twenty plus years of this. I used to train teachers, and then I trained the specialists at my learning center. And now I get to train the best specialists of all, you, the ones who actually know your kid.

I'm the author of Homeschool Rising and a mom of four kiddos, one in high school, two in junior high, and one in elementary. And I'm so thankful to be following this calling because it really is a win win. It nourishes me to be using my gifts, and it helps you stop second guessing yourself and start thriving. Today, we're tackling steps four, five, and six, and we're starting with the one that trips up the most people, deschooling. And before we go any further, I need to clear something up because people make this mistake all of the time.

Deschooling is different than unschooling. Unschooling is a homeschool style or pedagogy. It's one of the nine educational approaches that I mentioned in episode one. Basically, it's a child led and interest driven approach to education, meaning the child has a lot of say in what they learn and what they do based on what they're curious about. Deschooling, on the other hand, is not one of the homeschooling styles.

It's totally different. It's actually a process. It's the work of shedding the beliefs and the patterns and the habits that have been imprinted on us and our kids by the last one hundred and fifty years of the school system. And here's why deschooling matters so much. You've probably spent your whole life in that system.

I know I did. We grew up in it. We learned to trust it. In fact, most parents in America don't even question it. They just put their child in when they turn the right age.

And whether you realize it or not, it shaped how you think about learning, about education, about what a good student looks like, and about what success means. It is in our bones. And if your child has been in school, it's probably in their bones too. So when you pull your child out of school or when you decide just not to send them in the first place, you're not just changing where the learning happens, you're changing your whole way of thinking about education. And if you don't give yourself the space and the time to unpack that a bit, you are going to accidentally rebuild that same system that you're escaping right in your living room.

And I see it happen every single day. A mom pulls her kid out of school, buys a big fancy curriculum, sets up a little classroom in her house somewhere, makes a schedule that looks like a school schedule, and then wonders why everyone is miserable a few months in. The answer is because she didn't deschool first. She brought school home with her. Now, deschooling is not about doing nothing.

It's about giving yourself and your child space to reset. To remember what it feels like to be curious and to love learning without having a grade attached to it. To rediscover what your child actually loves when there's no one watching. It's about asking questions like, what do I believe about education? Really?

What are my assumptions about what learning is supposed to look like? And are those assumptions actually true? Or are they just leftovers from my own school experience? This really matters. Because if you're still carrying the beliefs that learning has to look a certain way or else it's not actually learning, you're gonna burn yourself out by trying to recreate something that didn't work for your family in the first place.

Okay. So here's what I want you to do. If your child has been in school, give yourself some breathing room before you launch into a full blown homeschool curriculum program. Some families take a week, some take a month, some will take a whole summer. It really depends on how long your child was in school, how old they are, and how much deprogramming everybody needs.

And the types of things to do during this time is go to the library, watch documentaries, build with Legos, cook together, go on walks, let your child be bored and figure out what to do with themselves. That's actually part of it. I have a free download called 20 questions to kickstart your deschooling adventure. It's a list of questions that you can ask your kid and yourself to start unpacking what you believe about education and what kind of homeschool you actually want to build. That's in the download, The New Homeschoolers Roadmap, and it's also a link in the show notes.

If you wanna go deeper, like really geek out on this, I have a whole chapter on deschooling in my book, Homeschool Rising. It's chapter 12, and it's basically taking the red pill. Once you read it, you won't see education in the same way again. That was a fun chapter to write. So deschooling is about unlearning what school taught you to believe about education.

But once you've started that process, then what? How do you then figure out what your homeschool should actually look like? Well, that's next. Homeschooling for kids means I'm juggling roughly 24 different subjects at any given time. And a few years back during a particularly busy season, I hit a wall.

I needed some serious help with the heavy lifting of teaching everything myself and managing schedules for four kids. That's when I found BJU Press Homeschool, and we've loved their courses so much that we keep going back. Some families use them for everything and love it. I use them for certain subjects. Either way, total mental load relief.

Here's what my mornings look like now. Let us take science for example. My three girls do that one together. They fire up the lesson taught by a real teacher, well produced, actual teaching, not just click through busy work. And I sit there with my coffee, watch them, or make breakfast, and we discuss the big ideas.

Every BJU Press homeschool course prioritizes critical thinking, a biblical worldview, and hands on learning. I just guide the conversation and pick which activity or pages or projects we want to do, and everything's already planned out. They have an online platform included for you called the homeschool hub, and it keeps everyone on track, both me and my kids, without micromanaging or nagging. And when I have questions, I call my homeworks consultant. These people don't just help you get set up.

They're available for you whenever you need them. It's like having a homeschool expert on speed dial. Go to bjupresshomeschool.com or click the link in the show notes to find out more. People are always curious what curriculum I use for my own family, and honestly, it changes. We've tried a lot over the years.

Some work for a season and some completely miss the mark, but there is one that's stuck, CTC math. It's a full k to 12 online math curriculum, and it's won oodles of awards for a reason. It's just that good. I use it for all four of my kids, and they couldn't be more different when it comes to math. Finding one curriculum that actually works for all of them, that's been nearly impossible.

You know that pit in your stomach when you realize the curriculum that you just invested in isn't working again? Yeah. That was us until this one. The genius behind CTC math is that it's adaptive. The questions adjust to each kid's level in real time.

So they're always challenged but never crushed. And mama, it does the teaching and grading for us. Yes. You heard that right. That's a homeschool mom's dream.

Well, especially for me when it comes to math. I would think it's too good to be true if I hadn't been using it myself. And it's not just me. Here's why it's become the go to for thousands of homeschool families. Free diagnostics show you exactly where to start, access to all grade levels so your student can fill in any gaps or move ahead, short video lessons that keep your children engaged, automatic grading with instant feedback, and progress reports so you know exactly what's happening without hovering.

Math used to be our hardest subject. Now my kids do it independently. Here's the best part. Our listeners get 50% off. Use the link in the show notes to do a free trial or to get that half off deal.

Don't spend another year kissing math frogs. This one stuck for us, and I have a feeling it's gonna stick for you too. Welcome back. Let's get into step five, and this is dreaming with your kids. This is one of my favorite parts, and it's one that most people don't even know to do, or if they do, they skip it entirely because they don't think it's important.

But it really truly is because I want your vision of homeschooling to match your reality. And so if we can get clarity on that vision that you have, we can help match that reality. So before you start shopping for curriculum, before you start building up your schedule, I want you to do something really simple. I want you to sit down with your kids and with yourself and dream a little. Ask your kids questions that come to mind.

Like, what do you wish that you could learn about? What are you curious about? Is there a hobby that you wanna try? What do you love doing when no one's telling you what you have to do? And also ask yourself some questions, like what kind of a family do I want us to be?

What do I want our days to feel like? What about an education do I think is important? And not to my neighbor, not to my mother-in-law, not to the homeschool blogger that I follow, but to me. This really isn't fluffy advice. It's foundational.

Because the thing about homeschooling is it gives you a tremendous amount of freedom. And you can almost get paralyzed by all the choices, and you can also get that shiny object syndrome where everything is amazing and you wanna do everything, and then all of a sudden your days are, like, just packed, and then you end up burnt out. And if we don't know what we actually want, what we're gonna do is we're gonna default to what's familiar. That might mean that we end up building a homeschool that looks like a school, and you're gonna be missing the whole point of what home education could be. Dreaming is how you figure out what you're building toward.

Maybe you want slow mornings and afternoons outside. Maybe you wanna travel. I know quite a few road schoolers. Maybe you want your kids to go deep into one subject instead of skimming 10. Maybe you're a family with lots of hobbies, and so you wanna make sure that you have space for those.

There's no wrong answer. You just have to name it and get it on paper. Because then once you know what you want, choosing curriculum becomes so much easier. You stop asking what's the best curriculum, and then you start asking what's the best curriculum fit for the life that I'm trying to build? So before we move on to the next step, have that conversation and dream a little and write it down and share it with me, email it to me.

I would love to see it. I get my dreams out on paper every single year before we start, and it really helps us make our decisions regarding extracurriculars and curriculum that I buy, curriculum that we choose not to do for that year, or curriculum that we add. It really does make a big difference. Okay. So let's get our bearings.

So far in this whole series, we've gone over our state's legal requirements, how to exit gracefully, how to find your homeschooling style or pedagogy, what deschooling is and why it matters, and how to dream before you buy anything, and why that dreaming is so important. That's a lot of ground that we've covered. I wanna stop and ask you right now that if my podcast series has been helpful to you in any way, would you stop and do something for me? Even right now, it'll only take you ten seconds and it costs you nothing. Would you hit that thumbs up, give the show five stars if I've earned it, leave a comment, or maybe click that notification so that you get a little bell that rings when a podcast episode drops, and make a comment about the show or ask a question.

Those little tiny things that can be done so quickly, they tell the algorithm, those robots behind the screen, that this show is worth showing other moms. There's probably a mom really overwhelmed right now that needs this podcast series. And just by you engaging in a little way, that can help her find us. And it also helps me give you oodles of value for free because when a lot of people watch the show, the sponsors are happy. And if someone comes to mind while you're listening, maybe a friend who's nervous about homeschooling, googling at night, not sure what to do, please go ahead and send her this series.

And thank you so much ahead of time. Even if you only do one or two of those things, I really appreciate it from the bottom of my heart. Okay. So hopefully you did that while I was talking. What was that about?

Thirty seconds? Okay. Step six. This is the moment that you've been waiting for, curriculum. Or maybe the moment you've been waiting for is socialization, which is the next episode.

But right now, we're gonna talk about curriculum. Because you've done all this work so far, we're now ready for this conversation, and you are gonna make such better decisions than if you had skipped the previous steps that we've covered so far. So let's talk about how to choose curriculum without losing your mind or your money. The first thing to understand about curriculum purchasing is that there are basically two approaches. There is what we call all in one curriculum or sometimes it's called box curriculum because it used to actually, like, you ordered it on the phone and it was in a box on your front doorstep.

What those are is they are packaged programs that includes everything you need for every subject for a grade level, And it's everything that you need for the entire year. We call those all in one curriculum options. The good ones will include your lesson plans, your textbooks, your schedules, all of it. You just open the box, and it tells you what to do. But nowadays, now that we have technology, you often log in and have accounts and things like that.

They're great. If you are a mom who really wants structure, is feeling really insecure right now, if you're nervous about planning, or if you just really need something to lean on while you find your footing, an all in one curriculum is a fabulous option. The second option we have in the homeschooling space regarding curriculum is subject curriculum. What this means is that you pick individual resources for each subject that you're teaching. These can be really cool because there could be a particular curriculum company, and all they do is teach kids writing.

All they do is teach kids math, and they do it really, really well. And when you build your homeschool with subject curriculum, you're basically just building a custom program for your kid. This is actually how I homeschool, and it's great if you want more flexibility. The other thing too is that it doesn't have to be all or nothing. Like, I pull even though I'm more of a subject girly, I do buy from all in one companies.

I'll just buy one subject from them and then use it as a standalone. So yes, you can mix and match. There are no rules. Now here's a couple tips that are gonna save you a lot of headaches. Start with your oldest child.

If you have multiple kids, don't try to buy curriculum for all of them at once. Start with your oldest and work your way down. Otherwise, it's just really overwhelming. I have four kids and I every year have to do it this way. And then once you've started with your oldest kid, go one subject at a time.

I usually start with math or language arts. I get those settled, and then I move on to the next subjects. It just helps you have a clearer head and you make better choices when you're only looking at one particular subject at a time and one particular kid at a time. In my experience, this next one trips up a lot of new homeschool moms. Be very careful not to buy everything that is hyper parent intensive.

Some curriculum requires you, the parent, to sit with your child for every single lesson. That's fine for some things, especially early readers and math when they're little. But if every subject in your homeschool requires your constant presence where your kid can't do anything unless you're sitting right next to them, you are going to burn out and so are they. And I actually teach a master class on this in Thrive. We want our kids to grow in their independence.

So us sitting next to them all day isn't healthy for them either. When I coach moms, I usually say around age seven or so, depending on development, your kids should be able to start doing some things on their own. So make sure to ask yourself when you're shopping for a curriculum, how parent intensive is this? And if you don't know, then you need to figure that out and call them. And please, please, please, don't buy any curriculum before you know your homeschooling style.

We talked about that in episode one. I'm gonna reiterate it again. If you buy, say, a classical curriculum when you're really more interest led, you are going to be miserable. So take that quiz. It's free.

It takes five minutes, and then you can shop. Now, something else cool that I offer for free is I have a download that is my curriculum recommendations. It's a list of what is solid in the space. It's reputable curriculum. What I've seen families use successfully over and over, and it's a good bet that that curriculum, if it's on my list, will give your kid a great education.

Now, and I always get this follow-up question. If you're looking at something and it's not on my list, it's one of two reasons. Either we haven't evaluated it yet, so that's why it wouldn't be on there because everything on there is vetted, or we don't like it and we don't recommend it. I don't put anything on my list just because it's popular. If it's on there, it's a good bet.

I also want you to know that none of those placements are sponsored. No one paid to be on my curriculum recommendations list. A link to that is in the show notes, and it's also in your roadmap. Here's what I really want you to hear. You don't have to get this all perfect on day one.

You're gonna be trying out some things, and some of it will work and some of it won't, and that's okay. Part of homeschooling is just figuring out your rhythm. And though I wanna help you narrow down what curriculum to buy, the goal isn't to find the perfect curriculum. Because honestly, something that might be perfect for one kid may not be perfect for another, and also something that might be perfect for one year may not work the following year. The goal is to just start and enter this with a growth mind set.

Take what you know about your child, what you know about yourself, and make your best first choice. Because you can always pivot, you can always adjust, and that's one of the beautiful gifts about homeschooling. You're not locked in. So take a breath, you can trust yourself, and you can start. We're gonna take a quick break, but don't go away because after the break, we're gonna be tying it all together, and I'm gonna be setting you up for our last episode of the series, episode three, where we're gonna talk about what does a homeschool day actually look like, so don't go anywhere.

Is your child struggling with attention, memory, reading, writing, or math? If you're experiencing this, you know how heart wrenching it is to watch them face these hurdles. You've poured love, time, and attention into their education, yet the struggle persists, leaving you feeling stuck and desperately searching for answers. You guys, I want you to know about LearningRx, a proven program designed to help your child's cognitive skills, enabling them to think faster, learn more easily, and perform at their best. I'm talking getting real long term help here with things like ADHD and dyslexia.

LearningRx is backed by thirty five years of research, and their results are transformative. Use code HOME 50 for $50 off your cognitive skills assessment. Go to learningrx.com or click the link in the show notes. Welcome back. Alright.

Let's bring it home. Today, we covered steps four, five, and six. There are eight total. We talked about deschooling, understanding what it is, why it matters, and how it frees you to see education as so much more than workbooks and checkboxes. Grab that 20 questions freebie and start that process with your kids.

I cannot wait to hear what you uncover. Start dreaming and interviewing your kids, learning who they are, what they need, and what you want your homeschool to look like. This is the foundation, and it makes everything else easier down the road. And then we covered curriculum, how to choose it wisely without wasting your money or burning yourself out. Now, one thing that I forgot to mention earlier that I wanna mention now, and one of the reasons why I have you find your homeschooling style is most curriculum on the market is categorized under one of those nine styles or pedagogies.

So in just finding out your homeschooling style and where you lean, it's gonna help you eliminate so many homeschool curriculum options on the market and really narrow in to what's gonna be a better fit for your family. Go ahead and grab those curriculum recommendations. It's a download. It's also free. Man, your download folders are gonna get a workout today, and don't forget to grab that roadmap.

It has all of the steps, all of the links, all of the episode playlists in one place. It's your command center for this journey. You'll probably wanna make a binder and save it to your desktop because we're gonna keep coming back to that. Also want to say that if you binge this podcast forever and never buy a thing from me, truly, I am grateful for that. I'm so glad you're here.

And if you wanna support the show, go ahead and check out those sponsors, click those links, and see what they're all about. I only work with companies and let them sponsor the podcast if I love them and I use them myself. So go ahead and see if they're a fit. They're the reason why this podcast keeps going. Now, if you're tired of two AM Google spirals and sorting through all that conflicting advice on the internet, that's what Thrive Homeschool Community is for.

Now you're still early in this game. You might not be ready for it, but it is where moms come to learn how to homeschool well. It's the community that I wish I had when I started all those years ago homeschooling. And if that sounds like something that you might need now or in the future, go ahead and just get on the wait list because that will guarantee your spot when we open. Thrive is not open all of the time, so the way to find out when we're gonna open is to get on that wait list, and then that will also guarantee your spot.

But again, no pressure. Totally happy that you're here and that you're listening today. Okay. So episode three, our last episode of the series is next. That's where we're gonna wrap this whole thing up.

We're gonna talk about scheduling, how to actually structure your years, weeks, and days, and in a way that works for your family, not against it. I'm going to give you a simple rule that will change everything about how you think about your homeschool day. And then we're gonna talk about community and socialization because you and your children are not meant to do this alone. I will show you how to find your people without over scheduling your life, and also know exactly how much socialization your kids need. That's a really important question.

And by the end of that episode, you're gonna have the full picture. How to start, what to do, and also what not to do. And you are gonna feel so ready. A word of encouragement before we leave, I am so proud of you for making it this far and for doing this work, for not just jumping in and hoping for the best. Your kid's education is way too important for that, and you realize that.

And you're willing to take the time to get this right and build a really solid foundation that you can build on. And thank you for giving me the time to talk about that so that you are set up for success. I know your time is valuable, and that's not lost on me, that you've chosen me as part of your big homeschooling journey. Thank you so much. Your kids deserve a well trained, confident guide, and that's exactly what you're becoming right now.

Alright. I will see you in part three.