GOAT #52: Homeschooling FAQs

It's perfectly reasonable to still have questions about homeschooling, even if you've been doing it for a while ... we know we do!  Sometimes questions arise just because you're in a new season, or because your kids are transitioning from elementary age to middle school age, or even entering high school... and you have more questions than you have answers!  That's why we are here... to help support you and put your mind at ease.

Listen today as Erin and Amanda discuss some of the most common questions asked about homeschooling ... ranging from "Is it hard to homeschool high school?" to the one many of us dislike, "What about socialization?"  Wherever you are in your homeschooling journey, you'll enjoy the conversation between these two homeschooling veterans.

HSLDA (Home School Legal Defense Association) www.hslda.org
HSLDA's Transcript Service, www.transcripts.hslda.org
Josten's, for diplomas, caps and gowns
The Home Scholar, Lee Binz' website

Be sure to subscribe to GOAT Homeschooling with Erin and Amanda wherever you listen to podcasts, and join us in continuing the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, or via email.

Website: www.goathomeschoolingpodcast.com
Facebook: @G.O.A.T.Homeschooling
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Email: goathomeschoolingpodcast@gmail.com

Transcript

[0:00] Hello and welcome back to Goat Homeschooling with Erin and Amanda.   Today it's just us again and we are going to be answering all of the hot topic questions that we get about homeschooling.
 
 [0:11] The most asked questions that the interwebs has to offer. Yeah. Welcome to Goat Homeschooling with Erin and Amanda. I'm Erin.  And I'm Amanda.  This is the podcast to encourage moms that have been at this homeschooling gig longer than five years and plan on sticking with it through the high school years.
 The long haullers as we like to say. We want to help you have the greatest of all time homeschool that meets the needs of your family by encouraging you with real conversations on the issues that pop up as you've been in this homeschool lifestyle for years. So it'll be fun to try and see if there's,people out there that need the encouragement and if there's anything that we can do to help othersas they get started on their journey that'd be awesome. That's what we're here for.
 
 [0:57] So, Amanda has a list of questions. We're going to talk through those and hopefully, give you some sound advice and maybe some laughs. So, thanks for joining us this week.
 Sound advice and air quotes. Yeah. Opinions of Erin and Amanda. Okay, so there's a website, that I don't remember the name of it right now, but it's got some most asked questions of any given topic. So, you can put in one word and it'll give you the most asked question about that particular word.
 So some of the questions are like homeschooling high school, the most asked questions.
 Is homeschooling in high school a good idea?
 That's like a top question. Really? Is it a good idea, Erin?
 It's a fabulous idea.
 I always tell homeschoolers that if you have put in the fruit and the labor of educating from the beginning or from the middle, why would you ever send your kid back to school or do a different educational option where you don't get to see the fruit of your labors.
 Yeah, and even people that take their kids out in high school, that's still worth it, because you're able to heal the relationship that maybe is lost or there's some kind of an emotional.
 
 [2:05] Change that takes place when you bring your kids home from public school and I think that that's really important.
 And so yes, it's a fantastic idea.
 Yes, high schoolers are fun. And even middle school, I was always the weirdo that was volunteering to help with middle schoolers when I would help with youth groups or something.
 
 [2:23] I love the questions, the age, the innocence, but then they're still like, they're struggling to get away from being out from underneath like mom and dad and what they think and have their own opinions and ideas.
 So they're still kind of mold and bendable, but they really have come into their own at that age.
 So yeah, definitely worth homeschooling your high schooler.
 For better or for worse, they're coming into their own. That's for sure.
 And you have the puberty and all the things that go along with it that are challenges.
 But those are challenges that everybody faces if they're public schooled kids or homeschooled kids and when they're homeschooled though, you do have additional time that you can work on those things more slowly.
 We don't have just an hour in the morning and then maybe four hours in the evening to try and tackle those things.
 You have an all-day thing and it's important to be able to have that time.
 So yes, that's fantastic.
 Okay, you ready for the next question? Sure.
 Can homeschool students play high school sports?
 
 [3:20] Yes. Yes, they can. Now, it's not going to look the same. It'll look different, but that doesn't make it a bad thing.
 I mean, there are homeschool sports. There are places, some places where you can play sports for a private school or even sometimes in a public school scenario, depending on the district.
 So yes, they can. What I'll say to that though is, I always encourage homeschool families, if there is a homeschool alternative, do that over putting your kids in the public school for sports.
 And here's why, we need to create our own economy as homeschoolers.
 
 [3:53] There's a reason you chose to disengage from what is happening at public schools.
 So let's support the homeschool community because the more kids that are a part of the homeschool community, the bigger the programs get, the more they offer, the more opportunities that they will all have.
 And if we're truly trying to create a separate economy in our world with home education, then I think it's really important to support those smaller organizations or maybe even starting your own.
 I know a lot of people that are looking for something and they don't find it, create it, and they create something that's better than what they could have gotten at the public school.
 
 [4:30] So highly recommend, yes, if they can do sports. Absolutely.
 
 [4:34] Where do homeschoolers get their diploma? From the parent.
 
 [4:39] HSLDA has a really great printable diploma that you can use.
 You can even order it from them. We ordered one for my son.
 The diploma that's provided by the parent is as good and is as accepted as a diploma provided by a public school,an accredited school, a non-accredited school, a private school.
 It bears as much weight as all of the others.
 So yeah, there's absolutely zero reason to not have that. You know, you do not have to get your GED.
 
 [5:13] No, you do not. You do not have to get your GED. And I think that's a common misconception.
 And when I see that in some Facebook groups, some school groups where,well, my son had to go get his GED. No, I wanna go screaming and shaking at them.
 No, they don't have to do that.
 Cause their diploma does. Now I have heard of some state collegesthat like a nursing program was really sticklerfor homeschoolers specifically that, oh, you need to get your GED because your homeschool,diploma, does it count? It counts. It's legal. Now, depending on your child's chosen professionin the future, you may come across colleges that don't understand that. Always, alwaysrecommend reach out to HSLDA and maybe they could send a strongly worded letter to encouragethem to abide by the laws of the state.
 Make sure that you have transcripts too, that you have a home written transcripts or ifIf you have someone that you've paid to professionally create transcripts for you, even if you don'thave kids that are college-bound, make sure that you do have a transcript and a diploma.
 Because you never know. They might be 30 years old one day and wanting to go to college, and those things are goingto be important for them to have.
 When I worked in the medical field, there's an old saying, if it's not written down, itdidn't happen. And so I feel the same way about homeschooling.
 If it's not written down, it didn't happen. And it's hard for us to actually wrap our heads around getting stuff written down.
 But it is important to do that, especially transcripts for high school.
 
 [6:36] And I have seen on the Facebook forums as well, people who were homeschooled and momand dad didn't have a transcript or they didn't have a diploma printed out or maybe they lostit in a fire or whatever.
 And it's, you know, 15 years later and they want to be a fireman and they were askingfor a high school diploma.
 It's so much easier to just do it at the time of the graduation and have your ceremony withyour child, get it printed out. I know I'm working with an organization right now andwe're going through Jostens just like the public schools use and they also can printa diploma and you know you can order a cap and gown through them and have your own homeschool,experience if there's not a local organization that has a group graduation ceremony.
 
 [7:17] Right. Absolutely. Okay. When homeschooling, how many hours a day, how many hours do youdo school a day for a high schooler.
 Ooh. That's a tough one. It depends on the day. It really does. Yes.
 Depends on our activities and things like that, yes.
 
 [7:33] So I have found this year what's working for us is having two or three subjects that are the core subjects that they do every day.
 And then we just kind of loop through the other subjects and what we have time to get to.
 Because if we're spending more time in history that morning or more time in math or whatever,we're getting the core subjects in that we really want to focus on.
 And then we do whatever we have time for afterwards. And when I say whatever we have time for, that's in between piano lessons, ninja classes,you know, whatever other activities, soccer practice that they're doing that are non-core,but still count for countable hours outside of the home. How about you, Amanda? How many hours do you do?
 Um, I have no idea. We just, we get it done. We have a list. I'm a list person and um, I givemy son a list at the beginning of the week. These are the things that you need to have done. Andhe decides when he's going to do them according to when he wants to do them and what his schedule is.
 
 [8:30] And he gets them done in a timely way. So it just kind of depends. And of course, wewatch a ton of history stuff just organically. We do a lot of organic learning. And so that all counts too.
 Yeah. You know, if we're watching a biography on George Washington, that's certainly history.
 And the different, you know, vibrant conversations that we have and things of that nature. So,I mean, we're kind of a little unschooly in that way, a lot of organic learning. But yeah,I mean, these kids are learning all the time.
 And when you're doing high school, so our state law is 120 to 150 hours for one credit.
 
 [9:06] And 60 hours for a half a credit for a year.
 So you can kind of break that down, however that looks to you and have whatever that is easiest for you to do.
 But that's my primary goal is to meet those hours. And even though when he's younger than 16,he still gets the credit for that, you know, that that same kind of time frame.
 So, yeah, so that's how we do it. So I focus on that class and that class getting at least 60 hours.
 If we're doing it all year, I want that class to have 100 and, you know,somewhere between 120 and 150 hours, depending on the class.
 
 [9:43] And that's what I push for. So, yeah, that's if I had to put a number on it, I would say we intentionally do,three to four hours a day.
 But then the unintentional or the unschooly or the interest-led, we do at least another two to three hours.
 Right. I mean, just because of hobbies and things that they're doing that are actually learningsome skills. And then you have a kid like mine who wants to take his typing lesson at the same timehe's listening to his literature book.
 And then I'm like, dude, you can't double-dip. I can't count for two things.
 But he doesn't care about that. So yeah. So the next question is, how do you homeschool high school?
 
 [10:23] How do you homeschool high school? That's a loaded question, isn't it?
 Well, that's one of the main questions via the interwebs. How do you homeschool high school?
 Very carefully, that's my answer.
 
 [10:33] With kid gloves, no, I'm just kidding. I would say it really depends on the kid,and their personal situation.
 I have one that was public schooled through part of middle school.
 So I homeschool her high school like she's in a very public schooly way.
 We have textbooks, we have set times, we have, you know, not a lot of transition time between,activities that she does, and she thrives in that.
 My other high schooler, we do have more transition time. We're eating basically the entire time we're doing school because food helps your brainlearn, I guess.
 It really keeps you in your seat and your mouth, you know, occupied so you're not talkingover us teachers if we're reading.
 So yeah, in those circumstances with my other high schooler, some of what he does is verymuch like, here's your list of stuff to accomplish.
 
 [11:24] I check in with him that he's doing it. And he is my self-motivated learner too.
 If I give him the list, he does the list. So I can count on that.
 Some kids are not like that. I have one of those two or two at least.
 So that'll look different for when they're in high school. How about you, Amanda?
 How do you homeschool your high schoolers? I agree completely.
 It depends on the kid.
 And I think that when they're in middle school-ish ages, you kind of have an idea about whattheir passions are, what the things that they enjoy doing will be, and what their strengthsare and what their challenges might be.
 And so, you know, I kind of capitalize on that. You know, what can we do more of that you enjoy doing that is also school?
 Like if I have a kid that loves history, let's do lots and lots of history.
 
 [12:09] And it would depend on what their life goals would end up being.
 You know, like my 19-year-old, he wanted to do a lot of writing.
 He really enjoyed literature arts, and we did Help for High School with Julie Bogard's for high school.
 And he absolutely loved that and he took off with writing and he ended up with like.
 
 [12:26] Nine or twelve, a ton of credits, high school credits that are language arts based.
 
 [12:34] Now my other kid is very science minded and he loves history and I can see him, I mean even at14, I can see him doing something with a major in biology with a minor in history. And so what canwe do with that? You know, how do we do all that? We're going to not do all the math classes. That'sthat's what we're gonna do with it.
 We're gonna do a lot of science classes and we're gonna do a lot of history classes.
 
 [12:56] And he can write out things. He can utilize the things that he lovesin the way that also teach him other things.
 Like we can do language arts through history, we can do language arts through science, we can do,you know, and math comes along with a lot of science too.
 So there's a way to kind of implement the things that are not so great, that they're challenged with,with the things that they have as strengths, and you just continue with that.
 So that's the greatest thing about homeschooling is that it's individual, right?
 Is that it's unique to each child. And so it's hard to generally say,how do you homeschool high school?
 Yes, it definitely does. And I'll add this, it depends on your state law.
 In Missouri, where we are, you only need 16 credits to officially be able to graduate your child.
 Now, colleges typically want 24 or more.
 So what I have done is just look at the DESI website and see, okay, typical transcriptfor a high school graduating from a public school,would need three language arts credits, three math, three science, or whatever it isfor the state or the district.
 
 [14:05] And I kind of have planned my years around that. Okay, well, we're gonna do American history,we're gonna do world history, we're gonna do economics for a semester,those kinds of things.
 So you can do that, you can do it however you want, depending on their state law and what the requirements are for you to graduate your child.
 And you can really, like Amanda said, make it look like how your child learns.
 If they're going to learn a lot of science, do it with language arts through your science curriculum.
 Right. That totally works.
 And HSLDA, you know, we mentioned them earlier, they also have sample transcripts and differenttracks, you know, what your high school transcripts can look like if you're not college bound,if you are college bound, if you're wanting to go the AP route and take astronomicallyhigh, highly difficult classes, and what that kind of high school transcript can look like.
 You know, since my youngest son is going to be college bound, we're looking at doing like25 credits for high school.
 And at the end of this year, he's only 14, he's a freshman, he'll have eight and a half.
 
 [15:06] Because he's gotten, there's been credits that he got last year as an eighth grader.
 He's obviously getting high school credits this year as a ninth grader.
 And so, and kind of making that plan. And we'll do a couple of, we'll do at least one history class over the summer that iscollege level. It's, you know, it's a CLEP class.
 So he'll do that over the summer just to kind of see how that goes and how that feels and then go from there.
 And you don't have to have a four-year plan or a five-year plan.
 You can do it one year at a time and kind of look ahead, consistently look ahead andgo, okay, what do I want this to look like? How do I want this to be changed?
 And I do want to mention too, there's a lady that is really good at this kind of stuff.
 She's fantastic to follow on Facebook. She's called Home Scholar.
 Lee Bens is her name, and we've been trying to get her on the podcast.
 And this hasn't happened yet.
 Schedules have not aligned, but I'm desperate to get her on because she's so knowledgeable,about doing transcripts and high schooling and middle schooling and what all of thatlooks like, even doing a life skills class for a non-core and how that can be shapedout. There's a ton of different ways to do it and they're all great ways to do it.
 
 [16:18] Next question. Is homeschooling high school hard? No. I guess you choose your hard. YouYou're hard, right? I mean, yeah, public schooling high school is really hard too, especially right now because you know,High school is just hard. High school is just hard. Yeah, the age is just hard. I,I, um, the relational things are just hard.
 Yeah. Bye.
 
 [16:39] I don't think it's hard though. For me, it hasn't been hard. I can give, you know, with my older son,I just, I can hand him a pile of books and say, this is, you know, it's, your lessons are writtenout. You choose when to do them and he'll take them to his room and do it. Like, and there's some kidsthat are like that. Of course, there's some kids that are not like that. So again, it's going toboil down to individual individuals and how they are. Yeah. And I'll say this, I have a differentexperience with my high schooler so far. It is hard, but it's worth it. And I feel like even ifIf you have a great relationship with your child or you have a strained relationshipwith your child, if you're able to continue to home educate through high school, I cansee even though things are strained at times, there's growth.
 I can look forward and I've heard so many other homeschool moms that have been in similarsituations to me where they were like, I'm not sure if this one's going to graduate.
 I'm not sure what their future holds or they don't have a plan like I thought they wouldhave or whatever it could be years later, two years later, three years later, whateverit is, they come back around and say, hey, thanks for doing this for me. Thanks for providingthat education for me. I'm able to live my life in this way because of the things thatI learned at home. So I just want to encourage any mom out there that can't just throw booksat a kid and say, here you go, do this. Because I have one of those too. And that it does.
 
 [18:01] Relieve some of the burden and the stream of relationship. But if you are not in thatsituation, pray about it, ask God for help because that's, I find myself doing that daily,like I don't know what I'm doing here, but I know that I'm called to do this. And I knowthat if I've been called to do this, then you're going to provide the way for this tohappen and do it in a way that's honoring and glorifying to you. So that's my prayerfor myself and I'll be praying that for our listeners as well.
 Yes. Okay. So should homeschooling high school be accredited?
 What does that mean? Are they asking that?
 You need to have it like. Should it be an accredited thing?
 Well, you know, so there's an accreditation board.
 Right. That works for the government. And so the federal government gets to decidewhat is accredited and what is not.
 And you know, we have a couple of local schools, school districts here that have lost their accreditation in recent years.
 
 [18:57] And so, and these kids are graduating high school from a non-accredited public school that,And a lot of them have, and not to speak poorly of these kids, of course, it's not their fault.
 But a lot of them are behind in reading, they're behind in math, and they're kind of pushed through.
 So which one would you choose, right? Is homeschooling a non-accredited?
 And we wouldn't want it to be accredited, because what does that look like, right?
 So it would look like the federal government coming into our homes and saying what theydetermined to be good enough or not.
 And we don't care what the federal, as homeschoolers, we don't care, generally speaking, we don'tcare what the federal government has to say about what we're doing.
 Because we know that we are doing right by our children.
 Right? And so we don't care what they think. We only care what God thinks. Right?
 
 [19:51] So no, it shouldn't be accredited. I'll take it a little spicy step further.
 I don't agree that all children need to be educated in the same way as far as if you area farm family and that's what you do and you're rural,I don't think that you need to take the same classes and have the same standards ofgraduation because you will have a totally different skill set that is basically on the job or in,your life daily living, experiential learning.
 Also, I just feel like everybody is uniquely created to have a special set of gifts and skills.
 
 [20:29] And I think if we have parents who are so invested in their child's education that they'rewilling to home educate, sacrifice a career, or work around their careers so that theycan keep their kids at home through high school, that can look a bazillion different ways and,none of them are wrong.
 
 [20:44] Right. Amen, sister.
 
 [20:46] How do you homeschool high school for free? The library card.
 Internet. And the internet, which you don't have to have at home.
 You can go to the library and use the internet.
 Yeah.
 
 [20:58] Yeah. There's a ton of different ways to do that. Get library books out.
 
 [21:01] There are homeschool resource centers available and there's not very many of them, but they are around.
 
 [21:09] So you have to do a little bit of digging, do a little bit of asking, and they have curriculum that you can borrow.
 I know our local library system also offers free tutoring, either online or in, they used to do in person.
 I haven't used it, but I remember coming across it in my searches on their webpage. That's awesome.
 Bartering with other homeschool moms, co-ops, like what you're doing.
 
 [21:31] Yep. Several moms at home, I'm a really great homesteader here.
 Let's get a farm science education. Okay.
 And it benefits the family that's farming. I think that types of things like that are really beneficial.
 
 [21:45] Let's see, homeschooling middle school most ask questions. Let's go down to middle school.
 Okay. Can you homeschool in the middle of the school year? Can you pull your kids out in themiddle of the school year and start homeschooling them? Yes, you can. Yes, you can. And you should.
 If you're having problems at school and the school psychiatrist wants to put little Donnie on a,plethora of medications just to get them to sit still and shut up and do what the teacher asksthem to do, pull him and you'll figure it out later. It's okay to do that. You'll figureit out. Let's see, are homeschooled students less social? The million dollar question.
 
 [22:23] No, they are not. They might be more selective about who they are social with because they'reconfident and they have self-esteem and they don't have to listen to you. They don't have to talk toto people that they don't want to talk to.
 They don't have to let people invade their boundaries and ignore their boundaries, right?
 Like public school kids, a lot of them have no idea who they are, right?
 And so when they're out in public, they don't want to talk to, I've had this experiencewhere they don't want to talk to other adults.
 They don't want to talk to kids that are not their age. They just want to stick with their peer group.
 
 [22:59] Because that's what they've been taught and that's what's been drilled into them.
 Homeschooled kids don't do that.
 
 [23:04] They will talk to anyone and everyone as an equal. I've had adults be like kind of butt hurt,kind of offended that there's this kid wanting to have a conversation with them,and not like kind of feeling uncomfortable with it and out of their element with it.
 That's a homeschooled kid. They're gonna talk to adults because that's their world.
 That's what they should be doing. We should normalize that, I think. Yeah.
 
 [23:29] Well, I think we get to experience a healthier view of actual socialization.
 How we actually interpersonal relationships, I hate the word socialization.
 And when you look at the root of it and where it actually came from,it literally does go back to that meaning of government education, socializing your childrenso that they become little socialists.
 Like that is the definition of that. I want nothing to do with that terminology.
 However, I do feel like it's important to have interpersonal relationships,with different ages and stages of life.
 And we do see that over and over and over again, the communication skills are much more prevalent, I wanna say.
 And like you said, with kids interacting, with kids that are different ages,like with my situation, my family, there's a eight year age gap between my youngest,and my second youngest.
 And there's, let's see, a 13 year age gap between my oldest and my youngest.
 If my oldest was at high school all day and doing all the extracurricular things that she's into,and then I have my kindergartner at home, she's not gonna see her sister at alland have a relationship with her. They're gonna not know each other.
 But right now they do.
 And that's fantastic.
 
 [24:40] And I'll speak to this too. There are so many opportunities to get your kids out and about with other kids with co-ops,with enrichment programs,Even homeschool dances and prom and park days If you are living in your home all the time with your kids and they're not getting interaction,Most likely it's not because there's not some opportunity out there. It's because you're choosing that.
 
 [25:05] That's why yep. Yeah, my son chooses that yeah, it doesn't want to go anywhereI feel bad some days when I'm like, come on, dude, let's go somewhere.
 Nope.
 He doesn't want to. And I thought about this the other day too.
 When we talk about socialization, I feel like this conversation is cropping up more as we'vehad an influx of COVID schoolers and people who have now in their third or maybe fourthyear of home education that they didn't really plan on it.
 Now they're here, they're here and they love it, but they're still really worried about socialization.
 Think about being a young mom with a baby.
 That baby is not looking for other babies to play with, but the mom wants the othertheir babies to play with their kid.
 But primarily it's because the mom also needs to get out and wants that social time with her friends,because the baby is actually learning social skills from the mom and the dad.
 How to look at someone in their eyes, how to respond to different facial recognitionand things like that on emotions.
 You're really primarily teaching your child to socialize through the parent-child interaction.
 And when you get together with other kids that they're all in the same peer group,they're not really learning those skills. they're practicing those skills.
 
 [26:10] Does that make sense? Yes, absolutely. And I'll even add to that where, you know,sometimes we hear about homeschooling kids being so much more mature, quote unquote,mature than other kids.
 And that's because they're emulating what they see in their home.
 They're not emulating what they see in the classroom.
 So, you know, you don't want, this is not a Lord of the Flies situationwhere we're all gonna behave like our peers.
 Because that's what we see the most of. We're going to behave like what we're around.
 So when we're around mom and dad most of the time, then that's who we're going to act.
 We have a higher understanding of the world because that's the communication style that we have with our parents.
 Yeah, so that's the socialization piece. If you want to break it down even simpler,if you had the choice of putting your child in a room with someone whose brain was not fully developed versus puttingyour child in a room where,the other person's brain was fully developed, and you thought which one would be the better overall choice long term,it wouldn't be to put your kid in the room with the other kid that's brain isn't fully developed.
 Right. The chimpanzee or... Right.
 Right. Yeah, exactly. Okay. So then we go on to other questions. There's just a couple of mostGoogle questions about homeschooling. And there's things like how many hours a day should I spendschooling? And that's going to vary again. How do I structure the day? You kind of talked aboutthat a little bit earlier. We structure our day a little bit differently than you do.
 
 [27:35] That's going to vary depending on family to family as well. There are people that work full timeand from home and then they school in the evenings. There are people that just school in theevenings because their kids sleep all day. I mean, there's a million different ways to formulateyour day. How do I limit screen time might be a good one we can talk about. So if someone'shaving an issue with their homeschooler being on the screens too much, how do you go aboutlimiting that for your child?
 I take a very different view than a lot of conservative moms on screens. I don't havea time limit for my kids. What I do is I have a rhythm. If we're getting our work done and,they want to spend time on screens, that's fine because like they've pointed out to mewhen I've been like, you've been on your computer for four hours. Well, they're coding, they'reresearching, they're reading, they're doing all these things that I would not considerto be fluffy downtime or entertainment only value.
 
 [28:32] So I don't really have a problem with my kids being on screens because we use it in a way that's responsible.
 And I feel like sometimes we can over schedule our kids and you're going to get this onechunk of time, this one day a week to do the thing that you want to do on that screen orwatch the show that you want to watch.
 Not really.
 In my opinion, not working for my family, because that's not how I operate my life as an adult.
 I have to pull back when I feel like I've done too much screen time or whatever myself.
 We have to see those limits. How do you do it, Amanda?
 Kind of the same way. I have a mantra in my house that we do what we need to do before we do what we want to do.
 And so if my kids end up on the screens or playing video games or whatever it is,then they don't end up doing the things that they need to do until way late.
 And so we end up doing what we need to do before we do what we want to do.
 And if they have their things done that they need to get done,then I don't really pay that much of attention to it.
 
 [29:30] I mean, both of my kids are very responsible. I know what their interests are.
 And I mean, we're not talking about dangerous screen time here.
 We're not talking about, you know, children that are searching for things that theyshouldn't be searching for and Googling images that they shouldn't be seeing.
 We're talking about fairly responsible kids because we have a good relationship with them.
 And so that ends up being the core of that is if we have a good positive relationshipwith our kids and we talk about the things that we need to talk about, then they're lesslikely, of course, you always have the exception to the rule, but they're going to be lesslikely to do things that they shouldn't be doing on there.
 So yeah, I mean, my 14-year-old just got his own cell phone and I'm checking what he'sdoing and it's completely innocuous. And, you know, my 19-year-old is the same way.
 I'm asking him, you know, have you seen things on the computer that you shouldn't be seeing?
 
 [30:24] Like there was one time, Aaron, I have to tell you, sidebar, story time. There was onetime I walked into my son's bedroom and he had his computer on his lap and he very quicklyclosed the computer and I went, uh-oh, what is he looking at? And he, I was like, whatare you looking at? He's like, I don't want to tell you. I'm not going to, I'm not goingI tell you, right? And so, like, he was, like, being super secretive about it.
 I'm like, oh, no, we're not doing this.
 And so, a little later, he got up and he left the room. And I went in there and I looked at what his computer was doing.
 He was watching videos about a video game that was M for Mature.
 And because he was not allowed at the time to watch, to play M for Mature games,he would didn't, he thought he'd be in trouble for it.
 I'm like, seriously? Like, no, I'm thinking that you're looking at, you know,girly pictures or something. And so we don't give our kids enough credit, I think, sometimestoo, you know, and when we have trust there and when we have good communication and stuff.
 
 [31:18] Then we don't have to worry about it as much. Of course, if we're talking about little kids,which we're not talking about this, we're talking about middle school, high school ages,right? So little kids might be a little bit of a different thing because they know not what they do.
 So there might be some limitations that need to be set sometimes with that.
 
 [31:33] And I will say with us with screens, we do have a lot of restrictions and they're in,public shared spaces and that kind of thing. But as far as limiting the time now, I'm more focused on self-government.
 Okay, so this is a funny one. How do I help my child if they're falling behind?
 Behind what? For someone to know who are they falling behind?
 Right. Behind what? So we need to set the record straight with that completely.
 
 [31:57] You don't fall behind anyone when you homeschool. You know, there, who's it? Julie Bogart thatsays there's no such thing as an educational emergency. And I hang my hat on that sayingall the time. And I was sometimes I really have to sit back and reset myself and reallyrefocus and think about that. There is no such thing as an educational emergency. Nowlet's all say it together. There's no such thing as an educational emergency. So withthat being said, you cannot fall behind. You can't.
 I always tell my kids if they they sometimes will say, I think I'm behind. I'm like, first,there's no such thing. And two, you are where you are. So if you didn't learn the skill,then you're still learning the skill. So that's where you're at. You're still learning theskill. Once you move on, then you're beyond that skill. So yeah.
 Okay, so another question is, what if I don't understand the subject or the task they aredoing. That's a tough one.
 Well, and I'm a very big proponent of farm it out. If you don't have a skill and you're.
 
 [33:01] Of the belief that your child needs to have that particular skill, find someone who does have theskill. And I'm not saying necessarily to pay someone. Find a YouTube video. Find a book atthe library. Ask around on Facebook. Maybe you have a friend who has studied that and they would bemore than willing to sit down with your child and help them through that. Ask your husband.
 And I mean, my husband does math.
 I am not a fan of math.
 I didn't like it in high school. I did not do well with it. I took remedial algebra in college.
 And that's the thing.
 If your child is college bound, the college wants your money.
 If you didn't pass algebra maybe in high school, that's me, you can take remedial college algebra.
 You'll pay for it, but it's an option. And there's tutors usually at the college,that can help you through that if you want that.
 Or if you're fine with a passing D, that's fine as well. That's the route that I took.
 Don't listen to me.
 
 [34:01] What are your thoughts? Yeah, same.
 We are living in the day and age that there's not an excuse for that.
 We can't, again, when I worked in the medical field, one thing that I always reminded myself ofwas that I didn't have to know the answer, but I had to know where to find it.
 And so I try to teach that to my kids. You don't have to know the answer.
 And nowadays we can Google things. We can get a book from the library.
 We can watch a thing on YouTube. We can ask in a Facebook group.
 We can ask our parents, ask our, you know, mom and dad, do I know anybody that,or did you know anybody that can maybe teach this such and such, you know, my grandmother was an artist.
 She taught my kids art when they were young.
 Like, there are, there's absolutely going to be someone in your life somewhere,whether you know them or not, that can help you.
 And so it's not about knowing the answer, it's about knowing where to find it.
 There was a doctor that I worked with that would get really, really irritated,when he would not tolerate it if he didn't have the answer to something.
 And so I would scour all the things and think about all of the questions that he could possibly ask.
 
 [35:15] Before I would even go and ask him a question or tell him a bit of information.
 And I think that that was really helpful to me because I really didn't want to be yelling at meme was the main focus, but it helped our relationship.
 And so researching those things, maybe even before you have your child take the class,maybe there's something I'm not good at.
 And I know that I want my child to take this class and I want them to do this thing, whetherit be science or math or whatever, and I'm not good at it.
 So before I can this to my child to have them do and give them the expectation of somethingthat I can't do myself, maybe I need to research it and figure out who can help them.
 There's Khan Academy. I mean, there's so many different things that they can get that information from.
 And you never have, I was just telling a woman today, you never have to homeschool by yourself.
 There's a million different ways to get support. And there's just no excuse for that.
 
 [36:10] So there's a lot there. We answered a lot of questions. There's a lot of questions. Yeah.
 
 [36:13] Well, I think it's helpful to ask those questions or to answer those questions for people becauseeven if we've been doing this for a while, some of us, maybe you've been doing this for more thanfive years, like we talk about, that's kind of our target audience of people who have been homeschoolinga while, you're just at that middle school, high school age and have all these questions.
 It's easy because they're elementary school and we did all the basics and nature study and whatnot.
 Now we're getting into sciences with experiments that are bigger and you can do it. I just wantevery mom to know, like Amanda said, that if you don't have to do this alone, there's,no reason to do it alone unless you absolutely want to.
 Or you want to torture yourself. Yeah. Yeah.
 You're afraid to torture yourself if you really want to, but there's not a reason for it.
 Yeah. Well, thanks for listening. I hope you found this enjoyable and applicable to your life.
 And if you have any questions, you can get ahold of us at all the different things thatwe have. The website, goathomeschoolingpodcast.com is the best place.
 Thanks. Thanks for listening today.
 We hope you'll subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. And if you'd like to suggest topics for us to discuss or if you have any questions, findus at Goat Homeschooling on Facebook, on Instagram at Goathomeschool, and email us at Goathomeschoolingpodcasts.gmail.com.
 
 [37:34] Have a great day.
 
 [37:34] Music.