HS #293 Reminiscing: Lessons Learned From Years of Teaching

HS #293 Reminiscing: Lessons Learned From Years of Teaching

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Wendy –

Hello, and welcome back to another installment of the Homeschool Solutions Show. My name is Wendy Speake, and I am one of the many hosts we have here on the podcast. Each week you'll hear from one of us inviting one of our friends to join for a conversation about this busy, blessed season as we educate our children at home.

Now the title of the show is Homeschool Solutions. While we don't have the answer to every question, we know that all the solutions to every stress and every struggle can be found in the Person and presence of Jesus Christ and His living and active and applicable Word. When you're so glad that you're here to join us for today's conversation. But before we start the show, I'd like to thank our sponsor.

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Cynthia -

I'm Cynthia Tobias.

Sue -

And I'm Sue Acuna.

C -

And you're listening to It's Never Just Another Day. I thought it would be fun today if we would just reminisce a little with some stories that taught us something. If I was going to title that, that's, I think that's what we'd call it. Stories that taught us something with our own kids, with students, with those we've taught. There are some really favorite ways to get across a point, and...

S -

And many of my stories of course, are from the classroom, but I think there are lessons they carry over, not just to homeschooling and teaching, but to parenting in general and even as adults. Relationship issues.

C -

Right and I wanted to start with, you know, years ago when I first, I was teaching high school and I was loving teaching, but the kids weren't loving learning per se. And when I first encountered learning styles, you know the way that we learn, the way that we process information. I was so excited to go back to my classroom and tell my students what I've learned. And when I introduced it to them, they were just totally stunned. I mean, stunned. First of all, that I would even ask them, how do you learn? What makes sense to you? And secondly, that it actually truly mattered to me. I listened to their answers. When I was asking them or what would make it easier for you? What's hard for you? And I just, you know, that was a pivotal point in my entire life and teaching experience, just that moment when I realized what a critical difference it made, in paying attention to the learner rather than simply paying attention to me and how I was teaching and what my methods were and whether we were accomplished something. That was an amazing time and I'll never forget the expressions on those kids' faces and the comments afterwards. I can't believe, are we really going to do this? You know, you really want to know? And I think one of the things I would urge those listening today with your own kids as you're teaching them, and even before you're teaching them. Just let them know, I do want to know what's going to make this a little bit easier for you. What's going to help it make sense? What do you need to do? Because that set the stage for an amazing, an amazing academic year.

S -

And it totally shifts your focus. When I first learned about learning styles from you, it shifted my focus from let me show you the right way to do this, just keep doing it this way and you will find you can be successful. To like you said, asking questions. What will work for you? And I had a student who had been trying to take color-coded notes. She had been told color-coding your notes will help you to be organized. She, after we went through learning styles and we talked about auditory learners and visual learners, she realized that the colors were actually very distracting to her. She was a very auditory learner. She learned better by listening and especially by listening to her own voice. So, she went back to taking notes in plain old pencil, but she would record herself reading her notes and then listen to herself reading her notes. And that was how she learned best. And she was just shocked that that was even an option and that that would work.

C -

See, and I was always a visual learner as a student as a kid. But one thing I finally discovered about myself as an adult, because I like the colors. So, every year at the back-to-school sales, I would go and find those incredible colorful Rubbermaid organizers and bins and all kinds of things, and I would buy all of them and I would bring them home, and by the time I'm home, I'm kind of out of the mood to organize. So, I would just stick them somewhere and eventually sell them at a garage sale empty. So, because because I thought I liked colors, but like that student, it wasn't actually the colors that worked for me. It was something different.

S -

But I had another student one year back when we used book covers on books. And she went out and bought those stretchy elastic book covers in multiple colors and then bought Spiral-bound notebooks to match the same cover. So, she had yellow book cover and yellow notebook for math, and red book cover, and red notebook for science. And then not only did the colors make her happy, but it helped organize because she could grab the red to go to math or and she could grab the yellow to go to science or whichever way I said those colors.

C -

And no one made fun of her?

S -

Oh, of course they did. You know those who are not as organized, it really doesn't matter. Just think it's ridiculous and there are others who, wow, that's a brilliant idea. I got to talk to my mom.

C -

Yeah, and you know, we're talking about the auditory and visual and kinesthetic, you know, learn by hearing and learn by being able to see and learn by putting some kind of action to it. The first time that I really put that into effect with my students was with a vocabulary test and we had 86 words. I was using that vocabulary book called 1100 Words You Need to Know. And so, these were difficult vocabulary words, I mean prognosticate and the difference between imminent and eminent. And these were sophomores in high school that were considered to be what they call just pass them, just get him out there. And they're not too advanced, and they're not bonehead English. Just don't expect a lot of them. But I broke the three, broke them into three groups, said you know study words with your group. And here this group is going to say ??? back and forth, and this group is going to make flashcards and come up with a visual picture for each meaning. And this kinesthetic group is going to come up with a bodily movement that kind of goes with like wave-like movements, undulations, and you know, move their body.

And so, at first, they got a choice of where they want to go. So, at first, they all chose it with their friends, but it was only a few minutes till they were switching again, going oh, I can't stand it that way. And so, they studied for two hours, two different days, an hour a day, and out of 29 kids and 86 difficult words, 26 of those so-called average kids did not miss a single word and the other three only missed, they missed less than five. And they would just, they were just floored. They were just, they couldn't believe, they were saying, I've never even got an A in my whole life. And it was one of those really successful experiences for them. Just because it didn't ever occur to them, oh, the way I study that I could do it a different way instead of the way that I was taught that I had to do it.

S -

Yep, that there's another way to learn it. And then that carries over to other things. In my class, students are required to recite a memory verse, and it's not a verse every week because we spend a lot of time digesting it. So, it might be averse every two or three weeks, and then I don't let them just write a note from, or bring in a note from their parents saying they said it. I think we all benefit from hearing it in class, but it's hard for some kids to actually sit there and say it.

So, I had a student years ago who would pace in the back of the room. And he was reciting into himself and looking at it, reciting it. Okay, I think I'm ready to say it, Ms. Acuna. And he'd stop and look at me, and he couldn't do it. And so, he tried this two or three times and I finally said, Buddy keep walking. So, he kept walking. Somebody took his Bible from him. He kept walking. He recited it perfectly. Word for word. I have other students, even now, who, they can't look at me while they're saying it because it just makes them too nervous, that eye contact. And I'll say look at the wall or look at the window, so they will turn their heads, look away from me, recite it perfectly. So, it's knowing what works. That's really key.

C -

Right, and I've had parents that discovered that they can teach their children better to remember things on a test if they put different answers on the staircase and their child would walk up and down the stairs and stop at each stair so that it kept them in constant motion. Which as long as it's, you know, with my husband, he would be bothered by the constant movement. So just keep them out of sight from someone who's bothered by it.

S -

I have taught the 23rd Psalm, which has six verses. I've taught it in one class period. Kids had memorized it because I divide them into six groups. Each group comes up with a motion for that particular verse, and then as we learn it, we keep repeating all the motions and by the time we get done, most of the kids can say it within an hour. But then when it's their turn to actually recite it for a grade, some of them will say, do I have to do the motions? They are too distracting. And others will say, can you do the motions with me? It will help me to remember. So again, understanding what works best for you is such a big key to success.

C -

You know another thing that, my very first year of teaching I had decided going in I was not going to, I didn't want the teachers in the teacher’s room to tell me anything about the students I was about to teach. Cause everybody, you know, I was young and inexperienced and all the wisdom that they wanted to pour into me was, now so and so, you've got, you're going to have him in your class, and he has troubles with this and he has trouble with that. And I wasn't very popular at first because I would say, you know, I really don't want to know. I just don't want to know. I want to just have him, I just want to have it clean start and I don't want to have any preconceived notions. So, I wouldn't listen to it. I'd just walk out of the room. And so, but sure enough, a couple of days in, the kid named Randy, he's a really tall basketball player. He walked in the first day and he sat down, and he says, Ms. Tobias, I gotta tell you right off. I get Fs in English. I've always gotten Fs in English, so I can tell you right now you can just save your trouble and just give me an F in English. And I said Randy, I have no idea of your past and I will not let anybody tell me anything about you. You have an A in English in here. He looked at me, went an A? I said that's right, we've not done anything. You start with an A as far as I'm concerned. It is a clean slate, and you start with 100% and he just, he couldn't believe it. And guess what he got by the end of the semester?

S -

Did he get a hundred?

C -

A B. He got a B. And it was just, he goes, I can't believe that I actually got a B because I, you have to, you give kids a clean slate, right? Just because, ah, I'm not good at math and I've never liked science. And I'm never going to be able to understand all these participles and what I'm supposed to do. Hold on, hold on. Clean slate. Okay? Whatever frustrated you in the past. Let's just start with this assumption that we start at 100%, that you're, there's no, there's nothing against you. There's no past, no past history, and you're going to be fine.

S -

And I have used that same line with students. You start at 100% and you lose points by not doing the work or turning it in late or not studying for a quiz. And for some of them, it's just mind-blowing. They never think about the fact that they can start at the top. They all assume they start at zero and work their way up.

C -

I actually did a library unit where I went out to Office Depot and bought, you know you can get a whole roll of those tickets that you have for the drawings. Half the ticket. And so, I figured out how many points this particular project was worth. And I, one ticket was ten points, and let's say the project was worth like 250 points. So, I get every single student at the beginning, I gave everybody 250 points worth of tickets. All these tickets are yours. You have an A on this project automatically. Really? Yes. The only way you're going to lose it is if you don't turn in the assignments. Cause it wasn't one of those where you had, it could be an A or an F, where if you turn it in, you get credit, and if you don't. And I couldn't believe how many. They were not about to give up a ticket. They had the grade in their hand. They had the success, and I can count on one hand how many kids even gave up one ticket or two tickets because there's something about, you have the success in the beginning. You're not going to give it away. So sometimes those of you who are trying to work through a project with a kid who just can't get motivated. Give him an A in the beginning. Give him some tickets and say look, the only way you're going, you're not gonna pass this is if you have, if you don't turn this in. And every time you don't turn it in, give me one of your tickets.

S -

And just the novelty of tickets. I mean it might not work every time, but it'll certainly work for a few times. Sometimes though, it is helpful to know a little bit of background of students coming in. And of course, knowing your own kids. But I had a student several years ago. We'll call her Gabby. That's not her real name. And I watched her come up through the ranks. I was teaching eighth grade at the time, so I watched her at our K through eight school, come up through the ranks chewing up teachers and spitting him out. Just major defiance, attitude, behavior problem. No consequence could break her. She was your classic struggled child. Bring it. And I used what I had learned from you and I decided that I was going to end up being friends with this student no matter what. And so, when she would try and pick a fight, I wouldn't engage. When I needed her to do something, I didn't press the issue. I would pull her out one-on-one in the hallway to talk to her because of course, public reprimand meant huge defensiveness and I would use more, you could try it this way instead of stop doing that because it's always easier to focus on the positive.

For example, I remember her one day sitting at her desk, arms folded, just refusing to work. Not gonna do it. And so, I beckoned her out in the hall and said, why aren't you doing the homework? I don't feel like it. I said I understand. That's your choice, but remember, incomplete work will keep you from going to basketball practice. Not a threat, just a reminder. And she shrugged and said I don't care. I said, okay, that's your choice. So, we went back in the classroom and I pretended to ignore her. Kind of keeping an eye on her out of the corner of my eye. Pretty soon she snatched her paper out of her desk, got her pencil out, quickly completed it, did it well, cause she was a bright student. But she had a point to make, right? And I didn't make any more comments. I did not acknowledge that I won the victory. I didn't say see, see how easy that was? Nothing. I just let it go. Nope. And the rest of the year went like that. And there were times when I did have to engage, but for the most part, it went pretty smoothly. She graduated, went on to high school, and she would come back to visit and hang out for half a day just sitting in my chair at my desk, totally comfortable because the relationship was intact. So, knowing that the battle was coming, I was prepared and really learned a lot again over and over. I learned a lot again about how important relationship is when you're dealing with a difficult student.

C -

The student relationship is really key. And, you know, I had kids that didn't, they hated tests of any kind. They have kids even now that just, oh my goodness, they dread tests. And so, I, you know, I would have a student come up and go, I don't, I hate tests and I can't take a test and I just, I'm no good at tests. And I would say, well, okay, you don't have to take a test. I don't have to take it? No, you don't have to take it. I don't have to take it and I get an A? No, you get an F, but you don't have to take it. I said actually if you don't want to take the test, that's all right. If you can figure out a way to, the whole point is you have to be able to prove to me you know all eight parts of speech and how to use them in a sentence. Now if you can find another way besides a test, I'm open to that. And night out of ten times you go, never mind, I'll just take the test set.

S -

Too much work.

C -

So, we, you know, went back to the what's the point? The test seems like a big scary thing, and especially now, when we're, if you're running remotely, or if you're taking tests through the homeschool organization and a kid can get kind of freaked out by the test itself. And you say look, the whole point of the test is, and you kind of deconstruct the fear by saying it's not meant to make you feel stupid. Cause I'm a more global person, so I automatically think a test is designed to make me feel stupid. It's overwhelming to me. But my husband, for example, he got an A on every test you ever took in his life, I think because he was never threatened by it. He just considered it a mountain he needed to climb and a challenge that was no big deal cause he never took it personally. I took everything personally.

S -

Which again brings you right back to that relationship, right? Yeah, I've had students too. I love to tell them they have a choice, and they realize yes they do. You don't have to do any this homework. I don't have to? No, of course not. Just understand there are always consequences for your choice. I remember a few years ago the kids were learning about citizens and protests and they said, I said you could absolutely go to the Principals office and sit there and refuse to leave until they promised you would have no more homework. We could do that really? Absolutely. But understand, we will call your parents, you'll probably be suspended, kicked off the volleyball team. Oh. Oh. Well, they weren't so enthusiastic.

C -

I did some work with a Christian School many years ago and I kind of worked on a regular basis, like once a week with them and they were having real problems with a fifth grader who was, she was the most gifted girl that they'd had in a long time. And she was gifted in math and science. But all of a sudden, her teacher said she just stopped turning in her homework and her homework was a big part of the assignment. And we'll call her Sally. That's not her name either, but that they would just totally be bewildered, because, Sally, why, you're going to flunk the class just simply because you won't turn in any work. And so, they had me talk to her. And we sat down, and I talked to her and she was, we visited a little. And she had plans to go to Wellesley and all these other things, and I said, I understand that you're not going to get a very good grade in math just because you won't do your math homework. She goes, that's right. She goes I think it's really stupid. I said you think the math homework is stupid? Yeah. She says I think it's ridiculous that I have to do 25 problems no matter what. When I figure it out in the first two or three that, how to do it. So, if I already know how to do it, why do I have to do twenty-some more problems which is just repetitious? So, I'm not, so I decided I'm just not going to do it. Well, so I said, we kind of made a plan there, then and there. I said, well, what if you approach your teacher and you say okay, could I just do the homework as many problems until I'm sure that I could pass the test because I understand how to do this problem. And then you make a covenant with your teacher, Mr. Shoemaker, here, you make a covenant and you say as long as I get, I'm going to guarantee that I'll get in 95 or higher on the test. And if I get lower than a 95, I'll go back and redo any of those homework assignments and they're complete and their completeness. Well, she said, he's never going to go for that. And the parents like, he won't go for that. But he did. He said, okay, I'll set that up. And the rest of the school year, sometimes she did all 25 because it really did take that long for her to understand. But now the point of the homework wasn't just the repetitious of just listing it out. The point of it was do it as practice until you're sure you know it well enough to pass the test. She not only got an A in the class, but a couple other students actually caught on the same way, and she was actually doing more homework than she needed to sometimes, and sometimes it would be four or five. But now it was based on, did you learn it? Are you confident with it? Instead of look, just do 25 and you get your A.

S -

And isn't it interesting how some students will approach the assignment with, of course I'm going to do it because it's been assigned and that's why you do the work. It's been assigned, you do it to get the A. And other students need to know why. Why, why am I doing this? I have students at all the time, every year, all year long. What am I going to learn from this? What am I going to learn from this? And for example, when you get up into upper-level math, when am I ever going to use this? Chances are you won't use the quadratic formula in, even in your job, unless you're a math teacher. But what I like to explain to them is you are training part of your brain that you might need to use later. It's like doing jumping rope for conditioning for the basketball. You're never going to jump rope in the middle of a basketball game. At least, no, they'll drag you off the court. But it strengthens the muscles that you need to play basketball, in the same way, learning abstract math or learning these, memorizing these history dates, helps develop that part of your brain that you might need to use later. And so, I have had students come back, and they've discovered architectural drawing and they remember having to draw the angles and use the compass, and you know, they're so thankful that they now have a good understanding of that kind of geometry. Other people would never use it in their life, though there was a time my husband was putting new flooring in and couldn't figure out how to do this one section of floor, and my younger son who loves math and loves geometry came in and said, well, Dad, you gotta take this so multiply by this and divide by this and figure out this angle, and guess what? He was using it for real life.

C -

Or at that point, I'd say, hey, great, yeah, here's a piece of paper. Would you figure that out and just tell me what to do?

S -

That was it. That was exactly it. He said, I don't have to understand how you did it, just tell me where to cut.

C -

And that was one of the biggest revelations for me early on in teaching because I hadn't really thought about the fact that I was assuming that all the kids wanted to learn like I want to learn. And that wasn't out of selfishness or anything, but this is how my mind makes sense of the world. So why wouldn't you want to do it? Why wouldn't you want to have spontaneous things? Why wouldn't you want to have the classroom periodically rearranged? And why wouldn't you want to? And I didn't understand because I'm this big picture in this short version. I would have these analytic step-by-step students who want to know, why are we supposed to do this? They actually didn't ask that. They'd say, well, what do I have to do to get an A? And if I would tell them, hey all you gotta do is turn this in and you get an A, they'd go okay. They wouldn't even ask me why they do it. Whereas if it had been me, I would have said I have all these other questions. I didn't, personally, learning was personal for me. But for many of my analytics students, they wanted it a lot more clinical because they just wanted to know what do I have to do to get an A. How do, and I, and they do want an A. They want their higher grade. They want to achieve and I had one student when we were talking about learning styles even just a few years ago, he came up to me afterwards and he said, you know, Ms. Tobias, I don't actually want you to let those globals know how to get better grades because I already get high grades and I don't really want the competition. He was being very honest. He said, you're here, you're making all these globals out there figure out how they can get better grades, and I don't really want them to. He says I've been able to just stay in the top, and that's where I want to stay.

S -

And I have students who will work hard and fast to get everything done as much as possible. We have a curriculum where they can work independently on part of it and the goal is to complete the whole thing by the end of the year. And I'm constantly telling them completion does not equal comprehension.

C -

That's right.

S -

And so, making sure they actually learn this stuff is technically more important than just getting it done. That's a big shift of any way of thinking for several of them.

C -

And you know, sometimes, at some point, you need a tutor, I think, once in a while or you need a coach. You need somebody, it could be another, the other parent, or it could be somebody that thinks more like you but knows how to do what you need to learn and talks to you in a language that you understand.

S -

Or has some new directions for you to try because they understand you so well. So, for example, I had a student several years ago. We'll call him Timothy, who had a wonderful imagination, wonderfully creative ideas, but when he was asked to write, he simply froze up. He couldn't put anything down whether he was sitting in front of a blank computer screen or had a blank piece of paper from him. I would say just write something. I can't. I can't do anything. But I knew he had, I knew he had the ideas. So, he would stay after school and we would go to a computer and he would sit next to me and I would say, here's the topic. What are your thoughts on it? And he'd start giving me thoughts and I would type them for him. And I would say then what happened? Then what happened? And he would continue to tell me his thoughts until I would say I think you're on a roll and I would nudge him out of the way. Or I'm sorry he would nudge me out of the way and he would take over and continue typing. It was just getting him over that hump, getting him past that anxiety of you know, blank page syndrome and he could do it.

C -

Yeah, and for me in my graduate level, you know when I was getting my master’s degree, I was so excited because it was all learning styles except there's this one research and statistics class that I saved till the end and it turned out it was calculus, right? But I had to pass it in order to get my degree. So, I went in and I sat down, it was an evening class, and the professor went up there and he started writing formulas and stuff on the board and I just remember putting, getting sick to my stomach, putting my pen down and just sitting there in great despair the rest of the time thinking what in the world am I going to do? And on my way home, driving, I was just literally in tears thinking I'm going to give up everything because I just can't do math. And then the Lord said hey, you're getting a degree in learning styles. If you can't figure out how to overcome this with yourself, you're never going to be able to teach others.

S -

Physician, heal thyself.

S -

So, I thought, okay, I can do this. So, what I did right away is I studied, I joined a study group. We actually weren't a study group, but we were like fellow globals who got together once a week to make, to reassure each other that we weren't actually as dumb as we felt. But it was helpful, you know, it was sort of a uplifting group. But I knew I needed a tutor, and I was able to find this really unusual tutor who, she was really good at the math, but she was also really good at understanding how my mind worked. And so, she was able to coach, and she'd say, okay, what about this and what don't you understand about this? And I'd say I don't know, I just don't understand it. Cause I mean, I don't break it down into pieces. So, she'd say okay, look, how about this piece? Do you understand this? Yes. How about this piece? Kinda. All right, well, let's go back. So, she actually knew how to break it down for me in understandable pieces. And calculus, remember, and I never even got beyond algebra, but in my graduate exams I did significantly better in one area and I actually got my best grade in the research and statistics part, which I never ever thought I would. So, it's a matter of if you're going to get somebody to help your child, it might be the other parent that does better, or it just needs to be somebody that really has a pretty good grasp on your, the way your child's mind works.

S -

And I've seen requests on Facebook, and I've received requests through texts from parents who have said, I'm not getting through to my child. Is there anyone out there who can help me with this? Who can, you know, dedicate a couple of hours or an hour a week and help us through this, and I think knowing when to wave the white flag and say I'm not making sense, is there someone who can do it a different way? That's brilliant?

Hey, can I totally go a different direction?

C -

Sure.

S -

Because when we were preparing for this, you said, let's share some of our stories, and here's one that really helped me understand. In our book about the middle school student with what kids tell us and don't tell you, we told stories about the bubble. This is one that did not make it in the book but came up on my Facebook memories the other day. The bubble is how middle schoolers think the whole world revolves around them. And then there are many reasons for that. We've talked about that. So much growth going on. But this one was one that really gave me insight to how the bubble works. So, it was prayer time. In my classroom, we always have prayer requests and one of my students raised his hand and said I want to say a prayer of thanks that my grandma's dog is finally leaving. I said her dog is leaving? Yeah, he's been living with us since Thanksgiving, and this was probably January, and I said, why is he leaving now. My grandma's finally, getting out of the nursing home, I said, wait a minute, you're saying a prayer of thanks that the dog is leaving, but not that your gramma gets to go home? And he said I really don't like that dog. And that was such a classic example of how really, it's all about how life revolves around them.

C -

It has to do with me.

S -

It has to do with me. And that's why we say if you're talking to middle schoolers or even younger kids, always start with the part that has to do with them.

C -

Yeah, exactly cause that was a great time. You know, I, when I was going back to that vocabulary test, right? That very first time. That was so many years ago. And about ten years ago I got a phone call out of the blue from somebody, and she identified herself, I'll call her Mary, and she said are you, are you my teacher, Miss Aurich at Hazen High School? Were you my teacher? And I said, oh yeah. She goes I'm Mary and she said I just wanted to tell you how much difference you made and how much I loved the way you taught. She goes, I still remember that vocabulary test. I smiled and she goes, I actually have the study sheet for it and all the vocabulary words all folded up inside my jewelry box. And she says I'm married now, and I have six kids and she said my husband is a executive at Boeing. And we go to some pretty nice parties sometimes and she'll, she said, I'll hear somebody use a really big word and I'll think, oh, oh, I know what that word means. And I, 25 years later, right? And you just, you never know.

S -

No, and we're like the farmer who sells the seeds and never goes back to the field. We don't know if they grow, or if they flourish there. We get the kids for one year and this must be an awesome part of homeschooling is you get to see the growth year after year, but as a teacher, we often plant the seeds and don't see the results. So, you can imagine my delight when I was at a wedding several years ago and a former student who is now a young man in his twenties came up to me and said, Ms. Acuna, I never forgot what you told me when I was in your fifth-grade class. And my heart started beating faster. This is those moments, you know, you just wait for it. How did I change his life? And he said, and this young man's name was Bo, he said you told me if I ever got a dog, I should name him Arrow because then we would be Bo and Arrow. So, guess what my dog's name is? And I said, well, Bo, that's great. So thankful to have had that impact on your life. What a great influence as a teacher, forever and always. All the things I taught you that year. That one stuck.

C -

Yeah, and you know, as parents we don't see the harvest a lot of times. We don't. We spend our lives, our children's young lives, planting the seeds. We're gardening, right? We're not trying to harvest. We're seeding and we're gardening and we're planting. And we are, like you said, we're seeing some progress as we go, but you will just never know. And if we just go back to the basics, which is that relationship that makes me always look forward to coming back home, no matter how old I am that makes the relationship, that makes me want to pick up the phone and share something with you. Don't lose that.

S - `

And the reassurance that I can never be bad enough that you will stop loving me.

C -

Right, and the relationship that underlies everything will be the greatest learning and will serve the greatest harvest and result in the greatest harvest you will ever have. And I appreciate so much, of course, parents who are homeschooling, whether in co-ops or alone or doing hybrid. The one thing beyond all the frustration and effort is that relationship that you are cultivating beyond the classroom and beyond home and merging the two together. You will never regret keeping that relationship strong and for the rest of your life, you will be glad that you remembered, It's never just another day.

Wendy –

Thank you for joining us this week on the Homeschool Solutions Show. As always, you can find show notes and links to all the resources mentioned at homeschooling.mom. I hope you'll take a moment to subscribe to the podcast, and if it was especially meaningful to you, share it with your friends via email or social media. This is just another way we can all encourage and love and support one another.

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