HS Special Edition #5 Counting Down to the 2021 Conventions with Janice Campbell
Links and Resources:
Show Notes:
Nicholeen Peck: When it comes to parenting, Nicholeen Peck is a worldwide phenomenon and leader — and for good reason! Her proven system based upon calmness, the principles of self-government, and good communication transforms even the most out-of-control teenagers and homes from chaos to calm within days. The world witnessed this in 2009 when the Peck family was featured on a one-hour BBC documentary about parenting where 2 troubled British teens came to say in their home for 8 days. After 2 days the teens stopped rebelling, and by the end of the program begged not to leave the Peck family. She has appeared on various news shows and radio programs to discuss effective parenting. She's a popular public speaker, author of the international book, Parenting a House United, and many other books including Roles, Londyn LaRae Says Okay, Porter Earns A Quarter, Big Win For Quin, Paije Takes the Stage, Popular Parenting Methods, and more. She has also written many magazine articles, and articles for Teachingselfgovernment.com
Dr. Jay Wile: Jay Wile learned about his love for chemistry when his dedicated parents bought him his first chemistry set. Many stink bombs and a few explosions later, he was hooked! Although he loved chemistry, he also had many other interests.
For a while, he thought about becoming a concert pianist, but unfortunately, his fingers were not long enough (no kidding!). As he was finishing up his high school years, he became extremely interested in the theater and began to pursue a career in acting. Partly because he learned the science behind some of the special effects of the plays in which he performed, he eventually went back to his first love: chemistry.
He went to the University of Rochester in upstate New York to study chemistry, and while he was there, he began working on nuclear chemistry experiments. He became so fascinated with nuclear chemistry that he stayed at the University of Rochester and got a Ph.D. in that field. For several years, he did research in the field under the auspices of the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation. This research led to several grants and many publications. While doing research, Dr. Wile was also an assistant professor of chemistry.
Dr. Wile's love of science is demonstrated by the many awards he has won for excellence in teaching and research. He has also presented numerous lectures on the topics of Nuclear Chemistry, Christian Apologetics, Homeschooling, and Creation vs. Evolution. He has published more than 30 articles on these subjects in nationally-recognized, peer-reviewed journals, and has 13 books to his credit, the latest of which belong to an award-winning elementary series that teaches science using history as a guide.
Dr. Wile and his wife of more than 30 years, Kathleen, homeschooled their daughter, Dawn, from the time they adopted her until she graduated high school. Dawn is a Butler University graduate and owns a specialty shipping company (Paws Logistics) with her husband, James. You can learn about Dr. Wile’s curriculum at http://www.bereanbuilders.com.
Dr. Melanie Wilson: Dr. Melanie Wilson is a Christian psychologist turned homeschooling mother of six. Two of her sons are now attending college, leaving her with children ranging from a 5th-grader through a high school junior that she is still homeschooling. She credits God and her husband of 24 years for the time to write, speak, and homeschool too.
While she doesn’t practice anymore, she does share sanity-saving ideas at her blog, PsychoWith6.com.
Melanie is the author of So You’re Not Wonder Woman, detailing the failure of psychology to change her own life; The Organized Homeschool Life: A Week-By-Week Guide to Homeschool Sanity; and Grammar Galaxy: Adventures in Language Arts, an elementary language arts curriculum.
She also hosts a podcast for homeschoolers, The Homeschool Sanity Show, and regularly broadcasts on Periscope and Facebook. She enjoys leading the Facebook group, HomeschoolScopes, for homeschoolers who enjoy live broadcasts.
Melanie is passionate about encouraging mothers in their homeschooling, family life, and faith. She loves scrapbooking and tennis and has discovered a new hobby in Bible journaling.
BereanBuilders.com - Dr. Jay Wile
TeachingSelfGovernment.com - Nicholeen Peck
FuntoLearnBooks.com
GrammarGalaxyBooks.com
Show Transcript:
HS Special Edition Jan 28, 2021
Janice -
Welcome to this special edition of the Homeschool Solutions Podcast. I'm Janice Campbell and today we have some very special guests. We'll be talking about some of the benefits of homeschooling and some of the reasons you might want to attend a Great Homeschool Convention.
The Great Homeschool Conventions is proud to have Medi-Share as a sponsor of these GHC events. If you're looking for an alternative to health insurance that allows you to enroll anytime, be sure to and visit the greathomeschoolconventions.com website and click on the Medi-Share logo to find more information.
But back to the upcoming conventions. As you know, GHC offers dozens of featured and general speakers on homeschooling and parenting topics, plus a huge vendor hall full of great books and homeschool supplies. A weekend with a Great Homeschool Convention is all about inspiration, teacher training, fellowship, and amazing resources. If you're wondering when and where the conferences will happen this year, the Great Homeschool Conventions website is where you'll discover dates, locations, speakers, and exhibitors at each of the seven locations. That's greathomeschoolconventions.com.
GHC is already offering early registration right on the website and registering now means that you get the very best pricing. You can even book your hotel accommodations on the greathomeschoolconventions.com website in order to get a room within the discounted GHC block.
So now, who will my special interview guests be for this episode? We'll be hearing from Dr. Jay Wile, author of The Outstanding Science and History series and other popular texts, Dr. Melanie Wilson, of funtolearnbooks.com, and Nicholeen Peck, of Teaching Self-Government.
Each of our guests is looking forward to speaking at the Great Homeschool Conventions this year, and so am I. I hope that we'll see you there now.
Our first guest today is Dr. Jay Wile. I've enjoyed seeing you at the Great Homeschool Conventions for quite a few years, and I know that many of our listeners have probably used your science curriculum. But in case anyone doesn't know you, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do?
Dr. Wile -
Oh sure, I have a Ph.D. in nuclear chemistry, which sounds a lot more impressive than it is really. And I was a professor for many years. Started out at Indiana University, and then went to Ball State University. Did that for many years. Started writing homeschool curriculum. So, I've published several books for homeschoolers. Published a lot of scientific articles about my research that nobody reads really because it's a very narrow field.
But anyway, I've published research articles, but I also publish a lot of homeschool textbooks, and I've been doing that since really the mid-90s. And that's what I'm best known for, but I still do teach at the college level from time to time. I'm what they call an adjunct professor, which means I teach when I want. Well, they offer me teaching gigs and I'll either say yes or no, depending on whether it's a class I'm interested in or whatever.
So currently, like this semester I am teaching one class at Anderson University, which is a Christian University.
Janice -
So, it sounds like you've got a lot going on, though what was it that got you involved with the homeschooling world?
Dr. Wile -
Well, yeah, I knew nothing about homeschooling and when I first got introduced to it, my wife and I were double income, no kids. So, we weren't really worried about how to educate kids at that point. But while I was teaching at the university level at Ball State University, I started recognizing these students that were kind of head and shoulders above the rest. And my first experiment...experience was in a discussion with a student, a really in-depth discussion about the Gibbs free energy equation. And this was a freshman at university. And, as a professor, you're just not used to having these kinds of in-depth discussions with freshmen.
So, I said, oh, you must have, you know, had a great chemistry class when you were in high school. Where did you go to high school? And he kind of looked a little ashamed and kind of bent his head down, and he said, oh I went to school at home. And I thought that meant that he was too sick to go to school. So, I said, oh, that means you had a tutor come? No, no, no. My mom taught me. And so, I literally said to him, so she's a nuclear physicist then, right? He said no, she never went to college.
And that was my first introduction to a homeschool graduate at my freshman university-level courses. So, then I started, you know, asking these students who are truly superior where they went to school and predominantly, they were the homeschool graduates. The ones who really stood out were predominantly homeschool graduates.
And so, I got interested in homeschooling simply because they were sending me my best university students. And I never dreamed I'd be writing curriculum for them or anything. I just wanted to work with homeschoolers to encourage more of them to send their kids to university since they were producing such excellent students.
But you know, things happen, and God has a plan for you and so forth, regardless of what your plans are. So obviously God's plan was for me to write a lot of homeschool curriculum.
Janice -
I know that people have enjoyed that curriculum and what a fun story. I mean, oh, so many parents are a little fearful when it comes to the high school sciences, especially math, science, all of that, and it's intimidating. A lot of us never went past basic biology in high school, and so to hear that an ordinary mom, even an ordinary mom without a college education, can help her students be superior science students for in college is pretty amazing.
Dr. Wile -
Yeah, because in the end, and I think a lot of parents, you know, obviously, this is your child, so you are terrified that you're going to ruin their future and all that. So, you know you've got a lot of responsibility on your shoulders. But most parents think that, you know, even in high school, their job is to teach their kids, and that's not really true. Their job is to facilitate their kids' learning. And that can take many, many styles.
One way is to teach, yeah, and so if you know the subject, yeah, teach it. But there are so many other ways for a student to learn and your job is simply to facilitate that learning and find out how they best learn this subject, and then do that.
Janice -
Exactly, that's what I tell parents about literature, classic literature. So many have no idea. They've never read Shakespeare or Beowulf or any of the other classics, and they're horribly intimidated.
Dr. Wile -
Yeah, well I, you know, once I started working with homeschoolers, my wife and I ended up adopting a teen who was going to our church and had some really rough years. And so, we started homeschooling her once we adopted her. And, you know, I know a lot about science and math, but I know virtually nothing about anything else. So, when it came to me teaching Beowulf, you know, I didn't teach it. We learned it together.
And I will never forget the...I was going through this timeline of world events with her. And we got to the words, Magna Carta. You know, and this is going to be horrifying to a lot of people, but I said do you know what that is? And she says, well, I've heard the term before. And I said, well, you're one up on me cause I don't even know what...I've never even heard those words put together before.
Janice -
Oh, well, that's awesome.
Dr. Wile -
And so, we learned about the Magna Carta together. And you know, it really filled in a huge hole in my education. And that's what homeschooling did for me. It filled in all these holes that I have.
Janice -
I think that's what a lot of parents find. It's a delightful journey. So many of us came out of high school with huge gaps or even out of college with huge gaps. If you majored in one subject, chances are you didn't end up with a whole lot in other subjects. You're just basic survey courses. Don't get too much.
Dr. Wile -
Yeah, and you do as little as possible cause you're concentrating on the courses you want, so you learn as little as possible...
Janice -
Right
Dr. Wile -
You know, and I understand that. I've taught a few of the survey courses in the sciences, and I understand, these students, they're not there to learn the chemistry. They're there to get the grade so that they can get their degree in, you know?
Janice -
Right. Exactly. Check the boxes.
Dr. Wile -
Yep. Check the boxes.
Janice -
Oh, my goodness. So, now I can see why the people that are coming to the Great Homeschool Conventions this year are looking forward to talking with you because I can tell that you've got some good opportunities and good advice to share. But what kind of workshop topics are you going to be bringing this time?
Dr. Wile -
Well, as is typical with Great Homeschool Conventions, I kind of have a broad range because I touched on a lot of different areas. So, I've got a couple, specifically on science. So, I do talk about why homeschool is a great place to teach science. I honestly think, for most students, even ones who aren't interested in science, but especially ones who are interested, home is a better place to learn science. Because that way they can concentrate on their talents and on their specialties and they can do real inquisitively, inquisitiveness-directed learning, which, when it's your area of interest, that becomes even more powerful.
So, I talk a lot about, I talk about that in that workshop. Why homeschooling is the best place for science. I also have one specifically entitled: Do I really have to do experiments? And honestly, my answer to that question is, it depends. Even as a science educator, I'm not saying everybody needs to do experiments and not anybody needs to do experiments all the time. So, I give a very balanced view of what I think is the most reasonable way to approach doing experiments. And it's a view that I take even when I've got great lab facilities that I'm teaching at the university level. You know, it depends on what the student needs as to whether labs are really important or not.
So, I have...that talk as well. I do have one that I really love. I was an atheist before I really learned science very well. And the more I learned science, the more it became obvious to me there had to be a God. And that, of course, led me down the road to find Christ. And so, I have a talk about other atheists like me. I start with me cause I love to talk about myself, but I also talk about real famous atheists. Famous in my world, anyway. Famous atheists who became Christians as a result of either science or other things. And one thing I make a point of in that is, you know you've got a lot of people...God draws people in many different ways. And what speaks to you to bring you to God may not speak to somebody else at all.
So, whereas it was science with me, that really made it clear that atheism is a silly worldview. Other people think science tells them there's no God. So, you know, really, God has to draw you in many different ways, and so that's one of the things that you get from that talk, is just all the many different ways that God really draws you.
Janice -
Those sound exciting. I wish I could sit in on a couple myself.
Dr. Wile -
I think I have one other. Let me look real quick. Oh, I may have taken my...no, there it is. Oh yeah, I have another ‘nuts and bolts’ talk specifically about junior high and high school sciences. And then, oh yeah, my...I can't believe I forgot this one. This is one of my favorites, and I keep revamping it based on students I talk to. I have...the title is Homeschool Graduates,
Their Accomplishments, and Their Advice. So, I talk about specific homeschool graduates who I've followed over the years. Some are friends that they become friends as a result of our homeschooling experience together. Other orders are just acquaintances that I've kept in touch with. And once again, it's amazing how diverse they are. You know, I've got a student who's, you know, a medical doctor, but one degree wasn't good enough, so he also has a master’s in philosophy and writes about bioethics. So, he's a practicing pediatric radiologist and a bioethicist.
And then I've got a student who never went to college but is literally changing the world because she is helping to run an orphanage in Monrovia that adopts children out to the first world to give them a chance for a better life. And so, you know, God works in our lives in so many different ways and it's really cool to see how homeschoolers have done that.
Janice -
And that's another thing that sounds super comforting to all the newer homeschooling parents that come to conferences.
Dr. Wile -
Yeah. And then, like I said, that's got their advice in it. So, I actually asked them, so, what would you say to a homeschooling parent who's just on this journey now? And, you know, these are young adults. Some of them are in there, maybe, mid-30s. Most of them are younger than that. But they've got a lot of wisdom to share. They really do.
Janice -
Oh, that sounds wonderful. How reassuring too. Just, that's one of the things I really love about the conferences and we missed out on so many of the in-person conferences last year, so it'll be nice.
Dr. Wile -
Oh, I am itching. I am itching to get back to the conferences. I love doing them and I love talking to...I meet so many students who use my books and I get all these fascinating stories. I had one student, who I met a couple years ago at convention. She ended up naming a tarantula after me. And she sent me video of the tarantula she named after me. And that, to me, that is just incredible stuff, you know? And I so I love doing that.
And then of course some of the speakers that I get to hang out with are so smart, so much smarter than me. But they literally make my head hurt. But it's a good kind of hurt, so I try, you know, I try and hang out with them to learn more.
Janice -
Exactly, it does. The conference, no matter whether you're going there to speak or exhibit or just learn, you learn anyway. You do get expanded. Both heart and mind, I think, just talking to the parents and all.
So, conferences, can, you know, they can be a little overwhelming. Lots of books. But I know that you have a couple of new things in the hopper and you've been writing since we've been not been able to go out. So, what are you going to be bringing to this conference?
Dr. Wile -
So, I do have a book we completed, and we actually released it in the fall of this academic year, but since there were no conventions, a lot of people don't know anything about it.
And so, it's called Science in the Atomic Age. I have written an elementary series that covers science chronologically. You learn science, but you learn it in the order we discovered it. And along the way, you learn a lot about the scientists and the culture and how it affected things.
So, Science in the Atomic Age is in some way a culmination of all that. It's a seventh grade or eighth-grade course, depending on the students, so it's more in detail than any of the elementary stuff, but it talks about science in the 20th century and what we learned in the 20th century. And so, you learn, you know, the modern view of the Atom. And some of this stuff, you know, my reviewers, cause I always have my books peer-reviewed by other Ph.D.'s to make sure I'm not making any really bad mistakes, and so my peer reviews were like, well, you know, some of this stuff you don't talk to till late high school? How are you going to do...I'm not sure these students are ready for it. And I say, look, they're homeschool students. Trust me, they're ready for it.
And most of em, most of the people who have taken it say yeah, this is high-level stuff, but we love it. You know, because it really, if you don't talk down to students, generally they'll rise to the occasion. Not always. Some are just lazy. But, you know, the ones who want, they'll rise to the occasion. So that seventh grade, seventh or eighth-grade book, Science in the Atomic Age, gives you some really modern stuff on the atom, on cells, and all of that kind of stuff.
That I'm working on finishing for this coming fall, probably out in the mid-summer, an earth science book. So, it's eighth or ninth grade, depending on the student. It's called, Discovering Design with Earth Science. And this one is a real serious earth science book. I give em a kit that has different minerals and rocks, even has fossils. Has like five different fossils. And they do experiments where they analyze these rocks and they do all sorts of tests on the minerals, on the rocks, and the fossils and so forth. So, it's a really good course that covers, you know, not only fossils and rocks but also weather and space and that kind of stuff.
Janice -
That is, you know, listening to you talk about those things and, you know, when I was at the last conference, I went and looked at your series, your chronological science series. Makes me wish that you'd been around doing this when I was teaching my boys. I was trying to cobble together science somewhat chronologically. I'm not a scientist, but so I kind of had to tell it through the lens of history and stories. Because we tend to be a pretty humanities-based family.
And you've done it, and it is so beautiful, it's so exciting, and I know that those new resources are going to be.
Dr. Wile -
Well, and it's just a wonderful story. I mean, if you step back and look at, if you read all four of the historical books and you just step back and look at what happened, it is amazing to see God's hand in at all. And also, how, you know, one person...I say that science is basically a story about how one person has an idea that's almost completely wrong and then over time, it gets refined to where it's closer and closer to being true. And we never know when it's actually true, but we can get pretty close to it being true. And it's just a truly amazing story and I think people who learn science like that, chronologically, have a real, a much more mature view of what science is.
Science is not this end-all, be-all, answer to everything, and if you know the history of science, you know that. It's a way of investigating nature and it can produce some wonderful stuff. But the majority of scientists are generally wrong about a whole bunch of stuff because that's the way science works.
Janice -
And that is reassuring for a student who is, you know, trying to understand something and their understanding may be about something, a way the world functions, and knowing that it's a theory, it's in flux, and it's happening, and more things are being discovered all the time. It gives them a foundation for when they read the newspaper or magazines or watch science shows, they have a foundation for understanding things. So, it sounds useful.
So, as homeschoolers are entering that conference hall, though, that exhibit hall with your booth with all the new books and everybody else's booths. There's lots and lots of books.
There's thousands upon thousands of books at a convention hall, usually. It's a little overwhelming. And so, do you have any advice on how to make the most of that convention experience?
Dr. Wile -
Well, for a new homeschooler, I think what you need to do is you need to concentrate on what's really important. And what's really important is reading, writing, and math. And that's it. And so, that's where you've got to start. And so, if you haven't been homeschooling, your goal for any convention is to find some speakers that will help you get more comfortable with helping your child learn reading, writing, and math, and then find the tools in the curriculum hall that does reading, writing...that do reading, and writing, and math. Get comfortable with those core subjects first.
And notice I didn't say science. Because in the end, that's not a core subject. You learn reading, writing, and math so that you can eventually learn science, but the core materials that you're going to use to learn for the rest of your life are those three. So, I think that's your narrow focus at first, and once you're satisfied with that, if you've got more time, look for other stuff and so forth. But I would approach your first year of homeschooling exactly the same way. Every day, your goal is simply get through reading, writing, and math. Once we get to the point where we're doing that real easily, then I'll start adding history. We'll start adding science. We'll start adding other stuff.
But, you know, parents have this crazy idea, you know, most parents are pulling their children out, cause they're dissatisfied with the school. And oftentimes, it's the religious view. Oftentimes, it's just that they don't think they're learning enough, or learning the wrong stuff, or something like that. But they pull their kids out of school. But then they keep comparing themselves to that same situation they just pull their kids out of. And so, you know, this, I...my kid had six subjects, so I've got to do six subjects. No, you don't.
If you want to make sure their horizons are unlimited, they need to read really well. They need to write really well. They need to do math really well. And that's it. Everything else is gravy because that stuff we can learn too, and satisfy our inquisitive mind, to build up a set of facts and a set of skills. But if I want to make sure that I can learn for the rest of my life, it's those three things. And so, concentrate on that. And once we've got that down, then we can expand into other things.
So, I think, narrow your focus, more than anything else, is what I'm trying to say. Narrow your focus to the things that are really, really important. And of course, you know, if you're wanting to make long-term plans, you might go to a couple talks about what's going to happen longer term, like if you got elementary kids, you might go to, you know, one of those talks about why homeschool through high school, or something like that. Just to help you see towards the future.
But honestly, it's a big...the wonderful thing about the Great Homeschool Conventions is, it's a huge exhibit hall with a bajillion speakers. And rather than trying to say, well, I've got to take advantage of all of that. No, you're there to meet your need, and if your need is, you know, to...you focus in on your needs and only work on that for, at first. Got extra time later, do other stuff. But look at the speakers that are really addressing the stuff you're uncomfortable with and look at the curriculum you feel like you really need, the core stuff that you're really uncomfortable teaching.
And then, of course, every time you talk to a vendor, you've gotta talk to a vendor with a healthy dose of skepticism. Because of course, every vendor is going to say this is what you need. And it may not be what you need. I mean, I've got great curriculum, but I never say to a parent, this is what you need because it may not work for you, you know. You know, like my stuff is really hands-on and if you've got a student who just doesn't like doing hands-on stuff, I send him to a different curriculum. You know, I said send him to a one that's more of a living books approach or something like that. Because if you don't, if your student doesn't like doing stuff with their hands, they're not gonna learn that way.
Janice -
Good advice, yeah. I just, I love the idea of focusing on your basics because it is the steppingstone to everything else. And there's certainly enough in the Convention Hall to keep people happy. When I was going to homeschool conferences just at, for things for my boys, I would, you know, check out catalogs, make all my lists beforehand and I would spend my whole time in the exhibit halls almost, and buy the MP3...well, back in the day, it was cassette tapes.
Dr. Wile -
Cassette tapes. Yeah.
Janice -
Of all the speakers, and then take those home, and I'd have this whole year worth of refreshment and education and all the things. So, it's definitely a good approach, though, to narrow your focus to what you specifically need.
So, we have had a good conversation. You've given a lot of great tips, and I know that our listeners are looking forward to seeing you at the GHC's this year. Is there anything you'd like before we wrap up?
Dr. Wile -
Well, I would say, for people who have used my curriculum, I love to talk to people about it, whether it was good or bad experience. So, if you have used my curriculum, please find me in the exhibit hall. I love to talk to people who use my curriculum, so I love that. And also, you know, like you said, they make these MP3's available and it really is worthwhile if you, you know, if you're in the exhibit hall and you're really finding that you're getting what you need there, and so forth, and oh, it's time for this speaker that I wanted to hear. That speaker's always gonna be on MP3, you'll hear em later if you're really, really wanting to hear him.
So, yeah, focus on what you're gonna have to walk away from, which is all the touching and feeling of the curriculum. And I'll tell ya what, ya know, I have a lot of parents that come to my booth and just kinda flip through the book and kinda half-heartedly look at it. That's not what you're there for. If you're really considering using one of my books, take it, we make chairs available. Sit down and actually read a page or two. Just read it like your child's gonna read it. Cause you know your child pretty well. You start reading this book and you get bored, you know, your child's gonna get bored, right?
So, that's what the, that's the biggest benefit of these in-person conventions, is you've got a chance to actually sit down before you have to buy it or anything, sit down, and actually read this stuff. So, spend time doing that.
Janice -
Right, that's one of the other things that people seem to enjoy is talking to the actual authors of the books. What was your point in writing this? How is it put together and all of those things? I have a little book tour that I take people through my Excellent in Literature curriculum, so they can see how it works day to day. And, for a lot of people, they, you know, they look at it and say, well, yes, that fits our family, or not really. You know? Just, a quick tour is a good thing. So.
Dr. Wile -
And I like those conversations where someone who's used the book says, well, why did you do it this way? Cause oftentimes, you know, my first response is, I don't know, it's just the way it's done. So, it's a way to sit and think about these pedagogical things that we take for granted. And then there are philosophical things. I had one atheist who was homeschooling, and she would actually censor her books just Christians sometimes censor theirs.
Janice -
Oh, my word.
Dr. Wile -
But she said, you know, why did you write science this way? Why didn't you just get rid of the God stuff and write science, you know? And you know, for me, science brought me to God, so it was kind of a way of doing science. But I had to think so why really do I do it, you know? And so, that was a good thought and and, but bottom line is, you could probably teach U.S. law without ever referencing the Constitution. But if you're going to teach a good U.S. law course, you reference the source of U.S. law. In the same way, you're going to teach science, you gotta reference the Source.
Janice -
Absolutely. And I've gotten some of the best feedback on my curriculum from the students who've used...
Dr. Wile -
Yeah, absolutely.
Janice -
To ask, asking me, about a particular book or an author, or, you know, those questions of why in the world that we have to read that? And it makes me rethink sometimes, and I have switched up a few things from time to time, just because they came up in those conversations more than once. But there's things I'm pretty stubborn about because I do think they're foundational. Just like God in science.
Dr. Wile -
When, and I love answering student questions about things that, you know, aren't addressed in my books and so forth, cause that often makes me come up with new things. I remember being in a homeschool conference, talking to the student, and the student wanted to know how a fluorescent light works.
So, I was explaining it, you know, and I knew, and I'm explaining it, and doing pretty well. And as I was explaining, I thought, you know, there is an experiment you could make out of this. So. as soon as I went home, I tried it, and sure enough, worked perfectly. So, you can make a fluorescent light bulb glow without blowing...without plugging it in or anything, as long as you have something like a charged balloon and you move the charged balloon around the fluorescent light bulb, it'll glow. And the only reason I even considered that was because I was explaining it to a student, and while you're explaining, you start making connections that you normally wouldn't think about. And so, I love that too. So, students come to me and ask me all these questions. Sometimes I have to say I don't know. And one student came to me and asked me what color is Hippo sweat. And I said I don't know. I assume it's clear. But I told him look, I'll look into it and call, and write a blog post. So, I gave him my blog address. And sure enough, Hippo sweat is red. And it's not because it's blood, it's because it's sunscreen for the hippo. The Hippo makes its own sunscreen, and when it hits the, when light hits, it turns red.
Janice -
That's the funniest thing. I was looking at a little magazine my mother sent me on animals. It was called All Creatures. She sent it for the grandchildren, and there was a picture in there of a hippo with red sweat.
Dr. Wile -
Yep. And actually, there were some circuses near the turn of the century that would bring hippos around and say they were sweating blood. So, they put the hippo under the heat lamp, it would start sweating and they'd say it was blood.
Janice -
Oh my.
Dr. Wile -
So, I've got an advertisement on my blog from one of those circuses, see the hippo that sweats blood.
Janice -
Oh, that's great. Do you do YouTube videos or anything like that? Like the Philips lightbulb experiment would be such a fun thing for a little...
Dr. Wile -
Yeah, and, you know, my wife and I tried to do a video of it and your...a video camera is not nearly as good as your eyes, so it doesn't show up well on video. You can really, and my wife was really frustrated cause she's an amateur photographer, and she was like I can see it glowing! Why isn't it on the video? You know, so, but I do have the, Brain Builders, my publisher has a YouTube channel, so if you go to YouTube and just, Brain Builders, you'll see that my YouTube channel. And I do a lot of quick experiments. And most of the ones I do on video or one’s students can't do, you know, because of equipment and so forth, or danger. I've got several explosions and things like that.
Janice -
Oh fun.
Dr. Wile -
And any chemist is the pyromaniac, so, you know, yeah, you can see some of my videos, and there's some really great experiments that, you know, surprising, very, very surprising results. But then I explained why it's like that. So yeah, I do have a YouTube channel.
My publisher has a YouTube channel that I do a lot.
Janice -
Right. Okay, well. So that's another place our listeners can find you. I suppose your main site is the bereanbuilders.com.
Dr. Wile -
Yeah, that's where all my curriculum is. Bereanbuilders.com. I do have a blog and I have a website that's drwile.com, and so my blog is attached to that. So, you can, if you wanna just read my general writing for the public, drwile.com, D-R-W-I-L-E.com is a good place to go. But for all of my curriculum and everything that's at bereanbuilders.com. And they've got, you know, huge samples. You know, like, five lessons from every elementary book and a whole chapter from Science in the Atomic Age, and so forth. And the whole chapter from my chemistry course. So, you can really get a good feel for how I write and how I do things there.
Janice -
Great. And, just in case our listeners are not sure how to spell Berean, can you spell that for us?
Dr. Wile -
B-E-R-E-A-N. And it's a reference to the Bereans, who, Paul said, they never accepted everything, they always check the Scriptures and thought about it. And that's what we're trying to do. We're trying to raise a generation of brilliance, who won't simply take whatever authority says, even when it's your pastor. Take what the authority says, but actually exercise critical thinking and check the Scriptures and check the data and so forth, to make sure what they're believing is real.
Janice -
Great. It's been a lot of fun talking with you. Listeners now know where they can find you.
And of course, at the Great Homeschool Conventions again. We look forward to seeing you there.
Dr. Wile -
Oh, I look forward to going back to em. It's been too long already.
Janice -
Right, yeah me too. Okay, thank you so much.
Dr. Wile -
Oh, my pleasure. It's nice to be here.
Janice -
Our next guest is Nicholeen Peck of teachingselfgovernment.com. Welcome to this podcast, Nicholeen.
Nicholeen -
Thanks Janice, I'm happy to be here.
J -
So, we've crossed paths at the Great Homeschool Conventions for quite a few years and I really appreciate the work you do with teaching self-government. But for listeners who don't know you, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do?
N -
Yeah, sure. So, I am a mother of four and I have always homeschooled my children. So, love coming to homeschool conferences. We've been going for years and years. Years ago, when my oldest children were just tiny toddlers, I took in troubled teens, all between the ages of twelve and eighteen, as a foster parent. And I did that to help my husband finish getting through school and to be able to raise my little babies, which I felt like I really needed to focus on.
So, anyway, little did I know that what I was doing with these teenagers would get the attention of the world. I had no clue. People started asking me to give little classes at churches and schools and PTA groups and things like that. And I said, okay, feeling like, well, you know I'll help the world. I was raised that that's what you do. And then thinking it would end at some point.
But then in 2009, the BBC made a documentary of our family called The World's Strictest Parents, and they had us on this television show. And it became the most-watched episode ever in the BBC, because they saw, in our family, these two seventeen-year-olds that came to our house. And we were so calm, that by the end of the program, these two teams were begging not to leave our house. And so, because it happened, people were like, what? How is that possible? I thought you had to be angry. And you don't.
And so, anyway, I wrote a book cause people begged for a book and then I kept teaching.
And guess what? It's never going to end. I can see that now. So, it's a good thing we homeschool because we have traveled the world as a family. Every different continent.
People of all different faiths, everywhere around the world, sharing the message that, yes, you can govern yourself and your children can too.
And I also am president of the Worldwide Organization for Women, which tries to protect parental rights, which I'm pretty sure the homeschoolers listening to this would be grateful for. I'm protecting, you know, freedoms of religion and sovereignty and family. Those kinds of things around the world, so I get my hands in a little bit of advocacy work too, because of what I've noticed happening to the families around the planet. So, I consult with the United Nations. I do that kind of thing. I've written eleven books. I've got a website, teachingselfgovernment.com. I've got a podcast of my own called The Teaching Self Government Podcast. I've got a YouTube channel. I've got that, it's called Teaching Self-Government, so if you look up Nicholeen Peck, you can find lots of stuff.
J -
I'm delighted to hear that because I think the topic is so relevant, especially now that we have such an angry society at large. And we've kind of lost the art of talking graciously to one another, and so learning that, to do that within your family, can help you learn it, to do it elsewhere as well, I'm sure.
N -
Oh, totally. In fact, Paul Harvey said that you can't have self-government without self-discipline. And we do know it is historically proven that the family is the central most basic unit of society. Even the UN, who I do not always agree with, they even say that in their declaration about the family that was done at the Beijing Conference in 1995. That family is the most basic unit of society, and so that's where you learn to master yourself. That's where you learn what government structure is best.
So, when we're struggling right now, politically in the world, and people just being civil to each other, and all the stuff that's happening, what we know is that even in the families that must be going on. Because otherwise people would never stand for it socially.
J -
Right, there's, it makes all facets of life much more pleasant if you can be calm. It makes everything work more smoothly if you're calm, in control of yourself, and can project that to others with whom you're working. What happens is everything you learn about being civil in the home can translate into being civil within society and that can help with creating a more pleasant world for all of us.
So, it sounds like you have a whole lot of balls in the air. Travel maybe not so much travel this year, but lots of things going on. What is it that brings you back to those homeschooling conferences year after year? I mean, you mentioned that you enjoy coming. Are you like me, and still buy books?
N -
I'm addicted to books. I have a big sign in my house that I bought at Monticello years ago that said, I cannot live without books. You know that statement by Thomas Jefferson and I'm like, it's so true. I have to have that sign cause it's like, for sure.
I do buy things at conferences. Almost every conference I attend, I end up leaving with something and so that's for sure. I love browsing the booths and seeing what people are doing. I love seeing, you know, all the witnesses to similar truths, but the different take that people have, you know, and the way that they lend their voice to more goodness that's out there. You know, I love that. I love being surrounded by the good people. I mean, there's just, we just have to remember, still, how many quiet people there are, you know? And when you go to a homeschool conference, especially the GHC conferences, I mean the people are like, they come up to me and they're, like, I've prayed for this. I have prayed to know how to fix this relationship with my child, and this is why I came, you know. And they tell you these beautiful things and you think, those are the kind of people I want to be with, you know?
So, it's wonderful, but I have to say I started at homeschool conferences. I didn't even have plan on starting period, speaking as I do, but someone asked me if I would present at a homeschool conference because they really needed a parenting person and they thought what I had to offer was better than a lot of the stuff that they had to choose from, so I said okay. And thinking, again, it would be a one-time gig. And what I realized immediately as I was talking to my peers at this smaller homeschool conference. I mean, I think there was only maybe 500 people there, is that is that these homeschoolers are the perfect people to learn self-mastery and the perfect people to teach their children self-government because it's not a quick fix. You know how many parenting people, they present themselves as, oh, here's the trick to change your children. Here's this quick fix.
But homeschoolers know education isn't a quick fix. It's not a trick. It's a process that you go through, and you have to embrace that process. As you're teaching your children in all things, and so they're willing to put in the work that's required on their own hearts in order to help their children have a change of heart and turn their hearts toward the families too. And really, that's what self-government is about is where's your allegiance? Where's your heart's allegiance? And how do you turn your heart toward where it should be turned?
You know, and it was the process of that? How do you analyze it and do it for yourself?
And then there's you know skills and stuff that I teach to go with that, but that's why I love homeschool conferences, specifically GHC. I love GHC. Because every time I'm there I feel like I'm just among friends, dear hearts, and people that absolutely love the truth.
And I love being around people like that.
J -
You're right. It's...the GHC's are especially a joy because of the diversity of people that come as vendors and exhibitors and speakers, but we are all, encouraging families to try to grow and follow that educational journey, whether it's physical, spiritual, emotional.
All of those things, there's encouragement for every aspect of it, and it's a beautiful thing. It's, as you say, it's like being among friends. And I guess I've been going since the late 1980s and, same as you, I, they started asking me if I could speak. And I was, okay, I could do this. I started out talking about high school mostly, and then have segued into mostly writing and literature, but it's such a good place for homeschoolers to go for encouragement. They, homeschool conventions, there's nothing like them every single year.
You know, we missed out on most of those in-person conferences last year. It'll be really nice to gather once again. What do you have planned for this coming year in your workshop topic, or things that you plan to share?
N -
Yeah, so from what I know from GHC, I've got four workshops that they've got me teaching. One is called five social lessons every child must know. And this is a class people have loved over the years. And it's about how to train your children socially.
Now, I know people think, wait a minute, I thought the what about the social was only said by people who are not homeschoolers, right? Cause we know all the problems with the social and trust me, I am on that same page, but I do know that a wise parent does consider social training because the parents are the ideal person to be training the social. And there are key things that you can be doing to help your children be socially successful, especially in a world that values social above all else.
In fact, it's funny to me that our world values social so much, yet the schools are turning out such bad examples of socialization. And so, and I think our homes can do a much better job, so it's going to be a really fun one. That's a great one. We've got one from expectations, traps, to daily battles. Oh, sorry, not to daily battles. We don't want daily battle, right? Let me just say the whole title, cause that's just the first half. From expectation traps, and daily battles to united hearts and motivating school days.
So, I have this great workshop that goes through the traps that we get stuck in that end up ruining our school days that sometimes we don't even recognize. So, this is a wonderful class for parents to be able to recognize where they can make, just sometimes the slightest shift. There's a couple of key places we can shift in our daily interactions to make our interactions motivating instead of stressful and battle zones, which I know some parents do deal with that.
But anyway, we want to motivate, right? As we're moving forward. Another class I'm doing is calmly correcting negative behaviors before they start, which is a really fun one. We talk about four different skills that can be taught to children and parents for relationship success and how to help your children embrace being corrected when the time arises, how to create a calmness and a productive feeling, a comforting feeling, around correcting? I always tell people, you should feel closer to your children during and after a correction than you did before. But we're also going to give you skills and stuff that you can use beforehand so that not as many corrections have to happen cause it stops a lot of those negative behaviors before they even get there. Which is so fun.
People have never heard me do that class in particular, and I think they're going to really enjoy it. So, another class that they've got me doing is training the hearts of your sons and daughters. This one is, as in the title of very heartfelt class. But this class is all about how to help your sons and daughters learn to tune their hearts toward doing what they know that they should. But also, it involves training your heart as the parent. And we talk about the process that's required for helping a person have a change of heart, and helping your sons and daughters keep their hearts trained in the right direction that will lead them to their greatest success, happiness, family unity, bonding, all of those kinds of things.
So, I don't know if that's...I just talked a lot there, Janice, but that's what I've got that I'm bringing to the conference this year, as well as of course a booth with all kinds of supplies and things.
J -
Oh, I'm excited about that. And you know, the question that occurred to me as you were describing your top topics, how many times do you have parents come up to you and say, oh, I wish I'd known you years ago? Or I wish I'd heard this years ago.
N -
Yeah, all the time, but that always happens. In fact, there's still a percentage of people that, they say, you know what I'm going to do all of this. I'm going to learn this, cause I think it's going to help my marriage. And I say it will. I already know it will because everybody that doesn't help their marriages. There have been marriages that were on the brink of divorce and they decided to take a parenting class to fix their troubled children and their whole marriage changed. Like, this happens all the time.
And so...or people will say, you know, I just want to communicate better with my grandchildren because I didn't do the best job with my children. I wish I would have known, but I didn't. You know, you don't know what you don't know. You try your best but when you find it, I love that people go, well, I'm going to learn it now, even if, even if I'm not raising my children right now. And the principles that I teach are principles that can apply to all aspects of your life. So, they're just really powerful, no matter which phase you're in. But obviously, we're gearing it towards people with children at home, so.
J -
Right, but relationship skills are needed at home, in the workplace, at church, in all of your neighborhood relationships. Everywhere you are, you need to know how to be a better communicator, a better person, to relate to, and have understanding of some of the triggers and emotional minefields that people hit and how to deal with things.
N -
Absolutely. And it really is life changing.
J -
Oh absolutely. I'm sure relationships make all the difference. It's what people remember at the end of their life.
N -
It is, yeah.
J -
And they say that when, you know, children grow up, they remember how you made them feel, not so much what they did, but how you made them feel throughout those years.
And that was one thing I kept in mind through my child raising years. All my boys are grown and gone now. And it really does matter so.
But you mentioned that you have eleven books, so give us a little idea of what you're bringing to the conference or just some of your titles, things like that, cause I'm sure they're going to be highly relevant for our audience.
N -
For sure. So, my most popular book, in fact, one I would say is absolutely essential, is a book called Parenting a House United and super exciting that this year, there is a new edition of that book that is out, and I have been working on it for a number of years. The book is now eleven years. Well, it's actually almost twelve years old. Like it's eleven and a half years old. The old, the first version of Parenting a House United, and we knew it was time to update it, especially with the technology component in homes, with what has changed in the sex culture with families, just, in ten year’s time, it was such a drastic change, it's unbelievable what families are dealing with. But also, just some of the paradigms that have been sneaking into parenting, you know, as, because the parenting dialogue is constantly going and there's new theories that pop out there, but they're not necessarily founded in principle. And so, you know, just kind of talking about some of those things, making things clearer so even if you have the first edition, you might want to stop by for the second one that we've worked on a lot this year and it's huge. So, we will have that.
The book, Rules, which was an instant bestseller. Rules subtitle is, the secret to family, business, and social success. We've got popular parenting methods, are they really working? Those are great starter books for people who are like, okay, I don't know if I can take the whole program right now, but I just want to get going. People love the the audio class, so I have the power of calm, which we can you know, get to people digitally or in a CD format if they like that.
But another big thing. Well, we have the children's books. Those are everybody's favorite. Seriously, the favorite, these four beautifully vivid, hardback colored children's books that each teach one of the four basic skills. London Larae says okay, Big Win for Quinn, Porter Earns a Quarter, and Page Takes the Stage. So, those are fun. You can get him at a discounted price. You can get everything at a discount at the conference, which is great. I always do the lowest cost ever there, cause truthfully, the vendor doesn't want to take it home. That's how it boils down, right? You don't want to take it. You're like, okay, so it's the best time to get a good deal.
But I also have a brand new course. So, I've had a teaching self-government implementation course for years. We've turned that into the deep dive. We realized, for many people, it felt a little overwhelming, and so we have created an entirely new course this year, much more streamlined, quicker to go through. It's got some live instruction for mentors as well as video instruction and it is just amazing. So, come talk to me about that, but that's going to be there as well. And we've got the journals for different meetings and all kinds of stuff. There's going to be there, and other helps that can help you implement the stuff that is taught in the course and in the books.
J -
That sounds delightful, and I'm pretty sure that our listeners, their appetites are whetted.
And you're right about these specials at the conferences. They are the best ever because we don't have to ship things and we also, you know, just don't want to take it home so that, you're absolutely right about that. But do you have a way...I know you do a lot with YouTube. Do you have a way for people to kind of get a preview of what you offer? Just some ideas about...and maybe even some small helps on YouTube, perhaps?
N -
Oh, there is so much on YouTube. That is...I like how you said perhaps, maybe, because I actually release a new YouTube video every single day, five days a week. So, if people subscribe to my YouTube channel, it is never-ending help and instruction. It's not going to teach the whole course. I mean, I'll be straight with you about that, because it takes me three solid days to teach, to do a training for a couple, and they come to these parenting mastery trainings. Or you have to go through, you know, the course or something to get fully everything.
But I do touch on other things too. And I even have some videos on homeschooling and how I homeschool my family, and there's so many things there that are very professionally done. I've got a team of people that do em for me. And so, you can go to the Teaching Self-Government YouTube channel and there is tons there. You can see some of the books and I talk about some of the things and what they're used for, some of the charts and cards and resources that you can use to make implementing it even easier. But I go into so much depth on there. People are usually amazed.
It's a fairly new channel. We've been really working on it during covid. So, share it with your friends. Have everybody subscribe because there's so many things going on there, they won't want to miss, and so there you go. That's, it's a lot of fun, and I also have, on my website, on teachingselfgovernment.com, there is a free calm parenting toolkit. So, if people on this podcast want to go to teachingselfgovernment.com right now, you can click a link to give a free calm parenting toolkit. It's a mini course all about calmness and it is a great start. It's not going to give you everything. Again, I'm not going to lie to you about that. But it is a perfect start. So, if they want to just really see what it's all about and kind of get a feeling for who I am, how I talk, and what I can share, those are some good places to go.
J -
We are so blessed in the modern era that we have the podcasts, the YouTube videos that we can watch, the blogs to read, just to get a sense of people's voice and style and content because I know that for myself, very often, I would follow a speaker or writer for quite a while before I ever really encountered them in person. But by the time I encountered them in person, it almost feels like you know them, and so you know, I think for our listeners, they'll be happy to get to know you a little bit before they go.
But you know, GHC is a big convention. We have over 100 vendors. Well, we have lots of vendors. We usually have 50 to 60 featured speakers and 50 or more general speakers.
There are tracks like the parenting track, the Charlotte Mason, and classical tracks. There's all these things that people can choose from because it's so important to give homeschoolers the support they need, but it can be a little overwhelming for a new homeschooler. Is there one tip you could give a homeschooler before they go to a conference when they first get there, or anything, to help them manage the overwhelm and just get the most possible out of that conference?
N -
Yeah, what most possible, there's...you can't ever get it all, right? At a GHC conference like, that's why you just have to keep coming back, right? But I think, but I think that there's layers to what you need and in what order. So, I would say, in my mind there's priorities, right? So, I know that part of learning is it hinges on a relationship you have with the teacher, which is why we're doing these podcasts to help people have a relationship with some of the teachers, right?
So, with our children, the relationship that they have with parents will determine how they grab on to the education. So, to me, I feel like parent-child bond, parent child relationship is that going to be number one priority, cause you can't get past, you can't do anything else without that. But then, after that, comes, how do people learn? So, Charlotte Mason is a genius at how people learn. She knows so many things about that, right? And there's a lot of other people that have some great contributions to how a person learns, and I know I read from, you know, Mason to Fineline, to Holt to...I mean, all these different people reading how people learned when I was a beginning homeschooler cause I felt like that was important.
So, relationship. Then, how do people learn? Then moral development Is super huge, right? And GHC always offers so much great stuff there. But making sure that you're touching the hearts with truth, right? And getting that into your homeschool, which is important. And then after that comes the subjects in the skills and the tips and the tactics.
Now, everybody is at a different place. If you've been coming for a little bit, you know, you're like I need this subject and I need this skill. You know, and people just know. But sometimes when you're really new, you feel like, I just gotta see if my kids are going to allow me to even teach them anything. Well, then you might, your emphasis might be on relationship.
So, what I would say is you say to yourself where are you at? And even if you've been at it for a while, if the relationships are struggling, maybe get a peace with that. And then also get that math piece you know. Cause you can pick some of each of those pieces. But just so you know, that's how education builds, and sometimes when we jump straight to a curriculum or straight to a workbook or something, without having those other pieces in place, it just comes off as dry and we don't really get the bond to the family or the education that we were hoping to have, which is why we homeschooled in the first place.
So that would be what I would say.
J -
That's a great tip, because getting our foundations straight and square and solid is super important and honestly, to me, the GHC conferences are a perfect place to come when you're just starting out and you need that. My personal tactic was to always just spend most of my time in the exhibit hall talking to the vendors because most of them are homeschooling parents. A whole lot of them have a ton of experience answering questions and telling you things. But then I would buy the MP3 of all the talks and I would have a whole year's feast of different talks, things I could go back to. I could organize them in the topics that I needed that day or that moment and it can be a feast free for an entire year.
N -
Forever, yeah, you get that shot in the arm every day when you're, like, on the treadmill are out on your walk or something.
J -
Exactly, it's just, a convention is not, is so much more than two and a half days. It's an experience for the whole year. It's just, it's buoyant. It keeps you going.
N -
Agreed.
J -
But I so appreciate you coming and I'm really looking forward to seeing you at GHC this year. And just thanks for being with us today.
N -
Thank you, my pleasure. Thanks for having me. I look forward to seeing you there too, Janice, as well as everybody else. I think this is one of those years where we all, more than ever, are going to be like, yes, we need this. No one's taking away our GHC.
Here we go. We're going to go have it, right?
We need this type of interaction with each other. If people don't get together with other homeschoolers in good ways like this, it has been statistically proven that many people can't keep at it for more than four years. We've got to have that time where we are rejuvenated with each other.
J -
Friendship and support. There's so much of that, you know, within the homeschooling community and GHC and all of that, and so I just appreciate you being here on the Homeschool Solutions Show and we'll see you soon.
N -
Okay, bye bye.
J -
Our next guest is Doctor Melanie Wilson of Funtolearnbooks.com. Welcome, Melanie. I know you've been a popular speaker at GHC for several years but in case our listeners don't know you, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your family and what you do?
Melanie -
Absolutely. I am thrilled to be talking with you. I started off life as a Christian psychologist. I thought I would have my 2.5 children and work part time and life would be grand, but God had other plans for me that included staying home and home schooling what ended up being six children. So. And I'm so, so grateful to Him for that.
I have been homeschooling for more than 20 years, which is unbelievable. My husband and I make our home in St Louis, Mo. We love it here and I started off my homeschooling journey thinking that it was going to be an absolute disaster because I was not organized. I was the opposite of organized. I wasn't getting anything done and so, I discovered a way to make it work for this messy, messy person. And after I was successful in that, I wished that there was something that was specifically designed for homeschooling moms like me, and there wasn't, and so I created something.
And then after that I turned my desire to have products that were specifically suited to me as a homeschooling mom to curriculum. And I just couldn't find an English language arts grammar curriculum that my kids were crazy about and so I thought, you know what?
I'm just going to try my hand at creating my own and so Grammar Galaxy was born out of that. Along the way I started a podcast called the Homeschool Sanity Show and I began speaking for a Great Homeschool Conventions and I absolutely love what I do and getting to meet with homeschoolers every year.
J -
That kind of explains why you come back to GHC every year because the opportunity you have as a speaker at GHC or vendor is amazing. We can interact with hundreds of homeschoolers, and the homeschoolers are getting the chance to interact with so many speakers, listen to all the workshops, and everything like that. What type of workshops do you have this season?
M -
Yeah, so parenting workshops are always really popular with homeschoolers. And because I am a psychologist and I used to help parents in training their children and dealing with various challenges that they had, I seem to be the person to speak on that issue, and plus I've had six kids of my own. Five of them boys and I've definitely experienced many challenges along the way so I could speak both from professional and personal experience. And one of the sessions that I will be doing that I know is going to be popular is how to deal with sibling rivalry. So, that one is going to be, I think, really really effective because I'm going to talk with people about dealing with it as though they were a hostage negotiator working with the FBI. Because there are some similarities between how hostage negotiators and parents can resolve sibling conflict. And in preparing for that talk, I learned something extraordinary about my own family, so I will be sharing that.
And I always like to talk with parents about helping kids who have poor frustration tolerance and just helping them kind of deal with the overwhelmed too. Not just with parenting, but with being a new homeschooler. It is just, there's just so much that you need to know and most of the families who would come to my booth would say, help me, I'm overwhelmed. And so, this talk is designed for that homeschooler who just doesn't know what the first simple steps are.
J -
That's a terrific topic. I just, I know that when I was homeschooling, I was also caregiving for eighteen years through that time, and so, I had four boys and trying to do perfect home school days. And it didn't take me but a couple of years to realize that perfect days were just not the goal. So, I would have loved to have come to your talk. It's funny how a lot of the speakers seem to have created products, talks, and things like that that meet the needs that they felt that was, were not being met, and so, it's one of the joys of conference that you can enjoy and learn and get through the convention hall and do all that kind of thing.
So, one of the things people look forward to at the conferences is getting into that exhibit hall. Hundreds of vendors and there are thousands of books, thousands, bunches, and bunches of curriculum. But what are you going to have? Or do you have any new projects, new books, or just your favorite best-selling wonderful stuff?
M -
Well, every year my goal is to come out with another level of Grammar Galaxy language arts curriculum. It's my most popular material by far, and so this year is no exception. I definitely have another level to share, and so, the materials are available all the way through sixth grade. I'm currently working on seventh grade, but that will not be available immediately this year. Later this year that will be available as well. And so that is definitely my number one seller. And you know, people still love the Organized Homeschool Life book and planner, and my book, A Year of Living Productively.
But one thing that is also new, that I have this year is, I have been adding classes to my website. So, sometimes people will attend one of my sessions at GHC, and you know, of course, they can purchase the audio of that talk, but sometimes people want more.
They want other sessions, maybe, that I've retired, and so now I have not just a video of a class that I'm teaching, but also a PDF handbook. A guidebook that goes with it that will help them to take action on what I'm talking about and not just listen to it passively.
So those are some things that will be new this year.
J -
That's really exciting, especially, I think, with so many new homeschoolers coming in in 2020 and dealing with that overwhelm, you mentioned early. Having somebody they can turn to for classes, is going to be excellent. And I'm excited to look at your Grammar Galaxy when I get to the conference. I've never taken a peek, and I love language arts and grammar, as you can tell from my backdrop.
M -
Yes, yes.
J -
Notebook wallpaper.
M -
Right.
J -
Except it's actually really books.
M -
Yeah, right.
J -
So, given the fact that we have a huge and overwhelming list of speakers and wonderful topics and a huge and overwhelming wonderful exhibit hall, what kind of advice can you give a homeschooler who's approaching a conference for the first time? How can they make the most of it and go home feeling nourished, blessed, and joyful at what they were able to learn?
M -
You know the first thing that I would say to a homeschooler going to a conference like Great Homeschool Conventions, which they are much bigger than what I attended when I was a new homeschooler is, I would say do some pre-planning and determine what you want to actually see in person versus what would be okay for you to get the audio recording of. And then I would say to talk with friends, go with someone else. Whether that's an experienced homeschooler or another new homeschooler, and you will find out from your friends, especially if you split up and attend different sessions, you will find out, oh, this person was amazing. You have to get this audio. You have to hear this.
Or what I also loved is the experience of my friends in the exhibit hall because we would meet at a certain time to eat together or whatever and we would have a sharing time of what did you find? What did you see? What was great? And then you can do that too. You can say, you know, this is what I found. And you can hear about books that will just really bless you and your family because a home school convention is fantastic for curriculum, but it is also a wonderful place to pick up books that will help you as a wife, a mother, just in your own personal walk and then you can also get things like gifts for your kids. I love doing that and my approach, because we used unit studies when I was homeschooling early on is, I would try to find gifts that would fit with what we were studying that year and it was so much fun. It's wonderful to be able to purchase gifts that are not only going to, you know, be enjoyed by your kids, but they're going to be educational too. And so, homeschool convention is a great place to do that. So, make a list of those kinds of things that you're looking for too.
J -
Absolutely. I still buy something at almost every homeschool conference I'm at and I go to several every year. But I have grandchildren now and so I am buying those gifts. And when you talk about gifts, we're not buying them a math workbook necessarily, although my granddaughter did get a wonderful math book for Christmas one year and she loved it and was so excited about it because it was about how to start a bookstore and run it. So, very cool actually.
But these gifts are things like science, science paraphernalia and telescopes and all kinds of fun hands-on things. There's everything at the homeschool conference, and plus there's lots and lots of good reading, as you mentioned. You know, I've gotten, for myself, poetry, and books on how to become a better teacher. Because, oh, for a lot of us parents, that's what's on our mind when we go to the conference. I am needing training. You know it's not so much my child that's needing the educational materials. It's me, and so there's some of that. My husband and I used to use it as a romantic weekend getaway. And that was fun too.
M -
Yeah.
J -
So, that's given our listeners quite a few pointers and tips to go into this conference season with, and I hope that we're going to see quite a few of them there. Is there anything else you'd like to add before we wrap up?
M -
Yes. I would say not to take yourself, or homeschooling, or the convention too seriously.
You're going to make mistakes. You're going to buy things that you wish you hadn't bought, but it's not the end of the world. You can resell those. You can even gift them or trade with someone else so, you don't have to learn how to homeschool in a weekend.
You can't, even if you want to, right? So just take a deep breath and learn what you can from the experience and know that you're going to learn. You just have to as you go along. You're going to learn so much more by experience, and you're going to do great and we are there to help and support you.
J -
Absolutely. What great advice. And you're so right about not overthinking and expecting too much. Enjoy the weekend, because it is one of the most exciting weekends of the year, at least, if you're, you know, going to one a year.
So, I thank you so much for being with us today, Melanie. It's been great talking to you.
M -
Oh, you too.
J -
So, listeners, you can learn more about Melody and her work at funtolearnbooks.com. Thank you so much for being a guest and we look forward to seeing you and our listeners at the next GHC.
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.
Speaking of love and support, we are so grateful for the support of our sponsors. Have you joined us at one of the Great Homeschool Conventions? The Great Homeschool Conventions are the homeschooling events of the year, offering outstanding speakers, hundreds of workshops covering today's top parenting and homeschooling topics, and the largest homeschool curriculum exhibit halls in the US. Find out more at greathomeschoolconventions.com. I hope to see you there.
But in the meantime, let's gather together again here on the podcast next week.
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