S8 E8 | You Matter, Mama! (Shiela Catanzarite)
Show Notes:
You matter, Mama! You are God's masterpiece~ fearfully and wonderfully made. He cares so deeply about you and has His eye on you during these homeschooling years. God prepared good works for you to walk in and homeschooling is indeed one of those good works. It's a beautiful and amazing season…yet one that requires great investment. Investment of your time, your energy, your thoughts. And an even greater investment of your heart.
I want to remind you that amidst all this investing, sacrificing, and pouring out, YOU MATTER. God is for you, and He desires that you continue growing into the beautifully unique woman He's created you to be, even as you help your children grow.
In this episode, we'll learn ways to invest in ourselves so our children can truly have, "the best of their mother."
About Shiela
Shiela Catanzarite is an author, speaker, editor, and communication coach. She's a 20-year Charlotte Mason veteran homeschooler and has worked as Jeannie Fulbright’s editor and designer for 20 years helping develop Jeannie’s award-winning Apologia science curriculum and most recently her Charlotte Mason products published through Jeannie Fulbright Press. Shiela is the author of the newly published Living Verse Language Arts in Poetry and is finishing up her second book in the series Living Verse Language Arts in Scripture, to be released spring 2024.
Earning a bachelor’s degree in Special Education and a master’s degree in Christian Education from Dallas Theological Seminary, Shiela has been teaching language arts in some capacity for 40+ years. Her passion remains helping students understand the elements of language and how to use these elements artfully to communicate effectively. Shiela is currently a language communication coach, working one-on-one with students who have language learning and communication challenges. She also writes curriculum for her private middle and high school English language communication classes that focus on writing and speaking.
Both of Shiela's and her husband Bruce’s daughters attended private universities on scholarship and went on to pursue graduate studies in medicine and global business. She attributes their love for learning and academic achievement to homeschooling with Charlotte Mason’s philosophy and methodology.
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Show Transcript:
Shiela Catanzarite Welcome to the Charlotte Mason Show, a show that discusses Charlotte Mason's philosophy, principles, and methods. I'm your host, Shiela Catanzarite, author of the newly published Living Verse Language Arts in Poetry, and soon to be published, Living Verse Language Arts in Scripture. I'm so thankful you joined me today, and I pray this episode deeply encourages you as you learn more of Charlotte Mason's life-giving methodologies and how to implement them to bring greater freedom, confidence, and joy to your homeschool days.
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Shiela Catanzarite Welcome to the Charlotte Mason Show. I'm so happy that you're with me today, and I pray that by the time you listen to this episode you will feel so encouraged and built up, and you will walk away with strength and practical ideas of how to make your homeschool journey more meaningful and more impactful and more joyful. So this episode is special because it's for you, Homeschool Momma. It's specifically for you. And I want to communicate to you that you matter. You matter so much. You matter to your children, though they don't always communicate that to you, and you matter to your family and to your friends. You matter to those of us who've gone before you on this homeschool path and are here cheering you on as you run your race, but most importantly you matter to God. The God of the universe imagined what you would be and then brought you into being. Psalm 139 tells us, "For you formed my inward parts, you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me when as yet there was none of them. How precious to me are your thoughts, oh God! How vast is the sum of them! If I would count them, they are more than the sand." God says that you are "fearfully and wonderfully made" and set apart for His purposes, and that He ordained all the days of your life before you even lived one of them.
Shiela Catanzarite Ephesians 2:10 tells us "we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." And the word "workmanship" in the Greek is the word "poiema", and it means "a work of masterful creativity." And it's actually where we get the word "poetry". This verse is saying that you are God's poem; you are His masterpiece. Think of how valuable you are and how much you matter to God. You are His work of masterful creativity to reflect His beauty and His glory on this earth. You were created for days and you were created for good works. And God has determined your days on Earth. And He's prepared good works for you to walk in as you live out the days God has given you. And homeschooling is indeed one of these good works God prepared for you, but it only lasts for a season. You haven't always been a homeschool mom and you won't always be one, but for this season you've been called to home-educate your children, and it's a beautiful and amazing and sometimes challenging and exhausting season. But as you've already discovered, it's a season that requires great investment--investment of your time, investment of your energy, your thinking, and an even greater investment of your heart. And I just want to remind you that amidst all of this investing and sacrificing and pouring out, that you matter and you are seen. God is for you and His eye is continually on you and His heart is continually for you and for your homeschool. And this good work of homeschooling is truly one of pouring out the best of who we are for our children and for our family. And Charlotte Mason tells us that children "should have the best of their mother, her freshest, brightest hours." But the best of who we are doesn't happen automatically, and our freshest, brightest hours definitely don't magically appear when we start our homeschool day. And we have to intentionally grow and purposely invest in becoming the life-giving women and moms that God is calling us to be.
Shiela Catanzarite And speaking of mothers, one of the Parents' Review articles states, "So many mothers say, 'I simply have no time for myself. I've never read a book.' Or else, 'I don't think it is right to think of myself.' They not only starve their minds, but they do it deliberately and with a sense of self-sacrifice, which seems to supply ample justification." And I've heard so many moms express these exact sentiments during our homeschool years. I remember going to some of our mom support groups or the Bible studies, and moms would say, "I just never have time for myself." Or, "Nobody appreciates what I do. I sacrifice so much for my children and they don't even care." And that was a really common discouragement that moms would voice. And I know at times in my own homeschool journey, I definitely thought those things and expressed them myself. And with the needs of everyone around us just grabbing for our attention, it is easy to neglect our own needs and even feel guilty for thinking of ourselves, as Charlotte Mason told us. And I remember having this mindset, the self-sacrifice mindset, to the point where I would buy things for everyone else's needs and wants, but I would never buy anything for myself. And I was really like one of the moms that Charlotte Mason described, I didn't think it was right to think of myself. I thought it was selfish. And I felt this attitude was actually noble, but my husband discerned that it was not. And he saw that in this sense of self-sacrifice, I was actually neglecting myself. And I remember when he first told me, "You don't think you're worth a good gift. You buy things for everyone else, for the girls, and for me, but you never buy anything for yourself. And you don't feel like you're worth a good gift. It seems like you don't feel that way." And I remember him telling me that. And then from then on, he would always say, "Buy something for yourself. You're worth a good gift." And even now he'll say that at times, "Honey, you're worth a good gift." And that was just such a reminder to me that, yes, it's a time of sacrificing, and yes, we're giving so much to our children and we're investing financially in them and we're investing a lot of time and effort.
Shiela Catanzarite: But we deserve to be invested in as well. And Charlotte Mason knew that and really had a heart for us to grasp that. And though homeschooling does require a certain amount of sacrifice, we are not to sacrifice ourselves in the process. We are God's masterful creativity, and we matter so much. We are worth the good gifts that God wants to give us as homeschool moms. And Charlotte Mason wisely tells us, "If mothers could learn to do for themselves what they do for their children, if she would only have courage to let everything go when life becomes too tense and just take a day or half a day out in the fields, or with a favorite book, or in a picture gallery looking long and well at just two or three pictures, or in bed without the children, life would go on far more happily for both children and parents." Wow! That sounds wonderful, doesn't it? Charlotte Mason deeply believed that mothers matter. You can hear her heart in this quote. And she understood, it takes courage to let everything go for a bit and to do for ourselves what we naturally do for our children. So I want to ask, "What does it look like to do for yourself? What does that look like for you? And how can you, as a homeschool mom, heed Charlotte Mason's wisdom?".
Shiela Catanzarite I've thought a lot about this, and just through my own homeschool journey, reflecting back, I think first we have to make time for fun. "Let the mother go out to play." That's one of Charlotte Mason's most quoted things that she said. As I look out and look her quotes up, I see that a lot. "Let the mother go out to play." I think first we have to do that. We have to think about having fun and then we have to cultivate our interests to become a more interesting and enjoyable person. I think that is so important. God has put in us so many interests and things that we can discover and pursue, and He wants us to pursue those things, even as homeschool moms. He wants us to take time to enjoy those. Think about what you love. What do you love? What do you love to do? What gets you excited? Pursue those things. Neuroscience reveals that we are at our best and we have the most to give when we're doing what we love, whether that be a personal hobby, a family activity, or even things related to homeschooling. I know for me there were many things related to homeschool that I loved. I loved gathering for the read-alouds. I loved watching my daughters create a notebooking page. I loved hearing them grow in their articulation skills. And so there are many things that we really love related to homeschooling. And not just away from our children, but even within the homeschooling day, we can find those things that are really exciting to us and pursue those and make those a priority throughout our day.
Shiela Catanzarite The Parents' Review article says, speaking of the mom, "Though she may do much for her children, she cannot do all she might if she, as they, were growing." I love that! She recognized that if we are growing as homeschool moms, we have so much more to offer our children. And we do a lot for them, but like she tells us, there's more we can do if we ourselves keep growing. And so, how can we continue investing in our own growth even as we invest in our children's? Homeschool moms are so busy. (I remember.) We're taking care of our children and all of the needs of the home, but we're also responsible for their education-- Or we're responsible for helping them become responsible for their education, as I should say it. But it takes a lot of time, a lot of time out of the day, and so we often neglect our needs or neglect our own growth because it just seems like we don't have time for it after everything is done. But we have to make time for it. It's so important. And I want to start with just reminding us of Psalm 5:3. It says, "In the morning, Lord, You hear my voice. In the morning I lay my requests before You and wait expectantly." One version says, "I will lay my request before You and look up." And we don't know before our homeschool day begins what circumstances we will face, but we can be confident that God has gone before us and He promises to give the wisdom and strength we need to walk in the good works He has planned for our day. Those works are waiting for us, but we need, first thing in the morning, to go before the Lord and ask for His wisdom and strength, and He will give it liberally. And sitting with the Lord before our homeschool day begins, it's so crucial. It's a time to be reminded that we matter, that God loves us, that God is listening to us, and that He will be watching over us throughout the day. And it's a time to lay out our requests before the Lord and look up expectantly.
Shiela Catanzarite One way to make this morning time special and meaningful is to create a morning basket just for you, Mom. I know that I've seen online people write about this, and I think it's such a beautiful idea. And some of the ideas that I saw and that I had in my own basket-- I actually had a basket. I don't know if it was a morning basket; it might have been more of an evening basket. But I've seen moms decorate their morning basket with beautiful seasonal touches and change it out for fall, for Thanksgiving, for Christmas, for spring. You can add a scented candle and light that during your morning time with the Lord. One idea is to create a bookmark with pressed flowers. Make a special bookmark that you'll use specifically for the books in your morning basket. I love bookmarks; I collect them. And I order ones that have scriptures on them. I'm real specific about which book has which bookmark, but they're just small reminders of God's love and God's promises when I'm reading. So that's an idea. You can create a special playlist of worship music for your morning basket that you can play to help you in your time with the Lord. Of course, drinking your favorite coffee, or tea, hot chocolate-- And include a special coaster. I have coasters again that have scriptures or pictures of birds, things that are really beautiful. I try and add beauty anywhere I can in my day. And a special coaster to have during your morning basket time with your favorite drink, it would be really special.
Shiela Catanzarite Also, choosing verses to pray over yourself before the day begins. I know we chose verses for our daughters, and at the beginning of a new homeschool year, a semester, I would just pray and ask the Lord to show me what areas of their lives He wanted to work in. And I would pray the scriptures over them, but I didn't pray verses for myself. And when I was thinking about this podcast, I thought, you know, that is really an important thing to do. This is your time with the Lord. This is a time to be reminded that you matter to God and you matter to so many people. And think about the areas that you want to grow, and where do you want to see God move in your heart? Where do you want to see God grow you? Choose verses that resonate with you, that you feel like God's put on your heart and pray those over yourself before the day begins, that you would be the mom and the woman that your children need you to be. Of course, include your Bible and a prayer journal and also a thinking journal. This is something that I implemented into my own life about five years ago. I have a prayer journal where I write my prayers to the Lord, but I have a separate thinking journal. At the end of my time with the Lord. I start thinking about my day and I just let God bring me ideas and inspiration for some of the work that I'm doing, or some of the ministry opportunities, some relationships, and I'll just write down what I'm thinking--the thoughts that God gives. Charlotte Mason was so big on ideas, and God is giving us ideas as moms. And so it's wonderful if you have a special journal just to capture the ideas of things that you can do as you begin your day. So I would say the first way to really begin growing and investing in yourself is through having a morning basket and really going back to laying your requests out before the Lord and waiting on Him and looking for Him during your day. I think that has to be first.
Shiela Catanzarite Second, learn alongside your children during the homeschool day. Be curious. Keep a nature journal. Model for your children painting and drawing and illustrating. Collect interesting items on the family nature walks alongside your children. Notebook alongside your children with written and visual narrations. Work on your own narration skills. Work on your thinking skills and your writing skills. Work on your illustrating skills. It's just so delightful to see the moms involved. I know this summer at the conventions, some of the moms were buying nature journals for themselves, and notebooking journals because they wanted to do it with their children. I think that's an amazing way to really continue growing and modeling for your children what it is to be a lifelong learner. Take your turn orally narrating. When it comes time for narrations for history or Bible or geography, take your turn. Go ahead and work on your articulation skills and on your memory skills through narration, and model for your children what it looks like.
Shiela Catanzarite I would recommend studying poetry. Poetry is so important. Poetry develops a part of the brain that cannot be developed any other way. And I would recommend studying poetry with your children, reading poetry. Memorize some poems. Choose to recite the poems you're memorizing. Even as you have your children recite, you should recite too. It would be so much fun for mom and dad to be a part of the poetry recitations and the narrations and the study, and doing it together as a family and experiencing the joy of poetry. And write poetry. We have a couple moms who've been writing poems through my Living Verse poetry curriculum I published, and they're beautiful. And this is something brand new, the moms had not written poetry before. But it's a new experience for them and it's a new way to learn. And it's so delightful to see homeschool moms investing in their own learning. Read living books. Curate a living book list just for you that you can read. Creatively and artistically express your learning in any way that's meaningful to you. And participate in handicrafts. The handicrafts that you assign your children, do them along with them. And I would say as well, keep a notebook for capturing ideas during the day. So sometimes we're working on something and you might say, "Oh, I want to go on this field trip." Or, "This reminds me of this book we want to read." I recommend having a small notebook that you just keep handy during the day for capturing the ideas that God gives you of other things you want to read or books you want to buy or curriculum you want to purchase, so that when the day is over, you can go back and be reminded of some of those activities that you want to incorporate into the homeschool day or things you want to do to keep growing. Anything that you think about that needs to be captured.
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Shiela Catanzarite Another idea to continue growing and investing in yourself and doing for yourself would be scheduling some field trips just for you--mom field trips. That could be something as simple as going to a bookstore or the library to choose some books, going to antique stores. I picked up antiquing again once the girls left and I was done homeschooling, and I just love it, it's so life-giving and so fun. So things like that. Things that maybe you enjoyed before you had children, don't give those up while you're homeschooling. Try to reengage in some of those things that you really enjoyed that brought you life before you were homeschooling. Another idea would be to go to a botanical garden or a nursery that has plants if you enjoy that. Plant a new garden. Going on a nature hike. Anything that gets you out of the house where you can engage with something just for you. Another idea: Invest time in personal hobbies. I try to do this. I love feeding birds. Our girls were on the state birding team competition--the Homeschool Hummers. And during that time that they trained, we had all the bird feeders up and we had to learn all about the birds, and I just fell in love with it. And even now I'm still feeding the birds. I have seven bird feeders and that brings me such joy and delight, and was something that was my therapy during COVID. When I was teaching students online and I had to be in front of my computer for six hours, I set my computer up directly in front of the window where I had my bird feeders, and it truly got me through those hours. But if you love birding-- Maybe planting seasonal flowers, that's something I always look forward to, changing the colors. Reading, of course. I love nature photography. That's something that I try to do, photographing birds and flowers and plants. Running and walking on nature trails. I did a lot of that. Getting outside for a daily sunburst for immunity. Exercising.
Shiela Catanzarite One of the things that I did was maintain a nutritional plan that was unique to my needs that were different. I've had some health issues and had to have a different eating plan from the family, and I took time to really invest in that. So make sure that you're investing in personal things that develop the unique person that you are. Remember, you matter so much to God; you are His poem. He intricately created you with gifts and talents and loves and interests, and He wants you to continue to engage with those and grow in those and enjoy those and express those. Even as you're helping your children grow and express who they are, God wants you to continue to grow and express who you are. He wants you to steward this beautiful masterpiece that he made you to be. So intentionally make time for those things. It doesn't have to be every day or even every week, but make sure you're engaging with the special and unique parts of who God made you to be.
Shiela Catanzarite Charlotte Mason talked about being with people. I think cultivating relationships that inspire and encourage you to be better is so important. Charlotte Mason says, "Frequent change of thought and the society of other people make the mother all the fresher for her children." And that is so true. We need other relationships. When we're around inspiring people, stimulating people, and people who just encourage us to look up and be better, we're better for our children and for our family. And so this "change of thought and the society of other people" is important. And that can be something as simple as just making a phone call. Of course, going to coffee or dinner with someone. Joining a co-op with like-minded moms is a great way. I remember throughout our homeschool journey, we had Miss. Jo's art class. And the children would go to the art class for an hour and a half, and the moms, all of the moms of the children in the class, we would all go have coffee together nearby and we would spend that time-- We did the same thing with the homeschool Brownie troop. We would drop the girls off and the moms would go to, I think, Panera Bread or one of the Starbucks, and we'd get a coffee and just have fellowship with each other. Summer camps, I remember the girls would go to-- I remember the horse camp, and they would go and be gone every day for a whole week and those were the times when I would make sure that we were connecting with the moms. Park days. Anything where the children are engaged with each other and you can have those conversations with the homeschool moms. Of course, we would leave those times feeling like we needed to buy every curriculum that was ever out there because everyone would talk about how excited they were about all of their classes and all of their curriculum. And so it was fun, but it was just important to talk about different types of things and to have conversations that were stimulating with adults. And we would go out for dinner and do other things just as moms, and that was always fun. You could create a mom's support group. Join a community group or a Bible study at your church, which I am sure many people do. Schedule a park day where the kids can play and you can be with the moms. And this is something that I did and I still do, I always made time to call my mom and my sister because I have close relationships with them. And it was so important just to talk to someone who knew me really well that I could be completely honest with. And so any relationships that you have that refresh you and bring out the best of who you are, take time to engage with those.
Shiela Catanzarite And this seems like a lot. By the time we cultivate our relationships and invest in personal hobbies and go on these field trips and learn with our children and have our morning time, it seems like a lot, but it doesn't have to all be done at one time. If you look at these different areas, and when you're creating the schedule for your children, make sure that you schedule yourself because you matter. You matter as much as your children. Your growth and development is as important to God as your children's. So make sure that you take time to schedule what your growth plan is, what activities you need, the people you need in your life. Make sure that you do that. And I agree with Charlotte Mason that children should have the best of their mothers. And some people say, "Well, it would be selfish to take all that time out if I did all those things. That's selfish. My children need me." But it's actually not selfish to care for ourselves. It's actually loving.
Shiela Catanzarite And I saw the impact of that just yesterday. Our older daughter came in town, she's almost 26, and she came in town for the weekend and she was just sharing some of the health concerns that she had. And she said, "Mom, I want to thank you for being such an example to me of not giving in to illness but remaining joyful and energetic while you battled some health issues." And I was just shocked. I couldn't believe she said that. I'm like, "Really!?" And she said, "Yeah, mom, you never made it about your health. You didn't focus on it. You weren't negative. You were always positive and trusted God to lead you." And, you know, I didn't plan to set that example for our daughter, but I was really intentional about making sure that I made the choices to stay healthy and energetic. It was so important. I wanted to be an energetic, life-giving, fun mom, and I had some health challenges. And it took time to figure some of those things out. And I wasn't thinking during that time that anyone would be watching. I guess I could have said to my daughters, "Be healthy." And, "Don't make your health your identity," and things like that. But I don't think that that would have had the impact that her watching me care for myself had on her. I had no idea. And she was reminding me of different things. And she simply-- While we were homeschooling, she grew up seeing that I was making these choices to care for my health and to try and be better for my daughters. And it's given her courage to face some of the health unknowns that she has now.
Shiela Catanzarite And I just want to say that, it's so true--we hear this in different ways, but our children won't remember very much of what we tell them, but they will remember everything about what we show them. And so the way that we live, the way that we are honoring God and stewarding this beautiful, masterful creation He made when He made us, that is setting an example for them. And it gives them hope when they face challenges in their lives. When your children are grown adults and they're out living away and they're in graduate school or they're in a career, if they can think back that, "Oh, I watched Mom. I watched Mom care for herself. I watched Mom believe God through that struggle. I saw how Mom took time to be with her friends so she could be a better mom. Or I saw Mom go to that homeschool convention and come back with new ideas that helped us have a better homeschool year." They are watching and those are the things that they're going to remember. And it's loving for you to take the time to be the best that you can be for your children.
Shiela Catanzarite And Charlotte Mason knew that. And if we're burdened or we're exhausted or we're unhealthy, we cannot offer our children our best. If we are not growing and we're not caring for ourselves, we won't have anything new to give our children or to anyone. And I think about this a lot because I teach private speaking and writing classes to middle schoolers and high schoolers--public schoolers, they come to me after school. And I always think about how I need to be growing and reading and learning, because if I don't grow in between the time that they come and the next week that they come back to me I don't have anything new to offer my students. I don't have anything more interesting to share with them. And I think that's true as homeschool moms. If we remain the same, we don't have anything new to offer our children. And I think God has-- He wants us growing and becoming more vibrant and more life-giving and more interesting and more knowledgeable so that we can offer that to our children in our homeschool, and help them and stimulate them to grow and to continue learning. And it's just really a matter of stewarding the beautiful woman that God made you to be. It's understanding that we were fearfully and wonderfully made by God Almighty and that He intends for us to be good stewards of who He made us to be because we matter so much to God. And who we are matters so much to the people that God has called us to love and care for. And it requires intentionality in becoming that person and growing to be a more beautiful masterpiece that God has created us to be.
Shiela Catanzarite So I want to encourage you to keep cultivating the person that you were before you had children. Of course, we are always growing. We're not the same person we were. But there were things that you grew up loving and doing maybe that you haven't had a chance to engage with before you had your children. I want to encourage you, keep cultivating that person. Find those things that you loved and bring them back into your life. Maybe you have new things that you love more. Engage with those, but don't let yourself go. Don't neglect yourself. Invest in yourself and keep growing. God cares so much about you and He has His eye on you during these homeschooling years. It doesn't always feel like it, but He's shaping you to become the uniquely beautiful woman that He imagined and created you to be. And God has a plan for your life...post homeschool mom. And He's preparing you for the good works that He's prepared for you to walk in once your children are gone. You are God's masterpiece. And when the homeschooling season ends, there is so much that God has for you. So many exciting purposes and plans you can't even imagine! I had no idea I would be doing some of the things that I'm doing now, but I do see that all of the years, through homeschooling, God was shaping me, even as He was shaping my children for the good works that they are walking in now, He was shaping me for the good works that I'm walking in now that I'm not homeschooling my daughters anymore. I'm always going to be a mom. We'll never lose the joy of being a mom. But a homeschool mom is a unique time in life, and there will come a time when you are no longer homeschooling and you'll be mom, but God has got something really special planned for you. He's growing your faith and He's growing your character through these homeschool years to prepare you for more.
Shiela Catanzarite And keep in mind that the homeschool years are but a season and that God has prepared good works for you when you've completed this journey. So give your heart fully and joyfully to these homeschool years, because you will not get them back. And care for yourself, stay healthy, and be mindful, be ready, look out for what God has for you. Be expectant. I just want to remind you that you matter, Momma. You matter so much to so many people and God has great purposes for you today and tomorrow and into the future. So lay out before Him the pieces of your life and wait, and look up with expectation of what He will do in and through your life. See you next time.
Shiela Catanzarite Thank you for tuning in to the Charlotte Mason Show. If you want to learn more about Charlotte Mason and discover a beautiful Language Arts curriculum that uses her methodologies, go to my website at ShielaCatanzarite.com. There you can find my new blog where I discuss Charlotte Mason's principles for Language Arts, and how to implement her philosophy in your homeschool. Please enjoy my free resource on how to mark a poem. Simply provide your email address and I'll send you the free PDF that teaches a simple, hands-on, Charlotte-Mason-inspired way to bring poetry into your homeschool. If you haven't already, please subscribe to the podcast. And while you're there, leave us a review. Tell us what you love about the show. This will help other homeschooling parents like you get connected to our community. And finally, tag us on Instagram @HomeschoolingDotMom to let us know what you thought of today's episode.
Shiela Catanzarite Don't forget to check out my friends at Medi-Share because you deserve healthcare you can trust. To learn more about Medi-Share and why over 400,000 Christians have made the switch, go to GreatHomeschoolConventions.com/Medishare.
Shiela Catanzarite 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 U.S.. Find out more at GreatHomeschoolConventions.com. I hope to see you there. Have a wonderful week. I look forward to being with you next time.