Homeschooling Encouragement with the Unplugged Mom

I recently participated in a podcast with Laurette Lynn, The Unplugged Mom and Linda Dobson of Parent at the Helm. The main purpose of the podcast was to encourage homeschoolers because this is the time of year that many homeschoolers start to question their sanity. Did I make the right decision? Is this really going to work?

Listen to this podcast. It’s chock-full of great information, not just for homeschooling encouragement but about education in general. It was loads of fun and I thank Laurette for inviting me to join in.

You can get to the podcast here: Living and Learning sans School: Encouragement from veteran voices

Here are direct links to some of the free items I mentioned that I have online to help encourage homeschoolers:

Okay Kids, Time for Bedlam Book

Homeschooling is Freedom Blog (Interviews with scores of homeschooling families.)

Link to the document I like to call The Ultimate Homeschool Encouragement.

Finally, a link to a free document to have fun writing with your child: The Write Way to Have Fun

Unplugged Mom Radio

Laurette Lynn, The Unplugged Mom, invited me to call into her show on April 15th. No, not because it was tax day, but because she wanted to ask me a few questions as a homeschooling mom whose kids are now adults. In other words, she wanted to talk to me because I’m old.

You can listen to the entire show below. Her discussion with me starts at around the :55 minute mark. Also my husband listened to it and he thought I sort of glossed over the question about college. I guess I was trying too hard make the point that college doesn’t have to be the goal. Anyway after you listen to my responses to her questions, you can read what he sent to Laurette as his addition to the interview.

Listen to internet radio with The Unplugged Mom on Blog Talk Radio

And here’s what my husband added:

  1. When you asked if Debbie could make folks feel more sure that they could prepare their children for success, I think there is a more direct answer to what those folks might be asking. Our children were both accepted at the University of their choice and were both honor graduates. So the simple answer to the question I always got is “Yes, you can home school your children and prepare them for college and yes, Colleges will accept homeschooled students even if they do not have a high school GPA. Our daughter was accepted to a college which only accepts 10% of the kids who apply there. If it turns out that the child is not capable of college or uninterested the story gets better, because he has an infinitely better chance to think of himself as a success if he is not negatively impacted by the public school system.
  2. You asked if Debbie had doubts while she was actually in the middle of the process and she talked about me being supportive. She sometimes would say “John, I just don’t think this is working”. I actually had a very precise response. I said “Debbie I would be very disappointed if you gave up home schooling our children because EVERYTHING that you said would happen when we were discussing doing home school; is very obviously happening. All those things that I see happening are wonderful.”