Welcome to episode 133 of educate and rejuvenate

the podcast, lies we tell ourselves as homeschool moms with Katie

Hedrick from Joy at Home. If you're a homeschool mom, we

recorded this co hosted episode just for you, and

you do not want to miss it.

Welcome to educate and rejuvenate, the podcast to help you

revitalize your teaching, renew your spirit, and reignite your

passion for life. I'm your host, Kelsey Sorensen, a former

teacher, current homeschool mom, published author, and certified life

coach. Whether you are a teacher in a traditional classroom, homeschool

from your kitchen table, or anywhere in between, I am on a mission to help

you not only survive as an educator, but thrive. Get

ready to up level your skills with incredible insights from guest experts

and discover the missing piece, rejuvenating yourself. Are

you ready to both educate and rejuvenate? Let's

go.

Hello again, my friends. I'm so, so excited for

today's interview with Katie from the joy at home

podcast. She is a certified life coach turned homeschool

mom, and she is presenting at educate and rejuvenate this year on our

homeschool track. And she's gonna tell you more about her session and

more about herself in this interview. And what we did today

is we really just picked different lies that we tell ourselves as homeschool moms.

We had, like, a list of ones that we brainstormed together before we came together

for this episode, and it was Katie's idea. She reached out. She was like, I

had this idea. What if we record an episode? It may air on your podcast

and on my podcast. And I was like, yeah. Let's do it. So

super excited to be sharing this with you today. This co

hosted episode, it will have aired on joy at home just shortly before it

airs here on educate and rejuvenate the podcast. Now if you love what you

hear today, make sure that you also join us at educate and rejuvenate so you

can hear Katie's session where she's sharing all about for

anybody who's wanting to transition from public school to homeschool. And

again, that is not going to be everybody here. I know a lot of you

are teachers. You're probably like, this may not be for me. And you could probably

still glean some things from it. We talk about the lies we tell ourselves and

how we need to rewire those, and you can probably still apply some of it

to yourself. Or if you're just interested in hearing a little bit more about my

homeschool journey and about Katie and what she does, you can

definitely check out today. But I do love that we have a special episode

today specifically for our homeschool moms because I feel like we don't have as many

of those. And we do have quite a few where it's about classroom management or

about, for example, last time creating boundaries where it was very teacher geared

towards admin since that's Barb's experience from last week's episode. So I

do love that we get to have a special episode today for the homeschool moms

who listen. I am here for you too. I love you. I see you. I

love helping educators of all kinds, whether you're teaching a traditional classroom,

at your kitchen table, online. We and we talk about it in this episode today.

We're all more alike than we think. We all have the same goal

to help kids grow and learn and

thrive. And that is what we love to do as educators. So, without

further ado, I'm really excited to get to today's episode for you, the

homeschool mom is here, the lies we tell ourselves. So let's get

to it.

Hey there, friend. Katie here. I am the host of the Joy at

Home podcast. I am also a homeschool mom to 3

awesome kids. I have a daughter, age 16, and then 2

sons, age 13 and 10. So as you can imagine, we're

always on the go, go, go over here. Life is really full, but it

is really, really good. Just a quick little backstory about me

and my kids. Our family was one of those families that was thrown

into homeschooling during that crazy season of

COVID in the year 2020. And so

2020 found us homeschooling by circumstance,

whereas 2022 really found us homeschooling

by choice. After that crazy COVID season, I did send my kids back

into the public school system for a couple years, and all the while, I just

kept feeling this tug in my heart to step into

homeschool. And so we finally did that in the fall

of 2022, and we have not looked back, and

it's been so, so good. We've had a lot of ups and downs, a lot

of learning and growing experiences, but today, we're in a really good

place, and we are so excited about the future. My kids and I believe

that the best is always yet to come. And so, on the

side, when I'm not homeschooling my kids, I absolutely love helping

other moms step into homeschool. I offer a bunch of

free resources over at teach me to homeschool.com,

so you can definitely head over there and see what is available for

you. All that being said, we are so thrilled to

dive into today's episode. My sweet friend and I are gonna

be talking all about the lies that homeschool moms believe.

But before we jump in, I'm gonna send it over to Kelsey and let her

introduce herself to you. Alright. I'm Kelsey Sorensen,

and I'm so excited to be here today and happy that Katie invited

me to to do this episode together, and we're kind of co hosting it. We're

going to be conversational. It's going to be a lot of fun. We

connected because Katie will be presenting at my upcoming educate and

rejuvenate event, and it's so fun. And we just get to hang out and chat

altogether. So so fun. I am the host of the

educate and rejuvenate events, like I just mentioned, and the educate and rejuvenate

podcast, and the upcoming book titled, you could probably guess it,

educate and rejuvenate. We are in the process of rebranding

my company that I started 10 years ago. It was called wife teacher

mommy, and that name is still near and dear to my heart. I named it

that because when I started my company, I had just had my oldest child,

and he's 10 now because that was 10 years ago. But I was so excited.

I'm like, I'm a wife, and then it was a teacher because I was a

school teacher before I was a homeschool mom. Actually, well, before I was a homeschool

mom. So at that time, I had just, decided to stay home and substitute

teach. So I did that after teaching 3rd grade for 1 year.

I substitute taught for 4 years with well, I had my first child, and then

2 years later, I had my second child. Called it wife teacher mommy because that

described me, and we were helping teachers with their sub plans

and everything. But then in 2019, we decided

to homeschool, and it was actually a really hard decision for me. For my

husband, it was not he was like, oh, I wanna homeschool. We should homeschool. But,

of course, it was like I was gonna be doing more of it at that

time, which has now changed. We've actually we do it together now. It's I could

do, like, a whole episode on that and how that's changed over the years

too. But with that, we decided to homeschool, and then I was really

glad when COVID hit because our routine didn't get thrown off. We were, like, we

were already homeschooling, so we just got to keep doing what we were doing.

So after that, I was like, okay. That was a blessing. Like, I'm glad we,

like, did that. So we were able to just keep things consistent

for our kids, so that was good. I'm a homeschool mom. I love

supporting both educator like, all types of educators. I like to say whether you're

in the classroom or homeschooling your your kitchen table or teaching

online, that's really who I serve with my company. It's really,

like, just basically anyone who teaches anyone anything, I would call

a teacher. So that's who I love to serve over at Educate

and Rejuvenate, the podcast, and what I do. I'm a certified life

coach like you are, and just love supporting those who

teach it to find themselves outside of that role as

well. So you can make sure that you take care of yourself and take care

of the kids that you teach. That is so fun, and the work that you

do, Kelsey, is so important. And I also just have to say, homeschool mom to

homeschool mom, it is so fun and refreshing to connect with

other moms who are in the same season that we are in, and it is

such a thrill to co host this podcast episode with you. It's so much fun.

So we're gonna dig into the lies that homeschool moms are

telling themselves and believing, and I just wanna kind of preface this

conversation by saying that brain science says

that the brain will believe what you tell it to

be true, and the brain will actually look for ways to back up the

things that you are telling it. And so all these things that

we're saying and thinking and believing are really affecting our life

more than we probably know. So it's important to

grab a hold of these lies and pull them out at the root before they

grow into these nasty weeds in our life. So I just wanted

to start the conversation by saying that that that this is a really

important conversation, that we need to expose the truth about

the lies that homeschool moms are believing. And I think

Kelsey would agree with me that this is something that we struggle with too. We're

both certified life coaches. Right? For sure. Like, we still have a human

brain. Yeah. Exactly. We know this stuff. We know better,

but it's something that we still wrestle with too. And so the very first

one that I wanna jump in with, I think it is it's such a big

one, and it's probably the number one thing that's even out

there. And that is the lie that says, I am not

qualified to teach my child. What are your thoughts on that, Kelsey?

Okay. So I definitely have thoughts on this because, as I mentioned, I was a

teacher before I was a homeschool mom. Right? And yet I still

felt like, oh, can I homeschool my child? And I had all the qualifications

to do so. So So it shows that no matter what, it's not the circumstance

of whether we have a piece of paper that says we can teach our child

or not because I have that. And yet I still felt like, oh, well,

can I do this? Because there were all these other things too. Like, are they

actually gonna get everything they need? All the the rumor of they're not gonna get

the socialization or all those things. And,

also, am I good enough to teach all the subjects all the way through high

school? I was starting to think big picture. Am I qualified to do all of

this instead of just, like, can I teach my son kindergarten? Which is what I'm

here to focus on right then. I feel like sometimes we really think we need

to know everything when really it could be something we learn along with

our child. And you also have to remember, I can share from the background

of a teacher as well. Yes. There are a lot of things we learn in

teacher school that help us to educate in a classroom setting where you have, like,

30 students, and a lot of that is classroom management and classroom

organization and things that when you're homeschooling, it just looks a lot

different. And you don't need to have that same background

in having a teaching degree or whatever to homeschool your kids because you

actually know your child better than that teacher does, and they are trying to differentiate

to me 30 plus kids in a classroom, which I can tell you

is a challenge. It's its own challenge that they're focused on, and you are

really yes. Well, you may not have the same teaching degree or whatever, you get

to spend that time 1 on 1 with your child or with your depending on

how many kids you have. But, again, you probably still get 1 on 1 with

each child, right, which is so much more. Like, for my daughter, I now know.

I was worried about it, but I now know she's thriving so much more that

she's getting that 1 on 1 attention than she would if she only had that

classroom experience. So I don't know. That's my initial just

thoughts on that. Yeah. I love the perspective that you bring to the table on

that. And I have have heard that some people coming from the teaching world and

then stepping into homeschooling that actually that it can make it a little bit harder

because you kinda have to unlearn Yes. All these things that you

have learned and the whole just being qualified to teach in the classroom and

the good, bad, and the differences between that and then, you know, teaching at home.

I think you make such a good point too, Kelsey, and I just I wanna

bring that back up. You don't have to have it all figured out. You know?

When you're just getting started and you're homeschooling a kindergartner

or a preschooler, you don't have to know how to create a high

school transcript yet. And I think that we get so hung up on that and

that we feel even more unqualified about what we do not know, and

we're putting all these additional stressors on ourselves, and it doesn't have to be that

way. Yeah. This is one that I really wrestled with because my kids

feeling not qualified to teach my children because my kids had been in the public

school system for 8 years. So my daughter was in 7th

grade, finished 7th grade when we pulled them out to start homeschooling, and I was

public schooled. And so I really, really wrestled with, man, I

am not I am not gonna be qualified. And, in fact, that's what held me

back. Between 2020 and 2022, that is honestly

the one thing that held me back, was I just kept saying, like, I can't.

Like, I I don't know how. I'm not qualified. And people began

speaking truth into my life that people have been home educating their children

for 100 and 100 of years. Mhmm. If you are an

honorable, productive adult who knows how to read and

write, you are capable of educating your children.

If you know how to do basic life skills, because, honestly, that's what really matters.

Like, your kids need to know how to manage money, how to cook, how to

do laundry. Yes. They need to know the basics of, you know, reading, writing, and

math, but there are things that are far more important than

the little minuscule thing that I I think sometimes that we focus on.

One tangible thing that you can do to to smash

this lie or this belief that you're not qualified is you can plug

into some great resources, like Kelsey's educate and rejuvenate

conference that's coming up is a great resource. Hslda.com

is a great resource. There are podcasts out there. Right? You can go to my

website, teach me to homeschool.com. And it might that domain, by the

way. Like, how perfect is that? Like, teach me to homeschool. There you go.

Right. Like, it's, like, a great starting point. I was thinking when I grabbed that

domain, I was thinking back, like, what would I be wanting to type in

that would make me feel like a googled, like, please help me. I don't know

how to homeschool. We're always googling, yeah, how to

homeschool. So you can go check out that website. It might take just a little

bit of reaching out for support, but I promise you that there are

some great resources out there. If you will just go to some of those basic

ones that I mentioned, those are great starting points. And

someone else told me at the beginning of our homeschool journey that the truth is

there are people out there less smart, less capable, and less

qualified than you are who are successfully homeschooling their kids.

Like, they're figuring it out. And I'm like, if they're figuring it out, I

can figure this thing out. And I also wanna say that,

most likely, you're doing a much better job than you're giving yourself credit for. And

the fact that you're even concerned about being qualified to

educate your children, it shows that you're a great mom. And you just have to

know going in that you're gonna make mistakes, and it and you're still a great

mom, even when you're making those mistakes. You live and learn

and grow as you go. I remember our first day of homeschool. I

made a rookie mistake of not even cracking open our curriculum

for our language arts. And the one that we had chosen, it started out it's

like, okay. Circle all the prepositions. And I was like, what the heck is

a preposition? Right? So I made some

rookie mistakes along the way, and we look back at it now and we just

laugh. I mean, you're gonna make mistakes, and it's gonna be okay. You just you

go and you grow as you go. And you learn together. You can always wake,

oh, when they ask a question. And this happens whether or not you homeschool. Your

kids will ask questions you don't know the answers to. You've been doing this all

along. Right? When your kids are 3 and 4, they're like, why this? Why that?

And you're like, oh, I don't know. Maybe we should go to Google and look

that up. You know? And that's what you can do when you're homeschooling as well.

For sure. It's it's such a redemption of your own education as the

mom. I mean, the things I have learned, it's been really enjoyable, honestly,

learning right alongside my kids. Yeah. And I will say there were even times in

the classroom where students would ask a question and be like, I don't know. And

have you been talk to other teacher friends, like, students will ask something. You're like,

let's look that up together and learn together. So, I mean, that's part of it,

is learning with them. As a teacher, whether you're homeschooling or in a

classroom, you don't all of a sudden know everything. Right?

That's that's so good. And I'm glad you bring up that point because I think,

as a homeschooling mom, I think that we think that public school

teachers know it all, that they honestly, legitimately know it all, and then we're

like, well, I don't know it all, so I can't homeschool. And that I mean,

that's not true. You just shattered that right there. Nobody knows it all. We're all

Right. Learning and growing. Yes. We're all learning and growing. And and

the other thing I love too is they think, like, people and this isn't even

on our list, but, like, some homeschoolers will be like, how do you work with

both homeschoolers and teachers? Aren't those, like, opposing each other? But

I actually don't think so because, one, you talk to any teacher,

and there are things they hate about the public school system, like,

100%. I feel like we're a lot on the same page. We our goal is

whether we want kids, like, and for when we're homeschooling us our own kids to

have the best education they can. And so I

think it's not like you're saying, oh, I don't support my friends. I thought people

would think I was judging them when I was homeschooling. Especially, I'm

like, oh, well, I help teachers. What are they gonna think when I homeschool? But

it hasn't been a problem at all. So I think we can really

just learn from each other too. Such a good point. Yeah. I think we all

have way more in common than we realize. What's what lie do you wanna jump

into next, Kelsey? Let's jump into another lie. The one that I feel like comes

up a lot and came up for me at the beginning of my homeschool journey

too is my kids are behind or I'm failing my

kids. Oh, that's a good one. That's a good one. Okay.

So I think on this one, I think the comparison

game is something to really watch out for on

this one. Again, I think that we have to take into consideration

what really, really matters. Whose standards are we

holding our kids to? Who are we comparing them to to say that

they're they're falling behind here or there? And perhaps they

have giftings and talents in this area, and maybe

this other area just simply isn't their strong point. One thing I love about homeschooling

is that we have the freedom to investigate those things that they're interested in and

passionate about and really help develop those skills. And what is that gonna do for

their future? If that's something that they're passionate about, it might be a good

idea to sort of pursue that path. Cover the basics,

but let them pursue the things that light them up. I think sometimes

we want to check all the boxes and make sure we get through all

the, you know, standard subjects in our homeschool day, and

then that's part of what causes us to feel like they're falling behind

or or or failing or, like, why don't they like this or that subject?

Do what you have to do to meet your state's requirements, but Mhmm. Give your

kids the freedom and allow yourself the freedom and the grace to kind

of follow what they're interested in. Core core subjects are

important. Yes. But I feel like there's so much more to it, and so this

comparison standard and them falling behind, I definitely

feel like is a lie. I agree. And I love what you mentioned about

how we are able to help them develop what really lights them up. I do

feel like that's one of the huge benefits of homeschooling is we can, yes, cover

all those core subjects, but then you have more time in the day to explore.

Let's say they're really into singing or acting. I mean, that comes up because that

is my daughter. And we have time for her to really explore more of that

too because she's not in school for as long every day. I

do love that about homeschooling. And so you can look at, like, what are the

benefits of that they've been homeschooled. My answer to that question too

would be that, again, who says what behind means? If we were gonna

if I were coaching someone on it and they're like, oh, my kids are behind

a big, well, what does that mean? What does it mean to be behind? And

believe me, I know. I know because I've been a teacher that, yes, there are

these standards that exist. Oh, well, in 3rd grade, they're supposed to be able to

do all these multiplication tables and different things like that. Right?

But, again, that's just a guideline

more so than every kid needs to do that because even if they were in

a public school, how many kids are not quite hitting that

standard? So many. And more than ever right now because of COVID.

So it's prevalent no matter whether they're homeschooled or they're in a traditional

school. But, really, it's like, yeah. That's what the standards are. It would

be great if they did that. But, also, are they going to survive?

Are they gonna have a calculator in their pocket unlike my math teacher told me

all growing up? Yes. They are. Right? They're gonna have their phone on them if

they need to do that multiplication table. It's not the end of the world. But

every kid is moving at their own timeline, and even Christina Kuzmic in

her podcast interview I did with her, she's our one of our keynotes at educate

and rejuvenate. She told this story about how her

son, he was focused on his mental health. Right? He was going to I don't

know if rehab is the word, but where he was, like, getting help and everything,

and he wasn't graduating, quote, on time. Right? And so

she sees another mom, and that other mom is like, oh, what are you doing

for graduation and talking about it and everything. And she's like, oh, he Luca

isn't graduating right now. And then that other mom is, oh, like, so embarrassed and

everything. But it's like, who said that he was graduating late? He

graduated 5 months later, and it was right on time for when he was

supposed to graduate. And that was his journey, so we can't expect that

every child's journey is going to look exactly the same. It might

not look like the standards in school. And guess what? If they're being

homeschooled, even better because they're not going to have that pressure, and they can really

just blossom on their own timeline. So I I have been

I feel, like, really successfully been busting that myth for myself right now

because I've had that one that I carried for the first probably 3 years

of homeschooling. So, again, don't feel like that overnight you're gonna and,

again, that's having gone through life coach school and everything. But

I feel like I've been able to bust that and be like, no. I'm not

feeling my kids. They're not behind. They're right where they need to be. That is

such a good motto. That's just a good life motto to adopt as a

homeschool mom. And it is such a beautiful thing that we could do this

individualized customized learning for our kids. I mean, honestly, they're

they're not getting that in the public school setting because there are it's like 1

teacher to 30 kids, and and that teacher only has so much

bandwidth. So, again, I just come back to who's who are

you comparing them to? What are the standards you're comparing them against? And just what

a blessing it is to be able to teach them 1 on 1 and to

be able to help them pursue the things that that they're interested in. And you

made such a good point, just allowing them the space to finish on their own

time. We're all unique individuals. It's like kids develop

differently from from the get go. They walk at different times. They crawl at different

times. All these things. And then I don't know why they get to be a

certain age, and it's like, okay. Times table's in 3rd grade.

Cursive, 4th grade, whatever it is. Let's let's develop them

how they're meant to be developed and just figure out how we can best

support them and meet them where they are. I love that. That's so

good. Yeah. And it's been, like, one, I think the reason it was so hard

to bust for me is actually because I'd been in that traditional classroom

and after that, writing curriculum based on the standards. So I

knew them probably for all the grade levels more than even just your average teacher.

I knew them intimately. Still still do. But I feel

like so trying to unweave that, it goes back to what we were talking about

at first. It might be better if I didn't have all that background information. I

could just teach my child where they're at. So those of you who are like,

I don't have that background. Trust me. There are benefits to not having that too

if you're going to be homeschooling. I can totally see that. The

state that you're in, Kelsey, is is standardized testing required for homeschoolers

in your state? I don't believe so. My my kids kids are technically in a

homeschool charter. They do administer the test, but you can

opt out or do whatever just like you would in public school. So we haven't

done the affidavit and everything that most homeschoolers do, but

I don't believe it is required here in Utah. Yeah. I know every state and

every which way you homeschool has their like, their different requirements. Even here in

Iowa, there are 5 different options for homeschooling, and some do require testing

and some don't. The way that we homeschool, we actually utilize the

local homeschool assistance program. So we're actually dual enrolled through the public school

even though we do all their educating here at home. They just, like, they participate

in sports and the homeschool group there. And so the way that we

homeschool, standardized testing is not required. I do have them do an

end of the year assessment, but it's not to compare them or to hold them

to some certain standard. It really is just to show me

as the homeschooling mom, individually for my kids, okay, what what do we

need to work on a little bit more next year? Yeah. So that's how I

that's how I view that. Yeah. And I actually I let I don't opt my

kids out. I have them do it, but I just know it's one data point.

It is not the data point. And any good teacher will tell you the same

thing. Yes. Yeah. There are so many factors to being a

a well rounded individual. It goes so much deeper than beyond the

standardized testing, for sure. Let's jump over

to the lies that we tell ourselves about time and

how much time we don't have and how we're always so Oh, yeah. Crazy

busy. There's not enough hours in the day. It felt like there was 27

more hours in the day. We don't have enough. I don't have enough time

for this or that. I don't have enough time for myself. I don't have enough

time to get the homeschooling done. I don't have enough time to run a business

and homeschool too. What are your thoughts on that, Kelsey? Oh, I

mean, for one, I could just say, I think we can all relate to all

of those thoughts because I think we all have them time and time again, and

they even pop up again for me even today because I'm recording podcasts

before. I'm like, oh, I'm not gonna be in the office for 2 weeks because

I'm gonna be doing a vendor booth and then going on a trip. But then

I notice it. Right? And I redirect because I've learned how important it is

to not be so in the I am busy. I'm so overwhelmed

all the time. Because what I found is a lot of times when we're thinking

I am busy, we're just perpetuating that. That thought is optional. We don't

have to keep repeating I am busy because then how does that make us feel?

It makes us feel overwhelmed, and then it makes us, what, more effective at

doing the things? Probably not. Right? It makes us maybe put

it off, maybe do it, like, all frazzled, and then realize, like, oh, I did

it this way, and I should've done it this way or whatever. I think really

what it takes is just telling ourselves, like, okay. Like, may for 1, I

like to say when I talk about time management is neutralizing it a little bit.

Like, okay. I have so much to do. Let's actually write the things down.

Write all the things your brain is telling you you need to do, and one

that need to do is a thought. Right? Because a lot of the things that

we tell ourselves we need to do, it's like, well, do I actually have to

do that? And then realizing whatever it is you're, like, doing is because you're

choosing to do it. It's so much more empowering that way. But

then also realizing what are you telling yourself you need to do that maybe you

don't, or maybe it's like, okay. Yeah. But I don't need to do it right

now. Or, oh, where could I delegate this? Maybe, oh, I could

just have Walmart plus bring my groceries instead of dragging all my kids to the

store, which takes way longer. Right? So I feel like it's

just actually taking some time to look at that list because, honestly, usually,

it's less overwhelming than we're making it out to be in our brains. We're like,

oh, there's so much. There's so much. I can't do it all. But when we

really analyze it, it's really not as bad as we

are making it out to be. When we add the drama on top, it makes

it worse. And I'm not saying that you don't have a lot to do because

chances are, like, if you have kids and you're homeschooling and you're running a business,

you probably have quantifiably some things on your list. Right?

But it's just our perspective behind it, our prioritization.

I've talked all day about time management. So I'm trying to figure out, like, what

exactly we wanna hit on this lie exactly. But

I think when we just say, I don't have time and that's why I can't

homeschool, homeschool doesn't have to be 8 hours a day, like, at

all. It probably shouldn't be. Ours is, like, you know,

the actual school part is 2 hours. That's it. And

then they have that additional time to explore and everything. And for

me, it's a little bit different because my husband helps as well. We trade off

with the homeschooling. We have, like, our days and our subjects that we do, but

it hasn't always looked that way. At the beginning, it was all me. Then for

a while, I was like, I need you to do it for a bit while

we were doing our 1st year of educate and rejuvenate. I was like, I can't

right now. So he did it for a bit, and then now we're

to this, like, balance where we're spreading it out. I think it's really just figuring

out what works in each different season for you as well. And I know

other people, they're like, oh, well, my husband couldn't help, but I have a friend

who she actually has a tutor who comes and helps. She homeschools her 10

kids, and she has somebody who comes and helps, and that's also an

option. So, yeah, just thinking outside the box too. I think you

hit on so much gold there, and so much of that resonates with me. And

this is the one that I have wrestled with, honestly, just admitting,

just like you. I have to catch myself when I'm saying this to myself

and somewhat break up with it and stop identifying with it

because, again, when we're telling ourselves that we're crazy busy, things are

popping up that are making us crazy busy. And you hit on so many great

things there, Kelsey. Delegation, I love that one. I love that you and your husband

kind of work it as a team. We had chatted before we hit record. My

husband is super supportive of homeschooling, but it's just it's definitely not his

strength. So we both are working in our strengths at work from home, and

he's he's doing that. He's supporting us, and then I'm working in my

strength. But like you said, the the groceries, the if you need to delegate getting

your house cleaned, so be it. I think delegation is key. I

think also that the truth is that we waste a lot of time.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of times with my life coaching clients,

I will have them for 48 hours track their time every

hour. At the end of every hour, they're writing down exactly what they spent that

hour doing. And sometimes they're shocked to see how many hours in the

day that they're wasting it. So I think track your time to gain some

awareness around how you're actually spending your time. And

then Kelsey sort of hit on what I call urgent versus important.

Yes. You you have this to do with all things that

you want to do. The urgency matrix. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And

and so many times, it's like instead of tackling the important thing that would actually

help us move forward in whatever area of our life, we just

keep racking up these little things on top. You know, call the dentist, run a

load of laundry, blah blah blah blah blah. Urgent. I have to get it done

right now, but it's not actually moving you forward. Yeah. Yeah. And then at the

end of the day, we've done, like, 27 urgent things, but but nothing that

was actually important. Right? And so all the important stuff is still left. So

I think gaining awareness around that. I mean, I feel like there is such a

handful of things that we can do as moms to set ourself up for

success from the time tracking to the realizing what actually is important, what

actually matters Mhmm. What actually needs to get done to help us and our kids

move forward towards our goals, you know, planning ahead. Little things

like lesson planning for the next week instead of starting the homeschool day

totally frazzled. I think there are so many just simple

things like that that we can do where we can really help ourself

debunk this live and we don't have enough hours in the day.

Yeah. For sure. And I love the urgency matrix that you mentioned too. It

was one thing that I was like, oh, I don't know how much time do

I have to talk because then I could just talk forever. But I do find

that it's so helpful to just see what is the urgent and important. We

wanna make sure we're getting those done. Right? I have it in my book. So

if anybody wants to see more about it that's coming out, you probably have something

on it too. And then, of course, Stephen Covey, who had that in his book

too. So it's very helpful. For sure. I Kelsey, I think we have time

for one more lie. Which one do you wanna dive into? Oh, okay. Let's

pick 1. Let's do I'm not doing enough or I'm not enough. I feel

like that's a good ending one. Right? I am not enough. Yeah.

Okay. So I think that this one somewhat comes back

to the comparison game. I don't know why

as human beings, we just we just don't feel qualified sometimes, and we

have so much self doubt. We pick up so much of that, what I call,

imposter syndrome. And, again, the truth is you're a really good

mom. The fact that you're worried about it means that you're a really good

mom. So, again, let's take a look at the things that actually matter

most, the things that your kids wanna pursue, the things that they're interested in, and

above all else, raising your kids to be honorable, productive

humans. Right? Adults that that know how to function well

in society, that know how to take care of their self, that that know how

to provide for their self, and I rank very high on that list of

important relationships. Teaching your kids how to build

and develop good relationships, that really, really matters. I

mean, communication and relationships, I would argue, are probably the most

important things to be teaching your kids. So when you're feeling

like you are not enough, you're not doing a good enough job, just keep

in mind the really important things, what really actually matters. And I also

want to stress to you that doing things little by

little by little really matters. And so every day,

you're doing these little things, all these days that you're feeling like you're not enough

or you're not doing enough. If you're doing a little something, you're doing a lot

because the little by little by little, it adds up. You're pouring into your kids.

You're building up your kids. And at the end of the school year, you will

be shocked and amazed at all the things that they have learned. This

year, for my kids, I had them memorize an entire chapter of the Bible, Colossians

chapter 3. Oh, wow. Good for you. Yeah. And yeah. And so it's

25 verses. And so at the beginning of the school year, my kids were like,

mom, we can't do that. We cannot. That is so much. It's

so much. Right? And it looked overwhelming, but I was like, guys, we're gonna break

this down little by little by little, and we're gonna learn and memorize

about a verse per week or, you know, a verse every 1 to 2

weeks. And at the end of the school year, man, they have the whole thing

memorized like that, and we had a little end of the school year program and

they recited it. They knew it like the back of their hand. So I just

wanna stress that what you're pouring into your kids, what you're doing every day, little

by little by little, it really matters, and you're doing a lot. You're doing a

whole lot. I love that. And, yes, I love how just little

by little, like, a whole chapter of the Bible. Like, how cool is that? But

it was done, like, one line, 1 verse at a time, not, like,

all at once. And I think that so often because

progress is so little by little by little, we don't always notice

it, and so we just keep saying, oh, I'm not enough or, oh, I'm not

there yet. Like, even when we get to where the there was before, we

just compare ourselves to the new there where we want to be instead of actually

looking back and noticing how far we've come. So, for example, depending

on where you are in your homeschool journey, like, if have a year under your

belt, look back and see how much you've learned. Or if you even

if you're just researching homeschooling or if you've been homeschooled for 20 years, no matter

where you're at, look back and see how far have you come from when you

first started or first decided to do this or even first had your kids.

You'll be amazed at, like, oh, wow. I am so much more patient than I

used to be, or we've got really got our routine down, or, oh, we found

the right curriculum fit. And whatever it is, you have

done more than you realize. And we tend to just write those things off and

think that they don't matter anymore rather than owning those wins and be like, yes.

Look how much I have accomplished. Look how much me and my kids have accomplished

together. Instead, we just look at the lack. We look at, like, where we want

to be. And this is actually a concept I learned from Dan Sullivan

and Benjamin Hardy's book, The Gap in the Gain. Have you read that one? I

have not. It is really good. So it's when we're in the gap, we're looking

at that gap between where we are and where we wanna be and comparing and

not in a good way because we can look at where we wanna be and,

like, aspire to it. That's great. But we wanna do it from that place of

seeing, oh, I if I came this far, then I can do that. But when

we just look at, oh, I'm not there. I can't do that. That's terrible. And

we just completely forget about how far we've come. We're in that gap. We're just

in always in the gap that just keeps moving, that moving goal post, where

instead we can look at, oh, the gain, how far I have come.

And that's so much more powerful, and it gives us so much more momentum

to get to where we want to go from that place of I am

enough. Yeah. I love your thoughts on reflecting back, and I think that we

don't allow ourselves the space to do that nearly enough. Because

if you look back, truly at the clear big picture of

where you were and where you are and even excitedly anticipating what's

yet to come, I think you'll really see, again, that little by little

concept and how far you truly have come. So, yeah, I think that's really important

too, Kelsey. Let's close out today talking about the

educate and rejuvenate event that is coming up. Kelsey, tell us all

about it. Yes. I'm so excited. I wanted to share about the event. And then

since this will also go on my show, I want you to share about what

you're going to be teaching too So For sure. In your session.

So the educate and rejuvenate event, what I love to say is that it's

professional development meets personal development. You might think, oh, I'm not a professional, but it's

just your teaching, up leveling your teaching, how you teach reading or writing or math

or STEM or learning those up to date

teaching research back topics. So if you're if you so if you're feeling like, oh,

I'm not qualified to teach this, you can actually learn some of that stuff at

this event. And, again, it's not because you're not qualified, but it's because we love

to learn how to do it, how to teach better. So it's a great

way to do that, to learn those skills, but, also, we have lots

of of certified life coaches, like you and I, both presenting and

sharing ways to destress, to, manage our emotions,

to time management, things like that that

help us with our homeschooling as well. So we have a full panel of

homeschool presenters. Like I mentioned, I started my company working with teachers. We have

a full teacher track. But then last year, I was like, I really wanna get

the homeschoolers in on this. So last year, we added the homeschool track, and it

was really successful. So we're keeping it. We're doing it again, and I'm so

excited because I love like, that's what I do now. Since 2019, I've been a

homeschool mom. I haven't been in the classroom for quite a while, so I'm really

excited that we have all these homeschool sessions too. And the great thing is you

can pick sessions from either track. You don't have to avoid the teacher

track. You might wanna learn from some of those school teachers. They're amazing. And

learn what they have to share and apply it to your homeschool. And then we

also and, I mean, I'm jumping all over, but it's just because there is so

much of this event. We start each day with either a yoga class or we

have a dance class on the other day. So we start by energizing your

body because I feel connecting with our bodies and our feelings, our emotions

help us to be able to apply all this better. It's just really looking at

you holistically as a homeschool mom so you can

take care of yourself so you can better take care of your kids and

teach them. Have more fun teaching them. Learn new strategies you can try. It'll make

you excited. If you take a break for summer, for us, we're actually we still

do a little bit during the summer because it allows us to just when we

go on trips during the year, we don't stress it and we just we do

what we do, you know? But it allows you to be, oh, here's some new

things I can try for the next school year. So it's a lot of fun,

basically. And we have a lot of lives. We will have the whole homeschool

panel. So you'll wanna make sure to join that one. It's gonna be fun.

I am so excited to participate in this, Kelsey. I know that you and

your team have worked really, really hard to put a wonderful top notch

event together for all of our families, and I'm just absolutely

thrilled to be a part of it. I know both of us will link up

in our our show notes or our blog wherever where listeners can go grab a

ticket for that event because it is gonna be the don't miss event of the

summer. And like I said, I could not be more thrilled to be a part

of it. So the talk that I'm giving is actually geared specifically

towards homeschool families, and I'm gonna be sharing our

full story of our journey going from public school

into homeschool. And so I'll dive into that. I love

that. I'm gonna tell a really funny story about our pet

turtle, believe it or not. We have random things over here, a

pet turtle. We have chickens now. But so, anyway, you don't wanna miss that story

because it is absolutely hilarious. It will shock you, so tune in for that

story. And then I will be sharing the 3 simple steps that you

can take to easily transition from public school into

homeschool because, truly, it doesn't have to be scary. It really can be simple,

and so I'm excited to share with the audience, Kelsey, about that

topic. As we come to a close today, I'm gonna share all the places that

you can find me, and then I'm gonna hand it over to Kelsey to to

close this out. So, again, Katie Hedrick. You can find me on

social media. Mostly, I'm on Facebook and TikTok,

actually. I love to post over there. It's so fun. It's so

much fun. Tons of homeschool content over on my TikTok

and the joy at home podcast, of course, and then you

can go grab and check out all my homeschool resources over at

teachmetohomeschool.com, and I look so forward

to connecting with you. With that, I'm gonna hand it over to Kelsey and let

her sign us off for today. Alright. Thank you so much again,

Katie, for reaching out for us to do this episode together. It's been

such a fun time. Also, I can't wait to hear that turtle story. You got

me intrigued. I'm like, oh, gotta hear about this turtle now, so gotta make sure

to watch Katie's session. Don't miss it. But you can

find me like I mentioned, we're actually in the process of rebranding. But by the

time this episode airs on both podcasts, the website should be educateandrejuvenatedot

com. You can also find me on Instagram at educate and rejuvenate, Facebook at educate

and rejuvenate, the educate and rejuvenate podcast, and then my upcoming

book, Educate and Rejuvenate. Pretty much just search for Educate and

Rejuvenate, and you will find me. It has been such a

joy cocreating this podcast episode with you. I just really wanna

personally thank you for sharing your time and expertise with us today. You

too. This has been so much fun, and this will be a great episode to

go on both shows. So whichever one you are listening to, if you're on educate

and rejuvenate the podcast right now, be sure to go subscribe to joy at home

if you enjoyed this episode and vice versa. If you're listening on joy at home,

make sure to pop over to educate and rejuvenate the podcast. We would love for

you to have both of us supporting you in your earbuds each week.

Yes. And be sure to grab your ticket to educate and rejuvenate, and Kelsey and

I will see you there this summer. For now, we're signing off

with joy. If you enjoyed this episode, please

hit subscribe so you don't miss the next one. And if you're hungry for

more, be sure to check out the book that I wrote. It's called Educate and

Rejuvenate, a 3 step guide to revitalize your teaching, renew your

spirit, and reignite your passion for life. It is scheduled to

be released in the summer of 2024. This book takes all the life

coaching skills we talk about here on the podcast and puts them together in one

easy to understand guide. Plus, when you pre order, you'll receive a PDF

workbook and additional resources to deepen your understanding and

application of the concepts we've covered on the book and on this podcast.

You won't find these resources anywhere else. Visit the link in the show

notes to join the wait list and be the 1st to know when the book

becomes available for pre order. Let's continue this journey of growth and

rejuvenation together. Until next

time.