Episode Transcript
-- [00:00:00] Shelley: What kind of freedoms does homeschooling and flexibilities does it give
to you in your life?
[00:00:06] Makaylah: Well, I am glad that you asked that question because there are so many.
[00:00:10] Shelley: Are there?
[00:00:11] Makaylah: Do tell.
[00:00:11] Shelley: Do tell.
[00:00:13] Makaylah: So having the availability to take a day, go to my friend's house, take a day, go to the park, go to the pool, being able to just being able to not be on a certain schedule is really nice. Whenever we're busy with other things, I don't have to show up on a certain time to school and not be available to help.
[00:00:40] Shelley: Hey, y'all, put on your boots, grab your headphones, and let's get a little muddy.
[00:00:44] Rich: As we build a community rooted in the love of dirt roads for the dust or
mud.
[00:00:48] Shelley: Welcome to the Dust’er Mud podcast.
Hi, everybody. Welcome to the duster mud podcast, episode number twelve.
Today we have a special guest with us again, and it is not who I said it was going to be last week. No, we had to do a schedule kind of switcheroo. And Rebekah, who was going to be on here, she's going to be on next week, she had some scheduling issues. So we quickly said, hey, Makaylah, want to be on the podcast?
[00:01:22] Makaylah: And I said, sure do.
[00:01:26] Shelley: Good. So anyway, we have Makaylah here, but before we get to Makaylah yeah.
[00:01:31] Rich: Last week, episode eleven was a deep dive with Tim Arbieter, the marines ark, talking about his journey to the Ozarks. And wow, what an awesome conversation we had, man. We went all into finances and gold and fiat currency.
[00:01:52] Shelley: It was quite an education, actually. It was such an education that I got some text messages from one of our daughters who lives overseas, adult, has kids, married, and she's like, I was having to stop about every five minutes and tell my husband, did you know? Did you know? And why do we know this stuff? And just that, man, we should have gotten this information before we were allowed to go out and be an adult. So she had me laughing. And point being, there was a lot of good information and education for everybody. If you have not listened to episode eleven and you want to learn a little bit about inflation, how inflation works, how they calculate it, and maybe even some of the gold, what happened with the dollar and when he's just a wealth of information. So go back and take a look at episode eleven with Mr. Tim.
[00:02:46] Rich: Yeah, for sure.
That brings us to today episode twelve with Makaylah. It does.
[00:02:52] Shelley: Makaylah.
[00:02:53] Makaylah: Hi.
-- ken care of. Yeah.
[00:04:31] Shelley: That's going to be very, quite a project.
[00:04:33] Makaylah: Exciting.
[00:04:34] Shelley: Well, one of the things that we're going to do is we're going to cut some up this time, instead of just doing everything whole, we will be offering breasts and thighs and legs and wings and getting those packaged up. So this is kind of a new venture and we don’t really exactly know the process and everything, so there's going to be a little bit of a learning curve.
[00:04:53] Makaylah: Definitely going to take a little bit longer than yeah.
[00:04:57] Shelley: Yeah.
[00:04:57] Makaylah: We'll have to get into our rhythm again.
[00:05:00] Rich: That's true.
[00:05:00] Shelley: Yes.
[00:05:01] Rich: New rhythm.
[00:05:02] Makaylah: New rhythm.
[00:05:03] Rich: Yeah. And then also this week, we went out one morning and Shell was
like, what is that over there? Yeah.
[00:05:10] Shelley: So two of our female livestock guardian dogs did their job.
[00:05:14] Rich: Yeah, they did.
[00:05:15] Shelley: Finally.
They may do their job every day. There's no evidence of it. This time they took out two raccoons for us.
[00:05:25] Makaylah: Really?
[00:05:26] Shelley: Yeah.
[00:05:27] Rich: Raccoons can really they wreak havoc, especially with birds.
[00:05:31] Shelley: Yes. With our poultry, they can. Really? So we were super. We were really happy to see that.
[00:05:38] Rich: Yeah, they did a good job.
[00:05:40] Makaylah: Didn't tell me about that one.
[00:05:41] Shelley: They killed two.
[00:05:43] Makaylah: That's impressive.
[00:05:45] Shelley: It is impressive.
[00:05:46] Rich: Yeah. Nala and Missy.
Makaylah says getting up is difficult for a first grader.
Having to get a watch just to look at the time isn't the best thing, I would guess.
Some parts were really fun to go outside, hang out with my friends. The projects, the science projects were fun, as always.
But it was very stressful having to wake up in the morning and falling asleep, having that gut wrenching feeling that I have to wake up and go do that again.
[00:08:59] Rich: Do you remember which days specifically that was the worst? I do.
[00:09:03] Makaylah: Monday.
[00:09:04] Rich: And why was that? Why was Monday evening or Monday night the worst night for you?
[00:09:09] Makaylah: My computer class. My computer class teacher, I should say.
[00:09:16] Rich: Yeah. That was on Tuesdays, wasn't it?
[00:09:17] Makaylah: Oh, yeah.
I don't specifically remember Monday. I just remember not liking going at all.
So my computer class teacher was not the best to children. She was like a cranky old librarian.
[00:09:40] Shelley: Sorry about that. All the librarians out there. I'm kidding.
[00:09:46] Makaylah: Yeah.
[00:09:46] Shelley: So you didn't like that computer teacher. That was very stressful
experience for you. And that sort of led us and our hearts down a path to try to figure out
something else. We ran into some scheduling problems whenever you were in first grade because all of your sisters were a little older. We had to go to a lot of events, and then we were getting letters of you're missing too many days. And so it all just sort of came together but you're not the first one to have been homeschooled.
[00:10:15] Makaylah: There was four in the making.
[00:10:16] Shelley: That's right. There were four other ones, and they were homeschooled for quite a number of years, just depending on who you ask, because of their different ages.
[00:10:25] Rich: Yeah. And when we made the decision to homeschool the others, lots of reasons why, but we went and took Rebekah, the oldest, out of school, and the feeling of freedom that we experienced when we made that decision and walked out of the school with her records. And now there was this feeling that she now belonged to us, that she didn't belong to the state anymore, that she didn't belong to the government anymore. That oppression that came with her belonging to the government, it was like, immediately lifted. And we left her school and went immediately to the other girls schools and took them all out.
[00:11:17] Shelley: And we absolutely loved over the years, we have absolutely loved the freedom that it gave us to educate however it was that we saw fit. And it also gave them the older kids. It gave them education continuity because we moved so much throughout your career that it gave them the opportunity to just continue on with the same exact classes. Same
Makaylah:— I went to church on Wednesdays to see my friends.
That was disappointing for me because I really enjoyed that. After that, we kind of let off of those things, which was disappointing for me as a kid.
[00:13:54] Shelley: I think a lot of kids went through that during the COVID time when they couldn't go to school that they were used to and all the activities that people just had to miss. That was not a fun year.
[00:14:05] Makaylah: No.
[00:14:06] Shelley: Period. Yeah.
Got it. So you have been homeschooled for quite some time now. We've lived in Missouri. We've done a myriad of different styles. We've done different curriculums. We've done just trying out what works best for you and what works best for us and the things that we have to do. Really pulled back from a lot of the just curriculums for a while, especially during moving and building and setting up a farm. We did some other things, but now we've kind of tapped back into and really like I like the curriculum that you're working on right now. We use Masterbooks. Highly recommend it.
It's a Charlote Mason style of curriculum. If you go to Masterbooks.com, if you're interested, what are your thoughts on your curriculum right now?
[00:15:07] Makaylah: It's really good. I enjoy it a lot. It makes it very easy for me to understand the topics that they're talking about.
They explain it in a very helpful way to me. And it's also really nice that both of you can answer
my questions, like with math or with history or reading or not reading.
Yeah. But it really helps having someone there, and I don't usually have to ask too many
questions with just normal, everyday school, which is really nice.
[00:15:44] Shelley: Good. Cool. Well, that's good to hear. And what's your favorite subject?
[00:15:51] Makaylah: My favorite subject is science. I find it very interesting.
[00:15:55] Shelley: Yeah, I did, too, when I was in school. I loved science. And if you had to pick a least favorite, what would you I don't.
[00:16:03] Makaylah: Really have a least favorite. I just have not the best ones.
[00:16:08] Shelley: Okay.
[00:16:10] Makaylah: I don't necessarily like history. The book is fun to read.
[00:16:16] Shelley: Okay.
[00:16:18] Makaylah: Sometimes it can be difficult for me. Sometimes way rather do science than history.
[00:16:28] Shelley: That is so yeah.
-- no teacher certification requirements, no standardized testing requirements.
[00:18:58] Shelley: No, you can just teach your kids.
[00:19:00] Makaylah: Yeah, I wasn't aware that, of course, in my later or my younger years, I wasn't aware that you had to log in anything at all.
[00:19:10] Rich: Yeah, you do.
[00:19:11] Makaylah: That's interesting to me.
[00:19:12] Shelley: Some states at the government level, at the school board level,
mandatory records prove to me that you're teaching your kid. And to show me what they’ve learned.
[00:19:25] Makaylah: I feel like that is understandable, to make sure that they are getting the education necessary to go on with their life in their adult years.
[00:19:34] Rich: Yeah.
[00:19:35] Shelley: Okay.
[00:19:35] Rich: And so, like we said, in Missouri, there are specific subjects that have to be taught reading, math, social studies, language arts. Once you get up into high school, then it includes science, history, civics, literature, and then the US. And Missouri Constitutions must be taught in high school.
So, as Makaylah highlights, not a bad thing to say that these subjects are required, but I do think that the way that they have it set up to keep track of things really leaves it up to the parents to where they have the freedom to do what needs to be done.
[00:20:13] Shelley: So they do also offer dual enrollment in Missouri, along with most other states. Some states you have to pay to play, and some states it's completely free. In the state of Florida, where we lived, when one of our daughters was actually coming on through high school, she was able to go and get her AA for free and graduated high school with her AA at 18. Here you have to pay a little bit of money, but it's still super affordable. So you do. By the way, we were discussing your life today and you qualify, or you can qualify.
[00:20:46] Makaylah: Oh, good.
[00:20:47] Shelley: When you're in high school to be a high school student taking college classes.
[00:20:52] Makaylah: I've heard of that before. I'm really interested in it and wanting to go deeper into that and maybe do it whenever I'm at that age.
[00:21:02] Rich: Cool.
[00:21:02] Shelley: Good.
[00:21:02] Rich: And the different schools have different requirements, so some require
you to be 16, some require you to be in 9th grade. So it would just depend on what school we were looking at would be the when we would be able to do something like that. But it's actually not too far in the future.
-- e bit cranky.
[00:23:35] Rich: But aren't we all?
[00:23:37] Makaylah: Aren't we all? After I am done doing morning rounds, I'll come in, cook me some breakfast, go sit in my room, go hang out. Once I'm done with that, I will usually go back out, give all the animals water, get the duck eggs in the mornings, get chicken eggs. After that, I'll usually come back inside, come do school. That usually takes me about an hour, 2 hours, depending on the day and how much I have to
do. Some days it's a lot more than others, but after that, I usually have the day to just hang out, do my chores, do the things that I personally need to do for myself and my happiness and my pet’s happiness and comfort. But after that, it's really just do rounds and go to bed.
[00:24:40] Rich: You mentioned your pet.
[00:24:41] Makaylah: What is my pet? I have a pet rabbit named Zulu.
[00:24:45] Rich: Oh, yeah? What kind of rabbit?
[00:24:48] Makaylah: He is a lion head rabbit. Very pretty, fluffy.
He has gotten sweeter over time. He has his own little corner in my room. Yes, he does that. I clean often, try to keep it under control so it doesn't get too bad. Whenever I leave for a bunch of days, usually I'll come home and I'm like, do that tomorrow.
But yeah, he's really easy to maintain. Give him water, food, hay, of course.
Yeah.
[00:25:25] Rich: So compare for me. You talked about the feeling that you had, especially on those nights when you had your computer class the next day when you were in first grade and that you called it a gut feel. I think we all know what that gut feel feels like when you have anxiety or something that you dread that you know is about to happen and there's nothing you can do to stop it. So compare that feeling to now when you go to bed. Do you have that feeling to wake up?
[00:25:57] Makaylah: Not usually, no.
On some days, whenever just in general, some days I go to bed with that feeling for no absolute reason. But that's just a me problem. But I don't have that feeling very often. Going to bed.
[00:26:13] Rich: That's awesome.
[00:26:14] Makaylah: Yeah, sometimes I get it, like before. Belt testing taekwondo.
[00:26:20] Rich: So tell us about Taekwondo.
Shelley: there, and they start doing forms, and it's something to watch because they're all doing a different thing. It's not I cheered, I danced, I did stuff, but we're doing stuff with other people.
[00:29:11] Makaylah: It's a choreographed thing.
[00:29:12] Shelley: Yeah, it's very choreographed. And so you can kind of watch on other people to keep up with what we're doing. If you happen to forget, but your guys are all doing something at completely different, trying to keep up with what you're doing. And I'm always amazed at you guys.
[00:29:29] Makaylah: But it's a mental, very mental. I struggle from anxiety with that sort of thing and a lot of other things.
If it really means a lot to me, that means a great deal to me. So I get really stressed out about it. Usually I'll be okay. I'll be fine until I get out there. And then I'll mess up one thing. It only has to be one, and I break down because then my brain starts rushing and running, and I've passed every time, which is good.
[00:30:06] Shelley: What do you do to overcome it? Obviously you do something to overcome it. What do you do?
[00:30:11] Makaylah: A lot of tools. Last spell testing, I didn't do very good on that, but usually I will try to remind myself that they are not looking for perfect.
I'm a pretty perfectionist kind of person, so I feel like I need to you're welcome.
Rich: “Sorry.”
[00:30:34] Shelley: He is, yeah, I'm a “good enough” person.
[00:30:41] Makaylah: I try to remind myself that I am just being the best that I can do.
My friends have said that they've heard my teachers brag about me on some tests whenever I didn't. In my heart, I feel like I didn't do good. Like my last test, I didn't do good, but my teacher bragged about me, which I find interesting.
But what I do to overcome it is try to ground myself, because whenever I start going up there, I go high. I'm in the clouds. So I have to ground myself and remember that I am doing the best that I can and everyone else is doing the best that they can. No one out there is perfect.
[00:31:31] Shelley: And they didn't come here just to mess up either.
[00:31:34] Makaylah: No. Everyone's going for a reason. We try to fulfill that reason as best as we possibly can.
[00:31:44] Shelley: Wow, that's cool.
Interesting.
Yeah, this is a great conversation.
Wow.
You're something else.
Makaylah: Important. I think I could definitely cook a meal, a healthy meal, not just ramen, which I do enjoy.
I can cook a healthy and sustainable meal by myself if if necessary.
[00:35:09] Rich: That's true.
[00:35:10] Makaylah: And having, like I can cook sausage, which is easy. Put some baking grease in a pan and chop it up. Put in there.
I'm really good at cooking vegetables, like, skillet wise.
I have watched other people make food.
I've taken mental note of it. Like, whenever he does grill and skillets and stuff, like Asian food I really enjoy as well.
I have learned over time how to, I think, make a pretty. Good Asian meal.
[00:35:46] Rich: I agree.
[00:35:47] Shelley: I agree.
[00:35:49] Rich: Wow.
You're awesome, kid.
[00:35:52] Shelley: You are awesome.
[00:35:54] Rich: Okay. Advantages and challenges. Talk about pros and cons.
What are the good things? What are the bad things? Are there highlights? Are there low lights?
Like homeschooling in general? Homeschooling? Yeah. Goods and bads.
[00:36:11] Makaylah: Yeah, that's also a good question.
Pros are being able to be outside, going around.
Cons are especially challenging days, like moving days can sometimes be stressful for all of us.
[00:36:33] Rich: Animal moving?
[00:36:33] Makaylah: Animal moving.
Sorry.
Can be challenging for all of us. Sheep days are usually not the best. There's usually a lot of whenever it's hot, especially.
[00:36:46] Shelley: So you're talking about the farming aspect.
[00:36:49] Makaylah: Am I supposed to?
[00:36:50] Shelley: No. Yeah. You go wherever you want to. I think he was kind of getting more at the back to the homeschooling.
What would be the pros of homeschooling and then what would be your cons?
-- ated so that you can go do the thing?
So that would be my only thing, and my pros are because I get to be with them.
[00:40:24] Makaylah: What is your perspective on the homeschooling?
[00:40:28] Rich: I can't imagine putting you back in public school.
[00:40:31] Makaylah: Really?
[00:40:31] Rich: No, I wouldn't do it.
[00:40:33] Makaylah: Really?
[00:40:36] Rich: I think we would go to a different state if we had to. I feel that strongly
about it.
[00:40:42] Makaylah: Wow.
[00:40:43] Rich: I really don't like it for the most part. I don't like where they're going with
the education, especially with the social things. So it's a hard no for me on the public school thing.
That's a big no. So for me, the the pros of homeschooling, everything far outweigh anything that could be considered a con. And like your mom, I don't really see any cons to the homeschooling.
So for me, all pros good.
[00:41:29] Makaylah: So I'm the only one with cons, but I guess not really cons.
[00:41:33] Shelley: I said I used to have cons. I just think times have changed enough, and I've been doing it long enough. From my perspective that there really aren't any.
[00:41:41] Rich: You're allowed to say that not everything is perfect.
I don't want you to feel like we think that it is. We totally understand. And I absolutely understand the things that you were saying. Just for me, the pros so far outweigh. Whatever the cons would be, definitely. That it's. Like, whatever.
[00:42:05] Makaylah: Yeah.
In public school, in first grade, having to go home, and that would usually be most people's rest time. Like, coming home from work, you get to go sit down, watch TV, spend time with your spouse or whoever.
But whenever you're in school, a lot of times you have to go home and sit on your desk and do homework and all those things. And as a first grader, I really didn't enjoy that. That overwhelmed me a lot to where it was like a dreaded part of the day.
Now it's all homework. Yeah, now it's all homework, but it doesn't have the same weight,
because homework for public school is, like it's a part of your grades. It's a part of what you learned. But right there, I can study for as long as I feel necessary for what I'm specifically working on.
[00:43:05] Shelley: Speaking of that, how your aspirations with your aspirations into the
future? How do you feel homeschooling is preparing you and do you have what like yeah, I know you're
-- is an article in The Hill by Lexi Lonas and it is a bit of a I don't know if you would call it
shocking, but what the article is talking about is that homeschoolers aren't necessarily huge fans
of the school choice wins that are happening in the Republican states. So some highlights from
the article. School choice advocates have had a successful year implementing new policies in
Republican led states. But there are concerns, especially from the homeschoolers.
The biggest concern is the government getting involved in what has been dubbed education
freedom has sent chills down the spines of some homeschool. Backers homeschoolers worry
some of the more popular school choice programs are getting implemented such as education
savings accounts will become a Trojan horse to the government getting more say in how they
educate their children at home. We've long had a policy position against public funding of private
homeschooling for a variety of reasons.
One of the main reasons is that the strength of private homeschooling has been the fact that we
have stayed private in very important respects and not been dependent on government funding.
That was a quote from James Mason, the president of Homeschool Legal Defense Association,
that has spawned an incredibly broad and diverse kind of homeschooling ecosystem where
we've created a whole new kind of education, education freedom that didn't exist 40 years ago.
So we're very leery of government involvement through funding that would roll that kind of
freedom.
New programs have fueled worries for some homeschoolers who believe that if parents start
taking government money, then the government can add conditions on how or what they teach
proverbial strings. Yeah.
It ends by saying our goal is to protect the liberty of parents to choose. So we're on the lookout
for additional regulations that may come along with money. We all know about purse strings.
[00:48:00] Shelley: Yeah. So if you're not familiar with it, the Home school defense sorry,
homeschool Legal Defense Association go to their website if you are interested in
homeschooling and start diving in there, you can go to your state, you can look up all the rules
and regulations from your state. This organization has been absolutely key to creating
homeschool freedom across this entire nation and have defended homeschool parents for years.
And it's a lot easier to homeschool these days and we really just want to keep it that way. They
have fought hard for the last 40 years. So many people homeschooled their kids in secret and
that you don't have to anymore. And we want to make sure that it stays that way. And I think
they're concerned and I understand it. Yay, school choice. But at the same time but if I start
taking money from the federal.
[00:49:02] Rich: Government, yeah, this is one that is easy for me.
You look at even some of the states like Idaho, there are a lot of places that Idaho does not take
federal funding because they don't want the strings attached to that federal funding.
Missouri, there are things where Missouri does not do what the federal government wants them
to do so they don't get the funding that other states get. This one is one and I hadn't really
thought about know, in thinking about it, like, man, I wish that they would give out vouchers or
something so that we could do what we wanted to do.
But I don't think thinking about it, looking at this, wait a minute, I wouldn't take it because.
[00:49:53] Shelley: You know, it.
[00:49:54] Rich: Will, it will come with strings attached on. Now you must and you can't
and not interested turn in your not interested.
[00:50:05] Shelley: Turn in your proof that you used your money that we gave you. Yeah, no,
I'm good.
-- don't know.
[00:51:04] Rich: And so the way that they were talking about it in the article, the win is
allow for homeschooling, leave us alone. And if you want to do vouchers that include private
schools and other such things, go ahead and do that as well, but leave the home school alone.
[00:51:21] Shelley: I absolutely understand the argument though. We pay taxes and the
majority of property owners, all property owners, we pay taxes. And those taxes go to education.
They go to the school systems to the tunes of millions and millions and millions of dollars. And if
you're a homeschooler and you're a homeowner, you're paying taxes for a system you're not
even using.
[00:51:48] Rich: I would rather do that than have the government tell me what I could do in
my home school.
[00:51:52] Makaylah: Okay.
Sorry.
[00:51:54] Shelley: Kind of going bust.
[00:51:58] Makaylah: A lot of my friends are homeschooled. I don't know a lot of people who
aren't right now.
Yeah. And they seem to like it a lot.
[00:52:09] Rich: Cool.
[00:52:10] Makaylah: In general.
And I know several people who have gone back to public school because their homeschooling
environment wasn't ideal. Okay, cool.
[00:52:25] Rich: Yeah. So I think you're thinking back to as we were talking about pros and
cons. Right. And there was one that you wanted to add.
[00:52:33] Shelley: Yeah.
[00:52:33] Rich: And so a potential con to homeschooling that might even lead kids to
public school to choose a public school is there are times when maybe it just doesn't work out.
[00:52:48] Makaylah: Yeah. Not all people are necessarily not fit for home school. But not all
people have the best area or not all times they want to do it. So it doesn't go as well.
[00:53:04] Shelley: Or they're focusing discipline.
[00:53:06] Makaylah: Yeah, they're focusing on other things. A lot of people need a specific set
schedule, which I understand a lot. Being able to wake up in the morning, get dressed, get
ready, go for sure is nice. But yeah. Sometimes homeschooling doesn't work for everyone.
[00:53:26] Rich: That's an important point.
[00:53:27] Shelley: Thank you.
Well, let's wrap this up. Makaylah, thank you for taking time out of your very busy day. Busy schedule. How brave and being so brave.
[00:53:40] Rich: You did an amazing job. Very proud of you. Really brave.
-- t. Yeah. If it's good, put it on your social media. If you like it, tag somebody in it. Share it with
them. If it's a subject that you think that someone would be interested in, that'll really help out the
channel. Yeah. Cool. All right. Well, until next week. Bye, y'all.
[00:55:59] Rich: Bye, y'all. Bye. --
