Reading for the Win with Carole Joy Seid

Hey there, it's Chrystal Hurst, and I'm so glad to bring you another episode of the podcast. You're either listening or you are watching. Today is a little bit different. I dive into lots of different topics typically that involve how you can better your life. And I try to do that in very, very specific and practical ways. But one of the questions that I get frequently is about parenting or homeschooling and how to set up your homeschool, what to do, parenting, how you can discipline children, how to get them to pay attention, to do what they're told to do in that sphere. And it's a more specific and niched sphere than I do on a regular basis. But today I'm going to take a deep dive. I'm going to take that deep dive with my friend, my new friend Carol Joy Seed, and I'm really excited to bring her to you. She has a very specific goal for every child and every parent of every child, and that's that they should be readers. Now, while homeschooling is big. Of course we got to talk science, we got to talk math, we got to talk history. What she believes, and I would agree, is that if you can raise a reader, that a lot of the educational issues that we deal with, they take care of themselves because you simply grow in knowledge when you read. This applies even if you're an adult. Have you ever heard the adage leaders are readers? I believe that's true too. When we first started homeschooling years ago, over 20 years now, I picked a curriculum that had lots of books to read. There were books for my my daughter to read, books for me to read to her. And to this day, I don't think it matters what curriculum you choose, but I do think having lots of reading as a part of your curriculum of choice is crucial. But here's the other thing: I think it's super important for you to know whether your child is 2, 12, or 16, 17, headed out the house— you reading to them is just as crucial too. So we're going to take a deep dive today where we talk about not only the importance of reading, why it makes a difference, but you can do a deep dive as well in your family to increase your family's literacy. And in being committed to your people, to your children, increasing your own literacy as well. If you don't like to read, this episode is for you too. It'll change the way you think about the importance of reading and education. Now, this said, this episode was not only great, it was also very deep. If you are an Inner Circle member, I want you to know that we have left this full podcast video form in its full length for you. Because listen, my friend Carol goes to her bookshelf, y'all, and starts pulling books off the shelf to tell you about the books that you should read for your kids. So in order to make this podcast consumable and easily digestible for you, we edited some of that out. If you're in the Inner Circle, you get the whole thing. But if you're not in the Inner Circle, that's okay, because Carol left me a book list to share with you. You can simply go to chrystalhurst.com www.bethanyandbrad.com/438 to get the full show notes for this episode and all of the links that we've provided of the books that Carol recommended and the book list that she is providing free of charge to you. Again, this episode is packed full of not only information for homeschoolers or educators, for parents, but also if you just need to learn what it means to be parental and to exercise authority in your asylum. Do you know what that means? Well, you will after listening to this podcast. So without further ado, let me jump into this episode with Carol Joy Seed. Okay, y'all, you— if you've been following me for any length of time, you probably know I'm a homeschool mom. And there are some of you that are always asking me, can you talk more about that? Can you interview people about that? And I know that some of you here are not parents, or you're not even homeschool parents, but that's okay because one of the things that I want to talk about today with my guest is the importance of something that can be greatly utilized in a homeschool environment that is not only about a homeschool environment. Um, so I'm so glad to welcome Carol Joyce Seed to the podcast today. She's a veteran homeschool mother. She is well-educated. She's got her BA in Fine Arts, her master's degree in education. She's a certified life coach. I have heard her name for the last 20 years in and out homeschool conferences. I have friends that would ask me, have you ever gone to her workshop? Have you ever heard her talk? And so I want you to know that while she is an educator, and while she is a committed mother and a homeschool mother at that, she is also very committed to the importance of reading great books and how that can benefit our children, how that can benefit the relationship that we have with our children, how that can benefit us and them, both in our character development, problem-solving skills, our ability to grow in social intelligence and maturity. And while you may think, well, I don't like to read, or my kid doesn't like to read, or my kid doesn't want me reading to them, that is not a narrative that you have to accept. It is one you can challenge, and then you and your child will be the better for it. So, Carol, welcome so much to my podcast today.

I am so honored to meet you, Chrystal Hurst. You are I'm my new best friend. I can tell already from our off-the-air chat.

Well, listen, you're my best friend because as we're talking today, I just see this wall of books behind you.

And this is—

my husband doesn't understand. He's like, I have my area for my books, and then I have the area— I had a friend tell me, Carol, just recently, she was trying to be helpful. She said, you know, you have all these homeschool books. You do realize that that season has come to an end, and you really need to bless someone else with these books.

And I mean, that would be a lie, because guess what? Because guess what? Your grandchildren are coming right down the road before you know it.

They are. And even— and my daughter is not homeschooling, but I will tell you what I did do. She's actually thinking about it now, but, um, what I— every first Sunday, my— I have 3 siblings, and out of the 4 of us, 3 of us have children. There's 13 grandchildren. Every first Sunday, my dad my siblings, our children, some aunts, some cousins, they come over for a big family dinner. And so one of the things that I need to do is to finish getting some things organized and create a little checkout sheet because I wanna make it a thing where when we go to Aunt Chrissy's house every month, we check out a book.

And then when we come back for the next Sunday, they return it and get another one.

That's correct.

Girl, you are a genius.

I just don't want them to mess up my books.

I know. Well, see, I was gonna suggest that you read out loud to them while they're there. I wouldn't You don't let the books go off the premises, but you do know where they live. So that's a good— that's good.

I do know. I do know where they live. And I can probably instate that rule for like books that are out of print. And if they're in print and if you lose it and if you don't bring it back, you have to pay me for it.

Oh yeah.

We'll see. We'll see.

And a shelving fee. Don't forget the shelving fee.

The shelving fee. How did you even— how did this even become your thing? Why is this your thing? It's been your thing for a long time.

Oh, it started— yeah, it started when I was probably a little first grader in Mrs. Mozzarella's class, Harlem Road Elementary School. And I had a teacher who was 65 years old. It was her last year of teaching. And my mother pulled strings, God bless my mother for doing this, to get me in this class because she was an urban legend. This woman was so wonderful. And she taught me how to read. And I'll tell you what, Chrystal Hurst, from the day she taught me to read, I have read multiple hours every single day since then. And if I don't read, I get really crabby and I start to break things because reading is my therapy. It's my comfort. It's my outlet. People and books are my best friends and they always have been. And so It's just, it's my, it's what I do. I love books. If the house is burning, you get the baby pictures.

Listen.

And then the books. Yeah.

Well, you learned to love to read because you had a great teacher and then you enjoyed books all of your life. But when did you connect with, I want other people to learn this and the importance of this and mm-hmm. The outcomes of this when you commit to doing this with your children.

Yeah, that's a great question. Well, I was teaching a Bible study in Southern Cal. We were part of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, and some of the girls there noticed the books in our house and how we read to our son constantly. And they— everyone would comment on his vocabulary, you know, in restaurants, you know, checking out at Marshalls. The lady would be going like, where— how old are you? Where do you go to school? Because, you know, a child who's been read to has a very good vocabulary. And so people kept asking me, "Well, what do you do? How do you do it?" And the women in my Bible study there at the beach where we lived in Huntington Beach, they were like, "Could you teach us? Could you share this with us?" And I'd been a school teacher, elementary— excuse me, a junior high school teacher. And so I did a little workshop for them. And then when we were moving out of state, Calvary Chapel was starting their first homeschool, like, umbrella program there in California. And they asked if I would speak the night that they created the event. You know, that was the beginning of their ministry to homeschoolers. And from then I started speaking at state conventions. And then a friend called, I mean, she wasn't a friend then, she was a stranger. She said, "I heard you at the Minnesota convention. I cannot stop talking about what you talked about." "Will you come to Duluth, Minnesota and do an all-day seminar?" And I'm like, "That's interesting because I've been kind of thinking about doing an all-day seminar. I feel frustrated doing these like 40-minute kind of shorty things." And so that was the first, and my son was 12 and he's now 42. So 30 years ago I started doing all-day seminars and that has been the trajectory. And then started the podcast during COVID and that has been like a runaway freight train. The Lord has just, just blessed it so much. And, um, and now my son, which is really exciting, is now jumping in with me as a homeschool dad of 4 himself and a pastor. And so this is our family's message. And, um, years ago my son asked me, Mom, how do you know if people have been successful using your method? And I said, well, that's easy. If their children are reading under the covers with a flashlight, they're success— they've gotten it. They drank the Kool-Aid. And so what I teach, as you know, is a literature-based approach, like very low on textbooks other than for math and science. That's pretty much our textbooks. And then we just— and science only in high school. Until then, it's nature. So it's reading. On my tombstone, couple things I'm going to put on there, but one is read out loud to your children. That's going to be on my tombstone because that's the key. If you do that and you do it a lot and you unplug your children, I promise you, you will have smart and most importantly godly children. Sounds simplistic, but after 40 years of doing this, I know that it works. We've had Road Scholars to Oxford. We have full-ride Stanford graduates, full-ride Pepperdine graduates. I mean, you name it, because reading makes you smart. And if you're reading the right books, it makes you godly.

So the thing I know you've heard a million times, and the thing that I can hear resonating even as we record this, and I think about future listeners, yes. My kid hates reading, and, and I've read to them.

I mean, I don't know about that. I don't know if you've read to them, or have you been reading the wrong books? Have you been reading books that are like cod liver oil to your children, or are you reading books that your child is begging for one more chapter? Like last night, I was reading to my 3 grandsons Twin that are 9 and a 6-year-old. And the 6-year-old is the most active child I've ever met, but brilliant. So to read to a child like that, it's not easy, right? You've gotta capture them. So I'm reading a book called Little Britches. Are you familiar with that book?

I've heard of that book, yes.

Okay. So it's a true story of a little boy growing up on the range in Colorado. And it's an amazing story. So I'm reading to the boys. It's like 9 at night. Their parents would be like, that's past their bedtime. But you know, there's too much to do in so little time. So we've been doing all sorts of fun stuff. So I'm reading to them and this is what I hear as I'm finishing up the chapter. One more chapter, Grammy. One more chapter, Grammy. That's how you know you're reading the right books. If they're not begging for one more chapter, move on. You're not married to these books. If it's a dud, take it outside and shoot it because it's time to, it's time to read great books. Books that your children beg you to not stop reading. Like one authority said, we've taken so long, put so much energy into teaching children how to read, we've forgotten to make them want to read. And so giving them a passion for books, surrounding them with great books, reading out loud, and being a reader yourself. And number 4, which we always have to mention in this world, is unplug your children and then everyone falls on the floor and then we have to resuscitate them.

Okay, well, let me, let me hit number 3. You said be a reader yourself.

Yeah.

And I'm sure you've run into this.

Yeah.

I want my kids to be well educated.

Yeah.

I don't even mind reading out loud sometimes to them, but I don't like reading. I don't enjoy it. So what counsel for—

are you speaking theoretically?

No, I love to read.

That's what I thought. You're speaking of Anonymous.

I have siblings who don't like to read. I have friends who don't like to read. And so when we started homeschooling, because I like to read, the person who was giving me guidance on what I should pick gave me a literature-rich program to choose from and more books than what we could even get through. And we had that experience. I'll never forget that first year homeschooling, Mara, Daughter of the Nile, where my 6th grade daughter is laying on the living room floor. And I'm, you know, and I would be reading. Sometimes I'd put myself to sleep reading, and she'd say, Mom, you're falling asleep, like, you got to finish the thing. And then we get to the end of the chapter, and she said, especially when you got to the end, I think that last day I read 3 chapters because we just couldn't stop. But I like to read. I, I just think And I think we've heard it enough, just that reading is important, whether you're with kids, you got to read to your kids. Leaders are readers. I mean, you hear this all the time, but then there are people who still say, I just don't like to read. I don't enjoy it.

Yes, that is a really great question. And my answer is, as you read Hop-On Pop and then The Ox-Cart Man and then the Little House books and then the Narnia books and then David Copperfield and Pride and Prejudice. You will become a reader as you read out loud to your children, and we become readers with our children. And that's the benefit of homeschooling or parenting in general. Even if your listeners are not homeschoolers, everyone can do this because everyone homeschools. It's just a matter of how many hours in the day.

I want you to know that I, while I have always loved reading, I am a fan of reading for sure. I too know this journey of learning to read alongside of your children. There are books I didn't read that I should have read in high school. There are books that bring me a level of cultural understanding, depth and breadth, that give me a level of literacy when I am reading for other adult purposes in work. Or for ministry, reading is something that is a gift to you for your entire life. So from a person who likes to read, even if I'm talking to a person who doesn't, I want you to know that what Carol is saying is true for me. I became a different kind of reader, a deeper reader, a more well-read reader, reading to my children. And even to this day, if I need to learn something, you know what, I don't go to the library or even sometimes Google and look for the adult version of the explanation. I'll go to the children's section because if you can explain it to a 5-year-old or a 10-year-old or a 12-year-old, then as an adult, then I can understand it too. I wanna double down, bold and underscore this idea that if you don't want to read, if you don't like to read, or maybe you only like to read certain kinds of books and you're like, I don't like reading the classics, or I don't like reading historical fiction, you will broaden your horizons by tasting what you are offering to your children. And it doesn't matter if you're homeschooling or not. We— if your children are in school, reading to them as they go to sleep is still a great practice for you to have in your family. And it's an opportunity, as I have learned, to develop a shared language with your children, a shared connection, because the stories you read to your children become the stories that your family will remember. So for me, I've learned, I've grown. I've also seen this have a huge impact in my family's life as we have books that are common language for our family, books that I read to my oldest child that I also am reading to my youngest child. And when we get into a room, they have a conversation about something that they have common experience about. So I want to just emphatically tell you that what she's saying is true. And it's not just true if you love to read, it's true if you don't. It's true if you homeschool, it's true if you don't. It's true if you have a culture of reading in your home, it's true if you don't. Read for yourself, read to your kids, and start with the easy stuff because trust me, you'll grow and so will your family. All right, y'all, let's jump back into this conversation. That was your third point is parents should be readers. Your fourth point was unplugging. So what do you, what do you mean by unplugging?

Hmm.

So that, that puts everybody on the floor.

Yeah, yeah. Well, let's face it, I mean, we are absolutely intravenous mainlining our media in America today.

It's crazy.

You know, I sit in waiting rooms or airports and there's not a single person that's not looking on a device in the gate. And I think, what has happened to our culture? So how do we unplug? First of all, we get the screens out of our homes. We take them off the walls and give them to charity. Because a huge screen is just calling you, "Come to me, turn me on." You know, it's a big black hole. And in the olden days, 10 years ago, people had amwar that at least covered those big black holes. But now people just slap them right in the middle of their beautiful living rooms or wherever they are. And I'm like, "What are you people thinking?" So the research is that the more educated the people are, the more obscure is the location in their home of a screen. So it's hard. It's a sacrifice because I like to watch HGTV and I like— which I get it, I get it. But you know what? Every parent I talk to says the same thing. I say, you know what? You would take a bullet for your children. You wouldn't even think twice. And they're like, "Oh yeah." And I'm like, "So when I ask you to give up whatever your little favorite thing is," for men, of course, it's gonna be football or, you know, whatever it is. Those things are not harmful. But like the Bible says, "All things are lawful, but not everything is edifying." Not everything builds up. And so when you remove those things that are stealing your time, your energy, your family time, What happens is you begin to really like your children, and you begin to really like the culture of your home, and it will change your lives. And it's the cheapest, easiest way I know. You don't need 29 psychologists, counselors, tutors. All you need to do is unplug yourself and therefore unplug your children, because they know if you're in there mainlining Netflix and they're not allowed to watch TV. That's not going to work. Your children are a lot smarter than that. These are sacrifices we make with eternity on our eyelids. That's the bottom line.

So how does that apply? I'm in a season— I know we talked a little bit before. Yeah, um, we started our official recording. I'm in a season where I have older children, so at best my 31-year-old is grown, she's got her own kids. My, uh, 27-year-old is grown, she's single. My 20-year-old son comes home from college. My 18-year-old son is about to go to college. And then there's a 14-year-old. And just looking at those 3 boys, a part of whether they're— and they've all been homeschooled, but you know, they take a class here or there— a part of their education are the screens. Um, you know, they drive and they have smartphones. So when you're dealing with older children, um, I would love to know what ideal scenario would be.

So the, the executives in Silicon Valley, people at Google, people at, you know, you name it, they, they have very strict rules because they know more than we do about the power of screens.

Yeah, for their children.

Yeah, for their children. Their nannies have to sign no phone contracts. That their nannies are not allowed to bring a phone into their homes or ever expose their child to a phone. Like one of the men who is editor of Wired Magazine, he said, "This is scar tissue talking." He has like, I think, 5 or 6 children. The first few kids, they didn't understand. He said, "We didn't know what we were dealing with. We didn't know the power of this stuff." But he said, "We changed everything mid-course." No screens in the bedroom ever, ever, ever, ever.

Right.

Our kids don't get phones until 14 and they get dumb phones when they're 14. Like they've thought this stuff out. There are whole organizations. So how do we handle it? Less is more. The older, the better. And so later is better. So you have older kids. That's a very different conversation. But for your 14-year-old, that's where you're still queen of the castle.

Oh yeah.

And you have a lot of authority.

Well, my, we had, I, my husband, um, we, we had, you know, with me homeschooling and all the things I was exposed to, and I'm, you know, I'm telling him constantly what we should be doing and not, not be doing. And my husband has his reruns and the syndicated shows that he'll watch on TV. I remember having these discussions. Um, we recently, because, you know, when you get to the last child, with the phone, I've held my— they don't get the phones until they're 16. But the last one, my husband was like, well, he's going to basketball practice and we're going to give him this old phone that doesn't work anymore. Well, that didn't go very long. He's, he's been totally yanked and pulled and he feels like he's miserable because all of the other 14-year-olds have phones. And I'm like, do I look like their mother? I don't care. I think what my husband could see is the difference in the expo— what you're discussing, because he's had more exposures with siblings who had exposures because they were older. Once he got it, he had no control. So my older children had control, but the younger they got, because of the older kids' exposure, the less, the less control they had. So we kind of went through that waffling, that slippery slope that you're talking about, and then it just became, you know what, we're not doing it, and we pulled it. But he's also the one who is the one I struggle with most with reading. And I think, and I look back just with the life that we've had, we've had a lot of challenges personally in our family and health and stuff like that. I did a lot of reading to the older set, and I read to him but not to the same degree. So his love of reading is less than the other kids. And I can see a lot of the things that you're saying. The big question a lot of people will want to know, because you've said it multiple times, is you have to read good books. You have to read the books. And the sign that they're good books is when they don't want you to put it down or they want you to read more. And so inquiring minds want to know, well, how do I know? And, and, and what a lot of people don't realize, and I would love for you to speak to this, is the assumption is I'll go to the library and I'll get them books, which if you go to the library to get your kids books, you have to know what to get and what not to get. You can't just pick up anything off the shelves anymore. So how do I know what books to get? So I know that you've given us a list, a beginning book list. It's got about 120, 125 books on there for people to start with. But as people get a hold of this thought process, I mean, beyond, I know I should read to my kids, but I really wanna be proactive in making this a part of our family culture. How do we continue growing the knowledge of the books our kids should read?

I really wanna recommend Jim Trelease's books to your listeners, and his name of his book is the Read Aloud Handbook. Book, and there are many, many, many reissuings and updatings. I don't know if he's a person of faith, but I sure love that man and I love his heart. So that would be the first place. And his chap— another book I think every one of your listeners definitely wants to own is Honey for a Child's Heart by Gladys Hunt. She has a book for teens called Read for Your Life, which has been reissued as Honey for a Teen's Heart. Then she has a book for women. I forget what that one's called, but she's a goldmine of information. And then lastly, a book that Elizabeth Wilson wrote in conjunction with Susan Schaefer Macaulay, Dr. Schaefer's daughter Susan, and it's called Books Children Love. And it has, oh, easily 1,000 books, and it's annotated. So it gives you— it's by topic, like books on art, books on, you know, I don't know, warfare, whatever it is. And then it gives you a little description. So I like to say to families, give your children Honey for a Child's Heart and Books Children Love during quiet time, because in my regime we have an hour of quiet time every day after lunch. Feet off the ground. You can pray, sleep, read, or think. Of course they're going to read, but I want them to feel like they're making their own choices. We never make a child read. So So in that quiet time, give each of your children a colored marker. Susie's orange, Harry's green, you know, whatever. And then let them go through those books and highlight and circle the ones, and then always keep them with your tote bag for the library. And then when you walk in the library, they're not just wanting to read Babysitter Club books, gag, but they're gonna say, oh, I have 30 books here I've circled that I wanna read. And so you don't have to be the policewoman at the library, although you do have to be I always tell parents before the books get checked out, mom or dad, who's ever at the library, has last say. You're still running the asylum and no, this book, trust me on this, this book is not, it's not coming home with us. It's not our worldview. It's not a safe book. And I wouldn't let you eat roadkill and I'm not going to let you read this book. And so you just have to be parental. You really, I think that's a big issue, Chrystal Hurst, is Who's running the asylum, like I said. And so we have to not be afraid of our children being annoyed, upset, disliking us for a minute. They will love us, but they may not like us every minute of every day while we're raising them. And we just have to say, that's okay, I have lots of friends and I can handle this. If you don't like me, I have to answer to God for you. So you'll get over it. But in the meantime, I can handle it.

I love that you said you have to be parental. And you've described that already in the running of the asylum. Who's in charge?

That's right.

Do you think— why do you think that's even something we have to say? I think there was a time when you didn't have to say that. What do you think it is? Why are we less parental?

Yeah, because we have this perpetual youth culture. Maybe baby boomers started the nonsense. That would be my generation where, where we want, we want to be eternally young, which means we want our kids to think we're their peers instead of their parents. And, you know, we want to— I mean, I hear people tell me their parents smoked pot with them. I'm like, excuse me, could you, could you say that one more time to me? I mean, I literally feel like I'm losing my hearing. I'm not hearing when they tell me that stuff. So it's— we want to be too cool for school. We want our kids to like us. On the day that our children are conceived, we need to put that to rest right then. Like, I don't care if my children like me. Someday they will love me and they will rise up and call me blessed as a mom, or they will honor, you know, Daddy in other ways the Bible talks about. And so So get over it. I really don't care what you think. I care what God thinks. I live for an audience of one. It's not a popularity contest to be a parent. And if that's where you're coming from, please don't have children, is what I tell people.

One of the things that I know that is important to you, and you've mentioned it a couple of times, and even though so much of what you talk about is reading, the purpose of this, apart from growing educated children, is the discipleship of your children. And, um, I know that you said with reading, if I'm not a reader, I'll become a reader if I start reading the Hop On Pops all the way up to the Chronicles and all the different things. But what about discipleship? Um, I've run into a lot of people who say, I don't know if I can do a good job discipling my children. Nobody discipled me. I didn't see a healthy marriage. I didn't see a healthy parenting. And while we're all dysfunctional to some point, there is, you know, a modicum of within the range of not that dysfunctional. And so how do I disciple my kids when I don't even know what that looks like? How can I, you know, just from a broader perspective of reading to that parental discussion? So people are showing up to your seminars, they're listening to your podcast, they're, um, finding out about you, or maybe even looking at homeschooling as an option because of the involvement and the input that they want to be able to have in their kids' lives. Um, and, but the big thing is I don't know how to do that. So if you were gonna say to a parent with the goal of reading being discipleship beyond education, discipleship to a parent who says, but I don't even know like how to do that.

Yeah, that's a great question. So first, there's so many things going through my mind. I, I should be writing 'em down so I don't forget 'em all. But let's start with reading. So are you having, um, a family read aloud time with Daddy every day. That'd be the first place I'd start. And there are wonderful, wonderful resources. Let me give you a few. And some of them are on the list that your listeners are going to access.

Okay, y'all, this is the part of our episode where, as I mentioned at the beginning, Carol Joycey gets up from her spot where we are recording. She carries her recording device. I don't know if she was on her phone phone or on her laptop, doesn't matter. She picked it up and she just starts walking around the library. She was talking to me with a row of books in the background, and she starts walking around pulling books off of the shelf to talk me through the recommendations that she had. Now, y'all, instead of letting you listen for 10 to 12 minutes of her walking around, um, if you are watching or listening to this podcast as an Inner Circle member, you'll see exactly what the COVID of the book is as she pulls it off of her shelf. But I want you to know you're not missing out if you are not watching or listening to the whole episode unedited, because there is a book list. So don't forget, you can go to chrystalhurtz.com/438 and grab the downloadable book list that Carol Joy Seed created and set aside for you to have. I want you to have this tool. It's free. There's no reason you shouldn't have it. But just know that any good reader, if the book is good and you keep it on your shelf, that's how you know, because you'll start pulling it out for other people to see, borrow, or know that this is a book that they should add to their repertoire. Now, again, I realize that some of you are homeschool parents, and I realize that some of you are not, but this encouragement of reading in your family, again, is for anyone. But as I wrap up this podcast with Carol, I did want her to speak specifically to homeschooling parents to give them some encouragement. So let's jump in to see what she has to say. I think it's so important just as we end our time. I know we've talked, of course, a lot about reading aloud and the importance of parents being parents. And we've talked about, we've mentioned homeschool or not homeschool or not, but I would love for you to maybe give some encouragement to some parents who are either new to homeschooling or considering homeschooling as an option. I always believe that people have to do what they can do for their family and, um, you know, not feel guilty about what they can or cannot do. However, there are people who are always considering it, especially post-COVID, even still. Um, and there are people who are doing it, but they're overwhelmed by it or trying to figure out how to find their rhythms. So I'd love for you to just speak to that person who has started or considering starting on their homeschooling journey. Any words words of encouragement that you feel like would be helpful to share?

Yeah, so my life scripture is Jesus telling us that his yoke is easy and his burden is light. And as Chuck Smith used to say to us, if you're carrying a heavy burden, take it off. Jesus never put it there. And in the homeschool community, there are a lot of people that will put a very heavy burden on you. And I think of the scripture where Jesus talked about the Pharisees, that they were telling the Jews to carry burdens that, as Jesus said, they would never dare or never pretend to touch. So there are people in the homeschool community that lay a heavy trip on us, but it's not the Lord. And I like to tell parents homeschooling is simple, inexpensive, and enjoyable. And if it's not all those three things, you need to lighten that load.

This was great, super thought-provoking, very encouraging, also very challenging. It's been a pleasure to have you. Thank you so much for joining me. We'll be sure to make sure we share all the resources, the books that you mentioned, and the book list. So if you're listening and you're thinking, okay, this is a lot for me to take or if you're thinking, I've already been doing it, I just need more ideas of what to read. Either way, I hope you have been encouraged, challenged, and that you are willing to do the work to pour into your child that will also bless your relationship with your child and you for their future. Thanks again, Carol, for joining me.

Thanks, hon. God bless you. Wow!

Wow!

Wow!