Episode 4: A Kid’s Perspective on Homeschool (with Ari)
You’re listening to Episode 4 of Modern Homeschool and today, I’m joined by my daughter, Aria, and we’re diving into how she felt before she started and how she feels about homeschooling now, what a normal homeschool day looks like, what she likes/dislikes about it, something people think that isn’t true, her top 3 places to learn outside our home, and what she would say to a kid who is nervous about being homeschooled. My mission is to help modern families homeschool with structure, flexibility, and a life they love, so let’s get started!
Episode Highlights:
1. How Ari felt before she started and how she feels about homeschooling now
2. What a normal homeschool day looks like
3. What she likes/dislikes about it
4. Something people think that isn’t true about homeschooling
5. Her top 3 places to learn outside our home
6. What Ari would say to a kid who is nervous about being homeschooled
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Hey, hey friends. I am so excited for you to join us today because we are joined by my daughter, Ari. When I had the idea of starting this podcast, I immediately asked her first if she wanted to join me on some episodes, and she literally screamed. She was so ecstatic to do something like this and be a part of a bigger mission, not just telling our story, but potentially helping others who might be feeling like she did, who might be on a similar journey, or maybe wanting to start one like it. When she finished school last year, we decided we would homeschool her for one year and just see how it went before committing to more years. Needless to say, it's been more than amazing and we're feeling so grateful. With public school system changes and pressures, expectations, rigid schedules, and school safety concerns, our kiddos are experiencing a much different life every day than what we experienced.
We learn from each other every day, and it's not always sunshine and rainbows, but man, is it worth it? Today, we're gonna ask her what she thinks of it all. Let's get to the show.
Hi Ari, welcome to the show. We're so excited to have you here. Thank you. This is my first time. I'm really excited. I'm really excited to be here. Alright, so we thought this might be a really good idea to bring in our daughter into the show so that you all can get a true kids perspective because we know that as parents, our opinions and our 2 cents are also important.
But sometimes it might be even more helpful to hear from the kids themselves. All right, so let's get started with our first question. How did you feel about homeschooling at first? Well, it was a little rough 'cause it was my first time, being back home with my mom and my dad, and it's been a really long time since I've been homeschooled.
So my first time was a little rough. I didn't know what to do. But then we got into the really fun activities and it was like so cool because at school you don't get to have that chance because you're reading a textbook all day for eight hours and you don't get to do a lot of fun activities. So being homeschooled, you can have a bunch of cool games, go a bunch of different places and it's really exciting because for a child you wanna have a fun experience being a child, and then eventually when you get older, you could teach your child just like how your mom did and your mom and dad did.
Yeah, and I love that. And I also wanna preface this by saying she was in school kindergarten, first, and second grade. And she had the most amazing teachers who truly went out of their way every single day to have fun activities to make learning exciting for them, teach 'em cool tricks and things with reading and math, and they were really hands-on and really involved and one of the things that I love the most about her experience with public school was those personal relationships that she got to build with the teachers. Not only because they were my friends, but also because they wanted to have that one-on-one connection and relationship with her. So that was really amazing as your first experience in school. But yeah, we also do have a lot of flexibility now that you're homeschooled and we get to do more things like that because we have the time and the ability to do so.
How do you feel now that you've been, we've been in the trenches, we've been doing this for a few months, almost a year now. How are you feeling now? Well, when we started it was a little bumpy 'cause we didn't know what to do. You had a bunch of good ideas for us, and we didn't really get to do those. Mm-hmm. Because when I was in school, we didn't have really that connection together. And now we have like a really special bond together. Mm-hmm. We get to go fun places and we get to do a bunch of things that we didn't get to do before. Yeah. Oh, you're so lucky i'm not crying right now. All right. I love that.
And of course we're gonna talk about some things that you were worried about, and things that you felt, you know, as far as like your friends and, socializing and things like that. So, stick around because we're gonna be touching on a lot of these really important topics, and you can get her perspective on it. All right, next question for you, Ari. What a normal homeschool day look like for you?
Well, a normal homeschool day for me would be getting up, brushing my teeth, doing all like my morning routines and then packing up like all like textbooks and fun activities and then going straight to Disney. Oh, yes, those are our Disney days.
Disney days! We just love doing those because we could see a bunch of cool activities, we could get autographs. Mm-hmm. We could get a bunch of cool things. And also, I don't even know how much I'm learning because being at Disney, it's all about fun. And then once we're done, we have a bunch of cool rides and we learn, go back home and I get my chore list out. Yep. And I do all of my chores and then if I do an extra chore, I get a reward. That's right! So it's really fun and exciting to do all those fun things. Yeah, so I, I keep hearing fun and exciting and it just melts my heart but yeah, so for our Disney days, the routine is we take our workbooks, we find a shady spot, and depending on which park we go to, we get our curriculum workbooks done, any homework that we have for our online math class, and then maybe even reading or quick flashcards, practice something quick and easy, right? Then, we have lunch and then we go on some rides. So, what about the days that you're here? What does a normal homeschool day look like for you?
Well, for here, when I wake up, I do all my stuff and then, we sit right in front of each other. Just learning, no interruptions, and we just get to do fun activities, hands on. And then, you have your creative playtime. Yes, I have my creative play. What are some things that you do during your creative playtime? I write, I draw, I play with my toys, I play with magnet tiles, Play-Doh, slime, I do some yoga videos, I do some exercises, and then I do my chores. Yep. And then if I'm lucky and I've been really good, then I have creative play again. Yeah. And then we get to just play outside or we go for a walk or we do something together. Right. Yeah. Or typically you go to your taekwondo class. Yes. And then dinner, bath and all that. That's usually how we end the days. Awesome!
So what do you like about homeschooling and what don't you like? Well, I like the amount of time you get to learn and play. You get to be doing a bunch of fun and activities that you wouldn't do in school. Although I don't really like how, you don't really have connections with your friends, but you could go to fun co-ops, you could do friend meets, and there's really nothing bad about homeschooling. There's really no flaw or something bad about it. 'cause it, you could do really fun activities. You could play, you could go different places. All right, so here's one of my favorite questions. By the way, we kind of came up with these questions together.
So she's been really, really involved in the entire process of building out this podcast and we've just been so excited and she's been counting down the days to record her episode, so we're really excited for this. What is something people think about homeschool that is not true?
Friends, what about it? I think it's friends, because when you're homeschooling it's just you and your teacher. So people think that they can't have friends, they can't meet anyone. It's really not true because you could go to co-op like we do. I can make a bunch of friends there. And you could also plan play dates with your child's friends that were from school. Yeah. And if they're still in school, then maybe you can find some time in the summer to do it. That's right. And I actually just captured this on video two days ago when we went to Epcot. One of the things that I love the most is how much you've been able to come out of your shell since being homeschooled. Because when we went to Epcot the other day, there was a blue dress that you loved in the France Pavilion. And you wanted to know what the price of it was. It didn't have a price tag and it was way too high for me to see it because I couldn't reach it. And so you said you volunteered and you said, "can I go find out? Can I go ask them?" And I said, "yes, of course." And I was kind of a little bit worried because everyone that works there is authentically French and so we heard them speaking French and I didn't know if that was going to scare you or kind of put you off and you didn't wanna ask them. But I got a video of you actually going up to the clerk and you greeted her, you said, "hi, how are you? What's the price for that blue dress?" And she actually told you, and you went and just flourished on your own. You went and socialized with someone you didn't know. It's an adult. And so a lot of times people think that homeschooled kids are really awkward and not sociable and that you don't have the ability of making friends or that you're gonna be very lonely and that couldn't be further from the truth because the reality is that you actually get time to blossom and to learn more about yourself and how you like to build relationships with people. So then when you get the opportunities like in a co-op or in taekwondo or in other social settings, let's say we go on a cruise or we just go to Disney, you're then able to put these skills into practice and go and meet new people, right?
Yeah. So even your friends that you do miss from school, you do still get to have play dates, like you said, and meet up with them and it's nice because you get to maintain your former relationships, but also make new ones. And I love seeing you thrive in that way.
Yeah. When I was in school, I was like really nervous to go and talk to people. When I used to talk to the teacher, I'd like not say a word and they'd talk to me and then now I'm able to speak freely and tell them about me and it's been really nice to get to know other people. Yeah, for sure. And I love watching you grow in that way. Alright, here's another one for you. Out of all the places you go to outside your home, what are your top three places to learn at?
Well I like Disney. Any specific park? Oh gosh, you put me on the spot. Oh. Um, I really like magic. Okay. Magic Kingdom. What's the second one? The second one. Oh, there's a lot. I also like grandma's house. Oh, yes, Wela's house. We love Wela and Wilu's house. Yes. Mm-hmm. Third one. Third one. Ooh, another Disney park. Okay. Which one? Epcot. Epcot. Yes. So much to learn at Epcot. Yes. Not just world showcase, you know, cultures, places in the world, countries, animals. It's just, the list is never ending at Epcot, really. Mm-hmm. Oh my gosh. We love it.
Okay, the last question for you, Ari. What would you say to a kid who is nervous about being homeschooled because you've been in this position and now you're out of it and we've been in this for a while, but you also know how it feels. So what would you say to a kid who's nervous?
I'd tell them the pros about homeschooling. Like you can go different places, you can connect special bonds with other people. You can eat a lot of different foods. You can learn about like a bunch of different things like culture, art, countries, a bunch of different stuff and the things that you like. Yes. Things that interest you. Yes, yes. And also I'd ask them, what do you like? Maybe homeschooling has things that you like in it, like activities, exercise, things that you may like. Right, because you're no longer learning what you're being told to learn. You're learning what you should be learning at this stage in your life and also based on your interests. Which makes learning so much more fun, isn't it? Yeah, yeah. In school, they just have regular problems to solve in math, and now you could create fun activities like match the rainbow with something else, like the pot of gold for St. Patrick's Day, or we actually did something like that. Yeah, we did on St. Patrick's Day. And so I would just say have fun, do what you want. Homeschooling is all about having fun and learning what you actually wanna learn or making something that you don't wanna learn fun, and so you actually want to do it. And it's more about learning your way, right? Yes. In an environment that you thrive in the way that you thrive in and with the people that you thrive with, right? Yeah. Yeah. I love that.
Well, thanks so much. This was great for your first episode. You killed it girl. Thanks for having me. Yeah, I can't wait for the next one. And we are so excited to have you on the podcast every month. You're gonna have your own episode. It's usually gonna be the last week of every month. So if you wanna hear more of her episodes, stay tuned. Thanks! Thank you!
Thank you so much for hanging out with me today. I truly love creating this space to support you on your homeschool journey. If you enjoyed this episode, I'd love to connect with you. Come say hi on Instagram or TikTok and tell me what resonated and what questions you still have. I read every single message and your stories help shape future episodes. And if you know another parent who's considering homeschool or needs encouragement. Share this episode with them so we can support more modern homeschool families together. Remember, homeschool doesn't have to look like school at home. It just has to work for your family. See you in the next episode!