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0:02
Hello, welcome back to called the Homeschool episode #283 the best curriculum out there.
Hello friends, and welcome back.
It's me, Meg, your homeschool guide on your amazing homeschool journey.
Friends, exciting stuff is happening over at the Thomas's.
0:20
My son, my four son, Josh.
He was on the podcast back in May.
You can go listen that podcast episode that was a lot of fun.
I think it's another homeschool graduate but he is starting his mission in a few weeks, October 28th, so I'm feeling all the feels.
I feel antsy and helping him get ready.
0:38
He is my 4th missionary but my first kid to serve a mission outside of the United States so I feel like I need to send him with everything now because it won't be easy to ship to him.
And so I just bought him two years worth of toothpaste because apparently I don't know or trust the toothpaste in El Salvador.
0:57
But it made me feel better.
So it's been so funny seeing my brain just letting it go a little bit while some of this stuff.
So after Josh flies out for his mission, I will only have three kids living at home.
And this has been such a big transition for me.
1:13
So I'm working on leaning into the sadness, the nervousness, all the emotions that are coming up for me.
I have been telling people that I'm in my midlife crisis and my husband said maybe you should call it midlife transition.
And I thought, you know, that is a nicer word.
1:29
So I've been trying to call it my midlife transition because this has been a huge transition for me.
But with that leading into what's awesome about my new phase and I am finding some things that are really fun about this new phase.
So really trying to lean into that.
I've already cried so like leaning into this new phase that I'm in and I'm going to go after some crazy goals next year.
1:49
And I can't wait to talk more about that in other episodes.
So make sure to be following along with that.
And if you want to see stuff with my son, just make sure you're on Instagram because that's where I post a lot of that over is over there.
All right, well today I want to take a little break from No Yell November, which you can still sign up for over at coachmccomas.com to talk a little bit about homeschool again, to talk about the best curriculum out there.
2:14
But before I do, I want to talk about running.
I love running.
I think it's so awesome.
I got my sister to start running again.
My little sister, she's amazing.
She is an amazing runner.
She's such a good runner, but she should take it a little bit of a break.
2:31
And we started running again and it has been so awesome.
And just by going with her, we've been able to increase our miles, increase our speed.
So it's so awesome to have somebody to go with.
Well, one day we're out running and we skip talking about gear and we're talking about all the things that we're wearing.
2:47
And we're going over what are the best, best sports bras out there to run in?
What are the best leggings or biker shorts, anything like that to run in?
What about socks and shoes?
What are all the best things to run in?
And as we talked about shoes, it was ASICS and Mizuno's, Brooks, Hoka's, just to name a few.
3:07
And I realized that we both needed something different for our feet and our needs.
I don't have a high arch.
I know you wanted to know that, but I do not really have a high arch.
And Nike tends to be a higher arch shoe.
So anything from Nike really, really bothers my feet.
I think they have a lot of cute shoes, but their arch always bugs my feet.
3:24
And so I've realized that I just don't.
The Nikes do not work for me, but I also found that zero drop gives me shin splints and I need some type of cushion and so a zero drop I end up with shin splint.
So I don't like a zero drop and I don't like anything with a high arch.
I like things a little bit in between.
3:41
So I've really been liking the Hokas and my walking shoes and trail running shoes are both Hokas.
But then I found a magical marshmallowy dream shoes from Saucony.
These shoes are amazing.
They have a big price tag because they are so so so light but have the most beautiful cushion.
4:01
And then I call my mermaid shoes because they have like a weird like sparkly glitter thing to have when the sun hits just right.
And I love these shoes.
I love them so stinking much.
So if somebody were to ask me Meg, I want to start running and what are the best shoes out there, I couldn't answer them.
4:23
I could tell them my favorites and I could tell them my preferences, but our bodies are most likely different.
How many miles are you running?
We're probably running different miles.
Are you running on asphalt trails?
Snow.
There are so many factors out there that you have to try some shoes until you find the best ones for you.
4:43
You see where I'm going with this?
The best and perfect curriculum does not exist.
There's what works for you and what doesn't.
And the only way to know what curriculum is the best one for you is to be willing to try different curriculums.
5:02
Because all of us are different.
All of our home schools are different.
How many children you have, their ages, their personality, your personality.
It is darn near impossible to pick the best curriculum because it is all subjective.
Just like buying the best running shoes, however, it is also nice to have somebody to point you in a direction so that you're not aimlessly like, I don't even know what to do.
5:28
So to find the best curriculum for you, you can start by asking yourself some questions.
Now, this is just a few questions.
You could dive in so much deeper with so many of these, but do you want a curriculum that is open and go?
And I know that's been super awesome for some curriculums that there's not a lot of prep that you need to do that everything's just there in it.
5:50
You can open it literally as you're teaching your children and just do it.
So if you like that, then that would you would that would get rid of any curriculums that require a lot of prepping work, right?
Do you want a curriculum that you do pre study for?
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Do you that you do prep for it?
If you're like, yeah, I have the time where I have the bandwidth or I really like this because then I'm so excited about it.
Do you want your kids online?
Do you want an online program?
Do not want an online program.
Do you want some things to be online?
Maybe?
I know some people like I don't want to teach math, so they do a math program online.
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I like to keep my kids offline until about teenage years and then I'll start utilizing things.
So I know for my younger son, I'm not going to use anything online because I don't like kids on the computer because then I have to monitor it.
Do I want to learn through living books or just textbooks or what kind of books?
6:41
All of those types of questions.
Do I like structure or am I more spontaneous?
And there is no right or wrong answer with that ones.
Everybody always thinks that structured homeschoolers are the best ones.
No, the spontaneous ones are so fun and they could do the coolest things and they still get stuff done.
6:58
So they're both beautiful.
But thinking like, which one am I?
So if it's a a structured one, if you'll notice, my lesson plans, like Monday's always life skills, Tuesday's always the arts, Wednesday's always science and Thursday's always history because it was structure works for my brain.
7:15
And when I tried a Lesson plan where it was like Monday could be this and Tuesday could be that, I was like, this is throwing me off and I don't like it, but a spontaneous person probably would love that.
Like I never know what's next.
This is going to be so fun.
So asking yourself some of those questions and you could ask yourself even more questions of like, why am I even homeschooling?
7:36
And, and if it's for, because I want my kids to have a doctor by the time they're 18, then I'm going to need to be using some pretty rigorous curriculum.
Is it that I really want family time?
Then maybe it's just letting nature be out our, our guide and, and we're learning outside and we're just writing about places we visited and, and whatever that looks like for you.
7:57
So just be willing to ask yourself questions to start seeing what might work best for you.
Now, the reason why I share this episode is not to plug my lesson plans, which work really great for my brain and my family, but to help you realize that even though even if you're not using what somebody else is using, that it's OK as long as it works for you.
8:19
My sister and I are running in completely different things from our shoes.
Our shoe is running in Brooks.
I am running in soccer knees.
We both like the feature socks.
My pants were wolacos.
Hers were from Amazon.
I have, I mean just like our our brother, I think we're both from Amazon, just different things like that, that it was like what was working best for us, even though we are blood related and we are similar even in our build that we have things that work better for us.
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So there isn't the perfect curriculum out there or the best.
It's what works best for your family is what makes it the perfect curriculum for you.
So this was just an episode just to be short and sweet to let you like anybody stressing like, oh, no, I see Meg is doing this, or I see this other person online or my neighbor using this.
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Maybe I should have been using that.
But if what you have is working, just keep using it.
So friends, I hope this episode just fills you with a little bit of hope of like, OK, what I'm using is working or even just support of like, oh, this isn't working.
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So I just need to try different things until I find the right one for me.
So thank you so much for listening.
Don't forget to go to www.coachmegthomas.com to check out this year's No Yell November Challenge.
And I will be back next week with another No Yelling tip.
9:43
Have a good one, friends.
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