Support Your Child/Teen Academic Success; The Benefits of Homeschooling with Special Guest Kimberly Gawne

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All right, welcome back, No Problem Parents. Hey, are you on the fence about whether homeschooling can work for your family? Is your kiddo struggling academically or behaviorally in their traditional school setting? Or maybe your child is more advanced but being held to grade-level courses?

Well, today's guest, Kimberly Gahn, shares a few key benefits of homeschooling kids who are behind or exceeding their grade-level expectations. Kimberly completed six years in post-secondary education with a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Education. Instead of going into the public field of education, Kimberly chose to remain in the private sector and launched her own alternative educational company, Star Students.

Star Students is a small, family-focused company that provides educational services, alternative and extracurricular learning solutions for parents with students in grades K-12. Well, if you're a parent who's dissatisfied with the public or private school system for whatever reason, if you're looking for more time, flexibility, and a tailored educational program for your kiddo, stay tuned. You're going to want to hear some of the tips that Kimberly shares today, why homeschooling might be the best option for your child.

All right, Kimberly, welcome to the show. Thank you, Jackie. Thank you. I'm super excited to be here.

Well, today we're going to talk all things homeschooling and the benefits of homeschooling. I know that with working parents, this isn't always a feasible option, but it can be. If your child is in elementary school, how much time is the parent going to be involved? Yes, so that's the thing, and I'm glad you asked.

I know that when I speak with parents, there is a misconception around homeschooling. I'm glad you brought up that question of time. there's a misconception that with homeschooling it literally has to be school at home so if I'm homeschooling my child well then that means I need to sit them down at the kitchen table and they have to sit there with a textbook or an activity or whatever it might be with a variety of different things for you know six hours out of the day like they would at school right or seven hours out of the day and that is I mean number one that's just not true that's astronomically astronomically not true, but it's ridiculous to expect a child to sit for that long and learn.

Like, do we as adults, maybe some of us do, but do we as adults sit for that long? Like, I try not to sit at my desk for that long at a time, right? Or even at all, right? And so comes in standing desks and all that stuff. But when it comes to like actual academic learning, you have to ask yourself, how much learning is my child actually getting in the public school system? Are they learning for the entire time that they are there for the seven and a half hours, whatever it may be? No, they're not, right? There's other things going on. There's lots of activities. There's different socialization advantages, I suppose, if you want to call them that, to sending your child to a public school, but that academics is not all that is going on. And so your child is not getting,

you know, six hours of school, like academic learning on a, on a regular basis. If they're in public school, you don't have to have the same expectation for your child when they're at home. Right. And so homeschooling, the beauty with homeschooling is that it can be very flexible.

I have some students, some families that will, you know, they'll do it, they'll do an hour or two hours a day, depending on the child's age, right, and their interest level. I have other students who will happily spend all day in the library, you know, like looking at books and doing different activities, right? They'll happily do that because that's what they want to do. That's their natural curiosity. Like you said, some kids are very curious. They're natural-born academic learners, right? For the children that are not, that are kinesthetic learners, it's really important not to discredit the fact that, oh, just because they're not sitting at the kitchen table doing a textbook, it doesn't mean that they're not learning, right? Yeah,

that's really important. So that's one misconception. So really homeschooling is a few hours a day. It's not six hours a day. Yeah, that's right. It can be anywhere from, you know, one hour a day, two hours a day, three hours a day. I have some families that we work with that they choose to do everything kind of in one go where they'll say, okay, we're doing, you know, certain days of the week we're not going to do academic schooling, we will do unschooling type of method, where they don't focus on academics at all. They'll focus on more like a forest-based type school or nature-based type school and that sort of learning, and they'll have designated days throughout the week where they spend a longer period of time, say three to four to five hours.

Now, that's if they want to spend that amount of time. Homeschooling doesn't have to be that rigid in terms of what the amount of time that you're spending per day, right? That's the beauty of the flexibility is that you don't have to be, you don't have to fit your child into a box if they don't want to sit in that box, right? So I guess, I guess the short answer to your question would be you're, you're correct. You don't have to do it for a six hour a day time period. You can make it two to three hours. So talk about for parents that don't understand that, how does that work then to make sure that they're getting enough credits to like when you're moving into high school and then on to kids that want to go on to college, how do they get their credits if they're not doing math every single day of the week? So what happens with high school and what happens with even with elementary school, they tend to, public schools and your requirements and whatnot,

As long as you can pass your high school equivalency test, which is different in every province in Canada and every state in the U.S., there is different requirements, which is your testing of your academic concepts and skills. You're totally OK to go on to whatever. And you've been granted your high school transcript or your high school certificate, so to speak.

In Canada, it's a GED. Depending on where you are in the States, it differs. But the idea being that as long as you understand the concepts and your child grasps the academic concepts that are being taught, you don't need to spend a certain amount of time on that concept. Right. With homeschooling, you're getting this, you're getting the curriculum.

You're going to want to make sure that the homeschool program that you're working with works for your state. Right. To make sure that that your child is getting all the requirements in your state. Yes. So different states have different requirements. There are some families in like Texas, the state pretty much says do whatever you want. It's not a big deal. Just kind of like let us know what you're doing. But they don't particularly take a strong stance against homeschooling if you choose to keep your children home to the point where and I mean, this differs again, depending on your city and your region, but to the point where it's it's not something that they're going to come knocking on your door for.

right where I do have some some connections in Tennessee or Pennsylvania that the state takes a little bit more of a strict approach to that there you know if you don't send in your proper paperwork if you're not working with a state approved program if you're not working with someone who is academically approved to be able to teach a homeschooling curriculum they will you know be knocking on your door like what what is going on so that that depends on the state's involvement, but that can also vary depending on your region and your locality. It is, we do work with quite a few families who simply, the parents are, you know, they want to be able to give their child all of the opportunities to be able to explore different avenues while they're also,

you know, getting their academic credentials to make sure that they're academically on par and they're not closing any doors or any opportunities for themselves later on in life. And parents are honestly really surprised when when you say that, oh, it doesn't require much time from you. You know, in terms of the parent involvement, I always like to see parents working with their children in terms of encouraging that growth mindset and that curiosity mindset of learning.

But beyond that, it's really not too difficult. I mean, if you're if your child is a little bit younger, they might need a little bit of additional help. But if you're entrusting your child to an educational professional or to an educational company, it really should not require that much effort on your part as the parent beyond, you know, keeping communications with what's going on and making sure that, of course, you're being an involved parent in their education. But that doesn't require anything that wouldn't be required from you regularly just by being a parent and being interested in what your child is doing and how they're learning, right?

Right. So just like if they're in public school and they come home from school, they're going to have homework and you're going to be there checking their homework or helping them with their homework or making sure they understand what's going on. That's very similar to a homeschooling program. When you're not doing the homeschooling work yourself, you're there as the education coach, but not the teacher.

yes that's right that's right and so being an education coach for your child i think is really important um just in terms of being able to to be their cheerleader really right because as parents like i think that that's that's a job that you take on as a parent is being that your child's cheerleader right also you know their guidance counselor and a little bit in that sense as well but making sure that they are that they're doing okay and i think any interested parents and any parent who wants the best for their child is going to do that regardless of what sort of program academically that their child is a part of. Right. And so let's talk a little bit about who homeschooling is good for. There are some kids who maybe wouldn't excel in homeschooling because they don't have enough socialization. So it's not like, I mean, some kids really need that peer involvement or that peer motivation to do well in school. Yes. Yes. And I think that's one of the things that people really use as a reason for sending their kids to public school is the idea of socialization. I would say in terms of homeschooling being a fit for students, students who want to learn or who did at one point have a love for learning but have kind of lost their enthusiasm for learning, they do really well in homeschooling because they're now, they are either allowed to continue their inquiry-based explorations or they are able to come back

from not being interested about something because homeschooling allows them the freedom to explore the things that they're interested in while also making sure that they're academically on par with the rest of the children in their age group, right? I would say that those types of kids, if we're putting it in a category, those types of kids would be the best fit for homeschooling. And so homeschooling can be a really good option for kids who struggle academically.

Maybe they have some sort of learning disorder. Maybe they have a social emotional deficit, or maybe they're just less comfortable in social settings. But don't think that homeschooling does not involve socialization because it definitely does. We'll get to that in a second.

But I think that sometimes we think we need an IEP, which is sometimes true for kids. We need some sort of educational plan if they're struggling. But sometimes the homeschooling option is really what the child needs because the teacher is going to help teach the curriculum the way that the child can interpret it and can learn from it. Yes. And so that's the beauty with homeschooling. And honestly, I mean, I mean, I chose to stay private.

Like one of the key drivers of why I did not want to be in the public school system was for exactly that reason. You can't tailor the education system like to each child. You can't. When you have 30 children in a classroom or 15 children in a classroom or 20 children in a classroom, You're not able to tailor the child's education, like one child's education, in the same way that you can tailor it if you're working with them, you know, one-on-one, ideally in a homeschooling or tutoring setting, right?

And children that struggle with keeping up in a class, or even if they don't struggle with keeping up, children that do well academically excel at homeschooling because they're able to really accelerate and not have to keep pace with the rest of the class. Different children are at different states in their learning, right? And sometimes those states of learning aren't reflected by the grade that they're in, right? A child who's in grade four, age-wise, might be at a grade six level, academic-wise and intellectually, right?

So why should they be held in grade four? Homeschooling allows you to have that flexibility with the child. Yeah, I love that. It's a good point.

So what kinds of tips do you have for parents in order to make the homeschooling experience work more smoothly? It's surprising how many people I speak to that think that homeschooling is this outdated and like it's something that's not used anymore, right? You would be surprised at how many parents I've spoken to that are either considering homeschooling or wanting to do homeschooling or just kind of don't know where to start, right?

And they're kind of at the beginning of the journey. For someone who's at the beginning of their homeschooling journey, I would say that the most important thing, the most important tip is to find your tribe. You have to find your tribe because there's a saying that says it takes a village to raise a child. And I know that that's typically referring to parenting.

But the same thing is true with education. It takes a village to be able to educate, even if you're not wanting anyone else to be involved in the education of your child. And I have parents that want to totally DIY it. And that's 100% okay.

But just having that support, even just knowing that you have someone you can reach out to if you're struggling or if you need encouragement or if you don't know who to go to for a certain topic in math right if you run into something academically this is the importance of building a network and building a support system for yourself for yourself and for your child as well right because homeschooling is seen as an alternative education method surrounding yourself with like-minded people that are willing and able, like intellectually capable of supporting you, that's the number one important tip that I would say is for parents who are just starting their journey. I do have quite a few parents who come to me who are already homeschooling,

and they're trying to do it on their own. And their main concern of the majority of parents, I'd say probably about 90% of the parents that I speak to, their concerns center more around, is my child academically on par, right? Is my child behind, right? Where is my child on the spectrum, so to speak, of academics? Are they behind? Are they average? Or are they, you know, ahead of where they should be? And so that's where I really suggest enabling the help or enlisting the help of someone who is an educational professional, someone who's familiar with the curriculum, either of your province or of your state, so that they are able to take, you know, what you are doing and say, okay, so here's some things that you can improve on. Here are some things that you would want to make sure that your child knows, right? Again, having that,

having that extra perspective of someone who's been trained within the system to be able to get those sorts of curriculum designs is really important. Yeah, that would be another one that I would say. What kind of suggestions do you have for even setting up the space? And how does it work when the student is on line with their teacher or their class, like for a live session?

Should the parent be right there? Does that just depend on age? You know, how does it work for you guys? So the way that we run things actually with the homeschooling families that we work with directly with one-on-one teaching is we have set days. So this student would then after they, you know, eat their breakfast and brush their teeth and get themselves all ready, they would come to their computer and they would sit down and they would log into their their STAR students account and they'd come in and they would see their teacher there waiting for them. And then you would go ahead with whatever it is that is planned for you for the day, which typically involves a range of activities or a range of curriculum development processes.

We at STAR students like to really focus on inquiry based learning. So we take the curriculum and we say, OK, these are the curriculum expectations. This is what the child is interested in. How can we cross those so that we're fulfilling those sorts of expectations?

While we're also making sure that the child is engaged, that the child is interested and that they're really wanting to be there. so we have students that you know we designed it so that they have two and a half hour blocks at a time and I said you know you guys can take breaks if you need to we'll always ask you if you need breaks and I'm telling you Jackie these kids don't even ask for breaks like they don't ask for breaks ever you know I said something to the oldest one the other day and she said to me well we don't want breaks Miss Kimberly like we like what we're doing we love being here and we're so excited their mother actually told me just last week she said you know that they fight over who gets to the computer first because they're so excited. They're so excited. Yeah. So your star students program is really for the parent or the family that is looking for a very small educational type setting where their child is really the focus of the program, not a larger homeschooling program where they're still going to be, you know, 10 or 15 students on a Zoom session. Yours is very niched.

Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. What are some things that you can say to parents who are sitting on the fence about whether to homeschool their kids or not? They're kind of like, I think we really need to do it. We've been thinking about it for a while, but we're just not sure we can make it work. What should they do?

So doing your research in terms of homeschooling means that you are talking to people, means that you are reading things. And it really means that you're talking to your kids as well. Right. So many people, when they make decisions about their children's education, they don't involve their children. And I think that's a big mistake, because if you break things down enough for your kids and ask them if they might like to try something, right, if they might like to do something different.

Many parents that I've spoken with actually made the decision, okay, well, we should homeschool and we asked their kids and their kids were all for it. But other parents, they have made that decision that they want to go back to homeschooling and their kids have said, no, we want to go to public school. So they're trying it. I think the important thing to remember is that nothing is permanent and you can always fix it to something that you want, that you do want.

If what you have right now isn't working for you, I would say making sure that you're talking to people, making sure that you are like doing your research and looking at different things to be able to support yourself in making that decision. But I 100 percent advise involving your kids with that decision as well. Yeah, I think that's really good. And we should talk a little bit before we wrap up to that, because your child is in homeschool does not mean that they cannot play extracurricular sports with their local youth program or public school program.

Oh, absolutely. Of course. And I know that that's a big concern, you know, of parents who are just kind of on the fence of starting their homeschooling journey is, oh, my child won't be able to participate in sports and do the things and be involved with, you know, children who are in public school. Well, the beauty of homeschooling is that you have the flexibility to build your child's school schedule and your child has the flexibility to build their school schedule so that you don't have to have them in school when there are certain sports on.

Right. You can the school days make it shorter, make it a little bit a little bit more engaging, a little bit more fun. Of course, if you're doing it yourself, that's the goal. But I really think that it's important to make sure that you are involving your children in extracurricular activities.

So letting the idea of, oh, well, my child is in homeschooling, they can't participate in sports, control how you think of homeschooling, I think is a mistake. Your child absolutely can be involved in whatever sports they want, if not more. Because if you want to take a two hour lunch break in the middle of the day to go to swimming lessons, now you can. you can structure your homeschooling day around that. Yeah, absolutely. And if mom or dad is working and, you know, I know that some families have had nannies with the younger kids. So they've had people come into their home, watch the kids maybe be there while the child's logged on to school. There's so much more flexibility with homeschooling. I think that's the big, a key takeaway is there's so much flexibility with homeschooling and that it also really helps your child with their specific way of learning to accomplish their educational goals. I think that that's another big added bonus to homeschooling. If you know that something is not working,

perhaps it's time to try something different. If public school is not working for your child anymore, perhaps it's time to try something new. Parents want to learn a little bit more about you, Kimberly. How can they get a hold of you? I'm all over social media. My website is www.starstudents.co. That's not .com, .co. And so that is kind of your one-stop shop. So you can find almost all of our information on our website. You have a spot where they can contact you, get in touch, and you do a free consultation. So they can just do a little meet and greet with you and determine whether or not your program is a good fit for their kiddos. Yes. Conversation about your child's education costs you zero dollars. All right, parents, go to starstudents.co. Check Kimberly and her homeschooling and tutoring services out. There's also tutoring options if you already have your kiddo in public or private school or you're homeschooling,

but your child needs a little bit of extra help. You guys offer that as well. Thanks for being with me today, Kimberly. It was fun having you on the show and learning a little bit more about homeschooling. Thank you very much. I appreciate the opportunity. All right, parents, thanks for listening in today. And hey, real quick before we go, are you ready to become a no problem parent?

There are three ways that you can get started. Choose the best fit for your learning style, your schedule, and your budget. Option one for the do-it-yourself parents, purchase the Becoming a No Problem Parenting on Demand program. In just a few simple modules, I'm going to lay out for you the foundations for solving behavior issues in your family and with your kiddos. You can literally transform your child's behavior after watching just the first lesson. Binge watch the videos in just an hour and a half or complete the program lesson by lesson in four weeks. This program comes with a personalized strategy session with me and a downloadable workbook. Option two for parents who like to learn live from the comfort of your home but with the support of other rock star parents. You're going to want to join my eight-week mastermind on Your Veda. Your Veda,

U-R-V-E-D-A, Your Veda is the next generation personal development platform providing live and interactive masterminds and masterclasses. And I am proud to be one of Your Veda's partnering presenters. For just $100 a month, your Your Veda membership gives you exclusive access to not only the No Problem Parenting Masterclass. It includes access for you and all members of your family to all of the masterminds on this learning development platform. Topics such as business, education, health and well-being, spirituality, relationships, sports, and even other parenting experts. They're all sharing their best resources. And not only do you get access for just $100 a month, you can make extra income when your friends and family join too. Be sure to reach out to me for more information on that. Option three, work with me one-on-one. There are three parent coaching packages for you to choose from, but I got to tell you parents, one-on-one coaching sessions are limited and they require a 30-minute consultation with me before you commit to coaching. I want to make sure that you're ready to shift your mindset and that your family is a good fit for no problem parent coaching. No worries, if it's not a good fit, I'll suggest resources and next steps for you and your family. So head on over to no problem parents.com to get started or to check out the no problem parenting mastermind on your VEDA's personal development

platform. Go to your VEDA, U-R-V-E-D-A.org. You know, parents, the most common response I get from parents that have worked with me is we wish we would have known of you sooner, Jackie. So don't wait. Go to no problem parents.com and get started today.

Thank you.