193: Your Unique Homeschool

Join Maren & Angela as they remind you to cut out the noise, adjust your expectations, and embrace your unique homeschool.   Fall 2022 Season Sponsors We are so grateful to our Fall 2022 Season Sponsors. Use the links below for their special offerings:   Blossom & Root and use code HSUnrefined15 for 15% off your purchase   Outschool and use code Unrefined for $20 off your first class    Night Zookeeper for a 7-day, risk-free trial, as well as 50% off an annual subscription  LTWs    Maren: Pomodoro Focus Timer App  Study Bunny App   Angela: Never Have I Ever   Connect with us!  Visit our website  Sign up for our newsletter and get our Top 100 Inclusive Book List We are listener supported! Support us on Patreon Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and see video episodes now on Youtube Angela on Instagram: @unrefinedangela | Maren on Instagram: @unrefinedmaren and @alwayslearningwithmaren  Email us any questions or feedback at [email protected]   Complete Episode Transcript   [00:00:00] Maren: Hi, we're Maren and Angela of homeschool under fine. And we are here to keep homeschool simple, real, and fun. Over the past 25 years, we've been friends, teachers, homeschool, parents, and podcasters together with our master's degrees and 20 years combined homeschooling. We are here to rethink homeschooling, learning, and education with an inclusive and authentic  [00:00:34] Angela: lens. [00:00:36] At homeschool unrefined, we prioritize things like giving yourself credit, building strong connections, respectful parenting interest led playing and learning, learning differences, mental health, self care, and listening to and elevating LGBTQ plus and BI voices.  [00:00:56] Maren: We are here to encourage and support you, whether you're [00:01:00] a new homeschooler, a veteran, you love curriculum, you're an unschooler. [00:01:06] Whether your kids are at home or all of your kids are in school or somewhere in between wherever you are on your journey, we are the voice in your head telling you you're doing great. And so are your kids.  [00:01:20] Angela: We're back Mar Hey, we're so glad to be back. It's been a time. Welcome back to the podcast. Yes. [00:01:30] Yes. This is exciting.  [00:01:31] Maren: So exciting. This is episode 1 93, your unique homeschool. Since it's the beginning of the year, we wanna talk about why your homeschool will look unique and how you can make it your very own. And then we'll end. Like we always do with our LT Ws, loving this week.  [00:01:52] Angela: We wanted to make sure that you knew about our newsletter that goes out out weekly. [00:01:57] When you sign up for it, you can get our [00:02:00] top 100 inclusive book list free. We're really excited about this book list. Mm-hmm , we've worked on it a long time. We've got books for all ages. Picture books, middle school, Y a and then we've got sections for graphic novels and audio books too. We're really, really excited about this to make sure you get that book list. [00:02:17] Go to homeschool, unrefined.com/newsletter. Or there will be a link in our show notes. Oh,  [00:02:23] Maren: and the new and the top 100 book list also has links live links to the books, which is definitely such a great thing. Yep. We've started something new this season. We are bringing you three new sponsors for the entire fall season. [00:02:38] We were very intentional about who we chose for sponsor. We really appreciate you taking the time to learn about them because we think they are really good companies. Also they're giving discount codes, so you'll want to listen for those. We're so happy to work hard on this podcast and we appreciate the financial support in [00:03:00] making it happen. [00:03:01] Angela: If you have been around a while, you know that we are picky about curriculum, and that's why we are excited to partner with blossom and root blossom. And root is a nature focused secular curriculum, focusing on create creativity, science, nature, literature, and the arts blossom and root has been gently encouraging and supporting homeschool families around the globe since 2016 blossom. [00:03:27] And. Currently offers curricula for pre-K through fifth grade, with new levels being added in the future. Additionally, a three volume inclusive us history curriculum told from a variety of viewpoints is currently in development. As of August of 2022 volume. One is available for purchase and volume two is available on presale, all profits from this history curriculum, a river of voices. [00:03:51] Will be used to support storytellers and artists from historically excluded communities. You can find samples, scope, and sequences [00:04:00] and information about each of their levels [email protected]. You can also find them on Instagram at blossom and root blossom, and root has created a special discount just for our listeners. [00:04:13] Use the code HS on refined 15 at checkout for 15% off of your purchase. If  [00:04:21] Maren: you've listened to our podcast, you know, we are passionate about outsourcing in homeschool. out. School has been one of our very favorite ways to outsource. We know the kids who love to learn. Don't just prepare for the future. [00:04:35] They create it. That's why out school has reimagined online learning to empower kids and teens to expand their creativity, wonder and knowledge, empathetic, passionate teachers, encourage learners ages three to 18 to explore their interests, connect with diverse peers from around the world and take an active role in leading their. [00:04:59] Out [00:05:00] school has created a world filled with endless possibilities for every schooling journey. Explore over 140,000 fun and flexible live online classes to find the right fit for your family and join us as we set learning free. Sign up today at out schooler.me/homeschool unrefined, and get up to $20 off your first class. [00:05:25] When you enroll with the code  [00:05:27] Angela: UNREFINED. Mar, and I both love creative ways to teach reading and writing. That's why we're excited to introduce you to night zookeeper. Is your child a reluctant writer? Do they struggle with reading? If your answer to either of these questions is yes. The night zookeeper may just be what you're looking for. [00:05:47] Night. Zookeeper is an online learning program for children, age six to 12 years old that used a uses a gamified and creative. To help keep kids engaged and focused on developing awesome reading and [00:06:00] writing skills all while having fun at the same time, some of the features we love include the educational games, the personalized feedback on writing from real tutors and the super safe community pages where children can work with each other and learn together if Knight zookeeper. [00:06:17] Sounds like the perfect learning program for your child. You can try it for free by clicking on the link in the show notes. When you register, you'll get a seven day risk free trial, as well as a huge 50% discount off on annual subscription. That's a great deal. If you ask me, I'll write,  [00:06:35] Maren: let's dive into our topic today, which is. [00:06:40] Your unique homeschool. Mm-hmm we pick this topic because it's the beginning of the year and, and we know how it feels to be at the start. And if we look back, we've done lots of these episodes. We've talked a lot about starting the year. And we've also talked a lot about making homeschool, our. [00:07:00]  [00:07:01] Angela: yeah. [00:07:01] You know, at the beginning of the year we're excited. Yes. And sometimes a little bit. It can be a, we can be a little bit overly enthusiastic, not enthusiastic, but we might have our site set, set a little bit high. I know that always happened to me. And sometimes we are doing maybe not too much, but maybe too much of what we think we should be doing. [00:07:21] Sure. And not necessarily what is best for us and our kids.  [00:07:26] Maren: You know, it is so true. Like we set up this, oh, what looks like amazing on paper homeschool, you know, the schedule, you've got a balanced amount of all subjects through throughout the week. And you've picked out the perfect read aloud and then. [00:07:47] You know, 10 things happen that make it all kind of like go, you know, awry things go awry. And, and it's really easy at this, especially at the beginning of the year to just think, oh my goodness, I am not cut out for [00:08:00] this or my kids aren't coming out for this, this isn't gonna work. I have, I made all these plans and none of them worked out. [00:08:06] And so right away at the beginning of the year, it can feel a little bit. Oh, man, what a let down, you know, right away. But a lot of the times that is because we have set our expectations grand we've made, we've set these grand expectations.  [00:08:22] Angela: Yeah. And you know, sometimes you might not think that right away, because you're like, I'm already. [00:08:27] Doing like less than I probably should be doing. Mm-hmm mm-hmm or I'm already doing things a little bit differently maybe than I did last year, or I already feel like we're doing a slow start. And so like, we haven't really even gotten going yet. And so it can feel like really there, you, we're not talking about, we're not talking about you. [00:08:46] Mm-hmm mm-hmm but we are because. Even though all of those things might be in place. Something might just still feel off. Maybe your days are feeling hectic. Maybe there's not like an excitement [00:09:00] or spark. Right, right. Or maybe you're not getting to things that you wanted to get to, or maybe your kids aren't excited about this right now or something there's maybe something off. [00:09:11] Right.  [00:09:11] Maren: And yeah. And it's, it is true that we, even, when we think we've, we've pared it down, we're homeschooling, we're gonna do less than what they might do at a traditional school during the day. Right. But I think often we have to cut that down. Maybe even more, especially at the beginning of the year, especially at the beginning of the year, but I would say probably. [00:09:34] A lot of the times mm-hmm we need to cut. We need to, we need to make what we're doing count , you know, mm-hmm and so that means probably doing less, less than we even think we should. You know, we, we thought we cut it dump. We need to maybe cut it down even more.  [00:09:54] Angela: mm-hmm and you know, that could be really hard because even though we [00:10:00] are doing things differently. [00:10:01] I mean, you're homeschooling, so you are different than, yeah. Most people, you know, right. You're already bucking the system. You're already backing the system by homeschooling. Okay. Right. So even though you're doing things differently, we still like have this, we still strive a little bit for uniformity. [00:10:18] We still wanna make sure that we. Checking all the boxes and that we are doing what we should be doing. Mm-hmm mm-hmm and We still like, have this idea that if we're just doing all these things, like everything's gonna be okay, it's kind of like, you want this control over your kids' education, you know, it's a big deal, right? [00:10:38] Your kids' education. Yeah. And you are striving for this control. That might be You know, it's really, it's an illusion. It's not really, we don't really have control too much control and so, right, right,  [00:10:51] Maren: right. But it feels, you know, especially when we're diving into this new, it's a new endeavor maybe or something, and it just feels like we do feel, it feels like we kind of need [00:11:00] that. [00:11:00] We need to, we need to hold onto something. And then the one thing , you know, that we're holding onto. If you. Sometimes that doesn't pan out. And so it does, it does, it does feel like we do have to  [00:11:12] Angela: let go of that, right? Because here's the thing. If you are being authentic to who you are and who your kids are, your homeschool is gonna look unique. [00:11:22] It's gonna, it's gonna look different than what you're seeing online. Yep. It's gonna look different than anything we've ever done. It's gonna look different than the person at your co-op or your neighbor or your sister-in-law or whoever is homeschooling. It is going to look different because yes, you are being authentic to who you are and who your kids are. [00:11:41] Maren: And here's why you wanna do that. you wanna do that because we all learn best and most efficiently when we're doing the things that. Are interesting to us when we're enjoying those things. When we, when we have an emotional tie to them and [00:12:00] those things are gonna be different for everyone mm-hmm . And so our home school's gonna look different. [00:12:06] Angela: Yeah. And you know not only that, but like every person learns differently, which is something we talk about a lot. Right. Every person learns differently. So some people, you know, like to sit at a table and do more of like the traditional mm-hmm mm-hmm book and a notebook type of learning . Some people like to read with their eyes. [00:12:24] Yeah. Some people like to need to be getting up and moving around. Right. Some people need to be traveling or having adventures or, you know, some people need to be playing Legos and listening to an audio book or whatever. Yeah. There's a lot of different ways that learning can happen. And so if you, again, you want, you want that for yourself and your children, because if you, if they. [00:12:48] If they're doing, if they're taking in the information, if they're learning authentically, then that's gonna be also efficient and effective. It is  [00:12:57] Maren: it's gonna be efficient. Like and if that is what [00:13:00] helps you wrap your mind around having a unique homeschool, then go with it. Like, because. To when your homeschool is uniquely yours, it is most efficient. [00:13:10] It really is. And it might seem like all frivolous things, but it is  [00:13:16] Angela: actually.  [00:13:18] Maren: The most learning or your time. It is actually the most learning for your time. It's not fluffy. It's actually deep, dense work that's happening, but it's because it's like you're diving into what your kids are super excited about. [00:13:33] That's where the best media learning happens. And so just savor that, like give yourself credit for all that learning that's happening. That's uniquely. Geared towards your kids, so exciting for  [00:13:48] Angela: sure. And oh yeah, go. I was just gonna say, like, there's a reason you're not in school. Right? What is that reason? [00:13:54] What is the reason that your kids aren't in school? Well, it's because you need something different, you know? [00:14:00] I mean, I don't know what that is. I don't know what that is for you, but you needed something different. And so your homeschool does not have to look like school. It does not have to look like school in the number of hours. [00:14:12] Yeah, it doesn't have to look like school in the number of days. It does not have to look like school in the time of day. It does not have to look like school in the subjects that you are doing. It does not have to look like sitting at a desk like they do at school. School does things. School is good for a lot of kids, right? [00:14:30] But school is, is working with a classroom of 30 kids. Mm-hmm and they are working within constraints that you don't have. You have this freedom at home to do things that are best for your child. So make it look different because that is your advantage to being at home.  [00:14:47] Maren: I think this is such a big mistake of, of, you know, of many homeschoolers. [00:14:51] I will, I will put myself in that category, this category too, some big mistakes that we've probably all made is. The reason why we took our [00:15:00] kids outta school. We recreate those things at home. Like, you know, it was really hard for my child to do, I don't know, fractions and fourth grade, and then you take 'em home and you're like, okay, but you still have to do fractions in fourth grade. [00:15:17] yeah. You're in fourth grade or something. yeah. You know?  [00:15:20] Angela: Yeah, because you have in the back of your mind, like. Oh, but I, my kid still needs to learn this and it's still really important. And I'm just gently asking you why mm-hmm . Why do you think that you should just question the, these assumptions that you are repeating or that you hold in your head and I'm not saying it's not important. [00:15:40] I'm not saying fractions. Aren't important. I'm just saying, right, right. No, no, no, absolutely not ask yourself. Just, just question the things that you are holding dear. Right at this time,  [00:15:50] Maren: another thing that I think, you know, we take our kids home from school because of, you know, it might be some mental health issues or, you know, like they need more [00:16:00] connection, they need more connection. [00:16:01] And so we bring them home and then, you know, it's very easy to be like, okay, we can connect, but then we also have to do all these things. So I would say. If that's where you're at right now, you know, like 80, 90% of your day should be, you know, just fostering the connection. It shouldn't be, it doesn't have to be much of academics at all. [00:16:23] Maybe it's nothing right now, you know? So I'm just saying there is time for the The academics or whatever it is that, you know, you are feeling kind of rigid about right now, there is, there's gonna be time for that and it's gonna mm-hmm happen and it's gonna happen efficiently  [00:16:41] Angela: and effectively  [00:16:43] Maren: after you've. [00:16:44] You know, created this homeschool, this unique homeschool for yourself. Yeah. This, you know, the environment, the vibe, the connection, the, yeah. The enjoyment. If you create that first,  [00:16:57] Angela: mm-hmm,  [00:16:58] Maren: get that established and you can [00:17:00] always pull in things. You might have to sneak them in. You might, you might be able to do blocks of whatever the fractions or whatever. [00:17:08] But like create, create the environment first and that's gonna be  [00:17:13] Angela: so, so unique. Yeah. That's so good. One thing that I always strive for too is I wanna have kind of like what you're talking about. I wanna have like a balanced life and I, yes, don't really know how to say this. Other than like, I kind of want my weekends to look similar to my weekdays, you know, how. [00:17:30] In a traditional school or traditional work environment. You're like, oh, thank gosh, it's Friday. Oh yeah. Like I can finally relax it's Saturday, whatever. And then the Sunday dread, like, you know yeah. Yeah. And you're like gearing up for a week that you like hate or that you're just not looking forward to. [00:17:47] I want my kids, I want my kids and myself to be able to look forward to the week and look, and look forward to every day. Like this is balanced. We have enough time of. Rest we have enough time of [00:18:00] enjoying what we're doing. Yes, there are also some challenges and some things that are hard, but it doesn't have to take up the entire week. [00:18:08] And then it can feel like a this balance between like hard work and play and all of the things that are needed in a human life basically.  [00:18:18] Maren: Right. A self-regulated life. Exactly. Yeah. So, so, so true. So how do we do this? How do we, how do we. Create this unique homeschool that we really, really want, but we also feel. [00:18:33] Just pulled towards the needs and the the control sometimes.  [00:18:38] Angela: Yeah. And I think this starts with really like knowing yourself and your children. Yes. Yep. And I know we talk about this so much and but it's true, really getting to know yourself and getting to know your kids and, and not only like how they learn, but like what they're interested in. [00:18:56] Yeah. And what they wanna learn. Is the thing. It is [00:19:00] crucial in, in hearing them and not just hearing them, but like validating what they are interested in and validating who they are and lifting that up as being like really important. It's not a hindrance. It's not a roadblock to what you need to get done. [00:19:19] It is, it is the thing that you are working with. It is the, it is the reason you're here. And so like, use that to, yes. Create this life, this homeschool life.  [00:19:30] Maren: That is mind blowing what you just said. I wanna say that we talk about this a lot in our back to school summit, which is available. You can go to our website or our patron and it's, you'll find it. [00:19:43] It's free for patrons. It's free. It's free for patrons. It's. I mean, this, we talk about this, a lot of asking our kids and we go through specifically how to do that, how to  [00:19:53] Angela: go through, you know, this  [00:19:56] Maren: process where we figure out. The [00:20:00] school we wanna create the home, the home we wanna.  [00:20:03] Angela: With our kids. Right. So it, it involves, you know, like getting to know them and asking, you know, like I just talked about things that they're interested in, things that they wanna do, things that they wanna prioritize. [00:20:14] And then there will also be things that are important to you as the parent, you know, like, right. Absolutely. Yeah. You know what? Math is important to me and we, we do have to do that or you might have you know, something else that's also really important to you, but It's kind of a way of really listening to your kid first and foremost, and then also like sneaking in or fitting in a few things that are important to you too. [00:20:39] Maren: Mm-hmm mm-hmm yeah. And also, I mean, it is just as valuable. What they really want is just as valuable as what you want. And so it's okay to say this is really important to me. Let's figure out how we can work it all in together. I would say also when you, when you learn together about yourselves and [00:21:00] what unique things you wanna bring into your homeschool, maybe it's rock climbing. [00:21:06] you know, maybe it's You know, lots of trampoline time. I don't know. What is it? What's the thing that's like, just  [00:21:13] Angela: fires your kids up and maybe it's friends a lot of time. It's friends, friends time. Yeah. Lots of friends. It might  [00:21:19] Maren: be creating your own YouTube  [00:21:21] Angela: channel. I don't know. But I would say  [00:21:23] Maren: whatever those things are. [00:21:26] I would wager to guess there's probably, you're probably going to needs at some point in your homeschool, some unstructured time, and that just gives them this, you know, maybe an extended amount of time to do the thing that they're super interested in doing without you know, a parent led kind of thing. [00:21:46] It's like their time to explore and create and enjoy their interest. However they want to, and there can be times like obviously when there's parent support and things like that, but unstructured time does [00:22:00] feel a little, it feels like there's not much control there, but it also, and there can be certainly parameters around that, but that I have found that unstructured time is often what makes our homeschool has made our homeschool very unique. [00:22:18] Because everybody's doing the thing that they oh, yeah. Really are passionate or excited about or interested in, or just learning about for the first time, you know, mm-hmm, , it's just, you never know where they're gonna be on that spectrum, but it's just, it's so fun  [00:22:31] Angela: to watch. Yeah. Mar, this is so important, this unstructured time, because it's a win-win for everybody. [00:22:38] I know. As a parent, you need a break. I know you do. Mm-hmm I know you work so hard and it is a win-win. Yeah, you are not only homeschooling. Yeah. You're also doing everything around the house and Parenting and a million other things and prob maybe working and yeah, maybe you have a partner and you know, I don't know. [00:22:58] I know you you're [00:23:00] busy and or you probably have a baby, you probably have a lot of babies. I don't know. You probably really, really busy and you need, you need a break from homeschooling. This is, this is what you take it. Take this unstructured time, build it in every day from noon to one. Or noon to two or noon to three or whatever it is, however you wanna structure it. [00:23:21] We have unstructured time. Yes. This is when you can do whatever you are interested in, do it totally, totally. And it's not  [00:23:28] Maren: just the side time. This is not like, after you've done all the important things I'm going to give you this extra. Side time or whatever. No, no, no. This is the meet. This is,  [00:23:41] Angela: this is the heart of your homeschool. [00:23:44] Yeah. Yeah. And so Martin, I anticipate the, the butts or the mm-hmm the questions. People are gonna, the main question right now is probably like, well, what if my kid just wants to play on the iPad the whole time of their unstructured time? Like what would you say to [00:24:00] that? Well, that's  [00:24:00] Maren: a good question. I mean, everybody has their own boundaries. [00:24:04] Screen time. Yeah. I would say screen time is a valid thing to do. Yeah. During unstructured time. There's a lot of actually, when we say iPad time or screen time, we clump that all into. Bad category yeah. Find out what they're actually doing on their screen time. Mm-hmm maybe they're, you know, I don't know, learning how to  [00:24:26] Angela: do something on YouTube. [00:24:28] There's a lot of good stuff that could be happening. You  [00:24:30] Maren: never know. And it could be, or maybe it could be something that you initially. Cringe at,  [00:24:36] Angela: oh, they're watching a gamer on YouTube. I think that  [00:24:41] Maren: is dumb. I do not like that. , you know, or whatever. But I, I want you, I just wanna challenge you to number one, open your mind towards, to like, you know, what are the positive qualities of that? [00:24:51] There probably are some, so I would say number one, allow it allow some of. You know, also have your own [00:25:00] boundaries for it too. Yep. You know, it's okay. If you are uncomfortable with the amount of time they are getting influenced by this one YouTuber or whatever it is, that is you're right. You're probably right about that. [00:25:12] You know, there, there are some for sure boundaries that. Canon should be in place and talk about it and discuss why you're doing that too, for sure. So our, your kids understand but they also, they need to be heard, but then they also need to, you know, understand the boundaries. And so I think it's. [00:25:29] But then also, what are those? Okay. Dig more into like, what are those interests that they're, you know, actually into they're doing screen time, but what's the underlying like interest. Maybe you can draw something out of that. That's not on screens too. There's a lot of things like maybe this screen time goes along with a project. [00:25:48] You know, or I don't know who knows  [00:25:51] Angela: it might. And then you also wanna be careful not to ruin their love by creating a project that they have to do during which I've done structured time. I know we've all done that they've [00:26:00] done several times. Yeah. You do wanna,  [00:26:02] Maren: you do want them to be able to own that time and really feel like it's  [00:26:06] Angela: theirs. [00:26:06] Yeah. Right. So, I mean, I've done this several different ways. I've been like, yeah. Have at the screen time, I've also been like, well, you can do anything except screen time right now. I want you to like, think of different. I want you to think of other things that you're interested in. And also I have to say, like, this really depends on the child because like, yes, each one of my kids would handle this differently. [00:26:25] And I would probably parent differently around each of them. You know, you have again, it's about knowing yourself and your kids. Yep. And what works for everybody. Yes. Yes. But just the point is like having some time to be like, Hey, what do I really wanna do? Can you imagine if somebody said that to you right now? [00:26:42] Like, Hey Angela, right now for the next three hours, you only can do something that you're interested in. Like my gosh. Yeah. like, I would be so excited. Like you can't do any chores. You can't, you know,  [00:26:56] Maren: like, can't do any grocery shopping.  [00:26:58] Angela: Yeah. You can't. Yeah, no cleaning. You [00:27:00] have, you can, you can only do your interest right now. [00:27:02] How exciting. Yeah. Yeah, that would be really exciting. So give your child that gift. And again, it doesn't have to be three hours. It could be one or whatever.  [00:27:09] Maren: Exactly. Exactly whatever fits your unique homeschool, it's yours. Yeah. And then also just under this category of how I, I wanna reiterate, you may have to just do loss, less check, check. [00:27:22] How check in with your yourself, check in with your kids. How are you feeling? Are you feeling stressed? Is there, is there anything, you know, that's causing this stress and it may be that you've still like, just planned. Strived. really hard. And to make this homeschool, you know, mm-hmm, successful and it's a lot of, it can feel like a lot of work. [00:27:47] So I would just say, you know, it's okay to do  [00:27:49] Angela: less. It's okay to do less because here's the thing you're playing the long game. You don't have to do 10 subjects every week. For every [00:28:00] year of your child's life, you just don't. And so, you know, if you're making sure that you do everything right now, you really don't have to do that. [00:28:09] You can put out, you can just pick out the things that are the priority and save the rest for later. And. Sometime that thing will come up in a way that is authentic to everyone involved. And that's when you do that. And if it doesn't, you find a way to fit it in, at some point, you know what we've never actually done. [00:28:26] You know, I don't know us history or Victoria never done geography or whatever, you know what? We should probably do that. And then you will find a way to do it. It does not need to be every year, every week. Yep, exactly. Ugh. So give yourself the, the gift of doing a little bit less. Here's the good news. [00:28:46] You can always add more. Yep. You can always add more. You can, you can add more if you need to, if you do less and you're like, this isn't really feeling right. You don't have to do that. You can add more to make it feel better. Yep.  [00:28:59] Maren: Yep. [00:29:00] That's awesome. All right. Okay. Well I hope you found some nuggets that are gonna help you this. [00:29:08] This week in your homeschool, know what we're always  [00:29:10] Angela: going for is just a little bit of encouragement to yep. Let you know that we know you work hard and you're doing great. You're doing  [00:29:18] Maren: great. Yep. And we're not here to add more things to your plate. We're never here to add more. We're here to, if anything, take things off of your plate and help you feel like where you're at right now is great. [00:29:30] Yes, definitely. You're doing great right now. So, all right.  [00:29:34] Angela: All right. Let's move on to our loving this week's yes. We're really excited to get back to these. Yeah. The foods are one of our favorite parts of our. So Marin. Yes. What are you loving this week?  [00:29:46] Maren: Okay. I'm loving an app, actually. There's an app for me that I like to use. [00:29:51] It's called Pomodoro and it's this work method of working for 25 minutes and then taking a break for five minutes and I've been doing some [00:30:00] longer projects and this has been really great for me. Especially with someone with ADHD is to help me know like it's just an app and I start it and I see. [00:30:10] Visually the time are going down. Okay. From 25 minutes down to zero, and I know exactly how long I'm gonna be sitting at a computer and working, and then I know I'm gonna have a five minute break and then it starts my five minute break as well. That's  [00:30:27] Angela: awesome.  [00:30:27] Maren: Yeah. And I'm, I'm loving it because it's just like a, it's a limited amount of time that I know that I'm gonna be working. [00:30:35] Angela: Does it shut off like your distractions on your phone for that time too? Or do you still get text and  [00:30:40] Maren: stuff? No, it doesn't. But no, mm-hmm, I wonder if there, there may be an option for that and I don't know. Okay. I know there are some apps that do that.  [00:30:49] Angela: Yes. Okay. Yeah, you did tell me about this and I didn't get it, but I did start implementing it with just, yeah. [00:30:57] My time. On it's great too. Yes. And I have [00:31:00] to say it is really nice to be cuz then you, at the end you can be like, I just worked for 25 minutes. Yeah. Yeah. You feel accomplished.  [00:31:07] Maren: Right. And it has been proven that you do need those little breaks in your, for your brain. I mean  [00:31:12] Angela: you do. Yes. You need those breaks. [00:31:14] Mm-hmm mm-hmm so you're not tempted to go like. An hour,  [00:31:19] Maren: right? Because it's, it gets less efficient, you know, to work, to work that long. It does. Okay. Your brain just is less efficient when you're working that long and, and a deeper thing. So anyway, and then there's this, this one, there's also an app that is specifically for kids that is similar and it's called study bunny. [00:31:41] Focus timer B U N N Y. Mm. Okay. And so one of my kids just got this and it's a cute little gamified version of this, where you can earn points and you can set your timer. And it's much shorter. There's a cute little bunny that. [00:32:00] Times you . Mm that's awesome. Yeah, and it, and it looks a lot like a little game and yeah, you get points and you can buy things within the app with the points and it also, and I haven't explored this a ton, but there is a visual tracker too. [00:32:15] It'll show you very color. There's very colorful little A very colorful, like little bar graph. That'll show you like how long you spent on each of these. Yeah. Doing each of these things. So you gonna say that's awesome. I wanna read for five minutes. Yeah. And put that on there.  [00:32:29] Angela: So. That sounds great. And I have to say, like, this could work for any kid, not just a kid who has ADHD. [00:32:36] Right? Totally. Or just an adult who has ADHD, but like this works for anybody. It really does. It does.  [00:32:42] Maren: It's it's, it's widely used apps, both of these. That's awesome. So many people. Yeah. Thank you. All right. Angela, what do you  [00:32:50] Angela: loving this week? All right. I'm loving. My, my favorite show came back for season three and I had to tell everybody about it. [00:32:56] It's called never have I ever. Yeah. sudden [00:33:00] Netflix. This is a Mindy kaing production. I probably have talked about season one or two, one and two on here before. Because I love it so much. Yes. It's a teenage show. it? It is about high school, but don't care. You know, you just, you love what you love, right? [00:33:16] And I love you. Love what you love. High school high school shows I'm into those. Not all of 'em I'm into well done. High school shows. This is well done. This is well written. This is creative. This is. The characters in season three, if you've watched season one and two and you haven't watched three, yet three is the best the characters have developed really are learning from their mistakes. [00:33:39] They are, I would in, I want my kids to watch this because it's their good role models. For your teen. I feel like, right. That's awesome. Just in the way that they handle situations which is, is so  [00:33:53] Maren: great because it doesn't shy away from issues. No.  [00:33:56] Angela: And  [00:33:57] Maren: yet it's still a good  [00:33:58] Angela: positive show. [00:34:00] When I say they're good role models for my teens, I don't mean that they don't make mistakes and they don't do things that I wouldn't want my teens doing. [00:34:08] Like, you know, there's some drinking and sex and stuff like that. So but what I mean by is like the way they communicate, the way they are inclusive, mm-hmm the way they are growing and learning from their mistakes, I think is. Really really, really well done. I just, that's just the best. I think this is top notch and the actors are amazing. [00:34:30] Just love it. It's on Netflix. Yes. On episodes each season. I'm not embarrassed to say I binge them like in one sitting when it comes out. So I love him so much. Well, and Mindy healing,  [00:34:45] Maren: I can't, you can't go wrong. I mean, she's just wonderful.  [00:34:48] Angela: So cannot go wrong. Mm-hmm. If you haven't watched it, you wanna check it. [00:34:53] All right. All right. Well, thank you everybody for being here for our first episode, back for the fall [00:35:00] 2022 season, we wanna thank again, our three sponsors for the season blossom and root out school and night zookeeper. You should go to our show notes and check out their links and their discounts. This podcast is created and hosted by Angela C and Marron gorse. [00:35:17] We are listener supported to get extra content and the back to school summit free with your membership. Go to patreon.com/homeschool unrefined. Subscribe to our newsletter and get our free top 100 inclusive book list at homeschool. unrefined.com/newsletter. You can find Maren on Instagram @unrefinedmaren, and @ alwayslearningwithmaren and you can find Angela @unrefinedangela.