LET your CHILDREN LEARN what they WANT to LEARN (Part 1) | The Healthy American Peggy Hall

Hey, friends, peggy hall back with you from thehealthyamerican.org dot. You are in for a real treat. I have a two part interview with my friend and colleague heather martinson. Let me share with you her website here. She is the brains behind this website called Celebration Education. And you can go there kind of as a first stop to learn about superior learning alternatives. And then she’s got this website called Learning outside the box. This is where you can go if you want to get connected with other like minded people who want to create these superior learning alternatives for their children.

And of course, at my website, thehealthyamerican.org comma, I’ve got freedom learning. You can click there and you can invest in a program that I have just as a basic how to where I answer a lot of your objections related to how do I get started? I don’t know how to teach. My children want to be in school with their friends. What if my child falls behind? How will they get get into college? What about sports? What about socialization? All of those are valid questions, and Heather and I are going to speak about a few of those in our interview.

I made some notes here because there is so much good stuff in this interview. In fact, I broke it into two parts and well, why don’t we do this? Let me bring you a word from the sponsor. Then we will dive right into the part one of the interview, and you are going to hear all about the summer of Harrison. Harrison is her son. It’s a very inspiring summer, a very inspiring story about a summer that he spent really engaged in his zone of genius. And this is one of the principles that really makes these alternative learning opportunities shine, because the children are completely involved and engrossed in something that is of interest to them.

It is not inflicted and imposed upon them by these public schools. So let me bring you another inspiring message here. And we are hopping right on over to dermal one.com. stick with me. And then, whoops. Then we will get right onto our interview. I’ve been telling you about this free tutorial, and if you’re like me and you want to look on the outside as good as you feel on the inside, then this is something you’ll want to pay close attention to, because looking younger was once thought to only be for the rich and famous people that had money and access to the expensive and often aggressive treatments.

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And so it absolutely breaks my heart when I hear from people that are intense on sending their children to California public schools. It’s likely that the public schools in your state are just as bad because the institution of public schooling is really what’s at fault. Think about it. When you’ve got children, especially young children, that are told that they have to sit in a chair and they have to listen to someone who’s not even their parent, and they have to follow this authority, they often will get shut down if they question authority. They have to raise their hand just to use the bathroom.

Everything is registered, and there are plenty of other channels here on YouTube, and there are many books that you can read about this intentional creation of public schools to create workers that are going to be obedient. So it does not foster critical thinking and independent thinking and independent learning and exploration and curiosity and discovery. But the superior learning alternative is exactly that. And that is what my friend and colleague Heather Martenson and I are discussing in this, this very special video interview. So I’ve got two parts for you. I will play the part two for you the following day.

So Heather is going to tell you about how she became an expert in we don’t even like to call it homeschooling. She calls it celebration education. And she’ll tell you all about her son, I know that you are going to be inspired by this story, so stay tuned and let’s dive in. Hey, friends. Peggy hall back with you from thehealthyamerican.org. dot, you are in for a treat. I have a friend, a collaborator, a fellow educator, Heather Martinson. And I actually ran for a couple of years an online how to homeschool your children or somebody else’s children.

And Heather is from celebration education. We are here to talk about how you, even if you’re not a parent, even if you are a grandparent, an aunt, an uncle, somebody that’s concerned about the state of children’s education, we want to help you be empowered, encouraged, equipped. What else? Inspired and ready to hit the ground running. Heather, welcome. Great to see you, my friend. It’s so good to see you. It’s been so long. It’s so fun to be together again. It has. Yes. I want to let everybody know that we trained dozens of teachers in this methodology, which is basically Heather’s brainchild, which is called learning outside the box.

Before I give the floor back over to you, I just want to give a little bit of background information for people who might be new to the channel. So I actually was the director of teacher education at UC Irvine, running the k twelve professional development for teachers. And you know what, Heather? I could see from that bird’s eye standpoint that the style, the curriculum, and this is years ago, was not in the best interests of the students, and I would endeavor to make it be student centered. So, friends, during all this hogwash for the last few years, when the schools were shut and the parents were at home with the kids doing remote learning, Heather and I said, we’ve got to equip parents on how they can facilitate the learning of their children, which is a natural event.

So we did that, and then came all the more hogwash was sloshed all over over us, and we, I kind of went into the, you know, religious exemption realm. But Heather has been doing this for years. Heather, tell us about your schools that are actually physical locations. And then we’re going to get right into the nuts and bolts. We’re going to give everybody some how to’s. And I want you to send this to parents, to grandparents, aunts and uncles, and we’ll tell you how homeschooling is easier than you think. Thank you, Peggy. Yeah. So just a little bit about myself.

I started, I was introduced to homeschooling back in the eighties when my mom was homeschooling my younger siblings. And I was sure she was crazy. But then before too long, I realized that how much I wanted to be crazy just like her. And that’s exactly what I’ve done. I raised my kids, homeschooled them all the way through, and now they’re grown and gone, and two of them have graduated from college, so it works. So, and then in 2006, I started celebration education, which is not another online program. I’m so tired of all these people saying, oh, we’re going to save education.

It’s another online program. But that’s nothing. What kids need, kids need interaction with other kids. Kids want to be with other kids, and they can do so many wonderful things together. So I started a program where kids get together, homeschooled kids get together one or two days a week to experience fun, child centered, project based experiences together in these small groups. So it’s a lot of fun for the kids. The moms get to know each other, and it’s just such a great experience for everyone involved. And so I’ve been doing that since 2006. And we run themes where every year I write this full curriculum for our teachers.

And then, but then just back into 2021, I started offering those lesson plans to anyone, anywhere. And so that’s so, and for that purpose, I created the learning outside the box website. You know what? Let’s go to the punchline right now. Let’s go to that website, share your screen. And as you’re doing that, Heather, I want folks to put a comment about why you think some people don’t want to do homeschooling. I mean, I’ve got a bunch off the top of my head because parents have said to me, number one, I’m not a teacher. That’s what they say.

And then they say my child is going to fall behind. I don’t even like that concept of, like ahead and behind. It’s kind of strange to me. You know, we, I don’t go for the labels. And then the other thing is, how will my child get into college? And you said you’ve got, but your boys graduated from college. And frankly, as I’ve said before, not everybody has to go to college. There are trade schools, there’s apprenticeship, there’s entrepreneurship. There are many different ways of doing that. But if a child wants to do that, they have the ability to make that choice and they can do that.

And then the other thing, and this is what I love about the programs that you’ve got, parents will say, what about socializing my child? And I kind of make a little funny, snarky joke. And I say, oh, you mean socialism for your child? Like they have to sit in a desk and they can’t get up and walk around until the government authority tells them to. That kind of socialism. I know I get a little snarky, but your kids were free. They thrived and you. So let’s go right over to your website. I want everybody to see this right off the bat and we will answer all of these objections that people have.

Yeah. Okay. Whoops. Right? So can you see the learning outside the box? Yes. Let me get back to my. Yes, I can see it. I think for some reason my screen was showing something different, but I am totally good with you. Yes, absolutely. This is a website that I created a couple years ago, and during, it was during the pandemic and there were so many people who were just looking for options. And I made it with this map right on the top so that if you even just get a free membership, you can get on the map and find people near you, so you can start to collaborate and you know, you can.

Your kids can get together with other families who are like minded. You don’t have to worry so much about these other things that are being taught that you don’t necessarily want your kids to learn. So basically there’s three membership levels. There is just plain essentially getting on the map and getting on the email list, or there’s a family membership that gets each week, what I call fireworks is like homework, but better for lighting the fires or learning. And they go along with our theme for the year. And then the learning group membership gets less influenced. When I first launched this site, I was charging $100 a month for the lesson of the learning group membership.

And now I actually brought it all the way down to dollar ten a month because I just want a lot of people to join right now. And also, I haven’t. There’s still some things on website that I want to polish and get better before I raise the price back up again. So if anyone wants to join, this is a good time to do so. Anyway. I also. The newest thing that I added to my website is a shop where it’s not just this year’s lesson plans that people can download now, but I’ve uploaded two whole years worth of lesson plans from previous themes that we’ve done.

So we did crafting a country for a whole year and with five components each six weeks long, and we did that for a whole year. Those are available. And also our steam world, which was around the world in 80 days theme. So it’s a lot of fun. So that’s just basic where we’re, what I’ve been working out, I’m super excited about right now, and I’m hoping that to be able to get some people who, if you’re, if you’re ready to start homeschooling or you already are and you want support, go ahead and join. Get a membership.

Otherwise, if you’re just wanting lesson plans, you’re on your own. You got this. And you want to get lesson plans, go through those shop and find what you want, because these lessons are written. I spend tons of time every week just working on the lesson plans so you don’t have to. Before we go on, let’s talk about the age group for these lessons, right. Primarily kindergarten through 6th grade. It’s really where children are learning. I mean, they’re, you know, how they’re, when they’re young, they’re wide eyed. The world is amazing and they want to know more about it.

You know, it’s exploring, it’s experiencing, it’s experimenting. It’s like getting your hands dirty. It’s a lot of fun for these kids. I kind of feel like once they start getting middle school, high school age, it’s time for them to work on bigger projects toward their careers. So this is really all about introducing interesting ideas to the kids and helping inspire them to want to know more where they’re going to go off and just like, learn, learn, learn, learn all they want on whatever topics they choose. And, you know, sometimes, and I’ve seen it get so, I mean, with my own kids and with our students, they get to a point where they just want to know more.

And they’re like, mom, can you take me to the library and need more books on this? And, you know, and researching on the Internet, it just becomes all whole family experience, actually, when they’re all working together to learn the things that the kids are interested in, it’s really exciting. Once children get to the point where they remember that, oh, yeah, I love learning and I want to know more, so it’s great. You know, Heather, in our program, you did a segment about the summer of. I’m sorry, I forgot your son’s name. Yes, the summer of Harrison.

And I don’t want to put you on the spot, but I thought that would be so fun to share with our audience also. So, and before we do that, I want to remind everybody to put in your obstacles that you’ve heard people say, well, I can’t homeschool because we both work. I can’t homeschool because my child wants to be in school. I can’t homeschool because I don’t know what to do. I think my child would be bored. I don’t know how to teach mathematics. And I want, before we leave our time together, I want to answer those questions for you and Heather.

I know you have another presentation, but let me. Maybe we’ll do that one next time. And I want to talk about the summer of Harrison. Because it is an example of children’s natural. And I would say adults as well. We have a natural curiosity. We want to learn. We want to understand the world around us. And when we are in children, of course, when they’re put into these regimented situations where they’re being taught to pass a test. And there is one teacher with 30 students or more of varying levels. And in the state of California, sadly, a lot of what’s being taught is not the basis basics.

It’s not what they need. It’s a lot of other, as I said, the socialism content and approach, which is actually not going to help your child thrive. So we want you to be excited and inspired. And you let me know when you have that, Heather and when not. And I’ll keep talking about these. You’re ready to go? Yeah. Okay. So we’re going to hear about Heather and her son. And this is a perfect example. This can be done for any age. All right. And you’re sharing your screen. All right, here we go. Actually, I want to do a partial screen.

Let me. Just a second. Yeah. And then I’m going to stick with me because we’re going to answer some of those objections by the end of the time together. So, this is my cutie. He’s my youngest. He’s 20 now. But this is about when he was seven. So, first of all, the Princeton website has two definitions for student. One is a learner who’s enrolled in an educational institution. And second is a learned person. Someone who, by long study, has gained mastery in one or more disciplines. So Harrison does not identify with the first definition. He was never enrolled in a school other than mine in my home.

But it’s the second definition that describes him as a learner. When he was seven, he took an interest in studying the elements, which for most kids, they don’t get. They don’t learn about elements until high school. Right? So I posted on Facebook about his interest, and I got some recommendations. We went to the library, and this book right here is one of the books that he just devoured because it was actual pictures of the real elements. He loved it. And then a couple other elements, books that we got. And he was really excited. And he carried this two pound book around with him everywhere.

Could you see the seven year old just like with this? It’s a big book. So it was a lot of fun. But before he even finished the book, he decided that he wants to be even more intelligent. I already limited their computer time, their entertainment, but he decided he would limit it even more because he wanted to really delve in here. So he created for himself a curriculum of study of the elements and a practice of creativity. Creativity was really important to him, so he stuck to this promise, and he completely stopped playing computer games. And he, I mean, I, like, come home from running errands.

Instead of finding him on the computer or on the tv, he was reading physics. This was this kid, because he was curious, right? And I was helping feed his curiosity. So given the extra time on his hands, Harrison stepped up his studies. The elements were only the beginning because everything in the world is made of elements. So the subject led him to all these other topics, astronomy, geography, rocks, minerals, biology, and physics. It was so exciting. So knowing the importance of creativity for the growing brain, and he wanted to make sure that he wasn’t ignoring his creativity.

So he took, he made very conscientious steps toward improving his creative abilities. So I don’t know how he decided, how he could measure how creative he was, but when he felt like his creativity was slipping, he would turn on his thinker. I mean, this was something he told me about. I don’t know. His mind is just, you know, I don’t know. And he’s seven years old. You said, this is just so inspiring. Yes. So he. I got him. He wanted straws and paper and things that he can create. Stuff I keep by my desk right here.

This little duck that he made when he was young. This is a duck that he made out of paper. And it. It actually works because, I mean, that’s just how he works. So this is one, an example of one, the paper things that he made. This is, you know, just things that he, he liked to, like, create. So, of course, in my world, having a highly creative child is just as important as having a highly academic child, because successful people need both creativity and academics to excel. But, of course, most people only see, measure and value the academic success.

So I’m going to get back to talking about his studies. Like I said, anytime any of our children’s get into a subject deeply, we all do. So all day, he was like, sharing us with these new, exciting things that he learned. Stuff about elements, stuff about things in our house, and the whole family got into it, and we touched on black body radiation, Schrodinger’s cat paradox, the Higgs bosonous a particle. He was teaching me these things. And, of course, then it prompted more questions and more discussions. It was just so much fun. And the whole cost of this summer of learning was 99 from, you know, straws and paper from the 19th century.

And so what if I told Harrison he’s not allowed to study the elements until he’s older? He has to make that. He needs to make sure that he had all his time tables memorized first. What if I had told him, he’s not smart enough for these things or any of that? Would it have been appropriate for me to say, stop, that, you haven’t done your second grade work yet, or whatever grade he would have been in? That would have been so unfortunate. All of the things that he would have missed out, that I would have missed out on and the rest of the family would have missed out on had he not taken that interest and shared it with all of us.

It was just so exciting. So, going back to the definition of students, definitely, I would prefer that my children are the second definition of a student, a learned person, someone who, by long study, has gained mastery in one or more disciplines. And, of course, he also spent lots of time reading, exercising, creating. I always promote recti, where the kids are not just studying and learning all the time, but they’re exploring and experiencing and trying new things. And so that’s a whole other lecture I could go out on. But that was Harrison’s summer of learning. It was.

I love it. That is so great. There are so many things that we can take away from that, Heather, and one of those is that you actually weren’t teaching him right. You said he was teaching you. I was facilitating. Yeah. And this is one of the concepts, which is really, like, self discovery and exploration. It’s fun. It. Let me ask, is he still into that kind of thing, or was that, like, something he really got into and then moved on to something else? He decided he wants a career in manufacturing, which makes sense to. And he has.

He’s. He’s working in a factory now. He actually didn’t. Has not chosen to go to college, but he’s working in a factory, and where he has already served as a manager there. So he’s. He’s doing good. That. That is so great. And I do want to answer one of those questions. Where parents have that concern about children not being accepted into college, like, do they get a high school diploma? How do they actually, does the state recognize it? Now we’re speaking of California. Every state does have slightly different laws, believe it or not. But what would be a general thing that you could say about that in terms of, like, diplomas and getting into college? You definitely would need to check with your state.

But here in California, I taught my kids under the private school affidavit, which gave us all the flexibility. I wanted to individualize the learning for my children. And so he, so all my kids, I graduated, and basically all I had to do is decide when they were graduated and, you know, if they needed a transcript for college or for a job, I just made it for them. It wasn’t, it wasn’t difficult at all. It was almost like, okay, now, what day was that you graduated? I don’t know. Let’s make it this date. You know, it was just, it was, it was just very natural and organic as far as learning and progressing.

It wasn’t like you have to do all of the things. And rest assured, friends, the colleges actually embrace the homeschoolers. Why is that, Heather? Because they’re self learners, just what I just showed you. Because when they get to college, they already know how to learn, they know how to research, they’re interested in learning, they’re more energetic in the learning. Unless, of course, you’ve had them still at home doing the same stuff they’re doing in school. In that case, I don’t know. You know, maybe, maybe not. They’ve got that level of learning. But if your child has gotten to that point where they’re just so excited about learning and they’re going to learn on their own, whether you want them to or not, that’s when the colleges really, really like that and they like to see a self starter.

There’s somebody who cares about learning and is energetic about it. I have a story about that I read in one of my home resources magazines, you know, if I was ever going to raise a, a chicken farm or something, which I haven’t done, but I like reading these magazines. Yeah. And they’re so interesting. And there was an article about, written by an adult, and I shared this in one of the classes we did together. And when she was five years old, she was fascinated. She did live on a small, probably an acre farm with her family, and her mom liked to grow herbs.

And she had an herb garden and a vegetable garden, and the five year old was fascinated. And she started watching and learning, and she would kind of sneak in and grow things or take little clippings, and it became her passion. Now, I’ll just jump to the punchline, because what happened is she became an expert in herbs and herbology. She has written books. It has her expertise. She didn’t need to learn, I don’t know, whatever they’re teaching people these days, because I really don’t even know what’s going on in the colleges as much. But she never went to college, and she was completely homeschooled, and she used all of her time focusing on her genius.

Now, this does exist, where you’ve got some young children that are sports phenoms or musical geniuses, and they’ll do just enough to make sure that they understand, you know, what else is going on in the world, but all of their hours are spent in their zone of genius. And you know what, Heather? I, we do have a little more time together, but I would love if we did another show where you talk about the rectime, because I think that is something, something parents can grab. There’s no, nothing difficult to learn about that. And it is exceptional in learning.

And it sort of goes in line with this. Let your children learn what they want to learn.
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