On St. Patrick’s Day, the car was running as I sat and painted my nails a pink-red. I honked the horn once, and the last kid came running out the front door and hopped over a bag of books as the minivan door slid shut.
We took part of the morning off from homeschooling to do something that I used to do all the time when my kids were little - go to the library, grab a coffee, and stop at the park on the way home. I remember when these simple little outings were a lifeline in my day, when my kids needed so much help to get anything done, and before I really figured out what I was doing with homeschooling.
We didn’t go because I was at the end of my homeschool rope. Not at all. We went today because it was sunny, and my oldest is in high school, and I owed my kids a sugar-filled slush from Sonic as a reward for finishing their checklists last week. And also because sometimes I get the urge to recreate a good memory.
Even though those little days were so hard at the time, I find myself looking back at them with fondness and trying to relive them every now and then. I was barely scraping by, but it was precious, and magical, and I miss it.
On the way home, as my oldest worked on his algebra, and my kids worked on various subjects in the back seat, I played an old episode of a favorite podcast. That got my mind spinning on all the podcasts I had loved and that had helped me keep perspective back when I had five kids all under eight years old. So I thought I would share some old favorites here.
Sometimes I think the early days of podcasts are better than more recent episodes, as if all the best tips and advice were shared up front. It’s not that the recent episodes are no good, but the older episodes have a depth and level of effort that comes from the hosts being new at something. Older episodes are sometimes a bit better.
So if you take my recommendations here, I hope you’ll click that little “more episodes” button and scroll back to the beginning. Pick an episode and see what you think.
The Read Aloud Revival Podcast
The hopping, happy music at the beginning of this podcast conjures up all sorts of sunny afternoons driving down the winding road to our library. We used to all listen to this podcast together, and my kids were delighted by the clips at the end of every episode of kids sharing their favorite books. I got so many great book suggestions from the early episodes of this podcast, and it helped me understand the importance of reading aloud in developing vocabulary and language in kids.
Helpful episodes that I’ve listened to multiple times:
and a whole bunch of others!
Your Morning Basket Podcast
If you’ve ever heard of a morning basket in the context of homeschooling, it probably originally started with this podcast, now re-named “Homeschool Better Together”. I first started implementing enrichment subjects because of this podcast. The idea of having a basket of resources that we could loop through made things like music appreciation and memory work so much less intimidating.
Episodes that stand out in my memory:
The Smiling Homeschooler Podcast
I started listening to this podcast after hearing Todd speak at a homeschool conference when my oldest was only in first grade. It became my go-to for when I felt overwhelmed or like I was doing homeschooling all wrong. Todd has a way of reminding you what really matters - academics are important, but so is having a good homeschool experience for myself and my kids. This podcast helps me keep things in perspective.
P.S. I just have to note here that Todd Wilson is also an excellent story-teller. Our family loves his Christmas story collection, and you might enjoy this free short story about a homeschooling mom!
Episodes that helped me keep things in perspective:
In writing this post I went back and listened to a few of these episodes, and my premise holds up - there are good things in the archives of your favorite homeschool podcast. I hope this post gives you something new to listen to, or reminds you of old favorites that you may need to hear again! And if you are new to homeschooling, check out all the episodes I linked above for some evergreen encouragement.
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