Homeschooling Out of Necessity - Now Family Makes it Their Mission Together - Part 1

Hello!  Welcome to episode 12!  I had the BEST time speaking with Emily Petersen, a local mom of 3 that has traveled the globe with her husband while homeschooling her babies.  She's been to Kansas, Singapore and Japan just to give you an idea of the different places she's seen - and Emily's family now looks at homeschooling as their goal - the thing that they work towards together.
Though Emily was first thrust into homeschooling through necessity, like so many moms and dads out there, her and her husband soon realized that it was God calling them to a life of pajama breakfasts and homeschool hangouts. Please enjoy part 1 of Emily's story!
I'd love your feeback!  Please send me an email at nestingwiththeearleybirds@gmail.com or find our public page on Facebook!  Is there anything I can do better?  What would you like to hear more of?  I'm all ears ;-)
And remember!  There is a secret code in this episode for 20% off of your first purchase through Emily Petersen with Rodan and Fields, the leading dermatological skin care company!
Music : Happy Ukulele by Scott Holmes
Red Hair Blue Skies - Monplaisir

Instagram contact for Emily for Rodan and Fields information at epetersen3_myrandf

Transcript

Shannon Earley: 0:00

Hello and welcome back to "Nesting With The Earley Birds". This is Shannon Earley hostess of the Earley Birds Podcast and today is going to be a great day for you. All of you moms that are stuck inside your house or thrust into homeschooling during COVID I have got a guest that is going to encourage you and make you understand that this is totally possible for all of you. All right, guys. Stay tuned, get cozy, pour some coffee or a glass of wine. And let's get to it. Hey guys, welcome back. Thank you so much for tuning in you all seeing these numbers growing all of these viewers growing, seeing that there's different moms out there that are taking the time to hear what I have to say, hopefully to be encouraged you guys. That is so amazing. Thank you so so much. Today I have a super duper special guest for all of you home mamas or home data's whoever you are all of those caregivers of the home that are thrust into homeschooling because of the coronavirus pandemic, I have the person for you. This lady not only started homeschooling four years ago, while overseas in Singapore, but she continued it through being overseas in Japan, through a move back to America and moved to our final home where we sit now in Virginia. This lady not only has three children, which by the way, she began homeschooling when she had three of them for an under which that didn't scare this lady. Instead of being scared that lady was like besides homeschooling and being overseas, why don't I also become a sales rep for dannan fields? For some of you that might know maybe you don't Rodin and fields is actually one of the leading dermatological skincare companies out there right now. Their products are tried and trued. And for all you lucky gals and gems that are listening, keep your ears tuned because we will have a way for you to earn a discount. All right, guys, I would like to welcome you warmly. My friend, Emily Petersen. Yay.

Emily Petersen: 2:13

Thank you, Shannon is so awesome that you are interviewing me today. It's such an honor. And I'm really excited about your podcast. I've listened to a few of them. And they're pretty cool. Thank you. I

Shannon Earley: 2:24

like them, too. It's actually been super duper fun. We were talking a little bit before we started recording about how being a mom and homeschooling and kind of feeling stuck. It's great to have that

Emily Petersen: 2:36

outlet. Yes, exactly. Like for your business or something that you work on. Yeah, I think there's a big difference between just being busy and involved in all the things in there is to have something that you're putting your heart into. Yeah, like I call that like a passion project. Oh, that's a good one. Something that you're working on. It's really important for your kids to see that too.

Shannon Earley: 2:57

That's true to see that Oh, wait. Mom is like a human being. She's not a walking like breast. She's not there to serve and care for me solely. Yeah, just all by itself in and I think they see that because whenever I mean I grew up with my dad was a farmer and my mom was a teacher and they worked really hard. Dude, that is so America. Yeah. Like frontiers' woman family. That's so cool. What kind of farmer?

Emily Petersen: 3:28

Well, we had hogs at the time. My dad was a hog farmer. Whenever I went to college, he got rid of the hogs and it was just grain. So corn beans sometimes.

Shannon Earley: 3:37

Dude I've never spoken with a farmer's daughter My whole life. This is a podcast about homeschooling. We're talking about beans and corn guys. That's crazy. And your mom was a teacher? ,

Emily Petersen: 3:50

Yeah she was a speech pathologist. So they both they both worked a lot. But but they worked really hard to be there for us to I mean, as much as they could. And I was never. I tell my mom this, like, all the time, I was never sad that she couldn't be at home and at all the field trips, or all the sports events. Like I was really proud of my mom,

Shannon Earley: 4:13

how do you think she instilled that into you versus the opposite feeling of kids feeling like they're the center of the world kind of thing? You know?

Emily Petersen: 4:22

Yeah. They, they cared about their jobs. They cared about what they're doing. And they talked about it openly at the dinner table. Like mom would come home and talk without using names right about the kids and the cases and the you know, the things and dad would talk openly about farming and how it was all going and I felt like I was a part of it. And it was a family goal. And so, I mean, I think that totally carries into homeschooling.

Shannon Earley: 4:51

Yeah, because family goal, dude,

Emily Petersen: 4:52

yeah, you're creating a culture of learning at home. The family goal is to learn and live and grow together. Gather

Shannon Earley: 5:00

definite girl. That's amazing. You're 100% right? Especially when your husbands even like, you know, support you 100%. And you know, you and your kids love being with each other. Remembering that it's a goal, sometimes can help, remember, okay, it's a marathon. It's not a sprint in today's sucks, but that's okay

Unknown: 5:19

It's really funny. You said, like, your husband supports you. 100% because actually, when I first got married, and I wanted to stay home, like we'd like, had these conversations, right? We didn't even have kids yet. But I was like, I want to stay at home and my sister was homeschooling. I have an older sister, she was homeschooling. She made it look really awesome and really fun. It's like, I want to homeschool. My husband was not on board with it. And he was like, Um, no, yeah, I want you to work and we're not doing homeschool.

Shannon Earley: 5:45

Did he feel like it was like a weirdo kid kind of thing?

Emily Petersen: 5:49

Yeah, I don't think he could imagine it the way it is. Now. There's people. There's just such a stereotype. Still. Yes. Even though there's more homeschoolers now than like, ever before.

Shannon Earley: 6:03

Yeah, well, also Richmond, Virginia is like a bangin community for homeschoolers, because there's like, big groups of secular homeschoolers and Christian it's like really anything.

Unknown: 6:13

Whenever I hear that, though, whenever we moved here, because we've been in this house in Virginia for a year now, a year in September, and whenever we moved in, and yeah, we're a homeschool family introducing ourselves to our neighbors. And they're like, yeah, home. Virginia is the biggest homeschool state. That's interesting. Yeah. I was like, oh, wow, that's crazy.

Shannon Earley: 6:32

Well, and we have a lot of like, I think he was home educators, association of Virginia, they work really hard on keeping our rights and our legal, you know, freedom. So that's cool. I appreciate that. Because I actually looked into moving to Spain, and they're homeschooling was no, like, when we would talk about that. We want to homeschool our kids, the people looked at us, like we had. They looked at us like we had seven eyes. Yeah, you know what I'm saying? Like, what? They literally would say things like, well, who's going to teach your children? Like they just could not comprehend it? So for you, was it similar to that when you were overseas?

Emily Petersen: 7:12

Yes, very much. So I will say so we moved away in to Singapore. And I was nine months pregnant with our third when we moved. I mean it

Shannon Earley: 7:22

nine months pregnant? Yes.

Emily Petersen: 7:24

Because so with my other two, I was late and like on time with the delivery and like the delivery date was not I was not an early riser. Early babies. Right? And so my, my doctor just wasn't worried about it. They're like, you'll be fine. And so we got there and

Shannon Earley: 7:42

get to go on a boat or a plane. A plane. What do I think the only way to get to there was on a friggin boat. Shannon, it's not the Victorian era alright. On the way I don't even know what I'm saying.

Emily Petersen: 8:02

is a 27 hour flight. No, it wasn't as ridiculous. Well, I mean, there was with layover and your kids were young.

Shannon Earley: 8:09

Yeah, it was crazy. And that's when you were like, I want more of this. I'm gonna

Emily Petersen: 8:15

know that is what I wanted to remember. Like, I'm watching my sister homeschool. It was looks really awesome. And then we had I had a baby, and a two year old and a three year old, this three, and then one in my belly. And then we got over there. And I was like, you know, I really would love to send one of them to school, preschool. You know? Because he turned four in September. So we got there in August. So like, you know, a month later, but yeah, I really would love to have send one to school. So I could just be home with a newborn and my toddler and a

Shannon Earley: 8:52

totally different energy level. And like, when you have the baby and toddler it's a lot more like okay, we blocked on the floor. But with your eldest girl is like, ah, they need new experiences. And they need like friends and it's really hard.

Emily Petersen: 9:08

And being in Singapore, I didn't know how to get around. Like I couldn't drive. I could have gone. It was a complicated process. So let me set the stage a little bit in Singapore. So we moved to Singapore and like you asked about the culture, the learning culture. Now homeschooling is becoming more popular in Singapore,

Shannon Earley: 9:28

from like, Americans, or first Singaporeans

Emily Petersen: 9:32

Okay, and foriegn So, which was pretty amazing, because while I was there, they had the first homeschool convention in Singapore, which was, yeah, they were like I love like, yeah, I felt like I felt like God just prepared that place for me. Yeah, so great. Yeah, I couldn't help them. It was amazing. So I met some amazing Singaporean moms homeschooling and who had similar ways of homeschooling to me and I just wasn't expecting that but Most Singaporeans that I met or people that I met were like wool, how? The biggest question was, how are you going to do it all? You know, it was and most many Singaporean homes had helpers they hadn't even helped. Did you get to pay for one? No, no, we decided not to do that. Looking back if we would have been there longer. I think it's something.

Shannon Earley: 10:22

Was it expensive? Or

Emily Petersen: 10:24

was it something that like, you know, to have somebody live with you and cook and clean your house for about$500 a month? That's not too bad. badass.

Shannon Earley: 10:32

Yeah. Somebody please pay me that even. I'll take just that was like $2 an hour? hook a brother up?

Emily Petersen: 10:40

Yeah. So it was I mean, but at first, I was like, I mean, being an American. I couldn't wrap my brain around that like somebody. I don't know. Yeah. I can take care of my kid. I'm like, that's, I couldn't get used to that. But once you're there and living in the culture, it's, it becomes more normal. Yes. And you almost kind of need to do it to assimilate into the way the Singaporeans do it. Well,

Shannon Earley: 11:07

I know. Okay, for instance, I know in Spain, one thing that really attracted my husband and I is as opposed to it saying, like, we live to work, they were very much like we work to live. And so there was a lot of emphasis on like, leisure time. Yes, CS does. But, you know, I think also like, the Spanish and the Italians, for instance, I'm Italian, y'all. And I love Spain. So like, everything I say, is completely out of love. But I think that they are more known known for just taking it chill. But I don't know if I've heard about that with Singapore. No, you have that Chinese influence of like, hard work, work work. And there's this stereotypical Tiger Mom, it's, it's real. It's not real, like it's a stereotype. So but it there is such a thing, as you know, parents who are really intense with their kids and, and focused on academics and really pressure their kids to do well. I mean, there's a reason this Singapore is leading the world. And in academics, like, especially math and science did, I didn't even realize, well, I don't know if they're like the number one leader, but there were no thousand countries. He could be if you're in the top 200, you're straight,

Emily Petersen: 12:17

right? So Exactly. But that's also why homeschool is growing there. Because a lot of kids don't do well with that stress. Obviously, we all learn differently. And if you're a homeschool parent, then you understand that, you know, and for whatever reason you decided to homeschool you can tell right away that one kid learns very differently from the other. And some kids really thrive in the Singapore educational system and others don't. And the problem is they don't have a great solution for the one. So I think that that's why homeschool is growing in Singapore.

Shannon Earley: 12:47

So when your husband saw I guess, like the Singapore model, is that what kind of turned him around? Or no,

Emily Petersen: 12:54

no, no, no hit what turned him around was way before that. We were living in Kansas. Okay, so yeah, so we were living in Kansas, he was working for the GSA, same type of work contracting officer. And what we saw was kids using, well, I'll just say it, whether or not you feel differently than I do is completely up to you. But kids using tech technology in preschool, and we're like, I don't know, we just weren't okay with that. You know, and and if you're a parent, and you're okay with that, that's great. You do you, but I just wasn't for us. And then also, again, my sister is homeschooling her kids, and he got to spend more time with her and our nephews and saw how much they loved learning and how much they enjoyed education. And it didn't have to be boring. And it wasn't all about tests. And so then he was like, he bought into it. Then he was in.

Shannon Earley: 13:49

Yeah, it's not like the best feeling because I don't know about you. But even though I knew like logically and emotionally, that homeschooling would be a great fit for my family. I still had I don't know if it was like Satan and his effing lies from hell because you know how he do it make you feel like you're not good enough. You're not smart enough. You might be ruining your kids. I don't know, like, doesn't just feel so good. When your husband comes along beside you and says, Don't listen to that shit. You've got this girl.

Unknown: 14:24

Mm

Shannon Earley: 14:24

hmm. It just strengthens your resolve. And

Emily Petersen: 14:28

one thing that Derek tells me, um, I think he started telling me this whenever I started homeschooling our firstborn is I'm your biggest fan. And it really made all the difference because I did feel like I was failing most days. And, and to hear him just say that gives me that reassurance. I'm your biggest fan. And I was and I was like, you're right. These problems aren't real problems. They're just problems for today. They're just today's hard hardships. Let's call it what it is.

Shannon Earley: 15:02

Yeah. You know, well, it's almost like it'd be easier. I have this really romantic idea of living, almost like a friend to your life where it's you and your family. And maybe there is a one room schoolhouse. I don't know. But in my imagination, there's not so many polls on your time. Yeah. And you stay with your family. Okay, you're gonna go pick berries together, you talk about, I don't know, the the bugs that are eating the berries or whatever. And you have time for school and you sit and you read under a tree and things are just slower. You have no technology that's like constantly banging your ear. I feel so pulled in 1000 directions. And I feel like I wish I could just focus on my family. And I'm just not

Emily Petersen: 15:46

as everything you do is for your family.

Shannon Earley: 15:49

I mean, yes and no. Okay. For instance, it's like, have you ever gotten in the mood where like, I'm organizing this FTP entry today? Yeah. And then the rest of it, and then nobody gets any attention cuz you're organizing it for hours? Yeah, because they've treated it like a mental hospital for seven years. And then you're like, I just eat Oreos, and like, watch Netflix. Like, I feel so bad about those days. But it's like, I really want to focus on this thing.

Emily Petersen: 16:15

No, no, dude. Well, you can't do it all. You can't do it. Dude,

Shannon Earley: 16:19

I literally wrote how to do it all single board. Look at that. It's right back to it. Boom, bam, bam. So in Singapore when they were talking about

Emily Petersen: 16:28

Yeah, how you were expected to do it all? How did you balance what their mom's expectations were versus what your goals were for your family? Okay, well, I think I need to back up and share the story about a little bit more because we were under the military umbrella. So we we were I had Singaporean friends and they were from our church. I had American friends too, who were from the base and we live down the street from the American school. The Singapore American School is probably the best K through 12 School in the world.

Shannon Earley: 17:06

Did you hear that? Singapore American school?

Emily Petersen: 17:09

It's really Yeah, really, everybody extends their time in Singapore, all expats extend their time there if they can, so their kids can graduate from that school. They have scouts from Yale and Harvard there in a way isn't

Shannon Earley: 17:21

like a homeschool Co Op,

Emily Petersen: 17:23

or no, no, it's a regular school. It's just an international school. I mean, I learned this to the expat world. You know, you don't have to be military to live in other countries as an American, right, your company, you know, has has offices somewhere and they'll hire people from the US and then set up a school so your family can have an education like you would have had, and the US and something about I can't tell you the history of or how it came to be that the American school and Singapore got to be so good, but I think it comes down to Singapore historically being a great place for shipping. And trade boats. Yeah, I asked being said earlier. Yeah. There's tons of boats in Singapore. Yeah. Off the bay and everything. So and if you think about it's kind of the the center between the Western world and the eastern world, okay, so like I said, the West is synced can come to Singapore, Europe can come to Singapore. So everybody gets to trade at Singapore, you know, so I think that's part of it, historically, is how it got there. But anyway. So everybody and my neighbors are sending their kids to the American Singapore American school. I mean, it's walking distance away wouldn't be too hard for me to walk there. With a baby in a stroller drop. My

Shannon Earley: 18:43

drop runner will make it easier on you. Yeah, well, the catch

Emily Petersen: 18:47

is, is that the military hit my husband's job will pay for kindergarten and up, but they don't cover preschool understandably so. But if we would have maybe started like when we lived in Japan, Japan, Navy bases much bigger, there's actually schools on the base, and they would have provided preschool there. But being Singapore, the Navy base is so teeny tiny. There's no school on base, you're allowed to go and choose where you want to send your kids to school. So I it could have been a say I could have sent my kids to a Singaporean school or another school. But the catch is they don't pay for preschool. And so previously, you can teach that at home. You can teach that at home but I wanted help. I wanted to take a kid to school. And I wanted to you know I wanted to have time with my baby and my toddler maybe do some potty training I just wanted to break and so but I knew that adding actually if I could, you know hunker down and do some some intentional learning with my with my preschool age boy. That our our structure throughout the day, his behavior my I schedule my routine would just improve

Shannon Earley: 20:03

hundred percent. Yeah, I completely agree. It's the days when you actually have some sort of schooling list and planned that I think our kids just thrive. They love that structure. What do I expect next mom? Yes. And then also what are my expectations? Okay, I'm gonna rise to those. Yeah. Because otherwise, they're all willy nilly and they don't know what's going to get them in trouble or what's gonna, whatever the

Emily Petersen: 20:30

behavior I saw from those kids during time before I started homeschooling was crazy now. I mean, now we had just taken kids are very much aware at a very young age. So he was only four. But we took him away from everything he knew. Our neighbors, our church and Kansas, seeing Nana and Papa every other weekend, you know, like we took him away from all that. So yeah, it was hard for him to behave. I was like, I wanted him to go to school and get some help disciplining him and teaching him. But the fact is for us to pay for preschool at that fancy school at the Singapore American School is going to be really expensive. And preschool or any other Singaporean school was going to be really expensive. And my husband told me no, yeah, and that was, that was what I prayed for. So my prayer was, Lord, I feel like you're calling me to homeschool. But I don't want to right? If this is what you want me to do, you're gonna have to take away all my option.

Shannon Earley: 21:30

Why are we so cute? We're like, Lord make it so obvious. Does Absolutely.

Emily Petersen: 21:37

Like idiot asking twice? Yeah, you're

Shannon Earley: 21:39

showing this fleece is wet. y'all gotta read Gideon in the Bible. Y'all don't understand. Yeah, dude. That's exactly how it is. Totally. I think it's, it's that whole coming from like, not really trusting yourself, but also, in a way not trusting in the person God created you to be and the gifts he gave you. And it's like, if you put a desire on your heart to have children, I would assume if you have that desire, and you have a desire, and you have a love for your children, already, you are more capable than any teacher. Okay, guys, so I promised if you kept listening, that you would receive official secret code in order to get how much percent off

Emily Petersen: 22:49

20% off your first purchase.

Shannon Earley: 22:50

Y'all You don't even know how rare that is. You got to think that's 10% twice. So

Unknown: 22:57

is a good deal.

Emily Petersen: 22:58

On every year talking about the number one skincare brand in North America. 20% office is awesome.

Shannon Earley: 23:03

Yes. And I want to let you know you guys can find her on Insta. So even though we're like homeschooling weirdo moms, we got that Insta down. Actually, I have Instagram and I only have one post. That's fine. I'm learning. But you can find her on Instagram. And I'm actually going to put all of these things we talked about into the show notes. But her Instagram handle is E Peterson three. And that's p as in Paul e t as in Tom, e r s e, n as in Nancy, the number three.my, R and f.com and rnf is through Rodan and Fields. So hopefully, you know Rodin's in our fields as an F. So it's rnf.com. If you message her with this code, early birds, then you will qualify for 20% off your first order. It's superduper important that you guys contact her though, there are ways when you go on to our Instagram that you can see her actual verdienen fields, you know URL website jams, but she really wants to encourage you guys and I do too that you would contact her directly so that she can help you find the best skincare regimen for your skin type. Okay, dudes and dudettes We just finished part one of Episode 12 which means this is going to go into Episode 13. I hope you enjoyed hearing what my friend Emily had to say. And I hope it was encouraging at least a little bit to hear that there's women all over the world that are going through struggles of all different kinds, and they are all trying to figure out how to get this homeschooling thing done well for their family. In the next episode, you're going to hear about About more different changes that Emily had to go through more houses that they had to move into, and more ages of children that she needed to figure out how to teach. Well, navigating this homeschooling thing is always difficult, but it is also always rewarding. All right, guys, I look forward to seeing you next time. Thank you so much for tuning in. And remember, share this, share it, share it, share it, please. All right, thanks so much. Love you guys. And remember, God totally loves you all the time.