Citizenship Together: Simplified Civics for Your Homeschool

Pam Barnhill [00:00:01]:
Are you ready for homeschooling to feel joyful again? Do you long for support as you learn alongside your kids? Welcome to Homeschool Better Together, a podcast about building a homeschool experience that works for your family. I’m Pam Barnhill, and it’s time to step out of the overwhelm and into the wonder. Let’s do this. Hey. Hey. And welcome to the podcast. I am joined today by one of our team members here at Home School Better Together, a very brave, courageous, intrepid team member. Her name is Meg Angelino, and normally she is our operations manager here.

Pam Barnhill [00:00:46]:
She has taken on a new role this year as our curriculum manager, I guess, for your curriculum editor, for lack of a better word. Right, Meg? Yep. And she is kind of advising and helping steer the ship as we start developing some of our new curriculum, like our language arts together, which, we had our 2nd bundle release earlier this month. And so Meg is the one helping all the authors of that, like choose kind of the books that they’re gonna use and the directions they’re going in. But you were very brave and I don’t even remember how this started. Like, was it my idea? And I said, hey, Meg, will you do this? Or, hey, Meg, do this? Or was it you?

Meg Angelino [00:01:27]:
I think it kinda was, but it like, the discussion happened when you figured out what my background was for my education, and that kind of was like, oh, you’re the perfect person. And so

Pam Barnhill [00:01:39]:
That’s true. Okay. So let’s tell them what it is. So we are releasing just this week a new curriculum. It’s called just this week, a new curriculum it’s called citizenship together. And right now it’s only going to have one volume though we always reserve the right to add more volumes to it later as we go. But right now ahead of the presidential election, we’re doing a 24 lesson volume. We’re gonna tell you all about it today and why we think it’s important.

Pam Barnhill [00:02:06]:
So stick around for the details. But, yeah, start by telling me what is your background, Meg, and and what kind of made you interested in working on this particular project?

Meg Angelino [00:02:16]:
So I have 3 degrees, a bachelor’s of science in history and political science, a bachelor’s of arts in history, and a master’s in education. And so the reason that I was interested in doing this project is I’ve always been interested in history and in politics and how they influence each other and what our roles and responsibilities as citizens

Pam Barnhill [00:02:45]:
are. I love that. Okay. And so as as I’m thinking about why we think it’s important for homeschool families to have kind of this citizenship curriculum. That’s the key right there, what you said, what your roles and responsibilities are. So talk a little bit about that.

Meg Angelino [00:03:01]:
Yeah. You know, sometimes I think that we just coast long in our day to day, and we don’t really think about what it means to be a citizen of our country. And I have always thought it was just very, very important that we are actively involved in the decision making process of our government in voting, in participating in civic discussion, in participating in volunteering in our communities, in just being actively involved with and thinking about what decisions are being made at a higher level and how that impacts our everyday life. It’s so important that we understand not just what’s happening on that higher level, but how we are involved in our day to day.

Pam Barnhill [00:04:00]:
Yeah. And I think there’s so much, the information that is out there, it’s, it’s spread so widely and so freely these days. I mean, even the term, I’m like, there’s so much misinformation, but even the term misinformation is just loaded with all kinds of extra baggage these days. Right. But I I think it’s important to realize that young people are getting a lot of their quote, unquote news from social media. And so them being able to discern and pick apart, you know, what’s actually being

Meg Angelino [00:04:35]:
said. Right.

Pam Barnhill [00:04:35]:
I’m trying to be so terrible here, but what’s actually being said and what’s actually meant by, let’s say, Supreme Court rulings, you know, as you and I are recording this is like the 2nd July and we’ve just had like this week and a half flurry of all these different Supreme Court rulings. And if you go on social media, you know, either people are like waving flags and having, you know, victory parades or they’re like, the sky is falling. Right? And, actually, there’s a much more measured ground in all of it if you take the time to read the supreme court ruling and what it actually says, but that’s not where young people go to get their information. They actually get a lot of it from social media. And so I think having people who are 13, 14, 15 years old, even 12 and 11, get into the practice of, you know, turning and discerning eye towards what go what’s going on and knowing things about, like, the balance of power and and separation of of, you know, government and stuff like that is really vital, I think, going forward.

Meg Angelino [00:05:32]:
Absolutely. I think that, you know, it’s important that we start at the beginning. Like, why were the founding documents written? Why are the laws the way that they are? Why is our government made the way that it is? By starting there and building from that foundation, we are then able to understand where we are today. I think that part of the problem with disinformation and the fire hose of information coming at us through social media is that sometimes the language is really confusing. We don’t understand the why of things are the way that they are and why our founding fathers created our government the way that they did. And so without that basic understanding, then when we try and take in all this, like, environment of information, it’s so hard to sit there and sift through and figure out what’s useful and what’s true. Like, how we can be involved in everything, and and even more so, how we can have civil and calm discussion about the decisions that are being made in our government. One of the things that concerns me the most is the fact that so often, discussions over politics end up being big fights.

Meg Angelino [00:07:02]:
And in reality, it’s best for us to come to a place where we can calmly talk about things and discuss things and look at the reason people are making the the decisions that they are from both sides of the coin. Because at the end of the day, we are all citizens of this country. We all, you know, need to be able to live together in harmony and peace. And how can we do that in a way that is both productive and civil? And, yeah, just respectful. And respectful. And I I think that it’s possible to do, but in order to do that, you have to like have a real understanding of what your beliefs are and why as well as the history.

Pam Barnhill [00:07:55]:
Yeah. I love that so much. And, you know, I’ve said before that morning time is the great place. It’s a, it’s a fabulous training ground. And I just use the term morning time. This is one of our together curriculums that you’re going to be doing together. So you’re either you can do it morning time, not do it morning time, however you want to do it. But the idea is that you’re going to be using it with multiple students.

Pam Barnhill [00:08:15]:
So this time that we come together as a family, whether that’s morning time or just coming together to study a subject, this is the time that, you know, if your kids disagree, like that’s actually a good thing because what you get to do at this point is model respectful disagreement. How can we like oppose each other’s thoughts about something? You know, when you and I were talking actually before we got on to the podcast, we were talking about one of the discussion questions in the program is about term limits. And so if you have kids who take 2 opposing views on term limits for senators, how can we have how can we, like, love each other through this even though we might be really opposed to each other’s ideas on something? The term limit seems silly in that case, but you know what I mean. It’s, how can we oppose each other’s views and then, but still at the end of the day, walk away and have a respectful discussion, be friends, and and love each other as fellow human beings.

Meg Angelino [00:09:10]:
Right. And, you know, I I think that the morning time table is one of the best places to cover topics like this because they are so intimately intertwined in, like, our own family beliefs. And so I I really love that this is able to do this curriculum is able to do that in bite sized chunks that are manageable and not overwhelming. I mean, I don’t know. I know that I don’t know about you, but I know in my family, there are people that disagree with the things that I believe or my husband believes sometimes, you know, like, or even the things that my children believe. I know that I have friends on varying places on the political spectrum, and I really want my children to be able to discuss respectfully why they you know, those family members and friends believe what they believe and learn from them because I think it’s valuable. It’s also so important to understand that through our, you know, understanding and, you know, beliefs about politics, that that in turn impacts how we’re governed and how we interact with our local communities as much as at the federal level. And, you know, sometimes, like, I think that we always just think of things that that are on the news where either it feels so big and far away or it becomes this area of just major contention, but we don’t always understand how that impact impacts us on our everyday basis.

Meg Angelino [00:10:59]:
And so part of why why I think it’s so important to be studying civics, like, at the morning time table, is to help kids understand that this actually impacts your everyday life.

Pam Barnhill [00:11:13]:
Well, you know, it’s interesting when we were throwing around names for the series or what could potentially become a series, you know, civics together was one of the names, one of the first names that we threw out, but you were adamant that we call it citizenship together. So why citizenship over civics?

Meg Angelino [00:11:32]:
Well, even though I like the word civics and it really does mean citizenship, I think that sometimes the word civics feels far away and, like, a difficult concept to understand. I feel like citizenship really hits us on a more personal level. And when I taught civics in the public schools, I had kids who would just be like, I don’t understand what why I have to study this and what this means. But by pointing it out as citizenship, then it became a little more personal, and it was a little bit easier concept for them to understand.

Pam Barnhill [00:12:11]:
Okay. Yeah. That makes that makes perfect sense. And so I love that. And, yeah, I was like, okay. That that sounds good to me. We’re gonna go with what Meg wants. So okay.

Pam Barnhill [00:12:19]:
So let’s talk just a little bit about the curriculum itself and kind of what it looks like. So this is one in our series of what we’re calling together curriculums. And we we have, like I said, language arts together. You can still get the bundle for the 2nd year of language arts together at a really great price right now. So, if you’re looking at doing language arts with your kids from grades 1 through 8 altogether, definitely give that curriculum a look, but we made this curriculum kind of in the same vein. And these curriculum are also what we’re calling an anti buffet curriculum. So we chose one resource to use so families don’t go after you know, they don’t go out and, like, have to buy a million things. And it was easy.

Pam Barnhill [00:13:05]:
Right? It was totally easy to find that one resource. It was

Meg Angelino [00:13:08]:
It was so hard. This was that was probably one of the most difficult parts of all of this is finding a resource that was modern and deal dealing with, like, current issues and current, like, presidents and decisions that are being made, but also, like, completely impossible to find an unbiased resource. You know, it’s kind of like there’s a choice between 2 extreme ends. Yeah. But as we discussed, it’s okay. Multiple times. I’ve never even

Pam Barnhill [00:13:48]:
been in multiple times. And ordered so many books.

Meg Angelino [00:13:52]:
Right? But it is absolutely 100% okay if you disagree with the book. In fact, I almost think that if you disagree with it, it’s better. And there were times where I was very frustrated with the way things were being portrayed. But at the same time, I feel like anytime you disagree with something, it opens the the door to discussion and provides a springboard for conversation. And I, in the end, committed to a book that there are some parts that were just facts and there are some things I agreed with and there were some things that I strongly disagreed with and it’s okay. It’s and I expect that there will be parents that read this book and are frustrated with it because entirely different reasons than I am. And that is also okay because this is the opportunity to have those hard discussions with your kids and explain to them why you as a family believe the things that you believe and what the other side of the coin is. And I highly encourage you to not back away from things that are hard because that is where growth happens.

Pam Barnhill [00:15:16]:
Yeah. Yeah. And so I read the book with Thomas. And let’s go ahead and tell everybody, reveal the name of the book, which I’m not remembering right now. You probably have it close at hand.

Meg Angelino [00:15:25]:
I do. It’s For Which We Stand, How Our Government Works, and Why It Matters written by Jeff Foster.

Pam Barnhill [00:15:33]:
Yeah. And he’s a public school teacher. And like I said, I read the book with Thomas, but this spring, as we were talking about using it as a resource, I just went ahead and went through it with him and just stopped and had discussions about the parts like, you know, like Meg that I didn’t agree with, or I thought the author just wasn’t doing a good job of explaining things, or I felt like another side needed to be explained or something like that. But on the whole, I found the book fairly engaging and a good way to foster discussion between, Thomas and I. And John even sat in on some of it, you know, him being older. And it just like, we had some really good discussions that came out of it. But, yeah, finding a book was really difficult. And I know that there are some families who will look at this and who will take issue and in the book itself and say, oh, I can’t use that because of the book.

Pam Barnhill [00:16:28]:
And you know what? That’s perfectly okay. Like okay.

Meg Angelino [00:16:31]:
And I’m sure that there are families that will disagree with my beliefs and your beliefs, Pam, and that’s also okay. Like Yeah. I I don’t expect everybody to feel that this is, like, the perfect resource because I don’t think it’s the perfect resource. But to me, the purpose of it is, again, we’re opening the doors to discussion because ultimately, that’s what we do in politics is we talk things through sometimes to death, but in an effort to better govern our country. So this is just I mean, the thing that I really did like about this book and, ultimately, the reason that I did settle on it is I felt like it was very appropriate in terms of language for the ages that it’s aimed at. And, you know, I I feel like government and civics and citizenship and all of this sometimes can feel very difficult and overwhelming to understand. And to have it broken down into very, like, bite sized manageable pieces where in a language that is easy enough to understand, that’s half the battle. Because sometimes in politics, they like to use really big words that don’t make a lot of sense to the layman.

Meg Angelino [00:17:57]:
And that’s ultimately why why I think that this is a good book to

Pam Barnhill [00:18:03]:
start with. Yeah. Yeah. Those big words become a barrier, especially for young people who are trying to figure out, like, you know, how is this relevant to me? So well, let’s talk about the way you broke up the lesson. So there are 24 different lessons and you did that so that families would have flexibility. And like, I can do 2 lessons a week. I can do 3 lessons a week. I do 4 lessons a week, and it would still kind of evenly divide up into Right.

Pam Barnhill [00:18:27]:
Right. Homeschool moms like it to evenly divide up.

Meg Angelino [00:18:29]:
It’s I I didn’t want this to be, like, an eat your entire school year or your whole morning time kind of curriculum. For families that use language arts together, you’re gonna look at it and see a format that’s very familiar in the way that it’s broken down. There’s a couple of new features and things are taken a little bit differently. Instead of having, like, a 4 square, story chart, we have a 4th square civics chart, and the lessons are broken down into, a review of prior knowledge and the previous day’s reading, a preview of what will be read that day, and then a short reading section. Most of the days are less than 10 pages long. In fact, the vast majority of them are 3 to 5 pages in length. And then In

Pam Barnhill [00:19:28]:
a book full of illustrations.

Meg Angelino [00:19:29]:
In a book full of illustrations. So it’s yes. Very, very doable reading. It’s not gonna take you hours to read aloud. And then there’s a narration portion as well as discussion. And then we also have now a new level up section for our oldest students, and that is completely optional for the parents. Those are going to be your hardest questions. And in terms of whether families choose to use them or not, that is completely at the discretion of the parents.

Meg Angelino [00:20:03]:
So see what questions your children ask and, you know, you’re welcome to rabbit trail. There’s places to do that, but there’s also places to have some of those harder harder questions and ask them and challenge your your older students to think.

Pam Barnhill [00:20:21]:
Yeah. So with those level up questions, so, and you mentioned earlier before we got started that the discussion questions that you include that level up questions, the discussion questions are really about the material that’s in the book. And then the level up discussion questions kind of take it a step further. And you also included some source documents as well. Correct? Right.

Meg Angelino [00:20:44]:
We’re gonna be including, and, obviously, parents are welcome to, like, look up online things like the constitution, but we’re going to include portions of the constitution and the bill of rights. And just to make it easy for parents to find because one of the things about the book is because everything is written at a very accessible language, it’s not the exact wording of the founding fathers. And so I wanted to be able to provide not just like the basic understanding of what those things are, like, with the the say, like, the first amendment is, but also to look at what the first first amendment actually says. And the reason that I think that’s so important is primary sources really give us an insight into the way our, like, the people who were thinking at the time looked at their documents and looked at decisions that were being made. And so by including some of the those primary sources where you’re you’re thinking about things from the perspective of the founding fathers, I think is very valuable.

Pam Barnhill [00:21:59]:
Okay. So that’s for the oldest kids, but then we got sidetracked back to my original question. What are the ages?

Meg Angelino [00:22:05]:
Right. And then so for your younger students, and you’re gonna just pull directly from the book and, you know, your the discussion questions are right there asking, like, what from what’s been read. And then, you know, the level up will ask harder questions, possibly include some reading from the primary source documents, and ask you as a family, as a parent, to maybe think about some of these hard things too and discuss with your family because these are together products, which means there’s some learning for parents to do as well.

Pam Barnhill [00:22:40]:
Okay. So maybe the lowest age is, like, 3rd grade?

Meg Angelino [00:22:43]:
Maybe. Yeah. I I would say I wouldn’t go lower than 3rd, but I think that you could probably go all the way up to about 9th grade.

Pam Barnhill [00:22:53]:
Okay. So with that, you said I wouldn’t go lower than 3rd grade. What if I have a 1st or 2nd grader or kindergartner 4 year old who’s in the room? Is there gonna be any reason why they couldn’t be in the room with what I’m doing?

Meg Angelino [00:23:04]:
Absolutely not. I mean, you might want to set them free for the harder level up questions because that sometimes those will invite longer conversations and little ones don’t always have a lot of patience, but there is nothing in there that can’t be discussed in front of your little ones. And in fact, I think it’s been said before that, you know, you always teach to your eldest so that that way, you know, there’s some trickle down for the littler ones. So if you do have a little one in the room, if you have a kindergartner hanging out in there, you know, have them color an American flag or

Pam Barnhill [00:23:43]:
I was just thinking like, Play Doh or coloring pages or something like that. Yeah.

Meg Angelino [00:23:48]:
You know, we could always throw a couple of those in there for sure if as a bonus maybe.

Pam Barnhill [00:23:53]:
Yeah. There you go. And then, we do have some games in the curriculum as well to help them. We have some vocabulary pulled out. And so this is something that, you know, just to to engage them with everything that’s going on.

Meg Angelino [00:24:07]:
Right. And so the the goal is to make this as pleasurable as possible. And because it’s 24 lessons, you can divide by 2, 3, 4, and 6. So it’s really easy to divide it over the course of your school year. And because of the short nature of the lessons, it won’t eat up your whole morning.

Pam Barnhill [00:24:33]:
Yeah. Okay. So let’s talk a little bit. We went back and forth with like, were we going to divide the book into 3 parts? And you ended up using the whole book for a very particular reason in making, even though this section is called US elections, why did you end up covering the entire thing? I

Meg Angelino [00:24:53]:
wanted to keep it shorter and keep it focused on the election, but the more I tried to pull it apart, the more I realized how important each part was to the election process. Like and that that they are all so intertwined. Our government is so intertwined with each other. You know, we have 3 branches of government for a reason. And so it was impossible to pull it apart without causing a hole in understanding. And so I ended up just using the whole book because it all ends up so intertwined that it was necessary to keep it together.

Pam Barnhill [00:25:37]:
Yeah. So not only does this US elections US elections unit cover the presidential election, but it also covers, you know, congressional elections, local elections, all the way down to what your city government does, your local government does. So a great field trip for this would be like going and visiting some your your local government, some local government offices. You know, get a little group of homeschoolers together. See if you can go to the mayor’s office and meet the mayor and see what he does or she does, especially this year. If they’re up for reelection, they should be more than happy for you to come in, you know, but then also into the, like, the 3 branches of the federal government and what each one of them does. And then even into things like lobbyists and what’s the word I’m looking for? With the groups.

Meg Angelino [00:26:25]:
Special interest groups.

Pam Barnhill [00:26:26]:
Special interest groups. There you go. And all of those things are actually covered and how they relate to this idea of elections. And so even though somebody like a supreme court justice is not elected, elections have ramifications towards who is chosen as a supreme court justice. And then in turn, the supreme court makes these decisions that have ramifications about the other branches and and what actually goes on with elections. So, yeah, it’s, it it really is all intertwined, and it’s very difficult to separate it out. Exactly. Because, I mean, even

Meg Angelino [00:27:05]:
directly making a choice. We are a federalist country. We are a republic, which means that we elect the officials that make the decisions for us. And so all of this, even if there’s not a direct election, is so deeply intertwined that it’s impossible to to pull it apart without feeling to leave a hole.

Pam Barnhill [00:27:35]:
Yeah. Yeah.

Meg Angelino [00:27:36]:
It’s really I think that because of that, though, you’re gonna get a you’re gonna find that this is a really good introduction to US government, not just the elections. And that I’m excited about because I know that, especially in an election year, it’s a really good way to, like, get that in and, you know, help your kids get excited about what is happening in the political process.

Pam Barnhill [00:28:03]:
Yeah. Yeah. So we’ve we hope that we have provided that kind of resource for you and your family to come together and all learn about this together, have those really important discussions, talk about some of these things and what it means to be a citizen. This is very US centric, We’re not qualified to write citizenship curriculum for other countries, unfortunately. And so, like, if anybody were to come to us and say, well, we’re Canadian or we’re from Great Britain or we’re from here or there, you know, is there something about citizenship in here for us? Probably not, sadly. You know, this is all very, very US centric in in what it means to be a citizen there as opposed to just a general citizen, you know, good citizenship of a different country. So there is that. We we do the best we can here in the in here in the US.

Meg Angelino [00:28:55]:
But, you know, for those people, I would encourage them to be engaged and learn about their government and how they can be good citizens in their country. And, hey, maybe they could be the ones to write a citizenship together for their country.

Pam Barnhill [00:29:11]:
That’s true. Yeah. Very much so. Well, this resource is available. We’ve got it for you, for preorder right now. It will be out within the week. And so come on over and check it out. You can find a link in the show notes.

Pam Barnhill [00:29:26]:
And then also, if you have any questions at all, we realized that this could be one that’s harder for families to say like, oh, this is I’m willing to put my money here. You know? I’m I’m willing to make this purchase I would like to see. We are gonna have some sample pages for you. We’ve told you exactly the name of the book and the resource we use, even though we know 100% that there are going to be, you know, everybody’s not going to agree with it. And just to tell you, we didn’t need her. And so we’ve we’ve tried to approach it in a very balanced way and provide kind of alternative talking points where we felt like they needed to be, and you may not agree with some of those. But but, yeah, come and check it out and do come into the community and ask questions. Meg will be there answering anything.

Pam Barnhill [00:30:09]:
I’ll be there answering things and, we’ll just try to help you out to make the best decision for your family. But we’re super excited and this is just the first in our kind of social studies line of Together products.

Meg Angelino [00:30:24]:
Yep. It is the first and hopefully not the last.

Pam Barnhill [00:30:29]:
Meg’s not Meg’s not quite done yet.

Meg Angelino [00:30:32]:
So if you’re like quite done with.

Pam Barnhill [00:30:35]:
By the time she’s done, she may be like, yeah, this is totally the last.

Meg Angelino [00:30:38]:
No. But, you know, the good thing is, like, as you know, as I’ve written, you know, it’s like it reminds me of why I was always so interested in it. And that is that is good And why I try and get my kids involved and, you know, like be active with your kids, like bring them with you when you vote, especially these schoolers totally have the opportunity to do that. Take a field trip to your polling place. Like Pam said, see if you can go see your mayor or local town council. Figure out ways that you can be involved in your local community and make your voices heard. It’s a good thing.

Pam Barnhill [00:31:21]:
Yeah. Oh, it’s a quick story before we before we close-up. I took Olivia to vote, but we had our primary. I think we were all, like, one of the super Tuesday primaries or something back in March. And so, you know, she had school that day. And, so I sent her a text and I’m like, Hey, you get to vote. And she texts me back and she’s like, For who? I said, well, I’m not going to tell you who to vote for. You have to decide that for yourself, but you do get to go vote today.

Pam Barnhill [00:31:51]:
And I think she was a little bit I she had other people in her friend group who did not vote. You know? They Right. They were 18 and and did not go vote. And by the time she was done with the whole process, because I think at first she was like, why am I going to do this? What am I going to go do? And we had conversations on the way there about like what it would be like when she got there. Because Alabama is one of those states where you go in and you declare at that point, because it’s a primary, which ballot you want. So you can go in and you can ask for either ballot. You just have to declare at the point of, you know, showing your ID, like which one. And so I explained that process to her and that she could get either ballot and that, you know, then she would then be able to vote in the primary and fill it out.

Pam Barnhill [00:32:34]:
And that there would probably be a couple things on the ballot that she had never heard of those people or, you know, she didn’t know anything about it. And so she could just leave those blank, that that would not invalidate her other vote. I will tell you that the poll workers made the biggest deal about the fact that she was 18. It was her first time voting, and they were just so pleased and so proud to see her come in there. And so anytime you can get your kids involved in the political process, the election process, they just made her feel special. So by the time it was over, she was like super now, obviously, we live in this small rural community. And so there wasn’t a lot going on when we walked into the primary election in the middle of the afternoon at like 3 o’clock. So she kind of got a really great experience, but she, you know, she definitely felt more involved when she left.

Pam Barnhill [00:33:30]:
And I think going and doing that, taking those field trips, like you said, to meet the mayor or being part of the political process, or, you know, I know sometimes they have like homeschool days at your state capital or something that you can take part in that just allows kids to see their impact and then also be more connected with the impact that it’s gonna have on them.

Meg Angelino [00:33:55]:
Absolutely. And, you know, like, political process is part of why we have our rights as homeschoolers. And so, you know, it affects our children, like and, like, the decisions that are being made at the, not just the federal level, but also at the local and state levels really have a big impact on them. So having them understand that they have a voice and, you know, maybe they have to wait till they’re 18 to, like, officially cast their vote, but that they can be involved is huge. And, you know, I’d really think it’s awesome that Olivia had the opportunity to vote in the primary because a lot of people don’t vote in in any election except for the presidential. And, like, every voting every time you vote is important. Like, every election’s important. And so it I think it’s a really awesome experience that she was able to get in there early and get excited about November and what’s coming down.

Meg Angelino [00:35:00]:
So it’ll be, obviously, like, every election is a big deal. I I know that people always, like, want to make you know, in the news too, wants to make a big the biggest deal over the presidential election. But I think that every every election is important, and it’s so integral to teach our kids from just a young age that they need to be heard at every level.

Pam Barnhill [00:35:25]:
I love it. Alright. Well, Meg, thank you so much. Thank you so much for taking on the daunting job of writing this curriculum, this resource for families to be able to use and doing it in such a way that, you know, families of all political stripes could use it and feel good about what they’re doing. And we just really appreciate you doing that and coming on here today. So thank you.

Meg Angelino [00:35:48]:
It was my pleasure, Pam. Thank you.

Pam Barnhill [00:35:52]:
That’s our show for today. Be sure to follow, subscribe, and leave a review so you never miss out on the wonder of homeschooling better together. To stay connected and learn even more about the Homeschooling Better Together resources and to join our free community, visit hsbtpodcast.com. Until next week, keep stepping out of the overwhelm and into the wonder.