Introducing the Wonder World Podcast

Pam Barnhill [00:00:03]:

I have been working on a project this year that has been so much fun for me to do because it’s a project I’ve been working on with my daughter, Olivia, and we think your family is going to love it as well. It’s called the Wonder World Podcast. And on this episode of the 10 Minutes to a Better Homeschool podcast today, I’m talking with my daughter, Olivia, but all about Wonderworld. Hi, everyone. I’m Pam Barnhill, and I have helped thousands of homeschoolers create doable systems, speed burnout, and bring more joy to their day. Welcome to episode 80 of the 10 minutes to a better homeschool podcast. Yep. That’s right.

Pam Barnhill [00:00:42]:

My daughter Olivia is on with me Today, we’re gonna be chatting all about this project that we’ve been working on called the Wonder World Podcast, and we would love for you to come and check that out. Now we’re gonna include a link for you in the show notes all about where to find Wonderworld, but you can also just find it in your regular podcast app. So wherever you’re listening to this podcast, you can search the Wonderworld podcast, and you’ll be able to find it there. And we just hope that you will check it out. And now we’re gonna tell you some more about it. So on to the interview. Hi there. Where okay.

Pam Barnhill [00:01:19]:

So today, I am interviewing or chatting with perhaps my very favorite podcast guest ever. Like, I love this podcast

Olivia Barnhill [00:01:30]:

guest. Favorite

Pam Barnhill [00:01:32]:

child. Well, I could say favorite child. Yes. It is one of my children. It is Olivia. But if I if I said that, then we wouldn’t your brothers wouldn’t be able to listen to the show.

Olivia Barnhill [00:01:42]:

Yeah. That’s true.

Pam Barnhill [00:01:43]:

So it is Olivia Barnhill, and I can honestly say she is my very favorite podcast guest ever. But, Olivia, you’re on here for something very special today. We’re gonna be talking about another podcast that you and I have started doing together. So what is this about?

Olivia Barnhill [00:02:01]:

So this is gonna be about the Wonder World podcast that my mother and I decided to start a while ago. I’m very Excited to be here. This is gonna be interesting. I’ve never been interviewed before. So

Pam Barnhill [00:02:12]:

Oh, that is kind of fun, isn’t it? Yeah. Yeah. Because on Wonderworld so let’s tell them a little bit about what Wonderworld is. The Wonderworld podcast, the episodes are, usually around 15 minutes long, 12 to 17 minutes about yeah. 15 minutes. And what do we include?

Olivia Barnhill [00:02:30]:

We include a lot of history, and we include a lot of just Random fun facts that happen. It is kind of just a day to day podcast. We see what happened on that day, and we tell everybody else about it. It’s also specifically designed for kids to enjoy, which that’s one of my favorite things about it. I don’t think there’s a lot of podcast aimed at children.

Pam Barnhill [00:02:51]:

Or if they are, then I think sometimes homeschooling families have to worry about, you know, what worldview is this podcast coming from? Like, What things are they gonna talk about? Is it gonna be something that I’m comfortable for my kids to listen to? Is it gonna be something wholesome and something that I want to bring into my family? And we really try hard to make it kind of a very neutral, safe, agenda free podcast for any family. And I think that’s one of the great things about having you on is, like, everything that’s on the podcast, I’m talking about with my kid. So it’s there’s a good chance it’s gonna be safe for your kid too.

Olivia Barnhill [00:03:30]:

Yeah. It’s true. Well, technically, I’m not a kid anymore. So

Pam Barnhill [00:03:33]:

Well, that is true. You are 18 now. So, Olivia, what what are some of your favorite things that we talk about in the Wonder World podcast?

Olivia Barnhill [00:03:44]:

I like how almost every episode or every other episode we talk about food. There’s always something interesting going on with a different type of food there. And I don’t know. History like that like, the just history like that makes it interests me more than, like, whatever war happened a couple years ago.

Pam Barnhill [00:04:02]:

Yeah. I think so. And, you know, you’ve always been attracted to food because we did that whole year of chemistry in the kitchen when you were home with schooling. And so I think anytime we can throw in food, Olivia’s really, really happy about, about talking about it. Absolutely. I think one of my favorite things I love the the poems that we include. Yes. Those are a lot of fun.

Pam Barnhill [00:04:27]:

And then I think one of my favorite things about the podcast is the way it just go from 1 topic to the other. Like, there’s not always a it doesn’t feel like there’s gonna be a plan to it when you get started it writing it, and both of you and I have taken turns writing the podcast. We started out with me writing it back in March when we started it, and then Olivia took over the writing for a while because she I think she was going to quit her part time job. She was tired of working in food service, and so she took over the writing of the podcast for a little while until she She graduated and got another job that she’s doing now that she likes better than the food service, and then she didn’t have time anymore to write. And so now, Betsy Cypress writes the podcast for us. But one of the things I think all of us have discovered as we wrote it is that you would start off with just a single few topics, and then you would end up in a place that was totally different because you followed all of these rabbit trails, and they all connected to each other.

Olivia Barnhill [00:05:32]:

Yeah. And, miss Cypress is doing a very good job.

Pam Barnhill [00:05:35]:

So I love that. I think that’s my favorite part is the fact that we kind of wander around and connect topic to topic to topic.

Olivia Barnhill [00:05:44]:

Exactly. Like a mystery story. All of the puzzle pieces are there. You just gotta and they fit at the end.

Pam Barnhill [00:05:50]:

Yeah. They do kind of fit at the end. You can see but all of the different connections, for sure. What about the jokes

Olivia Barnhill [00:05:57]:

The jokes are cheesy, I’m just gonna say, but they’re funny sometimes.

Pam Barnhill [00:06:02]:

So, yeah, we do actually we don’t try to not do cheesy jokes. We’re fine with the jokes being cheesy because we think that they’re a lot of fun, and they’re always very kid safe and, family friendly for sure. What would you say, Olivia, is the age range for this particular podcast?

Olivia Barnhill [00:06:22]:

I’d say probably about maybe 5 to But 13 where I don’t think any chil I don’t think a kid below the age of 4 is really gonna understand it as well, but And then maybe past 13, 14, 15, like, they start to grow out of it, but I honestly think anybody could listen to it.

Pam Barnhill [00:06:44]:

Yeah. I think so too. I I think a lot of the times, you and I really enjoy when we’re recording the episodes. And I find that often we talk about things later. Like, something will come up, and we’ll go, oh, yeah. We talked about this on the podcast. Yeah. And so that that comes up a lot.

Pam Barnhill [00:07:03]:

And so we end up knowing some obscure facts and some things, that comes up in conversation later because it was actually something that we recorded on the podcast. Alright. Well, what about homeschooling? You were a homeschool kid.

Olivia Barnhill [00:07:16]:

I think it’s a good addition to morning time. That would probably be one of the best things. Like, it’s something good for your kids to sit down and listen to either before or after morning time or even, like, maybe during lunch When y’all are doing any school but you need to continue the school day, it’s just it’s a little addition. It’s the spice to your homeschool day.

Pam Barnhill [00:07:38]:

Oh, I like that. That’s almost like a tagline, the spice to your whole day. I really, really love it. Yeah. I think morning time would be perfect, and then I think another time that would be perfect for a lot of families is when you’re in the car. So if you’re having to maybe drive to co op or drive back from co op or, you know, you’re going you have doctor’s appointments, you know, for a while, we had Kids who are going to OT once a week or something, that those would be the really good times to play the Wonder World podcast because you’re getting some learning in in a way that’s fun for everybody, but it’s also really super easy for mom to just hit play. And then I think the other thing too is it’s a great but bonding experience for families because it really does give them something to talk about together. I know some of the families in our community, in our wonder kids club are even they want the list of celebrations at the beginning of the week.

Pam Barnhill [00:08:35]:

So even if it’s later in the week But before they get to listen to the podcast, they can actually remember to celebrate some of the days. So of all the days that we’ve talked about on the podcast, which ones do you think you would most like to

Olivia Barnhill [00:08:48]:

celebrate? That’s a really hard one. I probably have to say eat a second dessert day.

Pam Barnhill [00:08:55]:

Oh, yeah. That one was a really good day. I think that would be something that I would enjoy celebrating as well.

Olivia Barnhill [00:09:00]:

Me too.

Pam Barnhill [00:09:02]:

That and lazy mom

Olivia Barnhill [00:09:03]:

day. Yep. That I can see that.

Pam Barnhill [00:09:07]:

What are you trying to say, Olivia? Nothing. But but I do know that, in our community, one of the moms posted a picture and their kids had taken to part. So for lazy mom day, we actually gave a lot of advice on how you could help your mom be a lazy mom by giving her a break. And, one of the the young ladies had but written on a Post it note for, for her mom to take a break, and it hung it up for her to see because she was gonna fix lunch. So I’ll fix lunch, and you could take a break. So I thought that was really sweet because that’s that’s what we wanna do is we want to, you know, but bring things to the kids’ minds that they wouldn’t necessarily think about, whether that be something that they’re learning or just the way that they’re treating others. And she really latched on to that and said, oh, I’m gonna do something sweet for my mom because of something she heard on the podcast. So

Olivia Barnhill [00:09:59]:

Yeah. That’s really sweet.

Pam Barnhill [00:10:01]:

But Yeah. So, Olivia, why do you think families should listen to Wonderworld?

Olivia Barnhill [00:10:05]:

Well, as we said earlier, it is a good agenda free podcast, And it’s just something nice for kids to listen to, but it’s also entertaining if I do say so

Pam Barnhill [00:10:16]:

myself. You can say so yourself. We’re promoting here. So

Olivia Barnhill [00:10:20]:

You keep your keep your children distracted.

Pam Barnhill [00:10:25]:

I love it. I love it. Yeah. And it is. It is a good thing when, you know, we were talking earlier about some of the ways that you could use the podcast. I think also, You know, one of the things that I did sometimes during our school day was would have one of you guys go off and listen to an audiobook so that I would have time to work with another kid on a reading lesson or a spelling lesson or something. And so I think this remember that. Yeah.

Pam Barnhill [00:10:49]:

This is absolutely perfect for that. You could, you know, put just put it on their list, which Olivia will tell you we do a lot of lists in our homeschool.

Olivia Barnhill [00:10:57]:

Oh,

Pam Barnhill [00:10:57]:

yes. Put it on their list for them to go and listen to the podcast and come back and tell you 1 or 2 exciting things that they learned. And so I think it just has a lot of handy applications in the homeschool, and it’s fun to

Olivia Barnhill [00:11:13]:

make. We’d like you to keep listening to it so we can keep making it.

Pam Barnhill [00:11:16]:

But there you go. There you go. So we can keep in having fun together. Exactly. Do go and check out the Wonder World Cast, you can find it at wonderworldpodcast.com, and we’ll include a link in the show notes for this particular episode of the 10 minutes to a better homeschool podcast. And if you’re looking for extra activities for your kids to do, the Wonder World podcast also has the wonder kids club. And for only $7 a month, You can get a whole packet of fun activities that your kids can do during your school day or while you’re cooking dinner, which is a time when moms always need but something for their kids to be doing, screen free activities, and also extra bonus audio as well, extra stories, poems, and things like that. So check that out too.

Pam Barnhill [00:12:05]:

The fun stuff. The fun stuff. Thanks, Olivia, for coming on and chatting

Olivia Barnhill [00:12:09]:

with me. Of course. It was lots of fun.

Pam Barnhill [00:12:13]:

And there you have it. Now if you would like a link, a direct link to the Wonder World podcast, you can find that on the show notes for this So that’s at pambarnhill.com/tmbh80, and we do hope that you will check that without. Now I’m super excited for our next podcast in a couple of weeks. We’re gonna be talking about a seasonal style of homeschooling that is really just a fun and new way to look at setting up your homeschool rhythms for the year. And my friend Robin Ludwig is gonna be coming on and talking to us. I think you’re gonna love that episode of the podcast. Come back in a couple of weeks to check it out. Until then, keep on homeschooling.