How Wonder Studies Can Transform Your Homeschooling Experience With Multiple Kids

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. I am joined today by Lindsay Corte and I am so excited that you are joining me today, Lindsay. Thank you so much for coming on.

Lindsay Korte [00:00:39]:
Oh, thank you. It’s real honor. Excited.

Pam Barnhill [00:00:42]:
Well, tell me how many kids you’re homeschooling and how long you’ve been homeschooling and all of that great stuff.

Lindsay Korte [00:00:48]:
Okay. We’ll do a little math this morning. So I’ve got 10 kids. I’m not homeschooling all of them. The 2 oldest have graduated. They graduated from high school, Michael this past year and Heidi the year before that. And then so this year, I will have 6 slash 7. I’ll have a 2 high schoolers down to a almost 5 year old.

Lindsay Korte [00:01:08]:
So almost pre he’ll be doing kind of some preschool work and then a baby who is not quite the year old yet. So 7 students will be altogether doing work together and then down to the the littlest guy. And we’ve homeschooled from the beginning. My all my kids didn’t ever go to school, always at home. We’ve done some co op over the years, but, otherwise, it’s been all us all at home. And, my husband and I have been married for 20 years this year, and we live on a farm. So there’s that that goes on too. A lot of activities around here.

Pam Barnhill [00:01:37]:
Yeah. It sounds like you guys are busy. Okay. More math. So how long have you been homeschooling?

Lindsay Korte [00:01:43]:
Yes. I did do that math. This will be 15 years this coming school year. So Wow. 4/25 will be our 15th year. Yeah.

Pam Barnhill [00:01:52]:
Okay. Now do you wanna do the opposite math? How long will you still be homeschooling?

Lindsay Korte [00:01:57]:
Oh, but I don’t wanna do that right now. I have done that before, and that was, like, 30 some odd years, I think. And I was like, I don’t need to know that number.

Pam Barnhill [00:02:04]:
Yeah. It’s like, we’re not gonna think about that number right now. We’re just gonna put one foot in front of the other just and take it one day at a time. Okay. So next math question for you. You had no idea when you suggested this.

Lindsay Korte [00:02:14]:
Podcast.

Pam Barnhill [00:02:15]:
I know. Right? How long have you been homeschooling more than one child?

Lindsay Korte [00:02:20]:
I mean, really since the beginning. So, I mean, well okay. When Heidi was little, like, her next brother, they’re he’s only about 14 months younger than her. So Oh, wow. Pretty much always together. I mean, those 2 always did it was kind of always a family thing from the very beginning. But as far as individual studies, I mean, maybe so the next year, like, 14 years. I mean, almost really all the time.

Lindsay Korte [00:02:44]:
I’ve always had multiple kids. So

Pam Barnhill [00:02:46]:
so you pretty much came to this whole family learning model of learning, like, right from the start.

Lindsay Korte [00:02:52]:
Yeah. When Heidi was in kindergarten, so kind of our first year of, quote, unquote, real homeschooling, I was expecting our 5th. So it was yeah. Everybody kind of one after the other quickly added on, and we just jumped in. And it happened together all the time as much as possible. So yeah.

Pam Barnhill [00:03:11]:
So with them being the first two, especially being 14 months apart, it was pretty easy at that I mean, not that anything, like, I mean, 5 within 5 years is easy. Okay. Well, we we’re just gonna, like, backtrack on that one. We’re not gonna say that. But the learning together and actually being able to meet the needs of multiple kids Mhmm. Was probably simpler for you than people who have a wider age range. Right? I

Lindsay Korte [00:03:35]:
think so. I mean, I it was just something that we just it made it simple. The decisions were I had less decisions to make maybe knowing that I didn’t have so many individual kids. I knew I would group them more together. So in that sense, yeah, definitely easier to just this is what we’re doing. Everybody is gonna do a certain portion of learning together, and that does make it, I think, a little bit easier because I never thought, oh, I’m gonna do each individual child. It’s really gonna be a family learning together. So yeah.

Pam Barnhill [00:04:03]:
Was there a point where you felt like they’ve just gotten too far apart to be able to do this?

Lindsay Korte [00:04:09]:
More recently because as the younger kids so my last, like, 4 children or so are more closer to 2 years apart, and that has been a lot harder to say we’re gonna still I’m gonna group you for because I still I will try to occasionally group together some skill subjects. Not too often, but language arts is definitely one that I will group more together. And that’s gotten a little more tricky, but it’s still with gathering time or morning time. We usually we do that. That’s not it. We do that together. My high schoolers leave quicker, and sometimes I’ve broken up. I’ve actually done an earlier earlier morning time with my high schoolers where we usually do a few things, like, for 30 to 45 minutes, and we’ve loved doing that too.

Lindsay Korte [00:04:51]:
So

Pam Barnhill [00:04:52]:
Okay. So at first it was really easy. You did have everybody together because they were so close in age and then, you know, you’ve you’ve just had to adjust. And I think that’s the thing about homeschooling is as we come up against new situations, we do have to adjust a little bit, but the heart of learning together has stayed the same.

Lindsay Korte [00:05:12]:
Yes. For sure. I mean, we’ve definitely like anybody, we’ve changed different focuses and things. In the beginning years, I think we did pretty much just bible and, like, 5 in a row. I’d used that curriculum with my oldest one. So a lot of fun there. Lots of good memories. And then as she got older, I think then we switched to kinda more what most people probably think of as morning time.

Lindsay Korte [00:05:32]:
We did more poetry and more content type area subjects, those kinds of things, and, of course, your read alouds. So things have always changed. And, yeah, I look at each year, and it might be a little bit different, but a lot of things. And then we, of course, added in started adding in your morning basket plans and things along the ways, and that’s changed again. So it’s always something a little bit different, but there usually is some consistent threads. But each year, like, oh, I need to, you know, always plan each year, and sometimes there’s a little bit of differences.

Pam Barnhill [00:06:02]:
Okay. So let’s talk about what it looks like right now. In your home right now, what this homeschooling kinda look like. Can you give us an overview?

Lindsay Korte [00:06:11]:
Yeah. So I’ll talk about last year because we’re definitely on summer break right now. We haven’t gotten back in it So last year, I had a senior. I was my oldest at that time senior in high school. And then a he was a sophomore, and down to the brand new baby was born last September. So that was it was definitely a baby year. So that was something that we had to adjust. So it wasn’t our best year for sure, but morning time was definitely consistent.

Lindsay Korte [00:06:38]:
I was very happy with that because I knew that if nothing else, we got to that, and then I would work on individual subjects with my kids that needed more reading instruction and math, that kind of thing. But we usually would start our well, I the older kids would usually get their checklist, and they would go off and get started. And then around 9 or 10 o’clock, we would have our, I call it, gathering time in our house, but we would get together. And pretty heavily was explorations, some of your exploration plans. And then I also I think one of the biggest things that I loved using is your morning time journal and planner because I would always, you know, follow that. I had my master list, so to say, where I’d follow along, kind of like a procedure list type thing where I just say, okay. This is what we’re doing next, and then, you know, keep going from there. So things like we did poetry, and we would do catechism, and we would do memory work, and we would do usually some extra, like, prayer times and then, a read aloud, some language arts, and then I would stick in, you know, whatever other plans we were doing as far as your money basket plans or explorations.

Lindsay Korte [00:07:42]:
Those would just kinda get sprinkled in whenever we had time for them. Yeah. And then, I mean, I I felt like we were doing school all day, but it was just because I had a lot of kids to kind of keep going one after the other, you know, as needed and take breaks for things like, you know, have lunch and have second lunch and change the diaper. We’re spaghetti. And so it’s a long day, but but it was good.

Pam Barnhill [00:08:05]:
Okay. I wanna ask you about a couple of things. So am I hearing you say, like, the morning basket, the explorations, all of that kind of stuff was the largest part of what you were doing other than skill work. I mean, obviously, your catechism, your Bible, stuff like that. Right. But, like, that was kind of for a lot of these kids, that was it along with

Lindsay Korte [00:08:24]:
Yeah. Yeah. For sure. Explorations. Our read alouds, like, that’s one of the thing that’s always pretty consistent too. But, yeah, the explorations have been were a big part this year. And and having the the bingo I know you have the bingo card set up where you can do the certain activities and the kids can enter for a prize. That obviously, that’s incentive.

Lindsay Korte [00:08:44]:
You know, the kids enjoy doing that too. They’re they’re a little competitive. So sometimes they would be like, oh, I wanna get every single activity done. But they’re just a lot of fun, and they really took me out of my comfort zone where I was doing and I would try to make sure I would do the activities with them. So we did water coloring, and we did embroidery, and we did more water coloring and chalk pastels. And that was that part alone was really good for me because, otherwise, I wouldn’t have done it. You know? And I think this past year with the Christmas explorations, there was some gingerbread house making. And having a new baby who was probably was only about 4 months at that time, I probably wouldn’t have decided to do gingerbreads.

Lindsay Korte [00:09:21]:
But because I

Pam Barnhill [00:09:22]:
Can I just apologize at this point for I’m so sorry? I I had no idea.

Lindsay Korte [00:09:28]:
My kids love you for it because I did it because it was in the exploration plan. So we did the gingerbreads, and they had a fabulous time. And, actually, I I truly loved it because to see their creativity was a lot of fun. They each had their own very unique designs. So it was great. It really was. So that I think that part of just having to I would not necessarily think about some of those things. Like, I would think about more, I mean, you know, we need to cover the history.

Lindsay Korte [00:09:54]:
We need to cover the we need to cover the science, and it is covered, but just in a much more fun way than I would think or maybe and we’ve gone down all kinds of rabbit trails. You know, we might start watch one YouTube video that you have linked in the plans, and then we’re suddenly we’re checking out all this other interesting cool stuff, or we’re getting a book from the library that they wanted, which the book list too are fabulous. They didn’t even realize what I was talking about because it’s just what we did. I don’t necessarily call it that. They were like, oh, oh, and then they were like, well, these things. We’re like, oh, well, I loved this and I loved that. And, you know, they really got excited. So, yeah, it’s a it been been a big part of our year.

Lindsay Korte [00:10:35]:
And we do it not just during gathering time. Like, there’ll be other activities they’ll do outside of it, and kids will read books from the book list later in the day, and I’ll see it reenact in their play. Like, I think it was the pioneers’ explorations this last August, and they dressed up. They were outside reenacting pioneer days. And my, at that time, my 13 year old, she got her violin out, and she was out there doing some fiddle songs. And so it was just a lot of fun.

Pam Barnhill [00:11:03]:
Oh, that is awesome. That is awesome. Okay. So I just wanna kind of, like, explain, for everybody who’s listening. So we do have our explorations, and in there are 18 activities, which are pretty much focused around a lot of the arts. So, you know, whether that be, like Lindsay was talking about with watercolors and chalk pastels, whether it be like a I I don’t know, what do you call that when they actually do like make art? But then there’s also music and there’s picture study and, and all those kinds of things. And then from that 18 activities, the team always makes a game every month. And not all 18 activities are included on the bingo game.

Pam Barnhill [00:11:43]:
You don’t have to do all 18. But I didn’t realize they were picking things like making gingerbread houses. And they have to say something to them, like, isn’t that a lot of pressure to put on people? Sometimes moms need it.

Lindsay Korte [00:11:56]:
We need a little kick in the pants on occasion to be fun and not be too sick in mud.

Pam Barnhill [00:12:01]:
But when you print that out for your kids and they see that bingo, you know, it’s it’s never just a bingo card. There’s, like, there’s a little path that you follow or something like that. Right. Then it becomes, you know, like, do these specific activities and it’s just to encourage families to participate, then you could win a prize. Yeah. Okay. So let’s talk about that journal and planner you mentioned. Do you use it as a planner or do you use it as a journal? Because it could be used as both.

Lindsay Korte [00:12:27]:
Yes. And I definitely do both. I definitely plan out. So in the summer, I definitely sit down and look at what we’re doing for our gathering time for that upcoming school year. But then I probably do use it more as a recorder because I will sit there with it during our gathering time. And I have my, like, what I call my master list that I print out beforehand to keep me on track to make I don’t forget something because I will. And then for that week, I will sit there with it. And either right after we’re done with gathering time, I will write down what we actually did.

Lindsay Korte [00:12:56]:
And then sometimes I will put down if there’s something important I wanna do the next gathering time. I will also pencil that in there and say don’t forget to do this or, you know, put in this activity on this day or that kind of thing. But I love it too for just we’ll put our prayer intentions in there and our my kids will give their, you know, their things they’re thankful for. We’ll write some of those things in there. And so that’s a lot of fun to also look back through and see, oh, you know, we prayed for that person and look at what happened kind of a, you know, thing too. So I use it as both a planner and and a recorder slash I don’t do a ton of journaling, like extra writing, but, more just recording what we what we did for those days. So it’s I have not put many pictures in it. My thought is someday I’ll go back and put in some photos, but for now, I I just love the keeping track.

Lindsay Korte [00:13:42]:
It helps me look back and see. We really accomplished a lot. So

Pam Barnhill [00:13:45]:
I was gonna say and especially in a baby year, you know, it’s probably really helpful to be able to look back and say, oh, you know what? We we did way more than what my brain is thinking we did at this point.

Lindsay Korte [00:13:56]:
For sure. Because I we can definitely be super hard on ourselves, and most times we look at all the things we didn’t do. But when I pull that out and realize, oh, look at what we actually did do. It’s very encouraging.

Pam Barnhill [00:14:07]:
Yeah. I love it. Okay. So each of the explorations is based around a theme. So talk to me a little bit about the themes. How have they worked for your family?

Lindsay Korte [00:14:18]:
They’ve worked great. And you’ve had such a variety from, you know, more sciency things, like maybe George Washington Carver or flowers, and then to more you know, doing some geography. Like, we when we did the holy land, I think it was maybe a year or 2 ago or somewhere in there. And I had actually gotten to go to the holy land as a high school slash college age. And I had old photographs and souvenirs, and I had never shown my kids any of that stuff. They they think they knew that I had been there. We talked about it before. But when those explorations came around, I was like, oh, we’ll make sure I’ll pull all that out.

Lindsay Korte [00:14:51]:
And, of course, they were fascinated, and I was fascinated and glad to share it with them. So we had a whole we kind of prepared a kinda middle eastern meal. We weren’t real authentic. We just kind of added some decorations to the table and very simple. Nothing nothing fancy at all. So very simple foods, and then I pulled out my photos, and I pulled out my memorabilia, and it was great. And then we watched, you know, a video from the plans about the holy land, and then I was able to share with them experiences I had. So I was able to tell them some stories.

Lindsay Korte [00:15:19]:
So even that has been a lot of fun for me to pull out other things that I probably wouldn’t have thought about if it hadn’t been for those plans. So those were a favorite. The ships and sailing were definitely a huge favorite here too. We went down the rabbit hole of sea shanties. That was a ton of fun. And then I think the Christmas plans are always obviously probably a favorite too just because everybody loves Christmas, and we definitely enjoy traditions around here. So one of them was the British, the Christmas crackers, and that actually kind of became a new tradition in our house. Every year since then, we have made Christmas crackers at Christmas time.

Lindsay Korte [00:15:52]:
So there’s just been a lot of joy that it has brought, but and I the variety has been fabulous, having different things from, you know, more geographical to historical to the science to musicals was this past summer. We had a ton of fun with the musicals too. We definitely went down the rabbit hole of more musicals and and and doing lots of singing in this house. So they’ve been a lot of fun. And I think I don’t know if it’s because I feel like I’m kind of a unit studies gal at heart even though I don’t do it much else outside the explorations, but the explorations, you know, kind of fills that need. So that’s a lot of fun for me because I’m like, oh, all of these things are related to this theme. So it’s not too much where it’s like everything, you know, you’re doing a copy work page with an apple on it or something. It’s it’s just right.

Lindsay Korte [00:16:42]:
It it feels like my little pleasure in having the unit studies. So

Pam Barnhill [00:16:47]:
it’s Right. But it’s not unit study overkill.

Lindsay Korte [00:16:49]:
Yes. Yes.

Pam Barnhill [00:16:52]:
So have you ever used any of the little explorers materials?

Lindsay Korte [00:16:55]:
Not much, although my it was not this year but the year before so what was that like 22 to 23 school year? My older girl at that time, she was turning 13. She kinda had a little mini, what she called a fine arts day with my first and kindergartner. And she would pull stuff from the little explorers. So that was a lot of fun. I just let her have free reign. She planned out what she would wanna do, and she would pull activities from the site, and then she would do stuff with those 2, the little my little sister and brother. So that was another great aspect that it kind of was set up ready for her. She saw what we did and she just kinda made her own plans and they did they had fun with that too.

Lindsay Korte [00:17:37]:
But, otherwise, I haven’t. And I know there’s an overlap, but

Pam Barnhill [00:17:40]:
we just

Lindsay Korte [00:17:40]:
Yes. I’ve stuck with the Exploitation because they kind of fit since I do have such a wide age span. It’s great for the older, the teens, and it’s great for the littles, and it’s good for me too.

Pam Barnhill [00:17:51]:
Yeah. Yeah. And and just if you’re listening and you’re not familiar, Little Explorers is, like, our. We call it early learning because we do have some people, their oldest is like 6 or 7 years old, and they really do, they tell us this is really enough for, if you’re, if you have 3 or 4 kids, your oldest is 6 or 7 years old. Don’t try to do the explorations, do the little explorers because there is overlap where it’s appropriate, but that there’s also additional stuff just specifically for that preschool age group, but don’t feel like it’s just preschool. And I love the fact that she was able to take it and do something with it. You know, that’s, that’s really cool. Easy enough for a 13 year old.

Pam Barnhill [00:18:29]:
I’m just gonna.

Lindsay Korte [00:18:30]:
Yep. It was perfect. It was just right. So, yeah, it’s been great. And I agree that would be that would be plenty. I mean, they’re very rich.

Pam Barnhill [00:18:38]:
You mentioned your teens just a minute ago. So what do your teens get out of doing the explorations? Because a lot of people would be like, yeah, I’m not so sure about this with teenagers.

Lindsay Korte [00:18:48]:
Yeah. I think they they enjoy it just as much almost because it’s just it’s another thing that’s interesting to them. They’re very interest. I guess there’s probably a lot of interest based learning around here. So to them, it’s just something else. They’re they’re intrigued by the idea of, oh, you know, what is this and this person and these historical events or these activities. And they usually now not my older boy quite as much, but definitely my daughter. My now she’s gonna be 15.

Lindsay Korte [00:19:14]:
She’ll do the activities

Pam Barnhill [00:19:15]:
with this too as far

Lindsay Korte [00:19:16]:
as she’ll get in there and do the water coloring, and she’ll do the art. She’s definitely very art led as well. And even my 2 oldest that have graduated, they are still at home. They go to a community college. They’re around, and it’s fun for me to watch them. They’ll peek around the corner if we’re watching a video about something from the plan, you know, that some interesting thing. They’ll they’re even paying attention to. So I it’s been it’s really fun.

Lindsay Korte [00:19:40]:
They they all get something out of it for sure.

Pam Barnhill [00:19:43]:
Yeah. Yeah. And you, Lindsay, are one of my moms when I think of, like, who are my moms who are learners? It’s like, I think sometimes you show up and your kids aren’t even there.

Lindsay Korte [00:19:55]:
They’re happening. That is true. That has happened. One time they disappeared, and I was like, well, I’m gonna watch this because this is interesting. I think that was especially the ships and sailing with when you had doctor Carol Reynolds on.

Pam Barnhill [00:20:06]:
Oh, yes.

Lindsay Korte [00:20:07]:
And that was a fabulous episode with her. That was just yeah. I think some of my kids, they they were still around, but there was another time where they had all left, and I I was watching.

Pam Barnhill [00:20:18]:
So, you know, I I mean, I think of you as one of those lifelong learners. You get things from the explorations too.

Lindsay Korte [00:20:24]:
Yeah. Oh, for sure. They sometimes even even more so because I had a lot of fun when I was looking back through our explorations plan. I was just I had forgotten how many we’ve done. Like, it was it was great. Yeah. I’ve learned we’ve all learned a lot.

Pam Barnhill [00:20:38]:
Yeah. Okay. So you’ve gotten a sneak peek at our brand new kind of 3rd leg Yeah. To the wonder studies. So wonder studies is now little explorers, explorations, and voyages all around a single topic, which for September, this is gonna start in September of 2024. We’re gonna start with apples. So what do you think about those?

Lindsay Korte [00:21:02]:
I think they look great. I mean, I think just to expand a little further, it’s nice to have that option especially too. Like, even if you don’t want to, which I’m excited because the apples, I’m definitely glad to see that was an old plan. I think one of maybe the first first or second ones, I feel like. So Yeah. To have it come back around for my because my older kids would have had that, but now to revisit with my younger ones and be a refresher for us, older kids will be good. But I think to have that ready and set up if I want to use it, will be perfect. Just to go a little bit further and a little bit deeper.

Lindsay Korte [00:21:34]:
And to have some of the workbook well, I guess, are you calling them workbook pages? I mean, quote, unquote, workbook pages. That’s, like, not gonna be, like, your normal average what you think of workbooks, but just to have those little extra activities where I think we’ll be even richer because then I’m sure we’ll I’m sure we’ll go. It’ll help us go deeper into things, and it’ll help us kind of flesh out a little bit more. And then probably, honestly, be that extra little bit that I can check that box just a little bit further. Say, we really did cover this whole science topic or this whole language arts topic, or that’ll even be one more area in which I feel like explorations will just fulfill even more in our school. So I think it’ll be

Pam Barnhill [00:22:16]:
Yeah. And and then I love the fact that you’re saying, like, it it sounds like you’re gonna pick and choose. And and I love that so much. Like, you’re not looking at this going, oh my gosh. Now they’ve given me 18 more things to do, you know, but they’ve given me 18 more options and I can go in and pick and choose. And we do divide it up into history, science, and language arts. So you could, like, you really can check the box. You could say, oh, like, we did these 3 activities.

Pam Barnhill [00:22:42]:
I’m checking the science box or whatever. And, yeah, it’s funny because they’re kind of like notebooking pages that we put in there. That was not our original intent. We were not gonna put that in there. We we’re really encouraging families to do, like, a keeping book in the using with the plans, but then we had some families say, could you just give us something to print? Because our kids do better when they start with something printed on the page as opposed to staring at a blank page. And we’re like, okay. We’ll give you something to print. 1 of the moms said, we’ll print it, and we’ll put it into a 3 ring binder.

Pam Barnhill [00:23:15]:
And that way we can be flexible with it. I think they just want the flexibility. Sometimes when you’re dealing with perfectionist kids too, just print another one. Or, you know, it’s better than having to tear a page out of a book or something like that. You know, you can just whatever. We’re not calling them worksheets. They’re more like notebooking pages. Just a place to to let you start.

Lindsay Korte [00:23:35]:
Get started. Yeah. I think it’s just it provides just the right amount of structure for those kids that do want it, but yet still leaves it open for their own creativity, which I think will be perfect because they’ll I can see some of my kids having that little bit of a framework will help them, and then they’ll quickly move on into their own individual creativity, which I think will be fabulous. So, yeah, I’m excited.

Pam Barnhill [00:23:57]:
I love it. I love it so much. So what are some of the fruits that you have seen? Because I know it can’t be easy teaching all your kids together when you have that many kids who are like, they’re all their own personalities and you probably have some kids who get along better with other kids, some kids who don’t. So why did you decide that was the way you were gonna go when it at times, I know it had to have been easier just to have everybody go off and do their own thing.

Lindsay Korte [00:24:25]:
Oh, for sure. But well, I mean, we’re a perfect family. Right?

Pam Barnhill [00:24:30]:
I’m glad you are.

Lindsay Korte [00:24:31]:
Yes. Somebody is somewhere, not here. Now I’m sure there’s probably been a day where I have closed the books and said we’re not doing this right now. It, you know, all go away. But on the whole, I’ve seen their relationships definitely become better in some ways because they have to sometimes work with each other. They’re at the table, you know, if we’re all together for our gathering time, then they can’t just say, oh, you know, I don’t wanna do this. I’m gonna have this attitude, and I can just go be by myself. No.

Lindsay Korte [00:25:02]:
You’re gonna have to sit here and work it out, which is a great life skill for anybody. So that that’s huge. I’ve seen them having a topic that they all share. You know, they’ve all done something in maybe the holy land or the ship sailing or the musicals this past year. They all have something they can also converse about and enjoy from the, you know, the high school graduates down to the 1st, 2nd grader, and even with myself. And even sometimes they’ll share things with, you know, my husband with their dad. They they have interests, and they have things that they’re like, oh, this was really fascinating. So that alone, like, building our and adding things, like, the traditions to our family culture, I think that’s also been really good.

Lindsay Korte [00:25:42]:
But mostly just wanting them to have those stronger sibling relationships have been really the main driving factor with why I keep doing this. And we’ve done it probably a form of gathering time since I started homeschooling. There was a year in there or 2 where we did a co op, and we just we were meeting twice a week for our coop, and I really could not do a gathering time. And I missed it so much that that was a big driving factor for the year after that where I said, we’re not gonna do this. We’re gonna do a one day week co op, or we’re not gonna do co op at all because this is important to me to bring this back and have our more succinct family learning together. So, yeah, it’s always it’s kind of definitely been a heart of our homeschool.

Pam Barnhill [00:26:22]:
I love it. I love it so much. Yeah. Sometimes, you know, and and I still, I was actually talking to Laney about this last week in a podcast that’ll air. I can’t remember. I think maybe before this one. So you probably already heard me say this. It’s you’ve got to pick your hard.

Pam Barnhill [00:26:38]:
You’ve got to pick, you know, yes. It’s hard to pull your family together. Sometimes it gets, you know, it’s not all sunshine and roses and it gets a little difficult, but it’s also really hard to have everybody in their own textbook, in their own level, learning their own thing and having to juggle all of that stuff. You know?

Lindsay Korte [00:26:57]:
Yeah. I’ll definitely pick this hard over that hard.

Pam Barnhill [00:27:00]:
Yeah. Yeah. I think so. Me too. You know, I was blessed with my 3 kids were fairly close in age together. And so I would definitely choose that as well. So, yeah, well, if if somebody is thinking about joining wonder studies and doing the explorations, little explorers, and or voyages this year, what would you tell them?

Lindsay Korte [00:27:24]:
Probably tell them to just just do it. Just try it out. You might have cold feet in the beginning, but I think you’ll see how much richer it’ll be, how much easier your homeschool will be. I mean, I still sometimes we might pick a history book, you know, for our school year as a spine, but we just read it because there’s enough content in explorations that you cover a lot of history, a lot of science. And I know some of my younger kids, they’ll kind of joke and they’ll be like, well, we haven’t done history. We haven’t done science these last few days or whatever. I’m like, yes. We have.

Lindsay Korte [00:27:55]:
Like, I’ll show you all these things we did. It’s just I don’t they don’t think about it as much as school. They think of it as just a fun time. They enjoy it. I never get complaints about what we’re doing in gathering time. I get complaints about math, and I get complaints about other subjects, grammar, probably sometimes, but they don’t ever complain about usually what we’re doing in our gathering time and in the explorations. So that alone to me is very encouraging that they find it so much fun. It’s not a drag at all.

Lindsay Korte [00:28:24]:
And I’ll see it come out in other times in their play, like that time when we did the pioneers. They were outside for a long time having their own pioneer day. So it’s definitely been wonderful. And I think having you know, it depends on your what’s going on in your life, but having a baby this past year, there’s been years where I love to plan every single bit of our gathering time, and I wanna pick and choose all the things. And this year, having the explorations where I did not have to pick anything, all I had to choose was which activity we were gonna do for the day was just right. So there’s that very helpful as well during certain seasons when you really want someone to pick it all out for you and lay it all out for you, which has been great. And I know I have full confidence that the plans are definitely very rich and thorough, and the book lists also are absolutely fantastic. We’ve gotten some great read alouds from that, and they’re the kids will take extras of those and go off and read them on their own.

Lindsay Korte [00:29:19]:
So, yeah, I think it’s just that it’s been I love that it’s so well laid out, and you can either do it all or you can do a few things.

Pam Barnhill [00:29:29]:
Well, Lindsay, thank you so much. I’m so glad that your kids love doing the explorations and they have fun and that, you know, the wonder studies have blessed your family. And just thank you so much for coming on and sharing with us.

Lindsay Korte [00:29:43]:
Oh, you bet. Thank you, Pam.

Pam Barnhill [00:29:46]:
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.