00:00:07 Steven
Welcome to the Kolbecast episode 228. Thank you for joining us. Today, Bonnie and I are joined by Kathleen, Kolbe Academy mother. Like many families, Kathleen and her family came to Kolbe during the pandemic and haven't looked back. Kathleen talks to us about managing homeschooling with both parents working, and how Kolbe has provided her daughter with the room to grow and flourish. Also, listen in to hear ways that homeschooling works for her family, that you may be able to work into your own. We hope that you will enjoy the show.
00:00:40 Bonnie
Hi there, I'm Bonnie... Kolbe homeschooling mom of four lads and lasses, liturgical musician, popcorn and podcast fanatic.
00:00:48 Steven
And this is Steven homeschooling, father of five and chief homeschooling officer for Kolbe Academy.
00:01:00 Bonnie
Good morning, Steven, how are you today?
00:01:02 Steven
Doing well, it's a... It's an early morning recording, so I mean relatively speaking, it's not early, but it's normally we're in the afternoon. So it's kind of nice to have a cup of coffee... get to chat in the morning.
00:01:14 Bonnie
Yes, definitely. We most, yeah.... Like you said, most of our recordings happen in the afternoon. It's nice to get to start the day this way. We're looking forward to our conversation today. We get to visit with a Kolbe mom named Kathleen. Hi Kathleen, welcome to the Kolbecast.
00:01:27 Kathleen
Hi. It's nice to be with both of you.
00:01:30 Bonnie
We're really glad you're joining us, grateful to get to spend this time with you and hear about your own experience and what brought you to Kolbe and so forth. So would you tell us about yourself and your family, how... how y'all utilize Kobe's offerings... All that sort of stuff?
00:01:44 Kathleen
Sure, sure. So we're a... a Midwest family and both my husband and I grew up in Catholic homes that really emphasized education, and it was sort of an understanding from the beginning that we would both go on for higher education because it was such a big priority in both of our families and so that's been such a great foundation for us as we raise our daughter and try to work with her on her education. So.
00:02:13 Bonnie
OK. How did you hear about Kolbe?
00:02:16 Kathleen
We were in a traditional brick and mortar, Catholic private school in our neighborhood, and then when the pandemic hit, my husband is in the cardiac field and he I will give him total credit, he said. This is going to be a two year.
00:02:33 Kathleen
Minimum.
00:02:34 Kathleen
Thing.
00:02:35 Kathleen
And at first I was optimistic. I was like, ohh no, you know, we're gonna we're all gonna be fine. We're gonna pray about it. It's gonna be fine. Yeah. And, you know, in the end, he was kind of right. And and we started through the summer of the of the beginning of the pandemic just sort of realizing what's what could happen in the fall.
00:02:55 Kathleen
How disorganized and how it could really affect Taylor's education, how there might be gaps and disruptions.
00:03:04 Kathleen
And because it's such a priority for us, we just thought we can't. We can't. But she's got to have this consistency. She loves learning. We cannot let her down. So I began looking. I knew because we both work full time. Traditional home school wasn't going to work and serve her or us.
00:03:23 Kathleen
And I thought, gosh, but the faith-based aspect is way too important. We cannot. That has to be ingrained because we don't separate it in our daily life. It can't be separated in our education. So it was a trick at first.
00:03:38 Kathleen
To find something that checked all the boxes and then it was like, Oh my gosh, here's Kolbe. And it does. It checks all the boxes and full transparency. We sort of thought, well, we'll do it for a year.
00:03:52 Kathleen
And kind of get through this crazy world, and then she'll probably, you know, go back to her private school.
00:04:00 Kathleen
And we'll pick up where we left off and that's not been the case at all. And I say that with joy because it's been such the perfect fit for her.
00:04:11 Kathleen
So she did the first grade that she did was first grade with Mrs. Darier, who, yay. We love her. Shout out to her. She was amazing. It was such a troubling time and her energy and just enthusiasm for these kids was exactly what we needed in that moment. So we had a fantastic first.
00:04:31 Kathleen
Year.
00:04:32 Kathleen
And uh, we got to the end of it and we asked her, like, what do you want to do, you know, the world is still a little unsettled. And we really want you to get a, a solid education.
00:04:43 Kathleen
That's consistent and not disrupted, so we we jumped into second grade again with Kolbe and it was just another amazing year.
00:04:54 Kathleen
So, UM, we got to the end of that year and we did the same thing we said, OK, what do you want to do? And that was really where we started to tip was at the end of 2nd grade. She got to summer and said, I don't want to stop. I don't want to take a break and we never really took Summers.
00:05:13 Kathleen
Off entirely, we would incorporate a lot of brain quest materials just to kind of keep the flow going and not have that brain drain.
00:05:23 Kathleen
But this summer was different. She came to us and said Nope, I want to go right into third grade math. And I went, whoa, OK, I'm an architect by trade. So yes, I'm I'm fairly proficient in math, but I'm not a teacher, you know, so let's just, let's just stop for a moment and.
00:05:44 Kathleen
Figure out what we do. So we engage Mrs. Buchanan and said.
00:05:49 Kathleen
All right, here's another little twist in our journey. How how can we do this? And she was amazing, saying, well, you absolutely can.
00:05:58 Kathleen
But then you know what happens at the end of summer. What do we do then? You know, can she mix and match? And so that kind of set us off on this road of mixing and matching curriculum. And thankfully, Kolbe was one step ahead of us because as soon as we needed that option, it was there. So that was amazing.
00:06:18 Bonnie
I picked up on several things you're referring to. Ryan Buchanan, your advisor, I assume.
00:06:22 Kathleen
Yes, yes. Total credit to her because she's going on this journey with us and I don't think I've ever heard.
00:06:29 Kathleen
Her say no.
00:06:31 Kathleen
It's always, we'll figure it out. We'll find a way. Whereas so many other areas of our life, when we have kind of pushed the envelope and maybe.
00:06:40 Kathleen
The less traditional path you just get a lot of know. You know, we can't do that. We can't do that and that's not the case that Kolbe.
00:06:48 Bonnie
Well, I'm glad to hear that your experience has been as good as it has been. And yeah, I I greatly admired that quality of like, well, how can we figure this out? There's gotta be a way like that problem solving mindset. And just to close the loop on Miss Buchanan, she has so far avoided being on the Kolbe cast on Mike. But that's going to change here soon. She's helped us prep some.
00:07:08 Bonnie
Episodes and she'll be talking to us here pretty soon, so we're excited about that on MIC. So everybody will get to meet her. I also picked up on.
00:07:18 Bonnie
Things that I would love for you to talk more about how you are working full time, what the online elementary looks like in your household. So basically, maybe we could sum all that up in what does a typical day in your household look like if there is one or maybe you know a typical week if that's yeah.
00:07:34 Kathleen
Sure. And it's it's really shifted this fall because we've gone from elementary now to mid.
00:07:38 Kathleen
Old school. And so it's shifted, but we're really trying to maintain like we get up in the morning, it's breakfast and we're out the door for a walk. So we've got to get the blood flowing before we can sit down and learn or work. So we're pretty adamant about that.
00:07:58 Kathleen
And then starting our day, so Taylor, even at 10 years old has been so independent.
00:08:04 Kathleen
And that I can will be working alongside her. And she, you know, occasionally obviously needs my support. But with the online program, she's really been empowered each step of the way. You know, you add a little bit more responsibility. And the teachers coached them through it. So I can be fairly hands off.
00:08:25 Kathleen
At this point.
00:08:27 Kathleen
And so we kind of work in tandem. I'm doing my job. She's she's getting her, her classes done, and then we do sit down and we look at, you know, the final result together before it's submitted, look for other opportunities to enhance your learning before it gets submitted. So we'll do that and then it's lunch and again another walk and talk as we.
00:08:49 Kathleen
You know, so I can hear more about what she's learned. I'm kind of clicking away in my mind of are there areas that I can supplement or reinforce so that I'm actively involved in whatever she's learning, and then it's most days, it's back to, you know, classes now that she's in middle school before her afternoons were pretty wide open.
00:09:09 Kathleen
And that's when we would do our either our other sports, which we feel really adamant is just.
00:09:15 Kathleen
Much a part of a holistic approach to who she is is getting getting the sports and exercise aspect in and then also anything that we were homeschooling because now we are doing some traditional home schooling and we're doing online classes in order to keep her.
00:09:36 Kathleen
Engaged. So she's mixed right now between 6th grade curriculum and 7th grade curriculum. So I'm home schooling a little bit of that.
00:09:41 Bonnie
OK.
00:09:45 Kathleen
So that's usually the afternoon and you know just I think our families.
00:09:51 Kathleen
Just.
00:09:51 Kathleen
Breaks all the time for getting some physical exercise in between helps. We know through science that it helps anchor that information into the long term memory bank, so it's it's critical.
00:10:05 Kathleen
And then at night, it's really important that we read together as a family. Right now we're reading the Bronze bow together for her literature class. And and pray you know, to end the day.
00:10:17 Bonnie
Nice. Beautiful.
00:10:18 Bonnie
So.
00:10:19 Bonnie
I think it's it's helpful to kind of get a glimpse into how other people make make this work for them. That's one of the reasons we enjoy visiting with families on on these episodes.
00:10:28 Bonnie
So on your, on your end of things, I hear you're you're working and kind of checking in with her continually. I love that kind of stop and the the frequent breaks that you take it with movement can change the scenery and get up and move around a bit like that. How do you manage your other responsibilities, whether that's you know, your, your employment? Of course your household.
00:10:48 Bonnie
Parish life. Other pursuits here into volunteering, things like that. How do you make all that work? You.
00:10:56 Kathleen
Yeah. And again, it's it's been a new challenge this fall with shifting to middle school because it's more intense. But my husband and I both have jobs where we work from home quite a bit. So it's just a matter of him and I coordinating our travel schedules because we both have travel involved with what we do, so that somebody is always with her and supporting her. So it's just a lot of coordination.
00:11:17 Kathleen
Trying to get ahead of things we've had in the past three years, we've had some family health issues come up and what a blessing to be a Kolbe because when we needed to pick up and go and support that family member, we could do it.
00:11:32 Kathleen
And make it work again without a major disruption to her education. So. So it's a juggle. But but the flexibility of this format from a family standpoint is really helpful as well.
00:11:46 Bonnie
I think you've really taken to it and have figured out how to integrate it into your family life and and make it work well for you. And and before we started recording, we're talking a bit about how the start of the school year. It can take longer than we think it should to kind of settle into the routine. And just knowing that helps me a lot on a thing for you.
00:12:06 Bonnie
If it's helpful to anyone else hearing this, OK, that's taking a.
00:12:10 Bonnie
It feels like it should. Yeah. We'll get there. Yeah.
00:12:14 Steven
I was not glad. I'm glad you addressed. I'm glad you addressed that. It was one of my questions because we we keep seeing more and more families, I mean, more and more families both.
00:12:23 Steven
Both parents either were willing because that's what they choose to do, or because that's what they need to do to make it make ends meet. So it's I'm always curious to see how people are are juggling things. You know, it's a.
00:12:36 Steven
Hey.
00:12:36 Steven
As we used to say, kind of at least a some of my relatives who were in homeschooled for a long time would talk about how they thought it actually took less time to a certain extent because there's.
00:12:48 Steven
Not the, you know, getting the kids ready for school, getting them to school, picking them up from school, doing the after school activities, taking take care of the homework. So you know, basically, it's a lot of time, but it's all. It's not like quality family time. It's running people around and doing things. However, you do have to be. There is a lot of time where you have to.
00:13:09 Steven
At least be present, you know, to help with. Make sure the day is running. So it's a different.
00:13:15 Steven
Better I think, but I I'm I'm glad that you know you could share that with some of our families who are trying to figure out.
00:13:22 Steven
How do I make this work? Can I make this work?
00:13:23 Kathleen
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I won't sugarcoat. I mean, there are. There are days when I'm up at 6:00 in the morning and working for an hour or.
00:13:31 Kathleen
2.
00:13:32 Kathleen
Or I'm, you know, I'm working from 9:00 to 11:00 at night. Sometimes it's just you. Do what you need to do, because this, this is the right decision for our family.
00:13:39
2.
00:13:43 Kathleen
This format works, so you just figure it out, but some days are some days are smoother than others and that's OK.
00:13:50 Bonnie
Yeah.
00:13:51 Bonnie
I think knowing that and just having that kind of acceptance of it makes it easier to deal with too.
00:13:57 Bonnie
So you mentioned that she's active in sports. What sorts of sports is she into and other activities we all have going on?
00:14:03 Kathleen
Sure. Yeah, she is quite the figure skater. And so actually, again, this format is amazing because we're trying to get her some of the best coaches we can in the area. And sometimes that means skating at, you know, 1:00 in the afternoon.
00:14:19 Kathleen
Because that's when we can get ice. That's when we can get that coach.
00:14:22 Kathleen
Umm, so she's been able to flex and and kind of get the best of that aspect too. She's learning a bunch about. There's a lot of testing involved with skating that I don't think a lot of people realize to get to different levels as well as competition. So she's learning to to manage her stress and.
00:14:42 Kathleen
Learning to just work through all of that, she saw a major shift when she was like 8 years old and it was kind of that moment of like.
00:14:50 Kathleen
You know when when they're younger kids, it's like, well, what could go wrong? They don't even realize that, you know, sometimes you have a bad day on the ice. And then there's that moment when they realize that it could happen.
00:15:02 Kathleen
And it was such a growth movement for her to to push through that and find a way to manage the stress and for us to work alongside with her.
00:15:11 Kathleen
So that's why I was saying, like the sports aspect is I know we we're all guilty of using the word extracurricular. It's not. I think we need to find a new word because it informs her schooling.
00:15:23 Kathleen
2.
00:15:24 Kathleen
You know, so going into a test, you know, how are you feeling? Is are you stressed? Well, this is how you handle it in your sports. So let's let's handle it the same way.
00:15:33 Kathleen
There's a lot of carry over there. So yeah, so that's help. And she loves water skiing as well. So we have a short season here because we're in the Midwest but loves it.
00:15:45 Kathleen
And it's a very social sport, so we love that it kind of balances out the social aspect of her development.
00:15:52 Bonnie
Well, to that, and do you all participate in like co-ops of any kind?
00:15:57 Kathleen
On and off, they haven't always worked. We are not in a major metropolitan area, so there were times when age wise there wasn't always a good fit. So we've been hit and miss on that through the years. She's now deep enough into her skating and her water skiing that they are club sports.
00:16:16 Kathleen
So she's kind of, we've sort of shifted now at this point.
00:16:20 Bonnie
Sure, that makes sense. It can relate to that coming from small town area, we live in a metropolitan area now, but exclusively Kobe. So we don't do a Co-op. We'd find activities to do, but I know a lot of folks participate in co-ops. So I'm interested to hear how they make that work along with their hobbies. So. So. Yeah.
00:16:35 Bonnie
So so far in your years of home schooling, do you have any memorable experiences you want to share with us, either happy or cautionary or?
00:16:42 Bonnie
Some of each.
00:16:45 Kathleen
Sure. I think the greatest part of it, it wouldn't be 1 moment. I think it's more all-encompassing of just.
00:16:53 Kathleen
I love that we get to be so much a part of our education. We always know what's being taught and we can again jump in and have that conversation at dinner. Or we can choose to do a field trip to further support what she's learning with the Kolbe teachers.
00:17:11 Kathleen
So just really being that ingrained in what's going on at school.
00:17:15 Kathleen
UMI feel like when she was in a bricks and mortar school. You know you sit down to dinner like so how was school today and?
00:17:20 Kathleen
You get like 2.
00:17:21 Kathleen
Sentences with this format often I'm I'm hearing, you know, a bit here and there, which is great because then I know what questions to ask or be like. Hey, did you know that there's a documentary on this? Maybe we watch it.
00:17:21 Bonnie
Yep, if that.
00:17:34 Kathleen
Tonight, any way that we can kind of support and supplement?
00:17:39 Kathleen
To make it even more fun, is is what we're after, so I think that's kind of the happy memory across our entire experience at Kolbe is to just really have that grasp. And I love reading the same books that she's reading in literature to be part of the conversation and and fill in some gaps that I didn't get when I was going through school.
00:18:00 Kathleen
So yeah, I think that's the best part of it.
00:18:05 Steven
That just continues on too, which is is wonderful. I I mean I I think that I tend.
00:18:11 Steven
More towards.
00:18:14 Steven
Well, I really love when my children are getting older and discussing things in depth with me, you know? So I I love them when they're little. I love them when they're a little too, but I just like after dinner, there's just so many nights now where we're we're going to, we'll be discussing, you know, some of the materials they're reading and literature.
00:18:35 Steven
History or whatever, and getting into these big discussions. But I also just find that much more than.
00:18:42 Steven
Than even I was at a young age. They have this sort of emotional and social maturity that is always surprising to me. Right? And because it's it's. But I I think it's because they're they're interacting with people of all different ages. They've got younger siblings, they've got other local people that are young that plus they talk to us. They can talk to older people.
00:19:03 Steven
And it's just remarkable. It's like, wow, what great insight and maturity you have as a?
00:19:09 Steven
15 year old that's a 14 year old. That's it's really lovely and my experience it's been really lovely.
00:19:16 Kathleen
Yeah. Yeah. And I think kind of going back to one of your earlier questions. You know one of the other happy memories I guess is just with this format, she has such a love for reading and there's time for her to do it, you know, especially in elementary, when she had her afternoons open, she did not waste them.
00:19:33 Kathleen
UM, she's doing all sorts of different things, including reading, and so people would say to me her vocabulary is unbelievable. Like, well, she went through, you know, three books already this week. So. So that's such a cool thing about this format is that there's time, you know, for them to venture off and.
00:19:53 Kathleen
And go deeper on any subject that they're interested.
00:19:57 Bonnie
Have you found issues as she has started middle school? Like how do you all kind of approach your planning? Does she use a planner? How do you all? Is there a point at which you kind of sit down together and kind of map out? Here's what she needs to do when this week and how do how do you all kind of approach that?
00:20:14 Bonnie
Sort of time management piece.
00:20:16 Kathleen
Yeah, that's a great question because you know we're still in the first couple of weeks and I told her from the beginning, I said we're probably going to try more than one method and see what works for you.
00:20:25 Kathleen
So we started, we created our own. We get a glance blank template and she started by filling that in and I was overjoyed at how she took responsibility for that. I thought I would be stepping in more, didn't need to. It was just such an amazing realization of like.
00:20:28 Bonnie
Nice.
00:20:45 Kathleen
He's got this like, I'm the one that needs to back off and just let her go.
00:20:51 Bonnie
That's great.
00:20:51 Kathleen
And it was my fear of like, oh, you know what, if we missed something? And I just, I had to let it go and be like, no, she really she's got this. And then just this week we were looking at it cause the difference too with elementary is kind of everything is within the the calendar week. So Monday through Friday. But now in middle school.
00:21:10 Kathleen
It's more the weak cycle of the class, so it might be Tuesday to Tuesday or Thursday the Thursday. And so that's a little different. Umm, so we just this week tried a different template where we did all the subjects across the top.
00:21:26 Kathleen
And then we would copy paste the task, the tasks that each teacher had in the folder and just put it right in and then print it off. And so we're going to see if that is a little bit more linear and and helps. Although she was doing great with the other format, I just kind of said, well, maybe.
00:21:42 Kathleen
We.
00:21:42 Kathleen
Try this instead.
00:21:44 Bonnie
Yeah.
00:21:45 Kathleen
So we're still finding our way, but we'll.
00:21:46 Bonnie
Get there and then when you add in your home school, the courses you're doing home school does that kind of do you do?
00:21:52 Bonnie
That all at the same time.
00:21:54 Kathleen
That goes on to her. To her, we get a glance if you will as well, because we really want to make sure that we're.
00:22:01 Kathleen
Keeping pace, yeah.
00:22:04 Steven
I find that that both the kind of the online setting where you've got the like week to week, we've got anchor points when you're scheduling, but but just that method that's so different than a brick and mortar where every day you go in and they tell you here's what you're doing today, you have to do this before tomorrow when you get into the Kolbe, especially when you've got the online classes.
00:22:24 Steven
With those specific anchor point.
00:22:26 Steven
It's it's like this is a week away and I have to be here by then and I can't do it all the day before. So you, the students, learn to kind of, OK, I've got to paste this out. I've got to spread. It's just it's it's a remarkable life skill and you don't think I don't think about that. It's just like, well, you have to develop that at some point, right. But but the.
00:22:46 Steven
The method of homeschooling, and especially you're forced into it a little bit with online because of the those anchor points of classes again or deadlines. But even without that it really creates self motivated active.
00:23:03 Steven
People at a young age.
00:23:05 Kathleen
Yeah, and she figured that out. She had a personal narrative that was due, and there was some time there, but she automatically on her week at a glance, said I need to do half of it this day. I need to do the other half this day. And again, it was one of those moments of like, oh, OK, she's got it. I came back, you know, I can back away and let her go.
00:23:25 Steven
And we find with reading, too. It's it's lovely to have a little bit more self self movement too, because sometimes you don't want to like you don't want to break a chapter up in mid, you know mid chapter or whatever you want to have a a chunk that you can consume. So you don't have to read it all you know in one setting but but sometimes if you if you if you break things up too much.
00:23:47 Steven
It's like, well, I don't really remember what that first half of the chapter was that I was asked to read today, and now I'm reading the rest tomorrow. It's you don't have.
00:23:55 Steven
The.
00:23:56 Steven
You don't have the continuity, so it's it's kind of nice to.
00:23:58 Steven
Be able to clump where?
00:24:01 Steven
You need to and then stretch where you can so.
00:24:04 Kathleen
Yeah, she's figured out too. To sometimes you don't break things up like a Friday to a Monday because those two days in between you do you forget, you forget where you left off? Yeah.
00:24:16 Bonnie
Good deal.
00:24:18 Bonnie
When we were planning this episode, I asked if you had some things that you wanted to cover in our conversation and they they seem to kind of all group together into this sort of intersection of big picture and day-to-day. So I would love for you to talk a bit about this idea of keeping pace with your child's goals. Which do you have?
00:24:35 Bonnie
In mind.
00:24:35 Kathleen
There. Sure. I I know. I alluded to it.
00:24:38 Kathleen
Earlier in the podcast, but I should probably back up and sort of explain the rest of our path. So we sort of had this awakening. The first Awakening I think is when we decided to switch to Kolbe before we did that, we could see how much repetition was in the curriculum that she was.
00:24:56 Kathleen
UM in beforehand and and her reaction to that repetition.
00:25:02 Kathleen
Was very much I already know this. I don't want to do it again. I didn't think a lot of it at the time. I just sort of like, oh, yeah, I get it. I I really understand it a lot better now. Like her learning style is when I have checked that box. I do not want to go back. I am going to the next step and it's very demotivating.
00:25:22 Kathleen
If we don't find a way to to avoid that.
00:25:26 Kathleen
Which is not what we want to do. Her love of learning is is what we really need to just continue to feed because it's so natural to her.
00:25:34 Kathleen
UM, so that was sort of the first awakening. And and Kobe really solved a lot of that because it gave some flexibility. You know, if you need more practice, here it is. If you don't, that's OK. That was step one. Step 2 was, hey, when summer comes, I don't want to stop.
00:25:52 Kathleen
And I started putting that through my own filter of like I was. I was a good student, but I was one of these kids at the second that that final bell rang, I was gone and I did not want to, you know, I was happy to pick up my pencil again in August. But I, you know, so I had to kind of.
00:26:03 Bonnie
Yeah.
00:26:08 Kathleen
Like shift my mindset and then and look at her as her own person and say, OK, she's really serious about this and I need to find a way to satisfy this thirst for for more so.
00:26:23 Kathleen
Coming out of second grade, we did, as I mentioned, do 3rd grade math. We homeschooled it. She jumped into online 3rd grade in the fall with everything but math. So then we did 4th grade math through that academic year.
00:26:38 Kathleen
And then the next summer came and she said the same thing. And we also just found partly because of COVID. She was around adults a lot and she is an only child. So by nature, she's very mature. She's also a little bit old for her grade that she was in. And so she's mom, I want to do the rest of the 4th grade.
00:26:59 Kathleen
Curriculum this summer and I want to be in fifth grade in the fall and I think my eyes got huge. Went like what? What cause? I gotta come along on this ride with you. So my own, you know, heart was like, Oh my gosh. How do I do this? I'm not. I'm not an elementary school teacher. It's not my background.
00:27:17 Kathleen
But again, Kolbe was there and and Mrs. Buchanan, like, I took a breath and I said, what do we do? And we figured it out together, and we did. We finished fourth grade, the other half of it, basically that next summer. And she jumped into fifth grade. And I was white knuckling it, thinking ohh, I hope I didn't leave her any gaps in her knowledge. And I hope that she's ready.
00:27:40 Kathleen
And she soared to the point where by the 2nd semester.
00:27:47 Kathleen
Her peers voted her president, class president.
00:27:50 Bonnie
Oh cool.
00:27:51 Kathleen
Though not only did she flourish and she did amazing academically, but she was also being acknowledged as one of the leaders in the class by her peers, and I think I cried that day because it was just like.
00:28:05 Kathleen
OK, we did the right thing. You know, it was such a leap.
00:28:08 Kathleen
And.
00:28:10 Kathleen
And and it's worked out ever since. So Fast forward to this past May we had the same.
00:28:18 Kathleen
Thing.
00:28:19 Kathleen
Mom, I don't wanna stop. I wanna do math and science. And so again, I went to.
00:28:25 Kathleen
To Ryan and I said OK, now I really don't know what we do here. I don't want her accelerating too fast, but yet I now see that she's probably got some of those gift.
00:28:38 Kathleen
Qualities about her. I hate to put labels like that on, but I'm I'm starting to get it now. She can't have repetition. We looked at enrichment and really, she's no fool. She's like. No, I already did that. I and it doesn't count for anything, you know? Like she knew.
00:28:56 Kathleen
So we we had that conversation, I said, Ron, I cannot. I cannot just have her do enrichment.
00:29:02 Kathleen
She knows she wants credit, she wants to keep moving, she wants to keep checking those boxes. And as long as she's willing to do the work, I can't say no. And as long as we're not, you know, making a bad long term decision here. So we moved ahead. We knew that we had a couple outs if it wasn't going well, but this summer.
00:29:22 Kathleen
Great. So we are taking longer to do 6th grade math. We'll finish in December.
00:29:29 Kathleen
And then we will jump to asynchronous because now age wise we're running into a challenge because she's 10 and she's in 6th grade with some 7th grade. So that was really what she and I needed to work through in May to figure out what is the path forward and that force us to also look at high school. You know, how does this how does the domino effect?
00:29:50 Kathleen
Continue.
00:29:52 Kathleen
But we we did it and I think it's, you know so far it's working out great. It's giving her the satisfaction of what she needs and math and science seem to be her thing. So I said we cannot fast track everything anymore, but we will let you get ahead in in these areas that really, really interest you and we will use the summers as long as that's what you want to do.
00:30:14 Kathleen
We did take some criticism from friends and family.
00:30:18 Kathleen
Who you know are kind of that old school like you have to take a break at summer. You can't keep pushing.
00:30:23 Kathleen
Her.
00:30:23 Kathleen
And so I would I think a lot of Kolbe families realize this, but.
00:30:28 Kathleen
You.
00:30:28 Kathleen
Know gosh, when you're one-on-one, you can do a lot in 20 minutes or 30 minutes. I really didn't feel like it sacrificed her fun over the summer or her social opportunities.
00:30:39 Kathleen
And I did draw that line with her. I said I'm willing to go down this road with you, but we are not giving up social opportunities that will build your interpersonal skills.
00:30:48 Kathleen
We're going to drop the books if somebody invites you to go do something, and that's just the way it's going to be and she agree.
00:30:55 Kathleen
So, so now we're kind of, we're really leveraging that mixing and matching with Kolbe. So I would just encourage parents to to be open to it and learn more about it. If your child is asking for it because I know it's not what we grew up with. So there's that little bit of hesitation, but it's been amazing.
00:31:16 Steven
I love that. I love that. I mean you. You do your description of the wonder of your daughter and how that's a driving factor here. I mean, cause when people say, you know, don't don't push and don't, you shouldn't be forcing. Well, it's like we're life. We're supposed to be lifelong learners. So. So learning throughout the summer is a reasonable thing to do as long as you're not crushing the wonder of a child.
00:31:37 Steven
Like you're saying, so if you're like, no, I need.
00:31:40 Steven
I need three months to just run around and play. That's what I need before I can. Then great, you know, probably still read do some extra things to keep that engaged. But but yeah, if that it's the wonder part that as long as that's there then this yes encourage your children you know to like you said you have to you have to have the prudence of the parents.
00:32:01 Steven
You don't want to get but to end up in a situation where there's no options, right? You know because you've rushed through everything. So it seems like you've balanced all of that beautifully, but.
00:32:12 Kathleen
Yeah, definitely. And and I think I said this when we were sort of planning out this podcast too of just it it really.
00:32:19 Kathleen
Took some mindfulness on the part of my husband and I to just say she is her own person and and we can't put this through the filters of what we did or or what our experiences were or what our strengths and weaknesses were. We just need to look at her as her own person, follow her lead, but but also keep it in balance. It's not easy.
00:32:39 Kathleen
But but we're we're succeeding with the awesome support that we get from Kolbe.
00:32:46 Bonnie
Yeah, they're along with that. Like, not pushing too hard. There's also on the flip side, not holding back.
00:32:52 Kathleen
Yeah, definitely. And that was that was that epiphany of if we do hold her back, it's going to impact her love of learning, you know, in the wrong direction and so.
00:33:01 Kathleen
Yeah.
00:33:01 Bonnie
Yeah.
00:33:03 Bonnie
She sounds like the young lady and you've referred also to several times through our conversation already to how important exercise in sports are to your family, and you see them as not extracurricular but as part of the the whole picture there. Is there more you want to say about that?
00:33:20 Kathleen
Yeah. Just just to see the lessons that she's learned through sports, we definitely also she is an only child again. So it's it kind of amps it up that much that we have to really put time and effort into social opportunities for her with kids her own age and sports has been one of the greatest.
00:33:40 Kathleen
Obviously, through our church too.
00:33:43 Kathleen
We have opportunities. We have a Girls Club of homeschooled girls. Uh, that meets like twice a month as well. And so that's been that's been amazing. So equally as important as the exercise aspect is is getting those opportunities where she can do group projects and you know just be around.
00:34:03 Kathleen
Girls her own age and share experiences, and that's work. I think my husband always gives me credit because he's like, wow, you've really.
00:34:11 Kathleen
Track down these opportunities and and make sure she gets there and does them and and yeah. So it's again, I won't sugarcoat it. It's it is a lot of research and work to get all these things lined up but so worth it when you see them just take off and become their own person.
00:34:28 Bonnie
It sounds like you guys are integrated in uh community activities and parish activities and home school communities, which I think is all great. How have you kind of sought out the opportunities you've been able to find? And do you have sort of a strategy there to kind of track down what you've been able to find?
00:34:46 Kathleen
Yeah, actually I think I can answer that both in terms of of building connections with other families and also resources. So first families, I think obviously it came first through our church. We're in a small area, but we also do not have a a Catholic school that is close either. So a lot of families.
00:35:06 Kathleen
That our church have chosen to homeschool because there isn't something close by, so it made it a little bit easier.
00:35:14 Kathleen
To find a group that we really all connected with on many levels. Also just friends through our sports and finding other opportunities. That way, whether they're children or homeschooled or not, to see if if we can build, you know, social opportunities or whatnot and then social media is a great connector. I know there's pluses and minuses.
00:35:34 Kathleen
Social media, but used in the right way. It's been a great way to connect with other co-ops or families to plan field trips that will supplement, so I use it that way.
00:35:46 Kathleen
To find those opportunities, Taylor is such an avid reader that I have a hard time keeping up with books that I feel are appropriate for our household. So Facebook especially has a lot of really good groups that will review books for you, make sure that they hold a Christian.
00:36:06 Kathleen
Values that that we want to uphold in our House, so I use that a lot to try to keep up with her reading. In fact, she just said to me the other day.
00:36:16 Kathleen
I only have two books left that I haven't read. What else? What other series can I get into? And I said, well, we we're not just going to walk into the bookstore, I need to, you know, I need to do some more research. So I've found social media to be really helpful to connect with people that have already read the books and say, yes, this is great or no, I'd caution.
00:36:35 Kathleen
You on this.
00:36:37 Kathleen
To keep up, so having that resource is is really important to.
00:36:43 Bonnie
I like to collect booklets myself, and that's the nice thing about the Kobe literature thinking like so all of mine are high school or graduated at this point and they do more online now than they did before. But when they were elementary middle school, we did more traditional home school that included the literature courses. And so for the official like school.
00:37:02 Bonnie
Curbs, as we would read, you know, a handful or less of the books for school, right? But there had that whole list of books that, OK, this is all great, that literature, all great reading.
00:37:15 Bonnie
It doesn't count for school, but that's alright. It doesn't. And that kind of speaks to that love of learning the wonder like these are just great books to read it. They're on this list for that reason. So you don't have to do them just for school. You can read them outside of that. Yeah. It's a good starting point. Yeah.
00:37:28 Kathleen
Yeah, it's a trick too, because she gives me pushback on old books as she says, or classics. She wants more current, which is that gets harder. That gets challenging.
00:37:37 Bonnie
That's so tricky. Ohh yeah.
00:37:43 Bonnie
So you mentioned you guys work side by side or you know in the same room, it sounds like kind of what if what does her sort of setup look like?
00:37:53 Kathleen
Yeah. So that's a great question, because I've had my own challenges health wise with working as much as I chose to. I I take full responsibility for that. So I was adamant that we have stand up adjustable height desks so that she's mixing it up. She's standing, she's sitting, which this year has become more important because she is online.
00:38:12 Kathleen
More and at her desk, more than she was in elementary. I'm I'm an architect also. So I have access to some of this information. So we have really unique chairs that allow for movement, micro movements and things like that.
00:38:29 Kathleen
So I have spent additional money to make sure that our furniture is healthy for us as well. So we each have the same setup. I just got our dual monitors too, so that I really push using digital and less hard copy.
00:38:46 Kathleen
Copper. So she's I'm starting to supplement a bit and teach her programs like in design and bluebeam and things that I use for work because it's it's just neat. Not that she can't do things sort of the traditional way, but I like her.
00:39:02 Kathleen
To learn both.
00:39:05 Kathleen
And so our our office setup you know is is basically like that full bookshelf. So she can quickly grab her materials behind and and then just yeah, kind of bleeding over into teaching her some of the technology that I.
00:39:22 Kathleen
Use for work.
00:39:24 Steven
Useful I mean something like Indesign.
00:39:28 Steven
The ability to just.
00:39:30 Steven
Know that with that you know is is, is that's a. That's a real asset for for somebody.
00:39:37 Kathleen
Yeah, and sometimes she enjoys it. And then other times she wants to go back to, like, a more traditional like, we were laying out a poster for a class last year. And and she did one digitally, and she liked it. But then I said, well, the next one, why don't you do it more traditionally so that.
00:39:50 Kathleen
You're you're getting both.
00:39:53 Bonnie
You were mentioning that this morning you, you and she were out for a walk and kind of talking about how this recording was coming up today and she had some thoughts about that. Are there any that you?
00:40:00 Bonnie
Want to relate to what what she would want to say?
00:40:04 Kathleen
Yeah, she just her memory of our path is so clear. Which is great because I was starting to be like, no.
00:40:09 Kathleen
Wait a minute. What?
00:40:11 Kathleen
Cause we've we've accomplished a lot.
00:40:13 Kathleen
And and again, couldn't have done it without the help of the Kolbe team. I think she was just so amazed that.
00:40:24 Kathleen
We were finding ways to make it happen because she was also in the conversations, in full transparency each year we would take her on a school tour. Just make sure that she wanted to continue with this format.
00:40:35 Kathleen
And she was part of those conversations where, you know, we walked into one before she finished third and 4th grade in one calendar year at our academic year and then was going to go into 5th. And they said we.
00:40:48 Kathleen
Won't let her into 5th.
00:40:50 Kathleen
And she's like, well, I heard. Did the OR did the work, you know? Are they kidding? So she she heard the nose along the way as as we were hearing them too. So I think she's just.
00:41:03 Kathleen
She's so overjoyed that the adults in her life found a way to make it happen and to meet her goals and her enthusiasm. So I think she really realizes what she would tell you is that she realizes what a gift this has been to be able to blaze her own trail and have adult support along the way.
00:41:23 Kathleen
That we clearly were not going to get on a traditional path.
00:41:27 Bonnie
It it models so much for her, it speaks to her, you know, supports her where she is right now. And I think it's kind of filing away for her. I can do this and I can make this happen. This was done for me. I can do this for in the future, for myself and for those of my care. I think that's.
00:41:42 Bonnie
A wonderful example to set for her.
00:41:44 Kathleen
Yeah. And she would also tell you that we're done. We don't need to.
00:41:49 Kathleen
Like each year, we would give her the option of continuing or going to a traditional path and and I think she would also tell you I don't need to even look.
00:41:56 Kathleen
At that anymore, OK.
00:42:00 Kathleen
Which is fine by us. We just wanted to be open parents that you know, she, you know, she felt like she had options so.
00:42:00 Bonnie
That.
00:42:00 Bonnie
Settled in her mind, OK.
00:42:08 Kathleen
Yeah. So I think this school tours are done.
00:42:12 Bonnie
Well, now you know, right. So we can't know. We don't know now you know.
00:42:16 Bonnie
As you've been talking, there have been some Kobe cast episodes that relate to some of the things you brought up today that I want to throw out. I will include links to these in our show notes you mentioned Mrs. Durier. She was on episode 82 along with Sarah Lee, so we'll include that link along with a link to an episode called Middle Ground that's pretty vintage at this point in the Kolbe cast history. But we'll go back.
00:42:37 Bonnie
For that one is great conversation about middle school.
00:42:40 Bonnie
And then speaking to the aspect of giftedness, we episode 99. It covers that subject with a couple of Kobe parents. It's been interesting hearing about how you came to Kolbe. I'm sure they are not alone in in how the circumstances that led to you arriving and and sticking around. So we over the years when we've been talking about Kolbe cast planning like.
00:43:00 Bonnie
We'd like to hear from folks who came thinking we'll just do this this year and they're still here, and I'm glad that they are so glad that that has come up. And are there any final thoughts or takeaways or words of wisdom you want to leave with?
00:43:11 Bonnie
Us at this point.
00:43:14 Kathleen
I think we've covered it, but you know, again just to.
00:43:18 Kathleen
Keep an open mind and and just know that the Kolbe team is there. I I feel like I'm like really advertising for you guys, but I really mean it. It's so true that, you know, if you need to go down a a less conventional.
00:43:34 Kathleen
If you know you're going to get full support and they will find a way.
00:43:39 Bonnie
Well, sure. Sounds like you're in good communication. Pretty frequent communication with your advisor, which is fantastic. That's something that comes up when they come to talk to us, and in some of our other conversations, like call your advisor. That's why they're there. They can help you. You know, you're very proactive. It sounds like in, in working with Ryland began in your advisor on how.
00:43:58 Bonnie
How to do this? Well? How to make this work for you and your family and your daughter? And so that's there's another. And of course we've got episodes referring to that. So we'll have a lengthy list in our show notes. I'll leave it at that. But yeah, the the collaboration you have with your advisor, I'm would encourage that.
00:44:15 Kathleen
Yes, I I kept Mrs. Buchanan very busy in May of this year, and she was so patient.
00:44:20 Bonnie
So I see this there.
00:44:21 Kathleen
Yep, exactly. Very patient and very willing to educate me on on how we can do this.
00:44:28 Bonnie
Good deal.
00:44:30 Bonnie
Kathleen, it's been a real joy meeting you today and visiting with you and hearing about your your beautiful family and and all the great stuff you all have it going on and I'm really glad it has worked out as well as it has and hope that that only continues on an upward trend. Really appreciate you coming today and wish you all the best. Thanks again.
00:44:46 Kathleen
All right. Thanks.
00:44:47 Kathleen
So much it was nice to meet you both.
00:44:51 Steven
Subscribe to the Kolbe cast on your favorite podcast app so that you don't miss an.
00:44:54 Steven
Episode.
00:44:56 Steven
And let us know how we're doing by leaving a rating or review. And as always, feel free to e-mail us at podcast at Kolbe.org.
00:45:04 Bonnie
Mary, our mother, pray for us, St. Maximilian Kolbe, St. Ignatius of Loyola, Holy Saints and Angels pray for.
00:45:11 Bonnie
Us.
00:45:12 Bonnie
And Maiorem dei gloriam.
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