#88 - The Transformative Power of Homeschooling

Join Monica and Jesús as they discuss the transformative nature of homeschooling because it provides a chance to teach children in a way that goes beyond preparing them to be employees, focusing instead on raising leaders, smart risk-takers, and individuals who can think outside the box.

The goal is not perfection but growth and trust in God’s guidance. Plus, learn three key transformations that can occur within your homeschool. 

#HomeschoolUnlocked #HomeschoolHarmony #FaithAndFamily #TransformativeEducation #ParentingWithPurpose 

https://1lnk.page/MonicaAviles

Transcript

Welcome to the Homeschool Unlocked podcast, the show that helps parents see homeschooling as a unique opportunity. So forget fear. You can inspire.

You can guide your child. Homeschool Unlocked. It's not school, it's life.

Ring, ring. Ring. Ring, ring like sortija? Ring or ring, ring like a phone? What's a sortija? Sortija's a anillo, a ring.

Oh. Yeah, what do you call it in Spanish? Anillo. Anillo? No, we call it una sortija.

I mean, we could maybe call it that. I just know, you know how it is. We could call it the correct thing.

I understand, I understand. You never heard of the word sortija? I don't think I, I don't think so. Yeah, let's look it up.

Maybe I'm wrong. Well, no, remember you're from Puerto Rico and I'm from El Salvador. So each country has its own way of saying things.

Yep, yep. Some are correct, some are incorrect, gotcha. I didn't want to say it like that.

No, no, no, no, no, no. Listen, my beautiful wife, her name is Monica Aviles. She's been homeschooling for 20 years and I've been just a wonderful recipient of her love and her care for all this time.

It is definitely mutual. That's my husband, Jesus. He is a licensed school psychologist and we have the joy.

We've been able to homeschool six children. We're still homeschooling our youngest eight-year-old, although we have graduated too and we actually have two in high school. We have a senior and an 11th grader.

And we got one in the middle. We got a middle school, we got a seventh grader. I know, lots of fun, pretty crazy.

That's right. So welcome to Homeschool Unlocked. If you're just joining us for the first time, we are here to help you consider homeschooling and see the beauty of this beautiful experience.

That's correct, that's correct. And so, you know, homeschooling, whether you may realize it or not, actually brings massive peace, joy, balance into your life, right? With some guidance, right? With some care. And so, you know, if you kind of just join us or begin to join us, yeah.

And maybe balance isn't the right word. Maybe harmony is better. Harmony.

Just like an orchestra where you have different moments where like the trumpets might be taking precedent, might be more prominent in one part of the song, but then the violins. It's

not about everything being like status quo and level all the time, but it's just about there's a harmony there. There's a rhythm that works.

The rhythm is gonna get you. That's, yes. Okay, so the reason I started off with a ring ring is because I have a little trivia question for you.

All right, let's go. Okay, which machine was created first? Which invention came first? The fax machine or the telephone? The fax machine. Why? Why do you say that? I'm actually surprised you would say the fax machine.

Only because the phone is super complicated. Like words, like instantaneous. It just seems easier that I'm able to like put words and then words pop out on the other side.

Like, I mean, it won't be instantaneous, but I could imagine early fax days. It's like you put words in something and then it spits it out. I don't know, maybe a week later.

I'd have no idea. But the phone thing, you know, where I call and I spin the thing, and then some person picks up and then connects me to the right. It just seems a lot less complicated.

You're actually right. Yes. I thought it was trivial, so I went with the other way, but that was my reasoning.

Yep. The fax machine was created by a Scottish inventor on October 2nd, 1843, while the phone was, I think, 1876. Wow, okay.

So, well, the first practical phone. First practical phone. Yep, a little bit of trivia there.

Yeah. But one of my favorite books is The Count of Monte Cristo. Yes, that is true.

Right, so one of the things that the count did was he intercepted a telegram. Maybe that was like the first text. Maybe that's the first fax, I guess.

But it was just like click, click, click, click, click, click and all those clicks meant something to somebody that was just listening. And I just thought transferring data that way was much faster. Yep, I mean, it basically was an invention that allowed them to scan and transmit images through the telegraph lines.

Really? Oh, that seems more complicated than what I thought. Yeah, but still, you had it right. Yep.

I had a 50-50 shot. Thank you, babe, you're giving me these questions where I got 50% from the beginning, so I appreciate it. We're gonna take time today to remind you that when you're homeschooling, you're giving your children the opportunity to do something that you didn't have a chance to do, which is to learn for the purpose of something greater than just being an employee.

Most of us, most homeschooling parents were not homeschooled. And one thing that I realized with our oldest two is that even though we did many things right, one thing that I really wanted us to shift with these next four younger ones is the thinking of, hey, beyond

helping them be good leaders, beyond helping them know how to learn, helping them be smart risk-takers. So this is a big shift for us.

Yes, it is. And it's important to take a little bit of time to remember that you are doing something beyond just helping them grow and be good and responsible. When you're homeschooling, the things that God puts on your heart, you have the opportunity to learn and grow, but really think outside the box, right? You have the opportunity when you're homeschooling to teach your children a new way to learn, right? They're not in the conventional school system that has a bunch of subjects that are not connected, but you have the opportunity to say, I'm not exactly sure, but I know you are fearfully and wonderfully made, and I know God has good things for you to do, and I'm learning with you, but we're gonna learn a different way to learn because our focus is beyond just getting you ready for college or a good job.

And in the past couple of weeks, we've been talking about putting your cares on him because he cares for you. We talked a little bit about how to pray, and we want you to be sensitive that even though you have your curriculum laid out, maybe you have your homeschool group, and you have all these things happening, and you have a good rhythm, be sensitive to the things that you can continue to ask God for on this homeschool journey. So in these next couple of minutes, I'd love to hear from you, honey, and tell us what that looks like for us in our homeschooling and what that can look like for our families that are listening.

Yeah, so I mean, just thinking through opportunity, right, just some very concrete opportunities to kind of witness some things that maybe normally most parents don't witness, like the first time the child actually reads fluently, the first time your child officially colors a picture and remains completely in the lines, that's one. You know, you got a long division task that they complete successfully. Those are just very concrete examples of opportunities that you have.

Maybe some opportunities that you see the fruit of much, much later, right? So the first time, you know, your kid is faced with a difficult challenge, like how do they process a problem? How do they think through it? Oh man, I remember teaching them that. I remember them thinking through that. I remember, you know, saying, you know, the word is sufficient, right? The word tells us what's right and what's wrong and it actually gives us the power to help us discern what's gray, right? And so all of a sudden, you know, the opportunity found in homeschool is both concrete and a little abstract, right? There might be some things, just like when you plant a plant, you know, you're dropping seeds, you're not gonna see the fruit until much, much later.

But what's super interesting is the opportunity helps transform, not only the kid, not only you, but the entire family unit. So my love, let me ask you with the concept of transformation, what are some of the transformations you would say, you know, if someone's gonna be considering homeschooling for the first time, right? Let's just put it in a situation where, you know, you got a mom with a school-aged kid, right? She's probably working in some sort of capacity. You know, that capacity is probably generating stress and drama as they try to just figure everything out, right? Get the kid here, cook there, prep this.

Think through that scenario situation. What would a transformation look like? Someone coming in. Yeah, three things that come to mind.

I'm gonna say unity, I'm going to say personal growth, and I'm gonna say, you know what? I'm not sure about number three. Let me just start talking, and then I think that everyone will just crystallize. But unity in terms of in your home, there is this opportunity to grow together.

And that means that they're gonna see the best and the worst, which they would see anyways. I mean, homeschool mom, mom who you have a baby, maybe you're at home and you're thinking, I would never homeschool. They're gonna see you at your best and at your worst, but there is unification that happens when you're growing with them because they're able to see you at your best and at your worst, but in real time, as you are uncomfortable learning and stretching yourself, they're getting to see that.

They're going to also, and another thing is patience. They're gonna see you being impatient and really relying on God and also what it means to really be humble because you're going to tell them the right thing. And then you as a parent are gonna do the complete opposite, right? You're going to tell them, hey, it's good to be patient.

And then you're gonna blow up sometimes. You're spitting out facts, my love. These are facts.

And so they get this opportunity to see you, mom, humble yourself and say, okay, God, I need you. And I know I just blew it. And this just proves that I need God and that I'm here also learning with you and the same mercy that I want you to ask God for and God to show you, I need to ask God for and I rely on God showing me.

So unity, patience, and I'm gonna say freedom is number three and I know you've brought that up a lot, but the freedom, which can trip us up so much because I mean, imagine we as homeschool parents, most of us have been in a conventional school setting. So we don't understand this whole idea of freedom that we have and so we continue to kind of stumble because we continue trying to do the same thing the way we learned and this idea of being able to be free, to tweak things, to learn, to ask our kids, what do you care about? What interests you? Tell me, let's take extra time and let's cook together instead of writing a paper. Let's write a keyword outline instead of writing 10 pages or whatever it is.

But that idea of freedom in so many ways, those are three key things. Those are three key things you find in the homeschool setting, not that you can't find them anywhere else because if I look at your calendar and I look at your checkbook, I can find out where you've attempted to find freedom, where you've attempted to experience patience and joy with your kid, right? We can dive into that and we can find it. Again, homeschool, it's not school, it's life and this is what we try to talk about on the podcast, right? And in time, we're hoping to maybe come alongside specific parents or groups of parents or even one-on-ones so we can just help people in this process.

Monica had mentioned it before. We had two kids that have graduated and we have four kids right now being homeschooled, right? A senior, a junior, a seventh grader and a third

grader. And man, you would think this is our, for our third grader, this is technically our sixth kid in third grade.

You would think we'd have third grade down pack by now but the reality is this is our first sixth kid sitting in third grade. So the other six didn't have to deal with four in front of them in seniors or juniors, right? So it's a unique opportunity, you know? Absolutely and you know, we still have to remind ourselves and as we wrap up, I mean, I'll tell you, we had this conversation just the other day and Jesus was like, why isn't Geronimo working on X, Y, Z? And I'm telling him, well, because we don't really start that until the fourth grade and we haven't ever done that and he was a little surprised. We have to still remind ourselves, no, it's okay that we let him have lots of playtime at this age because we know that it all works out and yet, if we're not careful, we still forget and we think, oh no, we're behind or you know, we're off task and nope, we're doing great.

At Avila's house, I'm gonna venture to say we got two major components that are kind of like the framework for everything we do. First and foremost, we emphasize skill above content and number two, we really, really emphasize relationships. So in times where content seems to get in the way of whatever we think is really happening, we remind ourselves of the skills that are being taught and number two, on the days that maybe not much work is getting done, man, relationships, both horizontal and vertical are constantly being worked on and I'm telling you, we have two kids out in the workforce that are enjoying themselves, that are doing their jobs well that are respectful, that are able to learn anything placed in front of them and at the end of the day, we want our kids to be able to stand on their own two feet.

We want our kids to just love the Lord and do what they do well and put that on paper and maybe give that structure to other homeschool parents for those that have decided to contact us and to speak to us about homeschooling. Maybe we can get some of them here, kind of do some testimonials in the future. That's probably what's gonna be a goal.

That'd be wonderful. Until then, we love you and continue to put your cares on him because he cares for you. Peace, love you guys.

Thank you for spending time with us today. Check out our link below and subscribe to our podcast. We hope that we helped you by unlocking a new way of seeing homeschooling.

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