This Golden Hour

61. Cori Dean and The Learning House

• Timothy Eaton

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In this episode, we get to spend time with Cori Dean from Bradford, Ontario. Cori is a veteran homeschool mother, author, speaker, and owner of Learning House and Maple Tree Publications. She loves books, dark chocolate, and tea! Cori shares about her extensive experience in homeschooling her four children and the role of faith in education. In our conversation, we explore the value of community support, the significance of parent-led education, and practical tips for new homeschooling families. Cori's journey from skepticism to embracing homeschooling, and the growth she has undergone in business, give us a view of the possibilities and challenges of homeschooling families.

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Cori Dean:

And it is about leading your child's education. And I know that there's so many different ways and nuances and shades of grey to that. And that's what makes homeschooling beautiful.

Timmy Eaton:

Hi, I'm Timmy Eaton, homeschool father of six and doctor of education. We've been homeschooling for more than 15 years and have watched our children go from birth to university successfully and completely without the school system. Homeschooling has grown tremendously in recent years and tons of parents are becoming interested in trying it out. But people have questions and concerns and misconceptions and lack the confidence to get started. New and seasoned homeschoolers are looking for more knowledge and peace and assurance to continue homeschooling. The guests and discussions on this podcast will empower anyone thinking of homeschooling to bring their kids home and start homeschooling. And homeschoolers at all stages of the journey will get what they need and want from these conversations. Thank you for joining us today and enjoy this episode of this Golden Hour Podcast as you exercise, drive, clean, or just chill. You're listening to this golden hour podcast and today's episode. We get to spend time with Corey Dean from Bradford, Ontario. Corey is a veteran homeschool mother, author, speaker, and owner of learning house and maple tree publications. She loves books, dark chocolate and tea. Corey shares about her extensive experience in homeschooling her four children and the role of faith in education. In our conversation, we explore the value of community support, the significance of parent led education, and practical tips for new homeschooling families. Corey's journey from skepticism to embracing homeschooling, and the growth she has undergone in business, give us a view of the possibilities and challenges of homeschooling families. Welcome back to this golden hour podcast. Today we have with us Cori Dean from Ontario. Thanks for being with us, Cori.

Cori Dean:

Thanks for having me.

Timmy Eaton:

Indeed. So I just want to do, I just want to do a little brief intro and then let you do a bio and then we'll get started. So Cori is a homeschool mother of four, an author, a speaker and owner of a learning house and maple tree publications. She loves books, dark chocolate and tea. Is that correct?

Cori Dean:

Amen.

Timmy Eaton:

And then I think I also read about you liking bicycling, camping and boating. And I liked the idea of boating in particular to just, if the whole family's there, they can't really escape. And so you got them on the boat. So that's awesome.

Cori Dean:

We like being outside in the summer. And once we're outside, it's hard to pull everybody in. And my husband loves any sort of sport that has a motor involved and he's very mechanically inclined. So our boats usually are something that he has pulled out of the back 40 and Next up And we get to enjoy them as family. Excellent.

Timmy Eaton:

So that was a bit of an intro, but why don't you tell us a little bit more, anything that you want to about your yourself and then we'll talk some homeschool talk.

Cori Dean:

Oh, dear. You got the all the mountaintops. I'm a, I've been the homeschooling mom for 20 plus years and our homeschooling journey just started out of curiosity on what everybody else was doing and it's been. It's been such a key thing for developing relationships and a different style of being for us that we really enjoyed over these years. Besides homeschooling we've been running this business for a few years and that's been really great. Very much taking up my time and energy in the last three, four years, especially. But we've also been in full time ministry as well with Youth for Christ. So my husband is a full time missionary with Youth for Christ and has been there for more than 20 years and we've also been settled in this One little place in Bradford, so that's us. You got it all.

Timmy Eaton:

Yeah. And it sounds full, like a full life. And I like what you said. I, like you said, it's I think the way you said it was, it's like a way of being. like that you said that because it is homeschooling is that is a lifestyle choice and it is a way of being. It's not merely education, although it includes that, but it's fairly all encompassing, isn't it?

Cori Dean:

Very much I've always been the kind of girl that has schedules for the kids and routines that we try and follow. We're very much about teaching life skills and getting everybody to help around the house with chores and stuff like that. And if anybody ever asks me about our homeschool days, I usually start it from when we wake up. And then it carries on until, and then everybody goes to sleep. Very much so our lifestyle. We started to homeschool response to seeing other friends starting to homeschool, and I was a young mom seeing these friends getting together, and so I just tagged along. But we were also foster parents at the time, and felt in a lot of ways, our days and our nights were mixed up, that where other families would families with Christian values that would send their kids off to school, and then in the evening, you might hear all the, schoolyard antics, and what everybody else's families were going through in the swear words that they were learning, and so on. We got that in the evening when our foster kids were home, and often learning some tough stuff about what families were going through. And we found it to be just our peaceful time. And it really did become very much a lifestyle. We started off with the intention to do this for now. Because it was what worked for our family and what gave peace for our little people when we had some, a lot of chaos going on in the house with teenagers that didn't have disability. And and then one thing led to another and here we are.

Timmy Eaton:

Here you are still doing it. Yeah. And that was that all in Ontario?

Cori Dean:

Yeah, I'm a small town girl. We haven't been far from Ontario. I lived in Alberta for a short time, but other than that, I've always been in Alberta. Okay.

Timmy Eaton:

So what was your first exposure? Like, how did you even know about the option? You said that there was people doing it, but like, how did you know about it?

Cori Dean:

My very first exposure to homeschoolers was like a couple of kids in high school that I met that I thought were a little backwards behind academically, and I thought I'm not going to do that. So it wasn't an option. And honestly, like looking back, I think that was just a the way that maybe some people would. Evaluate my family at a distance, right? They weren't. They weren't terrible people, they were just families that had done things differently than our family had. And so I thought that's weird, I'm not going to do that. But then this group of moms that I spent time with started homeschooling, and I started considering the idea. And and two things made a big difference. One was that my sister in law started homeschooling, and I saw a difference in her kids. So I stopped. That they were astute, that they were inquisitive, that they had a light in their eyes, that they were experiencing life together, and that there was a different set of academia that was important to them as a family than I thought that my kids would experience in a traditional public school. And and then, with this group of friends that was homeschooling I I'm an academic mom, so I had this idea that maybe it might work to homeschool, and my husband thought, nope, we're not going to do that. And he worked with at risk youth, which means that every kid that comes in the door has got a story and many of them are very difficult stories, and even some of those were homeschooled kids. We knew from before we homeschooled that homeschooling wasn't a silver bullet. It wasn't a magic pill that we could take that would make everything go right. So with with that experience, I embarked on this research project where we invited teachers and friends and homeschoolers and students and so many people that had made different academic choices into our lives, and we invited them over mostly for dinner and just interviewed these people. And one night we were having dinner with a family and I, and my husband said the ultimate question about socialization is that what about socialization? And this dad said, and it was, this was the real lightbulb moment for us. And that was, he said the sending your kids to school makes them socially well adjusted. And this was more than 20 years ago, in the cultural shadow of Columbine. Columbine High School being the first time that there was a really widely publicized mass shooting in the U S in a school. And that's become very normal now. But at the time it rocked our world and to imagine, and it should always rock our world. And it just rocked us to think that. That was a part of what we were considering normal. And and not the everyday normal, but that it could be. And knowing that kids who go to school don't necessarily have everything figured out. It was okay for us to start homeschooling without having it all figured out and without necessarily knowing that we could conquer everything.

Timmy Eaton:

And at that point, did you only have foster children, or did you have your own children as well, or?

Cori Dean:

No, we had our own children. At various points in time, we have had the opportunity to foster, or to homeschool foster children. Those were brief experiences and out of the ordinary, but when we started to foster, our oldest was a toddler. And so our fostering days always included teenagers, mostly teenage girls, and and always our own babies around the house. So we had foster kids for about 10 years from the time we just had a toddler until we were in those preteen years with still little babies around the house.

Timmy Eaton:

Oh, okay. And they all experienced homeschooling too when you guys had them?

Cori Dean:

The foster kids were mostly going to school.

Timmy Eaton:

Okay.

Cori Dean:

Because they because they were teenagers and came to a from a very disruptive life we didn't want to disrupt what was their normal, which was school if they could do that. And there was a couple of opportunities where we did homeschool and those were For various reasons, but it wasn't it wasn't the norm. Usually we had teenage girls who were glad to be away from us for a day.

Timmy Eaton:

Yeah. I can understand. So the like when somebody is just Talking to you about finds out that you you homeschool your kids. And what if they were to ask you, like, how do you define it? What is homeschooling? How would you describe that? Cause that's, I find that's actually not that easy for everybody, but what would you say if somebody said what is homeschooling?

Cori Dean:

I feel like it should be doing school at home, but that's not at all our experience.

Timmy Eaton:

I hope not.

Cori Dean:

Our experience really is. And really it's not just. Not, like this is built my, out of my experience also just working with the Learning House and doing consultations with people all across the country. Homeschooling really is about parent led education, because parents can lead an education and definitely be out of the house. And can Lend that out and oversee that with other educators being involved. And it is about leading your child's education. And I know that there's so many different ways and nuances and shades of grey to that. And that's what makes homeschooling beautiful. I think it's something that we can create for our family, to best meet. The needs of our family and our children.

Timmy Eaton:

I really like that term parent led education. I think that's a great way. I've heard somebody refer to the idea of shepherding and, but I like the parent led because it doesn't necessarily imply that the parent is facilitating every subject and all that. There's a lot of outsourcing and mentorship that we seek out as homeschool parents, but the idea of being parent led and then, And incrementally and slowly introducing more self reliance into our kids education, especially when they get to the secondary years where they're, in my research, it was at grade eight, grade nine 95 percent of the homeschooling or the learning was self initiated by homeschooling students. And I know that's not universal, but it is. That's a pretty, that's a pretty large statistic. So how did you like when you were, Oh, go ahead. You had a comment.

Cori Dean:

I think I'd also say too, that while as a Christian homeschooling parent, a huge part of that is character building and shepherding and spiritual development and spiritual formation, helping our kids to have the basis. That's not the case for everybody. And not everybody gets into homeschooling because of a spiritual element. And And it really is as much as I wouldn't compartmentalize that in, in my life, many people are saying, this is about the education part, and I can differentiate that from my child's character. And I guess the converse to that is, homeschooling is not a magic pill that makes everybody behave well, or get along well, or have, or be socially well adjusted, because that's not a goal that that every family has, they aren't they aren't necessarily concerned with more than just the academia. I Like, many parents come to homeschooling because they want to control the academia and Emotion, spiritual development isn't as forefront

Timmy Eaton:

In the early eighties, they were talking about homeschoolers were coming typically from a place of ideology or pedagogy. And so the idea there was like. Am I doing this, like what you were saying based on character development, those things, or was it more academic? So if somebody were to ask you right now, if they said, Hey, so what is like the outcome you're hoping to achieve by choosing this way of educating and living? What are the ultimate results you're hoping to see by the time they leave the nest?

Cori Dean:

I, that's really interesting. I wouldn't have Formulated, that's part of the way that you said, but in the early 80s, I think that was very much more ideologically driven and very much homeschooling was. ideologically driven by a conservative Christian crowd.

Timmy Eaton:

Yes.

Cori Dean:

Whereas I've seen a big shift in the last five to ten years, where it is much more pedagogically delivered and driven by a more religiously diverse crowd, for sure.

Timmy Eaton:

Well said. And the research backs that observation up, for sure.

Cori Dean:

Yes, and I think that it's just a phenomenal opportunity for us where we are at in our business and life and family. We have the opportunity to intersect with people on their journey and we serve thousands of families all across Canada. I get to talk one on one with dozens of people every week about their homeschooling journey and and we do all have different plans and outcomes. And what our family's outcomes, what we have looked for, and what we've striven towards, and what we've been able to just have the delight in seeing come to fruition as our kids have graduated and and most of them have graduated now It is a different set of goals, but not ones that everybody has. On the other hand, when they do see our outcome, it's been a real treat to be able to speak to families who didn't come from a faith based background. Background and came into our schooling and said, I just need something different because the school is not working for my kids or this is something that we need to do differently. And then they come back and they say, and I think you have something more. It's not just the academia that we want. And that's just a wonderful opportunity as in our family is when we have the heart of my husband and I have the heart of an evangelist, it's good. It is exciting to be able to share that. To share in people's journey as they journey along spiritually as well. So what's my goal? Our goal has always been to walk our children into God's plan for their life and to know that they've been invited into something greater than themselves so that their, that they know that their purpose is this is this coming together of. Their experiences, what God's called them to do, what the world can use, how they can contribute vocationally, the things that they love, the the things that make a difference, and that they're skilled at, and to help them to find that spot of purpose that the Lord is walking them to. And in adult life. It's really, it's a really exciting thing to walk through these teen and young adult years and to see our kids start to to see and develop and to pursue and to struggle with that sense of purpose and adult direction.

Timmy Eaton:

Yeah. And identity. Yeah. I appreciate that. And I liked that you said that the mix of homeschool families now is so eclectic that you can't compartmentalize into even two camps of ideology and pedagogy because, I think of people that are just doing it literally as a lifestyle choice, like it's not even necessarily focused on, it incorporates all those things, academics and. And different, ideas about the world but that they're just, it's just convenient and it's flexible and it's it's more focused on freedom for a lot of people. So I appreciate that. And the other thing I love about what you just said is that you have this clear idea of what you hope for your kids. And it's not necessarily again, it incorporates or it encompasses academics, but the focus for you is on. The character development and discipleship and that kind of thing. And what's cool about that is you can work your way backwards when they're 10, 11 years old and going into high school and whenever, and then that informs what you're going to do then. if your main purpose is not necessarily that they all become excellent at physics, then you might, that might inform what you're going to do in earlier years. And so I did the principle there is work backwards and let your clear Purposes and goals that can shift and evolve over time. Let that inform what you're doing at present so that you're pursuing things. And that's the beauty of home education is that you can customize the learning to, to fit your family's values and priorities. And so I love what you're saying. So what would you say? I

Cori Dean:

think something to be recognized though, is that one of the key parts of a conversation that I have over and over again with parents is they're working with their teens or pre teens and trying to decide what does this high school pathway look like for them? What does post secondary pathways What do post secondary pathways look like for this child? So often they're saying, my kid has no idea what they want to do. 10, 11, 12. That's not reasonable. 15, 18. I know people who are 45 that still don't know what they want to do. Yeah, for

Timmy Eaton:

sure.

Cori Dean:

It's very common not to have that note and we feel pressured by that. I gotta know what I need to do or I gotta know what that kid is great at. I gotta, if he's really good at physics, then we've got to just nail it down and make sure he knows all the physics, but we don't like there is that helping our children to decide what they want to do vocationally or professionally or with purpose with their life purpose and identity but there's also just that general. Underlining, are we what does a general education look like? What are our purposes? What are our passions? If we focus on giving our kids both a general education and allowing them to dip into those things that they want to try, that they might be passionate about, that they really love, things that they have thought to try before, like those kinds of things help us to Identify that and to jump into that, but we don't have to know the end point in order to be able to step forward right now.

Timmy Eaton:

I appreciate that. And I think maybe the underlying thing there is what is of more value generally or to individual families, the idea that they know how to learn and love learning. Because to me, especially in a changing world with technology advance, if you know how to learn, then that encompasses any subject. And so if the focus is, I appreciate what you're saying, it's not like you just go backwards and then say he wants to be a doctor, therefore we're going to pursue this course, but it's more let it inform, the potentials, let it afford. And then what's cool is you can adjust, you can flex, you And if they know how to learn and they love learning, because if somebody knows what they want to do, but they don't like learning, that's not going to, that's not going to help either. And so I think the bigger issue is, do they love to learn? Are they curious and are they being facilitated with how to learn? Do they know how to learn? So thank you very much. So in your family, what are the essentials when it comes to learning and lifestyle? What are the if you had to just point form, say, Okay. Four or five things. What are the essentials in the the Dean family?

Cori Dean:

You mean subject wise?

Timmy Eaton:

Anything, this could be anything. Just what you would say are the essentials for the Dean family homeschool.

Cori Dean:

Yeah. Dean and family homeschool. Absolute essentials were. In the very early years was how to read a digital clock so we don't get up too early.

Timmy Eaton:

Amen.

Cori Dean:

Participate in chores. That's life skills. That was really important. My kids always had little schedules and charts and stuff. Now I only have one high schooler and she's pretty independent. And I don't really need to chart her things out for her. We discuss things. But their schedules would start with Bible, Chords, Piano, Language, or Art. If that was all we got through in a day, we won.

Timmy Eaton:

Amen.

Cori Dean:

And then we try and read something together. So we read our Bible together, and then we try and read something together. A lot of discussion based learning, and a lot of history, science, things that would draw together our learning through literature and through timelines of history. Not necessarily specifically written, but through timelines of history. And a huge part of that is those chores, the life skills, the working together that's one of the first things that I published through Maple Tree was working together because of our passion for helping our kids to develop the right habits, the character skills, the life skills having seen The kids that my husband works with that have not had all of the advantages that my kids have had that don't necessarily know how to take care of themselves, their home, their family. Foster kids who came to us at a deficit for having those skills learned in early years. That became a real passion for us to make sure that our kids knew how to take care of their, themselves, their home, and their family and so that's something that was really key. Yeah. Math, science, history. I agree. Geography, all those kinds of things, reading poems, doing art, listening to music, all that kind of stuff was really good, but if we missed it for a day, what we needed was Bible. Language arts, do your chores. And I paid for piano lessons. So

Timmy Eaton:

yeah. And read aloud. And I liked that you said that too. That's cool. That's cool that you had this emphasis on, and there's more and more studies on that when kids go off to college or university and it's like the things that kind of seem to make a difference is they made their beds. They knew how to have a consistent chore. That is interesting. I've been referring to that, that Idea as the economy of the home and in home education It's beautiful because the kids are around mom. They're going to the bank They're going to the grocery store in the middle of the day and mom's getting all these questions from people like oh the kids aren't in school and whatever but What how did you like what first of all, what's the age range of your children

Cori Dean:

my children? 14 to 24. And I'm a grandma, so my granddaughters eight.

Timmy Eaton:

Congrats. That's awesome. So with your kids at that range like how did you tell me about how you guys did do chores. What, how did that go and Yeah. How did you divide up? Lemme start by

Cori Dean:

telling a funny story that came up recently.

Timmy Eaton:

Yes.

Cori Dean:

One of my children. Very recently and really respectfully said respectfully mom How do you keep the house clean now that most of us moved out? And because she knew that it was like and she knows but it's a key part that between those four girls They kept the bathrooms clean and I don't touch them because I have a lot of other things to do It wasn't that I was sitting around she said how do you keep How do you keep the house clean when we're not all there to help? And I said, honey, I love you. The house doesn't get messy anymore. And I had this revelation moment when I opened the cutlery drawer recently, and this spot that was always for the scissors, where if you were lucky, you'd find a pair of scissors. But if not, you had to go scatter around the house and find it under somebody's bed or in a craft project or in the toy box or out in the backyard in a plant or something.

Timmy Eaton:

Yeah, there

Cori Dean:

was like pairs of scissors and I looked at it and I thought. Why would anyone need six pairs of scissors? And it's because they were always scattered. They always used to be all over the place. So they learned that, and they've taken that to their own homes and places. So my adult children are in various places. stages of married and getting married and having babies and in university and doing all of those things and they've taken that with them and it's neat to see as much as I felt like they would never be able to clean up their rooms that it's very important to them and they've got rhythm and they've they've built those skills and it's a stressor that's not As much in their lives as it was for me when I was that age. And I didn't have as much skill built into that.

Timmy Eaton:

And certain personalities will do it differently, but were you good about for example, when they cleaned the bathroom and it wasn't done Really awesome. How were you good about not cause that takes a certain personality to just go or did you invite them to, Hey, you did a good job here. Let me help you do it and model for them. Or like, how did you go about, cause that can be hard, especially when it's, when you're talking about baking or definitely if that involves any kind of danger, you want to be there for that. Were you good about hands off government or.

Cori Dean:

I think that I went into parenting as a perfectionist and that was devastating and I had to get over that

Timmy Eaton:

fact. Yeah.

Cori Dean:

Yeah, we learned to to always take things into bite sized chunks and to always appreciate that a job done was better than a job not done. Knowing that the house is a busy house and you have a busy house too, you know this, that There's no way that mom could ever keep up with all of the things that are going on. And if they did a job poorly, then it was better than a job not done at all.

Timmy Eaton:

Yeah, exactly.

Cori Dean:

And so children too, like when they were tiny they learned to make their beds. And what I meant by making their beds is we learned to make our blankets last. When they started to clean up after us, really what that meant was, you can You know, wipe a cloth around the counter while I clean the toilet and so on. And as they got older, they would each get a part of the bathroom to clean and older children who were more capable could clean the toilet without me feeling like something catastrophic might happen. It, it developed over time that a child could clean an entire bathroom on their own and that was a calculated learning time for them. That we invested in that. It pays off and dividends in time, right? It's messy and it's it's harder to. It's harder to let them do it than to do it yourself in many ways, but a principle that I learned a long ago that was shared with me was letting the youngest child do it. So the youngest child that is capable of doing this, let that child do it because that's how they learn. And. The older children would often say, Oh, I'll just do it. She's not doing it well enough. She's not doing it fast enough. We'd be standing doing dishes and, Oh, she's taking forever. Yes,

Timmy Eaton:

she is.

Cori Dean:

And we're all learning. And you did this too. And we're going to clean up your spill and we'll all learn together.

Timmy Eaton:

And what a great learning opportunity for people to learn patience and compassion and those things as well. One thing, a practical thing that

Cori Dean:

I've They pass it on to their own children too. I'm seeing that now, that I have a granddaughter, how my daughter invests in her daughter in ways that she saw us invest in her and her sister. They will continue to teach that.

Timmy Eaton:

Excellent, yeah. I was just going to say that a practical idea that comes in there is that I feel like when I've talked to a lot of homeschool parents, they will tend to give their kids a chore that is, or an assignment that is longterm so that they really become really good at that. Particular chore. And so some people have a philosophy of rotating and stuff like that. And to each his or her own, but I have her, I think Charlotte Mason talks about that to really master something and then maybe over time moved to something else, but our kids have been doing the same chores for a while and it just keeps things. Going and they learn to do something really well. If somebody were to ask you, they say, Hey what comes to mind when you think of the biggest challenges for you and your family when you were homeschooling? Cause I feel like when people tune into these episodes they love to hear the ideas and the resources, but they, I feel like they mostly benefit from going, Oh, it's almost like just being able to empathize. And know that other people had to go through some challenges. What comes to mind for you? What was hard?

Cori Dean:

I think that for us, hard was more practical thing. Hard was knowing that I could go and earn an income, but I'd chosen not to. And, I always did do some work, whether it was daycare, or writing and selling books, or tutoring, or there was always something that I was doing, but it wasn't what I could have been doing if my kids were in school. And and harder than that is the naysayers who you think would empathize with you. That you would say, because of my Christian values I've chosen to homeschool, and that wasn't entirely why we chose to homeschool but a key thing that we got to invest in, and I would say, I would think, oh, people at church would be able to empathize with that, and they don't always, and so that was hard. Harder than that was that I gave up earning potential, and my husband gave up earning potential by being a missionary, and so we lived a lot of years on a very frugal budget, and many people will A, come to homeschooling thinking that they can't afford to not work, the, to cover life's cost,

Timmy Eaton:

and

Cori Dean:

B, that they can't afford to invest in resources And what we learned very early on is that I didn't have to have a huge home library. I didn't have to buy all the resources, I didn't have to buy all the curriculum for my children to have a high quality education. That that a determined mom with a library card and a few bucks for some used books can make a phenomenal impact. On the plan that they have for their children and so we did a lot on a shoestring and I hope that people can know that and embrace that. And yeah, it's been 20 years since that since we started that. But it's not, it was very much our lifestyle for many years to not be purchasing a lot, to not be having a second car, to not be, doing all those kinds of things. And we still had a very high quality education for our children.

Timmy Eaton:

Thank you for sharing that. That's that, that is encouraging. And I think that so many people, especially in the current climate that we're in North America, that's really helpful to hear. Cause it is a challenge. That's hard. Just a couple more questions on the homeschool front. And I do want to shift to to your businesses and the things that you're doing where did you go? Like, where, how did you, where did you go for mentors and like, where did you go when you were struggling and needed help, did you have a homeschool mom that you went to what did you do for. Help and also resources, that kind of thing.

Cori Dean:

Yeah I guess that was one of our bounties, was just having a couple of key people in our corner, and I think everybody needs that. If you don't have that homeschool mom, if you're out there listening, you have to find that person. You've got to find one or two people who can say, Yeah, I understand. It was a tough day. And not be the one who says, maybe we should just put them in school. Because, do this for more reasons than that it feels like we're running and skipping through the daisies all the time. You've got to be able to do homeschooling on the tough days. And a big tip, a second to knowing to having somebody in your corner is write down your why. Write down, why am I doing this? Make a list. You might need 10 or 12 reasons why, and then post it somewhere and bring it out on those days when you're like questioning your sanity and why you're doing this. But the people we had in our court were that kind of group of friends from church, but More than that was my sister in law, and she started homeschooling a few years before us. She has a son that is four years older than my oldest and a daughter that's eight days older than my oldest.

Timmy Eaton:

So she

Cori Dean:

didn't just pull that for us, but she walked through it hand in hand, and she would say, Oh, here's a resource we are done with, or here's a book you would probably really like, and how about if I lend this and Why don't you come over and do this project with us? And she really was my cheerleader and my mentor and my helper, and I just wish that kind of person on anybody. I hope that everybody could go into homeschooling with somebody like that who can hold your hand. She was phenomenal. She graduated her kids from homeschool, too. And she has a granddaughter and a grandson. And they are nearly similar in age to their dad and mom. And so we got a cute picture of the little pile of babes all

Timmy Eaton:

hanging out.

Cori Dean:

Oh, It was, it's so cool to see the second generation of these kids growing up. They got to grow up together and that, that was a treat.

Timmy Eaton:

Thank you. Like the one, one thing that I take from that, that I've heard often is that it's also just really helpful to have somebody just like your sister in law who's right ahead of you because they're, they were just in that. And that kind of wisdom is just like priceless for a homeschooling mom. Who's struggling. And my wife has said that recently, so often that she loves the couple of people that she goes to that are, that have gone through it right before us, because they just quell your your anxiety. Your anxieties that you have or your questions that you have. And so that's really helpful. Just like rapid fire. What are some like for starting homeschool families? What are some of the best resources or books that you would recommend? Ooh, that can be a time. So

Cori Dean:

why don't I give you some Charlotte Mason resources. Cause those are really my favorite. And they're where I've camped out. We have tons of them at the learning house of all shapes and sizes. Yeah. Under our parent helps or homeschool helps thing. But Charlotte made some resources in particular that have been life changing and helpful for us would be for the children's sake by

Timmy Eaton:

Susan Schaefer

Cori Dean:

McCauley anything by Karen Andriola, she's a phenomenal lady. I've had the opportunity to connect with her once or twice.

Timmy Eaton:

And

Cori Dean:

so her book A Charlotte Mason Companion. Phenomenal and very practical, whereas Susan Schaefer McCauley's book is much more inspirational, philosophical. Those would be my top go tos, but you're hearing from people like Leah Bowden, who wrote the Modern Miss Mason. And Materials really reach to the heart of new homeschooling moms and can really speak quite clearly to them. I really like her and she's a spunky lady. It was neat to meet her recently. Karen Glass is an academic who approaches the Charlotte Mason education from some really deep horizons. Really amazing insights that she has. Lori Bestwater is a good writes some really neat stuff. SimplyCharlotteMason. That's Sonia Shafer. Writes some pretty practical stuff. I'm sure I'm missing some really good stuff.

Timmy Eaton:

No, for sure. But I like that it's the stuff that's right on the top of your head because that's what I, when I asked that to others, the first thing people say will be a Charlotte Mason. And like you said, John Taylor Gatto John Holt, and people will list off. And so it's so helpful to hear just what people's experiences. Now, the last question I want to ask before we transition for a few questions on your business is what counsel would you give? New homeschooling families, especially ones that are new to this. There's so much information on when you and I started, it was, there was a lot, but not like today. And especially our pioneer people that, that started, they had to create this on their own, which I'm so grateful for. But what would you tell new homeschooling families? They're overwhelmed. They're inundated with information. What do I do? How do I make sure that I'm not going to ruin my kids?

Cori Dean:

Yes. That's true. It's such a common question. I would say the two big things I would say are know your why. Know why you're getting into this for those same reasons that I said before so that later on when you question, why am I doing this? Why did I even try? You can look back on that and say, yes, it is worth it. It's worth the uphill climb. It's worth the mess. It's worth the all of the pain and the anguish because. We have a long term goal and that would be another one, another thing is to say that homeschooling is a marathon and it's not a sprint. This is raising children and you can't just expect all of the progress to be had in a short amount of time. Folks who get into homeschooling and only do it for a year or so, it's not, it's The you're not going to have a whole experience of what you could get. And so get with your people find people who can support you, know your why, and keep it super simple.

Timmy Eaton:

Keep it simple. Oh, so

Cori Dean:

good. Really, like, when we talk about that end goal of where we want to be when these kids graduate from homeschool, we rarely need for them to make sure that they know, and it's good to know. All the Canadian history, all the Canadian geography, do the phys ed, do the art, do the stuff. But, what do you want to say about these children when they're 30? Do you want to say he did great on all his science tests? No. It's not nearly as important as so many other things.

Timmy Eaton:

Excellent. Oh, what a great response. Thank you. Let's transition for at least a few minutes on how did you get into tell us the chronology of Maple Tree Publications and then recently with Learning House and then you've done quite a bit of speaking engagements and writing. So tell us like when that happened and especially cause you were in the throes of homeschooling through, through a lot of that.

Cori Dean:

Yeah. Until recently, most of that happened between 10:00 PM and 2:00 AM when the children were asleep. that sounds like

Timmy Eaton:

my wife and me.

Cori Dean:

Yeah. A lot of the shoulder hours As somebody said to me recently that it, it was very busy times, but I feel like we've always had the opportunity to stand on the shoulders of giants. So not much of what we've done. We started ourselves. It was. 2008, when I had done some work with Cindy Reichling, and she decided that she was ready to be done with her publication business to move on to some other opportunities, and she It asked me if I would take over Maple Tree Publications. So at the time, Maple Tree Publications consisted of about a dozen or fifteen publications, including Come Sit By Me and The Great Canadian Art Pack, a couple of things, that had been well known and used across the country

Timmy Eaton:

since

Cori Dean:

1998. And she was ready to move on. We took over that publication arm, and slowly, over time, we added a few resources, and then more than that added in other things that we resold. And developed a repertoire of products that we were sharing with families that had a Charlotte Mason style focus. And We were serving families all across Canada, and that's when I got to start into writing, and publishing, and speaking, and traveling, and it's just been such a privilege to be able to meet with families all across the country that way.

Timmy Eaton:

But before you move on there, how did you connect initially? With Cindy and how did you She was

Cori Dean:

one of my neighbors.

Timmy Eaton:

Oh. She was a neighbor.

Cori Dean:

And not a close neighbor, but this group of families that I had connected with that was homeschooling and, looking into homeschooling with all these little people, they were all preschool, kindergarten, grade one age they said, there's a lady nearby and she's doing a homeschooling for newbies meeting. Do you want to come? And I thought I'm definitely not homeschooling, but it'll be a night out with the girls, and they'll probably be refreshments. So I went. And that's when I met Cindy, and Cindy was I was hosting this event and live just like a few kilometers from me, and when we decided to homeschool, then I did some tutoring, and she connected me with some tutoring opportunities, and then I did some editing with her, and that's how we got to be friends. And when she was ready to go on, she actually went back to teaching full time when they were done their homeschooling journey. She wasn't prepared to keep up the publications part and asked me to take that over.

Timmy Eaton:

Wow. Cool. Yeah, I didn't know that. That's great. And then, so move us ahead to you. And then you, so you had been doing that, you've been doing that for, since 2008.

Cori Dean:

So 15, 16 years now. And it would have been about six or seven years ago. That Louie's house approached me, and we've known each other in passing from being at homeschool conferences and speaking at similar conferences and being near each other in vendor halls and all that,

Timmy Eaton:

And

Cori Dean:

had chatted and had some things in common, really enjoyed each other just in a,acquaintanceship or a friendship, and she said, would you be interested, and we're thinking of a succession plan in terms of retirement, would you be interested in expanding what you're doing with Mabel Tribute Tank to include something of this caliber? And I actually laughed at her and said, no. That was the end of that. And And over time, just went through a process of, Lord what do you want us to do when this homeschooling journey is done, and how can we make an impact for you? How can we continue to invest in people? And my husband, as I said, is a missionary with Youth for Christ, and we have always been focused on that investing in young people, and in families for eternity. So not just

Timmy Eaton:

for the now.

Cori Dean:

Yeah, not just for the now. So I just got thinking about what would I do when these kids were done school. I want to continue to invest and I'm not going to be a mechanic like him working on cars. But I do have this education spent and I love. Working with families as they raise up their children in the way they should go and not just Christian families, because we see more and more families that are just saying, I need something different

Timmy Eaton:

for my kids. And

Cori Dean:

so I went back to Louise a couple of years later and said, did you still want to talk about that? So we developed a friendship through that and we've become really close friends. And it's just been a phenomenal. Journey to see the learning has grow. I'm able to regrow and them to be united together. We amalgamated them together in November of 2020. So it's been three and a half years now.

Timmy Eaton:

Wow.

Cori Dean:

And we moved the store physically from its location in Goderich, Ontario, which is about three hours away from where it is now to our current location, which is about an hour north of Toronto. When we were looking for space in the crazy days of 2020 things were, like, there was just really tight for finding space, and the only space we could find looked far too large for what we would need, and we looked at space sharing. With others and so on, so we found this space and we moved in there that the day that we moved in and I remember bringing the last box in and calling up the reason saying, how did you ever fit this into a smaller space than the learning has grew very quickly and and by the grace of God, it just means that we have had the opportunity to. Journey with many other families and so we get to connect with families every single day and just help them as they do the best that they can to educate their children and it's just wonderful. And a phenomenal opportunity. So my husband's involved in the business quite a bit day to day, though. His full time job is not at all with us.

Timmy Eaton:

What is, where are most of the, where do you find, do you have an idea of where most of your clients come from? Could you know, do you have as far as Canada and States and then within Canada?

Cori Dean:

Geography the geography of our the families that we serve is mostly Canada. We do a small percentage of families outside of Canada, but we don't really encourage that because shipping isn't very friendly outside of Canada. So we often help people find something a little more economical. And within Canada, a good portion of our families are in Ontario, but we also serve a lot of families in Alberta and BC. Okay. And then we certainly send packages all across Canada every day. It's really cool. I don't get out of Bradford very much, but it's fun to just go through our bin and see, oh, there's stuff going to Manitoba and Saskatchewan, out to Newfoundland today, up to Nunavut, where we are always sending stuff off to the place and it's pretty fun.

Timmy Eaton:

That's great. I love that. And maybe tell everybody where's the best place to go to find your materials? Like where because now that you've amalgamated what's the best way? Yeah.

Cori Dean:

Yeah best way to connect with us is at learninghouse. ca you can certainly come into the store. You can call us. You can email. You can do all the things. You can find us on Facebook at Learning House Canada, but our website is where our catalog is, where we have more than 10, 000 resources, where if you don't see it, you can call us and we can often get it for you anyways because we have access to millions of other resources. But what we have on our website, we'll put you in touch with courses that we have coming up, events um, with any special deals that will allow you to connect with our customer service team, And you can know that what we have put on our website, what we house in our store, what we keep in stock, is stuff that we feel is appropriate for the Christian homeschooling family. So, While not every resource, You would I'm sure you would come into your store and say, that's not great for our family, but other things are. We try and vet it so that it is something that would be comfortable for the Christian homeschooling family, and we also do serve many families who do not have religious affiliations or who are of different religious affiliations so that we can serve them as well, but we do serve them. Mainly a conservative crowd, and so we set the novels that we have on the shelves, the children's

Timmy Eaton:

books,

Cori Dean:

the resources, the science, the history, the geography, the, we make sure that is high quality academics, and also something that's family friendly.

Timmy Eaton:

Excellent. And what about you specifically? If people wanted to read some of the stuff that you have written and what's the best way to connect with you personally?

Cori Dean:

So if you want to look at stuff that we publish specifically our publications are on our website under Maple Tree Publications, as well as a couple of other lines. We also have, we also own Apple Press. publications and a couple of other things. But if folks want to get in touch with me personally I do consultations and I do free consultations. Always do free consultations and you can talk to anyone on our customer service team who can walk you through resource choosing. Many of our customer services team. Service team are either homeschooling moms themselves or graduated homeschooling moms. We have quite a few graduates who have been homeschooled up through their years, and students as well who have homeschool or who are still homeschooling as well as others on our team. So oftentimes if you just call the store and say, Hey, I need help choosing something, someone on our team can help. But I really like doing one-on-one things with folks. And so I have, time set aside every week to just do those one on one chats and journey through stuff and help people make plans and gain the assurance that they need for next steps.

Timmy Eaton:

Perfect. Perfect. Thank you so much. I did have one more question before we we parted. Is that okay?

Cori Dean:

Yeah, I got I'm before the teenager comes from,

Timmy Eaton:

yeah, I was just thinking about cause you're, you said your kids are in the stage of getting married and starting to have their own families. What is first of all, like what has been the, what's happened as far as like them marrying people that have had a similar background as far as home education and your feelings about that. And then what's the likelihood of them choosing to homeschool their children? And I know it's not we don't have a crystal ball, but but you have a sense.

Cori Dean:

It's, first of all our son in law and our future son in law, these are I couldn't choose better young men. Into we love these guys and we just thank the Lord that he brought us sons when they were adults too. Know that he, us all theses, we weren't ready for son yet, But they're a phenomenal addition to our family. You wanna know specifically, neither of these young men have been homeschooled, but they both are the right men for our. Daughters, they lead spiritually and they love the Lord and that's what we want for them. That's what matters. Yeah. Yeah. And our girls have been their daddy's girls. They always knew that they needed to bring the young men past dad before they could get any approval and even into their adult years when it wasn't required for dad to. To approve of the young men, they want their dad to be a part of that process. And these young guys are friends as well as family. We really love them. And at least two of my children have said that they want to homeschool when they're older. My, my daughter who has her own little one is thinking towards that and preparing for that. But that's not been a requirement that we have.

Timmy Eaton:

It's

Cori Dean:

not something that is like a hill that we would die on or that we feel is. The the thing that makes for proper parenting or anything. I know that there are many ways for us to lead our children spiritually and to help them through strong spiritual formation, and that might be through Christian school. That might be through being a very active and involved parent in a public school setting. And Well, I think if my children decided not to homeschool, I'd like to, I would hope that we had the resources to help them into Christian schooling and stuff. It's it's a choice that they will make.

Timmy Eaton:

Yes.

Cori Dean:

More than that, I will do all that I can to help them to lead our grandchildren into into faith with Jesus, and that's more important to me.

Timmy Eaton:

That was a great answer. In fact, I feel like you've given a pretty amazing answers the whole time. So thank you very much. And whoever listens to this, we'll appreciate your wisdom. So Cori Dean, thank you for being with us and taking time.

Cori Dean:

Yeah thanks for inviting me. It's been a delight to chat and I wish you all the best as you continue on with this podcast.

Timmy Eaton:

Thank you very much. Have a great night.

Cori Dean:

All right. You too.

Timmy Eaton:

That wraps up another edition of This Golden Hour podcast. If you haven't done so already, I would totally appreciate it if you would take a minute and give us a review in Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It helps out a lot. And if you've done that already, thank you much. Please consider sharing this show with friends and family members that you think would get something out of it. And thank you for listening and for your support. I'm your host, Tim Eaton. Until next time, remember to cherish this golden hour with your children and family.