This Golden Hour

69. Cindy Oswald and Homeschool Languages

• Timothy Eaton

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In today’s episode, we get to spend time with Cindy Oswald from Wyoming. Cindy is a homeschool mother of four and founder of Homeschool Languages. Cindy discusses her homeschooling journey, her motivations for choosing this educational path, and the development of her no-prep, play-based language curriculum. She emphasizes the importance of family connection, flexibility, and creativity in both parenting and education.

Resources

www.homeschoollanguages.com
Muhammad Yunus
Miacademy



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Cindy Oswald:

I need to know what my kid needs and what he wants. So I would say the same thing to a new mom who wants to homeschool. I'd say you're thinking too much about that trodden path and that trodden path looks scary. You need to stop and visualize yourself 18 years. What do you want? Because honestly, I don't remember 1 percent of what I learned in public school. I just remember the experiences and that's what I want to give to my kids. So start there. What are your goals? And if you have that trajectory, everything is so easy. It just comes from love and they're already well qualified.

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. In today's episode, we get to spend time with Cindy Oswald from Wyoming. Cindy is a homeschool mother of four and founder of Homeschool Languages. Cindy discusses her homeschooling journey, her motivations for choosing this educational path, and the development of her NoPrep play based language curriculum. She emphasizes the importance of family connection, flexibility, and creativity in both parenting and education. Welcome back to this golden hour podcast. We're excited today to have with us Cindy Oswald, who currently lives in Wyoming, as her husband does some med school things and residency, I think. And Cindy is originally from Utah, but she lives now in Wyoming for a bit. And she is the homeschool mother of four. Ranging from the very little to not even a year old to eight years old. And she's also the founder and creator of Homeschool Languages. And I just want to say a couple of things about that. And then I want you, Cindy, to give us a little bio of yourself, but the Homeschool Languages is an award winning, like no prep language curriculum that teaches through simple play. It's intended for ages four to 10. And it's really short lessons, 15 to 30 minutes. And it's based around every day around the house, vocabulary and conversation. And again, it's award winning and so we're looking forward to learning from you. So Cindy, thank you for being with us.

Cindy Oswald:

Yeah. Thanks so much for having me.

Timmy Eaton:

Appreciate it. And why don't you just give us a little bio, whatever you want to say about yourself and then we'll get into a little bit about the business and homeschool and all those things.

Cindy Oswald:

Okay. Awesome. Yes, I think I am. If you're into Enneagrams, I'm a seven, which means I'm an eternal optimist. My husband is the complete opposite. So I have the wings to fly and he is very logical. So what

Timmy Eaton:

is he on the Enneagram?

Cindy Oswald:

Oh, I would think a two. Okay. So he's very people oriented and I come

Timmy Eaton:

out as a one. And my wife is classic five. Oh, yeah. Classic five.

Cindy Oswald:

What are those?

Timmy Eaton:

Five is typical introvert, typically, and go very deep and will ignore you while they go very deep and research and know everything about anything they're interested in. And that's one.

Cindy Oswald:

That's you? You're the

Timmy Eaton:

introvert? No, that's my wife.

Cindy Oswald:

Okay. That's her.

Timmy Eaton:

And ones are, yeah, yeah. They're like me, I don't know, but we'll, we can talk about that another time.

Cindy Oswald:

Yes. Side note, I love Enneagrams because it made me feel like my craziness wasn't crazy. It was just, I had a method for this. I guess why I'm telling you that is because my parents were so good with me growing up that they let me do anything that I wanted. I was the youngest of 11. So they were just tired of parenting at that point. So if I said, Hey, I want to go study abroad in Europe by myself. They're like can't keep you down. Or Hey mom, I want to do Ukrainian egg painting in third grade, but you know, just random things. And so knowing that I asked my mom finally like why would you do that? And I finally was able to tell her just a little bit ago. Thank you so much. It's actually all coming together with this. I had different businesses in the past, but this just runs in my blood. I am in my spare time, just making. Business websites for pretend businesses is just is what I like to do that creation part of it. So yeah, to put all these weird facts, these weird getting excited about one subject and studying it for a lot, just like, the Enneagram one you said it's actually been for my benefit. Which now we're saying that it's benefiting a lot of others. So

Timmy Eaton:

yeah

Cindy Oswald:

go for the crazy.

Timmy Eaton:

Yeah, you know, what's interesting is like you mentioned Enneagram and that's something that my wife has like totally delved into as a five and that's what they do. And you said you're a seven. Yeah, the enthusiast and that's her mom and they're quite different in a lot of ways, but and then the other thing is our kids just did a, like a field trip with some other friends and did Ukrainian eggs, painted. So that's just interesting that you just mentioned that. So very cool. So let's talk about your business first for a little bit and then we can move into the homeschool world. And I know they tie together. So like when and how and why did you start homeschool languages?

Cindy Oswald:

Okay. So Tim, you told me that I could be my authentic self. So that is what I'm going to do today. I'm gonna tell you the parts of it that I haven't touched in a while that I haven't really told any, anyone publicly. In 2020. My dad died and it wasn't COVID related, but but he was a businessman. That's where I got it from. And he was a person that brought people together. He worked with Muhammad Yunus and Muhammad Yunus had this he's a Nobel peace prize winner and I was able to meet him and, but of course I did not care for this. This is my dad who cares what your dad does. Right. So as soon as he died, that's when I started to get interested in what he was doing. So I looked. into YouTube videos. And I looked up Muhammad Yunus and he has such the presence that my dad did. And his big thing is just go and do it. You, we have two separate schools of thought. Like we want to own a business so that we can make money, but we want to help people. Which do we do? And he's really big into You can do them both. You can make money and help people. And so he started the Grameen Foundation, which is microfinancing. So that's what the Nobel Peace Prize is for, is you could loan people just a small amount of money and they could do huge things from it and you get plenty of return from it more than these big loans. So something about those videos just sparked this Okay I can just do it. I'm just gonna do it. Had wanted to teach my kids Spanish. My husband and I both speak Spanish. But being so distracted just by one, my mind, and two, being a mom I couldn't map it out. So I needed a curriculum. I needed something to take me from point A to point B. The problem is that every curriculum and again, no shade to the other curriculums. They are necessary and I'll tell you why, but they just wouldn't work for my family because. The point B was always getting them, I guess the point eight, they always started at learning the farm animals introducing yourself. But my kids were too young. We can read. So it was coloring. It was tracing iT. it wasn't getting them to do what I wanted to do. Was just talk to me in Spanish. Yeah, so I guess it's just for a second when I was Looking for it. When I said I want to learn Spanish, these curriculums would come back and say, oh great, you want to learn triangles in Spanish. No, I want to talk to my kid in Spanish. Oh great, you want to learn to read in Spanish. No, I just want to. That's when I just started. I had to write the lessons down for myself. I'd write it the night before. I would make it look pretty, but I would have to be scripted so that in the middle of the day, when another kid would nap, I could just sit, I could just read what's happening and and get it done. And and yeah, so that's where it started..

Timmy Eaton:

One thing I was going to say, and then carry on. This is common that people have developed in the homeschool world, people have developed a curriculum based on a need that they personally wanted. And so I like that there's a common thread of the people that I've interviewed and talked with that are, and I like that because that means it's going to be from the heart and it's going to resonate with others who have the similar needs. Need or desire that they want filled. So I love that you've had that same experience.

Cindy Oswald:

I love it. You mentioned authenticity. Also this, the fact that it will grow, whether or not people are going to buy it, I'm going to give you the best, even if it doesn't sell because we need it.

Timmy Eaton:

You want it for your own family

Cindy Oswald:

and then more creativity comes because of that. Because yeah, as we're using it, we see where the needs are. So, I then thought I have really cute friends that will, that speak other languages. I have this beautiful friend that speaks German, another Italian, French, Portuguese. I just thought, we're fun. Hey, and not knowing where this was going, this was hardly even, I just said the words in it are bolded, so maybe if you just go in see what you think, can you just change it into your language? Does it work? Can you put your culture in? And

Timmy Eaton:

yeah

Cindy Oswald:

and this is where I, a hundred percent believe that God is in this. There, there's something I'll go into that in a second, but but first the response, every single one of their response was, oh of course, did you know that I got my master's in teaching French to elementary students, right? Oh, you know that I teach language at BYU, right? No, I had no idea. I just thought you were my cute friend and I, apparently we haven't caught up in a while, but So these people were just They were heaven sent, they were prepared they had the same thoughts in their mind of, man, I'd really been wanting to teach my kids too, but I just, they needed me as a part as well. Yeah.

Timmy Eaton:

And they're not, and they're not all homeschool mothers. They're just good friends of yours.

Cindy Oswald:

None of them are homeschool moms. Oh, okay.

Timmy Eaton:

That's cool. So if I get, if I got that right, basically you were inspired by the work that your dad had done with this you said Muhammad Yunus. Yeah. And then from that, it just was gave you the confidence to go for it. And then you just went and things have just fallen into place as you've. Exactly.

Cindy Oswald:

And I'm not trying to take over the world. It's I'm following the open doors and I really feel like God bulldozes your path wherever he wants you to go. And we're taught to love our neighbors, and to bring the world together and the gathering of Israel, things like that. And I think in a small way this has something to do with that, because how are we to love our neighbors if we can't understand them? It's the first step to connecting and it's good to know their language.

Timmy Eaton:

Yeah. One thing I was going to say is that I going through your website, somebody, whoever did that knows what they're doing. They did it so well. I thought it was very well laid out and very like attractive. And I think that looks really good. And I love what's being offered. So why don't you talk a little bit about what is it that homeschool languages emphasizes and what are you after and what's the objective and what are you working on now? That type of stuff.

Cindy Oswald:

So many things. And I'm going to tell you all our secrets. Okay.

Timmy Eaton:

Yeah.

Cindy Oswald:

We refer to them as our secret project. So I'll just tell you what they are. So first of all we have level one. And so the idea is we want to use all these other cool curriculums that are out there that, that do have the cute aquarium kits, whatever. But but there's a gap. before that. You don't jump into any language starting with the ABCs. That's language arts, you do, but not when your goal is just functional language. So take my two year old, for example, right now. So we, yes, we'll sing the ABCs to her, but right now it's just communicating your needs around the home. And so that's the goal of level one is, Hey, let's just, let's talk, let's be able to, it's all getting the student to talk and getting the language going in your home. So it's more than just, this is what this means. It's, just translating, it's getting it in use. So for example, we would play games like we have a little puppet involved who only speaks the target language and it has a snack in its hands and so you would have to ask it, please, in order to get what you want and then you say, thank you. Or it's going to grab it back from you. So you have this back and forth game. So then it comes time during dinner and the child needs something. They're used to, hey, I need to say this word. So it would be por favor in this instance to get what I want. And so with that practice play, you're just pretending the real life scenarios. And so it really easily transitions into your home. So your home ends up being the bilingual. environment. And that's what we want because immersion is the best way to learn. And of course it is because you have to use it. You have no other choice. And so if you're put in a situation in your home where you just, you can use it often. It just solidifies it. And you grow from there.

Timmy Eaton:

So does it require that a parent be fluent?

Cindy Oswald:

No. And as you're learning along, you're only required to know just, It's probably a step above what the kid does. So as you're going, if I were teaching that lesson, I would just read it beforehand. I would go to the pronunciation that there's videos and stuff so you can just hear it first. I'm ready to teach it. If you already know the language, of course you can just it's very open and go in that case, at least if you can read it, pronounce it that way, but but definitely read it beforehand, know what you're saying, but then. If you just know that, please, thank you, you're welcome before they do, you're good.

Timmy Eaton:

You're ahead of the game. And then what does it require from a parent as far as cause I can see some parents being like excited at first and then not being disciplined to carry it on and just being like, ah, just talk to me in the language or, what, how do you help somebody be consistent with the effort? Because without consistency, I imagine, I S I speak Spanish as well and. And I, it was full immersion after like many years of school doing Spanish. And so I was fairly fluent already, but then to be immersed into it was just so helpful. How do you, what does a parent do to stay consistent and motivated to keep doing it when they're not in the mood or whatever?

Cindy Oswald:

You're speaking to me. I, I don't want to say I'm lazy, but I just being a mom is so hard and I just posted about this the other day, actually, like. All the kids were napping, I was tired, and my oldest one, that I'm so focused on getting him to speak Spanish it was our time to do Spanish, I told him, I don't want to do this, I don't want to do this, I want to go take a nap with everybody, it's a quiet house, I know. And what you do is you just have to open it, and there's the, there's free downloads online. You can get the first four. So if people who are listening, they want to see what I'm talking about. But but yeah, so inside the lessons are bullet pointed. I would say to those people is one, just focus on a bullet point at a time and just open it. You forget how fun it is. You forget that you start laughing and you're like, okay that's not as bad as I thought. But the fact that it is, you just read, you read it and then the kid is laughing back at you. You're like, Oh, I guess I am a really cool fun mom, so when you're losing motivation, I would just say do bullet point. And then, so Tim, what you're saying right now is you're putting a lot of I guess like stress and pressure on you, that you have to carry the language in your head. You don't, they're gonna, they're gonna fail. Because you're playing with it a lot. I noticed that the, my kids will start the language first. So I'll say, Hey, do you want cake?

Timmy Eaton:

And I'll

Cindy Oswald:

say, see, and then my mind goes to, oh yeah, we're supposed to do Spanish. And then I'll, so I guess they carry that weight with them too, except it's not a weight to them, it's. It's exciting. So if you make it an exciting, easy they kind of bring it in themselves.

Timmy Eaton:

Yeah. And I imagine that starting early is effective because the earlier you start it and the more you do it, then the more natural it is for them to do that. Later you start. I imagine that it might be tougher to do with your kids. And I did like that. I like, like when I was on your website, checking it out. I liked how it went through the very simple layout and the easy steps of, and the, and just the formula of each lesson just seems very manageable and digestible. So I thought that was well done.

Cindy Oswald:

Thank you. Yeah.

Timmy Eaton:

And

Cindy Oswald:

that's for me, cause I need it easy and digestible.

Timmy Eaton:

Yeah, indeed. Indeed. Anything else you want to say just about like your business in general, what you're working on lately, or just things that you're excited about. And then again, we can come back and forth to it, but we'll transition to a little bit of just your homeschool experience and,

Cindy Oswald:

Oh, okay. Yes. First of all, I do want to mention along the line of just being nervous that if you don't start early, you've ruined them or ruined the opportunity just, you need to stop thinking about that. Think about you, you're fluent in Spanish. And you didn't start as a baby. I follow someone, her name is Kayla from Bilinguitos. And she said something that changed my world. So she grew up in a dual language home. And I was like, oh, cool. Then that's why she's bilingual. And she's yeah, it was 95, 5%. 95%. English,

Timmy Eaton:

5

Cindy Oswald:

percent Spanish. That's all it took. That's all it took to just the words here and there, just their family getting excited about it, it just being around, and that led her to other experiences and What she is today. So don't think that it has to be 50, 50, or that 95 has to be in the target language for your kids to be bilingual. Just have it around.

Timmy Eaton:

Yeah, I like that. Maybe like the idea of just like laying the foundation for when they do want to delve deeper or really, try to become more fluent. And so that's great. That's that's really good advice. Like I said we'll weave homeschool languages back and forth into it. But let's just talk about you. First of all, what was your first exposure to homeschooling?

Cindy Oswald:

It was at a taco time. I didn't. ever see it as like a possibility. I just, I don't know. It didn't cross my mind. And this was probably like 2018 or something. My kid was two. So it wasn't even time yet. But I was in St. George, Utah. So everybody's always at the park. Everybody's outside. It's nice weather. But I found someone. At taco time. And she mentioned she homeschooled and I just stopped and asked her why. And she said, you know what, because you are honestly asking me why I'm going to tell you. Usually I wouldn't because people just want to

Timmy Eaton:

start.

Cindy Oswald:

And she did, she went into it and I was immediately hooked. me. And I wish my mom had done that just to be with my mom more just. And I started to notice everybody at the park, the kids who were nice and sweet to my kid. I 100 percent knew who was homeschooled and who wasn't. It's because those who were homeschooled looked for anybody to just to socialize with, to have fun with. They were there to connect and but the public school kids, and I'm one of them they stuck to their own age group and they definitely did not want anything to do with my son or anyone else that wasn't part of their group. And I would try and go talk to the parent and I would ask if they helped her not, and they always did. So, um, By seeing the example of homeschool kids, that's something that made me want to do it.

Timmy Eaton:

That's cool. That's cool. And I just, I loved, I love what you're saying about The private investigation that's so common. I find it like when parents are asking those questions, they kind of go around and like unbeknownst to other people they're investigating. And so I like that and then so when, how did you decide to do it? And then what did your husband think and stuff like that? Like, how did you actually, what was your initial and strongest motivation to actually jump in and do it?

Cindy Oswald:

Again, I don't want to call it laziness, but I think that is a big factor. I think the number one is so my son went to preschool and It was like two days a week, just for a few hours or something. Yeah. But even then, just the time it took the stress of getting him up, getting him ready, getting myself ready, the pick up, the drop off. Just let me keep him

Timmy Eaton:

I know

Cindy Oswald:

that was the number one. My husband. No, it's valid.

Timmy Eaton:

I like it.

Cindy Oswald:

And you have to homeschool out of. Love, like something that you love about it. It can never be out of fear for the post school system or anything negative. You can have those reasons too, but it's, but love is a more powerful motivator. Now we continue because my son is the coolest kid on earth. Like I would be jealous of the teacher that he's with. He's just so fun. And then. And I'd never make him babysit, but he is the one with the next three year girls. He is the one that says, Hey guys, let's go play outside. Let's go jump on the trampoline and I go take it up. So

Timmy Eaton:

he's your oldest.

Cindy Oswald:

Him. Yeah.

Timmy Eaton:

Oh, cool.

Cindy Oswald:

Yeah, he's so cool.

Timmy Eaton:

Awesome. That's great. So that's actually a fairly common I feel like initial motivation is like one just to be with them and then also just I mean you're saying you say the word laziness, but really it's like flexibility and lifestyle And the ability to choose what you're going to do and structure your day. I love that. That totally appealed to us. And my wife felt similar. She was just like, I just don't know why I want my five or six year old to be away when I totally enjoy her and want her home with me and the other kids. What about like your main purpose? If right now, if I'm going to put you on the spot and you just have, you have to put it into your own, like one sentence. What would you say is like the main purpose for the education of your children? And one way to think about that is what's, what results are you hoping to get out of this pursuit of not just education, but lifestyle? Cause it is a lifestyle choice to homeschool. So again what's your main purpose for your kids education and living?

Cindy Oswald:

Quickly, I want to point out before I answer that because we mentioned laziness. I think you're right that it's not. And I think that my vocabulary has gone to that to make everyone I talk to is our public school parents. And I think I go to that language to make them feel more comfortable.

Timmy Eaton:

Yeah. It disarms people.

Cindy Oswald:

Yes.

Timmy Eaton:

Yeah. When

Cindy Oswald:

really, yeah, you don't want to make them feel bad of it's because I,

Timmy Eaton:

yeah.

Cindy Oswald:

Yeah so the motivation, I don't think mine is novel. I think I get I, I think a lot of people have said it better, but I would say number one motivation, right?

Timmy Eaton:

I would, I guess what I'm wondering is if you had to say, this is like the, what I want out of this way of doing things what do you want to see when you're eight year old is 18? What is it that you want to, what result do you want to see? What's your main purpose for the way you're educating your kids?

Cindy Oswald:

I think it's all going to come back to connection. Like it's just that time. It's that time with them. I want him to look back and just see. Just memories, just the extra time that we have aren't we're just not rushed. It's not a rushed family. We want to do all the extracurriculars and I want him to do that, but not at the expense of our family time.

Timmy Eaton:

Very cool. How has it been for your husband? The decision and like you two together, how did that, how has that evolved and what was it like at the beginning? And that kind of stuff.

Cindy Oswald:

You're so nice. These are wonderful questions, Tim. Well,

Timmy Eaton:

Good.

Cindy Oswald:

So he's the two and he's very logical being the doctor and it is scary for him and it's gotta be. I think this is something that we have to address our husbands can trust us 100%, but still it's gotta be scary to Just know your wife has 100 percent control of their education, of their entire day, and knowing that he had a good experience in public school they, they could be doing this, they so I'm grateful for my husband who who I have I want to put it I want to put it kindly because he is such a kind man like he does like public school. So to let me do this experiment, a little bit on them. And he has. The most faith in me. So that's what it's been like for him is just complete trust when for him, he has to have higher education or like government funded education to be what he is. He sees it as necessary. And it depends on your goals. It might be necessary in the future, but for right now yeah. So we've had to make compromises. I never have to prove anything to him. In fact, my life gets worsened and his too, if we ever have to prove anything to each other. So when I got that in my head of shoot, he has some questions. So I want to prove to him that we're being artsy enough and we're learning enough and we're reading enough. No, what does it for him is that he comes home to a relaxed family that is happy and fun. So I've made that the goal of our day. Even if it means that we might not do all the math that we want or but then that's what. changed his heart with seeing that.

Timmy Eaton:

And I think it's helpful. So I, I wrote my, I did a doctorate degree of education and wrote my dissertation on home education. And if anybody, it could become like you're, cause you're saying the emphasis on academics and secular learning, And, achieving that through a public system the statistics are showing so clearly that home educated students are thriving much more academically and that's on entrance exams. That's on all those things. And so those things just need to become more like people need to be more aware of those things. But for our family and depending on each family, everyone does it for different reasons. That's those are secondary concerns to what you mentioned about just being together, developing the whole child and the characteristics and the character development that I think home education facilitates in my opinion, just in the best way. And but I do understand that people are coming at it at totally different angles with different experiences. I grew up Public school too, in the suburbs of Chicago. And so I understand that I totally understand those feelings.

Cindy Oswald:

And I think they they don't spread that information out a lot. They should, but for the same reasons that I say the word lazy is to not make people feel bad for the people who can't or people where it is the right choice for them. I think we do it to save face.

Timmy Eaton:

Yeah. Yeah. And you feel that I understand you feel like these pressures and stuff like that. I do get that. Maybe could you tell us what's a typical day? If somebody had a video camera of your typical day. I know it's hard to do that. Cause no day's typical probably, but what's it, what's a morning like, and then and then how do you determine what's going to be learned that day? And, I'm always reluctant to categorize homeschoolers. Are you an unschool or are you a structured school? Are you a classical learner? But don't, so don't worry about that as much, but just tell us about what a day is like, what does it look like?

Cindy Oswald:

I don't even know what we'd be classified. We'd probably need our own classification. And Tim, you said I could be myself. Totally.

Timmy Eaton:

Yes, indeed.

Cindy Oswald:

So I'm going to, hopefully that someone will connect because everyone that we see on Instagram, they are so wonderful. There's some really great moms out there. Don't think I'm the best at it. So this is what it is. I'm usually up with a baby at night, so I try to get as much sleep as possible. So usually what happens, my priority is that everybody gets as much sleep as they can, whether that's me. Or the baby or definitely the eight year old it is a sin to wake anyone up and everyone in my family knows that so we are very quiet until everybody is awake that means there's no morning baskets, it's usually just a show or something just to keep the littles quiet while, while the eight year old is sleeping but then I wanted to do all the classical poetry, all the classical. We did the good and the beautiful for a while, which I loved. I needed it to show me that I could do homeschooling. But I saw I was getting frustrated. So what we started to do is Mia Academy, which is just totally student led. They just watch some videos and then they take a test on it. Not the highest degree of. Learning, I'm sure. But but I love that my son is able to just start his day, just get it done. Check off the boxes. So if anyone asks, he is up to date. He can do all the things that he's supposed to do as a second grader. But because of that, while he does that, I'm able to just. Take care of the daily things. But I figured out that yes, I might be sacrificing the poetry memorization but you have the happier mom and I have energy to do what I want with him. So that for me is Spanish. So we spend our days, so I'm able to sit down to a full lesson with him, with each of the kids and oh yes, like he's able to do piano and stuff, and I'm able to spend my time playing games or going on walks and stuff. So other people might check that off as okay, we have to as, as homeschoolers, so we can fit everything in. And I guess I've just made sure that the boxes are checked. And everything else is just fun. And I guess it just still does fall under the homeschool learning category because it's life, right?

Timmy Eaton:

Yeah, exactly. I was going to say, it's just literally living your lives. And then what does it look like into the evening and afternoon? One of the things that I love about home education is it's not it's not like learning has a. A set, a start time and a finish time, even though a lot of us typically do do the typical, more in the morning and then have the afternoons or the evenings free. But what does it look like at your home? What time are people going to bed and do you guys eat meals together and that kind of thing? I guess you're in the stage where you can do a lot together.

Cindy Oswald:

Yes, everyone. We could pick up everyone. They're small enough, right? We could put them where we want them to be.

Timmy Eaton:

Yeah.

Cindy Oswald:

I used to be very strict on bedtime. And my husband, Saw that it was taking away of the spirit in our home. And so we had the stock of like, wait that's, that's why we homeschool. So we have like a time we have, around eight o'clock, then we need to start getting ready. But if they do get caught up reading a book with dad, I can't get mad or okay. They, it's starting to get darker later now. And dad wants to start a fire pit. When he's home I don't get mad. So I guess our nights have been, it's just this really long getting ready for bed, which turns into really long, dedicated family time. Just fitting in as much as we can to just be together. And then go

Timmy Eaton:

to bed. That that resonates with us because that's how we are. And I think it works with what you're saying about if you have this principle of get as much sleep as possible, then you can be flexible on the other end. So that's cool. What would you say if somebody asked you, what would you say if somebody said, Hey, so what are like the biggest problems or challenges you've noticed or observed or experienced in homeschooling?

Cindy Oswald:

I think the biggest problem is nothing, it goes perfectly every day. Yeah. I think the biggest problem for me is just being distracted by so many kids and their needs all the time. So whereas a school teacher might have a dedicated lesson and make sure they go on the field trip, make sure they do all these things. I can't some days because a nap happens or so I feel like I, I fail sometimes in that regards. I feel like maybe most homeschool moms can feel like a failure if they don't get all of these dream activities done. And we kind of land among the stars instead of while we're shooting for the moon. So I guess Yeah, I I don't know. Maybe that's just a life problem is not having enough dedicated time to each kid as much as you want throughout the day just because of the distractions, but I guess that turns into the good thing about homeschooling is because instead of having just the four hours at night after public school. You have the whole day to, to try and make it up to them.

Timmy Eaton:

Yeah. And I find that's really common among like just moms and homeschool parents and families is that the question is always man, are they going to, is this going to work? Is this going to turn out? And so you're each day going, man, Oh, I really dropped the ball because we only did this or that. But the reality is it does work out, but that is a challenge that people may be more internal than it is external but it is A real challenge that you faced, what would you say to beginning homeschoolers? What tips would you say? What would be your counsel to people who are just starting homeschooling and don't feel very prepared for it?

Cindy Oswald:

It's just way easier than you think it's going to be. Let me think about this question real quick. Because I want to think about it in what I wish maybe someone had told me. There's a paved path of language learning. When you sit down, and Tim, I swear to you, if you were to sit down and write a language curriculum, we would write the same one if we didn't put any heart to it, because there's a well trodden path of just how you do it. And you have to stop. That's not what we need. We had to go from the end. What is our goal? What do we want? What do I want my kid to be able to do? I just want to speak to him in the language. And every 10 lessons we had to just stop and go backwards. Otherwise we would catch ourselves and just have to. Slap our hands. It's no, we don't need to know what cow is right now. I need to know what my kid needs and what he wants. So I would say the same thing to a new mom who just, who wants to homeschool. I'd say you're thinking too much about that trodden path and that trodden path looks scary. You need to stop and think, visualize yourself 18 years. What do you want? Because honestly, I don't remember 1 percent of what I learned in public school. I just remember the experiences and that's what I want to give to my kids. So start there. What are your goals? And if you have that trajectory, everything is so easy. It just comes from love and they're already well qualified. If they don't even learn to read until they're 12, bam, you're probably ahead Of a lot in the nation, even if they do the minimum, they're already gonna be so well equipped for the world just because of that connection in time.

Timmy Eaton:

Yeah, I agree. No, I think that's really well said. And I love the analogy that you made with, the homeschool languages and teaching a language. Don't just follow the trodden path because it's there, but. Really begin with the end in mind and you blaze your own trail on that journey. And so that, that's good. I think that's really good. And just to disarm new families that are homeschooling to the, it doesn't have to look exactly like a certain way, but that you can really make it your own way with your own purposes in mind just a couple of the questions, if you're okay with it, I was going to just ask you about what do you typically do to fill your own bucket? Like homeschooling is, especially for for the principal parent, which is typically mom, like you're so invested in their stuff. And it sounds like you do a pretty, you have a good, healthy approach about sleep and about, not rushing and that kind of thing. But what do you do specifically? What do you need to make you feel more just excited to go back the next day and continue doing it? What helps you and what's your husband's role in that?

Cindy Oswald:

You're probably still familiar with this just with your own life, but it's hard connecting with other moms. Not because of who they are, but because of time restraints and just have you ever heard of the app Marco Polo?

Timmy Eaton:

Yes.

Cindy Oswald:

Yes, that is what gets me through the day. I would just take a little walks right in our neighborhood. So I'm never far from home. My kids can call my phone with Alexa. So if they ever need me I'm a minute away as far as walking goes, but I am, I'm constantly in conversation with. What keeping up with my friends but I don't have to leave the house. I don't have to, it's not a phone call. So I can double speed their conversation too. If I, I just want to input it helps that I'm able to express myself too, because my husband comes home and, we have all the, our word count as women that we just need to, we need to get out. So I'm able to get some of that out on them too. And So yeah, that connection, but through Marco Polo, which is on my own time. Another thing is creativity. And I think all moms, we have to express our creativity in some ways. Some kind of outlet. Yeah, in, in different ways. And I think I love thinking about Eve, like Mother Eve, Adam and Eve. But I just imagine her with the flowers and her just, that was her role, just making things pretty. I don't, I, that's what I assume what her role is, right? Making things pretty. And I think that's in our DNA is just looking around and changing things, seeing something that's wrong and how can we make it better. And And so we have this to do list on our shoulders. And so for me, if I just get that done, I'm able to focus on my kids more. And this business actually really helps me. I used to be. a photographer, like everybody has been or will be. And I saw that it fulfilled that creativity side, but it took away from my family. I had, my husband came home and I would leave the, that's when the golden hour is. That's when the, or weddings are on weekends. And I just came home one day and just saw my sweet husband sitting there and thought, wow, I just wasted all my family time. So I dropped that. And One of my friends just said, Hey, it looks like you, your priorities are family and creativity. Why don't you mix them? And it was happenstance. I guess not happenstance. I feel like I've, I didn't remember what she said until later, I like doing this. I cannot. Go forward in the curriculum until I have my kids input, I have to do it with them. They're so involved. So I'm able to combine that, that creativity. And so that creativity and the family time. So it's something that has brought our family together instead of taking me away.

Timmy Eaton:

Yeah.

Cindy Oswald:

And so you're saying, what is my husband's role in that? I has to be very vocal about it of I need to, I'm just going to go and I'm going to work. But we both know that work is something that fills my bucket.

Timmy Eaton:

Yeah, that's great. That's great. Oh, man. That was a I feel like that was such a good conversation and I liked it. We just it just flows naturally the way that we went through that. Can you tell everybody where can they find stuff about homeschool languages and how can people connect with you and then we'll wrap up.

Cindy Oswald:

Yeah, thank you for this opportunity. So

Timmy Eaton:

if

Cindy Oswald:

you want to learn more about homeschool languages, it's just homeschoollanguages. com and use the contact form there. I am the one on Instagram. Which means you DM me there and I I write back with a little too many exclamation points because I really am happy to hear from everyone. So any questions that you have where we just want to talk, that's what I'm here for.

Timmy Eaton:

Hey, cool. Thank you so much for taking time, Cindy. I really appreciate that. We've been talking with Cindy Oswald out of Wyoming and founder of homeschool languages and so check her out, everybody. Thank you very much.

Cindy Oswald:

Thank

Timmy Eaton:

you. Appreciate it. 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 on 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.