This Golden Hour

78. Dusty Haayema and Beat of Our Drum

September 10, 2024 • Timothy Eaton

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In today’s episode, we get to spend time with Dusty Haayema from Pincher Creek, Alberta. Dusty is a mother of three and has homeschooled her children for almost a decade. She relates her early transition from public education to homeschooling, describes the impact of traveling abroad with her children, and discusses her entrepreneurial venture as the founder and creator of WD Lighthouse, as well as her role as the market director of the Mom Market Collective in her local region. She offers valuable advice for new and seasoned homeschool families and insights into balancing business and education. 


Connect with Dusty
Beat of Our Drum
The Mom Market Collective


Resources
wdlighthouse.com
Teaching Textbooks
The Good and the Beautiful
All About Learning
Gather Round Homeschool on YouTube


This Golden Hour
Free eBook Course
thisgoldenhour.org

Dusty Haayema:

Usually my first advice is to take a minimum of three months and do nothing. Don't do anything like just be with your kids. Just go to the park, go for walks. Like you can go to museums and stuff like that, but don't focus on learning. Just see how they are. Especially if they're older and they're pulling their kids out like mid elementary or middle school type thing, just let them be for a while just watch them be the tiny humans that they are and get a feel for what they enjoy.

Tim 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 Dusty Hyama from Pinscher Creek, Alberta. Dusty is a mother of three and has homeschooled her children for almost a decade. She relates her early transition from public education to homeschooling, describes the impact of traveling abroad with her children and discusses her entrepreneurial. Venture as the founder and creator of WD Lighthouse, as well as her role as the market director of the mom market collective in her local region. She offers valuable advice for new and seasoned homeschool families and insights into balancing business and education. Welcome back to this golden hour podcast today. We are very excited to have with us Dusty and Dusty. I'm gonna let you say your last name.

Dusty Haayema:

It's Hayima.

Tim Eaton:

Thank you for being with us.

Dusty Haayema:

Thank you for having me. I'm super excited.

Tim Eaton:

We appreciate you taking time and we've got a lot to talk about with Dusty's business and her experience is homeschooling and doing humanitarian work with her family abroad. And she's a homeschool mother of three and founder and creator of WD lighthouse, which is I'll let you talk about the different sense and stationary that you offer people. And she's also the market director for the mom market collective? And I noticed that it's all over Canada, but that you do it in Lethbridge

Dusty Haayema:

yeah, exactly. So I'm just the director of the Lethbridge region.

Tim Eaton:

So give us a little bit more of a bio and then we'll jump into things.

Dusty Haayema:

Yeah, so I've been homeschooling for, eight, nine years now. Yeah, our oldest he went to public school for kindergarten and then we started homeschooling. So it's been a long time. And through that, we've got to do a lot of amazing things. So it's been really awesome.

Tim Eaton:

why don't we start with the homeschool stuff and then we'll intertwine business and other things. But so how did you get started? You said he went to kindergarten and then what was your first exposure to homeschool? What were your preconceptions? And then how did you make the decision? Like we're going to do this.

Dusty Haayema:

I actually wanted to homeschool before we sent him to public school. So I worked in early childhood education. I worked in a daycare and After that experience, I didn't really want to send him away. Like I missed having him around and it seemed silly to me that like I was working in a daycare and he was also going to a different daycare. That was weird to me. I always wanted to homeschool and we actually had like our basement set up, like a little homeschool and everything, and then. All the like negative outside voices came at me of Oh, you can't do this. Oh, you're going to ruin your kid's future. All of those types of things. And so my husband and I decided to put him into public school and it was a really bad experience for him. It was not great. And we're like, if this is what kindergarten looks like the year that it's supposed to be fun and exciting and ignite their learning. I don't want to do this for 12 years.

Tim Eaton:

Like what was happening? What was happening or what? What was his experience?

Dusty Haayema:

So he got diagnosed with ADHD very young and it's very obvious that he has ADHD. And the school system even back then wasn't great with dealing with that. So he spent a lot of time in the corner or like in a partition area in the classroom. And when we had asked about it, it was like, Oh, he is a distraction to the kids. Can we medicate him? Blah, blah, blah. And we dabbled down that cause we, we didn't know any better. We were young parents. You're

Tim Eaton:

trusting the authorities.

Dusty Haayema:

Yeah. We just assumed people knew better than we did. I don't know, a bad assumption, and it was really hard on his mental health. And as a tiny human, he was not wanting to exist in the world anymore. For. Like lack of gruesome words. So we were looking at this like small five year old who didn't want to be here. And we're like, yeah, this is not okay. So we needed a way to have him not be medicated because none of the medication was working and not be around people who didn't want to work with them. I'm

Tim Eaton:

actually really glad I asked because, you could have skimmed over something like that, but that's, that's actually, that was heavy.

Dusty Haayema:

Yeah, it was like a big thing to lead us in. Yeah.

Tim Eaton:

And that was eight or nine years ago.

Dusty Haayema:

Yeah.

Tim Eaton:

So how are things?

Dusty Haayema:

Things are great, actually. It's been an awesome journey. When we first started out, I did a lot of the school at home because I figured it had to look exactly like school. I feel like we all start out like that. And then we did a lot of reading and listening to different podcasts and heard a lot about like child led learning so we started to incorporate those little things and it's been a really cool journey and now the other two of our kids are homeschooled. Our youngest is only going into kindergarten, so he's still very small, but.

Tim Eaton:

One thing I've been saying on my episodes and anyone who listens has heard this a lot, but I say, home education is really a lifestyle decision that if you're early enough it really starts from birth to university in my view, but I'm starting to say more than it's, the more I learn and the more I read it's really from womb to university. And because of the environmental effects on kids in the womb and anyway but I had a couple of thoughts the word neurodivergence has been so prominent lately in, in a lot of these interviews and the things that I read, but what have you guys learned about. Managing ADHD and what have you done? You said he was diagnosed early, which sometimes my skeptical side goes, is he just an active kid? Obviously there's legitimacy to so much of it. So what have you guys learned in the journey? Cause you saw some negative handling of that at a very early stage. So take us through a little bit of that journey.

Dusty Haayema:

Interestingly enough, both my husband and I are actually diagnosed as well. Like we had our official diagnosis during grade school. I think we had a little bit of a leg up on that because we already knew how to structure life around someone who is neurodivergent. A lot of what we do to combat not using medication is just setting up our life so that it can champion all of us. Like in practical terms, that includes a lot of timers and lists and making sure the family is all on the same calendar so that we know what's coming up. It means for this meeting example I had to set that up and make sure all the kids knew, my husband knew we all know what's going on. And then make sure that The day before it's like, Oh yeah, remember this is happening. This is going to be like a quiet time. It's not going to be a shock because. People think about things like ADHD Oh, it just means they're a little hyper like no, it affects your entire life from focus to whether you can move from one project to another easily and setting up our life so that everyone thrives well is how we've handled it.

Tim Eaton:

And then what are the implications of homeschool on that?

Dusty Haayema:

We take a lot of breaks, tons of breaks. And we do more of what the kids are interested in. So my son, he does do math because he loves that. And he does a program because he's more advanced than what I want to learn to teach him. So I'm thankful for the program. But As far as like just day to day learning and how we put in like geography and science and stuff like that, we do a lot of hands on group stuff so that one I can keep them on track and they don't have to sit there and try to read a book about it it's more engaging. We have ducks currently hatching on our kitchen table. They're a little weird when they're wet still. So they're like currently just hatching. Just making it really hands on and just trying to incorporate the whole family in what we're doing.

Tim Eaton:

Can you say anything about ADHD as far as being a gift? And I guess what I mean by that is, as I've met with people and learned more about dyslexia and the gift of dyslexia and, it. Challenges are real. That's why they're challenges. But what is the gift side of that?

Dusty Haayema:

I would say the biggest gift is being able to. Hyper focus on something and learn everything that you need to know about a topic. This kind of ties into the business thing, but I had no idea how to run a business or how to make candles for that matter and. all the stuff I watched was like, Oh, this will take two to three years yada. And I did it in three months. So it is a gift if you can learn how to use it as one, for sure.

Tim Eaton:

So what happens, you can just block out. Cause I don't have that gift. If I'm being quite honest, I don't have the gift of that type of hyper focus. I feel like my wife does, like she can really hyper focus and. Block out things. And it's so amazing to me. Like I'm more of like a balancer or something like that, but how did you Yeah, how?

Dusty Haayema:

I actually have to block out time to be like, remember to drink water and eat food. So it's a lot of The kids will be outside playing and I'll be on the deck and I'll just be like, focused on learning stuff and watching videos and reading articles and doing all of this and writing it all down. And then all of a sudden it's just there. And I've noticed that with my son too, like he learned how to code games and a weekend. Where I feel like a lot of kids take a lot longer to learn those skills. So yeah it can be a gift. It's a struggle, but it can be a gift.

Tim Eaton:

Yeah. I never want to minimize the reality of the struggle, but I love the focus and I think that homeschooling provides an environment. Where the gift can be cultivated much more effectively than in a classroom setting. I can't see any rational person thinking otherwise and especially when you have a loving parent being the one who is directing that experience and caring fully about what happens with that individual,

Dusty Haayema:

it's not meant for everyone. And I think other countries have always known that, which is why they have other directions to do school, like if you look at Norway even, for example, they have amazing different pathways that you can do that's not just regular public education, they have Montessori where I feel like we have some here, but they're not as popular. Lots of them don't go through K to 12. So then what's the point?

Tim Eaton:

And I think there's improvement there, but you read about Finland and these places where 0 to 7, they are not in school, they are playing and the play is their work and the play is their learning. And it is so effective for brain development and for joy and for all things good. I did want to back up to what you were saying before about you would have started this earlier had it not been for some negative kind of influences. If that's the way you would see it, what was happening? Like what was going down?

Dusty Haayema:

So I guess the first like big player is my husband was homeschooled. He did online school during a teacher strike back when we were in elementary school, I believe, and it was a terrible experience for him because it wasn't. homeschool. It was just cool at home through the computer.

Tim Eaton:

That's akin to what happened during COVID for these kids.

Dusty Haayema:

Yeah, exactly. So his idea of what homeschooling was was already negative. So he was like, I don't really want to do that to our kids. It really sucked for me, which I get that would be terrible. And then our parents weren't super supportive of the idea. I think it's just because they didn't know, right? you have this idea of what normal structure looks like and you just believe those are the boxes you check so people just have negative views on something they don't know about.

Tim Eaton:

Yeah, there's this fear of the unknown and like, how does this turn out? And then of course there's misconceptions, preconceptions based on. The common stuff about social and whatever else. And all of that has improved dramatically over the last while, but man, it hasn't totally gone away. And so that can be difficult. And then how have your motivations and your reasons uh, evolved over the eight or nine years that you've been homeschooling?

Dusty Haayema:

I think the. Base reason has always been there of it just wouldn't work for us to put our kids in school. But as we've homeschooled, we've had crazy opportunities that we couldn't have had if they were in school. Like we were in humanitarian work for two years abroad. So we were in Hawaii and Panama and Mexico. And our kids wouldn't have got to experience that. We didn't really do school while they were there. It was like a missionary program. We did it with YWAM. So they had their own kid school that they were learning stuff, but it wasn't like regular school. When we came back, they just continued what we normally do, but we wouldn't have got to do that and they got to see cool parts of the world they would have never got to see. They got to experience different cultures. They got to help out people. It was such a cool thing that we wouldn't have done if they were in school, because it would have been the mindset of Oh, we can't pull them out for that long. What are they going to do? Now it's all about the lifestyle of it now that we've been in it for so long, we couldn't go back because how would we live our life?

Tim Eaton:

Oh, I know that is, oh man, that really resonates. And when did you do that? Like how recently was that missionary?

Dusty Haayema:

So we went from 2020, September, 2020 to September, 2022. Yes. I know that was the time when no one was supposed to be traveling, but we did.

Tim Eaton:

Good for you. Are you kidding me? I love it. And your kids would have been what, like four to 11 years old or something, or somewhere in there.

Dusty Haayema:

So we left when the youngest was 10 months old. Yeah, up from there.

Tim Eaton:

I feel like a lot of people listening could be like, Man, that's so much time that they, would have missed learning and you're going, wait a minute, the whole experience is education. And then if I let myself in the past, think about it those are awesome experiences that are happening for kids that are so young that they won't appreciate it until they're older. And then the more I read about. The younger years and their life of discovery and learning they're learning exponentially more than we do as adults because of so much brain activity that's happening that those experiences when they're young shape them so much and create, literally change their brain and they're learning. And so I love that you did that when they're young.

Dusty Haayema:

So we had a lot of people say that because we took a 10 month old traveling, right? And why are you going? He's not going to remember it, but it shaped who he is. Now as a four, almost five year old, he sees the world so much differently than even tons of adults. I know, like he realizes he is like a small piece of a huge world with so much out there, so much opportunity, it's just, amazing to see his view on stuff, even as a small child. And he is always talking about, Oh, let's go see new places. Let's go on adventure. He loves it and it's going to change who he is as an adult. If we didn't do it, he'd be a different person

Tim Eaton:

for sure. No, for sure. What are you thinking about the secondary years, the high school years? I know that when that approaches that can be intimidating to a lot of parents, my wife and I have seen two kids go from, like I said, before birth to university. And it just worked so well. We have a third about finished right now. What are your thoughts on that? You and your husband, as you've. Face those coming years.

Dusty Haayema:

so our oldest is going into grade nine this year. So it is definitely on the forefront of our thoughts. So much so that I reached out to a couple of tech universities here in Canada and in the U. S. And A bunch of them actually told us that you can get admission if he just has a portfolio of what he wants to do. So he wants to go into game design so they're like create a game and just show us that and show us how you got there. Show us your skills and That is an admission package for someone who doesn't have it and we talked to a school in Toronto, a school in Vancouver and one in the south of the U. S. and they all had similar responses of you don't necessarily need. Diploma to get in like, you just need to prove you can do it.

Tim Eaton:

And it makes so much sense and it's how it should be and that really is so helpful for people to hear so that they know and you're modeling exactly what homeschool mothers do they research, they find out early on, and then they work backwards. And then they learn what they need to do to Direct their kids and to suit their interests. And just the idea that it's basically a portfolio. It's actually more meaningful. Because it's based on his interests. And that's such in the interest of schools, admissions officers, cause they're going, here's somebody vested in this and their success is much more likely because of what they've done already in those fields.

Dusty Haayema:

Our daughter, she thinks she wants to be a veterinarian, but she's only 11. So we've been poking at what that would look like, because we know it's a little different to go into something medical. And, From what we can tell at this point of how it's working is if she just has the last classes needed and passes those, then she should be able to get into adult admission. So she would have to wait till she's 19 and then apply. So it's not a huge deal. Like you wait an extra year and then apply.

Tim Eaton:

Oh, and that's awesome for you. You get to have her a little bit longer. So what have been like the biggest challenges would you say with the decision to homeschool?

Dusty Haayema:

My own head. I feel like a lot of homeschool parents can agree. There's so much curriculum thrown at you or you can google something and find a thousand Curriculums and then you're like do I even want to use a curriculum for this? Do I even need it? Yeah, there's just so much and then you panic am I doing this right? There's so many different styles and methods and just so much information. And you're like, am I picking the right thing? Am I doing it? Am I failing my child? All of these things come up. So I'd say my own mindset is my like

Tim Eaton:

biggest hurdle. And that is probably I would say the most common answer I get from homeschool mothers and so how have you navigated that? how have you simplified that for your family? Because here,, you are eight or nine years veteran doing this. How did you navigate curriculum methodologies, like you said, philosophies? Take us to where you've landed?

Dusty Haayema:

Now I basically sit down with each child and I'm like, what would you like to do? And we go through it together. If they want to use a curriculum for something awesome. My son has been using teaching textbooks now for math for years. It's great. Our daughter, on the other hand, does not like it. And. She last year used the good and the beautiful for math. This year she's thinking about something different. We just make it very loose as long as they're learning and progressing upwards. There's no stress anymore.

Tim Eaton:

And then, but then how do you do it? So you don't specifically look at like history, English,

Dusty Haayema:

I have it in my mind of what they need to learn. And obviously the government of Alberta gives us a checklist of things that they need to learn before they graduate, which is very loose if anyone has ever seen it. It's very loose. I just have in my mind what would I want this human? Who's going to be an adult to learn before they go off on their own? What are the types of things they need to know? Basic science reading obviously is huge in our house. We're all kind of book nerds. They read a ton. Yeah, I guess it's just the basics and then we grow on that. So when they're little, they're learning about science and geography and all the fun ways. And then I see what they're interested in and move from that. Yeah. We did very basic animal science with all of them. My daughter really clung on to that. And then she was doing dissection last year. She is only in 5th grade. Those kinds of things are like, yeah, if they're interested, put it on. Do it. It's fine. It doesn't matter if the curriculum says it's 11th grade science. If she can figure it out, why does she need to wait?

Tim Eaton:

Totally, yes. And what about books? Do you guys do read alouds

Dusty Haayema:

So when each of them are little. So like right now with our smallest one, we do a curriculum. We do all about reading. Cause I feel like that works the best. It's really great. It's relaxed. We can do as much or as little, and it teaches them the basics. And then we do a ton of reading aloud. To the little guys and then when they get bigger, usually I have one chapter book I'm reading aloud to everyone and they can do whatever they like while I'm reading it. And then they have their own reading that they choose to do.

Tim Eaton:

Yeah, so much of what you're saying is like feels so familiar. Like all the way through my wife does read aloud with the kids and they call it together time. And like you said, they're while she's reading, they're doing. Things to, fidget or, keep their own interest and keep their own focus. Do you have Other plans of traveling? Cause that seems like that was a meaningful experience. Do you guys have any thoughts about doing that again with everybody?

Dusty Haayema:

Yes, we do. We're working towards having income online so that we can go and explore the world together before the kids are gone. I think. This year when our youngest reached 13, we were like, Oh this is not lasting as long as we would like it to we need to squeeze everything we can out of these last few years. Yeah we're a weird. Family compared to the norm. I feel like most home schools are, and they want to like, have their kids forever, but realize they can't.

Tim Eaton:

So I know, but I love that optimizing and effort to maximize that time and to really make it the best. So then talk about that a little bit. because like I said earlier, dusty has. A business and so how have you navigated that with homeschooling? A lot of people when they're not as familiar with homeschooling, they're going, how could you possibly do a good job of homeschooling if you're actually running a business at the same time? And I've interviewed several really good People that have experienced that and that have good counsel on that. But let's hear from your angle. How have you navigated that world of being a business owner and homeschooling your children?

Dusty Haayema:

So right now, a lot of my sales is at markets, but obviously I still have to make product and do all that kind of stuff. Quite a lot of it happens when the kids are asleep. Or doing playtime. It's just a matter of managing your own personal time well. People commonly say, Oh, I don't have time for that. But then how much time are you watching TV? Or how much time are you scrolling through social media or doing nothing at all? Or whatever? If you really want something, you probably do have time for it. And it doesn't mean that the things that need to get done will suffer. You just have to shuffle things around a bit. So our kids come to the markets with me, but I look at it as a learning opportunity. They're learning entrepreneurship. My daughter helps out with the till a lot. They're learning things while they're doing that.

Tim Eaton:

So

Dusty Haayema:

I don't feel any guilt about it and they just are a part of it.

Tim Eaton:

The other misconception I feel like that a lot of people might have is how long it takes to have meaningful learning happening. And depending on the age of your children, how much of that is self directed anyway, where you're facilitating as a parent, I imagine your son who has already found it seems like a passion that it's not like you're there next to him going through math and then jumping to history. People Totally think that. And then they're even concerned if you're not doing that, because they're like you're not hitting the subjects and you're going, no, you've really got a D school. You really have to remove yourself from the traditional way of thinking and talk about the development of the whole person. When they're younger, you spend more time with them. But again, it's, it doesn't have to be a stressful learning. And in fact, the more stressful the learning environment, the less effective it is. I guess what I'm saying is it doesn't take that much time. But what would you say to like even homeschool moms that say, yeah, but how do you shift your focus? Because especially as you get interested in your business and it's exciting, how do you maintain the motivation to want to and just the reality of being exhausted of working, how do you balance both of those and keep yourself like your own bucket filled through that whole thing?

Dusty Haayema:

Set up a family rhythm, I would say just have a rhythm, do the same thing over and over. And that can seem draining at first of Oh, every Monday we're doing this every Tuesday we're doing this. And obviously you can plug different things in, but I feel like it helps you know, what's coming as the adult and the kids know what's coming and it helps you stay on track. That's one thing. And then I guess the second thing is set timers if you have to. We do any of our hardcore schooling in the mornings because that works better for us. And. We just set a timer and we're like by one o'clock, no matter what we're done and you guys can have free time to do whatever you would like, go outside, have fun. We live in a small town, so the older two are biking around town all the time when it's warm. That's how we do it. Personally we set a lot of timers and we have a family rhythm, but like you said, a lot of it is just them doing stuff on their own. And then we're all in the same place. So we have a couch in the basement where I do all the candle stuff and they can be down there with me. I don't need it to be kid free to do the business. So that works really well for me. If you needed it to be silent, maybe I could see how that would be a struggle.

Tim Eaton:

Yeah. But like you said, and I think the principle that you're highlighting is like that idea of setting, you said it well, like setting a family rhythm. The one lady I interviewed, she's in Hawaii and She just has set times where she goes, from on Tuesdays for this, period of five hours I'm channeled in, but then I'm channeled in there. And so they're actually maximizing their time because they are scheduling it well. And like you said, within the rhythm of their family. It's customized to their family. how do you, like the more demand for your products, your stationery and your candles, how do you scale that when it does get bigger?

Dusty Haayema:

So I think we're at a place where we've decided it won't get bigger unless we sell it because we want to leave. I think I'm okay with it staying small because the goal and dream is to leave and go travel and I can't exactly make candles while I'm traveling. I just, I had to come to a place where I was content with where it is and be okay with that. And know that it's just a puzzle piece in the big picture that we're building.

Tim Eaton:

When did you start the business? When did that all happen?

Dusty Haayema:

We started when we came back. So around like December 2022.

Tim Eaton:

So this is fairly new then.

Dusty Haayema:

Yeah, it is. And at first we had talked about growing it huge but. we just sat down and my husband and I and the kids we make a lot of decisions together talked about what we want from life and if we grow it super big, then we have to stay here. If we grow it and sell it off or grow it and just close the doors eventually and be okay with that and know that was a building block, not a failure. Then. It's okay.

Tim Eaton:

There's so many things you're saying that are just so good for people to hear, just the idea of making decisions as a family, just discussing through that, all of that is education for the children and also just that working through and navigating decisions together as a family, which is common among families but I just love that model of how a family functions, what has been the role of your husband with the homeschool side of things and how have his. Attitudes changed from that beginning of Oh, that was a weird experience and not that.

Dusty Haayema:

Yeah. The majority of it, he's had a nine to five job. So he's been in and out of the fun activities that we do, but not so much a part of the day to day. I feel like that's pretty common among homeschool families. And When we were traveling, he was more of a part of seeing how learning happened organically. So I feel like it wasn't until we were gone that it really clicked for him. The idea of, hey, they can learn without a book or hey, they don't need a curriculum to learn. So that was cool. The biggest part along the journey though, he is really down for field trips. So we hold all of our field trips for when he has time off. He loves that. He loves reading aloud when the kids are younger, like picture books, he gets right into it. He's doing the sounds and everything. I'm not like that. I'm like reserved when I'm reading, it's like monotone and he's like doing the character voices. He's really great with them and does as much as he can within his schedule too. So I feel like if people are wanting to homeschool, that's something to take into consideration. One parent is probably going to be more involved and that's okay. It's okay.

Tim Eaton:

Yeah, it totally is. And, that's almost a hundred percent how it works.

Dusty Haayema:

Yeah.

Tim Eaton:

Yeah. So how will it work if you guys travel again with his job?

Dusty Haayema:

So like I said, we're currently working on moving income to online. So he would just get a different job. He's currently a tow truck driver, so he's not going to do that. We'll try.

Tim Eaton:

Yeah. Well, yeah, that would be good that it'd like to be able to move it online. A common concern is how do you Parents, facilitate enough social development and time with kids, cause sometimes kids will get so interested in their thing that they're actually fine with just their interests. And then other kids, everybody's on the spectrum of what they want. And so what have you guys done as far as involvement in extracurricular activities, sports, music, art things outside the home where you've actually outsourced. Or do you do co op type stuff and where kids are interacting? What do you do for all that?

Dusty Haayema:

Basically everywhere in the world that we've been has the homeschool community that you can plug into. So if you can't find one, search harder. There is one. Yes. Even like when you're traveling, there's tons of world school communities, they are there, you just have to find them. So we plug into a lot of communities no matter where we are. When we're somewhere stationary, like we are now, we're part of a nature co op where we go do hikes with other homeschoolers and go to the beach and the park and things like that. It's very loose, just hang out co op, not so much get together to learn. And then I actually facilitate all of the field trips in the area, so no one was doing that when we came and I was like,, this needs to happen. These kids need to do something. Let's do it for you. I think that's the key is either find it or build it. Excellent.

Tim Eaton:

And sometimes you do things a little bit more age categorized, but typically those field trips, for example, we just did one on Saturday and we just went with another family. And that's been, our style has been more one on one where we haven't done a ton of the group co op. Type stuff, but there's an engineer in town. He has his own business and we went up to his shop and he walked us through. And you could do stuff like that every day. And like I've been doing a lot of reading about classroom learning compared to real life where they call it real world learning and the stimulation of your brain and your neurons, which when they fire like that together, they wire together and it just literally increases your brain. Power and changes the shape of your brain, and those field trips are effective for that. But it's not always age specific. Ours ranged from 11 to 17 the other day. And it's just cause kids are just learning. You don't have to make it so categorized or something.

Dusty Haayema:

And what I love about that, what you said, it's not age specific, is people are always concerned about the socialization. I hear that still so much. What do you do for socialization? And I think the biggest thing that I can say across the board, homeschoolers socialize really well because they're with different ages. So then when they do go out into the world, like we, hung out with a lot of homeschool kids when we were in missions and they could hold a conversation with an adult, which was amazing, but they could also play really well with small children. And they were like 18, 19, 20 years old. And I was like, this is great. Like they're not scared to talk to someone older. But they're also not worried about getting down and playing with the little kids. I think it's really what society needs, actually.

Tim Eaton:

I think what's behind that just to be very overt about it, it's very common among homeschool families, is that they hang out as families. And so peers are not raising peers. You have the peer interaction still, and it's not about surveillance. It's about healthy. Navigating this world and meeting the world together. And I feel like that's really common and because of that, you don't have it to be like, so weird, like I can't hang out with you because you're two years younger or not able to, and talk about socialization the inability to communicate effectively or to have a caste system happen or something, you know, like a social system happen. Is against proper and healthy socialization. And that's not unique to homeschool families, but it's definitely prominent among homeschool families. And so I really think that's a healthy, attractive things to so many families and it's not necessarily about control, but that you're. Choosing like minded families to help your children develop with. And it's just been so beneficial.

Dusty Haayema:

Yeah, I definitely agree with that.

Tim Eaton:

I often ask this as one of the last questions and that is if you had new homeschool families approaching you, which I'm sure you've had many times, What is your counsel to them when they're overwhelmed? Like you said, like you painted it perfectly earlier where you said, there's so much curriculum, there's so many philosophies. And you've gotten to the place where you just sit down individually and find their interests. But what would you counsel somebody who's a little anxious about that? And they're going, man, I want to do this. I like feel to do this, but it's scary. And I don't know what I'm doing.

Dusty Haayema:

Usually my first advice is to take a minimum of three months and do nothing. Don't do anything like just be with your kids. Just go to the park, go for walks. Like you can go to museums and stuff like that, but don't focus on learning. Just see how they are. Especially if they're older and they're pulling their kids out like mid elementary or middle school type thing, just let them be for a while just watch them be the tiny humans that they are and get a feel for what they enjoy it will help you when you go to pick what you want to do. So I never knock on families who want a full curriculum or anything like that. I think you have to do what's good for your family. But if you don't do that, then you're picking things based on what looks good for you as the parent. And I think if you're looking at your kids, you can pick things that are good for your kids.

Tim Eaton:

There's research done on what is meaningful to any of us, to children in particular, When learning is meaningful, that's what you tend to do. And that's what fuels the learning and the love of learning. And so that's amazing advice. Now, if you did have somebody that said, I appreciate that and I will take that to heart, but are there particulars that you could give me, Could you give me something to like, hold on to for the first little bit or what would you say to them?

Dusty Haayema:

If they like really needed something, I would just suggest hey, go watch one of these two YouTubers. So usually I suggest the lady who does gather round from school. She did a whole bunch of curriculum reviews way back in the day before she created her curriculum.

Tim Eaton:

They're

Dusty Haayema:

originally from BC. She used to just review curriculum. Then she started writing curriculum for someone else and then she created gather around homeschool. So I would suggest them or Kathy Duffy also has amazing stuff and. Just pick one and kind of watch all of the stuff because I feel like if you're watching a bunch from every Different person you're gonna get a bunch of different ideas a bunch of this is bad. This is good This is what you have to do. I feel like those two people are very

Tim Eaton:

Allow you to come here is the

Dusty Haayema:

fact, but you decide if you want to use it.

Tim Eaton:

That's really good counsel. I appreciate that. Is there anything else you want to say regarding homeschool before I just ask you a couple of things about business and where to connect with you?

Dusty Haayema:

No, I don't think so. Take a breath. It's going to be okay.

Tim Eaton:

Awesome. No, you're just very genuine. I can just sense that. And so I have no doubt that people will one love this episode and two, that you'll be successful with whatever you do, what's on the horizon for the business and then how can people connect with you and learn more and, benefit from what you offer.

Dusty Haayema:

So as far as the business, we'll continue to do local markets and we'll continue to sell online. So we have a website, wdlighthouse. com. That's where we sell our candles and stationery and stuff. And. We'll just continue doing that until we feel like we're ready to go and travel and we'll just shift as far as homeschool stuff. We actually put all our homeschool Life journey on social media. So we have it all at beat of our drum and that came from my great grandma used to tell everyone that I marched to the beat of my own drum. So I Was like, yeah, I guess I do and I'm okay with that now

Tim Eaton:

Yeah, you should be for sure

Dusty Haayema:

So that's across the board everywhere Instagram, Facebook, TikTok. We're everywhere. We just put out positivity

Tim Eaton:

and hope it can

Dusty Haayema:

help someone.

Tim Eaton:

Yeah. I do love what it says on your website about just basically sharing light and goodness. And what a beautiful mission that is. I just have totally enjoyed this and I know that our our audience will. And so we appreciate Dusty taking time with us today and really encourage people to check out her stuff on her website. And also. Beat of our drum and just get some ideas and thank you for your advice and counsel and your way of saying things. I think people it'll really resonate with people and be beneficial to them. So thank you for being with us.

Dusty Haayema:

Yeah. Thank you so much for having me. It was fun.

Tim 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 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.