This Golden Hour
In this podcast, we specifically serve new homeschool families through engaging conversations with homeschool parents and families at all levels of experience and expertise. Listeners will increase their confidence and assurance about their children's education and future while diminishing their fears. This podcast helps you know how to begin homeschooling, navigate challenges, and answer questions for all stages of the journey.
The name “This Golden Hour” has meaning. First, this name refers to the years parents have to raise and teach their children from birth to when they leave home to be on their own. As parents, we have a golden opportunity to teach and learn alongside our children during these formative and essential years of growth and development. Second, “This Golden Hour” points to this same period of childhood as the children’s chance to read, explore nature, and enjoy an inspiring atmosphere of family, love, and learning.
This Golden Hour
94. Nathan Wallick and Peoria Carp Hunters
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In today’s episode, we get to spend time with Nathan Wallick from Peoria, Illinois. Nathan is a homeschool dad of three, firefighter, adventurer, founder of Peoria Carp Hunters, and his Instagram reels will have you riveted! He shares his journey from his suburban Chicago childhood to becoming a passionate advocate for homeschooling and intentional living. He talks about the benefits of homeschooling, the importance of creating lasting memories with family, and his unique bow fishing business. Nathan and I found ourselves chatting about balancing technology use, the role of sports, and fostering entrepreneurship in children. You’ll enjoy this unique conversation between two natives of the Chicago suburbs.
Connect with Nathan
Instagram - @natewallick
This Golden Hour
I think it's rigged. I think it's intentional. The government will give you hundreds of thousands of dollars in college loans, but they won't give you a $10,000 loan to start a business. I, I honestly believe it's set up that way,
Timmy EatonHi. I am 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. New 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 are listening to this Golden Hour podcast. In today's episode, we get to spend time with Nathan Wallach from Peoria, Illinois. Nathan is a homeschool dad of three, firefighter adventurer, founder of Peoria Car Hunters and his Instagram reels will have you riveted. He shares his journey from his suburban Chicago childhood to becoming a passionate advocate for homeschooling and intentional living. He talks about the benefits of homeschooling, the importance of creating lasting memories with family and his unique bow fishing business. Nathan and I found ourselves chatting about balancing technology, use the role of sports and fostering entrepreneurship in children. You'll enjoy this unique conversation between two natives of the Chicago suburbs. welcome back to this Golden Hour podcast today. We're so excited to have with us Nathan Wallock from Illinois. Nathan, thanks for joining us.
Nathan WallickHow you guys doing?
Timmy EatonSo good. So good, man. Let me just give a little bio and then we will let you add to it and then we'll jump into some questions. So Nathan Wallock is a homeschool dad of three kids, and I think you said eight, nine, and 11, is that right?
Nathan WallickYes. Yeah. Close enough.
Timmy EatonAnd he's also the founder of Peoria Carp Hunter. And you, everybody needs to go to peoria carp hunters.com because like you will, want to do that. He's also a professional firefighter and a US Coast Guard captain among other things. So what would you add to that bio and tell us anything else you wanna tell us about you and your family and what you're doing?
Nathan WallickNo, that's it. So I grew up in Chicago suburbs. I. When I left there I played football there. I went to Milliken University in Decatur, Illinois, and played football there. And then graduated with exercise science, fitness and sport degree. Was thinking about getting into personal training. Always wanted to do the fire service. Military was still always an option. My brother was in the SEAL teams at that time, Peoria ended up offering me a job within my one year demand. I was like, all right, I'll test around and try to get a job for one year. If not I'll just, I'll join the military by my brother. Yeah. Lord led me down the road of firefighting and I've been doing that ever since here in Peoria, Illinois,
Timmy Eatonwow. And we were talking beforehand, but I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago too, and so we were kinda sharing some stories about that and. Yeah. And played. Why was it friend? And you were in Elmhurst, right?
Nathan WallickYeah. I never really fit in Elmhurst, but, I was a metro redneck, I guess you could call it. I was always, there's a little creek that ran through our town called Salt Creek, and that's where I spent most of my time doing mischievous stuff. But it was fun. We always took canoe trips down the creek, going through people's backyards and golf courses. We always tried to make the best of living in the burbs,
Timmy Eatonso how many siblings did you have growing up?
Nathan WallickI got two younger sisters and one older brother, and then my dad retired from the forestry service. He's inspired me with what I'm doing now, it's easy to just not do anything when you grow up in the burbs.
Nathan Wallick (2)But
Nathan Wallickhe's Hey man, I found this new place. I was doing a tree removal. Go to this creek, go to that. And so I, I did my best to grow up punting and fishing. Yeah, shooting pigeons underneath the underpass. Probably not legal, but we did it anyways when we were kids. We had a lot of fun. Even growing up in the suburbs. There are things to do if you look hard enough.
Timmy EatonYeah, you gotta find it. I'd love to hear that you had that. 'cause I'm experiencing that now in my later years, but I was total city kid growing up for sure. Can you tell us what was your first exposure to homeschool? How did you guys get into it?
Nathan WallickSo I was public schooled. And when I married my wife she was homeschooled and that's what I was called, that's what I always called them. My thing was like, I was, I always against homeschooling just 'cause. A lot of the homeschooled kids I always met were always weird. So that was like, oh, homeschooling produce weird kids. And then, I'm sitting back here now thinking like, how many weird kids did I have in the public school? Once I married my wife and we had big discussions about it before before we got married. At that point I was 100% on board with homeschooling. And after doing it for well gauges 11, 11 years now. Yep. They're never going back. It's
Timmy Eatonjust so you guys have, that's all you've done then, huh?
Nathan WallickYeah.
Timmy EatonYeah. Awesome. Same with us. And why do you say that? So adamantly Yeah, they're not going back.
Nathan WallickI, I don't know. One, the indoctrination station, obviously that's a big issue. But I honestly believe education's what you make of it. Like you could. Get a good education at home, you can. I felt like I got a decent education in the public school. Yeah, same
Nathan Wallick (2)here. Yeah.
Nathan WallickI had an IEP growing up, so I always got like an extra tutor that would help me catch me up to speed. And so I don't have any complaints about the public schools other than, just the indoctrination stations and it's, nowadays it's with social media, everyone having a phone. It's just very hard to protect your kids when they're out of your hands for eight hours a day. I'm by no means like overprotective and wanna isolate my kids Totally. But at a certain age, there's things that they don't need to be exposed, they don't need to see. All I want them thinking about is homework and then what kind of fort they're gonna build out in the backyard. They'll catch on real quick. I'll catch 'em up to speed when the timing's right. But there's just things that young kids, they don't need to know.
Timmy EatonIf
Nathan Wallickthat, if that makes sense. You know what I'm saying?
Timmy EatonYeah. I think you said it perfectly, the idea of it's not an effort to isolate. It's not enough, it's not an effort to make your kids weird or something like that. It's things are like prematurely introduced when kids are totally not ready. And this has been a long time coming and man the evidence is so clear 'cause I'm on the same page with you and about 5 million people in the United States are on the same page with you. And that number's growing rapidly. So what other motivations do you guys have for homeschooling or what have you noticed that you're like, no, this is what we love about it. What do you guys love about doing it?
Nathan WallickHonestly for me it's just not being a slave to the system. I've always, felt like I've been a rebel. As far as like I'm just about any, I. Christian, Patriot, American. I'm has that little bit of rebellion in 'em, but I don't want society telling me when, where, and how, and it's with everything. I'm blessed enough with my job, even though I just got off a 24 hour shift the other day, and then yesterday I had to go straight to dive training all day. And now I'm home just getting some projects done and I'll be back to work for another 24 hour shift tomorrow, and then I'll have to work 12 hours of overtime after that on top of that. And then I'll come home for one day, go back to work.
Nathan Wallick (2)Wow. But,
Nathan WallickJust over the past 11 years, just seeing how having and setting our own schedule has been just such a huge blessing. We travel a lot, we do all of our vacations when either before spring break or after spring break. We usually don't go anywhere on weekends. We don't wait in lines. It's definitely a sacrifice. Homeschooling, it'd be easy just to, sometimes I wonder if I just came home after a long 24 hour shift at the firehouse and what eight hours a day would feel like with nobody home.
Nathan Wallick (2)Yeah.
Nathan WallickBut honestly, that's one of the big reasons for me why I love homeschooling is just when I come home, I want my kids to be home. I don't wanna come home to an empty house and then, have to take vacations when everybody else takes vacations. I have to wait in line crowds. It's just having that freedom is sweet. It
Timmy Eatonis. I love that you said freedom, and you've obviously touched on flexibility, creating your own schedule and every listener needs to go to Nathan's Instagram because you will see how they're using their time and it's amazing. Yeah. When you said freedom and flexibility, that's all I think about when I watch your reels and stuff.
Nathan WallickNow one thing I have noticed on that specific topic, if I can encourage other people, is when I say freedom, you still have to plan. I hate to say this 'cause you almost have to treat your home life like you do your business or your work life. You have to plan things or nothing will happen
Nathan Wallick (2)for sure.
Nathan WallickYou don't work, you don't set a schedule, you know what, even if it's a little things like think ahead, like what am I gonna do with my kids tomorrow? Or one thing cool that I'm gonna do with my kids this week, put it on your schedule and then throughout the week just keep your eyes open. If you're scrolling Instagram reels on, cool things to do with your kids. Maybe just do a little bit less people getting hurt videos and a little more Google search. Cool things to do with your, it's not hard.
Nathan Wallick (2)Yeah.
Nathan WallickWhen we're traveling, I found I just type in like crazy fun things to do with your kids that are just keywords like that, whatever state we're in and things pop up and we're like, let's go try that. So yeah, it just takes a little bit of effort though.
Timmy EatonYeah. No, that's so good. So you're busy, you're working, you're doing all these things but walk us through a day in the Wallach Home. What's it like? And I know there's no typical day, but what is that planning look like? What's happening on a daily basis? When you are around, when you're not around, what's happening at your home?
Nathan WallickThe way my job works is I work 24 on 48 off. And then if we get overtime, we get 'em in either 12 hour increments or 24 hour increments. So I'll be there at the station for two days. When I'm gone it's up to mom. She's all on her own and she's doing it. She's amazing. So when I come home 24 hours, usually I gotta go to the gym. I come straight home and we try to get our schooling done by noon which is something else that people are on the fence about homeschooling. Darn if you've been public schooled, if you cut all of the nonsense out of public schools, if you cut all the nonsense out and you had one teacher for every three kids, those kids would be in and out of there in three hours. Tops. Tops.
Timmy EatonYeah.
Nathan WallickTops. I guarantee it,
Timmy Eatonwhat time are they getting up and are they reading something? Are they doing a subject here after, is there like a certain day they do things? How does it operate for you guys?
Nathan WallickYeah, so we've got animals out here, so I keep them busy with that. They gotta get their chores done in the morning. Got a couple milking goats, which I don't recommend. 'cause you gotta milk 'em twice a day. It's a big pain. But my wife loves the goat milk. I'm more of a cow milk kind of guy. We get the, like I get the chores done and then usually we try to time it up so they get their reading, writing, arithmetic, all that stuff done by noon. And then I can give mom a break and we eat lunch and I can go take the kids and then do whatever it is. I try to plan that day. Some days it's projects, like me and my boy, we had to. Put that new deck on the pontoon boat for our pond. So that's what we've been working on since this morning. Trying to involve the kids if I can, if I got projects all day, try to involve them in the projects, which is hard 'cause you could probably get it done a lot quicker just by yourself, but then they're not learning anything.
Timmy EatonI've read your through your stuff and like free range kids adventure, natural rhythms and just the idea of a little bit of dangerous play. I just love to see that your kids are experiencing that, seems like on a fairly regular basis and
Nathan WallickYeah. Something I started with the kids. I've always been wired that way, always, been in the ropes, rock climbing extreme sports I guess. That's segued that into how I parent, but I really noticed with my kids just. By introducing them to dangerous things safely at a young age.
Timmy EatonYeah.
Nathan WallickWhen we're around other kids, they're way ahead As far as confidence and that's really what it's all about I want my kids to know how to do things safely. And I want them to just experience, like with the ice jumping stuff that I posted that's something we actually do. It's might not understand it, but I used to do it when I was a kid, we just didn't use ropes, and when the they go out there, they check the ice and is it thin enough to go play on? Most people are like, is it thick enough to go play on? 'cause they want to go out and smash through ice and fall through. And so we tie ropes on 'em and we all go out and play on the ice. But it's that experience of just knowing what it's like and how to get yourself out of a jam. That I feel that it's just, it's been really good form.
Timmy EatonI think so, man. I like that one clip that you guys did where you said you can go buy this like fancy playground stuff or you could just put a bunch of junk back there and let the kids stuff. I was laughing 'cause I was watching all those barrels that you get and then you stack those up and it was getting a little sketchy and your wife was like, wait, is this okay? But how has she been with that philosophy of let 'em learn this stuff so that they, develop confidence and develop the ability to, like you said, get out of a jam and stuff like that. Yeah, no,
Nathan WallickShe's been awesome. She completes me, so I need somebody to pull me down when I'm getting a little too high. She does an amazing job with that. And man, she's come a long way too. We got into canyoneering and she's to be afraid of heights and now she's. Jumping off waterfalls and cliffs with us. And she's doing it. I got her into canyoneering by a little trick it's called failure to communicate intentionally. Just didn't quite tell her what we were doing until we were in it. There's no turning around. 'cause when you're doing canyoneering, you can't go back out the way you came in. So she cracks me up. But she's awesome. She's always been athletic her whole life, she's good for me 'cause she knows the kids' limits and sometimes I forget and she helps remind me.
Timmy EatonI haven't done any formal study on this, but I am confident that there is a strong connection between. Kids who pursue entrepreneurial pursuits and like businesses, they come from backgrounds and it is such an an advantage when they've had that type of lifestyle where they're not afraid to try stuff they're asking a ton of questions, but then they're willing to go for it. I just feel like you don't get that kind of training in school at all. There's too much liability, there's too much whatever. And I think there's a real connection between that. And you'll see kids who have had a lifestyle like your kids are experiencing soar with in business and whatever else they,
Nathan WallickIt's funny you said that they don't teach you, all that time I spent in high school, in college, not once did I ever take a class on entrepreneurship. I was gonna work for the man labor job or firefighting. And that's that, that's, I never even thought about it until. I got on the fire department and then started my bow fishing business. It's just a small time, maybe four months outta the year bow fishing business. And I think it's rigged. I think it's intentional. The government will give you hundreds of thousands of dollars in college loans, but they won't give you a $10,000 loan to start a business. I honestly believe it's set up that way, I'm all for labor jobs, they built this country. They continue keeping the country running. I been a firefighter for 18 years now. Love my job, but I want to expose my kids and let them know that there's more than that, and obviously let them. Make the choice. When they get older, that's one gonna be one of my homeschool curriculums is just create a bubble wall of different jobs. And then, 'cause my wife's brothers all were homeschooled and they all went on up, be entrepreneurs and they did that with them as they put 'em out there and made 'em go work for this mechanic and go do dif d different kind of like internships with different people and get the brain, moving there's options out there. So I'd like to try to do the same thing with my kids. Just broaden that horizon that wasn't given to me.
Timmy EatonI love what you said about if you don't give the option, then they don't know that it exists. And so at least present the options to them and let them see the whole, I don't know if you've ever looked into Charlotte Mason stuff, but Charlotte Mason says, lay out the feast. Lay the feast and then let them try a bunch of stuff and at least give 'em the option. But you're right, a lot of us didn't have the option. Can you tell me, what have you thought, you alluded to it, but what have you and your wife talked about your oldest is 11 or 12 and what have you thought about with middle and high school years? How do you plan on doing that? 'cause that was like our question. We've had three kids go all the way through now, and we know that it works out awesome. And I actually went to school and wrote a dissertation on home education. But but before that we were just kinda oh man, how is this, how does this go down? And how does it turn out? How have you guys approached like the next coming years?
Nathan WallickYeah. Every day, just day by day I guess. So high school basically. It might come down to sports. I went to college. I also think that when I talked about going against the system, I think in some ways college is part of that system,
Timmy Eatonyeah, for sure.
Nathan WallickYou go get yourself in debt, then you get out, you're 23 years old, now you got debt, you gotta hurry up and get a job. So starting the businesses out 'cause you don't have any money and now you're stuck working for the, so it's just this cycle. I know. And there's certain things you have to go to college for. I understand. And I'm not gonna harp on college 'cause I went and felt like I had a good experience. But it's not the end all, be all, I watched my wife's brother. Graduated from homeschool early, like two years early, started getting into finished carpentry, started his own business in his I don't even, maybe mid twenties. Now he runs one of the biggest finished carpentry businesses in la. So it's gonna come down to each individual kid. And then that's the sports issue. Obviously to get a scholarship for football, you have to be on a football team through a high school. I'm glad to have gone through that experience, played sports my whole life. My dad knew nothing about it, so I was just on my own when it came to navigating all of that.
Nathan Wallick (2)Yeah.
Nathan WallickSo hopefully I can help them if I see potential like they might have potential to get a scholarship for football or something like that I think they can still go. They have to go to the high school part-time. So we're gonna play that by ear. But e even football, unless you're gonna be really good, they'll give you lots of money. But here I'm sitting on, I don't even know how many surgeries from playing sports my whole life. So was that worth it? To save myself some money, deal with torn shoulders and knees my whole life. I don't know. So that's why I'm just always torn about the sports thing, so
Timmy Eatonit is tough. And you and I talked prior to the interview about sports and it's a tough thing like I did too. I played football, basketball, baseball and Palatine there. And loved it. And I think there's things that it does, it helps with confidence and teamwork and that kind of stuff. It also takes a ton of time. It takes a ton of time. And that's what I was telling Nathan before the interview. Our kids have been doing that and now we're stuck in a rut. 'cause they all love it. And in our area, they can go to school and play sports without doing anything at the school. They can just go, oh, really? Okay. And they can try out if they make the teams and they get to play. And it, every area is different. And I think things are changing everywhere to be more friendly but not everywhere. There's things, the weigh, like you said, like potential injury, but that's life you're doing dangerous play with your kids all the time.
Nathan Wallick (2)Yeah.
Timmy EatonThe biggest thing for us is like the whole point of homeschooling was to not tie ourselves down to a school schedule and, or at least where we live here in Southern Alberta, Canada, when you get on the basketball team, now you're going to tournaments almost every weekend. Family time is shot. We had dinner maybe once or twice a week together. And so we regret some of that choice now because we've instilled that in our kids and it's hard to go back. So anyway, those are some things to really think about and the other thing is if I were to ask you Nathan and your wife, if I said to you guys, Hey, what is the main purpose you want your kids to play sports? What is it about it that you would be interested in them thinking that's a valuable way to use their time? What would you say?
Nathan WallickOkay, so it's funny you said that. So we did, the basketball. They weren't old enough yet for full pads football. So it was flag. So we tried that out and we just started to become a slave to just nonstop every day. And then of course, if it's a team sport, you feel guilty for, Hey, we're not gonna go today 'cause we're gonna go do this. 'cause you want, they're part of a team. So my advice is at that age, like right now, like with my kids being 8, 9, 11, we pulled our kids out of it because it just was getting too much I'm blessed because of my job. Even though I work, 24, 48 hour shifts, I can get a good block of time off. If I just take one day off work or I have vacation day, I can get five days off. So we just decided, you know what, we're gonna do the traveling thing for right now. We want the experiences, give the kids the experiences. And then the sports thing will start reassessing that once maybe the kids are getting junior high school age. I put my kids in Juujitsu last year. And if there's any homeschooling family that's trying to figure out, navigate the sports thing for right now. I highly recommend Jiujitsu because it's not a team sport. You pay monthly, we can take our kids three times a week if we want, once a week. It doesn't matter. It's good contact sport. They're learning something. I learned a lot from playing sports and football, but juujitsu is something that you're gonna take with you throughout your entire life the skills you acquire through that sport. So for homeschool families, if they're trying to figure out what to get their kids involved in, highly recommend it. I have nothing but good things to say about it, so
Timmy Eatonthat's cool. No, I like that suggestion. And yeah, when people really start thinking about it, like in a principle way, and they go, okay, so what is it about? It's it's about, exercise, it's about gaining confidence. It's about learning something, protecting yourself. Then you start thinking about it when it comes down to it in school sports, it's very peer centered and it's status, like it's totally status. Anyway, everybody's gotta tackle that as they will, but we've got lots of experience now with it and have lots of thoughts for people. So anyway, yeah, I just
Nathan WallickI think everybody has to make their own decisions, but for me it just got to the point where if I'm not taking my kids on vacation or doing things with my kids, because we have to go to practice and football starts. Flag football starts in like the end of July.
Nathan Wallick (2)Yeah.
Nathan WallickSo there goes your summer, it's no, we can't take that vacation. We can't go camping with the kids.
Timmy EatonTotally
Nathan Wallickman, with where your kids are at. And we were just talking about it with my 11-year-old, just the difference in just watching videos from when he was nine to 11. It's going fast. It's fast and I wanna try to like, absorb as much of that as possible. And that's why I bailed out a, some of the sports as of right now is I just, I want to go out, I wanna make some memories with them while I can and then see how they do and reassess the sport
Timmy Eatonthing when
Nathan Wallickthey're
Timmy Eatona little bit older. I think you guys are approaching it the right way and I think it's good to ask the questions because that's one of the biggest challenges I was gonna ask you guys 'cause probably the biggest or one of the biggest challenges we've experienced because we love homeschooling. We love the philosophy of it, but I grew up in a family where nobody really questioned that kind of stuff and you remember, you and I were doing two aday in the summer before fall started, and that was taking your whole summer. And then if you played Always way worse now. Oh, it's way worse now. Talking with
Nathan Wallickmy friends and they roll into work, just smoke and they're like, dude, this is traveling. Teams are year round now. And they don't even know why they're doing it. And I'm just like, dude, just don't do it. Your kids are like eight years old, dude. Relax go take your kids on a vacation. I remember my dad, even though we were in school, he would always pull us out, like to do fun things. We do Great America early spring, right when the park opened and we just watched the weather for like, when it's gonna be like scattered. Thunderstorms throughout the day. Really crappy.
Nathan Wallick (2)Yeah. Weather.
Nathan WallickAnd he'd pull us outta school and we'd go to Great America because we'd just run through the lines. We'd make sure it was like on a Tuesday or something. That was my childhood growing up we still did that kind of stuff. So
Timmy EatonI remember getting kicked out of Great America when I was in junior in high school. So I've been there many a time and that was so cool to hear you say Great America. Yeah. I was there, the buddies and siblings, and we got on the first ride and we got kicked outta the park and our parents had to come get us. It was terrible, man. I should
Nathan Wallicknot admit to this, but we did go one time and it was after my knee surgery, so I still had, the brace and everything. We got the cut in front of all the lines. 'cause I stuck that brace back on and my kid, he hadn't been, so we went and did that. I did that with him. Last year was maybe it was the year before that, but we went on a Tuesday early spring and we. We still got the fast passes just for fun. And we just went on every ride. We made a game out of it. 'cause you could go on as many rides and then you mark it down on the paper, see if you can hit every ride you want in the park and then put a slash if you've done it twice and then the next time you go back try to break that record.
Timmy EatonOh, that's cool. Not a
Nathan Wallickbig theme park guy. Mark my words, I'll never take my kids or family to Disney World if they go with somebody else, so be it. But I do ride so we'll. We will do the great American stuff. We're going back to Florida in a couple weeks and there's so much to do that state's so amazing. Every state is, and yeah, There's just so much to do. It's awesome. Done a lot of guided hunts, a lot of stuff in Florida and I just always encourage people. I know it takes effort. Having fun takes effort. It really does. And the more effort you put in, the more fun you're gonna have. And then the more fun you're gonna have, the more addicting it becomes. I always get nervous, and I'm a guide calling up other guides trying to figure out, all right man, I don't take my kids on a hog hunt in Florida. Where do I even begin? So you gotta sit down the computer and it takes time, or go do this crazy canyoneering hike. I gotta sit down, I gotta research it and figure it out. But then you go and do it and you have that experience of, jumping off a waterfall or repelling, whatever it is. Like you come back, you're like, that was awesome. And it gives you that motivation to keep building off of that. That's always been my advice for people. Like a lot of people, a lot of my friends are like, man, how do you find these places? It's amazing when you start going down the rabbit hole.
Timmy EatonYeah. It just opens up,
Nathan Wallickit just keeps opening up to more and more. And then you're like, oh, we didn't do this in that state. It's easy to go there and just go sit on a beach and relax. I get it. Everybody works. Their keisters off and all, but now's not that time. You retire, you can go sit on a beach. It's the effort thing. I just encourage people to, wherever you're vacationing, look up a guide, a guide's, one of the best ways to see a state. 'cause he's gonna show you what you're not gonna see anywhere else. But just pick one off the cuff, one crazy thing in whatever state you're vacationing at and just go do it. You might lose out, it might be a bust, but. For us, our experience is it's more wind than bus. And once you experience that, you're gonna keep wanting to do it. It's hard work. I get it. A little bit nerve wracking. Nobody wants to go on vacation and be nervous 'cause they don't know what to expect. The more you do it, the more you're gonna wanna do it. I promise.
Timmy EatonAnd you're living this life. You gotta live it. I love what you're pointing out like to me, and to any listener is like that. Homeschooling, and I've been saying this forever, but homeschooling is not like just simply and merely a way of learning. It's a way of life. It's a lifestyle. And that's obviously what you guys are doing. It's a lifestyle You've chosen I was gonna ask you, I watched that one clip of when you did get that bore where, so that was in Florida?
Nathan Wallick (2)Yeah.
Timmy EatonYeah. And so that thing was like right next to you. How did you
Nathan WallickYeah, so he actually charged me. I know, I saw, yeah. And, I ended up getting him, he bigger than me. He was over well over 200 pounds. But
Timmy Eatonyou were, but he was like in the brush I didn't know
Nathan WallickHe was there. You can't see him. He was closed. So usually what happens is the dogs get him out into an open field and then you wrestle him down and he got free and the dogs weren't on him, so he just came jumping out of the bush.
Timmy EatonNice dude. That was like, I was nervous for you. That when I was like, whoa, what's gonna happen here? But anyway, that was cool.
Nathan WallickAnd that's another thing, I just wanted to post that video to show people, even hunts, like guided hunts and stuff like that, you can bring the kids along. Like the Florida, they love the monster truck. You go out in these big swamp buggies and that's the one thing they wanted go back and do again. And you got the dogs are working, they're chasing it's just something that the whole family can have fun with.
Timmy EatonI was gonna ask you, I was wondering like, what did your dad and your mom and your, and whoever, like who in your family and your friends, how did everybody respond to your wife obviously grew up homeschooling, so her family was into it, and I'm interested to know how they got into it too, but what did your family think of it all, and what's been the evolution now that they've seen, 11 years of it?
Nathan WallickMost of my family now all homeschools wow. Brothers, sisters homeschooling didn't really wake up, I would say until maybe a decade ago. It really started exploding and now after Covid, it really exploded.
Nathan Wallick (2)Yes.
Nathan WallickEverybody's on board with it. Everybody loves it.
Timmy EatonAnd were they from the beginning or were they kinda what are you doing, man, or No?
Nathan WallickNo, I think because we're all, I'm blessed enough to be in a family that's that everyone's believers and Jesus Christ. So we all had the same Christian worldview. And seeing how fast things are crumbling. Everybody's, trying to protect our kids and, every single person and kid out there has one of these things.
Timmy EatonTotally, man.
Nathan WallickThe technology's always a battle, it's always a battle with the iPads, I'm no saint either. We will do iPad time once in a while and stuff, and you have to keep fighting against that battle. You don't know what you don't know. So I grew up in the burbs. If I got to go out to somebody's land and ride a four wheeler and shoot guns I was in heaven and here I am, I'm blessed enough to live out on property in the country, and because sometimes I gotta force my kids to go outside no, we're going outside.
Nathan Wallick (2)Yes, we're gonna go
Nathan Wallickplay. And once they're out there, they get the fort stuff going. I'm, I keep coming home with more barrels and my wife keeps getting mad at me. We don't need more barrels. No, we do. 'cause they wanna make like a 10 story building off of 'em,
Timmy Eatonoh, that's so good. So that's cool. So your family was on board. There's so many cool things about when your kids get older and you get to start hanging out on a different level. And we've loved it and to see our kids progress but there are some challenges in the secondary years that, you don't experience in the primary years. And I said all that. 'cause I just feel like you're in that magical stage of zero to 11. What, what's been like probably the hardest thing for you guys in homeschooling? What's been a challenge that you get? You would say, no, that's a reality. Like it's hard in this way
Nathan Wallickbattling against technology a hundred percent. And I think that's everyone's, and it's so easy to just give in and just go play video games for the evening and, it's a constant battle for me because some days I come home smoked and it's just like, all right, just go get outta here. Go get outta here. I have to remind myself like, no, we're not doing that. To touch on that. The way I try to explain parenting, like as a father is you gotta pretend like you're a seven 11, you're not always doing business, but you're always open. So I'm always looking around, like even if I'm on my phone or I'm scrolling, like coming up trying to find ideas that I can engage with my kids. Yeah. Even like the barrels thing, like I'm, that's how it started. I literally was just driving home and I saw this big stack of barrels in this dude's yard and I pulled in. He's like, yeah, I'm getting rid of all of 'em. I'm like, no idea what I'm gonna do with him. I'm like I can't pass up this opportunity. I came home with a whole truckload of barrels and then all of a sudden the kids took those things out. They've been the greatest toys the past five years. They're still playing with them. And so I just keep coming home with more barrels. And after doing that, I was kind of like, man, what else is there? So I'll come home with pallets and now they're building forts outta pallets. Then that morph. We just got an Airsoft last year. Now we got all these pallets so they can build airsoft forts outta the pallet. So I'm constantly learning, but I'm always trying to throughout the day, if I'm at work or something like, all right, I actively think about what am I going to try to do to engage my kids. Because I wanna battle against technology.
Timmy EatonYes,
Nathan Wallickit can be a good thing. Technology's a good thing. It can be a huge blessing, especially for homeschoolers, but it can also be a curse.
Timmy EatonYep.
Nathan WallickYeah,
Timmy Eatonno, we're facing the same thing. And like you said, it's a universal thing and I like what you're saying, and I like a lot of what you're doing as a dad. I was telling you about the course. I've created, it's basically called proactive homeschool data. And the idea is like you're doing things intentionally. Instead of decrying it and going, oh, this stinks. And we have to deal with this technology issue, which is a reality, and I know it's not pleasant, but why not be proactive and intentional and like you said, engage them. So that mitigates the problem, it doesn't do away with it and it's not going away, but it does decrease it when you actually actively engage them with something that takes time and lets their curiosity be explored and discover stuff.
Nathan WallickEvery parent notices it, you start seeing if your kid's getting on the technology, the iPad or the game's a little bit too much. It definitely affects their brain, especially if you have a child that's a little more hyperactive, than others and then you go out there, you try fishing and you can't sit there for, three minutes, five minutes still. But we still, we just took them, went Turkey hunting last week, and he's can I bring the iPad? I'm like, no, bud. You are gonna just sit there and stare out the window for the next three hours and the entire time, just be quiet. Be quiet for three. It would've been so easy just to let him have an iPad. He'd sit still. I wouldn't have to mind him to be quiet about a dozen times, but that's what I mean is by you just have to actively, constantly go do battle against it. I
Timmy Eatongot a good suggestion for you. I don't know, have you ever heard of the Yo O?
Nathan WallickThe Yo o?
Timmy EatonYeah. At YOTO.
Nathan WallickYOTO.
Timmy EatonNo, it's a yodel player. And it's 'cause what we were struggling with is our kids were listening to audio books and what I've learned is that you don't even know how much your kids would be in audio books if they star 'em. And I feel like it's like universal. 'cause some kids would be, I'm not a reader, whatever, see we were struggling years ago to find something that they didn't have to get on a phone and feel like they were a cool kid or have be exposed to stuff from a phone. So my wife researched, she's awesome at doing that. She found this thing called the Yoda and they can do that when they're doing other stuff. They're doing their chores, they're listening to books and our kids books. Yeah, that's
Nathan Wallickmy kids do. They do the audio books?
Timmy EatonThe Yodel player is the best thing I've found for that. So you could look that up, and I just feel like it's such a great replacement. Up, up to 13, 14 none of our kids even worry about technology. And then when they hit 14, 15, they start really caring. But up to that man, the Yoda has been I think a godsend
Nathan WallickAudio books have been a godsend to me. my kids call it teleporting when we travel in the rv, I just drive through the night, I'm used to being up 24 hours in fire department and my sleep schedule's messed up anyways. They just go to bed and they wake up and we're in Florida. They're like, that was great. So are we gonna teleport tonight, daddy? I'm like, yeah, you guys are, go to bed.
Timmy EatonI do wanna transition 'cause you talked about bow fishing. So just tell people a little bit about that just so they know what you do and like how did you start that? So how'd you get into bow fishing? Tell people what that is even because I had to see it to know what the heck that was.
Nathan WallickWhen I got hired in the fire department in Peoria, the Illinois River runs right through Peoria. I always been a boat guy, so I took my basketball out there and. Started seeing these fish jumping and I didn't know about it until I moved to Peoria, either what is this? And then I used to bow fish. So I brought my bow out there and we started shooting at these Asian cart, jumping outta the water. And there's a couple guys at that time chartering running business taking people out, shooting them. So I just went out and a little bit of money we had left in our savings and dumped it in a boat and gear and started guiding for bow fishing. And I've been doing that for 13, 14 years now. I'm the only one out there doing it. Yep. The other guys weren't able to keep doing it. And Peoria area is the only place in the entire state, let alone country where they jump like they do.
Timmy EatonSo that's the thing that I, when I was watching videos, I'm like, where is he? And then I found out that where you were from, and I was like, what? This is two and a half hours from where I grew up. And why are those fish there? Anyway,
Nathan Wallickso they got in the Mississippi I believe early eighties guys put the Asian carp in their catfish ponds. When the Mississippi flooded, they gotta Mississippi and they'd just been swimming north and spawning. They spawn multiple times a year, lay up to a million eggs each time. They eat 20% of their body weight a day in plankton. We've killed 20 pounders jumping outta the water, but I've seen they're
Timmy Eatonhuge man.
Nathan WallickI've seen 40, 50 pounders from commercial guys. And so what I do is basically I got a boat with tennis ball netting wrapped around the whole front of the boat and pick out six guys, five shoot at the same time. And they jump more closer to the back of the boat, which is why I got seats in the back because they spook to vibration and water turbulence. That's why you gotta have an aluminum boat with two stroke motors. That's what makes em jump yeah. 'cause I'll get people that'll roll up to me and they're like, why aren't it? It's all about the, this certain kind of noise in the water. I thought it was
Timmy Eatonfood. My kids were asking and they're like, what's up with that? And I was like, I bet you it's food. I bet you they're chucking food in there. And they, and that well,
Nathan Wallickno, so like four strokes, they run real quiet. They don't vibrate make, they make the right sound. And then if you have a fiberglass boat, the fiberglass absorbs that vibration. Yeah. So you need
Timmy Eatonaluminum,
Nathan Wallickyou need aluminum and two strokes. So that's why I got a big giant 22 foot John boat and the two strokes on it. And,
Timmy Eatonand dudes must love it. Like, all manner of people come all, all over the place to do that. Yeah. I mean it's a real life,
Nathan Wallickwhack-a-mole for adults. And what I said earlier about involving your kids on like different kind of hunts. That's why all those Florida hunts that we did, there was always something the kids can get in on. And, I learned that from just what I do. 'cause I, I take out a ton of families and dads wanna be able to shoot and the kids have no problem staying entertained. 'cause even if they can't pull the bows back,
Timmy Eatonoh, you're
Nathan Wallickcatching, that's right off the side of the boat. And they're just catching these things as they're flying in the net. So everybody can get in on it.
Timmy EatonI love the two clips with the one of you catching that one like by hand and then holding it in the water.
Nathan WallickI'll water ski with my tri it and we'll spear 'em as they're, so that started years ago. I have old videos of, I posted on YouTube. We used to just go out and it just progressed. And we weren't married. We didn't have kids. So my buddy still lived in the suburbs and like we'd start building contraptions in our garages. Just stuff to try out on the river, and it just morphed into like us going out water skiing on the only river with suits of armor and swords and tridents and killing 'em as they're jumping outta the water. We call it aerial spearfishing. Do you eat 'em? Are they good? They're edible because they feed on plankton. They're more of a white filet, but the problem is you can't get the bones outta the meat. So that's why they've had a really hard time trying to find a market for 'em, it's a thousand times worse than a pike. It's just real fine throughout the whole filet. It's fun. It's fun shooting them and everybody asks how hard it is. It's they're jumping outta the water by the thousands. As soon as we pull out, you're shooting your bow. As many times we shoot light bows about 25 pound pull. You're shooting thousands of times a day and you actually get good at it. You, you everything. It's funny how the mind in the eyes, like everything, like after you throw about 10 of 'em, all of a sudden that arrow starts going where you're staring. And it's the same thing for this sport for bow fishing.
Timmy EatonIt's so cool. Do they do it anywhere else? Like I had never heard of it.
Nathan WallickNo. It's the only place you can do it is right here on the Illinois River. 'cause even though they started in the Mississippi, they don't jump like they do here because they're too spread out. Illinois river's too big of a body of water. So the area I operate this scientist I was talking to last year is like 80% of the biomass in that river is Asian carp. So they're just packed and schooled up, which is why we get 'em to jump so much in this area.
Timmy EatonWell. Maybe one day you'll, I'll find myself on your boat, man, that'd be so awesome. Yeah,
Nathan Wallickgo through. Lemme know.
Timmy EatonSo how do you navigate like your summers? If you're doing about four, you said four months of the year. Yes. How do you do that with firefighting, vacations, time with family? Like, how do you navigate all that?
Nathan WallickIt's rough. It's busy. But going back to what I said earlier, you have to like, I got this paper calendar and it got to a point where, like I wasn't even enjoying my summers because I was pe somebody would call, I'd be like, yeah, I'll take, and I'd say a couple years ago now, I just said enough's enough. So when I set my calendar for my vacation time, it's like, all right, I don't know what I'm doing this week, but I gotta a vacation day stacked next to each other here and here we have this whole week off it's blank. Cool. We're doing something. And I started doing that two years ago and I stuck with it and our fun factor went on. So I just think that's the key is getting together with your wife actually sitting down, opening up the month. I like paper calendars, we don't have to figure out what we're going to do, but we are going to do something this whole week, in August, in July, and I try to break it up. If we do any big trips, we always go in the spring. Usually in the end of August. That way kids are still in school. They haven't got out for the summer yet, but everything's still warm enough to do cool stuff. And like end of August it's still warm enough to do boating stuff, but everybody's back in school. So that's how if we're planning our big trips, that's when we plan our big trips or our vacations. Like we're going to doing spring break in two weeks. Everybody else will be back in school, we roll up to the beaches and they're had the whole beaches to ourselves. That's the blessing about homeschooling. So it is
Timmy Eatonman, it is. When do you start the bow fishing? When does that season start?
Nathan WallickUsually? May. Depends on water temperature. Usually in May the water temperature's up and then we get a lot of flooding in the spring, so the flooding will will slow 'em down too if the river floods up. So usually June through September is, I would say my. Prime season.
Nathan Wallick (2)Nice
Nathan Wallickriver, real low. The fish are just stacked in there, and that's usually when they jump the best.
Timmy EatonI was just gonna ask you like you're obviously, living with intention as far as your role as a dad. I, if you were to sum up what do you see, and this is obviously coming from your worldview, and just you say it how you want, like what do you see as the role of a homeschool dad in his family's homeschool, homeschooling in his family?
Nathan WallickI've got this thing where like my goal is to foster a friendship with my kids. Obviously I wanna be their parent but I wanna be their friend. My goal is just to get my kids outta the house as fast as they can so I can go do whatever I want to do. When my kids hit their, like twenties, my hope is that my kid will be the one to call me and say, Hey man, let's go do this fishing trip. Or instead of his buddy like that's what I'm trying to foster. For the purpose of, I wanna lead them, to Christ. I wanna continue to lead them to Christ. I wanna be there for 'em. I have learned quite a lot, a lot of life lessons. Yeah. And I don't believe that. Other people have to learn the hard way. They can learn from other people's, hard lessons. They don't have to learn it for themselves.
Timmy EatonI made a lot of bad decisions. It doesn't mean they have
Nathan Wallickto too, that's the type of thing they can learn from my bad decisions, but they won't learn from my bad decisions if I'm not their friend. Obviously I wanna be their parent, and that's my mentality. My thinking is and I'm not there yet. I don't know, I, but doing what I'm doing with them like the Instagram videos and stuff like that, I just, and the traveling I'm hoping that'll be the case as they get older.
Timmy EatonThey say the trips and the vacations is what kids remember. They don't remember the stuff. You got 'em and stuff like that. They remember the trip. You're creating memories and I think those vacations and getting away as a family that, that's huge. You're just focusing on relationships and making sure those are lasting. Then the last question I was gonna ask you and I'm sure you and your wife have had this, like when families come up to you and they're thinking about homeschooling in your church or in your neighborhood or whatever in your family, and they're like, man, I feel so overwhelmed. Like, how do you do this? I don't know what I'm doing. What's your like, advice for new families?
Nathan WallickWhat we talked about earlier. Everybody is comparing public school to homeschooling. What am I gonna do? I got five hours a day or eight hours a day. I've got a, like no, it you. Guess what? We school throughout the entire year. We don't take the summers off because Yeah, we do
Timmy Eatonem all the time.
Nathan WallickYeah. We're always schooling. 'cause we will go do this trip and maybe we don't get schooling done on that trip, it's just the flexibility is endless. And honestly, when we talk about technology being a blessing, this is the day, this is the era, the age or whatever to, to homeschool. It doesn't matter. I'm not good at math, I'm not, you know, so it doesn't matter. The curriculums out there are amazing. They, you're a Google click away from, figuring out an answer to whatever, it that today's technology if, and if Covid showed anything, it's kids don't need to go to school. I know. Done through, through the computer. I just think that people just need to pull the trigger. I talk with so many guys at work about this very topic, and they're always asking, man, we're thinking about homeschooling. We just, dude, you just do it. You just do it. You're not gonna, you're gonna be like, man we, why did we do this a long time ago? 'cause it's it's hard. There's times where it's hard, but and it's the mentality. It's, it comes down to the mentality of what do you want, if you don't wanna spend time with your kids and put 'em in school, if the goal is to just get your kids out of the house so then you can go and be a flamingo somewhere in Florida. Yeah. Okay. But if your goal is to foster, really foster relationship with your kids and not be a slave to the system and you want to travel more with your kids, spend a little bit more time with your kids then homeschooling is definitely, I. The way to be able to do that. You go to school eight hours a day, and then if you're involved in a sport, you do the sport, then you come home, then you got schoolwork, then you go to bed. How much time does that give me to play with my kids? Maybe on the weekends, but then weekends comes around, you gotta get projects done. So I just tell people, just dive in. Reach out to people that, that already homeschool. There's all sorts of, Google search away from finding like a CC class, co-op, homeschool co-op in your area. There's almost guaranteed there's gonna be something like that available in your area just because home schooling's taken off as much as it has, so
Timmy EatonFor sure.
Nathan WallickBut yeah, just the slave to the system thing's always rubbed me the wrong way.
Timmy EatonIt's enough motivation to just do it.
Nathan Wallick (2)Yeah.
Timmy EatonThat's an awesome answer, man. I, and I agree. I just think it's like you said it a few minutes ago, thi this is the time to homeschool like it is to me, like people have been used to saying, and it's changing, like it's changing pretty fast, but people are like, dude, why would you homeschool? And the question now is like, why are you not homeschooling? Like it really is the question that people should be asking and I know that not every family's in the same circumstance or situation, but more and more there's a way to do it. And and yeah, for the benefit of your kids and for the lifestyle, man, why are you not homeschooling,
Nathan Wallickbut everybody deals with, in some ways, some form of like depression. Like when you get overwork, you just you just get drag and drag and with homeschooling, you can fill your glass up whenever you want. You don't have to wait for spring break. Oh man, I'm I gotta freaking keep humping it for the next month. Yeah. Two months, because that's when we can go on vacations. Hey, guess what, man? You're feeling down. You like your fun factor isn't real high. You come home from work, you got a couple of vacation days to burn. We're going
Timmy Eatonso cool.
Nathan WallickWe're gone. We're gone. Let's go. That week, whenever you want. Just take a vacation day and gone take your kids no school, for that, those couple days and fill your cup back up. And it's been real helpful to me just because I'm a fun nut and when I start getting into the dregs of life and, I, there's just times where I just come home and that's it. We're leaving, and we leave and go do something fun. And then I come back, my cup's filled and I'm re-energized. So yeah, you're
Timmy Eatonready to go back at it. And I like what you said, when you look at your calendar your paper calendar, you go, I don't know what we're gonna do, but we're doing something. And you just schedule it and you just go, you make it happen. And you have
Nathan Wallickto or it won't, nothing will happen. It won't. I can promise you it won't. That's right. And when people call me like, Hey, my, and no I, yeah. That, that, that week's full can't take you out. Sorry. Yeah. And started doing that. Even your simple, just day-to-day playtime, you almost kind have to take that same mentality. Otherwise you come home and you just veg and you zone out. You gotta have an attitude of, I'd say once a week, actively plan something fun you're gonna do with your kids. You don't know what it is yet, but stick on this calendar. You know what, this day we're gonna do something fun. And then that motivates you to try to.
Timmy EatonLook at, look up something or
Nathan WallickYeah, look something up. See what's in your area. Maybe it's a rock climbing gym or a who knows, a creek different hike you haven't explored yet.
Timmy EatonSo good. This has been Nathan Wallach again, I encourage everybody to go to what's your Instagram handle? It's at Nate
Nathan WallickWallach.
Timmy EatonAt Nate Wallach. And look up peoria car hunters.com. You'll love that. Thank you so much for taking time. I appreciate it.
Nathan WallickYeah, absolutely buddy.
Timmy EatonThat 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 Podcast 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.