This Golden Hour

118. Holly Britton and Squiggle Squad

• Timothy Eaton

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In today’s episode, we get to spend time with Holly Britton from California. Holly is a homeschool mother of four children, a grandmother of three with one on the way, educator, blogger, and creator of Squiggle Squad. Holly describes wanting to pour herself into her first child and how that love for her children led her to decide to eventually homeschool. She imparts wise counsel after wise counsel from all her valuable, veteran experience as a homeschool mother and educator. I personally learned so much from Holly, and I particularly benefited from her advice to homeschool dads. Borrowing from all of her wisdom, education, and experience, Holly created Squibble Squad after observing major gaps in children’s learning, specifically with handwriting. This episode is a must-listen for all homeschool families and all families with young children.

Connect with Holly

squigglesquad.com

holly@squigglesquad.com

Holly’s Book

The Planned Approach


This Golden Hour

Holly Britton:

you have a role whether you're teaching an academic subject or not. Absolutely. And your role is not just supporting your wife, but actually stepping into your kids'. Learning experience as much as possible. If that means going on field trips with them, if that means talking with them about what they studied over dinner that is how you support your homeschooling wife.

Timmy Eaton:

Hi. 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're listening to this Golden Hour podcast. In today's episode, we get to spend time with Holly Britton from California. Holly is a homeschool mother of four children, a grandmother of three with one on the way. Educator, blogger and creator of Squiggle Squad holly describes wanting to pour herself into her first child and how that love for her children led her to decide to eventually homeschool. She imparts wise counsel after wise counsel from all her valuable veteran experience as a homeschool mother and educator. I personally learned so much from Holly, and I particularly benefited from her advice to homeschool dads. Borrowing from all of her wisdom, education, and experience. Holly created Squibble Squad after observing major gaps in children's learning, specifically with handwriting in the school system. This episode is a must listen for all homeschool families and all families with young children. Welcome back to this golden Hour. We are very excited to have with us today, Holly Britton from California. Holly, thank you for joining us.

Holly Britton:

Thanks for having me.

Timmy Eaton:

I just wanna give a bio and then we'll jump into things. So Holly Britton is actually a homeschool mother of four. Her children are all adults now, ranging from 25 to 30. And she is also a grandmother of three with one on the way. She is a master of education and curriculum and instruction specialist. She's a blogger and author and really focuses on making the kinesthetic connection to language, which we're gonna talk about throughout this episode. And I encourage everybody from the get go to go to squiggle squad.com, which is a great name, and you're gonna have to tell us about that to check her stuff out. And there's actually resources very specific to homeschool families and this audience. This will be a great episode. So thank you for joining us again.

Holly Britton:

Yeah, it's a pleasure to be with you guys and

Timmy Eaton:

say anything else that you would add to your bio that you wanna put in there, or just anything you wanna say.

Holly Britton:

It's really important to know that I love horses and that if I wasn't here with you, I'd probably be out with my horses. Awesome. Homeschooling was an absolute joy for me and my family. It was a surprise to me. It was not a plan. It, I don't know if it normally is.

Timmy Eaton:

Yeah. I think it's rare. It's getting more common that way, but no, for us, back in the day we all surprised ourselves.

Holly Britton:

And as far as my bio goes, I have worked in public and private education. The professional side of me happened after homeschooling or right towards the end of homeschooling. The last of my kids. All four did go to university. That's not obviously a must for homeschooled students, but all four of mine did. Yeah. And I found myself pretty involved in their college experiences which was a joy. We've always shared learning together. We continue to share literature and poetry and music and all those things that we nurtured along the way are still a very big part of our families, even as they bring in spouses and now grand babies.

Timmy Eaton:

I think what's cool about an episode like this is you have clout with homeschool families because you know it, you know that world. And then you have a resource that is developed from the heart of a mother who homeschooled. And so I think that'll be very valuable so first of all you were saying in this next stage, like homeschooling continues. You were involved with their university and like that heart is always there. But can you start by telling us a little bit about because you said you surprised yourself how did you get into it? So let's talk a little bit about homeschool and then we'll switch over to Squibb to Squad and really talk about what you do professionally and as a business.

Holly Britton:

Sure. So how'd you

Timmy Eaton:

get into it? Like, how'd you hear about it? How'd you know about it? And was that in California?

Holly Britton:

That was in California at the time, we were living in Southern California, in San Diego, and I was a brand new mommy. I had never known a mom other than my own, like in terms of like other people who had babies. Other than babysitting, mommyhood was a big surprise to me and what it took, and I just wanted that baby came and I just wanted to pour into the little one. So my first one was a boy, my son Ian. And I just dove right in. In Southern California, if you wanna get into the, gifted preschool, you have to be on the list. You have to be on the list a year, or two years in advance. So I've started looking as a good mom does, looking into the gifted preschools in the area, and I went and visited them. And every preschool I went into, I didn't do a lot. I maybe three, four. And when I'd walk in, I'd observe what was going on. And half the time I was seeing things I didn't like, a kid hitting another kid, a kid playing by themselves and looking neglected or what. That's not to say all preschools are bad, I just kept thinking my little ones had this really rich first couple years of life. Yes. And I want that to continue and I don't know what's gonna happen if I just put'em into school. So that's happening on the one hand, like going through my brain. And then on the other side I have this incredible babysitter that would actually watch Ian and subsequently my second one, which is a little girl while I would go test out the preschools. And I came back one day and I just said. Where do you go to school?'cause I loved this young lady. Yeah. I, she was just beautifully poised and well spoken and got along great with me. And she was from my church, so I would watch her interact with other families. And I'm just like, I'm so impressed with this young lady. Where do you go to school? And she goes, oh, I'm homeschooled. And this was back in the mid nineties. Yeah. I never heard that word before. I had never heard the word, so my little brain's going a million miles a minute. And I'm like, what do you mean homeschooled? I'm, and I said, oh, like independent study, I'm thinking. Yeah. Oh, I grew up in San Diego, so I went to high school there. I'd heard of independent study. Yeah. Yeah. And she's not exactly. And it just dawned on me like I stopped the conversation. I said, who teaches you? And she said, my mom.

Timmy Eaton:

Oh, what?

Holly Britton:

I honestly, in that moment, I confessed, I looked up to heaven and I said, don't even think it.

Timmy Eaton:

Yeah.

Holly Britton:

That's not happening.

Timmy Eaton:

So you were like in what, in your twenties at this point?

Holly Britton:

I was in my twenties. Yes. And I kept going to bed at night laying my head on the pillow and I couldn't stop thinking about what she said. And so I finally called her mom and I said, can I talk to you about what that looks like? She says Sure. I go over to her house. I think she has seven girls that at the time I think she had six, she has seven girls. And I go to her house and they open the door and they were so sweet. And come see what I'm doing today and can I get you a glass of lemonade, Mrs. Brit And just very sweet. And I'm like, this is weird. Like they're doing school at their house. Can I show like this exists? Yeah. So anyway, like I said, my little was still in preschool or preschool age, so I, there was no hurry to rush into academics, but I heard about the homeschool conference that coming summer and that was a done deal as soon as I went to that conference. I was headlong into it and there was no looking back.

Timmy Eaton:

I love that story. One, and I've said this to so many especially homeschool moms that have been on this golden hour, but it really resonates like the way you said you wanted to pour yourself into your children. That's exactly how I think my wife would say it. And she didn't know that. Like she didn't know that motherhood would do that to her. And that's been so common in these episodes. So I love that. And then just like your natural, like attraction to it. And so what did your husband think? What was he thinking when you started talking about it?

Holly Britton:

We have such sweet mutual respect for each other. I don't remember him really bulking at it at all. He just joined me in the curiosity and the possibilities and the people who really questioned was like the grandparents Yes. And the great grandparents. And all I could say is. Listen, I don't wanna ruin them either. I love them more than life itself. If yes. And what I did for them is for those that were very concerned, I said, you have open reign to come in if you see things going wrong. And I said I don't know what I'm doing. I'm not a teacher, but I know that I love these kids more than anybody else. And I'm smart, I'm educated. Yes, I am. I'm ready. I'm willing. I don't see any reason why I can't make this work for us. But I did give them, an open book. Like you Love my kids. You have a say in their life. And and as a matter of fact, like not only did they never came back to say anything bad. They completely changed their mind Totally. About homeschooling. Now, some of'em didn't change their mind about homeschooling in general. They changed their mind about means you

Timmy Eaton:

Yes.

Holly Britton:

And you can do

Timmy Eaton:

Yeah. Everybody can find cases to support their bias. So that's okay. Totally. But I think that's really impressive of you, especially in your twenties when you're so vulnerable, it's new to you, it you don't know the outcomes, which is the scariest thing for homeschool families. And then you open that up that's like a real mature level in my opinion. You don't hear that often because most times they're saying. Listen, I'm gonna do this with or without you because I feel this, so forget you and that's mature to be like you love my children and I'm open to your thoughts. But I'm gonna give you my thoughts too

Holly Britton:

And proof is in the pudding. If the kids are well adjusted and they're smart and they're reading above grade level, and they get along with all ages. We get to travel more than anybody else. And every time we study nature, we go out to nature. Every time we study something in history, we go visit the site or we go to a museum they couldn't argue with what they were seeing was happening. The

Timmy Eaton:

experience that your children were having. Yeah,

Holly Britton:

exactly.

Timmy Eaton:

Yeah. If that's what learning is and to say nothing of the issues that you cut out completely in the system.

Holly Britton:

A hundred percent,

Timmy Eaton:

yep,

Holly Britton:

yep. And it's interesting, I had a couple conversations, I'm sure your listeners can relate to this, where people will point to those outliers of homeschool families that are doing something wrong, for whatever reason or the outcome is maybe even out of their control. But it's not positive. And they always, even the news blames the homeschool.

Timmy Eaton:

I know,

Holly Britton:

but when. Something bad happens, maybe equally they never blame the public school. They never blame the school. That's never a go-to No. For the reasons for problems, except,

Timmy Eaton:

yeah,

Holly Britton:

in the homeschool situation.

Timmy Eaton:

It's so true. And I think that whole narrative is changing.'cause nobody can deny yes but you're right. In the nineties, the eighties, like it was just so foreign to people. And I mean to this day there's still a lot of uneducated when it comes to, for alternative education but back then, man, we were pioneers

Holly Britton:

Timmy, I don't know when you guys started, but when I started with Ian at that very young age, social services showing up at my door was still a very real thing. Wow. You did not go to the library during school hours. You did not take your kids to grocery stores during school hours. That was you and I. I was not an in your face kind of person. I was not gonna risk my kids getting taken away just so I can say I'm a homeschooler and I'm doing it my way. Yeah. I just wasn't there. Did, and I feel like the, obviously the cultural currents have changed. COVID pushed that. And, to a totally different level. Yes. And I'm really grateful for that. But at the time, we did the very best with what we had been given. Remember too, you probably know this, there was no internet. I depended on conferences. That's where I got the bulk of my introduction to curriculum.

Timmy Eaton:

Yeah.

Holly Britton:

And to especially homeschool curriculum. I

Timmy Eaton:

just, I like totally honor you and those families that did that. We started in like basically 2008 ish and our kid, we have six kids that are, they range from 12 to 21 right now. And but and Sarah, my wife was getting so much information off of blogs and stuff like that. The resources were endless. And so I just honor those that didn't have that kind of luxury. And plus there's such a community now. And did that lady that you went to with the with the babysitter and the seven girls, did she continue to be your mentor, so to speak?

Holly Britton:

I wish I could say she did. We moved within months of that. Okay. Okay. And I've lost touch with candy. I think she went to the same church for a long time. That church changed location and sadly, that pastor died of cancer. And at that time I was hearkening back to the days of being there and I wondered if maybe I could find her and get in touch with her, but I can't even remember her last name, yeah, totally. I think if I worked hard enough I might be able to sleuth it out, but

Timmy Eaton:

it, but did you have a community of other families like that you went to the conferences with and that kind of thing? Or what was it like in Southern California or wherever you moved to?

Holly Britton:

Yeah, so we ended up moving here where I live now, and we raised our kids here for the last 20, it's been about 28 years now, 29 years. And when I moved here, there was, you talk about pioneers we're talking the. Generation of homeschoolers that were maybe five to 10 years in front of me. Yeah. And they were the true, like I think if you were to write a history of homeschooling in California, the people I got to be with, they would be

Timmy Eaton:

on the, they'd be in the books.

Holly Britton:

Yes. And some of them still live nearby. And it's just wonderful to have that legacy. And yes, they were amazing resources and continued to be through most of my life, the most of my homeschooling years. We co-opt a group that eventually became a 5 0 1 C3. Cool. That to this, to that functions to this day in our area.

Timmy Eaton:

So you did have some community, some like-minded families that your children hung out with and that kind of thing?

Holly Britton:

Yes.

Timmy Eaton:

One thing I wanted to ask you just naturally was that response that came to you as a mother and you just wanted to dive into that. But were you prior to that growing up like a questioner and somebody that you know would press the boundaries?'cause my personality was so like in the box and my wife was the one asking questions, which I'm so grateful for now.'cause if it had been up to me, I bet you we still wouldn't be homeschooling.

Holly Britton:

Huh.

Timmy Eaton:

It's really her that drove that. And I'm so grateful. But were you that personality that asked questions? It was like, oh, what's up with this? It seems like you might have been like that.

Holly Britton:

Honestly, I dunno. I was very fortunate to grow up in a family of a lot of love and a lot of support. I lost my dad when I was 10. He was Navy and he was killed in a plane crash. And he was everything to us. Yeah. He was incredibly, oh, I'm sorry to hear that in father. But having said that, it, we had all that love and support and so I think because of that, I always had self-confidence. I always, I was a right-handed female first born. I, I did fine in school. I was pretty much an, a student body, did sports and did, I and

Timmy Eaton:

school worked for you?

Holly Britton:

School worked for me because it was basically made for me. They didn't have to do too much to make it work. I'll tell you where I had problems was I cared very much about what people thought of me, and because of that I allowed myself to be pushed and molded so that I felt like I fit in. I think a lot of people feel that way. Totally. When you're a young teen, you just,

Timmy Eaton:

very common.

Holly Britton:

My first baby was not planned and I married the love of my life and best friend outta college. And we were inside of our first year of marriage and we got pregnant with our baby. So I had not even explored like what that was gonna look like to, I guess the answer to your question is I don't know who I was. Yeah. I just became, as I became a mom. Yes. And and I think love helped just mold. That desire and drive and motivation to do my best.

Timmy Eaton:

Yeah, no, I think that's a real thing. That's why our daughters and sons, but especially our daughters they try to ask questions, but it's so experiential. Like you have to experience to know that connection, that feel, and not all have the same level. But like I find that homeschool moms, and I'm not trying to make a comparison, but they really do, they just feel this, like this calling to get into their kids. And so I, I sense that about what you were saying. So can you just tell us what did you like about it the most and what were things that you like didn't like about homeschooling, anything like that? Benefits, challenges.

Holly Britton:

There's so much to list in terms of what I liked. I loved the flexibility. I loved being able to keep my finger on the pulse of each one of my children and meet their needs where they're at in the moment. I was not tied to any one curriculum or any one methodology. I did my homework though. I will say that I was university educated and I used that to my advantage in terms of how I learned because when you're required to step up to the plate in that way, you learn study skills that really benefit you in other areas of life. Yeah. And so I was being educated while I was educating and I got that education, four times over as I did each of those kids. And I did end up writing a book. I don't know if it's in print anymore. I can't. Remember it's, through Amazon. But it was for those homeschooling moms that, or dad's parents, families that wanted to make plans but didn't wanna be in a boxed curriculum.

Timmy Eaton:

What was the title of your book?

Holly Britton:

It's called The Planned Approach.

Timmy Eaton:

Cool.

Holly Britton:

And it was a labor of love and it happened over the course of 10 years. And my daughter, it's so funny, my daughter asked me for a copy,'cause she just started homeschooling this year. Her daughter, my oldest granddaughter is four. I went to visit not too long ago, and there's the book and she's got a, it's a little workbook and it's got all kinds of, how to plan, how to think through your school year, how to write up your lesson plans. It doesn't tell you what to write up. Just gives you a template. Yeah.

Timmy Eaton:

Principles. Yeah,

Holly Britton:

principles and how to is it's super practical because that was me. I needed the what do I do on Monday kind of approach.

Timmy Eaton:

So you love that flexibility and being able to customize it to your children that you said, you mentioned before, the flexibility of traveling, that kind of thing. Anything stand out as oh man, this was a tough part of homeschooling.

Holly Britton:

It was the cooperation from other homeschool started getting really hard. We had a really vibrant, exciting, really robust enrichment. Co-op and we would put on science weeks where we were from kindergarten through high school. We would study geography, we would study geology, we would study and we would bring in all these things. Like one time we studied South America and we had an entire class, all different grades centered on where it was and the topography of it. And then another class we brought in llamas for the kids to pet and learned the, the animals in the wildlife of South America. We did those things all the time.

Timmy Eaton:

Oh, great.

Holly Britton:

Was so great. But as the internet started coming up, as the charter school option started, giving parents more and more options, we thinned out so badly that. We would work hard to put together, say, an art class. We had a local professional artist that did college level classes for our high schoolers. And I would plan for, this incredible experience and my kids would be the only ones to show up. Yeah. And it got so disappointing. I really felt like we were doing a disservice to our kids by not keeping them all learning together.

Timmy Eaton:

I see. Yeah. And those challenges you definitely have to respond to. That would've been tough to deal with for sure. What about the high school years? Did they do homeschool all the way through? Because you said they all chose to go to university. How did you do that? How did you prepare them? How did they get into schools?

Holly Britton:

Yeah, so ours was a little bit of a a hybrid about the time that my first son was going into high school. We had a performing arts charter school open up, and it was done by professional. Drama producer and all my kids were involved in theater in just local community theater and children's theater, and he actually asked me if I would consider it, and I had not considered it. I took classes to prepare me for teaching high school, I was already taking high school chemistry through some, you know, offers on it. There used to be a, it was a kind of like a open source. You could buy the CDs to Oh yeah. To learn from professors all over. So I was taking those CL classes at a low college level so that I was prepping for teaching in high school, and we have some local co-ops that would help and whatnot. Anyway, long story short, all of my kids did some homeschool through high school and some at the charter school. And that charter school, like I said, was performing arts. So they all did music. And then we lived abroad for some of their high school years. One of our big goals for our kids was for them to learn Spanish. My husband and I speak Spanish, and it's really hard when you're home and your first language is English. We had an opportunity to switch with some families down south and anyway, that's a whole nother long story, but yeah. So part of them we did live abroad for some of those years, and all of my kids did about two years at home, two years there. My last kiddo did more at the charter school because he was the last one home and we were having a tough time with the cooperation, the co-oping of high schoolers locally, so graduated. Did they get a diploma so three of the four got the diploma from there now. And then one of them got the diploma from me. The diploma from Cornerstone is the name of our co-op. So she went to private university down in San Diego. Yeah. Point Loma Nazarene. And so they accepted that diploma. The others we actually timed it so that they would graduate so that they would have a school of their choice. They applied to private and public schools. Cool. And we're in California, so if you wanted to go to a uc school, they were not gonna accept a homeschool. Diploma

Timmy Eaton:

transcript or whatever. Yep.

Holly Britton:

Transcript. Exactly. But we're really good friends with the people at our high school. They knew our family and they cooperated with us to help us make sure that the kids had everything that they need. My first one graduated valedictorian, so there was no question that they were educated in doing.

Timmy Eaton:

And that's so good to just quell the worries that a lot of parents have and today so many are just questioning whether they wanna go to university or take the trade route or whatever. I guess what people need to know is that there are so many avenues and so many choices. And like you said there, find a way. Find a way to, to have it happen.

Holly Britton:

And you really need to do what works for your family. If I didn't have a choice of high schools that I liked, we wouldn't have done that. Yeah. I had that choice. We have that option. We live in a very small rural school. Everybody knows everybody. Community, everybody knows everybody. We know the teachers, we know where they shop and where they go to. Yes.

Timmy Eaton:

And where they, you see them every day. I live in a town of 3,500 people, so I'm Yes I'm similar. Yeah.

Holly Britton:

Yes. Exactly. So I even think the choice you make as a homeschooler depends on your circumstances. There is no painting with a broad brush these days. Yes. There are so many. So many choices.

Timmy Eaton:

Yeah. Great response. Before we transition, what would you tell new homeschool families that are just starting? You've got a daughter starting. I always say the idea it really begins at birth and it's such a weird thing to even give it a term because you're just living intentionally as a family reading and experiencing life, and it's just a lifestyle. Yes. But what do you tell families that have been in that kind of public mindset and they're transitioning and deschooling a little bit and then going, man, I think we want this alternative route. What do you tell families that are starting and maybe scared or overwhelmed or whatever?

Holly Britton:

Okay. I have a pat response and I have a hard response.

Timmy Eaton:

Give us all of it.

Holly Britton:

So the pat response is, if your heart is in this, you will do just fine. You will be at peace about what you're doing. It won't be easy, but there will be a sense that this is the right thing to do and you will do what it takes to make it work. My middle of the road response is make sure you have support. Make sure you have a shoulder to cry on. Make sure you have a sounding board to throw your ideas at. Make sure that you have a support system that is your cheerleading team. And it may be one person, it may be your extended family, and it may be a co-op group. But don't go it alone. And don't use the internet to connect. Don't use social media. You need that face-to-face. Real relationship. And because it does get real, it does get hard. If you want your kid to live up to his or her potential. Really live up to their potential. What do they put on this earth for and what are they supposed to be doing when they leave your house? We can't answer those questions, but what we can say is that it's my job right now to do the best I can to prepare them for whatever it is God has for them. After this. I can't know that, but I can give them the skills and the knowledge they need to build after they leave, and that takes a little bit of grit. That takes a little bit of digging in I love play-based learning. My products are play-based. But it's not all play eventually the rubber will hit the road and you need to make sure that they're not just reading Bob books, they are actually reading high level texts that they can actually mine through sources and really understand, be able to source your material and find good answers and have, good reasoning and logic and those are hard things. And so you are gonna learn right along with them. And it is really fun if you know that's gonna happen and you just jump in. But if getting academically a little bit harder starts to overwhelm you, then that's when you start questioning and wondering outsourcing is great. Yeah. But that needs to be a plan, not a default. That's, yeah,

Timmy Eaton:

that's a great way to say it. And the way you frame that, about what they're here to do and when they leave our home, what are they prepared to do and can they face the world it just resonates so clearly to me that's so hard to do if they're not with you six to eight hours of every single day. Yes. The more I hear it, and I know everybody has their bias, but the way I say it is the scales have fallen from my eyes. It's a preferable way to do it, man. I can't impose my worldview on somebody else, but if you really are trying to prepare your kids it is the most effective potential way. Not that everybody does it the same way, but you have them. Six to eight hours longer every day than every other family. I was wondering, you said shoulder to cry on and then like a sports system. What was your husband's role during all that? And what advice would you give your son-in-law as a husband to your daughter who will homeschool?

Holly Britton:

I have an incredible son-in-law, so I don't have to give him any advice. He's

Timmy Eaton:

good. He's right there.

Holly Britton:

We're really blessed. He's actually taking on the role that my husband did too, which was doing some of the subjects that he really loves. He happens to love history, as did my husband's great with Bible and that was a big part of our homeschooling as well. But we also fit that into history, that was all part of the learning and some partners are able to do that and some are not. And that's totally understandable. Yeah. But I would say is that you have a role whether you're teaching an academic subject or not. Absolutely. And your role is not just supporting your wife, but actually stepping into your kids'. Learning experience as much as possible. If that means going on field trips with them, if that means talking with them about what they studied over dinner that is how you support your homeschooling wife. To show an interest, to dive in, to be there willing to back up whatever it is that's going on. Kids really rise to the engagement of parents.

Timmy Eaton:

That's a great way to say it.

Holly Britton:

And this is true in school as well, if a teacher's saying, I know this is really hard, I don't wanna do it either here, let's just get it over with. That's obviously path of least resistance. Yeah. That's human nature. Yeah. And and kids need their dads, they need to know that they're dads. Really honor the work they're putting into whatever it is they have to do. Yeah. Yeah, so I would just say that dads have a role and I think the best advice I can give them is keep your eyes wide open for where that role is, where you'll land in their lives and be as involved as you can.

Timmy Eaton:

And was your husband okay at letting you fill your bucket after so much time and what did he do to help you go and have time and fill your bucket and do the things that you wanna do so that you felt replenished going back to another day of homeschool?

Holly Britton:

Yeah, that's a great question. We worked into this, but from the very beginning we had what did we call it? Our special day. We don't do it anymore, but we had the 23rd because my birthday's on the 23rd of the month and the 14th, because his birthday's on the 14th of the month was our special day. So in the 23rd was my pamper day, that's what we called it, pamper day. So whatever you decided if you wanted to go out and have coffee, if you wanted to go, I don't know, swimming or, I don't know whatever. Yeah, just whatever fills your

Timmy Eaton:

bucket.

Holly Britton:

Whatever fills your bucket. And yeah, so that was every month, which was great, but I'll tell you my favorite thing over the year, what I would do is I always planned to go to at least one homeschool conference. It was almost always one and oftentimes two. And I had a favorite one that I went to. I ended up becoming a speaker that went, I spoke every year at the conference. So that was really fun for me. But that was also my getaway time. And I would go a day before, and if the hotel had a massage, I would get that massage if I wanted to just go lay out in the sun or just read a book. And I did that, not just to replenish myself, but actually to prep my brain and my body for. The homeschool conference. That was like a professional development for me. And he supported that. That meant taking care of all four kids, all of their, needs for several days, probably three or four days in a row. And that was once a year in the summer.

Timmy Eaton:

I love hearing those experiences in your family. I produced this course called PhD. It's called the Proactive Homeschool Dad. And so that's something I do is I really try to help dads know how to become more engaged and support their wives, so they're more on the same page. Because that was the biggest challenge we had was being on the same page. And, we had to learn by hard knocks. And a lot of experience, like you said, you had to work into it and so have we. And so I hope this course helps a lot of dads kind of like, you know, know how they can and, and moms just to be on the same page and fulfill some roles that don't add a lot of burden, but just you're already functioning as a dad and as a husband. And so it's just more intentional. Yeah,

Holly Britton:

I think there's an intentionality on the mom's part as well. We work really hard and our job is physical and mental and spiritual,

Timmy Eaton:

emotional

Holly Britton:

and emotional, and. There can be a tendency when dad comes home or if dad works from home, he comes out of the office or whatever. When he reengages, there can be a tendency for us to just dump. Yeah. And for him to feel, like he has to hold the weight of all of our hurt and all of our, fatigue. And I think it's really important for us as wives and homeschooling moms to remember that they're going through their stuff too. And one of the best things that you can do is function as a team. One thing that is really important to us is not to dump out as if it's your job to hold me up, but rather. Share the burden. Yes. Come and say, oh, my day was so hard, how was your day? Are you holding up? Okay. And then I could cry. I'm not holding up all, I'm so glad you're home. Thank you so instead of, you need to take the kids, I can't handle them anymore. I need a break. I'm outta here. And

Timmy Eaton:

and it's like you said, it takes communication to have a mechanism in place.'cause it's never easy. But if there is something in place, then it takes the emotion out of it. And then you could just expect that type of thing. You've talked about it. And again, it's not gonna be roses all the time, but if you don't address it, then it can be an emotional blurt or, explosion.

Holly Britton:

And I think the husband can feel defeated. There's nothing I can do to help her get better. Just depending on the situation, I think for the most part. Our homeschool was pretty joyful. We had years of trouble with our kiddos. Yeah. And it was sometimes behavioral. It was sometimes medical. We had some of those. There's, all kinds of roller coasters. But I think me and my husband did what we could to stay on the same team, and every once in a while when he would feel attacked, he would say, halls, I'm on your team. Yeah. I'm on your team. And that was always a good reminder.

Timmy Eaton:

No, that's amazing. Counsel, my second module is called Be a Companion, and the whole thing is about exactly what you're saying. Let's transition to Squiggle Squad. And you could tell us about that name. And then did you emphasize writing and handwriting while you homeschool too?

Holly Britton:

That's a funny question. No, I just did what came naturally to me that Yeah. I've got one-on-one and we're just gonna do it this way. It wasn't until I started teaching in a private school first, and then later in the public school that I realized they weren't being taught because when COVID happened, I was in third, fourth and fifth grade teaching at a public school, rural Title one school. I love the school, I love the kids, I love the teacher I taught with. But there were huge gaps in these kids learning, and I had seen that from being a kinder coach in a private school doing some curriculum. I, curriculum director for a while. Over the course of several years, I was seeing that this was not a school problem. This was not a one class problem. This is a nation problem. Yeah. And I think, we as a culture have gotten so far away from handwriting. As a primary tool for transcribing thought that we neglect teaching it. And we forget that you're not born knowing that's not a primary knowledge, that's something that has to be explicitly taught. And because it's not being taught, it's not even being taught in teachers colleges. So teachers coming out of school have not even taught how to teach handwriting. And the problem isn't messy handwriting. The problem is that you are actually taking a learning tool away from a child and their teachers who need them to know how to write so that they can go on to higher level learning. This is a base skill, a fundamental skill. And without the fundamentals, you can't move forward. So when COVID happened, I was at a crossroads. Do? I stay in the classroom and just continue, teaching now public school was a new thing for me. Or do I go get my PhD? I did think about that. But being rural made that pretty hard, and so we'd have to do some life adjustments if that were going to happen. The concept behind Squiggle Squad, and even the name I had actually come up with several years prior and tried it in a classroom at the private school I was at, and the kids loved it. And the general idea is we're asking younger and younger kids to do more and more academically. And biologically it's not fair to the kids. And so how can I break down the expectation of writing so that it is developmentally appropriate for the younger kids?

Timmy Eaton:

Yeah. Like skills they can handle type thing.

Holly Britton:

Yeah. At the age they can handle it. And, this sounds absolutely crazy, but I stand ac across the table at conferences and I have teachers tell me, no, we don't have a handwriting curriculum. How do you teach handwriting? When they need it, we just show'em how to do it I love this analogy. I didn't come up with it, but basically you're trying to get them to climb a ladder and you've taken the first few rungs off and then you expect them to somehow get themselves to the top. It just doesn't work. And we're seeing that, we are seeing that across the United States in classrooms. I'm doing PD tomorrow for a school who called me in because their third, fourth, and fifth grade teachers are like, what's going on with the handwriting? We can't teach them. And the solution is with the teachers, but the blame is not with the teachers. In terms of how we got here, this was a cultural, systemic

Timmy Eaton:

technological solution

Holly Britton:

thing. Yeah. It just happened over years. So Squeal squad is pretty basic but it totally follows the science of child development and language acquisition. And basically the squiggle squad themselves are five friendly animals that have a favorite squiggle that happens to correspond to a stroke in manuscript writing. So we have lines, the lemur. Bubbles, the bunny curves the camel slide. The seal and dash the duck.

Timmy Eaton:

And everybody can find that on the website. Yes. At at scoog squad.com.'cause then you can look through

Holly Britton:

yes. So the basic idea is the kids practice those strokes in isolation so that they build it into their muscle memory. It's a motor skill that we're asking them to do in developmentally appropriate increments so they don't get frustrated. So lines, the lemur, we just have a whole bunch of activities where you are practicing top to bottom with lines, the lemur. And that's because we're reversing what is already weirdly programmed into their brain, which is bottom to top. Scientists don't know why that happens. Researchers don't know why. But more times than not, kids are prone to bottom to top and clockwise circle instead of counterclockwise circle. But when we're writing, we need that to be opposite, which means we need to wire the brain to do that. And the only way really to do that is through repetition. So we do all of the strokes. They practice with their little squiggle squad friends, and then the animals come together and play and they make letters. So you've practiced bubbles, the bunny over and over. And then she and lines play together and they make the lowercase letter a for example. By then, the kid is very familiar with the movement. They've practiced the coordination needed to do it. They've practiced where they put the pencil lead down, like their start spot. And they're now being familiar with it. They're not gonna be scared when you tell them to write the letter A because you can say it's just bubbles, the bunny and lines, the lemur. So the younger they are, the more they appreciate the simplicity of it, and they feel more confident because they can execute the task.

Timmy Eaton:

How do you respond to people that are like, yeah, but it's like, why does it matter if I do handwriting? Because I can type everything and everything's, AI and this and that which you did already talk about, but I know that'll be a common question. What's the response to that?

Holly Britton:

Okay, boy, I could go on for hours. Yes. Hours. The maybe the easy response is have you taught your kindergartner how to type because they're not developmentally ready at the age of four. To type. They are barely learning letters at the age of four. And all the letters on your keyboard are capital. And they're not even in alphabetical order. They're all cordy. And if you start getting your kindergartner to type by pushing the button, their working memory is all gummed up on searching for letters, not typing the sentence You want them to type. Yeah.

Timmy Eaton:

So there's development that's not happening and there's some learning that's being cheating, by not knowing the letters, the words. I remember my daughter when she was in we, we say grades, but in homeschool, whatever, like she was 15. Yeah. And she wrote this paper on handwriting and the benefits.'cause people were saying, ah, this is this becoming obsolete.

Holly Britton:

Obsolete, yeah. And

Timmy Eaton:

I think the development that you're talking about is what people would really. Care about and I think the latter missing rungs analogy is really good.

Holly Britton:

And I'll further that by saying we as adults use it in our lives. And if you don't teach a child. To use that tool, then you're taking something away from their human experience. Because I use that. Authors like the most famous authors will tell you that when they get stuck or when they actually need to think things through. Now of course we use a computer, but we also go to our pencil and paper. When we go on a hike, we're not gonna take our computer with us, we're gonna take our journal with us. We need to break away from screen. And that is an awesome thing to give. Yes, any human that ability to do that. Not to mention, there are just studies after studies that show so many things about handwriting that help your brain think. So you've got first the kinesthetic connection that actually helps you learn letters to begin with. Yeah. So you're mapping language on literally mapping it onto your brain by moving your hand through the shapes we call letters. That's a big deal. That's the very first thing. But then it helps spelling, which is the second and largest part of transcription skills needed for flow of thought. Yes. And I say often if your hands can't flow, your thoughts can't flow. And that goes for computer use as well. So if you are poking at your letters, then you're not thinking about that next higher level learning, which is, whatever content you're trying to learn, whatever learning skill you're trying to learn, like summarizing or problem solving it needs to be automatized, it needs to be pushed back into that part of the brain that holds it as automatic.

Timmy Eaton:

I'm just thinking of like even writing a journal and the effect of handwriting versus typing. When I'm writing, there's something more like. Organic and healing and natural. Like that, that might sound dramatic to people would I'm serious. I feel like when you write, there's a different level of thought and like feeling that accompanies it. Yeah. One thing I've noticed, this is an a kind of an aside. I've been noticing, like literally lately I've been noticing handwritten notes or letters or things from people that are. Mostly 45 or 50 and above have this nice cursive writing and it is lost be below that. Yeah. A lot of kids have beautiful writing. Like I teach religious education and I see them write things in their journal and especially amongst young women they write really neat, a lot of them, but it's not like a cursive like I'll see my mom's writing and other people, and I'm like, there's like a beautiful cursive thing that was taught and we all learned. And mine's somewhere in between. I don't know. I think it is pretty common. I'm a boy, like I'm such a boy writer. But anyway,

Holly Britton:

actually, yeah, you're not alone. Research would prove that out too.

Timmy Eaton:

Yeah. Yeah. There's something

Holly Britton:

in the genders.

Timmy Eaton:

And then one thing I was wondering also is are you familiar with Charlotte Mason and narration and dictation, because this sounds a lot like that and I watch my kids do that for years and one, I can't believe how much they enjoy it. Like just copy work. And this is something that I feel families in and out of the home education, a lot of homeschoolers are familiar, but like when you take a meaningful, like either can be scripture if you're faith-based, it can be like an amazing quote from leaders or whatever it is, and you dictate that and you literally just write that there's great curricula out there to help but kids enjoy it. They're getting the development that you're talking about. And I feel like it's could be an awesome part of people's homeschool experience at least,

Holly Britton:

I couldn't agree more. And one of the gaps in handwriting instruction especially in the public schools, is getting it from, okay, this is a really weird thought, but getting it into the brain so that you can get it out of the brain. Yeah. Lemme explain what I mean by that. Yeah. In the past when we were learning, even if they were not doing handwriting instruction, they were writing on a chalkboard or a whiteboard. So the kids saw handwriting producing words from a teacher's brain. Now they don't see that as much. A lot of the public schools have a computer screen at the front and they watch a video. That shows them something that whiteboards have been turned into bulletin boards, and it is a rare day that you see a teacher writing on the board.

Timmy Eaton:

That's an important observation. Yeah.

Holly Britton:

So what's really beautiful about dictation and our program goes here, by the way, is bridging the gap between tracing and copying. Then what I call recalling and reproducing. So in kindergarten, those kids not only need to know first the name of that letter. They need to be able to trace the letter. They need to be able to copy the letter, and then they need to be able by the end of kinder to write the letter from dictation. So mom, dad, or public school teacher says, okay, everybody write the letter A and they should be able to write a whatever lowercase letter A, and they should be able to do that. And I do assessments at the end of kindergarten years where kids. It's so sad. Yeah. The gap is huge. They cannot do that. And then they're moving into first grade where they're going to be asked to do spelling words and they can't even do the letters from dictation. Yeah. Yeah, that's a huge important part. And I love dictation. I've always loved dictation. Same with us. And yeah, copy work,

Timmy Eaton:

dictation, narration and reading it. And what would you say to homeschool families'cause you're talking about a school system where there's kind of benchmarks for stuff. Yes. A common thing among homeschool families is we don't typically want the benchmarks. Some do and some don't. Yeah. Depending on the family'cause some are get really concerned when their kid's not reading by four or five, or even six or seven. Others are just chill. They're just like, yeah. I, especially an unschool philosophy is saying, we know this will come you'll learn these things so fast. Yes. Yeah. And what, how do you respond to homeschool families that are like I agree with the principles of dictation and being able to write when they're ready for it, but I don't really care if they do that at five or eight.

Holly Britton:

Okay. There's a lot in that question. First of all, we shouldn't be scared of benchmarks. We know in our hearts that we are gonna do the best for our children where they're at no matter what. So if some benchmark tells me that they should be able to do this by the end of this year, and they can't, I'm not gonna beat myself up. I'm not gonna beat my kids up, but I am going to be curious about. What that means and why, and I'm going to do what I need to do to help my child reach their God-given potential wherever they are. So benchmark shouldn't scare us. They're just there and depends on where you're getting your benchmark. Yeah.

Timmy Eaton:

Don't be unduly concerned, but at the same time, don't be unduly like, defensive about'em,

Holly Britton:

or cavalier. Yeah. Don't just think that maybe it will happen. Maybe they do have dyslexia, maybe they do have dysgraphia. Maybe they do have a speech impediment. There's nothing wrong with that. But as a homeschooling educator, yeah, it's

Timmy Eaton:

helpful to know,

Holly Britton:

I need to know. I need to know and I need to address that appropriately. And so don't be scared of that. You are the best judge for your kiddo. And you just keep an open mind and an open heart and, a humble spirit about how to move forward. Okay again, as a homeschooling mama. I didn't know better, but there were these books out there. I think they're I think they're Ed Hirst books. What Every Kindergartner Should know or What Every First Grade Should Know whatever.

Timmy Eaton:

I bought

Holly Britton:

those.

Timmy Eaton:

I bought those. Yeah.

Holly Britton:

I wasn't afraid of them. If my kid didn't know that book by the end of kindergarten, I wasn't scared. Yeah. But it's it's like a guide for me. I'm like, oh, that's cool. I didn't know that. Yeah. I can, yeah. You weren't

Timmy Eaton:

making it this crazy philosophical thing. You were just going, no, and I find that with a lot of homeschool moms especially, they're just, it's eclectic. They're just taking from here and there and applying it to their kids and then adjusting and, every child is unique and yeah, you're right. I feel like we do sometimes get a little philosophical on things that probably aren't that big of a deal or something but then at the same time, help our kids like,

Holly Britton:

yeah. Lemme step in though about handwriting specifically. Handwriting is a motor skill. And just like music or sport, if you practice the wrong way for many years, rewiring that is nearly impossible. It's

Timmy Eaton:

hard. Yeah. So

Holly Britton:

if you want your kid to do really well at violin, don't wait till they're 12. You need to get him under a violin at the age of five, the age of four. Some start at the age of three, but that's because it's easy for them. It's fast. They pick it up like that. It's like

Timmy Eaton:

language as well language acquisition when you're young.

Holly Britton:

Yes.

Timmy Eaton:

It's'cause they don't know to have all these impositions that we make it so hard.

Holly Britton:

Yes. So I think when it comes to certain skills, you better be careful if they're not doing it by the age of eight, if they're not reading by eight, I would ask for help. I just would. It's not because something's wrong with your kid, it's because it's pretty normal for kids to know basic words by eight, and if they don't, it might be worth checking into why.

Timmy Eaton:

And it's such a blessing to be able to dive into books and have them Oh, yes. Get into their own worlds and just enjoy that. It's just part of their education. Yeah.

Holly Britton:

We go back and forth between are we learning to read or reading to learn by eight, you wanna be reading to learn. Same with handwriting. Are you writing for skill or are you using your skill to write? Yes. You need that to transition at some point. And it's usually pretty young. Those in literacy in particular, those base literacy skills is usually under the age of eight.

Timmy Eaton:

It sounds like we need to do this again sometime, because like you and I said we were gonna do 35 or 40 minutes, but I think we were having fun. So that was an awesome conversation. I really appreciate it. I really learned so much from just your homeschool experience and then love what you're doing. Can you tell everybody where again squiggle squad.com, but like how can they connect with you if they need to? Or Sure. Just tell us how people can connect with you and how, where people can find your stuff.

Holly Britton:

Not that I'm a big social media person'cause I'm not, but if you do want some handwriting tips, you can go to Instagram and Facebook at squiggle squad handwriting. And if you wanna reach me personally, you can reach me at holly@squigglesquad.com.

Timmy Eaton:

Cool. Awesome. Thank you so much and hopefully everybody takes a look at what you got and maybe we'll get together in the future. Again, thanks again, Holly, for being with us.

Holly Britton:

It was such a pleasure. Thanks.

Timmy Eaton:

That wraps up another edition of this Golden Hour podcast. If you haven't done so already, I would totally appreciate it if you would take a minute and give us a review 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.