This Golden Hour

123. The Giesbrecht's and Homeschooling 13 Children!

• Timothy Eaton

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In today’s episode, we get to spend time with Jarrod and Jamie Giesbrecht from Manitoba. They are the homeschool parents of 13 children! When they were young parents, the Giesbrecht’s were inspired to homeschool after seeing the positive example of another large homeschooling family. Their initial motivation was to provide a more engaging and tailored education for their eldest, who was an early and eager learner. We discuss experimenting with various curricula, adapting to each child’s needs and learning styles. Jamie emphasizes the value of read-alouds, family-based learning, and tailoring studies to individual interests and levels, fostering cross-age learning and strong sibling relationships.Their reasons for homeschooling have evolved from academic concerns to prioritizing family relationships, faith, flexibility, and the ability to nurture each child’s unique path. They highlight the benefits of self-directed learning, real-world opportunities, and strong family bonds. The Giesbrecht’s candidly discuss challenges such as managing a wide age range, keeping younger children engaged, and the responsibility of being solely in charge of their children’s education.

Curricula

Math U See

Apologia

Rod and Staff

Teaching Textbooks 

Life of Fred

Learn Math Fast

Gather Round

Guest Hollow

Mystery of History

Jordan Peterson Academy


This Golden Hour

Jamie Giesbrecht:

even if you're only gonna start with reading books out loud, that's one of the best things you can do. Yeah. To ensure your kids' future success is to read out loud. We read the Bible out loud. We have a biography, we read aloud as a family in the mornings, and then like a a novel in the evenings at bedtime. We do a lot of reading out loud, if you're in my house, you're sitting in read aloud time,

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 Jared and Jamie Gerecht from Manitoba. They're the homeschool parents of 13 children. When they were young parents, the geese Brets were inspired to homeschool. After seeing the positive example of another large homeschooling family, their initial motivation was to provide a more engaging and tailored education for their eldest, who is an early and eager learner. We discuss experimenting with various curricula and adapting to each child's needs and learning styles. Jamie emphasizes the value of Read alouds, family based learning and tailoring studies to individual interests and levels fostering cross age learning and strong sibling relationships. Their reasons for homeschooling have evolved from academic concerns to prioritizing family relationships, faith, flexibility, and the ability to nurture each child's. Unique path. They highlight the benefits of self-directed learning, real world opportunities, and strong family bonds. The geese bres candidly discuss challenges such as managing a wide age range, keeping younger children engaged, and the responsibility of being solely in charge of their children's education. Welcome back to this Golden Hour podcast. Today we are delighted to have with us Jared and Jamie Gerecht from Manitoba. Thanks for being with us. You guys great to be here.

Jamie Giesbrecht:

Yeah, it's good to be here.

Timmy Eaton:

So thankful for you taking some time definitely busy life and everyone will understand that after your little intro here. So Jared and Jamie are the homeschool parents of 13 children, ranging from three to 23. And Jared is in software development?

Jarrod Giesbrecht:

Yeah, it's just been a geek for a long time and yeah, so I dropped outta computer science after a couple years'cause I thought, I don't wanna do this. And in an academic setting it's very different and but I went on to different directions and came back into software development and we got married and had a bunch of kids and yeah. Went to homeschool and that's a very high level that we'll get into more details.

Timmy Eaton:

So how did you guys meet? Like, how did you guys connect?

Jarrod Giesbrecht:

Through a mutual friend. He had dated. Jamie's sister and they broke up and he was interested in Jamie. He invited me to come hang out with him and watch a movie. So we met watching a Spice World actually. Yeah, so that was 98, I think somewhere in 98 and after a little while we started dating and married in early or April, 2000 which makes it very easy to keep track of the number of years. Yes. Yeah. So

Timmy Eaton:

you've been married a quarter century. Do you ever say it that way?

Jarrod Giesbrecht:

Yeah. Sounds a little crazier that way. But

Timmy Eaton:

where are you both from? Are you both from Manitoba or.

Jarrod Giesbrecht:

I grew up seven miles from here. So I have not traveled far. Jamie grew up in Yeah, Saskatchewan.

Jamie Giesbrecht:

I was born in Saskatchewan and lived there until I was almost 12, and then we moved to Thunder Bay, Ontario and then moved to Winnipeg, literally the day after I graduated high school.

Timmy Eaton:

Cool. So what was your first exposure to homeschool? Did you guys like talk about that before you started having kids? Or like, how did you stumble upon homeschool? Were either of you homeschooled before that? Tell us some background?

Jamie Giesbrecht:

No, we didn't really talk about it before.

Jarrod Giesbrecht:

I don't remember how we first heard about it, but we were in a small group at our church at the time when we had, so our oldest was a. Four. Yeah. We were expecting Lucy. So we had our fourth on the way, and we were in a small group with this couple that they had their eighth on the way and they were homeschooling, so they had some older kids already. Their kids were just so well behaved and and we just, we were like, okay, yeah this can be done. Because we thought we don't know what we would be getting into. Yes. They had just moved here from BC and they were here for two years, but they were just that timing, like that timing of when they were in our lives. It was funny, he said when we had announced that we had our fourth on the way, he is that's a good start, right? Because we had agreed on four kids, that was our number, so it's just, they were it was like, okay, homeschooling, it's doable. And yeah. Bigger family, that's doable. So we had our fourth never felt done and just kept going. More babies. And it was, right at that time where it was, are we gonna do public school or maybe now we're gonna homeschool, right? They were here for two years, so they helped get our feet res homeschooling. You picked, I think the same curriculum initially. Yeah. Yeah. It's so

Jamie Giesbrecht:

overwhelming when you look at all the options. Yes. I know. For curriculum, like you walk into an exhibit hall, now not so much. We help organize the exhibit hall at our local conference, but it can be very overwhelming when you're just starting. What was that

Timmy Eaton:

curriculum that you chose to start with, Jamie?

Jamie Giesbrecht:

Oh. What were the math, see? It was apology as Young Explorers. Rod and staff and I can't remember what she used for social studies. I don't remember

Timmy Eaton:

so Lucy was your fourth, so how old was your oldest at that time when you were starting to hear about it and learn about it?

Jamie Giesbrecht:

He would've been four.

Timmy Eaton:

So he was pre preschool age as well. You hadn't really thought about asking the questions until this couple and their family brought it to your attention type thing?

Jamie Giesbrecht:

Not much. I remember hearing something on the radio at one point on the Christian radio station and kind of thinking about it. And I was teaching our oldest son to read, just sitting on my lap with books. He loved to read, we would read to him and I would just explain the different sounds, the letters and the combinations made. And he picked it up really fast. And I think that was initially why we wanted to try homeschooling was because of how fast he learned things. And we could tell he was really eager. He liked to play with Globes and he could point out so many countries. He seemed to be a really quick learner and we thought that he would be a good one to start with.

Timmy Eaton:

So you'd started with some curriculum and then how did that evolve over time? Because one thing I've noticed, especially with our own family, like my wife and I, and then other families that I've interviewed and talked with it evolves like, you mimic somebody at first and then you get a feel for it and then you get your own flow because then it becomes the geese, bre, family homeschool, and, each family is unique. So tell us about the evolution of how you did homeschool and what you chose to pursue as curriculum and learning and whatever. Speak to any of that.

Jarrod Giesbrecht:

I can't remember all the. Curriculums we've tried over the years, but I think going to our conference for the first time was, like a kid in a candy story. What do I wanna try first? Yeah. So there's that, that definitely it's overwhelming. At 1.1 year we went through, we started off with math, uc, and kids were getting frustrated. We switched to teaching textbooks when they were still using CDs and I wasn't online. But then we went to Life of Fred, which is more story based once, so

Jamie Giesbrecht:

Actually, it was the other way around. Life of Fred was before. Oh, okay. So what happened was our oldest, I loved Matthew C. I'm not a math person at all, and I liked how it explained it. I liked how it helped me understand better. But then our older children they really didn't like it. Like they hated the videos. Anyway, it was, our oldest son was in grade five at the time. He was in the fractions book. And was just not grasping it at all. Yeah. And I had purchased a second book. I was gonna have him repeat the same program the following year until he got it. And somebody had told me, about Life of Fred, I'd never heard of them. And they had suggested that, your son, a real reader. He was always a real bookworm. Learned to read it. Four, he read Lord of the Rings at eight, his bookshelves behind us. His first book is due to be published like later this month. So he was always a really big reader. And so somebody had told me about this and said he might really enjoy, like Fred, it's more of a literature based approach. So I ordered the Fractions book, it comes in the mail, and I'm looking at this thing thinking there's no way this little thin book can teach my son fractions when he hasn't picked it up from the big fat Matthew C one. But I handed it to him over the summer. And said, I want you to try working through this. So he comes up a number of weeks later, it was a month and a half later, he's yeah, I'm done. I got it. And so I'm like, there's no way. So I gave him the final exam from the Math c Fractions book, and he aced it. Wow. And I was like, whoa. Like how did he pick up all that in a month? So he actually stuck with life of Fred, but I didn't like teaching life of Fred.'cause I found it a lot harder. There were things in there I remember Sigma coming up in a lesson and I'm like, whoa, what is Sigma? I've never heard of this before. Where did they introduce this? And I'm flipping back through nowhere. Like I had to Google it and I'm like, I do not wanna teach math

Jarrod Giesbrecht:

that way. So that's

Jamie Giesbrecht:

when we, I had ordered some of the teaching textbooks, and so we have moved around. We've done online math with CTC,

Jarrod Giesbrecht:

And what are they doing now? I got learn math

Jamie Giesbrecht:

fast for the high schoolers, right?'cause they didn't want online, they wanted something in a book that they were writing. So I got that for them this year. As long as they will do it and they're understanding.

Timmy Eaton:

And so is that kind of a similar pattern with all subjects? You just like test stuff out and see how you like it and with history and science and whatever, or like how do you do it with the other subjects or just other areas of learning?

Jamie Giesbrecht:

Yeah, I think so. There's been less movement. Like I still use Apology, a young explorer for my elementary students. And we've used that the whole time. Like, every now and then you get a bit of a, fear of missing out on new stuff. And so every now and then I'll try something new and, oh, I always go back to apology with the younger kids. Yeah.'cause I just love how it's written. Jeannie Fulbright's voice in the books is just so inspiring. Yeah. And, they understand it so well. So I always go back to that. Yeah. But there's been some,

Jarrod Giesbrecht:

well We tried, oh, what's it called? Rebecca Spooners.

Jamie Giesbrecht:

We did try, yeah. That was one of those fear missing out things that wast wasn at the beginning of COVID.

Jarrod Giesbrecht:

Yeah.

Jamie Giesbrecht:

That was the beginning of COVID and everything was shutting down and you couldn't see anybody. Or do anything. And so we had decided to try. It was also after Jethro was born and we had a lot of appointments that fall.

Jarrod Giesbrecht:

Yeah, he is got, had some kidney issues and kidney surgery. So it was just, there was more time I think there required for non-school stuff. Think there

Jamie Giesbrecht:

were two or three surgeries and all the, accompanying appointments. And then we were just, school was not off to a good start that year. So I had decided let's try one of these new unit studies. So we did try Rebecca Spooner's gather around for a time, but it was

Timmy Eaton:

yeah, not a very good long-term fit. I find it interesting each family is so unique and some things resonate with families and others don't. And it's not to say one is preferable to the other. It's just preferable to that family or to that style, or to that mother. And so I think that's a good lesson for homeschool families is to go, what fits your interest and your priorities and your purposes. And then go with it confidently and don't be afraid to be open to try new things. Trying out new stuff. Did you guys typically get new stuff at conferences or were you Jamie more of an online researcher, look at blogs and find out what people are using, or a mixture of both, or how did you do it?

Jamie Giesbrecht:

A mixture of both. I think my favorite curriculum, or one of my favorite curriculums I found, they don't come to conferences and they don't sell their stuff in printed format. Is Guest Hollow? So of the states it's just a mom and pop organization or Christian Couple. And so when you get there, what you're paying for is the schedule. And it's a literature based. Curriculum. And you get there a huge book list that's pages long and you could never use every resource. I love all the options and I love that I can take that book list and I can tailor it. So I could have three high schoolers all studying human anatomy this year, but none of them are gonna be reading the exact same books. Some of those main, ranked number one ones, they will, but I can still tailor it to each personality and their own kind of unique.

Jarrod Giesbrecht:

She does a lot of read aloud with the kids, so it's okay, we're gonna sit and we're gonna do read aloud, especially the older kids, they go off and do their own stuff.

Timmy Eaton:

How many kids are still home right now?

Jamie Giesbrecht:

10.

Timmy Eaton:

Of the 10 are they ever doing something all together?

Jamie Giesbrecht:

Yeah. When I can, I like to do a family based, but there's a lot You can't you can't do

Jarrod Giesbrecht:

Yeah. Math

Jamie Giesbrecht:

like that. History, we use mystery of history. So I, we have everybody together for the main lesson, and then I just assign different things for the high schoolers and, based on their age science, I like to keep us on the same subject. So at least there can be some cross learning. So we're doing human anatomy this year. The younger kids are using the Apia book.

Jarrod Giesbrecht:

And

Jamie Giesbrecht:

the older children are using the the Guest Hollow and then our middle schoolers. I've combined some of the guest hall resources with the apology, the youngest Flos book. To make it into more of a middle school course. So we're all learning the same thing. Not altogether, necessarily Different

Jarrod Giesbrecht:

levels Yeah. But

Jamie Giesbrecht:

At their different levels. But that way now, when our teens do, when they do one of their dissections, the younger kids are all over that. They wanna watch that. It gives you the opportunity for the cross learning. And for the shared memories that builds over the different ages.

Timmy Eaton:

It's just hitting me as you're saying that, Jamie,'cause you guys have heard this a million times too, but like people say, do you have a teaching degree? And you go, as if that actually matters, but I'm just thinking of 13 children and you're doing simultaneously, you're teaching sometimes, like you said, history, you're teaching the same subject and then applying it to the age and to the stage of where they're at with different assignments or different whatever, expectations. And I'm just thinking, man, it's so amazing. Like homeschool moms specifically, but homeschool dads too. But moms are typically the principal parents. So homeschool moms are just so ready to to facilitate learning for our children. It's just amazing to me that with that experience behind them. The resume of a homeschool mom is just incredible. When you think about all that they've facilitated over the years through so many children what would you guys say if people were to ask you if they said Hey, so what was your main motivation when you started? What would be your answer at this point? Because how long have you been homeschooling now for?

Jamie Giesbrecht:

18 years. 18 years.

Timmy Eaton:

Yeah. So we're about the same. You guys were probably a little more than us. So what was the main motivation when you started? Like why'd you start doing that? Why'd you choose to do it?

Jamie Giesbrecht:

I think our biggest one was we thought Caleb would be bored.

Timmy Eaton:

Yeah.

Jamie Giesbrecht:

We thought our oldest would just be bored.'cause he was learning things so fast at home. Before he was even school age, we're like, what is he gonna do when he's in kindergarten and they're teaching them to read. Yeah. And he is already been reading chapter books for a year and that kind of thing. Yeah. I think that was the main reason. Now not really

Jarrod Giesbrecht:

Yeah, the world's changed, it's just what we do and it's been successful so far. We've got four graduated and one more to graduate this year. So much of it is that academy done like we're past that not sure stage. Yes, that's us too. Now we've been through the whole, like we've launched a few, right? And it's not just the education, the education is is great, right? The relationship building, but also the faith thing, the ones that have graduated are still playing into their faith, where the public school system works against that. So much. You have to undo so much. So it's why would we stop?

Timmy Eaton:

Yeah. The follow up question was how have those motivations evolved and you just spoke to that, right? That's something that we have found in our family is that the reasons and our motivation to homeschool has only increased and like multiplied and there's so many factors. Our first factor was probably we just wanted to have our family spend more time together. If you're spending, six to eight hours away at school, that's just a ton of time that you don't have with your family and your children. So that was probably the main motivation, but then it's evolved quite a bit over the years. You know a lot of people, which is interesting because people will be like, man, 13 children. How in the world can you do that, Jamie? And how can you do that Jared? But then you think about a classroom. And I know that they're set up in a different way, but classrooms today are 25 to 40 kids typically, which is another reason why we choose to homeschool is'cause they get that attention. So for you though, if you had to say what's the greatest challenge to the decision to homeschool thus far, and then also what are the greatest benefits that you're seeing? So maybe start with the challenge. Like what's a challenge or two, or whatever. What comes to mind when you're like, man, this is one of the realities that is hard about making the homeschool lifestyle decision.

Jamie Giesbrecht:

Keeping the little ones busy and out of trouble and from interrupting so much.

Jarrod Giesbrecht:

Got so many, such an age range. But I think just the fact that it's all on you, right? Like you're not handing it off to someone else, you're help my kids turn out. That's, I can't blame bad teachers.

Timmy Eaton:

Yeah. How does this work out? Yeah, exactly. That is challenging. But Jamie, say more about that.'cause that is true. I've noticed that we have six children. We don't have 13, but it is true especially as the kids get older, they're more self-directed in their learning and they're doing their own thing. And so they wanna be able to concentrate and have more depth on the subjects that they're studying. But the realities of having all their siblings around is so awesome in one way, but it can be distracting in another way.

Jamie Giesbrecht:

When we're done, our family school time, they'll go find a bedroom or the, usually the living room, one of them will end up in the living room or the basement. They go and take their work where it's quieter. Yeah. And I had heard from a speaker at, in Alberta, actually at the conference this year Maurice Donor, she did a session on homeschooling with littles and she, talked about having a bin of special toys that are only for school time. So I was like, yeah, we're gonna do that this year. I can buy all the quiet toys I want, but my three-year-old doesn't know how to play without talking. Even when she's by herself, like the toys are conversing with each other and you're like, Arwin, shh. We need to keep working on school. I need to quite down sweetheart. Yeah. So that's more like that kind of. That kind of thing.

Timmy Eaton:

No, we do our best and then we gotta let them be, right? They have to have the freedom and flexibility to express themselves. But yeah, you're right. It, that can be a challenge. Any other challenges come to mind just as an example, some people talk about technology and phones or I don't like to use the term socialization, but like, how are they making friends and what's their social interaction and that kind of thing.

Jarrod Giesbrecht:

We've made a point of not keeping them super busy, right? Not having a lot of things. Not everyone going to different sports and different directions and stuff all the time and dividing that family time. So two things we have right now is like bible quizzing on Tuesday nights and use group on, on Friday nights. And so they're both. Christian focused.

Jamie Giesbrecht:

We have had kids in dance and baseball and like football and stuff, but

Jarrod Giesbrecht:

yeah. Fortunately many of our kids have been interested in sports, so we're not pushing them towards it. Yeah. Very expensive and very time consuming. So many people, like now it's like hockey. It's always Sunday morning practices. People missing church for that and stuff. So we've been intentional with that. So they still, they're getting that time actually during during COVID, when there was restrictions to, you can only have five people at your house at a time. We had a secret co-op. We've never been a co-op. It was just one

Jamie Giesbrecht:

family. Yeah, one family.

Jarrod Giesbrecht:

And they have four kids, so there's six of them. So they would, they'd drive into our garage and they'd come and we'd hang out and we'd do, that's when we were doing the

Jamie Giesbrecht:

gather around. Gather around.

Jarrod Giesbrecht:

So I think it's not getting too pulled in by all the different things they could do. Let's focus on the good things. And so they've got sets of friends at at Bible quizzing. They've got kids from our church at youth group and stuff, camp. They go to bible camp. Oh, camp. Our oldest daughter is working at camp as a cook now. So we limit it, let them. Yeah, connect as much as they want with the people in those

Timmy Eaton:

And if each of your kids has 12 siblings, that's a lot of social interaction as well. So that's pretty built in. But I really appreciate what you're saying about not filling their schedule so that it actually allows for that exploration the name of this podcast is this Golden Hour, there's this timeframe where we have this beautiful time to learn and explore, and when we fulfill, then it gets in the way of some of that development. So what about benefits? What would you guys say what have been the greatest benefits or like the reasons where you find yourself going, oh yeah, that's why we do this. We love seeing these results and these outcomes and just the feeling that companies that, what are the greatest benefits,

Jamie Giesbrecht:

sibling relationships. Yeah, I think that would be a big one. Seeing them connect across the age gaps with each other.

Jarrod Giesbrecht:

Yeah. For sure. Yeah. And flexibility, right? Because like our daughter before she graduated, she was able to go and do like spring staff at camp, not wait till July to go. And our oldest, so

Jamie Giesbrecht:

Caleb went tree planting too. He went,

Jarrod Giesbrecht:

did tree planting. Cool. He went to Alberta tree planting. He he went, did a mission trip with Teen Missions International. So Jamie's sister and brother-in-law worked for them down in Florida. So he went to Fiji when he was 16 or 17. And yeah, and that's based on the US school schedule. So there, it's like you go in June and you're there till August. August, cool. Yeah, it would've been like if we were since in school, we'd have to get permission to pull'em outta school early and send them away. Yeah, there's been a lot of opportunities like that wouldn't have worked. And because of that, like that tree planting, I'd recommend that to anyone if their kids are at least spiritually strong enough to deal with it.'cause there's, I was gonna say, be careful that there are some rough characters of Yeah, of course. Camp. Yes. But he but that has gotten him so many job opportunities. They see it on the resume. This person has a work ethic. They can work like cool, I think there's, yeah, flexibility and family relationships would definitely be the most, but those outta that flexibility has come, these other pieces opportunities that wouldn't have happened otherwise.

Timmy Eaton:

One of you mentioned earlier on, and I think this is a very common expression amongst homeschool families, is academics are like this fortunate byproduct of homeschooling. But many people, it's not like their top focus. It's about family or worldview or whatever that people are trying to pursue. And then it's such a fortunate byproduct that you're learning is actually enhanced because we emphasized how to learn and the love of learning. And we try not to let their curiosities be dampened by conventional institutional type thinking. And so that that's really cool to hear. Now, you said you've had four children go through the whole thing, right? So none of your kids have gone into school in secondary or high school or anything like that? No. And so that's us too. And we've seen three go from, we always say birth to university, and we've had three now go through and our kids start doing dual credit through university when they get to their grade 11 years, 16 years old. And that's been so awesome. I was just before this interview, I was talking to my 16-year-old daughter. And she was telling me about the two courses that she's taking that are dual credit and she's like, is this how all college classes are like university classes'cause they don't anticipate they're gonna do that. Well And then they do really well. And so not everybody, but I'm saying they find it easy because they've already been doing university learning because they're so self-directed in their studies. But can you just speak to that a little bit? I'm sure a lot of parents are like, so how did you do that? How did your kids get into schools or into trades or whatever they're doing post graduation, if you wanna call it that from homeschool? What are they doing? What are your four kids that are graduate, what are they doing and how did you prepare them for this future? I mean, 23 still very young. What are they doing and how did they prepare for that?

Jarrod Giesbrecht:

Caleb, our oldest he's had a number of jobs. He is like warehouse management type stuff. He got a job when he was still here in a warehouse. They paid for him to get his forklift ticket and then there was an overhead crane ticket. And he is a reader. You'd think he wouldn't be so into the trades type stuff. Yeah. But he's really enjoyed that and has, gotten into managing that type of thing. I can't even remember what his current job is, but he's just it's all

Jamie Giesbrecht:

warehouse related. He loves that. Yeah. Loves the more physical aspect of the work he does. Yeah.

Jarrod Giesbrecht:

But he networks like nobody else. Like whenever he loses a job. He's got a lineup of new job. Offers like same day kind of thing. He connects with so many people. When he moved out to Alberta, he had 17 or 18 job offers to pick from when he moved out there. He's

Jamie Giesbrecht:

also taking a bunch of courses through Jordan Peterson's online.

Timmy Eaton:

Oh, cool

Jamie Giesbrecht:

and he was getting paid to tutor a couple of guys in his area, in those courses, like with the philosophy, and there was a job opening I don't remember what the university professor's name was, but through the Jordan Peterson stuff. They had chosen the three students they thought were the best. So our son was one of them and then two others. And they said, okay, you need to do, I get started with a paper. Yeah. They said, here's the subject. We're gonna give you the topic, or it's gonna be a topic we feel you're really good at, that you're strong at. Write us a paper of this length by this date. So he did, I thought it didn't start at three, it was more than three, like 10. And then they whittled it down at three and he made the top three. And then now you're gonna give us a presentation. Wow. For an hour. And so they did it. He finished second. The guy who got the job was one of the guys he'd been tutoring. So yeah he's written a book and his book is due to be published later this month. What's the

Timmy Eaton:

content of the book? What's it about?

Jarrod Giesbrecht:

It's called Ack. It's which is a character from is it like Norse mythology? Nors Mythology? It's basically a Christian inspired by Dracula. Dracula, retelling of Dracula. He had some professor read it, to give his, feedback and a review for the book cover, whatever. And he was just like, it's really good. It's like nine or 10 on the scary scale, but it's in 10 days from now, I think is the early date, so, and then what about

Timmy Eaton:

your other three kids that have graduated?

Jarrod Giesbrecht:

So the oldest two are boys and the next two are girls. And it's like the oldest boy and the oldest girl. Both definitely have the oldest kid tendencies. And then the second so number two and number four are the, not slackers, but just, not so rules based and stuff. Not all natural leaders. So second, he moved there for a girl, a daughter of a friend yeah. Like our family friend that they were interested. So he was like, I don't have a job lined up, but I wanna move there and I, if I'm gonna pursue a relationship. So he's committed. He is just started working for McDonald's, which is a good company. The people that we met before starting homeschooling. The ones where they had their eighth on the way and are fourth. Yes. They he works for McDonald's, so we always joked about, yeah, this guy raises eight kids on working for McDonald's. Last I heard, he is a VP of franchising and stuff. But yeah, so he is, he's got that. I'm gonna go and I'm gonna figure it out, and so he has that confidence, right? Yeah. Maybe not the networking skills to, just have all these job opportunities, but he's confident. He's he has

Jamie Giesbrecht:

a good work ethic. Yeah. And he's very smart and very very creative. It'll be interesting to see what he does. I always like to say, our oldest was always way beyond his ears. Still is. He's had people joke, would you stop acting like a 40-year-old man and be 23? He's always been beyond his ears. And I then I always smiling. Go on our second born, he's our Peter Pan.

Jarrod Giesbrecht:

I

Jamie Giesbrecht:

always say he always gets where he needs to go, but it's gonna take him longer than what you want it to. Yeah. Yeah. It just, you know who he is

Jarrod Giesbrecht:

but right from when they were little. Caleb, our oldest he'd climb outta his crib fall and get hurt and like. Well, i'm not gonna do that again. And then Isaac, the second would be like I did that wrong. I gotta, next time I try it, I'm gonna adjust. You gotta find

Timmy Eaton:

a new way.

Jarrod Giesbrecht:

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, they definitely have different mindsets and, neither is better or worse than the other. It's just they got personalities. So Isaac's finding his way, and being close to a good friends of ours, that's been helpful. He's got community and his brother. Yeah. Yeah. Then, so Maya our third, she's she's been working at camp for four or five summers now, and now she's full-time, like she's the head cook that she's worked at yeah. So she's running

Jamie Giesbrecht:

a commercial kitchen.

Jarrod Giesbrecht:

Yeah. And she's just got engaged. Few weeks ago but yeah, she is definitely very strong headed. She and I have butted heads a lot over the years. And Lucy, our fourth, she still, she doesn't know, doesn't know what she wants to do, and she doesn't know what she wants

Jamie Giesbrecht:

to do. And she is very shy. And so right now she's still homeschooling. We just like, let's, you know, sharpen up some of your skills just get you a little more confident in yourself. So i'm very blessed. I get to have an extra year with her. Our next two already know what they wanna do. Wow. They're all different. No, I

Timmy Eaton:

like that. I like to see the variety and and what you're illustrating is that it's not one size fits all. And that's the same thing in other families that aren't homeschooling. But the idea that I think people want to hear is like one of the greatest fears is like, how does this work out? Like, how does this turn out? And it's just like anything else, it turns out fine. They've been taught how to learn. Depending on what they wanna pursue, right? If somebody does wanna pursue something that requires certain accreditation or, whatever it is, what homeschoolers find is that you call the program of the university, or you call the trades or like, Caleb has done you network and that's probably more effective. But my daughter's at school right now and she's our oldest and I was just talking to her on the phone on the way home from work today unbeknownst to me until today, she said I was in a class and one of the professors said, Hey, why don't you go to your program department heads and get to know them and see what they think about what things you should do. And so she did that. She's in landscape design and she went there and then I guess basically in that one action, she landed into an internship that's gonna take her into Michigan this March. And she's not even in those courses yet. And it's because she had already done an internship and so all I'm saying with that is that idea of networking and going and just asking questions at the right places leads people to where they want to go. But the question is, what do you wanna do? And there's no rush, like you said for Lucy. There's no rush. And you're blessed to be with her and help her find her way a little bit. And that's totally fine. There's no rush. We're in this culture of oh, you hit 18, get outta the house. And I don't know, to each family, his or her own, and it can be adaptable, but it works out fine. And I think that's a good thing to let families that are homeschooling, especially that have younger kids. I think you said it earlier, Jared, that like, you're not at the stage that, you know, it works out. And so you're not all anxious about oh man, what's gonna happen? You feel that confidence as parents. Yeah.

Jarrod Giesbrecht:

Yeah, exactly. And we've just had the flexibility to kinda let them as they get the last couple years of high school, they pick and dig into something deeper, so it's not teaching so much as I'm going into self-directed kind of thing. What did Caleb do again?

Jamie Giesbrecht:

Oh, the world religions. When he was in grade 10.

Jarrod Giesbrecht:

Oh yeah, that's right. Like he's read the Quran, he's read the Book of Mormon. He, you knows the Bible. So the world, tells you that, oh, Christians are so closed-minded, right? But I'm like, my kids are gonna be more open-minded because they're gonna have the faith foundation, but we're not gonna be like, no, you can't read those other things. And you can learn how to defend against that, right? We used to have a Christian homeschool teen network. It only was around for a couple years, and then it there was some infighting and it fell apart, but in that time, like we a local pastor did a 12 week apologize apologetics class that, that all these teens went to, right? And there's been so many opportunities. And again, some things, they're around for a couple years and then they go away. But you just, you find those things that just benefit. Your family, your kids so much. Yeah, there was the, like the filmmaking stuff that they did during that time. Instead of just, a single like family going and trying to find a class that their kid can be a part of. We organized and it all homeschooled filmmaking class. And these kids who were in it, and a bunch of others they would go out to a farm and do like a filmmaking challenge for a day. So they'd spend eight hours making a film, take some time editing and putting it together, and then they would show it to each other or there was one or two years they did it at our homeschool conference, yeah. So where they did a Friday evening, it's oh, we're doing a film making showing all these films that these different homeschoolers have made. It's, and I don't know if they're

Jamie Giesbrecht:

all using the skills nowadays as much, but one of the guys. Our son's friends that was homeschooled. He's now married with three children of his own and he and his wife have their own company and they make documentary trees on families who homeschool and stuff.

Timmy Eaton:

I, like what Jamie just said about they might not be utilizing those skills today or whatever, but that all learning is beneficial. And so whatever you have been exposed to or learned, that is shaping the character and your learning for whatever you do end up pursuing. And so no learning is wasted. I like that, point of view. Jamie, you've got 13 children and you're homeschooling like what do you do to replenish? The phrase we use is fill the bucket. Like, how do you get self-care to make sure that you're motivated and healthy and, stable to be able to continue to homeschool over all these years?

Jamie Giesbrecht:

I'm a big reader, so I take my time at night. I'm a homebody too.

Jarrod Giesbrecht:

As the kids have gotten older, things have changed. Like we used to take all the kids grocery shopping and stuff and that. Yes. Yeah. That's our time when we're out for a few hours and we're, yeah. We used to have to ask my parents to babysit. They're still living there seven miles away from us, so it's right and close. But yeah, now that we've got older kids, they, we try not to abuse it, but they're pretty good with okay guys, we're going out, here's what we'll start supper, you guys feed the little kids and we'll be back in a bit. But, with having such a big family, we do road trips out to Edmonton'cause that's where our good friends are and we've gone west, we've gone through the Rockies a few times and stuff, but last year was the first time we traveled together, so we went down to Minnesota for their conference. So like we started being involved in like the homeschool conference planning in. 2018? I think. The one who does the, these videos the one she's looking up, he's the one who taught us to do this. So he was like, I don't know, 1920 or something. And his family is very involved. So he taught us to do our role on, in there

Jamie Giesbrecht:

Liberty film. I think that's it.

Jarrod Giesbrecht:

And then last year we joined the board for matches, like the Manitoba Association Yeah. Home schools. And so we've been asked a number of times over the years to, to travel to, there's a what's it called? The Alliance conference where it's it's homeschool leaders building up leaders. And we, it is never really worked for us'cause we always had a kid, a baby, every year and a half. So she's either pregnant or. Or nursing. But last year we weren't available for the alliance conference, so we went to Minnesota instead. And so we rented a car and we drove down and,'cause we drive old vehicles and I don't trust them on a long road trip. So yeah, we, we drove down there. It was just an amazing. We got away just us. This year we went to a h in Alberta. Yeah, that's where we met you. And, we got to connect with the board and the planning committee there and get ideas and exchange ideas. And then this September, yeah, we went down to Texas for for the alliance conference. So there was 44 states and two provinces represented there, I think. And it's wow. Just set up to you share ideas. Like it's, you're going from what is it, like eight 30 in the morning to pretty close to 10 at night. It's just and it's, you're connecting with so many people and you're getting so many ideas for that you can bring back to your own like state or provincial thing. And so if you can help improve your conference and, and how your organization runs, right? Yeah. Yeah. That's where you guys

Timmy Eaton:

were able to hang out with Andrew Pua. Right.

Jarrod Giesbrecht:

Yeah.

Timmy Eaton:

Because I just had him on my podcast and when you guys said that, I was like, oh, I just published my podcast with him

Jarrod Giesbrecht:

yeah. And Israel, Wayne. Israel Wayne and his wife Brooke. So they were at our conference this year, but we still were in that we put them on a pedestal. They're like, oh, they're celebrities. Don't know

Jamie Giesbrecht:

pedestal, but they're celebrities. Yeah. There's

Jarrod Giesbrecht:

It's oh, I don't know what would I say? But before the conference started in, in Texas, someone introduced us to them and we sat down and we chatted with them for three hours before the conference even started. It was just amazing. Like all the stories he's got and wow. From all the years he's been speaking and he was like a pioneer and or his mom, I guess really was a pioneer in homeschooling.'cause when it was a still illegal right? He, she started so yeah, it was very cool. And yeah, you spent like 45 minutes talking to Andrew. We talked to him briefly in Minnesota last year and he said, we told him we were from from Manitoba and he is oh, Winnipeg. Yeah, I was there once. It's the ugliest city we've ever seen. We had a good laugh and we're like, yeah, you're, no, you're not wrong. But, oh. Yeah. So just making those connections, it's amazing. And some of those people at the Alliance Conference have been just doing this for so much longer. One of our former board members was like. And some of our really good friends, it's their, is their parents, right? So they were on our board for 35 years. They're now graduating grandkids from homeschooling, right? So we have the benefit of their experience, right? And now we're a whole new board as of a year and a half ago, and we're trying to figure out, what do we do and how do we live up to, all that's been done so far. So yeah, it's

Timmy Eaton:

it's a journey, man.

Jarrod Giesbrecht:

Yeah. It's, and it's a whole new thing now. I'm like, I'm not public speaker, I, but I'm now planning a talk for our conference coming up in March for just about how can you get involved, right? Because it's, we've been at it in the beginning you're a taker, right? You're like, what can I get? Yes. How can I be supported? And now we want to be, and how do we support and how do we speak into lives of other homeschoolers that are new? There were so many new homeschoolers from COVID, right? It's just, they no, it's growing. It's

Timmy Eaton:

growing so fast in, in Canada and the us and so you're right. And so how do we give back and how do we help in, the evolution of this movement? I was just gonna ask because I don't know which which presentation you guys saw me do or if we connected there just at my table, but, the thing that I've been focusing on is proactive homeschooled ads. It's a course I've done and and I was wondering how have you guys worked out, like being aligned with your purposes for choosing this lifestyle? Obviously you mentioned before just faith and the flexibility of this choice, but like, how do you make sure that you two are on the same page about what you're doing with the homeschool decision as you continue on? Because I'm sure like every couple, there's been times where you're not totally aligned. So how do you guys make sure you stay on the same page with your purposes and priorities for homeschooling and the way that you're doing your family?

Jarrod Giesbrecht:

Yeah, she is obviously she's the teacher and we discuss, if we're gonna try new curriculums and stuff, but she's the one doing it, so she comes up with the ideas, she finds all the new stuff. She's in the Facebook groups and people discussing things and Yeah. There's never been a No, that's a bad idea. So I, yeah. Say oh, I'm the dad. I'm the principal. Which means more the disciplinarian. Okay. You've pushed mom too far. Yeah.

Timmy Eaton:

I call it that in my course. I call it the protector. That's one of the roles of a homeschool dad is to be the protector pr principally of his wife, but also of his family and a what goes on. Jamie, what would you, are there times let me give you an example. So for us it would be like. I always use this example, but like early on when we were homeschooling, I would see stacks of books left out in the house and I would be like frustrated that they weren't put away. And my wife would be like, what are you saying? These are intentionally placed there so that the kids are running into books all the time. And so we weren't aligned on those things. And it,'cause it requires some communication between couples to be able to go, oh yeah, this is what we're all about. And that way if you're more aligned, you have less moments of like contention or less moments of misunderstanding about like why you're doing certain things. Is there anything that you can, recall or things that you guys have done to make sure that you're aligned and on the same page with your reasons for doing what you're doing?

Jamie Giesbrecht:

Just communicating and talking?

Jarrod Giesbrecht:

Yeah. I don't know that we've really run into any, disagreements. Yeah. Alignments in that area. It's okay. Because generally

Jamie Giesbrecht:

speaking, when we do, we sit down and we talk about it and just about explaining. Yeah.

Jarrod Giesbrecht:

Yeah. I think we're a pretty good, like consistent mind in the area, the subject area. In general. So we're you get people who, one might come out of a, like a really charismatic background. One's more of Mennonite or something like that. And you get you have different approaches to things and we're both from middling. We're not like,

Timmy Eaton:

yeah. So you guys feel like you naturally align pretty well. Like you haven't had like that hasn't been that a great challenge.

Jamie Giesbrecht:

Maybe a good example, and this is like going back ways, but when we met that couple through the Bible study group and you weren't so sure what, having more kids. Initially you weren't convinced. And I remember just thinking, I'm not gonna sit here and destroy my marriage over it, so we're not gonna argue about it. And really, we're already pregnant with the baby, so we didn't even have to think about it for a while. But yeah, my prayer was, my consistent prayer in that time was that God would align our hearts on the same thing, right? Because I'm like, whether we have more, we stop at four. I want us to be. Aligned, and it's God's heart is for marriage. He created marriage. He wants a husband and a wife, yeah. To be unified, right?

Timmy Eaton:

Yeah. Har harmonious. And

Jamie Giesbrecht:

by the time it came that, that we'd have to make a decision, God had already brought Jared around. I didn't need to badger him or argue about it, or,

Jarrod Giesbrecht:

no, that's true. Yeah. It's the time here. When we announced our fourth and the, they had their eighth on the way. He was like that's a good start. It's just this little flippant little thing, but yeah. That's, it's just, it was, I can't say that was like the you're right. I, but it was just in that time, right? It was the, it changed my mind on homeschooling. Changed mind or brought it, I don't know. I wasn't against it, but it was, it's like further

Timmy Eaton:

exposure to it. Further consideration. It works on you a little bit. You think about it more and then

Jarrod Giesbrecht:

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So it was just like, yeah, so for not just the homeschooling, but also for trusting God with our family size. He put that family in our lives just for that time. Yeah. Yeah.

Timmy Eaton:

What would you guys say has been like in your experience?'cause obviously Jamie, you do the principal load of it because you're with the kids during the day. Like what we're talking about supporting each other, in an alignment way, but how does Jared participate or how can he participate? What do you see as his supportive role and how does he supplement what you do?

Jamie Giesbrecht:

That taking time with the kids right. In the evening. So we've had some drama in our house over the course of this year with ovens and stoves

Timmy Eaton:

dying on us. How many ovens have we

Jamie Giesbrecht:

gone? Oh my goodness. It's been, oh, that's

Timmy Eaton:

tough.

Jamie Giesbrecht:

So I'm making supper last night and I have my chicken wings in the oven, and this is a new oven off of marketplace we just picked up last week and it's worked so far. But anyway, 20 minutes before with to go on the timer and this oven starts a beep and beep and beep, and there's an error message flashing. And it doesn't matter what we push, it won't stop. So Jerry goes and flips the breaker off, and then when he turns it back on the beeping and the error message flash back up and we look it up and it says, control board needs replacing. Oh. And oh my goodness, this is what our fourth oven is. Year. I was like, I don't think I'm supposed to have an oven anymore. Anyway.

Jarrod Giesbrecht:

Oh, we just wanted to buy a new one. Yeah. So

Jamie Giesbrecht:

he and our 15-year-old son pull in the other oven. It's the same make and model that we had bought in the spring. That

Jarrod Giesbrecht:

also

Jamie Giesbrecht:

the didn't die, the stove top cracked Broke, on us anyway. But the two of them go and they take the control board off that one and put it on. Oh, yeah. Yeah. It didn't work. So they have some more like fiddling to do tonight. But I was texting my friend and I'm like, you know what? I don't have an oven and I'm hungry and my supper's not baking and I'm frustrated. I'm like, but you know how beautiful it is to watch Jared and Silas work together? Silas is really smart with that, like how things go together. He wants to go into engineering. He is so smart with that, and Jared and him work together so well. They're like a well-oiled machine. So like it's things like that, when I see him take a kid under his wing and go and,

Timmy Eaton:

yeah.

Jarrod Giesbrecht:

That first one that we got, the one that we pulled into to do the repairs, when we bought that one, we had a bit of a drop and it bent the inside of the oven so that the racks wouldn't stay in. So he and I spent an hour and a half taking that oven apart and then bending it back in so that the racks would stay in. So yeah, it's not the first time this year, he spends like so much time working on Lego, but not just like building basic Lego. He is building cars and he is building suspension systems and like he's just wow.

Timmy Eaton:

Yeah. He's into it, man. His mind's on that kind of thing. Yeah. Exactly. So always has been, when

Jamie Giesbrecht:

he was three, how many times did you find toys dismantled?'cause he would go find a screwdriver and then he would take the whole thing apart, but he wouldn't know how to fix it.

Timmy Eaton:

Yeah. And what I love about that is you're there to behold that as a parent. Especially when you homeschool. A lot of kids that, parents that don't homeschool can see that, especially with the younger kids. But a lot of those discoveries happen during the homeschool hours. And you're there to discover it as a parent. And then, Jamie, you and Jared too. But like you're there to say, okay, I can see they're interested and then you can put that stuff in front of them. I don't know how many times we've noticed an interest of one of our children and then a bunch of books will appear in our home based on that subject, and the kids will just go and take that interest to the nth degree. And that kind of learning just happens so beautifully at home and you just can't do that at school. You just can't do that in another setting because first of all, people don't care as much'cause it's not their child. And you're going I'm watching this child, and I could see this is their interest. And like you said, it's as early as three years old and it's likely that he'll probably pursue something like that. Yeah. And so that's cool to watch that evolve as a parent and watch that develop and then to even facilitate it. With so much experience that you guys have with so many different personalities in your home, what would you tell new homeschool families that are a little overwhelmed or scared, but they know they want to do it? What do you tell new families to say, Hey, you can do this. What's your advice?

Jarrod Giesbrecht:

I think the first thing is always have you been to the conference yet?'Cause we had 1400 and some people at our conference, right? It just gives them an opportunity to, see the curriculum options out there, connect with other people in their area.'cause people are spread all over. Do you have any specific encouragement? I know I always point up to conference because that's just, where they're gonna get that. Yeah. It's a

Timmy Eaton:

lot of curriculum. It's a lot of networking. Families they can connect with that type of thing. Yeah.

Jarrod Giesbrecht:

But you always tell'em,

Jamie Giesbrecht:

make sure you know your why.

Jarrod Giesbrecht:

Yeah.

Timmy Eaton:

And right.

Jamie Giesbrecht:

Know why you're doing what you're doing.

Jarrod Giesbrecht:

Yeah. And then

Jamie Giesbrecht:

just, and just start with, even if you're only gonna start with reading books out loud, that's like kind of what I tell them. That's one of the best things. It's been proven. That's one of the best things you can do. Yeah. To ensure your kids' future success is to read out loud. We read the Bible out loud. We have a biography, we read aloud as a family in the mornings, and then like a a novel in the evenings at bedtime. We do a lot of reading out loud, so Cool. With everybody, if you're in my house, you're sitting in read aloud time, right? 18-year-old. The 16-year-old. They are all there. My mom would read books to my sisters and I on road trips. So when we moved from Thunder Bay. To Winnipeg. I was 18, my sister would've been 16 and 14, and she read a book about a local girl in Winnipeg, it was from a Christian family who had been kidnapped and like the whole case and stuff. She read this to out loud on the drive, right? She was always reading to us too. I would say if you just start with reading aloud, playing games, right? Making that connection focus on that for the first number of, yeah. Of weeks, and then it can, you can then you give yourself some time. Time to do that research or go to, maybe you're gonna visit a homeschool friend's house and see what are they doing? What does it look like, and yeah, check out their library. Yeah.

Timmy Eaton:

Yeah. I've heard some, a lot, I've heard a lot of people say, find a mentor like a seasoned homeschool mom and ask her a bunch of questions. Because a lot of times I find that she's not saying, here, do it this way. I've never heard, actually, I, they, they'll just teach principals and say, here's some things that have worked for our family, and you're gonna find your way. But I like, what you're saying, Jamie, read out loud to your kids, get'em outside. Spend time, build a relationship. And I would even say that's even appropriate at any stage of the journey.'cause some might say, yeah, but my kid's 17. And you go, eh, it's the same thing. Read to them, find out what their interests are and I just don't think you can go wrong. If, as long as you're doing your best,

Jarrod Giesbrecht:

So we ran into a couple in Valley Village looking at books. And it turned out that they're homeschoolers and they moved like an hour and a half away, like close to the US border, and so then they were, how, like, how do we connect with people in our area? Like we've just moved there, right? So we've got regional reps like for matches within the different areas of Manitoba. So we're like, oh hey, we can connect you with the people in your area. So a couple that used to go to our church and they're like, they're. O is now just getting up to school age. So she's doing reading and it's just yep. Just read with them. That's, at that age, that's all you need to do. You don't really need to do No, it is,

Timmy Eaton:

it's good counsel. It is good Counsel, Jamie, you mentioned that your mom read to you guys. Can I just ask it and then maybe this will be the last thing and then we can wrap it up, but what did, how have your siblings and families and parents all responded to this? Like, how's everybody like close to you? And I'm sure that it's been different over the years, but and I feel like more and more it's getting to the point where people are just more open to it because nobody's going what are you guys doing? The education system is amazing. Why would you take, you know, I don't hear anybody saying that but people in the past were definitely like, oh, homeschoolers are weird and, we've all heard this stuff. So like how have your families how were they initially and how have they been as far as your decision? Or not just families, but like your parents, your siblings good close friends, whatever.

Jamie Giesbrecht:

No, the ones who are like connected with our family are good.

Timmy Eaton:

Yeah. Like

Jamie Giesbrecht:

we don't, I have a sister who lives in Florida. She hasn't ever said she has a problem with it, but we don't see them very much. Yeah. So we don't really that kind of thing. But no, our parents are both really supportive.

Jarrod Giesbrecht:

Yeah. It took some time. Like when we were living in Winnipeg, we sold our house and we hadn't found a place yet, so we ended up moving in with my parents for two months while we found a house out in the country. So then, my mom was able to see the teaching that's going on, like and struggles. There was, sometimes butting heads and stuff. And she's of course. She thought the curriculum

Jamie Giesbrecht:

was too hard. She's this is way too advanced for them. I think that's the case with a lot of homeschool curricula. It exceeds what they're doing. I think apology is, exploring creation with general science. It's a grade seven course. Okay. I've got a friend doing it with her 12-year-old daughter right now. And she showed a woman at our church who's a public school teacher and principal, and she's this is grade 10 and 11 coursework. Wow.

Jarrod Giesbrecht:

In

Jamie Giesbrecht:

Manitoba, right? Yeah. And that's why your grade seven daughter is struggling. Or I look at the hours it takes to, go through a high school science curriculum and it's way more than what the recommended hours are for

Jarrod Giesbrecht:

yeah.

Jamie Giesbrecht:

Like for a credit. Interesting. Yeah. I think a lot of them just exceed it,

Jarrod Giesbrecht:

for sure. Yeah. Having that experience and being able to tell them, yeah, we've got kids who have graduated and are not still living in our basement kind of thing. Yeah. Validates

Timmy Eaton:

it a bit.

Jarrod Giesbrecht:

Exactly. So if you're starting out, you wanna make sure it's a valid option and you're not gonna be like, regretting it, right? So I, another couple in our church just started, they, in the last couple months they pulled their 16-year-old twins and 12-year-old daughter out of school. So then they're like, what do we do? And their kids are used to school, right? So we're able, we started right from the beginning, so we never went through that. But, there's the deschooling advice, right? Where it's let them just unwind and there's, from that, let them just focus on some things they're interested in without just diving into, here's more bookwork. So

Timmy Eaton:

no, you, that's a really relevant point, Jared, because we talk about the ability to do it or what to do, but really the greater challenges are just the mindset changes and the thinking changes that have to happen, or even the desire changes because it's not a secret that people like to go to school to be with their friends. They're not going because of the enhanced learning opportunities. They're going because of friends or because of sports or whatever the school offers. And I can't speak for everyone, but that's the typical situation. And so the biggest challenge is how do I deal with my kids who are going to go through like this withdrawal of what they're used to. Some kids are like, I can't wait to get outta the school. But other kids are like, oh, I, you we're homeschooling. And that's a challenge just to have to convince or even, persuade or whatever. And I don't know how people handle that.'cause we're like, you guys, we've never had to do that. We've had kids express interest, but with a little bit of time, it's always come back to no way. Like we don't want to do, even our kids and our kids play high school sports. Like they play in the, on the high school team here in, in Cardston, but after a bit of time they don't wanna go into the school. So that's probably the biggest challenge is not necessarily what do I do, the kid if parents are intimidated by that. But the bigger challenge is how do we help our kids transition from that mindset of school? Especially when they are like, I don't wanna homeschool and I don't even know what's the best thing in that situation because it's hard to do that when they're just totally contrary to the whole thing. But yeah, I guess that's gotta be fielded individually. So it sounds like your families are pretty supportive, but overall

Jamie Giesbrecht:

Both of our parents have given other people that they've met our contact info.

Timmy Eaton:

Yeah. You find that, don't you? They're going, man, you gotta talk to our kids. Like I just had, it's funny you say that. My brother just texted me two days ago and he said, I've got this couple in my in my congregation who are wanting to look into this or they homeschool and anyway, they have some questions and so that, that happens a lot. I'll give you guys the last word. This has been such a good, fun conversation. What do you wanna say as we part

Jarrod Giesbrecht:

it's been a good conversation. I've got all kinds of ideas. We could have gone this way. We could have, yeah, totally. Like we're but yeah. It's worth it. It just, if someone's con considering homeschooling, it is absolutely worth it for the relationship and for the things you don't have to deprogram out of the, your kids. And getting involved is great too. Like we've gotten into, more involved at the Provin provincial level here. And it's not for everyone. We've talked to someone in Ontario who is like his wife. He is on the board for Ontario and his wife is aggressively retired from retired, aggressively

Jamie Giesbrecht:

retired.

Jarrod Giesbrecht:

It doesn't have to be for life. Yeah. You could choose to, our former board member who was on for 35 years and is still doing like global home education conferences enjoy it. You only have your kids in your house for so long and yeah, you get more time with them this way. I work at home too, so I, sometimes that's a challenge'cause, but yeah,

Timmy Eaton:

it's,

Jarrod Giesbrecht:

yeah, I would, I don't regret any, I don't think you regret, it's never oh man, why do we do this? We could have so much free time.

Timmy Eaton:

Oh, thank you very much. Anything to add to that, Jamie?

Jamie Giesbrecht:

No. I think Jared summed it up really well.

Timmy Eaton:

Okay. You guys, thank you so much. I appreciate you taking time. I know you're busy, obviously, with your family and life, so thanks for being with me.

Jamie Giesbrecht:

All right. Thank you. Thank

you.

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.