This Golden Hour

126. Leah Ellis and The Society of Child Entrepreneurs

• Timothy Eaton

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In today’s episode, we get to spend time with Leah Ellis from Kansas. Leah is a mother of 4, previous homeschool mom, founder and executive director of The Society of Child Entrepreneurs, or SoCE, and the creator of the Astra and Zeke book series for children. She is all about empowering children through entrepreneurship. Leah discusses her background in homeschooling, emphasizing individualized education and the importance of letting children learn at their own pace. She highlights how her daughter’s desire for a traditional school experience led to a flexible approach based on each child’s needs. In our conversation, Leah encourages parents to let children progress at their own pace, avoid burnout, and recognize that learning happens everywhere—not just through formal curriculum. She stresses the value of practical, hands-on experiences and adapting teaching styles to each child.

Connect with Leah

The Society of Child Entrepreneurs (SoCE)

SoCE Facebook Page


Leah’s Book Series

Sparks to Stars: The Story of Astra & Zeke


This Golden Hour

Leah Ellis:

we step back and we watch them and we let them fail, and we let them pivot and we let them learn, and then they get to leave confident in their own problem solving skills, more creative, because they've actually had to find some problem solving skills, and at the end of the day, more resilient because they've had to fail and do it again anyway.

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 Leah Ellis from Kansas. Leah is a mother of four previous homeschool mom, founder and executive director of the Society of Child Entrepreneurs or Sochi, and the creator of the Astra and Zeke book series for Children. She is all about empowering children through entrepreneurship. Leah discusses her background in homeschooling, emphasizing individualized education and the importance of letting children learn at their own pace. She highlights how her daughter's desire for a traditional school experience led to a flexible approach based on each child's needs. In our conversation, Leah encourages parents to let children progress at their own pace, avoid burnout, and recognize that learning happens everywhere, not just through formal curriculum. She stresses the value of practical hands-on experiences and adapting teaching styles to each child. Welcome back to this Golden Hour podcast today. We are very excited to have with us Leah Ellis from Kansas. Leah, thanks for joining us. Hi.

Leah Ellis:

Thanks for having me.

Timmy Eaton:

Appreciate you being with us. I'll just give you a little intro and then we'll jump into some thoughts and questions. Leah is the mother of four children ranging from two to 10 years old. She's the founder and executive director of the Society of child Entrepreneurs, and she's also the creator and writer of the Astra and Zeke Children's book series. Anything you would add to your bio just to go ahead and jump in?

Leah Ellis:

I guess the biggest thing I would add is always slightly manic because I'm trying to manage a business, a nonprofit, and for children.

Timmy Eaton:

Did you grow up in that area in the Kansas area?

Leah Ellis:

S Yes and no. I was born here in Wichita. Then my stepdad joined the army. We moved around a whole bunch and my husband and I spent eight years of our marriage in Southern California. But three years ago, I was like, I just would like to go home to where our mothers are and where our children can grow up knowing their cousins. So he changed careers, got a master's degree, and we moved back across the country.

Timmy Eaton:

You and I talked a little bit beforehand, but maybe just tell my audience about like your connection to homeschooling and your experience with that, and then we can move into kind of the business that you developed.

Leah Ellis:

Yeah, so as I mentioned, when my husband and I got married shortly after we moved to Southern California and then we had our oldest daughter, and I really love my kids. And then I say that I love her so much. I couldn't send her to school in Los Angeles County. Everything about the system. And there are, I'm sure amazing schools there, but where we were, the options that we had, none of them were where I wanted to send her. And California we're very fortunate to have public charter schools where you can have state funding, assistant paying for homeschool curriculum. So it was a no brainer for me as a stay at home mom at the time to say, okay, I'm. Going to just take over educating her myself. And so that's what I did. And it was so worthwhile. My husband and I taught her to read and write. We got to spend every day together. And I also got to do all of the really hard stuff like teach her to read and write. But now she's this amazing girl and at the end of fourth grade, tested at the end of high school, senior reading level, and she's just brilliant and amazing.

Timmy Eaton:

And you had said that she made the decision on her own that I wanna try the school out, right?

Leah Ellis:

She did. So in our homeschool journey, we went to dance school, we went to extracurricular activities, we did school at the dining room table, and she convinced herself that school experience that's on Disney channel was what the real school experience would look. Like, And she just desperately wanted to have that Disney Channel School experience so badly. And so when we moved back to Kansas, we moved to a house in a really good school district, so she would have the opportunity to try public school, and she loves it and she's thriving. And I've told her and her siblings that as long as they're thriving in public schools they can stay, and if they stop thriving, then we'll look at what changes need to be made be that virtual school or homeschool or private schools as the case may be. But that's I think one of the most important things about having our school choice is that we do what's best for each individual kid and not even necessarily each individual family.

Timmy Eaton:

Tell us how you got started with this idea of the Society of Child Entrepreneurs and basically just the idea of empowering younger kids to start businesses and to develop that type of mindset.

Leah Ellis:

Pre COVID. I owned an in-home childcare and I taught little kids engineering and preschool and all of that fun stuff, and I really got to enjoy educating kids. Then COVID happened and my house flooded, and so my daycare did not reopen after. The damage from the flood because the city that we lived in opened a free for essential workers' childcare within walking distance of the daycare that I charged$200 a week for. So I promptly had no clientele, and my husband and I decided to start a financial coaching business together. So while we were starting our financial coaching business, he was deployed and I was watching business training videos on the living room TV so that I could supervise the littles while I was watching. My daughter came up to me at about four and a half years old and said, I wanna start a business too. And we are a homeschooled family. We're pretty like hands-on, project-based learning. How can we learn without it feeling like learning? But I was like, no, you're four. You can't start a business. And she did that thing that every 4-year-old ever has always done when they're told no and said, but why? And I didn't have a good answer for why she couldn't. We were trapped at home in the middle of COVID and we had the art supplies at home already. So I said, fine, if you think you can start a business with the things that we have in our house right now, then we'll do it. And she did. She launched at the time, melody paints. She sold custom drip art. You went onto her Google form, you told her the size and colors you wanted your painting. She painted it and she shipped it to you. She was very proud of her art, very proud of being able to own a business at four and a half years old. And so that kind of started. Adding entrepreneurship to her education and how do we apply things to business. When we moved back to Kansas, I wanted her to be able to find another group of entrepreneurs to be around. So we hosted our first children's business fair through Acton Academy, which I loved, except a children's Business Fair is a really amazing opportunity for a bunch of kids to take the things that they sell, put them on tables, sell them, pack it up, and leave. And then nothing. There's no day two of a children's business fair. So the Society of Child Entrepreneurs is when I took all of my education experience and all of my entrepreneurship experience and put them together so that we have education around how to do children's business fairs better. So the kids are constantly reiterating their learning how to do pitches. They're learning how to write business plans. I make seven year olds write mission and vision statements.

Timmy Eaton:

So basically that's amazing basic, it was born from your daughter's experience, having a desire and her showing interest in that and then actually taking initiative and doing something about that.

Leah Ellis:

And so I tell people the Society of Child Entrepreneurs was just my attempt to find peers for my daughter.

Timmy Eaton:

Yeah. No kidding. She

Leah Ellis:

just needed other people to talk about that weren't me. She only wants to talk business with her mom so much before she's like, I wanna talk to other children.

Timmy Eaton:

As I thought about that and read about that experience on your website as well and encourage everybody to go there to the Society of Child Entrepreneurs. Look that up. But when I was thinking about it, I was going, man your daughter was obviously driven by herself. Where did that come from? What's your explanation for that?

Leah Ellis:

She watched me do it and it looked like I was having fun and she was like if mom can do it and have fun, I wanna do it and have fun too.

Timmy Eaton:

Yeah.

Leah Ellis:

So she she did. And so even on our Facebook page for our first birthday of the nonprofit, melody gave what we call a junior keynote. She gave a five minute speech in front of all the guests there on her entrepreneurial journey. And it's crazy to see a 9-year-old stand in the middle of a. A podium and give a speech on their entrepreneurial journey.

Timmy Eaton:

That is a journey that had been five years by then,

Leah Ellis:

exactly.

Timmy Eaton:

And she's the oldest of your four?

Leah Ellis:

She's the oldest of my four, yeah.

Timmy Eaton:

And have you seen similar interest in the other kids? I know every child is gonna be so unique from each other, but have you seen similar motivation?

Leah Ellis:

So our second daughter. Also wanted to start a business when she saw her sister starting a business. So we had to make a rule that you're not allowed to start a business until you're four years old, that actually had to be a family rule, no businesses until you're four. Because she wanted a business so bad when her sister had a business, but she was like three. And I was like, people can't even understand you talking yet. You can't have a business. This one. I do have to say no here. But when she turned four, she launched her business, serenity Rocks, and she painted rocks and sold them with picture frames as paperweights. And so she would tell you, you can buy this rock or you can buy it with. Frame, and they're not rocks, they're paperweights to keep your things from flying away. If you've ever been a vendor at an outdoor event, everything flies away. So she sells branded paperweights to keep that from happening.

Timmy Eaton:

Cool.

Leah Ellis:

And so now Melody and Serenity each have their own businesses. Melody has rebranded her business because it was six years old and she felt like things needed to change. And then the girls also created a partnership that they run a company called Lemon Time Lemonade together. So between the two girls we have. Three businesses, four, because Serenity does face painting also. Yeah, but my son who turned four in July. Has no interest yet in entrepreneurship. He likes to hold money. He doesn't like to work for money.

Timmy Eaton:

So the question I had as I was thinking about that, and so I wanted to ask those questions to get to this one is what have you learned about. Fostering that within kids, because like in our home we have six kids. They're so different and they've only been homeschooled. As far as my wife has been the primary educator and we do a lot of outsourcing with music and sports and other things. But, they've only been homeschooled, so they haven't had that like school kind of experience where their curiosity is squelched in some ways, which can happen, outside the home. And it can happen anywhere. But yet we see that they're so different in the way that they go about learning and what they're interested in and their motivation levels are so different. So what have you learned specifically about fostering. Motivation and desire to start a business or do they have to have that in order to be able to really flourish with doing entrepreneurship?

Leah Ellis:

So obviously every kid, the motivations are very different. My oldest very much likes to be the best at everything, so her goal is always to be the one who earns the most money and sells the most stuff and talks to the most people. She's so competitive, it's insane

Timmy Eaton:

sometimes.

Leah Ellis:

So her entire motivation is just what can she win? And every sale is a victory to her. My second daughter, she's very social, so for her business is a great opportunity to. For her to talk to people. She started her face painting business specifically because it gives her the opportunity to trap people. Yeah. While she talks to'em, they can't walk away in the middle of it, I swear. That was her goal was to just trap them so they had to stay there and talk to her longer. I have other members of the Society of Child Entrepreneurs who don't love talking to clients. They are happy to answer questions, but they would like to answer as few questions as possible before you buy the product and then leave. And I don't necessarily think that a desire to be an entrepreneur doesn't have to be the first thing that brings them into entrepreneurship. Sometimes what brings them into entrepreneurship is they wanna share something that they enjoy. The best way to do that is by selling it. Sometimes they just want an opportunity to do something they've never done before. And a lot of times I have kids who become members because they're not really a sports kid. They're not really a music kid, and they're just looking for that niche where they fit in. Yeah. And entrepreneurship is that circle that everybody belongs.

Timmy Eaton:

That's a great response. So tell us about the society. Like how does it work? If parents have kids that are interested and what's the typical process and then what do you guys do on a regular basis?

Leah Ellis:

So right now all of our meetings are in person here in Kansas. Someday I will grow nationwide and it'll be amazing. And then someday after, that'll be worldwide and it'll be really amazing. Yeah.'cause I'll have entrepreneurs all over the planet. But what they do when they wanna join, they go to our website, it's$75 a year. They get two children's business fairs where they get to sell their merchandise. Five workshops, and then our monthly member nights. And the monthly member nights are my favorite part.'Cause once a month we bring all the kids together, we have pizza. And I call them a Sochi circle. It's pretty much the same thing as a Socratic circle. Only with a fancy branded name. So we bring the kids together and I give them a business problem. I say, okay, this is our problem. How do we solve this as entrepreneurs? So this last month in November, we talked about business challenges and if you're getting in trouble in school or if you are having a difficult time keeping track of your inventory, or in my daughter's case, if you break your arm, how do you continue running your business? So we talked about planning for what to do pivoting to a different type of product or partnering with somebody else who can help you in the meantime so that you can run this business. And that was a great conversation where the kids really got to talk a about business solutions and not just selling their product.

Timmy Eaton:

So they sign up online and then how do they find out about you? Like how do you market it? Like how do people know that you exist?

Leah Ellis:

One. I do lots of podcasts. And two, our Facebook page, that's the best place to find us, is to just follow our Facebook page and see what we're doing as we grow. That Facebook page will be where you'll be able to find opportunities like, okay, we are ready to open a satellite location in your city who's interested in taking it over? And then you can say, me, I wanna be the one to lead this satellite location.

Timmy Eaton:

And do you have online options because a lot of my audience is split mostly in the US and Canada. I'm in Southern Alberta, Canada, but if people wanna reach you online and tap into the resources, is that an option?

Leah Ellis:

Not yet. I used to teach on out school pre COVID and then a little bit at the beginning of COVID. And one of the things I learned when I was teaching virtually is one, you have to have a kid who's really engaged to be able to teach online. And two, it doesn't work as well with the little littles. I start my programs at six years old and it's too hard to teach a 6-year-old on a computer. There's too many distractions and it's too hard to hold their attention when you're just a flashing screen. So we are working on, I'm hoping mid 2026, I will launch some asynchronous videos where I talk to the parents about lessons they can teach the kids. And then you teach your child after I've coached you through it a little bit that way. The child still gets that physical connection. Yeah. And not just my floating head screen, but then we're also writing a full 36 week curriculum. And that'll be a three inch binder, just like every other homeschool curriculum we ever get our hands on. Or you just pull open the binder and you flip to page one and you start teaching. And that will be available, I'm hoping in 2027. We are starting our first pilot test in January of this program to start rolling it out Withs. I'm so excited. I cannot wait for the first class.

Timmy Eaton:

And I realize that every kid's experience will be different and unique to them. From your viewpoint, what is like the goal with each kid? Like as far as how long do they stay with you and then what are you prepping them to launch them into? You know what I mean? What do they leave you ready to do?

Leah Ellis:

So our program is officially six through 17. And honestly, kids can stay with us until they go and get that first job. If they go and get that first job because they might decide that they want their business to be their first job and they don't wanna go get that McDonald's job or that babysitting gig. Because they're happy with the business that they're running. And then they stay with me until they graduate high school. And then at that point they move on to programs like the Small Business Development Center where they're working with grownup entrepreneur programs. Continue growing this business. But not every kid is going to run their business from when they're four until they're 35, so the other thing that we're teaching them how to do is how all of these entrepreneurial skills can also apply to college. They can also apply to the trades. They can also apply to the rest of your life. And no matter where you go, all of these skills still hold basis for your whole life.

Timmy Eaton:

Cool. And as a parent, if let's say I have a son and he's seven or eight years old and I bring him to you, and so you'd mentioned before, like you do the monthly nights where you from what I understood, you said you basically teach the Socratic method but in the context of business. So you're asking questions, presenting problems, and then they basically are developing the mindset of how to work through certain things that you present to them. And then having been with you for a while, what am I gonna see that they have gleaned? What have they developed? What skills, what mindsets? In, in more specifics,

Leah Ellis:

my favorite thing is the confidence that I watch these kids develop in their own ability to solve problems and pivot. This is a familiar enough phrase for most homeschoolers. I think. It talks about when you take the scissors from your kids' hands and it says, when you write it, cut it, glue it, or do it for me. All you're teaching me is that you do it better than me. And most of the time for our children, we step in. We take over and we teach them, we do it better than them. But when we're here at the Society of Child Entrepreneurs, we step back and we watch them and we let them fail, and we let them pivot and we let them learn, and then they get to leave confident in their own problem solving skills, more creative, because they've actually had to find some problem solving skills, and at the end of the day, more resilient because they've had to fail and do it again anyway.

Timmy Eaton:

And so what would be a typical group that you have? I'm sure it varies, but.

Leah Ellis:

Yeah. So most of our groups are eight to 12-year-old kids. And they come in and they'll talk with us about their business. To get very specific, I'll take one girl in particular her first children's business fair, she sells really cute pins and she didn't want to talk to anybody. She didn't wanna talk to the judges, she didn't wanna talk to the customers. She was like, these are my pins. They're$8. Buy it or don't. Yeah.

Timmy Eaton:

If you like'em, then take'em.

Leah Ellis:

Yeah. Just, please don't make me speak. That's not part of the plan. She's on our junior board of directors now. She spoke at our family night after my daughter did. And she is absolutely an advocate for standing up, talking about her business, talking about the reason behind her business. She wrote mission and vision statements for why she sells pins. She's become a better communicator. She's become more confident and more outgoing because she's seeing me regularly and building these skills and then applying them to the rest of her life too. She's not only more outgoing in Sochi, she's more outgoing in life.

Timmy Eaton:

That's a good example. Yeah. And when you get together monthly will it be a group of 20 kids or 10 kids? Or like how do you organize that?

Leah Ellis:

It's usually eight to 10. That's the number of active. Members that we have that are coming every month. As we grow my cap will be 15. We don't ever do more than 15 kids per session. Just because I'm only one person and we have a really wide age range. So after that, it starts getting too chaotic.

Timmy Eaton:

It's interesting to me as a homeschool dad, as I hear things like this, it always hits me like, there's so many cool. Opportunities for our kids. And again, I'm not trying to impose this on anybody, but it always seems like a bummer to like interrupt that with six to eight hours of school every day. And just because I feel like this could be something that's available. Could you have a sense of how many homeschool kids have taken this with you?

Leah Ellis:

Homeschool kids that I have in my program right now. None. Starting in January, that will be a slightly different number because we are gonna start piloting it with a homeschool co-op.

Timmy Eaton:

So I was just gonna suggest that if you started doing this with co-ops then you're not limited to when you do that during the day, the co-op can actually say, this is the best time for us. And if you accommodated that for several co-ops that's a business, and exactly. I just find it like this or, when I hear of so many things that people are doing, it opens up an opportunity for tons of families that are homeschooling because they go, oh, this is cool. We find it a quality experience. And then when you get enough on board, man, you've got like a group of kids and you can do that throughout the day.

Leah Ellis:

I'm really excited. So our pilot program is gonna be at an organization called Learning Lab. Wichita Learning Lab is a flexible schooling option, so it's part private school, part home school, part co-ops, different organizations have different offices inside the building. And then I will be one of their elective offerings, they call it Fun Friday. And so anybody that's in any of those groups will be able to join my Friday class. Yeah, that's a great idea. Every Friday from 10 to 11. And Learning Lab also has full-size printers, a podcast room 3D printers, and crickets. So all of these kids who are learning entrepreneurship with me will also have access to all of those tools for creating things that they might want to market and sell and creating market materials for selling. Yeah. So this group of kids, I'm so excited for the things they're gonna do because they had just have so many resources at the tip of their fingers in that building.

Timmy Eaton:

And you're, oldest daughter is 10, right? She is. And the way that you're describing her with her energy and motivation to create things and to innovate and to engage in entrepreneurial thinking. I just wonder how long it'll take before she's just annoyed by having to do a set. Curriculum. Me too. Like

Leah Ellis:

So she did not start public school until third grade. And she's in fifth grade now, so she did third, fourth, and now fifth grade in public school. This year is the first time she's had a teacher that she doesn't get along with. Her social studies teacher in her are not like Javin. They're not good friends at this point, and so this is the first time where I've seen a little bit of frustration with school, but she still really loves her music class. She plays violin. She's in choir. There's still enough going on that she's excited about that. I think she's probably going to end up like me. I loved school solely for the social aspect of it. Was bored out of my mind in every single one of my classes and figured out very young what percentage of work I could do to pass without having to do more than I was wanting to do. And did a lot of reading in the back of the classroom and I have a feeling before long she will be hitting that point where she does a lot of reading in the back of the classroom, but she'll probably continue adding more extracurricular activities

Timmy Eaton:

Yeah. to

Leah Ellis:

keep herself from getting bored.

Timmy Eaton:

Yeah. That's what I mean. The way you described her, I could just see her being like if she's that engaged in these ideas, she could take a real, chunk of the day and dedicate it to that. And so much learning happens within that, and you really do learn interdisciplinary subjects because one thing lends itself to other things. So if you're studying. History and you're interested in something entrepreneurial, like you can tie in different disciplines as you're learning through that.

Leah Ellis:

I tell parents all the time, if your kid can add and subtract within 20 so that they can count back change, I can teach them how to run a business. And when I'm teaching them how to run a business, I am developing their communication skills, which is English and language arts. I am developing their math skills'cause they're counting back change, adding up totals, figuring out budgets for their business. I'm teaching them. Civic government stuff because I'm teaching them about the taxes that they have to pay. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Yeah. What bureaucracy have they have to do? All of that comes with the excitement of their earning money, so they listen

Timmy Eaton:

well, and even the first lesson that I feel like you've started with, your daughter at four years old is like when people tell you no, that just fuels the fire.'cause she just wanted to do that even more. And it sounds like your second daughter did too. And so I just like that when you can see, when you observe as a parent, who is the person who is. The most in tune with the journey that your kids are on. Then you can customize and facilitate different opportunities for them to develop what they're interested in. There's this philosophy of laying the feast before them and you did that as a parent. It seems like you already did. Like what was the thing you said? It was during COVID, you said we already have all the supplies. You just laid that before her and then all of a sudden she's doing it on her own

Leah Ellis:

but how many kids do you know that by the age of six years old know how to put on an N95 mask and go spray paint stuff?

Timmy Eaton:

She was

Leah Ellis:

out there spray painting canvases so that she could change the colors of the backgrounds to match what she wanted them to be.

Timmy Eaton:

She was using

Leah Ellis:

Pinterest to find color combinations and everything.

Timmy Eaton:

And how was she selling? Like how was she doing it?

Leah Ellis:

So we set up a Facebook page, and Facebook page had a link to a Google form. And you just went to that Google form and you put in the size of painting you wanted. Yeah. What three colors you wanted her to do, whether you wanted glitter or no glitter, and then your shipping address. And then it just went paid to my PayPal at the time.'cause we didn't think it was gonna be a real thing. It was just supposed to be like a COVID ho. Yeah. That's now is six years old. Wow. So she started out super basic with just this little Google form.

Timmy Eaton:

And then how did people know about it? Like how did people find her?

Leah Ellis:

So I was in several like entrepreneur mom groups and so I just shared her page like, Hey, while I'm launching my business, my daughter wanted to sup do it too. Here's the link if you wanna support a child run business. And it was amazing. Made me slightly jealous how quickly she was able to garner support.

Timmy Eaton:

Yeah, that's cool. It's way

Leah Ellis:

easier to garner support as a child entrepreneur than it is a grownup.

Timmy Eaton:

That's funny. I went to this I went to this homeschool conference in May, and my daughter came with me and my wife helped us both get ready for it, but my daughter did these little art kits for the homeschool conference. And she definitely got like way more interest than I did. And so that's, I can relate to that. We used

Leah Ellis:

to do, we used to go to great homeschool convention every year. We would go and we'd be like, look at all the things. And now I'm like, my goal is to have my curriculum at homeschool convention. But Melody will be the one in the booth selling it because people will listen better that way.

Timmy Eaton:

That's effective marketing for sure. Tell us a little bit about Astro Z and like, where did that come from and what is it? And

Leah Ellis:

so our mascot for the Society of Child Entrepreneurs, I love Greek mythology, so it's Artemis and Hermes Artemis. Is that the people

Timmy Eaton:

behind you on the wall?

Leah Ellis:

So behind me is Astra and Zeke.

Timmy Eaton:

Okay. That's what I was wondering. Okay.

Leah Ellis:

Artemis and Hermes are in our tiny logo but they're not very relatable for kids. Kids aren't like, oh yeah. I totally identify with Hermes. Yeah. So we wanted to make something that would be more relatable for children. So I created Astra and Zeke, which are the people on the wall behind me, and they are a 10 and 12-year-old business coach who are inspired by Artemis and Hermes. To be kids teaching kids business. So they started a business coaching company called From Sparks to Stars. And throughout our curriculum, throughout our book series, kids come to Astra and Zeke with business problems and Astra and Zeke coach them through their business problems, which then our child entrepreneurs can apply that same coaching to their businesses.

Timmy Eaton:

And how many books in the series?

Leah Ellis:

So right now there is exactly one book on Amazon and Barnes and Noble that has completed the entire publishing process. In the works. And at the end it will be 36 books.

Timmy Eaton:

We're at the start of it.

Leah Ellis:

We're at the very start of it. It'll eventually be our 36 week curriculum. Each week of the curriculum will have a new Astra and Zeke story.

Timmy Eaton:

I just had a couple more questions I just wanted to give you a chance maybe just to say here's why my listeners should look into your stuff. We've been talking the whole time, but I just wanted give you a chance to kinda, here's my spiel. Like here's why. And I know that my audience isn't necessarily local to you, but if there is like the future of online options then that could be something that we look into.

Leah Ellis:

So honestly, because your kids already want to earn money I'm gonna be honest, my daughter got massively obsessed with Stanley water bottles and uh, lounge fly backpacks. I buy lounge, fly backpacks for myself, but they're$90 backpacks and I'm not buying that for a 10-year-old. So she had to go figure out how to earn money to buy herself a lounge, fly backpack. Your kids have something that they're obsessed with that you don't wanna spend money on because you don't see the same value in it that they do. Entrepreneurship gives your child the opportunity to see the value in the things that they want and create a product to reach that goal for themselves, and then have pride in what they've done. Your kids already wanna earn money and you're tired of giving them everything they've ever asked for because it doesn't teach them anything. Entrepreneurship is that path for them to learn these skills. So come to Sochi, come to another entrepreneurship group. Do it on your own. At the end of the day, the most important thing for me as an educator, as a mom is teach your kids that there is a path where they can earn their own money and they don't have to wait until they're 25 or 16.

Timmy Eaton:

Excellent. That was really good, by the way the other thing I wanted to ask you is just because you have experienced homeschooling and right now your kids are in school, but it feels like the principles of home education you embody that like you're facilitating your kids and their own learning. What I'm wondering is what, what counselor advice would you give to homeschool families in this day and age that we live in? What would be your council as far as helping your kids to develop their learning and their love of learning and anything you would say from your own experience with your own kids?

Leah Ellis:

Okay, so it's twofold. One. Go at their pace. There's nobody with a ruler smacking you and telling you have to go faster, that you have to meet their deadline. Let your kid go at their pace because otherwise you're just gonna create burnout and they're never going to love it. They're never going to love reading. They're never gonna learn love learning. They're never going to love that existence in the world of things that make them. Feel whole and enlightened if you constantly make it feel like a punishment to have to sit down and do a reading lesson. And then the second one, especially for those who are homeschooling little like that kindergarten, first, second grade before the age of eight, your child has five minutes of attention span per year of age when all of their needs have been met perfectly. That means the maximum you're going to get out a 5-year-old on the perfect day is 25 minutes. So stop trying to do big sections of school because their body can't physically handle it. And then you just stress yourself and them out. Let them meet their needs and then do that small amount of education.

Timmy Eaton:

That's really good. Counsel. I've been on these forums lately and I've been reading and there's been tons of questions from new homeschool families, new homeschool moms that are saying stuff like, my kid is this age, what curriculum should I have? And literally every time I read those, I'm like. The curriculum is like no curriculum. And this is honestly how I feel like I think if you are reading to your kids' good books, they have a lot of time outside and some free time, and then they're just seeing the way that your natural, I always call it the economy of the home, like the naturally economy of the home, how it operates. I feel like that provides. An education that is perfect for those primary years. And what did you just say? Just the idea of the five minute of schoolwork and it's so funny how we talk about schoolwork because. Learning is something that is just happening all the time. And these kids are sponges. That's why they can learn languages early and so we just gotta get outta the way of their learning'cause it's happening all the time.

Leah Ellis:

And acknowledge that stuff like cooking in the kitchen is still learning math. Go do other things to help them learn. Go hide one of the measuring cups and tell them that's the exact measurement you need. And they have to do the math to figure out what are they gonna do to substitute it.

Timmy Eaton:

Yeah, exactly. Look at that.

Leah Ellis:

We just did a whole lesson on fractions.

Timmy Eaton:

And it gives'em the confidence that they're doing well. When we're stuck in a system, I don't know, sometimes kids will get used to saying I'm not good at this, or I'm not good at that. And it's it's just too young to make those decisions. And so

Leah Ellis:

Right. You're not, not good at anything. You haven't adapted to that teaching style. So we need to try a different teaching style. Yeah. We don't need to say you're not good at that subject.

Timmy Eaton:

Yeah. And somebody needs

Leah Ellis:

to teach you in any way.

Timmy Eaton:

I, and I see how these principles just align with kinda what you're doing with the entrepreneur, developing that mindset and just the love of learning and how to learn. And so I think that collaborates well. Thank you very much for spending time. I'll give you the last word

Leah Ellis:

so I think my last word always when I do this and it's very scandalous, so I like throwing it in at the end'cause it makes everybody's jaw drop a little bit. Children are not the future and I would like us all to stop saying that because when we say our children are the future, we create a scapegoat where we don't have to take responsibility for allowing them any leadership now. So stop telling your kids that they're the future and start allowing them to lead now because you will be massively surprised by what they can already do.

Timmy Eaton:

This has been Leah Ellis, everybody, so check out her stuff and we'll put everything that we can into the show notes, but look up the Society of child Entrepreneurs and then where could people follow you and just know what you're doing.

Leah Ellis:

Our Facebook page is the most active. That's where I really do my best.'cause that's where I grew up being a millennial. Like we were just Facebook kids. And then our Instagram, LinkedIn, and our website all have information. And that Facebook page is probably where when we get ready to launch more satellite locations, when we start sharing the curriculum, when we launch new books, that's always where you're gonna be able to find it.

Timmy Eaton:

And again, if they go to your website, they can find all your socials as well, excellent. Great. Thanks again for being with us. Appreciate it.

Leah Ellis:

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.