The Art of Laidback Learning with the Casual Homeschooler

When faced with her daughter's struggles in public school, the decision to homeschool felt like a leap of faith. Yet, when Hannah from the Casual Homeschooler joins us, it's clear that the journey of educating at home is not as scary as it may seem at first. Hannah shares her distinctive style of homeschooling that intertwines slow living with a family-centered lifestyle. We peel back the layers, discussing how to incorporate the flexibility needed to tailor the educational experience for children of different ages. From how she transitioned into homeschooling during the pandemic as a military family constantly on the move to how she navigates the challenges and milestones of letting go of the typical public school approach, it's an episode you won't want to miss. 

Hannah shares her philosophy of student-led learning, where the curriculum is flexible and children's interests guide their education. She discusses how she balances structured learning with the freedom for her children to explore their curiosities, such as robotics or even everyday household tasks. This blend of structure and flexibility has not only transformed her children's education but has also fostered a nurturing environment where learning is part of life rather than a separate endeavor.

This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in homeschooling or seeking to create a more adapted learning environment at home. Whether you're a seasoned homeschooler or just curious about alternative education methods, Hannah's insights offer valuable perspectives on making education a personalized and engaging experience. Tune in to learn how to integrate life lessons into everyday learning and how to build a supportive community around you as you go.

Find The Casual Homeschooler on Instagram.
Download her homeschool resources. 

Chapters

• 0:05 Finding Freedom in Homeschooling Journey
• 8:03 Empowering Children Through Flexible Homeschooling
• 11:29 Homeschooling
• 19:18 Homeschooling Tips and Community Support
• 25:58 Building a Supportive Parenting Community

Transcript

Cicily: 0:05

Hi everyone. Welcome to the Creative Mountain Mama podcast. This week I am joined by Hannah at the Casual Homeschooler. She has a really unique approach to homeschooling that I really think will resonate with everyone. She talks about homeschool as well as slow living and living a family-centered life. Thank you so much for joining me, hannah. Thanks for having me Anything new lately.

Hannah: 0:34

Well, I just had my first teenager on Saturday, so she's just turned 13, and so it's definitely hitting quickly. Thank you, you just don't it just comes in, knocks you off your feet, but I'm very grateful for her. She's an old soul, so she's, I think, what it didn't hit me as much because she literally always been like a 40 year old person and you know body, so it's just been kind of like she. She hangs out with my friends and I, you know, so she's, she's just great. But yeah, that's been a, you know, a new milestone for our family.

Cicily: 1:10

You were homeschooling through the pandemic. Can you tell me a little bit about how you got started?

Hannah: 1:15

Sure, well, I had always considered homeschooling. In fact I had met with a friend who homeschooled. She had one child and she, well, she still does, but she homeschooled him. He was about three and so was my daughter at the time, and it was just kind of where, like, I was getting my you know bearing straight with what to do with education. I've come a long way in our you know our way of living everything. So back then I was just kind of more conventional. You know like they go to school, you know our way of living everything. So back then I was just kind of more conventional. You know like they go to school, you know, for they go to preschool type thing, and I hadn't enrolled her anywhere yet. But I did, you know, meet with her and try to get her approach. And my first taste of homeschooling with her was, you know, everything was labeled, everything was kind of strictly set out make sure you do this, make sure you do that, um, you know, kind of like not a whole lot of room for the child to lead, and I just kind of took that and ran with it. Um, I took a bunch of notes at her house, I brought a notebook and, um, my.

Hannah: 2:21

My way of living being military, military family is we're kind of like on the go all the time and just kind of in survival mode. So, seeing how her home was laid out, um, I kind of set these expectations for myself to meet. Um, you know, when I was, I was younger, I was only 26, 27. Um, so it was just kind of like a lot of pressure, um, and organization, and that's what I was met with. And and also, when I'm told how someone does something, I will literally run with that. I'm more of a follower in life. I'm working on becoming a leader, as you can see is how a lot of people come to me asking for help in this way, but I'm more of a follower, like you tell me what to do and that's how I'm going to set up. You know my home, um slowly breaking off from that. But, um, so, yeah, just kind of like kept that in my back pocket, ended up enrolling her anyway, um, and just kind of like having to. Um, we had a. We had a great time in preschool and kindergarten, but it still was always like kind of like a conviction, like are you sure, um, you know you can do this? Um, then we had a, we moved and I had pulled her um because we had some issues with one of the teaching assistants, was kind of like kind of harassing her, you know, and I was like you know, forget that, we're gonna, I'm gonna pull her and I had gotten out. Now she's five, so it's been two years.

Hannah: 3:45

I got out all my things. My friend said, ordered everything, and I just remember like crying, you know, like so overwhelmed on, like day one, I think I did that for two years or two days, excuse me, two days and I had my my middle child was a baby and I just was like losing my mind, still stuck in that. Um, you know public school mindset of you know you wake up, boom, you start, you know you go till you're it's 3 pm type thing, um, and so then I ended up. I lasted two days doing that. So I ended up letting her go back to public because I'm like I felt like I was failing her, even though I didn't give it a chance. Um, I was just like I can't do this, sent her back and then, um, we had a decent time in public, like she's, she's more of a social butterfly, so she kind of thrived, um, and then COVID hit and, and she's now at that time was in third grade, um, and then we had found out, after they sent all the kids home and closed, that she was being like heavily harassed by other peers.

Hannah: 4:51

And she finally confessed to us and was saying these words I'd never even heard of, I had to actually Google them. You know, and just you know, you're thinking, wow, this is starting already. I mean, she's in third grade, are you kidding me? And it got so bad that she kind of went through this stage of guilt because even though she was on the receiving end um, it was more, it was verbal stuff, but receiving end she still felt guilty and I was near getting her a therapist.

Hannah: 5:16

Um, and then finally had been introduced to um, my friend up in Virginia, and she sat me in her living room, baked muffins, had coffee, our kids were playing like great, didn't even really know her that well at the time. And she's like look, there are people that are like that homeschool, that are like your first experience, that are really set in their ways, really strict. There's no room. They schedule every second of the day. There's really no room for like schedule every second of the day, um, there's really no room for like free play. Everything's labeled, um, you know, there's no room for your child to leave, basically.

Hannah: 5:52

And and then there's she's like homeschooling moms like myself where, um, I'm kind of in between that and the whole unschooling thing, where she's like we take certain things seriously, but if my child wants to learn about robots, she's like we'll go things seriously, but if my child wants to learn about robots, she's like we'll go to the library and get a bunch of books and then I can look up a craft and robots.

Hannah: 6:09

So a little bit more um, freedom and and her approach. And I didn't know that, I didn't know that there were, you know this, like your home is a school you're that teacher as opposed to like you're a mom teaching your child how to thrive in this world and survive. I didn't know there was like a middle ground there, like you know. So once I learned that, I'm like, okay, maybe I can do this, you know, and I blessed with those women that had already been homeschooling pre COVID and just kind of like they led the way and I just kind of, you know, molded my myself and our family into that and um, it was supposed to just be temporarily, until the schools open, um, but up in Virginia the restrictions were just a little bit.

Hannah: 6:53

Um, they have plexiglass and the masks and my son was about to enter kindergarten and I couldn't picture him thriving in an environment like that. So that kind of I kind of needed the force to continue to do it. I needed like an ultimatum and enough to get me to where I am now, because it's taken about three years for me to kind of like ease into confidence and that, hey, I can do this. And my goodness, this is like nine times nine to 10 times better than you know how we were feeling during public school.

Cicily: 7:25

Sure, how have you and you spoke to it a little bit how have you used your story to help others, give advice and find a little inspiration?

Hannah: 8:03

You know, we moved to a new state as a military family and so I've had to build my own tribe here and a lot of my friends are younger. They're like in between my daughter and I, so she'll walk off with the baby while my younger two will play with my friend's children. So it's just been like that's. One thing I've seen is my children just adapt to any age they're around. You know, my daughter being an old, old soul, like I said, she'll take the baby. She'll one of her best friends, is like a 60 year old woman. 60 year old woman that, um, she helps take care of her horses with and they're like best friends. They send each other horse memes, you know.

Hannah: 8:36

So it's just been, I think, just an example for people to see and they'll say, like, how are your kids so well behaved? And I cannot take credit. I honestly just believe that it's um, the pressure has been off from state testing every second, you know, sitting still for the whole day, especially boys. My middle is a boy, so he he's more like hands on moving around. I've had to kind of like manipulate around that to help him out.

Hannah: 9:01

And yeah, I just think, leading an example, I've never forced my way on people. They just literally see how my children are adaptive and like living life, and then then the questions start like well, what about this? Or I'm afraid, you know, like I'm afraid of one of the big ones, is like that there'll be thought of as weird. Um. So yeah, I think just being an example, um, being Christ-like, um, that's what draws people in to want to kind of in a way mimic in a healthy way, your style yeah, leading as not only a servant leader this is the example to follow but also not pushing it exactly going yeah, yeah, just existing and and I think too, um, I I've like learned.

Hannah: 9:47

Even this is newer for me is letting my children lead. Just it's been amazing to watch you know, and I'm like trying to cram you know like a math test in or something, and they end up they need a break and they go over and make you know some amazing like structure you know out of Legos. And then I'm like blown away and I mean that's just kind of letting them follow their own independence. Which structure you know out of Legos. And then I'm like blown away and I mean that's just kind of letting them follow their own independence, which is honestly what we want our children to do. Like, where our goal is to help support them and lead them into the path that interests them the most.

Cicily: 10:23

Sure, and I know you talk a lot about being, I want to say, like homeschool, student led, student led learning Right. Can you tell me a little bit about what sets you apart?

Hannah: 10:36

I think, just the structure of the teacher setting, where you're more type A and just kind of like a little bit anal about your schedule. You know, I was trying to follow that and I was also, you know, searching for trying to follow that and I was also, um, you know, searching for inspiration on social media where it would literally look like someone is filming their homeschool day, Like their children are in like muted colors and they're like peeling apples at age two, you know, and I just was like really like down on myself, Like what am I? Kids are missing out on so much, Um, and it hit me just that you know that's probably not real life. I mean, it's a great inspiration. I'm sure people can get outfit ideas or like, oh, it's a good idea to maybe try to bake an apple pie with my toddler. But I for myself, like I think what sets me apart is just voicing that it doesn't have to be that way.

Hannah: 11:29

That's not a qualification to homeschool and, to be honest, your children don't want to try to reach those expectations themselves. They want to thrive in seeing you calm, relaxed, and a big thing is them being seen. You know, that's a huge thing, I think, especially when you're consolidating school one on one or, like you know, altering between children for the day with their, their lessons. They're seen more than they would be in a classroom. You know 15 to 25 students. So I think just the one on one condensed time, we're done by lunch in a calm and relaxed way.

Hannah: 12:08

And honestly, I will give my children goals, like one may say, say they're bribes, but I'll say you know, okay, if we get this done, you're free, you know you can go do what you want. And other days, like today, they called my parents on FaceTime. We are military, so we live far away from home and you know they're in their pajamas and they're relaxing. They woke up when their bodies were ready to wake up. So I think, just letting them kind of dwell in that, you know, letting their nervous systems just be relaxed. We still do the things necessary to teach them how to thrive someday independently. But I think that that's just not seen, unfortunately, anymore in the public school when they're just concentrating on sitting, still all day, test, test and they're. They're not in the real world, experiencing, you know their surroundings.

Cicily: 13:00

Absolutely. Is there a curriculum that you follow or that you recommend, or are you using several?

Hannah: 13:07

I've kind of broken it up based upon, um. You know my children's needs. They're all very different. Um, my daughter, the oldest, um, she could do book work all day long. Um, she thrives in um, her handwriting. She's a very beautiful person, you know she's. She wants it to look pretty. She's very um, you know, she, she, I don't really need to encourage her much to do her best.

Hannah: 13:32

And then my son he's a little bit more, he's eight and he's just kind of all over the place. So I've had to do a little bit more hands-on, like bricks with math and just kind of like, so he can visually see things. And then my five-year-old she's like a wild card, she just she's just all over the place. And what's cool with the youngest is they can look up to the older two what they're learning and they want to join in as well. So it just works, you know, like in a full circle, um, but yeah, I, I definitely I love Matthew C? Um because of its visual presentation. Um, I've even like learned from matthew c like just, oh, that's a full angle to view math. Um, and then, um, I do love that kind of language. Um, that's just a simple book work where they can just one page. We go over it. It's it's beautifully designed and easy to follow along. And then I like all about learning program. I do all about spelling and all about reading. And then, just with science and history, honestly going to the local you know plane museum. We have a down here. We have like an airplane military base museum that they learn more from that than any you know textbook. So yeah, and I think too, when it comes to curriculum, the way the world um has had its challenges lately just you know prices of groceries we ended up getting chickens and I grew up near metro Detroit so we did not have chicken, but my husband grew up in the country of New York and not the country, but in the country in New York, not a country, where they kind of had a ton of land animals, you know. They really like got in the dirt and have a big garden. And one of the in my learning process of kind of letting go was we had gotten chicks and we did. We incubated eggs and they hatched and again it took me a minute to get. I'm like, oh, they're going to smell, they're going to poop everywhere. But my kids were really into it. It was a great learning experience.

Hannah: 15:33

And um, I, one day, I, um, we had hatched the chicks when they were all in the garage and I had given my daughter, um, like a math sheet. She's like at least a year, a year and a half ahead of where she should be at her age, um, and but I was like, help me with your math sheet. Here it is, um, we try to get math over with quickly, because it's like their least favorite, um and I. I came back in the room and noticed she was gone. I was like where the heck is she?

Hannah: 16:01

And so I found her in the garage and she's like the chicks were out of food you know, this one was stuck and um, you know, they're out of water.

Hannah: 16:10

Um, their lamp had fallen, just things like you know, that were kind of detrimental to the safety of the chicks. And um, I caught myself. Well, I, I, you know, scolded her and I was like I gave you, you know, this lesson to do and like you're out here playing with birds, you know. And then I learned, like I mean it took probably 20 minutes to think like, oh, my gosh, that is like a life lesson. She independently went, sought after, took care of these living beings. They're vulnerable. They're fragile and especially with egg prices. You know, like lately she's she's learning how to be self-sufficient. I'm like that's more of a lesson than this math page. She's already ahead of in and you know, that was kind of like one of the turning points where I was like, okay, what really matters? Obviously I want her to stick with the math, but I want her to desire things that can help her be independent.

Cicily: 17:04

You know, as an adult, I mean, I was public schooled and I got into college. Okay, you have some help, some handholding. I didn't know how to do anything. Nothing that we learned in a school setting equals real life responsibility.

Hannah: 17:23

Yeah, and I do believe, like the heart of teachers, like I I I'm not like I hate public school, I I definitely we have a decent experience in public school and she actually we had the opportunity to move back home for him for a little bit, um, and she actually had my first grade teacher, which was awesome. But my teacher would pull me aside and say, you know, hannah, it felt like it used to be where we would um have like a big Thanksgiving dinner and everyone's have their. It was like a big family. The teacher was allowed to teach according to you know, obviously, you know appropriately teach out of their heart. She said, now we're all like we are told what to do every single day. And she said first grade is when they start testing, but they don't average the test, it's just to prepare the child for test taking, literally until they graduate, you know, and she just was like heartbroken.

Hannah: 18:16

Here's someone who taught me as a first grader, you know, telling me the difference, you know, and the school being a loving environment, things have just changed drastically. Being a loving environment, things have just changed drastically. So, yeah, that was pretty eye opening to me that you know, teacher goes to school for an education degree. A lot of them have a big heart and then they kind of have. You know they're under the thumb of, you know the district and told what to do and they're not really allowed freedom in. You know how they want to teach the child out of their heart.

Cicily: 18:51

Yeah, is there anything and I'm dying to know how do you balance the finances of affording homeschool curriculums? Is there a way to get creative?

Hannah: 19:01

Oh yeah. So I mean that is also another um, something that turns people away quite quickly because it's you know it's hard, it's the temptation is to send them to public school where that's provided for your child. I found, you know, I would actually go on eBay and you can find a lot of the teacher books on there, because I do as my kids get older, when they're younger I'm not like buying the answer key when they're like five. You know it's basically like what shape is this? But I do buy the answer keys as they age, just because I find myself learning math all over again and sometimes they'll come to me. My daughter is ahead of where I stand developmentally in math and so I for sure buy the answer keys.

Hannah: 19:50

So answer keys they're not really written in, so those can definitely be bought used. I know there is like local Facebook groups you can find, like our homeschooling swaps. Our library would have like a bin of donated curriculum. I usually will at least buy, you know, the workbooks they write in new and then kind of do what I can to find books used, um, even if they're a little, you know, like stained or whatever I I don't mind, and then, um, the beauty in it is. You can sell it when you're done. You know if you, if you please.

Cicily: 20:26

And I know you spoke to the community aspect a little bit. That sounds like another part of that. Hey, I'm willing to purchase it Maybe the next person's not and I can pay it forward down the line.

Hannah: 20:38

Yes, and I also just have. I've also been learning too about. I saw someone post yesterday about not letting the curriculum control you, basically. And I have a friend that totally just she does her own thing. And I remember showing last year, showing all the moms that I mean mean there are such big groups of moms pulling each year, it climbs every year. And I remember showing all my curriculum and my friend said, yeah, I'm not, don't worry about me, I'm not even going to get any curriculum, and she just kind of does her own thing and her kids are intelligent, they're, they're happy. Um, so yeah, you can't let the curriculum control you. And and there's, there's also, you know there's books on Amazon that kind of include everything. You know I I piece apart um, my curriculum as my kids age, but my five-year-old literally, I found her.

Hannah: 21:26

You know, a friend recommended a workbook on Amazon for like 17 bucks, um and so, and I think too, just, you know, we had a hummingbird feeder and my kids watched the hummingbird and they wanted to learn about it. Or we in our last station, we had crabs in our neighborhood like one day of the year. I don't know why, I'm sure there's science behind it, but they would just be crawling everywhere and they caught them and they're like I want to learn what they eat. Um, so just just things like that that can be be your curriculum, you know, choose.

Hannah: 21:55

And I also hear a lot of people when they hold their children they'll take an entire year off to kind of detox and let their nervous system just kind of relax out of that rushed, hurried lifestyle that's so hard on children, their age. I mean, I remember arguing with my daughter every single morning, you know, brushing her hair, making sure her lunch was ready, going to the. You know all these schools with drop off, pick up, and then she'd get off the bus at like 4pm and she had dance and she had homework and it was just like I wouldn't even like that after sitting in you know school for six hours, you know. So it just, it just really proves how um, how backwards unfortunately we have it as a society absolutely being a little bit more student-led.

Cicily: 22:44

Hey, slow down, give them attention. You know what are their needs. Making it accessible you don't have to have a Instagram worthy right home school room or a separate outbuilding, exactly and then making it creative and allowing people to exactly what they need to do, as you said and I I have another example that, like my son, who's busy, um he, I think I in his science book, which I do purchase the science books and the history through Rebecca.

Hannah: 23:16

I just have them read through it. We answer little review questions that are included.

Cicily: 23:20

It's great.

Hannah: 23:21

But we're learning about celery and their roots and you know, when you cut them you can see their roots and whatever. And you know I could tell I was kind of losing his attention. And he's like well, we have celery in the fridge, can I go look at it? I. And he's like, well, we have celery in the fridge, can I go look at it? I'm like that's a great idea. And so then he's like well, I want to cut it because we need to see how long they're cut. And I was like, okay, so here I am teaching him proper use of a knife, like on a cutting board. You hold it, like this. And then, while he was cutting it, I was reading. I'm like there's no way he's going to grasp this. But okay, he's distracted with cutting the celery. Well, I'm learning that. That's the way he learns. So I read it, did a read aloud of, like the you know the science behind celery stocks, thinking like, whatever, this probably wastes the time. And then he's like hey, can I get?

Hannah: 24:08

When he was done cutting, I'm still reading. He's like can I get little bowls of peanut butter? I want to bring them to the his sisters, you know, for a snack. So here we have, like he's showing compassion and kindness to his siblings, um, proper use of knife, you know, learning how to cut, and then learning about the structure of celery, and, um, he went and gave it to them. They're all happy. And then I asked him the review questions and he got every single one of them right. You know, here I thought he wasn't listening and that that's just how he processes. He has to be moving and which would not? There's no way that'd be allowed, you know, in a school setting, unfortunately. I mean that gift of his that he needs to work that way would totally. I mean he would be going so against the grain, learning in a different way.

Cicily: 24:53

Yeah, absolutely. Well, I appreciate you making this accessible and not scary and very practical as well. Is there somewhere that you would recommend people go to find you and learn more and get plugged in?

Hannah: 25:10

Yeah, I'm pretty much only on Instagram. It's just the casual homeschooler and I'm pretty active on there. I do a lot of you know questions, because my goal is to make people feel seen and I just think, um, you know, it's taken, like I said, it's taken me three, almost four years to get to where I am. And my, my biggest um, I love when people say, oh, me too, or yeah, how did you handle that? Relating to people is like one of the best gifts God's given us. You know you can read the Bible and get direction and guidance. But when someone in person, in the flesh, is like, oh, I had that problem too. This helped a lot. That is like the best gift ever. Oh, I had that problem too. This, this helped a lot. That is like the best gift ever.

Hannah: 25:58

So I think just being able to relate, I try to stay pretty down to earth on there and open to questions, open to learning myself, like I've learned, you know, from what other people's experiences have been, and I think the biggest key is having a tribe. It's so easy to feel isolated. I'm not a big social media person as far as you know Facebook or anything like that. I like in-person meetups and letting our children play, and I understand that's totally hard to find sometimes, where I found that a lot was like library story time or I'd be in Carter's store and would make a friend. You know, just kind of throw.

Hannah: 26:37

I am a very introverted person and being a military wife has had to learn. You kind of got to throw yourself out there Healthily. You know, like make sure you protect yourself and are on guard with you know friendships that might be harmful to you. But I really had to take a step out and introduce myself and a good way to introduce yourself is to ask like, oh, how old is he or she? And then it just starts, you know, from there. And but building a tribe is key you need I know the new term for it now is like couch friends. I've seen on the internet and that's literally just the friends you don't feel like you need to entertain. They can come over, sit on your couch, you brew some coffee, you know whatever you like to do Play. So yeah, that's, that's big, is a tribe, awesome. Thank you so much and I appreciate it.