Vitamin Parents Part 2: Twin Moms Converting a Decent Traditional School Experience Into a “Wow” Homeschool One

Homeschooling Journeys with Andreina Castillo Alemany

[00:00:00] Mike Goldstein: Welcome to Homeschooling Journeys. I’m Curious Mike, Mike Goldstein, reporting from Boston, and I am here with Andreina Castillo Alemany, and we’re going to talk today about her homeschool experience with kids age 8 and 10. Welcome.

[00:00:37] Andreina Castillo Alemany: Hi, Mike. Thanks for having me.

[00:00:41] Mike Goldstein: I’d love you to describe briefly, what was your own schooling, with your twin, like back in Venezuela?

[00:01:03] Andreina Castillo Alemany: So, we went to private schools in Venezuela. Unfortunately, the Public education system doesn’t really work that well.

And it was a small school, two classes per grade. So you ended up knowing everyone, their uncles, their parents and everything. And very academic, but also a Catholic school. So they had the religious aspect of it. It was, I think, a high demand, but all, but easy going still, in a way.

[00:01:40] Mike Goldstein: Rigorous, but they made good personal connections with you.

[00:01:45] Andreina Castillo Alemany: Yes.  Yeah, so we still have time and chance to do our extracurricular activities and our sports dance and things like that.

[00:01:53] Mike Goldstein: Got it. So you have this formative experience. You and your twin come to the U. S. for college. You go to the University of Miami and you studied what in college in the U. S.?

[00:02:05] Andreina Castillo Alemany: I did my undergrad in psychology. And then I got a Master’s in Marriage and Family Therapy.

[00:02:14] Mike Goldstein: Okay, great. So, of all people in the world, you’re pretty well positioned to work with an 8 and 10 year old at home. Um, and I think you told me off air that it was your husband who’s a progressive thinker and questions a lot of the business as usual approach to education.  He asked, hey, do we want to potentially consider homeschooling?

Tell us about that.

[00:02:47] Andreina Castillo Alemany: So let me give you a little background on my husband first. He lived in a bunch of different countries, but he went to college here in the States as well.

He has these degrees in physics, but he’s always been a very curious guy and he’s always learning different things on his own.

So he’s always had the idea that kids also are naturally curious and they want to learn.

So when my kids went to regular school, uh, they did pre K and kindergarten. There’s when my oldest son was in kindergarten, that’s when COVID hit.

[00:03:58] And then we were home for a few months and I was loving that time.

[00:04:03] Mike Goldstein: You were loving the homeschool time. So it’s like, the vibe is good at home with you and the kids.

[00:04:10] Andreina Castillo Alemany: Well, I was actually loving it….before the virtual school started.

[00:04:15] Mike Goldstein: Exactly. That happened in our home too.  There was this period where nobody knew what was going on, and we were just figuring it out, doing a couple hours together.

It was like daddy school in the house, and it was great. And then comes the virtual school, hey, you got to log into Zoom and sit there all day, and engagement went way down. What was your experience?

[00:04:40] Andreina Castillo Alemany: yeah, the first few months of Covid were first, it was a slow pace.  We were finally take a breather because we also had a lot of extracurricular activities and there were homework and running and doing a lot of things. We’re doing experiments at home, art and doing our own thing.

But then the next school year came and then they were expected to log in and do all these, basically the school hour, the school day online. And yeah, that was a lot that I didn’t enjoy a lot.

Parents tell me: Oh, we did the homeschooling for a while. And yeah, it doesn’t work for us. It’s no good.

I was like, yeah, (Real homeschooling) is not the same virtual schooling of Zoom public school at your house.

[00:05:40] Mike Goldstein: Right. So let me pause you because I do, I see what you’re saying, which is the word “homeschool”l evokes a lot of different things for different people. And one version of it is a parent who simply watched their kid consume public school during COVID that was on a computer – and they almost always say: “That was bad.  That didn’t work very well for us” – and you’re saying, no, no, no, I’m describing a kitchen table experience and a going out into our neighborhood, into our city, a very fulfilling social experience that is not bound by the computer screen.

Is that a fair summary of what you’re saying?

[00:06:33] Andreina Castillo Alemany: yeah, exactly. Everyone thinks it’s, you know, it’s, you get the bell, it rings, and then the kids are connected, and yeah, that’s definitely not the style that works for us, so.

[00:06:45] Mike Goldstein: Got it. So, your husband, the former physicist, now doing whatever, curious, creative guy, says, Listen, like, we should rethink, our kids are doing fine in school, but maybe they could do even better.

So, in my language, I would say you’re a vitamin parent versus an aspirin parent.

Meaning, some homeschool moms are like, My kid is hating regular school. They need a solution. They’re aspirin. They’re solving a headache. I’m going to homeschool for that reason.

You’re a vitamin parent. You’re like, my kids were fine in the regular school, but they’re way better off with me.  I’m enriching them. So, you see this opportunity, and you have a twin sister. Clue us in on what was her role here. How did you both end up getting going with homeschooling?

[00:07:34] Andreina Castillo Alemany: So she moved to Florida when, during COVID actually, and they stayed with us in my house for the first few months until they found somewhere to live.

[00:07:45] Then the kids went to my kids school and they started online as well. And then my niece was one of the first ones to go to school in person, but she was desperate to be, you know, away from the computer and all that. And we started, and my sister was like, oh, this is a lot, you know, our schools also used to be, our previous school, I still talk about it, it was still my school, but they’re very, or at least back then, very into homework.

[00:08:13] So it was always a lot of extra work after school, so they were in school for seven hours, I don’t know how long, and then they would have a lot of extra things to do. And my sister was, my niece was pushing back on that a lot. And she was like, this is a lot of academic pressure. And my kid came from very playful pre K to now very strict.

[00:08:33] She was in kindergarten and she’s like, all these words for a six year old. So, she was like, thinking about it, she’s like, it’s a lot of work, and my husband’s the first one, he’s always saying, ah, the kids are there too long, they need to be doing more sports or playing outside. We should travel more.

[00:08:51] They’re going to be learning. And we’ve always thought that traveling, you’re going to be learning, observing from the world so much that it doesn’t have to be in a classroom. So he, he’s like, listen, I have a very flexible schedule. He works from home. He takes meetings when he’s walking the dogs. He sits outside in the yard and works a little bit, he’s always moving around, and he works and functions that way, and he’s like, I’m very flexible, you’re flexible, why are we stuck to the kids schedule?

[00:09:23] They don’t have that much free time either, because they, I didn’t, I never wanted to sacrifice their extracurriculars, because I think their sports and their music, which they loved, was An integral part of them, so for them, and,

[00:09:36] Mike Goldstein: okay, let me pause you for one second and dig in.  Who’s doing what?

Like, walk us through a typical morning. What happens?

[00:10:04] Andreina Castillo Alemany: Okay, we, so we’re very flexible in the sense that we don’t have a strict, rigid schedule. But we’ve noticed that, like, mornings are usually, it’s when they’re more alert and all that. My son, Which, like my husband, he opens his eyes and he jumps out of the bed.

[00:10:20] He said, wide awake, ready, yeah. So I, you know, at first, this has been a learning process also to see what motivates them. But he, we, I have, I give them a list of things that they’re supposed to do on their own, right? So they do math, they decided they wanted to learn a second language, because it was our first trip when we became homeschoolers was, we went to Portugal and Spain for three weeks, so.

[00:10:44] Back then, they decided they wanted to learn Portuguese, so that’s still part of their curriculum. They do a little bit of Portuguese every day. They do math, independent reading, and they practice their music. That’s what they’re supposed to do on their own. And then they help with things in the house. And then we do certain things as a group.

[00:11:01] Me with them, either a cubicle, we do another, like a reading aloud curriculum that we have, and things like that. So, the, currently the math curriculum that we’re using, it’s called Beast Academy, and it’s on a browser. Have you heard of that one?

[00:11:18] Mike Goldstein: Sure, yep, Beast Academy.

[00:11:21] Andreina Castillo Alemany: one, they can do it on their own pace.

[00:11:23] So, yep, they start and he does his, he gets on the browser and does a lesson or two, you know, he does the, and he’s stuck and the videos don’t work, he tells me or my husband and we go and help him with that. And

[00:11:36] Mike Goldstein: are you and your husband, by the way, interchangeable in this? Or like, like who, how do the kids use the two of you as their teachers?

[00:11:45] Andreina Castillo Alemany: We are a little bit interchangeable I would say like mostly throughout the day. I’m the one that’s I’m in charge of the, of the extra activities that we, I don’t mean extracurricular, because actually my husband wants to go to those all the time, but like when we do surfskate science, it’s usually me, cause that’s in the middle of the day or any morning activities.

[00:12:05] It’s me doing it with them, like the homeschooler activities we do together, but I also train sometimes in the morning. So my husband stays with them. I have all. Workout and he is there in the house. The kids goes like, dad, I have a question with this. I can’t figure it out. And he’ll help them and all he’ll do what’s, he started doing some project with them of creating websites and, and doing a new business with them.

[00:12:28] So whenever I’m not home, he does those creative things with them.

[00:12:32] Mike Goldstein: I love it. Andrena, on a scale of one to 10, if 10 is high and listeners are curious about. The autonomy, the independence of your 8 and 10 year old when it comes to when you ask them to do their math or you ask them to do their reading.

[00:12:50] How would you rate them just on their ability and willingness to just get started and grind through the academic work without much help from mom or dad? Is that fairly high, like a 9 out of 10, or is it medium, like 5 or is it low? Is it different by kid?

[00:13:08] Andreina Castillo Alemany: My 10 year old, he’s a little bit more motivated.

[00:13:12] In certain aspects, because I also, my father in law has this saying that it’s, I’ll translate it from Spanish, but it’s basically every dog has their bone, and we have to figure out what motivates them to, so last year, my husband was like, listen, for Danny, he wants to have some screen time. I’m very strict about screen time at home, so he’s like, he wants to have play, Super Mario’s on the Nintendo or play something in the iPad and I’m usually I told I used to tell them no until the weekend and very limited time so it’s like what if we give them the list and we’ll say if you’re done with all your responsibilities you get 30 minutes of free play in the iPad and then that’s it you turn it off you go do your other free player and a few So for him, there were days when he would wake up at 6.

[00:13:55] 30 and he was doing all his work and be like by now he’s like I’m done mom, I did all my things and I played a little bit and I was like I’m done for him. For my daughter, screen time wasn’t that much of an incentive for her. She’s like, I don’t know, she’ll read a lot because she loves reading, she’ll focus on the independent reading, but then she won’t do Her math or she only do math one day like she wouldn’t do all her chores so we for her it was more of a she loves chocolate so listen if you do to motivate her at first because it was harder when like if you do two of your tasks then you can get one chocolate chip from the freezer she’s like ah and if you do two other you’ll get another one.

[00:14:33] So that was her motivation, but still for her, it’s a little bit harder to find. She’ll do a lot of, she’ll open up a science box and do experiments on her own, or she’ll do printing. But when I tell her, you have to do math, like these certain things that you’re supposed to do. She pushes a little bit more back on that.

[00:14:53] So then that’s my struggle. I’m like, do I do some math around that? She’s doing her own independent science and some of it’s fine.

[00:15:01] Mike Goldstein: I think, so here’s how I’m hearing what you’re saying, which I find so interesting. So one of the opportunities of homeschooling, it’s sort of, it cuts in as both as an advantage and a disadvantage.

[00:15:13] The advantages from a motivation point of view. If your house is running pretty well, something you understand really well as a family therapist. If the household is running pretty well, you can customize the motivation. to the individual, to the kid. So your son, here’s what he likes, and you, as a family, you’re already restrictive of screen time, so you can lighten it up a little bit.

[00:15:40] And as your father in law says, you know, your son’s bone, if you will, is Super Mario. And it’s like, It’s fun, but it’s not like a weird thing where you’re rewarding him with, like, a million hours of screen time. It’s just a little connection that helps make the learning feel a little bit more fun, help him persist through some of the stuff that’s a little, you know, maybe less his thing.

[00:16:05] Your daughter, you mentioned the chocolate. You can customize the motivation, so that’s like a really good thing. A challenge that sometimes homeschool parents describe, and I’m curious. If this even appears in your household, one advantage that the classroom teacher might have is The socialization sometimes is a motivation.

[00:16:27] In other words, if your son or daughter sees 20 other kids starting on their assignments, there’s a social conditioning to kind of going along with it. That’s not true for all kids, and sometimes the classrooms get chaotic because of that, but that sometimes an advantage that a teacher has is, The group of 20, the social component of motivation, is that something that you notice in any way in your home of like the lack of 20 other kids in the room around your kitchen table?

[00:17:02] How does it help? How does it hurt?

[00:17:05] Andreina Castillo Alemany: Well, So that sometimes my, my sister comes with her kids and we do, we call it the Family Co-op. Yep. And we get together it’s four kids, and they get all excited and talking. Sometimes it’s harder to get them to focus right away.

We do an hour or two of focused activity, and then they’re free to play and they’re, because they, all they wanna do is chat together.

That was one of the issues with, um, so my son in public school, the teachers wrote, always tell me he talks too much. I was like, oh, no, no, no.  They would say, oh, he did all his work, and he did it fine. But then he’s done, and he starts talking, and gets the other kids distracted. Well, but I’m like, I think I find it hard to be like, I’m not going to ask him to just sit there quietly. I’m like, he did his work. I’m like, it’s maybe it’s too much time doing that or have, or the teacher will give him extra assignments.

[00:18:02] But then she’s like, I don’t want him to get overwhelmed with too much, too much assignments. But I was like, listen, it’s okay for me. I get it. I’m like, I will be talking too if I was done with my activity. So it’s, it’s hard. He tends to do his work pretty efficient, and he’s a fast learner, which has been an advantage here because he gets done quickly, but then he couldn’t, he was always, you know, yelled at by the teacher for talking over again.

[00:18:28] He couldn’t socialize that much, as much as he wanted, but in the classroom, you’re not supposed to be talking. In the cafeteria, you’re not supposed to be talking either. It’s only during recess. So, that’s the, um, the social aspect that ends up being hindered, I feel, in school.

[00:18:46] Mike Goldstein: It’s a common narrative among what I would call homeschooling vitamin parents, meaning their kid was academically strong in a traditional school setting, but they were also frequently bored.

And I get it from the teacher point of view.  You’re trying to navigate or orchestrate this group of 20 kids, 25 kids, whatever the case may be.

But from the kid’s point of view: You did the work, and now you got nothing to do. “I’m just supposed to sit there” is a really painful way to spend time.

Parents notice that and they get a little bit of conflict with the teacher where they say, “why can’t you give a little bit of attention to my kid? Give him or her more stuff to do that will be challenging and interesting, then they won’t end up talking. I can’t just reduce the symptom of talking when they’re bored, and I don’t know that I really want to just tell them to sit there and shush. That doesn’t feel appealing to me as a parent.”

So what you’re describing is a pretty common story.

What about now that you’re home? Do you feel like it’s fairly easy for you to keep your son occupied with a good list of activities to do? Or do you sometimes feel like, “Ooh, now I’m the teacher, I gotta keep redirecting my one of my two kids?”

[00:20:10] Andreina Castillo Alemany: Well, he, he tends to work well on his own too, so like I said, he gives him a list of things that he has there on the fridge and he knows that he does them. When he gets bored or when he, he wants to say, oh, I want more spinach, I don’t know, now you have to, I think it’s important for them to get bored. You know, we’re like, I’m not gonna structure every activity.

[00:20:30] You have to figure out what you’re gonna do now. Create a game with your sister. Invent something. Do whatever you need that. I think boredom leads to a lot of creativity. They don’t have, they still don’t have that much, as much free time as I would like. My husband’s always telling me that I need two hours.

[00:20:48] Because every time I find a pull up period, I’m like, oh my god, let’s do that, oh, let’s do this. So we have our schedule pretty good. I have to really focus on scheduling the blank space on my calendar. Like, I’m making sure they have downtime unstructured for them to get bored or create or do whatever it is they want.

[00:21:08] I don’t do it teacher wise, but we do a lot of activities together with a group of homeschoolers, so that’s the struggle.

[00:21:16] Mike Goldstein: Yes, so let me then turn our attention to these education savings accounts. So, you have roughly, for each of your two children, up to about $8,000 for education spending that the state of Florida will reimburse your family for eligible expenditures.

[00:21:37] And a lot, I noticed three common stories, and I think I know yours, but I want to make sure I have it right. The common stories that we hear are, one, some parents have kids with, that are academically struggling, and so they’re using that $8,000 towards specialist and special needs type services. So that’s one type.

A second type is essentially buying access to a micro school with six kids, 10 kids, 12 kids, something that a few times a week they can go to with a reliable teacher where they’re getting a social and learning experience. That’s a second type.

And a third type is spending most of the 8,000 on enrichment experiences.In other words, mom typically, or mom and dad, do a lot of the instruction, math, english, science, history. They buy a little curriculum here and there, but what they’re really doing is unlocking some very high quality Enrichment experiences. I think that’s the story of your home school. Tell us about that.

How are you spending the education savings account this coming year?

[00:22:50] Andreina Castillo Alemany: Okay, so the biggest ticket items that we have are their sports. So they do jiu jitsu and they’re in the competition team as well. So it’s like two memberships that we pay monthly for each. So four memberships across 2 kids, right? And they also do School of Rock.

And we do Surf Skate Science, that’s our science curriculum right there, and we do that in twice a year, two semesters. So those are the biggest ones. I love it.

[00:23:26] Mike Goldstein: So let’s talk about the School of Rock.

What instruments are they learning, um, and what’s that experience been like?

[00:23:34] Andreina Castillo Alemany: So their, the way their program works is they have an individual class, a private class with whatever instrument. So my son does, his main instrument is drums, he’s doing drums or bass, and my daughter does keys and vocals. So they have a 45 minute lesson with a teacher, a private one.

[00:23:53] And then they have a band, a group lesson every week. It’s like two and a half hours with the whole band. So every week they, the band practices. They’re not inside playing the instrument for two and a half hours, but they go, they’re there for two and a half hours and they go into the rehearsal room every time they have a song and they pick up new instruments.

[00:24:13] So that’s, it’s time consuming, They, it’s a really cool program because they also let them and they encourage them to pick up new instruments and new sounds that they really want. So in that band, they’re like, listen, that’s how my son started playing the listener. He’s, that’s another one of his biggest instruments.

[00:24:29] He’s been. You want to grab and figure it out, and then they’ll start teaching them, but I want to pick up a third instrument, but like I said, we’re actually going through the savings account to see if I can add another private class of instruments to see if I can afford it, but only with the education savings account I will be able to afford it.

[00:24:50] An additional instrument.

[00:24:51] Mike Goldstein: Got it.  I think at most elementary schools, they do not have bass guitar, typically. They often don’t have keyboards. They have the traditional, if you will, orchestra type – string instruments and your brass instruments and so forth.  So this is a little bit hipper, the rock music.

By the way, as a, Mom, you’re very brave to allow your kids to learn drums….

My daughter did some School of Rock, and I was pretty impressed with how quickly they try to get into performance. “We’re going to make your anxiety go away by putting you up on a stage pretty quickly.  Even if you’re a month in.”

[00:25:53] Andreina Castillo Alemany: And the show comes out a month in

[00:25:56] Mike Goldstein: yeah, and they’re very clever in how they do that.

Both our kids did the local martial arts program coming, growing up, and I felt like not just as a physical thing, but as a character development. It was a husband and wife team doing incredible quality teaching.

What has your jujitsu experience been for your kids?

[00:26:31] Andreina Castillo Alemany: Well, my son was the one that started first Jiu Jitsu, and he loves it, and I feel that it gives him a lot of confidence.

It’s different than other group sports, I feel like they each have their advantage, group sports versus individual sports, but this one, they compete in this one too, like I mentioned. There’s, there’s an aspect of accountability. That it’s just you, when you go and compete, if you didn’t, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, it happens, but it’s on you, you can’t blame your teammate, you can’t blame the goalie, or the, oh, we lost because, which I’ve noticed in a lot of the team sports, they tend to, like, place the blame on someone else.

[00:27:07] This one, it’s a lot of, well, my son comes on and he’s like I lost this one, and I’m like, mom I need to train harder because I want to beat him in the next competition. Well, he gets, he knows it’s on him. And then, that, I think that’s a huge aspect. Also, besides just the competing aspect, I think it’s a big, mental and emotional growth.

[00:27:28] It’s a rollercoaster of emotions. And sometimes you go, you lose. And then you have to, Get your stuff together and then go back into the mat and fight. Even when you’re carrying that, you know, you laugh, but you have, it’s a new fight. We’re starting from scratch and not let your head get in the way. So that part, I feel like it’s been huge for them.

[00:27:48] For my daughter, she loves it as well. For her, I, after I talked to her friend who also had a daughter, her daughter didn’t like it, but she’s like, it’s, she doesn’t have, she’s like, I want her to know how to defend herself. Cause the time comes that she goes to college. My daughter’s also on the. Smaller side.

[00:28:06] I was like, I want to make sure that you can take care of yourself. If something happens, you can defend yourself. You’re not hoping that someone’s there in the moment to protect you. So hopefully that’ll never happen. But also, I think that projects, you know, they’re confident, they know how to I think that’s been a huge aspect for me.

[00:28:23] Mike Goldstein: I’ve definitely reached the level with our 14 year old daughter where I feel so much more secure because I know, and I know this from when occasionally she’ll practice for a belt test with me as the dummy, and she’ll be like, “Dad, pretend you’re doing this,” and then she’ll hurt me, and you know, like, Hi Ya!

It’s such a nice feeling as a parent to have that. Um, not just for your kid’s self confidence, but your own confidence that when your kid grows up and ends up far away that they can handle themselves.

You have a twin and who’s also homeschooling.

Tell us a little bit about that. Do you compare notes? Are you critiquing each other’s homeschool at all? How do you work together or? What’s that partnership and relationship like as it pertains to the homeschooling?

[00:29:20] Andreina Castillo Alemany: So, it’s been very Supportive, in a way, and it’s just, we both took the plunge at the same time, it was also good to know that I’m not alone in this, right?

[00:29:30] We would do it together and separately, so usually there, we each do it on our own. Then we get together, we try to do it once a week, or once every other week. The family co op to do whatever theme the kids are into. Last year, they were really into Greek mythology, so we would just get together to learn about Greek mythology and do projects like that.

[00:29:50] But the rest of our homeschooling, we do separately because all kids have very different styles. Her oldest daughter is also, she’s my youngest daughter’s age. The other one’s a little bit younger. So there are different, um, grades each, but also they have different learning styles. So that part we’ve done separately, but whenever I’m having, let’s say, a crisis moment or something, I call and she calms me down.

[00:30:16] Whenever she’s having a crisis moment, it’s, it’s a good way to take a step back and remember, like, okay, what’s the, what is, what’s your goal in doing this? Is it really that you want her to do this task, or do you want independence, or it helps us? Look at it from afar. So that’s been a really big help. We also have a big homeschool community that we’ve been part of, and they, they help a lot whenever you have those freak out moments that, Oh my God, what if I’m ruining my kids?

[00:30:46] What if this, and then you realize, okay.

[00:30:50] Mike Goldstein: If you look at all teachers, whether they’re in a school or they’re homeschooling, they’re, looking for a few different things. At a most basic level, it’s reassurance. People question themselves, how am I doing?

And it seems to me like in the homeschool community, people get that both through Facebook type groups from strangers sometimes.

But you have a really nice thing by having a twin who is obviously the aunt to your son and daughter, and vice versa. You really know the kids well, and not just the homeschool teacher, meaning you and your twin.

And so, it allows you to have a very unusual level of depth of understanding of your sister’s teaching, because you have your own observations as well.

It’s one thing I don’t yet see a lot in the homeschool community. I see a ton of asking questions about curriculum, about strategy, how would you engage a kid who’s resisting this or that.  I don’t yet see, although maybe I’m missing it, a lot of peer observation.  I don’t see people saying “I will Zoom in on our kitchen table and have a trusted person watch me interact with my kids for 15 minutes.” That sort of instructional coaching is a common thing in many schools where the teacher gets observed and can get feedback on how to do better.

I don’t yet see that in the homeschooling. And I think you almost automatically have that built in with your twin sister.

[00:32:54] Andreina Castillo Alemany: Yeah, it’s been, that, that’s, because even though we’re twins, in this aspect, like, my sister’s very a cousin, and she was, like, we have videos of us in, uh, vacation in the Virgin Islands, and we’re all swimming, and my sister’s reading a book, and kissing a book, and she’s making fun of her, like, she loves that.

[00:33:16] And she did her PhD, and she’s very, so for her, it’s been, she’s, when we decided to be, to do homeschooling, she read 10 books on homeschooling and the whole thing, she’s very, so I, she’s like my encyclopedia in that sense, but I’m the one that also tells her like, it’s okay, things will work out, so she is very, like, Very squared in that sense, and she’s like, this is my struggle, I have to remember, because one of her daughters is not that way at all.

[00:33:41] I was like, she could be more my daughter than your daughter, I always told her. I was like, maybe that’s not her style, and it’s okay, and then she’s like, yeah, that’s right, I can’t, she’s not me, I have to realize that her style of learning is different than mine. So that’s what helps a lot. Whenever she has a moment, she’s like, oh, I have to try it a different way.

[00:33:58] She’s more of an artist, so try this. And then she’s, these were homeschooling is great because you have the flexibility to switch halfway. You don’t have to wait until the school year ends to switch it with them. You can say, well, maybe this math program is not working for her. Maybe let’s try this one.

[00:34:14] And it’s, but it’s a learning curve for us too. Cause I’m, I was more of a finisher as well. Like we start this book, we finish this book. I’m like, yeah, but if they’re pushing back so much, maybe pause the book, put it aside and then try a new thing.

[00:34:28] Mike Goldstein: I love it because what you’re describing, the, not just the mutual support that you have, but we can finish on this topic.

[00:34:38] All teachers always have to make. A million decisions. There’s so many interlocking questions. Oh, we started this. Eh, the kid’s not into it. Do I press through? Maybe that sends the wrong signal. There’s a million interlocking decisions. And they have

[00:34:54] Andreina Castillo Alemany: 20 something kids. Maybe it’s clicking with some, but not the others.

[00:34:58] Mike Goldstein: That’s right.

And so what homeschooling has done for you is reduce it to a universe of decision making that less. It allows you to be more present intellectually, emotionally, and less having your working memory trying to keep track of 20 kids all squirming around in a slightly different way.

[00:35:21] I love that. Listen, here’s what we should do. Let’s leave it here for today. This has been Homeschooling Journeys with Curious Mike, hearing Andrina Castillo Alemany’s story from Florida. Andreina, thank you so much for sharing about your homeschooling journey. Thank

[00:35:39] Andreina Castillo Alemany: you, Mike. I really appreciate it. Thanks for having me.?