Being a mom is a rewarding yet demanding job, especially when balancing the many responsibilities of homeschooling, homemaking, and personal life. Erin Cox from Gentle + Classical Press shares how to navigate the busy seasons of motherhood, offering practical advice on how to maintain personal well-being, connect with your identity outside of motherhood, and prioritize what truly matters.
- A Homeschooling Mom’s Journey to Gentle and Classical Education
- Favorite Parts of Homeschooling
- Managing Multiple Ages and Diverse Learning Needs
- Long-term Homeschooling Perspective
- Coping with Kids Who Have Learning Differences or Aren't at Grade Level
- Finding Rest as a Busy Mom: Practical Insights
- Key Takeaways
- Listen to the full podcast episode “Finding Peace in the Chaos of Homeschooling with Erin Cox” on Homeschool Conversations with Humility and Doxology
- Find Erin Cox Online
- You May Also Enjoy
This post contains paid links. Please see disclaimer.
A Homeschooling Mom’s Journey to Gentle and Classical Education
Erin Cox is a homeschooling mom of four, with children ranging from young adult to elementary age. She and her husband, whom she lovingly refers to as her grade-school sweetheart, have been married for over 20 years and live on a charming homestead in central Alabama. Erin’s homeschooling journey began 14 years ago, sparked by a combination of life changes and a growing conviction to raise her children differently from her own upbringing.
Initially hesitant about homeschooling due to misconceptions and career demands, Erin’s perspective shifted after leaving a high-stress job and removing her eldest from daycare. With her newfound faith in Christ and her husband also on his own faith journey, she embraced the idea of teaching her children at home. Over the years, she’s experienced the joys and challenges of homeschooling, with the unique opportunity to revisit and refine her methods due to the significant age gap between her older and younger children. Now a seasoned educator, Erin is also the creative force behind Gentle and Classical Press, crafting Charlotte Mason and classically inspired resources for early learners.
Philosophy of Home Education Over Time
Erin Cox’s homeschooling philosophy has transformed significantly over the years, shifting from a child-led, interest-focused approach to one that balances freedom with structure and intentionality. Early in her journey, Erin was drawn to the ideas of unschooling and child-directed learning, inspired by authors like Karen Andreola and John Taylor Gatto. This philosophy worked well for her older daughters during their elementary years, emphasizing natural development, exploration, and joy in learning. However, as Erin gained experience and learned from mentors within the homeschooling community, she recognized the need for a more directed approach that incorporated classical and Charlotte Mason principles.
Now, Erin emphasizes the importance of exposing children to wisdom and knowledge beyond their immediate interests. She believes in challenging her children to do “hard things,” fostering character development and perseverance even in areas that may not initially capture their enthusiasm. While she still values the freedom homeschooling provides to pursue unique interests, Erin ensures these pursuits complement a broader educational vision rooted in faith and tradition. Her approach now integrates thoughtful consistency, prayerful intention, and a focus on discipling her children’s hearts as well as their minds, ensuring that their education points them toward Christ and equips them for life.
Favorite Parts of Homeschooling
Erin Cox shared that one of her favorite parts of homeschooling is the flexibility it provides. She appreciates the freedom to tailor their schedule to the seasons and circumstances. For example, during bright and sunny days, they may start early and finish quickly, leaving time for outdoor play, while darker, rainy days allow for slower mornings filled with reading and cozying up inside. She also values the ability to adapt their schooling around life’s challenges, such as illness, family transitions, or even mold remediation, as they experienced recently.
This adaptability has helped her prioritize what matters most, including building relationships and fostering meaningful conversations. Erin highlighted the irreplaceable opportunity homeschooling gives to discuss God’s Word, memorize Scripture, and engage in faith-focused dialogue with her children. These conversations allow her to better understand her children’s hearts and help them develop a deeper knowledge of God’s character.
While Erin joked that sleeping in might be her favorite perk, she emphasized that the eternal impact of these relational and spiritual benefits is unparalleled. Homeschooling provides the margin to focus on faith, flexibility, and family connection in a way that she finds uniquely valuable.
Managing Multiple Ages and Diverse Learning Needs
Erin Cox identified two main challenges in homeschooling: managing multiple life stages simultaneously and addressing the diverse learning needs of her children.
She shared that balancing her roles as a mother to children at various developmental stages—such as toddlers, teens, and now a grandchild—while homeschooling is particularly demanding. The physical and emotional toll of staying up late with older kids while rising early for younger ones was especially challenging during the years when she had children in vastly different seasons of life. Over time, however, Erin noted that the “muscles” for managing this chaos grow stronger with practice.
A second challenge has been navigating the unique learning needs of her children, many of whom face learning disabilities like ADHD, dyslexia, and autism. Erin admitted that this was especially difficult when she started homeschooling, as she had no personal experience with such challenges. Teaching her first child to read required immense patience and creativity, especially when progress was slow. Over time, Erin learned to adapt her expectations and methods, recognizing that every child is unique and may need individualized approaches, even if that means using different curriculums for each one.
To overcome these challenges, Erin leans on her faith and has grown more comfortable trusting in God’s sufficiency. She’s also learned to embrace the reality that homeschooling is not a “one-size-fits-all” journey, which has allowed her to let go of guilt and unrealistic expectations. Erin now finds joy in seeing the fruits of her labor, like her daughter thriving after years of hard work and perseverance.
She encourages other homeschool parents to accept that every child’s path is different and to give themselves grace when things don’t go as planned. Her story serves as a reminder that homeschooling requires flexibility, resilience, and trust in the process.
Long-term Homeschooling Perspective
Erin Cox reflects on how her approach to homeschooling has evolved as her children have grown older. One of her key realizations is the importance of consistency, especially in subjects like math. She admits that she didn’t prioritize math instruction early on with her daughters as much as she should have, but now with her boys, she emphasizes the value of consistent effort, even when progress seems slow. She also shares how her focus has shifted back to hands-on learning, like arts and crafts, which she had set aside during more chaotic years.
In addition to academics, Erin emphasizes the significance of character development and theology in the younger years. She admits that with her older girls, she wasn’t as intentional about cultivating character traits, but she has made this a priority with her boys. Erin believes that foundational aspects of a child’s character, like self-control, obedience, and positive habits, should be established by the age of nine or ten. She now focuses on guiding her children through these formative years with strong values before they enter the challenging middle school years, when their personalities and beliefs are further tested. Erin also highlights the importance of a solid family foundation before encouraging friendships and social development.
Coping with Kids Who Have Learning Differences or Aren’t at Grade Level
1. Don’t Make It About Yourself
- Avoid internalizing your child’s challenges as a reflection of your abilities or failures as a parent.
- Thinking you’ve caused the issue can lead to believing you must fix it, which isn’t always possible. Instead, focus on helping your child in ways that are supportive but realistic.
2. Accept the Unique Path of Each Child
- Each child is different, even among siblings with similar challenges. There is no universal standard or timeline for progress.
- Focus on consistent progress rather than benchmarks or comparisons to others.
3. Know When to Seek Outside Help
- If your child seems stuck and you’re unable to make progress, consider professional help, such as tutors, specialized schools, or therapies (e.g., vision therapy for dyslexia).
- Erin shared an example of enrolling her daughter in a specialized program for math, which helped her daughter overcome significant challenges.
4. Rest in Realistic Expectations
- Accept that some subjects or skills may have limits for certain children. It’s okay if their achievements don’t align with traditional grade-level expectations.
5. Release the Idea of Perfection
- Homeschooling isn’t a “vending machine” where input guarantees a specific output. Children’s success isn’t solely dependent on your methods.
6. Remember the Bigger Picture
- Ultimately, trust in God’s work in your child’s life rather than relying on your own ability to control outcomes. This mindset brings freedom and reduces unnecessary pressure.
7. Recognize the Role of Pride
- Pride can manifest as either undue discouragement when things go wrong or inflated confidence when things go well. Realize that neither outcome is about you. Parenting and homeschooling are about your child’s growth and God’s glory, not your own achievements.
Finding Rest as a Busy Mom: Practical Insights
As moms, the demands of daily life often leave little room for rest or reflection. But Erin Cox reminds us that rest is essential—not a luxury or indulgence, but a critical part of sustaining our roles as mothers, wives, and individuals.
The Importance of Rest
Erin shares her journey from burnout to balance, underscoring the toll that sleepless nights, constant caregiving, and unprocessed grief can take. She emphasizes the value of physical, spiritual, and emotional rest, starting with the simple recognition that going to the grocery store alone isn’t a break.
Practical Steps to Incorporate Rest
- Find Small Moments for God
- Spending time with the Lord daily doesn’t have to mean hours of deep study. Listening to a worship song, meditating on one scripture, or finding brief, quiet moments in your day can nourish your spirit.
- Prioritize Sleep
- Sleep deprivation can amplify stress and reduce resilience. Erin advises letting go of guilt about needing rest and communicating with your spouse about ways to share the load.
- Reconnect with Your Identity
- While our children and families are central to our lives, it’s vital to maintain hobbies, goals, and activities that are uniquely ours. Whether it’s starting a fitness goal, picking up embroidery, or baking sourdough, these pursuits can rejuvenate and refresh us.
- Take Time Away
- Quarterly retreats may not be feasible for everyone, but even a short break can restore your energy and perspective. Erin notes how these moments apart help her return as a more present and loving mom.
Finding rest isn’t about escaping your family; it’s about ensuring you can continue to love and serve them well. Whether through intentional quiet time or simply stepping away for a moment, rest is a gift we give not only to ourselves but to our families.
Erin’s advice serves as a powerful reminder that being a mom is not about perfection or sacrificing our own well-being for the sake of others. It’s about finding balance, taking care of ourselves, and allowing space to grow both individually and within our families. By nurturing our own identities, setting healthy boundaries, and embracing moments of rest, we can show up more fully for our children and partners.
Key Takeaways
- Consistency is Crucial for Progress: Erin emphasizes the importance of consistent academic effort, particularly in subjects like math. She learned that early and steady instruction, even in areas that are initially challenging, leads to long-term success, especially for children with learning differences.
- Hands-on Learning Matters: Erin reflects on the value of hands-on, creative activities like arts and crafts in the early years of homeschooling. Despite some years of chaos, she now prioritizes these types of learning experiences to foster creativity and engagement in her children’s education.
- Shift Toward Interest-Based Learning: With her older children, Erin focused on interest-based learning, allowing them to explore topics they were passionate about. While this approach worked for some subjects, she realizes that it is important to balance this with foundational academic skills, like math, to ensure a well-rounded education.
- Character Development is Key in Early Years: Erin now sees that teaching character traits, like self-control and positive habits, is just as important as academic subjects in the younger years. She believes these lessons in discipline and values should be intentionally woven into daily homeschooling experiences.
- The Importance of Early Theological Instruction: Erin highlights the significance of teaching basic foundational theology in the early years. She believes that introducing young children to concepts about God, faith, and morality is a crucial part of their development and should be integrated into homeschooling from the start.
- Rest Is Essential for Moms: Moms need time to rest and recharge, especially during seasons of intense motherhood and homeschooling. Rest includes spiritual refreshment—spending time with the Lord, even in small moments like listening to worship music or reading scripture.
- Sleep Is Crucial: Adequate sleep is vital for mental and physical well-being, and moms should prioritize rest, especially if sleep has been disrupted by caregiving.
- Honest Communication with Spouse: Moms should be open with their spouses about the need for more rest and personal time to maintain mental and physical health.
- Personal Goals Rejuvenate Identity: Having personal goals, like exercising or pursuing hobbies, helps moms reconnect with their identity outside of motherhood.
- Small, Regular Breaks Add Up: Rest doesn’t have to be a long vacation; small, regular breaks like a quiet moment or pursuing an interest can be rejuvenating.
Listen to the full podcast episode “Finding Peace in the Chaos of Homeschooling with Erin Cox” on Homeschool Conversations with Humility and Doxology
Erin is a joy-chasing homeschool mama to 4 babies, ages young adult down to elementary. She married her grade-school sweetheart over 20 years ago, and lives to love him well. She is the author of multiple early-years Charlotte Mason and Classically-inspired programs at The Gentle + Classical Press.
Find Erin Cox Online
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- Charlotte Mason Inspired: Little Learners, Learning Challenges, and the Cultivation of Habits
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- Getting Started with Charlotte Mason Homeschooling with Amy Fischer
- Mother Culture for the Homeschool Mom
- Homeschool is Not a Vending Machine: why I don’t use curriculum, books, and memory work to grow my children’s virtue
- True Rest for the Weary Homeschool Mom: Humility and Doxology in Identity
Amy Sloan: Hello friends. Today I am joined by Erin Cox. Erin is a joy-chasing homeschool mama to four ages young adult down to elementary. She married her grade school sweetheart over 20 years ago and lives to love him well. She’s also the author of multiple early years Charlotte Mason and classically inspired programs at the Gentle and Classical Press. Erin, I am so excited to get to chat with you today and just wanted to ask you to tell us a little bit more details about yourself, your family, and how you guys got started homeschooling.
Erin Cox: Sure, thank you Amy for having me again and I’m excited to be here. As you said, I have four kiddos and they we have a big age range so it’s been a fun journey but my oldest just turned 20 and my youngest will turn eight in a couple of months so we have this big kind of age span with them and my older two there’s a gap between like my older two and my younger two of nine years and um so I got to kind of like do everything the first time and then have all this time to think about it and then do it over again with the next batch so it’s like this very unique experience a lot of times if you have a big age range it’s filled with kids the whole time um so that was a fun uh opportunity for me to kind of have a little bit of a do-over like you know because we always have regrets and I’ll have regrets with this set this last set as well um but love my husband to death obviously we’ve been married for 23 no yes something like that 20-ish years I don’t keep up he does he’s better at it than I am math is hard and um we live in central Alabama on a little homestead and we’ve been homeschooling for 14 years. So this beginning is year 14. So we started kind of mid year and started homeschooling. It was one of those things where I learned about it when I was pregnant with my oldest, but I was like, that’ll never happen because I had a college degree and I have to work and have to earn a living for my family and all this, these things and also like then you see like back in the day you know just a little bit of homeschooling anything that you would see your families it was you know denim skirts to the floor which is totally fine not knocking that but like hyper traditional homeschooled moms and I wasn’t even a Christian at the time so I definitely wanted nothing to do with anything that seemed conservative or Christian and that seemed to be what homeschooling was but it just kind of I had some seeds planted in the back of my mind at that age and when my younger daughters have two girls that are my oldest both recently engaged by the way or one’s engaged and one’s like engaged to be engaged so we’re we’re like working on apartment hunting and wedding planning for two at one time which is interesting season to be in and so um they uh i like quit a job because it was stressful and I had to take her out of daycare. And then we just started doing things and just that little, you know, that little bug in the back of my mind that by this point, like I’d come to Christ and my husband was kind of on the way to that. So it was a very different period of our life. It seemed like a major, obviously a major difference had happened in our lives. And so I wanted to raise my children in a way that I wasn’t raised and, and teach them things that I didn’t know. And that was just kind of like the beginning of the whole process. And it’s been a fun, interesting kind of crazy road.
Amy Sloan: Well, so you kind of started, you know, early on not thinking that was something you were intending to do and then maybe thinking, wow, am I actually going to do this crazy homeschool thing? Yes. But over the course of those years, both with your older daughters and now kind of as you’re re-home, you know, doing the second batch of homeschooling with your younger kids. I’m wondering how your approach to homeschooling or philosophy of education has grown or changed over that time.
Erin Cox: So I think, you know, what we read and who we listen to is so deeply impactful as far as like how we come into it. And some of the first, Charlotte Mason, it was Karen Andreola’s Charlotte Mason Companion, was the first book I ever read and I I read that, well, not ever, but about homeschooling. And I read that while I was pregnant with my oldest and I don’t even know how I got it. I just remember sitting in her nursery pregnant with her reading it. And it talked about parenting. And I just, at that time, just kind of like disregarded everything about, you know, cross that was it. I was like, this is good advice. Otherwise, I’m gonna leave that out. This is agnostic. And so, but just seeing parenting and education being approached in such a wildly different way than anything that I had experienced in my own life. And wanting that very much for my children and desiring to give them just gentleness and peace and like a very natural intuitive childhood that just kind of honored their development and allowed them to pursue their interests and their talents and their dreams and stuff. And that was the part that early on very much appealed to me was just like the freedom that it gave. I read, let’s see, John Taylor Gatto early on as well. And so I was very much into unschooling, child-led, interest-led learning, those types of things. And that played a huge part in my girls’ education, and probably up through the middle of their elementary years. But during that time, as I got to know more homeschoolers and got plugged into the homeschool community, and I learned from other people, I started learning about classical education, reading more of Charlotte Mason’s works and stuff. And, you know, and being around women that were older than me and wiser than me and they had more children than me and they’ve been doing all this stuff longer than me and watching them and following behind them and you know and wanting to be mentored by them and then being gracious enough to do so and recognizing like there’s some you know there’s a lot of freedom in home education that is a blessing to us in that our children have a lot of margin in their day that they can pursue interests and stuff. But there are also things that our children of their own volition would never be attracted to. They would never want to learn those things. And, you know, anytime I kind of like say anything negative about unschooling at all, the response is always like you weren’t doing it right. And I just think that there are some children that that just like works for very naturally. And maybe there’s some parents that just do it better than me maybe that’s how it was but what I recognized was some of the areas that my children need to grow in as far as their character development was concerned were areas that were very uncomfortable for them and they didn’t want to do it you know it wasn’t it wasn’t anything that no matter how I strew it about or modeled it or whatever like no matter what kind of magic focus focus I try to do in the background it wasn’t going to actually draw them in and develop their character in the way that needed to be developed and help them overcome skill gaps and knowledge gaps that they had without just being like we’re gonna do no matter what we’re gonna do the hard things and there’s some things that like my girls they just did not want to do them for the longest time and I was persistent because as the adult I believed that these were very important parts of their education that could not be overlooked because of the way that I wanted them to have like the fullness because they were always drawn to like these clusters of things and so they would be passionate about these clusters of things so we started saying those are outside of school things like pursue those things enjoy those things um and and dive deep and maybe what you learn during school actually even help with that interest even more but we’re going to do more things that are hopefully rooted in wisdom and tradition that is good and so that’s kind of been a big change for me. It’s like over time going from being very child-led, very child-focused to being like these are the books that people that are smarter than me say to read so we are going to read these books and we’re going to see what happens when we read these books and recognizing like they’re not the books that they wanted to listen to. They may have complained halfway through the book but it also did so much in their heart and their mind that they would have never gotten otherwise and just kind of kind of I guess holding back from wanting things to be like always what they wanted to do that was kind of a miss I know this is like a misunderstanding but when I first began homeschooling I thought that I saw a lot of value in like if you love it enjoy that you’ll learn it so much faster, right? And that’s true. We do like absorb things immediately if they’re really interesting to us or fun to us or whatnot. But at the same time, you can put too much merit in that and almost teach your children that if it’s not fun, that you don’t expect them to stick with it or do it. It can have that kind of like catch-22 that can come in later on. You’re You’re like, wait, it doesn’t matter if you don’t think math is fun, we still have to do it. And then you spend all this time, which Charlotte Mason would very much criticize, almost trying to entertain your children into learning and trying to get it in them anyway because you’ve given them the message that it needs to be fun in order for them to value it and to learn it. And some things can be fun and some things can be fun sometimes and then not other times. and we just have to have the perseverance and the integrity and the faithfulness to follow through on those things. So I would say I switched very much from a child-centered, child-led, very relaxed approach of homeschooling early on to, I think, I won’t say like rigid or rigorous, but like diligent and faithful and consistent and prayerful, not just they’re interested in this, So let’s do a unit study on that and learn everything about that thing. Like that can be fun, but also how does that fit into the larger picture of what I want their education to be? How does this point to Christ? How does this help them understand Him more, the world around them more, those types of things. And just kind of have an ultimate, I guess, end goal in mind that’s not just about their enjoyment or, you know, parking some knowledge in there, but their actual character development and discipling them, those things that rose much more to the forefront from the earliest age. I’ve realized as I grew and had more kids, you can write God’s word on their heart as soon as they can talk. They don’t have to be older. They don’t even have to completely understand it for you to park it in there and it do its work and it be ready for them when the time comes them to actually like understand it and apply that in their life and stuff so that was a long-winded answer but that’s it was kind of a journey and I’m almost at the other end of the spectrum now and I think there’s value in following interests and stuff but I don’t think it should be the steering of the ship. I think it should be you know some packages that are on board but not like what’s your guiding light is to kind of make a bad metaphor about the whole thing.
Amy Sloan: Yeah, I think there’s something to be said for having a posture of humility as we approach education, both as teacher and students, to really teach our children that humility of being willing to listen to wisdom from outside of themselves, from outside of ourselves, right? To even go through the process of asking the Lord to change what we want, right? Sometimes that’s what we need. I mean, sometimes I need that. I need to not want to go back and get another bowl of ice cream or whatever, right? So we need to have the Lord change our ones. And I also loved how you brought up that that doesn’t mean that there’s no space for all this incredible diving into interests and pursuing what makes our children unique. Because when we homeschool, you know, we have so much freedom and flexibility in the time. They have, my children have all just pursued their really, sometimes very quirky or off-the-wall things over the years, and that’s because they have the time to do that. And so I am directing, you know, the goals of their education and kind of steering the ship like you were saying. But I do it in such a way that leaves them plenty of white space to have the freedom and to be willing to pursue their interests, I think, so they’re not exhausted from all things that they were doing in school.
Erin Cox:, Absolutely. I absolutely agree. And this is completely off topic, but your earrings are so cute. Thank you. I was just thinking about what your fun earrings were and I wore like these cherries today because if you can believe it, I found a sweater that has cherries on the buttons and then at a totally separate store, the exact same ones were made into earrings. And it’s just fun. And I was just admiring,
Amy Sloan: My brother and sister-in-law gave these to me for my birthday so they’re definitely some of my new favorites. Yeah well these we’ve already talked about some of the really wonderful parts of homeschooling but are there any other kind of favorite parts of homeschooling that you’ve experienced over the years?
Erin Cox: Oh nothing profound.I love the fact that we don’t have to particularly start our day at a certain time. Like, I tend to, a long time ago, Pam Barnhill had like a blog post that talked about tidal homeschooling. And I like to think of it, it’s almost seasonal because there’s just certain times of the year that it’s easier when the sun’s up early. It’s easy to get up and get going and do all the things. things and you’re done by like nine or 10 o’clock and everybody’s able to get outside and play and all those types of things. And then there’s the time of years where it’s rainy and it’s dark half the day and it’s drizzly and everything’s cold and you just wanna take things slow, you know, and snuggle up and read half the day and nobody’s in a rush to go anywhere or do anything. So that’s one of my favorite things about homeschooling. Like I hate being bound by a particular schedule. I do not like to have to go anywhere if it’s rainy, which we have co-op once a week. So we do have to go whether it’s raining or not, but we actually don’t have co-op for like most of December or January. So we can avoid the dreariness outside. And so that’s probably one of my favorite things is just the convenience of it, being able to tailor it around our lives. We have had kind of a crazy year with sickness. We’ve had a lot of sickness and then we found mold in our home, like in a very significant way, and had to move out for two weeks, and my husband had to do the remediation because it’s not covered by insurance. And it was just this giant thing when we had already had several sicknesses in a row that were like, the whole family had them, everybody was out, you know, down and out. So our school year this year, like we started in early September, we’ve only done reading and math, and we’ve only been able to do it around everybody’s sicknesses and then this like temporary move out and the construction of that and then trying to get our house back together and get like our school room was one of the rooms that was impacted. So try to get that back together. And my brain does not work if half my furniture is in my kitchen. You know what I mean? Like I can’t do it. So we’ve just like the bare, bare, bare minimum. So we’re just now mid-October, well, it’s late October. It’s almost the end of October. Like actually starting all the other part our curriculum. And if this had happened several years ago, I would have been freaking out. Like I would have been like, oh my gosh, DHR is going to come and take my children. We haven’t done science and history yet this year. And you know, like I’m so behind, I’m such a failure and I can’t get it together. And I would be questioning myself and questioning this calling and I would just be in a tizzy about it. And I’m just like so okay with it. Like it’s totally fine. We’re going to get to all of that stuff um we’re gonna probably finish it up in in June or July and that’s okay too like I don’t have to have it done at a certain point so we can do all those fun projects and read all those books and stuff throughout the summer like we don’t have to end in May and so to just have that flexibility of like through family loss family sickness um you know like new babies being born all these things like we have that flexibility so that’s you know again kind of with the weather like all the flexibility that’s involved and then other it’s just the conversations like if we were not intentional about reading God’s word memorizing his word memorizing catechisms having discussions about those things like there are like thousands of conversations that would have never happened with my children that I wouldn’t know their heart about that thing and and they wouldn’t have, they might hear parts and not have full clarity and understanding about the nature of God and what’s meant by this and what’s meant by that. And it’s just, there’s just so many opportunities for that that just would not happen otherwise. I mean, I just would find it very hard for those things to kind of happen. We just have the space for that just natural organic conversation. And that’s probably not only that’s my favorite, I would like to say sleeping in sounds my favorite, but that’s my real favorite thing. And it’s the most, I think, the most impactful. Look, there’s all these benefits to homeschooling, but when it comes down to it, if you want your children to love the Lord and pursue him and understand his word and his character, and that process is going to look different for every kid and all that stuff. But if you want to have the foundation of that in a way that can’t be replicated other ways, then to me, nothing can touch home education when it comes to that.
Amy Sloan: Yeah, just the flexibility and space for all of these things, both in the practical schedule and also in the relationship. Yes, you said that with a lot fewer words than me. Yeah. Well, what about some of the challenges of homeschooling? I know you face those as well as we all do. What have been some of those challenges and how have you sought to overcome them?
Erin Cox: So challenges for us have been mostly okay so there’s probably two categories being in multiple seasons at one time at one point I had a teenager a tween a toddler and a newborn and being in all the seasons at one time like I’m a grandma now and so and right currently like she still lives at home with us with our daughter and um she’s one of the ones that’s engaged so and they’re getting, you know, ready to move on to that next season. So I am, I’m planning weddings, I’m taking care of a grandchild, I’m helping people find and apply for apartments, those things, and make their financial plans for their future, and then also still teaching kids to read and doing, you know, volcanoes and all those kinds of things. Like it’s very, you know, that’s been one of the hardest things for me is just being able to and be up late with my big kids that that that’s when they wanna talk, but be up early with babies that need you first thing in the morning. So that’s been challenging. It’s gotten easier. It was very, it was the most challenging thing in my life for several years. But definitely, you know, over time, those muscles kind of get stronger and you’re able to do the things that you need to do. And so that would probably be the number one. And also like coupled with that is like, we have kids with like everybody’s a little neuro-spicy in our house. So we’ve got ADHD and dyslexia and dyscalculia and dysgraphia and like all these disses and all that stuff. And a little bit of autism as well. And so it’s very like varied. Everybody’s strengths and weaknesses are all over the board. And so I have to stay ahead of that and anticipate this kid is gonna need this extra thing with this topic in this lesson, but this one’s not gonna need that at all, but they need, you know, this thing. Like this kid is reading well ahead of when he should, but he has no inferencing abilities whatsoever. So I’m gonna have to like explain everything that’s literal in this story. And then the other one’s just like, we’re still just working on reading and stuff. And also having like a teenager trying to graduate from high school with the learning disabilities at the same time that you’ve got little ones learning to read with learning disabilities. So that’s probably been our biggest challenge. To begin with, it was very difficult for me because I don’t have any learning disabilities and I taught myself to read before I entered kindergarten. And there were just things for me that were like, just, you just knew it. Like, you just knew it, word said, you know what I mean? I just was very, everything was very intuitive for me in a school setting. I had no challenges at all. And to then have a child with like profound learning disabilities that you would have to teach her the same thing hundreds of times before it made it through the thick wall into the permanent brain, who was also smart as a whip, which is kind of the hard thing too, is like how smart she was, how intelligent she is, but then also getting the information and the knowledge in there and making progress. So that was very hard, especially because she was my first one I taught to read because my older daughter learned to read in school. So it’s like my first child I’m teaching to read, she’s not learning to read. And what am I doing wrong? And I’m messing it up and all this kind of stuff. And then just kind of learning, you know, how to cope with that tension, how to rely on the Lord, knowing I was always doing my best and learning just to trust it. Like he is, you know, perfected in my weaknesses. He’s gonna, he is all sufficient. I don’t have to be everything. And in getting to see like the end of that, like starting to try to teach her her alphabet at four and by eight, she still didn’t know it. But then now she has graduated high school and passed a graduation exam and has a job and is making like decent money to be 18 years old and is, you know, happily engaged. And just, she’s moving on and she’s gonna be okay. Like she’s gonna survive. And there was times that I was like, Oh Lord Jesus, this is never gonna be okay. And he knew the whole time that it was. So I would say just the being kind of spread thin and everyone’s learning uniqueness. And that’s true, whether you have kids with learning disabilities or not, like everybody’s got, all kids have their interests and the subjects they take to naturally. And just being able to pivot and adapt to what each of your children need, I think can probably be because we think, oh, I’m gonna find the perfect curriculum and I’m gonna use that with this kid. And then I’ll use it with the next kid and the next kid and the next kid. And there may be some things you can do like that, but I’ve not found anything outside of all about reading that I will consistently use with all of my children that it works for everybody. So that’s probably been the biggest wake up call. That’s not a figure it out one time and then you’re done. know you every time a kid goes through fifth grade you’re figuring out fifth grade for the first time because you’re figuring out fifth grade for that child and it gets easier to figure it out but it’s still different every time so I think just kind of like accepting that that’s okay that’s not like a failure you didn’t pick wrong the first time because it doesn’t work for this kid it’s just a different kid and just being comfortable with that and accepting that that’s just reality, I think, is also helpful.
Amy Sloan: Yeah, I think, you know, I have five children, and each of them is so different, and you think, once I figure out how to be a good parent, like with this kid, then I’m set. And then you realize, like you were saying, oh no, this next kid is a totally different person. I suddenly don’t know how to parent again. Not only do you get more comfortable with that process, I think, but I also found that I’m a lot less anxious and worried about it. I put a lot less pressure on myself and on the child, just knowing that, oh, this is normal. This is okay. There’s time. There is time. Yeah. Well, one of the things perspective does give us over many years of homeschooling, homeschooling different kinds of children, is we might focus on some different things with our younger children than we did with our older children. And so I’m wondering what kinds of things you have maybe changed or maybe hasn’t changed, but that you really thought mattered in the younger years that maybe you don’t think matters quite as much anymore. What do you choose to focus on?
Erin Cox: So with my bigger kids, like I said, we did a lot of interest-based like learning and stuff. And I can say now that I regret like postponing, not postponing, but not taking math instruction as seriously early on with them as I did, as I have with my boys. So that’s, I’ve got two girls and two boys. I just refer to them like my girls, my boys. And so that would be one thing is like learning how impactful consistency is, especially if you have kids with any kind of learning differences, but any kind of progress, you know, if you ever kind of look at your kid and then you’re looking at kids in public school and you’re like, they’re ahead of my kid or whatever. It’s only the consistency. That is the only different thing. So for me, it was just figuring out like, always eat the frog, do the thing that’s not everybody’s favorite stuff, and get that done first. And be consistent in that if you want to see your child make progress, you have to be consistent. You can’t be the stumbling block to your child’s progress. So with the girls, I was not as consistent as I wanted to be. We did a lot of arts and crafts, which I actually had kind of gotten away from a little bit just with so many kids and everything being so hectic. So this year is a big year of kind of pulling that back in and being like, we’re doing hands-on stuff. Because for a few years with COVID and with so many at different ages and nap times and all these types of things, we just didn’t get out a lot. We didn’t go on a lot of field trips. We didn’t do a lot of community-based things. We didn’t do a lot of hands-on learning at home because I was just kind of overwhelmed without pulling out paint and glitter, you know? And so we’re finally to a season now where I am prioritizing those things again, because I think they’re very important. So that was something that I like did and then didn’t do. And now I’m definitely like going back to that. And then what I did not do with my girls, and it wasn’t that I didn’t think it was important, it was just that I didn’t have the knowledge, was training them in God’s word, intentionally training them in particular character traits. Like not just being like, be good, act right. Like that was kind of my instruction for my big girls. Like, don’t do that. Like just, you know, you should just know better. Like I just expected that from them. But making sure, making character development and discipline and positive habits in the culture of our family part of our educational experience with my boys. So I very much have done that differently. With the girls, I pushed them toward independence pretty early. And part of that was seasonality because of their ages. They got to the age where they could be independent. And here I am having two more babies back to back. And if we’re going to get any more school done, you’ve got to do this kind of independently and let mom check it. And I don’t want to do that with my boys. I want to stay very engaged. And again, maybe you need your kids to be independent early. So this isn’t a criticism of that, but it’s just kind of what I’ve noticed that I’ve shifted back toward not having a desire for them to be independent, but wanting to continue to do their school with them. And then I think community, like as my girls got older and it was harder to find, they really got to that age of needing community during like the age of COVID. It was a very hard time. And so for everybody, and they didn’t have quite like the kind of group activities that I would have liked, like being able to sit down and have these Socratic discussions and all those things, because co-ops were closed down and everybody had a mask and it was just awkward. And you felt like you were having a panic attack the whole time. And so just being able to have those opportunities for my boys as they get into the middle school years and making that like a part of their academic progress and it not being just mom, just me and mom talking about it. It’s just more fun to have those kinds of discussions with your peers and more profitable for everybody. So I would say like keeping it fun in the young years, but also prioritizing and character development and theology in the early years. And people are like theology, but you can absolutely teach very basic foundational theology in the early years. I feel like, and I don’t even know, this is just completely Aaron’s random observations from a small sampling size. But it seems to me that our kids, so much of their characters actually develop by the time they’re like nine years old. Like a lot of their personality, a lot of their ability to have self-control, to obey, to self-correct their attitude if they have a bad attitude, and develop positive habits, whether it’s hygiene or like exercise and being, you know, all these different habits that you want them to have as they go into adulthood. Like those seem to need to be concreted by the time they’re nine, 10 years old. Because then as they get in, as the hormones start to kick in, there’s a whole different level of like development that’s happening, right? And so the priority in their mind for all of that stuff is gone. And now they’re testing, is what mom told me true? Is what dad told me real? Is that what I also believe? And they start thinking about things in that kind of like that middle, those middle years where they’re debating it all out and figuring it out for themselves and really developing their personalities. And so we’ve been very much more intentional with our boys in thinking like, Of course we’re with them and it’s formative and we are influencing them deeply. Well, if you have the relationship to well into 10 years in a young adulthood, the greatest honor of my life is that I still, my 20 year old still comes and asks me what I think about things, you know, like what I do about this or how do I do this? But also like, what do you think? What do you think I should do? And just giving them like a foundation earlier on, on I think is, and Charlotte Mason talks so much about all those habits and those, you know, early on and developing those and how beneficial that is to self-control and self, you know, development later on. So I think what we saw as important early on, I saw social time and friendships as very important at a younger age for my girls. And we’ve actually kind of flipped the script like let’s spend these first 10 years under the guidance and the primary influence in the development and the intentionality of mom and dad and discipleship and discipline and and all these things and and then as that once we have that great foundation then start worrying about having outside relationships and friendships and developing those and learning what it means to be a good friend and be a human being and all those things and treat people well um so those kind of have flipped for us too, and I think so far, so far so good. That’s all we have, right?
Amy Sloan: Trusting the Lord to work in our children, right? Yes, absolutely, yes. Well, you’ve mentioned several times that you have different children with different learning challenges and neurodiversity in your family, so what would be sort of some good tips for help, you know, educating and parenting kids with learning differences, maybe who aren’t quite on grade level?
Erin Cox: The very first one is absolutely don’t make it about yourself. Don’t make it about your failings of any kind, like that you’ve not done something right. And also, they’re simultaneously, if you inherently believe that you’ve messed up and that’s caused this problem, then you also inherently believe that you need to fix it. And while there are things that are helpful, you know, for our dyslexic kids, they did vision therapy. It was very, very helpful and made a very hard task a little bit easier for them. But it wasn’t a remedy. It didn’t change the fact that their brains just don’t process language in the same way that a neurotypical brain does. And so that’s number one is like don’t make it about you. Don’t make it a problem to fix. You know help your child appropriate to help them. Don’t baby them about it. Still figure out and this is this gray area right but figure out what is the challenge for them and keep them at that level at that fruitful frustration thing. Don’t have unrealistic expectations and also and that’s easier said than done because you’re like, what are unrealistic expectations? What should I expect of my eight-year-old that has dyslexia? And I get those questions a lot like, you know, so I’m not normal because they’re not reading at this level at this age, so what should I expect? And there is literally not an answer to that because every child that has dyslexia or any other learning disability, they are a singular, unique human being, and there is no guidepost for what you should be expecting, only that you’re making progress and that you are consistently making progress. But even that, I’ve got one kid with dyslexia that he’s making progress, but his progress, as slow as it feels for me at times, is 10 times faster than a sister that also had dyslexia. So their progress is very different, but they did make progress. So be much less concerned about the goalposts and those types of things and just focus on the progress. Are we making progress? And if you feel like you aren’t making progress, look for outside help. That’s another tip. When Callie really got, that’s my 18 year old, when she really got stuck in math, and I just felt like I was beating my head against a brick wall. Like it’s hard. It’s very frustrating. And it was frustrating for her. It’s frustrating for everybody. And she just like her working memory is very poor. So like we would learn something and she always learned it instantaneously. It was like she learned it instantaneously and could do an entire sheet of it. And the next day we would sit down. It was like she had never seen that stuff before in her life. And so every day we were starting from the foundation so we couldn’t make any progress. And I enrolled her in a local school, like a private school that was, like the school was created for kids with, you know, all kinds of different abilities. And they just let her come for math. So I would drive her to the school and she would go in there and she would do math. And then she would come back out and we’d go homeschool everything else. And that was an amazing blessing for a season. And then a friend took over tutoring her for high school, and she got her up through what we consider her Algebra 1, which was not Algebra 1, but it was what we needed to get her through. That was academically her ceiling on mathematics, that was where she was going to get to, and it was unreasonable to expect anything other than that. So all that to say, just rest in the knowledge that you’re not going to necessarily figure out a path and to stop being concerned about certain benchmarks and just focus on the progress. And if there isn’t progress, then get help. But if you’re making progress, just keep doing what you’re doing. And sometimes things that click and you’ll get through something really fast that you expected not to. And then sometimes it’s gonna take 10 years longer than you expected it to. And that’s just kind of like, it is what it is, but it’s not, you know, it’s not mom’s fault. didn’t do anything wrong. Our kids are like you know nature versus nurture. Nature is like it’s real you know like a lot of times we want to make everything be about especially as a homeschool mom because you’ve made like your life and your day-to-day routine and sometimes our identities and stuff about educating our children and doing what’s best for them and bringing out the best in them and then when something’s going sideways we can feel like it’s about us and it’s just not so.
Amy Sloan: And the flip side of that is, we think when something’s going really well, we want to think it’s about us too, right? Yes. Yes. So I had my first child, that boy, he would eat all his vegetables from the earliest age. I mean, he would just, I didn’t need to put anything on it, the green beans, the broccoli, he loved it. And I was like, well, I am a very good parent. And I just don’t understand why people can’t get their children to eat vegetables. And then my next child came along, I did all the exact same things. I had done with my oldest, could not get her to eat vegetables for like years, like literal years. She would put them in her mouth. She wouldn’t fight. And then she would just spit them out. Like there was, it just, I was like, well, I guess it was not about me at all.
Erin Cox: Yes. That first kid gaslights you, they make you think that you’re doing everything right, sleeping through the night, potty trained at the right age, eating the vegetables, obeying mommy the first time, you know, and then that second kid comes out feral. I don’t know what it is. And they’re like, you’re doing everything different for me, by the way, and it’s all going to be hard.
Amy Sloan: But it’s good because, you know, with homeschooling too, I have a blog post I wrote that says homeschooling is not a vending machine. We have this idea if we just do the right thing, we push the right buttons, we’ll get out the perfect product. And that is unhealthy and unhelpful and just not true. So both for the little academic side of things and also for the bigger spiritual side of things. So it’s good to remember that we are relying on the Lord’s work in our children and not just us somehow being perfect homeschool parents.
Erin Cox: And that it’s not about glorifying us in the end because ultimately it’s the pride that makes you feel like that. You make things about you because it’s either hurting your pride that things aren’t looking as shiny as you wanted it to, or it’s inflating your pride that things are looking as shiny as you hoped that it would and um I mean some people I’m sure struggle with that more than others I know I certainly have but just recognizing that like not one ounce of it is about us like it’s a calling that God has given us but it’s about our children and it’s about his glory and his work in their lives and not about our own and that’s can be a hard thing to like get all the way and kind of release that and stuff, but there’s so much freedom in it when you realize that it’s not about you at all, especially with kids with learning disabilities too.
Amy Sloan: Yeah. Well, it isn’t about us, and also we often need to take times of rest and reflection, but how do we do that in the midst of busy full lives?
Erin Cox: You’re so good at your transitions. I’m such a professional. Yes, you’ve nailed it. So I personally take quarterly retreats, which are not necessarily always like an option. I 100% get that. But where it came from in the first place was that I really got to a place of burnout. And in two babies, you know, back to back, my boys were 15 months old and then I had the kids in all the seasons and my husband was traveling a lot for work and then my mom passed away suddenly in a car accident and I didn’t really have time to like grieve that loss because I was surrounded by children all the time and like the world kept spinning even though I felt like it certainly should not. And just I got to this place where I was like like literally just thinking about like packing my stuff in my car and just like disappearing. I was just so burned out and you should never get there in the first place. Like you should definitely have some breaks. Going to the grocery store by yourself, by the way, is not a break. That’s not a rest. And I feel like everyone’s personalities kind of make this a little bit different. So for me, I’m deeply introverted. I can pretend to be an extrovert, but I’m very introverted. I need a lot of downtime. And I think I’m classified as like a highly sensitive person. So even though I had no learning disabilities in school, my adult children have, I have ADHD, apparently. And super, you know, highly sensitive. So I get really touched out very fast and the sounds, all the noise. And I just need like, it is, you know, I used to feel bad about this, but I can confidently say like, I need to be alone and be in quietness sometimes. And the more stressful things that are in life and the more hectic and loud things are in life, the more I need that. And of course my tolerance for those things have been stretched over the years. But sometimes that also kind of wears you down because you’re just with it all the time and you’re not meeting your own needs. So, you know, I first kind of ran away for a weekend. And what I realized is like, I had not been spending time with the Lord every day like I needed to. And it was hard because I would get up early to do it and somebody else would always, when I got up and it wouldn’t be quiet and kind of perfect, like I felt like it needed to be. And so, because I wasn’t doing it right, I just kind of stopped doing it. And so that was the first thing is just like recognizing we have to be in the presence of the Lord every day, even if that means putting on your headphones and listening to one worship song while you load the dishwasher, when you know that everybody is safely playing, like reading one scripture and just meditating on that throughout the day. It doesn’t have to be, you know, my Matthew Henry commentary and like all these things I like to have spread out. I love to do those big deep dives. And I can do that now, like I’m in a different season than I was, but for a long time, I couldn’t do that. And so just doing whatever you need to do to feel your spirit while you can. And then also like, if you are someone that’s in a season of like, you’re not sleeping, okay. I get these sweet mamas all the time. Like when I talk about getting up early before your family and getting in God’s word. And they’re like, I haven’t slept in five years. And I’m like, please don’t get up before your children, like let them wake you up. Like it can be good for your mental health to greet them instead of them greeting you. But at the same time, this is how Navy SEALs talk, the sleep deprivation. And if you’ve had child after child after child, you’ve nursed and you’ve had, I mean, you just can literally go like a little longer and you need your rest. So that’s one thing, first of all, try to get as much sleep as you can and be very gracious to yourself if you’re not getting the sleep that you need. And don’t hold yourself to some unreasonable, like out of season standard for yourself. But then, so I would go away and I’d just sleep most of the time because I don’t have good sleeping children. Everybody’s got like acid reflux and all these things. So I just went years without sleeping. So I would just go away and I would sleep. And I would, at the end of the weekend, I would think I don’t need six cups of coffee today. I thought I was addicted to caffeine, but actually I was just not ever awake unless I drank it. So just kind of like getting back in touch with your own identity outside of your family. So even if a quarterly retreat isn’t something that you could do, trying to find a way, being honest with your husband about needing more sleep, if you need more sleep, how he can help you in that way. Not trying to be a superhero, not trying to be super mom. He is your partner. And also just like being in God’s word no matter when that is. So that’s, those are very restful things like physically resting your body because almost nothing else matters if you haven’t slept, right? Like everything else goes out the door and then spending time in God’s word, but then also making time for your own identity. And sometimes I get some pushback when I talk about this, like a mother shouldn’t need to be away from her children in order to rest. and a mother’s job is her children and all these kinds of things. Like we are, we are mothers are, you know, for our whole adult life, once we’ve had children, that doesn’t stop. But we are active mothers for a season. We are our own individual before we have them. And then one day they will leave our house and they will rarely be back. And even no matter how engaged you are in their life, like they’re still living an entire life that really doesn’t have anything to do with you anymore. And so when your kids get to that age, you need to have some you left over. And so maybe that doesn’t necessarily mean going away for weekends and whatnot. Like everybody has their thing that they need to do and that they can do, but you know, I’ve started working on like, I’m not announcing this as any kind of goal, but I’ve recently set the idea of being able to do a half marathon by the time I’m 45. I turned 43 next week, or no, this week, it’s this week. And so I turned 43 on Wednesday. And so I’m like, in two years, I would like to be able to do a half marathon without dying. Because right now I would definitely die to do that. And just kind of having, so I’m gonna start walking a certain amount and having some goals related to that. And that’s not about anybody but me. And it’s just, I’ve always thought running was the worst and I’ve always admired people who do it and actually like it. So I wanna see if I can be a person that runs and actually likes it. I might not, we’ll see. But I’m embroidering and listening to audio books and just doing things when my kids are in bed and they’re watching TV, that is my interest. It’s something I’m making sourdough, like gluten-free sourdough is like way better than normal gluten-free bread. And so just find things, they don’t have to be expensive, they don’t have to consume more than 30 minutes to an hour of your day or even your week, if you’re not spending any time on yourself right now, but remember that at the end of your child rearing years, that you and your husband are gonna be there together and you’re gonna be back just the two of you again. And you need to still know who you are. You still need to know who your husband is. You still need to have a marriage at the end of that time. And so just resting by taking care of your own, just tending your own identity just a little bit, just when you can making that a little bit more of a priority is very restful because you feel rejuvenated in having something outside of just diapers or teenagers you know fender benders and like all the all the drama and the stress of normal life and that helps you be a better mom like stepping away from your family very brief amount of times whatever that is for you it helps you come back to them with a renewed energy and renewed passion for being a mom, for homeschooling, for homemaking, all of those things. And so that’s what I learned was like, if I didn’t put my oxygen mask on first, I wasn’t serving anyone well. And so if I do what I need to do to put my oxygen mask on first, I can be the mom to them that I want to be. And that makes them happy. And then they’re happy they are happy for me to go away for my weekends like they have fun with dad and they do stuff that don’t do with mom and um and then i come back and i’m like nice mom again you know and we start all over
Amy Sloan: yes i always find that when i’ve had you know some time away a little bit of respite for my family it’s so exciting to come back so i’m like oh i really do love you guys really do like you right i actually really do like you i actually missed you there’s something nice about that.
Erin Cox: Absence makes the heart grow fonder and it’s true like I work with my husband he’s at home all the time with me with us and he went away for the weekend you know and it was the first time like we’ve been away from each other for a few months and we’re literally together 24 7 and it was like hey I like you again I missed you while you were gone you know I love you all the time but it’s nice to miss somebody sometimes too so it’s a good thing.
Amy Sloan: Well Erin this has been such a wonderful conversation. Thank you for taking the time to chat. I know this is going to be an encouragement to other homeschool moms right there in the trenches. I think sometimes know that we’re not alone. We’re not crazy. This is hard and challenging, but it’s also rich and beautiful. Here at the end, I want to ask you the questions I ask all my guests. The first is just, what are you personally reading lately?
Erin Cox: I don’t read fiction. I used to read a lot of fiction. I read every book R.L. Stine wrote in high school. That’s how deep I went. But I don’t read a lot of fiction because I get obsessed with it and then I don’t sleep. I just read instead. So I just that was something I just stopped doing like a long time ago. So I started reading again and I read first Lynn Austin’s Gods and Kings. And I love historical fiction that’s like takes taking place in the days of Hezekiah. And so I love I always feel like I’ve got to be accomplishing something even if it’s just for my enjoyment. So I feel like I’m learning so much. Like I didn’t know Hezekiah and Isaiah were alive and like all that was at the same time, you know. And so that book sparked me to get a, um, what’s the chron, uh, the Bibles that are in chronological, chronological Bible, that’s what it’s called. Yeah. And so I got one of those and it’s just like, you know, all these connections, like I just didn’t even know that they were there. So I’m about to start, um, Song of Redemption, which is the second in that series. So I’m really enjoying that. I always do a mixture of kind of like fiction and non-fiction. So I’m trying to remember what my fiction is. I took like two weeks off from my audiobooks and now they’re ghosting my brain. But that’s the number one thing that like I can’t wait to get started on again is that next book in that series. I’m loving it.
Amy Sloan: That sounds really fun and enjoyable. Yeah, I love really making the connections since the Bible is not organized chronologically, sometimes we miss connections until you realize all those things are happening at the same time, and it helps us understand so much more deeply. So that’s really cool. Yeah, absolutely. All right, final question. What is your best tip for the homeschool day that is going all wrong?
Erin Cox: Probably stop it. Just like whatever it is, like Charlotte makes is change as good as a rest, but she actually never specifically said that. People will attribute that to her, but I could not find that she actually said it, but she like writes about the notion of a change being as good as a rest. And so if things are just going sideways and normally, you know, sometimes it’s just the day. Like normally a kid reads fine and today they’re in tears and they’re having a hard time with the reading or the math or whatever, then maybe their brain just isn’t braining that well. Like I have days where my brain is not braining I said four or five like totally non words earlier and my daughter was like, Mom, if you eat enough today, you’re going on a podcast and you’re making words up while you’re talking. I’m just my brain’s not braining today. And so that just happens sometimes. So find something else to do turn on a torch lighter movie or whatever, like just do something to pull out the paints, you know, do something a little bit different get out of the house just I just really feel like if things are normally pretty okay and you’re just having a bad day or even a bad week sometimes if people have been sick it can take a little time for everybody’s bodies and minds to kind of get back in order before they’re able to really dial in again and so just giving everybody the space that they need and not feeling that like there’s a thumb pressing down on you and you have to get these things done or like the homeschool police most of us do not have homeschool police in most of our state, so nobody’s gonna show up and flog you that day if you don’t get that lesson done. And if you’re like me and you use Homeschool Planet, you go in and click push to next day and it just moves everything out and everything’s okay. So just change as it goes to rest.
Amy Sloan: I love it. Erin, where can people find you all around the internet?
Erin Cox: So we are primarily in our email list. So if you go to shopgentleclassical.com, if you get any of our free stuff, they can click free teachers guides at the top of that and input your email. You’ll be on our email list. I think there’s an email subscription thing at the bottom. We also have a blog that is lifeabundantlyblog.com and any of our freebies sidebar on that, you can get onto our email list. That’s 99% of my communication. We are not active on social media right now. We’ve just started a Sabbath year, which is more about not doing new things and just kind of stewarding what we already have. And I don’t love social media and I’ll post a sale to it, but you’re probably not gonna find me like in stories and stuff like that. But the accounts are there. We’re General Classical Press on Instagram and on Facebook. We have YouTube, which we’re gonna be working on more a little bit this next year. So again, I think it’s Erin Cox, General Classical on YouTube. And so you pretty much Google us and find us anywhere. And, but if you wanna stay in communication here about any products we have or any encouragement, I send out two emails a week that are like, sometimes a product is mentioned, but mostly it’s just me running my mouth about whatever’s on my mind at the time that can sometimes be helpful.
Amy Sloan: Yeah, all right. Well, I will have links to all of those things in the show notes for this episode at humilityanddoxology.com. I would really encourage, if you are listening, please take a moment to leave a rating and review for the podcast. If you are watching, then make sure you’re subscribed to the channel so you don’t miss future homeschool conversations. And take the time to share the episode with a friend that could use some real life homeschool mom encouragement. And I’m so glad that you guys have been with us today. And Erin, I’m glad you have been here to share your story with us. So thanks again for coming.
Erin Cox: Thank you for having me, Amy.