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Amy Moore, PhD

Is Homeschooling the Rescue Plan Your Child Needs? | Christy Faith

About this Episode

Ever wondered why your child’s spark fades the longer they stay in a school environment that never quite fits? On this episode of The Brainy Moms Podcast, Dr. Amy and Sandy sit down with master educator and homeschool expert Christy Faith to rethink the purpose of education and design a path that actually supports healthy development. Drawing on decades of work with families, Christy shares why home-based education isn’t about recreating school at the dining table—it’s about building a flexible team of co-ops, live online classes, tutors, and parent coaching that aligns with your values and your child’s needs.

We unpack the socialization debate with a fresh lens: belonging versus fitting in, and why peer orientation can derail identity and confidence. If your kid lives in fight or flight, learning stalls. You’ll hear how reducing chronic stress at home can unlock curiosity, grit, and self-regulation without coddling. We talk indicators that school isn’t working—rising anxiety, shame from labels, and mounting family conflict—and outline how to respond with deschooling, intentional routines, and practical supports that restore calm and momentum.

Then we get tactical. Learn how to pick curriculum by educational style and place by skill rather than age, especially when learning is asynchronous. Discover why “it’s the brain, not the books” matters: if working memory, processing speed, or visual processing lag, no worksheet swap will fix it. We share a real-world story of letting a teen experience safe failure to build executive function, and how to coach time management without hovering. Expect a balanced roadmap: fewer bells, more thinking; fewer labels, more growth; strong academics paired with resilient minds.

If you’re on the fence, this conversation offers clear next steps, free tools to find your homeschool style, and encouragement to make changes at a humane pace. Subscribe for more grounded guidance, share with a friend who needs hope, and leave a review to tell us: what would you redesign first in your child’s learning?

About Christy Faith

With over 20 years of extensive experience in K-college academics and administration, Christy-Faith has worked in and instructed every level of education in a professional capacity. She achieved remarkable success by establishing and managing a private educational center and consulting firm, alongside her husband Scott. As their family expanded along with their center, Christy-Faith embarked on a personal exploration of homeschooling, an experience that profoundly transformed her perspective on educating children. Today, Christy-Faith spends her days advocating for homeschool on social media, advising moms within her flourishing membership community, Thrive Homeschool Community, hosting her podcast The Christy Faith Show, and writing. She’s the author of the book, “Homeschool Rising: Shattering Myths, Finding Courage, and Opting Out of the School System.”

Connect with Christy Faith

Website: https://christy-faith.com/

Instagram: @Christy_Faith_Homeschool

TikTok: @Christy_Faith

YouTube: @Christy-Faith

Twitter/X: @Christy_Faith_1

Facebook: @ChristyFaithHomeschool

Podcast: The Christy Faith Show – https://christy-faith.com/pages/podcast

Book: “Homeschool Rising: Shattering Myths, Finding Courage, and Opting Out of the School System” (on Amazon)

Click here to access the Free Homeschool Style Finder from Christy

And now, some free gifts from our sponsor!

Learn more about cognitive skills and brain training. Download the free ebook, Unlock the Einstein Inside: Wake Up the Smart in Your Child
Try some brain training exercises! Download the free Brain Training Game Pack

To find out how LearningRx might be able to help you or your child. Visit LearningRx.com


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Read the transcript for this episode:

Dr. Amy Moore: 0:30
Hi, Smart Moms and Dads. Welcome to another episode of the Brandy Moms Podcast brought to you today by Learning RX Brain Training Centers. I’m Dr. Amy Moore here with my lovely co-host Sandy Zamalis. And Sandy and I are so excited to bring you a conversation today with the amazing Christy Faith. Let me tell you a little bit about her if you don’t know who she is. Christy is a social media powerhouse with 400,000 plus followers and millions of video views. She motivates countless moms to take the homeschooling leap, remain steadfast and revitalized in their purpose. With 20 plus years in education and homeschooling, she has advised countless kids and families, including high-profile clients. She is known as the teacher’s teacher. Her heart is to help parents build homeschools that their kids will thank them for later. She’s the host of the Christy Faith Show podcast and the author of the book Homeschool Rising. And she is here to talk to us today about things like when school isn’t working, should I think about homeschooling? And subtopics in that big topic are gonna be all things that we wonder about when considering homeschooling or struggle with homeschooling. Welcome to the Brady Moms Podcast, Christy Faith.

Christy Faith: 1:52
Thank you for having me today. I love you ladies. I love this podcast. I love learning RX. I recommend learning RX to almost every mama in Thrive. We have an office hours in there every month just for moms of kids who struggle, don’t fit in the box, they can’t figure out how their kids’ brains are working. And uh learning RX is just one of my go-tos. I love you guys. We love you. It’s a great partnership, huh? It is. Yeah, it’s a blessing.

Sandy Zamalis: 2:20
Well, this is your second podcast with us, actually. So um, I’m we’re excited to have you back because um we are just super committed to nurturing and educating and helping homeschool families, especially on this podcast. And so to kick us off and to get us started, um, why don’t you tell us a little bit about how you got started homeschooling because you didn’t start off that way.

Christy Faith: 2:47
No, I thought homeschoolers were weirdos. I thought it was okay as a temporary solution to a problem. So our history is we ran a boutique learning center and consulting firm in Los Angeles. We did um tutoring, we did test prep, we did quite a bit of remediation for kids, like reading specifically. And then we also ran a homeschool pod before that word even existed. It was not trendy at all. We kind of were like the land of misfit toys a little bit. It was um a bunch of child actors, pre-pro athletes or kids that were kicked out of one school and the mom couldn’t find another school yet. So we homeschooled them for a while. And that was kind of what our mornings were like at our center. It was great. We hired, I had made sure that the teachers that we hired for those students were credentialed, which I hope we get into a little bit of that today. That’s just um, that’s a silly little label that’s not necessary for homeschooling. And um, and so as we were running our center, which we did for 17 years, very successful. We just we had the benefit of seeing long-term. So I wasn’t, I did start out as a classroom teacher, yes, while I was in grad school. But when we had our center, we had the same kids for five, six, seven, eight years. We had one child. I remember Zach, I’ve talked about him on other podcasts, where he started with us in fourth grade and we helped him and tutored him all the way through USC. Uh, so undergrad. So um, we knew kids a really long time, and so we were able to see their journeys, see how their lives unfolded. We basically were eyewitnesses to their childhood. And that unfortunately, for I don’t know, for I don’t know if it’s unfortunate or fortunate, but um it was unfortunate because it led us to sell our business because we no longer felt like we were supporting a system that we believed in ultimately, although we were helping a lot of families and the kids were great, the families were great. But we, I started to ask myself a very dangerous question. And that is what is an education? Like, what is it? What is our ultimate goal? We tend to just put our kids into preschool or kindergarten without even thinking twice about what we’re doing. Is this right? Is this good for child development? What does the research say that kids need in their early years? And um, I started to do a lot of research when, you know, I was a late mother. So uh Scott and I were married 11 years before we even had children. So our business was already successful. So when I did become a mom, we had our business was already running. And so I really had the experience to look and say, okay, is this what I want for my kid? Like what, where’s the childhood here? Um, are they are they nurtured? What’s family like like? What’s family life like? Excuse me. Um, are these families happy? Are these kids happy? Why, why are we staying up till 2 a.m. to study for a math test that really is not gonna matter? And is there a cost to how we are doing school? And so I started to ask myself these questions. And the answer was school is not really an education or the education that we want, they call it that. But when you actually, when I asked myself, what do I want and what do I think an education is, school could not provide that for me. And so that’s when I looked to homeschooling, home education, home-based education. I think that’s a really good term for it now because we have so many amazing resources now that, for example, my high school homeschooler, he takes two classes live online on Zoom with an academy with other homeschooling families. We are in a co-op. So it’s really not me teaching every single subject that I’m not an expert in. I’m, by the way, you guys need to know. Come third grade math. I’m out. I am out. I am not teaching those anymore, but I don’t have to, and that doesn’t make me not a homeschooler. So I love the term home-based education because what it is is we’re harnessing our team. We’re building our team to educate our kids in alignment with what our values are, what their needs are, and what our future goals are for our kids. And so I think that we can find a lot of common ground. There’s a lot of distractions in terms of like homeschooling objections. What about socialization? What about you’re sheltering your kid? All of these things. I really view those as distractions, honestly, because there’s really, when you look at the 70 years of research that we have, which I hope we get into a little bit today, on um like attachment theory, child psychology and development and socialization, for example, what you what gets uncovered is that not only is school not going to give our kids what they need or what we want for our kids, um, but it’s also going to uncover that perhaps homeschooling is the answer for our family and maybe that will actually give my kids the tools that they need for a successful future. So that was a big, big answer to your question. But I hope what the what you hear from me is that my decision to homeschool was very thoughtful. Very, very thoughtful. And although I am personally, I am a person of faith, a lot of people assume Christians homeschool. It’s and although I am a person of faith, I will say that primarily that was not my very first reason initially for homeschooling. I wasn’t like scared of what the school system would teach my kid. And so I was running, you know, I was willing to give my kids a bad education because I was just scared of the school system. That’s not, that’s not why I homeschooled. And honestly, that’s a it’s kind of a fallacy that’s still hanging around from the 80s and 90s. But uh most homeschooling families are more like my line of thinking, and I think you guys would agree with what you’ve seen, that we’re we’re waking up, we’re taking the red pill, we’re seeing that that my kid is not thriving here. They’re not learning what I need them to. We’re we’re already having like this um massive deconstruction regarding college, also right now, which I’m really rethinking college for my own kids and uh and all of that. So yeah, did I scare you guys? Was that good? I don’t know.

Dr. Amy Moore: 9:29
But that’s that’s my why. No, I love it. And so I like I obviously I think we need to start somewhere. Yeah, um, because you know. Okay, so good luck reining me in, right? Okay. So speaking of the 80s and 90s and those myths and fallacies that have have continued to, you know, perpetuate our thinking about homeschools or homeschooling, sorry. Um, I I was an educator before I became a psychologist. And so I went through my teacher education program um in the late 80s, early 90s. Yes, I’m old. Um, and so I was a very traditional-minded educator, obviously. And I can remember um running into this family who had six kids who they homeschooled. And my first thought was, what about socialization? These kids are not gonna be socialized, they’re gonna grow up awkward, right? Like, how could you do that to your children? That was what I was thinking, right? I thought that was. Right. So I want to hear your response to that concern.

Christy Faith: 10:48
Yes, I thought that too. What I have come to learn is that I find a lot of grounding when I look at uh actually Brene Brown, where she has done research on fitting in versus belonging. And I think that our society has misconstrued what healthy socialization is. I think we think that it is fitting in, it’s being in a group large group of people, figuring out how to work on a team, figuring out how to work in a group, figuring out how to work in a classroom. And we call that socialization. It it’s other things. And I’m not saying that skills aren’t involved in that. In fact, that’s why homeschoolers have co-ops, because there are skills to be built with cooperating with other people and and being on a sports team and things like that. Um, but but what I found when I did a deep dive on the research on what actually is healthy socialization, is I found that most of American society, now this is gonna be a bomb that’s gonna drop, and people are gonna be like when they hear this. But I’m gonna talk about a term called peer orientation, the disorder of peer orientation right now, and it is researched. Um, and I think that most of society, even adults, have the disorder of peer orientation. Uh, and I think it’s a heart problem more than anything else. And we have misconstrued that and called that socialization, and we’ve called that healthy. Now, what is normal, like what is normal in our society isn’t necessarily healthy. And so that’s the reframe that I had is okay, well, just because everyone’s doing it or all of it looks like this, it doesn’t mean that that’s actually the healthiest thing for me or my kids. So, what is peer orientation? Well, peer orientation, and and I’m not gonna do it justice, and you can read up on it, um, you can just Google the term, there’s a lot of research on it. But basically, what it is is that your entire self-worth and um affirmation and being is wrapped up in what other people think of you and not the core of who it should be, and that is your family, um, your parents. So it basically is we have kids, so this is why not in every case, not in every case, but this is why people make the joke about teenagers being so mean to their parents or not listening to their parents and taking advice of their friends instead of their parents who are wise and want the best for them and love them unconditionally. And it’s not that parents don’t love their kids unconditionally, we do, but when we live, when we saturate our children in a peer-oriented culture, and it’s survival of the fittest in the schools, and it really, really is. Oh my goodness, I have stories about my neighbors and just what they do to maintain their kids fitting in because social suicide is a thing, and um, and how and to prevent that. So, and parents put a lot of energy towards making sure their kids have an easy life or fit in socially in schools, and that’s not healthy. And so, anyway, uh regarding socialization, what I found is that the characteristics for a child who is experiencing healthy socialization, there are about 13 of those characteristics. We don’t need to go into them now, but not a single one of those characteristics requires a school environment or a classroom, not it, not a single one. You can do that with a home-based education. And not only can you do it, but you can do it in a healthier way. So the socialization myth, it’s it’s really a distraction. People know this. People know in their heart that their kids are miserable at school. Uh, but you know, what are we gonna do? We I and I, you know, when I go on lives, I never stop having compassion for the mom where that’s her first objection because that’s real. That is real. That’s what she’s been told, fed. She’s scared of it. She’s scared of having an awkward child who doesn’t fit in or who, you know, looks weird and things like that, to which I respond, you know, I’m on that like farther other end where I’m like, um, what’s wrong with weird? Like in a society where we’re telling everyone, be yourself, follow your heart, but then we send them to a school that tells them fit in or else. It just I can’t live with that. I can’t hold those two things together, which is another why of why I homeschool. So um, yeah, that’s just something to to kind of think about in terms of socialization and is the school environment actually giving you what you want for your child’s social life? It’s a it’s a worthy question to ask.

Dr. Amy Moore: 15:36
Yeah, and I think that when you break down what the school day looks like, um you know, you’re in class, you have 20 minutes for lunch, but most of that is standing in line to get your lunch or cleaning up after your lunch. So how much socialization are you actually getting at the lunch table, right? And so, you know, and then maybe a little bit of recess, which has been attenuated over the last decade to virtually nothing. Um how uh like how much when we think about, oh, let’s send our child to school to make sure that they have socialization, how much socialization are they actually getting? Right. It’s right, well, and they’re told to be quiet all day. Right. That’s what I mean. Yeah. Right. Yeah.

Christy Faith: 16:24
And they have to raise their hand to go to the bathroom. They’re, you know, really look at what your child is being taught when they’re in a school. Um, because I I I just don’t, I don’t think it’s healthy socialization. I mean, I just don’t. I dedicate an entire chapter to my book on it. Um, so I’m pretty, pretty convinced that the school environment, and let me just pause for a second here because what I think that that people need to understand, like going way back to the history of the school system, and we don’t need to park and have a history lesson right now. I’m not gonna make you guys endure that. But it is fascinating. But what we what we need to realize is that the schools were never developed for the best interest of children. They weren’t even developed with child psychology in mind or their needs at all. At all. So we think this thing, because everyone does it, is the right thing for children to do when it’s really not. And parents have been successfully home educating their kids for centuries. Uh and uh, and then then, you know, you need to realize that the school system is like, you know, not that old, 150 with change years old. We’re kind of an experiment. Well, people don’t realize we’re kind of an experiment. And the results are when you look at, oh man, Amy, I would love to have a conversation with you one time just on mental health of teenagers. I ran into at the uh, I was took my kids to the rec center and they were at the pool. By the way, you couldn’t spot the homeschooler there at the pool, just so you guys know. But uh, they all looked the same. Um, but I ran into my old Pilates instructor who I loved and she was sharing with me. I knew her daughter was troubled. I knew her daughter had diagnosed learning disabilities in the system, you know, had been tested and all of that. So I asked her, hey, how’s your daughter doing? And she just broke down in tears. Her daughter ended up uh suicidal. They had to pull her out of school. She’s now in a treatment program and all of that. And so I’m seeing more and more, I feel like this is a major crisis, but no one is pointing to the fact that it could be unhealthy socialization that’s contributing to the mental health crisis. It’s like, come on, wake up, people. Like, let’s rethink this, you know? Yeah, and I love that you pointed that out because a lot of times we think, um, okay, homeschooling is best for neurodivergent children who are not fitting into the typical student mold when in reality we have teenagers who are struggling in general. We have preteens who struggle with that transition from elementary school where they have developed a relationship with a single teacher and a single group of peers to throwing them into transitioning to seven different classrooms, lockers, time crunches, total stress at a time in their biological development that they’re already in upheaval, right? We’re already in this, you know, adolescent hormonal um change, right? And then we just throw, oh, let’s change classes seven times a day, and you have 12 minutes for lunch all at the same time. So this is not just about neurodivergent children needing something different. This is about children needing something different. Well, and even more than that, because you know, what I hear people saying here in their heads right now, you know, but we’re not supposed to shelter our kids, Amy and Christy and Sandy. We’re, you know, we gotta toughen them up. We gotta, they gotta learn this stuff eventually. And um, and I wanna make a very distinct clarification here because and this is well documented, is that our children are really suffering, and you hit on this, Dr. Amy. They’re suffering from living in a constant state of fight or flight. Okay. I recall specifically, for some reason, when I it triggered a memory I haven’t thought of forever, Amy. Ooh, is this gonna turn into a therapy session? But okay, so um, because you’re qualified. But anyway, um, I remember in the early days of high school and figuring out my locker, all I thought about, and I was so stressed about forgetting my locker combination and the embarrassment that would follow if I couldn’t remember it. There was no learning happening for weeks because I was like hyperfixated on remembering my locker combination and the because I was a freshman and there’s, you know, in this environment where juniors and seniors make fun of the freshman and I didn’t want to be made fun of. And then the senior hangout spot was right outside of my locker bay. So I knew if they saw me forget, right? I was in just a constant state of fight or flight. And so I think that we need to make the distinction here. Um, what we’re not saying that home education is, is we’re not saying that it’s sheltering, but we are saying that we want to remove trauma. We want, you know, a childhood filled with trauma is not a healthy childhood. And we need to, but we’re used to it. We are used to our kids exposed to trauma, like moms who say, Man, my kid’s been struggling with bullying for three years. Like, do you realize that is legit trauma? Legit trauma that your cut your child has endured. And we know that a brain in fight or flight or freeze or a bl a brain like that cannot learn. We actually know this for for a fact. And so that’s why I love um, you know, that’s why I love the research on healthy attachment, research on fight or flight, because I feel like when we bring our kids home and we can give them an environment, it actually allows their brains to do what it was meant to do all along. And I know this is one of the things, because I know you guys well at learning RX. And this is one of the things I love about you is you guys are about helping the brain and doing brain training so that people can live out who they were meant to be. And really, that’s what homeschooling is too. It’s kind of removing all that trauma. So, because here’s the thing we humans are wired to love learning. We are wired to be curious. Think of the toddler who’s, you know, just interested in things and and all of that. When we go to school, it kills that. It absolutely kills that. We have forced learning. We’re told what we need to know, when we need to know it. We have to, all of our freedoms are stripped, basically. We have to ask to go to the bathroom. We need hall passes. You know, that looks more like a prison. We have to ask to talk to. We have to ask to communicate unnaturally in a right conversation that requires you to raise hands. Yeah. Yes. So when we look at the skills, which, you know, we look at Duckworth’s research on grit, for example, when we look at the skills that are required to be a successful human, it’s not following orders. The most successful people in the world are not the people who are following all the orders. So why are we sending our kids to a place where for 12 years straight, maybe more, literally their success, they are rewarded for and graded for following orders, following instructions. Well, but it if it going back to the history of the public school system, that’s why it was created in the first place, right? Yes. Yeah. Well, and I feel like we’re coming on so strong here. So I want to take a step back because I just wanna, I just want to make sure that that I’m speaking to the mom who’s just in a hard place because there are parents who feel like I’m not qualified. I don’t have the patience. This sounds like a great idea, brainy moms, but I don’t think I could do this, or I don’t have the support from my husband, or isn’t homeschooling expensive? And I just want to acknowledge that all of those things are are real. Those are real valid questions. Um, we tackle them every day in our homeschools, right? Yes, do I have to pay for a curriculum? I do. I do have to pay for a curriculum. Am I not as successful as I could be because I, yeah, I’m Christy Faith, but I also homeschool my kids. I can basically do half of what I would really want to do. Um, so I’m giving up that. We are making financial sacrifices to do this. You know, not that I want to talk a mom out of it, but I often talk about homeschooling in the same sense of remember in our early 20s where we’re like, oh, I never want to have kids, or maybe you weren’t there, but I was. I’m like, oh, I don’t want to have kids. That seems like so much work, right? And then when I wanted kids, I couldn’t have them. We had infertility because I waited too long. But I view homeschooling as very similar, where when you’re a parent, you’re like, yes, it’s hard, but it’s so worth it. This is amazing. I can’t imagine my life without this child in it. That’s how most women feel after they start homeschooling, after they kind of get through the storming phase of the change. And ultimately, to the mom who’s right now your child’s in the system, they’re struggling, they’re either socially, academically, emotionally, if they’re struggling right now. I just want to say that that we we understand, we see you. There’s, you know, I don’t want to make a mom feel shamed or less than. I don’t think homeschooling is for everybody. I don’t think everyone can homeschool. And I don’t think everyone should homeschool. And we hear those stories all the time about children who were really mistreated and not taught, or, you know, they had really abusive parents. You know, those new those stories hit the headlines. People love that, like the Turpin story and things like that. But the reality is most homeschoolers really are doing it because they want what’s best for their kids and their family, and they are providing an excellent education in the process. So if your child, if their light is growing dim and you just know this environment is eating away at them, um just consider it. Just think about it. Think about what it could be and just go into it knowing that will it be worth it? Absolutely. There’s all the support that you need to do it well. All of it. All of it is there. You don’t even need to do my stuff, you know. Um, I I don’t even want you to. I just want you to consider it. Um, because my ultimate heart, my calling, you know, I’m a woman of faith, my calling is to help families believe, believe in their hearts, that they are capable and that they can take back the hearts and minds of their kids. And ultimately, what I want for families, it’s what I want for my own family, is I want to have an amazing home life. I want to have um time, I want to have conversations. I want to be able to stop in the middle of a math lesson when there’s a meltdown and realize this is not about math. This is about a lagging skill, this is about frustration tolerance. Math is just the tool. And I can pause right here and now and work with my daughter on a skill that’s actually gonna help her in life because long division, who cares? Who cares? But the skill to push through the long division, to self learn to self-regulate after I co-regulate with her, that is the skill that’s gonna carry her and have her be a successful human later. And that’s the amazing piece of homeschooling is yes, it’s it is a better academic education, but you have the opportunity for a way better holistic education too.

Sandy Zamalis: 28:05
I love that you yeah, leaned in on that, um, Christy, because that’s our I mean, Amy and my passion as well, but we’re on the other side of the homeschool space, and that you know, our kids are grown and we’re not, you know, homeschooling from day to day. But uh my center life is really dedicated to helping parents have the tools they need to help the kids that were struggling. So let’s talk to a a mom who is kind of on the fence, her kids are in school right now, but their kids are struggling. What are some key indicators for that you think would be helpful for the mom to consider when she’s thinking about whether homeschooling is the better fit when they’re looking at their their kids’ education?

Christy Faith: 28:52
Yeah, I mean, I think that their I think their emotional well-being is actually first and foremost because academic learning, it it can happen at all different ages, stages. You know, we know learning is asynchronous anyway. But I would really look at emotionally because, um, for example, I have a sister with profound, profound learning disabilities, uh, and still to this day she struggles with life. But one thing that um that always sticks with me, and I try to remember this as my why, is the school system that she was in, and my parents didn’t know any better. This was the 80s, and my mom was a working mom, my dad worked, right? They were just trying to advocate for her in the system. Um, and they just beat their head against the wall. But sadly, and we talk about this now, and my mom is like, man, I wish I knew about homeschooling. Um, is the shame, the shame that children carry when they are labeled. Because what you have to remember is the school system is built for one type of learning, one type of learner, and one type of learner is rewarded. And some are lucky enough to play the game and be able to do it. And then there’s the rest of them. There’s the rest of us. And so, and then what happens is when we don’t fit in that box and we can’t be successful and praised for jumping through those hoops or doing those things or memorizing those facts, then we are we are slapped with a label and slapped with a disability. Oh, have you done a podcast episode on disabilities as a social construct? Have you? No. Oh my goodness. Okay, that would be so fun to explore. Um, so, but basically, you know, your child, every child is smart, and the school system teaches them that they’re not, but they may not be, they may not be naturally inclined in that particular way. And so rather than kids, you know, we’re kind of entering into like the theory of multiple intelligences right now, but I really like kids to discover how am I smart and I want them to know how they are smart. Now, it doesn’t mean not building up those other areas. That’s why I love learning RX, because um, I don’t believe in actually catering to learning styles, like, oh, my kid’s a visual learner, so I have to make every ding-dong lesson visual. Like that’s well, that’s a neuromyth anyway. In the absence of an injury, we’re all capable of learning all of those ways. We just have preferences. Yes, exactly. And so that’s a homeschool mom’s nightmare, because I’m not gonna stay up till 2 a.m. cutting out stars for my tactile learner. That’s not gonna happen, you know. But, and that’s why I love the brain training because it it uh that you guys do, because it builds up all the areas, all the areas, right? Because we want to strengthen the areas that we are not weak in just to, you know, to be a high functioning individual. So, but yeah, in terms of um how your kid is doing, you know, socially, emotionally. Um interestingly, the number one reason why parents homeschool in America is school environment. That is the number one reason. So number two is academics, and then number three is faith. So that’s kind of interesting when you look at those statistics. So we’re crying out, you know, and you could be in a school totally where the environment’s fine. The environment’s fine, or that year you had a great class and a great teacher, and there’s no problems, and my kids are doing fine, we’re all doing fine. That’s totally great. Um, the people who end up homeschooling are people not in that situation where it’s just a constant struggle. And I’m I’m big about uh it’s really important to me. I think shame is so sinister, it’s so damaging to us that that is something that I really like to avoid when I see it, call it out, when I feel it, I make sure to tell my kids when I’m feeling shame. I want that to be a word in my house because and sadly, kids with disability or diagnosed disabilities, learning disabilities in our society. They are labeled that and it, they’re separated, they’re sorted. Studies show that expectations for them are lowered, which is so sad. So teachers don’t expect much of them anymore. And that really um starts to communicate to a child who they are. And that that bothers me when we go into that territory to answer your question, Sandy. I think it’s more about how they’re doing emotionally, right? Um as a as a primary indicator. Because if they’re not doing well academically, they’re also not going to be doing well emotionally. So

Dr. Amy Moore: 33:40
and vice versa, right? So I mean, uh, you know, our youngest, um, you know, when we pulled him out of school, and of course we went through the well now what uh question. I mean, I literally called the school and said, I’m just enrolling him, he’s homeschooling now. But I didn’t know what the plan was gonna be. I was laughing internally when you said that your d your choice to homeschool was very well thought out, and mine was totally on the fly. Pick up the phone, I’m homeschooling my kid. And it was the second time I had done it because I did it with my oldest um in at the end of seventh grade when the school had failed him, uh, did not implement his 504 plan and IEP accurately, fell through the cracks. And I literally stood in the principal’s office and said, We’re done here. And we got in the car with our kid and looked at each other and went, Now what? And so um anyway, so but that was what my husband and I said both times. We have three kids, um, and so this was youngest and oldest. Both times was um our our kids’ uh emotional and mental health is more important to us right now than anything academic. Um anything. And so that was what was the deciding factor for us in saying, okay, we we need to do something differently than what we’re doing now. And so, and even just to lower the temperature on that initial conversation that we had about, you know, trauma, right? Like where people are like, well, my kid’s not experiencing trauma, so I’m not gonna worry about that right now, the brain actually responds the same way to trauma as it does to chronic stress. Right. So that fighter freeze kicks in with chronic stress, just like it does with acute trauma. And so when we think about struggling kids, they don’t even have to be diagnosed with a disability. Yeah. If there’s a struggle, that is stress that our brain will say is danger.

Christy Faith: 35:49
Yeah. And then they’ve, who was it? Was it, oh man, I forget the researcher who he went to Africa and there were kids in war-torn countries and he studied their stress, but then he found the same trauma responses in American kids with like the low, like death by a thousand cuts type. But yeah, absolutely, long, you know, stress over the long term, cortisol levels, and and there is that level. So what we’re what we’re not doing with homeschooling is we’re not sheltering our kids. Um, but what I will say, um full disclosure is like, for example, when I allowed my son, when he was, we’re really working on high school, executive functioning stuff. And I there was a certain area that I really wanted him to work on with his own time management. And I did not swoop in. And the first week of co-op, okay, judge me, that’s fine. The first week of co-op, he was up because we go to an academic co-op, and there’s this massive class this year called cultural geography. And what’s cool about this class is that it incorporates writing, literature, geography, history, and Bible. It’s a Christian co-op, and so we’re also studying like missionary biographies and around the world. So this is, by the way, I hope that excites you because this is what you it’s called like unit study, basically. And this is such a fun thing about homeschooling, is and we actually like mapped out the hours, and he’s getting the kid, the kids in this class are getting so many high school credits for this one class, and it’s a unit study. So, anyway, that’s just a cool thing. It’s an aside. But the first week, um, I I set him up for success. We had a meeting. I we had a meeting together. I set him up with the binders. I had him go through the the supply list and we went on Amazon and clicked order on all that, right? I really wanted him to take ownership. And then um I gave him some hints, right? Like I noticed there is a lot of work due on this first week, right? Well, anyway, you know how the story ends is he was up till 2 a.m. the first night. But I let it happen. I let it happen. I watched it happen. I knew he was gonna be tired on that first day, right? I didn’t rescue him, I didn’t swoop in. But here’s what I will say that’s different when you allow, by the way, the second week he was only up till 11. The third week it was only till nine. And then ever since he’s having all of his work done by Tuesday or Wednesday, and the co-op is Thursday. But I’ve said nothing. He just didn’t like his lifestyle, right? And so he, and I kept saying, let me know if you need any support in figuring out your schedule or a planner or this or that, the other. So I made sure he could always come to me, but he needed to, he needed to take ownership and figure that out, right? Um, and so, but here’s what I will say is I was a pretty academic uh high schooler. I wanted the straight A’s, I wanted all of that. Something like that, like getting a B on a test, would have been pretty catastrophic for my future college dreams and things like that. So here’s what I will say about that is this when you homeschool, the stakes are lower for the failure, but I’d rather have my kids experience failure than not, than like swoop in to protect them so that they get the A so that they can get into that college. So I I think that we are not, I don’t know any homeschool mom who’s wanting to coddle her child. In fact, I believe that we’re creating a healthier, more nurturing environment so that when they go into that big, hard, ugly, mean world, they’ll have better tools and they won’t walk into that world completely wounded without skills to manage it.

Sandy Zamalis: 39:36
I love that you brought up that training and executive functioning because that is a huge deal. And I would argue that public schools now do not train that anymore because they’ve taken homework off the table. They’ve taken a lot of that planning out of the educational process. Um, and there’s just a lot of um development that’s missing because they’re not able to work through those skill sets anymore. And so what a blessing that you were able to do that for your son and to back off. Because I know as a homeschool mom, sometimes um there’s a little guilt in the co-op if your kid shows up and doesn’t have their stuff completed. Right.

Christy Faith: 40:18
Um then try being Christy Faith at the new co op. It’s like everyone’s looking.

Sandy Zamalis: 40:25
But they do they need that opportunity to figure that out. Like, oh, I didn’t like that. I don’t want to do that again. What what do I need to change? And your child for uh our listeners, your child may not know what to change. So um that’s something you can provide um in terms of like, hey, that didn’t work. Um, let’s look at your week and figure out what changes we can make so that um and get some buy-in from your your child as to maybe what they could do to make it better than next week. And then keep that process going because it should be a process. We’re even as adults, we are allowed to figure out what works for us and what doesn’t.

Dr. Amy Moore: 41:04
Yeah, and I think that does a couple of things, Sandy. I love that you pointed that out. A, it normalizes um the idea that not everything that we try is gonna work that way, and that it’s okay to say, okay, let’s look at what didn’t work and see if we could try it a different way this time. And there’s no threat of punishment or consequence in that iterative process of saying, okay, that didn’t work, so what could we try differently? But that that is a key problem-solving skill that you’re gonna help your child develop, that they’re gonna use throughout their life, right? So it normalizes that. But then what it also does is it builds relational equity with your child. That you aren’t that you aren’t punishing them for falling flat on their face. You’re saying, whoa, wait a minute, I noticed that this didn’t work for you. So let’s let’s problem solve. Let’s see if we could do something different, right? And then they trust you a little bit more because you saw the struggle and you said, I want to help.

Christy Faith: 42:10
Yeah, well, and make no mistake, all throughout me watching the train wreck happen, um, I’ve tried to put names to things. Like, it could this be a time management issue? Could it be right? Like, so it’s it was definitely coaching through, but I didn’t want to hover, I didn’t want to impose because I knew that we have there’s an element of we have to learn. But one thing that we told him in that, because we’re now past that, and he kind of smiles, is um is that I’m just thrilled that he’s learning this now and with us in a safe place with people who love him and who aren’t gonna shame him or he’s not gonna get fired from a job because he can’t figure out the executive functioning piece and things like that.

Sandy Zamalis: 42:56
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Christy Faith: 44:21
So it’s just really neat. And and I think a lot of our conversation today, interestingly, is we’ve been like de schooling. And if you don’t know that term, it’s an important term to know when you begin homeschooling. And it’s one of the first things that I ask moms to do, and it’s a choice, de-schooling. And it’s basically just deprogramming yourself on what an education looks like, even what success is, uh, I think is a really important thing to um to reconsider. And then um, and then kind of backtrack, take a breather, right? Let your kid de-school, you de-school, and then you really just start thinking about what you do want, and then build the life and the education that you do want for your kids. And um, you know, it’s interesting at when I go to conferences, uh, there’s this one talk that I give on how do I give my kids everything they need without overwhelming them or you, right? All the moms show up to that because every mom wants to give her kid what that kid needs, but they also don’t want to be overwhelmed. So um, but what I do in the first 30 minutes of that talk is I de-school the mom. I actually talk about let’s look at the research and let’s look at what your child actually does need. Because they don’t actually need to memorize the periodic table per se. Do they need memorization skills? Absolutely, those are great skills to have. Do they need, right? And so I spend the first 30 minutes de schooling and I see it in her shoulders, like just okay. Because I say if your child has excellent reading skills and reading comprehension skills and great math computation skills, they can do anything. They can really do anything. And that gives you so much freedom to have fun with your homeschooling. And that actually really then you’re you have the freedom to actually explore what their hobbies and interests are and lean into those. Our high schoolers today in schools are so busy. They’re busy morning to night. And it’s so sad. Like, where’s the time to breathe and figure out what they like and love? Or, you know, and I was even one of those. So I was a very good athlete and I was tall. So what did my parents do? They put me in basketball. I hated basketball. I hated basketball. I couldn’t wait for high school to be over, but I did it because I believed and I was never able to voice this to my parents. And so this is why I’m parenting differently now. I was never able to voice to my parents that, you know, just because I’m really good at something, it doesn’t mean that I love it. And can we find something else that I love? I didn’t get that till college. So anyway, I think that homeschooling is a really great opportunity. And um I think deschooling is so important to do when you are homeschooling. Because the last thing I want you to do, mama, if you’re considering this, is to pull your kid on a Friday, spend thousands of dollars on a homeschool curriculum, and then start it on Monday. Because what you’re actually doing is you’re just recreating that same system at home. So I want you to have breathing room. And that’s gonna freak you out. I know, I know it will, but I really want you to give yourself time. And if that means, you know, for the a for a couple of weeks or months, you just make sure your kid is reading, make sure they’re doing some math every day while you’re figuring out what you want for your child and your family. I want to give you that permission. This is a long game. They’re not gonna miss out from anything because they took a little break. In fact, even with brain training, so I’ve been familiar with you guys for years. We used to recommend you guys back at our center. Um, and I loved it when families were willing to even pull their children out for intervention out of school. To me, that was like, you get it, you get it, right? It’s like it’s really hard to heal when the wound is constantly being opened. Yeah. And so that’s kind of what the homeschooling opportunity is. I love that. All right. So let’s let’s give our listeners uh some quick advice on a couple of things. Okay. Um so um how what is your advice on choosing curriculum? Okay, so my advice on choosing curriculum is first, you need to know what you want. And I have an easy way to help parents do that. There are actually nine different educational pedagogies, like big ones. There’s other ones, but then there’s nine big ones. You’ve heard of some of them, right? You’ve heard of Montessori, maybe you’ve heard of Charlotte Mason or Classical Education or Unit Studies, right? There are nine basic pedagogies. It would be very helpful for you to know which one of those you lean towards. And the reason why is because most curriculum that is sold on the market is in one of those categories, and they even say it on their website. Like we are Charlotte Mason blardy blardy blar or, you know, uh classical education curriculum. They say it on their websites. And so one thing that you can do is I actually have a free, totally free. Maybe we can put a link in the show notes. It’s a five, it’s a five-minute homeschool style finder. And it took me and a team a long time to develop because I could get it really accurate if I had the mom sitting there taking a 60 question questionnaire, but I really wanted it to be five minutes. And um, it it is so good that I have not changed it in three years. It is so accurate and it’s five, it only takes five minutes. And that will kind of tell you where you lean, and then you can start poking around and looking at different curriculum options. The thing about curriculum, uh homeschool curriculum, is that moms often think, and maybe this is a question you were about to ask me, moms often think that if I just find the right curriculum, or if I, oh, I get this a lot, just tell me what you use, Christy, and I’ll do that, right? If I find the right curriculum, then I’ll be a successful homeschooler. And here’s the thing the successful homeschool is in the mom or the primary educator. It really has little to do with the curriculum that you choose. Here’s why. Most homeschool curriculum on the market does a really good job. But it’s the mom who needs to be able to look at a page and know if she can adapt it or we’re doing this today, we’re not doing this. Or so um that’s kind of the secret sauce, I think, to homeschooling is a mom in the right mindset and the right or dad. Or dad. Yeah. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Yes, sorry about that. We are, I think I looked at the stats recently. I think we’re still in the 90% mom category. But yeah, there are, and I love that. I love that. In fact, um, there’s a gentleman at our co-op and he teaches uh like five personal finance at the co-op and he’s the primary educator in their home, and he is just such a cool guy. So, yes, to those dads who are considering homeschooling, um, absolutely, there are lots of dads doing it. Grandparents, even, we’re in that generation too, where grandparents, and I will say that uh, yes, I of course I homeschool my kids, but um, my mom comes over and she does certain things so that I can like be on this podcast today. So uh having a team is really helpful to when you’re doing your homeschooling as well and just building that up. But uh to answer the curriculum question, narrow down your style first, and then you can start kind of looking at at what you want. Can I add one more piece to that? Yeah.

Sandy Zamalis: 52:08
I think it would be really helpful for our listeners that, you know, figure out your style as a a parent educator, but then you also need to figure out what your child’s skill sets are. Oh, um, yes, where they are, because there’s there might be a gap between those two things. And that’s that secret sauce you were talking about is figuring out, okay, this is our style, this is what we I think would really benefit us. I really love this educational model. But here’s my my student, and they’ve got these skills, and how do I get them there? Um, and we have to bridge that gap because, like you said before, it really doesn’t matter what curriculum curriculum you choose, because you can still end up with that fight, flight, freeze response when your child gets home if your expectations are too high or uh the curriculum is too hard for where their skill level is. Yes.

Dr. Amy Moore: 53:03
Well, and if you automatically think, well, my child is in third grade, therefore I’m going to buy the third grade curriculum rather than looking at, okay, what is the skill level of my child when maybe that child’s skill level in math is first grade, we need to start there and do some, you know, building up to where you think that they need to be or thought that they should start. Yeah.

Christy Faith: 53:27
Well, and the cool thing is because we generally buy curriculum by subject, even the companies that sell like an all-in-one, like you you could buy a grade level, you also have the option of buying pieces. And so most curricula companies, at least the good ones, they will give you a placement test, for example, in reading. So you can do a quick placement test and call them on the phone and figure out which level to buy. And um, and you know, this is what’s so cool is we know learning is asynchronous, but my homeschooling is a testament to this. So, for example, I have twin girls, they couldn’t be more different. When in I did two years of kindergarten when they were ready to read, their motor skills weren’t there, they weren’t ready to write. So I moved ahead with the reading curriculum. We started writing when they were ready. Socially and emotionally, they’re definitely fifth grade level. That’s where I want them. I want to keep my kids young. I love that they still play with dolls and calico critters and play make-believe. I want that forever, as long as I as long as I can maintain that, right? That imaginary play is just so helpful for them. But cognitively, like one of the twins, she’s a college-level reader. It’s really challenging to find books that are appropriate for her, actually, because she’s read everything. Um, and you know, the uh uh she’s uh the other one is a grade level ahead in math. And so that’s the beauty of homeschooling is Sandy, what you’re talking about that’s so powerful, is we have to remember that it’s very demotivating for a child for that gap to be too big. And it’s also demotivating for stuff to be too easy. This is why you have those kids. My dad was one of these. He was never, my dad is like uh he’s been tested, he’s very brilliant. And he was always bored in school and always getting in trouble because he was never challenged. And so finding that, that sweet spot of just hard enough, right? And then, and then we all face those moments where I did, oh man, did I last week? But I’m doing a series right now on my podcast and it’s been really, really hard because I’m being very open and emotional on my podcast. And I remember last week I was like, this is too hard. This is not a just right challenge. I can’t do this, right? And then what did I do? You’ll be proud of me, ladies. What did I do? I broke it down into bite-sized pieces, and then I did the first thing. Well, yeah, I’m very proud of you. Thank you.

Dr. Amy Moore: 55:53
Um and then I think it’s also important for us to also recognize, and I I walk around all the time saying it’s the brain, not the books, we could change our curriculum 12 times. But if there is a cognitive skill weakness, right, like if your child has a working memory struggle or a, you know, a processing speed weakness or visual processing weakness, no amount of curriculum adaptation um is gonna remediate that skill too. And so when you have tried it all, right, then that is a question that you want to say, okay, could this be something in the brain that I do need to get assessed as well? Right. So I think the beauty of um homeschooling is that you have this freedom to say, okay, I see, I see the success here, I see struggle here, I can adapt this, but this is not adaptable because I think this is actually my kid’s brain and not the books, right? And so you have the freedom and you don’t have to say, oh, the only appointment they have is at 10 30 a.m. and I have to pull my kid out of, you know, algebra. No. It’s okay.

Christy Faith: 57:02
Yes. Yeah. And also I think that one struggle I have in the homeschooling space is this belief, oh, my kid will grow out of it. I battle that a lot in the homeschooling community. Just wait, they’ll grow out of it, they’ll get it when they’re ready. And there is an element to that. We want that space because we do know that learning does not happen, you know, all at once or on our timeline. We do know that. But then there is a point. Um, and I emphasize this a lot, like in my community on office hours. It’s why I bring in specialists like you, Dr. Amy, where it’s like, when do I actually know it’s a problem? When do I know that my child needs help? Um, okay, they’re now out of the system, they’re out of fight or flight. Now I can actually see what’s going on and get them interventions if they need it. And every single day we are recommending interventions for homeschooling families. So don’t think that homeschooling is just gonna make the problems go away or you’re just making the stuff easier so that it doesn’t come up because you do want to address these things because we’re we’re homeschooling for the long game. We want adults that function well in society that can do what they want to do with their lives, right? That’s a very OT perspective, but I agree with it. Like, how can we set our kids up so that they can do what they want to do with their life ultimately? And sometimes that does involve intervention. And homeschoolers are slower to get interventions because we can do so much. And then there comes, like, for example, when a mom comes to me with a five-year-old and their reading isn’t clicking, and I ask her what curriculum she’s using, and she tells me, and it’s a curriculum, it’s a reading curriculum I don’t like. What do I first do? I don’t tell her, get your kid tested, go spend $7,000. I tell her, go to this particular curriculum, buy this one, do that for six months, let’s talk again. And then then I’ll know after that six months if I want that child evaluated. Right? Because sometimes, yeah, and sometimes a second pass through a good curriculum works too. Um, but yeah, it’s it’s an interesting phenomenon with that whole, you know, learning challenges with the homeschooling space and um that myth of, you know, if your child actually has ADHD, right? Isn’t the studies the studies now or they’re not gonna grow out of it? If they actually have it, everyone thinks they have it. Right. When you actually have it legitimately, your brain is always that way, right?

Dr. Amy Moore: 59:36
Yes. So I mean the symptoms will change and wax and wane, and the struggle may look different as ch the child ages and into adulthood. That struggle will look different many times. But yeah, that you we don’t grow out of ADHD. We don’t grow out of autism spectrum, we don’t grow out of it. It just looks different depending on um how we’ve developed different skill sets and um adapted and accommodated for ourselves, right? And what yeah. Uh but what we do know is for most learning struggles, in the absence of an intervention, they continue to get worse. In fact, you know, I show a graph of a really large study I did on reading struggles where you can visually see um. Um this cross-sectional study, you know, from age four through eighteen, how reading skills continue to decline in the absence of an intervention. Right. And so it the Matthew effect. Good readers get better and poor readers continue to struggle.

Christy Faith: 1:00:46
Yeah. Absolutely. And and even, you know, although I there were a lot of families at my center, and this will relate to the family not homeschooling right now, is like, oh, I just want to get my kids through 12th grade, then they’ll be fine, right? Or just this is just school. Let’s get them through 12th grade. I’ll get them in the trades, or I’ll do this, or I’ll do the other, and then we’ll all be fine. But the research actually shows that when there isn’t intervention, and I do know this, that you know, people with without um help with, for example, their ADHD, they struggle in their relationships, they struggle in their marriages, they struggle um with in their jobs, in their jobs, shame, self-worth. You know, it’s you live in a more cluttered house. There’s studies that show that when you’re a messier house, you’re not as happy as a human being when you’re not living in an orderly environment. And so it it doesn’t go away. It I love how you said it. It shifts and it looks different. Um, but it’s definitely worth addressing. And I think it’s really important. I think it’s a conversation that we need to have because I had so many families at my center. Oh, let’s just get them through 12th grade. Let’s just tutor them, get them through 12th grade. Right. And it’s like, okay. Um, but what about their life? Sure. Let’s just change the band-aid every day. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah. Well, we’ll just you help them study every night. I remember I drove a girl home um finals week. I drove her home at 2 a.m. to make because it was the end of the world if she didn’t score well on that final.

Sandy Zamalis: 1:02:14
Yeah.

Dr. Amy Moore: 1:02:15
Okay. We could talk to you forever.

unknown: 1:02:17
Okay.

Dr. Amy Moore: 1:02:18
But yes, at some point we have to say this is the end of this episode. Yes. Uh we are uh reaching the end of this episode. So, Christy, how can our listeners find more from you, get involved with you, take advantage of your resources? What does all that look like?

Christy Faith: 1:02:32
Well, I don’t really so I don’t want this to, I don’t want anyone to be like, well, here’s the catch at all. So do I offer no catch. This is just a if our listeners want more from you. Yeah, so like don’t you you don’t need to buy my stuff, okay? But what what I would like you to do if you’re considering homeschooling is do take that free five-minute homeschool file style finder. And then I also have a 27-page free ebook on how to homeschool. Because your first question is, how do I make sure this is legal, right? So that’s a really great free download, too. Do I offer you all the support that you need later on? I do, but I don’t even want to talk about that because the mom listening right now is just overwhelmed. She’s not feeling qualified, she’s seeing her kids’ light grow dim and doesn’t know what to do. And I just want you to know the first step that one, this is a possibility, maybe for you. This could be really, and I want you to hear me, mama, dad. This could be the rescue plan you’ve been looking for for years. And it’s not as hard as you think it is. Where I’m not teaching AP calculus, okay? Um, I’m teaching what I want to teach, I’m sourcing the stuff that I don’t. My kids are, you know, my youngest right now is nine. I can honestly tell you the homeschool days run by themselves because I’ve set it up to be that way. And they come to me for help because they have I’ve created an environment of independent learners. That’s what I wanted. So it is not you slaving from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. in front of a whiteboard teaching everything you don’t know how to teach. That is not what we’re doing over here at all. And it really could be an amazing rescue plan for your family. And that’s really just what I want you to hear. Don’t buy anything from me. Just um, and maybe, and I know this is a podcast, but uh, it would be great to tune into my podcast. We’re not competitive podcasts at all. In fact, we’re very at all. No, yeah, we’re very complimentary. But my podcast goes into like, okay, here are big ideas. How do we implement them practically? So maybe tuning in to and start listening to my podcast would be helpful. I I make it a point on my podcast to tackle really common problems we find in homeschooling. And then, okay, how can we, how can we tackle this? And ultimately to create a beautiful life and childhood for our kids. I want my kids to be in their 40s or 50s and look back on their childhood and say, that was really rich. My parents were awesome, right? Right. I could, right? I want them to say that. I don’t know if they will, but I want to say, like, yeah, my I’m so glad my parents homeschooled me. They really helped me figure out what I wanted to do. They helped me learn well. I love learning now because of what my parents set up. That’s ultimately what I want for my kids and for all of your kids too. Because we, like I said earlier in the podcast, and this is maybe a great place to end, is we were born wanting to learn. We were born curious beings. And that gets lost, it gets killed with schooling. And we can get that back. Even stuff that’s hard, hard doesn’t mean bad. And that’s kind of where we want our kids to be with their learning. It’s not that I’m not challenging my kids. I am. My son was very challenged with cultural geography. Um, but he’s also loving that class. And to me, that’s the win. That’s the huge win. So um, yeah, I just want you guys to be encouraged, know that there’s support out there. And uh, and I it was just an honor to be invited on today’s show. I’m so excited about what you’re doing. And I will say that my daughter in January is starting a full Learning RX brain training program. So when people say, Christy, what do you use? I, you know, I use Learning Rx um and I’m really excited about her intervention starting. And uh, and what’s cool about it is we’re gonna like slow our role a little bit on her actual academics so that I give her brain the space to grow how it needs to grow. And I wouldn’t be able to do that if she was in a school. So I love that. Super excited about the new year for her and for you guys. This is just a love fest. It’s a love.

Sandy Zamalis: 1:06:58
Will you make sure to let us know how she does? Because we would love to follow up with you on that just to hear her growth.

Dr. Amy Moore: 1:07:06
All right, Christy. So we can find you on Instagram at Christy underscore faith underscorescore homeschool. Yeah, we’ll put the I don’t even know my own handles. That’s so embarrassing. Yeah. No, that’s okay. We’re gonna put all the links in the show notes. But sometimes people want to go right away before you know they actually get it. I think I think if you just put Christy Faith in any search bar, it’ll come up like Christy Faith Homeschool or on TikTok, I’m just Christy Faith. But my website where you can get all those free things that I just mentioned um is Christy Faith.com. If you forget the dash, it’ll still go to the website. But I have more um free resources than what I mentioned. So I kind of have free resources for every stage of homeschooling that you’re in. So just poke around there, email me. We answer every email. And uh if this is something that you’re really considering and and we’ll help you with the steps. All right. And your book is Homeschool Rising, yes, um, which is available on Amazon. Um, right? And we’ll put links to all of this, uh listeners, in our show notes as well. So you won’t miss any of the good stuff uh that we uh that we think is so amazing that Christy’s being so modest about. So, Christy, thank you so much for being with us today. I just love hearing all of your wise uh advice uh for moms and dads who are considering this. Um, you just bring so much energy um to our show, to your show. And so thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule to bless our listeners with this conversation today. Listeners, thank you so much for being with us. If you want more from us, you can find us on social media at the Brainy Moms. You can find us on our website at theBrainyMoms.com. You can find Sandy on TikTok at the Brain Trainer Lady if you want to see some cool uh brain training exercises and information about uh brain struggles. Um, she’s over there all the time doing really cool stuff that the rest of us are too embarrassed to do on TikTok. Um, thanks so much for listening today. We hope you feel a little bit smarter after spending this hour with us. We’ll catch you next time.