Listen to “CHM123: Addressing Homeschool Division In 2022 + New Changes!” on Spreaker.

Welcome to the Christian Homeschool Moms Podcast reboot. Third time’s a charm, they say, so I’m guessing this time around will be different, and I am excited to offer this to you in 2022 and beyond. As a homeschool mom of 16 years, and having blogged and podcasted here at Christian Homeschool Moms since 2012, I can’t wait to see what’s in store for this wonderful podcast. I’m also an author, online business coach for women creatives, and singer/songwriter. Since I’m multi-passionate, I find my hands in a lot of different projects, all at one time- and it’s how I thrive best. I’ve been offering homeschool support and advice online since 2010 and it’s one way that I serve and support while also earning an income for my family through homeschool coaching, sponsorships, and affiliates- full disclosure.

In this episode, I am sharing some things that have been resting deeply on my heart for the past decade and that many times I have kept quiet about. It is now time to speak out and be earnestly truthful about how I’ve felt and the direction I’d like to see my podcast go in.

What has our family been up to?

I taught part-time school at a private classical homeschool collaborative during 2020 during all of the political upheaval and COVID. Our family began to see that we eventually would not want to continue using classical education. We also found it increasingly difficult to find a homeschooling group that felt comfortable for us, where we could really let our hair down so to speak and be ourselves. We were starting to feel like the odd ones out and didn’t feel like we were a good fit for our homeschool communities.

You can find out more about our reasons for leaving one of the two classical groups we had been involved in on my video on YouTube: Why We Left Classical Conversations. At the end of our stay there, this was an organization that I could no longer submit my family to as I became more and more sensitive to the microaggressions that I had allowed my daughters and me to become desensitized to.

Our family has since opened up our world to consider other educational options- including private schools, online schools, and public charter schools. Yes, public schools as well. And just so I make this clear on this podcast- I fully support our efforts as homeschool parents, and parents of faith, which is why I run this podcast and truly believe in it. But at the end of the day, school choice is a parent’s choice, and public schools and private schools have their place in the selection process.  I am never, ever, ever against public school. Just to make that clear.

So, after sending my daughter off to college (see my video From Homeschool to College), I debated on whether or not to continue homeschooling my youngest as she would be the only child at home. After much deliberation and prayer, At the end of the day, we decided on an online public school. You can take a look at our video “Why We Chose Online School”.

What’s going on in my life now?

• Blogging at Mompreneurs in Heels– support for mompreneurs
• Business coach Helping Solopreneurs build an online business with content strategy and creating digital products at DemetriaZinga.com
• Teaching moms how to blog for an income at ElevateYourBlog.com
• Bringing back this blog and podcast for homeschool moms of faith at ChristianHomeschoolMoms.com

Where did the blog and podcast go?

I started this blog in 2012. So much of the content on my blog needed a massive overhaul and updating, so I went into beast mode to remedy this (and I’m still working on it, actually- with over 700 posts!) Most of my posts went into unpublish mode while I cleaned them up (adding and fixing images and editing).

I also became disgruntled about a few things going on in the world around us, and in my personal life found myself as a homeschool mom who is typically the only black person in my homeschool community. I found that after many years of supporting the general homeschool public and interviewing some of the well sought-over curriculum publishers such as Sonlight, Apologia, and Veritas Press, it was definitely time to begin supporting smaller publishing companies, minority and black-owned- who offered beautiful curriculum to the table- such as Belinda Bullard’s history curriculum, for example. So I promoted and encouraged my readers to support.

But when I shared this post with my friends on my mailing list, something unusual happened that really hurt my soul. You’ll have to hear about it on the podcast.

With a heaviness in my heart, I didn’t feel that I could continue blogging for the Christian homeschool community and encouraging moms of faith if quite a few of my readers felt this particular way. (Again, listen in to the podcast to hear what I mean.)

So, while my family was reconsidering whether or not homeschooling was still for our family and we ultimately decided upon an online public school for my youngest while sending my oldest away for college, I somehow disconnected myself emotionally from the homeschool community while I tried to sort out my feelings about how I would approach homeschool blogging and podcasting should I ever return to it again.

I knew that this time things would need to be different. More inclusive and diverse interviews on my part would need to happen. More energy creating connections and making a difference with homeschool moms that really care about supporting other homeschool moms would need to happen. More homeschool support chats and fewer curriculum reviews also would need to happen (because at the end of the day, what does it matter if I’ve convinced you to purchase a curriculum if it doesn’t work for your family?) 

Working with larger brands and publishing companies is not completely off the table for me at Christian Homeschool Moms Podcast and I am still open to those relationships but only where they fit within the scheme of encouraging a diverse audience of moms of faith.

And that is essentially where I stand at this point in my homeschool blogging and podcasting “career” after 10 years. I am ready to begin again anew with a fresh vision and a new passion and drive to help Christian homeschool moms in your journey of faith and home education.

I hope you’ll join me!