Colleen Kessler is a homeschooling mom and author.  In today’s episode, Gabi and Colleen discuss her most recent book, Raising Resilient Sons. They touch on the challenges of parenting while also educating our children and the emotional toll it can take.  Colleen stresses the importance of giving ourselves grace and forgiveness for our mistakes and communicating those things to our children.  She discusses the importance of intentional connection with each child and your spouse as well as group connection each day.  

You can find Colleen on Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest @colleenkessler and Facebook @raisinglifelonglearners or her website.  She is currently selling her book Raising Resilient Sons, wherever you can buy books, and encourages you to find a local bookstore to buy it!  She also has a Membership where you can find support for your unique children.

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In this episode, Gabi interviews Mary Prather, founder of Squilt Music and Homegrown Learners.  This homeschool mom runs her business with her husband and they have 2 children, one in college and one in high school.  Mary is a music educator at heart and loves teaching music and the love of music to children of all ages.  This love has led her down a path to owning a business with her husband and teaching children all over the country.  Listen in as we explore her homeschool journey and how Squilt Music came to be.

You can find Mary on Instagram @squiltmusic and @homegrown_learners and also  at her websites for Squilt Music and Homegrown Learners.

In this episode, Gabi welcomes us back after a bit of a break.  She explains how life has been a bit crazy for her and how music has helped her keep perspective and reset her mindset during this difficult time.  Join us to hear about how music can help us through the difficult times in our lives!

You are in for a treat today! I'm speaking with music teacher Jocelyn Manzanarez in today’s episode.  

Jocelyn and I are very like-minded when it comes to introducing music to our little ones as well as our support of the recognized benefits of music learning!  Jocelyn owns and operates Musically Minded and until 2020, took her amazing skill and talent to child care centers, teaching music to the little ones in their care.  She began her career as an elementary music teacher, but quickly discovered that it wasn't the best fit. She wanted to expand music learning to a greater population--she set out on a journey to do just that!

2020 rocked her world, as much as it did everyone else’s and she switched gears to provide virtual classes.  These classes not only provide music learning for students, but also help parents and teachers to learn and recognize the many benefits of music education.  The research is there.  Music helps build a better brain. Jocelyn is set to show the world just how well it does that.  

You can find Jocelyn at her Facebook Page, her Youtube channel, her website, Instagram and if you're interested in support, her Facebook Group: Circle Time Success.

Every new homeschooler I meet is brimming with excitement or nervousness with all the plans in the world about how they are going to educate their children.  Sometimes everything is completely planned out to a 'T' and sometimes not, but always there is an energy that suffuses everything.  We homeschoolers like to think about what is best for each of our children and we get excited at being able to reach them and teach them ourselves.

Many times, we get so engrossed in what we are doing each day that we don’t take the time to stop and assess.  Things start to pile up, Mom gets stressed out and stuff starts to fall apart.  Burn out happens.  This week,I is talk to homeschooling momma Erica Johns.  Erica is at the end of her homeschool journey, within the last year with the youngest child.  She has been through the ups and downs of homeschooling and she shares with us about her burnout experience and what she learned from it.

You can connect with Erica at her website, Enrichmentstudies.com , where she helps other homeschoolers find activities that enrich their lives while improving brain function--what a as a bonus!

What a treat it is to speak with mother and daughter, Amber and Ann Marie Semerau, in today’s podcast!  Ann Marie is a pianist and composer and Amber taught her all the way through school.  Amber talks about why they chose not to give Ann Marie formal music education.  Ann Marie talks about her experience and how being given the time to dabble and play with her passion has opened doors for her.  Listen to get some perspective on the end game of homeschooling and seeing the results of the work of love that homeschooling can be.

Ann Marie Semerau has two albums, “The Forgotten Quest” and “My Heart” that can be found on Spotify, iTunes and anywhere you buy music digitally.  She can be found on Instagram @pianoannmarie and Facebook Ann Marie Semerau. Amber Semerau has a podcast called Homeschool Success Stories that can be found at all the podcast places.

Homeschooling can be hard on the most normal families.  When you add in chronic illness, it takes it to a completely different level.  Come with me as I speak with Aimee Smith about her journey in homeschooling and how it led her to find rest.  We start at the beginning with all the hopes and dreams that new homeschoolers have and dive deep into the guilt of not doing enough, asking for too much help and the self-judgment that comes with all of those emotions.  We discuss her path to diagnosis and what that did for her homeschooled family and also for her.  Aimee was led to find rest in a season of her life and now shares that message with the world at aimeesmith.com.

I am so thankful to be able to continue my conversation with Candace Dugger about the realities of bullying in our homeschooling communities and our children’s lives in today’s episode.  Candace is an expert in addressing bullying and teaching educators and parents and children how to handle bullying.  Not only as the victim, but also as the perpetrator.  Bullying is multifaceted and it has evolved onto our technology platforms in video games and social media.  We need to learn the new language of bullying and how it is affecting us and our children in order to protect.  Candace Dugger helps us to learn.

She has so many resources and recommends watching the documentaries Bully  and The Social Dilemma.  She works with Paul Coughlin, author of Free Us from Bullying: Real Solutions Beyond Being Nice to spread knowledge of what bullying is and how to recognize and address it.  Candace also has many courses coming up that she talks about in the episode You can find more information at https://www.bulliedbrokenredeemed.com