Episode 21 – Michelle Moody Talks about Interest-led Homeschooling: Why It’s Great and How to Begin
Do you want to love homeschooling, but you just…don’t? Is your student bored? If you’re lacking ideas for inspiring your students to love learning or if you’re finding it difficult not to “bring public school home,” you need to meet Michelle Moody! Michelle is the owner of The Homeschool Scientist, former classroom and homeschool teacher, and believer in interest-led learning. Michelle shares her journey from “boring her child to death” to interest-led learning that resulted in her kids taking more personal responsibility for their own education and developing a life-long love of learning.
If you feel pressure to be an expert in every subject, you’ll appreciate Michelle’s thoughts on why this isn’t so! You’ll enjoy hearing her ideas regarding why every part of a child’s education doesn’t necessarily have to have a goal, why internships are valuable even when they are outside a student’s career path, and why to consider dual enrollment. Not only does she share her unique and interesting ideas, but she includes a host of practical, applicable suggestions and tips that you can use in your own homeschool. You will love Michelle’s fresh perspective and her enthusiastic outlook on educating children. Make sure you listen to the end for her surprising advice on the two most important skills she believes a child should develop while homeschooling. Whether or not you choose to adopt interest-led education for your homeschool, you’ll certainly gain some new ideas and a renewed interest in making home education more fun!
Meet The Guess
Website | Facebook | Instagram
Michelle Moody is a veteran homeschool mom of two children in STEM careers. She holds a master’s degree in child development and early childhood education. Michelle has also taught in school settings both in the United States and on the mission field in Bangladesh. By God’s perfect planning, she spent 14 years working in the biotech industry developing software for DNA testing laboratories. Michelle now blends her love for STEM and her passion for helping children and parents LOVE at Thehomeschoolscientist.com.
Show notes are below
This episode is sponsored by Apologia. We are HUGE fans of Apologia and we both have used this curriculum throughout our homeschool journeys. This series is literally our favorite science series offered in the homeschool arena. We encourage you to spend a few minutes visiting their site to see why. Or visit our website to see the many articles we have written about it.
Quotes from Michelle Moody
For the first two years, I bored my child to death!
I was praying and just talking to God about it and it was like He just yelled down to me and said “Ask him what he wants to study!”
We took [learning] beyond just a curriculum. It’s really a lifestyle.
Trish: When you embrace [learning] it’s no longer dry, it’s inspired!
If we want our kids to be independent learners, first we’ve got to get them to love to learn!
We have to watch our attitudes towards science and math because that is a huge influence on how they see it.
Give them the experiences…that’s one of our jobs. Not only to teach them but to guide them and help them find those God-given talents and interests they were blessed with.
Letting them explore and discover doesn’t have to be anything fancy.
They need to be able to explore their imagination and use their creativity and not feel like they aren’t smart enough.
It’s important to let them go out and tinker and have that creative time. It helps them to develop interests and to own that interest.
As they move into middle school and high school, take it to the next step.
My philosophy was “Lets try it! If they like it, we’ll do some more.”
We don’t necessarily have to be an expert in what they’re interested in.
If you’ve got a child who isn’t interested in STEM, you might want to get them an owl pellet!
Having a team-building experience really helps in a stem job. It’s really true in a lot of things.
Mentions:
- The Homeschool Scientist
- Apologia
- What your first grader should know book (series?)
- autocad
- com
- 3D cad
- Udemy
- Titans of CNC online academy
- hiphomeschoolmoms.com
- Youth apprenticeship programs information
- freebies on her website: animal report form, homeschool planner, classroom planner, stem resources with lots of information
