KindlED
The KindlED Podcast explores the science of nurturing children's potential and creating empowering learning environments. Powered by Prenda, each episode offers actionable insights to help you ignite your child's love of learning. We'll dive into evidence-based tools and techniques that kindle curiosity, motivation, and well-being in young learners. Do you have a question, topic, or story you'd like to share with us? Get in touch at podcast@prenda.com.
KindlED
Episode 52: Empowering Kids, Part 2. A Conversation with Prenda Guide, Candi Lehenbauer.
Are you ready to reimagine education? Join us on this transformative episode of the Kindled podcast as we sit down with Candi Lehenbauer, Prenda guide and the driving force behind Tapestry Academy in Florida. Discover how Candi’s passion for microschooling led her to create a thriving educational environment that has evolved over the past five years. From handling fluctuating student numbers to shifting from a homeschool mindset to a tuition-based model, Candi’s journey is one of resilience and adaptation, especially during the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. Further, her work with Microschool Florida highlights the importance of community and innovation in microschooling.
Candi overcame her initial fears about starting something new in her community as well as the steep learning curve of starting a business. Hear about the excitement, the hurdles, and the triumphs of transitioning from a homeschool co-op to running a microschool. Learn about the unique strategies Candi employs to manage her microschool environment, emphasizing the importance of social activities, flexible curriculums, and interest-based learning.
Got a story to share or question you want us to answer? Send us a message!
About the podcast:
The KindlED Podcast explores the science of nurturing children's potential and creating empowering learning environments.
Powered by Prenda Microschools, each episode offers actionable insights to help you ignite your child's love of learning. We'll dive into evidence-based tools and techniques that kindle young learners' curiosity, motivation, and well-being.
Got a burning question?
We're all ears! If you have a question or topic you'd love our hosts to tackle, please send it to podcast@prenda.com. Let's dive into the conversation together!
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Hi and welcome to the Kindled podcast where we dig into the art and science behind kindling, the motivation, curiosity and mental well-being of the young humans in our lives.
Speaker 2:Together, we'll discover practical tools and strategies you can use to help kids unlock their full potential and become the strongest version of their future selves.
Speaker 1:Welcome to the Kindle podcast everybody. Today we are in the middle of our three-part series where we are talking to micro school guides who run programs based on the Prenda model and based on all of the ideas that we talk about here on the Kindle podcast. So you can get kind of a behind the scenes look at what educating a group of kids like this actually looks like the struggles, the wins, all of it. So today, who are we talking to? Adrian.
Speaker 2:We are talking to Candy Landbauer of Tapestry Academy and she is out of Florida and what I love about her, she has had so much resilience and grit and has kept up her micro school. For this. She's going into her fifth year because Prenda predominantly started in Arizona, so she's kind of been this.
Speaker 1:you know just like a Florida pioneer.
Speaker 2:Yeah, totally yeah, she's a Florida pioneer and we'll hear from her today about all the growth in Florida. Florida pioneer and we'll hear from her today about all the growth in Florida and we can't wait for this school year because we have a lot of Prendas opening up in.
Speaker 1:Florida.
Speaker 2:Super exciting.
Speaker 1:Super exciting. Let's go talk to Candy Candy. Welcome to the Kindle podcast. We're super excited to have you. Thanks, glad to be here. All right, so tell us a bit about your background and who you are.
Speaker 3:Well, I am a Prenda guide, yay, so anyway I have. I've used Prenda for four years. I'll be starting it in my fifth year this fall and I actually ran a micro school for two years before that and it's called Tapestry Academy and anyway, I became obsessed about micro schooling schooling like the second I heard about it, so that's kind of an exciting thing that I'm still doing it years later. I also run a directory called Microschool Florida where I help parents and educators find micro schools and homeschool programs, and I'm a homeschool mom of 20 years at least and I have six kids, and I think that's about it. That's me.
Speaker 2:Love it. Okay, so can you describe your micro school and how is it different from traditional? And also, how is it different from homeschooling?
Speaker 3:So my micro school is. It's kind of changed over the years. I ran across some papers when I very first started my microschool of. This is my vision. This is what it's going to look like, and it is so different from that I didn't want to throw away those papers because it was like a fun. It is part of history. I had all of these plans of what it was going to be like, but it's changed and I think that's okay. It's just morphed every year into something different, and I think it was.
Speaker 3:It was well the year that COVID happened. That was the year of my very first year that I used Prenda and I did it out of my house and my neighbor's house and we had 13 kids and I hired another guide so that we had like two of us doing stuff in TAN and we did a lot of field trips and things together. That was a fun and exciting year. It was, you know, my first year of ever getting started and knowing how to do it. And then the next year was super small because I also moved at the same time. So I had thought, oh, everyone will just come back after COVID, but most of them went back into public school. That was at least my experience and so it was a really small small group and I hadn't really advertised because I was so busy with we need to remodel bathrooms and let's get the tile in downstairs and all of those things, and so it ended up being a really small group. And so it ended up being a really small group. We had five kids that next year and I hired an assistant to just kind of help out here and there. But she ended up being like one of my prenatal kids, if that makes sense, because I still covered kindergarten through grade eight in my micro school and sometimes the older students just really felt like they needed a buddy or somebody there, and so the assistant that I had coming at times was just like another kid that I was hiring to be there for those older students. But anyway, it's changed a little bit over the years. Then the next year we actually went up to like the full 10 kids and it just has changed every year. We always have like a couple that kind of stay the same core group of kids and then there's always a few that change in or out.
Speaker 3:We've we the year that I had so few students. I thought, well, what am I doing wrong? Why can't I get people to join my micro school? And I wasn't able to accept scholarships at that time, so everyone was having to pay tuition out of pocket and I found that really challenging, coming from homeschool world where I did everything for free. Everything that I did was free, free, free, free, run the community center for free. All my classes were free, everything was free, but the parents would pay with their time and energy to come and help do stuff, and that actually is kind of expensive if you think about it, because you're paying with your time. But I was changing the mindset from you needed to pay tuition so then I could hire people who were dedicated to doing those roles, and that was a tricky transition for me.
Speaker 3:But my husband said you need to stop thinking about school as school. You're trying to recreate it too much, even though I was using Prenda and I loved everything Prenda. He says look around and find those things that you would love you like. You see other micro schools. We're in South Florida, so there's lots of micro school programs down here. It says look around and find things that you think are exciting and fun, that you would want to send your kids to and then incorporate those items into your micro school.
Speaker 3:And so I ended up um hiring an art teacher and then I hired a surfing. We went to a surfing class like once or twice a month and that's became kind of part of our what would call it Our DNA for our micro school. And then I also found a farm lady. She was a homeschool mom that we had done lots of science projects together with the year before, but I ended up hiring her as being our, our farm lady and we would go visit her on like just organized field trips that we would do regularly so that the kids would learn.
Speaker 3:I live in Boca Raton and sometimes our city is just known for being posh and ladies high heel flip-flops with their dog that they push in the stroller, and I'm like that is my city and I get it. But I don't want my kids to feel like that's life and our family is like really normal, like no gated communities. Just, you know, go and talk to anybody at any time for your neighbors. And so I just wanted to find a spot where the kids could get dirty. They could, you know, hold worms and chase chickens and you know those kinds of little things that you get in different types of experiences and we there's even like an old-fashioned lawnmower, you know the ones from like the 50s.
Speaker 1:Yeah we literally bought one of those for our kids so that they were like this modern life is too easy, like, so we bought one of those so that they would learn some hard work that's actually one of the favorite things that all the kids get to do out of farm day is to mow the weeds.
Speaker 3:But yeah, we really like it. I actually really like it too, and sometimes I'll go. I'm just too stressed. Why do we have farm day tomorrow? And then I'll go. Oh, we have farm day tomorrow.
Speaker 3:I get to walk around for an hour and a half and just be in nature and get to, you know, do all of those things that are just not my typical life. So by changing up kind of the way that we did things just a little bit, it wasn't like it was an everyday thing, but it was just enough planned outings that it kind of defined who we were a little bit. And then all of a sudden the phone started ringing and I got a lot more people interested in my programs. I know Prenda does a lot of those virtual field trips. Those didn't work out so great for me because I'm a couple hours ahead. So every time there was something cool I was saying bye to all of my students, we'll see you tomorrow. So it didn't really line up and so I just thought, well, how can I create some of those fun experiences? How can I create some of?
Speaker 2:those fun experiences, Cool. That's awesome. It sounds like a complete mashup of like traditional school. So there's so structure and it still looks like school, but then you have like the homeschool of the experience, experiential learning and getting out and getting your hands dirty. So you have like a a pretty good mashup between the two.
Speaker 3:It sounds like Well, and I'm also thinking too for all of the homeschooling that I've done for years and years it's just using the community around you to do stuff. So, and before, when I was in homeschool world, my community were stay at home moms that I knew all of their tricks and things that they knew how to do. But now I'm utilizing, um, micro school programs and, um, I guess you would call them like program vendors. You know they're making a business off of providing these really cool experiences and then I am paying them for that. So, anyway, it's kind of the same thing, but I've just changed the market for all doing things.
Speaker 1:So what originally inspired you to start a micro school? And then, how did you find Prenda?
Speaker 3:I talk about this all the time. I feel like it's part of my makeup story. It is kind of funny. So I went through homeschool burnout. So I'd been homeschooling about 10 years and I have six kids, so 10 years didn't cover everybody in their education. I was like, wow, I am really wishing to do something else. And a lot of times when I would run the homeschool co-ops, I loved all of the families that came and I felt like it was really great. But sometimes the families didn't show up and they wouldn't take it as seriously as I did.
Speaker 2:So I was providing it was free too, yeah it was free.
Speaker 3:So they were just like oh, and then I'd see on Facebook hashtag best homeschool life ever, we skipped school today and we went to the beach. And that they skipped my thing to go to the beach. Man, that just really hurts my feelings and it just happened a lot and I I thought how can I create something meaningful without you know, being like the mad person all the time? Please just come to my program.
Speaker 3:I'm not going anywhere. I planned all of my vacations around the homeschool co op, so you should do the same. But I thought I don't like that either. I just want people to feel as invested in it as I was. And so during my homeschool burnout phase I said, fine, I'm not doing anybody, I'm not running anything this year, and I actually put a couple of kids in school which you know micro-schooling wasn't a thing so much. And so I I didn't even know about micro-schooling, and so I put my 10th grader and my fourth grader into public school, like 10th grade, first time to ever go to school. You can handle this. And then the rest of them. Um, I just finished homeschooling them, but it was probably three months into it.
Speaker 3:I just discovered, uh, this little private school that was an hour away from where I was. They had came and sing at a choir that I was helping. It was like a big concert, a nativity concert thing. They had performed at it and they hired the opera lady that came to sing at the concert, and I was the opera lady was a friend of mine and she said you have to come and see this school, it's so cool. And I said, all right.
Speaker 3:So I drove up there thinking, well, maybe we'll move and we'll send our kids to this school. And as I walked in I was like this is amazing. It was not really anything to see from the outside. It was like an old shopping mall and it was like an old sheriff's department part of the shopping mall and it didn't look like much from the outside. But then when I walked inside it felt like a homeschool co-op but everyone had kind of like matching outfits on and it was peaceful, and it was third through eighth grade and I thought this is what I'm looking for, Like smaller environments, everybody knows each other, we all know each other's birthdays and anyway.
Speaker 3:But then they were charging tuition and I thought maybe this is what I need to do, is I need to start my own little private school, or well, first I was going to move there and then my husband said we can't move Life things. He'd been asked to do something nearby here that he couldn't move for, and so I was like, okay, great, Now what do I do? And I just couldn't leave the idea alone, and so that's kind of what I call the beginning phase of the water spigot being turned on high and every single night when I would go to bed I would have bazillions of ideas on how to start my school and I would just fill my notebook pages after page after page of page, and then I'd research online. I would find an article that would talk about this kind of schooling. I discovered the word micro school. I pretty much became obsessed. Every single conversation I had with any person ever was about that's how I was, too as soon as I found out about it.
Speaker 2:I was just like oh my gosh. Everyone needs to know about this.
Speaker 3:This is amazing, this is what needs to happen. And anyway, I just I said this is what's going to happen and I, I started my business like that March. I still remember where I was sitting when I sent in this like sunbizorg or something where you have to send in and say I am now starting a business. And I was terrified, like there has to be something more to this. Like you just pay like a few dollars and you say here's my business. So, anyway, it was kind of scary and exciting all at the same time. And then I was like I just did it, I just started a business. So, anyway, it made me a lot more excited. I feel like it was still all of the same things that I'd always been doing with homeschool co-ops, but it added the interesting part to me with marketing, with having to do your financial statements, with just talking to people and convincing them to use your program, figuring out how to do like the little stripe card to take somebody's credit card payment, I don't know. All of that was just really exciting to me. It felt like I was playing store, you know, like when you go to like the kids museum in your town and you're like this is so fun. I kind of felt like that's how I was. And the lady I took her credit card, I kind of she gave me the look like you have no idea what you're doing right now, do you? So, anyway, what can you say? I had no idea, but, um, yeah, I just. I kind of just got started and I looked into all these different models, you know, like Acton Academy or different things, and I'm like, oh, those look all so cool but I don't have enough money to to like pay their fee upfront. At least that's what I thought. And then my first year actually, when we counted up how much money I spent, I was like, oh, that actually is expensive and maybe I should have paid whatever fee to start somebody else's program. But it was like the school of hard knocks, just figuring out things as I went along and anyway. So I did it for two years kind of on my own.
Speaker 3:I felt like I had a really hard time attracting people who are not from the homeschool community because I was like the rogue homeschool educator that I didn't have to like appease anybody. I kind of felt like people perceived me that way from like traditional school and so I thought there just needs to be some way that I can attract people better. And then also one of my teachers gave me feedback. They said you're not going to survive unless you partner with another organization. Because you know it's really hard to like do wear all of the hats. And I was like I'm paying rent, I'm paying teachers, and at that time I had like a math teacher and an English teacher and a science teacher and they would come in for little bits of time and anyway it was complicated and expensive. But I went home after she gave me her her feedback and I was like rude but thank you. You know, whenever people give you really great advice, you're like dang it.
Speaker 3:But I went home and I Googled micro school organization. I hit enter and Prenda popped up and this was pre COVID. So I, um, that night I watched like an info meeting there happened to be one on Facebook that night and so I went online and I was kind of hearing the spiel Kelly was telling about how it got started and I was like oh, that sounds pretty similar to kind of what I'm doing. I was doing like 22 hours a week, so I was like just two hours over and I thought I could totally morph that and I was already doing four hour, four days a week, and so I was like figuring out how it could align and I thought I feel like this is very similar to what I was thinking, that I was doing and I thought I don't know, let's just find out more about it. And at the time, with COVID, you guys released this really cool deal of TriPrenda for a hundred dollars. I don't know if you remember that.
Speaker 3:I was there. I was right through the end of the school year. I was there. So I tried that with one of my kids and that was my first experimental let's just see how it goes and I did it with my third grader and I just kind of watched her. I didn't really help or do anything, I just said, hey, try out this project. And her first one that she did was build a coral reef. She did it all by herself, yeah it was so good.
Speaker 3:She did all of the steps. She took the picture with her computer, which I did not even know that she knew how to do at the time. She uploaded it and did all of that stuff and I was like I can't believe you knew how to do that. And the software was really fun and friendly.
Speaker 3:I had piloted another program that was like a project-based learning thing and it was so gross. It felt like somebody's 1970s Excel spreadsheet. It felt like that was like brown and really tiny words and I was like I would rather die than get in there and find out the projects. But this was not like that. It was really fun feeling and like big words and very understandable for the kids to read and I did not have to help. It was. That was like a really important part of it. So I really enjoyed that and I thought, okay, we're going to do Prenda this fall. And I was going to do it, do Pranda this fall. And I was gonna do it just with my own kids because I was kind of scared of COVID, how that was gonna all work. But my next door neighbor was the one who said, seriously, you can't just start a micro school. And then the time when we actually need you to run a micro school.
Speaker 1:oh no just kidding, I was scared so I ended up doing it.
Speaker 3:We had those 13 kids and had a lot of middle school boys that year, which was fun all by itself yeah, lots of middle school boy jokes, but I survived, and if anyone can do a bunch of middle school boys, anybody can. So anyway, that's kind of how I got started, and I can't say that I went into it thinking that I was going to do Pranda all the way, because I didn't fit in Pranda's model at the time. So you guys were, hey, we're in Arizona. I was in Florida, I'm like, but hey, I'm over here. So I kept being like just outside the box. But now I'm in the box. That's awesome. It only took like five years.
Speaker 1:We're so excited. Pranda is not meant to be a box. It's meant to be like a foundation that you can and we want people to add and you know, tweak and things like that, because there's no one right way to do it and there's not a one-size-fits-all like.
Speaker 3:We don't want to create a one-size-fits-all we already tried that last 100 years and it didn't work, so you know, so you're doing it. I found it kind of reassuring that I never really fit the model and yet here I still am. So I think that's kind of like for parents to her trying to figure it out.
Speaker 1:We don't want a bunch of little cookie cutters Like. We want, you know, unique, creative guides and parents and real kids making the education that works for them.
Speaker 2:So that's awesome. Yes, yeah, and I love that. Now, with you know being able to expand in Florida because of the scholarship program, there'll be more of a community for you, which is really exciting. No-transcript.
Speaker 3:I try to be. Well, I guess I'm overly excited about structure, which can be a problem sometimes. Not everybody is that way I did. I find that when I do use Prenda I don't have to be as planned as I used to have to be, and so I really appreciate that. So things that I plan now are the fun things um, like the field trips or the like. Who are we going to invite to our micro school? Like once we've invited somebody to come and do like a cooking demonstration or different things like that.
Speaker 3:So I like planning those types of fun things with the kids and with like the other people. I have like an assistant that helps me as well, and I also have a reading specialist that I hired last year. So that's been kind of fun to just have an additional adult around to ask questions with. But, um, keeping it structured, I can have like my old school planner that's in pencil where I just kind of like jot down ideas, but it's not like, uh, one of the teachers that I hired years ago she had like the full on written.
Speaker 3:You know, here's what we're doing, blah, blah, blah. Here's all of the standards in the curriculum and all of that stuff that need to be met and I was like you don't have to do that. I don't think that's just kind of wasting your time, because the software right here already has all that written down in it and we can just utilize that software instead. So it's easier to not have to do the technical type things. Focus on the fun things, focus on the relationships that I have with the kids and the families.
Speaker 1:Talk about that a little bit. How do you create like a culture of like connection in your micro school? How do you build those relationships both between you and the kids and like from kid to kid?
Speaker 3:It's a constant effort and there are sometimes clashing personalities, which I wish didn't happen. Like every time that happens, I'm like oh, come on, there's part of the human experience.
Speaker 3:There's 10, there's 10K. How could it be that some of you are not getting along with each other? One of the things that I've tried to do is I always try to have like an outside like we mesh with bigger groups of kids a couple times for different things. So I have like a science Olympiad team that I do it's with the homeschool community and we just meet at a park and I bring my little micro school kids and then other homeschool kids come and then we plan like these little tiny science lessons it's nothing big, it's mostly kids playing at a park and then we like blast water rockets, like that's kind of the idea, right, but by doing that it gives the kids more of a pool, so that we're not like constantly focused on on each other. Like, oh, I don't like having griefed on me.
Speaker 3:You know that can happen, just like in a family it happens in a micro school too, and so even with my own kids like by I always had six kids, so I've always had kind of a micro school. The kids really love seeing other people and so if you plan those things to look forward to and adventures and other people, then it kind of breaks down the need to want to have all of your needs met by like those two little people that are in the class with you. I always try to match grades to our ages and temperaments, cause I served kindergarten through eighth grade. I don't ever want there to be like 10 eighth graders and like this one little kindergartner. I always try to be like there's at least somebody for everybody. And that has backfired a few times. Like the two people that I thought, hey, they'll get along great together, they don't.
Speaker 2:Like the two people that I thought, hey, they'll get along great together, they don't but that's when I have, like my outside friend group type things, that kind of help. How do you tap into the student's interests and cause you we talked about, you allow like the software to do its thing and then you create experiences. So how do you help the kids really tap into what they're interested in and you know, in their learning?
Speaker 3:Yeah, we have. I kind of follow like this three-year cycle. It's something I learned through classical conversations. I don't know if any of you are familiar with that curriculum.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Charlotte Mason does like a three or four-year cycle as well.
Speaker 3:Yeah, three or four-year. And you know the Susan Weisbauer she did the four-year, susan Weisbauer, she did the four year. So with with figuring that out, I I kind of follow the cycle of the three-year plan. So this year we're doing like ancient times, like ancient Egypt, ancient China that's what I'm doing this year, too, with my kid yes, we should.
Speaker 3:We did America and those types of things in Florida history and then the year before that we did like the middle ages and Renaissance time period. But anyway, I have like my three year time cycle that we go through all the time and then I do like a three year cycle of the sciences so that we're all kind of covering main things, but then after that those are kind of like our whole group big picture type things. But if the kids want to do like a print, a world project, we try to make print a world project time frequently. So the kid who is obsessed about World War II that happens like every single year can make some really cool project about World War II, even if we're studying the ancient civilizations. I'm fine with that.
Speaker 3:At first, when the very first year I did print, I was like no, you can't do that. We're all focused on this one thing. And I was like that's not really fun for anybody. You have to be able to let them really get into that project that they really want to get into. So, giving them free time to do those things the younger kids they don't really care as much. They're happy to do bugs or whatever it is that you're all doing as a group. But once they hit like fourth or fifth grade they really want to do their thing, whatever that thing is.
Speaker 3:So giving them lots of free time for Prenda World projects is good, although as a guide that can be like really stressful when you've got like hot glue guns you know, like every quarter, and it's like, over here, here, I'm sewing, over here I'm like building, you know, I'm like, ah, that's a lot well, we heard you say that you really like structure, so I can see it's helping you grow. As I say, one hour is friend world projects and then we clean up. So at least I know it's a limited amount of time Controlled chaos. Controlled chaos. Yeah, and I don't have glitter around, so maybe that's one way.
Speaker 2:I love that. That's a good boundary. That's a good boundary to have.
Speaker 1:I love that One time though just before warrant I ordered this was early days, prendo and we were vetting like recommended supplies, and so I'd ordered this kit of like 30 whiteboards or 10 whiteboards or something, and they came in this box and I was so excited and I opened it and at the whiteboard factory they'd just taken a bottle of glitter and dumped loose glitter into this box just to add a little sparkle to my whiteboard order. I'm like why there's purple? It's my worst nightmare. I just wanted some whiteboards. Why did you ruin them anyways? Oh, that's so funny.
Speaker 3:Yeah, glitter is terrible. I don't know who invented that. Glitter glue is okay.
Speaker 1:I can do that happy medium okay. So how do you encourage your students to take ownership over their learning?
Speaker 3:that was a tricky one, because my main go-to is to just say this is what you're doing and go do it. And I actually had some really huge aha moments when I was reading the self-directed. Is it self-directed?
Speaker 1:The self-driven child.
Speaker 3:Yes, self-driven child. So I listened to that and I was like, oh my gosh, I should have done so many things differently in raising some of my kids. So after reading that I feel like it totally changed night and day. Even as a micro school owner like I was like I cannot tell them. I need to inspire them and you know, you guys have always had podcasts and this, that and the other, but I wasn't really I like would take in the feedback, but for the, the book, I was just like I plowed right through it. You know I would. I think I listened to it like in a couple of weeks. So it was like during breakfast time, lunchtime, driving.
Speaker 2:I devoured that book too. It was right before we found Prenda. I had read it and it was like, allow your kids to leave school. And so I someone told me about Prenda and I was like, okay, we're going to do this. So they left school and never went back.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I know, I just thought, it really just helped me think about it more deeply than I had before. And, um, there are some students who come and they've really been scarred, I guess you would say Like they think that they aren't good at school or they think they're not good at all kinds of things, and so they just come and they're like these little fragile beings, I guess you would say. And then after a couple of weeks they see that we're happy to have them there and participating and doing stuff, and then they start emerging and it feels to me like it's always like a three or four month process. So they'll come in August, around January, I finally have a kid who's able and willing to do the things that we're talking about. But we've been doing this same concept every single day for the entire school year up until that point, but they don't get it. And then, when the light clicks on, they're like, oh, you mean I could actually do this on my own.
Speaker 1:Like, yeah, even when we're doing projects here at school, I could say no, thanks, I would rather do one of my other like it takes them a long time to like find their voice and their like self-advocacy muscle right when it's been like bred out of them, essentially.
Speaker 3:Exactly and they start thinking I could do that or I could. You know, we had a student last year was like no, I don't read. And you know they were a few years behind, I guess, in the reading thing and then all of a sudden they were like hey, I just read that. That was actually kind of cool, you know. So just, I love the fact that you also take them back to where they are not where they're expected to be and then let them grow from there.
Speaker 3:I think that's huge and I wish every kid in school knew that you could do that, and every parent who is stressing about all the homework that their kid is really behind in. I wish I could give them. In fact, that's kind of what I do in my directory, the Microschool Florida directory. I try to give them little sneak peeks of here's a family who stepped off that conveyor belt and they're okay. And you can be okay too. And you don't have to be taking your kid to a psychiatrist to deal with anxiety and depression when you can be okay too. And you don't have to be taking your kid to a psychiatrist to deal with anxiety and depression when you can just get rid of that and go? Where are you at right now and where are we going?
Speaker 1:to change the environment instead of change the kid and give them a path towards hope, right, like their kids are constantly inundated in this feeling of this, this message that, like you should be here and you're not. So you're insufficient, you're lacking. And then it's like, not only do you have to continue to keep up with the ever ongoing March of, like that curriculum schedule because you're nine or whatever it's like, and then you also have to keep up. So it's like an, it's literally and you have to do that in every subject.
Speaker 1:You know it's, it's an impossible ask, it's so anxiety inducing and you just kids just throw their hands up and give up and then they become behavior issues and all sorts of you know thinking about changing the trajectory of a child's life here, right, and to be able to be like the impetus and like the mover in their life, to say like hey, different train tracks, like you can control this, it doesn't have to just be like a straight line, like we could take a boat, we could take a Vespa, like we can go to this other location, and you'd, like we, there's this whole creative world out there that you can really explore and define for yourself and I just love that. Um, you're just doing that for kids on repeat. It's amazing.
Speaker 3:It is awesome. Not all of the kids love it Like I wish they all did, but they don't and that's okay. I feel like we fill the needs for that time period and help them see that something was a possibility, and I always think they'll look back on it too and go actually was really cool when we did that.
Speaker 1:Yeah and it challenges them right. Like you don't, you're not going to. If it's a very challenging time in a micro school where it's like, yeah, this is uncomfortable for me to be able to like make my, instead of just sit, do this worksheet and win, get the points, Like, it's a lot more uncomfortable sometimes in a micro school to to be doing self-directed learning, so they're not going to quote, unquote, like it all the time. But we are pushing them and we are.
Speaker 2:I think you're right, it will in the long run especially because we're in a culture like in general I mean, I I know probably a fraction of friends with kids in an environment like this and so, still, our culture is very that, like you said, that conveyor belt education. So I think that that probably influences some of these kids to not love it either. But, like you said, they may look back and be like you know what I can think and I can do these skills, that, even though I didn't think I liked it at the time, it has really helped me shape the person that I am. So I think that's really important to keep that in front of mind if you're a parent or an educator doing this kind of education, because it's just different. It's very different than what the masses are still doing for education.
Speaker 1:I just looked this up. If you want to listen to our other episodes about the self-directed or the self-driven child, it's episode three and episode 42 where we talk to the coauthors. So just a side note. Okay, yeah, so next, and then I was actually on the self-driven child podcast the other day, so you can, we can link that too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's fun.
Speaker 1:How tell us some stories like tell us some wins. How has being able to provide an inquiry driven, curiosity driven, mastery based program education to kids Like? What wins have you seen?
Speaker 3:I've seen a lot I like to share. Um, there was one. Uh, we had a student come to us in eighth grade, like in November, and they said that they had tons of anxiety and they would hide in the bathroom every day at lunch because they were just, they couldn't handle the pressure of eating with friends and that was just too much for them. And so they said we were friends. And they said they'd actually come to a bunch of my parent nights over the years Cause they knew that I did this little program, but they were kind of just watching from afar. But they finally said this is what we're dealing with right now. Can we have her try the program? And so they did, and it was within like two weeks. It was a huge difference and my daughter was friends with her. And they said what did you do? They're so different.
Speaker 3:Like they're running around, they're playing and happy, and I just thought that was. It was such a short period of time too, like two weeks. That's shocking to see that they could be their regular selves and I can't say every day was like lovely, no problems ever, like they still had to get over a lot of anxiety and different things, but we were able to show them a safe space to just learn and grow and they ended up transferring out of my program the next year because they had out phased the age and we found a different micro school program for them that worked really great for them and I was super excited to.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she was stuck in a chronic state of stress and then all that stress was released and our brain was safe again. Because we've seen that with one of my kids too. We he was in traditional school for three months in kindergarten. We we both only made it three months, and I'm not saying it was, it just wasn't a good fit for him. I'm not, like you know, downplaying traditional school, but I was attuning to where he was and where his brain was, and his brain just was not safe. Um, you know, being forced to sit still and put his head down once he was done with work and those kinds of things, and so he wasn't talking at all. And then we brought him home, de-schooled him for a couple of months and then he went right back to. So it's, it's just communicating. Like they might not have the words to communicate, but their brains are just trying to keep them safe. So next question what advice would you give to educators or parents looking to create more empowering learning environments?
Speaker 3:For educators to create more or for parents.
Speaker 3:Or both, yeah, or someone who is maybe thinking about like starting a micro school, or you know about like starting a micro school, or you know I'm always a huge advocate for that. I feel, yeah, everything that I do on my directory is all about people starting more programs. Because if you think about if another micro school starts, it's just like a classroom next door to you opening or you can pop over and go hey, do you have any extra glue? So that's kind of the feeling of a it doesn't need to be competitive.
Speaker 3:Although at the beginning, when I first started my micro school, I felt very protective of anybody who called me or asked about my program. And then I it kind of changed my mindset and I said this is kind of dumb. When they live literally an hour away from where I do, I can't serve them as well as that other micro school that's literally right down the street from them. And so I started just sharing where those locations were with the families. And I feel like that was when my brain shift happened and it's also when I started to have a lot more success in my own program, because those micro schools would refer people to me as well.
Speaker 3:So we can't be everything for everyone Although I'm a people pleaser and I really wish I could be everybody's cup of tea. But I know that when I, when I give freely without expecting anything in return, that's when I feel the happiest. And people do that the same for me as well. I love that. So, just yeah, giving referrals and parents, parents, if they call and they're like, hey, this is the kid that I've got and I'll say here's three ideas of somebody that you could go to Just being helpful, keeping the kid at the center serving families Beautiful Candy.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for coming on the Kindle podcast today. We've really enjoyed this conversation. Hey, it was awesome. Yes.
Speaker 2:Thank you. All right, we'll talk later. That's it for today. We really hope you enjoyed this episode of the Kindle podcast, getting to hear from another Prenda guide and, as if you listen to part one with Julia, you'll hear some different things. You'll hear some similar things and even though they're across the country from each other. So super exciting. And if this episode was helpful to you, please like, subscribe and follow us on social media at Prenda Learn. If you have a question you would like for us to address, please email us at podcast at Prendacom. You can also subscribe to our weekly newsletter, the Sunday Spark, by going to Prendacom.
Speaker 1:The Kindle podcast is brought to you by Prenda. Prenda makes it easy for you to start and run an amazing micro school based on all the ideas that we talk about here on the Kindle podcast. If you want more information about becoming a Prenda guide, just go to Prendacom. Thanks for listening and remember to keep kindling.
