Radio Show Hour 3 – 2026/08/01

[00:00:01] You're listening to the Liberty News Radio Network, and this is The Political Cesspool. The Political Cesspool, known across the South and worldwide as the South's foremost populist conservative radio program. And here to guide you through the murky waters of The Political Cesspool is your host, James Edwards.

[00:00:30] Ladies and gentlemen, the last time I was in South Carolina, a dear friend of mine and a loyal quarterly contributor, he never misses a quarter, was there at that live remote broadcast. And he said, you know what would be good? You should do an hour on how to homeschool. Not why to homeschool, but how to homeschool. And this was the live broadcast we did at the end of March. It was there for the Patriot Front American Muscle event.

[00:00:58] And we just had a great time there at Dixie Republic, as we always do, for whatever reason we're there. But he put that idea in my head back in the spring, and I've been waiting to work it in ever since then. And then now we have this opportunity tonight, right before school starts back, to make it happen. And I want to thank that listener for giving me the idea.

[00:01:21] And I want to thank my wife, Danny, and our good friend, Kim, who is always such a mainstay and a standout on the ladies' Valentine's Day installment for taking the vision and accelerating it from theory to practice. So let's say hello to Danny first, right here with me in the studio. You can say hello. Hello. Hello. And Kim joining us from the American Heartland. How are you tonight, Kim? Hi, James.

[00:01:51] Thanks so much for having me on. I'm excited to delve into this topic. Well, a full hour with you two will be great. And what I'm excited about this hour is not only is it something different, it's practical. And we could really impact lives tonight if people decide to take this course of action. It could change the trajectory of their children's lives and leave a legacy, to be sure.

[00:02:17] Now, again, the topic tonight is not why to homeschool, although I will just... Because we all know why. I'll zip through it, though, very quickly. I mean, why would you want to fight deprogramming? Why would you send your kids to a government school or even a private school, although the private schools are a little bit better, or if you can afford them a little bit better, they still are taking the same curriculum? Not really.

[00:02:39] You're still going to get the Harriet Tubman, Martin Luther King, Abraham Lincoln propaganda with some Bible verses sprinkled in. It is different than the private school, Christian school upbringing that I enjoyed in my youth in the 80s and 90s. So why would you want to spend eight hours, send your kids to school to have eight hours that you're going to have to deprogram later? You're not going to have an environment at home where they are unsafe.

[00:03:06] You're going to have an environment at home where they are reinstilled with godly principles. There's going to be no racial strife. There's going to be no violence in Memphis, you know, in the Memphis city schools. It would be a daily worry that somebody is going to be accosted or worse. You know, the field trips are not going to be to the National Civil Rights Museum. It's going to be to places like Shiloh or Fort Pillow. And for so many other reasons, that is why you homeschool.

[00:03:32] And all of the things that people were concerned about decades past have been utterly debunked. Homeschoolers are more socially well-rounded and they are more intelligent. They score better. They test better. They go on to have more productive careers. That is the why to homeschool. But when it gets to the how, let's first start with Kim. Kim, you started your family just a few years earlier than Danny and I did.

[00:04:00] And when we first met, well, I guess when I first met you, you had not quite started your family yet. But I do remember the first time you visited our home and you had already had kids. You started homeschooling from the very beginning. For people who are going to have kids in the future, how do they start from scratch with homeschooling? We'll get into how you pull kids out and that whole thing from public schools later. But you decide to start homeschooling.

[00:04:29] What's the first step, Kim? Well, the beauty about homeschooling is you don't have 10 fourth graders all at once. And I think a lot of times when people think about homeschooling, they immediately feel overwhelmed. I'm like, how am I going to do this? How am I going to have enough time? But the beauty is that God gives you your children one by one. And then they will enter school.

[00:04:53] Generally, if they're, you know, two years apart, three years or whatever, you're going to have a little buffer time to begin that process. Number one. And number two, when they begin in kindergarten and first grade, it is not going to take as much time to homeschool those little children as it will once they get into the junior high and high school.

[00:05:15] And so you have time to tweak things and figure things out and go over curriculum and see what you like and you don't like. So I would just encourage people, first of all, just to remember that the Lord starts you off slow. You're going to have that one child. You're going to just work with that one child. And then slowly you can incorporate the other children.

[00:05:42] Once you kind of get your feet under you and you're like, hey, I can do this. I can figure this out. And as you tack on more children, it's just like anything in the house. For anybody that's had children, you know, when you have that first baby, you're like, this is taking up all my time, this baby. Wow, I can't get anything done with this infant. And then, you know, you have a second child or a third child and you're able to be stretched. You're able to do more. And it's the same with homeschooling.

[00:06:11] And you will be able to get a child working on their own once you teach them how to read. And I will say, and I'd like to hear Danny's thoughts on this too, but the fundamentals of reading, I mean, number one, get that child reading because that is the basis for everything, even reading a math problem. So really, if you're going to spend any kind of time, invest in phonics, not all this modern stuff.

[00:06:40] But just good old-fashioned phonics of sounding out letters and working on reading. We really enjoyed the book, How to Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. It's just a daily, very basic book that I went through with, I think, all of my children. And it really laid those foundations. Once you teach the child to read, as they get older, they're going to be able to do more independent work.

[00:07:08] And praise the Lord for that independent work because if you had to sit with every single child and be right there with them as you do with, like, say, a third grader or a fourth grader, you know, when you're really helping them figure out problems or understand things. If you had to do that with every child, it would feel almost impossible. But thankfully, the beauty of homeschooling is they're able to start doing that independent work.

[00:07:32] But I have to say, for the mamas, and we can all be bad at this, you've got to remember, hey, I need to check in on that work because you don't want your kid 15, 20 lessons in on their math and go, oh, wow, you completely are doing this wrong. Wow, and this has been going on for two months. So you have to keep yourself in check and just say, okay, wow, I need to make sure I'm checking in with that child and that they're doing their grammar correctly or their math.

[00:07:59] And just I really encourage people when the kids were little, I did this more as having a written schedule. And that was our go-to. And we were pretty diehard about that. I mean, if it was 8 or 9 o'clock, we were doing X, you know, we were doing math or whatever it was. And that helped us to push our day along.

[00:08:18] And you can pencil in, if you're writing out a schedule, you can pencil in things like, okay, from 1.30 to 2 when the baby's at nap, I'm going to look over Sally's math and spend that quiet time with them. So I'm hogging the air, Dani. I want to hear your take on it. No, no. I'm nodding my head to everything that you're saying.

[00:08:40] And 2, if you do find yourself in the predicament where they've done two weeks of bad math or they just totally missed the concept, I mean, that's the beauty of homeschool. You get to pause, back up, and start from the beginning, reteach, you know, where they went wrong. And that's the goodness of homeschool is you're not on a time schedule like you would think with the public schools. You're on your own time. And you're not falling behind. You're in no rush. Who are you competing with, you know?

[00:09:10] And it's just relaxed and flexible and sweet. And I don't know. I just am so thankful to get to have all of those milestones with the kids and watch them learn and see the joy of it. Well, I want to ask you this, Dani. And that is for the people who will be listening. And I think this is the overall topic of the hour, the theme of the hour.

[00:09:38] And we'll really dive into this over the course of the next three segments. But that is they would love to homeschool. They understand the reasons for homeschooling. But they think that they're not qualified or would be otherwise overwhelmed. So that was me. So when I got pregnant with Isabel, from the very beginning, I started fretting over, I'm not qualified. I'm not smart enough to teach her what she needs to know. But you really are. I mean, you're thinking you're going to start when they're little.

[00:10:06] You're reading books with them when they're one, two. And even before, I mean, it starts when they're little bitty. And you just keep going. I mean, Caroline begged to start her first day of kindergarten the other day. So Caroline's our five-year-old. Isabel's our 16-year-old. Yeah, so she's five. And she said, I am ready to read. I am so sick of drawing hearts. I want to read my own thing. And I said, I got you, sister. And so we sat down. And our day was literally 30 minutes.

[00:10:35] We read a Bible verse. And she's starting to do memory work. I mean, it's. Well, she was drawing letters. I mean, she was tracing letters. Well, she's been doing that since she was three. Well, I understand. But I mean, she did very good job. Yeah. All right. But I think, again, though, what we want to talk about is how. How do you register? What's the process? What is the curriculum? How do you choose curriculum? What about testing? How do you submit grades? We're going to get into all of that. We're just getting started with Kim and Dave. Stay tuned. It is common for politicians, major media outlets, and nonprofits.

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[00:13:41] We're talking about... We're talking about... I thought it was fitting. We're talking about homeschooling, but you're not sure where to begin. That's what we're going to get into over the course of the next three segments. I mean, we were basically just talking a little bit about our own personal experiences and a little bit more about the why. Now we're going to transition hard into... How to get started. How to get started, how it works as you move forward year on year. But again, I was reading something that was just striking within the last couple of months,

[00:14:11] and it was basically a statistic that suggests that 80% of the time you will spend with their kids are spent before they're 18 years old. And even staying with them 24-7 is not enough. No. And so it's just a precious time, and it gives you 18 years to reinforce your faith, your beliefs on them as they are going to carry on your legacy and your generations for years to come.

[00:14:39] And so that is another reason why homeschooling is so important. But people ask. I'm not qualified. I wouldn't even know where to begin. Well, how do you begin? Now, it does vary from state to state. So Danny and Kim were talking about this in the break, and I'm glad that they brought this up because we will mention this. So depending on where you live... Each state has its own laws on homeschooling. But, you know, I guess generally speaking, the red states are superior to the blue states with regards to being more gunslinger-minded with homeschooling regulations.

[00:15:07] But I'll start this with Danny, and then Kim will go to your experiences. You make the decision to homeschool. That's right. What's the first call you make? What do you do with regards to making it happen, whether you're starting from kindergarten with your firstborn or pulling a kid out from public school six, eight, ten years in? Well, for me in Tennessee, so our laws are a little bit different than where Kim's at. But for me, I just had to send in...

[00:15:36] For Isabel starting from kindergarten, I just had to send in an intent to homeschool, and then we've never spoken to the school system again. Now, I never did send anything in for Henry nor Caroline. So I guess they just knew that our families were homeschooling after that first intent to homeschool. But if you're pulling a child out from public school... Would you actually help somebody do this a few days ago? My niece. So she has decided...

[00:16:04] She's in high school, and she's decided that... Well, she's begged to homeschool for quite some time, and we finally got everybody on board. And so basically, all we did was send in an intent to homeschool. And the transcripts and everything were transferred by their umbrella school. Now, not every state requires an umbrella school. So an umbrella school is just a place that you log in your attendance and your grades.

[00:16:31] Now, we've gone the route that we don't require testing. So just every January and June, we send in our grades, which are... They're not number grades. It's just an A because we don't move on unless it's mastered. And then our attendance, which we have to have 180 days. Now, that can be on the weekend. If you're working, you can make your homeschool schedule fit your home, your family.

[00:16:57] So if you're homeschooling on Saturday, Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday, that's... It's whatever fits best for your family. And that's... Like Kim says, you can't repeat it enough. That's the beauty of homeschool. And it is, of course, if you go through an umbrella school, that's basically your accrediting organization. And then, of course, you have the Homeschool Legal Defense Association, which is for a small fee. They'll help you if you ever have any problems, although that is rare, especially if you're in a conservative state. But that's how you get started. Kim, when you and your husband made the decision to homeschool,

[00:17:27] what was the process there in your state? Well, we had nothing to turn in. And I think there's about six or seven states that are like that. Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, I think Indiana, and a few others. I think Idaho's one. Where if you want to homeschool, you just start homeschooling. You don't ever have to turn anything in. You know, you just have to be a diligent parent. And when the child, a lot of people ask, though, well, what about if they want to go to college?

[00:17:57] And then, well, I mean, you can make them up a transcript in Excel or there's programs online where you could, you know, write what they've done in high school and write what their grade was and turn it in. And then basically, if they want to do college, you know, we had one that's done college and graduated. And they just straight up went and took the ACT and then entered in to college.

[00:18:25] And then, of course, there's also GED programs where if your child is not going to go the college route, if they want to go ahead and get a GED, then there's really affordable programs, say through the junior colleges or online where, you know, can do some pre-testing and go in and take their GED. So, yeah, for us, we just started the process. We just decided, okay, we're going to start homeschooling. And I just wrote out a little schedule.

[00:18:54] And for a kindergartner, we were done in a couple hours. And then we just had the rest of the day. And, boy, sometimes I miss those days of, wow, we're done. Because I'm sure Danny can attest, it's like the older they get in junior high and high school, you are going to have, you know, just more on your plate, more to you're going to be taking them to things. You are going to be stretched. And that's just kind of life in general. Don't shy away from it.

[00:19:22] Just know everything is a season. And you will go through a season in homeschooling where, if you have several children, where somebody's going to need to be at a piano lesson, somebody's going to want to go do this or that. And you just have to be, you know, that's where I think it helps, personally, being a Christian and knowing that this is part of sanctification, a sanctification journey. And some days on those hard days,

[00:19:49] just, you know, pray that you can be a servant to your family and to your children and that, you know, you can do this so that your children can grow up and, you know, serve the Lord and not be gay communist, as I've seen some homeschoolers. Trying to raise kids that aren't gay communists, you know. That's right. That's the goal here. I got to say this, though. The idea that you have to have some sort of training, you have to be a trained teacher, go to college. No, not at all.

[00:20:18] You know, and I will say this through experience and knowing Kim and her family and knowing, of course, my family is that, I mean, first of all, Kim, your family, unreal. Really beyond superb. Both you and your husband, but your kids as well. I mean, when we visit you at your home and you visited us at our home over the years, over the two decades plus now that we've been friends, y'all are like the Von Trapps. They're all athletic. They're all musically inclined.

[00:20:48] They are super, super intelligent. The most well-adjusted, well-rounded exemplars, true exemplars. And then, you know, in our case, you know, my daughter's on stage. My son's never met a stranger. This whole idea that you can't do it completely dismissed just in these two examples. They are very sociable. They're athletic. They are talented in the arts. And it's all as a result.

[00:21:17] They're not lacking on any. No, I mean, it couldn't have been. Any area. They couldn't have better developed had they been in the schools where they, and this is a big hang up on homeschool. I think they would have missed out on a lot of things. Well, this whole socialization thing completely, completely made up. But let's talk about curriculum. Choosing curriculum. So you've made the decision to homeschool. You understand that you filed this letter of intent to homeschool and you're checking your state requirements and maybe you need to have an umbrella school. Maybe not. Maybe you need to report grades. Maybe not.

[00:21:47] But once you figured out what the laws are in your state, choosing curriculum. There's so much curriculum out there. It's overwhelming. So, I mean, I get most of my curriculum. I either save it from the previous child and just keep reusing it. Who do we use? I mean, I use so many different ones. Give a few examples. I mean, I started off with my father's world. And then I've just, in the younger years, it just worked so well

[00:22:16] because everything was written out for me. There was already a plan. It was already in place. It was something that I didn't have to think about because I was already stressed out with, am I doing enough? Am I enough? And this curriculum was already laid out and already planned out for me for the entire year. 32 weeks of lessons and, you know, subjects for me to cover. And so that for me starting off was what helped me gain my confidence in homeschooling.

[00:22:46] But once I learned, oh, this is all it is. I mean, we visit the library. We get stuff from yard sales and resale pages. I mean, I ordered a personal finance book for Henry. And Caroline actually has piggybacked on this from Amazon. It was like $7. So Henry is our middle son. Caroline's our youngest daughter. We have three. Isabel, our oldest daughter, Henry. I mean, people who get our Christmas cards will know this, but that's just for reference. But I also wanted to say too, and with women with more than one child,

[00:23:15] and it just seems so overwhelming. Like Kim said, when we do have things that we have to do, like Isabel has to go to voice lessons, I just pack a folder with a couple things. And one will bring her bike or, you know, run up and down the driveway while I'm sitting in the car doing a reading lesson or a spelling test with the other one. Like it just fits in. But anyways, curriculum. There's so many different ones. A Becca. That was one of the big ones. My father's world.

[00:23:45] Even back in the mid-90s. I mean, there's just so many. Kim, who do you use? Or who have you used over the course of your many years with the many different kids? Well, first I'll say that for a homeschool mom, I feel like choosing curriculum every year is a major dopamine hit. And when I get these magazines still. Yes! It's true. I still to this day, when I get one of these big magazines for homeschool curriculum, like I have to look through it. And it just gets me excited. I'm excited every year.

[00:24:14] I just bought two books the other day at the bookstore and just like got that racing heartbeat. And they were on sale. And they were about the American Revolution. Anyways, we used Bob Jones University, Saxon Math. That's great. Goodness, we've used Apologia. Yeah, I'll have to think. But yeah, we've used a lot. We've used a lot. It's proliferating now. I mean, this is another reason why I am hopeful about the futures.

[00:24:42] This is just another area where things have changed so well in our favor over the last couple of decades. We'll be right back with Danny and Kim. Proclaiming liberty across the land. You're listening to Liberty News Radio. News this hour from Town Hall. I'm Mary Rose. U.S. citizens throughout the Middle East are being urged to consider leaving as tensions rise across the region.

[00:25:10] An advisory from the State Department says U.S. citizens to be prepared to depart on short notice and cautions of possible flight disruptions and security risks as the conflict with Iran escalates. The Department of Homeland Security is cracking down on non-citizens illegally voting in New Jersey.

[00:25:29] Cheryl admitted that approximately 6,600 non-citizens were registered to vote in the state. DHS Secretary Mark Wayne Mullen has warned multiple states about this issue. Officials emphasize that non-citizens who cast ballots will face strict penalties, including deportation. John Scott reporting.

[00:25:56] President Trump issues a new threat if two Senate Republicans don't confirm Todd Blanche as Attorney General. President Donald Trump says on Truth Social that he's keeping acting Attorney General Todd Blanche in his current role and that if Republican Senators John Cornyn of Texas and Tom Tillis of North Carolina don't back him, Trump will press ahead on a $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund to compensate people who feel mistreated by the criminal justice system during the Obama and Biden administrations.

[00:26:26] Trump on Friday had pronounced the fund dead, but the administration needs Cornyn and Tillis' votes to confirm Blanche. Donna Warder, Washington. The Trump administration is proposing new safety rules requiring Mexican train crews crossing into the U.S. to understand critical safety information in English. The plan would also tighten crew certification standards, drawing praise from two major rail unions.

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[00:29:57] A lot of fun this hour.

[00:30:48] If you can't tell, this is what we were put here to do on the radio. This is what we were put here to do as parents. And I understand, listen, not everybody can homeschool. For different reasons, not everybody can do it, and you've not betrayed the revolution. If you've gone a different path, you've put your kids into private schools or public schools under certain circumstances, that's fine. I mean, nobody's going to be 100%. Not 100% of our people are going to homeschool. But for us, it worked. For Kim, it worked.

[00:31:18] And, you know, certainly I think we would all agree that it is very good. It is very good. They may take the world, but they will not take my home. That is my motto, and that is, if I can help it, my generations are going to believe just as I believe. And we're going to do everything we can to guarantee that outcome. And talking with Kim tonight, talking with my wife, it goes all the way back.

[00:31:46] You know, I first met Kim and her husband at a conservative meeting in New Orleans a long time ago. I guess it was 2004. A long, long time ago. I can still remember. A very conservative meeting, we'll say. And they've been fast friends ever since.

[00:32:08] We were, I was just thinking, actually, the first time she and her husband visited my wife and I before we had kids at our home. She saw a couple of books on the bookshelf. One of them was a Bible and one of them was a, you know, war memoir, I guess you could say. But anyway, we just bonded quickly and we've all just sort of grown together. And so we're talking about homeschooling. And now 20 years later, you can do it. If you don't think you can do it, we did it. If we can do it, you can do it.

[00:32:38] And we're talking about choosing curriculum. We were talking about the process of getting going and letting the authorities, the state know, your school system know if you're pulling kids out of school. Kim, let's talk about getting involved in co-ops for socialization, for athletics, group field trips. Isn't always required. No, it's not required at all. That's an optional thing. But it is an option. And I know that you're involved in them and so are we. So we'll start there. Yeah.

[00:33:09] On the co-ops, I would say be selective. You're going to have all kind of ranges. You're going to have ranges in co-ops where the co-op, some of the kids just feel like public schoolers. You're going to have some co-ops that, you know, are a better fit for your family. But don't just assume because you enroll your kid in a co-op. And by co-op, in case somebody doesn't know what that means,

[00:33:33] it's basically generally a one-day-a-week gathering where it might be all day from like 8 to 3 or it might be a half a day where people come together. And generally there's three or four classes and a mom will teach the class and another mom will be an assistant and all the moms kind of rotate to help. So it's for things that you feel like, well, I don't really, you know, I can't really teach my kid public speaking.

[00:34:00] There might be a public speaking class or an art class or a logic class. And so the moms will come together and generally meet at a church or a community building. And, yeah, so just tour the co-op if they have like an open house or a day where they are inviting new families. Just go and see if that's going to be a good fit for your family because it is amazing.

[00:34:26] Even one day a week, your kids are receiving influence from their peers, even one day a week. And they're going to be, it's just, that's just how those teenage years work. So just be vigilant of that. And if something is not a good fit, even though it will be hard for your child, sometimes you do have to make the hard decision of saying this is not a good fit for our family

[00:34:53] or, hey, we're going to try to pivot and maybe go to a different co-op because you still have to protect your child and their morals and values, even when you're in homeschool groups. Dani, I don't know if you had a thought on that too. We've encountered that. So we were enrolled into a tutorial, which is kind of the same idea as co-op, same thing. We just picked classes a la carte. And we, Isabel was taking a 90-minute class.

[00:35:24] And during lunchtime, they allowed kids to have their cell phone. And at the time, we did not allow, we don't allow social media. We don't allow phones. I mean, now that she's driving, she does. But back in this time, she wasn't. And they were allowing their kids to look at things that were very inappropriate. And it was passed around the school room. And we chose to leave. We prayed about it. And we found a new place. And Isabel cried. And, you know, it was a hard little season. But we knew that it was best for our family.

[00:35:52] And when we joined our new tutorial, where she takes three classes out there. And she has a whole new group of friends that have a firm foundation on Christ. And she told me, I'm so glad that you trusted the Lord. And I love where we're at. So, I mean, you have to make those decisions for your child that are hard sometimes. But, anyways, a co-op is supposed to benefit your family and take a load off your plate. You know, I guess co-op.

[00:36:21] I differentiate between co-op and tutorial. You know, co-op is sort of this group of homeschoolers that get together for extracurricular activities, as I see it. But then you have these tutorials, which are basically private schools. And in some cases, full-on private schools. But also offer access to homeschoolers for, as you said, Danny, a la carte class selection. So, this is another thing, Kim, that I wanted to touch on tonight. Another thing that we hear about all the time from people is, well, I want to homeschool.

[00:36:51] But it's going to get to a point one day, you know, as they get older, where they're going to be taking classes that exceed my ability to teach. That's right. Where you're talking about calculus or, you know, even algebra. And you can go to these tutorials, these basically private schools. And you can, they take on, it's amazing how much homeschooling has evolved since the mid-90s.

[00:37:13] And now homeschoolers can go to these private schools and just take individual classes for the areas that you need the extra help in. And so, that's what, you know, we've done. And it's been wonderful. And that just complements the homeschool experience. But for the areas where they need that extra support, they can get that. And sometimes those classes can be pricey.

[00:37:39] So, if tutorial or co-op isn't something that's in your budget, there are other resources. There's online support groups. There's, I've used quite a bit. There's homeschooling moms who have YouTube channels that actually teach lessons and help assist with what you're already in. So, we've used that a lot and have learned a lot on there. We take art classes on YouTube. They have Teach Your Child How to Draw.

[00:38:09] And that's what we use for our art class. I mean, it can be that simple. Well, Kim, I would ask you, is that something that your family has done? We call it a tutorial. It is a brick-and-mortar school. But they offer homeschool classes where they can step in to these individual classes that you need extra support in. Is that something that you've done with tutors? Or have you done it all from home on every subject all the way K through 12?

[00:38:35] I would like to lie, James, and say that I taught my kids chemistry. Well, you're very smart. I feel like they're, well, not that smart. No, I cried my way through chemistry. My teacher, I think, passed me because she pitied me. But, no, I knew I was not going to be able to teach the upper math and the upper sciences. So we've done online classes for that. So we've done through Apologia online.

[00:39:03] One of my children did physics and chemistry. And you even order the kits and do the experiments. There's Apologia. There's Memoria Press. Then there's also prerecorded videos through BJU Homeschool Online. And they have some wonderful videos where they, it comes with the online videos where there's 180 videos. They give you a book.

[00:39:33] They give you the activities manual. They have an online charting system. I mean, if it gets messed up, it's your fault because they give you so much material. They have a really good, solid Bible curriculum. We just finished the Old Testament and now we're doing the New Testament. So, yeah, there's all kinds of online prerecorded videos or live classes. If you feel like your kid needs the accountability,

[00:39:59] particularly I've had three of my children do a live class for writing because I feel like this is one area that can really slip in homeschooling. There's just a lot of worksheets and things like that. And sometimes, personally, I let the writing slip through the cracks. So what I would do is about 14, 15 is that the kids would take an online IEW class, which is Institute for Excellence in Writing. And one day a week there would be a live class with the teacher,

[00:40:29] and they would go over the assignment, go over the writing, and then they would work on it during the week. So I would encourage that. Don't be afraid to look online. And, you know, if money is an issue, you know, just there's church groups. Our co-op is $200 a year for all of our kids. So not bad. That's incredible. Hold on right there, ladies. We'll be back. One more segment. You want to homeschool, kindergarten, that's easy.

[00:40:57] What about getting them into college if you want to go that route? We'll talk about that next week. I've met a lot of great people throughout TPC's 20-year run, and one of the very first was Michael Gaddy. He was down on the border with the Minutemen Project back in those days, calling into the studio from a payphone with live reports. He was fighting to preserve our nation then, and he still is. Let me ask you something. Does true history matter to you? Would you like to know authentic history or what is taught in government schools and universities? The choice is yours.

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[00:43:27] It's beautiful music. It's a beautiful life. It has been the best life. It really has. This whole group of people we've met as a result of doing this since I entered adulthood, and I can't count Kim and her husband and her family amongst the creme de la creme, the exemplars of this whole thing that we would present to you as this is why we do what we do, and this is why you should do similarly.

[00:43:56] It's just been a wonderful life. It really has been. The only thing that I am a little bit sad about in my life is that it does, we are getting older now, and there just never seems to be enough time, and I never want it to end. I never want it to end, but we'll be here together for as long as we can be. Right, Kim? That is the thing. If we could just magically have more time, I totally second that.

[00:44:25] It feels like yesterday we were meeting you guys, and we had, I think, two little babies, and now we blink, and we're becoming the old people at the party, but let's not talk about that. No, you know, it is a blink. I mean, that seems like nothing. That seems like less than yesterday when we took that picture. You remember that picture that I'm talking about, you and your husband and your first couple of kids, just me and Danny, and we all looked like babies.

[00:44:54] We all looked like babies, and then now here we are. Boy, and I wish I could wear that same, if I could only wear those same pants again, James. If I could only be 20 pounds lighter, too, that would just be my life. It would be amazing. Now, that's nonsense because I've seen both of you all. I mean, listen, we're all very, very handsome and beautiful, but I will say this, though, about how much homeschooling has changed, and we've got to get into how you get these kids into college if they want to go there.

[00:45:23] Now, if you don't want to go there, you're probably ahead of the curve. Thankfully, ours does not want to go. I want my daughters to marry well and to begin to have families and raise them exactly as we have raised them. My son will have to work, unfortunately, but there's always trade school for that. But if you do want to go to college, we'll talk a little bit about that. But I would just say there was something I was going to say. Oh, I would say.

[00:45:46] So I went to this private elite prep school for my first 10 years, and it was great. It was a wonderful experience. I loved it. But my parents decided to homeschool the last couple of years. And when you started homeschooling in the mid-'90s, I mean, it was a different experience. I mean, it really was like the goths and the freaks were the people that you saw there at the homeschooling building. But then even by the time my wife graduated, when did you graduate? So she homeschooled her last couple of years. I don't know what year that was.

[00:46:17] I did my last two years of homeschool in one. Like, I graduated a year early. You looked really good. By the way, you looked really good on your graduation. All right, 2003. Is that right? It was an already totally different scene there with people like you graduating from homeschooling in 03. I used Gateway, which is another option. That's if you're local to Memphis. Nobody else is going to understand that. Yeah, they're not nationwide. But yeah, if you're a local listener, you'll know what Gateway is.

[00:46:46] Anyway, but let's get into college. So if you need to go to college, and some guys will. If you want to be, you know, a doctor, an engineer, you want to be anything other than trades. And we need the trades, and people will always need trades, and that is a great way to go. But you want to go into college. Let's talk about that, Kim. Applying for college as a homeschooler, people would say that's frowned upon. Not so much, right? Yeah. They prefer schoolers.

[00:47:16] Yeah, it was actually a really easy process. One of our sons, he went through college, and he graduated. And he just went in, took the ACT, and you just submit the ACT. We didn't even have to. I mean, because he, okay, I will say this. When you go the junior college, then to the four-year college pipeline, at least for us, we just had already that ACT and the junior college.

[00:47:43] And we actually never had to submit a high school transcript. But if you do, there's online forms where you can do that as well. But for us, it was mainly just he took the ACT, and then he went for affordability, did, clipped out of a lot of things as well, where he took the test and got college credit, went to junior college, and then went on to the four-year college to get his degree.

[00:48:12] And so it was really a pretty easy process. I wouldn't have people afraid of that. Just make sure you know your, if there's the particular college your child is looking into, just see what they require. And in high school, it's a good idea to begin to just take notes, you know, of what they've taken through 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th grade, and their rough, you know,

[00:48:38] what their grades were, and be willing to submit a transcript if that is requested. So, Danny, this is something that you've had experience with recently as well, and that is, well, not quite college applications, because our oldest is only 16, but dual enrollment. And we have a goddaughter who's a little bit older than our oldest daughter who has experience with this as well, and she just graduated a year early. And we were, yeah, so talk about dual enrollment and the whole college.

[00:49:07] The idea that homeschoolers can't get into college is, that's just not the case. But go ahead. Yeah, it's not true. Dual enrollment, yeah, no, it's not. I feel like it's no different than anybody else. Perhaps even easier. I mean. So, dual enrollment is a class that you can take. I'm not sure the rules everywhere, but here you have to be a junior. So, your junior and senior year, and they go by your GPA.

[00:49:33] I think it's if you have a 2.0 or higher, or. Because 2.0 means you show up. Yeah, exactly. So, I mean, basically anybody can go. Or have that ACT score, which we just had a good GPA. Anyway. So, it's just a college course that counts while you're still in high school.

[00:49:58] And you get credits that go towards your college career if you choose to continue on the college path. But for us, we just used it to either pile up our high school credits and graduate early, which our goddaughter did. Or just use that to get quicker credits. They count for more in dual enrollment.

[00:50:23] And it's just a class that you can go to either online or in person, depending on how they're giving that class out. And you just go with your regular college class. So, it doesn't, yeah. You can get into college. Not only will you get into college, you'll get into college and prosper. I mean, we've tried to cover as much as we can in the confines of Commercial Talk Radio Tonight. With Dani, my wife, and Kim, a dear good friend. She and her husband, her whole entire family.

[00:50:53] We have talked about not just the why, but the how to homeschool, the process for registering, pulling your kids out of public or private schools if you need to. Choosing curriculum, getting involved in co-ops, tutorials, reporting grades, schools at multiple grade levels. Kim touched on that. Umbrella organizations, if your state requires it. Or the Homeschool Legal Defense Association, always a good idea to enroll in that. Applying for college and dual enrollment options. Dani's raising her hand here. All right, very quick.

[00:51:21] I do want to say, again, for those who are just getting started, not to be overwhelmed by all this future talk. But homeschooling can be very simple. And if you're overwhelmed by. Year to year. Year to year. And if you're overwhelmed by which curriculum to choose, you are free to text me, email, whatever. I can help as much as I can, but it can be as simple as a book off of Amazon.

[00:51:45] Sam's Club has a ton of educational books to start off, you know, as low as pre-K. Or toddlers. Dry erase boards from the dollar store. I mean, literally. If you have the will and the desire to homeschool, you can homeschool. Kim, final word to you. Well, yeah. And just to piggyback off on what Dani is saying, also remember, when your kid is in kindergarten and first grade, they don't have to do a million extracurricular activities.

[00:52:13] Don't feel like you have to join a co-op or they're going to be a freak when they're six years old. Or they're going to be a freak. I mean, it is okay to be at home with that child and bond with that child and take the kid to the grocery store. Don't feel pressure to keep up with the Joneses or to have to answer to the in-laws. Just spend time with that kindergartner. It is so precious. And before you know it, your kid will be graduating from college like mine has. And you won't even know how that happened.

[00:52:43] That's so true. Well, we want to give a big shout out to our newest affiliate in Maryville, Tennessee. And to Harry, the program director there, for taking us on. And even though she told me not to give her any acknowledgement tonight, we know that our friend Carol had a hand in that. And we thank her for that.

[00:53:05] And as we continue to spread the word, whatever it may be, politically, culturally, practically, there's nothing more practical than what you can do. Right here at our home, on our wall, the most important work you will ever do is within the walls of your own home. And that is so true. And that's where civilizations spring from. They spring from the womb. They spring from the home. They spring from our families.

[00:53:32] And if we're ever going to take this country back, it's going to be one family at a time and one home at a time. And this is where it starts. Right, Kim? Absolutely. All you can do is your very best and do your duty in all things. You cannot do more. You should never wish to do less. I believe that's a Robert E. Lee quote. It's a beautiful quote. We should all try to do our duties. That is exactly a Robert E. Lee quote. And by the way, I'll be taking my kids on a little film trip next month.

[00:54:02] Or actually, later this month. I forget, we're already in August. Later this month, we're going to be going up and visiting Robert E. Lee's grade in Lexington, Virginia. So that's a homeschool field trip you won't get at any public school. I can promise you that. Not even in Lexington, Virginia. Well, thank you, Kim, for all of your wisdom and your encouragement and support throughout the years of our own homeschooling journey. You gave Kim a lot of credit for her own. I mean, she is the reason that I was able to have the confidence. You felt confident in doing that. Yes, to homeschool.

[00:54:31] The desire was there, but she gave you the wish. She was the catalyst for me, so thank you. For David Zetti. Thank you. Keith Alexander. For Kim. For my wife. One of the sweetest people. I'm your host. We'll talk to you next week. Good night, everybody. God bless you. Thank you.