What if one of the most powerful things we can give our kids is freedom from pressure?

In this episode, Wendy sits down with veteran educator and homeschool mentor Julie Ross to talk about how to opt out of pressure-filled schooling, whether your kids are in homeschool, public school, private school, or somewhere in between. Together, they explore how fear, performance, and constant pressure can steal the joy from learning, and what it looks like to create an educational life that feels more peaceful, connected, and developmentally aligned.

Julie shares wisdom from more than 30 years in education, including her experience as a public school teacher, private school founder, homeschool hybrid leader, curriculum creator, and homeschool mom of five. Wendy also shares her own story of choosing a lower-pressure path inside the public school system and how that shift changed the trajectory of her daughter’s school experience.

Inside this conversation, you’ll hear:

• Why slowness and unstructured play are essential for healthy development
• How parental pressure quietly shapes the emotional climate of learning
• Why resistance doesn’t always mean something is wrong
• How to replace control with connection, creativity, and partnership
• What it looks like to trust your child’s pace without becoming permissive
• How to think more wisely about screens, technology, and real learning

If school has become a source of stress in your home, this episode will encourage you to step back, breathe deeper, and remember that education doesn’t have to come at the expense of your child’s joy, mental health, or connection with you.

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Episode Highlights:

• A slow childhood is not a wasted childhood. Unstructured play, rest, and room to grow are part of healthy development.
• Pressure often starts in the parent long before it shows up in the child.
• Kids can feel our anxiety, even when we don’t say it out loud.
• Resistance doesn’t always mean you’re doing something wrong. Sometimes it simply means the work is hard.
• Learning becomes more powerful when we replace control with partnership.
• We can hold firm boundaries and still stay connected, creative, and compassionate.
• Trusting a child’s pace is different from neglect. You still provide the feast, while allowing growth to unfold in its own timing.
• Real education is bigger than grades, tests, and checklists. It’s about developing a full human being.
• Technology can be a tool, but it should not replace deep thinking, conversation, books, and real-life learning.
• When parents do their own healing work, they create a calmer, safer atmosphere for learning to flourish.

Resources Mentioned:

Find Julie on Instagram

Julie’s website

Julie’s podcast

Wendy on The Feast of Life

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Unable to listen, or prefer to read along? Here’s the transcript!

Wendy Snyder:

Well, hello families, and welcome back to a new episode of the Fresh Start Family Show. We are so happy that you are here today. I am thrilled to be here with Miss Julie Ross. Welcome to the show, Julie.

Julie Ross:

Thank you, Wendy, for having me. This is so fun.

Wendy Snyder:

Yay! Today we’re going to be talking about how to opt out of pressure-filled schooling. Julie, I can’t wait to get your wisdom into the ears of our listeners and our viewers today.

My intention for this conversation is to hold space for both the homeschool moms, which you have so much wisdom and expertise to share with us there, and also bring in your wisdom to encourage the moms with kids in traditional schooling.

That was my story. I can’t believe my daughter is almost 18 years old, Julie. She turns 18 in like a month. I’m like, how? How? God, please slow down time.

But I really want us to talk about taking the pressure out of schooling. I thought we could tie in all the elements. You are such a beautiful light in the homeschool world, Julie, so would you introduce yourself and tell listeners what you spend your days doing, what your community looks like, and how you see homeschooling in the beautiful way that you do?

Julie Ross:

Yeah, absolutely. And I love that because I think this topic ties into all educational options.

I’ve actually been in education for over 30 years, which makes me sound really old, doesn’t it? I know, right? How is it even possible? I mean, I’m only like 35. People watching this on YouTube are laughing.

I’ve been in education for a long time. I was a former elementary public school teacher. I helped start a private Christian school. Then I helped start a homeschool hybrid school where students go two days a week and are homeschooled the other days. And I’ve also been homeschooling my own children for over 20 years.

I have five kids. Two are out of college now and are adults. Then I have a 17, 16, and 15-year-old that I’m still homeschooling. So I’ve been in multiple educational realms.

Through my work in homeschooling, about 10 years ago, I started publishing what I was doing at home with my kids. I created a curriculum called A Gentle Feast. It’s for grades one through 12. It uses real books, real-life experiences, and real conversations.

I’ve gotten to meet hundreds of parents across the country and have these conversations about what it means to be educated and how we can go about educating our kids differently. So it really does run the gamut of parents all over the place. Wherever you find yourself and your children, I’ve been in your shoes and I’ve had a conversation around it. So I love that we’re getting to chat about that today. That’s just really fun.

Wendy Snyder:

So cool. Five kiddos, and all of those beautiful ways to be an educator. How cool.

Yeah, I think there’s this beautiful question that we can ask. How do we look at schooling through the lens of what good things we want to come out of it? How do we want our children to thrive through these schooling experiences?

For me, taking the pressure off was one of the most beautiful memos I got very early on. When Stella went to kindergarten, I remember we were looking at private schools because we thought maybe we needed to send her to private school. We were scared she was going to get kicked out of kindergarten.

Stella was our strong-willed kiddo, and she’s the reason I’m an educator. We were so worried. Is she going to struggle in school? Is she going to have behavioral problems? So we thought we needed private school. We didn’t really even know about the homeschool world then, and honestly, I don’t even think I would have been a great fit for homeschooling. I always look at you homeschooling moms as queens. I’m good with kids, but you guys are incredible.

We ended up sending her to public school, and she did great. But those first few years were rocky because all of a sudden there was this focus on testing. They were concerned that she was on the 66th percentile for reading. Back then, and she’s almost 18 now, so that was a long time ago, they were forcing homework on the kids at night. They wanted them doing flashcards, I think they were called sight words.

They’ve changed the public school system a lot here in California since then, but we got the memo. My parenting teacher at the time said, “Hey, you need to watch the documentary Race to Nowhere.” That documentary changed our whole life. It taught us that we didn’t have to buy into this whole focus on testing and standardizing children and putting everyone at the same level.

There was also research showing that homework didn’t really help until much later, maybe around fourth grade. Now in our district here in California, I swear my kids barely had homework in high school. It’s crazy.

But back then we had to start having uncomfortable conversations with the teachers saying, “Hey, if these homework packets come back undone, just know this is what we’re focusing on. Health. Climbing trees. Healthy dinners.” We were already fighting over homework in preschool. Preschool. She had homework. There were tears and meltdowns at night, and we were like, this is not it.

We were so thankful we got the memo. Looking back, we walked in courageously and chose to be a little countercultural. We still have students all over America dealing with this same kind of thing. I think it’s lightened, but in the public school system, it’s still there.

So we walked in and said, “Hey, we’re going to do it differently.” Fast forward to first and second grade, and she started thriving. We never forced her to read at home. We just thought, let’s make it fun. Let’s make education enjoyable. Let’s help her fall in love with learning.

She ended up becoming a straight-A student. To this day, she’ll probably graduate with close to a 4.0. But there was never pressure. We’ve never checked their grades. We’ve never even learned how to use the system to check their grades online. The teachers always tried to teach us how, and we just never did it. If they didn’t do a project and got a bad grade, they dealt with it with the teacher and it just kind of cleaned itself up.

So I feel like we lived the pressure-free life from the public school side. Then when it comes to homeschooling, I see my students, and we have a lot of listeners who are homeschoolers, and there’s a lot of struggle. A lot of struggle. That’s why I was so happy to have you on, because they’re the ones who haven’t quite gotten the memo on how to release the pressure. They’re struggling. They’re trying to figure out how to do this without feeling like they’re fighting all day, or their kids don’t want to do the work.

So with that said, let’s tee up the conversation. Let’s talk about this concept of how we can opt out of pressure-filled schooling.

Our first point is the power of a slow childhood. So Julie, talk to us about what it means to give kids space to grow at their own pace, why slowness is a gift in today’s high-pressure world, and how things like overscheduling and performance-driven parenting hurt long-term connection.

Julie Ross:

Yeah. If you look at some of the top-ranked school systems, like Finland, which also ranks as one of the happiest countries in the world, you start to wonder if there’s a connection between schooling and how we develop as humans. Crazy idea, right? Maybe.

They don’t start formal schooling until age seven, and in the preschool years they spend 80 percent of their time playing, especially outside. And this is Finland, where it’s cold and snowy. That sounds absolutely miserable to me as a Southern girl, but still, that’s what they do.

Research has shown that one of the highest predictors of academic success is the ability to self-regulate. Children develop self-regulation through unstructured play. So it’s not a waste of time for young children to be outside playing. They learn how to emotionally self-regulate, how to resolve conflict with other children, how to use their imagination and creativity, and they develop gross motor skills.

It’s sad because some of the statistics are really staggering. MIT came out with a study showing that children now spend only an average of 12 minutes a day in unstructured outdoor play and almost 10 hours on screens.

You’re like, wow, what are we doing to the future?

A lot of it is that we all agree preschoolers should be outside making mud pies. We think that’s cute. But then once they hit five, we suddenly think, okay, now it’s time to get serious. Now you must sit. Now you must learn to read. But that’s not really developmentally appropriate.

Schools like Finland show us that waiting doesn’t harm a child’s academic ability later on. So if you’re able to wait, great. Again, not everyone is in a position to wait. But the educational philosophy I use in my homeschool curriculum is based on Charlotte Mason, who most people haven’t heard of. She lived in Victorian England. If you’re familiar with Maria Montessori, they actually lived at the same time.

Charlotte Mason recommended that children don’t begin formal learning until age six. So we keep getting more and more data proving what these educators and schools around the world have been saying for a long time.

It doesn’t matter if your baby was watching Baby Einstein or doing flashcards. I did all that stuff too because I thought, we have to do this or they won’t be ready. But really, the ability to go outside and play is what helps more than those videos or flashcards.

To me, a slow childhood means valuing unstructured play. That’s different from organized sports or activities. It means letting children have autonomy over what they want to do. I’m going to be the princess, you’re going to be the knight, and we’re going to build this whole world. Those are the kinds of experiences that give them skills they can’t get in organized activities.

So are you allowing your children to have that time? Do you have margin in your life for them to go outside and play?

It’s also a mentality shift as a parent. Childhood is not the time to build a resume. It is not a race to hit certain milestones. It is a beautiful gift in itself.

You were talking earlier about standardizing. I always say not all six-year-olds wear the same size shoe, so why do we expect all six-year-olds to be at the same reading level, math level, or cognitive level? It doesn’t make sense.

I think that denies the image of God in children. He has His own timing, His own pace, and His own plan for our kids. So when we allow them to grow slowly, slow doesn’t mean neglectful. I think people can misunderstand that and think it means, “I just let them do whatever and maybe they’ll learn to read eventually.” That’s not what I mean.

Slow is not pressure. Slow is providing the feast. That’s why I call my curriculum A Gentle Feast. You’re providing the opportunities. You’re reading the stories. You’re making time for outdoor play. You’re having the conversations. You’re listening to beautiful music. You’re giving them experiences in the community. You’re exposing your children to rich and beautiful truths.

You provide the feast, but your child is going to take from that and grow in their own unique way because they are a human being.

Wendy Snyder:

Yeah, I love that analogy so much. The whole idea of a gentle feast is just beautiful.

It reminds me of this pediatrician I heard speak years ago about helping kids eat healthier. She said, “Your job is to provide the healthy food. You’re in charge of that. Then they choose.” So if you’re buying the granola bars and the junk, that’s on you. But your role is to provide the feast and let them choose.

And I think what you’re saying fits so beautifully with schooling too. If you’re providing all these wonderful opportunities, the color, the richness, the stories, the music, the ideas, and if you’re enjoying learning yourself, then often your kids will naturally follow suit, especially if the pressure isn’t there.

I’ve seen this especially with strong-willed kids. If they feel pressure, they dig their heels in. They resist the worksheets, the reading, finishing the book, all of it. But if they’re empowered and given some autonomy, some shared power, they often embrace cooperation so much more.

Do you see that in your community too?

Julie Ross:

Yeah, absolutely. And honestly, I saw it in my own family first.

For me, I had to release the pressure I was putting on myself. I think that’s huge. A lot of the moms I work with, and you can tell me if you see this too, were the good girls in school. We got our worth through grades, teacher approval, and performance.

Then as adults we have to undo all of that and realize our worth comes from being made in God’s image and being unconditionally loved. We don’t actually have to perform to be worthy.

But then we put all of that on homeschooling. Now the performance isn’t, “I got an A in biology.” It’s, “I raised amazing children.” So now motherhood and homeschooling become the place where we try to prove ourselves.

That pressure creates so much anxiety. And because I’m the one teaching it, I felt like, if they’re not successful, it’s my fault. If they don’t learn, it’s on me. But that’s not true.

Our responsibility is to cultivate faithfulness and be good stewards of what God has given us, not to control the outcome. The outcome belongs to Him.

Our children aren’t our projects. They’re people. When we can love them for who they are right now and not just for who we hope they become someday, it changes everything.

Children are mirrors. They can sense our anxiety, even if we never say a word. They pick up on our body language, our sighs, our eye rolls, our tone. I used to wake up already feeling this intense pressure. I’d think, I hope he doesn’t have a tantrum over handwriting today. What if she refuses to do the reading assignment? I was carrying all that before we even started.

Then when a meltdown happened over long division or a child threw a pencil because their cursive C didn’t look right, everything in me went into panic mode. I’d think, I’m failing my children. I’m not cut out for this. They’re never going to succeed. They’ll never learn how to read. It’s all my fault.

And because I felt that way, I would respond in ways that weren’t lovely or patient or helpful. Then it made us feel disconnected, and it also made my child feel like they weren’t good enough.

I could see it in their eyes. That deflated look of, “I’m trying.” And what was something not that big of a deal in my mind became such a huge deal that I was communicating, without saying it directly, that their school performance was affecting me as a person, our relationship, and whether or not I felt okay.

What changed was realizing that I didn’t need to fix everything out there. I needed to look at what was happening in here.

Wendy Snyder:

Yes. That inner critic and all those thoughts that were shaping the whole homeschool atmosphere.

Was there a moment where you finally saw it clearly, or was it more gradual?

Julie Ross:

I got a life coach. Coaching changed my life.

It took someone outside of me reflecting back what I was saying to myself. I couldn’t see it. It all felt so real and true. I think everyone needs someone who can look at the chaos in your brain and say, “Here’s what’s actually happening.”

That’s exactly what happened for me. I realized I was doing this. Then I started retraining my brain. I love that God allows us the ability to take our thoughts captive and to have that metacognition, that ability to think about our thinking. It’s amazing.

I started telling myself things like, “My child is developing at the perfect pace, in the perfect timing. I am the perfect person to be with this child right now.” I learned to be more present and stay with those uncomfortable feelings instead of pushing them away.

I used to just go in the kitchen and eat a donut and tell myself I was the world’s worst homeschool mom. Or I’d go scroll Instagram and see other moms with their cute little homeschool rooms and think, “I bet they’re not dealing with this.” Then of course I’d feel even worse.

Eventually I learned to just sit in the feeling. Of course this is hard. Of course I’m upset. I really care about this child. I really want them to learn and be successful. It makes sense that I would feel sad or scared or frustrated.

And if I keep telling myself this child is so hard or so challenging, of course I’m going to feel angry.

Wendy Snyder:

Yeah, and what’s cool is that you and I met in Kate Northrup’s world, where we’ve both gone deeper into nervous system healing and regulation.

Now we can see so clearly that it’s not just about telling ourselves to think differently. It’s about understanding that our bodies are reacting too. We’ve had these beliefs, fears, and habits for years, sometimes decades. So when we feel fear or anxiety or self-criticism, it makes sense. Our body is trying to keep us safe.

But once we can understand that and bring in some embodied practices, we can come back to, “I’m not failing. This does not define my goodness as a mom. I do have tools. I can work with this child.” That’s when the creativity comes back online instead of staying stuck in survival mode.

So how has learning more about the nervous system helped you as a homeschool mom and leader?

Julie Ross:

Because when you are dysregulated, you try to control. And as you know with your work around strong-willed kids, the more you try to control, the more they resist.

I felt like a drill sergeant all day long. Why aren’t you doing this? This was supposed to be done 15 minutes ago. You’re only on problem five. You should be on problem 20 by now. That’s what I sounded like.

And that was never my vision. The whole reason I homeschooled was because I wanted that cozy Little Women kind of life. I wanted us to have beautiful conversations and this sweet family atmosphere. Instead, I was barking orders all day. That was not what I wanted.

Once I learned to calm myself and release the pressure, learning actually became fun. And like you were saying, once we calm our nervous system, we can get back into the creative, flexible part of our brain.

Then I could think, okay, that lesson didn’t work. What if we read this story on the trampoline? What if we review math facts while you swing? What if we go for a walk right now?

I became much more creative and much better at meeting each child where they were while still helping them do the school things I wanted them to do. But it wasn’t from a place of, “You’re going to do this and you’re going to do it now and sit there until it’s finished.” It was, “How can I partner with you here?”

And when I felt playful, curious, and full of wonder, that was contagious. Our kids pick up on that. It changed the whole atmosphere.

I want to read you this quote from Charlotte Mason because I think it fits beautifully. She says:

“Let not the nervous, anxious, worried mother think this easy, happy relationship with her children is not for her. She may be the best mother in the world, but the thing that her children will get from her in these moods is a touch of her nervousness, mostly catching of complaints. She will find them fractious, rebellious, unmanageable, and will be slow to realize that it is her fault, not the fault of her actions, but of her state.”

Wendy Snyder:

Yes. And that’s exactly what we’ve learned. I know words like “fault” can trigger people, so let’s all just breathe there. We’re talking about responsibility, not shame.

But she is accurate. It’s the state. And I hear this so often in my own work too. It’s like, wow, my nervous system, my state, my pressure, my inner urgency is actually shaping this whole environment.

You and I have both learned that. And now we can see that when we are able to regulate and get back into a more resourced place, all of a sudden the path opens up. The relationship opens up. The creativity opens up.

And that really takes us into this third point, the self-fulfilling prophecy of pressure. How control leads to resistance, how that deepens disconnection, and how we replace pressure with partnership and performance with presence.

So as we riff on that, tell me how you have leaned into trusting your child’s process and God’s timing.

I remember one of my early teachers saying to me so beautifully, “Wendy, I want you to trust in the humanity of your child.” That was huge for me. You don’t have to shape them into a good human. You provide. You educate. You empower. You get the coaching. You do your work. And then you trust the timing.

So how have you leaned into trusting your kids’ process and God’s timing together?

Julie Ross:

I think it started with learning to trust God’s timing in myself.

For a long time I was frustrated with myself. Julie, you should be further along by now. You should have learned this by now. You’ve read all the books. Come on. That inner critic was so loud.

When I could start to trust my own process and stop feeling like I had to perform perfectly, only then could I extend that same grace to my children.

I know for myself how hard it is to change. I know how hard it is to build a new habit, and I’m a grownup. So why would I expect my child to change perfectly by tomorrow? Of course that’s not realistic.

I remember I hired a trainer at the gym and she had me doing some exercise. I don’t remember what it was, but she wanted me to do 10 reps. I got to seven and was like, “I can’t do this anymore. This is too hard. Do I really have to do three more?” She just looked at me and said, “Yeah. And I’ll sit here until you do it.”

That was such a profound moment for me because I thought, that’s how I want to be for my kids. I want to be the one saying, “I’m here. I’m beside you. I believe in you. You can do the 10 reps.”

That’s the coach perspective. My trainer didn’t take it personally. She wasn’t thinking, I must be a terrible trainer because Julie only wants to do seven reps. No. She was just doing her job. “I believe in you. Let’s go.”

That helped me so much. If you can become your child’s coach and partner instead of their evaluator, it changes everything.

And honestly, learning is hard. It just is. I tried learning guitar a couple years ago. It was so hard. I gave up. For nine months I struggled. I thought, why am I not magically Fleetwood Mac already? I’m a grownup. But it didn’t work that way.

So how much harder is it for my kids to learn long division or reading or whatever they’re working on? Their brains aren’t even fully developed yet.

And that helped me get more present and ask, “What does this feel like for you right now? What does it feel like to not understand this concept yet?” Then just listen.

Wendy Snyder:

Yes. That is such a good tool. Listening intently. Letting them talk more than you.

And what you’re describing is exactly what we got to practice with Stella last year. She was in AP Psychology, in the middle of recruiting for Division I beach volleyball, and she was already stressed. Within the first few weeks, she was basically failing the class. She was panicking.

Because of this work and all the nervous system stuff we’ve invested in and practiced, we were able to come beside her and say, “Okay, let’s signal safety. Here are some options. Let’s go talk to the counselor.”

We had to advocate hard to even get in with the counselor. It wasn’t easy. But once we did, we were able to sit with her while she sorted through her options. Should I drop the class? Do I want to push through? Will it get better? Do I need a tutor? The counselor helped too.

And we were able to take the pressure off. In our culture there’s this gold standard of getting the perfect GPA, getting into the right school, all of that. But we were able to say, “Honey, if you get a W on your transcript, it’s going to be okay. If this drops your GPA, it’s going to be okay. We care more about your mental health than this class.”

That gave her space to decide. And what ended up happening? She chose to stay in it, and she ended up with an A or A-plus in that class. We were like, how did that even happen?

But it wasn’t pressure. It was, “If you need to drop it, drop it. It’s okay.” And I think especially with strong-willed kids, they blossom in that kind of environment. When they feel that safety and shared power, their ears perk up and they often choose the harder, growth-filled path for themselves.

Julie Ross:

Right. And that goes back to what we were saying. Parents often think if a child is resisting, that means they’re doing something wrong or they need to make it fun or fix it somehow.

I think it’s really important to say this: just because someone resists something doesn’t mean it’s your problem to fix. Sometimes your child just needs you to sit there with them in it.

That builds the resilience you’re talking about. It’s what allowed your daughter to stick with that class. She had years of you showing up that way before that moment.

And honestly, if a child is struggling, that doesn’t mean, “Let them off the hook.” It means, “This is hard. I know it’s hard. You can do hard things. I’m with you.” Then from that place, yes, you can get creative. Maybe let’s take a break. Let’s get a snack. Let’s come back later. Maybe let’s do it in a different setting. But you’re still helping them build the muscle of staying with hard things instead of just escaping.

That matters so much. Because if they learn, “Whenever this is hard, my mom swoops in and removes it,” then we’re not setting them up well either.

Wendy Snyder:

That is such an important distinction. The pendulum swing is real. Permissive looks like, “Fine, you don’t have to finish it.” The authoritarian side looks like, “If you don’t do it, this bad thing is going to happen.” But the middle ground is, “This is hard, and we’re still going to get it done. Let’s just get creative.”

I love that so much.

One last thing before we wrap, and this wasn’t on our outline, but I’d love to hear your thoughts. How does your homeschool community deal with the reality of technology always being there now?

I feel like all kids know the screen is waiting. Whether it’s an iPad game, friends online, gaming, whatever it is, especially as they get older. How do you help your community stay firm and kind with those boundaries? Because it seems like if there’s a screen nearby, it’s so much easier for kids to reach for that instead of doing hard academic work.

Julie Ross:

Yeah. It really can go both ways.

Jonathan Haidt talks about this too, how we’ve started gamifying education. A lot of people think if we make all learning fun and screen-based and dopamine-filled, then kids won’t resist and they’ll learn more. But what’s really happening is they’re getting addicted to the dopamine of a screen, and they’re often not actually learning.

So I cringe when I see these homeschool ads where a family is traveling the country in an RV and they say, “We’re done with school in two hours because our kid just sits on a screen, watches videos, and answers questions.” I think, but that’s not actually an education.

That goes back to the bigger question: what is education? What is learning?

To me, education is not checking boxes. It’s not, “We did fifth-grade science because we watched videos and answered questions.” Education is becoming a magnanimous human being who knows a lot and cares a lot. It’s about critical thinking, empathy, compassion, creativity, all of that.

So yes, I think there’s a pendulum. One side says all screens are bad. The other side says all learning needs to be gamified and screen-based to be effective. I don’t think either extreme is helpful.

For me, I want my kids to know technology is a tool for learning. But primary learning still comes through books and conversation.

That might mean reading on a Kindle sometimes, sure. But most of the time, it’s real books. And then technology becomes a tool to showcase or build upon what they’ve already learned.

For example, today my son was drawing a comic-book version of Beowulf, then making a CapCut voiceover video to explain the hero’s journey in the story. That’s awesome. He’s using technology as a creative tool after doing the learning.

That feels very different than passively consuming videos all day.

Wendy Snyder:

I love that distinction. That’s so helpful.

And I always tell my community too, there’s just something about TV shows and movies that feels so different from these interactive devices. There’s more social context. There’s more peripheral vision. There’s more shared experience. It just doesn’t feel like the same kind of hijack.

Julie Ross:

Yes. And Jonathan Haidt talks about that too. Watching a movie as a family is different. There’s a storyline. Your child has to track it and think about it. You can talk about it together. It’s not the same as a constant dopamine hit from short-form videos, games, or endless clicks.

I think of it more like cooking. The stove can be dangerous too, but we teach our kids how to use it safely and over time they become capable. I want my kids to learn how to use technology that way, not just be ruled by it.

Wendy Snyder:

So good. Julie, you are such a delight. I love chatting with you. I love hanging out with you. I wish we lived closer. You’re in South Carolina, I’m in California, and I just adore spending time with you. You are such an infectious, joyous person.

Tell listeners where they can come find you, where they can learn more about you. You not only have curriculum, but I believe you also have a membership and you do some life coaching too, right?

Julie Ross:

Yep. My life coach changed my life, so I went and became a certified life coach myself. I mainly coach homeschool moms because I felt like that was a group that really needed more support. There are people who do consulting, but coaching gets to the heart of what’s going on.

My main curriculum is at agentlefeast.com.

I also have my own podcast called The Feast Life, where I talk about this concept of a feast that we’re providing for our children, but also just life and growing as a mom. I talk a lot there about coaching principles too.

And yes, my membership is part of that whole world as well.

Wendy Snyder:

So good. Julie, thank you so much for being here.

Listeners and viewers, go find Julie in all the places. Make sure you look into the incredible resources she has to make your homeschool life so much easier and more joyful.

Julie Ross:

Thank you.