Episode 524 Natalie Mack How Military and Veteran Families Make Homeschool Work Transcript
This transcript is from episode 524 with guest Natalie Mack.
Scott DeLuzio: [00:00:00] Are you feeling like you’re missing precious time with your kids because of work stress or just a daily grind of military life? Well, if so, you’re not alone as a veteran or a service member. You’ve already sacrificed so much, and now you want to show up for your family in a way that feels meaningful and connected and just imagine.
Being able to build deeper bonds, give your kids personalized education and keep some stability. No matter how often life moves you around that dream, uh, is more possible than you think. In this episode, Natalie Mack shares her experience of 23 years of homeschooling across multiple duty stations. Yes, even overseas.
And she breaks down the unique challenges military families face with education, how homeschooling can be both empowering and flexible, and why it might just be the tool you didn’t know you were looking for. I. And whether you’re considering homeschooling or you’re knee deep in it already, this is the, [00:01:00] uh, conversation that brings clarity, encouragement, and real world tips that will help you along your journey.
But before we dive in, I also wanna take a moment to raise awareness for something deeply important to our community.
The Global War on Terrorism Memorial Foundation. This organization is working to build a permanent national memorial in Washington DC to honor our service members, the families and civilians impacted by the global War on terrorism. If you want to learn more or find out how you can support the mission, visit GWOTmemorialfoundation.org.
Now, let’s get into today’s episode.
Scott DeLuzio: Natalie, welcome to the show. I am so glad to have you here. Uh, hopefully you can share some insights with us on military homeschooling and the, the type of stuff that, that, you’ve [00:02:00] gone through. But, um, looking forward to this
Natalie Mack: I am too.
Thank you so much. I’m excited to be here.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, absolutely.
Um, let’s, uh, kind of just take.
A little kind of step back and see kinda where your journey Um, what, what got you motivated to start homeschooling within, uh, you know, your, your family and, you know, especially, you know, in context of family. Um, what was the, the motivation there for and, how did you kind of get started with that?
Natalie Mack: So that’s a good question. Um, we’ve been homeschooling 23 plus years all within a military context and, uh, when we started right before nine 11, so that’s a signature date there.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.
Natalie Mack: Uh, we, prior to that, our. Children that were school aged. We had three children at the time. Our two daughters were in a private Montessori in Maryland, and we were in between military, if that makes sense.
My husband had served active duty intel in the army, had had uh, gotten out to [00:03:00] pursue ministry. And so we were in that space living as civilians in Maryland. And, uh, prior to coming in, so that summer we had decided, and he had an opportunity to come back in in the Navy as a chaplain. And, we we had met several families who were homeschooling and we really liked.
What we saw from their families had this amazing time bonding together and learning
together and exploring life together.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.
Natalie Mack: uh, but we had this great private Montessori experience that we really, really liked, And, everything seemed perfectly fine. So the first got were to California and we really felt like, oh, this is a pivoting point.
This is a time that we might want to homeschool. Another factor was that our uh, youngest daughter, um, was uh, at one point in daycare and we just felt as if, um, we didn’t have enough time with her. I TEDx on the impact of homeschooling [00:04:00] and it talks our journey um, and how. How our youngest daughter’s, uh, preference for this person really was just, uh, something that just kind caused us to pause.
And it was good, for your children at a end if they’re in daycare to, to daycare provider. But we felt that there was a little bit more bonding then, then should have been with with me.
And, and so all of those factors came together and we found
ourselves embarking
upon homeschooling
Scott DeLuzio: Mm-hmm.
Natalie Mack: looked back. And
it’s been an incredible journey.
Scott DeLuzio: That’s awesome. And
uh, you know, part of the reason why I wanted to have you on the show to talk about this is because homeschooling has just kind of blown up, I think recently, especially post covid uh, time period where, you know, more and more kids were at home. It wasn’t necessarily homeschooling, they were doing school, but just at home.
Uh, if that, that makes sense.
Natalie Mack: School at home we call it.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, exactly. And you know,
again, nothing wrong with any of the education choices that you choose, but there’s, there’s pros and [00:05:00] cons to a lot of it. And I know when I was younger and even, you know, people older than than me uh, if someone was homeschooled, it was almost looked at as, uh, like a strange thing.
Like, Like, what’s wrong with this picture everybody seemed to go to either public school or school, uh, you know, some sort of school like that. Um, and. It’s okay. Well why, why do you have to be homeschooled? Why, why, why aren’t going to school like the rest of us? Like what’s, and as a Like things that are different, they, they strike you as odd and it’s like, well, what’s wrong with that person?
You know?
Natalie Mack: exactly
Scott DeLuzio: what’s wrong with me or anything like that. ’cause obviously I’m perfect, I’m
normal, you know, and that’s a kid’s mind. Right? Um, and I’m not saying that there was anything wrong with, you know, the way. I went to school, but you know, my wife and I, uh, we started homeschooling, uh, for while. And uh, wife had some medical issues and we, we had, didn’t really other choice but to send our kids public school for, half.
And when they were at school, [00:06:00] we just, we felt the same thing that you were, experiencing the. We weren’t as close with our kids anymore, and we’re, we felt like we were just kind of growing apart.
And, I think, you know, especially young kids, that’s kind of an important time period in their life and an
important time period to connect, make connections and bond and, and things like that. And some people have that argument of, oh, well, they don’t know how to socialize and make friends. Our kids had so many friends um, you know, growing up and, uh, there, there’s, even, even still, there’s these groups that you.
Get a part of, and it just is such a, um, uh, you know, environment where just so many people come, come together and
hanging out and, you know, go, going out to the parks or, you having fun, but also learning at the same time. Um, and, and so it’s, it’s.
Gosh, it, it’s, uh, just a different way of, of looking at it. I probably, you know, 30 years ago, to ask me when you, when you grow up, when are you gonna have, uh, are you gonna homeschool I’d probably be like, uh, I doubt it. Like, why would I, you know?
Natalie Mack: [00:07:00] Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: but, but, but it’s, it’s just a different thinking.
So, um, from your experience,
um. With, with your children uh, going and I imagine there’s probably different duty stations as you’re moving around from place to place. What were some of the challenges that you faced, uh, you know, as a family specifically when it came to homeschooling and, and What were some of the ways that you kind of navigated some of those challenges?
Natalie Mack: one of the most, and that’s good questions too. Definitely one of the most common. Uh, challenges that military families who choose to homeschool experience is navigating the new laws for the state that they to, and um, helping military families realize that. The laws you follow are not based on home of record. And so much in our life is home of record. And so you naturally, as a
family think, oh, I’m gonna homeschool based on my home of record. And
that’s not actually the law
Scott DeLuzio: Right.
Natalie Mack: to. Homeschool based on where your children physically reside [00:08:00] 30 days or more is a general rule. Um, and so when I say where your children physically reside, and someone may say, well, our children will be residing where we reside.
And we know in the military mostly that’s true, but there are some situations where someone could be a geo bachelor, right? And so you’re living in a different uh, place than where your sponsor is assigned. And so it’s really clear because homeschooling is about the children. really where they physically reside.
And so that’s a big challenge, is navigating the laws and recognizing that you need to research and find out what the new law is. And it’s not something that you have to dig and hunt. It’s very easy to find it. One of the sources is through an organization called
Home. School Legal Defense
Association.
I
wear one hat, uh, where I
Scott DeLuzio: I
Natalie Mack: for them part-time as the
military
Scott DeLuzio: outreach,
Natalie Mack: And
Scott DeLuzio: so
Natalie Mack: this podcast though, is not me
Scott DeLuzio: representing
Natalie Mack: I always have to put a disclaimer out there. This is me in another [00:09:00] capacity on the podcast, but I will shout them out because they do have uh, a legal page that you can reference as you’re a military family. You’re moving. Um, the other is. You know, what is it like homeschooling if you get orders overseas,
Scott DeLuzio: right.
Natalie Mack: what is that like And so that’s another of homeschooling, another journey where you don’t have to follow any particular laws if you are there on accompanied orders under, in a, you know, country that you have. The US has SOFA um, um, you know, in place with. And so those are the big things. The other piece, a lot of families think. military families and that stability. And that is still very true. But that doesn’t mean we don’t have adjustments similar to if we were not homeschooling, we still have to get adjusted to the new duty assignment, the new installation if
you’re on a base or even connected.
Um, and we have to
find our new homeschool community.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.
Natalie Mack: And it could be a homeschool co-op, it could be a homeschool support group. It could few families that [00:10:00] homeschool that you just do life together with. And so your friend, your, your children need to find their, their tribe and you as the homeschooling parent um, traditionally as a mom, but we know sometimes there’s dads that are homeschooling and so you just need to find your, and get reconnected.
And so those are some of is that, that every two or three years. We have to uh, find that new homeschool community and we have to make sure we’re following the law for that
new, for that new state.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. And you mentioned something
uh, earlier, and I, I understand, you know, each state is different and, and they’re all gonna have their, their own laws, but each country is going to be different. Um, I know there are some countries that are very, very much not friendly to homeschooling.
Natalie Mack: Yes.
Scott DeLuzio: And what are, what are some of there?
Like, I, I believe Germany is one of those countries where it’s very unfriendly to
uh, homeschoolers.
Natalie Mack: Mm-hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: do you navigate that? If you want to continue that, uh, if you happen to get stationed there.
Natalie Mack: Yeah, so the neat things [00:11:00] about being military is that if you get assigned to a country Germany, which you’re right, it’s illegal to homeschool in Germany, but being active duty military on orders, you’re in a different category. So we know that when we get orders overseas, there’s something called the status of forces agreement.
We call it sofa, SOF. Okay, and the sofa does not specifically address homeschooling, but what it does is it gives certain rights that you as an American in this particular country that they have the sofa agreement with. So say Germany, it gives you rights to proceed in life. As if you
were in the United States. That’s kind of the best way
to say it, specifically for education
Scott DeLuzio: purposes.
Mm-hmm.
Natalie Mack: so even though it’s illegal to homeschool, you are in a protected status just by benefit of being on orders. Now, I. If a family is overseas because their sponsor has orders there, but they were not on what we [00:12:00] call accompanied orders, which means that the order is, you know, military is very clear.
You get orders to a new assignment. It says if your family is coming, then that’s a accompanied. If they’re not. That it’s unaccompanied and we know some assignments are
unaccompanied, but families may say, wow, you’re going to Germany. That would be love. I would love to live in Germany,
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.
Natalie Mack: and explore.
But if you’re not on accompanied
orders, you’re in a different category. ’cause now you may be
subject to the laws of Germany that,
Scott DeLuzio: Uh.
Natalie Mack: that makes sense. And so the sofa covers people on orders and if a family’s not on, on the orders to be there, you just chose to live there with your, with your active duty member because of
course. You don’t wanna be separated,
Scott DeLuzio: Sure.
Natalie Mack: at the same time, you have to recognize that you may not be able to continue homeschooling. and so that’s where something like H-S-L-D-A does come in handy as well. And if you know that you can actually reach out to them and and look into what that looks like.
But in general, that’s the rule of [00:13:00] thumb is the sofa does allow you to go ahead and continue life as if you were in the United States
States with certain, certain caveats that don’t really apply to
education though.
Scott DeLuzio: Well, that’s,
uh, that’s something I was not familiar with.
Um, I, I, I just assume that um, like with the state laws, it kind of just, same thing applied to, you know, the, the other, uh, countries you just have to kind of follow their laws. And if it’s illegal to, homeschool in a country, then uh, it would be just illegal for everybody, including, yeah.
But, but I guess that, you know, according to this is not the case and that’s, that’s actually a really.
Natalie Mack: Italy, actually. We were in Southern Italy
and Naples and yes, plenty. It’s a large homeschooling overseas, large homeschooling community
Scott DeLuzio: Excellent.
Natalie Mack: very large. And uh, of course Italy, Germany are the, the, you know, where we have the most,
um.
Scott DeLuzio: Mm-hmm.
Natalie Mack: and so you have larger community there, but definitely even, um, you know [00:14:00] this in families and, and they are I was just speaking with someone who was reaching out for support um, I. It’s been fascinating seeing it. And one of the other benefits overseas or Yeah, I think I would call it a benefit. For us it was a benefit, is that you have the ability to enroll in the DOD school and you can take up to three courses.
So if you are for maybe an advanced placement, what we call an AP course and um, you don’t wanna do one online ’cause there are plenty of opportunities to find an. AP course for homeschoolers online, but you might wanna in person, your student wants in person, then
you could check that DOD high school,
Scott DeLuzio: Okay,
Natalie Mack: And they can also um, participate in clubs and activities. And, uh, our children played on the, the high school, uh, soccer teams over in Italy. And great. Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: so there, there’s a lot of, Challenges that come with, with homeschooling?
Um, what, what are some of the, in your mind, some of the, the upsides, some of the biggest benefits [00:15:00] that you’ve seen for, you know, your children or, you know, even, even other children who were homeschooled in a uh, environment like this?
Um, you know, versus going to more traditional, you know, public or public education or even private schools.
Natalie Mack: Yeah, I, there are. Quite a few benefits in my mind, and I
will, I will put another caveat out here that I’m pro homeschooling and so
I’m not anti-public school.
Scott DeLuzio: Sure. Uh.
Natalie Mack: are homeschoolers who will not affiliated at all with the public school and, and I respect their rights, but, um, to feel that way, but I’m not anti, but I have seen so many benefits from my own.
Experience, experience with our family. Um, I may have mentioned, I’m not sure after, you know, we, I mentioned we’ve been homeschooling for 23 years. We have five children. We’re in our last year, so our is heading off to college in the fall, but the other four have already finished college.
So they were homeschooled to college, have now graduated college, and we have this one last fifth child to go The benefits that I’ve seen for our family, I’ve seen them for other families as well. [00:16:00] The ability to really dig deep into what you’re really passionate about, what you’re interested in. We have this thing called time flexibility as homeschoolers, so that means that we can manage our time in a way that would be really not even possible if your student is in a traditional brick and mortar school, because the time is set.
So for us, our children can get up earlier, get. The amount of schoolwork they need to get done for the day. And then we can switch gears into passions and interests. It could be, you know, something conservation wise. It could be volunteering, it could be going on a field trip, it could be going um, you know, doing errands together and giving your children an opportunity to learn how to do daily activities of living out in community, you know, from.
Saying, Hey, you know, go in and, and take this into the post office and you know, check on this and ask this question. Or um, go into, you know, the grocery store and we’re gonna calculate like about how much our groceries are gonna cost. We’re gonna do some practical [00:17:00] math. And it is just, you know, to really take that time and you get to know your children in such a unique way.
It’s really, I think, challenging. With the amount of time you have left. At the end of the day, if a child is in a brick and mortar, most of that’s focused on getting the school, the homework done, dinner, you know, baths and, and tucked into bed for the most part. And so when you look at it, you just have the weekend and most Saturdays right, and even Sundays are
packed with, if you’re doing extras like scouts or.
or something like that. So
Scott DeLuzio: Right.
Natalie Mack: it’s a, lot of uh, time available now. So those are some of the benefits that, that I’ve seen. Some of the, some of the challenges is, you know, having the confidence to know
that you can be successful, that families do homeschool
to college and kids do do very
Scott DeLuzio: Mm-hmm.
Natalie Mack: that colleges do look.
For homeschooled students because they’ve seen how well they manage in school with managing their time, with being very independent [00:18:00] learners. Um, you know, but you have to, as a parent be able to say, okay, I know this is going to work. And so part of what I like to as me as a, as a, as a, a seasoned homeschooler is to encourage families to say, you can look at our journey.
Yours may not look exactly that way. Like, your students may not be college bound as an. Example, but that doesn’t mean that it, you won’t have a successful homeschool experience because your children success is gonna be aligned with who they are, what they’re passionate about, what their skills are. So they might be choosing to enlist in um, our, our forces.
They could be choosing to do a gap year where they take off and, and they travel and experience life that way. might be going into a trade. Which is not college bound. Or maybe they’re saying, I don’t want a four year university. I wanna do a two year local community college. You know, get my feet wet, you know, get my confidence about doing college level work and all and, and in transition.
So, um, so some of the challenges is [00:19:00] just kind of navigating that and being confident as a homeschooling parent that you can do it.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, for sure. And I think one of the biggest benefits that you mentioned there is just being able to explore the passions or interests
of the, the students, of, of your children
because, um, if, like, like you were saying, the, a traditional school day, and again, I’m not anti. Any type of important
regardless of where it comes from.
So, so this is not me knocking public
school or, you know, private schools, anything like that. However, I will, I will say this, that I do.
I do realize that when my kids were, were in uh, public school, uh, they’d come home at the end of the day and yes, maybe there was homework or there they had, uh, you know, like a baseball practice school or, or something that. and time was limited where we, we had the opportunity to things outside of any of that. And [00:20:00] now that. My kids are home. They’ve been home for, you know, several years uh, doing homeschooling. And,
Natalie Mack: Mm-hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: the amount of time that we use to spend on, just call it school work, where
you’re, you’re, you’re doing your, your math and your science and your history and you’re, you’re filling out the, the worksheets and, and doing
all that kind of work. Um, it’s, it’s only a couple hours out of the day.
Natalie Mack: right.
Scott DeLuzio: really not that long.
Natalie Mack: It’s
Scott DeLuzio: then,
Natalie Mack: mm-hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: the rest of Is exploring other interests
or um, or things that. Like, like you were saying, going to the grocery store and calculating, you know, you know, when they’re, they’re younger, trying to get them to math
of, you know, how, how much do um, does all this stuff cost and how, how close are we, you know, at the end.
Um, you know, and then maybe even calculating the tax on the, the, total bill and, and, and those types of things. We can, we do that in a, like a real situation.
Um, and that that helps kind of drive home. Like, why am I. Doing this, [00:21:00] all this math. Like what, when am I ever gonna
use it? You know?
Natalie Mack: Exactly. Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: so, so that, that’s helpful. Right. But, you know, um, to me the biggest piece is exploring those passions because, uh, my, my, uh, two of my, boys, they are. Passionate about music, and they are guitars, piano, they’re, they’re, they have even programs on the computer where they’re creating their own music.
As a matter of fact, if
you listen to this episode and go back to the beginning, the intro music
and, uh, all that stuff that was written by my, my oldest son and, uh, and, so I’m, I’m using, I actually, I said, Hey, you know, I’m, I’m market for uh, some, some new music for this, this show. And, um. I said, here, here’s a challenge for you.
Go go out there and kind of listen other shows that, that are out there And, see, see what kind is out there and, and see if you can come up with something that’s unique. And I gave him a few guidelines and
everything and and uh, he did and he came out and, and I thought it came out great.
And so I’m like, hell yeah, I’m gonna use [00:22:00] this. You know, this is amazing. Um.
Natalie Mack: that’s awesome.
Scott DeLuzio: But, but that’s, again, that’s a real life thing.
Natalie Mack: Mm-hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: he made real life money because I paid him for, for doing. And, and he,
he, he was like, this, this is cool. Like, I
can do something with this. This isn’t just me, you know, fiddling around on the, the piano or, you know,
whatever.
And just playing for, you know, once when it’s done playing, you never hear it again
because it, the sound goes away, you know?
Um, this is, this is gonna be on, you know.
Many episodes and,
and you know, maybe I’ll, I’ll, I’ll refresh it someday too and he will update that as well, you
know, but but it’s, it, we wouldn’t have that opportunity.
Um, you know, I, I would’ve gone to some, you know, stock music site and paid, you know, $30 for a license to use somebody else’s music. And know that It’s not
as cool.
Natalie Mack: child the opportunity to say,
wow, you know, this is music that I, you know,
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.
Natalie Mack: you know, put together and, and, and, and it’s not just like you said uh, learning to play the [00:23:00] piano and then you’re done. It’s not like, oh, you know, okay, practice for 30 minutes. And it’s not, it’s no, there’s a purpose tied to
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.
Natalie Mack: the
piano and then
they got compensated, which, you know, all children are
like, that’s not a
bad deal at all.
Scott DeLuzio: Right, exactly. And
um,
Natalie Mack: you. I,
Scott DeLuzio: and, and, and
that’s a, that’s a thing that makes, makes it.
Uh, to me, uh,
important, uh, not, not because I, I benefited because I got music for my podcast. Like, I don’t, care that much about my, main goal, but my main goal was showing him, giving him the confidence that, hey, this is worth something.
Someone will actually pay you for it.
And it, it’s, uh, it’s Good work that you’re doing too. And, and, you know, encouragement to, to encourage him to keep on doing it. And, um, you know, and he does, keeps, he keeps creating stuff that’s, uh, I’m just amazed. Like, I don’t know where, you know, musical mind is just, just so amazing to me.
Just like just honed in on it and um, you know, and, and it’s just, it’s great. But, um, you know, I wanna, I wanna talk a little bit [00:24:00] about, um. You have a, a book, 101 for homeschoolers. Right. Um, and a ton of advice. 101 of advice in there. Um,
Natalie Mack: have it here.
Scott DeLuzio: oh yes.
Excellent. Yeah, you had that in the background. Excellent. Um, but,
Natalie Mack: it here.
Scott DeLuzio: and what are some, some of the key takeaways, for, for folks who are um, either in the middle of homeschooling themselves and they’re, they’re navigating, maybe they have their, uh, you know, they know there’s a, um. Change, change of duty station coming up at some point.
Or, um, they’re, they’re how am I gonna continue doing this when I one state to another, one country to another? Or, or how am I gonna that? Or um, or, or even maybe their, their kids are
young and, and they haven’t started, they’re not school age yet and they’re considering it, but they’re not How do I do this?
Um, what are some of the, the takeaways from, from this book that will help some of these listeners who are, you know, considering homeschooling or continuing
Natalie Mack: Right. So, great. Thank you for shouting out my book.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.
Natalie Mack: When I started to [00:25:00] write it, I actually said, oh, I’ll write a few tips. Right? And I kept going from our experience. And I thought, and then I got to a hundred and I was like, okay, that’s a solid number. A hundred tips.
But then I had one more I wanted to add. So that’s how I got the 101. And what I love about it, hopefully, and from what I’ve heard from families they love is like it has the, my thoughts about it. So like I put a tip, this one is trust the process. That’s number one. And they’re not all sequential. It just happens to be 101.
So they don’t build on, they build on each other for solid. Message from me, but each tip stands alone. So you can read it, put it down, come back, and you don’t feel like, okay, I need to refresh. What was the last one? And then I have a prompt question as well. And then I have some spaces for you to be able to, you know, jot your thoughts down.
And so some of the takeaways, gosh, I’ll just look here. Like the first one, like I said, is trust the process. So there are families who are thinking, you know, they, they, their, their [00:26:00] children are not school aged yet, but they’re. Looking around and thinking, oh, I’m hearing things about other, you know, the public school.
I’m not quite excited about that. And I know I was, you know, educated in public school, but I think things are different now. And, you know what, what’s this homeschooling thing that everyone keeps talking about? And so
trust the process that, um, you know, um.
Belief in your own ability, you
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.
Natalie Mack: in being the best advocate for your children.
I always say oh, a committed know, be the best advocate for their children. Um, and that belief that you’re committed to their wellbeing, that you’re gonna see it out. It doesn’t mean at homeschooling means you’re subject, so you don’t have to be an. Expert at every subject.
You don’t have to feel like, oh, I did fantastic in school, so now I’m gonna be a solid educator to my children. You don’t because there’s a market of homeschool curriculum that comes alongside you, the teacher, you the parent, and will help you be successful. Some of it [00:27:00] helps you as a parent teach the subject to your child in a real uh, easy to follow ways and others.
Teach the child directly. There’s online options, and then when they get to be older, there’s other possibilities as well. There’s even co-ops that you can participate in so your children can get some of the classes that they need. So there’s a amazing homeschool. School, community and market that will help you.
So don’t, don’t allow yourself to believe that, oh, only licensed teachers can actually teach our children. Um, and then the other one I would say is, um, what are your values that you want to impart? Homeschooling allows you to have impart your values. One of the we have uh, realized.
Um, in the nonprofit that I started Military Homeschoolers Association, um, is that we did a survey. did the first survey. for Military homeschooling. ’cause there wasn’t data out there. And one that we were asking these families, we had [00:28:00] 861 responses uh, you know, families that chose to respond.
And we ended up doing our data analysis with solid. Responses to 68 questions. And what we discovered in that is that um, a lot of families are really kind of, um, concerned about the environment that exists the public school, and they’re concerned about how their children.
And then consequently, that impact on the children comes into the family as a whole. And so a child and children can’t be
impacted without it. Having some consequence to your family life, right?
Scott DeLuzio: Sure.
Natalie Mack: and what you want to do with your family and how you want your family, the values you want them to have. The homeschooling allows you to have that.
So put that be uh, that it allows you to have that impact and, uh, that you want to impart. And so, um, the the tips, the [00:29:00] whole thing is I want people to, their homeschooling experience. I want realize that strong academics, definitely, know, we as homeschoolers definitely want our children to be a, you know, um, educated well. But we also wanna look at homeschooling as a lifestyle. So there are two ways. Families may look at it as an academic choice, or you can look at it as a lifestyle. And so what I advocate in this book and in our own journey. Is to look at homeschooling as a lifestyle, meaning. Our children and us as parents.
We’re learning together. We’re doing life together, and homeschooling is not just about nine to two or nine to one, or nine to three or whatever. It’s of academics. It’s about you’re living life together. If you’re gonna go on a trip and you’re driving somewhere and involve the kids. So what are the stops gonna be along the way?
About how long will it take us to get from here to here? What are the
places we want to [00:30:00] see? Just, you know,
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.
Natalie Mack: make a list of the groceries that we need. Oh, can you check and make sure we need this, this, this, and you get to the grocery store. Maybe you know, the kids that
are old enough can go get certain items, right?
Teaching the
independence and really being able to
Scott DeLuzio: to
celebrate
Natalie Mack: family, celebrate their accomplishments. And see their abilities like with your son and piano. Wow. What a front row um, view you have in a way that you might not
have if your child was not being homeschooled. It’s not to say that, you know, kids in school don’t become accomplished
pianist. That’s not at all what
we are saying.
Scott DeLuzio: Sure.
Natalie Mack: just that you have a front row view to
see his development over time and see how he started here.
And now look where he is. And that has to be
amazing because that’s your child. Right? And
Scott DeLuzio: Right.
Natalie Mack: missed it. Right? It’s like the learning to read what exciting it is.
You know, as much as parents are like, oh, it’s so hard teaching, reading. But at the same time, when they first learn to read or when they first learn to walk, [00:31:00] imagine not being there. It’s the same thing for homeschooling. Like parents get excited when the child first starts to walk,
Scott DeLuzio: right?
Natalie Mack: they have a few stumbles, and you see the process of the crawling to.
To getting themselves pulled up at a table to being able, and then they fall and then they finally take those really sure, confident steps and if you missed it. And so
homeschooling allows you to have that front row
Scott DeLuzio: Right,
Natalie Mack: see experience life and
see the development of
your children and know who they are,
and they know who
you are, right?
As a
Scott DeLuzio: right.
Natalie Mack: just being
in a family living together
doesn’t mean That’s gonna happen, right.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.
Natalie Mack: be intentional about it.
Scott DeLuzio: That’s right.
That’s right. And, and to your point, you get to see those, those light bulb moments, you
know, even in their, their schoolwork when,
you know, maybe they’re, they’re struggling with, with a certain concept, maybe math or,
you know, you know, multiplication or division or, you know, whatever it is that they’re
Natalie Mack: Mm-hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: at the time.
And, and then they start to get it and
it’s like, ah, yes.
Like [00:32:00] it it just clicked and it worked. And, and it, that’s a, a, you know, a great. Great feeling to be able to um, you know, see them grow in, in that and gain the confidence and not get frustrated because all their, their moving ahead of them because. They all seem to get it, but um, the, your, your child didn’t, and, and then they get frustrated and
Natalie Mack: right.
Scott DeLuzio: then what happens? You know, and they, they do, they get left behind you know, they’re moving on to the next concept. ’cause that builds on the previous concept. And,
Natalie Mack: Right,
Scott DeLuzio: know, you know, again that not, not knocking public schools because
there’s, there’s great things that come from public
schools, but, but.
Natalie Mack: yeah,
Scott DeLuzio: I, I know, I know that that’s something that could happen. And, And,
so, you know,
if, and, and I don’t,
I don’t think anybody will have more vested interest in a student’s uh, education and the, the success in their education as a parent would because the, the, the parent is, is [00:33:00] de definitely want that student to. Um, have the absolute best. And hey, if it takes another, you know, few days, another week or so to cover this concept having a hard time with it, let’s take the time to do it. Let’s do it right and make sure that we, we understand it and that we’re,
we’re all good to go. And then, then we can move on.
And,
Natalie Mack: Exactly.
Scott DeLuzio: you know, and, and you were talking too about uh, you know, earlier about all these different, uh, curriculum that, that is, are out there that, uh, people can, can use to help.
Natalie Mack: Mm-hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: sure that they have the, the most in there And one thing, you know, we have three that I’ve
noticed is that the, you know, like for example, the math books that we use for one of, of our kids didn’t, wasn’t necessarily the same math books that we would want to use for the other, uh, kids because, uh, you know, or, or history or science or whatever they, they, we use different, uh, different textbooks and different, uh, you know, ways of, of teaching because they, they have different learning styles and.
[00:34:00] So that’s kind of a good thing too, is you get to kind of tailor them learn how to learn
Natalie Mack: Right.
Scott DeLuzio: of, you know, maybe just memorize because just for the sake of it, Hey, I just gotta know this to pass a test and then
let’s move on to the next thing. Um,
I know that.
Natalie Mack: learning
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. right?
and
and, and love getting those light bulb moments,
right.
when when things click and it’s like, I
get it now.
Natalie Mack: Right,
Scott DeLuzio: an awesome feeling. I don’t, I don’t care who you are when you,
when something that you’re struggling with uh, and, and all of a sudden it, it just clicks.
Natalie Mack: master it, right?
Scott DeLuzio: man, is that a good feeling? You know? Um, and so, helping them have more of those moments and experience them, I, I think are,
are awesome. Um, you know, and, and you talked about uh, your, your, uh, organization, military Homeschoolers Association. I did want to get into that just a, a bit too. I know you, you briefly mentioned it, but,
Natalie Mack: Mm-hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: you know kinda what do you pro provide and uh, you know, help folks in their, uh, homeschooling journey through, through that association?
Natalie Mack: Yeah, so I’m really excited [00:35:00] about MHA. military has acronyms,
Scott DeLuzio: Sure.
Natalie Mack: it Military Homeschoolers Association. We’ve named it MHA, um. Wow. It, we have a board of amazing people who are all in the military connected homeschool space. particular about who I selected to be on this first board.
Um, because this is my vision. My, you know, my, my thoughts and I wanted people who could come alongside and who see it and are passionate. And it’s not just okay, this is what we need to do, but they are invested and they. C ’cause they are actually living the life themselves. They are military connected homeschoolers.
And so from that we’ve developed one is our podcast called Base two base uh, military homeschooling. And so it’s base and then the number two base military homeschooling. And, uh, the, the thought that, um, And I developed that. And I said, let’s put this podcast under MHA, because it’s all the military homeschooling [00:36:00] parent.
And the uniqueness of it is it’s gonna be based on installations because we move so frequently. And now our family, we’re on the retired side now three years, so we aren’t moving. You know, because of the government census, but we lived that life
for a long time and we know that every two or three years we
were packing up and moving somewhere else.
Scott DeLuzio: Right.
Natalie Mack: And we often, as, as homeschoolers are trying to find somebody else who is at that next. Duty station who is homeschooling, who can share everything with us. Like is there a co-op or, you know, what’s the local uh, homeschooling community like and you know, uh, what, you know, how many homeschoolers about, so on base and, know, what are the resources that exist and like as a home?
School are there because again, like I mentioned at the beginning, we are adjusting as well. We’re looking for our next homeschool community, and so I thought the guests would be that, that military [00:37:00] homeschooling parent at an installation who has committed, is involved and is very knowledgeable
about their community. And we’re gonna talk about what is it like at like
Fort Co Vasos, you know, what
Scott DeLuzio: What is
Natalie Mack: at like fort uh, Liberty, you know, what is it like, um, you know, here in the Belvoir area where we are to actually homeschool there. um, and then we’ll, we’ll bring few guests. Uh, we are looking always for curriculum providers who, who want to reach the military Um, we are looking for organizations a message, uh, maybe education program, so they just wanna. You know, shout out their sponsorship military homeschoolers and so we’ll feature them as guests or give them a sponsorship slot as well. Um, and then we are creating a homeschool educational webinar series for like homeschooling one-on-one.
And it’s gonna go all up through the high school to college piece. Um, these will be, these will be video. That parents can plug and [00:38:00] play, right. Just, you know, look at and, um, the knowledge and information that they have, um, that the videos will provide. We also will be doing a similar series the professional and DOD space called the School Officer.
We call it the slow in military communities or the SLO and helping them, because I work with them and I travel quite frequently for the Air Force, for the Navy. Um, you know, in Marine Corps I do virtual trainings for these school liaisons that are all over the world, stationed at installation. And, travel just within, um, San Antonio in December, and then I was in Jacksonville for the Navy and they invite me train the school liaisons at So, um, we wanna say how do we, how do we. basically how do we clone Natalie and turn this information into that these new school liaisons can actually learn more about homeschooling because they are the resource. They’re supposed to be the knowledgeable resource on an installation to help military families.
[00:39:00] I.
Who want to homeschool. Um, and then
we also, um,
have
Scott DeLuzio: Special needs that
Natalie Mack: we are
Scott DeLuzio: resource.
Natalie Mack: resources because one of the things we found with our is that you have traditional that military families homeschool, and it’s the continuity. Right? And, you know, every two years we are moving, um. we’re also finding that families are with, that have neurodivergent children and they have these special needs. also beginning to homeschool. And so we realize that our position is we want to help any military connected family who chooses to homeschool. We wanna come alongside them to help them be successful. So that means lots of resources. That means lots of collaborations and partnerships. So we are creating these resources for special needs families, and we’ll partner with like Blue Star Families Military Child Education Coalition, known as SE.
Uh, the Wounded Warrior Project, uh, partners with Elizabeth Dole and is a Hidden Helper coalition that we have partnered already with [00:40:00] Through Reading called where they have these mobile book stations and they can get all these books to homeschoolers on installation. So we are like, it has, it has taken off in such an incredible way that I am so excited and so, uh, that.
Those are a few signature things that we have going on. Um,
and so I’m really excited about it.
Scott DeLuzio: That is, that is pretty And,
uh, you know, especially, you know, people with, uh, special needs talking about, um, I, I have to imagine if, you know, moving from, from one place to another, uh, that frequently, every two, three years. Um, a big question I for, I don’t have kids with special needs, but I would imagine if I question that I would have is, resources available wherever it is that I’m. Next going to,
and if they are available, what’s the quality of them? You know,
how, how good is this, this quality?
Um,
Natalie Mack: yes.
Scott DeLuzio: if it’s, if it’s not there, if it, if it, the resource doesn’t exist um, well if [00:41:00] that’s a problem, obviously. Um, but,
Natalie Mack: it’s a big problem. You’re right.
Scott DeLuzio: but if it’s uh,
not but,
just kind of, because really nobody. Needs that service in that particular
Natalie Mack: Mm-hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: that’s another problem,
uh, that that I would have as well. And so, you know, if you are equipped to be able to handle uh, the whatever the, the need is that your child has, um, then, you know, going into it. They’re gonna be They’re, we don’t need to go go nuts trying to find, you know, you know, a school district that has this particular resource,
whatever it may, may be for our, our child. Um, we, we can handle it. We can keep it, keep it going. And that continuity is there. Um, which. which. especially for, for some kids continuity might be very important because they, they thrive on and, and if
you throw them into a different environment, that could be a problem
for them.
Natalie Mack: hard.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.
Natalie Mack: You know, we talk about children,
military children being dandelions, and that’s the, you know, [00:42:00] the
the flower. Right. And so they’re very resilient and, I believe military families in general are very resilient and the children are, that doesn’t mean that they don’t have needs and that this moving around and all of the, um. Uh, unpredictability that can come with military life doesn’t mean that they aren’t impacted and that they don’t need a little extra so, um, we hope through MHA to, to be that support to families and to be that support to the Department of Defense because, you um, military families who choose to homeschool, adequate support and resources is a retention
Scott DeLuzio: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Natalie Mack: also related to that is that really many families are choosing the homeschool because they are not
happy with their local school system. So
families, that’s a retention issue
Scott DeLuzio: Right,
Natalie Mack: is looking at as well as like, how do we improve the quality of our uh, dependent children’s education? [00:43:00] And so families are pivoting the homeschool, so they still need the support and resources, otherwise the life isn’t working for them.
Scott DeLuzio: Right?
Natalie Mack: And it has to work well for the family in order for the
active duty member to be um, freed in their
mind to do the job they need to do.
Scott DeLuzio: That’s right.
Natalie Mack: really a big connection there. And the survey that we did did um, you know, high percentages of families who say, yeah,
this is a retention issue.
Scott DeLuzio: yeah, And that’s a great point I even think of, of that. But
um, you wanna be able to give those service members. The choices to be able to, um, educate their, in whatever way that they see fit,
Natalie Mack: exactly.
Scott DeLuzio: in the world that they end that’s, I I think a, a crucial piece here
is, is that um, if you take those options away and they’re now restricted in what they can or can’t do, and, and they, Might say, Hey, you know what? This isn’t working for, for,
me, [00:44:00] for my family.
Um, it’s causing a lot of stress in,
in in other issues.
And yeah, then you start losing
good, good service members
who otherwise would be, you know, maybe go on and continue a 20 year career, but decide to get out early
because hey, it’s not working for our
family so we’ll.
Natalie Mack: Yeah. And, you know, Scott, that
just ties to another thing is that um, we know the
branches haven’t met their numbers. Right.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.
Natalie Mack: when I say the Army and the Marine Corps. I think numbers. Uh,
it’s really not something to get excited about.
Scott DeLuzio: Right.
Natalie Mack: a lot of work to do, and so we don’t, like you said, we don’t want good quality, members getting
out.
They really want more to come in
Scott DeLuzio: Mm-hmm.
Natalie Mack: They want them to stay. And so, um, it’s really important. Um, one of the things I wanted to mention too, I’m doing, I’m not under my MHA hat. I have an homeschool, Natalie Mack, I provide like homeschool consultations. I do um, helping families homeschool well, the high [00:45:00] school to college piece transcripts and all. And then I help families who have college bound athletes. Um, navigate the NCAA process, and
Scott DeLuzio: Ah.
Natalie Mack: to speak on that. But the piece that I wanna mention in terms of the the military is, um, I have
supported
Scott DeLuzio: the Army
Natalie Mack: and the
Scott DeLuzio: the.
Natalie Mack: Force and the Navy, um, with the connection to the.
homeschool community. what has happened in the years post Covid is you are not, the military’s not finding the numbers of students in public school who desire to serve, desire to come into the service.
Um, and traditionally, right? You imagine a local school has an office recruiters and you know, I mean, there’s still some coming in. Clearly I’m minimize that, but they aren’t having the numbers that they used. To have pre covid. And so a light bulb has gone off to where the military branches themselves have said, wow, this is a market of qualified [00:46:00] high school students over here in this homeschool community.
How do we reach them? And they have had hard times reaching them because it, we are not in a brick and mortar.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.
Natalie Mack: you, have to figure out how to get to us. Where are we? So we are at, we’re in these co-ops, we’re in these support groups. We are maybe at a high, a homeschool conference held at the state level.
Um, you know, a nonprofit, private, you know, not state government.
Scott DeLuzio: Mm-hmm.
Natalie Mack: um, I. helping the military branches get connected? I’ve Army. Um, I’ve, I’ve traveled to speak for the Air recruiting the Army. uh, US Rec, United States Army Recruiting Command. um, a capability exercise called a CAP A at Fort Liberty. I do a lot. I was just in Miami Beach in January for the Army for Recruiting Brigade, and so it’s been interesting seeing love that because I loved our military service. Right. And so, and I’m homeschooling so I can speak the same language
Scott DeLuzio: Right.
Natalie Mack: I can also be authentic in saying you really need to consider [00:47:00] uh, serving.
And so kind of what happened out of that work that I’ve been doing is I have been now setting up as fabs arm, services vocational AP two Battery. I connect with the meps and we’ve hosted two in
this DC, Maryland, Virginia area.
Scott DeLuzio: Oh wow.
Natalie Mack: for homeschoolers to come and this ASVAB career exploration program and what homeschoolers love is, it’s a free career assessment and there’s no commitment to inter military service.
And so I have the homeschoolers, the military is looking for them for these asvab and bringing it together has been super, super cool.
And the homeschoolers themselves are like, wow, I didn’t know I was good at this.
Because that’s that career exploration part of
Scott DeLuzio: Right.
Natalie Mack: They bring their laptop, they take the test to self-paced, and they get their
scores, and they keep their scores.
They only give them to the military
if they actually are interested in enlisting.
Scott DeLuzio: Okay.
Natalie Mack: been a really neat
opportunity and it’s a free task. So I set it up for
homeschool communities, uh, [00:48:00] around the country though.
Scott DeLuzio: wow.
Natalie Mack: been, yeah, it’s been really interesting
Scott DeLuzio: That, that is interesting. Yeah. And, and, and it does have a lot of different, you know, uh, career, uh, interests that, that get brought up in, in the, the test and, you know,
identifies what you might be good at. And, it was just something on your radar. I. Um, before, but then again, going back to our point previously, you get to, you have time to now maybe explore this and see is is that really something I, I, I’d like, or,
or, or whatever. So. Well this has been uh, you know, uh, very insightful, uh, very, uh, interesting conversation. Uh, I know, you know, I’m a little family uh, you know, your, your family as well. uh, but I think it’s.
It’s not, uh, it’s definitely looked at the way it used to be.
Um, you know, back, back years ago. it’s. it’s definitely an option that more and more families and for, for me uh, I’m not currently serving in the military anymore. However, if I, if I was, I,
I, [00:49:00] I, for sure would be exploring all the homeschool options just because, you know, yes, you’re, you’re moving all over the place all the time, but
you know, you. You want to make sure that you’re making the most of it. Um, you know, especially in the military when
you know, maybe there’s deployments involved and you’re gonna be away for 6, 9, 12 months, 18 it is, you’re gonna be away from your family for that long. You wanna make the most of the time that you
have with them. And,
and I think, I think that’s a.
Uh, kind of a. crucial point as well. But, uh, I do want to thank you, Natalie, for coming on the show, sharing your, your insights into military and your continued support um, of the military families and their, their homeschooling efforts, uh, through all the, the work that you’re doing.
So it’s really, really appreciated. Thank you so much.
Natalie Mack: you I appreciate the invitation. I really, this has been great I love speaking on homeschooling and just kind of,
you know, provide an insight so people maybe see it
as a viable option. So thank you.
Scott DeLuzio: Absolutely. Thanks [00:50:00] again.