Heather Whidden is the mastermind behind the Frugal Mama community, where frugality meets family-first budgeting in the most delightful way! Picture a cozy space where parents gather to swap saving tips, and you’ve got a vibe that’s all about simplicity and intentional living. Heather, an interest-led homeschooling mama and a former university instructor, makes financial self-care feel like a warm hug. She emphasizes that when both parents and kids are encouraged to follow their curiosity, homes transform into vibrant havens of connection, creativity, and confidence. We dive into this episode with Heather, who shares her wisdom on how families can stretch their resources, simplify finances, and foster daily rhythms that make learning feel as natural as breathing. It’s not just about saving money; it’s about enriching lives and building a home where education is woven into the fabric of everyday life.

The conversation takes a turn towards the practical, as Heather reveals how she integrates life skills into homeschooling. She believes in letting kids manage their own time and projects, which sparks a unique kind of learning. Imagine teaching your little ones about budgeting by giving them a small amount to spend at the grocery store! It’s all about allowing kids to navigate their interests while picking up crucial life skills along the way. We explore the importance of gratitude in parenting and how keeping a gratitude journal can shift perspectives and open doors to new possibilities. Heather’s heart-centered approach is not just refreshing; it’s a roadmap for parents who want to embrace a lifestyle of learning and frugality without feeling overwhelmed.

As we wrap up, we reflect on the essence of community. Heather shares poignant stories about the support she’s received from her Frugal Mama community, emphasizing how vital it is to connect with others on similar journeys. Whether you’re a seasoned homeschooling parent or just dipping your toes into interest-led education, this episode is full of gold nuggets that inspire you to embrace your unique path. So grab your notepad, tune in, and let’s dive into a world where frugality and family flourishing go hand in hand!

A gift from our Guest: BUILD A BETTER BUDGET IN 30 DAYS

https://shop.beacons.ai/frugalmamacommunity/bd867133-8e29-44b6-913a-e6f122bcc0d1

Heather Whidden is the creator behind the Frugal Mama Community — a space rooted in simple saving tips, family-first budgeting, and intentional living. An interest-led homeschooling mama and former university instructor, Heather blends financial self-care with a whole-life approach to learning. She believes that when children — and parents — follow their curiosity, we create homes rich in connection, creativity, and confidence. Her work helps families simplify their money, stretch what they have, and build daily rhythms that make learning a natural, lifelong part of everyday life. Heather brings a calm, practical, heart-centered perspective to conversations about interest-led education and how it shapes the way we live, grow, and enjoy our families.

Heather's Facebook page

Heather's Website

Bringing Education Home is an educational podcast brought to you by Kristina and Herb Heagh-Avritt.

If you enjoy the show, we'd love for you to leave a rating or review on your favorite podcast app!

Please let your friends know they can listen for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or their preferred podcast app or online at Bringing Education Home.

Sponsored by Vibrant Family Education - creating Happy, Healthy and Successful kids

Follow us on these socials:

Facebook

LinkedIn

YouTube

Instagram

Facebook Group - The Family Learning Circle

Facebook Business Page: Vibrant Family Education

Support Bringing Education Home

Copyright 2026 Kristina & Herb Heagh-Avritt

This podcast is hosted by Captivate, try it yourself for free.

I now have the pleasure of introducing Heather Whidden. Heather is the creator behind the Frugal Mama community, a space rooted in simple saving tips, family first budgeting and intentional living.

An interest led homeschooling mama and former university instructor, Heather blends financial self care with a whole life approach to learning. She believes that when children and parents follow their curiosity, we create homes rich in connection, creativity and confidence.

Her work helps families simplify their money, stretch, help simplify their money, stretch what they have and build daily rhythms that make learning a natural, lifelong part of everyday life.

Heather brings a calm, practical, heart centered perspective to conversations about interest led education and how it shapes the way we live, grow and enjoy our families. Welcome Heather and our young guest. It is a pleasure to have you here today. Thank you so very much for joining us today.

Hello. This is my daughter Reeves. She's decided to make a brief appearance.

No problem. We are a family show and we absolutely love, love, love having our friends visit us. So that is a. Okay.

So Heather, whenever we met I was like, yes, this is another one of these families I really need to bring onto the show to give inspiration and a little bit of guidance to other parents who are either looking at homeschooling or they're in homeschooling or they're thinking about, oh, this might be the way to go.

But not only that, with the frugal part, the frugal mama part, no matter what kind of mama you are, you are a homeschool mom, a toddler mom, a public school mom and a mom that's high in her career. Whatever. This part of the conversation is also very helpful for families.

So thank you for being here and thank you for being willing to share all of this information with us.

Absolutely, yes. I think that, I think that's actually some of how I got started in homeschooling was we were starting to walk down the frugal life path and, And we.

I'm sorry,

Can I do this for those who are listening? The little one just decided to jump down, so mom has to take care of that for just a second. No problem. Heather right back.

Okay, thank you very much. So we started homeschooling and it, we knew that we wanted to homeschool, but we didn't really know how or what that would look like.

And when we started making it more broad of a, of a picture and bringing in that frugal life that, well, it's, it's about how we're living and our mindset of what we have and what we can Take from it. When we started doing that and applying it to homeschool, we're going, oh, my goodness, this is. It's clicking.

It's working for us, and we're able to blend our life with theirs and in a learning and really meaningful way.

Yeah. And for all of us, you know, you know the times.

That doesn't mean that you're always looking for the cheapest things out there. It's like, what can you do to really use your resources in a respectful, responsible way? And in the benefit of, oh, wow, cool.

I also get a homeschool because I'm being this frugal mama. Let's dive into the community first. What kinds of things? Or maybe what's one of the first tips that you can give for parents?

Like, oh, I really want to dive into this. I want to be a little bit more frugal. I want to be a little bit more aware of my resources. What's one tip? And then tell us a little bit

more about funny comment before you go. Darn that jolly fat man and his free gifts. Okay.

I would say a spirit of gratitude. So one big pivot that I made this year was I got intentional about a gratitude journal. And it's such a small. I mean, it costs nothing.

In fact, it's on my computer, so I don't even have it in a. In a written, written journal. But you can write it out and write down three things that you're thankful for from yesterday.

So this is something that's already happened. It's not you hoping or trying to plan out or predict what's going to happen. But you're saying, you know what? Yesterday I got a coupon for this.

Well, that's really awesome. That spark. Even if you don't plan on using the. The Taco Bell coupon, you got a coupon. Okay, write it down.

My friend called me and I haven't talked to her in a while. Write it down.

And when you start stacking those and you get intentional about thinking about the gratitude from what did happen and is happening, you are going to see so much more. And I personally bring that into my kitchen. So let's get really practical with this tip.

And it's writing down what you have now you have an inventory of what you can use to cook with. And so if you start writing down and you're like, okay, I have beef, I have noodles, I have.

Then you, in your mind, you start going, oh, well, I could make this. I want to make this. Write that right next to the inventory. So now we have a list of gratitude of things that are happening in our everyday life.

We have an inventory of the food that we have on hand, and we're starting that menu list so that when we're menu planning, boom, we can do it so much faster.

I like that.

I hadn't thought about in that way, because sometimes, you know, we make an inventory of our kitchen, but then we never go back and really look at it.

So I'm, like, jumping into the middle of the conversation because they've had conversations before me, so they're ignoring me at this point. So now I forgot what I was going to say, because I jumped in. All right, go back to your conversation. I'm going to jump back in in a minute here.

But I love that menu idea out there alongside of the list, because then exactly is like, you know, we plan out a weekly menu, and we already know we have these things for most of the menu. And then we just have our strict. Or our, you know, more bulleted list. Grocery shopping list.

Yeah.

So what I was thinking of is that would be especially helpful for her because we go in and look in the fridge, and it's like, oh, there's nothing here to eat. And she's like, what are you gonna. What are we gonna cook for dinner? There's nothing in here.

And then she goes away, and it's like, well, I have this. I have this. I have this. And suddenly I have, like, this big, huge meal with nothing in the fridge sitting there at the table for dinner.

But if we had all. Again, if we had all of that. So that's a gift I have. I don't. It's like I just pull stuff out

of thin air, blessed with a gentleman that cooks and likes to cook.

But, yes, what you're saying would be very, very helpful for her and actually helpful for me, so I didn't have to necessarily spend so much mental energy. And it's just there, and I get to go into the crafting of it instead of the figuring.

What.

Yeah, it's been. I. I feel like a year ago, when I started talking to my frugal mama community about pantry cooking, which is what that is, is pantry cooking.

It's using what you have to make a meal. And Some of us are really creative with it, and we just pull things out of thin air and we're like, okay, this, this, this. And we go.

And some of us need the. The menu first. Well, if you, if you're getting. If you've. If you keep it going and you keep it rolling, that's going to help you spark those ideas.

And one tip I share is to. To write those menu ideas when you're cooking or when you're eating, because that's when you're. You're more likely to come up with them.

Not on the spot of, I need to make dinner, and you're going, blank sheet of paper.

One of my personal complaints is I can never do the same thing twice. Because it's not recipes. It's just. It's this creative flow that creates a meal. So it's like, I want this again. And it's like, oh, God, what did I do?

So, yeah, that happens a lot to me too.

But I love the idea, taking the creative activity and the inspiration when you're doing it. So. Yeah, exactly. If you're sitting at the table, all of a sudden you're like, oh, you want. This was really good. Maybe tomorrow night.

This sounds good. And having just that notebook next door that you can just write things down.

Creating a mindfulness practice along with your gratitude practice.

I love it.

Exactly, Exactly.

To influence the. The mindfulness is like, oh, what am I? Gratitude. And then that brings you. That's a perfect combination.

One of my favorite things is turning leftovers into either something completely different or just jazzing it up. And when you know what you've got in the pantry, that makes it so much easier because you're going, okay, well, I've got cheese.

We add cheese to that. That's really spectacular.

It does, doesn't it? Yeah.

So.

So, okay, so we're using our pantry to cook, which is amazing. How do we make sure that our pantry gets restocked again with stuff that

we actually want instead of, oh, that's about to go out of date. I better use that. Oh, I just use that. I should get another one. And then you have to force yourself to use it before it goes out of date again.

So how do you figure that and not. How do you simplify that and be frugal so you're not buying stuff that's going to sit around forever?

So my biggest frugal tips with stocking and use by is generally that those dates are not completely accurate. But I felt her.

It's sell by. It's still good for, like, three years if it's in a can.

Cans actually technically are indefinite, but they have to put that just to. To save them. So. But it's stock up when it's on sale. So if your house knows that you like this brand of mayonnaise and you're never going to change.

You love it. You know it. That mayonnaise. Well, when it's on sale, you buy it. Exactly.

So no one is going to go on sale again. And if you have two left, then you buy three or four more just so that you. Yeah. Oh, dude, they discontinued a pair of shoes. I like, man.

It took me, like, five years to find another pair of shoes. That. That.

Yeah, that is the artist. My husband's in that. He. He has his set. And I'm like, they're not. They're still out of stock. They're still out of stock.

So I'll wear these until they fall off until I can get these back. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know anything about that at all.

Yeah, but simplify to one or two stores instead of spreading yourself out and knowing the sales, what's happening everywhere, Narrow it down. I'm fortunate, and I have a Costco close to me. I don't know what I would do without Costco because I do like to buy in bulk.

But you also have to be careful

with Costco because they don't always have the best prices. So you do need to shop as well, because some things, it's like, oh, wow, look at this. But then you get down to it.

It's like, man, I could have bought three smaller bags. Way less. So, yeah, sometimes they sneak.

Meat is never on sale at Costco. You think that you're. You're. No, meat is never going to be on sale at Costco. But when I'm at Costco, I'm. Because Costco doesn't.

So, like, if I'm using a regular grocery store, you can use their app and look at their grocery, at their sales, what's going on? Or you can use what comes in your mail to look at what are the sales. And then you stock up when it's on sale.

Right.

Those are your items that you're buying that week, maybe a few other things, but you're mainly sticking to what's on sale. What can you stock up? When I go to Costco, I like to bring the kids on this one, because we're not. We don't have a game plan.

We might have, you know, we need to buy milk. Okay, well, we know we're going to get milk, but what else? And so our song is what's on sale.

And we go around and we look for those signs that are going to have a subtraction. And so we're looking for the, say the sign that has a number minus this. Those are your sale signs.

The second part, little asterisks at the top. That means that's about to go away and that's your best price ever.

Yeah, yeah. So when toilet paper is on sale, I'm buying it. I'm buying two. I'm stocking up because it's on sale.

I'm gonna save $10 and I'm not gonna run out and I'm not gonna have to buy more until the next sale. So I'm not paying full retail in the middle. So that's how we stock up and buy on sale. I guess another example for that is definitely coffee.

Coffee is super expensive, but when you buy it on sale and you stock up, then you've spent so much less and you're definitely not going to Starbucks and paying extra or anything like that you're making at home.

Yeah.

And a lot of I, I'm a coffee drinker, so I know that I have one or two brands that I really like, so it's easy to get those and keep them in the house.

They're online. They're online brands too. So you kind of wait for their ooma, their Christmas sale or their ooh, they're the founder sale or. And then you.

And then you buy enough to hopefully make it through them to the next. I don't drink coffee. I don't care. But, but yeah, totally, totally understand, understand the, the need for that. So.

Exactly.

One of the things I want to bring in here is because you have a community and I have a community and we're trying to, you know, build those communities and really allow the moms to interact and, and share with each other as well, either through, you know, the messages or whatever. But what have some of your community members said? How. How is being in your community helpful to them as they're going through this process?

I'm going to take a second because I have some who are really hit with some hard things this specifically this week. So I think in having a community, we have accountability and we have that team that support some. I shouldn't say some.

We all go through hard times in life and financial is definitely up there. It's a stressor, it's an impact and. It's.

It's really helpful to have each Other, especially those who are parenting alone, not everybody has a partner to bounce ideas off of and share and to go through the hardships. And so having that community to lean on is so, so important.

And I find it kind of funny that sometimes the people who need us the most and need that community are kind of quiet. And it just takes one little spark for them to just open up.

And they have been, you know, right there leaning on us the whole time, and we didn't ever, you know, we didn't really know it. And they open up and they say, man, you helped me through this, this, this.

Yeah, yeah.

And I love that because that's one of the reasons I asked you that question is because a lot of our families, a lot of the people listen to the podcast are thinking, okay, wait a second, I don't want to go this alone. Right. And we keep letting them know, community is your resource.

Whether it's my community at Vibrant Family, whether it's your community at Frugal Mama, whether it's the community at the co op down the street, have that community. Don't try to do this alone.

And I just wanted to have hear from your perspective and let people just kind of hear and marinate in that is like, community is resource. Right.

Especially like you said, if you're a single, you're raising on your own, you don't have grandma and grandpa in town, you don't have aunts and uncles in town, you don't have other people that kind of help you out. Yeah. Lean on these communities, whether they're digital or in real life, you know, like I said, down the road. Exactly.

Oh, from a guy's point of view is like, ask the girls. They like to talk. They'll give you all sorts of information, advice. They'll talk your ears off. And.

And they might even actually overwhelm you with good information. And you have to slow them down. But go ask another mom.

And that creates that community within yourself because it's like, you know, how much you like to talk about what you know, go ask somebody about what they know and give them the opportunity to. To let it out. So, yeah, and that. And then that builds trust in the community. You asking questions builds trust about you.

So joining makes me want to say that, you know, I often get this, that Frugal Mama community is for mamas. And one of my biggest supporters is my own is the Frugal Papa.

So. Yeah, but I'm not going to join that mama group. I'll support you. I'll support her. But you Go do the girl stuff.

Yeah.

Women are. We are the loudest, and we are the chatty, and.

Yeah.

And you probably compete each other for who can give the best advice at times, so. Yeah, no doubt.

Okay.

So if you're a mama and you need help, join one of these communities. You will find what you need.

Is there a Frugal Papa community?

There is not, but occasionally Frugal papa does. He grants me the best of commercials, and I appreciate him for that.

I love it. Yeah, exactly. I mean, you know, Herb is my support, my sounding board. Right.

I do most of the education and things like that, but when I get stuck around the community or something, he'll pop in with an idea. It's like, oh, yeah, that totally makes sense. Let's go put this into action now. So. Absolutely. Yeah. Your teammates. Cool.

I want to bridge this a little bit into homeschooling, because you also homeschool, and you have two wonderful kiddos, and we met one of them, which is absolutely amazing.

But let's start with the question of when you're doing your frugal mama stuff and you're being that role model and you're doing those things around the house, how do you kind of share that with the kids? Or have you noticed the time when they say, oh, I recognize that you did this, and, you know, they're kind of picking up on it.

I know they're kind of young still, but they'll get there.

Yeah.

I would say, like, if you're asking about, like, physically, I mean, like, right now I'm chatting with you, and they're over here drawing and playing Legos. So physically, that's how it works, is there's no. There's no barrier or borders in. In our schedule as far as that goes. I'm.

I'm popping in and out, you know, in what I call the mom pockets of my day, to, you know, console a friend or write an informative post, and then they're right there doing their thing. I can, you know, answer their questions and kind of just keep on rolling. Every once in a while, you know, we'll.

I'll be deep in thought, and it'll be like, give me five minutes to finish what I'm writing. But I think it's really neat that so much of what I'm talking about in Frugal Mama community is life skills, and life skills are the foundation of.

Of learning of life. You know, we. We didn't have to tell the baby they want to walk. They. They learned. They knew it. They instinctively wanted to do.

So they instinctively want to manage their own projects, manage their own time. One thing that I've been noticing lately was my kids don't say, I'm bored. And one of the biggest things is we, we don't, we don't manage their time.

They do and we do interest LED learning. So whatever their interest is, we pour into it, which again, it can be difficult, but we kind of just flow in our day together.

So an example would be like groceries, you know, we're looking for those minus signs in Costco or okay, you're allowed to use $20 now. You have to budget your $20 in the store. You can get what you want, but you've got to budget that $20. Okay.

So they're looking and they're learning how to look at prices. They're learning how to kind of compare and contrast at the same time.

Because, oh well, this LEGO set has this and this one has that and value hierarchy.

It's like, this is more valuable. I could get three of these or two of these is, or one of these.

It's like, oh, but so that value hierarchy, yeah, that's, that's such an important mental concept for kids to get to, to be able to make decisions later on. It's like, which is more valuable to me getting them learning that now. Like, well done.

Yeah.

Time management is huge.

I feel like, I feel like even as adults, we have a hard time managing our time and we have a billion things that we want to do with the day, but we only have 24 hours and we've got to sleep. So manage the rest and budget your time time. And they, you know, they budget their, their projects.

So if one of the things that my oldest, who is seven, he loves to make design concepts, he'll have, he'll have a, he'll have a big idea of. I mean, it'll be grand. And like you would need to buy a building and design this whole pizzeria so that he can have five nights at Freddy's.

The real thing. It's got to be the real thing. Well, we've been on this kick for like three years now.

And so, I mean, you know, we've had conversations about how much does renting a facility cost. We've had conversations about making floor plans.

We've had so many different conversations that you would never guess to talk about with a seven year old or needless to say, a four year old when it all started. But when you take that variable out and you just treat them like they're a person who has a serious idea of wanting to make a pizzeria or robots.

Or robots. Then, you know, you, you just open the floodgates for imagination, creativity, learning possibilities.

There you go.

Is that his robot?

That is his robot.

Nice.

So those people who are only on audio, we're getting a show right now which is amazing. Cool. Yeah. All of those things, you know, are so, so important. The creativity that comes out of our young ones.

Now that doesn't mean that you talk to them like an adult. Right. But you give them the information that they're looking for and you give them the help that they need and it sparks more and more learning.

One thing you mentioned was that you are interest led learning. Some people might call that unschooling, I think.

And so basically what I'm hearing is that you don't have like a set curriculum, you don't do a lot of worksheets and things like that. Am I accurate in that? Because I just want to help clarify that for our listeners.

Yes, I also use life as our curriculum. So our curriculum is informed by our life.

Whether that's today, we need to run errands, or whether that I'm really interested in learning chess or checkers. It's taking kind of the mundane everyday experiences and seeing how much fruit you can glean from it. I think that's a great way to say it.

And what comes out of that is my 7 year old coming to me with a piece of paper and a full sentence. I didn't even know that he knew how to spell all those words. And I'm going, oh my goodness.

I was just about to ask about reading and writing. If that's not part of the curriculum, it's like they, they pick it up a little bit along the way.

But when your son gets interested in something and he's like, oh, I want to learn more, then the reading is like, well, he will pull into it instead of you having to push into it.

We very much have an open policy for computers because we're again, we're right there with them throughout the day. So it's not like they're just off on their own, but they have known how to type in the password since they were three.

And they type in the password, it starts them with spelling, make it simple, a three letter password and you know, just point to the keys. And now they know three letters and they know it on the computer. So now you can build on that. And they both love to do their research.

They both love to take that. And a lot of times they'll use it for reference. So they'll research.

They know how to look it up on the computer or they see something on their show and they copy it. Well, it's not always a image that they're copying. A lot of times they're also copying the words. Correct?

Yeah.

So now they've just transferred that information. They have read it, they know what it says and now they're putting it on a piece of paper and I'm not sitting over them, you know, hounding away at.

This is how you spell this word.

That's right,

yes.

That's beautiful. Exactly.

And then, you know, I'm sure you also play like a lot of games and stuff and it's amazing what children will pick up as you're playing the games. Words, letters, sounds, etc. You can make learning so much fun and still get in those things that are really important.

Definitely, Definitely. One of our first games, which I think a lot of, a lot of people who have kids gaming is Minecraft and Minecraft has in the inventory labels.

Well, my son was learning how to read because he. Of the labels in Minecraft he had

to open the item menu. He had to open up and the item is that shape and after a while it's like, oh, that spells item.

Yeah. And then before you know it, they're playing a game that doesn't have the, the images, just text and they're reading it. I'm like, oh, this is a ball.

And then, you know, it just, it clicks and it, it makes sense in the moment and so it's going to stick. It sticks so much better because it, it's pertinent to them, it's meaningful to them.

So weird, interesting. Out of the way box.

At seven years old, the children's brain structure starts to change a lot and they go from being in theta mode, which is a very open and receptive, to more of a cognitive mode where they start to learn more tools about reasoning and stuff in education. So you're just in the beginning of that shift. Do you know that that's coming?

And how are you adjusting for, for the changes in, in the learning styles and what's happening with, with your kids as they go? Do you prepare or do you just take it as it comes?

Take it as it comes. Take it as it comes. I y' all mentioned before in the intro.

One second.

You mentioned in the intro that I was university instructor and unfortunately, fortunately, unfortunately I was not accepted into any positions after that. And so it left this gap year for my husband and I to really think about what is our next step.

And I feel like that one gap year has helped me to see learning in such a different way because we went from having college level students who more than half of them didn't want to be there to be really honest.

Sentences, couldn't do laundry, couldn't cook a meal and they needed about there either. Yeah, they're incompetent.

But it was the truth. And it was a big reason that my, my husband when, when he got out of graduate school, he's like, I'm, I'm not interested.

I don't want to continue teaching because it's just too hard. Most of these kids don't want to be here and the kids who do are distracted with the ones who don't. And it's just, it's too, too much.

Don't want the drama.

Talking points for our, our talk about, about three myths of education and that's the one is about your K weird if they're homeschooled, it's like, no, they're going to be weird if they go to school.

Me, I was the crazy one that wanted to keep teaching and unfortunately no, you know, where I applied did not want me. And so I kind of sulked in that a little bit.

But I, I am so appreciative of it because it allowed me to go, okay, there's got to be something more for me. There's got to be a reason that this didn't happen. And it slowly, I slowly walked into motherhood.

And motherhood led to six long years of breastfeeding which we've discussed a little bit.

And that actually was what ended up leading into frugal mama community was I had six years of breastfeeding and now all of a sudden I don't have anything to do with my time. And I needed a project and I needed to teach again. I needed to be able to share my journey and my life lessons.

And so I think that, I think life has equipped us with the ability to transition through our kids needs. I guess that's the best way of going back to your question is life equips us with what we need, when we need it and as we need it.

An amazing thing in the middle of that was reminded me of a quote by the great poet and writer Garth Brooks. Some of life's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers. So sometimes no is the appropriate answer and it leads to amazing things.

And so that led you to all of this. So I'm glad you didn't get that job Too. Na, na, na. You didn't get the job.

Part of something that Herb mentioned in the middle of that as well is that we have some myths that we talk about homeschool kids and things like that. Right. And that was one of the conversations I wanted to have because we had this the other day.

And I think it's so important for parents who are homeschooling or looking at homeschooling is that my kids are going to be weird or people who are out there in the world. Whenever you're out and about with your kids, well, why aren't your kids in school? School, or what grade are they in?

And it brings up a conversation that sometimes can be a little bit uncomfortable. And so whenever parents or other people ask you, oh, well, where do your kids go to school? Or what grade are they in? How do you kind of handle that?

Well, we generally say home. We homeschool. And I would say one of the things that we get faced with a lot is the socializing. And we're like, we socialize so much.

We said, first of all, we socialize so much more as a family than most families. And I'm really grateful for that because we don't. Except for right now, as my daughter's asking me a question, we don't postpone those conversations.

We have them right then. So we're functioning so much more as in relationship. In relationships rather than scheduled appearances. And one second, I see this one I like more.

That one. Yeah.

I saw some stats that parents who send their kids to school spend something like 17,000 hours with their children before they graduate, and children who are homeschooled spend closer to 177,000 hours. So it's like 100 times more hours in the 18 years you get with your children. So what are you buying for? What are you paying for?

You're paying for time with your kids. So maybe being frugal is worth having your kids at home.

Yeah.

Because you're buying those extra 100,000 hours with your children that you're going to want when you're old. It's like, oh, I wish I could spend more time with my kids ch. Kids when they were younger. Why would they with you when you're older?

So build that now.

Yeah.

And the second one of we're weird. We are. We're weird is we don't grade. We.

We don't grade as far as, like, putting a number or a letter on a worksheet, and we don't grade as far as our level.

So we're Progress never stops.

You know, when my doctor asked me just a week ago, we had our annual checkup and the doctor asked on the form, it was, the first question was, what grade? And the second question was, what school? And so my, my kid proudly wrote home for the school.

And the doctor goes, you didn't write anything for what grade? And we're like, well, he's seven. And it was like, no, what, what grade? What level? What level is he reading at? What level of math is he doing?

And we're going, I mean, he's reading like a chapter book for a 10 year old. So I would say a 10 year old, which again, it wasn't a grade.

What a good one hour you have.

Which was. That was totally his. We went to a playground and they had one of those libraries where you can give and take a book.

Yeah.

And they had books for adults. And they had, I think just one book that was kidding.

Right.

And I'm going, this is like a chapter book. Like a, like a book.

Yeah.

You know, because we hadn't been seeking or buying his age appropriate. Well, Willoughby says, I want it. We're saying, okay, well, that became his car book. And every time we were in the car, he would read a couple pages.

A couple pages, a couple pages. And in a couple months, he goes, oh, my goodness, guys, I'm done. It was like, you read 100 pages? He read 100 pages.

Yeah. Oh, my gosh. Yeah.

So, you know, this, this is a really important discussion because one of the things that we did talk about, about the doctor especially, is that the doctors are not asking to really, like, put pressure on you, but they're asking to make sure that they're growing and learning developmentally.

And so one of the things that we, I remember us talking about was that you can tell the doctor, you know, I don't know what grade level, but I'm seeing these kinds of changes in the last six months. So come prepare to that doctor's appointment with, oh, well, my child used to do this, and now six months later, I see them doing this.

Yes, they're making progress. They are growing. So those kinds of answers whenever you don't have a grade level, you know, is something that you can do as well.

I would never think of that, actually.

I think that can actually go back to that gratitude list or that inventory of what you have. So going back to the list of what they have done, not necessarily. You know, I'm planning this curriculum to happen, but this is what they have done.

Okay, well, last week they read A book that was 100 pages.

Yeah.

Perfect.

Yeah. So we are coming to a close.

Is there something that we didn't get to talk about that you were like, oh man, when I get on the podcast, I really want to make sure I say this.

I think that was, I think I touched on, on all of the.

Oh, I wanted to, to mention that we, we kind of talked a little bit about reading and how thinking outside the box of reading that, you know, life will, life will give you different things to read. And so some of the, the, the ways that I would never have dreamed. And this is.

So if you have ever been a te, you write the curriculum and then you have the class. And I, looking back to that, I think it's really funny because I would never dream to plan this much in every day.

Like, it would be crazy to think that you could go through this much information in a day. But things my kids have picked up as reading materials, instruction manuals. One of the things was how to put together.

We had bar stools and so that became a source for reading material. A property magazine. And again, these are things I would never dream of picking up a property magazine for a kid.

You know, we, we think we have to go to the store and it has to be from the kid aisle and we have to look their age or their grade level, um, but allow them to pick up what they want to read because it will, will advance them leaps and bounds. It's going to take the pressure off you and they're going to have a lot more fun with it. You had mentioned that a lot of games have reading in it.

So one of the big ones that my kids love are story games on Roblox.

And I quickly learned that sometimes my 7 year old can read out loud faster than I can, you know, because he's reading it out loud for his four year old sister. So let them pick their reading source because it's going to open it up, you're going to, they're going to pick it up so much faster and be intrigued.

And no, a bar stool instruction manual is not exciting.

There's not a fight for an engineer brain.

You know, as a kid, they probably don't even know, need to know what a dangling participle is because if they did, it'd probably bug them as much as I do when I hear them in conversations because they're used everywhere those dang dangling participles. And if they don't know, they won't even know it's a problem. So yeah, don't tell them about dangling participles.

But one random day, they're gonna hear someone say dangling participle, and they're gonna go, what is up? And it's gonna stick.

Yeah, exactly. I wonder, well, they're learn. I wonder, well there where they'll learn that at.

Well, I wonder where now.

I wonder where they're learn that at.

This has been so much fun.

Would you please tell our audience how they can contact you if they want to become part of the frugal mama community or something else you said is sparking their curiosity. How do they get a hold of you?

Absolutely. The easiest is on Facebook. I'm Heather Lee Whitten, and we have a Facebook group, Frugal mama community.

Beautiful. And of course, all of that will be down in the show notes as well. Thank you, Heather, for great conversation.

Thank you for taking us not only through the frugal community, but also your experiences as a homeschooling mom. I really appreciate it, and I really

appreciate that you had your kids and they were in the room, and it was messy, and it was life, and. And the way you handled it and smiled and worked with them through the process, it wasn't a disruption. It was just handled.

And that is what we want for our families. That's what we preach. That's what we try and bring into our house. And so to see it finally in.

In person, happening live, that was just a really beautiful thing. And sharing what you do, so many people don't want to talk about it. It's like, oh, my.

You know, it's a hard conversation, and not only did you start it, but you're leading a community. And so that's what heroes do. It's like they go out and they fight that dragon.

They find some information, and then they bring it back to the community and share it. And so, Heather, you are a hero. And thank you for being here today, and thank you for doing what you do.

Thank you so much. Thank you, guys.

You're very, very welcome. And thank you, audience, for being here and listening. Right, Take these gold nuggets.

There are several things that were said today that you really should just pick up and take along with you. And remember, don't hide them in your pocket. Bring them out, look at them, and use them, because that's what all those gold nuggets are for.

Also, please do us a huge favor. Make sure that this show and lots of other shows get to other families who really need it. Right? There are families out there who are saying, we.

Oh, my gosh, my budget is high. I wonder what I could do about that. Oh, my goodness. My communication isn't going well with my children. What can I do about it?

We've brought these excerpts to you for those exact questions.

Don't be afraid to look at it. Ask questions. Don't avoid it. Get help. The sooner you get help, the sooner the confusion and the frustration goes away.

Exactly. So until next time, take care and we'll see you later. Bye for now.

Bye for now.

Bye.