The Cleverly Changing podcast is back and we want to welcome you to season 4!
Highlights From the Show
Want to be a guest on an upcoming show? Here’s how:
After this form is complete we will send you an interview link if your request is approved.
Here’s how your kids can be a guest on Cleverly Cultured Kids:
After this Interview for for kids is complete we will send you an interview link if your request is approved.
Want to Hear From You
Please leave us a voicemail and let us know how you are enjoying the show or share your questions.
Listen to Episode 66 of the Cleverly Changing Podcast
Full Episode Transcript for Welcome to Season 4
Introduction
Hello, hello, everybody. We are super, super excited to join you and to connect with you because it has been a while. This is season four, and we have not recorded for a couple months. And we are just super excited that you are sticking with us. We are, you know on our homeschool journeys as moms and we can’t wait to share with you what’s new in our lives and what’s new in our kids lives.
Elle
So, before we get started with today’s podcast, I want us to introduce ourselves. For those of you who do not know us. We are two Black moms who homeschool. My name is Elle Cole. I am a mom of twin girls, I can’t believe it, but they are now teenagers.
We started this podcast in 2019. I first started my blog cleverlychanging.com in 2010. So it has been a long journey. And we are happy to be able to give back to you in this sort of way. I homeschooled my girls for seven years. And I wanted to have an opportunity to pour into my community because sometimes when we go to co ops and homeschool groups, we don’t always get to connect with people on an intimate level. And so with this podcast, we want to connect with you. We want to hear from you. We want you to know that we really care about you. And so that is what brings us here to season four.
Miriam, please let everybody know who you are, and tell them a little bit about your family.
Miriam
All right, well, I’m Miriam. I am the mother to four little people, two girls and two boys. My oldest is 14 and my youngest is 4.
Miriam
I also have been homeschooling for about five years. Wait, no, that doesn’t make sense.
About five years, but it’s been longer kind of. I don’t really know how we start the timeline. You know, some people say I’ve been homeschooling since birth. Well, I mean, you know, life is learning. So I guess technically, everyone’s been homeschooled at some point. But you know, I also am a writer and editor.
Miriam
I am a real life urban farmer. And I am just a lover of all things natural.
Miriam
When it comes to homeschooling, and sharing the things that I’ve learned, I really do hope that it’s helpful, because I know when I first started, I was so scared and so unsure. And now things seem to be falling, you know, so easily into place. And even when things aren’t going the way as I planned, which happens a lot.
Miriam
It’s still okay, because you know, life is living and learning is learning and they’re going to be fine. So.
Miriam
So hope is what we would like to also give to you all who are starting on this path that have been on the journey. For a while. Encouragement is always always a language of love.
Elle
Yes, it is definitely something that I feel like we do start from the very beginning with our kids. I know my girls, the very first things I bought for them were books. And so reading to them, showing them the word, then sounding out words, singing songs, you know, really just taking everything in and sharing with my kids was all a part of their learning experience. So if you are a parent who has not officially started homeschool, don’t fret, you’ve already got the tools because you taught your kids so much before they went to a traditional school or before they were of school age, so definitely know that one of the things that both of us have learned is that we can do it and that our kids can learn from us and that’s what we’re trying to share with you.
Elle
So what can we expect coming up in season four, because I feel
Miriam
excited and you know, ready to charge forward and bring some cool things for our listeners. I’m so excited, I hope that you all really, really get a kick, and find all kinds of great things to help move you forward.
Miriam
Join us in the next coming months, as we share all these goodies, what have we got.
Elle
So I am super excited to share with you, we have some amazing guests coming up. So when we first started the podcast, it was really just us, we were sharing our experience, letting people get to know our family, because it wasn’t just us, it was also our kids. It was the entire family sharing our experience. And so the second season, we really started to introduce guests. And it was great, because we got to hear from a variety of voices. That third season was more like if you’re homeschooling and you’re also trying to make money, then listen to us.
So now I think we are getting back to our roots, because right now the world is really trying to learn how to work alongside their kids. So even if you’re not a homeschooler, at some point, this year, or in the years to come, your kids are probably going to be in your home while you are trying to work. And so these messages, tips, and the different things we share apply to those circumstances as well. It’s not just people who are giving their kids a curriculum, grading the papers, and doing everything on their own. It’s also for those who are remote learning now, even if your kid has other teachers, because even when you homeschool, a lot of times you’re outsourcing some of those subjects. So sometimes there is a parent who can literally do it all and do everything and teach their kids every subject, but that’s more rare. For the most part most homeschoolers are outsourcing something. And so we are going to tap into that, how are families making it work in a variety of ways.
We’re going to be showing creativity, the highs and lows of homeschooling. One thing that we always try to do is be real, we’re not trying to paint these rosy pictures of what a perfect homeschool is because perfection does not exist in any homes, ever.
It’s just it’s a concept that is not real. In reality, like there is no perfect family. And so what we have to always remember as homeschoolers is that our family dynamics are completely different. So while we may be sharing our tips, and the things that work for us, as individuals, and as a family, culture, or family unit, they may not work for you and your household. And that is completely fine because you can take certain things that do work and adapt them to your situation. And so that’s what we’re gonna be getting into. Is there anything you would add to that?
Miriam
No, I think you hit many nails right on the head. I’m totally okay with what you said. Awesome! So here’s what we want from our listeners, because I feel like, you know, in that first season, we were hearing from our listeners, they were telling us their questions, and I really missed that part where they were really chiming in. And so we want to give them an opportunity to chime in again.
Elle
Can you kind of touch on that a little bit?
Miriam
Yes, we feel a little you know, put to the side because you guys aren’t talking to us as much as you used to. And we missed those conversations. We miss the questions. We miss the interaction. And you know, in this current climate, we’re interaction is kind of at an all time low.
Miriam
Can we get back to some of that? We’d really appreciate it. You know, so it’s just interacting with us on social media is great. Emailing us questions, concerns. Heck, we even like to hear your stories.
Elle
Tell us what’s working for you and your family. You know we would love for you to share some of the things that are working for you or your family, because it may be something that can help another parent, or it could be something that is completely innovative and absolutely amazing. So we’re really looking forward to hearing more, more of your suggestions and stories, tips and tricks. We want to hear about your woes, your good days, your bad days, we want to celebrate with you and we want to hold you up when you need a little support.
Elle
Yes, I love that. You just said that. Because I want people to know yes, we are on social media. So we’re on Facebook at CleverlyChanging. So just like the podcast name, we are on Facebook and YouTube. So there are other platforms as well, like Twitter is CleverlyChangin, without the G on the end, you can actually tweet us occasionally. We want to include your thoughts in our upcoming episodes. And we also want to give you an opportunity to call a number and leave a message. And that way we can put that recorded message in our upcoming episodes. So make sure you have a piece of paper and a pencil.
Miriam
We’ll also make it easy for you and stick it in the show notes too. But I’m kind of old school. And so we like to write things down.
Elle
So the number is 410-429-7043. If you call that number and leave a message, we can take that voicemail, and include it in our episode. So what would you say? You would tell us? Have you been enjoying the episode? What stood out to you? Do you have any questions? Is there anything you would add to an episode? So those are some of the things that we’re looking for in the voicemail?
Elle
So would you add anything that you want them to leave in the voicemail or does that pretty much cover it?
Miriam
Yeah, that covers it, whatever’s on your spirit to tell us if you feel like we’re your friends over the interwebs. Excellent. Leave us a lovely friendly note. Whatever strikes your heart, that’s great. Yes, because I want you guys to know that those messages keep us going and motivates us to keep this podcast running. Because then we know that it is actually meeting our audience that we are intending for it to meet. So the only way we know that is if you’re engaging with us. So we need we need you.
Elle
Just like I’ve heard from many of you who have said especially when we did some of the Live episodes on on stream yard when we did it on Facebook for two weeks in 2020. And when everybody was thinking about homeschooling and considering it as an option. We went live for two weeks to help accommodate and help provide reassurance to people who need it. One thing we constantly heard was, oh my God, these are the people from the podcast. Yes, we are the same people. We are real moms really doing it. And so it helps us for you to engage with us. Now, we don’t have another two week session in store. But from time to time, if we hear from you, and you want us to do a live show. Definitely connect with us and let us know that.
So what else do we want? We want you to participate. So we talked about participating by asking questions by leaving that voicemail by connecting with us on social, but there’s even more ways that you can participate. Do you want to be a guest? We are looking for new guests that are homeschooling. You know sometimes we get businesses that want us to shout out their products. We are not necessarily looking for that. But if you are a homeschooler and your product is relevant to homeschooling, we will consider you, so definitely connect with us. If you go to our main page and look in our show notes. We include how you can be a guest. So we have a form that we require that you fill out in its entirety. And we have a link where you can schedule an interview. So those are the two components that you need to become guests of the CleverlyChanging. Podcast.
Elle
All right now, Miriam, there’s something we want to bring back, right?
Miriam
Oh, my God. Yes. it’s been a little bit of a struggle. And I’m not really sure why as we have access to several young people, however, it’s hard. We really, really want to bring back excuse me bring back the cleverly cultured kids segment. If we can have more young people that would just liven things up.
Miriam
We’re looking for different ways to bring Cleverly Culture kids to you. So we were thinking, why not make it a space for oration? Would you like to recite James Weldon Johnson, or Maya Angelou? Is there a book report that’s been written that you want to share an article that a child has written up home? Anything that your child would love to share over the podcasting waves, we would love to showcase them? So that’s one of our new initiatives for kids.
Miriam
All right, well, we have a live interruption from a four year old. But we are looking forward to having different interactions with the children, we would also like to just have some candid conversations like we used to do about whatever it is, that is of interest with the young people, schooling, pandemic, game,
Elle
We really do want to bring the children back. So reach out to us if you have a young person who is looking forward to doing that. Yeah, so we we not only want to hear from you, as an adult, we want to hear from your kids too, because I think when we’ve done the podcast, people hearing from the children hearing that they’re real, normal kids, they’re not weird, they’re not strange, was very encouraging. So we really want to bring that back. But our kids don’t want to be the only voices. They want to hear from other kids, too. They want to meet other kids too. And we will be setting up audio sessions, look in the show notes for the details so that you and your child can participate and be a guest. So cleverly, culture, kids is looking for kids. So we are super excited about that, because that was really one of my favorite parts of the podcast. And I know for those of you who have children, too, that probably was some of their favorite parts. Because since that first season, it’s really been adults. And while we love adult conversations, we also value hearing from our little ones. We know, the family show, so let’s have the whole family rally round and have a good time. That’s what we want. Yeah. And that includes dads. Yeah. So if you if you have been listening to our episodes, we didn’t always have women on the show. There were there were men who are pouring into young people’s lives, not only their children’s lives, but other people’s kids. And so we want to highlight some of those stories as well. And
Elle
We are also looking to create some products for you. So if there is something that you need that you want from us, shoot us a message on social or an email, at cleverlychanging@gmail.com. Let us know what is it that you want from us and we will try to answer your request.
I’m just super excited about season four, the time is right now. And so I just can’t wait to connect with you guys and and just communicate and share about this journey. Our homeschooling positions have kind of changed. So we’re not even looking at homeschooling the same way we did when we first started.
One thing that we want to do in season four is bring a variety of voices. So not just the preschool, elementary, and middle, we want to get some more high school voices in there. Families are transitioning from the homeschool setting into maybe dual enrollment with some colleges or some trade schools. Your kids are learning real skills that they’re able to market. And so we want to hear from some of those kids who are entrepreneurs and doing the real thing in the world who are taking the lessons they’re learning from home school, and they’re applying them in a big way. So that’s what’s new for season four. And I don’t know about you, but I’m ready. I’m ready for season four.
Miriam
Yes, very excited, I cannot wait to get the show on the road, and give it to you all, where you can pick it up wherever you pick up your podcasts.
Elle
Absolutely. So I’m going to shout out some places because we need reviews. So for instance, when we look at our analytics, we see that Apple podcast is the main place you are listening to us. So if Apple Podcast is your thing, please leave us a review. Why are reviews so important? Reviews are important because it will help our podcast grow. When these platforms see that people are listening to our show, they will show it on their top pages. And it will bring more listeners and more listeners mean, we can do more shows, you can have more episodes, we can keep it going. And so as always, we want you to tell a friend, we want you to tell other people, especially because we’re trying to be as authentic as possible. And that’s what we need in this world. We need more more realness more down to earth, people who are communicating. So Apple is one of the places. Spotify is another big one, as well as Google podcasts. Those are the three main paste places, we want you to leave us a review. But if you are listening from other places like Pandora, or from Amazon, I know we are on those platforms as well. And so, hey, wherever you’re listening to us, if there’s a place to receive a review, leave us a review, because I assure you, you’re not the only person listening on that platform. And we want people to know people do in fact, listen to our shows. It would mean the world to us. And the more that you help us promote our show, the more we can provide you. So I’m just excited about the future. I’m excited about reading your reviews in advance, because I can’t wait to hear what you all are saying. And you are listening. Not only do we need you to leave us a review, but if this platform allows you to subscribe, we need you to subscribe too because subscribers matter and followers matter. And so we need your support. And so that’s what we’re trying to do. We’re reaching out to you saying, “Hey, we want to give something to our community. And now we need our community to give back to us.”
Elle
So is that it Miriam, or do we have more?
Miriam 28:57
I mean, I’m sure we have more but we can’t tell all the secrets.
Miriam 29:02
in this first show, so we’ll have to come back and come hang with us. Come sit with us. We’ll be glad to take you on your drive to your doctor’s visit or to the park to the playground, fishing hole whatever it is that you do. We would love to go with you.
Elle 29:22
So stay tuned and we can’t wait to talk to you again. Alright everybody, bye for now.
