RV LIFE Podcast
The RV LIFE Podcast, created by one of the premier companies in the RV industry, is for the RV Community with a mission to Educate, Entertain and Explore the RV Lifestyle. The Podcast will explore all things RV Life: living, working, exploring, learning. With hosts Dan & Patti Hunt, full time RVers, content creators, educators and explorers.
RV LIFE Podcast
Traditional Schooling Vs. Homeschooling
Ever wondered how different educational paths can shape a child's future? In today’s episode I (Patti Hunt), a former teacher with years of experience in traditional education, and Jacob Gooden, who spent 11 years being homeschooled, together, we unravel the pros and cons of traditional schooling versus homeschooling. Jacob's journey from homeschooling to earning a Bachelor of Science in Business with a focus on the music industry offers a unique perspective on how personalized education can influence career choices and life paths.
We explore the benefits and drawbacks of traditional schooling versus homeschooling, drawing on personal experiences. Key topics include socialization, curriculum choices, and college readiness. The episode emphasizes customizable education to fit a child's unique learning style. It also touches on RV-related topics. Listeners are invited to connect with Jacob with questions or comments.
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Should educating our children be left up to the professionals? I'm Patti Hunt and you're listening to the RV Life Podcast. Education in a traditional school is the way I was educated. My kids five of them and grandkids nine of them have been educated and are being educated in a traditional school environment. I was a teacher for 20 years in a traditional school environment, but my guest today was homeschooled for 11 years and today we'll sort of battle it out as to whether or not that traditional school setting or the homeschool setting is best for you. Well, we won't exactly battle it out because on the RV Life Podcast, we believe in everybody being able to freely share their opinions. The RV Life Podcast was created to help educate, entertain and explore the RV lifestyle, with the mission to inspire you to live life to the fullest. Today we're going to dive into education, looking at the pros and cons of both traditional and homeschooling environment this week.
Speaker 1:On what you Need to Know. Let's get to that Before we jump into the show. It is brought to you by Open Roads Resorts and they have five great locations Two are in Montana, one is in Idaho, one in Texas and their newest location is in Nebraska. Now, when you're listening to the podcast. It is September and there is still time to get to Montana and Idaho before it gets cold and before these campgrounds start to shut down. They do shut down sometime in October as the weather starts getting too cold for RV travel to these areas. Open Road Resorts you can go check out all five of their incredible locations by going to openroadresortscom Amazing group of campgrounds. But let's jump into what you need to know. It is now after Labor Day, it's back to school. We're getting ready for fall. You might be thinking now about putting your RV in storage. Thinking now about putting your RV in storage. So let's talk about what's coming up. And that is number one RVTV's America's Top Talent. So that is a talent show where you have the opportunity to win $5,000. I had Dan Dominski on the show a couple weeks ago. Check that out. Go to rvtvtv to find out more about how to submit your talent to win or the possibility of winning $5,000.
Speaker 1:Next, rv Share. I am so honored to announce that RV Share has what they call campies, where they have nominations for several different categories. I got a message that the RV Life podcast is in the top three podcasts and so they're looking for votes. So go to RV Share and vote for whoever you feel is the best podcast of the three. Now let's talk about in just a week, america's largest RV show, also known as the Hershey Show, is coming up, and there are some events other than the show that you can attend, and that's the RV Entrepreneur Workshop, which is a full-day workshop for entrepreneurs that are either full-time, part-time, sometime on the road A great group of people giving amazing information. If you're an entrepreneur, there are still tickets for that event, but you got to get signed up before they are gone. The other event is the RV Life Hershey After Party. As of the recording of this episode, there are still some tickets, but tickets are going fast. If you're interested in attending that event on September 12th, you need to go to sign up for that. You could go to RV Life, you could go to RV Life Podcast to find the information or, like always, it'll be in the show notes. Now, this, what you need to know, is brought to you by Open Road Resorts.
Speaker 1:We have to get into our guest. I am super excited. My background is in education, so this is an important topic for me. My guest today is Jacob Gooding is a podcast editor and producer based in Nashville, tennessee. He currently edits the RV Life podcast and hosts his own show, the Ex-Homeschoolers Club. Jacob has worked on various podcasts, including Hustle and Flowchart, the W3. I don't know what this one is. There's a lot of letters and numbers. Jacob chime in on this one. The Web3 Network was what this one is. There's a lot of letters and numbers. Jacob chime in on this one.
Speaker 2:The Web3 network was what it was called. So yeah, all the E's replaced with threes, I know.
Speaker 1:It was a whole branding snafu. I should have checked that before the say that again.
Speaker 2:Web3, yeah.
Speaker 1:Web3 network, okay, girl Talk Destructing Data, and Seven on Sundays. Homeschooled from second grade through 12th grade, jacob later earned a Bachelor of Science in Business with an emphasis in music industry, completed his degree in three years. He lives with his wife, maddie, in Nashville and is developing an interest in RV living after attending an RV show and that RV show was with me. Welcome, jacob Gooding, to the RV Life Podcast.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for having me, Patty. I'm stoked to be here.
Speaker 1:Me too. Okay, so today we're going to talk about traditional versus homeschooling, but let's talk first. You live in Tennessee, as we said, with your wife Maddie, and you have a Bachelor's of Science in Business. Why did you choose that as your road?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's funny because that was actually not my first choice. I went to school originally to do audio engineering, which, funny enough, is kind of what I do now. Uh, but when I got there it just was not what I really. I just wasn't thriving in it and I knew I wanted to work in the entertainment industry and so I had already taken a music business class and I was like you know what, let's just go down that route. I had owned a couple of businesses before. I knew I kind of wanted to do like small startup-y type stuff in the future and so, yeah, so I was just like it was an easy transition just to go business and then to emphasize in the entertainment industry, and so, yeah, that's kind of where that happened.
Speaker 1:And I love the idea that a lot of times and there are certain rabbit holes I'm sure both of us could go down I love the idea that you know as a kid in high school, trying to decide what you want to do you get to college to be able to change gears. I know I did change. I changed gears in my career a lot. Okay, so we met in January face-to-face meeting at PodFest, which, yes, it is a great, big podcasting event. It is fantastic. I love it. And we met, we immediately hit it off and we have been staying in touch. Rv Life did choose you to produce and edit my podcast and I'm very excited. But let's talk about your decision to go in the podcast space.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a funny story because I tell people I really just fell into it. I was working a job in the food industry and I managed a restaurant and I just hated it. I just was not satisfied with my job whatsoever. And so I found these online classes that were like marketing, digital marketing, social media type stuff, and I started doing them just to kind of like resharpen my skills, because I've been a number of years since I was out of college and what I didn't know was that a part of that was you could sign up to be an intern for companies. And so all of a sudden I had all of these companies reaching out to me and saying, hey, we want you to intern for us, and I was really looking for another job. So I was like, well, what would this internship turn into a job?
Speaker 2:Lo and behold, the Hustle and Flowchart podcast reached out to me and I had dabbled in podcasting. I was an active listener of podcasts. I had kind of wanted to work in that industry. Potentially, I had an audio engineering background. So I was like, ok, this might be the thing. And they were the only people who were like, well, yeah, if it goes well, we'll hire you afterwards and it'll just be a couple hours a week, but it'll be something. So, yeah, so I sign up. I'm like, let's do it.
Speaker 2:And pretty quickly I was started as, like, their social media manager. So I was just posting to Instagram and Facebook and they had one of their edits got messed up and I was able to fix it really quickly for them. And, yeah, and not long after that, they were like we just want you to be our podcast editor. And that just continued to grow into so many different things to the point where, right before COVID hit so March 2020, I quit my job. I went full time with podcasting and, yeah, and I've pretty much worked with it was at the time it was Matt Wolfe and Joe Fear. Now it's just Joe Fear, but I've been in touch with those guys ever since then. And yeah, and then just picked up other shows along the way to the point where, yeah, we got to meet. And here we are.
Speaker 1:Here we are, and so I do want to give a shout out to Joe Fear, hustle and Flowchart, his podcast. For somebody who's an entrepreneur likes personal growth, there's so much there. I highly recommend it. So shout out to Hustle and Flowchart. I'm going to put that in the show notes. I am actually going to be interviewed on his show so I'll let people know when that'll be live. But I am super excited about that podcast. I met Joe. He's an amazing person. Okay, let's get back to do you feel that the homeschooling experience you had allowed you to kind of pick and choose your career and change your career path along the way?
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I mean by the time I was in high school I worked so many jobs. I worked at a library, I had my own business, I taught guitar lessons. I was a janitor in audio engineering at a library. I had my own business, I taught guitar lessons. I was a janitor in audio engineering at a recording studio, and so I was able to kind of do all these different things.
Speaker 2:And then I just had so many hobbies along the way, whether it was like airsoft and paintball, or I was a mime for a little while, or just like in backyard theater productions, and I really liked music and just anything I was interested in I got to kind of dabble in. And I really liked music and just anything I was interested in I got to dabble in. And so I was used to that ability to kind of like switch things up. Right, you get bored with something. It's like, ok, yeah, you can go down the next passion path, basically, and so.
Speaker 2:So yeah, when I got to college, when I wanted to change majors, it really it was hard because career wise I was, so I had been so mindset set on, just like I'm going to be an audio engineer and make music albums and eventually be one of the greats kind of a deal, and so to pivot into business was a little bit hard, but it wasn't a foreign feeling, if that makes sense. And so then coming out of it and then now working in the podcasting industry and content creation in general, there's so many things you have to pivot day to day on, like one day you're making Instagram reels, so the next day you're editing a podcast and you're doing show notes, and then you're building a website and you're doing all these different things, and so I think just having that flexibility to be interested in a lot of things would be up to be like okay, yes, I can do, you throw it at me, I'll figure it out, kind of a thing.
Speaker 1:And I think personally that that's great. I started out and a lot of people don't know this when I started out I wanted to be a doctor, so I went to college and that was kind of the road that I wanted to go down. I was 17 when I started college. I don't think I had the ability to deal with the challenges of it. So I changed my career. I got a degree in business. It just seemed like the fallback. I have an undergraduate in psychology, so that was what I really was passionate about but was steered away from it because I was told by a counselor you can't make money. So that was it. And then later, fast forward, years later, I got my master's degree in education and I then got 45 credits. So I am a couple of classes and a dissertation away from a doctorate and we'll see if someday I go for that.
Speaker 1:But I do like the idea. For some kids that are in high school or before that, they decide I want to be the teacher, the fireman, the whatever, and they pursue that goal and they go for it and love it. And for others, you know, as high schoolers, there's so much we don't know what we don't know, so I like the ability for there to be that pivot, that, hey, I'm not liking this. I thought I would and I'm not, and let's change it up. Okay, so let's talk. You are the host of a podcast called Ex-Homeschoolers Club. Tell us about that.
Speaker 2:It started for selfish reasons.
Speaker 2:It really was me wanting to like just catch up with old friends and find out and be nosy right and figure out, like what's going on in your life.
Speaker 2:You know, some of them I didn't maybe know all the way through their homeschool journey and so asking them about the beginning, the middle, the end of it, what they're doing for careers, that kind of thing, and so that was really like the impetus was like me being just nosy Right and but it's been great because it's been reconnecting me with so many friends that like I hadn't even thought of in a decade. Right, I've been out of, been out of high school for a decade and have really just like lost contact with a lot of those people. And so it's brought so many people out of the woodwork and it's kind of built this new community of people who are in all different paths of whether it was the good, the bad or the ugly of homeschooling. They have come out to share their stories and to reconnect with us and kind of like find community there, and so it's been awesome, it's been a lot of fun.
Speaker 1:And that's why I was so thrilled when we started talking, to have you on the show, because you could certainly share with my listeners Most of them are RVers, whether they do a full-time, part-time some time, or dreaming of a time to go RVing. The reason for this show? Well, my kids are already graduated and beyond the school age. The idea is to be able to share information for my listeners. I hear a lot of people that say when the kids are out of the house, I'll go RVing. When the kids are out of the house, I'll go full-time. And I'm not trying to convince. We are not trying to convince anybody to do anything, but there may be other options for parents to be able to get out and get on the road and let you know.
Speaker 1:Talk about the good, bad ugly, you know, of homeschooling. So I'm glad we're having this opportunity. And on the RV Life podcast, I believe that it's not one size fits all. So, while we're talking about homeschooling, some families will choose to RV in the summer and have their kids in regular traditional school. There's no right answer for it. There's no judgment. Families need to do what's right for them. We're here to present information on both sides of it. Now this is also going to be a two-part series, which I've never done before. I'm going to have somebody on for part two that's from full-time families and she's part of the leadership team and she said she could talk all things homeschooling, you know, in relation to being in an RV and how to navigate those types of things. Okay, so super excited about this show and what's coming, giving people everything they need to know about homeschooling. So you were homeschooled for 11 years. Tell my listeners what that homeschooling journey, how that started.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I went to pre-K, kindergarten and first grade in a public school setting and after that my family had moved to a town not super far, it was 20, 30 minutes away, and it was at that point my mom decided, okay, hey, we're going to do that, we're going to give homeschooling a shot. And I recently talked to her and I said how long did you think about this? Like when did you decide that this was the thing and what were the reasons? Was it like there's kind of this thing that a lot of people think it's like for religious reasons, or that the school education, the school system is like so broken and busted that you know it's not good for their kid system is like so broken and busted that you know it's not good for their kid? And she's like, well, the reality is is that my grandmother had basically been bugging her since the day I was born to be like I think you should consider homeschooling. And so my grandma was this advocate for like you're going to homeschool your kids someday. And uh, and my mom just was not feeling it, not feeling that she wanted her freedom, and when it came to I was eight years old, going into second grade, my sister was going into kindergarten and we had just moved and my mom was like I think it's just, she just had this gut feeling that it was like it was time to just like give it a shot.
Speaker 2:Probably the worst timing in the world Fresh move, I'm losing all my friends. Our house was a fixer upper so it was just always just a mess inside. We didn't even have a kitchen when we moved in kind of a deal. It was not a good first couple years. It was just absolutely brutal, hated it with all of me, all of my insides. I was just like this is the worst thing ever. I didn't get to see friends, anything like that.
Speaker 2:But really quickly it pivoted into. We found community, we found friends and that was, I think, the thing that shifted my homeschool journey from being like this awful thing that I was just begging to go back to school to I don't ever want to leave this because I all of a sudden I had friends. But I also had the flexibility of being like we could go on a trip, we could go to Disneyland, we could go do these things, and school could happen on the weekends or it could happen at those places, you know, and so so yeah, that was kind of like the impetus for like again, like she just had this calling to like, do it and and yeah, I don't know it. Just call it a gut instinct, I guess.
Speaker 1:So, and you know, and I've heard your story of the bad parts of it you hated it when you first started. Thinking back, is there something that you could offer our listeners that may want to start the homeschooling process, or have started, that might make the transition easier for their kids?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think, like I said, I think there was just so much going on in my life at the time. It was like big move away from friends to and also in a house that was not complete, so it was just always under construction, and so I think there was just a lot of change happening. And I'm not a person who likes change Most people don't and so I think that was really stressful. I think things that they would have done differently would have been putting us in an environment where we felt comfortable and then making that change where it's a smaller change, it's still a big change, but it's a singular change, instead of like we're changing everything in your life somewhat significantly.
Speaker 2:And I've watched like my cousin went from being a public school kid to a homeschool kid and he had a little bit of an easier time, but he was in a house that the house didn't change. He still got to see his friends, he's still, you know, and so it was really just a shift from I'm going to classes every day to I'm just going to the dining room table to do school every day. So I think he had an easier pivot into into that environment. So, you know, I would say, you know, it's just that drastic change, I think can be a lot sometimes, especially for a kid, and when you don't know always how to communicate it, it's like oh it's a lot Right.
Speaker 1:So I think what I'm hearing and I've seen. You know I was full time on the road for over three years. I had the opportunity to speak to a lot of parents who were homeschooling their kids. One of the interesting stories which got me thinking about this whole topic I was at a campground and there was one family that lived in an RV with five kids and then another family that lived in a fifth wheel with a number of kids, and I'm speaking to this woman about her homeschooling experience and during the conversation I said, well, I was a teacher for 20 years and she physically took a step back and I knew, right then and there that did she feel judged? Did she feel like I was going to judge her? Did she feel like, well, you should have your kids in traditional school?
Speaker 1:Because I know from listening to a lot of parents, they are feeling that you could see on social media, on forums, where people you know are even chastising families for living on the road for homeschooling their kids. They don't understand it, they don't believe in it, whatever that looks like. So as she and I spoke, I talked to her about the fact that I don't feel like our education system is for everyone. Now, I'm not here, we're not going to go down the rabbit hole of knocking the education system, but I do certainly have to say that it's not a great system. It tends to be, in a lot of districts, a one-size-fits-all, and all kids are different. And that is what I really resonate when I look at people who are homeschooling their kids. Are they able to give that kid more of what they need to meet whatever needs they have? So do you feel like that was the case for you, where more of your specific needs could get met?
Speaker 2:Absolutely Well and aside from just, I would say I was pretty. I was a pretty average kid. I think I would have done okay in public school and been able to follow along. The thing that homeschooling offered was the ability that if you get stuck, okay, let's just redo it. It's that one-on-one teaching. But for kids who have things like dyslexia, ADHD, other learning disabilities like my sister has dyslexia, she couldn't read, like letters were upside down and turned around and it was just a mess on the page for her. And so the ability that my mom had to then sit and be like okay, we're gonna work on this together and we're gonna slowly work through and figure out the education that works for you. Now she excelled in other ways, like math, where for me I was a little bit more average, slower in that area, but my sister was skyrocketing because for her that made sense.
Speaker 2:And so you can kind of cater your schooling to match what your kids are interested in and where they get stuck and all those types of things. And so also playing into the passions is like I got really into certain types of history. I really liked pirates, so I did a whole year on pirates. I got really into learning about all of the like world wars that have taken place. And so, you know, I did a whole year on Wars and, you know, read books and watched movies and documentaries and went to museums and all those kind of things. That was not like a traditional curriculum but it's something that my parents worked with me to build because I was just interested in it.
Speaker 2:And so, yeah, I agree with you, I think public school is not for everybody, private school is not for everybody and homeschooling is not for everybody. You, I think public school is not for everybody, private school is not for everybody and homeschooling is not for everybody. But if you can listen to what your kids need and help give that to them, that's like you know you're winning. At that point. You know it's just like be involved in your kid's education You're winning. At that point.
Speaker 1:And let's. There's a lot there that I want to talk about and again, you know we don't have a timeframe here. This is a big topic. It's something I'm incredibly passionate about. I became a teacher and was a teacher in high school for 20 years and I'm seeing the good, the bad and the ugly. You know having with the students that I had in the class. You refer to dyslexia, which is one of the big ones that students suffer from. Let's look at ADD and ADHD and we could say, oh, that's just every kid, you know. There's again the good and the bad, the comments, the belief system around that that we won't go down that rabbit hole. The fact is that in let me back up a little bit because I want to be really transparent. I don't share this with many people.
Speaker 1:When I started school in kindergarten from kindergarten to about sixth grade I was sick all the time. I missed more school than I attended. So, as you can imagine, school was stressful. I missed a lot of education, so I missed a lot of important things. By the time I got to fourth, fifth, sixth grade, I was labeled learning disabled. I felt stupid. I literally felt like I'm not as smart as the rest. I felt like I couldn't read, I couldn't do this, that or the other. That was what the belief that I had in myself. Um, and so the school system tries, and certainly the school system has gotten better since I was in elementary school long, long ago, but there's still certain stigma. So one of the things that I would really love parents to know I have.
Speaker 1:Between Dan and I, we have five kids. Certain ones had certain types of quote-unquote learning disabilities. The one kid that everybody called the smart one she was the youngest. She started reading by the time she was two. She would sit in a corner and read a book, like that's what she loved doing. So she was the smart one. She got things quickly. When we look at the smart one, the one that gets it, and when we look at kids that seem to have learning disabilities, it's like you said a lot of times, that's just meeting them where they are.
Speaker 1:So, for instance, in education, kids learn either your learning style. So each person has a basic learning style, and I'm going to be very basic about this. You could be an auditory learner, you could be a visual learner, you could be a kinetic learner. Where you need that touch, you need to be out and see something to learn. Knowing what your style is, I'm a visual learner, so for me to listen or just hear an audio book that's detailed is more difficult than to read. But somebody like yourselves with dyslexia, I would imagine you're more of an auditory or kinetic learner, and I'm bringing this up and again. We're taking some deep dives in some rabbit holes here, but I think that the homeschool environment in some ways can allow for the differences that students have in their learning. Now let's fast forward.
Speaker 1:The kids that had quote unquote. My one kid that had a learning disability struggled in school. She graduated college. She decided that's what she wanted to do. She graduated college. She was going to be a early childhood education teacher. She didn't like it. She now has a career she absolutely loves Great.
Speaker 1:My youngest, who was quote unquote, the smart one, got to college, absolutely hated it. She couldn't sit still, she couldn't focus on what was being said. She did not fit well in that box. And she's gone on now and she does a career that she truly loves. She doesn't sit at a desk, she's not an accountant. She gets to get up and move around, she gets to go out and, you know, do her own thing because that's what works best for her learning style, and I think that's the big thing we're trying to get across to people either education system if it works well for your child and their learning style, but we do want to focus on the homeschooling part of it that you know you can learn in the way that's best for your child. So you did a podcast episode where you were in Disneyland doing schoolwork. Can you share that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. It was funny because, yeah, I grew up in Southern California and so Disneyland was not super far away and we ended up with annual passes at some point. And, yeah, the deal was we would pick a week, pick a day during the week. We'd go to Disneyland At one point. We were going at least every other week. But, yeah, the deal was you got to get your schoolwork done to go.
Speaker 2:I didn't do it and so it was like, well, the rest of everybody did it. We can either leave them at home or you can come with us, but you're going to do school work at Disneyland. And I was like, I'm going to Disneyland, are you kidding me? So went to Disneyland, did math homework at Disneyland and it was honestly such a cool experience.
Speaker 2:It's one of my fondest memories. My mom and I talk about it all the time Smells good, fondest memories. My mom and I talk about it all the time smells good, there's good music, it's good vibes and, uh, it was a little distracting, I'll be honest, but was able to sit there and do you know a math worksheet or whatever and uh, yeah, and it's just like a funny story of, like you know the ability that it's like not every kid has that ability to go do that kind of a thing, but that was something that was normal in our life of just like we got to go to Disneyland on a Tuesday, you know, or things like we could go to grandma and grandpa's for a week and do schoolwork at their house, or we could go, you know, travel, go to Colorado or go you know wherever, and like go, do that kind of thing. And so I think that is why homeschooling is, I think, so approachable to RVers, especially the ones who do it full time and they have their kids with them. It's like you can go anywhere.
Speaker 2:I had friends who one year for their school they did all 50 states. They did a road trip across all 50 states. They packed their minivan and that was school, and they just drove everywhere and they came back and they had great stories to tell. They went to every museum possible. They hit like pretty much all of the national parks, like it was a fantastic story. And they came back and then the next year it was like business as usual, back to textbooks, back to this, back to that, and it just worked. You know I had the flexibility to it that that worked.
Speaker 1:Right and that hands on. You know, schools over the years, traditional schools, have tried to do more and more of the hands-on. I truly believe that for most kids, that is an ability to learn. You know, I was a high school science teacher. We'd take our kids to the zoo. The school wanted us to have this quote unquote worksheet. That was so. They were just focused on let me get the answers not being present at the zoo. So, truth be told and now that I don't work there anymore, I could say that I allowed more flexibility this worksheet just wasn't as important as the kids finding what's the animal at the zoo that you truly love, why? Why tell me one fact about them. So making helping them to be more eager about being there, being present, instead of oh, we're going to the zoo and now it's a worksheet and it's a I have to find this and there's no fun around it. No, I, I wanted to make it fun for them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I want to make one thing clear too is that, like I also grew up in an environment that we were a part of two organizations there was Group Solutions and there was Achieve and both of those Achieve was really focused on bringing homeschool families together and providing them with opportunities for field trips, for school dances, for prom, for all of the kind of the regular school things, but having families come together and like, do fun things together and live in community. Group Solutions was an opportunity, for I believe it was twice a month we would meet and different parents got to teach different classes, and so you could, if you weren't as a mom, as a dad of a homeschool kid, if you weren't super strong in science, you could basically farm it out to somebody who maybe did have a science degree or what I mean. I took science class from a dentist. You know, he knows human anatomy better than pretty much anybody, you know kind of a thing, and so things like that were really cool because it allowed parents to play to their strengths.
Speaker 2:My mom had gone to school for and had an English degree, and so she could teach British literature, american literature, all those types of things and you know, and. But there was lots of parents who they didn't know you know anything about that, right and so they were able to send their kids to our house for that kind of a thing, and so that was a real benefit and that's why it's for a lot of reasons I tell people I'm like I don't feel like I had the traditional homeschool experience, because I still did classes with a lot of people and we just catered to everybody's learning abilities, you know.
Speaker 1:And I'm glad you brought that up, because that's one of the big things and the big things that parents are concerned about. Most parents, whether they're just trying to homeschool their kid at home or they're on the road, don't have the education I'm going to say the education background, but a solid understanding. If you told me I had to teach English which actually there was a year I was sent to fifth grade against my will and I had to teach English and you would have thought they should have put me in a French class, I would have done better, Like it wasn't my thing, I had no idea. So we, as a team of fifth grade teachers, I told one teacher they're going to teach all the English Like I made it happen and I'll teach all the science. I just couldn't and I didn't want to.
Speaker 1:So that's why I couldn't, and so I would imagine homeschool parents are absolutely feeling the same way and with no, necessarily no educational background or background in teaching their kids. I love what you're saying. There are communities, there's support, so you know somebody who's an RVer, who's traveling all over. There's still that support, which we'll talk about more on part two of this series, this mini series. But as a homeschool kid, you had the opportunity to learn from different people, so I would imagine, if you were having difficulty with a certain area or a certain subject, somebody else explaining it in a different way, was that helpful for you?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:I mean, my mom obviously learned our learning styles really quickly and my sister and I were very different, right Like, like I said before, she had dyslexia and so when it came to reading a book, my sister had to jump on a trampoline and listen to it.
Speaker 2:I could just go sit in bed and read the thing, and I don't have photographic memory, but I knew what I. I knew the book back and forth, but but yeah, when it came to things like I said, science, my parents were not science nerds and so going to somebody's house and having them explain it in a way that made sense because I could read the textbook and I could go, I mean I guess it makes sense that this molecule plus this molecule equal, or this atom plus this atom equals this molecule, you know it makes sense, but it's like I couldn't quite grasp it. But going to somebody's house and having somebody who had a degree in it or just had a healthy knowledge of it explained to me, it just made so much more sense and they worked with me to kind of like make sure I could be the best version of myself.
Speaker 1:And we have gotten so far into this conversation and it's such a great conversation and we've had lots of conversations. But I do have to get my sponsors in here, because they're the reason the RV Life podcast exists. You talked about molecules, so I'll talk about Clear 2.0. They have a fantastic water filtration system. I am right now using the water filtration system in a pitcher. I am staying in a house, as a lot of people know, and their water filtration system is better than what's out there. I've staying in a house, as a lot of people know, and their water filtration system is better than what's out there.
Speaker 1:I've done the research. I've seen how Clear 2.0 is different than the others. Just to be brief, most water filters are granular carbon. The carbon is what cleans the water. So they are granular carbon, so the water quickly flows through. A lot of us know that water will take the path of least resistance. There's a little science tip. Clear 2.0's filtration system works with a solid carbon block which keeps the water on that block longer and cleans the water. It gets it down to below one micron. The lower the micron, the better. It cleans out all the impurities. So the water tastes better, smells better, is healthier for you. Anybody wants to look into that? Go to clear20.com. The way that I learn is visual. So Clear20, the inventor, explained this to me and I understood it, but once I watched the video I said, okay, now I got it.
Speaker 1:There is a brief video on YouTube talking about learning styles, and people go to clear20.com to learn all about all the different water filtration systems. Okay, we are just going to keep diving in. We talked about different learning styles and ways that parents, whether they're home or on the road or for most of the people that listen to the RV Life podcast, they're on the road part-time and some time are transitioning back into their homes so the kids can go back to school. Totally fine, if that works, that's great. Some parents want to educate on the road and they'll. Whether they're on the road full time or not, they will do homeschooling Some of the things that people talk about. We're going to dive into some of the difficulties of homeschooling. Some of the things is the socialization kids being able to get out there and socialize in their room, in a work area, by a desk, doing their work, not talking to anyone. The parents are educating them or they're getting education online somehow. So there's not the socialization skills. Let's talk about that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that is a huge. It can be true. It's like one of those myths that it can be true and it has been true for some people and I have friends like that, um, but, uh, but it is also true that if you put your kid in the right environment, they can have friends that are not their sister and they will go to prom, not in the basement, um, so it can be very true that, yeah, homeschool kids are like anti-social weirdos, um, and, like I said, the first two years for me it was I didn't, I didn't feel like I saw a lot of people or had a lot of friends, um, but my mom was really good about putting me in environment or putting me into extracurricular activities, things outside of the house, that like I could start to make friends. So I joined a soccer club when I was a kid, uh, I went to awana, which was basically like Christian Boy Scout, girl Scout kind of a thing. You know I was in children's church and then we started to join these homeschool groups and things where it's like, all of a sudden, yeah, ok, I have class with other people every two weeks or or we have skate day at the local skating rink and things like that. And so then you start to make friends, right, you start getting put in that environment.
Speaker 2:And but again, you have to learn that social aspect of like when you are so used to being at home, your your filter when you're at home with your, with your people, right, it's very different than the filter that you put on when you go out with other people. And I recently had a friend on and we were talking about that and we were talking about how you need people to check you right and check your weirdness at the door sometimes, so that you know how to engage with people in an appropriate manner. And that's not me advocating to bully people, but it is, you know. But I think it is a thing where it's like, sometimes people just don't have the skill to like pick up those social cues. And then you were also talking about kids who a lot of times, because they have a learning disability or they have something whether it's autism or Down syndrome or things like that as well right, a lot of those kids tend to get homeschooled, and so there's also this sometimes inability to read those like social cues. And so you have to learn to like juggle it and put kids in an environment and not be scared to put them out there and like let them get hurt Cause that's just going to happen. That's just the nature of the world and it's like whether it happens when they're six years old or whether that happens when they're 18 and they move out like it's going to happen at some point.
Speaker 2:I think for the most part I ended up being an okay social person. My mom put me in speech club. She put me in, she sent me to dance class. She did all these things. She sent me to dance class mostly because she's like you got to know how to talk to girls at some point.
Speaker 2:But I was still weird. I mean, when I got to college I had a professor who sat me down in her office and was like, hey, you got to learn to just like chill. You got to learn to just be like OK with just being in the room and like not trying to draw focus and anything like that. So like even I had to learn stuff and I still have to learn social cues with people and stuff like that and stuff. And I still have to learn social cues with people and stuff like that. But yeah, it's about giving your kids still that opportunity to go engage with other kids outside of their friends. And I'm sure in the RV life that's probably even harder. But I mean, zoom is a thing, I'm sure. Campgrounds there's other kids running around, you know, finding things like that local in your area that you can go to. I don't know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that a couple of things. I think you're right. You see, when kids sometimes first start school and they're learning cues from other people, you get certain things from your family. It's just a natural progression Certain things, certain ways to act, certain ways to behave, whatever. And then you go out and you meet with friends and maybe they feel like certain things are okay and other friends. So that's just part of the growing and developing, for sure. And you get that whether you're in school or whether you're home.
Speaker 1:So if you're homeschooled, it's like you said, there are some that maybe are sitting in the house all the time, maybe they have a very closed outside world that they're keeping their kid in, okay. But within homeschooling at home, from what I'm hearing, there's a lot of opportunity to get your kid out and socialize. That In the RV community, having been in campgrounds for over three years, I love to watch the kids, I love to watch the interaction and I think that kids in the RV settings that I've seen are very, very well socialized I've seen are very, very well socialized. They're learning to navigate things different than the same old, same old routine of being in a home. Again, we're not saying good, bad, right wrong. There's none of that. It's what works for you. I've been in a campground where literally there were 10 kids running around. They were loud and having fun and exploring their environment and there was everything from the teenager down to the tiny one that couldn't keep up. So one of the older ones would like carry them along and it was great to sit and watch. That's socialization on a whole different level and I think whether you're homeschooled or you're in the RV world traveling part-time, full-time, whatever it is you can find those things that kids like and, like you said, I've talked to families that you know they homeschool their kid on the road. They have Zoom with their friends so they could stay connected. Full-time families is an organization. That's just that. It's full-time families that get together. They have activities, they meet in certain places. We're going to hear a lot about that on the next part of this series with Nicole, where she's going to share all about full-time families and how to do just that. Make sure your kids are getting that socialization, even though they're in the RV. So great information. I appreciate that.
Speaker 1:I'm going to take a really brief break right now and talk about Open Roads, fuel cards for those people who are traveling, whether they're full-time or part-time. If you have a diesel vehicle, you need the Open Roads fuel card. I've had it for over three years. The card is free to sign up for and it is fantastic. There are gas stations, there are truck stops all over the country and every time I would go to fuel up, we'd save on diesel fuel. You go to myopenroadscom to check out the fuel card.
Speaker 1:I also want to talk a little bit about the toll pass while you're traveling and you're going through those toll roads. I live in Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania Turnpike is the most expensive toll road in the world. Now, openroad's innovative tolling solutions isn't necessarily going to save you money on that road, but this toll pass works on all 48 states. So, as people are traveling across the country, I think that is an incredible way to educate your kids. You can make sure that it's one toll pass. If you should get a fine Open Roads Innovative Tolling that's going to take care of it, and all of that is on myopenroadscom. Okay, let's talk about some of the other challenges that you've seen in the homeschooling space and let's talk about the solutions.
Speaker 2:Absolutely so. I mean, I think a big one for is the worry that homeschool kids can't go to college after. After the fact and part of that has to do with I had both of my parents were college educated people and so from a young age they'd kind of been like telling me this is, you know, your life is going to look kind of like this we're going to, you know you're going to be in school, then you're going to turn 18 and you're going to graduate, and then you have options you can go to school, you can get a job, you could do a trade. They were kind of prepping me from being a young kid to kind of take that step. There are also the homeschool parents who maybe don't have that higher education and so they don't even for them, they don't even know what college looks like right, and so they have no concept of like how to even push their kid to go do that. The other thing is that sometimes parents, sometimes homeschool parents, they get stuck in. The end goal for them is get the kid out of high school or get the kid you know through to be an adult, and then they can figure it out, kind of a thing. I'm in retirement now. I know my mom was looking forward to that. She called me the day that my sister graduated and was like I'm retired, I'm going to go live my best life.
Speaker 2:But first of all, it's not that hard, because something about homeschooling is that homeschooling is viewed by the state as a private school. It is a private education board and so there are standards and there are things that you have to do. It's not that hard to go take an SAT, an ACT, that kind of a thing. You can do it really young. You can start to get a gauge of where your kid sits. I was thankful I had parents who we hired, somebody who kind of came in to be a college like not ambassador, what am I looking for? An advisor kind of a person, and most public and private schools have somebody like that who kind of help you along the stages and they helped us. They helped us navigate the FAFSA and what applications look like and how to pick a good school and things like that, to the point where when it came time for my sister to do it, they didn't need to hire somebody because they had done it with me and they kind of understood you know. Okay, here's what we're looking for, and her education system was whole. She did a whole different path than I did.
Speaker 2:But yeah, I think that's a big fear that parents have of like, how do I get my kid prepped for college? They want to go to college, I know they want to go to college, I just don't know how to do it. And I think it's really just comes down to. You can call colleges and just ask them the dumb questions and they will. They'll tell you and there are no dumb questions, if that makes sense, they will. They will tell you exactly what it takes to get into their school. And so, making sure your kid has the right transcripts, the right whatever, they will help walk you through a lot of that stuff. And so don't be afraid of it, because your kid is most likely smart enough to get into a lot of schools. I got into every school I applied to, and I am no genius, I have very average test scores, but I was able to sneak into every school I applied for, so, which I think was like six. So that's.
Speaker 1:That's unusual in most cases. So let's let me clarify what you said, because it's really important. That is a big concern that I see when I'm homeschooling my kid Will they be prepared we talked about socially but will they be prepared if they decide to go down the college road? And from what you're saying, I believe that a kid who's homeschooled might have an advantage in handling college. What you said was you know there are resources. So if your kid wants to go to college and they've been homeschooled, there are resources. So if your kid wants to go to college and they've been homeschooled, their resources. With internet and the availability of information and access to so much, it's so much easier to find those people, the college, the information you need. If you've never gone to college, how to navigate it, it's a whole different world.
Speaker 1:When I was in school and as I shared, I had learning issues Over time, I realized how to overcome the challenges I had. So I certainly had challenges. I today believe that we don't accomplish anything without the challenges. So the kid that I had that was quote unquote the smart one when kindergarten, first grade, second grade, third grade was all easy for her. That was a huge concern of mine Because if everything's easy, she would know how to navigate a challenge. And that's exactly what happened. She got into math. She was in her mind, believed she was bad at math. Therefore she perpetuated being bad into math. She was in her mind, believe she was bad at math. Therefore she perpetuated being bad at math and she could not handle the challenge of that.
Speaker 1:And again we're going a little off topic, but I think it's important that as a homeschool kid, you had to navigate those challenges. You know, as a parent of a homeschool kid, you have to figure out okay, what do I need to do to tap into, you know, the college, the information about how to go to college, if you've never been. When I finally got to high school, I knew that I had to get out of my house, my home environment. I had to get out. I ended up graduating high school a year early, took accelerated classes. I took class in the summer just because I wanted to graduate early.
Speaker 1:I was able to learn. I learned how to learn. My parents had never been to college. Their family I was the first in both sides of my family to ever go to college had to navigate the whole thing by myself. There was no internet to just look it up and figure it out. To this day I'm not sure how I actually did it. I had to navigate the whole thing by myself. There was no internet to just look it up and figure it out. To this day I'm not sure how I actually did it. I look back and I'm like, wow, that's pretty incredible. And the point here is that if you want to homeschool your kid, there are ways. There are solutions so much easier in today's environment, even with, like you said, if you don't have people in your area. For those RVers that are on the road and you want to teach your kid they want to learn about something in science, there are a lot of online programs. There's a lot of content online that they could use to learn from.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I mean I remember in high school at the time Apple rolled out a whole thing that was like Apple education and it was and it was like Harvard level classes. It was like the top of the top schools Right, we're putting these lectures out for free and I could just watch them for free and that was something that I just enjoyed doing, right. Whether it was around music I mean I was a huge music kid and so like I loved kind of the music stuff. But also, yeah, like finding stuff was not hard even back then.
Speaker 2:I'm sure it's even easier today. You know you got things like Masterclass and all these different things right. But yeah, I mean I was fortunate that like I mean I got to go to a college level lecture when I was in high school with the producer of one of the Beatles albums, of Sergeant Pepper, and like sit and listen and ask him questions and it was so cool. It's like such a cool experience. Never would have gotten to do that if I was in just traditional school because it was during the week during regular class hours, right.
Speaker 2:So stuff like that is always available, and I mean, that was in person, but obviously there's so much online now too, um, and.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're correct. It's so much easier today to figure out and get the information you need than it was even a decade ago. The traditional school system as of right now, they're thriving and doing well with it. It's what works for you and your family. The resources out there, if you choose to homeschool, is what we're looking to share. I can't wait to have Nicole on from Full-Time Families to share specific RV-type tools, but certainly the tools that you've given are valuable. I am going to go ahead.
Speaker 2:Sorry. I had one other thing I wanted to add, which was I also remember. So one of the other things that I think people struggle with is the choosing of the curriculum, and I didn't really do that, obviously I was the kid, but I do remember going to a conference and I'm trying to remember the name. It was like CHEA. I don't remember what it stood for, but it was C-H-E-A and they basically ran. It was a couple days, but it was essentially a gigantic curriculum fair, and then they had breakout sessions to go meet with educators and things like that.
Speaker 2:But what I do remember is walking around the floor of the expo and you could go look at, you know, a Becca math, or you could go look at Matthew C, or you could go look at this science or that science, and they had very like hands-on stuff and obviously they're trying to sell a product. But it was cool as a kid to go and my mom would take us and, and you know, we'd walk around and say, okay, like, do we like this, do we not? What do we not like about it, you know? And so there's a lot of resources out there too to find the correct, right, the right curriculum where you don't have to build it all yourself.
Speaker 2:I think that's another thing that I think a lot of people fear is they're like, oh, shoot, like I'm going to have to build a whole curriculum set on my own. It's like, no, that's not the case. You can, you can find it and buy it, and and they'll even walk you through how to keep the grades. And, like I said, the transcripts is very important when you want to go to college, but, like you know, they'll walk you through, keep it in its accredited education right, and so that's. I mean, that's part of the reason I was able to go to college. I had good education under my feet.
Speaker 1:And that's a great point too that you brought up. We don't have to and we've said that throughout. You don't have to be able to do it all. You don't have to come up with curriculum. I'll be honest as a high school teacher, there was a lot of copying and pasting being done, because you don't have to reinvent the wheel. You have to tweak things, you have to make things applicable for the students you have in front of you, but you don't have to keep reinventing things. So to take the pressure of parents who are thinking about homeschooling at home or on the road, it's not. Hey, I got to be a teacher. I've got to write lesson plans, I've got to figure out the curriculum. That's a lot of work.
Speaker 1:I went to school for a long time to learn how to do that and I'll still say it's a lot of work. Once I got in school and I was teaching and I learned copy and paste was my best friend. You don't find what works. I think the big thing here that I want people to get out of this, regardless of the type of education, is and I could hear it in your voice those students is and I could hear it in your voice those students, those the kids having a love of learning. And maybe that sounds a little cliche, if you instill, maybe that's not the right word, but you know, have kids truly love learning. I think that's what it's all about. I'm going to put you on the spot because the one thing you loved was dancing. That was something like talk about that, because it's just a funny story.
Speaker 2:No, absolutely so. My mom. During the summers there was somebody in the homeschool community who would do dance classes and my mom stuck me in that when I was 12 years old and I absolutely hated it at first. And when I say dance classes, I mean swing dance. So East Coast, west Coast, a little bit of waltz, a little bit of tango, a little bit of cha-cha, and it's a ballroom swing dance. And, yeah, she put me in there one to socialize with people, and she wanted me to go to the homeschool dances. Um, but uh, yeah, I hated it for like the first week. The first dance I went to, I danced with one girl and it was literally because she dragged me onto the dance floor. Um, but I quickly fell in love with it to the point where, by the time and even after I graduated, I went home and would go to these dances still, because it was just so much fun. Um, and it's something. It's a skill that I don't use it often, but it is in my back pocket if I need to pull it out, kind of a thing. Um, and so it's, uh, and it's.
Speaker 2:It's one of my fondest memories and it's one of the things that, in talking with my friends one. They had a love for it as well, but also they remember me being like the guy the dance guy, but also they remember me being like the guy the dance guy and so, yeah, it was definitely fun. We also did English country dance, which so if you've ever watched a movie like Pride and Prejudice or something of that kind of era, it's the line dancing that they would do there, and so that was also very fun and we would have, you know, very fun we do a sock hop every year, we do the English country dance, and everybody would get dressed up for those as well. So it's like just a fun environment and, you know, and just a cool skill to have, to the point where, like I competed a little bit in it, I went to dance classes at like an actual dance studio for a while as well and like it just was fun, it just was a passion. That was just like there, you know.
Speaker 1:Now, how old did you say you were when she put you in this class?
Speaker 2:I think I was 12, because the school dances. I think you could start going when you were 12. So yeah, kind of that like junior high high school age was really it.
Speaker 1:So let's take people back to that 12-year-old age. I was a middle school teacher as well. So 12 years old boys, a very strange, awkward, one of the most difficult ages. And your mother's putting you not just in dance class but a swing dance class and line dancing. I'm thinking of the line dancing they did in the TV show Bridgerton, where they did the line dancing. That is just not something most people would think to do, nor would it be something a 12-year-old boy would agree to.
Speaker 2:But you loved it and, like I said, I ended up loving it. I hated going into it and, yeah, and the only reason it was a part of the homeschool world honestly, was because before me there had been a couple students who I want to say they were four or five years older than I. Before me there had been a couple students who I want to say they were four or five years older than I am and they had had a passion and they had gone to a dance studio and learned this, and then they were just like we want our friends to do this. So they started teaching all the homeschoolers and it just slowly but surely became a thing in the homeschool community that I don't know that it's still happening, but I know for a number of years after I left it was still going on.
Speaker 1:Wow, and I think that when we talk about being outside the traditional school system, you know you go into the traditional school system. You get to school at 7, 8, 9, depending on the grade, you're there till 2, 3, 4 o'clock, whatever the time frame is. The time frame is, you know, you get home, you do all the homework, you eat dinner, you're ready for bed to start over again with your weekend off, your summer's off, you know holidays in between. It sounds like homeschooling gives that opportunity to do things of all things swing, dancing but to do things that somebody might have never fit, you know, thought of. It doesn't't fit into this box of things a 12-year-old would do. So I'd like that about the homeschooling idea. It just gives opportunity for so many things that giving your kids a taste of things. You know, we look at our kids and again, I have nine grandkids that are anywhere from 17 down to five-year-olds and you sort of by nature, put them in a little bit of a box of what they might like, what they want to do. The boys do this, the girls sort of do this and the whole family really doesn't subscribe to the typical stereotypes of what kids should and shouldn't do. We've got one of the grandkids, a girl. She's six. She is one tough cookie. She's tougher than some of the boys you know. So allowing them to be free to explore, I think, is a great opportunity. And if your kids are in traditional school, there's still opportunity to take them to dance class or music class or art class something outside of what we might think they'd be interested in. So as we start wrapping up because we certainly could stay on this for a lot longer we do need to start wrapping up.
Speaker 1:This has been incredible. Let's tell people how they can get a hold of you. First of all, your podcast that I highly recommend people listen to. It is fantastic Ex-Homeschoolers Club, and they can find that on any podcast platform. I'll put it in the show notes. How else can they reach out to you? Because I want to continue the conversation. So I want people to reach out to you. How can they do that?
Speaker 2:Absolutely, like you said, you can go subscribe to the show. You can also reach out to me. My email is the Jacob Gooden G-O-O-D-E-N at gmailcom. Or you can find me on social media at the Jacob Gooden, on pretty much every social platform. I want to say Instagram, linkedin, facebook, I think is where you're probably least going to find me. But you know, reach out to me anywhere there and I'd love to answer questions. If you've got, you know, questions about anything homeschooling related, non-homeschooling related, podcast production related you let me know. I'm happy to chat.
Speaker 1:Right and we're not done with you, so I don't want my listeners to check out yet. We've still got some things we need to cover here. You are going to send me all that information. I am going to post it in the show notes and both you and I want people to ask the questions debate something we talked about. We're good with that. Tell us you wholeheartedly disagree. We're okay with that. Keep the conversation going. People can reach out to me on RV Life Podcast, on Instagram and Facebook. I answer every single message. If they want to reach out there and it's a message for you, jacob, I'll certainly pass it along. We truly want to keep this conversation going and any questions people have, I could ask my guest from full-time families to help answer that. If it's an RV-related homeschooling question or just an RV-related question, okay, wow, what a great time. Again. We have more to cover. I do want to talk a little bit. It's September. We're looking at fall.
Speaker 1:A lot of people are looking at putting that RV in storage and I highly recommend National Indoor RV Centers. They have six locations across the country and they make storing your RV simple and easy. They have concierge-level service. They keep your RV in a climate-controlled environment so you don't even have to have it winterized. When you bring your RV to National Indoor RV Centers, one of their locations, they will take care of everything for you. They will check your RV over, they'll do the service it needs. Everything that you need will be taken care of for your RV. For those people who are looking to store their RV for the winter so you could check them out at NIRVCcom and check out how to best store your RV. But it's now time for the question of the week and I'm going to ask you Jacob and now Jacob is the producer editor, so he knows this question is coming. And now Jacob is the producer editor, so he knows this question is coming. You said you kind of have this interest now in the RV life.
Speaker 1:After I took you to, actually, we went to the Music City Motorhome Expo and it was in Tennessee, right near where you live. So you said I'll come out and join you and let me just tell people a little bit about that expo. National Enduro RV Centers put it on and at this show there were class A, b and C RVs all brand new 2025s. They had never been seen before and there were all the top manufacturers. So people like Gretsch, if you're looking for a van, panoramic, if you're looking for a van so many were there. I'm trying to think of all of them, but Winnebago was there, tiffin was there, integra was there, numar and so many more. If people are interested in a brand new RV, they are going to have a show again the end of May now. So, jacob, you have to put that on your calendar. We had a blast when we were there, so I'm looking forward to doing that again next year. Okay, so what's on your bucket list? What is something you would recommend to my audience, something you absolutely want to do?
Speaker 2:Oh man, I mean, I, growing up, I did not go camping. Camping was a tent and absolutely hated it. I grew up with a mom who was like she wanted to stay in hotels, um and so, and I just didn't enjoy it um a lot. However, that being said, I have gone on a couple camping trips that I've enjoyed, um, and they've all been like sleeping under the stars kind of a thing. Uh, so, but yeah, going to that RV, uh event, with you, the expo, I was like I think I could do this, um, I think it would be really cool and so, yeah, so one of the things my wife and I have talked about hopefully, fingers crossed, this happens at some point we have talked about doing the west coast and flying in, whether starting in the north or starting in the south, flying in, renting some kind of camper, sprinter, van type of situation and just driving up the coast and visiting all of these places that I mean.
Speaker 2:I grew up in california and there's still places I haven't been to, um, and because it is a massive state, but just kind of exploring and doing our own thing. And I don't know, maybe it's a two week thing, maybe it's longer. You know, I work from a laptop, so it's one of those things where I think I could make it happen and I don't know, that's kind of bucket list right now item, and if it goes well then hey, who knows, maybe it's one of those things where I'm looking to buy an event. I don't know.
Speaker 1:And it was funny because at the event we walked around, you did video, you recorded podcasts some podcasts for me but all of a sudden sometimes I'd turn around and Jacob was gone and I'd be like where's Jacob? And you were in really checking out those RVs. You were very immersed in the RVs and for people who are thinking about this RV kind of thing camping RV I highly recommend events to check them out and see if you get the bug. Now, if you want to go rent an RV, I do have a friend at Fireside RV Rentals. He is on the West Coast so you could check them out. Rentals he is on the West Coast so you could check them out. They are not a sponsor but just people I love, as well as RV Share, which is a rental company, and that is where the RV Life podcast was nominated for one of the top podcasts. So really cool, some suggestions on places that you can rent an RV.
Speaker 1:But it is now time for the Feature Campground of the Week and it's brought to you by RV Life. This week's Feature Campground is Sandusky RV Resort in Sandusky, ohio. If you're going to get to this campground, you want to get to it soon, as it is getting cold or if you're planning for next year. This Thousand Trails Campground has 206 sites. They have full hookups, full insights, dog park, they have cabin rentals and they are very close to the Lake Erie coast and minutes from so so much more. I've never been there. Ohio is not an area I've spent a lot of time in, but it sounds like there are a lot of amazing things in the area to do. Sandusky RV Resort has a solid 9.7 rating on the RV Life Campgrounds. They have 14 reviews. So when you go to campgroundsrvlifecom and you go to Sandusky RV Resort, there is a book now button right there so you can book your stay with Sandusky RV Resort. You can also see additional photos, tips, their full list of amenities.
Speaker 1:The amenities went on and on. You can check out other RV parks, other campgrounds, resorts, as well as city, state, national parks, corpse of engineer properties. There's so much on campgroundsrvlifecom it is. If you do not have RV Life, you could still check out Campgrounds on their site. But if you want the RV Life suite of products to get the full picture of the campgrounds, you could do that. There is a link in the show notes. It'll give you 25% off. Try it for free for seven days Now. Wow, what an episode, what a show. So much information. We talked about our. Tell our listeners again where they can reach out to you. Your podcast is X Homeschoolers Club on all podcast platforms. Highly recommend they go there. Where can they reach out to you?
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Yeah, you can reach out to me on socials Once again, the Jacob Gooden it's G-O-O-D-E-N and on all social media platforms, or you can email me at thejacobgooden at gmailcom. And, yeah, I'd love questions, comments, concerns, compliments.
Speaker 1:We love compliments, we love that, but we're open for constructive criticism is also welcome people to stay tuned for part two, when I have Nicole on from full-time families talking about homeschooling do's, don'ts, how-tos while living exploring in an RV. Okay Well, you have been listening to the RV Life Podcast. I'm Patti Hunt, wishing you a great rest of today and an even better day tomorrow.