The Greta Eskridge Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

I am so excited to share the final episode of my “Back to Home School” series with you today. (Don’t worry, though, there will be other home school episodes in the future. They’ll just be intermingled with other topics.) In this episode I am diving into some of the home schooling questions you asked me on Instagram. I couldn’t answer them all, but I covered quite a few. And I promise to come back and answer more some time soon! 

Here are links to some of the things I mentioned in this episode.  

I hope you find them helpful! 

Want to have me speak at your event, conference, church, for your home school group, womens’ retreat or in some other capacity, get more information about booking me  here 

Find my Home School 101 Story Series on Instagram here 

Find all the home school articles on my blog here 

I talk about home schooling in high school and in college in episode 24. Listen to it here 

Learn more about high school transcripts here 

Learn more about Hamborg Academy of Art, in person and online art classes from one of our favorite art teachers here 

Learn more about home schooling and dyslexia in episode 25. Listen here 

Find Wild and Free bundles here 

Sign up for legal protection with a membership with Home School Legal Defense Association here 

Find Beautiful Feet Books curriculum guides here (they’re my absolute favorite!) 

Find Ambleside Online booklists here 

Read my book Adventuring Together to get fun back to school traditions (and lots of other ones as well) Get your copy here 

Give your kids a back to school copy of 100 Days of Adventure and dream up a bunch of fun adventures you can do together in the coming year. Get your copy here 

Read my blog post, The Early Years, here 

Thank you so much for listening and being a part of my show! I appreciate each one of you. 

Keep chasing joy! 

Greta 

What a treat to have one of my earliest home school mentors on the podcast today. This is a powerful episode where we hear how Carole met God and how He led her to home schooling, which she initially thought was absolute insanity! Carole and I talk about the early days of home schooling when it wasn’t legal or illegal and so different than it is now. 

Hear how Carole’s son JJ has joined her in sharing the message of home schooling. What a dream that is! She shares books galore too. My favorite kind of episode! 

Carole Joy Seid is a joy indeed and you are going to love the encouragement and wisdom she brings from speaking on home schooling for 30 + years. 

Here are the resources Carole recommends in this episode: 

Read and learn about home schooling’s pioneers: 

John Holt 

Dr. Raymond Moore 

Susan Schaeffer Macaulay 

Read their books: 

How Children Learn by John Holt 

Better Late Than Early by Dr. Raymond Moore 

For the Children’s Sake by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay 

For the Family’s Sake by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay 

Here are the other books Carole recommends in this episode: 

The Common Rule—Habits of Purpose for an Age of Distraction 

Theology of the Body for Beginners 

The Least of These My Brothers  

Father Arseny—priest, prisoner and spiritual father 

Little Britches series 

Where to find Carole: 

Her website here 

Her seminars here 

Her podcast here 

Her Instagram account here 

Some favorite quotes from today’s episode: 

“God doesn’t waste a thing.” GE 

“Home schooling was the farthest thing from my mind.” CJS 

“Home schooling is a huge liberty, and we don’t want to take it for granted.” CJS 

“It’s so thrilling to see the next generation of home schoolers carrying out the way of living that is so rich and blessed.” CJS 

“Sharing the message of home schooling has been the joy of my life.” CJS 

“The very first home school conference I ever attended was with Carole Joy Seid and it was absolutely transformational.” GE 

“You can home school with a bible, a library card and a math book.” CJS 

“High school and college is where your child’s theology makes up its mind.” CJS 

“If you’re tired, do something fresh and give yourself a grace package. Because that is what God gives to us.” CJS 

“Your goal is to get shining eyes!” CJS 

“The gift of home schooling for me has been all about freedom. The freedom to pursue education in the way that works best for our family, the way that works best for each kid and the way that works best for me as a teacher.” GE 

“Be the expert on your child.” CJS 

“Never stop reading out loud to your children.” CJS 

“The gospel needs to permeate everything you do.” CJS 

Don’t forget to subscribe to this podcast. And I’d be so very grateful if you leave a 5 star rating and a short review of the podcast. 

Reviews are incredibly helpful to me as a new podcaster. 

Thank you for listening and being part of my team.  

I love you guys! 

Greta 

In this episode I got to talk to my internet friend turned real life friend, Erin Loechner. Erin is a homeschooling mom to 3, a wife, a gifted writer and an incredibly creative, brilliant, unique person. I adore her. 

In this episode Erin shared with us about her brand-new book, The Opt-Out Family: How to Give Your Kids What Technology Can’t.  Erin’s book is a call to action and an invitation for every parent. It calls them to sit up and take notice of how the algorithm is coming after our kids, and then invites them to do something about it. The book is full of compelling research and helpful, practical ideas for helping your family opt out.  

What makes Erin’s book even more compelling is that she is actually living that life with her family. Four years ago Erin left her successful career as a social media influencer, shut down her social media accounts and opted out. She knows what she is talking about. I really enjoyed this conversation with Erin and I learned a lot. I know you will too. 

Here are some of my favorite quotes from this episode: 

*I wanted to model for my daughter what it looked like to have a vibrant career and life without social media.  

*If my kids say, “I don’t like how social media makes me feel, but I don’t know any other way. I want to be able to say, I’ve got another way. Let’s do it together.”  

*You can’t know the opportunity missed but you can know the fruit gained.  

*This is the world our children live in, where playground swings become selfie props. It is not an accident. It is the work of the algorithm. It is the work of a machine, a mission and a great strategy dreamed up by people in board rooms who make a living by stealing a life.  

*We are no longer asking why we would opt out. We are asking how we opt out.  

*It’s not enough to say no to devices. We have to say yes to something better.  

*We parents can do it better than the tech guys!  

*Our kids just want to be with us. It’s really so simple.  

*There is a powerful message being sent to parents that our kids don’t want to be with us, especially as they grow up. Then we get afraid and think we have to compete, to be cool, to be better than Tik Tok. But when we slow down and just spend time with our kids, even our teens, we find out that they really do want to be with us.  

*Start here: Give your kids your eyes.  

The 2 books Erin and I talked about are: The Prize Winner of Defiance Ohio (here) and Grandma Gatewood’s Walk (here) Chase joy and go read them now! 

Find Erin’s book here 

Visit her website here for additional resources and helpful info. 

If you haven’t already, please take a minute to subscribe to my podcast.  

I’d also be so very grateful if you leave a 5-star rating and write a quick review.  

Reviews are incredibly helpful to me as a new podcaster. 

Thank you for listening and being part of my team.  

I love you guys! 

Greta 

Friends! This episode is so fantastic. We are talking girls and puberty in a positive, uplifting way. This is such a needed point of view surrounding this topic. 

My guest, Megan Ziegenfus, is the creator of Body Talk Basics. It is a course that includes videos, a book, and guided conversations about puberty for moms and daughters to experience together. I have read and watched this course and I loved it. I am so glad to have resources, to share with my daughter and yours, that celebrate how incredibly and beautifully designed the female body is. The course also makes sense of how our bodies work and explains those things in an easy to understand and straightforward way. I can only imagine the next generation 

You’ll love this episode and come away with some great things to offer your daughter and probably yourself too! 

Here are some of my favorite quotes from this episode:  

*I saw a need for this to be a bonding conversation between moms and daughters instead of just a transfer of information. 

*The conversation, even the awkward part, is where the bonding occurs. It is an opportunity for the parents to show the kids, “I love you so much I am willing to sit in this challenging space with you. I want to be with you.” It builds trust and communication. 

*It’s empowering to learn how our body works and the incredible purpose behind it. 

*These conversations about puberty are a part of creating a healthy sexual culture. 

*So many moms say, “I didn’t know how healing this course would be for me.” 

*Deep down, girls want to be told how their body is working and that it is designed with a beautiful plan in mind. 

*You’re giving your daughter a gift when you say, “look how amazing you are! God designed you this way. He made me this way and you’re here because he made me this way.” We have to celebrate this! 

Be sure to check out Megan’s website here and follow Megan on Instagram too. Her account is a lot of fun and really helpful. 

You can use the promo code: GRETA for a discount on the course. Sign up here. 

*Please take a minute to subscribe to this podcast. I’d also be so very grateful if you leave a 5-star rating and write a quick review.  

Reviews are incredibly helpful to me as a new podcaster. 

Thank you for listening and being part of my team. I love you guys! 

Greta 

Today’s episode is tender and contains topics that can be challenging if you have walked through, or are walking through, pregnancy loss. But this episode also has the potential to bring a lot of hope and healing wherever you are on your journey. You will feel less alone if you have walked through miscarriage or still birth. And if you haven’t, you’ll come away feeling better equipped to come alongside someone who has. It is my prayer that through the conversation in this episode, God will meet you where you are with His kindness and care. 

Today I talk with my new friend, Jackie Gibson, an Australian living in Philadelphia with her husband and children. Jackie is also the author of the book, You Are Still a Mother: Hope For Women Grieving a Stillbirth or Miscarriage.   

I read Jackie’s book in one sitting. Even though I experienced a miscarriage 14 years ago, her book deeply ministered to my heart. I felt so seen and comforted and so equipped to help my fellow mama’s who experience this kind of grief. I can’t recommend this book enough, whether you have walked through pregnancy loss yourself, know someone who has, or just want to have resources to refer to when loss comes. 

Jackie shares her own story of losing her daughter at 39 weeks to still birth. And then we discuss the hardship of suffering, and the way Jesus comes alongside us in suffering. We also cover a lot of other topics, like how we can share about loss after it happens, the strange feeling of shame that can happen after pregnancy loss, how we can help moms who are experiencing loss, PTSD and trauma after pregnancy loss and so much more.  

My tears were near the surface through this whole episode because I have such a tenderness for every other mama who has lost a baby. I hope you’ll listen to this episode knowing that if you are hurting you are not alone, and in my heart I am giving you the biggest hug. 

Here are some quotes that really stood out to me in this episode: 

*This is a club no one wants to be a part of.   

*Miscarriage can be such a very lonely grief.  

*We need to invite people into our grief and ask them to walk through it with us and pray for us. But for some reason we have this fear in doing that and part of that is this shame that we have done something wrong or that our bodies have failed us.  

*I’d been a Christian for many years, but in those moments, I felt like I met Him (Jesus) again for the first time.  

*God can give us gifts even in suffering.  

*Even though your arms are empty, your heart still carries your baby wherever you go.  

*To write names down or to say them, when these mothers rarely get to hear their babies named or acknowledged, means so much to a grieving mom, whether it is fresh grief, or it’s been years.  

*Our babies have dignity and value no matter their size because they were made by God.  

*From the very start, their lives matter and they are worthy of both grief and honor. GE 

*It is never too late to remember your baby and to mark that little one’s preciousness. JG 

*This is a story about Him and how He is always good, even in the darkness. JG 

*The moon is still round even when we can’t see it, and God is still good, even when we don’t feel like He is. JG 

*Are we going to keep believing in the darkness what we have seen in the light? Lilias Trotter 

More about Jackie: 

Jackie’s husband wrote a book about loss for kids as a result of talking to their son through the loss of his baby sister. It is called, The Moon is Always Round.  

Jackie isn’t on social media, but please share her book and this episode with friends who need the comforting and helpful message she brings. 

If you haven’t already, please take a minute to subscribe to this podcast. I’d also be so very grateful if you leave a 5-star rating and write a quick review.  

Reviews are incredibly helpful to me as a new podcaster. 

Thank you for listening and being part of my team.  

I love you guys! 

Greta 

I loved talking with today’s guest, Molly Stillman. I first met Molly through reading her book and just fell in love with her. So, getting to talk to her about her book and her life was really, really cool. Molly is a fantastic writer and you should all read her debut book, If I Don’t Laugh, I’ll Cry: How Death, Debt and Comedy led to a Life of Faith, Farming and Forgetting What I Came Into This Room For. You should also check out her blog and her podcast, Can I Laugh on Your Shoulder? 

One of my favorite parts of the book and this episode is learning about Molly’s mom. She was a writer too. You can check out Molly’s mom’s book here: Home before Morning: The Story of An Army Nurse in Vietnam by Lynda Van Devanter. 

There are so many other great parts to Molly’s story—some very, very hard and others so funny and wildly entertaining. I know you will love Molly just like I do. 

Here are a few quotes from the episode that I especially loved: 

*”Every broken, messed up story has a purpose and its possible to gain everything if you’re willing to surrender it all to Jesus and that’s the best reason to tell your story.” 

*”I learned that oftentimes people don’t need to hear our condemnation for the mistakes we’ve made, but instead our commendation for getting the help we so desperately need. I learned that encouragement, even from strangers, can provide the strength, energy and emotional stamina to do hard things. I learned that prayer is powerful and when we offer to pray for someone, even when it seems uncomfortable, we could be planting a seed that we may never see to harvest. And on the flip side, when we accept prayer, it has the power to change hearts.” 

*It is never too late to apologize for something. 

*Joy is an essential part of thriving. 

*Chase joy by slowing down. 

So much good stuff, right? Be sure to read Molly’s book, and check out her blog and podcast. 

Please take a minute to subscribe to this podcast. I’d also be so very grateful if you leave a 5-star rating and write a quick review.  

Reviews are incredibly helpful to me as a new podcaster. 

Thank you for listening and being part of my team. 

I love you guys! 

Greta 

*Don’t forget this is your last chance to sign up for my webinar, Parenting in the Digital Age. You are going to get help with so many of the issues facing parents today—whether your kids are 3, 13 or 23. Sign up here. 

In this week’s episode, I get to talk to Kristen Miele from Sex Ed Reclaimed. I love the mission of her organization: to empower and encourage families to have consistent, honest conversations while accessing God-honoring sexual health education because God calls us to disciple the next generation. And her vision is just as powerful: to break the cycle of silence about sex in the Christian world. Gosh how we need Kristen’s voice and message in our world today!  

Here are some key takeaways from this episode: 

*Sex is good and it is God’s gift, so we don’t have to be afraid or embarrassed to talk about it. 

* It’s a work of the devil to shut us up about sex and to add shame to it. 

* The world is constantly talking about sex. They are discipling our kids on the topic so we need to step in and add God to the conversation. 

* Sex is an opportunity to talk about Jesus. (Yes! This is my favorite.) 

Some tips Kristen gave are so helpful: 

*Our kid’s questions are an opportunity for discipleship. So answer their questions honestly. 

*Only give them as much information as they need—just a little bit at a time. 

*Think about the expression on your face and the tone of your voice when you answer their questions. Don’t panic! Instead be warm and welcoming. 

*Invite your older kids to look at the world around them and answer the question, “is that working for them? Are they joyful, peace filled, and hopeful?” 

Be sure to check out the courses at Sex Ed Reclaimed. 

There are courses designed for families, home school students, Christian schools and churches and for ages 3-18. 

You can get curriculum samples on her website. 

Kristen generously gave my podcast listeners a discount of 15% off. Just use the code: CHRISTIANPARENTING 

Please take a minute to subscribe to this podcast. I’d also be so very grateful if you leave a 5 star rating and write a quick review.  

Reviews are incredibly helpful to me as a new podcaster. 

Thank you for listening and being part of my team.  

I love you guys! 

Greta 

Fair warning, this episode is ALL over the place!  

You will laugh and maybe cringe at my faux pas. 

You might cry with me at the end of the episode, and you’ll definitely learn about a lot of great books. 

In this episode I get to talk to my dear friend Elsie Iudicello.  

Elsie is a wife to my friend Jeff, and mom to 4 boys. Elsie lives in Florida where she is a farmer, a writer, a reader, a cook, and one of the most compelling and hilarious speakers I have ever the pleasure of hearing.  

Here are some highlights from our conversation: 

*Elsie tells me she loves old movies but also loves natural disaster movies. *Well, only one really. The movie Twister. For an interesting reason! 

*This is when I suggest another movie Elsie might like but that doesn’t actually exist and if it did, you might see it behind the curtain at Blockbuster. Enjoy the laughter that ensues. I’m never going to live this one down. 

*Elsie shares: “books bonded us in the beginning because we got to go play in different worlds together, and that has sustained us in the teen years. 

*We can meet on the bridge of a story. 

*Kids want a book where the author isn’t talking down to them. That doesn’t preach at them or sanitize everything. 

*Reading biographies and especially missionary biographies are so good for our kids to read. 

*Give them books about people stepping out of their comfortable worlds. Read those things into their hearts! 

* I want my kids to get to know people who have had to fight for their faith. 

* Parents need to be readers too. Because this statistic is true and makes my heart sad. “roughly a quarter of American adults say they haven’t read a book in whole or in part in the past year in print, electronic or even in audio form”. 

*”Don’t be in such a hurry to read the great books that you miss the good books.” Cindy Rawlins 

*On re-reading books: “I would rather be friends with 40 or 50 good dear books than read all the books in the world once.” 

*Find Elsie on Instagram at Farmhouse Schoolhouse 

Here's a list of all the books we mention in this episode: 

Ourselves by Charlotte Mason 

The Emperor’s Handbook by Marcus Aurelius 

The Good Master by Kate Seredy 

Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder 

The Railway Children by Edith Nesbit 

Little Britches by Ralph Moody 

Wind and the Willows by Kenneth Grahame 

Green Ember by S. D. Smith 

Wing Feather Saga by Andrew Peterson 

The Mad Scientist Club by Bertrand Brinley 

The Great Brain by John D Fitzgerald 

Homer Price by Robert McCloskey 

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain 

Jules Verne books 

Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing 

God’s Smuggler by Brother Andrew 

10 Fingers for God: the life and work of Dr. Paul Brand by Dorothy Wilson 

Christian Heroes Then and Now series  

Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morely 

The Awaking of Miss Prim: a Novel by Natalia Fenollera 

The Blue Castle by Lucy Maud Montgomery 

The Girl of the Limberlost by Gene Stratton Porter 

Little Women Louisa May Alcott 

The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings 

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley 

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens 

How Green was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn 

The Count of Monte Christo by Alexander Dumas 

Don’t forget to subscribe to this podcast, and I’d be so very grateful if you leave a 5 star rating of the podcast and also a quick review.  

Reviews are incredibly helpful to me as a new podcaster. 

Thank you for listening and being part of my team.  

I love you guys! 

Greta 

In this episode I talked with my friend S.D. Smith. Sam is the author of the beloved Green Ember series. He also wrote the book Jack Zulu and the Waylanders’s Key with his son, Josiah. And he most recently wrote the book Mooses with Bazookas and Other Stories Children Should Never Read. 

I loved this conversation with Sam. We have a lot of fun together because he is a story teller and I love stories! 

Here are some highlights from our talk: 

*The book that turned him into a reader around the age of 15 was Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. 

*Some of the other books that were read aloud to him by his mom and his teachers and shaped him as a storyteller were: 

The Chronicles of Narnia 

Little Women 

The Box Car Children 

God’s Smuggler 

*As an adult, Sam has loved and re-read the Aubrey–Maturin series by Patrick O Brian. 

*My favorite part of our conversation was when Sam gives a message to all parents, but especially to Dads about connecting with their kids through stories: “kids just want attention and time. They want their dads so much! They’re desperate for their dad’s attention. So if you’re a dad and you just make up a story about something you care about, it’s going to be really, really fun for them. They love it when you care. They love it when you try.” 

*And if you can’t think of your own story, take a note from my husband and re-tell movies and books to your kids. You can change the names if you want and your kids will be none the wiser. Until they grow up and watch the movie and figure it out. Then you’ll all get a great laugh over it! 

*I love Sam’s motto for life: Modesty, fidelity, and audacity. 

*Sam shared he’s chasing joy by taking walks, which he finds to be an opportunity to pursue connection, creativity and beauty.” 

*You can find Sam on Instagram, on his website and in his books! 

Don’t forget to subscribe to this podcast, and I’d be so very grateful if you leave a 5 star rating of the podcast and also a quick review.  

Reviews are incredibly helpful to me as a new podcaster. 

Thank you for listening and being part of my team. 

I love you guys! 

Greta 

I can’t believe this is the start of my 3rd month of the podcast! I am having so much fun and I am so glad you guys are coming along for the ride. 

Since we haven’t just hung out and talked for a while, I decided this episode will be a little bit of that along with a special Mother’s Day message at the end. Because mothers matter so much to me! 

Here is all that I talk about in this episode, along with the all the links I mention. 

*Get tickets to my online seminar “Parenting in the Digital Age” right here. 

*My seminar will encourage you, inform you and empower you! 

*Remember this about parenting in the digital age—there is a lot we can do wrong, but a lot we can do right! 

*Find me on Instagram here. 

*Learn more about the Wild and Free homeschooling community here. 

*Read the “Tale for the Weary Mom” essay here. 

Some thoughts to remember from my message to moms: 

* Moms are one of the best gifts God has given to us. 

*The love of a mother can be one of the most grounding , supportive and safe things in a really crazy world. 

*If you didn’t have a mom that loved, supported and believed in you, you get to write a new story for your own kids! 

*The work you’re doing as a mom matters even if no one is really noticing. 

* The work of motherhood is holy work. 

*The world may not value the work you’re doing but it has eternal value. 

*Mama, you’re doing a good job. 

*Galatians 6:9 “Let us not grow weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” 

Please take a minute to subscribe to this podcast. I’d also be so very grateful if you leave a 5-star rating and write a quick review.  

Reviews are incredibly helpful to me as a new podcaster. 

Thank you for listening and being part of my team.  

I love you guys! 

Greta