Setting your pre-schooler up for success | 30

Brett Campbell (00:00)
Hello and welcome to another episode of Future Learners. I’m your host, Brent Campbell, Chairman and CEO of Euka Future Learning, and I am joined by my wonderful co -host, the founder and Head of Education, Ellen Brown. How are you today, Ellen?

Ellen Brown (00:14)
Great, ready to get into it, Brett.

Brett Campbell (00:17)
Excellenti. So please tell me, I have no idea what we’re going to be talking about today. So I’m excited about this. You said to me that you’ve got the topic of choice and I don’t need to prepare for it. So I’m very, very intrigued as to what we’re going to be talking about.

Ellen Brown (00:30)
Yes. I think you’re prepared for it already, Brett. We want to talk about… No, we’re not. No, we’re talking about how to set our young ones up for success. So we’re talking about preschoolers and, you know, we don’t often hear about homeschooling preschoolers. What does that look like? And can you homeschool preschoolers even if you’re planning on sending them off to mainstream school?

Brett Campbell (00:36)
Are we talking about me? Because I think that’s the only thing I might be prepared for. Okay, fair enough. Yeah.

Ellen Brown (01:00)
and that’ll be a really good thing to have a talk about what it means to be setting our kids up for success in their learning journey.

Brett Campbell (01:08)
Okay, well this is this will be good because I can I can talk to it from a Parent perspective here and I could play again that the parent side of it obviously as we know Ayla’s Three so, you know, she’s a little way away from what you would call the standard school age But again, that’s creeping up pretty pretty closely pretty quickly as well. So and and it’s interesting because obviously, you know, I with the company that we have and what we do and the role in which I have as well is, you know, whenever I speak to someone who doesn’t necessarily know me per se, and even people who do know me, they’re always asking the question of, are you going to homeschool AILA? And that’s a very interesting one. So I’m absolutely looking forward to talking about this. So where are we going to start? Where do we start?

Ellen Brown (01:59)
All right, well, I’m happy to lead the conversation. I’ve got a couple of points for us to go through and talk through and your insight being that you’re right in the midst of it now. And it’s funny how the brain works, you know, and now that my youngest is nearly 16, I have all these fluffy, wonderful memories of what it’s like when they’re little. And I love thinking about how we’d set up this and that. And the reality is very different when you’re in it. And I think that’s why it’s going to be really valuable. So let’s start with talking about

Brett Campbell (02:17)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Ellen Brown (02:27)
the fact that at home when you’re a parent, you’ve got a heap of toys. Let’s look at this from a parent’s point of view. The people who are listening are people who are really wanting to make sure that their child is set up for success. So the first place to look is at home and toys are cheap these days and kids have a birthday and they’re given loads of toys. Even if you try and limit it yourself as a parent, there’s always friends and family that are loading with toys. So…

How would you suggest that parents can look at their home environment and the kind of toys and equipment and things that their kids are exposed to or have time with? How can you make that an area that you can be more successful? Because honestly, the more the merrier is not necessarily the case when it comes to toys.

Brett Campbell (03:12)
Yeah. Yeah. Well, I learned that when it comes to clothing. So I’ve got a friend, real close friend of ours. Now they’re about to have a baby in like two weeks. And of course, you know, when you’re, when you’re not a parent, you know, you, you pretty much know what’s about to come, right? Yeah. Yeah. You’re like, yeah, it’ll be fine. I’ll, I’ll be able to manage. And then when you are a parent, you’ve got a totally different paradigm of what reality is. And you’re like, okay. and everyone’s got their own perspective, of course. And I’ll frame this because I understand when, you know, when, when you’re speaking about children,

everyone has their own unique perspective. So this is clearly coming from my own unique perspective. and this isn’t gospel for everyone. However, something you said there is you have lots of this, you can have lots of that. And when I talk about when we had, a lares, you buy all these clothes and you realize, and I get, I said to my friend, I said, no, because he goes, we just went clothes shopping and his wife just bought all these clumb like.

I’m going to put a bit out here right now that 85 % of those clothes are never ever going to get worn because you’re going to grow so quickly and grow out of it. Right. And, and you don’t realize the speed at which a child grows, not just in physicality, but in their mental aptitude and their, their interests. Right. One day and I found this, this is quite funny. So my mom, it’s got a really close relationship with Ailas. So, you know, they FaceTime pretty much every day and she runs her around.

I think she tours the house like every day. It’s hilarious just watching them. And, you know, Ayla will have a favorite, you know, let’s say a TV show or a character, you know, and one of them was the Toiley Woosies, little funny things that toil around and fly around. It’s quite actually a cute little show. And mum, you know, was on her knitting, on her sewing machine and she’s doing this tapestry and she’s making these.

like different pillows and different things with all branded up. And then she comes over a month later and gives Ayla the pillow and it’s like, she’s not into the Twilly Wos anymore. It’s this one. It’s that one. It’s like, my God, I can’t keep up. Right. So that in itself, you know, success leaves clues. Right. And biscuits leave breadcrumbs. And I say that in such a way that

when it comes to learning and when it comes to toys or when it comes to items that some child children can have is they have a time and place, right? Just like an adult, there’s certain things that you no longer use or you don’t like it anymore. There might be a poster on your wall or a photo on your wall that you like. That photo was great for that time. Let’s remove it and let’s put a new one up. But,

as human beings, it’s hard for us to get rid of stuff in most cases, right? There’s the classification of hoarding. And yeah, so we’ve got a room that’s dedicated to Ayla’s toys, because they were just scattered everywhere and everywhere around the house. It’s like, this isn’t going to work. And because we really value books, right? We value books more than most things. And…

She’s almost got a bookcase of books that have been put that, bigger than my bookcases. And I’m like, well, she no longer needs that book. That book is irrelevant. So we have to, you know, then go and get rid of it. And when I say, get rid of it, give it away, give it to the salvation, give it to some other friends who have kids, et cetera. so just a real quick to wrap that part up. cause I took her a bit of a tangent is you it’s like a builder, right? The builder needs the right tool for the job.

Right? If you’re trying to nail down a roof, you do not use a saw. Right? You need the hammer and a nail. Right? If you’re trying to cut down a tree, don’t use an ax, even though you can use an ax, use a chainsaw. It’s quicker, it’s easier, it’s more thoughtful. So the first thing that I’ll say there is no matter what you’re teaching or you’re playing with your children or what lesson or what outcome you’re looking to achieve,

just make sure you’re using the right tools for the right outcome. That’s probably a real good starting preface. I could have summed that whole speech up and just make sure you use the right tools for the right outcome.

Ellen Brown (07:35)
Well, I mean, when we’ve been talking other podcasts, it’s been really clear that you have been quite purposeful in some of the toys and things that you’ve picked because you’ve talked about things like doing puzzles with Ella because she loves puzzles or, or even books with certain letters in them. She loves learning the letters or the sounds of the letters.

and things like that. So I suppose that the real key is like you’re saying, make sure that it’s okay to have some of those twirly wellies, you got kind of toys to play with. But you know, they’re short term where there’s other things that you might invest a little bit more in and they might be puzzles or, or certain books that you think, okay, this is something that’s going to stand the test of time. And it has a learning element. I mean, you don’t want every play session to be about learning and we’ve got to do counting, you know, you don’t want to do that to your child. But it’s really good to just kind of,

Brett Campbell (07:58)
Mm.

Ellen Brown (08:24)
you know, yeah, blend those learning materials in with the toys like you are naturally doing in your parenting, you know. One of the lessons I learned as a parent, because I had three within two and a half years, and we were given lots and lots of toys. So we had this over and lots of them were cheap, nasty things, you know, that break after a few. And so then you’ve got an arm here and a leg here and a wheel there.

We had a toy room full of things. And then we actually went to visit a friend who had one or two things set out to play with. So when we went there, they were having a ball and they were playing with this one set for ages and building this thing. And it was a real lesson that I learned in actually putting away some of the toys and having the surprise of toys that hadn’t seen for a couple of weeks, you know? So that was, you know, rotation of toys was a really great way for me to help my kids to.

finds, because they can stand there in front of a room of toys and have nothing to do. Where when there’s a couple of things, you know, they, their mind can, can work on how to use them. So.

Brett Campbell (09:23)
Yep. Yeah.

But it’s like us as adults, the amount of times I’ve heard people say, there’s nothing to watch on Netflix. I’m like, well, that is an absolute outright lie because there is thousands and thousands of hours. What it means is you’re just not sure what you’re looking for right now. And this comes back to again, right? Thinking 101 is going, before you jump into Netflix, uncover…

Do you feel like watching an action movie? Do you feel like watching a comedy or a romance, rom -com or a horror or pick your poison first and then go and search that out versus I’m just going to randomly do it. Cause again, but sometimes that’s part of the fun. It’s like, I’ve got no idea what I want to watch. I’m going to go in there and I’m going to maybe look right. and it’s, it’s crazy because you can go, there’s nothing here. I’m going to go into the Apple app. there’s nothing in Apple either. there’s nothing in prime. You’ve just gone through like.

tens of thousands of movies and you’re like, no, there’s nothing here. But it comes back again to the intention of, and you’re right, of when you’ve got so many different options, it can be paralysis by analysis, right? Like there’s just too many, so I don’t know what I really feel like doing. So one thing that we do with Ayla is she can’t have any more than, and again, there’s some parameters around this.

so actually I’ll use a big example. So two of the bigger toys we’ll call it is right. So we’ve got, a couple of boxes of Lego. So we love building Lego together. The amount of times I’ve had to build a tower for her, the same tower that I build every time she loves it. Right. And that’s something that we do together. And, and we, we talk about the pieces and we, you know, I’ll always try and fuse and, how many, how many pieces like circles are on that one? How many of this and that, and what connects here?

Cause again, it’s, you can learn and have fun while you’re doing it. It’s not that trying to, you know, trying to enforce too much of it in, but you know, she, she’s learning extremely quickly because we’re making doing everything as learning. Like when we go walking in the, in the rainforest, we’re making it learning. Like learning is everywhere. Learning isn’t just sitting with a textbook as, as, as you absolutely know there. But, one of the main things is, so we’ve got Lego and then.

Ellen Brown (11:21)
Thank you.

Yeah.

Brett Campbell (11:49)
She’s got another big bag of this baby book beyond, like a little baby with lots of clothes. Like, I mean, more clothes than, than I’d have in my closet for it to change to be fair. And we got that from her, you know, her auntie gave her that. And, but the rule is, is she can’t have both of them out at once. So she’ll tip the Lego on the floor and then she might want to go over and tip the tip the.

baby, Bjorn out. And that basically covers the entire floor. And we’re like, well, why don’t a minute before we do, we have to put one away and we have to play with the other. So again, we’re teaching cleaning up as you’re going. Cause I think that’s a, the biggest things you want to teach. And again, from my own perspective, with young children is teach them the basics of, of manners and, and how to operate in society. You know, like we took Ayla and he can now sound like a father who’s just, you know,

talking about his daughter and how good she is because she is actually, and I truly believe that, but, but, and, and every parent generally does, but you know, when you can take your child to a place where there’s dozens of adults and she’s the only child and 99 % of people there yet genuinely say, wow, she’s a, she’s a great kid. She’s a mate. She’s fun. She’s this, and they want her around versus you don’t want to have your child.

become that child that no one wants to have around. Cause it’s sad to start with. We’ve actually had to separate from a particular friendship due to just their child can’t be around Ayla cause he hits and is just not an, unfortunately just not a nice child to be around. Now I’ll digress a little bit there, but the point is,

There’s, there’s lessons everywhere and you don’t need lots of, like, we don’t have lots of expensive toys either. It’s like, you know, you don’t need it. I thought, I thought at the start, I, I’m going to buy this. I’m going to get this. And you’ll quickly find that the toys they enjoy the most is generally the toilet rolls or the, or the, or the empty empty shoe boxes that you, you have, and they want to play with that. And it’s like, okay. You know, like this weekend.

Ellen Brown (14:01)
Yes.

Brett Campbell (14:10)
We, we got the, the tents out and the tunnels and we were just playing forts cause she’s back in this mode of, she wants to build cubby houses and hide in them. And then we bring, bring all her toys in there and we have a cup of tea parties. Right. so, and, yeah. So one thing that I will say that’s, that’s becoming quite, pronounced now is, and this is something I’d love for you to get your sort of thoughts on is.

make believe like how much pretend do you play? Right? So we’re in, we’re inside and we’ve got a couple of little tents with tunnels going to it. I’ll put blankets over it. And literally on Saturday, we must have played for about two hours that it’s raining outside. Let’s get in under the, under the tent to not get wet. And you let the child’s brain just like, just play and fantasize about these things. I want to ask you how much.

as your child sort of evolve in and growing, where do you tow the line around the pretend, let’s play pretend? And what do you see the value of pretend play being for a child?

Ellen Brown (15:25)
my goodness is absolutely one of the most valuable parts of childhood. And there certainly isn’t a limit that you put on because you should only have one hour or two hours. It’s all child led. So, you know, there is it is there’s so much research on how important play is and, and in a lot of cases, you know, a lot of people believe that we stop that play.

Brett Campbell (15:38)
Yeah.

Ellen Brown (15:48)
time of kids life too early in Australia, you know, in a place like Finland, they’re not, they’re not even looking at starting to read until seven years old. They’re not even going to formal lessons until years later. And, you know, obviously I’ve had four boys and one girl. So I’m only speaking from my own experience, but I have found boys to be needing to play for a lot longer in their span before they’re actually ready, even as a teacher.

Brett Campbell (15:51)
Yeah.

Ellen Brown (16:17)
I’d often find the kids that were struggling with behaviour or struggling to pick up academically, in my experience, were predominantly boys who I felt should have been out in the sand pit rather than trying to sit quietly in class because they just weren’t ready yet. So no, there’s no limit to the amount of benefit that play has in a child’s life. It’s the way they work out the world around them and understand relationships and understand consequence and everything happens in that way.

Brett Campbell (16:17)
Hmm.

Ellen Brown (16:46)
play session with kids. It’s wonderful. Yeah. Now I’ve got a question for you. okay. You got a question for me. Okay. All right. So how would now I know you’re really good at this, but if a parent was coming to you and saying to you, how would you encourage early literacy and numeracy? How do you encourage that with AILA? So how, you know, learning about letters, learning about numbers, it seems to be coming quite naturally to you. If it wasn’t something that was natural of

Brett Campbell (16:49)
Yeah, yeah. Okay, so, yep. No, no, you go.

Ellen Brown (17:14)
you’ve got a little one that’s just starting on and how do you begin that kind of encouragement?

Brett Campbell (17:20)
Yeah, I think it firstly comes down to you as the parent really drawing a line in the sand and establishing that you want to actively be able to play a participating role in the development of your child. I think that’s the first and foremost. It comes naturally to me only because I ingrain it in my intention and my decision -making that I just know by way of knowledge and understanding and learning.

things that, and by way of repetition, that’s another big thing as well is, you know, I learned the hard way with one of our dogs because, and actually it’s interesting growing up. So, you know, we had Labradors and golden retrievers, which generally, you know, a great dogs that listen. And if you train them, they’re very well, they’re very trainable. Right. And I thought you could run it.

half an hour session with your dog and they should be fully equipped and understand everything that you tell them to do and they just don’t, then they don’t listen. So what I found early on is lots of times when things didn’t work for me was because I didn’t give it a second or a third or a fourth try. Okay. So I have, I guess you could say over the years developed an understanding of, I have to tell you more than once, more than twice, more than five, even down to the point where,

on the weekend. So we went to a friend’s house. And again, this is a super small thing and not a big thing. But my mate, he’s got a three year old, two and a half year old daughter and took a lower over there. And I was like, he said blah, blah, blah. He like he was referring to her as he right now. It’s not a deal breaker. I mean, she could refer to her as anything, but I was like, honey. Yeah, Sophia is a she.

She’s like you, right? You. And she’s like, she, two minutes later, he, he, he, and I’m like, baby, you know, Ayla Sophia is a she, I think I remind it maybe 15 times. Now, most people are going to just let it go. It’s fine. But then she got home and she, you know, Ayla and me got home and we talked to mom and she, and she said, she was referring to Sophia as a she, but that wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t have like,

repetitively go, this is, this is a learning moment. So this is how I look at things, right? is, is this a learning moment where I can shed a little bit of light that can help the context? Because you got to remember children and this blew my mind, you know, watching Aayla sort of evolve and grow and watching her just develop. Because again, I was, I was very lucky. I spent the first two and a, two and a bit years with her at home all day.

Yeah, she, she was my, yeah, she was the, the job of the day, the task of the day, you know what I mean? Like the, the, the project, so to speak. and I wanted to, to just really immerse myself in watching the development of a child. Cause it just always, yeah. I’m like, how does a child pick these things up so quickly and easily? And you can see like, there’s just sometimes I only need to see it once or hear it once.

But you might have to tell them 35 times for something different. So it’s, it’s very unique in that cat, in that aspect. So the first thing back to your question though, that, that I think is very important is you have to want to, cause if you, if it feels like a chore to you to help, set the intentions on development for your child, it’s just going to be hard for you. And I would then, if that is the case and, and you’re like, no, I really want to, but I just find it really hard. Well,

you mustn’t want it that deeply. Because if you did, like you would do it, like you would force yourself into action, right? Like if I said, you’re gonna give you a billion dollars at the end of the year, if you set your intentions and you help your child develop and be there and da da da da, more than you might naturally do, I guarantee you, you’ll do what you need to do, right? So there’s always a way. But I also understand as well as if it doesn’t come natural, you have to find the click that allows you to see that. So,

Because I do think so far forward and I do think quite deeply, I probably have a personal unfair advantage of seeing consequences of certain things. So yeah, Emily said something a few months ago, Ayla picked it up and Ayla still says it today. It’s like it’s, and she might’ve said it only a couple of times. I’m just like, this is how cautious we need to be around our children, what we’re exposing them to, what we’re saying. Now again,

We’re all going to say things. We’re all going to make mistakes. That’s just part of being a parent and your kid will grow out of most things. Right. Don’t you know, you, you, you accidentally drop an F bomb, you know, that was the funniest like, cause I always were very conscious around, you know, swearing of course around Ayla. and something happened and, Emily said, for sake. And I watched Alisha goes.

What does sake mean, mom? Like it was just, it was just so funny watching her and then that trick, that was enough Emily go, my God, I can’t get it. You know, that sort of just slipped out. Right. But again, we’re all human, but this comes back to, one winch. Once you know that, that you’re setting the intention to help lay the seeds right now. Right. The, the, the work that you put in now, the, the time, the effort, the extra energy that I’m putting in now, like,

Ellen Brown (22:59)
Hmm.

Brett Campbell (23:05)
When I sit down and build a puzzle with her, I found sometimes I was trying to find the piece and just give it to her. Cause I’m like, God, this is taking forever. It’s right there. I can’t even bloody see it. You know, I didn’t say that obviously, but, but so you’ve got to check your own patient level. Cause I’m like, well, you know, right. You’ve done a few puzzles in your time and you can see these things a little bit easier. So I go a little bit easier on it. So it’s that patience and consistently reminding yourself that you know what? It might take you.

Ellen Brown (23:15)
I’m sorry.

Brett Campbell (23:33)
10 minutes to complete this one puzzle when yeah, Brett, you could do it in 30 seconds because you’re a hero, right? Type scenario. So once you understand that you’re planting the seeds for future development and growth of your child, I think for me personally, that’s the most important part of it because it’s not about am I teaching my child how to do a puzzle? Well, I’m teaching my child how to think. I’m teaching my child how to have patience when it doesn’t work. I’m teaching my child resilience. I’m teaching like,

And this is, this all happens metaphorically, right? It all happens in the action of doing something, which is why, again, just to call back to a lot of what we do at UCA is very activity based in many ways as well. Like we have activities for, for most things where it’s, you don’t need to learn, yes, the, the analytical component of something when you can be physically doing, you know, ⁓ I get that, right? You can learn indirectly, like a lot of the lessons,

most powerful lessons I’ve ever learned in my entire life have happened from indirect situational events that have occurred. I’m like, okay, I see that. It wasn’t someone telling me that, hey, you shouldn’t do this. It was, I did it. And then I seen the impact of that and I’m like, wow, I shouldn’t, that is not what I want to do. Right? So long answer to your question, but hopefully I touched it there.

Ellen Brown (24:50)
you did you actually touched on a few different things like that developing communication skills, you know, talking and listening, encouraging questions and curiosity. They’re just part of what you’re doing in your everyday.

setting her up for success. And it doesn’t make any difference whether the time comes where mainstream school works for her or she’s homeschooling. And that was an interesting one when you said that because obviously I’m in the same boat, people have always said, so are you homeschooling? And you know, for most of the kids that worked out, but not for everyone, like so even having some time at mainstream school, my daughter has really enjoyed that in high school. And so you know, being able to think to yourself, it’s not just a

you know, a one, there’s not one size fits all and one thing doesn’t have to be forever. It just, you just have to go with what works best for your family and your kids at that time. But the other thing I was going to ask you about was how you might look at teaching or building independence and responsibility for little ones, because that’s going to be a big deal whether they go to mainstream school or their homeschooling. What would you say to that? What’s some things you might do in that department?

Brett Campbell (25:57)
Hmm.

Yeah. So the independence, I mean, there’s independence of play like, and that, that grows over time. Obviously you in the, in the, you know, one and a half, two years old, you’re like, my gosh, this child is going to be on my hip every second of the day. Cause they can’t independently do anything by themselves. And I actually found that. So one of the, one of the most favorite things that me and Ayla do pretty much every single day is we’ll have a spa. So we’ve got to, you know,

nice hot spa. She loves the water. she’d stay in it all day if she could. And that’s something as well that we intentionally, intentionally instilled, in our daughter as well as water safety. And like she’s, by the time she was three, she could be swimming and she’s, she’s busting out freestyle and she’s in a swimming class. People are what’s going on. So I’ve spent hours with her in the pool, like hours, you know,

practicing that and doing that and getting the confidence and slowly increasing the jump from here to there, to there, et cetera. So it’s, you know, you don’t just throw a child in a pool and they’re going to start swimming. You have to put in the hours. It’s like anything. If you want to get good at golf, go and spend three hours a day at the golf range, hitting the same ball with the same club consistently until it becomes natural to you. Right. So when it comes to independence, I was having a spa, we’re sitting there.

And all Aila wants to do is jump on you and jump around and move. And she can’t sit still. I’m like, this is the most unrelaxing spas ever. Now we can go into the spa and I’m like, all right, darling, what are we going to do today? And she’s like, no splashing. And I’m like, thank you. because now we’ll sit in the spa and she won’t splash. She’ll just glide around and she’ll do things. She can play by herself now. She’s diving down, picking up the dive stick and, and then we’ll play.

Dr. Daddy and, and Dr. Ayla and we’ll play all our fun games and I spy and all of this. And, you know, again, intentionally playing I spy to create lessons and create learnings and so on and so, but having fun while we’re doing it, right. playing Dr. Daddy and she knows body parts because I’m like, my elbow sore or, you know, my wrist is sore. You know, my calf muscle. So what’s your calf muscle daddy? well, your calf muscles, this, and it helps me walk, you know, like.

intentionally wanting to explain it. So from an independence perspective is firstly recognizing it takes time, but also it takes patience because we’ve got a sort of a, Aila calls it the end room, because it’s sort of the end room of our house, which is sort of the play area where Aila will go down there and we’ll say, all right.

It’s, you know, it’s play time. You can play with this. Daddy’s going to go down here. If you need daddy, just come down and, come and get me. Okay. And then I walk out and then guess who follows me. Right. It’s Hila. And it’s like, no, no, darling, you’re it’s time for here. Go and sit down here. If you don’t want to play Lego, if you want to read a book. Yeah. Okay. What book do you want to read? This one? And it’s like, can you read it to me? So it’s time. Like it’s easy to go, okay. I’ll sit there and read it, but you have to train.

You have to train your child. Like you have to train yourself that this time now is your time. And it will slowly, slowly over time, become to a point where you’re like, where’s Ayla? she’s in the in room reading a book, right? Where they don’t need to be, Hey, it’s, you know, maybe go and read a book or go and do this. Cause this is the other part as well as, and it’s hard. I spoke about this in many podcasts where sometimes as a parent, you know, young children can just take it out of you.

Right. And look, we’ve only got one right now. So again, respect goes out to people with two, three. However, the argument there that I hear is that they end up playing with themselves. So, you know, one can actually be a little bit harder in aspects to, to, to look after, but in the same token is you just have to be aware of what the repetitive consumption of something can do to your child. Right.

Ellen Brown (30:05)
Yes. Yes.

Brett Campbell (30:20)
Even if a child just wants to sit and read books all day, and they don’t want to get their head out of the book, that’s not good. I don’t believe that’s that’s a good behavior. So anything too much of anything can can can be at a detriment. But I know as a parent, it can be tough and you’re like, the easiest solution, the quickest solution is let’s give them the TV cocaine, right? Basically, you sit them in front of the TV and say, instantly, they’re like, yeah, you know, like I look and go from upset to

Ellen Brown (30:25)
Hmm.

Brett Campbell (30:49)
yeah, it’s bluey or it’s, you know, this or it’s that. And it’s, and that’s the easy solution, but it’s the easy solution for the now. And you just got to be mindful that we don’t do that too consistently because then you’re creating the, I know the solution to this TV bang. And it’s, it’s a happens, B happens, but you’re not looking at, but what happens at right down the track when this is, this is so ingrained in the behavior that that now they know that.

If I do X, Y, Z, I’m gonna get the TV on straight away or I’m gonna get the iPad or whatever it is that you provide as that sort of immediate fix. So like anything, independence comes from teaching them how valuable independence is, right?

Ellen Brown (31:34)
So it’s kind of interesting listening to like going through all these different things that you’re doing to set AILR up for success has actually made it really clear that you’re already homeschooling. So homeschooling is what you’re doing. You’re teaching communication skills, you’re teaching independence, responsibility, you’re encouraging curiosity. That doesn’t change. And I think sometimes people might say, you know, when they go to school or when they start homeschooling, you see homeschooling.

Brett Campbell (31:47)
Yeah.

Ellen Brown (32:02)
It starts when they’re born and when you’re intentional like you are about the way that you’ve got the end in mind and you’re teaching her. I loved what you were saying about teaching her not only through that play with her, but even teaching her independence through this is the time that you’re going to do something even for just a few minutes. This is your time to be doing Lego or doing a book that is so valuable because parents often forget that that’s a learnt.

Brett Campbell (32:03)
Yeah.

Ellen Brown (32:29)
skill as well, being able to be happily independent with your own self and doing something yourself is something that kids often don’t get taught. So, you know, to be purposeful about that and increasing it slowly and your expectation is real, that homeschooling is something you’ve already started. And the only difference between what you’re doing now,

and what homeschooling would be is that some of the topics that you’re doing when you’re questioning your activities and your toys and your time, that’s the only thing that would change some of those topics. And so for parents that are thinking, no, homeschooling seems so daunting, yet you’re already quite actively involved in your children’s life. You could actually take that, you know, look at that step quite peacefully and say, well, you know, it’s really just changing the topics.

Brett Campbell (33:17)
Yeah.

Ellen Brown (33:20)
and adding a few extra topics to what we’re already doing at home. And that’s what I’ve been doing for all these years, you know, it’s exactly what you’re doing now with AILA. It’s just with a few extra topics thrown in.

Brett Campbell (33:27)
Yeah.

Yeah, that’s, that’s, that’s actually you hit the nail on the head. It’s, it’s so true because again, there’s the concept of schooling feels like this ultra structured has to be X, Y, Z situation. But the reality is, is we’re already doing it as parents. Some of us doing it well, some of us maybe could do a little bit better, could maybe put a bit more intention behind it. I mean, there’s always room for improvement for all of us. Yeah. Even, even.

what we’re doing. And yeah, this actually conversations. Finally, I had a chat with Emily the other day, and I want to get a list started on the foundational program. And there’ll be things that she doesn’t understand or know, but it’s like, just exposure. Once again, exposure is such a powerful thing. Exposure just can open up. And this is that indirect learnings that you can get from something right as being exposed to something. Because learning isn’t

this person needs to learn every single thing that there is, or what is being said. An example is I’ve introduced a lot of people to Jordan Peterson and just sort of his learnings and his, his way of thinking and looking at the life and looking at life and so forth. And I took Emily to a live event in Brisbane and like you spoke for like 90 minutes and, and as you know, very deep thinker, his vocabulary is.

Yeah. On the above average scale when utilized in general context. And it’s hard to like, well, sometimes you got to stop and look at a dictionary. Like, what does that mean? Okay. but most people don’t, they’re like, it just sort of goes over the head and, and Emily, we walk away and I’m like, what’s your biggest takeaway from the event? And like, she literally, there was one thing that she basically recited that meant that impacted her. And I’m like, what about the rest of it? She goes, I honestly can’t even remember what the rest of it said.

Ellen Brown (35:27)
Mm. Mm.

Brett Campbell (35:27)
And that’s okay though, because there was exposure, right? There was exposure to it and it opened up the mind for more or difference, right? So I think that’s a really important part, but I’m glad you actually said that. It’s a really good point that you’re already homeschooling, you’re already home learning, right? And that’s, I think the word schooling throws a lot of parents off is because when you hear school, you’re like, the school bell.

Ellen Brown (35:46)
You want. Yes.

Brett Campbell (35:56)
I’m in trouble. There’s that, that the structure, but all you’re doing is just adding a little bit more intention and a little bit more structure, which actually is better and easier. Cause it’s like, you don’t need a, you know, with, with our Yuka programs, it’s like, well, here’s your entire lessons for the entire year. You don’t know, but you can play with it and you can, you can mold it and change it to help fit you and your child as well. But you’ve got the structure. All you need to do is essentially follow.

follow the process and just know that you’re already doing it. Like when your child comes home from school per se, like if your children at school, they’re still learning when they get home. They watch the parents interact. Like they watch how, so how I speak to Emily and how I am with Emily is indirectly right now. And I know Aila’s only three, but this is how I think of it. I’m like,

Cause one of my last memories of my father was when I was four years old and it was, it was an absolute terrible memory. And it was the last one I ever had. So kids know from an early on how I am, am instilling and sharing and showing my love for Emily is indirectly showing Aila how men should treat women. Like that’s the, like it’s thinking on those, those levels of it’s, it’s very, very important, you know, and I think as, as parents and you know,

I can speak for a man here. Yeah. And as men, we have a very, very important role within the household. And so does the, so does the mother. And, and yeah, and that’s what creates a family dynamic is that there’s different responsibilities and we’ve got to know what they are for us. And we’ve got to play to our strengths with that, you know, like I rough and tumble with Ayla every day. She comes and she goes rough and tumble. I’m like, not yet. You know, she loves it. She loves being taken to the limit of.

You know, almost peeing her pants because she’s laughing and we’re wrestling and, but she loves it. And I look at that as, we’re not just having fun. We’re not just doing this to have fun. How I look at it is I’m teaching her to know what her threshold and capabilities are physically. Like I, you know, she’ll push and I’ll give her just a little bit to see what her strengths are. So that’s how I look at it. Obviously pretty, pretty deep in most contexts, but.

My biggest probably just takeaway and piece of advice for any parent listening to this is, yeah, you don’t need to go to the extremes, I guess I do, but every action has an outcome of some sort, whether it’s realized today or it’s realized in two, five, 10 years. And the development, especially in those early years of a child is absolutely, from my perspective, paramount and unbelievably important.

Ellen Brown (38:46)
Yeah, I think a lot of people look, I think it was a really inspiring discussion for for everyone. It doesn’t matter if you’ve got a two, three year old or a 15 year old being present and being having a plan in place for the time that you interact means that you’re actually building something really important into that child. So but I feel like, you know, the things that you shared will be really inspiring for a lot of

Brett Campbell (38:46)
So there we go. Anything else, Alan? We need to add to this.

Hmm.

Ellen Brown (39:14)
families and just to keep in mind that you know homeschooling is just is just being present and and purposeful in your parenting and and isn’t some big shift that happens sometime when all of a sudden they turn five so there you go.

Brett Campbell (39:32)
Yeah, absolutely. And what you just said there is learning starts from day one. and that’s why as well as, and if you don’t know, just a little shout out to you, obviously, is we do have our clever kids program. You know, we’ve got thousands of, of, of young children taking that up and you know, you can, you can get started, you know, two and a half, three years old. You can get your child involved and activities and different things that you can do. and, get, you know, get involved in it. It’s, it’s.

There’s to me again, obviously bias, but there’s nothing more important than your child’s development. You know, we’re growing the next generation of humans. So there we go. All right. Well, if you’ve enjoyed today’s episode, please be sure to give us a thumbs up, give us a five star review and leave us a comment. If you’re seeing this or hearing this from wherever you are, I’d love to hear any of your thoughts. Provide us with that feedback. It’ll help us just get better and help us as we…

grow and evolve with this podcast as well. So, Alan, thank you very much. You’re right. I absolutely love the topic. Anytime I get to talk about, you know, my daughter and of course the ability to hopefully transfer something that I might know as it relates to that. You know, you’re absolutely correct. And we are in the trenches of that right now. And I know for sure there’ll be parents who are in that similar vein.

would hopefully get some benefit from that. So really appreciate the topic today. Thank you.