40. Scott Postma and Kepler Education

01/02/24 • 79 min

In today’s episode, we get to spend time with Scott Postma from Idaho. Scott is a homeschool father of four and a grandfather of six, all of whom are homeschooled. He has a PhD in Humane Letters from Faulkner University, and he's the president and CEO of Kepler Education, a marketplace for live online classical Christian education. Named after the famous German astronomer, Johannes Kepler, Kepler Education helps students enjoy the freedom of homeschooling with the expertise of a broad faculty. Before their first child was born in 1991, Scott's wife already knew she wanted to homeschool, but Scott thought that was a weird idea and took some time to get on board. Now, Scott cannot imagine sending a child into the public system. One of the things Scott loves most about homeschooling is the emphasis on cultivating lifelong learners. In our conversation, we talked about the importance of making decisions according to our worldview, and we lamented how much waste we observe in the way educational resources are allocated. However, we both feel optimistic about the growth of home education and other alternatives to the conventional system. Although the homeschool journey can be overwhelming and has many challenges, Scott reminds us to keep it simple, read a lot, and to not take ourselves too seriously.

Connect with Scott Postma
https://scottpostma.net/
https://kepler.education/

Websites and Curriculum
https://www.aceschooloftomorrow.com/
https://www.abeka.com/
https://classicalconversations.com/
https://www.bjupresshomeschool.com/
https://www.aop.com/
https://romanroadspress.com/
Saxon Math
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Kuyper

This Golden Hour
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Connect with Scott Postma
https://scottpostma.net/
https://kepler.education/

This Golden Hour
Free eBook Course
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Previous Episode

38. Chris Ronan and Geocaching

In today’s episode, we get to spend time with Chris Ronan from Seattle, Washington. Chris is not a homeschool parent or connected to homeschool really at all, except that he works for a company that facilitates an outdoor experience that many homeschool families enjoy: Geocaching. Chris is the senior public relations manager of Geocaching, and he also spends a lot of time training Geocaching volunteers. Over a decade ago, Chris and his wife became interested in Geocaching on a trip to visit his sister. They fell in love with it and Chris found himself, like Charlie Bucket who was fortunate to visit Wonka's chocolate factory, eventually working for Geocaching. The company started in the year 2000 after a man from Oregon hid a container and challenged people online to find it. Four months later, Geocaching was official, and today there are more than 3.3 million geocaches in more than 190 countries throughout the world. Homeschool families tend to love time in nature and going on field trips, and Geocaching provides an ideal activity for both. In this conversation, listeners will learn more about Geocaching, and they might feel more inclined to give Geocaching a try.

Connect with Chris Ronan
https://www.geocaching.com/play

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41. Nephi Zufelt and Wealth Mentality Families

In today’s episode, we get to spend time with Nephi Zufelt from Pocatello, Idaho. Nephi is a homeschooling father of five, mechanical engineer, business owner, leader in his local church congregation, and author of Katie Bell and the Wishing Well: A Story of Finding True Wealth, and The Big Startup Guidebook for Kids. Nephi and his wife had talked about homeschooling often when their kids were younger, but it wasn't until he left his job to start his own business and moved from Tennessee to Colorado that they finally decided to try homeschooling. At first, the Zufelt's just did what they thought was done in the schools. But over time and after studying the principles of homeschooling and learning, they began to see the great benefits and advancement of the homeschooling option. Nephi's wife had taught all of her children to read before they were five and so they already had that foundation when they started learning at home. Nephi and I talked a lot about how archaic and ill-equipped the public school system is to give students individualized attention. Unfortunately, most parents are still caught up in the old-school paradigm of focusing on their kids getting good grades and getting into college, when this is not sufficient for the world and future they are entering. Our children need to be curious and creative, know how to solve problems, love learning, know how to learn, and understand the principles of learning if they are to be successful in the rapidly changing and competitive world. The schools simply don't do this stuff! Nephi gave us so many excellent insights into topics like parent engagement, the role of the homeschool dad, principles versus skill sets, and knowing the difference between teaching your children grit and giving them the space to pursue their interests. Finally, we talked about Nephi's expertise in teaching children about wealth mentality. He helps us understand what real wealth actually is, things like good health, freedom of time, and strong relationships, instead of a myopic focus on materials and accumulation. Nephi reminds us that it takes great failures to create wealth.

Connect with Nephi
www.wealthmentalityfamilies.com

Nephi’s Books
Katie Bell and the Wishing Well: A Story of Finding True Wealth
The Big Startup Guide for Kids: A Principle-Based Approach to Entrepreneurship

This Golden Hour
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This Golden Hour - 40. Scott Postma and Kepler Education

Transcript

Scott Postma00:00:00.000

Don't beat yourself up. Because sometimes we're going to set these goals. We have these ideals in our mind of what it's going to look like. We should set goals, but then recognize if we don't quite meet them, it's okay. We strive for a certain, whatever it is a goal in our education or direction, but life happens, things come up and when you're homeschooling, there's a lot of contingencies, which is, it can be a good thing for some personaliti