Character Concepts with Marilyn Boyer
Summary:
Today, Erin sits down with the remarkable Marilyn Boyer, a trailblazer in the homeschooling community. With over thirty-seven years of homeschooling her fourteen children, Marilyn has a wealth of experience focusing on character training as a cornerstone of education. She shares her journey from being one of the pioneers of homeschooling in Virginia to writing numerous books on parenting, homeschooling, and American history.
In our conversation, we delve into the importance of character development, the intersection of biblical principles and academics, and the evolution of homeschooling over the years. Marilyn's insights into balancing homeschool responsibilities with nurturing relationships and character are invaluable for both new and seasoned homeschool families.
Join us as we explore how homeschooling is more than just academics—it's preparing the heart and soul of our children for a purposeful life ahead. Tune in for inspiration, meaningful stories, and practical advice that will empower you on your homeschooling journey!
Links & Resources:
For resources by Marilyn Boyer, visit her website at www.characterconcepts.com, including:
Character Curriculum,
Parenting and Homeschool Helps,
History for Patriots
To purchase Marilyn’s curriculum at Masterbooks, visit the Marilyn Boyer, Author page at MasterBooks.com.
For more sage advice from Marilyn, listen to her Moments with Marilyn podcast, available wherever you listen to podcasts. Find Marilyn on Facebook at @CharacterConcepts.
Connect with Erin & Joe at Show Me Homeschool:
On Instagram, @show.me.homeschool
On X, @ShowMeHomeSch
On Pinterest, @showmehomeschool
Be sure to leave a rating and review, and subscribe so you never miss an episode! For questions or comments email us: info@showmehomeschool.com
Transcript:
Erin:
Hello, and welcome back to the Show Me Homeschool podcast. Today, I am excited to be chatting with Marilyn Boyer. She is a homeschool mom of 14 children who has educated her children for thirty seven years. Like, shout out. That's amazing. Her focus in parenting is on character training and her passion is sharing insights with others on how they can raise kids of character with a passion to impact our culture. She's written books on parenting, homeschooling, and our godly historical heritage in America. Her passion for putting character at the top of her educational priorities resulted in the creation of the character concept, a character curriculum with resources from preschool through high school.
Erin:
She and her husband, Rick, are authors of dozens of books and are well known speakers on the topics of homeschooling, American history, and parenting. Her most recent books are What a Character, readers for grades four through eight. There are 10 books in the series. Each book brings history to life with engaging accounts of inventors, pioneers, spies, presidents, and more showcasing the character and values that shaped their extraordinary achievements. She loves encouraging young moms on her podcast, Moments with Marilyn. I'm Erin.
Joe:
And I'm Joe.
Erin:
We're the hosts of the Show Me Homeschool podcast, where we guide parents through the wilderness of home education. Each weekly episode will focus on supporting and encouraging homeschool moms and dads through conversational interviews with like minded Christian leaders in the homeschool community.
Joe:
In our experience, we've seen the lack of resources and support available for homeschool dads. So we want to address that by covering relevant topics concerning husbands and fathers as they lead their families through this lifestyle of home education.
Erin:
We understand the need for creating connections and building authentic relationships to sustain a healthy homeschool environment for yourself and your children.
Joe:
Our goal is not to show you how to replicate our homeschool, but to show you how you can create a home learning life style that is sustainable for your family.
Erin:
Show Me Homeschool is here to come alongside you. So, Marilyn, welcome.
Marilyn Boyer:
It's good to be with you. Thanks for having me today.
Erin:
Yeah. I'm so excited that we've connected. And would you like to elaborate a little bit more on your bio for our listeners to just share a little bit more about who you are?
Marilyn Boyer:
Sure. Rick and I started homeschooling in 1980. We hadn't heard of anyone else that had done it. But at the time, we had our two oldest kids in a preschool, and we lived about thirty minutes away. It was a great preschool. It was a Christian preschool. I loved what they did. But I had four kids at the time, and I felt like the babies were just in their car seats and traveling back and forth.
Marilyn Boyer:
And then the next year, Rick, our oldest one, would have started kindergarten. And I just I said to Rick, I just feel bad that I'm not spending time with the little ones. What if I taught Ricky and Tim at home next year? And we'd never heard of anyone that had done it except Abraham Lincoln, you know, back in the but he said, sure. Let's try it. So we did, And I was just amazed that year. I thought I don't ever wanna send them back to school because just in the in the sanctuary of your home, they learn so quickly, and it was just amazing to be there and be present when when that little light comes on and you know that they're understanding some concept. It's just amazing. So we ended up getting taken to court over like, the Truman officer came to our home, and it was a scary time.
Marilyn Boyer:
But we helped to fight for homeschool freedom in the state of Virginia. That's where we live, and we did get that freedom to homeschool our kids. And I'm glad that we did. We, we were new Christians, so I was not brought up in a Christian home. And I didn't we didn't really know how to train our kids. So when we encountered problems with dishonesty or or disobedience or whatever, we'd go to the word. We'd go to scripture to see what it said about it. So because we did that, we started developing curriculum for our own kids.
Marilyn Boyer:
I say curriculum. Like, I wrote it down on a piece of notebook paper with paper underneath her copies. It was very, very, not professional at the beginning. Mhmm. But we did that to train our kids because we really wanted them to deal with what was going on in their heart and to to know that God's word has the answer for any problem they'll ever face. We started getting invited to speak in a homeschool conventions, I don't know, back in the eighties, long time ago. And I would talk on topics of teaching your kids character, and people would say, can you turn what you did with your kids into something we can use? So as my kids got older and I had a little bit more time, I started doing that. So we have developed a character curriculum from preschool through high school, pretty much what we did with our kids, but it's effective.
Marilyn Boyer:
I mean, it's it's using the word to change what's going on in your child's heart so that they can live to be more like Jesus. And I have I
Erin:
love that. Yeah. And, I mean, you you're a a grandma too. So many.
Marilyn Boyer:
I am. We have 29 grandkids. Yes. I'm helping to teach them, you know, I teach them history and I take them to minister to elderly people and just the stuff that's hard to do when you're a mom. I've tried to step in and do that for my grandkids, and I love doing it.
Erin:
Okay. So you've hit on a lot of the questions that I've had. It so let's go a little deeper into that because you didn't start out to start a curriculum, process writing process. You just were schooling your kids. What I love about you and and maybe this is a little bit, I don't know, but, so many times now I see homeschool moms who are just starting out and are influencers or, you know, they have children and their oldest is five. And I've talked about this on my podcast before it's tied with that, neither of mine, because I'm like, enjoy those moments with the little ones. You will never get back. And so from your perspective as a mom, who's done this for generation, you know, for decades now, not generation, But I mean, I guess second generation, your grandkids, you're helping with that.
Erin:
Can you speak to that, about how moms sometimes can get so focused on external ministry that, the the homeschool suffers through that and how you've addressed that with your own homeschool.
Marilyn Boyer:
Absolutely. You know, the days seem really long, but the time overall goes really quickly. And to me, one of the best things about homeschooling was sitting with your arm around your children as you're teaching them concepts and teaching them to learn and seeing that light come on when they understand the concept, but it's it's time spent with mom. Mhmm. I remember one time, I was pregnant and I was pregnant, like, over eleven years. I figured with all the kids, but I I went in the living room to sit down, and one by one, the kids came in. And it's relationship. You know? They want to be with with their mom, and it's so important just just to put your focus on spending time with them.
Marilyn Boyer:
Mhmm. That's what it's all about is relationship.
Erin:
Yeah.
Marilyn Boyer:
And I got since I have older kids now that are grown, they all are homeschooling or plan to homeschool, I asked them what things did we do that benefited you? What did we do that didn't benefit you? So I've got the advantage of having that wisdom from hearing from my kids what things worked and what benefited them. It's just so sweet to see your kids when they're adults carry on the values that you tried to teach them when you when they were little. But it it's so worth your investment. You know? You've only got so many years, and then they're gonna be adults. They're gonna leave your home, and you won't get that time back. So, yes, absolutely. I mean, I put a lot of ministry stuff on the back burner. I had a friend that wanted me to go to ladies bible study, and I told for years, she asked me.
Marilyn Boyer:
And I told her, I can't. You know, that's when I'm teaching my kids. So some things, you know, you can't be involved as involved in other things as some other people, but I wouldn't trade that for anything.
Erin:
I would
Marilyn Boyer:
like the time I had with my kids for any other thing or any other ministry.
Erin:
Yeah. I I appreciate hearing that. And I just always want to, like, reiterate that to the listeners because I know I have an age range of people that are listening to this podcast. And ultimately the goal is to encourage moms that are homeschooling and dads that are homeschooling, especially in biblical principles as a Christian, that's so important. And I see so many areas of growth in the homeschool community. I know it's, it's looking probably way different than when you started, but, and it's exciting to see the ways that either technology or connection with people has improved the community. But then I see other areas where it's like, you you have to be careful because there are so many voices out there. And Christian doesn't necessarily mean, you know, what what maybe we would think it mean.
Erin:
But, so let's talk a little bit about what a character and how you develop that curriculum and what are the, areas that you see your children have benefited from that curriculum that you've developed.
Marilyn Boyer:
Okay. As as we were trying to teach our kids character, we gave them simple kid friendly definitions, like attentiveness is listening with the ears, eyes, and heart. But then we would look for people, for examples, in the Bible that showed attentiveness, and then we began looking for examples in history of people that showed those character qualities. And that's how we started getting into history. And it's just amazing. We've got so many inspiring examples in American history. So we started turning them into stories for our children to be inspired by and to learn by. It's kind of a side benefit we found.
Marilyn Boyer:
Kids learn history incredibly well if you tell it in the form of stories. You tell them the story of the people that lived it. And they remember that because there's these captivating fascinating stories. So they're learning a lot of history facts, but it's so much more engaging than just reading about it in a textbook. So we started writing about people in American history that exemplify these character qualities that we're trying to teach them about. And I can I tell you one example of that? Sure. Explain what I mean? Yeah. Okay.
Marilyn Boyer:
We use Jake DeShazer as an example of forgiveness. He was one of the Doolittle Raiders in World War two, and he actually was just like a private when when America when Pearl Harbor Was Attacked. And he became really bitter at the Japanese, and he wanted to go fight them. So he was a Doolittle raider, and his job was to bomb Nagoya, I think, and he did that. But then he was supposed to land his plane in China, but he ran out of gas, and he landed in Japanese occupied territory. He was captured. He was a prisoner for three and a half years. He was tortured, and he just grew more and more bitter at the Japanese.
Marilyn Boyer:
But one of the other prisoners, one of the other captives was a Christian, And he would tell Jake about he seemed to have this eternal peace, and he would talk to Jake about the Lord. And then toward the end of that time, one of the prison guards brought in four books for the guys. One was the Bible. Wow. Jake read the Bible, and he became a Christian right there in his prison cell. And his attitude totally changed toward the guards, and and they could see that. So at the end of the war, he came back to The States. He went to bible college.
Marilyn Boyer:
Then he went back to Japan, and he preached to the very guys that had tortured him and other Japanese. And it's really cool. He wrote this tract called I Was a Prisoner of the Japanese. Mitsuo Fujita read that tract. He was the guy that led the raid on Pearl Harbor. He sought out Jake de Shazer, who was living in Japan because he was ministering to the Japanese. He became a Christian, and both Mitsuo and Jake went around the country of Japan and thousands of Japanese people were saved. Thousands.
Marilyn Boyer:
And that's all because Jake practiced forgiveness. He forgave the Japanese, and thousands of people were saved. And an interesting part of the story is when he got old, he got Alzheimer's, and he remembered ministering to the Japanese, but he didn't remember being tortured by them. So it's just it's a little devastating example of forgiveness. So that's what we try to do with history. We try to tell stories that touch a kid's heart, but they're real true life stories, things that happen, and how God works through those things and work through people's lives.
Erin:
I love that. I mean, you don't hear stories like that's not how it's presented. I was public school. That is not what I remember at all about.
Marilyn Boyer:
No. Absolutely not.
Erin:
Yeah. You
Marilyn Boyer:
know, public schools, they leave anything about god out. And in the what a character series, one of the books is about presidents. There's 10 stories in each book, but I tried to choose presidents that were born again Christians. And it was fun to pick out the born again Christians because you didn't hear about that in school. Like, one of the presidents actually held evangelistic meetings while he was in the White House, James Garfield. Uh-huh. We never learned about that. You never heard about James Garfield.
Marilyn Boyer:
So pretty much the ones that were Christians, we never learned about very much at all in public school. So I tried to get their exact words that that showed they were Christians and that they live their life for the Lord and incorporate that into the stories because kids need to hear that.
Joe:
Right.
Marilyn Boyer:
It scares them. Well, and
Erin:
so many times you hear doubting and debate over, well, were they evangelical or were they, you know, theistic or atheist than, you know, I think having those details of, you know, firsthand documents and letters and and details of events like evangelistic events, that's you know, you can trace that back and see that that actually happened. I love that. So what age range is this curriculum specifically for?
Marilyn Boyer:
It is for about fourth through eighth grade, but we've had lots of feedback that younger kids love listening to the stories. And even adults were saying, wow. I mean, I never knew this stuff. So it really is for family reading, but if it were for curriculum fourth through eighth grade.
Erin:
Excellent. So, it's a book series. And so practically on a day to day, they would read the stories and discuss, or are there workbooks or worksheets to go along with it? Or
Marilyn Boyer:
There are not at this time, but a lot of people are using it for morning baskets. Yeah. People do that. They just read the stories or a lot of people are using it to read to their kids at night for family reading, and a lot of them are just getting for kids. Like, we've heard back from parents that she has reluctant leaders. She's got avid readers, and they all love these stories. So they're pretty much for anybody. And can I tell you about one of the presidents?
Erin:
Absolutely. Yeah.
Marilyn Boyer:
Okay. Dwight Eisenhower. He grew up as a farm boy. When he was 13 years old, he fell and he cut his leg. No big deal. But it got infected, and blood poisoning set in. And the doctor said his leg had to be amputated or he would die. But Dwight, he was 13.
Marilyn Boyer:
The pain was excruciating, but he said, look. It's my leg. I don't wanna lose my leg. So he made his older brother promise to stand guard and not let the doctor amputate his leg, and his parents agreed. So he said, I'll choose to place my trust in my savior, and he will determine if I live or die. So his 15 year old brother, Edgar, sat in a chair outside his room. His mother brought him his meals, and he guarded his brother. And miraculously, after the second day, the swelling began to go down, the fever broke, and the inflammation slowly disappeared.
Marilyn Boyer:
God had saved his life. Then he went on to West Point. He became the supreme commander of World War two, and he oversaw the d day invasion. So forty years after the life death decision with his leg, he faced another life death decision, but it involved thousands of lives. The weather was bad. The winds were high. The seas were choppy, and he had to make a decision whether to go on with the D Day invasion or not. If it didn't happen now, the element of supply surprise would be lost, and the invasion would be sure to fail.
Marilyn Boyer:
There was a small break in the weather, and he had to decide whether to go for it or to abandon the mission. So he got counsel for men, but, ultimately, he took a walk on a country road, and he pled with the Lord for guidance and strength in making this decision. He knew that many lives, thousands of lives depended on him. And as he walked that road, it became clear to him what he must do. He returned to his men and he said, gentlemen, I think we're ready to go ahead. May god be with us. And that attack broke the Nazi control of Europe, And he went on, got elected as president, but you don't hear about that. How Beach trusted the Lord for every major decision he ever had to make.
Marilyn Boyer:
Mhmm. He would turn to the Lord and he would pray for wisdom.
Erin:
I mean, those details bring such a richness, not only to the history, but the spiritual aspect and component of a role model that you might see or your kids might see that's, you know, really intensely dependent upon the Lord and those character traits that they have. So you've talked about your interest in history with, with the character. I think a lot of times as homeschool moms, especially I think post COVID, you see moms that are really focused on just the academics. Like what curriculum do I need to teach math, reading, writing, language arts, whatever. And and that can be so all consuming. And some of us that have been doing this, this is our third we're finishing up our thirteenth year. It can be, like, really hard to watch that because we know and we've experienced, like, yes, we've been in that place. I was super neurotic and they're like, I'm gonna mess them up at the beginning.
Marilyn Boyer:
I was too.
Erin:
I think most of us are if we're being on it. Yeah. But how could you speak to that mom to impress upon her the importance of character development over the other things or not maybe, you know, that biblical relationship with the Lord in addition to the curriculum, how you pair those two?
Marilyn Boyer:
It's the most important thing. It really is the foundation for the rest of their life. And one thing, like you say, it's so easy to be worried about them learning their English or learning to conjugate sentences or do their math or get their algebra and just put the other stuff off. But the foundation of the relationship with the Lord is the most important thing you can work on. It's the most. And they learn so much from people from history who put their faith in the lord. And I just told you a couple of stories, but there's a hundred stories in these books. And we I picked out the Christians to tell about, and I told how they depended on the Lord, and they placed their faith in the Lord.
Marilyn Boyer:
And and then you can see how God blessed them. You know, when you even think about the war of independence, how did we win? We had no navy. We had no army. We are fighting against the the most powerful nation in the world, but God used people. God used just every ordinary everyday ordinary people to win that war to gain us our freedom. And I I just think we need to teach our kids to invest in others. One thing I did, and it was a temptation just to focus on academics, but I really felt like I needed to teach my kids to have a heart for others, be servant hearted. So I would take my kids and I would visit elderly people or shut in people.
Marilyn Boyer:
And this is one of the best things we did, our World War two vets. I could talk for an hour about that. My youngest daughter got interested in World War two vets, and we would visit them and ask about their experience and minister to them. You know, if they were a widower, we'd bring them food. We'd find out how we could help them, but we learned so much history in the process too. It was amazing. But my kids developed a a heart for others. I would tell them to listen for ways that you could be a blessing to this person, whether it was an elderly person or a young mom who just had a baby or a vet.
Marilyn Boyer:
So it was kind of like a treasure hunt for how you can be a blessing. Mhmm. And that's how I I trained my kids. And now all my kids are grown up. They're all adults. And my heart is so blessed because they have continued doing that. They reach out to people constantly. They're investing their lives in serving others.
Marilyn Boyer:
They are they're so servant hearted, but they it was it's a a result of doing that with your kids. It's a result of laying aside the math and the English and all that and getting out and being involved with people who have needs. And that's one of the most important things that you can do. Like I say, I mean, you feel like, how can I not do English or whatever? But fit it into your schedule because it's the most important thing, and it will stick with them for their lives. You know, they will develop a servant hearted focus, and they'll look for how they can serve needs and help people. You know, a lot of the people that we wrote about in these books were not a lot, but several were people that we actually interviewed, like World War two vets that told us their personal story. And, wow, my kids developed such an honor for people who sacrificed for our freedom. Mhmm.
Marilyn Boyer:
And they will do that by reading the stories of people that sacrificed so that we are living in a free land today. It just is so motivating. It puts a whole new perspective. It gets kids out of their own little bubble and thinking about themselves, and it gets them concerned about others and interested in others to see how they can serve God by being a blessing to other people.
Erin:
Yeah. And I think it's a benefit for the mom too, because a lot of us, we are sacrificing a lot. We're not going to war physically, but spiritually we are for our children and our our families, and we can get so burdened by that. And I think reading those hopeful stories alongside our children, where we're showing them, you know, these other people did sacrifice a lot. Sometimes they sacrificed more than we could even imagine. And yet they stayed faithful to God and his, and were obedient to the calling on his life. And I think that can be encouraging for us moms. Another thing that as you're speaking, I'm thinking through is sometimes when we're struggling to get our kids to do the math or the writing or whatever it is, when we stop to take time to teach the character traits, those things become easier because we are focused on that.
Erin:
Do you have any stories on that in your own family?
Marilyn Boyer:
Absolutely. You know, if you get their character in line, academic learning comes so much easier to them. If they're obedient and they're responsible, you know, if you diligent you build all those character qualities into them, it's much easier for them to focus on academics and get it.
Erin:
Yeah. So another question that I had was, as you've been in the homeschool community a long time and you've written this wonderful curriculum for for parents to be able to just open up and use, How have you seen a shift in homeschooling in maybe how they're using curriculum differently, or how has that inspired you to create the curriculum that you have in in the way that you laid it out for moms?
Marilyn Boyer:
I think a lot of curriculums are very complicated to use. And, like, I always tell people if it looks boring to you, it's probably boring to your kids too. That's so true. You know, your life is so busy when you're raising kids and you're teaching them school. You don't need complication. You need simple, easy to use. And that's what we've tried to do is make it something they can pick up, read them the story, kids can learn from so you don't have to do all the legwork. In the early days of homeschooling, it was really hard for us to acquire curriculum.
Marilyn Boyer:
The companies wouldn't sell to us. So you had to kind of do it yourself. I mean, you had to lay it out and and get books from the library and just figure it out. But now you guys have a lot different problem. You've got so much. It's overwhelming. Like, hey. It's what do I do? So I think that's the challenge today.
Marilyn Boyer:
But, you know, it really doesn't matter as much what you use as your relationship with your kids and how you use it. When we got started, the only thing we could get was a Becca books, and I I like some of their stuff, but I could never get the teacher's guides. And in retrospect, I'm really glad because they have a really, complicated system, like a a well laid out system, but it's very time consuming. I didn't have that. So I just took the books and used them my own way, and we got through with school in two to three hours a day. And then I I added other things as time went on. That was just in the early years. You know, that's all we could get.
Marilyn Boyer:
But, you know, your time spent with your kids is what's important. You know, you want to communicate with your kids that you like being with them. There's nothing you'd rather do than be with them, And it's so much more important relationships. You know? I asked my kids, all of them, are you glad you were homeschooled and why? And I love what my son, Matt, said. He said, I am so glad I'm homeschooled. He said, because I got to really know my family instead of just spending a few minutes with them in the evening. And that's so true. I mean, my kids are each other's best friends.
Marilyn Boyer:
We get together every Friday night for family night, and we have a big meal together. I don't know. There's 50 something of us by the time you get wives and husbands and kids and but they're still each other's best friends. And we have the blessing of everyone living in the same town.
Erin:
Oh, wow.
Marilyn Boyer:
And Yeah. It's it's it's amazing. It's a blessing. But my kids are helping each other raise their kids, and the cousins are super fun. I mean, they're they have super fun together. It's just I don't think we could have attained that level of closeness if I'd sent my kids off to school every day because you just you get to really know them and you get to I tried to teach my kids to help each other with their pursuits. Everyone is different. They learn different.
Marilyn Boyer:
They have different interests. So we would try to make each other successful with whatever their pursuit was. Instead of competing with them, we would try to cooperate with them, and it's been really neat. You know, the kids learn from each other's interests. My youngest daughter is a pilot, and she's off now doing her final studying. She's gonna go on with Oh, wow. I think she was inspired by the World War two Mhmm. Flying aces that we met.
Marilyn Boyer:
But it's just it's so neat because the kids learn so much just from each other's interests. We're supposed to be different. You know? God made everyone differently. And let me just say that too. It's okay if they learn at a slower rate than they're supposed to. You know? I had one son who didn't learn to read till he was 13 years old. Wow. Because he was frustrated by the English language.
Marilyn Boyer:
He's one day he said, ma, the guy that wrote the English language must had a pencil in one hand and a jug in the other. Because you'd say, here's the rule, here's the exception, here's the rule, here's the exception. So I would just read everything to him until he act until it clicked and he actually could read, and he would do the parts of speech and all that. It was just the reading that frustrated him. But he finished high school. He went to work for a few years, then he went to bible seminary, and he's graduated from seminary. He skipped college, went to seminary, graduated at the top of his class, and he would like to be a preacher one day. Uh-huh.
Marilyn Boyer:
But when he found out what his interest really was, you know, you would never know that he was 13 before he could read. Yeah. If they're behind, I would just tell him, god has gifted you in math. God has gifted you in science. His younger sister was way ahead of him in reading, but that's okay. You know, god makes us all different. Yeah. And in the end, it doesn't really matter what age you were when you started to read.
Erin:
Exactly. Yeah. That would that's great advice. I was going to ask you what encouragement you have for homeschool moms that are starting out today or that have been doing this for a very long time or, you know, we've we're about to graduate our second. I have a high schooler, and I have a second grader. So we're gonna be doing this for
Marilyn Boyer:
the range.
Erin:
Yes. We're gonna be doing it for a while. And I know there's some of the other moms out there like me that are, like, somewhat burnout, just in the daily grind and figuring it all out and maybe have a larger family or, you know, whatever circumstances there are. So what encouragement do you have for a mom like that who's been doing it a while?
Marilyn Boyer:
I would say take time to have fun. You know, schedule fun in. Do some some outings. Just do something to get away from the the daily grind to make it more fun for your kids and and ask them for input. You know, even with curriculum, I would ask my kids like, I'd take them to conventions and have them look at the curriculum and say, what looks good to you? And listen to them. You know, one of my sons said, mom, I can't learn to spell with the spelling book. I said, well, how can you learn to spell? And he said, if you read me a book about hunting white tailed deer and give me words to spell from that book, I'm interested in that, and I can work on that. So ask your kids for input.
Marilyn Boyer:
You know? They have a lot of good ideas, and it's okay not to do things the traditional way. I say I took that my one I took three my last three kids, I took them around to interview a lot of vets, and that was amazing. We learned so much history. It wasn't the goal of learning history, but we learned so much history through it. But find out what your kids are interested in. And for instance, if they like if they wanna be a veterinarian, replace some of what they would learn in a normal public school and let them start learning veterinary science when they're in high school. You know, gear your curriculum toward what they're interest in. If they're wanna be a car mechanic, let them take some car mechanic forces instead of chemistry or whatever.
Marilyn Boyer:
It's okay to do that. You can plug in what your kids are interested in and what fits. We've got a granddaughter now who wants to go into I'm trying can't think of the word what she wants to go into. But she's interviewed people that are in that field, and she's gotten, knowledge of what she wants to do before she even commits herself to going into that. So invite people into your home. Ask the dad, what do you do for a living? Did you have to go to college for that? Would you do something different to prepare for that? Are you glad that you're in that field? Just, you know, give your kids a lot of opportunities to learn from others.
Erin:
Yeah. One of the things, my oldest didn't wanna go to college, so she would she's working. And that's, you know, we we tell our kids, whatever you wanna do, you're just not gonna be in the basement playing video games.
Marilyn Boyer:
Absolutely. Not
Erin:
You either have to go to college, work, or do a combination of the two. And, you know, we would love to encourage our kids to live here as long as they can, you know, to, to make that. So like we're seeing with my son. He also does he's not interested in college, but what we're finding is we're looking at what he's interested in and, you know, he's already had years of experience in the things he's interested in. So he actually just, applied today for a job. Because even, without a college degree, they have on the job training. And there are so many companies that are looking for people right now that are just willing to work and show up. You know?
Marilyn Boyer:
Yes. There is your character. You know? If you if your kids are people of character, they will get jobs Yeah. Because that's more important than the knowledge they can learn on the job. Yeah. But if they aren't people of character, how many people want them.
Erin:
Well and would you wanna talk a little bit about I love that you're pairing up biblical truth with history. You know, as busy homeschool moms, especially with large families, finding time to teach everything is impossible. You're never gonna get there, but pairing up subjects. So do you wanna talk a little bit about how you've done that in your homeschool and with, with your family and seen success in that?
Marilyn Boyer:
Yeah. Even when I went to school myself, I didn't like history because it was a bunch of to me, it seemed like it was a bunch of boring, dry facts. But when you pull character in, you point out things that this person did and how god blessed that, Things they did right or things they did wrong and how god blessed it or corrected them by it. It just makes so much sense. So we would pull bible principles. We'd look for character. We would do like, even when you're reading the bible, suppose you're reading in the gospels, you're reading about something that Jesus did. Ask your kids to point out character qualities that you see displayed in Jesus' life.
Marilyn Boyer:
Or if you're reading about someone in the old testament, same thing. You know, look for character in those people, either positive or negative. And then history, the same thing. I mean, history, we've got so many godly examples of people that sacrificed so that we could have freedom in this country. So point that out, and then your kids become focused on it. Instead of just reading and forgetting about it, they're looking for something. They're looking for something that they can apply to their life. You know, that's that's just something we've really, really worked on.
Erin:
Yeah. I I love what you're saying. I'm so glad we've connected because I think it's it's important to teach those character things. And like you said, I mean, the whole homeschool shifts. And as moms, we are responsible for the atmosphere of our home, for the tone of the day and and the the commitment that we have. And so I guess my, my one of my last questions here would be, as a mom, how do you develop character in yourself to be able to do all those things, that were are required of of being a homeschool mom?
Marilyn Boyer:
You know, I did not grow up as a Christian, like I said. So I didn't even know the bible stories. I grew up in Massachusetts, and I grew up as a Unitarian, and I didn't know the Bible stories. So when I had kids, I get married when I was 18. My first child was born on my twentieth birthday, and I was just a kid. So I learned with my children. So as a as a character need would come up, I'd go to the word to see what it said about it. So I learned with my kids.
Marilyn Boyer:
I learned to be diligent. I learned to have patience. I learned these things as I was teaching my kids through scripture, what scripture said about it, and that is a powerful way of learning. If your kids see you trying to apply these things to your life, it's so powerful for them. It's a great example. So don't feel like you have to have it all together and you have to be this perfect godly example. You have to have all the character qualities in your life because you're learning with your kids, and it's powerful learning when your kids see you learning and stumbling and asking forgiveness and saying, you know, mom's trying to be diligent or mom's trying to control her anger or whatever. The kids remember that.
Marilyn Boyer:
You know, your kids are really good at seeing your heart.
Erin:
Mhmm.
Marilyn Boyer:
So if your heart is in the right place and you're really trying to do the right thing, your kids will forgive you when you blow it, which you will. Mhmm. You know, you're learning together. You're learning and you're growing and you're learning to serve the Lord together.
Erin:
Yeah. Recently that made me think my youngest, she's seven, and she was asking a question, but I was already in a frustrated mood. I was irritated at something else. And so I kinda snapped at her and she's like, you don't have to yell. I'm just asking a simple question. And she just said it so, like, even tone. And I was just, oh, you're right. I'm sorry I yelled.
Erin:
I didn't mean that. You know? But I think, like, I love that you're bringing that up because we don't have to have it all together to be good homeschool moms or moms period. We don't have to do all this. We're never gonna be perfect, but having that, ourselves be the model for our kids too, in those character development, ways is just, you know, we're learning alongside each other. And that is, like, I think the biggest benefit of homeschooling is that we're all learning together. We're figuring it out, and then you have all those inside jokes. And I don't know about you, but every mom I talk to, it's like, yes. We did our morning time, and we've read these books or read alouds together.
Erin:
And then, you know, you make jokes about it or you reference these things, and, like, nobody else would understand what we're talking.
Marilyn Boyer:
Yeah. We'll get together as a family, and I'd love to hear the kids bring up stuff that they remember that happened when we were homeschooling. And it's just it's really neat. It's it's it builds closeness in relationship, like I said, that I don't think you would have otherwise. You just Yeah.
Erin:
Yeah. And well, and to, like, the younger ones, I will ask a question or they'll make a statement about something and I'm like, you are paying attention during that? Like, we read that for years ago, and I didn't know that you knew that. It's amazing what they can. Well, thank you so much, Marilyn, for coming on today. I I mean, we could talk for hours. You've got so many resources available. Do you wanna share a couple more resources that you have and where we can find them or purchase them from you?
Marilyn Boyer:
Sure. We've got, we've got books for family reading about history that have questions at the end, portraits of integrity, profiles of valor. We've got workbooks where kids are finding what God's word says about anger or mocking or teasing. You know, they're looking up to see, get insight from God's word so that they can then learn to change what's going on in their heart. So our website is characterconcepts.com. And, you know, if you have any questions, let me know. And as far as the What a Character readers, MasterBooks carries them to, Amazon carries them. Same with all of our books.
Marilyn Boyer:
Christian book, they're available everywhere.
Erin:
Excellent.
Marilyn Boyer:
Can I tell you one more story?
Erin:
Absolutely. Go ahead.
Marilyn Boyer:
One of the books, oh, the 10 book series. Let me just see if
Erin:
I can find real quick
Marilyn Boyer:
the names of the the 10 books that are in this 10 book set. There's Amerigo's War Heroes, Inventors and Scientists, extraordinary animal heroes, and that's what I'm gonna tell you a story from, America's famous spies, that's a great one, heroes of the war of independence, famous women, pioneers and frontiersmen, famous statesmen, and heroes of early America. And right now, I'm writing another four book series or series of four books for master books, the early church fathers, famous preachers and evangelists, famous missionaries, and famous Christian hymn writers. Oh, so that would be out within the year. Yeah. But my story from Extraordinary Animal Heroes, I love the stories about animals. There's 10 stories in this book, and kids absolutely love them. But one that's really unique is Wojtek, the bear who went to war.
Marilyn Boyer:
This was in World War two. It was in Poland, and Germany was attacking Poland. And the Polish army joined the British to fight to try to get their independence. Well, the soldiers Polish soldiers found this little bear. Its mother had been killed. The it was just tiny. The soldiers adopted them and fed them, like, evaporated milk on the end of a sock because it was really tiny. Didn't have a mother to nurse it.
Marilyn Boyer:
So they raised him. He grew up tame. He lived with the soldiers. This one soldier, Peter, kind of adopted him, and he'd snuggle up with them at night. And once Wojtek, when he got older, he caught a German spy that was in the shower. He was fully dressed, which Wojtek thought that was kinda weird because usually the guys weren't fully dressed in the shower. But the spy was scared by the bear, and Peter's officers called him in, and he thought he was gonna get in trouble. But they wanted him to try to make this spy talk.
Marilyn Boyer:
So he pinched Wojtek, and he kinda growled, and the spy gave up his plans. They were planning on attacking the camp that very night. But the neatest part about the story is at the Battle of Mount Casino, they had to carry heavy canisters of ammo up this tall mountain. It was so tall they could not take vehicles up there, so it took four men to carry a hundred pound chest of ammo. So Wojtek, he would imitate the guy, so he was watching them carry these chests up. And he came down, and he held out his arms as if to say, give me one. So they put one of those hundred pound chest in his arms, and he walked up that mountain. He stacked it like the the soldiers were doing, walked back down the mountain, got another one.
Marilyn Boyer:
He helped with that whole battle. He would go back. He'd carry food up. He'd carry ammo up. In all, they carried up 17,000 tons of ammo and a thousand tons of food for the soldiers that were in that battle. Finally, they won the battle, and Wojtek was promoted to corporal for his outstanding service.
Erin:
Aw.
Marilyn Boyer:
And it in this story, it tells how he helped to reunite Peter with his family that had been evacuated from Poland, and that's a cool story. And then at the end of the war, as Wojtek got older, they put him in a zoo in The UK, and the soldiers would come and visit him. And school kids would come. He was a famous bear by then. They had a big plaque honoring him, and and the soldiers would come and the zookeeper would let them in, and they'd go in and wrestle him like they used to when they were in the war together. But anyway, it's just so cool to hear that even this bear helped the soldiers gain their freedom.
Erin:
That's an awesome story. I'm sure oh my goodness. My little one would love to hear about all of that. I'm sure all of them would, though. This that's very cool. I love that. Yeah. So any other ways that we can connect with you? You've got your website out there.
Erin:
Are you on social media?
Marilyn Boyer:
Yeah. I've got my website. I've got Moments with Maryland, which wherever you, get podcasts, you can find it. It's on our blog, but it's also on Apple Podcasts and Spotify and, you know, wherever you access podcasts. I love encouraging young moms, and I try to share from my experience things I did right, things I did wrong, things I would do again, things I wouldn't do again Uh-huh. And just try to make your journey easier. Because I know there's so many issues, how to raise boys, things to do with your girls. I address so many things, how to develop servant's heart and your kids.
Marilyn Boyer:
And I'm very open to what people would like me to address too. So connect with me on that. Our website's characterconcepts.com. We've got a blog. We're on Facebook too. We're on Instagram, but character concepts is our is how you would connect with us.
Erin:
Excellent. Yeah. And master books, you can get that. We love master books around here. We've used lots
Marilyn Boyer:
of other Master books. We also wrote two history books, for Master books. And for you, they signed, which is about the signers of the declaration. So we've got a lot of titles with Master books.
Erin:
Excellent. Well, thank you so much for coming on today. All your information will be in our show notes so that people can find you eagerly. And I appreciate you taking the time to connect.
Marilyn Boyer:
Absolutely. Been fun being with you.
Erin:
Thank you.
Marilyn Boyer:
Let me just say to moms, you are doing the most important thing in the world. You may not be able to do what some other moms are doing, having outside ministries and things, but your ministry to your kids is the most important thing you can do in the whole world, and it will bless you many times over. It's so worth it. It's more important than anything else Yes. To raise kids to serve god.
Erin:
Totally agree. Thank you so much for sharing that that last bit of information and encouragement for moms. Like, that's the goal here. We just serve and want to inspire other parents through, you know, reaching out and and talking to people like yourself who are creating great resources, and making those connections for moms that are, you know, busy and can't find, the resources on their own or, you know, want to talk to someone who's trusted. So appreciate you so much, Marilyn. Thank you.
Marilyn Boyer:
You're welcome.
Erin:
Alright. We'll talk to you next time. To learn more about booking one on one or group homeschool coaching sessions with us, upcoming events, see our speaking schedule, or to get access to more resources. Be sure to check out our website, www.showmehomeschool.com and sign up for our weekly newsletter. You can also follow us on Instagram at show.me.homeschool, on Pinterest at show me homeschool, or email us at info@showmehomeschool.com. This episode was sponsored by Podcast with Faith, our favorite Christian podcast production company.