I’m delighted to be welcoming Tom and Julie Meekins back to my show this afternoon. Julie and I first met in March of 2010 and right from the start I could tell she and her husband have a heart for parents, especially those raising children with challenges. In walking the talk Tom and Julie decided to dedicate their professional lives to helping families navigate the scary world of parenting. They became certified in child development and health coaching and in March 2011 started a company calle...
Aug 12, 2015•50 min
I am welcoming my friend and regular guest, Gretchen Roe, to my show this Friday at 12 noon Central here on Toginet Radio. Gretchen has now been a landowner for a year and she says it is quite a change from the urbanity of Maryland. We will be talking about the enterprises they have been embarking upon, slowly, and upcoming plans for the best use of their acreage. Although she no longer homeschools her two boys, a fifth grader and high schooler, she commented that all the projects they are under...
Aug 03, 2015•48 min
This week my son, Ian McNeny, joins me and asks all the questions! He visited us for Christmas and brought his podcasting equipment with him to record with friends and chat with my blue-eyed cowboy and me about homeschooling. The result was perfect for a show on my show as well as his so we’re sharing! You will soon be able to find the full conversation at http://www.entertheelftree.com an Earth Ship Radio broadcast on the ElfTree Podcast Network. Ian is a graduate of Wild Flower Academy and Col...
Jan 16, 2015•1 hr 1 min
Joining me this week is returning guest Shannah Godfrey, author of a successful phonics method, a scientist who has succeeded in a man’s world and a Mum who brought up and homeschool 14 children! Today we are going to be talking about some of the struggles she had while raising young people to be contributing members of society. We will be exploring the tendency we all have to compare ourselves to others, and pick her brains about her experience dealing with addiction and children with unique pe...
Jan 09, 2015•1 hr 2 min
Diospi Suyana Debt Free: Dr. Klaus-Dieter John January 2nd 2015 I am delighted to have on my show today, German Doctor Klaus-Dieter John to talk about Diospi Suyana, a hospital in the Peruvian Andes, that he and his wife, Martina, envisioned many years ago. Their story is filled with God incidents, faith and tenacity since not everyone thought the same way they did. My friend Marcia Washburn introduced us and Dr. Klaus has found time in his very busy schedule to talk to me about the work he and ...
Jan 02, 2015•1 hr 2 min
This week I will be bringing you the second part of my recent conversation with Marcia Washburn my very creative, musically gifted and artistic friend. Marcia and I have talked in the past about the Shuar Indians of eastern Ecuador and her hands on electronic book, Beethoven Who? We’ve talked about encouragement for homeschooling Mums in the warm and humourous way Marcia has and the last conversation we had was about how to spread the joy during this holiday season. She holds a Master’s in Music...
Dec 26, 2014•54 min
My returning guest, Gretchen Roe, is joining me this week for the second part of our conversation about another major change in her life. You will best remember Gretchen as the Community Liaison for the Calvert School for 19 years. Recently she began working for Demme Learning, known by homeschoolers at Math U See. During the show today we will find out exactly why the math programme, developed by Steve Demme, works so well. Gretchen will also talk about their new addition Spelling You See an in...
Dec 19, 2014•56 min
My guest this week has her own Radio Network so is no stranger to talking up a storm about her passions. Felice Gerwitz was homeschooling two teens when she launched Media Angels in 1994. She then learned she was expecting a baby and not being the most organized person in the world she asked for help! Probably in a very high voice! Felice pulled in the troops, made a plan and with the help of her family and friends went ahead with her brainstorm and Media Angels was born as well as her third chi...
Dec 12, 2014•54 min
I am delighted to have Carol Topp joining me again this afternoon to talk to us about a presentation she made at 3 homeschool conventions this year entitled, We’re not raising Children We’re Raising Grown Ups. Carol and her husband live in West Chester, Ohio and have two grown daughters, both homeschooled through high school and launched into adulthood! Carol worked from home throughout her homeschooling days and authored, Homeschool Co-Ops: How to Start Them, Run Them and Not Burn Out. She is a...
Dec 05, 2014•1 hr 3 min
I am welcoming to my show this week my friend and regular guest, Gretchen Roe. Since it’s that time of year we are going to be talking about the upcoming holidays and what life looks like for her now that she and her family (at least some of them) have moved. If you remember from our last conversation on April 18th, Good Friday, Gretchen was preparing for lots of changes in her life. She and her husband, Pat, and two of their six children, moved from Maryland, where they lived for 20 years, to W...
Nov 28, 2014•59 min
This week I am thrilled to be welcoming back my very creative and artistic friend, Marcia Washburn. Marcia holds a Master’s in Music Education and taught public school music for eight years prior to the birth of the oldest of her five sons, whom she and her husband homeschooled in rural Colorado for nineteen years. Marcia and I have talked in the past about the Shuar Indians of eastern Ecuador and her hands on electronic book, Beethoven Who? Written for any teacher who wants to teach music but m...
Nov 21, 2014•55 min
My guest this week is no stranger to my show. I have known Polly Wright since she was a young girl, the daughter of a colleague of mine from the days when I worked in Corporate America, way before any self-respecting career woman would ever consider homeschooling!! Polly Wright started a ministry in 2010 called We Are Cherished which reaches out to women in the sex industry and provides the community they need when they are ready to leave. She is passionate for women to know their true worth and...
Nov 14, 2014•58 min
Rejoining me on my show this week is Daniele Evans who describes herself as a woman on a journey towards intentional and meaningful living. Daniele is a pastor’s wife and she and her husband, whom she describes as her best friend and confidant, homeschool their five children in central Pennsylvania. Their marriage is a biblically-centered one, their parenting is grace-based and their home is peace-filled or at least striving to be with God’s help. In true Christian style Daniele knows she is onl...
Nov 07, 2014•58 min
With me on my show this week, where I believe homeschooling is a unique lifestyle, are frequent visitors Tom and Julie Meekins. This remarkable couple have a heart for parents raising children with challenges. In walking the talk they decided to dedicate their professional lives to helping families navigate the scary world of parenting and this week they are going to be talking to me about how their marriage has fared during some of the more trying times of homeschooling. Tom and Julie have been...
Oct 31, 2014•58 min
I am delighted to have as my guests this week, Lori Lane whom I chatted with on August 1st about her company, Artios Academy, and her son John Michael Lane. Lori is a homeschool veteran of 20 years she and her husband John have four sons ranging in age from 16 to 29, the three eldest are homeschool graduates. Lori has spoken at Conventions, served on panels, directed and produced many children’s choirs and stage productions both in schools and community theatres. In the fall of 2000, she began t...
Oct 24, 2014•1 hr 1 min
Laura Grace Weldon is a poet whose poems have been published, but not the ones she likes. In a collection called Tending. She is an author, her new book, Free Range Learning: How Homeschooling Changes Everything, is full of the curative value of connecting more deeply with nature. She is an artist, a messy one at that, a tincture and meal concoctor both skills demanding courage and a degree of risk from their recipients. She has deadlines but would rather hide in books or watch foreign films. La...
Oct 17, 2014•1 hr
I am welcoming Sherry Hayes back to my show this week. Sherry is the inspiring Christian mother of 15 wonderful children and has been homeschooling for 26 years. She has seen the “graduation” of several of her children from her home in colorful Colorado and she and her husband, David, are enjoying rearing the remaining few still under their tutelage. She has been a compassionate promoter of redemptive home educating for almost a quarter of a century and has maintained the belief that it’s God’s ...
Oct 10, 2014•58 min
Joining me this week is Nina Levin who is CEO of Mountcastle Company, an independent publishing company with offices in California and New York City. Mountcastle was first established in 2000 as an educational publishing company, focused on exceptional products for teaching children to read. Beginning with the company’s first (and bestselling) book, The Reading Lesson, Mountcastle Company has been committed to publishing the most effective and original products for young children. Mountcastle Co...
Oct 03, 2014•58 min
My guest this week is Rea Berg who founded Beautiful Feet Books in 1984 to provide quality literature to the homeschooling market. Rea holds a bachelor of arts degree in English from Simmons College and in 2006 earned a master’s degree in children’s literature at the Center for the Study of Children’s Literature in Boston, where she was named a Virginia Haviland Scholar. Rea and her husband Russell have been part of the homeschooling community for twenty-five years particularly in the Charlotte ...
Sep 26, 2014•58 min
This week I have Sonya Shafer on my show to talk about a simple method of effectively schooling your children. Sonya is a popular homeschool speaker and writer, specializing in the Charlotte Mason Method. She has been on an adventure for nearly 20 years studying, researching, practicing, and teaching Charlotte’s gentle and doable methods of education. Her passion for homeschooling her own four daughters grew into helping others and then into Simply Charlotte Mason, dedicated to helping families ...
Sep 19, 2014•58 min
I am thrilled to be bringing a conversation I had with unschooler Peter Kowalke. a few weeks ago about how Unschooling encouraged him to questioning his life from a very early age. Peter is a self described, lifelong unschooler whose highly praised documentary “Grown Without Schooling” followed ten unschooled graduates into the world and recorded how they fared in their individual life choices. He lives in New York City and has consulted as a homeschool expert for media outlets such as the BBC, ...
Sep 12, 2014•1 hr 1 min
This Friday afternoon I’m delighted to have as my guest a homeschooling Dad who is probably the coolest father ever because he uses film, popular movies in fact, to bring the truth about Christianity to his children and all young people he comes in contact with which this week includes all of you listening to my show, so gather around! Michael T Hansen is a Digital Missionary and the founder of the Great Commission Transmission Network. He has over 7 years of podcasting and Internet broadcasting...
Sep 05, 2014•58 min
I am excited to be welcoming my school teacher daughter to my show this week. Paris McNeny is a graduate of Wildflower Academy and graduated top of her homeschool senior year. She served as a missionary to Africa on The Mercy Ships, a large floating hospital bringing hope to the forgotten poor off the coast of West Africa. She holds the title of first born daughter in the family and takes after me in her colouring and organizational skills and her father in his empathy and joke telling. Paris ha...
Aug 29, 2014•59 min
This week my oldest and youngest children are joining me again this time to talk about their careers. They will look back on what they have achieved in the past year, how things have changed and their focus has shifted but ultimately how they are still pursuing their dreams. Malia and Ian are both graduates of Wild Flower Academy and Collin College in Plano. Ian wanted me to do college with him but ended up going to the College of Santa Fe for two years to complete his BA in Film Production. He ...
Aug 22, 2014•57 min
This week I am delighted to bring you a conversation I had with Simon and Lindsey McNeny who reflected with me on their past year and talked about the hard work they have been doing to get their company off the ground. Simon is my son and a graduate from Wildflower Academy where he homeschooled under the tutelage of me! I encouraged him to spend many hours at the local animal shelter assisting with routine vaccinations, bottle feeding orphaned raccoons, squirrels and opossums and bringing many o...
Aug 15, 2014•54 min
My guest this week is speaker and author Carol Barnier. You may have heard her on Focus on the Family where she’s spoken on a variety of humorous topics ranging from not being ready to be a Titus woman to why angels need a new public relations manager. Carol has either written for or been written about in many magazines including Proverbs 31, Clubhouse Magazine, Parents Magazine, The Old Schoolhouse, Crosswalk, Thriving Family, Just Between Us, ADDitude Magazine & HomeLife. Her latest book, ...
Aug 08, 2014•58 min
I am delighted to be welcoming as my guest this week Lori Lane, a homeschool veteran of 20 years and a Mum after my own heart! Lori and her husband John have four sons ranging in age from 16 to 29. Their three oldest sons, John Michael, Jeremy, and Jordan are all homeschool graduates. Lori has a degree in Piano Performance and has won competitions, spoken at the National Music Teacher’s Convention and served on the panel for two National KTV Video conferences for private music educators across t...
Aug 01, 2014•58 min
This week I’m talking to my blue eyed cowboy who has agreed to join us for a cuppa. His real name is Larry McNeny and he toured the world with famous musicians ensuring they were in the right place, on stage, at the right time, not an easy task sometimes. Larry worked with Stigwood. a management company, and toured with such greats as, Eric Clapton, The BeeGees, Three Dog Night, Firehouse, and Marvin Hamlisch, Linda Rondstat and the Pittsburg symphony. He personally managed Andy Gibb and an arti...
Jul 25, 2014•59 min
My guest this week is Dr. Jay L. Wile best known in the homeschooling circles for his award-winning “Exploring Creation With…” series of science textbooks. Dr. Wile holds an earned Ph.D. in nuclear chemistry and a B.S. in chemistry, both from the University of Rochester. He has won several awards for excellence in teaching and has presented lectures on the topics of Nuclear Chemistry, Christian Apologetics, Homeschooling, and Creation vs. Evolution. Dr. Wile and his wife of more than 25 years, K...
Jul 18, 2014•13 min
With me today to help further dispel the stereotype of homeschoolers is Dr. Terri Fites who realized that she could not serve two masters, medicine and family. She made the right choice and left her beloved medical career behind (sort of) to become a most loved full-time, stay-at-home, homeschooling mom. Married for 17 years to her high school sweetheart, also a physician, who fully respects and encourages her decision (since he knew he wasn’t up to the task), Terri educates their three daughter...
Jul 11, 2014•1 hr 1 min
