The Sequoia Breeze

Rebecca: Welcome to the Sequoia Breeze podcast. A breath of fresh air for your homeschool. I am your host, Rebecca LasSavio. Thank you for being here today. I'm really excited to have Sarah Greco back this week to talk about what is Sequoia Grove. This was one of the very first episodes that we recorded, and it was time to update. It was time to update our knowledge of from our knowledge of podcasting. It was also time to update because things within our schools have changed. And so I'm really glad to have Sarah back to give you a fresh version of what is Sequoia Grove. Today I'm joined by Sarah Greco, our head family liaison for Sequoia Grove charter alliance, and I'm excited to have her here. And we are going to spend some time explaining what is sequoia growth. It can get a little confusing for parents who are trying to wrap their minds around what we do and what we don't do. And there are a lot of families out there trying to figure out either our child is entering TK or kindergarten, and we're trying to figure out what path we want to take as a family, or there are so many families right now that are deciding to leave the school situation that they're currently in. And because we have a very different model, it can be very hard to understand who we are. So we are going to talk about all of that today. So welcome, Sara. Thanks, Rebecca.

Sara: It's always fun to be here chatting with you.

Rebecca: So tell us a little bit about what is your title and what do you do for the schools?

Sara: Okay. I'm a lead family liaison, and at this point, I'm working with a team of other liaisons because our schools cover such a large area, we have liaisons all across the northern California area. And so I am coordinating and kind of keeping everyone and moving in the same direction. I have been a family liaison for eight years now, so it's kind of crazy to think about.

Rebecca: But you're one of the OG.

Sara: I'm old, yes. I'm so glad. I can't wait to be even more old. So I am always glad to chat about homeschooling and specifically what our schools offer, because I think it's amazing.

Rebecca: So tell us about your own homeschool experience.

Sara: Okay. So we started out homeschooling from the beginning. We have six kiddos, and so my oldest is 19. He's already graduated from high school. Yay. He, of course, was the guinea pig. And you always feel so bad for those first kiddos. I mean, poor guy. So, at one point, we had four kids in school and the two little kids, and we put some of the kids in traditional school, had some at home, and then had everyone home again. And then the next year, put more kids in school, traditional public school, and then the next year, put everyone in school, because our family just needed a break and needed to make some changes. And then from there, we brought some kids home to homeschool and kept the others in school. And we had a school that we liked, and everything was working great. And then COVID happened. Yay, COVID. Which I'm sure was a catalyst for a lot of our families to start homeschooling. And so everyone was home after that. And then, since then, we've graduated one. We'll have another graduate this may, which is exciting. At this point. We'll keep homeschooling until something changes. But that's always one thing I love to tell families, is that it's take it year by year and do what's best for your kiddo, what's best for your family, and go from there.

Rebecca: We want to talk a little bit about what set Sequoia Grove apart. So what is the difference between Sequoia Grove and then Feather River, Clarksville, and Lakeview? How? What's the relationship between all those names?

Sara: Clarksville, Feather river and Lakeview charter schools are three separate charter schools chartered out of different counties, so they can serve different areas. In California, they're authorized by different school districts. They each have their own teachers, school board. Their own school board, yes. But they do have some shared staff and programs and resources, and kind of to keep the whole of the three schools unified, there is a charter service organization, which is the Sequoia Grove Charter alliance. That's pretty much the back office that's managing library accounts payable, community partners.

Rebecca: So, in other words, the schools. The three schools have agreed to work together and share resources. So they share administration, they share special ed programs. They share. While if you enroll in Lakeview, you'll get a Lakeview teacher, you still sort of share how that all works. The teachers all work together and have the same standards and training and all of that. And then this coy Grove is sort of an umbrella. I'm gonna say an umbrella under. In that it's kind of supporting those schools and taking care of a lot of the administrative stuff in the background.

Sara: Exactly.

Rebecca: Okay. So as far as the difference between the three schools, really, it just comes down to geographical coverage.

Sara: Right. So Clarksville is chartered out of El Dorado county, so it can serve families that live in El Dorado county and any county that touches that county. Feather river is chartered out of Sutter county and then Lakeview is chartered out of Glen county. So there is going to be some overlap in some of those counties. But then it does allow us to serve all the way from Mendocino on the coast to Tahoe in the mountains and Amador and Alpine. I think it's the least populated county in the state. Okay. The three schools are non classroom based, independent study charter schools. So the way that we are able to homeschool is that families have this freedom in that they're able to choose curriculum, resources, enrichment, have this ability to work with our schools to provide that support with the partnering with a credentialed teacher, having all of the resources, such as special education intervention, and that instructional.

Rebecca: Funds support guidance from teachers if they need some help and those kinds of things. Right. Some problem troubleshooting.

Sara: Right. Right. The teachers are really those record keepers that kind of keep that main line of contact with the school.

Rebecca: We love to talk about within sequoia Grove schools that we really value the homeschool heart. We really. This is school without walls. And we want to encourage parents to be creative and to find ways to help their kids see the world and grasp new concepts in creative ways that fit their family, their student. And we want to be set apart by that. Is that a fair statement?

Sara: Of course. That personalized education piece, whether that's your whole family has decided to be classical homeschoolers or that you have one kiddo that's following that classical method and you have another kiddo that's more of maybe an unschooler. And so in that not just for your family, but per student, you're able to customize and create a plan that works well for them.

Rebecca: So let's talk about how we help these families. Homeschools. We mentioned that there is a teacher, but families shouldn't expect to have their child meeting with that teacher daily.

Sara: Right. We meet with our teachers. It works out to be about once a month or once every 20 school days. And during those meetings, those check in times, the teacher's reviewing all of the work that's been done by the student, kind of helping troubleshoot. If there are any issues at hand, parents and students alike can work with that teacher to help find solutions to anything they do. They're great. They're great cheerleaders. They can certainly encourage and expand your students where they need to go. They can help direct those students to new and greater journeys or adventures.

Rebecca: So let's talk a little bit about how you would choose curriculum. Is it there? Because there are options we can do. There are things that are. Have nothing to do with screens at all. And then there's fully online options, too, right?

Sara: There's too many options. There's way too many options.

Rebecca: And since 2020, we've watched those options explode. The homeschool market is really, really big.

Sara: It is. And it can be overwhelming. We know. We've talked to families and it's overwhelming. And at some point you can just say, yes, there's 5 million options out there. I just have to pick one and start and go for it and see how it works. I mean, that's kind of how we all have done this journey is trial and error. And so despite there being 5 million, you still have to start with one.

Rebecca: And then you go to park days and you talk to other parents and find out, like, this isn't really working. What did you guys do? And you get some great ideas and, oh, your kid doesn't sound anything like my kid. How about you? Do you have any ideas?

Sara: Yeah. And then you start hopping around and then you can get to a certain point where you're like, oh, my gosh, I've done like five different curriculums this year. And it's like, oh, no, that's maybe too much, because then your kid has only gone through the first chapter of five different curriculums in half a year. And that can be really bad. And so we are there. Yeah. To help. And your teachers are definitely there to say, hey, wait a minute, let's maybe stick with this a little bit longer.

Rebecca: So if you decide to enroll your kids in one of the Sequoia Grove schools, you are able to make your own choices for. For curriculum. And that can include purchased workbooks. It can be all a variety of other kinds of books and ideas and projects and things, but there's also some online ideas. It is possible if you need, you know, you decide, I need to outsource math or. Or I work part time. And so I'm going to spend the time that I have with my kids working on these two subjects that I really enjoy. But we're going to do a couple of these others online so that I don't. I have the time that I. That is available to me to spend on the things that we like to do together. Talk a little bit about adventure academy and clubs.

Sara: So we do have lots of. Oh, one thing that we forgot to say is that our teachers, in that freedom and flexibility parents have, we do have teachers that are extremely creative and collaborative, and they are able to work upon their own passions and interests and provide classes and club. So whether that's a high school teacher who is teaching in our virtual academy, they're able to teach what their single subject credential is in, whether that's science or math or we have a teacher who's super into history, who's elementary ed credential, and they're able to teach history classes in our adventure academy, which is for TK through 8th grade students. And those are going to be kind of shorter supplemental classes that you can take. Your students can take. They're great intro to a topic or a subject, or they're a deep dive into a topic or subject, and then you can kind of go from there. If you're like, my kid loves marine biology, they're gonna. We're gonna keep going on this for the rest of the year.

Rebecca: They're usually six to eight weeks, right? Yeah, four. Four weeks or eight weeks or eight weeks. And they can focus on something so it doesn't replace at home curriculum, but it can definitely add to it.

Sara: Yeah. Yeah.

Rebecca: And then clubs, we also offer.

Sara: Clubs are run in four week sessions. And these are free drop in. They are virtual and or in person. So I think right now we have a gaming club for middle and high school students. There are a couple of different knitting and crocheting clubs that are in person. And let's see.

Rebecca: Show and shell.

Sara: Show and tell. It's always fun for kiddos. They can just hop online and talk about. They're directed too, I think they have like show something that is. Starts with the letter of your name or something like that.

Rebecca: And they learn to explain, learn to sequence, learn a little bit of public speaking, sort of. There's been some that have been about music in the past. They can be so they may not fit core standards, but they are enriching a child's education.

Sara: It's definitely co curricular. I mean, you can certainly. I mean, there's the chicken club that's coming up, which we're excited to see. And there's been a sourdough club. So that's where it's been so fun to see our teachers be able to lead these clubs in the areas that they're interested in, they have a passion for, and they can spark that interest. And these students that aren't even necessarily on their rosters, but that are just in our schools.

Rebecca: And then we have, for junior high and high school, we have virtual academies. You sort of touched on that in talking about the teachers that are the specialized teachers. So offering Spanish or math or history, and basically all of our core subjects are covered. There's an asynchronous option as well as the live option that meets twice a week. The teacher is a sequoia grove teacher. The students are sequoia grove students. So this isn't a random group of people and kids that take those classes, tend to get to know each other a little bit and will see each other in multiple classes. So then when we have our activities, like dances and clubs or field trips, then they run into each other. They start. So even though we're in a super big geographical area, kids are actually getting to know each other in our sequoia Grove community, which we take pretty seriously. We'll talk about more about that in a minute. So those virtual academies can also really help to take a class off of the plate of the parents. If so, I have a. One of my kids is taking Spanish this year and another is taking a math class. And so I don't have them taking on screen classes all the time. But they each have one and they've really been enjoying it. They enjoy their teachers. Very easy to reach out to their teachers with questions and things. But the teacher also collects the work grades, the work turns in the samples, like, it really does take something off of the parent's plate. So that is an option as well. You and I have tended to not recommend a full load of those classes.

Sara: It can be a long day in front of the computer or a long section of the day. And so I. Yeah, we'll always say starting out with one or two classes is always good, and then just go in from there.

Rebecca: One of the reasons I've. I'm really enjoying these classes, but I've resisted them up till now because I didn't want it to take away from the flexibility that homeschool offers. And that is one of my favorite parts. So, to the ability to go on field trips, the ability to do unusual projects or do things at different times. And so when they're tied to, they have to be in their seat in front of their computer. At these certain times, especially if there's lots of them, their flexibility reduces. So that's something to consider. So we also offer dual enrollment for high schoolers.

Sara: Yeah. So there's a few different ways that our students can take community college classes. So one way is through our dual enrollment program, and this is a partnership we have with Yuba College. They offer schools, usually four to five classes a semester, and these are classes taught by Yuba college professors to only our students. So you're not going to have your 40 year old in this class with your 15 year old. It's going to be all of our high school kids.

Rebecca: So the professor understands who totally. Who they're working with.

Sara: They know they're teaching the high school kids, and yet they're still in that teaching, that community college content. I signed my son up when he was a sophomore for one of these classes, and the first week decided, nope, this is not gonna work. So we withdrew, and it was totally fine. No, nothing bad happened at all. It was a good experience in that first week. And then he actually, that same son took one class through this dual enrollment program last semester, and he got an a, and so it was awesome. And he's now in his first semester of a concurrent enrollment class. So another way for our students to take these community college classes is at any community college in the state. It's just a little bit more paperwork that maybe we have to go through. It's really nice to have the counselors who are doing all of the dual enrollment paperwork for us. Otherwise, my son was on this waiting list for this class. It's an electrician trainee class, and here he is, the only high school student in with these 40 year old people, which is fine. He's a senior. It totally works, and it's in person. But he had to be checking the waitlist and then email the counselor and say, hey, I got in. And so he was able to, at this point, as a senior, do all of that on his own, because that's where. That's something that I've learned along the way, is that the colleges don't care about the parents. Even in our dual enrollment program, they will only talk to the students students. And so it's just good to know that we do have a lot of options. But, you know, parents can only do so much. There has to be that student buy in.

Rebecca: But that gives students the opportunity to take some college level classes. And by the time they graduate high school, they can have some college credits as well. Whether those are simply classes they're really interested in and they just want to explore, they also might be able to knock out, like, do meet their high school and college foreign language requirements at the same time, or take some math and science and those kinds of things. So those are some options that you can kind of get ahead. So if you're choosing your own curriculum and you're participating in all these enrichment activities, how is all of that paid for?

Sara: Okay, so our schools. The way it works with our charter schools at that is that the state gives the school funds to use for those students education. And then we, in turn, give families this ability to delegate where those funds go. So we have our own ordering system. It's called Vista ordering. And families will receive logins. They place orders for things like curriculum supplies, classes, lessons, tech items. Anything that you order with school funds will be ordered through Vista ordering system.

Rebecca: We also offer a lot of field trips. You can use funds to go on field trips, whether those are school organized field trips or. We've decided our family wants to go to the zoo. And so we're going to order those tickets with school funds. And so your teacher keeps an eye on those and makes sure that everything looks balanced and you moving ahead and showing progress as they're approving the enrichment things. And. But you can also use supplies for music lessons and pe things and other ways that. That will enrich your child's education.

Sara: Where. Where do your funds mostly go to, do you think?

Rebecca: A couple of my kids are in theater and a lot of things are going there. A lot of my big kids funds have gone to classes. They do start to get a smidge expensive to take the online classes and then memberships probably is a good chunk for my younger kids. Membership to the zoo, the smud Mosaic museum, places like that. And we. We do. We do a lot of field trips to see. Sometimes our field. The field trips we choose are kind of expensive, like the Broadway shows and things.

Sara: Okay, what's been your favorite field trip this year? Whale watching.

Rebecca: Oh, yes. It was whale watching. It was so much fun. It was even kind of a wild day on the seas, but it felt a little like a roller coaster. And the. The whales were showing off. We got to see so, so much. That was. It was a. It was an overcast day. A little wild on the. On the ocean, but it. We got to see these whales were just playing, and it was so much fun. My poor little guy was having a hard time, but the rest of us had a great time.

Sara: Aw. Yay.

Rebecca: Okay, so, in addition to the funds and the ordering, we also try to use the resources well that we have, but also to reduce how much needs to be spent on curriculum and things. As families are done with some of those resources, they turn them back into the school if they aren't used up and, you know, are still good for another student. And so then we can all get things from the library that. The lending library that we have. And it's so awesome that they bring them to our areas on vans. We order what we want, and they'll bring it to us. They'll even ship it if you can't meet the van.

Sara: So, yeah, the library system is great. We have two library vans that travel all over from Mendocino county, all the way up to Tejama county and then Tahoe. And.

Rebecca: And if you're curious about the library, there's even a podcast for that. So I will link that episode where I take a tour of the library with library master Chris Herman and talk about what's there and what I see and all of the different options and things that you can get there. My boys have even checked out a great pyramids Lego set. So if you borrow that set, we put a piece of paper in it and said that they've done it on this date, so don't forget to add your name. Oh, it's kind of like when you.

Sara: Would check out things from the library and you could see who checked out before you. That's so fun.

Rebecca: We thought it would be fun to look at it in a while and see who else put this set together. So we talked earlier about how seriously we take community, and hopefully you've already heard that a little bit in the classes that are offered and the teachers that meet with you in the library van that comes to you, which is usually at a park day when you can hang out and get to know other parents and families. And we mentioned that we have some dances and trunk or treat and all kinds of great stuff. So let's talk a little bit more about how we like to build and be a part of community around us.

Sara: Yeah, we. I think many of us would agree that homeschooling in community is how you do it. It's really difficult to do it on your own. And so having that support network of other families who are right there with you, who can be like, oh, yeah, my kid wouldn't do his math today either. Is just helpful. And then if you're like, what we're talking about curriculum earlier and how that you're like, oh, that's not working, what do you use? And then you can bounce ideas off of people and just find that.

Rebecca: Camaraderie.

Sara: And, yeah, whether it's commiserating together or celebrating together, it's just that bonding that you're able to have.

Rebecca: And in May, we now have two years under our belt. So year three coming up here of the showcase, the student showcase. And the kids can bring things that they've created through the year, things they've made and are selling. Last year, we got to have a talent show. There's incredible, incredible things. Oh, wait, there's a podcast for that, too. So can you hear a little what some of the kids showed up with? People growing bullfrogs from tadpoles. I mean, building and engineering things and every. Everything in between. I grew a giant sunflower in my garden last year that I bought from a kid who had started the seeds.

Sara: That's awesome.

Rebecca: It was really fun. So there's all kinds of great things that you get to see there and get ideas, but also feel to feel how you're a part of a bigger community around you.

Sara: Right. A couple weeks ago, we had our first middle school dance, and it was so fun to see kids hanging out with each other and so excited to see each other because they've only seen each other on screen.

Rebecca: Yeah.

Sara: And so they're together, and then you could also see kids that were just hanging out, like, kind of by themselves, but you're like, you know, they were so excited to be there and to be at a school dance that you're like, they're gonna walk away and be like, it was so awesome. And so, yeah, just being able to provide these opportunities where students and families can gather is something that we love to do.

Rebecca: And we keep sort of mentioning park days, but we have a lot of park days. I know. I myself scheduled to a month. All of the other liaisons have at least that many. Some of them do more than that in all different areas. So there's park days going on all over the place. You can choose one in your area, you can expand your horizons and try a new park if you want. There's just all kinds of places. And one of my favorite things about homeschooled kids is that they aren't looking for only kids that are within their one year bandwidth of age. They play with kids that are littler and bigger, and often there's a big group, and they might be five to ten years old, and they're all part of the same game, and everybody's welcome. And that's, of course, it's never perfect. They're kids. But often it doesn't really matter so much about ages.

Sara: Yeah, it's funny. I think it was at the end of last year, we were at a park day, and it was. There were some little kids there, but a good chunk of older kids. And I was kind of like, after a while, where are those older kids? And they were just sitting on the playground, like, talking. And so it's like they were kind of past that playing age, but they're just chit chatting on the playground. And so it was just funny to see that there's this new group of kids that they met. And so, yeah, so while the school.

Rebecca: Provides funds and all kinds of opportunities for our kids, one of the things that they need to be able to continue to be viable within the school districts that are authorizing them is they need testing evidence to show that this is working, this works. And so we do our kids test. We have an in house testing throughout the year called Star 360. They'll do that three times. It's short and 20 to 30 minutes usually. And they take those tests and that is for teachers and parents to see. How are we doing? Are we progressing? Is there, is there evidence of learning throughout the year? But the state testing is the biggie. And that happens in the spring, usually about March. The casp testing, the California testing, as well as in certain grades, there's the science test that gets added to that cast and it all happens at the same time. So kids sort of barely know that they're doing it, doing different testing. And then we have the PFT. Wanna tell us about the PFT?

Sara: The physical fitness test is something that 5th, 7th and 9th graders take. And we usually try to make it pretty fun, casual. Come do your testing, see your friends. Hopefully they're at parks all throughout the area. So I think we had like eleven locations that families could choose from. So you could find a day in a location that's convenient. Convenient. And they're pretty easy. I think all of our, those zones are generally pretty easy to do.

Rebecca: And the teachers and sometimes the liaisons work pretty hard to make it kind of a party atmosphere. Like, we're gonna have a great time today. Yes, they are fun field days. And there's usually a little swag or a treat or something. It can change from year to year, but there's a little incentive. But it's a fun day. The state testing, I didn't mention earlier that the star, the star 360 is just something that's done at home, online.

Sara: It's quick and easy and it's just reading and math.

Rebecca: Yeah, that's it. The state testing is offered. There are in person tests that are offered, or it can be done at home, online, and so you can decide which one works best for your family.

Sara: The online option was just added because of COVID so that's just been since 2021.

Rebecca: I was really glad when in person came back. I prefer to drop my kids off for that. It's really hard to keep half the family quiet while the others are testing. So it's just a lot easier to like. You guys go do your test. We'll do our school at home, come back for you.

Sara: So is that what you guys are doing this year? Oh, yeah.

Rebecca: Yes. Did it last year, too. So it was nice. And testing is a lot less emotional.

Sara: Okay.

Rebecca: When you're, when you're in a group of, you just get her done and everybody else is doing it too. So if you don't really want to be there, you at least know that they all have to be there too. You don't feel like you're isolated in this.

Sara: That's funny. My 6th and 7th graders are just the only two that have to test be and they're just like, no way we are staying at home.

Rebecca: So I think one of the last things that we haven't talked about is high school. Except we did talk about high school a little bit. So there's the virtual academy options. We've talked about dual enrollment, but you can certainly traditionally homeschool. That is a thing actually, if you're new to the homeschool world, there is sort of traditional homeschool. You can with, you know, your books and whatever. Our amazing high school staff has come up with outlines that meet all of the requirements that they need to meet. And so you can use the curriculum that you choose and match it to those outlines and make sure you're not missing anything that the state needs there to be for those to be classes that the universities will accept.

Sara: That's pretty good. Is that a pretty good example? Yeah, you did great.

Rebecca: It's hard to explain that process as well as there's online classes, there's a variety of. High school can be a real mix and match much more than the lower grades as far as how you put high school together.

Sara: Yeah, I mean, for the 8th grade and under, the four classes, kind of the four courses I guess you have are language arts, math, science and social studies. And so within that you can certainly add in music or language, foreign language. But those, as far as your samples, those are the four that you're going to be turning in for high school. You can have any sort of class that you can figure out. You, of course, you have your requirements needed for graduation. English, math for two years at least. Us history, world history, government, econ. Outside of that, I mean, electives, you could really just do whatever.

Rebecca: Foreign language too.

Sara: Yeah, we want a requirement for graduation, but.

Rebecca: Right, yeah, sorry, that's the college boundaries.

Sara: Yeah.

Rebecca: So we will link in the show notes to our homeschool helper, which has a whole high school page and links to the, all the high school stuff. And so if you want to know more about that, you can certainly dig around in there. It's, the homeschool helper is a wealth of references and information and ideas and links to all kinds of things. So if you need more information about anything that we've been talking about, you can probably find it in there, so. Oh, but we do also offer an in person high school graduation, and it's been at the memorial auditorium the last few years. And, and it's a beautiful venue. It's a really special event. And while a lot of you may not know as many other kids that are graduating as you might in a traditional high school, you still will know some. You will have gotten to know some over the years. And so it's still pretty special. And family can come.

Sara: Yeah. I actually met a few kids last year that had just been homeschooling with us for less than a year.

Rebecca: Oh, wow.

Sara: So they had joined, like, their senior year to finish their kind of their high school experience with us, and they were certainly there. Glad to graduate, right?

Rebecca: Yeah.

Sara: It's always a fun time, festive. There's like a community band that is playing music and speakers, and it's a great event.

Rebecca: And this is a topic for another day. But just a quick word that if you feel like, oh, no, my high school, miss out on all of this, you know, the great traditional high school experiences, I would encourage you that they will get great other experiences and they won't miss out on all of them. And there's a lot of stuff about high school they will miss out on and you'll be glad. So don't, don't think you can't homeschool through high school because you'll be doing your kids a disservice. My high schooler is so happy to be a homeschooled kid. She's really happy with being able to do that. And so don't write that off as something that can't happen. Before we sign off, I just want to cover real quick, the question of, is Sequoia Grove. Right.

Sara: For your family, it's, it's kind of a loaded question. Right. If you are looking for a partnership with a school that's going to help you and work with you in your desire to homeschool, then we are a great fit. There's certainly, I mean, just all of the different families within our schools homeschool. So differently. And so there's certainly a lot of ways to homeschool. But then there's also a lot of schools out there that maybe provide something more or different and would be a better fit for your family. So because we are one type of homeschool charter, there are lots of other independent, steady charter school options out there that would possibly be a better fit. And we're always glad to chat about what your needs are and what your students needs are and whether or not we think this would be a good fit. And we certainly don't want to just bring in all of the people to our school without kind of knowing their desires and what they need and what we offer. We want this to be a good fit for everyone.

Rebecca: So I think Sequoia Grove is a really amazing fit for families that want some independence and are willing to be thoroughly involved in their kids education. And if that is going to be difficult, you need more direction. You need more, then there are other schools that might be a better fit. But we love to welcome families that really want to be hands on, really like to build into the community, and we look forward to partnering with you.

Sara: There's certainly a lot of ways to homeschool, whether that's through a public school, school affidavit, PSA, or an independent study program that gives weekly check ins with your teacher and provides all the curriculum for you, or that's through a charter school like ours. That's going to be a bit more hands off, you know, but still, that partnership, it's, there's, there's a lot of ways, just almost as many types of curriculum are out there, different ways to homeschool.

Rebecca: If you are needing to know more about our special ed program, stay tuned next week because I have had a great conversation with the head of our sped department, Megan Nassen. So next week we're going to be hearing from her all about how the sped program works, what it does and doesn't do, and what a really big topic that is. But if you are really interested in how that works with Sequoia Grove, come back next week for that. Thank you for joining us today. Sarah and I had a great time talking all about how Sequoia Grove works, what it offers, what it expects, and how it can maybe be a great fit for you. So we'd love to hear from you. You can always reach me at podcasts@sequoiagrove.org. This has been another episode of the Sequoia Breeze podcast, and I am your host, Rebecca Lasavio. I hope this has been a breath of fresh air for your homeschool.