What happens when you choose to step away from mainstream expectations and reclaim your family's destiny? Mary Wainwright's journey from conventional life to intentional living offers a roadmap for those feeling trapped in industrial systems.

Mary returns to share insights from her new book "Taking Back My Life," which chronicles her radical transformation across every aspect of family living. She takes us through the stark contrast between her traumatic hospital birth and her subsequent empowering home births, revealing how this experience catalyzed her entire lifestyle shift. Rather than presenting her choices as the "right way," Mary simply illuminates alternatives many families never consider.

The conversation explores how modern society has systematically disconnected us from fundamental knowledge in just one or two generations. From growing food to understanding natural remedies, we've surrendered our self-sufficiency to systems that often prioritize profit over wellbeing. Mary shares practical steps anyone can take - starting a small garden, learning to make bone broth, or questioning medical interventions - that gradually build toward greater independence.

Perhaps most powerful is Mary's reflection on community building. She describes creating a "tribe" where families barter skills, share resources, and collectively raise children. This interdependence makes sustainable living not just possible but deeply fulfilling, addressing the isolation that drove many women away from traditional roles decades ago.

The conversation continually returns to fear as the controlling mechanism that keeps us compliant within industrial systems. By recognizing this pattern and making intentional choices about time, education, health, and community, Mary demonstrates how families can create lives aligned with their deepest values rather than external expectations. Her parting question resonates: "Are you living the life you want your children to replicate?"

Ready to reclaim aspects of your family's life? Check out Mary's book through her website marywainwright.com or leave a comment sharing which part of her journey resonates most with your own family's situation.

Mary's Book, Taking Back My Life which you can also purchase on Amazon !

What is the most important thing we can teach our kids?
HOW TO HANDLE AN EMERGENCY!
This could mean life or death in some cases!
Help a child you know navigate how to handle an emergency situation with ease:
Let's Talk, Emergencies! -and don't forget

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Facebook: The Homeschool How To Podcast

Hannah Maruyama joins The Homeschool How To podcast to challenge everything you thought you knew about higher education and career success. Having walked away from college at 16 after discovering its politicized environment and questionable academic value, Hannah shares her journey to developing a groundbreaking approach to career preparation that's saving families hundreds of thousands of dollars while launching young adults into thriving careers.

The conversation reveals shocking statistics about our student loan crisis. Despite the cultural push toward college, only 7.7% of jobs legally require degrees—a mere 0.3% increase since 1965—yet we've accumulated $1.7 trillion in student loan debt. Hannah exposes how government subsidization of student loans created artificial demand, leading to bankruptcy-exempt debt that follows borrowers for life. Most disturbing is the poor return on investment: only 27% of graduates use their degrees, while the average bachelor's degree costs $104,000 and takes 5.5 years to complete.

For homeschooling families, this information is especially valuable. Rather than measuring success by college admissions, Hannah suggests focusing on four key questions: Where does your child want to live? How much money do they need? What schedule works for them? What work environment suits them? From these answers, families can identify careers that truly fit their children's goals and strategically acquire the specific skills employers need—without unnecessary degrees.

Through her company Degree Free, Hannah has helped hundreds of young adults identify their ideal career paths and secure high-paying jobs through targeted skill acquisition, often out-earning their degree-holding peers in a fraction of the time and cost. Whether your teens are approaching graduation or you're just beginning your homeschool journey, this episode offers a refreshing perspective on preparing children for genuine success in an economy that's rapidly changing beyond what traditional education can support.

https://degreefree.com/

Hannah's Instagram TikTok: @DegreeFree

What is the most important thing we can teach our kids?
HOW TO HANDLE AN EMERGENCY!
This could mean life or death in some cases!
Help a child you know navigate how to handle an emergency situation with ease:
Let's Talk, Emergencies! -and don't forget The Activity Book!

The Tuttle Twins - use code Cheryl15 for 15% the age 5-11 series!

Support the show

Instagram: TheHomeschoolHowToPodcast
Facebook: The Homeschool How To Podcast

What happens when you grow up homeschooled on a sailboat, then experience public school, only to return to homeschooling as a parent? Shellbe's remarkable journey offers a window into an educational path less traveled, filled with powerful insights for any parent questioning traditional education.

Born to parents who rejected conventional schooling, Shellbe spent her early years cruising the Bahamas on a sailboat. Her "classroom" was the open water, where learning to navigate charts, catch fish, and take responsibility weren't electives—they were survival skills. Using the Calvert School curriculum, her education blended formal academics with real-world application in ways most children never experience. "I knew responsibility," Shellbe reflects, recounting how she sailed dinghies with her toddler sister at just eight years old, learned to recover from capsizing, and developed problem-solving skills that have served her throughout life.

When Shellbe entered public school in seventh grade, the contrast was stark. The rigid bell schedule, curriculum gaps, and social dynamics created challenges that shaped her understanding of what education could and should be. Despite her strong foundation in reading and writing, she struggled when the system couldn't accommodate her learning style—an experience that would later inform her approach to teaching her own daughter.

Now homeschooling as a single parent, Shellbe has crafted an education for her daughter that honors both structure and freedom. With formal lessons sometimes just twice weekly, learning happens organically through exploration, measurement, and discovery. When her five-year-old spends a morning examining caterpillars with a magnifying glass, creating habitats, and measuring specimens, Shellbe recognizes this as valuable education that transcends textbooks.

Whether you're currently homeschooling, considering the leap, or simply curious about alternative educational paths, this conversation will challenge your assumptions about how learning happens and what truly matters in preparing children for a fulfilled life.

Connect with Shellbe:

Instagram and Facebook are @Vital.Roots.Coaching

Shellbe is offering a FREE masterclass on how to have an Empowered Pregnancy & Birth next Friday the 16th!!

What is the most important thing we can teach our kids?
HOW TO HANDLE AN EMERGENCY!
This could mean life or death in some cases!
Help a child you know navigate how to handle an emergency situation with ease:
Let's Talk, Emergencies! -and don't forget The Activity Book!

The Tuttle Twins - use code Cheryl15 for 15% the age 5-11 series!

Support the show

Instagram: TheHomeschoolHowToPodcast
Facebook: The Homeschool How To Podcast