Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jennifer Smith. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Jennifer, appreciate you joining us today. So, let’s start with a hypothetical – what would you change about the educational system?
As a traveling roadschooling family, we left behind traditional education institutions for a life of hands-on learning, exploration, and interest-based learning. We do use a curriculum for several subjects such as mathematics and language arts, but much of our children’s education is based on our travels across the world. While satisfactory for many families, the traditional classroom setting simply didn’t support our goals for our children’s education. Through roadschooling we’ve given them incredible opportunities to understand our world through individualized lessons and courses. In only three years we’ve explored 40 U.S. states, part of Mexico, as well as 43 National Parks, including one international park. What better way to learn about the Civil War than by walking through the town of Gettsyburg, PA where soldiers walked and visiting the National Cemetary where our brave fallen are buried? Our children understand ecosystems, geography, history, science, and even entrepreneur business practices all through our traveling adventures, museums, and experiences. We also joined an organization called “Fulltime Families” that creates intentional meet ups and opportunities to meet like-minded traveling families. With Fulltime Families our children have had the opportunity to serve in an orphange in Mexico, create small business sales opportunities through a “Kids’ Marketplace’ and even attend prom and graduation ceremonies. We believe our homeschooling style will carry forward to many opportunities that will lead to much more fulfilling lives and rewarding careers for all 8 of our children.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
My name is Jennifer Smith. I am a digital creator and traveling nomad and homeschooling mom to eight children. My husband Mike and I have been married nearly 30 years and were blessed with five additional children after Mike survived a near fatal car crash in 2006. We call those kids our “Second Chance Clan”. We decided life is short so Mike retired from the Maine State Police in 2020. We sold our house and hit the road with six of our eight children. We travel the country in our 5th wheel and enjoy sharing large family tips and travel destinations to inspire others to get out and explore and live your best lives. Follow our traveling adventures on social media @thesecondchanceclan
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
The most rewarding aspect of being a digital creator is the feedback we get from others who have taken our experiences or purchased a product we love and it has added value to their vacation, home, or family.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
I started my social media presence in 2020 on Instagram focusing on photography and sharing our second chance story. We had slow growth but enjoyed the connection with our small group of followers. In 2021 I shifted to creating reels and short content that connected our viewers and followers to destinations and product partnerships, as well as creating emotional and educational clips of living life while traveling and homeschooling six kids.
The best advice I have for those wanting to build a social media presence is to begin by setting your intention of what your goal is to share and why. Don’t focus too much on the follower counts, they come and go, many are bots anyway. Educate yourself on latest apps, technologies, and strategies to create the quality content you want to send out to the world. Most of all, love what you do! Creating content on a regular basis that engages your audience and survives all the algorithms is not easy. Burn out can be high for many content creators. If you love what you do, you will do what you love! Enjoy the journey!
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cqx0m12sDSW/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thesecondchanceclan/
- Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/@thesecondchanceclan