Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kendra Maister. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Kendra, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

The minute you have a kid, a chorus of people will come around you and proclaim, “They grow up so fast! They grow up so fast!” Childhood is fast, but it doesn’t have to be as fast as we tend to make it. Want it to last longer? Add back the thing that life is made of . . . TIME.

After coming to the realization that sending my kids to an institution for hours on end, was not the path I wanted to take, I decided to create a homeschool community of my own. Homeschooling affords our family the precious commodity of time that we all so desperately crave.

At The Indie Sol, we embrace child-led learning, which in turn allows us adults to step back and become learners and observers ourselves. Co-learning outdoors with these families and watching these kids navigate their own learning are equally rewarding to be a part of. I feel so grateful to have this opportunity to teach them things that light their souls on fire today and everyday in a wholesome and loving community.

My hope is to shift the schooling expectations by creating a more harmonious environment for both children and parents alike.

“While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about.”

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

“Parenting is hard stuff. It builds us up, then beats us down. It swells our pride, then wounds our ego. It fills us up, then exposes our flaws. It defines our future and breaks our bodies; all within the same twenty-four-hour day…. But we wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Let me let you in on a little secret… Motherhood is meant to be experienced in community. Mothers without strong support from a community tend to have higher levels of stress, and mothers with higher levels of stress tend to be more overwhelmed and pessimistic about parenting. Participating in a community bonded by attitudes, values, and goals is an essential ingredient to enjoying all the magic of motherhood!

Having the support of a community unlocks numerous skills and resources to make your life easier as you navigate the hurdles of parenthood. That, in turn, relieves some of your stress and allows you to look at your duty with more optimism and a sense of connectedness with others; giving your efforts even more purpose.

Looking back on my childhood, I always craved more time with my mom. Between running a handful of businesses and teaching full time as a public school teacher, my mom worked around the clock and was always under an immense amount of stress. She was always trying to “fit in” with the PTA and other colleagues at work, but ultimitately lacked the support of a like-minded community.

Losing my mom and only brother in conjunction with raising two kids with very little support, pushed me to create a community that my beloved mother always craved and prayed for.

Have you ever had to pivot?

My initial business before I created The Indie Sol Collective was called “SD Popup Playdate” Our playdates brought young families together to support kid friendly establishments and small owned businesses while enjoying free activities, LIVE music, and endless socializing! When the pandemic hit and events were no longer happening, I decided to switch gears and focus on what I wanted my children’s education to look like. Since I knew that homeschooling was a dream of mine, I decided to pivot the playdates into an academic setting that embraced community and outdoor learning with my good friend Melissa Barajas who holds a degree in ecology and a true love for nature based learning.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Like most of us parents that venture into the world of homeschooling, we are faced with some hurdles. The most common one is the question surrounding our ability to teach our children when we’ve been programmed to believe otherwise.

When children grow up in a group think-tank of mass instruction like the public schools, the children are churned out speaking similarly and thinking similarly. That’s because they have listened to the same instruction. When you have individualistic instruction, when you see life in a unique and different way and are not punished for it, you have a chance to actually have a mind of your own.

“Whatever an education is, it should make you a unique individual, not a conformist; it should furnish you with an original spirit with which to tackle the big challenges; it should allow you to find values which will be your roadmap through life; it should make you spiritually rich, a person who loves whatever you are doing, wherever you are, whomever you are with; it should teach you what is important, how to live and how to die.”

― John Taylor Gattoo, Dumbing us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling

Contact Info:

• Website: www.theindiesol.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theindiesol/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theindiesol

Image Credits
Aubree Lynn Photos www.aubree-lynn.com Brit Mitchell Photography britmitchellphotography.com