The Smiling Homeschooler Podcast
Aug 26, 2026 · 33 min · 16 segments
Welcome back to the Smiling Homeschooler Podcast! Writing is one of those things that we spend a lot of time teaching our kids, but sometimes we think we can lose sight of why we're actually doing it…
Ben WilsonHostTodd WilsonHostCatherineGuest
Because our main topic was we were talking about writing, you know, because we haven't had a specific episode dedicated to it in a while.
It's just a tough subject for a lot of homeschoolers, including we went through a lot of different stuff with a lot of different kids who had various levels of interest in it.
But I thought maybe the first kind of angle we should talk about is just what does writing look like in this day and age? Where back then you read anything like historical and they wrote these long letters to each other.
And, you know, that was just, I mean, that was an essential major tool to even, you know, to communicate, to work, to do anything.
How much of that still is present? You know, how much, especially with, you know, we've got the rise of AI now these last few years, which is, I think, is honestly going to drastically change a lot of what, how writing and what people are just, you know, doing stuff.
And if you want to give your thoughts first and dad and then, you know, I can also.
Why do you think there's a problem with that? Why do you think all this pressure? I mean, like you said, oh, it's just it's kind of a hard thing.
I think some people are wired for it and some people just totally aren't.
I think it's probably the same pressure as with math or with anything else.
You kind of feel like my kid needs to be able to do these basic things, whether it's reading, writing and arithmetic or whatever.
It feels like writing is kind of one of the biggies that you feel like.
somebody somewhere set a standard that you feel like your kid has to be able to achieve like some level whatever that level is in your head and I think there's a lot of Like, at least moms feel the pressure because that's, yeah, one of those biggies that people talk about or look at.
I
mean, my guess would be, you know, with math, if you're not a math person, but, you know, you can learn how to do, you know, addition, subtraction, division, all that.
And, you know, may not love it, but once you kind of understand the concept, it's pretty concrete no matter who you are.
Because our main topic was we were talking about writing, you know, because we haven't had a specific episode dedicated to it in a while.
It's just a tough subject for a lot of homeschoolers, including we went through a lot of different stuff with a lot of different kids who had various levels of interest in it.
But I thought maybe the first kind of angle we should talk about is just what does writing look like in this day and age? Where back then you read anything like historical and they wrote these long letters to each other.
And, you know, that was just, I mean, that was an essential major tool to even, you know, to communicate, to work, to do anything.
How much of that still is present? You know, how much, especially with, you know, we've got the rise of AI now these last few years, which is, I think, is honestly going to drastically change a lot of what, how writing and what people are just, you know, doing stuff.
And if you want to give your thoughts first and dad and then, you know, I can also.
Why do you think there's a problem with that? Why do you think all this pressure? I mean, like you said, oh, it's just it's kind of a hard thing.
I think some people are wired for it and some people just totally aren't.
I think it's probably the same pressure as with math or with anything else.
You kind of feel like my kid needs to be able to do these basic things, whether it's reading, writing and arithmetic or whatever.
It feels like writing is kind of one of the biggies that you feel like.
somebody somewhere set a standard that you feel like your kid has to be able to achieve like some level whatever that level is in your head and I think there's a lot of Like, at least moms feel the pressure because that's, yeah, one of those biggies that people talk about or look at.
I
mean, my guess would be, you know, with math, if you're not a math person, but, you know, you can learn how to do, you know, addition, subtraction, division, all that.
And, you know, may not love it, but once you kind of understand the concept, it's pretty concrete no matter who you are.
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