Empowering Home Education: Light Way Learning's Path to Innovative Learning

Julieta (01:15)

the course is geared towards families leaving the system, right?

Zahra (01:18)

Yeah, absolutely. The course is a home educator certification course. There is no other anywhere I've looked. With the idea of empowering parents to be able to step outside the system, but then also have this certification so they can say to family members and co-parents and friends that are all needing reassurance that they know what they're doing. And they can say, well, I'm a certified Light Way home educator.

Beyond that, what we're seeing, and I just saw a reel this morning about New Jersey, is with this massive exodus into home education that I think has just begun, we're seeing an increase in regulation, right? And so at some point, they're going to, this is my prediction, they're going to start requiring degrees saying that, some kind of, even if it's a two year or four year, some kind of qualification.

where you can't homeschool without it. And down the line, we aim to become Light Way University. But we're a bit ahead of the game here. But by the time we get there, we're hoping it will be timely and we'll make it in time to where home educators can still do learning the way that they want to, because we'll be able to credit them, give them credit for that qualification, whatever it turns out to be, based on their home educating journey that they've already done.

the home educating that they do and having taken or taking courses, because there's three levels of the course as well. And then also a training to become a Light Way coach. So that can create like a pathway for revenue for a home educating parent while still doing something they already love, which is home educating, right? So all kind of bits together.

Julieta (03:00)

that's so interesting that you mentioned that because you're absolutely right about the increased regulations. the more people are leaving the system,

the more roadblocks that you're gonna put in on people. And that is one of the questions that people ask. Can I home educate my children if I don't have a degree?

Zahra (03:19)

And right now you can in most states, I there might be two. Now, I found a website where it said there were a couple of states that require it. But when I looked further, it actually wasn't true, but they are heading that way. part of our ecosystem of courses, it's not just a course, it's a course, it's community, it's coaching. And we have an app that's a portfolio.

So imagine you're out doing this very open-ended, child-led, unschooling-based learning adventure, right, for your children. You open this app, you snap some pictures, you tag it, it pulls in all the learning objectives that that has on the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual levels, and can create transcripts and reports for the regulators. And it really maps the learning in an effortless way. Plus, you can share it with your family so they can see what's going on.

and so on. So, ⁓ and it can suggest learning activities and things like that. So that's also going to be a component of making it easier to meet these regulations, because ultimately we just want to stay free to have the voice about how and what our children learn. When we have that right, it's an innate right of a human being. And that's why our mission is to make education a liberating force for change. Right. So

that we keep that autonomy and our basic human rights intact. So there we go.

Julieta (04:40)

Yeah.

It's simply interesting though. So now tell me how you got here. I know that you have traveled extensively. So tell me how Light Way learning came to be and how you got to the values that you're offering for people.

Zahra (04:56)

Yeah, that's a great story. So I guess it starts with, I was a teacher in Texas for about 11, 12, 13 years. I taught early childhood and then I taught high school. That was a trial by Fire Julietta, Let me tell you, I was a bit of an inner city school in Houston, right? And

I had never ever been inside a high school in America before, let alone one like that. There were gang initiations in the hallway in October, right? It was crazy. It was crazy. And I tried my way through the first semester and then by the second semester, things got better. But I remember I had a mentor because I did alternative certification where you finish up your teaching credentials in the first year, right? When I said to my mentor,

Yeah, there's days I just feel like I will never come back. And then there's days where I just can't imagine doing anything else. And when I said that, she looked at me and said, that tells me you're a born teacher, Zahra And that stuck with me. It was beautiful. So anyway, I discovered on a trip to Scotland that actually middle school was my love. So when I got back, I moved to middle school and all that time I was teaching English. And then I moved into a different middle school. This was all in Houston.

where I became the French teacher. So there I got a taste of what it was like when there was no state testing, because English of course there is, where the administrators really don't care that much about what the kids are doing in your class. I mean, they care, but they don't, it's not like with the tested subjects where they're on you, you know? And I was outside the school building in one of those temporary buildings. was a whole pod of second language teachers.

And it was great and I could hear the birds instead of the school bells and I didn't hear the rattle of the lockers and I just loved it. And all the kids chose to take my class, right? So as a result, I saw that contrast between when kids are forced to learn something that they don't want to do. And then when they aren't being forced and it's night and day and the amount that they were able to learn when they weren't being forced was incredible.

Well, on top of that, I started to notice that we did a lot, a lot, a lot of actually really good, valuable professional development, learning about how kids learn, to, how to structure learning, although I give that less and less value these days, but how to guide that learning, right? And the one thing I noticed is that within that architecture that is the school system, we're constantly

Training is to do all these different things. Never were they taking anything out to actually make space for it. So eventually in 2004, I left. It was a spiritual calling. was like, Zahra you can't actually do this anymore. I'm like, I'm a single parent. I'm a single parent. What am I going to do? Just stop work? And again, it was my intuitive sense saying, yep, that's exactly what's going to happen. You have to jump out. I was petrified.

I left and I started going through a lot of self transformation by doing a lot of retreats and workshops and things. And the perfect teacher for me showed up and I let go of a lot of stuff.

And then I started going to alternative education conferences, like the Alternative Education Resource Organization, AERO, and the IDEC International Democratic Education Conference. went to the one in Vancouver. And then I was with a group where I was part of holding the Children of the New Earth Conference, right, which was very, very focused on the authenticity and the authentic genius of children

I was thinking about my life and I'm still wondering what am I doing, right? Like why did I step out? I've learned all this, but why am I stepping out? And immediately I heard, ah, I'm supposed to open a school because I've been a teacher. I love the kids. I want to do all this stuff. I want to know what would happen without all the constraints of the system. If I did everything I now know about.

Or from alternative education, the real, from the, ⁓ look at that. See, I almost said from the real education. Wow. The programming is still there. It's just insidious. Isn't it? How much that sticks with us? Yeah. History education. Right. So, ⁓ I got that it landed. I'm like, right. That's what I'm supposed to do. And the very next thing.

Julieta (09:08)

It really is.

Zahra (09:17)

I was guided to do was sign up and do a master's degree in education administration. And I could tell you the whole story. There's cars slowing down right where I supposed to get off the freeway where I ended up going to in walking into this crystal store and I met the woman's mother and she was like the head of mentoring for this program and blah, whatever. my goodness. Yeah, no, this is like, yeah, there's so many things like that happened. Um, so I signed up for it.

And originally, based on the interview, I thought I was going to be able to open my school and make that my work project for this degree because it included this like internship that paid that you had to do. But no, at the last minute it turns out I couldn't, so I had to find a job in a school.

Julieta (10:03)

my goodness. my God, disappointing.

Zahra (10:06)

It was disappointing. And at the same time, I look back now and like, yeah, how exactly did you think you were going to pay for this degree? So I did get a job as an IB coordinator, which is international book laureate. Now that's a program I actually have a lot of respect for. So this was ⁓ the middle years program and I was the coordinator. And it was right at the time where this school district just north of Houston was about to implement the whole thing.

across four schools. It's a five year, four, five year program, but they were doing it across four, five schools. And yeah, that was another testing ground and another massive learning. Because here again, here was this architecture of mainstream education with kids being tested. I'd been out three or four years and I tell you what the testing went.

The kids would be tested every three weeks in math, reading. They've stopped pretending that it's language arts anymore now, or even English right now. It's all about just, you read a sentence and tell me what it means? Just complete dumbing down.

Julieta (11:08)

Yeah, Peter Gray talks a lot about the transition from like Common Core and how Common Core has a you know, negative effect into how the kids now see the testing and how they're tested. Like he clearly like highlights that transition in the United States for education, for sure.

Zahra (11:31)

Yeah, he's doing a really brilliant job of getting that message out. In fact, our conscious parenting course is called Empower the Parent, Empower the Children. And the very first section of that, guess, module of it is an interview with Dr. Peter Gray. And all about play and all of that, right? So it's really, and I've been following his sub stack and the information he's coming out with is amazing. anybody that hasn't tapped into Peter Gray right now, tap into him.

Julieta (11:58)

Yeah, he's a great source. I think he's also a great source to empower the parents, because at the beginning there's a lot of fear he's been in education for so long and he's been in research and he's probably one of the most quoted person as far as like from a more scientific side of it, with more research. So I feel like

a lot of people find comfort in learning about his work

Zahra (12:25)

Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. And then especially around the play issue, right? Yes. I've actually got a free download, the healing power of true play, because and I learned so much, I thought I knew about play, but there's five characteristics of what you need for it to be true play. Yeah. Yeah. And it's absolutely eye opening how much kids need it and the link between not having true play, not just playing, but true play.

and the rising anxiety, right? Everybody at this point thinks it's all about screens and online, I've been like informing people when it comes up, which it comes up a lot. like, yeah, I know we all think it's screen time and it's also about there's not enough play because everyone's so afraid to let their children out the door, right? So anybody listening that does have that fear, I want you to go to letgrow.org.

Julieta (13:19)

Yeah, let grow that org, which was the org. Yeah, they were going to well, Lenore's gonna say, yeah, when her son, I mean, she, her book, we have her book. She is brilliant. And her son, I think, you know, took the train in New York City and it was just like, but that is one of the things that Peter that Peter highlights about play that we adults do not give freedom because we're constantly

Zahra (13:23)

Okay.

nine years old.

Julieta (13:45)

observing our children. That is one of the characteristics of plays to be, to not be observed by adults. And hardly that ever happens here. We're always watching. Yes.

Zahra (13:56)

Yeah, well, absolutely. And I noticed this 15 years ago in the US, you know, because you can tell from my accent, I didn't grow up here, even though I am American at this point. But well, I have been for 25 years, but the amount of fear that I haven't seen. So I'll tell you a quick story. When I've been living, well, I'm a digital nomad right now, but when I'm at home,

Usually that's the top of the South Island in New Zealand where I moved in 2015. And I remember visiting a school early on, right? And I was presenting them a program that I was offering and it's during the staff tea time, right? So in New Zealand, they stopped for tea in the morning and they stopped for tea in the afternoon and then there's lunchtime. And I'm in the staff room with all the teachers and the principal. And this isn't elementary school, like all the teachers.

And suddenly, and I'm just fresh off the boat or the plane from the US and I look and having come from the US school system where there's absolute paranoia about being sued by parents if the, you know, if the kid, you know, stubs their thumb or something. So, and I glance out the window when it's slightly raining and there's all these children running around with their shoes and socks off, not all of them, but a lot of them, mud everywhere and nobody out there. I'm like, Joel,

And they're like, ⁓ yeah, they're just playing. They're playing. I'm like, okay. And I thought, I'm in a different world. Not only that, but they're allowed to use real knives and real stuff. Maybe not while out unsupervised running around on the playground, but when it comes to tools and things, they do get to use real stuff. and guess what? None of the kids in New Zealand died or themselves beyond a normal human thing, right? So we're living in an age of...

Parents really having been mentally and emotionally hijacked by media and everything now making everything that used to happen in the world anyway, much more visible, which makes it seem like it's happening more. All the time. to letgrow.org, you'll find out it's actually not at all.

Julieta (15:56)

Yeah, the statistics are very different though. I highly recommend people, know, when you start on this journey, there's a lot of fear and there's a lot of people that will come at you with their own fears and try to project their own fears and their own experiences onto your journey. But the biggest, one of the biggest breakthroughs that we got back in 2020 was to just really go inwards and start listening to what

Zahra (15:59)

Chest exam correct.

Julieta (16:21)

our intuition was telling us about what was the best route for us, you know, and seeing that and listening to that and just kind of moving in that direction. And it really changed our lives. Once we started diving into Dr. Peter Gray's work, Akilah Richards, reading the book, Raising Free People, was a huge, huge, huge, discovery on our journey.

Zahra (16:43)

I've heard of her, yeah.

Julieta (16:44)

Yeah, she's absolutely fantastic. she raises some of the questions about how we colonize the time of our children, the space of our children, the bodies of our children.

It goes beyond educational freedom. it really was a turning point on our journey.

Zahra (17:01)

Thanks.

Julieta (17:02)

Yes, let me not get sidetracked because I love

Zahra (17:05)

So strongly with what you're saying, I could talk to you for hours.

Julieta (17:08)

Yes, I just love this topic so much, but let me go back to Light Way learning. you are so out your experience, you know, you're gathering all. So talking about the values and the ethos of Light Way learning and what and how you came to create the course that you will be offering as a live cohort soon, right? Yeah.

Zahra (17:19)

Okay

Yes, yeah. So the last piece of that story is, yeah, I, that new system in, it was absolute hell and it made me see even more. I want to do this without any of the restrictions. So the next part of what actually started Light Way Learning was me starting Light Way School, where I experimented with all the best practices and including so to serve the physical, mental, emotional, spiritual needs of the kids.

It was open-ended learning. We worked as a little group together to, it was a micro school, to decide what everyone wanted to learn about. And then we'd do learn activities. And then the afternoon was like B time, right? Just to be, do what you want. And what was amazing was the children would reenact during B time what we were learning about in the morning because they chose it, right? So they did mention Egypt, we did that. And then in the afternoon,

Julieta (17:59)

was him.

Zahra (18:25)

They used the whole room to build a massive city over several days of an ancient Egyptian city, et cetera. And they always did that. It was incredible. So that though was 2008, 2009, 2010. And unfortunately, you might remember there was a little housing crisis right then. So really for private school wasn't really available for most of the families that would have been interested in that model. Plus,

Julieta (18:42)

Yeah.

Zahra (18:49)

You're talking 15, 16, 17 years ago.

Julieta (18:52)

Yeah, that was not I mean, it changed. Now nobody was doing it in micro schools didn't become didn't become a real thing until after covid and then once well in the US tax dollars were available like in Florida. I believe it's either Idaho or Iowa. Your your school tax dollars actually go with your children and not to the school system that you are part of.

So that was a big difference, something that really helped micro schools because they could utilize that money to pay for their operational activities. And Aero has been a huge supporter of people that want to try to get started because I did an interview with Peter Berg

Yes, and that was one of the things that he said. He said, when you want to start a microschool or an alternative education center or something of that sort, the one thing you want to think about is about sustainability. How are you going to be sustainable? Because he shared a couple of stories. Everyone wants to do it. They have the really good intentions, but it's hard once you get down to the nitty gritty of the operation and the fact of running something that...

You have to pay rent and your space and all of that. So where was your school? What state or where were you located?

Zahra (20:07)

Okay.

This was Texas. Yeah. I lived in Houston for about 20, 25 years. So this was actually in the woodlands, which is actually pretty conservative as well, which is just north of Houston in the north of Houston. Okay. Um, yeah. So anyway, lots of lessons learned. Yeah. I really didn't want to be running a school. I really loved creating it. I loved the process that we created.

Julieta (20:13)

Yeah, okay.

Yeah.

Zahra (20:34)

children's learning and, but I didn't really want to be still running something like, I don't know. It was interesting. It was another self discovery, right? We go through different things. So then I spent the next 10 years or so, we've been talking about five years ago, wondering what to do next, honestly, and always feeling like, well, it's not time yet. Whatever it is I'm doing next, it's not time yet. I mean, I did stuff, but it never felt like I was really on track.

Julieta (21:01)

on the path. Yes. I can relate deeply, deeply.

Zahra (21:03)

So then the pandemic came around and I already had this idea for EPIC, Empowered Parents Inspiring Children as a certification course for home educators. And so everyone's like, Zahra, Zahra, the moments come, the moments come. And I thought, okay, I'm scrambling into action and everything. And then after a little while, I was just like, okay, two things came up for me. One was, oh, well.

Julieta (21:13)

Mm-hmm.

Zahra (21:27)

I'm a solo printer and I don't think that works for me. I want a team and the other was nobody's homeschooling right now because even though it's called homeschooling, you don't homeschool by staying locked up in the house. Right. And they're in such a panic and it's just not, it's not going to land right now. Right.

Julieta (21:43)

No, was a very chaotic time, yes. Yes.

Zahra (21:47)

Yeah. So it still didn't feel right. So then late last year, after my travels to 13 different countries, looking at different intentional communities and learning so much about that and so much about community, that was journey was coming to an end. And it suddenly just full force again, intuition is tying now, Zahra, it's time now it's time to do this. I'm like, okay. And the name Light Way Learning had been there and it came back and it's like, that's what it is.

And, but then because of my previous attempts to start things and finally realizing when I saw the word solopreneur that that wasn't me, this time I reached out to a group of four other women to work with me with Light Way learning. And one of them, a long story short, one of them, my partner, Kim and I are now still full on doing it. Okay. And we've created,

Julieta (22:37)

It's.

Zahra (22:40)

Well, what we've created is a full ecosystem now for home educators, right? So I've been out and looking around. I'm looking online. I'm seeing all the stuff. There's podcasts here. There's a little. Corcy thing over here, all the same basic stuff intro, da da da da da. There's Facebook groups. You know, you go there as a new home educator and you post a question. And the next thing I see is.

50 different people all offering to sell 50 different things and sell their services and all of this stuff. And you you get some advice, but also it's still just over. Right. So my question is, right, here I am. I'm a new home educator. My nervous system's on edge. I'm scared to death. I'm going to mess this up for my kids. Unlike many of the influencers that I see on Instagram. Don't have a teaching degree.

Julieta (23:13)

A lot, yes.

my god, ⁓

Zahra (23:30)

Right. It's a lot of former school teachers is what I've seen. Yeah. And they so, but, most of the people doing this that are getting started really don't have that background. So when I took all my teacher training and hat off and then put myself in that situation, like, Whoa, yeah, that would be scary because with all my background in training, I kind of have an idea. know exactly what to do. Right.

So I thought, right, so if I'm them, what do I want? Well, I want a one-stop shop. I want to go somewhere where I can feel like I can get the training I need. Some kind of qualification is a bonus they probably haven't even considered, but if you can...

Julieta (24:08)

No, but I think I really think you're right on on the fact that it's going to be needed. I think it's coming. It may not be like this year or next year, but I really think you're right on something. I think that's coming. Yeah, in the next five years or so. Yes.

Zahra (24:24)

Exactly. And Light Way University is three to five years from now. So I think this is why the intuition, I'm getting such chills now as you say that, was like now, start now. I thought that meant, you know, we'll have a university in two years, but now here we are a year in and just about to launch the first course. Like, okay.

Yeah, so all right. So there is we want to get this training. I want to feel confident. I want to feel confidence and you know, we're two very, very well informed educators with backgrounds in both fields, both parents and we bring like professional development. It's not exactly like teacher ed because you're not going to get a four year degree in it I wouldn't want to anyway because

most teachers have to unschool and de-school themselves, right, before they can really appreciate more alternative, very child-directed ways, right? Yeah. I think a lot of parents cling to, buy a curriculum right away, because that's a structure that they can hold onto. It's something that they know.

Julieta (25:18)

But.

It's tangible. Yes. It's something tangible that you can turn to. Yes.

Zahra (25:33)

you can turn to and it's familiar and I could probably do that. Then I see online too, so many of them on these Facebook, well, I got the curriculum and now I'm sitting here at the table and my kids, I'm having to force them. It's such a struggle. I feel like I'm failing. I don't know what to do. And it's because if they weren't thriving in mainstream education, they're not gonna, in a school, why would they thrive in that same basic system that you just moved it? You've just changed the.

Julieta (26:01)

Yeah, you're just doing school at home. You're just doing school at home.

Zahra (26:03)

Yeah.

Same story. Yeah. Right. And if you like many where the children have a lot of anxiety from schooling and now they're at home and now suddenly mom's become this same thing and now home's not even a place I can get away from this. Yes. Then it's no wonder there's resistance. So what we do is we we do give parents something to do right away.

but it's very different. It's more about letting go, allowing, let's let everybody's nervous system get regulated. Here's what you can do now. You can become a real observer. They need time to recover. Here's a methodology for observation so you can really get to know your child. In the meantime, come and take our course, which will be helping you.

Julieta (26:43)

Yes.

Zahra (26:53)

to put our, what I call the Light Way system in place. And the Light Way system is what I developed in my micro school, right? And I actually had a Saturday program with kids in my home every Saturday for three years. I forgot to mention that was called a dream of a better world was, yeah, another story, but that was also part of the development of the Light Way system. So it took about four or five years to really develop it and bring the best of both worlds into it, right?

Julieta (27:17)

Yeah.

Zahra (27:20)

So you get the course, it's about three months, and it takes you through eight different modules, how to set up your, all the normal stuff you see online, how to set up your home, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But also there's a really strong part of personal transformation, personal development as a human, as a parent, that's really essential for coming out of systems.

Julieta (27:42)

Yeah.

Yeah.

Zahra (27:46)

He

has to uproot that, right? And replace it, but do it in a gentle, loving way, right? Right. That's responsive. We also teach family, F-A-M-L-I, which is a way of empowering children and having co-created family agreements and so on, and heart circles and spark circle, we call it, where you actually talk about what are we going to learn about? so, right? That's a whole system that I've just

Julieta (27:52)

Yeah.

Zahra (28:13)

created from my training in sociocracy and so on. there's eight modules. So it's hard, isn't it, thinking about a whole list of eight things?

Julieta (28:25)

No, I love this so much though, because as you are speaking and sharing what the modules are, I'm thinking back on my own journey. And for me, learning that, like invited my children into this concept of what are we going to learn together was like a bucket of cold water, right? Like I had to go through, I spent almost $10,000 in curriculum when we first started.

There are a couple of podcasts where I've shared about that. And you don't have to spend not one dime because at the beginning, the de-schooling and getting uprooted from the systems that don't work for you was another piece that I skipped at the very beginning. So there's another bucket of cold water. Like I learned that the hard way, the hard way. And it's so fascinating to me to, you know, that as you're saying this, like

there's no better time to think about home educating than now, because after COVID, know, from 2020 on forward, there were so many myth busters type of activity about what home education truly is and how you can embrace it into your own, but also the work that exists behind it, like leaving the systems that don't work for you.

and regulating your nervous system and allowing your children to regulate their nervous system and then inviting them into their own journey and education. I mean, it's fascinating. And I'm telling you, like, if I had learned about a course like yours back in 2020, I mean, I would have been right there because I... Maybe I should have... Well, you know that... No, I don't think, you know, I like to say that...

Zahra (29:59)

at lunch. I'm still not ready.

Julieta (30:05)

I was ready, but maybe I wasn't ready either, right? Because my mind was like, you my children, my oldest was coming out from a Montessori there were a couple of homeschool groups that were meeting up outside and their conversations revolved around curriculum.

so I felt that that was my only option, right? to leave that system and to go into this other system of school at home through the way of curriculum. But my children had a very nice way of letting me know that that was not gonna work for them.

Zahra (30:36)

I

Julieta (30:36)

Well, just like you say, they weren't learning at the table like the Instagram homeschoolers, Like I was just talking to a friend about building your own library. It's a very popular homeschool curriculum that is a little bit more of a free flow because it has a theme and then the lesson or the theme has a couple of books that

cover that theme. So it's like more like literature base. And I am a literature person. You can see my beautiful bookshelf behind me. You can also, I also have an online bookshop. And one of my dreams is to open an actual physical space where books are, you know, are available. But my children are very hands on people. Like my children were not into the books.

And I was getting frustrated in all of them. They were so Anthony was six going on seven and then my little one was like two. So here I had this dream of sitting on the floor and reading books or them pointing at the pictures and me telling them. And then I'm like, and they're like, no, we don't want to do this. So not to say that.

Zahra (31:23)

Thanks.

Julieta (31:46)

They don't do, you we did it, but it was just so dysregulating to have to find myself the hard way. Like I felt like I was like hitting a wall every day. I was hitting a wall and I had nowhere to turn. And that's why when I started the podcast, that was my biggest goal for the podcast is for people to know that there are other ways.

I don't want to say systems, but I'm saying there's so much more out there. And by sharing someone's story, they may spark something different in you. Like what we have now in place is structure of school. It's not the only thing. And it's slowly, maybe more rapidly nowadays. It's rapidly caving. It is caving in.

and people are leaving because they are seeing how it's caving in and they're looking they need a different way. what I love about the podcast is like the information is out there. So whenever someone is ready to be brought into whether it's your ecosystem, this podcast will find you and then you will find the tribe, the community.

the space that you feel welcome that kind of gives back to you and that you also give your precious time and resources. It's a two-way street, right? And it's just transformation. There are so many portals open into different transformations nowadays. Okay, that was a very long explanation.

Zahra (33:16)

That's cool. was just going to say briefly, I'm now seeing on socials what I used to talk about 15 years ago, which is the way that the school system was created and what it is purposeful. 15 years ago, people were calling me a conspiracy theorist because I was explaining to them why we have bells.

So it's like the factory starting and stopping workers from sounding the bell. It was all factory training by behaviorist scientists designed to create factory workers, right? But when I would say that and explain in great detail and show the structure and everything, oh, you're just a conspiracy theorist. I'm like, okay, the world's really not ready for this. And now I see it, everyone like.

Julieta (34:00)

That is so fascinating. I feel like that has to be a little bit like frustrating in a way.

Zahra (34:08)

annoying but at the same time you know if I'm going to follow the Light Way values which are love in action, trust in spirit and know thy self then I have to trust in spirit and get out of my ego because the annoyed part of me is just that egotistical part of me that's not

Julieta (34:24)

But

I said that. I said

Zahra (34:26)

that and they wouldn't listen to me and it's not fair you know.

Julieta (34:29)

Yes, yes, yes, yes. I totally, my God, I can totally relate. I feel the same way in about, but my timeline is not usually like 15 years. My timeline is usually about four to five years.

Zahra (34:41)

I

was first thinking about this in 2004, 2005, so it's been 20 years ago. remember somebody telling me, you're 20 years ahead of your time. When I sat there and went, oh my God, I can't wait that long. That's like forever. But here we are. The time went by. I'm a lot older, hopefully wiser.

Julieta (34:46)

20 years, yeah.

Don't we all? I love that so much though. So tell me more about the program. So when is it? So this will be the first round, right?

Zahra (35:10)

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So, well, first the whole ecosystem is the training, the eight module course. It includes coaching. And we also have an online community that people get access to. And we have the app. I was telling you about the portfolio app, et cetera, that's way more than a portfolio app. And those are the main components. Okay. But you also, with the course, get the whole empower the parent, empower the children course, right? Which is up and live now.

that does have Dr. Peter Gray in it, but it also talks about self-healing, communication, family generational healing, modern day fatherhood, right? So that's six modules. It's video, it's audio, and it's a whole big workbook. And as I was creating it, because I was trusting Spirit, and Spirit said, stop doing a foundation's journey, which is our level one certification course with all those components.

Julieta (35:41)

That's huge.

Yeah

Zahra (36:04)

and do this thing. I'm like, ⁓ what? Okay, so I did it. But then once it was complete, I went, my God, this is a perfect precursor for the foundation's journey because it's the beginning of that inner work for the parent and also learning some tools they can use. Now they're home all day long with the children and so on. You gotta clear your stuff out the way.

Julieta (36:27)

my God, you do. You absolutely do. And if you have been listening to our podcast for a little while, you'll know that that's really what my work is all about. And most of the sharing that I do is about the inner work that I had to do in order to be 24 seven with my children. Now I will tell you that that work never ends similar to.

my phrase and my thoughts on D-schooling is that D-schooling does not end, it just evolves. So there's a different layer of letting go of deconditioning that we go through as we go deeper into this journey, we go, our children have different ages, there are different situations that you come across. So all of that, that is the true juicy Yes.

Zahra (37:17)

It's yours. It's

absolutely juicy. And it's also so important because the more work we do on ourselves, the more that spills over into how we raise our children, mostly from the example that we're setting. And it's okay to get it wrong and to be able to, in a sense, fess up to that. Yes. Demonstrate the tools that we have learned.

Julieta (37:33)

Yes.

Zahra (37:44)

for clearing those things. Right? Mommy's going to go now and do X, Y, In our Empower the Parent course, we even have a learning ritual that serves as an example for kids too, because it's not really, we're not recommending at all that you just listen to this thing as you're running down the street and out and driving around. No. And I know that's counter to what's going on in learning right now. And it's a big risk. And...

What we know is that when you're in defend mode, running around, you're not learning. You're not taking it in to get into relaxed mode, to receive mode. So the whole ritual is about creating the space, taking a breath, feeling in, getting a treat, lighting a candle, getting your stuff together, breathe. now, and you don't think that kids would be watching how we're learning?

Julieta (38:16)

No.

Yeah, yeah. See that ⁓ when you're in rest and digest. Yep. Yeah. Yeah.

Zahra (38:42)

So that's the whole thing. So when I say ecosystem, it's not just the pieces of the product, it's really a whole feeling and experience being held. Yeah. And then being able to hold our children as a result. Yeah. Because they need us. They need us to do this work so badly.

Julieta (38:47)

No.

Yeah, in full transformation.

Absolutely. And they are calling for it too. don't just call like silently needing it. They are calling for it. I am telling you, I often say like, it's not that I didn't want to do the work. I mean, I knew I needed some work, right? I mean, I years of therapy. It's like, how could I not? I needed it, but I wasn't.

fully going into it. was fine being in the busyness of it all. I was fine doing the thing and I was fine going through life like that. I'm like, I don't need this. then my children and telling me, no lady, this is not how this is going to work. You need to do your own stuff. You need to do your own work because we're not, this isn't what we're here for. So I am forever grateful for my children. But funny you mentioned about,

The example, you know, one of the things that I learned from my dad without my dad ever saying a word was on time being on time.

So that example that we show for our kids, it's so important because you are given teachings without knowing that you're actually given that. So your actions will matter much more than your words. If your words are counter to your actions, there's a mismatch there, but they will often take the actions over the words.

Zahra (40:19)

Thank you.

Mostly, mostly like we tell children, use your words, right? That's early childhood. Use your words, use your words. And then adults don't.

hold resentments, they don't address things when they come up. Everything's left to fester and you just keep going and pretend everything's okay. But all the time you're just driving those emotions deeper into you. And then when life happens, all these reactions in rather than measured response, the reactions, it's a lot of, it's all this stuff.

Julieta (40:54)

It just comes out. Yes. Yes.

Zahra (40:56)

comes out. Right. So, you know, there's a lot of probably very conscious parents listening to they're going to be listening to this. And what I wanted to say listening to you is that often as conscious people who have an awareness of what's going on with us, we can be working on things for a really long time and then it's still there and it still comes up and it's still this right.

And that's where I think the family constellation segment of that course comes in because it explains how family historical wounding landed onto future generations and not just how it happens. It gives you a very simple pathway to actually clear a lot of that stuff. my God. Then finally you're free. It's not the fix everything thing. However, it does offer pathways for.

Julieta (41:39)

my god

Zahra (41:44)

So I'm quite deep healing. I've done quite a bit of it myself. Yeah. So that course is part of the foundation's journey, but if people take it now and start preparing, then we'll give them a credit for the cost of that course towards the foundation journey. When they, if they decide to sign up for that, which opens like January for registration, we're actually launching mid February, right? When the year of the snake in Chinese astrology turns into the year of the fire horse.

Julieta (41:47)

Yeah

⁓

Zahra (42:13)

which is my year. I'm a firehorse born in 1966. my goodness. I'm so excited and we're going to do it then. Yeah. So, ⁓ the foundation's journey is the first main offering about certification course with the community, with the app, with the coaching and with our support. The first one is a cohort of maximum of 20 because we want to

Make sure everything's in place and going. And that's why the cost of it is actually quite low for what we're giving. Um, for a three month course, you'd probably 3k-4k or so or something like that. Right. Yeah. Well, we're doing it for $997.00 for the first course. Okay. Because we work people's feedback. And so you get that whole ecosystem for that $997 and then.

Julieta (42:54)

Wow.

Zahra (43:02)

Then after that, when we've checked everything through, you always have version 1.0, you do it, you think

Julieta (43:08)

Yeah,

there's always evolution for sure.

Zahra (43:10)

Right. And you want to know for the parents, like, we think this would really work. What do you think? How did that work for you? Right. And then we can change it and then we'll be releasing it on self-serve. Right. It'll just be open enrollment, but you'll still get that personal touch with the group coaching. Right. And then once that's really launched and going, then we're going to develop level two. And so people that have done level one can do level two and then we'll have, which is called

Julieta (43:16)

Yeah

Yeah.

Zahra (43:38)

the practitioner's experience, right? So now you kind of, you know what you're doing. You've got a really good idea. You're not totally lost anymore. You've got your Light Way system in place. Your kids love learning. You're enjoying it. Everything's rolling along, but you might want to deepen your practice. There's always more we can learn, you know, what you can learn and so forth. And if we're going to take on that role of home educator, perhaps we do need to know a little bit more about

Julieta (43:57)

god.

Zahra (44:05)

child psychology a little bit more about how children think, a bit more deeper into how to empower your kids through that family FAMLI program, circles and so forth. So each element can be deepened. And then the third course will be the third level of certification. So each level you get certified, but you get certified, you know, level one, level two, level three is the mastery journey.

Julieta (44:30)

Okay.

Zahra (44:31)

And once a parent has completed those three, we're going to have a coaching add-on that will be learning how to be a Light Way coach, how to actually coach people through the Light Way system. And then parents can become Light Way coaches as well. And that creates, like I said, that revenue stream. And then all that eventually filters into, yeah, the eventual Light Way University.

Julieta (44:46)

Yeah.

Zahra (44:54)

People that take the courses now will be able to get credit for that when they enter Light Way University, right? oh, I'm such a rebel, Julieta. And one of the reasons I really wanna do this is because, yeah, I wanna beat the system, man. By the time they get to that regulation, I wanna have enough people to, yeah, and just be like, oh, you think you're gonna shut that down or control that to that degree? No, we got these guys covered.

Julieta (45:11)

ahead of the game.

Zahra (45:21)

So they'll be able to get degrees in home education or whatever we call it by that point, right? Yeah. And without it being onerous, right? I don't want this to be some massive $20,000 whole thing and three, four years of your life, you know, and where you're struggling to do the home education and teach your kids and go to school. No, this will be really based with a lot of credit for time.

spent home educating and you know, just document it. And we've even got the app for you to document it all on, right?

Julieta (45:52)

I really think this is kind of where it's going to go. There's a lot, there are regulations, bills in the UK. There are bills here in the state of Michigan. There are bills in other parts of the country. There are bills on in other countries and even France, where homeschooling is banned unless you have

a specific reason in Germany, ⁓ homeschooling is technically illegal too. Yeah, so there is a ⁓ huge awareness of how people are leaving not only the education system, but they're also leaving the traditional nine to five. All the systems that have been in place from the onset of capitalism are slowly caving in.

Zahra (46:18)

It's been illegal a long time now.

Julieta (46:41)

They are slowly caving in and everyone is coming into this into this new path into this new awareness from a different from a different direction. So we came through from this from the direction of home education. Other people are coming from the direction of entrepreneurship, you know, when they left their corporate job and you hear all the stories, right? The people that left their corporate jobs.

Zahra (47:04)

Constantly. I corporate. I was dying, but I made all this money. Now I can do this. Did it the wrong way round.

Julieta (47:08)

Yes, exactly. So

yeah, so you just so we're all coming from different directions. the different institutions that we hold, there's a lot of people getting divorced. There's a lot of people just finding different ways that there are just people are just starting to listen to themselves and they're realizing that the systems that we have had in place were never designed to fulfill our authentic self. So so here is

Yes, is your authenticity is what's going to take us onto the next level. And home education is a way to honor yourself, your authenticity, your authentic self as a parent, as a person, but also to give that to your children as you go through as you go through the home education journey.

Zahra (47:51)

And as I said, as a system buster, there's another aspect to Light Way learning that goes beyond what we're actually doing. And it's who we are as an organization. Right? So I don't want to do business as usual. We're a conscious business. And to me, that means people, planet, profit and purpose. And you spoke to that just now. People are looking for purpose, not just work for money. Right? That's why people don't want to work anymore.

And I think the pandemic actually gave people time to sit down and go, what am I doing?

Julieta (48:24)

What am I doing? there is this whole... Yes, no, no one had time. There's the whole culture of silent quitting

Zahra (48:26)

Before that they didn't have time.

Yes. And they just like now they're like, I want, I need purpose because I'm dying. I'm dying. need purpose. Right. So there's, there's that aspect of that's called the quadruple bottom line, people, planet, profit and purpose. And it used to just be the bottom line, right? It's triple now it's quadruple with the purpose added in, but we're also a social enterprise. Although we haven't figured out what we're going to give to yet, but we have a really

Julieta (48:46)

Yeah.

It's okay.

Zahra (48:58)

You know, we haven't generated any income really yet either. So it doesn't really matter. We'll decide that when we get there, but that's part of our ethos. And then the other part, yeah, is our values, right? And that authenticity speaks back to know thyself, trust in spirit, love in action. Humanity is really a loving being.

Julieta (49:19)

Man, we are.

Zahra (49:20)

And it's all that wounding and stuff that actually gets in the way.

to stop with us. It's time to step up because with the freedom that we're all claiming comes that great responsibility. First responsibility is to ourselves to heal ourselves. That's the pain. Stop the wounding right here, right now. This generation, any other generation,

Julieta (49:31)

Most of

yourself.

my goodness.

Yes. mean, all of my work has been about has been about the healing of myself just so I don't pass that on to my children, you know, and being aware of it and knowing where it comes from. So this is such beautiful work and it has been such a beautiful conversation. I feel like we can keep talking forever, but let me let us let yes, we will probably have something else on it, but I wanted to give you space to

share with people for those of you that will be listening and for those of you that are saying, yes, this is for me. This is where I want to go. I'm a new parent and I want to home educate and I want to be ahead of the curb. I can tell you that I also feel this is where that's that it's going to go. We will probably come back to this episode at some point, maybe in five years since they hear we said it not from an ego perspective, but rather but rather from it from an awareness to say.

we are trying to give you the tools for you to make a decision from within and to prepare us to deal with the structures that we do have in place.

that will eventually be changing how can people get a hold of you I'm sorry go ahead

Zahra (50:52)

First, I just want to say, I feel like there needs to also be a counter movement to this regulation. And that counter movement needs to be, you're going to have all these regulations. We're the ones now footing the bill completely for our children's learning. You got to pay that money that was going, that 14, $15,000 a year per child needs to come to us now.

Julieta (51:15)

Yeah, right. Good. my god. Yes. I think there is some of that happening in it.

Zahra (51:16)

So a pushback on that would be.

checkboxes on those tax returns where we get to choose what the money goes to.

Julieta (51:27)

Yeah, and then that's Florida. I think, like I said, Iowa or Idaho, one of the eyes have that. And there are maybe a few other states that are kind of like working on that because there are amazing people doing amazing work and they could really use the financial help for that. So, okay, how can people.

Zahra (51:44)

So to get hold of me, it's

Light Way, L I G H T W A Y learning L E A R N I N G dot earth. Cause we like to think global cause I'm a global person too. So lightwaylearning.earth And you can email us at love at www.lightwaylearning.earth Okay.

Julieta (51:54)

Okay.

Zahra (52:04)

⁓ Instagram, we're at light_way_learning You could follow us there too.

Julieta (52:09)

Yeah. Okay. So,

We will have all of that information in the show notes and their links and all of that. So you can get ahold of them. If this episode resonates with you or if you want to share with your friends who are thinking about home educating I can say that I wish I would have had this back in 2020.

I feel like people are opening now for a better way to do it and a better way that includes you in the center, you as a parent, you as a person, your children as the beautiful beings that they are.

Thank you, Zahra. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you for being here. For anyone out there, please remember that your time is precious. I hope you're making account. See you next time.

Zahra (52:43)

Thank you.

I love you.