CHM169: Faith + Fitness: A Holistic Approach to Homeschool P.E. with Ashton Tate

[00:00:11] Welcome to the Christian Homeschool Moms Podcast. I'm Demetria, your host, a veteran homeschool mom of two. One daughter is already off on her own journey and the other is entering her senior year of high school about to prepare for college life and beyond. And after over a decade of homeschooling, I've now stepped into a new season of supporting families as an afterschool tutor. And I also run a boutique podcast agency called Soul Podcasting, where we help creatives edit and launch their shows and provide interview coaching to help them grow their message with confidence.

[00:00:41] This show is for you, whether you're homeschooling full time, navigating traditional school or choosing a hybrid path. My heart is to support and walk alongside parents like you who are intentional about advocating for your child's academic and personal growth. Each episode offers encouragement, practical strategies and faith filled insights to help you create an educational path that reflects your family's values and vision. And this summer, I'm thrilled to announce our interview marathon series.

[00:01:09] This is a special lineup of episodes featuring homeschool moms, dads and educational publishers who are here to equip you before the new school year begins. Whether you're looking for curriculum ideas or inspiration, or you just need a pep talk. These conversations this summer are designed to meet you right where you are and help you move forward with clarity and peace. And of course, if you're listening to this any other time outside of the summer, these interviews will still be super helpful for you.

[00:01:36] Now, before we dive in, I want to give a quick shout out to our featured podcaster of the week through the Christian Women Podcasters Network, which you can check us out at Christianwomenpodcasters.com.

[00:01:50] And this week, we're spotlighting the Warrior Mama Podcast. This is hosted by Bethany Kimsey. She's a mom of eight amazing children ranging in age from seven to 23. She offers short, powerful conversations filled with laughter, gospel truth and real talk about motherhood. She brings spiritual wisdom into the everyday messiness of parenting and helps you find confidence, vision and grace in the micro and macro moments of raising your children. So be sure to give her show a listen.

[00:02:20] And also, if you're a Christian woman podcaster and you would love to be featured or join our growing network, now is the perfect time. It's free to join for a limited time and the link to get listed is in the show notes, christianwomenpodcasters.com. All right, let's jump into today's episode. Today's guest is Ashton Tate. He's the founder of Glory to Glory Fitness in Nashville, Tennessee. He's the creator of the Form Curriculum.

[00:02:47] Ashton partners with homeschool families all over the U.S. to help them approach health and PE from a biblical worldview. His mission is to equip and empower homeschool families so that every student in America can receive a quality gospel-centered health education. His work has been featured in publications like USA Today. And today, he's sharing how the Form Curriculum came to life, how it's structured for homeschool families and co-ops, and how you can incorporate a solid faith-based health and movement program into your homeschool routine.

[00:03:15] So without further ado, my friends, let's get right into it. Hi, everyone. Welcome to the Christian Homeschool Moms podcast. And I have an awesome guest today, Ashton Tate. He's the founder of Glory to Glory Fitness in Nashville, Tennessee. And he's the creator of the Form Curriculum, which we're going to find out all about today. He partners with homeschool families all over the nation to help us approach health and PE from a biblical perspective.

[00:03:42] And so his mission is to empower homeschool families so that every student in America can have a quality health education. Welcome to the show, Ashton. Yeah, thanks for having me. This is fun. You're welcome. Glad to have you. So starting off, I'd love to hear more about your hobbies and who you are, what you do, what makes you tick. Yeah. Yeah, I love hanging out with my wife, honestly. We love cooking. We love baking together.

[00:04:12] I definitely enjoy working out in fitness and sports as well. So I love golf. I work out pretty much every day of the week. Um, yeah, that's a few hobbies, a few things I like. It's good to hear that you work out since you have this workout curriculum that we're going to be doing. I know, I better, I better, I better practice what I, what I'm preaching on.

[00:04:36] Yeah. But I love that you created this. It's so needed in the homeschool community. It's called FORM. And so if you can tell us a little bit about the acronym FORM and what was that journey like to create this curriculum? Like from the idea of it to the reality of it. Yeah. Yeah. So I'll, I'll share a little bit of that journey and kind of my story. So when I, when I was like sophomore, junior year of high school, um, I was actually like 300 pounds.

[00:05:03] Um, and so I was, I personally really struggled with health and weight and, uh, confidence and just kind of all that, that, you know, middle school, high school kids are going through on top of, um, you know, and then on top of that, I was, you know, 300 pounds. And so, yeah, I struggled with that for years, had really bad acid reflux, had, uh, was, was pre-diabetic.

[00:05:24] Um, and that kind of went on through kind of into junior year and, uh, kind of towards the end of high school, I just kind of was fed up with living that way. Right. And, and being that, being that guy.

[00:05:38] And, and, and so I started really growing in the Lord and getting with leaders more, getting in the word more, just kind of in general maturing, you know, and, and, uh, and part of, you know, one of the things that came out of that was an understanding that, you know, Hey, this, this isn't my body.

[00:05:54] Right. It's, it's God's that he's entrusted to me as a vehicle to do what he has called me to do. Right. And so I was like, Oh, that's an interesting way of thinking about it. And you learn about the principle of stewardship and you, you know, and so, yeah, I ended up losing just by making some simple changes and having self-control and learning a little bit. I ended up losing about 125, 130 pounds by the time I graduated high school. That's amazing.

[00:06:20] Yeah. Yeah. And, and, um, and so, yeah, I just started just totally kind of changed my life and how I was living and, and, uh, and ended up having, uh, people started, you know, just asking me for help. You know, they're like, man, like you were the guy that didn't care. You were just the fat guy that just did whatever he wanted and didn't care. And, and I was like, and people were like, man, if you can change, like, can you help me?

[00:06:44] And so I was just like, sure. Like, I'll show you just what I'm doing. And it was kind of chill and ended up felt like God told me to get certified and as a trainer. And then I ended up getting a full four year degree in health, um, from ASU. Um, and, uh, and yeah, we've, we helped adults for years. So from 2015 through 2021, really, we had in-person facility, had some trainers under me, had hundreds of clients that we walked through that form, uh, acronym, which I'll tell you about more in a minute.

[00:07:13] Um, and so yeah, we helped adults for years, just apply biblical principles to health, make healthy living simple so that they can do what they're called to do. And then COVID hit and that was interesting for in-person gyms and facilities. And so we ended up, uh, having to go fully online and we just kept hearing over and over again from all of our clients. Like, man, I wish somebody would have taught me this when I was young. You know, nobody, nobody taught me these frameworks and made it this simple.

[00:07:39] And I'm bombarded by our culture with all this different stuff and diets and ways that things. It's just so confusing. And, um, and so, yeah, we felt like God spoke to us and told us that the way to change, um, the health of our nation is to equip and empower the next generation. And so, so we, um, one of my really close friends from church, he's one of the pastors at my church. He writes a lot of curriculum for Lifeway and for Thomas Nelson. And so I just hired him to help us, uh, kind of script out the lessons and, um, kind of partner with us in that.

[00:08:08] And so, yeah, we put together the whole platform, piloted it, uh, in 2021, and then started getting it out there in 2022. And we work with hundreds of schools all over the U S um, and they use it in their health and PE classes. And then we also use it, uh, you know, homeschool families use it and co-ops use it, um, as well. And it's, it's been amazing. So that's a little bit of the journey and story. Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. So, so you, you went straight into my next question, because I wanted to know about how you said initially you started working with adults,

[00:08:37] but now you're working with schools and with kids after school programs. So kind of tell us a little bit about that transition and how your program is a great fit for students. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's really hard to find, uh, it's really hard to find health and PE curriculum period. It's really, really hard to find biblically based, right? Uh, you know, you get the 300 page book that's from, you know, 15 years ago and it's like got the food pyramid and all this other stuff.

[00:09:06] It's like, kids are like, this is, this is old. Like, I don't want to, and so, um, you know, it's really hard to find stuff that's biblically based that we know that can align with our values. And so all of our material is biblically based. We have devotional guides. It's all teaching about, you know, how health is about helping us to serve others. We're talking about stewardship. We're talking about community where we do cover biblically based sex ed and emotional health and all that stuff that, you know, if parents want to cover that, we cover all of that from a biblical worldview.

[00:09:33] You know, there's so much junk thrown at our kids, um, from our culture. So yeah, it's number one is biblically based and it's all done for, for parents and for schools. You know, it's the platform's completely done. We're constantly adding and making it better based on feedback. And, you know, we do a really good job of supporting them. So. Yeah. I love that whole done for you approach because that's what homeschool parents are looking for. Um, we don't want to reinvent the wheel. If there's something already out there that can help us get that jumpstart, then we're more than happy to use it.

[00:10:01] And so I know that you have, your curriculum is structured in modules. Is that right? And how, how does that work for the homeschool parent who's interested in it, but just not quite sure how that's going to work for their family? Yeah. Um, so, so the, the form curriculum, the F O R M is the four pillars that we break down health into. So all the content, all the, everything you need to cover, we put into those four areas. And the whole goal is to teach students how God has made their body and what they need to do to steward it and how they

[00:10:30] can kind of just partner with that design, um, in every season of life. So, so the F stands for functional fitness, the O stands for optimal nourishment, the R stands for rest and recovery, and the M stands for multiplied maintenance. And so really the goal is to help students build and practice, uh, how to build a routine, a simple routine in every season of life in each of those areas. And then each of those four pillars, we have modules that break down, Hey, for fitness,

[00:10:56] like we break down how to do that, how the body works, why movement is important, all that stuff. And so each of those pillars has eight module topics, um, that teach students how to go through that. And so it breaks it down in a really simple framework that lets students not just learn all of the information and how the body works and nutrition and all that stuff, but gives them a framework of how to actually put it all together. Very cool. Okay. So is it self-paced or is this something that's graded by someone on your end or do parents grade? How does that work?

[00:11:26] Yeah. So it's usually self-paced. I mean, you can go through it however, um, you would like, we do have some pacing docs and things like that. Um, if, if families would like, we include that with the curriculum too of, you know, Hey, if you want to do, uh, the program throughout an entire year, like an entire kind of school year, um, you know, you do one of those module topics a week and it paces out really even if you want to get through it in a semester, you just do, you double that. So you just do two module topics per week. So it's really just however fast the family wants to go.

[00:11:56] Sometimes we have families that are like, Hey, my kid's supposed to graduate and we forgot to cover health. Like I need to cover it in eight weeks, like, and they can cram it all into eight weeks and do a topic a day. So it's really, it's really self-paced. We have a lot of pacing docs that they can use, but it's, it's pretty flexible and then everything's auto graded. So the whole curriculum is self-paced students go through it and there's auto graded assessments and it's pretty simple. Okay. That's so cool. It's auto graded. So that's less work on the parents end as well.

[00:12:22] And then you mentioned high school for health, uh, health, um, credits, right? So I'm assuming you have high school, but then do you also have elementary and middle school? Yeah. So the high school, yeah, it'll cover the health and PE credit because there's all the health content and then there's a lot of stuff for movement. So there's PE games and sports units and fitness workouts and all that stuff. And then, uh, and then there's the health content side and then, yeah, there is an elementary edition and then there's a middle high school edition to cover

[00:12:52] that credit. So, you know, it's, it progresses. Yeah. Yeah. Families with multiple age kids, they can use it for their high schoolers, their middle schoolers, elementary for everyone. So that's, that's a plus. And then how you mentioned earlier that you provide the sex ed as well for parents who want that. So how was that approach? And you said biblically based approach. So how do you guys handle the sex ed? Yeah, it's, it's, we don't go like, like I remember I went to public

[00:13:22] school and so our sex ed day was them pulling up STDs on a projector and just randomly, like, it's just like, why are you doing this to us? Like, what do we do to deserve this? And, and so we do not do that. I will firstly say, uh, uh, but yeah, it's, it's covered in a, there's a really, um, uh, you know, tasteful, just animated video that just kind of walks through how God created us for relationship and what that looks like. And, um, so it's, it's a little more general and then the

[00:13:51] different resources go in a little bit deeper. So the video is really general, really simple. Um, and then there's teaching guides that the parents can go through with kind of discussion and some summaries and things like that. There's teaching slides that go a little bit deeper. Again, there's no like weird pictures or anything weird, but it all just approaches it from God's design for relationships, for marriage. Um, and just brings it really simple and helps students to

[00:14:15] think, you know, rightly about it. And, and before, you know, before, um, families use it, they can get a preview of the whole platform to actually go in and see how it's covered, see what they'd be getting and stuff like that. So that way they know, you know, and they're not surprised by stuff. That's great. Yeah. I was about to mention that because I do have access to that part of it where you can look and see what it's like before you purchase. So I appreciate that you offer that so parents can see what they want to get. And, um, yeah,

[00:14:44] I just love what you're offering. Can you maybe just give like a brief overview of some of the types of exercises that you offer in the program? Yeah. So there's, there's, um, there are, uh, workout videos that go along with every module. So there's a warmup that students can follow along with just kind of getting their, uh, their body warmed up and ready, uh, their joints ready, uh, muscles ready, heart ready for exercise. And then there's, um, circuit style, uh, um, explanation videos and they can do, uh, different

[00:15:14] circuits and it can be done anywhere. It can be done outside, inside and living room. I think we filmed it in like a living room set. So it's, you know, it can be done anywhere, but it's, yeah, it's stuff like squats and planks and lunges and just simple functional things. There's modified things, um, that you can do too. And there's also a cool down video to help stretch out, kind of cool down after the workout too. And then we also have the ability if, if some families need these, some families don't, but you can also add like custom workout plans

[00:15:41] too, uh, to where, you know, your family could use, um, um, usually, usually it's only if there's like middle school or high school students that you're using it for sometimes families will get those and you can have custom based workout plans for, you know, what type of equipment do you have and what's the goal and how experienced. And there's, there's like hundreds of plans for, uh, for that as well. Um, and workouts. So. Okay. Yeah. Functional fitness then that's good. That that's what we need. I mean, yeah,

[00:16:09] helps keeps us healthy and strong. And so, yeah, very good. Nothing too complicated or out of the box. Nope. Yeah. That's not, it's, we're not trying to do NFL training here. It's just simple movement. And then for like co-ops and, and like, sometimes it doesn't quite apply to like homeschool families who have like just a couple of kids, but we do have like PE games and sports skills and sports units and things like that for co-ops or for schools. And then if you have, you know, five or six or

[00:16:37] plus students, you know, you could use the PE games and some of those types of stuff. But usually if it's a one single family, it's, there's not usually enough to be able to like play a game together type of thing. But. But for co-ops, that's a great idea. Oh yeah. I would love to know about your, your entrepreneurial journey. I know that creating this could not have been easy. There's always challenges with being an entrepreneur. And so what are some of the challenges that you've faced in forming form?

[00:17:06] Yeah, well, it was funny. I, I, you know, thinking back, the Lord is very, I'm, I'm very entrepreneurial, just like period. Like I'm just straight up entrepreneur, like always been that way. Always. I had my own little car washing business when I was a kid. I had a little long cutting business when I was a kid, you know, just stuff like that. But, but yeah, when I was, when I was, when we got done kind of with the in-person training and gym, you know, we had, I thought we were going to do corporate wellness. I thought that was

[00:17:35] where we're going to grow business and where we were going to do all this stuff and impact. And it just failed just horribly. Like, no, just was horrible. And all the while we're building this, this, this kid's curriculum that I'm like, okay, that's a side project. Like, like, that's cool. Like God told us to do it. We'll see what happens with it. And all the while, this is just failing. And we have this great curriculum over here. That's pretty almost done. And every person I would tell about, you know, what we're doing, I'm like, yeah, corporate wellness, we're doing this and we're doing that. And here's what we're going to do.

[00:18:03] And it was just failing and not doing anything. And, and everybody would just be like, Hey, like, that's cool. But like this kid's curriculum is so unique. Like, that's so cool. Like this, the content's awesome. It looks great. It's like, and I'm like, yeah, that's a side of projects, like corporate wellness. And eventually the Lord was just like, stop. I don't want you to do one more thing with the wellness corporate stuff. I don't want you to do anything with it. Start calling schools. And so I just picked up the phone. I got a list of schools that I just found online

[00:18:29] and I just started calling and asking, Hey, who's over your PE and started telling them about it. And, and you know, it wasn't anything fancy. I'm not fancy. I'm not smarter than the next guy. I just picked up the phone and started reaching out. And, uh, yeah, we just, it started taking off. So that's, yeah, it's, God's been really, really good. It's funny how we think this is, this is what we're supposed to focus on. And then God leads us somewhere else. And, and you can have a couple of things that you're trying to

[00:18:59] balance at once, but there's that one thing God wants us to focus on at that particular time. Maybe the other things are for later, but it's amazing that if we listen to his voice, he'll lead us exactly where we need to be. So I'm glad that you listened and this is a great curriculum. So yeah, I'm glad. Um, okay. Well, as far as health and wellness, I just wanted to hear what your tips are for encouraging homeschool families to prioritize this for their families.

[00:19:27] I know we're, we're all about health and wellness, but when it comes to making sure that our kids are getting the movement they need and that we're making it fun and available to them, what's your encouragement? Yeah. I mean, get access to form. I just, it's, it's health is such a tough topic because like with math, it's like, okay, I got to help my kid do math. I'm not very good at math, but it doesn't like, nobody cares that they're not good at math with health. If you're trying to

[00:19:54] teach your kid health and you don't do a very good job at it, like there's like those emotional kind of levels to it of like, Oh, like, I don't know how to take care of myself or, Oh, maybe I've gained some weight or, Oh, maybe I'm not. And it's like, you don't have to be perfect for this stuff and you don't have to have everything going on and be, I'm not. And, and so I think part of what, what I love about our platform and what it's able to give parents is it backs them up. You know, I've had, I've had so many parents reach out and they're like, my kids are finally eating their

[00:20:22] veggies. And it's like, I've been trying to tell them to do that for my whole life. And then they watched one of your videos and they're all, mom, how can we make this? And it's like, so I just think having being backed up and having someone else speak the same things as you and, you know, and be able to come in with some of the things that maybe aren't your specialty, or maybe you're not necessarily good at, or maybe there's some, I mean, there's just a lot of levels

[00:20:47] to health, you know, that, that is different than teaching math, you know? And so just being able to have something that's done for you, that takes work off of you. And that really just partners with and, and something that you can trust is, Hey, here's, here's something that's aligning with my values. I mean, that's, that's kind of what I would say. It's, it's those, those four pillars are, are transformative. Yeah. So. I love that, Ashton. And I love that you said partnership. That's, that's important. That's

[00:21:13] such a key in homeschooling. When we partner with someone, with an organization that can help us achieve our goals for our kids, that's, that means so much to homeschool families. And, and of course the values align and they're the same. That's important too. So I love what you offer. I love what you're doing. Can you tell us how we can reach you and how we can get access to this curriculum?

[00:21:35] Yeah, definitely. Yeah. You can go to formeducation.org. And that's F O R M formeducation.org slash homeschool. And that there's ton of information on the curriculum there. You can visualize everything and you can actually get like, like I was saying, you can get a full preview of the whole entire curriculum. I think it gives you like 14 days or something to go in, test it out,

[00:22:01] look at all of the content, see exactly what you're getting. It's like, it's the full thing. And yeah, just test it out and see how you like it. So you can get that full preview for 14 days before, you know, making a decision. So that way you actually see what you're getting. That's perfect. That's perfect. So we'll make sure to include all these links in the show notes and we appreciate your time and sharing that with us, what you do and how you're helping families and children and schools. So thank you so much for being here today. Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for having me.