Homeschooling: A Growing Trend

by Tali Toland

Homeschooling is an ideal alternative to education for many Atlanta families. Some feel public school isn’t doing a good enough job, others can’t afford private school, and some families choose homeschooling because of the scheduling freedom it allows.

Families on the outside of the homeschool trend often feel pity for kids who are homeschooled – saying they don’t have social interaction – but that’s just not so. Hybrid homeschooling has created a niche home for kids who are homeschooled. For a couple of days a week, homeschool families come together in a classroom setting. Kids benefit from the socialization with the other kids and can get some extra help in subjects the parent-teacher doesn’t feel strong in. Also, most homeschool families participate in sports and fine arts activities as part of their curriculum – there are even two metro-Atlanta baseball teams that are made entirely of homeschoolers.

A variety of support groups for homeschool families exist, and online resources make connecting to other families and getting information easier than ever. Websites devoted to home schooling include:

www.ghea.org
www.heir.org
www.doe.k12.ga.us/askdoe.aspx?PageReq=ASKHome
www.sonlight.com
www.georgiahomeschool.com

Why homeschooling is right for us.
Here’s a look into why some local families chose this style of education for their kids.

Pam Peeples, Tucker

Who’s Homeschooled? Noah, 11, and Jacob, 9.

The Choice: When my oldest son, Noah, turned 5 and we realized he would be away from home most of the day to attend kindergarten, I began to research homeschooling. I found that Georgia is a great place to homeschool and, in particular, metro Atlanta. Homeschooling provides the opportunity to spend more time as a family and for my boys to learn at their own pace and level of interest. Homeschooling for us is a way of life – school is 24 hours a day because learning opportunities are everywhere if we just have the time to look. Because they are home with me all day, they are able to learn how to help with the laundry, grocery shopping, fixing meals and doing dishes.

We love the freedom of setting our own schedule, being able to work through the summer or take a longer break in the winter when Dad has time off work. We can also visit family more often. 

There are so many reasons we made the choice, but for me what sealed the deal was some advice from a friend. She has children a few years older than mine and was pulling them out of “regular” school about the time we were trying to decide if homeschooling was right for us. She asked, “Who do you want to be the primary influence on your children, 30 other children that you don’t know, or you? Think about the opportunity to invest in your children. The return is priceless.”

Benefits: The boys can learn at their own paces and have the advantage of the really small class size of two! If they understand something we keep going, but if they need more time to grasp a particular concept, we are able to spend as much time as necessary. We have a goal for our homeschool: to love God, love each other and love to learn. School should not be about what their “grade” is, but kids should understand what they are learning and be able to use it in real life. It’s fantastic to go to Stone Mountain Park and ask for our members’ discount of 10 percent and Jacob has it figured out before the cashier has finished ringing him up! I think it also helps them in the fact that they are maturing at their own rate, not based on what someone else has determined is correct. My guys love to read and watch the birds in the backyard. I’m so happy that they take time for these things, and they aren’t always in need of an electronic gadget to entertain them!

Socialization: Just because we homeschool doesn’t mean we are home all of the time. We are part of a wonderful member-led support group, which provides field trips, activities, park days, encouragement for parents, and opportunities for public presentations. The boys also play soccer, basketball and baseball, as well as sing in an elementary age choir. They have also taken piano lessons and karate. That is one of the beautiful things about school at home – we can get our academics done in a much shorter time than public school children and still have time to pursue other interests. My oldest, Noah, is really looking forward to being able to do more drama and maybe robotics. 

Curriculum: Our family chooses to be mostly independent in our homeschool instead of participating in a hybrid situation. We choose curriculum for each subject based on our children’s needs. They do attend The Master’s Academy of Fine Arts on Tuesday for half a day for their fine arts education. The teachers, who are usually homeschool parents themselves, teach history, art, music and drama based on the period of history they are studying. It’s been a great opportunity for my boys to take these classes all in one place, instead of driving from place to place to cover all the same bases. But as for the academics, so far we are content to do those on our own at home.

Advice: It is important to have a support system. My husband, Stanley, is our “principal”; he is very involved and supportive. He loves to help out, especially in his favorite subject, math. I also think being involved in a support group is great.

Laure Biel, Cumming

Who’s Homeschooled? Natalie, 14, and Garrett, 10.

The Choice: We chose to homeschool for a variety of reasons. I felt like there was a lot of wasted time in the school day and we could compress that learning at home and learn at our own pace and still have time to do other activities and enjoy our time as a family. I also wanted my children to have a close relationship with each other. We enjoy the fact that we can discuss our faith freely at home in the context of all the subjects we are learning. I also enjoy the fact that I can customize the curriculum I use for the strengths and weaknesses of each child.

Benefits: Homeschooling has benefited my children in many ways. They aren’t “stressed” by learning. They have the flexibility and luxury to learn at their own paces; accelerating through subjects that are easy for them and taking as much time as they need on the subjects that are more difficult. I am not forced to “teach to the test,” so we can go as deep into a subject as we want and don’t feel the pressure to push on so we can cover the material before the standardized test. (But I do test them each year with a standardized test.) They are able to learn without labels, i.e. – talented and gifted or remedial classes.

I love that my children are comfortable around all ages of people – young and old – not just their peers. They also don’t have to deal with peer pressure in the ways most children do.

Socialization: We are involved with a large homeschool support group and take many outside classes and field trips to supplement our curriculum and homeschooling. Our homeschool support group offers academic co-ops, as well as social and service activities. We have family square dances, daddy-daughter dances, father-son activities, spelling bees, science fairs, geography bees and even a yearbook.

Curriculum: My background is as a teacher in public schools, so for some subjects I feel more structure is important. We use grade-level specific curriculum for math and grammar; Saxon math has a homeschool curriculum but is also used in public schools. History we’ve done chronologically – so my kids understand how events stack up on each other. We have participated in outside programs where we may take a science class one day a week or go to class one day a week and receive the assignments for the week to work on, and then prepare for discussion and presentation the following week. Currently we are involved in a co-op called Classical Conversations, which is a hybrid homeschool of sorts we attend once a week. Overall, we don’t spend much time at all on test taking, but when I do test the kids, they have always done well.