URL: http://www.abqjournal.com/sage/57977venue07-06-03.htm

Sunday, July 6, 2003
Homeschooling: Teaching Thy Children Well
By Jane Mahoney For the Journal     COVER STORY: Homeschooling is a misnomer. Learning takes place not only at home, but in museums and grocery stores, nature hikes and routine visits to the doctor's office. It may happen around the kitchen table, but it's just as likely to flourish in back yards and gardens, libraries and the mall.
    "I still forget sometimes that the information that was doled out to me on a schedule is just out there for my kids, that they find it interesting and that they have no reason to avoid adding it to their fascinating collection of trivia about places, people and the world around them," writes Sandra Dodd, an Albuquerque mother of three children who have never set foot in a regular classroom.
    "The world is all a-swirl with music and maps and photographs of interesting architecture, costumes and ancient weaponry and technology."

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Slide show of homeschooling photos by Cara Scibelli

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Homeschooling: Regulations and Beyond
So you think you'd like to homeschool your children? The good news is that New Mexico's laws and regulations for homeschooling are among the most liberal in the nation. In just the past year, New Mexico has done away with testing requirements for homeschooled kids, as well as requirements to submit immunization records. However, New Mexico law does require several things: The homeschool operator must be the parent or legal guardian of the child; have a high school diploma or its equivalent; and keep a calendar showing that he or she is teaching the child at least 180 days out of the school year. A homeschool notification form is due yearly (April) to the New Mexico Department of Education, and a new operator must notify the State Superintendent in writing within 30 days of establishing a homeschool. Call (505) 827-6909 for information. Homeschooling is not considered accredited by the New Mexico State Board of Education. Homeschooled students have two options to obtain accreditation: Pass the GED or take classes through an accredited correspondence school. Legalities aside, most homeschooling parents would agree that it takes hard work, a love of learning and the right temperament to successfully homeschool a child. You must enjoy spending time with your children — and you can't let a messy house bother you. "Courage and time" is what Sandra Dodd calls the key ingredients. Albuquerque homeschoolers can find resource materials and curriculum guides — both secular and Christian — at Title Wave Books, 7915 Menaul NE. Textbooks, biographies, novels and children's books are among the thousands of used books at discount prices on the shelves. CAPE of New Mexico (Christian Association of Parent Educators) will hold an Introduction to Home Education Seminar from 6:30 to 9 p.m. July 21 at Heights Cumberland Presbyterian Church, 8600 Academy Blvd., in the senior high room. Veteran home schooling parents and former CAPE-NM board members Ross and Lee Ann Roberts will conduct the workshop. Registration is free, and a resource manual is available for $5. Similar seminars are scheduled for Aug. 18, Sept. 22, Oct. 20 and Nov. 17. A Getting Started class is scheduled for Aug. 9 in Roswell. Arrangements can be made to schedule a seminar in any part of the state. For more information, or to organize a class in another area, call 898-8548.

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    No longer the exclusive domain of fundamentalist Christians desiring to shield their children from the unsavory aspects of a public education, homeschooling has extended into the mainstream.
    A national trend

    Last year, more than 5,200 children were homeschooled in New Mexico, according to notification forms turned in to the state's Board of Education. But homeschoolers and state officials alike estimate that the actual number is probably double that figure. Statistics compiled by Home Education Research indicate that nationally, the homeschooling trend is growing at an annual rate of 7 to 15 percent.
    The reasons are myriad, although a common thread is a desire for an education attuned to an individual child's needs, learning style, personality and interests.
    "It's important to me that the whole child is being taught — not fragments of math, literature and science," says Lisa Hoffman, a former Montessori teacher and mother to Emily, 9, and Marc, 6. "They're all integral to each other and not limited to the clock or the bell."
    "It's about the journey, not the goal," says Kristin Madden, mother to Karl, 7, who wants to be a rocket scientist someday.
    "School tries to keep kids still and quiet," says Dodd, a prolific speaker and writer on the subject of 'unschooling.' "That's not how you learn. There needs to be emotion. If the brain is snoozing, you're not going to hook a kid."
    It's not just the absorption of knowledge that matters; it's about behavior and character, say Jay and Annie Stoltzfus. They have followed a structured Christian curriculum in which their four children study classic literature and a rigorous course of mathematics, history, geography and science. "We're not raising children," adds Jay. "We're raising adults. We want successful, kind adults who also know how to take care of a home."
    Endless variations

    The approaches to homeschooling are as varied as the families who try it. Homeschooling means different things to different people. For some families, homeschooling means duplicating school at home with textbooks, reports and lectures. For others, homeschooling is a lifestyle, a seamless approach to living and learning in which an observer would find it difficult to distinguish between "home" and "school." And in between the two extremes, there are countless variations.
    "It's not just about safety or academics," explains Susan Tsyitee, a Las Vegas, N.M., mother serving on the board of the Christian Association of Parent Educators (CAPE). "It's not because we're afraid of the influences of public school on our children. It's about choosing to invest our lives in our kids.
    "Here's what happened to us: We fell in love with our family. We loved having our son and daughter home with us. Our daughter learned to read on my lap; she was home with me for 9-11. We believe that children of privilege are those whose parents spend huge amounts of time — not money — on them. The goal is to provide the best academic, social and spiritual foundation that we can, and we feel we can do that best at home."
    Mixing it up

    But what about socialization? Isn't homeschooling terribly isolating? How do kids meet other kids? Those are the common questions asked by homeschooling skeptics. They're also the very comments most certain to frustrate and rile proponents of homeschooling.
    "Kids in school don't necessarily learn socialization," says Madden, a biologist who says her own school experience was positive. "They learn how to cope with a peer group."
    Regular classrooms are rife with power struggles among children — name-calling, peer pressure and rote learning that seldom encourage children to "think outside the box," says Romy Keegan, mother to two sons, ages 13 and 7. She gave up her family's second income to stay home to school the boys.
    Madden and Keegan gather with a half-dozen other like-minded women every Tuesday at the Barelas Community Center, where the 13 kids between them (ages 6 through 13) play and work on projects ranging from art to science. This spring alone, they practiced a theatrical production, had a hands-on look at birds of prey, learned drumming techniques and practiced martial arts.
    Madden and the others say they're happy that their children are developing close friendships with children spanning many ages. They see their children learning to respect and rely on other adults in their parents' circle of acquaintances.
    "I'm not a teacher, but I do know how to teach my kids," says Patricia Allaire, mother to Yarrow, 10, and Noah, 8. "And it's one teacher on two kids."
    "We follow what our kids' sparks are," says Keegan, who like many of the others develops her own curriculum around family interests.
    The kids set the pace, she added, and while one was reading at age 4, the second is just starting to read at age 7.
    On days away from the homeschooling group, Allaire's children spend time in the family's extensive garden, read novels and take lessons in violin and Spanish. Madden's son loves the Middle Ages, and she has found ways to incorporate lessons in history, math and reading around that particular topic. Hoffman's kids computed the math to determine lumber purchases for a greenhouse they helped build in the back yard. Keegan's teenage son has discovered several Web sites to guide him through beginning algebra.
    "I've come to cherish this about homeschooling," says Allaire, referring to her family's flexibility to delve deeply into topics of interest. "We can commit in a deep way to learning because (the children) are not overwhelmed by all-day school."
    Support and inspiration

    Support groups abound, linked philosophically, geographically or by old and new friendships. The CAPE group sponsors a convention each spring that attracts more than 2,000 attendees who flock to Albuquerque for educational workshops, information and inspirational speakers.
    Indeed, socialization with other families has been one of the highlights of the homeschooling experience for Krista Baker, mom to Kandice, 8, and Kanyon, 5. The Bakers still take part in some activities sponsored by the Tumbleweeds homeschooling group, even though Kandice also attends a Family School alternative program operated by Albuquerque Public Schools.
    The APS Family School, 3000 Adams NE, combines a half day of classroom instruction with a half day of home-based instruction, an arrangement that lets parents take an active role in the education of their children under the umbrella of an established and accredited curriculum.
    Baker opted for APS Family School last year after she had tried other options with Kandice, including a successful preschool program, a disastrous private school kindergarten and a year of healing homeschooling.
    "You know how they say one was 'too hot,' one 'too cold' and one 'just right'?" she asked. "That was Family School for us."
    Kandice now shines in a classroom of multi-level second- through fifth-graders, a successful arrangement because she reads at the fifth-grade level and does math at the third-grade level. She attends school for a half-day four times weekly, and her parents continue the school curriculum through projects and homework assignments at home. A school goal, according to Principal Gael Keyes, is to teach parents to teach their children.
    Keyes started the school in 1990 with 16 children. She was a classroom teacher, and her daughter was in the class. She realized she wasn't covering all the material she wanted and decided there had to be a better way "to value the parent in the process of teaching."
    Keyes considers the Family School a success, with students. "We try to answer the question most schools don't ask, which is, 'Why come to school at all?' " she said. "In answering this, we've created a social learning community — not socialization. The entire school is built around learning. It takes place around, by and in spite of other children."
    More than learning

    Academics was not the first priority when Annie and Jay Stoltzfus decided to homeschool their four children at their East Mountain home.
    "We were more concerned about our kids' behavior and character," says Annie, a former speech therapist with APS.
    The family has followed a structured Christian-based curriculum, peppered with proverbs, moral teachings and Biblical scripture mixed among math problems and history lessons. Thick year-by-year portfolios follow the children's progress through addition to modern history, and the family's bookshelves are lined with classic literature from Shakespeare to the Bronte sisters.
    By the time Sarah Stoltzfus, now 16, reached sixth grade, the family made the decision to enroll the children in the Christian-based Rio Grande Enrichment Studies, a private organization offering a classical education. There, one full day per week, the kids receive instruction through lectures in history, science, geography and literature.
    Annie Stoltzfus concedes she enjoys the once-a-week break from teaching.
    "When you're a homeschool parent, you're constantly telling the kids what to do: Clean your room. Do the laundry. And then the school work is added to that," she says. "Sometimes, you feel that you're constantly on your kids. This outside program let's me ask 'What did (the teacher) assign?' It takes a little of that pressure off."
    When Sarah was ready for high school, she surprised the family by opting to go to public high school — Sandia High — where she would be able to play soccer.
    The transition was smooth academically — Sarah has been able to maintain a 4.2 GPA with honors classes — but challenging on other fronts. Sarah encountered kids who sometimes didn't complete assignments, cussed routinely and were easily swayed by peer pressure. New challenges came when Sarah was assigned books to read that would have been unacceptable in the family setting, and when her freshman biology class took on the study of evolution, a distinct departure from the teenager's beliefs in Creationism.
    The family has survived; Sarah has found a close circle of friends; and her sister, Megan, 13, may be the next to choose public high school when the time comes.
    Nonetheless, Sarah says she wouldn't trade her homeschool experience for anything.
    "I'm close to all my siblings," she says. It's been nice to be around my family so much. Part of homeschooling is being able to see how my parents interact. They are such role models for me."
    Independent study

    New Mexico's outspoken proponent of the unschooling movement is Sandra Dodd, a former public school teacher and mother to Kirby, 16; Marty, 14; and Holly, 11. The kids have never attended school. In fact, when Kirby recently enrolled in a driver's education class, it was one of the first times he had left home armed with pencil and notebook.
    Kids can't help but learn, says Dodd, and they do it best when left to their own devices away from schedules, report cards, textbooks and tests. They can't help but absorb information from the world around them, from movies, books, games and people they respect, she says. Learning is stifled and rarely remembered when information is categorized and presented in disjointed 45-minute sessions marked by buzzers and bells, she says.
    Dodd's home is a living laboratory of learning — one of hundreds that her children have access to if one counts the yard, parks, stores, streets, friends' houses, the whole city and beyond. Games, movies, art supplies, sports equipment, musical instruments, maps, photographs, crayons and costumes are strewn across the dining room table and the family room floor. Reading, writing, math, history and geography are learned in the ordinary din of conversation, singing ballads and spinning globes, she says.
    In a recent column for "Home Education Magazine," Dodd wrote:
    "If a family experimenting with unschooling can try to go some amount of time — a week, a month — without learning anything, but during that time they keep active, talkative, busy with life, maybe some art, some music, theatre or movies, walks to collect things (in the woods, in the Dumpsters, it doesn't matter) — just being, but being busy — at the end of that time (or halfway through) I think it will become apparent that learning cannot be turned off, that given a rich environment, learning becomes like the air — it's in and around us."
    Dodd is often asked, "Are you willing to risk your kids' future on 'theories?' "
    "Well, of course I am," is her answer. "Unschooling works when your first priority is your kids' joyful learning and safe growth. And there's nothing about my kids that doesn't exude confidence and intelligence."
    Higher education

    "What about college?" is a frequent question directed at homeschooling families.
    Home Education Research reports that scores on standardized tests or college admission tests are consistently as good or better than those from conventional schools.
    By high-school level, many homeschooling families turn to community colleges, correspondence courses or support groups to pick up classes that parents may be unable or unwilling to teach. The Tsyitee family used an eclectic and varied approach — using text books, unit studies and even enrolling their son in a Toastmasters club to gain speaking experience. Susan Tsyitee says that hundreds of colleges, universities and vocational schools around the country accept homeschooled students, and some even seek them out.
    "Most homeschools are not accredited but that doesn't mean they're substandard," says Tsyitee, whose son John, 25, now attends Texas Tech. "For the most part, they're producing superior students who can think out of the box. These kids are independent (not peer dependent) thinkers and learners. They're focused, mature and responsible."
    CAPE even offers workshops that guide students and parents through preparing college applications.
    Tsyitee says she's committed to homeschooling her 12-year-old daughter throughout high school.
    "I don't want to give some false impression that I'm June Cleaver," she says. "But I can honestly say we're raising kids we like to have around. We're raising people we like, citizens we'll be proud to have as members of our society and adults who'll we'll be happy to have raising our grandchildren."