Choosing the classroom down the hall
Research, support key to success for homeschool families
by Shari Hegland
It is one of the biggest questions parents face — and one they often begin thinking about even before a child is born: What is the best way to educate my child? Public or private school?
A small but growing number of parents, both in the Coulee Region and nationwide, are choosing a third option: homeschooling.
Officially labeled “private home-based educational programs” in Wisconsin, more than 20,000 children were homeschooled in the state for the 2006-2007 school year, compared to 2,500 in 1986-87. Among those homeschooled last year were about 350 in La Crosse County.
For many families, the decision to homeschool is based on religious reasons or a desire to more carefully guide their children’s character development. Other reasons include providing more individual attention to a child or if they have had a negative experience with a public school.
“I didn't care to have my kids exposed at such an early age to the negative influences present in public schools,” said Dede Holt, whose four children have all been homeschooled. “Young kids are very impressionable, and I wanted to guard their hearts and minds, especially in their young years.”
She said she also enjoyed being able to spend time with her children and watching them as they learned each new skill. This year, two of the Holmen family’s children will still be homeschooled — seventh-grader Josiah and fourth-grader Sarah Beth — but 17-year-old Catherine and 15-year-old Michael will attend Holmen High School.
“I think their wings were finished developing,” their mother said.
Other area parents who have chosen homeschooling gave similar reasons. Laura Swift, who has homeschooled her family since the oldest of her six children reached school age, said she was intrigued by the idea before she even had children.
“I met a woman through my work who had six children who were homeschooled,” she said. “They impressed me as people. They could handle themselves well and could communicate with adults.”
She attended her first homeschool conference when her oldest son was just 2 years old, and this year will teach five of her own six children at home.
Getting started
Area homeschoolers recommend doing research before your child reaches school age, if you think you may be interested in following the homeschool route.
“If it’s something you’re thinking about, find out as much as you can before you actually make the decision,” suggests Paula Gregerson of French Island.
Holt recommends educating yourself about the various learning styles and spending time with your child to determine how he or she learns best.
“I noticed early on with my daughter, when she was about 3, that she remembered things well if she heard them,” Holt said, so she focused in the early years on that auditory learning style. “I might record her spelling words, or I might read to her or let her read to me.”
Knowing the child’s learning style can help guide parents in choosing the best curriculum or in adapting the curriculum to suit their child.
“Finding the curriculum is easy. It is choosing which one is going to work that is the difficult part,” said Gregerson, who not only homeschools her six sons, but also owns Coulee Region House of Knowledge, a used curriculum store that she operates online from her home.
She said families can find curriculum online, at conferences, or from distributors who occasionally have displays in the area. For older students, DVD curriculum is available for the advanced courses, often with assistance available by phone when they are struggling.
Finding support
While conferences can be a good place to review curriculum and other offerings for homeschool parents, they are also a great place to find support.
“If you’re thinking about homeschooling, it’s a good idea to try to get a hold of people who do it already,” Gregerson said. That suggestion is echoed by both Holt and Swift.
Swift said she gained a lot of insight from the conferences she attended and the people she met there.
“You need people to encourage you and get you on the right track with what you need to do starting out,” she said.
Young families especially may find benefits in being part of a local network of homeschoolers for field trips and other events. Gregerson has created the Coulee Homeschool Resource Center, a non-profit organization to provide a network for communication, support, and resources for homeschoolers. In its first year, the organization garnered 22 families as members, with activities that included arts and crafts, choir, chess club, robotics, a play, monthly field trips, and holiday events.
“It offers interaction between the kids and something fun and different to do,” she said.
The group can also provide emotional support for parents.
“Your main connections are other parents,” Swift said. “We all have major struggles in different areas. We can share that to let the new ones know that they aren’t alone.”
Challenges
“Personal expectations are the toughest things,” Holt said. “Am I giving them everything they’re going to need? Am I giving them everything that is best for them?”
And then there are simply the logistics of teaching children who are studying at several different levels, while also dealing with the realities of family illnesses or other disruptions.
“You have to be flexible,” Swift says. “I’ve had to change the way I do it with each child. It’s not something I would recommend to every family.”
Despite the challenges, these families are glad they have taken this approach to educating their children.
Benefits
Homeschool parents list many things they love about what they do: the extra time with their children and getting to witness the “aha!” moments when they learn something new; the close relationships their children share with each other; and the conviction that they are doing what they are meant to do.
For Swift, the best moments are unplanned.
“My favorite part of homeschooling, hands down, are the times when we’re (studying) and one of the kids will ask me a question about something — just everyday life — and we’ll spend the whole morning just talking about that thing, and it might spiderweb off to other topics,” she said. “My children are a little more prepared to go off into the world after those mornings. I can teach them what I’ve learned about life.”
Holmen freelance writer Shari Hegland is already trying to choose the best educational path for her son, though he is only 15 month old. Right now, all options are still on the table.
The basics:
Wisconsin — Wisconsin law requires that children between the ages of 6 and 18 receive at least 875 hours of instruction each school year. Parents must submit the proper forms to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction by Oct. 15 each year. There are no testing requirements or minimum qualifications for the parent in a “home-based private education program.”
Minnesota — Minnesota’s compulsory instruction law covers ages 7-16; yearly testing is mandatory. If the parent does not have a baccalaureate degree or teaching credentials, some additional reporting is necessary. Parents must notify the school district in which the child resides by Oct. 1 if planning to homeschool.
Resources:
Coulee Region Homeschool Resource Center; 519-0764
Home School Legal Defense Association: A wide range of information regarding homeschooling, not limited to legal questions.
Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction
Wisconsin Christian Home Educators Association
Minnesota Department of Education
Minnesota Homeschoolers’ Alliance
Minnesota Association of Christian Home Educators
By the numbers:
(Homeschool students by district in 2006-07 year; data from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction)
- La Crosse: 130
- Onalaska: 60
- Holmen: 82
- West Salem: 56