Hi, fellow Texans!
We live outside Fort Worth and have 3 children, ages 20, 16, and 13. We've been homeschooling for nearly 13 years, now. Our oldest is at Hampshire College (in MA) -- she was also accepted at Sarah Lawrence and Marlboro Colleges. I always enjoy pointing out to doubting Thomases that her transcript had NO GRADES. Sarah Lawrence offered her one of only five presidential scholarships (for academic merit) awarded each year, but her heart already belonged to Hampshire because of its homeschool-like philosophy of education.We've never used packaged curricula or tested the kids. When Ariel took the SAT for college, it was her first test (not counting drivers ed.) since 2nd grade. I will always be grateful to Texas homeschool laws for allowing our children this freedom.
Our homeschooling style is entirely interest-led. Internships and work experience in our kids' fields of choice have been the focus during their teen years. Laurel (16) is the sous chef at a coffee house in Fort Worth 20 hrs/wk, and she also works at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History. She began as a museum volunteer at age 12. When not at work, she indulges her passion for philosophy and biology and tries to make time to study French every day. Oh, did I forget algebra? Yes. Yes, I did. (Laurel has been catching up on her own.)
Hunter (13) is a blithe spirit whose current love is physics. He's also the house expert on everything pertaining to Star Wars. I don't get the Star Wars stuff, but I trust his obsession to have some higher purpose. <VBG> Hunter never fails to get up in time for Julius Sumner Miller's 15-minute physics show on our local educational channel. (It comes on at 11:30 a.m.) This is a far cry from the days when I got everyone out of bed at 6:30 so we could get all the chores done and begin "school" at 9:00. Oh, well.
I write children's fiction, garden when weather permits, and moderate the special topics board at Kaleidoscapes. My husband designs and builds furniture, but this year he's making most of his living as a construction consultant. We're just old hippies who still believe The Whole Earth Catalog was the best idea that came out of the '60s.
Cerelle
November 1998Ariel -- '78
Laurel -- '82
Hunter -- '85
I am an only child with a limited ability to relate to groups of children, and I had grave misgivings about the appropriateness of my decision to homeschool. Had it not been for my oldest's horrendous school experience, I guess I'd still be making cookies for PTA meetings and signing report cards. Decision to homeschool
It was The Whole Earth Catalog--roughly a century ago--that first introduced me to the possibility of homeschooling. That was long before I was married or had kids. I thought it sounded terrific. But once I actually had children of my own, I was more inclined to do the rational thing and send them off to school. Silly me.
My personality flaws that contraindicated being a homeschool mom (so I thought) included laziness and rampant disorganization. Once I made up my mind to homeschool, I decided I would just have to GET organized. I sort of knew how that worked, since my mother's the most organized human being on the planet. Wow, you should have seen me! I was phenomenal...for the first few months, anyway. After that, I was cyclic: I'd be super organized for a month or so, & then it would all go to rot. Eventually, I struck a shaky balance -- just enough organization that we could look ourselves in the mirror in the morning without cringing, but not so compulsive that it gave us all ulcers. At one point, we got dairy goats so we'd HAVE to get up early to do the milking. (Then I found out goats don't care what time they're milked, as long as it's consistent -- there went THAT plan!)
Oh, one thing I wanted to say was that of all the books I read about homeschooling (before we actually started), the one that gave me real HOPE was Nancy Wallace's Better Than School. (The Colfaxes hadn't written Homeschooling for Excellence yet.) Somehow, Nancy made it sound do-able, and I still recommend her book to people who are trying to make up their minds.
Cerelle
November 1998
We began flirting with the idea of homeschooling when Ariel (our oldest) was in 1st grade at a private parochial school. She was miserable in a lockstep classroom. Not only were her needs not being met; her intelligence was being insulted daily by a hostile and unsympathetic teacher. We decided, however, to hold off on homeschooling until she'd had a chance to try 2nd grade at the same school. We liked the gifted teacher there, and we hoped a better classroom teacher might make the school experience bearable for Ariel. More on Our Decision
Second grade was, indeed, an improvement. Here's an excerpt from my journal that Fall (1985):
Conference with A.'s teacher today. A. was on pins and needles--I could tell she was worried. Last year was so awful. Mrs. H. always used every conference to run A. into the ground, one way or another, and I'm sure A. was dreading today. But Mrs. R. had only praise and reassurance; I very nearly cried with relief. She said she had decided that the reason A. is a 'loner' is because she thinks on a higher plane than everyone else and just can't find much in common with all these silly little 2nd graders. Now that's a switch! I never expected to hear it from a teacher, especially after our bitter experience with Mrs. H. Everyone in the family is heaving a big sigh of relief.So why did we homeschool anyway? Well...everything came to a head after my husband attended the Open House that fall at Ariel's school. (I stayed home that night because I was sick). Here's the journal entry:Tomas came back [from the Open House] in a dark frame of mind, and as soon as the kids were asleep, he explained. He said he hadn't seen anything interesting going on in Ariel's classroom; he was convinced her time was being wasted left and right; and to make matters worse, the P.E. teacher had called Ariel lazy. This had really upset A., in light of the fact that she (she claims) is one of the few children who actually 'do' the exercises. . . .We began to seriously consider homeschooling again. I wrote:I was reluctant to confront a crisis so early in the school year, though. I had resigned myself to resign myself, and now it's almost hard for me to change gears.I went to the library the next day to find Teach Your Own (John Holt) and read it again, hoping to rekindle my enthusiasm for homeschooling. Instead, I found NancyWallace's Better Than School. Here's what I wrote after I began reading it:What a storm it has brewed in my mind! I've hardlyThat was the turning point. We began homeschooling atthe beginning of the spring semester, and the restis history. Nearly 13 years later, it still stands asthe single best decision I've ever made.
been myself these last few days. Reading it has been
like backing up to the woodstove when you're chilled
to the bone.Cerelle
November 1998