D
David_Paul
Guest
St. Petersburg Times
June 25, 2005
REBECCA CATALANELLO
Yearbook, drama lessons, field trips, even classes at public school. Homeschooling gets a new look from a generation craving more time with their kids.
Twenty years ago, homeschooling was a crime in Florida. Parents who wanted to teach their kids at home did so in secrecy. With blinds drawn.
They wanted to protect their kids from society’s evils; society, in turn, thought of them as zealots.
In 1984, a group of parents huddled in an Orlando convention center to form an association of homeschoolers. The group, in the words of a founding member, was “pretty weird.” The stereotype of homeschoolers - religious conservatives and spelling bee winners - remains to this day.
Everything else has changed.
Homeschooling has gone mainstream. It has graduations and conventions, yearbooks and extracurriculars. Kids learn at co-ops, on the Internet, at museums and even at public schools.
Increasingly, it’s for people who don’t want to schedule family time around dual careers, piano lessons and soccer practices. They just want more time with their kids.
Kelly Erickson was at a park eating lunch with her 3-year-old when a herd of school-aged kids stormed the play area. It was a school day, and she wondered where the children came from.
Homeschoolers, a friend said.
“Freaks,” Erickson thought. “I just had it in my head that homeschoolers were women who make their own clothes and were out of the cultural norm.”
Erickson, on the other hand, was a corporate sales representative, her husband was a Delta Air Lines pilot. They skied at Steamboat Springs, paid cash for a new SUV and thought nothing of dropping $400 on a leather Coach briefcase.
After their infant daughter Abby almost died from a strep infection , the Ericksons rethought their priorities. Kelly Erickson resolved to spend more time being a mom to Abby and older sister Kimberly. She quit work.
Now, she had time to volunteer at Trinity Elementary in southwest Pasco County. Now, she could stop to notice how bored Kimberly looked in class. Now, she could pore over Kimberly’s writing assignments - and wonder how so many misspellings could earn a good grade.
What to do?
Four years after her brush with homeschooling “freaks,” Kelly Erickson, now 38, decided homeschooling offered exactly what she and Doug, 39, were looking for: the possibility of a better education for their kids, and more time with them to boot.
With a few clicks of a computer mouse, Kelly Erickson plunged into homeschooling. As her children napped, she crept into the family’s home office, took out her American Express card and began buying.
Math curriculum from eBay. Spelling from Amazon.com. Grammar lessons from RainbowResource.com.
Homeschooling used to be a solitary endeavor. With no outside support, parents faced daunting practical questions: Where do I get a science textbook? Can I really teach eighth-grade math?
But homeschooling has evolved into a remarkably communal activity, conducted via the Internet, the public schools and an elaborate system of community and commercial programs. Example: each month more than 600 homeschool kids take classes at Tampa’s Museum of Science and Industry.
The number of homeschooled students in Florida has jumped from 22,200 a decade ago to about 51,100.
Vouchers get a lot of attention, but homeschooled students outnumber Florida’s voucher-educated almost 2-to-1 . . .(snip)
Generation X mothers (ages 26 to 40, by some definitions) are more likely to stay at home with their children than their Baby Boomer predecessors, according to a 2004 study by Reach Advisors, which sells marketing advice.
While Baby Boomers sought to “have it all” through work, family and possessions, Generation Xers are increasingly likely to forgo a second income, it said. “Instead of trying to fit family into their work life,” the study concluded, “Generation X parents are more likely to try to fit work into their family life.” Homeschooling is a way to do just that . . .
full text (long)
June 25, 2005
REBECCA CATALANELLO
Yearbook, drama lessons, field trips, even classes at public school. Homeschooling gets a new look from a generation craving more time with their kids.
Twenty years ago, homeschooling was a crime in Florida. Parents who wanted to teach their kids at home did so in secrecy. With blinds drawn.
They wanted to protect their kids from society’s evils; society, in turn, thought of them as zealots.
In 1984, a group of parents huddled in an Orlando convention center to form an association of homeschoolers. The group, in the words of a founding member, was “pretty weird.” The stereotype of homeschoolers - religious conservatives and spelling bee winners - remains to this day.
Everything else has changed.
Homeschooling has gone mainstream. It has graduations and conventions, yearbooks and extracurriculars. Kids learn at co-ops, on the Internet, at museums and even at public schools.
Increasingly, it’s for people who don’t want to schedule family time around dual careers, piano lessons and soccer practices. They just want more time with their kids.
Kelly Erickson was at a park eating lunch with her 3-year-old when a herd of school-aged kids stormed the play area. It was a school day, and she wondered where the children came from.
Homeschoolers, a friend said.
“Freaks,” Erickson thought. “I just had it in my head that homeschoolers were women who make their own clothes and were out of the cultural norm.”
Erickson, on the other hand, was a corporate sales representative, her husband was a Delta Air Lines pilot. They skied at Steamboat Springs, paid cash for a new SUV and thought nothing of dropping $400 on a leather Coach briefcase.
After their infant daughter Abby almost died from a strep infection , the Ericksons rethought their priorities. Kelly Erickson resolved to spend more time being a mom to Abby and older sister Kimberly. She quit work.
Now, she had time to volunteer at Trinity Elementary in southwest Pasco County. Now, she could stop to notice how bored Kimberly looked in class. Now, she could pore over Kimberly’s writing assignments - and wonder how so many misspellings could earn a good grade.
What to do?
Four years after her brush with homeschooling “freaks,” Kelly Erickson, now 38, decided homeschooling offered exactly what she and Doug, 39, were looking for: the possibility of a better education for their kids, and more time with them to boot.
With a few clicks of a computer mouse, Kelly Erickson plunged into homeschooling. As her children napped, she crept into the family’s home office, took out her American Express card and began buying.
Math curriculum from eBay. Spelling from Amazon.com. Grammar lessons from RainbowResource.com.
Homeschooling used to be a solitary endeavor. With no outside support, parents faced daunting practical questions: Where do I get a science textbook? Can I really teach eighth-grade math?
But homeschooling has evolved into a remarkably communal activity, conducted via the Internet, the public schools and an elaborate system of community and commercial programs. Example: each month more than 600 homeschool kids take classes at Tampa’s Museum of Science and Industry.
The number of homeschooled students in Florida has jumped from 22,200 a decade ago to about 51,100.
Vouchers get a lot of attention, but homeschooled students outnumber Florida’s voucher-educated almost 2-to-1 . . .(snip)
Generation X mothers (ages 26 to 40, by some definitions) are more likely to stay at home with their children than their Baby Boomer predecessors, according to a 2004 study by Reach Advisors, which sells marketing advice.
While Baby Boomers sought to “have it all” through work, family and possessions, Generation Xers are increasingly likely to forgo a second income, it said. “Instead of trying to fit family into their work life,” the study concluded, “Generation X parents are more likely to try to fit work into their family life.” Homeschooling is a way to do just that . . .
full text (long)
)
