Homeschool Group Offers Social Skills to Supplement Academics
By Jessica Sanders
Boerne Star Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 3, 2004, Page 1B
Every weekday, Lauren and Emily Noack walk to school, a school that consists of a single room. The walls are decorated with colorful posters, charts and educational diagrams. Books of all shapes and sizes line shelves and are organized neatly on the room’s one desk. But the one desk and two chairs are all that’s needed for homeschoolers Lauren, 11, and Emily, 9.
Both girls began their education in the public school system, but say they now think homeschool is the better way to go. Though not surrounded by peers during school time, they still have time to play when their public school friends get out of class.
“It can be a little boring sometimes,” Emily said, of having class with only her sister “but it’s worth it.”
P.J. Noack, the girls’ mother and teacher, said it is a common misconception that homeschooled children are anti-social homebodies. As with all children, the socialization of homeschoolers depends on the parents, she said.
“The old way that people looked at homeschoolers is that they are sheltered, stay to themselves … that they’re religious freaks, “ she said. “I run around more now than when they were in public school.”
She said shi is constantly taking her girls to visit friends, homeschooled and otherwise. They are also involved in team sports, clubs and co-op classes through the Boerne Area Christian Homeschoolers group.
Sabra Lloyd, mother of four homeschooled children, said the key to socialization is keeping things in perspective. Just because a child in public school is surrounded by peers all day, doesn’t mean he or she has good social skills.
“In anything you do, you have to balance,” she explained. “We try to keep a balance with friends, not just homeschooled kids, but public school and private school; they have friends from orchestra, friends from church, from all over.”
She said her kids enjoy socializing with others in the Boerne Area Christian Homeschoolers group, and school group, and are also involved in the Hill Country Youth Orchestra.
Activities and lessons can be tailored to the individual kid, allowing them to have the best possible education, Lloyd said. She learned this when she began homeschooling her oldest son, now a freshman at Texas Tech University, because he was having trouble adjusting to public elementary school. He and the other children were able to excel after Lloyd learned to teach to their unique learning styles.
“The beauty of homeschooling is that you can get a custom fit for your kid,” she said.
Lauren said she preferred homeschool because she could get her work done more quickly and work at her own pace. When in public school, she was often finished with her work early and left waiting for other students.
Noack said she was interested in homeschooling her daughters for many years before she actually pursued it. She felt she didn’t have the ability to educate her children herself, and so she sent them to public school.
“My husband and I wanted them to have a Christian spiritual upbringing,” she said. “In order to do that, we could have put them in private school, but they would have had to be latchkey kids.”
Noack explained that to pay for private school, both she and her husband would have to work outside the home. They didn’t like the idea of leaving their children alone after school or paying even more for day care. So financially and logically, homeschooling made sense for them.
“After a lot of crying and a lot of praying, I decided to take them out of the public school,” Noack said. “I’ve never looked back.”
Tim Lambert, president of the Texas Homeschool Coalition, said it is his group’s goal to preserve the right to homeschool in the state. Thanks to the work of the THSC and other groups, Texas is one of the easiest states in which to homeschool.
“The State of Texas does not regulate or monitor homeschool or private schools,” he said. “If your child has never been in public school, there is no need to contact them.”
He explained that if you are withdrawing a student from public school, you should submit a written letter, to avoid confusion no the school’s part.
Becky Prebel said she originally thought homeschooling was weird. However, she found herself with few other options when her oldest daughter began reading far above her grade level.
“At the end of the six-week evaluation, her teacher told us she was going to have to repeat kindergarten,” Prebel recalled. “The teacher said she was just staring out the window during the phonics lessons.”
Prebel’s daughter, who was enrolled in a private school, was simply bored with the lessons. Though she ignored kindergarten lessons, she came home and read Mark Twain, Prebel said. They decided to homeschool her for a few years, and then return her to school when the other students caught up with her. But she was still bored when she returned to school in 3rd grade.
“We decided to take homeschool one year at a time,” Prebel said. “And lo and behold, we got all the way through high school.”
Prebel still homeschools her younger daughter, a high school sophomore; her oldest daughter is now a student at Texas A&M University.
Prebel said the idea of getting her kids into college was scary at first. However, most universities are far more accepting of homeschoolers than the general public, she said.
“Some prestigious colleges like Harvard and Princeton are actually recruiting homeschooled kids,” she said. “They realize that they know how to think, are self-motivated and self-directed.”
Involvement in the community is another way to help homeschooled students get into the college of their choice. It is also a great way, Prebel said, to help people realize that homeschool kids are not social misfits. She said these are some reason that the Boerne Area Christian Homeschool group encourages students to get involved. She said Boerne homeschoolers have done everything form volunteering at the library to serving on the Kendall County Fair Court.
“People can meet them and go, ‘Oh wow, they aren’t weirdos,’” Prebel said. “’These are nice, decent kids.’”
Photo caption: Lauren and Emily Noack hit the books in their classroom. The girls say homeschooling allows them to work at their own pace, and they often finish their day earlier than public school students. Photo by Jessica Sanders.
Sidebar:
Top Five Reasons for Homeschooling
- Can give a child better education – 48.9%
- Religious reasons – 38.4%
- Poor learning environment at school – 25.6%
- Family reasons – 16.8%
- To develop character/morality – 15.1
Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Parent Survey of the National Household Education Surveys Program, 1999.
Sidebar:
Homeschool Statistics
The following statistics are from a report entitled Home Schooling in the United States: 1999:
· In the spring of 1999, an estimated 850,000 students nationwide were being homeschooled. This amounts to 1.7 percent of U.S. students, aged 5 to 17, with a grade equivalent of kindergarten through grade 12. Four out of five homeschoolers were homeschooled only, and one of five homeschoolers were enrolled in public or private schools part time, (18 percent)
· A greater percentage of homeschoolers compared to non-homeschoolers were white, non-Hispanic in 1999 – 75 percent compared to 65 percent. At the same time, a smaller percentage of homeschoolers were black, non-Hispanic students and a smaller percentage were Hispanic students.
· The household income of homeschoolers in 1999 was no different that non-homeschoolers. However, parents of homeschoolers had higher levels of educational attainment than did parents of non-homeschoolers.
· Parents gave a wide variety of reasons for homeschooling their children. These reasons included being able to give their child a better education at home, for religious reasons, and because of a poor learning environment at [public] school.