Parents Find Flexibility In Homeschooling

[Soldier4Christ]

Parents Find Flexibility In Homeschooling

About 20 home school families used Friday afternoon for fun and games at Ida Lee Park.

Heather Ward was one such parent. She has been homeschooling her children for six years. Earlier this year, it was time for Ward and her husband to make a choice about their 5-year-old daughter. Homeschool? Public? Private?

"Everything he would learn [in public and private school kindergarten], he has already learned," Ward said. "He'd be bored."

The Home School Legal Defense Association, based in Purcellville, says the numbers of home school students are on the rise in Loudoun County.

Ward said the decision to home school their children was an easy one. She likes the fact her children learn on an individualized basis. Ward can educate flexibly, while introducing subjects such as faith and values. In a typical school setting, Ward envisions mischief. At home, she says other children can't distract her children.

Other parents at Ida Lee told a similar story, a disenchantment with a public school system, they say teaches to tests and doesn't do enough for gifted and talented students. Ward, for instance, has her son, Brooks, take a math course at Johns Hopkins Center for Gifted and Talented Youth.

Virginia public school students take Standards of Learning tests as a way to measure progress and hold individual schools and districts accountable. Public school principals, teachers locally and statewide, spoke of getting a better grip on the test after recent SOL results came back showing extremely low scores statewide in a new math test. During testing weeks at some public schools in Loudoun, administrators hold events to lighten the mood on campus and relieve students' stress.

Home school students, for the most part, have to take government-issued tests, too. Religious exemptions are available, but most students take Stafford tests designed to ensure they are keeping pace with their peers. A child's home school status can be put on probation or re-evaluated if test scores are alarming.

In Loudoun County, according to statistics provided by the public school system, there were 918 home instruction students in the 2002-03 school year. That number rose to 1,036 last year. Currently, though the number will likely rise after the school system contacts families who have not yet renewed for the new school year, there are 958 homeschool students in the county.

As home school parent Christine Thomas, who has a daughter that attends a county high school, steps back from the activities-tug-of-war, Simon Says-she notes the stereotypes that stigmatize home schooling. The field-trip group of mostly Loudouners is a secular one. Thomas said her family isn't religious. Ward's is; and she says that instilling her values and faith is a benefit of home schooling.

The questions most commonly asked of them, according to a few parents on hand at Ida Lee, relate to socialization. These parents can't help but smirk when the question arises. They quickly point to social gatherings like the one Friday, clubs, teams, swimming or ballet lessons, specialized private schooling-like the Johns Hopkins program-and the ability to interact throughout the day with people of all ages, not just peers, as factors in a more appealing "socialization."

"Home school is sometimes misnamed. They aren't kept in a bubble," said Diane Harvey, who has three kids, the oldest a first-grade student. Harvey worked in the public policy department at George Mason University. "My kids generally do school in the [morning]. I don't think they are missing out on anything at all."

Harvey said she isn't so much "anti-public school," but instead "pro-home school." She likes being able work at her child's pace, whether that means speeding ahead or taking time on subjects that trouble her children.

While Harvey, Ward and Thomas all acknowledged that home schooling can be time-consuming, it certainly isn't cost prohibitive. Home school communities have curriculum swaps, and the parents at Ida Lee reported minimal expenditures, excluding enrollment in clubs, sports and other focused learning environments. Compare a few hundred dollars per child as a ballpark figure for educating at home, to the $12,467 per child the county public school spends, and these parents believe they are getting a much larger bang for their buck.