Sound Carries - Carrie Reuning-Hummel

Homeschooling

Homeschooling was a choice that I began to come to very gradually, before even having children. As I was teaching at Suzuki violin workshops around the country I would occasionally find myself teaching a student who seemed different from the usual child: passionate about learning, asking questions, and seeming to own their learning in a different way from the usual. I learned to ask if they were homeschooled, and most often got a *yes* to my question.

I began reading anything I could find about homeschooling, including works by John Holt, articles in Mothering magazine, and books about alternative education like the Summerhill school. I started to think about homeschooling as a viable option for my future family.

We sent both kids to a wonderful cooperative pre-school in Wisconsin and were happy to see them thrive in a very happy place. When it came time for kindergarten we had a difficult decision. Eric, my husband, was not so sure about homeschooling. He essentially had a very positive public school experience himself, and was concerned about having the children miss out on this experience. Both of us felt that we wanted Sarah to continue to thrive in a setting similar to her pre-school. We made the decision to send her for that one year. Kindergarten was a half day at that time (I don't think we would have considered it otherwise) and Sarah had the best teacher possible. She ended up having a very good year.

The next decision was the toughest, much because she did have such a good school experience. I knew that if we kept her in school it would be more and more difficult to remove her, down the road, as she became more socially entrenched. I also worried about what she would do in 1st grade. She was reading The Boxcar Children in kindergarten and I could not picture her in the 1st grade classroom setting. It ended up that two books made the decision for me: A Sense of Self and The Teenage Liberation Handbook . It was interesting that I needed to look at the teenage years in order to make the decision for my 6 year old. I found that the two key motivators for me were to have my children have a passion for learning (not just trying to please the teachers as I did) and to be able to pursue their interests fully in the world outside of the after-school rat race.

As it turns out, we could not be more pleased about how it has gone. With our kids at 16 and 18 years old, we are seeing the payoffs of having a passion for learning and the time to fully pursue the things they are intense about. They have taken part in many activities with both homeschoolers and schooled kids. The only negative that we have really encountered is that occasionally they express bewilderment that the kids who go to school sometimes seem to try and "get out of things" or to fool around. I try to point out that this can sometimes be a by-product of being too often told what to care about.

Our most special activity that we have been able to take on has been raising puppies for a program that places them as companions for special-needs kids.

To date we have raised two black labs and two golden retrievers who have all been placed very successfully with autistic children. Sarah has been in charge of all the training with Benjamin in charge of just "being a kid" with the puppies as well as staying consistent with the training. We never would be able to take on this amazing project if the kids were in school. I feel very blessed to have had this choice and all the information that I found when I needed it.

-Carrie Reuning-Hummel