Asked how they manage to run a home, deal with the ordinary issues involved in raising children, and get their children through 12 years of college-preparatory education, most home-school moms probably cannot tell you exactly how it all happens. Yet home-educated children score, on average, in the 80th percentile or above on nationally standardized tests, says Dr. Brian D. Ray of the National Home Education Research.

Dr. Ray is president of the Salem, Ore.-based institute, and author of Worldwide Guide to Homeschooling. His is one of the latest studies to document the consistently high performance, and other characteristics, of home-schooled children. Increasingly, parents are taking their children’s education personally and bringing them home to bring them up.

Between 1.9 and 2.2 million children in the United States “go to school with mom.” North Carolinians for Home Education, a statewide organization for home-school information, estimates that as of March 2003, about 26,000 North Carolina families had registered as home schools. That translates into 86,000 to 90,000 home-schooled children statewide. Families home school for a variety of reasons, including religious or philosophical views, academic concerns, and negative experiences in regular schools.

Making it work as a family

Diane Allen of Fuquay-Varina, a certified science teacher who has a special interest in wildlife biology, conducts home school for her three children. Allen taught high school science until her second son, Tristan, was born, but she continued to work part time tutoring chemistry, biology, and math at Wake Tech.
When Allen’s older son, Evan, reached second grade, she reached a decision point. ”He didn’t function at his best in a traditional classroom — too distracting,” Allen said.

Years before, she had looked into home schooling, but backed away at the last minute. She decided the time had come to go ahead with her plan. She has continued that plan with Tristan and with Virginia, the youngest Allen child.

In the beginning, Allen took a structured approach, but adjusted with the tasks and ages of her children. “When they were younger we had more of a schedule for doing certain things at certain times, but as they got older we just do more of what seems like the logical order on any given day,” she said. “We are not morning people here, so our day doesn’t start as early as the public school. On the other hand, the boys don’t sleep through math because they didn’t get enough sleep the night before.”

The kitchen is “school central” in the Allen household. A microscope or dissecting pan may be set up on the counter for the boys, while Virginia works at the table on phonics, writing, or spelling. “I keep all the books on the downstairs book shelves for easy access, and the kids keep all their materials in a box that can be moved from room to room,” Allen said. Virginia often chooses to work on the floor in the living room, but cannot resist squeezing in to see what the boys have discovered in their science work next door in the kitchen.

Backpacks hold school materials for days that involve activities away from home. Both Allen boys were admitted in to the highly selective junior curator program at the Raleigh Museum of Natural Science. Virginia is practicing with the home-school swim team at the Oberlin Road YWCA. Allen uses books on tape in the car to continue school time while they travel.
Home school has been a success for the Allen children. Evan is about to graduate from high school, bound for a wildlife management major in college. He is still deciding which college acceptance offer he will choose. Tristan’s interest in science will likely become a career pursuit as well. Virginia is still in the primary grades, and has a lot of time to decide what area of study she will conquer.

If the Allens have missed some traditional schooling experiences, they have had some unique ones, too. “One of the greatest advantages of home schooling is being able to pursue opportunities that occur spontaneously,” Allen said. Both high school boys, who joined their dad on a work site, have studied the ecology of the Outer Banks. And Diane’s mom treated the boys to a two-week tour through the southern waters and interior wildlife preserves of Alaska, including whale-watching, rafting, and a train trip across country to the Denali National Park. Not every school experience is this glamorous, but the Allens find that opportunities for learning abound. “I really do believe that the world is our classroom, and education is where you look for it,” she said.

Moms with professional degrees or work experience usually exit the career track altogether, or suspend careers for the duration of their home school years. Allen is a qualified test administrator for the Woodcock-Johnson battery. It’s a welcome source of income, but the job places heavy demands on an already heavy schedule.

Another home-school family decided that their goals were to travel with their children, and to include them in whatever business they pursued. They have succeeded in doing that, but the effort required would make most home schoolers balk.

Combining business and education

In 1989, Bob Farewell expanded his wife’s hobby, sharing the titles of good books with friends, into a business. What began as a casual referral service, and expanded into selling a few extra copies of the best selections, eventually became Lifetime Books and Gifts. The catalog of books that the Farewells compiled for their business has expanded to a 600-plus page reference, dubbed “The Always Incomplete Resource Guide.” At this point, they are trying to distill it into a smaller “best 500” list.

Home schoolers are avid collectors of good books, and the book shows that accompany home-school conventions offer vendors access to hundreds or thousands of home school families at a time. Based in Lake Wales, Fla., the Farewells began to realize that book sales were taking the Farewells farther from home. “There’s a business opportunity here,” Bob said of one of the early shows he attended with his wife. “Good, you do it,” she replied.

Sixteen years later, the once-reluctant entrepreneurs have resolved the issues of teaching, travel, and business by putting them all together. They bought a luxury tour bus and converted it for family use. They tow 20,000 pounds of books in a trailer behind the bus.

They leave Florida in March, stop at 25 or more book shows all over the country, and return home in September. During their six months on the road, the four children and their two parents log 20,000 miles, while working, studying, and living together.

Bob Farewell is also a Civil War re-enactor, and his travels sometimes offer an opportunity to don the Confederate uniform and gear he owns. At the invitation of the John Locke Foundation, he came to Raleigh in April and recreated the experiences of a Confederate soldier at the Battle of Gettysburg.

He has also brought his children, re-enactors all, to Gettysburg to re-enact and experience the feel of the conflict. While the family moved in costume among the rocks and trees on a wooded hill, a passing tour bus stopped. Climbing down from the bus, passengers asked whether they could have their pictures taken with the family. “We’re not here for a photo op,” the Farewell kids replied, ”we’re doing school!”

Dr. Palasek is assistant editor at Carolina Journal and a home-school parent.