Homeschooling expanding beyond kitchen table
Homeschoolers find educational resources more readily available today
By Kevin Carbery
Tuesday, March 2, 2010 1:12 PM CST
Every time Lydia Wood visits her mother and siblings, it's a class reunion.
From the sixth grade until college, Wood, 23, was homeschooled by her mother, Jo Ann Powers, in the family's Ballwin home.
Wood's sister, Gracie Powers, 17, and brother, Luke Powers, 13, are currently being taught by their mother.
Homeschooling worked for Wood, who earned a bachelor's degree in intercultural studies in May 2009 from Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Mo., attaining summa cum laude honors. Now married and living in south St. Louis County, she is working on a nursing degree from the Goldfarb School of Nursing at Barnes-Jewish College in St. Louis.
"I loved homeschooling," Wood said. "I've felt better prepared than my peers in college."
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Powers, 48, began homeschooling her children in 1998. Her son went to private school for a few years at his choice, but later decided to attend his mother's classroom.
"Mostly, I wanted to see my children get the best education possible," she said. "If I could tailor it to their strengths and weaknesses, I could give them the best education possible."
Powers is among a growing number of parents who choose to homeschool their children.
Because Missouri does not require those who homeschool to register with the state, the exact number of homeschooled families in the St. Louis area is unknown. However, Laura Kostial of Ellisville, who operates the St. Louis Homeschoolers website, said she is aware of 50 major homeschooling groups in the metro area.
"We tried to come up with a ballpark figure five years ago," Kostial said. "We totaled each of our groups' numbers and pulled out duplicates - people could be in more than one homeschooling group. We came up with 1,200 families for the metro area, which includes people from Illinois to Farmington to Rolla.
"I'm going to say there must be about 1,400 families by now. I think that's a safe guess."
Kostial believes that the greater availability of educational resources for homeschooling has helped inspire more families to try it.
Cathy Mullins, 59, of south St. Louis, is the leader of S.H.A.R.E. (St. Louis Homeschooling Activities Resources and Encouragement), a homeschooling support group. She homeschooled her sons, Joshua and Jesse, who has Down's syndrome.
She said she began homeschooling Joshua in 1985 to keep him from having to be bussed to a public school far from their neighborhood.
"But after homeschooling all these years, my reason for doing it changed to keeping my family close," Mullins said. "I felt it made a stronger parental-child bond."
Mullins also is the director of Homelink, a fee-based learning center for homeschool families that meets Tuesday evenings at Grace United Church of Christ in St. Louis.
"We have degreed teachers teach classes once a week and they're available online," she said. "It provides assistance in classes we may find too difficult to teach, such as biology, chemistry, algebra."
Although Michele Kerans, 39, moved from north St. Louis County to St. Peters, she remains involved with HELPS (Homeschoolers Encouraging Learning & Providing Support). HELPS consists of about 60 North County families who meet at Florissant Valley Baptist Church.
Kerans homeschools her three kids, ages 10, 8 and 2.
"I like the one-on-one attention," she said. "I can adjust the curriculum to their learning styles.
"We homeschool because we want to choose the right environment and the right type of curriculum that meets their needs. If a state agency were involved, we would lose some of those choices."
She said she can see how well her children are doing in their learning.
"Most of the curriculums have tests built in," she said. "There are also opportunities through different support groups to do standardized testing."
Jo Ann Feldges of Hillsboro is involved in ARCHE (Arnold Region Christian Home Educators), a group based at First Baptist Church of Arnold. She homeschools her two children, ages 16 and 13.
"We like that it's a different approach to education," Feldges said. "We feel it works for our family. I encourage others to do it."
5th Annual Greater St. Louis Area Home Educators Expo
WHAT: An exposition with guest speakers, workshops and seminars focusing on issues important to those involved in homeschooling.
WHEN: April 8-10
WHERE: First Evangelical Free Church of St. Louis County, 1375 Carman Road, Manchester.
MORE INFO: For more information, visit www.stlhomeschoolexpo.com or call 314-791-0000.
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