The Homeschool Experience
Every day in the life of a homeschooler is an individualized experience. Homeschooling offers parents the opportunity to personalize a learning path that is just right for his or her child. Creating a personalized learning path means understanding a student’s interests, learning styles, strengths, areas of need, and short and long-term goals.
Tamara Rose, one of our longtime homeschool moms, discusses using the community as the classroom. Tamara homeschools two elementary-age children and takes advantage of the valuable community resources near her home.
A Day Homeschooling Your Child
Tamara Rose, a four-year homeschool mom, strives to use the community as the classroom. Two days per week Tamara’s children take courses at a Springs school learning center in Riverside. Tamara says “As a parent, I love and appreciate so much that my kids are interacting with highly qualified teachers and support staff. They get a ‘real school’ experience and even eat lunch in the cafeteria. They love making friends and playing on the playground with other children their age. This is one of the best parts of the learning center experience. I am grateful to partner with the teachers as they offer my kids an education that I alone could not accomplish.”
Tamara’s children are taking courses such as German, Writing with a Purpose, Hands-on Physical Science, Drawing and Painting, Meet the Masters, Traveling the Globe, and more. Tamara explains that “After four years of homeschooling, I am more convinced than ever that I need a community to school my children. It is not in my teaching repertoire to be a “Lego Engineer,” but this is something that my son craves. Therefore, I look to the community to meet this need. The Riverside Student Center has several Lego classes to choose from and even a new STEM (Science, Technology Engineering, Mathematics) class for the elementary grades. Each teacher puts a tremendous amount of thought and consideration into every lesson and my children are excited to come home and share all of their new learning.”
Tamara recognizes that there are some subjects that she prefers not to teach or that have been difficult because of the parent-child dynamic. Tamara describes a challenge that she experienced when teaching writing to her daughter, “My daughter gives me a terrible time in writing, but she will do anything for her teacher. I send her to the Riverside Student Center for writing instruction. She gets one and a half hours of writing instruction from a teacher and I get to do the “fun” supplemental writing and practice at home. I have found that removing areas of tension makes me a better parent and homeschool mom and I am grateful that I have the SCS community to keep me successful.”
Tamara’s family is involved with other homeschool families in a local History Co-op. As part of the co-op, the families meet three times a year for a Historical Fiction “Book Club,” go on monthly field trips, and have an end-of-the-year “Family Learning Expo.”
Tamara uses the community to create life skills and special interest courses for her kids. Currently, her children are participating in swim, softball, BMX, and Girl Scouts as learning opportunities within the community. Tamara states, “These activities give my kids critical life skills such as dealing with competition, taking risks, making friends, establishing work ethic, and developing their personal best self.”
Tamara has tailored unique learning paths for her children using the many resources provided through Springs Charter Schools, family networking opportunities, and tapping into community resources. Homeschool parents have unlimited ways to establish a meaningful and rich learning experience for each child.
