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| SUMMER FUN — Luke Mantyh,
10, and Jack Slavinski, 10, enjoy a relaxing moment
during an outing at Elm Grove Park Aug. 17. Both
boys participate in regular outings with Catholic
families who home school their children. |
ELM GROVE — Linda Strandt is a firm believer that
when one door closes, God opens another. The mother of
seven believes that’s how God led her family to
home schooling. This fall, Strandt will begin her 12th
year teaching her children in her New Berlin home.
A graduate of West Allis public schools, Milwaukee Area
Technical College and Marquette University, Strandt had
not planned on educating her children at home. But when
she looks back, she said she sees “little seeds
that were planted when the children were little. I really
believe God works that way.”
When the eldest of her children, Andrew, now 17, reached
kindergarten age, Strandt and her husband, Carl, looked
to the various Catholic schools in their area.
Their parish at the time, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton does
not have a parish school, so they turned to Holy Apostles.
The kindergarten class was full.
They also looked to St. Matthias, the parish where most
children from St. Elizabeth Ann Seton attend.
While Andrew took the pre-entrance testing at St. Matthias,
Strandt was leery about enrolling him there because it
meant a half hour drive each way for her. With several
younger children to worry about bundling, unbundling
and transporting in the car as she took Andrew to school,
Strandt wondered if St. Matthias was the right place
for her family.
“We wanted our children to be raised in the faith
so we were looking at the Catholic schools,” she
said. “As we made our decision, when one door was
closed to us at Holy Apostles, another was opened,” she
said referring to the idea of home schooling.
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| STORYTIME — Beth Yank of
South Milwaukee reads Bible stories to her daughters
Emily, 4, and Kateri, 7. Beth is one of many Catholic
moms who chooses to keep her children at home and
teach them. |
“I remember kneeling down before the Sacred Heart
and asking for guidance,” she said. “Shortly
after that, my spouse came home and said, ‘we’re
home schooling.’ You defer to your spouse’s
judgment on important issues like that.”
The Strandts began home schooling Andrew, and in the
years that followed, Mary, 16; Daniel, 14; Timothy, 12;
Peter, 10; Michael, 8 and Therese, 6 joined in. The two
eldest children attended St. John the Evangelist Elementary
School, Greenfield, for one year when Strandt was ill
and unable to teach.
While the children — then in second and third grade — did
fine in class that year, Strandt said when she recovered,
she asked them whether they’d like to return to
home schooling or remain in class at St. John.
Without hesitation, they wanted to return home. “They
said yes, they had missed all the Catholic books we had
read. They had learned to love (home schooling),” explained
Strandt.
Strandt believes as parents she and her husband are called
to “build a spiritual house” for their family.
To accomplish that goal, they incorporate daily Mass
attendance at St. John the Evangelist, now their home
parish, and spiritual reading into the day.
On school days, the family often attends either the 6:45
or 8 a.m. Mass before returning home to begin studies
for the day.
“We are building the spiritual life in our children,” she
said.
Many curriculum options exist
When Strandt began teaching her children at home, after
doing much research, she compiled materials for curriculum.
Today, she prepares the curriculum for the younger grades
herself, but when her children reach high school age,
they use materials from the Seton Home Study School,
one of several curriculum resources for Catholics.
Some, like Seton call themselves full service Catholic
schools, which, according to its Web site, <www.setonhome.org> “send
you everything you need to educate your children at home
including daily lesson plans, textbooks, workbooks, tests
and answer keys.” Services such as academic counseling,
grading, report cards and a priest on staff available
full time to answer questions are also available.
With Catholic home study schools like Seton, families
enroll their children in the school in order to receive
the home study materials and support. With Seton, enrollment
fees vary by age, with the fee for kindergarten at $175;
high school is $150 per student per year; junior high
fees are $40 per student per year and middle school fees,
grades 4 and 5 are $20 per student per year. Seton also
offers multi-child discount pricing.
The Yank family, members of St. Anthony Parish, Milwaukee,
and residents of South Milwaukee use another Catholic
home study program, Mother of Divine Grace from Ojai,
Calif.
Like Strandt, Beth Yank is an experienced home schooling
parent who began teaching her children at home when it
was not as popular. She began in 1987 when eldest son,
Michael, now 23 and a recent graduate of Marquette University,
was in kindergarten. Then living in Virginia, Michael
was enrolled in a Catholic school, but when dad, Ray
Yank’s employer transferred him to Tennessee, the
family found itself an hour away from the nearest Catholic
school.
Hearing positive feedback from a sister-in-law, Barb
Fenelon, who was home schooling her children, Beth Yank
began teaching Matthew at home.
At the time, the vast supply of home schooling resources
was not available and Yank compiled materials on her
own. Eventually, when she found the Catholic home study
program, Mother of Divine Grace, she turned to the program.
A University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee graduate with a degree
in English, Yank serves as a consultant to the program
designed by Laura Berquist.
Other curriculum options for parents include a growing
number of Catholic home school publishers and vendors.
’It educates the whole
person’
When the growing Yank family returned to Wisconsin, they
were so sold on the idea of home schooling that they
didn’t look into Catholic schools. Yank was quick
to point out that while the family abandoned formal Catholic
schooling, they don’t look down on the choices
others make.
“We’ve never had an attitude that we’re
better than anyone else. (Home schooling) is a choice
we made and everyone makes the best choices for themselves,” she
explained. “The reason we continue to home school
is we realize it is the best education we could possibly
provide for them. It educates the whole person, the head,
the heart, the mind and the soul.”
In addition to Michael, Yank has home schooled Therese,
20, now a student at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee;
Alyssa, 18, who will begin studies at the University
of Wisconsin-Madison this fall on a violin scholarship;
Peter, 14; John, 11 and Kateri, 7. Youngest daughter,
Emily, 4, can’t wait to join her older siblings,
eagerly completing a workbook page on a recent summer
morning, hoping to gain a prized sticker for her accomplishments.
A proven veteran of home schooling, Yank and her sister-in-law,
Fenelon, co-founded in 1991 a home school support group
for families in southeast Wisconsin and Northern Illinois.
The mission of the Greater Milwaukee Catholic Home Educators,
GMCHE, is to offer support and encouragement to the Catholic
home educator.
The organization has a membership of more than 140 families,
a Web site: <www.gmche.com>, a monthly newsletter,
regular meetings and opportunities for socialization.
Through the organization, the participants address one
criticism of home schooling, that children are isolated
and are socially limited.
Home schoolers find ways to socialize
Throughout the year, the Catholic home schoolers gather
for events like field trips, bimonthly gym classes held
at St. Mary Help of Christians in West Allis and weekly
park days during the summer where moms and children meet
for conversation and fun.
“There are many wonderful families who home school,” said
Theresa Fons, a mother of four, and a member of St. John
the Evangelist Parish, Greenfield. “We feel blessed
to have met people who are trying to accomplish the same
goals that we are.”
Admitting that home schooling families tend to be more
isolated than those who don’t home school, Fons
praised the park days as ways to pull parents and children
out of isolation. “The moms get together for support
and learn from each other,” she added.
The Fons family turned to home schooling when their oldest
child, Alexander, now 17, was about 7. He attended the
Waldorf School of Milwaukee and Theresa and Edward Fons
were pleased with his academic progress. “We loved
the way they taught, the methods they used,” said
Fons of the Waldorf approach. But the couple was concerned
that Alexander was not getting the religious instruction
they hoped for. They considered their own alma mater,
Our Lady Queen of Peace Elementary School, Milwaukee,
but opted to try home schooling.
Switching from the traditional school system to educating
their children on their own did not sit well initially
with Fons’ parents.
“Especially with my mom and dad, they knew how
they had done education with us. We went to a Catholic
grade school and high school and of course (her parents)
were worried about our children, their grandchildren,” she
said.
They don’t have to worry anymore, however, as Alexander
spent a recent summer morning preparing scholarship applications
to college. Joanna, 15; Adam, 11 and Hania, 7, appear
on track to follow their brother, according to their
mother.
One benefit Fons sees in home schooling is the strong
sibling bonds that develop. She said because the siblings
are together learning for so many years, their relationships,
are stronger than most.
According to a report by the Family Research Council,
there are more than 2 million children nationwide involved
in home schooling. In Wisconsin, the Department of Public
Instruction recently reported the number of home schoolers
in the state declined by 2.6 percent from its peak in
2002. In 2004-05, there were 20,741 children home schooled
in the state. Figures are not available on the number
of Catholic home schoolers, because parents do not have
to report religious affiliation on DPI forms, noted Yank.
But she said she’s noticed an increase in the numbers
of Catholics contacting her organization.
A conference for Catholic home schoolers in the archdiocese
in spring drew more than 600 participants, she noted.
Other areas of the archdiocese also have Catholic home
school groups, said Yank, pointing to Sheboygan and Racine.
Are not in competition
with archdiocesan schools
Just as the home schoolers do not want to be viewed as
opponents of the archdiocesan school system, the archdiocese
does not see them as competition, according to Scott
Weyda, archdiocesan associate superintendent for student
activities and services
“We certainly try to encourage when there is a
situation where a family is in a Catholic school and
they are leaving to express a desire to do home schooling,
we try to make sure the principals provide them with
the right direction and information.... They have to
contact the closest public school and they have to register
there. The state actually has the resource list and the
curricula that is expected of home schoolers,” explained
Weyda.
The archdiocese encourages the schools and parishes to
continue to try to assist especially in the religious
formation of the children, said Weyda. “Sometimes
that goes along with the actual academic home schooling
that some parents do, then they also want to do the religious
ed home schooling.”
In the course of a school year, Weyda said his office
doesn’t have much contact with home schoolers. “We
don’t look at them as competition, it’s just
another alternative that some families feel is best for
their kids,” he said, adding, “From the standpoint
they are the primary educators, then they’ve made
that decision.”
Weyda noted that some parishes offer a home schooling
religious education program. Parishes encourage home
schooling parents to maintain a connection to the parish
by attending inservice sessions for catechists. They
encourage home school religious ed families to use the
materials that the parish is using to maintain continuity
in a parish.
While not passing judgment on the merits of home schooling,
Weyda noted, “In reality there can be very good
environments and situations for children in home schooling
in one situation, maybe in another situation there might
be some concerns about whether or not some of the expectations,
especially that the state puts out, are being met or
followed up on.”
He said the archdiocese has had different experiences
with children coming back or entering into the formal
Catholic school who maybe had been home schooled.
“Pretty much the same as the rest of the population
some students may be certainly right on target or even
ahead of the game, very much progressed for their age.
In some cases, there might be some that again show some
deficiencies or whatever or maybe lack some social skills.
Those kinds of things can be and should be included in
any kind of home schooling, the whole socialization or
other kinds of elements of a person’s personality
or the other areas of emotional or psychological kinds
of maturation and so forth are not adversely affected
because they do have interaction with other students
their age or different ages.
“That can be sometimes difficult at times to build
into home schooling but certainly there are ways to deal
with that,” he added.
The Yank family looks to outside activities such as sports
or activities through the Schoenstatt Retreat Center
in Waukesha to provide opportunities for socialization.
Weekly gatherings are time to socialize
Coordinating the park days is important to another home
schooler, Mary-Eileen Swart, mother of four and a member
of St. John the Evangelist Parish, Greenfield. It was
her suggestion about seven years ago that inspired the
weekly gatherings. Swart is the Web master for the GMCHE
site, and former newsletter editor.
She and her husband, Tom, chose home schooling for their
children, Madeleine, now 15; Hannah, 13; John, 8; and
Mary Therese, 6, about 11 years ago. They considered
other Catholic schools, but distance and waiting lists
led them to home schooling.
“We tried it and we loved it,” she said,
noting that each year, the family evaluates its progress
and makes a decision to stay with education in their
New Berlin home. “Every year, it’s been the
same thing. We take a look again, but there’s never
any reason to switch,” she said.
Swart, who uses a Catholic home study program based in
California called the St. Thomas Aquinas Academy, also
pointed to strong bonds that have developed among her
children, despite the differences in their ages.
While she strongly feels home schooling is the best option
for her family, Swart stressed that most home schoolers
think highly of the Catholic education system.
“There are a lot of excellent parish schools. (Home
schooling) is just another choice that works for us,” she
said.
Although she has a master’s degree in psychology
from Marquette University, Swart believes a college education
is not necessary to be a successful home school parent.
“You don’t need a college degree to teach
your child. The decision to do so must be made after
much prayer and it’s important to have a good faith
life. That helps keep you going,” she said. “I’m
not equipped to walk into a classroom full of students
to teach, but I am equipped to teach my own children,” she
said.
Resources:
• Greater Milwaukee Catholic Home Educators, home school
support group founded in 1991 for more than 140 families
in Southeast Wisconsin and Northern Illinois, <www.gmche.com>
• “The Resource Guide for Catholic Home
Educators,” edited
by Beth Yank, Ita Pater Publications, available at
Catholic Books and Gifts, West Allis. It’s a
55-page resource including curriculum options, home
study programs, books, Web sites and periodicals that
might be of interest to home schoolers.
• <www.Love2Learn.net>, a Web site created
by GMCHE member. |
