Ask Wednesday: The Eckmann Family on home-schooling

We lucked out when we learned that a neighbor family were willing to be interviewed about their involvement in home-schooling, for we very much wanted to share home-schooling experiences with our readers.
    The Eckmann Family include parents Kim and Kyle, children Tanner and Courtney, and their dog Rocky.
    [Our questions are in italics.]


Kim and Kyle, How did you decide on home-schooling for Courtney and Tanner? What factors were most important to you?
    Well...our decision to home-school was quite different from most other individuals we have talked with. We chose to home-school because Kyle accepted a position in the suburbs of Chicago and had to leave during the school year to fulfill his job acceptance. While Kim and Courtney and Tanner were in North Carolina, waiting for our home to sell, neither of us wanted them to be pulled out of school somewhere in the middle of the school year. We were also drawn to the freedom to school our children by offering them many opportunities to learn hands-on and by traveling to learn history first-hand.

Do you have a circle of other parents who home-school? How do you all help each other?
    With almost 50,000 home-schools in North Carolina alone, we would hope there are support groups/circles of friends who can help. We have a close circle of friends that we rely on. Some are former educators, some have been through the journey of home-schooling and have graduated their students, some are in the same boat as we: struggling at times. Our job isn't much different from public-school educators; they struggle as well, probably more. There are also websites, like that of the North Carolina Division of Non-Public Education (ncdnpe.org), that can answer questions. There are co-ops that students can attend. Some of us trade services (like piano lessons for haircuts, or algebra tutoring for help with literature). There are also tutors that teach classes, typically once a week, who leave the responsibility to the parents to make sure work assigned to the students is completed and done with excellence.

How do you decide what to include in your children's curriculum and when to include it?
    We use ncdnpe.org to follow the standard course of study. As for the curriculum, your head can spin with all the choices there are. Once a year, in Winston-Salem over Memorial Day weekend, North Carolina has a home-school convention. The downstairs of the convention center is full of curricula to choose from. It is quite overwhelming, sometimes. Again, talking with the vendors, if you are unsure, is a great way to find a curriculum that works with your child's learning bent.

How do you go about including it? How much teaching do you yourselves do?
    If we know that a special vacation is on the books, we will teach according to that specific experience. One year, when Courtney and Tanner were in fifth and seventh grade, respectively, we took them on a 5,000-mile road trip to Albuquerque, New Mexico. We studied the whole semester about the states we were going to be traveling through. One of the highlights was traveling on Route 66.
    Teaching was time-intensive in the younger years. Now with our children in high school, it's mostly on them. We do, however, have to grade papers. That is time-consuming. Starting junior year, many classes can be taken at local community colleges, earning double credit (high school and college) for classes taken.

In what ways is home-schooling expensive; that is, more expensive than public school? And how would you weigh those costs in the balance of advantages for the children?
    Home-schooling can be quite expensive. Of course, there is the cost of all the books involved and costs of tutorial classes and such. We budget about $3,000 a year for Courtney's schooling. It suits our family just fine, though. We get to decide on a curriculum that lines up with our beliefs. That's not to say that we don't talk about other beliefs, though. Our job is to raise our children with information to equip them with the knowledge to succeed in the working world.

We imagine that the demands of home-schooling your children must be huge. What have been your greatest challenges, and how have you met them?
    Our family is entrepreneurial. We have several side businesses and are also heavily involved in sports. During the playing season (mostly volleyball), getting all schoolwork done proves to be nearly impossible. Because of that, we school almost year-round. It is not an option to not finish what curriculum we have chosen.

Courtney, how is home-schooling working for you?
    I love home-schooling. I am able to have a say in what curriculum is chosen for me. Being able to explore my natural interests and use those things as part of my studies makes school more interesting.

What advantages/disadvantages has home-schooling had for you, relative to attending a regular public or private school?
    Some of the advantages I have experienced have been learning the family business, which is rental properties (finances and hands-on renovating), working at my own pace, and traveling with family and to compete in volleyball, which is one of my passions. When I get behind, and I certainly do at times, I am able to work longer into the year to complete my school year. While I am training and playing volleyball, I have only about three to four hours a day to do my schoolwork, and home-schooling allows me the freedom during the season to concentrate on some core subjects, like biology, math, and literature/composition, and to work on less essential subjects and electives in the off-season.
    I would say that the disadvantage that I experience is not being part of a bigger sports team—meaning a high school sports team—and incorporating that into my school day. I know that college coaches go watch high school sports teams much more than private sports teams. But that just means I need to be more creative in getting college coaches to come see me play. (Did I mention I would like to play college volleyball for a Division II college?)

Tanner, we understand that you are now attending a public school. What brought that about? What do you see as the pros and cons of homeschooling, relative to attending a public or private school?
    Switching from home-schooling to public school—or rather, to a charter school—was my own decision. The switch was influenced by the realization that I was having to learn a majority of the subjects completely on my own, and I also yearned for more social interaction. One of the big things that sold me on home-schooling and kept me at it when I had the choice was that I was able to work at my own pace; whereas, when I attended public school, I would usually be the first done on my work but have to stick around anyway. With home-schooling, I was able to finish my work rather early, usually around noon time.

How's it going for you now? What most do you miss about your former home-schooling arrangement?
    This is my senior year, and fourth year in public school since 4th grade, and I am maintaining an A average so far this year. I do miss being able to sleep in and finishing my work around noon. There were always friends that I maintained because of home-school groups that we attended, but I am still in contact with them and a vast majority of them have gone to public school just as I have.

All of you, what advice would you give parents who think that home-schooling would be better for their children than, say, public school?
    We would say that anyone who is interested in home-schooling needs to have a great group of friends that can support you in your adventure. There have been times when we considered re-enrolling both of our children in public school, but we didn't because friends suggested things that helped us through our struggles. You should read books on home-schooling, check out blogs, go to home-schooling conventions, and get your questions answered by “experts” who have been doing this for many years.

What question(s) do you wish we had asked?

What’s the most memorable part of your home-schooling experience, so far?
    Well, we would have to say the 5,000 mile road trip we took to Albuquerque. We were doing a unit study on the first motels and Route 66 and also studying U.S. geography. We traveled through thirteen states and saw things we had not seen before. We spent nearly five weeks on the road. Tanner and Courtney explored Nashville, Graceland, Memphis, Palo Duro Canyon in Amarillo, Texas, and rock-climbing in New Mexico. They got to go back and spend five days in the town (Brownwood, Texas) where they were born and visit with old friends. We walked the Riverwalk, in San Antonio, Texas, explored Johnson Space Center and Galveston, where Courtney experienced her first jellyfish sting. We explored the swamps of Louisiana and Mississippi and saw alligators up close in the wild.
    The low point of the trip was the four hours we spent stuck on a bridge that was twenty-six miles long, because of a traffic accident.

    Did we mention, Rocky (our dog) went along with us?