The Home Schooling Option

For the ultimate small school experience, some parents in Northern Door choose home schooling.
“Initially I was pressured to home school by my husband, his family, and my mother who had been a teacher,” said Karen McNeil. “I was terrified and didn’t want to do it!” But with her oldest son David, now an adult, she enjoyed “watching the light bulb click on.” And his younger sister Gracie observed and participated in everything he did.
Home schooling was practical at the time as McNeil and her then husband were running a bed and breakfast. During the fall and spring “we would not have seen our kids,” she said, as they would have been in school during the week and weekends were consumed by the business. “The over-riding factor,” she said, “was that I wanted to be mom.”
As do a number of home-schooling parents, she likes the religious education component to the curriculum, along with the opportunity to build family relationships and have her kids socialize and integrate with all age groups.
The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) makes provisions for parents to school their own children. McNeil purchases a curriculum and instructional materials from a Christian college in Pensacola, Florida. On occasion she has engaged tutors in math and English. As a teaching parent, she is responsible for creating transcripts indicating scope and sequence, class dates, publishers of materials, and grades she has assigned.
“Universities seem to welcome home-schooled kids,” she said. When David and Gracie attended college both felt that they had been adequately prepared.
Eleventh grade Iain and ninth grade Eva, attended Gibraltar for some classes and were home schooled for others. As a senior, Iain is attending Gibraltar full time. “I don’t like the eight-period day idea,” he said, “but it’s going to be good for me.”
A school schedule was an adjustment for Iain. “At first I hurried and was first in the room. I worried about being late for the bell,” he said. “I’ve mellowed out now!
“Accountability in home schooling is a big thing,” he continued. “It’s hard to do the work. In the fall and spring my mom works, so there’s no accountability sometimes, and you can put off schoolwork for a couple weeks. When I went to Gibraltar I freaked out about turning things in. I worried about late assignments and not getting credit. It was a new thing to have a deadline.”
Eva likes the social aspect of Gibraltar. “I like meeting new people, friends, interacting in a class,” she said. “It’s easier to focus with a teacher than it is sometimes at home with a video.”
On the other hand they enjoy the freedom to pursue their own interests when home schooled. “We have some say in the books we read,” Iain said.
Although home-schooled children experience more freedom in their education, “when all is said and done,” McNeil said, “the kids have better self-discipline if their family takes home schooling seriously.”
The Wisconsin DPI reported a total of about 40 students enrolled in home schooling in the three northern Door County districts. The department website (www.dpi.wi.gov/sms/homeb.html) provides information for parents who are considering enrolling their children in a home-based private education program