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September 20, 2002/Tishri 14 5763, Vol. 55, No. 4
Parents choose to educate children at home
BETH OLSON
Staff Writer
For many people the phrase "home school" brings to mind a fundamentalist Christian family and a minivan with a half dozen children filling its seats.
However, a bit of Internet research finds that the stereotypical view of a home-schooling family is not only inaccurate, but non-existent. According to the National Home Education Research Institute (www.nheri.org), 1.5 to 1.9 million families in the United States who home school their children come from all different religious and socioeconomic backgrounds, reside in rural, suburban and urban communities, and their reasons for home schooling are widely varied.
While research shows that Jewish families generally favor public school and Jewish day school education, there are a number of Jewish families who choose to home school their children. Several Jewish home-schooling families in the Valley recently formed a home-school group, Arizona Jewish Homeschoolers.
Founded by Rachel Kielsky, the group had its first meeting on Aug. 29 to learn about Rosh Hashana. Kielsky's father-in-law, Fred Greenwood, taught the three families about the shofar, then the group shared apples and honey, and colored holiday pictures and banners to bring to Kivel Campus of Care.
"I wanted to create something where we can ... give our kids a chance to meet each other because everybody they meet in the other home-school groups we do are typically Christian," explains Kielsky. "It gives the kids an opportunity to meet other kids who are doing the same things they are."
Kielsky began home schooling two of her children, 12-year-old Rebecca and 5-year-old Kylie, at the beginning of the school year. Nine-year-old son, Bentzi, attends the Tri-City Jewish Community Center Day School.
Lisa Serebrin and her children met at Kielsky's home in Mesa for the group's Rosh Hashana event. Serebrin has been home schooling her oldest son, Dashiell, 8, for the past three years, and is now also home schooling her 5-year-old son, Julian. Both children are working about a year above grade level.
While Serebrin purchases the curriculum she uses from the Calvert School - which she says has been in the business of home education for more than 100 years - Kielsky uses the Internet as her primary resource.
"My tool is the computer," says Kielsky. "I start everything by sitting down at my computer and getting on the Internet and I do Web searches and read all different kinds of pages that I find. I sift through the good stuff and the bad stuff to find what I think is relevant."
Both families belong to other, secular, home-school groups. The groups do study units, field trips, book groups and play dates. Serebrin says her family's home-school schedule also allows Dashiell to be involved in many activities outside of the home - he plays on a chess team, is a brown belt in karate, plays the clarinet and is taking up soccer this fall.
"People who don't home school are always concerned about home schooler's ability to interact socially," says Serebrin. "We have so many social outlets, it's not a concern."
Kielsky and Serebrin both say that they value being able to go at their children's learning pace
"It is so exciting to be there when your child first learns something and they're excited about it and you get to share in that excitement with them. It's such a wonderful thing," says Serebrin. "Like when your baby takes his or her first steps - it's the same kind of thing except you get to do it with your child throughout their development."
Despite the benefits, both moms say there are challenges as well. Kielsky says there are occasional frustrations, but all the mothers she's met are "very, very dedicated."
Likewise, Serebrin says the effort is worth it.
"I know that I'm making sacrifices to do this, but in my opinion, the sacrifices I have to make are small because this is not going to be my whole life. This is just my life when my kids are small."
For information about Arizona Jewish Homeschoolers, e-mail rachel@kielsky.com.
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