Homeschool Students Adapt to College LIfe

            Making the transition from a high school classroom to a big university can be daunting enough for a K-State freshman. One group of students face a bigger culture shock as they move from the kitchen table with mom to a lecture hall full of strangers.

“I remember my first day in a hallway with hundreds of kids waiting to get into class,” said Eric Lovich, sophomore in architectural engineering. “I was like, ‘Wow. This is way different.’”

             Lovich is one of a small handful of K-State students that earned their high school degree from home.

             As a member of Cornerstone Family Schools, a home education assistance organization based in Topeka, Kan., Lovich was able to study from home and participate in other academic, athletic and social events to help him get into K-State and make a smooth transition.

Getting In 

                It all starts with a visit. Lovich, his best friend and their mothers explored K-State at a Homeschool Day event on campus. That was enough for Lovich to know he wanted to be a wildcat and began the application process.

                The application process for homeschool students is similar to that of a public school student. K-State requires a minimum ACT score of 21, a SAT score of 980 or above, or a GED score of at least 510 on each subsection. Other qualifiers do not apply to homeschool students because they of the different educational situation.

                Many homeschool students take classes from a community college while they are still in high school to help prepare them for the college classes and make it easier to get into a bigger university like K-State.

                “My application process was helped by the transfer credits that I had from Allen County Community College,” said Joe Mollenkamp, junior in mechanical engineering. “I did not have any trouble applying. I was not only accepted in to the university, but also the College of Engineering on my first try.

                 However, some homeschool students decide to go the traditional route and jump head first into the collegiate experience away from home.

 “I think the more daring of us who were ready to run away from homeschooling and were tired of our parents were the ones who jumped here the quickest,” said Caitlin Reynolds, a senior in history and anthropology. “I think we are pretty well adjusted.”

According to Pat Bosco, Dean of Student Life, K-State is the often the number one choice for homeschool students in Kansas.  K-State admissions representatives continue to recruit homeschooled students because of their overall successes at K-State.

Getting the Grade

                Getting in to K-State is just the beginning. Adjusting to classes is its own set of hurdles for homeschoolers. Lovich said his community college classes in high school gave him a heads up, but there were still adjustments to make.

 “The first couple weeks I was here were a little weird,” Lovich said. “I wouldn’t say I was overwhelmed, but it was so much bigger than Allen County. I didn’t really feel that overwhelmed with the classes when I got here. They had more work, but at the same time I was used to college level classes. The only problems I had with teachers were normal problems every student has, like how I was graded on something.”

The initial switch is not always as smooth as some would like. Some have a harder time adjusting to the larger class sizes.

“The first semester I did not do exceptionally well,” Mollenkamp said. “it is just that I was used to a smaller class environment. The next semester I did better and have gotten decent to good grades since.”

With the increase in class sizes comes another distraction, the people themselves.

“I am used to doing my work on my own so that when I am around my friend I can have fun,” Mollenkamp said. “I have had trouble working in a study group. I know other people can help, but when they are around I tend to get distracted.”

                Bosco said that homeschoolers are a “great group” of K-State students and tend to do very well in the classroom. Mollenkamp agrees and said that homeschoolers perform well in the because of the strong work ethic instilled by their parents.

“Homeschoolers tend to see C's as barely passing and sub-par,” Mollenkamp said. “I think it comes from having you parents see all of you work, not just grades. It is hard to hide poor work when they are doing the grading.”

Fitting In

                A heavily debated concern about homeschooling is a perceived lack of socialization. Lovich agrees that it is one of the biggest pieces of the transition, but believes his time in sports through Cornerstone prepared him well.

“I don’t openly go around saying, ‘Hi. My name is Eric and I was homeschooled,’” Lovich said. “Unless people ask me where I went to school, they don’t even know. Most students here, at least from my experiences, whenever I tell them I’m homeschooled, they are like, ‘Woah! Really?’ They expect some weird, nerdy, freak kid. I have met some homeschool kids here that make me understand why there are stereotypes, but I have also met a lot that are out there that you wouldn’t be able to tell.”

Reynolds agrees that most homeschoolers pass by everyday undetected and that might have something to do with their extracurricular activities and social groups.

“No one assumes you were homeschooled when you say you are on the debate team,” Reynolds said with a laugh. “That’s where all the liberals hang out. There’s definitely a lot more diversity here than there was in homeschool-land. Most of the arguments or disagreements were about theoretical positions or nonsense like that. So then you come to college-land, and you’ve got the hippies over here and the liberals over here.  Homeschooled, conservative Christians are probably your smallest niche group.”

Reynolds went on to say that she enjoys the diversity at K-State and the freedom to be her own person. During her sophomore year, Reynolds was forced to choose between the rowing and debate teams due to time conflicts.

“It was a big turning point in my college career,” Reynolds said. “I think I picked the least homeschooler-ish choice in that situation. I chose to hang out with people completely opposite of the kids I hung out with in high school. I think that was my break away from my last vestiges of homeschool-land.”

This break away from “homeschool-land” was exactly what Reynolds needed in her life, but was very different from the path her younger brother Colin, sophomore in pre-law, chose.

“He is big on campus ministry groups like Cats for Christ,” Reynolds said. “He’s much more on the straight and narrow, traditional homeschooler path than I ever took.”

Although homeschooled students enjoy the freedom to choose to go down different paths and join a new social circle, problems can arise when ideas clash.

“Homeschoolers do not have to worry as much about the social scene and this relives a lot of unnecessary pressure in high school,” Mollenkamp said. “The problem arises when they interact with people that don't understand their point of view. Interaction between homeschoolers and non-homeschoolers is similar to the interaction between people from different states. They are basically the same just with a different view point on life.”

Despite the differences in education, Reynolds believes both groups need time to adjust to the collegiate social world.

“It wasn’t some kind of culture shock and homeschool girl had to run home,” Reynolds said.”It was more just other people adjusting to me. It took a while for people to believe I had friends and could speak normal languages and not just Latin. Eventually I convinced people I knew what social interaction was.”

Staying Fit

As a part of Cornerstone, Lovich and Mollenkamp competed in basketball , track and cross country during their high school years. After graduation, they had to make changes to keep their bodies and competitive spirits satisfied.

Lovich (#15) celebrates winning the championship with his homeschool basketball team.

“I love playing basketball so much,” Lovich said. “It’s still hard for me to just go to games and sit there and just be happy that I’m there. I still wish I was playing, but I knew the reality of it. Not many people play Division 1 basketball, especially at a place like K-State.”

             Lovich keeps up with his passion by playing when he can at the Peters Recreational Complex. Mollenkamp went in a different direction to keep in shape. He joined the Air Force ROTC program. Mollenkamp said he enjoys the early morning physical training sessions and combatives classes that came along with the program.

Mollenkamp now serves in K-State's Air Force ROTC.

“There is nothing like pitting your skill, strength and tenacity against an equally matched opponent to clear the head after a long day of math and science,” Mollenkamp said.

Reynolds took a different path from most homeschoolers again when it came to athletic activity after high school. She was given the opportunity to join the women’s rowing team and take the step up to Division 1 competition.
“You come from homeschool-land where it’s more important that you are praying before games than practicing your free throws,” Reynolds said. “Division 1 is all about your work ethic. Rowing was a different sport and we all sucked at it. It was a different sporting climate, but it was still a team. I think teams are important for settling into a new place.”

Reynolds believes her year with the rowing team was  beneficial to her college experience

Staying Connected                   

                Like most high school students, homeschoolers also spend time planning their escape into the real world.

“I was like any other 18 year old,” Mollenkamp said. “I wanted to get out of my parents house.  When I graduated I went to work for my cousin in Idaho. When I was there, I did miss my family, but it was not too bad. I still am close and keep in touch with all of my siblings.”

A child leaving the nest is a part of life, but it is often harder on homeschool families because they are together more than their public school counterparts.

“I think it’s a typical parental feeling,” Reynolds said. “It’s probably a little bit different for homeschool parents because they are used to having their kids with them all the time. Then all of the sudden, there is a shift to the kids not being under their control anymore. It’s probably harder on the parents than the kids. We look forward to it.”

As much as kids look forward to the escape, the parents look forward to the returns.

“They always say when I come back that the house has all this energy and they miss that,” Lovich said. “They aren’t crying or anything. They know this is how it works.”

Reynolds said it is a similar situation in her family when she and her brother have not visited home recently.

“I do not go home enough for my mom, Reynolds said. “She highly disapproves. I think she was insecure about it my freshman year, but my dad was cool with it and calmed the waters a bit.”

With a couple years under their belts, they all say they are still close with their families despite being an hour away from them. They say they appreciate the time the spent together over the years, but right now are enjoying their time apart.

“Obviously I miss home at times,” Lovich said. “I get in a groove coming here and this almost feels like my home.” 

Under one roof: living and learning in the home

For more than 25 years Kansas’s capital city of Topeka has played host to a growing independent Christian home education assistance organization named Cornerstone Family School. What began as one man “haphazardly” overseeing an effort to have greater accountability and support for people looking to homeschool has grown to more than 75 families with no sign of declining.

“Cornerstone is a unique organization along homeschool groups because at the time it was setup the environment was much different than it is now,” said Kent Vincent, Cornerstone founder. “Cornerstone provides not only opportunities but accountability for homeschooling families and that was the big concern back then.”

The Vincent family started home education in the early 80's when it was generally considered to be illegal said Kent. There were court cases that concerned the couple and they started an organization working with a local Christian school. After a few years of having a satellite school program, they decided to spin off a separate organization.

“The board at the Christian school didn't have time to deal with all the issues we had so we formed our own board and it's been going ever since, 25 years or so,” said Vincent. 

Christy Vincent looks on as her husband, Kent, discusses how Cornerstone Family Schools was formed. The couple have been members of the home education movement for more than thirty years.

The Difference

Homeschooling in Kansas is far from uncommon nowadays; with some associations having more than 2000 families belonging to them. Cornerstone acknowledges their size is quite small in comparison but the families who have joined enjoy an accountability process lacking in other organizations.

People have to apply and go through an interview process before they may join the association.

“We're also an accountability group,” said Lori Brewster, Cornerstone board member. “We track out hours and turn the reports into Cornerstone, just to make sure we're doing what we're supposed to be doing.”

The Brewster family joined Cornerstone when their eldest daughter, Kayla, was in 8^th grade. Kayla expressed a desire to attend public school because of the ability to participate in extra-curricular activities. The family found Cornerstone and agreed to give it a chance for a year; since joining the association none of the kids have brought up public school.

The group also does standardized testing which is not a requirement of the state. Cornerstone does this to go above and beyond as well as collected grades twice a year. The decision to keep accountability has been a decision supported by the members themselves. Kent said at one point the group debated removes the record keeping requirements but many families enjoy having the extra piece of mind.

This stems from the inadequate protection of homeschoolers.

Currently, the requirements for home education is to register as a non accredited private school. The school must to be taught by a competent teacher, but there is no definition of competent. “The law reads they have to be in school for substantially equivalent to number of hours or days which equates to 186 days of school,” said Brewster.

Additionally the household must register with the state education department as a homeschool.

No one has been stopped from homeschooling since 1983, said Kent. While some states have more strict regulations than Kansas Kent said he doesn’t believe their results are any better.

“If you go to court here you don't have safe harbor like in other states,” Kent said. “So there is an incentive to do the best job you can.”

The Advantages

The same laws that haunt homeschooling families also contribute to their enjoyment of in home education.

“Training begins from the time they wake up until they go to bed,” said Christy. “I think it gives a lot more time for building relationships if you choose to.”

            School isn’t limited to a classroom setting in the home. Families can take trips to museums; participate in extra-curricular athletic activities all in the name of class credit. Families are also afforded control over their children’s grade placement.

"Each family decides what grade their kids are in,” said Brewster. “My kids have never been in all one grade material at the same time.”

Brewster said teaching her kids allows her to cater specifically to each child for each subject.

Schoolwork aside, many families choose to join the Cornerstone family because of the extra-curricular activities. Cornerstone conducted a survey in 2008 to ask why people were joining and it the results were split between the access to sports and the fine arts.

“Accountability and testing was a small part of it,” said Brewster. “There was a lot of different reasons people had for joining, but the biggest was the extra-curricular activities.”

 Cornerstone Family School’s sports teams “The Saints” compete with public and private schools in a wide variety of sports ranging from soccer and basketball to track and field. Students can even letter in sports offering a similar experience to their traditional school counterparts.

Brewster’s eldest son, Keaton, is currently in 7^th grade, but would be in 6^th grade in a public school because of his age. Keaton plays basketball for the junior high Saints.

“It’s tough, but it’s a lot of fun,” Keaton said.

Another plus of home-schooling is the flexibility of the class schedule. The Brewster family took vacation in the middle of Sept. this year to avoid the vacationing masses.

"We avoided the tourist times and the crowds from tourist in the summer,” said Brewster. "We worked our lives and our vacation around school or school around our lives and vacation, whichever way you want to look at it."

The Curriculum

All the families sit under the umbrella of Cornerstone, but that is a loose organization – each family has the ability to conduct their curriculum as they choose.

"For me, I don't use one particular curriculum, we pick and chose based on what I think will be good for my kids,” said Brewster. "The grades aren’t important, it’s about the learning."

Instead of grading assignments and moving on, Brewster goes over everything her children miss until they understand it. Brewster maintains a planner for each of her children and updates it each week.

            With 11 children, the Vincent family had six children in school at the same time. Christy credits the ability to manage having so many different subjects to teach to strict scheduling and great children. 

“As they get into high school there were opportunities to take classes outside the home and get them to branch out into the things they were interested in,” said Christy. “You know when you've done it this long, it's just a way of life and you know what resources you like and what resources and people you can use.”

The home education movement has grown so much since the beginning Kent said it is easy to be overwhelmed by the curriculum choices.

“It's grown so much, you can use the internet now and there's so much you can use inside the home you don't have to go outside the home for things,” said Christy.

Kent said regardless of the growth of curriculum choices the struggle of motivating kids has remained the same.

Lori Brewster studies Bible with her son, Levi, following breakfast.

The Challenges

As one would imagine schooling at home can become a difficult environment for children and the teacher. At a time when the average attention span of a child seemed to be measured in seconds how can families keep a focus on the content being taught with all the comforts and distractions of home?

“It's very frustrating some days because you're the parent and the teacher,” said Brewster. “There's good days and there's bad days and kids don't always want to cooperate, whether it's doing chores or doing their schoolwork.”

When the teacher is mom, competing for attention and assistance quickly becomes personal.
“It's kinda crazy,” said Keaton. “Usually I try to get my mom's attention and find out what I can do by myself so she can work with my brother.”

Keaton and his brother, Levi, are in the same history class, but all other courses are tailored specifically to each of them.

Another problem can be over-committing to groups and extra-curricular activities. Brewster said since all the extra-curricular activities are outside the home a lot of time must be spent driving to and from the events, practices, etc.

“Trying to keep up with the housework sometimes can be challenging,” Brewster said. “The schoolwork is first priority.”

The Socializing

As the topic of socialization comes up the home educators faces glaze over as they prepare to walk a well trodden path. Socialization is a constant “go-to” for those questioning the legitimacy of the home education movement.

“There is what is called a peer dependence, which is where kids pickup their norms and standards from their peers - which ain't always good,” said Kent. “What we try and sell is that we're trying to co-locate those values from adult to child instead of peer to peer.”

 The Vincents say there is much more socialization from the internet alone then ever before; and stress it is not always good.

“The social relational testing that they did back in the 80's and 90's the homeschooled kids were better socialized then their traditional school counterparts,” Kent said. “On the whole, because there's always gonna be exceptions.”

Christy attributes this to the role of adults in the children’s lives.

Kent said the kids gain better socialization skills because of the absence of age segregation. also more of an opportunity to be around kids of separate ages.

“All of our kids had no problem adjusting to the places we went or the people they were with,” said Christy.

The families in Cornerstone have found a way to mix their desire to teach their children and offer a comparable experience to public schools.

“Our kids are some of our best friends,” said Kent. “This decision has been good for our family to spend the time together and grow together.”

Family Finds there is More to Learn in Homeschooling

            Most middle school students spend Mondays in back-to-back classes surrounded by a variety of classmates and teachers for nearly eight hours.  Keaton Brewster, however, is a seventh-grader that finishes his schoolwork by 10 in the morning, before a typical student has even eaten lunch.

            Keaton is homeschooled by his mom, Lori, alongside his two of his siblings and following in the footsteps of his older sister, Kayla.  The family operates through Cornerstone Family Schools based out of Topeka.

            Lori began homeschooling her children 14 years ago and has homeschooled all four of her children at once, grades first through 12. 

            It's very frustrating some days because you're the parent and the teacher and there are good days and there are bad days and kids don't always want to cooperate, whether it's doing chores or doing their schoolwork,” Lori said.  “We've just been doing it so long, it's routine for us.”

            Kayla graduated from Cornerstone last May and has been looking into a career nursing but is “kind of waiting on the Lord, right now.”  When she reflects on her homeschooling, she says she was afforded nearly every opportunity given by the public school system.  The greatest downside was learning to be patient while her mother taught her younger siblings.

            “My mom would be teaching my brother something and I would have to wait,” Kayla said. “You just kind of have to wait your turn and do what you can until you have time with the teacher.”

            Lori uses different curriculums depending on the needs of her children.  All of her children are advanced for their ages.  Keaton would be in the sixth-grade as a public school student but he is currently taking eighth-grade math.

            "It's just kind of like wherever we're at [academically] is what we do,” Keaton said. "Our whole family is kind of ahead a grade, so we're lucky for that.”

            Lori is dedicated to making sure her children get the most from their experience as homeschool students.  As the teacher, she reviews everything her children miss in their assignments so that she can help them work until they understand it.

            “The object of teaching is to learn, we learn to actually learn it,” she said.  “Grades aren't important, it's the learning. Grades only matter in high school for college transcripts.”

            Kayla said she enjoyed her time as a homeschool student and if she has children, she would like to homeschool them, as well.

Cornerstone Photo Gallery (Including Brewster family)

Interactive Map

Crunch Time

Today is Tuesday.

The project is due Thursday.

This is crunch time.

I worked on editing our "day in the life" video quite a bit last night and spent a ton of time on it today. There was so much footage to go through, it was crazy. I think it is now complete, unless we do get a family photo tonight. If that happens, Ill throw that in and export it. If not, all that's left is to export and upload.  :)

Jason and I have been working pretty closely on our portions of the project. It is pretty easy for us to do it since we work at the Collegian together. He has been assisting me with a different perspective of the video and we have been editing print stories back and forth to make sure they are correct. We are a pretty good team. :)

Enjoy some photos from our trip that probably will not be in the slideshow. It should tide you over until Thursday!

 

          

(This kitten was so tiny and adorable, it had to be shared! Don't even try to tell me this didn't make you smile)

-Stephanie

visiting then transcribing

What an interesting experience out in Topeka. I was able to see the home-school process firsthand. I was always a bit envious of the two children in my neighborhood growing up for not having to go to school and once I walked into the Brewster's home and saw her youngest son still in his pajamas those feelings came back. It seemed the boys truly enjoyed attending school at their kitchen table. Aside from having to occasionally compete for their mom's attention the system seemed to work quite well. More to come on the trip to Topeka, I don't want to give away all the bits I plan on using in the story.
Yesterday I sat down for a few hours and transcribed most of the interviews and today I'm finishing them up. I already know what angle I'll be writing from because of our planning and preparation session - so getting the final product finished will only take a few hours. Since I worked more with video than I have in the past the challenge will be working with Carr so she can write some of the print story and I can contribute to the video.
Off to continue the transcribing process. -JSM

Home Again, Home Again

First off, the previous post is incorrect. The work has NOT just begun. It has been going on since we started the project. Jason and I have been researching the homeschool group, homeschooling in general and selecting the right people to tell the story through. The trip was pushed back so late because of a failure to respond to texts or on our google doc page about when the whole group could go. After waiting for a week for a response, we planned what worked for us and assigned another part of the project.

Now that that has been cleared up, on to the fun stuff about the trip! (Jason should be posting about his experiences soon as well.)

Since we did not know exactly what the situation would be like once we got to the Brewster home, I loaded up Jason's little car with our own little radio shack. We had multiple video cameras, still cameras, different kinds of microphones, lights, tripods, tapes, memory cards, laptops, etc. You name it, we had it. Preparation, for the win.

After a pit stop for breakfast at BK, we arrived at the Brewster home just after 8:30am. Jason met the family for the first time (I already knew them from my time in the group.)  We got our equipment ready as Lori gathered the kids to begin their day. I wish I would have had the camera running for some of it. Levi, the 2nd grader, told his mom that he was bored with clothes and had decided to stay in his pajamas for the day. Keaton, the 7th grader, was wearing a KU shirt and had to tell us about KU's superiority. I found it rather amusing.

The kids settled down and went through their morning routine. Jason recorded audio and i filmed them studying. Keaton did not seem to enjoy the camera being pointed at him, but tolerated it. The still camera I had checked out from JMC refused to work, so we took still photos on our phones and on the small video cameras that we had. That really hurt us on quality of the photos, but it is better than nothing.

Throughout the morning, we sat down with Keaton and Kayla (who graduated this past May) to see how they view the educational experience they are living. Keaton wasn't very talkative, but it was interesting to hear how Kayla viewed her homeschool years in retrospect. This project has made me look back at my time as well, so I found our differences in opinion interesting.

We had a long chat with Lori about the teacher's perspective on homeschooling. She was very honest about their day to day life, which was really cool. Having been there, I know from first had experience that it ideal days are few and far between. No two families are ever the same in how they approach homeschooling. I really enjoyed getting to peek in on someone else's day and compare with my experiences.

Unfortunately, speech class was cancelled due to sick kids, so we were unable to get footage of that. Leigha, the sophomore, had spent the night at her debate partner's house to prepare for an upcoming competition, so we did not get to see her as part of the home classroom. We did go to debate practice to sit down with her. Debate was pretty boring though... Leigha was not participating in that particular day's practice round, so we left early.

Our next stop was with Kent and Christy Vincent, and boy was it interesting! They were involved in the forming of Cornerstone over 25 years ago and are still homeschooling some of their 11 kids. They had such interesting background that I didn't even know. When they asked how long it would take, I said 15 minutes. It turned into an hour long conversation about legal, local and personal stories about homeschooling. Definitely a worthwhile stop!

Once we wrapped up there, Jason needed to head back to Manhattan so his wife could use the car, so I met up with my family and went to basketball practice. It was QUITE the trip down memory lane for me. All the red practice jerseys and siblings playing around reminded me of the semi-good times in high school. I filmed there devotions and practice, which was actually harder than I realized it would be. First off, they practice on 4 courts at the same time, so I was moving around quite a bit. The second challenge was the speed. After filming K-State's mens and womens teams for the past year, this felt incredibly slow. I found myself getting ahead of things instead of being a bit behind. :) The photos were REALLY challenging. The movement did not work so well with my phone's camera and it wasn't so hot from the video camera.

(RANDOM OBSERVATION!) This trip made me feel pretty dang old. I have only been gone for 3.5 years, but all these kids have grown up so much! I can't believe it! Kids I knew as little ones when I was in high school are now sophomores and seniors. Keaton is almost as tall as I am! It's just crazy to think about how much has changed in the past couple years...

Anyways...

2.5 tapes and tons of pictures later, the visual side of the story is shaping up.

Up next, editing what I currently have and hopefully sitting down with some homeschool grads in Manhattan/ at K-State!

-Stephanie

There's a little over a week before the project is due and the work has just begun.  Due to a conflict of scheduling (and slight procrastination) only Stephanie and Jason will be visiting the homeschool group in Topeka tomorrow to collect info, interviews, video and more.

To make up for my lack of participation, I (Amanda) was given the task of creating a map.  Through creating this map, I learned that homeschool groups are not unique in the Kansas area.  All of the schools shown in the map operate like the one in Topeka under the influence of CHECK - Christian Home Educators Confederation of Kansas.

Take a look at the Homeschool Groups Across Kansas Counties and be on the lookout for more posts and Steph and Jason adventure to Topeka tomorrow.

Amanda