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)
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