A lot to consider in decision to home-school

Aleksandra Padua of Holly Springs has home-schooled her two children, now 9 and 6, for two years. Her son had attended a public school for two years. She spoke recently with staff writer Marti Maguire.

Q: Why did you decide to home-school your children?

A: I had seen a change in my son. When he started kindergarten, he was so excited about school, and by the end of first grade, he was just burned out. He was not as interested in learning anymore. He didn't have the time to play that a 6-year-old likes to have. My husband and I also wanted to have more of an influence on him in the sense of training him in his character. I was feeling that whatever I was trying to instill in him was a little sabotaged. ... The other benefit is that I'm Polish and I'm able to teach him my language and incorporate that into my home-schooling.

Q: How did you decide?

A: I took a whole year to research and to go to conferences and to educate myself. I had a friend who had started homeschooling, and I really wanted to see what she was learning and learn from her. I have to say that the public school that my son went to had a lot of great teachers. In the school where he was, he was able to take Japanese, which I knew I couldn't teach him at home. So we had to look at the pros and cons and the advantages and disadvantages of both.

I tried to talk to as many people as possible. I read books about home-schooling. I went to a conference that was held here in Raleigh. I didn't really jump into it, partly because I knew that there would be sacrifices. We are a one-income family. That's something you have to consider. I'm not earning money for my retirement at this point.

Q: What activities do your children do outside of the home?

A: My son plays hockey at IcePlex in Raleigh. We usually go skating at the Garner Ice House on Tuesdays and then another day. My son plays with a home-schooling group within the First LEGO League. ... We are part of a larger co-op called S.E.E.K. at Colonial Baptist Church in Cary. There are 150 families in that co-op. It's a two hour session. For example, I will teach one class, and the second hour I take a class for myself. There is some focus on the moms and encouraging them in their home-schooling endeavors. There are bible classes and such.

Q: How do you find materials?

A: There are different approaches and philosophies. You could do well with just your library card and museums and field trips. You can purchase curricula with outlines of each lesson. There are DVDs and CDs and computer classes where you have an electronic classroom setting. It's like making a dessert. You can go to the store and buy it, or you can get half of it made in a box, or you can just make it all yourself.

Q: What motivates your children to work without being graded?

A: Part of our motivation is to please God by doing your very best. This is the time of your life to study and to learn about the world around you, and that pleases God. That's something we talk about in our family, and that's one of our motivations. We don't have the stress of projects having to be turned in and tests looming. You can just enjoy studying. If I see something they're interested in, then I will change what we are doing and pursue it. I think that curiosity is something that my son is gaining back.

Q: How much time do you spend on home-schooling?

A: I've never counted the hours, but it does take planning, and it takes my efforts to plan to have set goals. I write down a log of what I do every day. I write down what we've accomplished, and that gives me an idea of what we need to cover in our next lessons.

I'm constantly reading homeschooling books to use the wisdom that is out there. It's like mothering. If you're a mother, you're a full-time mother, no matter what else you do. Even when you're not teaching your kids, you're teaching them something.