Another homeschool story: Starting after elementary school in Texas

Day 721 of 1000

Kelly came back from her internship at the Johns Hopkins University-Applied Physics Laboratory just in time for a visit from the Larsons. They are dear homeschooling friends from Texas. Age-wise, the twin boys fall right between Christian and Kelly. That have gotten along famously since late elementary school. We spent a great weekend with them visiting the NCSU Hill Library and the North Carolina Museum or Art, playing games, talking, playing music, going to church, and generally just hanging out together.  The Larson’s are great musicians–voice, violin/fiddle, accordian, piano–really they are amazing.

At any rate, it got me to thinking about the Larson’s homeschool trajectory.  It was a little different than our trajectory due to the normal reasons:  differing interests (medicine, law, and business rather than engineering and math), amazing music skills, access to great Texas homeschool resources, differing teaching styles and curricula, etc.  Still, the spirit of their homeschool was more similar to ours than just about any we have seen.  They put worldview above other academic subjects, skipped two years of high school to put their kids into the community college, focused on hard science and math, but backfilled with music, international travel, language, hunting, and community service.

Some of the things they did much better than us include their participation in things like youth symphony, youth court (as lawyers and judges), EMT training, medical research, and I am sure there are others.  It is great to see these boys prosper in ways that would not have been possible in a government or private school setting, but what we admire the most is their humility and the joy they derive from the path they have chosen as a family.