Home School Advocates Say They Made Right Choice

Parents from all over the country hunched over notebooks Saturday and absorbed advice during the 17th annual Christian Home Educators Convention, which ends today at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim.

Parents examined new teaching materials at the many vendor booths and traded tips about curriculum. Students attended the conference to befriend other home-schooled kids and to trade stories about their parents and their education.

Recent home school graduate Melissa Kirscher, 18, of Yorba Linda said the intense attention she received from her parents has proved invaluable in the real world.

“You really absorb a lot of wisdom at home,” she said. “The best thing about home schooling is that you get to be around your family all day, every day. It really builds unity.”

Her sister Sabrina, 16, agreed and said many of her public school friends envy the quality time she spends with her family and the flexibility she has in studying.

“You can have hot chocolate and sit on the couch in your pajamas and read your history,” she said. “You can study only three days a week, or cram everything into the weekends, or stagger the hours however you want.”

Convention coordinator Julie Horn of Santa Ana estimated attendance at 5,500. Registration at the door costs $66 for one day, or $76 for married couples.

For 18-year-old JonDee Eastis of Phelan, Calif., the best part about her home schooling was the field trips and special activities.

“It’s not claustrophobic at all,” she said. “Public school kids only do one field trip a month, if they’re lucky. We get to go on one almost every week.”

Eastis said she wasn’t isolated by the experience and participated in many activities, including athletics and a drum corps, that brought together home-schooled children from her area.

Sessions such as “Raising Godly Children in Today’s Secular World” and “Teaching Kids Right From Wrong” were popular with many convention participants, who said tragedies like the Columbine High School shooting helped spur them into home schooling.

“There are kids out there doing some really evil things,” said Steve Antti of San Diego, whose wife is home schooling their two children. “I don’t need to expose my kids to all the junk out there, the bad language, the perversion and violence.”

Antti, who teaches in a public school, said his wife gave up her career as a professional musician to stay home and home school their daughters.

“Her job is to raise the children, and that’s exactly where I want her,” he said. “I want her to take care of the kids and bring them experiences they won’t have with public schools.”