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When home-school children and parents divulge their educational choice, they face two main questions: “How does that work?” and “What about socialization?” Two Jessamine County families have answers. Nancy Snyder says it works in a way that gives her children educational experiences rather than books; Ashleigh DeCecca says her daughter gets more socialization than she does. The two met when their daughters took advantage of their flexible schedules with a unique opportunity — a home-school gymnastics class.

Synders bringing history to life with trips across U.S.

Nancy Snyder’s 9-year-old daughter, Hannah, continued on to a gymnastics team from the home-school class. Her other daughter, 12-year-old Stephanie, didn’t share Hannah’s interest, but Snyder saw more possibilities in home schooling than just a daytime athletic class.

Two years ago, the Snyder family — Nancy, Steve, Stephanie and Hannah — took a 12-day trip to the northeast United States. Last year, they went to the Washington, D.C. area. Then came a trip south to South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. And this past August, they went west to Texas. These weren’t just vacations; they were educational trips taken during the school year.

“I just wanted history to be more than reading a book,” Nancy said of her interactive approach to home-schooling. “I was lucky enough when I was a child that I got to go a lot of places, so I wanted them to do it, too.”

While the family does a lot of schooling in the home, Nancy said the trips offer plenty of opportunities to learn history, geography, geology and science.

“Here, you don’t get to see an ocean,” she said. “[On the coast], we talked about the tides and the sea breezes, and we got into the science of how the sea breeze works. We try to tie everything in.”

Nancy also teaches literature related to the historical sites the family sees. They read “Little Women” while visiting the home of author Louisa May Alcott, walked in Thoreau’s footsteps at Walden Pond and read relevant poetry while touring the Old North Church in Boston and the USS Constitution.

When they’re not following the Minuteman Trail or hiking the mountains of Vermont, the Snyders’ flexibility in scheduling also allows them to make trips to visit family. Nancy’s mother lives more than four hours away in Paducah.

“I can just pack the kids up and pack the books up, and school goes with us,” she said.

Nancy doesn’t think her children are missing important social education. She said they do “goofy things like regular kids” and get more varied social interactions than children in public schools.

“There’s no time in your life you will ever go out and be surrounded by only people your own age,” she said.

Nancy said the focus of home-schooling is raising “future citizens” to be valuable members of society.

“It’s kind of like raising a plant or a tree in the greenhouse for a while,” she said. “You’re going to transplant it and put it out in the world, but when you’re starting off here at first, you want to nurture it and give it that protection so that it’s growing straight and growing right. You don’t want it bent over by the wind and eaten up by the bugs until it’s strong and ready to be transplanted.”

Home school leads to the balance bar for DeCecca family

Justin and Ashleigh DeCecca made the initial decision to home-school their daughter, Taylor, because her late birthday had caused them to miss a state cut-off day for enrollment. But after being taught at home for several years, Taylor didn’t want to stop.

“By the time we had been doing it for a few years, she said, ‘I like this; I don’t want to do public school,” Ashleigh said.

The DeCeccas found out about a home-school gymnastic class at Legacy Gymnastics, and Taylor started attending the daytime class in fall 2008. Ashleigh said the small class size helped Taylor.

“Because of the one-on-one time with the home-school class, she was able to move up quickly,” she said.

Taylor, 10, is now on a team with public-schoolers and travels to competitions. While athletes in more mainstream sports like basketball and football may be dependent on their school to give them a chance to play, most gymnastics teams are not affiliated with schools. Ashleigh said Taylor’s choice of gymnastics wouldn’t restrict her as a home-schooler.

“She can stay with this and not have to be in public school all the way to college, if she’d like, and that gives her that opportunity to get scholarships and things like that through athletics without having to go to traditional school,” she said.

Taylor’s home-schooling hasn’t restricted her social interactions; Ashleigh pointed out that one weekend she had three separate offers from friends to go to a gymnastics meet, spend the night and go see a movie.

“She has more to do than I do,” Ashleigh said.

Taylor doesn’t think she’s missing anything socially either. She said she might consider public school once she reaches high-school age, but she was sure she would home-school her own children.

Ashleigh said she thought home-schooling had benefitted Taylor intellectually and socially.

“I think her being home-schooled has helped her focus more,” she said. “I really think that home-schoolers are good listeners, and they retain the information that you give them.”

While home-school fits just right for Taylor, her more extroverted 5-year-old brother, Lawson, is wavering on whether he wants to stay at home or go to public school. Ashleigh said each child has different needs.

“She’s kind of quiet, and home school really suits her well,” she said. “He seems to be a little more outgoing, so we’ll see how he does.”

With Asbury College’s programs to teach home-schoolers and the other organizations available, Ashleigh said the area is prime for educating children at home.

“We’ve been kind of blessed to be in Jessamine County,” she said. “It’s just such a good county to home-school in.”

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