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Lewiston moms launch home school support group By
Joseph M. Dougherty One of the founders of the group, Tanya Moore, mother of two school-age children, (the other two aren''t old enough yet) says the group meets once each week to give the kids a chance to play and the mothers support. "We're just a field trip group," Moore says. "We each do home school today and we're going to get together to take a tour of the pumpkin patch." Activities for the group vary. Oct. 18 will see the group making crafts to celebrate Columbus Day. The group is brand new to Cache Valley this year. Moore and another mother, Holly Putnam, started it. Putnam says it's hard to start in a group that is already well-established. Like in a public school, groups become tightly knit. "We decided to start our own," she says. Moore recently moved from Yuba City, Calif., where she was a member of a similar home schooling group. The plan wasn't always to home-school her children. "I was going to do the normal thing and send [the kids] to school," she says. Living in a farm area, Moore realized her daughter was more advanced than other children. "My husband said, 'Why don't you home school?' [After looking into it] I felt I could give her a better education at home." Putnam, who is home-schooling her children for the third year, says her kids started in public school. She relates the story of her daughter, Taylor. The family lived in Logan at the time. Taylor was doing well in kindergarten, so well, in fact, she was bumped out and put into first grade. However, the teachers met the move with some resistance and the girl ended up having a breakdown, crying for two hours without an explanation for teachers. The family moved to Clarkston and Taylor was enrolled at Lewiston school. "She started saying, 'Please don't make me go to school. Please don't make me go to school,'" Putnam says. Then one day, she came home with bruises. Kids had been chasing her with sticks, and when Taylor told the playground teacher about the problem she received a surprising response. "The playground teacher said I needed to learn to get along better," Taylor says. Overnight, the decision was made to start home school. "I wasn't sure I had the gumption to do it," Putnam says. Parents in Lewiston who home school their children follow the same calendar as the Cache School District. Children still play with their public school friends. The only difference is where they are learning. "I belonged to home school group in California," Moore says. "It was a great support for the moms." Some people have the idea of home school as really strange. In fact, sometimes even the children don't want to stick with it. Putnam says she knew a family whose daughter had been home-schooled, but decided to enroll in a public high school. "[Later] she said, 'Don't tell my mother, but I learned more in home school than in public school,'" she says. "It all just depends on the people," Moore says. "It doesn't mean we hang out all the time. It did more for our family and it's more than just educating at home. Putnam was quick to say home schooling isn't for everyone. "You have to be able to deal with your children 24-seven." Also, parents need to be able to survive without a second income. Putnam says another benefit, besides letting her kids perform at a higher level than they would in a public school, is that age in no longer an inhibitor to making friends. Students of all ages get along in the support groups, which is key to keeping them in home school. "I don't have friends that are only my age," Putnam says. "I don't have only 36-year-old friends. Tanya's 24." She says she would also rather have her children learn manners from parents or other children with similar values, rather than leaving it up to chance her children will learn manners from an 11-year-old on the playground. The Home Sweet Home group has taken a trip to Macey's, celebrated World Smile Day by making crafts to make each other happy, and has plans to get out into Cache Valley. Future plans include a visit to the American West Heritage Center and to Rocky's Pizza in Smithfield to learn how to make pizza. For more information on the school group, call Moore at 563-4715 or Putnam at 563-874
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