Parents have been educating their children at home since Adam and Eve, yet in modern times it took the 2020 lockdown to put a spotlight on the practice.
According to the website Ohio Education By the Numbers, the number of homeschooled students across the state went from 33,348 to 51,502 between 2020 and 2021. Nationally, data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau suggests the rate of students learning at home has increased from 2.8 to 5.4 percent post-pandemic, a 30 percent jump.
In Logan County, the preference to teach children at home has a lot of support, including numerous coops and other groups designed to help parents navigate what Sharon Tullis, a veteran of homeschooling, called “one of the hardest jobs on earth.”
Tullis and her husband, Dan, of Bellefontaine, started looking for alternatives to public education in 1986, when their oldest daughter was going into second grade. With a degree in education and some time teaching at a public school, Sharon, with Dan’s support, decided they wanted a biblically based education and upbringing for their three children.
Tullis quickly became involved in what was then the Logan County Homeschool Support Group. Two years later, the Ohio Department of Education asked her to be part of a committee to standardize home education. The rules they came up with were established statewide in 1989 and continued with only minor tweaks for 30 years.
But now we’re in 2024 and parents choosing to teach at home can find several options around Logan County.
The Campbell Hill Classical Coop (CHCC) is about to start its 13th year on Friday, Aug. 23. The group of 13 full-time and two part-time teachers will instruct 83 students in K4 through 12th grade once a week. Campbell Hill offers the same set of classes every year to make sure their students meet all the Ohio requirements needed to graduate.
“The idea of a coop has become popular because it gives your kids a chance to have a community,” Kate Andre, a teacher and homeschool parent from Zanesfield, explained. “It also allows parents to have support in homeschooling, which is really important.”
Parents of younger students come to classes with their children so they’re learning too. For the older students—seventh through twelfth—it’s a drop-off day and they work to a syllabus.
According to Andre, who has six children with her husband, David, CHCC operates differently from other coops, which mostly offer supplemental classes. Campbell Hill, though, is geared toward a graduation-focused curriculum.
The coop meets at Vineyard Christian Fellowship in Bellefontaine and maxes out, capacity-wise, every year. And in May of 2024, they graduated their first group of seniors.
Peak Learning School, also in Bellefontaine, sits on the other end of the spectrum. Maddie Baird is the owner, operator and lead teacher of what she calls a “microschool.” A certified Ohio teacher, Baird will instruct 10 preK and kindergarten students in her home beginning Thursday, Sept. 5.
This year, classes will take place on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., with students providing their own lunch. She describes the instruction as hands-on and projects-based with lots of free play.
Baird, who has a public school background, said she saw a lot of burnout, not only with kids but with teachers.
“All the testing made the love of learning go away,” she said. “I wanted first and foremost to offer something richer for my kids to love learning.”
With that in mind, she decided to model her program after a one-room schoolhouse. Peak Learning is a faith-based program and, if all goes well, Baird plans to increase to five days a week next year with a larger space, going up through fourth grade. She charges $40 a day.
“I am a Christian,” Baird stated. “We have Bible-reading time together, journal together and pray together. For some people, that’s important.”
Raising Disciples Homeschool Coop (RDHC), which is held at Harper Community Church off County Road 9 outside of Bellefontaine, is about to go into its second year. Leader Carly Davis established the coop as an alternative to the more corporate and expensive Classical Conversations group.
“Mine is about freedom from that,” Davis acknowledged. “It’s a $100 entry fee and that’s it for the year.”
RDHC meets every other Friday morning and will teach Bible, Spanish, farming, science, history, art, music, health, anatomy and physiology to 37 students in all grades. Their teachers include three moms and three volunteers. Davis said they all “love the Lord and want to serve.”
“I felt there were so many parents trying to find ways to do homeschooling but didn’t know how to make it work. This gives people a chance to socialize and learn together,” Davis added.
Last year was more of a trial and error experience with 23 students. It showed Davis where she needed more structure and the importance of inviting moms to “teach their passion, if they want.”
They also have a nursery for parents with younger children.
Davis and her husband, Harper Pastor Anthony Davis, have three girls ages 5, 9 and 11. You can find out more about the school at her website, breakfreetovictory.net.
Journey Nature School (JNS), which was born directly out of the pandemic in September 2020, is preparing to start their next school year on Tuesday, Sept. 3, at the Kirkmont Center in Zanesfield. They have a full classroom coming in with 20 students ages 3 to 7.
Program director MacKenzie Myers Fitzpatrick considers adapting to the needs of the community to be her biggest goal. For that reason, she decided to run classes two days a week this year instead of three when they determined that was what her families preferred. And if they have more interest, they’ll open up another class for the spring quarter in March.
Because the school is focused on nature, the staff encourages families to reflect on more outdoor activities and where their food comes from.
“We’re very holistically driven,” Fitzpatrick admitted. “We care about what kids are eating and the rest they’re getting in order to have an optimal learning experience during their time with us.”
With that in mind, the school is using money from a Logan County Electric Cooperative grant to provide enough hammocks, sleeping bags and cots for the children to have adequate outdoor resting spaces during the day.
JNS holds the distinction of not being a religiously based program. Fitzpatrick described their curriculum as a mixture of educational philosophies.
“I think it’s important to talk about homeschool options where the curriculum, how we interact with children and their learning experiences differ from the schools around us,” Fitzpatrick concluded.
Fitzpatrick, her husband, Jeremy, and their one-year-old son, Leo, live in Bellefontaine.
In conclusion, we go back to something Sharon Tullis said, speaking from 30 years of experience: “Any education is what you put into it. If you put in the work and you study the materials put before you, it’s a good education. The difference is the atmosphere, the interactions, the people.”
One of the things Tullis especially appreciates is how a home education allows parents to teach their children at their pace and focus on what they’re interested in. And that can be especially beneficial for students with learning disabilities.
Overall, though, a home education lets kids take basic skills in reading, science, spelling and math and run with it toward a career. For that reason, many homeschooled children become entrepreneurs.
“The parents learn as they go,” Tullis said, and added she doesn’t think homeschooling is for everyone. She does, however, see how vastly it’s improved since she first moved into it all those decades ago.
“It’s wonderful to have so many choices and to be free to use the different methods out there,” she concluded. “It’s a benefit to all of us.”
A class of one
Some parents choose to handle their child’s educational needs themselves and some students thrive in that kind of home-based learning environment.
Ella Beelman, daughter of Ryan and Robin Beelman, of Lewistown, is one such example of local homeschooling success.
Ella, who was homeschooled from grades 5 through 12, is currently a level 2 firefighter and EMT. She works at Robinaugh EMS and volunteers at Huntsville Fire Department.
She’s attending Rhodes State College in the fall in their accelerated course to obtain her paramedic certification, with a goal of working full-time at Bellefontaine Fire Department upon completion and then continuing on for a fire inspection certification.
“We chose (homeschooling) because of the freedom to choose her education based on her learning styles and interests. As well as the freedom to schedule her day and even year as we saw fit,” Ella’s mom and homeschool teacher, Robin, shared.
“To allow her to really become a leader and not a follower and have the confidence to believe as she was convicted and have the knowledge to defend those beliefs.”
Examiner staff contributed to this story.