As parents continue to question what a "regular" 2020-21 school year will look like, many are looking to homeschool their children.
Seth St. Onge is a sophomore at Texas A&M University in College Station. He attended private school before his parents told him he would be homeschooled when he got to the ninth grade.
“They felt that me learning at my own pace would . . . would give me more free time,” the Corpus Christi native said. “They wanted me to experience other things like travel, and they wanted me to experience like working.”
Which, he did experience all of those things.
St. Onge said he would begin class online watching a pre-recorded lecture. He would take assessment tests after each lesson, and continue on with the curriculum.
He said on a typical day, he was done by noon, and then he would go to work later in the afternoons.
Luckily for St. Onge, his time being homeschooled never made him feel isolated.
“I had some friends that went to public high school so they would invite me to dances, and I would go to football games every so often.”
The only challenge St. Onge seemed to face was the application process for college.
“We did feel a little bit in the dark, as far as the process," he said. "In fact we were really late, because we just didn't know.”
St. Onge, who is studying chemical engineering, said the COVID-19 pandemic changed how he took classes at TAMU. But for him, it was just like being being homeschooled.
“I kinda knew I had to be self-motivated, I knew that there were less reminders, right?" he said. "I knew I had to watch my videos.”
He said he recommends the homeschool route for kids who may work better going at their own pace.
To learn more about how to get started homeschooling your child, you can find part one of this series here.