Homeschooling in Plymouth

For homeschooling families, learning takes place anywhere and everywhere.

By: Dan Emerson | From the issue: January 2012

Photo: Marshall Franklin Long

Inside the at-home classroom: (clockwise from left) Jacob, 6, Rachel, 19, Jordan, 13, Caleb, 3, and Jeremy Cisewski, 8.

“Everything in life can be a learning experience if we choose to see it that way.”

Nineteen-year-old Rachel Cisewski’s comment sums up the essence of homeschooling, a centuries-old practice that has been experiencing a renaissance of sorts, as more families “opt out” of conventional school systems. For homeschooling families, learning becomes more a part of everyday living, and the world becomes a classroom without walls.

John and Debbie Cisewski of Plymouth decided to homeschool their eight children after being impressed with the results they saw from other homeschoolers who belonged to their church. “We really liked the way their kids turned out,” Debbie says. “We became strongly convinced we were the ones who should be training our children.” Their oldest, Rachel, has graduated from high school and is helping teach her younger siblings.

How many homeschooling families are there in Plymouth? It’s difficult to arrive at an exact number, because Plymouth is divided into four different school districts. In the Wayzata district, for example, there are about 140 children being homeschooled.

Nationwide, homeschooling has been a growing movement for a number of years, among families who want a self-directed alternative to public and private schools. In 1993, it became legal in all 50 states. The number of homeschooled kids reached 1.5 million in 2007, up 74 percent from when the department of education’s National Center for Education Statistics started keeping track in 1999, and up 36 percent since 2003.

Obviously, schooling kids at home requires a significant time commitment. But some local homeschoolers say the benefits to kids and families make it worth the effort. Parents say one of the most appealing benefits is the ability to customize curriculum and teaching methods to fit each child’s individualized needs, aptitudes and learning styles to a degree that is typically not possible in an institutional setting.

Debbie Cisewski is currently homeschooling six children, ages 6 to 18. What might seem an intimidating challenge is actually quite manageable, she says, especially as she has gained experience. Junior high and high school-age kids need less supervision, so her work with them mostly involves curriculum planning and correcting work. “I spend more time with the younger kids—from middle school on down—interacting with them on an hour-to-hour basis,” she says. “The planning process is the biggest challenge: deciding what each child is going to do this year, and how we’ll accomplish that.”

Rachel Cisewski looks back on her homeschooling experience with fondness and would like to homeschool her own kids someday. Josh Cisewski agrees: “Homeschooling is great because you can learn in a way that best fits you. You have the freedom to pull ahead in your studies and work on your own time. You also have the potential to have lot more free time, because school all depends on how quickly and diligently you get all your work done.” Josh is spending his senior year taking PSEO (Post-secondary Enrollment Options) courses at two local colleges.

Jill and Brian Mount have been homeschooling their 8-year-old son Dean and 5-year-old daughter Leilani. “We love being able to customize the curriculum to my son’s learning style and also the flexibility to travel as a family,” Jill Mount says. “He’s a typical boy, constantly going from one thing to the next; we’ve figured out how to maximize the time we spend on each subject.” Early on she discovered that her son has a gift for memorization, and she has taken advantage of that in teaching him reading and languages. “He’s been growing by leaps and bounds academically, now that we know what works.”