Carrie and Arnie McGarry are homeschooling parents located right here in Barrow County. They have homeschooled their three children since birth: Alexandria, age 8, Gavin, age 5, and Samantha, age 1.
Recently I asked Carrie what her reasons were for wanting to homeschool. She said there were many reasons, but two main issues were a concern for her. First, she thinks that public schools are more concerned about testing scores than what the children are actually learning. Second, she didn’t care for all the homework. “Adults who work for eight hours a day are not expected to come home and then work for a few more hours,” she said.
“My children are given individual attention and have so many opportunities for experiences that they wouldn’t be able to have in a school building,” she continued.
By homeschooling, Carrie says that they can quickly go through lessons that the children know, and they can slow down when the children don’t get something. As the teacher, Carrie has control over what they learn, and she can let them delve further into subjects that they enjoy.
She says that it took three years to find their “homeschool path,” and it still changes when it needs to. Currently they are using a creative, project-based style of homeschooling. She lets the children take the lead with the projects, but she also makes sure that they learn the basics. They use a variety of resources, and while some of their curriculum is religion-based, she says they don’t concentrate on that and that they teach a secular course of study.
For preschool and kindergarten, Carrie’s children have benefitted from Time4Learning.com, an online program that teaches all the fundamentals. Her five-year-old son is currently using this program as he is in the beginning stages of reading and math.
Her eldest daughter is in the second grade, and she uses First Language Lessons for language, Abeka 2nd grade Arithmetic, and Story of the World Book 1 for History. Carrie adds several language workbooks, puzzles and lapbooks to enhance her learning. (For an explanation of lapbooks, see this site: http://www.squidoo.com/lapbooking and Carrie recommends http://www.homeschoolshare.com/lapbooking_resources.php for a useful lapbook resource.)
Right now they are doing a lapbook for Story of the World book 1 and have completed several fun projects for ancient Egypt, including an archeology dig, building pyramids, and they will be making mummies very soon!
During their Spring Break they are watching real caterpillars turn into butterflies, and they will do a lapbook on the life cycle of a butterfly.
Though Carrie is the primary “teacher,” she says that her husband is great at helping with projects and always the best at giving in depth answers to the children’s questions about outer space or how lightening occurs, for example. He has a background in professional photography, so he is planning to start a project with his daughter on “taking a year of photos” to teach her about photography.
The McGarrys are involved in a number of social activities. Alexandria is part of a homeschool Girl Scout troop in Athens, and they also belong to the Barrow County Homeschool (BCH) group. She says BCH has offered them many social and educational opportunities, including a science co-op class and an American Girl class.
There is a park day each week as well as a fit club for both parents and children. They walk and run, and the children are given an obstacle course through the playground after the run, and there is also a hiking day. Carrie uses these opportunities to fulfill their physical education needs as well as socialization for her and the kids.
I asked Carrie what she liked the most and disliked about homeschooling. She said, “Homeschooling is extremely rewarding. When your children start to read or understand a hard concept, YOU did that!” There are also days that are exhausting and sometimes they feel like throwing in the towel. It can be hard to spend so much time together.
“Some days the idea of sending them off to school and being able to spend a quiet day by myself sounds really appealing, but it doesn’t out weigh the times of enjoyment that is spent with my children and being able to teach them.” Homeschooling families can each look very different in their approach and philosophies, but in this last statement, Carrie has hit the nail on what all homeschoolers have in common: the commitment to help their children learn in a way that best benefits them and the desire to have a front row seat as they learn and grow.
You can follow the McGarry’s homeschooling journey on Carrie’s blog at http://gratefulbambina.blogspot.com/
Shelli Bond Pabis is a Winder resident and columnist for the Barrow Journal. You can reach her at writetospabis@gmail.com.
