Center for education: Resources offered to home-school families

By Mary Owen

Although a graduate of the public school system, CeAnne Kosel advocates heartily for home schooling.

“I feel that home education offers so many more benefits to the individual student,” said the Stayton mom of two boys, Patrick, 6, and Linus, 7, both adopted from Russia.

As the founder of the North Santiam Home Education Resource Center, Kosel helps families understand the challenges and rewards of educating their children at home. She invites parents and their children to attend NSHERC’s Home Education Fair on Sept. 3 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Stayton Public Library meeting room.

“Home education is about tailoring your child’s education so that they learn best, so that it works for both parent and child,” said Kosel, who in her spare time dabbles in graphic design and volunteers at the Tree of Life Adoption Center.

Kosel’s decision to home school stems from her husband, Paul’s, upbringing. He and his seven siblings were home schooled, which led the couple to look into this alternate way of educating their own children. “Once I looked into home schooling and read more and more, I added many more reasons to our list of why we decided to educate our children ourselves at home,” Kosel said.

Their first reason was to provide their children with a religious-based education in a family environment. Secondly, they wanted to provide one-on-one attention.

“Both boys have some developmental delays in different areas,” said Kosel, who will soon bring home a daughter from Bulgaria.

She learned the basics about home schooling from her mother-in-law, who just wrapped up 23 years of educating her own children.

“She home-schooled when it wasn’t so popular, and has many stories to share,” she said. “It was all new back then, and there were not many options for homeschoolers in the way of groups and/or curriculum available. Now, there is an overwhelming amount of information, resources and homeschoolers to meet up with!”

Help comes from other home educators, online information such as found at the NSHERC website, and home-school-based events such as OCEANetwork’s yearly conference at the Oregon Convention Center each June, Oregon Home Education Network’s home school conference in Tigard each spring and a biannual meeting at the state capitol for Apple Pie Day.

“Apple Pie Day is to remind our representatives about the state’s homeschoolers,” Kosel explained.

“We bake them homemade apple pies.”

About a year and a half ago, Kosel created the NSHERC, a non-profit organization, to provide home educators and home-schooled students with local resources and other information.

“It is typical for home-schooled individuals and their parents to not have a common meeting place or resource,” she said. “The resource center provides a common place, even if just online for now, to meet up and find like educators in our local area.”

“Our resource center helps connect those in our area,” said Kosel of NSHERC’s outreach to Stayton, Sublimity, Mount Angel, Silverton, Mill City, Detroit, Jefferson, Scio, Turner and other cities east of Salem.

Currently, the resource center’s website offers an online chat forum for home educators to “ask questions about daily ‘school’ life at home, sell curriculum and talk about education theories,” Kosel said.

“There is also a blog online that features area events pertaining to home-schooled families and this year we will feature some tips and articles specific to home education,” she added. “Home-schoolers can also find us on Facebook. We have 30-some fans so far and it continues to grow.”

The NSHERC website offers information on various teaching methods and articles about practical applications, local resource listings and legal resources with up-to-date information on home education laws.

NSHERC also provides various classes at the Stayton Library throughout the year. Topics range from teaching math and reading actively to educating students with special needs. Fall offerings will include a trip to the Portland Zoo, crafting days, a board game day and a tour of a fire station. “As a resource center, we are also looking into local options for an indoor gym so that children can have somewhere to run around and burn off energy in the winter months,” she said.

Families interested in home schooling can find information at the upcoming Home Education Fair.

Local groups and vendors will showcase programs, activities and items.

“We hope that parents and students will come to take in the information these vendors have to offer along with their hands-on projects and talks,” Kosel said. “We also hope that homeschoolers will come and meet other homeschoolers.”

Kosel wants parents to know the options available for educating their children. She said educating students at home doesn’t have to be with an “out-of-the-box” curriculum and having students sit all day at a desk.

“Education is not a one-size-fits-all concept,” Kosel said. “Each teacher and child has different ways of learning and doing things and home education allows that to happen as well as allowing a deep relationship to form within the family.”

According to Kosel, home education is “a lifestyle, not just a different educational method.”

“Home schooling has its challenges, but it is equally rewarding,” she added. “And children benefit 100 times over!”

For information on the North Santiam Home Education Resource Center, and to pre-register for events, visit www.NorthSantiamHomeEducation.com.