Elementary Student Champions Home Education

By Leslie Cranford, section manager

When Sierra Ramirez’s neighborhood friends try to convince her to come to public school, the Texas Tech K-12 fourth grader just smiles and tells them no, she likes her school, and she likes what she does.

In fact, she loves to see the school bus pass by (key phrase: pass by) and know she’s not on it. She sees the bus, smiles, and thinks, “Nope, I’m not doing that.”

Sierra sits at the table in the corner of the public library, her beaming smile framed by her past-the-waist brown hair, contemplating her answer to, “Tell us a little about yourself.” Her mom, Amanda, sits across from her, ready to offer information but giving the youngster time to formulate her own replies.

“I absolutely love animals,” Sierra starts out. “I have two cats, four turtles, a chameleon, fish, aquatic frogs and a guinea pig. Our house is a zoo.”

“And little anole lizards – she catches them in the yard, really cute,” Amanda adds.

“I probably want to be a zoo vet,” Sierra continues. “And I really want to help animals, so they won’t be extinct; I really want to help raise their species.”

“She knows a LOT of animal facts,” her mom says, chuckling.

Sierra is in her fourth year at Texas Tech K-12, after enrolling in first grade. Amanda found the program originally because Sierra is asthmatic and is in the hospital frequently, occasionally in ICU. Her doctor recommended, at least through elementary school, that she be in some kind of homeschooling situation and not a traditional school setting.

“I was looking for curriculum that was aligned with what we had in our school district, just in case I ever integrated her back in,” Amanda said. “I searched online for different programs, but we’re obviously Texas Tech people (pointing to Sierra’s branded shirt with matching red and black headband). Now that we’re in this, we really like it and want to continue with it. So, the thought of going back to public school is non-existent now.”

Amanda added that her brother graduated from Texas Tech, but she didn’t choose Texas Tech K-12 for that, but for its state-approved and internationally accredited curriculum.

Doing All the Things

Living in the Dallas area, Sierra is excited to be close to Texas Tech’s new DFW site in Irving. She was able to attend both of Texas Tech K-12’s in-person events this year, Raiderpalooza in January and the summer Mad Scientist camp. Those also were opportunities to make friends with fellow classmates.

Sierra’s favorite part of the fully online school is that she finishes her core classes early in the day and gets to do activities, like swimming, Cub Scouts, Spanish and sign language – all extracurriculars.

Amanda says these endeavors, besides being valuable learning experiences, are ways to mitigate the perceived lack of socialization of homeschoolers. When people overtly say or imply that to her, she has one answer.

“Put your kids in other activities. That’s why she’s in Scouts, in her third year. That’s why she’s in swimming,” Amanda said, emphatically. “In first grade she didn’t have a lot of friends, and now when I ask her, ‘Do you want to go to public school; you’ll have more friends?’ She says, ‘I’m fine with the friends I have.’ Through Scouts we have met friends who are homeschooled through other programs. We attend other events where the homeschoolers get together, like the Crayola Experience or a splash pad, so they meet other kids.”

For swimming, aside from practice, Sierra goes to the YMCA once a week for stroke development. She and three other children are working to get on one of a couple swim teams organized through the Y.

“One of them is a homeschool team, so I’m not sure which she’d be on,” mused Amanda. “But she’s really fast. Sierra’s a water baby – she’s been in a pool since she was about four months old.”

Sierra loves to snorkel and is looking forward to getting certified to scuba dive when she’s 10.

Then there are the languages. Learning both American Sign Language, which is considered a language credit for school, and Spanish, Sierra is already multilingual.

She has taken a sign language course for about two years and continues it weekly, but Spanish is a different story. You might say she has two teachers.

In addition to a weekly Spanish course, Grandma (Odelia), Amanda’s mother, is also teaching Sierra the language. That’s a little more flexible to schedule, since they live in the same house. And Spanish isn’t all the matriarch is teaching her granddaughter.

“It’s great because we’re this traditional Hispanic family, and we’re trying to pass this stuff down to her,” Amanda eagerly explained. “So, we make empanadas together and make tamales together – to show her what that’s like to do. Mom tries to teach her Spanish. When she was in pre-school, she had Spanish every day. Now she does it with my mom.”

Not the Typical School Day

Sierra described a typical school day, starting with “getting to school” – walking all the way downstairs, eating breakfast and going back up to her room. She works on a few subjects, goes down for lunch, then goes back up for more schoolwork.

“We used to do one subject a day in the other grades, but this year the pace of the work has picked up,” Amanda said. “Now we may do two to three courses a day, depending on what it’s looking like. I have a chart where I write down everything that needs to be done that week. We fluctuate depending on what else we have going on that day.”

She schedules time weekly for the Spanish and sign language courses, and every Thursday she goes with her grandma to volunteer for a few hours at a food pantry.

Because the school is self-paced, the family can take trips as well. Those have been as close as the Dallas and Fort Worth zoos and the Dallas Aquarium, or to places like Iowa, Florida, Cabo, Belize, and most recently the Bahamas – with more opportunities to snorkel, Sierra adds.

Giving so much positive feedback on her schooling, when asked to rate her experience so far with Texas Tech K-12, Sierra answers quickly with two thumbs-up and says, “Five stars!”

Amanda echoes Sierra’s enthusiasm but adds this is the first year Sierra is actually feeling challenged in the program, explaining that her daughter is having to work through the problems and think through things a little more than in earlier grades. Then Amanda continues her own review from a parent perspective, aimed at other families considering nontraditional schooling.

“I would tell them this is definitely a program worth looking into,” she begins. “Again, depending on what grade level, there is going to be more work, and you have to be dedicated to doing it. So as a working parent – and then having to help teach, you really have to have a schedule and stick to it – find whatever works for you, but there is so much flexibility that you can make it work in your schedule.”

Looking into the future at Sierra’s aspiration to be a veterinarian, it is quite likely her educational journey will be a lengthy path winding through Texas Tech K-12 to a pre-vet undergraduate pursuit to Texas Tech’s vet school. And mom’s OK with that. After all, like she said, they’re a Red Raider family.