The Brainy Bunch: The Harding Family's Method to College Ready by Age Twelve

Introduction

The Greenhouse Effect

Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

—PROVERBS 22:6

This isn’t a story about geniuses or driven parents obsessed with their children. We like to think this is a love story, about how an ordinary couple met in high school and were eventually blessed with an amazing set of children. It’s a story of faith, and how that faith defined how we chose to parent. It’s also a story about dreams, about instilling them into kids with average intelligence and allowing them to blossom. We thank God for our family and for inventing this wonderful thing called homeschooling. Our true hope is that you’ll be inspired reading about all the possibilities homeschooling has to offer.

Before sharing with you who we are and how we got to this point, we want to start by talking about why we choose to homeschool. We realize there’s a stigma attached to this word. But homeschooling has come a long way in the last couple of decades.

When we first started homeschooling in 1997, we did not have all of the online resources that we do now. We felt like we had to find the material for our kids and try to supply all of the answers that their little curious minds could come up with. Now when they have a question we can’t answer, we say, Wow, that is such a good question. Then we suggest they Google it and tell us since we really want to know the answer, too. They usually come back a few minutes later with so much interesting information. And even if we’re not too interested in the subject matter, we are so thrilled to see that spark in their eyes that this newfound knowledge has put there.

Our kids teach us something every day and they are learning to find answers on their own. We do not have to worry about what they are missing in their education. We, as parents, just have to make sure that they have access to the Internet, good books, and our attention.

The amount of resources instantly available is remarkable. There are tools and techniques for homeschooling that we will share with you later in this book. But for now, we’d like to share the eleven primary reasons why we (and many other families—over 2 million kids as of 2013!) choose to homeschool (our source for the homeschooling statistics is www.topmastersineducation.com/homeschooled/):

1. There is a lot of dumbing down going on in the American school, as John Taylor Gatto explained in one of his books. Kids are not allowed to learn at their own pace in public and most private schools. Many kids get bored in school because the teacher has to teach to the middle of the class. He or she cannot move forward with the kids who are ready to move and doesn’t have time to really help the kids who are falling behind.

2. There are places like Selma, Alabama, where 40 percent of students do not graduate from high school. The public school system is failing. If you have doubts, just watch the documentary Waiting for Superman. As an early private school kid who later worked as a high school math and science teacher, our oldest daughter clearly saw how little learning actually goes on in a classroom of over twenty-plus kids as opposed to the quality of the education she got at home with personal attention.

3. We believe in a Christian worldview and creation. We believe that there is scientific evidence that supports intelligent design. Uncle Sam will pay for kids to learn only a single theory, which limits diversity of opinion and growth.

4. Our right to pray in school is being challenged everywhere (and has already been taken away in many places) even though it is still our constitutional right. Thirty-six percent of homeschooling families say that providing religion to their children is their first concern.

5. We believe teaching kids in an age-segregated environment is not the most effective way to develop real-life social skills and exposes them to peer pressure. It is not the way the real world works. In the real world, we encounter people of all different ages. We want to teach our kids how to interact with people of all ages. Homeschooled kids are less peer-dependent and better socially adjusted for the real world.

6. We were both educated in the public school system and we know all about how much time is wasted sitting around, standing in line, and excessively practicing concepts. Our daughter had to ride the bus for forty-five minutes each way to and from the private school that she attended for her first four years of school. At home, we can be done with our school day by lunch and have time in the afternoon to read more books for pleasure, to play, to go on field trips, or to have bonding time with the family. No homework for Dad to deal with when he gets home.

7. We do not have to worry about school shootings or any other kind of school bullying and violence, which has recently been in the media so much and is scary for all parents.

8. Now that we have kids graduating from college at the ages of seventeen and fifteen, we can’t turn back. Not even a private school setting could give us the results that we are getting—results that our children have worked hard for and desire themselves.

9. We are free to tailor our curriculum to match the interests of each child. For example, we can study one subject in depth and with great continuity, teaching how it may relate to other subjects. Kids really learn better when they can see the big picture of how each subject integrates with the others.

10. Homeschooling works. On average, homeschoolers score in the eighty-seventh percentile on standardized tests. Seventy-four percent of homeschoolers continue on to college, as opposed to 49 percent of the general population. Ninety-nine percent have read a book in the last six months, as opposed to only 69 percent of everyone else. And as you’ll see from our story, you can achieve amazing things through homeschooling.

11. You cannot pay for a better education outside of your home. Homeschoolers on average spend $500 per child per year, whereas the average public school spends almost $10,000—for worse results.

What is the greenhouse effect? Think of your home as a greenhouse where your new little seedlings can begin to take root and grow into big strong plants. Once your plants are mature enough to be transplanted outside to face the elements, you will be able to take them out of the greenhouse. We use this precious time before our little plants start college to teach them all we can about the outside world.

Kids have so many questions, questions like Where do babies come from? The answer you give your five-year-old is so different from the answer you give your ten-year-old. This will open up discussions about biology, psychology, and sociology. Why would you want them to get their answer from a textbook and an overworked and underpaid schoolteacher who really doesn’t know your child? Or, even worse, what if they get the answer from another child on the playground like many of us did?

It’s a beautiful thing when we’re able to be the ones there to give our children the best answers. And not only the best answers, but the love and bonding that comes in providing those answers.

This book is the story of our journey into homeschooling and how we managed to achieve the success we’ve had with our children. Our desire is not for others to imitate us but rather for them to be encouraged. We want others to follow their dreams and know that attending college early may be an option.

For our family, attending college early is the best option we know. And it really is something that can be achieved with hard work, perseverance, and faith.

A recent report (www.educationnews.org/parenting/number-of-homeschoolers-growing-nationwide/) in Education News states that since 1999, the number of children who are homeschooled has increased by 75 percent. Though homeschooled children represent only 4 percent of all school-age children nationwide, the number of children whose parents choose to educate them at home rather than in a traditional academic setting is growing seven times faster than the number of children enrolling in grades K–12 every year.

Source: http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/06/07/Report-Growth-in-Homeschooling-Outpacing-Public-Schools

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There is no school equal to a decent home, and no teacher equal to a virtuous parent.

—MAHATMA GANDHI

1

Meet the Brainy Bunch

Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.

—PSALM 19:14

If you called the Harding house, an appropriate greeting message might sound something like this:

Hi, you have reached the Hardings.

If you are looking for an engineering consultant, press 1.

If you need architectural advice, press 2.

If you need medical advice, press 3.

For the computer help desk, press 4.

If you need someone to play violin at your daughter’s wedding, press 5.

If you want to learn the truth about the Viking horned helmet, press 6.

If you need legal advice from a ten-year-old’s perspective, press 7.

If you need help finding your car keys, cell phone, or any other lost item, press 8.

If you want to hear poetic readings of Dr. Seuss, press 9.

If you are looking for a wrestling partner, press 1, then 0.

If you would like to make a donation to the Harding College Fund or talk to Kip or Mona Lisa, please leave a message at the beep.

We would love to tell you that we are geniuses and that our children have our special, unique DNA to match our brilliance. Yet this is hardly the case. We are your average family and your average neighbors with ten children. Well, okay, maybe that is not so average. But if you have met some big homeschooling families, you might already have some preconceived ideas of what we are about. Like the list of reasons why we homeschool, we thought we’d share what the Brainy Bunch really looks like.

First off, we are Christians. We love our Lord Jesus with all our hearts and have dedicated our lives to teaching our children to love Jesus first and others second. If we succeed in this, then we have fulfilled our purpose on this earth.

Second, we are not perfect. We fail all the time. We fight just like everybody else. We yell at each other in anger at times, yet we know how to forgive. We try really hard to forgive as we have been forgiven.

Third, as we said, we are not geniuses. Every member of our family is of average intelligence. There is nothing special about our genes. Our kids have been able to start college by the age of twelve because of two things: the grace of God and the vision to accelerate our teaching methods that we have come to through Him.

The fourth thing you should know about us is that we are not experts. We continue to figure out things as we go. We did different things with our first daughter than what we are doing now with our youngest children. We cannot tell people, Do this list of things and your child will be ready to enter college by age twelve. However, we do have a general method that we have been following and we have gotten pretty nice results considering who our children are (more on them very shortly).

The fifth and final thing about us is that we want to help others. We feel called to write things down and speak to others on the matter of homeschooling. In light of Deuteronomy 6:6–7, we feel that Christians do best to keep their kids with them as much as possible. It’s such a privilege and an honor to be given children on this earth. We do not feel that strangers should educate our children. If you have children, they are on loan to you for a short time. Do not miss out and send them away for seven to eight hours a day, not even to a Christian school, while they are so young.

That’s a strong statement but we stand behind it. We are well informed in our area and feel that as Christians it is our God-given responsibility to keep our children home while they are young and impressionable. We understand that single parents will need outside help if they feel the same calling.

Have we always felt this way? Not at all. We grew into this belief, as you’ll come to find out. For a while, our eldest daughters went to a private school. Although I (Mona Lisa) wanted to homeschool from the beginning, I gave in to the pressure of doing what all the other parents were doing. It was only after Hannah (our eldest) finished third grade and Kip reentered active duty in the air force that I realized I wouldn’t have to work anymore and could start what I should have done in the first place.

We were learning back then and we continue to learn now.

•  •  •

Our story began out of broken families. Kip grew up in a home weighed down by divorce, yet God still reached down and saved him in the seventh grade. I (Mona Lisa) grew up in a home crippled by the death of my father, but God reached down and saved me in my late teens. I was living in San Jose, California, when Kip asked me to prom. A few weeks after that, he proposed to me.

I took Natural Family Planning (NFP) classes to prepare to be a good Catholic wife. I knew that this was the only form of birth control that the Catholic Church endorsed and I was trying to be a good Catholic. To be honest, I was afraid of having a dozen kids. It’s funny that this is exactly what I’m praying for now—twelve children to love and teach.

My mother was an old-school Catholic who didn’t think I should be learning NFP at all because she believed that truly good Catholics, especially Hispanics, should have all the kids that God wants to give them. Just like her mother did. My faith wasn’t there yet. I wanted to make sure this NFP stuff really worked. So after waiting one month and having one fertile cycle with no pregnancy, I was ready to have a baby! So voilà! Hannah was conceived when we were both eighteen.

Looking back, I remember how we had such a childlike faith. We didn’t know much about raising a baby, but we trusted that God would take care of us.

He always has.

Not only that, but He’s given us ten incredible reasons to thank Him daily.

•  •  •

Hannah is now twenty-five years old. She was the trailblazer (or some would say guinea pig!) in our family. She was gifted in math and was brave enough to try her first online college algebra math class at the age of twelve. She did this at Cuesta College while dual-enrolled in homeschooling. She then completed the California High School Proficiency Exam (CHSPE) the next semester and took two more classes at Allan Hancock College in the summer of 2001. Hannah was full-time in college at age thirteen and played soccer for the women’s team.

One of the best things about Hannah was her fearlessness. She wasn’t afraid of failure because she had the love and support of her family. She earned a BS in mathematics by age seventeen from Auburn University at Montgomery (AUM). She went on to earn two master’s degrees, in math and engineering, at Cal State East Bay in Hayward, California, and Tuskegee University in Alabama. She loves learning and is returning to Tuskegee University this fall to work on a PhD in engineering on a full scholarship.

Our second-born is Rosannah, who is twenty-three years old and the youngest architect in the American Institute of Architects (AIA). She has always been very independent and traveled abroad to Mexico City, where she met her husband, Sergio, a fellow architect from Peru. She completed a five-year architecture program at the age of eighteen at California College of the Arts and was married at nineteen. She worked for a firm in San Francisco before moving to New York City in August 2013 to attend the famed Cooper Union on a full college scholarship for an MS in architecture.

Rosannah has been privileged to be on an architecture team that designed a medical school for women in Saudi Arabia. She was also on an award-winning architecture team that designed the second-largest border crossing from Mexico into the United States.

Serennah is twenty-two and one of the youngest female doctors in the navy and in the U.S. At the age of ten or eleven, she felt called by God to be a physician. She took the SAT at age eleven and started part-time at AUM. She then transferred for two years to Santa Clara University in the San Francisco Bay Area. Moving once again