ST. AUGUSTINE (FBW)–For hundreds of Florida families, schoolwork is homework, parents are teachers and dining rooms double as classrooms. Homeschooling, once an insular undertaking, is now made easier by established Christian schools and informal alliances which offer support and encouragement.

Long-time homeschoolers Bob and Jackie Kulpa, residents of St. Augustine, told Florida Baptist Witness the choice to begin their first child’s education in 1988 was “so natural.”

“We had been the ones to teach them to walk and to tie their shoes,” Bob Kulpa said. “Now we would also be the ones to teach them to read and to work multiplication problems.”

Their “year to year” commitment became a “lifetime adventure,” according to Kulpa. They adopted Deut. 11:19 as their model: “Teach them [words of God] to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”

Kulpa, who serves as Discipleship Training director for the Black Creek Baptist Association, asserts: “Academics is not the goal of homeschooling, discipleship is the goal.” The three eldest of the nine Kulpa children are in college at Florida Community College Jacksonville and University of North Florida.

Wendy Holland agrees homeschooling is a “family thing, a lifestyle.” She and her husband, Michael, members of First Baptist Church, Leesburg, instruct their four children, ages 11, 9, 7 and 4.

Holland told the Witness she is “the most unlikely woman on the planet to be homeschooling four children,” and claims she never changed a diaper until her son was born.

Educated at Baylor University and University of Central Florida, she was using her master’s degree in clinical psychology in her work as minister of counseling at First, Leesburg. Because she loved her career and valued her ministry, she continued working part-time through her oldest son’s first year, although questioning whether continuing a career was “God’s design.”

“Homeschooling really requires a fully-unemployed mom, who stays at home,” she said.

Holland manages 95 percent of her children’s schooling, she said, but is “so grateful” for her husband’s leading the morning Bible time and Christian character studies. Michael Holland, as principal of the family’s school, also intervenes in schooling issues, and will take over higher mathematics after algebra. Wendy Holland and her friend Elaine Sharpe combine their eight children and their teaching strengths every Thursday. Holland teaches history and geography, while Sharpe handles instruction in science.

Such informal alliances among homeschoolers have been staples of home-based education for many years. Parents form “co-ops” for support and specialized teaching skills. Churches like First Baptist Church, Mt. Dora, have participated in informal support, regularly offering facilities for parents’ meetings, children’s joint classes and graduations.

Christian schools are now coming alongside homeschool parents and children by offering help with curricula, enrichment programs and accountability to state regulations.

Blue Lake Academy, a ministry of First Baptist Church, Eustis, offers “umbrella-ing” to homeschoolers. For a one-time fee, home-schooled students are registered as students and may participate in sports, field trips, and achievement testing. They also meet quarterly with a teacher in the child’s grade level for evaluation and curriculum advice.

Also popular with homeschooled students are higher level math and English classes and Quest enrichment classes. A homeschooled student may “drop into” a class of “regular” students for extra instruction.

The “home school covering” at Blue Lake Academy is led by Susan Stanley, alternative educational services director. Stanley taught her five children at home in Texas when homeschooling was still illegal in the Lone Star State.

“We did it as an act of civil disobedience,” said Stanley.

The family maintained detailed records to show the truancy officer at his visits until the youngest graduated in 1990. Stanley’s oldest son, Erik, is chief counsel for Liberty Counsel in Orlando.

First Baptist Church Orlando’s First Academy maintains an entire home school track for students K-12. Led by Bonnie Ward, director of home school education, the track boasts its own curricula and its own teachers. Older students study art, drama, PE, music and gymnastics on Tuesdays, while elementary students are involved in enrichment programs. An academic segment, available on Thursdays, is designed to develop critical thinking with classes in writing, history, Latin and science.

“This is really a hands-on program for students,” said Ward.

A pilot program in 2004-05 will allow high school home-school students to take up to four classes and try out for sports, drama and band.

Click here for more on our special report on “Kingdom Education.”

Additional homeschooling resources:

• Christian Home Educators of Florida, www.christianhomeeducatorsofflorida.com • Florida Department of Education, www.myflorida.com.edu/doe/choice/home_ed • Florida Parent-Educators Association, www.fpea.com • LifeWay Christian Resources, www.lifeway.com/homeschool