Homeschool rates have been rising across the nation.
It’s hard to tell how much they’ve risen here in Michigan because there are no laws requiring parents to register their children as homeschoolers.
But the increase is reflected in other, less statistically clear ways. For example: A homeschool program in Interlochen brings students together weekly, and it's growing.
Some 176 students from all over northern Michigan gather once a week at a local church building for the Homeschool Education Network (HEN).
“And we have 15 families on the wait list,” said executive director Rose Zivkovich. “We have maxed out our size.”
At least here, demand is growing for homeschool programs like these. Rose is now mentoring a group of parents in Cadillac who are looking to start a similar program in their region.
HEN offers 45 different classes every week, but it’s different from traditional school in that all of them are taught by parents whose kids are in the program.
Classes range from quilting and ballet, to math, bugs, physics, even the game Dungeons and Dragons.
13 year-old Elijah McCaherty was at a strength and conditioning class. Then, an hour later, he was under a pickup truck learning how to change the oil. He likes the weekly program because “it’s a great place to make friends and have that social interaction.”
The co-op runs on unpaid volunteers. Even Rose, who coordinates the whole program, is a volunteer.
“The way that I see it is that this is an opportunity for our family to give back to the community,” she said.
