Austin News

Even before the pandemic, there were already thousands of parents in the Austin area who had chosen to educate their children themselves.

The Russell family, who have been homeschooling their children since 2004, decided that the educational philosophy they wanted for their children wasn’t available in public school, and at the same time they couldn’t afford to give their children a private school education. That led them to the homeschooling path, father Brian Russell, recently told the Austin News by email.

“When we had evaluated various educational philosophies and options, we concluded that a Biblical and classical model of education most closely matched what we wanted for our children,” he said.

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Now all of their children, from the oldest at 20 to the youngest at 7, have been homeschooled for some portion of their lives, including the five still living at home, he said.

Julia Russell handles the education of the children in their home, but Brian said – especially as the children grow older – they make use of a variety of outside resources, such as homeschooling co-ops or their church.

“As our students progress, we utilize outside co-ops or online courses to provide instruction in foreign languages, humanities, mathematics, and science,” he said. “With five children all doing different courses at different levels, Julia runs our daily schedule from a very detailed spreadsheet. Our home is often chaotic with everyone running in a different direction, but I like to think of it as a ‘happy madness.’”

They also make use of a variety of curriculums, based on the needs of each child he said, such as Phonics Pathways, Saxon math and Shirley Grammar.

“What we have found is that no one homeschool group, or co-op, or curriculum provider is a single source solution for all of our children or for all of their interests or subjects of study,” he said.

The children also have significant opportunities for extra-curriculars, he said.

“Our children are participating in speech and debate through Austin Rhetoric Club (an NCFCA affiliate), baseball, track, dance, and AWANA,” Brian Russell said. “One of our children also volunteers at an equine therapy riding center.”

While others have been struggling with education during the pandemic, Russel said that the increased awareness and growth in online courses and curricula has actually made homeschooling an even better option than when they started approximately 16 years ago.

Yet, there are benefits beyond the academic for their family, he said.

“The great joy of homeschooling is that we are daily engaged in our children’s lives and their personal growth and development spiritually, intellectually, and relationally. Sharing life in this way as a family creates a unity in our family around a common purpose and mission,” Russell said. “A wonderful consequence of this is that our children’s best friends are their siblings and that these relationships will last for a lifetime. We wouldn’t have it any other way.”