| With homeschooling, we never have snow days. The kids that I teach, Adam and Bekah Ward, only have to troop about twenty feet from their house to my cabin, five days a week, at eight o’clock to start school. In lieu of snow days, however, there are teacher sick days (like when I came down with the flu) or days when all of the kids in town are attending a birthday party. What, you ask, all of the kids in town are allowed to skip school for social gatherings? Well, yes. |
| One of the benefits of homeschooling is flexibility. We can teach anywhere, whether in McCarthy, Mexico, Ohio, or Florida, without worrying about pulling the kids out of school. Or, on those days when an opportunity arises to go to a birthday party or ice fishing, its easy to make up the day of school. For those of you who aren’t familiar with education here, let me explain a little more about why we homeschool and how the system works. |
| The most obvious reason that we homeschool is that here in McCarthy we have no other alternative; there simply aren’t enough kids for the state to maintain a public school. Even if there were a formal school here, it would be logistically difficult for the families. We, for example, live on the McCarthy Road, eight miles out of town and another mile off of the road. Another family lives at Long Lake, over sixteen miles from McCarthy. And even within town, the kids are still spread out. Some live in Kennicott, five miles from McCarthy, and one family lives out by the Nizina River. In other words, if we had a formal school, there would probably be a lot of snow days. |
| So this leaves it up to the families out here to teach their own kids, or in the case of the Wards and some other families, hire someone like me to teach. We aren’t completely on our own, however. Families choose a homeschool district with which to work, and are assigned a corresponding teacher who checks in on progress and gives advice on the curriculum and grading. Since the state is required to offer public education for all children, they cover the expenses for teaching at home when a formal school isn’t provided. The district gives each family a budget based on how many kids they have, and then the parents or teacher use the budget to pick the different textbooks and teaching aids that they want to use. Most, if not all, of the students out here have computers provided by their district to learn typing and other technology skills. The budgets sometimes also cover additional expenses; for example, Mark Vail (our nearest neighbor) teaches my kids art, and his classes are included in our budget. Other locals have taught music lessons to some of the kids around here, also on a homeschool budget. |
| The advantages of homeschooling are numerous, starting with the amount of attention that the kids receive. Extra help on a project, someone there to explain those tough math problems, or edit a story—no problem, whether it’s Mom or Dad or Miss Peikert doing the teaching. Also, much to the kids’s chagrin, someone notices immediately when they haven’t finished their homework or aren’t paying attention to the lesson. We can always advance at the kids’s own pace in each individual subject, without boring them with work that is too easy or frustrating them with work that is too hard. And with only a few students, less of our school time is wasted than in an actual classroom. More efficient work means a shorter day; Adam and Bekah and I are finished every day by 1:30 in the afternoon. That gives us all more time to play outdoors, which is especially important when the days are short and sunlight is limited. And, while some of you may be worried about the amount of social interaction that the kids get when they aren’t at a school with their peers every day, the winters are actually a great time for them to get together, whether it’s after mail at Tony Zacs (the community center), going to other kids’s homes for sleep overs, or sledding and skiing together. All in all, homeschooling out here makes for happy, healthy, wellbalanced children. |
| The Ermine |
| Hi, my name is Bekah. I just want to tell you about this little animal that lives at our house. This little animal is called an ermine. An ermine has sharp teeth and sharp claws. He is very small, about 15" long including the tail and about 2" in diameter. The ermine lives in our wood pile outside. My dog, Cloudy, likes to go over there every morning and look for it (no luck). One time Cloudy got too close to it and it hissed. Ermines eat meat such as squirrels and voles (mice). Ermines are carnivores. Ermines are a type of weasel. You never want to catch one because they are really aggressive and bite hard. Ermines change colors. In the summer they are brown and in the winter they are white with black tip on his tail. The reason it has a black tip is so that it can trick the hawks and owls. When they see the tip they go after it but all they get is a beak full of snow (yuck). I always like watching it climb up and down our log cabin and look in the windows. Ermines are cute and helpful animals to have around. |
| Bekah's Bear Story |
| This is about me and a bear adventure that happened last summer in Alaska. I was 10 years old and now I am 11 years old writing this. My cousin, and my dog and I were going to clear trees out of the summer trail down to the road, because my cousin was going to have friends up to the homestead (cabin) and because then they could see the trail better. The reason we have a summer trail and a winter trail is because the summer trail does not have as much water as the winter trail. The water on the winter trail is from a beaver dam and it freezes in the winter. On the way to the swamp I heard a grunting sound, and I told my cousin, who was about 15 years old. She said, “It is just a car on the road.” So we cleared some more brush and then we came to this bridge we had to cross. My cousin stopped and said, “Oh no.” I said, “Is that a black bear or a grizzly?” Mary said, “It is a grizzly!” Medium size grizzlies are 7 feet tall when they stand up. |
| And this one was standing! My uncle was in a Super Cub (small airplane that holds two people) and dropped a note saying, “Your friends are at the road waiting for you.” But we didn’t read the note. We thought that he saw the bear and was going to come down and help us. I was screaming “help.” My mom heard me a mile away. She sent Adam and my other cousin, Brett, down to get the horses off the runway because my uncle was circling. Now we all thought different things. My mom thought that I was getting dragged by a horse. We thought that my uncle was going to come help us. My uncle thought that we knew that the people were at the road and were going to go down and see them. You probably think why do we have horses on the runway? The reason we have horses on the run way is so that they can run and they can graze. Our runway has grass so the horses can graze. Do you know what circling is? It is when a pilot gets really low and goes in circles about 75 feet off the ground. But what he was circling was us. |
| My mom got really mad because my brother had her shoes and she couldn’t really help me. She was down on the runway yelling at Adam, “Get up here and give me my shoes back.” She heard bushes moving and thought that it was Adam, but it was really the other bear cub that was in the woods. There I was, down at the swamp, and my dog went by me with a bear cub chasing her. I was climbing a small tree and fell a foot. Then I was 15 yards from the mother bear. Luckily the mother bear did not pay attention to me, so then I went to another tree and tried to climb it, but I fell out of that one too. So my cousin and I started to walk back to the road. When we got to the road I started to cry because I thought that the bear killed my dog. But she was safe, we were all safe. But, to warn you, do not run from a bear because they will think that you are prey and will try to attack you. Let me tell you how protective mother bears are of their cubs. If you get near a cub and the mother bear sees you and you don’t see her don’t go up to the bear cub—you could get Hurt!!!!! by the mother bear. |
| I hope I did not scare you. |
| The Lynx |
| Hi, my name is Adam Ward. Here is a description of an animal called a lynx. Lynx are a type of wild cat that lives in Alaska. Lynx are about the size of a medium size dog. Their fur is gray with light brown, white and some black mixed in. On their bellies are small black spots. The tail is about 4" long with a black tip. Lynx ears are outlines with black along with black tufts on the tips. |
| The paws are large for the size of the animal. They are about 4 to 6 inches wide and very furry. The fur keeps their feet warm. The size of the paw makes them stay close to the top of the snow so they can move faster. Naturally lynx are predators but at times they are also prey. Sometimes wolves or another lynx will kill and eat a lynx. People are another predator. They trap the lynx and sell the fur. Lynx are very quiet. If they see you they will either stand still hoping you won’t notice them or run away. They will not attack unless they are cornered or you are near their babies. If you ever come to Alaska and see a lynx don’t be scared. |