Frustrated with public schools, more families in Washington state’s Key Peninsula are choosing to homeschool

Holly Baker homeschools her children in the Key Peninsula area of Washington State, which has seen significant growth in homeschooling since the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I don’t particularly love the things that schools are teaching anymore,” she told Key Peninsula News. “I don’t think school should have any politics in it at all. I don’t appreciate the focus on gender and race. It should be the parent’s job.”

Baker helped establish the Key Peninsula Homeschool Co-op four years ago as a way for her family to socialize with other homeschoolers. 

The area had an estimated 278 families and 479 students homeschooling in the last school year, according to KP News. 

While that number has fallen from its peak of 514 families and 802 students in 2020-21, it’s still higher than data from the 2019-20 school year. 

“Some choose to homeschool on religious or political grounds,” writes Sara Thompson for KP News. “Some have children whose needs can’t be met in a classroom setting. Some families on the Key Peninsula started homeschooling during the pandemic.” 

However, homeschooling has been around long enough for families to choose it for reasons other than recent events. 

“Others decided to homeschool before they had their first child,” Thompson notes. “Some were homeschooled themselves or had issues during their own educational experiences and wanted to shield their children from similar experiences.” 

For example, Jenn Shanks has found homeschooling caters to the different learning styles of her four children ages 16, 14, 10, and 7. 

“My oldest learns very differently from his younger sister,” she said. “He is very independent, works on his own timeline. His younger sister needs a little more one-on-one. She is dyslexic and artistic, and she needs more hands-on, manipulative activities. My 10-year-old is autistic, so that is completely different.” 

Shanks also found community through the Harbor Christian Homeschool Co-op. The co-op meets weekly at Heart Church on Fox Island and serves about 80 families with year-long enrichment classes. 

“A lot of people say that homeschoolers are not socialized, but we are out all the time,” Shanks said. “We meet at parks, do field trips, and do some classes together.” 

Another homeschool mom, Amy Parker, had experience as a Montessori teacher. When her family moved to a small town in Oregon, she decided to homeschool her son, who was then in the third grade. 

“He really enjoyed the freedom of being able to control his time of being in school,” she said. “It was successful, so we kept doing it when we returned to the Key Peninsula.”