“As homesteaders, we are totally off the grid. Our four kids are doing things that I never even thought of when I was a kid, like helping to build our cabin where we live. They’ve been learning everything from learning how to cook over an open fire to building a house and digging out gray water systems. Over the summer, we took a step back from book work and have just been doing life. It's been incredible to see the things that they're learning by just being exposed to completely new things.”

“That’s a big part of their home-school education.” 

“Originally, my husband and I just did what everyone else did – send our kids to government schools. We thought it was just normal and good for them, and it never really crossed our minds to consider something else.” 

“You send your kids off for the vast majority of the day and they are exposed to whoever it is that they're in the care of at that time. But, as the parent, no one else is responsible for your kids, their upbringing, and their education except for you. As their parent, you are their advocate. You need to take that responsibility really seriously.” 

“It's shaping who they are and taking them into adulthood. It's the things they are exposed to, the lessons that they learn, and creating their moral compasses.” 

“Then we started questioning some things we saw in the district school’s curriculum and wanted to have more control of what they were learning. It took me a couple of years to gain the confidence in our own curriculum while we tried different things. Now, we do a mixture of life schooling, classical literature, and a lot of self-led discovery. It’s been six years since we started home-schooling, and none of us has any regrets. The kids all plan to home-school their own kids someday too.”

“I think a lot of home-school parents would agree with me that we don't want the government getting involved in any way, shape, or form with our home-schooling efforts.” 

“Fortunately, Idaho recognizes that parents have the responsibility for their children. Idaho does not require parents to notify anyone if they want to home-school their kids like a lot of states do. One of the reasons we decided to put down roots in Idaho is the ability to make free decisions across the board when it came to home-schooling.”

Natalie Feuerstein
Bonners Ferry, Idaho