Homeschool mom teaches kids how to learn

Tonya Herrera homeschools her children: Mikaela (11), Jacob (8) and Adalyn (4). Their 13-year-old brother attends public school.

“Some boys were teasing her, making fun of her, and encouraging her to say things she didn’t want to say. We knew it would probably get worse in junior high than it was in fifth grade. She was very upset about that. I was planning to homeschool the younger kids because they got easily distracted and struggled to stay on pace in public school. When she heard us talking about it she said, ‘I want to do that, too.’

“As part of what we’re doing, I get to teach them how to learn for themselves. They can be very curious about everything. If they’re interested in a certain topic, I show them how to find what they want to know about it. We do supervised searches on the internet. We’re at the library once a week.

“Recently, since it’s been so nice outside, we’ve come here to the spray park in the morning to get some energy out. We have the freedom to do that. We spent a day at the Children’s Museum (of Houston), where they got to do science lessons and experience all kinds of interesting things. We just kind of go wherever the theme we’re learning about takes us.”

— Tonya Herrera