“My dad was a Southern Baptist minister and a doomsday prepper. I was raised in Palestine, up in East Texas. We lived in the parsonage next to the church where my dad preached. But he also built a little cabin in the woods, just outside the town of Rusk. It didn’t have plumbing, but it did have electricity. That was sort of a weekend getaway/ultimate destination if the grid ever went down and things got really bad.

“My dad was always a little mistrustful of the government. So I think he was just worried that something might happen and his family wouldn’t be safe. I guess in his mind it was really important to make sure that no matter what, we would be fine. In a way, that was very sweet. But in a way, it was kind of like, OK dad, please stop.

“I was homeschooled, and I had very little contact with anybody outside my parents’ social circle. So I just sort of thought it was normal. It was actually kind of terrifying as a little kid. I would have problems sometimes, thinking about the world ending. It was a big source of anxiety for me. Then, as I got a little older, and the world was supposed to have ended a whole lot of times but it hadn’t, it made me a bit cynical about conspiracy theories and that sort of thing. Like, yeah, I’ve heard it all before.

“Then when COVID hit, it felt like something I’ve almost been waiting for my whole life. Obviously, I’m not happy about it. But it was like, OK, I can do this. I feel like I’m ready for this. It would have been a big source of anxiety for me as a child. But now, as an adult, I’m not panicking. I have my bad days like everybody else, where I’m worried. But, you know, I sleep at night. It’s going to be OK.”

— Rebecca Barker

A former Baytown resident, Rebecca lives in Michigan with her husband and their daughter.

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• Community theater haven for ‘weird kid’

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“He was probably 4 or 5 when we really started noticing things. When bathroom hand dryers came on, he’d start screaming because they were too loud. When it was hot outside, the heat was way worse for him than for us. And the lights bothered him. When I’d vacuum, he’d start screaming. One time when I was vacuuming, I looked back and the chair was tipped over on the floor and he was hiding under the table. I was panicking. I knew something wasn’t right. He was having speech problems as well, so everything started to add up.

“When my dad passed away, I found a note. I think my family was asking each other if my son was autistic. And it hurt my feelings because I was like, why at this time would you guys do that? Then I started going back and thinking about everything. That’s when I realized, I’d better check on this.

“Asperger’s is what they’ve kind of clumped it all into on the spectrum. I thought autism was one thing, and that you could tell, you could see. I had no idea there were different levels of it.

“I’ve been homeschooling him and dealing with it mostly by myself. I’m just continuing to learn as much as I can. My husband works out of state, so he’s not around very much to help. My daughter, when she’s not working part time, has been a real blessing. She’s like the second mom. She’s helped out tremendously.

“We’re making slow, slow progress. He does want to go to school, and I want to prepare him for school. If that’s what he wants, I want him to go. I just want to know that they are going to be able to give him what he needs. I know we’re behind. But I’m doing the best I can with his academics and socializing, trying to help him learn how to deal with other people. I want the best for him and for his future.”

— Lisa Cassell

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• This young guy brings sunshine to his family

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“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

The post Homeschool mom teaches kids how to learn appeared first on The Baytown Project.

“I want to be a teacher. I’ve always enjoyed kids, and I want to make a difference in the world. When they’re young, I think it’s the best time to be able to have a big influence on them.”

What was school like for you growing up?
“I was homeschooled with my mom from kindergarten through sixth grade, and then I went to two different private schools and graduated from Sterling High School.”

How might that experience impact you as a teacher?
“I think I’ll be a little bit more understanding toward the younger kids. Having my mom there with me all the time when I was home was a huge help. But I understand that some kids probably aren’t as fortunate to have that kind of support.”

— Valerie Smith

The post As a teacher, she hopes to positively influence kids appeared first on The Baytown Project.

“I got into the wrong crowd. My mom didn’t like the people I was hanging out with and who I’d become over a year or so. She wanted me to be influenced positively instead of negatively, so she took me out of public school to be home-schooled. She got me into sports, reading and stuff like that.

“At first I hated it and thought my parents were being tyrants. But after a while, when I saw what I was doing in terms of progressing, I liked it. I came to appreciate it, especially now that I’ve graduated.

“I’m 16, working and saving up for a car and then college. I like the outdoors and enjoy hunting and fishing. I want to study to become a game warden.”

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