Second, the family could travel the state with Chris, learning the bookbinding trade. As she and Chris perform the repair work on state books and court reports in the courthouses of towns throughout Indiana and Illinois, the children have the opportunity to learn the local history. When the work is finished, they are able to do a little sight-seeing around the town, enriching their appreciation of the Midwest. Third, quality time proved the clincher to the decision to home school. Between the country school bus travel routes that forced early hours and late returns, chores, homework and extracurricular activities such as Boy Scouts, karate lessons, church camps, Indianapolis Children's Choir practice, Conner Prairie youth interpreter roles, and sports, Faulkner found only handfuls of scattered minutes to enjoy her sons and impart her values to them.
Mornings are devoted to school lessons.
Independent testing reveals the two older boys score at high school and even college levels in various subjects. The afternoons and evenings belong to a balance of the family members' chores, social involvements and community activities. The children often visit foster grandparents in nursing homes, while Cheryl pitches in as everything from Tiger Cub den leader to volunteering at the Tipton County Council's coalition for drugs and alcohol to manning phones at the area teen hotline. While Cheryl is the cheerleading coordinator for the Tipton Youth League, Chris coaches soccer and football, and serves as director of the Cicero Christian Church's Power Team ministry, a group of Christian body builders. And just as I teach them to brush their teeth, make their bed and pick up their room, I want them to give back to the community in whatever capacity they can.