A look at homeschooling families in Hillsdale County

In Hillsdale County, more than 200 families have chosen to homeschool their children, including parents like Lydia Wells and Kelly Mason-Castle.

A second-generation homeschooling mother, Lydia Wells has carried on a tradition that began when she was young. Organized by Wells, several families meet each week at Lewis Emery Park to connect with the community, share life experiences and give their children an opportunity to socialize and have fun together.

During one of their meet-ups, Wells commented on her gratitude toward homeschooling saying, “The beauty of homeschooling is that the family can decide when to take a step back for mental health betterment.”

Wells said homeschooling allows families to create their own structure and does not force them to be beholden to the public school system when hard times surface. Although that reason is quite common among the homeschooling community, there are some, like Kelly Mason-Castle, who still interact with public schools for their benefit.

Mason-Castle has been homeschooling her son for four years and she is proactive in finding the best opportunities to teach her son about the world. She began her first year of homeschooling with a religiously-based co-op which disbanded the next year.  A couple of the remaining members decided to keep the group going, giving formation to the Hillsdale County Homeschoolers co-op on Facebook.

“We take advantage of every resource – everything we can.” Mason-Castle said. “Our public school is really good with pairing with homeschoolers for specials like music, art, and gym. We do piano lessons once a week. Go to the library for clubs in finance or Legos. We do field trips with our co-op to places like the fire station in Hillsdale, a post office, and a farm.”

Other families within the homeschooling community have followed that same line of dedication to their children, with many raising their own animals and gardens, learning foreign languages, and running small businesses.

This article originally appeared on Hillsdale Daily News: A look at homeschooling families in Hillsdale County