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[00:00.87] Peter: So Sarah you told me earlier that you've been home-schooled, it sounds really interesting, I've never met somebody who's been home-schooled, so could you tell me a little bit more about your experience with it?

[00:09.87] Sarah: Yes, absolutely. Well, I'm the youngest of four children, so I was the last one to come up being home-schooled.

[00:16.87] But my father decided to home-school us as soon as it became legal in our state.

[00:24.62] And for me, it was a very different experience than my older siblings.

[00:29.37] I think when they were younger my father did more of the formal teaching, like at all once, like lecture style.

[00:36.87] But by the time I came along, he didn't do that anymore. So my learning predominantly came from books.

[00:44.12] And I remember even as young as second grades, like doing all of my work by myself.

[00:50.62] One of my favorite aspects of it, when I was like in second and third grade, is I could do all of my work on Monday and then have the rest of the week to play, didn't have to do any work.

[01:02.62] Peter: Wow! That sounds really nice. How come your parents decided to home school, what was important for them?

[01:09.87] Sarah: My older sister had a lot of problems in school and they were in the principal's office like every day.

[01:18.62] And so that's initially what made them start thinking about it. And from there they made the decision and so all the rest of us were home-schooled after that.

[01:27.87] Peter: Wow! That's fascinating. Tell me, the fact that you were home-schooled, did that make any difference in terms of making friends with other people in the neighborhood or were there other families that home-schooled children too that you could be friends with?

[01:42.87] Sarah: Yes, there were some families that we were close friends with, that we vacationed with and did everything with growing up.

[01:50.12] For me, personally, the social aspect wasn't huge because I'm more of an introvert.

[01:55.62] So I like to be alone more than my other siblings. But we were all very involved in different things, my brother in many sports and my sister and I in ballet and I played in an orchestra, and I took piano and violin and sang in a girl's chorus.

[02:17.62] So I was around other children my own age all the time.

[02:18.62] Peter: Right. Yeah, it sounds pretty busy actually.

[02:19.37] Sarah: Yeah.

[02:20.12] Peter: So could you tell me, what's a typical day in home-schooling, what does it work like? What does it look like?

[02:25.12] Sarah: It's pretty much just self-study. So I guess what most people envision as like homework at the end of the day, that's just your school day, is just working through different books, different activities, so mainly textbooks.

[02:39.62] It's very different now though. People who are home-schooled now, there is all sorts of groups and like online and videos and different things.

[02:48.62] But because I was home-schooled in the 80s, it looked very different than it does now.

[02:54.62] Peter: Okay. So how did your father ... did he work as well and did he work and home-school you or was that his main thing, to home-school you?

[03:04.37] Sarah: My father owns a radio station and he has a manager for that radio station, so that allows him to not have to be down there very often.

[03:14.62] But when he did he would just take us with him to work, and so we'd do our work wherever he was.

[03:22.12] Peter: Wow, that's pretty cool!

[03:22.87] Sarah: Yeah.

[03:23.37] Peter: And all four kids would do their homework and go through their textbooks by themselves, things like that?

[03:28.62] Sarah: Yes, we were all very self-motivated, so.