We are so grateful for the Utah Fits All Scholarship this year. We are a homeschooling family with five students left at home. We knew traditional public education would not be a great fit for us, as we are self-employed and our work requires that we spend a lot of time traveling. Family time is very important to us. Rather than having the kids at school while mom and dad are at work, the scholarship has enabled us to fund vibrant educational opportunities while at the same time keeping our family together and enabling us to spend more time with each other.
All of our children are passionate musicians. Musical education can be very expensive and often overlooked in the traditional school environment. From learning music, playing and performing, mixing, recording, composing and producing music, our children have been blessed to have the right tools, gear, and technology to facilitate their musical dreams and have exposure to so many opportunities in that field.
One of our favorite things about Utah Fits All is that we are allowed the choice of what to teach our children. Obviously, we spend adequate time with the fundamental academic subjects, but also we are able to prioritize faith, values, citizenship, career preparation, life skills, money management, and so many other things that are important to our family culture and our community. Our children are able to learn at their own pace, be it slower than average or highly accelerated, and very little time is wasted. It has also enabled our children to find amazing mentors in the community that provide hands-on experiences and individual instruction that wouldn’t be possible in other settings.
Each of my children, from my 16 and 17-year old musician/athletes, 14-year old aspiring novelist, 12-year old humanitarian, and 9-year old mechanic/builder, have been blessed by the opportunities, variety, and flexibility of this program which has enabled us to learn together and individually in amazing ways. Every student should have these opportunities to take charge of their lives and their education and to make education more than just ‘school’, but a way of life that they continue to pursue far beyond traditional graduation.
