Fritz Homeschool

Vanessa Arambula, Staff Writer

Two years ago we were all had to stay at home because of COVID-19, and we had to do school online which was really boring. But could you imagine doing online school since preschool? Well, Valarie Fritz has been doing homeschool her whole life, and just this year she transferred to Holy Family because she wanted to see what was out in the world and what she had missed from being homeschool. Valarie was born and raised in Colorado, and has three younger siblings Gabriel, Michela, and Peter. Unlike Valarie, her siblings are still homeschooled.

The common question I asked Valarie was, “Why did your parents want to homeschool you?” She replied with, “They wanted to homeschool me because they wanted to keep me away from all of the things that would go on in the world. They thought it was safer to keep me at home with my siblings so I wouldn’t get involved in all the things modern day kids do.” Teaching your kids from home isn’t a easy job to do, but Valarie’s mom wanted to take on the challenge. Even though it was overwhelming for her mom to not only homeschool one kid but four, she overcame it and made sure they all had a schedule to follow, turn in their assigned work on time, and made sure they always took the standardized tests that were required.

Homeschooling has a ton of benefits, but Valarie’s included finding who she was instead of others telling her who she should be, meeting her standards, and establishing what she wanted to do because she had the help from her mom, and also teachers she would get on a google meet with her from time to time. With benefits from homeschooling also comes with some disadvantages, like being cut from the world. Valarie explained that being away from kids her age was hard because she saw the different ways they would act compared to how she would when she first came here, but she is slowly adjusting to people and getting used to everyone. By adjusting to a new school in person, Valarie mentioned that she is excited for this year because she is doing the fall play and joining cross country, as well as doing her other hobbies like skiing and Marshall Arts.