KAYSVILLE — Rachel McAdams, the popular and formidable Regina George in the 2004 film "Mean Girls," refers to Lindsay Lohan's character Cady Heron as a "home-schooled jungle freak."

McAdams' evaluation of her formerly home-schooled peer reflects the negative point of view many may have had about home schooling in the past. Until the COVID-19 pandemic forced many families to home-school, home education often got a bad rap.

But, it's hard to deny the benefits of home schooling throughout Utah, when looking at the many resources available to home-educated students.

Melissa Butler, a Kaysville mom, started her older kids in public school and, though she had thought about home schooling her children, she didn't see how she could pull it off, especially with being a part-time nurse.

When public school wasn't turning out to be a great fit for her oldest son, they decided to try home schooling.

"It took a little bit of time to find our footing, but I found that he was happier and regained his confidence, and within just that first school year, he went from being behind in math to catching up and being ahead," Butler said. "And he just rediscovered his love of learning — which was just fantastic — and I knew at that point, that we'd found what worked well for him and were definitely going to keep doing it."

Her three other children are also now educated at home. During two of the days Butler works, her children go to home-school programs, such as Ziegfield Arts Academy, which provides some art and STEM education. Her older children also attend a co-op in Layton, called ConnectED, where they have the freedom to choose their own classes.

Butler's 7-year-old attends Backstage Performing Arts, where she has the opportunity to do tumbling, singing and dancing, and then she does her core classes at home.

Between all of their extracurricular schooling and activities, Butler feels her children get to socialize even more than she got to in public school.

"The things that you'd be worried about your kids missing out on — it's like the home-school parents have found a way to do it and they're great, and it's been really fun," she said.

On Mondays, Butler works outside the home while her kids school at home. She prepares for these days by preparing lessons ahead of time and leaving a detailed schedule for her kids to get done. She then checks on them throughout the day and has them send screenshots of things they have finished.

"We're able to kind of customize their education for what they're passionate about and what they're interested in, which I think makes a huge difference in how well they do as well as fostering a love for learning," she said.

Remote-learning turned home-school

While Butler has been home-schooling for about six years now, Ogden mom Tara Savage began home-schooling because of the pandemic.

Her then second-grade son has autism and ADHD and, at the time, he was doing 50% of his schooling in-person at his charter school and 50% with distance learning. When he was doing his school work at his computer, she would watch her son quickly comprehend and finish assignments, and then have a hard time sitting and waiting for the teachers to be done helping the other students. That's when Savage decided to home-school.

Savage loves that her son is able to study what he's interested in and that he isn't "schooling" for as long during the day. He also goes to Athenian eAcademy in Ogden two days a week while she goes to work. There, he learns history and science.

Now, in fourth grade, Savage's son is at a seventh-grade math level. She's noticed vast improvements in his education due to the one-on-one education he's getting.

"Home school is not for everyone or every child. This just works for mine," Savage said. "I will probably have my younger one attend a nearby full-day charter for the first few years, just so he gets the experience of school and learning from different teachers."

Korrina Robinson of Ogden is a veteran home-school mom. The mother of eight has been home-schooling for about 20 years and plans to continue for the next 10 years.

"I think the hardest part, overall, has been that I was taught that in order to be successful in life, you have to have good grades in school and you have to learn all the things that you're taught in school," Robinson said. "And letting go of that and realizing that you can be successful with whatever you choose to do."

Robinson loves having her kids at home with her and said her relationship with her kids, and their relationships with each other, have been the most rewarding part of home schooling.

"I think one of the biggest problems for most of us home-schoolers as moms is learning to let go and trust our children and trust ourselves and know that the learning never stops and they can be successful no matter what," she said.

The Robinson family is very involved in Sweet Harmony Performing Arts in Clearfield. They also attend the Ogden Weber Learners Society co-op in Ogden.

Freedom to learn

Sabrina Nielsen, who lives in Salt Lake County, was home-schooled when she was growing up in California. Though she has not chosen to home-school her own child so far, she works closely with home-school students.

"I've seen the great of home schooling and the not-so-great of home schooling and I'm actually … very pro-home school," Nielsen said. "Even though I'm not home-schooling my own children currently, it is a very close-to-ready option just in case. At the first moment that school stops working out, we're going to home-school."

Nielsen owns a company called American Elite Academy, and she has some home-schooling clients that she teaches mathematics to.

Nielsen believes the biggest benefit to home schooling is the freedom that allows students to study what they love and to get really good at it.

"You're supposed to be in school to get ready for your life as a grown-up, and one of the main things that home schooling provides is a freedom to kind of cut through the fluff and really focus and hone on what you're going to be doing … as an adult, how you're going to support your family," she said.

A challenge she's seen with home school is the lower accountability some families face as they choose not to be as diligent with their schooling. Nielsen has encountered high school students who struggle with basic math and reading. She said without consistency, home school has the potential to fall apart.

Nielsen advises home-schooling parents of teenagers to focus on teaching subjects related to what the child wants to do career-wise over traditional academics.

Getting into it

In 2022, three experienced Utah County home-school mothers, Cindy Fillmore, Anna Mock and Britany Sproul launched a website called Homeschool Hub Utah so that home-schooling families could learn about and access the home-school resources in their neck of the woods.

Fillmore said they divided the state of Utah into regions and began organizing home-school groups into those regions.

"The main target for our website, currently, is for home-schoolers who are brand new either to the states or to home schooling, and in their … first three years of home schooling," Sproul said. She added that it's also a forum for veteran home-school moms to give advice to new home-school moms.

The four pillars of Homeschool Hub Utah are to connect, educate, empower and serve home-schooling parents, Sproul said.

"We connect parents, especially those considering alternative education sources, with the resources," she added. "We exist to help give parents a head start. Once they make that hard decision to home-school then they've got the resources at their fingertips. We want them to have that."

Mock said once a user is on the website, they can navigate to their region of the state to see a list of classes, groups, co-ops and organizations in their area.

Another helpful resource for home-school families is the Utah Home Education Association. Erik Hanson, president of the board of directors, said UHEA advocates for home-school families and was started more than 30 years ago because home schooling was frowned upon back then and didn't have the freedom it does today.

UHEA is a resource to help parents navigate how to start home schooling. Hanson said they work with representatives in the Utah Legislature, and they help parents ensure they are home schooling legally, as well as connecting them with curriculums.

"Legally, Utah has some of the best laws to help facilitate all kinds of outside the box ways of educating children today, whether that's part home-school, part public school, full home-school … all of those are options for parents now," he said.

Covering the cost

School choice scholarship, teacher pay raise passes Utah House

A bill that creates a state-funded scholarship program allowing parents to use state funds for private or home school,and also fund a pay increase for educators passed the Utah House.

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