By By Allan G. LeBaron, Special to Enquirer
Hartselle native Marie Denise Griffith home schools her three children—Blake, Ty and Brady—at the family home in the Aldridge Grove community of Lawrence County.
Blake, 12, is a seventh grader. She likes to sing, skate and read. Ty, 11, is a fifth grader. He enjoys hunting, skateboarding and riding horses. Brady, six, likes to feed horses and read.
School hours are 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. But before classes begin, each child has assigned chores to perform. Blake and Ty do the vacuuming and Brady carries out the trash and makes sure new trash bags are in place.
Griffith schedules classes for six weeks on her planner, then a week off. Different colored pens are used to indicate which subjects are covered on different days, This accounts for the diversity in grade levels. Sometimes Blake and Ty are working the same math problems from a workbook while their mom gives her full attention to Brady.
She buys her own textbooks and schedules classes so that the subject in the book is completed by the end of the school year. If the book doesn’t include the necessary tests, she makes up her own. She maintains detailed records on each child’s progress.