Homeschool Community in Venice Area (Sarasota, Port Charlotte: real estate market, foreclosed, rent)

[Boston2Florida]

Is there an active homeschool community in the Venice area? I've found a few links online and visited the Sarasota County homeschool page, but would love to hear from anyone who knows anything about it either through personal experience or second-hand accounts. Is it viewed as a positive alternative to public school or is it perceived in a negative manner.

Thanks in advance.

[SoFLGal]

I have been involved off and on in the local homeschool community in the area for the last 20 years. There are actually quite a few homeschoolers in the Venice area. My middle girl is 17 now and has been doing Florida Virtual School since 7th grade. On occasion we'll hook up the homeschool group if we see something that interests us--park day at Shamrock park, a museum day or whatever. Here's a link to their page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Sunc...choolersSouth/ Robin Hagan is in charge of the group.

We are also a member of the Hobe Sound Unschoolers. Basically, we are a member over there because of the way I wanted to have it set up. There's a lot of ins and outs to homeschooling in FL. I didn't want to meet the usual end of the year state testing requirement. By enrolling in Hobe Sound we meet the states minimum requirement of only being required to account for attendance. My Willow, is also enrolled in FLVS-Florida Virtual School and I can see her progress, grades, etc there. We felt the additional state requirement was redundant. This is what the state/county requires unless you take a different route, which is what I did: Sarasota County Schools - Home School

Anyway, I'm not really sure how people perceive us. Willow dropped out of the prestigious local full time gifted school Pine View and 7th grade and we've been doing FLVS ever since. She will graduate next year. It has been a very positive experience for us and it works for our family. She also travels a lot and owns her own business and works that in the day. This allows her to do her schooling at night and wherever she is.

I also homeschooled my now 22 year old for a year or so back years ago and I also homeschooled my little one (10) up until 2nd grade. My 22 year old graduates from New College of Sarasota in May.

There are several homeschool groups around, many are geared toward religion or have a strong religious requirement or teachings. Suncoast homeschoolers is not affiliated with any religion and welcomes everyone.

[Boston2Florida]

Thanks for the great info as always SoFLGal. I love that your daughter has the flexibility to pursue her interests during the day and continue her schoolwork at a time that works for her. How amazing that she has her own business. One of the main reasons I am considering homeschool is because I want my kids to have the time to explore different interests in depth instead of always being so busy with mandated topics that are not inspiring to them.

May I ask what type of business she started? I'm always in awe of teens that do that type of thing. Good for her!

[AnotherTouchOfWhimsy]

Yes, there are quite a few of us in the area. You can travel up to Sarasota or down to North Port/Port Charlotte to get involved with various activities. While you'll get a few odd glances anywhere, I'd say that homeschooling is perceived overall to be a positive thing. Florida is also a fairly homeschool-friendly state.

[SoFLGal]

Originally Posted by Boston2Florida

Thanks for the great info as always SoFLGal. I love that your daughter has the flexibility to pursue her interests during the day and continue her schoolwork at a time that works for her. How amazing that she has her own business. One of the main reasons I am considering homeschool is because I want my kids to have the time to explore different interests in depth instead of always being so busy with mandated topics that are not inspiring to them.

May I ask what type of business she started? I'm always in awe of teens that do that type of thing. Good for her!

Well, here's the story...As I mentioned, she attended Pine View School from 2nd-7th grade. She is not the best student in math and she has ADHD and is full time gifted. Everyday I would get calls from her teachers saying she has not done her homework or is not following along in class. I finally said to her that if she is not going to get her act together in class then I will just home school her. Things went on with the bad reports and such from school for a few weeks longer and we decided as a family to pull her from PV and try homeschooling. I was homeschooling her little sister at the time.

I told Willow that I still have to work and she would have to tag along with me when I talk to my investors and go view homes, etc. She went with me but not willingly. In the beginning she sat in the corner and sulked and asked me every five minutes how long I was going to take. After a while she began to ask me questions--"Why did you pick that color tile? How do you measure for counters? How long do you think it will take to get this house done, etc? Basically she became interested in what I was doing with my investors and how I made them money.

One day we were in a foreclosed home that my investor had purchased and the previous owners had left all kinds of stuff--appliances, bunk beds, etc. Willow asked me what my investor planned on doing with all of the stuff left behind. I told her that the home needed to be cleared out ASAP and we were just going to throw it out. She said "Do you think he'd let me have it or spilt it with him if I could sell it?". I dialed up my investor and she asked. He said that he just needs the home cleared out and she could have the stuff. She made $500+ in two days. She then started riding her skateboard around the neighborhood and looking for "treasures" on trash day--and going to Goodwill and looking for stuff to resell. She looked for things she knew the value-electronics, skateboards, scooters, etc. She started selling these items to her friends at the skate parks and on Craigslist. After a few months she saved up $6K.

One evening my husband and I were talking at the dinner table about a home that I found in Port Charlotte. I was explaining to him that it wouldn't take a whole lot to fix it up and we could probably rent it out for $700/month. The list price was $16K. Right then Willow pipes up and asks, "Do you think they'd take $12K?" I asked why it really mattered. She replied, "I want to go in partners with you and I only have $6K saved up." My husband became angry and replied that he is not going in partners with his, then 14 year old daughter. He told her that he had a paper route when he was a kid and she needed to go get a regular job. I jumped in on Willow's side and explained that I thought it would be an excellent learning experience. Heck, she could learn how to measure tile, how to interview contractors, how to interview tenants. She said that she would come up with a plan and present it to us the next evening.

The next day she sat us down and said that she would contribute her $6K toward the project and her half of the rent would go toward paying the renovations off and buying me out of my portion of the home. We (well more like I) decided to go for it. She was the best partner I could have ever asked for. When the dryer went out, she was on Craigslist looking for a new one. When the tenants moved out and left the place a mess, she cleaned it up and found new ones. She was perfect.

She bought us out of the home and sold it for a profit of $30K and then bought another home with that money and made another $30K.

Meanwhile, I got a call from the Herald Tribune, the local newspaper. They usually call me about once a week to find out what's happening with the market. So, my buddy Michael Braga, over at the Tribune called me and said that he had given me number to National Public Radio (NPR) because he thought I was the best person to speak with them about the local real estate market. The lady from NPR called me and we were chatting about investors and flippers and I just made a causal comment "Well if a 14 year old girl can buy half of a home, you know the market is depressed." I just continued on with my conversation about flippers and she began to question me about this "14 year old girl". I really didn't see the whole significance and why she kept wanting to drop back to her because we were chatting about investors. She really began to pressure me hard about Willow and asked if it would be OK if she flew down from NYC to interview Willow the next day. This is the original interview that Willow did: This 14-Year-Old Girl Just Bought A House In Florida : Planet Money : NPR

When the story aired on NPR Willow and I were up at Detweillers Farmers Market in Sarasota. We almost forgot it was going to air and jumped in the car to listen to the piece. Willow thought that was kind of neat to be on the radio and that was that. We got home at like 6pm that evening and my phone rang. The called ID said LA, Cali. I just assumed it was probably Realtor.com, Zillow or something like that and reluctantly answered my phone. The lady on the other end of the line asked if my name was Shannon--I said yes. Then she asked if I was Willow's mom, I said Yes. Then I asked who I was speaking to. The lady said Ellen. Then she asked if I knew Ellen. I replied, "no I don't think I know an Ellen." Then the lady replied, "Oh, so you don't know an Ellen DeGeneres." Perplexed I said, "yes". The lady replied and said, "Well, my name is Glory Gale and I'm the executive producer for the Ellen show. Ellen just heard Willow on NPR and asked if I would call you and book you on The Ellen Show for tomorrow." I was speechless and didn't know what to say. I walked in Willow's room and the producer asked to speak with Willow. They chatted for a while and made it clear that if Willow agreed to appear on The Ellen Show then she would not be able to speak to any other media outlet prior to appearing on her show. Willow told them that no one really cared about her story and no one has even called so that was fine. No one called on Saturday or Sunday-at about 4am on Monday morning I got a call from India asking to speak with Willow. I asked if they could call back at a reasonable time. At 7am I got calls from -Anderson Cooper, The Today Show, Good Morning America, CBS News, reality TV shows--it was crazy. I received over 1000 calls in one day. Willow's first TV interview was on The Ellen Show:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTTczC27fko This interview has been viewed by nearly 5 million people. Ellen gave her a $10K gift card to Ace Hardware and a new dryer for her rental.

From there she has done over 185 interviews. She toured with Miss Kay from Duck Dynasty giving speeches to struggling businesses and disadvantaged kids.

If you Google "Willow Tufano" you can find a whole bunch of her stuff. Willow claims that anyone can do just want she has done. She says that everyone knows about something--dolls, antiques, baseball cards, cars, etc. She says to take what you have knowledge about and capitalize on it. She knew about skateboards, electronics, etc and ran with it.

She currently owns a clothing company called "The Clothing Vault". She also still resells things/trash and makes about $1-2K per week. She's also in the process of writing a book on how to turn trash into treasure. She still consults with many newspapers and TV stations-Huff Post Live just had her in on a round table discussion on investing at a young age.

She pays for everything she needs and has since she was 14 years old-- rent at the house, food, clothes, cell phone, etc.

She will be moving to Chicago with her girlfriend and finishing out her senior year. She's looking up there to flip homes as well.

Incidentally, she has also inspired her little sister to do the same thing. We live on an island that you can only get on and off via car ferry or boat. Getting on and off the island is expensive and there is no grocery store on island. Her sister, Iris, who is 10 grows her own fruits and veggies and sells them on island. She calls it Island Kids Fruits and Veggies.

Sorry for the length of the post but it's not a quick answer

[Boston2Florida]

Oh my gosh! Thank you so much for taking the time to post all of that and include the links and videos. What a wonderfully inspiring and amazing story. I'm looking forward to sharing this with my son and his best friend after school. His friend is a 9 year old with his own business cards and a love for all things business-related. I know he will really enjoy this story as well.

I think I mentioned I am a public school teacher. My behind the scenes look at the direction education has and continues to take has me very concerned as a parent. Couple that with stories like this and my desire for my kids to have the time to pursue their interests while experience real world education and its easy to see why homeschool is advantageous.

Thanks again!

[Boston2Florida]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts AnotherTouchofWhimsy. It's so helpful to hear from people who have experienced it firsthand. Much Appreciated.

[SoFLGal]

Originally Posted by Boston2Florida

Oh my gosh! Thank you so much for taking the time to post all of that and include the links and videos. What a wonderfully inspiring and amazing story. I'm looking forward to sharing this with my son and his best friend after school. His friend is a 9 year old with his own business cards and a love for all things business-related. I know he will really enjoy this story as well.

I think I mentioned I am a public school teacher. My behind the scenes look at the direction education has and continues to take has me very concerned as a parent. Couple that with stories like this and my desire for my kids to have the time to pursue their interests while experience real world education and its easy to see why homeschool is advantageous.

Thanks again!

That's fantastic! Tell him to keep going with it. It's sometimes a struggle in the beginning but keep going with it. Willow loves to give encouragement to young entrepreneurs.

So, needless to say, we are big advocates in the homeschool/virtual school arena. It has allowed my daughter to go from a very unhappy child on meds to keep her ADHD in check to a blossoming young entrepreneur on no meds and very happy with her life choices. The one thing about virtual school is that you need to be very disciplined, which is not a strong trait of Willows. If she could she'd just spend all of her hours working her business and not very much time doing her school work. That's probably the most challenging part of the homeschool environment.

The way I look at it is that she has gotten a lifetime of education in just a few short years-she's learned how to turn the electric on in a house, how to interview tenants, contractors, etc. As far as math goes, she learned a lot of practical applications that she'll use in "the real world". She got a great education in public speaking by doing all of the interviews. She says the best part about the whole thing is helping start up businesses and people who are struggling to make money and seeing them flourish and do really well.

She's grown up to be a remarkable young lady

[dpbarr2000]

Its funny how SoFLGal's kids all seem to have gone to every school in our area and she also homeschooled them. Truly an accomplishment.

[kiggy]

Originally Posted by dpbarr2000

Its funny how SoFLGal's kids all seem to have gone to every school in our area and she also homeschooled them. Truly an accomplishment.

Yes, it truly is an accomplishment to have raised such a wonderful daughter. Now, tell us about your children, dpbarr2000.