Posted: Saturday, March 16, 2013 11:53 pm

By Brooke VanCleave St. Joseph News-Press |0 comments

Julie Casey is a woman of many talents.

The Union Star, Mo., resident is a former teacher, a wife, a home schooling mother, a historical re-enactor, a wildlife rehabilitator, a herpetological society officer and manager of numerous websites. About three years ago, she added published author to the list.

“I’d been thinking about all these ideas for years and years and years, and I thought, ‘Well, I might as well get them down on paper,’ and so I made them into a book,” Ms. Casey says of her decision to start writing.

Her first book, “Stop Beating the Dead Horse,” is a nonfiction exploration of problems within the public school system and how they could be resolved. Her second is a short humorous novella called “In Daddy’s Hands.” Both of these books were self-published through a free online publishing service.

Ms. Casey’s third book will be published in April. Titled “How I Became a Teenage Survivalist,” it follows the story of a rural Missouri teenager and his family as they cope with the effects of a solar superstorm that has knocked out the world’s power grids. However, she assures readers that this post-apocalyptic tale is different from others in the science fiction genre.

Kevin Krauskopf
St. Joseph News-Press
On Twitter: @stjoelivedotcom
 
Photo: Eric Keith/St. Joseph News-Press
Julie Casey home shools her children Todd and Jack in the kitchen of their rural Union Star home.

For the first two years of her oldest son’s life, Julie Casey was a working mom. And she was miserable.

“I was always exhausted, always stressed out, never had enough time to spend with Andrew (or) do the things that I wanted to do with him,” she says.

Many moms thrive balancing their professional and personal lives. Julie, though, decided it wasn’t for her. She left her job as a computer programmer and started a home day care center to continue bringing in an income.

Julie L. Casey of Union Star, MO, sat down at her computer and her fingers began to fly over the keys as she penned what would very soon become her fourth book, entitled, “How I Became a Teenage Survival- ist”. This book has grabbed the attention of Hollywood, and set events in motion to film a trailer this past weekend.

Julie, the wife of South Holt High School science instructor Jonn Casey, began fulfilling her aspirations to write just a few years ago when she wrote her first book, “Stop Beating a Dead Horse”, a book that addresses the public school system. Her second book, “In Daddy’s Hands”, was based on a humorously true life family experience. Both books were self published within months of each other in early fall, 2010. Since those first works, she has written two more novels, “Holt: Guardians of Hope”, and the latest, “How I Became a Teen- age Survivalist”.

Local mom makes it easy for parents to find resourcesSylvia Anderson
St. Joseph News-Press
On Twitter: @SJNPAnderson

When Julie Casey started home schooling her children 11 years ago, it was a trend still considered on the fringe and resources were hard to find. But these days home schooling is almost mainstream, and thanks to her new website, resources can be easily found by clicking a mouse.

The website, www.theconnectedhomeschool.com, includes information on everything from home-school laws to a kids’ page full of educational games. And it comes at a time when home schooling is the fastest-growing area in education, she says, increasing an estimated 20 percent a year. Exact figures are hard to come by since Missouri does not require home-schools register with the state. But individual groups are watching numbers going up.

For home-schooling parents like Julie Casey and Lesa Verbick, class is always in session. Each parent has a different teaching style, working one on one and adapting to the learning styles of their children.

Casey said, "We really do a lot of eclectic things, we just have learning all over the place."

Verbick said, "We're able to use practical experience at maybe an earlier age, because we have that time allowance with our kids. Then we can also, age appropriately, add responsibilities, that they're able to use those skills in a practical manner in all types of situations."

Parents choose to home-school for a variety of reasons. Verbick says that she's seeing more and more parents considering home-schooling as an alternative.

Verbick and Casey agree that there's a popular misconception toward home-schooling and socializing. They argue that they teach their kids about socialization everyday.

Verbick said, "It is not that much different than what's being considered the traditional method, we're doing the tradition method too, its just not in that path."

Home-schooling parents aren't in it alone. The organization H.O.M.E. or Home-school Organization for Midwest Educators offers resources are considering home schooling.

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Read more here: Parents Offer Insight on Home-Schooling