February 28, 2002

The Carl and Sherry Richardson Family

Carl and Sherry Richardson started discussing their home school plans even as they began courting one another.

Prior planning, as they say, pays off in positive performance.

And few performances are coming off as positively as that of the home schooling couple’s four oldest children. Their music act has been seen in venues all over Minnesota, and this has even led to an extremely positive article, focusing in large part on the family’s home schooling, in a recent edition of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

http://www.startribune.com/stories/1526/1621042.html

The article details how the boys, Justin (13), Alex (11), Daniel (10) and Michael (7), have impressed crowds with their combination of folk, gospel, classical and patriotic music, along with some light comedy. It also noted that the whole thing started when the boys began taking violin lessons as part of their home schooling format.

As a result of the article, Carl reports that the family is receiving more requests for performances than they know what to do with.

“We’re having to turn down a lot more requests,” he said. “We’re trying to pick out the most interesting and exciting opportunities.”

Among the more notable venues the boys have graced include a Center for American Experience event where they will immediately precede former president George Bush, a Minnesota Golden Gophers basketball game, a Minnesota Timberwolves NBA game, and last but not least, the Minnesota State Home School Convention.

Carl, a project management consultant in Minneapolis, said he knows that balancing a musical act with the rest of family life is not for everybody.

“There are different ways to approach home schooling, just as there are for anything you do,” he said. “Home schooling is a foundation of so much of what we have been able to do. You can’t do this without a strong conviction and a strong purpose, and all of those things sustain us in the trenches and motivate us without ceasing, so as to press on toward the goal.”

Carl said the family has received a lot of notes from home schooling families and those considering home education. Many of the notes express how encouraging the article was regarding home schooling as an educational option.

The Richardsons attend New Life Baptist in Wanamingo, MN. Their two youngest children, Elizabeth (3) and Abigail (7 months), are waiting in the musical wings.

To see the Richardsons’ family web site, please go to:

http://members.ll.net/crich/index.htm