In the Poston family, one child can sit still and listen when she’s learning. The other likes being in constant motion, doing one activity while absorbing information.

Jim and Patti Poston in Virginia City Highlands wanted to allow their kids, Jamie and Price, to move at their own pace, off the beaten path of the “middle of the road” student.

“Schools aren’t really set up to differentiate between the fast learner and the slow learner,” Jim said. “(When Patti and I were in school), instead of advancing past that point, we helped other kids, which is beneficial. We learned the material more but we couldn’t go past that point. We wanted our kids to go as fast as they can or as slow as they need to without being pushed by the rest of the group.”

Parents who choose to homeschool their children quickly come to the realization that not only does each child have their own strengths and weaknesses, but in the process of teaching, they personally receive an education on being a teacher and become comfortable with who their children are as students. Two local families have learned that sometimes going with the flow is more effective than the rigid schedule of public schools.

The Postons have homeschooled their children, Jamie, 13 and Price, 11, ever since they were old enough to start school. Patti learned how to adjust her teaching style between one child who was able to stay in one place for long periods of time and the other who needed to have something in his hands in order to listen.

“Jamie, as she was little, she’d just sit and listen and learn … like a sponge,” Patti said. “(When he was 2 or 3), Price wanted to go outside and push his bike – he couldn’t quite ride it yet,” she said. “I just asked myself, ‘Why?’ Then I realized he just needed that motion. I learned that not all kids are going to be the same. So now Price has Play Doh or he paints but he’s listening and can answer my questions.”

Sharon Zenz of Reno didn’t think homeschooling would be a possibility when her sixth-grade son Alex asked her to teach him a few years ago. She had one child in high school, one in junior high, another in elementary school and a toddler; she had plenty to deal with just trying to keep up with all four.

But when Alex, now 15, repeatedly showed he was bored in public school while his classmates would spend a week on a concept, Sharon stepped in to help him at his level.

“We had offered it to our older kids and they said, ‘No way,’ ” she said. “(Alex) was one of those kids who you’d ask, ‘What did you learn?’ ‘Nothing, they’re still talking about the same thing we did on Monday.’ … It was becoming very clear we were no longer happy with the education (Alex and daughter Hallie) were getting.”

Hallie, now 11, wasn’t performing well in her classrooms in second grade, where the teachers arranged the desks for group settings. Hallie would socialize too much and never got her work done, so her teachers would set her apart at an individual desk, where she did better in her studies. But the principal found out and put and end to it. He said isolating Hallie would not be in her best interest.

Sharon said that’s when she stepped in and brought Hallie home under her instruction, though at the cost of losing her friends.

“She was really worried about when she was going to see her friends,” Sharon said. “But we belonged to six (homeschooling) groups and once she realized there were field trips and co-ops and friends she could play with there, she was fine (with homeschooling).”

Sharon said one of the concepts that struck her most at first was that homeschooling is very different from public school in terms of keeping to a particular schedule.

“I would freak out if we weren’t sitting at the table,” she said. “We would still be eating and we were running late and eventually I thought, you know, if you do an hour here and an hour there or two hours after dinner, that was fine. We found our rhythm.”

She also had to learn how to adapt to two kids who needed different learning environments. Hallie loved to articulate her thoughts out loud; Alex needed to be alone in silence.

“When you have more than one child, you’re used to specializing anyway,” Sharon said.

Patti said all it takes is time to find out what works and what doesn’t.

“Once you get past the third grade, you know what you’re doing,” she said. “The first few years, you spend tons of money on curriculum that you never use. You tend to do way more than you would really need to do but you don’t know. And you’d do so many hands-on activities and take them on so many field trips. Eventually you figure it out. It was not as hard as I made it to be.”

An advantage the Postons enjoy about teaching their kids in the home is the opportunity to present important life skills, balancing out daily challenges with those inside the classroom and in their own minds.

“They do dinner,” Patti said. “We assign them a dinner like on a Tuesday or they do laundry. That needs to be taught.”

“Especially the boys,” Jim jumped in. “You don’t want them going through life and they can’t do the laundry. … I think (Price) might just take it over because he thinks he can do it better.”

He chuckled but said as teachers and parents, it’s important to set the children free to learn.

“You have to let them loose,” he said. “It’s like you’d teach them how to swim: You’d throw them in the river and see if they can swim. If they drown, you’ve got to help them; otherwise, you see what they can do.”