Student Profile: Anne Berquist

1. What makes your family unique to other families you know?

My family is unique to other families I know in many ways. One thing is that not many other families we know have nine kids like we do. I am the second oldest. Another thing that makes us unique is that all nine of us homeschool in the same room!

My dad is a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army, and we have moved six times. He is currently deployed to Iraq.

My family is unique to other families I know in another way–every single one of us plays soccer; and we aren’t the average soccer players. To tell you the truth, the last time my six-year-old sister played, she scored more than twelve goals!

Anyway, we love each other so much, and have tons of fun together.

2. What is an average homeschooling day with Seton like for you?

My average homeschooling day with Seton starts at seven. I get up and do some math before breakfast. We eat breakfast together at eight. After breakfast I usually do some English before we go to Mass at nine. When we get home, I finish English, do Religion, History, and the rest of my subjects.

If I get stuck on one subject, I move to the next. Mom usually works with the younger kids in the morning, and helps the older kids in the afternoon.

At about noon, my sister and I make lunch for everyone. We all eat together, then the younger kids have quiet time, i.e. read books in bed. While it’s quiet in the house, the older kids can talk to Mom and get help for the things they were stuck on when she was busy.

We end our school day at three, and go outside to play. If we don’t finish our school by three, we either have to continue, or do it after dinner.

Next comes soccer practice, choir, piano lessons, Irish dance, ballet, ballroom dance, or Boy Scouts, depending on the day (and person). My sister and I usually help make dinner. After dinner, we get ready for bed, then pray together as a family. One of the older kids reads a storybook to the little kids before putting them in bed. I like to read a few chapters of a good book before I go to bed at nine.

3. What’s something you have done that you really enjoyed doing?

I love to sew. Last spring, my younger sister decided she wanted to sew a dress. She knew hardly anything about sewing, so I taught her. She picked out the pattern and some fabric and I taught her how to cut out the pieces.

I taught her how to use the sewing machine, and sew the pieces together. It was so much fun to instruct someone in something I love to do!

4. What are your hobbies and interests?

My hobbies are many. I love soccer, Irish dancing, ballroom dancing, hiking, swimming, biking, kayaking, canoeing, piano, violin, singing, sewing, knitting, tatting, reading, writing, drawing, baking, gardening, raising farm animals, and climbing trees.

5. What are some things you do as a family and on your own that you particularly enjoy?

I particularly enjoy when Dad is home (he loves to bake bread and listen to classical music). I especially love when I wake up on a Saturday morning to the smell of Dad’s fresh bread or cinnamon rolls baking in the oven, younger siblings laughing in the kitchen, and the sound of one of Vivaldi’s symphonies.

I love to lie there thinking: no school! soccer game! breakfast! thank you God for everything!

6. What do you hope to do in the future?

In the future, I hope to go to Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula, California. I also hope to become a high school math teacher and to have a little farm where I can grow crops, a big garden, have orchards, and raise farm animals, so I can have a teachable farm for local families to come and learn about the beauty and complexity of God’s creation.