Julie Niskanen Skolozynski
My name is Julie. Julie Skolozynski legally. Although I still use my maiden name, Niskanen, for my artwork. I am a busy homeschool mom of 6, a wife, an internationally recognized artist, and an art teacher. I have a bachelor of fine arts and a master’s degree in fine arts with an emphasis on printmaking. I have been teaching college art courses for 15 years, and for the past 6 years I have been running an art studio where I teach art classes. I have also taught k-12 art at a Christian school for a few years.
I am a unique artist… not fitting into the norm - I am a passionate homeschool mom, I’m tattooed and have been a vegetarian for almost 25 years. I am also active in my church. I don’t fit the conservative Christian stereotypes or the stereotypical artist. And top it all off, I have a burning passion for education and want to share it with the world.
Our children are ages 1- 16 years old. Long story…. But I homeschool 5 of the 6. One is in private school, and we hope this will change soon! Our oldest children spent the majority of their lives in a Christian school, and then several years in public school. God then provided a miracle for us to homeschool them. As soon as we started homeschooling, we noticed how many holes there were. These are smart kids too! And I can provide a testimony for how far the difference is between what you think they are learning versus the reality of it.
My story:
As a driven artist with a career focus, I never pictured having kids. It wasn’t for me. Long story short… and six children later… here we are. Funny how God works. Once I had children though, I knew that I wanted to be home with them. I have an amazing family and we are blessed.
Knowing how bad the school system is, and the road I went down when I was younger, I knew that I wanted to homeschool. I am the product of private school. I went to Catholic school all of my life. Was it a good education? I think it was superior to what the public school offers, but there were still holes in my education. The influences I was around day after day had a negative impact on my life as a young lady. Many people think that by sending their children to a private school, they will have more “moral” influences around their children. But I can attest to the fact that this is not so. And the details of my story can be found in my blog.
And because things don’t always go as you think they will… my oldest two children were 14 and 15 years old when I started homeschooling them. I had already been homeschooling my younger two when we added high school to our homeschool. It has been a challenging and also awesome journey so far!
Julie’s other websites:
Her personal artwork:
www.julieniskanen.com
Her art studio:
www.roosterscrowstudio.com
In our homeschool journey, we love to go on spontaneous adventures. It could be to a park for a hike or to play in a creek. Sometimes we are off to a city to goof around and explore. Or maybe we visit a museum or gallery. Taking the classroom outside of the home is one of the many exciting aspects of homeschooling.
