'Wild boy' Leon loves Legos, math, cooking, rescuing animals, and swimming with whale sharks

There are two reasons why Katherine and Spencer Nelson home-educate their son Leon: travel and time.

The first is easy. The family has a passion for traveling and the learning that comes with it.

The second is personal.

“I have a couple of different genetic mutations that, long story short, my life expectancy is not very long,” said Katherine, 37. “My father passed away at 47 from these same complications, so, I want to make sure that we have as much time together as a family.

“If I do pass away at 47, I'm going to be glad that we had those hours together at home, learning together, and working together, and traveling together.”

A Florida education choice scholarship managed by Step Up For Students makes this possible for Leon, 9, who is in the fourth grade.

The scholarship provides an education savings account (ESA) that parents can use to tailor their child’s education to their interests and needs.

Leon uses his ESA for math and English tutoring.

As a condition of his scholarship, Leon must take an annual norm-referenced test and submit his scores to Florida State University's Learning Systems Institute, the independent evaluator of Florida’s Scholarship programs.

Katherine teaches history and electives such as art and music. Leon also belongs to a home-education co-op near their Eustis home. There, he is taking classes in science, world languages, the U.S. presidents, and drama.

He loves school. Loves learning. Math is his favorite subject, though he finds addition easier to understand than subtraction. He loves nature and animals. He feeds, cares for, and helps ferry injured critters to a local wildlife sanctuary.

“I’m what you would call a wild boy,” Leon said.

He loves building castles, houses, rockets, and rollercoasters with his Legos. He recently developed an interest in baking, specifically baking cake pops. Log on to his YouTube channel if you want to see how it’s done.

“I just liked being in the kitchen, helping my mom cook, preparing some meals,” Leon said.

Katherine calls the scholarship a “lifeline.” It makes their education choice affordable.

Spencer works for a defense contractor and is deployed twice a year for three months at a time. Katherine said she was able to balance Leon’s education schedule with her daily routine until he reached the second grade.

She and Spencer felt their son needed tutoring but knew they couldn’t afford it. They considered enrolling Leon in their district school.

“Right around second grade, I started to feel like it was just too much pressure, trying to do all the things that I do to keep our home afloat and homeschooling and all of that when my husband was gone,” Katherine said. “We were looking at options, but we just could not afford tutoring privately until we got approved for the scholarship.

“Having that tutoring has been such a blessing for our family because he's learning, he's growing, he's doing better. It also takes some of that weight off of me. I feel like I am a much better teacher. I don't feel like every lesson is a struggle for me anymore because we're working together as a team.

“This is a good, good fit for us.”

Part of Leon’s weekly routine are trips to a local fitness center with his mom.

Like her father, James, Katherine has the genetic disorders that cause Huntington’s disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Neither has a cure. James died from ALS when Katherine was 22.

Every two years, she travels to the University of Miami for a Pre-Symptomatic Familial ALS Study. The goal is to learn what those genetic mutations mean in terms of Katherine developing ALS.

“So, they don't really know as much with that one, but with Huntington's disease, it's 100% if you have the genetic mutation and you live into your 40s, 50s, you'll get symptoms,” she said.

Katherine goes to the gym as often as she can.

“Building strong muscles is really one of the best things I can do for trying to slow ALS, making sure I’m as strong as possible,” she said.

Over the last 10 months, Katherine has increased the amount of weight she can lift in both her upper, core, and lower body workouts. And for the last two years, she has simulated walking 110 floors on 9/11 to honor the first responders who lost their lives after the attacks at the World Trade Centers. She walks a flight of stairs at Leon’s home-education co-op.

That’s the “time” purpose of Leon’s education journey.

The “travel” is to create memories and learn about other cultures.

Spencer was deployed to the Philippines last spring. Using money saved because of the scholarship, Katherine and Leon joined him there.

Leon learned about explorer Ferdinand Magellan during history, so they visited the sites where Magellan and his ships landed during his voyage in the 1500s to circumnavigate the world.

They also snorkeled, and Leon was able to swim with a whale shark.

“They're not like your average shark,” Leon said. “They don't have big teeth, but they're big, peaceful animals, and they're blue with white spots. They are filter feeders, which means they don't swallow their food whole. They filter out the water through their gills, and the food is left right in the mouth.

“A lot of our trips, what we do is educational for my learning.”

Roger Mooney, manager, communications, can be reached at [email protected].