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National Team Members Who Homeschool:
Shayla finished second all-around at the 2004 U.S . Championships in the junior division. Shayla said, "1 decided to homeschool because gymnastics of my schedule. 1 tried going to middle school for a little while, but it was tough coming in late and leaving early, and 1 had no time to make up the work 1 was always missing. Homeschool allows me to work at my own pace and work around whatever my schedule may be. I'm very happy with this option." ~
Jana finished third all-around at the 2004 U.S. Championships in the junior division. Jana said, "When I arrived in Florida from Germany 1 started at a private school in first grade and left after ~ fifth grade. My par- "" ents were not happy with the standard of schooling so they decided to homeschool my younger brother and I. We do 12 subjects and also the German curriculum. Teaching and learning one on one is fun. My school schedule is flexible and I can also use weekends and off season days to study.
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National Team Members Who Attend Public or Private School:
Carly Janiga, 16, finished ninth all-around at the 2004 Olympic Trials. She's a junior at Saguaro High School which is a public school. She said, "1 don't take as many classes as other students. You're supposed to take six and 1 take four so that 1 can get out at 12:00 and come right to gym. 1 get Charter School credit for doing dance and weight lifting plus 1 also have to take a correspondence course which gives me the credits I need. I train 30-35 hours per week. I home schooled last year when we were pushing for the Olympics but it just didn't work out for our family so I decided to go back to public school.
Junior National Champion Nastia Liukin, 15, goes to a private school in Texas called Spring Creek Academy and she's in the 10th grade. "This school really helps me with my gymnastics and the heavy travel schedule that I have," said Nastia. "My schedule is gymnastics from 8-12, then school from 12:30-3. After school 1 go home and do my homework until it's time for gymnastics from 5-8. After gym I finish all of my homework that I didn't have time to do in the afternoon."