Practical STEM Education for Homeschool Families
Home School STEM exists to help homeschool students develop practical, real-world skills in technology, cybersecurity, electronics, computing, and related STEM fields.
Founded by longtime homeschool parents Hank and Sherry Osborne, Home School STEM combines professional technical experience, educational experience, and more than two decades of family homeschooling into courses designed specifically for homeschool students.
Our goal is not simply to teach students how technology works. We want students to understand it, build with it, troubleshoot it, secure it, and develop skills they can carry into college, careers, technical certifications, entrepreneurship, and everyday life.
Home School STEM operates as a homeschool educational program and cooperative learning community, providing supplemental instruction, courses, projects, and activities for homeschool students.
Our Family
Hank and Sherry Osborne are committed Christian parents who have raised and homeschooled six children, four sons and two daughters, in South Carolina.
Homeschooling has been a central part of our family’s life for many years. Like many homeschool families, our children have had very different personalities, abilities, interests, educational needs, and life experiences. Those differences have reinforced our belief that one of the greatest strengths of homeschooling is the ability to meet students where they are while helping them develop their individual gifts and abilities.
Our family is active in our church and community. Hank and Sherry have also served in national leadership with Growing Families International (GFI) and have taught Christian parenting classes for more than a decade.
Our experience as homeschool parents shapes the way Home School STEM courses are developed. We understand that homeschool families need instruction that is academically sound but also flexible, practical, understandable, and manageable within a busy family schedule.
Professional and Educational Experience
Hank Osborne
Hank holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science with honors and has completed graduate-level and professional education in technology and cybersecurity.
His professional certifications have included:
- GIAC Security Leadership Certification (GSLC)
- Global Industrial Cyber Security Professional (GICSP)
Hank has spent much of his professional career in information technology and cybersecurity, with experience across multiple industries, including education, manufacturing, oil and gas, defense, and enterprise software.
His career has included both highly technical hands-on responsibilities and senior cybersecurity leadership. He has developed and implemented cybersecurity policies, standards, technical controls, and security programs and has served as a cybersecurity subject-matter expert before subcommittees of both the United States House of Representatives and United States Senate.
Throughout his career, Hank has also taught subjects including:
- Cybersecurity
- Computer programming
- Computer hardware and operating systems
- Networking
- System administration
- Electronics and microcontrollers
- Internet and technology safety
His approach to STEM education emphasizes learning by doing. Students should not merely memorize terminology—they should have opportunities to configure systems, build circuits, write code, solve problems, and understand why technology behaves the way it does.
Sherry Osborne
Sherry holds a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education with honors, with additional emphasis in early childhood development. She has also completed additional certification and graduate-level coursework in education.
As the primary homeschool educator in the Osborne family, Sherry brings years of practical experience teaching children at different ages and ability levels.
She has also taught homeschool students using programs including Sequential Teaching of Explicit Phonics and Spelling (STEPS) and Cursive First through local homeschool cooperative settings.
Her educational background and extensive experience as a homeschool mother provide an important perspective in the development of Home School STEM—particularly the need to make technically challenging subjects understandable and approachable for students and parents.
Homeschool Experience
The Osborne family has been involved in homeschooling for many years, educating children with a wide range of academic strengths, interests, and learning needs.
Their children have pursued interests and achievements in areas including computer science, mathematics, cybersecurity, debate, aviation, music, athletics, and other technical and academic fields.
That experience has helped shape an important principle behind Home School STEM:
Students learn STEM best when they are given opportunities to actually do STEM.
A student can read about electricity, or the student can build a circuit.
A student can read about networking, or the student can configure a network.
A student can learn cybersecurity terminology, or the student can secure an operating system and understand why the changes matter.
A student can read about programming, or the student can write code that controls something in the physical world.
Home School STEM is built around that philosophy.
More Than Online Classes
Home School STEM is designed to provide homeschool students with opportunities that extend beyond traditional online instruction.
Depending on the course or program, students may participate in:
Hands-on projects and labs involving computers, electronics, microcontrollers, networking, cybersecurity, programming, and other technologies.
Real-world technical instruction based on the tools, concepts, troubleshooting methods, and security practices used by technology professionals.
Extracurricular activities with other students to compete in STEM related competitions.
Our objective is to help bridge the gap between academic knowledge and practical capability.
Supporting Homeschool Parents
Home School STEM was created by homeschool parents for homeschool families.
We recognize that many parents want their children exposed to advanced technical subjects but may not personally have experience with computer programming, networking, cybersecurity, electronics, or engineering.
Parents should not have to become cybersecurity professionals or electrical engineers before their children can explore those subjects.
Our role is to provide the technical instruction while allowing parents to remain actively involved in directing their child’s education.
Our Values
Home School STEM approaches education from a Christian worldview and seeks to operate with integrity, responsibility, respect, and high ethical standards.
This is particularly important in cybersecurity education.
Students learning about computers and cybersecurity gain knowledge that can be used constructively or destructively. Our courses emphasize defensive cybersecurity, ethical behavior, responsible technology use, and good digital citizenship.
Technical ability should be accompanied by character and sound judgment.
Our Mission
Our mission is simple:
Equip homeschool students with practical STEM knowledge, real-world technical skills, and the confidence to build, troubleshoot, create, and solve problems.
Whether a student ultimately becomes a software developer, cybersecurity professional, engineer, pilot, technician, entrepreneur, physician, tradesman, or pursues an entirely different field, we believe learning how to think critically and creatively to solve technical problems will serve that student for a lifetime.
About the Organization
Home School STEM is operated by HOEI LLC, a South Carolina limited liability company in good standing, doing business as Home School STEM.
Home School STEM provides online educational courses, cooperative learning opportunities, student activities, and supplemental STEM instruction for homeschool families.