Watching your child graduate high school at age 14 isn’t exactly common. But when Bawo and Bankole Bodunrin saw their youngest daughter Oforitsenere receive her diploma in Arlington, Texas, this spring, they might have felt a sense of deja vu.
That’s because, four years ago, their eldest daughter Fifehanmi did the exact same thing.
The siblings did score well on IQ tests, but their success isn’t just in their DNA, says Bankole, their father: It’s also a product of their household environment. “I don’t think children are either a genius or not a genius,” he tells CNBC Make It.
Moreover, the girls’ learning styles are quite different, Bankole and Bawo note — meaning the parents couldn’t just copy and paste a singular parenting approach.
Their secret, they say: Remember that education at home is just as, if not more, important than education in the classroom.
‘The library became our school’
Bawo and Bankole first noticed their daughters’ talents because of how quickly they both started reading.
Children typically start reading stories around age 6 or first grade, according to the U.S. Department of Education. The two girls were reading and comprehending books before they even entered pre-K.
“If you put a TV in front of a child, the child is going to learn all the Disney characters,” says Bankole. “It’s what you put in front of the child that the child becomes.”
This became a concern while enrolling each kid in pre-K: If the child already knew the year’s curriculum, they might be bored and get into trouble.
If you put a TV in front of a child, the child is going to learn all the Disney characters. It’s what you put in front of the child that the child becomes.
The Bodunrins’ solution: “The library became our school,” Bankole says.
Bawo took the sisters to the local library to participate in summer reading programs, where they’d earn prizes like Chipotle gift cards for reading books. It was part of a broader focus for the parents, who wanted to expose their children to as many potential hobbies and skills as possible — from museum visits to swimming and karate lessons.
The more the girls cruised through books, the more they fell in love with reading and the further they sped through their school’s curriculum. In turn, Bawo and Bankole searched for educational environments that could keep up, from home-schooling to private schools.
Both girls ultimately graduated from Martin High School, a public school in Arlington that leaned into the daughters’ accelerated track — accepting Oforitsenere as a 10-year-old 9th grader, for example, and working to incorporate her alongside her teenage peers.
‘Not a screen family’
The Bodunrins say they are “not a screen family.”
It’s a bold statement in the age of “iPad kids.” Children between the ages of eight and 12 in the U.S. spend an average of four to six hours a day watching or using screens, according to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
Screens are unavoidable in today’s world: The Bodunrins used them while home-schooling their children, they say. But they don’t have cable television, and neither daughter received a cell phone until they started high school, and it became necessary.
That helped minimize “the distractions that come with” devices, Bawo says — and strike a healthy balance between schoolwork and screen time.
“If you don’t want your children to drink Coca-Cola, don’t drink it,” Bankole adds. “It’s not that we’re like, ‘Don’t do this, don’t do this, don’t do this.’ It’s just, ‘This is who we are,’ and it became part of them.”
They choose their own path. I tell them, ‘You have to own it. It’s all yours. Whatever makes you happy is what you do.’
The lack of emphasis on screens is at least partially responsible for the kids’ voracious reading habits, he says: At church, his daughters would flock to the corner to read books, regardless of what the other children were doing.
“They sit and read because that’s what they know, that’s what they grew up doing,” Bankole says.
Today, Fifehanmi is studying at Longview, Texas-based LeTourneau University to become a pilot. Oforitsenere will begin pursuing an undergraduate degree in computer science and aviation at The University of Texas at Arlington in August.
Neither were pressured into those choices by their parents, says Bankole.
“They choose their own path. I tell them, ‘You have to own it. It’s all yours. Whatever makes you happy is what you do,'” he says.
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This story originally appeared on CNBC
