When the family moved to California, the land consisted of 40 acres of woods, with no house, electricity or running water. Everyone, including the young sons, helped to build the house, as well as smaller barns and sheds.

The family raises sheep, goats, chickens, pigs and other animals to sell to San Francisco restaurants. They also raise show animals.

"We were all learning new things together," Micki Colfax says. "It was a challenge we thought we could handle...If there was something in the day we felt we couldn't master, we would just turn around and try it the next day."

The sons "took an enormous amount of initiative on the ranch" from the beginning, working themselves to the point of physical and mental "exhaustion," Micki Colfax says. She says she still remembers Drew, at age 5, on the roof hammering nails. "He was so small but so anxious to help," she recalls.

As the Colfax family built their ranch from scratch, they evolved their own educational method to handle the boys' education.

Their mother says the children used few "formal" textbooks, but instead read novels and instruction manuals. Their favorite books include Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn, Architecture of the Arkansas Ozarks by Donald Harington, The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss, The Double Helix by James Watson and Homer's Iliad.

The family took a "very pragmatic approach" to learning math and science, she says. For instance, Reed and Drew learned about electrical wiring from reading manuals in order to install a phone and a 12-volt system for the family television.

The children taught themselves to a large extent, according to Reed. "After I was about 10," Reed says, "it was pretty much self-teaching. I would order textbooks with my parents, but in math, for example, I don't think either of my parents knew where I was after I was 13."

"Our schedules were very unstructured," Reed says. "Some days we did a lot of homework, some days we had none. It depended on the weather and what had to be done on the ranch." On the average, however, Reed says he and his brothers would study four or five days each week, during the summer as well.

"Maybe we would work three hours in one day," Reed says. "But we would get as much done as you would in an elementary or high school in eight hours. It took a lot of discipline," Reed says of his learning, "but it was easy since it was the only thing we knew to do."

But although the Colfax children spent most of their time working and studying on the ranch, they also participated in some community activities when they were younger. Reed was involved in 4-H, which he describes as "a sort of agricultural Boy Scouts," as well as an adult soccer league and cross-country track races.

Reed now says that those extracurricular activities offered him a chance to interact with others his age, since only a few other children in his area were also homeschooled, and most of them went to school by the age of 12 or 13.

Drew says, "I realized I was missing out on some things, but it didn't bother me that much. I also missed a lot of crap." Drew, who is considering becoming a teacher, says he felt prepared for college life and perhaps had an advantage over his peers who had gone to school.

"Others come to college as superstars from high school and suffer a big blow when they get here," he says.

The family never regretted homeschooling, Micki Colfax says. "I think my sons are creative and bright and highly motivated. I think they are highly motivated because they always saw immediate results and got a sense of accomplishment from everything they did."