Curled up on the comfortable black leather sofa in her family’s living room, 12-year-old Reka Zsilinszka, in sweat pants and knit top, reads definitions of neutrons, protons, atoms and molecules in her science book.
The science lesson at her homeschool ‘‘classroom’’ in Briarwood began after a science experiment in the kitchen. Mother and daughter had followed instructions in a science workbook to find out if liquids with different densities would mix.
Reka Zsilinszka works on math word problems during her first hour of homeschooling. They poured layers of syrup, olive oil and colored alcohol into a parfait glass and observed that the layers of liquids didn’t mix.
Adriana Zsilinszka has been teaching daughter Reka science, grammar, vocabulary, history, geography and other subjects every morning for the past year to accommodate tennis-player Reka’s busy schedule.
Life for the family is less hectic, and they have more time to see each other, Adriana says. She and Reka spent a month in Slovakia visiting relatives during the holidays and took some of the schoolwork with them. Tennis tournaments in the summer cut into traditional summer vacations.
Academically, Reka is doing well, her parents say. She scored at the 12th grade level for the California Achievement Test-5 she took last year, says her father, Laszlo Zsilinszky (the family’s last name is spelled differently for males and females).
‘‘She is very responsible, and she wants to be smart,” Adriana says. Reka says she hopes to get a tennis scholarship to an Ivy League school for college.
She gets up at 7 o’clock, in time to get her math assignments and talk about them with her dad before he leaves to teach math at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. Her math book is one that Singapore uses for its curriculum. Students in that country do well in math, Laszlo says.
After breakfast, she does more schoolwork from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. She practices her piano from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m., and then has a break before her group and individual tennis lessons with Robbie Felton and several hours of practice at the tennis center at Mazarick Park.
She got into the junior tennis tournament circuit less than two years ago and has been winning tournaments on the local, state and regional level consistently.
‘‘Her work ethic is beyond anything I am used to with kids I work with,” Felton says. ‘‘She works extremely hard. Teaching her is really fun; she catches on pretty easily.’’
Reka captured the singles crown at the USTA’s National Open 12s tournament Nov. 22-26 in Augusta, Ga., and teamed with Lauren Clifton of Woodstock, Ga., to win the doubles as well.
Reka has a piano lesson on Thursdays, either at her home or at Pembroke with teacher Michelle Locklear. Reka likes to sing and appeared in a musical production with Locklear and others at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke in the fall.
Every weekday and some Saturdays, Reka practices her piano lessons for an hour. She helps take care of her dog, Pixie, and gets to play with friends some on weekends when she is not competing in a tennis tournament.
Traveling to the tournaments, paying for lessons, racquets, shoes and entry fees is costly for the one-income family. For the tournament in Augusta, the family stayed with friends in Columbia, S.C., more than an hour away.
‘‘We are looking at it as an investment into her future,” Adriana says. ‘‘But we don’t want to put a lot of pressure on her. We want to continue doing this as long as she enjoys it.’’
Reka sees many of the same girls at tournaments and has made friends with some of them. One tennis friend from Pinehurst is homeschooled, and they try to get together occasionally.
She says she doesn’t miss school and says she’s not into ‘‘wearing the right kind of clothes’’ or talking about boyfriends and girlfriends the way some of the other girls her age do. One of her best friends is a boy, who used to be her neighbor. She visited him to play in the snow recently -- after her lessons were over.
‘‘I didn’t get a snow day,” she says.
She would like to have more time for reading, and complains vehemently about her 9 p.m. bedtime. She likes to read fantasies -- but not ‘‘Harry Potter’ -- and historical biographies. She likes going to the library and is always looking for books by favorite authors.
She does have time for a little television.
‘‘I like to watch ‘Friends’ and ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’,’’ she says.
Adriana says she enjoys having more time to spend with Reka. She majored in economics in college and says she never planned to be a teacher.
‘‘I don’t really teach Reka,” she says. ‘‘She does a lot on her own. I just make sure she gets through everything she is supposed to.’’ Once a week she spends an hour teaching her to cook, do laundry and other household chores.
Reka and her mother, Adriana Zsilinszka, review Reka's science lesson in the living room.
Most times, she speaks in her native Slovakian so that Reka will keep in practice with it. Once a week Reka reads books in Slovakian and Hungarian for at least an hour.
The family lived in Slovakia until Reka was 6 and goes back every couple of years to visit relatives.
Laszlo talks to Reka in Hungarian sometimes so she can communicate with her Hungarian-speaking relatives in Slovakia.
Life is better this year than when Reka was in middle school, Adriana says. She doesn’t know how long the homeschooling will continue or if Reka will want to play tennis for a high school team.
‘‘When she was at Max Abbot last year, she wouldn’t get home until almost four. Then she would have to go to tennis for a couple of hours or more, come home, eat supper, practice piano, do her homework and go to bed.’’
‘‘We do this because we didn’t have time for anything,” Reka says. ‘‘I was always doing something and was always tired.’’
‘‘It was not an automatic decision,” Laszlo says.
‘‘We spent several months making the decision. The biggest problem was what books to use. He did searches on the Internet and talked to others for recommendations for books.
‘‘For the time being, it is going pretty good,” he says. ‘‘We love it now, but it heavily relies on Reka’s ability to do things on her own. It works for us, but it is not for everybody.’’
‘‘I have more time to do stuff I like to do,” Reka says. ‘‘Like reading and drawing and playing with my dog. I learn a lot more at home, and I really like it. It is fun. I get to be with my parents more, especially my mom. And I learn a lot of stuff I wouldn’t learn at school.’’
Staff writer Alice Thrasher can be reached at 486-3569 or