Like Father, Like Son: Homeschool Your Boys With Sonny Puzikas

In today’s world, raising strong, capable, and independent young men requires a deliberate approach. Sonny Puzikas, a former Soviet special forces operative turned educator, is bringing a powerful session to Self-Reliance Festival 2025 on the why and how of homeschooling boys.

With a background that blends discipline, real-world experience, and a commitment to personal freedom, Sonny will share his perspective on breaking free from the modern education system and raising sons who are self-reliant, skilled, spiritually sound, and mentally tough.

What you’ll learn:

• Why homeschooling is a critical tool for raising strong young men
• Practical skills and mindset training to prepare boys for the real world
• How to foster discipline, critical thinking, and adaptability
• Creating an education plan that aligns with freedom, responsibility, and resilience

More about Sonny

I caught up with Sonny and asked him two off-the-wall questions:

If you could time travel to any point in history to train alongside a legendary warrior or strategist, who would it be and why?

To some answer could be surprising. But it would be so due to emotional and manipulative power of history as it was taught in modern days.

I would like to spend a few days at the table with Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler. At the same time. Legendary strategists, 2 people who have arguably shaped the history of the world more than just about anyone in the past 100 years.

I’d like to understand not just ideological nuances of these 2 and their worldviews, but how they used cold, raw logic, how they perceived and projected responses from the opposing sides.

Knowing the mental traits, the metrics of logic, psychological projections and how they viewed their enemies/opponents would be invaluable with these 2 “monsters”. 

If you had to survive an entire year with only three books for knowledge and entertainment, which ones would you choose?

Easy. Since I don’t do entertainment.
1. Scriptures (aka Bible)
2. Crime and Punishment. Fyodor Dostoyevsky
3. Empty huge folder of blank pages to write the third book, based on reading 1 and 2.

Sonny Puzikas has spent decades training individuals and groups in personal defense, situational awareness, and survival. He takes students through a multitude of training experiences through his training center, Forward Training Concepts and we recommend that you grab a copy of his book, Don’t Be A Shitty Student for best training results. His approach challenges conventional thinking and empowers people to take control of their own education and development. Connect with Sonny at SonnyPuzikas.com and on Facebook.

Catch Sonny at SRF!

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