Home Schooling

Some parents have opted to keep their children out of the school system, and are looking to give them an education at home. Most parents feel it eliminates distractions and the children learn more. They may also feel that the school system is no longer trying to facilitate the education they want their children to have. Quite a few people learn quickly that this is not an easy thing to do. They learn that they need more help. Luckily there are programs available to help home school families successfully teach their children.

The programs available to help home school parents are online book stores, online schools, community home school programs and private parent groups. Each of these groups help you find resources to school your children efficiently. The world today has converged thanks to the modern technology. Now it is not an issue for any one to find the right resources to come up with the solutions to such problems. Keeping this, in view it is important that you try to find the right kind of the home schooling program for your children. The right program can be a real treat for him or her. It is your responsibility to find the best one for your children. Not all home schooling programs are good so find the right ones for them.

Home school online bookstores are places where text books, curriculum and lesson plans are bought; they take the guess work out of what your child should be taught. They give you many choices on what programs you can order for your child. This is quite easy because all you have to do is follow the guidelines in the lesson plan, and your home school will be a success.

Home schooling online offer online home school environments that have qualified teachers to give your children a great education through the computer at your home. Your children take the same classes most school children would take in regular school for a nominal fee. The schools go all the way from kindergarten to college on up to a doctorate in college. It helps busy parents give their children good quality home schooling.

There are community home school programs where the parents with children in home school networks and plan social engagements for their children, so that they can learn the social skills they would have obtained in schools.

Private parent groups are groups that plan activities for learning such as field trips to museums, parks and science and history themed places. To insure social interaction and for more education, these parents plan awesome trips and even gym group memberships so that the children can attend exercise classes.

Home school teachers may teach fewer students than public school teachers, but they face challenges in other ways. They must have a good command of most subjects and keep their classroom lively and rich. Educational software can help with this task by providing learning interaction, competition and even instruction in subjects that are more difficult to teach at home, like high school biology dissection.

The beauty of home school software and most types of educational software is that the programs are designed for students to use independently of each other. This means that you do not have to have a large group of students to use the program. Your competitive youngster can race against a computerized opponent or even his own best score using home school software games and activities.

Another benefit of home school software is that, unlike a workbook, it is not a consumable product. One advantage of software is that it can be used by subsequent students when they reach the appropriate age. This will permit you to stretch your home school supply budget.

Not all home school programs are in a game format and you will find many that provide more structured learning. For example, if you would rather not go through the mess of dissection in your home, consider purchasing a simulation program that allows the student to see real graphics of a dissection being performed. You can even couple this program with a few dissections of your own that are a little less messy. As students advance in grades, science software can be used to perform virtual labs or to supplement home school labs.

Home school software is a great way to reinforce concepts you are teaching your students. A typing program is a valuable tool to use to provide practice with typing exercises. You will find many math software programs available that help kids reinforce math skills in fun, challenging ways.

When your older students are ready to prepare for the ACT or another college entrance exam, consider purchasing test prep software. This will give your students the edge that other students may not have. It will also save you the expense of enrolling your child in an expensive SAT/ACT prep course. College entrance prep software provides practice questions, practice exams and answer explanations. It is highly individualized to the user's weaknesses and areas needing improvement. Rather than being constrained by a class schedule, your student can prepare for the exam on his or her own schedule.

One of the benefits of homeschooling is the chance you have to explore the subjects your children are the most interested in, while at the same time ensuring that the basic core concepts in all subjects are covered. For instance, if your children love to learn about the solar system, you can take the time to explore this subject to its fullest. Since software titles exist for many unique topics, home school software can be used to indulge the special learning interests of individual students. Computer programs are a fun, engaging way for children to explore their interests, and when your kids are interacting with the computer, you are freed to work on other areas of your home school, such as checking papers or working with your other children. Realizing the benefits that home school software can provide you and your student, you will want to include the purchase of home school software games in your budget!

Home schooling can be a great option for parents who want to personally see their children learn and develop their skills and talents and who want to personally make sure that their children get the best academic learning and avoid some of the public school's poor environments. In fact, some parents may also opt for high school home school as well to prepare their kids for a better college education.

If you are a parent trying to put your kids in high school home school, find out how homeschooling can be an advantage and find out the risks and preparations needed as well.

Advantages of High School Home School

Of course, before even making a decision, take time to ponder on the advantages and disadvantages of putting your kids in home school even in high school.

- Homeschooling allows you to give time as well on what you want to learn and what you want to do. Although you may have the same subjects with those kids or teenagers in schools, being homeschooled allows you to have time for your passion and your interest more.

- Homeschooling also allows you to work at your own pace and you won't be bothered with getting behind with your classmates. Of course, this will still matter but for as long as you have completed your subjects and you have completed what is required, that would not be a problem.

- High school home school also allows teenagers to become self-reliant and independent as well.

- Homeschooling also allows you to spend time with your family as well. Of course, it will also allow you to choose your friends and lower your chances of getting badly influenced by some classmates in school.

However, there are also disadvantages of high school home school.

- Aside from the fact that you don't get to see your friends every day, it will also take away some of your motivation in learning as there is no one to compete to. Of course, there is a higher tendency that you won't be too motivated to do more.

Although you can still socialize with friends and you can be who you want to be if you are homeschooling, socialization can be a little different. Of course, you can choose your friends but greater chances is that, you may not be able to go together in class or you may not share common things such as happenings inside the classroom or school.

Of course, among the biggest things that you can get from high school home school is the fact that it can help you a lot in getting into a university and improves your chances of being able to develop your talents and skills as well.

With the peer pressure in high school, home schooling can be the best alternative to get your kid away from negative influences as well.

When it comes to the incredibly number of notable benefits of home schooling, parents and guardians are only limited by their own imagination, motivation, and creativity. The benefits of home schooling span far more than the typical educational standards children are usually held to in a traditional school environment.

Learning knows no boundaries and with home schooling, it doesn't have to stop when the bell rings at the end of the day. Children who are home schooled score as well as or better in most cases than those attending school, and they are often extremely independent as they are not restricted or burdened by the usual confines and distractions of the classroom.

Socialization, and having enough of it during our formative years, is one of the most talked about issues when it comes to home schooling, usually by those who are against the concept. However, as proponents of home schooling already know, the opportunity to socialize can be far greater without the restrictions of the traditional classroom.

Home schooled children also have the chance to be active and far more involved in their communities. Field trips to places like police stations, fire stations, nursing homes, community centers, museums, zoos, and parks are all possible without the hassle of permission slips and weeks of planning.

And, when children are home schooled they are given the chance to socialize with the friends and people that suit them best and can then relax and really be themselves, something that's often difficult for adolescents to do.

All of the usual school activities can easily be replicated if you wish, or, as many parents do, you always have the option of taking a non-conventional approach and setting your own schedules, curriculum, and style or method of learning.

We know that all children learn at a different pace and what might be the perfect approach for one child can be completely wrong for another. Teaching and testing methods can all be modified according to a child's individual strengths and weaknesses by exploring the wide variety of styles home school parents rely on.

For instance, if your young child is ready for geometry, by all means take the next step and allow them to fully explore their likes and dislikes while learning as much as they can. Or, perhaps your child has no interest in mathematics but instead prefers language and the visual arts. When children aren't allowed to pursue what's most important or interesting to them, boredom inevitably sets in, which, of course, hinders learning.

Also, if you are planning higher education for your children, make sure you take the time to look into the requirements at the local colleges or universities so you can plan their curriculum accordingly giving them a distinctive edge over their future classmates.

We all want the very best for our children whose young minds are like sponges, ready to absorb any and all information. Providing them with a solid education is a wonderful way of preparing them for a happy, productive life out there in the big world.

From increased free time, to a customized education, high school home-school students experience many benefits when earning their diploma at home.

Unlike their institutionalized peers, home-school students enjoy increased flexibility without rigid time constraints.

Once students finish their schoolwork, they enjoy a greater amount of unrestricted time to pursue interests, develop hobbies, or earn money.

When schooling at home, high school home-school students can also take advantage of many opportunities to advance their education and get ahead in life.

Students can use their increased time to accelerate their education and begin earning their college degree.

Earn College Credit While Still in High School.

Earning college credit while still in high school allows you to maximize your time and complete your education quicker. Take one course and at the same time, earn credit for your high school diploma and college degree.

Conveniently take college courses online, at your local college or through credit by examination.

Although not all credits can be earned this way, in today's economy, credit by examination provides a welcome relief for parents and students pursuing a college education.

Why use credit by examination for YOUR family?

Saves Money.

Credit by examination offers home-school students, an opportunity to earn college credit affordably, saving you 50-80% on college costs.

In some cases up to one third of your college degree can be earned through examination. Think of the money you will save!

Provides Flexibility.

Earning credit by examination is easy and flexible.

You study at your own pace, in your own comfortable space. You have the freedom to study whenever you want, however you want... whatever is best for you.

Saves Time.

Students enjoy increased personal or study time since zero time is wasted sitting in a classroom, or traveling to and from campus.

Complete courses designed for college exams to maximize your time, eliminate any wasted money and achieve success.

By using accredited and guaranteed credit by examination materials, your child studies at home, goes to the testing center just once to test out of the class and... receives credit for "going to class".

It's like skipping school, but still passing with full attendance!

Your family saves time and money, while your high school home-school student accelerates their education and jump-starts their college degree. How cool is that?

Minimize college costs, graduate quicker, and start earning money sooner, with credit by examination!

More and more parents are looking for an alternative form of public education. Many are taking part in an upswinging trend called homeschooling. From the homeschoolers point of view, there are many advantages. Some include one on one instruction tailored to the individual student's needs, more efficient use of instruction time, a safer environment under parental control and, in many cases, religious instruction.

However, there are obstacles standing in the way of successful home schoolers. This ranges from a lack of social contact with peers to lack of expertise in curriculum to actually being able to get into and compete at the college level.

Five basic methods have been recognized for students to receive adequate home school instruction.

1. Unschooling or natural learning has its main focus on allowing the student to determine studies based on their individual interests. Textbooks may or may not be used depending on sources needed.

2. Unit Studies ties a topic together by using different parts of the curriculum to express points of view. A topic may be studied from a science, English, math, history, art, etc. view points.

3. Charlotte Mason educated her students with little to no homework, short, ungraded lessons, free afternoons, discipline, and ideas or culture. Testing was done by the student telling the teacher what they had done or read.

4. The Principle Approach is a philosophy that promotes the belief that all truth is ultimately God's truth. Students are taught to research, reason, relate and record their work on a subject, basically from a Biblical point of view.

5. The Classical Method teaches students to be thinkers. It basically breaks down into teaching three or four different levels of thinking during the student learning years at increasing levels of difficulty.

Home schooling is legal in all 50 states in the USA and most of Europe but laws widely vary. With the use of the Internet, there is no limit to what the home teacher and students can learn and study. Flexible, self paced material is a major drawing point to any home schooling setup.

Options for educational choice provides parents with alternate educational opportunities for their student. One option open to parents is Competent Private Instruction (CPI - the formal instruction to children of compulsory attendance age outside the traditional school setting). Each state has its own rules and laws as to Competent Private Instruction.

There are some areas which cause some concern to the home schooling teacher.

One is math. Most home school teachers do not have the expertise to help their students over the trouble spots, especially in the upper level or college preparatory mathematics. Video tapes and other resource books are helpful, but it still comes down to being able to show the student how to get through the process.

Increased reading speed and comprehension is another area that is a major hurdle. There is plenty of computer software available to help the slow reader overcome some of their problems.

A third area of concern is making sure that the home schooler is prepared adequately for college. Are there any differences in enrolling a home schooler compared to a high school graduate? Does each college have its own set of criteria to admit a home schooled applicant? How does one prepare for an ACT test?

Home schooling can be a very rewarding process, but it is important to set up procedures to meet expected goals. Those aspiring to give their children a home school education must look at the big picture and adjust their teaching methods accordingly.

Here's the good news... home schooling your child is legal in all 50 states.

Here's the catch... most states and most municipalities have home schooling requirements that you must follow in order for your child to receive an education at home. In most instances, these requirements are not prohibitive, however. They are designed to provide your child with the best possible education and the proper preparation if he or she eventually decides to attend college.

Every state has its own home schooling requirements, but here are some of the most common:

1. Give Notice

In most states, you must notify either or both the District School System and the State Education Department of your intent to home school your child. Notification must be in advance, anywhere from 14 to 30 days. The notice must include your child's name, age, residence, and the hours your child will be attending classes.

2. Maintain Records

You must keep records of your child's home school experience. These can include attendance, test results, daily documentation of the subject matter, sample materials, and in some cases even immunization records. It's best to keep these records organized and in chronological order. Rarely will you be required to supply lesson plans in advance.

3. Teacher Qualifications

Generally, there are no teacher qualifications. If you bring in a tutor for your child, the tutor will generally be required to be certified.

4. Testing

For most states home school requirements include taking a national standardized achievement test. As long as your home schooled child scores above a certain percentage on the test (for example, the 30th percentile), your child can continue to be home schooled. If he or she falls below this percentage, the local school district may require your child to attend a public school until the next testing period.

5. Evaluation

Most states also require that a home schooled child receive an annual evaluation of his or her academic progress. The evaluation must usually be conducted by a qualified person, such as a certified teacher or someone with a graduate degree in education and submitted to the local school district's office.

6. Notification of Termination

And just as it was necessary to notify the state authorities of your intent to home school, it's necessary to notify them if you decide to no longer educate your child at home.

Remember, your state may differ from these. So it's essential that you contact your local and state education offices for the home schooling requirements where you live.

If you are a home school educator or you are home schooling parent, you may be needing some information on how to create a home school transcript for the children. Indeed, you can make a professional home school transcript on your own.

You can actually find a lot of resources these days when it comes to creating a home school transcript and if you need some tips on how to create one, here are a few tips you may find useful in creating a professional transcript.

- Don't forget the basic information. One of the first things that your transcript should contain is your student's information. Of course, it should have the student's complete name. It should follow the format of having the last name first before the first name. It should also include the date of birth, the social security number, the full address as well as the gender and the phone number.

Of course, the transcript should include the academic record of the student. You have to specify also the date of graduation, the attendance for each school year, the total graduation credits as well as the grade point average or the GPA for the academic year attended.

You will also need to include the student's academic history, which is a list of the student's courses they took for their diploma in high school. You can organize them by listing them by year, from freshman to sophomore up to senior level.

You may need to put other information about the student as well. This may include extra-curricular activities and other abilities and achievements that the student have aside from the academics. You can allot a portion of the transcript to reflect the other abilities that the student has.

It is also important to include in your transcript the previous schools that the student has attended if there are any and you will also have to include the standardized test scores in high school.

It is also important to include in the transcript the grading scales that you use in grading the student. As there are a number of grading scales used in different schools, you can choose from the most common ones. You can use the numeric ones instead of using letters. Make sure that every entry is correct, as this is the most important part of your home school transcript.

At the bottom of the transcript, you will need to add the names and signature of the home learning officials. That would be you and anybody else who helps you in home learning the children.

You have to pay attention as well to the typing of your home transcript. Make sure everything is neat and orderly, and make sure that there are no typographical and spelling errors and make sure that the document is complete and at the same time, presentable as well. It helps a lot to check out some samples and see how they are organized.

Home schooling is not something fixed that has not changed over the years. It has changed and evolved because people try to make it fit their needs. That is why there has been several home schooling methods that have been created.

Each method is appropriate for a certain situation and perfect for a certain setting. If you are thinking of trying home schooling for your kids then you should know more about the different methods that are currently available. You need to know that you can tell which one would be perfect for you.

School at Home Method- This method is the easiest to understand and frequently portrayed system. The parents purchase a curriculum which includes textbooks and grading systems and they follow a schedule that they teach at home. By far it is the most expensive and could cause burn out on children and parents both.

Unit Studies- This system is based on the belief that children could learn more when they are interested in the topic being discussed. In this system, lessons are formed around something that interests children. Like if they are interested about the Roman Empire, lessons in Math and English could be made out of that.

Eclectic Home Schooling- This is probably the most often used method of home schooling today. What it does is it takes a little bit from the other methods and uses that in order to teach the child. This method lets parents and children pick the books and trips that they think are relevant and important and use that.

Unschooling- This method is also known as child led schooling. In the unschooling system a child is simply allowed to pursue his interests and from there he is allowed to learn what he can. In this method a child experiences the same learning experience of adults.

Classical Home-schooling- This method of teaching and learning began in the Middle Ages and was used to teach some of the greatest minds in history. It uses the five tools for learning which are known as the Trivium. These tools are reason, record, research, relate and rhetoric.

Charlotte Mason Method- This method was developed in the belief that children could learn best from situations in real life and that they deserve to be treated with respect just like adults. Under this method children are allowed to take walks, make visits to museums. They show what they have learned not by tests but by discussing it.

The Waldorf Method- This method is also used in traditional educational systems. Under this method the aim is to educate the whole child and that includes his body and spirit. So a program that includes physical training and are allowed to develop self-awareness.

These are just a few of these methods that you can try out for your child today. You can learn to pick one which would be a good match for what you need. You should try to learn more from each.

There are a variety of preferred approaches on how to devise a practical home schooling program for a student. They can range from no structure at all, to those highly structured courses. Over the last few decades, the various forms of home education have come to adopt some basic names. Here are just three of the possible options.

Unit Studies is the basic concept of applying the child's natural interests as an opening point. One of the more apparent observations that can be noticed about an adult is the tendency to demonstrate an interest in some actions and dislike or boredom of others. This trend begins very early in life.

Some individuals will prefer science, others enjoy drawing or mathematics. One child may prefer to be outside exploring nature. These values will start at a young age, often at about two years of age. By adopting these benefits, instead of fighting against, those preferences are applied to design a practical home schooling education which is the key idea of Unit Studies.

School at Home is the often the name for the approach that many parents will attempt initially. Not experiencing what else to do, they will depend on experts to plan the curricula and provide access to the necessary materials. In theory, it simply transfers what's done in a public school environment into the home. This approach will come complete with textbooks, record keeping and study schedules.

The Classical Home schooling is in a way similar to School at Home, very organised but the material and approach are far superior. The reason is that it's founded on a superior foundation. This Classical method aims to emulate the individual teachings offered throughout the Middle Ages in monasteries. All the same, it can be achieved entirely without any religious overtones, and it concentrates on developing the mind.

Most parents can stumble at the start. They will need to learn and seek out the methods that best serves them and their children. But many will soon discover an approach that can best suits the personality of their child to deliver a practical home schooling program that works.

Home schooling used to have a bad image. When we think of home schooling, we often picture with fundamental right wingers, antisocial weirdos, or people too scared to let their children attend public school. This image has been improving over the last several years. New curricula for home schooling has come out, each provides a clearer path for learning. There have been many success stories of students that have come from home schooling environments.

On the other side of the fence, the quality of public schooling (in America at least) has been on a dramatic decline the last several years. Standardized test scores are down, gang violence is up, and that's not even considering the school shootings. This all contributes to an increasing lack of confidence in the public education system.

Many parents are finding they can better teach their children at home. Using personalized home schooling curriculum, parents are able to give their children a better education right in their own home. Many of the children who are schooled at home are getting excellent scores on standardized tests, with many achieving perfect scores. The quality of education is only one reason many parents are going towards homeschooling.

Parents have also found that home schooling is a cheaper alternative to expensive private schools. There is a student teacher ratio they can't be beat in public or private school. Overall, many parents say they like them relaxed learning atmosphere, and the ability to better control their students workload. There is also generally less peer pressure, and parents can keep an eye on their children better than if they were off at school.

Much of the improvement in the image of homeschooling can be attributed to the Internet. Online homeschooling options provide more than learning or teaching aids for home schooling families. Internet-based curriculum helps parents improve the general state of the education they are providing, as it can help the parents in areas where they may be weaker as teachers.

The Internet also helps overcome one of the main drawbacks to home schooling, and that is the lack of socialization. Many online home schooling programs offer group meetings or seminars where home school students can meet and work together on projects.

If it's so great, why don't more parents home school their children? There are a number of reasons. Many parents just don't have time to teach their children, and some don't feel qualified. Many families need both parents as breadwinners just to make ends meet.

While home schooling is shedding its iconoclastic image, whether or not to home school your children is a family decision. You will still need to hire teachers in such areas as driver education to be in compliance with state law, but most parents who are fairly intelligent and literate can use the helps found on the Internet, in books, or in home schooling support groups to provide an excellent education for their children.

The benefits of home schooling are today well known. Among the foremost of them is being able to allow your children to learn not just at their own pace, but also focus on the subjects that will help them met their life goals. The classical home school is one such option. The classical home school is a secular method of instruction and should not be confused with the Classical Christian home school which a religious based system of teaching.

What we call the "classical" education began in Europe in the Middle Ages and produced some to the greatest minds in history. Classical education is dedicated to the idea that the aim of education is to provide children the tools they need to learn for themselves. This system is divided up into five tools of learning, called the Trivium, which are reason, record, research, relate and rhetoric. These tools are used in four specific stages in the education of a child. Children begin at the preparatory stage where they learn reading, writing and basic maths. The next stage is the grammar stage where composition and the basics of conveying ideas, along with more advances maths and other subjects like science, history and geography are taught. The third stage is the dialectic stage where all these subjects are studied in more detail and students are encouraged to question ideas and concepts. The fourth and final stage of the classical education is the rhetoric stage where the main focus in on communications and children are encouraged to express their understandings, beliefs and doubts.

This process can be easily and effectively incorporated into home education, making it a classical home school. The classical home school follows the same pattern with the idea not of teaching children everything they need to know but of creating an enquiring intellect that understand the value of knowledge and how to acquire it. This is an attitude of mind that stays with the adult, long after the memories of school have faded.

The classical home education is meant for parents who are willing to step outside the ordinary and look at educating their children in terms of their ability to use a systematic thought process to understand issues and a creative approach to resolve them, rather than focusing on grades and marks.

The question often asked of the classical home school system is what is the need for children to study ancient languages like Latin and Greek or other such subject that are seemingly irrelevant in the modern world. The answer is that they do not need to, unless their bent of mind takes them that way. Classical home schooling is not bound by the subjects of the past. It is the concepts of learning and the ability to think independently that define a classical education.

For whom is the classical home school best suited? It is for those parents who want their children to have a wide perspective of the world they live in and understand that what is around them today is not the result of a few hundred years of progress and invention but is just a stage in the development of mankind. This kind of understanding will give children educated in a classical home school a sense of their place in the complex modern world and with this understanding, be able maximize their own potential.

Classical home schooling is not the best option for everyone. It does not guarantee success in life. But for parents who want to encourage individuality and the creative process in their children, it is one worth considering.

With so many home schools teaching programs and options now becoming available for parents who want to educate their children at home, the problem is no longer where to find the programs you need, but rather which one to use. The Waldorf system, used in both regular schools and for home schooling is one that is becoming increasingly popular. The Waldorf Home School system in unconventional in its approach to education and while it has been proven to produce intelligent, articulate and well rounded children, its unconventional nature makes many parents hesitate about using it.

Developed by Rudolph Steiner in the early 20th century, the concept behind a Waldorf home school is what he called "developmentally appropriate education." That is, it the way knowledge is imparted changes as a child develops. For this reason the Waldorf Home school system is divided into three distinct approaches to learning. In the early years children learn best through movement and imitation so the Waldorf home school system provides a program of imaginative play activities, rhythm based activities and music rather than teaching of common core subjects like maths and reading. The theory is that stimulating the mind at an early age prepares it to better absorb knowledge in later years, so that the standard subjects, although begun later that in in other systems, are understood both faster and in more detail. The Waldorf home school program is based on the concept that creativity encouraged in the early years will remain throughout life.

In the middle years, from 7 to 14, more conventional subjects ate taken up, but still with the imaginative approach. History is taught not just a dry facts and dates, but as adventures that happened to real people. Writing is taught by first teaching children to copy letters and than working with them to put the letters into sequences that become words. The logical process of creating a written text is emphasized. Reading come after writing and it is the child's own writing work that serves as the first reading exercises.

After the age of 14, children have developed a sufficient intellectual capacity for them to pursue high levels of learning and it is from this age that the Waldorf home school aims at achieving higher levels of academic performance based on the child's highly developed intellectual and creative abilities. The Waldorf home school system believes in children's abilities to explore subject themselves (with, of course, adult guidance). While there can be a focus on special subject such as physics, maths, history etc., other subjects are not ignored as only a well rounded individual can excel in specialized fields.

The basics of the Waldorf home school system are:

· Learning first by doing and then theoretical understanding is introduced

· While some subjects may be given a greater focus, no subjects should be ignored as they all form part of a holistic knowledge base.

· Life values of truth, loyalty, goodness and beauty and so on are imparted not by just telling children about them, but by placing the children in an environment where they form a part of their daily lives.

· Children are discouraged from watching TV, playing video games and using computers (although computers may be allowed for older children) as they do not encourage the child to think and therefore inhibits his or her intellectual growth.

Home schooling has been around in its present form for nearly 40 years, is gaining in popularity and is legal in all 50 states. But is it still mired in controversy. Sadly, the home school controversy stems from both ignorance and the self interest of some groups. Talk to parents who are homeschooling their children and you will hear stories of sarcasm, scrutiny, criticism and even that it carries a social stigma for both the parents and the children. The school system and Parent Teacher Associations who feel that home schooling reflects badly on them, are active in their criticism.

Unfortunately, it is not only schools and PTAs that pass judgment of home schooling. Family, friends and neighbors all chip in with their opinions and since in most cases home schooling is something they have never experienced and have no knowledge of, the advice parents get is nearly always negative. People have become conditioned to associate a school - the buildings, classrooms, labs and gyms - with education. They feel that without the formal physical structure, there can be no educations. They are unable to comprehend that education is a process of transfer and acquiring knowledge and the physical structures only support the process and do not control it. They feel home schooled children are being deprived of what should rightfully be given to them. In extreme cases the children are even discriminated against in matter of play and social activities.

Another area of home school controversy is the fact that home school means one parent give up a job and the income from it to stay at home and teach. The argument here goes that the additional income would improve the family's standard of living and would allow the children to go to a "good" school and get a "proper" education.

One area of genuine concern that many people have is that home schooled children are cut off from their peers and will grow up lacking the social skills needed to survive in our modern world or even just to be able to go to college. This is true but to a large extent could be over come by an understanding of what home school is, why the parents have made this choice and support in terms of encouraging social interaction between children going to regular school and home schoolers.

Yet another cause of the home school controversy is the question of extracurricular activities - dramatics, sports, academic competitions and so on. This is one area where the concern is based on, at least to some extent, reality. While some state laws say a home schooled child should be allowed to participate in all activities of the local school board, other states require a child to attend a regular school to be eligible to participate. Whatever the law, the fact remains that a home schooler will not be able to be a member of a school sports team, act in plays and the many other things that a regular school provides. A home schooler also has less opportunity for the normal school high jinks that are very much apart of growing up. Support groups can help to overcome this problem to some extent.

In the end it is for the parents to weigh the pro and cons of home schooling and make their own decision. Home schooling is not a perfect solution, but if society would stop finding reasons against home schooling and instead find way to support families who have opted for home schooling, no one would lose.

Home schooling would have been the farthest thing from my mind 3-4 years ago. Now we are in our second full year of it. It's got its pros and cons but it is definitely easier than my wife and I had expected.

Five years ago we were working too many hours and it was catching up with us. We had very little time for our daughters or for each other for that matter. I was a mortgage broker full-time and we were fixing up a lot of houses on the side. We were responsible for a number of trades and sub-trades who were working for us and on top of that we had 3 foster children in our home who needed to go to visitations 3 times a week. My good wife was supposed to be a full-time mom and home maker but too often she was doing my paperwork and painting at different properties. I'm surprised that she stood by me through those crazy years.

We decided years before that at some point we wanted to leave Canada for a year and focus on our family. So the day came when we said, " that's enough, let's go". We packed our stuff into the back of a truck and put our little girls into the back seat and hit the road for the unknown. Our daughters were 5 and 8 years of age. I can only assume that my parents and family and my in-laws were biting their tongues. We were driving to an area where we had never been and knew nobody. I could speak no Spanish and I'm terrible with directions. To top it off, there was news of kidnappings and shootings in Mexico. We made it through to Belize though and it all worked out. We found a little village on a hill and rented a house. We enrolled our daughters into the local school. It was a private school and the language was English.

The girls made friends very quickly as did we. In a country such as Belize, people seem to be drawn to new people. That was wonderful for us. We might not have stayed long if we hadn't made friends right away. As it was we stayed for 2 school seasons.

When school started, we were amazed at the homework the girls were bringing home. We thought that we might have to do extra work with the girls so that they would not be behind when we returned to Canada. We were wrong. The school the girls attended in Belize was far more advanced than the school they attended in Ontario. Who would have figured that since Belize is a third world country. Granted though, it was a private school. The only school in town though. We struggled to get the girls caught up to their class mates. By the time we left Belize, the girls were well-adjusted to the school load and could keep up fine.

After returning to Canada, we decided to put the girls in a private school that had the same curriculum as the school in Belize. The school was expensive and we were required to do a lot of driving each day getting them there and picking them up. We decided to visit Belize again a couple of years ago. The girls had to be taken out of school for a month at Christmas. We decided to home school them the rest of the year. We have never looked back. My wife teaches the girls and they are able to do a lot of work on their own as well. We now belong to a home school group. We did not realize how many people in the area homeschooled. Some for religious reasons, some have children that are too energetic for the schools to handle and others think that they can do a better job teaching their own children.

Like I said, I would have never guessed we would have become a home school family. Family is very important though and its up to everyone to make it work. Its been a great ride so far and we will continue to home school as long as it works. We travel a fair bit and the girls always get to come along.