Considering Home Schooling?

Homeschooling, just as any other endeavor, is made up of both pros and cons relative the to student-parent relationship. Trends in homeschooling have changed over the last several years, branching to groups of homeschooled children who rotate between parents to gather more knowledge and a more diverse education. There are stores specific to parents who homeschool and organizations dedicated to the continuing education of homeschool teachers.

More parents are deciding to homeschool their children each year. As early as the late 1960's homeschooling increased from 10,000 to 15,000 children. In 1999 the number of homeschooled children had risen to 850,000, and by 2003 the number jumped to 1.1 million children which represents a 29 percent relative increase over the 4-year period.

Students are considered to be homeschooled if their parents reported them as being schooled at home instead of at a public or private school for at least part of their education and if their part-time enrollment in public or private schools did not exceed 25 hours a week. Students who were schooled at home only because of a temporary illness were not included as homeschoolers.

Popular Reasons for Homeschooling

Thirty-one percent of homeschoolers had parents who said the most important reason for homeschooling was concern about the environment of other schools. They were worried about the impact that other children might have on their own, and about the profanity and crime rates of both public and private schools.

Thirty percent said the most important reason was to provide religious or moral instruction. They felt the need to incorporate spiritual education with math, science, and english, and felt that public and private schools did not offer those types of benefits.

Sixteen percent of homeschooled students had parents who said that they were dissatisfied with the level of academic instruction available at public and private schools, and that they felt they could more efficiently teach their own children.