The first step to homeschooling is making your decision to home educate your child. It is important to become informed and knowledgeable about some of the main concerns you may have. Explore these areas of our website to learn more about the initial decision to homeschool.
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| Making Your Decision |
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The reasons people decide to educate their children at home are varied and can be unique to each family. Some look towards a better educational experience, others are concerned with moral and social issues, some are concerned with safety, and still others have special needs that they wish to address. Explore these reasons and others that have led families to homeschooling.
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| Advantages of Homeschooling |
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Ask anyone who loves homeschooling what the advantages are, and you'll probably hear a long list of the benefits of educating children in the home. Homeschooling is a journey and an adventure, with benefits and rewards for the entire family. Come find out what these advantages are and decide if homeschooling is right for you.
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| Teaching Your Own Children |
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Are you qualified to teach your own children? The answer is yes! It is challenging, but rewarding, to educate your children in your home. Find out what these challenges are and how to address them.
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| Socialization |
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"But what about socialization?" So the typical question goes to anyone who homeschools. Find out what socialization means to homeschooling families and strategies to engage your children and your entire family in social activities and connections.
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| Research & Statistics |
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Learn about current research and statistics involving homeschooling families, the homeschool movement, and the educational system.
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| Public School Issues |
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Many parents are basing part of their decision to homeschool on issues with public schooling, from bullying to poor academic performance to problems with governmental control.
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| Community Outreach |
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Want to help homeschooling integrate into the community at large? Are you a homeschool group leader who talks with the media or provides information to new and curious homeschoolers? Here are tips to help you present homeschooling to the public and the media.
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Special Ed: Factory-Like Schooling May Soon Be a Thing of the Past |
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Britton Manasco |
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Britton Manasco, writing for Reason Magazine, looks at the advantages of homeschooling, along with some interesting facets of home education. Discusses the benefits of encouraging independent thought and decentralized learning practices. The article also takes a look at the state of today's classrooms and the limitations of traditional notions of education. There is also a discussion of the use of technology in the homeschool environment and how this relates to the issue of socialization. |
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Investigating the Idea of Homeschooling |
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Mandy Tyler |
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An examination of the pros and cons of choosing to homeschool and how this decision can go against what we perceive to be cultural norms. Many people are surprised by what they learn about homeschooling as they explore this option further. |
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The Kingdom That Never Was: Inaccuracies in a Sociological Study of Homeschooling |
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Larry and Susan Kaseman |
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A PhD thesis on homeschooling was published recently by Princeton University Press titled Kingdom of Children: Culture and Controversy in the Homeschooling Movement by Mitchell Stevens. This sociological study of homeschooling contains serious misinformation that we homeschoolers need to understand and be able to counter. We may not be able to prevent this book from contributing to the mainstream media's and the academic world's misunderstanding of homeschooling, but if we don't at least respond to these ideas, misunderstanding of homeschooling will increase. |
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Early Years: Child's Learning Assets |
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Linda Dobson |
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Homeschooling gives natural childhood energy a chance to flow instead of damming it through compliance to the unnatural behavior government school requires of this age group. Unhindered, this energy bubbles to the surface as curiosity, creativity, imagination, enthusiasm, a sense of wonder and joy of discovery. These traits, so helpful to the little "information sleuth" your early-years child is, are without doubt his most important learning assets, much more important than a computer, state-of-the-art classroom, or any other "thing" you might provide for his learning.
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Home Schooling in the United States: Trends and Characteristics |
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Kurt J. Bauman |
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According to widely-repeated estimates, as many as two million American children are schooled at home, with the number growing as much as 15 to 20 percent per year. At the same time, however, home schooling has received little attention compared with other recent changes in the educational system, such as the growth of charter schools. It could be argued that home schooling may have a much larger impact on educational system, both in the short and long run.
This report uses the 1994 October CPS, and the National Household Education Survey of 1996 and 1999 to determine the extent of home schooling. It presents social, demographic and geographic characteristics of households that engage in home schooling and examines the potential for future growth. It is found that home schooling is less prevalent than shown in earlier estimates, but that the potential for growth is large.
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