Getting Started: Home Schooling is Easier Than Ever
By Mimi Rothschild
The home school option is gaining in popularity across the country today. Parents are choosing to home school their children in increasing numbers. With the practice of home school legalized in all 50 states, the number of home school households nationwide may now surpass two million. According to the National Home Education Research Institute, the number of children in home school could come close to equaling the number of students enrolled in public education within the next few years, as the percentage of parents who home school rises 10 to 15 percent each year.
Why do parents choose to home school their children? Many believe home schoolers are typically educated at home for religious reasons. While religion is one of the reasons parents cite for choosing home school, it is not the only one, nor is it the primary motivation. Just as many parents choose home school for purely academic reasons. Some feel their children are not allowed to learn to their capabilities and are held back by the general level of their class; others are concerned with a child's slower learning capacity and choose to home school in order to provide the individualized attention a public school teacher cannot provide due to class sizes. An overwhelming number of parents choose home school to seek a higher quality of education, instill morals and family values in their children, or avoid the peer pressure that turns public school experiences ugly for many.
Since home school's rise in popularity, there are more support options than ever available for home school students and their families. Communities and secondary institutions are more accepting of home school, and most school districts will allow home school children to participate in extracurricular activities or take supplemental classes on school grounds with the other students. Colleges and universities are opening their doors to home school students; some with a great deal of enthusiasm, as home school students tend to be more capable of flourishing in the self-directed learning environment of higher education. Even home school families are forming support networks across the country, both within their communities and through the Internet.
When the home school movement was in its infancy, many parents found it difficult—or even impossible—to locate quality educational resources for their home school curriculum. Today, there is an abundance of resources available to both home school parents and those wishing to supplement their children's public education. Textbook companies and learning organizations are making resources available to home schoolers. Distance learning, also referred to as “virtual classrooms,” enables home schooled students to learn more. Many home school parents turn to online classes for complicated subjects such as math and science as a supplement for their own curriculums.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mimi Rothschild is a homeschooling parent, children's rights activist, author, and Founder and C.E.O. of online education company Learning by Grace, Inc. Rothschild and her husband of twenty-eight years reside in suburban Philadelphia with their eight children.
Feeling that “our current system of education has broken its promise,” Rothschild co-founded Learning By Grace, Inc. to provide families with Internet-based multimedia education to PreK-12 children all over the world.
In addition to her twenty years of experience as a homeschool mother, Rothschild has written a number of books dealing with education published by McGraw Hill and others. Her Home Education Websites Blog consists of helpful online content and activities for Christian homeschooling families.
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