When Belinda Mooney started homeschooling her children, it was almost unheard of in the Maryland town where she lived.
Now, 20 years and seven homeschooled children later, Mooney finds herself in good company.
“It’s pretty much accepted and even looked upon as a great thing to do,” she said, in an email interview April 24. “Older people tell me all the time, 'If I had kids today I would be homeschooling them.’“
Mooney, a feature writer for Suite 101’s Kids Crafts, is part of a growing number of parents who educate their children at home.
There were nearly 1.1 million children being homeschooled in the United States in 2003, according to a study by the National Center for Education Statistics on the prevalence of homeschooling.
That figure represents a 29 percent increase from the estimated 850,000 homeschooled children just four years earlier.
The majority of homeschooling parents do so because of three main reasons: They have a concern over the environment of other schools (safety, drugs, negative peer pressure), they want to provide religious instruction, or they’re dissatisfied with the academic instruction offered by the public school.
If you’re considering homeschooling your children, here are some things you may not have known:
1. There are structured programs available. From written curricula to online programs to Virtual Schools, you can set up a home school as structured as you like. Some public school districts have state funded programs to aid home school families, which offer free books, supplies and personnel and offer accreditation.
2.Your home state makes a difference. Depending on where you live, you may be given free reign over your children’s education, or you may have to meet state minimum requirements. North Dakota, Vermont, New York, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania have the most stringent homeschooling laws, requiring parents to submit achievement test scores, according to the Home School Legal Defense Association.
New Jersey, Connecticut, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, Idaho and Alaska require the least amount of accountability.
3. Lack of socialization is not a problem. “Socialization starts in the family,” says Ben Forbing, a stay-at-home dad in St. Petersburg, Florida, who homeschools his three children. “ Usually this helps strengthen family bonds as opposed to traditional school, where parents begin to feel they don’t know their kids anymore, especially in their teen years,” Forbing said, in an email interview April 25.
Homeschool advocates say the assertion that homeschooled children are more isolated is false. They say homeschooled kids spend time with more diverse age groups and spend more time in the community.
4. You don’t have to be a teacher to homeschool your children.
“If you can read, write and love your kids, you can homeschool,” Mooney said.
What you lack in teaching experience you can make up for by using resources – sharing extracurricular teaching, joining networks of other home school families, and taking advantage of what your public school offers.
5. It won’t always be easy. “It is a big responsibility,” Forbing said. Some of the problems with homeschooling are that it’s hard work being the parent and the teacher, and you rarely get a break to recover from burn-out.
