An estimated 1.6 million to 2 million children in the U.S. get their academic instruction at home, according to the Home School Legal Defense Association's You Can Home School website. For parents who are curious about home schooling or are considering it for their children, researching information about home schooling is the first step in the process.
History
Almost all schools in the United States were home schools until 1852, when Massachusetts passed the first compulsory school attendance law. Other states followed suit, and by 1918, every state had a law in place requiring school-age students to attend school. Though home schooling was never illegal, it became an oddity practiced by just a few families for health or religious reasons until the 1970s, when parents, not completely happy with the available education options, rediscovered home schooling. Today, the number of home-schooling families continues to grow by 7 percent to 15 percent each year, according to the Home School Legal Defense Association.
Identification
Home schooling is education that takes place at home, but it takes many different forms. In most cases, parents act as teachers, but some home-schooling families may employ a teacher to provide lessons. Some home-school families follow a curriculum and schedule similar to the ones used in traditional schools, while others may opt for experience-driven learning that resembles everyday living more than it does traditional school.
Types
There are several different types of home school curricula. A traditional curriculum, as the name suggests, employs many of the traditional methods of learning, including tests, worksheets and memorization. It's usually fairly structured. A classical curriculum, also known as trivium curriculum, is focused on using the classics of literature, philosophy, science and mythology to build a knowledge base of facts that can be the jumping-off point for developing logic and reasoning skills. A unit curriculum uses themes to unite different disciplines, so that students might have a unit on Egypt in which they read Egyptian myths, do math equations based on the geometry of the pyramids, study Egyptian history and explore Egyptian art. Unschooling, sometimes called child-directed learning, lets children direct their education based on their particular interests.
Benefits
Home schooling is flexible, allowing children to explore areas that interest them in more detail and to spend time building skills that take them longer to grasp. Children get lots of one-on-one attention, which helps them feel comfortable asking for help when they need it. Children who are home-schooled also learn how to be self-directed because they play a role in their daily education decisions. Home-schooled children may also do better-prepared for standardized tests than children in traditional school: According to the Home School Legal Defense Association's website, home-schooled students in first to fourth grade generally perform one grade level higher than their traditionally schooled peers.
Considerations
Socialization, or learning to be part of a community of other people, can be a challenge for some home-school families, but home-school play groups, sports and field trips can address this challenge. Home-schooled children may also have trouble adjusting to traditional school if they return to the traditional school system and may need help to adapt. For students who plan to go to college, it's important for parents to maintain school records so they can be used as transcripts.
