For many families, home schooling children is a viable alternative to public education for several important reasons: Strengthening the family, providing adequate education, and to promote moral and religious values.

With a perceived declining in the educational quality of the public school system in America, many parents are coming to the belief that homeschooling can offer their children a better education and result in better opportunities later on in life.

Educational Effects of Homeschooling

Research on homeschooling thus far strongly supports the thoughts of homeschooling parents. An extensive nationwide study showed that home schooled students outperformed their public and private school counterparts in every category. In fact, many homeschool students are enrolled in a grade level that is higher than their counterparts of the same age.

Home schooled children have a higher rate of high school graduation, a higher rate of college attendance, and a higher rate of college graduation.

Homeschooling is About More Than the Education

But for some families, a better education isn’t the only reason to homeschool. Protection from the harsh world that encourages deviation from a successful path is another, as is the opportunity to strengthen the family. Read the rest of this entry »

You Control the Environment

The major advantage to home schooling is that you control the environment. You choose the curriculum, you choose the pace. If your child is slow to understanding a concept, you have the freedom to allow the extra time your child needs to completely understand the topic. There just isn’t this level of individualism in public school. Public school is equally hard on the under achiever who feels lost when the rest of the class moves on and for the over achiever who is bored because they grasped the concept long before the rest of the class. At home you can vary the pace to give both types of students the freedom they need to succeed.

Most public schools are overcrowded with 30 or more students in a classroom. The shear level of noise and commotion with this many students in one room makes learning difficult. With home schooling, you control the noise level and can limit the number of interruptions in your child’s day.

Many parents are opting for a Christian home schooling curriculum to reinforce their values and morals. Public schools cannot teach religion and may not teach the moral values that are important to you. At home, you get to decide when to discuss sex education with your child in a private setting. In public school, sex ed is often taught in phy-ed or health class in a large group setting with lots of snickering and embarrassing comments. ‘One size fits all’ sex ed. Are your values being taught? Probably not. Read the rest of this entry »