This booklet is the sixth in a series designed to assist parents who are home-schooling their adolescent children and focuses on ways to provide encouragement to home-schooled teenagers. The articles in this booklet are: (1) "First Year Surprises," presenting one home-schooling family's experiences during the first year related to the nature of…

This digest highlights some of the findings of the largest study of home schooling conducted to date (L. Rudner, 1999). For this study, 20,760 students in 11,930 families provided useable questionnaires and corresponding achievement test data. Home schooling parents had more formal education than parents in the general population, and many had…

Since 1982, 34 states have changed their laws or regulations to make it easier for parents to teach their children at home. As the wave of home schooling grows, school administrators can do much to establish a climate of mutual respect, benefit, and cooperation. (MLF)

Looks at the literacy practices of a Catholic home schooling group located in the United States Pacific Northwest. Finds that reading aloud was important to all parents. Notes some benefits cited by parents including immediate feedback for children, ability to pace themselves as necessary, and the opportunity to tailor lessons to individual…

Argues that the home-schooling movement enables teachers, parents, and children to step outside the traditional concept of education and discover how it is possible to teach and learn in various nontraditional ways. Contains 31 references. (DDR)

This article discusses home schooling for gifted children and describes the most common teaching strategies or pedagogical approaches that home schoolers have successfully used, including: classical, lifestyle of learning, schooling at home, structured/mastery learning, unit studies, unschooling, worldview, and curriculum-based. The benefits of…

Many parents critical of public education have removed their children from public schools and are schooling them at home. Home schooling has generated a number of lawsuits. Controversies have arisen over the definitions of "school" and of "equivalent instruction," parents' qualifications to teach, and religious exemptions from…

This article talks about Unschoolers of Memphis, a support group that welcomes home schoolers of any religion, race, ethnic background or sexual orientation. About 20 families come together in large and small groups, sometimes several times a week, to learn together. The Unschoolers of Memphis are part of a recent phenomenon in education--the huge…

This synopsis provides highlights of a national home schooling survey of 1,516 families in the United States. The study explored five fundamental questions: (1) What are home education families' demographic and educational characteristics? (2) To what extent have home-schooling families been engaged in legal matters regarding their involvement in…

This publication was put together by the Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction in response to questions about laws concerning home-based instruction passed in 1985. Part 1 contains responses to questions relating to Chapter 28A.225 RCW and Chapter 28A.200 RCW; topics covered include regulations governing compulsory school…

Noting that children bear a natural curiosity and urge to learn about the world around them, and that the nature of compulsory schooling is at odds with this inclination, this book explores why parents remove their children from schools to teach them at home and provides step-by-step guidance for parents who want to home school their children.…

This study examined teaching methods used by homeschooling families. Interviews were conducted with parents from three homeschooling families who used a variety of teaching methods. Researchers collected information on children's ages, number of years of homeschooling, teaching methods, and curriculum choice. Respondents described how they chose…

This study examined attitudes toward physical fitness of parents who home school their children, noting the relationship with children's physical activity levels. Questionnaires (11% returned) indicated parents felt positively about fitness, but children were not physically active. A low correlation existed between mothers' attitudes and…

The article describes how one Hawaiian couple came to the decision to home school their son, explaining the educational habits and patterns they established in their lives from the time he was an infant that eventually led into home preschool education. (SM)

Findings from a study of 19 families in rural Pennsylvania who educate their children at home show that, overall, these home educators are asserting their historical option of cultural agency and schooling. Their decisions have implications for the reform of public education. (SLD)