This site provides concise information about homeschooling, with a book synopsis below and links on the left with more information. 

Synopsis of the book "Homeschooling: A Path Rediscovered for Socialization, Education, and Family", 2007.
Copyright (c) 2011 Amy Schechter-Vahid and Frank Vahid. 

In 1994, we planned to take our kids on a several-week trip to China. Our school's principal threatened truancy -- "Don't you care about your kids' education?" We thought being in China was outstanding education, and were surprised at the principal's narrow definition. We promptly left the school, discovered the then-budding homeschooling movement, and never looked back.  

Classroom-based schooling is ubiquitous and commonly seen as the only valid learning path. But compulsory classroom-based schooling is relatively new, introduced in the U.S. in the late 1800s to transform farmers/shopkeepers into industrial age workers, to Americanize immigrants, to keep children/teens out of the labor market and off the streets, to teach democracy, and to provide opportunity for all. Before then, homeschooling was the norm -- Benjamin Franklin was "homeschooled," for example. 

 

Times have changed dramatically since the late 1800s. Back then, people pooled their resources to buy scarce and costly books and to pay knowledgable teachers. Today, books are cheap, and the Internet provides previously-unimaginable knowledge access. Classrooms no longer have a monopoly on education, nor on socialization experiences.  

Today's typical "schooling" involves kids learning mostly in classrooms where they spend about 6 hours/day for about 200 days/year. In contrast, homeschooling involves kids learning in a variety of places -- home, museums, on computers, on the Internet, and sometimes in classrooms too. 

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, forms of homeschooling became legal in all 50 U.S. states. Today, 2%-3% of school-age kids are homeschooled. The most common reason parents state is they can give kids a better education at home. Other common reasons include religious reasons, dissatisfaction with schools, family reasons, and for character building. 

Allowable homeschooling programs (which vary by state) include enrolling in a private school homeschool organization, opening one's own private school, enrolling in a homeschooling charter school (a publicly-funded "experimental" school), making use of state exceptions that allow a licensed teacher to teach his/her own children, and enrolling in a public school's independent study program (which follows the school's curriculum and involves meeting weekly/biweekly with a teacher). Homeschoolers may follow a public school's curriculum or may create a custom curriculum from various sources, and may take courses online, from local homeschool groups, or community colleges. Some homeschoolers operate on a public-school-like schedule, but many have flexible schedules to capitalize on family trips, visiting relatives, etc., and many incorporate learning into activities like camping, attending a fair, or just having lunch. 

The book was written to answer common questions about homeschooling. It does not argue that homeschooling is superior, but rather simply that it is reasonable. There are many paths to raising a child. While the U.S. may have demanded a single path in the early days of the Industrial Age and before TV, computers, and the Internet, today many other paths are equally reasonable. 

The authors homeschooled their three kids, beginning in 1994. Their 20-year old and 17-year old attend the Univ. of California, Irvine (having transferred from community college), and their 13-year old is still homeschooled and will slowly begin taking some community college and online courses soon. Amy Schechter-Vahid has a B.A. in Spanish-Bilingual Education and ESL from UCI (1990) and obtained a California Teaching Credential from Cal State Fullerton (2003). She worked as an educational specialist for a homeschool-based California charter (public) school, overseeing homeschooled kids and advising on paths to college. Frank Vahid has a Ph.D. in Computer Science from UCI (1994) and is a Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at UC Riverside. He helped define the first homeschool admissions program in the UC system. 

"What about socialization" is a common question. The short answer: Classrooms do not have a monopoly on socialization experiences. In fact, many parents prefer homeschooling's potential for more heterogeneous real-world socialization experiences. 

Homeschooling's efficiency (more on that later) gives homeschoolers time to participate in more such activities (2.5 times more in one study). 

This is mostly a stereotype; studies show homeschoolers are actively involved outside the home. Parents often do want more control over what their child is exposed to, but this shouldn't be confused with being "over-controlling." A parent gradually exposes their toddler to increasing challenges, and doesn't let them lose in a parking lot on day one. Likewise, a more gradual exposure to issues like drugs, alcohol, smoking, sex, pursuit of material goods, etc., is commonly sought by parents. Such issues can be better handled when kids are older . Recent brain studies show that critical decision-making impulse-resisting brain parts don't even develop until the late teenage years. 

Current statistics are sobering. 

(5/22/11: To be completed)