Mimi Rothschild - Home School Support & Home Education News

By Mimi Rothschild

Many families struggling with the choice between sending their children to under-funded public school systems or paying exorbitant tuition fees for private schools are arriving at a third option: home-school. The movement toward home-school has grown significantly in the United States over the past decade or so; today, over two million families have chosen to home-school their children. The reasons behind the home-school phenomenon vary; from inability to pay private tuition fees to a simple desire for more time to spend with family. However, for every home-school family the ultimate goal is the same: a better education for children.

One of the clear benefits to home-school is the parents’ ability for greater educational control. It goes without saying that individual parents cannot control what is taught in public school systems, and even those who pay tuition for private schools have little or no input in the school’s educational curriculum. With home-school, parents, and children themselves, can choose those subjects that will benefit the children the most, as well as those in which their child exhibits the most interest. Home-school children naturally learn to educate themselves and become responsible for their own learning experiences; a skill that translates into intelligent, informed decision-making processes in adulthood.

A majority of parents choose home-school in the interest of family relationships. Home-school enhances and enriches family bonds, enabling parents who home-school to become closer to their children than the typical public education parents who are separated from their children for several hours each day. Home-school students truly learn by example. Home-school parents strive to instill those values and ethics the public education system is often forced to ignore in favor of keeping control on a class of twenty to thirty children. Additionally, home-school students are given the opportunity to interact more frequently with other family members, promoting the intergenerational relationships many children today lack.

There are, of course, a few drawbacks to the home-school route. Parents must be prepared to invest time and energy in their children’s education, and amass sufficient resources to ensure learning. There are many home-school groups that bring home-school families together for social activities on a regular basis. Home-school is a viable and preferable option for many American families today.