Over the 15 or so years we’ve been homeschooling, it seems like the media has always said that there are about 1.5 million children that are educated at home. Yet every year, the number of homeschoolers is said to have increased by a certain percent….but there are still only 1.5 million homeschoolers?!? Having been to various regional homeschool conferences, I think I’ve battled more than that many parents at the vendor’s tables!!! 
The story below states the typical “socialization” objections, but then goes on to say how that is overcome by co-ops and athletic leagues. I don’t know about you, but we seem to have TOO many social activities to choose from!
Full story here.
Anne Gebhardt’s kids are learning about geography — in her dining room in Bedford, Texas. It’s not your typical schoolhouse, but it’s one that Gebhardt says is serving her six children well. “We can teach our religious values to our children freely,” says Gebhardt. “We can teach anything that we want.”
Gebhardt is part of a growing trend. Across the county, an estimated 1.5 million children are home schooled and that number’s growing. In the span of eight years, home schooling has grown nationally by almost 75 percent.
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But it’s not all about reading, writing and arithmetic. (David Chard, Dean of the School of Education and Human Development at Southern Methodist University, says) he worries home schooled students may be lacking in less tangible subjects, things like developing social or coping skills.
Programs have sprung up over the years to help with that. In Texas, the state with the largest number of home schooled kids, there are athletic leagues and learning “co-ops” where kids may attend classes with other children on a variety of subjects.
John Manning helps organize the Home School Athletic Association in Dallas. He says the group has grown by leaps and bounds over the past decade, not just because the number of home schooled students has increased, but also because most parents realize the need for this kind of activity. “What’s important to us,” says Manning, “is to try to provide opportunities that kids in any school, public or private, have.”
Other also read:
as if!