Home schooling is educating your child at home instead of at an institution like a public, parochial or private school. Many people view their children's schooling options as either the government sponsored public school system or a private venue such as a private or parochial school.  There is another option - home schooling. Homeschooling can mean different things to different people, for some it's duplicating a traditional school environment at home. Structuring the day the same way the local school disctrict does and holding "classes" in the home. For others it's a more of a laid back approach - integrating learning into the every day activities of the family.

Home schooling is a committment to your child in time and attention. At least one parent at any given time must be available to your child to teach and nurture and also to socialize and entertain. It's a huge responsibility and the decision to home school shoud not be taken lightly.

If this investment in time isn't an option for you , there is another option. If you're generally content with what your school offers, with the exception of one or two subjects like math or science, some school disctricts are beginning to offer a part-time homeschooling option. Parents withdraw their children from specific classes, and cover that subject's material at home instead. In some cases, the child leaves the school during those class times, in others it becomes an extra study period. This was the perfect option for us, unfortunately it wasn't yet offered in the Harborfields School District where we live. Since approaching the bureaucracy of the school district was just impossible we tried "supplemental homeschooling" for a while.

Supplemental Homeschooling is simply supplementing, at home, the education your child receives at school . While it doesn't remove the threat of having your child exposed to material that you don't want him or her to be exposed to, it does offer your child the socialization and the experience of having attended school, "just like everyone else", as my daughter used to say. She got the lunchroom and the gym and all the fun stuff about school and I got to make sure that she learned everything that I thought she needed to learn.

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