Homeschooling: It's Not What You Think

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Homeschooling: It's not what you think

Yearbook, drama lessons, field trips, even classes at public school. Homeschooling gets a new look from a generation craving more time with their kids.

By REBECCA CATALANELLO, Times Staff Writer
Published June 26, 2005

Yearbook, drama lessons, field trips, even classes at public school. Homeschooling gets a new look from a generation craving more time with their kids.
Homeschooling: It's not what you think
Can they learn everything at home?
Q&A: Is it for your kids?
Resources and links
Guestbook
.Galleries
The Erickson family
Leja Apple
Activities and options
.Graphics
Voices of homeschoolers
Statistics


Twenty years ago, homeschooling was a crime in Florida. Parents who wanted to teach their kids at home did so in secrecy. With blinds drawn.

They wanted to protect their kids from society's evils; society, in turn, thought of them as zealots.

In 1984, a group of parents huddled in an Orlando convention center to form an association of homeschoolers. The group, in the words of a founding member, was "pretty weird." The stereotype of homeschoolers - religious conservatives and spelling bee winners - remains to this day.

Everything else has changed.

Homeschooling has gone mainstream. It has graduations and conventions, yearbooks and extracurriculars. Kids learn at co-ops, on the Internet, at museums and even at public schools.

Increasingly, it's for people who don't want to schedule family time around dual careers, piano lessons and soccer practices. They just want more time with their kids.