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Interesting Homeschool Facts You Probably Didn’t Know. 

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Homeschooling is becoming a very popular alternative to traditional classroom education in the United States. 

With more and more public schools losing funding and as a result losing teachers, losing resources, and adding more and more students to already crowded classrooms, many parents are concerned that their kids won’t get the kind of education that they need in public schools, but for many private schools are not an option because of the cost. 

Especially in this time of economic crisis families simply can’t afford to send their kids to the schools where they would get small classes and individual instruction. 

So, millions of parents are turning instead to homeschooling. 

In the late 1990s there were less than a million families nationally that choose to homeschool their kids. 

By late 2008/early 2009 that number had more than tripled to a staggering four million families that choose to homeschool their kids nationally. 

There are a lot of myths in the public arena about homeschooling but the homeschool facts support the idea that the parents who choose to homeschool their kids might actually be doing them a favor. 

The stereotype of parents that choose to homeschool their kids is that of uneducated, ignorant hicks that don’t want their children to be exposed to science or scientific inquiry that might clash with their religious beliefs. 

But homeschool facts show that most parents who choose to homeschool their kids are liberal in their political beliefs, non-denominational in their religious beliefs, and have at least a college education. 

That fact and other homeschool facts have led more and more people to explore homeschool as an alternative to traditional school. 

For most parents the two biggest concerns they have about the idea of homeschooling their kids is a concern their children won’t get the socialization that they need and a concern that the children won’t be able to get into college and won’t do as well as their peers on standardized tests. 

But the facts of homeschooling show that kids who are homeschooled are just as socially adept, sometimes more socially adept, than kids that come from traditional schools. 

And kids that are homeschooled score just as high or higher than their peers on standardized tests in most cases.

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First Generation

A lot of research is being done currently to show how well homeschooled children perform later in life because the first generation of kids that were actively homeschooled in the U.S. are now starting to go out into the world and get jobs. 

The homeschool facts show these kids are definitely not socially stunted or educationally deprived. 

In fact if you really look at the research that has been done and the results of tests that are designed to measure and compare both the social skills, attitudes, and tolerance levels of kids who were homeschooled and kids from traditional schools the results are astounding. 

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Statistics About Homeschool

In a recent test performed on 7,000 homeschooled adults that compared them to adults of the same age who attended traditional school the results were staggering. 

Of the adults that were homeschooled 95% had a good understanding of politics and government compared to only 65% of adults from a traditional school. 

A whopping 71% of homeschooled adults were active in community groups and outreach organizations while only 39% of their peers were active in their communities. 

And 76% of the homeschooled adults voted in a national election within five years compared to only 29% of their peers. 

Those homeschool facts certainly dispel the myth that homeschooled kids aren’t well socialized or well educated. 

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Is Homeschool the Best Choice?

Homeschool is not the best choice for everyone. 

There are many people who can’t quit their jobs in order to stay home and teach their kids. 

There are also many people who don’t feel that they are educated enough to teach their kids or who don’t want the responsibility of teaching their kids. 

There are parents who live in areas where the public schools aren’t bad so they don’t feel they need to homeschool their kids. 

Homeschooling is a good alternative for some families that don’t have access to high quality traditional schools or don’t have the money to send their kids to private schools but still want their kids to get a great education. 

Sadly there are schools where kids will be safer and will get better educations at home. 

There are also children with special needs who will learn better with one on one attention. 

Homeschooling isn’t right for everyone, but it can be a very good alternative to traditional schools for some families.

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