The article is ‘generic,’ but has interesting vignettes of homeschooling families. The information on Virginia is inaccurate as Virginians report that they only notify the county, they don’t seek approval of any curricular materials.

Kiplinger.com, Washington, D.C., 21 February 2007, Finance Lessons for Home Schoolers (single page version)

A custom-tailored classroom has a lot of pluses, but you’ll pay a price.

Once considered a fringe group, parents who home-school their children aren’t such rarities anymore. Families looking for an alternative to schools with too few challenges or too many distractions, or for a way to tailor the curriculum to a child’s needs, have swelled the ranks of home-schooled kids. In 2003 more than a million children were being taught at home, a 30% jump from 1999. Estimates now put the number closer to two million.

This next part gave me a laugh:

Even if they start with a prepackaged curriculum, many families end up cherry-picking books and classes and hiring tutors for tricky subjects, such as math and science. And parents often try to tailor lessons to each child.

Uh, like, that’s the point.

Part of the beauty of homeschooling is that “cherry-picking” (usually used derogatorily to mean that people are taking unfair advantage by choosing the best for themselves) is inherent. What person would voluntarily stick with something that doesn’t work if they have a choice to do otherwise? Also, if I’m footing the bill, then, yes, I’m gonna pick the cherries I can afford — or stick with a older-fashioned, tried-and-true resource. Would this writer complain about families who get to cherry-pick grocery stores?

Other comments on the article are at:

• HEM Editor’s Blog
• Why Homeschool
• Counting my blessings

posted by Valerie

homeschooling, home education, Virginia homeschooling, Kiplinger

Tags: home education, homeschooling, Kiplinger, Virginia homeschooling

This entry was posted on March 2, 2007 at 6:34 pm and is filed under Articles About Homeschooling, News-Commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.