Home schooling used to have a bad image. When we think of home schooling, we often picture with fundamental right wingers, antisocial weirdos, or people too scared to let their children attend public school. This image has been improving over the last several years. New curricula for home schooling has come out, each provides a clearer path for learning. There have been many success stories of students that have come from home schooling environments.

On the other side of the fence, the quality of public schooling (in America at least) has been on a dramatic decline the last several years. Standardized test scores are down, gang violence is up, and that's not even considering the school shootings. This all contributes to an increasing lack of confidence in the public education system.

Many parents are finding they can better teach their children at home. Using personalized home schooling curriculum, parents are able to give their children a better education right in their own home. Many of the children who are schooled at home are getting excellent scores on standardized tests, with many achieving perfect scores. The quality of education is only one reason many parents are going towards homeschooling.

Parents have also found that home schooling is a cheaper alternative to expensive private schools. There is a student teacher ratio they can't be beat in public or private school. Overall, many parents say they like them relaxed learning atmosphere, and the ability to better control their students workload. There is also generally less peer pressure, and parents can keep an eye on their children better than if they were off at school.

Much of the improvement in the image of homeschooling can be attributed to the Internet. Online homeschooling options provide more than learning or teaching aids for home schooling families. Internet-based curriculum helps parents improve the general state of the education they are providing, as it can help the parents in areas where they may be weaker as teachers.

The Internet also helps overcome one of the main drawbacks to home schooling, and that is the lack of socialization. Many online home schooling programs offer group meetings or seminars where home school students can meet and work together on projects.

If it's so great, why don't more parents home school their children? There are a number of reasons. Many parents just don't have time to teach their children, and some don't feel qualified. Many families need both parents as breadwinners just to make ends meet.

While home schooling is shedding its iconoclastic image, whether or not to home school your children is a family decision. You will still need to hire teachers in such areas as driver education to be in compliance with state law, but most parents who are fairly intelligent and literate can use the helps found on the Internet, in books, or in home schooling support groups to provide an excellent education for their children.