Family Life

01.05.09 | FL News Team

Homeschooling is becoming an option for more and more families, and their reasons are also broadening. "USA Today" reports on a new government survey that shows some one-and-a-half million kids were taught at home in 2007. That is a 74-percent jump since the Department of Education began keeping track in 1999. The overall percentage of homeschooled children was a smidgen less than three percent of all school-age kids in 2007.

The 2007 survey gave seven reasons for parents to tick off, ranging from religious reasons to simply wanting a non-traditional approach. That last criteria was a nod to so-called "un-schoolers" who scorn standardized tests and rigid curricula. The number of people who listed such reasons as family time or finances rose to nearly a third of homeschoolers.

One analyst said that shows a growing number of families opt for homeschooling for reasons other than religion. The movement largely began with conservative Christians as a way to incorporate biblical teachings into their children's studies.

Check out Bob Price's feature report: A Look at Homeschooling