There are many reasons why families choose this option. And they are different for each family. But here are a few of the top reasons.

0. Individualization-Homeschooling is a great opportunity to tailor your child's education to his or her learning needs, abilities and rates. Individualization allows the child to work to their potential, without peers looking down on them. It also alleviates the parent's concerns that their child may be "falling through the cracks".
0. Time-Homeschooled children spend a lot of time with their family. Homeschool parents want to spend as much time together as a family as possible. Also if a child has specific medical needs, they can often be best managed at home.
0. Academics-This allows homeschoolers to adjust the work load according to the child's abilities. Some may find they need to work ahead and be challenged...while others may need to slow down in order to grasp a concept. In public schools this cannot happen, there are too many children in the class. But at home...one on one...you can pace the academics according to each child.
0. Religous Foundation-Some families choose to homeschool because of religion. Homeschooling allows ample time to integrate these values into the curriculum content. For many parents, religious values are a key reason for homeschooling.

Copied with permission,Creative Teaching Press, 1995, 
McIntire, Deborah and Robert Windham. Home Schooling: Answers to questions

What about socialization?

This is probably the question most asked of home educators. It is also the most frequently stated objection or concern of friends and relatives regarding home schooling. It is important to remember that socialization begins at home.

SOCIALIZATION BEGINS AT HOME
Children learn how to interact and the value of interacting from their parents. Parents model social skills when they interact with each other, family, friends, and neighbors. Home education can be an extended opportunity for this natural process of socialization to continue.

SOCIALIZATION OPPORTUNITIES
Socialization is an important part of every child's education. Homeschooled children have the opportunity to develop their communication skills within a broad social context. Home-educated children can socialize with peers after school and on weekends, and they can socialize with adults at home and in the community. They can sign up for dance classes, theater groups, music lessons, church choirs, and sports teams. They also can be encouraged to attend classes and field trips sponsored by support groups. The average homeschooled child attends more educational field trips during the year than most children who attend school. Therefore, they have the opportunity to observe, move about, and interact within a broad social context.
One of the benefits that many families appreciate about the homeschool setting is that for a period of time in their child's life, the parent can be selective about the peer group in which their child interacts. Though no child or situation is perfect, many parents hope that by the time the child enters or returns to the traditional school setting, his or her values will be strong enough to withstand peer influence that may be contrary to family values. 

APPROPRIATE SOCIALIZATION
There is appropriate (positive) socialization and inappropriate (negative) socialization. Many parents decide to home educate because of the type of socialization they feel occurs at their particular local school. These parents want to postpone negative social lessons that might occur in the larger school setting which could involve conformity, ridicule, competition, popularity contests, teasing, bullying, and defiant behavior. Of course, these situations can and will occur in the neighborhood just as well, but then a parent is more readily available to council and guide.
Important positive social skills, such as kindness, patience, respect, understanding, and generosity, as well as their underlying moral values can be taught at school or home. Home educators feel these positive skills are more easily modeled and taught in the closely supervised context of the home.
Sending a child to school does not insure proper social development and neither does homeschooling your child. Whether you choose to educate your child at home or at your local public or private school, it is imperative to be actively involved in influencing the social context in which your child lives. Homeschooling provides parents a great opportunity to influence their child's social development.

DEPENDENCE VERSUS INDEPENDENCE
Sometimes the opinion is expressed that, in addition to developing social skills, sending a child to school fosters independence. That's true, but independence from what or whom? Parents sometimes find that children attending school are more independent -- of their parents and their parents' values while becoming more peer-dependent. Cornell University researchers found that children who spend more time with peers than with their parents become peer-dependent. The researchers concluded that the factors important to positive socialization such as self-worth, optimism, respect for parents, and trust in peers were diminished in peer-dependent children (Bronfenbrenner, Urie. Two Worlds of Childhood: U.S. and U.S.S.R. Simon and Schuster, 1970, pp. 97-101)
Home educators want children who can make their own decisions based on a foundation of family values and morals. They want peer-independent children. They feel this is more easily accomplished when children spend more time with their family and less time with peer groups.

REAL-WORLD EDUCATION
Related to the issue of socialization is the attitude that children should be in school to learn how to deal with the real world. In the eyes of home educators, placing their children in a school does not necessarily teach them about the real world. To home educators, the real world is the daily interaction which occurs within the family, neighborhood, and community. It should be noted, however, that group work and group interaction may be a large part of a child's future career. A discerning family will look for opportunities to accommodate group experiences.

RESEARCH ON SOCIALIZATION
Finally, the concern over whether home education has a negative impact on a child's social development is based more on attitude and bias than on experience. Studies indicate that home-educated children score higher on measures of self-esteem (Ray Brian D. Home School Researcher, Vol. 7, No. 1, March 1991).
John Taylor Gatto, the outspoken 1991 New York State Teacher of the Year, said that home-educated children can be socially five to ten years ahead of their classroom counterparts (Gatto, John Taylor, Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling. New Society Publisher, 1992). Our experience supervising home-school families has been that most home-school children are polite, friendly, and at ease with people of all ages. Their daily experiences include a wider variety of people so they are less age-restricted. They are equally comfortable with younger children, peers, and adults.
So what about socialization? Does educating children at home hinder or harm their social development? Experience and research indicate that for most homeschooled children, the homeschool experience is a catalyst for rapid and beneficial social growth. A key to remember is that each child is an individual with individual needs. Homeschooling is not for everyone. Some children thrive in the traditional school setting while others flounder. Evaluate your situation and do what you feel is the best for your child.

How many children are homeschooled in Canada and the United States?

In the school year of 2002-2003 it was estimated there were between 1.7 and 2.1 million children in the U.S. being homeschooled, with a growth rate of about 7-15% per year. In 1997, in Canada, there were about 60,000 children being homeschooled. By 1999, the estimation was about 80,000 children. Homeschooling is growing no matter where you live in Canada and the U.S.!

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